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We’ve just discovered the austere yet intriguing Twitter account of Southwest Ranches Town Attorney Keith Poliakoff — perhaps the perfect 140-character medium for the man who stated, “the less we say, the better off we will be.”
His feed did alert us to a recent examination by PolitiFact Florida of some strong words from Pembroke Pines Mayor Frank Ortis at last Saturday’s raucus town-hall meeting about the planned ICE facility next door in Southwest Ranches.
Ortis, addressing an angry crowd at the event, brought them wildly to his favor by saying that Pembroke Pines didn’t “have a vote on” the jail and that “this is what happens when you don’t go to the people first.”
Ortis’ comments got a standing, screaming ovation from the residents in
the room who were critical of Southwest Ranches’ silence on the issue.
But at the Southwest Ranches Town Council meeting the following Monday,
council members were critical of Ortis’ remarks, as well as similar
comments by Pines Commissioner Iris Siple.
Council Member Doug McKay noted that there’s a mayoral and commission
election in Pines at the end of January, implying that Ortis and Siple
were simply playing politics.
PolitiFact looked at Ortis’ claim that his city hadn’t had any say on
the jail coming to the area and rated it “mostly false,” listing the
following opportunities that Pines commissioners had to discuss it:
• September 21, 2005: The commission, along with Ortis, voted
unanimously to notify Broward County that it objected to the 1,500-bed
jail. But at the time, the town and city were embroiled in some
unrelated spats about road lights and barricades the town had set up
blocking drivers from Pines from traveling on certain Ranches roads.
Pines’ objection to the prison appeared to be more of a bargaining chip,
because a few months later the city agreed to not fight the prison and
the two municipalities reached an agreement on the roads.• December 21, 2005: The commission, along with Ortis, unanimously
approved an agreement with Ranches that included language that stated,
“The CITY shall not interfere with Corrections Corporation of America,
or its successors or assigns, development and/or operation of the jail
facility, or with the TOWN’S Agreement with Corrections Corporation of
America concerning development of same.”• June 27, 2011: The commission, along with Ortis, approved an agreement
with the town to provide emergency medical and fire protection in
exchange for $2.5 million annually starting Oct. 1. The agreement
includes a section that states that “CITY acknowledges that it has
sufficient capacity to deliver emergency medical protection and fire
prevention services to the TOWN’s future 2,500 bed penal
institution/deportation facility, located on property currently owned by
the Corrections Corporation of America….” The agreement also states
that it has capacity to provide water and sewer. The vote, which
included Ortis, was unanimous.• August 17, 2011: Commission, along with Ortis, unanimously approved a
motion to begin providing fire service one month earlier than planned:
Sept. 1, 2011. (The minutes were not available but city clerk Judy
Neugent provided us with a draft copy.)
Still, the analysis concludes, “There is a kernel of a fact here: it was
Southwest Ranches — not Pembroke Pines — that penned the deal with
the prison operator, and Pines didn’t get an up or down vote on whether
the facility should be built. But it’s not as if Pines has been in the
dark here.”
Regardless, the next Pembroke Pines commission meeting, on Tuesday,
November 16, is sure to be a raucous one as well as Siple introduces a motion to
cancel the city’s agreement to provide water and sewer services to the
jail site. Opponents of the facility are encouraging people to attend
that meeting. We’re hoping to catch up with Ortis and Siple to get their
side of the story firsthand.
Stefan Kamph is a New Times staff writer.
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