Time for Atkins- Grad to resign is now
If Tamarac City Commissioner Patte Atkins- Grad cares as much about her city as she claims, there is a perfectway she can showit.
She can resign before taxpayers are forced to pay at least $ 48,000 for a special recall election— the first in Broward in nearly half a century, by theway.
The recall election for District 2 has nowbeen set for Oct. 15, and the recall committee deserves credit for perseverance.
Atkins- Gradwas somehowacquitted on public corruption charges last year, though there is no dispute that two developers spent $ 6,300 to help her lease aBMW, among other gifts. Atkins- Grad responded with her vote for a 700- home development. Prosecutors said she voted 15 times for the developers’ plans to build the homes. Shewas brought up on corruption charges, and her attorney admitted shewas “clueless” and “in over her head.”
Those aren’t qualities youwant in a commissioner who makes decisions that involve millions in taxpayer dollars, but itwas enough to help Atkins- Grad get acquitted.
After the verdict, the recall committee rightfully felt shewasn’t fit for public office. After a problem with the signatures on the first recall petition drive, they eventually obtained enough signatures on a third round of petitions to forcec the Oct. 15 recall vote.
The petition drive shows you what regular citizens can do if they are determined. And it should be a good warning for all public officials in South Florida who might think citizens aren’twatching them closely.
And what does Atkins- Grad think about the recall vote? Instead of looking in the mirror, she blamed a former political opponent.
“If voters are so gullible to listen to a lot of junk,” she told Sun Sentinel reporter LisaHuriash, “then I feel sorry for them.”
Nothing like calling constituents “gullible” when you are trying to win them over.
Call her incompetent, call her naive, call her clueless, whatever. The citizens of Tamarac deserve better from a commissioner, and she has obviously violated the public trust with her actions.
Atkins- Grad’s attorneys are nitpicking about the petitions before the recall vote is held, but her chances at winning back the public trust are nil. Even two of the jurors who acquitted her said after the trial that they felt she should step down. And upon her return, fellow commissionerswere hardly happy about sharing the dais with her.
Patte Atkins- Grad should finally do the right thing and spare her city the expense and hassle of a recall election. The right thing is for her to resign.