Hamilton
Forman Admits
Destroying City Barricades
"With a Sledgehammer"
FORT LAUDERDALE
— Commissioner Cindi Hutchinson says the repeated destruction
of the city-owned barricades ("bollards") outside the First
Christian Church is what led her to meet with Hamilton Forman —
an elder and director of the church — in an attempt to stop the
destruction. The Parks & Recreation Department had erected the barricades
to protect the median from being destroyed by parked cars [see
photo]. Hutchinson says the 200-foot-long barricades were twice
knocked down. She said she referred the issue to city staff and that's
the last she knew of it. In July 2004, with no public input, a permit
was issued to construct 14 asphalt parking spaces on the SE 13th Street
grassy median.
On Sept. 20, 2004,
Forman startled the Property & Right-of-Way Committee by admitting
that he was responsible for destroying the city's barricades. You can
hear his statement by clicking one of the links below. The recording
is about 1 minute and 23 seconds.
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An minimal
account of Forman's statement appears on Page 3.
(289K PDF file)
Transcript
of Barricade Destruction Exhange
THE
PLAYERS...
THORNBURG:
Greg Thornburg,
committee member
FORMAN:
Hamilton Forman, First Christian church elder and director
PARTINGTON:
Peter Partington, chairperson and Acting City Engineer
DEAL:
Cal Deal, Poinciana Park resident
Edited for clarity due to much cross-talk.
THORNBURG:
Second question... when were the bollards and the sign removed?
Was at as the result of the [unintelligble]
FORMAN: I don't even know when they were put up. And
when the first time they put some in front of the church, I went out and
got a sledgehammer and knocked them out, and threw 'em to one side.
PARTINGTON:
I wish you hadn't said that. [Laughter]
CM: Excuse me, I'm a lil' ... they were taken down as
a result of a permit issued, is that a reasonable assumption?
FORMAN: Um, no.... No I ... I had the permit before those
bal- those things were ever put up.
PARTINGTON: That would be a reasonable assumption, to
have — or Mr. Forman also said that, with respect to those things.
That's the way I characterize that.
DEAL: I'm sorry uh -- can we just clarify when these
things were knocked down? Because I don't think it had anything to do
with the permit.
PARTINGTON: These things being....
DEAL: The bollards. I know that had nothing to do with
the permit. They just went out there and knocked them down because they
didn't want them, and that's wrong also.
PARTINGTON: I agree.
FORMAN: Wait a minute. Wait a minute.
DEAL: When were they knocked down Mr. Forman?
FORMAN: I went out there...
DEAL: When were they knocked down?
FORMAN: Let me put it this way -- you put them up, on
the church side, on the church side, on the church side, you put them
up one day. When I walked out and saw they were there, I knocked them
down that same day so that we could continue to park in that area, and
I took 'em over to one side.
PARTINGTON:
We think the city must have put them up, so...
FORMAN: Well whatever whoever put 'em up.
DEAL: So when were they knocked down? What day?
FORMAN: The the the same day, they the ... on the church
side, the same day they were put up. |