Garbage Deal’s Failure Weakens Ilene Lieberman
BY BUDDY NEVINS
Broward County has finally thrown the $1 billion-plus no-bid waste deal in the dumpster, dealing County Commissioner Ilene Lieberman a major political defeat.
Lieberman’s career and reputation looks to me to be tarnished after Broward County Commissioners refused to okay her garbage deal on Tuesday.
The deal’s collapse is a good thing for the free market and competitive bidding. Not so good for Lieberman.
I can’t remember a bigger political setback for Lieberman, whose tough control over the county’s waste has earned her the nickname “Queen of Trash.
Lieberman got the moniker because she is chairwoman of the euphemistically named Broward County Resource Recovery Board, which is bascially an agency that handles garbage disposal.
Does Liebrman’s defeat mark a new day at the county commission? After all, she was on top and rarely lost a battle so identified with her.
Maybe. It’s too early to tell.
I would never count her out. She’s tough, smart and wily.
She also is definitely on the defensive.
Lieberman is said in numerous published reports to be under investigation in a corruption probe of the county commission.
She has not been charged with anything, nor is there any indication they will be charged.
But the knowledge that she is under investigation has weakened her politically. Add to that Lieberman’s loss of the no-bid garbage contract she tried so hard to pass.
County commissioners do not play patty-cake and do not live in Namby Pamby land.
They are a pack of sharks. If one is bleeding, the others will turn on them in a second.
In the Government Center, back-biting is an art and double-dealing is a science.
Every one of the nine commissioners want to be King or Queen.
It’s bare-knuckle politics at its rawest.
Liebetman has been on top for a long time. If her fellow commissioners believe like me that she’s weakened, watch for them to bury herunder a pile of garbage from her failed deal.
The county commission will be interesting in the coming year.
December 17th, 2010 at 12:50 pm
The real trash king is Lieberman’s husband, Stuart Michelson.
He is just trashy.
December 17th, 2010 at 1:26 pm
It also doesn’t help that she’s missed the last 3 commission meetings!
December 17th, 2010 at 1:35 pm
Lieberman is politically weakened but she remains the sharpest tack in that box.
December 17th, 2010 at 8:23 pm
Lieberman may be smart. She is still the same self-serving politican that ruined Lauderhill and is trying to destroy the county. Has she done anything at the county commission? Please tell me.
December 18th, 2010 at 5:37 pm
I dismiss Simon’s suggestion that Lieberman is a community destroying psychopath on the grounds of this being a gross exaggeration.
I ignore his suggestion that she is self-serving as being irrelevant even if true. From there, I reject his suggestion that she ruined Lauderhill on the grounds of lack of evidence.
That leaves me considering his last claim that she’s done nothing while on the county commission. To which I rule “not lately.”
December 18th, 2010 at 6:24 pm
This fraud and corrupt piece of crap was a professor of mine and gave me a C. I must not have written much about screwing your constituents.
December 19th, 2010 at 10:12 am
Lieberman is over-rated. She tried to get a new courthouse built and couldn’t do it until Stacy Ritter came along and pushed it through.