Will upcoming NHL owner's lockout affect the $7.7 million loan from Broward County to Florida Panthers owner Michael Yormark, which he's clearly counting on to prop him up?

Below is a slightly-edited version of an email that I sent this afternoon to Broward County Administrator Bertha Henry, along with some other links that some of you may find of use if you are NOT already up-to-speed on the issue at hand, which, long story short, is a very unsuccessful professional sports franchise getting a multi-million dollar loan from a government entity who also happens to be their landlord.

When and if I hear from Ms. Henry in the near-future with respect to some answers to my questions, I'll share here what she had to say about what's going on with Michael R. Yormark and the Florida Panthers at the newly-renamed BB&T Center in suburban Sunrise, far from most of South Florida, out near The Everglades.

The reason I decided to even write the email and post it here is because of the continuing popularity in South Florida and other NHL cities of a February post of mine about some eye-opening video of Florida Panthers CEO Michael Yormark dodging some very reasonable questions by Channel 10's Bob Norman at the Broward County Govt. Center moments after the County Commission meeting, which I watched online.

Some of you who pay attention to such things may well say, correctly, that this video presages the amazing video weeks later in the same building of Broward attorney, flack and lobbyist Bernie Friedman revealing his true nature, and thinking somehow that his clever remarks have more weight than video of what he is doing and saying. 

Yes, the infamous elevator kerfuffle which played out exactly as these things so often do, with the predictable 'kill the messenger ' waterfall of words in the readers comments from staunch liberal Democratic activist and lobbyist Seth Platt, where he posted at least 8 separate posts, as if somehow seven was not enough.

Well, now we now all over again that "Eight is Enough," with Seth Platt in the Grant Goodeve role. Like a certain political commissar here in HB, reading Platt is like water torture. 
Platt seems to be the "Tokyo Rose" of Broward County political social media, at once both everywhere, but also with nothing of substance to say that you're really interested in, instead, also the very picture of a tone-deaf self-promoter.   

If you have not see those two videos, they're really 'must-see' in every respect, and I can tell you with certainty that if Channel 10 embedded their news segments, they'd have been anchors on this blog within minutes of them first airing.
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Will the upcoming NHL owners lockout affect the $7.7 million loan from Broward County to Florida Panthers owner Michael Yormark, which he's clearly counting on to prop him up?

Dear Ms. Henry:

Are the Florida Panthers and Michael Yormark still legally entitled to the $7.7 million loan from Broward County if, legally, they're NOT a going concern as of the start of the NHL season on October 13th?

During the upcoming strike, which is, of course, more properly called an owner's "lockout," since Mr. Yormark's company will NOT be offering the public a product, service or benefit -or honoring tickets already sold to ticket holders (taxpayers) of this county- if those funds have NOT already been disbursed, wouldn't it be prudent to place them in an escrow account now so that they can't be used to stanch the expected financial bleeding in Plantation once the season comes with no games

being played?

If you have some time this weekend, you might want to peruse his Twitter feed.

http://twitter.com/PanthersYormark

Do you want to know a name that rarely if ever appears on his Twitter feed? 

It's "Broward."

Yes, it's true.

Also rarely appearing there: Ft. Lauderdale or Plantation, where the team plays...

In fact, none of those names have so much as appeared once since July if then.

I stopped looking when they weren't mentioned since at least July 31st.  

When you read it you see rather quickly that his is a lifestyle that's full of trips on private luxury jets and expensive steak houses and reading books on business leadership, as if reading about it was a substitute for doing it.

All this after he asks for a handout of over $7 million from taxpayer's elected officials that in my opinion could have been MUCH better used. 

Say, well, for something that visiting tourists to Broward County would actually benefit from, and tell their friends about so they'd come down for a visit, too.

Look at me and my old-fashioned notions about how tourist bed taxes ought to be used!

No wonder I'm not flying on private jets these days and chowing-down at expensive steak houses in LA, NY and Vegas like Yormark and deducting it as a business expense.

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Perhaps you were one of the persons in South Florida who got this email from me seven months ago... All links still work.

Date: Fri, Feb 3, 2012 at 2:53 AM
Subject: FYI re WPLG-TV/Miami video: The BankAtlantic shuffle: Florida Panthers president doesn't

want to answer questions about $7.7 million sweetheart loan from Broward County

This video from the Thursday night 6 pm newscast is the perfect follow-up to my previous emails

on this subject, 

http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/broward/blog/2012/01/broward_gives_panthers_a_win_o.html

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/fl-broward-panthers-loan-20120131,0,635932.story

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/florida-panthers/fl-panthers-loan-newdeal-20120130,0,7432033.story

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/fl-arena-waste-watch-broward-20120117,0,7670061.story

My favorite take away is from the last one:

Broward County has gotten the short end of the stick in its financial deal with the Florida Panthers, and a proposed loan would only tip the scales further, the county's auditor charges.

To date, the county has paid more than $90 million for the arena that serves as the Panthers' home, and gotten back just $331,000 in profit-sharing.

The Panthers side of the scoreboard is far brighter, according to county records. Since the doors at BankAtlantic Center opened 13 years ago, Arena Operating Co., the Panthers' sister company that runs the arena, has rung up a reported $117.4 million in profits. That's more than 353 times what the county has banked.

This absurd loan to the Florida Panthers, which is opposed by the Greater Ft. Lauderdale hospitality

industry, a preening, self-important and self-serving group to be sure, but one who has a much better

idea about what tourists do and do not want to do when they visit than the county commission, and

going to a Panthers game on the outskirts of The Everglades near nothing but a huge shopping mall

is NOT one of them.

But first, here's the Florida Panthers' tone-deaf Michael Yormark in a video from Forbes;
Yormark's the clown who who won't answer questions below.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/mikeozanian/2012/01/12/panthers-skate-towards-more-revenue/

The Channel 10 video, and the antics of the people shown, speaks for itself.

http://www.local10.com/news/blogs/bob-norman/The-BankAtlantic-shuffle/-/3223354/8582968/-/i3du6wz/-/

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Also see my post of early February, one of the most-popular of the year:
Bob Norman's must-see video of Florida Panthers president, who DOESN'T want to answer questions about $7.7 million sweetheart loan from Broward County"
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/02/bob-normans-must-see-video-of-florida.html

as well as these two pieces from Channel 10

Florida Panthers hockey prez a Twitter twit?
By Bob Norman
Published On: Apr 25 2012 08:28:07 AM EDT
http://www.local10.com/news/blogs/bobnorman/Florida-Panthers-hockey-prez-a-Twitter-twit/-/3223354/11810974/-/xg164e/-/index.html

WPLG Editorial: Fla. Panthers' Pres. rantings
Author: Dave Boylan, VP and General Manager of WPLG.

Published On: Apr 26 2012 11:59:27 AM EDT  

Updated On: Apr 26 2012 12:16:46 PM EDT

http://www.local10.com/station/WPLG-Editorial-Fla-Panthers-Pres-rantings/-/1716906/11983462/-/6r7i0rz/-/index.html

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Panthers skate on, despite uncertain labor future

By TIM REYNOLDS (AP Sports Writer)

September 14, 2012

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/panthers-skate-despite-uncertain-labor-172909851--nhl.html

http://nhl-red-light.si.com/

http://blogs.sun-sentinel.com/sports_hockey_panthers/

http://miamiherald.typepad.com/flapanthers/

http://wqam.com/fastfeed/florida-panthers 

What's the difference between clean and Broward taxpayers 'being taken to the cleaners'? Bob Norman & Brittany Wallman on firm charging Broward taxpayers a million dollars a month to clean-up Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport

Above, looking NW at the Broward County Government HQ at 115 S. Andrews Avenue, Ft. Lauderdale, FL. January 3, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

What's the difference between clean and Broward taxpayers 'being taken to the cleaners'? Bob Norman & Brittany Wallman on the firm charging Broward taxpayers a million dollars a month to clean-up Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport; 

WPLG-TV, Channel 10, Miami, FL

Broward Commission tosses low bid

By Bob Norman
Published On: May 02 2012 08:45:27 AM EDT  
Updated On: Jun 11 2012 11:58:07 AM EDT
http://www.local10.com/news/blogs/bob-norman/Broward-Commission-tosses-low-bid/-/3223354/12481944/-/6dnvn7z/-/index.html
Be sure read the reader comments!

Meanwhile, as the 13-month old Sun-Sentinel article below proves, just like the above, over a year ago, Seth Platt, supercilious flack-for-hire, and a living-and-breathing reminder of much of what currently ails the Broward Democratic Party with moderate voters, was trying to throw his light-weight around and kill the messenger.

In 2011, his target was Broward County Auditor Evan Lukic and in 2012 it's Bob Norman of Channel 10 who pops Platt Junior's balloon full of hot air, bombast and self-importance.

(This blog post today is one of the ones that got delayed by my bad service from AT&T last month, due to their server.) 

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2011-05-10/news/fl-janitorial-waste-20110509_1_cleaning-contract-airport-director-kent-george-county-auditor

South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Broward overpaid almost $1 million to clean airport, audit says

By Brittany Wallman, Sun Sentinel

May 10, 2011

FORT LAUDERDALE — Broward visitors overpaid almost $1 million to clean the airport over the 2008-09 budget years, and the county still pays more than other Florida airport authorities for janitorial work, the county auditor says.

The new audit raises an alarm about a $63 million cleaning contract the county has with Sunshine Cleaning Systems Inc. Its 280 workers wash windows, clean toilets, vacuum carpets, and clean parking garages and sidewalks at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

At about $7.56 of cleaning per square foot, Broward's airport is paying more than twice what Miami's airport pays for similar work, county auditor Evan Lukic says in the just-released audit.

Relatively little in Lukic's audit -- about $15,500 worth -- is tied to alleged overbillings by Sunshine Cleaning. Rather, the mistakes he points to, totaling $950,000, were the county's. And county officials, including Airport Director Kent George, say they'll accept responsibility.

"Our aviation personnel did not do a great job in administrating this contract,'' George said on Monday. "Changes have been made. And it won't happen again.''

County Administrator Bertha Henry wrote to commissioners in a memo Thursday that "the underlying cause for this problem is a combination of staff insufficiency and to a lesser extent, competency.''

County commissioners are scheduled to talk about the audit on Tuesday, though the company has asked for a postponement. They will also consider extending Sunshine's contracts to clean the library and the South Regional Courthouse.

The scope of the problem with the airport spreads beyond George's turf. Sunshine's contract was vetted by county purchasing director Brenda Billingsley, placed on the September 2008 county agenda for Lukic, Henry, county attorneys and others to review at the time, and then approved by county commissioners.

George said the audit didn't shake his support for Sunshine.

"The company's performance at the airport has been very, very acceptable,'' he said on Monday. "They have done a good job with an aging facility and a growing passenger base.''

The contract included annual 4.1 percent raises for the cleaners that were higher than they should have been, Lukic says.

Just a few weeks after the cleaning contract was approved, the county changed its Living Wage Ordinance in a way that could have saved taxpayers $950,000 on the cleaning contract. On top of that, Sunshine paid its employees the lower wage but got to keep the extra that the county paid, Lukic says in his audit.

Lobbyist-attorney George Platt, who represented Sunshine in the contract negotiations, said the county insisted on creating the deal the way it was. He said the extra money was spent on employee benefits.

"It's just wonderful you can have a Monday-morning quarterback who was on the field and is now finding fault with a process he was part of,'' Platt said.

In the Thursday memo to commissioners, Henry says, "gaps still remain'' in county staff's ability to watch over contracts.

She asked staff to review the way the contracts are negotiated and said she will report their findings in 90 days. She also said she agrees with Lukic that the airport cleaning contract must be put back out for competitive bids.

Here's what happened, according to those involved: Inflation was so high when the cleaning contract was in the works, at 5.8 percent, that the county was afraid to pay for a contract that used the Living Wage Ordinance as its basis. The county's Living Wage was tied directly to increases in inflation.

So Sunshine agreed to pay $13.24 an hour in wages the first year, with a flat 4.1 percent raise each of the next four years. The contract was approved on Sept. 16, 2008.

Weeks later, on Oct. 7, the county voted to change its Living Wage to limit annual increases.

Lukic says purchasing director Billingsley knew the Living Wage law was about to be changed and asked George's aviation staff to reflect it in the contract. Yet no one followed up to make sure the contract was changed during negotiations, according to the auditor.

Henry said in her memo that after lots of explanations to her from staff about what happened and why, she heard "none that is acceptable to me and it will be addressed accordingly.''