By: Sharon Aron Baron
On Wednesday at the Tamarac City Commission meeting, Atkins-Grad refused once more to step down, even though it was clear that the commission and the residents of Tamarac no longer see her fit to serve office.
Both Vice Mayor Harry Dressler and Commissioner Pam Bushnell are now asking her to step down while, at the same time, a recall effort is out by residents.
Commissioner Bushnell said at the workshop on Tuesday that Atkins-Grad had caused an embarrassing scene at a recent event when she was screaming across the table and breaking Sunshine Laws by trying to have a closed-door meeting inside of Bushnell’s office uninvited.
Atkins-Grad refused to step down, saying there were no ethical or moral grounds for her to do so. She gave a speech with references to the Hebrew term “lashon ha-ra,” which is the “evil tongue,” and said what others are saying about her is akin to murder or incest.
“Her husband (Atkins-Grad) is a free-lance Rabbi, so I highly doubt that she wrote this speech as she can’t even put three words together. I’ve never seen her able to say anything out loud without it being written in front of her,” said local activist Patti Lynn.
Dressler described her comments as a “melange of irrational thought,” saying that they were “verbal and metaphoric incontinence.”
Dressler said what drives the recall committee and the good and honest members of the commission were the facts.
Directed at Atkins-Grad, Dressler said loudly:
Ms Atkins-Grad, you took the felon’s money and you didn’t deny it in your criminal trial and you took it for personal gain for a car and for a party and then when your colleagues and others asked you about it, when other people asked you, ‘How can you afford to buy the BMW?’ You lied to them. You lied to me when I asked you. I won’t repeat the story here. You lied to my face. And when people said to you, ‘How can you do this?’ You turned and accused your colleagues of being disreputable. In the land of the world I grew up in of Dorchester, Massachusetts, you just beat the rap. You beat the rap, you took the money. You walked away from it.
You will not escape the wrath of those of us on the commission who believe that your behavior represents the pinnacle of unethical and inappropriate behavior because you took the money there is no question about that.”