By Agrippina Fadel
“I am hoping 2022 will bring better behavior from our commissioners,” said Kings Point resident Darcy Schiller at the first city commission meeting of the year.
A vocal local activist, Schiller attends most meetings and often expresses her opinion on matters of city life and the government’s actions.
“I am concerned about the fact that one of our commissioners went ahead and asked the PAROT (Parks and Recreation Foundation of Tamarac) for some money in order to fund a turkey giveaway of sorts,” she said.
Schiller refers to the story reported by Sun-Sentinel on December 16, which described how PAROT was asked to fund a Thanksgiving Turkey giveaway – commissioner Marlon Bolton’s event.
While not naming Marlon Bolton as the commissioner in question, Schiller said Julie Fishman, the chairperson of PAROT, had “blatantly said no” to the initial request.
“…And then we find out that a city employee, I believe it was Greg Warner, who oversees Parks and Recreation, got involved. He either strong-armed or bullied them, but somehow the commissioner got the money and got a ton of gift cards,” she added.
Schiller then described a video on Bolton’s social media, in which he is knocking on the resident’s door, saying, “because you are a valued constituent, here is a Publix card, a Walmart card, and a very heavy bag of groceries.”
She said the woman in the video “bundled over” after accepting the bag of groceries, and Bolton offered to carry it in for her.
Schiller went on to say that groceries and gift cards like these should, in her opinion, go to people who are indigent, not “valuable people in the community.” “We have hungry children out there, and this was the holiday season,” she added.
“Then I understand that the same commissioner took the excess of these gift cards and was hanging them out in another city,” said Schiller, referring to Red Broward article, which described how the gift cards with Bolton’s name on them were given out at the private food drive in Plantation – weeks after the initial turkey giveaway in Tamarac.
“I got some strong concerns about ethics, morals, values and the legality of strong-arming of city employees,” said Schiller.
She asked if City Attorney John Herin is working to protect the city and its constituents, or if his job is to inclusively protect the commissioners when they exhibit “egregious, immoral, illegal and unethical behavior.”
Shiller is not the first resident asking the city attorney to look into Bolton’s actions.
The commission members do not engage with the residents during the public participation, so Schiller said she realizes she can’t get answers to her allegations.
“…But I hope in the new year we will see better actions from the city attorney. I hope you all will manage to get along,” she said.
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