The Lawton Chiles Trail
The Lawton Chiles Trail sign on south-bound U.S.-1 at Broward County/Miami-Dade countyline. Lawton Chiles was a great and humble man, blessed with an optimistic spirit, a tireless work-ethic and unquestioned integrity. I first met and campaigned with him in 1976 during his first Senate re-election battle. We talked as we walked up to one NMB house after another -not too far from the Dade County Carter-Mondale HQ in NMB I worked out of- greeting lots of surprised voters, as we took turns ringing doorbells, all under the watchful eye of a film crew from Channel 7/WSVN.
Over the years, both before and after I moved to the Washington, D.C. area from South Florida, I was fortunate enough to talk to him from time-to-time and get the benefit of his advice and wisdom, as well as enjoy the warm hospitality of The Florida House, across the street from The Supreme Court and two blocks from the U.S. Capitol.
That home-away-from-home was the brilliant idea of his wonderful wife, Rhea, with whom he worked tirelessly to make it a reality for visiting Floridians. http://floridaembassy.com/
June 22, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier. © 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved
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This curious photo of the mayor's son appeared in my November 9, 2012 blog post titled, Hallandale Beach's Midnight Vigilante is no Paul Revere! Caught in the act: Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper's son's Midnight Ride of campaign sign-stealing -on Election Day!; Anything goes now in HB -even political intimidation- as Broward IG & Broward SAO sleepwalk while laws & ethics are repeatedly laughed at by pols in power; @MayorCooper, #FDLE, @myfloridalegal, @fbi.gov
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/11/hallandale-beachs-midnight-vigilante-is.html
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Satz does NOT rhyme with success
November 6, 2012 blog post: Satz does NOT rhyme with success: Vote NO on Miami Herald's sorry 2012 local and state election coverage: Proof? Their editorial board endorsed carpetbagger Joe Gibbons of Jacksonville and over-the-hill mediocrity Mike Satz BEFORE paper ever printed a single article about their races. Slipshod Herald editors then run thread-bare story about them AFTER the August Primary Early Voting period had started. As usual, too little too late at One Herald Plaza!
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/11/satz-does-not-rhyme-with-success-vote.html
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October 20, 2012 blog post: Video: Channel 10 investigative reporter Bob Norman on the ethical dealings of Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper and The Related Group's $20k worth of campaign gratitude after her YES vote for their Beachwalk project while the most-affected HB residents were still gone for the summer; @Mayor Cooper, @SandersHB http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/10/video-channel-10-investigative-reporter.html
Bob Norman's Blog at WPLG-TV, Miami - Hallandale Beach mayor Joy Cooper criticized for ties to developer, The Related Group. Aired October 17, 2012.
Video at http://www.local10.com/news/blogs/bobnorman/Should-it-be-illegal/-/3223354/17039128/-/v2xsce/-/index.html
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My blog post of August 25, 2012 about this issue was titled, "City of Hallandale Beach prints analysis that refutes Mayor Joy Cooper's mendacious efforts on red-light cameras - "In summary, there is no safety benefit to the citizens, and there is no financial benefit to the taxpayer due to automated for-profit law
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/08/city-of-hallandale-beach-prints.html
Video at
Local10's Bob Norman Investigates: Red light cameras at center of mayoral race. Hallandale Beach mayor, opponent differ on red light cameras. September 18, 2012.
http://www.local10.com/news/Red-light-cameras-at-center-of-mayoral-race/-/1717324/16649952/-/icfkanz/-/index.html
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Above, 501 N.W. 1st Avenue, which in Hallandale Beach polite society and public policy circles is considered THE most egregious example of dozens of exasperating and highly-questionable examples of dubious government spending and crony capitalism that've taken place on Mayor Joy Cooper's ten-year watch, and one of the most dubious of any in Broward County, which is REALLY saying something.
It's the infamous former property owned by HB Comm. Anthony A. Sanders and his wife, Jessica, that has seen so many tens of thousands of Hallandale Beach taxpayer dollars and CRA dollars poured into it. For what,THIS?
A property which was bought by the city without ANY plan for its future use, and which is now rented to a non-profit for $10 a year, and which Sanders can still use for free?
Photo by South Beach Hoosier © 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved
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Contradictions! If Hallandale Beach's budget can nearly double in 6-8 years under Joy Cooper...
Butler1Mike YouTube Channel video: Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper on Pensions for City Managers. Uploaded November 2, 2012.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM4DpgkbuWs&feature=colike
Contradictions! If Hallandale Beach's budget can nearly double in 6-8 years under Joy Cooper, with little tangible to show for it for taxpayers, why can't taxpayers at least have city employees who earn their salaries thru diligence, performance and attention to detail -instead of none of those? Like having a safe, well-lit area for Early Voters outside the city's Cultural Center for the first day of an event that's been known for SEVERAL MONTHS?; @MayorCooper. November 1, 2012, See my blog post and photos at:
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/11/contradictions-if-hallandale-beachs.html
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An ethical & financial problem in Hallandale Beach I've been writing about for over 3 years
actsofsedition video: Local10/Miami: "City's pricey purchase."
On July 26, 2012, Local10 reporter Glenna Milberg went to Hallandale Beach to learn more details about the curious case involving Pastor and City Comm. Anthony A. Sanders' rushed sale of his and his wife's property at 501 N.W. 1st Avenue to the city in 2009 -when the city had ZERO written plans for what it would actually do with the property afterwards!- for about $89,000 more than it was actually worth. Sanders continues to stonewall Hallandale Beach taxpayers about the exact details of this deal as he has now for over three years, and he refused to speak with Milberg on Thursday. Outside of the city-owned property that the city now receives $10 a year in rent for, Mayor Joy Cooper's explanation was unconvincing for HB taxpayers. Three years later she continues to hem and haw when asked simple questions -and to defend the indefensible- as she still can't logically explain what the rush was to buy the property at a higher price, esp. if there was no definite plan in place. It was left to Comm. Keith London -the only vote against the purchase and Cooper's re-election opponent in November- to again explain why this deal was so egregious from HB taxpayer's point of view. It's just one of the dozens of inexplicable and nonsensical things that I've personally observed with Hallandale Beach taxpayer or CRA funds under Mayor Cooper's reign since I moved here. This time, it's drawn the full attention of Broward County Inspector General John W. Scott, who wants the commissioners to explain to him and his agents what actually happened and why. Uploaded July 27, 2012. http://youtu.be/XlOgkrL9CWI
My July 28, 2012 blog post on this was titled, Video: Local10's Glenna Milberg examines an ethical & financial problem in Hallandale Beach that I've been writing about for over 3 years re Comm. Anthony A. Sanders, who KEEPS stonewalling the public; Keith London: "Broward Inspector General closing in on Hallandale Beach, Mayor Cooper and Vice Mayor Sanders
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/07/video-local10s-glenna-milberg-examines.html
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When the subject is pet adoption and puppy mills...
ActsofSedition video: The April 4th, 2012 Hallandale Beach City Commission meeting promised HB residents and pet lovers the opportunity they've been waiting for for several years, but when so many people showed-up and wanted to have their voices finally heard, they got a first-hand lesson in how Mayor Joy Cooper does things -her way or the highway- as she is heard threatening to toss members of the public out. Mayor Cooper remains defiant as always, but Comm. Keith London and HB resident (and longtime opponent of puppy mills) Michele Lazarow comment to Local 10's Ross Palombo on what happened last week and the spectacle that is HB City Hall under the wearisome reign of the Cooper Rubber Stamp Crew. April 11, 2012. http://youtu.be/UNEn1jgTvw4
See my April 12, 2012 post about this, When the subject is pet adoption and 'puppy mills' -not roses- Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper shows why I often invoke the fable about the scorpion and the frog. She's the scorpion, of course. Which is why so many voters here aim to kick her out on November 6th
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/when-subject-is-pet-adoption-and-puppy.html
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October 15, 2012 blog post: Ethics? Not for us! Follow-up to my post re Hallandale Beach's unethical "business as usual" attitude, with "special rules for special people" if they are named Joy Cooper, Bill Julian and Anthony A. Sanders; What ethics? What rules? @MayorCooper, @SandersHB"
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Why would you even consider voting for despicable Bill Julian?
October 27, 2012 blog post: Why would you even consider voting for such a despicable person as Bill Julian for the Hallandale Beach City Commission? Besides Julian's creepy habit while an elected official of illegally parking in Handicapped Parking spaces for YEARS, when you add his truly terrible judgment and penchant for saying and doing the wrong thing, why would you even consider giving him a voice in deciding this city's future?; @SandersHB
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/10/why-would-you-even-consider-voting-for.html
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October 27, 2012 blog post: Csaba Kulin gets the Miami Herald's whitewash treatment: McClatchy's Co.'s Herald practices the opposite of giving credit where credit is due, editing out the name of the one person in South Florida most-responsible for finding out why and how 3 former Hallandale Beach City Managers will soon be multi-millionaires with taxpayer dollars; a story that Miami Herald reporters, editors and management have completely ignored for years!
October 24, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier. © 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved.
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/10/why-would-you-even-consider-voting-for.html
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Comm. Anthony A. Sanders has been completely ineffective and unethical while in office. Fire him!
October 30, 2012 blog post: Their lack of Journalism ethics is hiding in plain sight: In their head-scratching endorsement of do-nothing Hallandale Beach Comm. Anthony A. Sanders over civic activist Csaba Kulin, the Tribune Co's Sun-Sentinel said he has "experience." Yes, but it's of the completely ineffective and unethical variety we don't want more of!; Vote Kulin!; @SandersHB
FYI: the Sanders property sold to the city for $85,000 more than it was worth -which he still gets to use for free!
Photo by South Beach Hoosier © 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved
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The curious lifeguard situation in Hallandale Beach, FL
JackHittle video: Local10/WPLG-TV Miami reporter Glenna Milberg went to Hallandale Beach City Hall to watch former Jeff Ellis & Associates lifeguard Tomas Lopez and Good Samaritan Marisol Azofra receive congratulations and the Key to the City for lending assistance to a swimmer who was swimming near a condominium and an area of the beach where no lifeguards are ever present, the public beach being farther up the beach.
Even days after the incident, which took place while she was out-of-town on vacation, Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper still can't publicly accept how everything happened the way that it did, nor can she admit what everyone paying attention knows: that much if not most of the problem lay directly at the feet of HB City Hall itself, with the two past City Managers and most recent City Attorney, as well as the elected five-member City Commission, providing very little oversight. The elected members left the bureaucrats to run everything, instead of properly doing their jobs and asking questions, which is how and why Mayor Cooper and former Comm. Bill Julian have twice approved contract extensions without knowing what the terms were or what the contractor's policies were, which the city could have changed if they had wanted to, but didn't. Commissioner Keith London, Cooper's re-election opponent in November, was the only vote against privatization in the most recent contract renewal in 2009. Uploaded July 16, 2012. http://youtu.be/LobydNM8XfM
August 1, 2012 blog post: re Lifeguard & public safety situation in Hallandale Beach: Still smarting from negative worldwide publicity following lifeguard Tomas Lopez's firing, Hallandale Beach to start a new safety effort at beach based on... well, what exactly? City's fake solutions as outlined in today's agenda DON'T solve real safety problems at public beach; #HallandaleBeach
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/08/re-lifeguard-public-safety-situation-in.html
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Hallandale Beach Commissioners spending taxpayer $$$ in a hurry -and NOT in the Sunshine! Michael Butler's Change Hallandale YouTube Channel video:
http://youtu.be/dyM5P3Kl6iQ
In the summer of 2010, in a Hallandale Beach City Hall room where regular HB City Commission meetings are NOT held, a room where the proceedings are NOT televised, and on an agenda item that was NOT previously advertised to the public, HB's Commissioners discuss how much to pay in a bonus to then-interim-City Manager Mark A. Antonio, who'd been on the job for all of about six weeks at the time. And talk about putting the cart before the horse, at one point, you actually hear Antonio, one of two city employee who work directly for the City Commission, tell the members to hurry and make a decision on how much he should be given, because "his wife" wants to know.
That's both telling and appalling for all sorts of reasons.
You will also hear oblivious EIGHTY-something HB Comm. Dotty Ross making the disingenuous, smart-ass crack about "asking the blogger."
Ross was only too happy to give away thousands of taxpayer dollars at a meeting where the public didn't know what was going on, and in this case, a bonus to someone for just doing the job they were already getting very well-paid for.
With, I might add, NOT very much to point to in the way of positive accomplishments considering the sorry state of the city.
It might interest you to know that using their own publicly-revealed figures, in early 2010, the very small group of people working in the HB City Manager's Office received as much in salary as next-door City of Hollywood, this despite tha fact that Hollywood is SIX times larger in land size, and with over THREE times the population size -37,000 vs. 140,000. Chew on those figures!
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Broward Bulldog
Hallandale Beach holds back records in “botched” audit; $20 million in contracts go unchecked
By William Gjebre, BrowardBulldog.org
MARCH 5, 2012 AT 6:09 AM,
http://www.browardbulldog.org/2012/03/hallandale-beach-holds-back-records-in-botched-audit-20-million-in-contracts-go-unchecked
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South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Hallandale Beach City Commissioner Anthony Sanders benefits from sloppy city management. City willing to drop $7,500 loan mistake, but Sanders might repay
Michael Mayo, Sun Sentinel Columnist
7:44 PM EDT, March 26, 2012
www.sun-sentinel.com/news/columnists/fl-hallandale-mayocol-b032712-20120326,0,1063313.column
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