Just Broward County being Broward County when facing their own serial incompetence. A sad, familiar refrain... The sorry state of ethics and Good Government in South Florida where government incompetence and corruption are too frequently the norm; Broward County Courthouse Taskforce

Below are some thoughts by some very concerned Broward County citizens on what's going on up at
Andrews Ave. with the Broward County Commission, with my own comments just below them, which are, in large part, excerpts of an email of my own sent to the writers and the much larger community who receives my emails.

The emails are in reverse-chron order with some identifiable email info removed, and some blank spacing eliminated, but otherwise identical to how I received it over the weekend.
The comments are pretty self-explanatory and the official govt. response speak volumes.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Charlotte Greenbarg
Date: Sat, Nov 7, 2009 at 11:04 AM
Subject: FW: Another arrest: J. Eggelletion from Mae Smith
To: Charlotte Greenbarg

Read the whole list of emails. Interesting. Go Mae!

Charlotte

---

From: Warence Mae Smtih
Sent: Thursday, November 05, 2009 5:52 PM
To: 'Dave Reierson'; 'Henry, Bertha'; 'Keechl, Ken'; Commissioner Diane Wasserman-Rubin; Commissioner Ilene Lieberman ; Commissioner John Rodstrom ; Commissioner Ken Keechl; Commissioner Kristen Jacobs; Commissioner Lois Wexler; Commissioner Stacey Ritter; Commissioner Suzanne Gunzburger
Cc: Michael Mayo
Subject: RE: Another arrest: J. Eggelletion

To all who have the authority or power to take responsible action:

Commissioner Eggelletion was removed from office in September it appears on the website as if he still represents the district. Why is it taking so long to remove his name off of the website? This is misleading to the residents of District 9. When School Board Commissioner Beverly Gallagher was removed from office; the school board immediately removed her pictures and name from all business of the school board. The school board felt a need take immediate action. Is there a reason for you to be so slow to remove his name?

Today Ex-Commissioner Eggelletion turned himself into the Broward County Jail. The Feds has him on one corner and the State Attorney’s Office finally has him on the other. I don’t think Governor Crist is stupid and I don’t think you are. What are the chances of the Governor Crist re-instating him to office? All material and websites that advertise his name as Commissioner for District 9 should be removed NOW!!!!

Warence “Mae” Smith

President of St. George Civic Association, Inc.

From: Dave Reierson
Sent: Thursday, November 05, 2009 5:15 PM
To: 'Dave Reierson'; 'Henry, Bertha'; 'Keechl, Ken'
Cc: Mae Smith; Michael Mayo
Subject: Another arrest: J. Eggelletion

Commissioner Keechl and Ms. Henry:

The attached story about another arrest of former Comm. Eggelletion further questions your approach about your unwillingness to update your website. Your official website states that he remains a Broward County Commissioner and that he represents District 9. I seems that you put little value in the content of the website, even the home page and somehow this inaccuracy about who holds an elected office is a small issue to the Commission and to the County Administrator.

http://www.sfltimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3512&Itemid=1

Dave Reierson

Oakland Park, FL

From: Dave Reierson
Sent: Tuesday, October 27, 2009 11:20 PM
To: 'Henry, Bertha'; 'Keechl, Ken'
Subject: RE: J. Eggelletion

Ms. Henry:

I guess that makes sense to you, but certainly not to me. Updating of the web site is dependent on actions of the Governor? There is a vacant spot on the Broward County Board of Commissioners, but you seem to be not willing to acknowledge it on the web site. Apparently the web site is not expected to be current or accurate, even when it addresses a matter as important as our elected officials. Evidently that is also quite acceptable to the other Commissioners. It also seems to me that this update to the website should be quite manageable and a rather simple task. Certainly that is our expectation in the private sector, but in the public sector our expectations are expected to be much lower? This makes me continue to wonder how well the large tasks are being managed.

Dave Reierson

Oakland Park

From: Henry, Bertha
Sent: Tuesday, October 27, 2009 7:07 PM
To: Keechl, Ken; 'Dave Reierson'
Subject: RE: J. Eggelletion

Dear Mr. Reierson,

We expect the Governor to make an appointment any day now. Once done, we will update all at once.

From: Keechl, Ken
Sent: Friday, October 23, 2009 12:47 PM
To: 'Dave Reierson'
Cc: Henry, Bertha
Subject: RE: J. Eggelletion

Dave:

Under the Broward Co. Charter, this decision is that of Broward County Administrator Bertha Henry. I have cc’d her on this email. Ms. Henry, please respond to Mr. Reierson directly.

Thanks for your continued support, Dave.

Ken

Ken Keechl, District 4 Commissioner

Vice Mayor Broward County

From: Dave Reierson
Sent: Friday, October 23, 2009 11:59 AM
To: Keechl, Ken
Subject: J. Eggelletion

Commissioner Keechl:

I see that J. Eggelletion is still listed as a Commissioner of the Broward County Board of Commissioners. His website states that he represents District 9. Neither is true. Why hasn’t this been corrected?

Dave Reierson

Oakland Park, FL

----------
November 10th, 2009

Up until now I've always avoided forwarding emails to you for all the obvious reasons, but as you can see below, other concerned citizens in Broward are noticing the very same sorts of 'curious' things that we've been noticing and taking note of for quite some time and also asking why? 
Their emails and questions ring familiar to us and resonate deep inside because they contain the same lyrics from that same old sad song of incompetence and misfeasance sung by Broward County administrators and elected officials, starting with Bertha Henry and her assistants.

To cite one recent example, Broward County administrators DIDN'T properly keep the public information on their website accurate or up-to-date on their so-called Courthouse Taskforce, under Broward Commissioner Ilene Lieberman as Chair.


(When you're looking for fresh objective eyes on a subject, why was a Broward Commissioner on the Taskforce in the first place, thereby effectively giving her two votes on the matter?
Someone who reportedly owned land in the immediate area?
And then made the Chair?

The entire Courthouse Taskforce had self-evident professional and personal conflicts of interests of the sort that, in a well-run county would've never allowed them to pass muster, since there was nobody on it who was even openly agnostic about needing a new facility, much less, critical of the county's self-serving bias with taxpayers dollars.

But with just a few rare exceptions, seemingly everyone in South Florida media just looked the other way, because the Broward County Commission desperately wants a new Courthouse, and doesn't much care what taxpayers say or think, or what sorts of behind-the-scenes moves they have to finesse in order to get their way.

There's a reason why the Broward County Commissioners don't want to have a public referendum on this issue.

If the media is supposed to be 'watchdogs' for the public, why did South Florida's media 
suddenly go deaf, mute and blind on this issue and never ask tough questions about the 
personnel makeup of this Taskforce, and why did the Editorial Boards of the Herald and Sun-Sentinel just sit on the sidelines and take one for the home team, i.e. The Establishment, and never ask?

Do you know what they call a place where the 'watchdog' doesn't bark?
Of course you do, because you live here, too. They call it our reality -South Florida 2009.)

Under Comm. Lieberman's watch, the Taskforce waited until hours AFTER their last scheduled public meeting before finally putting up the agenda and any and all relevant updated info, docs and renderings, as well as the Minutes of the previous meeting, which was supposed to be online for the
public to examine long BEFORE that meeting ever started.

In a well-run community where there is actual punishment and public rebuke of those who don't play by society's norms and laws, and who continually don't do what they're supposed to do, there's a real tangible downside to those who don't place the info on the county's website WEEKS BEFORE, if not days before, as the County kept trying to peddle their sad-luck mold stories to anyone in the media who'd ask, complete with arranging tours of supposed off-limit areas.

But this isn't a well-run county as we all know, so it WASN'T done.
There was no public accountability.

That's why in the days prior to that final public meeting of Broward's Courthouse Taskforce, I emailed Comm. Sue Gunzburger's office to let her know about this failure by the county to properly keep the public FULLY informed.
Her always-helpful staff forwarded my concerns to the top of the county.

Later, I received what I can only describe as a series of pathetic, self-serving excuses from one of County Administrator Bertha Henry's assistants.

These rather silly and unsatisfactory missives were very similar to the ones I received this past Spring when I grilled them about the fact that ONE YEAR after-the-fact, the relevant information and Minutes from the FINAL public meeting of the county's Charter Review Commission in April of 2008, including the actual arguments for and against individual items being proposed for the Nov. 2008 ballot for county voters, as well as the actual procedural and final votes by the individual committee members, were STILL NOT on the county's website.

So, after posting them every few weeks, what, they just forgot to do it BEFORE the actual election?

Call me old-fashioned, but I happen to believe that Broward County's citizen taxpayers, having already paid for all the costs involved, had an absolute right to actually read that information and
see for themselves why some proposals made the cut and others didn't, and know specifically who said what when.

Maybe they'd have noticed as I did from having actually been there in person, the highly anti-democratic comments and votes taken by the Broward city mayors who were appointed to the CRC,
under Chair Lori C. Moseley of Miramar, all of whom, coincidentally, were women.

In my opinion, the worst offender of all was Cooper City mayor Debby Eisinger, whose comments and behavior made me think that what she'd really like to be in another life is a despot.
And not a benevolent dictator, either.

Last year there was a proposal before the CRC to take a resolution to the County Commission to support a process that would lead to a procedure that allowed the public to place legitimate agenda items on the County Commission agenda

With 19 members present, 13 votes were need to pass.
http://www.broward.org/charter/pdf/crc_regular_meetin20040908final.pdf
page 10

It lost 13-5.
Only two women on the CRC voted yes: H.K. "Petey" Kaletta and Burnadette
Norris-Weeks.
Six voted against: Debby Eisinger, Lori Moseley, Patricia Good, Maggie Davidson, Hazelle Rogers, Jodi Jeffreys-Tanner.

Page 20, On the proposal for the creation of an advisory MTA, which I strongly supported and which passed 15-4, voting against were Debby Eisinger, Lori Moseley and Patricia Good

On the proposal that received the lion's share of media attention last year which would allow Broward County citizens to vote in November for or against a County-wide elected mayor, George A. Morgan, Jr. the Exec. Director of The Broward Workshop put it plainly on page 73 in his submitted remarks: "...The voters have a right to decide this important issue... Don't take their right to vote away..."

At page 84, Mr, Morgan speaks in person

On page 127, you can see who voted for and against which led to the motion failing on a 10-9 vote, failing to get the 13 votes.

The women voting to prevent Broward County voters from deciding this issue themselves:
Burnadette Norris-Weeks, Maggie Davidson, Hazelle Rogers, Jody Jeffreys-Tanner
and our ol' pal, Debbie Eisinger.

Cooper City mayor Debbie Eisinger voted against all three, earning her the booby prize.

That Eisinger, Joy Cooper and a few other Broward pols recently endorsed Attorney General candidate Dan Gelber, see Gelber rolls out more Broward endorsements
http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/broward/blog/2009/10/gelber_rolls_out_more_broward.html


Posted by Anthony Man on October 7, 2009, it caused me to write a post a few weeks ago
that you'll soon see, tentatively titled without exaggeration, Rogue's Gallery of Broward
Officials Endorses Dan Gelber - Includes Joy Cooper, Naturally.

All of these important matters about the CRC were seemingly only observed by myself, since the Herald and Sun-Sentinel's coverage of that final public meeting was woefully short of what was needed or required.

So as to your question of what sort of people possess the chutzpah to think they can do nothing,
after-the-fact, when it suits them, and think they can get away with it, I'd suggest it's the very same
people who don't do what they're required to do, before-the-fact, when it suits them and they think
they can make it stick.

The answer, of course, is the Broward County Commission, though sometimes, it's also the Hallandale Beach City Commission for the same exact inexplicable reasons.

Except when it's not at all inexplicable but patently obvious to both you and me: because they can.

It's the same reason that the Hallandale Beach City Commission last week refused to agree to Comm. Keith London's common sense plan to post the Diplomat Country Club's very unpopular Local Activity Center (LAC) application on the city's feeble website.

Nobody would even second the motion.
Joy Cooper, William Julian, Dotty Ross and Anthony A. Sanders all just sit there like bumps on a log, as the silence echoed throughout the Commission Chambers.

Why?
Because they don't want you to know!


And trust me, in a few weeks, they'll be criticizing HB citizens from the dais just like Mayor Cooper was doing in earnest last Wednesday morning, over the city's very unpopular RAC plan, saying that people in the community were "uneducated" and were spreading lies, etc.
It was typical Joy Cooper theatre-of-the-absurd.


Yet they won't post the important yet very unpopular LAC plan on their own website so that people in the community can actually see what the specific details are.
THAT is what passes for normal in corrupt and poorly-run Hallandale Beach, Florida in the year
2009.

If you're interested, you can see some of my own contemporaneous comments about the myriad actions of both the Broward Charter Review Commission and the Courthouse Taskforce by going here,
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/search/label/Charter%20Review%20Commission
and here, http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/search?q=courthouse

Ilene Lieberman, churlish chronic, self-interested obstructionist to common sense and ethics

Wednesday November 25th, 2009

Once again, below, clear evidence that Comm. Ilene
Lieberman is playing her by now familiar role.
Not the role of pragmatic idealist, not the role of
reasonable compromise, but the role of obstructionist.

She waited until after the county Charter Review
Commission made their recs last year before deciding
to offer up a measure that the County Auditor
-whom I have no quibble with- ought to be required
to makes financial estimates of the prospective costs
of ballot initiatives and referendums, and that such info
appear on the ballot.

There are lots of well-informed people in Broward
who are in complete agreement with me that
Comm. Lieberman came up with the proposal that
became an ordinance, at least in in part,to sink the
idea of having an independent, advisory MTA in
this area that could start making positive suggestions
based on what the public and transportation-users
think, not what box the county wants to put people in.

And by an advisory MTA, I mean one that was
composed of real taxpayers and which paid
proper heed to citizens, and which was NOT
the puppet play-thing of the County Commission
and their faceless bureaucratic MPO system,
which few citizens know about or understand.

That MPO system, while not without some smart
and well-meaning people, many of whom I've met,
is great in the abstract, but the reality is that it's
also the refuge of many bureaucratic drones who
give taxpayers and bus riders the back of their
hand, like they're laboratory rats.
Employees I'd like to see axed, toute-de-suite.

It's the last refuge of the dim-witted Joy Coopers
of the world, who say that everything should be
done thru MPO as a way of avoiding true
accountability, even while keeping parochial pols
in charge, due in large part to the pervasive influence
of the Broward League of Cities, which is too
great in my opinion.

For simple proof of this, go to the Minutes of the
last public Charter Review Commission meeting,
April 9, 2008, 1 p.m.
http://www.broward.org/charter/pdf/crc_ph_agenda_04092009.pdf

Start at the public comments on page 6 and watch
what happens when Joy Cooper is asked a series
of very reasonable questions by CRC members
Ted Mena and Michael C. Buckner.
It speaks for itself.

In the year 2009, citizens don't want to take a
seat in the back of the bus while imbeciles like
Joy Cooper do the driving -off the cliff.

(The woman who at the formal presentation
and Commission vote on the city's over-due,
over-budget Transportation Master Plan,
at the HB Cultural Center, was too dumb
to ever ask the city's consultants whether
or not the city's own mini-bus drivers were
ever interviewed for input; they weren't.

Right, ignore your own employees who are
best-positioned to speak to traffic issues
and patterns and take the word of consultants
who do their research based on city traffic
patterns during the slowest part of the year.
That's her enlightened management style
which has so coarsened public sentiment
and common sense here.

In case you forgot, that's the meeting that
Comm. Anthony A. Sanders never attended
and subsequently never gave an explanation
for missing.
Yeah, because traffic isn't really much
of a concern here.

About what you'd expect from a city like
Hallandale Beach that is so poorly-run and
with so little apparent awareness of how
very poorly it is regarded in South Florida,
that when it came time to host BCTA chief
Chris Walton for one of his frequent visits
throughout the county, that he was given
the HB Cultural center at the SAME TIME
as a HB City Commission meeting.
Really.
SNAFU!)

As if, somehow, Broward taxpayers would suddenly
forget everything they knew and had experienced in
the recent past and would suddenly accept govt.
estimates on construction costs -and Broward's
in particular as reliable- and use that factoid
as a deciding factor in deciding an issue.

See also:

When that move of Lieberman's later seemed
to be a real impediment when the Broward
County Commission wanted to do something
to help fast-track a new county Courthouse,
in part because that would have to appear
on the ballot if a bond issue, along with that
estimate she insisted upon, Lieberman
appointed herself to the county's Courthouse
Taskforce, and was promptly made Chair,
giving her two chances to bite the apple
and affect this important decision, not just one.
Right, because she has no obvious conflicts.

You read about that decision where in
the South Florida media, exactly?
Right, it never came up.

As to the Ethics Commission. simply do what
Charlotte Greenbarg suggested, as quoted
by Scott Wyman in his very good Sun-Sentinel
article of September 10th:
Broward ethics panel plans sweeping reforms

"My ideal would be something very simple -- don't ask and don't take,"
said Charlotte Greenbarg, president of the Broward Coalition, an
umbrella group representing area homeowner and condo associations.
"They shouldn't ask for anything and they shouldn't take anything.

Who could argue with that?
So easy that even a Broward County
commissioner could remember it,

Lieberman did a poor job as Chair in the view
of many who were closely following the actions
of Taskforce members, many of whom seemed
to have conflicts of interest of the sort that in a
more enlightened community with higher standards,
would cause them to have never passed muster
in the first place.

Not that they were bad people, simply that their
own experience and personal and professional
relationships with certain people was of a sort
that would tend to cause them to not be objective
as to the basic question of whether a new
Courthouse was, in fact, needed.

As opposed to having the existing one modified
and expanded, using some artistic creativity and
making it far safer, more energy-efficient,
technology-based and taxpayer/citizen-friendly,
NOT lawyer/judge-friendly.

Some outside-the-box thinking was required,
but as usual, that kind of thinking was shown
the door.

Quick, name the Taskforce member who was
appointed specifically to represent the average
county taxpayer?
There wasn't one.

As you know from my previous posts,

Lieberman did NOT properly update Taskforce
meeting information on the county website, and
under her leadership, they actually had the gall
to place agendas, past Minutes and other
pertinent material on the county website hours
AFTER their last public meeting, not prior
to that meeting.

So, where did you read about that in the
South Florida media, exactly?
Right, it never came up.

And all of a sudden, word started emerging in
the usual places that the County Commission
was going to try to finesse this project instead,
so that it won't ever have to appear on the ballot
for taxpayers to give their informed consent,
because it's abundantly clear that Broward
taxpayers are NOT in favor of building a new
Broward Courthouse.
Period.

Ilene Lieberman, churlish chronic,
self-interested obstructionist to common sense.
---------
This is part of an email that was forwarded to me.
I've deleted some blank space to make it more
compact.and easier to read:

From: Cepero, Monica
Sent: Friday, November 20, 2009 1:13 PM
To: 'Alfreda Coward'; 'Carl Shechter'; 'Comm. Carl Shechter'; 'Felicia M. Brunson'; 'Howard Bakalar'; Jardine, Arlene; 'Julie Lakosky'; 'Kenneth Fink'; Leu, Leah; Cepero, Monica; 'Neal de Jesus'; Robert Wolfe; 'Robin Rorapaugh'; Russo, Jean; Seff, Bradley; Teitler, Robert; 'Washington Collado'; 'William Scherer'
Subject: Broward County Ethics Commission verbatim minutes

Attached are the verbatim minutes from the last Ethics Commission meeting. The summary minutes will be forthcoming next week.

Have a nice weekend,

Monica

Monica M. Cepero

Assistant to the County Administrator

115 South Andrews Avenue, Room 409

Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33301

Well, it's now 4:15 p.m. on Wednesday Nov. 25th.
the day before Thanksgiving, with county
employees off on Friday.
I just went to the Broward County Ethics Commission
homepage at:
http://www.broward.org/ethicscommission/welcome.htm

As you can see for yourself, the Minutes for the
November 12th Ethics meeting are not there now,
two weeks later.

Trust me, based on what the verbatim Minutes
say, when you actually see the Minutes in print,
you will be very, very angry.
The next meeting of the Broward County Ethics
Commission is Monday December 9th, from
9-11:30 a.m.
---------
Broward Beat

Sources: County Commissioners Trying To Block Ethics Rules
By Buddy Nevins

Some Broward County commissioners are apoplectic over what’s happening at the Ethics Commission.

And it is causing them to act, well, downright unethical.

Some County Commissioners are accused by sources of applying pressure to reign in the ethics group. The group was created by voters to draft new ethics rules for the county.

“We’re having trouble and it’s coming from the Fourth Floor,” said one ethics commission member.

The Fourth Floor of the Government Center is where commissioners are cloistered behind two sets of receptionists.

See the rest of the story at:
http://www.browardbeat.com/sources-county-commissioners-trying-to-block-ethics-rules/

Another Disaster for Broward's Ilene Lieberman. But's who's counting? (Me and many others!)

At 5 p.m. on the day of what I was assured by the Broward County Govt. Center would the LAST public meeting of the Broward County Courthouse Taskforce, the webpage the county specifically constructed for purposes of communicating with the public STILL didn't have today's meeting information on it. The meeting's already over. Another great moral victory(!) for Broward County Comm. Ilene Lieberman, who, last year, wanted to prevent the mass transit-riding public from actually populating a proposed MTA, since it would/could actually result in regular citizens using that group to occasionally holding her, the Commission and the Broward MPO to account for the disastrous transportation planning in this county that I've cited so many times. The longstanding disconnect between connecting Tri-Rail and Fort Lauderdale Stadium for events there being the most obvious to anyone who's actually paying attention. Of course, now, the Orioles have flown the coop, probably for good. Paging Mayor Jack Seiler! See my August 25th post of last year on how Lieberman's fingerprints were all over that particular effort, which South Florida's media completely ignored. http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2008/08/re-vote-on-broward-county-auditors.html Naturally, right in the middle of things, because it's the way things are done in Broward County, was someone from the Broward League of Cities, one of the most ardent opponents in the state of grass-root citizen participation in any kind of oversight capacity. In this case, the elected head of the organization for this year, Margaret Bates. But they are just the two most visible targets of sheer incompetency and mis-management on this effort. Below is the rest of the list of today's culpable parties. See anyone you know? The next time you run into one of these characters, why don't you look them straight in the face and ask point blank: "Why should YOUR opinion count for anything if you're paying SO little attention to this matter, that you didn't even notice that your own group's webpage hasn't been changed in five weeks, and made accurate for the public?" http://www.broward.org/courthousetaskforce/members.htm Broward County Courthouse Task Force Members

The Courthouse Task Force Members are:

• Broward County Commissioner Ilene Lieberman, Chair • Margaret Bates - President, Broward League of Cities • Scott Chitoff - Brinkley, Morgan, Solomon, Tatum, Stanley and Lunny • Greg Durden - Greg Durden, P.A. • Howard Finkelstein - Broward County Public Defender • Howard Forman - Clerk of Courts • Jose Izquierdo - Izquierdo and Marin • Chuck Morton - Chief Assistant State Attorney • Linda O'Neil - Judicial Assistant to Judge Robert Lee • Carol Lee Ortman- Broward County Court Administrator • Eugene Pettis - Haliczer Pettis and Schwamm • Scott Rothstein - Rothstein, Rosenfeldt, Adler • Chief Judge Vic Tobin - 17th Judicial Circuit • Circuit Court Judge Peter Weinstein

More bad reporting on education at Miami Herald -Tell you about meetings the morning of them rather than in advance so you can attend; Supt. Runcie

Above and below, July 13, 2010 photos by South Beach Hoosier, looking south at the Broward County Schools HQ, 600 S.E. Third Avenue, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

More bad reporting on education at Miami Herald -We'll tell you about meetings the morning of them rather than in advance so you can attend them ...

We'll tell you about govt. meetings the morning of them rather than in advance, like on Sunday, so you know in advance and can maybe plan to attend.

The same reason we run our "Week Ahead" calendar on Monday instead of Sunday like most normal newspapers would do.

And if Broward School Board members engage in questionable personal behavior, we'll tell you about it MONTHS after-the-fact.

That is, if we do at all.

Love,

The Herald

They did the same thing for the Broward Courthouse Task Force meetings, only quoting -parroting- judges and selected courthouse workers and never interviewing anyone in depth who was knowledgeable and AGAINST the construction of a new County Courthouse, despite the fact that a clear majority of the county's taxpayers were/are against it.

Not that you'd ever have known it from what the Herald wrote at the time.

They could never find the opposing P.O.V. because they never honestly looked.

Was Thursday's story in the Herald by Laura Figueroa,

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/10/06/2441742/broward-school-district-hosts.html, a preview of the Herald's sleepwalking plans for covering new Supt. Robert Runcie?

(*Friday night postscript: Actually, the Herald has changed the story that used this URL on Thursday afternoon, wherein Figueroa talked about the meeting being held that night, and then used the same exact URL on Friday on that meeting. I checked the Herald's archives and they completely deleted the original story I complained about in an email I sent to about 6-7 dozen people around South Florida. Surprise!)

If so, Runcie would be better off telling the Herald not to even bother sending anyone to meetings -not that they always were, just like the Broward County Ethics meetings they rarely attended- and that henceforth, he'll call their bluff, and make arrangements for his public comments to be videotaped and placed on the school's website or a new YouTube page within 24 hours for the public to see for themselves.

If only...

Oh, and in case you forgot, in the year 2011, the Herald STILL doesn't have an Education blog, either!

Predictably, NOT mentioned in Thursday's Herald story -why wasn't this meeting with Runcie being televised on taxpayer-owned BECON, which is on both satellite and cable systems in Broward County?

Is it the same reason that the three-headed Integrity meetings -none of whose meetings were ever held south of Downtown FTL- were also NOT aired on BECON?

Plain old-fashioned incompetency!

See my January 10, 2001 post on the topic of the complete under-utilization of BECON to communicate with shareholders, Monday night's public meeting of Notter's Three Amigos -Bring hand warmers! Where are BECON's TV cameras?

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/monday-nights-public-meeting-of-notters.html

Supt. Runcie needs to take the initiative ASAP and make an example out of some highly-paid people in the school system, who can't even conceive of the simple idea of putting that meeting on TV and having an email address that questions could be sent to from Broward parents and taxpayers, and give them their unconditional release.

The only forum being held in south Broward will be on October 20th at McArthur High School, 6501 Hollywood Blvd. from 7-9 p.m.

Here's the website: http://www.broward.k12.fl.us/pctf/

As for Monday, on the Broward Schools website...

BCPS to Host Broward Legislative Delegation Public Hearing
Broward County Public Schools will host a Broward Legislative Delegation public hearing to receive testimony concerning issues related to education and cultural affairs on Monday, October 10, 2011 from 4 to 7 p.m. at Collins Elementary School, 1050 NW 2nd Street, Dania.

My previous posts on the James Notter-appointed Integrity Committee:

The Worst of Times, The Worst of Times: For Broward taxpayers ...

Nov 04, 2010

Oh yeah, and be sure to ask Integrity member Bob Butterworth what he thinks -on camera, too- about the very idea of the present School Board members voting on this before the new members are sworn-in. Yet another nail in Broward Schools ...

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/

A 'Gentleman's F' for Effort for laggard School Board Integrity ...

Jul 15, 2010

Rather ominously for concerned Broward citizens and taxpayers who hoped for more diligence and speed on their part, panel member Bob Butterworth said "he is confident Broward School Board members "want to do right" and will take the ...

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/

BTU's ad in today's Miami Herald re Broward County Schools Supt ...

Feb 17, 2010

The three members of the independent commission – Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jack Seiler, attorney W. George Allen, and former Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth — are donating their time. But the school district agreed to pay for ...

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/

Latest on Broward School Board ethics, slow-moving Bob Butterworth ...

Feb 07, 2010

previously that the January 10th Butterworth & Company public meeting could've been and should've been televised on the Broward School Board's own cable channel, BECON-TV, using the very TV cameras that Broward taxpayers have ...

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/

Monday night's public meeting of Notter's Three Amigos -Bring hand ...

Jan 11, 2010

To serve on the commission, Superintendent Jim Notter chose former Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth; Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jack Seiler, a former state legislator; and attorney W. George Allen, who filed the lawsuit that forced ...

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/

The Ding-Dong Broward School Board is meeting in secret right now ...

Dec 01, 2009

Does PR guru Bob Butterworth know about this meeting in secret? And when, specifically, is he going to meet with Broward parents and taxpayers in public and answer their questions? Just wondering. Or is that too much to ask? ...

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/

Hollywood and Hallandale Beach parents aren't feeling love for ...

Nov 27, 2009

1st Sun-Sentinel column about FP&L and Notter both turning to Bob Butterworth to lend some assistance, In Sticky Situations, Just Add Mr. Butterworth http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sfl-butterworth-mayocol-b103009,0,2880202.column ...

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/

When, if ever, is the sleepwalking South Florida news media going to demand that Broward County Comm. candidate Marty Kiar publicly answer questions about how his one precinct in Davie was the one placed in District 1? The silence on this matter is positively deafening, but the questions WON'T go away

Above, the middle two pages of the Martin Kiar for County Commission direct mail sent out recently that includes petition forms to get him on the ballot. In Hallandale Beach, after the city had a policy forever of accepting  petitions in lieu of a nominal fee for city candidates, the City Clerk's office has suddenly said that it no longer could accept them because there's no basis for them under current law. April 24, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier. 

When, if ever, is the sleepwalking South Florida news media going to demand that Broward County Comm. candidate Marty Kiar publicly answer questions about how his one precinct in Davie was the one placed in District 1? 
The silence from him on this matter is positively deafening, but the questions WON'T go away.


It's now officially less than 27 weeks until Election Day 2012.


In the six months since Florida state House member Martin "Marty" Kiar first publicly announced that he was going to run for term-limited Broward County Commissioner Ilene Lieberman's District 1 seat in November, AFTER the Florida Senate District he had his heart set on running for was redrawn by the state legislature in a way that would've proved particularly nettlesome for him by including much more of Palm Beach County, as an interested bystander who can't vote for or against him, I've waited patiently for Kiar to fully explain something pretty fundamental to the people of Broward County.


Waited patiently... and then some.
Just like many of you reading this post.


But now that it's less than 27 weeks and with no sign that he is going to do the right thing on his own, I feel that I need to ask this publicly?
Just when-oh-when is Kiar going to level with everyone in the area and fully explain to the public's satisfaction at a press conference -with serious reporters who show-up fully-prepared like Michael Putney- how the particular Davie precinct he lives in came to be the only one in the city carved-out in such a curious way that he's able to run for Lieberman's seat?


Not answered via a Tweet or via a publicist's press release, and not answered via a private telephone conversation with Broward Democratic Party head Mitch Caesar or to one of Kiar's 
supporters or godfathers in the community who think he's a swell guy, and then relayed to the public and news media.
Not at a press avail, but a real live press conference.


At a press conference when questions are asked and logical and reasonable answers are expected in response, without some intermediary choosing which questions get asked.


It's hardly an encouraging sign of getting to the entire truth of the matter -with all the facts revealed- much less, a sign of responsible enterprise journalism, that as of today, May 2nd, the Miami Herald has yet to even mention in print anything at all about Kiar actually going to the Broward County Government Center and signing-in to talk to Comm. Lieberman about redistricting.


Given that sad fact, you'll hardly be surprised when I tell you that the Herald has also yet to print anything at all about Kiar's lone Davie precinct being placed in County Commission District 1 at the County Commission's December 13th meeting.
Really.


Even more embarrassing for the Herald, despite the upcoming election and the matters coming up before the Broward Commission so far this year, here we are one-third of the way thru the year and there has NOT been a single article penned by an actual Herald reporter mentioning either Kiar or Lieberman.


The one thing that has appeared in print this year in the Herald about the curious Marty Kiar map was one of those shared pieces by Brittany Wallman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, and that was mostly about former Commissioner Ken Keechl running from another District, and didn't even appear until January 19th, five long weeks after the December 13th meeting that decided the matter.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/01/19/2598173/suddenly-defeated-broward-commissioner.html


Why was the Herald completely sleeping on this subject of Broward redistricting, just like they completely took a siesta on Lieberman's curious involvement with the stacked Broward County Courthouse Task Force a few years ago, which I wrote about here frequently?


You'll recall that the Herald's 'reporting' at the time, as such, consisted of small and insignificant semi-articles that were exactly the sort of one-sided, pro-new Courthouse pieces that the Broward legal community, esp. the judges, desperately wanted to see, with zero serious discussion of the costs and justification, much less, the issue of the County Commission going directly around the back of Broward taxpayers to push it thru.
Try to find those sycophantic Herald articles now!


You'll sooner find buried treasure at the former site of Pirate's World in Dania.


But then regular readers of the blog will recall that one of my many complaints in my December and January emails and subsequent blog posts here to Herald publisher David Landesberg and Executive Editor Rick Hirsh, concerned the Herald's feeble and non-existent coverage of Broward's redistricting, even while they were putting stories about Miami-Dade's on the front page.


It seems awfully curious to me that for an area that likes to claim that it's politically sophisticated and not a political or media backwater, this fundamental fact of how the Kiar map came into being out-of-nowhere has been allowed to go on and on, with Kiar just skating on this like he's Hans Brinker.


Especially considering how much Kiar's loyal supporters love to pepper blogs, both popular and obscure, with comments about how different he is from the other pols in this county, where a general culture of cronyism, corruption and short-cuts had already left its scars visible even before I returned to South Florida in late 2003.


To me, given who Kiar is and what he has done, and what we need in Broward now, he's the wrong person in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Kiar is going to be only 35 this year and has been in political office since he was 29, a few years out of law school.

What else has he done with himself?

Where else has he lived?

What has he experienced that's out of the norm?
Where's any evidence that he has anything other than the usual Broward Democratic  point-of-view on the proper role of government?


Based just on the publicly-available facts, Kiar's has been the very definition of a parochial and sheltered existence, the personable son of the town's mayor and city attorney.

It's all very well if small coal towns in rural Pennsylvania or Ohio or agricultural towns in Missouri find that sort of insularity comforting, maybe even heartening, but for Broward County to change and become what it needs to be in the 21st Century, in my opinion, it needs MORE serious responsible people who've actually lived elsewhere and seen different ways of doing things, and who have a personal track record of doing something tangible to make a positive difference, to boot.


To be honest, I don't personally consider signing your name onto legislation in Tallahasse that's practically written by the special interests, whether Democratic or Republican, and parrot talking points to be substantial, esp. when you never have to deal with the responsibilities of being in the majority and actually produce something, rather than playing the role of irritant.


To me, Kiar seems very... well, almost like a caricature of the typical Broward politician in the year 2012 -the familiar connections to the same powerful people and the same knee-jerk loyalties to the system that produced them.


(Except in his case, right now, Kiar has the burden of appearing to me to be both unformed and underwhelming, not unlike the worst and most troubling aspects of deceitful Hallandale Beach City Comm. Alexander Lewy, who not only lacks Kiar's personable friendliness, but who continues to mistake his own overweening ambition as a substitute for a personality, and who continues to tell people whatever he thinks they want to hear. Lewy's always playing the angles.)


I'm sorry, but I don't think that in the year 2012, given the stakes, you can't just vote for someone for political office because of their pleasing personality, otherwise, when tough and unpopular decisions need to be made, and they need to be persuasive with both their colleagues and the public in explaining why there's still more pain ahead, why would they suddenly show backbone and resolve when they've always used personality, not logic, to get things done?

In my opinion, however smart, clever or friendly Kiar may be, he doesn't really add anything

to the mix that is the Broward County Commission that's currently missing.
Another lawyer?
Really?


Broward County desperately needs elected officials and agency chiefs with vision who aren't  satisfied with the smug, status quo mediocrity we see all over the place here. 
It needs people who will perform genuine oversight over county spending and demand real accountability that doesn't give the benefit of the doubt to people (and their cronies) who always think that appropriating more money is the right answer.


Today's news tells the sad tale and why what I've said is true:

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Auditor: Broward too loose with 'other people's money'

By Brittany Wallman, Sun Sentinel

6:37 p.m. EDT, May 1, 2012

Broward County loosened controls on the public purse to the point that checks were paid with no documentation proving they should be, the county's independent auditor found.

The weak oversight of what one commissioner called OPM – Other People's Money – was so alarming, County Auditor Evan Lukic said he didn't wait to conclude his audit and immediately notified top county leaders.

Read the rest of the article at:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/fl-broward-financial-alarm-20120501,0,3573544.story


Reader comments at:
http://discussions.sun-sentinel.com/20/soflanews/fl-broward-financial-alarm-20120501/10


From my perspective, it's hard to shake the notion that Kiar is part and parcel of the same get-along gang that operates between Broward Blvd., the beach, and the County Courthouse that got us all into this mess in the first place, a crew that is NOT at all trusted or respected by well-informed Broward residents precisely because of how often their interests have taken priority over the community's, with the new County Courthouse debacle being Exhibit A.


Where was Marty Kiar's voice on that issue? 
Or, more recently, the Bank Atlantic arena bailout for the Florida Panthers?

Fact: There is no public record of Kiar saying anything on behalf of Broward's beleaguered taxpayers on these two issues involving millions and millions of dollars.

And seriously, not to laugh out loud here while I write this, but when you think about all the genuine problems this county has to solve in transforming itself into a dynamic area with a well-balanced economy that's NOT so dependent on hospitality-related jobs, and then look at Kiar's campaign lit above, and see that "supporting worker rights" is the second thing he lists, wow, it just shows all over again his very poor judgement and how myopic his world view really is.

Preserving the county government  bureaucracy as it is, and the money-train pension system that Broward taxpayers are slowly being strangled by at the county and city level, is NOT what most Broward voters are in favor of.

There's nothing there about increased accountability, more transparency or better efficiency.

Tell me if this sounds at all familiar:

A party functionary who occasionally made faux claims to reform is elected, grows to love power so much that they are quickly blind to their own numerous flaws and become even more part of the dysfunctional system... Ann Murray.
'Nuff said.


Even with term limits, Broward County taxpayers don't need more young career-politicians-in-training getting burrowing into the system when they are 35, especially ones who've done so little of genuine significance and are NOT associated with any innovative ideas or ways of thinking.
More defenders of the status quo are precisely NOT what we need more of on S. Andrews Avenue.


-----

BrowardBeat

State Rep. Marty Kiar’s Future in Limbo Because of Redistricting

By Buddy Nevins

December 4, 2012

http://www.browardbeat.com/state-rep-marty-kiars-future-in-limbo-because-of-redistricting/

BrowardBeat

Gerrymander! County Commission Carves Out A Seat For State Rep. Marty Kiar

By Buddy Nevins

December 16, 2011

http://www.browardbeat.com/marty-kiar-extremely-likely-to-run-for-county-commission/

Red Broward blog

Marty Kiar Met Ilene Lieberman Just Hours Before Redistricting Vote

December 19, 2011

http://redbroward.com/2011/12/19/marty-kiar-met-ilene-lieberman-just-hours-before-redistricting-vote/

*****Reader "Independent" has it right when they wrote in response:

"However, if you watch the meeting, Lieberman submitted right at the end a new map, which is posted, and with no public input. The hand drawn map was written specifically for Kiar, and it couldn’t pass cause it the district would be way too large. Then they worked out the Ritter-Lieberman-Jacobs Amendment. And then it appears she voted against her own agreed amendment."

BrowardBeat

Martin Kiar: I’m Running For Commission

By Buddy Nevins

January 3rd, 2012

http://www.browardbeat.com/martin-kiar-im-running-for-commission/

BrowardBeat

Lauderhill’s Kaplan Drops Out of County Commission Race  

By Buddy Nevins

January 5, 2012

http://www.browardbeat.com/lauderhills-kaplan-drops-out-of-county-commission-race/

Miami Herald 

Naked Politics blog

Rep. Martin Kiar will seek Broward County Commission seat

By Steve Bousquet of Tampa Bay Times

January 17, 2012

http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2012/01/rep-kiar-will-seek-broward-commission-seat.html