Friday, August 30, 2013 State of Florida Commission on Ethics PO Drawer 15709 Tallahassee, FL 32317 Timothy "Chaz" Stevens

PO Box 1123 Deerfield Beach, FL 33443 RE: Ethics Violation Against Deerfield Beach Mayor Jean Bitch with a Capital C Robb Dear Sir or Madam: Please accept this letter as my formal complaint against Deerfield Beach Mayor Jean Robb for violation of the Broward County ethics law. In support of this allegation, I offer the following for your consideration. Attached please find two (2) letters Robb sent out, on city letterhead, to local businessman JR Dunn, asking him for an $8,000 donation to Robbs favorite charities. This activity is forbidden under the Countys ethics code (see attached), The County Ethics Code provides that no public resources or staff may be used in connection with the solicitation of charitable contributions unless the action is sponsored by the Board." The Deerfield Beach City Commission (Board) did not sponsor, endorse, nor sanction Robb. Robb, as is often the case, was acting far off the reservation. We note, shes really old, so its not surprising she wanders. Therefore, I ask the Florida Commission on Ethics to fully investigate this matter, and where appropriate, apply the applicable sanctions, fines, kicks in the ass, and if necessary, send Robb to a day spa shes in dire need of some massive exfoliation. I stand ready to assist. Happy hunting;

Timothy Chaz Stevens 818-468-5433 Attachments (4)

Broward County Ethics Code: Read it here - South Florida Sun...

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/broward-politics-bl...

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Broward County Ethics Code: Read it here

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About the authors

ANTHONY MAN is the Sun Sentinel's political writer. Concentrating on local political people, parties and trends, he also covers state and national politics from a South Florida perspective. BRITTANY WALLMAN covers Broward County and news. She has covered local government and elections her entire reporting career -including the infamous 2000 recount. LARRY BARSZEWSKI covers Fort Lauderdale and Wilton Manors. In the past, he has reported on Palm Beach County government and schools, aging and social issues, Pompano Beach, Deerfield Beach and state legislative sessions. SUSANNAH BRYAN covers Hollywood, Sunrise, Hallandale Beach, Dania Beach and Pembroke Park. LISA J. HURIASH covers communities in northwest Broward.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 next | single page By Brittany Wallman

9:54 a.m. EDT, July 31, 2013

It's not easy to find a "clean'' copy of the Broward County Code of Ethics. Here it is, for your reading pleasure.

Sec. 1-19. Code of ethics for elected officials.

(a) Statement of Policy. It is the policy of Broward County that the Board of County Commissioners work for the benefit of the citizens of the County and elected officials of municipalities work for the benefit of the citizens of their respective municipalities. County Commissioners and elected municipal officials shall not receive any personal economic or financial benefit resulting from their service on their local governing bodies beyond legally authorized direct compensation. It is the responsibility of each County Commissioner and elected municipal official to act in a manner that promotes public trust and confidence in government with complete transparency and honesty in their services, and to avoid even the appearance or perception of impropriety.

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(b)

Definitions. For purposes of this code of ethics (the "Broward County Elected Official Code of Ethics"): (1) "Contractor" means any person or entity having a contract with the applicable local governmental entity.

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(2)

(3) (4)

(5)

(6) (7)

"Covered Individual" means (i) any member of the Board of County Commissioners; (ii) any member of a governing body of any municipality within Broward County; (iii) any municipal mayor; (iv) any member of a final decision-making body under the jurisdiction of the Board of County Commissioners or the governing body of any municipality within Broward County; (v) any individual directly appointed to a County or municipal employment position by the Board of County Commissioners, by a governing body of any municipality within Broward County, or by a municipal mayor; (vi) any individual serving on a contractual basis as a municipality's chief legal counsel or chief administrative officer, when such individual is acting in his or her official capacity; (vii) any member of a selection, evaluation, or procurement committee that ranks or makes recommendations to any final decision-making authority regarding a County or municipal procurement; (viii) any employee, any official, or any member of a committee of Broward County or of any municipality within Broward County that has authority to make a final decision regarding a public procurement; and (ix) the head of any department, division, or office of Broward County or of any municipal government who makes final recommendations to a final decision-making authority regarding items that will be decided by the final decision-making authority. For purposes of the prohibition on lobbying under section (c)(2) below, "Covered Individual" also includes members of other local governmental entities within Broward County, including taxing authorities, quasi-judicial boards, appointed boards, and commissions. "Elected Official" means any member of the Board of County Commissioners and any Municipal Official as defined below. "Filed for Public Inspection" means that the form is completed legibly and is filed with the applicable governmental entity's chief administrative official or clerk, with a copy of the form or all information contained thereon inputted into the applicable governmental entity's database, which database shall be searchable by internet. For any municipality that does not maintain a website sufficient to meet the requirements of this paragraph, the form or information may be inputted into a database maintained by the Broward League of Cities, provided that database is searchable by internet. "Final Decision-Making Authority" means (i) the Board of County Commissioners; (ii) the governing body of any municipality within Broward County; (iii) municipal mayors; (iv) final decision-making bodies under the jurisdiction of the Board of County Commissioners or under the jurisdiction of the governing body of any municipality within Broward County; and (v) any employee, official, or committee of Broward County or of any municipality within Broward County that has authority to make a final decision to select a vendor or provider in connection with a public procurement. For purposes of the prohibition of lobbying under section (c)(2) below, "Final Decision-Making Authority" also includes other local governmental entities within Broward County, including taxing authorities, quasi-judicial boards, appointed boards, and commissions. "Immediate Family Member" means a parent, spouse, child, sibling, or registered domestic partner.

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Broward's Holness violates ethics code, is absolved by colleagues

August 28, 2013 | By Brittany Wallman, By Brittany Wallman

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Broward Commissioner Dale Holness violated the Broward Code of Ethics, sending out an email from his government email account hitting up county vendors and others for $500 donations to a favorite charity. That kind of activity was forbidden under the ethics code. As the county put it in a memo Tuesday: "The County Ethics Code provides that no County resources or staff may be used in connection with the solicitation of charitable contributions unless the action is sponsored by the Board."

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Holness said he made a mistake, and Tuesday, his colleagues cut him a break. Holness said he'd offered to help a young girl with sickle cell anemia, who was seeking to be a national "ambassador'' for the disorder. She needed people to vote for her, and he helped by texting a vote for her. The girl's mom called his ofce, then sent over an email for him to send out. He said he didn't look at it or he'd have realized it was a fund-raising email and that he couldn't send it from his county email account . Click here to see the email that Holness sent out.

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Click here to read the ethics code. Once Holness realized he'd broken the ethics code, he said he went to the county attorney to gure out what to do. A path to forgiveness was laid out for him: The ethics code allows public ofcials in Broward to use their public ofce to raise money for a charity if it's been ofcially sanctioned and sponsored by the board, in this case the County Commission. (This is how the Oct. 26 Mayor's Gala beneting the United Way is being conducted.) So Holness had to get the county commissioners to retroactively endorse the cause.

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"The discussion was if this is inadvertent, that this is a way for us to more or less deal with it,'' Holness told his colleagues, "and, again, you know, I'm going to admit, we made an error in this. So I'd be grateful if you could nd in your heart the votes to approve this. It's not somethingthat was done deliberately.'' After a bit of preaching and chastizing, they unanimously voted Tuesday to do what he asked. Holness used the opportunity to complain about the ethics code, saying his constituents rely on non-prots, and under the code, he can't use his ofcial position and county resources to raise money for good causes. Commissioner Sue Gunzburger reminded him that under the ethics code, he can raise money for good causes without using his ofcial title or the resources of the county. "The reason this is here,'' she said, "is because I received phone calls from people all over the county who do business with Broward County that were upset getting this email from your ofce, quite honestly.'' Gunzburger said they were trained under the ethics code that "you cannot do it using taxpayers' money, which you did by having your staff do it. ... Even if I make a phone call to raise money for a campaign that I'm interested in, I put a document in to the attorney's ofce and declare it because that's the ethics law. I know there are people here who have not. That's a story for another day.''
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"Were you waiting for a gold star, Sue?'' asked Mayor Kristin Jacobs. "No, I'm not waiting for a gold star,'' Gunzburger replied. "I'm just saying that those of us who have been here since its inception know it and live with it, and we have to because it's there for a reason and it's for transparency and for the public to have trust in us and trust in us not to abuse our ofce,and that's why I would have a hard time voting for this action.'' Commissioner Lois Wexler echoed what Gunzburger said, adding that what disturbed her most was that Holness's staff was so unfamiliar with the ethics code that they sent the email without realizing they were violating the rules. When the ethics code was formulated in 2010 by an independent board, then approved by the County Commission in August that year, the prohibition was included because of complaints that public ofcials leaned on vendors and lobbyists and others who needed their votes, pressuring them to contribute money to the public ofcials' favorite charities. Naturally, the vendors and lobbyists didn't like it, because they felt forced to donate. Now it's still being done, even by Gunzburger, she said Tuesday. But with this change: When the ofcial asks for money, he or she just sends the mail from home and leaves off the "commissioner'' title.
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