Elected official’s private meeting might break the law

PEMBROKE PARK — Broward’s inspector general has accused a recently resigned Pembroke Park town commissioner of violating Florida’s Sunshine law, alleging he deliberately met with another local leader in private to talk about an upcoming vote.

Commissioner Howard Clark Jr.’s goal was to get enough votes to strip a colleague of his commission responsibilities, including being a liaison to the Police Department, the inspector general said.

The case has been referred to prosecutors, authorities said Monday. Clark’s defense attorney told investigators that the allegation can’t be supported with “competent, truthful evidence.”

Clark resigned in September, one year to the day after he violated the open records law, according to Broward’s top investigator. His resignation also came the day before the town was scheduled to vote on its budget, leaving the town in a lurch and scrambling to immediately appoint somebody to the commission in time.

Citing health reasons, he resigned after 30 years in service.

The Broward Office of the Inspector General alleges Clark, then the vice mayor, met with Commissioner Reynold Dieuveille privately in the town hall gym on Sept. 22, 2020, to discuss Jacobs, and the town commission took up the issue the next day.

The private meeting was captured on town hall video footage.

At the public meeting on Sept. 23, 2020, Clark raised the question of whether to remove the other commissioner, Geoffrey Jacobs, from his special town roles, and then set two resolutions for a commission vote for the next meeting the following month. Those votes failed.

The Inspector General’s investigators concluded that “Clark knowingly and Dieuveille unknowingly” violated Florida’s Sunshine Law.

The Sunshine Law generally bars members of the same body from meeting and discussing official business outside of a publicly announced open meeting. The law also requires meetings be memorialized with minutes. The idea is to keep government action in the “sunshine” and in public view.

Clark declined to comment Monday and referred questions to his attorney, Larry Davis, who said Clark did nothing wrong.

“For 30 years Howard Clark has served the town of Pembroke Park, [he] has never taken any action or had any conversations that would be in violation of the Sunshine Law,” Davis said.

Clark did not speak to the Inspector General investigators in March, and in September his lawyer said he would not because of his health issues.

Investigators for the county agency said Clark’s violation of the Sunshine Law is a second-degree misdemeanor. They said Dieuveille did not commit a crime because “he did not become aware of the unlawful nature of the private meeting until after it was under way.”

“That is, he only realized that the vice mayor wanted to bring the subject of the discussion to the commission for a vote after the private conversation started,” according to the report.

According to the report issued Monday, the two town officials met to discuss Jacobs, identified in documents only as “G.J.,” who

is now the town mayor. Dieuveille told investigators that he met with Clark about removing their

colleague for at least 40 minutes.

“In his interviews with the OIG, Commissioner Dieuveille was specific about how, when, and where the meeting took place and provided numerous details about the conversation,” the report reads.

Clark also had documents with him that Dieuveille recognized as the same ones he had received in a package through the mail from an anonymous sender that contained “denigrating information” regarding Jacobs’ past, including details of

when he was fired as a state trooper in Arizona, officials said. One town employee said the information “would finish Commissioner G.J.’s political career.”

Jacobs could not be reached for comment Monday.