North Bay Village

Police State

Police soon to move into elementary school

By Angie Hargot

With City Hall and the adjacent police station declared unsafe because of mold, the City Commission has been holding its meetings in the Treasure Island cafeteria. A makeshift dais was set up on the cafeteria stage. The handful of observers who watched the Jan. 8 meeting wedged themselves into cafeteria seating areas made for children.

In this setting, the commission approved the Police Department’s temporary move to the school, discussed pay raises for officers and talked about a recent crime wave — which apparently has ended.

The commission authorized the city to enter into an agreement with Miami-Dade County Schools to allow the police department to temporarily set up shop on school property at minimal or no cost to the city.

Fane Lozman, once a fixture at North Bay Village meetings, presented the commission with an anonymous bulletin posted on a police Internet message board, which railed against North Bay Village Police Chief Scott Israel. The posting said Israel was “hated,” criticized his experience and asserted that he did not have the ability to get a job replacing indicted Broward Sheriff Ken Jenne. Ultimately succeeded by Maj. Alfred Lamberti of the Broward Sheriff’s Office, Jenne pleaded guilty in November to federal tax evasion and mail fraud charges. He is currently serving a sentence of a year and a day in federal prison. Israel had applied for Jenne’s position.

Lozman was also named in the resulting message board comments when a “guest” wrote that Israel should “stay in North Bay Village, where you can handle Fane Lozman.”

While Lozman said the city has become a “police state” under Israel’s leadership and that too much of the city’s budget is spent on law enforcement, he admitted his beef with Israel began with what he calls the “SWAT Gestapo” that Israel orchestrated when Lozman and neighboring houseboat owners were physically forced out of their floating homes. Lozman, who subsequently relocated, was one of a few who were served eviction notices after Hurricane Wilma severely damaged the North Bay Village marina where he lived. The city is currently awaiting engineering reports about the status of the damaged marina.

But Lozman, considering a return to the city, still keeps an eye on North Bay Village politics. “This town is not big enough for Scott Israel and Fane Lozman,” he told the commission. Although he didn’t drop names, “there’s a political undercurrent that wants Scott Israel out of this town,” he said.

“[Mayor Joe] Geller said they want to get rid of [Israel] but his severance package is so huge,” Lozman said after the meeting, adding that he questions whether Israel used his city-paid cell phone to job-hunt and lobby for the BSO position and another police chief position in Boca Raton.

Resident Mitch Edelstein disagreed. According to Edelstein, on Dec. 18, the North Bay Village Police saved the life of his 90-year-old mother. According to a police report, an officer on routine patrol noticed a black 2000 Chevy Monte Carlo with dark tinted windows sitting with its headlights on in front of her house on Adventure Avenue.

The two men inside told the officer they were waiting for a friend. Since Edelstein had never heard of the friend they named, police searched the vehicle. Burglary tools were found, according to the report, including a pry bar and screwdriver. The two men were placed in Miami Beach Police custody “regarding prior burglaries that had occurred within the city of Miami Beach,” the report stated. Edelstein said Israel himself responded to the scene.

“You can say what you want about Scott Israel, but he saved my mother’s life,” Edelstein said, adding that when funding the police force, “every dime, every dollar, every penny, is worth it.”

Geller and several other residents would like to believe the apprehension of the two men will spell the end of a recent string of burglaries in the city.

“Since they’ve been apprehended there have been no robberies,” Geller said.

“They thought the house was unoccupied,” Edelstein later said, with a slight quiver in his voice. “They would have killed my mother.”