HB candidate forum tonight; Yet another bad idea promoted by Mayor Joy Cooper; some odds and ends

Just a reminder that tonight from 7:00-8:30 PM is the first of who knows how many forums and debates for Hallandale Beach candidates eager for your vote.
That gives you plenty of time to get home for the 9 PM debate b/w McCain and Obama.

Tonight's is at the HB Cultural Center, with tonight's event sponsored by the Hallandale Beach Civic Association, titled "Community Forum" to Meet the Candidates for Hallandale Beach City Commissioners."

If I had anything to do with it, this city would be looking at about 4-6 roving forums all over town in the month remaining before Nov. 4th, with plenty of advance promotion, so that HB Citizens could see fliers about it at Publix, Winn-Dixie, Starbucks, et al., DAYS BEFORE the event, so they could then make proper arrangements (re DVR/VCR/TiVo/babysitter) to actually attend themself, instead of relying on their friends and neighbors -and Hallandale Beach Blog- to tell them how it went after the fact, "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly."

I'd also make sure that you had either a NAME moderator or someone who is completely unaffected by whomever wins, and someone who really intends to grill the candidates in ways that they deserve and should be prepared to deal with, i.e. no softballs!
In other words, in ways that seem quite common to us on TV shows, films and on C-SPAN, but which never quite take hold firmly here in Hallandale Beach?

Force the candidates to stretch their minds a bit in front of us to get away from trite phrases and rote responses.
Be asked their opinion about specific past HB Commission votes, and future hypothetical events that will be important to the city's future.

Issues like the role of the CRA and what would you look for in a future HB CRA Director?

As to the Master Plan, what parts of the Master Plan did they like and dislike and what areas of it should be implemented first?

(Personally, I'm in favor of actual neighborhoods full of taxpayers getting the benefits first, NOT the area around HB City Hall, for the benefit of City Hall leaders and employees -and their edifice complex- and their pals and cronies.)

Based on the current facts and economic conditions, are you in favor of Forest City's request for millions of dollars for their Village of Gulfstream project across the street from HB City Hall?

Question: Comm. Ross, last year, along with Commissioners William Julian and Francine Schiller, you voted 3-2 to TRIPLE your Commission salary in secret away from public scrutiny.
Is that the kind of logic and common sense we should expect more of from you in the future if you are re-elected, and what does that particular vote show voters about your judgement?

Obviously, we could all think of a few dozen specific questions here, and at Hallandale Beach Blog in the next day or so, trust me, I'll be asking them, since nobody else is.

Speaking of abnormal, in most cities across the country, even small ones in rural communities, the goal of increasing civic participation (and voter turnout) is something that local Chamber of Commerce branches traditionally do in election years, in part because they want smart, motivated and articulate people to join their organization, since no group ever has enough of that particular
demographic. (Hallandale Beach more so!)

Traditionally, CoCs are involved in all sorts of activities that stretch to all areas of the city they serve, and one of the ways they foment positive development is by hosting events where their members and the public can hear elected officials and make their feelings known to those who will do the final deciding.

They host candidate forums and debates, but here in HB, because the financial connection between City Hall and the HB CoC is so tight, to the tune of $50,000, the local CoC shies away from anything that would make Mayor Cooper and City Manager Good angry.

But to their credit, for a change, according to docs I saw, Good and his staff actually proposed paring back the amount of money the HB CoC receives from the city in the new city budget, from
$50K to $40K, but they were over-ruled by the Commission and saw the amount bumped back up to $50K.
Honestly, what does the HB CoC do, exactly?
And why are they run in the strange way they are???

Their website is a joke of a site and does little more than display a directory of its members, and they have so little feel for PR and outreach that don't even have a directional sign/sandwich board on Hallandale Beach Blvd. to show where they are located, a fact I've lamented and mocked many times on my blog.

Before I returned to South Florida from Arlington County, VA, every area I'd lived in for the past 25 years had always had directional signs around town indicating where the local CoC was located.

It was just common sense, plus perpetual advertising.
No brain cells required.

Bit here in HB there is nothing -ZERO.

Personally, I don't think that's by accident, it's just the way the powers-that-be like it.

Rather than play the traditional role of an independent voice in the community with a pro-small business attitude, coupled with a generally conservative-moderate political streak, which doesn't always do or agree with what their own City Hall wants, here, they play the role of puppet.
Or, if you prefer, marionette.

I'd ask the candidates whether they think that in the year 2008, it's appropriate giving that amount of money to an organization that seems so clueless in its basic mission and operation, and never seem to have to publicly account for their backwardness.

They may very well be the only CoC or Bar group in South Florida that doesn't get their meetings mentioned in the FREE listings that the Daily Business Review daily prints.

The DBR runs ads from both the parent organizations of those professional groups, as wellas the various ethnic, age, Gay/Bi subdivisions, et al. You name it, they run it.

What they all share is the common sense to recognize the opportunity for what it is: a chance to attract interest and prospective members. To get some new blood and ideas!
For free!

But the Hallandale Beach CoC can't quite figure that out.
Yet they can get $50k of taxpayer funds to do with whatever they choose to do with it.

Even in a good economy that's a bad investment, but in a bad one, it begs for some clarification and justification.

As it happens, since some of you have asked me lately in person and via email, I have a VERY POOR opinion of the current Sun-Sentinel reporter that has been covering HB of late, Ihosvani Rodriguez.
He has done nothing but compound the bad first impression he made on me in June.

He showed bad judgment by showing up for a very important meeting of THE most important group in all of South Florida, the South Florida Regional Planning Council, http://www.sfrpc.com/ by walking into their Hollywood HQ on Hollywood Blvd. by wearing sandals. (And shorts?)

(Everyone else in the room, were wearing nice suits or power outfits, and even I felt a tad under-dressed in the back of the room for not having worn a tie.)

And into the packed conference for a hearing on the future of the Miami River, which has attracted a few local TV station cameras and reporters, Rodriguez strolls in wearing sports shirt and sandals.

It was pretty clear that I wasn't the only person who thought he must be some heretofore unknown downtown Miami neighborhood activist, there to protest the over-development taking place there, to the detriment of the longstanding marine industries.

To me, Rodriguez is a great example of that kind of lazy writing and mental sloppiness South Florida seems to be swimming in, a topic I've referred to earlier here, and have so often decried on my blog since starting it early last year: he usually leaves out the most important facts and doesn't mention the very incidents which are most crucial to a reader understanding the narrative.

I'll bet if he'd been writing about D-Day, he'd never have mentioned Eisenhower or the crucial role of weather to the success of the operation.

Let me give you a recent example of Rodriguez being Rodriguez -the second HB budget meeting.

I was sitting just a few seats from Rodriguez in the back of the HB Commission Chambers while he was laughing when Comm. Keith London was explaining that he was voting against the budget because he never received documents from City Manager Good's office, ones he'd
specifically requested during the summer.

Then watched in stunned silence as Mayor Cooper got up and fled the dais while Comm. London continued speaking via the speakerphone.

I know with certainty that Comm. London was telling the truth about that because I'd been at the meeting when he first requested those docs, as I sat about four feet behind him -and six feet from Mayor Cooper- upstairs in a City Hall conference room, sitting next to stacks and stacks of chairs in the corner.

That's the meeting where I snapped photos of HB's leaders 'talking the talk but NOT walking the walk' when it comes to the issue of recycling, just minutes after I'd asked City Manger Good why there'd been no recycling bins of any kind on the beach for YEARS.

A fact that I'd mentioned with specificity last November when I spoke for an hour to two of Good's assistants in a City Hall conference room: City Manager Administrator Jennifer Frastai and Manager of Intergovernmental Relations Frank Hileman., who worked for disgraced former Hollywood Congressman Larry Smith, whom I saw in action (grandstanding!) dozens and dozens of times on Capitol Hill, and whom I loathe almost as much as I do current Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz

I should've really known better but I thought I'd give it one last chance. Result of meeting: nothing.
It was a complete waste of an hour, and even worse, the last proverbial straw.

Don't make the same mistake I did in thinking that they actually want to help you -they don't.
They only want to "contain" problems. Period.

(I was at North Beach on Saturday afternoon before the U-M/FSU football game and there was not one bin on North Beach that was clearly maked recycling, only one for yard waste.
I snapped photos of it to prove that self-evident fact, as I have many times before in the past five months, with no positive changes evident of the sort that would seem logical.
The whole garbage/recycling situation there at the beach seems totally geared for the utmost ease of the DPW workers and not for beach visitors.
There should be at least 2-3 clearly marked recycling bins there and there aren't.
I will soon be running a photo essay on the bins at the beach that speak volumes!)

I then snapped some photos of HB's very own plastic water bottles in regular garbage bins because the city doesn't have recycling bins accessible at public city functions.

I'll bet that tonight's event at the HB Cultural Center has none near the beverage table

Take a quick trip back thru the recent past on the Hallandale Beach Blog Time Machine
Friday, June 20, 2008 Talking globally, polluting locally in Hallandale Beach

During breaks of that all-day budget meeting, as well as at lunch, after the city employees and the Commission left, I spoke many times to Pastor Anthony Sanders and longtime HB activist Mary Washington among many other residents from around the city who'd made a concerted effort to keep themselves informed as to the facts.

Not present: the Miami Herald, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, the South Florida Sun Times...

Yeah, imagine that?

No sign at all of Larry Blustein and Company's absurd kiss-ass brand of cronyism and back-scratching. Where was Blustein at?

In my estimation, that recent incident only cemented my opinion of Rodriguez, laughing at the very thing that is SO emblematic of the problems that beset HB City Hall: Mayor Joy Cooper's forcing her will upon the community even when one of its elected officials said publicly that city employees in the City Manager's office hadn't provided promised docs he needed to make a voting decision for almost four months.

Rather than ask who was responsible for producing the docs, Cooper was so aghast at the thought that anyone would publicly question "her employees" that she got up and left the room while Comm. London continued to speak via speakerphone, which is why her chair is empty in the photo I posted.

If you ever see Ihosvani Rodriguez at a meeting, walk up to him and tell him that the city you live in really can't afford his stupid, lazy and poorly-informed brand of writing and mis-representation.
He needs to be a real reporter, not a lazy stenographer.

Oh, by the way, Rodriguez never wrote anything about what he actually witnessed that night at the HB budget meeting -there was NO Sun-Sentinel story in the newspaper or online!
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What's even more laughable than the idea -below- of a bunch of elected officials giving one another awards?
Comm. Dotty Ross receiving one.
An award which HB taxpayers will end up paying the hotel and lodging costs for.

But what is worse is the dopey idea Mayor Cooper has to have city employees host a forum right before Election Day on the importance of city government.
Really.

Of course, it's not really HER idea, it's the idea of her masters at the Broward League of Cities, whom she must obey without question.

Make no mistake about it, THAT is who Mayor Cooper's real core audience is.

And right before the election?

How obvious can you be?

Yet NOTHING about ever scheduling a City Commission meeting or public forum with the head of IT PLUS the company that gets paid over $3,000 a month for the city's dysfunctional and embarrassing website, which often doesn't even mention mention city meetings happening that very day?

That's happened at least 4-6 times where I've noticed it over the past nine months, and I've noted that on my blog.
Doubtless there are many more incidents where I didn't even think to check before attending.
Where's the accountability???

Or, as above with Comm. London's problem, what about all the lies and misinformation continually coming out of Good's office about time lines and promises to share documents, that never happen?

The city's longstanding failure to provide responses in a timely fashion in response to FOIA requests for city docs by HB citizens?

So we now have yet one more example of Joy Cooper has shown that she doesn't know how to stop herself from her self-evident self-promotion, even though she no longer heads the Broward League of Cities.

Instead of having Resident Forums of her own, she wastes time trying to implement the wishes of people who are NOT residents and taxpayers of the city -the League.

She's supposed to serve the city, not her own selfish agenda.

If this foolish meeting gets held, I plan on attending with others and asking questions about these other important matters I raised instead, and ask why the elected City Commission is unable to deal with them in a timely and responsible fashion

And some of us may show up with film cameras to capture the moments for you.

The worst of all is the failure of Cooper, Ross and Julian to schedule a single City Commission meeting where they could publicly discuss/defend their actions regarding the odious criminal acts of HB Police Chief Thomas Magill in trying to frame two innocent HB police officers and have them prosecuted for something THEY DIDN'T DO.

His disgraceful acts and behavior have already cost the city hundreds of thousands of dollars, so what has Comm. Dotty Ross said publicly about any of that?
Nothing.

For more on that, see my April 14th post, "Dial M for Magill" -and mendacity! and my January 19th post Hallandale Beach Blog Time Machine: August 2006 and http://www.topix.com/content/trb/2008/01/hallandale-beach-to-pay-to-settle-one-of-two-former-police-officers-lawsuits )

Is there any more important question to a HB Commission candidate than why do you believe this city continues to employ an individual as Police Chief who seems to have routinely lied and
commited criminal fraud in a vendetta, and what do you plan on doing about it?

Or, do you think it will just disappear as an issue if you pretend it will, like Mayor Cooper
and City Manager Good?
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09/03/08

8G. CITY OF HALLANDALE BEACH
MEMORANDUM
JC08-022

DATE: August 22, 2008
TO: D. Mike Good, City Manager
FROM: Mayor Joy F. Cooper

SUBJECT: Discussion of Observing "Florida City Government Week" in October and Associated Activities

I believe it would benefit the City and residents to observe "Florida City Government Week". This year's Florida City Government Week is October 19, 2008 through October 25, 2008. "Florida City Government Week" is part of an ongoing effort sponsored by the Florida League of Cities to raise public awareness about the services that cities perform and to educate the public on how local government works.

As part of this observance, I recommend that the City's Development Services Department prepare and conduct a public outreach and education workshop to include Code Enforcement, Building Permits and an Introduction to Growth Management.

I am requesting the support of the City Commission toward scheduling this observance.

09/03/08
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http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/communities/south/story/712703.html

Miami Herald
October 5, 2008
Mayor Bell a finalist for statewide award

Homestead Mayor Lynda Bell is one of five finalists for the Florida League of Cities' Council Member of the Year -- one of 10 awards to be presented next month during the Florida Cities of Excellence Awards program.

Bell, who was a Homestead councilwoman until she won the mayoral race last November, will be competing against Bill Garvie, Fort Walton Beach; Janice Miller, Oldsmar; Dorothy ''Dotty'' Ross, Hallandale Beach; and Sarah ''Sam'' Seevers, Destin.

''No matter who wins, being a finalist is an amazing blessing,'' Bell said.

"I love what I do, and this is just a bonus.''

The League's Council Member of the Year honors a council member or commissioner who displays exceptional civic commitment, leadership, public outreach and service.

In August, former Councilwoman Ruth Campbell asked the council to nominate Councilwoman Judy Waldman for the statewide award.

Instead, the council nominated Bell.

She was first elected to office in November 2003 to a four-year term. Last year, she became the city's first female mayor.

Homestead resident Lois Jones supported Bell's nomination, saying: "Mayor Bell is a breath of fresh air, and we are fortunate to have her as mayor. She has superb communication skills and an innate talent for executive leadership and legislative strategy. . . . Mayor Bell comes to council prepared; she does her homework.''

Bell and other finalists are invited to attend the awards luncheon Nov. 21 in Orlando.

The winner will be announced then.