Gunzburger Takes Credit: Is The Ad Accurate?
BY BUDDY NEVINS
County Commisioner Sue Gunzburger’s new ad is a little busy looking, chock full of type and photos.
The brochure begins hitting South Broward mail boxes today with a list of a dozen improvements that Gunzburger helped accomplish in her 18 years as a commissioner.
Gunzburger is in a Democratic primary battle for re-election against former state Senate Minority Leader Steve Geller.
The brochure contends she “led the successful effort” to build three new libraries in Hallandale Beach, Hollywood and Pembroke Pines. She also takes credit for millions in new park facilities in the three communities.
She says she “secured the county funding for the renourishment project which restored our beautiful beaches throughout Broward.”
All this is true. Here is the rest of the story:
Voters approved multi-million dollar parks and libraries bond issues.
Did Gunzburger fight hard for a share of this bond money? Yes.
But each commissioner got parts of the parks and libraries money for their district.
So the ad is accurate. However, Gunzburger didn’t do anything different from the other eight incumbents.
The bottom line is that residents of her South Broward district benefitted from new parks and libraries…along with residents of the rest of the county.
The brochure is also correct about Gunzburger’s support of beach renourishment.
The center portion of the brochure is below. I still believe it is too busy, a jumble of type and pictures. What do you think?
Click on it to expand it to a more readable size:
June 11th, 2010 at 6:48 am
Maybe she did secure the funding to restore the beaches she allowed to be decimated after she voted to allow buildings like the diplomat to be built too close to the water.
June 11th, 2010 at 7:09 am
Steve Schwinn is wrong and he is repeating the lies of Steve Geller. Where a building can build is determined by state law.
Geller and his mouthpieces lie again.
Sue Gunzburger had no say in where the Diplomat would be built. The Hollywood City Commission granted approval to the project long after Sue Gunzburger was at the county commission.
Hollywood can’t be blamed. The Diplomat had been vacant for five years when the current plans were approved.
If Mr. Schwinn would like to roll the clock back to 1950s, I’m sure there were no big buildings on the beach. Maybe he wouldn’t have a place to live. Ha Ha.
June 11th, 2010 at 7:25 am
I actually am leaning toward voting for Sue, but the simple truth of the matter is that the Diplomat (and other buildings like the Villas of Positano) were built closer to the water then the buildings to the north of it, creating the jetty effect and decimating the beach to the south. If you (and I think you are Ron or somebody else affiliated with her campaign) are telling me now Sue had no say to what was going on, then she doesn’t deserve my vote for being incompetent or indifferent.
June 11th, 2010 at 7:36 am
Steve, Sue was not on the Hollywood City Commission when they approved the Diplomat project.
But it was Geller who pushed through the state law in 2001 which doubled the allowable density for highrises on Broward’s barrier islands. It wad Geller in 2003 who tried to change state law to totally eliminate the County Commission’s development and height restrictions on the barrier islands.
See: http://stevegellerfacts.com/highrises.htm to see the actual Senate bills and newspaper articles.
June 11th, 2010 at 9:02 am
The word “Led” is so over used. I believe she was one of many, but “Led” implies that she personally headed the effort. I don’t remember her doing that.
“Part of the Team” or “An Important Contributor” may be far more accurate.
But this is an election year, so puffery is the standard.
June 11th, 2010 at 10:32 am
No County Land Use change was necessary for Diplomat or positano. The Dip already existed on land designated Commercial and was rebuilt on land desgnated commercial, and positano was built utilizing flex units allocated by the City of Hollywood and the mayor, who ultimately moved there to live.
June 11th, 2010 at 10:40 am
Damn right Sue was “always mindful of taxpayer dollars.”
Especially the millions of them that her family put in their OWN bank accounts.
On her “Check List”, she should have also added:
* Get a political friend to hire my son for government work since he can’t succeed in the private sector.
* Secure another government job for my inexperienced and underqualified daughter at BSO.
* Screw with the Sherrif’s budget after he fires my daughter for falsifying her reasons for using sick leave.
* Carefully lip-synch along when pro-development lobbyist Bernie Friedman speaks in order to make it look like the words are actually coming out of my own mouth and not his.
* Lie about Steve Geller.
* Deposit the multitude of campaign contribution checks that Bernie Friedman collected for me, then tell people I think pro-development lobbyists are “sleazy”. Try not to laugh outloud when I say it.
* Try to steal individual credit for the accomplishments that the Broward Commission achieved as a whole body.
* Remind Ron to make insulting comments about Geller’s weight (although he seldom needs reminding).
* Try to convince people that I “fought” and “led” on issues where there was no opposition or resistance anyway.
————————–
If she wants “Truth in Advertising”, THAT’s how her flyer should have read.
June 11th, 2010 at 12:38 pm
Ask Gunzburger about her efforts to push out the registered nurses serving as school nurses. As a representative on the Children’s Services Council she argued to reduce this service down to staff that are not medically trained, claiming it cost too much money to provide children with credible service. In fact, when they finally did drop the RNs, the cost actually went up.
June 11th, 2010 at 1:31 pm
Fascinating comparison. I back up my anti-Geller statements with links to the docs and news accounts which back me up. Compared with “Tommy Dave” who writes made-up stories and lies, and backs it up factually with … Nothing!!
June 11th, 2010 at 4:12 pm
To Fact Check:
I’m glad you find your own post “fascinating”…I doubt anyone else does.
I have to admit, I think it’s entertaining that you’re so worried that I’m Dave Brown. You can’t stand it that a regular voter can feel strongly about this race.
Although I’ve been introduced to both candidates, the truth is that neither Geller nor your mother –oops! I mean “Sue”– would remember me as anything other than a face from the crowd. But I’m your mom’s –damn! I mean “Sue’s” — worst nightmare. A super-voter that’s actually paid attention to what a lame job she’s done in 18 years. And there’s lots of other people out there that feel the same way I do.
But maybe I’m being unfair in thinking that “Fact Check” is really Ronnie G. in sheep’s clothing. I’m sure LOTS of average voters brag about all the anti-Geller links, docs, and news accounts they’ve compiled.
June 11th, 2010 at 5:20 pm
Geller came to a breakfast and anybody who votes for him after that is blind. The man is unbelieve. He is crude and rude. Geller doesn’t really like seniors. He just wants to use us to win.
June 11th, 2010 at 6:15 pm
Or maybe, Tommy, I’m one of the Gunzburger campaign volunteers who lives in the district and actually cares about stopping the greedy developers. Just like you’re with the Geller campaign because you presumably think it is great to pave over everything and build highrises everywhere.
June 11th, 2010 at 8:00 pm
Ron:
I apologize, I did the unforgiveable. I actually read the source materials you posted. Interesting spin you put on things. I’m ignoring the New Times; Bob Norman has decided that Steve Geller was the one that caused the BP oil spill, and is responsible for Global Warming. The issues you pointed to are a 2001 bill and a 2003 bill.
I read the Sun-Sentinel article that said Geller made $648,000 one year, although it didn’t say that all of that came from his lobbying. I presume that it’s better to make millions from Government paychecks like you and your family did.
I don’t know anything about those two bills except what I read in the articles. You describe one bill as a pro-developer bill to eliminate County height restrictions and density limits on the beach. Wow, that’s terrible. You make it sound like Geller wanted to eliminate all regulation! Then I read the article. It says that Geller denied the amendment, which wasn’t in his name. The amendment doesn’t eliminate growth controls; it gives it to the government closest to the people, the cities. The story doesn’t mention the Beach at all. It says that most cities grew frustrated with the counties growing authority over land use, and that most City officials said that they were supporting the amendment. And finally it says that Geller was a good environmentalist, and made sure that Broward was exempted from an attempt to prevent local governments from strengthening environmental standards. Gee, that’s not the way you describe it.
What does the other bill do? Ron, you said that it doubles beach density from 25 units per acre to 50 units per acre. Again, we seem to read the article differently. The article says that the amendment would only permit redevelopment at that density, not new development. It says “Geller’s amendment would require counties to include in that review the impact of not allowing owners to rebuild after a natural disaster such as a hurricane and not letting them redevelop at the original, vested density on their properties. Geller said county policy is flawed because it’s seeking to restrain growth after that has already happened. He said he believes it’s an unconstitutional “taking†to not allow people to rebuild after a hurricane, especially because many buildings are condominiums. Lowering the density would mean some units would be rebuilt, while others could not.â€
It sounds to me that Geller was trying to protect oceanfront condominium owners, and permit them to rebuild their condominiums after a hurricane, while you and Mom are complaining about that, and don’t want to let Beachfront Condo owners who have condominiums destroyed rebuild them and return to the beach. I guess those people will be out of luck, and stuck with inadequate insurance payouts. Oh yeah, a lot of them will be underwater, both physically and fiscally, meaning that you and Mom will leave them homeless and owing money to mortgage companies. Great idea! Campaign on that in Hallandale Beach. Somehow, your description of the bill doesn’t seem accurate. But then again, we’ve come to expect that from you and Mom.
Stop blogging on Government time!
June 11th, 2010 at 8:26 pm
Ronnie,are you blogging your fictitious nonsense again when you should be working at your county job that mommy got for you. It is pretty pathetic you have to make a bullshit website about Geller when Mommy has accomplished sooo much according to her latest mailing. You left out her involvement in fixing the oil spill in the Gulf. No, I’m not Dave or Steve.
June 11th, 2010 at 8:28 pm
Fact Check is Sue’s son on here? This is an interesting board!
June 12th, 2010 at 5:54 am
Once again, Steve Geller is posting under phony names.
Typical of him, he attacks the writers of articles about him (Bob Norman of the New Times) instead of dealing with the facts.
He took money from the owners of Mutual Benefits Insurance after voting to ease regulation for this company, which later proved to be a ponzi scam. He has continued his relationship with the now former owners of this company, even though they are charged with a crime.
He took a $50,000 check from Scott Rothstein and only gave it back after publicity about him.
He can talk about Bernie Friedman, but his entire campaign is financied by special interests like the insurance industry (see above) and the gambling casinos.
He makes a living by representing developers, which he did while in charge of legislation involving the development industry in Tallahassee.
He wants to get on the county commission to open the door wider for development, including all along I-75, Hallandale Boulevard and the beach.
Geller is the wrong choice.
June 12th, 2010 at 6:13 am
Why does everyone believe Ron is the one personally posting the pro-Sue responses? Ron seems pretty good at delegating tasks so he won’t have to be the one responding. Ron said the whole reason he organized an online “blog brigade” from some of his Politics1 website readers was so we’d be the ones who frequently check the blogs and promote Sue and answer Geller’s lies people post on websites. Some campaign volunteers walk door to door, some make phone calls or stuff envelopes, and some like us in the “blog brigade” can do our part for Sue online. Sue has a huge pool of online supporters around the country from Ron’s Politics1 site (I am a Politics1 reader/blogger since 2003). All Ron does is ask his Politics1 readers and Facebook network of political people to do something for him as a personal favor and he gets lots of online volunteers. Is that so hard to understand? That’s why it cracks me up when any of us post anything and the first response is always some attack at Ron like he can somehow be everywhere doing everything at the same time.
June 12th, 2010 at 9:52 am
Once again, Steve Geller is posting under phony names. (He must’ve learned that trick from Sue and Ron Gunzburger and Bernie Friedman. Don’t throw stones when you live in glass houses)
Typical of him, he attacks the writers of articles about him (Bob Norman of the New Times) instead of dealing with the facts. (Geller hasn’t attacked any reporter. He has not attacked any reporters from Sun-Sentinel, Miami Herald, St. Pete Times or from any main stream media source. As far as Bob Norman goes, he is the most biased “reporter” ever and has even admitted it in his blogs and in person. Norman regurgitates crap that Ron feeds him so Ron can site to it and doesn’t even report on facts. He makes innuendos and in most countries would have have been sued for slander and libel many times over.)
He took money from the owners of Mutual Benefits Insurance after voting to ease regulation for this company, which later proved to be a ponzi scam. (He did not vote to ease regulations, he voted to determine which government agency i.e. Office of Insurance Regulation or Dept. of Business Professional Regulation would oversee them. The vote passed overwhelmingly in both chambers of the Legislature and to pin it solely on Geller is a bold face lie!)
He has continued his relationship with the now former owners of this company, even though they are charged with a crime. (This is just false information and only reported by Bob Norman once Ron Gunzburger told him to lie about it.)
He took a $50,000 check from Scott Rothstein and only gave it back after publicity about him. (He took money from Rothstein, just like SUE GUNZBURGER TOOK MONEY FROM ROTHSTEIN. The only difference is Geller made sure the victims got the money versus SUE WHO MADE SURE ROTHSTEIN’S FORMER PARTNERS GOT THE MONEY)
He can talk about Bernie Friedman, but his entire campaign is financied by special interests like the insurance industry (see above) and the gambling casinos. (The difference is Sue Gunzburger is being a hypocrite, where Geller admits it.)
He makes a living by representing developers, which he did while in charge of legislation involving the development industry in Tallahassee. (That is why the FL League of Cities and FL League of Counties have awarded him numerous times for his commitment to their issues. He also received awards from Environmentalist Groups. Haven’t seen to many awards for development or chamber of commerce groups.)
He wants to get on the county commission to open the door wider for development, including all along I-75 (another lie. Geller has NEVER said that), Hallandale Boulevard and the beach. (This is a Joy Cooper thing, not Steve Geller)
Geller is the wrong choice. (I’d write about all the wrong things Gunzburger has done or all the things that needed to be been done ans weren’t under Gunzburger’s watch, but the election would be over before I could finish.
June 12th, 2010 at 5:45 pm
The only difference is Geller made sure the victims got the money versus SUE WHO MADE SURE ROTHSTEIN’S FORMER PARTNERS GOT THE MONEY)
Let’s look at the record, and see if the Geller campaign is telling the truth.
According to the campaign finance reports on file with the Broward Supervisor of Elections:
1. Sue Gunzburger’s campaign refunded the RRA-related contributions to retired Judge Herbert Stettin, the court-appointed receiver for the firm.
2. By contrast, Steve Geller’s campaign refunded the RRA-related contributions to … surprise! … retired Judge Herbert Stettin, the court-appointed receiver for the firm.
Yet again, Geller’s campaign is caught lying. It’s getting to be a pattern.
June 13th, 2010 at 7:55 am
Hey Gunzburger campaign, when you refunded the money, was there a court appointed receiver at the time? The answer is no. You reported in the campaign report that it went to the receiver, but there was no receiver appointed when you made the big announcements in all the media outlets that you have done so.
Geller, rightfully, waited until one was officially appointed.
The problem with campaign finance reports, is it is based on an honor system and it is up to the candidates to self report.
Since Little I wouldn’t have a job with Mommy Gunzburger likes links, heres a few that are not the biased Bob Norman
http://www.bestmiaminews.com/gunzburger-has-more-cash-on-hand-than-geller/ (Gunzburger returns money to ROTHSTEIN, HIS WIFE, AND PARTNERS in NOVEMBER…Geller returns it to the court)
http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2009-11-04/news/0911030423_1_contributions-law-firm-entities (Article from the Sun-Sentinel quoting Geller that he will return the money, once a receiver is appointed unlike Gunzburger who GAVE THE money to ROTHSTEIN, HIS WIFE, AND PARTNERS).
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2010/01/gunzburger-has-more-cash-on-hand-than-geller.html (Once again, Geller returned it to the court, Gunzburger returned it to the law firm)
On November 3, 2009, retired Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Herbert Stettin was appointed the firm’s receiver, responsible for approving the firm’s day-to-day financial decisions. (He was not appointed to receive money for the victims. He was appointed to continue running the law firm. Any money sent back at this time went to the firm, not for the victims. It wasn’t until December did Judge Stetin become the receiver for the victims funds)
June 13th, 2010 at 9:57 am
Geller campaign is a bigger disaster than I believed possible if they must rely on morons like the above the put out their spin, and do it I’m such an incompetent way. Campaign finance reports are not “on your honor.” There are criminal penalties for false reporting. Gunzburger and Geller both made their refunds of the Rothstein related money to Judge Herb Stettin, the court appointed receiver. The only difference is Gunzburger immediately said she would return the money, then waited a week or two until there was a receiver to issue the payment to him. Sue didn’t gve any money back to Rothstein personally. Geller waited three months and was the only candidate of the maybe 50 who got Rothstein money who dragged it out so long holding onto it.
June 13th, 2010 at 10:00 am
Geller’s campaign is one of dirt and lies.
There are lies about Sue Gunzburger and lies about his real motives for running.
If elected, will Geller agree to take no legal or lobbying client who is building in Broward County directly or through a subsidary?
I believe we all no the answer to that because without being able to use his political influence, Geller would have no clients at all.
June 13th, 2010 at 12:30 pm
Geller alread took the pledge and said he wouldn’t represent clients in front of local government. He probably will take the pledge and promise NOT to get his children cushy government jobs that they are not qualified for and lie about missing work or do campaigning activities while on the taxpayer dime
June 13th, 2010 at 1:52 pm
Not good enough “Neopotism in Broward.”
The question was would Geller agree to take no legal or lobbying client anywhere in Florida who are building in Broward County directly or through a subsidary?
June 13th, 2010 at 5:47 pm
Geller has already answered that question and has taken a pledge.
Next time I see him, however, I’ll ask him if he’ll take the pledge not to get his children cushy government jobs and his spouse county government bids.
June 14th, 2010 at 5:54 am
Notice how Geller avoids the question.
He plans to get work in other parts of Florida from developers he votes on here.
Ron gunburger worked for Bill Markem and then Lori Parrish inherited him. He was hired by a Republican who was unfriendly to Sue Gunzburger. The county commission has no control over who the property appraiser hires.
June 15th, 2010 at 8:01 am
to “Murry T. at the Village”:
You are a LIAR. I AM A LONG TIME VILLAGE RESIDENT AND I WAS AT EVERY GELLER BREAKFAST AND YOU WERE NOT AT ONE OF THEM! DID SUE HERSELF PUT YOU UP TO THIS LIE!!??
June 15th, 2010 at 10:29 pm
The only lies in this race are Sue’s or should I say Ron’s. To those that have to make comments about weight & looks…… Shame on You! No wonder society is what it is today…. and Tommy the Fry Cook… I think you are the BOMB DIGGIDY!!!
and no, i am not Steve or Dave….
June 21st, 2010 at 7:58 pm
WOW! Gunzburger voted AGAINST Ethic Reform! Do we really need this stink at the County Commission any longer?
June 22nd, 2010 at 4:56 pm
Sue go home…go home, already. You’ve been there way too long. You had a good run…time to vote her and every one of the corrupt bastards out.