Lauderdale Lakes City Manager Threatens to Sue Blogger Chaz Stevens

By Rich Abdill Mon., Feb. 27 2012 at 3:34 PM

Hobbies: Incredulous glares, the First Amendment.

Chaz Stevens isn't shy about stirring up trouble. His most recent target has been the wild financial mismanagement of the City of Lauderdale Lakes, which in recent days has been revealed to have used all kinds of crazy, stupid accounting techniques to balance a budget that was, in reality, about as balanced as Lindsay Lohan.

Stevens has been requesting (and analyzing) public documents from the city for months -- in his own spastic way, he's called the city out on his MAOS blog numerous times for busted budget numbers, sloppy spreadsheets, and failing to fulfill records requests. He then released a draft of a report from the Broward inspector general that outlines findings that make the Lauderdale Lakes financial situation look even worse than Stevens' posts did.

And now the city manager has had his lawyer (and father) send a cease-and-desist letter to the blogger.

In a letter dated February 23, Fort Lauderdale lawyer W. George Allen says he is taking action on behalf of Lauderdale Lakes City Manager Jonathan Allen "for civil damages growing out of your collective repeated false allegations, threats, attempted extortion, slander, libel, defamation, and invasion of privacy."

The letter demands that both Stevens and former Lauderdale Lakes Finance Director Larry Tibbs "must cease, desist, and stop your collective efforts, or face suit for damages individually and collectively."

It concludes with "PLEASE GOVERN YOURSELF ACCORDINGLY," which looks less like a legal notice and more like what would happen if old people learned how to use internet comment sections.

Stevens and Tibbs are lumped together because city commissioners believe that the two have been working together on Stevens' blog posts; the posts have been based on public records, but it's not clear how Stevens got hold of things like that OIG report, which the inspector general's office said isn't technically a public record that can be requested until the parties named have a chance to respond.

But while Stevens has been blogging away, city commissioners said Tibbs has been text-messaging them asking for money he's owed and threatening to leak information to Stevens.

At a City Commission meeting February 14, Lauderdale Lakes City Commissioner Eric Haynes classified the maneuvers as "treasonous-type activity," which he said he hates because of his two-year stint in the military and which he is completely wrong about. Treason, as defined in the bestseller commonly referred to as the U.S. Constitution, is defined pretty clearly:

Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.

"I mean when you go against your country," Haynes said. "And this regards, I mean going against your city with the intent to intentionally hurt and harm. And I believe some of that's happening around here."

Tags:

Anus T. Analglands, Chaz Stevens, Jonathan Allen, Lauderdale Lakes

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Qracker

Since Commissioner “A” feels the need to throw out some dictionary terms and defines them as if his constituency are completely illiterate and ignorant , I thought the public may wish to have some dictionary definitions of some other relevant nomenclature: trea·son [tree-zuhn]noun 1. the offense of acting to overthrow one's government or to harm or kill its sovereign. 2. a violation of allegiance to one's sovereign or to one's state. 3. the betrayal of a trust or confidence; breach of faith; treachery. dis·hon·or [dis-on-er]noun 1. lack or loss of honor; disgraceful or dishonest character or conduct. 2. disgrace; ignominy; shame: His arrest brought dishonor to his family. 3. an indignity; insult: to do someone a dishonor. 4. a cause of shame or disgrace: He is a dishonor to his family. de·ceit [dih-seet]noun 1. the act or practice of deceiving; concealment or distortion of the truth for the purpose of misleading; duplicity; fraud; cheating: Once she exposed their deceit, no one ever trusted them again. 2. an act or device intended to deceive; trick; stratagem. 3. the quality of being deceitful; duplicity; falseness: a man full of deceit. cronyism [kroh-nee-iz-uhm]noun 1. the practice of appointing friends to high-level, esp political posts, regardless of their suitability im·prop·er [im-prop-er]adjective 1. not proper; not strictly belonging, applicable, correct, etc.; erroneous 2. not in accordance with propriety of behavior, manners, etc. 3. unsuitable or inappropriate, as for the purpose or occasion 4. abnormal or irregular DERELICTION OF DUTY: Generally, dereliction of duty refers to failure through negligence or obstinacy to perform one’s legal or moral duty to a reasonable expectation. In other words, it means willful or negligent failure to perform assigned duties or performing them in a culpably inefficient manner. A further reminder to those folks in the Lauderdale Lakes Administration/Commission: while you may only hear one or two voices in the forefront there are MANY MANY more of us in the background with real and tangible documentation of substantive facts who are in support of these people and the truth. I would caution everyone to make certain they are on the side of truth and have nothing to hide before throwing out laughable threats and meaningless pursuits of legal venues...it will come back to haunt you in the end. Remember that those who are silent now when placed under oath may not feel so inclined to keep quiet. Ponder that… Want a suggestion? I would gut your current Administration and get some folks with some integrity and true concern for the City if you really wish to do what is right and proper. It’s in your own best interests, remember you are ALL ELECTED!

FQS9000

Chaz is so wild to raise a stink that he is aiding Tibbs, who is a lying, stealing pig. Chaz should be ashamed to be in the sty with Tibbs.

I applaud the city for threatening to sue Chaz. Tibbs needs to go to jail, not hit the jack pot at taxpayers expense.

gimmesamore

Whatever -- I know this attorney that likes to represent churches. So... in order to pay his fees, he makes sure the church places its property (land) up as collateral against any unpaid fees. Ultimately, this attorney probably forecloses on the churches... at least that what a little birdie told me. The best defense to libel and slander is the truth, so I'm sure CS is in the clear.

longnian1112

http://lnk.co/IL4JS

longnian1112

http://lnk.co/IL4JS

Harvey

and city officials wonder why 97.4 % of the people hate them..????? Keep it up Chaz.

KeepinThemHonest233

White collar criminals, the powerbrokers, crooked politicians, dirty law enforcement and corrupt judges and lawyers just hate the bloggers. Tough to get crime to pay anymore when bloggers are exposing the dirt. Go get 'em Chaz.

Mikeyellis60

You are all elected, and are public servants not kings over this kingdom called lauderdalelake

Chaz Stevens, Genius

The City of Lauderdale Lakes is doing the Titantic and I'm a deck chair.

I also applaud the idea of filing a lawsuit against me... When you couple that to being called "treasonous", there's no better way of generating free publicity for MAOS.

Like national publicity...

http://www.poynter.org/latest-...