As "Isaac" approaches South Florida, key differences re-emerge between how Hollywood and Hallandale Beach cope: Hollywood Residents, Business Owners Can Fill Their Own Free Sandbags; Hallandale Beach residents can once again get sand-bagged and dumb-founded

The home of "Mr. Sandman"

Hollywood Residents, Business Owners Can Fill Their Own Free Sandbags; Hallandale Beach residents can once again get sand-bagged and dumb-founded

Above, August 22nd photos of HB's true Emergency Operations HQ, the area west of the old school next to the HB DPW HQ on N.W. 2nd street, the old school that is taking years and years to rehab for reasons that nobody can figure out, though we all know, don't we?

(And what are they going to do with it once they're finished? Who knows?)

I've gone by there every other week for the past year and see nothing that's changed since LAST summer!

Even the promotional sign on the fence about the project is still lying on the top of the fence, illegible. Why isn't it tied down so that it can be read?

Because that would take common sense and initiative.

HB residents can wait for the pile of sand -that never has a tarp on it- to continue blowing-away and dissolving, thereby making it next-to-impossible to pour the wet sand down the orange traffic cones they use to fill sandbags!

Remember, bring your own flashlight because that area has no outside lighting.

Remember the city's policy for getting sand bags

1.) You must wait until there is at least three feet of standing water in front of your home or business, or reaches your child's hips, whichever is higher.

2.) You must have spotted at least a dozen City of HB-marked  trucks driving by to create a "wake" into your living room or business foyer, but those city trucks never stop.

Don't worry, the city employees driving them are just checking things out and looking for opportunities to film something interesting that they can put on YouTube once they get to their own homes -20 miles away.

steevydance video: Two ENTIRE days of constant rain floods northeast Hallandale Beach one week before Christmas. Uploaded December 19, 2009. http://youtu.be/3i_7zs4KZ1s

At 7:36 - "That's how we roll!"

Everyone in this city still remembers how bad this was, too!

3.) Don't forget that who you know matters- Friends of the Chamber of Commerce- get their sand double-bagged and have their bags delivered to their home with their choice of hot or iced coffee, you get the bag with the small hole in the corner -that you're told to ignore, by Bill Julian- before it's tossed into your car trunk -from four feet away.

Hallandale Beach Chamber of Commerce gets “sweetheart deal” from city, critics say

By William Gjebre, BrowardBulldog.org  

August 7, 2012 AT 6:25 AM

http://www.browardbulldog.org/2012/08/hallandale-beach-chamber-of-commerce-gets-%E2%80%9Csweetheart-deal-from-city-critics-say/

Above, a screenshot I captured of former Hallandale Beach Vice Mayor William "Bill" Julian from a late September 2010 newscast of Channel 7, WSVN-TV, Miami. 

4. When you get your wet bag of sand with the hole in it, don't argue with the people who insist that you thank Bill Julian -in November- just take your sand bag and go! Quick!

Argue about Julian's truly dreadful record in office, his lack of attention, his longstanding lack of core competency, and his lack of remorse for all the MANY bad things that he has done over the years that have only made thing worse, LATER!

5. No, that isn't your imagination.

Nobody needed to call the local Miami-area TV stations or newspapers to tell them that your entire neighborhood in HB is flooded, esp. in Northeast HB.

Those TV news trucks have a long, long memory; they know exactly where to go in South Florida when it rains hard for a long time and they need to shoot video of some VERY frustrated and befuddled residents.

There's a good reason that HB is in their Top Five go-to cities for flooding, and it's because it's money in the bank.

(Just like the area in Aventura near the Publix near Loehman's Plaza, off of Biscayne Blvd.)  

So don't kill the messengers!

After it's over, will Hallandale Beach city employees once again swarm to the U.S.1 median in front of City Hall and plant new flowers, like after Hurricane Wilma?

Yes, planting new flowers in and around City Hall to present a facade to HB residents and visitors is priority number one under this mayor.

View Larger Map

A pretty facade is better than them really knowing how truly bad things have been run here for years with her as mayor.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: News & Announcements
Date: Fri, Aug 24, 2012 at 3:23 PM
Subject: Hollywood Residents, Business Owners Can Fill Their Own Free SandbagsView this in your browser

Based on the latest weather advisories, Tropical Storm Isaac is expected to bring mostly heavy rain to South Florida. For precautionary purposes, the City of Hollywood Department of Public Works is offering City residents and business owners who live or work in flood prone areas free heavy duty bags and sand to create sandbags. Up to eight (8) sandbags are available for each household or business on Saturday, August 25 and Sunday, August 26 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sandbag filling will be available on these days at two locations:

City of Hollywood Public Works Facility 1600 S. Park Road Hollywood

Driftwood Community Center 3000 N. 69 Ave. Hollywood

• Proof of residency or business in Hollywood is required.
• Delivery service is not available.
• Though residents and business owners will be required to fill their own sandbags, City personnel will be available at each site to assist the elderly and people with special needs who would like sandbags. 
• Be sure to bring your own equipment (shovel) to fill a bag with sand.

If clicking the link doesn't work, please copy and paste the link into your browser.

Another part of Hallandale Beach City Hall's Dept. of Propaganda & Mis-information makes it official: Hallandale Beach Area Chamber of Commerce will NOT be hosting any candidate debates in the next 13 weeks before Election Day. Mayor Cooper doesn't want them to, so they don't. But they WILL host a free meet-and-greet for Mayor Cooper on Friday morning.

Another part of Hallandale Beach City Hall's Dept. of Propaganda & Mis-information makes it official: Hallandale Beach Area Chamber of Commerce will NOT be hosting any candidate debates in the next 13 weeks before Election Day. 
Mayor Cooper doesn't want them to, so they don't. 
But they WILL host a free meet-and-greet for Mayor Cooper on Friday morning.

They're very obedient and well-trained in that respect.
http://public.hallandalebeachchamber.com/events/


Neither is news to either me or to those of you who are regular readers of the blog, given the truthful things that I've written about them in the past -their longstanding failure to connect with average HB citizens and business owners because of their unwillingness to be truly independent; of the grandiose and patronizing egos of those involved, the same tired familiar faces who so love crony capitalism...


Yes, that and so much more explains the Chamber's outlier status in this city, where instead of a being a positive and independent force for good, they're content to be a sock puppet for HB City Hall and Mayor Cooper.


Yes, for the people I know here who pay close attention to what is going on, above-and-below the radar, the Chamber's willingness to roll-over and play dead rather than be the independent voice for Hallandale Beach's small business owners that it ought to be, is just more of their same old tired way of doing things.


What IS news to me is the following, which I first found out about this morning via an email from Mayor Cooper's opponent, Comm. Keith London. 


It seems that the Chamber will be hosting a Meet and Greet on Friday morning, the 10th, for Mayor Cooper -at a Hollywood hotel that's on both the cityline and the Intracoastal- the Crowne Plaza Hollywood Beach at 4000 S. Ocean Drive.


Of course they are.
Conveniently so.
The Kessel Crew doesn't miss a trick to keep their favored position at the public trough.


Well, since this event is FREE, unlike other Chamber events...
http://public.hallandalebeachchamber.com/events/details/meet-greet-with-mayor-joy-cooper-1433
  

Your Tax Dollars At Work! The Chamber Does Not Work For “US”. Everyone, Three months before the election, your tax funded Hallandale Chamber of Commerce is holding an event exclusively for the Mayor. Please review the attached email. Furthermore, the event is being held in Hollywood, not in the City of Hallandale Beach. This event should include all candidates running for office in Hallandale Beach; or perhaps the entire city commission. Sponsoring a debate between the candidates would be appropriate too. Singling out one elected official, particularly so close to an election, is entirely inappropriate. Keeping you informed, Keith Commissioner Keith S. London

Phone: 954-494-3182   613 Oleander Drive Hallandale Beach, FL 33009 email: keith@keithlondon.comwww.keithlondon.com Political Advertisement paid for and approved by Keith S. London for Hallandale Beach Mayor, Non Partisan

Part 2 of 2 re The Beachwalk project in Hallandale Beach -Initial comments & ruminations on Wednesday night's HB City Comm. meeting; calling out Carole Pumpian, crony capitalism mercenary

The Second Reading re The Beachwalk is Wednesday June 20th at 6:30 p.m.

Having waited an entire week, it's now time to move on to some long overdue public discussion of what I'm calling the "meat-and-potatoes" portion of our discussion of The Beachwalk project at 2400 East Hallandale Beach Blvd., next to the Intracoastal Bridge in Hallandale Beach, along with some related matters which you surely WON'T be seeing raised or discussed elsewhere in this community, especially among the sleepwalking news media.
I call it "meat-and-potatoes" because like that sort of comfort food when it's done right, it should be thoroughly chewed-over and savored -with some time for reflection.

It was hard for me and many other well-informed Hallandale Beach residents attending last Wednesday night's City Commission meeting -or among those watching it online- not to take notice of the fact that corporate PR shill and Hallandale Beach Chamber of Commerce president Carole Pumpian kept her dubious record intact of supporting every single development project proposed in HB, despite what it's for, despite what it'll looks like, and most importantly, despite what HB neighborhood residents, homeowners and small business owners think or want.


Plain and simple, Carole Pumpian just doesn't care what they -YOU- think.


She's working her agenda, not the community's.

Above, in pink, Carole Pompian sitting in the second row of the three rows of lobbyists and hired hands working for Related to get this over-reaching bad idea passed. June 6, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Pumpian's been very consistent about that if you hadn't noticed, but as you'll soon hear, there's a very good reason for her to be so unconcerned about the genuine public opinion of this ocean side city's 38,000 residents.

No, rather than be concerned with what Hallandale Beach citizens think, Pumpian's more of a fan of the sort of phony and insincere corporate "artificial turf" grass roots efforts that yours truly has seen up-close in many parts of this country over the years.


That includes the orchestrated one involving the controversial out-of-scale proposal from 2009-2010 by the union that owns the Westin Diplomat Resort & Spa, which wanted to place multiple giant condo towers of over 25-stories in and around the Diplomat Gold Course in NE Hallandale Beach, including one of the city's most affluent streets, which HB residents and homeowners overwhelmingly opposed, an effort my friend Csaba Kulin was among the leaders of throughout.


But Carole Pumpian and the HB Chamber of Commerce of Patricia Genetti and Joe Kessel didn't let the facts or the Hallandale Beach public's clear opposition to the Diplomat's plan get in the way of their vocally championing the proposal at public meeting after public meeting thru the long process, before the Broward County Commission eventually killed it 6-3 about 26 months ago.


http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/broward/blog/2010/04/diplomat_plans_fail_to_win_cou.html


For those of you who don't already know, and I'm sure that the vast majority of you, let me connect-the-dots a bit more on the Chamber and its Executive Director, Patricia Genetti, who runs it on a day-to-day basis.


Genetti had no qualms at all about supporting City Hall's deceptive handling of the issue, which included trying to keep public information about the developer's changes and modifications from the original plan from the public, and not placing it online until little more than 24 hours before the first actual vote that took place in the city, by the HB Planning & Zoning Advisory Board.
With yet another vote the following day by the City Commission.


More importantly to me and many other HB residents who care about transparency in public policy and use of taxpayer dollars, Genetti showed no moral or ethical qualms in vocally attacking HB taxpayers at public meetings who were against the project, even while she NEVER publicly disclosed when she spoke, that the City Commission paid the Chamber $50,000, much of which went for her own salary.


Which is to say that for a number of months, extending over two separate years, concerned HB taxpayers found themselves in the odd position of having their own tax dollars being used against them by someone like Genetti who was happy to bash them and other opponents of the Diplomat's plan like there was no tomorrow, but who lacked the basic integrity to come clean and admit that she was not an objective person. 


Genetti never admitted it in 2009 or 2010, and she's never admitted it in the two years since the Diplomat plan (and its cocky crew) were shot-down overwhelmingly by the Broward County Commission, and used as an example of what residents throughout the county did NOT want to see in the future near their neighborhood.


That ought to give you some sort of insight into the caliber and moral rectitude of some of the people we have in Hallandale Beach who always have their hands out for the taxpayer handout, and who have no qualms about attacking the citizens, taxpayers, homeowners and Mom & Pop shop owners of this community.
http://hallandalebeachchamber.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=48&Itemid=53

Earlier I conspicuously used the word "residents" and that wasn't by accident, because there's a good reason that Pumpian is so consistently deaf, dumb and blind to the the genuine feelings and desires of actual Hallandale Beach residents, and why Pumpian is NOT someone whom the most-concerned citizens of this very frustrated town trust.
Far from it.


It's not just because of Pumpian's general demeanor, though it's true that it's been said to me by more than a few female residents of HB over the years that Pumpian gives the appearance of a woman constantly trying to connive or worm her way into important matters, and have some sort of connection to every one of these sorts of large construction/development  projects.
Now whether that's because of some basic economic desire on her part to make some money as a PR shill for them or their friends, or, in part, to fill some sort of need to appear to be an important and influential person in this city, I can't say, but it is the perception of a lot more well-informed people than she thinks.


But she's NOT either, of course.
This post of mine today will discuss in some general terms why she and the HB Chamber of Commerce aren't taken seriously by the most well-informed and most-involved citizens of Hallandale Beach.
Do you know what those reasons are or might be?

I'll give you a small hint.

It's one of the same reasons that I so gleefully ripped into her -and her ilk, the Joe Kessels of the world- two years ago at multiple Broward Planning Council and Broward County Commission meetings on the far-too-large Diplomat project they championed against the interests of HB residents who already lived next-door to the Diplomat Golf Course.

Of course it was hard not to be gleeful in picking apart the Kessel Crew's transparent weaknesses in their arguments, which sounded so remarkably similar that you couldn't help but wonder if they'd been written by the same Chamber or Diplomat marketing geniuses we have seen accomplish nothing, even while they rounded-up union supporters who didn't actually live here.

One of those pro-Diplomat supporters on the Chamber was the owner of the faux newspaper that's supported by tax dollars thanks to Mayor Cooper, Craig Farquhar's South Florida Sun-Times, who publicly lied about not having an opinion, when I and others have actually seen a copy of his email to Broward County urging its passage.


Plus, here's the official record that Craig Farquhar, this recipient of HB taxpayer largess that the taxpayers are actually AGAINST, this so-called person with "no position" on this issue is a stone-faced liar: Page 13 of the Broward Planning Council's Minutes of February 25, 2010.
is that enough proff for you that he's a hypocrtite?
Right there under Speakers in support of PH 8, six spaces after Joe Kessel, five spaces before Patricia Genetti.


Yes, of course, Farquahar is a member of the Hallandale Beach Chamber of Commerce!
I told you it was the center for crony capitalism in this town -and he's the proof of that.
He received a $50k CRA loan, only has to repay $25k.
http://www.broward.org/PlanningCouncil/Documents/PlanningCouncilMonthlyMinutes/02252010Minutes.pdf


Newcomers to this blog take notice:

Broward Bulldog

Sweet deal for owners of Hallandale newspaper that features mayor as columnist

By William Gjebre, BrowardBulldog.org 

FEBRUARY 9, 2012 AT 6:11 AM

A weekly newspaper in Hallandale Beach got a $50,000 city “loan” under terms so favorable that half of it – $25,000 – amounted to a taxpayer giveaway because the city did not require it to be repaid...

Read the rest of the story at: 

http://www.browardbulldog.org/2012/02/sweet-deal-for-owners-of-hallandale-newspaper-that-features-mayor-as-columnist/

See for yourself:
http://web.me.com/mike.butler/Change_Hallandale/Updates/Entries/2010/2/26_CIty_Raises_Taxes_while_Wasting_Money_on_Private_Companies_files/SunTimes_PromissoryNote.pdf


Or, see my February 14, 2012 blog post titled, Csaba Kulin on Hallandale Beach's crony capitalism deal with a fake newspaper that stands ethics on its head and takes CRA money in exchange for being a City Hall propaganda machine

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/02/above-september-12-2010-issue-of.html

Yes, the Hallandale Beach Chamber of Commerce is sort of the ground-zero for the professional crony capitalism crowd of HB, who want to act like insiders and profit off the public's teat, which is something that as we all know so well, Joe Kessel managed to do below-the-radar for years.

See: 

Realtor Being Paid by Hallandale May Have Had Role in Controversial Loan to Pornographer

By Thomas Francis

April 8, 2010 at 4:50 PM

http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2010/04/hallandale_digital_outernet_joe_kessel_jenna_jameson.php

There's a good reason that the Chamber doesn't do the sorts of normal civic events that CoCs do in the rest of the country. 
The sorts of things that people in those towns from coast-to-coast take pretty much for granted as traditions, albeit perhaps hokey ones in the minds of some, like hosting debates for mayor, city commission and local state races,  esp. Breakfast Debates, with money going to charity.

Here, though, the folks who make up the Executive Board of the Chamber know that one way or another, HB City Hall pays the freight around here, so why should they anger Mayor Cooper and actually have a debate giving anyone challenging her and City Hall a chance, and force the mayor and her Rubber Stamp Crew to have to explain and defend the indefensible?

First, for reasons unknown, the folks at the Chamber have a very high opinion of themselves, which is very odd considering how little they have accomplished for the greater good of the community and how truly disconnected they are to the real community activists of this area.


This difference also explains in part why The Related Group chose to meet with them instead of the real activists of this community, and perhaps, even paid for a nice meal in the process while everyone brainstormed.

No doubt that's have been held somewhere at the Village of Gulfstream Park where PR shill and Chamber Director Suzanne Friedman is their paid mouthpiece, and because, of course, that's their hangout and unofficial clubhouse.

To me and many other HB citizens who pay close attention, the Chamber is not unlike a mid-1960's high school clique, right down to their having a couple of uncool kids they like to keep around from time-to-time to toy with, and play the role of court jesters, amusing them.


Here, former HB Commissioner Bill Julian plays that latter role, as he even writes about them and their spouses and their vacation adventures in the faux newspaper that is taxpayer-financed.

Here's the secret they haven't figured out: they're the only ones who think they're cool.

Everyone else who really knows what's really going on here just laughs at these phonies and their pretentious ways.

As for their current elected President, Carole Pumpian, who, supposedly, also redesigned the Chamber of Commerce's dopey website that said nothing before and says little of note now,
and which was often 5-6 months behind with information on their own activities, but which did have a link to her business in Hollywood.
At least they have their priorities, huh?


Did you happen to catch her mention her home address as required when she walked up to the microphone and spoke before the City Commission?


I mention it because she rarely actually goes to public meetings here, which is unusual given her position, but then it's not like the HB Chamber actually polls its own members what they think of something and whether or not they should support or oppose something at City Hall.


But then there's a reason for that.


Try to think of something within the past six years that the HB Chamber opposed that Mayor Cooper supported.
Just one.


Just name one public policy change, one proposed ordinance, one proposed resolution, one...
There isn't one.


No, as a regular attendee at public meetings throughout this city for many years, I can tell you that about the only time you can count on seeing Carole Pumpian around is every 18-24 months or so when there's something involving construction/development.


Then, like the photo above from last Wednesday, she sits with her bosom buddies up in the front rows of the commission chamber: the real estate developers and their hired guns.


Sometimes, that also includes the lemmings of the do-nothing Chamber of Commerce and their clique/cult of personality where "insider" Joe Kessel plays the role of guy who invented the wheel and who works all the angles.


Often, as we've seen over the years, speaking in favor of unpopular HB City Hall initiatives WITHOUT publicly disclosing who's paying him, like the secret deal he had with City hall itself.


So if you haven't already guessed it by now, folks, Carole Pumpian works in the same city that she lives in, and that city is NOT Hallandale Beach -she lives in Hollywood.

So, to recap, in short, Carole Pumpian doesn't really give a damn about anybody or anything in Hallandale Beach unless she, a client, or the Chamber can somehow make a dime off of it somehow.
She's a mercenary.

Yep, that's about the size of it.

More on Beachwalk in the coming days

-----

Broward Bulldog

Hallandale gives thumbs up to condo king Jorge Perez’s $100 million, high-rise Beachwalk project

By William Gjebre, BrowardBulldog.org

June 7, 2012 AT 12:39 AM,

http://www.browardbulldog.org/2012/06/hallandale-commissioners-like-condo-king-jorge-perezs-100-million-high-rise-beachwalk-project/

Miami Herald

Proposed hotel gets tentative approval in Hallandale Beach

Miami developer Jorge Pérez gained preliminary approval from the Hallandale Beach commission to build a more than $90 million project on the Intracoastal Waterway

By Carli Teproff

Posted June 7, 2012

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/06/07/2838243/proposed-hotel-gets-tentative.html

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Hallandale considers 31-story hotel/condo

By Tonya Alanez, Sun Sentinel

6:27 p.m. EDT, June 7, 2012

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/fl-hallandale-beachwalk-project-20120607,0,6092598.story

The Second Reading is Wednesday June 20th at 6:30 p.m.

See plans at  http://www.hallandalebeachfl.gov/index.aspx?NID=805

Thinking out-loud about what we really saw at last week's meeting re The Related Group and their Beachwalk project in Hallandale Beach; What North Beach may really be like in future if city foolishly makes that a de facto 'Related' boutique beach; What are the ethics of HB CoC's involvement with these development deals?

Greenberg Traurig attorney Debbie Orshefsky at the lectern making the formal Power Point presentation to the Hallandale Beach City Commission last Wednesday night for her client, The Related Group, on behalf of their Beachwalk development project on the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, with their army of professional hired hands and lobbyists seated in the first thee rows. June 6, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

I really hadn't planned on adding any more today to what I has posted earlier this afternoon re the Beachwalk project from The Related Group, but... 
I chose to send out an email to the usual concerned folks in South Florida letting them know that since I first sent them that email early Thursday morning which was the template or First Draft of my blog post today, I'd added some factual odds and ends, so I sent them the link to the new-and-improved version here on the blog.

And then I thought of some other things I should've added in the first place, so...here's what I just sent out.
Reminder: I'm in favor of the hotel, but NOT the 84 condos there, and I'm strongly against any coupling of this deal with Related or any of their subsidiaries with the use of the public beach, North Beach.

Now excuse me, but I have to run because I have a pending date with an iced coffee in our fair city because it's still brutally hot, even with all the rain.
(It was only about 97 degrees yesterday outside my kitchen window.)

------
On the blog post I just posted online, I added a few more revealing photos and pithy facts since

my email of early Thursday morning.

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/06/hallandale-beach-mayor-joy-coopers-old.html

I spent a few hours on Thursday afternoon in the conference room of the Planning Dept. at Hollywood City Hall looking thru banker boxes of the submitted documents, renderings, surveys and other odds and ends for Beach One Resort and The Apogee, mostly looking at parking info and easements. I'll probably be back there on Monday, too.

I hope to add some of the facts I unearthed to the public conversation early next week, because it's not just a question of access to the public beach -and what kind of beach and under whose de facto control?- but also how many -if any- public parking spaces will be available at next door Beach One Resort hotel or at The Apogee hotel/condo, since if there aren't enough, imagine the resulting chaos if the City of Hallandale Beach goes ahead and makes this colossal blunder by falling for the sweet nothings and siren song of Jorge Perez & Co.

After all, we all know from experience and to our own sorrow how easily duped the HB City Commission is.

How they are almost reflexively unable to ask the sorts of savvy questions that show originality and a degree of familiarity with the submitted documents that most of us would act if we were in their seats, and supposed to be looking at the BIG PICTURE for all of HB's citizens.

But listening to them, you'd think Related was guaranteeing the city $60 million a year for ta proposed restaurant, not $60,000.

That's embarrassing!

Good luck trying to find the respective shade studies that will show what the cumulative effect will be on North Beach after Noon when those two properties -plus The Beach Club- are finally built.

As I stated previously, their attorney, Debbie Orshefsky won't show that to you -even if she had it- and while she was willing to show via a rendering what the beach would look like from the ocean when all the properties are present, she never showed an accurate one that was from the perspective of someone actually ON THE BEACH.

Ever been in the bottom of a canyon?

And did you also notice how few people it showed present on the beach, even though we're

talking about the addition of hundreds and hundreds of hotel rooms and condos? 

I know that I did.

Notice anything missing in this rendering from last Wednesday, the only one they presented

of the beach from a beach-goer's perspective?

Correct, they "forgot" to actually show the 41-story Beach One Resort property in it, since

it'd clearly be present in this particular shot above if it was done based on actual known facts.

Tell me, do you really think they forgot, or do you think they didn't want HB residents -and the

very incurious HB City Commissioners -to think about it, much less, the adjoining

20-story Apogee condo/hotel, also owned by The Related Group?

I want the beach to change, but for the better for all of us, who finally deserve to have a nice beach after so many years of truly embarrassing third-rate beach conditions and aesthetics, not for the MUCH WORSE, which will surely be its fate if The Related Group gets its hands on it and treats it like a boutique beach in order to market it to prospective buyers of their condos.

I trust that I will see many more of you present in person on Wednesday night than for last week's First Reading, considering it's such a critical moment in this city's future about such an invaluable resource -and there's no conflict with a Heat-Thunder ballgame, either!

Now I have something for all of you to think about over the weekend, given what we've seen for years here about who sits with whom at these meetings re development issues.

Or, more recently, last Wednesday night, when Hallandale Beach Chamber of Commerce president Carole Pumpian sat in the second row next to Related's PR person and Chamber Board member Suzanne Friedman, and was surrounded by the army of professional hired hands working for Related to get this bad idea passed.

Yes, as usual, Carole Pompian, dressed in pink above, WASN'T sitting with just regular Hallandale Beach citizens. 

Hmm-m... is Pumpian actually working for Related or one of its associated parties to get this passed? 
I can't say with any certainty since, unfortunately, the city's current list of lobbyists hasn't been updated since March 16th.

http://www.cohb.org/files/Lobbyist%20Registration%20List_CURRENT_3_16_12.pdf

She certainly hasn't publicly declared that she's lobbying for them at the Commission meetings, but then again, look where she's sitting. 
Everyone else in those three rows is working to pass this very bad idea.

So here's my question: Under the City of Hallandale Beach's rules on lobbying and ethjics, are people receiving a benefit other than money from developers (or their team) who work or speak on behalf of an issue like Beachwalk before the City Commission required to publicly disclose that pertinent fact?

For instance, hypothetically(!), if The Related Group takes a few well-known HB Chamber of Commerce people with connections to the HB City Commission out to lunch or dinner to brainstorm over a strategy to persuade the HB City Commission to approve the plan, and then those same people from the CoC speak in favor of it -or, if Related writes a check out to the HB CoC to thank them after such a 'working meal"- ethically, don't the parties who speak need to publicly disclose this arrangement to the Commission, even if they aren't required to register as lobbyists, per se?

Hmm-m...

Well, here's your answer according to the city itself.

http://www.cohb.org/index.aspx?NID=835

Lobbying means communicating directly or indirectly, in person, by telephone, by letter, or by any other form of communication, on behalf of any other with any City Commissioner, any member of any decision-making body under the jurisdiction of the Commission/Board, or any City employee, where the lobbyist seeks to influence a decision to me made by the Commission or Board, a decision to be made any decision-making body under the jurisdiction of the Commission or Board, or a final procurement decision to be made by a City employee.

Lobbyist is defined as any individual who engages in lobbying, as defined above, regardless of whether he or she receives any compensation for such lobbying.

I added that red highlight above for your careful consideration.

I'll be asking for that updated lobbyist list from the HB City Clerk on Monday.

FYI: On Saturday I'll finally be posting "Part 2 of 2 re The Beachwalk project in Hallandale Beach -Initial comments & ruminations on Wednesday night's HB City Comm. meeting; calling out Carole Pumpian, crony capitalism mercenary"