Lori Parrish Routs County Commission In Court
BY BUDDY NEVINS
Another colossal waste of money by the Broward County Commission has finally come to an end.
Property Appraiser Lori Parrish won her budget battle with the Broward County Commission in the Florida Supreme Court today.
Lori Parrish
In 2013, Parrish asked for more money for the property appraiser’s office than the Broward County Commission was willing to give her.
Commissioners sued…which tends to be a standard tactic from office holders who are not spending their own money.
Commissioners lost in the administrative court. Commissioners lost in the Circuit Court.
They lost in the Fourth District Court of Appeal. They lost a plea for a rehearing in the Court of Appeal.
Today, the Supreme Court told the Broward County Commission to get lost.
The Supremes turned down the county’s attempt to string the case out longer and added the following language for finality: “No motion for rehearing will be entertained by the Court.”
Meanwhile, this dispute won’t happen again. A law sponsored by State Sen. Jeremy Ring, D-Parkland, and state Rep. George Moraitis, R-Fort Lauderdale, now states that counties “shall” fund property appraiser budgets as soon as they’re approved, whether the county disagrees and files a state appeal or not.
“No other property appraiser will ever face this,” Parrish said. “It’s over. I’m a happy camper.”
The lesson in all this: What a massive waste of money by the County Commission! But that’s not really anything new.
XXXXX
The Florida Supreme Court order can be seen here.
December 1st, 2015 at 2:34 pm
County should learn not to take a knife to a gun fight.
December 1st, 2015 at 4:46 pm
Please insert “string”
to sting the case out longer
FROM BUDDY:
Thanks for catching that typo.
December 1st, 2015 at 5:49 pm
Constitutional officers should be given their own millage rate to perform their duties. They are elected by the people as executives of their office and therefore should account to the people, not the County Commission, for the dollars they request and use. The job of the County should simply be to collect those funds in the tax bill and turn them over to the Constitutional Officer. That is the law that needs to be passed in Florida so that we end this red-headed step-child routine with Constitutional Officers and County Commissions where the county is OK funding “their” functions but not those of “other” officials. What is the point of electing an official who cannot be fiscally accountable directly to those who elect them?
December 1st, 2015 at 6:00 pm
Do you really need more proof the Broward County Commissions are miserable arrogant lobbyist controlled egotists only felons n lobbyists would associate with? The voters of Broward should be ashamed of themselves for electing such xxxxxx.
December 1st, 2015 at 9:29 pm
Lori Parrish is the best!!!!
December 1st, 2015 at 9:38 pm
Lori’s office is one on the most efficient Constitutional Office’s in Florida. Take a look at her budget and compare it with other county Property Appraiser’s offices. It’s excellent. Her office is extremely polite, professional and efficient. I rarely compliment government agencies, this is probably a first for me on BrowardBeat.
December 2nd, 2015 at 9:26 am
Big mistake to take on Lori Parrish in any situation, really stupid mistake to take her on when she is right.
FROM BUDDY:
Jack Latona is a former Fort Lauderdale City Commissioner.
December 2nd, 2015 at 10:49 am
Well done, Lori! And how much was wasted by the County Commission on the fight? Too bad it can’t be deducted from their paychecks.
You should frame Andrew’s comments/compliments. They’re rare, hard-earned and well-deserved.
December 2nd, 2015 at 12:01 pm
Don’t forget the attorneys fees Lori’s office paid by being forced to fight this to the Supreme Court. Lori had Bill Sherer and I believe another firm representing her. No big deal, nothing comes out of the pocket of the County Commissioners themselves so what do they care
FROM BUDDY:
The other lawyer representing Lori Parrish was Bruce Rogow, a legal heavy hitter and a founding professor at Nova Southeastern Law School. I never looked at his bills, but my guess is that he doesn’t come cheap.
December 2nd, 2015 at 6:41 pm
Since lawyers are nearly always bashed, let me say if you look at the placque near the elevators in the County Library you will see Mr. Bruce Rogow and his wife donated significant funds so all of Broward County could have a better library. I should also add I, too once was looking to hire Mr.Rogow, a NATIONALLY REKNOWN CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY, and even over 20 years ago he wasn’t cheap BUT HE WAS ONE OF THE BEST LEGAL MINDS IN THE US. One of the few ELEVATED MINDS we have here in boring Broward!
December 3rd, 2015 at 3:24 pm
I don’t understand, maybe someone can explain. The County Commission approves her budget. She says she wants more. The State says “OK” and the County just has to do it? That’s not right. The Sheriff gets knocked down on what he wants and he’s stuck with it. Why does the property appraiser (who is not exactly protecting people like the sheriff) get anything she wants?
December 3rd, 2015 at 5:08 pm
wait? what SEEMS TO BE UNAWARE THAT THE PROPERTY APPRAISER IS RUNNING A BUSINESS=LIKE OPERATION WHILE THE SHERIFF’S OFFICE IS A PATRONAGE FILLED OVER BUREAUCRATIC JOKE! Look at the employees of the Tax Appraiser’s office, ALL TIED TO ACTUAL WORK, look at the list of political hacks (I think Angelo Castillo who is a Pembroke Commissioner draws a salary from the Sheriff) whose jobs are, shall we say “community relations” — i.e. minions in charge of getting him re-elected! To equate a PROFESSIONAL Tax Appraiser with a POLITICAL HACK is a bit “brain dead”!
And, who in the Sheriff’s Staff wrote this, AS USUAL, fake name blog posting?
December 3rd, 2015 at 8:33 pm
11. There is still a state administrative appellate process in the event of a dispute. This process can take a very long time. The issue is which budget figures would go into effect in the meantime; the answer was and is the constitutional officer’s figures, not the county’s. This clarification will help incentivize the county and appraiser to work out their differences and avoid the appellate process in the future, since the county will potentially have to fund the higher numbers anyway if they don’t settle. Fighting only costs taxpayers more in the long run, since they fund both sides.
December 4th, 2015 at 11:53 am
Mr. Shakhnovsky, Mr. Ladanowski, and Commissioner Castillo all suffer from the same misconception about our elected officials. These three Musketeers keep giving us advise AS IF THE ELECTED PUBLIC OFFICIALS CARE A FIG ABOUT PUBLIC MONEY, RESPONSIBLE FISCAL MANAGEMENT, or BEING “REASONABLE” and “SETTLING ISSUES BY COMPROMISE”.
NONESENSE!!!!!!!!!!
I cannot under as all three have been active in the public area and have met I believe our county and city officials they are so deluded into thinking A SINGLE ELECTED OFFICIAL IN SOUTH FLORIDA WOULD EVER COMPROMISE THEIR BIGOTED, ONE-SIDED, INTELLECTUALLY and CULTURED LIMITED POSITION on what brand of toilet paper to use in the johns in a City or the County Hall!!!!
Am I the only one who understands LAWYERS RAISE THE MONEY FOR ELECTIONS! LAWYERS MAKE MONEY ON THESE DISPUTES! COMMISSIONERS AND MAYORS MORE LIKELY THAN NOT ARE LAWYERS!
Every time there is a dispute and a city or the county goes to Court the City or County Commissioners get the chance to hire people who raised money for their elections to make money!
FOLLOW THE MONEY!!!!!!
Look at who is hired for the law suits, look at who is “cf counsel”, look at who is hired as a lobbyist on disputed issues to go to Tallahassee or Washington!
I mean to write dribble about “settling disputes out of court” GOES AGAINST THE FINANCIAL INTERESTS OF THE ELECTED OFFICIALS!
Now I know how idiots get elected to office, the public is CLUELESS about how politics is funded including members of the public appointed to so-called “oversight” and “advisory boards”.
December 5th, 2015 at 7:50 pm
The Property Appraiser’s budget is not approved by the County Commission. Our budget is approved by the Florida Dept of Revenue. The County then funds approximately 85% of our DOR approved budget. If they disagree they can appeal the amount to the Administrative Commission(the Cabinet). However, they must fund the DOR approved number while the appeal is taking place. Thanks to all for your kind words.