Is it government's role to pick winners and losers in the marketplace? Does job creation in Florida depend too much upon corporate welfare and self-dealing? Are Enterprise Florida's attempts to create economic activity and new jobs simply a matter of keeping up with the Joneses, or a foolish waste of tax dollars thrown down a black hole that could have been better spent? WTSP-TV examines what Florida has been doing and why Integrity Florida has been raising red flags about those policies

"I think it's right for the public to ask, 'Is it government's role to pick winners and losers in the marketplace, to give taxpayer money to one company versus its competitors?"-Dan Krassner, Integrity Florida 

Is it government's role to pick winners and losers in the marketplace? Does job creation in Florida depend too much upon corporate welfare and self-dealing? Are Enterprise Florida's attempts to create economic activity and new jobs simply a matter of keeping up with the Joneses, or a foolish waste of tax dollars thrown down a black hole that could have been better spent? WTSP-TV examines what Florida has been doing and why Integrity Florida has been raising red flags about those policies

Fox 13/Tampa video
Job creation or corporate welfare?
Posted: Feb 04, 2013 4:43 PM EST
Updated: Feb 04, 2013 10:20 PM EST
By: Doug Smith, FOX 13

Most of us have heard the old adage, 'It takes money to make money.' In Florida, some leaders in state government also believe it takes money to make jobs.

Governor Rick Scott has made it clear that job creation is a top priority, but are lucrative corporate incentives really necessary or nothing more than corporate welfare?

Read the rest of the related article at: http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/story/20960694/2013/02/04/florida-job-creation-incentives

After reading the article, see this other WTSP-TV video from April of 2011 profiling Mike Fasano when he was still in the Florida Senate, who stated above, "government shouldn't be involved in picking winners and losers."
Exactly!

Perfectly stated common sense that has been desperately needed in Hallandale Beach the past nine years as crony capitalism has flourished with taxpayer and CRA dollars.



Fox 13/Tampa video
Mike Fasano: Florida's renegade Republican
Reporter Noah Pransky profiles the then-FL State senator 
10:53 PM, Apr 25, 2011 
http://www.wtsp.com/news/local/article/188885/8/Mike-Fasano-Floridas-renegade-Republican?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE%7Ct

Meanwhile, feeling the negative effects of being under the gun because his heretofore largely ignored group is getting lots of publicity throughout Florida, most of it negative, Enterprise Florida CEO Gray Swoope feels it necessary to publicly attack Integrity Florida and Dan Krassner and their damning report on Swoope's group, by mentioning that a group opposed to what he calls financial incentives -but which you and I might call corporate welfare- is supportive of Integrity Florida.

Wow, imagine that? 
So how is a group being consistent about their policy negative news?
It really shows how desperate things are getting with the spotlight on him.

Tampa Bay Times
Venture blog
Who is Gray Swoope and how can he reignite Florida's stumbling economy?
Posted by Robert Trigaux at 6:23:41 am on August 08, 2011 
http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/venturebiz/content/who-gray-swoope-and-how-can-he-reignite-floridas-stumbling-economy

Orlando Sentinel

Central Florida Political Pulse blog

More on the Enterprise Florida-Integrity Florida cage-match

Posted by Aaron Deslatte on February, 5 2013 4:20 PM

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2013/02/more-on-the-enterprise-florida-integrity-florida-cage-match.html

------
http://www.integrityfl.org/

http://www.eflorida.com/

Satz does NOT rhyme with success: Vote NO on Miami Herald's sorry 2012 local and state election coverage: Proof? Their editorial board endorsed carpetbagger Joe Gibbons of Jacksonville and over-the-hill mediocrity Mike Satz BEFORE paper ever printed a single article about their races. Slipshod Herald editors then run thread-bare story about them AFTER the August Primary Early Voting period had started. As usual, too little too late at One Herald Plaza!

Above, my screenshot of grim-faced, low-tech Broward State Attorney Michael "Mike" Satz as he appeared on the August 12, 2012 version of WPLG-TV's "This Week in South Florida" with Michael Putney. Satz, in this office since his 1976 election, was simultaneously imperious and condescending in his treatment of energetic and well-informed Democratic primary opponent Chris Mancini, who hammered Satz over how truly backwards the SAO office is, and their third-rate website has proven this for years, as I know well. Overall, Satz's appearance was like a giant finger-in-the-eye to anyone in Broward who has been paying close attention to how consistently unsuccessful his office has been in rousting public corruption out from City Halls across this county, the most-corrupt in Florida. The FBI has been doing the real heavy-lifting on that, not Satz and his office. Maybe the FBI should come to Hallandale Beach because Satz's office is either ignoring what's right in front of him or hibernating.

Vote NO on Miami Herald's sorry 2012 local and state election coverage. Here's more proof of why you should vote thumbs down...

Question: What do Broward State's Attorney Michael "Mike" Satz and Florida state Rep. Joseph "Joe" Gibbons have in common, besides both being Democrats who (claim) to live full-time in Broward County?

The anti-Gibbons mailer I received in August from his opponent.

Satz does, Gibbons does not, preferring the Jacksonville area where his wife works and his kids live, but it's Satz's job to prosecute Gibbons for breaking the law, isn't it?
Yep!
Guess what? Satz doesn't want to, so residents of SE Broward like me get to be repped by a guy whose head is really in NE Florida, where his family is, not Broward, and occasional drop-in appearances like his this past Saturday among people waiting in line to vote, can't hide that central fact.

It'll be yet another grim reminder of where we live and what passes for journalism in South Florida in the year 2012.

Answer: What they have in common is that the Miami Herald's editorial board endorsed both  carpetbagger Joe Gibbons of Jacksonville and over-the-hill mediocrity Mike Satz BEFORE the newspaper ever printed a single article about their respective races. 

Then, slipshod Herald editors thought they'd pull a fast one on us and ran a thread-bare story.

Yes, but days AFTER the August Primary Early Voting period had already started! 

As usual, too little too late at One Herald Plaza. 

For the entire time that Putney, Satz and Mancini were on the same set, Satz never once looked at Mancini when he was speaking, even when at great length, which this shows. He channeled Al Gore in the 2000 debates. Did he honestly have no idea how badly he came across to the public. I've watched this entire segment 3-4 times and each time, Satz comes off worse than the previous time. Since Mancini lost in the primary, I'll be voting for Jim Lewis for State's Attorney, as 36 years of Satz is enough.

If Hallandale Beach voters get the reform they want on Tuesday, Broward IG John W. Scott and Broward State's Attorney Mike Satz better get busy, because a letter to Gov. Rick Scott and some key FL legislators about Satz' & Company's INEFFECTIVENESS in cleaning-up corruption here will hammer them but good.

And maybe even lead to an invitation to Gov. Scott and others to come here for a tour of the place where laws are treated like suggestions, and where Joe Gibbons pretends he doesn't know anything at all about what's been going on here.

(But Gibbons doesn't want to admit that it's because the Jacksonville paper he reads at breakfast doesn't run Hallandale Beach news!)

Perhaps the state legislature and pro-ethics Senator Paula Dockery needs to hold a field hearing in Hallandale Beach on the subject of government ethics to hold some Broward elected officials' feet to the fire.

Hmm-m...
I know whom I'd like to see her invite!

Hallandale Beach's political corruption is hiding in plain sight -"Your Tax Dollars at Work" Hallandale Beach CRA (City Commission) Says Hands Off to Broward Inspector General; Mayor Joy Cooper's stonewalling initiative begins in earnest, since the true facts are NOT her friend

The iconic Hallandale Beach Water Tower on State Road A1A/South Ocean Drive, looking east towards the North Beach Community Center and the public beach. July 12, 2010 photo by South Beach Hoosier. © 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

Hallandale Beach's political corruption is hiding in plain sight -"Your Tax Dollars at Work" Hallandale Beach CRA (City Commission) Says Hands Off to Broward Inspector General; Mayor Joy Cooper's stonewalling initiative begins in earnest, since the facts are NOT her friends

I was already planning on writing this email to Florida Governor Rick Scott, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, Broward Inspector General John W. Scott, Broward County Commissioners Suzanne Gunzburger and Barbara Sharief -who each represent parts of Hallandale Beach- and the de facto County mayor, John Rodstrom, as well as some prominent members of the local South Florida news media, including Miami Herald Executive Editor Rick Hirsch about the unbelievable news that Hallandale Beach City Hall is actually considering defying a lawful request by the Broward IG's office to talk to HB's five city  commissioners and city employees.

But when I received an email from HB Comm. Keith London -a commissioner who actually wants to talk to them about what he knows and has observed over five years, and who wants to find out was REALLY going on- letting me know that there was yet another new development -more active pushback by HB City Hall, which wants to know the questions that will be asked beforehand to the commissioners and officials, people who have resisted telling the truth to a lawfully-authorized government agency whose creation was enthusiastically supported by Broward voters fed-up with the pervasive culture of corruption here, the most-corrupt in the entire state.

You get a full sense of how truly absurd and upside-down this city's government is, and this request is, if you try to think of a single film/TV crime and police drama that you've ever seen where the police, prosecutors or investigators revealed the questions they'd ask to a defendant's defense attorney BEFORE an interview with the client.
Really, just think about that for a minute.
That's the sort of people that HB citizens are used to having decide their city's future.
Is it any wonder they're angry?


Broward Bulldog
Broward Inspector General hits first legal hurdle; Hallandale CRA says hands off
By William Gjebre, BrowardBulldog.org 
June 27, 2012 AT 6:25 AM
http://www.browardbulldog.org/2012/06/broward-inspector-general-hits-first-legal-hurdle-hallandale-cra-says-hands-off/

After I read that article, I decided that I'd go ahead and send that email on Wednesday rather than wait until Thursday afternoon, in case any of them got an early start on the Fourth of July holidays.
The last thing I wanted was for my email to ferment in someone's email inbox for a week.

Below is the email that was sent to these named individuals, along with about 75 other interested parties in Hallandale Beach, Broward County and the state capital up in Tallahassee, which for those of you who are reading this far from me here in south Florida, is about the same distance from Miami as 

Roughly 95% of the people in this community have never been to Tallahassee for more than a few minutes while driving thru, and distance from the state capital here often accounts for why things in South Florida often get quite bad before the state (in the form of the governor or attorney general) is forced to act and do something because of both facts and circumstances.

-----
FYI: re corruption in plain sight -"Your Tax Dollars at Work" Hallandale Beach CRA (City Commission) Says Hands Off to Broward Inspector General

In the near future I'll be sending some of you a copy of my formal Ethics complaint to the Florida Commission on Ethics against Hallandale Beach City Manager Mark A. Antonio.

That will include the proof of his self-evident serial copyright violation, wherein photos taken by me and uploaded to my blog, have and continue to be used illegally by the City of Hallandale Beach on their official website, used unlawfully and posted in city hall offices, as well as illegally modifying those images for their own use on official city documents.

Most galling of all, though, has been to see my work being used illegally on the front of their distributed city maps!

(See my July 12, 2010 photo at top that is on those maps.)

All of this has been done without EVER seeking my permission or paying for the use of my proprietary rights.

This has been going on for more than a year now, and despite my pointedly telling Antonio at a public meeting that what he was doing was illegal, to stop his illegal activity and do the right thing -which I have video of- Antonio and the city have done nothing.

City Manager Antonio has, instead, continued to act like there's nothing that I as a citizen can do to prevent him and the city from continuing to engage in clearly illegal behavior and to use something they have stolen.

As you'll soon see, though, actually, there is.

Antonio and the city are about to learn that stealing doesn't pay, especially when you are so obvious and clumsy about your theft and continued illegal behavior.

But then our great misfortune in Hallandale Beach the past few years has been that THAT has

been the city's template for so many things done here, and who in a position of authority did anything about it?

After the Fourth of July holidays, I'll be visiting the Office of the Broward States Attorney as well as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, complete with all the evidence that connects -the-dots on the copyright matter, the veritable ribbon on the box.

I'll also be offering my assistance to the investigators and agents in charge of discovering where all the taxpayer money and CRA funds went in this city without any reasonable oversight, documentation or proscribed follow-up, to facilitate crony capitalism among friends of City Hall, including the faux newspaper.

My latest thoughts on the continuing issue of the Broward Inspector General's investigation into the illegal and corrupt practices of the City of Hallandale Beach, and their steadfast refusal to cooperate, were posted yesterday morning:

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/06/cornered-pious-comm-anthony-sanders.html 

One last thought: Some of you, and you know exactly who you are, have greatly disappointed the beleaguered citizens of this community by your continued refusal to get engaged, and even worse, they are completely put off by your continuing to pretend that you don't know anything at all about what has been going on in this city for YEARS.

This didn't just happen overnight.

For those of you for whom this rings true, it would be a big mistake for you to continue to believe that ignoring the sad reality faced by citizens in this city, and the facts-on-the-ground, will somehow work to your long-term benefit.

They won't.

Trust me, though it may be the summer, people in this community are paying close attention to just whom is doing, saying and reporting on what has been transpiring, and that is especially true about them scrutinizing people who are consciously choosing to say and DO nothing at all.

We won't forget.

Sincerely,

DBS, 8-year Hallandale Beach resident

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Commissioner Keith S. London <newsletter@keithlondonformayor.com>
Date: Wed, Jun 27, 2012 at 10:10 AM
Subject: "Your Tax Dollars at Work" CRA Says Hands Off to IG

Broward Inspector General hits first legal hurdle; Hallandale CRA says hands off Filed under Hallandale Beach {one comment} By William Gjebre, BrowardBulldog.org  Hallandale Beach’s Community Redevelopment Agency, run by the city’s five elected commissioners, has sent a message to Broward’s new Inspector General’s Office – you can’t touch us. Numerous questions have been raised about the business dealings of the CRA, in which city commissioners also serve as directors of the agency. To read the complete article click here. At least one city commissioner disagrees with the CRA’s position. “The IG does have jurisdiction,” said London, who is running for mayor against incumbent Joy Cooper. A part of the state law, he said, speaks to the mingling of city and state funds and that would give the investigators authority. If called by the IG, London said, “I’ll go; I look forward to it.” One Comments Post a Comment FrustratedInHallandale June 27, 2012 at 9:31 am City Manager said “On our part, we need more information as to why the Inspector General wants to interview commissioners.” Where do you want to start: Buying Sanders property for over the appraised value in a down market? The purchase NEVER being an official agenda item? Jessica Sanders signing her own time sheets? Why is Jessica Sanders in the Hepburn Center, is she a city employee? Giving $50,000 of Weed and Seed money to Jessica Sanders and PCAC never an agenda item? Properties bought with CRA funds and titled in the Cities name? Who voted for all the above items? “On our part, we need more information as to why the Inspector General wants to interview commissioners. There needs to be some structure; what do they want to discuss.” said the City Manager. City Manager, City Attorney, and CRA Attorney can you start with just the above questions? Keeping you informed, Keith Commissioner Keith S. London

Phone: 954-494-3182 613 Oleander Drive Hallandale Beach, FL 33009 email: keith@keithlondon.comwww.keithlondon.com Political Advertisement paid for and approved by Keith S. London for Hallandale Beach Mayor, Non Partisan

Kathleen Haughney on (semi-remorseful) Gov. Rick Scott and his tweaking of his much-criticized policy on public records requests

Kathleen Haughney on (semi-remorseful) Gov. Rick Scott and his tweaking of his much-criticized policy on public records requests, a topic near and dear to my heart and many of my friends, and what the First Amendment Foundation thinks.

Compare and contrast the amount of time the State of Florida employees will spend on getting your information before charging you -or the Florida Dept. of Law Enforcement- and what the City of Hallandale Beach does.

And the rate you pay.

Guess who charges the most money for the least amount of effort spent fulfilling your request?

Just saying...

Orlando Sentinel

Central Florida Political Pulse blog

Scott tweaks public record policy

posted by Kathleen Haughney on July, 21 2011 1:40 PM

TALLAHASSEE – Amid criticism from the media and open government advocates, Gov. Rick Scott has tweaked the open records policy that he put into place shortly after taking office, making it slightly cheaper to obtain public records.

Read the rest of the post at:

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2011/07/scott-tweaks-public-record-policy.html

------

See the Penn State grad's two personal sites: ByKathleenHaughney: Mixing political reporting and new media daily

http://bykathleenhaughney.com/

and

More Than Easy Mac, http://morethaneasymac.wordpress.com/

http://twitter.com/#!/khaughney

-----

Palm Beach Post

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/state/charging-maximum-for-public-records-right-thing-to-1576261.html

Charging maximum for public records ‘right thing to do,’ Gov. Scott says

By Dara Kam

Palm Beach Post Capital Bureau

Updated: 11:07 p.m. Friday, July 1, 2011

Posted: 11:00 p.m. Friday, July 1, 2011

Gov. Rick Scott defended his administration’s public records policy to a roomful of media executives Friday at the annual meeting of the Florida Press Association and Florida Society of Newspaper Editors.

Journalists have criticized Scott for charging more for public records than his predecessor, Charlie Crist, who provided most documents for free. Scott is charging the maximum amount allowed under Florida’s broad Sunshine Law, including costs for his legal staff to scrub the documents of private information.

The number of requests “has skyrocketed” since Scott took office in January, he said.

“Part of my job is to make sure we don’t waste taxpayers’ money,” Scott said. “It costs us money to do it. We pass that cost on. It’s the right thing to do.”

Scott said he plans to put more records on the Internet but did not elaborate. His office already has posted records his staff has generated — including databases of state employees’ salaries and state workers with pensions worth at least $100,000.

As Scott spoke, dozens of demonstrators protesting his economic agenda shouted “Pink Slip Rick” across the street from the waterfront Renaissance Vinoy hotel.

After his remarks, the governor fielded a few questions.

On signing his first death warrant Thursday night, Scott said, “I prayed about it.”

Scott ordered Manuel Valle, convicted of the 1978 murder of Coral Gables police officer Luis Pena, put to death on Aug. 2.

“This was the most appropriate case,” Scott said. “He killed a law enforcement officer. He attempted to kill another law enforcement officer. ... It’s a hard decision, but it’s the right thing to do.”

Scott also said he supports allowing private vendors to operate RV campgrounds within some state parks.

The St. Petersburg Times reported this week that state officials want to add new overnight camping sites to 58 state parks — including space for recreational vehicles. Officials say the existing park campgrounds are typically booked solid.

Opposition to the private camps is rising from environmentalists and operators of private campgrounds neighboring the parks.

“The reason we have parks is so people will use them,” Scott said.

-------

Miami Herald

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/07/01/2295823/scott-steps-into-lions-den-to.html

Scott steps ’into lion’s den’ to address newspaper editors

By Michael C. Bender, Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau

July 1, 2011

Standing in front of many of Florida’s newspaper editors for the first time Friday, Gov. Rick Scott said charging for public records was more important than the chilling effect the policy could have on scrutiny of state government.

“Part of my job is to make sure I don’t waste taxpayer money,” Scott said at the Florida Press Association/Florida Society of News Editors annual meeting.

The appearance was a departure for the governor. Since inserting himself into the state’s political discussion 15 months ago, Scott has declined interview requests from nearly all newspaper editorial boards, a traditional stopping point for all candidates.

But Scott said Friday he’s rethinking his boycott.

“I’d like to sit down with editorial boards,” Scott said in an exclusive interview with Bay News 9, a Tampa Bay TV station.

The change comes as Scott has increased his media exposure since May, when a Quinnipiac University poll showed fewer than one in three Florida voters approved of his job performance. It was among the worst ratings of any governor in the country.

Scott remains controversial: He was greeted by about 100 protesters outside the Vinoy Renaissance Resort.

But while he says the low ratings don’t bother him, Scott has made a conscious effort to reverse his poll numbers. He has used the Republican Party of Florida to phone voters with pre-recorded messages trumpeting his accomplishments and recently asked supporters to send pre-written letters of praise to newspaper opinion pages.

Despite a flurry of news Scott made Thursday and Friday — he gave his blessing to the controversial SunRail project, signed his first death warrant and signed an overhaul of the state’s Medicaid program — half of the six questions Scott fielded from the newspaper group were about new fees for public records and the perception that he is not as transparent as he promised from the campaign trail.

“It costs us money to do it,” Scott said of the charges. “We pass that cost on. It’s the right thing to do.”

Scott said his communications staff was working to put more records online. Asked if he would post records that have already been requested, Scott said that was “a good idea.”

“That’s what we’ll be doing,” he said.

Scott says the number of record requests has “skyrocketed” since he took office and open government advocates agree that no other governor has received as many public record requests as Scott.

Scott has received 743 requests for records in six months, or about four per day. About 90 percent of those requests have been fulfilled, Scott’s office reported.

But there has been wide disagreement over why new fees were created.

While Scott says it’s to cover the costs of duplication and redaction, public records experts say its an attempt to create additional hurdles for the public and the press.

Brian Crowley, a Palm Beach County-based political blogger and a Florida First Amendment Foundation board member, recently noted that Scott charged more ($784.84) for one week of emails to and from his communications director, Brian Burgess, than Alaska charged ($725.27) to produce two years of former Gov. Sarah Palin’s e-mails.

St. Petersburg Times political editor Adam C. Smith contributed to this report.

BP oil spill remediation funds: Birds gotta fly, fish gotta swim, little towns gotta spend money like crazy like... well, little towns. And South FL?

Entering Miami-Dade County sign on south-bound U.S.-1/Biscayne Blvd., Aventura, coming out of Hallandale Beach. Aventura Hospital on the right. November 16, 2010 photo by South Beach Hoosier.


Birds gotta fly, fish gotta swim, little towns gotta spend money like crazy like... well, little towns...
Like many of you out there reading this post today, I'm really looking forward to finding out where the BP remediation funds sent to Miami-Dade and Broward Counties -that saw no oil- actually wind-up being spent.


Given the long and well-chronicled tradition in South Florida of our elected officials and municipal/county leaders' outside-the-box thinking when it comes to ways of treating themselves (and their pals) like kings and queens, with money that's supposed to be spent in very specific ways -for instance, money for environmental code enforcement getting squandered by cocky and patronizing Miami-Dade cops on TVs, see below- I wait with baited breath to see which local print or TV reporters are first to expose how the money was spent down here in ways that only raise more questions about the character and caliber of the people making those decisions.

-----
St. Petersburg Times
BP buys Gulf Coast millions in gear
By Michael Kunzelman, Mike Schneider and Melinda Deslatte
Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Tasers. Brand-new SUVs. A top-of-the-line iPad. A fully loaded laptop. In the year since the Gulf oil spill, officials along the coast have gone on a spending spree with BP money, dropping tens of millions of dollars on gadgets and other gear - much of which had little to do with the cleanup, an Associated Press investigation shows.

The oil giant opened its checkbook while the crisis was still unfolding last spring and poured hundreds of millions of dollars into Gulf Coast communities with few strings attached.

Read the rest of the article at:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_GULF_OIL_SPILL_SPENDING_SPREE?SITE=FLPET&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

-----

Orlando Sentinel
Central Florida Politcal Pulse blog
BP gives NW Fla $30 M
Posted by khaughney on April, 11 2011 11:54 AM
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2011/04/bp-gives-nw-fla-30-m.html

-----
Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/01/13/2015129/miami-dade-police-wont-repay-misspent.html

Miami-Dade police won't repay misspent environmental funds

By Matthew Haggman

January 13, 2011

The Miami-Dade Police Department is acknowledging it misspent funds meant to fight environmental crime on flat-screen TVs, SUVs and firearms.

"Clearly inappropriate,'' Police Director James Loftus says.

But putting the money back into the green funds, as the county's inspector general has requested? Not so fast.

"No, we are not,'' county police spokeswoman Nancy Perez said.

Miami-Dade Inspector General Christopher Mazzella said in a recent memo to Mayor Carlos Alvarez that the police have adopted many of his recommended fixes, following a scathing IG audit that found the police used two environmental trust funds as a kitty for pricey purchases with little connection to environmental crime-fighting.

But the police department is flatly rebuffing two IG recommendations: that it stop using green-fund money to pay expenses such as monthly cellphone and aircard bills, and that it repay the misused public dollars.

"We continue to stand by our original recommendations that the Trust Funds be reimbursed,'' Mazzella said in a Dec. 21 memo to Alvarez.

The police department isn't obligated to follow the IG's recommendations, unless the mayor or the county commission act. And there's little push coming from the county executive's office.

Mayoral spokeswoman Victoria Mallette would only say in a statement that "administrative procedures have been strengthened.'' When pressed whether the mayor thinks county police should pay up, she referred questions to Loftus and hung up.

The standoff is the latest chapter in a scandal that erupted last year over county stewardship of funds that were meant to combat polluters. Instead, amid "overall chaotic administration,'' the funds were steered to "excessive, unreasonable, or unnecessary'' purchases, the IG audit found.

The IG's inquiry, following a Miami Herald series last year that detailed dubious spending, focused on nearly $6 million spent from 2000 to 2009 from two funds: the South Florida Environmental Task Force Trust Fund and Florida Environmental Task Force Trust Fund.

More than $1.1 million was spent on vehicle-related expenses, including the purchase of 23 SUVs and trucks that went to top brass rather than environmental investigators working in remote areas. Another $1.1 million went for cellphones used, in many cases, by officials in non-environmental departments.

Three Sharp 52-inch flat screen TVs were snapped up for about $6,000. Nearly $35,000 was spent on 30 Smith & Wesson M&P-15 rifles and holographic sights. Police justified the firearms on the grounds that an environmental investigator might encounter "a wildlife poacher armed with a high-powered rifle.''

Three Segways were bought for $25,000. One was used periodically to patrol MDPD's suburban headquarters, and two were found "sitting unused in a warehouse,'' auditors found.

The episode served as an embarrassment for embattled Mayor Alvarez, who is facing a recall vote on March 15.

Division Chief Frank Vecin, a close ally and supporter of Mayor Alvarez, was in charge of fund spending. At one point, Alvarez was ferried around in a Chevy Tahoe purchased with green-fund money. The county mayor later returned the automobile, saying he didn't know it was bought with funds meant to fight polluters.

The revelations of fund mismanagement prompted the retirement of Vecin.

"The IG believes the funds were managed improperly,'' said C. Michael Cornely, Vecin's attorney. "It was their opinion. To me, the IG justifies its existence by looking for things and making issues out of things that are not really an issue.''

The two environmental funds, created in 2000 by the county commission and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, were established to help fight polluters in South Florida, which the county has called a "drum dump capital.'' Funding sources included fines and court judgments.

Police director Loftus -- named to the top job in February, after spending questions were already being raised -- now says new money will not be accepted into the two funds. The remaining balance in the accounts is $1.5 million.

In defending his position that the police department need not repay the misspent dollars, Loftus contends that over the life of the trust funds, the department paid some $27 million out of its general fund for the salaries and benefits of officers and directors working environmental investigations -- that, in sum, the contribution of personnel costs far offset the questioned expenses.

Mazzella responded that the trust fund money was "to augment, not replace'' general funds.

If they police were to repay for misspending, the precise amount isn't clear, though the August audit provides a road map.

"We left it to the police to determine what was justified, and repay what was not,'' said Mazzella.

Miami Herald staff writer Martha Brannigan contributed to this report.

In case you live outside of South Florida and are reading this and wondering if the sort of inappropriate behavior by law enforcement officials -described above in such great detail by Matthew Haggman- is common, and whether the cumulative effect of such moral and intellectual laxness was a factor in the successful recall from office of former M-D mayor Carlos Alvarez last month, the answer to both questions is YES.

-----
Not that you asked but the BP station in Aventura on Biscayne Blvd. & N.E. 211th Street, across from Aventura Hospital and near the Venezuelan Target, is my favorite service station in the area to use, as I've probably only used a different operator maybe five times in the past year. They are always clean, efficient and extremely well-lit at night, which is more than I can say for many other service stations in SE Broward/NE Miami-Dade.

Plus, they usually have copies of the NY Times available when other places are already out.

Michael Butler's knowing retort to mayor Joy Cooper's blather in Miami Herald. When you know the true facts about her reign of ruin...

acts of sedition: Scotchy scotch scotch
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QYvRlQG9Qc

My friend Michael Butler has posted a pithy and knowing retort to Hallandale Beach mayor Joy Cooper's blather in the Miami Herald titled We want to work with the governor. http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/02/06/2052839/we-want-to-work-with-the-governor.html

Her words served as the jumping-off point for my later blog post here on Monday titled simply, There's what Joy Cooper says -and there's reality. Here's a dose of reality to chew over; What does Jessica Sanders do exactly? http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/theres-what-joy-cooper-says-and-theres.html

Michael's response in total:

Mayor Cooper says "...a city has a unique bond with its citizens."

Hallandale sued me because of a PRR I made for her BCC email address list, from an email signed Mayor Cooper and the title of which was "State of the City". Is that the "unique bond to which she refers?"

Mayor Cooper talks about fiscal responsibility but presided over a period where the city's budget doubled to $100 million, added $28 million debt (a 20-fold increase!), and blew through $35 million of a $50 million financial reserve.

How do these facts square with her "fiscal accountability and responsibility, making government smarter, and fiscal responsibility for the future?"

She's wrecked the city's finances. Visit ChangeHallandale.com

As some of you readers know, despite my personally notifying several -I repeat, several- Miami Herald reporters, editors and top management personnel over several months about the city's lawsuit filed against Michael at the behest of a petulant Mayor Cooper, for his simply exercising his right under the Sunshine Laws of the Florida Constitution to avail himself of public information, the Herald NEVER wrote about the situation at the time it was occurring.
And the same goes for Miami's local TV stations, who just yawned collectively.

This, despite the fact that the case illustrated to a perfect degree the extent to which South Florida municipalities have been running circles around concerned citizens attempting to get public information they were entitled to, by intentionally obfuscating the truth and refusing to comply with state law, FOR YEARS.

The Herald and local TV stations have NEVER made any reference to the case despite plenty of opportunities.

IF I wanted to, I could name the people at the Herald and local TV stations who knew all the pertinent facts and still chose not to do anything about it, but why mention people who have done nothing to bring credit to themselves?

IF you want to know why so many well-informed people in South Florida have given up on the Miami Herald as a viable news source for information they use in their daily lives, consider their curious lack of curiosity when given a compelling news story on a silver platter.
Instead of seeing the possibilities, they looked askance and acted bored.

-----
My previous posts on Michael and our collective efforts to bring genuine accountability and transparency to Hallandale Beach, Florida can be found at: http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/search/label/Michael%20Butler

-----

Chaz Stevens
http://www.myactsofsedition.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/actsofsedition

Sorry, discerning news consumers in FL aren't buying the self-pity being sold by Tallahassee-based media re Gov. Rick Scott, the anti (Charlie) Crist

I've been waiting a bit to drop this post of mine just to see if there was any more secondary coverage of this story about new Florida governor Rick Scott and the expectations, assumptions and presumptions of the Tallahassee-based media that covers the Florida legislature, the governor's office and what passes for Junior Varsity political intrigue and machinations.

I figured I'd give it about a week and a week has come and gone, so here we are.

Excerpt from my email of January 31st titled SunshineStateNews.com: Gov. Rick Scott, Hero; Press Corps, Zero

Below, a variation of the story that received prominent coverage last week in the Miami Herald and the St. Pete Times and several other places around the state, all to little practical effect

You remember, the story about the last-minute dinner at the Governor's Mansion, where the person chosen to be the 'pool reporter' had other plans and said nyet, throwing 'journalism' into a tailspin?

Meanwhile, no matter how many facts and photos I use to persuade South Florida print or TV reporters to express any curiosity at all about a public building in Hallandale Beach -just steps from the beach- that has only been open three times to the public in what will be 42 months on Thursday, and for which hundreds of thousands of Hallandale Beach taxpayer dollars has been spent, and no doubt, wasted, reporters just yawn.

With one exception, Stefan Kamph Hallandale Beach's North Beach Facility Might Finally Open, After Four Years
http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/juice/2011/01/hallandale_beach_north_beach_opening.php

That, after all this incompetency, the the city manger here has pledged to keep it closed to the taxpayers of this city is the ultimate insult, but to local reporters, they just roll their eyes at this news, one more fact they could care less about.

It's a story which if it happened in Coral Gables or Miami Beach would've been on the front page of the Herald's very loosely-edited State & Local section, perhaps with some critical comments later in the editorial page asking with mock dismay, who elected the unelected City Manger, Mark Antonio, to keep a public building closed to the public?

But because it's not located in those cities, it wasn't the predicate to a zinging editorial that lowered-the-boom on Antonio and HB City Hall.

It's the news story that never happened, the one that so perfectly illustrates the dilemma for Hallandale Beach citizen taxpayers -caught between the longstanding incompetency and anti-democratic nature of HB City Hall officials, pols and their cronies, and a press corps that doesn't even pretend to be curious.

But now, I'm supposed to care about a meal at the governor's mansion, featuring some people I've never heard of?
No sale.

-------

Miami Herald
Scott's media limits upset journalists
By Michelle Morgante Associated Press
January 20, 2011

TALLAHASSEE- Journalists who cover Florida's capital complained to industry leaders Tuesday that the new administration of Gov. Rick Scott is skirting free-press traditions and attempting to control their work by limiting access to events and being slow to provide public records.

Speaking to the board of the Florida Society of News Editors, nine Tallahassee correspondents said Scott's team is imposing an unprecedented level of control over access to Scott and to events that previously would have been considered open. The governor's office also has tried to "cherry-pick'' reporters to provide pooled reports to the rest of the press corps, instead of allowing the journalists to choose.

Bob Rathgeber, senior staff writer for The News-Press of Fort Myers, said Scott, a former healthcare executive, apparently wants to continue operating as if he were still in the private sector, not public office.

"He doesn't care whether we have complaints or not,'' Rathgeber said. "He's from the private sector and he's a private guy.''

The journalists pointed to several examples, including a post-inauguration reception held on the scenic 22nd floor of the state Capitol, where Scott's staff restricted access to a select few.

The event was in a public building and the entire state Legislature had been invited, noted Mary Ellen Klas of The Miami Herald. "That, on its surface, struck me as a public meeting. . . . There's no reason they should be shutting the public out.''

But Klas and others, including an AP reporter, were booted out. The reporters said Scott's staff said a pooled report would be provided and argued that the journalists had accepted the arrangement. She and the other reporters speaking Tuesday said they'd never accepted such a deal. Pool reports typically are only agreed to when space is unavoidably limited, such as aboard an airplane, and the selection of the journalist is made by the participating media groups.

A voice message and an e-mail seeking reaction Tuesday from Scott's communications director, Brian Burgess, were not immediately answered.

The reporters also pointed to an incident last week, when Scott and several lawmakers gathered at the governor's mansion for a dinner. Scott's staff made no announcement about the dinner but, upon deciding the press should be alerted, quickly sought a reporter to provide a pooled report.

Dave Royse, executive editor of the News Service of Florida, said he was invited to be the pool reporter although the dinner was nearly over. He could not accept, but offered a reporter from his staff in his place. When that reporter was rejected, Royse said he declined to participate for ethical reasons.

The party being covered "can't pick and choose the reporter,'' he said. The correspondents said they would consider creating terms for pooled reports, such as an ordered list of reporters to be called on. But Paul Flemming, state editor for Gannett's Florida bureau, cautioned against encouraging greater use of pools: "I think it's dangerous to go down a pool path at all.''

Jim Baltzelle, FSNE president and Florida chief of bureau for The Associated Press, said the incidents raised concern about the freedom of the press. He said FSNE would consider how to formally respond.

Aaron Deslatte, Tallahassee bureau chief for the Orlando Sentinel, said he's been given very little access to the governor because during Scott's campaign, his staff considered the newspaper "hostile.'' He said his only recourse has been to make several requests for public records. But the administration, he said, has been slow to respond and, in one case, said it would charge him $400 for printing by an outsourced provider even though Deslatte said the information is available electronically.

There are currently 51 reader comments at:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/01/19/2022456/scotts-media-limits-upset-journalists.html

A more realistic view of what transpired -or didn't- with some well-chosen sarcasm, was expressed elsewhere.

SunshineStateNews.com
Gov. Rick Scott, Hero; Press Corps, Zero

By Nancy Smith
Posted: January 31, 2011 3:55 AM

Thank God we found out Thursday night that the governor and his guests "dined on mesquite grilled swordfish, corn macque choux, and Florida strawberry shortcake."

Or did they?

Can the people of Florida be absolutely sure? What if diners were really inside that mansion chowing down on roast beef, spinach casserole and English trifle?

How might that have torpedoed the ship of state?

Read the rest of this spot-on post at:
http://www.sunshinestatenews.com/story/governor-rick-scott-hero-press-corps-zero


See also:
http://www.flgov.com/
http://www.flgov.com/news-releases/
http://www.myflorida.com/