Taxpayers Money Promotes A Political Career
BY BUDDY NEVINS
It is not unusual for politicians to use tax money to build their name ID and thus boost their chances to stay in office.
But is it kosher?
Here is one of the prime examples of this in Broward County by one of the prime offenders:
Not only do the mailing from the Supervisor of Elections include her name in big letters. Above is her office at the Lauderhill Mall, where her name is in larger type than the office.
Really, Brenda?
If you are looking for Snipes, you won’t find her in Lauderhill. Her office is in downtown Fort Lauderdale.
I have no idea how much this sign cost us. Even one dime is too much.
There ought to be a law.
March 22nd, 2016 at 12:20 pm
After reading the headline, the first name that popped into my mind was Lauren Book.
Sure did fool me.
March 22nd, 2016 at 12:54 pm
Well at least there is more than enough space to replace her name with a name in the with fewer letters, like David G. Brown.
March 22nd, 2016 at 1:02 pm
You are right, there ought to be a law.
Let’s see, how many public officials put their name over the office they hold? Maybe we should look at their websites? Maybe we can discern a pattern here?
Brenda Snipes, SOE, Democrat.
Howard Forman, Clerk of Courts, Democrat.
Lori Parrish, Property Appraiser, Democrat.
Scott Israel, Sheriff, Democrat.
They are all shameless, each one worse than the next. Trust me Buddy, it will take a state law because it will never happen in this county.
March 22nd, 2016 at 1:07 pm
Buddy,
You should make the public records request how much she spent on the sign. This may be considered a campaign contribution in kind from the taxpayer to her campaign. I might wrong it could also be a gift from the landlord in kind she is renting from. Either way it stinks.
It’s also interesting to note that the landlord gave the maximum amount of contributions to her campaign as well.
FROM BUDDY:
There is no such thing as a “gift” from a landlord. Any incentives to tenants are built into the rent. And you know who pays that rent.
March 22nd, 2016 at 1:49 pm
excellent point.
imagine how big her sign would be on the New Headquarters building she has wanted for the last 10 years.
(wonder if a variance from Lauderdale Lakes Zoning was needed for that sign)
FROM BUDDY:
Not ten years. The new headquarters was approved under Miriam Oliphant in 2002-03. A building near Executive Airport was purchased by the county and Snipes signed off on it. Then Snipes decided she didn’t like the building and the county/elections office began a decade-long hunt for a new headquarters. Eventually, the county bought an old discount store in Sunrise despite warnings it was a poor choice. Snipes was against the deal, but it went through the County Commission anyway. That purchase, too, fell through.
Bottom line: Thirteen years and no new building. Plus, countless millions spent (squandered???).
March 22nd, 2016 at 1:51 pm
What about the looping video she did inside of polling locations the last time she was on the ballot in 2008?
March 22nd, 2016 at 3:21 pm
I seem to remember Jane Caroll doing something similar and winning a lawsuit. Correct me if I’m wrong Buddy
March 22nd, 2016 at 8:48 pm
Everybody does it, and it’s not what they do but how creatively they can do it. BSO, Public Defender, State Attorney, Property Appraiser, Supervisor of Elections, Clerk of Courts, etc. They’ve all got their names and faces plastered all over the website. Some give their bio. I haven’t done jury duty in years, but eay back in the day, Lockwood had a half hour mini movie that prospective jurors watched while waiting around. But nobody takes the cake like Help me get re-elected Howie on channel 7.
FROM BUDDY:
Howard “Help Me Howard” Finkelstein legal advise show is a different situation. He has part-time gig with a private entity, Channel 7.
March 23rd, 2016 at 7:17 am
Well at least it appears that her name is positioned on a signage raceway.
The name will be easy to change when she is no longer in office.
March 23rd, 2016 at 8:37 am
How about the absentee ballot requests that she sent several months ago to every registered voter – including those that ALREADY HAD ABSENTEE REQUESTS ON FILE?? Her name was all over those. This incompetent egotist has spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars advertising herself!
March 23rd, 2016 at 8:48 am
The sign is out of scale but every publicly owned building built or re-fitted by cities counties states the Federal Government has the officials in office on it. Dr Brenda Snipes is NOT asking a LIVING POLITICAL CANDIDATE wants a STREET NAMED AFTER HER THROUGH HER LOBBYIST FATHER!
How about NAMING WHO IN FT LAUDERDALE CITY HALL TWICE NAMING PART OF NORTH FEDERAL HIGHWAY AFTER LAUREN BOOK? Trust me I’d love to know who here was the water carrier for that piece of outrageous sleaze.
March 23rd, 2016 at 10:47 am
It’s an outrage how Snipes plasters her name & face on everything. If she had any ethics, which she doesn’t, she would take her name off at least during her election. Erring on the side of caution isn’t of any concern to her. She takes both her pensions and laughs all the way to the bank. That huge sign will continue to remind me not to vote for her. She has taken her share of the pie for long enough and needs to retire with her piles of cash that just keeps coming.
March 23rd, 2016 at 4:11 pm
I happen to think we have a great public defender who is also a marketing genius. It’s true that WSVN Channel 7 is a privately owned entity. But they occupy a publicly owned frequency and must be granted FCC approval to do so. Howard is getting millions of dollars worth of air time to promote his show and his name, and its not costing him one dime. Matter of fact, WSVN pays him. How can any viable candidate compete with that?
FROM BUDDY:
An opposing candidate can’t compete with “Help Me Howard’s” name ID.
March 23rd, 2016 at 9:00 pm
Buddy-please fill us in.
What is the meaning behind the name “Count LF Chodkiewicz Chudzikiewicz”?
FROM BUDDY:
I have no idea.
March 23rd, 2016 at 10:46 pm
Its not nice for you to carry someone else’s bucket of spit, buddy!
March 24th, 2016 at 10:21 am
Look at the Fire/Rescue Vehicles
A SERVICE OF THE BROWARD COUNTY COMMISSION….
Really? I though it was a tax/fee based service of the taxpayers of Broward County
FROM BUDDY:
In the County Commission’s case, the notice on EMS vehicles is the group seeking relevance. And it is not quite truthful. The sheriff is the one who handles county EMS, fire and policing.
Essentially because almost all of Broward County is in municipalities, County Commissioners are glorified park and library board members. They control the county libraries and parks and not many other services that are relevant or can’t be done by others.
The airport and port are largely self-funded and run by professionals. The only function of the county commissioners is to hand out contracts, which they love to do because it generates campaign contributions.
Health care? It is run by the public health care taxing authorities.
They do hand out land use changes. Again, this is something that generates campaign contributions from developers and lobbyists, so they spend a lot of time on it.
Maybe it is a good thing they don’t do all that much in their $100,000-plus a year part-time jobs. After all, they have been trying to get a Convention Center hotel built for a generation and it still isn’t there.
March 24th, 2016 at 12:38 pm
Buddy….Ouch to the work of the County Commission. Ouch, & True. 31 Municipalities handle almost ALL of Broward. The Few exceptions are the ones you were correct about. I’m sure the Public is unaware of almost all you wrote, including the $ issues
Rico Petrocelli
Plantation Councilman (2005-2009)
March 24th, 2016 at 4:39 pm
Someone more knowledgible than me explained the Coastal Cities get short changed on CRAs n Resort Taxes etc because Broward n only one other county – I think Orange – have County Charters that limit cities’ powers.
Certainly Miami Beach for one doesnt let the County what to do or Coral Gables Miami Sarasota or I believe Tampa St Pete or Key West or probably Clearwater.
I have been surprised how globs of money ARE NOT controlled by resort cities in Broward.
Broward really is like the rural South a la my old neighbor Tennessee Williams.
March 25th, 2016 at 5:02 pm
In Deerfield, the Housing Authority building and the HS football field both still have Sylvia Poitier’s name attached.
Also, Deerfield loves to name streets after living people — hard to unring that gong.
I say … wait til their dead and cold.
March 26th, 2016 at 3:43 pm
I know hell hate this for two reasons but Mr Stevens is RIGHT about NO LIVING PEOPLE getting their names on things Except government plaques Because Judaism n Christianity teach respect for the dead n Modesty.
March 26th, 2016 at 4:46 pm
The only thing they are going to name after you is an outdoor loo, Chaz.
March 26th, 2016 at 9:39 pm
Buddy, Howie’s “part time gig” is completely subsidized by tax dollars. Do you really think Howard has all those answers himself? He has his PD lawyers do the research for him. He just takes the credit. Typical fraud, but hey, it’s OK, this is Broward, it is OK.
FROM BUDDY:
This has been checked out by journalists from various outlets. There is a reason why you’ve never read or heard about it. They found that Howard Finkelstein personally pays a former supervisor at the Public Defender’s Office to do his research. Before this supervisor retired, Finkelstein paid him to do the work on his own time.
March 27th, 2016 at 3:08 am
Bro;
I don’t need anything named after me … what I’m aiming for in life, my legacy, is so much bigger than a building.
Just watch… another piece to that puzzle is soon to be revealed.
March 27th, 2016 at 12:24 pm
@21 I wanted to leave a legacy for the City of Ft Lauderdale to build a 24 hour public sanitary facility n name it after Mayor John Preston Seiler who I respect but gets a bit heated when I suggest the homeless could use a decent place 24/7 for basic sanitary needs.
SO LETS NOT UNDER RATE THE REAL VALUE OF OUTSIDE LOOs!
And as “individualustic” as Counsellor Fields n Mr Stevens are at least they are honest lawabyeing cititzens interested in honest government as opposed to the selfish greedy stupid types that lobby for gross developers n skeazy government contractors n the weak public officials who fund their races with their lucre.
Its NOT FIELDS n STEVENS WHO GAVE US THE ARENA THE CONVENTION CENTRE IN THE WRONG PLACEMENT THE CONDO CANYONS MIAMI DEVELOPERS ARE DESTROYING BROWARD COUNTY WITH!
Every development mistake on Miami Beach in the 1990s and this century is being repeated in Broward’s coastal cities AND NO ONE GIVES A DAMN EXCEPT TO DEMOGOGUE THE ISSUE WITH UNWORKABLE SCHEMES THEY KNOW ARE DEADENDS.
FIELDS N STEVENS ARE NOT DESTROYING SOUTH FLORIDA ONLY FORCING US TO THINK
March 29th, 2016 at 6:59 pm
Is Count LF Chodkiewicz Chudzikiewicz a real person? Thought he might be a robot or something because it seems he has something to say about absolutely EVERYTHING. Just sayin’