Hypocrisy on FL Redistricting: Why FairDistricts Florida & Florida League of Women Voters are early contenders for this blog's Turkey of the Year Award -all talk, little action and no submitted maps before the legal deadline

VIDEO FOR REDISTRICTING MEETING 1-20-12 http://youtu.be/3Vc7nSMLZU4

Hypocrisy on FL Redistricting: Why FairDistricts Florida & Florida League of Women Voters are early contenders for this blog's Turkey of the Year Award -all talk, little action and no submitted maps before the legal deadline

In my very last blog post, about ethics or rather the lack of them at the Florida Supreme Court, I mentioned that I was not surprised that longtime blog nemesis and South Florida Silver Spoon Dan Gelber was quoted saying that he had no problem with the campaign finance chair of the three Justices up for retention this November actually appearing before them, and seemed unconcerned how this sort of behavior comes across to Florida taxpayers.

But that sort of hypocrisy, galling as it is, is nothing compared to the months of the likes of Gelber & Co. whining and continually criticizing the the Republican-controlled state legislature for NOT revealing the redistricting map proposals before the various official meetings were held all over the state last year.


This despite the stone-cold fact that while the state legislature at least placed video of these meetings on YouTube and had a terrific intuitive website that allowed you to access lots of information, while FairDistricts' website offered little to chew over.


http://www.youtube.com/user/MyFloridaHouse

http://www.floridaredistricting.org/

The videos on redistricting are here: http://www.youtube.com/user/MyFloridaHouse/videos?query=redistricting

And the FairDistricts' mailing list?

Well, all I know is that the last three times that I or anyone else on that list heard from them was Sept. 9th and  November 22nd of last year, and March 15th.


When you claim to be working hard on an important issue but only contact your own supporters three times in seven months, and once while the decisions are being made, frankly, that's pretty feeble, especially given how much the people there are always telling the news media how much you're doing the work for the people.


I vigorously supported both amendments on this blog before the 2010 election, but it's like the folks at FairDistricts are peeing on my leg and trying to convince me that it's raining.
No, it's not.

As you'll recall from my having mentioned it at the time here on the blog, since this state's own Mainstream Media weren't mentioning it then and haven't mentioned it since the maps were revealed months ago, FairDistricts, The Florida League of Women Voters and La Raza and lots of others groups complaining about the lack of transparency in the process not only refused to release drafts or first editions of their own version of what the maps should look like, they also consciously made the decision NOT to hold public meetings around the state in advance of those official meetings, to educate supporters of FairDistricts.
Supporters like me.

How do I know?

Because supporters of FairDistricts, like me, urged them to do so, to ensure that citizens who attended the official meetings wouldn't waste time asking silly questions and could be fully briefed on what to expect.

For the record, I wrote a fact-filled email on August 2nd, 2011 to Jackie Lee, Deirdre Macnab, Margaret Wolter, Elizabeth C. Pines, Annie Betancourt, Sandra Colyer and Adrienne Kaltman, with bcc's to dozens of activists, Broward County and municipal pols, concerned citizens and reporters.

None of these women, who run things at FairDistricts or are the head of the Florida LWV, or the heads of local South Florida LWV chapters ever responded. 

Trust me, that simple fact that didn't go un-noticed or un-commented upon by me or most of the other people who received a copy of that email, and who still have the copy with the names of the women who weren't up to the task.

They could have discussed what some of the more difficult parameters would be for state legislators to square, as well as some of the more parochial factors to consider as well.
But instead of doing something positive, they did nothing.

Who knows, perhaps they were afraid of everyone catching on to the fact that many of the well-known African-Americans and Hispanics in this state who claimed to support the passage of Amendments 5 and 6, frankly, didn't seem to have much of a problem with the absurdity of Corrine Brown's FL-3 CD that currently stretches from Jacksonville to almost Orlando, perhaps, because she's an African-American.

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/orlando_opinionators/2011/09/propublica-calls-out-corrine-brown-on-redistricting.html

This, despite the fact that her gerrymandered CD is and was perhaps the worst in the entire country and the poster child for what was wrong in this state and a reason to vote for Amendment 6..

Yes, another case of convenient outrage for some while they traffic in everyday hypocrisy.

As if that wasn't pathetic enough, these very same groups that complained for months NEVER actually submitted their own map proposals before the final deadline, despite being plenty of opportunities.
That would be NEVER as in EVER.

That's an unfortunate and dispiriting fact you didn't see emphasized in any of the accounts you ever saw or read on Channel 4, 6, 7 and 10, or in the Miami Herald or South Florida Sun-Sentinel, despite the fact that is was very important, since it showed that FairDistricts' and the League of Women Voters efforts for months was nothing more than bluffing.
So why didn't the South Florida or statewide MSM ever emphasize this?
Why?

That's good question, but then again, it's not for nothing that none of them was awarded a Pulitzer Prize on Monday for their news coverage the past year, is it?

No, you can tell why that's so everyday when you read the local newspapers or watch TV newscasts, that's no accident!

Most fair-minded people I know who supported the FairDistrict amendments thought that the failure to make an example out of Brown's CD would show that FairDistricts, despite winning at the ballot box, wasn't prepared to do the things necessary to show how serious they were.

Hmm-mm... and what happened to Brown's CD?

Oh, right, from FairDistricts and the League of Women Voters, nothing, since they submitted no maps..
But the state legislature decided that her snake-like district was no longer acceptable.
http://censusvalidator.blob.core.windows.net/mydistrictbuilderdata/Graphics/Enacted%20Congressional%20Districts.pdf


More on Brown here:
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/03/corrine_brown_and_the_forgotten_innocent.html

Wow! + Awkward! = FL State Supreme Court Judges' campaign finance chairs actually arguing cases before them! Justices laugh at your quaint notions of ethics & 'appearances'!

View Larger Map
Florida Supreme Court, 500 S. Duval Street, Tallahassee, FL 32399

Florida's Supreme Court Justices and their politically-connected friends laugh at your quaint notions of ethics and appearances -their very own campaign finance managers argue cases before them! 
Sure, in a state full of attorneys, the Supreme Court Justices aiming to be retained this year couldn't find one who wouldn't be appearing before them to head their merit retention committee? Really?

Folks, this is Florida, it's every man and woman for himself.


News-Press.com (Southwest Florida)
Florida Supreme Court battle brings campaign chairman before court
Written by, Brandon Larrabee, The News Service of Florida
7:03 PM, Apr. 12, 2012

TALLAHASSEE - In late February, the committees spearheading campaigns for Florida Supreme Court Justices Fred Lewis, Barbara Pariente and Peggy Quince held a fundraiser at the Hyatt Regency Miami.

At the top of the invitation to the event were the names of some of the co-chairmen of each of the justices' campaigns, including former Justice Raoul Cantero, who heads up Pariente's "committee of responsible persons" -- essentially, the organization that will campaign to keep her when voters cast ballots in merit retention elections in November.

Read the rest of the post at: 
http://www.news-press.com/article/20120412/NEWS0107/120412035/Florida-Supreme-Court-battle-brings-campaign-chairman-before-court

Why am I not surprised that longtime blog nemesis and South Florida Silver Spoon Dan Gelber is quoted here, or that he actually says that he has no problem with how this (unethical on its face) behavior comes across to the general public?
Correct, experience.

Still, I guarantee you that within the next six months, one of Gelber's reporter friends at the Miami Herald will dutifully quote him saying something or another about some subject where part of his argument will be that "appearances" really matter.

Yes, just not when it comes to his particular goose and gander I guess.

But they do. 

How much longer will that entry at Wikipedia for Dave Aronberg exist? He's running for Palm Beach State Attorney, so why the Chicago-style tactics against sitting judge?

How much longer will there be an entry at Wikipedia for Dave Aronberg, who's running for Palm Beach State Attorney? Chicago-style tactics against a sitting judge?

As it happen, I voted for Dave Aronberg in the 2010 Democratic primary for Florida Attorney General race against Dan Gelber, and then voted for eventual winner Pam Bondi that November in the general election, owing to both my liking of Bondi's moxie and my distaste for Gelber, whom I've ripped here previously a few times, not least for the company he keeps and his propensity to be a perpetual candidate..

That said, though, why is there an entry for someone like Aronberg who's largely unknown outside of certain activist/news junkie neighborhoods in South Florida?

I mean he's more obscure than some of the most obscure Dolphin players. 

Plus, much of the information there is NOT accurate or timely.

Additionally, it seems to me that per the Palm Beach Post story below, his friends are doing him no favors by acting like they are Rahm clones and trying to put the screws to a sitting judge to force her not to run against him. 

I've lived in Chicago, and this isn't it, and neither is Palm Beach County.

It's hard for me to see how this sort of incident or similar ones in the future won't backfire on Aronberg in ways that he never anticipated.

Palm Beach Post

Warnings lead Circuit Judge Krista Marx to abandon campaign for state attorney

By Joel Engelhardt and Stacey Singer 

Palm Beach Post Staff Writers

Updated: 10:58 a.m. Sunday, April 15, 2012

Posted: 10:44 a.m. Sunday, April 15, 2012

Circuit Judge Krista Marx chose not to run for state attorney after she learned supporters of the lone candidate in the race, Dave Aronberg, planned to attack her reputation and challenge her husband's judicial seat, The Palm Beach Post has found.

Read the rest of the article at:

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/state/warnings-lead-circuit-judge-krista-marx-to-abandon-2306123.html

Megan O'Matz on the detailed response to the statewide Grand Jury that Broward Schools' James Notter must issue by March 2nd -or else

Wanted to be sure to bring this very thorough Megan O'Matz article from the Sun-Sentinel to your attention before I finally start posting some of the many photos (and video) that I shot last Tuesday night in Hollywood which Broward School members Ann Murray and (former Chair) Jennifer Gottlieb spoke at, while pretending that we couldn't see the whole disgraceful performance for what it was - a dog-and-pony show among acolytes.

If anything, reading the O'Matz article a few times only underscores the genuine depth of outrage I've heard among both my own well-informed friends and the average Broward citizens I've seen and heard speak publicly on this matter, since the statewide Grand Jury revealed last Friday that hundreds of millions of dollars were likely squandered away in unnecessary school construction in this county.

South Florida Sun-Sentinel
www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/fl-grand-jury0224-20110224,0,57428.story
State demands answers from Broward Schools about grand jury report
Notter given til March 2 to submit plan of action
By Megan O'Matz, Sun Sentinel
8:38 PM EST, February 24, 2011

The Florida Department of Education is considering whether to launch its own probe of the Broward School District in light of a grand jury report accusing the School Board of "gross mismanagement."

In a letter Tuesday to School Board Chairman Benjamin Williams, Education Commissioner Eric J. Smith said that by law his agency's Office of Inspector General is required to investigate if the School Board is "unwilling or unable to address substantiated allegations made by any person relating to waste, fraud, or financial mismanagement within the school district."

The state asked that by March 2 the district submit a plan of action to address the grand jury's findings and recommendations. It should "include specific steps taken or planned,'' wrote Smith, who was not available for an interview Thursday.

Schools Superintendent Jim Notter said Williams will reply by March 2 with a "point by point" report of what's been done and what still needs to be done. Notter noted that the grand jury spent a year looking at the district, and he and the board would have liked more than a few days to prepare a response. On Tuesday, he had promised a response within 45 days.

The Statewide Grand Jury on Public Corruption concluded a year-long investigation of Broward schools this month and released a report last Friday saying the mismanagement and ineptitude were so pervasive it could only be explained by "corruption of our officials by contractors, vendors and their lobbyists."

The grand jury issued no indictments but said it regretted that, under the state constitution, it could not abolish the whole School Board.

By law, the Office of Inspector General can conduct, coordinate or request investigations into allegations of financial mismanagement across all 67 Florida school districts and the community colleges.

The office has the power to report to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement or other law enforcement agencies "whenever the inspector general has reasonable grounds to believe there has been a violation of criminal law," according to statute.

As the investigative arm of the grand jury, FDLE interviewed witnesses and gathered reams of documents related to the Broward School District.

The grand jury accused the School Board of steering work to favored contractors and consultants with little or no public discourse, pushing costly and unnecessary pet projects, opening new schools without the proper safety inspections and repairs, retaliating against whistleblowers, and failing to keep basic and crucial records.

Notter, who has overseen the district since late 2006, was harshly criticized for failing to curb the abuses.

Talmadge W. Fair, chairman of the state Board of Education, which is the policymaking body for all Florida school districts, said it would be unfair to comment before receiving Notter's official response.

"Due process must be allowed to run its course," he said, adding that he has not spoken to Notter but is "anxiously awaiting" his next steps.

Finding that the problems with the Broward Schools have been longstanding, the grand jury said it had no confidence the School Board would "make meaningful changes" and adhere to them.

It suggested the board be stripped of as much power as possible and "an independent outside authority" installed to monitor the district.

Fair said the state cannot appoint an overseer. "The local School Board has the power," he said.

Under the state constitution, Gov. Rick Scott can suspend School Board members and other elected officials for "malfeasance, misfeasance, neglect of duty, drunkenness, incompetence, permanent inability to perform official duties, or commission of a felony."

Scott's office has not returned repeated e-mails and calls seeking comment on what action, if any, he will take.

Former state Sen. Dan Gelber, a Miami Democrat who ran unsuccessfully for state Attorney General last year, thinks the Broward School Board is fully capable of instituting stronger integrity measures. Four of the nine board members were first elected in November.

"Often, in the wake of this kind of bad press, people take it as an opportunity to reform," he said.

Reader comments at: http://discussions.sun-sentinel.com/20/soflanews/fl-grand-jury0224-20110224/10

------

"Often, in the wake of this kind of bad press, people take it as an opportunity to reform."
Really?
In South Florida?
Hmm-m... when was that that exactly?

I have no experience of such a thing EVER happening here since my family relocated to South Florida in 1968, especially among a large group of elected officials who already stand convicted in the court of public opinion for being both incompetent and corrupt, and whose feeble and self-serving responses since the Grand Jury's final report came out is both underwhelming and insulting in the extreme, with Gottlieb and Murray leading that sorry parade.

Yes, this rather queer and disconnected response of Dan Gelber's reminds me all over again why I made a point of writing in this space a few times last year about why I wouldn't be voting for him, in either the Democratic primary or in the general election, voting for Dave Aronberg
and Pam Bondi, respectively, instead.

The most noteworthy of those reasons was Gelber's longstanding short-sightedness, in that despite all of his years of experience in politics, he STILL literally CAN'T see what the rest of us living in this area could see about many of his supporters among the Broward elected elite, and their highly questionable anti-democratic behavior and strange sense of ethics.

For the life of me, at first, I couldn't understand why Megan O'Matz chose to ask Dan Gelber his opinion, but having done so, his tin-ear response not only reaffirms my relief that he was not elected Attorney General of the Sunshine State, but also made me realize that perhaps she was just being sly, in that Gelber talking about Notter's Crew was simply birds-of-a-feather.

You see, who better to ask about a ridiculous situation where highly-paid people in charge didn't know what was going on and seemed to care not a whit about the consequences of that inaction than a guy like Dan Gelber, who acted at the time like there'd be no real consequences for moving the 2008 Florida presidential primary up to a date that the DNC specifically had forbidden and warned there'd be severe penalties.
But he did it anyway, didn't he?

Or perhaps unlike me, you've forgotten about his championing the idea of a "revote" that would cost millions of taxpayer dollars?
Well, I haven't.

James Notter and Dan Gelber together again.
But as usual, they're looking for others to pay for their indifference.
Not to say I told you so, but I did.
That's how they roll...

Spot-on! Scott Powers on 10 FL statewide candidates given $5.8 million in taxpayer funds "who arguably didn’t need the money but took it anyway"

Sometimes, all your faithful blogger needs to do to bring something important or worthwhile to your attention is to get out of the way ASAP so you can read it yourself, since there's hardly anything I can add to the original story that could make it any clearer.
As is so often true in those cases, it involves Florida or South Florida politics and government, and what a complete fiasco something was, is or is becoming.

This is such a time as Scott Powers of the Orlando Sentinel shows how Florida's public campaign-finance laws, intended to create a more level playing-field, doesn't, if ever, work as planned.
So why keep it?

Do you keep a compass that refuses to actually point in the right direction?
I don't.

I was always against public-financing of statewide political candidates in principle, even before I read this eye-opening piece on Tuesday night.
After reading it and thinking about the financial implications of continuing the system into the future, I'm even more convinced that it's a well-intentioned bad idea.

Especially now that we all have some idea how much taxpayer money went down the drain.

Or, should I say, provided employment for political consultants and advertising revenue for TV station owners.
I see why THEY would like it and want to keep the system intact, I'm not nearly as sure why we as taxpayers should continue something so manifestly broken and unworkable.

Orlando Sentinel
Central Florida Political Pulse blog

Campaign finance leftovers: taxpayers contributed $5.8 million
Posted by scottpowers on January, 18 2011 9:22 AM

How much did taxpayers contribute to all those nasty campaign ads heading into last fall’s election?

Try $5.8 million, and counting. The latest available reports from the Division of Elections show Florida taxpayers spent more than $5.8 million to bolster the campaigns of 10 candidates for statewide office last year, giving public dollars to individuals who arguably didn’t need the money but took it anyway.

Read the rest of the post at:
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2011/01/campaign-finance-leftovers-taxpayers-contributed-5-8-million.html

The parent Orlando Sentinel article was:
Candidates collected $5.8 million in public money
By Scott Powers, Orlando Sentinel
10:54 p.m. EST, January 17, 2011
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/politics/os-state-public-finance-20110116,0,6550241.story

Reader comments at:
http://discussions.orlandosentinel.com/20/orlnews/os-state-public-finance-20110116/10

Hallandale Beach Blog endorses Beth Reinhard & Charlie Crist's departure - asks they get escort to airport so they don't miss their flights out of FL

I've been sitting on this for months just waiting for Election Day to get here.

Below is an excerpt of an email that I wrote back on January 23rd, 2010 and sent out to a few dozen people following the election of Republican Scott Brown to the Massachusetts Senate seat held for 47 years by Ted Kennedy.
(And when was the last time you saw the media talk about him? It's like he died. Or, alternatively, booked a flight on Oceanic Flight 815.)

Most of you know who come here regularly know where I stand on the subject of Dan Gelber, as well as his his pack of supporters, which includes some of the most anti-democratic and unethical pols in Broward County.
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/search?q=%22Dan+Gelber%22

He's far too ambitious for his own good and doesn't have a record of being honest with voters.

He will lose the FL AG race to Pam Bondi, whom I will be voting for, as I think she'll set many media hearts aflutter as she tries to improve on Bill McCollum's decent track record and fight Obamacare.

Pam Bondi - "About Me"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5LbUFAJn6o

Organized Crime at It's Worst

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vds3WkKOrAw

Obviously, this was written before we all got the good news that Beth Reinhard would be leaving the Herald and heading to Washington and The National Journal.

My worst fear is that her column will be replaced by -dare I say it- Patricia Mazzei.
I will be devoting an entire post on Mazzei soon that zeroes in on some particularly irksome articles of her's that all shared the same weakness, regardless of subject matter.

Once you notice it, trust me, it's hard to ignore when you see her articles.
You'll find yourself actively looking for it.

Sort of like the way that once I knew that Campbell Brown had a certain facial tic when she was on-air, reporting the news, it was hard not to watch her and just wait for it.

-----

Just a note to let you know that per some of my hints of late, I already had a ton of things I'd already written that were going to be posted on my blog tomorrow. Subjects include: ...the Dan Gelber vs. Dave Aronberg race for AG, and Scott Brown's remarkable triumph, plus a couple of anti-Beth Reinhard pieces, exposing her infamous shallowness when it reached new jaw-dropping lows lately.
(Seriously, five sentences about the race to replace Meek?)

But then I read this article below this morning, after which I'm apoplectic, and now, I may have to re-schedule some things just to keep my head from exploding. How does the chief political reporter for the largest paper in the state NOT mention in a story ostensibly about insiders vs. outsiders, that Gelber's father was/is a longtime judge, someone who knew everyone who was ANYONE in Miami-Dade even BEFORE he was a judge?

I even knew who his father was when I was a kid in the 1970's -it's beyond incredulous! http://www.miamidade.gov/ethics/members.asp

Of course, rather than do like Gelber did, and work for his dad, the judge, one summer... or, as the Boston Globe put it:

At the end of his junior year at Tufts University, Scott P. Brown did not take a typical summer job like many of his classmates. Instead, he spent two months in Army basic training at Fort Dix, N.J., after joining the Massachusetts National Guard.

I've now read ALL the Boston Globe stories on Brown for the past few weeks and am even more impressed with him than before.

I will be sharing some of what I learned about him in some of those posts, though they may be after Sunday now just because I'm so tired of writing. By the way, here from Thursday is the best thing written on Scott Brown thus far, featuring some great investigatory sleuthing by the New York Times to connect-the-dots:

G.O.P. Used Energy and Stealth to Win Seat
January 20, 2010

This article is by Adam Nagourney, Jeff Zeleny, Kate Zernike and Michael Cooper.

BOSTON — The e-mail message from a Massachusetts supporter to one of the leaders of the Tea Party movement arrived in early December. The state was holding a special election to fill the seat held by Senator Edward M. Kennedy, it said, and conditions were ripe for a conservative ambush: an Election Day in the dead of winter with the turnout certain to be low.

“To be honest, we kind of looked at it and said, this is a long shot,” said Brendan Steinhauser, the director of state campaigns for FreedomWorks, which has become an umbrella for Tea Party groups. But the group was impressed by the determination of organizers in this decidedly Democratic state and was intrigued by the notion that this could be a way to effectively derail federal health care legislation.

Read the rest of the article at
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/21/us/politics/21reconstruct.html

This is the single best-written article I've read on any subject the entire year.

In the hard copy of this, they even have a chart showing the number of events Brown and Martha Coakley attended the past few weeks, and as you may already know by now, he outworked her 3:1.
Truth be told, some of those Globe stories appear brilliant in retrospect.

-------
Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/columnists/beth-reinhard/story/1440999.html

Florida's top candidates for U.S. Senate hardly political outsiders

By Beth Reinhard

January 23, 2010

Out of the cascade of commentary about Tuesday's upset by a Republican in Democrat-rich Massachusetts came this gem from state Sen. Dan Gelber of Miami Beach, who used to shoot hoops with the U.S. senator-elect in college:

"To the legions of Republicans in Florida who are claiming the 'I'm Scott Brown mantle,' let me say this: 'I know Scott Brown, Scott Brown was a friend of mine . . . you're no Scott Brown.' ''

The riff on the famous slap at Republican Dan Quayle after he compared himself to Jack Kennedy during the 1988 vice presidential debate was spot on. The leading candidates for Florida's open U.S. Senate seat -- Gov. Charlie Crist, Marco Rubio and U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek -- are all career politicians who commit sins of omission when they distance themselves from the establishment.

QUITE A LEAP

The governor is the biggest insider of them all. Crist compared Brown's avowed commitment to "the people's seat'' in Massachusetts to his own claim to be the "people's governor'' of Florida. It's quite a leap for the sitting governor of the nation's fourth largest state, a vice presidential shortlister, and the once-presumed Republican nominee to claim kinship with a truck-driving state senator who faced a double-digit deficit in the polls. (Do they even let pickups onto Fisher Island, where Crist's wife owns a $3.2 million manse?)

Crist's scorn for "the radical Obama-Reid-Pelosi agenda'' when he congratulated Brown also rang hollow since the economic stimulus package he supported sits at the very top of that agenda. Crist pointed out that he had spoken to Brown after his victory, as if sound waves made them soul mates.

While Rubio is certainly the underdog in the GOP race, the former speaker of the Florida House and a six-figures-earning lawyer is no political outsider either. In the last 11 years, Rubio was out of public office for only the last one -- a part of his resume he frequently skips over in his stump speech. Can he honestly lay the blame for the recession at the feet of Crist and President Barack Obama and claim to have had nothing to do with it?

Rubio has to stretch pretty far to the left to put his arm around Brown, who backs abortion rights and the state health insurance program in Massachusetts. Rubio touted his participation Friday in the "Virtual March for Life'' on the 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Earlier this week, he backed Attorney General Bill McCollum's claim that the pending healthcare legislation is unconstitutional because it requires people to buy insurance. Like in Massachusetts.

PART OF THE MAJORITY

As for Meek, he does have one thing in common with Brown: Political analysts expect him to lose the general election. But while Brown was competing against the Kennedy dynasty in Massachusetts, Meek practically inherited his seat in Congress from his mother, Carrie Meek. She staved off potential rivals by waiting until the last minute to rule out another term.

That part of his bio didn't come up when campaign manager Abe Dyk said: "Having worked as a skycap for tips, as a Florida State trooper and having led the Coalition to Reduce Class Size, Kendrick Meek is the candidate best positioned to deliver that change as a U.S. senator.''

Ahem. Meek is part of the Democratic majority who sits on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee. He has roots in Liberty City but has long roamed the halls of Washington and Tallahassee. The closest he ever got to a nude Cosmo centerfold like Brown? A mention in a celebrity blog called "Young Black & Fabulous.''

Beth Reinhard is the political writer for The Miami Herald.

-----

http://www.pambondi.com/home/

Missing voices in Broward County's ethics debate are ignored by South Florida news media. It's our old media friend: Mr. Lack of Curiosity!

Earlier today I sent a version of the following email to some
folks around South Florida and the rest of the Sunshine State
who make it their business to pay attention to what's going on
hereabouts in local government, especially as it applies to the
issue of ethics and political miscreants.

Per the Broward Beat and Broward Politics blog postings
I cite and link to for your perusal, it's worth mentioning that
State Senator Chris Smith and State Rep. Perry Thurston
both voted against Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff's common sense
ethics proposal at the Broward Legislative Delegation public
meeting that I attended three weeks ago at the FAU campus
in downtown Fort Lauderdale.

(Ellyn Bogdanoff, who I think is a very impressive person
and full of moxie and enthusiasm, is running for State Senate
District 25 this Fall, which is currently represented by
Jeff Atwater, who's running for Florida Chief Financial Officer.
See http://www.ellynbogdanoff.com/ and
http://www.jeffatwater.com/)

That BLD meeting was scheduled to iron-out aspects of a bill
that would provide the proper legal framework for an IG
position to be created in ethics-starved Broward County.

Not surprisingly, this important meeting got ZERO coverage
on local Miami TV newscasts, so citizens here heard nothing
about the absurd histrionics and melodrama that took place,
with petty verbal tantrums thrown by Messrs Smith and
Thurston, with an assist to State Sen. Dan Gelber,
chiefly for his wasting so much time chasing-his-tail that
the public's ability to actually speak at the end of the meeting
was greatly compromised, as some people who wanted to
speak, were not able to, including myself.

But at least Gelber voted in favor of it, unlike the other two.
That is, after he lectured everyone in the room as he channeled
a Law prof schooling kids on the intricacies of property law,
when all they really wanted was to retrieve their errant ball
from his front yard.

Instead of dealing with it forthrightly, he chose to use it as a
pretext to share what he, apparently, believes to be his colossal
legal mind.
It would seem Gelber loves to get on a soap box, even when
it's not necessary.

Personally, I was already inclined to support another candidate
for State Attorney General this Fall, but I can tell you after
this particular first-hand experience, State Sen. Dan Gelber,
in person, makes a very poor case for the plausibility of
Dan Gelber the FL AG candidate.
http://www.dangelber.com/

He was every bit the caricature of a preening pol and left many
of the people who attended the meeting dumbfounded, if my
subsequent conversations and emails from fellow attendees
is any indication.

Some even volunteered that they'd actually been leaning towards
Gelber instead of State Sen. Dave Aronberg for AG, but now
were re-thinking that decision.
http://www.davearonberg.com/

I guess I hardly need mention that people who'd be attending this
sort of meeting are more well-informed about what's really going on
here than the average voter and that their opinion, among friends,
neighbors and co-workers, is considerably more persuasive than
any paid ad.

In that sense, Gelber's performance that day was almost like an
in-kind political contribution to Aronberg.

On a more important note, to me, one of the most obvious but
least-discussed aspect of the current Broward County ethics
killing-zone is the almost complete absence of any African-American
or Hispanic individuals or groups speaking publicly for making
stronger ethics both a reality and a priority here, and not just an
abstract idea in a book or political campaign.

All the minority "Usual Suspects" who generally clamor to get
their spin out to the public and news media in order to be thought
of as serious players in this community's future, were and are
almost entirely MIA -Missing in Action!

I can name the exceptions, since I know who some of them are,
like Ted Mena, a former Coral Springs city commissioner and
business owner, whom I met in 2008 while he was on the county's
Charter Review Commission.

He has been a consistent voice for greater public accountability
and transparency in local government and stronger ethical standards.

In my opinion, he'd exactly the sort of person with integrity and
common sense that we need dozens of clones of in Broward County
and local government to flush-out the defective govt. and political
miscreants and ticking-time bombs.

He recently wrote something about the current ethics debacle,
which I've placed at the bottom of this post for you to consider.

But as is the case with so many other issues I could name,
along with you, the South Florida news media hasn't even noticed
this absence of diverse voices on this important issue, even though
we're constantly told -lectured!- by theses same newspapers
and TV stations how important diversity is.

The news media has been too preoccupied the past few weeks by...
well, now that you mention it, nothing in particular.

I plan on posting some things in the near future on the above topics
and what I observed first-hand, and will try to post some video
I shot up in Fort Lauderdale as well.

----
Broward Beat
Commissioners Loving Ethics Reform To Death
By Buddy Nevins

In Tallahassee its called, “Loving It To Death”.

That is defined as loading up of a piece of legislation with so much unnecessary baggage that it is sure to fail.

Some Broward County Commissioners appear to be using that tactic to kill the ethics regulations that the public is clamoring for.

Read the rest of the story at:
http://www.browardbeat.com/commissioners-loving-ethics-reform-to-death/

----
Sun-Sentinel's Broward Politics blog
Gunzburger runs into trouble protecting proposed ethics code
By Scott Wyman
February 23, 2010

A move by Commissioner Suzanne Gunzburger to protect Broward’s fledgling ethics ordinance ran into trouble Tuesday. Gunzburger wanted to draw up a ballot issue to place the ethics rules in the county charter – meaning they could only be changed in the future by voters. As a task force wrapped up its work to write the code this month, concern grew that the commission could immediately gut or rescind it.

Read the rest of the story at: http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/broward/blog/2010/02/gunzburger_runs_into_trouble_p.html


Sun-Sentinel's Broward Politics blog
Bogdanoff sees passage of legislation to create anti-corruption office
By Anthony Man
February 22, 2010

State Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale, said Monday she’s confident there’s enough momentum to win passage of legislation that could lead to creation of an inspector general to police corruption in Broward’s local governments.

Action on the legislation moves to Tallahassee next week when lawmakers gather for the annual legislative session. Bogdanoff said she expects lawmakers will soon put the finishing touches on the inspector general legislation.

The IG would be an independent office with authority to investigate the County Commission, the School Board, independent agencies such as the North Broward Hospital District, and all the cities, towns and villages in the county. The office would have the power to subpoena people and documents.


South Florida Sun-Sentinel
ETHICS AND THE GOVERNMENT
January 20, 2010
By Ted Mena

Most municipalities in our country have a declaration of policy concerning ethics as it applies to municipal employees, which of course is what politicians are in most county and some city governments.

Most of these declarations state that municipal employees are there to work for the citizens of a city or county. These statements of policy also say that it is the responsibility of that person to "act in a manner that promotes trust and confidence in government with complete transparency and honesty in their services, and to avoid even the appearance and perception of impropriety."

It seems to me that some people in Broward County government and the School Board have not read, nor understand, this simple and straightforward statement of policy. Most of these policies are in most cases being ignored here in Broward.

Presently, there is a committee on ethics looking into this matter. They need input from the public as well as the media, who need to step up and publish what these politicians are up to and investigate them to see who else has "conflicts of interest." When I was a city commissioner in Coral Springs, where city commissioners do not get involved in any procurement process at all, I was appointed to the Broward County Charter Review. As a member for two years of this committee, the issue of ethics came up and was looked into. The present Ethics Commission is the result. I can tell you that many of the county commissioners serving in Broward did not want to have this committee on ethics.

One of the reasons that some county commissioners give for being involved in the procurement process is that they do not want county staff to provide them the "backup" on issues before them. They say that they don't have time to read it. But that's what they are paid to do!

(It must be because they are too busy hobnobbing with lobbyists to obtain money to be reelected at parties on yachts or hotel.)

Thanks to Eggelletion, Salesman, and Gallagher, we now have a strong reason to do something about it. Let's put some teeth in the ethic rules and some consequences to misbehavior. We need a watchdog group to make sure these ethic violations do not occur and that this group is independent of the commissioners. County commissioners should not be involved in any role in the procurement process since back in November 2008, the public voted to have the Ethics Commission created. Commissioner Angelo Castillo of Pembroke Pines wrote recently, "We are becoming a community of disbelievers in government to operate effectively..." Hopefully, we will get something done this time.

Ted Mena is a former Coral Springs city commissioner and a Broward County business owner.

Why do Kendrick Meek & Dan Gelber want support of someone like Mayor Joy Cooper, who refers to her political opponents as "Nazis" while at City Hall?

Monday February 22nd, 2010

Why do elected officials like Kendrick Meek,
Dan Gelber or others in the community want
the support of someone who is as reliably,
demonstrably and brazenly anti-democratic
and misanthropic as Hallandale Beach Mayor
Joy Cooper, who, last year, specifically
referred to political opponents of hers in this
city as "Nazis"?

While I was just a few feet away.

While she was on Hallandale Beach
City Hall property.

For a Hallandale Beach City
Commission meeting.

While talking to another Hallandale Beach
elected official, whom, as you'd expect,
their being a member of her Rubber Stamp
Crew, said absolutely nothing about Cooper
actually having the gall to say this,
and say it where she did.

That reference included yours truly, too,
as she was only too eager to make clear
to this other elected official by specifically
telling them, "including that person
in the room" when I was the only
member of the Hallandale Beach public
present in a large conference room
full of people drawing paychecks from
HB taxpayers.

In the very same breath, having now
warmed to the occasion, Mayor Cooper
then referred to HB Commissioner
Keith London by name and said that
he was "a Hitler," the contempt literally
pouring out of her mouth.

Next Sunday, if you're interested,
you will learn further details and context
about this matter here on my blog, and
also learn the identity of the other HB
elected official, who didn't bat so much
as an eyelash at hearing the mayor
of the city refer to concerned citizens
like YOU and I as Nazis.

That's plenty of time for you to think
about these facts and fully digest them
before she hosts a fund-raising party
for Congressman Kendrick Meek's
U.S. Senate campaign at her home
on March 5th.

But just so there's no misunderstanding...
IF you're someone in the community
who has been on Joy Cooper's side
and who has always made excuses
for her or looked the other way in the
past for her erratic behavior, illegal
and unethical actions, and intemperate
and creepy words, then you are NOT
on the side of the accountability, reform
and transparency that this city and
county desperately wants and needs.

That's your choice, of course, but you
need to understand THAT train is leaving
the station without you, and choices and
votes will be made accordingly.

IF you're not on the reform train, you're
now definitely an opponent of mine and
the people I know and associate with in
Broward County and greater South Florida,
who don't just vote, but who also affect
the votes of others -the persuaders-
and they don't forget.
And neither do I.

Lines are being drawn...

The $50k Rothstein 'hot potato' check burning a hole in Steve Geller's CCE, Floridians for a Stronger Tomorrow

Above, photo I snapped of Steve Geller,

characteristically, deflecting personal responsibility
for the 2008 Primary debacle, despite all the

evidence to the contrary, being interviewed
by CBS4's Michael Williams in front of
Hallandale Beach City Hall, where Geller's
district office was located.

Ignore the info on photo, it was actually
taken on May 7th, 2008.

And why is that City Hall breezeway
ceiling STILL messed-up 18 months later?

Another Mike Good success story!

-----------

Broward Beat

Geller: Take My $50,000, Please!
By Buddy Nevins

Former State Sen. Steve Geller says he has a problem: He can’t figure out who should get $50,000 in tainted money.

The money is from suspected scammer Scott Rothstein. It was earmarked for Geller’s campaign against County Commissioner Sue Gunzburger.

Geller now suspects Rothstein stole the money. He wants to give it back.

Read the rest of the story at:
http://www.browardbeat.com/geller-take-my-50000-please/

-----------

In case you were curious after reading
Buddy Nevins' story, above, I've
included at the bottom of this post
the list of contributors to this CCE
of Geller's, which used a lot of
its money last year unsuccessfully

to try to get his brother, Joseph,
the former North Bay Village mayor,

elected to Dan Gelber's old
State House seat, when he
ran for the State Senate in
November and won.

Now, of course, having been elected
for four years and equipped with a
fall-back government job with nice benefits
that keeps his seat warm in case he fails,
and able to still charge taxpayers for his
flights home, Gelber is already running
for State Attorney General, which is

something he didn't tell the voters of
Miami Beach and environs when he
was running last year, promising to
use his best judgment on their behalf
in Tallahassee for the next four years
in a higher-profile position.

That is to say, once Gelber dropped
his already announced plans of running
for U.S. Senate, which is yet another
option he didn't care to mention to
voters last year when offering himself up.

At some point, I suspect Gelber's
love affair with himself, like most

examples of stalking, is going to
come to a very sad and predictable end.

If you were me, and a woman you were
very interested in romantically called you
up after you'd spent a fair amount of time
together said that she'd love to see you
again once she got back from a business
trip, you might say fine and that you were
looking forward to her return.

But you might have a change of heart
if she says that her trip is actually a
vacation with her boyfriend to visit
his hometown and spend some

time with his family.

You'd immediately think you needed
to consider other 'candidates,' no?

I would.

Perhaps sensing that voters would
not be interested in him if he already

had his eye elsewhere, as he did,
Gelber never gave South Florida voters

the benefit of having informed consent.

Yet counter-intuitively, Dan Gelber
seems to think that by being so open
about his promiscuous personal
ambition, and clearly not really

wanting to devote the time and
attention to the job he was
elected by voters to a year ago
-which, despite my warnings
to them last year, is abundantly
clear to my friends on Miami
Beach who voted for him-
since he plans on campaigning
for yet another year, he's somehow
free from criticism that he seems
to have a clear history of using
South Florida voters for props
(or pawns) for his personal
ambition, and of not being
honest with them.

But why should being so obvious
be judged a positive character trait

by voters?
Guess what, it's not.

And what has he actually DONE?

Admit it, you probably can't think
of even two things he's noted for.

Some brilliant argument that changed
the tenor of debate for the better

on an important issue in Tallahassee,
or some insightful solution to

a longstanding problem that he's
personally responsible for bringing

to fruition, that was popular with
both Democrats and Republicans.

Where's the defining moment when
he asked his own Dem supporters

to admit that they'd been wrong,
needed to be intellectually honest

and admit it and vote for the right
thing for the greater good?

Guess what, neither can he.
There aren't any.

The kicker is that THAT doesn't
seem to matter, as Gelber slowly
tries to become the latest governor
of this state without having earned

it by doing something previously
of any particular consequence.

That doesn't make him unique,
of course, just more transparent
than most.

Just like Steve Geller,
whom you all know I loathe,
he's personally implicated in
all the myopic bad decisions
of the past few years in

Tallahassee, large and small,
that have crippled this state
and made it a laughingstock
by so many different measurements.

Frankly, if it wasn't for his father,
a very well-respected Miami judge

-who has qualities the younger
Gelber clearly doesn't- most

people, and many in the South
Florida press in particular, would

have long since come to the
general conclusion that Gelber,
despite who his father is,
is clearly no different from the
dozens of other ambitious

yet thoroughly mediocre and
even unethical hacks populating
state, regional and local govt.,
seemingly intent on making things
worse for us, not better.
(Elected versions of Alex Lewy.)

Gelber is just someone from whom
much more was expected but who,
thus far, has produced no tangible results.

Week-after-week, month-after-month,
that solid criticism of him from the
South Florida media never ever comes,
does it?

It's the dog that never barks.
Which doesn't mean it's not a good dog,
just that it's NOT actually a WATCHDOG.

To me, this suggests that more than anyone
else, he's the male counterpart to DWS,
the South Florida media pet/demagogue
-whom I also loathe-, who is never
subjected to any sort of rigorous fact-filled

criticism -ever.
Why not?

Now there's a good question.

I'll be posting some things you may
find of interest on my blog this weekend,
and one of them will be on a force you
may not already be aware of that is
quickly taking over this area and which
the geniuses at HB City Hall and the
HB Police Dept. continue to ignore,

though their handiwork is right in front
of them: HGS.

Keep those initials in mind as you
walk, bike and drive thru SE Broward.

Folks, it's HGS' world, we just live in it.

-----------

http://election.dos.state.fl.us/committees/ComDetail.asp?account=45389

Type:	Committee of Continuous Existence
Status:	Active
Address:	Post Office Box 220015 Hollywood, FL 33022
Phone:	(954)491-1120
Chairperson:	Steven A. Geller 100 West Cypress Creek Road Suite 700 Fort Lauderdale, 33309
Treasurer:	Charles Cassini 12121 NE 16th Avenue North Miami, FL 33161
Registered Agent:	Steve Geller 100 West Cypress Creek Road Suite 700 Fort Lauderdale, FL 33309

-----------------

Campaign contributions in chron order

http://election.dos.state.fl.us/cgi-bin/TreFin.exe

Floridians for a Stronger Tomorrow About the Campaign Finance Data Base

Rpt Yr Rpt Type Date           Amount   Contributor Name               Address                                  City State Zip                           Occupation           Typ InKind Desc

------ -------- ---------- ------------ ------------------------------ ---------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------- -------------------- --- ----------------------- 
2007   Q2       06/01/2007        20.00 TEXEIRA NANCY                  1326 NORTH DUVAL ST                      TALLAHASSEE, FL 32303                                         CAS                    

2007   Q3       07/17/2007     2,500.00 TITLE INSURANCE THROUGH LAWYER 6545 CORPORATE CENTRE BLVD               ORLANDO, FL 32302                        INSURANCE            DUE                    
2007   Q3       07/17/2007     2,500.00 FLORIDA ASSOCIATED GENERAL CON PO BOX 10569                             TALLAHASSEE, FL 32302                    BUILDERS             DUE                    

2007   Q3       08/20/2007     2,500.00 LAWYERS ACTION                 1224 GREENSWARD DR.                      TALLAHASSEE, FL 32312                    ATTORNEYS            DUE                    
2007   Q3       09/07/2007     5,000.00 FLORIDA POLICE BENEVOLENT ASSO 300 E BREVARD ST                         TALLAHASSEE, FL 32301                    POLICE UNION         DUE                    

2007   Q3       09/12/2007    10,000.00 PALM BEACH KENNEL CLUB         1111 NORTH CONGRESS AVE.                 WEST PALM BEACH, FL 33404                PARI-MUTUEL          DUE                    
2007   Q4       10/22/2007     8,333.33 HCA EAST FLORIDA DIVISION AND  101 N. MONROE ST., SUITE 801             TALLAHASSEE, FL 32301                    HOSPITAL             DUE                    

2007   Q4       10/22/2007     8,333.33 HCA NORTH FLORIDA DIVISION AND 101 N. MONROE ST., SUITE 801             TALLAHASSEE, FL 32301                    HOSPITAL             DUE                    
2007   Q4       10/22/2007     8,333.34 HCA WEST FLORIDA DIVISION AND  101 N. MONROE ST., SUITE 801             TALLAHASSEE, FL 32301                    HOSPITAL             DUE                    

2007   Q4       10/31/2007    30,000.00 MARDI GRAS GAMING              831 N. FEDERAL HIGHWAY                   HALLANDALE BEACH, FL 33009               PARI-MUTUAL          DUE                    
2008   Q1       02/01/2008       500.00 CHIRO-PAC                      217 N KIRKMAN RD.                        ORLANDO, FL 32811                        CHIROPRACTORS        DUE                    

2008   Q1       02/29/2008     1,000.00 COMMITTEE FOR ACCESSIBLE GOVER 1224 GREENSWARD DR.                      TALLAHASSEE, FL 32312                    POLITICAL COMMITTEE  DUE                    
2008   Q1       02/29/2008    10,000.00 PPI, INC                       1800 SW THIRD ST                         POMPANO BEACH, FL 33069                  PARI-MUTUAL          DUE                    

2008   Q1       03/06/2008     5,000.00 ASURIAN INSURANCE              8880 WARD PARKWAY                        KANSAS CITY, MT 64114                    INSURANCE            DUE                    
2008   Q1       03/06/2008     8,333.34 HCA NORTH FLORIDA GOOD GOVERNM 101 N MONROE ST SUITE 801                TALLAHASSEE, FL 32301                    HOSPITALS            DUE                    

2008   Q1       03/06/2008     8,333.32 HCA WEST GOOD GOVERNMENT ACCOU 101 N MONROE ST SUITE 801                TALLAHASSEE, FL 32301                    HOSPITALS            DUE                    
2008   Q1       03/06/2008     8,333.34 HCA EAST GOOD GOVERNMENT ACCOU 101 N MONROE ST SUITE 801                TALLAHASSEE, FL 32301                    HOSPITALS            DUE                    

2008   Q1       03/06/2008     5,000.00 CALDER RACE COURSE             21001 NW 27TH AVE                        MIAMI GARDENS, FL 33056                  PARI-MUTUEL          DUE                    
2008   Q1       03/17/2008     2,500.00 RON BOOK, PA                   2999 N. E. 191ST ST, PH-6                AVENTURA, FL 33180                       ATTORNEY             DUE                    

2009   Q1       03/31/2009     5,000.00 HARTMAN AND TYNER, INC         PO BOX 2007                              HOLLYWOOD, FL 33022                      PARI-MUTUEL          CHE                    
2009   Q2       06/29/2009    10,000.00 HARTMAN AND TYNER INC          PO BOX 2007                              HOLLYWOOD, FL 33022                      GAMING               CHE                    

2009   Q3       09/29/2009     1,000.00 DAVID R CUTSIN AND ASSOCIATES, 6401 SW 113 PLACE                        MIAMI, FL 33173                          CONSULTING           CHE                    
2009   Q3       09/29/2009    50,000.00 ROTHSTEIN SCOTT                2308 CASTILLA ISLE                       FORT LAUDERDALE, FL 33301                LAWYER               CHE                    

2009   Q3       09/30/2009     5,000.00 GREENSPOON MARDER, PA          100 W CYPRESS CREEK ROAD, SUITE 700      FORT LAUDERDALE, FL 33309                LAW FIRM             CHE                    
                       ------------

                         197,520.00
24 Contribution(s) Selected