Showing posts with label FL legislature. Show all posts
Showing posts with label FL legislature. Show all posts

Monday, April 3, 2017

Latest threat to Everglades National Park comes Tuesday in Tallahassee, via variance for FP&L. Honestly, must #SoFL always be a laughingstock?





So, I was minding my own business Monday afternoon working on some forthcoming blog posts of interest to South Florida, and especially residents of Hollywood and Hallandale Beach, when I received the email below from the South Florida Wildlands Association.
It goes without saying that it's an email that really should have been sent over the weekend,
given that a crucial vote will be taking place in Tallahassee tomorrow, but at this point, it is what it is.

I've added some helpful links that the folks at SFWA should have included below but didn't, 
just as they should have listed or had links to the the names of lobbyists and law firms 
pushing this legislation, so that everyone knows who the players are.
You know, for #transparency and all? 
But they didn't. :-(



If you ever needed a new example of the Florida Legislature being blind to the long-term 
interests of South Florida residents, and the rest of the state, please consider this as your
go-to case.

Ever see miles and miles of utility lines in postcards of scenic parts of U.S. National Parks 
in the West? Probably not. That's NOT by accident.
Honestly, must #SoFL always be a laughingstock?

While I know that many well-intentioned people who live in very exclusive areas of South Florida, esp. anywhere along a beach, profess their belief that their own part of #SoFL is clearly THE best place for electrical power lines to be buried -and perhaps there's something to that- when confronted with the news below, could there really be any doubt that the best place in South Florida for buried utility lines is near U.S. National Parks that local, national and international visitors go to specifically because it's...nature?

There's only one Great Wall of China, one Grand Canyon and one Everglades.
Is FPL's technology in 2017 really so inadequate to the task of making sure that the eastern border of the Everglades doesn't look like South Dixie Highway in the future?
I think not.






Having trouble reading this email? View it in your browser.
SOUTH FLORIDA WILDLANDS ASSOCIATION
Dear Friends,
Fresh off their defeat in the Florida Supreme Court in February (the Supreme Court refused to hear their case), Florida Power and Light (FPL) is back at it - trying hard to open up wetlands along the east side of Everglades National Park to 6 miles of massive new power lines.  In the nutshell, FPL, the state's most powerful (and generous) lobbyist, would be the beneficiary of two identical bills now making their way through the Florida House and Senate.  HB 1055 in the House and SB 1048 in the Senate ("Linear Transmission") changes the rules under which the Florida District Court of Appeals decided last April that FPL's power lines could not go forward at this location.
In the nutshell, the District Court determined that these power lines would cause "irreversible" harm to wetlands, ecology, and wildlife in the area - and were legitimately prohibited under Miami-Dade County's protective "East Everglades Ordinance."  What these new bills do is bring in a subtle change - and allow an agency such as the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to provide a "variance" to a company such as FPL (in other words - give them a permit) - if it would cause economic hardship for the applicant.  This change would also apply to other protective local ordinances if a power plant or power lines were involved.
This is absolute nonsense.  The County's East Everglades Ordinance, the Everglades National Park Protection and Expansion Act of 1989, the National Park Service's Land Protection Plan for the East Everglades ALL emphasized the critical ecological importance of this land for the health of the Everglades and its irreplaceable fauna and flora.  All of this land was supposed to be managed as "park." The East Everglades contain the famous "Shark River Slough" - the lifeline of fresh water into Everglades National Park.  These power lines have no place in this location.  None whatsoever.
The bills referenced are currently being fast-tracked through the Florida legislature.  The House version is still winding its way through - but the Senate version may come up for a floor vote very soon.  Please - we're asking all Floridians to contact both their State Senator and State Representative and urge them to vote NO on "Linear Transmission" - SB 1048 in the Florida Senate and HB 1055 in the Florida House.  Find your elected legislators here - and make those two calls (start with your senator).  Message machines will be on if no answer - and leave your name and address along with your message:
Best Regards,
Matthew Schwartz
Executive Director
South Florida Wildlands Association
P.O. Box 30211
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33303
P.S.  Learn a bit more about the projects we take on at the link below.  Tax-deductible contributions are always a big help to the work we do:
A COPY OF THE OFFICIAL REGISTRATION AND FINANCIAL INFORMATION MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE FLORIDA DIVISION OF CONSUMER SERVICES BY CALLING TOLL-FREE (800-435-7352) WITHIN THE STATE. REGISTRATION DOES NOT IMPLY ENDORSEMENT, APPROVAL, OR RECOMMENDATION BY THE STATE. REGISTRATION #: CH32213
South Florida Wildlands Association
P.O. Box 30211
Ft. Lauderdale, Florida 33303

Friday, August 26, 2016

On the Joe Geller Watch! Florida state Rep. Joseph S. Geller's curious and unsavory behavior gets more noteworthy by the month. Today: rigging an election, and earning his title of "Corruptocrat Extraordinaire," coined by Stephanie Kienzle, @dwightyoakamfan

On the Joe Geller Watch! Florida state Rep. Joseph S. Geller's curious and unsavory behavior gets more noteworthy by the month. Today: rigging an election, and earning his title of "Corruptocrat Extraordinaire," coined by Stephanie Kienzle, @dwightyoakamfan  

August 26th, 2016

My savvy friend and fellow South Florida observer and blogger Stephanie Kienzle has a post today about FL state Rep. Joe Geller, who since his election to the state legislature in 2014 has represented southeast Broward County and parts of northeast Miami-Dade County.
But NOT very well in the estimation of most reasonable and objective people I talk to and hear from all around the area and up in Tallahassee, who've been carefully noting what 
Geller actually says and does, as opposed to what we would all probablyprefer he do.
You know, like leading by example?

In the year 2016, shouldn't residents of this area be able to count on someone who is an elected official, at a minimum, to NOT be so egregious about demonstrating his own remarkably consistent poor judgment in public and private with respect to ethics, propriety 
and, yes, public appearances?

Yes, we should, to answer my own question, but once again, Stephanie has news today about the latest Joe Geller antics, and as usual, it's NOT something positive for responsible people in our part of South Florida who believe in old-fashioned concepts and notions like public transparency, public accountability and fair play.
But as Stephanie cooly and accurately notes, "Who didn’t see this coming?"

Sadly, nobody who has ever taken a hard look at Joe Geller's sorry public track record.

For those of you who are new to the never-ending Joe Geller WatchI've pasted below some past posts of Stephanie's about Geller since late last year for you to consider carefully. 
Taken individually or collectively, it all all adds up to yet more pieces of the unethical puzzle that fit the fact pattern that Geller clearly seems intent on creating for everyone to see.




Jason Bloch and Joe Geller team up in transparent attempt to rig an election. (Who didn’t see this coming?)

Disenfranchise all the voters
Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Jason Bloch is so afraid of losing his cushy appointed-not-elected seat on the bench, he tried to have his opponent, Marcia Del Rey, eliminated from the race.
Just a few weeks before Tuesday’s upcoming election, Jason Bloch filed a lawsuit on August 10, 2016 “asking Judge Jerald Bagley to enjoin Del Rey from running in Tuesday’s judicial election after she allegedly filed incomplete financial disclosures in May,” according to an article posted yesterday in the Daily Business Review.
Judge Jerald Bagley bitched slapped Bloch and his lawyer, Joseph S. Geller, the sleazy, breezy CoverBoy of politi-corruption in Miami-Dade County.
Read more at:  http://www.votersopinion.com/2016/08/26/jason-bloch-and-joe-geller-team-up-in-transparent-attempt-to-rig-an-election-who-didnt-see-this-coming/


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, Apr 27, 2016 at 3:12 PM
Subject: Franzie Watch: Sneaky Pierre and Sleazy Joe, doin’ what comes naturally

Franzie Watch: Sneaky Pierre and Sleazy Joe, doin’ what comes naturally

Apr.27, 2016Evil Twins
The day North Miami Beach faux-councilman Frantz Pierre and corrupt lawyer-slash-politican Joe Geller joined forces, it was a match made in heaven.
Or, I should say, in hell.
The lawsuit engineered by Frantz to take over the Haitian Evangelical Baptist Church is now in the hands of the Third District Court of Appeal.  Pending the determination of that appeal, in the form of a Petition for Writ of Prohibition filed by the Defendants, the lower court granted the Defendants an Emergency Stay of its previous Order granting the Plaintiffs a Temporary Injunction.
Read more at:  http://www.votersopinion.com/2016/04/27/franzie-watch-sneaky-pierre-and-sleazy-joe-doin-what-comes-naturally/

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, Apr 22, 2016 at 12:23 PM
Subject: Copy that!

Copy that!

Apr.22, 2016imitation
The latest issue of Le Floridien is now online, including an article about the North Miami Beach absentee ballot fraud lawsuit filed by Michael Joseph against Phyllis Smith.
In Michael Joseph Absentee Ballot Fraud Case Moving Forward; Dismissal Denied,  Le Floridien reported:
On September 21, 2015, Phillis Smith’s lawyer Joe Geller scheduled an October 6, 2015 hearing for his Motion to Dismiss the lawsuit on the grounds that plaintiff Michael Joseph failed to name the North Miami Beach Canvassing Board as an “indispensable party” to the lawsuit. This bogus claim was an obvious distraction to stall for time. In response, the plaintiff noted that the complaint already named the individual members of the Canvassing Board as defendants, and that “there is no statute or relevant case law” that naming the individual members, “carries any less weight than naming them collectively” as a body.
Hmmm.  That sure sounds familiar.
Read more at:  http://www.votersopinion.com/2016/04/22/copy-that/


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, Apr 3, 2016 at 3:03 PM
Subject: Memo to Tallahassee #HouseClown Joe Geller: Time’s up!

Memo to Tallahassee #HouseClown Joe Geller: Time’s up!

Apr. 3, 2016hello-times-up
If you’re one of Joseph S. Geller’s constituents who aren’t happy that he voted FOR the right to openly carry firearms on college campuses you’ll be even more upset with his 2015 voting record.
In addition to his February 3, 2016 “yea” vote on House Bill 4001, which he claims was an accident, he made two intentional, and highly questionable, decisions during last year’s regular legislative session.
On April 24, 2015, Representative Joe Geller voted AGAINST Senate Bill 604, which requires the owners of websites to “clearly disclose” their contact information to consumers.
Apparently, Joe believes protecting the privacy of internet scammers is more important than protecting the public from fraud.
But that’s not the worst of it!
Read more at:  http://www.votersopinion.com/2016/04/03/memo-to-tallahassee-houseclown-joe-geller-times-up/


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, Feb 6, 2016 at 7:56 PM
Subject: #HouseGenius. Oh, Joe. Say it isn’t so!

#HouseGenius. Oh, Joe. Say it isn’t so!

Feb. 6, 2016
Photo: Trevor Bach, Broward/Palm Beach New TimesPhoto: Trevor Bach, Broward/Palm Beach New Times

Attorney Joseph S. Geller wants to be the City Attorney for North Miami.
Florida State Representative Joseph S. Geller can’t even figure out how to vote on the House floor.
The Miami Herald Naked Politics reported that on Wednesday State Representative Joe Geller accidentally voted “yes” on the very bill he “railed against” the night before.
He also cast a “yes” vote for his seatmate, Orlando Democrat Randolph Bracy, on a bill that will allow open carry on college campuses.  The bill passed overwhelmingly in the House, but is expected to be voted down in the Senate.
Read more at:  http://www.votersopinion.com/2016/02/06/housegenius-oh-joe-say-it-isnt-so/


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, Jan 11, 2016 at 3:35 PM
Subject: Joe Geller: Lawyer, Politician, Corruptocrat Extraordinaire

Joe Geller: Lawyer, Politician, Corruptocrat Extraordinaire

Jan.11, 2016
Political Promises
When is a law firm not a law firm?
Apparently, it all depends on Joseph S. Geller’s definition of the word “is.”
Joe’s been scurrying around North Miami City Hall like a rat, trying to snag the position of City Attorney for his firm, Greenspoon Marder.  He’s made it perfectly clear that despite his continuous duties in Tallahassee as a Florida State Representative, his firm is chock full of lawyers who would be at the disposal of the Mayor and Council around the clock.
And yet, when it comes to defending North Miami Beach “Councilwoman” Phyllis Smith against an absentee ballot fraud lawsuit, Joe claims to be a lone wolf.
Consider the irony.



---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, Nov 4, 2015 at 9:40 PM
Subject: Phyllis Smith and Joe Geller, Two Peas in a Pod!

Phyllis Smith and Joe Geller, Two Peas in a Pod!

Nov. 4, 2015Phyllis and Joe
North Miami Beach “Councilwoman” Phyllis Smith and her lawyer, Joe Geller, make quite the pair.
Phyllis hired Joe to defend her against a lawsuit filed by her challenger in the last city council election.  Michael Joseph is contesting the results of the race based on very credible evidence indicating that Phyllis engaged in absentee ballot fraud.
As we are all too painfully aware, the wheels of justice in Miami-Dade County move slowly, especially when members of the politically connected class are forced to defend themselves.  Whether politicos are facing criminal charges, as in the case of North Miami Beach EX-Mayor Myron Rosner, or responding to civil charges, as in Phyllis Smith’s case, time seems to stand still for them.
No such luck for plebes like the rest of us, who could never afford to hire the likes of Ben Kuehne and friends.



SEPTEMBER 17, 2015 
#Ethics still matter in South Florida! Stephanie Kienzle of Votersopinion.com keeps her eyes firmly on what's going on with the VERY CURIOUS legal antics of FL state Rep. Joe Geller, even as most of South Florida's news media keeps ignoring what's right in front of us.
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2015/09/ethics-still-matter-in-south-florida.html

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

An open letter to Florida CFO Jeff Atwater about the long overdue need for CRA reform in Florida. Today's Florida Bulldog expose by William Gjebre is a perfect example of why these spending/ethical reforms were needed... YESTERDAY: @Florida_Bulldog: Fort Lauderdale to use “poor people’s money” to subsidize transit for affluent?

October 20, 2015

Dear Mr. Atwater:

Per the enclosed story from this morning's newest expose in the Florida Bulldog
'Fort Lauderdale to use “poor people’s money” to subsidize transit for affluent?,'
I had some quick thoughts to share with you.

I do so because your record in public service shows that more than seems true with 
99% of the elected officials in this state, you've proven to be someone who shows 
via word and deed that you believe in both the spirit and letter of Florida's laws 
governing public accountability and spending, not just the abstract idea of them. 

Given my experience in Hallandale Beach, which I have recounted to you previously, 
where over a period of years, tens of millions of HB CRA dollars were mis-spent with 
no genuine accountability and no meaningful oversight, -where the Broward Inspector 
General's damning report showed high-ranking, highly-paid city/CRA staff 
essentially went on the 'honor system' with recipients who were friends of HB 
City Hall, including NOT even requiring CRA fund recipients to show any evidence 
they were actually doing or making progress towards what they claimed they'd 
accomplish with the CRA fundsI keep waiting for the Florida Legislature to do what
they keep saying they want to do, namely, tighten-up CRA rules so that clearly-understood 
rules are set so that both the public and the cities will know in advance what city CRA 
Boards can and can NOT do with CRA funds.

And chief among these is NOT continue to use them as slush funds and "found money" 
to pay for the things involving public policy that those in charge DON'T want the public 
either to get wind of or have any real input on, regardless of how many people it might 
ultimately affect.
This continuing misbehavior by local government corrodes public trust and alienates 
people who do believe that CRAs can serve a very useful purpose.

After all, how can I trust someone in government who will do whatever they want 
whenever I'm not looking?

I appreciate that you're no longer in the legislature and are sensitive to the limits of your 
own office's authority and official duties, but if the legislature is going to keep punting, 
why not consider launching a public campaign to bring some of these excesses to light, 
and create some momentum for more pressure to be exerted to make the needed reforms
that Florida residents deserve?

The current system, and the repeated reluctance of city/CRA attorneys to tell their 
bosses to rein-in their worst instincts, puts the honest public officials in Florida who DO 
believe in transparency and genuine publiengagement in difficult positions, especially 
when their bosses or their colleagues who don't believe in openness, want to continue 
to keep their thumbs on the scale to get their way and keep the public thoroughly 
disadvantaged -and in the dark.

Given all the spending horror stories that have taken place throughout the state with 
respect to CRAs, why is the effort to finally enact meaningful CRA reforms in Florida 
NOT being pushed seriously NOW in Tallahassee?
Just wondering, since the public knows that it's LONG OVERDUE

I just posted this letter to my blog.

In the near future, I'll be happy to post any response that you and your office or any of 
the state legislators receiving this email as a cc choose to respond with. 
------------
end of letter

Here's the article and the tweet about it that I encourage all of my blog's readers to share. 



Florida Bulldog
OCTOBER 20, 2015 AT 5:41 AM
Fort Lauderdale to use “poor people’s money” to subsidize transit for affluent?
By William Gjebre, FloridaBulldog.org 
OCTOBER 20, 2015 AT 5:41 AM
Fort Lauderdale’s recent approval of a no-bid contract to update the plan for the troubled Northwest-Progresso-Flagler Heights Community Redevelopment Agency has raised concerns about a lack of public input amid a rush to add projects not in the current plan at the expense of community needs.
Scott Strawbridge, who serves on the CRA’s 14-member advisory board, has called for outside review of the agency after he and his colleagues were informed that City Manager Lee Feldman signed a $24,500 contract with a private firm in August to amend the current CRA plan, last updated in 2001.
Read the rest of the article at:
http://www.floridabulldog.org/2015/10/fort-lauderdale-to-use-poor-peoples-money-to-subsidize-transit-for-affluent/

Thursday, September 17, 2015

#Ethics still matter in South Florida! Stephanie Kienzle of Votersopinion.com keeps her eyes firmly on what's going on with the VERY CURIOUS legal antics of FL state Rep. Joe Geller, even as most of South Florida's news media keeps ignoring what's right in front of us.

According to ever-vigilant Stephanie Kienzle at VotersOpinion despite what appears to be his obviously unethical -and possibly illegal- delay tactics, it looks like Florida state Rep. Joe Geller is going have to face the music for lying to the Courts in Miami.

Geller certainly plays a mean game of four-corners defense to try to run the clock out, but then consider Geller's client: North Miami Beach City Council member Phyliss Smith, who is accused of... wait for it: absentee ballot fraud!

And it's abundantly clear that she has considerably less than a fig-leaf for a defense.
And did I mention that she refused a court order to turn over relevant records?


VotersOpinion blog
September 17, 2015

Despite the obviously unethical, and possibly illegal, delay tactics employed by Joseph S. Geller, Esquire, the lawsuit filed against North Miami Beach “Councilwoman” Phyllis Smith is finally moving ahead.  In a few short days, she’ll be compelled to answer the allegations of absentee ballot fraud.
Read the rest of Stephanie's fact-filled post at: http://www.votersopinion.com/2015/09/17/is-the-fat-lady-about-to-sing/
Some of you more informed readers will recall that earlier this year while wearing his legislator hat, Joe Geller tried to make logic stand on its head by offering a bill that would, as the legislature's own website put it:
"Repeals requirement that write-in candidate reside within district represented by office sought at time of qualification."

Who could possibly think this is a good idea for civic engagement, public accountability and genuine transparency? 
Joe Geller did. 

Fortunately, the bill died:

(For those of you reading this who don't know, Joseph S. Geller is also the former mayor of the long ethically-challenged town of North Bay Village in northern Miami-Dade County, and more recently was elected to the state House of Representatives last November as a dependable knee-jerk Liberal vote.
Thus, Geller represents those parts of southeast Broward County that are the most important parts of our "beat" on this blog: Hallandale Beach and Hollywood, and necessarily, Geller's various actions and antics in Tallahasse and locally are part of our regular focus.

Yes, he's the brother of the former state Senator for this area, lobbyist/lawyer/developer mouthpiece Steve Geller, who was the frequent subject of so many posts on this blog in the past, including when he ran for Broward County Commissioner in 2010 -BEFORE actually living within the district. 
Fortunately for everyone in this area, and common sense, his track record in office and strange sense of what he as a lawyer/lobbyist was entitled to do was found wanting, and Commissioner Sue Gunzburger was handily re-elected, with stronger ethics in Broward one of her key legacies.) 

Kudos to my friend, truth-telling Stephanie for keeping her eyes firmly on the ball while most of the South Florida news media seems to be too distracted and giddy from the return of the football season to notice that there ARE still a LOT of very unsavory things going on with pols in South Florida 
and the Sunshine State that ARE worth investigating and making public.
And worth prosecuting!

Tomorrow on my blog I'll have some interesting details and background info you may want to peruse regarding another case of an official in power in South Florida whose track record makes clear that he is an unrepentant serial abuser of the public trust.

Despite this, he remains both surprisingly aloof and intent on maintaining his very clear sense of entitlement, despite self-evident facts that would make others in his position resign out of either sheer guilt or embarrassment.
Or both!

But he remains steadfast and without remorse, making decisions that affect lots of South Florida residents everyday.

Such is the price we all pay for living in an area of the country where to our collective and continuing dismay, we have FAR MORE than our fair share of elected officials and govt. officials with more self-confidence and hubris than common sense.

Stay tuned!

Monday, July 6, 2015

From political cipher and unknown to possible successor to Marco Rubio in the U.S. Senate in no time at all, there are a myriad of legal & political choices confronting Florida Lt. Governor Carlos Lopez-Cantera, as he seeks to define himself to Floridians before rivals pounce and do it for him. @LopezCantera





Tampa Bay Times

Eyeing Senate bid, Lt. Gov. Lopez-Cantera must decide whether to stay or go
By Steve Bousquet, Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Saturday, July 4, 2015 6:00am

TALLAHASSEE — After 18 months in Gov. Rick Scott's shadow, Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera has to make his first big decision.


Before he enters Florida's wide-open race for the U.S. Senate, he'll reach a political crossroads as the state's No. 2 executive: Should he stay or go?


Lopez-Cantera won't say, and the public probably would not notice the difference


Read the rest of the article at:

http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/legislature/eyeing-senate-bid-lt-gov-lopez-canteras-must-decide-whether-to-stay-or-go/2236092

Roll Call
The Mystery of a Possible Florida Senate Candidate
By Stuart Rothenberg

Posted at 4 p.m. on April 21


A handful of Republicans are currently being mentioned as possible Senate candidates for the Florida seat being vacated by Marco Rubio, who is running for the GOP presidential nomination.

Former Rep. Bill McCollum, who has run repeatedly (and often unsuccessfully) for statewide office, is mentioned, as are a handful of House members, including Rep. Ron DeSantis, a tea party favorite.

Perhaps the most interesting, or at least unusual, candidate for the Republican nomination is the state’s current lieutenant governor, Carlos Lopez-Cantera, a former Florida House member (and majority leader) and Miami-Dade County property appraiser.

What makes Lopez-Cantera, who was appointed to his current post in January 2014 by Republican Gov. Rick Scott, so unusual is that he is a Cuban-American Jew who was born in Madrid

Read the rest of the article at:

Nearly everyone I know and respect in South Florida who knew Carlos Lopez-Cantera when he first decided to run for the not-exactly-sexy position of Miami-Dade Appraiser -in an area of the country we know from experience is NOT exactly known for accuracy and truthfulness about tax dollars or numbers- told me that their take was that he was merely biding his time, waiting for a larger opportunity.


According to them, perhaps a run for the position of Miami-Dade County Mayor AFTER he'd been in office as Appraiser for about 6-10 years, and had actually acquired some reasonable amount of name recognition and power, to say nothing of perhaps even making some tangible improvements in his office that he could tout to what would surely be legions of skeptics.

Well, they're just as surprised as anyone that someone whom just three years ago, most South Florida political junkies and reporters had either never heard of or ever met him before in person, might now be 1 of 100 votes in Washington in just 18 months time.
I know because I'm one of those surprised people.


There's no higher-ranking politician in Florida whom I -and most people I know- actually know less about. than Carlos Lopez-Cantera.
That fact is abetted by South Florida's current lackluster crop of print/TV reporters and columnists, most of whom can be charitably described as apathetic and sleepwalking zombies in the best of times. And this is clearly NOT the best of times for serious new consumers in Florida.

Dave
Twitter: @hbbtruth, https://twitter.com/hbbtruth
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