Just what you'd expect from smug, self-serving and sanctimonious FL-100 state Rep. Joe Gibbons: Deny, deny, deny and then try to play the role of 'victim' -on video- after years of lying to the citizens of SE Broward County. His behavior and years of serial lies and chronic misrepresentation are anathema to representative democracy, and never passed the smell test. But despite these facts -shocker!- the vast majority of South Florida and Tallahassee's press corps either appeased Gibbons or didn't care enough to report the #ColdHardFacts; @beamfurr

Yes, YEARS after he should have, in what is an obvious ploy to somehow inoculate and ingratiate himself to voters in advance of the Broward County Commission race against former Hollywood City Commissioner Beam Furr next year, after so many years of Gibbons consistently insulting the intelligence of the concerned residents of south Broward County and being an invisible presence, esp. in Hallandale Beach.

And he compounds this by being, not incidentally, one of the least-effective legislators in the area, since Joe Gibbons is nothing if not the very picture of a knee-jerk politician.

Gibbons actually has the unmitigated gall and ego to think that his personal and political ambitions are more important in the larger scheme of things than the truth, which is that the citizens of this part of the county and state are entitled to be represented in government by someone who actually lives here -all-the-time- not less than eight months out of the year.

The citizens of this area deserve to be represented by someone who puts THEIR best-interests first, not his own! Joe Gibbons is the wrong man at the wrong time and he will NOT be missed after he loses next year. 

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Sun-Sentinel video: Joe Gibbons responds to residency accusations.
Video at: http://landing.newsinc.com/shared/video.html?freewheel=91082&sitesection=sesunsentinel&VID=25052122

"I don't think it's right that I'm being kind of dogged like I have been by people who don't have my best interests at heart,'' said Gibbons.

You're right, I don't have YOUR best interests at heart, I have the community's.

The Southest Broward community that I live in whose residents you have lied to and mis-represented for so many years.

You, with your non-legislative job not in Broward or South Florida but up in Tallahassee working as a lobbyist for a powerful and influential law firm.

Color us unimpressed by you putting this community's best-interests LAST on your list of priorities for years, even while you drew a government paycheck purporting to represent us.

You may've fooled all the lazy and indifferent reporters and columnists in Tallahassee and South Florida who didn't care about FL legislators actually living where they are supposed to, like the Sun-Sentinel's Michael Mayo recently admitted in his own column, but we have been totally hip to your serial lies and intentional misrepresentation all along, Joe Gibbons.

So start making plans now to move up to Lakeland next summer and joining your dysfunctional family that has indulged your personal ego and overweening political ambition.
You and your serial lies and your weird dysfunctional family obviously need more quality time together to bond!

So, this community, the one you consistently put LAST, is going to give you the boot and give you the time to do just that!

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South Florida Sun-Sentinel
County commission candidate — and his wife — say Broward is his home
Gibbons defends against residency questions
By Brittany Wallman, Sun Sentinel
August 25, 2013

He lives in Hallandale Beach. His wife spends most of her week in Lakeland. Their 4-year-old twins live their lives in Jacksonville. This is the family of Joe Gibbons.

The state representative and his wife spoke out this week, telling the Sun Sentinel that Gibbons spends most of his time in Broward County. Skepticism about where the 64-year-old lobbyist and Democrat hangs his hat has dogged him since he married a Jacksonville lawyer five years ago and the couple subsequently had twins.

Read the rest of the story of a pol coming to terms with his serial lies to his constituents at
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/fl-gibbons-county-candidate-20130825,0,1635095.story

A reminder: From things I've personally seen and observed, I believe that there's still yet another big shoe that will drop on Joe Gibbons this year.
If everything checks out as it seems to as of now, I hope to be one of the persons dropping that big shoe on him sometime before Christmas.
Christmas is the time for giving after all!

Do you recall me telling you months ago that FL State Rep. Joe Gibbons no longer lived in HB? Bob Norman hammers some more nails in that coffin!

For those of you living outside of Broward County specifically and South Florida in general, the subject of FL State Rep. Joe Gibbons, and specifically, his NOT actually living in the legislative district he has represented in Tallahassee -as it happens, MY district- is an old and familiar story with me and many South Florida civic activists, elected officials and members of the news media.

People whose job and personal interests lead them to follow what goes on down here at the intersection of government, politics and personal ambition, very, very closely.

My April 18, 2010 post on Gibbons was to the point and appropriately titled:In case you'd forgotten what sort of person Joe Gibbons was, here's a quick reminder: Y-O-U are at the bottom of his pyramid 
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/in-case-youd-forgotten-what-sort-of.html

To quote myself: You might be interested in knowing that just this year, I have been approached about five times at myriad events throughout Broward, all by different but clearly well-informed people, each specifically asking me variations of the same question: Did I know that Gibbons and his family really live in/near Jacksonville, and NO LONGER live in his FL House District?

I didn't.
Who does he think he is, Steve Geller?

Sometimes that discussion has taken the form of heated personal conversations around South Florida, but more often than not, it has come in the form of fact-filled, link-filled emails about the rights and responsibilities of public officials in South Florida -and the commensurate responsibility of law enforcement organizations and the news media- to NOT treat Gibbons with kid gloves.

To NOT make excuses for him in public that simply don't hold up to even the lightest form of scrutiny.

That opinionated back-and-forth, with few if any defending Gibbons, has actually happened even a handful of times in the immediate month before the election, as yours truly even toyed with the idea of contacting interim Florida Secretary of State Dawn K. Roberts, http://www.dos.state.fl.us/ and asking that a formal investigation take place, as well as a formal complaint to the Florida Commission on Ethics. http://www.ethics.state.fl.us/

If Gibbons lied on state documents, he needs to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law for each and every violation, and needs to be expelled from the Florida House of Representatives.PERIOD!
Even in the past week, Gibbons' name has continued to pop-up in the news, as last week, Gibbons was named as incoming Democratic leader pro tempore, the No. 2 in the Democratic Party leadership ranks.
http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/broward/blog/2010/11/two_broward_democrats_named_to.html

So, that all said, when those very same well-informed people got on their computer today and saw that the topic of Bob Norman's Daily Pulp blog, the most popular and insightful one on current events in South Florida, was the subject of Joe Gibbons and where he lived, they knew they were already better-informed than the majority of the regular readers.

So, how many nights a year does Joe Gibbons actually sleep in his House District?

If his wife and kids live in Jacksonville -and she does- and his Akerman Senterfitt office is in Tallahassee -and it is- and he's making visits to Milton in Santa Rosa County, so close to Alabama that it's actually on Central Time, where do you think Gibbons REALLY lives? 
THAT certainly explains a lot.
Below is the highlighted Google Alert that I received in August that only shines more light on this issue.

OUR State Representative should be running for re-election from -wait for it- Jacksonville, NOT from Broward County. It's my understanding that in order for Gibbons to have been an eligible candidate in the first place, he MUST already live in the House district for which he filed his candidacy paperwork.

Not where he used to live, actually LIVES.
Right now.

The people in this part of the state are entitled to be represented by someone who lives HERE, NOT Jacksonville.
Where's the formal investigation of whether FL State Rep. Joe Gibbons legally met the requirements for office when he filed his paperwork?
That's coming, I promise.

And how long has it been since Gibbons actually lived here in Southeast Broward at least as long as so many of the tens of thousands of wintering Canadian snowbirds?


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Google Alerts
Date: Wed, Aug 11, 2010 at 9:58 PM
Subject: Google Alert - "Hallandale Beach

Freedom Fund banquet is Saturday
Pensacola News Journal
Joe Gibbons , D-Hallandale Beach , will be the speaker. Attorney Alishia W . McDonald will be the mistress of ceremony. Gibbons, a Harlem native, ..

FYI: The Freedom Forum Banquet was Aug. 14th in Milton; tickets were $40 per person.

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BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes
House Pro Tem Investigated For Homestead Fraud
By Bob Norman
Monday, November 15, 2010@ 10:15AM

State Rep. Joe Gibbons, who has been named the No. 2 Democrat in the Florida legislature, was investigated for homestead fraud earlier this year -- and government records indicate he lied to officials during the probe.

The Broward County Property Appraisers Office investigation also found that Gibbons' homestead in Hallandale conflicted with with another controversial homesteaded property in Jacksonville owned by his wife, Florida Board of Governors member Ava L. Parker.

Read the rest of the post at:
http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2010/11/joe_gibbons_investigated_homestead_fraud.php


And, incredibly, just days ago...
Douglas C. Lyons covers the state capitol for the Sun-Sentinel Editorial Board.

South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Talk Back South Florida blog
Why not Joe Gibbons as chair of Florida Democratic Party?
By Doug Lyons 
November 10, 2010 09:18 AM

He may not appreciate me using his name as a trial balloon, but here goes ... I believe the Florida Democratic Party needs a shot of new blood. So I'm throwing out a name to replace the current party chair, Karen Thurman, since everyone else is.
My choice would be state Rep. Joe Gibbons, D-Hallandale Beach.

Read the rest of the post at:
http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/theslant/blog/2010/11/xxxxx_12.html

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www.sun-sentinel.com/business/custom/consumer/fl-psc-proposals-20091104,0,2671078.story
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Legislators consider tightening PSC ethics rules Proposal come in light of allegations of "cozy ties" with utilities
By Julie Patel Sun Sentinel
November 5, 2009

Florida legislators Wednesday held the first in a series of hearings on proposals to tighten ethics rules for the Public Service Commission — including legislation to restrict communication between agency staffers and the utilities they regulate.

Critics have pointed to what they say are "cozy" ties between the two groups.

Members of the Florida House Energy & Utilities Policy Committee heard presentations from the commission's director, the state utility consumer advocate and others that touched on proposed changes lawmakers are expected to deliberate when they convene next year.

The proposals come in the wake of criticism of PSC ties with Florida Power & Light Co. officials that emerged during the commission's public hearings on FPL's proposed $1.27 billion base rate hike.

National utility experts say Florida's utility regulation laws are comparable to those in other states but there some gaps. For instance, a Florida law bars commissioners — but not PSC staffers — from communicating with utility employees on pending matters, such as a rate hike proposal.

"That's an absolute must," said Public Counsel J.R. Kelly, the state-appointed advocate for utility customers, about a proposal to extend the rule to include commissioners' advisors, as other states do.

Among the legislative proposals lawmakers are expected to deliberate.

Electing, not appointing, commissioners. Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, and Rep. Tom Anderson, R-Dunedin, have written bills that would require PSC members, now appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate, to be elected. Candidates would be prohibited from accepting contributions from utility employees.

Expanding restrictions on PSC, utility communications. Sen. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, has filed a bill to make the rules more like those for judges so all communications between commissioners and utility employees are made public. Fasano is drafting legislation that would adopt all the recommendations from a 1992 grand jury report that examined how to improve the integrity of utility regulation, including adding provisions to Florida's so-called "ex parte" law that bars commissioners from communicating with utility employees on substantive pending matters.

The Sun Sentinel reported that a key PSC official and two staffers who have since resigned attended social functions with FPL employees around the time the utility asked for a base rate hike. Others exchanged phone calls and text messages with utility representatives.

Restricting utility hires of government officials. Fasano is drafting legislation to restrict the hiring of former PSC regulators by utilities. In September, the Sun Sentinel identified 18 former regulators and government officials who have been hired as FPL employees, consultants or lobbyists or work for law firms that were hired by FPL.

Public disclosures. Rep. Mark Pafford, D-West Palm Beach, is drafting legislation that would require individuals who provide public comments at PSC hearings to disclose any ties to utilities or vested interests. A Sun Sentinel analysis in September found that more than a third of the customers, politicians and business leaders who praised FPL at three South Florida forums had financial or family ties to the company and its employees.

FPL officials have defended their handling of the rate case, saying they want the proposal to be judged on its merits.

Some regulatory experts also recommended fixing what they say is a disparity between consumers' access to regulators and those of utilities.

For instance, most conferences available to regulators are presented by groups representing utility interests. Commission Director Mary Bane told lawmakers the PSC will explore banning PSC members from attending certain conferences at a Nov. 24 meeting on ethics proposals.

Rep. Joe Gibbons, D-Hallandale Beach, asked Kelly if the Office of Public Counsel's small budget "gives you what you need to bring [rate cases] to a successful conclusion?"

Kelly said it does and noted that the office plans to spend about $300,000 to fight FPL's request to increase base rate by $1.27 billion. Meanwhile, FPL plans to spend $5 million, including $3.7 million from customers' base rates, utility records show.