The front door to what is supposed to be the Hallandale Beach "community center" on the beach and State Road A1A. But over a year since it passed over from The Beach Club -which I loathe- to the city, there is still not a single sign identifying it as one belonging to the citizens of Hallandale Beach, Florida. August 2, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier
My comments follow the story below, which has grains of truth in it, but not nearly as many as you'd think -or it deserved.
I will have a much longer post here Thursday evening, with the sorts of details you won't hear or see anywhere else.
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www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-flbhallandale0807sbaug07,0,5145503.story
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Hallandale Beach City Commissioner Francine Schiller resigns
By Ihosvani Rodriguez
August 7, 2008
HALLANDALE BEACH
Two-term City Commissioner Francine Schiller stunned many at City Hall late Wednesday by announcing she was resigning from her seat because of health reasons.
The announcement brought both tears and controversy during the commission meeting.
Schiller, 66, who has been battling a number of health issues for the past four years and who now uses a wheelchair, issued a letter of resignation during Wednesday's meeting, indicating she will step down Aug. 29.
"I just can't physically do it anymore," she said after the meeting.
"If I can't devote 100 percent to the city, I just can't do it."
Schiller, a real estate agent first elected to office in 2001, represents the city at large and would have been up for re-election in November.
The announcement brought tears to some on the dais, including City Manager Mike Good, who publicly read Schiller's resignation letter.
"She has put a lot of heart into this community and I know this is something that is very difficult for her," Good said, pausing briefly to compose himself.
Mayor Joy Cooper and Vice-Mayor Bill Julian also fought back emotions while taking turns thanking Schiller for her years of service.
Schiller said very little publicly during the meeting.
Plans to fill her seat immediately drew controversy.
Cooper nominated city activist Anthony Sanders, a pastor at Higher Vision Ministries in the western areas of Hallandale Beach.
Commissioner Keith London, who participated in the meeting by telephone, sounded appalled by the urgency.
"We just found out about this 10 minutes ago and now we're supposed to appoint somebody without digesting it? I find that inappropriate," London said.
"We need to look out to the community and see what they have to say."
London asked to postpone the appointment but received no support.
Sanders, who could not be reached late Wednesday, will serve out Schiller's term until the November elections.
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As it happens, the last person I spoke to after the last Hallandale Beach City Commission meeting prior to last night's meeting, in June, was Pastor Anthony Sanders.
If I'd known then what I know now, I'd have advised him in all good conscience to use his considerable influence and organizing skills -on the outside!- to help cobble together a new city-wide coalition of forces to put on the city commission individuals that will work for everyone's benefit, instead of the entrenched City Hall crew, whose myopic Chicken Little vision and non-existent follow-through on policy and process has proved so unsuccessful and unpopular.
It quite literally scares residents away from attending City Hall events and participating because of their hi jinks and convoluted thinking.
There's a lot of people who want BIG CHANGES!
Instead, though, in my view, perhaps because he's more religious than me, he's chosen to close his eyes and hope for the best, and try to work from within a City Hall hydra that has no rhyme, reason or... demonstrable sense of purpose.
Especially as it involves the city bureaucracy serving residents with the caliber of service they deserve: courteous, efficient and practical.
Consider just the following things off the top of my head:
Look at the photos I've shot and placed on this blog, indicating longstanding, self-evident governance problems.
(Ask yourself how such things can be allowed to continue, year after year, and nobody is ever held accountable.)
Right in front of the city hall complex?
Right on U.S.-1 at the county line?
What an awful way to make a bad first impression, over and over again, and cement its reputation to residents, neighbors and visitors as a city that can't get out of its own way, even when it thinks it knows what it's doing.
After getting static from one city agency that told me to make a FOIA request when I asked for some info that had been mentioned at a City Commission meeting the night before, I spoke to two people from the City Manager's office last November, Jennifer Frastai and Franklin Hileman, speaking for a good hour in a small conference room about several self-evident problems around the city that've never gotten resolved.
I gave both of them all my contact info, with multiple emails, and specifically asked that after they followed through and investigated the locations I gave them, to contact me, because they'd see that it was only the tip of the iceberg.
Well, since then, I've seen them at many city functions, but they have NEVER contacted me or spoken to me in the nine months since, despite my being rather easy to get in touch with.
I mean I get email from people all over the country asking me about the various stages of development of certain real estate projects here, so how hard should it be for them to contact me when I go to every City Commission meeting?
Do you think Hollywood or Aventura would tolerate the slackness and lack of attention to detail in their employees that's epidemic here?
Nope!
How is it that a so-called "community center" over on the beach and State Road A1A, just over a year since the city took possession of it, STILL doesn't have any policies guiding its use, and still bears the name of the realty company that used it -a year ago?(My many photos of this facility taken over the past year will be posted here tomorrow, indicating the physical neglect over the last 12 months, and the city's indifference to residents who pass by it everyday, not knowing it's theirs.)
Want more?
The recycling facility at Ingalls Park has had holes in the dumpster lids for at least the past three months, making putting cardboard in it completely pointless.
That is, now that they have lids again, since they were missing for a few months.
This facility, the city's central recycling facility, has zero directional signs on nearby roads, even on Hallandale Beach Blvd., despite being only a block off that main drag.
Spoke to many other residents outside of HB City Hall Chambers last night about the shameful, under-handed and anti-democratic turn of events, a new low, even for the Joy Cooper crew at HB City Hall.
And trust me, it's one that will definitely tarnish the good reputation of Pastor Anthony Sanders, if comments among HB citizens I spoke to tonight are any guide.
I spoke to Channels 4, 6, 7 and 10, plus some folks at the Herald about the hard-to-believe spectacle I witnessed, with lots of facts and anecdotes, but the tragic drama up in Pembroke Pines was clearly the focus of South Florida's news reporters, so nothing was said on the air last night.
Maybe somebody in South Florida's media will be motivated today to find out why there's such a rush to get someone approved here, even when there's still a few weeks to go before the resignation takes effect.
Of course, the problem is that rather than doing the right thing, Dorothy Ross voted yes after having just uttered the words, "I don't even have his resume."
With her latest example of bad judgment, so goes the benefit of the doubt Ross had with me, hanging on as it was by just a thread.
She made my decision easy: I won't be voting for her in November!
I'll be spending some time at the Starbucks on Hallandale Beach Blvd. around Noon, talking to other HB residents and civic activists who are not at all pleased with what transpired last night.
If you feel likewise, feel free to swing by if you can, or tell others.
Sitting in the audience, watching Mayor Cooper and Comm. Julian grinning from ear-to-ear after their maneuver, I can only imagine how angry Comm. Keith London was, having to listen to the meeting on the telephone, as once again, common sense procedures that were used when he was considered for an interim position on the commission were bypassed, and HB citizens' legitimate concerns were pushed aside so that Joy Cooper can try to score political points.
This time, conveniently, right before an election.
Even at the cost of transparency and accountability from the city's citizens.
Be careful what you wish for, Pastor Sanders!
As you'll understand from reading information I'll have here, while he is on the City Commission, Anthony Sanders will have to recuse himself from any votes involving Forest City agenda items
-like their current request for $$$- since one of his groups gets funds from them.
Description from Nov. 7, 2007 in City of Hallandale Beach documents:
hallandalebeachfl.gov/files/ 2007-11-07/title/supp_docs/documents/doc1.doc
Pastor Anthony Sanders is also a long time resident of the City of Hallandale Beach. He is the CEO of Eagles Wings Development Center and Pastor of Higher Vision Ministries, Inc. Through his non-profit organization, Eagles Wings, his faith based church and his affiliation with Weed and Seed, Pastor Saunders is known for his work in the community. Pastor Saunders helps young people feel a sense of accomplishments, and he works to help the less fortunate in the community.
You can also just do a search on the blog in the upper left corner, using "Sanders"
See also:
http://www.hallandalebeach.org/files/2007-11-07/item%206b/supp_docs/documents/doc8.pdf
Sanders gave invocation before Florida House of Rep. on April 12, 2007
http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/Sections/Documents/loaddoc.aspx?PublicationType=Session&DocumentType=Journals&Session=2007&FileName=Bound_House%20Journal%20No.24,%20April%2012,%202007%20(Thursday).pdf
Per the above, more recently, on June 11, 2008, Sanders gave the invocation before the joint City of Hallandale Beach-City of Hollywood City Commission meeting at HB Cultural Center.
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