Showing posts with label Cameron Benson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cameron Benson. Show all posts

Friday, October 7, 2011

Video of the 2009 Hollywood City Commission voting on $30k deal with State Sen. Eleanor Sobel; Sara Case was talking about budget problems even then!

September 20, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.
Later than I had originally planned, I now finally have the link to the video from April 1st, 2009 at Hollywood City Hall that was the heart of the $30K deal for State Senator Eleanor Sobel that I have referenced twice within the past week, via a post of my own and one yesterday by Hollywood civic activist Sara Case at The Balance Sheet Blog, in light of her formal request to have the State of Florida perform an audit of the City of Hollywood.



Me, I find her timing and rationale very, very curious, and that would be true even if I hadn't voted in the 2008 primary for Tim Ryan for State Senate, despite the nasty and untrue TV ads paid for by her shadowy supporters at 527s, and electioneering communication groups
A survey done by VancoreJones Communications in June 2008 described Democratic voters in District 31 as "the most angry, despondent and suspicious group we've ever polled.'' But on the plus side: "Despite being very opinionated they can be easily persuaded.''

Just like other 527's did the bidding of Alexander Lewy last year in Hallandale Beach against Comm. Keith London in Lewy's bid to get elected on his second try for office, where I wrote: "Not out of any great magnanimous desire to help the citizens of this city, mind you, but rather to help himself and take his first step in becoming a career politician."
History has proven me prescient.

You may find it worthwhile to know that using Internet Explorer, you can't find the link on the city's website marked "Archived City Commission" meetings, but the video itself seems to ONLY play using Internet Explorer, since it will NOT work using Google Chrome.

I know that because I have tried and tried over the past few months to see several old Commission meetings that I wanted to reference in blog posts but was unable to.

Above, the webpage using Internet Explorer -list of files is invisible!

Below, the webpage using Google Chrome, a list of files.
Once you get to the blue-highlighted agenda item on the particular Hollywood City Commission meeting you want to view -or even the entire meeting if you choose- the link doesn't work using Google Chrome.
Consider yourself warned!
It's SNAFU!

And there is nothing on the city's website page that tell you that you have to use Internet Explorer to see video of selected agenda items.
A real conundrum that!

I'll be talking to the City Clerk's office about that next week.


April 1, 2009
6. R-2009-072 - Resolution - A Resolution Of The City Commission Of The City Of Hollywood, Florida, Authorizing The Appropriate City Officials To Execute The Attached Agreement Between State Senator Eleanor Sobel, State Representative Elaine Schwartz And The City Of Hollywood For Lease Of City Office Space And To Reallocate Funds For The Renovations For New Offices For Senator Sobel In The Old Library Building.
PASSED UNANIMOUSLY.

September 20, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.
State Senator Eleanor Sobel receives 5,000 sq. feet of improved office space, inc. electricity and water, for only $750 a month for a period of 40 months -the remaining period of her term at the time in 2009- paying no interest.
State Representative Elaine Schwartz is paying $500 a month in rent, which includes the costs incurred by Hollywood for past improvements from 2006.

Florida House and Senate legal counsel contacted City Attorney Jeffrey Sheffel and said that rules on limitations on member's office account expenditures are such that this matter needed to be done in the form of rent rather than checks for improvements.

Video is 23:47 minutes long


Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Call For Change: Continuing financial & morale problems at City Hall lead Hollywood civic activist Sara Case to say "Something's Wrong at City Hall"


Hollywood City Hall, looking west from the half-circle in front of the Hollywood branch of the Broward County library. June 3, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier


A Call For Change: The continuing financial & morale problems at Hollywood City Hall have led Hollywood civic activist Sara Case to write at Hollywood Balance Sheet Online: "Something's Wrong at City Hall."

If you're late to these depressing and troubling stories involving our neighbor to the north, Hollywood, a careful perusal of the following should pretty well bring you up to speed on the particulars on the current financial and morale problems in Hollywood that have everyone I know there in a real funk.

I originally tried to put this together two weeks ago, but ran into continual computer problems with shifting font and sizes and colors, and after an hour of getting frustrated, decided to admit the computer licked me and live to fight another day, hence its tardy appearance now.
Earlier this morning Sara posted something new to the website that is chock full of information and even more dispiriting news, so I decided this post needed to get in front of you today.

Hollywood is a place that I've not only been going to for over 40 years, along with my family, and continue to spend lots of time in each week, but whose principal players at City Hall and environs are ones I'm very familiar with from attending all manner of meetings and functions up there.

I'll be sharing my own thoughts about some of these matters soon in this space, but for now, I thought I'd simply provide a bibliography for those who want to be up to speed.

Be sure to read my friend Sara Case's well-informed take on the problems at the bottom, because she has been paying close attention to the details in ways that the local news media does NOT.



Miami Herald

Another corruption investigation hits Hollywood
Anonymous letters accuse City Manager Cameron Benson of using friends to accept graft from company seeking garbage collection contract
By James H. Burnett III

Hollywood Mayor Peter Bober confirmed Friday afternoon that he has asked federal and state authorities to investigate allegations that City Manager Cameron Benson used city employees who were personal friends to accept gifts from a company seeking the city’s garbage collection contract.

The allegations wee made in two typed, unsigned letters City Commissioners received last week.

One letter claims that two years ago, when Hollywood privatized its garbage collection services, “...Benson spearheaded this transition, using several of his close, personal friends, to guide and direct WastePro representatives and lobbyist (sic) during the period when the City’s ‘Cone of Silence’ ordinance was in effect. During this period when City employees are prohibited from actively promoting or otherwise providing bid information to potential vendors,” Wade Sanders and Charles Lassiter, two Hollywood public works employees and purported friends of Benson’s, were wined and dined by WastePro.

The letter says Sanders was given a gift card and money order for home improvement services at one of the meals, and that he used them to buy items for Benson’s vacation home in Nova Scotia, Canada, then personally drove more than 2,000 miles to deliver the items to the house.

“It is common knowledge that Wade Sanders brought several items for Cameron Benson’s second home in Nova Scotia with the money order and gift card received from the WastePro group,’’ the letter stated. “In fact, many of these items were driven to Mr. Benson’s Nova Scotia home by Wade Sanders during one of his recent trips over the last year.’’

WastePro ultimately landed the city contract, and Sanders was promoted to a supervisory position in the city’s Public Works Department.

The letter also claimed that Benson ordered Hollywood Police to buy several generators using city money and had an officer deliver one of the generators to Benson’s parents’ Lauderhill home following Hurricane Wilma in 2005.

Sources close to the investigation said Friday that Benson has acknowledged asking a police officer to deliver a generator to the home of his father, longtime community leader and current Lauderhill Commissioner Hayward Benson. But, the source said the city manager adamantly denies that city money was used to pay for the equipment.

Benson, through a city spokeswoman, declined to comment Friday, citing the ongoing investigation. And efforts to reach Sanders and Lassiter were unsuccessful.
A spokesman for WastePro denied the allegations in the letters and suggested the anonymous charges are being made by opponents of the company’s efforts to secure further garbage contracts with other Broward municipalities.

Bober said Friday that he had no choice except to seek outside help to investigate the claims against Benson. The day before, he asked the FBI for assistance.
He also sought help from the Broward State Attorney’s Office. Hollywood Police Chief Chadwick Wagner wrote Satz’s office as well, to inform Broward prosecutors that he was requesting investigative assistance from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

“I hope none of this is true, but given Hollywood’s history with prior scandals involving public office, and my promises of transparency when I campaigned for this office, I had to ask the question: Would the residents of Hollywood accept the city investigating itself in this matter or would it be more appropriate to have an impartial party do so,” Bober said.

While the letters’ anonymity bothers him, Bober said, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re not credible.

“I have seen circumstances in which employees would like to complain about superiors but don’t because they fear that if they’re identified they could suffer repercussions,” said Bober, a labor attorney. “As unfortunate as the situation is, we have to take these claims seriously.”

Corruption claims are not new to Hollywood.

In 2000 former Police Chief Rick Stone filed a RICO (Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organization) lawsuit against police union bosses, alleging they helped facilitate criminal behavior on the part of active cops.

In 2007, four Hollywood Police officers were busted for acting as guards and escorts for cash and jewels being shuttled through the city by FBI agents posing as mobsters. The bust was part of an FBI sting aimed at rooting out corrupt cops. That federal investigation was cut short, after then police chief James Scarberry exposed the investigation - a move federal authorities said may have tipped off other cops who might have gotten caught on the take. Scarberry resigned a short term later.

That same year Hollywood Commissioner Keith Wasserstrom was removed from office after a jury convicted him of misconduct for pushing other comissioners to award a multi-million sludge clean-up contract to a company with whom he’d secretly cut a side lobbying deal.
The letters to the Hollywood Commissioners, the first being received on May 3rd:
and


CBS4/WFOR-TV video: More Details Released In Hollywood Corruption Probe
May 7, 2011 5:04 PM



Hollywood City Hall, looking west from the half-circle in front of the Hollywood branch of the Broward County library. June 3, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier


Orlando Sentinel

Behind flashy unveilings, Hollywood facing fiscal crisis
By Ihosvani Rodriguez, Sun Sentinel
9:28 p.m. EDT, May 19, 2011

HOLLYWOOD—
The city has been holding ceremonies lately to celebrate new and shiny things.

Last month there was a groundbreaking for a $7.9 million fire station on the beach. Last week, the signature water tower was unveiled after $680,000 in renovations.

And next month, 1990s musical acts Exposé and En Vogue will be in town for free concerts to mark the grand opening of a $5 million amphitheater in the nearly completed ArtsPark in Young Circle downtown.

For visitors, Hollywood's newest trophies create the aura of a city overcoming a down economy. But for residents who closely follow the city's budget, the new additions gild with rose paint a much more drab portrait of a city in dire financial straits.

"You look at all these new things, but we are not progressing at all," said activist Sara Case, who for years has edited an online watchdog newsletter about city finances. "The city is going backwards."

On Wednesday, city commissioners were forced to dip into the city's rainy-day bank account after learning that staffers are predicting an $8.5 million shortfall by the end of this fiscal year. Staffers said the city is bringing in less money than predicted, and spending more than expected.

Commissioners responded by pulling about $7.3 million from the reserve fund, a move that leaves only about $2 million for such emergencies as a hurricane.

Staffers are looking at slashing a total of about $2.1 million from nearly every city account. That includes cutting membership fees, uniform costs, overtime pay and even sums spent on pens and pencils. Commissioners also declared a "financial urgency," allowing the city to strike new deals with its unions.

On Thursday, Hollywood Mayor Peter Bober told the Sun Sentinel he wants the city's budget director, Cynthia Forrester, fired for making bad revenue and expenditure projections.

"In a year of financial budget crisis, you just can't be off by a number like that and expect to still be working for the city of Hollywood," he said. "They get paid for one thing, and one thing alone, and that is to make those projections. We can't afford to be wrong."

In a written statement issued Thursday, City Manager Cameron Benson said he is looking at "addressing all aspects of the city's finances, from staffing issues to a reorganization of the budget office and other departments."

City activist Mel Pollack, a retired accountant, said he is not surprised by the financial mess.

"I've been talking and writing about this for years," he said. "I've always been the doom-and-gloom guy. But people don't want to hear the facts until it hits their pocketbooks."

In a video of Wednesday's city meeting, Forrester and other budget staffers attributed the shortfall to the very same problems other Broward cities cite for their budget woes: a down housing market and lucrative pension deals for workers.

Staffers also said they are getting less than anticipated from the city's red light-camera program, a gambling revenue-sharing compact with the Seminole Tribe, and a number of state funds. Forrester vowed to keep a closer eye on every expenditure, no matter how tiny.

"We will be looking at every pen and pencil," she told commissioners. "We can't continue to spend, spend, spend. We don't run our checkbooks at home like that."

City officials on Thursday defended as necessities the fire station construction, the amphitheater and the renovations to the water tower. Much of the funding comes from grants and fees, they said. They said the long-anticipated improvements did not lead to the current fiscal crisis.

At the same time, Bober said, some expenditures approved over the last few months would have been more closely scrutinized had staffers alerted the commission sooner to the budget shortfalls.

That includes the water tower.

Commissioners approved spending $590,000 in July 2010 to fix, paint and install new lighting at the 50-year-old water tower on Sheridan Road just west of Interstate 95.

Five months later, the commission approved spending $86,000 more on the tower for an LED screen that flashes the time and temperature. The funds were generated by rising rates of water and sewer fees.

Activist David Mach said he understands spending money on things such as revamping the water tower to attract tourists and give the perception of a happening city. However, he believes city staffers and commissioners need to plan better.

"You still try to do your best to keep the tourist even in a bad economy," he said. "But you have to do this with proper management."


Miami Herald

Hollywood draws $7M from reserves; declares "financial urgency"
Mayor: 'Somebody should be fired for this'
By Eileen Soler, The Miami Herald
5:08 PM EDT, May 19, 2011

HOLLYWOOD

Angry and disappointed, Hollywood commissioners have dipped into the city's reserve fund to cover what the mayor called "an absolutely unacceptable and completely inexcusable'' mistake.

"Somebody should be fired for this," Mayor Peter Bober said during the City Commission meeting.

The city had expected to make money through its red light camera program, a gambling revenue share with the Seminole Tribe and increased occupational licensing.

All are falling dramatically short.

"The forecast was not conservative enough. It was too rosy," Bober said.

The city will now dip into its reserves and take $7.3 million, leaving $2 million in city coffers.

The Commission unanimously voted to declare the city under "financial urgency,'' which will allow it to enter into discussions with city labor unions to renegotiate pensions and collective bargaining agreements.

Matthew Lalla, the city's director of financial services, said the problem's largest source is a legacy of prior pension and collective bargaining agreements with city employees including fire and police.

"The situation didn't happen in a single year. The situation reflects seeds that were sown about 15 years ago," Lalla said.

City leaders did not discuss layoffs at the meeting and city spokeswoman Raelin Storey said it is too soon to determine if layoffs or more severe cuts to city programs and projects will happen in the near future.

"It's really hard to say right now how everything will fall out,'' Storey said. "There is a lot of work to do.''

Projects like the ArtsPark at Young Circle, the city's new firehouse and several historical projects that are in the construction process will be completed but all other non-essential projects or projects that have not begun will be reconsidered. Already, however, a 10-page list of cuts throughout city departments indicate slashes in items such as overtime, supplies, advertising, uniforms and tools.

The list, which amounts to $2.17 million in cuts, includes $40,000 for the city's Fourth of July fireworks display and $70,000 in general special events.

Cynthia Forrester, the director of budget and procurement services,suggested that the city stop all unnecessary spending and put all department heads on notice.

"We have advised everyone to be on alert for eliminating items from procurement,'' Forrester said. "Any purchases in progress will be halted."

She said the departments tried make up for the $25 million shortfall it faced when balancing the 2011 budget by reducing costs across all departments without laying off employees or raising the tax rate.

But, she said, increases in foreclosures and decreases in business in Hollywood continue to chip away at city revenue.

"If this mistake was just a little bit bigger we would be insolvent today ," Bober said. "If this were the private sector someone would definitely lose their job."
-----
Miami Herald


Criminal probe threatens Hollywood city manager
During his 9-year tenure as manager of Broward’s third-largest city, Cameron Benson has weathered rough and tumble politics
By Julie K. Brown, The Miami Herald
10:25 AM EDT, May 22, 2011

Canada's Weymouth North is a village the size of a postal stamp tucked amid rolling hills that follow the Sissiboo River in eastern Digby County, Nova Scotia. It is here in a large, 100-year-old Victorian vacation home that Hollywood City Manager Cameron Benson escapes the city's chaotic pace and blistering August heat.

The home - a stone's throw from the rugged but picturesque coastline of St. Mary's Bay - may be a part of Benson's undoing.

Investigators from the FBI, Florida Department of Law Enforcement and others are looking into allegations that Benson accepted gift cards from a waste company seeking a city contract. Then, he allegedly used the cards to purchase home furnishings, and asked a city employee to drive the items 2,000 miles north to deliver them to his Nova Scotia home.

That allegation is a part of many others enclosed in two anonymous letters sent to City Hall charging that Benson, one of Broward's longest serving public administrators, abused his public position.

Benson, 49, born in Hollywood but now lives in Davie, has pretty much remained unscathed during his nine-year tenure as manager. Appointed in 1995, he has shunned the limelight, often relying on a spokesperson to be the public face of the administration. He rarely speaks with reporters and his office on the fourth floor of City Hall is only accessible to those who have a special key card.

He declined to comment for this story.

His effort to isolate himself from the public and all but a few close administrators has led to criticism from both citizens and his employees.

"When you ask him questions at any city meeting, he just sits there and doesn't say anything,'' said Dan Kennedy, a longtime businessman and critic. "I ask him something and all he says is 'I'll get back to you' and he never does.''

Benson's supporters, including City Commissioner Dick Blattner, acknowledged that the city manager is not always forthcoming with the public. Blattner says he and other commissioners often have to go to Benson on behalf of citizens with whom the manager has been unresponsive.

"I've heard the complaints, but that's his management style,'' said Blattner. "I would say to [his critics] that if they can't get an answer from him, come to me and I'll get an answer.'

He shoulders a $300 million budget, negotiates contracts with powerful labor unions and has weathered the scandal and corruption that has plagued the city for decades.

As manager, Benson, who earns $205,000 a year, generally sits quietly at city commission meetings, speaks to his bosses only when spoken to and rarely mingles with residents. He has been lambasted for failing to attract development that would provide a strong tax base that would help improve the city's struggling downtown business district and poor blighted neighborhoods.

Dawn Hanna,Ö a community activist for the blighted Royal Poinciana neighborhood, admitted that she has been tough on Benson. But, she added, he has been responsive.

"I certainly have been frustrated with the lack of action the city has taken on homeless issues and safety issues,'' said. "But it's very difficult to figure out where the breakdowns are."

His supporters say Benson is a hard-working, no-nonsense manager who gets the job done. Though demanding, he is measured, hands-on and, in public, even-tempered. He has a good relationship with the city's powerful labor unions and has been able to keep the city ticking despite a free-fall in tax revenue.

"Is the problem the city manager?" asked Commissioner Patty Asseff. "This isn't a blame game. We all have to pull together. The city manager drives the bus, but we have the final say."

Asseff, and most commissioners say Benson has accomplished much in Hollywood, particularly given the weak economic climate, cuts in staff and services.

He is widely credited with helping to transform Young Circle, once a weedy patch of land at the center of the city, into a state-of-art park. ArtsPark cost the city untold millions, say critics, but it's all part of Benson's master plan to turn the city into a family-friendly community and world-class tourist destination.

Commissioners gave him high marks on his past two annual evaluations, commending him for his handling of the budget, personnel and city labor contracts. His only criticism came from Commissioner Beam Furr who noted, "I don't feel that the contracts that were negotiated last year were beneficial to the citizens of the city in the long term."

The anonymous letters, however, could threaten his career in public service, an advocation that runs in the family.

Benson's father is Lauderhill Commissioner Hayward Benson Jr., 74, who has led a life of public service in various government posts.

Unlike his father, young Benson's aspirations were to become a pro football player, a goal that fizzled in 1984 after he was cut from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Since then, he has earned a solid resume, including stints as a planner and economic development specialist with Broward County, the city of Fort Lauderdale and the South Florida Regional Planning Council before accepting the top administrative post in Hollywood, Broward third largest city.

"I had parents who instilled discipline and a work ethic in my life,'' he said in a 1995 interview.

Yet, his successes have often been overshadowed by a city beset by corruption. In 2007, former city commissioner Keith Wasserstrom Öwas removed from office upon his conviction on charges that he secretly cut a side lobbying deal with a sludge clean-up company. That same year, four city police officers were snared in an FBI sting and later jailed for acting as guards and escorts for cash and jewels from FBI agents posing as mobsters.

And last year, another scandal surfaced from a car accident when a Hollywood police officer rear-ended another motorist. In a recording taken while the motorist was arrested, officers are heard discussing how to twist the facts to make it appear that the officer wasn't at fault by saying a cat jumped out the motorist's car, causing the crash.

Blattner admitted that the city has a tarnished image, but the commission is trying to change that. A group of 30 citizens has formed a "New Image Task Force,'' which aims to tout the city's pluses.

Benson is now ensconced in what could be the city's most dire budget year. As of now, they are working to close a $25 million budget gap.

He's had four difficult years in terms of the budget and falling revenues,'' Blattner said. "I think he's done a good job getting through one economic crisis after another.''

There are a lot of fact-filled reader comments at both

Hollywood City Hall, looking west from the half-circle in front of the Hollywood branch of the Broward County library. June 3, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier


Balance Sheet Online
Something's Wrong at City Hall
May 17, 2011

We've been noticing a series of management failures at City Hall. For example, new details about the complex, expensive and unworkable transaction described below raise troubling issues with fallout that has persisted for four years. See what you think.
Read the rest of the essay at: http://www.balancesheetonline.com/money.htm

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Balance Sheet Online
Hollywood's Financial Crisis
May 22, 2011

Like the prophets of old, Commissioner Furr has been warning of Hollywood's impending budget failure for years, his detailed analyses falling on deaf ears. Instead of addressing the budget's growing structural imbalance, the City Manager found short-term ways each year to balance the budget, all the while digging a deeper hole down the road. As a result, the City is now facing the need for drastic steps to solve a financial crisis.
At last week's City Commission meeting, the City Manager called on his Finance Director and his Budget Director to present the bad news. This is what we learned, only some of which was reported in the mainstream media.

Read the rest of the essay at: http://www.balancesheetonline.com/opinion.htm

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Balance Sheet Online
A Call For Change
June 8, 2011


Staffing Problems -- And The Fear To Name Them -- Hold Our City Back

Do we expect our elected officials to be proficient in the complexities of union negotiating, municipal budgeting, business development, communications technology, or property standards, for example? If we did, who would we find to run for office? We don't hold this expectation because our City Commission is meant to rely on professional staff to perform analyses and make recommendations based on their technical knowledge.

Read the rest of the essay at: http://www.balancesheetonline.com/opinion.htm

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Saw this on Friday at the Hollywood City Hall bulletin board...


Hollywood CRA Strategic Goal Setting Retreat
Monday June 20, 2011 at 8:00 a.m. at the Lincoln Community Center, 2340 Lincoln Street.

City of Hollywood FY 2012 Operating Budget Workshop
Thursday July 7th, 2011 at the City Commission Chambers of Hollywood City Hall from 3:30-5: 30 p.m. Previously scheduled for July 11th.


For more info on what's going on with the Johnson Street Project, aka Margaritaville, see http://www.hollywoodfl.org/html/JohnsonStBeachRFP.htm


Hollywood City Hall, looking west from the half-circle in front of the Hollywood branch of the Broward County library. June 3, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier

Friday, June 4, 2010

Urban design -More opportunities to talk/share/learn about Hollywood's future on Hollywood Beach at Hollywood CRA & University of Miami mash-up from 9 a.m.-7 p.m.

Had a very interesting time and learned a lot yesterday at the Garfield Community Center on Hollywood Beach for the Hollywood CRA and U-M mash-up I had posted about, though I was a bit disappointed that the number of local residents taking advantage of the opportunity was lower than I thought it'd be.
No doubt much of that can be blamed on the rain we got in the area right before the event.

Above and below, some of the brain-storming, fact-finding and magic realism that went on yesterday on Hollywood Beach. June 3rd, 2010 photos by me, South Beach Hoosier


Among those present from the City of Hollywood to see the interaction between local residents and the eager U-M grad students were new Hollywood CRA Executive Director Charlotte Burnett, whom I finally met, City Attorney Jeffrey Sheffel, as well as City Manager Cameron Benson and Assistant CM Cathy Swanson-Rivenbark, who always increase the all-important Big Ten factor wherever they go, since as I've mentioned previously, they went to the University of Illinois and University of Wisconsin respectively.

And for the record, I actually didn't put on my IU cap until near the end of the 90 minutes.
While I was there, I asked around and found out that there will be more open sessions over the weekend, running from 9 a.m.-7 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday. I may swing by again.


I should also mention that if you have never been there before, the session is being held on the second floor of the Community Center connected to the parking garage, but though it's called Garfield, if you're driving there, when you're on State Road A1A, you actually need to make your turn on Connecticut, since Garfield is a one-way street south of the garage going west from the Broadwalk.


City of Hollywood http://www.hollywoodfl.org/

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Shocker! South Florida TV stations ignore Diplomat LAC vote at Broward Planning Council

Miami's lazy, second-rate news media continued their hyper-local march into insipid insignificance today by ignoring some important news you could use about the area's near-future and quality of life, and how realistic and sensible planning rules are no match for high-priced lawyers, lobbyists and companies that will spend mucho dinero in political contributions to get the results they want, regardless of what citizens want.

You don't hire Greenberg Traurig and Becker & Poliakoff because you want subtle, though I did hear someone out in the hall during a break joking that Bernie Freidman and Alan Koslow "were just hired to hold Debbie Orshefsky's purse."
I guess that's what passes for lawyer levity in Broward these days.

But on the positive side, since they didn't cover this story that cried out for some air-time for all sorts of reasons, there'll be time for them to run at least
one news story tonight on one of the four English-speaking TV stations about some local Miami woman who claims she's losing weight by doing something other than actually getting control of her own life, giving up her lazy ways or getting off the sofa and getting some real exercise.
Cue
CBS4's
Lisa Petrillo, reporting LIVE from South Beach!

Yes, five-and-a-half hours after their meeting started
-late, of course- in a rambling and poorly-run advisory meeting, the Broward Planning Council voted against the explicit recommendation of their own professional staff this afternoon to deny the Diplomat LAC and instead passed it by more than a 2-1 vote, with only a handful of votes against.

All the predictable pols on the Planning Council were for it as we knew going in -plus some I didn't expect to be for it- preferring to kick the can further down the road than stop it dead in the tracks.

Many of the Planning Council members sounded exactly like the Diplomat employees and union members who were bussed in to the event, mouthing the same
bland and cliched banalities on the dais, ones that Hallandale Beach residents have been hearing for so many months out of local pals of HB City Hall like Hallandale Beach CRA loan recipient Joe Kessel, longtime Joy Cooper family friend Gerry Natelson and the terribly annoying HB Chamber of Commerce mouthpiece, Patricia Genetti, who has thoroughly proven herself over two years to be no friend of Hallandale Beach's citizen taxpayers.
Boy are they ever a smug and tiresome lot!

Today, with Joy Cooper and Anthony A. Sanders both
out-of-town, with William Julian up on the Council dais, and Keith London in the audience with HB residents and speaking against its approval, Dotty Ross was the only HB Commission member with no real excuse for missing this key meeting. But miss it she did.
Surprise!


I'd tell you the actual final vote tally here but since the
Chair of the Planning Council never actually said it... I'm not going to mention his name.

I guess somewhere along the line in my 15 years in and around Capitol Hill, I got so used to U.S. House and Senate Committee roll calls, where common sense procedures are used and the Committee clerk actually calls the roll and then announces the final result of the vote immediately afterwards, rather than someone on a dais with an open microphone just blurting out "it passed," as happened today, I got fooled into thinking that everyone knew how to manage a proper roll call.
Based on what I saw today, clearly they don't.


I was not real impressed with very much of what I witnessed today in downtown
Fort Lauderdale, whether it was the self-impressed union bosses in suits constantly getting-up and annoying others by walking the aisles like they were House Whips on the Floor of the House, telling their Members what to do, the numerous annoying female professionals in the chambers who kept talking on their cell phones even while the public was speaking down at the lectern, or folks you've never heard of walking around like they were waiting for someone to recognize them.

Sorry, dude, I don't follow Cooper City or Coconut Creek politics or wherever it is you're from, so I have no idea who you are, so could you please stop standing in the aisle so obliviously, and getting in the sight-lines of all the people who actually came to watch the meeting and not you?
Muchas gracias!

Wow, there were so many annoying people at this ponderous meeting!
Dear readers, you just have no idea!

And returning to the poor flow of the meeting in general, allowing Diplomat attorney Debbie Orshefsky to just go
on-and-on to a fair-thee-well, congratulating her client over-and-over, and constantly repeating her pat phrases that I and many others have heard dozens of times by now -like something being "her favorite part"- in a meeting that didn't even get to the Diplomat LAC issue until 11:55 a.m., was downright brutal.

Trust me, being on the aisle seat on the last row in the chambers allowed me the opportunity to notice that this death-march of a meeting directly led to many people leaving the chambers for lunch -and never returning.
The fact that I had to continually move my camera tri-pod from beside my seat every time someone from my row got up to leave was the first tip-off.

In that sense, the Planning Council meeting was the exact
opposite of the very well-run and very well-attended Citizen Budget Workshop I witnessed in Hollywood on Tuesday night, where, yes, there was a Steve Geller sighting in the lobby after I got in and had found a place to park -a block away- but I chose not to snap a photo.

And not that you asked, but if you didn't like Broward County Commissioner Stacey Ritter going into today's meeting, finding it embarrassing that someone as thoroughly mediocre, self-important and bereft of practical, original ideas as her could really have so much influence in this area, you left the meeting today shaking your head about this county's future, knowing that she will not leave the stage until she is dragged off.

Hollywood's brutally-honest financial meeting was as professional a meeting as any I've witnessed in my six years back here, and a real credit to City Manager Cameron Benson and his myriad Dept. heads.
It was a real model for how all cities in South Florida
ought to run meetings.

In Hallandale Beach, though, it's but a distant dream.


More details on both of these meetings tomorrow, I've got
some Olympics to catch up on.

Monday, July 13, 2009

Tuesday's Johnson Street Redevelopment Mtg. in Hollywood; a dynamic 'change agent' named Swanson-Rivenbark

Received this email below last week from the
City of Hollywood about a new location for the
meeting scheduled for Tuesday, Bastille Day.

Just so you know, there will be no waiters or
waitresses with serving trays running through
a block-long obstacle course on the Broadwalk
or over at The ArtsPark, with musical
accompaniment, à la D.C.
But there ought to be!
Plus de la pitié!

I attended the first public outreach meeting
at Hollywood City Hall on June 16th, following
the regularly-scheduled City Commission
meeting on whether or not the City Commission
should authorize City Manager Cameron
Benson to file an application for a City Of
Hollywood Charter School, which they did.
(More on that issue here soon.)

See the Proposed Redevelopment Process

For those of you who live in the Hallandale
Beach, South Broward or NE Miami-Dade
area with some time that day, I urge you
to attend and watch the city's new Assistant
City Manager, Cathy Swanson-Rivenbark,
in action.

She's a flat-out dynamo!

She's also a Big Ten grad, from Badgerville,
up in Wisconsin's capitol and public policy
incubator of Madison, a fabulous campus
and city with a social/cultural life that,
for its size and location -and weather-
makes Fort Lauderdale and most of Miami
look quite lame by contrast, and for good
reason.
People there are good-looking AND smart,
not just, well, you know.... like here?


<span class=

For more on Bucky:

Coincidence that she's dynamic and a
Big Ten grad?
I think not!

Hollywood City Manager Cameron Benson
is also a member of the Big Ten club,
via his years in Champaign-Urbana.,
a.k.a. U of I as it's known in the Midwest
to distinguish it from IU.and Iowa.

<span class=

Yes, that's why there used to be a minor
league baseball league sometimes called
the -wait for it- yes, Three-Eye League.

As it happens, Champaign-Urbana is also
where my wonderful friend from IU and
Briscoe Quad, the lovely, witty and oh-so
talented Lolita Zwettler was from.
Her folks were U of I professors, but fortunately
for me, she saw the light and came to
Bloomington, a wise decision I will always
be very grateful for, due to her friendship,
thoughfulness and incandescent smile.

Well, I'm not exactly breaking news here,
per se, but as has been said repeatedly of late
all around Hollywood City Hall and everywhere
else she's been in person since coming up from
the City of Coralk Gables, new Assistant City
Manager Cathy Swanson-Rivenbark, is like,
yes, "a breath of fresh air."

And people all over Hollywood and environs
are noticing how she manages to be several
positive things all at once: analytical and
professional but genuinely folksy, great at
making knowing references to public policy
successes and failures elsewhere and
far-sighted in vision for what this area needs
more of and less of, but also keenly aware
of the current economic malaise that's this
area's daily reality, especially in Downtown
Hollywood.

Every time I've been in Downtown Hollywood
for the past 18 months, one of two things
inevitably happen.

I either hear people kibbitzing or speculating
about when the bottom of the local real
estate market is "REALLY going to hit
bottom" and start rebounding, while I'm
either eating, reading or writing bearby,
or, I'm being asked directly by some small
business owner whose store or restaurant
I've been patronizing, who knows me casually,
by face or even from reading the blog,
about what I think of what's happening in
Hollywood these days, and whether I believe
local residents and businesses can really
be as patient as they may need to be,
patience never being something in great
supply around here even in the best of times,
after all.

To the latter question, I can now say truthfully
that with the addition of someone of Cathy's
self-evident talent and ability, someone who
can rather effortlessly but charmingly synthesize
information and public policy in an interesting
but understandable fashion, the City of
Hollywood has one very large and dynamic
change agent in its deck of cards that the
majority of South Florida communities simply
can't beat, not least, Hallandale Beach.

When she walks into a corporate office and
is 'on message' about Hollywood's core
strengths and opportunities, she can close
the deal for Hollywood and get them coming
back for more.

That Cathy is tremendously likable, personally,
on top of her innate talent and abilities, is
something that simply can't be ignored either.
Obviously, she can use that to the city's great
benefit in the future while trying to create some
positive opportunities, even as regular South
Florida bureaucrats fumble-and-stumble
when they make their pitch about why their
own city ought to be considered for a project.

Recently at Balance Sheet Online,
co-editor Sara Case wrote about Johnson
Street's great unrealized recent potential and
mused on what ought to go up there for the
short-term.

In a sidebar on the same page, after having
seeing her dynamic, bravura first appearance
before the bedazzled City Commission,
which I watched via streaming video, Sara wrote
"Having tried and failed three times to
get a up-market hotel resort built on the
property, the city is ripe for a major
reassessment and Ms. Swanson-Rivenbark
seems up to the task of guiding us through
it successfully."

Yes, a 'breath of fresh air" is a wonderful thing,
and can almost make you wonder how you made
do without it for so very, very long.
Having finally had it, how can you ever go back to
what you had before?

Having now seen Cathy in action first-hand a few
times myself, and also having seen far too many
woeful and forgettable presentations elsewhere
around South Florida's public policy world,
I can't help but think that if there were a few more
people this sharp and professional, taxpayers
and citizens could actually sleep a little more
soundly at night, and not be quite so anxious
about everything always getting worse around
here.



----------
From last month, before the brainstorming began
in earnest...

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Hollywood seeks residents' input on beach site

What to do about Johnson Street will be the subject of two meetings

By Ihosvani Rodriguez

June 11, 2009


HOLLYWOOD

City officials are asking residents to put on their thinking caps and come up with ideas on what to do with a city-owned property on the beach.

The first of two informal public meetings will be held next week to gather input on the long-awaited redevelopment of the city-owned Johnson Street property at A1A on Hollywood beach.

The first meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall.

A second meeting will be at the Hollywood Beach Culture and Community Center on June 18.

The city has also established an e-mail address to gather comments: johnsonstreetrfp@hollywoodfl.org.

The meetings come after a developer walked away from a plan

to build a $100 million hotel and beach resort on the property

now occupied by an aging garage and a parking lot.

--------------------

See also:City seeks community input for Johnson Street property

http://www.hollywoodgazette.com/2009/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=379:city-seeks-community-input-for-johnson-street-property&catid=42:beach-news&Itemid=600077

-------------
A message for the public policy guys and gals
of Hollywood who were at that first Johnson
Street brainstorming meeting last month:

PLEASE don't say -for like the millionth time-
that "there really ought to be a Hard Rock
Casino over there..."

Please, I'm begging you.
No more!!!

It's just NOT going to happen, so please limit
your ideas and suggestions to ones actually
possible in this version of Hollywood in the
year 2009, not the one in your alternative
universe.

Tack så mycket!