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The Town of Southwest Ranches, Corrections Corporation of American (CCA), and DHS / ICE want to build one of the largest immigration detention centers in the nation within walking distance of thousands of homes; thus, reducing the quality of our life and our community. We do not agree with the federal government privatizing our immigration detention centers throughout the nation when there is clear evidence that privatizing our prisons creates a clear public safety threat. For ICE to continue to privatize these institutions and bring this safety threat through their "secure communities Initiative" to our community is unacceptable. Depriving someone of their liberty is a non-delegable governmental function and privatizing of such a function is infecting our nation like a virus.

The Town of Southwest Ranches has now entered into it's THIRD Fire Contract within the last year now with the Town of Davie, costing taxpayers $120,000 in ramp up fees. They are now closing several roads in western Southwest Ranches charging the tax payers $80,000 for the gates. They have paid an unknown amount of money for lobbying with ICE regarding this prison. They have several lawsuits against the Town, 1- Involving Open Meeting Violations on a November 5th meeting concerning the ICE Detention Center, 2- Open Records Violations, and 3- The Town is putting together a lawsuit to sue Pembroke Pines for breach of contract because the City utilized their exit clause and cancelled for convenience their Fire/EMS contract which included water and sewer at the last minute for the CCA prison. In the contract it states that there should be no third party beneficiaries. CCA would be a third party in this instance.

CCA has also filed suit in Federal court against the City of Pembroke Pines saying they are denying them water however the City had never seen a water application. The City did file for a Declaratory Judgement in State Court but that has been put on hold until the Federal Court hears the suit from CCA.

Is ANYONE CONFUSED as to why the Pembroke Pines/Southwest Ranches Fire Agreement was cancelled? The Town Attorney Keith Poliakoff attempted to "slip" into the agreement a portion that guaranteed water for the prison at CCA's request. This is something that should have been brought up separately. CCA should have brought it forward on their own in a water application. This is sleight of hand that CCA and the Town attempted to do because they were so afraid of CCA being on the Pembroke Pines agenda.

As of June 2012, ICE put out a statement that the site selection was no longer needed due to the fact that the extra bedspace was no longer needed. READ UPDATE HERE!


Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Activist Loses Suit For Civil Rights and $1.25



As part of the long drawn out attempt to keep this prison deal hidden from public view, an anti-prison activist sued the Town of Southwest Ranches for access to public records related to the prison and lost the first round.  Now the Town claims the activist owes $20,000 in legal fees.Read this report from FOGWatch.org.

Town of Southwest Ranches Seeks to Make Public Records Requestor Pay Legal Fees

Posted on March 13, 2012 

 

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From a television news report it appears the Town of Southwest Ranches intends to seek legal fees from Bill Di Scipio after his public records lawsuit was dismissed by a Broward County judge.  According to the report the fees amount to more than $20,000.

In my humble layman’s opinion, I think the odds of that happening are nearly zero. In fact, I suspect that by the time this is all over it will be the little Town of Southwest Ranches that is writing a check…and by then it will be for a lot more than $20,000.
After reviewing the facts of Di Scipio’s case I believe the law and the facts are overwhelmingly on his side. Now, I’m not an attorney, but I can both read and write; and I’ve read the Florida Attorney General’s Sunshine Manual and much of the case law dealing with public records issues in Florida.  I’m guessing that’s a lot more than the attorneys at Becker & Poliakoff, the Town’s law firm, can say. Then again, no matter what happens, win, lose or draw, Becker & Poliakoff will get paid. So I don’t suppose that it matters to them if they are giving really bad advice to their client. That bad advice has, by their count, generated more than $20,000 in fees in this case alone.
The real outrage in this case is that a large law firm like Becker & Poliakoff are collecting legal fees from a public entity in Florida when they obviously know so little about Article 1, Section 24 of the Florida Constitution, Chapter 119 of the Florida Statutes and well established case law regarding public records issues.
Please view the Channel 10 piece that Bob Norman did on the topic.
http://www.local10.com/news/Town-hits-activist-for-legal-fees-over-1-25-suit/-/1717324/9283388/-/x0tgug/-/index.html
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