See The Pix: Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jack Seiler’s Contempt For The Public
BY BUDDY NEVINS
Didn’t Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jack Seiler’s mother ever teach him manners?
Longtime activist and photographer Art Seitz has doubts.
Seiler ignored public speakers at a Fort Lauderdale Commission workshop on Wednesday. He apparently preferred to thumb through his email and surf the Internet.
At least that is what Seitz and other City Hall observers believe.
The subject of the meeting seemingly inconsequential to this longtime politician: Flooding from the increasing level of the sea, Fort Lauderdale’s runaway growth and how both affect the quality of life in Fort Lauderdale.
Seiler is being promoted by the business community as the first countywide elected Broward mayor, if that position is created.
Just what the public needs. Promote a pol who is rude to the public.
Oh, they’ll be responsive enough…when they are campaigning. Both can put on acts worthy of an Oscar.
When this buffoon is asking for your votes, remember pictures below, taken by Seitz. Seiler “rarely even looked at the first dozen (speakers),” Seitz said.
Jack Seiler is rude
And again.
And again….
Seiler seems to be saying, “What are all these people doing at a public meeting!”
January 19th, 2017 at 11:53 am
(Brilliant) City activist, Mary Fertig, recently wrote the following: “A very important conversation will be held this Wednesday, January 18, 2017.
The City Commission will discuss infrastructure.
For years, throughout the City, we have experienced the symptoms of aging and inadequate infrastructure. Last spring many of us came together to research the causes. What emerged resulted in a petition initiative calling upon the City to create a comprehensive plan for infrastructure and traffic with community participation. Wednesday, the Commission will receive an infrastructure update. The staff will present a power point “Fort Lauderdale Infrastructure Management.” Following the staff presentation, the public will have the opportunity to comment.
Our requests have been well-articulated and well-documented for many months. We have asked for:
A comprehensive, transparent, and publicly accessible plan that: Includes a specific inventory of needed repairs, replacements and improvements. Coordinates the infrastructure and roads City-Wide. Prioritizes the projects.
Establishes a timetable outlining when projects will begin and end. Includes the cost. Details a plan to finance the cost.
We have also stressed that the Community needs to be a part of creating the solutions that will make our community sustainable and livable tomorrow. Our petition requested the formation of a Community Taskforce. We envisioned a group that would be hands-on with the research and the formation of the plan and take the lead in bringing forward a plan that the community would want to support.
We all know the infrastructure and traffic problems facing our City. A few examples: Almost 60% of our water mains are over forty years old (nearly 40% are over 60 years old.) Water pipe breaks have occurred throughout the City. There were as many breaks in the first 5 months of FY2016 as in all of FY2013.
King Tides impacted neighborhoods and businesses throughout the City.
Thirty sewage spills in three years have dumped millions of gallons of raw sewage into neighborhoods and waterways.
Traffic is at gridlock at various times of the day and year as some of our most important roadways are failing. Emergency response times for fire and rescue have nearly doubled in the past eight years to 8 minutes and 9 seconds in 2016.
Over $120 million dollars have been transferred out of the water, sewer, stormwater and parking funds over the past 10 years.
We are spending less on infrastructure improvements today than we were ten years ago. In FY 2008 the budget for the Community Investment Plan (CIP) was $215,117,384.
Today – FY 2017 – the budget for the CIP is $90,123,011. CIP funding reached a low of $50,081,182 in FY 2014.
Our request for a comprehensive masterplan, and a plan to finance it, will result in an improved quality of life, safer communities, higher property values, new jobs, an increased tax base, and a better business climate. It will provide the foundation for a sustainable future for Lauderdale Tomorrow. We hope you will join us Wednesday at City Hall to show your support for a comprehensive infrastructure masterplan. ” If you are unable to attend, please share your thoughts with our elected officials:
jack.seiler@fortlauderdale.gov dtrantalis@fortlauderdale.gov
rmckinzie@fortlauderdale.gov BRoberts@fortlauderdale.gov
RRogers@fortlauderdale.gov
Thank you.
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January 19th, 2017 at 11:55 am
I know Mary’s letter is long, BUT a lot of work went into this group’s statement to the City Commission.
WAKE UP MAYOR !!! They are talking to you, When will the city sop taking $$$ from Capitol Improvement Funds to put in the General Fund to spend? Perhaps we could get you a cot……
January 19th, 2017 at 12:22 pm
This what a leader controlled by Judy Stern looks like, the display of almost 10 hours of Commission meetings and these Commissioners are only having their own conversations when the Residents took the better part of the day and night to make known they’re concerns.Jack looks at his computer and Bruce and Robert talk back and forth Romney could careless because the conversatons weren’t about Rio Vista. it sickens me that I live in a City where a known Lobbist controls this Commission, Judy Stern throws her fat ass around and these wimps are her Bitches. Yes that is the way it works. Jack is nothing more than an order taker form Stern and the latest move to build a parking garage with CRA money on the beach with zero support form the Residents is because Judy’s Friend’s Paul Kissinger and Yvonne Garth were owed favors. Yes this is how the commission works , a vote for Jack or Bruce is just another way for Judy Stern to have her way in Fort Lauderdale. This City has major problems and the Jackass Mayor could care less, its all payback at every Commission meeting . The pipes are spreading sewage in the waterways and our money is wasted to benefit the causes Judy Stern represents. Wake up Fort Lauderdale you have no voice.We can’t stop these bastards because they are all bought and paid for. Dean Trantalis has some moral compass as for the rest just dirty politicains. Judy Stern Puppets
January 19th, 2017 at 3:34 pm
Not a good look, may need a little work done if he is going to run for Attorney General
January 19th, 2017 at 5:05 pm
A smear job of the greatest mayor this city ever had. Buddy Nevins, Rosemary O’Hara and the other scum reporters can shove it. We like Jack Seiler and wish he could stay for life!!
January 19th, 2017 at 5:15 pm
Please don’t complain about Seiler or any person in government when you keep voting these people back into office!!
You don’t have to be a politician nor someone who will say yes to greed in order to have decent people in our city/county government.
May 2017 start being the beginning of getting rid of rude, special interest and not really for the people government running our city & county.
If you don’t get these people out, it’s YOUR OWN FAULT, nobody else
January 19th, 2017 at 6:46 pm
What do you expect from a career Democrat politician and lawyer who attended nothing but private schools kindergarten through law school and lives on the golf course in Coral Ridge Country Club in a house with 7 bathrooms in it. He sells himself at election time as a glorified lephrecan but governs like a world war 2 era German politician. I’m willing to wager a couple hundred bucks in a Ancestry.com DNA test showdown as to who is more Irish, me or Heir Seiler. What do you say, you feeling lucky Johanne?
January 20th, 2017 at 8:09 am
Voters in District 4 (Fort Lauderdale City Commission):
Pay attention to the candidate for Romney’s seat who resigned as a Dania Beach commissioner, moved to Fort Lauderdale and filed to run for that city’s commission.
The behavior of the man from Dania Beach on the dais as a commissioner involved perusing files from his job as a property appraiser and texting while city topics were discussed. As Mayor, the candidate treated fellow commissioners with derision and scorn. His rudeness to the general public during citizen comments greatly reduced the number of people who appeared at commission meetings.
Vote with research, thought, and care for your city.
January 20th, 2017 at 9:06 am
Buddy:
I generally like your blog, but what’s with the hatchet job on Jack Seiler? He’s been a great mayor. The article sounds childish and petulant. It stinks of some hidden agenda or grudge by this Art Seitz guy, whoever he is.
Gerard (Jerry) Williams
FROM BUDDY:
Art Seitz widely disseminated the photos long before I published them. That said, I abhor rudeness by public officials towards the very public who put them in office.
January 20th, 2017 at 9:23 am
If they ever do a remake, hope they consider Jack for Herman Munster
January 20th, 2017 at 9:37 am
#5, isn’t this the same set of reporters that endorsed him 3 years ago? Were they scum then too? It took voters a while to figure it out, but when you do everything the lobbyists want you to do against the will of residents, its going to catch up to you. Actions (& photos) speak louder than words.
January 20th, 2017 at 10:33 am
Charles: The Irish government expressed official condolences to Germany upon the death of Hitler, so there may be less difference than you think.
FROM BUDDY:
Yes, the Irish prime minister expressed condolences to Germany for Hitler’s death. Modern Irish politicians have conceded such a move, by the leader of a country officially neutral in World War II, was a mistake.
January 20th, 2017 at 1:12 pm
Is your life quality any better after years of Mayor Jack Seiler?
I don’t think anyone who drove roads, paid taxes or tried to protect their homes from overflowing sewers and King Tides can say Yes.
January 20th, 2017 at 2:20 pm
“Crooked” Jack Seiler is a phoney baloney plastic banana good time rock’in roller. We will all be left with the infrastructure bill to his 9 year party with the police union and developer lobbyists. Anyone who says otherwise is selling something.
January 21st, 2017 at 10:21 am
I’m a city hall observer and I put in my 11 hours on Wednesday. The only contempt I saw was from the public who cared more about tongue lashing than solutions. Mother’s manners were nowhere to be seen. Politics aside (which is the oxymoron of the day), did people just wake up one day and realize they live in a city that is 102 years old? We have the same infrastructure woes that every major city in America has. A plan to pay for it? – We’re going to pay for it! We just happen to be in the unlucky sperm club that’s left without a chair in the game of infrastructure roulette. To blame the current commission is ludicrous – these problems have literally been oozing to the surface for decades. Like a condominium that votes every year to waive their reserves, we’ve kicked the can down the road for generations. You can squawk all you want about influence peddlers and politicians, but if we keep saying NO to every spending plan put out there, that’s exactly what we’re going to get – Nothing. Guess what, growing pains hurt. Man up, Buddy and be part of the solutions, not the whiners. Put your money where your mouth is and invest in this community.
January 21st, 2017 at 6:07 pm
This story is incomplete. Art Seitz only photographed Jack Seiler’s “couldn’t care less” attitude toward regular citizens concerned about important local issues! But that is far from being the whole truth.
There is another side to Jack Seiler! If wealthy developers were at the podium talking about how they planned to rape the environment, clog the streets, and destroy the local quality of life, then Jack Seiler would have been down on his knees in front of them and giving them everything they could possibly want!
I hope Art Seitz will soon release a second set of photographs documenting Seiler’s keen attention toward and abject submission to developers. These new photos will better illustrate the overall picture of Mayor Jack Seiler’s thoughts about whose interests he truly represents.
January 23rd, 2017 at 10:04 am
Abby, It is totally and completely “Crooked” Jack Seiler and his voting majority on the city commission along with his toady City Manager “Little” Lee Feldman that came into office 8 years ago and decided borrowing $350 million in pension obligation bonds to nearly fully fund unrealistic and unreformed public safety union pensions and invest the money completely in the stock market at property taxpayer’s risk. Infrastructure just wasn’t on their list. So who’s fault again Abby is this mess find ourselves in that sees sea water, sewage and pedestrians flowing in our dangerous crumbling but thoroughly painted streets?
January 23rd, 2017 at 12:47 pm
#1 I read u loud and clear. You facts are the real story here. Your concerns are why i want to run(going through investigation to retain my voting rights. Your observations as to what has been going on is concerning and should be addressed at once. The comments are w/out merit. I have never witnessed Mayor Seiler sleeping at these meetings. I have always seen him treat the speakers w/ respect. However there have been times w/ some of the speakers. They have calle dhim names. Insulting and even questioned his faith(yes). To the cheap shots that his mother didn.t teach him manners. she and her husband did an amazing job w/ him and their family. So Mayor Seiler has 7 bathrooms(who cares). Tohe went to private school(so did u Charlie. Th e mayor has done a great job representing the city in that respect. The St>patrick ‘s day parade etc. #1 again what i want to see is bridges stay down during rush hours. We put all that money back in the water and sewers etc. No more dev. east of Federal. We lower the cost to live in the city. From water, sewer, to property taxes all be lowered 5% across board.We treat are police better. We give them their colas. We bring up th e starting pay for cops. Public safety #1. We can do this. Other canidates follow my lead. If im in, if im out.These concerns need to be addressed. Fast…The mayor however didn’t deserve this…..
January 23rd, 2017 at 3:35 pm
@16
I tried to publish this photo, but Buddy censored my comment … said wasn’t safe to open in the office.
Let me give you a hint — it involved penis nose sunglasses.
January 23rd, 2017 at 4:51 pm
@19 – This photo might still be published if MAOS comes out of retirement soon, amirite?
January 24th, 2017 at 11:47 am
Also that last photo of Mayor Seiler spleeping allegedly.This pic should not be a file photo. This was a cheap shot which as u all know i hate cheap shots. Im sure this photo will be used against him w/out merit. I also would take away Mr.seitz is photo taking rights etc. He should not have a media pass . Just becaus e the mayor cut him off for going off topic. You fail to let the residents see how mr.Seitz has spoken to the entire comm. in the past. Called one sitting comm.a self centered bitch . So Mr.Seitz can dish it out ,then he must learn how to take it. No difference. Again comments from#1 is the real concern here. Not Mr.Seitz picture taking. Wher’s Herb Ritts when i need him(also did u see Cindy Adams(page6) at the Trump parties.Not bad for pushin ninety. Nothing gets by me)…..Say your sorry artie..
January 24th, 2017 at 3:23 pm
When MAOS was running, I was shot at, sued, lost business, tilted at too many windmills. I learned the Broward SAO will not prosecute one of their own. Terry Scott threatened to cut my head off and hand it to my mother on a silver platter. I laughed in his face and continued to write about him. Okay, so that’s a positive.
Countless people were (rightly) dick-nosed … Pat Flury retired because of it.
Three electeds went to jail, two found guilty, one perjured himself to escape a guilty plea. Local pastors fined, board members removed or quit.
Bob Norman’s WPLG lawyer sent me numerous bitching and moaning letters.
I’ve been on The Daily Show (twice), Colbert, lost count on my All Things Considered NPR appearances … in the NY Times, WashPo, The Atlantic, MTV, Advocate, HuffPo, Time, and nearly every US media outlet.
I’m part of Festivus folklore.
Rush Limbaugh called me a pinhead, Jon Stewart referred to me as the “General Patton on the War on Xmas.”
Been on TV, radio, in print. Included in an off-Broadway musical. Won awards, made a whopping $300 in donations over a decade, spent an incredible amount of personal time and treasure. Wasted too much time on the bullshit known as Broward Politics.
My beloved family dog was poisoned.
MAOS is dead, and will never be coming back. I’ve done more than my fair share, time for someone else to step to the plate.
January 24th, 2017 at 6:48 pm
What a sad commentary on our city leadership. Whatever happened to “of the people, by the people…”
If Jack Seiler hopes to garner any support for future efforts he should start by at least acting like he cares. Especially in a public forum. As a reminder, Jack, the public asking for a reasonably timed public meeting that affords them the opportunity to comment (without having to wait 5 hours) is not out of order.
What is out of order is your propensity to run meetings well into the a.m. and then become flustered when you have to listen to what your constituents have to say.
Shame on you.
January 25th, 2017 at 12:39 pm
This was from April 2010 just some history on how evil Judy the Hippo Works, a real pig.
I saw this on Pulp today…
Looks like Judy is could be using her immunity with Satz that Bob Norman speculated about recently to settle old scores.
Overheard on Las Olas says:
Judy Stern was bragging to the folks at the table next to mine at Mangos today about all the information she gave to the State Attorney about Cindi Hutchinson and how she is the next to be indicted. She said Gretzas will not be far behind.
Posted On: Tuesday, Sep. 21 2010 @ 1:46PM
FROM BUDDY:
I know how the case against Hutchinson was developed and it had little, or nothing, to do with Judy Stern.
January 25th, 2017 at 12:43 pm
Hey Disappointed, at least no one died this time. About 6 months ago “Crooked” Jack Seiler kept an old woman from Leisure Beach Condo up till 1:30am in the morning at city hall. The woman after being driven back to her condo, fell and broke her hip between the elevator and her unit and lied there till morning when a flight attendant on her way to work found her. She later died at the hospital. Shockingly the Sun Sentinel didn’t consider this news fit to print. I guess bad public policy, a policy decided by one shameless individual can indeed kill.
January 25th, 2017 at 5:31 pm
Cindi had a weak moral compass and saw how people around her were getting rich off her pro development votes. She could not resist putting some in her own pocket. Would have been better off with Jack Latona. He voted for stuff he believed in and not because he was getting paid.
Just look at the new tower on Las Olas that could have been a one story restaurant and a park by swapping for a parcel on the beach for a medium size condo (small by today’s standards. And now we have the tallest building in Broward next to Fort Lauderdale’s most historic building.
Elect people with a strong moral compass folks or the politicians will leave you stranded on the rocks.
January 26th, 2017 at 9:33 am
Those witnesses to the Seiler regime particularly over the past few years have seen a Mayors curious spiraling into a seemingly thin skinned dictatorial political sideshow.
A “Check the box” job as a launch pad to the inevitable higher office now seems mired in mediocrity.
Numerous inexplicable run-ins against his core constituents have isolated him further.
National Republican leaders failed to stem the tide of disillusionment within their party and now have a party turned on its head. National Democratic Party leaders cannot afford to stand idly by and watch their Party suffer the same fate.
The fact is that with a Trump victory and the rise of a new narrative permeating the Country, Florida Democrats cannot afford to lose the vice grip on their base in Broward ahead of 2018
What is striking is that the topic of Infrastructure concerns under discussion in this article is problematic for Seiler as the future challenges in his City are both inevitable and unfunded and worst of all, failing critical infrastructure hurts the very people he needs.
Path to higher office for Seiler has certainly been curtailed and in the eyes of some, is already sun setting.
Question is, who will rise up to fill the void in Broward?
January 26th, 2017 at 3:01 pm
He’s only there for the check Like about 75% of our politicions!!
January 26th, 2017 at 5:33 pm
@28. Helen Thiboult
Of greater value is the YEARS toward the state pension. 12 years in Wilton Manors, 6 or 8 in Tallahassee, and now almost 9 years in Fort Lauderdale.
Close to a million dollars if not more in pension benefits.
January 26th, 2017 at 9:52 pm
Maybe people should turn out March 13th 2018 to vote against “Crooked” Jack Seiler’s hand pick successor and current associate Bruce Roberts. It would really be something to see residents fed up with another year of deterioration of our infrastructure and the money transfers from the Water and Sewer Department to the nonresident unions that make up the public safety establishment, show up at the polls and shock the lobbyist class of this city.
January 27th, 2017 at 3:23 pm
Very true #30. Jack is done in a year. This article should be about the same lack of attention and respect, and lack of consideration for residents concerns, given by mayoral candidate Bruce Roberts. He has been there every step of the way as the City’s decaying infrastructure implodes, yet lobbyist demands get expedited.
A vote for Bruce Roberts in 2018 is a vote for a lobbyist run government who ignores residents concerns. Voter beware.
January 28th, 2017 at 7:59 am
Under Seiler, Roberts and Feldman, they have spent all the reserve money accumulated years ago, quietly approved so many megastructures without infrastructure, the traffic stinks and all they want to do is throw parties and have parades.
January 29th, 2017 at 10:04 am
Don’t forget about Romney Rogers, he signed on for the big sellout too.
January 29th, 2017 at 9:04 pm
The sad thing is they are beholden to Judy Stern they have no spine, she is the only one to promote them, thus she can pull the strings and get whatever she wants. Bruce is her puppet and will do as she says. McKeenze the same was planted there and is a Plantation Resident
90 % of Fort lauderdale never votes, and they count on that. 5600 votes for Sieler a 16th of the residents, he has pensions from everywhere and careless about his actions
January 30th, 2017 at 5:03 pm
I agree, however, Rogers just doesn’t look or seem very bright. He kinda just sits up there and smiles like Gomer Pyle.