Broward County Ethics in Action! Sometimes the gravy train of cronyism leads you and your family to a yacht vacation to The Bahamas; Local10 investigative reporter Bob Norman asks Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel to answer questions about his family's yacht vacation after the Sheriff claimed paying $1,500 settled the matter. But websites say the value of that yacht trip is MUCH MORE!; @CityEthics

Local10 News video: Broward Sheriff Scott Israel won't talk about yacht vacation

Sheriff didn't disclose vacation, claims $1,500 footed bill

Bob Norman, Reporter, bnorman@Local10.com

Published On: Jul 23 2013 05:35:26 PM EDT   

Updated On: Jul 23 2013 11:00:00 PM EDT

http://www.local10.com/news/broward-sheriff-scott-israel-wont-talk-about-yacht-vacation/-/1717324/21129710/-/im030b/-/index.html

I love a good story as well as the next person, more than most, actually, but that said, there's no way that five days on a top-of-the-line yacht for Scott Israel, his wife and three kids to The Bahamas cost Broward's Sheriff less than twice the cost for me -alone- staying at a very nice B&B -with absolutely delicious breakfast but without elevators to my 3rd-floor room- for four days in the Södermalm neighborhood of expensive Stockholm.

In January, the coldest month of the year, and, yes, definitely off-season!

Just saying...

A well-informed friend writes me that after watching this video and thinking about the high level of endemic corruption and longstanding culture of wink-wink back-scratching attitudes among elected officials and their bankrolling friends here in Broward already, the most-corrupt county in the country's fourth-largest state, their sad prediction is that Sheriff Israel will be making a lot of headlines in the coming years for all the wrong reasons.

I tend to agree, absent something big happening in the next year that causes his judgement to fundamentally get better.

I sent an email with most of this info to lots of people throughout the state to get their take on it, as well as to blogger Robert Wechsler of cityethics.org up in Connecticut, hoping that he will consider giving this matter that at first blush fails the smell test, his usual careful ethical scrutiny and give it the column inches it deserves, which he has given other Florida ethical situations, including a few I first alerted him to.

Check out his blog on the website at: http://www.cityethics.org/Blog-RobWechsler

Robert's blog posts re Broward County: http://www.cityethics.org/search/node/Broward

The City Ethics Twitter feed of @CityEthics is at https://twitter.com/CityEthics