• - Terry Stiles, a local construction giant whose commercial high rise projects had forever changed Fort Lauderdale's skyline.

• - John Henry, a nationally known investment whiz and then owner of the Florida Marlins.

• - Dave Thomas, the folksy founder, major stockholder and affable TV spokesman of Wendy's restaurant chain.

• - Steve Berrard, the scion of the Blockbuster video bonanza, Autonation's first CEO and the allegedly joined-at-the-hip confidant of Fort Lauderdale billionaire sports and garbage mogul H. Wayne Huizenga.

• - Plus portraits and statements from a gathering of other equally rich and powerful white guys – all equally dependent  on Michael Chizner himself to keep their hearts ticking.

     Gushed Hospital District officials in a PR-crafted statement:
    “The creation of this world-class 'Heart Center of Excellence' will attract not only patients, but (also) the highest caliber of physicians, cardiovascular specialists, surgeons and other top medical professionals and will establish the North Broward Hospital District as a leading provider of cardiovascular services in the state of Florida and the nation as well.”
    So.
    What happened?
    First, with the passage of time (and the remarkably forgiving nature of district officials) Chizner's original $50 million fund raising campaign was slashed to $35 million and then lowered again to $25 million and then lowered again to $15 million until it finally reached an unknown amount that – as mysteries go – ranks right up there with Transubstantiation and the the Higgs Boson Particle.
    Not that anyone at Broward General gave the tinest of  hoots.
    But then accountability at the North Broward Hospital District is as common as Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in Broward General's Pediatric Unit.
    With architecture worthy of a Medical Oz a Mothership Galactica, the born-again Broward General was dedicated in late 2005 – complete with an computerized grand piano playing tinkling show tunes in the hospital's new ballroom-sized lobby..
    Naturally, everyone expected Chizer's gleaming new Heart Center of Excellence would be slammed by a tsunami of wealthy heart patients.
    However – aside from a humongous explosion of office visits – Broward General's projected bounty of revenue-generating heart procedures has been more trickle than flood:

                                Broward General Medicial Center
                                      Heart Center of Excellence
                           Patient Visits, Costs and Procedures*
Fiscal Year:                 2005                       2009
TOTAL
Hired Cardiologists   3                              6
Patient Visits              6,315                      38,807
District Dr. Cost         $1,983,793            $7,459,215
Heart Procedures
   Open Heart               281                         290
   Cardiac Cath            2,082                      2,132
   Angioplasties           806                         914
Fiscal Year: July through June

   Oh yes.
   Based on the numbers in the District's annual budgets, it's virtually impossible to determine if Chizner's dream has generated huge profits or devastating losses for Broward General..
   Why?
  Mainly because – unlike most District programs detailed in the tax-funded system's yearly budgets – the very few scattered entities for Chizner's Heart Center of Excellence fail to include basic line items like operating costs, operating revenues and bottom line profits or losses.
   In short, since day one, Chizner's “world class” Heart Center has been a Black Hole of Accountability.
   And a complete financial mystery. 
   Which raises several serious questions regarding the District's nine governing Commissioner's due diligence and fiduciary responsibilities.
   But then as the late Isak Dennison's husband mused after infecting his Swedish author-wife with syphilis, “It's all so quiet when the goldfish die.”
   No matter.
   With an annual paycheck of more than a million dollars, Chizner remains one of the highest paid physicians under contract with the North Broward Hospital District.
    Which is a hell of a lot better than the Music Man did with the 76 trombones and uniforms the prancing hustler sold to outfit River City's brand new Boys Band.
    Not that there hasn't been at least one brief moment of public discontent over Chizner's platinum-plated paycheck – and this came in early 2006 when several District Commissioners dared to question how and why Chisner was earning so much money.
    After all...
    That was the year the District's 990 listed Chizner as one of its three highest paid employees, with total reported earnings of $1,105,260 in annual compensation for a 40-hour week.
     Even more curious was how during the District's FY 2006:

• The other two highest paid District employees were surgeons+ – while Chizner was a diagnostician. (+Open heart and orthopedic surgery)

• Annual salaries for cardiologists like Chizner ranged from $389,000 to $561,000, based on a national survey conducted by Modern Physician magazine.

• While cardiologist salaries ranged from an entry-level low of $175,000 to an experienced high of $500,0000 a year, according to the national physcians' recruiting firm Merritt Hawkins & Associations.

      All of which led District Commissioner Robert Bernstein to ask if the District might be paying Michael Chizner a tad too much.
      Which, in turn, led Chizner to assault the District Commissioners with the same SWAT Team of Super Rich and Powerful local high rollers he'd recruited to sell his Heart Center of Excellence to hospital officials six years before – minus his former star patient Dave Thomas, who'd left Chizner's care for the big burger stand in the sky.
      But even without the late Wendy's pitchman, Chizner's $WAT Team sent the District scurrying in terrified retreat.
      What's more, faced with fury from the likes of H. Wayne Huzenga himself, the District Commissioners voted to extend Chizner's platinum-plated contract for another ten years..
      PS:
      Among the members of Chizner's formidable $WAT Team were Terry Stiles, Steve Berrard, Huizenga, Mike Egan and other local high rollers – none of whom had even put a tiny dent in the unrealized $50 million worth of donations Chizner had agreed to raise from his Cardio Boosters six years before.
      Which suggests, as Heart Center salesmen go, Chizner may be synonymous with Schtarker.
      Along with his cadre of well-healed heart patients.