Hallandale Beach Blog: November 2008

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Hallandale Beach Blog

Entering Broward County, Florida.

Trust me when I tell you, this is NOT the Land of Lincoln. Above, sign on north-bound U.S.-1/South Federal Highway, at the Broward County-Miami-Dade County line, with, left-to-right, Gulfstream Park Race Track & Casino in center, Westin Diplomat Resort & Spa, and The Beach Club.

Hallandale Beach, FL; January 2007 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

A common-sense public policy overview offering a critical perspective on current events, economics, government, politics & culture of South Florida, in particular, the cities of
Hallandale Beach and Hollywood, and sometimes Aventura.

The antics and activities of the rest of the Sunshine State are also covered at my other blog, South Beach Hoosier, www.SouthBeachHoosier.blogspot.com, where I also ruminate on national and international subjects, the interplay of politics and media, and public policy, as well as the past and current South Florida sports scene with the Dolphins, the Marlins, the Baltimore Orioles, the University of Miami Hurricanes, and the Indiana University Hoosiers.
But if it's particularly germane or amusing, I post it here, too.
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Two years later...in January, 2009 the view has changed.

Entering Broward County, 2009. Due to road and sidewalk construction on U.S.-1 for future Village at Gulfstream retail project, FDOT moved sign one block north, hence different angle. Looking northeast from north-bound U.S.-1/South Federal Highway towards Gulfstream Park Racing & Casino, and the construction zone for Village of Gulfstream, with the Diplomat Residences, the Westin Diplomat Resort & Spa and The Beach Club condo towers in the distance on State Road A1A. January 2, 2009 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

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Hallandale Beach Blog is where I try to inject or superimpose a degree of accountability, transparency and insight onto local Broward County government and public policy issues, which I feel is sorely lacking in local media now. On this blog, I concentrate my energy, enthusiasm, anger and laser-like attention on the coastal cities of Aventura, Hollywood and Hallandale Beach.

If you lived in this part of South Florida, you'd ALREADY be stuck in stultifying traffic, paying higher-than-necessary taxes and continually musing about the chronic lack of accountability among not only elected govt. officials, but also of city, county and state employees as well. Collectively, with a few rare exceptions, they couldn't be farther from the sort of strong results-oriented, eager work-ethic mentality that local residents deserve and expect.

This is particularly true in the town I live in, the City of Hallandale Beach, just north of Aventura and south of Hollywood. There, the "Perfect Storm" of years of apathy, incompetency and cronyism are all too readily apparent.
Sadly for its residents, HB is where even easily-solved, quality-of-life problems are left to fester for YEARS on end, because of myopia, lack of common sense and ineffective supervisory management. It's a city with lots of potential because of its terrific location, yet its citizens have become numb to its outrages and screw-ups after years of the worst kind of mismanagement and lack of foresight. On a daily basis, they wake up and see the same old problems that have never being adequately resolved by the city in a logical and responsible fashion, merely kicked -once again- further down the road.

I used to ask myself, not always rhetorically, "Where are all the enterprising young reporters who want to show that through their own hard work and enterprise, what REAL investigative reporting can produce?" Hearing no response, I decided to start a blog that could do some of these things, taking the p.o.v. of a reasonable but skeptical person seeing the situation for the first time, and wanting questions answered in a honest and logical way that citizens have the right to expect.

Hallandale Beach Blog intends to be a catalyst for positive change.

If there's one constant gripe in South Florida, regardless of your age, race, nationality or political persuasion, it's about the fundamental lack of PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY here among Florida's state, regional and local govt./agency officials. Hallandale Beach Blog aims to be a small step towards regaining some of that needed accountability, whether it's thru simple public scrutiny, or requires a degree of follow-up investigation and public exposure of incompetency, cronyism or simple negligence -South Florida's usual governing style.

"And David put his hand in the bag and took out a stone and slung it. And it struck the Philistine on the head and he fell to the ground. Amen."- Preacher Purl encouraging the underdog Hickory High basketball team before the state title game against heavily-favored South Bend Central in 1986's Hoosiers http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091217/

Audio of pregame speech:

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/MovieSpeeches/moviespeechhoosiersfinal.html

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"Why do they need that in the Broward County charter?"

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"Laws and Constitutions go for nothing where the general sentiment is corrupt."
-New York Times, September 22, 1851

"Why do they need that in the Broward County charter?"
-Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper at April 2, 2008 HB City Commission meeting, in discussing possible inclusion of Broward County Charter Review Commission's proposal for Ethics Commission to deal with Broward County Commission, on November 2008 ballot.

Six YEARS after the county's voters overwhelmingly passed an amendment to the County charter requiring its adoption, the Broward County Commission had yet to live up to its legal

responsibility. That's why!
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Corruption Isn't Unique to South Florida, It's the Level of the Stupidity That Is

Corruption Isn't Unique to South Florida, It's the Level of the Stupidity That Is

"[Chicago Mayor] William Hale Thompson was defeated Tuesday after a campaign which he alone made disgraceful. The election was an ejection, a dirty job, but Chicago has washed itself and put on clean clothes. Thompson recognized the [Chicago] Tribune as his chief enemy. The Tribune was glad to earn that opinion. It certainly tried to do so. It has taken the fight to him on every occasion during the long and depraved course of his administration. It is unpleasant business to eject a skunk, but someone has to do it.
For Chicago, Thompson has meant filth, corruption, obscenity, idiocy and bankruptcy. He has given the city an international reputation for moronic buffoonery, barbaric crime, triumphant hoodlumism, unchecked graft and a dejected citizenship. He nearly ruined the property and completely destroyed the pride of the city. He made Chicago a byword for the collapse of American civilization. In his attempt to continue this he excelled himself as a liar and defamer of character. He’s out.
He is not only out, but dishonored. He is deserted by his friends. He is permanently marked by the evidences of his character and conduct. His health is impaired by his ways of life and he leaves office and goes from the city the most discredited man who ever held place in it."

-Excerpts from April 1931 Chicago Tribune editorial following Republican "Big Bill" Thompson's loss to his Democratic rival Anton Cermak. A friend of organized crime during the Al Capone era, Thompson was the last Republican elected mayor of Chicago. But less than two years later, Mayor Cermak was shot while shaking hands with President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt at Miami's Bayfront Park. He died from gunshot wounds to his lungs three weeks later.

See http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/3686.html

Political Actions Speak Louder Than Words: Lies of Mayor Joy Cooper and City Manager Mike Good

March 3, 2009 photo by South Beach Hoosier, just days before the Air Supply concert on the beach, as Hallandale Beach DPW employees try to make the area "appear" to be well-maintained -when in reality, it's not- and thus fool HB taxpayers and visitors alike. This building underneath the city's iconic Water Tower, just steps from both the Atlantic Ocean and State Road A1A, was turned over to the City of Hallandale Beach on August 3rd, 2007, and yet STILL remains OFF-LIMITS to everyday HB citizens, taxpayers and residents, the true "owners" of the building, TWO YEARS later. There has STILL not been a single public open forum held by the city to gauge how citizens want to utilize it best. Instead, the building remains a veritable clubhouse for the cronies and pals of HB City Hall's elected officials and employees. And need I ask YET again, where's the American flag on the city flagpole next to the fountain? Once again, HB City Hall shows their gross incompetency by being unable to manage something as simple as keeping a flag flying. Pathetic!!!

The City of Hallandale Beach subsidizes one-sided propaganda thru $50k grant to FAUX newspaper

Above, the document that memorializes the fact that the City of Hallandale Beach subsidizes one-sided propaganda thru $50k grant to FAUX newspaper. Click on photo above to see my post about that. And yes, that is the same FREE fake newspaper that gives Mayor Joy Cooper a "column" to extoll her particular brand of ill-informed nonsense and half-truths without fear that a Letter to the Editor will EVER appear that directly refutes and corrects her serial mis-statements. The Sun-Times not only DOESN'T run them, they DON'T print ANYTHING the slightest bit critical of Hallandale Beach City Hall, Mayor Cooper or City Manager Mike Good and his high-paid staff. Just so you know, as of just a few months ago, HB's city manager and staff made more in salaries than the Hollywood City Manager's Office, despite the City of Hollywood being well over THREE TIMES larger in both size and population. Guess who'd never ever mention that salient fact?

The faux newspaper that serves as propaganda arm to Hallandale Beach City Hall

The faux newspaper that serves as the propaganda arm to Hallandale Beach City Hall and the Joy Cooper & Mike Good Regime, the South Florida Sun-Times. This particular vending machine is located but two feet away from one of the emergency fire exits of The Flashback Diner on U.S.-1/South Federal Highway, across from Gulfstream Park. In a normal, well-run city, they'd be removed to another place on the property. But in Hallandale Beach, a trio of vending machines can be placed right next to an emergency exit in a building one block from HB City Hall, and nobody there EVER notices the self-evident violation! They are deaf, dumb and blind to everything around them. November 8, 2009 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Twenty years after the Fall of the Berlin Wall, Hallandale Beach, Florida still needs glasnost!

November 5th, 2009 Update re South Florida Sun-Times, above.

At yesterday morning's Hallandale Beach City Commission meeting, I heard the new official Hallandale Beach City Hall stalling tactic regarding the actual citizens and taxpayers of this city being able to see the documents regarding City Manager Mike Good's decision to give $50,000 in city CRA money as a grant to the faux newspaper called the South Florida Sun-Times, above.

Mayor Joy Cooper was practically gloating Wednesday when she foolishly said that she thinks that the particular documents are "proprietary" and can't be shared with public!

Can she really be that arrogant and anti-democratic in public, he said rhetorically.
Can she really think that she can trump the State of Florida Constitution and the protected rights that Florida citizens enjoy under our Sunshine Laws, forever, and that there won't be legal and political consequences for her personally and the city?

To answer my own question, yes, Joy Cooper is indeed that arrogant, that anti-democratic and that egotistical.

Proprietary?
Sure, because in the current economy of the year 2009, actual for-profit companies want to model their own behavior on an inferior product like the faux newspaper, the Sun-Times, that doesn't actually generate a profit, has a very poor reputation and that rather than accurately reflect the news of the community in its pages, exists as a propaganda arm of Hallandale Beach City Hall and the mayor and city manager who give it money, just like the Hallandale Beach Chamber of Commerce.

Twenty years after the Fall of the Berlin Wall, Hallandale Beach, Florida still needs glasnost!

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Hallandale Beach in The Miami Herald over 25 years ago
"For years people living in and out of its condo-walled sector east of U.S. 1 have wondered what to do about the city of Hallandale. In the 19th Century the condo giants would have served as ideal fortresses. From top floors of the towers, enemy ships could be readily spotted and blown out of the Atlantic. Oceanfront dwellers could have been protected from the west by the Hallandale Beach Boulevard drawbridge and moat called the Intracoastal Waterway. But this is the 20th Century..."

-Miami Herald Broward Columnist Bill Braucher's first paragraph from July 24, 1983.
To which Hallandale Beach Blog can only say, Bulls-eye!

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The South Florida I Grew Up In
Excerpted from Joan Didion's Miami, 1987, Simon & Schuster: In the continuing opera still called, even by Cubans who have now lived the largest part of their lives in this country, el exilo, the exile, meetings at private homes in Miami Beach are seen to have consequences. The actions of individuals are seen to affect events directly. Revolutions and counter-revolutions are framed in the private sector, and the state security apparatus exists exclusively to be enlisted by one or another private player. That this particular political style, indigenous to the Caribbean and to Central America, has now been naturalized in the United States is one reason why, on the flat coastal swamps of South Florida, where the palmettos once blew over the detritus of a dozen failed booms and the hotels were boarded up six months a year, there has evolved since the early New Year's morning in 1959 when Fulgencio Batista flew for the last time out of Havana a settlement of considerable interest, not exactly an American city as American cities have until recently been understood but a tropical capital: long on rumor, short on memory, overbuilt on the chimera of runaway money and referring not to New York or Boston or Los Angeles or Atlanta but to Caracas and Mexico, to Havana and to Bogota and to Paris and Madrid. Of American cities Miami has since 1959 connected only to Washington, which is the peculiarity of both places, and increasingly the warp...

"The general wildness, the eternal labyrinths of waters and marshes, interlocked and apparently neverending; the whole surrounded by interminable swamps... Here I am then in the Floridas, thought I," John James Audobon wrote to the editor of The Monthly American Journal of Geology and Natural Science during the course of an 1831 foray in the territory then still called the Floridas. The place came first, and to touch down there is to begin to understand why at least six administrations now have found South Florida so fecund a colony. I never passed through security for a flight to Miami without experiencing a certain weightlessness, the heightened wariness of having left the developed world for a more fluid atmosphere, one in which the native distrust of extreme possibilities that tended to ground the temperate United States in an obeisance to democratic institutions seemed rooted, if at all, only shallowly. At the gate for such flights the preferred language was already Spanish. Delays were explained by weather in Panama. The very names of the scheduled destinations suggested a world in which many evangelical inclinations had historically been accommodated, many yearnings toward empire indulged...

In this mood Miami seemed not a city at all but a tale, a romance of the tropics, a kind of waking dream in which any possibility could and would be accomodated...
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A fish rots from the head down, and so does local government in Broward County, FL

This sign on U.S.-1 and S.E. 5th Street, across from Gulfstream Park Racing and Casino, lets you know that you're just feet away from the HB City Hall and Police Department. It's a government that gives every impression of holding itself apart and above from the citizens it's supposed to serve. The crazy thing is, they really don't think they have to follow the laws that govern everyone else in the state of Florida and the U.S., whether of logic and reason, contracts, or, more to the point for this blog, the Florida Statutes on Sunshine Laws and Public Records. City employees in Hallandale Beach routinely refuse to answer reasonable questions posed to them by residents, and often berate you for even having the nerve to ask! One of the other things that's quite shocking is the blatant disregard by the HB Police Dept. and Fire Dept. for basic safety rules. Common sense rules of behavior that are in place in every other American town, no matter how small or obscure. City employees -and friends of theirs- routinely park "their cars" directly in front of the building's east entrance, often for hours at a time. That's right, I said for HOURS at a time. While in every other town you'd find a clearly posted sign saying simply: "No Parking, Fire Zone, Cars Will be Towed," in HB, there are NO signs at all. I have personally observed parked HB city vehicles there that have prevented the HB Fire & Rescue vehicles from getting as close as necessary to the building. I've personally spoken to the individual members of Fire & Rescue after such incidents, and they were positively indignant that they are forced to put up with this sort of thing in the Year 2008. Oh, and one last thing. The lights that are supposed to illuminate this sign in front of HB City Hall HAVEN'T worked in over FOUR YEARS, either. Just like their cousin down the block on U.S.-1 at the city border with Aventura. I've told this to dozens of HB city officials, including the Mayor, City Manager, his staff, the Police Chief, a Police Captain, et al. None of them have done a thing, which is why as late as October 24. 2008, the sign was STILL dark at night! Four-and-a-half-years of nothing but darkness! Sundown, March 3, 2009 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Change Hallandale Beach

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Change Hallandale Beach

New fact-based, constantly-updated website by Hallandale Beach activist Michael Butler that goes directly after the longtime cronyism and incompetency at Hallandale Beach City Hall with cold hard facts, figures, graphs, charts and videos.

The kind of evidence that Mayor Joy Cooper, City Manager Mike Good and the Rubber Stamp Crew -i.e. City Commissioners William Julian, Dotty Ross and Anthony A. Sanders- can't refute with any of their serial mis-statements, exaggerations or half-truths from the dais.

The very ones which are never acknowledged by their paid flacks over at the South Florida Sun-Times, whom the city gave $50,000 to last year for what many HB citizens believe was a thinly-disguised effort to keep the REAL news about their continual screw-ups and ethical mis-adventures out.

See the evidence for yourself and see what's REALLY going on here. http://www.changehallandale.com

Broken Latin in Hallandale Beach, FL -Seaoats

This descriptive nature sign on Hallandale Beach's North Beach, regarding a supposedly protected environment, complete with Latin genus, is a particularly telling example of the kind of terribly myopic and non-existent mgmt. the beach has received for years from the City of Hallandale Beach, Broward County and the State of Florida. This sign for seaoats has been broken since at least October of 2003. Even more galling, the area immediately around the seaoats has pile after pile of hundreds of old cigarettes dumped willy-nilly around it. The day this photo was taken, the garbage below the sign and in adjoining areas had been there for WEEKS! Original photo here was taken January 2007; this one taken May 11, 2008; photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Close-up of Broken Latin

The Seaoats sign that's been broken since at least Oct. 2003 at Hallandale Beach's north beach, not far from the lone lifeguard stand. In late June of 2008, due to years of neglect and apathy by the State of Florida, Broward County and the City of Hallandale Beach, the sign was blown off and landed fifty feet away, where yours truly noticed it under a beer can. Now there are ZERO signs like this on Hallandale Beach's North Beach. Your government in action! May 16, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier

Hallandale Beach, City of Choice

The sign that greets northbound drivers on U.S.-1/South Federal Hwy. as they leave the City of Aventura and Miami-Dade County in the rear window. Unfortunately, it's the perfect metaphor for the City of Hallandale Beach and its elected officials and employees: short-sighted and lacking in common sense. This sign is placed so far west on the median strip -and practically BEHIND a palm tree- that drivers can't actually read it even if they wanted to. In any case, because of the longtime gross incompetency and negligence of the city, the spotlights that are supposed to illuminate the sign at night HAVEN'T worked since about mid-January of 2004. Which is to say, yes, LONGER than the U.S.'s involvement in WW II. Welcome to the City of Hallandale Beach! Begin heavy traffic, chronic red tape and mis-adventures in government! Hallandale Beach, FL; Original photo here was taken January 2007; this one taken May 8, 2008; photo by South Beach Hoosier. Rather incredibly, it's still this way as of January 28th, 2009. January 2009 Postscript: the three palm trees that had been in front of it on the median are gone, so now you can REALLY notice that it DOESN'T work! February 2009 Postscript: In order to make room for a left-turning lane at S.E. 5th Street into The Village of Gulfstream, the invisible sign has finally been removed. Buh-bye!!!

Welcome to City of Aventura, FL

Meanwhile, less than one block south of the HB sign on U.S.-1, and six blocks south of the Hallandale Beach City Hall, lies this internally-illuminated City of Aventura sign that greets south-bound travellers every night on U.S.-1/Biscayne Blvd., leaving Hallandale Beach. In over five years, I have NEVER seen this sign not working properly. That's how you help to create a positive first impression for visitors. Compare and contrast that approach to the VERY NEGATIVE one conveyed by the north-bound HB sign! May 11, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Old Gulfstream Park Race Track directional sign in the Ojus neighborhood of NMB.

This old weather-beaten and fading Gulfstream Park sign is located on W. Dixie Highway & N.E. 186th Street in North Miami Beach -next to Via Brasil and its life-size window display of Ronaldo- over three miles south of the race track. (It's also across the street from where I get my hair cut.) This one sign has steered lots of visitors towards Gulfstream Park over the years, but my question today isn't why it hasn't it been replaced by a new sign by the geniuses at MAGNA, but rather, why is it that in the year 2009, there is NOT a single directional sign anywhere in the entire city of Hallandale Beach indicating where HB's own City Hall is located -across the street from Gulfstream? Or any sign for the HB Police Dept. HQ? Or the HB Fire/Rescue HQ? Or the HB Cultural Center? If that simple example doesn't tell you how backward, incompetent and poorly-managed the City of Hallandale Beach is, I really don't know what will. So this old sign soldiers on while the City of HB snoozes and reminds everyone why it's such a laughing-stock. September 24, 2009 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

The Lawton Chiles Trail

Sign on south-bound U.S.-1 at Broward County/Miami-Dade countyline. Lawton Chiles was a great and humble man, blessed with an optimistic spirit, a tireless work-ethic and unquestioned integrity, whom I first met and campaigned with in 1976 during his first Senate re-election battle. We talked as we walked up to one NMB house after another -not too far from the county Carter-Mondale HQ in NMB I worked at- greeting lots of surprised voters, as we took turns ringing doorbells, all under the watchful eye of a film crew from Channel 7/WSVN. Over the years, before and after I moved to the D.C. area from South Florida, I was fortunate enough to talk to him from time to time and get the benefit of his advice and wisdom, as well as enjoy the warm hospitality of The Florida House, across from The Supreme Court, the brilliant idea of his wonderful wife, Rhea, with whom he worked to make it a reality. For more info, see http://floridaembassy.com/ June 22, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Jóhanna Guðrún Jónsdóttir, a.k.a. Yohanna. Her talent is transcendent!

Per my very enthusiastic and positive May 22nd blog post about singer Jóhanna Guðrún Jónsdóttir, a.k.a. Yohanna. Since first hearing her sing Is It True back on February 15th, at Söngvakeppni sjónvarpsins 2009, earning the right to represent Iceland at the 2009 Eurovison Song Contest in Moscow in May -where she placed 2nd- I've listened to every one of her songs, all genres, watched all of her videos. She's never less than flat-out amazing! Her enormous talent could hardly be more obvious!

America's new sweetheart undercover super-sleuth is back with more news about ACORN.

Fabulous! Deconstructing fame and film industry thru the prism of actress who personifies sexy

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

re George LeMieux and his assertions about "commuter rail line linking Miami and Palm Beach County"

Just discovered this very interesting November 10th post on the Daily Business Review's Inside Track blog this morning.
http://dailybusinessreview.typepad.com/insidetrack/2008/11/tallahassee-insider-says-state-will-have-to-do-more-with-less.html

Wish I'd seen it before I went to last Wednesday's SFRTA Broward Countyworkshop in Dania Beach, because I certainly would've asked out loud whothought this assertion by George LeMieux was more true now than it was a year ago.

I want it to be true, I just want to know -and see- what the actual evidence of it is.

I realize that to some of you it may seem like a small thing, strictly window dressing perhaps, but I've been very troubled for quite some time at the lack of any recent information on the SFECC (South Florida East Coast Corridor Transit Analysis) website telling taxpayers just what exactly was going on with the project. http://www.sfeccstudy.com/index.html

I understand that there is a specific timeframe for each aspect of the project, but when you have a situation as we do in South Florida, which I've chronicled on my blogs, where FDOT Secretary Stephanie Kopelousos can't ever be bothered to personally interact with actual taxpayers and citizens in the most urban part of the state, and only seems to frequent industry and or politico-filled events, appearances actually DO count for something, especially when she can find time to visit airports in West Florida that aren't even open.
The days of my giving her the benefit of the doubt are long past.

Back in February I wrote some of you the following:
Another concern I have is that it's now been exactly a year since something was added to the News section of the SFECC website:http://www.sfeccstudy.com/news.html
FEC tracks hold key to commuter train linking S. Florida's downtowns
02/19/07

Frankly, I'm more than a little troubled by the fact that they've chosen to keep such a low-profile over these past 12 months, since as anyone who's lived here for any length of time can tell you, no place in the country hasa short-term attention span smaller than South Florida's.
Honestly, the evidence is all around us!

I could be wrong but I really don't think my friends working at think tanks in Washington, along K Street, Connecticut and Massachusetts Avenue, would consider that the shrewdest public strategy to go with.

Especially when the public policy you are actively involved in also requires that you be in the public persuasion business, even if you don't like to think about it that way.

I realize from having gone to so many of their public meetings and reading their docs that the project had a certain process that needed to be followed, but having nothing said about their efforts for a year can't be good.
For anyone!

Well, a few weeks ago, after I first got word of the three SFRTA county meetings planned, I went back to the SFECC website -I'm also on their so-called mailing list but don't ask when the last time I received something was- and right below Project Description it reads:
WEBSITE LAST UPDATED 11/01/07

Thirteen months!!!

Wow, I'm no web genius, and I know that SFECC Director Scott Seeburger can't be expected to do everything himself, but I do know that most websites that have information on them that old posing as their new info, are nothing but busted-up dot.com sites that have 'given up the ghost.'

I don't know who the genius is behind the SFECC's recent PR efforts(!) but the clear preponderance of the evidence suggests there needs to be a change there, toute-de-suite, before more supporters like me become openly critical of their efforts.

And trust me, based on the past year and the wholly un-necessary secretivenessof FDOT, that day is a whole lot closer than you think.

Just something to think about.

Read the post below and let me know what you think.
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Daily Business Review
Inside Track
November 10, 2008

Tallahassee insider says state will have to do 'more with less'
Gunster Yoakley & Stewart chairman George LeMieux dropped some tantalizing teasers about developments on the state budget and transportation in a speech at the Palm Beach County Bar Association's annual Bench Bar Conference.
To read the rest of this, go to:
http://dailybusinessreview.typepad.com/insidetrack/2008/11/tallahassee-insider-says-state-will-have-to-do-more-with-less.html

Mini-bio info on Mr. LeMieux at Gunster Yoakley & Stewart's website.
http://www.gunster.com/attorneys/lemieux_g.asp

I'll have some comments and thoughts on that SFRTA workshop I attended in Dania Beach after Thanksgiving.
Would've been nice to actually see some media coverage of the event, but then that ended up becoming one of the topics I and others spoke about at the end, along with some suggestions for changing that.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Mayor Menino's mosque: Bizarre story behind Boston's most controversial building; UDB

Just wanted to share this terrific and and thoughtfully-written story by David S. Bernstein in the new Boston Phoenix, easily one of the best pieces I've read all year, about the intersection of politics, self-interest and lack of accountability in government.
And some Boston-style stonewalling for a chaser!

Though it's set in Boston, it sounds exactly like an ethnic identity politics/multi-culturalism story straight out of South Florida, where crony capitalism still flourishes in many places under the guise of land development and its so-called regulation.

More proof of that has come within the past 24 hours, per an advisory board's decision in Miami-Dade County to expand the Urban Development Boundary in western Miami-Dade, so that it's now possible there might be development less than three miles from Everglades National Park.
Even though there's years worth of housing inventory on the local market.
More urban sprawl -just what this area doesn't need more of.

(The Miami-Dade County Commission votes on formally adopting this on Dec. 18th.
See Matthew Haggman's excellent story in the Herald at: http://www.miamiherald.com/business/story/752455.html
Battle looms on development push to the edge of the Everglades
Fireworks are expected at the first hearing on a controversial proposal to move the Urban Development Boundary to build a town on West Miami-Dade farmland.)

As to Bernstein's article, I especially like the fact that a group continuing to be paid by the City of Boston while continuing to NOT perform the duties they're contracted for, isn't even the most controversial aspect of the story.
As you'll see, that's the least of the problems!

When transferring the land for the mosque, the BRA credited the ISB with close to $200,000 toward the purchase price, in exchange for an agreement to maintain the adjacent Clarence "Jeep" Jones Park — named after the BRA's chairman — and the White Play Space.
The 10-year agreement took effect in February 2003. In effect, the city has been paying the ISB $1600 a month for the job — which, even Kaleem concedes,
it has not been doing.
A lesser reporter would've missed the forest for the trees, but Bernstein captures the whole sad mess and adroitly connects the dots in a compelling way.

Boston Phoenix
Menino's mosque
The bizarre story behind the construction of Boston's most controversial building
By David S. Bernstein
November 19, 2008

Most locals concede that getting anything of substance accomplished in Boston is a Herculean task. Residents have all but embraced the principle of civic inaction with a perverse kind of local pride. In the end, who you know is probably more important than what you are trying to do. And there is no doubt that little is accomplished without the approval and support of the mayor, Thomas M. Menino.

So it is with the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center (ISBCC) near the intersection of Tremont Street and Martin Luther King Boulevard. Better known as the Roxbury mosque, the ISBCC has been in the works for more than 20 years. A few weeks ago it finally opened its doors for prayer — five years late, millions over budget, and still far from complete.

See the rest of the story at: http://thephoenix.com/Boston/News/72356-Meninos-mosque/

Monday, November 17, 2008

So sorry: The Mail on Sunday regrets... David Duchovny

Late Sunday night while reading the online stories in the British papers about the various Premier League games over the weekend, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/index.html, I noticed this interesting note about a rumor regarding one of my favorite actors "Californication" star David Duchovney, that I thought worth passing along.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/mailonsunday/article-1085847/David-Duchovny.html
"David Duchovny: On October 19, an article about actor David Duchovny may have suggested he had an amorous relationship with a tennis coach, Edit Pakay. We now accept this is inaccurate and Ms. Pakay and Mr. Duchovny are only friends who used to play tennis occasionally. Their relationship went no further and was not a factor in Mr and Mrs Duchovny's separation. We apologise to Ms. Pakay, Mr. Duchovny and to Mr. Duchovny's family."

Now as to the problems this year at Manchester City and head coach Mark Hughes , that'll have to wait 'till another time...

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Turkey Bowl 2008! Undefeated Titans at Winless Lions in Ten Days?

Raymond James Stadium, Tampa, Florida

7:35 p.m.

Not that I can get into it all here, but South Beach Hoosier has always been opposed to the general idea of the Lions and Cowboys always getting to host a Thanksgiving Day ballgame.

This year, with a likely 11-0 Tennessee team going into Ford Field to face a likely 0-11 Detroit Lions, I think I'll get some more converts by the middle of the third quarter of that game on CBS-TV.

Titans remaining schedule:

Week 12 Nov 23 NYJ @ TEN LP Field 1:00 PM
Week 13 Nov 27 TEN @ DET Ford Field 12:30 PM
Week 14 Dec 07 CLE @ TEN LP Field 1:00 PM
Week 15 Dec 14 TEN @ HOU Reliant Stadium 1:00 PM
Week 16 Dec 21 PIT @ TEN LP Field 1:00 PM
Week 17 Dec 28 TEN @ IND Lucas Oil Stadium 1:00 PM

Don't be surprised if the home game against the Steelers on the Sunday before Christmas is moved to primetime Sunday night if NBC can get their way under the 'flex schedule.'

Though I usually think of myself as an outside-the-box thinker, as of two weeks ago, my Super Bowl picks for Tampa on February 1st has been Titans and Giants. I'm sticking to that!

Official website for Super Bowl 43: http://www.tampabaysuperbowl.com/

That's 75 days from Monday.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Correction: SFRTA Hosts Transportation Workshop in Broward on Wed. Nov. 19th, not 18th

In an email I sent out last Friday, I mistakenly said the Broward SFRTA event near the FLL airport, above, was on the 18th, when it's actually on Wednesday the 19th, a week from today.

Since I sent that email on Friday, I also received an interesting email from the City of Miami regarding South Florida planning that you might want to take a look at as well, since they'll have a hearing tomorrow to address the state's complaints about their plans.

It's at http://www.miamigov.com/Planning/pages/community_planning/CommunityPlanning.asp

The City of Miami has addressed/responded to the Florida Department of Community Affairs' (DCA) Objection, Recommendation and Comments (ORC) Report issued on July 18, 2008.

EAR-Based Ammendments Adoption Hearing

City of Miami City Hall

3500 Pan American Drive

Miami, Florida 33133

Not attending the Miami-Dade or Broward County SFRTA workshops: obsessive former SFPD Detective Adrian Monk, as fabulously played by Tony Shalhoub.on USA Cable.

In this screen shot from the show's pilot, Mr. Monk and the Candidate, which surprisingly, many MONK fans have never seen, Adrian removes the multi-colored push-pins outlining an important strategic element of the mayoral political campaign of Warren St. Claire (Michael Hogan), with skullduggery and menace supplied by the beautiful and beguiling mayoral candidate's wife, Miranda, played by the always gorgeous and spot-on Gail O'Grady, at top and below, who, it seems to me, has emerged as a sort of latter day small screen combination of Grace Kelly and Lana Turner. When she's on TV, I'm there!

See http://gailogrady.com/ and http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0641097/

(I can't be the only person who's noticed how busy O'Grady has been of late, what with being in the pilot of CBS' breakout hit The Mentalist, starring longtime SBH faves Simon Baker and Robin Tunney, on an episode of CSI: Miami, and more recently, on ABC's Desperate Housewives as a teenage boy's fantasy come true?

I was pretty pissed-off when NBC nixed American Dreams, the one TV show that reasonably portrayed the role of pop culture on the American family, warts and all, with something mkore than cliched melodrama, and captured the excitement of being in on something new.

Can't help but wish that the AD producers had been able to conclude a deal with DirecTV the way that SBH favorite Friday Night Lights has, though I missed last week's show.)

Adrian's rationale for removing the pins? They weren't evenly displayed on the board.

Plus, I think there might've been an uneven number of them. Classic!

Naturally, after being chastised for this, Adrian promptly places every pin back exactly in place, to everyone's amazement.

I don't suspect we'll see anything similar, but just in case, I'll bring some extra pins.

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Positive news re Central Florida commuter rail getting props from biz community -FINALLY opposing Sen. Dockery publicly; SFTRA in Miami

Excerpt of email I sent out on Friday to some public policy people in the region on Friday.
____________________________
Friday November 7th, 2008
4:45 p.m.

The optimist in me hopes that this blog post on the Central Florida Political Pulse is a sign that folks heretofore sitting on the fence on this issue in Polk County, are finally coming to their senses and realizing that they can't let the power and reach of one particularly powerful and popular politician like State Sen. Paula Dockery put them and their area at an economic and competitive disadvantage to others - perhaps forever- simply because of her personal parochial beliefs, since the chance to do the right thing and be part of a larger interconnected transit system may just come once. (Disclaimer: My mother lives in Polk County, specifically, Babson Park.)
http://www.flsenate.gov/Legislators/index.cfm?Members=View+Page&LastName=Dockery&District_Num_Link=015&Title=-%3ESenat

Finally some signs of push back among the business community of the sort we'll need to see much more of in the future so this state doesn't continue to be a laughingstock in so many areas of public policy and common sense, like simply getting the largest number of people from Point A to Point B as quickly and efficiently as possible.

For backgrounder info or to remember who's on what side of this argument, since it's easy to get confused, go to http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/commuter_rail/index.html

As of today I plan on being at next Friday morning's SFRTA Transportation Workshop for Miami-Dade County, below, and the one in Broward on the 19th as well.
I hope to see many of you there, too, offering your positive ideas.

By the way, thanks to Governing.com's 13th Floor blog, http://governing.typepad.com/13thfloor/
recently running a post about the American Planning Associan's (APA) Top Streets in America,
http://www.planning.org/greatplaces/streets/characteristics.htm#1 I recently learned that one of the best streets in an old neighborhood of mine during my 15 years in DC, Clarendon, in Arlington, VA, made the 2008 list. http://www.planning.org/greatplaces/streets/2008/clarendonwilson.htm
Clarendon-Wilson Corridor, Arlington, Virginia. Transit Provided Catalyst for Corridor Smart Growth

Not mentioned at the link above is that it's also home to the Little Saigon restaurant area, home of both the THE BEST and THE CHEAPEST Vietnamese restaurants in all DC, which, fortunately, in many cases were one and the same, including my beloved Queen Bee.

There is no place in South Florida even close to offering that kind of consistent quality of Vietnamese food, size of servings and price.
I'd have mentioned it by now if there was.

People from all over DC routinely hop on the Washington Metro to get around on weekends, and one of those places is that little dynamic area of Northern Virginia less than three miles from Georgetown.

Me, I often ate there the day after Thanksgiving, after the afternoon college football games, often with friends who also didn't leave for the holiday to visit their families.

That sort of dynamic template and magnet for people is the one that I always have in my head when I travel around South Florida, and see how things are done here -or aren't.

I suppose that also makes me more critical -hypercritical?- than many about many of the poorly thought-out plans I often see and read about in South Florida.

Frankly, damn few of them ever seem as either meticulously planned or as grounded in human behavior/psychology and common sense as those of Bernard Zyscovich and his team, but it doesn't mean that I don't wish that the positive neighborhood synergy self-evident at places like Clarendon & Wilson couldn't also be done here, with some local flavor.

From my experience down here the past five years, Downtown Hollywood is a perfect example of an area that would similarly boom once there's a commuter train station on Hollywood Blvd., though there are a few other areas down here that I also think would experience a similar positive jolt that could have ripple effects.

That's one of the reasons I'm such a strong proponent of the SFECC.

I know exactly what it will do for quality-of-life because I've already experienced it.

By the way, one of my former housemates when I lived in that area of Arlington in the mid-90's, which included a horrible week-long blizzard we suffered through, is Derek Schmidt, the current Senate Majority Leader in Kansas, and someone whom I'm sure who'll make it even bigger nationally in the coming years.

You heard it here first!
_____________________________________________
There were no comments posted to the below as of 3 pm.

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2008/11/polk-economic-d.html
Polk economic development group endorses commuter railposted by Orlando Sentinel on Nov 7, 2008 12:13:11 PM

A group that promotes economic development in Polk County has endorsed the Central Florida Commuter Rail Project, putting them at odds with the project's Lakeland-based critics led by Republican Sen. Paula Dockery.
The board of the Central Florida Development Council, Inc. (CFDC) unanimously endorsed the project, which would buy up 61.5 miles of CSX tracks through Central Florida to run light-rail trains from DeLand through Seminole and Orange Counties to Poinciana. The group expressed hope that ultimately the project would extend to Polk County.
"We believe the commuter rail project will stimulate growth and job opportunities in Central Florida and will greatly improve the quality of life for our citizens and visitors," said David Touchton, CFDC president. "It is more critical than ever to provide an alternative to automobile travel as gas prices escalate and new federal air quality standards for ozone put Central Florida at risk of becoming a non-attainment area which could result in sanctions and could slow much needed development."
The council is a private, non-profit 501 C-6 corporation and has a countywide board of directors interested in promoting the community and economic development of Polk County.Dockery and other Lakeland residents have protested that the commuter-rail project would also re-route CSX freight trains, sending more of them through downtown Lakeland.
She led the opposition in last year's Legislature, where the project died without coming to a vote in the Senate.

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/

http://www.flsenate.gov/Legislators/index.cfm?Members=View+Page&LastName=Dockery&District_Num_Link=015&Title=-%3ESenat

Friday, November 7, 2008

Running Tallies on Ross vs. Lewy for 2nd HB Commission Seat

Friday 1:40 p.m.

Watching the Big Ten Field Hockey semifinal game between Iowa and Michigan State from Bloomington on The Big Ten Network as I write this. http://www.bigtennetwork.com/
Great game!

As a result of their defeat of Penn State in the first semifinal, the winner here faces Ohio State in championship game on Sunday at Noon, televised live on BTN.

One of my nieces is playing Saturday morning in the Maryland H.S. Field Hockey State Championship game, so I'm taping the game for her and her younger sister to watch next week.
-------------------------------------------------------------
As of 11 am Dotty Ross is leading Alexander Lewy by 32 votes.

I got a call from Michael Butler around noon and he reminded me that the Broward BOE does have publicly accessible running tallies at Broward Elections's various URLs.

You might want to check it every few hours, even though the whole thing willlead to a formal recount next week.

And check out his latest entry at www.changehallandale.com

See parent site http://www.browardsoe.org/

See tally box http://results.enr.clarityelections.com/FL/Broward/8512/13382/en/md.html?cid=0144

See precint-by-precint breakdown http://results.enr.clarityelections.com/FL/Broward/8512/13382/en/md_data.html?cid=0144&
_________________________________________
www.sun-sentinel.com/community/news/hallandale/sfl-flbhallandale1107sbnov07,0,1923804.story
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
No winner yet for Hallandale Beach commission seat
By Ihosvani Rodriguez
November 7, 2008

Who won the second commission spot?

The answer depends on when you ask.

Tuesday night, newcomer Alexander Lewy won by 23 votes.

On Thursday, veteran Commissioner Dorothy Ross took a 24-vote lead.

The top vote-getter was clear from the start: Commissioner Anthony Sanders. But calling the second spot is turning into a slow-motion drama.

Election officials still have thousands of provisional and absentee ballots to count, elections spokeswoman Evelyn Hale said.

A winner may not be declared until next week, likely followed by a manual recount.

Hearing he was ahead by one vote, Lewy rushed to the ballot-counting center Thursday, only to watch his lead evaporate.

"This chair is actually kind of comfortable," he said.
_____________________________________________
I saw the Channel 10 truck in the city hall parking lot on my way into last night's Unsafe Structures Board meeting right before 6 PM, which turned out to be not quite what I imagined it'd be, with lots of wasted time.

http://www.local10.com/politics/17926517/detail.html
Hallandale Beach Commission Race Very Close
Recount Imminent For Hallandale Beach City Commission Race

POSTED: 6:31 pm EST November 6, 2008
UPDATED: 6:45 pm EST November 6, 2008
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. --

At the beginning of Thursday, only one vote separated two candidates for the Hallandale Beach City Commission.

Commissioner Dotty Ross was torn.

She was clearing out her office in City Hall because it appeared that she lost the commission seat she has held since 1995.

The problem is that election workers are still counting absentee ballots. The new numbers on Thursday showed Ross trailing her opponent, Alexander Lewy, by just one vote.

"Can you imagine one vote? One vote?" she said.

According to the Broward County Supervisor of Elections' Office, Lewy had 2,721 votes for the at-large commission seat, and Ross had 2,720.

"There's no point in analyzing something that may or may not happen. Now as it gets closer, I will," Ross said. "I'm starting to get antsy a little."

At the very least, Ross' race will have to be recounted because the margin of victory likely will be within 0.5 percent of the total ballots cast.

Canvassing board member Judge Robert Lee said it is not the first close race he's seen.

"We've had several small cities over the past at least 10 years where we've actually come within three or four votes," Lee said.

"It is rare, but unfortunately for us, it's not unusual."

If she wins, Ross said her newly cleaned office will be a reminder that every vote counts. "This is proof positive that it does," Ross said.

Late Thursday, the supervisor of elections updated the numbers, and this time Ross held a 23-vote advantage over Lewy, with some 5,000 votes still to be counted.

If the race ends up in a tie, the city charter says the winner will be "decided by lot," which is something like the toss of a coin, Local 10's Roger Lohse reported.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Tonight is City of Hallandale Beach v. Aristides Pelecanos, et al.

So guess what city still does almost no double-checking or fact-checking before they place it on their website? One guess.
Two words.

Correct!

Below exactly as it appears on the city's website is the information on tonight's meeting.

1. What/where is the agenda?

2. Who is being brought up on charges?

3. a.) Who are the members of the Hallandale Beach Unsafe Structure Board anyway?

b.) What is their level or area of professional expertise that qualifies them to serve?

c.) Who appointed them and when do their individual terms expire?

d.) How often do they meet?

The City of Hallandale Beach website answers none of these simple questions, even though it's now exactly 5:00 p.m., one hour before the meeting begins.

Look up "Unsafe Structure Board" on the website and you are sent to http://www.hallandalebeach.org/Search.asp?SearchString=Unsafe+Structure+Board+Meeting&Action.x=17&Action.y=7
where the first answer given is http://www.hallandalebeach.org/index.asp?NID=99

It's a veritable blank page.

Just the like the second "answer."

That's the Twilight Zone world masquerading as normal at Hallandale Beach City Hall as of November 6th, 2008.

By the way, none of the four map links on the webpage actually take you directly to the geographic
location of Hallandale Beach City Hall.
Not even one.

And tonight's meeting doesn't appear anywhere on the main page of the city's website, either.

The first thing they note as far as "calendar" goes is a meeting on the 19th, the second City Commission meeting of the month.

And you wonder why I get frustrated?

I previously discussed Aristides Pelecanos last Thursday:
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/nov-6th-is-next-chapter-of-hb-mayor-joy.html

See ya at Hallandale Beach City Hall!

400 South Federal Highway, Hallandale Beach, FL 33009
______________________________________________
http://www.hallandalebeach.org/CurrentEvents.asp?EID=1886
You are here: Home > Events Calendar

We strive to keep you informed of what's happening in the city. There are many ways for you to view events.
View by Month by clicking on the "<<" or ">>" buttons on the Monthly Calendar.
View by Calendar Type by choosing the calendar you want to view, i.e. "City Council" or "Parks and Recreation".
Click on the corresponding hyperlink or select the calendar from the drop down box.

Title: Unsafe Structure Board Meeting
Date: November 6, 2008
Address: Commission Chambers
400 South Federal Hwy Hallandale Beach, FL 33009
View Maps:
Google MapQuest Windows Live Yahoo!
Hours: 6:00 P.M.
Contact: (954) 457-1386

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

"Superman Returns" star Brandon Routh in Downtown Hollywood Friday Night

Come dressed as your favorite superhero and celebrate the city of Hollywood's 83rd Birthday with a FREE birthday cake, celebration and song at 6 PM.

Also see Superman cartoons followed by the featured movie Superman Returns at 7 PM.

Guest appearance by actor Brandon Routh from Superman Returns

See http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0746125/ and http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0348150/

(If only longtime South Beach Hoosier favorite Ashley Judd had been cast as Lois Lane and that film would've been PERFECT!)

FUNTASTIC FRIDAYS FOR KIDS
Friday, November 07, 2008 5:00 PM-9:00 PM
Anniversary Park, Hollywood Blvd. and 20th Ave. in Downtown Hollywood

First and Third Friday of the month 5:00 - 9:00 pm

Bring your kids to the best FREE family social event in town featuring Mama Clown and Friends, an outdoor movie, bounce house, face painters, magic & more!

CITY OF HOLLYWOOD COMMUNITY HARVEST FOOD DRIVE WILL BE COLLECTING

FOOD DONATIONS: PEANUT BUTTER AND/OR JELLY

For more event information call 954-921-3016 or visit http://www.downtownhollywood.com/

Downtown Hollywood CRA

330 North Federal Highway

Hollywood, FL 33020
Phone: 954-921-3016

Fax: 954-921-3040

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Thursday's Hollywood Charter Review Commission Meeting at 6 PM

Not sure If I'll be there for this since it conflicts with the Pelecanos hearing in Hallandale Beach.

For more information, go to http://www.hollywoodfl.org/html/charter_review.htm

As most of you who read this site regularly know, CRC member Sara Case mentioned below is also the editor of the reform-minded citizen advocacy website, The Balance Sheet Online,
an invaluable source of information on what's happening in and around Hollywood.
http://www.balancesheetonline.com/
___________________________________
City of Hollywood, Florida Office of the City Manager

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 28, 2008

Contact: Raelin Storey, Public Affairs and Marketing Director

Phone: 954. 921.3098 Fax: 954.921.3314 Cell: 954.812.0975

E-mail: rstorey@hollywoodfl.org

Charter Review Committee to Host Public Input Meeting
Opportunity for residents to weigh in on the City Charter

HOLLYWOOD, FL - The City of Hollywood Charter Review Committee is seeking input from residents on the topics to be considered during the Committee's review of the City Charter.

The Committee will host a Public Input Meeting on Thursday, November 6, 2008 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the new Boulevard Heights Community Center, located a 6770 Garfield Street.

This is the second in a series of three meetings to hear from community members on this important topic.

A third public input meeting will be held on January 8 at the Hollywood Beach Culture and Community Center.

In November 2007, the City Commission established a Charter Review Committee to examine the City's Charter and make recommendations for additions, changes and deletions.

The Committee must make its recommendations to the City Commission by November 2009 for review to determine which ones will be put before voters in a future election, most likely in 2010.

The 11 member Charter Review Committee is comprised of the following individuals: Gary Bagliebter, Kevin Biederman, Miya Burt-Stewart, Terry Cantrell, Sara Case, Gregory Green, Gerald Gunzburger, Charles Howell, Lawrence Legg, Siobhan McLaughlin and Andy Rogow.

For media inquiries, please contact Raelin Storey, Director of Public Affairs, at 954.921.3098. For meeting information, please contact Lorie Mertens-Black, Director of Intergovernmental Affairs, at 954.921.3201.
___________________________
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Hollywood CRC's first meeting
By Ihosvani Rodriguez
May 18, 2008

During election season earlier this year, plenty of politicians were promising major changes to city government.

But the real changes may be the work of a newly appointed group of Hollywood residents.

City commissioners earlier this month appointed nine members to the new Charter Review Board, a group that will comb the city's constitution and recommend changes.

The city last updated its charter 10 years ago.

Among the issues the board will be looking at: term limits, lobbying and ethics reforms and staggered terms for elected officials.

Activist Sara Case, who will represent the beach and downtown areas on the board, said those are some of the issues she wants her group to tackle immediately.

"The major problems we have had over the years have been term limits and ethics," Case said.
"I think our charter is deficient in all of those areas."

She noted the previous mayor, Mara Giulianti, held office for about 20 years and a former commissioner, Cathy Anderson, served for more than 30 years.

In addition to Case in District 1, the members selected are: city activist and motivational speaker Miya Burt-Stewart, District 2; accountant Charles Howell, District 3; attorney Gary Bagliebter, District 4; Central Broward Water Control District Commissioner Kevin Biederman, District 5; mortgage broker Andy Rogow, District 6; corporate executive Gregory Greene, citywide; retired engineer Gerald Gunzberger, citywide; accountant Lawrence Legg, citywide.

The group could start meeting as early as next month.

The board's deadline to report its recommendations to the commission is Nov. 30, 2009. The commission will review the recommendations and vote on possible 2010 ballot proposals.Hollywood voters will have the final word.

Initially, only 16 people submitted applications. A second call for applicants brought in dozens of residents willing to sit through the process.

"We have an unbelievable amount of good, quality people who have stepped forward," Mayor Peter Bober said at the May 7 commission meeting.

"I wish there was a way to appoint everyone."

There were so many applicants, in fact, that commission members said they want to add two more members later this year.

First, they will need to amend and pass an ordinance to increase the membership limit.

Sunday, November 2, 2008

The hedging your bet, having your cake and eating it, too headline on Miami Herald's website

Sunday 2:54 a.m.

Showing the kind of foresight that has their popularity dropping like a rock, (see Bob Norman's excellent new Broward Palm Beach NewTimes article, Newspaper layoffs, partnerships, and the Net conspire to kill South Florida dailies, http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/2008-10-30/news/newspaper-layoffs-partnerships-and-the-net-conspire-to-kill-south-florida-dailies/ )
before I went to sleep this morning after watching the fantastic Texas-Texas Tech football game, I hit the Miami Herald's website http://www.miamiherald.com/ and caught this classic headline there that speaks for itself, which is at: http://www.miamiherald.com/457/story/752469.html

CAMPAIGN '08
Florida could have history making role in 2008 election
Florida could put Obama over the top Tuesday night -- or complete a stunning comeback by McCain. - 0:30 AM ET

Then again, Florida could also be a national punch line -again!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
For more on the latest in the world of journalism, sagging newspaper circulations, “secular headwinds” and the future of newspapers in the digital age, see Alan D. Mutter's Reflections of a Newsosaur at http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Comparing and contrasting Fort Lauderdale with Hallandale Beach

The Sun-Sentinel's Broward Politics blog had this interesting post yesterday afternoon by Brittany Wallman about Fort Lauderdale Comm. Carlton Moore and the controversy about whether or not he should be allowed to vote on his successor next week.

To which I responded with... well, at least tried to.

But as has been the case so many times in the past, the comments wouldn't go through as written, despite doing everything I was prompted to do.

"Oh well, I don't really need their website to comment do I" he said with a laugh.
____________________________________________________
Broward Politics blog
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
New Fort Lauderdale commissioner will be appointed Tuesday
Posted by Brittany Wallman at 4:15 PM

Fort Lauderdale City Commissioner Carlton Moore will be replaced Tuesday, Nov. 4, the day his resignation takes effect. He has served on the City Commission since 1988.
Commissioners in June agreed to let Moore have a vote on who will replace him. The interim commissioner who is selected will stay until the city elections in the spring.
But Mayor Jim Naugle apparently has changed his mind. He said at the Oct. 21 meeting that Moore shouldn't be allowed to vote on the matter.
Read the rest of the post at: http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/broward/blog/2008/10/new_fort_lauderdale_commission.html

This story has a lot of resonance for me.

Unfortunately, the City of Fort Lauderdale CAN'T beat the current Broward record of voting for an interim Commissioner less than fifteen minutes after a resignation is announced, currently held by the City Of Hallandale Beach, set on August 5th.

Another big difference is that FTL will be voting for the replacement the day the resignation of Comm. Moore is official, while the City of HB voted for Comm. Fran Schiller's replacement, Anthony A. Sanders, less than fifteen minutes after news of the resignation was made public.

This quick un-publicized vote came at Mayor Joy Cooper's insistence, despite there being well OVER three weeks before Comm. Schiller's resignation would become official.

In fact, there was still another regularly-scheduled HB City Commission meeting BEFORE the Schiller resignation would be official.

But a publicly scheduled meeting with proper advance notice given, where the citizens of HB could gather and publicly discuss the matter, likely in front of local TV news cameras, was NOT at all what Mayor Joy Cooper wanted.

So the vote went ahead -with Comm. Schiller NOT voting on her successor- but with Comm. Dotty Ross voting for Pastor Sanders despite publicly saying that she knew almost nothing about him, even remarking that he hadn't so much as filled out a form that she could look at.

See for yourself at: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2063633124352034112

That's just a small example of the difference between how the Cities of Fort Lauderdale and Hallandale Beach practice democracy in the year 2008!

Entering Broward County, May 8, 2008

Two years later...in January, 2009 the view has changed.

Hallandale Beach Water Tower, looking east from State Road A1A/South Ocean Drive

Blog Archive

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