Outsourcing isn't the real problem with beach safety in Hallandale Beach, but rather the actions -and in-action- of David Jove, Mike Good and Mark Antonio at HB City Hall; #HallandaleBeach

North Beach, Hallandale Beach, FL. May 30, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier. 
© 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

Outsourcing isn't the real problems with beach safety in Hallandale Beach, but rather the actions -and in-action- of David Jove, Mike Good and Mark Antonio at HB City Hall; #HallandaleBeach

Based on the eight-plus years I have of seeing how often Hallandale Beach has been mismanaged, the issue of outsourcing beach safety on the city's public beaches to third-party contractors has never been the main problem, though it seems to have become one now in the eyes of a lot of people who don't know all the facts, including some local and out-of-state reporters, who are latching onto that as a convenient straw man they can attack, often for political reasons.
While it's understandable to a certain extent for people who don't know the true extent of how badly run things are here to think that must be the problem, it isn't.


People, esp. residents of this city, feel a need to explain away the justifiable anger and upset they have over what has happened here recently that's gotten the name Hallandale Beach into headlines and stories all over the world for all the wrong reasons.
But they'd be better off looking closer to home at people whose names they already know.

The real problems lay at the desks -and feet- of a handful of highly-paid people who formerly toiled at Hallandale Beach City Hall.
People who'll be making more then $3 Million in pensions in the future for time they were given credit for that was actually done PRIOR to the current pension plan.
Yes, millions of dollars.


In my opinion, based on all I know and have observed from the center of the storm, the real problems with beach safety in Hallandale Beach are in the actions and non-actions of former City Attorney David Jove and former City Managers Mike Good and Mark A. Antonio.


Yes, the buck stops with them, and what's left over for sloppy seconds rests entirely with the ineffective and tone-deaf fivem-member Hallandale Beach City Commission, that with the exception of Keith London, never actually wanted to look under-the-hood to see what was really going on, even though oversight, rather than policy-making, is actually what most local officials are better at than policy-making.
Here, unfortunately, they are bad at both, since taking some pride in being diligent about mastering the pertinent policy information is not a trait the majority of the commission necessarily values.


Now, though, with Jove, Good and Antonio out of the picture, this city's residents have inherited all manner of bad public policies and unsound decision-making that we'll be paying for and dealing with for many, many years, to say nothing of the huge pensions their assistants will be receiving for the very same reason -credit given for prior years under a different plan, not actually work done under the pension plan in question.


A pension plan pushed on the HB City Commission by yet another former City Manager, R.J. Intindola, who the city's own figures show pockets an EXTRA $96k a year because of this plan that was approved one year before he retired.

A pension plan that ran counter to what the majority of local governments were then migrating to.

Trust me, here on this blog in the coming weeks and months, you will be getting the genuine jaw-dropping pension numbers on these characters -and others- that will animate at least some of the coming political campaign conversation in this town the next 16 weeks until Election Day.

Teaser Alert -NOT: Bill Julian's fingerprints will be on it.

Bur that's in the future, so for now, let's turn our attention back to the topic du jour, beach safety and the incident that brought it to worldwide attention.

My comments after the article. 

--------------------------------------
South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Fired Hallandale Beach lifeguard to receive key to city; contract with company may sink

By Ihosvani Rodriguez, Sun Sentinel

5:42 p.m. EDT, July 6, 2012

HALLANDALE BEACH—

City leaders plan to give the lifeguard who was fired earlier this week the key to the city while considering showing the door to the private company that canned him.

Mayor Joy Cooper said Friday she remains horrified by the way Tomas Lopez, 21, of Davie was fired for leaving his post on the beach to help rescue a drowning man outside the company's legal boundaries. Lopez worked for Jeff Ellis Management, an Orlando-based firm that has been providing lifeguard services for the city since 2003.

"I know people across the country are as outraged as I am," Cooper said. "This doesn't reflect our culture. We are a small, caring community."

The city plans to issue Lopez the symbolic key during a ceremony on Monday. The unidentified man who needed rescuing is also expect to attend the event, the mayor said.

Company officials have since apologized to Lopez over the firing and offered him his job back. Lopez has turned them down. The company also announced it would be looking at its emergency protocol policy and possibly retooling it.

But those revisions may come too late, given that Lopez's firing seems to be an international public relations nightmare for both the city and the private firm.

The incident and the company's contract could become an election issue for most city commission members who are seeking re-election in November. Some of the political opponents, including former Vice Mayor Bill Julian, have already made it a campaign issue by pushing for the services to be provided in-house. When it comes to beach safety, Julian said "the real issue is that I think we can do better. We need to bring back our own guys."

Commission members, including Cooper and her bitter political nemesis Commissioner Keith London, have each said they want to revisit the idea of contracting out lifeguard services.

London, who is facing Cooper for the mayor seat, told residents and supporters in an e-mail sent Friday that the incident has provided the opportunity for a second look at beach safety.

"During a time when Hallandale Beach is attempting to attract more visitors with families and young children, I believe this is an opportunity, in light of a near tragedy, to review and potentially enhance the services provided by our first responders," London wrote.

The city began outsourcing the lifeguard responsibilities nine years ago as a cost-cutting measure. In 2009, the city renewed a three-year contract with Jeff Ellis Management worth roughly $1 million.

The contract is set to expire in September.

In firing Lopez, company supervisors said he ran past the boundaries the firm is contracted to protect. Company officials initially said Lopez put swimmers in his area in jeopardy and the firm could've been sued. A review of the contract specifically indicates that the boundary must be protected at all times.

The company is required to reimburse the city $100 for each day a lifeguard is not present.

In 2007, the firm reimbursed the city $500 after it pulled its lifeguards off the beach because of rough conditions. A woman nearly drowned while the stands were left empty and had to be rescued by beach guards from adjacent Hollywood.

Hallandale Beach is the only city in Florida the company provides ocean lifeguards. It does provide guards at community pools for numerous municipalities around the county, including in Hallandale Beach, Dania Beachand North Lauderdale. The lifeguards have said they get paid $8.25.

Dania Beach considered hiring the firm in 2005, but residents and employees vehemently opposed the move saying they were worried about the quality of the company's ocean-rescue training.

Gerry Falconer, president of the lifeguards group United States Lifesaving Association's southeast region, said the company has never sought certification through his association. He said there are several companies that provide similar services around the country, but most are designed to provide lifeguards at public pools.

"It's apples and oranges. At a wave pool, if things go bad, you can just hit a switch and turn the waves off," he said. "You can't do that on the ocean."

Company officials have long stood by its own certification training called the International Lifeguard Training Program, which they say includes ocean training and recognized by insurance companies.

Lopez said Friday he underwent the company's lifeguard training at a pool, which consisted of rigorous swimming and physical exercises. He then had training on the beach after he was hired.

Company president Jeff Ellis could not be reached for comments on Friday. He did say earlier this week he plans to provide city officials with results of an investigation about this week's incident.

Mayor Cooper said she plans to address the issue at the commission's first meeting in August.

There's also a video at URL http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/hallandale/fl-hallandale-beach-lifeguard-more-20120706,0,1727797.story

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To me, outsourcing lifeguard duties on the city's public beaches were never the main problem here, but rather former City Attorney David Jove NOT doing a satisfactory job of completely spelling-out the city's reasonable expectations and requirements in the contract at the time, and subsequently, the City Managers and City Commission's complete failure to provide adequate oversight and suggest timely contract changes when appropriate.
Our old friend, lack of oversight, is the central problem, like dozens of other issues that we all could name that have long plagued this community.

Everything else devolved from that, including HB City Hall's failure to ever talk to the lifeguards themselves, just like the city NEVER spoke to the city's Mini-Bus drivers before they came out with their Transportation Master Plan. 
Really!

Why wouldn't you speak with your own employees and contractors first to see what suggestions they had before you spend so much money, so you can be sure to get the input of people who deal with a situation on a daily basis and incorporate their valid concerns or suggestions?

It's completely counter-intuitive and an example how often common sense has been ignored in this city over the years because that was NOT the way City Manager Good and Antonio wanted things done.

With them, it all started with themselves -top-down, despite the fact they they are not the ones who set policy.

The HB Parks & Recreation may nominally oversee the lifeguard contract, but again, that's in name only, since nobody in that  dept. had or has the power to do anything once the contract was signed. 

No, it all lay with the City Manager's office, and there, Good and Antonio both failed.

For many years, when their supervisors weren't around, the lifeguards have specifically told me exactly what they were missing in the way of resources and tools to do their job to the best of their ability, or what problems they were having with the city NOT doing what they said they were going to do, and taking forever even IF they did it.

Like the state of the lifeguard stands themselves, which are physically sub-par compared to other communities in South Florida.

South Beach, Hallandale Beach, FL. May 30, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier. 
© 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

And as I've been saying and writing, and as the city already has known for a long time, the lifeguard stations are NOT currently grounded for lightning strikes.

What happens if one is struck overnight during a storm and destroyed, what's the city's back-up plan to have one in place the next morning?

What's the plan?

The truth is that we all already know based on years of experience that there is no back-up plan.

There never is.

Looking south towards North Beach, Hallandale Beach, FL from the Hollywood cityline. Though you really can't see the South Beach station from North Beach, HB City Hall thought they could share one jet ski, when it actually worked! 
What more can you say? May 30, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier. 
© 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

Whether it was NOT having message boards on the side of the lifeguard stands that they could actually write on anymore because of excessive physical wear-and-tear from the sun and graffiti -and the city being a year behind in getting replacements- or NOT having a single  working jet ski to reach swimmers in peril in strong winds/undertow conditions because the last one was broken, and the city had no back-up plan, and refused to rent one until the previous one was fixed, the problems lay with the city, not the contractor,


Think about the fact that even when it was working, the city expected the two lifeguard stands to share one jet ski among them, separated by hundreds of yards.

When seconds really count!

It's absolutely ridiculous!

But this was how the city "managed" things on the beach on a daily basis for years.
That's NOT Jeff Ellis & Associates' doing, that's the city's!

As I wrote the other day, for quite a long time during the past 2-3 years, the lifeguards had nothing to cope with those sorts of wether/physical conditions, so this whole debate, upsetting as it is, could well have come a whole lot sooner, under much more tragic and deadly circumstances, with genuine drowning victims and lawsuits against the city that they could never possibly prevail in, leaving all of us on the hook.

That they didn't come sooner isn't because of anything the city has actually done, but rather in spite of everything the city HASN'T DONE.

Hope you can attend Monday morning's ceremony at HB City Hall at 10:30 a.m., because my sense of things is that given the amount of lingering concern and anger that remains, it could well prove to be a whole lot more interesting than anything Mayor Cooper is currently counting on.


And don't even go thru the pretense of having a meeting on beach safety in August if you aren't going to require David Jove to answer questions honestly, under oath.

Lifeguard Tomas Lopez helps save the day at the city's public beach but get's fired for his trouble. Meanwhile, Hallandale Beach City Hall continues to act neglectful and NOT do what it's legally supposed to do around the beach areas, and nothing happens. Nobody is fired. Just more mindless bureaucratic apathy and incompetency from the same old crew!

South Beach, Hallandale Beach, Florida. This and all photos below are from May 30, 2012 and were taken by South Beach Hoosier. 

© 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

Lifeguard Tomas Lopez helps save the day at the city's public beach but get's fired for his trouble. Meanwhile, Hallandale Beach City Hall continues to act neglectful and NOT do what it's legally supposed to do around the beach areas, and nothing happens. Nobody is fired. Just more mindless bureaucratic apathy and incompetency from the same old tired crew!

Early this morning in an email to the Sun-Sentinel's Ihosvani Rodriguez, I wrote the following:

I  just needed to clarify something.

In your article, Hallandale Beach lifeguard fired after participating in beach rescue
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/hallandale/fl-hallandale-beach-lifeguards-20120703,0,5326638.story do you mean the lifeguard who saved someone from dying,
Tomas Lopez, left one of the HB lifeguard stands that, contrary to what the city's insurance docs likely claim, are NOT now properly grounded for lightning strikes?

© 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

Something the city already knows about, which is the city's legal responsibility and a HB taxpayer's lawsuit nightmare if someone is injured?
Yeah, sort of like the city still not having fixed or replaced 28 broken lights at Bluesten Park, three blocks from City Hall, for well over nine months and counting... 

Specifically, the lifeguard stand on South Beach that still has graffiti on it and had metal city signs underneath it for 4-5 months because the city's DPW is so poorly managed and bereft of anything resembling a strong work ethic or attention to detail, to remove them and place them in the correct place? 
And which was still under the South Beach lifeguard stand many weeks after I first called DPW on my cell phone in late May while standing next to it, to complain, when these photos were taken?

Those lifeguard stands?

© 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

© 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

You mean THOSE lifeguard stands with metal underneath them just asking to be zapped

by lightning?

© 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

The beach where not so far away from those old and unsafe lifeguard stands there are faded, 30-year old Broward County signs from when southern Broward County was still using the 305 area code, the Miami Dolphins were still playing in the Orange Bowl, and BEFORE Dan Marino was playing quarterback for the Dolphins?

That neglected public beach?

© 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

Do you mean the beach where the weekend before the city's Parks Master Plan meeting of Monday May 31st re possible changes and improvements to South Beach, the sign with the meeting info came down, and rather than simply re-hammering it into the wooden pole, someone from the city dragged it next to the dumpster and left it there?

Which, of course, meant that anyone who went to the beach that entire weekend or Monday morning who didn't already know about the meeting would have had no idea about it, or what the rendering on the left actually meant?

That neglected public beach?

I spy: the missing meeting sign hidden next to the dumpster! 
© 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

The beach with the nearby dumpster without the fence enclosure the city requires of all businesses owners in the city with dumpsters, to hide the dumpster from public view, just like the city has been violating its own ordinances for YEARS at North Beach?

After I saw this for myself the afternoon of the meeting, I actually left the beach and drove over to City Hall and spoke in-person with the new Parks Director at her office to both tell her what I'd seen, but to also offer it up as yet another self-evident example of how things were/are routinely done in this city since I have lived here -with a lack of professionalism and with an almost completely contemptuous disregard for the taxpayers and residents of this city.

Which is to say half-assed! And with no consequences for continued sub-par performance.

But the reality is that in this city, it's DPW who is in charge of the beach, not Parks & Rec.
That's where the blame lies, along with just-departed City Manager Antonio, and the current Mayor and City Commission.

© 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

Could there possibly be any garbage dumpsters in South Florida that are closer to the Atlantic Ocean than these two from the City of Hallandale Beach at North Beach? (The ones you can see because the city doesn't have the required fencing hiding them.) I don't think there are! 

Area to the left is The Apogee condos in Hollywood under construction. 

The public beach where for years, as they do elsewhere, the city just laughs at following its own rules and ordinances, to say nothing of city commissioners ignoring state laws about NOT illegally parking in disabled parking spaces?

© 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

One of the many photos I snapped over the years of Julian's ID on dashboard while he was parked illegally in disabled or disabled- access parking spaces next to the Beachside Cafe at North Beach.  

(The latter is a common sense state law that for YEARS was routinely abused by former HB Comm. Bill Julian -running again this year- when he drove to the Beachside Cafe, continually parking in what was then THE only disabled parking space nearby, being sure to let everyone know whose car it was, as ID shows.)

Like the public beach -as depicted in photo above- that has dumpsters that have only needed lids that actually fit and cover the garbage since... 

Those public beaches?

The beaches that rightly ought to be taken away from the control of the city's DPW Dept., who have clearly demonstrated over many years that they are clearly NOT interested in giving HB taxpayers the appealing and clean beach they desperately want, and NOT giving them a dollar's worth of service for a dollar's worth of taxes?

The ones whose care should be outsourced to a licensed and experienced contractor to beautify and properly maintain?

Those public beaches?

Oh, okay, now I got it.

I just wanted to make sure that we were talking about the same beaches in HB I know about, and have been closely observing for years as they have fallen into rapid decline due to the city's very own longstanding neglect, apathy and incompetency.

After all, I certainly wouldn't want to jump to any erroneous conclusions.

Kudos to Tomas for keeping his integrity intact and not hesitating from doing the right thing.
I only wish that most of the people at Hallandale Beach City Hall who've been making the big bucks for years were as deserving of the community's trust, respect and admiration as Tomas was by his display of integrity.
But they're not.

No, sadly, my experience is that when they actually do the right thing, it's usually by accident, NOT by design.
And the proof of that is all around us in this city.

Eleanor Sobel, Broward pol who wanted -and got- Hollywood taxpayers to pay $30k for her new FL State Senate office in 2009 now asks FL legislature for audit of Hollywood!

Pol who wanted -and got- City of Hollywood taxpayers to pay $30k for her new FL State Senate office in 2009 now asks FL legislature for audit of Hollywood!

Oh, "that's Rich."

No, that's just Eleanor Sobel being Eleanor Sobel!

What brings this to mind is this blog post today by Steve Bousquet of the St. Petersburg Times:

Legislature OKs audit of city of Hollywood

TALLAHASSEE -- The Legislature on Monday approved a request by Sen. Eleanor Sobel to step in and audit the city of Hollywood's shaky finances. Sobel appeared at a meeting of the Joint Legislative Auditing Committee in the Capitol to ask for the audit, citing the city's declaration of a state of "financial urgency," a recent 11 percent property tax increase, lucrative pension and health benefits for city employees and overly optimistic revenue projections.

Read the rest of the post at

http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2011/10/state-approves-audit-of-city-of-hollywood-.html

Plus, at the time, April of 2009, Sobel's name was already STILL on the same building across from Hollywood City Hall -where Rep. Elaine Schwartz's office was/is also located- from when Sobel had used it as her temporary pit-stop of a Broward School Board office when she pretended to care about kids for a few months while waiting for Steve Geller to be term-limited out of the state senate.

I was at the Hollywood City Commission meeting when this self-serving effort got pushed thru -even updating my photos before going inside- and Balance Sheet Blog co-editor Sara Case was the only member of the public with the integrity to publicly say that Hollywood taxpayer funds should NOT be used in this manner, esp. for a woman who could well afford to pay for it herself, or, even rent one of the dozens of empty storefronts in Downtown Hollywood.

I thought Sara was particularly good in zeroing-in on the problems in her comments that day before the City Commission.

I have to admit, though, I was somewhat confounded that Mayor Peter Bober, having brought up some spot-on reasons that I hadn't even thought of to justify voting against it straightaway, or, continue it to the near future, along with some modifications to it and some added clarity on the ethical and financial issues, then voted FOR it.

I found that confusing on his part and some arguments by Comm. Richard Blattner, and I don't think I was alone in the Chambers in that sentiment.

Until it was mentioned at that meeting, in passing, I didn't know anything about Hollywood taxpayers also having spent $20,000 in 2006 on improvements to Rep. Schwartz's office.

Sara's point in her then-editorial about the real answer to the problem being that they leave their government cocoon and rent a downtown storefront is, of course, something that was completely lost on the woman from the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce.

Instead, this was a done-deal from the word "go," and it passed despite the gaping holes in logic and questions about propriety and extraneous spending.

R-2009-072 - Resolution - A Resolution Of The City Commission Of The City Of Hollywood, Florida, Authorizing The Appropriate City Officials To Execute The Attached Agreement Between State Senator Eleanor Sobel, State Representative Elaine Schwartz And The City Of Hollywood For Lease Of City Office Space And To Reallocate Funds For The Renovations For New Offices For Senator Sobel In The Old Library Building. PASSED

Good to know that Sen. Sobel is trying to re-pay the PBA members' past help by expressing her new-found concern with extraneous government costs.

But where were those concerns of hers before when it involved her? MIA.

The photos above, all taken by me on September 20th, with the first showing the offices of Rep. Schwartz and Sen. Sobel and the second showing part of the view when you walk out of their office, looking west, at Hollywood City Hall.

In the next few days, once I find those old photos, I'll add them here for an Eleanor Sobel office compare-and-contrast.

Some contemporaneous articles about this story are:

a.)

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Broward Politics blog

Sen. Sobel to taxpayers: Spend $30k cleaning rat-infested space for my office

Posted by Brittany Wallman at 10:57 AM

By Ihosvani Rodriguez, Staff Writer

State Sen. Eleanor Sobel, D-Hollywood, wants new office digs in Hollywood, and it will cost city taxpayers about $30,000 for starters.

http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/broward/blog/2009/04/sen_sobel_to_taxpayers_spend_3.html

b.)

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Hollywood to rent office to state Sen. Sobel

By Ihosvani Rodriguez

6:12 PM EDT, April 1, 2009

Read the rest of the post at:

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/community/news/hollywood/sfl-sobel-office-b040209,0,4633755.story

Reader comments at:

http://www.topix.net/forum/city/fort-lauderdale-fl/T7MBKTSCTPCC6IQBT

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Balance Sheet Blog is at http://balancesheetblog.wordpress.com/

http://www.hollywoodfl.org/

HB candidate forum tonight; Yet another bad idea promoted by Mayor Joy Cooper; some odds and ends

Just a reminder that tonight from 7:00-8:30 PM is the first of who knows how many forums and debates for Hallandale Beach candidates eager for your vote.
That gives you plenty of time to get home for the 9 PM debate b/w McCain and Obama.

Tonight's is at the HB Cultural Center, with tonight's event sponsored by the Hallandale Beach Civic Association, titled "Community Forum" to Meet the Candidates for Hallandale Beach City Commissioners."

If I had anything to do with it, this city would be looking at about 4-6 roving forums all over town in the month remaining before Nov. 4th, with plenty of advance promotion, so that HB Citizens could see fliers about it at Publix, Winn-Dixie, Starbucks, et al., DAYS BEFORE the event, so they could then make proper arrangements (re DVR/VCR/TiVo/babysitter) to actually attend themself, instead of relying on their friends and neighbors -and Hallandale Beach Blog- to tell them how it went after the fact, "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly."

I'd also make sure that you had either a NAME moderator or someone who is completely unaffected by whomever wins, and someone who really intends to grill the candidates in ways that they deserve and should be prepared to deal with, i.e. no softballs!
In other words, in ways that seem quite common to us on TV shows, films and on C-SPAN, but which never quite take hold firmly here in Hallandale Beach?

Force the candidates to stretch their minds a bit in front of us to get away from trite phrases and rote responses.
Be asked their opinion about specific past HB Commission votes, and future hypothetical events that will be important to the city's future.

Issues like the role of the CRA and what would you look for in a future HB CRA Director?

As to the Master Plan, what parts of the Master Plan did they like and dislike and what areas of it should be implemented first?

(Personally, I'm in favor of actual neighborhoods full of taxpayers getting the benefits first, NOT the area around HB City Hall, for the benefit of City Hall leaders and employees -and their edifice complex- and their pals and cronies.)

Based on the current facts and economic conditions, are you in favor of Forest City's request for millions of dollars for their Village of Gulfstream project across the street from HB City Hall?

Question: Comm. Ross, last year, along with Commissioners William Julian and Francine Schiller, you voted 3-2 to TRIPLE your Commission salary in secret away from public scrutiny.
Is that the kind of logic and common sense we should expect more of from you in the future if you are re-elected, and what does that particular vote show voters about your judgement?

Obviously, we could all think of a few dozen specific questions here, and at Hallandale Beach Blog in the next day or so, trust me, I'll be asking them, since nobody else is.

Speaking of abnormal, in most cities across the country, even small ones in rural communities, the goal of increasing civic participation (and voter turnout) is something that local Chamber of Commerce branches traditionally do in election years, in part because they want smart, motivated and articulate people to join their organization, since no group ever has enough of that particular
demographic. (Hallandale Beach more so!)

Traditionally, CoCs are involved in all sorts of activities that stretch to all areas of the city they serve, and one of the ways they foment positive development is by hosting events where their members and the public can hear elected officials and make their feelings known to those who will do the final deciding.

They host candidate forums and debates, but here in HB, because the financial connection between City Hall and the HB CoC is so tight, to the tune of $50,000, the local CoC shies away from anything that would make Mayor Cooper and City Manager Good angry.

But to their credit, for a change, according to docs I saw, Good and his staff actually proposed paring back the amount of money the HB CoC receives from the city in the new city budget, from
$50K to $40K, but they were over-ruled by the Commission and saw the amount bumped back up to $50K.
Honestly, what does the HB CoC do, exactly?
And why are they run in the strange way they are???

Their website is a joke of a site and does little more than display a directory of its members, and they have so little feel for PR and outreach that don't even have a directional sign/sandwich board on Hallandale Beach Blvd. to show where they are located, a fact I've lamented and mocked many times on my blog.

Before I returned to South Florida from Arlington County, VA, every area I'd lived in for the past 25 years had always had directional signs around town indicating where the local CoC was located.

It was just common sense, plus perpetual advertising.
No brain cells required.

Bit here in HB there is nothing -ZERO.

Personally, I don't think that's by accident, it's just the way the powers-that-be like it.

Rather than play the traditional role of an independent voice in the community with a pro-small business attitude, coupled with a generally conservative-moderate political streak, which doesn't always do or agree with what their own City Hall wants, here, they play the role of puppet.
Or, if you prefer, marionette.

I'd ask the candidates whether they think that in the year 2008, it's appropriate giving that amount of money to an organization that seems so clueless in its basic mission and operation, and never seem to have to publicly account for their backwardness.

They may very well be the only CoC or Bar group in South Florida that doesn't get their meetings mentioned in the FREE listings that the Daily Business Review daily prints.

The DBR runs ads from both the parent organizations of those professional groups, as wellas the various ethnic, age, Gay/Bi subdivisions, et al. You name it, they run it.

What they all share is the common sense to recognize the opportunity for what it is: a chance to attract interest and prospective members. To get some new blood and ideas!
For free!

But the Hallandale Beach CoC can't quite figure that out.
Yet they can get $50k of taxpayer funds to do with whatever they choose to do with it.

Even in a good economy that's a bad investment, but in a bad one, it begs for some clarification and justification.

As it happens, since some of you have asked me lately in person and via email, I have a VERY POOR opinion of the current Sun-Sentinel reporter that has been covering HB of late, Ihosvani Rodriguez.
He has done nothing but compound the bad first impression he made on me in June.

He showed bad judgment by showing up for a very important meeting of THE most important group in all of South Florida, the South Florida Regional Planning Council, http://www.sfrpc.com/ by walking into their Hollywood HQ on Hollywood Blvd. by wearing sandals. (And shorts?)

(Everyone else in the room, were wearing nice suits or power outfits, and even I felt a tad under-dressed in the back of the room for not having worn a tie.)

And into the packed conference for a hearing on the future of the Miami River, which has attracted a few local TV station cameras and reporters, Rodriguez strolls in wearing sports shirt and sandals.

It was pretty clear that I wasn't the only person who thought he must be some heretofore unknown downtown Miami neighborhood activist, there to protest the over-development taking place there, to the detriment of the longstanding marine industries.

To me, Rodriguez is a great example of that kind of lazy writing and mental sloppiness South Florida seems to be swimming in, a topic I've referred to earlier here, and have so often decried on my blog since starting it early last year: he usually leaves out the most important facts and doesn't mention the very incidents which are most crucial to a reader understanding the narrative.

I'll bet if he'd been writing about D-Day, he'd never have mentioned Eisenhower or the crucial role of weather to the success of the operation.

Let me give you a recent example of Rodriguez being Rodriguez -the second HB budget meeting.

I was sitting just a few seats from Rodriguez in the back of the HB Commission Chambers while he was laughing when Comm. Keith London was explaining that he was voting against the budget because he never received documents from City Manager Good's office, ones he'd
specifically requested during the summer.

Then watched in stunned silence as Mayor Cooper got up and fled the dais while Comm. London continued speaking via the speakerphone.

I know with certainty that Comm. London was telling the truth about that because I'd been at the meeting when he first requested those docs, as I sat about four feet behind him -and six feet from Mayor Cooper- upstairs in a City Hall conference room, sitting next to stacks and stacks of chairs in the corner.

That's the meeting where I snapped photos of HB's leaders 'talking the talk but NOT walking the walk' when it comes to the issue of recycling, just minutes after I'd asked City Manger Good why there'd been no recycling bins of any kind on the beach for YEARS.

A fact that I'd mentioned with specificity last November when I spoke for an hour to two of Good's assistants in a City Hall conference room: City Manager Administrator Jennifer Frastai and Manager of Intergovernmental Relations Frank Hileman., who worked for disgraced former Hollywood Congressman Larry Smith, whom I saw in action (grandstanding!) dozens and dozens of times on Capitol Hill, and whom I loathe almost as much as I do current Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz

I should've really known better but I thought I'd give it one last chance. Result of meeting: nothing.
It was a complete waste of an hour, and even worse, the last proverbial straw.

Don't make the same mistake I did in thinking that they actually want to help you -they don't.
They only want to "contain" problems. Period.

(I was at North Beach on Saturday afternoon before the U-M/FSU football game and there was not one bin on North Beach that was clearly maked recycling, only one for yard waste.
I snapped photos of it to prove that self-evident fact, as I have many times before in the past five months, with no positive changes evident of the sort that would seem logical.
The whole garbage/recycling situation there at the beach seems totally geared for the utmost ease of the DPW workers and not for beach visitors.
There should be at least 2-3 clearly marked recycling bins there and there aren't.
I will soon be running a photo essay on the bins at the beach that speak volumes!)

I then snapped some photos of HB's very own plastic water bottles in regular garbage bins because the city doesn't have recycling bins accessible at public city functions.

I'll bet that tonight's event at the HB Cultural Center has none near the beverage table

Take a quick trip back thru the recent past on the Hallandale Beach Blog Time Machine
Friday, June 20, 2008 Talking globally, polluting locally in Hallandale Beach

During breaks of that all-day budget meeting, as well as at lunch, after the city employees and the Commission left, I spoke many times to Pastor Anthony Sanders and longtime HB activist Mary Washington among many other residents from around the city who'd made a concerted effort to keep themselves informed as to the facts.

Not present: the Miami Herald, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, the South Florida Sun Times...

Yeah, imagine that?

No sign at all of Larry Blustein and Company's absurd kiss-ass brand of cronyism and back-scratching. Where was Blustein at?

In my estimation, that recent incident only cemented my opinion of Rodriguez, laughing at the very thing that is SO emblematic of the problems that beset HB City Hall: Mayor Joy Cooper's forcing her will upon the community even when one of its elected officials said publicly that city employees in the City Manager's office hadn't provided promised docs he needed to make a voting decision for almost four months.

Rather than ask who was responsible for producing the docs, Cooper was so aghast at the thought that anyone would publicly question "her employees" that she got up and left the room while Comm. London continued to speak via speakerphone, which is why her chair is empty in the photo I posted.

If you ever see Ihosvani Rodriguez at a meeting, walk up to him and tell him that the city you live in really can't afford his stupid, lazy and poorly-informed brand of writing and mis-representation.
He needs to be a real reporter, not a lazy stenographer.

Oh, by the way, Rodriguez never wrote anything about what he actually witnessed that night at the HB budget meeting -there was NO Sun-Sentinel story in the newspaper or online!
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What's even more laughable than the idea -below- of a bunch of elected officials giving one another awards?
Comm. Dotty Ross receiving one.
An award which HB taxpayers will end up paying the hotel and lodging costs for.

But what is worse is the dopey idea Mayor Cooper has to have city employees host a forum right before Election Day on the importance of city government.
Really.

Of course, it's not really HER idea, it's the idea of her masters at the Broward League of Cities, whom she must obey without question.

Make no mistake about it, THAT is who Mayor Cooper's real core audience is.

And right before the election?

How obvious can you be?

Yet NOTHING about ever scheduling a City Commission meeting or public forum with the head of IT PLUS the company that gets paid over $3,000 a month for the city's dysfunctional and embarrassing website, which often doesn't even mention mention city meetings happening that very day?

That's happened at least 4-6 times where I've noticed it over the past nine months, and I've noted that on my blog.
Doubtless there are many more incidents where I didn't even think to check before attending.
Where's the accountability???

Or, as above with Comm. London's problem, what about all the lies and misinformation continually coming out of Good's office about time lines and promises to share documents, that never happen?

The city's longstanding failure to provide responses in a timely fashion in response to FOIA requests for city docs by HB citizens?

So we now have yet one more example of Joy Cooper has shown that she doesn't know how to stop herself from her self-evident self-promotion, even though she no longer heads the Broward League of Cities.

Instead of having Resident Forums of her own, she wastes time trying to implement the wishes of people who are NOT residents and taxpayers of the city -the League.

She's supposed to serve the city, not her own selfish agenda.

If this foolish meeting gets held, I plan on attending with others and asking questions about these other important matters I raised instead, and ask why the elected City Commission is unable to deal with them in a timely and responsible fashion

And some of us may show up with film cameras to capture the moments for you.

The worst of all is the failure of Cooper, Ross and Julian to schedule a single City Commission meeting where they could publicly discuss/defend their actions regarding the odious criminal acts of HB Police Chief Thomas Magill in trying to frame two innocent HB police officers and have them prosecuted for something THEY DIDN'T DO.

His disgraceful acts and behavior have already cost the city hundreds of thousands of dollars, so what has Comm. Dotty Ross said publicly about any of that?
Nothing.

For more on that, see my April 14th post, "Dial M for Magill" -and mendacity! and my January 19th post Hallandale Beach Blog Time Machine: August 2006 and http://www.topix.com/content/trb/2008/01/hallandale-beach-to-pay-to-settle-one-of-two-former-police-officers-lawsuits )

Is there any more important question to a HB Commission candidate than why do you believe this city continues to employ an individual as Police Chief who seems to have routinely lied and
commited criminal fraud in a vendetta, and what do you plan on doing about it?

Or, do you think it will just disappear as an issue if you pretend it will, like Mayor Cooper
and City Manager Good?
-----------------------
09/03/08

8G. CITY OF HALLANDALE BEACH
MEMORANDUM
JC08-022

DATE: August 22, 2008
TO: D. Mike Good, City Manager
FROM: Mayor Joy F. Cooper

SUBJECT: Discussion of Observing "Florida City Government Week" in October and Associated Activities

I believe it would benefit the City and residents to observe "Florida City Government Week". This year's Florida City Government Week is October 19, 2008 through October 25, 2008. "Florida City Government Week" is part of an ongoing effort sponsored by the Florida League of Cities to raise public awareness about the services that cities perform and to educate the public on how local government works.

As part of this observance, I recommend that the City's Development Services Department prepare and conduct a public outreach and education workshop to include Code Enforcement, Building Permits and an Introduction to Growth Management.

I am requesting the support of the City Commission toward scheduling this observance.

09/03/08
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http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/communities/south/story/712703.html

Miami Herald
October 5, 2008
Mayor Bell a finalist for statewide award

Homestead Mayor Lynda Bell is one of five finalists for the Florida League of Cities' Council Member of the Year -- one of 10 awards to be presented next month during the Florida Cities of Excellence Awards program.

Bell, who was a Homestead councilwoman until she won the mayoral race last November, will be competing against Bill Garvie, Fort Walton Beach; Janice Miller, Oldsmar; Dorothy ''Dotty'' Ross, Hallandale Beach; and Sarah ''Sam'' Seevers, Destin.

''No matter who wins, being a finalist is an amazing blessing,'' Bell said.

"I love what I do, and this is just a bonus.''

The League's Council Member of the Year honors a council member or commissioner who displays exceptional civic commitment, leadership, public outreach and service.

In August, former Councilwoman Ruth Campbell asked the council to nominate Councilwoman Judy Waldman for the statewide award.

Instead, the council nominated Bell.

She was first elected to office in November 2003 to a four-year term. Last year, she became the city's first female mayor.

Homestead resident Lois Jones supported Bell's nomination, saying: "Mayor Bell is a breath of fresh air, and we are fortunate to have her as mayor. She has superb communication skills and an innate talent for executive leadership and legislative strategy. . . . Mayor Bell comes to council prepared; she does her homework.''

Bell and other finalists are invited to attend the awards luncheon Nov. 21 in Orlando.

The winner will be announced then.