us rep lois frankel - News - The Coastal Star2024-03-29T09:26:02Zhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/us+rep+lois+frankelAlong the Coast: Feds give cities leeway to decide sober home siteshttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/along-the-coast-feds-give-cities-leeway-on-sober-home-sites2016-11-30T19:34:24.000Z2016-11-30T19:34:24.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;" class="font-size-7">As Delray Beach begins</span></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;" class="font-size-7">ordinance changes,</span></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;" class="font-size-7">others in area plan to stand pat</span></p>
<p style="text-align:left;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', times;" class="font-size-2"><strong>By Jane Smith</strong><br /><br /> The U.S. Cavalry arrived last month in the form of a 20-page federal joint statement on sober homes, delivered by U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel.<br /> She hoped beleaguered cities in her district and around the country would use the legal guidance to help protect their neighborhoods from over-saturation of the homes while safeguarding the rights of people in recovery. <br /> So far, only Delray Beach among south county’s four large coastal municipalities will use the statement when revising its reasonable accommodation ordinance. The local statute covers group recovery homes. <br /> “The city will be able to say how many is too many in one neighborhood,” Mayor Cary Glickstein said at the Nov. 10 announcement. Previously, cities had to accept group recovery homes wherever they wanted to be. <br /> Now cities can consider two issues when deciding whether to grant a waiver and allow more than three unrelated people to live together. The municipalities can weigh the financial impact group homes have on single-family neighborhoods as well as the cost for city services, particularly 911 calls for relapsed addicts succumbing to overdoses.<br /> The revised joint statement, crafted by the departments of Justice and Housing and Urban Development, now recognizes that zoning and land use are best determined locally, Glickstein and Frankel said. <br /> The revision was sparked in May when Frankel led a federal housing official and his staff on a tour of Delray Beach sober homes. The housing official was shocked by what he saw: suitcases, clothing and personal belongings strewn on lawns where patients had been evicted. He vowed to talk with Justice Department lawyers and craft a joint statement that also protects the rights of recovering addicts, who are protected under federal privacy and disability laws.<br /> Elected leaders and officials in three other coastal cities are less enthused.<br /> Boynton Beach Mayor Steven Grant and Lantana Mayor Dave Stewart don’t see enough of a change in the revised joint statement. They say if people are receiving treatment in the homes or selling drugs there, they have ordinances that make those activities illegal.<br /> “We are not going to do anything different at this point in time,” Stewart said. <br /> Grant said his city will continue to use nuisance abatement and code enforcement to monitor the group homes. He also wants to see the group homes pay the county’s 6 percent bed tax because they offer stays of less than six months.<br /> Boca Raton, battle-scarred from losing federal court lawsuits over sober home ordinances, is more cautious. It had to pay more than $2 million in attorneys’ fees in the cases. <br /> City Attorney Diana Grub Frieser recently gave a lukewarm assessment on the statement to the City Council. <br /> “I don’t think it is as much of a deviation from what the case law already does allow,” she told the council members on Nov. 22. Frieser said she liked the language that allows cities to deny the waivers under certain circumstances but proving the circumstances would “put an undue burden on a local government.”<br /> Delray Beach leaders know they have to walk a fine line when revising the ordinance.<br /> “It’s not a panacea,” City Attorney Max Lohman said a few days after the statement was delivered. “But it can be used to draft a more even-handed ordinance that also protects the homes’ residents.” <br /> Police Chief Jeff Goldman called the statement a “game changer. … Over-saturation is a major issue as it pertains to the heroin epidemic in Delray Beach.” The city had less of a problem with heroin overdoses in 2015 compared with this year.<br /> The city is using outside counsel Terrill Pyburn to bring a revised ordinance to the Planning & Zoning Board’s Dec. 19 meeting and then to the City Commission in January, the mayor said.<br /> “We feel the proposed changes will be mutually beneficial to all Delray citizens, including those deserving protections in group homes,” Glickstein said via email.<br /> The city had a revised ordinance already on the board’s Nov. 21 agenda. The major changes required the group medical homes to apply annually for the waiver, said Tim Stillings, planning and zoning director. <br /> As of mid-November, Stillings said the majority of accommodations were for a waiver to the unrelated persons rule. Since 2012, the city has granted 82 waivers, he said.<br /> In addition, city code inspectors work with the police department to identify illegal practices, such as drug sales, occurring at sober homes, said Michael Coleman, director of community improvement. So far this year, 21 sober home operators were evicted after the property’s owners were alerted to illegal activity, Coleman said.<br /><br /><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;" class="font-size-3">Arrests made, bills proposed</span><br /> Separately, the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Sober Homes Task Force is recommending some changes to state laws to weed out rogue operators. <br /> Suggested revisions include: Increasing the penalties for patient brokering, creating an amendment that bans lying on websites designed to attract potential patients, changing voluntary certification of recovery residences to mandatory and providing more money to the state Department of Children & Families to better police the recovery industry. <br /> Rep. Bill Hager has agreed to sponsor the bills in the Florida House during the 2017 legislative session. <br /> “There is absolutely bipartisan and statewide support for this issue,” said Hager, whose district includes Delray Beach. <br /> The task force’s law enforcement arm arrested a Boynton Beach treatment center owner, James Kigar, and manager, Chris Hutson, in late October. It also seized the financial records of their Whole Life Recovery center. <br /> Since then, four Delray Beach sober home operators have been charged with violating the patient brokering law. In an effort to circumvent the law, authorities say, they allegedly accepted payments, called “case management fees,” for each insured patient directed to Whole Life for treatment.<br /> One operator who was charged runs a sober home on Lowson Boulevard in Delray Beach; its owners received a 2016 homestead exemption. Their names are listed on corporate records for Southern Palms Oasis Inc., along with John Dudek, who was charged with six counts of patient brokering. The case is ongoing.<br /> Two brothers, Bryan and Patrick Norquist, operated sober homes in the proposed Swinton Commons project in the Old School Square Historic Arts District, the heart of the trendy downtown area. They were charged with 16 counts of patient brokering. <br /> The fourth Delray Beach sober-home operator is Howard James Fowler Jr., who runs a sober home at 705 SW Sixth Ave. He was charged with 14 counts of patient brokering.<br /> Delray Beach Detective Nicole Lucas played a lead role in the case that led to the arrests of the sober home operators. Her confidential informant tipped her about Whole Life’s practices.<br /> She wants to shut down the bad providers who are in the recovery industry only for the money. <br /> “If it’s all about treatment,” Lucas said, “then we are going to save a lot more people.”</span></p></div>Along the Coast: Feds give cities leeway to decide sober home siteshttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/along-the-coast-feds-give-cities-leeway-to-decide-sober-home-site2016-11-30T16:00:39.000Z2016-11-30T16:00:39.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;" class="font-size-6">As Delray Beach begins ordinance changes,</span></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;" class="font-size-6">others stand pat</span></p>
<p><strong>By Jane Smith</strong><br /><br /> The U.S. Cavalry arrived last month in the form of a 20-page federal joint statement on sober homes, delivered by U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel.<br /> She hoped beleaguered cities in her district and around the country would use the legal guidance to help protect their neighborhoods from over-saturation of the homes while safeguarding the rights of people in recovery. <br /> So far, only Delray Beach among south county’s four large coastal municipalities will use the statement when revising its reasonable accommodation ordinance. The local statute covers group recovery homes. <br /> “The city will be able to say how many is too many in one neighborhood,” Mayor Cary Glickstein said at the Nov. 10 announcement. Previously, cities had to accept group recovery homes wherever they wanted to be. <br /> Now cities can consider two issues when deciding whether to grant a waiver and allow more than three unrelated people to live together. The municipalities can weigh the financial impact group homes have on single-family neighborhoods as well as the cost for city services, particularly 911 calls for relapsed addicts succumbing to overdoses.<br /> The revised joint statement, crafted by the departments of Justice and Housing and Urban Development, now recognizes that zoning and land use are best determined locally, Glickstein and Frankel said. <br /> The revision was sparked in May when Frankel led a federal housing official and his staff on a tour of Delray Beach sober homes. The housing official was shocked by what he saw: suitcases, clothing and personal belongings strewn on lawns where patients had been evicted. He vowed to talk with Justice Department lawyers and craft a joint statement that also protects the rights of recovering addicts, who are protected under federal privacy and disability laws.<br /> Elected leaders and officials in three other coastal cities are less enthused.<br /> Boca Raton, battle-scarred from losing federal court lawsuits over sober home ordinances, is more cautious. It had to pay more than $2 million in attorneys’ fees in the cases. <br /> City Attorney Diana Grub Frieser recently gave a lukewarm assessment on the statement to the City Council. <br /> “I don’t think it is as much of a deviation from what the case law already does allow,” she told the council members on Nov. 22. Frieser said she liked the language that allows cities to deny the waivers under certain circumstances but proving the circumstances would “put an undue burden on a local government.”<br /> Boynton Beach Mayor Steven Grant and Lantana Mayor Dave Stewart don’t see enough of a change in the revised joint statement. They say if people are receiving treatment in the homes or selling drugs there, they have ordinances that make those activities illegal.<br /> “We are not going to do anything different at this point in time,” Stewart said. <br /> Grant said his city will keep using nuisance abatement and code enforcement to monitor the group homes. <br /> Delray Beach leaders know they have to walk a fine line when revising the ordinance.<br /> “It’s not a panacea,” City Attorney Max Lohman said. “But it can be used to draft a more even-handed ordinance that also protects the homes’ residents.” <br /> Police Chief Jeff Goldman called the statement a “game changer. … Over-saturation is a major issue as it pertains to the heroin epidemic in Delray Beach.” The city had less of a problem with heroin overdoses in 2015 compared with this year.<br /> The city is using outside counsel Terrill Pyburn to bring a revised ordinance to the Planning & Zoning Board’s Dec. 19 meeting and then to the City Commission in January, the mayor said.<br /> The city had a revised ordinance already on the board’s Nov. 21 agenda. The major changes required the group medical homes to apply annually for the waiver, said Tim Stillings, planning and zoning director. <br /> As of mid-November, Stillings said the majority of accommodations were for a waiver to the unrelated persons rule. Since 2012, the city has granted 82 waivers, he said.<br /> In addition, city code inspectors work with the police department to identify illegal practices, such as drug sales, occurring at sober homes, said Michael Coleman, director of community improvement. So far this year, 21 sober home operators were evicted after the property’s owners were alerted to illegal activity, Coleman said.<br /><br /><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;" class="font-size-3">Arrests made, bills proposed</span><br /> Separately, the state attorney’s Sober Homes Task Force is recommending some changes to state laws to weed out rogue operators. <br /> Suggested revisions include: Increasing the penalties for patient brokering, creating an amendment that bans lying on websites designed to attract potential patients, changing voluntary certification of recovery residences to mandatory and providing more money to the state Department of Children & Families to better police the recovery industry. <br /> Rep. Bill Hager has agreed to sponsor the bills in the Florida House during the 2017 legislative session. “There is absolutely bipartisan and statewide support for this issue,” said Hager. <br /> The task force’s law enforcement arm arrested a Boynton Beach treatment center owner, James Kigar, and manager, Chris Hutson, in late October. It also seized the financial records of the Whole Life Recovery center. <br /> Since then, four Delray Beach sober home operators have been charged with violating the patient brokering law. In an effort to circumvent the law, authorities say, they allegedly accepted payments, called “case management fees,” for each insured patient directed to Whole Life for treatment.</p></div>Overdose and Sober Home Response: Frankel pursues federal optionshttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/overdose-and-sober-home-response-frankel-pursues-federal-options2016-08-03T18:57:39.000Z2016-08-03T18:57:39.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><strong>By Jane Smith</strong></p>
<p> The feds may be coming to the rescue of South County coastal cities beleaguered by the proliferation of sober homes. <br /> Their chief ally is U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel. <br /> In mid-July, she met with one of the original authors of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the 1988 law that added disability status to the Fair Housing Act. Recovering drug users living as a family while maintaining their sobriety are considered a disabled class that is protected under federal law. <br /> The law’s author suggested that Frankel reach out to individuals in the disability rights community to help make the case that “over-concentration of sober homes creates de facto segregation and violates the long-standing principles of integrating disabled individuals into the community,” according to Frankel’s July 15 letter. <br /> Boca Raton Mayor Susan Haynie appreciates Frankel’s efforts. “She really is attacking this on all levels. It’s really a federal issue,” Haynie said. “We tried on the local level and failed. Statewide, the voluntary certification is a step in the right direction. But the rubber meets the road on the federal level.”<br /> In addition, Frankel and 16 congressional colleagues sent a letter in early July to the U.S. Government Accountability Office asking for help in determining the number of sober homes nationally, statewide and locally. <br /> The letter also asks the GAO to determine the regulations that cover sober homes, the range of services they provide and their roles in Medicaid and other federal insurance programs for drug and alcohol abuse. <br /> “There is so much that we don’t know about sober homes,” said Frankel, a Democrat, who persuaded eight Republican representatives to sign the letter. “Parents who send their kids to sober homes to recover from addiction don’t know if they are effective. When problems arise, local governments do not know how to regulate and address community concerns.”<br /> Delray Beach Mayor Cary Glickstein marveled at the coast-to-coast support for the sober homes issue. “It illustrates that we are getting national support from both sides of the aisle and reiterates (that sober home proliferation is) not a parochial problem,” he said. “If there ever was a bipartisan issue, (this) is one.” <br /> The city’s public safety departments spend an increasing amount of time responding to overdose calls. In the first six months of 2016, Delray Beach saw 242 overdose calls from heroin alone, compared with 195 heroin overdose calls in 2015. <br /> Frankel’s letter follows one sent by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., in early June to the GAO. Warren had two Republican co-signers: Sens.Marco Rubio of Florida and Orrin Hatch of Utah.<br /> Warren’s office publicist said the office would let her letter speak for itself. A call to Rubio’s office was not returned.<br /> The GAO said it has accepted the requests, “but the work is not expected to get underway until late this year. Once it begins, the first steps will be to determine the exact scope of what we will cover and the methodology to be used.”<br /> Boynton Beach Mayor Steven Grant said his city would not wait until the feds can act. The city will proceed with its local business certification program to identify all home-based businesses and ensure the city is collecting the appropriate tax from the business. <br /> Meanwhile, Haynie and Glickstein are waiting for the joint statement promised by Frankel after attending a sober homes forum in May. Before the forum, Frankel and an assistant HUD secretary toured sober home locations in Delray Beach. They saw luggage, clothing and furniture on front lawns, indicating evictions.<br /> The assistant secretary was shocked and said he would go back to Washington and secure a joint statement from HUD and Department of Justice lawyers that cities could use as a basis for local regulations.<br /> In her mid-July update, Frankel said, “The agencies have assured us that they are working hard to release the new joint statement in the near future, possibly as soon as August.”</p></div>Along the Coast: Feds take sober look at 'bad operators'https://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/along-the-coast-feds-take-sober-look-at-bad-operators2016-05-04T18:30:00.000Z2016-05-04T18:30:00.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960649061,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img width="500" class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960649061,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="7960649061?profile=original" /></a><em>U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel addresses the media, flanked by HUD’s Gustavo Velasquez and Delray Beach Mayor Cary Glickstein.</em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><strong>Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star</strong></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><strong>Related story: Delray Commission alarmed at drug-related <a href="http://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/along-the-coast-delray-commission-alarmed-at-drug-related-public-">public safety</a> figures</strong></p>
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<p style="text-align:left;"><strong>By Jane Smith<br /> <br /></strong> A black van carrying 14 people toured Delray Beach about 1 p.m. May 2. Police in marked vehicles escorted the van through the city’s neighborhoods.<br /> They were not transporting people from sober homes to treatment centers. Instead, they had a bigger mission: to show high-ranking federal officials the negative impact that unkempt recovery residences are having on city neighborhoods.<br /> The 90-minute tour — combined with a mid-afternoon sober homes forum — likely worked. Sixteen cities in Palm Beach and Broward counties sent elected officials and community leaders to the forum.<br /> “We then listened to the concerns of the elected leaders throughout the region,” said Gustavo Velasquez, an assistant secretary in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. “We have a lot of ideas. I will go back to Washington and work on it.”<br /> He plans to work with HUD and Department of Justice lawyers to craft a joint statement, a guideline, which cities can use to balance the needs of recovering individuals with a city’s ability to maintain quality neighborhoods and a keep a lid on public safety costs. His goal is to have the statement in August.<br /> At the forum, one elected leader said a sober home in his city called the fire department 115 times in one year, according to U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel, whose staff organized the forum and helped stage the tour with Delray Beach staff.<br /> She was able to persuade HUD officials to attend.<br /> “I had a bill prepared and asked HUD to review. They were concerned with the right wing tea party trying to gut the fair housing law if we brought the proposal to the floor,” Frankel said the day after the forum. “So they agreed to this meeting instead and revising the joint opinion.” <br /> The news media were not permitted in the forum to allow the elected leaders to speak freely, she said. Frankel, a federal official, does not have to follow the state’s Sunshine Law regarding open meetings.<br /> Velasquez left immediately after making a statement in the news conference held in Old School Square’s Crest Theatre building. <br /> HUD officials were visibly shocked by what they saw on the tour, Frankel said. “We saw furniture on the sidewalks,” she said, indicating that a sober home had just tossed a client on the street. “We are not bashing the industry, just the bad operators.”<br /> Frankel said she was optimistic about the outcome.<br /> Delray Beach Mayor Cary Glickstein said he was feeling the most encouraged in his four years as mayor. He hears daily complaints about sober homes from residents. <br /> The city police and fire chiefs recently showed how the increase in emergency calls from sober homes is plaguing their departments. The more than 200 recovery residences account for 6 percent of the 20,000-plus incident reports police officers make annually, Police Chief Jeff Goldman said in mid-April.<br /> Delray Beach has hundreds of sober homes. The exact number is not known because counting them would lead to federal lawsuits under fair housing and disability laws, Glickstein said.<br /> “It’s not the amount of homes, it’s the number of beds,” he said. “If you have 1,000 sober homes with 10 beds … that’s like adding 10,000 people to your city every three months. … Traditional metrics for measuring public services doesn’t work.”<br /> Delray Beach will use the federal statement to craft city laws that distinguish between the recovering individuals and the sober home operators that often are corporations or limited liability companies.<br /> “City managers may get together and contribute to a legal defense fund for the new ordinance,” Glickstein said. He thinks the ordinance will be tested in court.<br /> Boca Raton Mayor Susan Haynie said she too was feeling optimistic. <br /> “The HUD officials were truly shocked by what they saw on the tour,” she said. “Hopefully it’s a light-bulb moment for them.” <br /> She liked that the Justice Department would be involved because then the joint statement would have more meaning in the courts. In addition, she was thrilled that the statement could be ready in 90 days. <br /> New Boynton Beach Mayor Steven Grant said his city will not wait until August. He plans to ask his city attorney to look at Boynton Beach’s ordinances regulating group homes and see what can be done there.</p></div>Along the Coast: Congresswoman to host private roundtable chat on sober houseshttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/along-the-coast-congresswoman-to-host-private-roundtable-chat-on-2016-03-30T15:23:51.000Z2016-03-30T15:23:51.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><strong>By Jane Smith</strong><br /><br /> Another ray of hope for South County coastal cities overwhelmed with sober home complaints comes via U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel’s office. <br /> She is holding a roundtable discussion May 2 on sober homes. Her office has invited mayors, city managers and city attorneys to the Delray Beach discussion, which will take place in private. An assistant secretary of the Housing and Urban Development Department, Gustavo Velasquez, also will attend.<br /> Frankel’s district spans the coastal areas of northern Broward County and southern Palm Beach County up to Riviera Beach. Her office could not say how many cities would be represented at the May 2 roundtable. Delray Beach and Boca Raton officials intend to be there.<br /> The roundtable was originally set for March 11, but it was canceled when a HUD official became sick and was unable to make the trip.<br /> Cities, including Boca Raton and Delray Beach, lost court cases when sober homes and their clients sued under federal disability and fair housing laws. Sometimes the judges awarded multimillion-dollar damages to the sober home operators and their clients. Addicts in recovery are seen as a family unit that is protected under federal laws.<br /> Prior to the afternoon discussion, Delray Beach officials will take Frankel and Velasquez on a tour of sober homes in their city. Mayor Cary Glickstein estimates that the city has hundreds of single-family and multifamily sober homes, most of which are not certified.<br /> Later in the day, they will hold a news conference on the sober home issue.<br /><br /></p></div>Along the Coast: Redistricting shift may expand Deutch’s clout to coastal communitieshttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/along-the-coast-redistricting-shift-may-expand-deutch-s-clout-to-2015-09-02T16:58:10.000Z2015-09-02T16:58:10.000ZChris Felkerhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/ChrisFelker<div><p><strong>By Dan Moffett</strong></p>
<p><br /> A special legislative session failed to resolve the state’s redistricting problems last month, but it might have provided some clarity for coastal communities about their represent-ation in Congress going forward.<br /> While lawmakers could not agree on a new map for congressional districts statewide, they did agree on what Palm Beach and Broward counties should look like. That could be good news — or at least a measure of relief — for Democratic U.S. Reps. Lois Frankel and Ted Deutch.<br /><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960589692,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-left" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960589692,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="81" alt="7960589692?profile=original" /></a> Currently, Deutch’s District 21 and Frankel’s District 22 lie mostly in Palm Beach County and run parallel to each other, running north and south. Frankel’s district is to the east and Deutch’s to the west.<br /> Under new proposed boundaries that most legislators supported, Deutch’s district would be stacked atop Frankel’s. His constituents would all be in Palm Beach County, while Frankel’s would include Boca Raton south of the C-15 canal, and be mostly in Broward County.<br /> But, nothing about this is set in redistricting stone.<br /> Because the Legislature couldn’t agree on how to redraw several districts in central and western Florida, the 12-day session came to an acrimonious end without approval of a new statewide map. The lawmakers’ failure means a circuit court judge will have to redraw the 27 congressional districts.<br /> Frankel and Deutch so far have voiced no complaints about the proposed changes to their districts and have pledged to support each other going forward.<br /> “We both believe in the concept of fair districts and that congressional districts should be drawn to serve the people, not for the pleasure of elected officials,” they said in a joint statement. “We have both proudly worked as a team and with other members of our delegation, serving the residents of Palm Beach and Broward counties over many years. We both fully intend to run for re-election and we look forward to serving in Congress together as long as our constituents give us this honor. We are friends, have great respect for one another and both of us are fully committed to not running against each other.”<br /> Leon County Circuit Court Judge Terry Lewis has scheduled hearings for Sept. 24-28 and hopes to make a recommendation for a new congressional map to the state Supreme Court by mid-October. In July, the high court ruled that Florida’s districts don’t meet constitutional requirements that prohibit political lines that favor incumbents or parties, and the justices ordered the Legislature to redraw the districts within 100 days.<br /> “The court said that there was gerrymandering and that Republicans had drawn districts based on politics,” said state Sen. Jeff Clemens, D-Lake Worth. “But I can’t be too hard on the Republicans. When Democrats ran the Legislature, they did the same thing.”<br /> Clemens said he’s hopeful that lawmakers will do better in October when they hold a special session to reconfigure the state’s Senate districts, including perhaps his own.<br /> “One way or another,” he said, “we’re going to have to get these districts redrawn.”</p></div>