Why is it so hard for Hallandale Beach officials to be honest about public policy with residents, taxpayers and small business owners? City's 2014 Parks Bond issue increasingly looks like a very dubious deal that'll backfire on taxpayers, and more like a ploy by city officials to get good short-term PR while simultaneously allowing them to use voter-approved funds for other purposes, like pet projects of the mayor and city commission, instead of Parks. Aesthetics/maintenance of city's parks have long been an embarrassment to residents! But Mayor Joy Cooper, the City Commission and the current and past 2 City Managers have just looked the other way for YEARS instead of holding people -and themselves- accountable for results, even though compelling proof was just a block away at Peter Bluesten Park

City of Hallandale Beach Monument sign at 400 S. Federal Highway in front of Hallandale Beach City Hall. Yes, the sign's lights STILL DON'T come on at night, and haven't since current HB City Manager Renee C. Miller has been in charge of the day-to-day operations of this city -June of 2012. So, that's about 15 months and counting. And it's just the tip of the iceberg here. July 11, 2013 photo by South Beach Hoosier. © 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

Well friends, here we are a month later and there's still no official response from responsible officials at the City of Hallandale Beach regarding what I and many other Hallandale Beach residents believe are some highly-questionable decisions being made regarding the city's proposed 2014 Parks Bond issue involving that involves tens of million$ and an effort to finallt try to improve the city's Quality-of-Life.

Among other questions currently lacking an obvious answer is:

a.) Why is the Hallandale Beach Parks Bond vote now scheduled for August instead of November's General Election, when greatest number of HB voters can vote at the same time that they are voting for Governor, other statewide races, state legislative races and two Hallandale Beach City Commission seats -those of Comm. Alexander Lewy's and Comm. Anthony A. Sanders?

b.) Why does the city seem absolutely determined to phrase the Bond question in such a manner that voters will NOT have assurance that all funds voted upon and approved are ONLY spent for city parks maintenance and expansion? Instead, based on what has been heard publicly on this matter, it seems that it will be written so that the City Commission could use any voter-approved Parks Bond revenue for other purposes, instead of only for Parks, like more pet projects of the mayor and the city commission, despite the city's parks long being an open source of embarrassment and frustration to HB residents, esp. those with kids who know what other area cities offer their residents.

As of Noon today, there has been no response from Sarah Shamah, whom HB Parks and Recreation Director Cathie Schanz said I should contact regarding my germane questions about some park issues. (Schanz even cc'd her.)

Not that Director Schanz has tried to answer these questions, either, despite my sending an email reminder to both of them on September 20th, reminding them both that I expected a full response to my handful of very reasonable questions that the city's taxpayers are entitled to know before it's too late.

Since I didn't have any luck hearing from them, why don't you contact them yourself and ask them why they won't answer some simple questions honestly and in a reasonable time frame?

From my perspective, one month seems plenty of time to get around to answering some pretty simple questions.
Here's their contact information:
"Shamah, Sarah" - sshamah@hallandalebeachfl.gov
"Cathie Schanz" - cschanz@hallandalebeachfl.gov

Cathie Schanz, CPRE Director, Parks and Recreation   
Cultural Community Center 
410 SE 3 Street Hallandale Beach, FL  33009 
Phone:  (954) 457-1452   
Hours: 8 a.m. – 6 p.m. Monday – Friday

As most of you regular readers of the blog know from my many past posts on the subject of the city's poorly-maintained city parks, while I have been a very strong and vocal supporter of the HB Parks Master Plan  in general, 
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/final-hallandale-beach-parks-rec-master.html
and have attended 95% of all the meetings on it all over this city from the  very beginning -even attending the Parks Advisory mtg. to hear the pitch from the consultants at Bermello Ajamil Partners Inc. before the public officially heard it at a City Commission meeting-
I remain unconvinced that in a city that's only 4.2 square miles in total, that it ought to have two separate swimming pools within two miles of one another, since that makes zero financial sense for this city's already under-the-gun taxpayers, especially since Northwest HB comprises only 13% of the city's population according to the 2010 U.S. Census, and you can catch a city MiniBus for free that takes you from that exact spot to the existing pool in less than 15 minutes.
Fix the existing pool you have and make it better.
But that sort of logic doesn't appeal to City Hall, since this is a city that annually borrows millions of dollars from its Reserve fund simply to pay normal operating expenses instead of cutting costs and expenses.

Here's the original email and below that are some reason that i think things are being constructed in such a deliberate fashion that disadvantages Hallandale beach taxpayers and gives the City Commission more money to squander and waste on pet projects that help them politically.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Schanz, Cathie
Date: Tue, Jul 30, 2013 at 10:39 AM
Subject: RE: re Hallandale Beach Parks/Rec. and taxpayer dissatisfaction with cost of B.F. James Park DOUBLING and a prospective Parks bond issue that prevents strict accountability of taxpayer dollars
To: "DBS", Parksrecreation
Cc: "Shamah, Sarah"


Hello Mr. Smith,

Thank you for contacting me with your comments and concerns regarding the Parks projects. 

I trust you found last night’s meeting informative.  If you require additional information on the projects, you may wish to contact our Capital Projects Manager, Sarita Shamah, directly.  I have copied her on this email.

All the best,

Cathie Schanz, CPRE
Hallandale Beach Parks and Recreation Director

From: DBS  
Sent: Monday, July 29, 2013 11:47 AM
To: Schanz, Cathie; Parksrecreation

Subject: re Hallandale Beach Parks/Rec. and taxpayer dissatisfaction with cost of B.F. James Park DOUBLING and a prospective Parks bond issue that prevents strict accountability of taxpayer dollars

----
And yes, after I wrote it and sent it out, on very little sleep, I realized that I'd actually reversed what I'd meant to say about what sort of Bonds that voters should be voting upon. But you get that by now I suspect, so I've left it below as it was when originally written -and very tired.

After the fact-filled Bulldog article that really makes a great predicate for better understanding this whole issue of the city's longstanding habit of purchasing land, then largely neglecting it and then buying yet more land, all with little actual idea of what to do with it, is my original letter to HB Parks Director Schanz. 
The one that led her to emailing me the name of Sarah Shamah, someone whom I'd never heard of, as a person to speak with.
Trust me, you'll be reading that name more in the future here on the blog as we investigate the doubling of costs of the new city park in Northwest HB, something my friend Csaba Kulin has already been hard at work looking at for a while.

Broward Bulldog

Hallandale Beach takes a bath on land deals; properties for redevelopment sit idle for years

By William Gjebre, BrowardBulldog.org

OCTOBER 6, 2011 AT 6:13 AM

http://www.browardbulldog.org/2011/10/hallandale-beach-takes-a-bath-on-land-purchases-properties-for-redevelopment-sit-idle-for-years/

-----

July 29, 2013

Dear Parks Director Schanz:

As the city's public budget meetings begin today, and despite the fact that the HB City Commission participated in a groundbreaking last week at the proposed B.F. James Park, did you know that there is STILL NOTHING on the City of Hallandale Beach's website explaining why the costs of that

particular park have DOUBLED.

No public explanation, no nothing.

From around $2.6 Million to over $5 Million.

This week the taxpayers of this city will expect to hear a serious and detailed explanation for why this park in Northwest Hallandale Beach will now cost TWICE AS MUCH as originally planned, but whose additional cost will now put at serious risk any work anytime soon at dowdy and depressing South Beach Park, the busiest part of the city's public beach

They will also expect a detailed explanation for how it is that despite knowing this fact for some time, you, the City Manager and the City Commission have completely failed to provide ANY sort of public explanation to this city's residents on the city's own website.

An explanation that sounds reasonable and plausible, not just a case of the City Hall being unable to control themselves and deciding to turn the proposed park and pool into a Christmas Tree, with more and more elaborate decorations and ornaments laden on top of it.

If the Hallandale Beach City Commission votes this week 

a.) for General Obligation bonds, wherein monies approved by voters via a referendum can be spent by the HB City Commission on something other than Parks, instead of voting for Revenue Bonds that strictly limit any

voter-approved monies to Parks usage,

and/or,

b.) votes to place this Bond issue on the ballot in August of 2014 when much of the city is still out-of-town for the summer, rather than in November of 2014 during the General Election, when the largest number of Hallandale Beach voters can participate, in conjunction with other concerned Hallandale Beach residents, I will happily lend my enthusiasm to a public effort to initiate a public signature campaign to negate these Commission votes.

Votes that would, necessarily, give Hallandale Beach taxpayers less control, accountability and confidence in the future use of any prospective Park funds, and which would, necessarily, punish Hallandale Beach voters who are NOT present -during the hottest month of the year.

You know, August.

It's the same entire month that the HB City Commission will be taking off in a few days?

I have long publicly supported the improvements of parks and recreational spaces in this city, often finding myself the only person in this entire city who  would publicly declare how poorly they were maintained by DPW, and publicly say how unsafe they were at night, with little concern shown by either the City Manager or Police Chief at the time, to say nothing of the DPW Director, who was unconcerned with park lights that were out for years at a time.

But make no mistake about it, we'll vigorously fight against and vote NO on any Parks Bond issue that is of a General Obligation nature or which is held in August.

We will help educate and encourage other HB taxpayers and small business owners to vote NO as well for reasons of lack of appropriate financial accountability and oversight mechanisms.

Here's how simple the math is.

Using the city's own rules, 25 people with signature sheets each only need to get 4 signatures a day of registered HB voters for three weeks to get the minimum required number of signatures to negate the vote.

But of course we'd have much more time than merely three weeks to get the desired signatures  

And honestly, what HB citizen would be against the idea of making sure that the Bond vote is taken when the largest numbers of voters could participate, in November of 2014, rather than in sweltering August?

And what HB citizens who are in favor of HB Parks improvement and expansion, like me, would be willing to let the present or future City Commission take the money that voters might approve in a Bond issue and use that money instead on their own pet projects or more goodies for the professional staff instead of only to be used for Parks? 

Or towards the construction of more unnecessary city buildings?.

The correct answer is nobody I know in the entire city, except maybe the current HB City Commission itself. And the City Manager and her well-paid staff who don't actually live here.

Remind me again why B.F. James Park will have a brand new pool with bells-and-whistles 1.7 miles from the existing city pool at Peter Bluesten Park, the city's largest park, that's also scheduled to be changed and 

improved in the next few years? (Or at least, so we were told last year.)

The main city pool that in the nine-plus years that I've lived here has NEVER had even one directional sign on U.S.-1, two blocks away from it?

Which is why some people don't even know the city has a pool.

Even people who in the past few years have been elected President of the HB Chamber of Commerce.

And yet despite all these things, HB taxpayers just can't seem to get any straight answers.

A search for docs on B.F. James Park leads us here:

http://fl-hallandalebeach2.civicplus.com/DocumentCenter/View/7190

Take a good look at what it says there.
Or rather what it doesn't.

There was nothing on the city's website prior to last week's groundbreaking about what this park will actually look like when it's finished, though we know what the city said they wanted most on the 2.35 acres in Northwest HB:

http://hallandalebeachfl.gov/documentcenter/view/2725

 Family orient pool  Basketball Courts  Passive Open Space  Pedestrian walkways  Playground  On and off site parking 

That is to say, at

http://www.hallandalebeach.org/Search/Results?searchPhrase=B.F.%20James&page=1&perPage=10

there's nothing that's more recent than 18 months ago -February  10, 2012!

http://hallandalebeachfl.gov/DocumentCenter/Home/View/2305

Oh, wait, that link to the city's Park Master Plan doesn't show what it will look like either.

Awesome!

It looks like Hallandale Beach and its 4.2 square miles may well soon have two, with the new one located exactly 1.7 miles from the other.

The reality of the matter is that if you want to go swimming in this city it is both cheap and convenient already. 

In fact, you can catch the city's mini-bus at O.B. Johnson Park and be taken to Peter Bluesten Park and the existing swimming pool for free in less than ten minutes.

Here's a Google Map that shows exactly this point..

https://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=Peter+Bluesten+Park,+501+S.E.+1st+Avenue,+Hallandale+Beach,+FL+33009&daddr=O.+B.+Johnson+Park,+900+N.W.+8th+Avenue,+Hallandale+Beach,+FL+33009&hl=en&sll=25.979959,-80.147796&sspn=0.012037,0.021157&geocode=FTBsjAEd1Ao5-yFxqf7UVASENykt18h6fKzZiDFxqf7UVASENw%3BFR6kjAEdkN84-yEoBldmyFOA5SljsI5NiavZiDEoBldmyFOA5Q&t=h&gl=us&mra=ls&z=15

While I have been a very strong and vocal supporter of the HB Parks Master Plan  in general, 

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/final-hallandale-beach-parks-rec-master.html

and have attended 95% of all the meetings on it all over this city from the very beginning -even attending the Parks Advisory mtg. to hear the pitch from the consultants at Bermello Ajamil Partners Inc. before the public officially heard it at a City Commission meeting- you can't convince me that a city this small having two separate swimming pools within two miles of one another makes financial 

sense for this city's taxpayers.

Especially in a city that borrows money every year from its reserve fund to pay normal operating expenses instead of cutting costs and expenses.

The money used for the second pool would be much-better spent being used to create something in the spaces that the city has already bought and purchased for park land for MILLIONS, esp. on Old Dixie Highway, since at present, all those acres of dirt have had nothing done to them other than, foolishly, a fence

being erected around it in June of 2012, even though nobody was ever there because, oh right, there's nothing there.

So why the fence?

In any case, the city left the gate open -there was NO lock on it!!!

Which is why in no time, people were consistently dumping materials there that became hills, which I have dozens of photos of from the past year.

That area only got cleaned-up LAST MONTH!

It only took a year for the city to get that mess a block from HB City Hall cleaned-up!

Even worse, there is no sign of any kind along Old Dixie Highway indicating WHEN it will be an actual city park after MILLIONS of dollars have already gone out the door.

Where's the specific timetable and benchmarks?

That, Director Schanz, is why a line in the sand is being drawn right now.

--------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Dobens, Peter <pdobens@hallandalebeachfl.gov>
Date: Fri, Jul 26, 2013 at 4:37 PM
Subject: Hallandale Beach Breaks Ground, Begins Work on Two City Parks
To: "Dobens, Peter" <pdobens@hallandalebeachfl.gov>

Hallandale Beach Breaks Ground, Begins Work On Two City Parks B.F. James Park, Joseph Scavo Park

For immediate release                                                                              Contact: Peter F. Dobens, public relations
DATE: Friday, July 26, 2013                                                                               954-457-1493, orpdobens@cohb.org

HALLANDALE BEACH –Construction crews have dug in and started turning soil in the redevelopment of the first two of 10 Hallandale Beach parks slated for reconstruction in the Citywide Parks Master Plan.

Hallandale Beach City Commissioners broke ground on the two projects this week; B.F. James Park, 101 NW 9^th St., on Tuesday, July 23, and Joseph Scavo Park, 900 Three Islands Boulevard, on Wednesday, July 24. Hours later, both parks had construction fences up and crews clearing the way for the new parks. B.F. James Park is expected to open in June 2014. Joseph Scavo Park is planned to open in March 2014.

B.F. James Park, a $5 million project, will include a new swimming pool, basketball courts, exercise area and playground. The park includes lighting and restrooms.

Joseph Scavo Park, undergoing a $2.6 million redesign, will include two dog parks, exercise trail, covered sitting area, basketball court, covered playground and restrooms.

Hallandale Beach earned the “Playful City USA” designation this year and is living up to the moniker. The Citywide Parks Master Plan designed by architects and engineers Bermello Ajamil & Partners, calls for complete makeovers for 10 of the City’s parks over the next few years. Along with B.F. James Park and Joseph Scavo Park, the City is working to secure state, county and City permits to rebuild South Beach Park and North City Beach Park. Both projects are expected to begin as soon as the permits are issued.

Also, the park projects are part of the City’s award winning Community Benefit Plan.  The plan requires contractors to use City residents and City-based subcontractors in any municipal capital project worth more than $1 million. More than 50 percent of the skilled and unskilled laborers and sub-contractors working for the projects’ general contractor, Burkhardt Construction, are Hallandale Beach residents or businesses. The Community Benefit Plan attracted national attention from the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

Hallandale Beach
“Progress. Innovation. Opportunity”

B.F. James Park Groundbreaking, Construction
Groundbreaking, Tuesday, July 23, 2013	Under construction Friday, July 26, 2013

Joseph Scavo Park Groundbreaking, Construction
Groundbreaking, Wednesday, July 24, 2013	Under construction Friday, July 26, 2013

The content of this e-mail (including any attachments) is strictly confidential and may be commercially sensitive. If you are not, or believe you may not be, the intended recipient, please advise the sender immediately by return e-mail, delete this e-mail and destroy any copies.

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Complete lack of concern shown by Eleanor Sobel, Joe Gibbons and Shevrin Jones for their Hallandale Beach constituents re wasted HB CRA $$$ is galling -and is noticed by LOTS of voters and reporters; Have HB's state legislators said or done a single thing re the Hallandale Beach CRA scandal, or done anything to help get a thorough audit of it by the Florida Joint Legislative Auditing Comm., so that HB residents can finally get the long-overdue financial accountability that HB Mayor Joy Cooper and her Rubber Stamp Crew of Lewy & Sanders have fought? So far, the answer is a big fat NO

My short and to-the-point email of Monday to the Florida Joint Legislative Auditing Committee in Tallahassee, jlac@leg.state.fl.us
http://www.leg.state.fl.us/cgi-bin/View_Page.pl?Directory=committees/joint/Jcla/&File=index_css.html&Tab=committees
regarding a matter of great public concern in the city I live in.

Monday August 19th, 2013

12:30 p.m.

To Whom It May Concern:

As of this morning, has the Florida Joint Legislative Auditing Committee received 

any correspondence from the following state legislators formally requesting that JLAC 

perform an audit of the Hallandale Beach CRA: Sen. Eleanor Sobel, Rep.  Joe Gibbons

and Rep. Shevrin Jones?

Living here, and being very involved in the effort to get your Committee to do one so that

citizens of this community can finally get the financial answers that we have long been

denied, I can tell you that there are no media reports of any of the three of them doing so,

thus far, so I just want to get confirmation of that fact.

Thank you for your assistance!

-----

For those of you who don't know, state Rep. Shervin Jones represents the part of Hallandale Beach west of the FEC Railroad tracks and Dixie Highway.
In my opinion, he is also a career-politician-in-training just like like Hallandale Beach City Commissioner Alexander Lewy, and obviously I mean that as a big warning sign for anyone who cares about common sense and actually solving problems, instead of relying on tried, tired and unproven ideas that come from liberal orthodoxy.

Jones has recently been brought up short by his caviar dreams and his West Park reality, the reality that gave him a gerrymandered seat for all practical purposes. But in a state like Florida with term limits, even a gerrymandered seat promising no competitive races doesn't seem as fun a sinecure as it once did, even for an African-American pol who had no real experience of any kind, yet drew no opposition when he first ran, in part because his father is the mayor of the city he's from.
That gives you an idea of what the district is like -not a lot of civic discourse.
More like a herd mentality.

The Honorable @RepSJones101 taking notes at the @AlexLewy event in #HallandaleBeach. #team101 pic.twitter.com/4ktw0juBs7
— Nick Steffens (@Nick_Steffens) June 24, 2013

Anyway, Jones, of FL House 101, who is supporting Lewy in his effort to replace term-limited Gibbons in the FL House District 100 seat in 2014, and Gibbons in his efforts to defeat former Hollywood City Commissioner Beam Furr in the 2014 race to replace term-limited Broward County Commissioner Sue Gunzburger -who endorsed Furr many months ago- is under investigation by the Broward State's Attorney office for his curious spending habits.
Or is it his expensive eating habits so very far from home?  

Broward State Rep. living large on his campaign money http://t.co/oXuKYX3ePo
— Buddy Nevins (@Buddynevins) August 2, 2013

Broward Beat
State Rep. Likes To Eat On Lobbyist’s Dime
By Buddy Nevins
August 2, 2013

State Rep. Shevrin Jones likes to eat….well…on his campaign’s dime.

He’s basically found a way for lobbyists like Ron Book, who donated $1,000, to pay for his meals.

Jones has spent roughly $2,000 of the $9,350 he raised from lobbyists on “meetings” and “campaign meetings” in various restaurants. Lobbyists were the only ones giving to his campaign.

Jones has no opponent.

Read the rest of the post and reader comments at
http://www.browardbeat.com/state-rep-likes-to-eat-on-lobbyists-dime/

State Attorney launches probe into state rep's campaign spending on meals. http://t.co/XehiRtydZg
— Buddy Nevins (@Buddynevins) August 12, 2013

Broward Beat
State Atty Investigates State Rep’s Campaign
By Buddy Nevins
August 12, 2013

The Broward State Attorney’s Office is investigating state Rep. Shevrin Jones’ campaign expenses, a well-placed courthouse source said.

The source said a Browardbeat.com post triggered the investigation into Jones’ spending at restaurants in addition to a campaign loan repayment.

Read the rest of the post and reader comments at
http://www.browardbeat.com/state-atty-investigates-state-reps-campaign/

Some prescient mid-2013 thoughts re 2014 Florida House 100 race: Sunshine State News calls it a "Democratic Battleground" for next year's open seat, with carpetbagger Joe Gibbons term-limited, but the new FL-100 district is now more Moderate and MUCH MORE Hispanic than old one was; Liberals Joe Geller and Alexander Lewy DON'T want to amend 'Stand Your Ground' but to kill it, putting them in a sub-minority position within both the state and the area -the 13%. Residents are NOT interested in giving away useful tool that makes at least some criminals think twice before attacking them; This seat is tailor-made for a certain kind of smart, personable and articulate Moderate interested in public policy that works, not partisan politics, but will one emerge, and if so, will they be from Aventura or Sunny Isles Beach? And will that Moderate candidate be a Female?

Democratic battleground emerges for South Florida open House seat http://t.co/kUSneVdiCv #SSNalerts #sayfie
— Sunshine State News (@SSNAlerts) July 24, 2013

Sunshine State News

Democratic Battleground Emerges for South Florida Open House Seat

By Kevin Derby

Posted: July 24, 2013 3:55 AM

With Rep. Joe Gibbons, D-Pembroke Park, facing term limits in 2014, three Democratic candidates are already running hard to replace him in the Florida House. Gibbons, who is now running for the Broward County Commission, represents parts of Broward and Miami-Dade counties.

So far, former North Bay Village Mayor Joe Geller, Hallandale Beach Vice Mayor Alex Lewy and teacher John Paul Alvarez are seeking the Democratic nomination to replace Gibbons. 

Read the rest of the article at:
http://www.sunshinestatenews.com/story/democratic-battleground-emerges-south-florida-open-house-seat

That's curious!

Voluble former Florida Senate Minority Leader Steve Geller's name never gets mentioned once in this interesting Sunshine State News article I read this morning, and neither do any of his very helpful friends in the area and their well-financed groups & PACS they represent, most of whom will be involved with his brother Joe's FL-100 campaign at some point.

Also never mentioned -whether another more pragmatic candidate from either Aventura, Miami Beach or Sunny Isles may yet emerge and get into the race against three very Liberal candidates, all of whom are Men.

In my estimation, an articulate and personable Moderate candidate focused more on genuine problem-solving, more Transparency and common sense in government, and decidedly less-inclined towards the sort of knee-jerk liberal orthodoxy in the year 2013 that the three current Democratic candidates continually exhibit -candidates who despite lots of time to think of a good answer, STILL CAN'T explain how they'll differentiate themselves before next August's primary- would do quite well in a much-changed legislative district presently represented by term-limited carpetbagger Joe Gibbons.

http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/FileStores/Web/District/2013_Districts/large/H000H9049_district_100wmap.pdf

A district that's changed in important ways and that as of this past November, encompasses everything in the area east of U.S.-1/Biscayne Blvd. at Sheridan Street to State Road A1A, from just south of State Road 84/ Port Everglades in Ft. Lauderdale on the north, south from Dania to Hollywood and then HB, past Aventura, Eastern Shores, Sunny Isles Beach, North Miami and south of Bal Harbour and Surfside on the east, to the northern parts of Miami Beach.

Among other things, not that you've seen it mentioned anywhere by the South Florida news media, but the new FL-100 has six times as many constituents who classify themselves as Hispanic as African-American.

Hmm-m...

One of the good points of this profile of the candidates is that it specifically brings up Stand Your Ground, SYG.

http://www.sunshinestatenews.com/story/florida-voters-support-stand-your-ground-laws

Contrary to some Dems & Reps legislators who want to "Amend" SYG to make it "better" by being more specific about the exact circumstances under which it can be employed and used as a valid defense in court -regarding the initiation of contact or what is a reasonable, perceived threat, et al- as the link above says quite clearly, "Amend" is currently supported

by only 31% of FL's population.

So in that respect, both Lewy and Geller are real outliers on this issue by being within that 13% sub-minority that want to kill it entirely by repealing it, putting them in a minority opinion position not only within the state, but in my opinion, also within the immediate area.

Seriously, why would anyone in this area with its constant and well-founded fear of opportunistic crime want to help the criminals and actually make it harder for innocent people to defend themselves?

As a Moderate-to-Conservative person, I think that stand of theirs only further highlights their general incompatibility with this changed district, and their future ineffectiveness if somehow elected to the position.

It's for reasons like that that I continue to believe that a reasonably well-financed Moderate candidate, one who's properly focused on actually fixing problems in the state and improving the area's overall Quality of Life -which HAS clearly been diminishing- and bringing middle-management jobs to Florida, could win the race in November, whether a Democrat or a Republican. 

Even while Geller and Lewy cannibalize each other over the next 12 months over who can be the biggest Liberal before the party primary.

And if that candidate to enter the race believes in what I've set forth as a very sound platform is an articulate and personable Moderate Woman, possibly a savvy and telegenic businesswoman from Aventura or Sunny Isles Beach, even more so.

Sunshine State News, @SSNAlerts  https://twitter.com/SSNAlerts 

Is Hallandale Beach Comm. Alexander Lewy -Lewy the Liar- running for FL House 100 in 2014? Yes, but opponents/voters have a treasure trove of evidence to show why he's a poor choice to represent anyone anywhere, given his uncontrollable know-it-all personality and pro-govt. mindset, and penchant for always thinking he knows best, even when self-evident facts show why he's wrong; Friends Helping Friends Dept.: Last Tuesday Lewy was honored by group at the same address he voted to give $200k CRA loan to (that still owed taxpayers money for previous loan) and voted $50k to just weeks ago. Plus, another deal for Rabbi Tennenhaus; @AlexLewy

Today, after being in cold storage for a week, I'm posting an expanded and corrected version of my email of last Tuesday to some folks in and around South Florida who like knowing what's really going on around here, instead of waiting for the South Florida news media to stumble across it.

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If it's not too much trouble, could someone from the South Florida news media please ask Hallandale Beach Comm. Lewy what specific day he's going to make it official and file his paperwork with the Broward Supervisor of Election's office to run for FL House District 100 next year against Joe Geller?

I mention this because Lewy the Liar doesn't do coy very well.

https://twitter.com/AlexLewy/status/303607631099088896/photo/1

With lobbyists like Bernie Friedman in attendance last Tueday night, Alexander Lewy could well have chosen to make that expected announcement then, with everyone saying what a great guy he is, notwithstanding all evidence to the contrary -like his own words and actions, in and out of office.

Like, well to name but five or 7 anti-Hallandale Beach taxpayer and anti-HB homeowner issues I can think of off the top of my head:

a.) Lewy supported the Joy Cooper-led HB City Commission in their vote for the Diplomat LAC in 2009 over the neighborhood's strenuous objections, which is part of why he received campaign contributions from the Westin Diplomat's law firm when he ran for the City Commission a second time after the Broward County Commission killed the incompatible plan in early 2010. 

b.) Despite Northeast HB neighborhood residents being overwhelming AGAINST Mayor's Cooper's absurd and un-safe proposal to make two-way streets out of N.E. 8th & 10th Avenues between Hallandale beach Blvd. and atlatic Shores Blvd., Lewy initially supported it
and chastised NE HB residents who opposed it. 
But the plan was so lacking in both common sense and safety that in the end it wasn't just the NE neighborhood residents who were AGAINST it, but even the sleepwalking geniuses over at Gulfstream Park, who woke-up long enough to feel obliged to publicly speak out AGAINST what he and the mayor wanted;

c.) Lewy has supported the expansion of the city's VERY, VERY unpopular Red-Light Camera operation, a policy that is so unpopular in this city that it was the number-one cited complaint on a questionnaire for HB residents according to an independently-run survey the city paid for. But he didn't care and has continued to support the policy, 

d.) Lewy supported the Ben Gamla Hebrew Charter School being placed in a largely single-family NE Hallandale Beach neighborhood over the neighborhood's reasonable and common sense objections, despite the fact that students from HB would've been in the strong minority of overall students attending, meaning that it would not have been a neighborhood school but a drop-off site for out-of-town people, with the neighborhood getting all the problems and little positive in exchange, 

e.) Last summer Lewy saw nothing at all wrong with voting on The Beachwalk development project next to the Intracoastal Bridge in August -a project which the city's Planning & Zoning Advisory Board unanimously rejected- despite the fact that most of the affected homeowners in the neighborhood were out-of-town, rather than simply wait 2-4 weeks, so they could actually show-up in-person and have their say about what they and their families will have to live with forever -a 31-story building.

f.) Lewy has publicly stated that despite the fact that the entirety of the city's CRA District does NOT reside within Northwest HB, he DOES believe that almost all of the city's the CRA funds should go there.

That this would be contrary to state law and sound public policy and likely lead to lawsuits the city would lose probably makes no difference to him, seeing as how he's consistently shown thru his actions that he believes that it's his job for as much of Hallandale Beach taxpayer and CRA funds to wind-up in northwest HB.

g.) Who can forget Lewy's attempt in July of 2011 to funnel $200,000 to Comm. Anthony A. Sanders' group, Eagles Wings, after midnight at a meeting with few members of the public present and WITHOUT his actually saying their name?

You remember, don't you?

August 27, 2012

To prevent repeat performances of Hallandale Beach Comm. Alexander Lewy's egregious post-Midnight gambit last July to funnel over $200k to Comm. Anthony A. Sanders' Eagles Wings, the new process for funding community nonprofit groups in a suburban Beltway county is precisely what Hallandale Beach needs to emulate; Jeremy Borden in Wash. Post: Prince William changes how it will fund nonprofit groups
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/08/to-prevent-repeat-performances-of.html

Time after time, Lewy has proven that Hallandale Beach residents and small business owners' initial negative feelings and perceptions of him were correct all along -he was exactly what he seemed to them: a career politician in-training who planned on using them as a stepping-stone.

This fact has been proven repeatedly as concerned residents found themselves face-to-face with him on public policy matters,

As the concerned residents from Northeast HB can attest to, more times than they could count, they've been condescendingly told by Lewy that THEY had "their facts all wrong" when it was actually Lewy who was wrong.

That refusal of Lewy's last August to even consider delaying the first hearing on The Beachwalk for less than a month, something that I honestly thought that even he would be smart enough to see the wisdom of, really left a bitter taste in the mouths of many Hallandale Beach residents who live in that area.

But what Lewy and his band of acolytes fails to understand is how much other concerned HB residents see that refusal to do the right thing as yet another piece of the puzzle in revealing Lewy's true nature, and the larger picture that is his CONSISTENT unwillingness to put the interests of HB residents and homeowners first -and above real estate developers.

In every case, Alexander Lewy has supported real estate developers, NOT the interests of Hallandale Beach residents, parents, home owners and small business owners.
Those were his votes and his opinions and he now owns them for posterity.

It's hard not to notice who almost always seems to come in second with him.

It's also hard not to notice over time that he seems to prefer the momentary flash and illusory pretense that he's an important player who gets to make important decisions, instead of the more low-key and more important role of one of five people in this city entrusted to provide genuine oversight over an unwieldy and generally poorly-performing city bureaucracy that fails too consistently taxpayers.

But we know why, and that's because Lewy genuinely loves government bureaucracy.

In my view and that of many others in this community, Lewy keeps making the wrong decision and keep putting the wrong parties first in part because Alexander Lewy is as stridently pro-government and anti-taxpayer and resident as any politician in South Florida could possibly be in the year 2013.

That strikes me as a very poor starting-point for a candidacy, especially for someone who's actually done very little of consequence or accomplishment in two years in office, and something which even an opponent of average intelligence will no doubt exploit to the fullest.

Lewy has certainly provided the public and any 2014 opponent with an overwhelming mountain of evidence to prove just that.  

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In 2011, a group at the same address as last Tuesday's get-together, Chaya Aydel Seminary, was given a $200k loan for property improvements on property that they didn't even own themselves, under the guise of it creating "jobs."

NOT that the city has ever checked to see how many jobs, if any, were actually "created" as a result of CRA loans, as last week's Broward Inspector General report mentioned.
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/05/why-joy-coopers-rubber-stamp-crew-set.html

This, even though this organization STILL hadn't entirely repaid a previous loan from the city.

Must be nice to have such good friends with money to lend! 

And with such generous 15% forgiveness terms!  

The first link is to the city's staff report, the second is to their support documents.

http://www.hallandalebeachfl.gov/files/2011-05-18/Staff%20Reports/00006805.htm

http://www.hallandalebeachfl.gov/files/2011-05-18/Item%208E/index.html

See my May 23, 2011 blog post on that agenda item: 

Why? Joy Cooper's Rubber Stamp Crew set to give $200k in CRA loan to entity that fails to meet city's OWN RULES; may already owe $170K from past loan!

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/05/why-joy-coopers-rubber-stamp-crew-set.html

Just a few short weeks ago, Rabbi Raphael Tennenhaus, the person who, in all reality, was  the real host of last Tuesday's event, was the recipient of CRA largess to the tune of $50k for purposes that many if not most in this city have a hard time wrapping their heads around.

Which is to say, is there's really THAT MUCH drug abuse going on among Senior Citizens in HB, and it's such a problem, why has it never been publicly mentioned before at a City Commission or CRA meeting?

Very curious...

Should the HB City Commission, acting as the HB CRA, really be giving money to yet another group, for a problem that few who here really thinks exists, and to quote the city's own documents, "However, the statistical impact on Hallandale Beach/HBCRA District

specifically was not provided."

On the face of their own documents, they seem to have almost nobody with either a medical or Social Work background involved:

http://www.hallandalebeachfl.gov/files/2012-12-17-HBCRA2/Item%209A/SUPP_DOCS/Documents/Doc8.pdf

More recently, just two weeks ago, yet another Rabbi named Tennenhaus, Levi Tennenhaus, who is also associated with that very same address, was the name party in another CRA agenda item, one that gave him and his wife a real financial break, too.

Below, in blue, are some excerpts from a Draft of comments written by my friend and HB civic activist Csaba Kulin, who was at that CRA meeting, who wrote his thoughts down for the benefit of myself and others who didn't attend the meeting.

I've slightly tightened it up here-and-there for grammatical and syntax purposes, but it's well over 99.99% Csaba's hard work.

The points Csaba makes are just as fundamentally sound now as they were when he first wrote them down, and echo many of the very same points that he and I and many others in this community have been making for many years regarding how things are routinely done in Hallandale Beach. 

Which is to say, why do so many things involving financial grants and loans from the city's CRA and City Commission seem to only benefit a small handful of people, and not just any people, but rather ones who are 'connected' and who have some degree of either social, financial or political pull in this community, especially the latter?

And why is it that the average Hallandale Beach taxpayer and small business owner always seems to come up last on the Totem Pole when it comes to the City Commission/CRA's priorities, compared to their friends and political allies?

Comm. Julian wanted to ask questions about 9 A, the Levi Tenenhaus item. Julian said that he has not seen that as one of the entities getting a grant. He was 100% right to ask questions. I have never seen the Tennenhaus item before, it was not part of the other items. Julian just asked for a simple explanation and he did not get a straight answer. I would love to hear a bit more about it.
 
The way I understand, the applicant got the $40,000 First-time homeowner loan in 2010 to purchase a $215,000 house. The questions in 2010 should have been, was he a first time home owner or just a first time home buyer in HB? Did he really in need the $40,000 or it was just nice to get it? That is water under the bridge, we cannot talk about it, but I'd like to know. It was probably one of the 350 “exceptions” mentioned in the last audit.
 The City/CRA had a second mortgage, on the property to insure that the City/CRA gets re-paid in case of a default. Mr. Tennenhaus wants to expend the house and in order to get a loan he wants HB/HBCRA to "subordinate" its claim to the lender giving the loan. With the construction loan added, the loan amount exceeds 80% of the appraised value and it is NOT allowed.
 
Now, here comes HB/HBCRA to the rescue. We do NOT care if HB/HBCRA gets repaid, as long as the lender of the construction loan gets repaid.

The CM/ED said "no fiscal impact at THIS time". True, but do you think a "second" mortgage is worth as much as a "third" mortgage? I do NOT think so. We will see it in the future.

Just some things to think about today as you wonder why this city that clearly ought to be so much better and attractive than it is now, remains in such a state of funk and confusion.

In case you have problems with the link below, which is how I found out about this

event, it's at 

http://www.jewishpress.com/sections/community/south-florida/chabad-of-south-broward-to-host-annual-dinner/2013/02/28/