Political Tidbits From Plantation, Fort Lauderdale

BY BUDDY NEVINS 

Will Fort Lauderdale’s affordable housing in the future come with room service?

Will the city be providing iced lattes and 1000-thread Egyptian cotton sheets?  Will there be a luxury spa?

It is what one would expect now that developer Peter Henn has been appointed again to the Affordable Housing board.    

Henn is best known for his current fight to build a five-star Waldorf Astoria and condo complex at Bahia Mar on the beach.

So maybe he has a different idea of affordable housing then the rest of us.

On second thought, maybe he believes affordable housing should be towering skyscrapers build on city-owned land, like his Bahia Mar project.

 XXXX

 The Sun-Sentinel today says Plantation Councilman Jerry Fadgen opened an account July 8 to run for mayor of Plantation.  

A picture accompanies the story says Fadgen was distributing campaign material at the July 4th parade.

State law is pretty clear.  Candidates can’t spend money before they open a campaign account. 

Hmmmmm.

I’ll give Jerry the benefit of the doubt.  Maybe he didn’t pay for the stuff until now.

Then again, in combative Plantation I wouldn’t be surprised by an early complaint to the state elections commission.

Here is the Sun-Sentinel story.

By the way, I see former Plantation Councilman Rico Petrocelli is again spreading the news that his uncle was Rico Petrocelli, the former Boston Red Sox.  It was in the Plantation Forum in the July 7 issue.

Would some reporter for once ask Francis J. Petrocelli, which is the former council member’s real name, to prove this claim? 

Too many people over the years have printed Petrocelli’s story without following the number one rule of good reporting –be skepticle.

Or as the old saying about good journalism goes: “If your mother says she loves you, check it out.”



6 Responses to “Political Tidbits From Plantation, Fort Lauderdale”

  1. Politics says:

    Rico is a liar and a fool. You did a major service by exposing him last year. Keep it up.

  2. Kevin says:

    I would think that in South Florida, linking yourself to the Red Sox would piss off all the transplanted Yankees fans.

  3. plantationtruth says:

    Good Lord Buddy
    Any chance to slander the man
    Wait…arent you a journalist and reported this….SO why didnt YOU research it???

  4. mustbecrazy says:

    Why not just call Rico (Frances) and ask him. I have his number if you would like it. I am sure he would be happy to fill you in on his family tree.

  5. concerned residentI says:

    I am a longtime resident of Plantation> I wanted to share a big concern I have as a tax payer> I hope with elections coming up that someone will look into this and do something finally!! The new Fire Chief spends more time mowing his grass and playing golf during business hours then he does working.H can be found during the week usually right after lunch playing golf and making comments about how he is getting paid for playing golf. or you can find him mowing his lawn during working hours. Who is monitoring him? how can he be paid for not working. You can check he’s not taking leave time for all of this he is doing all this on the tax payers dollar. This happens several times a week. He has spent thousands of dollars redoing things to his liking since he took over and no one is monitoring his spending or his whereabouts. Wake up this is our money being thrown away by him, can someone please pay attention to what he is doing?

  6. Also concerned about the Fire Department says:

    After reading concerned taxpayers remark about the Fire Chief I will say that I am concerned also about the state of the Fire Department because of the actions of the new Chief. It is all true what concerned stated about the Chief not working he usually comes to work after 9 each morning and the days he’s not Golfing he leaves by 3:00. He takes 2 hour lunches and can usually be found napping at that time. He has bought a negativity to the Department as a result of him being such a negative person. He speaks negatively about his employees, his bosses and just about everything else. The elected Officials need to take a good look at him as the Chief and make a change before he damages the Department any more. Please look into what he is doing!!!