Gallagher Campaigned On “Zero Tolerance” For Crime
BY BUDDY NEVINS
I’ve kept every local campaign brouchure that ever came into my hands and sometimes they come in useful.
Like today when I dug up Bev Gallagher’s old pieces from her first campaign.
It was 2000 and the southwest Broward School Board seat was open. Gallagher was running in a tough campaign against parent Donna Korn.
Campaigning hard in her first race, Gallagher used the slogan “zero tolerance.”
But it was zero tolerance for student crimes only.
In retrospect, she should have expanded the scope of her campaign slogan to:
Zero tolerance for political corruption.
Zero tolerance for steering construction contracts for money.
Zero tolerance for taking envelopes of cash.
Not a word about that.
In the following piece, Gallagher disagreed with opponent Korn about land acquisition and construction.
I’ve got to laugh when I read this line today:
“My opponent thinks our priorities should be land and building acquisition. I disagree.”
Somewhere between 2000 and now, Gallagher changed her mind. The building side of education became a huge priority for Gallagher.
Gallagher is accused in a criminal complaint of telling an FBI agent they could “make a lot of money together” from construction contracts.
She should have stuck to her original campaign statement and kept her priority the kids. Maybe then she wouldn’t be facing 10-20 years in a federal pen today.
If you want to blame somebody for Gallagher, blame the following list of folks who endorsed her in her 2000 campaign.
Korn was an outsider, new to politics. Gallagher’s husband at the time, Tom Gallagher, was a Democratic club president.
So Gallagher got the endorsement of the One Hand Washes The Other crowd. The You Rub My Back And I’ll Rub Yours folks. The typical Democratic insiders.
The unions were with her — teachers, AFL-CIO, fire fighters and the police.
Now-Property Appraiser Lori Parrish, now-Clerk of the Courts Howard Forman and former State Reps. Ken Gottlieb and Tim Ryan endorsed her.
I’m proud to say that the Sun-Sentinel, my employer at the time, was not among those who fell for Gallagher. Korn got their endorsement.
Gallagher did get the endorsement of The Miami Herald.
Here is the list on her campaign piece from 2000:
One more piece:
Gallagher did make a difference.
She taught our children that even adults can be deeply flawed.
She taught our children that some who run the schools care more about larseny than learning.
She taught our children not to emulate adults just because they are adults.
September 25th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
It is the oldest trick in the book. You say one thing when you’re running for office do another after you get elected. It should be an automatic ticket out of office every time. But few hold candidates accountable for it, the voters forget, and so the officials get away with it.
September 25th, 2009 at 2:00 pm
I just can’t believe someone like this would stoop so low to put themselves into this horrible, horrible crime.
Hopefully, they will go after several of the Lobbyists as well.
September 25th, 2009 at 3:27 pm
I don’t even imagine this thing coming within a mile of any lobbyist. Sorry, but they are simply too smart to put themselves in any such situation. And they make too much money to need to. Corruption almost always happens when you have an elected official that is strapped for cash. Not with lobbyists who are flush with cash. It’s highly unlikely to happen. They are just too smart.
September 25th, 2009 at 8:11 pm
She was deceitful from the get-go. If you read these campaign ads, she did none of the things she promised. Typical. You should do the public a favor and print all their campaign brochures.
September 25th, 2009 at 8:48 pm
Newspapers used to check up on politicians and hold them accountable. Campaign pledges were examined. Not any more and newspapers hardly cover campaigns or candidates. Therefore, politicians believe they can get away with any lie and never be caught. That is one of the major problems of politics today.
September 26th, 2009 at 5:39 am
Broward needs an independent ethics board to review and, if necessary, issue sanctions against violations by school employees and School Board members. The ethics board should be picked by business leaders and consist of retired judges, members of the public, the university community and business community. Anyone who does business with the schools or anyone whose family does business with the schools would be forbidden membership.
September 26th, 2009 at 8:12 am
And all of this for only $12,500 – a complete waste.
September 26th, 2009 at 10:04 am
I totally agree with Lobbyists are Smart….they will have a really hard time bringing their dirty businesses down.
September 26th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
….and the people voted for Bev. What dopes live in this district?? Folks, stories like Bev’s are just the tip of the iceberg at the school board. Hopefully the feds will be able to find out how many administrators, and I use the term lightly, both at the top levels downtown and at the local schools actually get their jobs. You just wouldn’t believe the shenanigans out there. I think it’s time people knew the truth. Hurray for the FBI!
September 26th, 2009 at 6:40 pm
We continue to witness the fall of leaders in our society, not just religious and political leaders but also leaders in business and sports.
One day they are our heroes and the next they are scorned. If you ask them, almost all would say that such an end could never happen to them. That very miscalculation is all the evidence we should need that leaders are merely human just like you and me.
They may be extraordinary humans. But human beings nonetheless and therefore subject to weakness.
Why do they fail?
Most leaders are naturally driven and motivated to achieve results. Over time however they begin to lose sight of what’s important.
They get caught up in other priorities and lack the skill to self-diagnose that they are slipping or to do what it takes to realign their focus back onto what is truly important.
Vanity, ego, power: these are very seductive drugs. And like becoming addicted, a leader losing his focus is like a junkie losing their soul.
No leader can afford to lose their proper focus and hope to serve others well. Or, in the end, hope to get away from it because the followers pick up on those signals and they act on them.
Leaders often start listening to people that don’t share their focus. Those people want to use them, to yoke their power and bend it to serve their will and not those of followers.
They have no stake in the leader’s success but only in their own self interest.
Such people are masters at manipulating leaders, and they do so until the leader loses their own voice, until they forget why they aspired to leadership in the first place.
To be a good leader, you must have a wide circle of contacts but few friends. None of them can be people that stand to gain from anything that the leader could possibly provide. Some measure of loneliness is the price of being a quality leader.
Leadership is draining and exhausting. But it is a vocation, and because of that the leader must overcome being tired and refresh themselves constantly to the mission.
At the point that a leader no longer has the will to lead, but only wants the rewards of leadership, it’s time for them to go.
Nothing is more wasteful than an unmotivated leader.
True leadership is never about what happens to the leader and is always about what happens to the followers.
At the point that a leader shows that they care more about themselves than about those they are chosen to lead, it’s time for them to go. That is the time for those that follow to choose other leaders.
September 27th, 2009 at 5:51 am
I agree with why leaders fail, but I think one important factor was overlooked. Greed was left out. I think it needs to be added to vanity, ego, and power.
Not only do leaders fall into the preying hands of so-called friends. They may also fall for the clay-molding techniques of sweet and smiling spouses. So, beware. I’ve seen good men and women turned around (in the negative sense of the word) by controlling spouses who would’ve wanted that power you speak of, but realize they’ll never have it. So to make up they make a puppet out of the spouse, thereby, making decisions and putting their policies in place through their spouse. You say: “Such people are masters at manipulating leaders, and they do so until the leader loses their own voice, until they forget….”, how true!
Leaders have to be aware of so many things at the same time, that’s it’s really very difficult.
Then, there’s the leader vs. leader thing, where once you find a good-hearted, honest leader, with a good soul and perfect intentions, along come other leaders try to take them down. Setups often abound. Deceit, jealousy and gossip abound. The others can be get in cohoots together to knock the good guy down. Politics is a dirty game, folks. Always has been.
Whatever happened to Bev, I don’t know. But one thing is true. She should’ve left long ago, the minute she saw her perspective undergo mutation. That would’ve meant she’d never have been caught with her hands in the cookie jar.
September 27th, 2009 at 9:00 am
Okay all you holier than thou pundits… Go back and read my comments about Darla’s actions and ask yourselves this:
Where would Beverly Gallagher be right now if she had done what Darla did? Forget whether or not you think it’s a “crime” not to report the attempt.
Where would she be if she said “No thanks” and just walked away from the offers.
September 28th, 2009 at 8:00 am
Lois Wexler and Debby Eisinger set her up for the fall, as they want Mayor Eisinger in that position to fill the void and do the dirty work of the Democrats in the School Board.
FROM BUDDY: It is highly unlikely this e-mail is from Lois Wexler, the county commissioner.
September 28th, 2009 at 10:07 am
Buddy said:
“Gallagher is accused in a criminal complaint of telling an FBI agent they could “make a lot of money together†from construction contracts.”
Not accurate.
Fact is, it was the FBI agent who told BG that they could “make a lot of money togetherâ€.
BG is said to have responded with “I know”.
FROM BUDDY: Absolutely wrong. I quote from the criminal complaint:
“During the meeting, Gallagher advised UC-2 (undercover agent 2) that she would assist in directing business to UC-2’s companies. Gallagaher advised that they could ‘make a lot of money together.'”