Buddy: Lawmakers Will Get A Pass On Lying About Residency
BY BUDDY NEVINS
The Pooh Bahs of the Legislature say they are going to review where five lying Broward lawmakers really live.
They five say they live in their districts. They don’t.
I call that a lie.
I don’t mince words: State Reps. Joe Gibbons, Jared Moskowitz, Hazelle Rogers, Perry Thurston and state Sen. Maria Sachs are liars.
In the wake of reports out of Broward, House Speaker Will Weatherford and Senate President Don Gaetz’s are now reviewing the residency requirements.
The fabricating five can rest easy.
Don’t expect any crackdowns or fingerpointing from the Get Along To Go Along leaders. Don’t expect any punishments handed out.
Weatherford and Gaetz will hide behind the state’s vague residency requirements.
The Florida Constitution says a legislator or senator “shall be at least twenty-one years of age, an elector and resident of the district from which elected and shall have resided in the state for a period of two years prior to election.”
But what exact is a “resident of the district from which elected?”
Weatherford and Gaetz have ordered their lawyers to review what “resident” really means.
Previous court rulings have determined that one’s “domicile” is proven by a number of factors. They include a driver’s license, the homestead exemption, where one actually lives, a voter’s registration and even, in one old court ruling, where one has a newspaper regularly delivered.
Weatherford and Gaetz have already telegraphed that they will use voter’s registrations to at least partially determine where a lawmaker lives.
They asked their staff for the voter’s registration records of each lawmaker by September 1.
I can’t image that Gibbons, Moskowitz, Rogers, Thurston and Sachs were cavalier enough not to have voter’s registrations and their driver’s license transferred to their phony homes.
Lying about where you live to get a voter’s registration or a driver’s license is illegal. But the House and Senate don’t enforce those laws.
All five had to swear they lived in their districts when they filed for office. Swearing a false oath on those documents is a third-degree felony. The lawmakers could get up to five years in prison and/or a fine of up to $5,000.
Don’t hold your breath for State Attorney Mike Satz to prosecute Gibbons, Moskowitz, Rogers, Thurston or Sachs.
So I expect the five fabricators to get a pass. And Weatherford and Gaetz to draw up new rules for the future.
What should ideally happen? The voter’s should be outraged. The five lawmakers should never win another election. They should never be elected officials again after next year.
I’m not holding my breath on that one either.
August 6th, 2013 at 12:06 pm
Of course Mike Satz won’t go after these losers. First of all, he would never go after Mike Moskowitz’s son. Satz wouldn’t dare alienate the uber-lobbyist and campaign donor.
Jr. is the biggest joke of all, with his wife residing in one district as an elected, and him claiming to “reside” elsewhere for his seat.
If he can’t go after Moskowitz Jr., he sure won’t go after the others. Plus Mike knows the public, in general, doesn’t give a toot about residency issues. If they did, they wouldn’t continue to elect these carpetbaggers.
August 6th, 2013 at 2:03 pm
The mayor of Dania Beach, Walter Duke, played this residency game and won. He blew into town with a homestead exemption at a home in Pembroke Pines, supposedly rented an apartment, and ran for commissioner. He learned a few tricks from his wife, who was defeated in her attempt to win a seat on the dais. He has kept his seat and is now mayor after spending well over $10,000 to a marketing firm that came up with that life size poster of him looking swanky in his suit. The job pays about $22,000 plus expenses.
It is up to the voters to sift through the images of these politicians and know who and what kind of person they vote for. Satz condones corruption.
August 6th, 2013 at 4:16 pm
Satz bitched and moaned about having to run against Judy Stern candidadte Mancini all last summer who campaigned that Satz was weak on public corruption. Now all of these people named above are tied to Stern and he does nothing. Pathetic
The one good thing that hopefully comes out of this is the fact that the newer candidates see that associating with Stern slimes you with her sins of the past and now those she works with. Why anyone would use her outside of her usual retreads is beyond me.
August 6th, 2013 at 4:17 pm
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men and women to do nothing. ….
August 6th, 2013 at 8:14 pm
Oh I know its all JudY stern’ fault. I mean of course none of them will face any court action. Just what the requirements are (license,voter ID card etc,) they all can produce. I wonder if they where all Republicans would you have given this all this attention?. Maybe some of the republican heavy hitters up in Tallahassee will now move on, but wait they where all going to jail. I mean give me something like the Mayors down in Dade. That’s a story. Speaking of Judy Stern the way I look @ this they all hired her, and guess what they all won..
August 7th, 2013 at 9:00 am
Maybe they did win, but at what cost. Perry wanted to run for AG, that is gone along with his homestead. Gibbons more fodder for Beam Furr to use against him. Sachs, she barely won Broward before and next year will be a R year. Toast to her.
Sometimes you win but you really dont win
August 8th, 2013 at 1:15 pm
I declare homestead exemption at a home in Wellington. I also own a small condo in Inverrary. I work in Plantation. Sometimes I go to the condo. Sometimes I go to the house in Wellington. It depends on how I feel that day. My license and voter registration are in Wellington. Would it be illegal for me to run for city commission in Lauderhill or for the state senate for Lauderhill? At the end of the day, the reality is that I have dual residency. I pay taxes on both residences. I am a resident of both cities. Which home I choose to reside at on any particular day depends on several factors. One of which is how far do I feel like driving after work. With respect to these politicians, the law needs to be more narrowly defined.The way it’s written now, they have a lot of wiggle room.
August 16th, 2013 at 10:31 am
What started ALL this mess was EX-COMMISSIONER pat flury who used to live in Dania Beach, but then bought an $825K house in Ft. Laud. on the water with her life partner Lee Lavery. While both ladies have purchased numerous homes together over the years, Flury’s name did not show up on that Ft. Laud. home until 14 days after she jumped on that old broomstick and blasted out of town in disgrace. Her defrauding of the GOOD residents of Dania Beach resulted in her stealing $26K of tax payer money and her making decisions that were NOT hers to make. City attorney ANSBRO and City Manager Baldwin, jumbo jellyfish, helped her by pretending it wasn’t happening. Flury says that Chaz Stevens of MAOS.com was the straw that broke the camel’s back for her and sent her packing! Whatever it takes, it’s done. This is THE landmark case that started this all, yet some of Flury’s orphans dont’ want the spotlight where is should be, smack dab on the corruption they condone. Time to check on the status of that criminal complaint against Flury…..
August 16th, 2013 at 10:42 am
“Al C. Jones” as he likes to call himself, played the residency game too! Living in Dania Beach, he “moved” to Fort Lauderdale/Oakland Park to make it look like he really lived there when he didn’t. He left the dais of Dania Beach and forced the taxpayers to pay for a special election in which he tried humorously to run his wife who was handily defeated by Bobbie Grace! No one cared that Al C. Jones was lying about his residency because so many were just gleeful to have that big bag of hot air out of town. The lesser of two evils, but he was just as guilty as Flury was of defrauding Broward County Residents. Shameful, especially when all Jones can talk about is himself, his “titles,” his morality and integrity (or lack thereof) and how angry he was for not having his name on a flyer announcing free bookbags for kids. Al, pony up some money and actually HELP the kids, we did! Don’t ask your partner in crime Chickie, she still can’t account for her “unexplained” bankruptcy. Should have used some of that “education grant” money Flury left you!
August 16th, 2013 at 11:45 am
At #7 Duke:
Now what kind of crap are you trying to spew? I own two homes (makes me better than the rest of you) so I can choose where I want to run. HELL NO!!! You still only have one ass. One vote.
By law, you get only one homestead exemption (legally recognized as where you physically live) that same address is used to register to vote. Therefore, your, Dukeness, can only run where you are registered to vote.
August 17th, 2013 at 7:37 am
@ 8 and 9: Concerned Citizens of Dania Beach (aka the Duke political machine) says “Flury says that Chaz Stevens of MAOS.com was the straw that broke the camel’s back for her and sent her packing! Whatever it takes, it’s done” You did whatever it took to make sure Pat Flury resigned. Yes, its done. Now what? Walter Duke, the mayor of Dania Beach cannot run a commission meeting and achieve the result of seating another commissioner. He pounds the gavel endlessly, allows CCofDB to point fingers and call names (remember middle school?), claims others do not want to compromise, and calls another meeting. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. The City of Dania Beach is corroding under the “leadership” of Walter Duke.
August 17th, 2013 at 10:11 am
@10 Creekgirl – couldn’t agree with you more! And I’m confident that the REAL Dukes would agree with you also, but that’s not them. Mayor Duke and his wife stay way above the blog fodder and probably don’t even look at this stuff. Mayor Duke and his wife live and work right here in Dania Beach. They don’t rent, live with significant others who DO own property in Dania Beach – they are BONA FIDE residents. Mayor Duke, along with commissioner Grace were the only ones on our commission who did the right thing when fraudulent Flury attempted to defraud the residents by taking pay for, and acting as a legitimate commissioner while she lived in Fort Lauderdale. The RIGHT thing is difficult to do, and the two of them asked that the situation be addressed formally. City Attorney Ansbro and City Manager Baldwin not only turned a deaf ear and blind eye, but helped Flury by writing an excessively WEAK “legal” response to defend her. Momma Flury left some orphans who love corruption and deceit, hence them calling themselves Duke and posting fraudulently. Thanks for your thoughts though – we agree with you in spirit and fact.
August 17th, 2013 at 5:06 pm
@12 Concerned Citizens of Dania Beach are the Walter/Lisa Duke political machine. They live by social media and blogs. Just who are you trying to kid? And please ask Bobbie Grace to pay her taxes on time. Public records for her own house and other properties related to her show she pays later or never. She is cheating the county and the city. How can she vote on the Dania Beach budget when she does not contribute fully. Get you team in order, Mayor Duke.
August 18th, 2013 at 4:22 pm
Time to put those pots and pans away at Casa Bob “Pugsley” Adams! There will likely be NO “special” dinners for Daniel Sohn who would have been the most likely invitee to Casa Adams as he moved towards his goal of becoming Dania Beach’s next elected commissioner in 2014. Looks like Chaz Stevens has done it again at MyActsOfSedition.com and exposed the very thing that Dania Beach is trying so hard to get rid of – corrupt and bad political leaders and their minions. Dania Beach residents are tired of the old “tricks” and want much better. Absolutley time for a NEW DAY!
http://www.myactsofsedition.com/2013/08/18/on-todays-radar-bcpa-staffer-bob-adams/
August 18th, 2013 at 7:45 pm
Daniel Sohn must have taken his political “how to create an image the gullible will believe” right from the pages of the Duke political machine handbook. Step 1: Move into a city in which you have never been registered to voteStep 2:Create a non-profit organization that might or might not be tax exempt. (a la Bobbie Grace)Step 3: Schmooz the neighborhoods for people who are easily swayed to sell their votes to hardworking volunteers. Step 4: Create a Facebook page and plaster it with images of yourself shaking hands with various politicians and movers and shakers and showing up at event after event while pretending you work a full time job. (Makes it look like you are important.)Step 5: Continuously borrow news articles from newspapers and trade magazines, slap on a sentence or two. (Makes it look like you know about everything and make everything happen.)Step 6: Repeat steps 1 through 5.Guess the only differences between Daniel Sohn and Walter Duke is a puppet master named Lisa
who has a guy named Chaz on speed dial. Looks like Daniel will never have a vote from Dania Beach delivered to the SOE’s office.
August 18th, 2013 at 9:04 pm
@ConcernedCitizensofDaniaBeach: Do you think Lisa could check with Chaz Stevens to see if he has ever looked at guidestar.org for any nonprofit Bobbie Grace might be involved in? I know Chaz looked up the organization Daniel Sohn had. Maybe he could do it for the good of Dania Beach in the name of transparency.
August 18th, 2013 at 9:23 pm
Chaz ought to be a demolition contractor
he has done more to tear down and expose the corruption and lead the way out of the cesspool of lying by electeds than an OIG could dream of
I gotta hand it to him and wish I had the ‘fortitude (b#ll$) to do what he does single handedly, with Buddy’s forum as well