Showing posts with label Alan B. Koslow. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alan B. Koslow. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Hallandale Beach Planning Dept. Dir. Christy Domiguez's incredibly embarrassing screw-up ensures that unpopular Ben Gamla Charter is approved by P&Z

Above, the Hallandale Jewish Center in Hallandale Beach, FL.
The future home of Peter Deutsch's Ben Gamla Hebrew Charter School?
I sure hope not or this single-family residential area in northeast HB is going to see their Quality-of-Life go down drastically starting in August as out-of-town parents use their neighborhood like a fast-food drive-thru.
March 7, 2011 photo by
South Beach Hoosier
.
If you can't rely on the city's well-paid professional staff in the Planning Dept., and their well-paid Director, Christy Dominguez, to actually know the applicable laws of the state we are living in -Florida, if you forgot- rely on them to actually double-check their work if necessary to make sure that their "facts," analysis and staff reports submitted to taxpayers and elected officials are both accurate and unbiased, why NOT simply fire the whole Dept.?

Yes,
FIRE the whole Dept. and contract out the work out to people who DON'T get publicly humiliated and 'schooled' like a small child -in from of dumbfounded city taxpayers- about the actual laws, rules and guidelines that are the focus of her Dept.'s report on the compatibility of developer's projects subject to approval by this city's elected government.

Is it really too much to hope that she and her staff actually know what the hell they are talking about?

To not be told matter-of-factly by an architect for Ben Gamla that the city's analysis is not just WRONG, but relies on information that has NOT been applicable for over 5-6 years?
I mean it's only their job, right?


What were Dominguez & Company completely wrong about?
Item #7 in their staff report placed on the city website last Thursday, that I mentioned here on Monday, saying that the proposed project was Incompatible with the Florida Dept. of Education's requirements regarding size of school recreation space/room for expansion:

If you forgot what that was about, see my post titled,

The facts -and city staff report- are in re application of Peter Deutsch's Ben Gamla Hebrew Charter School in Hallandale Beach
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/facts-and-city-staff-report-are-in-re.html

That information is what concerned residents and parents in this city city were hanging their hopes on, besides the inherent logic of all their other valid points about traffic, pollution and safety.
And now, at the Eleventh Hour, we learn at the meeting that it was all a mistake they SHOULD'VE already known about, and are told about it not from Dominguez herself or even her staff, but by BG's architect and their attorney, Alan D. Koslow.
We were blind-sided by city staffers!

Just imagine how much Koslow and Co. were laughing when they got the staff report from the city and saw that item at #7 and knew with certainty that the city was wrong on the law?
They must've laughed their asses off!

No wonder Alan Koslow concluded his remarks by saying what a great job the city's staff does.
Their incompetence makes his job easier!


March 23, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Their demonstrated incompetence in a debacle of a public meeting Wednesday afternoon before the city's Planning & Zoning Advisory Board, above, and their longstanding continued inability to competently and reliably use the technology in the Commission Chambers -that Hallandale Beach taxpayers have ALREADY PAID FOR- to put the relevant information on the projection screen for the benefit of the citizen taxpayers in the room, as well as the ones watching on Cable TV, make me one taxpayer who has already seen quite enough incompetency the past seven years to last a lifetime, and willing to try something new.

Wrong Way? You bet! The perfect metaphor for so much of what goes on in this city under the current Cooper/Antonio regime at HB City Hall. Above is a shot of the only two Wrong Way signs on southbound N.E. 8th Avenue between Hallandale Beach Blvd. and Atlantic Shores Blvd., a distance of roughly a mile. Coincidentally, they are located right next to the Hallandale Jewish Center, and one of them is STILL obstructed by a tree, like a million other signs in this city.
It just gets better and better...

March 7, 2011 photo by
South Beach Hoosier


What we have now is NOT working for taxpayers, esp. given the Planning Dept.'s longstanding practice of hiding information from the public and making them jump thru hoops, a la the Diplomat LAC, where public info came out 28 hours before a public vote of the P&Z.
But the lobbyists had it the previous week!

Which is just what I told the Broward County Planning Council and the County Commission three times last year when I spoke on the issue.

I've always suspected that the
Ben Gamla Hebrew Charter School application would be approved today, since five of the seven members of the P&Z Advisory Board have actually acted more like cheerleaders for the project in the past than the serious deliberative members of the community -our community, NOT Tamarac's- with some actually going out of their way to publicly criticize HB residents exercising their rights -and being against it.

That's especially
the case with P&Z members Eudyce Steinberg and Sheryl Natelson, who on Wednesday and in the past have all but accused HB citizens opposed to this very unpopular project of being -wait for it- anti-Semitic.

If you don't believe me, check the prior P&Z videos
-it's all there.


In fact, one of the members voting for it,
Jack Fendell, actually recused himself at a prior P&Z meeting on Ben Gamla, yet no mention was made of that fact, and he participated.
So what changed exactly?

And why did nobody from the city even ask if there were any conflicts of interests that needed to be publicly disclosed at the beginning of the meeting? It's common practice in the rest of country, but here, well, it's just different rules entirely, isn't it?

Perhaps it's all for the best, since part of changing this community for the better and enacting the desperately-needed reform and accountability that is obviously lacking now is pro-actively effectuating that change, perhaps via a recall of bitter, mean-spirited and disconnected Comm.
Dotty Ross and equally disconnected and apathetic Comm. Anthony A. Sanders.

What better way to move that process forward than the public spectacle of the Cooper Rubber Stamp Crew -
and Ross & Sanders in particular- actually having to debate the facts and realities of this unpopular project in public, not only amongst themselves, but with BG's attorney, Alan B. Koslow, standing there, ready to pounce and take advantage of their lack of clarity, common sense and knowledge of the issue.

Yes, they will no longer be able to hide behind their longstanding list of alibis, excuses and delusions for not paying close attention to matters they OUGHT TO KNOW better than my
concerned friends and I -but don't.


And unlike his behavior at the required
Ben Gamla 'community meeting' of two hours last year that City Manager Mark Antonio insisted be held at the sweltering Hallandale Jewish Center, without the benefit of A/C or a single fan in the place, Sanders can't just up and leave after about 45 minutes.

Is it Sanders' well-known short-attention span or just his general dis-interest in actually doing what his job as an elected official requires? Or both?
Who can say, but Sanders & Ross definitely have to go!

And as if everything wasn't already a total mess, typically,
Mark Antonio and Co. had the meeting end without being able to tell city residents when specifically that City Commission meeting on Ben Gamla will take place.
Surprise!!!


Yes, it was just the latest red ribbon on yet another perfectly awful day in Hallandale Beach's upside-down version of public policy, where the interests of the citizen taxpayer usually come up dead last.

Well, M
ission Accomplished, no thanks to the HB Planning Dept. who didn't know what they were doing, and caused the last laugh to be had at the expense of this city's taxpayers and the N.E. neighborhood that now has to hope that, for once, the HB City Commission will actually do what it seldom ever does -the right thing.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Sian, Hollywood Beach - Info for Monday afternoon's Technical Advisory Comm. meeting re Sian's 49-unit condo project on S. Ocean Drive

Information for Monday afternoon's Technical Advisory Comm. meeting at Hollywood City Hall regarding the preliminary site plan review for Sian's 49 unit, 115,000 square foot condominium project within their PD on S. Ocean Drive on Hollywood Beach.

Alan D. Koslow of Becker & Poliakoff is the lead attorney for this proposal.

This is the property just north of the already city-approved Beach One Resort Hotel project in Hollywood, on the north side of the Hallandale Beach Water Tower, where the City of Hollywood boundary is farther south on State Road A1A than it is on U.S.-1.

AGENDA

CITY OF HOLLYWOOD

TECHNICAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE

November 15, 2010 – 1:30 P.M.

2ND FLOOR – ROOM 215

2600 HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD

HOLLYWOOD, FLORIDA

A. TAC MEMBER INTRODUCTION

B. APPROVAL OF MINUTES

October 18, 2010 – Special Meeting

October 18, 2010 – Regular Meeting

C. PRELIMINARY SITE PLAN REVIEW

1. FILE NO.: 10-DP-75

APPLICANT: PRH-Sian Hollywood, LLC

LOCATION: 4053 S. Surf Road (Apogee)

REQUEST: Preliminary Site Plan review for construction of a 49 unit condominium within the Sian Planned Development.

D. OLD BUSINESS

None

E. NEW BUSINESS

Approval of the 2011 TAC Meeting calendar

Legal description for each of the above petitions is on file in the Department of Planning and Development Services.

Two or more members of any other City board, commission, or committee, who are not members of this committee, may attend this meeting and may, at that time, discuss matters on which foreseeable action may later be taken by their board, commission, or committee.

Persons with disabilities who require reasonable accommodation to participate in city programs and/or services may call the Office of the City Manager five business days in advance at (954) 921-3582 (voice). If an individual is hearing or speech impaired, please call 1-800-955-8771 (V-TDD).



http://www.hollywoodfl.org/comm_planning/images/TAC/2010November/10-DP-75/Application.pdf

Thursday, December 17, 2009

At 2:43 a.m., Hallandale Beach approves First Reading of controversial Diplomat Country Club LAC, 3-2

Above, the 1923 Abraham Lincoln 3-cent stamp

Thursday December 17th, 2009
3:20 a.m.

You know how at the top of this blog of mine it
says that you are NOT in the Land of Lincoln.
That's still the case.

Not that you'd asked, just saying...
Sadly, that was proven by the past 6-7 hours here
in Hallandale Beach, when an opportunity to do
the right thing for the future of the majority of people
who actually live here right now, was missed.
Missed because of a lack of leadership and a chase
for imaginary city taxes that may never materialize.

Five hours and forty-three minutes after the
agenda item came up at 9:03 p.m. Wednesday
night, starting barely thirty minutes after a
marching band walked thru the packed HB
Commission Chambers, to the great confusion
and consternation of many arriving attendees,
the Hallandale Beach City Commission approved
Diplomat Properties L.P.'s LAC proposal
largely along the lines I feared it would when
I arrived at 6:45 p.m.


Comm. Dotty Ross made the motion for approval
at about 2:36 a.m. and Mayor Joy Cooper
seconded the motion after having previously
handed the presiding gavel over to Comm.
William Julian.


Voting for the approval:
Dotty Ross
, Joy Cooper, Anthony A. Sanders.

Voting against: Keith London, William Julian.

I'll have more to say about this meeting later today.


I'd really been looking forward to being able to
bring you video of the most important parts
of the evening, both to clarify some points I've
been making here on the blog for a while,
as well as to show you the lighter-than-air
quality of many of the promises made on
behalf of the project, but due to both the length
of the meeting and more importantly,
some secondary problems associated with
my camera and I getting thoroughly soaked
in a torrential thunderstorm on Friday
afternoon, that's not likely to happen unless
I can salvage some video and photos.


Many people arriving at 7 p.m. for the Public Comments
portion of the meeting for non-agenda items were very
surprised to see that Holiday Decorations prizes were
still being given inside a packed Commission Chambers.
Not me -I expected it.
Experience!

So instead of going over their three-minute comments
in their head from their seats inside, everyone milled
around in the dark.

You only see these movers-and-shakers because of
my
camera flash -when it was working.
December 16, 2009 photo by
South Beach Hoosier
.


See I told you there was a marching band!
This is a shot of the marching band lining-up inside
the City Hall breezeway to go inside the Commission
Chambers.
That's Becker & Poliakoff attorney
Alan B. Koslow on far right, facing you.
Again, you only see them all because of
the camera flash.
December 16, 2009 photo by South Beach Hoosier

You remember what I said yesterday about the
messed-up ceiling, don't you?
See, I wasn't exaggerating about that, either.
Those public parking lot lights in front of Hallandale
Beach City Hall were still out, too.
But then you probably guessed that, right?
Now you're catching on...

Below, the marching band coming out of the Hallandale
Beach City Commission Chambers around 7:45 p.m.
or so, Wednesday night.

Seeing is believing.
That's why it's Hallandale
Beach, oui?