The true costs of 'pet' legislation & the misplaced priorities of Joy Cooper, Hallandale Beach City Comm.; Ted Deutch's bill to overturn SCOTUS ruling

RT America video: The Big Picture host Thom Hartmann mentions FL-19's Ted Deutch's proposal to overturn the Supreme Court's First Amendment ruling thru -yes- a Constitutional Amendment. November 22, 2011.

http://youtu.be/ft4s-7MnzK4

This email of mine below was sent this morning to the Hallandale Beach City Clerk's Office.

It concerns a preposterous agenda item that was deemed so important by the powers-that-be in this city about the future of the city, that it was deemed a priority and discussed Wednesday night at the Hallandale Beach City Commission -a proposal to overturn a 2010 Supreme Court ruling.

What, nothing new was available to discuss and debate regarding Syria, global warming or the situation in the Mid-East, or, you know, something about what's actually going on IN this city right now?

On the chance that you mis-read my intent here, let me state it clearly: the City of Hallandale Beach City Hall can NOT chew its food and walk at the same time.

Yet it imagines itself a Think Tank, dispensing wisdom and insight to all who will listen.

It's the epitome of inefficient and incompetent and yet under Joy Cooper, HB City Commission meetings that should take two hours at most, instead, consistently take 5-6 hours, as they range far-afield from the actual duties of the commission, while completely ignoring the dreadful self-evident state of the city under the current (and previous) highly-paid City Manager and their high-paid staff.

This repels citizen interest and activity at these meetings, which is precisely Cooper's intent.

It's no accident.

Cooper's Rubber Stamp Crew is oblivious to almost everything going on here -and almost always the last to know anything important that's common knowledge to others in the community- and consistently ignores its proper oversight role of the City Manager and his staff, spelled out in the charter of , resulting in ZERO scrutiny.

This lack of seriousness and diligence by the mayor and the City Commission was proven by the recent audit that was much-discussed here on the blog, where evidence shows that problems were allowed to grow larger and worse for years-and-years while Cooper was mayor, as the city failed to perform basic aspects of sound governance while the city's budget nearly doubled.

Read the information about the city's resolution and Ted Deutch's H.J. RES 90 at the links below and make up your own mind about what sort of priority this ought to be in the city in December of 2011.

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December 8th, 2011

To Whom It May Concern:

Regarding last night's Hallandale Beach City Commission meeting and agenda item, 12-E, a resolution to overturn a decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, to wit, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission,

A Resolution of the City of Hallandale Beach, Florida, Supporting Congressman Ted Deutch's Proposed Amendment to the Constitution of the United States to Exclude For-Profit Corporations from the Rights Given to Natural Person by the Constitution, Prohibiting Corporate Spending in all Elections, and Affirming the Authority of Congress to Regulate and Set Limits on all Election Contributions and Expenditures. (Mayor Joy F. Cooper) (See Backup) CAD#008/12
http://www.hallandalebeachfl.gov/files/00439/Exported%20OV%20Docs/Staff%20Reports/00008596.htm
http://www.hallandalebeachfl.gov/files/00439/Exported%20OV%20Docs/Item%2012E/index.html

please provide me with the following information within the next ten business days.

a.) The names of City employees and elected officials involved in the drafting and construction of this resolution, from beginning until its presentation on Wednesday night.

b.) The total amount of work-time billed to the City of Hallandale Beach on this matter by each germane employee, contractor or consultant, from beginning-to-end, and,

c.) The total cost to the City of Hallandale Beach for this activity, from beginning-to-end, by way of salaries, supplies and fees to contractors or consultants.

Additionally, I request

d.) All resolution-related correspondence and documents sent to and from the City of Hallandale Beach and its elected officials and administrators.

e.) The total amount of time devoted to this specific agenda item on Wednesday night, December 7, 2011 according to the HB City Clerk's office.

My intent is clear: I want to find out how much time, effort and resources have been wasted on this non-germane matter at a HB City Commission meeting, and the costs associated with that effort.

This, even while the longstanding, self-evident graffiti all throughout the city, including along U.S.-1 and directly in front of HB City Hall itself, continues to be COMPLETELY IGNORED by HB City Hall, the HB Police Dept. and the HB Chamber of Commerce.

Meanwhile, routine safety maintenance of city-owned parks and facilities that effectively renders some of them -or large parts of them- completely unsafe to the public at night because of the city's longstanding pattern of benign neglect, year-after-year.

This includes the city's largest park, Bluesten Park, located only two blocks from HB City Hall and the HB Police Dept.

I'll soon be submitting a Public Records Request to the city about the latter matter to find out why it is that the safety of the HB community seems to consistently have a MUCH-LOWER priority right now at HB City Hall, than 'pet' legislation that has NOTHING to do with the proper governance or maintenance of this city according to the city's own charter.

Sincerely,

DBS

“If the First Amendment has any force, it prohibits Congress from fining or jailing citizens, or associations of citizens, for simply engaging in political speech.”

-Justice Anthony Kennedy writing for the majority in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission

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Press release from FL-19 Rep. Ted Deutch's office re his proposed Constitutional Amendment overturning the Supreme Court's First Amendment ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission:

Rep. Deutch Unveils OCCUPIED Constitutional Amendment

http://deutch.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=269672

Text is here: http://teddeutch.house.gov/UploadedFiles/DEUTCH_036_xml.pdf

Bill Summary and Status of H.J. RES 90, according to Library of Congress' THOMAS website:

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d112:hj90:

As you can see for yourself above, as of today, despite how much you may occasionally hear on TV or read about this effort in newspapers, blogs or websites, esp. in South Florida, this liberal pipe-dream of Ted Deutch that clearly will never come to fruition, has the support of exactly 4 very liberal members of the 435-member House of Representatives:

Deutch, Alcee Hastings of next-door FL-23, Peter DeFazio of Oregon and Jim McDermott of Washington.

Hmm-m... not exactly what you'd call a rolling bandwagon, eh?

It's been referred to the House Subcommittee on the Constitution, currently chaired by Arizona's Trent Franks.

http://judiciary.house.gov/about/subcommittee.html

The other members of the subcommittee from Florida, besides Deutch, are Republicans Sandy Adams of FL-24, representing Orlando to the ocean, and Dennis Ross of FL-12, representing the area east of Tampa reaching towards the central part of the state, where my mother lives.

(The outline of FL-12 sort of looks like the State of Virginia.)

FL-12 was formerly represented for ten years by Adam Putnam, current FL Sec. of Agriculture, where he was Chairman of the House Republican Conference.

Putnam was considerably more important in the larger scheme of things in the House than you would have ever realized judging by how infrequently he was mentioned in the Miami Herald, Sun-Sentinel or on local Miami-based TV newscasts. Surprise!

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NB: About the subject header - I realize that it's actually a resolution not a bill, but "resolution" at ten spaces wouldn't fit into the space, while "bill" at four would.

Bad news for HB's profligate tax-and-spend (and borrow) pols: Rasmussen Poll: 60% Favor Considering Spending Cuts in Every Government Program

Above, Hallandale Beach City Hall Municipal Complex. October 3, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier

Though the Rasmussen Reports poll results below are from a national poll, the voter sentiment I detect in my travels around Broward County and South Florida indicate it's even worse around here, esp. as it applies to myopic spending policies that we feel in our collective wallets and purses.

Especially in Hallandale Beach.

That's bad news for Joy Cooper's Rubber Stamp Crew in Hallandale Beach that never paid attention before the recent audit that showed conclusively, with damning proof, how financially irresponsible and negligent they have been for YEARS, completely failing their oversight responsibility to taxpayers and residents, while at the same time, quite literally, giving City Managers Mike Good and Mark A. Antonio carte blanche with respect to spending decisions, even while having no actual plans in place for what they were doing.

Not just nothing available online on the city's website, nothing on paper anywhere in the entire Hallandale Beach City Hall complex for you to read and make sense of.

The MARCUM LLP audit, Draft:

Hallandale AUP DRAFT 8-24-2011.pdf 328K View Download

Audit report shows missing records and disarray in Hallandale Beach’s redevelopment agency

http://www.browardbulldog.org/2011/09/audit-report-shows-missing-records-and-disarray-in-hallandale-beach%E2%80%99s-redevelopment-agency/

My September 23rd, 2011 response here on the blog to the draft of the audit findings of the city was titled, re Draft copy of Marcum Rachlin's audit of the City of Hallandale Beach; the entrenched anti-Sunshine, anti-taxpayer culture at HB City Hall

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/re-draft-copy-of-marcum-rachlins-audit.html

Over-and-over for years they have done the same thing, so where are the tangible, positive results they can point to, millions of dollars later?

At this point, as my friend Mike Butler of Change Hallandale fame has been saying for quite awhile, we ought to be able to see some visible signs of where those millions of tax dollars went, right?

So where are they?

http://www.changehallandale.com/

http://www.youtube.com/user/Butler1Mike

As of today, we still have large parts of the largest park in the city, Peter Bluesten Park, that is unsafe for adults and children at night because of the city's sheer neglect and lack of proper maintenance, something those of you who care will soon be able to see on my blog, complete with photos and video, that show it's been like this for well over TWO YEARS.

And HB City Hall has known all about it.

This park is only located two blocks from HB City Hall, and yet it seems like in the mind of City Manager Mark Antonio, it's out of sight, out of mind.

He's wrong -yet again.

It's not.

(And yes, in case you forgot me mentioning it here on the blog in the past, that's the very same HB city park that for well over a year DIDN'T properly deploy the recycling bins the city taxpayers have already paid tens of thousands of dollars for, and for this same time period, the city intentionally placed regular-sized garbage/recycling bins outside of the emergency exit for the main park building located there, a fact that you could see as soon as you walked thru the north gate.

Sure, because that's the kind of common sense you want to see from people working with and supervising small children.

People who will argue with you and say that they know best when they clearly don't.)

Yet this same Cooper Crew -Cooper, Dotty Ross, Anthony A. Sanders and Alexander Lewy-that has repeatedly shown that it CAN'T properly maintain what they already have, wants to spend -borrow from the reserve fund- millions more for a park on U.S.-1 where the current Main Post Office is located?

Most of you know how much I've spoken in the past at the myriad public meetings and on my blog about the needs to dramatically improve the city parks and beach, and to introduce more sports/social programs for the very HB adults that are already paying for them, as well as how I've taken Antonio and Cooper at City Commission meetings to task for all manner of things with respect to the dreadful physical & aesthetic conditions of the public parks & beach they are responsible for.

That said, is this really the time to let these same demonstrably irresponsible people make such an important decision, and continue their edifice complex fixation?

Hallandale Beach Government Pays Millions to U.S. Post Office in Yet Another Land Deal

http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2011/11/hallandale_beach_government_pa.php

Hallandale Beach ready to buy more land, this time a post office site for about $9 million

http://www.browardbulldog.org/2011/10/hallandale-beach-ready-to-buy-more-land-this-time-a-post-office-site-at-a-cost-of-about-9-million/

Personally, I'd rather wait until after newly-elected people with genuine dedication to notions of financial accountability are transparency are firmly in place at HB City Hall after the election 51 weeks from Tuesday.

People who understand that sound public policy that is meaningful is about making hard choices sometimes, NOT simply continuing a terrible policy of paying for things from a fund that's rapidly being depleted by folks with no common sense or vision.

I mean who buys properties before you have a sound plan in place for what you're going to do with them?

The same people who overpay for properties and then lets their cronies use them for one dollar.

One dollar?

Let me quote myself from that September 23rd post:

That the City of Hallandale Beach has purchased SO much land is troubling enough, esp. since they have so often overpaid for it. But the fact that they have done so WITHOUT an actual City Commission-approved written strategy or plan that makes sense or shows some awareness of the logical consequences of what they are doing -a plan that taxpayers could read- is very, very troubling indeed, since it makes you wonder why some people's land is bought and others is not, even when the latter's might make more sense to some positive public policy.

To cite but one obvious example of this strange process, consider the land that was purchased by the city for more than it was apparently worth that was owned by present-day Hallandale Beach Commissioner Anthony A. Sanders and his wife.

That purchase literally seemed to fly thru the city's bureaucracy, because it was, apparently, so key to some grand plan of the city.

Well, what exactly was THAT plan?

Why all the urgency?

Why the need to over-pay for the property?

And now, three years later, the reality for HB taxpayers is that the city rents the property they claimed at the time was so important, to someone for one dollar a month.

One dollar.

Why?

Where is the logic and common sense in any of this, and why WON'T/CAN'T the City Manager, the Mayor or the City Commission logically explain this episode three years after the fact?

What's the plan?

Me, I don't think there is an actual plan.

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

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

If you didn't already know, the person commenting above on some of the websites as "AMWakeUpCall" is HB's self-appointed political commissar, Andrew Markoff.

Almost everyone receiving this email knows what he's all about, but on the chance that this SW HB resident appointed to the Charter Review Comm. by Mayor Cooper is unknown to you, please see my June 13, 2010 post titled, quite accurately,

My upcoming post on Hallandale Beach's self-appointed Political Commissar Andrew Markoff may have words that hurt his feelings -if any. Oh, dear!

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/my-upcoming-post-on-hallandale-beachs.html

In the end, I decided not to follow-up on this post since I realized that talking about all the dozens of hours I spent talking to him about this city and area a few years ago, taking him around to see things for himself that he'd never noticed while living here, even going up to Hollywood City Comm. meetings so he could see how they did things, in short, to connect-the-dots, would seem self-serving and petty.

It was enough that I sounded the alarm and let people who are interested in learning from my own mistake know that when it comes to Andrew Markoff, no good deed of theirs goes unpunished.

See also:

www.KeithLondon.com

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From: Rasmussen Reports Date: Sun, Nov 13, 2011 at 10:37 AM Subject: 60% Favor Considering Spending Cuts in Every Government Program

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Most Americans continue to believe everything should be on the table when it comes to federal spending cuts.

Read the rest of the post at:

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/business/federal_budget/november_2011/60_favor_considering_spending_cuts_in_every_government_program

The role of PAL in the City of Hallandale Beach, and specifically, in the larger debate about the HB Parks Master Plan and the city's priorities

Below, an email sent to Hallandale Beach City Manager Mark A. Antonio about Thursday morning's 10 a.m. presentation of the Hallandale Beach Parks Master Plan by consultants from Bermello Ajamil & Partners (B&A).

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July 13th, 2011

Dear City Manager Antonio:

I don't know whether I'll be able to attend Thursday morning's meeting on the Hallandale Beach Parks & Rec. Master Plan, so I'm sending this email now so that my longstanding concerns -shared by MANY other HB citizens- can be received and addressed whether I make it to the meeting or not.

Before I get into the bills of particulars, I would like for you to spend a few minutes before the presentation begins and publicly explain what the role of HB PAL is in this city, and, specifically, what their role is and has been within the larger public debate on what the priorities of the City Commission should be with regard to any publicly-financed parks, ball fields, swimming pools or Dog Parks in the future.

I'm not sure whether or not you're familiar with what I have stated previously on this subject or not, but among other things, I'm NOT a fan of the way that the people associated with the HB PAL like to throw their weight around, seemingly able to do whatever they want or get whenever they want in the way of resources, including getting the city's mobile electronic message, boards or information sandwich boards placed on medians along HBB or U.S.-1 or anywhere else whenever they want, but actual important city events I could name, seemingly can NOT use them.

I'd also like to state publicly that I and more than a few people in this city believe it's a clear conflict-of-interest for someone like Barbara Southwick to be on both the PAL Exec Board AND also not just be on the city's Parks & Rec. Advisory Board, but be it's obstinate Chair.

Far too often for comfort, she seems oblivious to the legitimate and reasonable concerns of others in the community, much less, the dozens of longstanding problems at the city's fields, parks and beach that many of my friends and I have previously discussed in private among ourselves, with photos to back up our concerns, esp. the issues of public safety and incompetent and slothful city employees who do NOT perform professionally or with courtesy.

(Just to name a few of many I could cite: the dreadful public safety conditions of Bluesten Park at night because of inadequate or missing public lighting -near the pool and in the parking lots on S.E. 5th Street; the new taxpayer-financed recycling bins being completely underutilized and yet kept directly in the path of the Fire Emergency exit since April of last year; the lights of the walking trail/Paracourse located on the NE corner of the park going from only five of 25-plus working to just 5, and fairly recently, ALL of them being out at night.

It's hard to figure out how so many HB city employees can be OBLIVIOUS FOR SO LONG when these things are self-evident to anyone paying attention...

And speaking of self-evident, don't mention it, but the street lights on Old Dixie Highway adjacent to the park and City Hall have been out for well OVER A YEAR. Somehow, despite all the city employees and vehicles that go by there at night, including the Police Dept., they ALL have managed to completely ignore it and not taken steps to contact FP&L.)

Last July at a City Workshop at City Hall on auditing, Barbara Southwick took the opportunity to go off on a completely unbelievable and mean-spirited personal harangue against several concerned HB citizen taxpayers who actually attended the meeting and contributed their thoughts.

She went on at length, choosing to blame HB citizens for the city's problems instead of the elected officials and city employees who are, in fact, not only responsible, but who are PAID to do their job competently and professionally.

But Barbara Southwick was just warming-up.

Days later, at the first public Parks & Rec. Master Plan meeting, held at the North Beach Community Center, the first time the public had been allowed in the facility since it was given to the city MANY YEARS prior, Southwick AGAIN tried to manipulate the scope and nature of the proceedings by trying to invalidate the legitimate concerns and thoughts of concerned citizens with whom she disagreed with.

That particular day, that included most of the citizens present, some of whom wanted to make sure that more activities for older kids, esp. Middle-School age kids, were brought into the discussion and seriously considered, including, possibly, at Scavo Park.

That PUBLIC city park, of course, is not PRIVATE land nor is it located on a condominium where a Board of Directors could create whatever rules they wished for, provide security at their own cost, or otherwise legally keep other HB citizens out.

It's crystal clear to many in this city from the many Parks & Rec. Master Plan meetings that have been held the past year that many residents living near that public park have come to believe that HB City Hall has given them what amounts to a heckler's veto on any ideas or plans relative to the park's future that are NOT palatable to them personally.

It's a public park in a city that's starved for parks, yet they act like they can prevent other residents of the city from enjoying it or even making suggestions for improving it for the larger community.

(Just to remind you, the city NEVER posted any promotional fliers, erected any sandwich boards on or near the beach or sidewalk for that first Parks Master Plan meeting, nor did they post any inside the North Beach parking garage -near the ticket dispensing machine- or at the South Beach parking lot, all of which should've happened ten days prior. Nothing on the medians of HBB or U.S.-1, either.

That would've been a good time to have the city's mobile electronic message board on the sidewalk near the Water Fountain the previous weekend, so people could see it and make plans to attend, but it didn't happen- Again.)

At one point in the proceedings at the North Beach bldg., when I was asking a question from the back of the room -where I video-recorded the entire meeting- Southwick actually stood-up from her seat as if to answer it, even though my question was obviously directed to the consultant, Randy Hollingsworth.

I did my best to keep her from deconstructing my questions but she STILL insisted on answering, and even managed to get in her unsolicited two cents during other residents questions, too, something that was totally inappropriate and galling.

Why was this allowed to take place, over-and-over?

It was a thinly-veiled attempt to shield her and her PALs from any valid public criticism, of which there is plenty, even if not vocalized there.

A number of people came up to me after the meeting -or contacted me in the days following- and said that they were upset that Southwick seemed free to interrupt whenever she felt the urge, and it only added to her reputation of a bully who consistently tries to squelch open public debate in this city.

I've been told recently that PAL has, apparently, told the city what THEY would like to see on a temporary basis at the former Tower Mobile Home site purchased by the city, adjacent to Bluesten Park, on Old Dixie Highway.

I'm confused, when was THAT public discussion held about what the community might like to see on an interim basis?

Once again, it seems that PAL is wagging the dog, instead of being one voice out of many in this city.

It's hard not to notice in such a small community that certain people seem to have an ability to effectuate what actually happens here in ways that are completely disproportionate to the larger community, and which are often both inexplicable or contrary to the public good.

In that respect, it's hard NOT to notice that while there have been any number of city-sponsored public meetings/forums/workshops that have lacked adequate public outreach/communication the past few years -far too many for me to name here- yet somehow, the Hallandale Beach Tennis Center -which has a direct connection to Barbara Southwick- has been able to keep an information sandwich board advertising tennis lessons on the east-side median of Hallandale Beach Blvd. & 14th Avenue... since LAST YEAR.

Above, April 24, 2011 shot I took looking east on Hallandale Beach Blvd. 14th Avenue, near the Publix, Walgreens and Winn-Dixie, of that HB Tennis Center lessons sign that has been on the east-side median since LAST YEAR. Does everything in this city REALLY need to be based on who you know? April 24, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

People in this city see that day-after-day and it causes them to ask questions about how and why things like that continually happen, even while, for instance, there have been no fliers publicly distributed and posted, no information sandwich boards erected, or mobile electronic message boards strategically positioned, advertising the PUBLIC meetings for the city's newly-installed Charter Review Commission, which is surely as important if not more so than tennis lessons.
Not even on the city-maintained permanent message board on S.E. 3rd Street and U.S.-1 in front of the County library branch.

Yes, the same message board one that for months has mistakenly advertised the second City Commission meeting of the month at 7 p.m., despite the change to 6 p.m. a number of months ago.

There's no need to respond to this in writing, I'll look for your reply at the meeting, either in-person or via computer if I can't make it.

Below, a copy of an email sent to some other HB residents in May who are also concerned about

what's going on in this city with public parks and the public beach -or isn't.

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That email I referenced at the end will be posted here on the blog soon, as I will also come back to this post over the next few days and add some photos I meant to post but was too tired to spend time downloading.