Tag Archives: Tamarac Post

Fake News Website Appears To Use Tamarac Commissioner Marlon Bolton’s Email List To Attack His Opponents

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A “fake news” website appears to use an email list belonging to Tamarac Commissioner Marlon Bolton to attack his opponents and praise his allies. Tamarac residents have complained about emails from the “Tamarac Post” website attacking city officials. REDBROWARD previously exposed the deep ties between Bolton and the Tamarac Post.

Tamarac Post recently featured stories attacking Tamarac Commissioner Elvin Villalobos.

In May, Villalobos made headlines when he questioned the propriety of political committees tied to Bolton receiving large contributions from city vendors. Soon after Villalobos made his allegations, the Tamarac Post began a series of articles attacking him.

Many residents and city officials question how the Tamarac Post obtained the email addresses of city residents. Federal law requires sites to obtain permission from recipients before sending emails. Some residents told REDBROWARD they never signed up to receive emails from the Tamarac Post.

REDBROWARD obtained the most recent email blast from the Tamarac Post. Near the bottom of the email are options to “unsubscribe” and “update profile.”

REDBROWARD clicked on “update profile.” We were redirected to a new page entitled “Update Your Commissioner Marlon Bolton Profile.”

Generated by Constant Contact, the email provider used by the Tamarac Post, the page continues:

You are seeing this message for one of the following reasons:

  1. You are a current member of the mailing list for Commissioner Marlon Bolton and would like to update your profile.
  2. You are a previous member of the mailing list for Commissioner Marlon Bolton and would like to re-subscribe to this list – Welcome back!

This is not the first time technology exposed direct ties between Marlon Bolton and the Tamarac Post.

In September 2021, a link provided by the Tamarac Post revealed “MBOLTON” authored stories attacking City of Tamarac politicians. Since late August, five Tamarac Post stories were written by “Maria Colson.” An August 26, 2021 story was a puff piece praising Tamarac Commissioner Marlon Bolton for a meaningless political appointment.

The next four stories featured baseless attacks on Bolton’s fellow commissioners. The most recent story contains numerous false claims against Mayor Michelle Gomez, Vice Mayor Elvin Villalobos and even former Mayor Beth Talabisco.

In March 2021, REDBROWARD exposed Marlon Bolton’s deep ties to “The Tamarac Post,” which was owned and operated by close Bolton ally Anthony Bonamy.

The Tamarac Post repeatedly wrote stories praising Marlon Bolton and his then-Commission co-hort Elberg Mike Gelin. The City Of North Lauderdale fired Bonamy from his position as deputy clerk after REDBROWARD revealed his role in the website. Bonamy was quickly hired as an aide to Broward County Commissioner Dale Holness.

On August 31,2021, REDBROWARD revealed how Tamarac Post reporter Maria Colson was not a Tamarac resident. 

According to her social media accounts, Maria Colson was a twentysomething woman living in Sidcup, England. According to her LinkedIn page, Colson worked for TJ MAXX and a public policy firm. Both jobs are located in England, NOT Tamarac.

Colson’s Tamarac Post bio gives a vanity website, mariacolson.com, which appears to be a dead link. Links to her Facebook and Twitter accounts are also provided.

According to her Twitter account, Maria Colson is deeply interested in British animal rights causes and climate change initiatives. She made no mention of Tamarac, or Broward, or Florida or even the U.S.A.

REDBROWARD attempted to contact Maria Colson via her Facebook page. She never responded to questions about her reporting.

Why were stories allegedly written by a young Englishwoman posted under “MBOLTON?”

How did the Tamarac Post get access to the Constant Contact account for Commissioner Marlon Bolton?

Who is writing these attack stories for the Tamarac Post?

Multiple PACs Tied To Tamarac Commissioner Marlon Bolton Facing $500 A Day Fines For Failing To Report Financial Transactions

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Multiple political committees tied to Tamarac Commissioner Marlon Bolton are facing $500 per day fines for failing to report financial transactions, State records show. Political committees were required to file campaign reports by June 10, 2024. One week later, the State of Florida sent “fail to file” letters to the Conservative Governance committee, Broward Vision PAC and the Friends Of Marlon Bolton.

According to the letter, the State will levy a $25/day fine for the first three days. After the third day, the fine grows to $500 per day.

Conservative Governance and Broward Vision PAC are fronted by Malucci Joseph and Trace Robinson—allies and members of Bolton’s Praise Experience Church in North Lauderdale.

Bolton himself is the chairman and treasurer of the Tallahassee-based Friends Of Marlon Bolton political committee.

The failure to file required financial reports came just days after fellow Tamarac Commissioner Elvin Villalobos questioned contributions by potential City vendors.

During a May 6, 2024 city workshop, Commissioner Elvin Villalobos asked Bolton to recuse himself because an applicant made more than $20,000 in contributions to the Broward Vision PAC. Villalobos stated the contributions were made by Coastal Waste & Recycling. Bolton refused to recuse himself and voted to recommend Coastal.

Two days later, Villalobos repeated his request during the Tamarac City Commission meeting. “I’m going to request Commissioner Marlon Bolton recuses himself from voting on this item…he received $20,000 from a PAC he manages and…should disqualify him,” Villalobos said. Bolton did not recuse himself. Villalobos said, “One of our commissioners receiving $20,000 to vote in favor of a company—that is my main issue.”

State of Florida records show contributions by Coastal Waste & Recycling to the Broward Vision PAC. On January 7, 2022, Coastal made a $5,000 contribution to Broward Vision.

On February 15, 2023, Coastal made a $15,000 contribution to Broward Vision.

State records also show Coastal made a $500 contribution on December 9, 2023 to the Friends Of Marlon Bolton PAC.

On March 26, 2024 Broward Vision PAC made a $5,500 contribution to the Friends of Marlon Bolton PAC.

BROWARD VISION

In 2021, REDBROWARD exposed the deep ties between Broward Vision PAC and Marlon Bolton.

In September 2019, Trace Robinson created the Broward Vision PAC political committee using the same post office box address used by businesses owned by Marlon Bolton. 

Florida business records list Marlon Bolton and Trace Robinson as owners of The Driven Project, Praise Experience Worldwide Outreach Church, and South Florida Theological Seminary, Inc.

According to financial reports filed with the State of Florida, Broward Vision PAC has paid more than $52,000 to companies with close ties to Marlon Bolton.

Since its formation, Broward Vision PAC paid $1,400 to Exy Consultants, a fictitious corporation created under the Happy Feet Advertising LLC name by Robinson. Exy Consultants used the same P.O. Box 451711 address as Marlon Bolton. Trace Robinson is the founder of Happy Feet Advertising.

Florida business records show the post office box address used by Happy Feet Advertising has been used by Marlon Bolton since at least 2014. These businesses include Tyson Bolton and Associates, Forecast Holdings, LLC, Prophet Fire, and Win Without War. 

In March 2023, Broward Vision Pac paid $16,000 to Happy Feet Advertising. Since 2022, Broward Vision paid nearly $44,000 to Happy Feet Advertising.

In March 2024, Broward Vision paid $809 to Forecast Holdings LLC, another company owned by Marlon Bolton. According to records, the amount was for “reimbursement staff transportation” to an event hosted by Broward Vision.

Bolton said little about the large contributions by Coastal Waste.

According to Tamarac Talk, Bolton said, “My decisions are never impacted by who gives campaign contributions or not … It’s not based on who supports who or what.”

Last month, REDBROWARD revealed campaign materials promoting Marlon Bolton were paid for by the mysterious Broward Vision PAC. REDBROWARD obtained photographs of “door hangers” left at the home of a Tamarac residents. According to a disclaimer on the “door hangers” they were paid for by Broward Vision PAC.

In March, Broward Vision PAC made a $5,500 contribution to the Friends of Marlon Bolton committee.

While the committee uses a Tallahassee UPS Store as its address, its phone number is (954) 500-8683.

Using the letters on the telephone keypad, 8683 translates to VOTE.

The Broward Vision PAC “door hangers” promoting Marlon Bolton urges residents to call (954) 500-VOTE for more information about the Commissioner.

So, just as questions were raised about the propriety of vendors making large contributions to these PACs tied to Marlon Bolton, these same committees failed to disclose money raised and spent by them?

But, these same committees were able to produce campaign literature promoting Marlon Bolton?

Tamarac voters deserve transparency, no?