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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What's THE worst possible thing you can do during an active search for a 'missing person'? Another tale of HB incompetency under Police Chief Magill

The following is from an email that was sent out to dozens of concerned citizens of Southeast Broward County and to selected members of the South Florida news media.

-----Just wanted to let you know that I'm in the final steps of finishing up an important post that I will be emailing you on Saturday morning -and subsequently posting to my blog- that you will find of particularly compelling interest and gravity regarding the Hallandale Beach Police Dept.I'm currently double-checking some of the dozens of photos I have and sequencing them to better tell the tale I have to share.

I believe that when you read it, you will be just be as shocked and indignant as I was when I first came to realize that this particular "situation" was being handled in the completely unprofessional way it was.
Sadly, it's just the latest all-too-true story in this city that badly needs people in charge more devoted to public service than self-service and cronyism.

I say indignant for a reason, because what has actually happened here, after-the-fact, to someone who lives in this community, could just as easily happen to you or someone you care for.

It's a post that I wish i wasn't having to write, but circumstances dictate that someone in this community publicly reveal something that's been flying under-the-radar for weeks, and since nobody else has stepped-up to the plate, I'm the one who's going to take my swings -and believe me, I fully intend on connecting.

If you can possibly manage it, please make plans to be present at the Hallandale Beach City Commission meeting next Wednesday morning, July 7th, at 10 a.m. for Public Comments, and be sure to bring what I'm sure will be your growing sense of outrage, too.
You won't regret it, but you do need to be heard, too.

You see, unless something quite unexpected transpires in the next few days, after years and years of unacceptable behavior and performance, and Mayor Cooper and the HB City Commission completely ignoring the self-evident facts in front of them, there's finally going to be some public accountability and reckoning for this community's beleaguered citizens for the unethical actions, criminal behavior and unsound policies of Hallandale Beach Police Chief Thomas Magill.

When you connect-the-dots on his past indefensible actions, which I have a few newspaper articles below to refresh your memories, and add them to the latest bit of information I'll have to share with you, perhaps you will now finally agree with me that it's long past time for mendacious and intentionally deceitful Thomas Magill to hit the road for good -and NOT look back.

Magill's longstanding willingness to intentionally mislead and lie to the public -as well as and our elected representatives who are legally responsible for providing oversight- without breaking a sweat, as I personally witnessed two weeks ago, only makes his documented corruption and incompetency more galling.

Not that any of this has ever bothered Mayor Cooper or former HB City Manager Mike Good, though, since they have NEVER once held a PUBLIC forum or meeting to discuss any aspect of his behavior, conduct or management over the years.

There's a very good reason why Magill was re-hired at a City Commission meeting without it ever appearing on the public agenda, in a second-floor City Hall room without TV cameras to record the proceedings.

As I've said so often, that's not by accident, that's the way that Cooper and Good planned it. Oh, and did I mention that I'm finally going to get FDLE involved in the Magill picture, too? You bet I am!
The more the merrier.

What better way to connect-the-dots on Magill and the HB Police Dept. that far too frequently plays the role of mean-spirited Keystone Kops, than to have FDLE finally have to get off-the-dime and either do something tangible in the way of a formal investigation of him, or, quit their bluffing.

One way or the other, though, they're going to have to do something, because things are changing in this city and the incompetent and corrupt who've long held sway at HB City Hall -and their minions- can no longer brazenly dare the community to stop them from their misdeeds or foolish policy follies.

You and I are calling their bluff and raising the stakes, and we are pushing back -HARD!

I will give you this hint about Saturday's email, though:
What's THE worst possible thing you can do during an active search for a 'missing person'?
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In case you forgot what Thomas Magill was all about -he tried to frame two innocent people and used taxpayer dollars to do it- or how poorly the story about the settlement was covered, let's go back into the South Beach Hoosier Time Machine.

Also, when is the Sun-Sentinel going to finally admit that they were "had" in their foolish rush-to-judgment editorial?
Four years and nine months and counting...

I hardly need to mention that the Herald has NEVER written a single story about the settlement, which ran on the front page of the Local section of the Sun-Sentinel.

_______________

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-flbhallandale0128sbjan28,0,2207842.story

South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Hallandale to pay to settle one of two former police officers' lawsuits
By John Holland
January 28, 2008

HALLANDALE BEACH - City commissioners have agreed to pay more than $100,000 to settle a lawsuit alleging Police Chief Thomas Magill falsified evidence, a city board held an illegal meeting and detectives persuaded a felon to lie under oath about a fellow officer.

Mayor Joe Cooper and attorney Alberto Milian, who represents former Hallandale Beach

Police Officer Talous Cirilo, confirmed the city's settlement with Cirilo but would not comment further, citing a confidentiality agreement. However, Cooper said the payment was more than $100,000, including attorney fees.

"I'd love to talk about this and tell people what happened, but unfortunately I can't," Cooper said.

Magill referred questions to City Attorney David Jove, who could not be reached for comment.

The settlement comes less than two months after Cirilo filed two lawsuits against the city, alleging wrongdoing in the department and City Hall. Hallandale officials fired Cirilo, alleging excessive use of force, even though a jury acquitted him on battery charges.

Cooper said the secrecy is warranted because a separate lawsuit, filed in federal court by former acting Police Sgt. Mary Hagopian, has not been settled. She promised to speak about the settlement at a later date "if I'm allowed to."

Magill and City Manager Mike Good fired the officers two years ago after prosecutors charged them with misdemeanor battery on prisoner Michael Brack. Early on April 1, 2005, Brack beat his brother as they fought in a moving car, then attacked officers who tried to intervene, according to arrest records and police reports.

Months after the arrest, a civilian employee said Cirilo choked and used a Taser device excessively on Brack.

More than a year later, the State Attorney's Office charged Cirilo with three misdemeanor battery counts. Hagopian was charged with a misdemeanor for using the stun gun on Brack as he struggled with officers in a jail holding area.

Defense lawyers said Magill orchestrated the charges as part of a vendetta against Hagopian and to show his bosses at City Hall he was a disciplinarian. Testimony at trial showed police employees mishandled two key pieces of evidence - a video surveillance tape and software from the Taser - distorting the confrontation between the officers and Brack, defense lawyers argued.

Prosecutors tried the officers separately, but jurors reached the same conclusion, acquitting them after about 15 minutes of deliberation.

After the acquittals, the officers tried to get their jobs back, but Magill and city officials refused.

In one of the lawsuits, Milian accused the city civil service board of holding an illegal meeting outside City Hall on Oct. 9, 2007, one week before a scheduled hearing on the reinstatement.

Florida law mandates that all meetings be advertised and prohibits public officials from meeting out of the public eye or discussing cases with each other. At least six board members met and discussed the meeting in a "knowing violation" of the law, according to the lawsuit.

Good, the city manager, could not be reached for comment.

Hagopian, a 15-year veteran, and Cirilo, on the force for five years, hired different lawyers and filed in different jurisdictions but made the same argument: Magill pressured his internal affairs officers and detectives to manipulate evidence and coerce false statements out of Brack so he could fire the officers and enhance his image as a reformer.

Magill used public money to have officers track down Brack on a Louisiana oil barge, where he ended up after leaving Broward County and forfeiting his bail, both lawsuits assert.

The State Attorney's office dropped all the assault charges against Brack, including the attack on his brother, then used him to testify against the officers.

The chief temporarily assigned several officers to internal affairs without any training, for the sole purpose of building a false case against the officers, Hagopian's lawyer Rhea Grossman said in court papers.

Magill sparked criminal charges against Hagopian "by preparing directly or at his direction police reports containing false or misleading information," Grossman wrote. Both lawsuits contend Magill elicited false testimony and compiled misleading evidence that he took directly to prosecutors.

U.S. District Judge William J. Zloch tossed out four counts last month, saying they belong in state court. He refused to dismiss two others, including one alleging Magill presented false information to prosecutors so Hagopian would be arrested. Zloch also let stand a charge that the city had a policy of not training internal affairs officers that, Hagopian argued, "encourages fabricated evidence for the sole purpose of allowing the whims of its police chief to terminate employees."

Milian said last week that the jury's quick acquittals proved the charges were bogus.

"This case was an abomination from the very beginning, and good officers were hurt," Milian said. "It could ultimately have a chilling effect on officers who want to protect themselves and their colleagues but are afraid because they could get in the same type of situation."

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Miami Herald
QUICK VERDICT EXPOSES CASE FOR WHAT IT IS

By Fred Grimm
November 14, 2006

The prosecution's battery case against Talous Cirilo can be measured in minutes. A Broward County jury deliberated 24 minutes Monday before acquitting the former Hallandale Beach cop.

That was fast. But in June, a jury took only 14 minutes to reject the charges against Cirilo's codefendant and fellow cop Mary Hagopian.

No one was surprised by either verdict.

The battery cases against the two officers had been built around the complaint of a bail-jumping, coked-out, drunken brawler who had been busted earlier that evening for pummeling his own brother.

The misdemeanor charges had been filed with a stunning lack of corroborating evidence. No medical evidence. No photographs.

Weeks ago, the judge had tossed out an indiscernible mess of a videotape that supposedly captured the incident.

The only mystery lingering over the case against Talous Cirilo is why, of all the allegations of police brutality tossed around Broward County, the state attorney's office chose to pursue one so empty.

``I don't know what's going on over at the state attorney's office,'' said Dick Brickman, the president of the Broward Police Benevolent Association. He said other cops around the county must now worry that, for a little political juice, the state attorney's office would pursue even the flimsiest of complaints.

AWFUL CASE

This case was very flimsy. On April 1, 2005, a Louisiana drifter named Michael Brack, admittedly drunk and coked up, had been involved in brawl at a strip club, fled that fight, then had turned on his own brother in the back seat of a moving car. The attack was so violent that the rear window of the car was kicked out.

Hallandale Beach cops pulled the car over, arrested Brack for battery and resisting arrest with violence. He continued his nasty behavior, spitting and yelling, at the Hallandale Beach Police Department as Cirilo and Hagopian tried to book him.

Then, Brack claimed, he was choked, kicked, his head knocked to the floor and he was subjected to unwarranted Taser shocks.

Even though Brack miraculously was spared scratches, bruises or injury in his ordeal, prosecutors took him at his word - when they finally tracked him down.

Brack had jumped bail and was a fugitive until prosecutors agreed to drop charges against him if he testified.

An internal investigation by the Hallandale Beach Police Department also came up with a community service aide who said she saw Cirilo choke Brack. But her credibility was hurt by a very lousy work record, including insubordination and refusal to obey orders. And her details clashed with some of Brack's.

That was it. The extent of the prosecution's case.

``It was an awful investigation. It was a rush to judgment. I think the jury verdict bore that out,'' said Alberto Milian, Cirilo's lawyer. Milian blamed the prosecution of the two cops on political pressure out of Hallandale Beach City Hall.

COPS UPSET

Talk about politics and ambition trumping justice circulated among the cadre of Hallandale Beach cops attending the trial Monday. The quick verdict only seemed to validate those theories.

``This case should never, never have been brought to trial,'' Milian said. The lawyer said the June trial against Hagopian and the subsequent lightning verdict had exposed the case for what it was. Or wasn't.

Yet the prosecution brought back Michael Brack for a reprise last week and he was so combative and disagreeable that it was a wonder that jurors didn't pelt him with their shoes. ``You don't have to like him,'' prosecutor Catherine Maus told the jurors Monday, trying desperately to rehabilitate her tarnished star witness. ``He is who he is.''

This case was what it was. And the jurors didn't have to like it.

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South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Editorial

ISSUE: Two police officers are fired amid accusations of Taser abuse

Sunday, December 11, 2005

Hallandale Beach City Manager Mike Good has provided an object lesson for other agencies on how to handle the controversy over the use of Taser stun guns by police officers. He fired two cops accused of repeatedly using Tasers on a man who was already under arrest, handcuffed and in a holding cell.

That's an apparent misuse of stun guns, which should be employed only when there is no safer way to subdue a suspect. In this case, though, one of the officers is also accused of choking the suspect into unconsciousness, a sign that this may have been a simple case of police brutality in which the Taser was merely one of the tools of abuse.

Both officers have been charged with misdemeanor battery by the Broward County State Attorney's Office. That prompted their attorney to complain, incredibly, that a thorough investigation had not been done and that she's "not aware of any other state attorneys' offices that charge cops for doing their job."

Maybe she should open her eyes and look around. Police who abuse their authority get charged with crimes quite often. Is brutalizing prisoners her idea of police just doing their job?

Officials say these cops were trained in the use of Tasers, which, when used properly, are a valuable alternative to lethal police service weapons. They should have known they'd be crossing a line if they used Tasers on a confined and handcuffed prisoner.

The officers will have a chance to challenge their dismissals. Whatever the outcome, Good has set a standard that other South Florida agencies should adopt, if they haven't already. Tasers should be used sparingly and only when necessary. Police should be fully trained in their use. And using Tasers as a means of brutalizing suspects shouldn't be tolerated.

BOTTOM LINE: This is the right approach to the controversy over Tasers: keep them in use, but punish officers who abuse them.

Public Records Requests: Comparing City of Hallandale Beach and FDLE

It explains a lot.

Just don't ask them why they seem to take so long processing

requests from citizens who are being fined by the city for

violations, and want copies of city documents to prove their

innocence or the city's inaccuracy or culpability.

My emphasis in italicized red

FDLE, Florida Department of Law Enforcement

http://www.fdle.state.fl.us/Content/getdoc/a9aa86a2-8981-4d42-a237-d470fef8ba4b/FDLEs_Guide_to_Public_Records_02_09.aspx

Is there a cost to obtain records?

There are costs to public records requests. FDLE does not waive costs for indigent requestors. Pursuant to Section 119.07(1)(a), Florida Statutes, FDLE may impose the following fees:

•Duplicated copies - 15 cents per one-sided copy

•All other copies - Actual cost of duplication of the record (cost of materials and supplies used to duplicate the record, not including labor cost or overhead cost associated with such duplication)

•Certification of a copied record - $1.00 per certified record

Can additional costs be assessed regarding a public records request?

Yes. Pursuant to Section 119.07(1)(b), Florida Statutes, if the nature or volume of the public records requested to be inspected, examined, or copied is such as to require extensive use of information technology resources or extensive clerical or supervisory assistance by personnel of FDLE, or both, a charge in addition to the actual cost of duplication will be assessed. Regarding labor costs, FDLE currently assesses a charge for personnel time at the hourly salary rate of personnel involved when clerical and/or supervisory assistance necessary to respond to a request exceeding two hours. No labor charge is assessed for up to and including two hours of clerical or supervisory personnel efforts. What is considered to “require extensive use of information technology resources or extensive clerical or supervisory assistance by personnel of FDLE, or both” is determined on the basis of the required response to each public records request. In general, the narrower, and more focused your public records request can be, the less likely that “extensive” costs will become a factor. Since FDLE cannot extend credit, FDLE will require a deposit to cover all or a substantial portion of the costs estimated under F.S. 119.07(1)(b) before it begins the “extensive use” of resources or personnel as used in the statute. If you have previously received public records but have not paid the costs associated with that response, FDLE will not provide records for subsequent requests until such time as the due amounts have been paid.

City of Hallandale Beach

http://www.hallandalebeachfl.gov/forms.aspx?fid=59

Black and White Single Sided $0.15 per page
Black and White Double Sided $0.20 per page
Color Single Sides $0.50 per page
Certified Copy of Records $1.00
Charges for items other than those listed shall be determined by the City Manager. Clerical and/or Supervisory time in excess of 15 minutes shall be charged the actual costs (hourly wage) including benefits (30%). If the request is less than 2 pages and takes minimal staff time to prepare there is no charge associated with the duplication or inspection of the request.