The One Stop Shop deal is finally over, but it should never have gotten this far.
The Fort Lauderdale City Commission ignored warning sign after warning sign, leaving residents and this newspaper to do the due diligence that city staff should have done. The city should not have to rely on watchdog citizens and reporters paying for public records requests to uncover issues of this magnitude with a public-private partnership.
John Rodstrom III is a lawyer and political blogger who raised many questions about the fuzzy financing of the ill-fated One Stop FTL project.
Deals of this scale must be backed by independent confirmation of financing, thorough background checks and enforceable timelines.
Instead, the city handed over control of public land with little accountability or oversight for more than three years and simply hoped for the best.
One person especially deserves credit: Commissioner John Herbst.
As city auditor, he opposed this deal from the start and was fired for speaking up. The motion to fire him came from Commissioner Steve Glassman, the project’s most ardent supporter. That created a chilling effect that told staff not to question the deal, forcing residents to do the work instead. Mayor Dean Trantalis and commissioners Glassman and Ben Sorensen only abandoned the project once the red flags became impossible to ignore.
This outcome is a win, but also a warning. If Fort Lauderdale keeps signing lopsided public-private partnerships without proper scrutiny, we will see this story play out again.
John Rodstrom III, Fort Lauderdale
The author is a lawyer and political blogger. Both of his parents were city commissioners.
Clear from the start
Your editorial ( “A rare chance to save open space in Lauderdale,” Sept. 19) brought back memories of the day commissioners voted to advance an agreement that many in the Flagler Village community opposed. We were deeply concerned about the noise and traffic from the project. Many chose to live here with the understanding that the master plan envisioned a public park.
Fort Lauderdale’s downtown master plan, approved in 2003, shows the One Stop Shop property as a future “community park.”
The day before the 2022 meeting, the city and I received the draft report by Ernst & Young. The consultants had been retained to provide an independent assessment of the public-private partnership, and it identified serious risks, including financing.
From my discussions with city officials and the developer, I had the impression that there were important gaps that did not fully safeguard the interests of the city or the community.
That was the message I carried to commissioners: that there were credibility questions, contractual gaps and significant risks outlined by E&Y.
At that meeting on Feb. 15, 2022, District 2 Commissioner Steve Glassman, who supported the deal, dismissed the E&Y report as “garbage.” This surprised me, given E&Y’s international reputation. On that night, City Auditor John Herbst — an advocate for careful financial oversight — was fired.
This reinforced the perception that important safeguards were disregarded to advance the deal. It took years for the risks identified in that report to be better understood, but the consequences were clear from the start.
Larry Forman, Fort Lauderdale
To save public land
Perhaps a civic-minded group should organize a “Save Boca”-style movement in Fort Lauderdale, where the city could not sell any city-owned land without the voters’ input.
Jeanine Kietzmann, Boca Raton
Shula should be a shoo-in
The Miami Dolphins coaching staff needs to be fired.
The team needs to make a statement by hiring Chris Shula, the defensive coordinator of the L.A. Rams.
He will eventually be an NFL head coach, and what better place than Miami (he’s Don Shula’s grandson). He won’t tolerate players missing meetings and the other poor behavior.
This would definitely be a win for Miami.
Elaine Harmych, Fort Lauderdale
Duck and cover
As a baby boomer in grade school, I recall that pronouns were never an issue for teachers. They were too busy lining us up for fire drills and making sure we remembered to hide under our desks in case of a nuclear attack.
We even had printed directions for the latter, to which the bolder boys added a postscript: ” … and kiss your a– goodbye.”
Carol White, Delray Beach
Please submit a letter to the editor by email to letterstotheeditor@sunsentinel.com or fill out the online form below. Letters may be up to 200 words and must be signed with your email address, city of residence and daytime phone number for verification. Letters will be edited for clarity and length.
