By Alvin Entin
We are being asked by some, “Why are you picking on Patte Atkins Grad, wasn’t she vindicated by a jury?”
The answer is simply that no one is picking on her, she was far from vindicated, and that her continued “service” as our City Commissioner is an embarrassment to us as her constituents and to the City.
Patte Atkins Grad was not vindicated, she never denied taking money and a car in return for her vote, instead, her defense was she was too stupid to understand she was being bribed. A jury, at Christmas, acquitted her, based on their statements, because they believed she was “dumb as a rock” and may have been taken advantage of by her benefactors. They fully believed she had taken the bribes and had performed for the Chaits liked a trained seal.
In any event, she did it, and she does not belong on a Commission making decisions for us on matters like taxation, land use, or the future of the City.
Even if you believe her defense, she admits a lack of capacity to make intelligent decisions which is also a basis to seek her removal.
She is seeking her attorneys’ fees and back pay. That’s not our issue. Let her have that and go.
We need to rise up as one and let her know that, as Vice Mayor Dressler so eloquently stated at the last Commission meeting, she is a disgrace on all of us and the only decent thing she can do is resign.
There is no place for the stink of corruption in Tamarac.
Alvin Entin is a partner at Entin & Della Fera, Attorneys At Law, where he has practiced Civil Litigation and Criminal Law since 1970.