Chaz's Last Stand

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Broward County Commissioner Stacy Ritter, left, wants to engage in a high-heels contest with Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper, right. From Twitter yesterday: 

"I think Hallandale Mayor Joy Cooper's heels are higher than mine which rarely happens. I see a contest of heels in our future. Game on Joy!" 

Cooper, to her credit and the relief of the population at large, has yet to respond to the challenge.

-- UPDATED: BSO recently settled a lawsuit for a whopping $1.565 million with the family of a 5-year-old boy whose head was fractured after deputies neglected to remove him from his abusive home despite pleas from his grandmother and previous evidence of abuse. The case is bad from the get-go, but what's truly baffling for the taxpayers is the fact that the sheriff's attorneys didn't recognize that they were going to get walloped in court until the third week of trial, when the insurance company pulled the plug. This should have been settled long ago. Bottom line: BSO's suspension of good sense and decency led to more legal bills, public embarrassment, and almost surely a larger settlement.  

-- Most municipal races are nonpartisan, meaning that political party is supposed to play no role.

But Broward Republicans got wind of Democratic Chairman Mitch Ceasar's people passing out cards at the DEC meeting this week identifying the political party of the candidates in the heated Plantation commission races. They sound off on it in their Red Broward blog. The jab at Diane Glasser at the end of the blog is pretty funny. 

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Fadgen
It's clear that Ceasar et al. were targeting one candidate in particular: Jerry Fadgen. He's the only Republican on the list. And that, in my opinion, is fair game, considering the political nature of Fadgen, who is steadfastly opposed to gay rights and has been a regular protester at abortion clinics (yeah, he's one of those). After the Farrelly brothers came to Plantation to make There's Something About Mary, he was beside himself when he saw the movie. "We've soiled our hands," he said. Not to mention Cameron Diaz' hair. Here's an oldie but goodie called There's Something About Jerry, which is about Fadgen and his strip mall, an historic little plaza he festoons with GOP posters every election season.    

Inside, see a blast from the past: Call it Chaz's last stand. 

As many of you know, Deerfield Beach activist Chaz Stevens has retired from the blog game. He said he's moving on to the next phase of his life.

Stevens has been controversial. He's been profane (here and elsewhere). And he managed to shake that town up pretty good. For the latter reason, I think his departure from the political scene is a loss to the county. What can I say? I like agitators.

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This isn't Chaz.
But he's not quite finished yet. Here's an email he copied me and several other members of the media and officials sent to Assistant State Attorney Tim Donnelly, who heads the state's corruption unit:

Mr. Donnelly;

Greetings and well wishes from this side of the monitor.

Well Sir, it appears, if my sources are correct, that your office is close to making a decision on the criminal disposition of Commissioner Sylvia Poitier.  That news, dear chum, if true, is good intel indeed.

As it's my nature to help progress issues along to the rightful completion, allow me to reitierate the following claims about Poitier:

1) Found guilty of violating Federal Conflict of Interest laws, costing the city $40,000 or so.
2) Sworn testimony indicated that Poitier was to be paid $500 for each HUD application processed by a local contractor.
3) Numerous witnesses offered testimony that Poitier took an active role in the counting of Brazilian festival cash.  Approximately $28,000 of which has gone unaccounted for.
4) Poitier offered several different voting strategies with regards to funding her daughter's WDBA organization.  By my recollection, Poitier voted "yes", "no", "yes with conflict" and "yes with no conflict".
5) Poitier failed to disclose the relationship of her brother Lionel Ferguson as it pertained to his status of creditor to the WDBA.
6) From the Kessler audit, approximately $2.6M, that's M for million, seems to be in flux with regards to the Mango Festival.  From the same report, Poitier's name and thumbprint is all over the event.
7) Poitier has very close ties with numerous local 501s that were found to be "of questionable nature".

Sadly, various elected officials from the City of Deerfield Beach, and in particular Mayor Peggy Noland, passed at a golden opportunity to remove Poitier from office by leveraging the findings of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development's audit. A not surprising manuever by these political hacks - especially given the fact that Noland and her husband have, for decades, illegally pilfered from our city coffers. I suppose there is much to be said about birds of a feather, or in their case, crooks in prison stripes, tending to flock to one another.

I respectfully request, that should the opportunity for a Poitier Perp Walk (tm) present itself, your people will call my people and we'll send over a film crew.

My very best to you.

Chaz Stevens, Retired Activist At Large

For all of Stevens' posing and puffery, his work on Poitier was very solid. I'm rooting for him on this one.


Follow The Daily Pulp on Twitter: @TheDailyPulp.

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