It's looking like a good month for scandal-plagued Broward County Commissioner Ilene Lieberman. We learned last week that she may have talked her way out of potential criminal charges by testifying against Tamarac Mayor Beth Talabisco.
And tomorrow, Lieberman will be receiving a "prestigious award" at Nova Southeastern University.
Lieberman -- along with Hallandale Mayor Joy Cooper -- will be given an "Excellence in Public Service Award" at Nova Southeastern University by the Broward Building Officials & Inspectors Education Conference. In a news release, the building officials wrote that they chose Lieberman because she's president of the Florida Association of Counties -- which has come under criticism here for accepting big-money sponsorships from major government vendors like Waste Management and Citibank.
Also at the conference "will be various building professionals... architects, engineers, electricians, plumbers, general contractors of
all trades for the building industry of Regional South Florida," according to the news release.Great, so our building officials and inspectors can schmooze with the folks they're supposed to regulate -- it's all right out of the culture of corruption handbook.
But I'm not sure these building officials are going to get much bang for their buck by sucking up to Lieberman. She's been gutted by the corruption investigation and barely speaks anymore. It's even odds at this point that she'll even show up.
-- New Margate Commissioner Le Peerman, who was elected as an activist reformer, is already making big waves. She recently led the repeal of the commission's automatic pay raise that was passed in a 3-2 vote that left the dissenters, Pam Donovan and Joe Varsallone, fuming.
Varsallone lambasted Peerman at the February meeting for not supporting the commission and, along with her request for a reduced commission salary weeks earlier, expressed his disappointment in the way she's been governing herself. The long-time commissioner criticized Peerman's "newness" on the dais and pointing at Commissioner Talerico said that he and every other commissioner deserves what they get paid.
Way to go, Ms. Peerman.
Read the full Margate News article here.
-- As if Japan wasn't suffering enough, a radioactive wind is now blowing toward Tokyo. Radiation levels shouldn't be high enough to affect anyone in that city, but the situation continues to deteriorate. There has of course been another explosion at the Fukushima plant, and there is evidence that the vaunted containment structure has been compromised, though the government has not officially confirmed it.
