Fields: Alu, Porth & Others Shouldn’t Hold Two Jobs
BY SAM FIELDS
First, have you heard about the public school teacher who wants to run for Circuit Court Judge and hold both jobs?
Second, how about the County Court Judge that also wants to be Governor?
Third, how about the State Attorney who is also in the State Senate.
Fourth, how about the Assistant State Attorney who also is in the Florida House?
Only the fourth is true. Numbers 1, 2 and 3 are illegal.
They should all be illegal.
At the heart of our system of “checks and balances” is the tension between the Executive, Judicial and Legislative branches. It requires them to question and challenge the actions of the other two.
Allowing members of one part of government to also serve in another branch of government defeats that concept.
I like Ari Porth, D-Coral Springs.
Long before Porth went to the Florida House, he held his present job as an Assistant States Attorney. He was and is always fair.
Nevertheless, there is something profoundly wrong with an employee of the Executive branch having a vote on the laws and budgets that govern him. That includes public school teachers and any other government worker that wants to join the Legislature.
Assistant States Attorney Sheila Alu is also a long-time member of the always-factionalized Sunrise City Council.
In the 70’s and 80’s, long before Alu worked for State Attorney Mike Satz, that city was perpetually under a corruption cloud. Satz repeatedly initiated failed prosecutions, including arresting two different mayors. If a member of the city council back then also been in the prosecutor’s office, it would have put a cloud over all those events.
But they are not the only ones. Former Florida House Speaker Ray Sansom was some kind of phony $110,000-a-year professor for Northwest Florida State College when he was indicted for using his legislative position to improperly steering millions to a buddy using the school.
In 2008 Senate President Mike Haridopolos accepted $75,000 for a nine-month lecturer appointment at the University of Florida in the Political Science Department. He taught one class and spent half the appointment period in legislative session. (Typical pay for adjuncts at a Florida college is closer to $2500 for a three credit course.)
But this was nothing new for our Senate President. From 2004 to 2008, he accepted $150,000 from Brevard Community College to write a book. The book was never published although it is now available on line for $9.95.
Let’s be clear, Sansom, Haridoplos and the schools were engaged in legalized kickback schemes. They got hired with inflated salaries with little or no work to funnel $$$$ back to the schools. I say legalized because if they did it for private company they would go to jail.
At some point these folks don’t know whether they are wearing their legislative hat or employment hat.
All that crossdressing gets confusing.
Want to work for the government? Great!
Want to be an elected official in a State, county or local legislative body? Great!
Want to be in both? Not so great.
January 23rd, 2012 at 11:18 am
“was” corrupt!!!
Satz investigates Deerfield Beach and Hollywood and Miramar. Never Sunrise while Alu works for him.
To quote Buddy, Hmmmmm
January 23rd, 2012 at 12:48 pm
Ari has a no-show job at the State Attorney’s Office. Nobody ever sees him.
January 23rd, 2012 at 12:49 pm
too much
January 23rd, 2012 at 1:44 pm
porth is a very nice person, i agree, but the fact remains he has a do nothing job in the sate attorneys office, something to do with truancy. has he ever tried a case or been in a courtroom. how many school bord members have we had who were also paid by the the education system, didnt we have some who were full time employees in dade and what about the mayor of pembroke park, i guess ari is not the only one.
January 23rd, 2012 at 2:25 pm
Oh your not kidding Buddy. This Ast.State’s Att, and while a City Comm, wants next to be an FBI agent. lady drop a dime on anyone you want(1000’s of you informants-where’s your 97 ford focus and your stipend to some community college?)The Feds are not interested in you except when you basiclly snitch on someone(judge Gardiner -ring a bell). Again she thinks she’s the next Clarice Starling.Also local law enforcememnt(elite) don’t even like her. So I mean please….
January 23rd, 2012 at 2:38 pm
So, let me make sure I understand this…
a teacher, firefighter, police, or other “public sector employee” should not take a public office? Or they should have to quit their job to run? Lets’ see… with that stupid logic, our entire legislature will be either filthy rich or on welfare and food stamps, given the salary of state legislators. And so who should? the very wealthy? the young lawyer who’s firm can afford to have them placed on “sabbatical” for some time? Maybe the logic might hold true for full-time positions such as judgeships, etc…but don’t put them in the same category as legislators in this context.
January 23rd, 2012 at 3:24 pm
Do I hear a Torey Alston out there? Isn’t this just what he thinks he’s going to get away with? Isn’t it time fo him to become a serious candidate and demonstrate a little integrity by stepping down from his County Commission job to demonstrate he knows where the line is? This all seems easy from way up here, maybe it gets tougher when you’re actually down on the playground!!!!!!
January 23rd, 2012 at 3:32 pm
There are several members of the Florida House that are also ASAs, not just Ari. He uses his vacation days when doing work in Tallahassee (hardly a place a Democrat wants to vacation these days) and once his vacation days elapse he takes unpaid leave. Perhaps you should know the facts before you try to degrade one of the only honest electeds in Broward.
January 23rd, 2012 at 5:14 pm
Ari is at work every day. I work in the same building and the allegation he has a ‘no show job’ is out of order.
January 23rd, 2012 at 6:20 pm
Sam Fields is the one who has a no-show job. If he spent as much time preparing for a case as he does kibitzing with other lawyers he might win one every once in a while.
January 23rd, 2012 at 8:51 pm
There is one guy I think should stick to his regular job. He does not work for two different government agencies, but what he does still seems a little seedy and unseemly. I am talking about the Pony-Tail Himself, “Help Me Howard” Finklestein. I think it is totally wrong for him to do his paid gig on Channel 7 while he serves as the Public Offender.
January 24th, 2012 at 8:16 am
I’m starting to worry because I agree with Sam Fields. This is a constitutional question when a legislator is voting on money for the local office they work for.
In Alu’s situationit is just plain sense. Prosecutors in particular should not hold office. The perception is that It ties the hand of the State Attorney.
January 28th, 2012 at 1:07 pm

Sheila Alu sent a December 7, 2009 opinion from C. Christopher Anderson, III, chief assistant general counsel of the Florida Commission on Ethics stating that her job at the State Attorney’s Office was not a conflict for her role as Sunrise City Commissioner.
“It does not appear that the State Attortney’s Office is subject to the regulation of the City Commission and it does not appear that the Office is doing business with the City Commission,” he wrote to Stuart Michelson, then-Sunrise City Attorney.
“Further, the situation presented does not indicate the existence of a continuing or frequently recurring conflict between her public duties for the City and her interess as an Assistant State Attorney, and it does not indicate that her position as an Assistant State Attortney impedes the full and faithful discharge of her public duties for the City.”
However, the question raised by Fields was one of perception, not one of legality.
January 28th, 2012 at 4:37 pm
conflict of interest–that’s my perception