South Florida Sun Sentinel from Fort Lauderdale, Florida • 16

PALM BEACH 1 Florida 16 Bulletin Board obituaries 17 Weather IS i oca Sun-Sentinel com IpET The Latest Breaking News SOUTH FLORIDA SUN-SENTINEL THURSDAY JULY 1, 2004 SECTION L. mayor campaign fals short information will be available when the group, known Leading For The Future, files its next financial report. The idea for a so-callec strong mayor had been discussed for some time but was kicked into high gear this year Opponents say that's because Group lacks signatures for By Akilah Johnson STAFF WRITER 1 The push to create a county-wide mayor's post is on hold because of a shortage of time in April. A month later, the pro-mayor campaign hired a signature-gathering firm to do it for them but soon realized that the company wasn't going to make the August deadline either. To get on the ballot, the group would have had to collect closer to 60,000 to 70,000 names to make up for those people who signed but weren't registered voters or Palm Beach County residents, he said.

"If they came up with 45,000 good signatures, it would not be on the ballot and we would have to pay them for 45,000 signatures," Ostrow said. "So we realized there was no point spending money on a goal we could not reach." He wouldn't say how much the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, charged but did say that most signature-gathering firms charge $2 or more per name. After the November election, the pro-mayor group plans to reorganize and raise funds in an attempt to get their issue on the 2006 ballot, Ostrow said. He wouldn't disclose how they plan to get the money, but that and money needed to get voters' signatures for the Nov. 2 ballot.

The group needed 49,993 signatures by Aug. 19. It had about half that amount, Harold Ostrow, past president of the Voters Coalition of Palm Beach County and leader of the effort said Wednesday. Volunteers began collecting names at community meetings term limns wui iorce oenaio BALLOT CONTINUES ON 2B If Stern's show set for return to S. Florida -V I v--' 3.

BYTOMJICHA VRADIO WRITER Cover your children's ears. Howard .1. V. i Stern is coming back to South Florida. The risque morning-drive radio host announced Wednesday on his program that Infinity Broadcasting, which syndicates him, has placed the show on nine hew stations, including WPBZ (FM 103.1) in Palm Beach.

I Stern has been off the air in South florida since early February, right after Janet Jackson's i Super Bowl wardrobe malfunction. Radio conglomerate Clear Channel, fearful of heavy fines and, in worst-case scenarios, losses of license, banished Stern from stations in six markets in which it aired him, including WBGG (FM 105.9) in Miami-Fort Lauderdale. Subsequently, Clear Channel, the nation's largest broadcasting group, reached agreement in June with the Federal Howard Stern's show has been added to nine new stations, Including WPBZ (FM 103.1) in Palm Beach. Stern airs from 6 to 10 a.m. Weekdays.

DAMAGE: Sheila Reid shows one of the many cracks in her home in the 700 block of Southwest Third Street in Delray Beach.The house was built in the 1 980s over "Uncle John's Pond," which was turned into a dump that will be tested for contaminants. Staff photoNicholas R. Von Staden Residents await results of soil tests "You have a commitment to keep this on the front burner." 1 U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings 7 rp iJ 'V If Carver Square structure woes being studied BYLEONFOOKSMAN STAFF WRITER delray beach If the three deteriorating houses were in another neighborhood, city inspectors would consider condemning mem or requiring they be fixed.

But since the buildings stand above an old neighborhood dump, now being evaluated for possible contaminants, officials aren't going to board them up or demand repairs until tests are done, even though the homes are in severe disrepair and some residents fear for their safety. Those residents and others living with cracked roofs, walls and floors in the Carver Square neighborhood in the city's southwest side demanded expedited govern- Communications Commission to pay 1 .75 million in fines to clear up all outstanding complaints for indecency on Stern's broadcasts. Four of the new stations are in markets Clear Channel shut out Orlando, San Diego, Pittsburgh and Rochester, N.Y.' WPBZ, which is licensed to the Palm Beach market, only partially restores Stern to South Florida. The WPBZ signal can be heard on car tadios, which have superior range to home and portable receivers, throughout Palm Beach and Broward counties, according to station manager Lee Stratford. However, he acknowledged there could be problems receiving the station inside certain buildings, most notably those with a lot of steel.

There also could be reception difficulties in the southern half of Broward, according to listeners who tried to pick up WPBZ. Moreover, there is virtually no reception of the station in the Miami-Dade portion of the market. The other markets in which Stern's program will be heard starting July 1 9 include Tampa; Houston; Austin, Tex-I STERN CONTINUES ON 2B dents, officials and candidates for political office. An engineering study recently determined that 1 1 of 12 houses in about a two-block area several blocks south of West Atlantic Avenue are deteriorating, possibly from shifting soil in a dump that wasn't cleared of trash, glass, tires and other waste before homes were built over it from the 1950s to 1980s. The deterioration was first brought to the city's attention in the late 1980s, but it wasn't until the past year that officials decided to address the situation.

Three occupied homes are HOUSING CONTINUES ON 2B EXPLANATION: Ouida and Kenneth Hall listen as environmental officials outline steps that will determine whether hazardous materials are present in the Carver Square neighborhood. Staff photoCarl Seibert agencies that will decide how to resolve the problem. "We want to get something done. You have a commitment to keep this on the front burner," Hastings told more than 100 resi- ment help Wednesday in a meeting initiated by U.S. Rep.

Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar. They were assured that their concerns are being taken seriously by the city; state and federal COMMISSIONERS' BEHAVIOR DESERVES A TIMEOUT The people who want a I -m. 1 rW( I once. "What can you say? I'm embarrassed for him. We're now going to call each other names?" Guess so.

As our conversation wound up, she took a few more swipes at him that are too disparaging to detail here. Enough! It shouldn't be too much to ask that elected officials act in a way that suggests the public's business comes first. County government isn't supposed to be a playing field for their personal entanglements. Really, can't someone send these people to their rooms? Parodying what Masilotti had written about her a week earlier, McCarty asked, among other things, if it was proper for some unnamed commissioner to hide information about his insurance-business clients. Masilotti, owner of a State Farm agency, fired back with twin barrels of insult and sarcasm.

McCarty is "bloody Mary" and "the wicked witch of Delray Beach," Masilotti memoed. She is "flying around the 12th floor of the county building on her favorite broom. "To me, her behavior is almost comical although counter-productive to our staff," Masilotti went on. "I wait anxiously for Mary's attack of tomorrow. I'm sure I will be blamed on bombing Pearl Harbor, or hiding bin Laden." In response, McCarty claimed to be speechless for that the county attorney investigate McCarty's voting record.

He implied she'd acted improperly on rezoning requests that maybe connected to her husband's bond underwriting firm. McCarty said Masilotti's insinuations were nonsense and that his real motive was retaliation; her husband, Kevin McCarty a board member of the South Florida Water Management District had complained about a water-district employee, Renee DeSantis. DeSantis was the staff liaison between the district and the board of commissioners. She is also someone whom Masilotti describes as a friend. Kevin McCarty had thought DeSantis was spending puzzling quantities of time at county commission meetings, even when water wasn't on the agenda.

And he worried that information told to the liaison might be going to Masilotti first, Mary McCarty told me. Ten days ago water-district officials transferred DeSantis to another job. Three days after that, Masilotti asked for the probe on the McCartys. This sure looks like tit-for-tat. But Masilotti went ballistic when McCarty said so.

He claimed the real issue was his refusal to vote McCarty's way on a big rezoning request in his district. "It's not unlike Mary to make personal attacks on anyone who won't bow down to her developer buddies," Masilotti wrote. Then he made like Freud: "In my opinion, she is a deeply disturbed person, full of anger and hatred." McCarty counterpunched on Tuesday with her own memo. strong-mayor system are giving up for now, saying they don't have enough signatures to force an election on whether Palm Beach County should create an office of mayor above the geven county commissioners. Actually, the commissioners don't need a mayor.

They need a parent. They can't stop fighting. They can't even fight nice, as my folks used to tell my squabbling sisters and me. This board has never been hugely harmonious. The boring work of zoning variances is frequently laced with talk about conflicts of interest and partisan political mischief.

But maybe it's the solstice. Maybe it's Scripps. Maybe it's the stirring of presidential-race passions. For some reason, the HOWARD GOODMAN COMMENTARY bad blood that's usually on simmer is boiling over. Things started heating up last week, when news broke about supposed ethics lapses by Democrat Burt Aaronson concerning his daughter-in-law, who works for GL Homes, a big developer.

Aaronson said the story was a groundless concoction leaked by his longtime nemesis, Republican Mary McCarty. She denied this. fellow Republican, demanded Howard Goodman's column is published Tuesday, Thursday andSunday, We can be reached at or 561-243-6638. -ftr -w wtoilTiirtl.lMBiWrtiiti')iiffcn.