It's nice to see a Broward-born politician like Sen. George LeMieux keeping a vigilant eye for conflicts of interest, even though we're not technically sure he's right -- nor that he's remotely qualified to be an arbiter of such things. A few months ago, LeMieux boldly challenged the chairman of a Senate regulatory committee to account for his past ties to the man who leads an agency regulated by that committee.
LeMieux wonders whether Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia can be objective in appraising the performance by David L. Strickland, current head of the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration. Prior to taking that position, Strickland had worked as an attorney and senior staffer for a committee on which Rockefeller was the chair. Now Rockefeller's committee must take Strickland to task for how thoroughly Strickland's agency evaluated Toyota cars, currently in the midst of a massive recall.
Here's an excerpt from an article from ABC News in which LeMieux questions Strickland:
Lake Worth Commissioner Jennings and Sunflower: Thriving
City Commissioners are not often noted for their vibrant good health; up there on the dais under those fluorescent lights, most of them look little gray around the gills. But judging from her consumption of green leafy vegetables, Lake Worth City Commissioner Cara Jennings, 33, now in her second term, may well outlive her most hostile opponents. Jennings, who has been associated with the anarchist movement for more than a decade, keeps an open house: What you see with Jennings is what you get.
We stopped by Jennings' Pepto-Bismol pink bungalow on Lake Worth's C St. -- it's nicknamed "The Canew," -- last Friday night. A sign taped by the heavily-flyered front door reads: "We Are a Community-Oriented Anarchist Collective Home," followed by a list of reasonable requests:
According to Deerfield Beach City Attorney Andy Maurodis, the Westside Deerfield Businessmen Association has provided the city with records that purport to show how the association spent the federal dollars distributed to it through a home rehabilitation program.
Earlier today, we reported that WDBA funds are the subject of an internal investigation. The association is run by relatives of Vice Mayor Sylvia Poitier. Late yesterday, the city mailed a letter to WDBA asking for records relating to the rehab projects of six Deerfield Beach homes.
"I believe they have produced records today, but I haven't seen them myself," says Maurodis. For that reason, he couldn't say whether they represent a complete or partial accounting of the funds that were entrusted to WDBA.
There's sure to be more news on this subject as the city inspects the WDBA records next week. "We're trying to get a full picture of how the moneys were disbursed," says Maurodis, who declined to elaborate on the concerns that sparked the investigation.
Is there anyone in Indianapolis who actually believes that the mayor and 20 of his advisers are flying down to South Florida to research the "logistics" of hosting a Super Bowl, as he claims in the video above?
Reality check: If you manage to escape a landlocked, snow-strangled city like Indy during early February, you're not going to spend your time in balmy South Florida taking notes on traffic jams and quizzing city planners. You're far more likely to be giving a Super Bowl boost to the region's black markets for sex and drugs -- or at least launching yourself into a tropical booze bender. Don't forget to ask for the mayor's receipts, Indy residents!
We were hopeful that Hollywood's new development czar was a political outsider, but we weren't sure until now. Tanja Gerhartz has no friends or family in South Florida. She had never been to Hollywood until she came down from New Smyrna Beach for an interview. And she has never heard of Alan Koslow or Bernie Friedman or any of the other slick characters who have gotten rich helping developers score huge incentives at the expense of city taxpayers.
In a phone interview this afternoon, the newly hired director of the Community Redevelopment Agency admitted to being a bit "naive" about the Hollywood political scene -- a confession that should be music to the ears of Hollywood activists. "I don't think the challenges facing Hollywood are any different than in any downtown or any CRA," says Gerhartz. "The issues of trust and accountability, that's an issue everywhere too."
But a particularly pressing question in her new city.
In a move that could spell trouble for longtime Broward politician Sylvia Poitier, Deerfield Beach is conducting an internal investigation to determine how a nonprofit run by the vice mayor's relatives spent federal housing dollars.
As the city's registered Community Housing Development Organization, the Westside Deerfield Business Association is entrusted with the role of rehabilitating low-income housing. The WDBA's president is Felicia Poitier -- daughter of Vice Mayor Poitier.
In a letter dated February 4, the city attorney's office demanded to inspect WDBA's records relating to the rehab of six homes.
Although Sylvia Poitier has disclosed a potential conflict based on her daughter's position at WDBA, she has been less open about whether she has a financial stake in the association. In past years, she has voted to authorize funding to WDBA.
The city of Hollywood has named a former Orlando official to lead its Community Redevelopment Agency. Tanja Gerhartz previously worked as the economic development director in Orlando. More recently, she had her own private consulting firm. If that means she's new to the South Florida political scene -- and to the lobbyist vultures who have a perch atop Hollywood City Hall -- then that will be a welcome change.
If she's judicious about doling out doling out the CRA's tax-based millions, that would be better yet. Her predecessors, Neil Fritz and Gil Martinez, were both big, reckless spenders. Fritz, who directed the city's downtown CRA district, resigned January 2. Martinez, who was in charge of spending the CRA loot in the beach district, was fired in November following revelations of nearly a half-million dollars in cost overruns for a Brazilian festival. Gerhatz will oversee both districts.
More on Gerhartz from the city's news release, after the jump.
Brummer, explicating a new threat to the peace of Pompano
The City of Pompano Beach thundered last week, and thousands of miles away, Joyce Tarnow picked up the faint murmurings of her old adversaries.
On Tuesday, January 26 the Pompano City Commission unanimously voted for a resolution to oppose Amendment 4. Vice Mayor George Brummer led the charge against the citizens initiative, alternately known as the "Hometown Democracy" movement, that has knotted the knickers of so many cities across the state.
What's so important the Pompano commission felt compelled to make a public protest?
The Amendment is one of those pesky "citizens initiatives" that lets voters take "direct democracy" into their own hands. Rather than wait around for their local governments to do the right thing, mad as hell citizens can just say no. In this case, citizens would be saying no to the rampant out-of-control growth that supporters of the amendment claim has made Florida just about unlivable.
For gays serving in the U.S. military the fear of exposure exists at every level of the chain of command. Just ask Dr. Alan Steinman. In the early Nineties, Steinman served the four final years of a 25-year career as a rear admiral in the U.S. Coast Guard as its director of health and safety -- the position in that branch of the Armed Forces equivalent to the Surgeon General. He retired honorably in 1997, having kept his sexual orientation a secret. It wasn't till December 2003, on the 10th anniversary of the "don't ask, don't tell" legislation, that Steinman made his dramatic announcement, along with two retired U.S. Army generals.
Steinman, who today runs his own maritime consulting practice in Washington state, remains the highest-ranking military official to identify as gay. This afternoon he said he was "gratified" to hear Pentagon officials acknowledge the discriminatory nature of the policy and to eradicate it once and for all. The Juice interview with Steinman, after the jump.
This is embarrassing. On a day when U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates came to Capitol Hill to dramatically announce his department's plan to ditch the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy, Florida Sen. George LeMieux used his time at the mic to push an unrelated and absurd political agenda. Let's roll it:
The expression on Gates' face is priceless. It seems to say, "Who let this guy in here?" (Hey, don't look at us Florida voters! This one's on Charlie Crist.)
As Gates points out, he has no say in how terrorism suspects are treated in the U.S. and it would be irresponsible for him to publicly express an opinion that contradicts the policy of the official who does have a say on that policy: the U.S. Attorney General.
Being a political neophyte, LeMieux's blunder is almost forgivable. But his McCarthyism is absolutely not.
The Republican primary election for the seat in Congress vacated by Robert Wexler was too close to call last night, forcing a manual recount in Broward and Palm Beach elections offices. As of this moment, businessman Ed Lynch has 3,320 votes in a district that straddles the two counties. Joe Budd has 3,283.
If you're reading this after 7 a.m., these numbers may have changed. You can track the race at the Palm Beach Supervisor of Elections page, here. The Broward returns are here.
Should Lynch prevail, it will be thanks in large part to his strong showing in Broward, which occupies a smaller portion of the 19th Congressional District. The most recent numbers show that Budd edged Lynch in Palm Beach but that Lynch made up by scoring Broward votes by such a wide margin.
NASCAR races aren't known for their racial diversity. And the traditional good ol' boy fan base isn't known for voting for Democrats. But maybe it's a place where an African American Democrat can score a few swing votes in Florida's U.S. Senate race. Presumably, that's the motive behind Congressman Kendrick Meek's decision to spend some of his valuable campaign dollars by sponsoring the car that racer Mike Wallace will drive in this month's Daytona 500.
After the jump, a video on the NASCAR's checkered history with racism.
Broward Health CEO Frank Nask's job is safe, as is that of a friend who he hired and to whom he gave a generous raise. Commissioner Mike Fernandez has received legal assurances that his job with an ultrasound manufacturer is not a conflict of interest. And seven appointed board members were present at this morning's meeting, for the first time in about eight months. None of those seven argued with one another.
If you had to judge purely by this happy and harmonious affair, you'd never know that this public hospital district had been struck with scandal. Rather, this was an occasion for introducing the four new board members appointed last Thursday by Gov. Charlie Crist and for "looking forward" -- a phrase that seemed to be on every commissioner's lips, new and old.
If only it were that easy.
The new board will have to wrestle with a great many ethical questions that were left unanswered by the previous board -- most of which involve commissioners Mike Fernandez and Joseph Cobo, who remain in their positions. After today's meeting, I spoke briefly with them.
Alexi Giannoulias is the favorite to win the Democratic nomination for Senate in Illinois, but first he'll have to beat back some pesky questions about his time as a chief loan officer at Broadway Bank. Among them: a $12.9 million green light he gave to a South Florida businessman, Michael Giorango, AKA "Jaws."
It was 2004, and Jaws had been recently convicted for involvement in a prostitution ring. That on top of his felony bookkeeping conviction and ties to organized crime made him a rather curious choice for a bank loan. Giorango was part of a group that had bought the Martha's Restaurant space in downtown Hollywood and was looking to develop it. The plan went belly up, and the bank is currently in a suit against Giorango in hopes of recovering that money.
David Hoffman is hoping to use Giannoulias' checkered history as a way of flipping the campaign. For his part, Giannoulias has maintained that he was merely negligent in checking out the background of his lenders, not acting in cahoots with them.
Was Crist wary of insider trader allegations made by the Securities and Exchange Commission against Zachariah? Or did Crist's move reflect the growing divide between his campaign and the powerful Republican fundraisers aligned with Jeb Bush, for whom Zachariah was a major fundraiser in past campaigns.
If the SEC doesn't settle its suit against Zachariah, the two sides are scheduled to go to trial in August, the same month that Marco Rubio and Crist will settle their battle for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate. Expect Rubio to enjoy a windfall of Zachariah campaign dollars.
In December 2007, when John Edwards was bracing himself for a National Enquirer expose about his affair with Rielle Hunter, hoping it wouldn't cost him a victory at the Iowa caucuses, he sent the woman and an aide to -- of all places -- the Westin Diplomat in Hollywood Beach.
Joining her on that secretive trip was Andrew Young, a former aide who describes in his tell-all book that he pretended to be the child's father as a way of protecting Edwards against scandal. That didn't work, but it sure made for a sweet book deal.
But there's no diplomatic way of stating a truth that's now obvious, especially in light of Gordon's being launched at the same time as Robert Bernstein. "I'm going to guess it was purely political," Gordon said when pressed. "Because why else?"
Gordon was not given an explanation by Crist's office -- suggesting Tallahassee isn't even going to bother pretending the move had more benign motives.
Laura Seidman, wife of Broward County Judge Lee Jay Seidman, has filed to challenge Judge Lisa Porter for Broward Circuit Court's Group 47.
A Republican activist, Laura Seidman is former general counsel of Broward Health, resigning that position in April 2008 due to health concerns and political pressure. She described her clash with commissioners in a memo that first appeared here on Juice this past August.
We'll catch up with Seidman later today to get her thoughts on the campaign.
Everybody wants to be on the Broward Health board, it seems, except the people who are actually on the Broward Health board. Specifically, the four-person majority of Mike Fernandez, Joseph Cobo, Rebecca Stoll, and Maureen Jaeger, whose politically motivated absences are responsible for the board's having canceled its last two scheduled meetings.
So in the interest of moving forward with the business of one of the nation's largest public hospital districts, Juice will play matchmaker between the governor's office and some nice, smart, available candidates for board seats. Let's start with Marvin Dejean.
Let's be real. Charlie Crist isn't trailing in the Senate race because he's a weak leader who surrounds himself with a coterie of crooked businessmen and conflicted advisers. No, those would be legitimate reasons. Rather, he's trailing the Senate race because back in February, he hugged Barack Obama.
In the year since, Crist has avoided Obama like the plague -- until today. Obama is scheduled to arrive in Tampa in just a few hours. This being their second date, let's consider the romantic possibilities.
It's surreal to hear a conservative like LeMieux campaigning for mass transportation, typically a crusade for liberals. But when it comes to the railroad industry, to which LeMieux has deep ties from his halcyon days as a lobbyist, LeMieux turns liberal.
As we've mentioned on Juice this month, LeMieux's former law firm, Gunster Yoakley, listed Florida East Coast Railroad's parent company as a client at the same time that LeMieux and that firm were retained by the State of Florida to negotiate a deal to buy Florida East Coast's infrastructure for use in high-speed rail: a fairly obvious conflict of interest that leaves you wondering whether Florida taxpayers had a chance to get a fair shake.
The federal dollars LeMieux's talking about in the video above would put high-speed rail along a CSX rail line, but that will certainly bolster the case for spending billions more on the prospective high-speed rail that would flow over Florida East Coast rails, from Orlando to Miami.
Whiplash warning: After the jump, LeMieux flips the switch and goes conservative.
Collecting and showing prisoner art is Carol Strick's second career. It started when she left her job at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1994, where she worked making faience reproductions for the Ancient Egyptian collection. Her husband had died, she'd moved to Florida, and she was at loose ends. She picked up a magazine and saw an advertisement that read "lonely prisoner seeks penpal."
And beneath that was another: "prisoner artist seeks penpal."
"I wrote to both prisoners,", Strick remembers. "The first one was associated with the IRA.
Broward Health Commissioner Mike Fernandez failed to attend this morning's board meeting at Coral Springs Medical Center in what appears to be a thinly veiled effort to avoid voting on whether to fire the district's CEO and to address concerns about whether he violated state ethics laws by failing to disclose that his employer did business with the public hospital district.
That absence, along with those of commissioners Joseph Cobo and Rebecca Stoll, combined with the seat vacated this fall by former commissioner Maureen Jaeger, meant that the board lacked the four commissioners it needs for quorum.
Board Chair Rhonda Calhoun apologized to the roughly 75 members of hospital staff who attended the meeting, saying that the commissioners' absences were "almost disrespectful."
A considerable understatement; this morning's scene was a sitcom farce that would have been funny except that the stakes are so high for hospital staff and health-care consumers.
UPDATE: Broward Health just emailed new information containing its explanation for the strange entries I cite below. In short, they say they're the product of a computer glitch. I've copied that explanation on the bottom of this post.
Since 2001, Broward Health has spent nearly a million dollars on ultrasound equipment manufactured by SonoSite, the company where Commissioner Mike Fernandez works as a general manager. This brand loyalty is particularly suspicious considering that in 2001, the district was buying equipment that didn't exist.
Or at least that's how it appears based on a close inspection of this list of Broward Health's SonoSite purchases. In yellow, I've highlighted the hospital system's purchases of the SonoSite Titan and the SonoSite Micromaxx. That was in 2001 -- and as SonoSite's own website attests -- those machines hadn't yet hit the market. The Titan was introduced in 2003, the Micromaxx in 2005.
I contacted the district this afternoon to see if staff could account for this apparent time travel. They're checking it out.
Credit for this bizarre discovery goes to Brian Gill, who runs an ultrasound refurbishing company in Indianapolis and agreed to analyze the documents for us. More curious findings, after the jump.
On the World Wide Web, even tea party activists can be hot. But they still ain't buyin' what Charlie Crist is sellin'. The video above was made last week and was to be furnished to "millions" of potential voters. I was the third to watch it. Maybe traffic will pick up as the election grows near?
A question for the taxpayers in South Broward: How many of your tax dollars would you care to invest in a museum exhibit that will help your child get a firmer grasp of boogers, belches, and farts?
"Not much," replies every parent. "My kid's already an expert on all three." Well, tough luck. Because an exhibit at the Fort Lauderdale Museum of Discovery and Science called Grossology: The (Impolite) Science of the Human Body, is already finished. It will debut this weekend. The museum release invites kids to:
Take the Tour du Nose and explore how your nose acts as an air filter, a smell sensor and a mucus producer. Climb the large-scale replica of human skin and find out the gross facts of pimples, warts, wounds, hair, moles and other skin blemishes. Help Burp-Man expel the gas in his stomach and learn the physics of farting.
Wild guess: Burp-Man will beg the kids to pull his finger.
The list of candidates for the Broward Health board is full of attorneys, contractors, politicians and health-care business owners. They are vying for at least one open seat -- the one formerly belonging to Maureen Jaeger, who left this fall to join George Lemieux's U.S. Senate staff. Commissioner Rebecca Stoll's seat may also be open, considering she hasn't attended a board meeting since July.
Of course, Crist's appointments for the hospital board have been riddled by scandal. Commissioner Joseph Cobo is currently under criminal investigation for ethics violations. Commissioner Mike Fernandez may have broken ethical standards by not disclosing a conflict of interest of his own.
So as we look through the list that Crist has, let's be on the lookout for potential conflicts of interest, if only because Crist's office tends to have a blind spot for this.
Melissa Minsk Donoho isn't much interested in political gossip. She's too busy with her criminal defense law practice in Fort Lauderdale and with raising three kids. But when Donoho filed for candidacy for Broward County Court Judge, Group 12, she entered one of the region's most gossip-friendly races. That's because her opponent is Judge Jay Hurley.
When I reached Donoho on Friday, she told me that she picked that race before she'd done much opposition research: "I just knew he was appointed by Gov. Crist," she says of Hurley, who was a fraternity brother of Crist's at Florida State. "He's only been on the bench for a year, and I just think the people should pick the judge."
Donaho says she knew nothing about Hurley's recent public embarrassments.
Jaeger's former seat on the hospital board has yet to be filled.
A source at Broward Health tells us that the public hospital district CEO Frank Nask is walking with a skip in his step today, reportedly because he learned that Gov. Charlie Crist is close to appointing two new commissioners to the board.
There is one unfilled seat on the board -- the one belonging to former Commissioner Maureen Jaeger, who this past fall took a job with Sen. George LeMieux in Washington, D.C. Another commissioner, Rebecca Stoll, hasn't attended a board meeting since July, and she may also have lost interest in serving on the scandal-plagued panel.
If those commissioners are replaced in time for next Wednesday's scheduled board meeting, it could mean a stay of execution for Nask, who was facing
This week's Republican upset in the Massachusetts Senate race cost
Democrats their filibuster-proof majority and dealt a powerful blow to
the party's hopes for health care reform. This afternoon I asked West
Broward Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz whether it's triggered
any panic in the House Democratic caucus.
"I would not describe it as 'panic,'" she said. "I'd describe it as
'focus.' We're trying to hammer out the most significant reform that
can pass. A bill that's simple enough for people to understand and
which dramatically increases coverage and brings down cost."
The congresswoman has more at stake personally than most of her fellow members. We'll get to that after the jump.
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