This county is too much. Now a reliable political insider is telling me that Broward County School Board Member Stephanie Kraft's husband, Mitch Kraft, took money from developer Prestige Homes. I want to hasten to say there is no proof of any payment, however, and I'm hoping to get a response from Kraft soon.
received a half-million-dollar break in mitigation fees it had to pay to the School Board in July 2007 for its planned projects on the Monterrey and Sabal Palms golf courses.
Just as was the case with School Board lobbyist Neil Sterling -- who we now know put Kraft's husband on the payroll two years ago -- there is no confirmation of a financial relationship between the Krafts and Prestige Homes. I left a phone message for comment with Kraft this morning and am waiting for a reply. But the incredibly corrupt arrangement the Krafts had with Sterling makes anything seem possible when it comes to this School Board member.
Prestige Homes, you'll remember, is the developer of golf courses in Tamarac that is alleged to have bribed federally charged former Broward County Josephus Eggelletion with a membership to
the Parkland Golf and Country Club.
Former Tamarac Mayor Joe Schreiber also says the developer tried to bribe him to get his wife, Mae, out of the Tamarac mayoral race.
Now why would Prestige want to pay off Stephanie Kraft's husband? Well, the School Board had to vote on concurrency for the Prestige Homes developments at the Monterrey and Sabal Palms golf courses.
Now why would Prestige want to pay off the Krafts? Well, when you build a housing development, you have to pay mitigation costs to the School Board for classrooms that will have to be built to house the children who will move into those developments.
The School Board wanted $1.7 million for mitigation. Then the district revised that number down to $1.2 million. From the July 24, 2007, School Board agenda:
The financial impact to the school district is a positive impact of approximately $273,971 in additional revenue above the County required school impact fee of $926,029 for a total of $1,200,000. However, the revised commitment is $507,942 less than the original mitigation proposal of cost per student station worth $1,707,942.
