Complaint Filed Against Former School Board Member
BY BUDDY NEVINS
Former School Board member Marty Rubinstein has annoyed the wrong people.
A political figure who doesn’t like Rubinstein I’m keeping the name secret has filed a complaint with the Social Security Administration about Rubinstein. The allegation is that Rubinstein abusing his disability insurance by working.
Rubinstein
“I have recently been told that Mr. Rubenstein is collecting SSI Disability Benefits due to health related issues and claims he is unable to work. It is my opinion that Mr. Rubenstein is defrauding Social Security as he is has numerous business interests, which I believe he is not reporting to SSI, states the complaint.
The complaint states that Rubinstein has been “a campaign consultant for numerous candidates in Broward County while collecting SSI Disability.
He is currently is working on the campaigns of two candidates in Sunrise — Commissioner Lawrence “Larry” Sofield and Mayor Roger Wishner. He also did campaign work for the infamous Tamarac Commissioner Patricia Atkins-Grad, who was indicted on bribery charges recently, states the complaint.
Rubinstein is on the City of Sunrise Charter Review Board, which the complaint contends is a paid position.
He also owns a website and does computer consulting.
I have no idea whether Rubinstein’s work for candidates violates the rules governing SSI Disability. It would be too bad if it did. Although he is a goofball, he really needs the money.
Rubinstein is sick. He walks with a cane.
In 2004 he told me that he had Myasthenia gravis, a chronic autoimmune disease. I wrote a column in the Sun-Sentinel about his illness.
Before he decided to get back into politics, Rubinstein should have remembered that Sunrise elections are rough and tumble and full of sharks.
Maybe it is hard for a guy with a chronic disease who uses a cane to swim with those sharks in Sunrise. It takes strength to duck and weave. To maneuver.
Otherwise it is too easy to get bitas Rubinstein just found out.
August 5th, 2010 at 7:41 pm
SHEILA ALU FILED THE COMPLAINT.
August 5th, 2010 at 10:54 pm
Rubinstein once ran against Wishner for a Sunrise City Commission seat. Wishner found one of Rubinstein’s signs didn’t have the “paid for….” disclosure and filed an Election complaint against Rubinstein.
Even though Wishner beat the pants of him in the election, Wishner kept pushing the Elections Commission to punish Rubinstein and the case dragged on. Once Wishner became a State Legislator he was able to push even harder and Rubinstein was fined thousands of dollars. He didn’t have the money and told everybody that he had to cash in a CD in his retirement account (paying a 25% penalty) to pay off the fine.
Funny that Rubinstein is now part of Wishner’s support team. I wonder how Wishner has paid him back over the years?
FROM BUDDY: Marty has Stockholm Syndrome when it comes to Wishner. That the name for the condition when victims become attached to their captors or the one who punishes them.
August 5th, 2010 at 11:30 pm
Rubinstein couldn’t even win his own re-election and now he is helping candidates. God help the candidates.
August 6th, 2010 at 9:00 am
Exactly why wouldn’t this person want their name revealed?
And why are you running with this story? You admit that you have no idea whether the allegation has any validity.
Seems to me you’re giving someone a free ride.
If you’re not going to reveal a name, at least give a reason why the person would not want their name made public.
FROM BUDDY:
Someone who won’t use their name on a comment is asking why somebody else wants to remain an anonymous source. Hmmmm.
Rubinstein knows he can comment here at any time or even write a guest column.
August 6th, 2010 at 11:21 am
about disclaimers, if he has a website he uses as a political tool to communicate regarding the campaigns he is working on, doesnt he have to put disclaimer on the site? How is that different than a sign or something we get in the mail? If he never put any disclaimers in the past, is each article a violation?
August 6th, 2010 at 5:11 pm
Rubinstein is more than just a goofball. And yes, Buddy, you are correct: Rubinstein is sick. Luckily for residents of Sunrise such as myself, there is an excellent candidate running against Wishner and his puppet Rubinstein.
August 6th, 2010 at 11:48 pm
Nice try, Buddy, but you’re comparing mangoes and guavas.
This is just lazy journalism . . . you get an allegation about someone from a person who you admit is his political enemy, but go no further with it.
Wouldn’t the right thing be to do some checking to see if there is any validity to the charges?
If it turns out your source was giving you false information and using you to hurt Rubenstein (who I wouldn’t know if he walked into the room right now), what then?
FROM BUDDY: The Sun-Sentinel along with every other media writes stories all the time that someone is under investigation without “checking to see if there is any validity to the charges.”
The media reports someone is charged by the police with a crime without ” checking to see if there is any validity to the charges.”
The media reports that a law suit was filed without “checking to see if there is any validity” to the allegations in the law suit.
Nobody gave me false information. I reported that a complaint was filed, which is accurate.
August 7th, 2010 at 9:58 am
It’s one thing to report when a public agency, such as the police or State Attorney’s Ofice, makes a charge. It is entirely something else when someone’s political enemy does.
Moreover, when the police or SAO makes a charge we know who is doing it. In the case here, we have no idea and so cannot assess the veracity of the charges or the motivation of the [unknown] person making them.
In the first instance, that is normal journalism; in the latter it is passing on gossip.
August 7th, 2010 at 2:10 pm
Yep it’s obvious Floridan is Marty Rubenstein. YAP YAP YAP… hiding the common sense truth behind long paragraphs of Lawyer Sounding Talk.
August 7th, 2010 at 4:16 pm
@2:10
1) I am not Rubenstein . . . never met him . . . don’t know anything about him. As far as I know he might be a colossal jerk; I don’t care.
2) “long paragraphs” I’m sorry if you have trouble following a topic for all of two sentences.
3) “Lawyer Sounding Talk”? Ha ha.
3)