Showing posts with label Florida League of Cities. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Florida League of Cities. Show all posts

Sunday, April 15, 2018

You only thought you knew how evil and corrupt former Hallandale Beach mayor Joy Cooper was. You have no idea. But you will soon! Don't worry, the Broward State Attorney's Office now has all the documents and info they need, thanks to the Broward Inspector General. Uh-oh!

You only thought you knew how evil and corrupt former Hallandale Beach mayor Joy Cooper was. You have no idea. But you will soon! 
Don't worry, the Broward State Attorney's Office now has all the documents and info they need, thanks to the Broward Inspector General. Uh-oh!


Coming soon: How former Hallandale Beach mayor Joy Cooper OBSTRUCTED public records requests for YEARS, violated Florida Sunshine Laws, even while head of the Florida League of Cities and deeply involved with the National League of Cities, as she was always quick to brag about at Hallandale Beach City Commission and CRA meetings, even when it was NOT germane to anything being discussed.

Of course, all that time, Hallandale Beach taxpayers were forced to pay for Cooper to attend their meetings all over the country as she tried to pass herself off as something other than what she was: respected.
But she was corrupt with a capital “C.”
As I had been saying and writing year-after-year even while the local news media largely refused to look into any of the dozens of matters that would have been reported upon if they happened in other parts of the country.

But don’t worry, the Broward States Attorney now has all the documents and information they need, thanks to the Broward Inspector General.
But David, isn’t the Broward SAO the same LEO office that knew for OVER 5 years, via recordings, that Hallandale Beach mayor Joy Cooper had already committed numerous felonies and misdemeanors, blatantly, yet still refused to have her arrested and charged?

Which means that the last five years of Joy Cooper in office were completely unnecessary and could have been prevented, since Florida Gov. Rick Scott would have removed Cooper from office then if SAO simply acted responsibly and with the public's best interests at heart? Oh sure, there's always that! 🙄🤨😠🤫🤔
The case involved hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars 💰💰 and was a subject that I blogged abt frequently at The Future Foundation, a so-called non-profit that was run by Mayor Cooper and city employees with offices at city hall, but which had a very adversarial attitude towards thepublic knowing what they were doing.
Or even letting electdd officials know what they were doing, and why.

When I gave details of what was going on to the Miami Herald, South Florida Sun-Sentinel and the four English-language TV stations in Miami, the  news media was NOT interested! Surprise!








Monday, October 1, 2012

It's long past time to put the BEACH back in Hallandale Beach. For there ever to be a successful balance between business, town, and nature in Hallandale Beach, Mayor Joy Cooper must first be kicked-out of City Hall in 5 weeks; @MayorCooper

Late afternoon, North Beach, Hallandale Beach, FL, February 10, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier. © 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved.
It's long past time to put the BEACH back in Hallandale Beach. For there ever to be a successful balance between business, town, and nature in Hallandale Beach, Mayor Joy Cooper must first be kicked-out of City Hall in 5 weeks; @MayorCooper
While it might look nice and inviting from afar, the sad and galling reality for far too many Hallandale Beach residents who want to enjoy their public beaches, is that in the ten years under Mayor Joy Cooper and her Rubber Stamp Crew at City Hall, the city's highly-paid top bureaucrats and the city's ineffective Dept. of Public Works -now headed by Hector Castrothe public beaches have been consistently neglected and poorly-maintained for MANY, MANY YEARS.

A frequent sign of the times for beleaguered Hallandale Beach residents and their guests at the city's public beach area: Above, snapshot of a poorly-maintained public beach -finding a used condom near one of the few park benches at North Beach at 4 p.m. on a Friday holiday afternoon on a beach full of families. January 2, 2009 photo by South Beach Hoosier. © 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved.
In fact, there are several places at the beach where it's self-evident to even the casual observer that the city is NOT even in compliance with its own rules or ordinances -or even state laws- and hasn't been since I moved here in late 2003. 
To say nothing of showing initiative or common sense there.




Mid-afternoon, North Beach, Hallandale Beach, FL, April 8, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier. © 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved.

Yet despite the fact that the beach is an invaluable resource and the reason that many people have consciously chosen to live in Hallandale Beach instead of somewhere else in south Florida, Mayor Cooper and 3/4ths of the City Commission -and those bureaucrats- have chosen to squander time, energy and large sums of money on one terrible idea after another elsewhere in the city because of either personal connections or their push for the furtherance of crony capitalism, rather than in making the investment in making the public beaches cleaner, more attractive and more interesting for residents and guests alike. 

More recently,  in her role as head of the Florida League of CitiesMayor Cooper has neglected the city even more than usual, as she has flitted from one part of the state to another, acting like a Queen Bee.
Believe me, the people she meets in other Florida cities in that FLC capacity have no earthly idea of what a poor job she has done for years by any sort of objective measure. 


Above, July 26, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier. © 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, 

In 1999, while I was still living and working in the Washington, D.C. area, Hallandale voters went to the polls and decided to overwhelmingly approve a charter question asking whether the name of the city should officially be changed to Hallandale Beach.
As I understand it, the slogan that was used at the time was something along the lines of "Put the beach back in Hallandale."

In my opinion, in the year 2012, after all the dozens of fact-filled and photo-filled posts I've posted here documenting the deteriorating conditions of the city's public beaches, it's long past time to not only put the BEACH back in Hallandale, but to put genuine oversight and meaningful financial accountability to taxpayers in it as well.


That will clearly NOT happen if Joy Cooper and her thin-skinned, myopic and  and aggressively-negative personality is returned to office on November 6th, because she has had ten long years to display such abilities and respect for the citizens and resources of this city, and yet everyday, we see further signs that she lacks both the ability and desire.

It could hardly be more obvious.

Consider the following excerpts from my post of January 17th, 2009:

Sometimes, coincidences happen for a good reason, and I think such is the case today.
I was already in the process of writing something that I was going to post this weekend about the deplorable conditions of the beach, when the Broward Palm Beach New Times' Juice blog did a piece yesterday afternoon that covers much the same ground.
It's just below my comments 

Have you all read Hallandale Beach Commissioner Keith London's interesting email yet about developments at last week's HB City Commission meeting -which I didn't attend- regarding conditions at the beach?  Here's the germane portion for this email:
There was a presentation from two high school students requesting the implementation and participation of a beach clean up in the City of Hallandale Beach.  During the clean up, the waste will be sorted, measured and cataloged by type and volume of waste on the beaches. The students informed the Commission that in past clean-ups, cigarette butts accounted foe 46% of the waste. 
Armed with this information, I made a motion requesting the city attorney the feasibility of a creating a future ordinance "to make smoking illegal on City of Hallandale Beach public beaches".The Motion passed 3:2. London, Ross, Sanders for, and Cooper and Julian against.
I really commend these high school kids and only wish I'd been there to speak with them afterwards, to say so in person, since that's the kind of positive reinforcement they need.

If high school kids are so appalled by what even they can see at their beach that they actually feel compelled to show up at City Hall to complain about it -and we'll assume that they don't share that public policy gene like us- just remember they're NOT the only ones to notice, just the only ones with enough resolve to press the issue.
How truly embarrassing for this city!!! 

As we all know from our travels, in many if not most American communities fortunate enough to have a beach, especially those dependent on tourism, the beach is an invaluable resource that's esteemed, treasured and given extra care and concern.

It's a place where city officials and elected officials constantly visit and hover around to keep track of not only its physical and aesthetic condition, but also to gauge the mood of resident and visitor beach-goers to see if there's any problems or concerns there they need to be aware of.

They are pro-active, NOT reactive and slothful and full of excuses as they are in Hallandale Beach. 

That public sentiment is often an early indicator of the residents' collective feeling about the town itself, since when resident taxpayers feel that a place as high-profile as the beach is going downhill, and not being properly looked after, it's only natural that they suspect that other things in the city they can't see are falling apart, too.

It's only human nature, but it's something the City of Hallandale Beach has been in utter denial about for years, as one problem after another has been left to fester there.
Yet when confronted with the reality, they've instead put their heads in the sand.
The evidence is all around you.

That's why I and many other HB residents I've spoke to over the past 18 months want the city to emulate the City of Hollywood, where the city's Parks and Rec. Dept. manages their award-winning beach, doing a great job that makes them the envy of South Florida.
Just because our beach is so much smaller doesn't mean it has to be managed SO poorly and with so little regard for either safety or aesthetics.

The citizens of this beach-side city deserve MUCH BETTER than they get with regard to beach maintenance and overall attractiveness, and over the next week or so, I will be posting numerous photos to my blog to illustrate the exact nature of the problems I've witnessed first-hand over the past two years.
And letting others in the South Broward area who have an interest know about it, too.


Ask yourself a question: If a well-managed but land-locked city like Coral Springs had a beach this size, what would it look like and how would it be managed?
Now compare that image in your head with the current reality of ours under Mayor Joy Cooper.  
'Nuff said!

Saturday, August 11, 2012

Why did Republican lawyer/lobbyist and media impresario Justin Sayfie's law firm make a $500 contribution to chronically ineffective, notoriously thin-skinned and reflexively-Liberal Democrat Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper's re-election campaign?; @MayorCooper



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450 E. Las Olas Blvd., Suite 1500, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida 33301-2291
Google Maps Street View
Do you really think that Broward legal and political heavyweight Justin Sayfie, when he's up in his Ft. Lauderdale law office, above, cares a whit about the future Quality of Life of Hallandale Beach residents, taxpayers and business owners? If he did, he wouldn't be making campaign contributions to Joy Cooper after her reign of ruin the past ten years, where easily-solved problems from years ago are still everywhere you look around town, owing to her self-evident myopia and her towering ego. 
Why did prominent Republican lawyer/lobbyist and media impresario Justin Sayfie's law firm make a $500 contribution to chronically ineffective, notoriously thin-skinned and reflexively-Liberal Democrat Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper's re-election campaign?

Because he is the establishment and she's the former elected president of the Florida League of Cities, and like all members of the business establishment in Broward who are true believers in crony capitalism, access is more important than any ideas or convictions or... anything

Period.


Yes, you make a real mistake in ascribing noble motives to Sayfie in the abstract that are not at all deserved. He and or his law firm want something.
It's that simple.

The record of the $500 check from Sayfie Law Firm is on page three of Cooper's Campaign Treasurer's report for the period ending in mid-July.
http://www.hallandalebeach.org/DocumentView.aspx?DID=2492

And if you've ever spent any time in Hallandale Beach or around the mayor, you will NOT be surprised to discover that the entry is written down incorrectly as "Sayfe."
http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2011/04/hallandale_mayor_joy_cooper_budget.php


Justin J. Sayfie 
Sayfie Law Firm
450 E. Las Olas Blvd., Suite 1500
Ft. Lauderdale, Florida 33301-2291

Yes, the one right above one of the four $500 checks that she received from ATSAmerican Traffic Solutions, the Red-Light Camera folks in Phoenix who just love the mayor for being so supportive of their efforts.


My July 23, 2012 blog post mentioned this beneficial relationship previously: 
Follow the money? Okay, here it is: $2,000 on page 3 of Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper's most-recently filed Treasurer's Report is from American Traffic Solutions-related entities who support installation of Red-Light Cameras. Like what she railroaded thru in HB. What are friends for, after all?
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/07/follow-money-okay-here-it-is-2000-on.html

Reminder: It's less than two weeks until the professional corporate backscratchers and lobbyists return to South Florida to conduct their "educational" seminars with FL mayors at the Westin Diplomat Resort and Spa in Hollywood. 

I'll bet I can guess who one of the 'belles of the ball' will be... with money to show for it in one of her upcoming campaign Treasury report...
And I wonder if ATS will be there, perhaps being introduced to other mayors by Joy Cooper...

Schedule of Events for the Florida League of Mayors (FLM) at the Florida League of Cities
Annual Conference, Westin Diplomat in Hollywood, Florida
August 22 – 23, 2012 

Wednesday, August 22
2:00 – 5:00 p.m. - FLM Roundtable (Workshop)
6:00 – 7:00 p.m. – FLM Reception 
Thursday, August 23
8:00 – 9:00 a.m. – FLM Nominating Committee
11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. – FLM Business Meeting
12:30 – 1:30 p.m. – FLM Board of Directors Meeting 
Please contact Jenny Anderson at janderson@flcities.com  for more information or to RSVP to the meetings.
Speaking of the Florida League of Mayors, in case you missed it the other day... 

re Public civility -Since we can't count on a competitive, energized and attentive South Florida press corps to point these sorts of hypocrisies out like we once could, I'm happy to remind you of this simple fact: There's what Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper says, and then there's what she actually says and does, and all the evidence to date clearly shows that civility is NOT her middle name; @MayorCooper


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http://www.sayfiereview.com/

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

re Public civility -Since we can't count on a competitive, energized and attentive South Florida press corps to point these sorts of hypocrisies out like we once could, I'm happy to remind you of this simple fact: There's what Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper says, and then there's what she actually says and does, and all the evidence to date clearly shows that civility is NOT her middle name; @MayorCooper



ActsofSedition video: The April 4th, 2012 Hallandale Beach City Commission meeting promised HB residents and pet lovers the opportunity they'd been waiting for several years to speak on a subject they felt deeply about, but when so many people showed-up and wanted to have their voices finally heard, they got a first-hand lesson in how Mayor Joy Cooper does things -her way or the highway- as she decided that after just a handful of speakers, without asking the other commissioners, she had heard quite enough, and on this videotape is heard threatening to toss members of the public out. 

As you can see when Local 10's Ross Palombo asked the former president of the Florida League of Cities whether she regretted her own behavior and decorum at a public meeting, temperamental Mayor Cooper remained defiant -as always.

Meanwhile, days afterward, her November mayoral opponent, Comm. Keith London, as well as HB resident (and longtime opponent of puppy mills) and City Commission candidate Michele Lazarow tell Palombo about the perpetual spectacle that is HB City Hall under the wearisome reign of Cooper and her Rubber Stamp Crew. Uploaded April 11, 2012. http://youtu.be/UNEn1jgTvw4 

See my April 12, 2012 post about this at:
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/when-subject-is-pet-adoption-and-puppy.html

------
For newcomers to the blog, I remind you that this is the same Mayor Cooper who called me a "Nazi" to then-Comm. William "Bill" Julian prior to the start of the continuation of a  HB City Commission meeting up on the 2nd floor of City Hall -where there is no TV to record what transpires there- while they were picking out some food on a buffet spread, while I was simply sitting in a chair near the door waiting for things to start, the only citizen present in the entire room. Moments later, in further remarks to Julian, Cooper called Comm. Keith London "a Hitler.
Before he walked into the room and thus wasn't around to hear her say it.

This is who she is, a point that those of you who give campaign funds to her should well understand, since that puts you in the line of fire, too.

My bold emphasis below -

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2011-05-01/news/pb-meeting-civility-20110501_1_civility-code-commission-candidate-frankel

Return to public civility 'imperative,' mayor says
By Andrew Abramson, The Palm Beach Post
May 1, 2011

WEST PALM BEACH — At Lois Frankel's final City Commission meeting last month, the former mayor cut off the microphone while a resident blasted commission candidate Keith James, who was up for election in a runoff the following day.

Frankel and City Attorney Claudia McKenna pointed to the city's civility code, as they often did at heated meetings. It says that "all remarks shall be addressed to the commission as a body and not to any one member or to the audience."

The City Commission voted to reaffirm that rule Monday. And it's not alone in trying to re-instill civility in public meetings.

The Florida League of Cities is trying to get municipalities statewide to follow West Palm Beach's lead and adopt a civility code written by the league, which calls for respect from both the public and the commission.

"We as mayors actually felt it was imperative," said league President Joy Cooper, who is mayor of Hallandale Beach.

"Because of all the things that have gone viral on blogs, the incivility has worked its way down all the way to the grassroots, town hall and centers, recently with the shooting up north," she said, referring to a school board meeting that turned violent in the Panhandle.

But some believe civility codes go too far in restricting residents' rights.

William McCray, the resident who had his microphone shut off by Frankel on several occasions, is a Palm Beach County sheriff's deputy and former West Palm Beach police officer who won a racial discrimination suit against the city and often engaged in heated rhetoric with Frankel, often calling her racist.

"There is no such thing in the Constitution as a civility code," McCray said. "If you read the history from the inception, when they wrote the Declaration of Independence, they cursed each other out, screamed at each other, fought and challenged each other to duel. They were serious about being able to say what they wanted to say, and that's why we have America."

McCray said politicians should be able to take direct criticism.

"If your skin is not thick enough to handle the rhetoric, you should not be in elective office," he said.

James, an attorney who was elected District 4 commissioner despite McCray's criticism, said cities have a right to adopt civility codes.

"Residents of the city are obviously protected by the first amendment, but I think that the line should be drawn with personal attacks," James said.

However, James doesn't necessarily agree with restricting residents from addressing a specific commissioner or the mayor.

"If they have a beef with me and they do it in a matter in which is respectful and professional, and it seems to be related to the business of the city, sure," he said.

Commissioner Kimberly Mitchell also believes "people have a right to criticize us in the role of a city commissioner."

Cooper said the League of Cities never considered a restriction like the one in West Palm Beach's rule.

"If people want to speak their peace, they want to speak their peace," she said. "Just choose your words wisely and don't be accusatory."

Despite West Palm's decision to reaffirm its civility code as is, James said he doubts new Mayor Jeri Muoio and the commission will enforce it as strictly as Frankel .

"It's a new day in the city and I think the new mayor and the new commissioners coming on hopefully will breathe some fresh life and positive energy into the deliberation process," James said.

Different local governments handle the issue different ways.

Lake Worth passed a civility code last month that "bans name-calling, obscenity and shouting" and requires speakers to refrain from using "fighting words which might incite violence."

Palm Beach County already has a decorum code that says "any person making impertinent or slanderous remarks or who becomes boisterous when addressing the commission shall be barred by the presiding officer."

The county will go a step further Tuesday and vote to ban political campaigning during commission meetings. Residents will not be allowed to wear, display or distribute political campaign materials and will be barred from making political comments at the microphone, unless it's in response to a referendum question.

County Administrator Bob Weisman said a county attorney examined recent case law to make sure such a clause would be legal if adopted by the County Commission.

Carmine Priore, the mayor pro tem of Wellington and former League of Cities president, made an initial statewide civility push in 2008. Priore said it was as much about the behavior of commissioners as the public.

"What I saw and found was there were some cases where members within their own city were not carrying out what I would like to see as civil discussion," Priore said.

The same might be said about West Palm Beach, where Frankel and Mitchell for years were vocal enemies who would argue on the dais, occasionally leading to profane outbursts.

Priore thinks civility codes are more than symbolic, and he said he's seen a difference in Wellington since its rule was enacted.

"We've made great strides in that effort," Priore said. "You can truly have differing opinion without being uncivil."

Monday, July 23, 2012

What's worse? The galling audacity of the feckless Sun-Sentinel giving free space to thoroughly-mendacious Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper, 16 weeks before the election, or her stridently self-serving lies re Red-Light cameras in Hallandale Beach, which she and her Rubber Stamp Crew rammed thru to gain more revenue for the city? American Traffic Solutions could NOT be any happier for the free plug, and will no doubt have a campaign check to Cooper on its way soon -if it's not there already; @MayorCooper



West-bound Hallandale Beach Blvd. & N.W. 9th Terrace, Hallandale Beach, with the so-called Red-Light camera warning sign posted a block farther east of the camera on the corner of N.W. 9th Terrace, which, as it happens, is also a popular area for dangerous U-turns. It's right around here somewhere... 
In what way, exactly, is the red-light camera warning sign "visible" from this distance? September 25, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier 

Or visible from this distance? August 19, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier 


Or from this distance in the right-hand lane? September 25, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier 



Where did it go? Shouldn't we see it by now? September 11, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier 



Oh, there you are, red-light camera warning sign, intentionally placed right between two trees!
You only see the sign above because of the reflection of my camera's flash, since it's pitch-black there at night.
You'd almost say they were hiding it, yes?

Looking west on W. Hallandale Beach Blvd. & N.W 10th Terrace, Hallandale Beach, April 24, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier 


As if the summer hadn't already been hot enough and embarrassing enough for residents of Hallandale Beach, who have once again had to watch in complete dismay as their city was once again involved in being on the wrong side of an ethical issue, due to the city's own longstanding incompetence and failure to pay close attention to either a written contract or to what its taxpayer citizens said and demanded.

And as usual, Mayor Joy Cooper thinks she knows better than everyone else, and as we've seen so many times before to our own chagrin, nobody-but-nobody in South Florida government and public policy believes and swallows her own mendacious lies like Joy Cooper does.
It's like she even has to lick the mixing spoon, so thoroughly does she fall for her own self-delusions and serving lies.
So, can you believe it's happened yet again?

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Red-light cameras save lives, fund essential research
5:40 p.m. EDT, July 22, 2012
By Joy Cooper
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/fl-guest-cooper-cameras-mon0723-20120722,0,6873108.story


What's worse? 
The galling audacity of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel in giving free space to thoroughly mendacious Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper 16 weeks before an election to spread her unique brand of un-reality, which shows complete contempt for the truth, or the degree of her stridently self-serving lies re the issue of Red-Light cameras in Hallandale Beach, which she and her Rubber Stamp Crew at the time rammed thru in order to to gain more revenue for the city, NOT because of safety, as anyone who is even slightly-objective and paying even the barest of attention to the proceedings would know, given how very poorly Cooper and her puppets articulated their point of view?

The Sun-Sentinel won't admit it publicly anytime soon, but trust me, it just got rolled and played like a country bumpkin by a consumate con-woman in Joy Cooper, who won't acknowledge any truth but the truth in her own mind, regardless of what the national, state or county law is, and regardless of what the law requires.

That personal disconnect of her's from both the reality and the law that the rest of us have to obey and deal with explains a good part of old-fashioned dislike and contempt in with Cooper is held by the portion of this city's populace that is well-informed and actively engaged, which includes myself as it happens.

That's a pretty telling statement, alright, and yet the South Florida news media as presently constructed continues to fail to ask how it could be that Cooper is both so consistently on the wrong side of both the facts, the law and history, and yet remains in office.
Cooper is the conundrum that won't go away on her own accord, but they ignore what's right in front of them.

To me, someone like Susan Candiotti or Ike Seamans in the Miami TV news of the 1970's and '80's, before they went national with CNN and NBC News respectively from Channel 10/WPLG and Channel 4/WTVJ, would've positively jumped at the chance to put together a news report or two within a short period of time that pinned the tail of responsibility and failure on this donkey, with common sense facts and wit and a few lacerating-but-fair questions with a microphone pointed Cooper's way.

Yes, nobody in elective office in South Florida has profited more from the sleepwalking state of the South Florida press corps more than Joy Cooper.
Their absence is her wish come true, day-after-day. 

It's really too bad for the rest of South Florida who doesn't live here and who doesn't know the true facts, that there wasn't anyone from any of the local Miami TV stations or newspapers
consistently attending all or even most of those HB meetings on Red-Light cameras.
Someone in the press corps actually paying attention to the facts and reality, since then they could've seen everything for themselves, including what the citizens here were overwhelmingly saying and thinking.

Yes, but then that was back when both newspapers largely liked to pretend that HB didn't exist, and didn't send reporters here for large parts of a year.
In the Herald's case, nearly a year-and-a-half as I recall
Not so very different from now, actually, esp. when something of note is going on in Hollywood on a Wednesday.

Yes, it's hard for me to not think about how much better it would be if one of the TV stations had actually sent a film crew and actually caught then-Police Chief Magill on film caught up in the fanciful story that he had to spin for the mayor and city manager's benefit.
So much so that he actually got tripped-up weaving his lies about traffic statistics & anecdotes re north-bound U.S.-1 and Hallandale Beach Blvd., the media's new cause-celebre at the time because of how much in fines was coming into City Hall.

Magill lied about an accident with a fatality that happened elsewhere -near City Hall- in order to make it seem as though it happened there, in order to justify the city's placement of the camera.

You remember, the warning sign erected behind the bus shelter, on the far side of
the sidewalk, so that passing drivers couldn't really see it?
Right before the entrance to The Knife?
That's the one!

But Chief Magill got caught lying, alright, and I and many of you out there reading this witnessed it, and in any case, it's on the city's videotape.
blogspot.com/2011/02/now-as-
before-facts-seldom-if-ever.html

Yes, nobody from the South Florida news media was really the least bit interested in hearing what the citizens of this community had to say, which was that it was done, plain and simple, to raise revenue, at the behest of Cooper and the City Manager.

Yet another attempt by her to use the city as a prop to score points and chits with her League of Cities pals who have never set foot in this city, and who have no earthly idea how disastrous a mayor she has been for this community for ten years.
The South Florida news media could've cared less about any of that! 

If they'd shown up and been properly prepared, they'd know that the City of Hallandale Beach City Manager and Police Chief Magill were so disinterested in having an honest exchange and fair discussion of the issue that they refused to even reveal to citizens basic info, like where the highest percentage of speeding tickets in the city were issued, and where were the intersections with the highest number of accidents, since logically, IF you believe in cameras, that's where the cameras should go if safety was really the number one concern.

But the city refused because they knew the information would NOT support their faulty theory or its carefully chosen location of cameras.
Even in committing their fraud, they were unconvincing because the facts simply don't support what they say, and nobody lied more than Joy Cooper.

When the city commissioned a survey/poll by mail with a Kansas-based company, with very poorly-written and frankly, LOADED questions, the Red-Llight cameras came back as THE number-one complaint,
Guess who pretended that the #1 problem citied by her own citizens wasn't really a problem?

Guess who had the nerve on the one hand to pat herself on the back for voting to have the survey done, and then ignore the #1 problem citizens cite?
Yes, Joy Cooper, in her typically thin-skinned, confrontational and oblivious way, which I'm sure that American Traffic Solutions won't forget now that she's running for re-election against the only person on the dais with any integrity who fought against the inside con job by her and city employees -Comm. Keith London.
In here piece, you'll also notice how Cooper completely neglects to mention the huge amounts of money the city initially made, which is THE only reason that the South Florida news media paid any attention in the first place, since that was the last time HB was mention in newspapers or on TV all over the state the way it was before the lifeguard incident three weeks ago, which she also had NOT been 100% truthful about.

I trust that I don't have to spell it out for you that this sort of fact-free, propaganda BS from Mayor Cooper should NOT be allowed to go unchallenged, because in the year 2012, we simply can't rely on the quaint idea that the South Florida news media will actually verify
anything that this mendacious women says before it gets into print or on air.
Sadly, that's an ideal that no longer exists in South Florida.

-----

Photos from my February 24, 2011 post that showed the truth regarding the mayor's lies, in a post I labeled, Now as before, facts seldom if ever matter in red-light camera debate in Hallandale Beach. Instead, it's just a pathetic case of "Show me the money!"

blogspot.com/2011/02/now-as-
before-facts-seldom-if-ever.html
Below are some photos of a self-evident fact that I and many tens of thousands of other Hallandale Beach and Hollywood residents have known about ever since the red-light camera was installed on Hallandale Beach Blvd. & N.W. 10th Terrace, Hallandale Beach, with the so-called warning sign posted a block farther east on the corner of N.W. 9th Terrace, which, as it happens, is also a popular area for dangerous U-turns.


It's here somewhere...



It's right around here somewhere.
In what way, exactly, is the red-light camera warning sign "visible" from this distance?
September 25, 2011

Or this distance? August 19, 2011


Or from this distance? September 25, 2011



Where did it go? Shouldn't we see it by now? September 11, 2011



Oh, there you are, red-light camera warning sign, intentionally placed right between two trees!
You only see the sign above because of the reflection of my camera flash.
You'd almost say they were hiding it, yes?
Looking west on W. Hallandale Beach Blvd. & N.W 10th Terrace, Hallandale Beach, April 24, 2011.

In fact, it's not until you are almost parallel to the sign itself, assuming you notice it among the other signs preceding it, that it's visible to west-bound drivers in the road lane that is actually CLOSEST to the sign. That seems illogical on its face doesn't it?

Shouldn't the lane closest to the sign at least see it at roughly the same instant others do?
Instead, the driver closest to it is the one driver most likely to NEVER see it.
How exactly is that common sense?

The fact that there is no street light there only makes it even worse at night, as this photo below amply demonstrates.


Above, the red-light camera warning sign on the north-side of west-bound W. Hallandale Beach Blvd. at N.W. 9th Terrace on February 27, 2011 at 6:40 p.m., a bit past sundown.
The ONLY reason that you even see the sign above is because I'm standing on the curb and pointing my camera directly at it, using my camera's flash.

And that assumes that you the driver aren't distracted -and a bit un-nerved- by the sight of the over-grown palm fronds that obstruct the electronic message board directly behind it.

September 11, 2011

Hmm-m... erecting an electronic message board behind a palm tree on a west-bound roadwhere a setting sun is often brutal at times?
No, nothing bad could ever go wrong with that sort of well-organized plan.
Well, unless it rains .. and the palm fronds get larger.
And aren't properly maintained and cut.
Like the reality in Hallandale Beach since that particular red-light cameras went up.


Where's that red-light camera warning sign?
Looking west on W. Hallandale Beach Blvd. approaching N.W 10th Terrace, Hallandale Beach. About 6:50 p.m., April 24, 2011.


Where did you say that red-light camera warning sign was, again?
No, it's not that silver-colored one next to the curb, that the Merge/Bike lane sign. 
Looking west on W. Hallandale Beach Blvd. & N.W 10th Terrace, Hallandale Beach, April 24, 2011.