FOLLOW me on my popular Twitter feed. Just click this photo! @hbbtruth - David - Common sense on #Politics #PublicPolicy #Sports #PopCulture in USA, Great Britain, Sweden and France, via my life in #Texas #Memphis #Miami #IU #Chicago #DC #FL 🛫🌍📺📽️🏈. Photo is of Elvis and Joan Blackman in 'Blue Hawaii'
Beautiful Stockholm at night, looking west towards Gamla Stan
Attention: SPECIAL Meeting of Hallandale Beach City Commission on Tuesday at 4:30 PM to discuss contracts of City Manager and City Attorney.
On Tuesday the first big step towards a new, positive and more-inclusive future for Hallandale Beach and its long-suffering residents and Small Business owners at Hallandale Beach City Hall begins...
I earnestly hope that as many of you as possible will make plans to attend and not only meet your new resident-friendly elected leaders, but also let them know just what you think about what we have all had to glumly accept as "normal" conduct and behavior for so many years, and what you want instead in the city's top two bureaucrats.
The only two city employees the HB City Commission directly hires and is
responsible for providing oversight over.
On Tuesday afternoon, the ship that is HB City Hall finally starts changing directions.
Frustrated Hallandale Beach voters have finally taken their years of disappointment and anger out at the ballot box and in doing so, have consciously chosen to usher out the consistently failed policies and smirking, anti-democratic attitudes of Mayor Joy Cooper'sRubber Stamp Crew.
Now, with a 3-2 majority on the HB City Commission in favor of logic and reason actually making an appearance once in a while at 400 S. Federal Highway, people from all over the city are prepared -with open arms- to welcome in an era of common sense, competency, transparency and lots of hard work and public accountability for the city's residents.
To actually let public policy arguments and disagreements be over who has the best or most-sensible ideas and means for solving the city's many long-standing problems.
Which is exactly what its long-suffering residents and Small Business owners have desperately longed for the past 13 years -but never received in a tangible way that made a lasting, positive difference at City Hall.
But that was then and this is NOW...
On Monday night, please join your neighbors and concerned people from all over Broward County and visit Hallandale Beach City Hall at 6 PM to witness the swearing-in ceremony for Anabelle Taub and Michele Lazarow.
South Florida Sun Sentinel As Hallandale Beach gears up for shift in power, more fireworks expected Susannah Bryan, Reporter Sun Sentinel November 11, 2016 7:26 PM
The nasty election season may have ended, but the drama in this oceanfront city is far from over.
The balance of power on the dais has now shifted from Mayor Joy Cooper to her political rivals, Commissioners Keith London and Michele Lazarow. The two, along with newly elected Anabelle Taub, vow that changes are coming.
Those changes could include a new city manager and city attorney, government meetings held at times more convenient to the public and a ban on Styrofoam pushed by London but blocked by Cooper.
The changing political landscape could even impact development in a city known for its gridlock.
South Florida Sun Sentinel Taub, Lazarow win big in Hallandale Beach after vowing to fight corruption Susannah Bryan, Reporter Sun Sentinel November 8, 2016 10:46 PM Incumbent Hallandale Beach Commissioner Michele Lazarow and political rookie Anabelle Taub won their races in what some called Broward County's nastiest election.
Taub, a real estate agent, won in a landslide against incumbent Bill Julian, a retired horse trainer under state investigation for allegedly accepting favors from a developer.
"The residents of Hallandale Beach struck corruption with a fatal blow tonight," said Taub. "Hallandale Beach government will be restored to doing what it is supposed to — serving the residents."
Lazarow, an animal activist first elected four years ago, won handily despite a challenge from Alex Lewy, a former commissioner who stepped down in 2014, and Ann Henigson, a retired secretary making her fifth run for office.
"Tonight, we turned the page to a new chapter for Hallandale Beach," Lazarow said. "After the ugliest election cycle in our city's history, I am grateful that the residents of Hallandale Beach continue to have faith in me to fight for their interests."
Both winners vowed to root out corruption at City Hall if elected.
Editorial: To change decorum and direction, choose Anabelle Taub and Michele Lazarow in Hallandale Beach
October 18, 2016 9:09 PM
Citizens deserve so much better than what they're getting from today's five-member Hallandale Beach City Commission, which has divided into camps like two high school cliques.
The city faces serious challenges with traffic, flooding, crime and the pressure to build more high-rises. But the city commission, charged with finding solutions, is dysfunctional.
Arbitrary time limits squelch discussion on big issues, shouting matches break out and police have been called to remove certain commissioners. Relationships have gotten so bad that a parliamentarian had to be hired to enforce Roberts Rules of Order.
Neither side looks good in this 3-2 commission split. Both have attitude, mud stains and investigations into backroom shenanigans, one worse than others. Something has got to give. The Nov. 8 election offers that opportunity.
When political power becomes more important than public service, the public loses. Unfortunately, that is what has happened in Hallandale Beach.
We have seen an Office of Inspector General investigation that found "gross mismanagement" of our CRA swept under the rug. Now there's an active investigation into a majorly flawed "community benefit" program, and an admission by an elected city official that he made a side deal with a developer before approving their massive project. Mayor Joy Cooper made matters worse when she not only had the microphones cut off at the city commission meeting, but also had Commissioner Keith London and me removed from the dais for attempting to discuss Bill Julian's public admissions of wrongdoing.
Though the mayor will say she is trying to maintain order, her move also has the effect of protecting her political majority. When she shuts off the microphones and silences the voices of two of the city's elected officials, the people she is really silencing are the residents of Hallandale Beach who elected us to be their voice on the commission.
Following Commissioner Julian's public admissions, I thought it was important that we discuss how the city plans to handle the situation before he played a role in deciding how we allocate more than $100 million of our taxpayer's funds. Cooper thought it more appropriate to have dissenting opinions removed from the dais by police. Imagine in Congress, one party having the other removed from the floor so that they cannot debate or vote on the issues they were elected to decide. It would be the leading headline on every national news broadcast and in every major newspaper in the country.
I will continue to raise this issue until I believe it has been appropriately addressed and remedied. I owe that to the people who elected me.
I got into politics as an advocate for animals. Now I am an advocate with a title and an important vote. I take that vote and the platform it provides very seriously.
As we move into election season, I would encourage the voters of Hallandale Beach to educate themselves on the candidates. I am one of those candidates. So is Bill Julian. We are not running for the same seat.
Voters have a chance to take back their city from a political system that is failing them. To do that, they must elect people who care more about public service than they do political power.
Our next commission meeting is Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. I encourage residents of Hallandale Beach to attend and sign up to speak during public comment. Your voice matters, but it must be heard.
Michele Lazarow is a city commissioner in Hallandale Beach. She can be reached at MLazarow@cohb.org ----
I grew-up in South Florida in the 1970's hearing people say one thing more than anything else that ever made an impression on ever-observant me. It was a phrase that many people said with conviction, borne of bitter and heartbreaking personal experience -of having their or their family's life torn upside-down. Or ruined. But for others, like many Democrats and liberal politicians or news reporters I came to personally know in 1970's and 1980's Miami while involved with Dade County and national Democratic Party officials and campaigns at a very high ;level, it was said it out of cautious political expediency. The unspoken reason was clear - they knew they MUST at all times be sensitive to the concerns of so many people concentrated in one area who felt this particular pain and sentiment so deeply in their heart and their head, lest those pols become eviscerated come election-time. That phrase, of course, was 'Cuba si! Castro no!' But now, today, it's "Cuba si, Castro no more!" But this morning's news about the death of the Cuban dictator Fidel Castro came far too late for so many childhood friends of mine's parents and grandparents, too late for so many of my own former teachers, coaches, teammates, employers, barbers, auto mechanics, and neighbors in North Miami Beach I knew, admired and was influenced by in ways large and small. People who desperately hoped, no prayed, that a day like today would someday come while they were still alive and could, perhaps, get at least one last chance to return to visit or live in the land of their birth, with some measure of happiness and satisfaction. But to no avail. The Communist tyrant Fidel Castro and his bureaucracy of fear and destruction always lived to fight and rule for another day, another year. Another year of not being able to walk the streets, sidewalks, neighborhoods, beaches or open spaces of their youth, ones that they could still so clearly see in their heads when they closed their eyes, but which, increasingly, may've only existed as memories, never to be seen again in person. And today was a fateful day that my own father never saw before he died almost five years ago this Christmas, who worked for so long with so many wonderful Cuban-born men and women I came to know, trust and respect over the years since my family first moved to Miami in August of 1968. People who, while brave on the outside, always deeply felt a hole in their soul that people not in their unique situation could never hope to fully understand or explain away. As so many told me in their own words, how can it be a "phantom pain" when you know that Cuba is still there, so close by? Yes, it's that geographic proximity that burned, that element that made even recounting happy memories back in Cuba soon turn into tears. How many hundreds and hundreds of times have I witnessed that? Too, too many....
Miami-area news orgs planned coverage of Castro's death for decades thinking it might be imminent. @sunsentinel plan from 1993 pic.twitter.com/WNVccHkBej
https://twitter.com/hashtag/Cuba?src=hash">#Cuba</a> Mi madre creció bajo Fidel Castro, yo nací bajo Fidel Castro… mi hijo nació bajo Fidel Castro, mis nietos nacerán sin Fidel Castro
Earlier this year, I posted about my interview with Nixon "plumber" Eugenio Martínez. Feels right to do it again today. #AdiosCastropic.twitter.com/EECVpfW0Ft
We must seize the moment and help write a new chapter in the history of https://twitter.com/hashtag/Cuba?src=hash">#Cuba</a>; that of a Cuba that is free, democratic, and prosperous.
"Kaepernick, born in Milwaukee explains to me, the guy born in Havana, how great Castro really is" https://twitter.com/ArmandoSalguero">@ArmandoSalguero
It's a strange thing to think and say, I know, but all I can think of right now is how thankful I am that my father lived to see this day. https://t.co/OfeTvc8dOO">https://t.co/OfeTvc8dOO
