When pols get ballgame tickets, ethics sometimes gets kind of hazy: "Tickets, tickets, who wants a ticket?"

Above, the old-style Miami Dolphins helmet decal that I grew-up with, when it was the most unifying symbol in all of South Florida. The Dolphins kick-off the exhibition season at home tonight against Tampa Bay.

I found this St. Pete Times story below quite interesting given what transpired at Tuesday's very contentious Broward County Commission meeting, when one of the few moments of levity came when Comm. Lois Wexler's made some comments about 26 Dolphin-Bucs tickets sent to her by the team to distribute, during the otherwise heated ethics debate.
http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/broward/blog/2010/08/ticketgate.html Later in the day, there was some news about interim Comm. Al C. Jones rescinding his ticket offer.

How could Hillsborough County Commissioner Kevin White really think a Bucs skybox ticket had no "value" if there was not a price on it?
Wow!

Years ago when I still worked in Washington, D.C., when the MCI Center -now Verizon Center- finally opened downtown, in a perfect location, right next to Chinatown, and with the arrival of the one-and-only MJ, Michael Jordan, because he knew that Washington lobbyists would actually find going to Wizards games more fun now that they didn't have to schlep out to suburban PG County, Maryland, Wizard's owner Abe Polin reportedly -definitely!- had some very nice lower-level seat tickets which had a higher financial value, intentionally marked with a lower one so that lobbyists could legally give them to Members of Congress, influential staffers and other D.C. insiders and poohbahs without fear of running afoul of lobbying and ethics rules.

Mr. Polin believed that having more elected officials and lawyer/lobbyists at games would give going to a Wizards home game more cachet -albeit, NOT as much as going to Redskin games at RFK in the late '80's when Jack Kent Cooke was still alive.

Or so the Wizards and the Washington Post surely thought at the time.

Which perhaps says more about what D.C. and the woebegone Wizards though 'cachet' was about than anything else!

See also: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-mssp/sport.pdf
---------
St. Petersburg Times
Kevin White belatedly reports free Bucs skybox tickets

By Bill Varian, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Saturday, August 14, 2010

TAMPA — Hillsborough County Commissioner Kevin White has belatedly reported as a gift a luxury suite ticket he received last year from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

White said he received an invite from the Buccaneers to attend their Sept. 27 game against the New York Giants. He said the tickets, for him and his wife, had no face value printed on them, so he thought nothing of it.

Read the rest of the article at:
http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/kevin-white-belatedly-reports-free-bucs-skybox-tickets/1115204

------

Tim Smith's Fort Lauderdale blog Posted by Tim Smith at 8/10/10 4:27 P.M. Commissioner Indian Giver !

Todays' Broward County Commission meeting was one for the record books.

Commissioners crying, yelling, stomping their feet over the proposed Ethics Proposal.
They even had to call a time out and send everyone to their corners for a cooling off period!

But while Rome was burning, and Commissioner's ethics was the topic, District 9 County Commissioner Al C. Jones was busy passing out goodies to the neighborhood Presidents in his District by e-mail!

Read the rest of the post at:
http://blog.timsmith.com/2010/08/10/commissioner-indian-giver-.aspx

Broward Comm Albert Jones and the future of the incompatible Diplomat LAC -and what does he really know about the lies spread by HB's Anthony Sanders?

Obviously, I've been talking to people all over the
county a lot about the Diplomat LAC proposal,
which, as I constantly remind everyone I speak
to about it, Hallandale Beach City Hall only placed
on the city's website for citizens to read 28 hours
before the first vote in mid-December.

One of the sub-plots that's come up is how this
may affect former Dania mayor and current
interim Broward Commissioner Albert C. Jones'
political future, if any, as he seeks to get elected
to a position he was appointed to by Gov. Crist.

There are some larger issues for people all over
the county to contemplate.

If, by virtue of his YES vote on March 23rd,
he believes that it is perfectly acceptable for
25-30 story residential buildings to be located
adjacent to single-family residential areas,
some only 25 feet away, will he also be voting
this same way for future development applications
in the rest of Broward County, including
the cities of Fort Lauderdale, Pembroke Pines,
Hollywood, Coral Springs, Miramar, Plantation,
Sunrise and Davie, as well as the entirety of the
Broward Commission District he hopes to
represent in the future as an elected
Commissioner?

If not, why then is he forcing Hallandale Beach
and nearby Hollywood citizens to bear this
particular burden when they are opposed to it,
and are already physically hamstrung by not
only having geographical barriers, but also
among the single worst traffic to be currently
found in all of South Florida?

How is it that he imagines having thousands
more residents in that area will not directly
affect the ability of people to evacuate when
the sites in question are ALL mandatory
hurricane evacuation areas?

There are many questions you could ask him,
but this might be the first

Please explain your rationale for your
March 23rd vote and why Broward residents
should not expect you to vote similarly for
future applications if you are elected.
Or, do you plan to make exceptions for other
cities, but not in this particular case with respect
to Hallandale Beach and Hollywood residents?

Another question to ponder is why would
politically-active Broward residents who live
outside of the 9th District currently represented
by Jones, especially in Hollywood or Hallandale
Beach, consider making small campaign
contribution to him if he is a solid vote FOR
developers' out-of-scale plans of a sort that
caused the Broward Planning Council's
professional staff to recommend DENIAL
of the proposal?

Well, they wouldn't if he votes for the Diplomat
on April 27th whereas they might consider it
if he votes against it.
Hmm-m-m...

Then again, if he votes for the Diplomat,
it's highly likely that they and their law firms,
lobbyists and consultants will show him
some love with campaign contributions
while those very same politically-active
residents of the county will contribute to
one of his many opponents.
That's politics: votes matter.

I personally think that April 12th or so is
plenty of time for him to have decided what
he's going to do, one way or the other on
the second go-round with this.

If he appears set on rejecting the community
again, as far as I'm concerned, that's it for
him and I personally plan to go to Plan B
with Comm. Jones.

That's the plan where his opponents
start asking these questions publicly
themselves, and he doesn't get elected.

According to the website of the Broward County
Supervisor of Elections (SOE) Jones still
does NOT appear on the official candidates list.
http://www.browardsoe.org/electioncandidates.aspx?eid=89

That same website notes that as of today,
the registered voters here break down as follows:
Democrat: 544,329
Republican: 243,802
Other: 240,806
Total: 1,028,937

Nobody here but us scorpions:
For what it's worth, if anyone out there was
thinking of whom they could contact on the
Commission to try to prevent this proposal
from going thru, I believe that any time
and energy directed at Ilene Lieberman or
Stacey Ritter is completely wasted.

That's especially the case after many people
from around the county who have dealt with
them in the past, inc. elected officials,
have contacted me and said that after hearing
and reading what's already transpired, they
agree with me that Lieberman and Ritter
literally can't help themselves.

You know, like the scorpion and the frog.
Except in this case, they're both scorpions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scorpion_and_the_Frog

These two still imagine themselves able to
pick and choose economic winners and losers
throughout the county based on whom they
know or who is involved in a project, i.e.
crony capitalism, the preferred method
employed at Hallandale Beach City Hall
to dispense taxpayer and CRA funds.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crony_capitalism

The Rodstrom Factor:
The fact that we never heard any specifics about
why some people in Broward thought Comm.
John Rodstrom would abstain last Tuesday
-just a feeling?- and still can't say, is sufficient
proof to me that Rodstrom is also a lost cause.

Rodstrom is also involved with the Margaritaville
bid in Hollywood's Johnson Street RFP that
I personally find so unattractive and objectionable,
and may will be at Hollywood City Hall on April 7th
at 4 p.m., when the entire City Commission sees
the presentations and formally asks questions for
the first time.
I'll be there also, of course.

To me, for better or worse, the entire fight for
the Diplomat LAC proposal lies with Comm.
Albert C. Jones.
Period.

It would be great if someone could convince
Jones that what is really going on in HB, with
Sanders & Co. seemingly trying to benefit either
financially or professionally -or both- from every
single proposed project in HB, thru so-called
'job programs' -regardless of how many
actual jobs are created, and to the apparent
exclusion of other groups involvement-
is not our opinion, it's a verifiable fact.

But you have to be willing to admit that
seeing is believing.

Some well-informed people throughout the county
tell me that just as is true with Comm. Diana
Wasserman-Rubin, Comm. Jones does NOT
really want to ask too many questions about HB
Comm. Anthony Sanders.

You know, like the entire South Florida news media,
save Sun-Sentinel columnist Michael Mayo?

Whether about the curious sale of his family property
to the city for far more than its appraised value
-for purposes that are still not at all clear-
or ask why so many of his associates and pals
seem to be getting sweetheart deals from the city
that seem absurd on their face and unpopular
with taxpayers.

For instance, City Manager Good deciding on
his own, without any input from the elected City
Commission, to give $25,000 to someone for
a summer camp that is not a non-profit.

Something that elected city commissioners only
found out about a week after the fact.

So, does anyone out there have any idea of how
much money in grants or loans that brother-and-sister
act Deborah Brown and John Brown have
separately received from the City of HB over
the past few years?

She's the woman, of course, who got the $25k
last year without the public or elected officials
knowing about it 'till it was too late.
See http://www.corporationwiki.com/Florida/Hallandale-Beach/deborah-brown-P1332185.aspx

Until a few weeks ago, I just assumed that Zamar
was a non-profit, but since it's incorporated,
it's clearly not, so why did they get the money
instead of someone else?
Better yet, if you have nothing to hide, why was
this kept from the public?

The fact that the city's CRA has been used as
an ATM for so long by HB City Hall for their friends,
and more recently, by Sanders' myriad acolytes,
without actually alleviating poverty or blight,
is going to come out sooner rather than later.

Comm. Jones needs to decide if he supports
the empty promises of the Diplomat and their
apologists like Sanders, or concrete results.

It's time for him to be a Profile in Courage
and do the right thing, or seal his fate with
Broward voters. Late this afternoon I was
informed that: Comm. Sanders was STILL
going around town, esp. churches, saying
the Diplomat LAC is good for "their community,"
but people who know the true facts are downright
insulted by the drop-in-the-bucket proposal
for Affordable Housing, and the Diplomat's
clear preference to not have the affordable
housing actually be at their actual site.

Naturally, they want to export it off-site just like
Gulfstream Park, Magna and Forest City did.
So, who profits from this, exactly?

Despite what you may have heard elsewhere.
the Palms Coalition decided not to support
the Diplomat LAC proposal as a group.

I'll bet that even Diana Wasserman-Rubin
knows this, but will she actually show-up at
the NW quadrant meeting on Monday at
6:30 p.m., at the city's Hepburn Center,
to see what the community actually thinks
about this?

It should be interesting to see what sort of
turn-out they get from their paid puppets,
or even whether the South Florida news media,
esp. TV, continues their apparent boycott of
this compelling story.

In fact, perhaps because it is scheduled for NW,
the news media will show-up, albeit, like the
much-needed military support that was too late
getting to Custer.

One thing you can count on though is that
the Diplomat's interests will be employing
a full-court press at this meeting to try to
spin it their way, with the same invisible faces
we never see at City Commission or CRA
meetings suddenly popping-up and telling
us how much they want it.

Some people will always put their own financial
interests ahead of the community's greater good,
and that's exactly what we'll see on Monday night.

I'll tell you who those people are.

Thoughts on the Diplomat LAC proposal, now scheduled for April 27, and the economic threats the Westin Diplomat is now making. How low can they go?

From: Diplomat Properties, LP
Sent: Mon, Mar 29, 2010 11:24 am
Subject: Diplomat Returns to Broward County Commission for Final Vote on April 27

The Diplomat LAC will return to the Broward County Commission for a final vote in the next few weeks. This follows a 4-4 tie vote at the public hearing on March 23, with one Commissioner not present. Throughout the public review process, plans have continued to evolve in response to community and public officials' comments. Most recently, the residential buildings planned for parcel B have been reduced to 5 stories. As a supporter, you understand how crucial the residential component is to preserving the golf course. Please help us get this message out. There will be no new hotel without a residential community within the project and there may be no golf course without the LAC. We hope that you will e-mail or call the county commissioners whose no vote indicates that they don't yet appreciate this crucial linkage. Ask that they vote Yes to allow this important project to move forward. (Commissioners Jacobs, Wexler, Gunzburger and Keechl voted no; Commissioner Lieberman was not present.) We appreciate everyone's support and will let you know the new County Commission meeting date as soon as it is confirmed.

http://campaign.constantcontact.com/render?v=001AOTdCtwnZM-kEPmDeh-ar8VKcVOHca1BcHUREzwyr-E98_8Ipi2GfpQ2T5JkGjKQEb2xnzKyOREwFtCMaB9_V3iwa7S31pUHDORP104kii1pwTUvcjrXi9bKWgPJdfeciXD24y-2tURUVHm94Pjq4u0SwIcO4qj4

I've told you all in previous emails and blog
posts here that the the union that owns the
Westin Diplomat Resort & Spa, as well
as the Golf Course, the Plumbers and Pipe
Fitters, as well as hospitality management
company Starwood and the high-paid
lawyers, lobbyists and myriad consultants
they've retained, would engage in serial lies
and misrepresentation in order to get their
way, and they have.
Now, you can see it for yourself, above.

"There will be no new hotel without a
residential community within the project
and there may be no golf course without
the LAC."

Yes, they'll huff and they'll puff and they'll blow
the Diplomat's golf course up if they don't
get their way.
Cue the the Three Pigs!

The next vote on the Diplomat LAC will take
place before the Broward County Commission
on April 27th at 2 p.m., not the 13th as was
stated here earlier.

So when is the South Florida news media
going to cover this story in a way that equates
to its actual importance to the community's
Quality-of-Life?

That's a good question.

After a number of conversations with people
in the area and around the county, I'll have
some thoughts to share in the next two weeks
on how we all think the Diplomat LAC proposal
-which you'll recall that Hallandale Beach
City Hall placed on the city's dreadful website
for citizens to read 28 hours before the first
vote in mid-December- may affect interim
Broward Commissioner Albert C. Jones'
political future, as he seeks to get elected
to a position he was appointed to by
Gov. Charlie Crist.
http://www.broward.org/district9/
http://gis.broward.org/maps/webPDFs/CommissionDistricts/comdist9.pdf

Jones was one of the four votes for the
Diplomat last Tuesday, yet curiously,
as of this afternoon, his name still does
not appear on the posted candidates list
of the SOE.
http://www.browardsoe.org/electioncandidates.aspx?eid=89

So am I the only one who wonders why
are there no news stories about Comm.
Diana Waseerman-Rubin, whose District
actually includes a small part of NW Hallandale
Beach, and how she barely(!) understands
what she is voting on with respect to this
matter, and why is she making no effort
to come to the actual area to see what's
at stake for local residents?

Is it because she thinks Hallandale Beach
City Comm. Anthony Sanders has magical
powers that will ensure a huge turnout for her,
assuming her name is even on the ballot?

I'm sure that Sanders political and campaign
support came up when she met Sanders
(and City Manager Good?) in person at the
city's Hepburn Center two weeks ago today,
but, days later, actually turned-down an
invitation from residents in the affected HB
neighborhood to see it from their ground-level
perspective.

She had no problem in driving east to Hallandale
Beach to meet with Comm. Sanders, but actual
HB residents, well, she made them come to her
office in West Park, one week ago today.

I guess she was afraid that if she really saw
what the residents were up against, it would
make it much harder for her to vote for the
Diplomat and against them, huh?

Better to keep their legitimate concerns as
an abstract idea, instead of real homes where
real people live.

Why isn't that curious choice of her's a
news story that serves as an entree into
the larger Diplomat story?

That's another good question.

Or what about Hallandale Beach mayor Joy Cooper
actually telephoning Diana Wasserman-Rubin
and telling her NOT to listen to the HB residents,
saying that they were naysaying "mavericks."

"Mavericks"?
No, just citizens of a city where the domineering,
thin-skinned mayor brooks no dissent, actively
engaging in participatory democracy despite
her disapproval.

That participatory democracy thing is something
she is, herself, deadly afraid of, which is why
she's okay with a City Hall-paid spy attending
meetings throughout the community for $2-3,000
a month, and reporting back to HB City Hall.

Wow, Joy Cooper speaking poorly about
HB residents behind their back, go figure?

But then if she's willing to call political opponents
of hers "Nazis" on City Hall property, inc. me,
and calling HB Comm. Keith London "a Hitler"
just moments later, it's really not so surprising.

That's how Joy Cooper rolls, as I've only been
saying here for years...

I spent some time over the weekend editing
all the photos and hours of video I shot of the
Broward Planning Council meeting of
February, and last Tuesday's Broward County
Commission, so that I can post them online
here and my under-utilized YouTube page
over the next few days,
http://www.youtube.com/user/hallandalebeachblog
so that not only the Hallandale Beach and
Hollywood communities can see what they
missed out on, but greater South Florida as well.

Perhaps they'll even pick-up on the general tenor
of the meetings, as well as the often mis-leading
information offered-up by many of our opponents.

That's especially the case with many local folks,
some of whom claim to have a connection to the
Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, who said
they were SO concerned about the economic
health of HB, but most of whom you and I have
NEVER seen before, not even at Hollywood
City Commission or CRA meetings, which I
frequently attend.

I don't really mind the people supporting the
Diplomat so much as their rather transparent
attempts to buffalo us in this process in such a
very condescending way, while acting like
they were the ones looking at "the big picture."

Yes, "the big picture" that you might otherwise
recognize as your family's daily existence
hereabouts and their future.

No, actually, we were the ones doing that "big
picture" scenario, they were the local opportunists
and butt-kissers looking at self-enrichment,
which is one of the reason that I found it so easy
to take some verbal shots at some of them during
my public comments, specifically referring to them
as "water carriers" for HB CIty Hall and the
Diplomat.

That's what they were, Ann Taylor pantsuits
or not.

It was their smug attempts to seem intellectually
elevated that I found grating, especially since
you know they'd never tolerate multiple 25-30
story condo towers next to their own home in
a single family residential area.

Guess what?
A new idea is close to coming to fruition
with regard to this particular underdog effort.
After some preliminary conversations with
some well-informed citizens and civic activists
from both HB, Hollywood and beyond, who,
frankly, have grown tired of these artificial
turf friends of HB's economy speaking on
behalf of their personal greed, wallets and
purses, I've agreed to create a handy roster
here on this humble blog that will allow those
of you following this effort from the comfort
of your own home to know whom some
of the players are.

I'm going to create a list of the local people
who have spoken on behalf of the Diplomat
at government meetings and ridiculed the
legitimate concerns of the affected
neighborhood's citizens.

That list will likely include their name as well
as the name and location of their business,
if any.

If they have a business located in Hollywood,
Hallandale Beach or Aventura, I will endeavor
to take a photograph of that business so that
you all will be able to recognize it and associate
that particular business in your mind with
someone who's perfectly content for your area's
Quality-of-Life to go down the tubes.

In fact, felt so strongly about it that they said so
publicly. That's their choice.

Of course, some of these folks work in enterprises
where they are heavily-dependent on taxpayer
funds for funding.
They sure don't act like it though.

Such an example is the Hallandale Beach Chamber
of Commerce, which last year got a brand new
office at taxpayer-built HB City Hall.
It's that room next to the HB City Commission
Chambers in the breezeway at City Hall.

The group's head Patricia Genetti, whose
organization receives $50,000 of taxpayers
funds this year, much of it going towards her
salary, has been an outspoken proponent of
the Diplomat's case.

Unlike the case in many parts of the country,
where these sorts of govt. financial relationships
require public disclosure whenever compensated
individuals speak before govt. agencies,
Patricia Genetti has chosen to keep quiet about
that $50k of taxpayer loot, as she has spoken
in favor of the Diplomat LAC before the
HB Planning & Zoning meeting in mid-December,
the HB City Commission meeting the very next day,
the Broward County Planning Council meeting in
late Febraury, plus last week's important Broward
County Commission meeting that resulted in a
4-4 tie vote.

That's four separate meetings that I can think of
just off the top of my head, plus Genetti also
spoke at length at the so-called informational
public meeting the Diplomat was required to
hold at the HB Cultural Center last year, where
she also decided to keep mum about the taxpayer
money she gets while speaking against the
interests of the majority of HB's citizen taxpayers.

Some people will find this information valuable
and some will not, just as some may choose
to tell friends and family about it and decide
that they want to boycott those particular
businesses while for others, it has no practical
effect whatsoever.

It's your choice, of course, but now you'll have
the information you need to decide whether
you want to patronize those businesses or
boycott them.

You're welcome.