Former Reporter Files For Re-Election
BY BUDDY NEVINS
If I had to sit through a Plantation City Council meeting every two weeks, I would pull out the few hairs I have left.
As a reporter, I sat though decades of such meetings as the clock dragged on and on.
But Nick Sortal, who had a long tenure as a Sun-Sentinel reporter like me, likes it. He liked it so much he is going for another round. Sortal filed for re-election Feb. 3.
That’s a good thing.
Because Sortal makes a difference both in his work with the community and his openness.
Too many electeds work in darkness. Sortal lets it all hang out. He uses his skills as a former reporter to keep the public informed about what’s going on the City Hall and the rest of the city.
He habitually posts on Facebook and the neighborhood site Nextdoor. He is a regular on Twitter, too. He’s the epitome of transparency.
Forget the Sun-Sentinel. They hardly, if at all, cover Plantation (and most communities in Broward, with the exception of Fort Lauderdale where many editors live.) So since Sortal was in office, I know what is going on in the city and my neighborhood for the first time.
He is not alone in the new transparency in city government. Hallandale Beach Commissioner Savbina Javellana tweets about what’s going on in her city. Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis has done a fabulous job of explaining the sewer and water leaks on the Internet and in newsletters.
Trantalis’ predecessor, former Mayor Jack Seiler, not so much. Seiler was from the Old School, where most electeds like government to remain opaque, hiding what they are really doing.
Nick Sortal is from the New School.
How does he stand on the issues that are important to you?
Text him or email him and he will tell you (You don’t know how many times I heard from readers that their commissioner never answered their phone call or letters.). You can read about Sortal and contact him through his website here.
Good luck in November, Nick.
February 10th, 2020 at 1:37 pm
Nick Sortal is the best elected official in South Florida.
And I’m not just saying that because I’m marrying his daughter.
February 10th, 2020 at 9:43 pm
Say what u want about Jack Seiler- .He could run for another elected office and be a force to be reckoned with.Very well liked by local residents.
February 11th, 2020 at 8:42 am
Jack Seiler’s chances of getting elected dog catcher are about as good as Robert Walsh winning a third grade spelling bee.
February 11th, 2020 at 10:07 am
#2 – Huh? Seiler couldn’t get elected dog catcher after the mess he left in Ft. Laud. Talk to Rio Vista residents about how popular he is….
February 11th, 2020 at 11:43 am
You know before Tweets some of us Blogged. I learned it from a Commissioner in Davie who was the first to do this in Florida (and the 3rd in the country I know about) about 2005 through blogger.com. Probably those posts are still in the cloud somewhere.
Then we started getting into FaceBook and eventually tweeting.
So it is very satisfying to see elected officials do this. It is really difficult to get information out about a city since no one is covering them anymore.
The problem is finding out who is doing what so you can follow them except through trial and error.
I wish more elected officials did it. Not for self promotion but for promotion of the city.
FROM BUDDY:
Richard J. Kaplan is a former mayor and commissioner of Lauderhill.
February 11th, 2020 at 12:32 pm
Sorry Robert, that ship has long sailed…
First, no one today wants a moderate fence sitter like Seiler and Two it has come out that FTL literally went to shit under his stewardship.
February 11th, 2020 at 5:51 pm
Well, Merick Lewin is an excellent judge of character. That said, his greatest life accomplishment, out of many, will be marrying my kid. PS: Thanks for the kind words, Buddy. I want to live up to that. Every dang day.
February 12th, 2020 at 4:09 pm
And #3.I might be a third grade speller but never forget” I am Spartacus”…
February 14th, 2020 at 12:01 pm
But WITHOUT reporters NOW how do we get the news?