Paying the Bill

A mayor and a businessman, both named Bill, have struck up quite a friendship

Comments (0) By Bob Norman Thursday, Aug 8 2002

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I asked George Rethati, developer of the two condo projects, why he hired Keith. Rethati, a Hungarian-born businessman who lives on Marco Island and speaks with a thick accent, provided a rambling reply during which he brought up philosophers Hegel and Kant. "I don't know who told me about Bill Keith, I have no idea," he said. "How the hell can you know the evolution of consultants, how a linking to consultants comes about? You can't... we are like sponges... life is absorbed... there is no agenda in life; it forms itself."

Rethati is no stranger to the bizarre. Last year, he floated the much-ridiculed idea of building two 100-story replicas of the Eiffel Tower on Pompano Beach. (In case you're wondering, Griffin supported the notion until it was laughed out of town.)

Colby Katz

Part of Bill Keith's job is to influence politicians. In the case of Mayor Griffin, consider it a job well done.

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Bob Shelley, a former Pompano commissioner who lost his reelection bid in March, complains that Griffin and Keith's entwined relationship is a violation of the public trust. And the Turner job is the "smoking gun," he says. "The appearance of impropriety is an impropriety, but obviously Bill Griffin isn't dealing with that," he complains.

Shelley, who is also a former state representative, says Keith would likely shower any politician with gifts. All they need do is ask. "Griffin abuses it," Shelley says of the mayor's panhandling for favors.

He has reason to be angry -- Shelley is a long-time aficionado of the beach area and has been deeply involved in Pompano's Community Redevelopment Agency, which is generating the $31 million in tax dollars earmarked for the swimming hall. He accuses Griffin, Swerdlow, and Keith of hijacking the process. "The deck is stacked against the taxpayer and, in [the swimming hall's] case, we're watching our beach access, our beach pier, and our beach parking lot being turned over to a developer," complains Shelley. "We're giving it all away and it makes no sense at all."

Both publicly and privately, Keith has profited from the CRA. Griffin and the rest of the commission, for instance, handed Keith & Associates the contract to conduct a $63,000 slum and blight study in 2000 that helped create the CRA. Now his company is being paid by Swerdlow to do site work on the swimming-hall project.

Keith's interests extend to the CRA commission, which makes recommendations on projects like the swimming hall to the city. Alfreda Burgess-Cole, who is paid to drum up business for Keith in northwest Pompano's black neighborhoods, is, predictably, an avid supporter of the swimming hall. But Burgess-Cole, who was appointed to the board by Commissioner Ed Phillips, says she doesn't believe her serving is a conflict of interest.

Her boss, however, concedes otherwise. "She should probably abstain from voting on an issue [pertaining to the swimming hall]," Keith says. "She's serving two masters, isn't she?"

Sounds like a certain mayor. You know wha'mean?