You may have read today from Mike Mayo about the peculiar case of Michael Butler in Hallandale Beach. Seems Butler put in a public records request to see the recipients of an email from Hallandale Mayor Joy Cooper that was sent from her personal email account. The email sent from Cooper’s AOL account in February…
Broward County Commissioner John Rodstrom isn’t ruling out a run for his County Commission seat in 2012. Yes, of course Rodstrom is supposed to be term-limited out, but he’s learned of court cases that support the idea that term limits instituted by Broward County voters — and supported by Rodstrom…
The Miami Herald’s comment boards appear to be a bit censor-crazy. For instance, Hallandale blogger David Bruce Smith this weekend tried to post a Herald story regarding the silly photograph taken of Heat player Michael Beasley on a boat chartered by the team. Let Smith tell you what happened: I originally…
I don’t write a lot about sports on here, but I went to the Dolphins game yesterday with my 14-year-old son, who happens to be a raving Saints fan. I know you’re thinking that I must be a terrible father, but there really wasn’t anything I could do. I’m just…
Lobbyists in Broward County are more than just people trying to sell politicians on their clients. For elected officials, they are “friends,” golf partners, travel mates, confidantes, and touchstones. And on top of all that, lobbyists get politicians a ton of campaign money and sometimes hire their relatives. Now that…
Kiwanis Club President Joel Davidson canceled the “expulsion” hearing for City Commission candidate Patti Lynn. Yet Davidson promises to reschedule “in the near future.” Davidson, a campaign volunteer for Lynn’s opponent, wrote that he was canceling the meeting because Lynn couldn’t attend. (Of course it had nothing to do with the exposure of the club’s…
Kiwanis Board Member Richard Entin is balking at a scheduled hearing to expel city commission candidate Patti Lynn from the Tamarac club on dubious anti-Semitism charges. Entin, an attorney, wrote in an email he sent last night to other board members that the timing of the actions being taken against Lynn “could…
The Kiwanis Club in Tamarac is holding a hearing on Monday to kick out a City Commission candidate whom the club is accusing of anti-Semitism. But while the accusation is highly questionable, there’s concrete evidence that secretive and cutthroat politics are at play. Club President Joel Davidson informed longtime city activist Patti Lynn…
It’s a small email, but it looms large in the federal investigation of Broward County School Board Member Stephanie Kraft. The email comes from Kraft to Broward School Board Deputy Superintendent Michael Garretson regarding a $507,000 reduction in mitigation fees owed the district by developer Prestige Homes. Kraft was pushing behind the…
The Riviera Beach Council once again couldn’t stand to listen to activist Fane Lozman, but this time while police arrest him he ends up on the ground. Lozman says the officer yanked his hand, which was clutching the podium, in a way that caused his hip — which is full of plates and…
Deputy Superintendent Michael Garretson’s nephew apparently went from “receptionist” to construction company owner in record time. Records show that Garretson’s nephew, Mike Ray Mallory, described by the construction chief as a receptionist, did more than just work as an assistant project manager for the Weitz Company, which is a favorite school board contractor that Garretson played…
The Broward County School Board is slowly coming unraveled at the seams of its own long-standing corruption. First the FBI brought down School Board member Beverly Gallagher for stuffing bribe money in a doggy bag, and now we know that Board member Stephanie Kraft, long suspected of being a tool…
On February 14, 2007, Broward School Board construction czar Michael Garretson chose building contractor Weitz Co. as the No. 1 firm for a cafeteria renovation project that was good for a $37 million contract. Now that’s what you might call a sweet Valentine. Nine months later, in November 2007, Garretson’s nephew, Mike Mallory, got a job at…
Garretson said he intervened on Prestige Homes’ behalf to help it get a $500,000 reduction in mitigation fees owed the school board in 2007 only after Stephanie Kraft prodded him to do it. “It’s not unusual for a school board member to contact me about this or that,” he said…
After running to the Sun-Sentinel to defend her husband’s employment with lobbyist Neil Sterling, Stephanie Kraft went mum when the newspaper followed Pulp reports on her financial connection to Prestige Homes. She didn’t return reporters’ calls, but her lawyer, Ken Padowitz, told the newspaper: “She has cooperated and helped the federal…
Forgive me for doing so many posts on this, but it’s crucial that all the facts be reported regarding Broward School Board member Stephanie Kraft’s involvement in getting a $500,000 favor from the School Board for the development firm that employed her husband. Longtime readers know that they get a jump on…
The Stephanie Kraft School Board corruption scandal is unfolding before our eyes. According to a just-released School Board document, Kraft contacted district staff last month, on September 29, to get information regarding a developer who had hired her husband to influence her own School Board, according to a recently district document. Kraft called the…
When developer Bruce Chait learned last month that the mitigation fees he owed the Broward County School Board had climbed during the past two years from a specially reduced $1.2 million to more than $1.8 million, he wasn’t happy at all. After all, Chait, owner Prestige Homes, had hired Board Member Stephanie Kraft’s husband, Mitch, for…
One of the great joys of watching the greatest corruption story in Broward County history begin to unfold during this past month has been watching the Sun-Sentinel play catch-up. The newspaper discovered Neil Sterling, a lobbyist who has been corruptly running the Broward County School Board with a hidden hand…
Now that the corrupt machine running the Broward County School Board is showing signs of breaking apart, I think it’s a good time to point out that there there are a lot of great people working in the district. Some of them are even bonafide hereos. Put Sheila Alu into that category…
Broward County School Board Member Stephanie Kraft’s intervened with school staff on behalf of a developer help get it a $500,000 reduction in fees from the school district, according to school board records. At the same time Kraft’s husband, lawyer Mitch Kraft, was on the payroll of the developer, Prestige Homes, that received the half-million dollar favor. School…
