On Wednesday night, Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper has to defend her freelancing, breaking of city's rules in order to help her friends at Gulfstream Park Race Track & Casino with bldg. code fines they EARNED. Again! Her campaign contributors, Gulfstream Park, must really love her "Special Rules for Special People" form of advocacy, but why does she save her energy & love for a multi-million dollar company instead of insisting they follow the law and finally fix up their appearance problems?

Do you recognize this "temporary" facility at Gulfstream Park's south parking lot. No, it's not the Hindenburg 2.0's new air hangar. What you're looking at above, looking east, is the "temporary" horse barn being constructed on the south side of the Gulfstream Park Race Track & Casino, below, and to the southeast of the Village at Gulfstream Park retail complex off U.S.-1/South Federal Highway, that is the center of an ethics controversy surrounding the rogue activities of a mayor in a city that has seen plenty of those -Hallandale Beach. September 27, 2013 photo by South Beach Hoosier. (c) 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved.

Local10: Mayor wants $52K fine against Gulfstream Park waived
No vote taken on waiving fine at Hallandale Beach budget meeting
By Bob Norman, Reporter, bnorman@Local10.com, and Ben Candea, Senior Web Producer, bcandea@local10.com
Published On: Oct 04 2013 06:13:16 PM EDT   
Updated On: Oct 04 2013 11:51:10 PM EDT
http://www.local10.com/news/mayor-wants-52k-fine-against-gulfstream-park-waived/-/1717324/22282006/-/p0vivbz/-/index.html

Agenda for Wednesday night's Hallandale Beach City Commission meeting at 6:30 p.m.

http://www.hallandalebeachfl.gov/files/2013-11-06-FINAL/Agenda%20Outline%20for%202013-11-06%2018-30.htm

Agenda item # 14E under City Business

E.    CONSIDERATION OF GULFSTREAM PARK PERMIT FINES FOR PERMIT #13-2881, GULFSTREAM TEMPORARY BARNS. (STAFF: DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT SERVICES) (SEE BACKUP) (Staff Report, Supporting Docs)

Consider this helpful Local10 video a helpful predicate for better understanding this blog post for those readers trying to make sense of it far from Hallandale Beach. 

Just a reminder, Gulfstream Park Race Track & Casino is directly across the street from HB City Hall.

Local10 video: Mayor wants $52K fine against Gulfstream Park waived

No vote taken on waiving fine at Hallandale Beach budget meeting
By Bob Norman, Reporter, bnorman@Local10.com, and Ben Candea, Senior Web Producer, bcandea@local10.com
Published On: Oct 04 2013 06:13:16 PM EDT   
Updated On: Oct 04 2013 11:51:10 PM EDT
http://www.local10.com/news/mayor-wants-52k-fine-against-gulfstream-park-waived/-/1717324/22282006/-/p0vivbz/-/index.html

On Wednesday night at 6:30, Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper has to defend her track record of having broken the city's own written rules of operation in order to help her friends at Gulfstream Park Race Track & Casino in their attempts to get out of paying legitimate building code fines they were guilty of. Again!

The fact is that when it comes to building code violations, especially of the egregious kind,

Gulfstream Park Race Track & Casino is a serial offender. They have been cited many times by the city and state and are currently paying fines everyday because of previous violations they are trying to avoid paying, despite lots of evidence gathered by both city and state officials. (Some of which is in the staff backup info above.)

But this is who the mayor is trying to defend while defending herself, and she still wants to stiff the citizens of this community and have them just swallow the fine, like it was an after-dinner dessert. 

But why should they?

Especially given that Gulfstream Park is a serial offender?

Mayor Cooper is legally and morally supposed to represent the citizens, taxpayers and small business owners of this community and put their best interests above all other interests, including her own. 

She actually takes an oath of office that requires her to faithfully obey the Florida Constitution and the laws of this state, swearing NOT to break its laws. 

She also is obliged to obey the laws, rules and ordinances of this rather imperfect city and one of them specifically concerns "Interference with Administration."

Mayor Cooper is NOT legally allowed to decide on her own personal or political whims to wear multiple hats, to abrogate her duties to the city and this community and then take sides against it by taking it upon herself to represent the financial interests of the city's largest employer in a matter -AGAINST the people of this very community who have
Gulfstream Park dead-to-rights and a reasonable expectation that the mayor of the city is NOT actively working against THEM. 

In this city with its current City Manger form of government, as opposed to a Strong  Mayor form that exists in many Northern cities, Mayor Cooper clearly broke the city's own written administrative code on interfering with the day-to-day operations when she began inquiring and asking questions and making demands of city employees.

The specific rules involved are located at the bottom of this email.

Mayor Cooper has no legal authority to help a third-party, Gulfstream Park, get out of

paying a fine from the city and the state and yet she tried to do both, even trying to have the  state's fine waived too until the city attorney told her that night that the city did not have the legal authority to do so.

Frankly, it was embarrassing that this even had to be said out loud.

There's a carefully-proscribed and written process for city commissioners interacting with city employees and it's one she did NOT follow.

But then she also did NOT follow common sense and did NOT show a commitment to integrity and transparency when she tried to have the HB City Commission waive the fine GP owes within mere minutes of her having told them about it at the end of a long September 25th night meeting, with no information for the confused members to read or think about, just Cooper's words and public admission of what she'd done.

That this matter was not on the agenda or opened up to the public to discuss was immaterial to Mayor Cooper-she wanted the fine removed ASAP.

But she was defeated in her attempts to circumvent the public's right -and city commission's- to know more about this matter in advance and in some detail that did 

NOT rely solely on her word alone.

Can you imagine such a preposterous thing as her thinking they'd vote on a matter involving tens of thousands of dollars AND that would set a very bad precedent based solely on what she said, with no facts or supporting evidence?

It's clear that Joy Cooper, quite literally, sees herself as indispensable.

But she is the mayor of a small city with a city manger form of government, not the mayor of a large urban city with a strong-mayor form of government, yet despite this difference and the well-understood written rules about what is and is not acceptable, she just keeps doing whatever she wants and dares anyone in a position of authority to stop her.

Cooper continues to show that she wants to make as many important decisions for the city (and everyone else) as possible, without adequate vetting and public disclosure.

As she tried to do on September 25th.

Her erratic and unprofessional behavior suggest to me that she is putting herself and the city on very thin ethical and legal ice thru her conduct and behavior, which would not be taking place with a competent City Manager at the helm.

But as little as I and most of the people I know think of mediocre and mendacious City Manager Renee C. Miller, whom we gave plenty of chances to actually be the reform person she claimed to be last summer in speaking to her in-person, but who has failed to be that person by even the slimmest of standards, even we don't think she'd allow Cooper to do all this if she was around.

So while the not-so-effective cat was away on maternity leave, the erratic, unethical mouse does whatever she wants to do and laughs.

Did you know that Mayor Cooper was actually dumb enough to claim at that very same City Commission meeting that some of the info discussed at these meetings she attended was "proprietary."

First, I doubt that was the case because the others involved can't be dumb enough to not know that Cooper can't keep a secret, and would feel the need to share the info ASAP just so she could pump her own thin-skinned and fragile ego.

Second, if the info was "proprietary" info, by placing herself there, anyone, like me or a TV reporter or another developer, could legally make a public records request for all the documents she was given and any notes she made, and Mayor Cooper would be on her own and have no ability to use the taxpayers wallets to defend herself.

It would be up to Gulfstream  to get their attorneys involved, not the city's problem.

Which is to say, taxpayers like you and me.

Absent a legal motion, the city would have no choice but to turn over the documents.

It's hard to believe but it's true that even after all these years, Mayor Cooper seems unable to grasp the fact that in her position, she is NOT entitled to be involved in any internal discussion among parties who will have business before the city and be in opposition to the city or other businesses in the area who would necessarily be disadvantaged by certain things being done for the first company.

She is NOT legally in a position to say what the city would or would not do, and yet she seems to keep doing just that, doesn't she?

And in the process, keeping the four other elected members of the five-member City Commission completely in the dark on important matters in this city.

That's NOT how a well-run city runs.

Not that the city is or ever has been anything close to a well-run city, but do the standards here have to continue to be this low?

-----

CHARTER OF THE CITY OF HALLANDALE BEACH

ARTICLE III. - CITY COMMISSION

DIVISION 1: - ELECTION AND QUALIFICATIONS

DIVISION 2: - POWERS AND DUTIES

DIVISION 3: - VACANCIES  

DIVISION 2: - POWERS AND DUTIES

Sec. 3.05: - City commission; powers; composition.

Sec. 3.06: - General powers and duties.

Sec: 3.07: - Prohibitions.

Sec. 3.08: - Investigations.

Sec: 3.07: - Prohibitions.

 (2)   Appointments and removals. Neither the commission nor any of its members shall in any manner dictate the appointment or removal of any city administrative officers or employees whom the manager or any of his subordinates are empowered to appoint, but the commission may express its views and fully and freely discuss with the manager anything pertaining to appointment and removal of such officers and employees.

(3)    Interference with administration. Except for the purpose of inquiries and investigations, the commission or its members shall deal with city officers and employees who are subject to the direction and supervision of the manager solely through the manager, and neither the commission nor its members shall give orders to any such officer or employee, either publicly or privately. Nothing in the foregoing is to be construed to prohibit individual members of the commission from closely scrutinizing by questions and personal observation all aspects of city government operations so as to obtain independent information to assist the members in the formulation of policies to be considered by the commission and assure the implementation of such policies as have been adopted. It is the express intent of this provision, however, that such inquiry shall not interfere directly with the ordinary municipal operations of the city and that recommendations for change or improvement in city government operations be made to and through the city manager.

(Ord. No. 1999-15, § 1, 8-17-1999; Ord. No. 2003-28, § 2, 11-18-2003; Ord. No. 2008-04, § 2 (3.08), 3-5-2008)

Sec. 3.08: - Investigations.

The commission may make investigations into the affairs of the city and the conduct of any city department, election, office, or agency, and for this purpose may subpoena witnesses, administer oaths, take testimony, and require the production of evidence. Any person who fails or refuses to obey a lawful order issued in the exercise of these powers by the commission shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and punishable by a fine of not more than five hundred dollars ($500.00) or by imprisonment for not more than thirty (30) days, or both.

(Ord. No. 2003-28, § 2, 11-18-2003)

ARTICLE VII. - OFFICIAL CONDUCT

Sec. 7.01: - Standards of ethics.

Sec. 7.02: - Personal financial interest.

Sec. 7.03: - Penalties.

Sec. 7.01: - Standards of ethics.

All elected officials and employees of the city shall be subject to the standards of conduct for public officers and employees set by general law and this Charter. In addition, the commission may, by ordinance, establish a code of ethics for officials and employees of the city.

(Ord. No. 2003-28, § 2, 11-18-2003)

State law reference—  Code of ethics for public employees, F.S. § 112.311 et seq.

Sec. 7.03: - Penalties.

Violations of ordinances or this Charter shall be punishable in accordance with the uniform fines and penalties set by general law.

(Ord. No. 2003-28, § 2, 11-18-2003)

State law reference—  Penalty for violations, F.S. § 162.21.

 I was going in a clock-wise direction as I shot these photos, which can be enlarged by right-clicking with your mouse while hovering over the individual photo.
All original photos on this page are by me and from September 27, 2013. (c) 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved.

These photos are all looking east at the "temporary" horse barn with condos in background actually over on State Road A1A and the beach.

Looking southeast from the same spot towards the City of Aventura park on the other side of the fence on NE 213th Street, where the kids and parents have absolutely no idea what's in store for them for the next entire year.

The photos below are all looking due north at the main grandstand, casino and  restaurants.

Gridlocked traffic? Bad drivers? Bad roads? Hallandale Beach has got that covered -and preserved on Google Maps! And next-door Aventura remains gridlock city, too!

View Larger Map

U.S.-1/S. Federal Highway & S.E. 5th Street, Hallandale Beach, FL as seen by Google Street View, April 2011. Looking west from Village at Gulfstream Park. For those of you who live far from me, there's no traffic light there, rather it's just traffic going in four different directions all at the same time! SNAFU!

The image above is of the intersection directly in front of Hallandale Beach City Hall, to the upper right, and the Main Post Office to the left,

(Correct, the Post Office whose parking lot was pitch-black at night for over an entire year,)

How perfect is this image for describing what things are really like here in chaotic S.E. Broward County, where someplace four miles away can take 20 minutes to get to?

From my perspective, the only thing that's really missing above are the cars making the illegal left-hand turns south onto U.S.-1 from The Village at Gulfstream Park retail complex -near Crate & Barrel, Container Store, Pottery Barn and West Elm- which I observe a few times a day, but which the HB Police, located across the street next to City Hall, never EVER notice.

Even though the vast majority of the thousands of seasonal French-Canadian residents this area gets every Fall and Winter have long since started making their trek back to Québec and Ontario, in the late afternoon here, there is still often gridlocked traffic on U.S.-1/Federal Highway/Biscayne Blvd. from Hallandale Beach Blvd. all the way south to the Ives Dairy/N.E. 203rd Street exits in Aventura, a few blocks south of Aventura Hospital, a place that as many of you know, I have become all-too-familiar with over the past two years.

That's a distance of just barely below three miles, one I frequently walk when the weather is nice and I'm going to catch a movie or do something at the nearby Aventura Mall, but it's often at least a 15 minute drive, since there is no other way available to get to that part of HB because of the Atlantic Intercoastal Waterway and Gulfstream Park.

(Most smart people in Aventura needing to get to I-95 North know that to beat the impossible traffic on Ives Dairy, it's much quicker and less-stressful to simply make a left on N.E. 208th Str. and catch E. Dixie Highway north -parallel to the FEC Railroad tracks- which becomes S.E.1st Ave. in HB, then hang a left across the RR tracks at County Line Road (N.E. 215th Street/S.W. 11th Street) and then take it to S.W. 8th Ave., turn right and go north, coming come out on Hallandale Beach Blvd., with 1-95 a half-mile to your left.)

These physical and geographical hindrances to easier and more common sense driving in this crowded area are made worse by the inadequate and myopic planning by the City of Hallandale Beach the past 45 years, as I'll be discussing in much more detail soon, since there has not been a single new road going north-south or east-west in that area to relieve the stress on U.S.-1 in the past forty-five years.

This is made all the worse by the deal struck years ago by the officials of Gulfstream Park with the City of Aventura -and the silence of FDOT- to NOT create a road extending N.E. 213th Street west from U.S.-1 to E. Dixie Highway, despite plenty of space to do so, to get traffic onto secondary roads with no residents.

Gulfstream's deal with the City of Aventura forces all north-bound cars to pass Gulfstream Park.

It's no mystery why there's gridlock around here, since there's plenty of blame to go around.

View Larger Map

Elsewhere in the state, over four hours north of us, we have news about the the logical result of living in Florida for too long: Bad Florida drivers, Bad Florida gridlock and Bad Florida roads equals...VERY BAD Judgement

Cops: Girl's Kin Towed Her Toy Car Behind SUV. Drunken Florida grandparents busted for child cruelty

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/grandchild-towed-behind-suv-578912

In 98 more days/14 weeks from today, oblivious Hallandale Beach City Manager Mark Antonio goes buh-bye! And take your myopia with you, too!

Looking south from U.S.-1/Federal Highway towards Hallandale Beach City Hall and HB Police Dept. HQ. March 21, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier.  


Can you make out what those shiny adhesive letters at the bottom of the street light pole above spell out?
That is to say, the store-bought adhesive reflecting letters that were clearly placed there on purpose with attention to detail by people who wanted to make sure that everyone driving into or past the HB City Hall and HB Police Dept. HQ noticed their handiwork, esp. at night.
After all, they're perfectly positioned to catch headlights, just like others throughout the city.


No?
Okay, well, here's a slightly closer look...

 

March 21, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier. 

Yes, it reads "HGS."
Do you remember them?

Or their opposition hereabouts, "est," "Doloe Greys," "AQ"...

Sure you do, if you're a regular reader of the blog or a HB resident or business owner, since they're the same folks that for years who have left their unmistakable tags on the vast majority of available traffic signs, traffic poles, mail boxes, parking lot signs and writable surface in Hallandale Beach, whether walls or sidewalks.
No, they don't discriminate on surfaces since they just want everyone to know who did it.

The tags, reflective letters and regular spray paint, are most noticeable, though, to both residents and visitors alike, when driving, biking or walking along U.S.-1/Federal Highway, as you leave or enter Aventura in Miami-Dade County, where it's Biscayne Blvd., and leave or come into Broward County and Hallandale Beach, with the Gulfstream Park Race Track & Casino and the upscale Village at Gulfstream Park retail complex right there, the largest employers in the city.

Above, "HGS" on the bottom of the street light pole next to the U.S.-1/Federal Highway (southwest) entrance to Village at Gulfstream Park. The graffiti has been there for well over three years, the same amount of time one of the two street lights on the pole has been COMPLETELY MISSING. This is yet another one of the many things that the geniuses at Gulfstream never quite catch onto that create a very bad first impression of the place. And for good reason! February 23, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

The persistence of the graffiti problem along the main streets of this city for YEARS paints not only a very bad impression of this city, it creates an even worse one for the people who are paid to manage this city and supposed to be able to TRY to resolve self-evident problems.


Those crews responsible for the graffiti are also over-represented all along Hallandale Beach Blvd., whether in the nooks and crannies of individual stores, like the doors of Little Caeser's Pizza, or parking lot signs, where they have long since taken over the Nick's parking lot off N. First Avenue, just north of HBB, a popular place for cops.

I've written about them and their unattractive handiwork here a few times, posting photos.

But as it concerns "HGS" today, I mean to reference the graffiti tags that are in front of Hallandale Beach City Hall and Police Dept. HQ right now.
Like right this second.

And just like yesterday.

And last week.

And last month.

And last year.

And... so on. 

Yes, last year, 2011.

I've never previously mentioned it here on the blog but in the Fall of 2011, during the Public Comments part of one particularly frustrating HB City Commission meeting, I walked to the microphone and quite enthusiastically scolded Hallandale Beach City Manager Mark Antonio for how truly oblivious he'd been -and ineffective- in resolving numerous self-evident Quality-of-Life problems that have plagued and frustrated HB residents, families and business owners for YEARS.
And I specifically mentioned the very ones that they and their neighbors have been forced to look at every day for YEARS -graffiti.

Old Dixie Highway & S.E. 9th Street, across the street from Bluesten Park, the largest city park, and four blocks from the Police Dept. HQ and City Hall. March 21, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier. 

Problems with rampant graffiti that Antonio (and his highly-paid assistants) either consciously ignored or pretended not to notice from their bunker on U.S.-1, since noticing would actually require some tangible action on his/their part and the city's, not to mention, the HB Police Dept., so famous for otherwise generally shrugging their shoulders when presented with a problem to solve, as has been noted here on the blog previously.


Well, as you might imagine, Antonio didn't take the public criticism of his unsatisfactory performance very well, esp. since I was somewhat detailed in describing the hard-to-miss tags at well-known locales all over town, a point that was reinforced by all the nodding heads in the audience as I spoke.

But I saved my big guns and sarcasm for the end, which is why I and so many other HB residents I know who were there, or who watched the proceedings online, were literally incredulous at hearing City Manager Antonio admit that he had never noticed all the graffiti along U.S.-1, from the Aventura-HB city line/County Line up to Hallandale Beach Blvd.and beyond, which has been omnipresent for YEARS.

Including the graffiti that was near, adjacent to and in front of Hallandale Beach City Hall and the HB Police Dept. HQ.

Like this other one on the sidewalk, DIRECTLY even with the public entrance to HB City Hall and the HB Police Dept.

 
March 21, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

And across the street from this scene and HB City Hall...


The Village at Gulfstream Park.  March 21, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier.  

You would've thought that I had super-vision or something, rather than 20/15 vision -until a few months ago- because the one thing I never expected was for Antonio to admit that he hadn't noticed it.

I expected the usual litany of excuses that we residents in HB have become accustomed to hearing to explain why we all just had to live with negative results, while other cities at least try to actually solve their problems, not just accept defeat.


Getting angrier than I have been at any South Florida public/civic meeting, before or since, I said something along the lines of that admission of his speaking volumes for how little attention he'd really been paying all these years as Assistant City Manager, given his responsibilities to actually do something positive, and reminded him and the audience of the fact that he had worked in that building ever since it opened.

Readers with a good memory will also recall that I also told his assistant, Jennifer Frastai, all about these sorts of problems four years ago, when I spent almost an entire hour with her and former Asst, CM Franklin Heilman in a conference room in the CM's office, explaining the source of longstanding citizen frustration in this city,.

I gave very detailed explanations and a reminded them that they could always look at this blog for contemporaneous photos to prove it, since the problems weren't exactly secrets.

The two of them did NOTHING with the information.

I concluded my remarks by saying that to me, Antonio, who wears glasses, was incredibly myopic, perhaps conveniently so, and needed to open his eyes for a change to see what was right in front of him.

Not just the graffiti, but all the other many messed-up things in this city, starting with how his own dysfunctional and uncivil bureaucracy and red tape dispenser continually angers citizens, playing favorites as I've mentioned previously, with special rules for special people.

And then I told everyone in the room that all the City Manager needed to do to see how accurate I was was to walk out the Chambers door and walk over to the nearby sidewalk and see what was right in front of City Hall, even as I spoke.

That, of course, was the proof positive of his longstanding myopia.

It's clear months later after saying that that Antonio had no genuine interest in ever opening his eyes and now, he's on 'cruise control,' more oblivious than ever, with him recently acting more like he's a sixth city commissioner trying to persuade a colleague of something, rather than an un-elected administrator who is supposed to work for the city commission and carry out their policies, not his own.

Why 'cruise control'?

Because he knows that after June 29th, this city is not his problem anymore.

March 21, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier. 

Minutes before taking the photographs above on Wednesday outside the current HB City Hall, I swung by the old HB City Hall on Dixie Highway, between S.W. 3rd & 4th Streets, and it too looked like it has for well over ten years: a filthy eyesore of a black hole to the nearby  middle-class neighborhood, and a completely wasted economic opportunity for the whole city, even though it's just feet from where an FEC commuter train station will be located in a few years that connects downtown Miami and Palm Beach County, which could really re-energize this city in multiple ways. 
How would you like to have to look at this every day from YOUR house?

Do you know another name for wasted opportunity in HB?

Yes, "another Joy Cooper and Mark Antonio success story!"


One almost down, one to go in November -Cooper.

Despite the MILLION$ at stake, Hallandale Beach City Comm. DOESN'T do simple due diligence, but DOES cave-in to Forest City/Village at Gulfstream Park

Above, artist rendering of The Village at Gulfstream Park retail project, and, below, the sign as posted in May of 2008 and seen on U.S.-1, with the Gulfstream Park Racetrack grandstand in the distance. May 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

The letter below was sent to the Hallandale Beach City Commission and City Manager Mark A. Antonio on Wednesday the 14th, prior to their 5 p.m. City Comm. meeting, and was written and signed by myself and my friend, Hallandale Beach civic activist Csaba Kulin, who will be making some news of his own next week.

For you readers out in the blogosphere, wherever you are, it's a bit of a follow-up to my post yesterday about the efforts of the folks at The Village at Gulfstream Park and their parent, Forest City to get out of complying with the mitigation requirements that were placed on them in order to get the city and Broward County to sign-off and give their final approval for the Village project many years ago.

That post was titled, No surprise given what I've told you here: A "challenging retail leasing environment" at Village at Gulfstream Park according to Forest City's execs

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/no-surprise-given-what-ive-told-you.html

That vote by the city was prior to Keith London, Anthony A. Sanders and Alexander Lewy were elected to the HB City Commission.

Along with their various hired guns and minions, they showed-up for the December 7th HB City Commission meeting determined to persuade the Commission that they should modify those requirements thru amendments.

#12 A. A Resolution of the City of Hallandale Beach, Florida, Accepting Amendments to the Village at Gulfstream Park Plat ( This Resolution is a result of Application# 10-12-PR by Gulfstream Racing Association, Inc.) (Staff: Development Services)(See Backup) CAD#029/04 (Staff Report, Supporting Docs)

http://www.hallandalebeachfl.gov/files/00439/Exported%20OV%20Docs/Staff%20Reports/00008546.htm

http://www.hallandalebeachfl.gov/files/00439/Exported%20OV%20Docs/Item%2012A/index.html

The City Commission, in my opinion, operating largely out of woeful ignorance -even more than usual- caved-in and made some terrible decisions that night that most citizen taxpayers of HB STILL know nothing about, all these days later, given that ZERO members of the South Florida news media bothered to attend the meeting, which as you regular readers of this blog know, is NOT exactly a new trend in general in terms of covering local government.

That's particularly true in HB, where the city remains one of the area's perennial laughingstocks in the media due to what its elected officials and administrators have actually said and done over the recent past, much of that due to the buffoonish and jaw-dropping antics of former HB Commissioner and 2012 candidate William "Bill" Julian.

Trust me, well-informed and attentive news reporters and columnists are as rare around Hallandale Beach as Three Wise Men and a Virgin -at any time of the year.

This news media blackout came despite the fact that they were talking about well over $10 Million in changes, not to mention, a change in sound public policy to... what exactly?

The City Commission vote was 5-0.

The Broward County Commission is the ultimate authority on whether or not these modifications desired by Forest City and the Village will be made, and next week, I hope to find out when their public meeting will be scheduled in the new year so that I can mention it here and make sure that everyone is aware of the fact that this is NOT a DONE DEAL.

I also should let you know now that as of today, it's my plan to post this same letter in the next few days with some accompanying photos documenting what Csaba and I have written, so that those of you far from these sub-tropical shores can see for yourself how completely inept and inattentive the folks running things on both sides of U.S.-1 were and remain.

So, all that said, this is what was actually sent to the HB City Commission and City Manager on Wednesday:

Honorable Mayor, Vice Mayor, City Commissioners:

Christmas came early this year for Forest Cities, Gulfsteam Park Race Track & Casino and the Village at Gulfstream Park, LLC.

Under the Christmas tree were at least three gifts worth about $17 Million, collectively, courtesy of the citizen taxpayers of Hallandale Beach, delivered by you, our elected City Commission.

This action comes after an approximately $15 Million gift/loan under TIF about two years ago.

As is so often the case with important issues at Hallandale Beach City Hall, the debate and then votes on the issue took place just before Midnight, when most HB citizen taxpayers were fast asleep.

Why no continuance to a reasonable time?

The City entered into what both parties agreed at the time was a reasonable Development Agreement (DA) about six years ago, and the Developer, eager to get started on the project, agreed to it, anxious to change the dynamic and image of the property make it a destination attraction.

Now, six years later, the Developer wants to renegotiate the uncompleted portions of the DA, claiming changed economic conditions.

While we all want the property to succeed and become a source of both pride and profits, our primary concerns today in writing are that Hallandale Beach taxpayers' best interests are protected, and believe that should be your paramount concern, too.

Simply put, you have completely dropped the ball.

The Developer’s main argument for modification now has been that “economic times” have changed since 2007.

While we agree that the economy is not one that any of us likes, your answer in response to them should have been that, as a starter, to be one of modification based on revisiting these issues 5-10 years from now, with time-certain dates for doing so.

Economic activity and spending may indeed be much better in the future than currently, and then those requirements could be re-examined for their suitability, but simply waving the white flag NOW is NOT a strategy that best represents the short-term and long-term financial and Quality-of-Life interests of Hallandale Beach taxpayers.

For the record, we came up with the $17 Million size of gift by using your own consultant, Mr. Paul Lambert’s number for the Transportation Mitigation relief portion.

For the Affordable Housing relief, we have used our own recent experience with Highland Park Village (HPV), Mayor Cooper’s estimate of the expected subsidies needed to sell the units in HPV, and Paul Lambert’s own admission that $50,000 per unit is closer to reality than VGP’s offered $5,000 per unit.

A developer is obligated to have 15% of the total units to be built be “affordable/workforce” housing units.

While developers traditionally try to have some or all the affordable housing units located off-site, we believe these units should be dispersed among the rest of the 85%, not displaced west of the Mississippi River.

This is a community, not an Indian Reservation.

Additionally, we believe that the amount of money offered ought to be the price difference between a market-priced unit and an affordable/workforce-priced unit.

Based on the City’s recent experience with Highland Park Village, we know that it will take $50,000 dollars or more to make a market-price unit an affordable and desirable housing unit.

You can use the same logic for the other two properties the City owns to come up with the dollar amount needed to complete.

The cost per unit subsidy ought to be very similar to HPV.

After all, what good are units that nobody wants?

Based on these calculations for the 225 affordable/workforce housing units the VGP is obligated to build over time, the City’s CRA should have received roughly $11,250,00 (at $50,000 per-unit), not the measly $1,125.000, ($5,000 per-unit) that you all agreed to last Wednesday night.

That is a $10,045,00 gift to the Developers, money that more appropriately should be going to the City’s CRA at some definite time in the future, as the 1,500 housing units were actually built and ready for purchase.

It was extremely distressing to city taxpayers that on such an important issue, some of you were and are remarkably uninformed about the facts, and the $5,000 contribution per-unit mentioned by Broward County toward affordable housing.

We firmly believe that financial number is the “floor,” NOT the “ceiling” for contributions.

We are quite confident that Broward County would NOT object if the Developers were prepared to contribute $50,000 dollars per unit to the City's CRA, an opinion that we will soon be sharing with the Broward County Commissioners and staff as they deal with this subject, too.

The elimination of the off-site 500-car parking garage saves the Developer $5,000,000, and while we agree that such a garage is not needed at present, absent requirements that this issue be revisited at some definite point in time in the future, how do we know what the situation and need will be five or ten years from now? This is the very definition of short-sighted and self-defeating.

As best we can figure, the elimination of the Tri-Rail shuttle service saves the Developer $200,000-$250,000 per year.

While it may or may not be needed at this time, why agree to give it up entirely at this time, not knowing the future demand?

And more to the point of your collective oversight and accountability, or rather the lack of it on Wednesday night, where is ANY PROOF that the general public even knows about the Tri-Rail shuttle, as there is no posted schedule anywhere at the Super-Stop, and there is NOTHING in their newspaper promotions which specifically mention it.

NONE of you seem to have actually visited the Super-Stop, despite how close it is to your office, one block away.

In fact, many of not most of their own employees DON'T even know about it, including the security personnel who patrol that particular area, as recent conversations we've had with them have proven time-and-again.

They didn't know what we were talking about!

You can hardly expect unaware consumers to use a so-called service that the Developer themselves adamantly refuse to properly promote or feature, and you should wonder yourselves why they have done this if they really want to increase their number of visitors.

They seem entirely oblivious to this -and so do you.

And what do HB taxpayers receive in return for giving up these two major Transportation mitigation requirements?

Well, we get to relocate the City's mini-bus stop from behind City Hall to the Super-Stop.

What a deal!

If the Developer was truly interested in increasing the visitors to their property, that should have been done for free to the residents as soon as the Super-Stop was completed in January of 2010.

There should have been a little ribbon-cutting ceremony, but instead, that aspect of the mitigation was NOT completed on time -in time for the beginning of the racing season- as were many of the adjoining areas, and we have photographic proof of the Developer's inability to meet reasonable deadlines. Among other things...

And yes, that would be the same bus Super-Stop that has never really been properly maintained by the Developer the past two years, as anyone who uses it regularly could tell you.

What could possibly explain your collective failure -and that of the City Manager and his staff- to stay on top of such a simple thing, located only one block from City Hall?

There's really no excuse.

We remain profoundly disappointed in the way that this entire matter has been negotiated, presented to the citizen taxpayers of this city, and resolved -near Midnight.

We are quite confident that Broward County's Commissioners and their professional staff will take a much more nuanced look at the facts on-the-ground in determining whether or not this change is appropriate and in the community's best long-term interests, or whether it would be more appropriately revisited at agreed-upon time-certain dates in the future.

You can rest assured that this issue and the way that it has been mis-handled by you and the City Manager's staff, will NOT fade away in the coming months.

Quite to the contrary, it will be a subject that ever more residents of this city will become angry about as they learn the true facts of your White Flag strategy.