Tuesday morning's meeting in Hollywood on the Margaritaville Hollywood Beach Resort Project on Johnson Street & The Broadwalk

WPLG-TV/Channel 10 (Miami, FL) reporter Roger Lohse talks to Hollywood developer Lon Tabatchnick and Weston businessman Joseph Sloboda about the practical effects of the U.S. government's EB-5 Visa program, and how it allows American business projects to get critical financial backing from foreign investors. Tabatchnick credits this program for allowing his proposal for the Margaritaville Hollywood Beach Resort on Hollywood Beach to move forward.

2011. http://youtu.be/wgRjfU-LjHI

I feel the need to publicly preface this news about a Tuesday morning meeting regarding the Margaritaville Resort/Johnson Street CRA project on Hollywood Beach with a few words about something that dozens of my friends and I are in complete agreement on, having seen this sort of episode be repeated FAR TOO MANY TIMES this past year with the City of Hollywood's announcement email list, which we are all on.

Think of it as constructive criticism.

Like me, my friends in SE Broward are NOT real crazy about receiving meeting announcements that are sent out -for the first time- 18 hours before the meeting starts.

It's just like the Miami Herald's own well-known penchant for writing about morning government meetings taking place that day in THAT morning's Herald, instead of days in advance, if not the day before.

I won't be able to attend this meeting, otherwise, I'd film it and place some of the more interesting excerpts here on the blog and on my YouTube Channel, which, I hasten to add, will see a huge change in focus in the coming new year.

Positive tangible changes.

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City of Hollywood, Florida

Office of the City Manager

REVISED

PUBLIC NOTIFICATION FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

December 5, 2011

Contact: Raelin Storey

Director Public Affairs & Marketing

Phone: 954. 921.3098

954.812.0975 (cell)

Fax: 954.921.3314

E-mail: rstorey@hollywoodfl.org

Upcoming Meeting on Margaritaville Hollywood Beach Resort Project

December 6 at 10 a.m.

HOLLYWOOD, FL - On Tuesday, December 6 at 10 a.m. members of the Hollywood Beach Community Development District 1 will meet at Garfield Community Center, 300 Connecticut Street (2nd floor of City Parking Garage). In addition to other business items, the members will review the proposed assessment for the Margaritaville Hollywood Beach Resort development needed to fund the public parking component.

(This assessment will not apply to other properties in or near the redevelopment site.)

Due to a scheduling conflict, the Wednesday, December 14 update by Lon Tabatchnick to the City Commission will be held at a later date to be determined.

For more information, contact the Office of the City Manager at 954.921.3201.

For media inquiries, please contact Raelin Storey, Public Affairs Director at 954.921.3098.

# # #

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Official City of Hollywood website for the Johnson Street RFP/Margaritaville Hollywood Beach Resort Project:

http://www.hollywoodfl.org/html/johnsonstbeachrfp.htm

http://youtu.be/JdgkCkp0Wf0

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

Hollywood civic activist Sara Case's spot-on take on the latest move by Eleanor Sobel, Munilytics, and the need for meaningful audits; Margaritaville

Above, looking west at Hollywood City Hall. September 20, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier

Hollywood civic activist Sara Case's spot-on take on the latest move by Eleanor Sobel, Munilytics, and the need for meaningful audits; Margaritaville

As a follow-up to my blog post of Monday titled, Pol who wanted -and got- Hollywood taxpayers to pay $30k for her new FL State Senate office in 2009 now asks FL legislature for audit of Hollywood!

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/10/pol-who-wanted-and-got-hollywood.html

I strongly suggest you read Sara's perspective on the rather-sudden concern shown by FL State Sen. Eleanor Sobel -who represents me as well in Tallahassee- on city spending and expenditures at Hollywood City Hall.

Sara also explains what the much-discussed Munilytics report did and DIDN'T say, since there seems to be a great deal of not only genuine confusion by some Hollywood residents about its representations, but also, sadly, some intentional misrepresentation being floated about by supporters of the Hollywood Police, Fire/Rescue Dept. union members who are SORE LOSERS about Hollywood voters rejecting their arguments in last month's referendum on government pensions.

They keep wanting to fight the battle but the war is over -they lost.

I know because many of these same people have written me angry emails, thinking that I'd post whatever they said about the Hollywood CRA and its spending and legality, regardless of what sort of mis-information they attempted to peddle, perhaps assuming that I didn't know the facts.

That was their mistake.

I've been to more Hollywood CRA meetings and workshops than 99.99% of Hollywood residents.

Hell, I not only posted the information about the pre-bid information workshops here on the blog but also posted the city's public notices here so that more residents and concerned people would show-up for the meetings and get educated about what was and was not happening.

I even wrote here about who some of the candidates were to be the new CRA chief under the newly-restructured organizational chart when the Herald, Sun-Sentinel and local TV stations were completely ignoring it.

(In case you didn't know, Jorge Camejo is the CRA Executive Director.)

I not only took notes but videotaped the meetings to make sure that my notes were correct and so that I was ready in case somebody said or did something of note, good or bad, whether Mayor Bober, the City Commissioners, city staff, the public or the competing developers for the six-acre Johnson Street project at Hollywood Beach and The Broadwalk, that was ultimately won by the Jimmy Buffett-themed Margaritaville, despite my own preference for The Hard Rock proposal as a concept and tourism magnet, however imperfect that was.

I didn't stop attending once Margaritaville's won the bid unanimously despite my own reservations about it.

Yet despite this, I received emails from people who clearly DIDN'T do their homework and thought I'd just pass along their nonsense that failed both the common sense and smell test.

Sorry, no sale.

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Balance Sheet Blog

STATE SENATOR’S AUDIT

October 4, 2011, 2:33 PM

Filed under: Budget, City Commission

State Senator Sobel – who in 2009 sought and was granted a $30,000 interest-free, non-recourse loan from the City of Hollywood to renovate 5,000 square feet of office space for her use – has suddenly expressed great concern with the City’s finances. She’s requested that the State of Florida audit Hollywood’s finances and her request has been granted.

Read the rest of Sara's post at:

http://balancesheetblog.wordpress.com/2011/10/04/state-senators-audit/

For more examples of that often-inaccurate, anti-Hollywood CRA mis-information being pushed that I noted above, see some of the reader comments to this article:

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Margaritaville resort brings optimism to Hollywood Beach

By Carli Teproff, The Miami Herald

12:00 a.m. EDT, October 5, 2011

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/fl-margaritaville-resort-hollywood-20111005,0,3194149.story

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/10/04/2437130/future-resort-brings-optimism.html