It’s been a busy week for Broward Supervisor Of Elections private lawyer Burnadette Norris Weeks. First, she attempted to quash all questions regarding her partisan political activities as “awful and racist.” She sent out a mass email urging community support for her plan to keep Broward County Commissioners from asking her boss, Dr. Brenda Snipes to be the “leader” of ethics.
Later this week, Broward County will play host for the 2015 Airport Minority Advisory Council (AMAC) conference at the Marriott Harbor Beach Hotel in Fort Lauderdale. Last October, Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood Airport honchos wanted nearly one million dollars of public funds to pay for the event. The mission of the Airport Minority Advisory Council is “to promote the inclusion of minorities and women in employment and contracting opportunities throughout the aviation industry.” One woman with big contracting opportunities in the aviation industry is Burnadette Norris Weeks.
Last year, REDBROWARD exposed Norris Weeks’ lucrative contract with Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport through the Paradies company.
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Airport Concessions Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (ACDBE) program is supposed to increase opportunities for minority and women-owned small businesses to operate as concessionaires in airports around the country. Locally, Broward County Office of Economic and Small Business Development (OESBD) “works to certify local firms as ACDBEs and to establish annual ACDBE participation goals for the County’s airport projects.” In order to retain its food and concession contracts at Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport, TheParadies Shops needed to comply with the ACDBE guidelines. In 2006, Paradies formed Paradies-Broward LLC. According to State of Florida corporate records, Paradies-Broward LLC was comprised of four members: The Paradies Shops, JD Ruffin Associates Inc., Maria Soldani Consulting LLC and Right Consulting LLC. Burnadette Norris-Weeks is listed as a member of Paradies-Broward LLC.
REDBROWARD obtained photographs of Norris Weeks attending the June 2014 AMAC conference in Denver. Norris Weeks and Broward County Commissioner Dale Holness were pictured dancing at the AMAC conference.
One month later, Norris Weeks fought a lawsuit seeking to remove the boyfriend of Dale Holness’ daughter from the County Commission District 2 ballot. Write-in candidate Tyron Francois admitted he did not live in the district. Still, REDBROWARD witnessed Norris Weeks take the lead role in the courtroom to keep Francois in the race.
County Commissioner Mark Bogen won the District 2 race. Last week, Snipes admitted to Bogen she was unaware Norris Weeks has supported Lisa Aronson, one of his opponents.
Bogen wants Snipes to keep employees to support candidates from playing an active role in those races.
Instead, Snipes and Norris Weeks went on the attack. Snipes called Bogen a bully. Norris Weeks labeled the ethics proposals as “racist.”
In a nasty email to Sunrise Mayor Mike Ryan, Norris Weeks admitted to filing Florida Bar complaints over his attempts to speak with Dr. Snipes.
Last week, Bogen told Snipes that Norris Weeks threatened to do the same to him.
Is Norris Weeks above questioning? Can anybody dare to speak to Dr. Snipes directly?
Broward deserves answers.
