Our Mayor, the Lobbyist, Part 3

"Why is the county helping us now when they haven't helped us in the past?" Shoaf asked, before answering her own question. "Because they are working for those people [at Pinnacle], that's why, which is not right."

"With all due respect, this is a capital improvement grant ...," Lieberman replied rather incongruously. "The town would not get these funds but for this project."

The two women began talking over each other, prompting then-city Mayor Annette Wexler, a proponent of the project, to tell Shoaff that Lieberman had the floor.

"She wasn't speaking; I was speaking -- I had the floor," Shoaff countered. "I can't understand what [Lieberman] says. Where has the county been? You're so willing to help us now; where have you been before?"

Lieberman, in the end, was victorious. The five-member commission voted 3-1 to apply for the county grant money. Wexler, who didn't respond to an interview request from New Times, abstained from the vote because she was involved in a land deal with Pinnacle.

In the months after the meeting, the city surrendered $30,000 of its grant money and the County Commission signed off on about $300,000 for Pinnacle. After goading the town into applying for the grant, Lieberman abstained from voting on its approval, citing her conflict of interest with the company.

How much money Lieberman made in the deal isn't known. She has refused to discuss her Pinnacle salary, though she's reported about $90,000 in outside income from her law practice during the past couple of years.

Even though Lieberman said she was acting as Michelson, the private lawyer, when she addressed the commission, Shoaff says she believes the fact that she's Broward mayor helped sway other commissioners. "With getting the money from the county and with her being a county official," Shoaff says, "I think that's very wrong what she did."

And she says that even though she personally likes Lieberman, the dispute over Pinnacle has strained their public relationship to the point that they can't work together. "We are too mad at each other over it," she says.

In a written response to New Times, Lieberman denied she did anything wrong in her work for Pinnacle. "I have listened to the tape of the Pembroke Park meeting and your interpretations of events and the law are clearly erroneous and incredibly misleading ..." she wrote. "I did absolutely nothing illegal or unethical for this client or any other client -- ever."

Lieberman denied implying that Pinnacle would take legal action against the town and claimed that Shoaff wasn't referring to Lieberman when the Pembroke commissioner complained about county employees' working for Pinnacle.

Shoaff laughed when told of the mayor's contention. "Of course I was talking about [Lieberman]," the town commissioner said. "She was the only county person there, wasn't she?"

As for the fact that Pembroke Park gave up money that has since been earmarked for her client, the mayor wrote: "I misled no one. Pembroke Park lost no money. You can confirm this with the town manager."

Pembroke Park Manager Bob Levy, however, acknowledges that the town gave up $30,000 to benefit Pinnacle. Moreover, he says the mayor shouldn't have been allowed to lobby the city on Pinnacle's behalf in the first place. "It creates undue influence and the impression of a backroom deal," says Levy, a retired medical doctor who has run the town for the past 15 years. "And it's really not fair."

Lieberman also wrote in her response that she wasn't involved in the grant process at the county level. Indeed, New Times has found no evidence that she manipulated county staff or her fellow commissioners in steering the grant money to Pinnacle Oaks. Those grants are generally handled by county Human Services Director Marlene Wilson, who says she often speaks with the mayor about affordable-housing issues. When asked if she'd spoken with Lieberman about any Pinnacle projects, Wilson said, "In the context of overall funding or agenda, possibly. I can't say never. I can't recall any time she's done something or influenced something in terms of Pinnacle."

That, however, doesn't change the views of city officials who believe that the mayor never should have been allowed to lobby for the developer. "What Lieberman did, I believe, was unethical," Shoaff says. "And I just wish someone would expose Pinnacle for whatever it is. I think it's underhanded."