Showing posts with label Palm Beach County. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Palm Beach County. Show all posts

Sunday, April 15, 2012

How much longer will that entry at Wikipedia for Dave Aronberg exist? He's running for Palm Beach State Attorney, so why the Chicago-style tactics against sitting judge?

How much longer will there be an entry at Wikipedia for Dave Aronberg, who's running for Palm Beach State Attorney? Chicago-style tactics against a sitting judge?


As it happen, I voted for Dave Aronberg in the 2010 Democratic primary for Florida Attorney General race against Dan Gelber, and then voted for eventual winner Pam Bondi that November in the general election, owing to both my liking of Bondi's moxie and my distaste for Gelber, whom I've ripped here previously a few times, not least for the company he keeps and his propensity to be a perpetual candidate..


That said, though, why is there an entry for someone like Aronberg who's largely unknown outside of certain activist/news junkie neighborhoods in South Florida?
I mean he's more obscure than some of the most obscure Dolphin players. 
Plus, much of the information there is NOT accurate or timely.

Additionally, it seems to me that per the Palm Beach Post story below, his friends are doing him no favors by acting like they are Rahm clones and trying to put the screws to a sitting judge to force her not to run against him. 

I've lived in Chicago, and this isn't it, and neither is Palm Beach County.
It's hard for me to see how this sort of incident or similar ones in the future won't backfire on Aronberg in ways that he never anticipated.

Palm Beach Post
Warnings lead Circuit Judge Krista Marx to abandon campaign for state attorney
By Joel Engelhardt and Stacey Singer 
Palm Beach Post Staff Writers
Updated: 10:58 a.m. Sunday, April 15, 2012
Posted: 10:44 a.m. Sunday, April 15, 2012
Circuit Judge Krista Marx chose not to run for state attorney after she learned supporters of the lone candidate in the race, Dave Aronberg, planned to attack her reputation and challenge her husband's judicial seat, The Palm Beach Post has found.
Read the rest of the article at:

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Presaging the future in Hallandale Beach and the end of the Mark Antonio regime by way of the useful example of Art Johnson in Palm Beach County?

As you read this story below about someone who walked out onto an organizational ledge, leaving no room to navigate, if you simply substitute the name "Mark Antonio" for "Art Johnson" in the first few paragraphs of this excellent article from Saturday's Palm Beach Post about the soon-to-be former Palm Beach County Schools Supt., it's pretty easy to imagine that the stealthy and uninspiring Mark Antonio regime at Hallandale Beach City Hall will end in similar fashion: resign or be fired.

A series of repeated policy blunders, a complete unwillingness to face hard facts and be honest with taxpayers and his bosses, coupled with remarkably intransigent stubbornness and a refusal
to adapt to heightened demands for more genuine transparency by residents...
It's all laid out for us very nicely.


In fact, the evidence is pretty clear -it's all around you!- that
Antonio is ALREADY doing all these things right now if you look closely enough.

That's why I was so adamantly against the idea of Mayor Cooper, former Comm. Julian and Comm. Ross stopping the City Manager search last year before the community ever got the chance to see what the choices really were.


By completely changing the dynamic mid-stream and going with Antonio, they basically signed a blood pact with Antonio making ALL his mistakes THEIRS.


Well, I'm only too happy to keep reminding everyone of that fact over the next 18 months as numerous candidates line-up to oppose Commissioners Dotty Ross and Anthony A. Sanders next year.


Assuming, that is, that those two are not recalled from office before next November, which is always a strong possibility given how angry residents I speak to are with their completely unsatisfactory piss-poor performance in office over the past few years.
Not that this surprises me a whit.

And really, who can forget Ross publicly humiliating herself last year by actually hiding in her office rather than coming down to a scheduled City Commission meeting on Mike Good's fate, personally causing the meeting to have to be postponed until the following week.

But everyone present knew exactly where Ross was at the time, upstairs, since they could see her car in its reserved parking area -which I photographed and posted here.
Once again, Ross put her own personal comfort above the sworn duty she has to represent this city's citizens and perform her official duties in office.


Ross and Sanders are little more than bumps on a log, constantly refusing to make Antonio and his staff and the rest of the city employees, esp. the Dept. directors, more publicly accountable for their questionable work-ethic, behavior, spending and attitudes.
Just saying...


I hope those of you who haven't attended one of
Comm. London's Resident Forum meetings in a while will do so this Tuesday at 6 p.m. at the Hallandale Beach Cultural Center because there is an awful lot to discuss about what's going on in this city.
And what
isn't, but should be.


And this time, please try to bring a friend along to get them better informed about what's going on around them, whether they know it or not.



The Palm Beach Post

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/schools/johnson-didnt-adapt-to-times-1250372.html
Johnson didn't 'adapt to times'

By Laura Green, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Updated: 10:38 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 12, 2011

Posted: 9:45 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 12, 2011

Superintendent Art Johnson might never have faced the choice to resign or perhaps be fired if he had adapted to his new bosses: an empowered school board that made clear from the start that it would lead and not follow.

To be sure, Johnson weakened his position with a string of blunders, starting with the hiring of controversial Chief Academic Officer Jeffrey Hernandez and ending with allegations that Johnson covered up Hernandez's moonlighting in Memphis while Hernandez collected his $180,000 salary from Palm Beach County.

But the real problem arose when Johnson continued to treat the new board like his former rubber-stamping supervisors, observers and school board members say.

"The issue is in the category of 'works and plays well with others,' " said Andre Fladell, a Johnson supporter and south county political operative. "If you're new in a job, you tiptoe. When you've been doing something for a long time, you become more dogmatic. When you have new people on the school board, the dogmatic approach sometimes gets met very harshly."

Johnson shared information on a need-to-know basis; put controversial items on the agenda and withdrew them rather than engage in debate; and oscillated between passive-aggressive and arrogant when dealing with the new board, several board members said.

"This is not a new thing, not a spur of the moment, not a knee-jerk reaction," said Debra Robinson, a longtime board member who has regularly sparred with Johnson. She shocked the community weeks ago by calling for a vote to fire Johnson.

"What it's really about is that we have a new board," she said. "We have to, in a sense, adapt to the times. The overwhelming thing is he is just not adapting to the new environment, the new board, the new expectations."

Johnson did not return calls seeking comment. He has authorized a representative to negotiate an exit settlement with board Chairman Frank Barbieri in time for Wednesday's school board meeting.

Board members were careful with their comments, heeding a warning from their lawyer that Johnson could use any overt criticism as a reason to sue the board rather than settle.

"Art's Art and we don't know that he's really going to come out with a settlement and be agreeable," one board member said. "He's a wild card."

What is clear is that after nearly 10 years at the helm of one of the nation's largest school districts, Johnson had become accustomed to deference from the school board.

Strong leadership

A former principal and district administrator, Johnson ascended to the superintendency after being pushed out by Superintendent Joan Kowal. Johnson ran for school board, helped force out Kowal and eventually took her job.

Despite the way Johnson came to his post, he cemented his role in the community by providing stability to a district that had cycled through a list superintendents who had been fired or pushed out under a cloud. He oversaw Palm Beach County's reign as the state's highest-rated urban school district. Johnson's unfailing confidence was seen as a plus in those years.

After just two years as superintendent, Johnson moved to strengthen his position. He negotiated a provision in his contract to require two-thirds of the board, instead of a simple majority, to fire him without cause.

Though Johnson made nightly phone calls to keep them informed, most board members needed little nudging to support his agenda. Unanimous votes were routine.

Until Barbieri joined the board in 2008, Robinson was often the lone dissenting vote, even the lone board member questioning Johnson's tactics or plans.

"There were several years when the district was very stable; the leadership was very strong," said new board member Chuck Shaw, a former principal. "I think the tendency of the board was not to be as engaged in making decisions. In some ways, they were complacent.

"The shift of power moved away from the board being the leader to the superintendent being the complete leader. When it got that way, it was impossible to change that direction."

In 2009, Johnson handed day-to-day control over the school district to Hernandez, an uncharacteristic move for a man who thrived on control and power. Principals, teachers and parents rebelled.

But for months, the board - except Barbieri - defended Johnson and Hernandez.

By the time 1,000 parents and teachers packed board meetings wearing orange and waving signs, even Johnson's strongest supporters on the board had to acknowledge something was wrong.

The superintendent later said his big mistake was ramming through the changes without making a case for them with parents and teachers. His bosses, the school board, never needed such convincing.

But all that changed with the election of 2010.

A new board in town

Johnson's new board included Jenny Prior Brown, a former federal prosecutor; Karen Brill, who has a corporate background and served as a special education advocate; Shaw; and Marcia Andrews, a former high-ranking district administrator whom Johnson demoted.

The four new members joined agitators Robinson and Barbieri, and Monroe Benaim, perhaps Johnson's only remaining unqualified supporter on the board.

Johnson quickly saw that dealing with this group would be different than his previous boards.

Rather than going through Johnson to get their questions answered, board members began directly contacting district staff. Johnson was so annoyed by the practice that he reportedly told a group of principals that they answer to him, not the board.

No issue seemed too small to attract board notice. Brown recently noted at a meeting that mid-level administrators were having secretaries place calls to her on their behalf. She wondered about the waste of manpower.

When board members asked for a review of the budget so they could prepare for some of the worst budget cuts in the district's history, Johnson ordered staff to go line by line, drowning board members in minutiae, teachers union President Robert Dow said.

"With every request that the board came forward with of the district and the superintendent, they seemed to be stonewalled and diverted from," Dow said. "The board members I talked to didn't seem to be getting the cooperation that they needed to do their homework and do their jobs well."

Johnson continued to assert himself with a recent move to revive the career of Jon Prince, one of his favorite principals. Johnson reluctantly demoted Prince after an investigation revealed he used his district credit card for a steak dinner with his wife, a cabana rental at a swanky hotel and other personal expenses.

Just months after the state Board of Education agreed not to revoke Prince's educator's license with the caveat that he could not handle school money, Johnson added what he must have known would be a controversial item to the school board agenda. He moved to promote Prince to principal again, pulling it from the agenda only when he realized he couldn't muster the votes.

Then the Hernandez saga got dragged back into the spotlight when a group of parents alleged that Johnson tried to cover up Hernandez's moonlighting for the Memphis school district while collecting his $180,000 salary from Palm Beach County. An independent firm is now investigating those allegations.

While the tension between Johnson and the board was becoming clear to observers, Robinson forced the issue with her call for a vote to fire Johnson. By last week's board meeting, several board members said they still hadn't decided how to vote when Barbieri stunned them with the announcement that Johnson had offered to leave.

Johnson needed only three votes to keep his job. It's widely believed that Benaim was his only sure vote.

The superintendent has refused to speak to the media since revealing that he's negotiating to leave the district, but he offered this insight the last time he was preparing to leave .

"Who in their right mind," he wrote in a November 1997 letter to The Palm Beach Post, "would choose to be heard by a jury that had already made a decision concerning their case?"

Sunday, January 25, 2009

My mayor went to the Inaugural but all I got was the bill and her imperious attitude!

Within the past two weeks, almost regardless of where I've gone in Broward County, the one subject that people who know me seem most keen on asking me about is my opinion on the much-discussed South Florida Sun-Sentinel series by Jennifer Gollan, on the questionable spending and ethical habits of elected pols in Broward and Palm Beach Counties.
In Hollywood, Fort Lauderdale, or closer to home, among fellow Hallandale Beach citizens who are interested in seeing a LOT more tangible reform and accountability at Hallandale Beach City Hall.

Whether in phone conversations or thru email, I've tried to highlight for them some of the more arrogant, high-horse comments and actions by tone-deaf Hallandale Beach mayor Joy Cooper, which seem particularly off-the-charts, even for her.
She definitely has the Marie Antoinette gene.

In that email, as well as here, I've also included the links to reader comments, where both Sun-Sentinel travel expense stories have received much more attention than usual for storiesof that sort, generating lots of comments full of venom and anger, as well as mentions of alleged similar past ethical incidents by some in the community.
This has the advantage of making them both humorous and insightful, and well-worth reading, though there is the usual daily nut quotient found there on the Topix.com forums you have to wade through.

In an email that I sent out last Tuesday to some of these friends and interested parties, with copies of the articles below, I also put my prediction abilities to the test.
I placed the over-and-under for Mayor Cooper bringing up her inaugural trip to Washington at 7 minutes at Wednesday's Hallandale Beach City Commission meeting.

Well, she surpassed herself, bring it up, without any prompting, in just under 45 seconds of convening the meeting, which started thirteen minutes late.

According to someone I trust who actually had the steely patience and quiet resolve to actually watch/tape the afternoon and evening commission meetings via the city's so-called cable access channel -meetings which I attended for only about 40 minutes total that day due to other pressing errands- Mayor Cooper mentioned her trip to Washington 4-5 times over the course of the city's meetings.

And yet she's the one who's constantly complaining about the length of the public meetings that she's responsible for facilitating, frequently objecting to other's comments with her all-too-audible passive aggressive sighs that fill the room up with her disapproval.

The public meetings she runs largely without following Robert's Rules of Order.
Honestly, how many other South Florida cities do things that way, do you suppose?

Good question -why don't you ask her that the next time you see her?

The reason for my interest that particular day was the scheduled agenda included some crazy proposed rule changes that she thinks would ensure better time management at public City Commission meetings, from her narrow p.o.v., but what I and many others think more clearly could be called anti-democratic moves to consolidate the power she thinks she has.

This, despite the fact that her position of mayor is largely a ceremonial one in a city like Hallandale Beach's with a City Manager form of government, something the city's charter makes clear.
Not that she lets the facts get in the way.

She's the one responsible for proposing what I and others deem to be anti-democratic rules that her pals and cronies at the Broward and Florida League of Cities -her most loyal and ardent fan base- would never enact in their own cities without first having a full-and-open public hearing on the issue, with plenty of advanced notice, so that citizens, residents and business owners could appear in person and speak as they feel compelled to, either for it or against it.
After all, it's their elected public officials, not her's.

But not Joy Cooper, former head of the Broward League of Cities, whose first duty is to the interests of municipal officials, not citizens or taxpayers.

Nope, Joy Cooper and City Manager Mike Good and his staff decided that the best way to make her job easier at public meetings was to prevent the public officials actually elected by the city's voters from speaking longer, and more frequently than she and her pals wanted.
A simple visit to any city commission meeting here makes that point self-evident, over and over.

That effort, for now, seems to have been put off for another day, but the sentiments behind the move are clearly nefarious, self-serving and NOT at all what citizens of this city want: more power for her at our expense.



My comments about Thursday's Miami Herald editorial on the subject of travel expenses are right below it.
---------------------------------------------
South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Broward County officials are traveling on your dime

Conventions are only miles from home, but South Florida officials bill taxpayers for luxury hotels and chauffeured rides

By Jennifer Gollan
January 11, 2009

Although the national mayors convention was only 34 miles from his home, Lauderhill Mayor Richard Kaplan decided it would be too difficult to commute. So he billed taxpayers $995 to stay five nights in June at the four-star InterContinental Miami hotel.

"I would have to get up at 3 or 4 in the morning to miss the rush-hour traffic," Kaplan said. "It gets to be very time-consuming."
Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper also attended that convention. Instead of making the 20-mile trip, she charged taxpayers $796 for four nights at the hotel.

Pembroke Pines Mayor Frank Ortis, with a commute of 25 miles, billed taxpayers $889.48 for four nights.

When asked about it six months later, Ortis said "it doesn't make any sense to stay overnight in Miami," and reimbursed the city for his hotel bill.

Indeed, while not expressly prohibited under their formal policies, Pembroke Pines, Hallandale Beach and Lauderhill generally bar employees from staying overnight in Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties. Cooper, however, declined to repay the city for her stay, saying it was a business-related expense.

"I am not there fluffing my own feathers," she said. "Rather than dragging through traffic it was just easier to stay overnight. ... Why would I reimburse the city for part of my job?"

Sun Sentinel review of expense records filed by taxing district board members and elected officials representing Broward County and its 31 municipalities since January 2007 also found charges for some spouses and children to attend conference functions. 

Taxpayers also footed the bill for chauffeured rides to the airport, in some cases paying almost double what it would have cost had the officials driven themselves and parked at the airport's most expensive lot. Such expenses are small in relation to the city budgets. 

But they add up and raise questions, especially amid a recession that has governments cutting spending and public services.

 "Local officials are obligated to avoid abusing or exploiting opportunities for self-indulgence on the public dime," said Anthony Alfieri, director of the Center for Ethics and Public Service at the University of Miami School of Law. 

"That means engaging in cost-saving conduct, such as commuting rather than incurring hotel bills" for local meetings. Some officials disagree,saying the sums in question are small, and perks of the job. For example, five Central Broward Water Control District officials billed taxpayers $380 so their spouses and children could join them at two parties in Key West and Key Largo during two conferences in 2007 and 2008. 

Commissioners and staff also spent $538.11 so they, their spouses and children — a total party of 10 — could dine at a restaurant in Key West on July 12, 2007. 

District Board Chairman Cris Fardelmann said he didn't see why he should cover his wife's expense. "I definitely don't think there's any abuse here," said Fardelmann, who is paid $4,800 per year to maintain secondary canals in six cities. "I'm not going to leave [my wife] sitting in the hotel room while we go to dinner. I do not make a lot of money at this job, and having your spouse along makes it much more possible to go." 

The district does not have a formal policy prohibiting commissioners from billing taxpayers for expenses incurred by their spouses and children. State law allows local governments to set their own travel polices and decide who can travel on public business. 

"State law seems to authorize travel by someone beyond the elected official or officer, but trying to define exactly who fits within that other category is where the cities must make their own decision," said Eric Hartwell, assistant general counsel for the Florida League of Cities.

Reader comments at: 
http://www.topix.net/forum/source/south-florida-sun-sentinel/TLROFVBS7O5HMDFDE
---------------------------------
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Palm Beach County officals billing taxpayers for luxury hotels and chauffeured rides
Conventions are only miles from home, but officials bill taxpayers for luxury hotels and chauffeured rides.
By Jennifer Golla
January 11, 2009

It was only an 80-minute drive each way, but Palm Beach County Commission Chairman Jeff Koons said it was crucial that he and three other commissioners stay at the Doral Golf Resort & Spa for a statewide conference in June.


"I know people might think it's not good to send a group, but it was a very good investment," Koons said, adding that they weren't there for the spa and other amenities. "People expect us to be knowledgeable, and that's the purpose of these trips."

Koons and commissioners Addie Greene, Karen Marcus and former commissioner Mary McCarty billed taxpayers a total of $1,350.70 to stay at the four-star resort during the Florida Association of Counties conference.


McCarty stayed one night for $130.

Marcus and Greene billed taxpayers $390 each for three nights. Koons' three-night stay cost a bit more, $440.70, because he paid the hotel bill and tax before being reimbursed by the county, missing out on tax exemptions granted when a government pays bills directly.


Because each commissioner serves on the association's board, Koons said it would have been impractical to send one commissioner to represent the others. Further, Koons said he and the other commissioners didn't discuss any county matters as required under the Sunshine law, which bars two or more officials on the same board from talking about pending public business outside a publicly noticed meeting.

Sun Sentinel review of expense records filed by South Florida elected officials and taxing district board members since January 2007 also found taxpayers footing the bill for hotels as close as 20 miles away. In other cases, they paid for spouses and children to attend and dine at conference functions.

Such expenses are small in relation to the city budgets. But they add up and raise questions, especially amid a recession that has governments cutting spending and public services.

"Local officials are obligated to avoid abusing or exploiting opportunities for self indulgence on the public dime," said Anthony Alfieri, director of the Center for Ethics and Public Service at the University of Miami School of Law. "That means engaging in cost-saving conduct such as commuting rather than incurring hotel bills" for local meetings.

Some officials disagree,
saying the sums in question are small, and perks of the job.


When the Florida League of Cities held an awards banquet in Orlando in November 2007, Delray Beach
sent Mayor Rita Ellis and Vice Mayor Woodie McDuffie, Commissioner Fred Fetzer and former commissioner Brenda Montague.

McDuffie and Montague stayed overnight at the Hyatt Regency Orlando International Airport Hotel, costing taxpayers a total of $286. Ellis and Fetzer went for the day only.

The overnight stay in Orlando was not unreasonable given the distance. But did Delray need to send four elected officials as well as the city manager? "Our city was nominated for the Florida City of Excellence award," Fetzer said. "It was quite an honor for the city, and the Florida League of Cities asked us to have as many representatives there as we could. We felt it was an important enough event for the city that we wanted to be well represented."

McDuffie said he also participated in meetings on pending legislation on tax reform.

"The sole purpose of the meeting was not the awards banquet," said McDuffie, noting that, at the time, he sat on the league's Fiscal Stewardship Council. His council meeting ran from 10 a.m. to noon on Nov. 8 and the conference ended about noon on Nov. 9, just before the awards banquet.

Taxpayers also paid $1,641.96 for Fetzer, McDuffie and Montague to stay two nights at the Liaison Capitol Hill Hotel in Washington, D.C., April 30-May 2, 2008. They were there for the so-called Washington Fly In, where local elected leaders meet with lawmakers in Washington.

Sending three commissioners made sense, McDuffie said, because they split up, which afforded them more time for meetings.

"One person can't cover every legislator in the time that we're up there," McDuffie said.

But Fetzer said he had a "very productive" trip when he traveled alone to Washington on the same trip in 2006 [the trip has traditionally taken place every other year]. He returned to share the highlights of his trip with the commission, which he said "sparked some interest," from other commissioners to join him in 2008.

Delray commissioners last fall decided to forgo out-of-state travel this fiscal year.

While they don't tend to travel in groups, other officials in South Florida cities and taxing districts have billed taxpayers for travel closer to home, and other questionable expenses.

Although the national mayors convention was only 34 miles from his home, Lauderhill Mayor Richard Kaplan decided it would be too difficult to commute. So he billed taxpayers $995 to stay five nights in June at the four-star InterContinental Miami hotel.

"I would have to get up at 3 or 4 in the morning to miss the rush-hour traffic," said Kaplan. "It gets to be very time consuming."

Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper also attended that convention. Instead of making the 20-mile trip, she charged taxpayers $796 for four nights at the hotel. And Pembroke Pines Mayor Frank Ortis, with a commute of 25 miles, billed taxpayers $889.48 for four nights. When asked about it six months later, Ortis said "it doesn't make any sense to stay overnight in Miami," and reimbursed the city for his hotel bill. Indeed, while not expressly prohibited under their formal policies, Pembroke Pines, Hallandale Beach and Lauderhill generally bar employees from staying overnight in Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties.

Cooper, however, declined to repay the city for her stay, saying it was a business-related expense.

"I am not there fluffing my own feathers," she said. "Rather than dragging through traffic it was just easier to stay overnight ... Why would I reimburse the city for part of my job?"


Some officials charged taxpayers so their spouses and children could attend conference functions. For example, five Central Broward Water Control District officials billed taxpayers $380 so their spouses and children could join them at two parties in Key West and Key Largo during two conferences in 2007 and 2008. Commissioners and staff also spent $538.11 so they, their spouses and children — a total party of 10 — could dine at a restaurant in Key West on July 12, 2007.

"I definitely don't think there's any abuse here," said District Board Chairman Cris Fardelmann, who is paid $4,800 per year to maintain secondary canals in six cities. "I'm not going to leave [my wife] sitting in the hotel room while we go to dinner. I do not make a lot of money at this job, and having your spouse along makes it much more possible to go."

District policy does not prohibit officials from billing taxpayers for expenses for their spouses and children.

State law allows local governments to set their own travel polices and decide who can travel on public business.

"State law seems to authorize travel by someone beyond the elected official or officer, but trying to define exactly who fits within that other category is where the cities must make their own decision," said Eric Hartwell, assistant general counsel for the Florida League of Cities.

Reader comments at: 

--------------------------

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Corruption in Broward, Palm Beach counties: Same behavior, different results

By Michael Mayo, News Columnist

January 11, 2009


Earlier this decade, Broward County Commissioner Diana Wasserman-Rubin voted on grants to Southwest Ranches that directly benefited her husband. She was fined by the state ethics commission, has not faced criminal charges and remains in office.

In Palm Beach County, commissioner Mary McCarty voted on bond deals that benefited her husband's firm. She resigned last week, indicating she will soon plead guilty to a federal charge of honest services fraud. In her resignation letter, McCarty called her bond votes "criminal acts" and wrote that she expected to serve "a significant term of incarceration."

Similar behavior. Far different results.

Confused?

"It's not simply bewildering from a civics standpoint," said Anthony Alfieri, director of the University of Miami Center for Ethics and Public Service. "It's also corrosive to the public; it undermines their faith in government."

Best I can tell, the big difference between the two cases — and for that matter, Broward and Palm Beach County politics — is federal scrutiny.

The FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office have spent the last few years digging to our north, and they've unturned enough unsavory business to topple three county commissioners and two West Palm Beach city commissioners. All four convicted officials have gone to federal prison.

Makes you wonder what would happen if the feds fixed a keen eye here.

"There's a number of people who fit into the behavioral pattern of the McCartys [in Broward]," said County Commissioner John Rodstrom. "The problem is there's a big difference between state and federal law, and elected officials haven't been well trained on the federal law."

Thanks to Florida's weak corruption laws and long tradition of almost anything goes, some public servants think day is night and wrong is right.

Or as McCarty wrote in her letter, "I allowed myself to interpret ethics codes and statutory responsibilities in the light most favorable to the outcome I desired."

That seems to be a common malady among local politicians.

In Broward, commissioner Josephus Eggelletion once voted on a county contract involving a trash company while he was a paid lobbyist for the company. Commissioner Ilene Lieberman uses one name when she's sitting on the dais and another (Ilene Michelson) when she has appeared before other elected bodies as an attorney. Lieberman, Wasserman-Rubin and commissioner Stacy Ritter have husbands who do (or have done) legal, grant-writing and lobbying work involving local municipalities and the county.

Wasserman-Rubin's 2003 votes on the Southwest Ranches grants, which helped her husband get a raise and a $15,000 bonus, are being investigated by the Broward State Attorney. "Our office is still looking at it," spokesman Ron Ishoy said.

Wasserman-Rubin said she didn't know her votes would benefit her husband, who no longer writes grants for the town. She said she has not spoken to state or federal investigators.

"I've learned a lesson, and I'm trying to move forward," she said Saturday. "It would be a concern to me if they go backwards and go over things that the ethics commission has already gone over. My family has suffered enough."

If the feds were digging here, or if these commissioners served in Palm Beach County, would they find themselves in trouble?

Alfieri, a law professor, said: "Because of Florida's history of under-regulation and neglect in ethics, state and local systems are replete with conflicts of interest. The culture is dominated by self-dealing and self-enrichment."

Part of the blame belongs to politicians who should know better. As in, if you vote or push for something and you or a family member has a stake in the outcome, you probably shouldn't be voting or pushing for it.

And part of the blame belongs to the Legislature, which needs to bring state corruption statutes in line with stricter federal law.

As it stands, Florida law has huge wiggle room when it comes to public corruption. State prosecutors must prove "corrupt intent" to get criminal convictions for official misconduct. That's a high bar to clear.

And state ethics law is laughably vague and toothless. Ethics violations are not necessarily crimes and punishment is usually a token fine, capped at $10,000 per offense.

Once the Feds take aim, it's a different story. The broad "honest services fraud" provision and a host of tax and mail laws can snag politicians who thought they were doing no wrong. Things that might have been brushed off by state investigators or settled with a fine can bring lengthy prison terms.

So far, federal investigators have focused on Palm Beach County, with the exception of former Broward Sheriff Ken Jenne, who pleaded guilty to federal mail and tax charges after a lengthy probe.

You have to wonder if Broward's day is coming.

Michael Mayo's column runs Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday.


________________


South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Some, but not all, Broward County officials embarrassed by travel expense review 
Sun Sentinel report spurs some cities to review policies

By Jennifer Gollan

January 18, 2009


Officials in Lauderhill, Pembroke Pines and Tamarac said they are considering stricter limits on travel, after a Sun Sentinel review found some elected officials billed taxpayers for stays at nearby hotels and for their families to attend conference functions.

While travel expenses account for a relatively small part of municipal budgets, their cumulative cost raises questions of propriety.

"At a time when staff are being laid off and programs are being cut, it is incumbent upon all of us to do all we can to minimize the expense to taxpayers," said Pembroke Pines Commissioner Angelo Castillo.

In Lauderhill, where Mayor Richard Kaplan billed taxpayers $995 in June for five nights at the InterContinental Miami hotel, commissioners on Jan. 26 will consider nearly halving their travel budget to $35,188, down from $66,100.

"I'm in favor of reducing the budget to whatever level is necessary," Kaplan said.

Along with trimming overtime costs and shedding up to 10 vacant positions, the travel cut is intended to plug a $1.4 million budget hole.

Tamarac also may impose more stringent travel restrictions, with spending cuts and comprehensive reforms.

For her part, Mayor Beth Flansbaum-Talabisco said she is now having her husband drive her to the airport instead of hiring a chauffeur. She spent $584.46 on eight chauffeured rides of about 16 miles each to or from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport since January 2007. The same trips would have cost about $336 by taxi, or if she had driven herself, about $280.21.

"I can save the city some money," she said. "As an issue, travel will be looked at, not because anything has been done incorrectly, but because we are being fiscally responsible."

Pembroke Pines also likely will review commission travel expenses, Castillo said.

He stopped short of suggesting a ban on overnights in local hotels, such as Pembroke Pines Mayor Frank Ortis's four-night stay at the InterContinental Miami that cost taxpayers $889.48. Ortis reimbursed the city when questioned by the 
Sun Sentinel.

In Margate, Commissioner Pam Donovan said she expects her fellow commissioners to show more restraint. Both David McLean and Joseph Varsallone stayed extraneous nights in hotels.

"I don't think they'll do that again," said Donovan. "They saw that it didn't look good."

Neither McLean or Varsallone could be reached for comment despite two messages each at their offices.

However, officials in some cities and taxing districts brushed off any notion of reform.

"We're not in the same category as city employees," said Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper, who charged taxpayers $796 for a four-night stay at the InterContinental Miami in June. "We are already extremely frugal on our travel. I don't perceive us changing it."

Neither will Coral Springs Commissioner Claudette Bruck, whose 13 chauffeured rides to or from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport cost $908. Bruck could have driven herself and parked for $400, or caught taxis for $717.

Still, Bruck stood her ground: "The city probably is about as tight on that as they can be."

Central Broward Water Control District Director Mike Crowley also dismissed policy reforms or cuts as unnecessary. Five district officials billed taxpayers $380 to register their spouses and children for two conferences in Key West and Key Largo. Commissioners and staff also rang up a tab for $538.11 dining with their spouses and children — a party of 10 — at a Key West restaurant.

"I have no intention of reimbursing [the district]," Crowley said.


In particular, I'd like to draw your attention to comment #40  -one of you I'd like to think!- who included this URL link in their comments, http://www.mayorjoycooper.com/ and the one from someone, #90, who identified themself as Retired Hallandale Cop, who wrote:
"We're not in the same category as city employees," said Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper, who charged taxpayers $796 for a four-night stay at the InterContinental Miami in June. "We are already extremely frugal on our travel. I don't perceive us changing it."

She's right that she's not in the same category: When I took in-service training a few before my retirement, I had to add three hours to my work day, for travel time, because the city refsed to pay the hotel tab when the course was being held. What a hypocrite for a city official she is.
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Miami Herald
Editorial
January 22, 2009
 

Costly overnights can be wasteful

OUR OPINION: Broward County officials' expensive hotel stays a mistake

In ordinary times a mayor's hotel bill for $995 for attending a national convention wouldn't raise eyebrows at City Hall. But these aren't ordinary times. A deepening recession is forcing cities to tighten their belts during a long period of low revenue.

Mayors of some Broward cities should have considered this when booking Miami hotel rooms to attend the U.S. Conference of Mayors convention in Miami last June.

Budget cuts coming

In a review of expense records filed by Broward taxing-district board members and elected officials, the Sun Sentinel found that Lauderhill Mayor Richard Kaplan didn't want to make the daily commute from central Broward to downtown Miami, figuring rush-hour traffic would keep him from getting to events on time. So he took a room at the four-star InterContinental Hotel for a total cost of $995.

For the same reason Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper and Pembroke Pines Mayor Frank Ortis billed their cities' taxpayers $796 and $889.48 respectively for Miami hotel stays.

Knowing that their cities are facing budget cuts, the notion that the mayors rejected driving 20 or 30 miles in favor of costly overnights in Miami is troubling. Usually when such meetings are held in South Florida, local public officials drive to them. Gas prices were higher in June, but the cost of driving wouldn't have been as high as those hotel tabs. The mayors could even have commuted by Tri-Rail and Metrorail to the convention.

Next time, the mayors should be more sensitive to economic conditions when deciding how to attend a locally held convention.

Family expenses

The newspaper also found charges to taxpayers for officials' spouses and families at out-of-town events. For example, five Central Broward Water Control District officials billed taxpayers $380 for their spouses' and childrens' stays at two conferences in Key West and Key largo in 2007 and '08.

While bringing along the family at taxpayer expense to official functions may seem a justifiable perk for officials with modest salaries, the practice should be adopted or rejected as official policy by governing bodies only after a hearing during which the taxpaying public can weigh in on how to spend its money.

Reader comments at: http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/866494.html?mi_pluck_action=comment_submitted&commentSort=TimeStampAsc
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I was up in Hollywood on Wednesday afternoon for their Charter Review Committee's Ethics subcommittee
meeting at Hollywood City Hall, and it was impressive being among such smart, articulate and well-meaning people trying to make their city better. 
Perhaps because they were able to make their points without constantly being interrupted by someone trying to minimize their legitimate concerns or limit their time to express themselves like, well, a well-traveled pol like Joy Cooper

While I was there, I heard Hollywood's City Clerk Patricia Cerny mention that the City of Hollywood doesn't pay for hotels in Miami-Dade, Broward or Palm Beach for city employees or elected officials. 

That's clearly a policy that ought to be in effect as well in a city like Hallandale Beach, which boasts on its own website that it is near everything in South Florida. 

Overview & Location

Hallandale Beach is conveniently located between Fort Lauderdale and Miami, next to Aventura with access to the Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood and Miami International airports, Port Everglades, Port of Miami, and I-95.


Apparently though, as the Sun-Sentinel articles make abundantly clear, NOT close enough for Joy Cooper, forever cursed with delusions of grandeur. 

Even with this economy, Mayor Cooper's found over $3,000 in the city budget for a new office for herself at City Hall, not that she needed a new one or that there was anything physically wrong with her current one.  She just wanted it.

That particular construction bill, a matter of public interest, is an issue that nobody in South Florida's media has heretofore reported on.
Shocker!

That includes costs for things like re-wiring the room, constructing three new windows which look out towards the lobby and window treatments...