Below is a copy of an email that was sent this afternoon to the Hollywood City Manager and the Hollywood City Commission regarding the closing of Hollywood City Hall.
August 24th, 2021
To Whom It May Concern:
What -specifically- was the empirical data/evidence/criteria/justification presented or used last week that caused someone at the City of Hollywood to decide that Hollywood City Hall needed to be closed INDEFINITELY to the public?
And not just closed INDEFINITELY to the public, but closed without ANY public explanation at all as to what the criteria/parameters would be for it to re-open to the public?
No explanation whatsoever.
Who, specifically, made the final decision to close Hollywood City Hall to the public?
Why was the city's official statement about the closing of Hollywood City Hall NOT placed in the city's designated Sunshine Board of public notices near the south public entrance to Hollywood City Hall?
As of 5:55 p.m. yesterday, the first day of Hollywood City Hall LOCKDOWN, it had STILL not been publicly posted, which raises so many questions about how much you all take it for granted that nobody in the community is watching and paying attention.
Yet, there are several public notices about public meetings that will be taking place at Hollywood City Hall in coming days, including some regarding both the Police Dept. union and AFSCME Local 2432 union activities.
Meetings that as of yesterday had NOT cancelled.
Why have they not been cancelled?
Through your own words and actions you're saying that THEIR activities have a higher value than that of the public and residents of this community being able to attend Wednesday's (and future) scheduled Hollywood City Commission meetings in-person, and commenting on agenda items if they so choose.
Tell me, IF the decision to close Hollywood City Hall to the public was, in fact, a sound one, please explain why it is that today, August 24th, NONE of the other 57 incorporated cities in Broward County and Miami-Dade County have closed theirs, or announced plans to do so?
Frankly, my sense of things right now is that the City of Hollywood's administration and staff and elected City Commission genuinely believes that it can pretty much do whatever it wants to do, and that there will be no pushback by Hollywood citizens and stakeholders.
No, not even pretend to care about the wild card, idle threats of litigation for the city acting so self-evidently contrary to the public good, which is exactly what's happening when you close City Hall to stifle public participation and debate and do not say what will be needed to change before things are normalized.
Yes, my sense of things right now is that the city's staff and elected City Commission believe that the city's Civic Associations -and the key civic activists that populate them- are too financially dependent upon the city for funding them to actually stand up to you and call you out publicly for acting in a foolish, self-destructive manner.
And now, of course, with the city having INDEFINITELY closed Hollywood community centers that those meetings usually take place at, where would those Civic Association members and Hollywood citizens and Small Business owners meet to decide what to do next?
That is, besides, perhaps, meeting and protesting on the sidewalk in front of Hollywood City Hall, as well as the sidewalks in front of workplaces and homes of the elected City Commission/
Just for the record, this email is being sent to roughly 200+ people in the Hollywood and Broward community, as well as to local South Florida news media and some interested parties at the Broward Government HQ in Fort Lauderdale and the State Capitol in Tallahassee.
It is also now posted on my blog, Hallandale Beach/Hollywood Blog.
Actions speak louder than words.
David B. Smith, Hollywood resident
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Dave
Hallandale Beach/Hollywood Blog: http://www.
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