{"id":336816,"date":"2026-07-11T10:27:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T10:27:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/336816\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T10:27:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T10:27:07","slug":"turmoil-at-city-halls-is-all-too-common","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/336816\/","title":{"rendered":"Turmoil at city halls is all too common"},"content":{"rendered":"

The debacle with another city manager in Fort Lauderdale is not unique. This issue frequents a lot of South Florida communities.<\/p>\n

Boynton Beach, Delray Beach, Riviera Beach and Boca Raton have all had revolving doors in that job. It is supposedly administrative, but sadly, like everything else in government, it has become a polarizing political football.<\/p>\n

\u201cPetty, vindictive politics,\u201d as described in a Sun Sentinel editorial<\/a>, is how the game is played. No wonder nothing gets done. Everyone has their own agenda, and it doesn\u2019t include working for the common good. Knock it off, people, and do your jobs.<\/p>\n

\u2014\u00a0Mike Hundley, West Palm Beach<\/p>\n

New city hall is too expensive<\/p>\n

At least three of five elected officials in Fort Lauderdale have demonstrated to us that (a) they lack sound business judgment; (b) are utterly incompetent at spending our dollars; or (c) are major risk takers.<\/p>\n

They voted to spend $217 million<\/a> on a new city hall, ignoring the impending November statewide vote on a constitutional amendment that will severely impact a major source of revenue: property taxes. (The three were Mayor Dean Trantalis and commissioners Steve Glassman and Pamela Beasley-Pittman.)<\/p>\n

Responsible leaders would have hit the pause button and waited until the votes are in to see if the property tax change became law. If not, proceed. If so, analyze the impact on the city and make an informed decision on whether the city can afford a new city hall.<\/p>\n

\u2014\u00a0Howard A. Tescher, Fort Lauderdale<\/p>\n

Nothing normal about it<\/p>\n

I am increasingly disturbed by this so-called Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

President Biden was asked by a reporter about a decision by the justices, and he said<\/a> it \u201cis not a normal Court.\u201d I am starting to understand what he meant. This court either does not understand what the founders created in Philadelphia in 1787, or, as Biden charged, they have premeditated intent to dismantle it.<\/p>\n

In essence, the founders created what today we call a city manager form of government.<\/p>\n

They did not create three co-equal branches \u2014 not even close. James Madison was insistent that Congress was the most important and powerful branch, especially the House, which was closest to the people and, being elected every two years, would infuse new blood and new ideas into Congress in perpetuity. Remember that at its creation, the House was the only element of the government elected by the people \u2014 senators by the state legislatures, the president by the Electoral College, Supreme Court justices by the president and the Senate.<\/p>\n

Almost all the founders expected the Supreme Court to become the weakest branch, because it had no enforcement power, just the honorable acquiescence of the government.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s self-styled \u201coriginalist\u201d Supreme Court is apparently enacting what\u2019s called the unitary executive theory, which stipulates that as the head of the executive branch, the president can do whatever he wants. Profoundly worse, and terminally perhaps, the court has given the president total immunity from criminal prosecution for any deed he performs that possibly could be considered an official act \u2014 more or less just like a king.<\/p>\n

\u2014\u00a0Rick Garr, Fort Lauderdale<\/p>\n

Wars without ends<\/p>\n

It is said that it is easy to start a war, but hard to end one. Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are finding this out the hard way.<\/p>\n

Putin started a war with Ukraine with the belief that it would be over in weeks. It has been more than four years, with no end in sight. Trump, deluded by the walkover in Venezuela, thought Iran would surrender in short order. The Iran war is now in its fourth month, with no end in sight.<\/p>\n

The Strait of Hormuz is still mostly closed, gas and grocery prices remain elevated, the U.S. has not achieved any of its goals and our government can\u2019t figure out how to bring it to an end. Perhaps like Vietnam, we should just declare victory and go home.<\/p>\n

\u2014\u00a0Jeff Light, Coconut Creek<\/p>\n

Please submit a letter to the editor by email to\u00a0letterstotheeditor@sunsentinel.com<\/a> or fill out the online form below. Letters may be up to 200 words and must be signed with your email address, city of residence and daytime phone number for verification. Letters will be edited for clarity and length.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The debacle with another city manager in Fort Lauderdale is not unique. This issue frequents a lot of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274148,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[249,251,250,114,1205,482],"class_list":["post-336816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news","tag-latest-headlines","tag-letters-to-the-editor","tag-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}