Denise Horland & Pete TingomThe election was over months ago, but Pete Tingom’s puppeteers must not have let him in on the news … because he’s still out campaigning!
Every month, elected officials, candidates and insiders gather at Hispanic Vote to hear speeches from candidates and network for local elections. Hispanic Vote endorsed Tingom in the 2018 mayoral race. It appears Denise Horland had the bright idea to bring Tingom to network at the notoriously political group on Wednesday March 27 in Davie, and unofficially launch his 2020 campaign.
“Nobody goes to Hispanic Vote unless they’re running for office,” according to one longtime political insider.
Not surprising, since Horland been carrying water of old guard since she was elected. Isit her and her husband’s bright idea is to position themselves at the representative of the small group of residents who support rolling back the clock to the days when our decisions were based on who you know, not good ideas?
Tingom, who looks like he is joining the ranks of Plantations perennial candidates (Looking at you Rico), was former Mayor Dianne Veltri Bendecovic’s handpicked-successor that voters overwhelmingly rejected just a few months ago when Plantation voters elected the highly-qualified Mayor Lynn Stoner.
Stoner is only a few months into her term, but already kept some key promises to voters to end the no-bid taxpayer handouts, have a fair and open bid for city attorney, lower the crime rate, and reverse the decline from years of inaction by the previous administration.
Mayor Stoner’s fattening list of accomplishments is a growing threat to the group of insiders (Tingom, the Horlands and their chamber allies) who want to bring back the days when they could steer millions in tax dollars to favored vendors by overpaying for no-bid contracts that were handed to a small group of insiders.
Two City Hall insiders say Diane still bitter over defeat of her slate. Insiders claim she’s feeding talking points to allies. Is she stirring up angry residents in town to try to disrupt meetings? From sitting in Council meetings, some residents think Councilmember Horland is getting her orders on the dais via text message.
Their plan is simple: 1) cause chaos and disruption in Council to stop the progress we have made since the election and 2) immediately begin the 2020 elections to ramp back up the political division in the Fall 2018.
Never was Horlands’ agenda as obnoxiously evident as it was Wednesday night. Horland was the only NO vote on a hugely supported project needed to revitalize a blighted corner of the city. Instead of voting in the interests of the city, the many residents who testified for the project, and it’s neighbors that elected her, Horland instead chose to attempt to send a message to a developer that refused to support Tingom during the last campaign.
Using your elected office for political gain and to punish campaign opposition is a shameful and unethical practice that should be exposed. Voters rejected Pete and these good ol boy games, but he appears he’s already running again!
The perpetual political campaign with a goal to cause disruption and regain power is bad for our residents and our neighborhoods. Shame on Pete, Dianne, and the Horlands…
Sponsored post by Plantation resident. REDBROWARD welcomes opposing points of view.
REDBROWARD 
I have a certain fondness for our mayor Lynn Stoner, actually enjoy her Chutzpah as I mentioned at the last meeting, and personally envision her as being a Broward County leader in regards to working with other municipalities through the league of cities. We have had to work through some issues with the tact she took during the campaign which you and other council members have described as political strategy that is unfortunately sometimes seen as necessary to win. I still warn Lynn regularly of the danger of any involvement, direct or indirect, with disgraced political operatives like the Russian hacker involved Aron Nevins (as self-described in your own Sun-Sentinel) or with our corrupt city council member Mark Hyatt whose has a long list of issues with financial fraud going back back to 2003. Remember Council Member Hyatt was recently reported to the State Attorney by the Office of Inspector General for multiple violations of State law on nine State State Statues, not to mention the demagoguery like never before seen in a City of Plantation campaign unleashed by Mark Hyatt and Chris Longsworth thru his registered PAC Floridians For A Safer Tomorrow. Now I accept that is in the past and occurred in the same election cycle as the Russian Hacking to elect the President, so it must simply be a sign of the times.
Today I am perhaps Lynn Stoner’s best friend, though she and whoever is the anonymous poster of the derogatory comment, may not realize it. I am free to be her Devil’s Advocate and help steer her clear of dangerous entanglements or poor associations. Look what happened to the Hollywood Mayor who fell for a line from that piece of garbage Alan Koslow, reported in our Sun-Sentinel newspaper. https://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/fl-ne-joy-cooper-koslow-fbi-corruption-20190405-story.html [BTW I know more about Koslow but couldn’t post it because his daughter is a friend of a family member and got upset with my comments. A despicable crook just the same. No excuses.]
Citizens should remain wary of anonymous political demagoguery which unsupported accusations. I can be a hard ass at times but you will always find my name with factual refereces when I comment. Don’t you wish EVERYBODY DID? RESPECTFULLY and as always, Good Luck, Carl Buehler
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My bad , spelling errors corrected. “Citizens should remain wary of anonymous political demagoguery with unsupported accusations. I can be a hard ass at times but you will always find my name with factual references when I comment. Don’t you wish EVERYBODY DID? RESPECTFULLY and as always, Good Luck, Carl Buehler
The very derogatory ANONYMOUS post includes a photo of former council member Pete Tingom at the April 20 council meeting which I attended. As to his purported “disruptive” comments, the ONLY comment Mr. Tingom made was in SUPPORT of the RELAY FOR LIFE charity event this weekend in Plantation
http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR/RelayForLife/RFLCY19SER?pg=entry&fr_id=91323
As was noted at the meeting, Mr. Tingom is a lifelong event co-coordinator for the Plantation Relay For Life and does a lot of walking in that charity event “Relay For Life of Plantation to help fight cancer and support your community”
So YES, he was at the meeting, though I am not sure how that is interpreted as making him a real bad guy.
Also Mr. Tingom continues to serve the city as a committee member on the city Pension Fund, and does keep informed by attending many council meetings. Don’t you wish everybody did? If you can’t attend those meetings in person, you may view them at your leisure online using the free City of Plantation website.
http://www.plantation.org/City-Government/Council/video.html
Yup, best way to become an educated voter is keep informed!
And again a pitch for charity:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Relay-for-Life-Plantation-Central-Park/122123197862474
Good Luck, Carl Buehler
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Buehler, you think the Russians hacked the Plantation Election. This is pure insanity. I understand why they would want to hack a presedential election, but a city election. That’s just silliness and sour grapes because you don’t like the outcome.
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Frank, sorry I believe you MISREAD my comment. I did not say nor think the Russians hacked the Plantation Election. That is pure insanity. I did refer to a PAC operative, and Mr. Aron Nevins who did say in an article in the Sun Sentinel entitled “Who is Aron Nevins” that he worked with Mr. Stone and Guccifer 2.0 in the Russian hacking of the Presidential election. (That interview and more is easily found with the simple online search “Sun Sentinel Who is Aron Nevins”)
My concern, as stated, is a question of how ETHICAL is a political operative working with a foreign power to undermine a US Presidential election? Is he trustworthy to be involved in our local politics and democratic process? If you think that is “just silliness”, sure that is your opinion. “No problem”.
While seeking employment as a paid political operative for our LOCAL municipal elections, Mr. Nevins pitched that “for a price he promised to insure a win for his Plantation candidate by any means”. At least one candidate after that interview, nervous about the “by any means” comment, declined the offer. That price for a win by any means was $15,000. Apparently the PAC Floridians For A Safer Tomorrow registered under a developer Chris Longsworth and working with a council member Mark Hyatt (see reference links in above posts) also found “no problem” with Mr. Nevin’s past history and readily employed him. Certainly that was the RIGHT decision for them, as Mr. Nevins clearly fulfilled his contract and delivered a win. KUDOS!
And as I posted above, I support our mayor Lynn Stoner. We have been working thru our issues and I have commented several times, if you actually attended or watched the past two council meetings, where I actively promoted Lynn working with the League of Cities to fight preemptive State Legislation that would threaten her power and that of the City Council. I’m not sure why that is considered sour grapes unless you are speaking of good wine.
So how about A toast to our Plantation City Council and Mayor Lynn Stoner, Cheers. Carl Buehler
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This article is right on point. Shame on Horland for her political vote against our residents.
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Steve, I’m not sure what you mean by a “political vote against our residents”?
Council Member Nick Sortal put the question this way:
“why would we question the longevity of this project vs. any of the others? Each building is inspected by our city. Each building must meet the required codes, etc.”
Here is my Reply to Nick Sortal, summarizing concerns as expressed at the April 20 council meeting which I believe you are referring to in regard to the vote on the approval of the PIXL project.
“I believe we must carefully vet the design and construction of this project proposal:
1. Because this is not a standard design with an established performance history.
2. Because this is not a peer reviewed architectural design but a unique new design in the developer’s own words.
3. Because historically, experimental or new designs are prone to unanticipated problems due to flawed design.
4. Because historically, experimental or new designs are prone to unanticipated problems due to flawed construction.
5. Because the developer could not even explain the construction process he intended to employ in the construction of this unique new design, not even knowing if the “boxes” were going to be precast concrete in his own words.
6. Because building departments around South Florida have approved experimental designs and issued permits for projects that later proved flawed.
7. Because building inspectors have inspected, approved, and granted occupancy permits for buildings that were soon shut down and rendered uninhabitable while repairs were made or the structure demolished.
8. Because if you quickly vote to authorize the city to approve this project without legitimate due diligence in requiring peer review and complete documentation of experimental designs, you are putting the city, and thereby us taxpayers at risk, because historically the precedent has been that both the architect and the builder end up suing the city for inadequate oversight. Ask Kerry.
9. Because future Plantation residents who purchase these apartments are also depending on City oversight to protect them from buying into a city approved project that may leave them with damaged devalued property. Meaning beyond the ethical responsibility YOU have to those residents, the City of Plantation also has a legal liability.
My opinion, politely, is based on 20 years of working in construction with my dad serving on the Planning Commission. He was one of those hard nosed assholes holding contractor’s feet to the fire. I learned it is better to error on the side of caution in assuring residents safe, secure, productive projects. After 20 years serving our rural community on the Muskego Planning Board, they dismissed my dad’s concern on a major project, so my dad resigned in protest. Yup, that contractor also guaranteed his project was going to generate millions for the City of Muskego, then went bust, instead costing the city millions. OK, that was a half century ago. Things are different today, right?
Being you were a newspaper man for over 20 years with the Sun-Sentinel, I’m sure you read the articles from the Sun-Sentinel included as references, or maybe you didn’t time to. Otherwise how do you dismiss the very problems I described at the meeting and above, when those articles report the same problems have occurred historically. The Miami Herald has many more examples. I have listened to the Dade/Miami School board meetings on Public Radio, where hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent in repairing water damaged structures.
Lacking experience in construction you may not realize that flat roof commercial structures and buildings with multiple box like units connected together are problematic for preventing water intrusion. Every joint line of every meeting horizontal structure is subject to expansion/contraction, water containment, and dissipation issues. Pitched or vertical joint lines are less problematic.
So whether my comments are considered toilet talk or holy water, just for the sake of safety, If YOU and the developer are completely certain there is, and will be no problem, there should be no problem with attaching this letter to the agenda for public record. There would be no need for any future litigants to refer to it since you and the contractor can assure the public that water leaks or other design or construction flaws are NOT AT ISSUE.” Carl Buehler
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Steve, there are NO Guarantees in Construction, yet there must be due diligence in the review process. As to a “political vote against our residents”, If you think about it, voting either way, YES or NO, could be construed as a “political vote” given the CONFLICT OF INTEREST created by a close working and personal relationship between the developer and both council member Mark Hyatt and the mayor.
More importantly, Public Safety should come first. There is no room for a “political vote”.
I would prefer to think ALL parties were more concerned with the issue of the longevity of this project and the code and architectural review than political motivations. In fact a vote to submit the project back for better review seems to me, to be a vote FOR OUR RESIDENTS both present and future. Perhaps that was Council Member Denise Horland’s goal? I hope the entire council proceeds cautiously.
Good Luck, Carl Buehler
View historical record of council meetings and agenda online http://www.plantation.org/City-Government/Council/video.html Meetings may take a few days to show up online.
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