There is so little money to go around yet Lauren's Kids (Ron Book and His daughter State Senator Lauren Book's charity) is slated to get $1.5 from the State Budget.
Lauren Book, as a State Senator, had to do a financial disclosure. Someone please look it up for me. Never mind I did it. Lauren Book's net worth is 1,566,718. Her salary fro Lauren's Kids was, in 2016, $135,000. Until recently she also Made $71,300 doing research for Ron Book's firm. She has two residences worth almost a million dollars. She has very little debt.
What kills me, Ron Book is a master fundraiser, why doesn't he raise the money himself for this charity? Why is he always at the public trough getting the money? Exactly how much money has this charity collected over the years? And how has Ron Book separated charity funds from his lobbyist/law firm funds at the same address? Which one pays for the staples and scissors?
20 comments:
Ron Book is the poster child how the US is really run.
I highly recommend to attend any public meeting to see him in "action".
For some reason, I've never seen a politician put Ron in his place and cut him down.
Kind of makes you wonder? Hee
Such a scam. He should be ashamed of himself and the money could go to a number of better charities.
Remember mr book drove his Mercedes into a canal, reporting it stolen, to commit insurance fraud.
So Miami for a guy who lives in Pembroke Pines.
He set up this nonprofit out of guilt and now he uses it to tape the system.
It's going to get Three times the amount than a program for eldercare meals - for an
organization that says speak out when you've had a crime committed.
Isn't irony a bitch?
Scammer.
First Ron Book is from Miami, he does not live in Pembroke either so I doubt your Mercedes story. That would be TOO sleazy.
Mr Book is a great gentleman whose lobbying efforts help many charities. His work with the Homeless Trust is a blessing to our community.
He and his family are from Broward county.....
"In 1996 Ron and Pat Book hired a nanny to help manage their frenetic household in Plantation, Fla. Ron is one of the state's most powerful lobbyists and was traveling constantly. Pat was consumed with running a chocolate shop she had recently opened. So they needed a hand tending to their three kids: Lauren, 11; Samantha, 7; and Chase, 4. The couple had already cycled through numerous nannies who didn't work out and felt fortunate to find Waldina Flores, who seemed attentive, efficient, and firm-handed." NEWSWEEK- THE LOBBYIST WHO PUT SEX OFFENDERS UNDER A BRIDGE BY CATHARINE SKIPP ON 7/24/09
"None from Florida
Ron Book is one of the most powerful lobbyists in Florida and lobbies the state Legislature. Based in Aventura in South Florida, Book represents numerous businesses, associations and local governments including Broward and Miami-Dade counties. He has represented the Miami Dolphins since 1982."
RON BOOK
"Super Bowl L by everybody's estimation is a $500 million economic impact to the state of Florida."
FALSE - Study commissioned by Host Committee does not equal "everybody"
— PolitiFact Florida on Thursday, March 14th, 2013
Florida Senator L. Book needs the money to pay back her Florida Lobbyist Father R. Book.
"ICYMI: The wedding of lobbyist extraordinaire Ron Book's daughter, Lauren, was featured on WEtv's Plantinum Weddings on March 8. She married golfer Kris Lim on June 7, 2008 in front of 600 guests at the Fairmont Turnberry Isle Resort in Aventura, according to the show. The episode was billed this way: "A half-million dollar budget gets blown out of the water when Daddy's Princess gets every wedding wish she ever desired." In fact, the final price tag came to $1,000,500." NAKED POLITICS MIAMI HERALD Posted by Beth Reinhard on Wednesday, Mar. 18, 2009
Mrs. Book goes to Tallahassee, sees no conflict voting for Lauren’s Kids or Mr. Books dad’s clients.
Plantation, FL home.
http://bcpa.net/RecInfo.asp?URL_Folio=504107173570
LOBBYIST HAS HOST OF ANGELS IN HIS POCKETHide Details
Miami Herald, The (FL) - October 22, 1995Browse Issues
Author/Byline: CARL HIAASEN Herald ColumnistEdition: FINALSection: LOCALPage: 1BReadability: 5-6 grade level (Lexile: 930)
Do you believe in angels?
Lobbyist Ron Book should. He's got one at the Dade state attorney's office.
Book got caught systematically funneling illegal campaign checks to state and local politicians. He was allowed to plead guilty to four penny-ante misdemeanors, pay a small fine and donate $40,000 to charity.
On the day the plea was announced, lots of elected officeholders burped a sigh of relief. They'd been spared the pain of taking the witness stand to try to explain why Ron Book got money for them -- and what they had to do in return for it.
Book is one of Florida's most powerful persons, handsomely paid to lobby for private interests and local governments. He's in the business of doing big favors and asking for them.
Agents nailed him good. They wanted 80 criminal charges.
But, demonstrating its long-standing allergy to politically sensitive cases, the state attorney's office caved. The cops who had built the case against Book weren't even consulted about the plea bargain, and it's no wonder.
The deal is a stinking disgrace -- so bad that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement has decided to ignore it and pursue its investigation of Book's boiler room.
The operation was textbook sleaze. Politicians all over Florida would phone Book for $5,000 to $20,000 in campaign dough. Ronnie would promptly hit up his corporate clients.
If he needed more money, he'd tell his office workers to write personal checks, then reimburse them from his own pocket -- deliberately subverting a law that caps individual contributions at $500.
Ronnie scarcely was a master of deception. Secretaries earning less than $20,000 a year were "giving" $10,000 in campaign donations. For Book, the crimes were flagrant, premeditated and completely routine.
Funds were channeled to many candidates, including Gov. Lawton Chiles, Broward Sheriff Ron Cochran and U.S. Attorney Kendall Coffey, a former Senate hopeful.
Those who took the money naturally say they didn't know how Book got it -- though it would have been intriguing to see if they'd say the same thing under oath.
Before the whistle blew, everybody was happy. Politicians got their cash. Book and his clients got a bigger lever on the politicians. Voters, meanwhile, remained safely in the dark.
A trial would have dragged the whole rancid mess into the open, and nobody -- not Book, those who hired him, or the politicians -- wanted that to happen. Plea bargaining commenced at a breakneck pace.
So fast, in fact, that one group of Book's most influential clients -- specifically, the companies held by H. Wayne Huizenga -- didn't have time to deliver subpoenaed documents. Prosecutors said shucks, they didn't need the stuff anyway.
Angels. That's what they were.
Some guys are blessed. Back in 1986, Book phonied an insurance claim on a stolen car. He later pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor, and a kindly judge withheld adjudication.
This time around, Ronnie gets a criminal record, which can only be a big boost for his lobby business.
But he's also a lawyer. No joke -- the man has a law degree. You wouldn't know it from his chronic befuddlement about the criminal statutes, but it's true.
So, just for giggles, the Florida Bar announced it will review Book's latest shenanigans to see if punishment is deserved.
Ronnie's not losing much sleep. Lawyers are disciplined only slightly more often than Halley's comet appears in the sky.
The Bar is just one more friendly choir of angels. Like I said, some guys are blessed.
AND the reason why Miami-Dade lost a large portion of its 2017 grant funding for the homeless? According to the article "But Mr. Book admits the complicated task fell on staffers doing it for the first time."
HUD must pony up for Miami homelessHide Details
Miami Herald, The (FL) - May 4, 2016Browse Issues
Edition: 1st StateSection: NewsPage: 14AColumn: Miami Herald | EDITORIALReadability: 11-12 grade level (Lexile: 1290)
Miami-Dade learned Monday that the federal housing department was not awarding it millions of dollars in subsidies it had expected for the county’s transitional programs. The programs provide a place to live for homeless who can no longer stay in emergency shelters but haven’t qualified for permanent housing from the government.
The county’s homeless agency lost out on about $5 million in federal aid that was earmarked to fund housing for about 700 people, officials said.
Mr. Book offers a veneer of a "great gentleman" whose lobbying efforts help Mr. Book & Family. His work with the Homeless Trust is a blessing to his bank account.
BOOK WINS FRAUD CASE DISMISSALHide Details
Miami Herald, The (FL) - December 13, 1986Browse Issues
Author/Byline: JAY DUCASSI Herald Staff WriterEdition: FINALSection: LOCALPage: 1DReadability: >12 grade level (Lexile: 1380)
A judge dismissed charges of grand theft, fraud and forgery Friday against Ron Book, a prominent Miami attorney and lobbyist who was accused of inflating the price of his stolen Mercedes- Benz to get more money from his insurance company.
Circuit Judge Ralph Person said in a written ruling that the sales price Book gave his insurers was "irrelevant" because insurance companies do not use the purchase price to determine how much they will pay a client for a stolen car.
"We are elated to have put this matter behind us," Book said after the hearing. "It's been a long time coming, but nobody said justice moves quickly."
Prosecutors Larry LaVecchio and Richard Shiffrin said they will appeal the dismissal.
The judge's ruling, LaVecchio said, "essentially means that you can lie to insurance companies about the purchase price of a vehicle with impunity, even if the insurance company actually relied on those lies to settle the claim."
Book was charged with grand theft, two counts of insurance fraud and uttering a forged instrument after Nationwide Mutual Insurance paid him $48,010.25 for his stolen 1985 Mercedes-Benz 500 SEL.
According to prosecutors, Book paid Rennsport Autohaus in Coconut Grove $44,000 for the car on Nov. 5, 1985.
After it was stolen three weeks later, Book asked Rennsport owner Antonio Jose Garcia to give him a phony bill of sale with an inflated price of $53,000, prosecutors said.
That second bill of sale was the one Book submitted to Nationwide, along with an affidavit saying he was telling the truth about the sales price.
Blow-ups of the original bill, the inflated bill and a letter Book sent to Garcia asking for the inflated bill sat in LaVecchio's office Friday, ready to be shown to a jury at Book's trial, which was scheduled to begin Friday.
Prosecutors said the insurance company paid Book based on the sales price because the Mercedes was a "gray market" car, which made it difficult to determine its cash or replacement value.
Gray market cars are manufactured for use in Europe and imported to the United States without meeting federal auto standards. The cars are "federalized" after arrival here.
Book's lawyer, Donald Bierman, said Friday that the higher figure Book used was the replacement value of the car.
"What he paid for it has nothing to do with it," Bierman said.
In Friday's ruling, Judge Person also criticized prosecutors for filing a felony forgery charge against Book after the judge had dismissed a misdemeanor perjury count.
The judge said he was "greatly troubled" because the state's action "smacks of vindictiveness."
Prosecutor LaVecchio said Friday he believes the chances are "very good" that an appeals court will order Person to reinstate all the charges.
Book, who has been on a leave of absence from his law firm since his arrest, said he will return to work as a partner with the prestigious Miami law firm of Sparber, Shevin, Shapo, Heilbronner and Book.
Book, a close adviser and Dade fund-raiser for Gov. Bob Graham, is still under investigation in an unrelated case.
Prosecutors are investigating whether Book was involved in a $4,000 bribe allegedly paid to Opa-locka Vice Mayor Brian Hooten last year. Prosecutors have charged accused Hialeah corruption figure Alberto San Pedro with paying the bribe.
No charges have been filed against Book in that case, and he has denied any involvement in the bribe.
Ron Book is a smart "legal" criminal who pumps the political system better than anyone else.
Here's what he controls:
A one percent (1%) Homeless and Domestic Violence Tax is collected on all food and beverage sales by establishments that are licensed by the State of Florida to sell alcoholic beverages for consumption on the premises, except for hotels and motels. Only businesses that make over $400,000 in gross receipts annually are obligated to collect this tax.
The Homeless and Domestic Violence Tax is collected throughout Miami-Dade County with the exception of facilities in the cities of Miami Beach, Surfside and Bal Harbour. Eighty-five percent (85%) of the tax receipts goes to the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust, and fifteen percent (15%) goes to Miami-Dade County for domestic violence centers.
From the MIami Herald, he finances the County Commissioner's campaigns and they fear him. 13 years and more going forward as the head of the Homeless Trust.
"In a letter last month, Ron Book predicted he had the votes on the County Commission to extend his tenure as chairman of Miami-Dade’s homeless board. Tuesday proved him right.
Not only did no commissioner vote against the term-limit waiver, none asked that it be pulled from a list of items set for automatic approval. Book, a prominent lobbyist with Miami-Dade itself as a client, did not attend the meeting.
“There was no discussion because everybody agreed he should be reappointed,” commission chairman Jean Monestime said after the 13-member board’s regular, twice-a-month meeting.
Book has held the Homeless Trust chairmanship post since 2004, and exerts enough authority over the county’s homeless agency that he’s considered the de facto head of the tax-funded operation. In interviews, he has described holding veto power over day-to-day spending and housing decisions made by the paid staff. He also serves as the only authorized spokesman for the department.
His tenure now faces more scrutiny than ever on the heels of Washington rejecting $6 million in homeless grants for Miami-Dade, the biggest denial in the county’s history and part of a nationwide tightening of how the Department of Housing and Urban Development renews funding requests. Book has served on the county board since its founding in the 1990s, despite county rules limiting members to two consecutive three-year terms.
County commissioners routinely waive term limits to keep members on county boards, but Book’s longevity as chairman and his active role with the agency make him unique in Miami-Dade government."
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article85135992.html#storylink=cpy
Book is a lot more effective with the Trust than anyone else. He knows how to run things. The Commissioners should let him run their meetings. A lot more would get done, and there would be a lot more accountability.
Nonetheless, Lauren's Kids has been receiving ridiculous amounts of money for years. I thought as a new senator that perhaps it would be more modest, I guess not.
The same is with the County Commission. The same not for profits receive the same money or are the same not for profits commissioned for pet projects... There should be more accountability of our tax dollars. Maybe we the voters should get to vote on which nonprofits receive our money? There should be a shareholder report every year.... Commissioners with ties to nonprofit boards for the last five years should not be able to reward them money. We have laws about county employees who work as lobbyists.
With Ron Book's political equity and political power, we should keep him here in Miami-Dade for our own gains in Tallahassee. Otherwise, some other county will benefit off of his power. We should just get smarter about making sure we are putting him to work beyond the Homeless Trust.
He always reminds me of an angry Wizard of Oz character or something...
He only works for himself.
Look at the number of homeless people in Miami Dade county, Brooks is so low he is even stealing from the homeless!!!
Moreover he is incompetent, failing to apply for millions in grants.
And a criminal. A crook
If someone else wants this leach then let them have him.
it should be removed from homeless trust.
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