Tamarac taxpayers to pay mayor $60K in lump-sum – and there’s more to come [Sun Sentinel, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.]

April 06--TAMARAC -- Taxpayers will compensate Mayor Beth Flansbaum-Talabisco almost $60,000 for the time she wasn't allowed to serve in the job.

City officials released figures Friday that show her compensation package will be $14,938.89 in reimbursement for what she paid for her health insurance under COBRA; and another $44,949.32 in reimbursement for her mayor's salary and a phone and car allowance. She will receive the money in a lump-sum check, officials said Friday.

And there's more to come: What still has to be determined is how much money she will receive in compensation for the legal fees she paid her criminal defense attorney. The city is "working with the city attorney's office to establish the process for this," said Diane Phillips, assistant city manager.

City attorney Sam Goren wrote Flansbaum-Talabisco and the commission a memo Tuesday that said a city "is obligated to furnish or pay fees for an attorney to defend a public official in a civil or criminal proceeding" and that while the city commission must determine if her conduct "arose out of performance of her official duties," his office has determined it did. Goren wrote that the criminal charges related directly to votes she made while in office and she was "entitled" to compensation.

Gov. Rick Scott revoked the mayor's suspension from office March 27 which allowed Flansbaum-Talabisco to return after one year. On March 14, a Broward Circuit judge dismissed all criminal charges against the mayor, ruling there was no evidence that she received any personal benefit from a controversial team of father-and-son developers.

At dispute was the March 2006 mayoral race when Flansbaum-Talabisco had three challengers. Prosecutors argued developers Bruce and Shawn Chait secretly funneled money -- $19,500 for attack ads and $7,700 for an opinion poll -- through what was supposed to be an independent electioneering fund to help Flansbaum-Talabisco, who became the city's first elected female mayor, win the election.

Less than two weeks after she won her office, she voted in favor of the Chaits' controversial plan to build hundreds of homes on the former Sabal Palm and Monterey golf courses. The prosecution said that's when the crimes occurred because Flansbaum-Talabisco was legally required to disclose the Chaits' donations and her potential conflict of interest in voting.

The Broward State Attorney's Office is appealing the judge's ruling. Flansbaum-Talabisco was charged with unlawful compensation, bribery, official misconduct and conspiracy to commit unlawful compensation. She pleaded not guilty and has maintained she did nothing wrong.

She was suspended in March 2011 after the criminal charges were filed. Her term ends in November 2014.

Besides the legal fees, state law also allows her to be reimbursed for the salary she was denied. Flansbaum-Talabisco will receive her check on Thursday, which is the next scheduled payroll date.

[email protected] or 954-572-2008.

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