Fort Lauderdale goes easy on commissioner
FORT LAUDERDALE — Ben Sorensen, district commissioner for the wealthy neighborhood hit in 2019 by back-to-back sewage spills, might have found himself in the hot seat after an outside audit said he was partly to blame for a contractor doing nearly $1 million in work without commission approval.
But instead of a hot seat, a choked up Sorensen found himself in the center of a lovefest on Tuesday.
Both residents and commissioners heaped praise on Sorensen for doing all he could to help get the Rio Vista neighborhood back to normal — even if it meant crossing the line when it came to communicating with city employees and contractors.
Sorensen, touched by the outpouring, wiped away tears as they spoke, thanking the commission and his supporters for their “heartfelt” words. He also thanked the auditing company that found fault with his actions.
“I’d also like to thank Carr, Riggs & Ingram for their work as well as the city auditor,” Sorensen said. “I thoroughly reviewed the report, and I take it very seriously — every word.”
The recently released audit found that Sorensen directed staff working with a contractor to restore the neighborhood — a no-no according to the city charter. The audit also noted that commissioners caught giving direct or indirect orders to staff or vendors can be removed from office.
One example of the out-ofbounds communications cited by the audit includes Sorensen emailing city workers overseeing the project and asking them, “Can we explore putting in two permanent speed bumps on SE 11 Street (on the south side of Hector Park)? There was one there before this road/sewer work was done. Also, can we explore slightly narrowing SE 11 Street there as well, adding more space to the park? Thank you!”
On Tuesday, Sorensen chalked it up his eagerness to help.
“Two years ago we went through this horrific experience of 200 million gallons of raw sewage through our streets and parks,” he said to a crowded commission chambers. “I tried to do my best to help people not only during the sewage break but also during this global pandemic. I will take the lessons I learned through this report ... and apply to my work as a public servant to do better, to be better.”
‘Wash the stink off ’
Charlie King, a frequent City
Hall critic, was one of the few urging Sorensen’s colleagues on the dais to make it clear they don’t agree with how Sorensen went about getting things done.
“You guys should wash the stink off yourselves,” King said. “I say you should censure him. He’s admitting no wrongdoing. You just throw the rulebook out the window and do as you please?”
Mayor Dean Trantalis noted that Sorensen did overstep his bounds as a commissioner but did so for the benefit of his community.
“Commissioner Sorensen did not seek out any personal financial gain,” Trantalis said. “In fact, he spent many, many hours dealing with this, away from his family and work. I don’t think anyone can fault Commissioner Sorensen for trying to do the right thing.”
Trantalis also said he didn’t entirely agree with the audit’s findings.
“I do not believe in censure,” Trantalis said. “We’re not here to judge one another.”
If it weren’t for Sorensen, Rio Vista would probably still be waiting for its two neighborhood parks to open, said Mark Snead, vice president of the Rio Vista Civic Association.
“Our neighborhood was inundated with 200 million gallons of sewage,”
Snead said. “One staffer [mentioned in the audit] said we wanted our neighborhood better that it was before. Well of course. If you’re going to replace your house after a fire you’re going to make some improvements to it.”
‘Ben’s a doer’
Resident Marilyn Mammano says she read the report twice and couldn’t find anything nefarious.
“There was poop running in the street,” she said. “People were upset. People were trying to get results. The work got ahead of the paperwork. I hope we don’t turn this into a circus. Our commissioner works very hard for us, and I don’t think he deserves this bad line he’s getting.”
Jeff Burns, a 12-year resident of Rio Vista, says he felt better knowing Sorensen was on the job.
“Ben’s a doer,” he said. “Ben gets in the weeds. Nobody there was happy about what went on. People still are not pleased with the status of their streets. But this guy was there. I want to thank Commissioner Sorensen for being there for us.”
Vice Mayor Heather Moraitis was also quick to jump to Sorensen’s defense.
“I know there was no malicious intent on your behalf,” she told Sorensen. “I don’t think I’m here to judge you or what you did. I think you did it with the right intentions.”
Like the vice mayor, Commissioner Steve Glassman
said he did not want to pass judgment on his fellow commissioner.
“I’m not going to judge,” he said. “I want this to be a learning experience for everyone. I want us to move forward from here.”
Glassman praised Sorensen and criticized the report.
“Ben, you’re a good man withabig,beautifulheart,” Glassman said.
Glassman argued the audit was missing key information because certain people were not interviewed.
Several people declined the auditor’s request for an interview, including former Public Works Director Raj Verma, former Procurement Manager Jodi Hart and Daniel Duke, president of Hinterland Group, the contractor that’s still waiting to be paid nearly $900,000 in work done restoring Rio Vista.
“For me it was an incomplete report,” Glassman said. “I want to read much more than I was able to read here. That said, I don’t want to minimize what’s in this report. I think we need to take it seriously. Whatever we think happened we need to make sure does not happen again.”
City Attorney Alain Boileau said Fort Lauderdale will follow the auditor’s recommendation for more training to “make sure we don’t have a repeat.”