Tuesday's meeting re Ethics of Broward County officials/employees and IG proposal; Stacy Ritter's lack of character

Above, Broward Commissioner Stacy Ritter's photo on Broward County website

On Saturday, I wrote and sent around a pithy
email and then posted it here about this week's
votes and meetings on the Broward County
Ethics process, along with revealing excerpts
of Broward Commissioner Stacy Ritter's
all-too-predictably self-serving comments to the
Broward Ethics Commission from Jan. 13th,
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/broward-county-commissioner-stacy.html

Maybe Stacy Ritter doesn't know it yet,
but becoming known around the state as the
poster-child and apologist-in-chief for rampant
public corruption in Broward County and its
existing wink-wink attitude, is not exactly the
message voters want to hear in the year 2010.

If you missed seeing those creepy and intemperate
comments of Ritter's, which only shows her
rather obvious lack of character and scruples
-not that it's news to me or many of you, I know-
go to Bob Norman's Daily Pulp post today
to see his thoughts on the matter.
http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2010/01/monday_quick_takes.php

For more on Ritter's husband, lawyer/lobbyist
Russ Klenet, see
http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/search/?keywords=Klenet&x=23&y=14

After I posted that, I also emailed a copy of it
over to Broward Beat's Buddy Nevins, too.
That was the first time I've ever sent anything
to Nevins, even though I've often linked to
or referred to his stories before in emails and
blog posts, and have had Broward Beat on
my blog roll for many months.
(See his most recent post at bottom.)

Since I was pretty much able to buy the
Miami Herald whenever I wanted at my
favorite D.C. news stand, on the corner of
Connecticut Ave. & K Street, when I worked
for 15 years in the D.C. area, but not the
Sun-Sentinel, Nevins was a complete
unknown to me until I returned to South
Florida.

I wrote him in part because to the extent that
I've been following his posts, it doesn't seem
to me that he's ever really written about the
specific process involved here in getting an
independent IG, per se.

Perhaps he didn't find that aspect of the story
very interesting, but I've found that seeing
the machinations in person, and hearing from
some well-informed people about what some
in the county are trying to do behind-the-scenes
to derail the ethics train, very interesting.
Interesting but shocking.

But then the unethical crowd in Broward County
government, the Broward School system and
myriad City Halls -especially Hallandale Beach,
Deerfield Beach, Sunrise- have a lot to lose
if the curtain is pulled back and their true
personas and dirty laundry is exposed,
don't they?

My thinking in sending Nevins that email
was that actually seeing Ritter's politically
tone-deaf comments in black-and-white for
himself might induce him to actually show-up
in person.

Perhaps the same way it may also induce
several other local reporters to attend,
some of whom have already indicated to me
via email that they have a stronger desire
to attend and get caught up to speed,
now that they've seen this side of Ritter.
We'll see.

Per the Inspector General, see this
video of Bill Scherer from the Broward
Politics YouTube Channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/BrowardPolitics
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsXY8oaABoA

On the other hand, since the Herald and
Sun-Sentinel -and all local Miami TV stations-
have utterly failed to mention tomorrow
afternoon's Broward Legislative Delegation
meeting at 2 p.m., and its import in the larger
scheme of things, I'll believe it when I see it.
Reporters actually showing-up is the
first step, oui?

Unfortunately, 4 pm Tuesday is also when
the City of Miami City Commission is scheduled
to have a meeting that will include a vote
on an interim replacement for Michelle
Spence-Jones.
http://www.bloggingblackmiami.com/2010/01/open-letter-to-city-of-miami-commission-from-concerned-citizens-of-district-five-poll.html

I also plan to be at Tuesday morning's Broward
County Commission meeting.

My plan as of now is to get some lunch after
the County Commission morning meeting and
then head over to Broward College around
1:15, along with my camcorder and tri-pod,
to scout around and find a good line of sight
in the room from which to record the meeting
and avoid extraneous bodies and heads in the
shot.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHV3pfkOBFY

One of the few positive advantages of the
regular meetings of the Broward County
Ethics Commission getting so few people
there -five counting me last Wednesday,
including Patti Lynn from the Broward
Coalition and Kareen Boutros of the
Broward Workshop- is that I can just pop
my tri-pod on the back table, zoom-in and
sit down.

My original thought had been to write
something and posting and/or sending it
out tonight, but now, I'm just going to wait
until afterwards and see how the Delegation
actually votes, after hearing public comments.

Will be interesting to see if any well-known
lobbyists show-up for the meeting.
IF they do, I'll capture the Kodak Moment
for you.

Hope some of you can make it to the meeting
and let your voice be heard so that self-evident
red herrings aren't allowed to derail this
important process.

-----

Broward County Commission meeting

10 a.m., Public Hearings begin at 2 p.m.

Governmental Center, 115 South Andrews Avenue,

Room 422,Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33301

Tuesday's County Commission agenda is at:

http://205.166.161.204/agenda_publish.cfm?mt=ALL&get_month=1&get_year=2010&dsp=ag&seq=158#ReturnTo0

Broward Legislative Delegation meeting

2-4 p.m.,Broward College,

12th Floor Boardroom

111 E. Las Olas Boulevard

Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301

Map: http://www.broward.edu/maps/whcmap.jsp

-------
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/1444198.html
Miami Herald
Editorial
January 25, 2010
Chasing corruption out of Broward

Voters who approved the Broward Ethics Task Force in 2008 to develop a code of conduct for county commissioners must have been prescient.

In 2009, Broward was rocked by FBI arrests of County Commissioner Josephus Eggelletion, Broward School Board member Beverly Gallagher and former Miramar commissioner Fitzroy Salesman. Eggelletion pleaded guilty in December to federal money-laundering charges. He's also accused of accepting a $3,200 golf membership to vote in favor of a developer's project.

The task force must have had the golf gift in mind last week when it proposed tighter rules for gifts county commissioners can accept.

It's long overdue.

State law bans gifts meant to influence an official's vote but allows gifts worth up to $100 from lobbyists and their employers. That's a lot of freebies.

The task force wants to ban gifts, period, from lobbyists and contractors and limit gifts from anyone else to $50 or less.

That's a start -- although why public officials should be allowed to accept any gifts other than honorary plaques is anybody's guess. A sense of entitlement, perhaps, that comes with holding public office?

The task force must set new ethics rules to help the County Commission avoid the appearance of impropriety. Besides gifts, the panel is looking at rules that would limit commissioners' outside employment to avoid conflicts and their control over county contract awards. It also wants to create an ethics czar -- the equivalent of Miami-Dade County's Inspector General, who investigates county agencies.

Task force members are conflicted over whether the ethics czar should be able to launch investigations independently, without first receiving a complaint.

That's a no-brainer.

The state's Ethics Commission must wait for a complaint, as does the Miami-Dade Ethics Commission -- which ties their hands and protects powerful politicians feared by would-be whistle blowers. Both state and Miami-Dade ethics commissioners are seeking authority to conduct independent investigations.

Broward should get ahead of the curve and give its ethics boss independence to begin probes.

The County Commission can either approve the new ethics rules or put them to voters in November. Broward County Mayor Ken Keechl rightly wants to ask voters to expand the task force's ethics rules to other government officials -- the sheriff, property appraiser, supervisor of elections, clerk of courts and elected city officials. The School Board should be included, too.

Broward residents have seen their share of public corruption in recent years, and it's clear they've had enough abuse. The task force should develop a tough, but workable, set of ethics rules that apply to public officials countywide.

Readers comments at:
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/1444198.html?commentSort=TimeStampAscending&pageNum=1

-------

Rothenberg Political Report
"Can Candidates Accept Text Contributions?"
By Nathan L. Gonzales
January 25, 2010

Americans are donating to the Haiti relief effort at unprecedented levels through text messaging, but can congressional candidates use them same technology to solicit contributions? For now, the answer appears to be “no.”

Read the rest of the story at:
http://rothenbergpoliticalreport.blogspot.com/2010/01/can-candidates-accept-text.html

--------

Broward Beat
Who’s Next After Wasserstrom?
By Buddy Nevins
http://www.browardbeat.com/whos-next-after-wasserstrom/#comments

South Beach Hoosier Time Machine: Revisiting Tim Padgett's "Revenge of the Hoosiers"

Given the chance that the world and our small
part of it in South Florida could be firmly and
fatally knocked-off its axis at the possibility of
the New York Jets actually making it to a
Super Bowl being played in South Florida
two weeks hence, and the Jets even using
the Dolphins training facility in Davie as
their practice facility if they beat the Colts
later this afternoon -to the apparent delight
of the smug, not-so-bright marketing
geniuses dumb enough to be quoted by name
here, in the perfectly predictable Herald
pre-Super Bowl puff piece full of cliches
http://www.miamiherald.com/614/story/1442833.html?commentSort=TimeStampAscending&pageNum=1 -
I wanted to bring up a heretofore unmentioned
yet positive reason to root against the Jets:
civility.

Not that another is really needed for the most
devout South Florida sports fans, who continually
despair of continually seeing a certain crowd
who loves to flaunt their so-called 'individuality'
by their wearing of a New York Yankees or
Mets caps, like lemmings.

This is always grating, but most galling when
observed among young kids or adults who
never actually lived there when anyone named
Seaver or Mattingly were playing.

Their much-older counterpart are equally
known to us, droning on incessantly about
stick ball really being... blah, blah, blah...

Sorry, I've already tuned you out.
This isn't 1947 and you aren't some skinny
Italian nine-year old kid in Brooklyn, capisce?

You also aren't Pele wrapping string and tape
together in your poor neighborhood in Brazil
in the early '50's to make a ball because you
are so jaw-droppingly poor.

You're from the largest city in this country,
and yet you are continually crowing and
bragging about things that have nothing
at all to do with anything you or your family
ever did or said.

And need I remind you, you are
living here, too, no?
End of diatribe, sort of.

Well, except to remind you that when the
Jets beat the Colts, Nixon still hadn't been
sworn in.

That reason to bear the Jets animus maximus
is the possible infusion into rude and antagonistic
South Florida of some well-needed Midwestern
friendliness, or if you will, some Hoosier
hospitality.

The nice welcoming cool breeze to wash away
the unrelenting torpor of humid heat and
smugness that so often pervades this place.

Sort of like what we had regularly around the
holidays in the '70's and early '80's when the
Big 12 Conference Champ always played in
the Orange Bowl Game, and tons of
well-mannered alums from Nebraska,
Oklahoma and even Colorado were all over
Miami spending money and enjoying
themselves, sometimes even saying how
much they envied us living down here
with the weather and the water.

The very same ones that grew fed-up with
bad service, high prices and non-English
speaking personnel -esp. in hotel
parking garages- and the ever-present
threat of crime near downtown Miami
and the OMNI when that was actually
something and not just an
embarrassing eyesore.

And they were chased away, too, based on
my conversations with those fans, here and
in other towns where I met them years later.
They felt unappreciated.

If the Colts win as I expect and hope, do you
really think you'll run into quite so many
people playing know-it-all smart aleck
over at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino
in Hollywood, over at The Clevelander
on South Beach or eating somewhere on
A1A in Hollywood, talking far too loudly
about real estate, and how they speculated
in South Florida real estate for years
-hello Radius and Duo!- but were
smart enough to get out in the nick of time,
as we would if the Jets are here?

Let me answer my own rhetorical question:
No, you won't.

Before you watch today's AFC Championship
Game between the Colts and Jets, be sure
to read this almost three-years old piece by
TIME's Miami Bureau Chief Tim Padgett,
a proud and brilliant grad of Wabash College
by way of Carmel, Indiana, and, as it happens,
one of the most prescient Latin America
political reporters in the country.

And I'm not just saying that because he's a
Hoosier.

In Tim's case, a Hoosier-by-birth, as
opposed to my sister and I, who were
Hoosiers-by-choice, as she followed me
from North Miami Beach HS to Bloomington
three years later, in 1982, even staying in
Briscoe Quad, the same dorm near
Assembly Hall and Memorial Stadium
where I lived for my first two years there.

Why does that name Padgett sound so
familiar?

Yes, because in September, as you read here,
Tim wrote the definitive analysis piece on
South Florida in the 21st Century.

His piece was an Internet sensation nationally
precisely because it resonated with everyone
who knows anything about this area, whether
they live here or just visit.

See my original Sept. 6, 2009 post about his
article, which I titled,
Dear Florida, California, Michigan & Illinois:
It's over. See ya in the rear view mirror!
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/dear-florida-california-michigan.html

TIME
Florida Exodus: Rising Taxes Drive Out Residents

By TIM PADGETT/MIAMI

There are many things public officials probably shouldn't do during a severe recession, but no one seems to have told the leaders in Florida about them. One thing, for instance, would be giving a dozen top aides hefty raises while urging a rise in property taxes, as the mayor of Miami-Dade County recently did. Or jacking up already exorbitant hurricane-insurance premiums, as Florida's government-run property insurer just did. Or sending an army of highly paid lobbyists to push for a steep hike in electricity rates, as South Florida's public utility is doing.

And you wonder why the Sunshine State is experiencing its first net emigration of people since World War II.

See the rest of Behind Florida's Exodus: Rising Taxes, Political Ineptitude at
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1919916,00.html?xid=rss-mostpopular

A short amusing TIME piece by Tim on
his hometown of Carmel, north of Indy,
and their seeming love affair with roundabouts
or traffic circles, was here:

You Want a Revolution
By TIM PADGETT
September 4, 2008
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1838753,00.html

Carmel in the early '80's was sort of like...
well, for our purposes here, like Miami Lakes
in the late '70's when that was almost like
Dolphin City, with so many coaches and
players living there.

Except Indy had no NFL team then, as that
was Bears and Bengals territory, and we got
all their telecasts on CBS and NBC on the
Indy stations.

Carmel was very affluent, well-educated,
and had lots of smart kids, just like HML
back when they were also the dominant
South Florida high school in sports, even
having lights on their HS field, which meant
the baseball team could play at night when
more people could watch and that their
elite football team could practice in
something other than 94 degree sunshine.

(My senior year, the HML valedictorian
famously ripped the school's emphasis
on competition and sports at their graduation
ceremony, which everyone heard about
as there were both School Board members
and Channel 4 TV cameras present.)

When I was at IU, Carmel meant Mark
Hermann, the Purdue QB, who'd been
a HS star for the Greyhounds.
Carmel bad, Purdue bad!

A Purdue QB from Carmel?
Well, as it was explained to me, not unlike
what Richard Lewis would say about his
dating: two wrongs don't make a right!

IU students from Carmel, like people who
went to Harvard, were always quick to let
you know it.
Didn't mean they were bad, just perhaps
a little too quick to pat themselves on their
back for something that had nothing to do
with them personally.

Hey, that's just like that class of former
New Yorkers in South Florida I was just
impugning a few minutes ago!

By the way, while I was at IU, the NCAA's
HQ was located in Kansas City, and didn't
move to Indy until a few years after I'd said
au revoir, http://www.ncaa.org/

If any of you are interested in the job,
nominations for people interested in becoming
the NCAA President must be received by
March 10th.
See: http://www.ncaa.org/wps/portal/ncaahome?WCM_GLOBAL_CONTEXT=/ncaa/ncaa/ncaa+news/ncaa+news+online/2010/association-wide/ncaa_president_description

Revenge of the Hoosiers By Tim Padgett
February 5, 2007
http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1585951,00.html



"In the Heart of a Great Country, Beats the Soul of Hoosier Nation." -South Beach Hoosier, 2007

C'est moi!

Broward County Commissioner Stacy Ritter Unplugged on Ethics, January 2010

Below are the verbatim comments of Broward
County Commissioner Stacy Ritter as recorded
before the Broward County Ethics Commission
meeting of January 13th, 2010.

I think they speak for themselves, and what
they say to me is that for all of her tough talk
and PR spin over the past few months,
Stacy Ritter DOESN'T want meaningful
pro-active ethical accountability in Broward
County government, and prefers that she
and her colleagues continue their stealthy
and unethical behavior behind games of
semantics in public, while playing puppeteers
behind-the-scenes.
Or are THEY the puppets, as some insist?

On Sunday I will have info and news for you
here about the Ethics Committee and the
Broward Legislative Delegation, both
of whom have VERY IMPORTANT public
meetings and votes coming in the next few
days.

The Delegation will be voting next Tuesday,
Jan. 26th, on their Draft of an Ethics bill from
2-4 p.m. at the downtown Broward College
campus on E. Las Olas Avenue, up on the
12th floor boardroom.
There have to be ten members for a quorum,
and at least one member must be a State Senator.

The next meeting of the Broward Ethics
Commission is two days later, Thursday
the 28th, from 5-8:30 p.m., where they will
react to what the Broward Delegation says.

I'll have agendas, bill drafts and links here
for you to peruse and try to bring you up
to speed on what's happening, good and bad,
as well as detail efforts to derail the focus
of the Ethics Committee so that it will be
weaker than it ought to be.

----------

http://www.cityethics.org/print/991
Broward County Legislators Drag the County's Ethics Feet
By Robert Wechsler
Created 2010-01-14 17:13

Also see www.sunshinereview.org
and http://sunshinereview.org/index.php/Florida

----------

MAYOR (sic) RITTER: Well, thanks. I didn't ask to be on the agenda, so I appreciate you giving me a couple of minutes.

I have spent some time -- good morning everybody. Thank you for your service. I have spent some time going through the minutes of the past several meetings, and have been quite frankly disturbed at some of the comments that have been coming from this Committee and feel there are some assumptions that have been made here that

9 Ethics Commission 1-13-10 BS

are, quite frankly, wrong. I have seen it in other Commissions and Committees where you are asked to do things and you may not know exactly what the Commission does, so you are asking for changes to stuff that you're really not sure what we do. I’ve see it with the Management and Efficiency Study Committee, on which I sit. There are lots of decisions and conversations being said about things we already do, that people don't know we do or things we have tried to do that haven't worked. And there is not a whole lot of knowledge of the process, and I found that true in some of the comments that have come from this Commission. Just having received your draft, which is skeletal, it's going to be hard for me to make any comments on that specifically, but I'm concerned that there appears to be a perception from this group that the County Commission is full of corrupt elected officials who want nothing better than to line their pockets, and to date, we have had, since I have been on the Commission, in November 2006, one County Commissioner who has pled guilty to an offense that had nothing to do with his office and has been charged with an offense that has something to do with land use, not procurement, yet you have chosen to focus on procurement, and I haven't received a single e-mail from anybody in this county, either way, that focuses on procurement. There has never been a hint of scandal, as it relates to Broward County's procurement process, and yet, you wish to change a system that is quite frankly not broken. And I was most disturbed by my colleague Commissioner Wexler's comments as it relates to procurement, and what she perceives to be an issue, which I quite frankly don't see. You had all discussed with her, and this is the meeting she attended and I have lots of tabs that made me scratch my head, but she -- the Commissioner who sits on the most selection committees and who actually raised her hand three times yesterday to sit on

10 Ethics Commission 1-13-10 BS

the three selection committees that were on the agenda, seems to feel that Commissioners don't belong on the selection committee. Well, I like to lead by example, so if I don't think something should happen, I don't participate in the process. And so I scratch my head when one of my colleagues comes and says we should change something that she participates in quite freely, and gleefully, I might add.

When the conversation came to sand bagging, lots of people come to the table with agendas. I dare say that some of you have come with agendas too, which may not be what you are putting down on the public comment, but that doesn't make it illegal and it certainly doesn't make it unethical. If I'm sitting in a selection committee and I think company A is the best company, but company B is the stiffest competition, I may well choose to rank company B lower because I think company A should win. There is nothing wrong with that. There is nothing illegal or unethical in that, and if you want to know the reasons why we vote, all you have to do is ask us. Sometimes you will get the right answer and sometimes you will get the couched answer, but that is politics. I don't think the selection committee is broken.

Commissioner Wexler talked about intimidation of staff. The County Commission doesn't hire and fire staff, so they shouldn't be intimidated by us because we're not their bosses. The County Administrator is their bosses. And if they have issues with the County Administrator, they should take it up with her, not with us because we don't hire and fire the people that are sitting at the table with you.

There was a comment that not a lot of questions are asked by staff at selection committees because of the intimidation. I don't ask a lot of questions at selection committees, and I can promise you, I'm not intimidated by a single one of my

11 Ethics Commission 1-13-10 BS

colleagues. That is not the reason I don't ask questions. I don't ask questions because I read the proposals, which are thorough, and I listen and watch the presentations, which are equally thorough, and I make up my mind based on the proposals and the presentations. There is no intimidation there. I get my questions answered either beforehand or in the proposal and the presentation.

I think that your Inspector General local bill has some problems with it. You are allowing somebody who basically does what the auditor does. We're already paying for somebody to do much of what the Inspector General does, and I don't think the county needs an Inspector General and an auditor to overlap each other, and I think the County Commission, by the way -- I would certainly be willing to put an ordinance on the agenda to talk about an Inspector General. It's funny you want the Legislature to meddle in this, because in 2000, Mr. Scherer, you and I were on the same side of a strong mayor, to try to curtail the Legislators attempt to meddle into county business by putting a strong mayor on the ballot. We were at the same table to kill it, and our argument was, the Legislature shouldn't meddle in county business. They should take care of their own house and let the County Commission take care of its own house, but 10 years later, I know times change, people change and issues change, but I don't think the Legislature should meddle.

I think that there are, by the way, Legislatures who have been accused of things. Legislatures who have gone to jail, but I don't see you talking about them. There are Legislatures who actually work for businesses that have business in front of the Legislature, and vote on their issues, but I don't see you talk about their conflicts. I don't see you talk about the conflicts in Congress. I see you talk about selection committees,

12 Ethics Commission 1-13-10 BS

that Congress doesn't sit on selection committees; that the Legislature doesn't sit on selection committees. But the Legislature doesn't sit as the executive branch, which the County Commission does. The Legislature doesn't sit as the judicial branch, which the County Commission sometimes does, and we always sit as the Legislative branch. So really you can't compare -- and by the way, I have experience. I can speak from both angles. I was a Legislature. I know what is going on up there that nobody seems to care about. All you seem to care about is one of us is going to jail for something that had nothing to do with what he did here at the county, and I do not mean to diminish the offense. It was horrendous and no elected official should ever betray the public confidence, but you're going to allow an Inspector General to investigate anonymous complaints. Now as someone who has been the subject of anonymous attackers on the web, I can tell you that is really harmful. I believe also I have a constitutional amendment to confront my accuser. Now with an anonymous complaint, I lose that. How can you do that? How can you not let me, if I'm accused of something, defend myself to the person who is the accuser. I could go on. I have lots of notes and tabs.

I notice that last week you had Charlotte Greenbar come to speak to you. She notoriously hates the County Commission. She notoriously hates the School Board. She made some comments about School Board members shouldn't sit on selection committees either, but I don't see anybody talking about that either, and I recognize that your purview is the County Commission, yet you have on occasion, gone outside of that and discussed things that are not within the quote purview of the Ethics Commission. If you want to, and we all want to make sure that our elected officials are trustworthy, and by the way, I'm not sure you could ever make 100 percent of the public believe that that

13 Ethics Commission 1-13-10 BS

is true. Those people who think we're dirty will always think we're dirty, no matter what we do or say, and those people who think we aren't will always think that. Then you might want to broaden it. You might want to broaden your local bill and say you know, it applies it Legislatures too, and it applies to municipal officials and it applies to the School Board and it applies to the Hospital District Commissioners and it applies to every Water Control Board supervisor in this county, to every single special district supervisor in this county, which there are 97, because quite frankly to single out the County Commissioner for something is wrong. If you want to talk about elected officials and corruption, let's talk about elected officials and corruption, but to paint us all on this County Commission with a broad brush, when I have seen members do nothing illegal or unethical –have seen members do things for their own reasons, which I may not agree with, but they are elected to do that, and if the public doesn't

like the job we're doing, then the public knows how to get rid of us.

MAYOR RITTER: If I may conclude.

COMMISSIONER DE JESUS: If you could close, because the Mayor is here for his appointed time.

MAYOR RITTER: Thank you.

And this isn't personal, Bill. You and I have a personal relationship that completely transcends this, and I hope that you would know that. We're disagreeing on an issue, but we're not disagreeable. I still count you as a friend and I still hope that you count me as one at the end of the day.

MR. SCHERER: I do. 16 Ethics Commission 1-13-10 BS

MAYOR RITTER: I think that perception of lobbyists is also misunderstood. And lobbyists purvey the system anyway. Politics and lobbyists, just like politics and sex sort of go hand-in-hand, sometimes in my house they are one and the same, but we just had a major procurement on the court house. Construction manager on the court house, the winner had no lobbyist, knocked on everyone of our doors all by himself.

MR. SCHERER: That is why I fired mine.

MAYOR RITTER: Well, good for you.

But the point is that yes, sometimes it happens that way and sometimes it doesn't. We just did the financial services. Now the winner did have representation. The person I voted for had no representation. It happens. It's not always the fact that the lobbyist client wins, but it is sometimes the fact. That is just true in life. Lawyers represent clients. We want our clients to win, just like the lobbyists want our clients to win. And by the way, I told my appointment, Ken Fink, that he is free to do -- not told me. He can do whatever he wants. He is a grown man. But I have put no pressure on him --

MR. FINK: Thank you.

MAYOR RITTER: -- and he and I have argued like cats and dogs on this. We have screamed at each other, but at the end of the day he is going to do what he thinks is right and I'm going to tell him he is wrong, but I think if you are moving towards a, Miami Dade system, which is what looks like is happening, is a big mistake. The last major project in Broward County was the rental car center at the airport. Before my time, Commissioners sat on the selection committee. It came in under budget and on time. The last major project in Miami Dade was the airport, which came in a billion 17 Ethics Commission 1-13-10 BS

dollars over budget and did not come in on time, and the only people that you can complain to are the staff, not the elected officials, and I mean no disrespect to the staff, but the staff controlled the process in Miami Dade and staff spoke to the staff, not to the elected officials.

So at the end of the day, if you are looking for accountability and transparency, in my opinion, and with all due respect to this Committee and the intelligence of this Committee, I think you're heading down the wrong path. You will not find accountability or transparency if you hand this over to the non-elected officials. Thank you.

COMMISSIONER DE JESUS: Thanks for your time.

MAYOR RITTER: Thanks for letting me speak. I didn't -- I came to monitor, but a politician with a microphone. Good luck.

COMMISSIONER DE JESUS: Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

Why it doesn't pay to play paparazzo to a Capercaillie -they go for the jugular!

Meanwhile, back in Sverige... Jenny Modin
of Expressen reports on a bird that's on the
prowl, and which has it's eye -and beak-
firmly on usually mild-mannered Ola Petersson.

Jenny gets Ola to describe how, while hunting,
he literally walked into a hornet's nest
-of feathers!- when he innocently pulled-out
his cell phone to snap a shot of a capercaillie
perched up in front of him on a stone,
along a snowy forest road.

When the bird got closer to him, Ola quickly
switched to film mode.

Fortunately for us, despite Ola's obvious chagrin
at what happened to him, he's a very good sport
and gives us a play-by-play of his embarrassing
fowl run-in, and has shared his video with the
world to tell the tale!

Proving Mark Twain's maxim true once again:
"It's not the size of the dog in the fight,
it's the size of the fight in the dog."

It's almost like one of those awful Canadian-made
Sci-Fi films that the SyFy Channel is always
foisting upon us at 2 a.m. on Saturday mornings,
usually featuring lots of snow and bored city
teenagers at an isolated cabin.
But Ola is a better cinematographer!

Här går tjädern till attack
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZMvCqX7CTU



See also:
http://www.expressen.tv/
http://www.youtube.com/ExpressenTV
http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/c/capercaillie/index.aspx
http://www.expressen.se/

Transportation news you missed last week while you were freezing, but is it a real improvement?

Not saying whether or not I think this particular
news about Transportation Sec. Ray LaHood's
apparent change in policy is good or bad,
true or false, as it relates to what will happen
in Florida, esp. High-Speed Rail or commuter
rail funding, et al, but I thought I'd share it with
you all after I found it while looking for something
else this morning.
For a partisan website, it's actually put together quite well.

----------

Some great news slipped under the radar last week
by desmoinesdem,
Tue Jan 19, 2010 at 12:57:08 AM EST
http://mydd.com/2010/1/19/some-great-news-slipped-under-the-radar-last-week

------

Another look at the same issues.

National Journal Experts Blog
Transportation
Are New Transit Guidelines An Improvement?
January 19, 2010

Last week Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood proposed new livability-based funding guidelines for major transit projects and rescinded Bush administration requirements that based funding decisions on how much a project shortened commute times compared to its cost. The criteria determine which projects get funded under the Federal Transit Administration's New Starts and Small Starts programs.

Read the rest of the posting at:
http://transportation.nationaljournal.com/2010/01/are-new-livability-guidelines.php

Their blog homepage is:
http://transportation.nationaljournal.com/

FYI: Haiti debacle meets self-promotion: CBS4's Stephen Stock on Wyclef Jean's Foundation's Questionable Spending, Top-heavy with personnel/PR costs

In case you missed it last night on Channel 4's
Eleven o'clock newscast, Stephen Stock is on
the case!

CBS4, www.wfor.com
Wyclef Jean's Foundation Questionable Spending
Jan 15, 2010 11:12 pm US/Eastern
Stephen Stock reporting
http://cbs4.com/iteam/Wyclef.Jean.Haiti.2.1430087.html

Video is at: http://cbs4.com/video/?id=89759@wfor.dayport.com

See also: http://cbs4.com/iteam

Today's Washington Post has this story:
Wyclef Jean's Yele Haiti Foundation under fiscal scrutiny
By Susan Kinzie
Washington Post Staff Writer

By Friday morning, just days after the earthquake hit, Wyclef Jean's Yele Haiti Foundation had raised more than $1.5 million.

Undoubtedly, Jean's celebrity helped draw in donors: He's an internationally known musician from Haiti who won a Grammy with the Fugees and went on to a hugely successful solo career. But an analysis of the charity's tax returns raises questions about how it has spent money in the past, with administrative expenses that appear to be higher than comparable charities and payments to businesses owned by the musician and a board member, including $100,000 for a performance by Jean at a 2006 benefit concert.

Read the rest of the story at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/15/AR2010011504024.html

Tom Llamas above the scenes of the devastation in Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Former WTVJ-TV/NBC6 reporter Tom Llamas,
born and raised in Miami, and now at WNBC-TV
in New York, reporting from above the scenes
of the devastation in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.



You can follow his reports at http://twitter.com/TOMLLAMAS4NY

WSVN-TV's Carmel Cafiero and Anthony Pineda earn Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award for Pill Mills series

Honorees will be presented with their awards
Jan. 21 at a ceremony at Columbia University
in New York.

Read the official announcement here:
http://www.journalism.columbia.edu/cs/ContentServer/jrn/1165270069766/page/1175295284582/JRNSimplePage2.htm

Sort of surprised that SFLTV didn't already
have this up on their site since Alex is usually
on top of this sort of thing,
http://www.sfltv.com/
but sometimes, as I know well, you just need
a break from your computer, and perhaps
that's the case here.

Most recent Pill segment from December
10th, 2009 is at:
http://www.wsvn.com/features/articles/carmelcase/MI138544/

Archives of Pill Mills reports and other Carmel
Cafiero investigative stories are here:
http://www.wsvn.com/features/archive/carmelcase/1/

Rally for Haitian Earthquake Victims in Hollywood Sunday at 1:30 p.m.

January 14, 2010

My friends,

This is probably one of the most important emails I have written since I was elected Mayor of Hollywood. I do not need to tell you that Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, was rocked by a horrific earthquake. The Red Cross estimates at least 50,000 innocent people have been killed. As you have surely seen on television, the island nation has been virtually destroyed.

I, along with community leaders and city staff, have organized a rally in the downtown Hollywood ArtsPark (a/k/a Hollywood Young Circle) on Sunday, January 17, 2010 at 1:30 p.m.

The purpose of this rally is to show that people in the tri-county area are united in their effort to assist the victims of this tragedy, and that the need to raise funds is greater than ever.

This is the only rally currently scheduled to occur in South Florida, and the victims of this earthquake need our help, now. This is South Florida's opportunity to show that we stand united with the victims and their families. Thank you for your time. I look forward to seeing you this Sunday.

Peter Bober
Mayor
City of Hollywood

re 1/11/10 Ben Smith in POLITICO: Game over: The Clintons stand alone; Haiti

I've held off on posting this for a few days since
there was so much discussion of the contents
and short-term implications of Game Change
by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin
over this past weekend on the network chat
shows, I didn't want to add this to the pile
when you couldn't properly appreciate it.

I personally know that at least a handful of you
have actually started reading it, but Ben Smith's
overview below is the best I've seen so far
because he sees past the individual anecdotes
towards the larger un-mentioned story,
the fall of the House of Clinton.
After you've read it, I think you'll agree.

Last year I was running Ben's POLITICO
widget on my blog, along with their 44 widget
for Obama stories, so people could easily
access his entertaining and informative pieces,
but I seemed to run into constant technical
problems with those widgets, so I reluctantly
pulled them down.

Thursday 2:00 p.m.
By the way, it's just my opinion, but 46 hours
after the earthquake in Haiti, I find it completely
unbelievable that the the U.S. military and our
erstwhile Allies in the region seem NOT to have
established a working unit to coordinate logistics
and air traffic control at the Port-au-Prince
airport, the way we quickly did at the Baghdad
airport
after our invasion, which I supported.

I know the latter had many months of planning
overall, but on the other hand, I think it's fair
to remind you that this time, we know that
nobody will be shooting at us, right?

Sufficient number of trucks to move planes
stuck on the airport out of the way and placed
on the perimeter so they don't pose a safety
hazard, gas re-supply trucks to handle refueling,
mobile air traffic control units, modules,
helicopter techs, etc.

While I haven't seen these stories myself,
I have already heard from friends who know
about these things that UPS and FedEx
would like to use some of their planes to bring
supplies, starting initially from their hubs of
Memphis and Louisville down there, and
then return quickly, perhaps to Miami
and Hollywood-Ft. Lauderdale to keep
shuttling back-and-forth, and maybe
even deploy some of their logistics
professionals down there.

Why?

So we DON'T see the absurd sight of:
a.) people passing supplies hand-to-hand
instead of using conveyor belts or fork lifts, or
b.) well-meaning charity groups dropping boxes
of supplies into huge crowds of desperate people,
with the entirely predictable chaos.

But UNTIL the airport is completely cleared
and secured, they can't, and therefore nothing
of significance is going to happen.

At 2:10 p.m., I've yet to see a shot of the airport
under control.

Popular South Florida blogger and activist
Chaz Stevens from Deerfield Beach, a veritable
one-man tidal wave of information and enthusiasm
and a sharp-eyed watchdog for public transparency
and accountability from state and local government
at his blog, Acts of Sedition,
http://www.actsofsedition.com/ wrote
in earlier that I may be wrong.

Actually, you are wrong I believe. Two Coast
Guard Cutters (one by the name of Forward)
are off the coast of Haiti providing air traffic control.

Chaz is no doubt right, but I was referring to the
airport itself, per se, though perhaps I was not so
clear when I sent this out as an email a few minutes
ago.

My sense of things is that some of the reporters
there are going out of their way not to criticize
the chaotic recovery efforts thus far, but once
that dam has been breached, it won't stop.

Then it's Obama's tar-baby, whether that's
fair or not.
With the MLK holiday on Monday and even
more Americans home watching the awful scenes
unfold before them on TV, right before his
State of the Union speech, our response
to this tragedy, such as it is, will be firmly
placed around his neck.
Just saying...

-----

POLITICO
Game over: The Clintons stand alone
By: Ben Smith
January 11, 2010 06:05 PM EST

A new book is out with a highly critical but unsourced portrait of Hillary Clinton. This familiar occurrence — it’s happened too many times to count over the years — has usually been greeted with an equally familiar response: A fast and furious counterattack from the Clinton inner circle.

What’s notable about the highly publicized release of “Game Change,” however, is the virtual silence from the Clinton camp. The lack of public outrage seems to mark the sputtering end of what was once known as the Clinton political machine and underlines a fact that onetime Clinton loyalists acknowledge: The book’s primary sources about the former candidate and current secretary of state are her own former staffers and intimates.

Read the rest of the story at:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/31345.html#ixzz0cQXHlJSP

---------

See also:
The Atlantic Online
Marc Ambinder's excellent blog, which I get everyday
"The Juiciest Revelations In "Game Change"
January 8 2010
http://politics.theatlantic.com/2010/01/the_juiciest_revelations_in_game_change.php


Los Angeles Times
BOOK REVIEW 'Game Change' by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin
The political journalists provide juicy insider tidbits about the 2008 presidential candidates, their spouses and other players, but it's hard to see the enlightenment behind the entertainment
By Tim Rutten
January 13, 2010
http://www.latimes.com/features/books/la-et-rutten13-2010jan13,0,4331192.story


An excerpt of the book that ran in
New York magazine last Saturday

Saint Elizabeth and the Ego Monster
A candidate whose aides were prepared to block him from becoming president. A wife whose virtuous image was a mirage. A mistress with a video camera. In an excerpt from the new book Game Change—their sweeping account of the 2008 campaign—the authors reveal that, inside the Edwards triangle, nothing was too crazy to be true.

Read the excerpt at:
http://nymag.com/news/politics/63045/