Mitch Needelman
| Mitch Needelman | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Member of the Florida House of Representatives from the 31st district | |
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In office 2000 – 2008 |
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| Preceded by | Harry C. Goode, Jr. |
| Succeeded by | John Tobia |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
October 23, 1952 Miami, Florida |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | Joan "Joannie" McDonald Needelman |
| Children | Michael |
| Residence | Melbourne, Florida |
| Alma mater | Miami Dade Junior College (A.A., Criminology, 1972), Warner Southern College, (B.A., Organizational Management, 1994), Webster University (M.A. Public Administration/Human Resources Development, 1996) |
Mitch Needelman (October 23, 1952, Miami, Florida) is a former member of the Florida House of Representatives. He represented the 31st district from 2000 to 2008.
He then served as Clerk of Brevard County Courts, but lost his bid for re-election in 2012.
He was a member of the City of Melbourne Zoning Board of Adjustments from 1988 to 2000, and its Chairman from 1996 to 1997.
In early 2012, BlueWare CEO Rose Harr met then Brevard County Clerk Mitch Needelman, via Matt DuPree, a former lobbyist and business partner of Needelman. On April 6, 2012, Needelman signed a contract with RoseWare LLC, one of the 10 companies within BlueWare's "corporate family." On the day of signing, $100,000 was wired from Brevard County to BlueWare. On April 18, 2012, former Brevard County Clerk, Republican Scott Ellis filed a public records request for any and all contracts between the County Clerk's office and BlueWare.
On May 3, 2012, Needelman issued an Invitation to Negotiate (ITN) for a contract to digitize old county records which were then being stored in a gymnasium. This ITN, which was reportedly written by BlueWare itself, allowed only eight days to submit bids, which prevented other firms the time needed to prepare. Selection of a bid was made only 5 days later. BlueWare, which had never performed such services for government before, submitted a bid of $8.5 million under the company name BlueGem, Inc. Despite the short time-frame, the experienced document imaging company FNTI had submitted a bid of $3.5 million. On May 23, BlueWare was wired an additional $500,000. The contract was signed on June 29, and BlueWare received its first monthly payment of $90,000.
While this was ongoing, Needelman and Ellis were competing for the Republican nomination for County Clerk. One of the major issues in the campaign was the contract Needelman had signed with BlueWare. It would later emerge that some of the money Needelman had arranged for BlueWare to receive was being diverted to his campaign. The primary was held on August 14, 2012, and Ellis defeated Needelman with 60.8% of the vote.
On August 30, 2012, a former BlueWare employee filed suit against BlueWare and Harr for, among other things, illegal termination. The suit claims that the employee was terminated in retaliation for threatening to expose Harr's "improper conduct" with "a certain government official in the State of Florida." Sometime in the next month, DuPree was hired by BlueWare.
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