Rip-off! Jaw-dropping new details emerge on how former Hallandale Beach City Managers R.J. Intindola and Mike Good reaped millions on their pensions for time NOT "earned": What did Mayor Joy Cooper know?

Above, three-quarters of the 2010 version of the Hallandale Beach Rubber Stamp Crew that has made this ocean-side South Florida community with so much potential, a dysfunctional and perennial laughing-stock, in large part by keeping its own citizen taxpayers in the dark and on the outside looking in, while Mayor Joy Cooper and then-City Manager Mike Good did whatever they pleased. And soon, finally, here on this blog, you'll read exactly what the actual cost of their consistent bad choices, collective inattention to detail and complete unwillingness to perform basic oversight functions of their office will end up costing this city's beleaguered taxpayers for decades to come: millions more than necessary. Above, as they appeared in a 2008 political campaign flyer, left-to-right: William "Bill" Julian, Dotty Ross and Joy Cooper. Missing Rubber Stamp: Anthony A. Sanders. Fortunately for Hallandale Beach voters, Cooper, Julian and Sanders are all running this year, so we can make sure that their woeful and crippling track record at City Hall gets the over-due punishment it has long deserved -a firm boot to the curb.

Over the coming days and weeks, heretofore unknown details and facts regarding former Hallandale Beach City Managers R.J. Intindolaand Mike Good will finally be spilled and made public here on my blog that tell you more than you could've ever imagined about how these two individuals took FULL ADVANTAGE of the longtime lack of prudent oversight by the Hallandale Beach City Commission, to, essentially, rip-off Hallandale Beach taxpayers to the tune of MILLIONS of dollars, thru a defined benefit pension system the two pushed, created and maintained. which will personally net them more in payments than they actually "earned" thru their years working for the city.

And to the surprise of no one, the very same names and faces responsible for that financial disaster that HB taxpayers will be paying for for years to come -Dotty Ross, Joy Cooper, William "Bill" Julian- also had their fingerprints all over the lack of oversight revealed in the recently-released Marcum LLP report I have written about here, a report, not an audit, and which I remind you, only examined certain matters, not all the ones that pro-reform, pro-audit forces in this city have long been clamoring for for years, but prevented from getting by the longtime powers-that-be at HB City Hall - Joy Cooper's anti-reform Rubber Stamp Crew.

Even longtime followers of the three-ring circus in Hallandale Beach across the street from Gulfstream Park Race Track will hit their forehead in exasperation as details and inconvenient facts finally make themselves known, and may even find themselves saying, "Even for Hallandale Beach, this is shocking."

Teaser Alert: Why didn't former City Attorney David Jove ever publicly disclose whether or not he already knew weeks BEFORE the late April 2010 continuing-circus over Mike Good's dismissal/firing/resignation, about the legally-binding deal that Mike Good had previously signed years before that specifically prohibited Good from working for the City of Hallandale Beach past the first week of April 2010?

Why didn't current Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper or well-compensated then-Assistant City Manager Mark A. Antonio, the current City Manager -whose last day is June 29th- or, then-and-current Deputy City Manager Nydia Rafols-Sallabery publicly disclose this important information, making the whole absurd and exasperating situation that actually occurred, completely un-necessary?

And honestly, if they didn't know the facts about such an important matter, what does that say about them and the fact that the three highest-ranking people in the city DIDN'T know in advance when Mike Good's last day as City Manager would be, when a letter with that very information was likely already sitting in his file in the city's Personnel Office?

What this means, of course, is that as I and several concerned citizens had argued then and in the two years since, that Mike Good was NOT legally entitled to any severance package of extra benefits from the Hallandale Beach City Commission and Hallandale Beach taxpayers, since his last day, legally, was in the first week of that month, weeks earlier.

To paraphrase what I said two years ago in one of my posts about that expensive and completely un-necessary  Mike Good debacle which cast such a negative light on this city,

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/comm-dotty-ross-hiding-in-plain-sight.html

Once again, Hallandale Beach's citizen taxpayers are forced to try to make sense of the inexplicable that has become our norm the past ten years.

Watch the puppets dance! Remembering the 2010 Hallandale Beach City Manager search that was sabotaged by Mayor Cooper, Comm. Julian & Comm. Ross, to the utter dismay of the city's residents

Butler1Mike video: 2010 Hallandale Beach City Manager search gets sabotaged by Mayor Joy Cooper, Comm. William "Bill" Julian & Comm. Dotty Ross.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKU6JYV_wBI&feature=colike

Watch the puppets dance! Remembering the 2010 Hallandale Beach City Manager search that was sabotaged by Mayor Joy Cooper, Comm. William "Bill" Julian & Comm. Dotty Ross, to the utter dismay of the city's residents.

This is the follow-up to my post of Sunday the 10th, Hallandale Beach Commissioners spending taxpayer $$$ in a hurry -and NOT in the Sunshine! As usual, Comm. Sanders just sits there and waits to be told what to say and how to vote
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/03/hallandale-beach-commissioners-spending.html 

Here's the all-too-true back-story on the video above, which was created by my clever and resourceful friend, Michael Butler of Change Hallandale fame. (See more on Michael and his website at the bottom.)

Yes, "I do not want to discontinue this process" said Mayor Cooper.

But the "process" as such at that point was to bring in some suitable candidates selected by the consultant and have them actually visit and tour the city, meet some residents, and see what's what so they and their family could determine if they really wanted to proceed forward.

But "going forward" by ONLY interviewing the incumbent acting-City Manager, Mark A. Antonio, is not proceeding, it's sabotaging. 

This whole sham was made worse and even more ironic -if possible- by the fact that weeks earlier, the mayor was publicly against Antonio even being considered, a fact known by 99% of the HB citizens in the Commission chambers that night, including me.

This long and ponderous evening Commission meeting is one of the rare times in the past 43 months in office that Comm. Sanders actually did the right thing by HB residents, and believe me, there aren't many of those, so they're easy to remember.

Trust me, it's far less than one handful in almost four years in office. 

Frankly, considering how oblivious he is to issues that residents and business owners really care about and have been upset about for many years, how very little he actually contributes to anything during meetings, the way he carries himself around town, as well as the almost clueless way his small cadre of supporters act, unable to see or accept how genuinely unpopular he is after 43 months of sitting there on the dais like a bump on a log, Comm. Sanders has led a very charmed life.

Very charmed.

Especially for someone with such a truly awful voting record that's chock-full of poorly thought-out votes against increased public accountability, financial transparency, and for his always seeming to be against the increased scrutiny and oversight of spending that residents desperately want in a city where the budget has nearly doubled the past six years.

With, as I've stated so often here, so very little to show for it compared to other cities and towns in South Florida.

Where did all that money go?

Sanders' awful track record in office, which causes SO MANY voters who gave him the benefit of the doubt four years ago and voted for him despite their reservations -instead of listening to me and voting for Arturo O'Neill, someone who would've made a positive difference for the community, not a negative one like Sanders- continues to provoke dumbstruck looks on people in this community who pay close attention.

They just shake their heads and say, "I won't be fooled again."

And they won't.

That particular night in 2010, though, with only Comm. Keith London and Comm. Sanders actually committed to an open process that gave HB residents -the people actually paying for the consultant- the time they clearly wanted to let the public "process" play itself out, instead of changing the rules at halftime, the public ended up getting screwed by Mayor Cooper for the umpteenth time when Cooper, Julian and Ross became determined to short-circuit that "process" for good.

Of simply picking up their ball and walking away at halftime.

To the amazement of many people in the room, but not my own or Arturo's, Comm. Ross actually had the temerity to actually mock the public at this and prior City Commission meetings for their commitment to the process we were promised by the Commission but not given.

But then from Comm. Ross' point of view, what the public got for its trouble was less important than the fact that by pulling-the-plug and screwing over the residents yet again that she was supposed to represent, she got to leave this evening meeting and go home to sleep.

And after all, isn't THAT the most important thing?

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CHANGE HALLANDALE BEACH

- A fact-based website run by my friend and fellow Hallandale Beach civic activist, Michael Butler, which goes directly after the longtime incompetency and crony capitalism at Hallandale Beach City Hall with cold-hard logic, quantifiable figures, graphs, charts and videos. 

The kind of evidence that Mayor Joy Cooper and her Rubber Stamp Crew of Commissioners Dotty Ross, Anthony A. Sanders and Alexander Lewy, plus City Manager Mark A. Antonio CAN'T refute with any of their serial lies, half-truths, mis-statements of fact, or exaggerations from the dais. 

Theirs is a strange Looking Glass world of un-reality that can quickly confuse -or frighten!- normal people not prepared for such self-evident mendacity. 

Which is where Michael comes in stage-left and I come in stage-right...

See the evidence for yourself and see what's REALLY going on in Hallandale Beach from Michael's well-informed perspective at http://www.changehallandale.com

Michael's YouTube Channel, Butler1Mike, sure to start getting busy again soon, is at: http://www.youtube.com/user/Butler1Mike

As I mentioned the other day after hearing from him, Michael's website is currently migrating over to WordPress -which I've also frequently considered moving HBB to- so that may explain any technical problems you may run into from time-to-time in seeing the very useful information Michael has there.

Even now, Michael is hard at work putting the finishing touches on an important subject to Hallandale Beach residents and business owners involving millions of dollars, as is my friend Csaba Kulin, whom I spent some time with today to hear how his research was going.

Csaba and Michael continue to be excellent examples of American civic activism at its best, continuing to pour their time and energy into delving into serious financial matters that few others have either the time, energy or inclination to do.

Sadly for all of us who live in this city that ought to be so much better, save Comm. Keith London, their work ethic and dedication to getting the true facts and financial numbers out to the community -which the mayor and her cronies can't bear- completely laps the remaining members of the present HB City Commission, as well as former Commissioner Julian, who is running again after being kicked-out in 2010.

Julian's large role in that 2010 City Manager search debacle, and his own confusion as to what he was doing and saying, will NOT be forgotten by HB voters in November, because it was the perfect example of his general unfitness for office.

Don't think that the dreadful track records of Julian, Sanders and Cooper won't be discussed to a fare thee well, both here on the blog in the future and during the coming 2012 political campaign for Hallandale Beach mayor and city commission, of which Csaba is a candidate for the latter.

That simple contrast both informs and illuminates who really deserves your support and is deserving of your thanks.

I'm proud to have Michael and Csaba as friends.

And those of you who live here should be very thankful that they consciously choose to do the hard work and heavy lifting that 4/5ths of our current elected city officials WON'T do.

Update on the Hallandale Beach City Manager search -tentative schedule sees selection process ending in three weeks

This helpful email below from Hallandale Beach City Commissioner Keith London made its way to my email inbox on March 1st, and it gives a good overview of the "process" and what's at stake in the future for this city's citizen taxpayers and business owners as the city prepares for current City Manager Mark A. Antonio's departure in June.

Based on my own conversations around town with other residents, politically-oriented and otherwise, my own intuition, plus, hearing some of the most well-informed and articulate voters in this town speak a few weeks ago at one of Comm. London's monthly Resident Forum, where the city's consultant, Colin Baezinger, appeared for the last of the two-hours at the HB Cultural Center to speak to us and answer questions for just under an hour, we do NOT want a City Manager who will not roll-over, fetch or play "dead" in order to keep his or her job.

(I'd have posted the video I shot of Baezinger interacting with the public that day, but because I got caught up into listening and didn't stop and start the video-cam every so often on individual subjects, it's far long for me to post directly here via Blogger, or, even cut into segments and place on my YouTube Channel. I definitely need to learn from that mistake!)

We want someone who will proactively take advantage of the geographical, social and people resources here to get this city to the point it should've been at many years ago. 

Instead, the same practical everyday issues of a lack of core competencies and effectiveness in dealing with problems and the citizens who want solutions, a very stubborn unwillingness to change or adapt clearly failing public policies that have no public support, and a very, very strong distrust of the motives, ethics and and work-ethic of Hallandale Beach City Hall administrators and employees themselves, hangs over this city like a dark ominous cloud that simply won't blow away.

Far too much time and energy at HB City Hall is spent on little more than outright deception of taxpayers and business owners to prevent them from knowing what's REALLY going on, all in furtherance of Mayor Cooper's effort to keep up the facade that she is in control and that everything is okay.
It's NOT.

And then residents like me and many of the well-informed people I know who have lived here far longer than I, feel compelled to push-back on those deceptive efforts from City Hall, wasting precious time and energy we;d all rather see channeled productively elsewhere, rather than constantly having to point to the many pink elephants in the room, none of which those in charge and earning nice salaries and benefits claim to be able to see.
Yes, intentional myopia.

Below Comm. London's email, consultant Colin Baezinger also details what the tentative schedule for the next few weeks looks like so that HB residents can interact with some of the candidates, something that we were NOT able to do in the summer of 2010, when Mayor Joy Cooper and City  Commissioners William "Bill" Julian and Dotty Ross hijacked the transparent process that HB residents had been promised, and then completely short-circuited it by literally changing the rules in the middle of the search, just as we were all about to find out who some of the candidates were.

All because the mayor decided that Antonio should be considered for the job after all, flip-flopping on her earlier contention that he NOT even be considered.

Given the subject of my last blog post here, Hallandale Beach Commissioners spending taxpayer $$$ in a hurry -and NOT in the Sunshine! As usual, Comm. Sanders just sits there and waits to be told what to say and how to vote

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/03/hallandale-beach-commissioners-spending.html
I thought you might benefit from knowing what the current plan is.

As my next blog post will clearly show -and then some- having a written plan to select a new City Manager may work in next-door Hollywood, where I participated in the public process in January and wrote about my observations here that led to Douglas Hewett earning his selection there, after a very impressive presentation to the Hollywood city Commission, which I filmed.
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/doug-hewett-named-new-hollywood-city.html

But here in Hallandale Beach, a plan is just a couple of words on a piece of paper, and can be thrown-out whenever three people on the HB City Commission with a track record in office of consistently voting against the long-term best interests of its citizens find the public "process" either too taxing for their brains -or want to go home.

-------

Everyone,

The City of Hallandale Beach Commission will be making one of the most important decisions affecting our City with the hiring of a new City Manager.  The new City Manager will be chosen in the next six weeks.  Please take a moment to mark your calendars with these important dates (please see email below for the schedule).

The choosing of a new city manager will affect every resident and business in “our” community.

This decision will most likely live longer than many of the elected officials’ current terms and should not be taken lightly.  The decision will be made through a detailed vetting process with the assistance of an outside consultant; yet no process is perfect.  The commission will have a relatively short amount of time to review the applications and interview the short list of candidates.  Personally, the accomplishments of an individual are very important, but how this person fits into “our” community with the existing unique set of issues and all the potential to be a first class city waiting to be unlocked, will weigh heavily for me.

Please participate and attend these meetings to meet and great all the candidates. I look forward to the next phase of improvement and the positive future in “Our” city.

Sincerely,

Keith

Keith S. London

City Commissioner

Hallandale Beach

954-457-1320 Office

954-494-3182 Cellular

www.KeithLondon.com

http://www.facebook.com/KeithSLondon

----- 

From: Colin Baenziger [mailto:Colin@cb-asso.com] 

Sent: Thursday, February 23, 2012 05:11 PM

To: Cooper, Joy; Lewy, Alexander; Sanders, Anthony; Ross, Dotty; London, Keith 

Cc: Amiraian, George; Rafols, Nydia M 

Subject: City Manager Search Update - Be Sure Your Calendars Are Marked... 

I wanted to give you a quick update on the City Manager Search Process.  Right now, we are in the midst of checking out the most promising candidates.  We do have it down to less than a dozen although I do not want to release any names at this point.  If we find something in a candidate’s background that we do not like, we will drop the candidate.  If the names have already been released, the media may want to know why a candidate has been dropped and I would prefer not to be in that situation.  

I can tell you that I am very pleased with the field.  All the candidates are highly qualified and the field is diverse in terms of experience, race and gender.  While the candidates are primarily from Florida, we do have some diversity there as well. 

The important upcoming dates for you to remember and be available for are: 

March 14th:  Background materials for the candidates arrive and are distributed to the commissioners.

March 14th to 21st:  I will be available to answer any questions you may have.

March 21st:  I will be at city hall to meet with any of the commissioners who wish to discuss the candidates.

March 21st:  Also, on March 21st, the Commission will select the candidates who will be finalists and be interviewed for the position.

March 30th:  Candidate arrive, meet the staff, tour the city and an evening reception is held so they can meet the public.  The Commission only needs to be available for the evening reception and not the other events.

March 31st:     The Commission interviews the finalists one-on-one and as a full commission.  Typically these events go from 8:30 a.m. to about 3:30 p.m.

April 2nd:      The Commission selects the next City Manager. 

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call me. 

Best wishes and be well!

Colin at 

Colin Baenziger & Associates

… Experts in Local Government Recruiting 

(561) 707-3537

Visit our website at:  www.cb-asso.com

Hallandale Beach Commissioners spending taxpayer $$$ in a hurry -and NOT in the Sunshine! As usual, Comm. Sanders just sits there and waits to be told what to say and how to vote

Michael Butler's Change Hallandale video: http://youtu.be/dyM5P3Kl6iQ 

Here's the all-too-true back-story on the video above created by my friend, and fellow civic activist and blogger, Michael Butler of Change Hallandale fame.
(See more on Michael and his website at the bottom.)

In the summer of 2010, in a Hallandale Beach City Hall room where regular HB City Commission meetings are NOT held, the infamous Room 257, a room where the proceedings are NOT televised, and on an agenda item that was NOT previously advertised to the public, Hallandale Beach's City Commissioners discuss how much to pay in a bonus to then-interim-City Manager Mark A. Antonio, who'd been on the job for all of about six weeks at the time. 


And talk about putting the cart before the horse, at one point, you actually hear Antonio, one of two city employee who work directly for the City Commission, tell the members to hurry up and make a decision on how much he should be given, because, as he explains, "his wife" wants to know.
That's both telling and appalling for all sorts of reasons. 


You will also hear oblivious EIGHTY-something HB Comm. Dotty Ross making the sort of disingenuous crack we've come to expect from her -when she's awake that is.
The night meetings, well, those are a different story for her, as she'll often play possum and not say more than four words over 3-5 hours.
In this case, she condescendingly says something about "asking the blogger" about what they're about to do.


Dotty Ross was only too happy to give away thousands of taxpayer dollars at a meeting where the public didn't know what was going on, and in this case, a bonus to someone for just doing the job they were already getting very well-paid for. 
With, I might add, NOT very much for him to point to in the way of positive accomplishments considering the sorry state of the city then -and now. 


Yes, the same exact things in this small 4.2 square mile city that were screwed-up then, as you know from reading my blog -the deplorable conditions of the public beach, the public parks, the dark conditions of and security at city facilities...-are still badly mismanaged and botched now, and it's self-evident, not any great mystery.

And to absolutely nobody's surprise, as you can see for yourself, oblivious Comm. Anthony A. Sanders didn't really want to tax his brain at the meeting and is actually overheard telling his colleagues that he doesn't really care what the amount of the bonus is, they ought to just work it out amongst themselves and he'll okay it.

But the thing is, of course, Sanders is one of the five people elected specifically in this city to make public policy and make those decisions, not sit there like a bump on a log, and yet this is indicative of his behavior for 42 months, as I've been saying so long on this blog.

He'll let everyone else decide what to do and then he'll just apply his Rubber Stamp vote to whatever they say.

Yes, that's Comm. Sanders in action -waiting on the sidelines for the others to tell him what to say and do.

That's a lot of things, but that is NOT "representing."

Many of you have told me that you couldn't believe he really was as bad as I've said and written that you wanted some tangible proof of his sheer uselessness and waste of a seat on the dais, there, now you have it: Him actually admitting that he'd let the other Commissioners decide things.
This is the person who was going to make a difference?
Pathetic!

It might interest those of you who are somewhat new to the blog to know that using their own publicly-revealed figures, in early 2010, the very small group of people working in the HB City Manager's Office received as much in salary as next-door City of Hollywood, this despite the fact that Hollywood is SIX times larger in land size, and with over THREE times the population size -37,000 vs. 140,000. 

Chew on those figures! 

For more on infamous Room 257 at Hallandale Beach City Hall and Mark Antonio's longstanding proclivity to not want to face either the facts or the music, see my post of June 10, 2010 about his role in city employees intentionally preventing me from attending a public meeting, which, when I finally got up there, was mysteriously cancelled.
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/latest-unethical-lowlight-at-hallandale.html

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CHANGE HALLANDALE BEACH
- A fact-based website run by my friend and fellow Hallandale Beach civic activist, Michael Butler, which goes directly after the longtime incompetency and crony capitalism at Hallandale Beach City Hall with cold-hard logic, quantifiable figures, graphs, charts and videos. 

The kind of evidence that Mayor Joy Cooper, City Manager Mark A. Antonio and her Rubber Stamp Crew -i.e. City Commissioners Dotty Ross, Anthony A. Sanders and Alexander Lewy- CAN'T refute with any of their serial lies, half-truths, mis-statements of fact, or exaggerations from the dais. 

Theirs is a strange Looking Glass world of un-reality that can quickly confuse -or frighten!- normal people not prepared for such self-evident mendacity. 
Which is where Michael comes in stage-left and I come in stage-right...


See the evidence for yourself and see what's REALLY going on in Hallandale Beach from Michael's well-informed perspective at http://www.changehallandale.com


* March 10th, 2012 update 
I received a few emails from readers yesterday telling me they were having problems with the Change Hallandale website, though it seemed fine when I was on it Friday afternoon. I forwarded one of the comments to Michael and he responded thusly: 
Hey David, thanks for the note! The site is still up although its transitioning to Wordpress….   

Final shoes start to fall on Mayor Joy Cooper and her Rubber Stamp Crew's reign of financial ruin: "Hallandale Beach holds back records in “botched” audit; $20 million in contracts go unchecked"

Above, the Hallandale Beach Municipal Complex on U.S.-1 and S.E.. 5th Street. Here, much more egregiously than most places in South Florida where incompetency and a disregard for laws and rules holds sway, the fish stinks from the head down. February 13, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier. 

Final shoes start to fall on Mayor Joy Cooper and her Rubber Stamp Crew's reign of financial ruin: Broward Bulldog: Hallandale Beach holds back records in “botched” audit; $20 million in contracts go unchecked

Or, put another way, when is an exception to a city rule NOT an exception to a rule?


The answer, of course, is whenever the Hallandale Beach City Commission wants to disregard any reasonable standards of logic, reason and fairness, and give taxpayer or CRA money to their pals and friends in the community -especially pals and cronies at non-profits and religious groups with little transparency, and hence, near-invisible paper trails- who will, not surprisingly, be supportive of them politically in the future.


Time-and-again they voted to do this, even if it meant over-riding city requirements, regardless of how bad, parochial or illogical the project proposed was, no matter how little of the application's paperwork was done, no matter how many exceptions were required to make it actually happen.
Mayor Cooper and her Rubber Stamp Crew were "a friend indeed" to their friends


So where was the adult supervision?


Late last night I was going to send an email out to everyone about the Final Marcum, LLP audit report that was finally placed on the city's website on Saturday.
http://www.cohb.org/files/Hallandale%20AUP%20DRAFT%20_CC%20AGENDA%20030712%209G%20CRA%204C%20.pdf


I was going to mention to you what Csaba Kulin and I discovered yesterday over a period of a few hours spent analyzing it and connecting-the-dots back to meetings over several years that we both attended and observed.


Our plan then was to create an easy to understand flow-chart where anyone in the community could compare the Preliminary audit language with the Final report, and see who actually voted for what, and who the people were in the community who benefited -esp. the "exceptions."


It goes without saying that if nearly everything the city does requires making exceptions, and if you have a high preponderance of exceptions, then the template they are using is fatally flawed, esp. those determining the suitability of, say, a CRA loan.


See if you answer this question?
A CRA loan to buy and install TV sets (with accompanying local advertising) at city retailers are to ending blight in the city as... what?


Yes, that loan was approved.


All the information in the report and this Broward Bulldog article about it lead to the same simple question over-and-over: 
WHEN did Mayor Joy Cooper and Commissioners Bill Julian, Anthony A. Sanders and Dotty Ross EVER exercise any reasonable oversight/fiduciary duty over these matters, as required by their elected position, by asking hard questions and demanding that Dept. heads and city employees follow the city's own requirements?


When?
They never did.


When did those four members of the City Commission EVER direct the former or current City Manager to issue an edict to Dept. heads, professional employees and mainline city employees that there would be very real job consequences for their continued failure to properly maintain records, and to do the mandated evaluations that were required by the city before and after CRA loans?
They never did.


Where was the direction from those four members of the City Commission that any and all reasonable efforts to recover funds that were owed to taxpayers and to the CRA, must not only be employed as a basic duty to the taxpayers, but that city employees who failed to perform their job and just looked the other way for years would be terminated?
There wasn't any.


For years the City of Hallandale Beach has completely failed to perform common sense due diligence on behalf of HB taxpayers, both BEFORE and AFTER the fact.


The City of Hallandale Beach's budget has nearly doubled over the past six years and what tangible results do this city's citizen taxpayers have to show for it?
What can they point to? 


The only thing we have to show for it is this damning limited audit of their longstanding incompetency, misfeasance and nonfeasance.


This audit and its lingering questions will be the subject of the day at Wednesday's HB City Commission meeting.
http://www.cohb.org/files/2012-03-07/Agenda%20Outline%20for%202012-03-07%2013-00.htm
http://www.cohb.org/files/2012-03-07/Staff%20Reports/00009522.htm


Regardless of what it says on the written agenda, I'd be there by 7 p.m. if you plan on actually having a seat to watch the proceedings, and to hear the city try to explain away all the inconvenient facts that are so damning.
In other parts of the country where local governments are held to a higher standard, the pattern of behavior described in this audit would've resulted in more than a few people possibly being terminated from their jobs.
But not here.


This morning, in anticipation of all of this, I received the following in my email inbox from
Mayor Cooper via her personal email account.
It speaks to that longstanding inability of hers that I've described here for years -that inability to see what's right in front of you and to admit your own responsibility for it:
http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?llr=7pp54mhab&v=001fHRgY6J0lNMRBvQz1zoMIw7O-gL-JZXypt6oXJBzT4G8MeJRcJaTRglEqcmACtQRP1K9yJPL1AH4QrCmz1nksibKhgk9DwUw3WULUt3EOQTCthafy6L5H9QmQ4DxbUYV

Hope to see you there speaking up for the short-term and long-term best interests of this city's residents.
The more the merrier...


-----


Broward Bulldog
Hallandale Beach holds back records in “botched” audit; $20 million in contracts go unchecked
By William Gjebre, BrowardBulldog.org  
MARCH 5, 2012 AT 6:09 AM

An outside auditing firm did not review more than $20 million in Hallandale Beach vendor contracts because the city failed to provide the information and limitations on the scope of the audit.

Auditors mention the large deficiency in an updated audit report to be presented to the city commission for review on Wednesday.

Read the rest of the article at:
http://www.browardbulldog.org/2012/03/hallandale-beach-holds-back-records-in-botched-audit-20-million-in-contracts-go-unchecked/ 


The article above, along with reader comments, also appears in today's Miami Herald at:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/03/05/2676566/20-million-in-hallandale-contracts.html


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See also: http://changehallandale.com/

Csaba Kulin on the reality of Hallandale Beach's population & demographics, and the anti-democratic Charter proposal for 'districting' that insults common sense and mathematics

Csaba Kulin on the reality of Hallandale Beach's population & demographics, and the anti-democratic Charter proposal for 'districting' that insults common sense and mathematics 

Below are two emails from my friend and fellow Hallandale Beach and Broward civic activist Csaba Kulin from the past month. They concern an upcoming Charter issue appearing on the ballot in Hallandale Beach that most well-informed people in this community paying attention quite rightly believe has the potential to make this city's elections even less-democratic and meaningful than they are now. 

And which could actually  decrease overall voter participation while also greatly helping incumbent city commissioners stay in power. 

WTF?

Now you must be asking yourself, who'd knowingly be in favor of doing all these things?

Yes, you already know the answer to that: Mayor Joy Cooper and her Rubber Stamp Crew of Commissioners Dotty Ross, Anthony A. Sanders and Alexander Lewy.

That it fails the logic and reason test is not surprising, given this crew's past track record,  penchant for mischief and circus antics, but what's surprising is that given the large number of ways that this city's resident taxpayers could actually get genuinely better and more meaningful representation for the entire city on the City Commission, such a ridiculously asinine proposal would be the one approved for the ballot by the Commission.

Surprise!

This while others were not even considered, despite how much more logical, positive and persuasive they are for getting increased citizen/voter participation at HB City Hall and come election time, which this year is November 6th.

Because there is so very much to say on this subject -which, as usual, has been completely ignored by the taxpayer-financed faux newspaper, South Florida Sun-Times- later tonight after the Oscars telecast day or tomorrow, I'll be posting something with my own thoughts on what Csaba has written.

If you didn't see my blog post on Wednesday on what measures Mayor Joy Cooper is considering in order to get her own way on this Charter matter -despite how self-serving that effort truly is- it's well worth reading and can be seen here:

News re Ben Gamla Charter; Csaba Kulin informs us how Mayor Joy Cooper seeks to divide the community again and make-up new rules for her own benefit

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/02/news-re-ben-gamla-charter-csaba-kulin.html

In that future post I'll also take the opportunity to shine some long overdue light and scrutiny on some particularly galling and condescending remarks made by Comm. Alexander Lewy in a recent email of his, an email that posits a parallel-yet-opposite universe.

Unfortunately, Lewy's condescending email completely ignores the sad and unfortunate reality of this universe, where perpetually-oblivious Comm. Anthony A. Sanders has been a DISASTER in office for all Hallandale Beach residents, a disaster that will mark four years come August.

Trust me, no matter how many times you read what Comm. Lewy says, it never ever makes sense.

And if you're someone who actually endeavors to pay attention to what happens in this ocean-side community in SE Broward County, and who actually knows the truth about what goes on here, Lewy's Twilight Zone-like remarks will only make your head hurt!

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January 31, 2012

RE: Districting in Hallandale Beach.

Honorable Mayor, Vice Mayor and Members of the City Commission,

During January 17, 2012 City Commission Meeting and several meetings of the Charter Review Committee (CRC) a considerable amount of time was spent on districting versus not districting and if districting, what kind of districting should it be. I believe you have at this time four options in front of you.

1.    The CRC recommendation of a seven member commission, mayor, three at large commissioners and three commissioners elected by districts.

2.    The Mayor suggested that the mayor should be elected at large and one commissioner elected from each of the four districts.

3.    Commissioner Lewy suggested that each chair be given a number and candidates compete for a particular seat number.

4.    Do nothing and stay with the current system.

I believe all versions have the intentions to increase minority representation while remaining fair to the rest of our citizens. The concerns I have is, very little proof, examples and evidence was presented by knowledgeable sources of the unintended consequences of any of the options. Do we increase or decrease minority representation? Do we disenfranchise any other part of the City?  

The CRC did ask the City for the 2010 Census data to be able to evaluate population distribution by Census Tracts. The City did not provide those numbers to the CRC so I had researched it myself. I have attached the data in a spreadsheet for anyone to analyze.  In case you do not have a spread sheet on your computer, I included the data at the bottom of my e-mail.

Please analyze the numbers, keeping in mind that each district must have approximately the same number of residents in it. How you could draw the districts you propose?

I have tried several different combinations of census tracts and I did not find a real good solution. Maybe you will be more successful than I was.

This is an extremely important decision you have to make. It is not something you can reverse on a “three to two vote”. Based on the lack of solid information and the unknown unintended consequences, I would go with the “devil I know versus the devil I do not know”. In other words, I would stay with the current system we had for a long, long time.

I hope this data will help in your deliberations.               

         

Sincerely,

Csaba Kulin

		Tract	Block	Census	Total
	GOLDEN ISLES AND THE BEACH		Group	Block	Residents
SE	Golden Isles	1001	3	1	2,531	6.82%
SE	A1A West side, South End	1001	4	2	2,045	5.51%
SE	A1A East Side	1001	5		2,900	7.81%
SE	A1A West Side, North End	1001	1	4	1,053	2.84%
SE	East of US 1 and South of Hallandale Beach Blvd	1003	3	2	1,017	2.74%
					9,546	25.72%
	NORTH EAST SECTION
NE	East of Parkview, West of Intercoastal	1001	1	1	2,374	6.40%
NE	East of Three Island Blvd, South of Moffet, West of Parkview	1001	2	2	2,117	5.70%
NE	East of Diplomat Parkway, West of Three Island Blvd	1001	1	4	1,287	3.47%
NE	East of NE 14th Ave, West of Diplomat Parkway, North of HB Blvd	1001	1	3	1,214	3.27%
NE	East of NE 8th Ave, South of Moffit, West of NE 14th, North of 3rd	1002	2	1	2,419	6.52%
NE	East of US 1, West of 8th Ave, South Moffit, North of 3rd Street	1002	2	2	791	2.13%
NE	East of US 1 and North of HB Blvd and West of NE 14th Ave	1002	2	2	1,776	4.79%
NE	North of HB Blvd, West of US 1, East of Dixie	1002	1	1	1,218	3.28%
					13,196	35.56%
	SOUTH WEST SECTION
SW	South of HB Blvd, West of Dixie, East of NW 6th Ave	1003	1		2,212	5.96%
SW	South of HB Blvd, West of US 1, East of NW 6th Ave	1003	2		1,091	2.94%
SW	South of HB Blnd, East of SW 10th Ave, West of SE 6th Ave	1003	3		1,579	4.25%
SW	West of US 1, East of Dixie, South of SW 10 Street	1003	4		1,171	3.16%
SW	East of US 95, West of  SW 10th Ave, South of HB Blvd	1005	2	2	2,785	7.50%
					8,838	23.81%
	NORTH WEST SECTION
NW	South of Penbrook, West of Dixie	1004	1		1,006	2.71%
NW	North of HB Blvd, West of Dixie, South of NW 10	1004	2		1,138	3.07%
NW	East of US 95, North of HB Blvd, West of NW 8th Ave	1004	3		2,099	5.66%
NW	South of Penbroke, East of NW 8th Ave,	1004	4		924	2.49%
					5,167	13.92%
					36,747	99.01%

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February 6, 2012

RE: Districting in Hallandale Beach.

Dear Friends and Residents of Hallandale Beach;

Every eight years the Hallandale Beach City Commission appoints a citizen-led Charter Review Commission (CRC) to examine the City Charter (their Constitution) and recommend changes to the Charter. The City Commission reviews the recommended changes and proposals they agree with are then placed on the ballot to be voted upon by citizens during a regularly-scheduled election or special referendum. The ones the City Commission does not agree with are ignored. 

Residents have the option of putting any Charter changes that are NOT approved by the City Commission on the ballot by what is now a very cumbersome petition process, one that seems designed to make it very difficult to go around the City Commission.

The CRC under former HB Commissioner Tony Musto’s excellent leadership, recommended five (5) specific issues to be placed on the ballot for consideration, as well as a number of recommendations to consider possibly placing on the ballot. All the recommendations are important, but one stands out in my opinion, as the most important change in the way our City is governed. 

That is the recommendation that we elect our City Commissioners by district. 

The impetus behind districting, according to its supporters, is to institutionalize a City Commission seat to the Northwest quadrant of our City. 

It's a noble idea, but the US Census Bureau’s 2010 data indicates that the NW area currently has only 5,167 residents, less than 14% of the city's total population.

Since the current system consists of four (4) City Commissioners elected “At-Large,” without increasing the number of City Commission seats, each seat would legally need to have 25% of the population within it.

In my opinion, the only way that the NW could have a distinct district of their own would be thru a Charter Question being placed on the ballot asking city voters to approve an increase in number from 4 to eight (8) City Commissioners, with the office of Mayor continuing to be voted upon by the entire city.

I have posted the 2010 Census figures at the bottom of this letter for your examination and to give you the evidence you need to have an informed opinion.   

In the interest of disclosure, these proposals would NOT affect the 2012 election and therefore my own candidacy, since if approved, it would not take effect until 2014.

The CRC recommended one method, Mayor Cooper yet another method of districting, but it looks as Comm. Alexander Lewy’s unsound method is moving forward. 

Comm. Lewy suggests that the City number each “seat” on the commission, 1, 2, 3 and 4. Every two years we would have seat 1 and 2, or 3 and 4 up for election. 

As I understand it, there would be no residency requirement to run for either “seat” and every registered voter may vote for a candidate for each seat.

As I see it, Comm. Lewy’s poorly-conceived idea has some major flaws in it. 

Currently, in each election cycle, the top two candidates are elected to a four year term by the number of votes cast for them. The third, fourth and fifth-place finishers go home to try harder at the next election.

In order to better illustrate the fundamental unfairness of what Comm. Lewy is proposing, let me give you a hypothetical situation. 

You have four candidates, two for seat “1” and two for seat “2”. 

Candidate “A” gets 4,000 votes and Candidate “B” gets 3,800 votes for seat “1”. 

Candidate “C” gets 2,500 votes and Candidate “D” gets 2,000 votes for seat “2”. 

Under Comm. Lewy's anti-democratic proposal, Candidate “A” wins with 4,000 votes, of course, yet somehow  Candidate “C” wins with 2,500 votes but Candidate “B” loses with 3,800 votes. 

In my opinion that's totally unfair to Candidate “B” and I think you can see why. 

As has always been the case with an election for two seats, the two top vote-getters should be the actual "winners" in an election in Hallandale Beach.

Comm. Lewy’s very bad idea would literally seek to “divide and conquer” the people of this city.

As always, the best way to make sure that any area of the city is well-represented is to have the highest number of quality candidates running, NOT changing the rules and allowing candidates the ability to to choose an area of the city to represent without them being legally required to live there to qualify.

I strongly believe that every City Commissioner, regardless of where they personally live, must represent, work for and be a strong advocate for the ENTIRE CITY, and not just one part of it to be elected or re-elected. Any candidate for the City Commissioner MUST be acceptable to all areas of the City or he/she will not be elected.

Districting is a major deviation from years of practice in our City. While no one claims that the current system is perfect, the evidence seems clear that there are far too many unknown consequences to the districting idea proposed by Comm. Lewy, and all of them are negative towards actually improving this city.

That is why, given the poor choices we have been given to vote on by the HB City Commission, I recommend that we “go with devil we know, versus the devil we don't know”, and leave well enough alone.

I will vote an emphatic NO on this proposal.

Sincerely,

Csaba Kulin 

		Tract		Residents/ Percentage
		GOLDEN ISLES AND THE BEACH
SE		Golden Isles		1001-3-1		2,531		6.82%
SE		A1A West side, South End		1001-4-2		2,045		5.51%
SE		A1A East Side		1001-5		2,900		7.81%
SE		A1A West Side, North End		1001-1-4		1,053		2.84%
SE		East of US 1 and South of Hallandale Beach Blvd		1003-3-2		1,017		2.74%
						9,546		25.72%
		NORTH EAST SECTION
NE		East of Parkview, West of Intercoastal		1001-1-1		2,374		6.40%
NE		East of Three Island Blvd, South of Moffet, West of Parkview		1001-2-2		2,117		5.70%
NE		East of Diplomat Parkway, West of Three Island Blvd		1001-1-4		1,287		3.47%
NE		East of NE 14th Ave, West of Diplomat Parkway, North of HB Blvd		1001-1-3		1,214		3.27%
NE		East of NE 8th Ave, South of Moffit, West of NE 14th, North of 3rd		1002-2-1		2,419		6.52%
NE		East of US 1, West of 8th Ave, South Moffit, North of 3rd Street		1002-2-2		791		2.13%
NE		East of US 1 and North of HB Blvd and West of NE 14th Ave		1002-2-2		1,776		4.79%
NE		North of HB Blvd, West of US 1, East of Dixie		1002-1-1		1,218		3.28%
						13,196		35.56%
		SOUTH WEST SECTION
SW		South of HB Blvd, West of Dixie, East of NW 6th Ave		1003-1		2,212		5.96%
SW		South of HB Blvd, West of US 1, East of NW 6th Ave		1003-2		1,091		2.94%
SW		South of HB Blnd, East of SW 10th Ave, West of SE 6th Ave		1003-3		1,579		4.25%
SW		West of US 1, East of Dixie, South of SW 10 Street		1003-4		1,171		3.16%
SW		East of US 95, West of  SW 10th Ave, South of HB Blvd		1005-2-2		2,785		7.50%
						8,838		23.81%
		NORTH WEST SECTION
NW		South of Penbrook, West of Dixie		1004-1		1,006		2.71%
NW		North of HB Blvd, West of Dixie, South of NW 10		1004-2		1,138		3.07%
NW		East of US 95, North of HB Blvd, West of NW 8th Ave		1004-3		2,099		5.66%
NW		South of Penbroke, East of NW 8th Ave,		1004-4		924		2.49%
						5,167		13.92%
						36,747		99.01%