Each of the participating chefs and dining establishments enjoys a reputation for culinary excellence. From their kitchens, they provide thousands of diners with menu-selected fare or unlisted specials that are intermittently available depending on fate or whimsy. However, each of these artists specializes in signature dishes with which they have become identified. To sample these extraordinary offerings, restaurant patrons would have to visit each establishment and order the iconic fare. Discovering why these creations have become widely acclaimed dining experiences would take months and cost a fortune. At the Galt Mile Wine & Food Festival, participants can achieve this in a few hours - and for a pittance. Strolling from one station to the next, you can enjoy the culinary masterpieces unveiled by each of the best chefs in town.

Galt Mile Wine & Food Festival Site (Click Graphic for More Maps)

WEEKEND AND LATE NIGHT DRAG RACE CENTRAL ON A1A ONE BLOCK NORTH OF CORAL RIDGE TOWERS COMPLEX

As you have probably observed, State Road A1A (i.e. the Ocean Highway) is undergoing a major renovation along the Galt Mile, , including bike lanes, expanded sidewalks, traffic safety upgrades, new hardscape features and narrowing of the thoroughfare from 6 to 4 lanes. In addition to structurally inoculating the severely deteriorated stretch of A1A against the weekend and late night drag races that plagued the route for decades, the plan foresees a host of improvements commensurate with its recent designation as an official Florida Scenic Highway. FDOT plans to realize the changes in two consecutive projects.

CLICK GRAPHIC FOR A1A DESIGN OPTIONS

While the major structural changes are currently underway, the aesthetic embellishments are planned for the follow-up project scheduled for 2015. Projected enhancements will include an expanded 24-foot wide sidewalk on the east side of A1A with a 10-foot pedestrian merchant zone and a 14-foot pedestrian area, a 10-foot bicycle zone, including on-street parking, street trees, landscaping in the median islands and a double row of trees defining the pedestrian area.

When the plans are finalized, FDOT will butt heads with the City of Fort Lauderdale over project funding. Neighborhood association officials will work with the City to maximize improvements distilled from a series of plans drafted over the past few years. However, some of the improvements are characterized as optional, municipal spin for “Get up the scratch!”

In 1996, Galt Ocean Drive and the surrounding area was transformed from a bleak, sand-blown strip into an elegant beachfront boulevard when a $3.5 million Galt Mile Improvement Project conceived and spearheaded by Galt activist Earl Lifshey was approved and financed by residents living on the block. Although only residents from two of the four Coral Ridge Towers cooperatives and our three northernmost association members live directly on A1A (CRT East, CRT South, Plaza East, Fountainhead, Caribe), all 28 Galt Association members have a stake in elevating A1A into a world-class thoroughfare.

We can either cough up the resources required to implement enhancements declined by the City, or explore funding alternatives. To that end, the Galt Mile Community Association arrived at an understanding with the promoter and sponsors of the Galt Mile Wine & Food Festival. If well attended, an annual festival stands to become a signature community event. If the event proves successful, in addition to fueling interest in the Galt Mile, a modest percent of the income will be dedicated to a firewalled community improvement fund. When FDOT or the City classify key project elements as “optional”, despite approving them in adjacent neighborhoods, the dedicated funds can be allocated at the discretion of the Advisory Board. Galt Mile residents won’t be forced to choose between a second tier improvement or none at all.

First, the event must be successful. If enough people buy tickets and attend the event, it will be repeated again next year, triggering the opportunity to subsidize neighborhood improvements that will substantially increase the value of every home on the Galt Mile.

SO – Buy a ticket. Enjoy the soft seaside winds wafting off the Atlantic and all the other syrupy trappings of paradise punch-listed by the promoter. Let tasty tidbits titillate your palate and as you drink your way to a late Saturday buzz. Most of all, revel in the prospect that you may have added a healthy footnote to the value of your home!!!

September 30, 2012 - This year, about 20% of the Associations along the Galt Mile will renew their bulk television contract. Whether conducted by a committee, some board members or a building manager to whom the task was delegated, the association representatives handling this responsibility are in for some surprises. They will not be surprised by Comcast’s paper thin competition. Alternative bulk television service providers DirecTV and Dish Network are still using a contractual format that requires executing an additional (second) agreement with one of several broadcaster-authorized local vendors to perform maintenance services. These small “Information Technology” companies deftly cycle in and out of business, often resurfacing as some virgin enterprise that carries no liability for agreements executed under their previous incarnation. This bear trap loophole is usually a deal breaker.

AT&T has been courting Galt Mile associations for years, promising to challenge Comcast with its first viable competitor since the AT&T Broadband cable juggernaut merged with Comcast in 2003. Formed in 1999, AT&T Broadband was the largest provider of cable television services in the country. Spirited from IBM in 1997, new CEO C. Michael Armstrong hoped to recapture AT&T’s former corporate clout by morphing it into a communications supermarket. He spent close to $100 billion buying John Malone’s Tele-Communications, Inc. (TCI) - which made AT&T the nation’s largest cable provider - and MediaOne in the hope that these cable companies would synergize a platform to build a nationwide AT&T-branded local phone service.

In 2002, the embattled CEO restructured the company, spinning off AT&T Wireless, AT&T Business, AT&T Consumer, and AT&T Broadband into separate companies. After rejecting Comcast’s 2001 purchase offer of $44.5 billion, a general Wall Street perception that AT&T lacked the managerial skill to effectively converge the company’s communication assets convinced the AT&T Board to abandon Armstrong’s vision. They finally agreed to a $29 billion stock transaction with Comcast for AT&T’s broadband division. By gobbling up its larger competitor, Comcast became the nation’s largest cable company – by far – leaving AOL Time Warner a distant number 2. Capitalizing on the fiscal clout that accompanies its frontrunner status, in January 2011 Comcast coughed up $30 billion for content goliath NBCUniversal.

In 2005, Baby Bell SBC Communications spent $16 billion to consume its former parent’s corporate remnants (reconstituting AT&T’s long-distance division and 10 of the 22 Baby Bells) and rebranded itself as AT&T, Inc. One year later, the reincarnated AT&T acquired BellSouth, valued at approximately $86 billion (or 1.325 shares of AT&T for each share of BellSouth at the close of trading December 29, 2006), adding and rebranding Cingular Wireless and Yellowpages.com to the AT&T asset base. A failed $39 billion bid in 2011 to acquire T-Mobile from Deutsche Telekom would have made AT&T and Verizon the sole mobile platforms for megaportals like Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and eBay.

AT&T CHAIRMAN AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER RANDALL L. STEPHENSON

AT&T Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Randall L. Stephenson refocused corporate resources to hawking the company’s Uverse brand, which it first conceived in 2006 as a vehicle for combining high-speed internet (HSI), IP telephone, and IPTV services. Hoping to maximize their share of an exploding “triple play” market built on bandwidth-intensive bundled products, it is going head to head with Comcast, the company that previously devoured AT&T Broadband. Ironically, their greatest obstacle is AT&T Mobility’s pitch black reputation for delivering cellular services as AT&T Wireless. In December 2010, Consumer Reports named AT&T as the worst wireless provider in the country. One year later, they earned the nefarious distinction of repeating as the nation’s worst wireless provider.

Preparing to compete for customers they once abused as AT&T Broadband, AT&T conceived a nationwide Public Relations campaign to catapult their Uverse entry into the bundled services market. As AT&T’s Uverse and Comcast’s Xfinity began a multi-year media mudfest, denigrating one another’s competing products, Comcast had difficulty exploiting AT&T’s disreputable cellular service history. Like the pot and the kettle, their shared vulnerability immunized each to the other’s anti-consumer indictments.

COMCAST CEO BRIAN ROBERTS

In 2004 and 2007, the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) survey affirmed that Comcast had the worst customer satisfaction rating of any company or government agency in the country, including the Internal Revenue Service. On October 1, 2008, J.D. Power and Associates’ annual customer satisfaction survey for the nation’s top 10 largest cable and satellite television providers scored Comcast in the bottom 5 for each region of the country – and dead last in the demographically weighted East Region. In 2010, the iconic internet based consumer-review service - Rateitall.com - reported the average consumer review of Comcast as 1.7 out of 5 stars, again underscoring the chronic failure of its customer service policy. Despite Comcast CEO Brian Roberts’ creation of a “Comcast Cares Digital Team” to improve customer service, the cable giant’s reputation remained fetid.

From local headquarters in Coral Springs, AT&T Account Executives have been dragging association board members and managers from all over Fort Lauderdale to upbeat private presentations meant to bolster confidence in the company’s Uverse brand and mute the customer service fiascos of their wireless division. These marketing events would invariably conclude with an insincere promise that the described services would be available within weeks at the potential customer’s location.

CORAL RIDGE TOWERS

After years of misrepresenting the availability of their products to local associations, U-verse finally began providing internet services to Galt Mile consumers. However, they are not yet equipped to offer bulk television services to associations along Galt Ocean Drive. When asked why bulk television services were available to Associations on the other side of A1A, like Coral Ridge Towers, a representative of AT&T’s commercial development division admitted that AT&T expansion plans have less to do with proximity than the costs of mitigating structural and political obstacles. While Comcast is legally bound to allow AT&T paid access to their proprietary interred cable conduit along the Galt Mile beachfront, until the gateway charges enable AT&T to profitably deliver their Uverse TV services, Comcast will continue to monopolize the bulk television market along Galt Ocean Drive.

Squaring off over a “triple play” bonanza that was expanded to a “quadruple play” Holy Grail by the addition of mobile broadband, these two corporate leviathans had an epiphany while swimming in debt from their respective evolutions into behemothic megacartels. Instead of building costly voice and mobile broadband networks across the country, Comcast teamed with Verizon earlier this year to compete with Uverse in Seattle, Spokane, San Francisco and a dozen other markets. To a lesser extent, Verizon is also handling bundled voice and mobile broadband services for other cable providers. Rather than financing a nationwide residential DSL-based broadband network inherently inferior to Comcast’s fiber footprint, AT&T is eying a similar pact with AOL Time Warner. Once comfortable with their new dance partners, only the FCC has the juice to enjoin one or both corporate gluttons from succumbing to instinctive “Black Widow” behavior and devouring their mates.

Associations that recently renewed Comcast contracts learned about changes in the telecommunications industry that impact how Comcast delivers services. In the two years after the “Digital Transition and Public Safety Act of 2005” forced broadcasters to transition from analog to digital transmissions on June 12, 2009, cable providers like Comcast distributed and installed no-frills Digital Transport Adapters (DTAs) that enabled customers to receive the digital signals carrying their basic cable content. Since every analog channel reclaimed by federal law unshackled enough bandwidth for 3 new High Definition digital channels, or 15 new standard digital channels, the telecommunications law squeezed out enough virgin wavelength for federal bureaucrats to hold a multi-$billion bandwidth auction.

Although the public legally owns the airwaves, elected officials who appointed themselves to manage “our asset” traded bandwidth for campaign contributions, no-show jobs for otherwise unemployable friends and relatives or condos in Palm Beach or Lake Tahoe. Tainted by broadcasters engaged in collusive bidding, the auction only brought in $19.592 billion for more than $50 billion worth of bandwidth. Of that, only $7.3 billion was transferred to the general fund of the Treasury (i.e. to the public).

DTA INSTALLATION KIT

Although ordered to begin all digital broadcasts by June 12, 2009, cable and satellite providers continued transmitting both analog and digital signals until they could develop, test and install the significantly less costly DTAs. Since the adapters (DTAs) were ostensibly designed to interpret basic digital signals, broadcasters would save truckloads of cash by omitting the interactive capabilities inherent in more costly digital set-top boxes. Each cable or satellite company further tweaked its DTAs to only decipher their unique proprietary signal, helping to stamp out an emerging niche market for generic DTAs. After digitally “customizing” their DTAs, each company forced its customers to install them on any television not already affixed to one of its more expensive interactive digital cable boxes.

Since the technologically simplistic devices were built for the sole purpose of carrying signal for basic cable channels, transmissions for premium services and/or an in-house channel could only be accessed by one of several more advanced digital set–top boxes or by inserting specialized adapters into the local system’s control panel. These “inserts” currently enable bulk service customers – like many Galt Mile associations – to watch HBO, Showtime, Starz, The Movie Channel, Cinemax, an in-house channel and other premium offerings on televisions fitted with DTAs. This is coming to an end.

The same legislation that enabled federal bureaucrats to fire sale our bandwidth also mandated “enhancements” to broadcasting consistency and consumer content control. Since the rudimentary DTAs are not equipped with programmable parental controls, premium content providers (i.e. HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, Starz, etc.) have prohibited Comcast from transmitting their signal to televisions fitted to DTAs. As a result, whenever a Comcast bulk services contract comes up for renewal, the “inserts” that enable DTAs to deliver these premium services must be removed from the main panel.

DIGITAL TRANSPORT ADAPTER (DTA)

A small minority of Galt Mile associations fund lavishly expensive bulk television services for members. Since their televisions are connected to one of several premium digital channel lineups using interactive digital set-top boxes instead of DTAs, they are largely unaffected by these changes. However, a vast majority of Galt Mile Associations have historically controlled costs by tailoring a basic or extended channel lineup with an in-house channel and possibly one or two premium channels.

While the inserts that provide access to in-house channels will remain intact as well as the full array of basic cable channels, bulk service customers that contract for limited premium services, such as two HBO channels or one Starz channel, will no longer be able to receive them on televisions connected to DTAs. The only exceptions to this policy are contracts that are renewed by exercising an automatic renewal clause, since they legally preclude alteration by either party.

As such, many Galt Mile associations will be faced with a choice upon renewing a contract. They can eliminate the one or two premium channels from their package, thereby saving each unit owner a few dollars every month for their association-assessed television services. While unit owners who still wanted the premium channels could purchase them directly from Comcast, the cost would skyrocket, often by 5 times what they saved when cut from the association bulk package.

DIGITAL SET-TOP BOX

For associations that want to hang on to their low-cost premium channels, Comcast has agreed to a variety of compensatory compromises. For example, instead of a basic cable plan accessed by up to 2 or 3 free DTAs, in certain cases Comcast agreed to replace one of the DTAs with a digital set–top box and upgrade a basic channel lineup to one of their premium digital plans (i.e. their entry level “Digital Starter” plan) - under the same financial terms.

To offset the loss of their one or two premium content channels on sets affixed to DTAs, a television connected by a digital set–top box will receive the full family of channels offered by their premium content provider. For instance, for the same price, unit owners receiving two Showtime channels on every set would trade off those channels on their DTA-connected TVs and receive all 8 Showtime channels on any television attached to a digital set-top box; along with hundreds of free movies, free Showtime On Demand broadcasts, a substantially expanded premium channel lineup and the full complement of interactive On Demand services. The formula is applicable to any premium content provider (HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, Starz, etc.)

In associations that make the trade-off, unit owners who previously paid extra for a “Digital Starter” premium channel lineup or rented a digital set–top box to access premium services will no longer have to pay the monthly rental charges or service fees for these upgrades that are now included in their association cable package. However, the monthly costs for unit owners who subscribe to additional premium services or rent additional boxes will be unaffected by this agreement. Conversely, owners who have heretofore chosen to forgo paying for the additional features delivered by a digital set-top box will receive them at no additional cost.

Feeling the competitive heat, a few years ago Comcast and AT&T began offering associations financial incentives for initiating or renewing a bulk services contract. While these incentives have long played a part in finalizing a variety of utility agreements, they proliferate in neighborhoods that vendors consider "in play", where customers are newly empowered by a previously unavailable choice of vendors.

Since this leveraging tactic surfaces in every community where an embedded monopoly is confronted by a viable competitor, several communications consulting companies have carved out a niche market by representing preferred customers - like associations - in their negotiations with cable and satellite providers for these incentives. A majority of the agreements they negotiate for client associations yield checks written by the broadcaster to the associations for signing new or renewed agreements. The amount paid to the consultants for their services depends on the scope of financial benefits they exact from the provider.

Converged Services, Inc. (CSI), among the nation’s largest cable consulting companies, has been extremely active in the Galt Mile neighborhood. They’ve cultivated relationships with educational and advocacy organizations like the Community Association Institute (CAI), the Community Advocacy Network (CAN), Community Association Management Professionals (CAMP), etc., to market their services at association trade shows and expos. Targeting associations with expiring cable contracts, company CEO Jim Adams explains to prospective clients that his consultants’ intimate knowledge of Comcast’s business model and those of other cable and satellite companies affords them unique negotiating advantages. Adams and members of his entourage offer to negotiate on behalf of the association in exchange for a healthy percentage (usually one third) of whatever financial considerations they elicit from Comcast. Of several Galt Mile associations that contracted for these “consulting” services, for each one that seemed satisfied, another expressed regret for not having negotiated directly with Comcast.

CSI CEO JIM ADAMS

Also known as a door fee, the cash disbursement provided to associations for signing a new Comcast contract is technically based on the number of units covered by the agreement. For instance, if a 200-unit association negotiates an all-cash signing incentive for $24,000, it would technically receive a door fee of $120 per unit. Of course, the signing incentive could alternatively be used – in part – to lower contract rates. Structuring at least part of the signing incentive as a door fee also addresses legal issues that impact the broadcaster’s access rights.

27-YEAR COMCAST ACCT EXECUTIVE BILL TALLEY

The point people in Comcast’s marketing division are account executives. After being assigned to a neighborhood, an account executive will visit with associations that are heading into the final stretch of a Comcast contract. In the past, these field representatives developed personal relationships with association officials, managers and committee members charged with negotiating bulk services contracts. After a deal was inked, the representative became a critical contact person, bridging Comcast’s chronic servicing failures. As confidence in the company’s empty servicing promises bottomed out in South Florida, Comcast’s credibility became wholly dependent on veteran field personnel – like 27-year account executive Bill Talley on the Galt Mile – whose personal promises were often the only reason why associations renewed their contracts.

FORMER COMCAST MNGR KEN CRAWFORD

Account Executives that service associations answer to a regional Director or Manager of Commercial Development. About 5 years ago, the Comcast Director of Commercial Development in Broward County was Ken Crawford. When Crawford sought to work with the neighborhood association to improve service in 2007, corporate superiors precluded him from addressing the company’s repeated miscues on a neighborhood level, insisting instead that he require customers to negotiate a frustrating and futile customer service maze. A year later, Crawford left Comcast to serve as the Director of Business Development at CSI.

COMCAST'S MAGGIE HUTTER BROWARD MNGR COMM. DEV.

Maggie Hutter is currently at the vanguard of Comcast’s local association business strategy. Serving as the company’s Broward County Manager of Commercial Development, Hutter and her account executives (such as Miriam Decker on the Galt Mile) realize that they must offer more than promises to wrap up a deal. Along with tailoring a television package to an association’s needs and addressing servicing concerns, Hutter and her account staffers must be prepared to negotiate association “door fees”.

When contacted by CSI or some competing negotiating agent, Hutter knows what to expect. At the end of a horse trading session, Comcast will spread around some cash and walk away with a long-term association contract. If association officials choose to negotiate on their own behalf, Comcast will accord them equal standing with the professional stand-ins, clarifying that signing incentives are applicable to long-term contracts, generally for 7 to 10 years.

To fend off an unparalleled history of servicing ineptitude, Comcast is revising its call center strategy. Instead of filling the map with small call centers tasked with managing a broad range of cable catastrophes in a local catchment area, the company is creating large customer service centers that specialize in addressing one specific category of complaint. As the industry exploded, so did problems attributable to fast-changing technology, evolving business models, new services and other issues confronting call center personnel. Ill-equipped to resolve complicated technology snafus or small business scaling issues, staffers would pass problems up the chain to supervisors who disingenuously promised to “call you back”. After being bounced around for hours by clueless staffers, customers would beg for a costly service call, an eminently preferable alternative to calling back once their anger subsided.

COMCAST HOUSTON V.P. RAY PURSER

Since each of the new call centers will concentrate on one of several specific customer service issues, staffers will receive in-depth training to resolve those specialized problems. According to Vice President of government and public relations Ray Purser in Comcast’s Houston region, the company is creating "Centers of Excellence" that individually specialize in sales calls, billing calls, repair calls and other targeted customer dilemmas. Houston will specialize in repair calls. A center in Tinley Park, Illinois will concentrate on billing issues. Business Services will be managed in Manchester, New Hampshire. Last year, the company opened a dedicated Spanish-language call center in Miramar. Under this new format, instead of forcing complainants through an often futile service wringer, calls will be routed to the center that specializes in the problem described by the customer.

Hutter knows that her company’s call centers are perceived as spin centers, where customers who patiently waited from 10 am to 2 pm for a tech to revive their lost service are told that the tech never showed because the customer unknowingly cancelled the appointment. For years, corporate call centers – seemingly based on other planets – have historically devised outrageous excuses for service snafus. Hutter and Galt Mile account executives plan to open communications with the neighborhood association. In addition to smoothing long neglected community relations, soliciting input from association officials who regularly field Comcast complaints will hopefully lead to improved service. On the bright side, if Hutter’s efforts bear fruit, the company may see a modest reduction in traffic on the popular nationwide internet venting blog “Comcastmustdie.com”.

July 25, 2012 - On April 4, 2012, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced the termination of a program enacted in 2006 that allowed agents writing national flood insurance policies to rebate a portion of their commission to cash-strapped customers. In 1996, the Florida Legislature enacted Senate Bill 438, providing a statutory foundation for commission rebates (Florida Statute 626.572) to help smaller “Write Your Own” (WYO) private insurers better compete with industry goliaths. While the statute enabled individual insurance agents to voluntarily rebate a part of their commissions, in 2005 Senate Bill 1912 extended that option to licensed insurance agencies, authorizing them to similarly discount their products.

Delighted by the opportunity to expand consumer access to their products, especially in smaller communities serviced by local agents, FEMA officially initiated a commission rebate program later that year. Unburdened by corporate drawdowns for fueling the company’s private aircraft or sending corporate executives on fact-finding missions in the world’s gambling capitols, giving up a few points enabled mom and pop agencies to snag clients from industry giants. These voluntary flood policy commission rebates of up to 15% concomitantly played a critical role in the fiscal survival strategy of thousands of Florida associations.

Of the nation’s 5,554,617 flood policies, 37% cover Florida properties. As of May 31, 2012, the 459 governmental jurisdictions in the state that participate in the program represent 2,050,991 flood policies with a total exposure of $471,343,906,700. By definition, an overwhelming majority of these properties pepper the high-risk Florida coastline. These highly prized beachside locations also house a great majority of the State’s 60,000 common interest communities.

FEMA does not directly regulate insurance agents who sell standard flood insurance policies. The Write Your Own (WYO) private insurers that actually write the policies also market them through proprietary agent networks and administer any associated claims. Once a claim is submitted and processed, FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) reimburses the WYO.

However, the Code of Federal Regulations (44 CFR, Section 62.23 and the “Financial Assistance/Subsidy Arrangement” 44 CFR, Part 62, Appendix A) that authorizes FEMA to administer the NFIP specifically empowers the agency to set standards that govern how participating WYO Companies sell and market NFIP flood insurance products. Changes made to these standards are supposed to be driven by some public purpose objective.

When Hurricane Andrew’s unprecedented devastation in1992 awakened FEMA to the necessity of pro-active emergency management, mitigation became the cornerstone of federal disaster assistance. On November 29, 1993, the Federal Insurance and Mitigation Administration (FIMA) was created to analyze and manage long-term risk from natural hazards. To reduce flood losses, one of its three new divisions adopted and enforced floodplain management regulations and created the NFIP to provide property owners with affordable flood insurance.

FEMA DEPUTY ADMIN. FOR FEDERAL INSURANCE EDWARD L. CONNOR

Exclaiming in a recent memo that FIMA had received numerous inquiries focusing on the federal National Flood Insurance Program, FEMA Deputy Associate Administrator for Federal Insurance Edward L. Connor added that “insurance rebating has been the source of many complaints from agents and companies.” After indicting the practice as “confusing to consumers,” Connor dropped the bomb, announcing “...effective October 1, 2012, WYO Companies shall not authorize the rebating of commissions on new or renewal NFIP policies.”.

The enigmatic FEMA maneuver simultaneously stripped thousands of small agencies of their ability to compete with industry behemoths while significantly driving up insurance costs for thousands of associations. The fiscal havoc wreaked on hundreds of thousands of homeowners living in affected associations was compounded by the questionable zone assignments applied to the Agency’s recently redrafted flood insurance rate maps. Although data assembled by FEMA engineers enhanced the maps’ topographic accuracy, a new set of arbitrary risk assumptions approved by Agency bureaucrats will add $thousands in unjustified premium costs to associations unable to “grandfather” rates applicable to their former zoning designation. Simultaneously, recent Congressional negotiations over agency funding provides for a 5 – 20% general rate increase (depending on hazard zone designation) that’s scheduled to incrementally impact all renewals and new flood policies after October 1, 2012.

FEMA is inherently steeped in operational dogma. Although its mandate dictates a response to events with impacts that are virtually unpredictable, Congressional critics insist that FEMA adhere to a traditional business model – like the Post Office. In exchange for a series of 17 short-term Congressional funding reprieves since 2008, FEMA officials repeatedly made amorphous promises to raise rates and cut overhead. On July 6, 2012, President Obama signed “The Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012”, which authorizes NFIP funding through September 30, 2017. However, the agency’s $18 billion debt is in no way impacted by the rebates, which are wholly funded from the commissions voluntarily contributed by individual agents. Why did FEMA suddenly reverse a policy that helped consumers without costing the agency (or taxpayers) a dime?

The complaints fielded by Connor weren’t from customers or the thousands of agents that benefitted from the program. They were lodged by a small number of disgruntled agents employed by insurance conglomerates, including associates from Connor’s former employers Allstate and Chubb. When these agents complained to corporate about losing business to discounting local competitors, the insurance juggernauts sent lobbyists to convince FEMA that competition is “un-American”. Fearful of alienating prospective employers when faced with ‘life after government service”, FEMA bureaucrats jumped on the bandwagon. While insuring a cushy post-retirement parachute is certainly a time-honored motivation for shafting the public, Federal and State bureaucrats try to avoid appearing like shareholders in the institutions they are supposedly regulating.

Connor initially declared “The goals of the NFIP are better served by a system of uniform national pricing that will ensure that policyholders pay the same price for the same risk.” Hoping it would resonate with the public, Connor issued his outcry as if he were spearheading a campaign to protect the beleaguered agency’s premium income or shield consumers from an inequitable or fraudulent pricing scheme. However, NFIP receives full price for policies funded in part by commission rebates, consumers save money and smaller agencies successfully compete by offering clients a better price for the same product. When consumer advocates attacked the decision as a blatant attempt to favor a small group of politically powerful vendors by eliminating their competition, FEMA bureaucrats whipped up a new public rationalization for this overtly anti-consumer policy. A FEMA spokesperson announced that the program was being discontinued to stop a proliferation of “policy churning.”

This nefarious-sounding “buzzword” actually refers to the consumer practice of switching policies. When precipitated by an unscrupulous agent’s misrepresentations to a policyholder to generate additional commission income, the term connotes fraudulent behavior. However, it also applies when a customer cancels a policy to take advantage of a competitor’s better rates. The double-entendre backfired. Instead of quelling growing opposition to the ill-conceived decision, the statement functionally conceded FEMA’s intention to pump up profits for industry giants by stamping out local competitors.

Several petitions aimed at pressuring FEMA to rescind this damaging decision before its October 1^st effective date are being circulated – some by the insurance agencies that were functionally crippled by FEMA’s patronage of their larger competitors and others by advocates for the thousands of associations (and millions of homeowners) whose insurance rates will unnecessarily skyrocket. One such petition was launched by the Community Advocacy Network (CAN), and can be accessed online at: http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/petition-to-fema-regarding-detrimental-decision-to-disc.html.

By taking half a minute to add your signature, , you can help thwart an openly abusive attempt by FEMA bureaucrats to forbid competition, push local agencies into the cornfield and stick it to South Florida association homeowners. Can you think of a more productive way to spend the next 30 seconds?

PRESIDENTS COUNCIL CHAIR PIO IERACI

June 23, 2012 - Tackling an overstuffed agenda in the final Galt Mile Presidents Council meeting before the summer hiatus, officials from 22 of the 27 Galt Mile associations heard from a panoply of public officials and local bureaucrats. Along with updates by State and County representatives, reports from member associations about shared operational stumbling blocks and a spot review of the failed 2012 omnibus association bill, a team of municipal officials helped defuse community enmity over confusing threats mailed by the City to unit owners and their associations. After apologizing for the ill-conceived correspondences and discussing contradictions that belabor several vague municipal policies, officials from building services, code compliance and the City Manager’s office expressed their intention to cooperatively develop non-contentious viable resolutions with Commissioner Roberts and neighborhood association officials. Kicking off the proceedings was District 91 Statehouse Representative George Moraitis, who distinguished himself in his 2011 rookie year by shepherding his Omnibus Association Bill to fruition.

GOVERNOR RICK SCOTT SIGNS HOUSE BILL 1195 WITH REP. GEORGE MORAITIS AND PIO IERACI

Moraitis’ star rose within a year of winning the District 91 Statehouse seat vacated by Ellyn Bogdanoff when she ran for the District 25 Senate seat formerly occupied by Florida CFO Jeffrey Atwater. Months after his election, Community Advocacy Network (CAN) Executive Director Donna Berger (Managing Partner at Katzman Garfinkel & Berger – KG&B) and Becker & Poliakoff (B&P) lobbyists Peter Dunbar and Travis Moore decided to collaborate on four association bills built around Ellyn Bogdanoff’s groundbreaking 2010 legislation quashing a $multi-million mandate to retrofit sprinklers in high rise associations.

REP GEORGE MORAITIS AND DONNA BERGER LEGISLATOR OF THE YEAR

The final legislative configuration teamed Senator Mike Fasano’s Senate Bill 530 with Representative George R. Moraitis’ House Bill 1195. Backed by the two legal powerhouses and coordinated statewide support from millions of association members, the bills empowered associations to punish deadbeats, prevent speculators from forcing their neighbors to subsidize their defaults, streamline bulk purchases to diminish a bloated statewide unit inventory and reverse dozens of expensive and counterproductive legislative glitches enacted in previous years. On June 16, 2011, Moraitis was recognized by a grateful coalition of community associations as “Legislator of the Year.”

GEORGE MORAITIS, PIO IERACI & ELLYN BOGDANOFF

Feeding on the infectious enthusiasm generated by his first-year legislative triumph, Moraitis decided to use the same formula to further empower associations in 2012. Teaming with newly elected Senator Ellyn Bogdanoff and buoyed by unprecedented support from millions of condo and co-op owners, his House Bill 319 was poised for success. Drawing on impressive legal clout and a busload of political influence, as his bill whizzed through House Committees, Bogdanoff’s Senate counterpart followed suit. In addition to allowing associations to postpone retrofitting their elevators with Phase II Firefighter Service until their next modernization (when the cost becomes negligible), fast tracking impact glass hurricane protection, suspending voting and use rights for delinquent unit owners and deadbeat speculators and providing Cooperative homeowners with statutory rights that previously only benefitted condo owners, the bills corrected glitches affecting the maintenance of association records, Board member certification and association recalls. Suddenly, the music stopped.

When a legal problem dogs an association, a good attorney can give its members a new lease on life. However, when attorneys opt to believe that they are better equipped to make decisions for an association than its members, it’s time to reboot the process. A conflict over a statutory provision that spelled out a lender’s financial obligation when foreclosing association properties suddenly took center stage in Moraitis’ high-flying bill. Called the “Safe Harbor” amendment, it limits what a foreclosing bank must pay in association dues to “12 months of the unit’s unpaid assessments or 1 percent of the original mortgage debt, whichever amount is less.” This crushingly inequitable statutory guideline has been manipulated by lenders to push hundreds of associations into receivership.

In response, cash-strapped associations hired specialized collection attorneys to challenge lenders who exploited safe harbor protections in order to stiff associations and force their unit owners to pay the bank’s ignored obligation. Using a variety of unorthodox tactics, some lawyers proved in court that the bank’s claim to title was faulty or fraudulent, enabling the judge to award title to the association. Since a client association’s very survival was often at stake, others flirted with extortion and blackmail by hinting that the local bank branch would be shunned by its unit owner customers if word leaked out that the lender cheated their association, forcing its unit owners to subsidize the lender’s unpaid dues.

YELINE GOIN

Becker & Poliakoff, despite a deep roster of association clients, also represents Bank of America, HUD and other “A” list mortgage lenders. Rationalizing a need to “protect associations from themselves” and exhorting that angry banks may hit back, firm attorneys insisted that Moraitis add language to his bill confirming that associations were not entitled to one cent more from lenders than delimited by the safe harbor provision. Executive Director Yeline Goin of CALL (Community Association Leadership Lobby), B&P’s advocacy stepchild, warned that deep-pocketed banks would countersue or threaten to choke financing in the association market (a threat repeatedly leveled by the lending industry to intimidate lawmakers). Despite their obvious conflict of interest, B&P arguments resonated with Moraitis, a real estate attorney who feared being blamed for threatened lender reprisals. Not surprisingly, it wasn’t nearly as popular with the vast pool of association supporters who asked “Why is a pro-bank provision in an association bill?” Ironically, their question became the bill’s epitaph.

Ignoring its negative impact on his credibility and hoping to win points for sticking to his guns, Moraitis stubbornly refused to sever the controversial provision from his bill. The results of a CAN poll released in the February 2012 edition of the Florida Community Association Journal suggested that 82% of the bill’s association supporters perceived the provision as a favor to B&P’s lender clients. Since the bill had already survived a full House vote and Bogdanoff's sister bill (Senate Bill 680) enjoyed good support in the Senate, bill proponents surmised that it could weather a deep split in support if they nervously stood by Moraitis and his allied “legal muscle” while momentum propelled it across the finish line.

SENATE PRESIDENT MICHAEL HARIDOPOLOS

They ignored a factor that was staring them in the face since day one of the session. Florida Senators were not about to risk alienating voters they might need to survive a redistricting process they could no longer manipulate. After flipping through dozens of angry emails from his hometown Space Coast constituents on the final day of the legislative session, Senate President Mike Haridopolos decided that Moraitis’ safe harbor provision was political Cyanide. Following a 60-second conscience-testing epiphany, Haridopolos drop kicked the bill off the Senate calendar, consigning it to the Tallahassee cornfield.

Having recounted his legislation’s disappointing implosion, Moraitis promised the Galt Mile audience to revive the failed bill in the upcoming 2013 legislative session. After admitting that dropping the divisive safe harbor language could have salvaged the bill’s positive provisions (and chalked up another impressive “first term” win), Moraitis shifted focus to his efforts on behalf of Port Everglades.

When the Panama Canal is reconfigured to accommodate supersized transports, tankers and cruise ships in about two years, plummeting shipping costs will significantly shift newly ramped up international patterns of commerce. Port Everglades will have to compete with other East Coast and Gulf ports for an impending trade windfall that could deliver a steroidal jerk to the State and local economic recovery. Moraitis pointed out that while tourism continues to play a major role in the regional economy, it has been nosed out by the Marine Industry. “Port improvements enhance both of these economic engines,” exclaimed Moraitis.

PORT EVERGLADES

INTERMODAL CONTAINER TRANSFER FACILITY

In preparation for the projected August, 2014 completion of the canal’s expansion, ports in Savannah, New Orleans, Norfolk, Baltimore, Miami, the Port of South Louisiana (tonnage king of U.S. ports) and Port Everglades are racing to adapt their facilities for berthing and offloading oceangoing monsters carrying two to three times the cargo of the largest vessels currently able to navigate the canal. Despite a gubernatorial death grip on the State budget, Representative Moraitis was instrumental in lining up state funding for the construction of a turning notch, deepening and widening the port channel and development of an Intermodal Container Transfer Facility. Moraitis stated “These improvements will bring $billions in new revenues and tens of thousands of new jobs to Broward County and the State.” He’s right. It will.

PORT DIRECTOR STEVEN M. CERNAK

PANAMAX VESSEL ENTERS LOCK

Commenting on the port’s new leadership, Moraitis acknowledged “I’m pleased with the Broward Commission’s appointment of Steven M. Cernak as new Port Director.” Cernak, who doubled revenues while serving as Director of the Port of Galveston before recently taking the reins from retiring Port Everglades Director Richard Allen, just completed similar structural improvements in Galveston, where he deepened the channel from 40 to 45 feet. In Port Everglades Cernak plans to enlarge the channel to the 50-foot depth required for Post Panamax shipping (nomenclature for ships that are 25% longer and 50% wider than the largest vessels able to pass through the canal). Instead of continuing to divert cruise ships to Miami when port facilities are overloaded, Moraitis described a $54 million renovation project for four cruise terminals that Cernak is building in partnership with the Carnival Corporation.

FORT LAUDERDALE-HOLLYWOOD INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

While collaborating on the association bills, Moraitis and Bogdanoff also teamed to promote legislation needed by the Broward Commission to enable local projects. Keeping a promise to the Galt Mile Community Association, Moraitis safeguarded vulnerable state funds appropriated to renourish our shrinking beach. He also described his funding efforts for other Broward infrastructure projects, including the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport expansion. Before issuing a reminder about his upcoming Statehouse campaign, the incumbent candidate detailed plans to “continue building local economic infrastructure, bring more jobs to Broward, improve educational opportunities and fight for better access to healthcare right here at home.”

COMMISSIONER CHIP LAMARCA'S DIST DIRECTOR JOHN DAVID NEWSTREET

TERRY CLAIRE AND FRIENDS OF GALT LIBRARY PRES. HERMAN GARDNER

The meeting segued to Broward Commissioner Chip LaMarca’s representatives, Commission aide D. Ryan Saunders and recently hired District Director John David Newstreet. After introducing himself and describing his previous service to Senators Mel Martinez, George LeMieux and Ocala Congressman Cliff Stearns, Newstreet invited attendees to contact him with any County concerns. LaMarca’s staffers recognized Plaza South resident Terry Claire, who the Commissioner appointed to the Broward County Library Advisory Board given her leading role in repeatedly rescuing the Galt Ocean Mile Library from the County budget axe. After promising that LaMarca will keep the local library’s doors open, Saunders shot off a reminder about the key role played by his boss in reviving the threatened Beach Renourishment project.

CITY COMMISSIONER BRUCE ROBERTS

Galt Mile President Pio Ieraci introduced District 1 City Commissioner Bruce Roberts, who opened by enumerating a litany of municipal issues impacting the Galt Mile community. Referring to the new panhandling ordinance, Roberts asserted “It doesn’t target homeless people; it targets illegal activity, whether or not the perpetrator is homeless.” The ordinance outlaws aggressive panhandling - when a request for money is couched in an implied threat. Roberts also clarified that the law recognizes that being homeless doesn’t entitle people to treat public parks like their private property. In addition to establishing a set of citywide panhandling prohibitions, it precludes any soliciting in the downtown Business District – mirroring a 1993 ordinance that shields the Fort Lauderdale beach from panhandlers.

“CHEPO” & COMM ROBERTS

SERGIO J. CLAVIJO

Thanking Commodore resident José “Chepo” Vega for his ongoing efforts to maintain the Galt Ocean Mile neighborhood in a “Disney-like manner,” Roberts lamented the recent explosion of “Utility Graffiti” on the street and sidewalks. He imparted plans to arrange a meeting with Damage Prevention Liaison Sergio J. Clavijo of Sunshine State One-Call, contractors responsible for the admittedly improper markings, the utilities they work for and Galt Mile officials.

Accompanied by a team of City officials with ties to the Building Division, Roberts addressed two festering neighborhood hot potatoes. With the help of Fort Lauderdale Building Services Manager Terry Burgess, Roberts sought to explain why Galt Mile associations and unit owners received letters threatening financial retribution for unresolved construction permits opened in their names. With few exceptions, construction performed in Fort Lauderdale requires a permit issued by the building department. Along with defining a project’s scope and verifying contractor credentials, the permit forms a basis for follow-up City inspections to insure that the work was properly completed. When the project passes a final inspection, the permit is closed, precluding further work without a new permit. Unfortunately, contractors don't always complete the process, leaving the permit in limbo.

CITY MANAGER LEE FELDMAN

When City Manager Lee Feldman streamlined the City’s organizational table, folding 16 bloated bureaucracies into 9 more manageable departments, staffers uncovered a truckload of construction cases that were inadequately closed out. Closer scrutiny revealed hundreds of open permits, in many cases going back decades. Since most property owners know little about regulatory documentation required for construction projects, they were understandably flustered by an official municipal correspondence threatening penalties for jobs performed years earlier. Correcting these oversights isn’t simply an exercise in overzealous record keeping protocols; unresolved permits discovered during a title search become impediments to selling (or buying) a property.

Targeted unit owners were suddenly required to locate contractors who were no longer in business or had shuffled off their mortal coils. Building managers and board members were confounded by letters describing repairs to equipment that had been discarded years earlier. The Galt Mile Advisory Board requested that Commissioner Roberts investigate this dilemma. A few months later, he was applauded for informing association officials that the City would only actively pursue open permits going back to 2007.

At the Presidents Council meeting, when Roberts repeated his take on the City’s open permit policy, Building Services Manager Terry Burgess added that all permits had to be closed for properties being sold - notwithstanding when they were originally issued. Troubled by seemingly contradictory messages, association officials requested clarification. Admonishing that open permits serve as serious obstacles to selling a property, Burgess tried to surgically excise the discrepancy by proclaiming “While all open permits have to be closed, we are only actively pursuing those going back to 2007.” It didn’t work. However, before audience grumbling could coalesce into complaints, Burgess diplomatically invited those burdened with much earlier permits to contact him, promising to fast track closure. Every association official in the audience scrambled for a pen and paper as Burgess said “You can reach me at 954-828-5913.” His email address at the Building Services Division is TBurgess@fortlauderdale.gov. For those association officials who knew little about Burgess, his decisive remedy helped validate his recent ascendancy to the top spot in Building Services.

Roberts jumped on the second hot button issue. In Mid-April of 2007, Galt Mile associations received official notices from the Building Services Department that threatened financial penalties for not extinguishing lighting on parking decks, patio decks and other association areas. Several association managers called Building Services and asked if they could turn off the lights listed in the notice. Building Services told them that doing so would elicit a violation notice; that they were required by law to light these areas. Armed with letters and tapes proving that a City Department was planning to violate beachfront associations for leaving their lights on and/or turning them off, the neighborhood association voted to leave the lights on and commence an action against the City. First, they would contact Building Services and give them an opportunity to explain their seemingly schizophrenic behavior.

CATE MCCAFFREY

Code Compliance Officer Al Lovingshimer, City liaison to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, apologized for the misunderstanding and explained about a virtually unknown City ordinance passed to enable sea turtle survival. A few days later, officials from several City departments asked to address the neighborhood association and further explain the dilemma. At the subsequent May 7, 2007 Presidents Council meeting, former Building Department Community Inspections Manager Catherine McCaffrey (currently an Assistant Parks and Recreation Director) apologized to attendees for the ill-advised violation notices and introduced Facilities Manager Tom Terrell from Public Works and Environmental Services’ Kris McFadden to explain the threat posed by artificial lighting to nesting sea turtles and their hatchlings. After detailing the evolutionary basis for marine turtle “Disorientation Events,” Broward County Natural Resource Specialist Lou Fisher answered questions about how people and sea turtles perceive light differently. City officials and the neighborhood association agreed to explore a resolution to the lighting dilemma.

VALERIE BOHLANDER

In subsequent meetings, Lovigshimer and Galt Mile officials negotiated a process that balanced the needs of sea turtles with those of local residents and their associations. By respecting the security concerns of unit owners and the financial constraints of their associations, the mutually conceived plan cured 90% of the Galt Mile code violations by the following November. Taken by cancer a few weeks later, Lovingshimer was posthumously named “2007 Code Enforcement Officer of the Year” by former Building Department Director Valerie Bohlander on November 20, 2007.

An open channel between the Galt Mile Association and code compliance successfully addressed turtle-safe lighting issues over the next three years. As a rule, when a violation was reported, the compliance officer would work with the association to cure the infraction inexpensively and in a manner that didn’t compromise resident safety. If a violation involved a major fixture, such as a parking deck lamp, the officer would recommend an inexpensive shield to temporarily deflect light from the beach. When the fixture approached the end of its useful life and was budgeted for replacement, the association would incorporate a turtle-safe substitute into its lighting plan. By blending short and long term solutions, associations achieved compliance without incrementally burdening budgets or creating a gauntlet of dangerous tripping hazards.

OPENLY NON-COMPLIANT LIGHTING IS PREVENTABLE

In late 2010, personnel changes in City government left a vacuum in city policy that crippled the process. With no guidance from the City, when newly elected board members and/or new managers who were oblivious to the ordinance evaluated their associations' lighting needs, they applied for and received City approval for lighting elements that once again endangered sea turtles. As compliance unraveled over the next year, no attempt was made by the City to revive the process they unilaterally slammed shut a year earlier. Soon after the Turtle Nesting Season began in March, associations began receiving threats from code compliance reminiscent of those that sparked the 2007 conflict. The adage that “those who forget history are doomed to repeat it” assumed a special significance as resident resentment over the ill-advised violation notices exploded overnight.

DIRECTOR GREG BREWTON

Fortunately, one code compliance officer who originally participated in the 2007 negotiation realized that the communication lapse would rekindle the acrimony that blistered the neighborhood five years earlier. After an April 25^th conference with Galt Mile representatives he worked with during the 2007 negotiations - Compliance Officer Mario Sotolongo reached out to Building Services Manager Terry Burgess. At the May 17^th Advisory Board meeting, Galt Mile officials and District 1 Commissioner Bruce Roberts explored defusing a growing community rancor fueled by the mailed threats. Having witnessed how quickly this misstep deteriorated into a neighborhood polemic five years ago, Roberts suggested a comprehensive vetting of this issue at the upcoming June 4^th Presidents Council meeting.

ASSISTANT CITY MANAGER SUZANNE TORRIENTE

To help address this conflict, Commissioner Roberts and Building Department head Burgess asked veteran Building Official Chris Augustin and code officer Sotolongo (who currently serves with fellow officer Dick Eaton as City liaison to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission) to join them at the neighborhood caucus. Also invited was Greg Brewton, the longtime Guru of Planning and Zoning before his elevation to Director of the Department of Sustainable Development, parent agency to the Building Services and Code Enforcement Divisions. Since Department heads take their marching orders from City Manager Lee Feldman’s office, Assistant City Manager Suzanne Torriente filled out the city delegation. Tempering an impressive set of management skills with common sense, Torriente works with Brewton to insure that his Department and its Divisions constructively implement and execute City policy.

BUILDING OFFICIAL CHRISTOPHER AUGUSTIN

Given his reputation for amicably settling scores of potentially volatile Galt Mile turtle lighting violations, Burgess introduced Mario Sotolongo. The code officer apologized for the confusion resulting from the violation notices. After reviewing the purpose for the turtle-safe lighting ordinance, Sotolongo surprised a skeptical audience when he exclaimed “We will never achieve compliance with this law.” The room muted as Sotolongo continued “We need to find a balance that’s fair to you while providing for the survival of sea turtles. Correcting lighting violations doesn’t have to be expensive and should never sacrifice personal safety.” After inviting notice recipients to contact him, he offered his assurance that “By working together we can always find a solution that works for everyone.” For association representative that failed to record his contact info, Sotolongo’s telephone number is 954-828-6326 and can be reached by email at MSotolongo@fortlauderdale.gov. Following his conciliatory missive, Sotolongo opened the floor to questions.

CITY DARKENS A1A IN 2007

In a knee-jerk initial spate of jeers and complaints, members contemptuous of the City’s 2007 decision to darken A1A without enhancing a local police presence blamed the city for the concomitant spike in crime along the beach. Several members complained about safety and security dilemmas created by the ordinance. Others vented about a poorly balanced policy that pits residents against sea turtles. When Assistant City Manager Suzanne Torriente and Commissioner Roberts intimated their intention to revive a framework that will enable code officers to work constructively with each association to address compliance issues, the rancor abated.

FISHER - NEW RULE FOR MARKING NESTS

Several audience members asked why areas roughly 30 feet wide were being cordoned off around every turtle nest on the beach, observing that 2 or 3 such nests rendered the beach impassable, even at low tide. GMCA President Pio Ieraci described a letter he received from Beach Raker, the Pompano vendor responsible for daily beach maintenance along the Galt Mile shoreline. At several coastal sites where adjacent turtle nests were each encircled by a 30-foot exclusion zone, the All-Terrain Vehicle (ATV) used to pull the sand rake was forced to drive through the surf in order to pass the otherwise blockaded beach.

MARINE BIOLOGIST LOU FISHER

Ieraci contacted Natural Resource Specialist Lou Fisher of the Broward County Environmental Protection and Growth Management Departments, inquiring why the restricted zones were expanded to 30 feet. A Marine Biologist who spearheads the County’s Sea Turtle Program, Fisher agreed that the buffer zones were excessive. Since the sole purpose for erecting warning signs and roping off nest areas is to deter curious beachgoers from disturbing the nest, handling the eggs and/or interacting with the hatchlings, only one in five nests will be measured for the large buffers going forward. 80% of the interdicted zones will be sized more closely to the nest, eliminating the obstacle to beach maintenance while providing beachgoers and turtle watchers unfettered access to the unrestricted beach area.

RESCUED NEST BETWEEN PLAYA DEL MAR AND REGENCY TOWER

Notwithstanding their beef with the City, most Galt Mile residents are innately protective of their sea turtles. One night last July, when some kids began digging at nests between Regency Tower and Playa del Mar, residents from both buildings yelled from balconies high above that they were calling the police. One idiot began raining down chicken bones, olive pits and assorted detritus presumably filched from her garbage. Within minutes, the nests were surrounded by unit owners who were soon joined by the Galt Mile Security patrol.

CRTN MNGR LISA EDWARDS

Although Presidents Council meetings are ordinarily adjourned at 9 PM, the atypically congested agenda for this seasonal finale ran past 11 PM. Following the palliative outreach by our municipal officials, President Don Larson and Manager Lisa Edwards of Coral Ridge Towers North gave a progress report about employee benefits. Larson volunteered to investigate the perks and pitfalls of treating this shared expense collectively to exploit a bulk discount. Unfortunately, time constraints precluded scheduled presentations by several local vendors.

GMCA OFFICIALS PIO IERACI AND ERIC BERKOWITZ

ROBBI UPTEGROVE

With the parties now on the same page, Roberts’ next challenge is morphing good intentions into a palpable policy. On June 12, Roberts’ Commission Assistant Robbi Uptegrove began scheduling the first of several meetings with City, State and association officials to address Utility Graffiti, revive a non-contentious turtle-safe lighting process and flesh out the procedural outline for closing open permits. If the July 24^th “Utility Graffiti” conference engineered by Uptegrove is even moderately successful, its impact will ripple across the state since hundreds of other Florida communities are equally chafed by contractors who fail to remove markings that blight their streets and sidewalks. If we work throughout the summer, by autumn we may also have viable processes for permit closure and turtle-safe lighting compliance. Having set the table for comparably sticky forums, both Roberts and Uptegrove know that the Devil is in the Details.

• Click Here to Department of Sustainable Development

• Click Here to Building Services Division

• Click Here to Code Enforcement Division

• Click Here to Online Services (eGovPLUS)

• Click Here to "How-to" Guides - A Guide to Permit Information Available Online

• Click Here to Check Permit Status

• Click Here to Check Code Enforcement

• Click Here to Code Case Tracker

• Click Here to Sample Permit (Check Fees)

• Click Here to Building Services Staff Contact List

• Click Here to Code Enforcement Staff Contact List

• Click Here to Sea Turtle Nesting Season is Here - What You Should Know

• Click Here to "Turtle-Safe Lighting Ordinance" - Aa Applies to Galt Mile beachfront associations

• Click Here to Beachfront Lighting and Sea Turtles

• Click Here to Sea Turtle Nest Locator Program

• Click Here to How You Can Help

• Click Here to Volunteer and Educational Opportunities

• Click Here to Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) - Sea Turtles

• Click Here to FWC - Fish and Wildlife Research Institute - Sea Turtles

• Click Here to FWC - Certified Wildlife Lighting

• Click Here to Sea Turtle Conflict on the Galt Mile

• Click Here to Companies that make Turtle-Safe Lighting for Galt Mile associations

BEACH COMMUNITY CENTER

May 10, 2012 - On May 3, 2012, the City of Fort Lauderdale and the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) convened a meeting at the Beach Community Center to inform neighborhood residents about a $2.1 million FDOT plan to resurface State Road A1A (SR A1A) from Flamingo Avenue to Oakland Park Boulevard. Among the 35 “interested parties” who attended the 6 PM meeting were curious local residents, apprehensive neighborhood vendors and relieved representatives of the Galt Mile Community Association. Financial Project Number 423000-1-52-01 (the preferred identifier for FDOT projects) had banged around on the back shelf since 2007. After 6 years of tweaking, the long-rumored project was reanimated and fitted with a May 7, 2012 start date.

INFORMATION SPECIALIST MIRANDA IGLESIAS

Hosted by information specialist Miranda Iglesias (Public Information Officer at The Corradino Group) on behalf of FDOT, the project was described by Project Engineer Michael Melendez (President of Genesis Enterprises & Engineering Services, LLC) and construction coordinator Sara J. Duffoo (Senior Project Engineer at Target Engineering Group, Inc.). While removing old asphalt and repaving the 1.07 mile stretch of A1A, the triple R project (RRR - FDOT jargon for resurfacing, restoration and rehabilitation) will alter the character of the thoroughfare in compliance with objectives defined over the past six years. Among the major roadway improvements are a change in the number of lanes available to vehicular traffic and the addition of new bike lanes in both directions. The six lanes of North Ocean Boulevard that currently serve as a raceway through the Galt Mile neighborhood will be reduced to four lanes abutting new curbs and gutters.

Intersections within project limits will also receive a makeover. ADA compliant curb ramps will be installed and left turn lanes extended. Signalized intersections at NE 32^nd Street, NE 34^th Street, NE 36^th Street, NE 41^st Street and Flamingo Avenue will be adorned with new Mast Arm Assemblies and enhanced with video detection capability, further dampening the strip’s attraction to weekend & post-midnight speed demons who habitually view traffic signals as course markers. New stripes and traffic lines will map the layout at intersections, delimit the lane reduction and isolate the new bike lanes (in lieu of a physical barrier). The route will benefit from new signage and medians modified from NE 32^nd Street to Flamingo Avenue will receive modest landscaping improvements (an FDOT contract provision limits the funds available for landscaping enhancements to 4% of the overall contract amount).

INFAMOUS GALT MILE TRIANGLE

In 2003, when the neighborhood association complained bitterly about their local stretch of A1A devolving on weekends and evenings into a drag strip, traffic checkpoints ordered by then Police Chief Bruce Roberts intermittently slowed the nightly racing by hot rods and Harleys. In 2004, former GMCA President Robert Rozema asked former Mayor Jim Naugle to look into the sky high accident rate at the intersection of Galt Ocean Drive and A1A one block north of Oakland Park Boulevard; a block known as the Galt Mile’s “Bermuda Triangle” and ground zero for several major accidents every year and near weekly fender benders. At an April 7, 2005, meeting convened at the Beach Community Center, after personally fielding scores of dangerous driving and noise complaints (and hundreds more submitted in writing), former Commissioner Christine Teel and former City Manager George Gretsas asked then Chief of Police Bruce G. Roberts to formulate a “Traffic Enforcement Action Plan” aimed at stopping the chronic traffic and noise abuses along A1A.

FORMER POLICE CHIEF BRUCE ROBERTS

At a subsequent meeting of the neighborhood association’s Advisory Board, Chief Roberts explained, “This action plan was devised in response to numerous citizen complaints concerning unlawful driving practices. There has been a noticeable increase in this activity and local residents and vehicular traffic has been negatively affected. The goal of this high visibility enforcement was to aid in the reduction of crime, reduce unlawful speeding, reduce excessive noise created by unlawful equipment installed on vehicles, educate offenders who are committing violations and to improve the quality of life for residents.” Although infractions abated during the following six month period in which 1,361 traffic citations were written by 25 participating Officers and 6 Police Service Aides, they ramped up again when police resources were ultimately “reallocated”.

HEADING SOUTH ON A1A

A municipal engineer was also assigned to explore the locally infamous “Galt Triangle”, where the southern end of Galt Ocean Drive empties into A1A (North Ocean Boulevard). Inexplicably, drivers heading south on A1A tend to run the traffic light one block north of Oakland Park Boulevard, precipitating repeated collisions with vehicles entering from Galt Ocean Drive and pedestrians crossing A1A. Vehicles turning onto A1A from nearby intersecting side streets also treated pedestrians like pinballs. Community leaders and City officials offered a variety of possible rationales for the light being ignored and the dangerous turns. Some blamed a poorly placed traffic signal or confusing signage while others surmised that anxious drivers heading south on A1A might be preoccupied with the traffic light at the busy Oakland Park Boulevard intersection and inadvertently overlook the preceding light and/or street signs a few blocks north.

FORMER DISTRICT 1 POLICE COMMANDER MARY NEGREY

While failing to definitively diagnose the enigmatic accident zone or effectively curb the traffic abuses, these preventive actions shed light on the some of the underlying problems. Former Police District 1 Commander Major Mary Negrey (later promoted to Assistant Chief) told the Advisory Board in 2006 that until the City Commission passed adequate regulatory tools, A1A’s status as a vehicular demilitarized zone would continue. For instance, due to a poorly drafted traffic ordinance, sound measuring equipment ordinarily used to discourage noise pollution was precluded for use against traffic noise violations, forcing prosecutors to build cases around the subjective judgment of an arresting officer. Hundreds of violators simply waltzed out of court. To deter a spectrum of dangerous and illegal driving practices and the nightly noise disturbances that proliferated along the neighborhood’s main artery, Negrey looked to other municipalities for guidance in developing recommendations for shoring up local traffic laws.

In 2008, Galt Mile representatives met with City officials to consider implementing a neighborhood Master Plan. Instead of the current patchwork of minor fixes and opportunistic projects targeting relatively isolated problems, the plan would encompass landscaping, structural and aesthetic improvements for the entire Galt Mile neighborhood, and outline an overall strategy for commercial development. It would also enhance the neighborhood’s transportation connectivity; address security needs, facilitate traffic flow, clarify expectations for beach and block maintenance, and provide a realistic basis for attracting development consistent with the community’s vision.

At the same time, the Florida Department of Transportation was preparing to rehabilitate State Road A1A from Flamingo Avenue to Oakland Park Boulevard. Engineering Consultants bidding on the lucrative project were charged with improving upon a scope of work that would bring the thoroughfare into compliance with State and local regulations, address traffic safety issues and maintain the neighborhood’s character. To address the third objective, City officials scrutinizing the mechanics of a Galt Mile Master Plan recommended that aspiring applicants elicit feedback from the Galt Mile Community Association.

At a September 2008 meeting with Mike Sherman from H.W. Lochner, an engineering consulting company competing for the FDOT contract, GMCA President Pio Ieraci and Vice President Eric Berkowitz reviewed the project and clarified relevant safety and aesthetic issues that would impact the community. While the discussion helped identify traffic and pedestrian hot spots, it additionally sought to insure that the outcome was aesthetically consistent with the surrounding neighborhood. One month later - after the City handed the FDOT engineering consulting contract to GBF Engineering - GMCA officials met with Michael Melendez, the bid winner’s engineering consultant. Melendez explained that an A1A corridor study conducted by project planners had begun evolving solutions to the widespread dangerous and illegal driving practices and the nerve-wracking noise pollution.

To measure how a reduction from six to four traffic lanes would impact traffic volumes and service levels on State Road A1A from Oakland Park Boulevard to the northern City limit, the City of Fort Lauderdale and the Broward County MPO had commissioned Kimley-Horn and Associates Inc. to perform a Lane Reduction Feasibility Study on September 5, 2007. While confirming that a four lane A1A could easily manage current and future throughput without burdening adjacent or alternate routes, a subsequent study summary concluded that a lane reduction would curb speeding and reduce the number and seriousness of crashes.

Following the Kimley-Horn Study, the City hired urban planners Glatting Jackson Kercher Anglin to prepare conceptual design options that illustrated the roadway segment, pedestrian hardscape treatment, site furnishings and landscaping based upon six and four-lane scenarios. The options included four variations ranging from restriping the existing roadway and incorporating bike lanes, to relocating existing curbs, expanding sidewalks and accommodating new bike lanes, including on-street parking and street trees.

GLATTING JACKSON KERCHER ANGLIN DESIGN OPTIONS

To present the new concepts and elicit local input, the City hosted a 6 PM public meeting on May 7, 2009 at the Beach Community Center and provided the design options on the City’s website along with an interactive opportunity to comment. Galt Milers overwhelmingly supported an option that offered an expanded 24-foot wide sidewalk on the east side of A1A with a 10-foot pedestrian merchant zone and a 14-foot pedestrian area, a 10-foot bicycle zone, including on-street parking, street trees, landscaping in the median islands and a double row of trees defining the pedestrian area.

Although willing to approve the beautifully designed preferred option, its $8.7 million price tag spooked FDOT. On November 3, 2009, the City Commission authorized staff to forward it (with revisions) to the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for inclusion in a list of projects which are considered annually for funding. Now envisioned as the first of two projects that would morph the dilapidated speedway into a high end thoroughfare, as an interim measure, Melendez and City staff tweaked the project into a 4-lane roadway with buffered bike lanes and peppered with targeted safety and landscaping modifications.

FORMER FDOT SECRETARY STEPHANIE C. KOPELOUSOS

Reducing A1A to 4 lanes would serve to structurally inoculate the roadway against street races wherein competing vehicles require dedicated lanes. Carving out bike lanes would relieve a perceived need by bicycle enthusiasts to illegally vie with pedestrians for sidewalk space one block east on Galt Ocean Drive or risk being pancaked on A1A by a gardener’s pickup traveling at 75 MPH. Following an extended debate over project impacts, community & City leaders, local vendors and project planners coalesced around the 4-lane option. With a plan in the works to clean up this concrete pustule, on July 20, 2009, former FDOT Secretary Stephanie C. Kopelouso notified Broward County that its 32 miles of A1A had been designated as a Florida Scenic Highway.

FDOT PROJECT ENGINEER MICHAEL MELENDEZ

On January 12, 2010, GMCA officials met with FDOT Project Manager Jim Hughes and Project Engineer Michael Melendez to insure the plan would serve as a stepping stone to elevating the Galt Mile stretch of A1A to a level of excellence worthy of a “Scenic Highway” designation. Although Lauderdale-by-the-Sea had successfully worked with FDOT to develop their segment of A1A into a beautiful transportation corridor, A1A’s reputation as the “Ocean Highway” – a tailored picture postcard beachfront boulevard – is exquisitely exemplified by the stretch approaching and adjacent to the Fort Lauderdale beach.

A1A NEAR OAKLAND PARK BOULEVARD

The sleazy road connecting the two is a dilapidated, dreary, dangerous speedway filled with patched and unpatched potholes, extensive spiderweb cracks and catch-as-catch-can landscaping. One block east of A1A, the parallel Galt Ocean Drive is adorned with a luxurious package of aesthetic amenities such as pavered crosswalks, pink aggregate sidewalks, interred utilities, landscaping uplights and decorative lamps. Contrasting the Galt Mile neighborhood’s blighted stretch of A1A with surrounding well-appointed thoroughfares to the east, north and south serves to emphasize its shared characteristics with a seedy airport perimeter strip.

A1A A BLOCK NORTH OF CORAL RIDGE TOWERS COMPLEX

On August 18, 2010, Melendez and Hughes convened another public meeting at the Beach Community Center to better explain how the plan will address longstanding community concerns while improving the route. With an eye to thwarting the speedway, Project Engineer Melendez remarked “This is not a typical project. You usually don’t have many opportunities to reduce the number of road lanes. You can see where people speed up because of the open corridor. One of the benefits will be to slow down traffic, not to the point where it obstructs traffic, but to allow more pedestrians to walk on the sidewalk and bring more exposure to businesses along A1A.” Commenting on a planned 6-foot bike lane unique to the neighborhood, FDOT Project Manager Jim Hughes added “There’s a lot of bicycle traffic in the area with no bike lanes, so I think the bike lanes will be a big addition.”

The design plans were completed in the spring of 2011 and bid packages were sent to contractors the following autumn. Vying against Ranger Construction (headquartered in West Palm Beach), the Hialeah-based Community Asphalt Corporation and Hardrives, Inc. of Delray, on October 7, 2011, the job was snagged by Weekley Asphalt Paving, Inc. The Pembroke Pines contractor appointed Jorge Perez to supervise construction. Not surprisingly, their initial winning bid of $1,728,489.86 has since been incrementally sweetened by almost $400,000. Welcome to the Venice of America!

PLAYA DEL MAR PRESIDENT RAY GARCIA

OCEAN'S GRILLE RESTAURANT ON A1A

Association officials and local vendors raised some legitimate concerns at the May 3, 2012 meeting. Playa del Mar President Ray Garcia, a partner in the popular Ocean’s Grille Restaurant on A1A and member of the neighborhood association’s Advisory Board, asked how long access to his establishment would be squeezed, noting that the project was scheduled to run through December. Responding that the project would proceed in segments, contractor liaison Duffoo assured him that the inconvenience would be minimal.

L’HERMITAGE I MANAGER PATRICIA QUINTERO

CRT SOUTH AND CRT EAST OVERLOOK A1A

L’Hermitage I Manager Patricia Quintero - who also serves on the GMCA Advisory Board - explained that her association’s entrance sits at the east end of Oakland Park Boulevard, where the project might impair access. Duffoo explained that construction would travel across the project limit of 1.1 miles over a seven month period. As such, its proximity to - and impact on - any particular location would be relatively brief. GMCA member associations most affected by the project are Coral Ridge Towers South and Coral Ridge Towers East, which both share an eastern border with A1A and whose members have complained for decades about living next to a drag strip. Melendez explained how the lane reduction would help mitigate their quandary.

COORDINATOR SARA J. DUFFOO

Evidently oblivious to the project’s 6-year planning history, some attendees repeatedly queried panel members about the May 7 start date, intimating some undisclosed agenda to rush into the project. Several residents and vendors also complained about the inconveniences that unavoidably accompany right-of-way improvements. “It is what it is,” answered Duffoo, adding “We will gladly meet with any concerned homeowners and local merchants and work to minimize any problems related to the project.” After being told that the staging areas as yet hadn’t been selected, one homeowner asked when FDOT would begin blocking off local streets.

Information specialist Miranda Iglesias retorted “FDOT must notify the City 14 days in advance when planning to close either a traffic lane or the entire street. As of today, no notice has been given to the City. However, when curtailing traffic becomes necessary, we will give a two-week heads-up.” Despite vague criticisms by two seemingly confused homeowners and the understandable expressions of concern by local vendors about the project’s short term impact on their businesses, a majority of the audience expressed approval for the May 7 start date, noting that it was timed to commence after “the season”. GMCA President Pio Ieraci thanked the project hosts and announced “The vast majority of local residents have been anxiously awaiting the promised improvements and appreciate your efforts.”

As the meeting closed, we asked the panel about additional improvements that would create a roadway more aesthetically consistent with SR A1A segments just north and south of the route’s project limits and more closely reflect the neighborhood’s character. Michael Melendez answered “While the current project lacks the resources required to transform the Galt Mile segment of A1A into a corridor befitting a designated scenic highway, we tailored the plan to serve as the first of two developmental stages en route to that objective.”

Although it took almost 6 years, Melendez and City staffers made good on their promise to begin transforming the neighborhood’s primary thoroughfare. Nevertheless, if we want to see the second stage come to fruition in our lifetime, the neighborhood association will have to begin convincing Broward MPO to line up stage two funding shortly after the current project’s December completion date. After all, other than the few dollars expended to maintain the Galt Mile Library and an annual promise to renourish the beach, we received nothing from the County for the past three decades. Since the Galt Mile is one of Broward’s primary sources of tax dollars, some might think we were overdue.

BEACH COMMUNITY CENTER

February 16, 2012 - Amid a whirlwind tour of town hall meetings, Congressman Allen West made a pit stop at the Beach Community Center from 5 to 7 pm on January 11^th before heading to the Jupiter Community Center on January 13. Like a similar meeting held there last February with West and State Senator Ellyn Bogdanoff, it was convened by the neighborhood association as a platform for the community’s local elected officials.

WEST AND BOGDANOFF LAST YEAR

Addressing a healthy local audience of roughly 150 Galt Mile constituents; West blended patriotic dramaturgy with a dark picture of our future. After marching a perimeter around the Beach Community Center auditorium, a six-person police honor guard preceded a strained rendition of America the Beautiful performed by a would be club singer in a cheap tux. A Powerpoint presentation that West used to rally the weekday dinnertime audience was punctuated by the theme from “Patton”.

CONGRESSMAN WEST PINS MEDALS ON EDWARD AYERS

Following a half hour of introductory theatrics that culminated with West pinning a bag full of medals on local Vietnam veteran Edward Ayers, he opened his town hall meeting by welcoming local officials that dropped by to share a sound bite with the controversial congressman. Ayers was originally awarded three purple hearts, a Republic of Vietnam Service Medal and the National Defense Service Medal following his service in Vietnam. In time, he lost them. West needed a hero. Ayers wanted his medals replaced. Shazam!

PIO IERACI INTRODUCES CONGRESSMAN WEST

Since the meeting was hosted by the neighborhood association to broaden local access to the District 22 Congressman, Galt Mile Community Association President Pio Ieraci moderated an hour-long question and answer period. Rather than rehashing the evening’s animated repartee, West provided a policy brief for release to his Galt Mile constituents. A few days earlier, he slipped a copy to the local media.

CONGRESSMAN TOM ROONEY

Given ensuing events, it might be the last message that West delivers as our Congressman. On January 31^st, West jumped ship, announcing that he would forego running for reelection in District 22. He issued a statement that began “After much prayer, reflection and discussion with my close friends and family, I am announcing today my decision to seek reelection in Florida’s proposed 18^th Congressional district. I have always believed the state of Florida would be best served by having both Congressman Tom Rooney and myself in the House of Representatives working to solve our nation’s most pressing problems.”

A squirrelly redistricting process reconfigured West’s already Democrat-heavy 22^nd Congressional District by frontloading a battalion of additional Democrats. Earlier in the day, the 16^th Congressional district’s Representative Tom Rooney (R-Fla.) decided to move his campaign, announcing that he would run in the newly formed 17^th Congressional district on the coast, which includes a sizable Republican constituency carved from the western part of his former 16^th Congressional district.

West, in turn, will run in Rooney’s former stomping ground, which is re-numbered from 16 to 18 under the new plan. Although the swing 18^th District was abandoned by Rooney for the solidly Republican 17^th District, it’s still West’s best chance to reclaim the new life he carved out in Washington. About 25% of West’s former district will be part of his new 18^th district, which is based in Port St. Lucie.

ADAM HASNER TO RUN IN DIST. 22

The third party in this round of political musical chairs is former Florida House Majority Leader Adam Hasner, R-Boca Raton, who abandoned his U.S. Senate bid when the redistricting music stopped. Term limited out of the Florida Statehouse in 2010, Hasner will step into the G.O.P. vacuum left by West in Congressional District 22.

Challenging some anonymous hostile constellation of conspirators, West concluded his statement with “As a 22-year United States Army veteran who commanded troops in combat, one should never underestimate my ability to be a strategic thinker. My voice for the restoration of constitutional principles for our Republic shall continue to resonate through Florida and on Capitol Hill.”

WEST AT PALM BEACH TEA PARTY

West went ballistic upon discovering that his reelection aspirations hit a brick wall. Prior to the rookie congressman’s first year in Washington, he became a Tea Party icon, cultivating access to their hyperactive social media network. They blame Tallahassee Republicans for trying to wax West’s political career. Despite his rookie credentials, West’s veteran fundraising skills have inflated his campaign war chest to $5.85 million, which he’ll need to wage a campaign on untested swing turf.

West’s January 11^th message to the last Galt Mile audience he is likely to represent in Congress randomly borrowed from a recent policy paper about misadventures on Capitol Hill. Drawing on the heroic military persona he developed for his successful run at congressional predecessor Ron Klein, West’s message offers an overwhelming list of obstacles that threaten every aspect of American life. As I said, a dark picture of our future. The following apocalyptic vision ends with West standing alone against the primary forces of nature – in defense of the Republic. See for yourself: – [editor]

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community
ASSOCIATIONS INSTITUTE
SOUTHEAST FLORIDA CHAPTER
ANNOUNCES THEIR ANNUAL

CAI-SEFL 2013 Day of Education and Trade Expo

Please join us for this free event featuring speakers recognized Statewide and over 100 exhibitors demonstrating goods and services for community associations.

The Day's Agenda

• 8:30 – 10:30 am - Free - Board Member Certification Class (presented by Kaye Bender Rembaum, P.L.)
• 8:30 – 9:30 am - Social Media Marketing (Presented by Virtual Fundamentals) - FREE Class for Manager Members (1 credit)
• 9:30 – 10:30 am - Association Insurance Update (Presented by Scarr Insurance Group) - FREE Class for Manager Members (1 credit)
• 9:30 – 3:30 pm - TRADE SHOW FLOOR OPEN - Features over 100 products & services!
• 12 Noon - Lunch
• 12:15 – 1:30 pm - KEYNOTE PANEL - Discuss legislation pending in 2013 with Representative George Moraitis, Senator Maria Sachs, Lobbyist Travis Moore - a Panel of Experts!
• 2:00 – 3:00 pm - Raffle Drawings
• 3:00 – 5:00 pm - 2013 Legal Update (presented by Mirza Basulto & Robbins, LLP) - Overview of the laws passed during the 2012 Legislative Session & Preview of Bills Filed for Consideration in 2013 (2 credits).

Tournament Information

• 11:00 a.m. - Registration
• 12:00 Noon - Shotgun Start
• 4:30 p.m. - Tournament Awards Dinner & Raffles

• Golfers will have the opportunity to win raffles, door prizes and a Grand Prize in the Grand Raffle!
• Awesome hole-in-one contest prizes!
• Tournament is Best Ball Format!

An awards dinner will wrap up the day’s activities. Trophies will be provided to 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd and the team that “Should Have Gone Fishing!”

The East & West Courses at Jacaranda Golf Club

A $10 Million renovation to both courses breathed new life into a classic South Florida design. Both East and West courses have been transformed with new fairways, tees, greens, cart paths and landscaping. The restoration showcases a combination of new technology and traditional design allowing both the scratch golfer and the weekend warrior to compete on the same playing ground.

Click Here to register for the CAI-SEFL 2012 Golf Tournament. Click Here for info about sponsorship opportunities for the Golf Tournament.

	The Summer of

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