Showing posts with label Ed Napolitano. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ed Napolitano. Show all posts

Monday, August 31, 2009

Tuesday's S.E. Broward Republican Club meeting: 9/12 Tea Parties and 2010 BSO Budget

Southeast Broward Republican Club

Dear Members and Friends,

Our next meeting is
Tuesday,
September 1st, 2009

Check In: 6:30 P.M.
-Meeting Begins: 7 P.M.
Hollywood Beach Culture & Community Center
1301 South Ocean Drive/ A1A
Hollywood, FL 33019

Topic of Discussion: The 9/12 Tea Parties
and the Broward County Sheriff's Office
2010 Budget

Please feel free to pass on our invitation to your
friends and family, all are welcome.


Take I-95 to Hollywood Blvd., drive East towards
the beach.
Drive over Hollywood Blvd. Intracoastal Bridge.
turn right/South.
The Hollywood Beach Culture and Community
Center
will be on your left-hand side at
intersection of Azalea Terrace.


Metered parking lot.
Refreshments served.

Tickets will be on sale for the "Heroes In Action"
-
Hollywood Police Athletic League-Boxing event.

If you have any questions, please feel
free to call me anytime.


Until then...Stay active, connected and informed!


Ed Napolitano, President
(954) 296-0041


----------
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking-news/story/1191012.html

Miami Herald

Details of Broward Sheriff's Office budget cuts expected

August 18, 2009

The budget battle between Broward County commissioners and Sheriff Al Lamberti could be near a resolution by Tuesday's end.

The Broward Sheriff's Office is scheduled to go before commissioners Tuesday with details of how it will trim $21 million from its spending plan. Most of the savings would come from cutting in-custody treatment programs, an unspecified number of layoffs and closing the Stockade, the minimum security jail.

About $3 million of the total would be made up in more money from fees.

Lamberti would reopen the Stockade in short bursts should the inmate population get too high. Broward is under a federal court order to stay beneath a jail population cap or face a fine.

If approved, the budget agreement would end months of wrangling between commissioners and BSO.

With property values down, county commissioners began this year's budget process with an approximate $100 million shortfall. They wanted Lamberti to shoulder about half of the burden and cut $46 million from his agency, the largest of its kind in Broward.

His proposal meets about half of the county's goal. Whether this is enough to please county leaders will be hashed out at Tuesday's workshop.

If Lamberti and commissioners don't reach a compromise before the start of the fiscal year Oct. 1, the sheriff could appeal his budget to the Florida Cabinet, a potentially lengthy process.

A presentation about BSO's spending plan is scheduled to go before county commissioners at 10 a.m. in room 430 of the Broward County Government Center, 115 S. Andrews Ave. in Fort Lauderdale. It will be the first in a full day of presentations from various county services.

--------------
Two columnists write on the no-win situation for
BSO with Maury Hernandez


sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/sfl-bso-maury-mayocol-b083109,0,514119.column

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

In real world, miracle deputy doesn't get dream ending

Michael Mayo

News Columnist

August 31, 2009


If the miraculous recovery of Broward Sheriff's Deputy Maury Hernandez were a movie, the ending would have Hernandez putting on his badge and holster and returning to his job as a street detective.

But this is real life, which means things aren't so tidy. Two years after taking a bullet to the head during a traffic stop, Hernandez walked into a recent meeting at the Sheriff's Office in uniform, and the reaction was discomfort.

Hernandez, 30, now confronts a tangle of insurance and pension issues. Instead of life-affirming triumph, there's soul-deadening bureaucracy. He has a lawyer. There's tension in the air.

"I'm not asking for a charity position," Hernandez wrote by e-mail Monday. "If the sheriff didn't really mean it when he said there would be something waiting for me then I just want him to tell me so. I will not have hard feelings."

Said Broward Sheriff Al Lamberti: "Emotions have overtaken everything."

On this there's agreement: Hernandez isn't fit to perform his old job. His mobility is compromised, his left arm partly paralyzed. Basically, a return to a weapon-carrying law-enforcement job doesn't appear possible.

During his rehabilitation, Hernandez got full pay through the county's worker's compensation system. But that's about to lapse. Lamberti said Hernandez has two options:

He can retire with a permanent disability pension from the state, which would pay him 65 percent of his salary for life, tax-free. The payments would start at $32,229 a year and rise with inflation. He'd also get lifelong health insurance.

He can take a civilian job with the Sheriff's Office, something like an investigative aide. But that would mean he'd be disqualified from getting disability benefits related to the shooting in the future.

"It's Maury's decision, but we just want to make sure he fully understands the ramifications," said Lamberti, who didn't attend the Aug. 5 meeting.

"So far, all that has been offered is disability retirement, which is not a job," Hernandez wrote Monday. I wanted to talk face-to-face, but his attorney wouldn't allow it.

"I loved working at the BSO, and my heart is there," Hernandez wrote. "It's a shame the way things are right now, but there is too much positive history and too many great friends there for me to say that my feelings have soured."

Lamberti said he wouldn't want Hernandez to return to the Sheriff's Office, get injured because of his condition and not be entitled to benefits. The sheriff said the meeting was meant to be a starting point, not an ultimatum.

"We want what's best for Maury," Lamberti said.

Lance Block, Hernandez's attorney, called the Aug. 5 session "a sales meeting to get him to take the disability option."

If Hernandez took the disability pension, Lamberti said he could remain involved with the Sheriff's Office as a motivational speaker or crisis-team volunteer. "Look, the guy is a true inspiration," Lamberti said.

Lamberti knows that Hernandez makes for the ultimate sympathetic figure, and this is a public-relations fight he can't win.

But it's not as if Hernandez is the first to get wounded or disabled on the job. If Lamberti makes an exception to let Hernandez keep his position, then lawsuits from other disabled deputies could follow.

Hernandez's shooter, David Maldonado, is now serving a life sentence.

A shame that Hernandez, as the victim, might also have to serve a life sentence, losing the job he loves.

"I don't know what my next step will be," Hernandez wrote.

Not exactly a Hollywood ending. But it could have been a whole lot worse.

----------------
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/columnists/daniel-shoer-roth/story/1199594.html

Miami Herald
August 24, 2009

BSO denies deputy his dream to serve again


E
ver since Maury Hernández emerged from a coma a year and 10 months ago he has received countless demonstrations of the community's affection and been highly decorated. He even got to throw the first pitch at a baseball game between the Florida Marlins and Tampa Bay Rays.

Through it all, Hernández, the deputy shot in the head while on duty two years ago, has yearned for only one thing: to return to the Broward Sheriff's Office.

He was ecstatic when he was scheduled to meet with BSO on Aug. 5. The night before, he filled four notebook pages with new handwritten ideas. And in the morning, he suited up in his old uniform, which now includes a green honor medal usually presented posthumously to fallen officers. He came that close.

He was devastated after the meeting. He says BSO officials told him he would go on permanent disability retirement. "It's the worst betrayal of my life,'' said Hernández, 30, who suffers from motor-function problems on the left side of his body. "Everybody knew I wanted to go back to work.''

Jim Leljedal, a BSO spokesman, said no final decision has been made on Hernández's case. "We discussed his future, his options and his eligibility for a disability pension,'' Leljedal said. "Everyone here admires and loves Maury, and we want the best for him.''

BSO seems to think retirement would be best. Hernández says that was the only offer on the table.

"If they really want the best for me, they should have asked me, knowing that going back to work is what my heart wants,'' said the Cuban-American officer who lives in Hialeah with his parents. Hernández almost died protecting this community, and BSO, for all its proclamations of love and admiration for him, responds by shattering his dream of returning to the work he loves. Shameful.

It's deviously hypocritical coming after Hernández became Al Lamberti's poster child during his campaign for sheriff and never missed a photo-op next to the hero.

This injustice could stir Broward County's Hispanic community, which claims it is not adequately represented in Broward's police departments, said José "Pepe'' López, a member of BSO's new diversity committee.

"This is not well seen in the Hispanic community, especially among Cubans who went all out to support the sheriff with donations and votes,'' López said.

Doctors gave Hernández no hope of survival in August 2007, when David Maldonado, a motorcyclist he confronted for speeding past several red lights on Pembroke Road, shot him twice. Last year Maldonado was sentenced to life in prison.

The officer survived miraculously and gradually recovered, winning the hearts of South Floridians.

On Thursday, Hernández accompanied his father, Mauricio, to Dadeland Mall to buy a handbag for his mother, Rosa, for the couple's 32nd wedding anniversary Saturday. When they went to gift-wrap the present, Hernández said the clerk told him, "You are that cop! You have no idea how much we've prayed for you.''

Two years ago the Hernándezes spent their 30th anniversary at Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, surrounded by their son's colleagues and superiors, who brought them a cake.

"In these two years, the BSO kept a very close relationship with us, almost like family,'' Mauricio said. "We don't understand why the case is now so tactlessly handled.''

The answer may be in the budget. If Hernández is given a disability retirement, his pension, which would equal his salary, would be paid from sources other than BSO's budget. Except this is not about money, but about honor.

"At police departments there are enough positions assigned to officers wounded while on duty,'' said Alejandro Recio, a retired detective from the Hollywood Police Department. ``If Maury wishes to go back to work, he deserves that right.''

Hernández is not thinking of conceding defeat. He has hired an attorney.

These last few years, life has taught him to challenge all predictions. First he was told he would never walk again. But he walked. Then he was told he would walk only with a cane. He now walks without one, and strolls around a neighborhood lake.

"This is why I believe I can still make a difference in the police department,'' Hernández said. "There is nothing like getting up in the morning and doing the work you love.''

Reader comments at:
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/columnists/daniel-shoer-roth/story/1199594.html?commentSort=TimeStampAscending&pageNum=1

Monday, August 3, 2009

Obamacare will be Tuesday's topic at Hollywood meeting; assisted living facilities; ocean outfall pollution

My computer server, via AT&T, was down
over the weekend, much to my consternation,
since I had a lot of posts to share, some of
which were of a decidedly time-sensitive
nature.

As a result of my having attended the
well-received GOP event in Hallandale
Beach in June that featured U.S. Senate
candidate Marco Rubio, sponsored by
the Southeast Broward Republican
Club, I received this note last week about
the next meeting scheduled for Tuesday
night on Hollywood Beach, their usual
stomping ground.



Southeast Republican Club

Dear Members and Friends,
We invite you to join us in welcoming our
next guest speaker, Robert Lowery
Candidate for US Congress-District-20.Tuesday, August 4th 2009
Check In: 6:30 P.M.
-Meeting Begins: 7 P.M.Hollywood Beach Culture & Community Center
1301 South Ocean Drive/ A1A
Hollywood, FL 33019
Topic of Discussion: Healthcare
Mr. Lowery owns three ALF’s (Assisted Living Facilities)
in Broward and Miami-Dade County. He has many years
of experience in the healthcare industry.

Please visit his website
: www.lowryforcongress.com
or email: robert@lowryforcongress.com

Please feel free to pass on our invitation to your friends
and family, all are welcome.

View Larger Map
Take I-95 to Hollywood Blvd., drive East towards
the beach.

Drive over Hollywood Blvd. Intracoastal Bridge.
turn right/South.
The Hollywood Beach Culture and Community
Center
will be on your left-hand side at
intersection of Azalea Terrace.
Metered parking lot.

See you all then,
Ed Napolitano
(954) 296-0041
-----------------------
Since Mr. Lowery -whom I've never met
and who'll be running next year against
incumbent Debbie Wasserman Schultz-
is involved in the business of operating ALFs,
I thought some of you planning on attending
this Tuesday might find the following of some
interest, since it relates to ALFs and the
role they play in society.

Last year in one of but many many examples
which showed the inherent foolishness and
logical negative consequences of the Miami
Herald
(and Broward editor Patricia Andrews)
deciding not to cover civic affairs in Hallandale
Beach, by not sending a reporter to their City
Commission meetings since June of 2008,
they missed one of the most egregiously
galling performances of any local South Florida
pol of the past six years.
Which is to say, since I returned to the area
from the Washington, D.C,. area.

(And it's not like the City of Miami or the
Miami-Dade County Commission don't
have plenty of members who don't try to
steal the "galling" title thru their sheer
stupidity or audaciousness, like social
butterfly and Miami-Dade commissioner
Jose "Pepe" Diaz, who last November
required that county taxpayers provide
him with security/driver in the form of
a sergeant-at-arms for the VIP-heavy
grand re-opening of the Fontainebleau
Hotel on Miami Beach. where the
Victoria's Secret party and nationally-
televised TV runway show had people
agog.
www.wireimage.com/SearchResults.aspx.?igi=343295&s=Fontainebleau&vwmd=e&sfld=C

Klum, Kurkova, Lima & Kerr!
Now that's an international firm that
no worldwide recession can affect.
Like every straight guy who was there
wasn't already thinking to himself,
at some point, "Wow! There are WAY
too many dudes here already
," and
a nobody like Diaz dilutes it even more
by bringing in one more dude -for his
security
!
Like anyone who was anyone even
knew who HE was!
)


The particular galling performance I'm
thinking of is one that in many parts of
the country would cause the pol who
did it to have a very hard time living it down,
and likely cause not only real harm to
their political careers, but also cause
supporters to re-examine their past
support.

The Herald cut their own throat -and many
potential columns full of found gold for
their
columnists- by not covering a story
which was rich with metaphors for how things
truly operate -but mostly, don't- in the city
under Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper
and City Manager Mike Good.

The mayor showed her true colors, and
contempt for state law and sound social
policy when she voted TWICE against
an ALF applicant from HB, despite the fact
that for reasons of public policy, the Florida
Legislature decided many years ago that
as long as ALF applicants met all existing
state, county, and city building rules -and
associated
rules for operation- the
applicant shall be approved.

They passed a law where the presumption
is FOR approval and can NOT be denied
for strictly zoning reasons, if the predicate
threshold has been met.

Refusing to approve an application that
otherwise passes all these tests and
standards would open the city up to a
very costly and pointless lawsuit they
could never ever hope to win, something
that was stated many times at both the
PNZ and City Commission meetings,
by both the members and the public,
including myself.
But it didn't matter.

Not for the first time, Mayor Cooper showed
she didn't really care what the state legislature
had already done or what kind of law they'd
passed as a means of ensuring that families
could be kept in relatively close geographical
proximity when one family member required
more professional care.

At two different meetings, she voted against
the applicant, a woman who wanted to have
an Assisted Living Facility run out of her home
in a residential area in order to take care of a
relative of hers.

Some of the neighbors were visibly and vocally
unhappy about the prospect of this, despite
the fact that national and state public policy
actually encourages this by making it illegal
for communities to discriminate against them
in zoning.


As I wrote at the time:

It was actually quite a heated afternoon,
full of often derisive and sarcastic remarks
by the neighbors directed at the woman
who was trying to look after her older relative
in a way that would keep her comfortable
and as stress-free as possible.
In my opinion, the neighbors seemed not
to have done their homework with regard
to what they could actually do to prevent this
from happening, since the state had already
given their okay on it and there was nothing
that the city could do to prevent it if the the
applicant met all the requirements



Joy Cooper
was the only person among the
many members of the Hallandale Beach
Planning & Zoning Board or the pre-Anthony
Sanders
City Commission, to vote no.


Speaking of that June 2008 city commission
meeting the Herald covered in the form of
reporter Breanne Gilpatrick, which was a
joint meeting with the City of Hollywood at
the HB Cultural Center, one of the highlights
-or lowlights from my perspective- of that
meeting was Mayor Cooper trying to
persuade the City of Hollywood in joining
them in a lawsuit against the State to fight
the compliance requirements the state passed
regarding outfall waste disposal.


Rather than pony up the city's share of the
money required to help get Broward County
in compliance with the state law, she wanted
to fight the State and have taxpayer dollars
once again flow to some outside counsel
because she can't accept the fact that,
once again, she is on the losing side of
an argument.

So very typical of Joy Cooper's longstanding
poor judgment, thin-skinned ego and utter lack
of leadership or vision for the city's future.

You doubtless won't be surprised to hear
that the City of Hollywood, under Mayor
Peter Bober's leadership, had the good
sense to decide Cooper's offer was one
they wanted no part of, since it's not
productive towards solving the actual problem
-stop polluting the ocean!

http://www.epa.gov/region4/water/uic/downloads/ra/06-ocean.pdf

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Postponed: PnZ mtg. today re Diplomat Golf Course condos

Just got the news this morning about the postponement of today's Hallandale Beach Planning and Zoning Board's meeting on the Diplomat's plans for at least 1,300 more condos in the postage stamp duchy that is Hallandale Beach.

Yesterday afternoon, I swung by the area to see if they had the posted meeting signs that conform to the new and improved rules.

While I didn't personally see them, camera at the ready, perhaps they were removed after the meeting was postponed. But wouldn't that have just necessitated changing ther date and time on the posted sign?

The city's website this morning reads: Planning and Zoning Board – Diplomat Land Use Plan Application. The Planning and Zoning Board Meeting for December 12th regarding the Diplomat Land Use Plan application has been canceled and deferred to the January 23, 2008 Planning and Zoning Board Meeting. For additional information please call (954) 457-1378.

I spoke to some of the members of the HB Planning and Zoning Board after their last meeting, and based on what I saw and heard that particular Wednesday, they seem to be exercising their mental muscles and experiencing a "born again" moment, at least, compared to other parts of the city's body politic.

I say that based on what a few members expressed to me afterwards, the most important of which was that no matter what, they are NOT going to allow the upcoming Diplomat hearing to even start unless they all have all the pertinent land use info days before the hearing, instead of the usual HB modus operandi.

That, so I infer from the comments of the Board, is where the developers' materials are sort of dropped off at the last minute for staff to digest and review, leaving the Board in the awkward position of being behind the learning curve as far as knowing the material well-enough to pose the sort of probing and pertinent questions a subject like this demands. Go figure!

In particular, I congratulate PnZ member Arnold Cooper for saying at length and with some conviction, that he'd seek to postpone the upcoming hearing, rather than allow it to start with incomplete info and not enough time to review it.
Sort of makes me wonder how long this pattern of gathering info at the last minute has been going on. It would explain a lot of what I see around the city.

Hmm... if only the HB City Council had actually worked like this last year before they approved Gulfstream/Forest City's Village of Gulfstream project, months before the city's own consultant's transportation study was completed for a city currently rated "D" on road congestion.

Along those same lines, Mr. Cooper wondered aloud, to some laughter, how it was possible that, a whole year later, with roughly 4,000 more units out there, that HB could still be rated a "D," on road use.
It was all I could do to stifle myself from laughing out loud from my seat towards the middle of the chambers!

At some point soon, I may just have to acquaint the Board with some learned bit of knowledge that was dropped on me by several very frustrated employees of the Broward County Traffic & Engineering Dept., just months after I returned to South Florida from Arlington, VA.

In some ways, I suppose, those particular comments to me, made over several months, were the very foundation for my decision to start this particular blog. Obviously, knowing what I know now, I just wish I'd started it sooner.

So you ask, what did these very knowledgable Broward County employees whisper into my ear?

Plenty! Only that thanks to the longtime incompetent policies of the Hallandale Beach Police Dept. and the auxilary folks who work traffic control on Gulfstream's racing days -theoretically, to prevent blocked intersections- continually make a bad situation infinitely worse under the guise of solving the problem, the ultimate indignity.

I asked whether part of it was due to the clear lack of attention that's paid to emerging traffic patterns, since 99% of the auxilary folks I've ever seen assigned to this duty are constantly on their cell phones. You know, as opposed to being actively engaged and pro-active, and actually using their whistles once in a while to stop 'creepers' and actually writing tickets to people who are "blocking the box."

They semi-ignored this low-hanging bit of fruit while nodding with a smile.

But they did say that the manipulation of the traffic light signals actually makes the ingress/egress situation far worse, causing ripple effects that radiate outward from the area, particularly along HBB towards both A1A and I-95.

That actually confirmed some things I'd once read in The New Yorker -Yes, The New Yorker- on traffic about 5-10 years ago.

By their improper use of the signal light at US-1 & HBB, they well, that's a topic for another time.
______________________________
The Miami Herald
HALLANDALE BEACH: Diplomat is pushing for more growth - Residents in Hallandale Beach are concerned about a proposal to build condos at the Diplomat Country Club.
By Jasmine Kripalani
November 15, 2007

A developer wants to build another 1,400 condos and town homes in Hallandale Beach, the South Broward city that already has congested streets and at least 1,600 new housing units on the way.
Despite the slow housing market, the owners of the Diplomat Country Club want city approval to build 1,388 units around their 18-hole golf course east of Federal Highway and north of Hallandale Beach Boulevard.

The three buildings will range from 10 to 22 stories.

It's the latest step in Hallandale's transformation from a retirement community to a more diverse -- and more crowded -- city like neighboring Aventura.

The developers hope to sell units for around $600,000 each. They estimate that the city's population would swell by nearly 2,600 people.

But the developer may lack the support from city commissioners."I've made it clear to the developer that I would not support that amount of units," Mayor Joy Cooper said.

Commissioner Keith London said he has called residents to tell them about the developer's intentions.

And some residents who met with developers this month are raising concerns about traffic and construction impact.

"The traffic we currently experience has become unmanageable. If I needed to get to the hospital, could they get me there safely? Would I still be alive by the time I get there?" said Armin Lovenvirth, a 30-year resident of Hallandale Beach and a member of the city's planning and zoning board. "We have huge projects that haven't even begun."

Among them: the 29-story, 118-unit European Club along Hallandale Beach Boulevard between Federal Highway and State Road A1A; and the Village at Gulfstream Park, 901 S. Federal Hwy., which is slated to include 1,500 condos, 70 shops and restaurants and a 2,500-seat movie theater.

Resident Carlos Simmons, 61, said he questions whether the demand is there.

"We have the two structures behind Winn-Dixie," Simmons said, referring to the towering Duo condos at 1725 E. Hallandale Beach Blvd. "I live across the street, on Golden Isles Drive, and there are hardly any lights on at all at night.


"In August, the city placed a six-month moratorium on all new development in order to map out a growth plan. A consulting firm is working on the plan.

The attorney for the Diplomat project said Broward County's population will increase and that's what drives the demand for housing.

'I think we have a responsibility to accommodate the growth and the question is, 'Where do you put it?' ' said Debbie Orshefsky, an attorney for Diplomat Properties. "What we have is a short-term slow down, but long-term, people are moving here and people are having kids."

The issue is scheduled to come before the Planning and Zoning Board on Nov. 28. The board will make a recommendation to city commissioners.

Commissioners would hear the issue a couple of months later. The final decision could be made by the summer, Mayor Cooper said."I've looked at this development and I'm skeptical of the amount of units and I've been very vocal to them about this," Cooper said. "I would support an expansion of the hotel."

The Diplomat Country Club, 501 Diplomat Pkwy., currently houses the golf course, a tennis center and 60-room hotel. Developers have also proposed expanding the hotel to more than 300 rooms and would do this by rearranging the maintenance facility.

"I would never approve any residential units that would have a direct adverse impact on the championship, 18-hole course," Cooper said.

Orshefsky said the proposed expansion would not affect the quality of the golf course.

Golden Isles Drive Association President Ed Napolitano, 42, said he supports more development.

"I like growth in an area and anything that's going to bring a younger, vibrant crowd," Napolitano said. "I'm all for it."

Copyright (c) 2007 The Miami Herald