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Publisher's Perspective  

(Photo by Leona Minto)

    Will Mayor Jim Naugle and the Fort Lauderdale City Commissioners do the ³Right Thing² on Tuesday night, November 4, 2003 in regards to the $90 million Palazzo Las Olas Project? Shouldn¹t the Black Print Media be as aggressive in its support of this Caribbean Redevelopment Project as was the case with the African-American Donahue Peeples¹ controversial jointly owned Broward County Commission¹s Convention Center Hotel Project? Where is Broward County Commissioner Josephus Eggelletion, at a time when his influential political connections are needed to get a favorable decision from the Democratic Party dominated Fort Lauderdale City Commissioners? Is he holding back his support for the Palazzo Las Olas Project due to his unjustified fears that an approval will give Carlton Moore an advantage in their 2004 District 9 County Commissioner¹s Contest? Can it be said that E. Pat Larkins, the President of the Broward County Minority Builders Coalition Inc. is taking a lukewarm position, similarly to Josephus Eggelletion, and is not prioriting his members¹ interest from such a massive construction project on the Intercostals? 

    The Troika of elected officials, which removed the maligned and ineffectual African-American City Manger, Floyd Johnson, will face the wrath of the African-American and Caribbean-American Communities in Broward County, if they decide to take a hostile position to the Trinidadian Tycoon, Cyril Dupree¹s redevelopment project. The vote to remove Floyd Johnson was a political masterpiece by the Troika of Mayor Jim Nangle, Cindi Hutchinson and Christine Teel. They knew that the diasporic communities have not embraced their ³lost brother² who engaged in a ³conspiracy of silence² while his subordinates engaged in numerous subtle and vulgar discriminatory activities against his own people. This has placed the City Administration in a negative vein. They won the Black Print Media support- especially The Broward Times- for their political hygienic decision on the issues of racial equality and gender empowerment.
                   
    It will be interesting to see if this Troika is willing to add to this City¹s financial liabilities by voting against Palazzo Las Olas Project. They had silenced the disaporic communities and the White Liberals on Floyd Johnson¹s ouster by pointing out the huge financial deficits he has allowed to take place without telling them. Furthermore, in their attempts to get our support on that ³snap decision² they appeared to be telling us that his indecisiveness o the rampant discrimination within City Hall, has led to Federal Judicial Rulings, which have added to the City¹s financial crisis. On Tuesday night, November 4, 2003 we hope that this Troika is cognizant of the potential huge Federal Judicial Award to the Planners of Palazzo Las Olas, if they engage in ³Administrative Amnesia² and violate the ³sacredness² of the contract they signed with the planners of Palazzo Las Olas Project.

    Certainly, the City¹s Legal Officers must have advised this Troika on the consequences of violating the ³Spirit and Intent² of the binding agreement with Cyril Dupree¹s Investment Group. Equally important is the ³morality added value² of the earlier agreement, which this Troika would like to place ³under the rug.² We are addressing their commitments to minority empowerment, and the end of racial injustices. They would like to sway public opinion that they have to stop the rapid development of Fort Lauderdale. They may have a convincing case on this environmental ³political hot potato.² However, they have failed to address the issue that Cyril Dupree¹s Palazzo Las Olas is a redevelopment project which was initiated by the City of Fort Lauderdale¹s January 2002, ³request for proposals seeking private developers to come forward with proposals to re-develop the Las Olas Intercostals Parking Lot.² They do not need a reminder that this was a Continuance of the December 13, 2001 ³unaminous decision² by the then City Commission with Mayor Jim Naugle, Vice Mayor Tim Smith, Carlton Moore, Gloria Katz and Cindy Hutchinson ³to develop the Las Olas Intercostals Parking Lot.² It is not a new project after the March 11, 2003 Fort Lauderdale City¹s elections which ushered in Dean Trantalis and the Anti-Development advocate Christine Teel. Any rescinding of this earlier 2002 agreement with the Trinidadian Tycoon by this new City Commission has to be seen as a vote against minority empowerment in an area which
 was once an apartheid enclave.      
       .
                 

    Let us now turn to Dean Trantalis who is an advocate of equal rights and justice for minorities, women and those with non-traditional sexual orientations. How is it taking him so long to understand the discriminatory trends within his City Commission against a Caribbean developer who wants a level playing field to carry out his enormous entrepreneurial project? We should not have to remind him that his narrow victory was due to the Haitian and African-American supporters who voted for him. Has he forgotten in such a short time the roles play by the Haitian leaders such as Gomez Accime of H.A.C.H.O., Francois LeConte, and Marvin Dejean of Minority Development Empowerment, which contributed, to his narrow victory over his opponent. In spite of the strong support from one of the largest gay community in this country, it took the African-American and Haitian-American voters to get him to that coveted seat on the Fort Lauderdale City Commission. He needs to demonstrate his overt commitments to the disaporic communities by a favorable vote on the Palazzo Las Olas Project. This would be a demonstrative case of reciprocal goodwill.

    Both Cindi Hutchinson and Christine Teel need to demonstrate their political independence from Mayor Jim Naugle. In the quest for gender empowerment and smashing of the glass ceilings, both politicians have come face to face with subtle and vulgar discrimination. Would it be a case of supreme irony, if these two prominent female politicians who have been direct beneficiaries of the 1960¹s Civil Rights Movement, vote to deny an individual who, in spite of his enormous wealth, Is Being Discriminated Because Of His Black Ancestry and his Birth in a Small country known as Trinidad and Tobago.

    In the contentious Donahue Peeples¹ hotel project, it was a predominantly Democratic Party Broward County Commission, which denied him the opportunity to own the first African-American hotel in Fort Lauderdale. The African-American County Commissioner Joseph Eggelletion rehabilitated his ³skaky² political career by his principled positions on Donahue Peeples¹ legal rights to get the County¹s financial assistance to build his jointly owned hotel with the Wyndham Hotel Chain. Both him and his confidante, the Bahamian hospitality consultant, Andrew ³Andy² Ingraham were in the Miami Herald and the Sun Sentinel on a daily basis on behalf of Donahue Peeples. Isn¹t it a bit worrisome that this is not the case with the Trinidadian born Tycoon¹s Palazzo Las Olas Project? It cannot be the white Republican partners linked to Cyril Dupree. We must point out that a majority of Commissioner Josephus Eggelletion¹s financial supporters in his political campaigns have been sugar magnates and downtown Fort Lauderdale White Corporate Elites. It must be stated that one night after a Fort Lauderdale NAACP¹s meeting, I heard a prominent African-American journalist viciously taking Andy Ingraham to task for his friend, County Commissioner Josephus Eggelletion hypocritical behavior by not mentioning that Donahue Peeples surrounded himself with exclusively white legal and executive staff while demanding from the County Commissioners minority preferential treatment to build his hotels

                      

    Unlike Dan Bowen, the President/CEO of the Broward County Urban League we have not heard or seen Bill McCormick, the President of the Fort Lauderdale NAACP on the issue of the Palazzo Las Olas Project. Both he and E. Pat Larkins should have been the major voices of protest on the shift of position by the ³New² Fort Lauderdale City Commission due to the fact that African-Americans in the construction industry will be direct beneficiaries of this Caribbean Condominium project on the Las Olas Intercoastal.

    There is a $30 million ³Set Aside Program² for minority contractors from this project. It was disquieting, on Thursday night, October 23, 2003 that E. Pat Larkins did not mention a single word about the positive benefits of this project when he spoke at his Organization¹s Minority Builders Coalition Inc.¹s 32nd year Anniversary Dinner. Let us hope that the outspoken and principled president Dan Bowen of the Urban League of Broward County will not be a ³selective² reformer as E. Pat Larkins and Bill McCormick when he speaks at his Organization¹s 2003 Equal Opportunity Day Awards Dinner on Friday October 31, 2003 at the Marriott Harbor Beach Resort and Spa, Holiday Drive, Fort Lauderdale.

    The vote on Tuesday night, November 4, 2004 will be a direct signal to the Black people in Broward County. We shall see whether if the City of Fort Lauderdale Commission is a partner with us in building an equalitarian society. 

THAT IS THE BOTTOM LINE. 

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