Teen sought for watchdog role

Hollywood officials seek young resident to oversee $165 million in bond spending

HOLLYWOOD — Would you trust your kid with $165 million? Hollywood would.

Officials are on the hunt for a local student to take on a watchdog role overseeing how the city spends $165 million in bond money.

Hollywood commissioners — who never set an official age or GPA requirement for the student appointee — say they’re not looking to appoint a fifth-grader, but rather someone more mature.

Commissioner Traci Callari, who championed the idea of putting a Hollywood teenager on the 15-member oversight advisory board, says she prefers a high school student.

A freshman may be too young, she said, but a sophomore, junior or senior would work.

But so far, no one has shown interest.

Now city officials plan to turn to social media to find someone.

“The student position is designed to gain a young person’s perspective on [bond] projects,” Hollywood spokeswoman Joann Hussey said. “Positions on the city boards and committees require individuals who are able to understand complex scenarios [and] are comfortable working well in a team environment.”

Not everyone is loving the idea of appointing a kid — even a mature teen — to a watchdog role.

“We’re talking about $165 mil

lion,” Commissioner Peter Hernandez said. “The residents’ money is at stake.”

Voters approved the $165 million bond in March to pay for a slew of citywide upgrades, including a new police headquarters, sea walls and parks. The debt comes with $100 million in interest and will be paid back over 25 years through a hike in the city’s property tax rate.

To quell concerns about whether city officials could misspend the money, Hollywood commissioners agreed in December to appoint 15 residents to the oversight advisory committee.

But several people in Hollywood, including some parents with teens, are shaking their heads at the plan to appoint someone who might be too young to vote, buy property or open a bank account on their own.

“That’s insane,” said Jamie Mardis, who has a 16-year-old son. “Anyone under 18 can’t sign a legal contract, but they’re going to put them in charge of $165 million?”

One expert on such things says there’s no need to sound the alarm because the board won’t have much power anyway.

“These kinds of boards generally don’t have much influence,” said Charles Zelden, a political science professor at Nova Southeastern University in Davie. “I suspect the committee was more for P.R.”

Zelden added: “This is the city government saying, ‘Here’s this watchdog to keep watch over this.’ If the government is serious about this, having a watchdog carries weight. But they could just as easily ignore them. Effectively, it’s window dressing.”

That’s no small comfort to longtime activist Howard Sher.

“I fully approve, but he has to bring his mother and father with him,” Sher said, tongue-in-cheek. “How can you take a 14-year-old kid seriously? He can’t even vote.”

Callari dismissed the concerns of critics.

“I’m trying to empower the youth to get involved in government,” she said.

Commissioners Dick Blattner and Kevin Biederman were just as gung-ho.

“We do really want to have kids,” Blattner said. “We like to have teenagers on our boards.”

Biederman says he understands why some might think the idea kooky. But he’s not about to change his mind about appointing a teen to the bond oversight committee.

In Biederman’s opinion, the spot wouldn’t be right for someone younger than 16.

“I don’t think they have matured enough, and they don’t have that sense of responsibility yet,” he said.

But what if no one puts their name in the hat?

“Then we won’t have a student on there,” Callari said.

Maria Jackson, whose 17-year-old son is serving on three city boards, says she voted against the $165 million bond partly because she was worried about the city bungling the way the money is spent.

But she’s perfectly cool with having a teen on the oversight committee.

“Parks were a big portion of the bond money and the young people use those parks,” she said. “My son is only 17, but he’s going to be paying the taxes over the next 25 years.”

She does have one caveat: The chosen student should be at least 17.

“I think they need to be at least a senior in high school,” she said. “Good luck to us.”