Was Wasserman-Rubin good to SWR?

Dear Southwest RanchesFriends and Neighbors:

Good Morning, Good Afternoon, Good Evening and if I do not see you later … well then … Good Night!

These two articles say it all about Diana Wasserman-Rubin and her allegedly crooked husband Richard Rubin. Please read this one in New Times and this one in the Sun Sentinel.

If Wasserman-Rubin was good to SWR, it might be a little easier to have more compassion for our county commissioner. However, it seems looking back that the only time this commissioner was good to our little town was when there was something in it for her. It leads your humble Wanch to ask what was in it for her when she voted for Davie Commons? What was in it for her when she voted for the new health benefits package that cost county employees more and gave them less? I can tell you that there was probably nothing in it for the Rubin family when members of our council and administration had approached her many times in the years past and their requests when unanswered.

Was the Dynamic team of Wasserman-Rubin and Rubin really good to our town? Well, since the easy money began to flow in 2001 they got us seven parks. Every one of those parks came with strings attached based on the grant submission Rubin wrote on behalf of the Town. The phrase that was thrown about when Rubin wrote the grant submissions was "Dreaming in living color". Each one of the parks was to be developed into some costly super idea that Mayor Fink and the council absolutely loved. The money was like cocaine to an addict. Mayor Fink, Council members Fisikelli, Knight, Blanton, and Maines kept saying more, more, more! Every time the Town was awarded a park, the council asked for more, more, more! Rubin was happy to write more and more creative submissions, the mayor was happy to sign the submission and Wasserman-Rubin was happy to vote for more, more, more! Finally, when Jeff Nelson was voted on to the council he started to ask how are we going to develop and maintain all of these parks. The experienced council told him we'll just get more grants. More, more, more!

Now reality has set in for our little town. During this bad economic time, the Town can probably get mulligans on the undeveloped parks but for how long? To date, only the Sunshine Ranches Equestrian Park has been developed.

Council member Fisikelli is trying to single-handedly develop fishing hole park by using fill his friends are dumping on the property. (Why can a council member dump as much fill as he wants on town property but we cannot dump more than two loads a year on our yards? He probably has a guilt trip going on all of the debt he helped dump on the town.)

One park, Frontier Trails, is under a foot of water most of the year and the Rolling Oaks Park barn is collapsing one rainstorm at a time. The Town has barely the funds to maintain these parks as they are today. Even if ten of millions of dollars in grants were to come available and the Town won them through legitimate submissions, it could not possible afford to operate and maintain them without a substantial tax increase. After salaries and public safety, the maintenance of the Town's rights-of-way and equestrian park is probably the next highest budget line item.

Of course, the Council has turned over, only Fisikelli and Knight remain. Fisikelli tries to act like a fiscal conservative these days but he was part of the more, more, more council. Knight recently formed a parks foundation to try to get some development done. Both have voiced regret over the actions of the past.

Other than Wasserman-Rubin facing jail time and probably a divorce from her husband, Former Mayor Mecca Fink stands to loose a lot of credibility. She constantly said John Canada was a financial genius (he left with his pockets full and the town nearly broke), Richard Rubin was a talented grant writer, and Diana Wasserman-Rubin was a gifted leader. Good audits, budgetary problems and the courts seem to be proving her wrong an all accounts. It seems her good friend County Commissioner Wasserman-Rubin was not so good for our town.

Do you wonder when the State Attorney General will go after Canada, Rubin, Cor and the rest of their thieving cronies?

That’s All Folks!!!

Wanch Waggler