Sheriff Israel Deserves Praise For Audit

 

BY BUDDY NEVINS

 

 

Broward County residents should applaud Sheriff Scott Israel.

It was Israel that asked for an audit of the Broward Sheriff’s Office shortly after he was sworn in last January.

Now the results of that audit are public:  It uncovered widespread flaws in the way BSO charged cities for police, EMS and fire services.

The sheriff has long told anybody who would listen that he was left a fiscal mess by former Sheriff Al Lamberti.  He alleged that the books were in chaos.  He said that some taxpayers paid too much for services, while others paid too little.

Israel was right!

“In fiscal 2012 five municipalities – most of them lower income — served by BSO paid too much, while six did not pay enough. Only two cities, Tamarac and Weston, were charged the correct amount,” Ariel Barkhurst wrote in the Sun-Sentinel on Oct. 26.

All of this took place before Israel became sheriff.

Israel is setting BSO straight.  He is doing what he promised.  It is too bad I can’t say that about many other office holders.

Before you start flooding my inbox with e-mail and comments contending I am an Israel flunky, let me recount the last time I talked to him.  It was in mid-October and he called me upset with a Browardbeat.com post.  In what became a monologue, Israel’s raised his voice and got angrier and angrier as he recounted why the post was wrong.

Bottom line: I call them the way I see them. Sometimes I like what Israel does and sometimes I don’t. This time, Israel deserves thanks for asking for this audit.



25 Responses to “Sheriff Israel Deserves Praise For Audit”

  1. Retraction Bob says:

    So let me get this straight.

    You’re saying that former Sheriff Al Lamberti undercharged the richer white cities so he could offer them a deal, and over billed the poorer black cities to make up the difference. Am I understanding it correctly?

    And we’d never have known any of this except for an audit that new Sheriff Scott Israel asked for?

    No wonder cities don’t like BSO’s numbers lately. Possibly the numbers are right for a change!

    Meanwhile Retraction Bob still has his thumb up his ass reporting lies and gossip. Good to see some real reporting going on. Great scoop there Buddy.

  2. Jack says:

    You might think so Buddy, but ask around Broward and you will find people that know the Sheriff is not credible, cannot be trusted and always has some alternative motive which is usually self serving. At some point he will have to stop pointing the finger at everyone else and be held responsible for his actions. His record for the first 10 months has been horrible.

    I find it very interesting how he talks about taxpayers paying more, but he doesn’t even own a home in Broward and pay taxes. Easy to tax everyone more for their Sheriff contracts including his us Parkland residents when it had no financial impact on him. I know your trying to write facts, but let’s get into the real facts. Sheriff Israel pays no taxes nor does his large pay check pay property taxes like everyone else, even though it’s our money paying him.

  3. Parkland says:

    Omg! I didn’t believe it but just checked the Broward Tax Appraisers on line records and the sheriff is not listed owning a home. I cannot believe people elected a person with no permanent home in Broward. The sheriff should be questioned about this and have to show proof he does or tell why he doesn’t. This smells bad!!!!!

  4. Real Deal says:

    Law enforcement officers have an exemption by statute so that bad guys not know where they live. They have the legal right to stop that disclosure from taking place in order to protect their families. That’s why you find so few cops on property tax records even though they clearly own homes and pay taxes.

    It is the audit report that smells bad. Overcharging poor black cities to subsidize rich white ones? What was Lamberti thinking?

    No wonder he refused to give Israel a transition. Now we understand his motives. I wonder what else those audits will uncover.

  5. Just Saying says:

    Law enforcement officers (and judges, prosecutors, etc) under Florida law can be listed on tax roll records under fictitious names for their protection from the bad guys. Obviously those who wrote posts 2 and 3 above are (1) morons, and (2) apparently aren’t friends with any cops, who all list their home properties in the same way.

  6. Bob is Smoking Good Stuff! says:

    Scott Israel is a fraud. He’s done nothing and your jumping on his bandwagon Bob? Wow, disappointing! He deserves no credit for anything good and the list of bad is too long to write. Stop smoking that stuff immediately Bob! We still love ya! Israel won’t make his full term and the BSO budgets and contract city deals have been a mess since Jenne (who made this mess) and he is the one consulting Israel. You expect a good outcome here…? LOL Best outcome would be Israel leaving in handcuffs soon. God help Broward County!

    FROM BUDDY:

    You have Browardbeat.com mixed up with some other site. There is no “Bob” here.

  7. Biased "journalism" says:

    Thank you for the factual reporting – if everyone is getting the same services, then everyone should be paying the same price. No more favors, and put blame where blame belongs – NOT on the person cleaning up the mess. But for the comments below – SHAMEFUL – Sheriff Israel lives in PARKLAND. What do you want? An invitation to his house? His kids go to school in Broward. He also volunteers his time to coach football, yes, in Broward county. None of that is a secret. He is just trying to make this county better.

  8. Duke says:

    Scot Israel is a true law enforcement professional who inherited a mess that he’s cleaning up. The Sheriff and his wife absolutely own a home in Broward County. Many judges and police officers have their addresses blocked from public view at the property appraisers website. If you do a Broward County public records search you will see that he has recorded and satisfied a mortgage on his home and the address is even blacked out on the website that displays county records. If I were a judge, a prosecutor, or a police officer, I would do the same thing. The people that protect us from the bad guys have a right to protect themselves and their families from the bad guys too.

  9. Arthur Conan Doyle says:

    Ignorant people should be forbidden to post anywhere at any time. How would anyone of you know if Sheriff Israel owns his home or not? I’m sure the brain surgeon who “checked the Broward County Property Appraiser’s records” is just too stupid to realize that Law Enforcement Officers can request a waiver so that their names don’t appear on the BCPA rolls / records. Most LEO’s do this and I’m sure the Top Cop in Broward County is smart enough to protect himself and his family by doing the same.

    Secondly, to the other rocket scientist who thinks that people who must rent their homes don’t pay their fair share insofar as taxes are concerned, shall they receive less consideration in matters of police services just because they don’t own a home?

    And the “Bob” that these folks must be referring to has got to be Mr. Brittany Wallman aka Bob Norman.

    Good Job Buddy on the well-deserved recognition of Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel!

    Cheers!

  10. Resident says:

    I agree. I feel the Sheriff should have to prove he owns a home in Broward County and not hide behind the exemption. He is an elected public figure, law enforcement or not he is required by public record law to produce his personal information. PROVE IT SHERIFF!!!!

    FROM BUDDY:

    Ownership of a home is not a requirement of office. Regardless, Israel lives in Parkland with his wife and family in a home that he owns. I know the address. I’m not going to publish it.

  11. True Resident says:

    They don’t want to talk about the audit because it proves that Al Lamberti is a scumbag.

    They want to talk about cops not saying where they lives. Because that distract attention away from Lamberti being a scumbag.

    It’s a move that comes right of Al Lamberti’s new best seller, “How to be a Scumbag Sheriff.”

    By the way, did I mention that Al Lamberti is a scumbag? Who stole from poor black communities in order to bribe rich white ones to vote for him? And still they wouldn’t?

    He couldn’t even buy their votes.

  12. Parkland I says:

    Buddy, the issues isn’t whether he lives in Broward. The issue is whether he actually xan prove he owns a home in Broward Bs pays taxes like the rest of us. He uses taxpayer dollars likes its his own personal slush fund with no personal impact to him. The house is not in his name whether you know the address or not. I dont believe he owns a house and pays taxes is the issue. Its a problem to be irresponsibly spending taxpayer dollars without paying into them yourself.

    FROM BUDDY:

    As far as I know, the house is in his and his wife’s name, like most married couples.

  13. Arthur Conan Doyle says:

    Again I ask … even if that is the case, can someone show me something in a law book that says a candidate who rents can’t run for a political office?

    You Sheriff Israel haters stop chasing your tails … he’s the Sheriff … you’re not … get over it!

    Cheers!!!

  14. Lori Parrish says:

    Buddy is correct the Sheriff owns a home in Broward. Law enforcement professionals are allowed to have confidentiality protection with respect to their personal residences. The sheriff and his wife own a home in Broward.

  15. Your Pal Al Lameberti says:

    Hey, I am still the sheriff. Just ask me. Oh yeah, and I am still a scumbag.

  16. Goofy Morons says:

    Please, please keep trying to change the subject! Nobody’s noticing, it could work; don’t give up please keep trying. How pathetic.

  17. Duke says:

    I totally understand why some folks would want their private address removed from the public records. With that said, even the ones who do that aren’t really accomplishing anything. A quick Google search would reveal that info. Even for the folks who have it blocked from public records. In this modern day information age, it’s fairly impossible for folks to retain a whole lot of privacy.

  18. Ha Ha Ha says:

    Duke is absolutely right. I just did a very simple Google query that instantly retrieved not only Scott Israel’s home address, but also his phone number and personal email address – as the very first result!

  19. Duke says:

    Correct.. and the source of that info is none other than a Sun-Sentinel PDF file containing his bio.

  20. Retraction Bob says:

    Let’s keep trying to divert attention from the fact that Lamberti chose to overcharge the poor Black cities so he could offer deals to the richer white ones.

    That’s how accounting took place under Al Lamberti. So much for pride in service with integrity, his now laughable agency motto.

  21. Retraction Bob says:

    By the way did I forget to mention that Retraction Bob Norman is a unethical disgraced hypocrite, a two-faced, lying drunken bum disguised as a TV journalist?

  22. Christine says:

    @21

    Friend,

    You may say what you wish about Norman’s professional work, but if you think he is a “drunken bum” you are sadly mistaken.

  23. Real Deal says:

    Christine, actually drunken bum is arguably the least damaging thing said there so for you to object to that part and not the rest says a lot.

  24. Christine says:

    @#23
    Not so my friend.

    I think Bob does great work as an investigative journalist, but if #21 doesn’t think so, well that’s his opinion. But to say Norman is a “drunken bum” is an outright lie. He is not.

  25. Retraction Bob says:

    Bob Norman reports things that are incorrect or not true simply for the benefit of having stories to report, not caring what impact those stories have on others or even whether they are true. That is reckless behavior that demands our attention. When reporters do that they have to be held accountable because then they become worse than any criminal they might cover.

    It cannot be that the media gets a free ride when they lie. In Norman’s case his lies have been verified. He steals the truth from us by telling lies. Also, people who drink daily have a drinking problem. You sort out the rest. You ponder what would cause such erratic behavior on his part.