Tuesday, October 26, 2021

Another eye-rolling public policy + financial decision by City of #HollywoodFL. This time, re The ArtsPark Improvement Project @ #YoungCircle. What's that? Funny that you ask... The city's not-so-funny public engagement.

Aerial view of The ArtsPark at Young Circle, via Google Maps

Another eye-rolling Face with rolling eyes public policy + financial decision by City of #HollywoodFL. This time, re The ArtsPark Improvement Project @ #YoungCircle. What's that? Funny that you ask... The city's not-so-funny public engagement. Face with raised eyebrow


Came across something rather odd on the city's so-called Sunshine Board outside of City Hall on Monday afternoon, which, for the record, as I am constantly mentioning on the Hollywood Residents - Speak Up Facebook page, as well as my blog, Hallandale Beach/Hollywood Blog, does NOT always have the required public notices it is supposed to have.

(Never had a notice about Hollywood City Hall closing and, specifically why, using any statistical data, nor anything about what had changed that allowed it to now be open.)

Now perhaps I've missed it being discussed somewhere else on the Facebook group page -as I'm constantly perplexed at the random order of things posted there, as opposed to them being in a logical chron order, so that I can recall things more accurately- but has anyone else commented on what the City of Hollywood's Dept. of Design and Construction Management is doing?

20211022_152343.jpg

They are seeking public input on the so-called ArtsPark Improvement Project, something that most people in the city have likely never heard nothing about or could not otherwise accurately describe to you.
Could THAT possibly be, in part, because there is nothing, physically, at The ArtsPark itself, telling you anything at all about it?

But then this just continues the city and CRA's truly appalling public engagement practices for anything involving that area, since there is nowhere to be found there a simple posted calendar of upcoming events.
So simple, yet, apparently, too complex for the city's Rec. Dept. and CRA to figure out. 🙄

The City of Hollywood has been so busy the past 19 months trying to brainwash the public on what is and isn't appropriate for the public to comment directly to its elected officials on public policy that the brainwashing is now starting to affect the city employees as well.

Rather than having the city officials involved in that Dept. physically meeting with members of the public who actually uses that site and who'd have opinions, whether good or bad or something in-between, say, on a Friday night at 7 pm when parents and kids are actually THERE, before the city's own ArtsPark Movie Night film starts a bit after 8 pm, guess what the city is doing?

Yes, they are limiting public input to one of their horrendous WebEx experiences, from 6-7:30 pm on Monday November 15th?

So why is the city doing that? Why are they consciously refusing to adapt to the changing facts on the ground, after finally reopening City Hall, and simply doing what is both the simplest thing and the most intelligent thing? 

Why are they ignoring... #science?

Because they like having and maintaining control, even if it is inconvenient and NOT as useful to the public that may actually have something to say on the subject.

I called the Dept. of Design and Construction Management this afternoon and spoke to a woman named Alex Iglesias who's in charge of the project, DCM-19-001199.

She could not explain why there were no other opportunities in the immediate future for the public to meet and hear her presentation other than via WebEx, whether at now-opened City Hall, one of the now-opened Community Centers, or even at the outdoor ArtsPark itself, as I had specifically suggested.

She told me that, among other things, the city's Parks Dept., per the Go Bonds, has decided it wants and needs a 6-8 foot fence for ticketed events that the city charges promoters for when it rents out the public's park. 
Estimated costs of fencing? $496,019.

Specifically, there will be 6-8 foot fences built towards the eastern and western entrances to the park, as well as around the grassy areas of the amphitheater, and around the water fountain area where the food trucks congregate, so that the city can get more money from renting out the park, since right now, promoters usually have to bring or rent fencing for these events. 
So, the city's Parks Dept. wants to keep the prospective promoters happy!


The gates would be open when there is no ticketed event scheduled, but the fences would remain, obviously.













Looking east from the western sidewalk of Young Circle, via the bust of Hollywood founder and first mayor, Joseph W. Young, with The Circ Hotel in distance to the left. My photo of October 23rd, 2021.













Looking east from the central plaza area and water fountain where many food trucks once congregated in pre-pandemic times on Monday nights. My photo of October 23rd, 2021.



Looking west, toward Downtown Hollywood, with the busy under-construction Block 40 that will be a 19-story tower 166 apartments and a 103-room Hilton Garden Inn in a 19-story tower, being built on the site of the Great Southern Hotel, built by city founder Joseph W. Young in 1924. 
My photo of October 23rd, 2021.


I'd like to know from the Hollywood Parks Dept. how much revenue has been generated from rental use of The ArtsPark for the past five years, so that we can determine whether or not the costs of the fence -rapidly increasing according to her- plus the costs of its installation, makes going forward worthwhile.

ICYMI: My last blog post, with more photos than my email of last week, 
Some preliminary thoughts about #Broward's 2021 #redistricting process. 
Final map gets voted on at what's likely to be a very spirited December 7th meeting, 
where some political careers may well be snuffed out

Dave 
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Wednesday, October 20, 2021

Some preliminary thoughts about #Broward's 2021 #redistricting process. Final map gets voted on at what's likely to be a very spirited December 7th meeting, where some political careers may well be snuffed out


Some preliminary thoughts about #Broward's 2021 #redistricting process. Final map gets voted on at what's likely to be a very spirited December 7th meeting, where some political careers may well be snuffed out

Even as I was writing my first draft of this post this afternoon, I got word that an additional Broward County redistricting meeting has been scheduled for Saturday October 30, 2021 at 10AM, but it's... virtual. 🙄 Zut alors!

It's the last "public" meeting to comment before the last 4 draft maps are presented to the Broward County Commission for their thumbs up or down, scheduled for December 7th.

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My experience in the past is that the Sun Sentinel's Lisa Huriash is usually a fair-minded reporter, with a good sense of perspective re how simple or complicated an issue might be and what's necessary to present an accurate account of what's really at stake.
But here, on the issue of Broward reconfiguring its nine Commission districts, noticeably, she has failed badly. 

Also not mentioned is that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will be naming two interim Broward County Commissioners next month, as Barbara Sharief and Dale Holness had to resign in order to run in the #FL20 primary election that takes place two weeks from today, on November 2nd.

An election with nearly a dozen candidates where the winner will likely be someone who has failed to get 75%+ of the overall Democratic voters. Most of you longtime readers of the blog know that I hold both of these two Broward Commissioners in very low regard for their serial unethical machinations, serial poor judgment, and propensity for telling self-serving lies and half-truths, and general desire to play #IdentityPolitics at the worst possible times.
You never have to ask whether they are doing something for political reasons: they ARE.

Sharief's District 8 seat is up next November while the Holness' District 9 seat runs thru 2024, so my educated guess is that both seats will be on the ballot in just over a year, one for a full-term, and one to fill out the final two years.
You should start seeing articles next week about who DeSantis might choose and why.

Migration changes face of Broward, bringing new ideas and fresh flavors
By Lisa J. Huriash
October 11, 2021 

There were and are some very obvious and important facts and relationships that, at a minimum, should have been disclosed to readers there, but which, for whatever reason, weren't.

That includes connecting-the-dots on some of the people she quotes who I know with certainty have glaring conflicts of interests as it affects the public and public policy, including on the matter of redistricting, but Huriash stays quiet as a church mouse, which is why I have included the piece by Red 
Broward blogger Tom Lauder that accurately connects-the-dots that Huriash chooses to ignore,

If you can't access the Sun Sentinel article, let me know and I'll try to send a copy to you.

And yes, the Sept. 27 meeting I reference below is the one that was held at the Hollywood Library that I sent some of you an email about last month, before it took place, because there was no info about it anywhere in Hollywood, not even at the library itself, so the librarians knew nothing about it just two days beforehand.
Which is clearly not a good sign of the county's level of engagement on this.

Click screen grab below to enlarge!


























By the way, before the public meeting was held, there was a preview meeting held by the FIU redistricting consultants that was largely composed of area local elected officials, so they'd have a better handle on what the process is supposed to be and the issues involved in creating districts that are roughly equal population-wise, though they're allowed to have up to a 10% variance.
I saw many familiar faces coming out of the room before I and a handful of other Broward citizens went in for the public meeting.


Above, the evening's moderator, FIU professor Dario Moreno, the county's lead consultant on redistricting.

Above, District 6 Broward Commissioner Beam Furr, an official Friend of the Blog. As per usual, we spoke for a bit on some local matters before the meeting started.






Broward Commissioner Steve Geller in center



Because facts matter, and are worth recalling: At least three members of the county commission in the past 20 years not lived in their districts – Ben Graber, Lois Wexler and Stacy Ritter. 

"The law requires your legal residence to be in the district, while apparently your physical body can sleep somewhere else." -Buddy Nevins at Broward Beat, Dec. 4, 2011
https://www.browardbeat.com/state-rep-marty-kiars-future-in-limbo-because-of-redistricting/


Broward Beat
Gerrymander! County Commission Carves Out A Seat For State Rep. Marty Kiar
BY BUDDY NEVINS
December 16, 2011

State Rep. Marty Kiar of Davie is “extremely likely” to run for the Broward County Commission after commissioners on Tuesday gerrymandered District 1 to include Kiar’s home.

The opportunity for Kiar suddenly surfaced late Tuesday when commissioners suddenly placed a tiny sliver of northwest Davie in District 1.  That section just happens to include Kiar’s home.

Districting boundary lines are not drawn by accident at the county commission. Somebody wants Kiar in the race, either the Commissioners Lieberman and Stacy Ritter who redrew the district or those behind the scenes…or both.

Read the rest of the post at
https://www.browardbeat.com/marty-kiar-extremely-likely-to-run-for-county-commission/


A reminder: After resisting getting a Facebook account for... well, years, because I could not be bothered with one with everything else I was already doing, I finally gave in last month and created a new platform for myself at https://www.facebook.com/DavidSmith0215/,
mostly so that I could finally read and comment on what i saw at the Hollywood Residents - Speak Up group page, https://www.facebook.com/groups/1023412084491625/ which I urge you to join if you are a Hollywood resident not already reading it.

Don't agree with everything there, of course, but it's a much better informed group that a random group of residents, and includes almost daily posts by people I know and trust who want this city to be MUCH-BETTER than it is and has been in recent years. Just like me.

Typically, I comment on both my page and the group page a few times a week, but I'm trying to allow a few days in-between posts, plus, I usually try to mention things that I don't necessarily mention in my popular group emails, here on my blog, or at the very repetitive and often innocuous Hollywood Nextdoor page, so consider checking me out there as well.

Also, if you add my current phone number to your contact list and use WhatsApp, you can even see my occasional commentary on things important and otherwise via the STATUS page, so consider that, too.



https://www.broward.org/Redistricting/Pages/default.aspx

Some other Florida redistricting stories worth catching up on:

Miami Herald
Miami-Dade has - a new redistricting map: Let the fights begin over voting boundaries
Douglas Hanks; Staff Writer
October 3, 2021
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article254682422.html


Understanding the Florida Legislature redistricting effort with former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Florida, Peggy Quince.
From WEDU-TV, PBS Tampa: Florida This Week, taped Sept. 24, 2021

Florida lawmakers look to avoid running afoul of courts when redrawing districts
'My promise to you is … we will do this right,' one lawmaker said
John Kennedy, Capital Bureau
USA TODAY NETWORK-FLORIDA

POLITICO Florida Playbook: The GOP’s redistricting promises
Tuesday, Sept. 21, 7:02 AM
BY GARY FINEOUT
https://www.politico.com/newsletters/florida-playbook/2021/09/21/the-gops-redistricting-promises-494407

Florida Trend
Senate kicks off redistricting process
Jim Turner | News Service of Florida | 9/21/2021
https://www.floridatrend.com/article/32208/senate-kicks-off-redistricting-process

South Florida Sun Sentinel 

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Thursday, October 14, 2021

Mid-October 2021 Update on some important #HollywoodFL stories about real estate development proposals, including The Related Group's incompatible 1301 S. Ocean Drive proposal on public land. That would dramatically alter -for the worse- the quiet, peaceful ambiance there forever.


Mid-October 2021 Update on some important #HollywoodFL stories about real estate development proposals, including The Related Group's incompatible 1301 S. Ocean Drive proposal on public land.

That would dramatically alter -for the worse- the quiet, peaceful ambiance there forever. 

And likely result in many current members of the Hollywood City Commission becoming ex-members.

David asks: If fixing the Hollywood Beach Community Center was really so important to the Hollywood City Commission, then why wasn't it listed on the city's 2019 GO Bond project list?

Good question, David!

Ask the 7 elected members of the Hollywood City Commission for the answer to that question, and let me know what they say.

* I'll be updating this post in the coming days, after having some super-frustrating technical issues with both the blog and my laptop.


Updates on some important #HollywoodFL stories about real estate development proposals, projects that are either going to appear to you to be:

a.) Common Knowledge to you,

b.) Something percolating below the surface that you've been hearing faint outlines of for a while, or,

c.) Comes as a complete surprise to you if you aren't already following me on my popular Twitter platform and my new-ish Facebook page, with link at bottom.


I've been working on these for a bit and even felt the need to share some of them as emails rather than posting them here first and then sending out an email with a link. I may likely have even more news about some of these stories early next week if some people I've been talking to decide to finally share what they've hinted at to me via phone calls and emails.

Real facts, real news, NOT unsubstantiated rumors or hearsay.

----

So, via my email of Wednesday September 15th, 2021


Sad reality of what Hollywood residents are up against as The Related Group gets help from
City Commissioners, yet refuses to have even one public, in-person mtg. abt a 3-story luxury 
condo on public land. AT the beach!

a.) Since there are so many comments being made about this Related Group project, a project that's incompatible to its location in ways both large and small, physical and symbolic, and which to me represents a very conscious public thumb to the eye of every reasonable Hollywood resident and stakeholder by Hollywood''s elected officials and top-tier bureaucracy, and since everyone is NOT able to see, know about, or even necessarily keep track of who said what, I've made these 3 screengrabs below, based on what's been said/written the past 24 or so hours, as of about 1:15 pm today.

My purpose in doing so is to make it easy for you to find or highlight a comment quickly that you 
agree or disagree with, and not have to keep scrolling through everything to find it.

b.) Over the past week, former Sun-Sentinel reporter Ihosvani "George" Rodriguez, now working 
for Memorial Regional Hospital, has dropped lots of interesting facts re Hollywood Commissioner Kevin Biederman's rather strange and peevish behavior, and in particular, Biederman's unconscionable 
and reprehensible lies about Cat Uden actually being a secret, paid lobbyist against the project.

Having worked at a relatively high level on several winning national political campaigns in lots of different places with very different political cultures, doing policy and coordinating advance work and logistics, plus having worked for 15 years in Washington, D.C. on Capitol Hill and K Street for some of the largest law firms and corporations in the country in a variety of policy roles, 
I have a very well-developed Sixth Sense about local elected officials and govt. functionaries.

Especially pols who liked to pat themselves on the back perhaps a little too often, in order to try to endear themselves to the press, candidate, me, or our staff, I'll leave to another time my thoughts regarding how often elected officials who are at pains to always describe themselves as self styled "truth-tellers," eventually fall from grace when they do say what they REALLY think.
Suffice to say that I believe Kevin Biederman shows all the hallmarks of having fallen into this rather sad and dubious category.

ICYMI: Another unsolicited bid is generating anger in a city NOT named Hollywood. 
But plenty of similarities with us here about the public being intentionally kept in the dark when a government wants to do something that they know is very unpopular with the public.

Miami Herald
Miami-Dade | Key Biscayne - 'Give this a chance': - Key Biscayne softens approach to Rickenbacker bid proposal
Samantha J. Gross; Staff Writer
September 5, 2021
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/key-biscayne/article253941053.html

ICYMI, my latest blog post is:
What is the empirical data from Memorial Regional Hospital that the City of Hollywood is relying upon to re-open, and no longer be the only city of 58 in South Florida whose City Hall is closed to the public?

I encourage you to read that when you can, because right now, there is no objective criteria publicly delineated by Hollywood City Manager Ishmael on what parameters must be met for Hollywood City Hall to be reopened to the public again.
And yes, you read that right - Hollywood is the only city in South Florida whose City Hall is closed as of today. Why? 
We are either not getting the truth or we are being taken advantage of by the City Manager's office and the folks at Memorial Regional Hospital Hollywood.
I'll have some more news to share about this story next week, via some public records requests I've made to find out who said what and when to whom -and why.

-----
September 15th, 2021




flipflops365

Demonstration to oppose a 30 story condominium tower on our public land at #HollywoodBeach. This public land has deed restrictions for "open space, park, recreation, and public purpose." The land was given to the city to decrease density. This condo (99 year lease) would be 347 feet tall and 188 units. @joshlevymayorofhollywoodfl says that they can ignore height/density restrictions because it's public land.
The city has not even given the public one in-person meeting about the condo. They won’t even tell the public that they have the ability to oppose. All of the emails have been misleading, as if it’s a done deal. Commissioner Shuham CShuham@hollywoodfl.org asked that the city manager look into other ways to fund a remodel of the community center. Has he? (You can email the city manager Wazir Ishmael about this). Wishmael@hollywoodfl.org
.
If you live, work, vacation in, or visit Hollywood: Sign the petition at Change.org/WeLoveHollywoodBeach 😎 You’ll receive an alert about the next event.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CT2Ia0krycq/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

---

I received this email on Saturday September 25th, 2021


Subject: A Message From The President of The Hollywood Council of Civic Associations  


Mayor and Commissioners,

The Hollywood Council of Civic Associations (HCCA) agrees with District 1 Commissioner Shuham and opposes this P3 project at 1301 S. Ocean Drive. We join all the other organizations such as the Hollywood Beach Civic Assn, the Hollywood Lakes Civic Assn, the Hollywood Hills Civic Assn. the Summit Towers Condo Assn, The North Hollywood Beach Civic Assn, the Hollywood Historical Society, the Friends of Hollywood, North Central Civic Assn, the Sierra Club and scores of individual residents and taxpayers who also agree with Commissioner Shuham. The reasons for this opposition have been well stated. To burden the taxpayers with a 99 lease with a private condo association that clearly violates the intent of a 45 year old deed restriction especially when there are potentially other funding sources for the community center replacement does not make good sense to anybody but the developer.

We feel that it is your duty as elected officials to adhere to the wishes and desires of the residents that elected you to office and move on from this bad project.

TERRY CANTRELL
President - HCCA



-----

I received this email today

From: Friends of Hollywood Florida Inc. <friendsofhollywoodfl@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Oct 1, 2021 at 1:32 PM
Subject: Why Wasn't This On The GO Bond?


Beach Azalea













Dear Mayor & Commissioners,

The Hollywood Beach Coalition and its members have been following as
many presentations and meetings as possible on this project.
We have been listening to all the voices, the developer, city staff,
comments from the commission, comments from the residents of Hollywood
and the community at large.

We are of the opinion and have concluded that this project is not in the
best interest of Hollywood or its residents and we are opposed to it.

We share many of the same concerns and join all the other organizations
and scores of other individual residents and taxpayers that you already
have heard from, in opposing this project, as presented.

Below are some of the points that have been brought to the Hollywood
Beach Coalitions attention and why we are against this P3 project:

We do not believe that the height of this project conforms to the
surrounding area and certainly is against the “bookend” plan that city
staff has previous put forth for beach building heights in the CRA
district. This project will dwarf surrounding buildings.

We believe the city did not do their due diligence when they did not get
an appraisal for the property particularly in light of the fact that
other assemblages of property on the barrier island are for much greater
prices than what is being offered by this project, in our opinion.

There is concern about a 99 year lease and the possible renewal of
another 99 year lease term at its end. Clearly, this would be a sale and
not a lease.
Who would evict the condo owners if the lease was not paid? Who would
pay to demolish the building and return the property to as is condition,
at the end of the lease?
Would the city really evict 190 condo owners for nonpayment of the lease
payments?

Parking for the beach community center would be problematic for the many
older or disabled residents that continually use this facility and they
would have to compete to get a parking space with the proposed condo
residents, beach users and those that would use the proposed restaurant
and community center.
Look at what happened at Margaritaville where the hotel has taken over
the public parking spaces.

The issue of how the developer would transfer title to the condo
association is still unresolved as the P3 state statute does not appear
to address or allow this type of transfer or assignment.
A comprehensive agreement would not be able to supersede the state statute.
This question remains unanswered.

We believe the original deed transfer is quite clear to its purpose and
we do not see how a condo project built on this land qualifies as a
public purpose, as it will be closed to the public and we do not see how
it comports to the P3 statute with an ensuing transfer of ownership from
the developer to a condo association.

We also heard that there were known defects of the beach community
center since 2018 which were not divulged to the public and monies were
not put on the GO Bond to maintain and update this beach community center.
These defects are now being used as an excuse and driving force about
getting a new beach community center.
This is very problematic to the community at large.
Either pass a new GO Bond, take savings from the GO Bond, have the Beach
CRA pay to renovate, remodel or build a new community center or look for
other financing methods.

There were no Beach CRA projects on the GO Bond list and this is
certainly something that should have qualified.

This is some of the last beachfront property that the city owns.

This is prime beachfront property that Hollywood should keep and utilize
for the enjoyment and use of future generations of Hollywood residents
and taxpayers.
Once gone, it cannot be replaced.

We hope that you will move on from this project as presented, as it
seems most of your electorate is in agreement that this is not a project
for Hollywood.
If you doubt this statement, please put it out for vote to the community
at large.

Thank you,

Bob Glickman
On Behalf of the Hollywood Beach Coalition

---------

It's not your imagination. In a 60 Minutes version of this story, so far, there are a lot of once-respected people in Hollywood currently walking around town, still with some degree of power and influence, whose reputations would effectively be close to ruined once the program aired.

For good cause.
They are exactly what they look like.

Folks, believe me when I tell you this, the gloves are coming off all over town.
Not just with me, but with lots of people who thought they really KNEW the folks at Hollywood City Hall.
Their eyes are wide-open now!


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