Once again, below, clear evidence that Comm. Ilene
Lieberman is playing her by now familiar role.
Not the role of pragmatic idealist, not the role of
reasonable compromise, but the role of obstructionist.
She waited until after the county Charter Review
Commission made their recs last year before deciding
to offer up a measure that the County Auditor
-whom I have no quibble with- ought to be required
to makes financial estimates of the prospective costs
of ballot initiatives and referendums, and that such info
appear on the ballot.
There are lots of well-informed people in Broward
who are in complete agreement with me that
Comm. Lieberman came up with the proposal that
became an ordinance, at least in in part,to sink the
idea of having an independent, advisory MTA in
this area that could start making positive suggestions
based on what the public and transportation-users
think, not what box the county wants to put people in.
And by an advisory MTA, I mean one that was
composed of real taxpayers and which paid
proper heed to citizens, and which was NOT
the puppet play-thing of the County Commission
and their faceless bureaucratic MPO system,
which few citizens know about or understand.
That MPO system, while not without some smart
and well-meaning people, many of whom I've met,
is great in the abstract, but the reality is that it's
also the refuge of many bureaucratic drones who
give taxpayers and bus riders the back of their
hand, like they're laboratory rats.
Employees I'd like to see axed, toute-de-suite.
It's the last refuge of the dim-witted Joy Coopers
of the world, who say that everything should be
done thru MPO as a way of avoiding true
accountability, even while keeping parochial pols
in charge, due in large part to the pervasive influence
of the Broward League of Cities, which is too
great in my opinion.
For simple proof of this, go to the Minutes of the
last public Charter Review Commission meeting,
April 9, 2008, 1 p.m.
http://www.broward.org/
Start at the public comments on page 6 and watch
what happens when Joy Cooper is asked a series
of very reasonable questions by CRC members
Ted Mena and Michael C. Buckner.
It speaks for itself.
In the year 2009, citizens don't want to take a
seat in the back of the bus while imbeciles like
Joy Cooper do the driving -off the cliff.
(The woman who at the formal presentation
and Commission vote on the city's over-due,
over-budget Transportation Master Plan,
at the HB Cultural Center, was too dumb
to ever ask the city's consultants whether
or not the city's own mini-bus drivers were
ever interviewed for input; they weren't.
Right, ignore your own employees who are
best-positioned to speak to traffic issues
and patterns and take the word of consultants
who do their research based on city traffic
patterns during the slowest part of the year.
That's her enlightened management style
which has so coarsened public sentiment
and common sense here.
In case you forgot, that's the meeting that
Comm. Anthony A. Sanders never attended
and subsequently never gave an explanation
for missing.
Yeah, because traffic isn't really much
of a concern here.
About what you'd expect from a city like
Hallandale Beach that is so poorly-run and
with so little apparent awareness of how
very poorly it is regarded in South Florida,
that when it came time to host BCTA chief
Chris Walton for one of his frequent visits
throughout the county, that he was given
the HB Cultural center at the SAME TIME
as a HB City Commission meeting.
Really.
SNAFU!)
As if, somehow, Broward taxpayers would suddenly
forget everything they knew and had experienced in
the recent past and would suddenly accept govt.
estimates on construction costs -and Broward's
in particular as reliable- and use that factoid
as a deciding factor in deciding an issue.
See also:
When that move of Lieberman's later seemed
to be a real impediment when the Broward
County Commission wanted to do something
to help fast-track a new county Courthouse,
in part because that would have to appear
on the ballot if a bond issue, along with that
estimate she insisted upon, Lieberman
appointed herself to the county's Courthouse
Taskforce, and was promptly made Chair,
giving her two chances to bite the apple
and affect this important decision, not just one.
Right, because she has no obvious conflicts.
You read about that decision where in
the South Florida media, exactly?
Right, it never came up.
As to the Ethics Commission. simply do what
Charlotte Greenbarg suggested, as quoted
by Scott Wyman in his very good Sun-Sentinel
article of September 10th:
Broward ethics panel plans sweeping reforms
"My ideal would be something very simple -- don't ask and don't take,"
said Charlotte Greenbarg, president of the Broward Coalition, an
umbrella group representing area homeowner and condo associations.
"They shouldn't ask for anything and they shouldn't take anything.
Who could argue with that?
So easy that even a Broward County
commissioner could remember it,
Lieberman did a poor job as Chair in the view
of many who were closely following the actions
of Taskforce members, many of whom seemed
to have conflicts of interest of the sort that in a
more enlightened community with higher standards,
would cause them to have never passed muster
in the first place.
Not that they were bad people, simply that their
own experience and personal and professional
relationships with certain people was of a sort
that would tend to cause them to not be objective
as to the basic question of whether a new
Courthouse was, in fact, needed.
As opposed to having the existing one modified
and expanded, using some artistic creativity and
making it far safer, more energy-efficient,
technology-based and taxpayer/citizen-friendly,
NOT lawyer/judge-friendly.
Some outside-the-box thinking was required,
but as usual, that kind of thinking was shown
the door.
Quick, name the Taskforce member who was
appointed specifically to represent the average
county taxpayer?
There wasn't one.
As you know from my previous posts,
Lieberman did NOT properly update Taskforce
meeting information on the county website, and
under her leadership, they actually had the gall
to place agendas, past Minutes and other
pertinent material on the county website hours
AFTER their last public meeting, not prior
to that meeting.
So, where did you read about that in the
South Florida media, exactly?
Right, it never came up.
And all of a sudden, word started emerging in
the usual places that the County Commission
was going to try to finesse this project instead,
so that it won't ever have to appear on the ballot
for taxpayers to give their informed consent,
because it's abundantly clear that Broward
taxpayers are NOT in favor of building a new
Broward Courthouse.
Period.
Ilene Lieberman, churlish chronic,
self-interested obstructionist to common sense.
---------
This is part of an email that was forwarded to me.
I've deleted some blank space to make it more
compact.and easier to read:
From: Cepero, Monica
Sent: Friday, November 20, 2009 1:13 PM
To: 'Alfreda Coward'; 'Carl Shechter'; 'Comm. Carl Shechter'; 'Felicia M. Brunson'; 'Howard Bakalar'; Jardine, Arlene; 'Julie Lakosky'; 'Kenneth Fink'; Leu, Leah; Cepero, Monica; 'Neal de Jesus'; Robert Wolfe; 'Robin Rorapaugh'; Russo, Jean; Seff, Bradley; Teitler, Robert; 'Washington Collado'; 'William Scherer'
Subject: Broward County Ethics Commission verbatim minutes
Attached are the verbatim minutes from the last Ethics Commission meeting. The summary minutes will be forthcoming next week.
Have a nice weekend,
Monica
Monica M. CeperoAssistant to the County Administrator
115 South Andrews Avenue, Room 409
Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33301
Well, it's now 4:15 p.m. on Wednesday Nov. 25th.the day before Thanksgiving, with county
employees off on Friday.
I just went to the Broward County Ethics Commission
homepage at:
http://www.broward.org/ethicscommission/welcome.htm
As you can see for yourself, the Minutes for the
November 12th Ethics meeting are not there now,
two weeks later.
Trust me, based on what the verbatim Minutes
say, when you actually see the Minutes in print,
you will be very, very angry.
The next meeting of the Broward County Ethics
Commission is Monday December 9th, from
9-11:30 a.m.
---------
Broward Beat
Sources: County Commissioners Trying To Block Ethics Rules
By Buddy Nevins
Some Broward County commissioners are apoplectic over what’s happening at the Ethics Commission.
And it is causing them to act, well, downright unethical.
Some County Commissioners are accused by sources of applying pressure to reign in the ethics group. The group was created by voters to draft new ethics rules for the county.
“We’re having trouble and it’s coming from the Fourth Floor,” said one ethics commission member.
The Fourth Floor of the Government Center is where commissioners are cloistered behind two sets of receptionists.
See the rest of the story at:
http://www.browardbeat.com/
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