WAFC Local News – March 24, 2026, 8:32 AM
Transcript
I’m Charles Murphy reporting. The Palm Beach County School Board honored Dr. Benjamin Sterling Ford of Belle Glade. He passed away in December of last year. He attended Palm Beach schools and taught in the Glades and served the district for 33 years. He was the state’s Black Legislative Caucus Teacher of the Year in 2014 and was Teacher of the Year in the Glades region in 1992. School Board member Edwin Ferguson called Ford a man to emulate. If we were all like Brother Ford, many problems that we have that we deal with on a day-to-day basis we would not deal with it. He’ll be sorely missed. He’s loved by me. He’s loved by all his fraternity brothers. He’s loved by everyone. It’s about the fact that the whole region of the county thought it not right for him to come out here just to hear this resolution, to hear things that y’all already know. School Board member Marsha Andrews says Ford was a wonderful man who made a difference in education. I knew Benjamin when he was my boy. My student at Jefferson Davis Middle School, I loved him. He went away to college and came back and got a job right with me at Bear Lakes Middle School as a superstar teacher. Forty-one-year-old Kristi Hornsby is facing charges of trespassing. She got into it at the Holiday Inn with management there. They wanted her to leave. When law enforcement arrived, she resisted their attempts and returned after being warned not to. Forty-nine-year-old Shannon Savant of Hendry County is facing a sex charge. He allegedly exposed himself during a disturbance to a child. Forty-eight-year-old Jesus Burgos of Hendry County is facing charges after being pulled over on an ATV on Avenida del Sur and Coral Street. He got mouthy with the deputies saying he wasn’t doing anything wrong. Deputies found a powdery substance that tested positive for cocaine. He also had an out-of-county warrant at a Miami-Dade. The feud between interim city manager Tammy Bussey in Pahokee and Mayor Keith Babb has worsened. Babb is not supporting the hiring her as the permanent manager. He says other candidates are more qualified. He has been criticized by her family and some fellow commissioners for not supporting her. Bussey says she helped several Pahokee families being evicted from a slum building and tried to get the mayor involved, but he wouldn’t return her texts or phone calls. Bussey says she was doing the right thing and the mayor is always wrong. Trying to use me as a scapegoat is not going to happen because I’m doing what I’ve been asked to do while I’m here, although I’ve got to fight every meeting against all of this. Susan Gooding-Lightberg says the city has gone through a comedy of errors with financial problems. Many of you who are members of the commission during the prior sitting board of the city of Pahokee, when the doors were being locked at city hall, staff could not get in to do work. Even James Scott on the commission says the mayor is not doing his job. The lady just stated she called you, you don’t answer the phone. You sure don’t come to no events. I mean, but you will be leading the city and you don’t participate in nothing that she involved in. And what was my explanation? I don’t care what your explanation is. You don’t remember what I said? No, I don’t even care. Okay. I don’t even care if you use it as an insult to set up there and say what you just said. The mayor says the family threats and insults against him at public meetings, as well as the vice mayor, don’t reflect well on her or her family. And it scares me that if you are at some point pointed the permanent city manager, how would it, how would that continue? If it’s this at this point now, I think it’d even get worse. Sir. I’m Charles Murphy, WAFC news.
Recorded from the WAFC daily newscast (Glades Media).