Perfidy is backstabber Alexander Lewy's middle name: examining his duplicitous behavior that he'd prefer you ignore

Above, February 16, 2010 photo by South Beach Hoosier of participants at Hallandale beach City Comm. Keith London's monthly Resident Forum meetings, which mayor Joy Cooper has frequently crashed in the past, even though she herself refuses to have anything resembling it. Just like the rest of her Rubber Stamp Crew of Julian, Ross & Sanders, her puppets on a string.

So who's the shy person holding paper in front of his own face?

Why it's none other than Alexander Lewy who has fairly regularly attended London's meetings since the unpopular Diplomat LAC issue late last year, despite the fact he's running against London.

I have dozens of such photos from this particular meeting, as well as his appearances at several other London meetings before and since, this was just the most absurd one of several.

After this particular meeting over eight months ago, several 'regulars' commented to me -without any prompting on my part- that they couldn't help but notice Lewy's odd paper-holding behavior, as I shot photos of the entire room every so often during the two hours it lasted, dividing the room into into thirds from where I was sitting in the front, near the door, to be sure to get everyone in it.

Though I had noticed it, too, while shooting, I thought perhaps they were exaggerating, and it was just a sign of his boredom, perhaps, but once I got home, I resolved to make a point of really looking closely at the photos.

What I noticed was that despite the fact that Lewy was in less than 20% of all the photos I shot that night, every photo taken of his part of the room shows him holding that paper in front of his face, like it was some sort of mask.
But it wasn't a costume party and we already knew who he was.
As to the comments about it being odd behavior, I agree.
Who am I to argue with self-evident logic like that?

Lewy attends the meetings despite having previously told me that he thought that the HB residents who attend were... well, that's what this post is about: what Alexander Lewy really thinks about Hallandale Beach's most civic-minded residents.

It probably won't surprise you to learn that that condescending Lewy disparages them behind their backs.
Yes, yes, now you have it!

Correct, that's where Lewy the Liar becomes Lewy the Backstabber.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVC2j_Kdw8c
It's a seamless transition.
Below is a letter I wrote a year ago to a couple of dozen people throughout South Florida who pay close attention to what happens in local govt., including some print and TV reporters whom I trust, but mostly, the recipients were Hallandale Beach's most civic-minded residents.
It appears below exactly as I wrote it a year ago.

This should answer any lingering questions you may have about Alexander Lewy.

----------
November 5th, 2009
3:30 p.m.

Last year, I wrote an email to some folks, possibly including yourself, where I mentioned in passing a few things going on around HB that I wanted to draw your attention to because -shocker- they seemed typically screwed-up examples of HB City Hall chronic neglect.

I concluded like so many of my emails with the comment that later in the day, I'd be over at Panera's or Starbucks later at a particular time in case anyone was free and would like to talk about the subjects in more depth or any other issue pertaining to what was going on hereabouts.
Admittedly, pretty tame stuff.

But somebody in Hallandale Beach, typically, thought this was pure revolutionary talk, and an opportunity to endear himself with someone named Joy Cooper.

After weeks of asking around and trying to look at this logically, i.e. who stands to profit, Alex Lewy emerged as the person whom every other recipient of that particular email I've spoken to believes is the party who shared it with Mayor Joy Cooper.

If you didn't already know, Lewy often met her and talked to her at length at various restaurants around town when he was running for City Commission, according to people I trust who were eyewitnesses, esp. the now-defunct Frankie's.

Many well-informed people in the city believe that Lewy was the second candidate that the Cooper Crew supported last Fall, just in case Dotty Ross got the well-deserved heave-ho she was due because of her chronic lack of attention to details, literally, blind to what's going on in front of her.

To repeat what I said on October 22nd:
At the Sunrise Park opening ceremony yesterday afternoon, if you can believe this, Comm. Ross invited him to address the small crowd after she was finished by referring to him as "John Sanders" instead of Anthony.

Fourteen months after she approved him as interim commissioner and actually voted for him, after admitting on the dais that she didn't know who he was or anything about him, this is the logical consequence.
Trust me, I was there and her puppet-masters in the crowd were clearly squirming in their seats as she flubbbed the simple hand-off.
Yes, Dotty Ross: The Girl in the Bubble.

So perhaps you're asking yourself, what's the big deal if the email I wrote was so tame, if not lame, right?

Well, what was completely different from any previous or subsequent emails was that later, Cooper wrote a very weird rambling email referencing that specific email of mine, full of what could only be called childish gibberish, full of syntax and spelling errors, that she sent to both Michael Butler and myself -after midnight.

But then she's sent emails to some people in this community before that said or implied "Drop dead."
I know those people, and they've told me about it, and in some cases, even saved the email.
Tell me, which email address of hers do you think she used?

Before the final few people I sent my email to told me individually who they thought had shared that letter with Cooper -each naming Lewy, just as previous recipients had- I had a few encounters with Lewy that left me cold and speaks volumes about him and his overweening
ambition.

It also left me convinced that he should be kept away from any and all power and responsibility as long as possible, and not just because of his age, his inexperience or lack of tangible accomplishment of note -on his own.
Because of his character, or, rather the lack of any character.

For many of us who want genuine reform, government transparency and accountability in this city, so it will be more pro-active and attractive to residents, newcomers and businesses, we know that will require a 180 degree change in the anti-democratic culture of corruption and deceit that currently pervades HB City Hall -so much so that HB residents and business owners are actually repelled by it- we've not been afraid to say as much in public.

(A friend of mine even had a conversation with Mayor Cooper within the past two weeks and brought this matter of public participation up. Well, if you can believe it, Cooper responded that she actually sees the lack of people attending City Commission meetings as a positive sign, an indication that residents are happy with the way things are, ending with the typical Cooper dig, "unlike Hollywood.")

But not everybody is comfortable speaking their mind in public, even if they desire it, which is something I understand, even if it makes things more difficult than I wish it were.

After all, Caesar Rodney's vote in Philadelphia was as important as the ones cast by Adams, Jefferson or Hancock, but outside the Mid-Atlantic states, few people know of his important role in creating the Declaration of Independence, since he wasn't known as an orator.
But guess who's on the U.S. quarter representing the State of Delaware?
And in Statuary Hall inside the U.S. Capitol building?
Caesar Rodney.

The reverse was designed and engraved by William Cousins.

Caesar Rodney was a delegate to the Continental Congress. He rode 80 miles on horseback to cast the deciding vote in favor of independence. In his lifetime, he held more public offices than any other Delaware citizen.

But when you run for office in this city, you have to either be FOR change or the status quo.
One or the other, not both.

It's typical of his huge ego that Alex Lewy somehow convinced himself that, having never done anything, he'd wage a campaign that allowed him to tap the labor resources and contacts he had thru dint of his ethnic handholding job working for Kendrick Meek, and finesse this important last point by continually saying one thing to one group and another to still another group.

This hardly makes him unique in politics, of course, but in a small town like this, when it's fairly well-known who's for reform and who's a bosom buddy of the Cooper & Good Crew at City Hall, even profiting from sweetheart deals, that forked tongue approach is not really a smart
tactic, since eventually, you're self-serving nature will emerge and be exposed.

This crack in the armor showed itself to me shortly after I had endorsed Arturo O'Neill and Carlos Simmons for City Commission, not that it was worth much as we all saw, otherwise we'd ALL be living in a much more NORMAL, less combative and infinitely better-managed city, with MUCH MORE transparency and accountability for citizens.
Early voting had already started over at the HB Cultural Center and late one Tuesday afternoon, as I had been doing for days, I swung by the area in front to see what sort of crowds were outside and to talk to Arturo and Carlos and their family and friends who were working the crowds in the parking lots.

Plus I took a few minutes top explain to reporter Mark Joyella from Channel 10, who was doing some LIVE stand-up reports, why he'd have nothing behind him to frame the shot at 11 p.m., on account of all the parking lot and auxiliary lights there being out, just like the ones in front of City Hall and the Police Dept.

Well, while walking on the sidewalk about 5:45 p.m. from the Cultural Center, where I'd just bought a Coke from their vending machine, to City Hall for Comm. London's 6 p.m. Resident Forum, where I suspected some local candidates would appear, who do I run into but the aforementioned Alex Lewy.

Naturally, I mentioned where I was headed and asked if he'd be coming by for a bit, since it only seemed natural, since I'd heard that Ken Gottlieb, Rick Saltrick and some other candidates would attend. (They did.)
Well, in retrospect, I only wish I'd had my video camera with me, because Lewy proceeded to whiff on my innocuous comment and reveal himself for the sort of prick I'd long since suspected he was.

He said that not only would he NOT be swinging-by Comm. London's meeting of concerned HB citizens, he scoffed at the very idea that HB citizens would attend those meetings in the first place, and at Comm. London in particular for holding them, saying that they were pointless.

So ask yourself, what sort of person runs for office despite being openly dismissive of not just the people in that town in general, but the most concerned and well-informed people in the city?
Alex Lewy.

So, guess who comes into the room a few minutes later, when it's FULL, to make an election pitch for themself?Alex Lewy

I resisted the urge to grill Levy and expose him as the worst sort of condescending, know-it-all hypocrite when Comm. London asked if anyone had any questions, but I was biting my tongue the whole time.

Once the final votes came in from the only precincts I really cared about, i.e. who was the guilty party who forwarded my email to Joy Cooper, and every single vote was for Lewy, that was that.
Now everyone knows.

I mean what are the odds that everyone thinks it's Lewy and everyone is also wrong?
A LOT of people detest Alex Lewy, sure, but some are merely ambivalent, from not really knowing him and yet they all named him.
The very people who are paying the most attention to what's going on in this city.

When you think about it, because of his reflexive self-serving nature, trying to please someone in power like Cooper completely fits Lewy's pathology.

In discussing the Ben Gamla Charter Hebrew School matter in mid-October with some other HB residents, after mentioning some other matters of concern, I wrote the following:

Of course, if Alex Lewy had won and edged Dotty Ross out last November, the basic problem would still remain, since he is someone who is very clearly confused about personal ambition being a substitute for a personality, or even a political framework for understanding how
the world works, or ought to. This gets to the fundamental problem of his consistently self-serving personality and poor judgment.

In my opinion, much like Mayor Cooper now, Lewy would positively do somersaults or jump off a roof in order to get into the good graces of someone with influence like Peter Deutsch, his friends and political and financial campaign supporters in order to advance his own aims.
That's why Lewy is someone who needs to be rejected at every single opportunity,since he is exactly the sort of person who gets into politics for all the wrong reasons.

Well, two weeks later, I still stand by what I wrote then, and if anything, think I was tame.

I strongly suggest that any of you who ever think about dealing with him, think twice.
Since last Fall's election, I've kept my distance from him and suggest you do the same.
He's slimy and NOT to be trusted.
By the way, since I've been doing more video shoots of HB at night for reasons that you'll soon be able to see for yourself, I'm in a position to mention here, yet again, that 3 of the 4 public parking lot lights closest to the East-side entrance to HB City Hall are STILL out, including the one just a few feet from the only police-controlled surveillance camera on that side of the building.

Just like last week.
And last month.
And last year.

Hallandale Beach City Hall, including the City Manager and the Police Chief know all about it, they just consciously choose to do NOTHING about it.
Just a reminder, that's the city where YOU live.

So in that regard, what's the difference between the dismissive and apathetic -not to mention negligent- attitudes of City Manager Mike Good and corrupt Police Chief Thomas Magill and Alex Lewy?
There is none.

Keeping with that theme of the city's incompetency and neglect, yesterday morning I heard the the new Hallandale Beach City Hall tactic re the public ever seeing the docs re city's $50,000 CRA grant to the faux newspaper, the South Florida Sun-Times.Mayor Joy Cooper said the docs are "proprietary" and can't be shared with public!
And seemed very pleased with herself!

Twenty years after the Fall of the Berlin Wall, Hallandale Beach still needs glasnost!

Plan on posting a lot of info on my blog over the weekend and finally start posting video I keep talking about.
Seeing is believing.

Will be at Panera's today from 4-6 p.m.

Adios!

Dave

Beach One Resort's Approval in Hollywood Provokes Wrath and Harsh Words at Hallandale Beach City Commission

Wanting to respond to what I witnessed firsthand on Wednesday afternoon in Hollywood, and then later that evening in Hallandale Beach, at their respective City Commission meetings, where the number-one topic was Hollywood and their unanimous 5-0 approval of the Beach One Resort project on A1A, I sent the following as an email to some folks in Hallandale Beach, Broward County and up in Tallahassee, who are concerned with what's going on here.

(And news media personalities and outlets throughout the state, who have already evinced to me a certain interest in the strange doings hereabouts.)

Especially since both the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and the Miami Herald utterly failed to connect the dots on this story as they should've.

I guess that's the logical downside to their so-so attendance at Broward city commission meetings and reporting of local news, since there hasn't been a Herald reporter actually present at a HB Commission meeting since at least June, for the joint meeting with Hollywood that Breanne Gilpatrick covered.

The Herald not only failed to write about either city's Wednesday Commission meeting in the paper on Thursday, but botched the job from the start when they covered the first reading in Hollywood on Beach One Resort on October 1st, failing to run a single illustration or rendering of the hotel that everyone, even critics, agrees is beautiful, thanks to the design by architect Carlos Ott.

This is a longer version of the original email, along with with new updated information and URL links.

September 17, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier

Things reached a new low(!), if possible, when crazy threats were uttered by Mayor Joy Cooper about actually charging the public to access the North Beach of Hallandale Beach, which is right next to.... why yes, the City of Hollywood and the Beach One Resort.
Does this bully of a mayor have no scruples left?

Is there nothing she won't say or do or threaten in order to get her way?

But then I recall that twice this summer, despite a unanimous HB Planning & Zoning Board vote approving it, she twice voted against an Assisted Living Facility (ALF) application, even though the applicant had already complied with all existing requirements up to that point in the process.

Mayor Cooper's unconscionable -and frankly, creepy- attitude, especially given the clear and bipartisan public policy intent of the legislature in crafting the law, caused me to unexpectedly get out of my seat in the Chambers and remind the Commission that the vote they cast would speak volumes for the community, one that's full of older residents, and have unintended negative effects for the city if they foolishly followed the mayor's lead.

Fortunately for everyone concerned, especially the future residents of the ALF, Mayor Cooper was the lone vote opposing the applicant in a 4-1 vote.

Lesson learned? She's capable of anything under the sun.

June 25, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier


Above, the iconic Hallandale Beach Water Tower on A1A and Hallandale Beach Blvd., is dwarfed by the three towers of The Related Company's development, The Beach Club.


Pay to use the very public beach the city currently does such an abysmally poor job of keeping clean and maintaining, where they can't even enforce their own code enforcement rules because of the rampant cronyism and corruption thereabouts?



Where even months later, after not being there for years, HB's DPW can't manage to consistently put enough clearly marked BLUE recycling bins on the beach where the public can use them, instead of either hiding them or leaving them in places where the public wouldn't think to look?


The bins are paid for by taxpayers and are there for the public's benefit, to actually be convenient and used, not to be hidden so that DPW employees can do the least amount of work, as has been the case for MONTHS.

The public beach where, as I mentioned at budget meetings months ago, the city uses garbage receptacles without lids at the windiest place in the city? Yes!



Right, because on-duty lifeguards really need one more thing to do than concentrate on their job -cleaning up debris from strong winds or garbage overflows.



The public beach where the Hallandale Beach Police Dept. currently never patrols on a regular basis, even on busy three-day holiday weekends, leaving the burden largely to beleaguered (contractor) lifeguards? Yes!

September 22, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier

An everyday sight for anyone who goes to North Beach in Hallandale Beach as often as myself
is seeing the staff from The Beachside Cafe nonchalantly tossing a myriad of things on top of,
into and below the plants that are supposed to be protected and left alone, including heavy garbage bags, heavy plastic storage containers and cardboard with all sorts of liquids on them.

And as you can see above, they are constantly putting cleaning supplies full of toxic chemicals
outside on the public sidewalk, and those liquids go directly into the ground.

You know, where the birds above are?

I first told Corrine Yoder of HB Code Enforcement about this behavior in person at HB City Hall
in May of 2007, and referenced the encounter on this blog in my June 14, 2007 post titled,

A Chilly Reception at HB City Hall: "Are you a reporter?
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2007/06/rude-reception-at-hb-city-hall-are-you.html

This behavior at this location has been going on for 3-4 years, as long as this bldg. has existed, and people at HB City Hall know about it and do nothing.

Not surprisingly, given the strong connection the owners of The Beachside Cafe have to HB City Hall, I'm not aware of any HB City Commission meeting that has ever taken place where the longtime behavior of this facility has been adequately addressed publicly.

Why not?

Next week I'll be taking a look at the city's lease with The Beachside Cafe, and inquire as to a whole slew of curious if not downright questionable behavior that has taken place there over the recent past, much of it involving public parking.

And, needless to say, I've already got the photos to prove it.

September 6, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier

Above, the beach access for emergency vehicles to the left, usually full of debris, while to the right are the city-owned dumpsters on Surf Road for city lessee The Beachside Cafe, which has been missing code required decorative fencing for YEARS.

And I know with certainty that they toss glass bottles and aluminum cans that could be recycled into the dumpster, because I've seen it -and heard it- many times.

And snapped photos of them doing it, even though there's almost always a DPW recycling bin next to the dumpster.

Just as with the prior photo above, I first told Corrine Yoder about this at City Hall in May of 2007.
You can see the logical results of my having gone thru proper HB City Hall channels for yourself.

Hmm-m..
I forgot, when exactly did the Florida Constitution change and allow cities to charge citizens
of this state, much less, residents of that city, a fee to access the public's own beach?
I must've missed that memo!

October 3, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier
Above, Hollywood's public notice sign on the slit-fence on State Road A1A surrounding the Beach One Resort property, with HB Water Tower and HB Fire/Rescue Station #600 to south.

If only there was some way to see what really happened in Hollywood and not just take
my word for it.

Oh wait, there already is.

You can see the wriiten docs at: http://www.hollywoodfl.org/docdepotcache/00000/814/PO-2008-20.PDF and http://www.hollywoodfl.org/docdepotcache/00000/814/R-2008-327.PDF
and see the video of exactly what transpired in Hollywood on their excellent website at http://www.hollywoodfl.org/Media/Archives/ccm101508/ccm101508_Indexed.pdf and judge for yourself.

It's just THAT version of events is NOT the one that Mayor Cooper and City Manager Good were particularly interested in sharing Wednesday night with HB residents in person or via cable TV, as they told one fantastical and indignant story after another of the myriad depredations they say were inflicted upon them and their City Hall Crew by their mean-spirited and un-cooperative neighbors to the north, Hollywood.

The only thing missing from their stories was "Once upon a time..." plus the usual assortment of princes and princesses.

Earlier Thursday afternoon, I received an update from Comm. Keith London regarding last night's chaotic HB City Commission meeting, and draw your attention to this item which I've actually been concerned with for awhile, and wrote down when he cited the specific figures from the dais, even as City Manager Good stood directly over his shoulder, and Mayor Cooper publicly belittled his attempts to get to the heart of the matter, which she and the rest of the Commission clearly did NOT want to do:

I inquired as to the status of the three (3) appraisals the City Manager (Mike Good) agreed to provide to the City Commission before purchasing property from Commissioner Sanders at 501 NW 1st Avenue, Hallandle, FL.
The appraisal information is as follows:

LB Slater Appraisal #13057 $147,000

LB Slater Appraisal #13057a $147,000

Butterfield Appraisal #8785 $275,000

Broward County Property Appraiser Value $146,360

I proposed a motion to eliminate out the Butterfield Appraisal.
I did NOT receive a second to my motion. What could be the justification of the City Manager (Mike Good) entertaining the Butterfield Appraisal?

That's a very good question Comm. London asks, one which is certainly worthy of a very good answer, don't you think?

So why can't City Manager Mike Good and his staff adequately answer that question and so many others fully and publicly at HB City Commission meetings?

More troubling to me as a citizen of this city, given the current financial situation the city says it's in, is why none of the other HB City Commissioners seconded this common sense motion by Comm. London, and why are they even considering the possibility of paying a sitting interim HB Commissioner -running for election for the first time- an unwarranted $130,000 of taxpayers funds?

As has usually been the case with this Hallandale Beach City Hall crew since I first returned to South Florida from the Washington D.C. area in late 2003, their continuing pattern of obfuscation, misbehavior and questionable ethical conduct raise more questions than it answers.

Not so coincidentally, these same three HB commissioners who didn't want to second that motion of Comm. London -Ross, Sanders and Julian- are the very same three who couldn't be bothered to make the ten-minute drive up to Hollywood Wednesday for the matter that Cooper and Good apparently considered a veritable red alert. London was there.

As it happens, none of the same three attended ANY of the previous two public hearings in Hollywood that have been held within the past month on the project.
I should know -I went to all three meetings.

If you haven't already seen it yet, a good place to start digging for some answers on what's going on at HB City Hall, especially re financial issues, is http://www.changehallandale.com/

It's a website started recently by a smart and savvy friend of mine who shares our common interest in seeing reform, accountability and transparency in Hallandale Beach government.

Finally.

The sooner the better!

________________________

This afternoon I spoke with the person behind the Change Hallandale website on the telephone about another matter altogether.

After talking for about 15 minutes, he mentioned that following another HB resident's email relating to the above made the rounds Friday night -which I received- wherein this email writer had complained about a problem he'd had with the site's email function, my friend followed-up with the ISP and discovered that even his own messges to his own site weren't going through.

The ISP fixed the email problem, and he responded to the person who complained.

And what do you know, he actually got a new email today at the site.

It was an email from Mayor Joy Cooper where she wrote just one word: COWARD.

As if you didn't already know everything you needed to know about her style of operation, hadn;t seen and heard enough stories about thin-skinned ego, she goes ahead and throws another log on that roaring fire as to how she reacts to even the slightest bit of criticism.

You may use the phrase, "It's a free country."

But for Joy Cooper, it really isn't.

In Hallandale Beach, Joy Cooper believes it's her way or the highway!

I've mentioned it here before but compare the self-evident differences in style and substance and

what actually gets accomplished at Hallandale Beach City Commission meetings and those in Hollywood.

Especially now that Mayor Bober has taken the nastiness out of their deliberations on the dais by substituting basic fairness and reasonableness, even when he is on the losing side of a vote, as happened on the WSG project for the SE corner of Young Circle.

No threats, no recriminations.

Plus, because Mayor Bober attempts to give every commissioner ample opportunity to speak on every agenda item, doesn't cut them off in their questions or questioing of city staff, and, unlike in HB, demands complete answers from staff and not evasions, the tension is gone that has hovered over Hollywood City Hall for years.

That he won't tolerate staff not providing info to Commissioners in a timely fashion for their review goes a long way towards promoting comity and civility.

One other big difference in how things are handled is that he doesn't feel the need to constantly

provide a running commentary, and comment thru ad lib after each commissioner or speaker comments, as happens constantly here with Mayor Cooper, which is one of the reasons the HB City Commission meetings drag out forever and are constantly behind schedule, as I mentioned as recently as my discussion of Wednesday night's HB meeting.

Nearly three hours of their talking and still no Public Participation?

That sort of time management led me to leave the meeting to catch the debate at home.

The hope that Mayor Cooper is open to changing her behavior and tactics is a fundamental misunderstanding of human behavior in general, and her's in particular.

She can't suddenly change her spots -she is what she is.

Hoping, as some in the community do, that she'll see the light and suddenly change is no strategy at all for getting more reform and accountability, and neither is getting people involved or elected whom I personally perceive as parts of the larger problem (puzzle) involved, for the very same reasons as were true of the mayor.

They are the way they are, and show no desire to be open to changes and reform.

Especially an 82-year old woman running for re-election like Dotty Ross, who, even at this late date, still can't point to a single policy issue before the HB Commission the past four years where she successfully challenged the mayor or city manager on principle, by arguing her case so forcefully and persuasively with facts and concrete examples to buttress her points.

It has never happened!!!

Or, on the flip side, someone inexperienced like Alexander Lewy, whom I think is a pretty good guy generally speaking, but perhaps a bit prone to telling audiences exactly what they want to hear, as many inexperienced pols are, especially one who is a liaison to ethnic communities as his current job.

At least based on what I have personally seen, Lewy has never publicly questioned Cooper or Good's continued bad judgment or propensity for secretiveness even once, and the recent parking kerfuffle on Golden Isles hardly qualifies as public policy debate, since nobody thought it was a good idea except people at City Hall.

He might still do so, but from my perspective, it's getting a little late in the game for him to be something other than a young pol angling for the chance to make this Commission position a stepping-stone.

Where does Lewy or Ross or Anthony Sanders stand on the question of Police Chief Magill's egregious conduct and behavior, which was criminal in my mind, and his future as chief?

Here you have a man in Magill who consciously attempted to use his position to frame two innocent people, two Police officers, and continually lied about what he was doing to his boss, costing the city hundreds of thousands of dollars in settlements and associated costs, and even more to its tattered reputation?

That whole subject has STILL never come up at a HB City Commission meeting with Cooper and Good in charge.

Well, it's pretty easy to guess, isn't it, considering their silence on the matter the past year?

They don't want to make waves, but waves are exactly what need to be made now to wash away the longstanding cronyism, incompetency and sense of entitlement that is rampant at Hallandale Beach City Hall.

If this were a city that is self-evidently well-run like Coral Springs, the luxury of having 'bumps on a log' would be a different scenario, but we aren't, we're talking about Hallandale Beach, and it is in severe trouble.

This city is light years from being in Coral Springs' class of governance, regardless of Cooper and Good's self-serving moves to have the city, Ross and Good nominated for a FL LOC award for excellence, a topic that I will likely deal with in more depth on Sunday.

I simply don't want to replace one group of puppets on a string with another group that over a period of months has shown no real awareness of the severity of the problems this city faces in uncertain economic times, where tough decisions will need to be made, not deferred.

Frankly, I want much more than that right now.

I want to see positive, dynamic changes and reform so this city will stop being a regional punch line and laughingstock that scares prospective businesses and residents away with their weird City Hall machinations and adversarial attitudes towards residents and businesses alike.

The current Joy Cooper/Dotty Ross/William Julian roadmap leads to a dead end, folks, let's not pretend otherwise.

Their continuing poor choices and (ethical) lapses in judgment have gotten us to this current point, and THAT should be enough warning for anyone who is paying serious attention, and who aspires for this city to be much better than it currently is now.

For that reason I'll be voting for Arturo O'Neill and Carlos Simmons on Election Day November 4th for City Commission, and urge you to take your vote seriously and do the same.

(See www.Arturo-Oneill.com for more infromation.)

If you don't, you'll wake up on the morning of November 5th to find the same HB City Hall Crew mentality, just with new faces.

Do you really want more of the same?

Not me.

HB citizens continue to oppose trash plant on Ansin Blvd.

I hate to admit it but I was a no-show Monday night.

I had really hoped to be at Monday night's meeting at the Hallandale Beach Cultural Community Center to hear what -if anything- Hallandale Beach's elected officials and city
employees were now going to say about the city's proposed trash plant, which the city's officials desperately want.
The reason is because I've known for years about the deep level of frustration -and then, ennui- felt by residents of the NW part of Hallandale Beach, who've long felt they were being treated as second-class citizens -by their own city.

Lest you think after reading the articles below by Thomas Monnay and Jasmine Kriplani, that the individuals interviewed by them were just a handful of the sort of people you can find in any town in the country, always upset and disgruntled by something, regardless of the issue, let me set you straight now: you're wrong.
The level of anger, disappointment and discontent these citizens feel on this particular issue, as well as some others, is quite real, and NOT at all below the surface.
I know this because I recall vividly what I saw and heard at a number of HB City Commission meetings I attended in 2006, where I took my usual copious notes.

During the public comments portion of those 2006 hearings, I heard many speakers talk from the heart about their concerns regarding the proposed trash plant and the negative effect its location would have on them and their part of HB, as well as their perception that the project seemed to be inching closer and closer to fruition, even before they'd get in their two cents.
No matter how many times Mayor Joy Cooper and City Manager Mike Good repeatedly said that it was simply not the case, that there was a process that would be followed, the public
speakers I saw and heard seemed quite unconvinced.
(I wasn't aware then of the whole swimmming pool debacle situation from back in 1993, since that happened while I was still living in the Washington, D.C. area then. That was a devastating fact to drop into the story, which really calls into question the city's past treatment of this neighborhood, )

The clear perception that they publicly expressed then -and continue to express- was that they were HB citizens who'd once again been overlooked and neglected.
Now as I understand it, there'd apparently been either one meeting -or a series of meetings- that had long been planned for Fall 2005, wherein HB city officials and elected officials would meet with citizens from NW HB and specifically address their deeply-felt concerns.

But nature intervened in the City of Hallandale Beach's plans when this area suffered thru a series of hurricanes and powerful storms in quick succession, ones that really shook up the area,
leaving large portions of South Florida, including HB, without electricity for weeks.
Yours truly, in fact, was without electricity for roughly about 17 days, even while I could clearly see the nearby condo towers in Aventura burning bright in the night sky.
Still, I could go to the nearby Target and the Whole Foods on N.E. 213th Street whenever I wanted to get my usual supply of odds and ends.
During the blackout, for the first time since being down here, I even had some coffee at the Whole Foods a couple of times, while reading my New York Times in between bites of bagels. The coffee was NOT nearly as good as Denny's!
But the minute I stepped thru my own door -BOOM!- it was back to living the pre-Thomas Edison days of America.

(For a sports fan like me, this power outage happened at the worst possible time -during the college and NFL seasons AND the World Series between the Chicago White Sox and the Houston Astros. http://www.baseball-almanac.com/ws/wsmenu.shtml
Consequently, while I listened to every World Series game on the radio, with Jon Miller and Joe Morgan connecting the dots, I never saw an actual WS game highlight until weeks later after the power had been restored.
That meant that I couldn't watch my old stand-by, the WGN News, the night the White Sox swept the Astros, and see the city of Chicago celebrate its first baseball title since... well, a few weeks before WWI ended in 1917.)

As a result of the storms and hurricanes, the planned meeting(s) on the trash plant were pushed back to the proverbial back-burner, until a sense of normalcy was restored in HB; whatever that is. But in the weeks and months after the recovery -which I think HB did a very poor job of handling, compared to other local municipalities I visited- while HB City Manager Mike Good met with other HB homeowner and civic groups, the meeting he and HB's elected officials and city employees were supposed to have with the residents of NW HB -about the trash plant- never materialized.

So, the perception had become the reality as far as these particular speakers were concerned:
six months after the original meeting(s) was scheduled, many of them remain convinced that HB was using the post-storm and hurricane period as a cover for avoiding that formal meeting, even as Mike Good was meeting with other HB groups.
Other groups that the speakers at those public hearings honestly felt hadn't even the faintest idea as to how they felt about it. Out of sight, out of mind.

See CBS4's story and video at http://cbs4.com/local/hallandale.beach.trash.2.602088.html
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www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-flbtrash1204sbdec04,0,22094.story
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Hallandale hopes to salvage plans for trash plant
By Thomas Monnay
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
December 4, 2007

HALLANDALE BEACH
In the face of a public outcry, city officials said Monday they still hope to save money by building a solid waste transfer station on 2.5 acres of industrial land in the city's northwest section.
Neighbors, however, strongly oppose the project, saying it might create a health hazard and bring down property values.
"They're talking about saving money; we're talking about saving lives," said James Tucker, vice president of the Community Civic Association of Hallandale Beach. "We're such a small [city], it's a safety issue to have a solid waste station in our community."

To explain the need for the station and address residents' concerns, city officials held a town hall meeting Monday at the Cultural Community Center. More than 100 citizens turned out, most of them in opposition to the plan.
The project has been planned for a $2.9 million property the city bought last year at 310 Ansin Blvd. The site is in an industrial district just east of Interstate 95 and between Hallandale Beach Boulevard and Pembroke Road that includes warehouses and manufacturing businesses.
Ironically, city commissioners in 1998 rejected a private trash station for the same property, giving as a reason the fact it's in an industrial zoning district.
City officials say the station would save Hallandale Beach more than $1.2 million a year in transportation costs because sanitation workers now travel 2½ hours round-trip to dispose of the city's trash at a Waste Management site on U.S. 27 in Pembroke Pines.
"It's an alternative to address long-term cost to solid waste disposal," Mayor Joy Cooper said. "It's in an industrial area, it's not adjacent to any single residential use."
Cooper said commissioners will vote on the project Dec. 19. She said the city chose not to use another site it owns in the northwest section because that site is closer to residences.
Opponents say the Ansin Boulevard property is not suitable for a waste station because it's blocks away from homes and that is too close.
Carlos Simmons, president of the Community Civic Association of Hallandale Beach, spoke for many of the opponents. "I don't think it should go there. I'm concerned about the environmental issues. I'm concerned about quality of life in general."
Before any vote is taken, Simmons said, a committee should be formed of citizens and civic leaders who would visit a similar trash transfer station in order to be better informed.
Some northwest activists say the city promised to hold several meetings to discuss the project, but now they are concerned residents won't be given enough time to provide feedback.
"We're kind of surprised this issue has come up so quickly," said Jessica Sanders, chairman of the Palms of Hallandale Beach Weed and Seed, a drug prevention and economic development program.
Tony Spadaccia, a waste management spokesman, said his company would spend $1 million to build the station and operate it under a contact being negotiated with Hallandale Beach.
A rendering of the project shows an office building in front of a tall, enclosed structure resembling a huge barn. The property is landscaped with palms, shrubs and other trees.
Spadaccia said trash dropped at the station would be taken to a landfill in Pompano Beach. He said residents would not be charged to drop off their trash and the facility would be cleaned and washed every night.
"There will be no odor, no rodents and no health concerns as a result of this facility," Spadaccia said.

Thomas Monnay can be reached at tmonnay@sun-sentinel.com or 954-385-7924.
Copyright © 2007, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
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http://www.miamiherald.com/news/broward/story/327634.html

Miami Herald
Hallandale neighborhood's residents oppose trash dump site
By Jasmine Kripalani jkripalani@MiamiHerald.com
December 2, 2007

Hallandale Beach's majority black neighborhood might be the site of a new garbage dump, and many residents are saying the whole deal stinks.
''Why here? Why in this neighborhood?'' said Jeri Choice, whose house on Northwest Third Court overlooks the city water plant. "Why can't it be in the southwest or southeast section?''
City officials say the site, 310 Ansin Blvd. in the Palms area near the city's sanitation and public works departments, is the only place available in the 4 ½-square-mile city.
''All the areas being built-out,'' Mayor Joy Cooper said, "this site came up and it was ideal.''
Residents in that part of town have long complained of neglect by city government.
They often bring up the city's decision in 1993 not to repair the Dixie pool at 745 NW Ninth Ave. At the time, the city said the $300,000 needed was too costly.
Instead, the city poured concrete over it and promised residents a skating rink. But too few kids used it and it was eventually shut down.
Cooper said she would like to work with the Broward County School Board to replace the pool.
''We're in full support trying to get an Olympic-size pool there,'' Cooper said. "I'd love to see the pool there.''
There are no minorities on the city commission and none of the commissioners live in the area. Hallandale Beach doesn't have districts. All commissioners are elected at-large. The northwest section hasn't had an elected representative from that neighborhood since they elected John Saunders in 1971. He served until 1979 but has since moved to Plantation.
Last year, residents signed a petition asking leaders to switch from citywide elections to single-member districts. Leaders voted it down.
Environmental and waste experts are scheduled to address residents' concerns about the safety of the dump at a forum on Monday night.
''They are going to put it there, regardless of whether we object to it,'' said Pastor Anthony Sanders, who lives less than a quarter-mile from the proposed facility. "We're going to be the community adversely affected by this.''
He and others are planning to attend Monday's meeting.
On the east side, luxury, ocean-view condominiums are sprouting.
Now their garbage might end up in the northwest section's backyard, where apartments barely elicit a second glance and some businesses display ripped awnings.

STORAGE AREA
Garbage experts and city officials say the facility is not exactly a dump but a ''transfer storage facility.'' The city's 65 tons average of daily garbage would be stored there for only a few hours and taken to a landfill every night, Cooper said.
''The area would be buffered and landscaped. We want residents to understand the process and what it entails,'' Cooper said.
Cooper said experts at Monday's meeting would answer questions about odor, safety and pests.
Jeffery Halsey, a division director for the Broward County Environmental Protection Department, will be among the experts.
''Material will not be stored there overnight. That makes us feel a little better about odor concerns,'' Halsey said. ``We routinely inspect them once every four months to reduce the likelihood of having these problems.''

IN A RUSH
Some residents also said the city is rushing to approve the project.
Last year, when residents heard of the project, the city called a meeting and promised more town hall forums.
The first one is set for two weeks before commissioners are scheduled to vote on the project at an initial hearing.
Waste Management has proposed to build and manage the controversial facility. In exchange, the city would have to approve a long-term contract with the company.
Waste Management charges the city $72 for every ton of garbage it hauls to the landfill.
The city purchased the land for $1.8 million last year, aiming to keep the city's garbage collectors from driving 30 miles to the Waste Management facility at U.S. 27 and Pembroke Road in Pembroke Pines.
The city estimates the new facility would save it more than $1.2 million in fuel, maintenance on trucks and personnel, said Mike Fernandez of the city's sanitation department. The move would allow the city to eliminate some vacant positions.
''`What is the city going to do to give back to the community?'' Sanders said.
State Rep. Joe Gibbons, D-Hallandale Beach, who was the city's second black commissioner, has suggested setting up a fund from a special garbage fee to enhance the neighborhood.

`SOME ANGER'
''There's some anger in this community because they feel they have been shortchanged,'' Gibbons said.
Ten years ago, there was a bulk trash dump site on Eighth Avenue just north of West Hallandale Beach Boulevard. But that has since been cleaned up and apartments have been built over it.

If you go to the meeting about a proposed garbage dump

• Hallandale Beach commissioners will have an informational meeting about a proposed northwest-section trash transfer facility at 6:30 p.m. Monday at the Hallandale Beach Cultural Community Center, 410 SE Third St.
• City commissioners could make a final decision on the issue at a 7 p.m. meeting on Dec. 19 at City Hall, 400 S. Federal Hwy.