Time to end 'free ride' for the Broward Legislative Delegation on Broward taxpayers' back; they should pay ALL costs of an office few citizens know of

Below is a copy of an email that I sent Friday afternoon to Broward County Administrator Bertha Henry about a longstanding problem that I first noticed many months ago.

I also cc'd Broward County Commissioners Sue Gunzburger -who represent my part
of SE Broward on the Comm.- Barbara Sharief, Chip LaMarca and Florida State Senator Ellyn Bogdanoff of Fort Lauderdale, who in 2010, as a House member, was the Broward delegation's head, and who was a leader in the fight for stricter and more meaningful ethics legislation, as I have noted many times here previously.

Theoretically, I could have sent her the email at any point within the past four months and been just as correct as I was yesterday.
But a recent confluence of events: catching up on some noteworthy news articles I'd once seen and set aside to read again some day, plus, perhaps, some plain common sense kicking-in, had caused me to re-examine some public policy principles and look at them in a new light.

One of them concerned govt. officials who believe that it's perfectly reasonable for individuals who use certain govt. services not generally used by everyone else to pay their fair share.
Shouldn't that principle extend to the elected officials themselves?

Here. my logical conclusion is that if a service being provided by govt. is not available to other parties, it's only fair for elected officials who use it to pay for the true costs of the service themselves in proportion to some agreed-upon standard.

And yes, in case you were wondering, this is precisely the very problem that I alluded to earlier in the week in my post about the Florida House voting to repeal the red-light camera legislation they only approved just last year, and the nearly-invisible support for Broward County taxpayers by the Broward legislative delegation


May 6th, 2011

Dear Ms. Henry:

Problems continue to exist on the website of the taxpayer-supported
Broward Legislative Delegation Office.
http://www.broward.org/legislative/Pages/Default.aspx

To cite but the two most obvious ones, the pdf map used to show the
individual House and Senate districts have the names of some FORMER
members listed, NOT the current ones, for instance, Ellyn Bogdanoff,
David Rivera and Jeff Atwater are still listed.

http://www.broward.org/Legislative/Documents/housedist.pdf
http://www.broward.org/Legislative/Documents/senatedist.pdf

Is it really too much to ask that it actually be current, accurate and
meaningful for Broward taxpayers?
I mean seriously, today is, supposedly, the last day of the 2011 session.
Shouldn't the info have been accurate BEFORE the session ever started?
It's worse than embarrassing.

Given the current state of the public purse in Broward County, perhaps
there needs to be a change instituted, wherein that particular office
is paid for DIRECTLY out of the individual legislative member's office
accounts, rather than through the wallets and purses of Broward
taxpayers.

My experience the past few years is that despite what it may say on
the website, the office seems to exist almost exclusively for the
professional benefit of the individual legislative members and NOT
the Broward public it's supposed to represent and benefit.

In what TANGIBLE ways do the people of Broward actually benefit?
Instead, it seems like an abstract, unfunded mandate from Tallahassee.

I make my suggestion for the most obvious reason: if the individual
legislative delegation members were forced to pay for it themselves,
they'd have more incentive to actually make sure that it was accurate,
timely, professional and actually worthwhile to the public, but because
it isn't, it's exactly what it looks like right now -completely useless.
In this case, a self-evident useless mess that costs money.

I defy you to find any current relevant information on the site
at all.
In fact, I'd be very interested in knowing exactly when the last
two additions to the site were actually even made.
From the looks of things, my own guess is that it'd be sometime
between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

I look forward to your response, Ms. Henry.

--
Despite it being a Friday, to her great credit, Ms. Henry quickly responded and wrote the following:

I have forwarded your email regarding the Legislative Delegation Office to its executive director, Sandy Harris. As to not having the information on the County’s website up to date, the appropriate staff will contact Ms. Harris to get corrected information.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

-------
I'll post whatever response I get, obviously, but the larger issue is NOT the incorrect names that are on the map but whether it's at all appropriate for Broward County taxpayers to be paying for a service that ONLY benefits state legislators.
I do not believe it is.

I don't want to do away with Ms. Harris' job, rather I simply want Broward legislators to pay ALL the costs associated with the office they currently have provided for their use, which includes her salary and benefits, whatever that happens to be.
An office that probably ought to be physically located elsewhere, don't you think, so that space in the Broward County Govt. HQ can actually be used for something that actually BENEFITS the Broward residents who own it?
Yes, the days of providing free or reduced office space should be over.

Under this new financial scenario, that will likely mean that some of the Broward legislators will have to make some hard choices about how they use their office accounts, and may well have to do without something they previously used.
So be it.
Join the crowd.

So as to this new "user fee," divide all the costs associated with that office -personnel, rent, equipment, office supplies, et al- by the number of people living in Broward based on the 2010 U.S. census.
Having now arrived at the cost to each citizen, multiply that number, X, by the number of Broward residents in that legislator's particular district, Y, and you arrives at the amount that legislator must pay, Z.

If they collectively want to spend more or less, fine, but as they're already using taxpayer funds in the first place, now, they'll have to take full financial responsibility for what level of service they want, and they will feel and bear the true cost directly.
No more using the Broward County taxpayer as the 24/7 ATM that's always loaded with cash.

Very simple.
As easy as X,Y, Z.

Ellyn Bogdanoff, savvy Florida State Senator, speaks to James A. "Jim" Scott of TrippScott on issues before the 2011 Legislature in Tallahassee

Above, Ellyn Bogdanoff, Florida State Senator (R-25) speaks to James A. "Jim" Scott, former Broward County Commissioner -and Chairman of the TrippScott law firm of Fort Lauderdale- on her expectations for the 2011 legislative session in Tallahassee.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAt4yJKsbVw

Ellyn Bogdanoff was elected to the forty-member Florida State Senate last year from Senate District 25, which starts to the south in Fort Lauderdale -which she represented for six years in the Florida House- and goes north into Palm Beach County. It was formerly represented by current State Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater, a former banking executive.

Bogdanoff Will Cut Waste in Government and Lower Taxes from Ellyn Bogdanoff on Vimeo.

Ellyn Bogdanoff for Senate 2010 commercial http://vimeo.com/15167627

Other videos of her talking about issues at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5oH8LUsgk4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPr0SOaKl7k

Bogdanff was mentioned frequently here on the blog last year for her very hard work to bring meaningful and responsive ethics legislation to government to Broward County, both at the county and municipal level, via an independent Inspector General, something that a lot of people talked about it, but that few actually did anything meaningful about.

Citations of Ellyn Bogdanoff here at HBB:
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/search?q=%22Bogdanoff%22
Bogdanoff was also mentioned in many posts here about ethics where I couldn't quite fit her rntire name into the "tags" category, but she's there!

But Bogdanoff, along with Democratic State Rep. Ari Porth, did most of the heavy-lifting in Broward County and Tallahassee to try to make it a reality, against the efforts of many Broward County Democrats serving in Tallahassee.

Many, apparently, see their pals in local City Halls as both political and financial allies, and to return the favor, weren't about to make it easier for Broward County citizens to get the overdue justice they deserve and drop a dime on the legislator's pals if they weren't actually following the letter and spirit of this state's laws.
They don't call it the 'culture of corruption' for nothing.

To watch some of the dis-interested and oblivious Broward Dems debate this issue in person last year, as I did, you'd think that Ethics was NOT a legitimate concern of either African-Americans or liberals or retirees or... anyone they knew or got campaign checks from. Nope, just Broward do-gooders like me and Charlotte Greenbarg and Sara Case and Patti Lynn...

From my perspective in the room last year, some state legislators, like Perry Thurston, Chris Smith and Dan Gelber, only seemed to make matters worse by their wasting time at the Broward Legislative Delegation meeting to score cheap political points and bark at Broward State's Attorney Michael Satz, rather than showing a genuine concern to help stop the rampant corruption and abuse of Sunshine Laws at Broward's thirty-something city halls, where my own city of Hallandale Beach has been among the worst offenders during the ten-year reign of Mayor Joy Cooper.
But then you already know that last point, don't you?

The incredibly feeble attendance of the South Florida press at the meeting, a sign of the times in Miami and Fort Lauderdale, only seemed to empower this sort of dysfunctional behavior, as the Dem legislators talked and talked until... what do you know, there was less time for the public to speak than was thought.
Among those who didn't get to speak -me.


Ellyn Bogdanoff is very smart, friendly and personally charming and as I said earlier, a very hard-worker. That she also greatly resembles a particularly dear friend of mine from IU, who was about the best judge of people I knew, and a great personal sounding-board for me, meant that I was already inclined to like her to begin with, even before I knew what she was doing to make tougher ethics legislation here not just a priority, but a reality.

She is also not someone to let other people screw with her just because she is so engaging, as the Miami Herald article from last year, below, makes clear. That's a quality I like and look for since I really hate both bullies and those who use parochial cronyism to thwart the great societal good.
(Needless to say, yet another reason why I constantly oppose the depredations of the Joy Cooper Rubber Stamp Crew at HB City Hall.)

That's especially the case when Bogdanoff was fighting for MUCH STRONGER ethics against someone who just wants a pork project to sail thru.

Now some of these qualities and her reluctance to let others dictate the success of bills she feels are important rub some people the wrong way, and while I don't agree with her on everything, of course, Bogdanoff is a person of enormous personal character.

I mean she fought for ethics here, the most politically-corrupt county in the entire state, where there was almost a brazenness among some pols before they were caught and convicted, so unlike some places in the country, this was not exactly every legislator's idea of a fun assignment.
But she did it anyway -and made a tangible positive difference.

And not that you asked, but I'd replace bland and ineffective U.S. Senator Bill Nelson with Ellyn Bogdanoff in a heartbeat.

Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/05/02/1608918/rep-ellyn-bogdanoff-a-formidable.html
Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff a formidable opponent
By Christina Silva and Robert Samuels Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau
May 2, 2010

Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff, nicknamed the "Angel of Death'' in the Florida House, has been a bill-slayer for six years, but she wasn't about to let legislation important to her die without a fight.

Convinced that Rep. Janet Long had persuaded the Senate to hold one of her bills hostage, Bogdanoff stormed into Long's office and delivered a tongue-lashing in front of a knot of lawmakers. Long, a Democrat from Seminole, filed a complaint with the speaker's office that claimed Bogdanoff had made "threats of harm and retaliation.''

Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale, said she was just doing her job.

"Here's the thing: I am who I am,'' Bogdanoff said. "And I've been extremely successful because of who I am. I get along with most people and I have a lot of friends. And, once in a while, you come across people that maybe lack self-confidence and are intimidated by you based on their own character and makeup, and I can't help that.''

The recent scuffle illustrates the occasional alpha-dog politics used to advance legislation behind both closed and open doors within the Florida Capitol, where decorum and regimen usually rule.

TAX BREAKS

In the House, Bogdanoff successfully negotiated more than $218 million in tax breaks and economic incentives designed to stimulate the Florida economy. She interrupted floor debate to denounce any potential amendments to her sweeping condo relief bill, agitating some in her delegation. The bill passed.

Meanwhile, to the surprise of many, she announced she had killed a bill that would have banned texting while driving, calling the legislation "intellectually dishonest.'' Senate Republicans unsuccessfully urged the House to rise against Bogdanoff and pass the bill.

"She can move mountains in Tallahassee,'' said Rep. Ari Porth, a Democrat from Coral Springs who counts Bogdanoff as an ally.

The fight with Long grew from Bogdanoff's refusal to schedule Long's bill to change the governance structure of the Pinellas Park Water Management District Authority. Bogdanoff said it was too controversial.

That prompted Long's cosponsor in the Senate, Seminole Republican Dennis Jones, to stall Bogdanoff's bill that sought to establish a Broward County inspector general. It was a top priority for Broward lawmakers who asked Bogdanoff to carry the bill because of her influence.

Bogdanoff said Long made their exchange seem more confrontational than it was and defended her actions: "To have political retribution on a bill that is extremely important to my community, that is also being cosponsored by two Democrats, is patently unfair.''

A former political consultant with long ties to the Republican Party, Bogdanoff quickly rose through the ranks after she was elected to the House by 12 votes in 2004 to finish the term of Rep. Connie Mack IV, who resigned to run for Congress.

She served as the majority whip from 2006 to 2008, where she rallied votes for Republican causes under former House Speaker Marco Rubio.

The moniker "Angel of Death'' was originally a joke, she said.

"Speaker Rubio was up there and said, 'You know it's a good day in the Florida Legislature when you haven't been visited by Ellyn Bogdanoff, better known as the `Angel of Death,' '' Bogdanoff recalled.

Bogdanoff remains a formidable opponent. She chairs the Finance and Tax Council and sits in the front row of the House, where she shares a jar of Jelly Bellys with her seatmate, Rep. Ron Reagan, R-Bradenton, the House's lieutenant speaker.

NSU LAW SCHOOL

The mother of three children, Bogdanoff graduated from Nova Southeastern University's law school when she was 43. Colleagues on both sides of the aisle call her smart, tenacious and sharp-tongued. They disagree, however, on whether those are admirable qualities.

"There are many times when she has reached across the aisle to work with Democrats and overall she has been very fair,'' said Rep. Marty Kiar, D-Davie. ``I have nothing negative to say about her.''

Minority Leader Franklin Sands, D-Weston, said his relationship with Bogdanoff has been tense since she vowed to kill a local earmark he pitched if he didn't withdraw his call for a recorded vote on a stem-cell measure. They were freshmen lawmakers at the time.

FEATHERS RUFFLED

"I told her I was the worst person in the world that she should be trying to threaten because I just didn't give a damn,'' Sands said. "I guess that says you always have to stand up to a bully; otherwise, they own you.''

Bogdanoff could soon be ruffling new feathers. She is running for the seat being vacated by Senate President Jeff Atwater, a North Palm Beach Republican running for chief financial officer. She has the support of incoming President Mike Haridopolos, the Florida Chamber of Commerce and U.S. Sen. John McCain, whom she backed in the 2008 presidential election.

She said some people inflame her temper for "entertainment.''

"They start pushing my buttons and watch me go,'' she said. "Even [House Budget Chief] David Rivera said one time, 'I love to watch people push your buttons, because you bite every time.' And that's what I have to stop. . . . I take the bait. Every time.''

FL State Sen. Ellyn Bogdanoff's official Member page:
http://www.flsenate.gov/senators/s25

-----

Below, a discussion on issues Ellyn Bogdanoff had last year -when she was still in the Florida House- with Ed Pozzuoli, President of TrippScott:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0P-0J2yZSP0

Is Mike Haridopolos' ethical case the exception or the rule in corrupt Tallahassee?; Joe Gibbons continues to skate on ethical black ice re residency

Last Sunday's editorial in the Scripps-owned Treasure Coast & Palm Beach newspaper on ethics in the Florida state legislature in Tallahassee -or rather the lack of same amongst some so-called leaders- could hardly be improved upon.

I had meant to reference it here sooner as it is that rare newspaper editorial that is hammer squarely hitting nail with both precision and a minimum of fuss. And while it was ostensibly about the efforts of Mike Haridopolos to evade the law, it is, of course, apocryphal for all the other members and the culture of corruption that flourishes in that town hard by the Georgia state line.

The longstanding lack of leadership on ethical and clean government issues by the vast majority of Florida state senators and representatives, Democrat and Republican, save an Ellyn Bogdanoff or Ari Porth, is really a leading indicator of the rather pedestrian character and sub-standard quality of the lawmakers in Florida, the country's fourth-largest state.

My seven years back here in Florida, after 15 spent in the Washington, D.C. area, has informed me that, not surprisingly, with size comes not more quality as we might hope, but rather more of the middling mediocrities, male and female, with parochial self-interest as their number one goal, running from hopelessly gerrymandered districts.
Where never is heard a discouraging word.

Who better to be the poster boy for that sorry lot of self-involved, under-achieving ethically-challenged ne'er do-wells than my very own Florida state representative, Joe Gibbons, the former do-nothing Hallandale Beach City Commissioner?

I seriously toyed with the notion of penning an ode to Gibbons in this space on Christmas Day, wondering where-oh-where he was spending the holiday with his wife and kids: where they live and she works, in Jacksonville, or where he, supposedly, lives, Hallandale Beach.

In case you'd forgotten about Joe Gibbons...
April 18, 2010
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

November 15, 2010
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! http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/do-you-recall-me-telling-you-months-ago.html

November 15, 2010
Bob Norman in The Daily Pulp blog
House Pro Tem Investigated for Homestead Fraud http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2010/11/joe_gibbons_investigated_homestead_fraud.php


But as indignant as I was, given the facts we already know with certainty, I didn't want to be cross in the blog on Christmas Day, and waste precious time and energy on someone whom I have so very little regard for, and who in another time and place would already be receiving calls from leaders in this community to either come clean on whether Gibbons actually lived where he claimed to live on his formal candidacy papers, as required by state law, or resign.

Instead, Gibbons continues to skate on thin black ice and the South Florida news media, save Bob Norman, continue to avert their eyes from what is right in front of them.

Why is everyone down here so deathly afraid of not only real competitive general elections, where issues matter, but in calling out politicians who have the gall and effrontery to actually fail the very low threshold that the state currently requires?

That quorum of mediocrity is why those FL state amendments that passed muster with the public in November, which made creating gerrymandered districts harder to draw in the future by these same ethically-conflicted legislators, a very important victory indeed.

Success that needs to be built upon in future elections and replicated at the local level.

Given the rather brazen and egregious acts and forms of self-dealing that seem to routinely go on in Tallahassee, often drawing nothing but blank stares, it's no wonder really that the vast majority of Sunshine State citizens regard every state legislator and staffer in Tallahassee as someone potentially on the make, with his or her hand extended waiting for a 'sweetener,' the only question being the amount.

This is made worse by their ridiculous high self-regard, and the outrageous sense of entitlement they possess, as if they were our betters, which they are not.
Sadly, this same unethical and anti-democratic sentiment is mirrored in most of the state's 67 county commissions, and many of their cities.

As if this was not enough of a burden for this state's citizenry to bear, it's made worse when some pols who were formerly thought to be on the right side of this ethical line-in-the-sand, begin to make noises and whine quite loudly amongst their friends in the chattering class and news media about the indignities they must bear when they are forbidden from so much as even taking a Mentos from a friend.
More on her and her new suffering soon.

-----
http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2010/dec/19/editorial-haridopolos-financial-disclosure-case/ Editorial
Haridopolos' financial disclosure case illustrates need to reform flawed system Editorial board
December 19, 2010

The coziness of it all makes the conscientious person want to scream.

Sadly, no one in the halls of power — in this case, the Florida Legislature — appears to be listening.

To wit, the complaint against Florida Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, was heard recently by the state Commission on Ethics.

Haridopolos had stated in an October news release: "I acknowledge mistakes made on my financial disclosure form from past years. None of these were intentional and once pointed out, I corrected the mistakes. I have filed amended disclosure forms with the necessary corrections."

These omissions amounted to tens of thousands of dollars in income and personal property Haridopolos failed to report on financial disclosure forms from 2004 to 2008.

The ethics commission heard the complaint but took no action other than to refer the complaint to the Senate Rules Committee — this, in large part, because the commission has no authority to impose penalties. This can only be done by lawmakers. But guess what. The Senate Rules Committee is chaired by Sen. John Thrasher, R-Jacksonsville — a Haridopolos appointee!

So which of the committee's options — do nothing, or recommend to the full Senate that Haridopolos be reprimanded or fined — do you think is forthcoming?

One thing is clear: The system currently in place to require financial disclosure by public officials, and to investigate and penalize alleged violations, is a joke.

What needs to change?

• Require public officials to type the information on their financial disclosure forms. Some forms completed by candidates and elected officials are handwritten and barely legible. The public shouldn't be left to guess at the meaning behind letters and words that are difficult, even impossible, to decipher.

• Provide basic instructions and guidelines for completing the forms properly. Explain to lawmakers what assets and liabilities are. For example, Haridopolos, who listed a $325,000 home as both an asset and a liability on his financial disclosure forms two years in a row, should know the outstanding mortgage on the home — not the home itself — is the liability. A simple explainer on the form might help.

• Require public officials to post all financial disclosure forms online. Now, to obtain a copy of a public official's financial disclosure form, the public must e-mail a request to the Florida Commission on Ethics (disclosure@leg.state.fl.us). The public deserves immediate, online access to these forms. Haridiopolos has championed putting the state budget online. The Legislature should do the same with financial disclosure statements. Even better, create a Web-based form that lawmakers have to fill out online. This would give them fewer excuses when they make errors.

• Give the ethics commission authority to impose penalties. Deferring this step to the Legislature makes a mockery of such investigations.

• Eliminate inconsistencies in Florida's financial disclosure laws. For example, state law contains the following catch-all provision: "A person may amend his or her full and public disclosure of financial interests to add to or modify the information reported on the form as originally filed at any time after filing the disclosure form." There is no accountability when a statute allows a public official to amend a filing "at any time."

• Make it a crime for a public official to knowingly fail to disclose a financial interest in legislation he or she votes for. While this isn't the case in the Haridopolos complaint, it remains an issue that merits prompt legislative action. Not surprisingly, a bill that would have made it a crime for lawmakers to knowingly fail to disclose a financial interest in legislation they vote for was rejected by the 2010 Legislature.

The solutions needed to reform Florida's feeble financial disclosure system are transparent. However, fixing the problem requires honest evaluation and self-scrutiny by the Legislature — and these qualities are in short supply in Tallahassee.

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More TCPalm opinon pieces at: http://www.tcpalm.com/news/opinion/

------

A few days earlier, The Florida Times-Union, based out of Jacksonville, published this spot-on editorial on the same subject.

http://jacksonville.com/opinion/editorials/2010-12-12/story/legislature-shoring-ethics
Legislature: Shoring up ethics
December 12, 2010 - 12:00am

NICE DEAL ... FOR THEM

- In most situations involving ethics violations in state and local government, the state ethics commission investigates and makes recommendations on penalties. The governor decides on the penalties.

- In the case of violations by state lawmakers, however, the ethics commission investigates, but it is ultimately state lawmakers who decide the penalties of their colleagues. The ethics commission is not allowed to even recommend penalties unless lawmakers ask them to do it.

Our take:
The Legislature shouldn't be deciding ethics penalties for its own members after commission investigations. Those conflicts and others could be avoided if penalties for lawmakers were up to the governor or a combination of the governor and state Cabinet.

The ethics case involving Florida Senate President Mike Haridopolos exposes a flaw in the ethics system that lawmakers should fix.

The fox's friends are guarding the henhouse.

It surfaced after Haridopolos admitted he failed to fully note details about property owned and business ties he was supposed to list on his required financial disclosure form, which applies to elected local and state officials at all levels of Florida government.

The disclosures are important because they can help the public spot potential conflicts of interest.

They are safeguards against corruption that help enhance public confidence - provided officials share the details as required.

A Vero Beach man filed a complaint with the Florida Commission on Ethics alleging Haridopolos didn't comply. The omissions included a $400,000 investment home in Mount Dora and the names of two clients who paid him more than $120,000 over a five-year-period.

Haridopolos acknowledged the mistakes to commission investigators and then filed amended disclosures.

The ethics commission accepted the investigation findings but has no legal ability to recommend a penalty to the state Legislature unless lawmakers ask.

So, by law, the matter went to the Senate Rules Committee for consideration.

It could do nothing or recommend a fine or reprimand to the full Senate for action. And that spotlights a big defect in the system.

As Senate president, Haridopolos is the guy who appoints the committees and their chairmen.
The henhouse effect

In this case, the committee chairman is Sen. John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, most recently the head of the Republican Party of Florida and a key Haridopolos ally and friend.

But the ally part would be true of just about anybody Haridopolos would appoint to the committee.

Plus, the committee is now asked to weigh in on an ethics case involving someone who can - at whim - kill any future piece of legislation the members might offer.

In other words, going against the boss in this case is yanking hard on Superman's cape.

Haridopolos' attorney argues that embarrassment is enough of a penalty for his client, especially since Haridopolos admitted the mistakes and moved quickly to correct them.

But that misses the broader point.

A conflict of interest should not be built into the system, but that is the case in the Legislature.

An ethics enforcement system needs the ability to enforce independently and should be beyond the direct influence of anyone who is subject to a decision, whether it be the Senate president or a newly elected state lawmaker who has yet to find the restroom.

In fact, that's the way it works in most cases in state government.

For instance, the governor gets details from the ethics commission about problems with a sheriff and then decides, within the options outlined by law, what will happen - not a committee appointed by the sheriff.

Distance equals credibility If the complaint came in against the governor and the governor was in clear violation, the attorney general would ultimately decide what would happen, not some group the governor appointed that he could leverage or that depended on him for future success.

The governor would make the call on ethics penalties in most cases for the agriculture commissioner, attorney general or chief financial officer.

But state lawmakers get the privilege of deciding what will happen to their own - if anything at all.

Where's the impartiality?

It's like exempting themselves from full application of Florida's Government in the Sunshine Law.

Worse yet, the ethics commission - unlike with complaints against state and local constitutional officers - is barred by law from even recommending ethics penalties to lawmakers involving state lawmaker violations, unless state lawmakers request it.

In other words, the ethics commission is told, if lawmakers want your suggestions on penalties, they'll ask for them.

Adjustments needed

It's rare, though not impossible, for there to be an ethics finding by the commission against a Senate president or other legislative leader.

But infrequency is no reason to avoid upgrading the system.

The ethics commission should be able to recommend penalties about lawmaker violations like they can for everyone else.

But they should be directed to the governor or the state Cabinet for penalty consideration, not lawmakers themselves.

Should lawmakers be able to legally change that process by themselves, they should do it.

If, for some reason, it should require a state constitutional amendment, lawmakers should propose one.

If they won't, shame on them.

Then various citizens groups that advocate for strong ethics and more transparency in government should band together and seek a constitutional amendment as part of a broader move to strengthen the state ethics commission in general.

Having the foxes guard the henhouse never worked on the farm, and it isn't good for state government, either.

-----

Because I have the Florida Commission on Ethics as a daily Google Alert, I not only saw these editorials the day they came out, but also caught an excellent Dec. 17, 2010 Letter to the Editor of Florida Today, the Gannett-owned newspaper in Melbourne, FL, i.e. the Daytona Beach area for those of you reading this from out-of-state, on the sort of character of the attorney hired by incoming Florida State Senate President Mike Haridopolos when the evidence was overwhelmingly against him.
A petty one!

http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20101217/OPINION/101216030/1004/
Attorney’s comments were unprofessional

Attorney Pete Dunbar, who represented state Sen. Mike Haridopolos in a hearing earlier this month before the Florida Commission on Ethics, made inappropriate and caustic comments against Eugene Benson, a citizen who first noted Haridopolos had failed to report key financial information for the past five years.

Dunbar’s remarks leaves a sad mark on the legal profession.

Even though Haridopolos quickly admitted guilt, somehow Dunbar felt the only way to represent his client was to imply that Benson was the problem by stating, among other things, “Basically, what you’ve got here is a harassing complaint.”

Several other negative comments were also made by Dunbar.

Is this what our legal profession has sunk to, that even if your client admits guilt, someone else should be blamed?

Alan Zoellner
Merritt Island

See, people really are paying attention to what is going on in the Sunshine State.

Meanwhile. days earlier...

Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/12/04/1956721/senate-chiefs-mistakes-remain.html
Senate chief's mistakes remain an issue
By Marc Caputo Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau

Florida Senate President Mike Haridopolos admitted he made an "embarrassing'' mistake when he repeatedly failed to properly fill out financial disclosure forms.

On Friday, the Florida Commission on Ethics accepted Haridopolos' formal admission that he violated the state Constitution by neglecting to detail his investments, a $400,000 home and a consulting job that earned him $120,000 from 2004 through 2008.

But Haridopolos wasn't fined Friday. The commission can't do that under constitutional rules.
That job is up to Haridopolos' fellow senators. And they might not fine him at all.

Haridopolos' attorney, Pete Dunbar, said they shouldn't make him pay any more because the errors were minimal, unintentional and were corrected as soon as Haridopolos learned of them.

"He has paid enough. This is deeply embarrassing,'' Dunbar said Friday after the commission approved Haridopolos' acknowledgement of guilt. "This was a clerical error.''

But it's not going away.

Regardless of what penalty -- if any -- Haridopolos' Senate levies against its boss, the issue is sure to haunt him on the campaign trail.

POSSIBLE RUN

Haridopolos is already putting out feelers for a possible 2012 run for the U.S. Senate against Democrat Bill Nelson, putting the Merritt Island Republican on a crash course with fellow Republican U.S. Sen. George LeMieux. LeMieux's deputy staff chief, Vivian Myrtetus, sent out an electronic Twitter message Friday that linked to a blog with the headline, "Haridopolos guilty in ethics violation.''

Democrats also pounced. Shortly after the commission approved Haridopolos' settlement agreement, the Florida Democratic Party sent out a press release with the headline "Haridopolos Kicks Off 2012 Senate Campaign By Pleading Guilty To Breaking Ethics Laws.''

The ethics case against Haridopolos was brought by a sharp-eyed retiree, Vero Beach resident Eugene H. "Bucky'' Benson, who noticed that Haridopolos failed to write the addresses of his employers, the Legislature and the University of Florida. Benson also spotted discrepancies in the way Haridopolos reported income through MJH Consulting Company, which performed work for a public-relations firm called Syntax Communication and the marketing arm of an appliance company, Appliance Direct.

'BIGGEST FARCE'

In an e-mail to reporters, Benson groused that the ethics commission was "the biggest farce in the world. . . . The Florida Legislature snookered Florida taxpayers into thinking that it governs `in the sunshine' and the Ethics Commission is the taxpayer's watchdog.''

But Haridopolos said he's committed to transparency and open government, which he said is what mortified him about his mistakes. Also, he noted to ethics investigators, he's a college teacher and should've filled out the annual financial disclosure forms properly. He said that after he improperly filled out the forms in a matter of minutes the first time, he repeated his errors year after year.

"I thought I did it correctly,'' he told reporters last month. "I turned in the paper. No one turned it back with a red mark on it saying you did this wrong. And so for 10 years, I thought I did this right. My wife's not happy with me. My newspaper's not happy with me. And I'm not happy with me. It was a mistake.''

Other Florida stories at:
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/florida/index.html

Miami Herald's leadership foolishly ignores 1990 advice of its own respected columnist by pretending important news only happens in Miami. Nope!

My comments after the column exactly 20 years old this weekend, by Bill Braucher, the Miami Herald's Miami Dolphins beat columnist from the glory days of the early 1970's, and after some years in Cincinnati at the Post, a Broward County general columnist and editor for the Herald from the early 1980's-1991.

Now THERE was a guy who knew what he was talking about!

-------

Miami Herald
GROWTH'S SURPRISES ARE ONLY NATURAL
August 26, 1990
By Bill Braucher

Broward County is full of surprises.

Malls spring up where cattle grazed yesterday. Neighbors vanish overnight.

Construction detours keep motorists guessing, particularly commuting prisoners of the moonscape that is Interstate 95. Crawling in makeshift lanes under cranes and bulldozers, traffic hostages seem resigned to I-95 jackhammers grinding for their lifetimes.

In 11 years under the same Davie roof, qualifying me for pioneer status compared to the surrounding transition, I have had six sets of immediate neighbors and four dogs. I wake up to find them going or coming.

Even in the bedroom communities of West Broward, where families dominate, restlessness is evident. County records reflect homeowner changes involving about 25 percent of the population.

Once blessed by nominal taxes compared to assessments in Dade County, which many fled, Broward's relative newcomers face realities of rapid growth and the attendant need for government services. But they keep coming.

New home buyers in the sprawling community of Weston, where Broward meets the Everglades, got a big surprise this year. Their district taxes soared 600 percent, from $50 to about $300 on the average.

Poverty is no factor in Weston, an Arvida project of six- figure homes amid imported palms and well- trimmed greenery. Even the 7-Elevens look expensive.

Still, targets of the assessments were not amused. The increase had nothing to do with county or school or maintenance taxes inevitably rising with the population growth.

Rather, the Weston hike illustrated the free rein developers continue to enjoy, including pocketbook domination of Broward politics.

Weston's roads, sewers and lush ambience were products of the Indian Trace Community Development District, one of 14 county drainage districts operating like medieval fiefdoms with rules of their own and accountability to no government entity.

To accommodate developers draining the Everglades for communities like Weston, Indian Trace floated bonds.

When the bonds came due this year, homeowners were handed the tabs. They could hardly be blamed for resenting the costs hidden in their closing arrangements.

But they had no say in the matter, because members of drainage districts vote for board members by acres. Thus, Arvida cast 7,017 votes at last November's election for the undeveloped land the company still owns. Irwin Richmond, schoolteacher and Weston homeowner, came in with one vote for his acre.

Defenders of the environment are more concerned, not only with wetlands drainage but also with an overall county pattern of development at any cost. Broward is losing its natural surroundings.

The core of outnumbered environmental defenders is composed mostly of longtime residents who envision their surroundings in the rural perspective they once enjoyed, rather than urban sprawl the county has become -- 28 cities, road congestion that is apparently unmanageable during the winter tourist season, and a population spreading across the county's 1,211 square miles toward a 2 million count by the start of the next century. The projection seemed impossible only a dozen years ago.

From 1960 to 1970, Broward experienced an 85.7 percent growth rate. In the decade ending in 1980, the rate was 64.2 percent. About a third of those numbers were retirees, predominantly New Yorkers settling in condominiums that rose from the Atlantic shores to the Everglades in a building frenzy encouraged by tax-coveting politicians.

With the rates of growth came crime, the bulk of it related to the crack cocaine scourge and an overwhelmed criminal justice system.

The county recorded 115 slayings and 6,202 aggravated assaults last year. The jails are not large enough to hold the candidates, notably after Sheriff Nick Navarro conducts the periodic drug sweeps that have gained him national recognition. Navarro enjoys political clout rare for his office, perhaps unknown for a lawman since the Sheriff of Nottingham pursued Robin Hood.

Navarro's power is so visible that the Florida Legislature this year enacted a law enabling him to erect massive tents for his prisoner surplus.

He has appeared with Geraldo, and even made Ted Koppel's Nightline during a bizarre episode in June in which his deputies arrested two members of the rap band 2 Live Crew for expounding on below-the-belt lyrics at a Hollywood nightclub.

The Crew's output was deemed obscene, in an interpretation of a vague state statute that the defendants plan to continue contesting in the courts, presumably as long as the group's notoriety keeps selling records.

Navarro's action was abetted by an unprecedented judicial ruling that the band's efforts were indeed obscene. Sales of its album, As Nasty as They Wanna Be, were banned in Broward. Record-shop violators faced arrests, to both the amusement and indignation of liberals.

While Navarro takes criticism, the sheriff knows that his well-publicized actions are popular with a large segment of a populace seeing his office as a force against a drug-related criminal element undermining traditional values and moral integrity. Navarro gets elected by landslides, which seem to be his bottom line.

No more conservative faction exists than in Fort Lauderdale, the county's largest and best-known city. Ironically, the city gained national repute by catering for years to a college spring-break crowd dedicated to reckless abandon and beer-drinking bouts on the spacious beachfront, featured in the forgettable film, Where the Boys Are.

It took city commissioners several years, but they succeeded in discouraging the collegians while making a pitch for tourist families seeking a more wholesome environment.

George Hanbury, the new city manager, plans to speed a long-delayed proposal to spend $150 million on beach redevelopment. The new face would include a cluster of hotels, townhouses, retail shops and restaurants on 33 acres where the boys once romped.

In line with upscale planning, a $7.4 million Riverwalk project nears completion in midtown, and the Downtown Development Authority keeps trying amid an anti-tax sentiment to get a $9 million bond referendum approved in the interests of further sophistication through high rises.

An opposite trend seems afoot in Hollywood, where Mayor Mara Giulianti's development ambitions were dashed in a startling upset that put the conservative Sal Oliveri in the mayor's office in March, backed by an old-Hollywood faction calling itself People Against Concrete.

The city's veterans prefer to keep the small-town ambience of Young Circle as is, interrupting U.S. 1 traffic flow and complete with a bandshell evoking visions of The Music Man among the homeless park drifters and empty storefronts aggravating the progressive element.

The same caution is evident in addressing the future of Hollywood's spectacular stretch of beaches, the largest expanse of undeveloped sand in South Florida, particularly South Beach. Its easy ambience and tacky shops have proved magnets for swimmers, strollers and Canadian winter visitors welcomed by the Maple Leaf in addition to the Stars and Stripes adorning motels and restaurants.

Farther south, Gulfstream Park in Hallandale functions in winters as a hub of tourist activity. The racetrack's success has relegated Hialeah Park, once the queen of America's tracks, to the verge of oblivion. Gulfstream's brisk business reflects both tourist destinations and the shift of a more prosperous permanent population north to Broward's greener pastures.

If the pastures are deceiving to some, with taxes rising and jobs scarcer and the state's Growth Management Act curbing development while causing home prices to rise, a stranger would not suspect it.

As steadily as the disenchanted move out, they are replaced and augmented with such consistency that the county's documented population of 1.2 million may well top 1.5 by the time 1990 census tabulations are completed.

-----

How many times have I written here about the common knowledge in the year 2010 that as the physical, economic and political environment around you changes, you either have to adapt to them to remain relevant and compelling to consumers who have more choices than ever, or you fall by the wayside and become an embarrassing anachronism? Too many to count, right, especially in regard to South Florida?

Question: Who has done a worse job of keeping up with all the changes in Broward County than the Miami Herald, with David Landsberg as publisher, and South Florida local TV news operations that enjoy technology that makes their jobs easier than ever, but who can't be reliably counted-upon to show-up when real news is taking place?

Consider the following and add it to the equation.

South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Broward Politics blog
Change in media is altering the political game
By Anthony Man
August 27, 2010 09:45 AM

The dramatic changes in the news media are having an effect on the way politics is practiced.

It’s a profound change, said Jack Furnari of Boca Raton, a conservative activist who’s active in the Republican Party, serves as a political consultant for some candidates, and is a sometime-opinion journalist himself in the blogosphere.

“This [election] cycle is going to change the way a lot of campaigns are run,” Furnari said.

Read the rest of the post at: http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/broward/blog/2010/08/change_in_media_is_altering_th.html

-------


The Ellyn Bogdanoff-Carl Domino fight for the Florida State Senate 25 GOP nomination cited above is a very good example of a much-neglected media story, but so is local Miami TV stations almost completely ignoring the District 8 and District 9 Broward County Commission primary election campaigns.

I never once saw District 8's Barbara Sharief or District 9's Dale Holness on TV Tuesday night after they won.
In fact, I never saw Holness on TV before the election, either!

http://www.voteforbarbarasharief.com/Meet-Barbara-Sharief.aspx
http://www.daleholness.com/

I literally would not recognize his face or his voice if he walked up to me today.

So is that my fault or the South Florida news media's?

In any case, because of the demographics of this county, both candidates stand a great chance of being elected Broward County commissioners in nine weeks despite almost zero serious analysis or discussion of their professional qualifications or personal temperament, which is not exactly the way they taught civics in textbooks when I was growing up, to the extent it was taught at all.
But it is the current state of civics in South Florida.

Having been largely ignored by the South Florida news media and the Broward political flacks and operatives who roam around this county, especially the really condescending Queen Bees of these two groups, if they win, do you really imagine that there won't be consequences for those who were so over-the-top oblivious to what was going on right in front of them?
Yes, karma is a bitch that way, and revenge is a dish best served cold.

As was so ably articulated in one of the best episodes ever of Northern Exposure when Ed Chigliak was describing the ups-and-downs of success and the caste system in Hollywood:
"It's worse than dog eat dog. It's dog doesn't return other dog's phone calls."

There are a lot of you out there whose phone calls won't be returned in the future.
And you know who you are.

Will Lady Dracula, Ilene Lieberman, successfully suck the life out of Broward County's ethics/IG proposal for the benefit of her family and cronies?

2008 Royal Mail stamp of Hammer Films' Dracula, 1958.

This is a follow-up to my post of last Thursday, August 5, 2010
Broward County Comm. Ilene Lieberman is the creepy anti-ethics monster that just won't die. She's the 'Mummy' of Broward County!
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/broward-county-comm-ilene-lieberman-is.html

You know what they say, if a horror mask fits...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDTxHg7wyP0




After all the insider talk for a week about what's going to happen Tuesday afternoon on Andrews Avenue at the Broward County Commission meeting at 2 p.m., it's finally time for everyone who's anyone to stand up and be counted and be held publicly accountable.

If it was up to me, of course, I'd love to see a few local high-profile folks in particular show up and say what they personally think about the proposals, so that it's all out there for voters to see, since South Florida pols are notorious for ducking high-profile showdowns on issues like this, even the reformist candidates.

I'll leave it to you readers to figure out why I'd like to see them, but if you are a fairly regular visitor to this space, you probably already have a pretty good hunch why: Chris Smith, Steve Geller, Dan Gelber, Dave Aronberg, Kelly Skidmore, Ellyn Bogdanoff, Ari Porth.

Will any Hispanic or African-American Broward residents speak during public comments, whether high-profile or not? Hmm-m-m... that's a very good question.
Sadly, probably not.

Hey, isn't THAT a news story?
Yes, in other parts of the country, but here in polyglot South Florida, such politically and socially uncomfortable stories like THAT usually never see the light of day.

The afternoon agenda and back up documents are here:
http://205.166.161.204/agenda_publish.cfm?mt=ALL&get_month=8&get_year=2010&dsp=ag&seq=191#ReturnTo0

For those of you unable to get away to downtown Fort Lauderdale to watch the rhetoric and metaphors fly at the three-ring circus, you can watch it LIVE via the Internet but you must use Internet Explorer, as I learned the hard way last year, to my chagrin when using Firefox, with predictable results.
Why IE, I can't say, but that's the deal.
http://www.broward.org/video/

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http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/08/07/1766485/villains-of-ethics-reform-in-broward.html

Miami Herald
Villains of ethics reform in Broward dream up new strategy
By Fred Grimm
August 8, 2010

You've got to appreciate the brazen hand behind this latest attempt to eviscerate ethics reform in Broward County. Same way you watch, with perverse fascination, horror movie villains creeping back from oblivion to wreak more mayhem.

In June, a mighty burst of public outrage cowed the sinister forces behind a contrivance to kill reform. Rather than vote an ethics package up or down, the novel strategy would have shipped the proposed ordinance off to the black hole of judicial review, leaving it to languish until after the fall elections.

The notion dripped with contempt for public sentiment. As if commissioners could ignore the county's spate of scandals and indictments and guilty pleas. Or the federal and state investigators bumping into one another around county hall.

Just a few days before County Attorney Jeff Newton (on behalf of ethically conflicted Commissioner Ilene Lieberman) offered up the subterfuge, ousted commissioner Josephus Eggelletion was in state court to face sentencing on a bribery conviction. (Added atop his federal prison term.)

Such a howl went up across the county that Newton's proposal quickly disappeared, leaving the commission with a deadline and -- everyone assumed -- only two options. Either adopt the ordinance created by the Broward County Reform Commission, word for word, or the measure automatically would be placed on the fall ballot.

Not in this movie. Newton and the unseen hand (AKA Lieberman) have dreamed up yet another strategy to undo reform. Newton would have commissioners adopt the reform ordinance at Tuesday's meeting, keeping it away from the angry voters. Then commissioners would adopt a series of amendments designed to exempt the commissioners and their family members and county staffers from most of the new reforms.

Commissioner Suzanne Gunzburger characterized Newton's amendments as a "thinly veiled political attempt to kill ethics reform.''

Newton's so-called "glitch'' ordinance would allow commissioners to keep their seats on bid selection committees. They could still lobby other local governments. Their family members and staffers will not, after all, face strict limits on lobbying. The restrictions on lobbyists' gifts for family members would be gutted. And sitting commissioners would be exempt from certain ethical rules that would be applied to new, incoming commissioners.

"I was absolutely appalled, disgusted, fed up,'' said Broward Ethics Commissioner Robert Wolfe Jr, suffering from an unhappy sense of déjà vu. "We just went through this a couple months ago.''

The ethics commission had spent a year hammering out a package. Not as tough as some wanted. But adopted unanimously. All the while, Wolfe said, certain county politicians, some with profound conflicts of interest, worked behind the scenes to dilute the effort. Now comes this so-called glitch amendment. (Hardly more than a week after Broward Commissioner Diana Wasserman-Rubin was formally charged with seven counts of unlawful compensation.) "There's a culture here that just doesn't get it,'' said the frustrated Wolfe.

It's the sequel to Nightmare on Andrews Avenue. The same scary, sneaky creatures back from the murk, still determined to kill reform.

Reader comments at:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/08/07/1766485/villains-of-ethics-reform-in-broward.html?commentSort=TimeStampAscending&pageNum=1

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Robert Weschler picks up the ethics baton and carries it forward at his excellent blog at www.cityethics.org

Yet Another Underhanded Attempt to Water Down the Broward County Ethics Commission's New Ethics Code Fri, 2010-08-06 14:36
http://www.cityethics.org/content/yet-another-underhanded-attempt-water-down-broward-county-ethics-commissions-new-ethics-code

-----

South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Broward Politics blog
Broward County Attorney Newton denies effort to thwart ethics reform
By Brittany Wallman August 9, 2010 09:34 PM

Broward County Attorney Jeff Newton wrote a letter Monday defending his latest proposed changes to the Code of Ethics county commissioners will vote on Tuesday.

Read the rest of the post at:
http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/broward/blog/2010/08/broward_county_attorney_newton.html

Broward County Attorney Jeffrey J. Newton's letter to Miami Herald re Fred Grimm column here:
http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/broward/blog/BdCCResponsetoFredGrimmColumn080910.pdf

-----

This was the 2009 Broward Politics video interview with Bill Scherer on ethics in Broward County that I had on the blog for quite some time.
His comments still ring true!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsXY8oaABoA





See also:
http://www.royalmail.com/portal/stamps/content1?catId=32300674&mediaId=76000716
http://www.hammerfilms.com/news/uk-cult-classics-celebrated-on-royal-mail-stamps

To see the Royal Mail stamps commemorating the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games:
http://www.royalmail.com/portal/stamps/content1?catId=123500769&mediaId=126000848

Broward County Commissioner Stacy Ritter's indignant response to my post "Rearguard action against Broward County ethics proposals"

So imagine my surprise earlier tonight at hearing from Broward County Comm. Stacy Ritter out-of-the-blue -at bottom- after mentioning in my blog yesterday what some local news reporters have said on the record about the current fight over the Broward Ethics Commission's very sensible proposals.

Frankly, to be honest, compared to other things I've posted in the past, it was nothing terribly original on my part, per se, just connecting-the-dots a bit with some added facts I'd gleaned so that folks reading my blog would have some additional context for understanding the arguments and what was happening now.
Obviously, I also had my opinion on what was happening.http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/rearguard-action-against-broward-county.html

(But unlike Comm. Kristin Jacobs a few months ago, who had an indignant aide telephone me a few times because she was upset that I'd written that in the opinion of myself and many others South Florida transportation advocates, she was a poor choice for the Broward MPO, given her lack of attendance at ANY of the high-profile public transportation meetings that I and dozens of other transportation advocates had attended over the past 4-5 years, Comm. Ritter -apparently- contacted me herself.)

The thing that makes no sense to me -and perhaps will seem non-sensical to you as well- is why does Comm. Ritter think I should've contacted her directly before I linked to a news story about what State Rep. Ari Porth specifically said to the Sun-Sentinel'sBrittany Wallman?

I'm a reasonably skeptical person about almost everything I read or hear from the news media, but without any actual proof that Porth would have a reason to lie -and why would he, since he has nothing to gain from saying something that could be easily disproved?- why would I doubt what's written in Wallman's blog post, per se, especially since Rep. Porth has been entirely consistent about wanting stricter scrutiny of elected officials in Broward?

I saw Rep. Porth in person at the Broward Legislative Delegation meeting in January on the Ethics proposal, and he and Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff were singing from the same hymn book on much-stricter ethics and accountability.

January 26, 2010 photo by South Beach Hoosier

Above, crowds milling around before the Broward Legislative Delegation meeting of January 26th, at the Broward College HQ on East Las Olas Blvd., Fort Lauderdale, which met to discuss a bill creating an Inspector General to be an ethical bloodhound tracking Broward's many miscreant pols. 

That's Miami Herald reporter Amy Sherman on the far left wearing the red top and blue jeans.

Besides, it's not like I'm a fact-checker -at yes, The New Yorker- and nobody will ever read Wallman's story unless I give the okay about everything that's written.

I'm simply alerting people to what is being said about an issue of great importance, but I have no control over what was said or its truthfulness.

I wonder if Comm. Ritter is still angry about the public finding out via my email to Bob Norman of the Broward Palm Beach New Times a few months back about what she said about civic activist and Broward Coalition President Charlotte Greenbarg before the Broward Ethics Commission, one of the few meetings of theirs that I missed towards the end, where I was often the only member of the public present for the entire meeting? http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2010/01/monday_quick_takes.php


My own post on this was on January 23rd, Broward County Commissioner Stacy Ritter Unplugged on Ethics
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/broward-county-commissioner-stacy.html

Then again, I'm sure Ritter never paid much attention to that the same way that she and some of her colleagues never paid attention to a lot of things over the past few years, judging by the sad state of the county and the self-evident animus even formerly-apathetic residents have now for the county govt. and its myopic policies that far too often in retrospect appear to be shallow and self-serving in the extreme.

Above, January 26, 2010 photo of the Broward County Government Center in Fort Lauderdale, FL by South Beach Hoosier.

But then I'm so old-fashioned that way, since I don't personally believe that Broward County Commissioners should be able to get two bites of the same apple, serving on the Broward Planning Council and voting on a matter, and then voting on it AGAIN a few weeks later wearing their Commissioner hat, as Comm. Ritter did on the unpopular and controversial Diplomat LAC proposal in Hallandale Beach that Mayor Joy Cooper and the Hallandale Beach City Commission tried to cram down the throats of residents.
In that instance, the city only gave citizen taxpayers access to the Diplomat's already-filed public documents -and changes- via the city's website about 28 hours before the first vote of consequence, the city's P&Z Advisory Board. 
And the very next day, the HB City Commission voted 3-2 for the Diplomat.
A week before Christmas!
I consistently brought up the city's behavior before both the Planning Council and the County Commission to show the city's bad faith, an argument that apparently fell on deaf ears with Comm. Ritter, since I believe she voted for the development every single time.

While some civilian members of the Broward Planning Council who live some distance from HB were conscientious enough to actually visit the neighborhood to see what kind of negative
effect having four or five 25-30 story condos in what is largely now a single-family home and three-four story low-rise area would have, Comm. Ritter never bothered to see it for herself.
To be honest, based on how she's voted in the past, that's what my friends and I who worked so hard against the Diplomat plan expected -and she didn't disappoint.

I've deleted the Blogger comment email address below after Ritter's name so that I don't get any spam in the future, as I already get more than enough.
-----

For more on Broward County Comm. Stacy Ritter you may want to see previous Broward Palm Beach New Times stories and blog posts at
http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/related/to/Stacy+Ritter 
or you can see her bio on her official web page on the county's website at http://www.broward.org/stacyritter/

Also be sure to read Robert Wechsler's government ethics blog at
http://www.cityethics.org/Blog-RobWechsler

This particular post of his from last week deals with the subject at hand:
The Broward County Commission Should Not Be Challenging the Constitutionality of a Lobbying Provision http://www.cityethics.org/content/broward-county-commission-should-not-be-challenging-constitutionality-lobbying-provision

Also check-out and consider Bookmarking http://www.sunshinereview.org/ and http://sunshinereview.org/index.php/Florida and the Broward County page at http://sunshinereview.org/index.php/Broward_County,_Florida
And finally, this Broward Beat post from Monday the 21st,
Legislators Must Take Up Ethics Reform
By Buddy Nevins

Only one thing could unite the badly-divided Broward Legislative Delegation: Disgust with the Broward County Commission.

Legislators’ revulsion at the commission is understandable.Anybody with a sense of decency is sickened by commissioners maneuvering for 10 years to avoid ethics reform.

Read the rest of the post at:
http://www.browardbeat.com/legislators-must-take-up-ethics-reform/

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Stacy Ritter
Date: Mon, Jun 21, 2010 at 9:46 PM
Subject: [Hallandale Beach Blog] New comment on Rearguard action against Broward County ethics pro....

Stacy Ritter has left a new comment on your post "Rearguard action against Broward County ethics pro...":
60 days ago I said I would vote for the Broward County Ethics Commission proposal. Today, nothing has changed. I have proposed a Broward County Inspector General to be voted on by the commission in August. As for Rep. Porth's assertion that I lobbied against the bill - it isn't true. I do believe that Ari was used by Republicans, some in elections of their own, to make this a partisan issue. What better way for Republicans to point fingers at Democrats than to have a Democrat, unwittingly, do it for them?

I have invited anyone who has questions about my personal or professional life to call my office (954.357.7003) and either speak over the telephone or come into the office and chat. To date, no one has taken me up on that offer. I guess it's just easier to make allegations and spew vicious lies than to actually care about the truth. I don't know who writes this blog, but you never contacted me and asked me if what Rep. Porth allege is true, which it is not. Had you bothered to call or e-mail me and printed my response, you would have known that. I take offense at being accused of things I haven't done. No doubt you would feel the same.
S
tacy Ritter

Posted by Stacy Ritter to Hallandale Beach Blog at June 21, 2010 9:46 PM