was going to write about it on Sunday, anyway.
Here's the short story, as I understand it, on how the Broward
County Commission meeting on the Diplomat LAC got
moved back to April 27th -again!:
The vote was originally scheduled for April 27th as the 4th
Tuesday of the month is when the County usually hears
land-use issues.
Comm. Ilene Lieberman apparently said that was bad for
her because she'd be in Tallahassee for the Legislature's last
week, so she wanted it to be changed, because she is clearly
in favor of the project.
Diplomat attorney Debbie Orshefsky said that she would
like it to be postponed until May 11th, since she obviously
wants Lieberman there in-person to vote YES and break
the 4-4 tie of March 23rd.
Comm. Ken Keechl said that because of their own rule about
land-use meetings, it would have to be either April 27th or
May 25th.
If held on May 25th, it would likely miss the deadline for
Group I transmittal to the FL Dept. of Community Affairs
(DCA), which was the target that HB City Manager Mike Good
was shooting for when he began this steamroller effort of his
last year, without any input from our city's elected
officials, I remind you.
Word is that other development projects around the county
that have already received approval from the Broward County
Commission are VERY concerned about the controversial
Diplomat project creating a real bottleneck for them, since
the applications are sent en masse to Tallahassee, not
individually as they are approved.
I don't have a list of those previously-approved projects,
but I'd be willing to bet that some of them are ones that
Debbie and Greenberg Traurig have handled, so they
are well-aware of the ticking calendar.
I've been told by someone that an effort was made to find
out if there was any support at all on the Commission to
have a vote to change the date of the Diplomat meeting
to the 11th as Debbie wanted, but that a fifth vote could
NOT be found to make
that change.
Furthermore, I've heard that the Diplomat may well
pull their proposal the day before, on April 26th, IF
they believe they won't have a fifth and deciding
affirmative vote on the Commission.
That's no reason for us to waste any time, though,
and stop our efforts. This past week, I was able to
discover some pretty damning information that, combined
with information I previously uncovered, will show rather
conclusively that the Diplomat's over-confident proponents
and apologists all over the county -and much closer to home-
have played fast-and-loose with the truth, and I have the
proverbial Smoking Gun that proves it.
I'm going to post this delicious information on my blog on
Monday and suggest that you check it out for yourself,
since seeing is believing.
It's the irrefutable proof that I've been looking for that,
sadly, proves that the caliber of people involved in this
effort were just as duplicitous as I initially said they were
last year.
And -shocker!- they'll even lie to South Florida
news reporters without even breaking a sweat!
That the particular person I've caught in an obvious and
self-serving lie is an attorney only adds to my delight,
since our side in this David vs. Goliath debate has
never had any resources to speak of, let alone, the luxury
of having any attorneys working on behalf of the many
Hallandale Beach and Hollywood citizens opposed to this
out-of-scale project for the simplest reason of all:
Quality-of-Life.
Something that far too many people at Hallandale Beach
City Hall could genuinely care less about if it means they
can get their hands on MORE MONEY.
That's why they've tried so hard to fix this process from
the very beginning, and to keep the germane information
out of the public's hands, something I reminded the County
Commission myself when I got my chance to speak last month.
It wasn't by accident, it was City Hall's plan all along.
I hope you'll be able to find time to attend Comm. London's
Resident Forum meeting on Tuesday at 6 p.m., as I fully
expect that it will be full of residents eager to hear more
details about what's really been going on behind-the-scenes
with the HB City Hall spies, Diplomat apologists and dupes
of Mayor Cooper -like her longtime friend Alex Berkovich's
not-so-subtle performance at last month's meeting, where
he actually got-up from his chair about 30 minutes into the
meeting and went out to the hallway to talk to Mayor Cooper,
and then came back in a few minutes later and said that he
had "heard" that the Diplomat was, perhaps, willing to
modify their position a bit.
I guess a little bird had told him.
Many of them will likely show-up anyway, despite
what we already know about them, or have learned
subsequently, because, quite frankly, they can't help
themselves.
Plus, of course, NONE of the other Hallandale Beach City
Commissioners are willing to actually meet citizen taxpayers
in regularly-scheduled monthly meetings without City Hall
staff present to whisper in their ears.
Except Comm. Keith London.
(Perhaps Debbie Orshefsy and Suzanne Friedman and
their PR worker-bees will even make another appearance,
just like in January!)
Is there a more obvious duplicitous dupe than Cooper-acolyte
and HB City Commission candidate Alexander Lewy,
someone who has continually bad-mouthed Comm. London
behind his back for YEARS (and on his Facebook page),
and who calls the public policy meetings that I and so many
others attend, pointless, yet Lewy continues to show-up
at them as if we were none the wiser about what a low-rent
character he truly is?
I think not.
Trust me when I tell you, that duplicitous attorney and
Lewy are about to get the public drubbing and unmasking
of a lifetime this week, and the best part of all is that it's
100% true and verifiable.
That's always been the hurdle for the Diplomat:
they have to lie in order to have a chance to win,
we just have to tell the truth to have a fighting chance.
However it goes on Tuesday night, I'll have my video-camera
with me, ready to record the action, low-lights and hi jinks
that may flare-up with the other side, still clearly upset that
weeks later, we are STILL around.
And now carrying the fight to them.
That's certainly not the way they planned it at Hallandale Beach City Hall last year!
Don't forget to bring your popcorn!
Also, please don't forget about the United Condominium
Association of Hallandale Beach and their monthly meeting
on Thursday the 22nd, at 7 p.m., in the ballroom of the
MarBay Hotel on Diplomat Parkway, with the Diplomat
LAC the main topic du jour.
Adios!
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, Apr 17, 2010 at 7:19 PM
Subject: Re: FYI re 2010-04-21 HB City Commission re Flex Units in Diplomat LAC
----------------Date: Sat, Apr 17, 2010 at 7:19 PM
Subject: Re: FYI re 2010-04-21 HB City Commission re Flex Units in Diplomat LAC
David, where did you hear the county meeting was moved to May 11th?
April 12th, 2010
The ad below about the April 21st City Commission meeting ran
in Sunday's Miami Herald.
If you haven't already heard, the Broward County Commission
meeting that was scheduled to re-hear the Diplomat LAC's
incompatible proposal on April 27th, has now been moved to
May 11th.
One month from tomorrow.
By the way, do you think The Masters Golf Tournament the past
week would've looked better or worse on TV for home viewers
IF there'd been constant shots of giant 25-30 story condo towers
looming over the magnolia trees?
Something like this rendering, perhaps?
Above rendering courtesy of Don BoudriaLooking east towards the Intracoastal and Atlantic.
You'd probably have thought that the condo towers seemed
pretty incompatible with what the folks at Augusta
National seemed at pains to keep emphasizing:
nature and green, green everywhere.
Yeah, that's what I'd think, too!
Here's a question I wish I'd thought of asking Debbie Orshefsky
a few months ago:
Are there ANY golf courses in the entire state of Florida where
the respective county approved buildings this TALL to be located
THAT close to an existing residential neighborhood and golf course,
as part of a LAC?
My own guess is that if there were, Debbie would've mentioned it
a few dozen times by now; she hasn't.
I don't think that's a coincidence.
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