Showing posts with label Harry Cooper. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Harry Cooper. Show all posts

Saturday, November 18, 2017

#RemoveHer - What's Past is Prologue: Freud & Jung together could NOT possibly plumb the entirety of depths of thin-skinned, ethically-challenged #HallandaleBeach mayor & town bully #JoyCooper's super-size ego and sense of entitlement. Florida Governor Rick Scott asked to remove Hallandale Beach mayor who slurred words at meeting




Local 10 News WPLG-TV, Miami
Video shows Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper's husband going on wild rant
Harry Cooper loses it after he's called to attend to wife
By Bob Norman - Investigative Reporter
Posted: 6:25 PM, November 17, 2017

Updated: 8:39 PM, November 17, 2017
https://www.local10.com/news/local-10-investigates/video-shows-hallandale-beach-mayor-joy-cooper-s-husband-going-on-wild-rant

#RemoveHer - What's Past is Prologue: Freud & Jung together could NOT possibly plumb the entirety of depths of thin-skinned, ethically-challenged #HallandaleBeach mayor & town bully #JoyCooper's super-size ego and sense of entitlement.
 Florida Governor Rick Scott asked to remove Hallandale Beach mayor who slurred words at meeting

The ruinous reign of thin-skinned, ethically-challenged Hallandale Beach mayor Joy Cooper has hit yet another bumpy moral pothole that makes Hallandale Beach a laughingstock in South Florida, and this time, her husband husband Harry got involved just to make the whole thing even more of a desperate cry for help. 
Not tragic, just desperate, pathetic and annoying.

And it's hardly surprising to someone like myself who has been writing about the ethical and financial shenanigans in Hallandale Beach for so long that when something like this happens, inevitably, Miami-area TV and print reporters -as well as reporters, activists and legislators from around the state- contact me to see if I have a new angle on this latest incident.

I try not to disappoint them and have some compelling take, but in this case, no, it's just more of the same damn thing that has so upset concerned residents and Small Business owners people like me and my friends who just want this area to be normal.
To be the well-managed city it ought to have been many years ago but has never had been because that would be incompatible to having Cooper as mayor.

People want a a city free of corruption, something it still is NOT. despite the end of the Cooper Rubber Stamp Crew's reign of ruin, after last year's successful election of Anabelle Taub to the City Commission. 

Joy Cooper, the longtime Hallandale Beach mayor and town bully, the sanctimonious woman who called me a "Nazi" at a City Commission meeting almost ten years ago -while I was sitting on a chair writing down some notes even before the meeting started- is clearly gearing up for an explosive and messy final act to her long-running performance that's consistently made this southeast Broward County city a running punchline in South Florida media for well over a decade.
These things never end well for despots!

Florida Governor asked to remove Hallandale Beach mayor who slurred words at meeting


http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/hallandale/fl-sb-hallandale-mayor-slurring-20171117-story.html

For you newcomers to the blog who have no idea how many hundreds of times I've written blog posts and widely-shared emails that have exposed her narcissistic personality's self-serving nature and outright deviousness, trying her best to make sure that the public is unaware of what she's actually doing, where, for all practical purposes, for years the glorification of her personal persona has long been the city's number one concern, with no expense spared, it's hardly surprising that Joy and Harry produced a son, Matt, who also thought that he had a giant sense of entitlement, too.
When you know all these things, it's not so surprising that Matt Cooper thought he was above the laws and rules that everyone else in the area has to live by and abide.

All you need to do is re-read my 2012 post below about Matt Cooper's own curious sense of entitlement to know that something like this does not just happen overnight. 
It takes years and years...
And you know what they say about apples not falling far from the tree...

Whatever else you can say about them, the Cooper family's grandiose sense of entitlement and perks, and their lack of hubris, never seems to wane.

This is how the Cooper Clan rolls -our way or the highway.

As long as they do, the public must be ready to fight back with everything they have.

If you agree, retweet this!



A helpful reminder from me to you!

NOVEMBER 9, 2012
Hallandale Beach's Midnight Vigilante is no Paul Revere! Caught in the act: Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper's son's Midnight Ride of campaign sign-stealing -on Election Day!; Anything goes now in HB -even political intimidation- as Broward IG & Broward SAO sleepwalk while laws & ethics are repeatedly laughed at by pols in power; @MayorCooper, #FDLE, @myfloridalegal, @fbi.gov

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/11/hallandale-beachs-midnight-vigilante-is.html

"Good always prevails," Cooper said. "Didn't your mom tell you that?" 
-from Cooper re-elected in Hallandale Beach
http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2012-11-06/news/fl-election-day-hallandale-beach-20121106_1_commission-term-new-fire-station-commissioner-dorothy-ross

Hmm-m... irony.
I suppose it all depends on whom your mother is, doesn't it?
What sort of ethical role model SHE is. 
Is she conscientious and does she instill a proper, grounded sense of perspective, or does she teach by example that you can always get away with what you want because of who she is, and if that doesn't work, you can just ignore the rules that everyone else in society has to follow?

Is your mother the sort of person who, when she's the mayor of a small town, a propos of nothing in particular, when she thinks she can't be overheard, tells a City Commissioner that she thinks that one of their town's citizens, someone sitting in a chair patiently waiting for a Commission meeting to start -and the only citizen in the room- is a "Nazi"?
Does she follow that up by saying that she thinks that one of the other city commissioners, who isn't present yet, "is a Hitler"?

Yes, I guess it really all depends upon whom your mother is.

But then after all these years and all the unethical incidents we've collectively witnessed, we pretty much know what sort of role model Joy Cooper is, and it's certainly not one for "good."

For years, whether we wanted to hear them or not, nearly everyone who pays close attention to civic affairs in Hallandale Beach heard the same familiar fact-filled stories, with lots of specifics, about the dysfunctional Cooper family and their myriad anti-social behavior problems: excessive drinking, physical altercations, and most alarmingly, FREQUENT and excessive phone calls to the 911 service asking for a police response.

We heard how seemingly all members of the family -including the mayor- had developed a well-practiced yet despicable habit of using her position as an elected official in this town as, alternately, either leverage or a crutch, whenever they had run-ins with various members of the law enforcement community in South Florida.

Of which there have been so many, to say nothing about possible incidents where the other party reluctantly decided NOT to call the police on them after all.

Not surprisingly, they were said to be especially fond of the old standby, "Don't you know who I am/my mother is/my wife is?" line when confronted by Police Officers, as if being mayor of this small city somehow entitled her and them to some sort of special treatment or consideration by the police of any city.

It's precisely the sort of thing that is not only illegal, but specifically prohibited behavior by elected officials in the State of Florida.
Correct, because it's someone using their office to gain a benefit not legally available to other Florida citizens.

The problem, of course, is that we all know from personal experience in living in Hallandale Beach that this sort of thing happens here fairly routinely, because we've seen for ourselves that there are, in fact, some people in this community who can, quite literally, do whatever they want to do, no matter that it's illegal under state, county or city law, and they never have to face the public and legal consequences. 

In some cases, they practically dare authorities to say anything or do anything to stop them.

Lest you forget, I've written about unethical behavior by well-known people in this community breaking the law in quite a number of ways a few times in just the past two weeks on my blog, and lots of people have been reading all about it.

In fact, 2,700 people read this one post of October 15th:
Ethics? Not for us! Follow-up to my post re Hallandale Beach's unethical "business as usual" attitude, with "special rules for special people" if they are named Joy Cooper, Bill Julian and Anthony A. Sanders; What ethics? What rules? @MayorCooper, @SandersHBhttp://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/10/ethics-not-for-us-follow-up-to-my-post.html

No doubt many Hallandale Beach residents were nodding in silent agreement as they read it because they've frequently observed public signs of this sense of entitlement, too, and now feel somewhat relieved at least that they're not alone in having seen the same despicable behavior, too. Misery lives company, and here, it's the whole town that is being made miserable by Joy Cooper and her actions, words and attitude towards regular citizens, with some of us receiving extra dollops of her attitude.

Perhaps the most-famous recent incident of Cooper family members being treated differently involves Mayor Cooper herself, after she crashed her moving car into another moving vehicle, which as it happened, turned out to be a City of Hallandale Beach emergency response vehicle -responding to an actual emergency call.

There were plenty of witnesses to that incident, of course, including members of the public who witnessed it, and the city employees in the vehicle that Mayor Cooper actually hit.

But how did that all turn out exactly?

Yes, good luck trying to find out what exactly were the legal and financial consequences to Mayor Cooper for that careless and reckless behavior of hers.
Hmm-m...

More frequently, there are all the fact-filed stories that have been borne out by history about various members of the Cooper family being caught speeding by police, esp. the Aventura 

Police, and running that familiar line of theirs on the police officers, as if they'd never heard that sort of self-important excuse before.

Yes, whatever else you can say about them, the Cooper family's grandiose sense of entitlement and perks, and their lack of hubris, never seems to wane.

(Not unlike Andre Pierre, North Miami's mayor. In May of 2011, he was caught speeding by Aventura Police on his way to meet, of all people, Mayor Cooper. He said all sorts of incriminating things and ALL of his remarks were recorded by a camera inside the squad car, one that the officers on the scene can't turn-off, and which prints out a ticket to prevent anything illegal from transpiring, with all the info fed directly to Aventura Police HQ for monitoring. WTVJ-TV/Channel 6 showed the video on-air and it was amazing -and appalling. But pretty reflective of the both the low-caliber and high self-importance that many South Florida pols possess, including in our very own city.http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/North-Miami-Mayor-accused-of-abuse-of-power-for-implying-threats-to-cops-121368674.html)

So, all that said, now on to the story of Hallandale Beach's Midnight Vigilante... and his true identity
On Tuesday night, while over at the Upper Deck restaurant with some friends, watching 
election results across the nation rolling on their bank of TVs, I received the following photos from a reliable source.
The source said that earlier that morning, at approximately 12:05 a.m., just under seven hours before the polls opened for voting, he spotted an individual removing political campaign signs over near the intersection of Hallandale Beach Blvd. and Ansin Blvd., roughly the area between the IHOP and the Burger King.

An individual who clearly has a real problem with the concept of Freedom of Speech.

He doesn't seem to like it, and he most certainly wants to eliminate public displays of free speech he disagrees with as best he can, at least in Hallandale Beach.

This reliable source told me that after witnessing this activity take place, he drove his vehicle up close to this other person's vehicle so that he could get its license plate number and later report what he'd seen to the proper law enforcement authorities.



Well, within moments of doing this, the person removing the signs came over to my source in his car and, if you can believe this, asked my source what HE was doing, as if his own behavior was perfectly normal -someone with campaign signs after Midnight near one of the city's three most-heavily-traveled and highest visibility roads.

Even for Hallandale Beach, that's highly suspicious behavior, especially when the person with political signs after Midnight is NOT placing political yard signs in the ground and exercising their right of free speech, but rather removing them and eliminating someone else's right to free speech.

Removing political signs that are NOT theirs to take.

So, you're no doubt asking who was that un-masked man?

The creepy guy engaging in odd, to say nothing of blatantly anti-democratic and unethical conduct?

The creepy guy who thought that he was so brave -after Midnight- removing other citizen's signs where they expressed their freedom of speech, but who when my reliable source grabbed his camera to snap a shot of the license plate to have him later identified by Police, ran like a coward back to his car and placed his hands over his license plate?
The creep who then jumped inside his car and hit the gas to get out of the area?

Who was it?
Well, many of you reading this won't be too surprised to discover that the creep engaging in this  anti-social, anti-democratic behavior not only has quite a track record, but is also none other than Mayor Joy Cooper's adult son, Matt.
http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2011/05/hallandale_beach_matt_cooper_spit_on_your_kids.php



Talk about apples not falling far from the tree...

Yes, the son who was discovered to have had almost as many Driver's Licenses and ID's as Jason Bourne.

Except that rather than merely pretending that he's a fictional spy in a Robert Ludlum novel, the evidence suggests that perhaps Matt Cooper has been busy playing the role of Midnight Vigilante, driving around Hallandale Beach under the cover of night and removing campaign signs of people who disagree politically with his mother's reckless and wasteful policies that both insult common sense and punish taxpayer's wallets.
Yes, it's not too creepy, is it?

One can safely surmise that it was Matt Cooper's last Midnight Run of such creepy and anti-democratic behavior, if only because of the political calendar.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

"Lewy the Liar" - Alexander Lewy, Hallandale Beach's sycophantic, self-serving and insincere candidate for City Commission


Above, the email that was sent out by Hallandale Beach mayor Joy Cooper on Sept. 25th with the subject heading:
Mayor
Joy Cooper invites you to SUPPORT ALEX LEWY (Sep 28, 2010)



Just curious, how many of the names on the invite above are lobbyists?
That's a good question.


Well, at first glance there's Suzanne Friedman, of course, who has worked for The Village at Gulfstream Park and on behalf of the unpopular Diplomat LAC proposal to put a handful of very large condo towers on the perimeter of the Diplomat Golf Course in NE Hallandale Beach, where expensive upscale single-family homes and numerous low-slung condos have long existed in close proximity.

It was pushed by the owners of the Westin Diplomat Resort & Spa in nearby Hollywood, the Plumbers and Pipefitters Union.

That proposal not only would've ruined the green views of HB residents who have lived there for years, but also threatened to make the current traffic disaster even worse, though the nearby roads already have the LOWEST possible ratings from FDOT they can have.

It's an area of Southeast Broward County with so much consistently congested traffic that former Broward County Comm. Diana Wasserman-Rubin admitted in a meeting with HB residents just days prior to that vote that she completely avoids the area because it's so difficult to get around.


Fortunately for Hallandale Beach and nearby Hollywood residents, the Broward County Commission decisively nixed that proposal the second time they looked at it this past Spring.

Alexander Lewy
not only supported the unpopular and incompatible project, but has also received campaign contributions from some of the the folks behind it who were most interested in cramming it down the throats of HB residents.
Just saying...


Another lobbyist's name I recognize is lawyer Marty Cassini -said by everyone I know to be a really nice guy- who's a former staffer for former Florida Senate Minority Leader Steve Geller, and who is married to the mayor's daughter, Jaime.

As of a few weeks ago, Mayor Cooper's husband and son-in-law had contributed roughly about $1,500 combined to Alexander Lewy's political campaign.


And now on to my post for today, written ten days before the November 2nd election.

The title I've chosen today is particularly apt and gets to the heart of what so many Hallandale Beach citizen taxpayers and business owners -and other well-informed Broward County residents and civic activists- find so very unappealing and downright appalling about Alexander Lewy as a person and political candidate: "There's no there there."

"Lewy the Liar" - Alexander Lewy, Hallandale Beach's sycophantic, self-serving and insincere candidate for City Commission

Yes, I know, I know.
That quote about what is and is not "there" was first supposedly used by the author Virginia Woolf to describe the City of Oakland many, many, many moons ago, but it also accurately describes the lack of anything genuine about Lewy but his ambition.

His oleaginous insincerity positively knocks you out from the get-go if you are not careful, so beware.

He is, I'm afraid, one of those rather sad persons that I have met in my travels after growing-up in South Florida, in Bloomington, IN and then Chicago, Evanston, Wilmette, and then Arlington, VA and Washington, D.C., who NEVER quite seem to realize that by the time someone is close to age thirty, like Lewy, they should no longer have ambition as a substitute for a personality.

And yet they do, utterly convinced of their own destiny to be an important person.

Correct, this is the part where I channel some of the Midwestern values I assimilated over the years while living, learning and working in the Hoosier State and the Land of Lincoln, and say that it's better to be a person who does important things for others, rather than to be a person who thinks they are important.


What can I say, it's low-hanging fruit and I grabbed it, but that doesn't change the fundamental fact that it's completely true with respect to Alexander Lewy.


As I've personally observed him in person for years
in his capacity as a staffer for U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, a resident of Hallandale Beach, and now as a two-time political candidate, Alexander Lewy is completely insincere and self-important in ways that would make many veteran congressmen I could name -and knew in Washington- positively blush.

To give but one illuminating example of this, earlier this year at a public hearing on the Diplomat LAC project, a friend of mine who is not only, arguably, one of the most-respected persons in South Florida, but also someone who's frequently sought by the local South Florida news media for their opinions, asked Lewy if he'd be running for office again soon.

While I am not entirely clear one way or the other if Lewy quite knew whom my friend was, per se, or even their longstanding reputation for honesty and integrity,
I am 100% positive that the answer he gave in response to that rather simple and harmless question was that he was NOT going to be running again anytime soon.

Well, the kicker is that I knew that Lewy's answer was completely untrue, and the reason I knew it was untrue was because Lewy himself had already made a change on one of his own social media sites to indicate that he'd be running again this year for the Hallandale Beach City Commission, having already lost here in 2008.


Question: Why would Lewy lie about something like that?
There's absolutely nothing to be gained, and very few people even cared in the first place.
Exactly!

It's who Alexander Lewy is, sad to say.

A person seemingly incapable of even a scintilla of honesty, no matter the subject matter.


The next time I happened to see this particular friend of mine again, when we were at yet another civic event (outside of Hallandale Beach), they eventually told me the strange-but-true tale involving The Ambitious Mr. Lewy.

When I informed my friend that they has been intentionally deceived by the very source himself, the only thing I can print here that they muttered in response to finding out they'd been lied to, face-to-face, is
"Lewy the Liar."

Of such unexpected moments are insightful political slogans born.

"Lewy the Liar," indeed!

I have known this stone-cold fact about Alexander Lewy for many months, and am happy to finally be able to share the news with you here.

Friday, October 22, 2010

Why won't Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper follow the rules and let the people in Golden Isles vote? Some rare logic & reason re the Oct. 19th Golden Isles meeting


Above, October 19, 2010 photograph by
South Beach Hoosier of Part C-1, TERM
of the "Protective Covenants relating to the residential section of Golden Isles" in Hallandale Beach, FL effective May 26, 1959.

The key area for you to consider is
"unless an instrument signed by a majority of the then owners of the lots has been recorded, agreeing to change said covenants in whole or in part."

What could possibly be simpler?
In order to change any aspect of the covenants, you need 51%.


Every homeowner in the Golden Isles section of Hallandale Beach has a copy of these rules.

But certain people living in Golden Isles don't want to follow these rules, and that includes the mayor of this city, Joy Cooper, the current President of the Florida League of Cities, and many of her friends and neighbors.

They want to go around the written rules they had already agreed to.
Not surprisingly, a LOT of people don't like that idea one bit, and for good reason.


Below is an email that I wrote and distributed on Wednesday afternoon throughout Hallandale Beach, Broward County, South Florida and beyond to some concerned Floridians, elected officials and news media regarding the very curious and queer SRO public meeting that I attended (and videotaped) on Tuesday night at Hallandale Beach City Hall.


It was one of the oddest public meetings I have attended of the dozens I've gone to throughout South Florida over the past seven years since returning to South Florida after 15 years living and working in the Washington, D.C. area.

In fact, it may be THE oddest, since it was the most obvious failure, though the Miami-Dade County hearing I attended in early 2009 on proposed public financing of a Marlins Stadium had been the leader up 'til now.

That was the public hearing where Chairman Dennis Moss refused to allow the hundreds of citizens in attendance
at the M-D Commission Chambers in downtown Miami to watch the City of Miami's public hearing with the Marlins' David Samson -the reason for the long delay where we were, and its eventual postponement -after a few hours of nothing happening- on the large TV screens in the Commission Chambers, even though the staff, commissioners and news media could watch it in their offices or the next door media room.

But for the assembled citizens, Moss delivered an emphatic
"No!"


Then
Dennis Moss compounded the basic problem by lying to the public (and the hordes of news media) by saying that it wasn't technically possible, even though county employees I spoke to there said it would only take a few seconds to do it.

Plain and simple, Dennis Moss didn't want the South Florida public to know what was going on at that other hearing.


This was the smug, elitist and entitled attitude I saw displayed by
Comm. Moss in a taxpayer-funded room in a taxpayer-funded building, where everything you see is something that taxpayers paid for, including the very equipment the M-D commissioners, staff and news media watched the City of Miami meeting on!

A fact that the dutiful South Florida news media conveniently ignored, as usual.


You bet I want to see Dennis Moss recalled by Miami-Dade County voters, with Norman Braman's help and leadership.
I only wish I could legally sign the petition!

As for v
oter recall in Hallandale Beach, it'll be here sooner than you think...


Tuesday night's meeting in Hallandale Beach was held to discuss some news regarding proposed changes to the status quo in the
Golden Isles section of southeast Hallandale Beach, which is a separate taxing district for certain purposes, and which has a security gatehouse at its entrance
on Layne Blvd., though anyone can still enter since it's on a public road.

But what Tuesday night's meeting most resembled was a failed pep rally, run by supporters of HB mayor Joy Cooper and her cronies.
That's because that's exactly what it was.

My email below appears exactly as sent, minus a few cleaned-up typos and a few things I've completely spelled out in order to make it clearer for blog readers.
-----

Wednesday October 10th, 2010

I commend to you the common sense email, below, from attorney David C. Barnett, a resident of Hallandale Beach who seems able to see what most of the city residents attending last night's meeting at HB City Hall could see with their own eyes: an attempted hijacking of democracy by a small clique under the guise of maintaining high-property values.
http://www.hallandalebeachfl.gov/index.aspx?NID=680

Mayor Joy Cooper
and Comm. Keith London, both of whom live in Golden Isles, were precluded from speaking publicly on this issue at last night's meeting -which I videotaped- because it could/will come before the Hallandale Beach City Commission in Dec. or Jan. if approved by the Hallandale Beach Planning & Zoning Board.

Not that this stopped Harry Cooper, the mayor's husband, from speaking and blaming Comm. London, who was responsible for the large turnout of residents last night by informing and educating people about the possible long-term ramifications of what is being proposed, which from Harry Cooper's personal p.o.v., necessarily, makes his wife look bad.
But if that is the reality, and it is, it's true whether he likes it or not.
Having carefully read the documents provided, including the covenants involved, it's pretty clear that there needs to be an election of the homeowners in the Golden Isles taxing district, which will be approved if 51% say yes.
In fact, it says EXACTLY that.
The powers-that-be among the two self-selecting Golden Isles groups that met last night at City Hall are chock-a-block full of Joy Cooper supporters, and don't think they can reach that low threshold -and even said so.

But rather than follow the proscribed rules, and take their chances with an election, they are trying to go thru the backdoor and have the city take care of things, even though that will be an expense that the entire city will be asked to pay for.

Naturally, thanks to the mayor's efforts at mis-direction, the rest of the city doesn't know anything about this, or that they are going to have to pay for the enforcement of these Golden Isles-specific rules that they no longer do, as Mr. Barnett correctly states below, despite how many times Cooper family friend Gerry Natelson calls them the same rules.

As it happens, his daughter, Sheryl Natelson, is on the city's P&Z Board.
(Guess who appointed her?)
She's one of the two geniuses on the city's P&Z board who threatened to have me removed by the Hallandale Beach Police from a public P&Z meeting last year for... taking photos of the Board at a public meeting!

From about 50 feet away.

At a public meeting where I was one of only three citizens present in the entire HB Cultural Center.

Natelson's yet another attorney in HB who doesn't understand or doesn't like the state's Sunshine Laws, just like City Attorney David Jove, who for years has looked the other way at what was going on right in front of him, regardless of how badly it illegally disadvantages the citizen taxpayers of this community, because that's what Mayor Cooper and former
City Manager Mike Good wanted.

I'm hardly sharing Breaking News when I tell you that it's the opinion of the majority of concerned and well-informed people in HB that Jove's number-one priority is keeping his job. Period.
Just saying...
If this situation is going to be handled fairly and legally, the residents of that special taxing district need to have their referendum, plain and simple, and the two Golden Isles groups and Mayor Cooper need to STOP trying to bypass THEIR OWN RULES.
And any pretense at fairness and transparency.

Why won't Mayor Joy Cooper follow the rules and let the people in Golden Isles vote on the matter?
There's your story.
Dave


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Keith London
Date: Wed, Oct 20, 2010 at 12:12 PM
Subject: FW: 10/19 Meeting
To: "Commissioner, Hallandale Beach - Keith London" <klondon@hallandalebeachfl.gov>

Everyone,

Please read the attached email from one of your neighbors concerning the meeting last night.
Please feel free to contact me with any thoughts, comments or responses of your own.
Regards,
Keith
Keith S. London
City Commissioner
Hallandale Beach
954-457-1320 Office
954-494-3182 Cellular
-----
The email below was written by David C. Barnett and was addressed to Hallandale Beach mayor Joy Cooper and Commissioner Keith S. London.
Other than my removing their email addresses at the top of the letter, it appears exactly as sent.
-----
Sent: Wednesday, October 20, 2010 8:19 AM
Subject: 10/19 Meeting
Barnett & Lerner, P.A.
Fighting for injured workers
Dear Keith & Joy:
It was a pleasure seeing both of you last night at the Safe Neighborhood and Overlay meeting. As you know, although I am extremely busy with my law practice, once in a while I do find the time to go to a meeting to learn about what is happening in our little town.
I found last nights meeting offensive in that there seems to be an attitude of superiority exhibited by both "voluntary" boards. I thought they were volunteering their time in order to make our neighborhood - Golden Isles - better. Rather, it is apparent there are political and power issues behind everything. With these political and power issues come costs - both hard and soft costs.
At the beginning of the Overlay meeting, Gerry Nadelson started by reminding everyone that we are a volunteer homeowners association with volunteer dues of $20.00. He went on to tell everyone that we need to have this City Overlay done in order to protect the residents of Golden Isles from the threat of litigation. Gerry stated that if we (I guess he means the ENTIRE community of Golden Isles) get sued, our dues would not provide enough money to pay an attorney to defend the lawsuit. I do not know the statistics, but I know that I am not the only attorney living in our neighborhood and I am sure that if there was a threat to Golden Isles, there would be plenty of resident lawyers who would be there to maintain our little waterfront community.
As someone who has been involved politically, on both a state and national level, it scares me to hear the "threat of litigation" as a basis for change. What we found out however, is that in 56 years, there has been maybe one (1) lawsuit. Thus, based on the foregoing, a question needs to be asked - What is the motivating factor for this requested change? The answer, although not disclosed, is very simple to see.
As everything stands now, if we, the residents of Golden Isles, have a problem or a concern over a neighbor regarding deed compliance, it is up to us as individuals or as a community to retain our own lawyer to enforce the restrictions by suing the non-compliant neighbor. Nobody wants to get sued, and quite candidly, over 56 years we have been able to keep Golden Isles residents fairly compliant with deed restriction.
By adopting this Overlay, what will really happen is that the City Attorney will now be the free private "retained" attorney by the activists within our neighborhood without any direct costs to those individual activists. We already have individuals who drive up and down the streets, inspecting everyone's home and invading privacy while others get on their boats and inspect everyone's home from the water. Essentially, we have a group of our own "SS" within our community. These individuals constantly complain, but they will not fund a lawsuit against a non-compliant neighbor either because they cannot afford it or they are concerned about the repercussions that will develop within our neighborhood. To give them access to a "free" attorney with anonymous deed compliant complaints is very scary!
If we adopt this Overlay, our Golden Isles SS group will have unlimited access to the City Attorney, at no expense to themselves individually, but rather to the expense of not only Golden Isles, but also the ENTIRE city of Hallandale Beach. Has this volunteer Overlay Board of nine actually conducted a cost analysis of this Overlay proposal. Do ALL the residents of the CIty of Hallandale - beyond just Golden Isles - know, and are they aware and in agreement, that this Overlay will result in additional costs to the City, which will have to be placed within the City budget. Where is this money going to come from - our taxes! How many more attorney's will the city need to hire in order to be responsive to the demands of the Golden Isles SS group for enforcement litigation? We need to see a true, independent, cost analysis of this Overlay, before we proceed further.
I certainly understand the frustration that Gerry, Joy and Alex may have over the home near the end of Holiday which is falling apart and is a blight on the neighborhood, but the methodology they are bringing forth is very dangerous. Not only will there be real financial costs (City attorney budget will have to go up) associated with the City Overlay, there will be the soft, emotional costs on our neighborhood. Gerry said that we "need" this Overlay as it will increase the "value" of our homes! I heard the same garbage about Gulfstream how our homes would go up in value and the people that promoted it most were actually on the payroll of either Magna, Gulfstream or Forest City, which they never revealed. In any event, values did not go up but rather, we have all experienced about a 40-50% decline in home values (I know the economy has a lot to do with it) This Overlay will NOT increase the value of our homes. I hope that this statement is challenged and I would like to see an impact study supporting such a statement. Rather, I see the value of our homes dropping with this Overlay as the Overlay will pit neighbor against neighbor when the Golden Isles SS overwhelm the City Attorney with anonymous complaints about residents of Golden Isles. Thereafter, the City will be forced to flood the Courthouse with suits filed by the City Attorney against residents of Golden Isles. This is offensive, crazy and shows the lack of insight, common sense and good judgment.
We all moved to Golden Isles because we did not want to live in a structured condo type community. We have had a nice neighborhood for 56 years without the Overlay. I do not see any upside to this proposed Overlay, only problems. This madness has to stop and we need your help to stop it.
Very truly yours,

David C. Barnett, Esquire
Barnett & Lerner, P.A.
2860 Marina Mile Blvd; Suite 105
Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33312
954-920-7400
954-920-9492 fax
888-732-7425 US Toll Free
www.injuredoverseas.com