Andy Maurodis

A Festivus Pole Arises Next to Jesus' Manger in Deerfield Beach

City, County Attorneys Should Be First Line of Defense Against Corruption -- So Where Are They?

FlickrLegal advisers to Broward governments should have a sharper eye for elected officials' conflicts.​Broward County governments are each supposed to be protected by a single attorney who can advise them on how to steer clear of the kinds of conflicting interests that could land them in jail. So ... More >>

Suddenly, Sylvia Poitier Is Deerfield's Most Ethics-Conscious Commissioner

deerfield-beach.comSylvia Poitier​Deerfield Beach is in the midst of a forensic audit and the state prosecutor is reviewing a report that found suspicion of fraud in the way the city's Community Development Division doles out funds from state and federal housing programs. Could that be the reason ... More >>

Attorney for Embattled Deerfield Charity Not Feeling Talkative

For the past five months Deerfield Beach has been trying to find out what happened to the $30,000 it gave to a charity, Arlington Park Family, which promised to provide senior services. A series of letters to the charity's president, Mae Frances Feagin, went unanswered, and on April 15 City Attorney ... More >>

"That's Commissioner Chaz"

God help us, Chaz Stevens has been appointed to the board of the Deerfield Beach Housing Authority. Not even a very loud "No!" from Commissioner Marty Popelsky (at 1:20 in the video above) could stop Stevens' rise to power.Of course, the activist blogger (he prefers "genius") played a crucial role i ... More >>

Auditor Unloads on Deerfield Beach Housing Programs; Finds Evidence of Favoritism, Fraud

Deerfield Beach officials who administer home loans and grants to low-income residents engage in "favoritism" and "suspected fraud," according to statements made at this evening's commission meeting by forensic auditor Michael Kessler."The entire process of awarding funds to deserving individuals sh ... More >>

Deerfield Beach Sues Charity; Corruption Storm A-Comin'

Flickr: Dominic Fasino​Three years after entrusting $30,000 to a nonprofit organization called Arlington Park Family, the City of Deerfield Beach has filed suit against that charity on grounds that it's withholding financial records that would show how the charity spent the money.City Attorney And ... More >>

Deerfield Beach Close to Filing Suit Against One Charity, Likely to Spare Another

Deerfield Beach City Attorney Andy Maurodis says that a charity run by the Poitier family, the Westside Deerfield Businessmen Association, has finally provided documents in response to the independent auditor's request, meaning that he won't need to file the lawsuit he'd prepared against the organiz ... More >>

Deerfield Housing Official May Be Relative to Poitiers and Target of Investigation

The program director of Deerfield Beach's Community Development Block Grant allegedly has family ties to the Poitiers, who run a charity at the center of an investigation for misuse of taxpayer dollars.Wednesday morning that program director, Stephanie McMillian, received an email from the investiga ... More >>

[UPDATED] Charity Linked to Deerfield Commissioner Took Out 10 Percent Loan With Relative

deerfield-beach.comSylvia Poitier​A charity under investigation by Deerfield Beach took out a high-interest loan from a brother of Commissioner Sylvia Poitier in hopes of paying taxes on property it owned in the city. The charity then listed that liability in a financial statement to the city, rai ... More >>

Charity President Says Agency Isn't Ducking Investigator

Flickr: itbe-GregDid Deerfield Beach's housing dollars go down the drain?​Felecia Poitier, president of a charity being investigated by Deerfield Beach for its management of housing funds, denied allegations that her agency has not cooperated fully with auditors, blaming delays on the time-consumi ... More >>

Deerfield Beach Commissioner Admits Taking Past Payments From Charity Being Investigated

Flickr: ANVRecifeWhere did Deerfield Beach's housing money go?​Deerfield Beach Commissioner Sylvia Poitier told Juice Thursday that she received stipend payments from a charity that later became a recipient of tax dollars for the improvement of the city's low-income housing. That same charity, the ... More >>

Better Late Than Never? Sylvia Poitier Declares Conflicts of Interest

Here's an outrageous piece of video, courtesy of Acts of Sedition.com. It's from last night's Deerfield Beach Commission meeting. You'll see City Attorney Andy Maurodis talking to the commissioners about his failure to get any response from his requests for financial records from Arlington Park Fami ... More >>

Audit in Deerfield Reveals Creative Accounting by City Contractor

​The graphic on the right comes from an email that Deerfield Beach's forensic auditor sent Monday to the city attorney. It shows the income that Dan Poitier drew over three years of running the Westside Deerfield Beach Businessmen Association, a nonprofit organization that received federal funds t ... More >>

In Deerfield, Tonight's Multi-Million Dollar Question: Who Should We Sue?

By the end of tonight's meeting of the Deerfield Beach Commission, local lawyers will be licking their chops. That's because the city appears to be on the brink of filing lawsuits against a number of nonprofit agencies who have been slow to give the city a better look at the accounts.Arlington Park ... More >>

Deerfield City Worker Tries to Swat Gadfly

Flickr: arkworld​There's still no official word on what evils the forensic auditor found in its recent analysis of Deerfield Beach finances; but Chaz Stevens isn't the type to wait. Back on March 1, as that auditing firm was arriving in town, Stevens composed these lyrics, which he sent to city st ... More >>

Deerfield Beach Wants More Records From Charity Linked to Vice Mayor

FlickrLet's hope the WDBA files don't look like this.​The firm conducting an audit of Deerfield Beach's dealings with nonprofit agencies has taken a keen interest in the Westside Deerfield Businessmen Association, a charity whose executive director chairs the city's planning and zoning board and w ... More >>

Deerfield Commissioner Prepared Grant Request, Then Voted for It

Flickr: Scott Garner​In December 2008, Gloria Battle prepared a grant request for a nonprofit agency seeking funds from the Community Development Block Grant. Three months later, her organization won that $12,000 grant, thanks in part to a vote from Battle, who had been appointed to the City Commi ... More >>

Deerfield May Sue Charity Group for Withholding Information

deerfield-beach.comGanz: "Whatever it takes."​For three months, the City of Deerfield Beach has tried to give Arlington Park Family the benefit of the doubt. The local charity was paid $30,000 for "outreach" in 2007. The city attorney, Andy Maurodis, wrote a letter in late December asking for info ... More >>

Treasurer's Departure Raises More Questions About Deerfield Beach Charity for Elderly

Flickr: scenery.​The former treasurer and vice president of the Deerfield Beach nonprofit group Arlington Park Family left that position after misgivings about the way the charity was spending the $30,000 it was given by the city.Archie McKeithen, 80, remembers attending a meeting in 2007, shortly ... More >>

Mayor Noland to Colleagues on Deerfield Beach Commission: "We Look Like a Bunch of Idiots Up Here"

Thanks to Chaz Stevens for uploading this amazing video of last evening's meeting of the Deerfield Beach City Commission, in which it finally awarded a winner in the bid for the restaurant space on the end city's pier. But not without high drama. After the commissioners ranked the bidding restaurat ... More >>

Grocery Shopping With Mayor Noland

deerfield-beach.comPeggy Noland​A few hours before she takes her place at the dais and asks commissioners to strike down the Deerfield Beach ethics code, Mayor Peggy Noland rolled a shopping cart through the aisles of Winn-Dixie and spoke with Juice about why the code has to go. In short, because ... More >>

Documents Show Deerfield Firefighters Short-Armed Internal Investigation

Photo: deerfieldbeachfirerescue.org​It wasn't exactly Watergate, but for Deerfield Beach, it had the makings of a defining moment in its scandal-plagued history: firefighters accused by residents of engaging in improper political activities during the final, frenzied week of the city's municipal ... More >>

A Five-Alarm Bullshit Fire

A Long Political Squabble Over a Short Pier

Steve Gonot tries to cure Deerfield Beach of a political sickness.