WPCNR THE CITY HALL ALUMNI NEWS. April 6, 2005, UPDATED with Links, April 7, 2005. 11:00 A.M. E.D.T. : Former Executive Officer of the City of White Plains,  George Gretsas, now in Month 9 in his new job as City Manager of Fort Lauderdale has created a neighborhood cleanup program that is the subject of a Justice Department investigation, according to the Associated Press. The Gretsas-created program NEAT targeted a series of mostly black neighborhoods in Broward County for a code enforcement sweep called NEAT. The object: clean up garbage heaps and junked cars from yards, long eyesores. Fort Lauderdale Code Enforcers went door-to-door, writing up code enforcement violations.

George Gretsas, White Plains former Executive Officer, April, 2004 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Photo by Joe Amon From WPCNR News Archive.

The NAACP and Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now protested that the city was singling out poor people who are black for the sweep. Their protest included ambushing the Fort Lauderdale Public Information Officer, David Hebert, with television crews two weeks ago.  Residents of the area, the AP reports, objected to penalties that included jail time and fines as high as $250 a day. The AP reports 1,700 code violations were issued, and 1,000 of them fixed by homeowners. The Justice Department is not commenting on their investigation. The AP reports three persons have been asked to cooperate with the Justice Department.

The Associated Press report may be read at http://www.wsvn.com/news/articles_p/local/C71796.

The Sun-Sentinel also filed a report and it may be read at http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-cneat19mar24,0,5299480.story?coll=sfla-news-broward

Fort Lauderdale is also attracting a lot of sharks to its Spring Break beaches -- ones with fins. On Wednesday,  television network video showed hundreds of black-tip sharks frolicking in shallow water close to the Fort Lauderdale beaches.