Plantation Mayor Diane Veltri Bendekovic, a Democrat, was already having a bad night to begin with at Wednesday night’s council Meeting, as the Mayor was on the losing end of 4 issues which the Council voted against her wishes.  In most cases, since the Mayor has been in office these wishes are more like “demands” to the council  In fact, since being elected, the Mayor has only pushed thru one issue, a ”tax” increase”, but she needed all the help she could garner.

Wednesday night was no different.  To start off with, the Mayor wanted a developer to pay $450,000 dollars for a pumping station and a generator for new construction.  On its own it doesn’t sound unreasonable, but the Mayor’s Office told the developer after all the agreements were in place.  The applicant, represented by Bill Laystrom objected to the cost, and threw themselves on the Council’s mercy to help out. The Mayor stood her ground, along with City Attorney Don Lunny.  The applicant advised they would agree to pay for the pumping station, but not the $100,000 generator, which is not even required in Plantation’s current Code.  A very similar situation to the “fire truck” episode a few months back.  Council voted 3-2 to accept this.  Councilman Tingom and Councilman Jacobs voted against the item.  Council 1….Mayor 0

The next item was the Mayors “Storm Water Fee”, or tax, as most people who spoke on this issue called it.  The City Engineer explained how badly the funds were needed, and so did the Mayor.  In fact, the Mayor told a city resident I’d like to help you, but ”we don’t have the money”   The council went back and forth, residents, including this writer spoke on bad economic times, and the effect on local businesses.  The Mayor was adamant about the need. Councilman Jacobs, who ran his campaign of not raising taxes for two (2) years, actually made the motion to raise this fee, or tax. This is the second time his pledge of not raising taxes on the people has been violated.  Councilman Jacobs voted for our tax increase at the prior council meeting.  Of course, Councilman Tingom seconded the motion. The vote of the council was 3-2 against a NEW Storm Water fee. The Mayor was visibly upset.  Council 2…Mayor 0

The third issue came to the Mayor in the form of a resident who works with our beautiful Equestrian Center.  This unnamed resident had visited earlier with the Mayor to discuss why the Non-Profit she works with at the Horse arena was being charged a “new fee”.  To cut to the chase, after the council discussed the issue, they agreed to Not Charge the extra New Fee, not only upsetting the Mayor, but Parks & Recreation Director Jim Romano. Council 3..Mayor 0

We’re getting close to the Mayor Bendekovic ”implosion”, but I felt I needed to give you the background on what a bad “Political Night” the Mayor was having prior to ‘Losing it” (verbally abusing)  with a sitting Council Member.  The 4th and final straw was when Loretta Kenna, the Plantation Acres H.O.A. President came before council, and at approximately 11:45p, after the Mayor was already 0 for 3, Loretta was explaining that her association was upset that all H.O.A’s would now have to pay $200 per year (or $20.00 per meeting) to use Volunteer Park, or (Any City facility) for their monthly meeting. They have been meeting at Volunteer Park forever.  This H.O.A. has donated well over $15,000 to the city for trees and Park upgrades. The council listened, and even this writer spoke as to let the non-profits who contribute to the city in excess of the $200 fee, be able to use these facilities for Free. This exemption is the right thing to do.  I stated that the Woman’s Club, has donated $100,000′s of thousands of dollars over the years, and to charge them would be an insult. The Mayor said to Loretta, in a condescending way, ” Then Spend Less on Trees” ( The Trees were Donated to the City!!!) This was not only an insult to the H.O.A., but to Loretta, a resident who has served this community on Plantation’s Volunteer Boards!  The council agreed and the Mayor sunk a little lower in her seat  Council 4..Mayor 0

Now the final, final straw. Can you sense the tension, and how this “Strong” Mayor is feeling now?   I know this is a “Strong Mayor” form of government, but at this point the Mayor appeared “tired, weak, and beaten”. Under Council Members comments, Councilwoman Stoner was questioning  why the city was still hiring employees, and asked, should there be a “Hiring Freeze”? These are legitimate questions that any councilmember can bring up, but the Mayor had had enough and unloaded on the freshman Councilwoman, shouting: (See Video at the City’s web site www.plantation.org (click on Council and then Council Agenda) at Time Point 4:09 to almost 4:11)!!!!! 

Those of you “Plantation Journal Political Junkies” know that the former Mayor and I are not on each others Christmas card list.  I understand her positions.  The one thing that separates Mayor Armstrong from Mayor Diane Veltri Bendekovic is that she never let on, in public, anything that would diminish her position as  “Strong Mayor”. 

The video shows the built up anger and frustration much better than I can write it. The fury from repeated losses against this council, in less than a year in office is beginning to show.  I know the Mayor said “this is a Strong Mayor form of government”, but to many who saw and heard what she said, they believed she wanted to say ” I am the Mayor”, Well at least she held that back.. Relax Mayor Bendekovic, you still have 3+ years left….

Remember the song?… Oh what a Night… Late October in 2011…

Not an endorsement by the Broward Republican Party.  Repost of staff e-mail dated July 12, 2011 to draw awareness on the subject matter.

RUBIO CALLS OUT PRESIDENT’S SOCIAL SECURITY SCARE TACTICS

“If they don’t get their Social Security checks, it’s because the President’s decided to do that, because we still have revenue coming in. … I think people are going to be shocked to learn the real truth about what the government’s done with their Social Security money.”

Sen. Marco Rubio Interview – “The Hugh Hewitt Show”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFaZigczRWM

Sen. Rubio: People Are Going to Be Shocked to Learn the Real Truth About What the Government’s Done With Their Social Security Money

Hugh Hewitt: “Senator Rubio, you represent a lot of senior citizens in Florida. The country knows that. I think it’s despicable to scare them this way. What’s your reaction to the President’s threat to hold their Social Security checks hostage?”

Sen. Rubio: “Well, if they don’t get their Social Security checks, it’s because the President’s decided to do that, because we still have revenue coming in. Here’s the other thing I would say. If in fact the President holds up their checks for Social Security, and Medicare, and whatever else he wants to hold up to make his point, isn’t he admitting that all these programs are funded by deficit spending? Isn’t he admitting that all these programs are dependent upon borrowed money?

“And I think the folks who are on Social Security, people like my mom, would be shocked to learn the truth that the money that they’re receiving in Social Security isn’t the money they worked hard for all these years to put away, the government was going to give back to them in their retirement. The government spent all that money already. They spent it long ago on other things. This is borrowed money. This is money that we’re borrowing from our children and our grandchildren. And I think people are going to, if that happens, I think people are going to be shocked to learn the real truth about what the government’s done with their Social Security money.”

Sen. Rubio: This Issue of the Debt Limit Didn’t Sneak Up On Us

Hugh Hewitt: “Do you think the negotiations that he had lured Republicans into over the last couple of weeks have been in bad faith?”

Sen. Rubio: “Well, I wasn’t in those negotiations, so I’d hate to characterize something I wasn’t a part of. Let me say that he was late to the game.

“First of all, the President, this is not a new issue, okay? This issue of the debt limit didn’t sneak up on us. This has been around for a while. We knew this was coming. And then the President’s done nothing on it. He gave a state of the union speech this year, never mentioned any plans about how to address this. He offered a budget before Congress, and the budget was so bad, I mean, it actually increased the debt. His budget was so bad, so unrealistic, that when we put it to a vote here in the Senate, not even a single Democrat voted for it. That’s how bad it was. It didn’t get a single vote.

“So he’s had multiple opportunities to deal with this, and he’s kind of punted and moved the ball along, and focused on other things. And now, with three weeks to go, two weeks to go, all of a sudden, he wants to ride in and act like he’s leading. Well, he’s not leading. In fact, what he’s doing is he’s trying to position this as a political issue, so he can claim victory for his 2012 election. But the reality of it is that people know better, they’re going to realize it, we’re going to continue to talk about it.”

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Not an endorsement by the Broward Republican Party.  Repost of staff e-mail dated July 13, 2011 to draw awareness on the subject matter.

Not an endorsement by the Broward Republican Party.  Repost of staff e-mail dated July 12, 2011 to draw awareness on the subject matter.

ICYMI: Senator Rubio On “The Rush Limbaugh Show”

“And how do we measure him? Well, unemployment. Unemployment is higher than—significantly higher than when he took over. You know, what about the value of people’s homes? The values of peoples’ homes are down. How about the national debt? The national debt is up significantly higher, with no solution in sight, and none offered by him.”

Sen. Marco Rubio Interview – “The Rush Limbaugh Show” – July 12, 2011

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGFg2YsX5vo

Sen. Rubio: We Need A Reasonable And Realistic Tax Package That Seriously Lowers Our Debt

Sen. Rubio: “The debt limit is a symptom, it’s not our problem. The core problem is our debt and the fact that our government borrows 40 cents out of every dollar and has no idea how it is going to pay it back. And that’s a combination of spending, we just spend way too much as a government, and loss of revenues, again not loss of revenues because our taxes aren’t high enough, loss of revenues because we have too many people who are out of work that are not paying taxes.

“So the solution seems to me to be a combination of fiscal discipline on the spending side, which you have to enforce through spending caps, a balanced budget amendment and cuts starting right now. And, at the same time, some sort of pro-growth measures that get people back to work, that creates not new taxes, but new tax payers. People that are working, paying their taxes and adding new revenue to government so that government can use that revenue not to grow government but to pay down the debt and put us on a sustainable path. That just seems to me to be the common sense approach to this. Instead we’ve got this President’s obsession with raising taxes. And, what bothers me the most about it is not just that it will kill jobs and is bad for our economy, what bothers me the most is there isn’t a single tax package out there that’s reasonable and realistic that would even put a dent on this debt crisis.

“People have no idea what you would have to raise the taxes to, just to begin to make a difference. And of course you never can raise it to that level because you won’t be able to collect them; people aren’t dumb enough to work for free. If you are going to tax all their money, they aren’t going to keep working. These are the things I just don’t get, and I wish we had done a better job earlier about outlining these choices to the American people.”

Sen. Rubio: By Every Measure, The President Has Made Things Significantly Worse

Rush Limbaugh: “Now a lot of Americans agree with every word that you’ve said and they’ve thought this for a long time. And a lot of Americans just have a tough time getting their arms around the fact that they’ve elected a man who’s leading the nation in this direction even after two and a half years of demonstrable failure. We couldn’t be more clear about how wrong and destructive these policies are. He wants to continue them and increase them and a lot of Americans can’t understand why – what, who is this man?”

Sen. Rubio: “Well here’s the problem. He has to be measured by an objective standard that every president has to be measured by. When I look at this election next year what he’s really going to be coming to the American people and asking for is an extension of his contract. He wants a four year extension to his contract to be President of the United States. But we have to measure him.

“And how do we measure him? Well, unemployment. Unemployment is higher than—significantly higher than when he took over. You know, what about the value of people’s homes? The values of peoples’ homes are down. How about the national debt? The national debt is up significantly higher, with no solution in sight, and none offered by him.

“By every measure that you can measure a president by, things have gotten worse and significantly worse. And that’s what he has to be measured by. And part of it, I think, is a flawed ideology, because I think his view of government and the people in his administrations is a flawed view that takes us away from the things that have made America exceptional.

“And part of it I think is quite frankly incompetence. I honestly believe – and I don’t say this with any disrespect, I really don’t know him, I have nothing personal against him, but I honestly think there’s a lack of confidence in terms of being able to do the job and the inability to lead on some of these critical issues. And the result is being paid by millions of Americans who can’t find a job, or are working twice as hard to make half as much, who see their country being bankrupted and no serious solutions being offered.”

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Not an endorsement by the Broward Republican Party.  Repost of staff e-mail dated July 12, 2011 to draw awareness on the subject matter.

Adam Hasner

Copyright (C) 2011 Adam Hasner for US Senate All rights reserved.
Paid for by Adam Hasner for US Senate.  Contributions are not deductible as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes.

Not an endorsement of the candidate by the Broward Republican Party.  Repost of campaign e-mail dated July 10, 2011.

Paid for by George LeMieux for U.S. Senate. 

Not an endorsement of the candidate by the Broward Republican Party.  Repost of campaign e-mail dated July 8, 2011.

ON EVE OF FINAL SHUTTLE LAUNCH, SENATOR RUBIO DISCUSSES NASA’S FUTURE ON SENATE FLOOR

Rubio: “For NASA, just like our nation, it is at its best when it is looking forward, not looking back.”

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Marco Rubio spoke on the Senate floor today regarding the future of America’s space program, as the shuttle program prepares for its final mission.  The video is available here.  For television stations, a broadcast quality video is available here.  The full transcript is below:

SENATOR RUBIO: I am here today on the eve of NASA’s final space shuttle launch, first to recognize that 30 years ago the United States launched the first space shuttle mission from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It marked a new era of American leadership and it showed once again that Americans would continue to be committed to being first in space and on the cutting edge of scientific progress to improve our lives.

It also showed what free people who are committed to discovery, to innovation, to improving the lives of their fellow man can accomplish. President Ronald Reagan said it best when he kicked off the space station program in 1984. He said this, he said, “We are first, we are the best, and we are so because, we’re free.” 

Over these 30 years, we have been witness to many heroic triumphs in space that have served as a testament to America’s unparalleled ingenuity and imagination. 

Over time, the shuttle program would make household names out of some. Sally Ride became the first American woman to travel into space. One shuttle alum even serves with us in the Senate today. It’s our colleague, my fellow Senator from Florida, Bill Nelson. 

Of course, space exploration has always entailed risk taking. It has always required putting one’s life on the line. Because of this, the space shuttle program’s history also gave us moments of great pain as we lost Christa McAuliffe and the Challenger crew in 1986 and then the Columbia crew in 2003. Each time these tragedies forced us to ask ourselves is space exploration worth it? And thank God each time America answered with an emphatic “yes.” 

And so today on the eve of the final space shuttle launch, we celebrate the shuttle program’s remarkable feats, which exhibited many of the qualities that make America exceptional – courage, ingenuity, risk taking and an ability to accomplish what once seemed unthinkable. 

Space exploration speaks volumes about America, who we are as a people and as a nation. When America was born 235 years ago, surely our founding fathers could not fathom that one day our people would fly amongst the stars. But the truth is it has always been our destiny. In the 19th century, it became our manifest destiny to explore and push westward until the American land stretched from sea to shining sea. And once we reached as far west as we could, Americans had no choice but to gaze up to the sky and settle on the stars as our next frontier.

Almost 42 years ago to this very day, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Mike Collins made that giant leap for mankind and left their indelible footprints on the moon’s surface and on human history. For on that night in July of 1969, the whole world witnessed the American miracle firsthand.

Even today, those moments serve as a pointed reminder about the limitless capacity that Americans possess in space and in every aspect of our lives. Even as we face a host of domestic and international challenges, America possesses a remarkable capacity to meet them by setting ambitious goals, as President Kennedy did in his ‘Moon Speech’, persevering in the face of setbacks and rising to the occasion to do what history demands of us.

Our space program inspired young generations of Americans to pursue careers in the aerospace industry and other related fields. Satellite technologies developed and improved by NASA now connect the world in unprecedented ways and support our military reconnaissance missions and facilitate travel through G.P.S. devices. For others, it got them hooked on math and science and let them to other fields whose innovations make our lives better every single day. And then there were the lucky few who would actually go on to fly on our space shuttles. 

For the rest of us who didn’t pursue careers in science, math and engineering, our journeys into space have meant a lot in different ways. For many of us, Kennedy Space Center elicits memories of where imaginations are awakened and where dreams are born and many children think fondly of their visits for field trips or space camps. And in my case, the time my parents took me there for my eighth birthday, just before we moved our family to Las Vegas. 

But these types of feelings didn’t just happen in America. You see, the impact of our space program is a global phenomenon. One needs to look no further than the various foreign currencies in the donation box down at Washington’s National Air & Space Museum to understand what our space program means not only to Florida and our country but for all of humanity. 

This brings me to the other reason for speaking today. You see, when this final shuttle mission draws to a close, many Americans will be startled by the realization that we don’t have an answer to the question: What’s next for NASA?

NASA has no answer, the administration has no answer, and as we transition to the next generation of space exploration, Florida’s aerospace workers are left with only questions about their future.

We know that for the next few years, we’ll have to rely on the Russians to get us to space. Just a few weeks ago, that only cost $50 million an astronaut. Now the price tag is up to to $63 million per astronaut. We can only imagine it will go higher. 

You see, whereas America once led the way to the moon, we now face the unacceptable prospect of limited options to simply get a human into orbit. We know that our commercial space partners are working to fill some of the gap in our human space flight capabilities, and that is a promising development that we should encourage. But we need NASA to lead.

And I say this, I fully recognize that our nation faces a debt crisis because, quite frankly, politicians in both parties have spent recklessly for many decades, and it will require Washington to finally live within its means and for leaders to make tough choices about what our nation’s priorities are.

NASA is no exception. It will not be about spending more. It will be about spending wisely.

And so tomorrow, Americans will proudly watch as Atlantis takes off for its last flight. It will be a pointed opportunity to recall the entire 30-year history of the shuttle program and all that has been achieved in 50 years of NASA’s existence and will be another opportunity to thank the thousands of men and women in Florida who have made this program possible and who take such pride in the shuttle and what it has accomplished.

For NASA, just like our nation, it is at its best when it is looking forward, not looking back.

The Allen West for Congress campaign has announced the appointment of a Volunteer Director and four Volunteer Coordinators for Congressional District 22 encompassing Palm Beach and Broward counties.

Following the launch of the petition drive and new campaign website, the team of volunteer coordinators will play a key role in building on the momentum and enthusiasm from Lt. Col. (Ret.) Allen West’s successful 2010 election. 

The volunteer coordinators will be essential to the grassroots campaign Congressman West will run in his bid for reelection to the United States House of Representatives in November 2012.

“The outpouring of volunteer support during our 2010 campaign was overwhelming and humbling,” stated Congressman West. “Our support from individuals continues to grow as we fulfill the promises we made in the 2010 campaign. I made a commitment to the voters in the 22nd Congressional District to represent their concerns on Capitol Hill, and restore the greatness of our Constitutional Republic. With a superb team of volunteers driving us to victory in 2012, we will be able to continue our progress towards fiscal and physical security for our nation.”

Sue Snowden of Boca Raton, Florida has been appointed Volunteer Director, and will be overseeing the Volunteer Coordinators across Congressional District 22.

The Volunteer Coordinators are as follows:

North Palm Beach County
Marilyn Parmet of Palm Beach Gardens
marilyn@allenwestforcongress.com

North Broward County
Laurette Homan of Coral Springs
laurette@allenwestforcongress.com

South Palm Beach County
Tarina Rasmussen of Boca Raton
tarina@allenwestforcongress.com

South Broward County
John Pisula of Davie
john@allenwestforcongress.com

Individuals who are interested in becoming a member of Team West should contact the Volunteer Coordinator in their county or contact Volunteer Director Sue Snowden at sue@allenwestforcongress.com or 1-877-906-2010.

In a determination not as widely reported as the original complaint itself, the Republican Party of Florida has dismissed a grievance against Richard DeNapoli, chairman of the Broward Republican Party. 

The grievance was filed by Javier Manjarres, an alternate member of the Broward Republican Executive Committee (“BREC”), and operator of the Shark Tank blog.  Despite his party position, Manjarres has been a critic of DeNapoli and other Republican leaders.

Manjarres had complained to the state party about rules implemented by the Broward Republican Party Executive Board that – according to Manjarres – prevented him alone from video recording the monthly meetings of the Broward Republican Executive Committee.

Following the January meeting of Chairman DeNapoli and the Broward Republican Executive Committee, Manjarres filed his complaint to the RPOF.

The Republican Party of Florida became involved as Chairman DeNapoli is a committeeman, and Chairman of the Broward Republican Party and Manjarres is an alternate committeeman. The state party can expel or reprimand members for not abiding by rules and/or their loyalty oaths.

Manjarres also filed grievances against two other BREC members, Chad Lincoln and Karin Hoffman, as well as Ellyn Snyder, a Palm Beach County Republican Party committeewoman.  Mr. Lincoln filed a grievance against Mr. Manjarres for his activities.

A grievance committee considered the complaints, said Trey Stapleton, spokesman for the state Republican Party. 

Along with dismissing Manjarres’ grievance against Richard DeNapoli, the grievance committee also dismissed Manjarres’ grievances against Karin Hoffman and Ellen Snyder.  Manjarres’ complaint against Chad Lincoln was to be dismissed after Mr. Lincoln apologized for his characterization of Manjarres’ [criminal] background, Stapleton said.

The Grievance Committee also recommended that Manjarres not blog about Broward Republican Executive Committee activities if he wished to remain an alternate committeeman.

According to R.B. Davis, Chairman of the RPOF Grievance Committee:

“With respect to the Committee’s recommendation to dismiss the grievances against Mr. Majarres (sic) with the proviso that he no longer blog about the BREC I point out the following: a) the recommendation is based upon an implicit finding that Mr. Majarres (sic) Shark Tank blog site was extremely negative personal attacks and contained information relating to information he largely obtained by his position as an Alternate Precinct Committeeman of BREC: and b) The Committee suggested he choose between being an Alternative and blogging on the decisions and personalities of the members of the BREC; c) To do so otherwise would create the appearance of his blog having the appearance of the blog being perceived as being some official blog of BREC; d) The extreme negativity and personal attacks against members of the BREC were primarily personal in nature and non-issue oriented commentary from the blog was found to be divisive of the Republican party within Broward County.”

“The unanimous decision of the RPOF Grievance Committee speaks for itself,” stated Richard DeNapoli.  “I consider this a win for all grassroots activists whose only agenda is to get Republicans elected.”

Courtesy of Anthony Man at the Sun Sentinel, a copy of the RPOF grievance determination can be viewed at: http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/broward/blog/rpof%20grievance%20letter.pdf.

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The Broward Republican Executive Committee (BREC) is the governing body of the Republican Party of Broward County.  Because counties are divided into precincts for purposes of elections and voting, the BREC membership is made up of one man and woman from each precinct, otherwise known as Precinct Committeeman and Precinct Committeewoman.

The idea of a Precinct Committee member is that a person living within a precinct knows his/her neighbors, the issues that affect that community and is familiar with the area.  In essence, the precinct committee member becomes the liaison between the county party and the voters in that precinct.

The goal of a committee member is to be able to effectively mobilize Republican voters in that precinct, get out the vote, disseminate the Republican message, implement strategy there, make sure neighbors and friends are registered, and in turn, be a community voice in the Broward Republican Executive Committee.

PRESIDENCY 5 CAUCUS MEETING:

WHEN: TOMORROW, SATURDAY, JUNE 18th,

at NOON 

WHERE: Broward Republican Party Headquarters

150 S. Andrews Ave., Pompano Beach, FL 33069