Update re Margaritaville Hollywood Beach Resort; Community Meeting/Q&A at Hollywood City Hall re proposed changes to the project's lease & related documents is Thursday at 6 p.m.; What are Starwood Capital and Lon Tabatchnick/Lojeta up to now?

Received a helpful head's up yesterday from a well-informed and plugged-in reader in next-door Hollywood about a timely update on the Margaritaville Hollywood Beach Resort; with a community meeting/Q&A scheduled for Thursday at 6 pm at Hollywood City Hall regarding the various changes to the project's lease and related documents.

This morning I officially received the news from the City of Hollywood, below:

What are Starwood Capital and Lon Tabatchnick/Lojeta up to now?
Hmm-m...

Seven weeks ago, thanks to The Balance Sheet Blog,  the conscientious “eyes and ears” of Hollywood, we knew the following: http://balancesheetblog.wordpress.com/2013/04/01/margaritaville-2/

I attended that semi-contentious meeting at Hollywood City Hall (and recorded it) and I think it's fair to say that even among the Margaritaville supporters in the chambers and within the general public as a whole, there is definitely growing resistance to letting this little melodrama play itself out much longer, as was made clear by the not-so-sanguine comments of Comm. Peter Hernandez towards the end of the meeting.

This was not at all helped by what in my opinion appeared to be the general evasiveness of some of the Starwood Capital team members present in their responses, as they seemed more tight-lipped than you would think they'd be at a public meeting involving something that the Hollywood community is so emotionally and financially invested in -and for good reason, too.

That's especially true given the history of this project and the fact that Starwood Capital and their new pal Lon Tabatchnick were asking for something from Hollywood's elected representatives, NOT giving them something to make the medicine go down faster.

Some of the Starwood Capital folks almost seemed genuinely upset that the City Commission wanted more specific answers from them than they were prepared to give, but then I saw this phenomena all the time on Capitol Hill, too, where well-prepped people hit a wall after a while, and became increasingly disconnected to the larger picture.

Specifically, that happened more frequently than you'd imagine it would at Congressional hearings I attended in the 1990's held by what was then called the House Telecomm. & Finance Subcommittee, under then-Chair John Dingell involving the U.S. financial services industry, some of which were both highly-publicized and highly-controversial.

As of today, I don't know with certainty who'll be speaking on Thursday -besides, likely, Hollywood City Manager Cathy Swanson-Rivenbark, whom as regular readers of the blog know, I'm a big fan of- but I genuinely hope that we hear the answers directly from Starwood and not from Lon Tabatchnick's attorney, or from a hired-gun PR whiz.
Guess we'll all find out soon enough...

The community meeting is NOT being called "As The World Turns," but you can be excused for thinking that it ought to be after all this time, with yours truly at 99% of those public meetings from the beginning.

View this in your browser

The City of Hollywood will be holding a Community Meeting to review the proposed changes to the Margaritaville Hollywood Beach Resort Lease and related documents along with a question and answer period on Thursday, May 23rd at 6:00 p.m. at Hollywood City Hall (Room 219).

The Margaritaville Hollywood Beach Resort is proposed for construction on an approximately 5 acre parcel of city-owned land between Johnson Street and Michigan Street on Hollywood Beach.

The Community Meeting will be followed on Wednesday, May 29th at 5:00 p.m. with a Joint Special City Commission/CRA meeting.  This meeting will also be held at Hollywood City Hall (Room 219). City and CRA Staff will present the proposed changes to the City Commission. Representatives from Margaritaville Hollywood Beach Resort, LLC, including Starwood Capital, will also be in attendance. 

For questions, please contact the Office of the City Manager at 954.921.3201.

------
Later...

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Developer tweaks Margaritaville contract with Hollywood
By Susannah Bryan, Sun Sentinel
5:38 p.m. EDT, May 21, 2013
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/hollywood/fl-margaritaville-hollywood-update-20130521,0,2186680.story

Long-term financials at Hollywood and Hallandale Beach City Halls are likely shakier than they appear; 'Mayor Joy Cooper: "I don’t want to adversely affect our services.” 'Since when has she concerned herself with quality of services? Quite the opposite!

“We would like [the tax rate] to be lower, but we have a lot of expenses this year,” said Mayor Joy Cooper after the commission tentatively approved the tax rate this week. “I don’t want to adversely affect our services.”

As quoted in the Miami Herald over the weekend.

To which I can only say, since when has she concerned herself with quality of services? 

Quite the opposite!

The evidence is all around you that you are NOT getting what you've paid for.

Miami Herald

Hallandale Beach residents likely will pay more in taxes  

Hallandale Beach leaders approve a tentative tax rate, which will help pay for additional city services.

By Carli Teproff

Posted June 23, 2012

With two new parks facilities and a push to increase code enforcement and maintenance, Hallandale Beach will have a lot of expenses in the coming year.

And most residents can expect to pay a little bit more in taxes to pay for it all.

So far, the City Commission is leaning toward keeping the tax rate the same as it was this year — $5.90 per $1,000 of assessed property — but with property values going up, that amounts to homeowners paying more.

For a home valued at $200,000, taking the standard $50,000 homestead exemption, the tax bill would be $885, not including school and other taxes.

The city expects to generate about $21.5 million in the 2012-2013 fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1. That’s up $700,000, or 3.37 percent, from this year.

“We would like [the tax rate] to be lower, but we have a lot of expenses this year,” said Mayor Joy Cooper after the commission tentatively approved the tax rate this week. “I don’t want to adversely affect our services.”

Costs are up because two new facilities, a city marina and Foster Park will come online this year, said City Manager Renee Crichton. Running the park will up costs for staff and maintenance, she said.

“The city is an excellent position financially, but we still have some challenges we are going to face long-term,” said Crichton.

Commissioner Keith London, who is running against Cooper for mayor, said he thinks the city needs to rein in its spending.

“I think the budget is too high,” said London. “I don’t think we get the value for our dollar.”

City staff has been working on a proposed budget for months now, and the work will continue through the summer. There will be two public hearings in September before the commission votes on a final tax rate.

In the meantime, commissioners said, the staff should look for ways to save money.

Also at the meeting, the commission agreed to raise fire fees by $20 to $145. By raising the fees, the city would see an additional $900,000.

-----

Earlier today, the Balance Sheet Blog in next-door Hollywood, run by Sara Case and Laurie Schecter, posted a thoughtful and important new entry that has an interesting take on the not-so-rosy long-term financial situation in Hollywood, in that despite the positive changes that were made in response to Hollywood voters overwhelmingly passing last September's referendum on city pensions, Larry Legg, an experienced and savvy CPA who's looked at all the docs you can think of, still states that the "city is still at a moderate to high level of risk of bankruptcy and/or austerity measures." 

It's well worth reading!

PENSION REFORM

July 2, 2012, 12:52 PM 

http://balancesheetblog.wordpress.com/2012/07/02/pension-reform/

Did you notice that line about Unfunded Pension costs?

That particular number here in Hallandale Beach is one that you never hear mentioned or discussed, much, esp. with respect to how to dig out of that hole, but I know someone who does know exactly what those numbers are, esp. with respect to the largest share of that problem, the Police and Fire/Rescue pensions.

If you've been reading this blog regularly, you know who that person is, too: Csaba Kulin.

Trust me, I've seen the numbers myself and it will make your head explode when you see them laid bare here on the blog very soon.

In a somewhat similar vein, based on the Teproff article at the top from the Herald and the everyday experiences of Hallandale Beach taxpayers and business owners, year-after-year, here's a reasonable question for Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper that Teproff and Tonya Alanez of the Sun-Sentinel might want to ask and actually follow-up on with some examples: How many years in a row has HB used the city's reserve fund simply to balance the city's budget?

Not for legitimate unexpected emergencies, but just to balance the budget, crammed with goodies for some, esp. the professional crony capitalism class here in our small city.

Cooper and her apologists at City Hall and all over town do not want to answer that question for a very good reason.

Because the truth is NOT her friend, and neither is spreading the truth.

Later today I'm heading over to North Beach for my final photo recon for my post on a matter that I had wanted to post Friday morning, Mark A. Antonio's last day as City Manager, but which will now probably run later in the week, now that I've blown past my own deadline.

It concerns the REAL reason that the City of Hallandale Beach's Parks Master Plan meeting on South Beach wasn't held at the North Beach Community Bldg. on May 31st, despite the fact that in a normal city, one where common sense and logic do intersect once in a while, that's where it would have been held for all sorts of patently obvious reasons.

If you guess that the reason probably has something to do with the city's infamous and cumbersome bureaucracy that has consistently shown no idea what's it's actually doing, its trademark inefficiency under Good and Antonio, you'd be right.

Not so much the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing as much as the right hand NOT knowing that it actually has a left hand.

Trust me, it's yet another embarrassing, only-in-Hallandale Beach screw-up, with its usual complete disregard for the taxpayers and citizens of the community.

Yes, just like Antonio's continual disregard for us by insisting that he'd do things his way -the wrong way- even after it was made clear over-and-over in regard to all manner of policy and financial matters that the community felt 100% differently than him.

His complete inability to adapt and evolve was always his most obvious weakness since I've been living here for over eight years.

I had been planned on toasting Antonio's departure on Friday, but absent someone to capture the moment, decided that the best thing I could do was to continue to document how genuinely feckless, ineffective and disconnected to our reality he was 'til the very end.

Incompetency for which he will be rewarded with a pension the size and scope of which will shock people here when they finally see the true figures, though I have a very good idea of it now.

By the way, there's a new Public Records policy in the city.

Guess where it's NOT mentioned? 

Yes, the city's own website.

http://www.hallandalebeachfl.gov/index.aspx?NID=87

So, remind me again how come the city's IT Dept. head Ted Lamott still has a job after so many years of ineffectiveness?

Without giving too much away here, the next four months are going to be VERY BUMPY for individual City of HB Dept. heads, so very used to flying below-the-radar publicly, as I and others publicly discuss and analyze what they have done and mostly haven't done with the funds and resources they've been given, with so little oversight by our feckless Commissioners and the departing City Manager, who has been counting the hours he could leave since January 1st.

All with little tangible results to show HB taxpayers for the city's budget having nearly doubled the past six years under Mayor Cooper, the woman with so very little genuine concern about the actual quality of services delivered to taxpayers and business owners.

Yes, on miserably hot days like today, Cooper must surely be thinking a lot about her Colorado

home-away-from-home. 

I aim to do all I can the next few months to help make THAT her primary residence after November, but the real question is whether or not all the pro-reform candidates running for HB City Commission will do the same.

And if they do, will the voters here actually reject the Cooper Rubber Stamp Crew's eye-rolling antics, odd disconnect from reality and financial bumbling, and actually vote with their heads?
Actually give pro-reform candidates the opportunity they need to properly reform this city thru meaningful financial accountability, greater transparency and an injection of plain old common sense to get it out of its current funk?

We'll all know the answer 18 weeks from tomorrow.

Hollywood civic activist Sara Case's spot-on take on the latest move by Eleanor Sobel, Munilytics, and the need for meaningful audits; Margaritaville

Above, looking west at Hollywood City Hall. September 20, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier

Hollywood civic activist Sara Case's spot-on take on the latest move by Eleanor Sobel, Munilytics, and the need for meaningful audits; Margaritaville

As a follow-up to my blog post of Monday titled, Pol who wanted -and got- Hollywood taxpayers to pay $30k for her new FL State Senate office in 2009 now asks FL legislature for audit of Hollywood!

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/10/pol-who-wanted-and-got-hollywood.html

I strongly suggest you read Sara's perspective on the rather-sudden concern shown by FL State Sen. Eleanor Sobel -who represents me as well in Tallahassee- on city spending and expenditures at Hollywood City Hall.

Sara also explains what the much-discussed Munilytics report did and DIDN'T say, since there seems to be a great deal of not only genuine confusion by some Hollywood residents about its representations, but also, sadly, some intentional misrepresentation being floated about by supporters of the Hollywood Police, Fire/Rescue Dept. union members who are SORE LOSERS about Hollywood voters rejecting their arguments in last month's referendum on government pensions.

They keep wanting to fight the battle but the war is over -they lost.

I know because many of these same people have written me angry emails, thinking that I'd post whatever they said about the Hollywood CRA and its spending and legality, regardless of what sort of mis-information they attempted to peddle, perhaps assuming that I didn't know the facts.

That was their mistake.

I've been to more Hollywood CRA meetings and workshops than 99.99% of Hollywood residents.

Hell, I not only posted the information about the pre-bid information workshops here on the blog but also posted the city's public notices here so that more residents and concerned people would show-up for the meetings and get educated about what was and was not happening.

I even wrote here about who some of the candidates were to be the new CRA chief under the newly-restructured organizational chart when the Herald, Sun-Sentinel and local TV stations were completely ignoring it.

(In case you didn't know, Jorge Camejo is the CRA Executive Director.)

I not only took notes but videotaped the meetings to make sure that my notes were correct and so that I was ready in case somebody said or did something of note, good or bad, whether Mayor Bober, the City Commissioners, city staff, the public or the competing developers for the six-acre Johnson Street project at Hollywood Beach and The Broadwalk, that was ultimately won by the Jimmy Buffett-themed Margaritaville, despite my own preference for The Hard Rock proposal as a concept and tourism magnet, however imperfect that was.

I didn't stop attending once Margaritaville's won the bid unanimously despite my own reservations about it.

Yet despite this, I received emails from people who clearly DIDN'T do their homework and thought I'd just pass along their nonsense that failed both the common sense and smell test.

Sorry, no sale.

-----

Balance Sheet Blog

STATE SENATOR’S AUDIT

October 4, 2011, 2:33 PM

Filed under: Budget, City Commission

State Senator Sobel – who in 2009 sought and was granted a $30,000 interest-free, non-recourse loan from the City of Hollywood to renovate 5,000 square feet of office space for her use – has suddenly expressed great concern with the City’s finances. She’s requested that the State of Florida audit Hollywood’s finances and her request has been granted.

Read the rest of Sara's post at:

http://balancesheetblog.wordpress.com/2011/10/04/state-senators-audit/

For more examples of that often-inaccurate, anti-Hollywood CRA mis-information being pushed that I noted above, see some of the reader comments to this article:

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Margaritaville resort brings optimism to Hollywood Beach

By Carli Teproff, The Miami Herald

12:00 a.m. EDT, October 5, 2011

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/fl-margaritaville-resort-hollywood-20111005,0,3194149.story

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/10/04/2437130/future-resort-brings-optimism.html

Shining a light on a sanctimoni​ous -and anonymous- Hollywood blog that seems to exist for the sake of making excuses for taking MORE taxpayers' money

Above, Hollywood City Hall, looking west from the half-circle in front of the Hollywood branch of the Broward County library. June 2, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier.


Shining a light on a sanctimoni​ous -and anonymous- Hollywood blog that seems to exist for the sake of making excuses for taking MORE taxpayers' money and giving it to city employees.

First, they've rather amusingly decided to call the blog "City of Hollywood Whistle Blower."
That's ironic for many reasons, not the least of which is that they're nothing of the sort.
They're simply an anonymous vehicle that's busy carrying someone else's water.
No more.
But if you pay attention, they won't 'cop' to it.

Seriously, calling yourself a 'whistle blower' doesn't make you one any more than calling yourself a 'Texan' the day you arrive there does.
Being a real 'whistle blower' is something you have to earn, and sometimes, that means taking your lumps, dealing with adversity and unjust criticism and 'suffering the slings and arrows' of outrageous fortune from people with some power in a position to dish it out.

But the power that a real 'whistle blower' has is their facility with and knowledge of the facts, like I do here in Hallandale Beach, even as Mayor Cooper laughably persists in thinking that she can keep the facts at bay by openly decrying blogs and websites during HB City Commission meetings.

The so-called 'Whistle Blower' blog in Hollywood does NOT have the facts on its side, the losing side, so it engages in personal attacks.

In fact, the person or parties behind that mis-named blog are so grossly unimaginative and LAZY that they have actually stolen a photo that I took of Hollywood City Hall over three years ago, one that I've used many times on my own blog -and the first photo of Hollywood City Hall that appears at Google Images; second one is mine also- without EVER contacting me to ask if they could use it.

And not just using it, but actually placing it at the top of their own blog with nary any embarrassment.
Yes, the very same photo at the top of this post.

Here's what my photo looks like atop their blog.

Now that's really galling -and telling of the sort of characters you're dealing with.

For all their pomposity, verbosity and bombast -really, Founding Fathers' quotes that we've all heard a million times before?- they can't even be bothered to get off their lazy asses and get over to Hollywood City Hall to take even one original photo themselves?

Yes, correct.

It's sort of like the in-plain-sight situation a few months ago that I never mentioned here on the blog where the Broward Bulldog 'borrowed' photos of mine without ever contacting me.

As if their grants from journalism groups and philanthropies was some sort of defense, or a barrier to my complaining about their stealing.

Or mentioning it to a lot of South Florida TV and print reporters.

(Nope, they found out all right.)

So, whom do I complain to about the "Curious Case of the Pilfering Whistle Blower" who offered this very strange and obnoxious take today on the election results.
http://cohblwr.blogspot.com/2011/09/republic-mr-bober.html#comments
I guess the Court of Public Opinion, eh?

But now YOU know.

Additionally, those of you who took the time to actually read the email/blog post that I sent Monday about Tuesday's referendum in Hollywood, contrasting that new blog -which started last month- with the much-respected Balance Sheet Blog,
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/on-eve-of-hollywoods-referendum-on-city.html
and who actually read the latter's post about the vote may have noticed the name Brian Joynt appearing several times as a reader commenting on the passing scene.
http://balancesheetblog.wordpress.com/2011/09/05/pension-referendum-sept-13/#comments

In case the name sounds familiar to some of you, it should, and not in a positive way:
http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/2007-03-22/news/bad-cop-bad-cop/
http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/2005-06-30/news/hollywood-s-finest/

Saying something over-and-over again doesn't make it true, as Mayor Cooper continues to demonstrate to a fair-thee-well in her own nonsensical pronouncements here in Hallandale Beach, and that's equally true with the results of the Tuesday vote and the comments at the so-called 'Whistle Blower' blog.

There's one over-riding fact: a majority of the Hollywood residents actually voting chose to support the City of Hollywood's P.O.V.

Now, for better or worse, we'll all see what the logical consequences of that decision will be, and whether the Hollywood City Commission -as presently constituted- is capable of exercising the sort of sound financial judgment in the future that it's so often lacked in the recent past.

On the eve of Hollywood's referendum on city pensions, everyone thinks they're entitled to their own facts, esp. the city's Union employees

On the eve of Hollywood's referendum on city employee pensions, contrary to what former diplomat, Harvard professor and U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan famously said, everyone around here really DOES think that they're entitled to their own facts, and that's no more so the case then with the City of Hollywood's many embittered Police and Fire employees.

Yes, the very same folks who've nursed a variety of petty grudges for years and who firmly believe that Hollywood's beleaguered taxpayers DON'T properly understand them or appreciate them enough -or pay them enough.

And if you didn't already know it, not only are many of them high-maintenance, but a sizable percentage of them have a grand sense of entitlement, or, alternatively, live in a warped version of reality that borders on over-the-top.

Sorry, you're NOT Pullman train porters getting the shaft from the big-wigs!

Speaking of over-the-top, to say nothing of creepy, one policewoman in particular, Hollywood Police Detective Stephanie Szeto, shows very clear signs of suffering a persecution complex.
That is, if we can believe what SHE SAYS HERSELF.

But not every taxpayer in this part of southeast Broward County is rolling-over for the Hollywood cops and firemen and their tales of financial woe.
Some people can STILL distinguish fact and fiction.

That is, if this excerpt of a communication I had with an upset Hollywood resident and blog reader a week ago is any guide.
As if speaking to these very same City of Hollywood employees, he stated,

"My wife and I don't go to work in the morning so that Hollywood city employees like you can retire before you're age 50, and leave us on the hook for another 30 years. Sorry, we're just not.
You're going to have to work longer and harder before you buy that second home in North Carolina. Or, start making better investments..."

A few weeks ago in one of her articles on the upcoming referendum -actually, to be factual, I believe it was written before it was a definite thing- the Miami Herald's Carli Teproff made what I thought at the time was a real blunder, the sort of blunder that is not uncommon after reporters take over new beats, and want to give the impression they are up to to speed on what's going on, and sometimes, that includes their repeating what they have heard elsewhere, assuming it's true.

Teproff took over the City of Hollywood beat after largely but not exclusively covering K-12 education.

(Teproff previously covered North Miami Beach -NMB- the city my two younger sisters and I largely grew-up in. As I've written here previously, she wrote some pretty devastating pieces on the rampant corruption and ethical minefield there on N.E. 19th Avenue/Victory Park, a place I lived just south of in 1969, age eight, when that part of NMB was very different then now. That was one year pre-Don Shula for those of you who need a better time approximation.)

In that article, without citing any specifics or sources, she stated that because the percentage of voters participating was likely to be low -which is true- Hollywood city employees living in the city could very well tip the final vote.
But she did so in a way that seemed to imply that Hollywood actually has more city employees living there than the average South Florida city does, even while providing no hard numbers or percentages.

It was stated as if it was just common knowledge, but among people I know and trust in Hollywood, who know the city's political history and context better than me, they also found that an odd thing to say without any support.

But is Hollywood really the home of city employees to a larger extent than other Broward cities, save perhaps Ft. Lauderdale, the largest city?
I think not.

For your edification on the employee pension issue being decided Tuesday, I'd like you to compare and contrast the difference in tone between two recent Hollywood-based blog postings I've read. It's rather instructive.
Some, like me, would even say "Night-and-Day" as Hoosier-native Cole Porter might as well -and did.

The first blog post, at Balance Sheet Blog, http://balancesheetblog.wordpress.com/, written and edited by Sara Case and Laurie Schecter, gets the benefit of the doubt from most well-informed people in the community -including myself- because it's been observing the goings-on at Hollywood City Hall in-person for years, writing about what's going on there -good and bad- appropriately critiquing/complaining long-and-loud when it was necessary, and doing so with great specificity and a reliance on facts about bad public policy, insular thinking, questionable votes, et al.

Last Monday, they posted this:

Balance Sheet Online
Pension Referendum – Sept. 13
September 5, 2011, 9:24 PM

HOLLYWOOD SPECIAL ELECTION – IMPORTANT – SAVE JOBS!

WHAT: Pension Referendum
WHEN: Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2011

This is no time for voter apathy. Our city has a budget crisis that could lead to bankruptcy. As a partial solution, the referendum proposes reducing future pension benefits for members of each of the three unions in city government: General Employees, Police, and Firefighters. These reductions would save the City some $8.5 million and set the City on a more sustainable course for the future.

Note: the referendum would not touch any pension benefits employees
have earned to date; only future benefits would be subject to new
rules if the referendum passes.

The second post on Tuesday's referendum appeared Monday morning at a newer blog that never existed until last month called City of Hollywood Whistle Blower, subtitled, "Drawing a line in the sand."
I have no idea who or what is behind it because they never identify themselves.

I draw your attention to the fact that many of the reader comments are directed against the one elected official in the city who was sounding an alarm many years ago for city taxpayers about Police and Fire pensions eating up a disproportionate share of city spending, spending that would only increase unless modified: Hollywood Comm. Beam Furr, a high school teacher.

It's hardly a secret that the Hollywood Police and Fire unions -i.e Jeff Marano and Daniel Martinez respectively- have had it out for Comm. Furr for many years, seemingly, since I moved back to South Florida from the D.C. area in 2003.

This animus by the Police and Fire unions against Furr is so well-known that, well, yes, even the Miami Herald has been forced to publicly mention the subject time-after-time on the front page of their awful State & Local section, including mentioning the unions' attempts to embarrass school teacher Furr on the issue of ethics.

If I recall correctly, and I could be slightly off, they were upset that Furr used one of his school sick days or vacation days on an Election Day campaigning.
Yeah, not exactly scintillating, hard-boiled film noir material.

As IF no union employee in Hollywood had ever taken advantage of his or her accrued days for a reason like going to a Miami Heat playoff game or Miami Dolphin Monday Night Football game or a day-trip to The Bahamas.
Please!

Yes, this call for an investigation came from the same union crews that have long defended and tolerated the tactics and hot-headed behavior of some of the worst rogue cops in all of Florida, whose nefarious and mendacious exploits the people in Hollywood and South Florida have all seen and read about in the newspaper and on TV newscasts after they were finally arrested.

Or, in case you forgot, tried to frame an innocent woman for something that was actually the fault of one of their fellow officers.
Oh, you thought I forgot that?
Hardly.

http://cohblwr.blogspot.com/2011/09/we-would-like-to-thank-our-residents.html#comments

In particular, I draw your attention to the absurd comments of Stephanie Szeto, a Hollywood Police detective -a fact not mentioned in her comments but easily discovered- who manges to show what an insensitive dumb-ass she is by comparing herself to a victim of physical abuse.
This, despite our forever hearing and reading about and being lectured by the news media on the dangers of fanciful exaggerations diminishing the real meaning of certain words and phrases.

(You know, like Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper foolishly saying that she felt like her privacy was "raped" because someone -my friend Michael Butler of Change Hallandale- did a public records request on her email records, which was the story behind this November 2009 column by the Sun-Sentinel's Michael Mayo.)

For your consideration, from the upside-down mind of Hollywood Police Detective Stephanie Szeto:

I am sorry that we residents have had to accept this outright intimidation from these people. They have met the criminal definitions of thieves and blackmailers. I hate to ask what is next. Sadly I have to take the cuts as an employee and the tax hikes as a resident.

I feel like a victim in a violent and abusive relationship...

Then, as if she realizes that her example is as over-the-line as it sounds on its face, Szeto allows as how "I've investigated many domestic violence cases."

Oh, then I guess it's okay for you to equate your status as a city employee in the year 2011 to a woman who has been beaten black-and-blue in a criminal act.

Hey, Keystone Kop Szeto, didn't you understand the part where you could always just quit your job?

Do whatever the hell you wanted?
Quit without being hunted down?

Note to self: if Szeto is fired as a result of this referendum going down, make sure that the City of Hallandale Beach Police Dept. does NOT hire her.
They already have more than enough morale and management problems of their own -and how!- without adding someone with a persecution complex.

And I end this blog post of mine with more sheer nonsense from Szesto, who concluded her dalliance in public therapy-cum-political theater in that blog today:

I think I must begin to find a way out of this abusive relationship and
seek shelter and a way to end this relationship for my own health and well being.

To which I simply say, don't let the door hit you in the ass on your way out the door!

Speaking of diversity, will 2012 mark the end of the All-White Hollywood City Commission? And the introduction of more common sense ideas?

Speaking of diversity, will 2012 mark the end of the All-White Hollywood City Commission? And the introduction of some more common sense ideas?

In a city that proudly wears its sometimes competing intentions and aspirations of sophisticated, urban liberal AND upwardly middle-class family-friendly 'beachy' in some pretty obvious ways, whether thru lip service or actual votes for govt. programs borne by all city taxpayers, there's always lots of talk about diversity in and around Hollywood City Hall.

(Personally, I'm a bigger fan of diversity of well-informed, fact-based opinions, but that's just me.)

What there actually HASN'T been, though, since I returned to South Florida from the Washington, D.C. area in late 2003, is any actual diversity on the dais of the City Commission of Broward's fourth-largest city.

Though it has taken some time -longer than I expected- some informed residents of S.E. Broward County that I've spoken to this year are beginning to wonder if 2012 might finally be the end of the All-White Hollywood City Commission.

Wondering if some new faces and new ideas might do wonders to shake things up there, and get the City Commission more tethered to city resident's everyday reality, financial and otherwise, and a lot less worried about the creative pretensions of some.

I'll have more to say about this topic soon, when I discuss what's going on with Hollywood's September 13th referendum that aims to close a $38 million budget gap by giving Hollywood voters the chance to clip the pension wings of the city's Police and Fire Dept. members, and bring them more into line with what is financially reasonable for Hollywood beleaguered taxpayers, some of whom have chosen to leave rather than stay, due to either taxes, schools or crime.

Be sure to take a look at the Balance Sheet Blog if you haven't in the past month to see their take on Hollywood's financial problems. Reporters and columnists read it, why not you?

http://balancesheetblog.wordpress.com/2011/07/20/financial-troubles-in-hollywood/#comments

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www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/hollywood/mh-hollywood-wi-fi-20110828,0,2918225.story

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Hollywood's Wi-Fi promise goes unfulfilled

By Carli Teproff, The Miami Herald

7:37 PM EDT, August 28, 2011

HOLLYWOOD

More than three years ago, the city borrowed $16 million to pay for a wireless communications platform that would give residents free computer network service, as well as automate the water-meter reader system and solar-powered parking meters.

But the system, meant to improve residents' quality of life, isn't completely functional.

"It is definitely not working the way we hoped it would," said Hollywood spokeswoman Raelin Storey.

The idea was simple: install transmitters throughout the city that would allow water meters to be read and sent digitally, and parking meters that would accept credit cards. There would also be a secure network for police, fire and code enforcement officers.

The bonus was a wireless network for residents.

But Johnson Controls, the company hired to handle the project, ran into problems installing enough access points — similar to antennas — throughout the city that would allow the system to work.

Although money for this project didn't come out of the city's general fund, but through separate enterprise funds, residents say the city's failed attempt at creating citywide wireless Internet is yet another example of why the city faces a $38 million budget deficit.

"This is typical Hollywood," said longtime resident Joe Joynt. "We get promised something and we don't get it. They just spend money for no reason."

Some recent projects that have faced criticism include:

• The water tower: Earlier this year the city completed a $680,000 restoration project on the city's water tower. Residents criticized the commission for adding a clock and temperature reader which frequently don't work properly.

• New police cars: Last year, the commission approved spending $655,000 for 26 new police cars. For two months, the vehicles sat in Hollywood's parking lot while the city looked for ways to pay for them.

• New safety complex: In February, the commission approved a $7.9 million safety complex on the beach to serve the new Margaritaville Beach Resort. In July, just months after declaring a fiscal emergency, the commission considered stopping the project, but decided to continue after learning $1.6 million had already been spent on the project.

Storey said Hollywood's deal to bring Wi-Fi to the city has nothing to do with the budget gap.

"Even if we had not done this, our general fund would not be in any better shape than it is currently," she said.

Indeed, none of the projects facing criticism were paid for by money out of the general fund: the water tower was paid for out of the city's Water and Sewer Utility enterprise fund; the police cars came from the central services fund; and the safety complex is being paid for by money from the general obligation bond and the Community Redevelopment Agency.

Storey said Hollywood's budget problems are no different from other cities' across the state and the nation. She blames the recession, the investment market crash and rising pension costs for the budget hole.

"That is something we never anticipated," she said.

When the city signed the contract with Johnson Controls in 2008, the agreement called for the city to see $23 million in savings over 15 years — otherwise the company would make up the difference.

Hollywood took out a $16 million loan in 2008, figuring the money it saved each year by having the system would cover the loan payments.

"At the time it sounded like a great deal for the city," said Commissioner Heidi O'Sheehan. "You never go into a contract hoping it's going to fail."

But Johnson Controls was met with problems. The automated meter reader system would not work because the digital equipment would not transmit through concrete caps. The company then placed the caps with plastic ones, but when it rained the caps floated away, Storey said.

After months of trying different caps and methods, the automated reader system should be online any day, said Storey.

Storey said the parking meters are also working, but with cellular modems instead of wireless, which is being paid for by Johnson Controls.

The Wi-Fi portion, however, will likely not work, said Storey.

There aren't enough public places for access points to be installed without having interference from buildings and other signals, she said.

Johnson Controls could not be reached to comment for this story.

Storey said the city is negotiating with Johnson Controls to get back money for the parts of the system that aren't working.

"If this would have worked as we hoped, we would have been considered ahead of the curve," said Commissioner Beam Furr.

Hollywood is not alone in trying to offer free citywide Internet.

Miami Beach embarked on the journey in 2005, and nearly four years and $5 million later it was complete.

There were some challenges along the way, acknowledged the city's Chief Financial Officer Patricia Walker in an email. But now, Walker said, the system is very successful, with more than 158,000 subscribed users.

Hollywood residents wish that the city came through with its promise.

"This is just a grand fiasco," said Charlotte Greenbarg. "It's sad. Really, really sad."

But Storey said residents have to understand the city is getting its money back and the point of the project was to have an automated meter reader system, which will work.

"It is disappointing to say the least that it hasn't worked," Storey said. "But people shouldn't be left with the impression that $16 million is down the drain."

Reader comments at:

http://discussions.sun-sentinel.com/20/mh-hollywood-wi-fi-20110828/10?sort=asc

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While you were away this summer...

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/hollywood/fl-hollywood-hart-suit-20110812,0,1272866.story

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Developer sues Hollywood for $1.3 million after not repaying $3.5 million loan

By Megan O'Matz, Sun Sentinel

1:19 PM EDT, August 13, 2011

HOLLYWOOD

A developer who borrowed $3.5 million from the city and never repaid it is suing the town for $1.35 million — a move seen by many as unspeakably outrageous.

"There are a lot of people out there that have a lot of chutzpah," said City Commissioner Fran Russo, who vowed not to give developer Gary Posner "5 cents."

Technically, the suit, like most of its kind, is about contract language and legal definitions.

But the simple filing of it — asking for another million-plus after what the city views as defaulting on a taxpayer-financed loan for three times that — raises questions for many.

"Galling," is how Terry Cantrell, president of the Hollywood Lakes Civic Association, describes the suit.

The city and Posner disagree on whether he still owes $3.5 million. The city says he does. He says the land was sold to another firm that was supposed to repay the loan, but didn't.

Hollywood, in an effort to stimulate development, released that company from the debt. But it contends Posner is still on the hook.

Louis Arslanian, the attorney who has filed the suit on behalf of Posner, recognizes the public relations problem the claim for $1.35 million presents. "It kind of makes me look like a really bad guy," he said. "I am so not a bad guy."

The lawsuit, against the city's Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA), is expected to be tried soon before a Broward County jury.

The agreed-to facts are these: Between 2004 and 2005, Posner's company, HART District Ltd., borrowed $3.5 million from the CRA to purchase and improve a drab corner, including the landmark Bread Building, at South 17th Avenue and Harrison Street, off Young Circle.

The plan called for a performing arts theater, condominiums, shops, offices and a school.

None of that materialized except for the charter school, the Hollywood Academy of Arts and Science. It takes up four floors of the Home Tower, a previously existing office and residential high-rise.

In addition to the $3.5 million loan, the redevelopment authority gave HART District more than $1.6 million in "incentives" through 2008 to start and run the school.

The payments were required under the city's agreement with the company.

But in 2009, after the HART District defaulted on its loan payments and the redevelopment project collapsed, the city refused to pay an additional $270,000 a year for the charter school through 2013.

The Community Redevelopment Agency contended Posner's company breached the contract by failing to meet school enrollment targets and not providing audited statements of how it spent the incentive money.

HART District sued. It wants the city to pay $270,000 a year for the five years from 2009 through 2013, or $1.35 million in all.

The city agency countersued.

"We are asking to have the $3.5 million repaid. That is our suit," Hollywood City Attorney Jeffrey Sheffel said.

Posner's camp is arguing that he is no longer duty-bound to pay back the $3.5 million. "The HART District doesn't owe any money anymore," Arslanian said.

That's because in 2007, HART District sold the development project to WSG Development Co. of Miami Beach, which under terms of the purchase agreed to assume the debt for the $3.5 million CRA loan.

But in August 2008, the CRA released WSG from the obligation.

In return, the developer agreed to downsize the proposed residential tower, from 420 units to 390, to placate residents upset over its scale.

City officials say HART District, however, is still on the hook for the money it borrowed from the city. "HART was never released from the debt," Sheffel said.

HART District disputes that, arguing in court papers that the "CRA has completely eliminated the debt."

Today, with $3.5 million in taxpayer funds still unreimbursed, Hollywood's municipal finances are in disarray and the HART District parcel, known as Block 58, is an eyesore. Because of the economic downturn, WSG hasn't built anything. Last year, the company's lender foreclosed on the property.

Construction barriers block off a stretch of sidewalk. The Bread Building is locked tight, with vacant storefronts. A hulking and largely unused parking garage sits next to a vast lot with sparse patches of grass.

Said Cantrell: "That block is representative of the city's failed efforts at downtown redevelopment."

Meanwhile, Posner's suit is pending. It was on Judge Mily Rodriguez-Powell's calendar for trial in early June but was postponed and must be rescheduled.

Russo, the city commissioner, said she can't fathom how Posner can go forward with the suit. "He owes us money that he doesn't want to pay, and he wants us to give him money for that charter school. … just hope he doesn't win."

If Posner does win, Arslanian said, the lawsuit proceeds may be used to pay a $476,400 judgment against HART District in a separate, drawn-out legal saga involving the Home Tower building that houses the charter school.

"Another whole mess of a situation," Arslanian said.

Reader comments at:

http://discussions.sun-sentinel.com/20/soflanews/fl-hollywood-hart-suit-20110812/10

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www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/hollywood/fl-hollywood-pension-referendum-20110719,0,5672813.story

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Hollywood gives initial OK to putting pension reform on ballot

Police and firefighters protest agreement

By Tonya Alanez, Sun Sentinel

8:11 PM EDT, July 18, 2011

Hollywood City commissioners tentatively agreed Monday to let voters decide whether to reform employee pensions as part of an effort to close a $38 million budget gap.

After the unanimous votes — one pertaining to each of the city's three unions — a deep, loud chorus of "Shame, shame, shame on you," rang out from police and firefighters who had packed into City Hall.

Vice Mayor Patricia Assef said the city's state of financial urgency has forced some difficult and unpopular decisions. "Nobody wants to do this, but it's either this or how are we going to pay them?" she said.

The proposed pension changes are specific to each union, but each would increase retirement ages, eliminate cost of living adjustments, and alter the formulas that calculate pensions. For example, under the current plan, a general employee hired in 1996 who retires in 2021 would have received an annual pension of $45,000. Under the new plan, that employee would get $34,500 a year.

The reform would also eliminate the DROP plan — or Deferred Retirement Option Program — which allows long-time employees to defer retirement for a set period and "bank" retirement benefits they can later take in a lump sum.

"This is not reform of the pension, this is gutting of the pension," said Michael Braverman, attorney for the Police Benevolent Association.

Because the unions have not agreed to the changes, the city by law must put it to voters. So on Monday commissioners gave initial approval to spending $400,000 to put the item on a Sept. 13 ballot. If voters approve, that would allow the changes to go into effect Oct. 1, the beginning of the new budget year.

A final commission vote on the matter has not yet been scheduled in the hopes that the sides can come to an agreement.

Matthew Lalla, director of the Finance and Information Technology Department, projected pension reform would save the city $8.5 million. "That's a pretty substantial piece and we're definitely counting on it," he said.

Earlier this summer, commissioners laid off 16 city employees, slashed pay for most city workers by 7.5 percent, and cut salaries for police and firefighters by 12.5 percent.

If pension reform is not achieved, said interim City Manager Cathy Swanson-Rivenbark, the city would have to cut employee pay by an additional 25 percent, lay off 150 employees, cut and privatize services.

Ralph Dierks, of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees said he believes commissioners are using financial urgency as a tool.

"I think the city commission and management is being driven by the ability to use financial urgency to make gains against the employees that they would never achieve through negotiations," he said.

Dan Martinez, president of Hollywood Professional Firefighters Local 13-75, said, "It needs to be negotiated amicably. It shouldn't be thrust into the public's hands to make this decision."

Painful as it is, mending the city's budget is critical, Mayor Peter Bober said.

"We're dealing with people's livelihoods, so I totally understand the anger and frustration,'' Bober said. "But I have to close a $38 million gap and there is no easy or pleasant way to do it."

Aug. 12 is the latest commissioners could cancel the election and not have to pay the total $400,000, though there would still be some costs for sending out absentee ballots, posting legal notices and training poll workers, said Mary Cooney, director of public services at the Broward Supervisor of Elections Office.

Reader comments at:

http://discussions.sun-sentinel.com/20/fl-hollywood-pension-referendum-20110719/10?sort=asc

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http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2011-07-18/news/fl-holocaust-museum-loan0718-20110718_1_holocaust-center-holocaust-museum-holocaust-education

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Hollywood delays vote on erasing Holocaust education group's $1.7 million debt

By Megan O'Matz, Sun Sentinel

July 18, 2011

HOLLYWOOD — — Faced with a chorus of disapproval from residents, city commissioners couldn't bring themselves Monday to agree to write off a $1.7 million debt owed by a group that hopes to open a Holocaust museum in the heart of downtown.

Instead, they postponed the issue until October to give staff time to find a more palatable way to help the Holocaust Education & Documentation Center, which has collected the oral histories of 2,400 survivors of Nazi genocide.

"At least they didn't deny [assistance]," said Aron Halpern, a Holocaust survivor who lives in Hollywood.

The center bought its building at 2031 Harrison Street from the city's Community Redevelopment Agency in 2004, and was lent the purchase price by the CRA, but has yet to repay a cent. Now, it's asking the city to be released from its obligation, saying unexpectedly costly renovations have hampered its plans to open a gallery on the first floor that would draw tourists and much needed business to the area.

It's a tough time for such a request. The city is facing a $38 million shortfall in its operating budget in 2012. City redevelopment money comes from a different pot, but the distinction was lost on residents and business people who jammed the meeting room Monday.

"To give away money in such dire times makes absolutely no sense," said resident Charlotte Greenbarg.

Commissioner Fran Russo said she could not support forgiving the obligation when "we have foreclosures by the minute in the city of Hollywood."

Commissioner Heidi O'Sheehan expressed the hope that the promised museum would open, but said she was disappointed in private meetings with the center's leaders that they were unwilling to pay back any amount, "not one penny."

Without the loan forgiveness, the center could be forced to sell the building and move elsewhere, warned attorney Jonathan Jaffe, who is assisting the center in its negotiations with the CRA.

In its lobbying efforts, the center turned to former mayor Mara Giulianti, now an unpaid board member for the Holocaust center. She interrupted a vacation in Maine last week to return to Hollywood to champion the project and has emailed officials and staff about it.

The prospect of Hollywood losing yet another asset — on downtrodden Harrison Street especially — did not sit well with Commissioner Beam Furr, who led the charge to delay the vote.

Hollywood, he said, needs "destination power" — more reasons for people to visit.

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Meanwhile, once upon a time, in 2005...

The Florida Masochist blog

Something fishy in Hollywood Florida?

July 10, 2005

http://thefloridamasochist.blogspot.com/2005/07/something-fishy-in-hollywood-florida.html

See also:

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/keyword/david-mach