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Showing posts with label residency requirements. Show all posts
Showing posts with label residency requirements. Show all posts

Thursday, September 17, 2015

#Ethics still matter in South Florida! Stephanie Kienzle of Votersopinion.com keeps her eyes firmly on what's going on with the VERY CURIOUS legal antics of FL state Rep. Joe Geller, even as most of South Florida's news media keeps ignoring what's right in front of us.

According to ever-vigilant Stephanie Kienzle at VotersOpinion despite what appears to be his obviously unethical -and possibly illegal- delay tactics, it looks like Florida state Rep. Joe Geller is going have to face the music for lying to the Courts in Miami.

Geller certainly plays a mean game of four-corners defense to try to run the clock out, but then consider Geller's client: North Miami Beach City Council member Phyliss Smith, who is accused of... wait for it: absentee ballot fraud!

And it's abundantly clear that she has considerably less than a fig-leaf for a defense.
And did I mention that she refused a court order to turn over relevant records?


VotersOpinion blog
September 17, 2015

Despite the obviously unethical, and possibly illegal, delay tactics employed by Joseph S. Geller, Esquire, the lawsuit filed against North Miami Beach “Councilwoman” Phyllis Smith is finally moving ahead.  In a few short days, she’ll be compelled to answer the allegations of absentee ballot fraud.
Read the rest of Stephanie's fact-filled post at: http://www.votersopinion.com/2015/09/17/is-the-fat-lady-about-to-sing/
Some of you more informed readers will recall that earlier this year while wearing his legislator hat, Joe Geller tried to make logic stand on its head by offering a bill that would, as the legislature's own website put it:
"Repeals requirement that write-in candidate reside within district represented by office sought at time of qualification."

Who could possibly think this is a good idea for civic engagement, public accountability and genuine transparency? 
Joe Geller did. 

Fortunately, the bill died:

(For those of you reading this who don't know, Joseph S. Geller is also the former mayor of the long ethically-challenged town of North Bay Village in northern Miami-Dade County, and more recently was elected to the state House of Representatives last November as a dependable knee-jerk Liberal vote.
Thus, Geller represents those parts of southeast Broward County that are the most important parts of our "beat" on this blog: Hallandale Beach and Hollywood, and necessarily, Geller's various actions and antics in Tallahasse and locally are part of our regular focus.

Yes, he's the brother of the former state Senator for this area, lobbyist/lawyer/developer mouthpiece Steve Geller, who was the frequent subject of so many posts on this blog in the past, including when he ran for Broward County Commissioner in 2010 -BEFORE actually living within the district. 
Fortunately for everyone in this area, and common sense, his track record in office and strange sense of what he as a lawyer/lobbyist was entitled to do was found wanting, and Commissioner Sue Gunzburger was handily re-elected, with stronger ethics in Broward one of her key legacies.) 

Kudos to my friend, truth-telling Stephanie for keeping her eyes firmly on the ball while most of the South Florida news media seems to be too distracted and giddy from the return of the football season to notice that there ARE still a LOT of very unsavory things going on with pols in South Florida 
and the Sunshine State that ARE worth investigating and making public.
And worth prosecuting!

Tomorrow on my blog I'll have some interesting details and background info you may want to peruse regarding another case of an official in power in South Florida whose track record makes clear that he is an unrepentant serial abuser of the public trust.

Despite this, he remains both surprisingly aloof and intent on maintaining his very clear sense of entitlement, despite self-evident facts that would make others in his position resign out of either sheer guilt or embarrassment.
Or both!

But he remains steadfast and without remorse, making decisions that affect lots of South Florida residents everyday.

Such is the price we all pay for living in an area of the country where to our collective and continuing dismay, we have FAR MORE than our fair share of elected officials and govt. officials with more self-confidence and hubris than common sense.

Stay tuned!

Saturday, August 24, 2013

Just what you'd expect from smug, self-serving and sanctimonious FL-100 state Rep. Joe Gibbons: Deny, deny, deny and then try to play the role of 'victim' -on video- after years of lying to the citizens of SE Broward County. His behavior and years of serial lies and chronic misrepresentation are anathema to representative democracy, and never passed the smell test. But despite these facts -shocker!- the vast majority of South Florida and Tallahassee's press corps either appeased Gibbons or didn't care enough to report the #ColdHardFacts; @beamfurr

Yes, YEARS after he should have, in what is an obvious ploy to somehow inoculate and ingratiate himself to voters in advance of the Broward County Commission race against former Hollywood City Commissioner Beam Furr next year, after so many years of Gibbons consistently insulting the intelligence of the concerned residents of south Broward County and being an invisible presence, esp. in Hallandale Beach.
And he compounds this by being, not incidentally, one of the least-effective legislators in the area, since Joe Gibbons is nothing if not the very picture of a knee-jerk politician.
Gibbons actually has the unmitigated gall and ego to think that his personal and political ambitions are more important in the larger scheme of things than the truth, which is that the citizens of this part of the county and state are entitled to be represented in government by someone who actually lives here -all-the-time- not less than eight months out of the year.
The citizens of this area deserve to be represented by someone who puts THEIR best-interests first, not his own! Joe Gibbons is the wrong man at the wrong time and he will NOT be missed after he loses next year. 
-----
Sun-Sentinel video: Joe Gibbons responds to residency accusations.
Video at: http://landing.newsinc.com/shared/video.html?freewheel=91082&sitesection=sesunsentinel&VID=25052122

"I don't think it's right that I'm being kind of dogged like I have been by people who don't have my best interests at heart,'' said Gibbons.
You're right, I don't have YOUR best interests at heart, I have the community's.

The Southest Broward community that I live in whose residents you have lied to and mis-represented for so many years.

You, with your non-legislative job not in Broward or South Florida but up in Tallahassee working as a lobbyist for a powerful and influential law firm.

Color us unimpressed by you putting this community's best-interests LAST on your list of priorities for years, even while you drew a government paycheck purporting to represent us.

You may've fooled all the lazy and indifferent reporters and columnists in Tallahassee and South Florida who didn't care about FL legislators actually living where they are supposed to, like the Sun-Sentinel's Michael Mayo recently admitted in his own column, but we have been totally hip to your serial lies and intentional misrepresentation all along, Joe Gibbons.

So start making plans now to move up to Lakeland next summer and joining your dysfunctional family that has indulged your personal ego and overweening political ambition.
You and your serial lies and your weird dysfunctional family obviously need more quality time together to bond!
So, this community, the one you consistently put LAST, is going to give you the boot and give you the time to do just that!

------
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
County commission candidate — and his wife — say Broward is his home
Gibbons defends against residency questions
By Brittany Wallman, Sun Sentinel
August 25, 2013
He lives in Hallandale Beach. His wife spends most of her week in Lakeland. Their 4-year-old twins live their lives in Jacksonville. This is the family of Joe Gibbons.
The state representative and his wife spoke out this week, telling the Sun Sentinel that Gibbons spends most of his time in Broward County. Skepticism about where the 64-year-old lobbyist and Democrat hangs his hat has dogged him since he married a Jacksonville lawyer five years ago and the couple subsequently had twins.

Read the rest of the story of a pol coming to terms with his serial lies to his constituents at
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/fl-gibbons-county-candidate-20130825,0,1635095.story

A reminder: From things I've personally seen and observed, I believe that there's still yet another big shoe that will drop on Joe Gibbons this year.
If everything checks out as it seems to as of now, I hope to be one of the persons dropping that big shoe on him sometime before Christmas.
Christmas is the time for giving after all!

Monday, July 22, 2013

More news re Florida elected officials living outside their districts & residency requirements: disingenuous South Florida Sun-Sentinel Editorial Board FINALLY writes about this ethical issue that it, editor Rosemary Goudreau and her editorial page writers have completely ignored for YEARS, inc. the case of Joe Gibbons and his strange family living situation; FL Senate Ethics chairman Jack Latvala won't be deterred and wants cold hard facts about pols who intentionally broke state laws

video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player
WPLG-TV/Channel 10 (Miami, FL) Editorial: Lawmakers should live where constituents live. 
By Dave Boylan, Channel 10 Vice President and General Manager,
Published July 1 2013 10:56:12 AM EDT
Updated On: Jul 01 2013 11:03:34 AM EDT
http://www.local10.com/station/elected-officials-should-live-where-constituents-live/-/1716906/20785606/-/w1ttqnz/-/index.html


Local10's Bob Norman reports: Elected officials welcome investigation into where they live
Florida Gov Rick Scott investigating whether politicians living in their districts
Published On: July 18 2013 05:09:30 PM EDT   
Updated On: July 19 2013 12:44:21 PM EDT
http://www.local10.com/news/elected-officials-welcome-investigation-into-where-they-live/-/1717324/21037320/-/clnmte/-/index.html


More news re Florida elected officials living outside their districts & residency requirements: disingenuous South Florida Sun-Sentinel Editorial Board FINALLY writes about this ethical issue that it, editor Rosemary Goudreau and her editorial page writers have completely ignored for YEARS, inc. the case of Joe Gibbons and his strange family living situation; FL Senate Ethics chairman Jack Latvala won't be deterred and wants cold hard facts about pols who intentionally broke state laws
My comments are after this very curious and years over-due editorial.



South Florida Sun-Sentinel 
Editorial Board
Resolve question on where politicians must sleep
July 21, 2013

Since becoming the state senator for a newly drawn district covering parts of Broward and Palm Beach counties last year, Sen. Maria Sachs has accomplished quite a bit.

She helped secure $82 million for Broward College, up from $71 million the previous year. She helped land $1.5 million for the new medical school at Florida Atlantic University. And she helped pass the ban on texting while driving, with plans to try to toughen the law next year.

There's just one thing Sachs hasn't done. She hasn't moved — full-time — into her new district. Rather, she continues to reside mostly at her long-time Boca Raton home, just across the road from the new district she now represents.

Read the rest of the editorial at:

So what was NOT mentioned at all above by South Florida Sun-Sentinel editorial page editor Rosemary Goudreau and her South Florida Sun-Sentinel Editorial Board?

The same one that has NEVER written one word about the Hallandale Beach CRA scandal, either before or after the Broward Inspector General started their investigation and their damning report calling-out the city's serial "gross mismanagement"?

1.) why the Sun-Sentinel's Editorial Board, collectively and individually, as well as their so-called news reporters, has ignored the self-evident residency requirements violations known by many people in Broward for YEARS, and even worse, has seemingly gone out of its way to NOT mention it, perhaps because of ideological reasons.

That's especially the case with Senior Editorial Writer Douglas C. Lyons who has written only glowing and positive things about Joe Gibbons and Perry Thurston., two of the six FL legislators with a Broward connection whose living arrangements seem to be less than kosher and keeping with the spirit of the Florida Constitution.

Try to find anything with Lyons name on it that mentions the ethical questions involving them or the others.
No, seriously, try to find one.
There's not a single one.

But there is one from 2010 about Lyons suggesting that Gibbons become head of the FL Democratic Party 
This one:

South Florida Sun-Sentinel
WHY NOT JOE GIBBONS AS CHAIR OF FLORIDA DEMOCRATIC PARTY?
Posted by Doug Lyons on November 10, 2010 09:18 AM

He may not appreciate me using his name as a trial balloon, but here goes ...

I believe the Florida Democratic Party needs a shot of new blood. So I'm throwing out a name to replace the current party chair, Karen Thurman, since everyone else is. My choice would be state Rep. Joe Gibbons, D-Hallandale Beach. 

Gibbons brings badly needed energy, something the state's demoralized and darn near moribund political party needs desperately. He can also raise money, something he's done during his brief stint as chair of the state's Legislative Black Caucus. 

Gibbons' business background -- made his mark in sales -- should help in that stead, whether he's talking to potential funders in South Florida or along the I-4 corridor. Gibbon's had experience at fundraising. He's raised money for Alex Sink's losing bid for governor and as former chair of the state's Legislative Black Caucus, he brought money to the group it hadn't seen before. 

Gibbon's got enough legislative cred, having served on some of the House's major committees and having worked with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. 

He'd also help the party with its "base" problem with African American voters. Not only would he be a fresh face, but he has the smarts to help pick and groom candidates to actually appeal to all elements of the party's constituents. 

For the record, Gibbons is supporting Thurman, someone he has worked well with in recent years. Should Thurman decide to leave her post, the party should consider Gibbons as its point man. 


Joe Gibbons and his campaign staff could hardly have written it better themselves.

I know this because I've heard the same curious questions about Gibbons for years that everyone else in Hallandale Beach and southeast Broward has, the reasonable questions that never seem to get good logical answers from him in public.

Still, I'm hardly unique in that respect, just someone who pays close attention to what's going on, and someone with a blog where I can raise questions publicly and give voice to others who are very curious about things that don't add up or pass the smell test.

It's hard to ignore the fact that someone who claims to live in Broward County fulltime actually has as their non-legislative job, one not down here, but actually up in Tallahassee.
It's also hard to ignore the fact that his wife and her job and their kids, until recently moving to Lakeland, lived in Jacksonville, NOT in South Florida with him.

I know because I've followed the issue for years because of my suspicions about Gibbons' 
integrity and have repeatedly gone thru the paper's digital archives actually looking for examples of them mentioning it that I may've somehow missed.
They ignored it as a serious issue until just a few months ago.

So, tell me, how is it that despite all the years this pathetic and rather self-serving charade has been going on, Doug Lyons and Rosemary Goudreau and the Sun-Sentinel Editorial Board NEVER noticed it or mentioned it in print?
Until today.

That independent research I've done over the years is why I know that -Teaser Alert for a future blog post- per my previous comments on the blog and these emails about so much of the South Florida press corps' sleepwalking, despite all the grumbling the Sun-Sentinel and their Editorial Board and some of its columnists have done re Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law, in 2006, the first full year it was in effect, the Sun-Sentinel only mentioned it in a news article or column... ONCE.
Really.

Not 20 times not a dozen times, not even a half-dozen times.
They mentioned it a grad total of once -on December 10th, 2006, the 50th week of the year,
Yes, that's really quite a testimony to their public concern!

2.) Also, not mentioned above in today's editorial is the residency requirement scandal dogging Broward County Comm. Dale Holness, whose ethical situation is just as egregious as the five state legislators.
To many Broward voters, especially the ones who are represented by him, the ethical cloud over Holness is actually more in-your-face to the public and voters, since he's easier to monitor if Broward State's Attorney Mike Satz  and his Public Corruption unit were actually so inclined.
But they aren't inclined to actually investigate, are they?

Where have you seen any mention of Satz's name and office in any of the recent reporting or public discussion on any of this?
Where's CBS4 News and NBC-6 News and & 7 News and the Miami Herald in any of this?
They're ALL missing-in-action, just like the South Florida Sun-Sentinel Editorial Board has been all these years, sitting on the sidelines while hundreds of thousands of Broward voters got the shaft.

3.) What is also, curiously, NOT mentioned above in the editorial, but important nonetheless for the most obvious reasons, though known to you if you received my prior email about this subject?
Oh, that's right, Sen. Jack Latvala is the Chairman of the Senate Ethics &Elections Comm.

How does the newspaper's Editorial Board NOT mention that at all?
Well, now maybe you can sense how truly myopic the paper's management and editors have been and are.
----

Links re residency requirements or Joe Gibbons' living situation


JULY 18, 2013
How is Broward County Democratic Party chair Mitch Caesar NOT like a Mother Bear? Unlike this video of a Mother Bear at Brooks Falls in Alaska protecting her young cubs, Caesar has NOT been seen publicly trying to save his six Dem legislators who may be (illegally) living outside the districts they're supposed to represent, and who may well get prosecuted for violating the FL Constitution: Joe Gibbons, Dale Holness, Jared Moskowitz. Hazelle Rogers, Maria Sachs, Perry Thurston; What was the greater societal good that Caesar thought was accomplished by them drawing a salary for a job that they may NOT have been legally qualified for?

JULY 12, 2013
More from Local10's Bob Norrman on the epidemic in Broward County of elected officials living outside districts they represent, contrary to the FL Constitution; FL state Senator Jack Latvala, Chair of Senate's Ethics & Elections Comm., will NOT tolerate this blatant corruption and wants investigations launched into these illegal actions right now!; And let's not forget FL state Rep. Joe Gibbons' strange views on raising a family -putting an elective office ABOVE living full-time with your own kids!

JULY 5, 2013
More on Broward County politicians' residency ruse: Is intentionally violating & evading the Florida Constitution 'the new normal' for ethical standards in the Sunshine State? Latest facts & chronology regarding at least 5 Florida legislators from Broward -and one Broward Commissioner- who DON'T live full-time in the districts they were elected to represent

JULY 2, 2013
Is Kristin Jacobs poised to become 'the last straw' and the cynical face for voters of the ever-expanding Broward candidate residency scandal? Yet MORE residency problems in Broward County per Media Tracker Florida: Jacobs wants to run for FL House 96 while living in House 93, even while convincing evidence suggests that at least 5 current members of the Broward Legislative Delegation may be knowingly breaking state law, practically daring Broward State's Attorney Mike Satz & Co. to actually do something; Videos by Local10 investigative reporter Bob Norman show he's NOT afraid to go after South Florida's unethical pols and ask the hard questions

MAY 29, 2013
Unexpected good news for supporters of Beam Furr's candidacy -look at all the "Usual Suspects" of Broward endorsing feckless, ineffectual, business-as-usual Joe Gibbons for County Commission. Gibbons, the pol who STILL can't answer basic questions about his real job, where he lives and why his life is SO VERY complicated, with a straight face. His job, his wife and his kids are ALL located elsewhere, so are the only things keeping him in Broward his own ego and ambition? How did such a mediocre pol get such lofty ideas about himself? Now THERE'S a question!; same as for Alexander Lewy now that you mention it

May 5, 2013
Calling all Carpetbaggers! Repeat after me, "Requirements, what residency requirements?" Carpetbaggers in South Florida have it easy compared to their cousins in Calif. due to the lack of serious reporters here, but in both places, carpetbagging and ethnic identity politics often go hand-in-hand; LA Times: "Does this man live in San Gabriel or not? A residency challenge prompts council members to hold their own hearing -with sworn witnesses- to decide if the No. 2 vote-getter should be seated"; Is that a preview of things to come in North Miami Beach, where a Miramar resident named Dargenson is running for NMB City Commission, and thinks she'll win -largely because she's Haitian-American?

JUNE 17, 2012
Today, on Father's Day, where are FL Rep. Joseph "Joe" Gibbons' children celebrating with him? Likely up in the Jacksonville area where they all live, NOT in Broward County where he pretends he lives full-time

March 9, 2012 
2012 Florida Legislature to end on Friday without EVER examining carpetbagger Joe Gibbons' faux residency -he's NOT a permanent Broward County resident anymore.

APRIL 21, 2011
Elaine de Valle's Political Cortadito blog channels Sherlock Holmes and catches the crook red-handed: FL Rep. Frank Artiles. Blogger 1, Lying Pol 0

Thursday, July 18, 2013

How is Broward County Democratic Party chair Mitch Caesar NOT like a Mother Bear? Unlike this video of a Mother Bear at Brooks Falls in Alaska protecting her young cubs, Caesar has NOT been seen publicly trying to save his six Dem legislators who may be (illegally) living outside the districts they're supposed to represent, and who may well get prosecuted for violating the FL Constitution: Joe Gibbons, Dale Holness, Jared Moskowitz. Hazelle Rogers, Maria Sachs, Perry Thurston; What was the greater societal good that Caesar thought was accomplished by them drawing a salary for a job that they may NOT have been legally qualified for?


http://explore.org/#!/videos/player/mother-protects-her-cubs-at-brooks-falls

Brooks Falls Bearcamhttp://www.nps.gov/katm/photosmultimedia/brooks-falls-bearcam.htm

Unlike this amusing video of a Mother Bear at Brooks Falls at Katmai National Park in Alaska protecting her young cubs, Broward Democratic Party Chair Mitch Caesar has NOT been seen trying to save his six Dem legislators who may be illegally living outside the districts they're supposed to represent, and who may well get prosecuted for violating the Florida Constitution and breaking the trusts of the voters: Joe Gibbons, Dale Holness, Jared Moskowitz, Hazelle Rogers, Maria Sachs and Perry Thurston.

But that doesn't fully explain away the complete failure of ANY reporters at the Miami Herald, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, CBS4, NBC-6, 7 News and Local10 to even attempt to interview Caesar and ask him on-camera why this wink-wink acceptance of it has been allowed to go on for years in Broward County under the one-hand-washes-the-other brand of political cronyism, wherein Broward lobbyists are in far too many instances the chief campaign fundraising link for pols whom they'll later be appearing before.

It's a system that completely disadvantages the public interest and non-profits and unduly rewards a handful of already-powerful lawyer/lobbyists in downtown Fort Lauderdale what is an overwhelmingly Democratic County -with too few powerful Independent-minded pols who refuse to play that game and will push back hard, a gaping weakness in the political culture here that usually exists even in the smallest counties around the country.

In short, people who are used to always getting what they want, or indirectly threatening elected officials and their pals and sycophants with turning off the campaign cash spigot.

Mitch Caesar has been the Broward County Dem Party chair the entire time many of these pols have been in their current office, committing fraud, so he has a lot to account for personally. 
But he doesn't seem to be held responsible for anything by the current press corps in South Florida.
With the exception of a handful of reporters, the press here acts like Caesar is just like you and me -watching from a distance and finding out from TV and the newspaper and blogs like mine.
But he's NOT like you and me -he's at the center of everything in Broward County.

How come he was fine for so many years with so many hundreds of thousands of Broward voters being lied to, intentionally?

And even more importantly, what exactly was the greater societal good that Mitch Caeser personally believed was being accomplished by the six of them drawing a salary for years for a job that they may've NOT legally been qualified for under the Florida Constitution?
Name one. 
Name two.

It's because we all know implicitly that he can't give even one good reason to such a simple question that I've assembled the Top Ten Reasons It's So Important to Broward County Residents... to have such unremarkable and even thoroughly mediocre legislators in office like Joe Gibbons, Dale Holness, Jared Moskowitz, Hazelle Rogers, Maria Sachs and Perry Thurston, even if they have to intentionally violate the Florida Constitution to do it:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

Above, the complete list.
What do you know, there's not a single valid reason.

Or are you one of those people, outliers, who believe that rank mediocrity should always be rewarded at election-time, since that would explain a lot in Hallandale Beach and other cities in Broward and Miami-Dade counties.

Friday, July 12, 2013

More from Local10's Bob Norrman on the epidemic in Broward County of elected officials living outside districts they represent, contrary to the FL Constitution; FL state Senator Jack Latvala, Chair of Senate's Ethics & Elections Comm., will NOT tolerate this blatant corruption and wants investigations launched into these illegal actions right now!; And let's not forget FL state Rep. Joe Gibbons' strange views on raising a family -putting an elective office ABOVE living full-time with your own kids!


Local10 video: Senator calls for criminal investigation of elected officials' residencies
Perry Thurston, Jared Moskowitz, Maria Sachs appear to live outside districts they represent
Bob Norman, Reporter, bnorman@Local10.com
Published On: Jul 10 2013 02:42:24 PM EDT
Updated On: Jul 10 2013 11:00:00 PM EDT
-----
More from Local10 investigative reporter Bob Norrman on the epidemic in Broward County of elected officials living outside districts they represent, contrary to the FL Constitution; FL state Senator Jack Latvala, Chair of Senate's Ethics & Elections Comm. -and a recent recipient of my emails about whats' really going on in Hallandale Beachwill NOT tolerate this blatant corruption and wants investigations launched into these illegal actions right now!; And let's not forget FL state Rep. Joe Gibbons' strange views on raising a family -putting an elective office ABOVE living full-time with your own kids!
Updated at 2:45 p.m.

This is but the latest chapter of several sordid chapters in the serial criminal misrepresentation I have written about here at HBB over the past year or so on candidates and elected officials who do NOT live in the legislative districts they want to represent or do currently represent.
But somehow, the pols involved can never answer a simple question face-to-face, "Why do you refuse to live with the very citizens you say you want to represent?"

This longtime scandal has been exposed in a major way over the past few months thanks to the diligent hard work and resourcefulness of Local10's Bob Norman, Tom Lauder of Media Trackers Florida -who is also Red Broward- and my friend Stephanie Kienzle of VotersOpinion.com, the very enthusiastic blog that covers the Northeast Miami-Dade cities of North Miami Beach and North Miami -a.k.a. my old 'stomping grounds' for those of you out there who remember the wonderfully delicious days of Figaro's Pizza and the Lum's on N.E. 167th Street in NMB, and Marcella's Italian Restaurant on W. Dixie Highway in North Miami..

My last two blog posts on this sore subject, full of facts and videos, were:

JULY 5, 2013 

More on Broward County politicians' residency ruse: Is intentionally violating & evading the Florida Constitution 'the new normal' for ethical standards in the Sunshine State? Latest facts & chronology regarding at least 5 Florida legislators from Broward -and one Broward Commissioner- who DON'T live full-time in the districts they were elected to represent
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2013/07/more-on-broward-county-politicians.html

JULY 2, 2013
Is Kristin Jacobs poised to become 'the last straw' and the cynical face for voters of the ever-expanding Broward candidate residency scandal? Yet MORE residency problems in Broward County per Media Tracker Florida: Jacobs wants to run for FL House 96 while living in House 93, even while convincing evidence suggests that at least 5 current members of the Broward Legislative Delegation may be knowingly breaking state law, practically daring Broward State's Attorney Mike Satz & Co. to actually do something; Videos by Local10 investigative reporter Bob Norman show he's NOT afraid to go after South Florida's unethical pols and ask the hard questions





The three of them have been positively ingenious and patient about observing our local pols and pol-wannabe's in their natural state of obfuscation and mis-representation, and in Stephanie's case, highlighting the almost-comical situation where a woman who lives in Miramar in Broward County, wanted to run for City Commission in North Miami Beach in Miami-Dade County, and who almost got away with it if not for Stephanie's dedicated zeal to prevent yet another repeat of what the video up top represents.

Correct, as if they were all just running At-Large from South Florida

Speaking of being At-Large, I realized last night that in my many previous posts about FL state Rep. Joe Gibbons and his very questionable residency situation, which for so many years, to my great, great frustration, only Bob Norman and myself seemed to care a whit about, I neglected to include a link to a short-but-pithy post I'd written on him last year that dealt publicly with his very strange family living situation, which he prefers not to talk about publicly because of how selfish and self-serving he comes out in the tale.

It's my June 17, 2012 post titled, Today, on Father's Day, where are FL Rep. Joseph "Joe" Gibbons' children celebrating with him? Likely up in the Jacksonville area where they all live, NOT in Broward County where he pretends he lives full-time

By the way, now that I think about it, WTF, Channel 10
How is it that Channel 10 is NOT tweeting these video reports of gold by Bob Norman on their own Twitter feed while tweeting all sorts of the usual blather we associate with TV station twitter feed product?

The only reference to Bob Norman's Wednesday's story on Twitter with his name attached was by a citizen from FTL named Marcelo Medina, but who didn't include the Channel 10 link to the story.



and then this today...



I don't blame the Fort Lauderdale resident, whom I'd never heard of, and who doesn't appear to be a member of Broward's massive Govt./Politics/Lobbying Industrial Complex, instead I blame the management and staff at Channel 10 who clearly aren't paying more attention to what's right in front of them that's captured everyone's attention, since most reasonable people, regardless of ideology, think it's NOT too much to ask that people running for elective office actually live where the voters do.

The station needs to actually start thinking outside-the-box, and by the way, is there not a single intern at the station who could be doing that necessary tweeting?

(I've written about this previously on the blog but that was a while back, so for you more recent readers here's a story about me and Channel 10
Many years ago, 1981 to be exact, I was supposed to be a summer intern at Channel 10 while home for the summer from IU, back when their studios were still down on Biscayne Blvd. and N.E. 39th Street. 

Long story short: despite earning the job thru a great cover letter and excellent follow-up interview at the station, the Chair of the Telecommunications Dept. at IU would NOT allow me to accept the position because he said the Dept. needed all their students who were Seniors-to-be to get gigs like that, not Juniors-to-be like me.

I explained to them that while I understood their position, not only was Channel 10 the top-ranked TV news station in Florida, but that it was a Post-Newsweek station, which meant that if I did a very good job, it might help me nab an internship the following summer in D.C., either at the Washington Post or Newsweek magazine's D.C. HQ

And besides, there were no other IU students who were Juniors seeking the job, just me, and I was the only person the station's Personnel Director wanted for the job.
But it didn't matter. What opportunity giveth, IU tookth away. #stillangry)

Obviously, I haven't spoken to Bob Norman about it so have no idea if he'd even be interested, but why is there no discussion at all of the idea of giving him his own half-hour TV show on the weekends that deal with the intersection of Broward government and politics, with reporters, columnists and bloggers on as guests, but with elected officials, lobbyists, sycophants and PR apple polishers not regularly allowed on the show?

A show that would deal with larger issues like ethics and why smart policies and certain issues are not given the time of day, while bad ideas like The Wave streetcar in Fort Lauderdale, a boondoggle in the waiting, DO get approved, despite the facts staring at the City of Fort Lauderdale -their residents don't want it.

But the downtown Fort Lauderdale business crowd does want it, for perfectly selfish reasons, even though there's nothing to do downtown during the day save the Art Museum, as I will be writing about this weekend.

Yes, something very much along the lines of the weekly DC Politics Hour show that I have written about here previously, one of the things that I desperately missed once coming back to South Florida, even though I could hear it online.
(It just wasn't the same once I got out of The Beltway and could anticipate the stories they'd be talking about and already knew the context for the ones that did come up.) 

Much of Greater Washington listened to it religiously every Friday at Noon on WAMU-FM, the NPR station at American University that was the talk/public policy center of the radio universe in D.C., with co-hosts Derek McGinty and Mark Plotkin and then Kojo Nmadi after Derek left for CBS-TV in 1998 after doing some excellent freelance reporting work with Bryant Gumbel on cable.

And to make a good thing better, they'd have the Maryland or Virginia Politics Hour once a month in the second hour at 1 p.m., and often had the governor on to take calls from listeners that were anything-but-friendly and who'd level the governor under a tsunami of logical facts that the guest reporters from Annapolis, Charlottesville, Baltimore, Richmond or the Wash. Post  beat reporters of the state capitol couldn't do anything but sit back and watch the fun.
To quote myself, there's NOTHING even remotely like that anywhere in South Florida on Tv or radio.

It was great, and it's not just that everyone I knew, plus official Washington, listened to that show, but how from even a pure numbers point-of-view, it was the only real competition that the Rush Limbaugh Show on AM talk powerhouse WMAL ever had in the Washington market at noon.

It was fun, informative and there was always something interesting or perplexing that you heard that left you excited, puzzled or even downright scared at who was actually representing you in government as the weekend approached.
As if the retro Soviet-style bureaucracy at Arlington County HQ that looked upon citizen taxpayers like me as as, alternately, cash cows or guinea pigs, wasn't bad enough!

In those pre-Internet, pre-blog days, that radio show was the best forum in all of Greater Washington for regularly zeroing-in on all the mountains of unsatisfactory performances and illegal and ethically-troubling behavior going on by city, county and state officials, which kept the jails busy.

If I were the News Director at Channel 10, I'd do that ASAP and have it ready to roll come September, especially since there are hours and hours and hours of nothing but infomercials on Channel 10 after Noon on Saturday and Sundays, which I find pretty embarrassing, frankly.

Obviously that completely changes for Saturdays once college football season starts up late next month so why not have such a needed program at 10 a.m. on Sundays as the lead-in to This Week With George Stephanopoulos, followed-up by Michael Putney with his excellent This Week in South Florida?
A nice two-hour bloc of serious news in an area that is literally starving for more serious news coverage and analysis.

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Sen. Jack Latvala's webpage on Florida Senate website:
http://www.flsenate.gov/Senators/s20

As you can see from the video above, Sen. Latvala's already shown he's more than a little upset and is keen on getting the ball moving rapidly towards formal investigations and prosecutions, but let him know that you, too, are fed-up and won't tolerate any more of the despicable business-as-usual/wink-wink attitude in South Florida of the Florida Constitution.
You can reach him at "Latvala, Sen. Jack"  <latvala.jack.web@flsenate.gov>