Here’s The Scoop …. It’s A Sad Day In Lauderdale-By-The-Sea …. The Dais’ Table is Full ….Sewers On Private Property…An Apartment Building Round 2….A Parking Garage And so Much More….
March 15, 2016 by Barbara
LBTS Candidate Yann Brandt and family – 2016
Dear Readers…. I guess Sea Ranch Club was not as strong as it was in 2008 and will unfortunately bear the brunt of that loss as tonight candidate for commission Yann Brandt lost his race against his opponent Buz Oldaker who was heavily promoted and lobbied by the Greater Fort Lauderdale Realtors Association… an association he belongs to as a licensed realtor …This was a huge omission in his biography he purposely enacted to keep voters in the dark…in this writer’s opinion… He was the weaker candidate by far as he went head to head with Yann showing his utter lack of knowledge about the town with no homework done during the campaign to bone up on the issues he was sorely lacking insight in to…. Yann was endorsed by the Sentinel who saw those differences and recommended by the Pelican where the editorial staff was split … He tried mightily once he saw the writing on the wall at the League of Women Voter’s Candidate Forum and the underbelly of what forces were behind his opponent to let the voters know and to convey the differences and assure voters that he would not go down the road it seems we are definitely going down after March 29th… with no brakes in sight ….We will now see votes that will go down…4-1 ( Mayor Sasser who won heartily tonight might still be the 1 opposed on the apartment building purchase)……but….more often than not…. votes will be 5-0 …..It’s a return to those days this writer saw a decade ago… the Old Guard votes are back….It’s a sad day in Lauderdale-By-The -Sea….
Shortly after Yann Brandt decided to run for Stuart Dodd’s seat Mayor Scot Sasser made the upsetting and surprising decision not to run as a slate in this election or to openly endorse his former co-campaign manager (2010) making it much more difficult for Yann as this truncated election began….This about- face was made after Scot initially agreed it made sense do both and then for reasons this writer found contrary to the Scot Sasser I knew chose not to ….. Then the Supervisor of Elections messed up the ballots including Dan Darnell’s name after he had withdrawn within the allotted time to do so….and it was Yann who made the first calls…to the SOE, the Town and the Town Clerk to get it all straightened out…. when it seemed no change was forthcoming….I made the decision to inform Sea Ranch Club resident and board member Dan Darnell his name was on the ballot as he was in the dark about the snafu … but as he thanked me for doing so and knowing I supported Yann …I was informed by fellow condo owners that he sent an email to support Yann’s opponent Buz ….which was his right…but he did it admitting in his email he knew nothing about either candidate that early in the race… A disservice to those early voters ….in my opinion….especially since the issue of the Palm Club sewers settlement and where each candidate stood was not known at that time….a bone of contention in the Sea Ranch Condominiums who have long said ( 1st in 2007) a settlement to Palm Club for sewers on private property means SRC will ask for our lift ( for sewer) on private property to be paid for as well by the taxpayers….( I expect other condos to do the same!)…. He also later was shown endorsing Buz Oldaker in his mailer/ads…. The only remaining political action committee in town the aging CIC organized a last minute meeting with the candidates to ask them questions and then have their small group of members vote to endorse one…Their Chair Ken Evans called to ask Yann to ask him to participate even though Ken Evans the Broward Democratic State Committeeman had already openly endorsed Buz Oldaker as the Chair of the CIC online and was making phone calls for him….Yann asked Ken for a fair shake and went to the CIC to get one….The CIC did not comply….they ultimately endorsed Buz even though his stances on the issues ran counter to their core principles … They said as much in their endorsement last weekend … causing many former CIC members to comment on the strange content of that endorsement ….. Then you had an onslaught of attack emails to fellow realtors and businesses from that Realtors Association….asking for funds for their guy Buz and for their own association….. Vacation rentals will increase in town big time with continuing lack of enforcement and increasing numbers in neighborhoods with large imbalances as a result ….They are shown giving him $900 in total in Buz’s Candidate Treasury Report turned in to the Town Clerk on March 11th with one more treasury report to come in June which may exceed that amount….That’s influence paid for …just like the downtown businesses who have donated monies ….and are sure to come before him and others on the dais who accepted those funds….in my opinion…. Phony charges were trumped up at the 11th hour by the obnoxious Bob Fleishman… the former chair of the defunct north end of town PAC Unite Our Town at that CIC meeting with the help of one of his former nemesis concerning the VFD …. Yann was a member who proudly served and was the last one out when they were locked out by some of the very supporters of Buz who were and are involved with that issue as they were and are with the Palm Club sewers….being paid for by taxpayers as a “settlement” which will be sold to us a a “public safety issue” ….just as it was in the past….. The false charge made was that Yann was dismissed from the VFD in 2008….He received a form letter along with many others once the VFD was no longer the Town’s provider and they operating from a storefront on Commercial Blvd. doing training in the hopes of returning to replace the BSO…… Talk about negative campaigning…. Then there was the outlandish Buz Oldaker ads and mailer stating his opponent Yann Brandt had gone”negative” and was attacking him stating in his (Yann’s) ads/mailer he did not say what he is on the video saying …Saying he (Buz) did not say what he said at each meeting …until he took cover and had a meltdown at the CIC meeting ….Yann Brandt was not negative he was forthright in trying to do what opponents are supposed to do…inform the voters of the facts and the where the candidates stand on the issues as candidates and when they govern……I thought those differences were heard loud and clear when that Buz Oldaker mailer came last weekend due to where so many of those mailers ended up in Sea Ranch Club….. in the mailroom trash!….
This election continued from start to finish to be an uphill battle with so much to lose …and with a loss of 157 votes …. and the biggest coming from the 120 votes from the north …Buz Oldaker won with 54%…. certainly not a mandate…but definitely much larger and much more impactful than we’ve seen since 2006 showing …in this writer’s opinion….there is still a big divide in our town…. and districts must be kept in place… In fact…we may need to further address the way we vote by in the future by having the south end of LBTS vote for their 2 commissioners and the north end of LBTS for their 2 commissioners retaining a town-wide vote for the mayor if we see a backslide of governing in the next 2-4 years…..We are not one town when it comes to what we pay for and how we pay for it….or who we vote for and why…..The south better wake up just like they did in 2006….and keep a sharp eye on what is on the town commission agendas…what is voted on and how it’s enacted….with or without the peoples input ….and if the commission truly represents ALL of the people in LBTS….It’s a sad day in Lauderdale-By-The-Sea….
More to come…..
