Tamarac reimburses ex-mayor who was accused of bribe-taking
TAMARAC — The former mayor’s criminal prosecution is officially over, but Tamarac taxpayers must now pay for it all.
On Thursday, the city wrote former Mayor Beth Flansbaum- Talabisco a check to compensate her about $47,000 in salary and retirement contributions she lost out on while suspended from office for almost a year. That figure also reimburses her for health insurance benefits.
In May, Flansbaum-Talabisco was found not guilty of corruption charges in a case where she was accused of taking bribes from two developers. She had faced up to 25 years in prison had she been convicted.
This round of reimbursements so far includes $37,009.19 for salary and benefits, $5,741.60 for insurance and $4,427.35 for retirement benefits. Some money was deducted, however, for her portion of benefits.
But her salary and benefit reimbursement is only the first part of several categories of funds the city attorney told city commissioners she is legally entitled to from her second suspension, which lasted nearly a year.
Still pending: The cost to reimburse Flansbaum-Talabisco for her criminal defense fees. City officials said Monday that the 1,000 in hours for Flansbaum-Talabisco’s legal team has been billed at $505,000. On top of that, taxpayers will pay thousands of dollars to an independent attorney to review the fees to make sure they are fair before they are paid.
Flansbaum-Talabisco was suspended January 2014 and her seat ber.
There are two time periods at stake for FlansbaumTalabisco’s reimbursements. The governor initially suspended her from office in March 2011after the charges were filed. A Circuit Court judge threw out the charges in March 2012. Prosecutors appealed and she was allowed to return to office pending the outcome of the appeals.
For the first suspension, which lasted 12 months, there are three categories of expenses that topped $201,000:
Taxpayers compensated her almost $60,000 for the time she was not allowed to serve on the commission. Her compensation package included $14,938.89 in reimbursement for what she paid for her health insurance, and another $44,949.32 in reimbursement for her mayor’s salary and a phone and car allowance. She already received the money in a lump-sum check.
She was legally entitled to $136,998 in compensation for what she spent in legal criminal defense fees stemming from her arrest. She initially received half of it and paid it back to the city after her second round of charges began. City officials said she will now receive all that money because she was found not guilty of the charges.
Taxpayers spent $4,733.10 to pay an independent attorney to review her legal
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The lengthy case capped a corruption probe involving Broward officials and two developers. FlansbaumTalabisco was one of six people charged in the wake of a federal investigation into developers Bruce and Shawn Chait, a father and son team who owned Prestige Homes of South Florida Inc., based in Coral Springs.
The Chaits pleaded guilty in 2010 to one count of unlawful compensation and were sentenced to four years of probation on condition they cooperate with prosecutors. Their sworn statements implicated officials at Tamarac City Hall, the Broward School Board and the Broward County Commission. The Chaits said they showered officials with thousands of dollars in cash, gifts and benefits in exchange for support for their plan to build hundreds of homes and townhouses in Tamarac.
In addition to FlansbaumTalabisco, former Tamarac Vice Mayor Marc Sultanof, Tamarac City Commissioner Patte Atkins-Grad, Former Broward County Commissioner Josephus Eggelletion and Former Broward School Board Member Stephanie Kraft and her husband Mitchell Kraft were charged with a total of 27 felonies.
Flansbaum-Talabisco, Atkins-Grad and Mitchell Kraft were acquitted. Eggelletion pleaded guilty to fed- eral charges and served a two-and-a-half-year prison term.
Stephanie Kraft was acquitted of the charges related to the Chaits’ accusations, but was found guilty of official misconduct.
The Chaits sought to replace two golf courses in Tamarac with a project featuring 732 single-family homes and townhouses. The commission, including Flansbaum-Talabisco, voted 5-0 for the proposal.
The mayor was charged with unlawful compensation, bribery, official misconduct and conspiracy to commit unlawful compensation, stemming from her accepting more than $27,000 in campaign assistance from the developers in 2006. The homes were never built because of the recession.