My take on last night’s Forum with the Council of Civic Associations
Posted Under: Important Issues for Fort Lauderdale
My take on last night’s Forum with the Council of Civic Associations
I participated in last night’s Candidate Forum sponsored by the Council of Civic Associations at City Hall.
It reinforces my belief about the way these forums are set up: They don’t work! Changes need to be made to these events if audience members want anything more than canned “sound bites” from candidates.
Last night, nine candidates attended (seven Commission candidates and two Mayoral candidates). Five previously prepared questions were asked from the Council and each candidate had to answer the same question in two minutes or less. After the fourth or fifth candidate responded to the same question, you could start see the audience’s eyes glaze over; they were hearing much the same thing over and over again. If you were the ninth candidate answering the same question, nobody was really listening to you.
The other problem with these forums is they do not allow debate. I would have loved to have challenged Jack on what I consider to be his lack of leadership and failures as Mayor, but the forums do not allow that. The only little spat Jack and I got into was when Jack said I was “arrogant” to write a Vision for Fort Lauderdale. I countered by letting people know that the 20-Chapter Vision I wrote was not arrogance, it was Leadership.
I was stunned to hear Commissioners Roberts and Rogers (and our Mayor of course…) sit there and say they felt our budget was the “right size” at $635 Million, twice the size of our budget just 8 years ago… Commissioner Rogers deliberately misstated the truth when he said that our budget is balanced (it has not been balanced for the last three years), and that we had a “healthy reserve” of $50 million (when it was 80 million just three years ago)!
The best line of the evening came from Commission candidate Jackie Scott. After hearing Mayor Seiler and Commissioner Rogers talk about our City’s budget (“nothing’s wrong with our budget”, “everything’s under control”, etc, etc.), she said simply (about their comments): “I’m not buying what they’re selling”.
So I am repeating what I said two weeks ago: I will meet Jack Seiler anytime, anyplace, if he will openly debate me on the critical issues pertaining to our City. Jack needs to publicly account for the poor decisions he has made over the last three years, including:
- Why he feels it’s fiscally responsible to siphon off more than 20 million dollars from our Reserves to cover budget gaps?
- Why hasn’t he implemented formal procedures to reduce the growing unfunded pension liability?
- Why has he deliberately misled the public about the budget? He has not reduced the budget; it’s grown more than $35 Million since he has taken office!
- Why he waited more than two years before starting the process to find a qualified City Manager?
- Why he waited until 3am just days before City Manager Gretsas departure before even asking the question: “What are we going to do about a new City Manager?”
- Why does he feel it’s acceptable to talk in generalities (aka: sound bites) without giving people an honest answer to a straight forward question?
- Why did he give current City Manager Lee Feldman a lifetime employment contract as City Manager? Why did he include an expensive “golden parachute” in the contract (when previously he said he would not)? He was either indifferent to his responsibilities as Mayor or he’s an incompetent employment contract negotiator.
- Why did he squash the debate about looking at power alternatives to Florida Power and Light two years ago? Could there be some back room “quid pro quo” going on?
- Why is he saying that he has reduced City headcount when in reality, he has just eliminated vacant positions?
- Why does he keep pushing for one particular Developer to build a new swimming complex near the Beach, without having the City do a background check on their questionable qualifications?
- Why does he feel he can take credit for 8 new parks when these parks were already decided on before he came in to office?
The deliberate misrepresentations on the part of our Mayor are disappointing. He needs to account for his actions and statements over the last three years. These Forums do not allow that.
I believe we need to have a Mayor that is judged on the substance of their accomplishments, not on the slipperiness of their rhetoric! Remember to Vote this week at the ARTSERVE or Main Libraries, or on Election Day on Tuesday Jan 31!
What are your thoughts?
Earl Rynerson
Candidate for Mayor of Fort Lauderdale
Reader Comments
I feel we’re between a rock and a hard place. It is politics at it’s worst and we are paying the price for it. Jack will not meet you anywhere. He’s managed to blind some people and others are wanting to keep the status quo as it works quite well for them. It would only hurt him. He’s be walking into the fire and he will not. In the minds of the privileged few, If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. For them it’s not a broken system, it is a great system. Push property taxes as high as they need to be, I want my pension, my paid for car, gas, ins., etc. etc., etc. The list of compensation is too long to list here. However for those of us who are now working 6 to 7 days a week to achieve only part of that list are the ones suffering and complaining. That should be most of us. I’ve seen Jack’s campaign signs in ALL kinds of neighborhoods. What does that tell the guy who knows nothing about anything but wants to exercise his right to vote? Yes, it’s ignorant but what control do you have over them?
I believe we’ve wasted our time unfortunately. I hope that I am wrong about this and that you have managed to get your campaign across and reached people in another fashion.
Jack has the power of the police too. Disagree agree with him and you and I WILL be arrested.
Tom, if you’re arrested for that, then this is no longer a democracy.
Earl, I have to respectfully disagree — I was at the forum, and was glad to see full participation by the candidates. (I wish there had been more participation from voters!)
I believe I learned something about each person on the dais from listening to what they said, and from watching their body language as they spoke — and also as they sat listening to their opposition.
Other than one poorly-worded question, I thought the Council did a great job bringing candidates and voters together to assess some of the issues which affect our city. It took a lot of volunteer time and effort to produce the event, and this voter appreciated it.
Yes, these forums run long, and yes, sometimes the answers are repetitive — but as you point out, sometimes they are contradictory — which is very interesting to concerned voters.
I understand what you are saying, Lindsay. But you cannot learn about a candidate when all you hear is a one sided “sound bite” that cannot be challenged by others.
Earl
Leonard, absolutely!
Earl,
Quite a few years ago, I ran for city council in California (and was allected during the time Sonny Bono was mayor) because of the same type of corrupt and hidden agendas by the old guard liberals.
At one of the public forms, I presented each member of the city council with a copy of a book called “The Death of Common Sense in Government” It got a lot of press and attention from the voters.
You need to Rub this in the faces of the current council. It is a great read and comes right to the point.