This one is pretty good. CBS-4 reporter Mike Kirsch follows Cooper City commissioners into bars and gets videotape of them drinking wine and beer before city hall meetings. Miami Herald reporter Breanne Gilpatrick (isn't that a great name?) follows the Kirsch investigation in the Miami Herald.
Part of me wants to say, what's the big deal? They had a glass of wine or two, no signs of excessive drinking. A little lubrication before the meetings might make them more human, for crimony's sake. But Kirsch and Gilpatrick raise a serious issue: What about the Sunshine Laws, which demand that all public business be conducted in the public eye (not in restaurants and bars)?
Yes, it's just a little too cozy. And do you want to hear spin? Listen to Commissioner Elliot Kleiman, who said the soirees were part of a P.R. campaign: ''As with any type of PR activity, it gets expensed to taxpayers. The whole purpose was to develop our image."
That's comedic brilliance, people. Give a hand for Elliott Klieman, who, with that quote, makes himself the biggest joke in Broward County politics. And to think these idiots were drinking on the taxpayers' dime and then voting to give themselves a fat pay increase? Yeah, that's something the plebian masses can understand real fast ain't cool.
Nice work, Kirsch. Looks like you have a classic on your hands.
