North Lauderdale Commissioner Samson Borgelin really wants Anthony Bonamy to keep his job as deputy city clerk. Mayor Ana Ziade intends to discuss Anthony Bonamy’s position at tonight’s city commission. Last month, REDBROWARD revealed Bonamy’s role in a website shilling for Tamarac Commissioner Marlon Bolton and his political allies.
According to State of Florida corporate records, Anthony Bonamy created “Tamarac Post Media LLC” in July 2020. Within weeks, The Tamarac Post website was launched as “your source for local news, politics, entertainment, music, and fashion. We provide you with the latest breaking news and updates.” In reality, the Tamarac Post offers very little news. It’s main offering appears to be anonymous puff pieces about Broward County Commissioner Dale Holness and Tamarac Commissioner Marlon Bolton.
In March, BrowardBeat and VotersOpinion documented Marlon Bolton’s highly controversial plan to make Hans Ottinot the permanent Tamarac City Attorney.
Within days of these reports it was Tamarac Post to the rescue. The website copied and pasted a City of Tamarac news release touting Hans Ottinot and his law firm.
Then, three days later, Marlon Bolton sent an e-mail blast urging residents to read the Tamarac Post. Bolton wrote, “Visit TamaracPost.com to learn more about upcoming events around the City or click the photo below.” By clicking the photo, residents were redirected to the Tamarac Post website.
Weary about Bonamy’s past political work, North Lauderdale leaders added a clause to his employment contract. Bonamy was prohibited from performing any political work for any politician. When asked about the contractual language prohibiting work for other politicians, Bonamy said he believed the prohibition only applied to work for North Lauderdale politicians.
Section 2.7 Standard of Conduct: Ethics of his employment contract states Bonamy “shall not individually engage in political consulting or provide political consulting services on behalf of the firm AB Consulting Solutions, LLC, or any other political consulting firm during the term of DEPUTY CITY CLERK’S employment with CITY.” There is no language limiting this clause to work on behalf of North Lauderdale politicians.
REDBROWARD asked Bonamy why his company was behind a website shilling for a Tamarac politician. Bonamy claimed he did not “run” the website, but he did admit he owned the website domain. Bonamy claimed he did not know who posted articles on the website. He said his wife was set to take over posting duties in April.
When asked about Marlon Bolton, Bonamy acted as if he never met him. He said his inclusion as a reference on his North Lauderdale job application “caused controversy” because it was done without permission. Bonamy stated he was not friends with Bolton. According to Bonamy, he randomly picked Bolton’s name from the membership list of Black Elected Officials group.
The first candidate offered the position of deputy clerk failed to respond during negotiations. On November 19, 2020 the matter was brought before the commission to decide what to do next.
The City Clerk and several commissioners wanted to reopen the hiring process. Commissioner Samson Borgelin wanted to hire the number two candidate, Anthony Bonamy.
Even though she had been a commissioner for merely an hour or so, Regina Martin made a motion to hire Bonamy. Borgelin seconded the motion.
The first member of the public to comment on the hiring was Anthony Bonamy’s “friend” Marlon Bolton. Bolton urged the hiring of Bonamy.
The next public speaker was Dorothy Borgelin, wife of Commissioner Borgelin(!)
According to the official meeting minutes, Mrs. Borgelin said, “that it is obvious that the Commission should follow the process and proceed with candidate ranked number two in order to not waste any more time.”
DEPUTY CLERK AS RESEARCH ASSISTANT?
Faced with Mayor Ziade’s plan to discuss Bonamy’s continued employment, it appears Samson Borgelin plans to complicate matters. Borgelin added a request to tonight’s agenda. Borgelin wants the City Attorney “to provide the City Commission with a formal Advisory Opinion on the use of the Deputy City Clerk for Legislative and Administrative Tasks by the City Commissioners as described in the contract signed on December 17, 2020 and to post the advisory opinion on the Ethics advisory opinions page of Broward County’s website.”
Borgelin wants to make the deputy clerk position his own personal research assistant.
In an April 7th letter to City Attorney Sam Goren, Borgelin wrote, “It was understood that Mr. Anthony Bonamy, the selected appointee, accepted the position with the knowledge that he would act as an assistant for the Commission and be required to provide some legislative functions.”
“Since being hired, and as backed up by his resume, Mr. Bonamy has effectively and effortlessly proven that he has experience in doing legislative and administrative tasks, and I am gratefully confident he is more than capable of setting up meetings and events,” Borgelin wrote. “Ever since in office, I have been trying to research on my own, but the Deputy City Clerk can provide me assistance with research.”
Borgelin appears to be bothered that his attempts to use Bonamy as a glorified assistant were rebuffed.
Borgelin wrote, “Maybe I am missing something, but I find it objectionable to request permission to assign task or directed to be directed to assign tasks where I see fit. Please clarify the misunderstanding, as it is my intent, in my capacity as a Commissioner, to discuss this matter on the dais, for the record.”
No word if Mrs. Borgelin intends to discuss the matter.
Why are the Borgelins, Regina Martin and Marlon Bolton so eager to keep Anthony Bonamy employed by North Lauderdale taxpayers?
If Bonamy violated his contact, shouldn’t he be fired like any other employee?
What the heck is going on with the politicians in central Broward County???
