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

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

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

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

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


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


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

http://www.floridaredistricting.org/

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

And the FairDistricts' mailing list?

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


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


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

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

How do I know?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

Upcoming Florida redistricting hearings in Broward & Miami-Dade Counties in mid-August; sadly, lack of local forums by civic groups is par for course

Scott Fortune - A Horribly Gerrymandered Congressional District

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2l4WUZ_lcE

What follows below are selected excerpts of an email I sent on Tuesday to someone who's deeply involved in the 2012 redistricting issue in Florida that's already well underway.

Perhaps it will give some of you on the sidelines some insight into what is -and isn't- happening right now, which, in my opinion, is not nearly enough.

As most of you who read this blog even fairly know, I was and am a very strong supporter of FairDistricts and voted FOR Amendments 5 and 6. http://fairdistrictsnow.org

Following that I have included here some helpful information I received late on Friday afternoon from Benjamin M. Fairbrother of the Florida House of Representatives Redistricting Comm. regarding the upcoming meetings.

To get you into the spirit of things, I'm reprising here two great videos by former congressional candidate Scott Fortune that I previously have used in the last two lengthy posts I had about redistricting, the first video of which is up at the top.

In 2010, Fortune ran in the Democratic primary against mendacious, mean-spirited and gerrymandered to a fair-thee-well Rep. Corrine Brown, one of the two current Florida congresspersons suing to keep things status quo in this state -FUBAR- so that they and their ilk can continue to avoid genuine accountability in congressional elections that are actually competitive, and with them, real discussion about issues, not repetition of talking points.

That much-discussed gerrymandered CD, FL-3, stretches from the Jacksonville area to north of Orlando, as you can see here.

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/findyourreps.xpd?state=FL&district=3

The reasons it looks that way are described here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida's_3rd_congressional_district

The odd size and irregular shapes of many Florida congressional districts -CDs- is a subject I wrote often (and frustrated) about last year, esp. FL-17, where I live, two miles east of the Atlantic Ocean in Broward County, repped by someone -Frederica Wilson- in a CD that has as its political center an area in another county, northwest of downtown Miami, that shares few of the everyday concerns that people in Hallandale Beach and Hollywood have.

Map: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/findyourreps.xpd?state=FL&district=17

Scott Fortune - Gerrymandering in Mt. Dora, Fla.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXpxdmU7s54

See Scott Fortune's other eye-opening videos on gerrymandering in Florida at:

http://www.youtube.com/user/ScottFortune4U

a.) October 25, 2010 New TV ad from FairDistrictsFlorida.org; FL-17 and Corrine Brown's FL-3 are embarrassing embodiment of what unchecked gerrymandering gets you

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/new-tv-ad-from-fairdistrictsfloridaorg.html

b.) June 14, 2011 Florida's 2012 redistricting meetings in South Florida are only two months away, so where are the competing maps? Or the pre-event info meetings?

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/floridas-2012-redistricting-meetings-in.html

-----

My excerpt starts with what was the second or third paragraph, after some general pleasantries:

Having grown-up down here before leaving for college at Indiana, I know full well how brutal August is for people living down here, A/C or no A/C, both in terms of the actual weather, latent concerns about hurricanes, plus, juggling vacations, kids camps, or even weddings or company outings or conventions.

Some people, maybe even most people, just want to do nothing in August except stay cool, keep their hurricane supplies handy and watch sports or catch a movie.

(I should know.)

I get that, really I do, still, I'm mystified that even in apathetic South Florida, where people with civic-minded natures are few-and-far-between, so many groups down here who, in my opinion ought to be filling-in the vacuum and showing some strong public interest in mobilizing their supporters or members in attending and actively participating in the upcoming meetings or something along the lines of what I'm suggesting in terms of an education outreach -so they can be exposed to various map scenarios- are NOT rising to the fore.

At least not to the point of actually announcing public plans for something tangible, and we're now just over two weeks away from those meetings.

If people don't know a week in advance, what's the point, since the percentage who can then attend is clearly much less than it could be?

Since I have a Google Alert for "redistricting," I see everything on redistricting, not just here in FL, but across the country for various govt. entities.

When you see what other communities are doing and how everyone down here is just snoozing...

Today's Sun-Sentinel finally had something decent, mentioning what the Broward League of Women Voters are doing on Saturday in Davie

http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/broward/blog/2011/08/voter_league_explains_why_peop_1.html

but again, where are the other groups?

That said, to be honest, I'm less than crazy that Davie is the site for Broward's one and only official redistricting meeting.

That is not at all centrally-located or even convenient to get to.

It's hard not to get the impression because of the reasons you and many others have so ably articulated in the past -foremost, lack of maps at the meetings- that many State Senators involved in the process are no doubt chuckling to themselves that they've created a scenario that is the ultimate win-win for them -the pretense of transparency with none of the messy details having to come up at the meetings.

And everything gets settled in Tallahassee.

------

From: MyDistrictBuilder
Date: Fri, Aug 5, 2011 at 4:50 PM
Subject: Email Update - Florida House Redistricting - August 5, 2011
To: MyDistrictBuilder

Florida House of Representatives – House Redistricting Committee

Redistricting Update – August 5, 2011

Location Change for the August 29 Tampa Redistricting Meeting

Due to expected attendance, the location for the August 29^th Florida redistricting meeting in Tampa has changed to: Jefferson High School Auditorium, 4401 Cypress Street, Tampa, Florida 33607. Jefferson High School has plenty of free parking, close proximity to a bus stop, and more seating than the original downtown location. We think it will be much more convenient for the public. Persons who pre-registered (RSVP) to attend/speak at the Tampa meeting will be receiving and email or letter that confirms the change of address.

Public Submissions of Redistricting Maps and Suggestions

Via www.floridaredistricting.org, you can access our Plan Explorer site to view, comment on and share redistricting suggestions submitted by Florida residents. The site highlights proposed maps for Florida’s State House, State Senate and congressional districts. Of the 23 maps submitted by Florida residents thus far, 20 were created with the Florida House’s MyDistrictBuilder^TM application. For your convenience, all 23 submissions received thus far are listed below, along with links to written suggestions that were submitted to the House.

· Plan 0023 – Partial plan for Congress, affecting Orange, Osceola and Polk counties

· Plan 0022 – Partial plan for Congress, affecting Lake, Marion and Sumter counties

· Plan 0021 – Partial plan for Congress, affecting Lake, Marion and Sumter counties

· Plan 0020 – Complete plan for Congress

· Plan 0019 – Complete plan for Congress

· Plan 0018 – Partial plan for the State House, affecting 34 North Florida counties

· Plan 0017 – Partial plan for Congress, affecting Orange, Osceola and Polk counties

· Plan 0016 – Partial plan for the State House, affecting Hernando, Hillsborough, Pasco, Pinellas and Sumter counties

· Plan 0015 – Partial plan for Congress, affecting Citrus, Lake, Orange and Sumter counties

· Plan 0014 – Partial plan for the State Senate, affecting Citrus, Lake and Sumter counties

· Plan 0013 – Partial plan for the State House, affecting Lake County

· Plan 0012 – Partial plan for the State House, affecting Orange, Seminole and Volusia counties

· Plan 0011 – Partial plan for the State House, affecting Lake County

· Plan 0010 – Partial plan for the State Senate, affecting Citrus, Lake, Orange and Sumter counties

· Plan 0009 – Partial plan for Congress, affecting Lake and Seminole counties

· Plan 0008 – Partial plan for Congress, affecting Lake, Orange and Sumter counties

· Plan 0007 – Complete plan for the State Senate

· Plan 0006 – Complete plan for Congress

· Plan 0005 – Complete plan for Congress

· Plan 0004 – Complete plan for Congress

· Plan 0003 – Complete plan for Congress

· Plan 0002 – Partial plan for the State House, affecting Brevard and Volusia counties

· Plan 0001 – Complete plan for Congress

· Written suggestions – Congress

· Written suggestions – State House

· Written suggestions – State Senate

Along with the feedback from the Legislature’s 26 public input meetings throughout Florida, these maps and written suggestions will constitute the starting point for redistricting when legislators return to Tallahassee in the fall of 2011 for committee meetings.

Upcoming Meetings

The complete Florida redistricting public meeting calendar (attached) can be found by visiting: http://www.floridaredistricting.org/. The remainder of public input meeting calendar includes meetings at the following locations:

· Stuart – August 15

· Boca Raton – August 16

· Davie – August 16

· Miami – August 17

· South Miami – August 17

· Key West – August 18

· Tampa – August 29

· Largo – August 30

· Sarasota – August 30

· Naples – August 31

· Lehigh Acres – August 31

· Clewiston – September 1

As always, if you have any questions or need additional information, please feel free to contact us.

Sincerely,

Benjamin M. Fairbrother

House Redistricting Committee

Florida House of Representatives

400 House Office Building

O: (850) 921-8831

www.floridaredistricting.org

Create and Submit Redistricting Plans with MyDistrictBuilder

MyDistrictBuilder^TM @ Facebook

MyDistrictBuilder^TM @ Twitter

MyDistrictBuilder^TM @ YouTube

Blog & Resources @ WordPress

Questions or Comments, email: mydistrictbuilder@myfloridahouse.gov

-----

Broward LWV's upcoming forum on Amendment 4, i.e. Hometown Democracy; Herald-Tribune: Managing growth a hot button topic

Yesterday, I wrote to the very-friendly
Carol S, Smith of the Broward League
of Women Voters, whom I first met at
the Broward Charter Review Commission
meetings early last year, about this item
that intrepid Genius of Despair ran at
Eye on Miami yesterday morning.

http://eyeonmiami.blogspot.com/

Thursday, October 08, 2009

Amendment 4: Panel Discussion in Broward 10/26. By Geniusofdespair

Carol's quick response to my query is below.

After reading today's Herald-Tribune article
below about Amendment 4, I'm even more
inclined to attend, but...

The political culture down here being what it is,
where elected officials and pols think nothing
of regularly raiding taxpayers funds to engage
in what they jokingly call "awareness" campaigns,
but which you and I might more accurately call
one-sided campaign electioneering, I can't help
but wonder to what lengths they and their pals
at the Broward League of Cities and the
Broward School Board will go over the
next year to defeat Amendment 4.

No doubt they'll once again use public schools
at night for their one-sided pep rallies that they
euphemistically call "forums," where as I wrote
here last year, they intentionally don't invite
opposing points-of-views, which, in this case,
will be anyone from Hometown Democracy.

In advance of this coming issue campaign war,
it'd sure be nice to see some stories in the press
about what Florida cities spend on these sorts
of poorly-supervised activities, from a
historical perspective -and whom they hire-
since it's clear that whatever those numbers
were in the past, they'll likely be surpassed
over the next 13 months, as folks like
Mayor Cooper and Co. rally their cronies
by making sure their lobbyist/campaign friends
get involved to keep citizens at bay,
just like they did last year with certain proposed
Constitutional Amendments.

What's a little 'walking around money'
from taxpayers for pols' pals to engage
in one-sided campaign tactics?

Obviously, given who Hallandale Beach's
mayor is and her frequent use of City
Commission meetings to run pointless
resolutions past about internal
League of Cities and Mayors Conference
matters that actual Hallandale Beach
citizens and residents could care less about,
forcing city staff to waste their time
-and hence our money- on matters
designed solely for Cooper's personal
and professional benefit, to curry favor
and earn brownie points from her
fellow elected pals, this small city of ours
will likely be one of the first to cough-up
taxpayer funds to defeat Hometown
Democracy.

If you doubt what I say here, consider
this fairly recent example of Cooper's
use of HB City Commission meetings
for butt-kissing.

Ask yourself why it was so important that
it HAD to come before the HB City
Commission, but the actual re-hiring of
the HB City Manager, the HB Police Chief
and the HB Fire Chief, DIDN'T come
before them in front of the public.

As you all know by now, THAT actually
happened up on the 2nd floor of HB City
Hall, away from TV cameras, without
ANY legal formal notice.

That's no coincidence, it was done
that way intentionally by the mayor
and the city manger so that HB citizens
like you and I COULDN'T speak
about their very unsatisfactory
performance the past few years.

http://www.hallandalebeachfl.gov/files/2009-04-15/Agenda%20Outline%20for%202009-04-15.htm

A Resolution of the City of Hallandale Beach, Florida, in Support of Frank Ortiz's

Nomination for Second Vice President of the National League of Cities

(Staff: Acting City Clerk)(See Backup)CAD #008/09 (Staff Report, Supporting Docs)

What's that?

You say that the mayor of Pembroke Pines
is really named Frank Ortis, not
Frank Ortiz, as he is constantly
referred to in these official HB city docs?
Yes, I know.

After all, Ortis' name is constantly
in the newspaper or mentioned on TV,
given that Pembroke Pines is the second
largest city in Broward County.
My sister even lives there, so I know its
good points and bad.

http://www.ppines.com/citycomm/ortis.html

You'd think that Mayor Cooper would've
noticed something like that, wouldn't you,
since it was entirely her idea for this
parochial matter to come up before the
City Commission in the first place.

I mean it's a known fact that Ortis succeeded
her as head of the Broward League of Cities,
which makes her failure to even notice this
all the more curious.

But just as she does far too often with
genuinely important matters in which
she does have a say, she's barely paying
attention to what's right in front of her,
which explains the piss-poor state of
the city we see every day, where the
same simple problems fester for weeks,
months and years.

But she doesn't see it and neither does
the Rubber Stamp Gang.

The city commission does such a poor
job as it is in actually doing their own
homework, and taking their duties seriously,
since 4/5ths of the Commission seems
barely aware of self-evident problems
and unresolved issues in our own city,

much less, ones located elsewhere in the
county or state.

Their lack of curiosity and unwillingness
to actually exhibit any initiative or oversight,

independent of City Manager Mike Good
and his staff, makes me think of baby chicks
in a nest waiting to be fed.

It's hard to go to lots of city meetings
in South Florida like I do and not come
away with the vivid impression that many
city officials who are deeply involved with
the League continually manage to direct
their own city's attorney and staff to do
the League's bidding, since you rarely
-if ever- will find an amicus brief filed
by a city that is not 100% aligned with
whatever the League espouses,
either locally or statewide.

Coincidence?
I don't think so.

For instance, why did HB file an amicus
brief here?
Just to grab power?

http://www.law.fsu.edu/library/flsupct/sc04-990/04-990ans-amicus.pdf
http://www.4dca.org/opinions/Jan%202009/01-28-09/4D02-3636.reh.pdf

http://www.4dca.org/opinions/Mar2009/03-18-09/4D02-3626.Corr.op.pdf

It's typical of the anti-democratic
mindset at Hallandale Beach City
Hall and the League of Cities.

Mulligan v. City of Hollywood

Reading from pp. 6-7 of
http://www.law.fsu.edu/library/flsupct/sc04-990/04-990ans-amicus.pdf

it reads

The "FCFA" provides that "[i]t is the policy of this state that law enforcement agencies shall utilize the provisions of the Florida Contraband Forfeiture Act to deter and prevent the continued use of contraband articles for criminal purposes while protecting the proprietary interests of innocent owners and lienholders.." (Emphasis supplied.) Such is an express preemption by general law of municipal criminal contraband forfeiture (impoundment) laws.

Later, it picks up this point:

Inasmuch as the "FCFA" requires a felony to forfeit a vehicle, any ordinance that purports to authorize the forfeiture of vehicles used in connection with a misdemeanor is in direct conflict with

the Act's limitation to felonies.

What do you suppose the people of this
city or Hollywood would think if they
knew that their City Commissions and
City Attorneys/outside counsel were
urging such a thing, i.e the city trying
to pre-empt state laws in favor of their
own self-serving ordinances,
which would make it easier for cities
to seize personal vehicles and be left
unable to exercise their legal rights,
but instead be forced to deal with the
city's own regulations?

Well, as it turned out, the professionals
behind this particular municipal power
grab LOST!

Judges ruled Hollywood's ordinance was
constitutionally deficient, as among other
things, it violated both the separation of
powers and due process clause.

But sadly as we've seen time and again,
those particular concepts mean little to
the folks who run things at Hallandale
Beach City Hall.

When you read the proceedings, you can't
help but wonder how in the world they ever
thought they'd pull that off.

By the way, there's one other thing that's
particularly noteworthy about this case of
Colon Mulligan v. City of Hollywood,
and I know that this will not surprise the
majority of you reading this one bit.

Having checked their archives today,
I can tell you that neither the Miami
Herald or the South Florida
Sun-Sentinel have ever written a
single updated story on this case since
July 7, 2006, by Marc Caputo.

Which is to say that they have NONE
of the important questions about how
the case was finally decided against
the City of Hollywood has ever appeared
in either newspaper.

Which also explains why there is so
much bad information about this case
all over the Internet.

If everything goes as planned,
I'll have a blog post this weekend
about Attorney General candidate
Dan Gelber getting a Rogue's
Gallery of anti-democratic Broward
pols to endorse him, per this
Broward Politics blog post from
Wednesday by the Sun-Sentinel's
Anthony Man.
http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/broward/blog/2009/10/gelber_rolls_out_more_broward.html

My comments will highlight this common
anti-democratic element shared by these
other folks, as well as Mayor Cooper's
well-known aversion to public transparency
and accountability.

For example, her galling chutzpah in suing
a HB citizen for trying to access public
records he's legally entitled to examine
by virtue of the Florida Constitution,
which Cooper knows full-well will
reveal her personal carelessness,
and her very troubling behavior with
regard to ethics,is a gross insult to all
Hallandale Beach citizens and taxpayers.

Mayor Cooper has quite a lot to
worry about, as you will soon be
hearing and reading about.

I'm also planning to finally post
that much-delayed post that really
hammers the seemingly clueless
and oblivious Gulfstream Park,
which, to be charitable, seems to
be a serial sleep-walker.
----------
Carol: Can you please fill me in on the Amendment 4 meeting you all are hosting on the 26th?

Dave,

This is a public information forum on Amendment 4, Hometown Democracy, which will be on the ballot in Nov. 2010. This will be a pro/con panel discussion. To my knowledge, League has not yet taken a position on the Amendment but we provide these forums to bring out all the issues. Hope you can come. It will be in Ballroom C of the Wynmoor Clubhouse.

Carol
---------------

Broward County League of Women Voters:
www.lwvbcfl.org
---------------------------------

Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Managing growth a hot button topic

By Dale White
October 9, 2009

The vote on a ballot measure giving residents more say in how their local governments manage growth is still a year away. Yet it is already shaping up to be one of the most contentious issues ever placed before Florida voters.

That volatility was evident Thursday as nearly 300 people watched the battle lines being drawn during a fiery debate at the Sarasota Tiger Bay Club.

Read the rest of the article here:

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20091009/ARTICLE/910091040/2055/NEWS?Title=Managing-growth-a-hot-button-topic

Reader comments at:
http://forums.heraldtribune.com/eve/forums?a=dl&f=3941081465&s=3341001365&x_id=910091040&x_subject=Managing+growth+a+hot+button+topic&x_link=http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20091009/ARTICLE/910091040