Plantation Sports Official Tells Sun-Sentinel: Rico Did Wrong
BY BUDDY NEVINS
There is more trouble for Plantation City Commissioner Rico Petrocelli this morning.
The president of the city youth athletics organization confirmed to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel the essence of a state ethics complaint against Petrocelli.
The paper’s Lisa Huriash interviewed Evan Krakower, the Plantation Athletics League president. She wrote:
“Evan Krakower, the PAL president, said the event was Petrocelli’s personal party and the Dynamites were guests. He said donors wrote checks to PAL but shouldn’t have, and after they did, PAL gave the money to Petrocelli.
‘It wasn’t our money, it was money for Rico’s party,’ he said. ‘We never invited our members, we never advertised it.’
That is exactly what the ethics complaint accuses Petrocelli of doing — solicting money, giving it to PAL, then taking the money out of PAL coffers to pay for a party. Browardbeat.com broke the story of the ethics complaint last week.
In the same article, Petrocelli concedes he was asked to quit the PAL board of directors in 2007. That’s about the time that the controversy about loosy-goosy handling of PAL money surfaced.
Petrocelli said he was asked to step down as a PAL commissioner in 2007. ‘I was a lightning rod,’ he said. ‘The focus was not on the kids anymore.’
It is getting more and more interesting, especially since Petrocelli is facing re-election in March.
January 27th, 2009 at 9:54 am
This convinces me that Rico Petrocelli has to go. I’m voting for PETER TINGOM.
January 27th, 2009 at 10:33 am
Thanks, Buddy, for breaking this story. I think most of us in PAL had no idea this was going on and my feeling is that Rico got elected because of name recognition, not based on any spectacular track record. I checked out his web site(ricopetrocelli.com)and for a sitting commissioner I found it surprising that it offered no listing of his accomplishments,qualifications or re-election platform. I have investigated Mr. Tingom, a former educator and active Plantation resident, and he will DEFINITELY be getting my vote…i hope people will do their research and say “No to Rico” with their vote on March 10.
January 27th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
I would like to say ditto to Concerned PAL parent. It is about time that someone like Buddy took an interest in what is going on in PAL and Plantation. There is much more at PAL that needs to be exposed and much more with Rico Petrocelli that needs to see the light of day.
January 27th, 2009 at 12:48 pm
I felt compelled to reply to your last article about Rico and PAL. I would also like to thank you Buddy for bringing some of these issues to light I would like to also implore you to get this information to the Voters, Residents and PAL Family members if possible by notifying the TV stations and local newspapers to get this information out. I would like to say as a PAL member who has children in the program it’s time for the Board of PAL to answer to as why thier children, Board member only recieved scholarship money for college, their personal American Express and Visa cards were paid by PAL. Wht they recieved cell phones for personal use and why a past Board member was allowed to take over $50,000 without them bringing criminal charges agaist him. The list goes on and on and Rico has been a part of all of that. It’s time both PAL answer to the residents as to why this happened. It’s time for the residents to ask Rico why he played a part in this, it’s also time that all PAL Board members resign and so should Rico. He should not be allowed to represent the City of Plantion when his honesty, truthfulness and integrity are non-existant. It’s also time an outside Police agency investigate Rico, ther has to be a conflict when our Police Union endorses a man they are investigating!
January 27th, 2009 at 9:39 pm
Pat Roberts is one of the most upstanding and ethical men I know. He is involved in PAL to provide the kids with a truly positive sports experience. He’s involved for all of the right reasons.
Amy Freund
January 28th, 2009 at 5:38 am
These blogs are great. what a way for people to take cheap shots tell some lies and sling mud. in the old days we just had Betty Cobb
January 28th, 2009 at 6:21 am
these blogs are great. what a way to take cheap shots tell some lies and sling some mud. in the old days we just had Betty Cobb.
January 28th, 2009 at 7:35 am
Old Plantation, Or Good Ole Boys Network?
January 30th, 2009 at 9:18 am
Rico Petrocelli is the Blagojevich of Plantation. Using a party for special needs kids as a cover to raise funds and campaign. Can’t get much lower than that.
August 5th, 2009 at 9:00 am
after all the dust settles…the charges against Rico were dropped. The charges did just what they were supposed to do though…made him lose the election. Anyone can be accused of anything. The State Attorney has ended it’s review of claims…AND NO CHARGES WERE FILED.
Tingom couldn’t keep Plantation High School’s head above water…now he’ll be in charge of running our city into the ground. Won’t it be great when our entire city looks like Plantation High School?
March 6th, 2011 at 8:51 pm
Interestingly enough, we have been complaining about Rico since 2005 when our children played for PAL and he recruiter older kids to play for his team that should have been in a different age group. Who would have thought that it would go further than this…..That’s what happens when you put your trust in one man……