Csaba Kulin asks Hallandale Beach City Attorney Whitfield THE question HB citizens have long wondered, esp. as the Broward IG's Office has been busy investigating the city and turning-up mountains of incriminating and jaw-dropping evidence: Who at HB City Hall is supposed to make sure that applicable laws, ordinances and rules, especially those regarding ethics and conflicts of interest, are followed and enforced fairly? Teaser Alert: You won't like her answer

Csaba Kulin in front of Hallandale Beach City Hall. January 7, 2013 photo by South Beach Hoosier. © 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

So, did you hear what Hallandale Beach City Attorney V. Lynn Whitfield said at last week's Hallandale Beach Planning & Zoning Advisory Board meeting about ethics and her role in the city, during yet another one of her so-called Ethics talks to them?

My trusted friend, Hallandale Beach and Broward County civic activist Csaba Kulin did.

He knows because he's the one person in this city to ask City Attorney Whitfield THE  important question that's long been needed to be asked, as HB citizens have woken-up to hear and read yet another jaw-dropping story about what Hallandale Beach's elected officials and highly-paid city employees have allowed to happen at City Hall while dodging their sworn and fiduciary responsibilities to Hallandale Beach citizens: oversight and accountability.

To wit, who at HB City Hall is supposed to make sure that applicable laws, ordinances and rules, especially those regarding ethics and conflicts of interest, are followed and enforced fairly?
Whitfield's answer will no doubt surprise you.

No matter how much you may wish it were not true, the reality is that Hallandale Beach City Attorney V. Lynn Whitfield DOESN'T seem to be getting any smarter about learning where she works, who she works with, who she really works FOR, or even what's really been going on in this city for years and adapting so that she remains firmly on the right side of the community's concerned and informed citizens.

We've already had a do-nothing City Attorney who didn't care about any of those things, and who excelled at ignoring all the routine corruption, incompetency and illegality going on all around him. 

His name was David Jove and he's currently laughing all the way to the bank on the ridiculous pension that HB citizens like you and I are paying for.

The pension that Jove "earned" from NOT saying anything or doing anything when he should have but consciously chose NOT to.

Whitfield certainly DOESN'T seem to appreciate the great harm that she's already done to herself or her reputation in this community, especially with its citizens, who gave her the benefit of the doubt after she was hired in 2011, vis-a-vis the corruption in this city and the pathetic excuses she's publicly made for why CRA money was allowed to go out the door for years to the CRA Board's friends and allies, with no tangible plan or intent by City Hall officials to EVER see whether it went to where it was supposed to go, even IF the idea that was approved had made sense, few of which ever did, of course.

Broward Bulldog

Broward Inspector General: Hallandale leaders don’t know what they’re talking about, By William Gjebre, BrowardBulldog.org
April 23, 2013 AT 6:21 AM

The Broward Inspector General’s final report on the “gross mismanagement” of millions in tax dollars by Hallandale Beach is sharply critical of city leaders it says have shown a “basic misunderstanding” of what’s gone wrong.

Hallandale Beach city managers past and present, the city attorney, the mayor and other city officials defended the handling of funds of the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency in formal responses included in the 56-page report released last week.

Read the rest of the article at http://www.browardbulldog.org/2013/04/broward-inspector-general-hallandale-leaders-dont-know-what-theyre-talking-about/

You'd think the city's many highly-paid CRA employees and Assistant City Managers could've handled the straightforward task of double-checking and verifying submitted information by grant and loan applicants, wouldn't you, but you'd be dead wrong.

Year-after-year that job was always, apparently, someone else's job, but whose exactly?

Really, WHO was responsible for doing that?

Hallandale Beach City Hall and their flacks can't say and won't say, and neither will former City Managers Good or Antonio, who think that no harm can come to them despite all the harm they've done to this community's bottom line and Quality of Life, thru their neglect and lack of common sense and professionalism.

So what did City Attorney Whitfield say?

You can pretty well assume since I'm writing this that it was something that's NOT positive about cleaning-up HB City Hall and actually injecting a degree of normalcy or even professionalism, something that most people in town thought that she would at least try to do, at a bare minimum, given how obvious predecessor Jove was about hearing no evil, seeing no evil and speaking no evil.

Again, back when they were trying to give her the benefit of the doubt.

I can tell you that It was NOT something that you as a citizen taxpayer would appreciate as either her boss and the person who is ultimately paying her salary, with the idea that she is making an honest attempt to look after YOUR best long-term interests, not Mayor Joy Cooper's.

To say nothing of you and I and everyone else in this city paying CRA Attorney Steven W. Zelkowitz of Gray-Robinson over $200 an hour to say and write preposterous things in the city's official response to the Broward IG Report.

Things that are not only NOT true or believable -and I'd be willing to bet, not believable to a grand jury that ought to hear the evidence!- but which, frankly, read like an Introductory college fiction writing assignment.

You'd almost think Whitfield and Zelkowitz were talking about some other city, not the one we live and work in.

Hallandale Beach turns tables, accuses Broward Inspector General of “factual inaccuracies”

By William Gjebre, BrowardBulldog.org 

April 11, 2013 at 6:30 AM

http://www.browardbulldog.org/2013/04/hallandale-beach-turns-tables-accuses-broward-inspector-general-of-factual-inaccuracies/

Broward Inspector General slams Hallandale for “gross mismanagement”; CRAs elsewhere eyed

By William Gjebre and Dan Christensen, BrowardBulldog.org 

March 6, 2013 at 6:10 AM, 

http://www.browardbulldog.org/2013/03/broward-inspector-general-slams-hallandale-for-gross-mismanagement-of-cra-funds/

So, what did Whitfield say?

I can tell you it was NOT something that's going to endear her to you or help her one bit in creating any degree of space between her and unpopular and increasingly belligerent City Manager Renee C. Miller on the larger issue of whether either deserves to keep their jobs.

Yes, whatever good will Whitfield may or may not have earned up until now, or even any latent sympathy you may've had for her last year because of her brain surgery, has been erased the past few weeks by her own inexplicable actions and words.

And that includes the troubling and perhaps even haunting words that she uttered at last Wednesday's P&Z meeting, when she was asked a direct question, which shows she really HASN'T learned anything at all about how things have been here, and how they (largely) still are with her around.

HallandaleBeachBlog YouTube Channel video: Csaba Kulin re Hallandale Beach City Attorney Whitfield's comments re her role on ethics. Uploaded May 3, 2013. 
http://youtu.be/dtpFnVOFA-I

*That's real thunder you hear in the background, not SFX! The audio will be better next time.

Hallandale Beach civic activist Csaba Kulin speaks about the comments of Hallandale Beach City Attorney V. Lynn Whitfield on her role at HB City Hall re ethics enforcement, conflicts of interest and making sure that state laws and city ordinances are properly followed, including laws that protect citizen's rights, via Florida's Sunshine Laws in the state constitution.

Kulin is a member of the city's Planning & Zoning Advisory Board and Whitfield's very curious comments that she is "not the ethics police" and that her role as HB City Attorney does not make her responsible for making sure that the City Commission, the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) or various Advisory Board members are actually complying with applicable laws and rules, came in response to Kulin's question to her during the April P&Z meeting, when she was giving another one of her occasional primers on ethics to the Board.

Very troubling questions about a lack of ethics and competency at HB City Hall, self-evident crony capitalism, and conflicts of interest have hovered over Hallandale Beach for many, many years, with its reputation among its own citizens and the rest of South Florida getting only worse by the year, as one embarrassing example after another has emerged of the city engaging in highly questionable behavior, and perhaps even illegal conduct.

In April of 2013, the City of Hallandale Beach was the subject of a scathing final report by the Broward County Inspector General's Office that specifically used the term "gross mismanagement" to describe the city's non-existent oversight and public accountability over millions of dollars in its CRA, which is comprised of the five members of the elected City Commission, including the mayor. Example after example is cited of near-invisible oversight of the CRA's activities by the elected City Commission, and the employees of the CRA and City Manager's office, with ZERO follow-up to see whether funds were spent for the purposes for which they were intended, or even whether various projects given funding were ever actually accomplished. 

This comes as no surprise to Hallandale Beach's most-concerned and involved citizens, including Kulin and myself, most of whom have viewed the CRA -as it has operated in this city- as little more than a city slush fund to reward the City Commission's favored social and non-profit groups and political allies, a fact that is bolstered by the IG Report, with lots of often incomplete or completely missing files and documents for grants or loans, and no apparent effort to double-check and see whether so-called "non-profits" really qualified for that designation.

The complete report, FINAL REPORT RE: GROSS MISMANAGEMENT OF PUBLIC FUNDS BY THE CITY OF HALLANDALE BEACH AND THE HALLANDALE BEACH COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY is at
http://www.broward.org/InspectorGeneral/Documents/OIG11-020HallandaleFinalE-REPORT04-18-13.docx.pdf


*Due to exhibits, the IG Report takes almost a minute to download.

Breaking News: Broward Inspector General's Final Report on Hallandale Beach City Hall's longstanding corruption & incompetency with CRA released today - FINAL REPORT RE: GROSS MISMANAGEMENT OF PUBLIC FUNDS BY THE CITY OF HALLANDALE BEACH AND THE HALLANDALE BEACH COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY

Above, Hallandale Beach City Hall Complex on S. Federal Highway/U.S.-1, where attention to details and appearances has never been their strong suit in the nine years I've lived here, since returning to South Florida after 15 years in the Washington, D.C. area. Thanks to the city's incompetent, myopic and poorly-managed DPW, the spotlights seen above in 2011 on the city's monument sign, at the corner of U.S.-1 & S.E. 5th St., have NOT worked since June of 2012. Which is to say that they have NOT worked since City Manager Renee C. Miller has been in place. But attention to details and appearances really DO matter when you are a government, and the situation with the lights is but the tip of the iceberg. The city's log of Visitors & Lobbyists, which is required by law to be up-to-date, was TWO MONTHS old as of last Friday. Really. August 7, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier. (c) 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

FINAL REPORT RE: GROSS MISMANAGEMENT OF PUBLIC FUNDS BY THE CITY OF HALLANDALE BEACH AND THE HALLANDALE BEACH COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY

http://www.broward.org/InspectorGeneral/Documents/OIG11-020HallandaleFinalE-REPORT04-18-13.docx.pdf

Now we need to see some logical follow-up in the way of prosecution.

Please be advised that the report can take up to a minute to open due to the many exhibits. 

It took 55 seconds for me.

No longer a secret in Hallandale Beach: More details on Bill Julian's longstanding anti-democratic tendencies while HB City Commissioner - he wanted to require residency of 3 years in order to run for local office in HB!; The worst enemy of Bill Julian is a smart voter who pays attention and who possesses a good memory; @MayorCooper, @SandersHB, @AlexLewy

The worst enemy of former Hallandale Beach City Comm. William "Bill" Julian -and his illegally parked car above- is a smart voter who pays attention and who possesses a good memory. March 21, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier. © 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved.

As if the years-and-years of former Hallandale Beach Commissioner William "Bill" Julian's habit of routinely parking in Handicapped/Handicapped Access/NO Parking spaces all over this small but dense city while in office wasn't bad enough, as he set a terrible example of someone successfully being able to use their perceived power as a shield to get and receive special treatment that regular residents of this city couldn't get and wouldn't expect -due to HBPD always looking the other way- or, his infamously trying to triple City Commission salaries over lunch at a City Commission meeting with no TV camera to record his selfish and delusional words and actions for posterity, having claimed in press accounts that he and the rest of the Commission deserved "executive" corporate salaries -for their part-time job- there's yet another particularly galling nugget about Julian's queer and anti-democratic notions of civics and a participatory democracy that far too few people in this community know about.
That is, until now.

Bill Julian's car in 2008 parked in the Handicapped access parking spot  at North Beach, where at at the time there was only one Handicapped spot and one Handicapped Acess spot on surfaced parking, with the fine for illegally using the latter being the same as for the former. March 21, 2008 photos by South Beach Hoosier. © 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved.

Another day at the beach, another day of entitlement! 

Bill Julian: Red white and blue -and illegally parked! Yet again! 

Yes, Julian really does think he's entitled!

It's a very telling and troubling anecdote that says much about Julian and his strange ideas, notions and alternative universe, a world he probably much prefers to reality, since there, at least, his consistently bad judgment and bad votes on public policy that hurt both individuals and the city collectively, never require him to sincerely apologize or express remorse for all the lasting damage he has done to this community, where he had power far beyond he what he could competently handle, just like Comm. Anthony A. Sanders does now in the opinion of so many of the most-informed people in this city.

I quickly referenced this anecdote on Wednesday night, speaking next-to-last among a dozen or so Hallandale Beach citizens who were overwhelmingly against the original motion of Comm. Alexander Lewy, Agenda Item 11 B, 
B.    AN ORDINANCE OF THE MAYOR AND CITY COMMISSION OF THE CITY OF HALLANDALE BEACH, FLORIDA, AMENDING CHAPTER 12 "ELECTIONS," SECTION 12-04.  QUALIFICATION OF CANDIDATES TO ESTABLISH CRITERIA AND PROCEDURE FOR CALLING A SPECIAL ELECTION BASED ON THE IRREVOCABLE RESIGNATION OF A COMMISSIONER AND SETTING OF QUALIFYING PERIOD IN CONFORMANCE WITH STATE LAW; PROVIDING A SEVERABILITY CLAUSE; PROVIDING A CODIFICATION CLAUSE; PROVIDING AN EFFECTIVE DATE; PROVIDING A REPEAL CLAUSE; PROVIDING A CONFLICT CLAUSE; AND FOR ALL OTHER PURPOSES. (FIRST READING) (STAFF: CITY ATTORNEY) (SEE BACKUP) (Staff Report, Supporting Docs)

This one issue brought close to a full room to the City Commission Chambers on the same night as the NFL's 2012 opening-night kickoff, with the Cowboys at Giants game on national TV while we were busy observing our local government chasing its tail and finding out -yet again- that nobody in the city really knows what the city's charter says or means.

After spending most of my three minutes reminding everyone in the room and watching on TV about some true and inconvenient facts surrounding aspects of the HB Charter Review Commission -and yet more broken promises and poor to non-existent oversight by former City Manager Mark. A. Antonio, which I will detail here in a separate post soon- and refuting with facts the predictably disingenuous and dishonest remarks uttered earlier by a few people, including Andrew Markoff, who even on a group he sought to join proved to be an outlier once again, I hurriedly spent the last twenty-five seconds of my three minutes reminding everyone once again of how truly lacking in character and judgment former HB Commissioner and CRC member Julian, was and remains.

Julian, who's running again in November after coming in a well-deserved third in a two-seat race in November of 2010, has seemingly never learned from any of his experiences and dozens and dozens of egregious mistakes while in office for ten years, and his support of Lewy's efforts, detailed by Lewy himself in an email he circulated last week, is entirely in keeping with that dismal track record Julian earned, and which this town bears the scars for.
That dubious track record of ten years is why he came in third, after all -people remembered what he said and did.

Here's the rest of the story that I couldn't fit in and mention on Wednesday night... which I'd originally planned on posting here on Tuesday but was unable to.

Unfortunately for both common sense and the wallets and purses of HB's residents, taxpayers and business owners, trying and succeeding in in doing something both ridiculous and anti-democratic has a long and undistinguished history at Hallandale Beach City Hall.

After all, who'll ever forget former Comm. Bill Julian famously musing from his seat on the Commission dais on whether he should bring forth his idea for an ordinance of a residency requirement that would mandate that all candidates for city office in Hallandale Beach have lived in this city for THREE YEARS before being eligible to run.

Really.

Showing the sort of very bad judgment that was long Julian's trademark in office for ten long years, Julian had convinced himself that this ordinance of his would ensure that only well-qualified candidates ran for local office here, as if simply living here for a finite period of time and breathing our air made residents either well-informed or articulate about the public policy issues confronting this city.

Showing his well-known parochialism, it never even seemed to have occurred to Julian that

it wasn't HIS job or the City Commission's to decide for all of us who got to run for local office

in this town.

It's called a democracy for a reason, and as long as someone met the reasonable eligibility requirements, that decision to run was solely up to any potential qualified resident, NOT to incumbent politicians who had a vested self-interest in discouraging people from running against them.

Especially well-informed citizens who know the issues better than the Commissioners, their worst fear. 

Julian's idea was so preposterous and so patently unconstitutional, that even bump-on-the-log

then-City Attorney David Jove found himself forced to explain some very basic concepts of 

democracy to Julian on why such a thing would never fly, due to its unreasonable and capricious nature.

It would also subject the city to a barrage of lawsuits the city could never hope to win,

since the ordinance was so clearly unconstitutional on its face.

You'd think that an elected official living in the 21st Century in a modern American city would

have the good sense to implicitly understand this, but once again, Comm. Julian did NOT.

He had to have it explained to him before he pulled his idea off the table.

You won't be surprised to hear that Julian, now a Commission candidate in November, fully

supports what Lewy, Cooper and Sanders were attempting to do to Hallandale Beach's citizen voters at Wednesday night's City Commission meeting.

Yes, it's classic Julian being Julian, always with the bad judgment, in or out of office.

Julian the outlier, always the person who fails to pay attention, fails to grasp the obvious and who consistently put his foot in his mouth and embarrass the citizens of this community.

The worst enemy of Bill Julian is a smart voter who pays attention and who possesses a good memory. 

Joy's World -the illogical and upside-down world of Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper: City's lack of internal controls, common sense, and finesse harms innocent citizens who DIDN'T do anything wrong; city waited until they were owed for 21 months of water/sewage -$14,588.42- before doing something -the wrong thing!; @MayorCooper

View more videos at: http://nbcmiami.com.

NBC6/ WTVJ-TV Miami video: The city of Hallandale Beach is preparing to cut off water to residents of a building on NE 4th Court over a water bill dispute. Residents Kenny Johnson and Terri Mammarelli and city spokesman Peter Dobbens discuss the issue.

NBC6/WTVJ-TV News

Hallandale Beach To Cut Off Water to Apartment Residents Over Huge Bill

By Christina Hernandez

Tuesday, Aug 7, 2012

Updated 9:24 PM EDT

Article at:

http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/Hallandale-Beach-To-Cut-Off-Water-to-Residents-of-Condo-Over-Huge-Bill-165344766.html

CBS4/WFOR-TV News

Hallandale Beach Landlord Accused Of Not Paying Water Bill For Years 

By Carey Codd

August 7, 2012 11:20 PM

Article at:

http://miami.cbslocal.com/2012/08/07/hallandale-beach-landlord-accused-of-not-paying-water-bill-for-years/

The Upside-down World of Joy Cooper: City of Hallandale Beach's continuing lack of internal controls and common sense harms its citizens -city waited until they were owed for 21 months -$14,588.42- before doing something -the wrong thing!

When you haven't been paid in three months, that's a hint!

Now, having waited so long to actually find out what was going on, they've let the owners get them over a barrel and city mouthpiece Peter Dobens now gets to play the PR stooge role he plays so very well:

There is nobody I know in Hallandale Beach who is the least bit surprised that the city has so thoroughly botched this.

If these HB citizens are forced out of their homes by the city on Monday, thru no fault of their own, trust me, there will be a LOT of news media there to record the event for posterity.

And seriously, why is there SO much reluctance by reporters Hernandez and Codd to to publicly name the property owners who didn't pay the bills on time after having been given the appropriate payments by their tenants?

I'm dumb-founded.

Frankly, this whole thing sounds so much like the way the city tried to recoup money it was owed for CRA loans, where last year, before he dashed out the door with a huge pension, former City Attorney David Jove was forced to publicly admit how feeble and unsatisfactory to HB taxpayers his efforts were.

I only wish that I could find the video I shot of it at a City Commission meeting so that you could see the whole sad exercise for yourself -his reluctance to do anything was galling.

It was his job!


see March 8, 2012's 
Disorganized files likely to lead to annual financial audit of Hallandale's CRA
http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2012-03-08/news/fl-hallandale-audit-meeting-20120308_1_files-city-commission-audit

As I've written here so many times in the past, the work ethic of most City of Hallandale Beach employees the public interacts with daily leaves so much to be desired, that the City of Weston's model is looking better and better to me and others everyday.

If you are not familiar with that particular model, I'll be posting something about that soon and it will definitely get and keep your attention if you're interested in keeping city taxes lower.

re Lifeguard & public safety situation in Hallandale Beach: Still smarting from negative worldwide publicity following lifeguard Tomas Lopez's firing, Hallandale Beach to start a new safety effort at beach based on... well, what exactly? City's fake solutions as outlined in today's agenda DON'T solve real safety problems at public beach; #HallandaleBeach

 

July 31, 2012 photos by South Beach Hoosier.© 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

re Lifeguard situation in Hallandale Beach: Still smarting from negative worldwide publicity following lifeguard Tomas Lopez's firing, Hallandale Beach to start a new safety effort at beach based on... well, what exactly? City's fake solutions as outlined in today's agenda DON'T solve real safety problems at public beach

I really can’t believe that on a day when I have a friend from overseas visiting the area, and when I ought to be doing something other than this, I’m back at my computer writing -yet again- about another completely avoidable situation the City of Hallandale Beach has gotten itself into for all of their usual reasons -lack of attention to detail, and lack of proper accountability by the city's elected officials and oversight of the city's top bureaucrats.

Today's important HB City Commission meetings at 1 and 7 p.m. regarding public safety on the city's public beaches, and the unsatisfactory solutions proposed, i.e the In-House Lifeguard Program (Item 11B)

http://www.hallandalebeachfl.gov/files/2012-08-01/Staff%20Reports/00010275.htm

could best be described thusly: the city's so-called "plan" is no plan at all.

At least not one you would want to bet your family's life on.

July 31, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier.© 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

What you see on the agenda in terms of info is very underwhelming and not a good sign of out-of-the-box thinking by new City Manager Renee Crichton.

Especially since in my opinion, the City Commission, and more specifically, the prior two City Managers and City Attorney bear most of the blame for the current situation because they were NOT payng attention to details when they needed to, but were, instead, just going thru the motions.

Originally, before I saw the posted agenda, I was just going to suggest that the commission members limit their comments during the meeting out of deference to to our new Estonian friend Mr. Samartsev’s recent desire to “shake the money tree” hereabouts in six months. 

But in actually reading the agenda, I noticed that they are, regrettably, once again prepared to rush into a dark tunnel without any knowledge of whether or not a a train is already inside the tunnel and coming right towards them, without any tangible plans, budgets or supporting documents, just a desire to DO something.

And to DO that right away. 

The very thought of that gives me shivers down my spine, and ought to do the same for you if you live anywhere around here.

Generally when you outsource a function that's usually been performed by city employees, it does NOT mean that you sign the contract and forget about it until the next time the contract comes up for renewal. 

The City Manager, along with appropriately-designated subordinates, needs to be on top of the outsourced function for signs of problems as well as to make constructive improvements when indicated.

You don't micro-manage the function, per se, but the city must ensure that the contract's terms are being properly adhered to, whether that's all their employees being properly licensed, or doing regular spot inspections to ensure that the work was performed to the specific standards the citizens of this city have a right to expect, considering they're paying for their own safety.

But even all these weeks later, I'm still hearing from various sources that this is NOT at all how things were done routinely under former City Attorney David Jove or the former City Managers, Mike Good and Mark A. Antonio, because there's so little evidence to the contrary.

And then again, there's the personal experience of actually having seeing them in-person for years and seeing with my own eyes how underwhelming their own performances were for city taxpayers and residents, so strong was their desire to keep the mayor happy.

July 31, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier.© 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

And what about their highly-paid assistants?

The very people whom we all know will have had a large hand in crafting this completely unsatisfactory "plan" being offered up today, as if it was a serious effort.

My own belief is that at the time the contract was signed three years ago, the city didn't have all the pertinent information available that the Commission needed to properly evaluate the relative merits of this company, keeping in mind that they were only going to do or allow what the commission specified, nothing more.

This also makes me wonder now if besides a copy of the contract in a folder, whether the commissioners even have carefully reviewed copies of the actual monthly reports for the past three years.

Have they? 

No, their past performance the past few years does NOT exactly recommend them to us, and cause us to give them the benefit of the doubt.

In fact, their own laughable work ethic and lack of attention to detail causes just the opposite reaction in us and our friends.

Did they have a copy of Jeff Ellis and Associates' own updated procedures and work rules, as well as copies of the insurance policies to hold the City harmless, etc? 

The easiest thing in the world to do is to simply blame the concept of outsourcing and the particular company they hired to do the job, as I wrote here recently.

Rather than do that, the commissioners ought to take a hard look into the mirror and ask themselves a few questions, the most important of which was did the city just go thru the motions on these matters?

It sure seems that way to me and most of the other residents I speak to who have some familiarity with this matter.

Because the company resigned, the City Commission is being asked to allow City Manager Crichton to establish an 'In-House Lifeguard Program.' 

I'm sorry to say that the supporting documents I've seen on the city's website consists of what can charitably be called a list of cities with pools or ocean frontage, with no information on the extent of "Lifeguard Program” of other cities with similar needs. 

How many employees, police/fire rescue personnel full time/part time would be required on the beach? 

No information provided as to the budget of each town for beach patrol.

After all these weeks later, that's simply unacceptable, and no sound person would say the information provided is any basis upon which to make an intelligent and reasonable decision.

In fact, the information provided by city staff seems more like a reason to postpone making any FINAL decisions at todays two meetings until the commission had been provided enough information to make that educated and informed decision, which is the very least we can expect on an issue this important.

July 31, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier.© 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

I've heard and read all the same comments on what happened that you all have, on who is at fault, etc., but one thing that is clear is that nobody blames the people hired by Jeff Ellis to patrol the beach.

That is, anyone who actually lives within an hour of here.

They were and are conscientious, efficient and responsible, more than the city had any reason to expect given that they were only being paid less than nine dollars an hour.

Their level of pay didn't prevent them from doing their best and to put the safety of all beach- goers first, whether HB residents or visitors.

Were that current city employees were as conscientious and consistent in the performance of their duties and responsibilities as these lifeguards have been.

In talking to my friend and fellow HB and Broward County activist -and HB City Commission candidate- Csaba Kulin a few days ago on the phone, he later piped in via email with these comments and questions for the commission:

The City Manager should have submitted a budget along with the Resolution as to the cost of her proposal. I know she budgeted $334,000 for the 2012-2013 fiscal years for Lifeguard Services (001-7230-572.34-55).  Is this program cost neutral? 

Does she have any idea of the cost of this venture? 

You do not know and do NOT vote on this until you have a full picture.

If they don't, Csaba and I and many well-informed citizens of this community are in agreement that this will be a replay of what the HB City Commission has agreed to do dozens of times in the past, where inevitably, they'll find out some bit of information too late, after the horse is out of the barn, and then we taxpayers will have to watch in stunned amazement as they try to reinvent the wheel once again, when it doesn't have to be that way.

Some people have even sent emails to me asking why in the name of regionalism and common sense the City of Hallandale Beach doesn't approach the City of Hollywood about using their well-respected lifeguards, at least as an interim solution?

Good question!

July 31, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier.© 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

The numerous high-rise condos south of South Beach Park can't really imagine that after everything that has happened in this city the past month, that the rest of the city is going to pay for lifeguards -salary and pensions- for them, if HB residents can't readily use "their" beach, can they?

That's a complete non-starter!

And yet with Joy Cooper in charge...

I fear today's two meetings could well turn out to be real DISASTERS, both financially and policy-wise, which is to say, SNAFU, since the HB City Commission doesn't make good decisions when they have plenty of time, much less, when they are under the gun for good reason and know full-well that the entire city, region and South Florida press corps are paying close attention.

That isn't helped when they are given inadequate information and poor policy choices by the new City Manager and her staff.

They all need better choices and more time, otherwise, someone's life, maybe even someone we know, could be in danger sometime soon -and unnecessarily so.

July 31, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier.© 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

Outsourcing isn't the real problem with beach safety in Hallandale Beach, but rather the actions -and in-action- of David Jove, Mike Good and Mark Antonio at HB City Hall; #HallandaleBeach

North Beach, Hallandale Beach, FL. May 30, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier. 
© 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

Outsourcing isn't the real problems with beach safety in Hallandale Beach, but rather the actions -and in-action- of David Jove, Mike Good and Mark Antonio at HB City Hall; #HallandaleBeach

Based on the eight-plus years I have of seeing how often Hallandale Beach has been mismanaged, the issue of outsourcing beach safety on the city's public beaches to third-party contractors has never been the main problem, though it seems to have become one now in the eyes of a lot of people who don't know all the facts, including some local and out-of-state reporters, who are latching onto that as a convenient straw man they can attack, often for political reasons.
While it's understandable to a certain extent for people who don't know the true extent of how badly run things are here to think that must be the problem, it isn't.


People, esp. residents of this city, feel a need to explain away the justifiable anger and upset they have over what has happened here recently that's gotten the name Hallandale Beach into headlines and stories all over the world for all the wrong reasons.
But they'd be better off looking closer to home at people whose names they already know.

The real problems lay at the desks -and feet- of a handful of highly-paid people who formerly toiled at Hallandale Beach City Hall.
People who'll be making more then $3 Million in pensions in the future for time they were given credit for that was actually done PRIOR to the current pension plan.
Yes, millions of dollars.


In my opinion, based on all I know and have observed from the center of the storm, the real problems with beach safety in Hallandale Beach are in the actions and non-actions of former City Attorney David Jove and former City Managers Mike Good and Mark A. Antonio.


Yes, the buck stops with them, and what's left over for sloppy seconds rests entirely with the ineffective and tone-deaf fivem-member Hallandale Beach City Commission, that with the exception of Keith London, never actually wanted to look under-the-hood to see what was really going on, even though oversight, rather than policy-making, is actually what most local officials are better at than policy-making.
Here, unfortunately, they are bad at both, since taking some pride in being diligent about mastering the pertinent policy information is not a trait the majority of the commission necessarily values.


Now, though, with Jove, Good and Antonio out of the picture, this city's residents have inherited all manner of bad public policies and unsound decision-making that we'll be paying for and dealing with for many, many years, to say nothing of the huge pensions their assistants will be receiving for the very same reason -credit given for prior years under a different plan, not actually work done under the pension plan in question.


A pension plan pushed on the HB City Commission by yet another former City Manager, R.J. Intindola, who the city's own figures show pockets an EXTRA $96k a year because of this plan that was approved one year before he retired.

A pension plan that ran counter to what the majority of local governments were then migrating to.

Trust me, here on this blog in the coming weeks and months, you will be getting the genuine jaw-dropping pension numbers on these characters -and others- that will animate at least some of the coming political campaign conversation in this town the next 16 weeks until Election Day.

Teaser Alert -NOT: Bill Julian's fingerprints will be on it.

Bur that's in the future, so for now, let's turn our attention back to the topic du jour, beach safety and the incident that brought it to worldwide attention.

My comments after the article. 

--------------------------------------
South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Fired Hallandale Beach lifeguard to receive key to city; contract with company may sink

By Ihosvani Rodriguez, Sun Sentinel

5:42 p.m. EDT, July 6, 2012

HALLANDALE BEACH—

City leaders plan to give the lifeguard who was fired earlier this week the key to the city while considering showing the door to the private company that canned him.

Mayor Joy Cooper said Friday she remains horrified by the way Tomas Lopez, 21, of Davie was fired for leaving his post on the beach to help rescue a drowning man outside the company's legal boundaries. Lopez worked for Jeff Ellis Management, an Orlando-based firm that has been providing lifeguard services for the city since 2003.

"I know people across the country are as outraged as I am," Cooper said. "This doesn't reflect our culture. We are a small, caring community."

The city plans to issue Lopez the symbolic key during a ceremony on Monday. The unidentified man who needed rescuing is also expect to attend the event, the mayor said.

Company officials have since apologized to Lopez over the firing and offered him his job back. Lopez has turned them down. The company also announced it would be looking at its emergency protocol policy and possibly retooling it.

But those revisions may come too late, given that Lopez's firing seems to be an international public relations nightmare for both the city and the private firm.

The incident and the company's contract could become an election issue for most city commission members who are seeking re-election in November. Some of the political opponents, including former Vice Mayor Bill Julian, have already made it a campaign issue by pushing for the services to be provided in-house. When it comes to beach safety, Julian said "the real issue is that I think we can do better. We need to bring back our own guys."

Commission members, including Cooper and her bitter political nemesis Commissioner Keith London, have each said they want to revisit the idea of contracting out lifeguard services.

London, who is facing Cooper for the mayor seat, told residents and supporters in an e-mail sent Friday that the incident has provided the opportunity for a second look at beach safety.

"During a time when Hallandale Beach is attempting to attract more visitors with families and young children, I believe this is an opportunity, in light of a near tragedy, to review and potentially enhance the services provided by our first responders," London wrote.

The city began outsourcing the lifeguard responsibilities nine years ago as a cost-cutting measure. In 2009, the city renewed a three-year contract with Jeff Ellis Management worth roughly $1 million.

The contract is set to expire in September.

In firing Lopez, company supervisors said he ran past the boundaries the firm is contracted to protect. Company officials initially said Lopez put swimmers in his area in jeopardy and the firm could've been sued. A review of the contract specifically indicates that the boundary must be protected at all times.

The company is required to reimburse the city $100 for each day a lifeguard is not present.

In 2007, the firm reimbursed the city $500 after it pulled its lifeguards off the beach because of rough conditions. A woman nearly drowned while the stands were left empty and had to be rescued by beach guards from adjacent Hollywood.

Hallandale Beach is the only city in Florida the company provides ocean lifeguards. It does provide guards at community pools for numerous municipalities around the county, including in Hallandale Beach, Dania Beachand North Lauderdale. The lifeguards have said they get paid $8.25.

Dania Beach considered hiring the firm in 2005, but residents and employees vehemently opposed the move saying they were worried about the quality of the company's ocean-rescue training.

Gerry Falconer, president of the lifeguards group United States Lifesaving Association's southeast region, said the company has never sought certification through his association. He said there are several companies that provide similar services around the country, but most are designed to provide lifeguards at public pools.

"It's apples and oranges. At a wave pool, if things go bad, you can just hit a switch and turn the waves off," he said. "You can't do that on the ocean."

Company officials have long stood by its own certification training called the International Lifeguard Training Program, which they say includes ocean training and recognized by insurance companies.

Lopez said Friday he underwent the company's lifeguard training at a pool, which consisted of rigorous swimming and physical exercises. He then had training on the beach after he was hired.

Company president Jeff Ellis could not be reached for comments on Friday. He did say earlier this week he plans to provide city officials with results of an investigation about this week's incident.

Mayor Cooper said she plans to address the issue at the commission's first meeting in August.

There's also a video at URL http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/hallandale/fl-hallandale-beach-lifeguard-more-20120706,0,1727797.story

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To me, outsourcing lifeguard duties on the city's public beaches were never the main problem here, but rather former City Attorney David Jove NOT doing a satisfactory job of completely spelling-out the city's reasonable expectations and requirements in the contract at the time, and subsequently, the City Managers and City Commission's complete failure to provide adequate oversight and suggest timely contract changes when appropriate.
Our old friend, lack of oversight, is the central problem, like dozens of other issues that we all could name that have long plagued this community.

Everything else devolved from that, including HB City Hall's failure to ever talk to the lifeguards themselves, just like the city NEVER spoke to the city's Mini-Bus drivers before they came out with their Transportation Master Plan. 
Really!

Why wouldn't you speak with your own employees and contractors first to see what suggestions they had before you spend so much money, so you can be sure to get the input of people who deal with a situation on a daily basis and incorporate their valid concerns or suggestions?

It's completely counter-intuitive and an example how often common sense has been ignored in this city over the years because that was NOT the way City Manager Good and Antonio wanted things done.

With them, it all started with themselves -top-down, despite the fact they they are not the ones who set policy.

The HB Parks & Recreation may nominally oversee the lifeguard contract, but again, that's in name only, since nobody in that  dept. had or has the power to do anything once the contract was signed. 

No, it all lay with the City Manager's office, and there, Good and Antonio both failed.

For many years, when their supervisors weren't around, the lifeguards have specifically told me exactly what they were missing in the way of resources and tools to do their job to the best of their ability, or what problems they were having with the city NOT doing what they said they were going to do, and taking forever even IF they did it.

Like the state of the lifeguard stands themselves, which are physically sub-par compared to other communities in South Florida.

South Beach, Hallandale Beach, FL. May 30, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier. 
© 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

And as I've been saying and writing, and as the city already has known for a long time, the lifeguard stations are NOT currently grounded for lightning strikes.

What happens if one is struck overnight during a storm and destroyed, what's the city's back-up plan to have one in place the next morning?

What's the plan?

The truth is that we all already know based on years of experience that there is no back-up plan.

There never is.

Looking south towards North Beach, Hallandale Beach, FL from the Hollywood cityline. Though you really can't see the South Beach station from North Beach, HB City Hall thought they could share one jet ski, when it actually worked! 
What more can you say? May 30, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier. 
© 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

Whether it was NOT having message boards on the side of the lifeguard stands that they could actually write on anymore because of excessive physical wear-and-tear from the sun and graffiti -and the city being a year behind in getting replacements- or NOT having a single  working jet ski to reach swimmers in peril in strong winds/undertow conditions because the last one was broken, and the city had no back-up plan, and refused to rent one until the previous one was fixed, the problems lay with the city, not the contractor,


Think about the fact that even when it was working, the city expected the two lifeguard stands to share one jet ski among them, separated by hundreds of yards.

When seconds really count!

It's absolutely ridiculous!

But this was how the city "managed" things on the beach on a daily basis for years.
That's NOT Jeff Ellis & Associates' doing, that's the city's!

As I wrote the other day, for quite a long time during the past 2-3 years, the lifeguards had nothing to cope with those sorts of wether/physical conditions, so this whole debate, upsetting as it is, could well have come a whole lot sooner, under much more tragic and deadly circumstances, with genuine drowning victims and lawsuits against the city that they could never possibly prevail in, leaving all of us on the hook.

That they didn't come sooner isn't because of anything the city has actually done, but rather in spite of everything the city HASN'T DONE.

Hope you can attend Monday morning's ceremony at HB City Hall at 10:30 a.m., because my sense of things is that given the amount of lingering concern and anger that remains, it could well prove to be a whole lot more interesting than anything Mayor Cooper is currently counting on.


And don't even go thru the pretense of having a meeting on beach safety in August if you aren't going to require David Jove to answer questions honestly, under oath.