BROWARD COMMISSIONER CHIP LAMARCA

April 8, 2013 - Between the winter and spring holiday seasons, District 4 Broward Commissioner Chip LaMarca keeps his boots strapped as he shuttles between our national and state capitols. The sole Republican on the Broward Board of County Commissioners, he is uniquely qualified to open doors in Republican Tallahassee. Armed with the Broward Commission’s 29-page legislative agenda, on March 13^th and 14^th, LaMarca joined the Broward Legislative Delegation in their annual “Broward Days” promotion of County interests in the State Capitol. After pressing the County wish list in Tallahassee, LaMarca headed to Washington D.C. to shake the Federal money tree.

ADVANCED GLOBAL NETWORK CEO EVE-IRIS WITTMANN

LaMarca is one of three Team Leaders of the Broward Days’ International Business and Trade Committee, along with Asian Pacific Development Corp. CEO Randy Avon and Advanced Global Network CEO Eve-Iris Wittmann. Stacked with corporate heavyweights and high profile public officials, the committee also includes Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jack Seiler, former Mayor Jim Naugle, Port Everglades Director Steven Cernak and Florida CFO Jeff Atwater. The panel’s Tallahassee agenda is dominated by a hunt for resources to enhance Port Everglades’ competitive infrastructure.

ASIAN PACIFIC DEVELOPMENT CORP CEO RANDY AVON

By vehemently supporting the preservation of tools used by local governments to seed economic development, LaMarca has become annually embroiled in a home rule controversy with State lawmakers. As described in the County Legislative Program, he defended the ongoing need for a local business tax (LBT). Originally authorized by the legislature in 1995 as the occupational license tax and dedicated primarily to subsidizing public safety and economic development, the Florida Statutes provide for counties (s. 205.032, F.S.) and municipalities (s. 205.042, F.S.) to levy local business taxes.

REPRESENTATIVE MARLENE O'TOOLE WHACK ANTI-LBT BILL SPONSOR

Each year, lawmakers catering to constituencies rife with anti-tax zealots file bills to repeal or unnecessarily encumber this statutory revenue option. In 2012, Statehouse Representative Marlene O'Toole (R - The Villages) introduced House Bills 1063 and 4025 as Republican Lake County Senator Alan Hays filed Senate Bill 760, legislation designed to kill the LBT and saddle statewide city and county budgets with a $156.4 million revenue shortfall, as calculated by the Legislature’s Revenue Estimating Conference.

LAKE COUNTY SENATOR ALAN HAYS

In counties and municipalities where the local business tax is a funding source for debt repayment, its loss would negatively impact the municipal bond market and result in downgraded credit ratings, sharply increasing the debt. Although the LBT “business” contribution is capped at $150 per year, in Broward County LBT revenues administered by the Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance (Alliance) and the Office of Economic & Small Business Development (OESBD) assisted more than 700 targeted industry companies directly create 8,668 jobs, of which 5,447 were retained.

MARTIN COUNTY BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT BOARD DIRECTOR CRYSTAL STILES

Although identified as an unfunded mandate in each bill’s legislative staff analyses (triggering the Constitutionally required approval by two-thirds of the membership in each house), O’Toole and Hays never addressed the adverse fiscal impacts from the anticipated budget shortfalls. Since taxes, debt, fees and public services are balanced in a zero sum economic arena, the resulting budget gaps would force an increase in local millage rates, passing the fiscal burden to property owners. When LaMarca and Martin County Business Development Board Director Crystal Stiles brought focus to the legislation’s implicit defects – stifling job creation while shifting a tax burden from businesses to homeowners - vetting committees consigned the bills to death on the calendar.

In pursuing beach renourishment funding in Tallahassee and Washington D.C., LaMarca was fulfilling a commitment to constituents while dunning a County debtor. Although it was completed six years ago, our deadbeat Federal government still hasn’t fully reimbursed Broward County for its shared obligation in the $44 million Segment III renourishment of south county beaches. The State has typically contributed 25% of the costs for Broward’s projects that are eligible for Federal reimbursement (which historically equates to 50% to 60% of total project cost), with the remainder falling to local governments. The Segment III final funding formula tagged the Federal share at $26 million, the State picked up $10.1 million, while $8.4 million was coughed up locally. In Washington, LaMarca asked Broward Congressional Representatives to help recover the remaining $12 million Federal delinquency. While in Tallahassee, LaMarca applied for a $20,810,000 federally reimbursable appropriation to help offset the impending $40 million Segment II project cost.

Last year, LaMarca succeeded in lining up a partial reimbursement by diverting renourishment resources unused by the coastal communities for which they were originally allocated. Unfortunately, the funds were commandeered and reappropriated to address emergencies in other jurisdictions. At the April 1^st President Council meeting in The Commodore, after acknowledging that current Federal political and economic policies bode diminished future Federal contributions, LaMarca assured neighborhood officials that funding would not be an obstacle to the impending Segment II renourishment along the Galt Mile, as FDOT and Broward County have already budgeted sufficient resources to complete the long-awaited beach fix.

The Woodstock era title of his spring newsletter speaks to the relief afforded LaMarca by the Holiday layovers in Broward County that helped pace his high pressure commutes between two of the planet’s most mind-numbing behavioral slop sinks. For a firsthand account of his progress in furtherance of the County agenda, read on... – [editor]

REPRESENTATIVE GEORGE MORAITIS

Broward voters shaped the County’s statewide reputation as a bastion of Democratic politics. The 2010 decennial redistricting process provided Broward County with 19 State lawmakers. Many of the County’s five Senate members and fourteen House members serve in Districts that also contain voters in Palm Beach, Miami-Dade and Collier Counties. Except for Miami-Dade Representative Carlos Trujillo, whose District 105 constituency includes a tiny snippet of Miramar with a handful of Broward residents, Broward’s sole Statehouse Republican is District 93’s (formerly District 91) Representative George Moraitis.

ELLYN BOGDANOFF VS. MARIA SACHS

Former Republican Senator Ellyn Bogdanoff's 2012 Election Day loss to Democrat Maria Sachs in Senate District 34, the only reconfigured Senate venue in the state that pitted incumbents (with smaller and larger prior constituencies) against one another (a concession to quell Florida Supreme Court ire about improperly drawn Senate Districts all over the State), left Broward with no Republicans in the Florida Senate.

Here’s the math. 26 of the Senate’s 40 members (65%) are Republicans. Republicans also hold 76 of the 120 seats (63%) in the Statehouse. A Republican inhabits the Governor’s mansion. Although the 2012 election cycle deprived them of a 68% veto-proof majority, Republicans will decide the fate of every bill filed in 2013. While Senator Eleanor Sobel (D - Hollywood) and Representative Jim Waldman (D - Coconut Creek) will lead the Broward Legislative Delegation, the fate of their local legislative objectives will functionally depend on Representative George Moraitis (R - Fort Lauderdale).

Given the County’s Democrat voting plurality, it’s no surprise that Republican Tallahassee refers to Broward County as “The Killing Fields”. Of the County’s nine governing Commissioners, eight are Democrats. As the sole Republican on the Broward Board of County Commissioners, Chip LaMarca’s stock goes up every January, when he is tagged to carry Broward’s wish list to the State Capitol.

On January 8, 2013, to provide “legislative direction to the County’s staff and contract lobbying team for 2013 state legislative activities,” the Broward Board of County Commissioners approved a 2013 State Legislative Program proposed by the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs and Professional Standards (OIAPS). The 29-page legislative libretto features a buffet of proposals with widely varying impacts, including an embarrassingly rich selection of concessions to paper-thin local special interests (regulatory requirements for competitive eating contests, standardized parasailing guidelines, etc.). The Chinese menu of options enables Commissioners to pick and choose those issues that resonate with District constituents, whether or not haunted by the potentially catastrophic consequences of hot-dog eating marathons.

LAMARCA DISCUSSES BEACH RENOURISHMENT

In his 2013 pre-session Newsletter, LaMarca reviews some of those issues he extracted from the Legislative Program to broker in Tallahassee. His support for Beach Renourishment augers to a campaign promise to District 4 constituents that he has since repeatedly reconfirmed to the GMCA Presidents Council and Advisory Board. One month before the County approved its 2013 State Legislative Program – at a December 10, 2012 Town Hall meeting convened to address the storm surge damage to A1A and the beach – LaMarca told more than 300 local residents at the Beach Community Center that loosening renourishment funds in Tallahassee would provide the least expensive and most effective protection for $billions of upland property and thousands of lives. In addition to pressing the state for a $20,810,000 County-requested appropriation to facilitate the Segment II renourishment, Broward wants documentary stamp revenues dedicated to beach erosion programs and sand bypass projects restored to previous levels and shielded from budget-balancing raids.

His 2013 selection of Port Everglades, a centerpiece in his 2012 Tallahassee wish list, comes as no surprise. A staunch advocate of stoking the County’s economic engines, LaMarca has stumped tirelessly to insure that Port Everglades is equipped to compete with ports on the South Atlantic and Gulf coasts – by an immutable 2015 deadline.

The Panama Canal Authority is managing a $5.25 billion expansion project that will double the annual volume of cargo through the century-old 51-mile shortcut connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. A new third lane under construction will accommodate vessels that are 25% longer, 50% wider and with a deeper draft than the largest ships currently navigating the canal (known as Panamax). When the Panama Canal is reconfigured to cradle supersized transports, tankers and cruise ships (referred to as “post-Panamax”) in about two years, plummeting shipping costs will significantly pump up international patterns of commerce.

POST PANAMAX MSC FABIOLA

By providing faster and cheaper shipping of goods between the United States and Asia, it will allow American farmers and manufacturers to better compete with South American and European counterparts, including providers that currently benefit from cheap labor and primitive, low-maintenance infrastructure. However, before the United States can actualize this trade advantage, U.S. ports in the Gulf and along the east coast must first deepen their harbors and expand their cargo handling facilities if they hope to compete.

PORT EVERGLADES

In preparation for the projected 2015 completion of the canal’s expansion, Port Everglades is racing with ports in Miami, Savannah, New Orleans, Norfolk, Baltimore, Houston, Brownsville, Charleston, and the Port of South Louisiana – tonnage king of U.S. Gulf and East Coast ports – to adapt their infrastructure for post Panamax shipping. The construction required in each competing port will generate thousands of local jobs. The municipal winners of this marathon effort will realize a significant boost to the local economy, huge local and statewide tax windfalls, and a palpable drop in unemployment.

INTERMODAL CONTAINER TRANSFER FACILITY (ICTF)

A study of the Port’s competitive shortcomings by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers added a three-part construction strategy to the Port Everglades Master Plan. The Southport Turning Notch Expansion will lengthen the existing deepwater turn-around area for cargo ships from 900 feet to 2,400 feet. Secondly, the Port’s channel must be widened and deepened to manage the larger ships with heavier loads that will soon transit the Panama Canal. Lastly, instead of hauling containers to and from off-port rail terminals, building an on-site Intermodal Container Transfer Facility (ICTF) will enable the seamless transfer of international containers between ship and rail. Like economically motivated public officials in every competing port city, LaMarca is intently focused on aggressively moving the three projects to completion. The ICTF is scheduled to open in 2014 while the Turning Notch and widening and deepening projects are targeted for 2017.

BEACH COMMUNITY CENTER

Given the plethora of narrowly beneficial and borderline inane objectives available in the Legislative Program, LaMarca’s selection of Early Voting Site Expansion and Texting While Driving are both laudable and locally relevant. If successful in his attempt to expand early voting site options, Galt Mile residents will be able to vote early at the Beach Community Center instead of being forced to travel north to Pompano Beach City Hall, west to Wilton Manors City Hall or south to either the Artserve or Main Libraries in Fort Lauderdale.

Deterring people from Texting While Driving is a no-brainer, as even hands-free adaptations will not compensate for driver distractions that statistically invite disaster. Multitasking is not a skill best exercised while steering two tons of accelerating steel. Florida is one of only four states (i.e. South Carolina, South Dakota, Montana) with no restrictions on cell phone use or texting while driving – even for school bus drivers.

FORMER SPEAKER DEAN CANNON

Citing the 3000 deaths due to driver distracted accidents in 2011, the National Transportation Safety Board issued a December 13, 2011 alert directing all states to enact restrictions on the nonemergency use of portable electronic devices while driving. House Speaker Dean Cannon (whose campaign contributors included AT&T and T-Mobile) announced that he would not tolerate “government regulating private behavior” and systematically dispatched such bills filed during the 2012 session. One popular bill, HB 299, was kidnapped in the Transportation and Highway Safety Subcommittee and held through Sine Die, ostensibly because it infringed on personal freedom. When asked why they would protect such a dangerous activity, the hostage-takers flipped the script and suddenly took refuge in constitutional equanimity, complaining that it unfairly singled out “Texting While Driving” for criminalization while ignoring comparable distractions such as using a cell phone.

SENATOR NANCY DETERT

REP. IRV SLOSBERG

Even with Cannon now term-limited out of office, lawmakers are treading lightly when drafting restrictions for the 2013 session. Senate Bill 52 by Senator Nancy Detert, R-Venice, would make texting while driving a secondary non-criminal infraction, meaning motorists could be ticketed only if pulled over for another reason. Violators would pay a $30 fine – unless they were checking a map or the weather (one of several exemptions). Representative Irv Slosberg, D-Boca Raton, filed House Bill 61, which precludes anyone under 18 from using a cellphone while driving. The state’s seat belt law is named for his daughter, Dori, who was killed in a 1996 collision on Boca Raton’s Palmetto Park Road at the age of 14.

The teeth in Senate Bill 74 by Senator Maria Sachs are somewhat sharper, as texting or using a cell phone would be a primary offense eliciting a $100 fine for committing a non-moving violation. Detert’s Bill restricts texting, Slosberg’s bill is limited to kids while Sachs’ bill prohibits any non-hands-free cell phone use. Since Florida is also one of seven states that prohibits jurisdictions from enacting local distracted driving laws, it’s not surprising that LaMarca feels it’s time to get one of these on the books. Read on for the Commissioner’s 2013 Tallahassee agenda... – [editor]

BROWARD SHERIFF SCOTT ISRAEL

January 7, 2013 - Galt Mile residents have a cloudy relationship with the Broward Sheriff. Every year, we send untold $millions in assessed revenues to Broward County, half of which is funneled to the Broward Sheriff’s Office (BSO). Since our public safety needs are wholly addressed by the City of Fort Lauderdale Police Department, funded by our municipal taxes, much of our supersized County contribution subsidizes BSO operations in 13 of Broward’s 31 cities. Although we derive an indirect benefit from the Sheriff’s protection of shared infrastructure at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and Port Everglades, our money pays for BSO police and fire services in Pompano, Deerfield, Dania, Oakland Park and other Broward municipalities.

FORMER BROWARD SHERIFF AL LAMBERTI

The Broward Sheriff’s Office is an Oligarchy, an agency where every scrap of power resides with the Sheriff. As such, it was generally assumed that the agency’s integrity depended on the Sheriff’s character. In the past decade, BSO has struggled to shed its reputation as an ethical sewer. Five years ago, Al Lamberti promised to “restore confidence in the agency’s integrity.” Last November, newly elected Sheriff Scott Israel made the same promise. In recent years, it has come to light that the problems plaguing BSO have less to do with the Sheriff than the political culture that drives the institution. Whether Israel can overcome BSO’s pathological susceptibility to corruption remains to be seen. Here’s the playing field.

DISGRACED BROWARD SHERIFF KEN JENNE

After working as a prosecutor in the Broward County State Attorney’s Office, Ken Jenne was elected to the Broward Board of County Commissioners in 1976. Starting in 1978, he spent 10 years in the Florida Senate representing District 32. Beginning in 1990, he spent another 8 years in the Senate representing constituents in District 29. When Broward Sheriff Ron Cochran lost his battle with cancer in 1997, Governor Lawton Chiles appointed a fellow Democrat – State Senator Ken Jenne – to run the state’s largest Sheriff's Office. Jenne survived three elections while expanding the Broward Sheriff’s Office (BSO) into the nation’s largest fully accredited sheriff’s department before succumbing to an epidemic for which Broward has become infamous. When a Federal corruption investigation uncovered $80,000 in hidden vendor’s payments funneled by Jenne through two secretaries, he resigned and quickly cut a plea deal with prosecutors to dodge a looming grand jury indictment for money laundering. Pleading guilty to less serious charges – three counts of tax evasion and one count of mail fraud conspiracy – bought Jenne a year and a day in federal prison and left BSO without a rudder.

FORMER GOVERNER CHARLIE CRIST & AL LAMBERTI

Former Governor Charlie Crist filled the vacancy on October 26, 2007 with fellow Republican Al Lamberti, who first joined the Broward County Sheriff's Office as a Detention Deputy in 1977 and carefully tip-toed his way up through the ranks in a Democratic County known to Tallahassee Republicans as “The Killing Fields”. During the 2008 Presidential Election, he narrowly kept his job when 50,000 Broward voters skipped voting in the Sheriff's race, diluting the benefit of Obama’s then powerful coattails for his Democrat opponent - just enough to leave Scott Israel short by a paper thin 15,375 vote margin (less than 1%).

FORMER BROWARD SHERIFF AL LAMBERTI & FELON ATTORNEY SCOTT ROTHSTEIN

Israel, a 25-year veteran of the Fort Lauderdale Police Department who retired as Captain before spending 5 years as the North Bay Village Police Chief, was not an empathic “nice guy” political candidate. Many of his closest friends don’t like him. Aware that he could never survive an election bid framed as a popularity contest, his 2012 challenge to Lamberti would have to be a mudfest. From the outset, Israel tied jailbird Scott Rothstein to Lamberti’s tail, focusing on the felon attorney’s cozy ties to Lamberti and his leadership team. He also painted Lamberti as a capricious spendthrift, burning taxpayer dollars on personal agendas.

MYSTERY ACTRESS ON YOUTUBE

No stranger to mudslinging, Lamberti cast Israel as a philandering adulterer and a corrupt cop. In a mysterious YouTube video, an unidentified young woman claimed to have aborted Israel’s prospective progeny following a sordid affair. Incredibly, Susan Israel made a “counter-video” defending her husband's fidelity and released a statement in which she called the woman a “whore”. Anyone who claims that character or decency played a deciding role in how they voted is either lying or settling unfinished business with their inner child.

LAMBERTI 2009 BUDGET FACE-OFF WITH BROWARD COMMISSION

Israel won for two reasons. Obviously, the overwhelming 2 to 1 majority that registered Democrats hold over Republicans in Broward County would provide an almost insurmountable advantage to anyone other than an axe murdering pederast. Ironically, Israel made a futile attempt to exploit the partisan advantage when he strategically morphed into a Democrat shortly before the 2008 race. Lamberti also considered changing his party affiliation after 2008. When engaged in a 2009 face-off with the all-Democrat County Commission over their demands that he eviscerate his then $720 million budget to help head off service cuts or a tax increase, his threat to place the decision in the Republican Governor’s hands induced a Commission retreat. Since switching parties would have relieved him of his Tallahassee “nuclear option”, he stayed put.

ISRAEL PRIMARY OPPONENT LOUIS GRANTEED

Given his own political baggage and Lamberti’s incumbency, Israel avoided repeating his 2008 mistake of relying on less than credible Democrat credentials to deliver a victory. Israel’s campaign treasury, which was substantially less endowed than Lamberti’s, was virtually emptied during a tough primary win against Louis Granteed. Instead, Israel was put over the top by the unconventional tactics of outside interests whose actions lent weight to the old chestnut “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

BROWARD COMMISSIONER SUE GUNZBURGER

Broward County Commissioner Sue Gunzburger and Lamberti have long been political foes. In 2010, when Gunzburger was in a tough fight with former State Senator Steve Geller for her District 6 Commission seat, Lamberti launched a corruption investigation into her late husband’s sweetheart contracts to supply outdoor furnishings in County Parks, citing conflict violations alleged to have transpired more than a decade earlier. Having watched Lamberti deepen the stress lines across his mother’s face, her son Ron sharpened his teeth on tax cheats while working for Property Appraiser and family friend Lori Parrish. Gunzburger wove his mother’s abuse into a description of his political objectives, explaining, “The bogus investigation of Mom, which was purely something he trumped up... to hurt her during her campaign showed me such an abuse of power and an arrogance that it motivated me to say we need a change at BSO.” Gunzburger had blood in his eyes. He wanted his pound of flesh.

CAMPAIGN MANAGER AMY ROSE BSO GOV RELATIONS LOBBYIST

POLITICAL TRICKSTER ROGER STONE

Proponent to the notion that “revenge is a dish best served cold,” while awaiting the next Sheriff’s race, Junior Gunzburger did some political networking. Reaching out to others alienated by Lamberti, he bonded with former Sheriff Ken Jenne - who Lamberti dethroned - and former Richard Nixon political operative and dirty tricks Guru Roger Stone. Leaving the Property Appraiser’s office to devote full time to deposing Lamberti, Ron Gunzburger teamed with Israel’s Campaign Manager Amy Rose - trained in flesh eating by Broward Judgemaker Barbara Miller - and assembled a brigade of disaffected deputies who had been abused, reduced in rank, humiliated or fired by Lamberti.

CAMPAIGN WIZ RON GUNZBURGER NAMED GENERAL COUNSEL

Drawing on this near bottomless source of rumored infractions, ethical missteps and implied culpability, Gunzburger loosed his cauldron of damning anecdotes into the land of blogs, where potential penalties for campaign finance violations are trumped by First Amendment protections. Admittedly spinning numerous anonymous attack pieces, after cooking the tripe, Gunzburger would email it to blogs that scrambled Lamberti like an egg. These seemingly puerile albeit vicious tidbits weren’t the work of some disenfranchised adolescent playing with his iPod, but carefully scripted torpedoes that repeatedly hit their mark. Gunzburger explains “When you have no money, you have to do guerilla tactics. The hyperbole sometimes was a little colorful, but the substance I think was correct.” Since neither cost nor value are factors when sending emails to an online blog, Gunzburger’s hijinks flew below the electioneering regulatory radar.

Israel promised that there would be no post-election political bloodbath among BSO’s more than 6300 employees. However, the standard teambuilding fallout that accompanies any new administration began one week before Christmas. On December 18^th, Israel sent 28 emails to high-ranking BSO employees, stating “Note, if you are still employed by BSO on January 8, 2013, you will receive formal written notice during that day setting forth that your employment with the agency is terminated.” By replacing Lamberti’s insiders with his own top staffers, Israel could reward those in the trenches with spots on the payroll. The next day (December 19), he issued a press release naming the new BSO Command Staff Leadership. Among them are key members of his election campaign team, former colleagues scavenged from the upper ranks of the Fort Lauderdale Police Department (FLPD) and BSO deputies who were demoted, abused or canned by Lamberti for reasons that were - at least in part - political.

CHIEF OF STAFF LISA (AND ANGELO) CASTILLO

The chief strategist of Israel’s campaign and architect of the negative attacks against Lamberti, Ron Gunzburger, will replace Judith Levine as BSO’s new general counsel. Campaign Manager Amy Rose will draw a paycheck for lobbying responsibilities in the BSO’s governmental relations unit. Longtime Galt Mile residents will recall former District 4 County Commissioner Jim Scott and his aide Lisa Yagid-Castillo (who was previously Legislative Assistant to former New York City Mayor Ed Koch and married to Pembroke Pines City Commissioner Angelo Castillo). When Scott lost his seat to Ken Keechl, Castillo landed a job with Broward lobbyist and political meat grinder Judy Stern. While with Stern, she worked on Israel’s failed 2008 campaign. Castillo will be Israel’s chief of staff. Although the Sheriff-elect hasn’t as yet defined a job title for him, husband Angelo will also land a high-ranking administrative post.

ISRAEL & 2008 CAMPAIGN MANAGER JUDY STERN

Filling the position of Israel’s Executive Assistant will be Mary Jo Mastrodonato, who worked in the Fort Lauderdale Police Department for 11 years before following Israel to the North Bay Village Police Department where she served as his assistant. After swapping out Lamberti’s nepots with his own, Israel still needed to hire some key law enforcement staffers. After all, it is the Sheriff’s Office.

EX-DOLPHIN DEFENSIVE END PHILLIP MERLING MUG SHOT

On May 27, 2010, when Miami Dolphins defensive end Phillip Merling was arrested for domestic battery after hitting his pregnant girlfriend, director of Miami Dolphins security Stuart Weinstein called BSO Commander Alvin Pollock to inquire about Merling’s release status from the Main Jail. For more than 10 years, Pollock moonlighted for the Dolphin’s Security Detail. When Merling was released, Pollock waited until he was off duty before picking him up at the Jail and driving him to the Dolphins training camp in Davie, a stone’s throw from Pollock’s home.

BROWARD COUNTY COURTHOUSE COMPLEX

Verging on apoplexy, Lamberti dedicated a press conference to humiliating Pollock for driving the Dolphin player in a County vehicle. Despite a 35-year clean record, Pollock was stripped of his badge, gun, and squad car and reassigned to car wash duty in the fleet division while Lamberti launched an investigation. After the probe, Pollock was removed as commander in charge of the Broward County Courthouse complex and reassigned as a road patrol watch commander on the midnight shift. He was also given a 15-day suspension without pay, prohibited from working any off-duty details and banned from working or volunteering for the Miami Dolphins. Since he’d administered discrete wrist slaps to officers who committed far more egregious infractions than driving someone while off-duty, Lamberti’s histrionics veiled an underlying political motive.

ALVIN POLLOCK PROMOTED BY KEN JENNE

Predecessor Ken Jenne – long viewed by Lamberti as a political threat despite his public disgrace and incarceration – originally promoted Pollock to Commander in charge of the Courthouse, a position that had since earned him substantial credibility with Judges and attorneys in the Courthouse community. Since Israel had already announced his intention to take another run at BSO, Lamberti exploited an opportunity to neuter Pollock of the influence that accompanied his position. Jailhouse Politics 101.

FORMER EXECUTIVE OFFICER LT. DAVID BENJAMIN

What goes around comes around. Israel promoted Pollock to Colonel in charge of the BSO Department of Law Enforcement. One of the many deputies fired by Lamberti for supporting Israel in 2008, Russell Di Perna, will return to BSO once recertified. Prior to being pink-slipped, when Di Perna met with Lamberti’s Executive Officer Lt. David Benjamin after the 2008 election, Benjamin named several deputies who supported Israel and said, “They had cushy positions, they shouldn’t have gotten involved in the campaign, and now they’re going to lose their cushy positions.” Homing in on Di Perna, Benjamin admonished, “You made it personal, and now you’re going to suffer the consequences.” Di Perna got the boot.

SCOTT ROTHSTEIN AND UNDERSHERIFF TOM WHEELER

In addition to aggressively purging BSO personnel perceived by Lamberti as a threat, Benjamin and Undersheriff Tom Wheeler were full partners in the Sheriff’s less wholesome relationships. On Dec. 22, 2008, Lamberti wrote a letter to felon attorney Scott Rothstein on official BSO letterhead stating “If I may be of any assistance to you whatsoever, either professionally or personally, please feel free to call upon me.” In response, Rothstein paid Benjamin, who also headed BSO Internal Affairs, $50,000 for BSO services and ongoing preferential treatment. Rothstein regularly used BSO patrol cars to transport large amounts of cash to and from clients as BSO personnel often provided security for the crooked lawyer’s cash transactions. Rothstein also invested $30,000 in DWB Consulting, a Sunrise corporation Benjamin created in 2004. When his Ponzi empire began imploding, Benjamin drove Scott Rothstein and a duffle bag stuffed with several $million to his getaway plane at Executive Airport before escaping to Morocco; where he could negotiate surrender terms with Federal authorities. Apparently, they included a sting to serve Benjamin’s head on a platter for acting as a bag man. When the story broke, Lamberti quietly shifted Benjamin to youth services in countywide operations with his $106,000 annual salary intact.

FIRE CHIEF ANTHONY STRAVINO

Among the Christmas casualties at BSO was top staff at the Fire Division, including Fire Chief and Executive Director Neal de Jesus, fire marshal and Division Chief Robert Arrighetti, and Division Chief John Holgerson, who was in charge of fire and rescue training. De Jesus is being replaced by Margate Fire Chief Anthony Stravino, who had previously served as Fire Chief in Deerfield Beach and Longwood. Stravino and Israel were childhood friends while growing up in Long Island.

RET MAJOR ROBERT PUSINS COMMUNITY OUTREACH

Israel tried to recruit Fort Lauderdale Police Chief Frank Adderley, who decided to stay with the City. Israel had better luck with FLPD Captain Jack Dale, who will head BSO Professional Standards Department, and FLPD Assistant Chief Steve Kinsey, who will run the BSO Department of Investigations. Retired FLPD Major Robert Pusins, who addressed the GMCA Advisory Board several times prior to entering the private sector as a law enforcement consultant and expert witness, will become the BSO Executive Director of Community Outreach.

JOURNALIST ELGIN JONES

At some point, Israel hopes that Pusins will be joined at Community Outreach by Elgin Jones, a reporter whose coverage of Lamberti was singularly scathing. A former City of Fort Lauderdale engineering inspector and union leader, after prevailing in a racial discrimination lawsuit against the city, Jones reinvented himself as a journalist, ultimately becoming a leading muckraker for the South Florida Times. Since he and Israel had worked together during their respective tenures with the City, Lamberti has long been one of Jones’ favorite dartboards.

JEAN-BAPTISTE ALPHONSE KARR

As exclaimed by Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr, 1849 editor of Le Figaro in Paris, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” Lamberti’s drones have been replaced by Israel’s drones. As long as the officials charged with protecting the lives of Broward citizens are selected primarily for their political predilections instead of their Law Enforcement or Fire-Rescue credentials, the nation’s largest Sheriff’s Office will remain a behavioral slop sink. The truth is we have no business electing a Sheriff. Like any skilled professional, a Sheriff should be hired for his or her specialized capabilities, much like a Civil Engineer hired to run a municipal Public Works Department or a specialist in governmental finances is hired as a Director of Management and Budget. Fort Lauderdale residents are fortunate. Instead of BSO, their public safety is managed by a skilled and committed Police Chief. Frank Adderley is accountable to City Manager Lee Feldman, whose training and experience enable him to accurately measure FLPD’s effectiveness, shield Adderley from politics and insure the adequacy of his resources. In turn, both Feldman and Adderley answer to a a non-partisan City Commission that includes a former Police Chief.

FT LAUD CITY MANAGER LEE FELDMAN

FLPD POLICE CHIEF FRANK ADDERLEY

In contrast, the Broward Sheriff’s Office persists in a vacuum. During his term as Broward Sheriff, one man will unilaterally decide how to spend the $700 million annually allocated to BSO, who will populate BSO’s 6,300-employee roll, which vendors get lucrative contracts, what the public is and is not told – all while tailoring the limits of his own mandate to evolving circumstances. When evidence of wrongdoing is inadvertently exposed, he will investigate himself. BSO exists outside the checks and balances that ethically anchor most governmental entities. The Broward Sheriff is not answerable to the Broward County Commission. As a Constitutional Officer, he or she is only accountable to the Governor and Broward voters, who are largely clueless about what goes on inside BSO.

Every four years, voters are expected to choose a Sheriff - a task for which they are woefully ill equipped. As demonstrated by both campaign teams in the recent election, voters who don’t party line their ballots select a Sheriff based on the ability to dodge or shed mud. The only reliable guidance otherwise available to voters heralds from the fallout of Federal or State investigations or the dwindling number of investigative reporters who still have a media voice. Competence and character rarely enter the equation. We’d do as well by flipping a coin.

As long as the Broward Sheriff remains a partisan Constitutional Officer, the culture at BSO will focus on politics, with reelection as its Holy Grail and public safety relegated to an afterthought. For every scandal, purge or rip-off uncovered by some media muckraker or governmental investigator, twenty will pass unnoticed. Until the people of Broward County demand a non-partisan appointed Sheriff, BSO will remain a self-governing fiefdom answerable to no one – not the most productive environment for an agency wherein everyone is strapped.

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In his July Newsletter, District 4 Broward Commissioner Chip LaMarca reminds constituents of his campaign promise to expedite the County’s recovery from the effects of the collapsed housing market. After repeatedly piling enough bad pork into the annual County spending plan to trigger a nationwide epidemic of political trichinosis, tanking property values finally prompted long overdue fiscal restraint by the same County Commissioners who fleeced Broward taxpayers for decades.

PORT EVERGLADES INFRASTRUCTURE IMPROVEMENTS

However, simply forcing the spending plan through an ever-tightening fiscal shredder won’t reverse the County’s decline. Until recycling the backlog of toxically submerged homes revives property values, the County’s skull-blocked economy can best be awakened by stoking its economic engines. LaMarca and Statehouse Representative George Moraitis spent the past year working to upgrade the transportation hubs (Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport and Port Everglades) that enable Broward to successfully compete with neighboring tourism and shipping venues while providing hundreds of new jobs. Strategically located at Fort Lauderdale’s Port Everglades tourism nexus, enhancing the County’s aging Convention Center with a dedicated hotel and a facelift will plug a fiscal leak through which the County loses $tens of millions in new business every year.

Warehousing thousands of guests who attend the 280 annual Convention Center events in 50 different local hotels is a marketing nightmare. LaMarca laments the loss of longtime convention center customer ARVO (Association of Vision in Ophthalmology) – which will send their 13,000 guests to the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle in 2013, Orlando in 2014 and Denver in 2015. Following their annual gathering, Harley-Davidson said they would look elsewhere in the future for a Convention Center with a hotel. Scores of other convention customers, including the 9,000 attendees from an annual Department of Defense contractors’ convention, warned that if Broward couldn’t provide them with fully integrated lodging, they would not return.

GREATER FT LAUD/BROWARD CNTY CONVENTION CNTR

Without an affiliated hotel, the Convention Center is precluded from even bidding on more than one third of the prospective convention opportunities – those that require dedicated lodging. Of the remaining client prospects, the Center must offset their lack of a hotel with a laundry list of expensive perks, further squeezing embattled profits. Since prior attempts to correct this competitive shortcoming were seemingly lifted from early episodes of the Three Stooges, fleshing out elements of LaMarca’s context-driven “abbreviated history” is in order.

R. DONAHUE PEEBLES

As outlined by LaMarca, when the the Greater Fort Lauderdale / Broward County Convention Center opened in 1991, County attempts to build a related hotel flopped. Beginning in 1997, threats of an African-American tourist boycott prompted the County Commission to exclusively consider hotel plans submitted by minority-owned developers. Shortly after 49-year old real estate magnate R. Donahue Peebles was awarded the hotel contract, partnering hotel Management Company Wyndham International pulled out along with the National Baptist Convention, washing out the project while setting the stage for strike three.

CONV. & VISITORS BUREAU PRES. NICKI GROSSMAN

On November 1, 2007, the Broward Commission selected a bid winner from two world-class hoteliers (and their partner developers), each of which presented plans for a 1,000-room Convention Hotel on 17^th Street - next to the Broward Convention Center at Port Everglades. Rejecting a plan submitted by Marriott and developer Hensel Phelps Construction, a ten-person selection committee chaired by tourism Guru Nicki Grossman that included 8 Broward Commissioners instead awarded the project to Hilton Hotels and their developer FaulknerUSA by a close six to four vote.

FORMER JP MORGAN BANKER CHRIS ROMER

Both teams planned on using hotel revenues to repay $400 million raised from Broward-authorized tax exempt bonds. While Marriott declined any public backing, Hilton wanted an annual $6 million pledge of hotel bed taxes as a guarantee against missed loan payments. Also, if the hotel went South, Broward taxpayers would pay down the debt service. Hilton’s ace-in-the-hole was former Executive Director Christopher Romer of JP Morgan Securities, who pledged to purchase all $398 million of Hilton’s bonds, while Marriott would have to hunt buyers in the tight credit market.

Since Marriott’s plan was financially self-sufficient while Hilton placed every Broward taxpayer on the hook for their debt, President Mark Schultz of FaulknerUSA, Hilton’s partnering developer, conceded that opponent Marriott’s deal was far better for the County. When informed that the Commissioners ignored the risk to taxpayers and selected his team’s less favorable project, a disbelieving Schultz declared, “I’m shocked!” Although compelled by years of Pavlovian conditioning to frivolously opt for expedience over prudence whenever managing tax dollars, our County Commissioners were primarily moved by enlightened self-interest as Hilton lobbyists offered committee members more valuable “incentives” than their Marriott peers.

It was no secret that Hilton banking partner JP Morgan Chase was also suing FaulknerUSA for $6.1 million in defaulted loans from a similar project in Austin, Texas. Focusing on the questionable County decision, local media took a closer look at Hilton’s builder. In addition to a $6.6 million court judgment stemming from a hornet’s nest of litigation over flooding problems in the Austin Hilton Convention Center Hotel, FaulknerUSA was facing $millions more in liabilities from 17 lawsuits (and 68 liens) by irate condo owners, unpaid subcontractors and project organizer Austin Convention Enterprises Inc. Despite under-the-table “agreements” between project lobbyists and inappropriately vested public officials, the handwriting was on the wall.

BROWARD ADMINISTRATOR BERTHA HENRY

After registering a very public demand for proof of FaulknerUSA’s fiscal health in January of 2008, a supposedly surprised County Administrator Bertha Henry stoically announced, “There is nothing that says Faulkner is dropping out of this deal, but they have to respond to us that they have the wherewithal to do this project. We will not enter into a development agreement with a company that is not stable.” In a frantic attempt to salvage their project, Hilton brought Hensel Phelps Construction, the partner of rival bidder Marriott to an emergency meeting with County officials, largely to hedge against an anticipated County maneuver to sever besieged FaulknerUSA from the project. The gesture proved futile.

On December 8, 2009, the County Commission officially pulled the plug on the $400 million project, but not before frittering $1.6 million in pork disbursements to LMN Architects; Hospitality Real Estate Counselors; the law firm of Siegel, Lipman, Dunay, Shepard & Miskel; the engineering firm Craven Thompson & Associates; the urban planning firm Hughes Hughes Inc.; the architectural firm Arch Alliance and the law firm of Squire Sanders - primarily for thinking positive thoughts. To avoid threatened legal action, intimidated Commissioners also refunded FaulknerUSA’s $2 million deposit – with interest.

Hopefully, the County Commission will avoid the pitfalls that plagued earlier attempts to fully develop competitive Convention Center infrastructure, especially since LaMarca has repeatedly demonstrated his willingness to expose the type of self-serving maneuvers that earmarked those failures. Since his election to the County Board, LaMarca’s peers have come to understand that he takes his responsibility as Commission gadfly seriously... as do we. Read LaMarca's July 2012 update below... “Build It and They Will Come”. – [editor]

BROWARD COMMISSIONER CHIP LAMARCA

May 24, 2012 - In the June - July, 2012 edition of his constituent Newsletter, District 4 County Commissioner Chip LaMarca confines his focus to two issues - a new hire and the panoply of Hurricane resources available to Broward residents. Heeding LaMarca’s recommendation that disabled and elderly persons participate in the Broward County Vulnerable Resident Registry could save the lives of pro-active registrants. The Commissioner recently rebalanced his staff, installing John David Newstreet as his District Director. Since his responsibilities include interfacing with LaMarca’s County constituents, some background is in order.

DISTRICT DIRECTOR JOHN DAVID NEWSTREET

One of nine siblings, Newstreet was born and raised in Coral Springs. After high school and two years in the United States Coast Guard Academy, he entered Broward Community College and earned an Associate in Arts degree. He moved to Orlando and attended the College of Business Administration at the University of Central Florida, graduating with a degree in Finance.

FORMER SENATOR MEL MARTINEZ

Following the career path forged in college; from 2001 to 2004 he worked as a Financial Consultant for Chastang, Ferrell, Sims & Eiserman’s (CFSE) Wealth Management, Inc. Subsequently serving as the Department Adjutant for the non-profit American Legion, Department of Florida, Newstreet’s growing passion for politics was fanned by his Presidency of the Orange County Young Republicans. His calling took a detour.

GEORGE LEMIEUX AND CHARLIE CRIST

Beginning in 2006, Newstreet spent three years working for Senator Mel Martinez, rising from Central Florida Regional Representative to Central Florida Regional Director. When former Governor Charlie Crist named George LeMieux placeholder for the seat unexpectedly vacated by Martinez in 2009, Newstreet’s stock burgeoned. As a key link to his predecessor’s political policies, LeMieux elevated Newstreet to the post of Deputy State Director. In 2011, when Marco Rubio clocked Crist for LeMieux’s Senate seat, he inherited Newstreet, who Rubio replaced with Susan Fernandez three months later. On May 3, 2011, Ocala Congressman Cliff Stearns named Newstreet as his $75K District Director. A year later, LaMarca bought Newstreet a one-way ticket to Broward.

While serving as Central Florida Regional Director for Senator Mel Martinez and Deputy State Director for successor George LeMieux, Newstreet earned a reputation for working closely with Democrat Senator Bill Nelson’s staffers to support issues and legislation inherently beneficial to all Floridians. In Washington D.C., safeguarding his benefactor’s image meant arm wrestling with the press. In local government, the same struggle is waged in the trenches. Until he gets up to speed, seasoned LaMarca Commission Aide D. Ryan Saunders and Administrative Coordinator Mary Pryde should help ease Newstreet’s transition. He should have little trouble otherwise adapting to an environment where his value will be measured primarily by what he delivers on the neighborhood streets. Read on for LaMarca’s “Summertime 2012” update. – [editor]