South Florida Sun Sentinel from Fort Lauderdale, Florida • Page 8

'i niMM' 2B Wednesday, January 19, 2000 MS LOCAL SUN-SENTINEL. SOLTH FLORIDA OTHER ACTION Tamaracks surprise candidate School Board weighs $10.8 million plan He unsuccessfully fought a legal battle to keep children and young families out of the neighborhood in the early 1990s. The community's court-appointed bankruptcy trustee has asked Klein and the other 2 13 Westwood 20 homeowners to each pay $7,250 their share of damages and legal fees from the lawsuit. Attorneys for the Florida Bar have asked the state Supreme Court to disbar Klein for his actions during the litigation. The court in November agreed to suspend Klein's right to practice law pending their decision.

Klein said the Westwood case has nothing to do with his political aspirations. Klein served as chairman of the city's elected charter board for two years until current board member Diane Glasser defeated him in the March 1999 election. He also unsuccessfully ran against then-commissioner Joe Schreiberin 1993. Before he ran against Schreiber, Lawyer under court suspension By JEREMY MILARSKY STAFF WRITER TAMARAC An attorney suspended by the state Supreme Court filed on Tuesday to challenge Vice Mayor Larry Mishkin in the March 14 election. Ed Klein, 92, has run for a city office three times before twice for one of the city's charter board seats, and once for the District 3 commission seat.

He's running for the commission seat in District 2, which under re-districting now covers his neighborhood, Westwood 20. "I think I'm qualified," Klein said. "I'm familiar with all the city's rules, regulations and statutes." Klein was the attorney for his neighborhood community association before it filed for bankruptcy. Officials seek 94 new classrooms to cut class sizes By BILL HIRSCHMAN Education writer One year after sinking 1 0 million into an effort to reduce class size, the Broward School Board is considering spending another $10.8 million, this time to build classrooms in a second attempt to thin the ranks of first- and second-graders. Last year, the district spent the money to hire 200 teachers to reduce class size to an 18-to-l ratio in 109 elementary schools.

But only a handful of those schools reached the goal, largely because of already overcrowded Broward schools. So on Tuesday, the board gave tentative approval to spending more money within a year to build 94 classrooms at 15 elementary schools. The board is expected to vote at a 3 p.m. meeting on Tuesday at Crystal Lake Middle School in Pompano Beach. 4 If approved, the money would come from Broward's share of a one-time statewide grant that the Legislature approved last year.

Each classroom would be a permanent, one-room, pre-fabricated structure that bears a passing resemblance to the portable classrooms overrunning schoolyards across the county. Similar classrooms in Palm Beach County have barrel-tiled roofs and a stucco finish. The added space would reduce class size in first grades and a few second-grade classes to a ratio of no more than 20 students to one teacher, according to the proposal offered by Comptroller Ben Leong. Schools on the list for new classrooms are: Bethune, Broward Estates, Colbert, Fairway, Lake Forest, Larkdale, Lloyd Estates, North Lauderdale, Park Ridge, Plantation Park, Riverland, Royal Palm, Sanders Park, Tedder and Walker. Those schools were chosen in part because they are among the and schools on the state's A-Plus grading scale, because their first grades are among the most crowded or because the schools already have enough teachers to staff additional classes, Leong said.

But that list of schools may change. Board members Lois Wexler and Stephanie Kraft questioned whether all of those schools need the most help, since some of them already have smaller class sizes. Member Judie Budnick also questioned whether the district's commitment to help faltering schools often predominantly minority schools in eastern Broward is penalizing other schools in the district. Most of the county's 127 elementary schools average about 27 students per first-grade class. A handful of others are in the low 30s if the teacher has an aide, according to a district report.

In large classes, teachers cannot give personalized attention to students who need more help and discipline is more difficult to maintain, educational studies show. The entire board, including Budnick, has strongly supported Many city positions uncontested Schools want own TV station Klein was chairman of the city's code-enforcement board. Upon hearing that Klein would be his opponent, Mishkin, a com-! missioner since 1994, laughed heartily. "I'm not sure I want to dig-' nify this with a comment," he said. But about 10 minutes later, Mishkin, 75, called a Sun-Sentinel 1 reporter back and asked to withdraw his earlier comment.

"I welcome the opportunity to campaign against this opponent," he said. Political insider Walter Coghlan said Klein will have a tough time wooing voters. Coghlan leads the city's powerful President's Council, a group of community leaders in Tamarac. "I don't think he's a viable candidate," said Coghlan. "That's my opinion.

I don't think he'd get that many votes." Jeremy Milarsky can be reached at jmilarsky or 954-572-2020. commission seats: M. Margaret Bates, Wally Elfers, Tyson Jones, Howard Berger, Terry Corrado and Dale Holness. Lazy Lake Three at-large council seats: Tinker Connolly; Roger Strait; Kenneth Blank Lighthouse Point Two at-large commission seats: Susie Gordon, Leo Bentz; Tom Hasis, Lawrence A. Shendell Margate Three commission seats: Rich Popovic, David McLean, Gary Noe, Arthur J.

Bross, Manes Pierre, Arlene R. Schwartz, Frank Talerico, Carol M. Eaton Parkland Mayor, two commission seats, Districts 1 and 2: Sal Pagliara, mayor; Robert Marks, District 2, Bobbi Pugliese District 1. Pembroke Pines Mayor, two commission seats in Districts 2 and 3. Alex Fekete, Phil McConaghey, mayor; Frank Ortis, Robert Roman, Randy Hoffman, District Bill Armstrong, Donald "Don" Sinclair, District 2 Pompano Beach Three commission seats Districts 1, 3, 5: Kay McGinn, Alvin Schein, District Rex Hardin, Robert Shelley, District Herb Skolnick, District 5 Sea Ranch Lakes Mayor and four, council seats.

Hugh Turner, mayor. Denise Bryan; Peter Chretien; Malcolm Black; John Brown; Larry Chiappetta; Elliot Sokolow. Tamarac Mayor, two commission -seats (Districts 2, 4), four charter board seats (At-large, District 2, 3, 4) Joseph Schreiber, Diane Bernstein Glasser, mayor; Larry Mishkin, Edward Klein, District 2 commissioner; Karen Roberts, District 4 commissioner; Harvey Kram, Lorna Bryan, at-large charter board member; Benjamin D. Hurt, Pete lerardi, District 2 charter board member; Marcia Kantorwitz, District 3 charter board member; Bert Buckley, District 4 charter board member Wilton Manors Mayor and two council members: Sandra Steen, and John Fiore, mayor; Craig Sherritt, Donald "Scott" Newton, council member. Incumbent Bill Salicco a leader in Fort Lauderdale's gay community and a car salesman, has been running against incumbent Commissioner Jack Latona for more than a year.

Lester Alexander came out of nowhere to rob Commissioner Tim Smith of automatic election. Alexander is the next-door neighbor of Commissioner Cary Keno, a political rival of Smith. About 160,000 voters more than could attend South Florida's professional baseball, football and. hockey teams simultaneously I are expected at the polls on March. 14.

The ballot will contain the pres-4 idential primary and a referendum on establishing the office of county mayor. "It's a major event," Kane said "The problem is that 1 60,000 may vote, but more than 800,000 will be eligible. Sure, it's a major participa-' tory event bigger than most sporting events, but unlike them, the stadium will mostly be empty. That's the shame." The Broward County School Board voted Tuesday to: Receive a $250,000 grant from the Sheriffs Foundation of Broward County to offercomputer technology and small-group instruction for at-risk elementary students from Dillard, Hollywood Park, Meadowbrook and Northfork schools. Advertise for bids to build an athletic fieldsports complex at Northeast High.

Upgrade the head of the school construction department from associate superintendent level to deputy superintendent and increase the pay by about $1 7,000 in an attempt to attract better qualified candidates. The post has been vacant for 17 months. Approve the superintendent's plan to transfer existing administrators to head the construction department while the district searches for a deputy superintendent. Settle a lawsuit brought by developers Ronald and Edmund Ansin, who disputed the value of land they were donating in lieu of paying impact fees. The Ansins claimed it was worth $1 .3 million; the school district claimed $490,000.

The agreement sets it at $700,000. providing additional money to predominantly minority schools in the eastern half of the county that were ignored while the district built new schools to cope with growth in the west. "The balance of the scales need to start coming back," Budnick said. "I fear if we continue this trend, we'll see more affluent parents will not have their children in public schools because they are not getting the attention they need." Bill Hirschman can be reached at or 954-356-4513. would reach from northern Miami-Dade County to southern Palm Beach County.

The money to buy the license would come from the capital improvement budget and not from money used to pay for teachers or classroom supplies. The National School Board Association officials said it doesn't keep any kind of records regarding school districts owning television stations. However, they said while it is unusual, it's not unprecedented. Bill Hirschman can be reached at or 954-356-4513. the boy be returned to his father in Cuba.

At a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington, they asked U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno to uphold the INS decision. "Iam here to tell you that the carefully choreographed demonstrations you see in Miami do not represent the views of the average Cuban-American living in the U.S.," said Delvis Fernandez Levy, president of the Cuban American Alliance, an umbrella group of 36 Cuban-American organizations nationwide. Experts at the news conference said conferring citizenship on Elian would delay the boy's return to Cuba by embroiling the boy's family in lengthy court proceedings. "It would be unconscionable for the U.S.

Congress to come between this father and son," said Jose Per-tiera, Cuban-American leader and immigration and human rights lawyer. "Politics should play no role here. The law is crystal clear in this case: Since there is no evidence Elian's father is unfit, his rights trump those of any distant relative." Washington Bureau Chief William E. Gibson contributed to this report, which was supplemented with Sun-Sentinel wire services. Luisa Yanez can be reached at lyanezdj or 305-810-5007.

Board approves $3.6 million deal By BILL HIRSCHMAN Education writer Look for prime time homework and live meeting coverage if the Broward School District completes a deal to operate its own broadcast television station. The board agreed Tuesday to spend $3.6 million to buy the FCC broadcasting license from Channel 63 WPPB-TV of Palni Beach Inc. in Boca Raton. That price does not include any buildings or equipment, much of which the district already owns FINAL CANDIDATE FILINGS The two-week filing period for candidates to run for local government ended on Tuesday. Municipal elections are March 14.

In Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood, primaries are on Feb. 8. The commission and mayoral races that will be on the ballot are listed below, along with the names of candidates if any, who qualified. Names of candidates who were elected automatically are in bold: Coral Springs Mayor, two at-large commission seats: John Sommerer, mayor; Maureen Berk, commission seat Alan Polin, Frank A. Hinkle, commission seat 3.

Davie Mayor, council seat in District 1 Tom Truex, Richard Conrey, and Harry Venis, mayor; Geri Clark and James Bush, council seat District 1 Fort Lauderdale Mayor, commission seats Districts 1-4: Jim Naugle, Anthony Evans, mayor; Gloria Katz, Thomas F.Wilson, Sanford Rosenthal, District 1 Tim Smith, Lester Alexander, District Leola McCoy, Carlton Moore, District Jack Latona, Cindi Hutchinson, Kingston A. Larsen, Bill Salicco, District 4 Hillsboro Beach Two commission seats: Larry Fink, Richard McCarty, Doreen A. Woodfall. Hollywood Mayor, commission seats Districts 1-6: John Coleman, Mara B. Giulianti, Henry W.

Harbinson mayor; Cathy Anderson, Patricia Borracci Asseff, Mark J. Hanna, District 1 Joy Mack, Quentin "Beam" Furr, Willie J. Anderson, Pedro "Peter" Hernandez, Leonard "Pete" Brewer, Horace Martin, District Sal Oliveri Richard S. Blattner, District Keith Wasserstrom, Lloyd Edelstein, District Jose "Pepe" Lopez, Frances Russo, Ann M. Murray, Frank M.

Leonardi, District Peter Bober, Myrna Buckler, District 6. Lauderdale-by-the Sea Mayor, two commission seats: Philip Duchastel, Oliver Parker, Susan Mary Beatty, mayor, John Yanni, Mark Furth, James D. Haley, Warren B. Meretsky, commissioner Lauderhill Three at-large was not as lucky. Polin's opponent for the District 3 seat is Frank A.

Hinkle, a road patrol sergeant for the North Lauderdale Police Department who has spent 22 years in law enforcement in Broward County. Polin is a lawyer. Challengers entering the city races this year decided to run for different reasons. Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jim Naugle's opponent is a 2 1-year-old religious evangelist who works at Walgreen's. Anthony Evans said he was called by God to run.

Naugle is running for his fourth term. Marcia Kantorwitz won a seat on the Tamarac Charter Board, her first venture into elective office, because she thought she should take a more active role in the city. Kantorwitz has never attended a charter board meeting. Many candidates have been running for months, and submitting their papers to the city clerk was only a formality. Others decided to campaign at the last minute.

Qualifying in Hollywood ended with few surprises. Twenty-one of the 22 candidates had opened campaign accounts before the two-week qualifying period began. Only civic activist Pete Brewer made a late entry, jumping into the District 2 campaign at the last ELECTION Continued from page i race looming between Mayor Joe Schreiber and challenger Diane Glasser. Mayor Alex Fekete of Pembroke Pines will have to campaign for reelection against Phil McConaghey. Commissioners Frank Ortis and Bill Armstrong also have challengers.

Commissioner Herb Skolnick of Pompano Beach was elected automatically. Two of his colleagues, Kay McGinn and Rex Hardin, drew opposition. When asked why he had no opponent, Skolnick said, "They probably love me too much. They probably think I'm the greatest thing since canned beer." Commissioner Karen Roberts of Tamarac, who will get another three-year term because no one opposed her in the city's District 4, had a similar view. "Obviously, the people thought I was doing a good job for them," Roberts said.

Roberts and Skolnick are probably wrong, say pollster Kane and professor Niven. Incumbents go unchallenged because of the good economy and cynicism about government, rather than as a reward for doing a good job, the two political experts said. Kane points to a Broward County poll he did in September 1999 for the Sun-Sentinel that found 57 percent of Broward County voters believed the people who run government do what is right only some or none of the time. "Complacency doesn't mean people are happy with incumbents," said Kane, editor of Florida Voter journal. "They are just happy because of the good times economically.

They still distrust government. They are just not motivated to do anything about Niven, a political scientist with Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, agrees. "It is a fabulous defense to say everybody is satisfied, but it isn't backed up. People can be happy about their personal life for a variety of reasons. Research has found that the one thing people are consistently cynical about is politics," Niven said.

Despite the cynicism documented by Kane and Niven, many cities will have lively elections. Hollywood voters will choose from a record field of 22 candidates, a crowd largely inspired by the city's first experiment with a district form of government. Commissioners formerly elected city-wide will now be elected from smaller geographic districts. Three candidates are running for mayor. The rest are vying for one of six commission seats.

In District 2, which encompasses Hollywood's Liberia and North and South Central neighborhoods, six candidates are running. Another closely watched race is in District 3, Hollywood Hills. In that neighborhood, voters must choose between two well-known incumbents, Commissioners Sal Oliveri and Richard Blattner. In District 1 the Lakes section and the beach area, two challengers are seeking to unseat Commissioner Cathy Anderson, Hollywood's first woman to sit on the City Commission and also its longest serving at 25 years. In Coral Springs, Mayor John Sommerer and Commissioner Maureen Berk won re-election unopposed.

Commissioner Alan Polin Elian's grandmothers could travel to Miami to visit, take him home through its closed-circuit facility. District officials envision around-the-clock programming which would include public affairs interviews, teacher training, public access programs and a raft of educational programs. Board members favor the project, if only to allow everyone in Broward to view its meetings, most of which are held during the day. Meetings are televised on some cable stations, but none are televised on the same day and most stations don't broadcast the entire meeting. The station currently broadcasts Christian programming on low power, but the license would allow a full-power signal that Naturalization Service that the boy be sent back to Cuba.

And on Monday, when the U.S. Congress reconvenes, efforts are expected to begin to make Elian a U.S. citizen. The idea, sup Rodriguez ported by several key members of Congress, is to cut INS out of the process, since a U.S. citizen can't be repatriated to another country.

The father he fears coming to Miami because he would be entangled in a legal battle and become subject to U.S. laws. "The father can no longer come to Miami and just take his son," said Miami immigration lawyer Grisel Ibarra "Once he arrived his custody would supercede the relatives in Miami, but his parental fitness is being challenged. He would have to go to court. He could be here forever." For that very reason, Miami lawyer Ira Kurzban, who represented the Cuban government in a similar custody battle 20 years ago, said Elian's father will not step foot in Miami.

"Has anybody told this man he can pick up his child and leave? No, and no one will, so why would he come here and be subjected to this abuse? Kurzban said. On Tuesday, Cuban exiles outside Miami joined the National Council of Churches in demanding ELIAN CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1B would create a delicate situation for those who are fighting to keep the boy in Miami. Raquel Rodriguez, the mother of Elian's mother, Elizabet, appears to be the likely candidate to make the trip. The boy lived with his mother and grandmother in Cardenas, Cuba. What would be gained by the grandmothers' arrival in Miami is unclear.

"It would add a new twist; culturally, Latins love their grandmothers," said Juan Clark, a sociology professor at Miami-Dade Community College. "It might have an impact on the case in Miami; who knows?" Still, the grandmothers' entrance into the fray, either in the hope of escorting the boy back to Cuba or to stay here if a long legal battle ensues, would turn them into his Cuba spokespeople and re-establish the boy's link to his life and relatives in Cuba, which they feel relatives in Miami are trying to erase. "I want my grandson back, and I want to see him," Rodriguez told reporters in Havana last week. "That is what my daughter would have wanted, for the boy to be with me if anything happened to her, not with people she didn't even know." Today, attorneys for Elian's Miami relatives are expected to file a lawsuit in federal court challenging the order by U.S. fmmigration and Staff Writers Lisa Huriash, Shauna Jamieson, Sallie James, Jeremy Milarsky, Jodie Needle, Katie Ryan, Tamika Simmons and Brittany Wallman contributed to this report.

Buddy Nevins can be reached at bnevins((i or 954-356-4571. 4..