Public meetings start this week for Miami-Dade County FY 2011-12 Proposed Budget & Multi-Year Capital Plan; Aventura mtg. is Thursday the 4th

FY 2011-12 - Proposed Budget and Multi-Year Capital Plan

Budget-in-Brief (1.41 MB)

View the Proposed Budget

Miami-Dade County Budget homepage: http://www.miamidade.gov/budget/

I plan on being at the Thursday night meeting in Aventura at 7 p.m.

19200 West Country Club Drive.

Warning: There are no directional signs on or near U.S.-1, Aventura Mall or other main roads indicating where the Aventura Govt. Center is located, and trust me, asking directions in the area is a fruitless exercise.

The best way to get there is to turn EAST at U.S.-1 & N.E. 195th Street, hugging the south border of Aventura Mall, and as you approach W. Country Club Drive, make that right onto the road, then drive under the Lehman Causeway/NE 192 Street, or what everyone I know calls 'the Lehman Bridge.'

The ugly multi-story building on your right is the one you want.

See the map at bottom.

Be sure to have plenty of photo IDs with you and to allow enough time to be hassled just trying to get in.

The City of Aventura acts like that city building is The White House!

It's NOT, as I've been to The White House plenty of times, and the adjoining buildings, too, like OMB, and trust me, the people in D.C. handling security are much friendlier and professional.

*BEFORE you drive under the Lehman Causeway/NE 192 Street, MAKE SURE you stay in that right lane and are NOT forced by traffic into a turning lane.

If you are not careful and get frustrated with the traffic, you can easily be forced into a turning lane, which may cause you lots of problems, inc. possibly having to drive east parallel to the causeway. Once that happens, you can NOT make U-turns or make right hand turns to turn around due to the buildings.

You will have to drive for five-10 minutes depending upon traffic in order to get back to where you just were.

Just saying...

View Larger Map

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=19200+West+Country+Club+Drive&gl=us&t=h&z=16

Coming Sunday: While you were sleeping: Comm. Lewy's budget chicanery/Liberal Guilt just cost you another $200,000 -for what & for whom?

Coming here on Sunday night:

While you were sleeping: Hallandale Beach Commissioner Alexander Lewy's budget chicanery & Liberal Guilt early last Wednesday morning after 1 a.m. just cost you and other Hallandale Beach taxpayers another $200,000-plus.

For what and for whom?

Public Records Request of July 22, 2011: Debra Brown; Zamar, Inc.; Josh Brown; Lampkin’s Creative Arts 4 All; Joseph A. "Joe" Gibbons

Chris Talmadge

City Clerk's Office

City of Hallandale Beach

400 S. Federal Highway

Hallandale Beach, FL 33009

July 22, 2011

Dear Mr. Talmadge:

I am writing you today to formally request the following public documents be made available for my inspection.

Any and all documents, including emails, letters, reports, contract, grant applications, loan applications, citations, RFPs, MOUs, to-and-from the City of Hallandale Beach and/or its CRA, its elected officials, managers, city employees, contractors or agents, and the following individuals and entities for the years 2008 to the present day, July 22, 2011:

1.) Debra Brown

2.) Zamar, Inc.

3.) Josh Brown

4.) The individuals and entity aka/dba Lampkin’s Creative Arts 4 All,

222 S. Dixie Highway, Hallandale Beach, FL 33009

5.) Joseph "Joe" Gibbons, in his capacity as a resident or taxpayer in the State of Florida.

Be sure to include ANY and ALL street addresses in the State of Florida used by Gibbons in any documents sent to him or received from him.

I request that if electronic copies exist, they be made available to me in that format.

Please be sure to detail any proscribed fees associated with this request.

I can be reached at the above email address if you have any further questions about this specific request.

Thank you in advance for your assistance in this matter.

Coming Sunday night: What is Mayor Joy Cooper up to in Hallandale Beach? Plotting another illegal coup on the City Commission? Hmm-m...

July 12, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier

Teaser Alert: This time, unlike what she sprang on the community in 2008 with Anthony Sanders, South Florida's news media is watching and waiting -closely!
Well, perhaps it would be more accurate to say that they've been properly warned, and have at least feigned some degree of interest in pretending to care or pay attention, which for this crowd, is saying something.

"Who the hell is Alex Berkovich, anyway?"

That's a question that's been very much in the air in Hallandale Beach the past few weeks as folks watch this not-so-stealthy Cooper crony -with a huge sense of entitlement- utterly fail at his one task to serve and advance her reign of ruin -the disastrous and wildly unpopular Golden Isles Overlay.

Well, answers to these and many other questions that have been piling-up the past few weeks will be forthcoming in mere hours... so hold tight.

Things are about to get very, very interesting just as the city's budget is about to be reviewed and very curious anti-taxpayer decisions and policies will be revisited on Monday and Tuesday afternoons in the infamous Room 257.

We'll see who's for reform, accountability and transparency, and who's in favor of business as usual.

Csaba Kulin on the facts & figures behind Taxpayers' Blues over Hallandale Beach City Hall's destructive spending habits

My friend and fellow Hallandale Beach activist Csaba Kulin wants everyone here who's paying attention to start getting ready for Hallandale Beach's FY 2012 budget, and provides some hard-to-believe financial numbers to chew over.

That is, if they don't make you choke first.

During the June 1st Hallandale Beach City Commission meeting, City Manager Mark Antonio mentioned that the first version of the 2011-2012 Budget will be on the City's web site by July 1, 2011.

That will give us very little time to prepare for the Monday July 18th and Tuesday the 19th budget workshops in Room 257 at City Hall, starting at 4 p.m.

In preparation for that meeting, I prepared a spread sheet from the data of the September 2010 (final version) of last year's budget. I hope the columns are self explanatory.

The bottom line tells the whole story.

The average salary of the 476 employees, from the CM to the clerks (including about 30 temporary part-time employees) is $56,158.

The average benefit is $37,825 or 67.35% of the payroll.

The AVERAGE cost per employee is $93,983.

Just a casual look at "Police, Uniformed Patrol, Dept. 2130" (page 120 of the Budget) has 1 Major, 3 Captains and 11 Sergeants for 10 police officers.

Is that a bit "top heavy"?

And that's NOT even the whole story.

Look at the disparity between the safety forces and most of the other departments.

How did the City get here and how can the City afford it?

I hope this will help you a bit to see the big picture.

HBPension_Benefits_&_ReformGmail.doc 32K View Download

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As usual, Csaba has done his research.

Below, the schedule for HB City Commission/City Manager Workshops and Special Meetings as it appeared at Hallandale Beach City Hall when I snapped this photo of it on June 20th:

Click on the image to see it more clearly.

I accept the resignation of myopic, ethically-dubious Hallandale Beach City Attorney David Jove with long-overdue, indignant & disgusted glee. Adios!

The positive news below from Comm. Keith London this afternoon about the end of the oblivious reign-of-ruin of David Jove comes at a very opportune time for this city's beleaguered citizen taxpayers, as the public budget workshops begin soon.

But this year, they will be workshops where the onus will squarely be on the city to explain away and defend why SO MANY city employees, city programs and the CRA consistently perform in completely unprofessional and unsatisfactory ways, and why so much money from HB taxpayers continues to find its way into the wallets and purses of the same familiar cronies, year-after-year.

Yes, the corruption tax we pay in Hallandale Beach.

Yes, at long last, David Jove will no longer be able to continue to cause the sort of permanent, lasting damage to the credibility of public policy and adherence to the rule of law at Hallandale Beach City Hall.

FINALLY.

Jove will long be remembered by concerned Hallandale Beach citizen taxpayers not for good reasons but rather for bad ones, very bad ones -over-and-over again.

He was nothing if not the model of consistency in his bad judgments, unsound speculation and general acquiescence to whatever ridiculous and ill-supported policy Mayor Joy Cooper, former City Manager Mike Good and current City Manager Mark Antonio desired, regardless of how damaging it was to the spirit and letter of the law, democratic/civic practices and the financial bottom line of this city's residents.

Jove is, supposedly, among other things, the pro-active person at HB City Hall who is in charge of limiting potential liability to Hallandale Beach taxpayers, yet for years he has continually ignored, avoided or been oblivious to numerous state laws that the city has been in clear violation of, as well as the city's own ordinances.

(Ones I have photos of that drive home how truly oblivious Jove was.)

Oblivious to them despite the fact that he sees them EVERY DAY, some, even right at City Hall while walking from his reserved parking space to his office.

But ignores them he does, at the peril of this city -and any sharp-eyed lawyer who wants to make an example of this city.

Jove should've been fired years ago but wasn't because Mayor Joy Cooper liked having a legal lapdog that did her bidding and who was well-trained enough to do that bidding sometimes without her always having to explicitly spell it out at City Commission meetings.

She relied on his infamous obliviousness and desire to hold onto his job -at any cost.

(And now, thanks to Comm. London, we are learning at what co$t that was, aren't we?)

And Jove did what he could to make sure that dynamic never changed.

I'll leave it to another time in the future to discuss whether or not the former Assistant City Attorney -who spoke-up for both the law and HB citizens' rights once in a while at various city meetings I attended- was abruptly fired two years because she ACTUALLY followed the spirit and letter of the law -and her conscience- by asking or raising questions about some very dubious shenanigans going on in this city that David Jove has ALWAYS signed-off on and winked at.

Or, was she fired because she was a lesbian? Hmm-m...

Personally, I think if this woman filed a lawsuit against the city and told just a little of what she knew about what has been going on in this city for years, she'd win in court.

I only wish it was testimony at a Grand Jury.

This woman's the best-qualified person to be the new City Attorney here, but she will never be asked because Mayor Cooper DOESN'T want well-informed people who ask reasonable and logical questions about what transpires at City Hall to be in a position to change the stealthy and unhealthy dynamic the mayor has created there that gives her the means to get whatever she wants, even if it is completely counter to good public policy.

Especially when it is counter to good public policy!

Like the preposterous Golden Isles Overlay she desperately wants that interferes with HB homeowners rights.
Or, suing HB residents like my friend and fellow civic activist, Michael Butler of Change Hallandale, who want to take advantage of the state's Sunshine Laws in the state Constitution to make sure that the public has timely access to PUBLIC information in the possession of City Hall, information the mayor would prefer to keep quiet.

David Jove? Good riddance to rubbish!

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Keith London
Date: Tue, Jun 28, 2011 at 12:50 PM
Subject: Resignation Hallandale Beach City Attorney David Jove - Guess how much you will pay him?
To: "Commissioner, Hallandale Beach - Keith London" <klondon@hallandalebeachfl.gov>

Everyone,

City Attorney David Jove has tendered his letter of resignation the last day of employment with the City of Hallandale Beach will be Friday, July 29, 2011

I am attaching the following documents:

• The resignation letter
• The 2003 employment contract referred to in the resignation letter (signed and negotiated exclusively by Mayor Joy Cooper)
• David Jove’s 2010 statement from Principle Financial showing how the estimated pension he will be collecting ($4,400 - $4,900) for the rest of his life from the taxpayers of Hallandale Beach and thanks to the contacts signed by Mayor Cooper

Hiring of a new city attorney will be on one of the next City Commission agendas.

In addition I am providing the following link to Muni Code and the City of Hallandale Beach Charter showing duties of a HallandaleBeach City attorney.

http://library.municode.com/index.aspx?clientID=14646&stateID=9&statename=Florida

DIVISION 1: - CITY ATTORNEY

Sec. 6.01: - City attorney.

There shall be a city attorney of the city, appointed or removed, by a majority of the full commission, who shall serve as chief legal advisor to the commission, the city manager and all city departments, offices and agencies and who shall assure that the city is represented in all legal proceedings and perform any other duties prescribed by this Charter or by ordinance.

(Ord. No. 94-20, § 3, 8-30-1994; Ord. No. 2003-28, § 2, 11-18-2003)

I would like input from “our” residents now and at the City Commission meetings regarding the hiring and compensationof a future Hallandale Beach City Attorney.

Thank you,

Keith

Keith S. London

City Commissioner

Hallandale Beach

954-457-1320 Office

954-494-3182 Cellular

www.KeithLondon.com

http://www.facebook.com/KeithSLondon

2 attachments — Download all attachments

David Jove Resignation Letter 6-2011.pdf 24K View Download

David Jove Contract 6-2011.pdf 330K View Download

Broward Schools General Fund Budget Update workshop on Friday; Michael Mayo: "How many Broward school officials does it take to change a light bulb?"

Broward County School Board General Fund Budget Update workshop on Friday the 20th from 12:30-3:30 p.m. at the KCW Bldg., 600 S.E. 3rd Avenue, Fort Laudedale.

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South Florida Sun-Sentinel

South Florida Schools blog

Broward school administrators to take furlough days

By Cara Fitzpatrick

May 18, 2011 03:23 PM

http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/educationblog/2011/05/broward_school_administrators_1.html

Miami Herald

Broward schools officials to take furloughs

Principals, assistant principals and district administrators will be expected to take 10 to 15 days unpaid leave as a way to save $4.5 million next year.

By Carli Teproff

Posted May 18, 2011

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/05/18/2223406/broward-schools-officials-to-take.html

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Teachers get saved in Palm Beach County, sacrificed in Broward – why?

Job loss for 1,400 teachers in Broward shows misplaced priorities, mismanagement

By Michael Mayo, Sun Sentinel Columnist

7:08 p.m. EDT, May 18, 2011

How come there's a teacher massacre in Broward schools, but not in Palm Beach County or Miami-Dade?

With 1,400 Broward teachers told this week that their jobs are going down the drain, there's been a circular swirl of blame. The teachers' union points the finger at superintendent Jim Notter. Notter says it's the Legislature's fault. The Legislature blames unions.

Ordinarily, I'd say take your pick since there's plenty of blame to go around. Except for one thing.

So far, Broward teachers are alone in their pain.

Read the rest of the column at:

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/columnists/fl-broward-teacher-layoffs-mayocol-b020110518,0,550683.column

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Florida Politics blog

Scott puts blame for teacher layoffs on feds

By Kathleen Haughney

May 17, 2011 11:22 AM

http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/dcblog/2011/05/scott_puts_blame_for_teacher_l.html

Read the reader comment already posted there.

You have to love spammers who think sincerity will do the trick!

Csaba Kulin's reasonable questions to Joy Cooper about city spending result in another Bob Norman post that highlights the anti-taxpayer culture here

The iconic Hallandale Beach Water Tower on State Road A1A/South Ocean Drive & Hallandale Beach Blvd. April 11, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Well, I can't honestly say that I'm surprised, given what I've seen here the past seven years. If seeing isn't believing in Hallandale Beach, Florida, it isn't true anywhere I've ever lived.

Wednesday's post by BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes columnist Bob Norman in his must-read The Daily Pulp blog, chronicled the to-and-fro of an email that my friend and fellow HB activist Csaba Kulin sent to the Hallandale Beach City Commission and mayor Joy Cooper recently about spending practices and patterns here, and compared them to the city that he and his wife lived in before spending most of the year here: Strongsville, Ohio.

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BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes
The Daily Pulp
Hallandale Beach Mayor Defends City in Sloppy, Error-Filled Email
By Bob Norman
April. 27 2011 @ 8:54AM

Ever heard of Strongsville, Ohio?

Neither had I, but it's apparently a suburb of Cleveland and a place where Hallandale condo president and activist Csaba Kulin used to live.

Kulin is amazed at the bloated cost of Hallandale Beach's budget compared to that of Strongville and recently wrote a letter about it to the City Commission.

Read the rest of the post at:
http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2011/04/hallandale_mayor_joy_cooper_budget.php

Rather than re-invent the wheel here, I'll simply re-post below the (slightly-expanded) comments I added to the mix shortly after Midnight, in reference to one reader's comment that you couldn't really compare the spending levels of a city near Cleveland and one in tropical South Florida.

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For the record, since you refer to us being an ocean-side city, HB's beach is actually about the smallest beach in this county and NOT fun, attractive or even well-maintained despite being so small.

This despite the fact that in most Florida coastline communities, the beach is, to a large degree, the visible symbol of the city, and when people see things there that appear troubling, it only causes them to wonder even more about the aspects of city government that they don't or can't see.

Here in HB the problem is made worse because the city so clearly couldn't care less what the citizens or visitors think otherwise they'd... well, for one, NOT leave the maintenance equipment right in the middle of the beach -on North Beach- instead of storing it nearby where it's out of the way.

April 11, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

That equipment, by the way, consists in large part of rusty poles and large comb of steel which seems straight out of 1920's-era Soviet Russia, and doesn't clean the beach so much as level the sand, as if that were more important than actually cleaning and sifting-out debris.
But here, under the current regime, it is.

Rust never sleeps... or goes out of style in Hallandale Beach, though it should.
April 11, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

April 11, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Above, the lifeguard stand at Hallandale Beach's North Beach, the area north of the three condo towers of The Beach Club on State Road A1A/South Ocean Drive.
The simple information board on the south side of the board seems like a very simple item, and yet it took well OVER A YEAR for the city to replace the damaged ones here and at South Beach that were no longer usable. Not replace the lifeguard stand, just the board. The sort of thing that in the 21st Century, other modern cities can order and replace within days or a week. Here in Hallandale Beach, that process took over one year, so everyday for a year, visitors to the beach saw not just scratched scrawl marks and graffiti on the side of the guard stands, but a physical reminder that this city is poorly-managed and can't do something very simple. April 11, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

On Saturday at 10 a.m. in the Hallandale Beach City Commission Chambers -400 S. Federal Highway- is the city's citywide forum on the 2011-12 budget, and there is every reason to think there may well be more (and better) fireworks on display there than on the Fourth of July.

To promote the city's NE Quadrant meeting on April 11th at the North Beach building that took three years for the city to open to the public -three times longer than it took to build and given to the city for free- HB city's employees showed for the millionth time the sort of half-assed second-rate effort that passes for satisfactory and normal here which makes citizen taxpayers simmer.
April 11, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

A simple sandwich board was placed underneath the overpass above A1A/South Ocean drive. But rather than being placed where it was visible to traffic stopped at traffic lights going either north or south, or even by pedestrains walking to or from the beach, it was placed where it couldn't be read legibly by anyone.
For days, including the very day of the meeting. SNAFU! April 11, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

My friend Csaba Kulin's reasonable questions are important ones that he and I and many other concerned HB citizens have been raising and discussing in earnest since early last year, yet are routinely given the run-around, lip-service and attitude by the city's largely oblivious elected officials and staffers, save Comm. Keith London, who is, after all, just one of the five voting members. The ones who, in theory at least, set the public policies of the city, NOT the unelected City Manager, Mark Antonio.

For even deigning to ask what in almost any other city in America would be considered reasonable questions, my friend has been verbally attacked by a city commissioner -Dotty Ross- even before he got to the microphone to say anything.

Yes, the very same woman whose incompetency and helter-skelter dedication to the job she took an oath to perform, was captured perfectly last year by Thomas Francis in The Juice blog of The NewTimes, when she refused to come down to the Chambers from her office for a Special City Commission meeting on Mike Good's future as City Manager.

Meeting on Hallandale City Manager's Fate Canceled After Mayoral No-Show
By Thomas Francis, Fri., Apr. 30 2010 @ 10:50AM
http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/juice/2010/04/hallandale_special_meeting_mike_good_canceled.php

Her willful refusal to appear while she was in the building forced the meeting to be called-off for lack of a quorum. My post on that embarrassing spectacle was simply titled, Comm. Dotty Ross hiding in plain sight at Hallandale Beach's "Special Meeting" on City Manager Mike Good's employment; "Recall" is in the air!
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/comm-dotty-ross-hiding-in-plain-sight.html

What you see here in print via the mayor's tone-deaf response is but the tip of the iceberg at HB City Hall.
If you doubt that, come to the public meeting on Saturday morning and see for yourself.

Coincidentally, Saturday will ALSO be the one-year anniversary of the self-disappearance of Comm. Dotty Ross.
A growing number of HB citizens think a successful recall campaign against Comm. Ross (and Comm. Anthony Sanders) in the Fall or early Spring of 2012 would be just the sort of disappearing act we'd all applaud, financially and policy-wise -addition by subtraction!

Passing the hat, but ignoring what's in plain sight! Broward School Board's Community Budget Task Force meeting at 5 p.m.; equivocating Bartleman

Broward County School Board Community Budget Task Force meeting at 5 p.m. Wednesday in downtown Fort Lauderdale: 600 S.E. Third Avenue.
I won't be there.

Their web page is at: http://www.broward.k12.fl.us/budget/

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As you read this Carli Teproff story from the Herald below about the Broward School Board's myriad budget problems, and their positively uninspired 'ideas' to cut millions and millions of dollars, if you're at all like me, it's hard to read, knowing that at any moment, as she has since she first got elected to the Broward School Board posing as a 'reformer,' Robin Bartleman will say one thing, and then a few paragraphs later, equivocate and be quoted as either saying the exact opposite, or, walk back her initial statement to the middle of the road where it won't offend anyone.

With so much need for someone -multiple someones!- on that School Board to show some real character, vision and leadership, wow, is that dithering and equivocating nature of hers ever frustrating to read!

And don't shoot the messenger, since that equivocating is clear in news articles in both the Herald and the Sun-Sentinel.
It's NOT the reporters' fault when they accurately quote Bartleman and it makes your head hurt to later pick up the newspaper and read the predictable blather, sheer banality and self-serving contrivances coming out of her mouth.

Whether the story is true or not, I'm frequently reading and hearing from reliable, well-informed people that one of the reasons Bartleman seems to live a rather charmed political life here despite her fingerprints on so much that is uninspired and incompetent, is that her pal Debbie Wasserman-Schultz is a little rainmaking angel on her shoulder, ready to drown any challengers to her friend in money spent on campaign ads and the like.

If that's not 100% true, it almost doesn't matter, since so many smart people throughout South Florida already believe that it IS true.

In my opinion, even more than many other better-known female pols in this county that I have often taken to task here on the blog, perhaps in large part because on local TV at least, she has largely flown under-the-radar on unflattering stories for ethics and policy, unlike the other female 2010 incumbents on the School Board, Bartleman is the Queen of Broward County's two-faced pols.
To my way of thinking, Bartleman may be the single most over-rated politician in all of Broward County.

In story-after-story the past few years where I find her name mentioned, it's hard to NOT find an example of that equivocating nature I spoke of earlier, a damning personal and political characteristic to my way of thinking.

I've saved some of those stories that show this pattern and hope in the not-too-distant future to post some of them here -and some comments of mine- that I believe highlights some delicious examples of that two-faced nature of hers.

I can't help but wonder if Bartleman equivocates in her Tweets, but I can't say with any certainty since they are "protected," so I can't say who her 6 Followers are.
http://twitter.com/#!/rbartleman

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Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/04/18/2174089/broward-schools-using-the-f-word.html

Broward schools using the “F” word: Furlough

By Carli Teproff

As the Broward School Board contemplates how to slash more than $100 million from next year’s budget, one word keeps resurfacing – furlough.

On Monday, Superintendent Jim Notter gave the board a chart showing how the district could save millions by asking employees to take off — without pay.

If each of the 28,000 schools employees took one furlough day, the district would save $4.7 million.

And, if each employee took 20 furlough days, basically a month off, the district would save a whopping $93.6 million.

Although that extreme is unlikely to happen, it is possible all school district workers, including teachers, will be asked to sacrifice some of their pay in order to save jobs. But even furloughs won’t fix all of the district’s financial woes, said School Board member Robin Bartleman.

“It’s not going to solve all the problems,’’ Bartleman said, adding the decisions this year are going to be “brutal’’ for everyone. “But it will help.’’

Taking a furlough has been brought up at several of the board’s latest workshops where they are struggling to meet what could be a $115 million budget gap.

Notter has already said the district will likely cut about $25 million from the executive leadership, including the area offices that oversee the different schools.

Before a furlough could be implemented, it would have to be backed by the employees and the districts three school unions.

Broward Teacher’s Union President Pat Santeramo said imposing a furlough on employees – who have not received raises in several years — should be a last resort.

“Before we will proceed with any furloughs, we need to see corrections made to how the district is wasting money,’’ he said.

Santeramo said the union has already suggested areas where the district could cut spending, including shortening the year for principals, reducing the number of assistant principals and looking at consolidating bus routes.

“We are looking for equity here,’’ he said.

At a workshop last week, board members said they would be looking to cut everywhere but the classroom first.

“The goal is to minimize the impact on the students,’’ said Bartleman.

There have not yet been specific discussions of where else cuts will be made.

A preliminary budget, which will include what the cuts could mean to the school district, will be discussed next Tuesday, Notter said.

“I see us trying to drain an Olympic-size pool with an eyedropper,’’ said Board Member Dave Thomas at last week’s meeting, where the board looked at proposed cuts in different administrative departments. “We are continually asking [teachers] to do more with less and they are getting to the breaking point.’’

Board Member Nora Rupert said the district has to take another look at deeper cuts for management.

“The upper management charts have hardly changed,’’ she said. “I personally believe there should be changes.’’

This is not the first time the district is considering furloughs. Last year, the employees were asked to take a five-day furlough, but federal stimulus money came in and the board agreed to lift the request.

Reader comments at: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/04/18/2174089/broward-schools-using-the-f-word.html#disqus_thread

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Any guesses out there who this belong to? http://www.youtube.com/user/watches33021

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See also:

Broward Politics YouTube Channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/BrowardPolitics

Website: http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/broward/blog/

BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes YouTube Channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/BrowardPalmBeach

Website: http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/

Broward Clean Sweep's YouTube Channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/BrowardCleanSweep

Comm. Keith London's April 'Public Forum' will be NEXT Tuesday, and Broward Comm. Barbra Sharief will be Guest Speaker

I meant to post this a few days ago after Hallandale Beach Comm. Keith London first mentioned this schedule change to me, but since he has now sent out an email today with more information, I'm going to post that as written:

Everyone,

The Commissioner London “Public Forum” has been moved from this Tuesday, April 19, 2011 to Tuesday, April 26, 2011 from 6 - 8:00 PM in observance of Passover.

Please plan on attending there will have be a special guest speaker, Broward County Commissioner Barbra Sharief – District 8 from 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM. Commissioner Sharief will provide information regarding what she is doing for her constituents in Broward County and will answer any questions.

Commissioner London will be speaking at the LaMer Condominium on Thursday April 21, 2011 at 7:00 PM about the Parks Master Plan everyone is welcome. Important information will be discussed and any questions you may have will be welcomed.

Other Topics to be discussed are:

· The Parks Master Plan

· The 2011-2012 Budget Work Shop scheduled for Saturday, April 30, 2011 at 10:00 AM

· The South Beach Parking Garage

· Any other subject you would like to discuss

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What you know implicitly, Rasmussen Reports confirms: "57% Okay with Government Shutdown If It Leads to Deeper Budget Cuts"; Marco Rubio on CRs

Sen. Marco Rubio video: In His Own Words: Week In Review -April 1, 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Y-NXWsbsWw




Fox News Channel video: Sen. Marco Rubio on 2011 federal budget and why he'd vote against raising the federal debt limit on Fox News Channel's "Fox & Friends" -April 1, 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WzzhgH_wzA

In my email inbox today comes confirmation of what I've known since November's election, which is that despite all the predictable paint-by-number "Rally in Tally" stories locally, and the Tweets, blog postings and warnings of doom from liberal interest groups and the predictable pleadings of the government employee class and their friends in the MSM, that the Tea Party, such as it is, will overplay their hand, the reality is that voters want smaller government budgets and more cuts.

Rasmussen Reports
57% Okay With Government Shutdown If It Leads to Deeper Budget Cuts
Friday, April 01, 2011

A majority of voters are fine with a partial shutdown of the federal government if that’s what it takes to get deeper cuts in federal government spending.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 57% of Likely U.S. Voters think making deeper spending cuts in the federal budget for 2011 is more important than avoiding a partial government shutdown...

Read the rest of the polling data at:
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/march_2011/57_okay_with_government_shutdown_if_it_leads_to_deeper_budget_cuts




Fox News Channel video: Rep. Jeb Hensarling on 2011 budget battle and prospect of government shutdown on Fox News Channel's "America's Newsroom"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nk0Hla0VAH0

See also:
Congressional Quarterly
GOP weighs budget compromise
http://www.congress.org/news/2011/04/01/gop_weighs_budget_compromise#src=db

National Journal
Tea Party Divide: Protesters Call for Shutdown; Lawmakers, Not So Much Republican lawmakers insist they want to keep the government open.
By Lindsey Boerma
Thursday, March 31, 2011 | 4:15 p.m.
http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/tea-party-divide-protesters-call-for-shutdown-lawmakers-not-so-much-20110331

http://www.youtube.com/user/RepPaulRyan

http://www.youtube.com/user/RepJebHensarling

http://www.youtube.com/user/SenatorMarcoRubio