Showing posts with label Douglas Lyons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Douglas Lyons. Show all posts

Monday, July 22, 2013

More news re Florida elected officials living outside their districts & residency requirements: disingenuous South Florida Sun-Sentinel Editorial Board FINALLY writes about this ethical issue that it, editor Rosemary Goudreau and her editorial page writers have completely ignored for YEARS, inc. the case of Joe Gibbons and his strange family living situation; FL Senate Ethics chairman Jack Latvala won't be deterred and wants cold hard facts about pols who intentionally broke state laws

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WPLG-TV/Channel 10 (Miami, FL) Editorial: Lawmakers should live where constituents live. 
By Dave Boylan, Channel 10 Vice President and General Manager,
Published July 1 2013 10:56:12 AM EDT
Updated On: Jul 01 2013 11:03:34 AM EDT
http://www.local10.com/station/elected-officials-should-live-where-constituents-live/-/1716906/20785606/-/w1ttqnz/-/index.html


Local10's Bob Norman reports: Elected officials welcome investigation into where they live
Florida Gov Rick Scott investigating whether politicians living in their districts
Published On: July 18 2013 05:09:30 PM EDT   
Updated On: July 19 2013 12:44:21 PM EDT
http://www.local10.com/news/elected-officials-welcome-investigation-into-where-they-live/-/1717324/21037320/-/clnmte/-/index.html


More news re Florida elected officials living outside their districts & residency requirements: disingenuous South Florida Sun-Sentinel Editorial Board FINALLY writes about this ethical issue that it, editor Rosemary Goudreau and her editorial page writers have completely ignored for YEARS, inc. the case of Joe Gibbons and his strange family living situation; FL Senate Ethics chairman Jack Latvala won't be deterred and wants cold hard facts about pols who intentionally broke state laws
My comments are after this very curious and years over-due editorial.



South Florida Sun-Sentinel 
Editorial Board
Resolve question on where politicians must sleep
July 21, 2013

Since becoming the state senator for a newly drawn district covering parts of Broward and Palm Beach counties last year, Sen. Maria Sachs has accomplished quite a bit.

She helped secure $82 million for Broward College, up from $71 million the previous year. She helped land $1.5 million for the new medical school at Florida Atlantic University. And she helped pass the ban on texting while driving, with plans to try to toughen the law next year.

There's just one thing Sachs hasn't done. She hasn't moved — full-time — into her new district. Rather, she continues to reside mostly at her long-time Boca Raton home, just across the road from the new district she now represents.

Read the rest of the editorial at:

So what was NOT mentioned at all above by South Florida Sun-Sentinel editorial page editor Rosemary Goudreau and her South Florida Sun-Sentinel Editorial Board?

The same one that has NEVER written one word about the Hallandale Beach CRA scandal, either before or after the Broward Inspector General started their investigation and their damning report calling-out the city's serial "gross mismanagement"?

1.) why the Sun-Sentinel's Editorial Board, collectively and individually, as well as their so-called news reporters, has ignored the self-evident residency requirements violations known by many people in Broward for YEARS, and even worse, has seemingly gone out of its way to NOT mention it, perhaps because of ideological reasons.

That's especially the case with Senior Editorial Writer Douglas C. Lyons who has written only glowing and positive things about Joe Gibbons and Perry Thurston., two of the six FL legislators with a Broward connection whose living arrangements seem to be less than kosher and keeping with the spirit of the Florida Constitution.

Try to find anything with Lyons name on it that mentions the ethical questions involving them or the others.
No, seriously, try to find one.
There's not a single one.

But there is one from 2010 about Lyons suggesting that Gibbons become head of the FL Democratic Party 
This one:

South Florida Sun-Sentinel
WHY NOT JOE GIBBONS AS CHAIR OF FLORIDA DEMOCRATIC PARTY?
Posted by Doug Lyons on 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. 

Gibbons brings badly needed energy, something the state's demoralized and darn near moribund political party needs desperately. He can also raise money, something he's done during his brief stint as chair of the state's Legislative Black Caucus. 

Gibbons' business background -- made his mark in sales -- should help in that stead, whether he's talking to potential funders in South Florida or along the I-4 corridor. Gibbon's had experience at fundraising. He's raised money for Alex Sink's losing bid for governor and as former chair of the state's Legislative Black Caucus, he brought money to the group it hadn't seen before. 

Gibbon's got enough legislative cred, having served on some of the House's major committees and having worked with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. 

He'd also help the party with its "base" problem with African American voters. Not only would he be a fresh face, but he has the smarts to help pick and groom candidates to actually appeal to all elements of the party's constituents. 

For the record, Gibbons is supporting Thurman, someone he has worked well with in recent years. Should Thurman decide to leave her post, the party should consider Gibbons as its point man. 


Joe Gibbons and his campaign staff could hardly have written it better themselves.

I know this because I've heard the same curious questions about Gibbons for years that everyone else in Hallandale Beach and southeast Broward has, the reasonable questions that never seem to get good logical answers from him in public.

Still, I'm hardly unique in that respect, just someone who pays close attention to what's going on, and someone with a blog where I can raise questions publicly and give voice to others who are very curious about things that don't add up or pass the smell test.

It's hard to ignore the fact that someone who claims to live in Broward County fulltime actually has as their non-legislative job, one not down here, but actually up in Tallahassee.
It's also hard to ignore the fact that his wife and her job and their kids, until recently moving to Lakeland, lived in Jacksonville, NOT in South Florida with him.

I know because I've followed the issue for years because of my suspicions about Gibbons' 
integrity and have repeatedly gone thru the paper's digital archives actually looking for examples of them mentioning it that I may've somehow missed.
They ignored it as a serious issue until just a few months ago.

So, tell me, how is it that despite all the years this pathetic and rather self-serving charade has been going on, Doug Lyons and Rosemary Goudreau and the Sun-Sentinel Editorial Board NEVER noticed it or mentioned it in print?
Until today.

That independent research I've done over the years is why I know that -Teaser Alert for a future blog post- per my previous comments on the blog and these emails about so much of the South Florida press corps' sleepwalking, despite all the grumbling the Sun-Sentinel and their Editorial Board and some of its columnists have done re Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law, in 2006, the first full year it was in effect, the Sun-Sentinel only mentioned it in a news article or column... ONCE.
Really.

Not 20 times not a dozen times, not even a half-dozen times.
They mentioned it a grad total of once -on December 10th, 2006, the 50th week of the year,
Yes, that's really quite a testimony to their public concern!

2.) Also, not mentioned above in today's editorial is the residency requirement scandal dogging Broward County Comm. Dale Holness, whose ethical situation is just as egregious as the five state legislators.
To many Broward voters, especially the ones who are represented by him, the ethical cloud over Holness is actually more in-your-face to the public and voters, since he's easier to monitor if Broward State's Attorney Mike Satz  and his Public Corruption unit were actually so inclined.
But they aren't inclined to actually investigate, are they?

Where have you seen any mention of Satz's name and office in any of the recent reporting or public discussion on any of this?
Where's CBS4 News and NBC-6 News and & 7 News and the Miami Herald in any of this?
They're ALL missing-in-action, just like the South Florida Sun-Sentinel Editorial Board has been all these years, sitting on the sidelines while hundreds of thousands of Broward voters got the shaft.

3.) What is also, curiously, NOT mentioned above in the editorial, but important nonetheless for the most obvious reasons, though known to you if you received my prior email about this subject?
Oh, that's right, Sen. Jack Latvala is the Chairman of the Senate Ethics &Elections Comm.

How does the newspaper's Editorial Board NOT mention that at all?
Well, now maybe you can sense how truly myopic the paper's management and editors have been and are.
----

Links re residency requirements or Joe Gibbons' living situation


JULY 18, 2013
How is Broward County Democratic Party chair Mitch Caesar NOT like a Mother Bear? Unlike this video of a Mother Bear at Brooks Falls in Alaska protecting her young cubs, Caesar has NOT been seen publicly trying to save his six Dem legislators who may be (illegally) living outside the districts they're supposed to represent, and who may well get prosecuted for violating the FL Constitution: Joe Gibbons, Dale Holness, Jared Moskowitz. Hazelle Rogers, Maria Sachs, Perry Thurston; What was the greater societal good that Caesar thought was accomplished by them drawing a salary for a job that they may NOT have been legally qualified for?

JULY 12, 2013
More from Local10's Bob Norrman on the epidemic in Broward County of elected officials living outside districts they represent, contrary to the FL Constitution; FL state Senator Jack Latvala, Chair of Senate's Ethics & Elections Comm., will NOT tolerate this blatant corruption and wants investigations launched into these illegal actions right now!; And let's not forget FL state Rep. Joe Gibbons' strange views on raising a family -putting an elective office ABOVE living full-time with your own kids!

JULY 5, 2013
More on Broward County politicians' residency ruse: Is intentionally violating & evading the Florida Constitution 'the new normal' for ethical standards in the Sunshine State? Latest facts & chronology regarding at least 5 Florida legislators from Broward -and one Broward Commissioner- who DON'T live full-time in the districts they were elected to represent

JULY 2, 2013
Is Kristin Jacobs poised to become 'the last straw' and the cynical face for voters of the ever-expanding Broward candidate residency scandal? Yet MORE residency problems in Broward County per Media Tracker Florida: Jacobs wants to run for FL House 96 while living in House 93, even while convincing evidence suggests that at least 5 current members of the Broward Legislative Delegation may be knowingly breaking state law, practically daring Broward State's Attorney Mike Satz & Co. to actually do something; Videos by Local10 investigative reporter Bob Norman show he's NOT afraid to go after South Florida's unethical pols and ask the hard questions

MAY 29, 2013
Unexpected good news for supporters of Beam Furr's candidacy -look at all the "Usual Suspects" of Broward endorsing feckless, ineffectual, business-as-usual Joe Gibbons for County Commission. Gibbons, the pol who STILL can't answer basic questions about his real job, where he lives and why his life is SO VERY complicated, with a straight face. His job, his wife and his kids are ALL located elsewhere, so are the only things keeping him in Broward his own ego and ambition? How did such a mediocre pol get such lofty ideas about himself? Now THERE'S a question!; same as for Alexander Lewy now that you mention it

May 5, 2013
Calling all Carpetbaggers! Repeat after me, "Requirements, what residency requirements?" Carpetbaggers in South Florida have it easy compared to their cousins in Calif. due to the lack of serious reporters here, but in both places, carpetbagging and ethnic identity politics often go hand-in-hand; LA Times: "Does this man live in San Gabriel or not? A residency challenge prompts council members to hold their own hearing -with sworn witnesses- to decide if the No. 2 vote-getter should be seated"; Is that a preview of things to come in North Miami Beach, where a Miramar resident named Dargenson is running for NMB City Commission, and thinks she'll win -largely because she's Haitian-American?

JUNE 17, 2012
Today, on Father's Day, where are FL Rep. Joseph "Joe" Gibbons' children celebrating with him? Likely up in the Jacksonville area where they all live, NOT in Broward County where he pretends he lives full-time

March 9, 2012 
2012 Florida Legislature to end on Friday without EVER examining carpetbagger Joe Gibbons' faux residency -he's NOT a permanent Broward County resident anymore.

APRIL 21, 2011
Elaine de Valle's Political Cortadito blog channels Sherlock Holmes and catches the crook red-handed: FL Rep. Frank Artiles. Blogger 1, Lying Pol 0

Saturday, February 16, 2013

My fact-filled email to a Sun-Sentinel reporter sheds long-overdue light on the behavior of both Florida state Sen. Eleanor Sobel and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel's sloppy and incurious brand of journalism, and how both negatively affect Broward residents; After today, I give up on the Sun-Sentinel until the Tribune Co. sell it off to someone savvy enough to give beleaguered Broward residents the quality newspaper they deserve, not more of the same old unsatisfactory status quo that is so galling

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel's vending machine outside Hollywood City Hall

My fact-filled email to a Sun-Sentinel reporter sheds long-overdue light on the behavior of both Florida state Sen. Eleanor Sobel and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel's sloppy and incurious brand of journalism, and how both negatively affect Broward residents; After today, I give up on the Sun-Sentinel until the Tribune Co. sell it off to someone savvy enough to give beleaguered Broward residents the quality newspaper they deserve, not more of the same old unsatisfactory status quo that is so galling
What follows is a copy of an overdue email that I sent Friday afternoon to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

Specifically, Tallahassee-based reporter Kathleen Haughney, with cc's to Dana Barker, the Sun-Sentinel Broward metro editor, Rosemary Goudreau, their Editorial page editor, Douglas Lyons, senior editorial writer and columnist, and columnist Gary Stein.
Also receiving it was columnist Michael Mayo and reporter Susannah Bryan, who currently has Hallandale Beach and Hollywood as part of her beat.

I've been waiting, semi-patiently, since Tuesday afternoon to send it off, get it out of my system and finally cross it off of my long list of Draft emails that are going to be dropping around South Florida like little mini-explosions over the next few weeks.

Mostly, though, I waited to see if someone else in Broward County noticed any of the same curious and troubling things that I caught right away when I saw the article shortly after it went online Monday night.
As I fully expected, nope!

For those of you who know a little more about the history of the incidents that are discussed herein, it's my effort to convincingly connect a lot of the missing dots that I've not mentioned here on the blog previously over the past few years about the behavior and conduct of Florida state Senator Eleanor Sobel, the real way way the Broward County PBA tries to exert its influence politically in Hollywood, and adds yet more fuel -and specifics- to the roaring that is the insufferably poor job that the the Sun-Sentinel has been doing for many years in competently and FAIRLY covering Broward County education policy, local and state government and local and state politics.

Not that the Miami Herald has anything to brag about in any of this, either, since they've ben just as asleep at the wheel.

All matters of great concern to me and many of you that I've written about with lots of skepticism, anger and incredulity over the years when comparing what appeared in-print and online in the Sun-Sentinel, and what they should've been doing to get the true facts and context out about the reality of what has been going on in thsi area for many, many years, most of them bad.

Trust me, it was very liberating to do and my birthday gift to myself.

-----.

Per "Lawmakers criticize Hollywood for financial problems"


So, where to start with your article?

Hmm-m... I'll start with the most obvious mistake - lawmakers, as in plural.

Not due to you personally, obviously, but a problem all the same since the only lawmaker -singular- that you actually mention by name in your article is Eleanor Sobel, someone with a demonstrated history of NOT caring so much about what things cost, especially when she can try to use her influence to get them from taxpayers.
(See the bopttom of this post for the proof of that.)

You also never mention the name of the joint panel that heard the testimony, the nine-member Joint Legislative Auditing Committee, or mention or quote ANY of its members by name, even those from South Florida or Broward.
Sort of relevant, don't you think?

Especially in an article headlined mistakenly with the word lawmakers?

Three of the committee's nine members are from Broward or Miami-Dade -state Reps Daphne Campbell and Cynthia Stafford from Miami and state Senator Jeremy Ring of Northwest Broward- and yet somehow, for whatever reasons, you couldn't find them or an unbiased legislator to quote, just Sobel?
Sort of curious, don't you think?

But even more egregiously as far as the actual truth is concerned -and reader's understanding of the story- is the fact that you NEVER mention anywhere in your article that Eleanor Sobel is NOT even on that Joint Committee, despite your quoting her.

I already knew Sobel wasn't on it, and spent 25 minutes on the phone yesterday talking to the Committee's staff on how it is that Sobel came to be there in the room, let alone speak on the matter, but you just let readers assume she was allowed to be there as both the original complainant and a sort of pseudo-judge who got to ask questions of the very people she
complained about, which would strike most people as a clear conflict-of-interest.

And how is it, exactly, that you NEVER actually quote ANYONE who's an actual voting member of the Joint Legislative Auditing Committee that was holding the meeting?

Yes, that's more than a little curious, and God forbid you actually place a link in the article to the meeting's info pack given how little facts and context you actually provide

As for the context phase of the story, or rather the lack of it, you utterly fail to mention the salient fact that it was members of the Hollywood Police and Fire unions, past supporters of Sobel's, who were the two interest groups that were most adversely affected by the various financials moves the city had to make, however clumsily.

To this day, many of them still won't stop complaining and bitching about the overwhelming vote by Hollywood taxpayers against THEM, to show the two unions that notwithstanding whatever moves were made at City Hall, there was, in fact, a finite limit to the sense of entitlement that these employees were allowed to feel via Hollywood taxpayers' wallets and purses.

Which is precisely why Sobel brought the complaint forward in the first place -to carry their water and stay on their good side prior to last November's election

Nobody-but-nobody believes Eleanor Sobel genuinely cared one whit about any of that budget melodrama until she realized that there was a mutuality of interests between her and the unions before the election, and most well-informed people in Hollywood I know and respect would suggest that everything else being equal, it probably wasn't even originally her idea to file the complaint, but rather one "suggested" to her by a little bird.

You may think otherwise, of course, but one of the prevailing opinions about Sobel among well-informed citizens who are actually paying attention and hip to her past antics and practices is that Sobel is utterly without guile, besides not always being the brightest bulb, and totally transparent to a fare-thee-well.

But now that I think about it, "obvious" is probably a much-better description of her than "transparent," because Sobel was certainly anything but transparent or responsive when she was repeatedly asked by residents of SE Broward and news reporters to declare where all that mysterious "outside money" came from in her first FL Senate campaign in 2008, which proceeded to use it to malign, libel or otherwise bitch-slap anyone who ever looked at Eleanor Sobel so much as cross-eyed.

I knew as much in 2006 when I personally observed Sobel displaying her trademark gall by standing-up and trying to speak into a microphone before a Hallandale Beach City Commission meeting started, and because she's pals with Mayor Joy Cooper, she was allowed to make a partisan plug for herself at a govt. facility full of people gathered there to conduct govt. business -the meeting- to get signatures for a petition to get her name on the ballot without paying the S.O.E.

Not signatures for a charity for kids or pets or something else, but rather for herself.

Sobel then proceeded to ignore any notions of normal decorum while the City Commission meeting was going on when she worked the aisles to get signatures on her clipboard.
I just looked at her, aghast, when finally she got to me. 

This, of course, was back when Sobel pretended that she really, really cared about education and kids' futures and wanted to be on the Broward School Board.
It was common knowledge that she only wanted the School Board gig, a govt. job with little heavy lifting, while she waited for bombastic state Senator Steve Geller's term-limited seat to open.
And that's what it was, wasn't it?

After watching that exhibition of narcissism that night in HB, nothing she ever did or said afterwards surprised me

And seriously, tell me again why it is that more than three months after-the-fact, after the City of Hollywood has already taken Jeff Marano and the Broward PBA to court for breaking Hollywood's voter-approved campaign finance law, which the Broward PBA completely trampled in order to get its favored candidates elected, as if their illegal efforts were always their plan, and that any associated court costs, if any, were just the cost of doing businessthe South Florida Sun-Sentinel has still yet to mention this litigation even ONCEmuch less, reported on the latest activities?

Not even once.
No articles, no columns, nothing in the Broward Politics blog and certainly no editorials.
You call that journalism?

I hope that you and your colleagues at the newspaper can manage to be considerably more accurate with the facts and include more useful context the rest of 2013, and that your editors can better manage their self-evident biases, or else it's going to be a very, very long year for the Sun-Sentinel readers who have chosen to remain readers instead of bailing-out because of their continuing disappointment with the current state and direction of the newspaper.

By the way, since I'm sure you've noticed, I've chosen to include other people in this cc, not because I think they care at all about hearing more about Sobelso much as the fact that some of them were (and continue to be) completely oblivious and complicit the last few years in not only self-evident factual screw-ups in the Sun-Sentinel regarding facts and context in stories and editorials regarding Southeast Broward, but about corruption, ethics violations and activities contrary to Florida's constitution in Hallandale Beach that should've appeared but NEVER did, despite their value to the general public.
The fact is that your paper has even endorsed one of the worst offenders.
Twice.

Despite my best efforts and taking the time and effort to educate them via email about the nature of those problems, those managers and editors have consciously avoided, ignored or acted oblivious to the facts-on-the-ground that citizens here could and can see with their own eyes.

Instead of being enterprising and rising to the occasion, the Sun-Sentinel collectively and those people individually, chose not to respond when it really mattered -or since.

Which is why I've consistently posted my fact-filled criticisms of the newspaper and them personally on my blog, so others would be just as well-informed about the facts and their identities as I am.


Today's email then is not directed at you individually, per se, so much as you just happen to be the very last straw after dozens of similar fact patterns, ones that don't seem intent on presenting the whole story to residents of this area who want all the facts.

I've been consistent about wanting facts, context and honesty to matter even while your newspaper continues showing a type of consistency of a completely different sort, and one that is chasing its few remaining readers away.

At this point, in my opinion, the best thing that can happen for concerned residents of Broward is for the Tribune Company to sell the Sun-Sentinel to a group led by someone smart and savvy enough to know that the only way that the paper can ever hope to make any money and be truly relevant and of value to readers in the future is by giving intelligent readers more of what they want.

Someone who will cut out the saturation of fluff and dead stories that makes people so reluctant to buy the paper because they think the whole thing can be read in less than five minutes.

Readers want more in-depth stories on local government and agencies, more/better reporters who are genuinely curious and self-motivated, don't take things for granted and who actually hustle to create a broad array of resources in the community to turn to and quote, instead of relying on the same old familiar cadre of suspects making the same old blandishments.

Clear-cut the deadwood that doesn't seem to aspire to more than banal, and who perpetually want to be begged to show-up to cover the news, and then, seem to want the public to be grateful if they DO show-up.

Since that isn't going to happen in the next few months, I'm going to make things much easier for myself and simply pull the plug on the Sun-Sentinel and give up on thinking there's any logical reason for me or any of my well-informed, civic-minded friends to contact anyone there about anything at all, when it's like spitting into the wind.

I'll start on that later today by posting this on my blog, sending links to it to the circle of people I know locally and around the state who've come to trust my judgment from experience, and then, I'll start deleting every single Tribune/Sun-Sentinel email address I have on my computer.
(So, there's no point in you or anyone in that cc field responding to this, since it'll just go straight to spam. It's a little late to be concerned now.)

After all, you can't wake people up who are pretending to be asleep, and I and so many people I know who wanted this city and that paper to be much-better than they are, are tired of pretending that anything we say or do is going to change things at the Sun-Sentinel  until that new owner eventually comes in and starts making BIG changes in personnel and employee attitudes.

-----
InspectorGeneral
Jan 30


to me

Your email  has been received by the Broward Office of the Inspector General.  Your information will be reviewed to determine what action will be taken.

Description: Description: cid:image001.png@01CDA55F.DF5CA7C0

Sincerely,


Broward Office of the Inspector General
-----

Cathy Swanson-Rivenbark
Jan 30

Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I was not aware of the material.  I will address it immediately and I will also put a protocol in place to prevent it from happening again.  Regards, Cathy Swanson-Rivenbark

From: David B. Smith
Sent: Wednesday, January 30, 2013 2:33 PM
To: Cathy Swanson-Rivenbark
Cc: John W. Scott; Bryan, Susannah
Subject: Please try to do a better job in 2013 of preventing partisan political material from being left in the public lobby outside the City Comm. Chambers -for months at a time
-----

Please try to do a better job in 2013 of preventing partisan political material from being left in the public lobby outside the City Comm. Chambers -for months at a time

David B. Smith
Jan 30 

to Cathy
Dear City Manager:

Please do a better job in 2013 than in 2012 of preventing overtly partisan
political material from being left in the public lobby outside the City Clerk's
office and outside the City Comm. Chambers -for MONTHS at a time.

The offenders are State Sen. Eleanor Sobel and state Rep. Elaine Schwartz,
who already have a district office that's just steps from Hollywood City Hall.
One that in the case of Sen. Sobel, was actually subsidized by Hollywood
taxpayers a few years ago as I recall from having been present at the City
Commission meeting where it was approved.

It still remains unclear to me why that was such a great deal for Hollywood
taxpayers, rather than Sen. Sobel actually paying rent out of her legislative
account for a space at one of the many empty storefronts along Hollywood
Blvd. between City Hall and Young Circle.
She'd certainly have plenty to choose from.

Sobel and Schwartz or perhaps their pals and "helpers" would do well to
NOT keep bringing over copies of articles that mention them by name and
leaving those copies in very conspicuous locations in the public lobby.
(It's not fooling anyone.)

Even worse, leaving copies of articles that support the position in Tallahassee
of interest groups who are well-known campaign contributors of Sen. Sobel,
like various medical associations, to say nothing of copies of actual political
endorsements of them. 
It's all a little too frequent and too coincidental not to be an actual plan.
A self-defeating plan as it turns out.

Last week, upon visiting the second floor to look at the Sunshine Board
outside the City Clerk's office for some information about some upcoming
public meetings, for about the 12th time in the past six months -though 
it's probably much more- I saw overtly pro-Schwartz and pro-Sobel 
materials carefully placed in the public lobby where they couldn't possibly
be missed. 

While it may not be unethical, per se, it's both tacky and unprofessional
and makes it seem like the city is just winking at this overtly partisan
behavior.

I could have sent this to you a year ago and it would have been just as true.
I apologize for not having done so then, but the problem remains...