November 13, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier
Nine months from tonight, the Rubber Stamp Crew at Hallandale Beach City Hall can be kicked-to-the-curb for good
Concepts like common sense, logic, reason, transparency, Sunshine in Government and living-within-your-means could finally make their long-overdue appearance at 400 S. Federal Highway.
Not to mention, new City Commissioners dedicated to providing genuine oversight of the new City Manager and city employees, and a willingness to work hard and become familiar with pertinent information BEFORE City Commission meetings, instead of continuing the current practice where the majority merely go-thru-the-motions and forever defer to un-elected staffers who may not represent the long-term best interests of the city's citizen taxpayers and business owners.
We could finally see some intelligent public policy that encourages genuine community involvement throughout the ENTIRE CITY, and NOT exclusion and stealthiness at public meetings, which leads to important decisions being made at 2:43 a.m., as happened with the vote on the Diplomat LAC in 2010.
Not to mention, new City Commissioners dedicated to providing genuine oversight of the new City Manager and city employees, and a willingness to work hard and become familiar with pertinent information BEFORE City Commission meetings, instead of continuing the current practice where the majority merely go-thru-the-motions and forever defer to un-elected staffers who may not represent the long-term best interests of the city's citizen taxpayers and business owners.
We could finally see some intelligent public policy that encourages genuine community involvement throughout the ENTIRE CITY, and NOT exclusion and stealthiness at public meetings, which leads to important decisions being made at 2:43 a.m., as happened with the vote on the Diplomat LAC in 2010.
We could finally have a city hall where a work-ethic exists among city employees that rewards those who consistently show initiative, get the community involved, create cost efficiencies and increased productivity or tangible results, and proactively cuts red-tape and spots problems ahead of time, instead of merely waiting for them to happen and then pretending you don't know anything about it.
Conversely, that new work-ethic at city hall will make clear that it will punish or replace those who cling to the outmoded and musty status quo policies that have existed here for years, a mindset which has cost this city's taxpayers so very much money with so little tangible good to show for it the past ten years -a city budget that has nearly doubled the past five years.
But this change in both attitude and direction won't be accomplished easily, or just thru collective good intentions and a few clever campaign slogans.
It'll require some hard work and diligence by those who are genuinely committed to bringing meaningful policy reform and financial accountability to this city with so much unrealized potential, so that the citizens of this community can FINALLY leave the embarrassing bad old-days in the rear-view mirror.
So, what are you prepared to do the next few months to make that a reality?
In case you're interested, if all goes as expected, I'll be posting some Alternative State of the City comments on my blog in a few days, which is to say, an alternative to Mayor Joy Cooper's likely myopic and unrealistic snapshot.
If any of you you have something you'd like to contribute, either using your own name or, well, as "Anonymous," send it to me by 8 p.m. Thursday night.
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Change Hallandale Beach-
A fact-based website run by my friend and fellow Hallandale Beach civic activist, Michael Butler, which goes directly after the longtime incompetency and crony capitalism at Hallandale Beach City Hall with cold-hard logic, quantifiable figures, graphs, charts and videos. The kind of evidence that they CAN'T refute with any of their serial lies, half-truths, mis-statements of fact, or exaggerations from the dais.See the evidence for yourself and see what's REALLY going on in Hallandale Beach from Michael's informed perspective at http://www.changehallandale.com
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