Csaba Kulin's reasonable questions to Joy Cooper about city spending result in another Bob Norman post that highlights the anti-taxpayer culture here

The iconic Hallandale Beach Water Tower on State Road A1A/South Ocean Drive & Hallandale Beach Blvd. April 11, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Well, I can't honestly say that I'm surprised, given what I've seen here the past seven years. If seeing isn't believing in Hallandale Beach, Florida, it isn't true anywhere I've ever lived.

Wednesday's post by BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes columnist Bob Norman in his must-read The Daily Pulp blog, chronicled the to-and-fro of an email that my friend and fellow HB activist Csaba Kulin sent to the Hallandale Beach City Commission and mayor Joy Cooper recently about spending practices and patterns here, and compared them to the city that he and his wife lived in before spending most of the year here: Strongsville, Ohio.

-----
BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes
The Daily Pulp
Hallandale Beach Mayor Defends City in Sloppy, Error-Filled Email
By Bob Norman
April. 27 2011 @ 8:54AM

Ever heard of Strongsville, Ohio?

Neither had I, but it's apparently a suburb of Cleveland and a place where Hallandale condo president and activist Csaba Kulin used to live.

Kulin is amazed at the bloated cost of Hallandale Beach's budget compared to that of Strongville and recently wrote a letter about it to the City Commission.

Read the rest of the post at:
http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2011/04/hallandale_mayor_joy_cooper_budget.php

Rather than re-invent the wheel here, I'll simply re-post below the (slightly-expanded) comments I added to the mix shortly after Midnight, in reference to one reader's comment that you couldn't really compare the spending levels of a city near Cleveland and one in tropical South Florida.

-----

For the record, since you refer to us being an ocean-side city, HB's beach is actually about the smallest beach in this county and NOT fun, attractive or even well-maintained despite being so small.

This despite the fact that in most Florida coastline communities, the beach is, to a large degree, the visible symbol of the city, and when people see things there that appear troubling, it only causes them to wonder even more about the aspects of city government that they don't or can't see.

Here in HB the problem is made worse because the city so clearly couldn't care less what the citizens or visitors think otherwise they'd... well, for one, NOT leave the maintenance equipment right in the middle of the beach -on North Beach- instead of storing it nearby where it's out of the way.

April 11, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

That equipment, by the way, consists in large part of rusty poles and large comb of steel which seems straight out of 1920's-era Soviet Russia, and doesn't clean the beach so much as level the sand, as if that were more important than actually cleaning and sifting-out debris.
But here, under the current regime, it is.

Rust never sleeps... or goes out of style in Hallandale Beach, though it should.
April 11, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

April 11, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Above, the lifeguard stand at Hallandale Beach's North Beach, the area north of the three condo towers of The Beach Club on State Road A1A/South Ocean Drive.
The simple information board on the south side of the board seems like a very simple item, and yet it took well OVER A YEAR for the city to replace the damaged ones here and at South Beach that were no longer usable. Not replace the lifeguard stand, just the board. The sort of thing that in the 21st Century, other modern cities can order and replace within days or a week. Here in Hallandale Beach, that process took over one year, so everyday for a year, visitors to the beach saw not just scratched scrawl marks and graffiti on the side of the guard stands, but a physical reminder that this city is poorly-managed and can't do something very simple. April 11, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

On Saturday at 10 a.m. in the Hallandale Beach City Commission Chambers -400 S. Federal Highway- is the city's citywide forum on the 2011-12 budget, and there is every reason to think there may well be more (and better) fireworks on display there than on the Fourth of July.

To promote the city's NE Quadrant meeting on April 11th at the North Beach building that took three years for the city to open to the public -three times longer than it took to build and given to the city for free- HB city's employees showed for the millionth time the sort of half-assed second-rate effort that passes for satisfactory and normal here which makes citizen taxpayers simmer.
April 11, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

A simple sandwich board was placed underneath the overpass above A1A/South Ocean drive. But rather than being placed where it was visible to traffic stopped at traffic lights going either north or south, or even by pedestrains walking to or from the beach, it was placed where it couldn't be read legibly by anyone.
For days, including the very day of the meeting. SNAFU! April 11, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

My friend Csaba Kulin's reasonable questions are important ones that he and I and many other concerned HB citizens have been raising and discussing in earnest since early last year, yet are routinely given the run-around, lip-service and attitude by the city's largely oblivious elected officials and staffers, save Comm. Keith London, who is, after all, just one of the five voting members. The ones who, in theory at least, set the public policies of the city, NOT the unelected City Manager, Mark Antonio.

For even deigning to ask what in almost any other city in America would be considered reasonable questions, my friend has been verbally attacked by a city commissioner -Dotty Ross- even before he got to the microphone to say anything.

Yes, the very same woman whose incompetency and helter-skelter dedication to the job she took an oath to perform, was captured perfectly last year by Thomas Francis in The Juice blog of The NewTimes, when she refused to come down to the Chambers from her office for a Special City Commission meeting on Mike Good's future as City Manager.

Meeting on Hallandale City Manager's Fate Canceled After Mayoral No-Show
By Thomas Francis, Fri., Apr. 30 2010 @ 10:50AM
http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/juice/2010/04/hallandale_special_meeting_mike_good_canceled.php

Her willful refusal to appear while she was in the building forced the meeting to be called-off for lack of a quorum. My post on that embarrassing spectacle was simply titled, Comm. Dotty Ross hiding in plain sight at Hallandale Beach's "Special Meeting" on City Manager Mike Good's employment; "Recall" is in the air!
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/comm-dotty-ross-hiding-in-plain-sight.html

What you see here in print via the mayor's tone-deaf response is but the tip of the iceberg at HB City Hall.
If you doubt that, come to the public meeting on Saturday morning and see for yourself.

Coincidentally, Saturday will ALSO be the one-year anniversary of the self-disappearance of Comm. Dotty Ross.
A growing number of HB citizens think a successful recall campaign against Comm. Ross (and Comm. Anthony Sanders) in the Fall or early Spring of 2012 would be just the sort of disappearing act we'd all applaud, financially and policy-wise -addition by subtraction!

Ann Murray being Ann Murray? That's NEVER a good thing! Bob Norman asks if Ann Murray is "Targeting Whistleblower for Firing?"; Iceland inspires

Visit Iceland 2011
http://youtu.be/yz6GpX3_CQE

On a very warm and miserable day in South Florida with no breeze to speak of, there's nothing like a story from ace sleuth Bob Norman detailing even more of the sordid and slimey behavior that I (we've) come to expect from Ann Murray of the Broward School Board -who represents my corner of S.E. Broward- to make me feel like it's already the first week of August. Miserable, miserable August.

That time of the year where I have to go somewhere far cooler (in more ways than one) to chill out and recharge my batteries.
To get away from both dysfunctional South Florida and Dolphin head coach Tony Sparano's nonsensical annual training camp prattle about Chad Henne's great potential.

Someplace like Iceland?
Could be!

Inspired by Iceland Video from Inspired By Iceland on Vimeo.

In case you missed it earlier, my own comments about the Broward School Board from earlier today are here:
Passing the hat, but ignoring what's in plain sight! Broward School Board's Community Budget Task Force meeting at 5 p.m.; equivocating Bartleman
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/passing-hat-but-ignoring-whats-in-plain.html

BrowardPalmBeach New Times
Daily Pulp
Is School Board Member Ann Murray Targeting Whistleblower for Firing?
By Bob Norman, Wed., Apr. 20 2011 @ 9:03AM

Broward School Board member Ann Murray claims she is trying to tighten the district's purse strings by laying off building inspectors.

Building inspector Michael Marchetti -- a whistleblower who exposed massive corruption by Murray's board -- told Murray during a meeting last week that she's on a "personal vendetta" to fire him. ​

Murray didn't answer Marchetti's charge, but I'm sure he's right.

Read the rest of the post at:
http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2011/04/michael_marchetti_ann_murray.php




Yoko Ono - Inspired by Iceland (2010)
http://youtu.be/ABoAMKOPfBc

For more information:
www.inspiredbyiceland.com

http://www.icelandnaturally.com/

http://goiceland.org/usergallery/

http://www.icelandtouristboard.com/index.php?page=Dateline-April-2011

Touché! "Dear Lois" adroitly zeroes-in on Lois Wexler's defense of lobbyist Ron Book and blindsides her something silly over her pal, Judy Stern

Touché! "Dear Lois" adroitly zeroes-in on Lois Wexler's defense of Ron Book and blindsides her something silly over Judy Stern

For weeks, I've been sitting on an already-written blog post after engaging in some candid conversations with Broward County community activists and elected officials throughout the county that have taken me to places that are NOT usually part of my routine.
But live and learn...

The subject of these conversations was the very curious (and disturbing) public stance towards effective enforcement of strengthened ethics laws and standards in Broward County by someone that, until two years ago, I had generally assumed was one of the more dutiful and well-grounded public servants in South Florida.

And who is this mysterious person at the center of this discussion? Broward County District 5 Commissioner Lois Wexler.
http://www.broward.org/Commission/District5/Pages/Default.aspx

A woman that Daily Pulp blogger Bob Norman painted to a 'T' in an October 2, 2008 post titled Billed for Bull, Broward County Commissioners want you to pay for their pet projects, writing in part:
http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/2008-10-02/news/billed-for-bull-broward-county-commissioners-want-you-to-pay-for-their-pet-projects/

The fun part was listening to county Mayor Lois Wexler defend the money drain. Wexler has slowly transformed herself into a human version of spackling paste, helping to hold together the commission's longstanding culture of waste and mismanagement.

For whatever reason -boredom, tenure, general antsiness- the formerly-astute Wexler increasingly seems tone-deaf to things that once upon a time...
Well, let's just say that I'm far from the only person in this county with 20/15 vision who's noticed the slide towards the slippery side of the slope.

I will have that post here on the blog in the not-too-distant future -Operation Mentos- but until then, I wanted to share with you all the delicious and spot-on lacerating wit of Dear Lois, who has quite properly put Wexler back in her place today on the Sun-Sentinel's Broward Politics blog in a way that just causes me to simply step back and admire it from a distance.
I salute you.

Game, set, match, "Dear Lois."

South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Broward Politics
Broward's Wexler defends lobbyist Ron Book
By Brittany Wallman
January 14, 2011 03:35 PM

As Broward County commissioners weigh what to do about a prominent lobbyist who represents the county and the county's political foe on a huge issue, one person who came to the lobbyist's defense is County Commissioner Lois Wexler.

At issue is lobbyist Ron Book's work for the county and for the Miami Dolphins.

Read the rest of the post at:
http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/broward/blog/2011/01/browards_wexler_defends_lobbyi.html#comments

See also:
Mentions of lobbyist Judy Stern in the BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes
http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/search/index?keywords=%22Judy+Stern%22&x=10&y=10
and of lobbyist Ron Book:
http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/search/index?keywords=%22Ron+Book%22&x=0&y=0

Are you sure you don't have a Mentos?



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdTe9AuqoT8



The Coke Zero & Mentos Rocket Car
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-hXcRtbj1Y

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

Nothing like a romantic weekend getaway at the Stacy Ritter suite at the Westin Diplomat! Esp. when your political contributors are paying for it.

Above, June 3, 2010 photo by South Beach Hoosier of the Westin Diplomat Resort & Spa, Hollywood, FL. It's located about three miles from me, on the the beach. This view is from SW of the hotel as seen from State Road A1A thru a slightly wet car window.

Bob Norman's recent spate of stories on Broward County Comm. Stacy Ritter and her days of reckoning with the Florida Comm. on Ethics have been esp. instructive, not only in depicting the unappealing aspects of the dysfunctional Broward County political culture and the rather creepy and sordid people who inhabit it, but also the resolutely galling sense of entitlement of folks like Ritter and what they believe passes for normal.

His latest dispatch, below, is no exception.

BrowardPalmBeach New Times
Daily Pulp blog
More Ritter-Klenet Campaign Expenses: $2,189 At Diplomat Hotel
By Bob Norman,
Sunday, December 5 2010 @ 11:27AM ​

Among the many whopping charges reimbursed by Stacy Ritter's 2008 campaign account for herself and her lobbyist husband Russell Klenet were two at the swank Diplomat Hotel & Spa totaling $2,189.14 -- including one for $1,889.31.

Over $1,000 was spent during four shopping trips at The Fresh Market, an upscale grocer that happens to have a notably fine wine and meat selection.

Curiously, the couple like to have alleged "campaign dinners" in Boca Raton in Palm Beach County. A visit to Chop's Lobster Bar in Boca Raton ran $682.20. Another dinner well outside of the district happened at Emeril's Miami Beach where a $769.80 charge was racked up. Let's not forget the $156.89 charge for a limo service, Carey International, Inc.

Read the rest of the post at:
http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2010/12/stacy_ritter_campaign_expenditures.php

Archives of Bob Norman columns:
http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/author.php?author_id=202

A day in the life of McClatchy's Miami Herald, as viewed by a reader who's largely given up on them fixing their problems, or surviving long-term

Above, November 12, 2010 photo by South Beach Hoosier of a Miami Herald vending machine on U.S.-1/S. Federal Highway in Hallandale Beach, Florida.

UPDATED 11/13/10

I guess I hardly need mention to anyone living in South Florida that the prices posted on this vending machine haven't been accurate for quite some time, but then the Miami Herald management's foolish insistence in the recent past that only charging Broward readers a quarter, while already charging fifty cents in Miami-Dade, would get them more readers and eyeballs on their ads, never made any sense either, though from a distance, it might've sounded good in theory.
Say from Sacramento, Calif., the home of McClatchy Company, which owns the Herald.

Even their own reporters and columnists knew this, as prior to their finally charging the same amount in both counties, it would've been rare for any phone conversation I had with a Herald reporter or columnist to end without them bringing the subject up, which told me in no uncertain terms that it was clearly a sore subject.

For the better part of the 14 years I lived in suburban Washington, D.C., in Arlington, VA, and caught the Metro train into downtown Washington for work during the week, whether from the Clarendon Metro station or the Ballston station, I happily paid fifty cents for the Baltimore Sun from a vending machine on my way down into the station -since the 1990's- while paying less for the Washington Post, because it was a very smart, well-written and well-edited newspaper.

The Sun, a newspaper I first read as a kid in North Miami Beach while growing-up a devout Orioles fan, is not what it once was, owing to a lot of curious moves made by parent Tribune Company, but on any given day, it's still usually much better than the Herald and the Tribune-owned Sun-Sentinel combined, and was well worth the price.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/

People in South Florida, especially serious people, will always be willing to pay more for quality, but they want to see it first.
That quality they seek is seldom if ever seen in the current version of the Miami Herald.

So what's the plan for the Herald's future, if any?

Exactly.

Back on September 18th, I emailed the following thoughts of mine, most of which were written while once again exasperated by what kind of product the Herald was producing.

I sent it to a couple of dozen or so of the usual well-informed, media-centric folks I know in Florida and around the country who get my observations before I usually share them here with you all later in the day, often after getting insightful comments, corrections or head's ups from them about related (or worse) MSM screw-ups closer to them geographically.

In light of what I wrote here on November 3rd about the Herald's truly dreadful coverage of the recent Giants-Rangers World Series, that is, their mentioning NOTHING about Game 2 the following day, on a Friday morning, while the South Florida edition of the New York Times, printed up in Deerfield Beach, 25 miles north of me, had a page-and-a-half of stories and columns, plus nice photos and box score info.

The Miami Herald's dismal Pony Express-style coverage of The World Series -compared to the New York Times- is a bad omen for readers
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/miami-heralds-dismal-pony-express-style.html

The following email is also in that vein, and all came together one particularly frustrating day about nine weeks ago, when I was checking the Herald's website for some information and noticed something quite troubling, which was not good news for either Herald readers or serious-minded people in South Florida who continue to ponder this simple question:
What's going on at One Herald Plaza?

-----

The Miami Herald's staff finally smells the coffee.
But is it too late?

Back on Sept. 1st, I sent an email to Edward Schumacher-Matos, the Herald's Ombudsman (the one without either a blog or a weekly column, but rather some once-in-a-while thing) because that was the day where an armed intrusion took place at the Discovery Channel HQ in suburban D.C. -a Maryland building I've been in dozens of times- yet it took the Herald hours to put something about it online.

This, even while a nice but not great photo of actress January Jones of Mad Men fame remained online just below the masthead for hours, while nothing about the story up in Silver Spring, being shown on LIVE TV for hours on the cablenets, was there.

It was just the latest in a VERY long line of jaw-dropping and galling editorial and content decisions at the Herald in the recent past that befuddle the Herald's dwindling number of readers.

In fact, I was so dismayed that I actually wrote Hallandale Beach Blog fave, Alan D. Mutter, creator of Reflections of a Newsosaur blog fame, and mentioned here often,
http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/ and asked him -only half-jokingly- if there was any chance that one of his savvy Venture Capital friends in Silicon Valley might want to reinvent themselves, and play the role of a media mogul, and perhaps take the Herald off of McClatchy's hands?

I even told him, "Trust me, the concerned and conscientious people in South Florida would've be very much indebted!"

Sadly, Alan replied that he didn't know of such a person.
But then I presumed that such a person even exists, oui?

-----

Date: Wed, Sep 1, 2010 at 4:52 PM

Subject: Surprise! Takes over THREE HOURS for Herald website to mention hostage drama at Discovery Channel HQ in Silver Spring. Sleeping on the job, Just like Herald's Broward coverage!

To: Edward Schumacher-Matos

September 1st, 2010
4 pm

Dear Mr. Schumacher-Matos:

Nothing in this email is about the Herald's spotty coverage of Broward County in general or Hallandale Beach, and to a less degree, of Hollywood, in particular.
The paper's unsatisfactory coverage of them is what is is.
Reality.

Did you know that there are media sites overseas that have had something about this hostage story for a while now, yet the Herald has nothing almost three hours later but STILL has prime space at the top for

Kardashians

New fashion collection

They're cute girls and all and I get their appeal, but why has the paper completely
OD'd on them?
Seriously..

You should have one of the Herald's interns check and see how many times in the past six months there hasn't been something about them in the Herald.

Or how many times, since she was hired two years ago, Myriam Marquez has written anything at all about something going on in Broward County or of particular interest to readers there.

Trust me, it won't be pretty.
In fact, it will be grim.

Consider that your Sunday public policy section, Issues & Ideas, did not have the word "Broward" in it anywhere.
Or any story or column about some issue, personality or idea of particular relevance in Broward
Again.
For at least the second week in a row.

Do you know how many times THAT fact pattern has been true this year?
I did, I really did, but I stopped counting because it was so disturbing.
And pathetic.

The other day, in reference to the glacial and practically non-existent coverage of the Broward School Board races last Tuesday, and their lack of updates online, I compared the Herald's pace to the Pony Express on my blog.
In retrospect, I might've been exaggerating, but not quite in the way you might imagine.

In a day or so, I'm going to show that a careful analysis of Herald stories since last year's approval of the Marlins Stadium by the M-D County Commission, 5 of the 9 commissioners who approved it never had a story written about them in the ensuing 14 months that ever said anything at all about them and their vote on the stadium's financing, or any possible second-guessing or doubts from constituents.
ZERO.

That explains a lot.
Like why the paper was beaten soundly by a website on the stadium financing story due to a leak.

If someone with that info had tried to give the info to the Herald, unless they immediately got savvy reporters Matthew Haggman and Charles Rabin on the phone, unlikely, do you know what the Herald reporters and editors would've said or done?
Nothing.

The same response that Herald readers in South Florida routinely get from reporters and editors, like Beth Reinhard, Jay Ducassi and dozens of others when they contact them.

Those Herald employees first response is to call other people rather than call you back or return your emails about solid news you know or possess, even when you have photos that corroborate everything you say.

I know this first-hand and so do many other people I know who closely follow what goes on in Broward County and South Florida.

And guess what, the Herald daily shows that lack of context or understanding of the area they purport to cover, which is why so many readers constantly complain that the Herald's local news and govt. stories have an unusually high degree of fact and context problems, and are usually more notable for what is left out, often the most important aspect of why something happened -or didn't.

But unless you are there in person, like I am so often, you wouldn't know anything about it.

Seriously, when are we going to see the positive changes the Herald needs to make it viable and engaged?
What's the plan?

Not the silly one that got in print a few months ago, but a real plan that actually benefits readers who want real news?

The Herald's current plan of ignoring news because it's not in Coral Gables, Doral, Miami or Miami Beach is NOT working and is repelling readers from both the physical paper and the website, for reasons like why I wrote this in the first place: sleeping on the job!

From my perspective, the ship is still listing and there are NO ships around to rescue any survivors, if any.

I will leave to another day the confounding situation with reporter Alfonso Chardy and why his disingenuous professional behavior is allowed to continue apace, like nobody really noticed what he did a few weeks ago, blatantly lying to Herald readers in a news story.
But notice we did.

Not just me, but full-time print and TV reporters from around the state.
I know that because they contacted me to tell me they noticed, too.
And those are facts.

(About an hour later, after some website magic happened, I added.)

P.S. Congrats! It only took over three hours and continuous coverage on the TV cablenets for someone at the Herald to finally post something online. I can only imagine how things will be in the future when some blogger scoops the Herald that Fidel Castro is dead.

------

Well, as you might imagine, despite having exchanged cordial emails with him in the past, I never heard back from the Ombudsman, whose email address I have since deleted from my computer, since really, what's the point?

If the Herald's current and recent management care so little about their own readers that Schumacher-Matos lacks the tools or frequency he needs to be taken seriously by Herald readers, the sorts of things other large newspapers provide -and the facts clearly show they do- why continue to kid myself and think my emails to him will accomplish anything other than temporarily venting some of my dismay?

Which is why many of the past emails I've penned to him over the years but never actually sent, keeping in DRAFT instead, will be now be revisited here on the blog when similar situations occur in the future at the newspaper, as they inevitably will, since the Herald keeps making the same mistakes over-and-over.
They won't stop digging the hole they're in.

To use an image that I've often used here in the past, their behavior is akin to a dog chasing-its- tail -initially amusing, but ultimately, fruitless and irritating.
Like many current network TV programs.

I forgot to mention above in my prologue that in my second email to my media-centric pals, friends and acquaintances here in Florida and around the country, I also sent them a link to Bob Norman's spot-on Daily Pulp post of Sept. 17th about the greatly rising frustration level of the Herald's own employees.

It's so good, I have it here and urge you to read the entire thing, including the reader comments, whose frustration with the newspaper and its management is clear .

BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes
Herald Reporters to Management: Stop Mimicking Twitter and Focus on Serious Journalism

By Bob Norman
Friday, September 17 2010 @ 5:57PM

The following letter appeared yesterday on the Miami Herald's internal memo board, Readme. Signed by numerous veteran reporters and editors, it was posted the same day 49 more layoffs were announced at the depleted newspaper.

-----------

Sept 2010
OUR HOPES FOR A BETTER HERALD:

So, it's Saturday night, and you want to hear live music. Among your choices: going to the Hard Rock Cafe to hear Shakira (or Seal or Ringo Starr or Reba McIntyre); or going to a bar with an open mike. At the Hard Rock, you'll hear a polished, professional artist.
At open mike night, you'll probably hear people with day jobs singing Sweet Caroline ... perhaps lustily, probably off key.

Nothing intrinsically wrong with that open mike bar. But we'll bet most people, with
the ability to choose, would go hear the pro.

The Miami Herald, we would argue, is becoming the newspaper equivalent of open mike night. Or a flea market.

Read the rest of the post at:
http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2010/09/miami_herald_reporters.php

There are 177 reader comments!

See also McClatchy Watch on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/McClatchyWatch

McClatchy Watch website, while defunct since before last Christmas, is still online:
http://cancelthebee.blogspot.com/

Bob Norman's take on the 28 charges against Broward County Comm. Stacy Ritter, noted misanthrope

Commissioner Stacy Ritter's Nov. 10th video press release concerning findings of the Florida Elections Commission on an elections violation complaint.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqDU4a1rsYA

Bob Norman of the BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes is really on top of things in Broward County today, even more so than usual, as he reports that Broward County Comm. Stacy Ritter, the same indignant person who sent a comment to my blog in June telling me that I should've contacted her to get her side of a story before I simply linked to a newspaper story on ethics legislation by the Sun-Sentinel's Brittany Wallman -featuring a quote from FL State Rep. Ari Porth, as if Ritter would've even responded- now thinks it might be time to prevent Broward County citizens and interested parties from taking photos of the County Commission during public meetings.
Yes, the same Commission that supposedly works for them.
My post from June:
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/broward-county-commissioner-stacy.html

Ritter seemingly only wants a taxpayer-paid photographer who serves as a PR tool for the ruling political class to be allowed to snap-snap at public meetings.
Perhaps that person, whoever it is, knows Ritter's 'good side.'

The side Ritter certainly didn't show when she showed nothing but contempt when she ripped my friend, Charlotte Greenbarg, President of the Broward Coalition -who wanted the most stringent and far-reaching ethics legislation possible- when Ritter appeared before the Broward Country Ethics Commission.
http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/bestof/2009/award/best-political-activist-845585/

Almost as if Ritter didn't even consider that her comments at a public meeting of great civic importance would be recorded, or that a transcript would be made.
Typical.
As I remarked later:

I wonder if Comm. Ritter is still angry about the public finding out via my email to Bob Norman of the Broward Palm Beach New Times a few months back about what she said about civic activist and Broward Coalition President Charlotte Greenbarg before the Broward Ethics Commission, one of the few meetings of theirs that I missed towards the end, where I was often the only member of the public present for the entire meeting?

Knowing that nothing actually beats seeing her own sarcastic words in print, I emailed those indignant words of Ritter's over to Bob Norman, who had the good sense to run them in his January 25th, 2010 blog column for everyone to read for themselves.http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2010/01/monday_quick_takes.php

Personally, after being back down here for seven years, and having attended many Broward County Commission meetings, I have yet to see a good side of Ritter's personality, or even see some sterling quality demonstrated by her that commends her for her current job.
But then that pre-supposes that one actually exists.
-----
BrowardPalmBeach NewTimesStacy Ritter Hit With 28 Election Charges, Complains She Feels "Stalked"
By Bob Norman, Wednesday., Nov. 10 2010 @ 3:00PM

The Florida Elections Commission found probable cause this morning to charge Broward County Commissioner Stacy Ritter with 28 election violations.

​The nature of the charges aren't clear, but they are based on a voluminous complaint filed by Hollywood attorney Brenda Chalifour, who was present at this morning's hearing at the Senate Office Building in Tallahassee.

Ritter did not attend the hearing, though her Tallahassee lawyer, Mark Herron, was there in her stead.

Read the rest of the post at:
http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2010/11/stacy_ritter_hit_with_28_elect.php76 comments as of 9:40 p.m.

See also:

Previous NewTimes articles on Stacy Ritter:
http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/search/index/collection:all/keywords:%22Stacy+Ritter%22/limit:50/

Previous Hallandale Beach Blog posts re Ritter: http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/search/label/Stacy%20Ritter

Stacy Ritter's YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/stacyritter3

Speaking of negative campaign ads and fliers, Bob Norman zeroes in on Ken Keechl's fight to stay on the Broward County Commission

Speaking of negative campaign ads and fliers as we have been the last few days, it wasn't until after the Dolphins at Bengals ballgame this afternoon -a snooze- that I got around to checking my Dashboard inbox to see what new pieces the blogs and websites I follow most closely had put out since early this morning, when I fell asleep listening to the BBC Radio's 5 live instead of ESPN's SportsCenter.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/5live/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/bbc_radio_five_live

If I'd checked earlier, I might've linked to something in my last post that I believe is very worthwhile reading for everyone who comes here regularly, for reasons that I should hardly need to explain, given what I've written about and where we live: in the center of the culture of corruption.

Hallandale Beach in Broward County in the South Florida of 2010, the year where most of the South Florida news media was too busy telling us how bad they have it to actually do much in the way of first-rate or even basic reporting on city and county government, or doing shoe-leather reporting on local political campaigns.

Have so many articles on local campaign races ever been written almost entirely from the air-conditioned confines of One Herald Plaza or East Las Olas Blvd.?
In a word, no.

And forget any worthwhile print or TV investigations between Labor Day and Election day, right?
Oh, wait, didn't I predict that over the long hot summer?
Yes.

I mean how long has it been since the BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes Bob Norman wrote his eye-opening Daily Pulp blog piece about the troubling behavior of Broward School chair Jennifer Gottlieb, and yet the two local newspapers and all 4 Anglo TV stations have preferred to just stay mum.
(Whether that's because of the pronounced aversion among the South Florida news media to go after female pols or govt. officials in quite the same way they go after male pols, is another post for another time, though it clearly does, as I've mentioned here previously. I'm hardly alone in this sentiment, since the lack of thoroughness is particularly pronounced among print and TV reporters in Miami covering public education issues.)

Instead, when not belly-aching and making excuses for their loust coverage, they have have gone DEFCON 1 to cover which celebs are going to the first of 41 Miami Heat home games, a game which at the end of the season, will count for no more than one played on Valentine's Day or St. Patrick's weekend or when they are resting the starters late in the interminably long season...
Which is to say, hardly at all.

The article that is positively must-read is this one by Bob Norman from this morning. It speaks for itself.

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BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes
November Surprise: Keechl Camp Hits Gutter
By Bob Norman, Sun., Oct. 31 2010 @ 6:00AM

Broward Mayor Ken Keechl appears to be getting desperate. He's certainly getting dirty.

Keechl camp's last-ditch negative ad campaign goes to a new low. Of course he won't take credit for it since it comes from one of those late-date 527 slush committees funded by a mega-lobbyist, a major developer, a construction contractor, and a county airport vendor.

Read the rest of the post at
http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/

Irony: That's a hell of a view.
Did someone fire the webcam?
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/sfl-webcam3,0,3709944.htmlstory

Uh-oh! Peter Deutsch lets it slip that most of students at proposed Ben Gamla Hebrew Charter in HB will be Sr. High and Jr. High age, NOT les enfants!

Above, Hallandale Beach's invisible representative to the Broward School Board, District One member Ann Murray. http://www.browardschools.com/schoolboard/

Uh-oh!
Peter Deutsch let it slip out this afternoon at the Hallandale Beach Education Advisory Committee monthly meeting that most of the students at his proposed Ben Gamla Hebrew Charter School in Hallandale Beach in 2011 will be Senior High and Jr. High kids, NOT les enfants!

This would seem to cast some serious doubts on their already-submitted traffic and parking studies since, presumably, few of the Elementary School kids would be driving themselves to school.

Not that you can see the plans now on the city's website, since the city refuses to post these public documents there until two days before the HB Planning & Zoning Board meeting, now scheduled for the 27th at 1:30 p.m.

I also heard that the attorney with Deutsch was a real hit with the education advisory board with his very sarcastic put-downs of Hallandale Beach and the schools located here, like we have anything to do with that.

I'm told by someone who was also there that this pompous jerk is Ben Gamla's "parent of the year," so presumably he'll be at the Community meeting tomorrow night and perhaps I will snap his mug for posterity -and the blog.

Speaking of the meeting... the city-required public community meeting on Ben Gamla, hosted by Deutsch, is scheduled for Tuesday at 6:00 p.m. at the Hallandale Beach Cultural Center, located behind HB City Hall.

Personally, I'm a longtime supporter of the idea and principle of Charter Schools but I recognize that in this area, the Broward School Board members that represent us, Ann Murray and Jennifer Gottlieb, are NOT going to publicly say anything against them, esp. when someone like Peter Deutsch is connected to them.

For them, that's a loser and a fight they don't need to get into.

As a well-informed friend with a sense of historical perspective reminded me over the weekend:

"The School Board doesn't have much say over charter schools. If they deny the application, the charter school operators go to the state to appeal and usually win. They can speak about the inappropriate placement of a school."

My concern as far as the School Board members go has always been more on their attendance at education-related happenings here in their district from the p.o.v. of their obligations to their own constituency, but even if they show up, and I doubt they will tomorrow night, I'm not expecting Murray or Gottlieb to be anything more than a "potted plant" in the room, to use that Oliver North congressional hearing-generated metaphor.

In my opinion, as far as Murray goes, that would be a nice start after more than two years in her current position -completely invisible in Hallandale Beach.

Towards that end, my friend, Hallandale Beach civic activist Csaba Kulin has sent Murray an email -below- that's much more to the point about HB residents' feelings about her heretofore invisible presence here having been duly noted, and letting her know that part of the reason some people want her to be present is so that she can see how completely one-sided this Peter Deutsch-led meeting will be on Tuesday night.
Just like last year's cringe-worthy fiasco.

There's hearing second-hand that something is one-sided, and then there's actually seeing it for yourself.

Like reporters coming to HB City Hall for the first time and seeing what the mayor is really like at a public meeting with their own eyes.

All of a sudden, everything clicks and they see that if anything, what they've read or heard previously hardly begins to describe the absurdity of the situation.

Csaba also asks specific questions about the number of students planned for the size of the property and asks Murray to simply consider how lacking in common sense some of Ben Gamla's plans are.

Kids being forced to eat outside for meals, then what do you do when it rains or there's a strong thunderstorm, bring all the kids in and cancel classes?
Which is it?

There's their great plan to save money, and then there's their plan actually running head-on into a very predictable reality, since there's nothing more predictable in South Florida than thunderstorms.
Except traffic.

But Peter Deutsch doesn't care about any of that, he just cares about the general idea of himself being the White Knight for many Jewish parents throughout the region who are currently dis-satisfied with public schools, for whatever the particular reason, reasonable or otherwise, and the profit he and his partners can make from their discomfort, which is millions.

Deutsch doesn't see why he should care what the neighborhood, city or community thinks because he knows that having gone thru this process before, and gotten his share of bruises, no elected official is going to lift a finger to call him out on his plan's self-evident lack of common sense in shoehorning a school of that size into that small an area in a single-family residential neighborhood.

He's NOT suddenly going to negotiate against himself if he can get everything he wants by playing hardball.

Not that anyone seems to remember, but my biggest problem with Deutsch has always been the central fact that he NEVER approached the HB community and asked what IT wanted to see in this city in the way of educational alternatives. He only offered one flavor.
Oh right, plus his giant sense of entitlement, a holdover from his days in Congress.

Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper has only exacerbated the problem by NEVER having a single forum on education, even though that's clearly one of the key considerations that families moving here think about.
Just ask Broward realtors!

But the mayor acts like that predictable conversation NEVER takes place, and she sees no upside to her challenging someone with influence and powerful friends like Deutsch, so she just acts like there's nothing she can do, unlike the approach taken by people in Coral Gables with regard to charter schools.

Peter Deutsch is merely a saleman trying to peddle his product, and he only wants to sell that one flavor in Hallandale Beach.
He's merely a 7/11 owner, NOT an education trail-blazer.

And if you believe Ben Gamla's own numbers and projections, 10% or less of the students going there would actually be from Hallandale Beach.
That's laughable!

I don't know about you, but that DOESN'T sound to me like my idea of a community school, or
a common sense prescription for what ails this area's educational problems, one of which clearly is "educational White Flight."

I meant what I wrote the other day about the need to push back, and push back HARD at Murray to shake her from her sleepwalking stupor, and, if need be, to make a public example out of her and her completely unacceptable serial apathy and neglect of the HB community, despite her being our elected representative to the Broward County School Board.

If Murray chooses not to attend, despite adequate notice and plenty of first-hand knowledge that there's more than enough reasons for her to be in attendance, I will make sure that there is an empty chair at Tuesday's meeting with her name on it, and, possibly, At-Large member Jennifer Gottlieb's name as well.
They both work for you and me, and they need to actually show up at public meetings in this city about education issues of interest to everyone.
Without having to be reminded over-and-over
Period.

IF they choose not to attend Tuesday night, trust me, it will NOT be a secret throughout Broward County or among the South Florida news media down here that really matter.

Meanwhile, up in Arlington County (VA) where I used to live until returning to South Florida, just like HB, life is far from perfect... as The Arlington Yuppette reports
http://arlingtonyupette.blogspot.com/

Archive of Bob Norman's Daily Pulp columns on Ann Murray:
http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/search/index?keywords=%22Ann+Murray%22&x=17&y=15
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The email below was sent to Broward School Board member Ann Murray on Saturday October 9th at 10:52 a.m.
As of 8:30 p.m. on Monday October 11th, there had been NO REPLY.
Surprise!

-----

Dear Ms. Murray,

You are our representative on the Broward County School Board and as such you must make every effort to appear and speak about the detrimental effect charter schools have on our regular public schools. We in Hallandale Beach are in danger of closing some our public schools if the Broward Board of Education allows students and money to be syphoned off to pseudo public schools like charter schools.

On a more personal note, we the voters would like to see our elected officials personally appear among us more often than at election time.

On October 12, 2010 at 6:00 PM, at the Hallandale Beach cultural center there will be a community meeting about the Ben Gamla charter school. They would like to convince the residents why it would be beneficial to them, a single family residential neighborhood, to have 600 K to 12 students attend school there coming from all over Broward County.

White the current meeting is about a Hallandale Beach "conditional use permit", we need you to come and explain to our residents the requirements of a 600 student school should have as to cafeteria, recreational area, class room sizes and other amenities concerned. How 1.9 acres of land compares to other similar size school's land area? We are concerned about forcing a 600 student campus into 1.9 acres of land. I am very familiar with what a 600 student school should look like. Football field, tennis courts, outside assembly area just to mention a few, and sufficient separation from the surronding residents to avoid noise and light concerns. That location fails on all of these points.

You need to explain to us why there were no other alternate sites considered for this school? We in Hallandale Beach have a school on the North West side closed. Would that be a better location for Ben Gamla?

So, please before you try to find an excuse to not to appear, recognize that facing the public is a necessary part of public service and accept our invitation.

Csaba Kulin

President, Fairways North, Inc.

Vice President, United Condominium Associations of Hallandale Beach