Csaba Kulin exposes the multi-million dollar bill to be borne by Hallandale Beach taxpayers for having a disconnected City Commission that was -and is- NOT interested in paying close attention to detail or in asking tough questions. That's how and why former City Managers Intindola and Good have made out like bank robbers

Above, Hallandale Beach City Hall Complex monument, Hallandale Beach, FL. May 15, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier

Csaba Kulin exposes the multi-million dollar bill to be borne by  Hallandale Beach taxpayers for having a disconnected City Commission that was -and is- NOT interested in paying close attention to detail or in asking tough questions. That's how and why former City Managers Intindola and Good have made out like bank robbers 


Most regular readers of this blog might recall that a few weeks ago I promised that I'd soon have some pretty jaw-dropping evidence to share about what's really been going on in this ocean-side city for years, thanks to consistently having the wrong people in the wrong place at the wrong time.


Now, thanks to the diligent hard work and research of my friend and fellow Hallandale Beach & Broward County civic activist, Csaba Kulin, the taxpayers of this city and anyone else truly interested in good government -or the lack of it- can finally wrap their heads around these galling and unbelievable numbers.


Csaba details for you in very stark terms what the true cost has been the past ten years for having elected officials in Hallandale Beach who did NOT pay close attention to detail, and who did NOT demand a reasonable level of scrutiny of public policy proposals or changes in personnel policy. 


The true costs of having so many inattentive and easily-distracted City Commissioners who did NOT ask probing questions, or make the financial well-being of this city and its taxpayers their first priority.
Instead, we've had people who were just happy to sit on the dais and almost eager to act as mere Rubber Stamps, lest they be required to do any real thinking.




Csaba and I have been talking and meeting about this particular pension change matter for many, many months.


Which is to say that even as former HB City Manager R.J. Intindola, up in Georgia, and his one-man peanut gallery in HB, Andrew Markoff, have continually sought to publicly malign and attack, in both print and at HB City Commission meetings, myself, Comm. Keith London, 
Change Hallandale's Michael Butler and many other HB residents who desperately want genuine reform, transparency and accountability in this city, I've kept quiet.


Why?
Because I had the satisfaction of already knowing that the cold hard facts were going to come out eventually, and rain hard on the three of them and Dotty Ross, Joy Cooper and William "Bill" Julian.


The truth that would show that even while South Florida's incurious news media has largely snoozed the past ten years on what was happening in Hallandale Beach, with the Miami Herald not even regularly covering public meetings in-person, facts would come out that showed how self-righteous and self-serving former City Managers Intindola and Good were.



(My Sept. 28, 2011 post titled, Holding a mirror to R.J. Intindola - May be time soon to publicly open-up on know-it-all ex-HB CM, and reveal 'inconvenient' facts he avoids really raised the hackles of former City Manager Intindola, since he doesn't like public criticism of any kind, so he accused me in print of being a liar, and thought he would embarrass me. But as you read the facts stated by Csaba below, you'll see that I was right and also see why Intindola's so sensitive -he's got a lot to be defensive about. And a lot to be embarrassed about!  

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/holding-mirror-to-rj-intindola-may-be.html )


Facts that would also show what a complete dupe Markoff was for continually singing the praises of someone like Intindola, who aggressively pushed a pension change to the City Commission one year before he retired himself, a change that he stands to personally benefit from to the tune of an extra $2.1 Million from HB taxpayers.


To paraphrase what I wrote last month on April 11th about former HB Commissioner and 2012 candidate William "Bill" Julian, "Ten years of NOT just being being wrong on the issues and facts that were important for Hallandale Beach's beleaguered  taxpayers and residents who wanted to see their city improved, but ten years of being stubbornly foolish and myopic in their bad judgment."
30 Weeks until Election Day, and candidate William "Bill" Julian STILL shows no remorse over his years of myopia, incompetency, apathy and bad votes that hurt HB taxpayers and made the city a laughingstock. Just like Comm. Sanders!
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/30-weeks-until-election-day-and.html



It's taken much longer to post here than I originally planned, but I believe the wait was worth it to get the true facts out to the public who'll actually be footing this bill for decades to come.
And who will be voting in November.


-----
May 18, 2012



Dear Friends:


For a number of years, I have been very critical of the management and administration of our city of Hallandale Beach.
The Mayor and the City Commission, prompted by the City Manager, have made many terrible policy decisions over the past ten years that have put this city's residents and businesses on edge -and on the hook.


Today, I'm going to share with you a little of what I've learned and expose one of worst decisions ever made at City Hall, a decision that will continue to negatively affect the City’s finances and policy choices for the next 8-10 years.


Prior to September 30, 2001, the City of Hallandale Beach employed a 401K type pension plan for its Professional/Management employees.
On August 8, 2001, encouraged by then-City Manager R. J. Intindola, the City Manager voted to freeze the 401K retirement plan and institute a new DEFINED BENEFIT (DB) plan for the Professional/Management employees.
This policy change was entirely OPPOSITE of the direction that most entities were moving towards ten years ago.


The most damaging part of this particular conversion, not easily found in the supporting documents that were provided to me, was in the “fine print” of these ten-year old records, and here's why it's so damaging to Hallandale Beach's taxpayers and why perhaps the city has NOT made these documents so easy to access.
As they entered the new DB plan, this class of city employees kept their accumulated 401K balances.
When you start a new DB pension plan, it's generally the case that every employee starts out like a “new” employee, with ZERO years of “PRIOR YEARS SERVICE.”
Plain and simple -a new plan, ZERO years of prior service.


But NOT in Hallandale Beach!


In Hallandale Beach, every one of these professional employee started out the new DB plan not with zero, but rather with the number of years of “PRIOR YEARS SERVICE” they'd worked for the City prior to the new plan.


This one item, as best I can determine, has cost the City about $3,602,389 at its start, and the costs have only escalated over the years.
Let me illustrate the unfair and devastating financial effects of this last point by using two well-known employees as examples -former City Managers R.J. Intindola, who was the mastermind behind the new DB plan, and Mike Good.
They were two of the approximately forty (40) employees who were the major beneficiaries of this conversion.


(As an interesting side-note, the incoming HB City Manager, Renee Crichton, served as R.J. Intindola’s Assistant City Manager during the conversion period. Given her position at the time, she clearly had some degree of involvement in the entire process, but nobody on the City Commission inquired into the exact details of her involvement prior to her selection as City Manager. It was yet another missed opportunity for the HB City Commission to get the facts out to the public about the true state of its finances.)


But despite the City Commission agreeing to the very unusual step of counting past service from the start, instead of starting off with ZERO, it was not quite enough of a “gift” to the Professional/Management Employees.


Soon after the new pension plan started, “to improve morale and help recruitment”, and with the full support of City Manager Intindola, the Professional/Management employees asked the HB City Commission to improve their own pension benefits so that they matched those of the Hallandale Beach Police/Firefighters, which would mean granting full retirement benefits at age 52 for all Professional and Management Employees at City Hall.


Despite the preposterous idea of comparing working indoors at HB City Hall with the myriad duties and often risky job responsibilities performed by Police Officers or Firefighters, the HB City Commission agreed to the proposal.


R.J. Intindola worked for the City of Hallandale Beach for 20.67 years, but only one (1) year and one (1) month was under the new DB plan.
When he retired on November 9, 2002, he retired with 20.67 years of service, plus 4 years of “service buy-back”, for a total of 24.67 years of service.


With his average salary of $9,990 per month, due to these changes that he supported and which the City Commission approved, R.J. Intindola now receives $8,107 per month or $97,284 per year that he would not have otherwise received.
That includes the $200 “additional benefit” and $400 “contractual increase” per month, for good measure, until the end of his life.


He retired at age 52 and his life expectancy is 30 more years, therefore Hallandale Beach taxpayers can expect to pay him $2,918,520 (30 times $97.284).


Not too shabby for 13 months of work under the new DB pension plan he managed to shepherd thru the 2001 City Commission, which then consisted of Mayor Dotty Ross and Commissioners Joy Cooper, Bill Julian and Francine Schiller.


Now you may wonder, how much would R.J. Intindola have been entitled to if he did receive that 20 years of prior service years?
He would have been entitled to one (1) year of service plus 4 years of service buy-back equal to five years of service.


The 3.2% per year multiplier would have given him $1,598 per month, plus the $600 additional per month, which comes to $26,380 per year.
That total payout is $791,424 over his lifetime, but that is still $2,127,296 less than what Intindola is now scheduled to receive because the HB City Commission approved the changes without fully considering the long-term consequences of its vote in 2001.


Mike Good worked for the City for 20 years, but when he entered the DROP program on April 1, 2005, he had only 3.5 years under the new DB plan.
He purchased 5 years of service “buyback” to get to his 25 years maximum benefit of $8,672 a month.


Let me help you with the math: that's $104,064 per year, or $3,121,920 over the next 30 years.


Three Million, One Hundred and Twenty-One Thousand, Nine Hundred and Twenty Dollars.


Mike Good should have received 3.5 plus 5, for a total of 8.5 years of prior service.
His average salary was $10,840 a month, therefore he is entitled to $2,948 a month, $35,376 per year.
That is $1,061,280 over his lifetime but is actually $2,060,640 less than what Good is actually scheduled to receive now because of the City Commission votes.


So let's do the math.


These two city employees will cost the City of Hallandale Beach and its taxpayers $4,187,936 more than than they would have cost if our 2001 City Commission of Ross, Cooper, Julian and Schiller would have been smart enough to recognize the terrible misrepresentations of City Manager R.J. Intindola and his paid co-conspirator, consultant Rocky Joiner of The Segal Company, and voted NO.


(City taxpayers paid Mr. Joiner $15,000 for this marvelous retirement option for the very people who recommended him.)


If you were to analyze the rest of the employees covered by the same Defined Benefit pension plan, including our current City Manager Mark A. Antonio, you would be amazed to see the cost of that one obscure little clause in the pension documents.


The total unearned excess cost will be well over Ten Million Dollars.


As we have all watched with increasing dismay and genuine concern what has been taking place at HB City Hall over the past few years, we've all talked many times about the law of “unintended consequences” with respect to actions and votes by the City Commission.


But in my opinion, it was NOT simply an “unintended consequence,” rather it was the intention of the direct beneficiaries of the change -former City Manager R.J.Intindola and his then-assistants- to greatly benefit themselves at the expense of all the taxpayers of Hallandale Beach.


The recent special audit performed by Marcum LLP uncovered some 260 exceptions, mostly in the CRA, but as I have often stated publicly, in my opinion, we desperately need to have an “audit” done of the City Manager’s office.
In the past ten years alone, there have been so many “exceptions” made there that one could write a book about them.


My limited look at personnel decisions made by the City Manager's Office have raised a lot of troubling questions in my own mind, and I happen to be someone who firmly believes that HB taxpayers are entitled to have honest answers to those questions, since the HB City Commission, as presently constructed, is NOT interested in providing reasonable and logical answers to taxpayer's financial questions.


Whether answers to questions about why over-sized raises were given to “special” employees, or what precisely was behind a decision to make a $400,000 settlement with a former city employee to “make someone whole” at retirement time, or many others we still do not know the full answer to.


That's NOT by accident.


Many of us in Hallandale Beach know from personal experience that getting "public" information we're legally entitled to from HB city employees -and City Hall- is like pulling teeth. And it's equally true that unless you know ahead of time precisely what it is you want, very little information is voluntarily offered.
As if that weren't frustrating enough, it frequently seems as if the city intentionally misunderstands or misdirects your questions to further frustrate you.


Though I wish that it weren't true, because it's clearly contrary to this community's best interests, I am confident that the “word” comes down from the very “top” to keep information away from the public like it's a “nuclear secret.”


Csaba Kulin

Years of Service Prior to 10-1-2001

R.J. Intindola     19.67

Mike Good        16.50

Years of Service After 10-1-2001

R.J. Intindola     1.00

Mike Good        3.50

Years of Service Purchased

R.J. Intindola     4.00

Mike Good        5.00

Total Years of Service

R.J. Intindola     24.67

Mike Good        25.00

Average Monthly Compensation

R.J. Intindola     9,989.97

Mike Good        10,840.37

Monthly Benefit (years x average compensation)

R.J. Intindola     7,886.48

Mike Godd        8,672.30

Additional Benefit

R.J. Intindola     200.00

Sub Total

R.J. Intindola     8,086.48

Mike Good        8,672.30

Pre-retirement death benefit reduction

R.J. Intindola     7,965.18

Optional form of conversion rate

R.J. Intindola     7,706.93

Contractual Increase

R.J. Intindola     400.00

Current Total Monthly Benefits

R.J. Intindola     8,106.93

Mike Good        8,672.30

Current Total Annual Benefits

R.J. Intindola     97,283.16

Mike Good        104,067.55

Current Lifetime Benefits (30 year)

R.J. Intindola     2,918,494.80

Mike Good        3,122,026.56

Corrected Monthly Benefit Should Be

R.J. Intindola     1,598.40

Mike Good        2,948.58

Additional benefits

R.J. Intindola     600.00

Total Monthly Benefits

R.J. Intindola     2,198.40

Mike Good        2,948.58

Total Annual Benefits

R.J. Intindola     26,380.74

Mike Good        35,382.97

Lifetime Benefits Should Be

R.J. Intindola     791,422.27

Mike Good        1,061,489.03

TOTAL LIFETIME OVERPAYMENT

R.J. Intindola     2,127,072.53

Mike Good        2,060,537.53

26 weeks from now, it's my hope that when we wake up that Wednesday morning, we'll have some new faces in familiar places. People who intrinsically know the difference between right and wrong... and who aim to change the dynamic and mood of Hallandale Beach and its citizens

Above, looking south on U.S.-1/S. Federal Highway in front of Hallandale Beach City Hall. May 6, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier.


26 weeks from now, it's my fervent hope that when the people of Hallandale Beach wake up that Wednesday morning, we'll have some new faces in familiar places.
Like the place above, which has figured in so much of what has been written here the past five years.

New faces who intrinsically know the difference between right and wrong, foresight and myopia, and common sense and... well, what we've had on the Hallandale Beach City Commission for far too many years: sheer benign neglect, lack of oversight and diligence, and a self-evident lack of respect toward Hallandale Beach's beleaguered citizen taxpayers.

-----------------------

Miami Herald

HALLANDALE ELECTION RESULTS REVEAL DEPTH OF DESPAIR OVER STATUS QUO

By GRIFF WITTE

March 15, 2001

A day after Hallandale Beach voters jettisoned the two most senior City Commission members, the numbers showed just how deeply residents were disaffected with the city's status quo . 

Voters in all sections of Hallandale Beach were responsible for ousting longtime incumbents Arthur ``Sonny'' Rosenberg, 81, and Mayor Arnold Lanner, 79 - completing a commission make- over that began two years ago when two other incumbents, Hy Cohen and Gil Stein, were replaced by newcomers. 

In a city famous for choosing elderly incumbents, Dorothy Ross, who won reelection Tuesday, is now both the longest serving commissioner (six years) and the only one older than 70 - she's 74. 

In the northwest, a predominantly black area where Lanner got more votes than any other candidate in 1997, newcomers Bill Julian, 48, and Francine Schiller, 59, swamped the competition - winning 157 and 148 votes respectively. 

Lanner managed only 15 votes, and Rosenberg had 16. 

The challengers also were able to pry away an impressive number of east side votes. In areas like Three Islands, where Rosenberg and Lanner once held strong bases of support, Schiller and Julian doubled the incumbents' totals in one precinct. 

``Nothing's been happening in this city for years, and residents of all parts wanted a change,'' Julian said Wednesday. 

Schiller and Julian ran on a platform of easing the disparities that exist in this highly polarized city, and the struggling west side responded as expected. 

``That's all they spoke about - taking care of the west,'' said the Rev. Josh Brown, president of the Community Civic Association, based in the Northwest. ``That's why they got a lot of votes here.'' 

The leadership that takes over on Tuesday remains untested. A commission that had nearly 50 years of combined experience in public office before the election now has just 10. 

``They're green as grass,'' said Lanner minutes after his defeat was official. ``They don't know a thing about this city.'' 

But Vice Mayor Joy Cooper, 40, elected two years ago, said the new perspective and attitude of the commissioners far outweighs any lack of experience. 

``The people want civility from the commission,'' said Cooper, who frequently battled with Rosenberg on the dais during the last two years. ``Enough was enough.'' 

On Tuesday, Rosenberg, wearing sunglasses and a loose-fitting collared shirt, was the picture of serenity as he sat on a bench Tuesday outside the Diplomat Mall. 

But something was wrong. Rosenberg was smiling too much - going too far out of his way to talk with every potential voter who passed, said Cohen of his fellow octogenarian, who, despite a quarter-century in politics could never be described as a glad-hander. 

``I've never seen him do this before,'' said Cohen, implying that Rosenberg knew he was in trouble. A few hours later, Rosenberg admitted as much, saying his defeat at the hands of political newcomers was ``to be expected'' given the city's demographic shift toward a much younger electorate. 

Now, residents are likely to see a lot of changes in some basic ways the city does business, Cooper said. 

Schiller and Julian championed the idea of shifting the city's morning meetings to the evenings so people who work during the day can attend. 

Cooper said Wednesday she will support that shift, and also will ask that city advisory board meetings be held at night. 

Other proposals that could move forward include creating an elected mayor, having commissioners elected by districts and redeveloping blighted roadways such as Foster Road, West Hallandale Beach Boulevard and North Federal Highway. 

``We have the votes now to get some of these things moving,'' Cooper said.

-----

So what happened???

So very creepy! Why does Hallandale Beach Vice Mayor Bill Julian hate the physically disabled so much? His despicable track record tells the tale!

Above, a screenshot of Hallandale Beach Vice Mayor William "Bill" Julian from a late September 2010 newscast of Channel 7, WSVN-TV, Miami.
The "Vice Mayor Julian" ball caps are from his private collection, and are NOT available to the public at any price, even at nearby upscale Aventura Mall.

Coming this weekend to my humble blog, with photos aplenty: So very creepy!
Why does Hallandale Beach Vice Mayor William "Bill" Julian hate the physically disabled so much? His despicable track record tells the tale!

The forthcoming post has been in the making for years -sort of.

If you are a regular visitor to this space, you already know that I've made cryptic references to this upcoming post about Julian for months and months, knowing that it would one day need to see the light of day, for my own sake, if not for the greater community's edification and illumination.

I'll be honest with you, it hasn't always been easy.

There were countless times over the past few years when I got so angry and frustrated, and was literally made speechless at what I'd personally witnessed at Hallandale Beach City Hall, that I was half of a mind to just go ahead and post what I knew for a fact, anyway, regardless of the circumstances.

But as we all know, context is everything, and just because you know something, doesn't mean you need to tell everyone else.

You have to sometimes let your head over-rule your heart, even when you know what you have witnessed was NOT right by any stretch of the imagination.

Well, that day of discovery is drawing nearer by the hour.
Conveniently, right before the election.

But words are hardly necessary when you have devastating self-evident photos that connect-the-dots on abominable personal and professional behavior.

If a photo speaks a thousand words, what do dozens of photos over several years showing the same contemptuous and noxious behavior say?

With well-nigh dozens of objective witnesses?
And camera surveillance video?
The city's!

I'll tell you - they speak volumes about Julian's true lack of character.

And his foolish, over-the-top sense of entitlement in this small ocean-side city.

And, his personal belief that nobody would ever do anything about it, or say anything publicly, because of who he is and who he knows.

But who Julian really is is nothing but a dim-witted little man with a grand idea of himself and an out-of-control sense of entitlement.

Albeit, a dim-witted little man with a vote on this city's legislative body that helps decide this poorly-run city's future.

A future Julian has personally made so much worse than necessary by his own lack of personal attention and accountability to the position of power he was entrusted with by this community's citizens.

By any reasonable measure, he is a failure, at once the perfect patsy and "Yes man" all rolled into one, facts for which Hallandale Beach mayor Joy Cooper is quite appreciative of.

So much so, that just like her overweening, know-it-all young protege, Alexander Lewy, for whom she and her husband hosted a fundraiser last month at her home in the Golden Isles section of town, so too was the Cooper red carpet rolled-out for Bill Julian.




Curiously enough, when the fact that Mayor Cooper and her husband has hosted a Julian fundraiser was publicly mentioned by Comm. Keith London at a public Candidates Forum held at O.B. Johnson Park in NW Hallandale Beach two weeks ago, to remind everyone that Mayor Cooper would do whatever she could to defeat London, a fact well-known to everyone in the city paying any attention at all, Julian, somewhat incredulously, took indignant umbrage, saying that bringing this fact up constituted an "attack."

Really, facts are "attacks," and a fact that everyone in the community knows is true, including Julian, constitutes an "attack"?
Need I say more about Julian's reasoning skills?

That's who Julian is.
I was going to say that's who he is, for better or worse, but with Julian, it's strictly worse and worst!

Not that you have probably been thinking about it at all, but I've wondered for years what Julian's old friend and colleague, former HB City Comm. Francine Schiller, would think, when she finally finds out just what sort of abominable, unethical and illegal behavior her pal Bill was actively engaging in, even while she was sitting next to him on the dais.
When she was forced to sit in a wheelchair.

Now THERE'S a good question that somebody ought to pose to Schiller once she finally gets word about what kind of genuine creep her pal Bill is and was.
Maybe one of you reading this will even be the person to convey the upsetting message to Schiller after you read it here, and see the damning photos for yourself.

Julian's secret is coming out, but don't count on any kind of remorse from him once everyone knows the truth.
He doesn't know the meaning of the word remorse.
But that's hardly unusual, since there are many words that Julian doesn't know the meaning of.

Now, with barely three more days to go until the election for the two available seats on the Hallandale Beach City Commission, regardless of what happens on Tuesday, everyone who wants to know the truth, will know.

Yes, transparency is a wonderful thing.
No wonder Messrs Cooper, Julian, Ross & Sanders fear it so!

-----
P.S. I may try to upload the video I shot of the HB Candidates Forum at O.B. Johnson Park on October 11th. Check back here on Sunday.

Hardly Breaking News: Anthony A. Sanders' Political Honeymoon is Over

My comments follow the spot-on comments of South Florida Sun-Sentinel columnist Michael Mayo below.

It's a copy of an email I'd already been writing long before Michael Mayo's powerful one-two punch of Sunday and Monday, with his column and blog posting on the latest (but certainly not the last) Hallandale Beach ethical scandal at City Hall.

Once I saw his column early Sunday morning, online, and then re-read it again over lunch at Denny's, I knew that the time had come to finally send out the thoughts that have been percolating inside my head since last August.

I post that email here with the hopes that perhaps reading Mayo's words and perspective, along with mine, might finally penetrate the brick wall of some in the community, who refuse to acknowledge what's been right in front of them at City Hall for so long, in all its petty and galling form.

I sent this out as an email on Tuesday afternoon to not only citizens, residents and business owners I know in Hallandale Beach, Hollywood and Aventura, but also to many print/TV reporters, columnists, producers, editors and management at South Florida media properties, most of whom I either know or have communicated with at some point in the recent past.

Many of them are quite familiar faces, people whose names you'd recognize, while others were folks who toil behind-the-scenes, but whose opinion helps decide what does and does not appear in print or on screen.

Yes, gate-keepers.

I also made a point of sending a copy to some of their sharper counterparts around the state in Orlando, Tampa/St.Pete, Jacksonville, Tallahassee and points in-between, whom I've also communicated with in the past on one issue or another, often about transit and transportation policy.

Many of them have also written about similar govt. excesses and abuses of power, or violations of the Sunshine Laws throughout the state, so they have a natural interest in the subject and want to know when and where it's happening again.

Unethical and anti-democratic behavior by locally elected government officials and their employees, coupled with efforts to usurp Florida's Sunshine Laws, ought to be of concern in every Florida community and news room, regardless of where it's located.

It simply can't be tolerated, and after the people behind it are exposed, they need to be properly punished and made an example of, to discourage similar behavior elsewhere.

In the current sad case involving Hallandale Beach, the serial offenders are 4/5ths of the elected City Commission, the City Manager and the City Attorney, whose collective ethical standards are so malleable and self-serving that they actually take umbrage at you describing the truth about what they do.

How dare I tell the truth about what they do!

Don't I know that Mayor Joy Cooper went to The White House recently?

Yeah, I know -big deal.

Neither President Obama nor his staff had any earthly idea of who and what Mayor

Joy Cooper is, and what she's capable of, for if they did, she'd never have been allowed to get past the White House security gate she went through, a gate I have more than passing familiarity with.

No, an elected official who consistently displays the sort of anti-democratic behavior and ethical scruples of Joy Cooper would never been allowed to set foot anywhere near the White House when Jed Bartlet was president, because you can be damn sure that either Toby Zeigler or Josh Lyman -or both!- would've made it crystal clear to Miami mayor Manny Diaz what the consequences would be if he didn't have a heart-to-heart talk with Cooper at the hotel.

Something along the lines of:

"Mayor Cooper, The White House says you can't come over for the League of Cities ceremony.  They found out about your completely un-necessary $3,700 City Hall office construction project, and didn't like the way it looked.  They were greatly concerned that a Florida reporter might ask if you are an example of the kind of person who will be making spending decisions with the economic

stimulus funds Washington is sending out."

Right, someone who bills city taxpayers for a new City Hall office that's not necessary, and who enjoys staying overnight at upscale South Florida hotels on the taxpayers dime when her home is less than an hour away, because it feeds into both her imperious attitude and bottomless well of vanity.

As someone who knew both the facts and the City Hall attempts to evade and obfuscate, not just with the Sanders' property in question here, but with all the other questionable incidents over the recent past, some of which have yet to even see the light of day, I was happy to temporarily play the role of Paul Revere.

I also took the liberty of sending a copy of this to many South Florida politicians and state legislators, in particular, the entire Broward County Commission.

I did that so that they could NOT once again claim they didn't know anything about it, an excuse I and other Hallandale Beach citizens have heard far too many times in the past when illegal or questionable things happened in this community.

There's no denying that the "It's just Hallandale Beach" excuse is a very powerful one, as I've been told before by reporters and columnists that I respect, and as there's been so much anti-democratic negativity emanating out of Hallandale Beach City Hall for so very long, at a certain point, people outside the immediate community reach a saturation point and don't want to hear any more about it. 

But those of us who actually live here think we deserve much better than what we've been given, and will start holding publicly accountable the very people in government and law enforcement who are supposed to protect and preserve the rights of the public under both state and county laws -or report on same. 

As it happens, I also sent a copy of this to the offices of Governor Charlie Crist and Attorney General Bill McCollum, so that their staffs would know in no uncertain terms, exactly what the citizens of this community are up against at Hallandale Beach City Hall -determined serial offenders.

______________________________

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/columnists/sfl-flbmayocol022209sbfeb22,0,1136190.column

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

For one politician, Hallandale Beach's land purchase seems heaven-sent

Michael Mayo

News Columnist

February 22, 2009

The Hallandale Beach City Commission moves in mysterious ways. Take the case of Higher Vision Ministries and the Eagle's Wings Development Center in the city's impoverished northwest area.

At a hastily called Feb. 12 special meeting, the commission approved buying the church-owned property where the Eagle's Wings community center stands for $235,000.

That's $35,000 more than the city's most recent appraisal of the land (in November), nearly $90,000 more than the value listed by the Broward property appraiser and $190,000 more than the church paid for the land in 2001.

Considering the way the economy and local real estate market have been tanking, that's a pretty sweet deal for Higher Visions.

So who runs the church and the social-service center? Pastor Anthony Sanders.

The same Anthony Sanders who's a Hallandale Beach commissioner.

"We were supposed to do this two years ago, long before I was on the commission," Sanders said Friday. "Back in early 2007, the price was $350,000. This should have been done a long time ago, but the city kept dragging its feet."

Sanders, elected to the commission in November after being appointed last summer, abstained from the 3-1 vote. He said the price was fair, noting two other appraisals that valued the property at $275,000 and $230,000.

But one city-sponsored appraisal put it at $147,000, and the most recent valued it at $200,000.

Given the circumstances, Commissioner Keith London (the lone dissenter) said the city should have waited longer. Or at least had the sense to take up the matter as a clearly labeled agenda item at a regular commission meeting.

The land purchase wasn't listed on the agenda for the special meeting. It was brought up as "other business" during the session called by Mayor Joy Cooper on an unrelated matter. The meeting wasn't held in the commission's usual spot where sessions are videotaped, but instead was in an upstairs room without cameras.

"Does this pass the smell test?" said London. "I don't think so."

You'd think Hallandale Beach commissioners, who took a public relations pounding for engineering a pay raise in a similarly sneaky way a couple years ago, would have learned by now.

The city, through its Community Redevelopment Agency, has vague plans to build an affordable housing project on the block where the center stands.

"We're doing it for the good of many, many people in Hallandale," said Vice Mayor Bill Julian, who approved the deal with Cooper and Commissioner Dorothy Ross.

London didn't understand the rush: "If somebody said we have to buy this parcel by a certain date to complete a plan or it will fall through, then I could see doing it. But there is no plan."

I called City Manager Mike Good to get their version of events but didn't hear back.

Sanders said the deal closed on Feb. 13, the day after the special meeting, with the money already in the bank. The Eagle's Wings center hasn't been given an eviction date, he said. The center, which provides computer and other training classes and submits food-stamp applications for residents, was open on Friday.

"Is it standard to buy a property from a commissioner and then let them use it rent-free?" London said.

Sanders said London is grousing because of "envy."

"This isn't a personal thing," London said. "It's a finance issue."

Sanders' church bought the property for $45,000 in 2001. Eagle's Wings has received $130,000 in city grant money this decade, along with county and state contracts. The nonprofit agency's 2007 tax return listed income of $113,190 in government grants.

Sanders, a longtime activist in the northwest area, said the city's purchase of the property is "just a drop in the bucket," noting the $12 million the city spent to acquire land for a park in a better part of town.

Sanders has been critical of the redevelopment agency's stagnant efforts in the northwest. Two-thirds of Hallandale Beach falls within the CRA boundaries, including robust areas near Gulfstream Park.

"When the economy was up, we didn't do anything [in northwest] and now the economy is down and they say we can't do anything," said Sanders. "So when can you do something?"

Seems like Sanders' commission colleagues have already done plenty for him.

Reader comments at: http://www.topix.net/forum/source/south-florida-sun-sentinel/TFOEQPNE0606QV7J6

Michael Mayo followed-up his spot-on Sunday column with a Monday post on his blog, Mayo on the Side, headlined, Hallandale mayor: Land deal didn't need commission approval

http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/columnists/mayo/blog/2009/02/hallandale_mayor_land_deal_did.html

Reader comments at: 

http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/columnists/mayo/blog/2009/02/hallandale_mayor_land_deal_did.html#comments

-----------------

Now we have witnessed not so much the 'last straw' as much as the last logical move that we've all, more or less, been anticipating since the 'August Surprise" resignation of Commissioner Fran Schiller.

A calculated move that suddenly brought Pastor Anthony Sanders into our midst at Hallandale Beach City Hall within five minutes of the announcement of a future vacancy, all without ever allowing the public to comment in any way before the vote took place.

A vacancy that was filled like a 'Rush-order' in five minutes, despite their being another regularly scheduled HB City Commission meeting two weeks later, well

before Schiller's resignation would go into effect.

A public meeting where HB citizens and residents could've spoken to the sort of qualifications or qualities they preferred in an interim commissioner, not

what kind Mayor Cooper and City Manager Mike Good preferred.

At a minimum, regardless of the public's own individual personal preference for a replacement, most would've insisted that the position be filled in exactly the same way as the last vacancy was handled in November of 2006, 21 months before, where Cooper and Good's City Hall repeatedly crowed to the press about theimportance of having a transparent and deliberate process in choosing Joe Gibbons' interim successor.

So what happened to that deliberate process back in August?

Simply put, that process became an Inconvenient Fact, and got in the way of what they wanted to do.

Deep down, are you really surprised that the same City Hall crew that made their TRIPLE 'salary grab of 2007' or that approved Mike Good's over-the-top city manager's contract in December, all without the item being properly placed on the agenda, being properly noticed for the public, and without any staff/backup documents being offered before the vote, over lunch, would do it again?

As I've said so many times, there's nothing coincidental about it -that's their default M.O., modus operandi.

They're serial offenders without any shred of remorse.

Seriously, why, given the current economy and the awful financial condition of the city, would Mayor Cooper want to spend over $3,700 for construction of a new office for herself, when there was nothing physically wrong with her existing one?

Because she can, and she doesn't really care at all what you think about it. 

COMMISSIONER REQUEST

REQUEST #048/09

DATE: January 5, 2009  

TO: Bill Brant, Director Public Works

Jennifer Frastai, City Manager Administrator  

FROM: Commissioner Keith London  

THRU: D. Mike Good, City Manager

The following information/action was requested by Commissioner Keith London as noted: 

RE: Commission Office Expenses  

Please provide me with the following information: 

• Copy of the time sheets for everyone who worked on Mayor Cooper new office space.
• Wages including benefits for everyone who worked on Mayor Cooper new office space
• Copy of expense reports for materials to create Mayor Cooper new office space.
• Copy of receipts of materials
• Original letter asking for a new office from Mayor Cooper

 

Additionally, please include what all commissioners have requested for office improvements                           

__________________________ 

Please take the necessary steps to complete the request and submit a Summary

 Report to my office no later than January 19, 2009.

__________________________ 

DATE: January 13, 2009      

TO: D. Mike Good, City Manager 

FROM: William Brant, P.E., Director, Public Works, Utilities & Engineering  

RE: Above Commission Request 
 

SUMMARY REPORT:  

Staff received request on November 18, 2008, (W/O # WF0031889, WF 0031987) to install window in room 202, move the Mayor's furniture and paint Commissioner Sanders Office. This project was completed by December 31, 2008.  

Staff respectfully request to consider this CR completed and closed. (MM) 

Labor / Wages  

Pedro Perez $35.91 hr  48 hrs $1,724.00 Mayor's Office 

Michael Harris $27.37 hr 24 hrs $560.00 Mayor's Office 

Donald Williams $30.21 hr 7 hrs $211.00 Mayor's Office 

Edward Ryan $30.21 hr 8 hrs $241.00 Sanders Office

Total   87 hrs $2,736.00 

Invoices  

K&K Mirror $360.00

Home Depot $237.40

Sherwin Williams $232.44

Total $829.84 

PROJECT TOTAL $3,565.84 

Staff Researching Request  

Michael Morse $54.16  1.5 hrs  $81.24  

Dean Lettera $59.71  1.5 hrs  $89.56 

Yolanda Benitez $26.07  1 hr  $26.07

Total   4hrs  $196.87 
 

PROJECT TOTAL INCLUDING ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF  

84 HOURS $3,762.71 

___________________________________

Department Head Signature       Date 
 

Department Director/Staff Time to Complete: 4 hrs

City Manager/Staff Time to Complete: 

_________________________

DATE: January 19, 2009     

TO: D. Mike Good, City Manager

FROM: Jennifer Frastai, City Manager Administrator

RE: Above Commission Request

SUMMARY REPORT: 

The following is a list of furniture expenses:

Mayor Cooper's:

Conference Table: $968.08

Desk Chair: $333.98

Guest Chair: $230.45

File Cabinet: $423.85

Delivery/Set up/Freight: $205.00

Commissioner Sanders:

Desk Chair: $203.49

Desk Accessories: $242.43

Guest Chair (2): 334.80

_____________________

Department Head Signature       Date

Department Director/Staff Time to Complete: 2 hrs

City Manager/Staff Time to Complete: 

So why do you suppose Mayor Cooper waited until AFTER the November election

to demand a new office, despite their being nothing wrong with her old one?

It's not an aberration, it's simply the way they WANT to do their 'business':

self-dealing and doling out your tax dollars to the favored few, away from

the public glare of both citizen's notice or the attendant prying eyes of the local media, such as it is.

There's a logical reason that all these particular matters happened in a HB City Hall room, over lunch, where not a single camera is present, and where Minutes of that particular proceeding won't be publicly available for many, many months:

Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper, City Manager Mike Good -and yes-man City Attorney David Jove, who continually winks at both the spirit and letter of our state's Sunshine Laws- are desperately trying to evade public scrutiny and accountability, otherwise they'd stop doing the same thing over-and-over, year-after-year.

But they're not stopping, are they?

Back in early August, Arturo O'Neill was sitting next to me in the HB City Hall Chambers the moment that Comm. Fran Schiller's "surprise" announcement was made public.

Arturo immediately turned to me and even before Mike Good finished reading the Schiller resignation letter that he himself had written, said something amazingly prescient and remarkable.

Arturo said that he thought that Mayor Cooper would name Pastor Sanders

 as interim HB commissioner, and might, in effect, leverage that interim

appointment for her political support in the future, plus support the city's

purchase of the Sanders' property, even at a higher cost than seems logical, given the current real estate market, the property's location, and, certainly not least, NO specific public plan to actually do anything there that anyone could point to.

In exchange for his seat at the dais and the mayor's support, at some point in the future, Sanders would try to elicit/create public support in NW Hallandale Beach to re-visit the crazy and unpopular waste plant idea that Mayor

Cooper and City Manager Good attempted to foist on that community for so very long.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have our new Nostradamus -my friend, Arturo O'Neill.

So far, 100% accuracy!

As soon as Arturo said it, it not only sounded 100% plausible to me, it sounded

exactly like the sort of crude sweetheart deal this HB City Hall crew would do,

regardless of how it looked publicly or the costs involved, financial or otherwise,

since as a practical matter, they practically dare HB citizens, residents and the press to do something about their unethical and questionable behavior by continuing to engage in it.

They've found a form of behavior and mode of operation that fits their particular self-interests, and they have no desire to abandon it.

Six-and-a-half months after Sanders was named a Hallandale Beach Commissioner, we now clearly see the logical and predictable result of that tactical move in August by Cooper & Company, just as Arturo presciently predicted.

We see the logical result of the Miami Herald and South Florida's Sun-Sentinel's editorial board election endorsement of Sanders for November's election, where the Sun-Sentinel wrote a story about the HB city commission

race AFTER their endorsement, and the Herald, well, they NEVER wrote even a single story about the HB race.

We see the logical result of the Herald's management and editors consciously choosing to NOT send a reporter to cover the HB City Commission meetings since early June of 2008, at the Joint City Commission meeting with the City of Hollywood, noteworthy for Mayor Cooper strongly suggesting the idea of Hollywood joining them in a lawsuit against the state because of their upcoming outfall requirements.

I've already mentioned to many of you over the past few weeks at venues all over the area that as far as I was concerned, Anthony A. Sanders' political honeymoon had long since ended, and that the very folks in this city who voted for him must now must be wondering just what exactly they got for their troubles in November.

I know for a fact that they wonder, because people have told me so, stopping me at grocery stores, coffee shops and even over at the beach, to share their disappointment and chagrin.

Of their dashed hopes that he'd be a positive voice for change and reform on the HB City Commission, and begin to undo the taint that has been attached to it for so many years.

And how they watch the Commission meetings from the Chambers or from their home on the city's under-utilized cable channel and wonder when he's going to actually -finally- ask a single good probing question from the dais that reveals some degree of knowledge about what's going on all around the city.

Instead, he gives the same canned responses and glittering generalities he's

been spouting for six months.

They wonder when he's going to actually show some independent thought, and

challenge something Mayor Cooper or City Manager Good says or does, not for the sake of disagreeing, but rather because he honestly disagrees with them and has what he believes is a better solution in mind to resolve a problem.

Instead, he simply nods in agreement, hour-after-hour, month-after-month.

Not a voice for change, reform or accountability, but rather just an echo chamber,

someone happy to be on the dais.

In the political and govt. system the City of Hallandale Beach operates in,

Sanders is supposed to represent ALL the citizens and residents of this city,

not just the ones in the NW part of the city, though you wouldn't necessarily

know it by what he and his supporters actually say and do.

And I say that as someone who gave him the benefit of the doubt, and who has long been in favor of a HB City Commission that was comprised of both fixed districts as well as at-large seats, like Aventura's.

If you're really curious and want to see what the real appraisal numbers for the Sanders property were before Mayor Cooper & Company appointed him to the commission, or forgot exactly how we got to this sad point, where the

public-be-damned is HB City Hall's motto, just go to my blog, since I publicly identified them LAST year.

Sanders property at 501 N.W. 1st Avenue, Hallandale Beach, Florida
The appraisal information then was as follows:

LB Slater Appraisal #13057 $147,000

LB Slater Appraisal #13057a $147,000

Butterfield Appraisal #8785 $275,000

Broward County Property Appraiser Value $146,360

Speaking of municipal boondoggles, if you haven't already seen it, please see the article and comments here:

 http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking-news/story/915287.html:

As you may've noticed in the email address field above, I'm sending a cc of this to many people whom you've undoubtedly heard of or seen before, each of whom has power or influence to some degree by virtue of their job.

Some of them actually know all about what's been going on here in Hallandale Beach, and have either asked me or others about it via phone calls, emails or face-to-face encounters here in town, where they've seen for themself what things are really like here, dismayed at how self-evident the problems are, even while HB City Hall whistles past the graveyard.

Still others are folks who haven't shown any interest at all, but really ought to have, given their jobs, yet don't even bother to feign interest when they're made aware of what's been going on here for so long under the current HB City Hall crew.

I won't name names here, but they all know which category they fall into -and so do I.

In the future, you might want to ask some of them. especially the media people,

why there's such a pronounced indifference to what's going on here in the year 2009.

Ask them why it's so difficult for their media organization to cover local non-crime news in this part of Broward, and, IF this is going to continue, why

should you want to read/watch the words/video of people who are, at best,

indifferent to what's going on where you live.

It's your choice after all, and in the year 2009, they need you MUCH MORE

than you need them.

In particular, you might want to ask that question to the Herald's David

Landsberg, the paper's publisher and president. 

I will tell you, though that for myself at least, the longer the newspaper makes the conscious choices they do, which ratify the status quo, the less the Miami Herald's future, if any, is an emotional issue for me, and becomes merely an

academic question.

As for me, I no longer concern myself with the personal feelings of South Florida politicians, government employees, news reporters,  editors, producers and media management, who act like what I can readily observe everyday around me in this part of Broward County, is either NOT really happening, or isn't important.

I disagree and will make my future choices accordingly, and suggest that you do the very same.