Broward County Mayor Barbara Sharief appears before ethics commission
Commission agrees to move forward with allegations Sharief broke the law submitting financial forms filled with mistakes
Reporter; Carlos Suarez, csuarez@local10.com
Aired April 25 2014
Uh, oh!
I guess it's a good thing that the appearance of impropriety doesn't matter in Broward County!!!
Florida Panthers Lobbyist Represents Broward Mayor In Ethics Investigation http://t.co/GnyAJTGNNd
— MediaTrackersFL (@MediaTrackersFL) April 18, 2014
This afternoon my overflowing email transom included the following bit of good news from Dan Krassner of Integrity Florida, while below it, I have some well-chosen comments of my own regarding the latest efforts by the revanchist element at the Broward County Commission and Broward League of Cities to fight meaningful accountability for "public servants" in this corrupt county:
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Dan Krassner <dan@integrityfl.org>
Date: Fri, Apr 25, 2014 at 1:15 PM
Subject: Momentum for anti-corruption solutions
From: Dan Krassner <dan@integrityfl.org>
Date: Fri, Apr 25, 2014 at 1:15 PM
Subject: Momentum for anti-corruption solutions
|
Integrity Florida Institute, Inc. | 850.321.0432 | 715 North Calhoun Street, #4 | Tallahassee | FL | 32303
|
Below, my hastily-written email of yesterday, which has been slightly edited from what I originally sent out:
There's nothing in this Sun-Sentinel article about the fact that Broward County Comm. Lois Wexler and her longstanding campaign of crocodile tears about her getting hungry or thirsty at post-election Broward Elections canvassing meetings, and not being able to get some taxpayer-paid for freebies like donuts and some coffee as is often done for the lower-paid staff who have be present during their non-work hours.
As I've stated before, this dilettante of a career politician who is paid $92,000 a years in salary needs only to stop at a retail store or restaurant beforehand and PAY for her own water, soft drink, coffee or food and bring it with her to the site of something that she doesn't even have to be at if she doesn't really want to be.
Wexler's own lack of planning beforehand and being hungry or thirsty at somepoint while sitting down in a chair in some County warehouse facility is HER problem, not OURS, and certainly not one that needs to be resolved by weakening hard-earned laws that, to me, are not so accurately described below as much as
broadly hinted at.
Instead, Wexler's pathetic and never-ending cri-de-coeur for goodies has become the Trojan Horse that has allowed other interested parties in this very corrupt county to attempt to get their nose in the door and get things they want specifically excluded.
For instance, Comm. Barbara Sharief thinking that she shouldn't have to publicly explain/disclose who her own relatives are and the positions they hold that may bear upon some public policy or vote.
In short, she doesn't want to have to publicly report some potential conflicts that having her relatives on the public dime might entail.
It's galling to me that after all these years, there has not been a single reporter in South Florida who has gotten the "mayor" to publicly say why she persists in this childish and selfish effort of hers on this particular issue.
Perhaps it's because she realizes full well how badly and off-putting it will sound to the public -and to voters- so instead she just hints and sighs loudly at meetings about the unfairness of it all.
Sharief never ever gets drilled on this question by a reporter like she would in most parts of the country by a journalist who's willing to pin her down and force her to explain herself.
Instead, she prefers to pout and infer that she's misunderstood.
No, when she consciously refuses to account for herself, that's not a simple misunderstanding, that's HER own conscious refusal to publicly enunciate HER own position.
That's HER fault, not the public's!
Why does nobody ask her why she thinks elected officials' families deserve to escape appropriate scrutiny?
Talk about someone who has publicly taken a nosedive because she's betrayed many local resident's hopes that she'd be a reformer.
Instead, Sharief's own words and actions have spoken volumes -all you have to do is look right in front of you.
But then many of you already know that because I was highlighting Sharief's abject failure the past two years, esp. on the issue of the HB CRA, per those frank emails of mine that many of you received, as well as my blog posts of a few months ago while the South Florida media was completely ignoring the fact that the very Broward County commissioner who actually represents that part of the HB community on whose behalf tens of millions of dollars in CRA funds were, effectively, burned -with no tangible results to show for it- had actually been a hindrance to HB citizens like me and many of you who wanted an independent audit by JLAC that would scrupulously investigate where the money had really gone.
Commissioner Barbara Sharief was NOT someone who was helping us.
It's very simple: IF you're not actually helping to increase reasonable public scrutiny, oversight and accountability of government, you're hurting the effort to do so.
Comm. Barbara Sharief has made her choice and it's NOT the side she ought to be on -the taxpayers side.
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South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Ethics law declared too strict - Elected officials seek to loosen gift ban, other rules in law demanded by voters
Brittany Wallman, Staff writer
April 23, 2014
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/fl-broward-ethics-code-20140422,0,6390406.story
Momentum for anti-corruption solutions in @FLSenate @MyFLHouse http://t.co/75uyZSVbRR #Florida #Ethics #Sayfie
— Dan Krassner (@dankrassner) April 25, 2014
Ethics reform momentum - residency requirements for local/state candidates/officials SB 602 by @JackLatvala passed @FLSenate 39-0
— Dan Krassner (@dankrassner) April 25, 2014
Ethics reform momentum - applying ethics code to special districts SB1632 by @kellistargel passed @FLSenate 38-0
— Dan Krassner (@dankrassner) April 25, 2014
Ethics reform momentum continues w/ @FLSenate passage of SB602 residency requirements & SB1632 ethics code for special districts
— Integrity Florida (@IntegrityFL) April 25, 2014
Florida ethics bill pulled after criticism (from @AP) http://t.co/i4awjxhS3S
— Integrity Florida (@IntegrityFL) April 23, 2014
Legislature's wrangling over local ethics commissions put on hold. Sen. Abruzzo plans August summit on issue. http://t.co/FWu2kakiLW
— John Kennedy (@JKennedyReport) April 22, 2014
Great work by @Kathleen4SWFL @RepJimBoyd @JackLatvala on SB 846 to continue to strengthen Florida ethics laws #sayfie
— Dan Krassner (@dankrassner) April 21, 2014
Panel endorses 'ethics czar' position for Broward County http://t.co/pLBiQWgkI7
— Sun Sentinel (@SunSentinel) April 16, 2014
Watchdogs say Fla. House is putting open government on back burner http://t.co/SitKGLmclj
— politicalfixFLA (@politicalfix) April 16, 2014
Video: Coalition calls for action on ethics reform, open government: http://t.co/UhNW4yVxAA #sayfie
— Integrity Florida (@IntegrityFL) April 16, 2014
Ethics bills languishing in Florida Legislature http://t.co/VUlEvbGOy8
— Aaron Deslatte (@adeslatte) April 16, 2014
Open govt. watchdogs worry, as Fla ethics bills fight a dwindling clock in the Legislature. http://t.co/XIUa9GhKVm
— John Kennedy (@JKennedyReport) April 16, 2014
Coalition of @IntegrityFL @FloridaFAF @commoncausefl CAFI to call for action on #opengov #ethicsreform http://t.co/s3SbMpuKCR #sayfie
— Dan Krassner (@dankrassner) April 14, 2014
New post: Local or State Jurisdiction Over Local Legislators? http://t.co/JjQLnXncgq
— City Ethics (@CityEthics) April 14, 2014
Column by @TheWordzLady says Sen. Abruzzo "wants to neuter the Ethics Commission" http://t.co/BtA2V1dSmA #SB1474 #HB1315 #Sayfie
— Integrity Florida (@IntegrityFL) April 8, 2014
#Florida Town Simplifies #Transparency http://t.co/ledHvRGHrg #opengov cc @IntegrityFL
— Global Integrity (@GlobalIntegrity) April 7, 2014
Matt Carlucci, @FLGovScott ethics commission appointee, testifies against anti-ethics HB1315/SB1474 @ 45:52 http://t.co/UC69JptGFK #sayfie
— Integrity Florida (@IntegrityFL) April 3, 2014
@MaryEllenKlas @mikevansickler Simpler solution - Put all public records online to be accessed free of charge #opengov
— Dan Krassner (@dankrassner) April 2, 2014
In case you're new to my blog and don't know yet what sort of city Hallandale Beach is, I think this answers that question:"Laws and Constitutions go for nothing where the general sentiment is corrupt."
-New York Times, September 22, 1851
"Why do they need that in the Broward County charter?"
-Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper at April 2, 2008 HB City Commission meeting, in discussing possible inclusion of Broward County Charter Review Commission's proposal for Ethics Commission to deal with Broward County Commission, on November 2008 ballot.
Six YEARS after the county's voters had overwhelmingly passed an amendment to the County charter requiring its adoption, the Broward County Commission had yet to live up to its legalresponsibility.
That's why!