Where's the tangible proof you're succeeding in eliminating corruption at Hallandale Beach City Hall, Mr. Scott? My email to Broward Inspector General John. W. Scott and his staff: "Hallandale Beach is still a mess and STILL corrupt. The rules & laws that are largely followed elsewhere are NOT followed here, no matter how self-evident"; Are we on our own as far as prosecuting public corruption goes? It sure seems that way

October 24, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier. © 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved.

Below is my email of last Thursday to Broward Inspector General John W. Scott.

It's an email that I have been thinking seriously about writing and sending for weeks, after talking to friends and other very-concerned residents of Hallandale Beach who are very frustrated that they do NOT see any evidence of his investigation on HB City Hall having any effect on the words and behavior coming out of City Hall.
Nobody-but-nobody has been punished, indicted or prosecuted in the year that the Broward IG's office has been up-and-running.

If you are wondering why I felt compelled to send it to him, perhaps this quick reminder will jog your memory a bit.
I didn't include it in the letter because he already knows all of it from previous letters.

Here are just some of the things that I know for a stone-cold fact:
a.) After having witnessed all the rampant corruption and entrenched anti-democratic, anti-taxpayer practices that I have at Hallandale Beach City Hall over the past nine years under Mayor Joy Cooper, she shows absolutely no signs of changing her spots; 

b.) After being physically prevented by City of Hallandale Beach employees from attending a PUBLIC meeting at City Hall regarding bidding on a city project -at the direction of former City Manager Mark A. Antonio and his staff, who were upstairs at the meeting, a meeting with no citizens present, that was mysteriously postponed as soon as I got close to the room with the help of Commissioner Keith London 15-20 minutes later, which led to the meeting ending abruptly and Antonio storming-off towards his office and yelling at Comm. London, and, perhaps, me. No explanation given for why the meeting ended just as soon as I got ready to come into the room; 

c.) After being threatened with arrest for photographing and videotaping a PUBLIC meeting of the city's Planning & Zoning Advisory Board at the city's Cultural Center -while Mike Good was City Manager- from 50-75 feet away from the proceedings, and one of only two citizens present in the near-completely empty room, a PUBLIC meeting that was ALREADY being broadcast LIVE at the time, and two Dept. heads present (Richard Cannone and Christy Dominguez) just sat in their chairs and said and did NOTHING to stop the illegal threats against me and the state's Sunshine Laws by two members of the Advisory Board; 

d.) After witnessing dozens of times over several years an elected city official (William "Bill" Julian) continually breaking their oath of office to uphold and obey the laws and Constitution of the State of Florida, by directly using their position of office to accrue a benefit for which he was not otherwise legally entitled to -illegally parking his vehicle in the officially-designated Handicapped Parking and Handicapped Access Parking spaces at the city's North Beach when there was only ONE of each present on the the city's surface parking lot, while Julian ate and drank with his friends for hours.
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/stone-cold-fact-bill-julian-serial.html

Over the many years that Bill Julian consciously chose to break both the spirit and letter of the law, to say nothing of breaking his oath as an elected official to uphold it, hundreds of HB employees saw his behavior and conduct, including lots of Hallandale Beach Police officers. But what happened? 
Nothing.

There are so many more examples, but then I've already written about them here, too, haven't I?

I won't be contacting Mr. Scott again because I've already seen dogs chase their tail before, and I do not plan on replicating that behavior myself.
As for myopic and sleepwalking Broward State's Attorney Mike Satz and his staff... more on them soon, I promise.

------

October 25, 2012

Dear Mr. Scott:

Just wanted to let you know that despite whatever it is that you and your staff of agents are doing, it's NOT working.
Things in Hallandale Beach are still as crooked and corrupt as ever.

Elected officials and their pals here still fully expect to get away with breaking the law -city, state, federal- and having nothing meaningful happen to them.
Now there's the real measure of the Broward State Attorney's office.

To cite but one obvious example I have previously shared with you, 

http://www.hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-city-of-hallandale-beachs-rules-are.html in the rest of the United States, it's illegal for political campaign signs urging someone's election or defeat to appear on non-profit or religious/church property for reasons that are fairly obvious to any intelligent person.
It can lead to IRS investigations and that can even lead to changes in the offending party's institutional non-profit status.
But not in Hallandale Beach.

Here, people who have actually sworn an oath to uphold the law, and who know what's right and wrong, consciously do what they like, the wrong thing, because they dare anyone to catch them or do anything about it if they are caught.
They are forever playing the percentages, Mr. Scott, because they don't believe that you and your agents can do anything to stop them from doing whatever they like, laws or no laws.
See those photos from October 3rd on my link above?

I went by there yesterday afternoon at 3:53 p.m. -below- absolutely nothing had changed. 

© 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

And dozens and dozens of city Code Compliance vehicles go past this location every week.

I hate to be the one to tell you, but since nobody else will, Mr. Scott, everyone I know here who is well-informed wonders what you and your staff are actually doing, because we certainly AREN'T seeing any positive results or any change of ethical culture at City Hall with you and your agents on the scene -somewhere- nor are we seeing any actual arrests or indictments after all the suspicious and egregious things that have happened here over the years.

I really hoped for the best for your Office, otherwise I'd have never gone to all those early morning Broward Ethics Comm. meetings in downtown Ft. Lauderdale more than two years ago, where I was often THE only citizen present in the audience, but I have to tell you, honestly, the high grade that you gave yourself and your office in the Sun-Sentinel recently, seems inflated from where the put-upon citizen taxpayers of Hallandale Beach sit.

Nothing has changed here.

Perhaps A.G. Bondi's office needs to think outside-the-box to deal with the pervasive corruption problems here, and hold court at the city's Cultural Center for a week, say, after the November 6th election, and let citizens who know something come by and tell soon-to-be-shocked state investigators what they know in private, because quite frankly, it does NOT seem like your office is doing everything that it can and should be doing.

I really hoped for the best, I really did, but I'm seeing something much less than satisfactory right now, Mr. Scott, and simply put, this town can NOT wait for you or Mr. Satz's sleepwalking crew at SAO to finally wake-up and see what's right in front of US.

People talk to me just about everyday -serious, hard-working people- about moving away from Hallandale Beach because they are so dismayed and disgusted with how pervasively corrupt and incompetently-run City Hall is, with all of the many things that happen on the sly, the down low and with a wink of an eye.

And they are moving out, too.

To cite but one recent example I shared with you on Tuesday, known friends of elected officials trying to use city property for campaigning purposes, even though it's already illegal under city ordinances.

They create the ruse of "voter education" taking place at a city facility as a pretext for their elected official friends to then come by later to campaign there.

In that case, it was originally supposed to be Comm. Anthony A. Sanders and former Comm. Bill Julian who were supposed to swing by Foster Park Wednesday night, two candidates, who, along with Mayor Joy Cooper, had their campaign yard signs illegally and prominently erected on city property for many WEEKS -in multiple locations- until I publicly complained about it 

As you already know.

In case after case, these three individuals know the rules and laws, Mr. Scott - and they consciously choose to break them week-after-week.

Unfortunately, the HB Police Dept. is hardly in a position to be an oasis of ethics or sanity from this corrupt culture, given that this city, under Mayor Cooper, actually pushed to have a street named for a recent former Police Chief, Thomas Magill.
A Police Chief who illegally used enormous city resources and funds in his efforts to try to frame and prosecute two completely innocent people.

Both of whom happened to be HB Police officers.

That Police Chief, Thomas Magill, was never punished by the city or Mr. Satz's Broward State Attorney's Office. 

Really.

Magill acted like nothing happened, even as the city's taxpayers had to pay hundreds of thousand of dollars to settle lawsuit claims and attorney's fees because of Magill's egregious (criminal) conduct, after two separate Broward juries unanimously ruled against him.

Both juries came to a unanimous decision in under 15 minutes, Mr. Scott.
What does that tell you?

© 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved.
Above, from yesterday afternoon: one of the many un-manned HBPD patrol cars that are used as scarecrows around town, as if criminals don't already know they're un-manned from their recon. In this particular case, this un-manned Police car is near an un-manned Security Guard gate.

Twice blessed!

Not surprisingly, despite the large amount of tax dollars and city resources involved, Mayor Cooper and the City Commission have never publicly admitted what really happened while they were in charge in an oversight capacity, or disclosed the total amount of taxpayer dollars used to support Magill's defense and paid out to two innocent people because of his truly abominable conduct.

Conduct for which he was never punished.

That's where I live, Mr. Scott.

Welcome to my world.

DBS, Nine-year resident of Hallandale Beach

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