South Florida Sun Sentinel from Fort Lauderdale, Florida • Page 13

SOUTH BROWARD SurvSgntincI 3 1 1 rs rinnn Friday, March 7, 1S2S Complaint challenges seniors' discounts By Kevin Allen Suit Writer He has waged political campaigns promising to give horses the right to vote and to change the name of Davie to David because it is more dignified. But writer and offbeat political activist Richard Grayson says a complaint he has filed challenging senior citizens discounts at a savings and loan is no joke. The complaint filed Wednesday with the Broward County Human Relations Division charges that AmeriFirst Federal Savings and Loan Association discriminates against the young by offering discounts to customers over 55. Grayson, 34, a former Broward Community College teacher whose writing frequently pokes fun at South Florida lifestyles, called the complaint "a legal or intellectual exercise." "It bothers me that these discounts may be illegal but are operating merely because no one has challenged them," said the Davie resident "Frankly, I was surprised that I was the first one." The complaint is indeed the first in Broward challenging one of the hundreds of discounts offered by financial institutions, restaurants, retail stores and other businesses, said Gloria Battle, director of the Broward Human Relations Division. But last week in Dade County, travel agent Robert Jednak filed a complaint with the Dade County Fair Housing and Employment Appeals Board, saying that Wometco The aters, Eastern Airlines, Barnett Bank and the Fontainebleau Hilton discriminate by offering senior discounts.

Jednak's complaint followed a ruling by the board that the Carriage House, a Miami Beach apartment complex, illegally offered a 15 percent "yuppie discount" to tenants under 50. The board also awarded $50,000 for mental distress to Evelyn Weissman, 57, the Carriage House tenant who challenged the policy. The ruling is being appealed. Please see D1SCRIMINA TIOS, 4B Gary Stein Columnist Taxis roll; shutdown order defied 1 (l 'f By Rick Pierce Staff Writer At least four of the seven taxi firms ordered by Broward County officials to suspend operating because they lack the required insurance coverage continued to operate in defiance of the order. Margate Taxi, Friendly Checker, Public Service and Parris Cabs were running as of Thursday.

Meanwhile, Jesse Gaddis, the taxi baron whose fleet was not affected by the suspension, said Thursday that he provided the tip that led county officials to suspend the other firms. Gaddis' firms have the insurance required by the county. He owns or dispatches all of the taxi companies in Broward except for the seven under the county order. "I'd be out of business if I didn't run," said Lester Joffe, one of the owners of Margate Taxi. Cabs owned by two other firms that were ordered to take their taxis off the road, Friendly Checker and Public Service, were seen carrying passengers at Port Everglades by a county taxi examiner.

And an employee answering the phones at Parris Cabs in Fort Lauderdale, who refused to be identified, said: "Yes, Yes. We're running." The firms could have their county license permanently revoked by disobeying the order. "If I were these guys, I'd shut down for a day, at least for a day," said Kent Rice, the county official who oversees cabs. Rice said he planned to go to county attorneys today to seek a court injunction to stop Friendly Checker and Public Service from operating their taxis. Those were the two firms seen carrying passengers by the taxi examiner.

"I don't have any other choice," he said. Robert Siedlecki, owner of Friendly Checker, said that 20 of his cabs could operate because they were insured through other companies. But Rice said he has no proof of Siedlecki's claim. "There's not one thing in this office with his name on it saying he has insurance," Rice said. The seven firms that were suspended by the county purchased bogus insurance policies in good faith from an insurance broker whose license has been revoked from the state, county officials said.

Those firms still have small amounts of insurance, but i.ot enough to meet the county's requirements. Besides the four still running, the otier three are Charlie Robinson in Hallandale, Comet Cab in Fort Lauderdale and County Taxi in Hollywood. A state insurance fraud investigator said the broker, William Reese of Reese Insurance Agency in Miami, is under investigation, but refused to discuss the details of the case. Reese, according to county officials, was providing insurance at a rate just one-third of that paid by Gaddis to insure his taxis. Gaddis said some of the owners had to suspect something.

"There's a lot more to this than meets the eye," Gaddis said. "Some of the people buying this knew all along what they were buying." Please see TAXIS, 4B I i Where's niche for squatter? Howard Wendel sat down on an old bench in front of his cluttered houseboat along the shore of the Intracoastal Waterway, and told me about the days when he was a guide in the area. "I think I know more about this land than any two people around here," be said "I've seen the land grow. I've seen its history. I can tell you who lives on each piece of property.

"I was a guide here long before they thought about having parks. I used to take people fishing. I could tell people the stories about this land." For one hour Thursday morning, I visited with the squatter and his wife, Rebhey, who are under court order to leave the property where they have lived for almost 40 years. They reside on the West Lake parcel that is to become a park. As we talked, I kept thinking there has to be a place somewhere in Broward County's parks system for this man to work and perhaps live.

County agencies are trying to find Wendel a job (he missed an interview Wednesday) and a place to live. Having lived in his own world for almost 40 years, bow-ever, this is not a man who is going to blend immediately into your basic job routine. Getting Wendel some kind of work with the parks system would seem to be beneficial to both him and the county. A couple of county officials I talked to Thursday, however, indicated that a parks job for Wendel doesn't figure to open up quickly. "At this point, there is no position to put him into at West Lake," said County Commissioner Nicki Grossman.

"There isn't going to much call for a guide until there is some development of the park. Before any kind of position opened up, it would be at least six months or a year. "He's very much what we'd be looking for as a guide). Nobody knows the West Lake area as well as he could. To bring West Lake alive, you couldn't do better than him." She said a job for Wendel at another county park while West Lake was being developed would be "something we'd have to consider." Wendel, of course, doesn't have much time before he's going to have to get off the property.

County Parks and Recreation Director Larry Lietzke said he was sympathetic, but didn't anticipate exceptions being made in Wendel's case. "I wouldn't have the authority to create a position," Lietzke said. "Mr. Wendel is eligible to apply for openings, but he would have to go through the normal civil service procedures." "I would like to work in the open," said Wendel, 58, who has supported himself and his wife by salvaging and selling junk. Wendel showed me around the shack of a houseboat where he lives.

Among his possessions is a small battery-operated television set that was given to him by Burt Reynolds, who filmed some scenes for the movie Stick on the property. "Burt Reynolds said this was the only place where he relaxed," Wendel said. "He said I've got the kind of life you can't buy anymore." Wendel's wife said it's been maybe 15 years since he's wanted to eat a meal in a restaurant They went to a theater to see Stick, but usually their film entertainment consisted of going to the old Hi-Way Drive-In a couple of times a year, particularly for the all-night movies on New Year's Eve. "People called my father legendary beachcomber Whiskey Joe a hermit," Wendel said. "They call me a hermit.

A hermit likes to live alone. I like to be with people, to chat with people. I get along with the public. "I would like to be in this kind of life. Give me a little place in the woods that I can maintain." I hope he somehow gets what he wants.

'IWflMi'i. 10 Staff photo by URSULA SEEMANN Dinner guests A group of hungry raccoons takes a liking to Sally Young Boulevard and State Road A1A in Fort Lauderdale, and and Joe Stella of Fort Lauderdale. The critters come congregate almost nightly for a trash-bin dinner party at from Hugh T. Birch State Park, at the corner of Sunrise a nearby fire station. Please see story, 4B.

Pines road work blamed for accidents, delays someone in the jump seat," Hart said. In the two days since crews began paving the original two lanes of Pines Boulevard, emergency vehicles have been called out five times. Each time, a rescue truck, a fire engine and an aerial truck have had to climb the slope slowly, Hart said. He estimated that response time to emergencies has been slowed from the regular 3i minutes to 4V minutes. So far, he said, the slower time has caused no medical problems.

Officials did not expect road crews to leave a 2 't -foot gravel incline for cars and trucks to drive over, said Henry Cook, director of Broward County's Engineering Division, which is overseeing the project "My recollection was that the proposed construction of the two lanes would be at about the same elevation as the existing two lanes," Cook said. "That's why I don't understand the differential." By Renee Krause Staff Writer PEMBROKE PINES A construction project has transformed Pines Boulevard into a danger zone, city officials said Thursday. The widening of the road from two to four lanes was blamed for three traffic accidents since Wednesday afternoon and a slower response time for emergency vehicles. A 2li-foot gravel slope left by work crews separates the east and west lanes directly in front of the Public Safety building, at 9500 Pines Blvd. The slope is so dangerous that rescue vehicles must drive slowly when leaving the station, and the delay could result in a death, said Fire Rescue Chief Marvin Hart.

"If we hit that at the speeds we normally go, we could lose some equipment. Or we could lose a person if we had He said he has received numerous complaints, and the correction of the problem will be a priority for crews this morning. The incline will be paved to make it easier for cars and trucks to pass, he said. Police Chief John Tighe was fuming Thursday. When he arrived at the station, he discovered he could make neither a right turn nor a left turn into the parking lot because road crews had blocked all entrances with fluorescent cones.

"We have to drive our equipment through a ditch," he said. "It's potentially dangerous for the fire engines." Tighe said that the county's engineering department broke promises to him. He said he worked out all the details on how Pines Boulevard would be blocked during construction, and none of the plans called for an incline or for all entrances to the station to be blocked. "They just didn't keep their promises," he said. mm i -mn .1.

u.i.nni.iiiiiiiui i i Mortgage broker gets 312-year term Koltun's sentencing for theft and uttering a forged instrument came as the Florida Comptroller's Office gets ready to present its mortgage-fraud investigation on Koltun to prosecutors. State investigators say they have determined that Koltun took at least $1 million of the $3 million that investors gave Oakland Mortgage in the 18 months before it folded abruptly in July 1984. "This is a tip-of-the-iceberg case," Assistant State Attorney Carole Rice said. "This case involving the Camerons is one small Please see KOLTUN, 4B "You may be a fine fellow, but you violated your position of trust and stole money. You are just a cold, calculating crook," Broward Circuit Judge Arthur Franza said.

Koltun, 34, of Boca Raton, an owner of the defunct Oakland Mortgage Co. of Fort Lauderdale and a licensed mortgage broker, also was ordered to repay the $100,000 to Victor and Winsome Cameron, who have a home in North Lauderdale. "That's their old-age savings, their kids' education. That's not nice," the judge said. "You're no different from people doing these other scams." By Jack Brennan Sufi Writer Barry Koltun was a man oi contradictions.

In his spare time, he counseled foster children and took them on trips to the circus. By day he wrote bad mortgage loans that allegedly wound up costing his clients at least $1 million over 18 months. For one of those transactions a $100,000 deal involving a Jamaican couple who lost their $615,000 life savings to him Koltun was sentenced Thursday to 3Vi years in prison to be followed by 15 years of probation. Barry Koltun ordered to repay $100,000. Inside Jets zero in, bomb freighter Ship becomes artificial reef in Biscayne Bay Page 8B Additional regional and Dade news Pages 7-8B Delay sought on Young Circle job Board says changing traffic plan could save $187,000 Page38 -W..