It’s time for the city of Fort Lauderdale to get its proverbial house in order. In my 28 years of living here, I have never seen this level of dysfunction.
We have seen anonymously sourced articles critical of the city manager planted in political blogs. We’ve read stories of a commissioner’s aide eavesdropping on the mayor’s chief of staff.
City employees allegedly took demotions or resigned to avoid a toxic work environment. We saw a disastrous presentation about the expected cost of a new city hall when it was not even noticed for discussion. Two weeks later, a similar presentation was not ready for prime time as commissioners had not yet agreed on a financing structure.
An anonymous robotext went out sounding alarms about an audit of P-cards for expenditures that predated the current city manager, for which she has failed to take disciplinary action.
If internal city operations are as bad as they appear, immediate change is needed. If they are more cohesive than what the public sees, the commission should put an end to the rumors. We cannot allow this level of dysfunction to continue and turn #WEAREFTL into #WEAREACIRCUS. The world and DOGE are watching. It’s time to get our act together.
— Barbra Stern, Esq., Fort Lauderdale
The writer was a candidate for mayor in 2024 and plans to run again in 2028.
Contempt for city taxpayers
Please don’t tell me how Fort Lauderdale will suffer if the property tax legislation is approved.
Your front-page article of June 11 described serious misuse of city issued P-cards. I was shocked, but maybe I shouldn’t be, considering the corruption in government these days.
How is it that people are not arrested or fired for making unauthorized prohibited purchases? Your article described more than $200,000 of gifts, third-party charges, prohibited purchases and theft.
To show how they don’t care about taxpayers, your article said the last P-card audit was in 2019. How is this possible? Shame on us taxpayers if we continue to allow this contempt to continue.
— Mike Murphy, Lighthouse Point
The writer owned a business in Fort Lauderdale for more than 20 years.
The outrage is misplaced
Regarding the article about questionable purchases with city-issued credit cards in Fort Lauderdale, I find the outrage understandable but misplaced.
Marilyn Mammano is a former planner for New York City and a studious overseer of Fort Lauderdale government.
Add up all the instances of questionable expenses in the article, totaling about $350,000, and compare it to the fiscal 2024 city general fund budget of $458 million, depending on how you count.
Do the math. It hardly registers.
Who among us hasn’t misplaced a credit card and not noticed it until someone racked up thousands of dollars in fraudulent charges?
I’m more concerned about the City Commission approving moving forward on a new City Hall that was estimated to cost $720 million until there was a public outcry and they were pushed to seek more cost-effective alternatives. Let’s stop demonizing city employees and look to where big bucks can be saved.
— Marilyn Mammano, Fort Lauderdale
The writer is a former chair of the city’s Infrastructure Task Force.
fortlauderdale.gov
At a June 2, 2026 meeting, Fort Lauderdale Commissioner Steve Glassman called out city resident Ted Inserra for his comments from the audience, saying: “Bad upbringing, Ted. Really bad upbringing.”
Censure the commissioner
Fort Lauderdale City Commissioner Steven Glassman should be censured for the way he spoke to resident Ted Inserra on June 2.
Inserra did speak out of turn from the audience — but so did others. Glassman called Ted rude and said he had a “really bad upbringing.”
What a nasty, unprofessional comment about a member of this city’s constituency who has spent much time on important issues.
Glassman has a reputation for being nasty and condescending to residents who disagree with him. But telling a constituent he has had a poor upbringing was unkind and cruel.
Glassman owes Ted Inserra an apology. So does Mayor Dean Trantalis for not calling out the commissioner for being unacceptable. If Glassman can’t control his disdain for constituents with whom he disagrees, he doesn’t deserve to be a commissioner.
— Nancy Thomas, Fort Lauderdale
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