Showing posts with label Broward County Commission. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Broward County Commission. Show all posts

Saturday, May 6, 2017

Bombshell! It's actually worse than I thought! Latest news from Buddy Nevins at Broward Beat has left me dumbfounded: Broward Auditor Blasts Fast-And-Loose Spending By Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau Under Former Director Nicki Grossman; No Meaningful Operating Controls on CVB Spending. #ethics

Bombshell! Just when you thought that things in #Broward County could not get any worse, that the Broward Establishment and its chosen people could NOT show their contempt for rules, common sense and the taxpayers of the county any more than they have in the recent past, they do.
Thing are actually worse than I thought! 

That's the only conclusion a reasonable, well-informed person like me can draw from the latest news made public Friday by Buddy Nevins at his Broward Beat website. News that has left most of the concerned Broward civic activists, bloggers and elected officials I know and trust dumbstruck by the sheer scope of this scandal, and in my case, for a rare time, left me almost speechless. Almost.

Broward Auditor Blasts Fast-And-Loose Spending By Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau Under Former Director Nicki Grossman; No Meaningful Operating Controls on CVB Spending




Broward Beat
Auditor Blasts Fast-And-Loose Spending By Tourism Bureau Under Nicki Grossman
By Buddy Nevins
May 5, 2017
Broward’s tourism and convention bureau routinely violated the county’s and state spending rules for years, according to a critical audit released this week. Among the shocking findings:
  • Former Tourism Czar Nicki Grossman handed out $178,000 in sales commissions over two years to 14 members of her staff – extra pay based on hotel rooms sold — without having any proof of results, the audit stated.
The audit of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Tourism and Convention Bureau began in June 2016.  Grossman retired after 21 years the same month and was replaced by Stacy Ritter, a former county commissioner.
Read the rest of the post at:





Apparently, the Greater FTL CVB has been run for years just like the Hallandale Beach CRA has been the past ten-plus years under Mayor Joy Cooper, where money goes out the back door without much need to justify it, and with lots of political cover to keep curious citizens from asking pesky questions.
No oversight, no accountability and, seemingly, no proof of anything tangible actually being accomplished required to actually receive $$$.
Just the approving nod-and-wink of the people in charge.

Before continuing on to the Nevins bombshell, I remind you loyal readers of the blog - especially you newcomers!- that I posted something here on the blog about the curious goings on with the Greater Fort Lauderdale CVB as recently as last month. 

For those of you who don't know, the Greater FTL CVB has long been a  bête noire of mine, in large part because for so many years, it has seemed clear to me based on all the available evidence that they were able to consistently get away with frequently saying and doing things publicly that could not be substantiated or proven by facts or data more than probably any other group in South Florida.
Even more, dare I say, than the intentional misstatement of facts, misdirection and spin emanating from the Dolphins and Marlins so often the past ten years, which is really saying something. 

Whether stated at public meetings or via pithy comments to the local South Florida news media that rarely holds tourism groups like them to account publicly for what they say, I'd frequently read and hear things that simply didn't add up.
But the local news media, even when presented with information that contradicted what the CVB said, did and said nothing.
Did nothing like actually engaging in some old-fashioned reporting because the media was dependent upon the CVB for both information and access to many important events, esp. ones with well-known personalities and celebrities certain to attend.

That post of April 6th was labeled, Downward Tourism Trend: Broward County's Tourism efforts, as measured by number of hotel visitors, are suffering just as Las Vegas is seeing very positive changes and results in key demographics, including Millennials




Since then, Buddy Nevins on his website -and me in my tweets at @hbbtruth- has publicly questioned what was going on with the Broward Convention Center and efforts to either expand it or move it, because of a desire to have a large, new convention-style hotel attached, something that has been a goal of the Broward Establishment for multiple 
DECADES.



But the lack of an attached convention-style hotel has also been a longstanding problem for the Miami Beach Convention Center, and yet they seem able to still book big events there every year, like Art Basel, because there are so many hotels within a reasonable walking distance.
But it's true that they are NOT able to book larger corporate or industry conventions because of that very same problem. It's a genuine problem that won't solve itself.

So let's review the reality of 2017 for Broward taxpayers, residents and Small Business owners.
Broward County currently has a Convention Center that nearly everyone agrees now is situated in a bad location. A bad location as far as traffic goes and which crowds out economic engine Port Everglades' legitimate current and future expansion needs.

Broward County owns an indoor sports arena situated in a very bad location out near the Everglades that's not only far from the center or even bulk of Broward's population, but which is also NOT near any existing or future mass transit like TriRail.
And for good measure, that sports arena never generates revenue for Broward County taxpayers AND has a very curious management contract that most US cities and counties would never agree to.
But wait, there's MORE!

We also have in county-owned Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport a place that as we all saw to our dismay and shock in January, quite literally, is full of people who do NOT know what to do in case of a real emergency, like a shooting. 
The County and the airport actually had people in-place there that day who made a horrible situation MUCH WORSE... and given the airport a much-deserved black eye.


http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fort-lauderdale-hollywood-airport-shooting/fl-airport-chaos-response-20170320-story.html






Everyone here understands that FLL airport is a hugely important economic engine for the community whose ripple effects are felt all over South Florida, and whose safe, smart and efficient operation is crucial to our area and daily lives.
Yet few people know that it currently lacks an appointed Citizen Advisory Board that can provide a degree of independent oversight and accountability to the community at large that is separate and NOT beholden to the airport's current management, the airlines or the airports contractors and vendors who contribute large campaign funds to County Commission candidates.
We have an airport where most Broward residents no longer comment publicly on the absurd reality that confronts us on a daily basis - when you are at the Tri-Rail Airport train station, you are NOT actually at the airport itself.

You can imagine how dismayed tourists, esp, international visitors, are when they encounter something like that for the first time.
They wonder who would plan something like that, that is both short-sighted and second-rate. And they are right!

I have been publicly urging for years that the Broward County Commission create an Airport Citizen Advisory Board that can be a voice for the people of this community, who are, let us not forget, also the airport's main clients.
We are the customers.

And yet now these same Establishment Movers and Shakers in the Broward political and business community responsible for most of these problems I've mentioned want to have major input in the future location of a new U.S. Courthouse?
Instead of, say, at a minimum, agreeing and insisting that it be located near a prospective Tri Rail Coastal train station so that people all over the county can access it without a car or the need for more expensive parking garages to be built?



No thanks!!!

In light of what I read in Buddy' Nevins' article today about the audit of the Greater FTL CVB and their predilection for winging-it, I truly wonder if the hotel visitors numbers that I cited in my blog post of last month are even lower than what the CVB publicly stated.
It really makes you wonder what you are supposed to believe, if people put in powerful positions of influence can't or refuse to be bothered to document things that would be required in any other well-run business, much less, one that's affiliated with govt. funds.

Do I need to remind you that as things currently stand, there is NOT an elected, county-wide Mayor for Broward County to ensure that there is positive direction, leadership and accountability for its residents and Small Business owners? I thought not.

Yes, to quote myself from this blog several months ago, we could definitely use someone as capable, savvy, hard-working and ethical as former Hollywood Mayor Peter Bober as Broward County Mayor when that title really means something tangible.




Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Wither #Broward's #tourism and reputation among the smart set among U.S. & foreign travelers? Or will #CommonSense get a second chance in Broward?

Wither #Broward's #tourism and reputation among the smart set among U.S. & foreign travelers? Or will #CommonSense get a second chance in Broward?

My email to some of the members of the Broward County Commission on Monday, in advance of their meeting Tuesday about transportation options for broward residents and tourists, including ride sharing apps like @Uber and @lyft.

I'll have some thoughts and some analysis of the decision made Tuesday here on the blog by Friday afternoon.

-----
August 10th, 2015

Dear Commissioners:

I'll admit it - I really wanted to comment earlier.
But I've tried my best to show some patience over the past few weeks before sending this email to you, since I wanted to wait a bit after the July 31 operational deadline came and went for @Uber & @lyft in Broward County.  

In anticipation of the Broward County Commission discussing/revisiting the ride-sharing ordinance on Tuesday, here's my thoughts re Uber & Lyft -and what I see as the continuing anti-consumer/anti-public transit situation at FLL- which I've been writing off-and-on for weeks.

Frankly, unless the current status quo changes, it'll be quite interesting to see and hear what visitors to Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport tell TV reporters in the future when they're asked at the airport, while waiting near the baggage claim area, what they think about the fact that Broward County, the Sunshine State's second-largest county, has decided to forbid the use of popular transportation sharing apps within its borders. 
Bet I can predict what those visitors say to the reporters. 

As best I can determine, I've read every single newspaper article & column, tweet, blog post and aired TV segment about the matter, good and bad, that's been filed from somewhere in Broward County and environs, no matter how obtuse, incoherent or fact-challenged -or simply argumentative for the sake of being argumentative!
At this point, I'm pretty certain I know from all of this what people on and off the dais and in the community have said, claimed, denied, or otherwise thrown into the water to try to muddy things up for whatever reason.

I'm pleased to be hearing of late that some of your colleagues have, for whatever reason, come to see that their initial approach was perhaps less-than-satisfactory for a large number of Broward residents
than they originally thought. 
Especially for the many people in Broward who work unusual hours or who often need to get to places not located near any sort of reasonable public transit.

Trust me, my friends and former colleagues located overseas all know 
about what's taken place here over the past few months. They're very sharp and well-informed people to begin with, and most had already heard about the ridiculous news before I first thought to mention it to them the past few weeks. Still, they're shocked.

I'd like to think they had a much-better grasp of the facts and the real 
subtext and nuance after I sent them -and any journalists they knew in their own city- some helpful links to the myriad print and TV stories about the issue here, where, given a chance to do the smart and pragmatic thing, a majority of the Broward County Commission thought that firmly embracing the past with a passion was more important than admitting that the future everyone's been talking about was... already here. 
And wisely embracing that instead!

Because surely, given a choice, the Broward County Commission would 
recognize that it was time to admit that no amount of their pretending or wishful thinking were going to change that basic fact. 
But look what happened when given a choice.
The Broward County Commission chose poorly.
And NOT wisely.

Now that so many helpful innovations have been brought to the market by the sharing apps, it's hard for me to see that the public is willing to accept simply going forward WITHOUT them

It's hard not to reflect on this and also not observe how perverse it is that 
for so many years, the Broward County Commission has delighted in patting itself on the back for choosing an approach that the majority declared was "forward-thinking" when it came to some social issue.
This, even when a majority of Broward's population might NOT have necessarily been in favor of that change of approach in policy, or even thought it logical.

Yet, as the Commission has now proven again, it's equally happy to pat itself on the back for doing the opposite, and opposing a pragmatic and forward-thinking approach when it comes to economic and entrepreneurial issues that ARE strongly supported by the majority of the general public.
That's what you call a #disconnect.

Oh, and that glorious past?
A past where taxi drivers at FLL airport have routinely ripped-off domestic and 
foreign visitors left-and-right for years by driving routes to locations around the area that were NOT the shortest distance between any two points. 
Or even close to the shortest.

The disappearance of the simple (and much-missed) southbound exit from the 
airport onto U.S.-1/Federal Highway towards Dania, Hollywood, Hallandale Beach and points beyond, only facilitated this duplicity by the existing taxi drivers, and made a long-festering problem worse and more self-evident to anyone who was paying the slightest attention.
A fact I've recounted in precise detail to you all in a previous email.

Last year I told some of you the tale of a good friend (and fellow civic activist) 
from Hallandale Beach who, TWICE, after getting off a flight from Ohio, was offered a taxi drive home to Hallandale Beach... via a trip west to 595 and then State Road 7 and then...

Recognizing the scam for what it was -with the licensed taxi driver using the 
half-assed, poorly-conceived stop-gap U-turn north of the airport on U.S.-1 as a means to further confuse riders- my friend voiced his strong disapproval before things got worse.

That this same shady and illegal maneuver was tried by a LICENSED Broward taxi driver 
TWICE on one well-informed Broward resident within just a few months, says a lot about the severity of the problem that everyone ignores around here, not least, the South Florida news media.

Funny how the public never hears anything about taxi drivers getting punished 
for taking advantage of customers, esp at FLL and Port Everglades. 
Given Broward's penchant for capturing data, why isn't there a link to something useful like that prominently posted somewhere on the County website homepage?
Say, along with the name of the taxi company, a brief description of what took place, the amount of the fine imposed on the company by the County AND the number of infractions against that taxi company within the past year -or longer?
I'm all for warnings and Yellow Cards in soccer, but it's long past time for some Red Cards and ejections to take place at FLL, too.

Meanwhile, how do visitors to Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport, 
esp. ones used to taking public transportation from the airport back to their home -in D.C., Chicago and Stockholm to name but three places I know- react when they first encounter Broward's public transit stop at FLL?
Specifically, the #1 Bus?

Tell me, does that bus stop STILL consist of a solitary bench without any shade 
or cover of any sort, despite the weather we have here?
Does that bus stop STILL lack any posted timetables that might help visitors consider their options?
Does that bus stop STILL lack a posted map there of the area?

Does FLL and its Director still believe that NOT having good sensible direction 
signs at the airport to the #1 bus stop, in the year 2015, is a good way of #branding?
I ask about that because you will recall that I mentioned to you last year that on separate occasions, I asked people working the official Help Desk at FLL how and where to catch a public bus. 
They didn't know.
Really.

Yep, that's how bad reputations start -and then get worse when nobody in a position 
of authority cares enough to resolve the problem on the public's behalf.
Which is why in the year 2015, there ought to already be an Advisory Board for Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport that consists ENTIRELY of Broward citizens, with ZERO city or county officials.

And none of the Usual Suspects put forward by the Broward League of Cities and the like who always seem to have as their first goal, gaining more ultimate power and control for local public officials -always at the expense of Broward's beleaguered taxpayers.

I genuinely hope that if things go well on Tuesday as far as the entire Commission actually giving #CommonSense a second chance in Broward, some of you will also seriously consider supporting my idea of creating an appointed Broward Citizen Advisory Board for FLL.
I believe that can serve as a dynamic to make things better there for citizens, taxpayers and visitors to our area, the latter of whom deserve to have their first impression of the area be a positive one.

Saturday, January 3, 2015

#Ridesharing in Broward County - Broward County Commission holding workshop Tuesday January 6th to discuss issues surrounding Uber, Lyft, ridesharing and taxi services

I heard some very interesting news about public policy this morning from new District 6 Broward County Commissioner Beam Furr, someone whom I support now and in the past in large part because of his longtime commitment to not only the long-term best interests of the citizens of Southeast Broward, but also his steadfast commitment to employing common sense and financial accountability for those taxpayers in making and implementing public policy.

Unfortunately for Broward residents and South Florida in general, those traits also make Comm. Furr stand out among South Florida's legion of pols and govt. officials, too many of whom have become conditioned into believing that bigger government and more regulation is the answer to every policy problem and conundrum, even when it's clear that it's NOT.

On issues large and small, Beam Furr has shown himself over the years to be someone who does NOT believe in one-size-fits-all public policy, and we are indeed lucky for that.
Fortunate to have someone like him who is not afraid to do some original thinking andsome heavy-lifting when it's necessary instead of leaving it to others to decide the matter.

In that respect, Comm. Furr most ably shows the qualities that made him the sensible choice to represent this part of the Sunshine State's 4th-largest county and succeed someone else on the County Commission who was not afraid to be a leader on important issues of governance and the public's rights, the recently-retired Sue Gunzburger.

The news I heard about thois morning concerns a contentious issue that has been much in the news the past two years nationally and locally, and one which I'm sorry to say I have not done such a great job of chronicling in the recent past, much as I might've wanted to. (But then it is a new year, so...)

The public policy issue that both yours truly and many of the longtime readers of this blog have an abiding interest in is transportation ridesharing.
Who decides what sorts of consumer choices citizens and visitors in Broward County will have going forward and what should be the universe of choices they have consist of?

Uber WorkshopThe Broward County Commission is holding a workshop to discuss the issues surrounding Uber, Lyft, ridesharing and taxi services this Tuesday, January 6th at 12:30PM. If you can join us down at Room 430 of the County Government Center in Fort Lauderdale, I would encourage you to attend. Otherwise, we will be live streaming the workshop on the County Website. Just visit Broward.org/Video and watch the Workshop from your computer or smartphone. 
Otherwise, if you would like to listen to the meeting you can call into 954-357-7586 and listen live. 
The workshop will be covering issues related to background checks for drivers, vehicle inspections and insurance. If there is anything that you feel that we should address, please respond to this email with further suggestions. During the meeting itself, I will still be able to read my email, and for those listening or watching live please put UBER: LIVE RESPONSE in the subject line, and I will do my best to address your concern in the workshop.

Monday, November 17, 2014

Because #Ethics still matter to some of us in Broward County; re upcoming December 4th meeting of the Oversight Committee for Office of the Broward Inspector General











-----
"Laws and Constitutions go for nothing where the general sentiment is corrupt."
-New York Times editorial, September 22, 1851

"Why do they need that in the Broward County charter?"

-Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper at April 2, 2008 HB City Commission meeting, in discussing possible inclusion of Broward County Charter Review Commission's proposal for Ethics Commission to deal with Broward County Commission,on November 2008 ballot.
Six YEARS after the county's voters had overwhelmingly passed an amendment to the County charter requiring its adoption, the Broward County Commission had yet to live up to its legal responsibility. 
That's why!

-----
Below is a long-overdue email that I finally remembered to send out Monday afternoon to Broward County Government HQ in Fort Lauderdale, via Kevin Kelleher, the County's Director of Human Resources

November 17, 2014

Dear Mr. Kelleher:

I'm writing to you today in your capacity as liaison to the Oversight Committee for the Office of Broward Inspector General.


I would like to know when and where this year's meeting will take place so that I can make sure that my voice, as well as the voices of other concerned residents of Broward County, have the opportunity to continue to push-back and call-out the stealthy, frequently anti-democratic and very antagonistic actions taken by so many elected public officials, who for some reason persist in thinking that they are beyond the reach of both the law and society's norms.

At last year's annual meeting of the Broward IG Oversight Committee, I spoke in some detail about some of the matters that I was most concerned with involving the evolving structure, operations and public outreach responsibilities of the Broward IG's office. 
I noted specific areas that I believed the office was deficient in and called for much-needed improvement in those areas IF it wanted to truly satisfy Broward County's much-beleaguered citizenry's very strong interest in seeing unethical behavior investigated, pulled-out by the roots and 
fully-prosecuted.

I said that in my opinion, IF the Broward IG's Office wanted to continue 
to maintain the public's trust, the area that most-needed tangible improvement was the allocation of adequate resources and personnel to public outreach in cities that were being formally investigated, so that the public would 
know with certainty just what WAS and was NOT being investigated, and how the public could best assist the office with respect to perhaps gathering additional relevant facts and evidence, to say nothing of context.

The latter was something that, to my astonishment, was NEVER done in Hallandale Beach in 2012 and 2013 when the Broward IG was investigating the longstanding Hallandale Beach CRA scandal involving tens of millions of dollars, since in my opinion, it would have produced a LOT more useful information and context for the IG's Office to peruse and consider.
In my opinion, they barely saw the the tip of the iceberg.

As someone who was frequently the only member of the public attending those early morning meetings years ago of the appointed Broward County Ethics Committee, someone who actually videotaped many of them so that I could later describe in accurate detail what had transpired in those 
meetings, esp. with respect to which appointed member was consistently voting FOR meaningful ethical standards and thresholds and which appointed members had consistently tried to obfuscate, misdirect or otherwise water-down any serious effort to hold people with power, influence and 
opportunity to account, I take what happens with the Office of Broward IG very seriously.

I don't think I or others need to apologize for wanting to make sure that the will and best interests of the Broward citizenry is represented as often as possible, NOT pushed to the side of the road by self-interested politicans, government employees and outside groups, esp. ones with zero public oversight like the Broward League of Cities, a group that STILL clearly wants its member cities and officials to have as low a threshold as possible, to meet and carve-out exceptions to common sense -as if common sense was something that we'd been enjoying too much of over the years, instead of its opposite. 

Obviously, many of these individuals and groups would very much like to keep their perks and the trappings of the pay-to-play culture that had long flourished in Broward, and want to un-do the very small, positive things that have FINALLY taken place.
Sorry, that ship has sailed! 

Despite my fact-filled warnings and anecdotes last year to the IG Oversight 
Committe and the public attending that meeting about the reality on-the-ground at Hallandale Beach City Hall, that same corrosive attitude and anti-citizen culture I described then persists from top-to-bottom at HB City Hall.

There has been no let-up by Mayor Joy Cooper and City Manager Renee Miller since either the April 2013 issuance of the IG's damning report on the Hallandale Beach CRA scandal that involved tens of millions of dollars, or, even since Mr. Scott and the Chief Counsel's own descriptions last year of the sorts of foolish and entirely self-serving gambits and attempts at misrepresentations engaged in by those women and the city.
Right down to Mayor Cooper intentionally sending her inaccurate letter and account of the facts to everyone scheduled to attend last year's IG Oversight Comm. meeting 
That is, everyone BUT the IG's Office itself.

Yes, it was hard not to see that desperate and pathetic effort for precisely what it was.
A shameful effort to obfuscate and blame others for their own unethical behavior and lack of proper governance, due diligence and meaningful oversight for SO MANY YEARS, which is just how I described it last year since that's precisely how the majority of Hallandale Beach's best-informed residents and Small Business owners see it

I look forward to hearing from you soon about that upcoming meeting.
-----
Mr. Smith,   

The next Inspector General Selection and Oversight Committee Meeting is currently scheduled for Thursday, December 4 at 2:00pm in Room 422 of the Broward County Governmental Center, 115 South Andrews Avenue, Fort Lauderdale Florida 33301.   
Should you have any additional questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.   

Kevin

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Long overdue public accountability finally comes to the Broward County Commission: Broward County Commission meetings will FINALLY be available to residents, taxpayers and media online via an archive; no more having to buy DVDs!

When I was at Broward County HQ for various reasons back in February, March and April, nearly every single well-informed County employee I trust and specifically asked about County Manager Bertha Henry's refusal to make video-on-demand happen, this sort of common sense transparency change that many residents assume already exists, told me that they'd "heard" that she was putting her foot down, and would need to be dragged into implementing such a program, no matter how much the elected Commission said they wanted it done or how much concerned citizens like me said we wanted it ASAP, and, by the way, DIDN'T think it was too much to expect in the year 2014.

This didn't surprise me, per se, considering that Ms. Henry -whom I'm no fan of- had previously missed a deadline to inform the Commission and the public about what was going on with this overdue acknowledgement of the 21st Century.
(Dragged because nothing was going on or because she didn't want to appear to be publicly and directly challenging her bosses by refusing to follow their directives???) 

In any case, I was quite surprised to get this bit of positive email today, at bottom
Surprised, but pleased.
Take victories where you can find them!


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, Feb 6, 2014 at 5:39 PM
Subject: Just another in a long line of reasons to fire her: Broward Bulldog update to Browrad County Administrator Bertha Henry's failure to meet County Comm.'s deadline for video-on-demand service for public


Bertha Henry is the same woman in charge who utterly failed to make sure that 
the Broward County Charter Review Comm.'s minutes and documents were online 
on the county's website before the November 2010 election so that residents/voters 
could actually see the accurate background information on the County's charter 
issues that appeared on the ballot; as well as find out why many others did not 
make the ballot and let the people decide, like the idea of a County-wide elected 
mayor of Broward County, just like in Miami-Dade County and Orange County, 
due to parochialism, power politics and behind-the-scenes lobbying by the Broward 
County League of Cities, and most of the county's elected crew.

Getting that information online in time for people to make informed choices is precisely 
the sort of thing that you'd take for granted if you lived in most parts of the country.
But not here.

For those of you who weren't around then, at the time, I wrote a number of blog posts 
about this issue as well as many emails to elected officials and it took forever to get 
them to do the right thing.

This same sort of thing happened with the so-called Courthouse Taskforce that was 
chaired by a Comm. who owned property in the area, and so, was emblematic of a group
of people who were appointed who only wanted a new courthouse, not anyone in favor of 
another solution.
In that matter, the County consistently failed to have the Task Force agendas and 
background documents online before the meetings they held.
Even with the case of the final meeting, that info, which ought to have been placed online 
days before, instead was placed online after midnight of the day of the meeting -hours after 
it took place.

That's how they do things with Bertha Henry in charge.
Don't hold your breath thinking that anything short of forcing her to walk the plank is going 
to get her properly motivated.


----
Broward Bulldog
Broward commissioners tell Henry to come up with a plan for video-on-demand of meetings
By William Hladky, BrowardBulldog.org 

And now... 

From: Stapleton, Margaret
Sent: Monday, August 11, 2014 1:57 PM
To: Sharief, Barbara; Lamarca, Chip; Holness, Dale; Jacobs, Kristin; Wexler, Lois; Kiar, Martin; Ritter, Stacy; Gunzburger, Suzanne; Ryan, Tim; Scavron, Aaron; Flury, Barbara; Rosenberg, Eric; Fields, Gregory; Beckford, John; Bertino, John; Wesner, Kate; Hall, Kathy; Pierson, Kelly; Pauli, Kenneth; Maroe, Kimberly; Carter, Kristin; Scarlette, Lahoma; Carbonell, Launa; Lynch, Lauraine; Wolter, Margaret; Pryde, Mary; Carreras, Megan; Clark, Michael; Goldstein, Norma; Busey, Philip; Yeager, Sandra; Barrocas, Scott; Popiel, Stephen; Hirschman, William
Cc: Directors; Henry, Bertha; Hernandez, Roberto; Cepero, Monica; Cassini, Gretchen; Jefferson, Alphonso; Maroe, Kimberly
Subject: Commission Meeting Archive and Security Updates
Importance: High

Commissioners,

Broward County will formally announce today that, as part of our ongoing commitment to transparency in government, video recordings of County Commission meetings, including Public Hearings and Good and Welfare, will be posted online beginning with the August 12th meeting, and will typically be available for on-demand viewing by noon each Wednesday.  A new and improved Government website, including a new Agendas and Minutes Archive webpage, has been launched in support of the change.


Most of the information on the new website is in “responsive design.” This is a Web best practice that makes content more readily accessible across multiple mobile devices, including Apple and Android smartphones and tablets. Site visitors can:

·         Select a Commission Meeting Viewing Option (live, replay or on-demand)
·         Access New Video Recording Meeting Archive (August 12, 2014 forward) and Action Agenda and Meeting Minutes Archive (from July 23, 1915)
·         View Commission Meeting Agendas and Back-Up Material
·         Subscribe to Receive Agenda Notifications
·         View Current Commission Meeting Schedule
·         Get Information on Signing up to Speak/Requesting Communication Aids
·         Link to Commissioner Websites and/or Find Commission District
·         Access Related Links and Resources
Security Update

Facilities Management is also announcing new security measures beginning August 12th, including the addition of a walk-through magnetometer, used for metal detection. The magnetometer will significantly enhance overall security, and as an added benefit, is expected to speed the security screening process. Room 422 will open at 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday.

Facilities Management reminds employees that while it is important for them to wear their Broward County ID during the workday, it is especially important for any staff attending the meeting or seeking access to Commission Chambers on a Commission Meeting day, to have their Broward County ID with them and prominently displayed. This helps Security readily identify Broward County employees and expedites the screening process; however, all employees and visitors will be screened.

AED (Automated External Defibrillator) equipment is located near every entrance to the Governmental Center and in the elevator lobby area on every floor. An additional unit has been installed in the Chamber. As you face the dais, it is located on the wall to your left. Security personnel and law enforcement within the building are trained on the operation of AED equipment and to perform CPR.



BCLOGO4C
Margaret Stapleton, Director
Broward County Office of Public Communications
115 S. Andrews Ave., Room 506
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301
Phone: 954-357-6931
Cell: 954-802-3487