This helpful email below from Hallandale Beach City Commissioner Keith London made its way to my email inbox on March 1st, and it gives a good overview of the "process" and what's at stake in the future for this city's citizen taxpayers and business owners as the city prepares for current City Manager Mark A. Antonio's departure in June.
Based on my own conversations around town with other residents, politically-oriented and otherwise, my own intuition, plus, hearing some of the most well-informed and articulate voters in this town speak a few weeks ago at one of Comm. London's monthly Resident Forum, where the city's consultant, Colin Baezinger, appeared for the last of the two-hours at the HB Cultural Center to speak to us and answer questions for just under an hour, we do NOT want a City Manager who will not roll-over, fetch or play "dead" in order to keep his or her job.
(I'd have posted the video I shot of Baezinger interacting with the public that day, but because I got caught up into listening and didn't stop and start the video-cam every so often on individual subjects, it's far long for me to post directly here via Blogger, or, even cut into segments and place on my YouTube Channel. I definitely need to learn from that mistake!)
We want someone who will proactively take advantage of the geographical, social and people resources here to get this city to the point it should've been at many years ago.
Instead, the same practical everyday issues of a lack of core competencies and effectiveness in dealing with problems and the citizens who want solutions, a very stubborn unwillingness to change or adapt clearly failing public policies that have no public support, and a very, very strong distrust of the motives, ethics and and work-ethic of Hallandale Beach City Hall administrators and employees themselves, hangs over this city like a dark ominous cloud that simply won't blow away.
Far too much time and energy at HB City Hall is spent on little more than outright deception of taxpayers and business owners to prevent them from knowing what's REALLY going on, all in furtherance of Mayor Cooper's effort to keep up the facade that she is in control and that everything is okay.
It's NOT.
And then residents like me and many of the well-informed people I know who have lived here far longer than I, feel compelled to push-back on those deceptive efforts from City Hall, wasting precious time and energy we;d all rather see channeled productively elsewhere, rather than constantly having to point to the many pink elephants in the room, none of which those in charge and earning nice salaries and benefits claim to be able to see.
Yes, intentional myopia.
Below Comm. London's email, consultant Colin Baezinger also details what the tentative schedule for the next few weeks looks like so that HB residents can interact with some of the candidates, something that we were NOT able to do in the summer of 2010, when Mayor Joy Cooper and City Commissioners William "Bill" Julian and Dotty Ross hijacked the transparent process that HB residents had been promised, and then completely short-circuited it by literally changing the rules in the middle of the search, just as we were all about to find out who some of the candidates were.
The City of Hallandale Beach Commission will be making one of the most important decisions affecting our City with the hiring of a new City Manager. The new City Manager will be chosen in the next six weeks. Please take a moment to mark your calendars with these important dates (please see email below for the schedule).
The choosing of a new city manager will affect every resident and business in “our” community.
This decision will most likely live longer than many of the elected officials’ current terms and should not be taken lightly. The decision will be made through a detailed vetting process with the assistance of an outside consultant; yet no process is perfect. The commission will have a relatively short amount of time to review the applications and interview the short list of candidates. Personally, the accomplishments of an individual are very important, but how this person fits into “our” community with the existing unique set of issues and all the potential to be a first class city waiting to be unlocked, will weigh heavily for me.
Please participate and attend these meetings to meet and great all the candidates. I look forward to the next phase of improvement and the positive future in “Our” city.
Sincerely,
Keith S. London
954-457-1320 Office
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I wanted to give you a quick update on the City Manager Search Process. Right now, we are in the midst of checking out the most promising candidates. We do have it down to less than a dozen although I do not want to release any names at this point. If we find something in a candidate’s background that we do not like, we will drop the candidate. If the names have already been released, the media may want to know why a candidate has been dropped and I would prefer not to be in that situation.
Based on my own conversations around town with other residents, politically-oriented and otherwise, my own intuition, plus, hearing some of the most well-informed and articulate voters in this town speak a few weeks ago at one of Comm. London's monthly Resident Forum, where the city's consultant, Colin Baezinger, appeared for the last of the two-hours at the HB Cultural Center to speak to us and answer questions for just under an hour, we do NOT want a City Manager who will not roll-over, fetch or play "dead" in order to keep his or her job.
(I'd have posted the video I shot of Baezinger interacting with the public that day, but because I got caught up into listening and didn't stop and start the video-cam every so often on individual subjects, it's far long for me to post directly here via Blogger, or, even cut into segments and place on my YouTube Channel. I definitely need to learn from that mistake!)
We want someone who will proactively take advantage of the geographical, social and people resources here to get this city to the point it should've been at many years ago.
Instead, the same practical everyday issues of a lack of core competencies and effectiveness in dealing with problems and the citizens who want solutions, a very stubborn unwillingness to change or adapt clearly failing public policies that have no public support, and a very, very strong distrust of the motives, ethics and and work-ethic of Hallandale Beach City Hall administrators and employees themselves, hangs over this city like a dark ominous cloud that simply won't blow away.
Far too much time and energy at HB City Hall is spent on little more than outright deception of taxpayers and business owners to prevent them from knowing what's REALLY going on, all in furtherance of Mayor Cooper's effort to keep up the facade that she is in control and that everything is okay.
It's NOT.
And then residents like me and many of the well-informed people I know who have lived here far longer than I, feel compelled to push-back on those deceptive efforts from City Hall, wasting precious time and energy we;d all rather see channeled productively elsewhere, rather than constantly having to point to the many pink elephants in the room, none of which those in charge and earning nice salaries and benefits claim to be able to see.
Yes, intentional myopia.
Below Comm. London's email, consultant Colin Baezinger also details what the tentative schedule for the next few weeks looks like so that HB residents can interact with some of the candidates, something that we were NOT able to do in the summer of 2010, when Mayor Joy Cooper and City Commissioners William "Bill" Julian and Dotty Ross hijacked the transparent process that HB residents had been promised, and then completely short-circuited it by literally changing the rules in the middle of the search, just as we were all about to find out who some of the candidates were.
All because the mayor decided that Antonio should be considered for the job after all, flip-flopping on her earlier contention that he NOT even be considered.
Given the subject of my last blog post here, Hallandale Beach Commissioners spending taxpayer $$$ in a hurry -and NOT in the Sunshine! As usual, Comm. Sanders just sits there and waits to be told what to say and how to vote
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/03/hallandale-beach-commissioners-spending.html
I thought you might benefit from knowing what the current plan is.
As my next blog post will clearly show -and then some- having a written plan to select a new City Manager may work in next-door Hollywood, where I participated in the public process in January and wrote about my observations here that led to Douglas Hewett earning his selection there, after a very impressive presentation to the Hollywood city Commission, which I filmed.
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/doug-hewett-named-new-hollywood-city.html
But here in Hallandale Beach, a plan is just a couple of words on a piece of paper, and can be thrown-out whenever three people on the HB City Commission with a track record in office of consistently voting against the long-term best interests of its citizens find the public "process" either too taxing for their brains -or want to go home.
I thought you might benefit from knowing what the current plan is.
As my next blog post will clearly show -and then some- having a written plan to select a new City Manager may work in next-door Hollywood, where I participated in the public process in January and wrote about my observations here that led to Douglas Hewett earning his selection there, after a very impressive presentation to the Hollywood city Commission, which I filmed.
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/doug-hewett-named-new-hollywood-city.html
But here in Hallandale Beach, a plan is just a couple of words on a piece of paper, and can be thrown-out whenever three people on the HB City Commission with a track record in office of consistently voting against the long-term best interests of its citizens find the public "process" either too taxing for their brains -or want to go home.
-------
Everyone,
The City of Hallandale Beach Commission will be making one of the most important decisions affecting our City with the hiring of a new City Manager. The new City Manager will be chosen in the next six weeks. Please take a moment to mark your calendars with these important dates (please see email below for the schedule).
The choosing of a new city manager will affect every resident and business in “our” community.
This decision will most likely live longer than many of the elected officials’ current terms and should not be taken lightly. The decision will be made through a detailed vetting process with the assistance of an outside consultant; yet no process is perfect. The commission will have a relatively short amount of time to review the applications and interview the short list of candidates. Personally, the accomplishments of an individual are very important, but how this person fits into “our” community with the existing unique set of issues and all the potential to be a first class city waiting to be unlocked, will weigh heavily for me.
Please participate and attend these meetings to meet and great all the candidates. I look forward to the next phase of improvement and the positive future in “Our” city.
Sincerely,
Keith
Keith S. London
City Commissioner
Hallandale Beach
954-457-1320 Office
954-494-3182 Cellular
www.KeithLondon.com
http://www.facebook.com/KeithSLondon
-----
From: Colin Baenziger [mailto:Colin@cb-asso.com]
Sent: Thursday, February 23, 2012 05:11 PM
To: Cooper, Joy; Lewy, Alexander; Sanders, Anthony; Ross, Dotty; London, Keith
Cc: Amiraian, George; Rafols, Nydia M
Subject: City Manager Search Update - Be Sure Your Calendars Are Marked...
I wanted to give you a quick update on the City Manager Search Process. Right now, we are in the midst of checking out the most promising candidates. We do have it down to less than a dozen although I do not want to release any names at this point. If we find something in a candidate’s background that we do not like, we will drop the candidate. If the names have already been released, the media may want to know why a candidate has been dropped and I would prefer not to be in that situation.
I can tell you that I am very pleased with the field. All the candidates are highly qualified and the field is diverse in terms of experience, race and gender. While the candidates are primarily from Florida, we do have some diversity there as well.
The important upcoming dates for you to remember and be available for are:
March 14th: Background materials for the candidates arrive and are distributed to the commissioners.
March 14th to 21st: I will be available to answer any questions you may have.
March 21st: I will be at city hall to meet with any of the commissioners who wish to discuss the candidates.
March 21st: Also, on March 21st, the Commission will select the candidates who will be finalists and be interviewed for the position.
March 30th: Candidate arrive, meet the staff, tour the city and an evening reception is held so they can meet the public. The Commission only needs to be available for the evening reception and not the other events.
March 31st: The Commission interviews the finalists one-on-one and as a full commission. Typically these events go from 8:30 a.m. to about 3:30 p.m.
April 2nd: The Commission selects the next City Manager.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call me.
Best wishes and be well!
Colin at
Colin Baenziger & Associates
… Experts in Local Government Recruiting
(561) 707-3537
Visit our website at: www.cb-asso.com
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