Latest news re prospective audit of Hallandale Beach CRA by Florida Joint Legislative Auditing Committee: Now HB residents know for sure who their real friends in Tallahassee are -and aren't- and they are NOT named Eleanor Sobel, Joe Gibbons or Shevrin Jones. But this merely confirms what we've already known and long suspected -Hallandale Beach's 3 state legislators are NOT representing us well in Tallahassee and are putting personal politics and relationships above their duty to us. Now we know for sure!

My short and to-the-point email of Monday afternoon to dozens of concerned people throughout Southeast Broward, Tallahassee and certain TV stations, websites and blogs, went something like this:

Well, after making a phone call this afternoon to JLAC's office up in Tallahassee,
http://www.leg.state.fl.us/cgi-bin/View_Page.pl?Directory=committees/joint/Jcla/&File=index_css.html&Tab=committees
I received the response below.

Now we at least have some documentation proving who this community's real friends in Tallahassee are -and aren't- these days, and who's just been feeding us lip service about rallying to the cause of giving Hallandale Beach citizens their long overdue accounting of where the HB CRA millions were really going for years, while nobody at HB City Hall was performing anything close to the level of genuine oversight and scrutiny that was demanded -or which HB taxpayers, residents and business owners had a reasonable right to expect.


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: JLAC
Date: Mon, Sep 9, 2013 at 4:04 PM
Subject: RE: re prospective audit of Hallandale Beach CRA by JLAC

Mr. Smith:

To date, the Joint Legislative Auditing Committee has not received a request for an audit of the Hallandale Beach CRA from any member of the Legislature.

I apologize for the slow response. After your call today, Debbie mentioned your email on August 19th, but neither of us recalls seeing it before.

Kathy

Kathy DuBose, Coordinator

Joint Legislative Auditing Committee

(850) 487-4110

___

Sent: Monday, August 19, 2013 12:34 PM
To: JLAC

Subject: re prospective audit of Hallandale Beach CRA by JLAC

Monday August 19th, 2013
12:30 p.m.

To Whom It May Concern:

As of this morning, has the Florida Joint Legislative Auditing Commission received any correspondence from the following state legislators formally requesting that JLAC perform an audit of the Hallandale Beach CRA: Sen. Eleanor Sobel, Rep.  Joe Gibbons and Rep. Shevrin Jones?

Living here, and being very involved in the effort to get your Committee to do one so that citizens of this community can finally get the financial answers that we have long been denied, I can tell you that there are no media reports of any of the three of them doing so, thus far, so I just want to get confirmation of that fact.

Thank you for your assistance!

DBS, Nine-year Hallandale Beach resident

Csaba Kulin and I on the future path for Hallandale Beach taxpayers to get overdue accountability on the HB CRA from JLAC, since Comm. Anthony A. Sanders has once again refused to do the right thing by taxpayers, just like he has dozens of times the past few years, where he's actively worked against HB residents/taxpayers best interests, esp. re CRA oversight and accountability

The following is a letter that my friend and fellow Hallandale Beach and Broward County civic activist Csaba Kulin and I have been working on the last week or so.

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Last week, some of you finally got the opportunity to see Csaba's e-mail to Hallandale Beach Comm. Anthony A. Sanders about the important July 10th meeting of the CRA Board of Directors.

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2013/07/csaba-kulins-spot-on-email-about.html

When Csaba was walking up and down the streets of the west side of town last Fall, and bore witness to the angry comments of Hallandale Beach taxpayers and voters, more than once he told me that he wished he'd had a camera crew following him so they could record some of the things he heard residents express to him as he asked for their vote and told them about his position on the issues facing this city that has been so poorly run.

One frustrated Hallandale Beach resident after another said something along the lines of, “We don't see any visible changes as a result of the $70 million spent by the CRA”

Many of those same residents said “all the CRA money is spent on the east side of the city.”

You'd hardly be surprised to discover that residents on the east side of town did NOT see any signs of CRA-funded improvements, either.

In our opinion, considering how very poorly and incompetently the HB CRA has been handled for so many years by the HB Commissioners acting as the HB CRA Board, which we have made a point of saying out-loud at meetings, the changes that Commissioners Julian and Lazarow asked for regarding the report -which HB City Manager Miller, City Attorney Whitfield and CRA Attorney Zelkowitz co-wrote, that had to be sent to the Florida Joint Legislative Auditing Committee, the JLAC- were extremely reasonable and logical from the perspective of ALL of the city's residents.

But unfortunately, despite being given a golden opportunity to do the right thing, yet again, Comm. Sanders failed to step up to the plate and do the right thing by the community so they could get the truth that has long been denied them.

His failure on July 10th, to NOT support the common sense motion made by Julian and seconded by Lazarow, has once again shown him to be someone who is completely tone-deaf to the best interests of the entire community, which is bad for everyone concerned, though he seems not to realize it.

To us, Comm. Sanders seems genuinely in the dark about the true level of his unpopularity across town, and seems to have mastered the art of actually making things worse, and he did just that again last Wednesday night.

Here is what we believe we as a community need to do: 

1.) Ask the JLAC to perform a complete audit of the HB CRA. The residents of our city, especially residents of the CRA district, have a right to know, once and for all, where did the $70 million go? Do you agree?

Dave has already been busy sending certain members of that Committee information about what has been routinely going on here for years, especially the two Co-Chairman, Rep. Ray and Sen. Abruzzo from Palm Beach, as well as Sen. Jeremy Ring, who is from northern Broward.

They are fact-filled emails that really do make the case for JLAC to do an audit that HB residents can all trust.

Dave also believes that HB residents need to take the initiative and should be writing members of JLAC directly, not only about the need for a CRA audit, but also for them to strongly consider the possibility of the Comm. having a "field hearing" here in Hallandale Beach in the coming weeks, like September.

That way, the members can see for themselves how badly things have been done so contrary to what is supposed to be happening, and hear directly from HB residents themselves. 
The Committee members know from what they see and hear around the state that if they don't get ahead of this issue now of what is and isn't appropriate, they will have lots of requests from other CRAs in the future, so better to deal with it now while they can.

Here are the names of the committee members, which is equal parts Democrat and Republican, Senators and Representatives:

http://www.leg.state.fl.us/cgi-bin/View_Page.pl?Directory=committees/joint/Jcla/&File=index_css.html&Tab=committees

2.) Ask the office of Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi for an opinion as to what type of expenditures are appropriate for a CRA, especially one for a city our size and with the amount of money we have. We are NOT Orlando or Miami Beach or Gainesville and what we do here should be logical and sensible for this community, not just copying what other larger cities do.

Chapter 163 is the Florida Statute that covers CRAs, so don’t we want to hear what the FL Attorney General has to say?

Mayor Cooper has an opinion, but we're convinced like so many other residents that her's is based almost entirely on her own political self-interest and ego, so that she can brag to her mayoral friends and Florida League of Cities pals around the state about what "her" city is doing. It's always about her.

Meanwhile, the mayor’s hired guns at City Hall have an opinion, but to nobody's surprise, it's the same as her's.

Is it really too much to ask that we get another legal opinion, one that's free of bias and that is also free of charge? 

"What's the harm?" 

That's exactly what Comm. Sanders should've realized and said in voting for the Julian motion but didn't Wednesday night.

3.) Commissioners Julian and Lazarow wanted the City to do the right thing and pay back to the CRA Trust Fund some $400,000 that was specifically identified by the Broward Office of Inspector General (OIG) as NOT being CRA obligations. 

They didn't make it up out of thin air, they got it directly from the report that was so critical of the city's abysmal management controls.

Don’t we want to ensure that every penny illegally spent by the City from the CRA Trust Fund be properly refunded to the CRA for its future use? 

On that count alone, you'd think Comm. Sanders would support the Julian motion, but Comm. Sanders didn't and didn't seem to care what the logical result of that would be.

How many times can we watch him make one bad judgment after another, one bad vote after another, which does real harm to this entire community?

Csaba didn't know who exactly was at the meeting in the Chambers since he was watching via his computer up in Strongsville, but he figured that since this was a chance to make things right for both the CRA and the community at large, and since the above proposals were so obviously beneficial to the CRA district, even Comm. Sanders would be able to see it and support common sense.
Csaba told me the next morning on the phone that like many of you, he, sheepishly, admits that he was wrong -again- in thinking that Sanders would finally do the right thing.

Well, trust us, that's a mistake that nobody in this town will ever make again -assume Comm. Sanders will actually do the right thing by the residents and taxpayers of this city.

While we've run into yet another easily-avoided roadblock to fundamentally reform this community and make it more responsive and transparent to all its residents and business owners, the cause endures and the hope will never die that one day, some day, we'll finally have a government in this city that's truly responsive, honest and fair to its own residents.

But it's going to take a lot of hard work from a lot of serious-minded people, because the people in charge at HB City Hall right now have no plans on changing their ways, and every incentive of trying to keep real reform as far away from City Hall as long as possible.

Please let us now what you think.

Mark your calendar for June 4th! Latest news re controversial Hallandale Beach CRA: Keith London set to appear at Broward County Commission and urge them to heed the recommendations of the Broward IG's damning report on HB CRA, urge Broward County Auditor to perform audit and get a full-accounting for HB taxpayers of where the $70 million has gone; Need to get FL Joint Legislative Auditing Comm. more involved, per my previous emails to Sen. Jeremy Ring

Received the following message Tuesday afternoon from my friend and former Hallandale Beach City Commissioner Keith London, and post it here today with the sincere hope that many of you who are reading it now will take full-advantage of the information he provides, and start planning on being in Fort Lauderdale on Tuesday June 4th, 13 days from now.

I strongly encourage you to show your support for the things I've been writing about here on the blog for so many years -genuine transparency, meaningful oversight and real accountability in local govt.- and your opposition to the people at HB City Hall, now and in the recent past, who've actively worked to keep the public in the dark, by joining me and others to stand up for clean government at County HQ.

Below Keith's email is an excerpt of the April 23, 2013 email that I sent to Sen. Jeremy Ring of the Florida Joint Legislative Auditing Committee, a group of state legislators in Tallahassee that I've long believed needed to get involved, too, and request an audit.




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Here's some more info on the Florida Joint Legislative Auditing Committee

http://www.leg.state.fl.us/cgi-bin/View_Page.pl?Directory=committees/joint/Jcla/&File=index_css.html&Tab=committees

I strongly encourage you to also contact Sen. Jeremy Ring, who's actually on the Committee,  as I did, to let him know how you feel about your CRA dollars being continually squandered for so many years and the people responsible for it STILL being without any sense of remorse.

.

The Senator's email address is "Sen. Jeremy Ring" <ring.jeremy.web@flsenate.gov>

The reference below is to Bill Gjebre's Broward Bulldog article of April 23rd, 2013 titled, 
Broward Inspector General: Hallandale leaders don’t know what they’re talking about

http://www.browardbulldog.org/2013/04/broward-inspector-general-hallandale-leaders-dont-know-what-theyre-talking-about/

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April 23, 2013

Dear Senator Ring:

Below, just in time for Wednesday's print edition of the Miami Herald, is more proof of the longstanding corruption, crony capitalism and serial half-truths practiced by the powers-that-be at Hallandale Beach City Hall. 

It's just the latest of several shoes to drop, and certainly won't be the last.

For the good of the residents, taxpayers and small business-owners of this beleaguered community that have been lied to constantly and intentionally by Hallandale Beach City Hall, literally, for years, with millions squandered in the process, with almost nothing tangible or of value to show for it, 

I formally request that you and the Joint Legislative Audit Comm. authorize a top-to-bottom audit of the Hallandale Beach CRA as soon as is practicable.

The very people entrusted by this community to perform their duties with respect for our state's laws as well as with financial common sense and diligence, have instead serially abused that faith and their power by engaging in this illegal, despicable and incredibly incompetent behavior, and are the very same ones who have worked hardest to prevent a full-scale audit of the city's CRA from taking place over the past few years, no doubt for fear of what the public would ultimately discover.

Self-serving Eleanor Sobel shows again why she remains Broward County's poster child for political expediency. Given a choice, as this SaintPetersBlog post makes clear, Eleanor Sobel prefers carrying the water of the govt. unions that endorsed her -and their pensions- to the long-term interests of S.E. Broward-area taxpayers who will have to pay the bill. Eleanor Sobel is exactly what she looks like -a crass opportunist of the worst sort

Self-serving Eleanor Sobel shows again why she remains Broward County's poster child for political expediency. Given a choice, as this SaintPetersBlog post makes clear, Eleanor Sobel prefers carrying the water of the govt. unions that endorsed her -and their pensions- to the long-term interests of S.E. Broward-area taxpayers who will have to pay the bill. 
Why DOES she always think that's more more important than S.E. Broward taxpayers' fiscal future, anyhow?

Why won't people ever learn their lesson with Eleanor Sobel and stop thinking she'll change her spots someday? 
Eleanor Sobel is exactly what she looks like -a crass opportunist of the worst sort.
Those of you who are keen to have a better class of politicians around South Broward and if possible, some politicians and government officials with some more old-fashioned notions of hard-work and ethics who don't make you cringe every time you hear their name, need to stop making excuses for her and her minions and her votes and her countless squandering of opportunities to make this area better, merely because she has such a high opinion of herself.

Job creation, a balanced economy that isn't so overly-dependent on the hospitality industry, an improved infrastructure that puts drivers and riders over contractors and engineers first? Stopping government waste and being aggressive about going after those who cause it?

Those are the sorts of issues that people in Broward will tell you we need someone fighting for.
But those issues are all boring issues to Sobel, and are the issues she leaves to others in Tallahassee to deal with and do the heavy lifting for why she worls on boutique issues like teens and tanning salons.

She wants to be a social justice (Union/Doctor's) superhero in Tallahassee, and be beloved by the Usual Suspects who fund Democratic Party candidates and staff their cvampaigns.
She is but how is that helping the tens of thousands of constituents in her district?
If we had a better class of reporters in this area like other parts of the country we'd see these sorts of matters dealt with in a forthright fashion in print or TV, but instead we have press sycophancy and schmoozing instead, where most reporters pull their punches instead. 

She much prefers to be amongst the crowd that always say "Gimme, gimme, gimme!"
That sort of things used to be called "playing to the cheap seats" before most Americans stopped going to movie theaters or live theater at least once a week.
(Why DOES she think that's more more important than S.E. Broward taxpayers' fiscal future, anyhow?)

But after all these years of doing it, Eleanor Sobel just calls this behavior Second Nature.

SaintPetersBlog

Pension battle set up as Senate bill goes to floor

By Peter Schorsch

March 28, 2013

A pension bill headed toward the Senate floor could spark a confrontation with House leaders over the future of the retirement system, though senators say they’re confident they can come up with a compromise.

 On a nearly party-line vote, the Senate Appropriations Committee sent the measure (SB 1392) to the Senate floor. Sen. Jeremy Ring, D-Margate, joined 13 Republicans on the panel in supporting the bill; the other five Democrats opposed it.

Read the rest of the post at:

http://www.saintpetersblog.com/pension-battle-set-up-as-senate-bill-goes-to-floor

My last two posts on self-serving Sen. Eleanor Sobel, who is supposed to represent me in Tallahassee but who rarely does so with any kind of distinction, were

February 16, 2013

My fact-filled email to a Sun-Sentinel reporter sheds long-overdue light on the behavior of both Florida state Sen. Eleanor Sobel and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel's sloppy and incurious brand of journalism, and how both negatively affect Broward residents; After today, I give up on the Sun-Sentinel until the Tribune Co. sell it off to someone savvy enough to give beleaguered Broward residents the quality newspaper they deserve, not more of the same old unsatisfactory status quo that is so galling

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2013/02/my-fact-filled-email-to-sun-sentinel.html

September 20, 2012 

A perfect end to a perfect Wednesday night thinking about ethics: Jennifer Gottlieb and Eleanor Sobel FINALLY get exposed; hot pizza, cold Heineken beer, '80's fave Lisa Whelchel on "Survivor," and reading some of the fascinating Grand Jury testimony re Beachside Montessori Village; Miami Herald: Records in Broward schools investigation reveal affairs; #BeachsideMontessoriVillage

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/09/a-perfect-end-to-perfect-wednesday.html

That last post has been actively searched for and read over 770 times, to say nothing of the number of people who saw it and read it that day,when it was the most recent post on the blog.
That's not by accident

No red-light camera meetings at Broward County Commission until after FL legislative session ends -if then; SB 672

There will be no continuation of the rather-heated discussion on red-light cameras in Broward County at the County Commission until AFTER the current 90-day legislative session in Tallahassee is concluded -if then.

Basically, at Tuesday's Broward County Comm. meeting, in reference to another question, Comm. Sue Gunzburger, acting in her role as the presiding officer or "mayor," said that there wouldn't be a meeting to follow-up on that rather amazing March 1st meeting that I -unfortunately- missed seeing in person but watched via streaming, that had so many people amused and appalled in equal measures.

(That was the meeting where large mayoral egos collided, as Hallandale Beach mayor Joy Cooper and Pembroke Pines mayor Frank Ortis continually jockeyed to respond via the public microphone to various commissioner's hardball questions and prodding for more information about their respective city's program, and what was and wasn't done in the name of safety. And, of course, the larger issue of whether or not it was all just a smoke-screen to conduct a money-grab in the case of Hallandale Beach's infamous red-light camera on U.S.-1 and Hallandale Beach. Blvd.

My post on that March 1st meeting:
My own little red-light camera 'rainout' at the Broward County Commision this morning; HB begins phase two of red-light camera money-grab today
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/my-own-little-red-light-camera-rainout.html)

The reason is because the whole issue could well be moot by this summer since there is a very reasonable chance that given the sentiment towards outlawing them, the FL legislature will make that law allowing them a one-year wonder and repeal them.

Florida SB 672, sponsored by Sen. Rene Garcia of Hialeah, would repeal last year's law allowing red-light cameras, moved out of the Senate Transportation Comm. in a 4-2 vote on Wednesday.
http://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2011/672

Voting to keep red-light cameras: Arthenia Joyner and Lizbeth Ben­acquisto.

Next up for the bill is the Senate Community Affairs Comm.
http://www.flsenate.gov/Committees/Show/CA/

Comm. members include:
Chair -Senator Michael S. "Mike" Bennett (R)
Vice Chair -Senator Jim Norman (R)

* Senator Paula Dockery (R)
* Senator Anthony C. "Tony" Hill, Sr. (D)
* Senator Garrett Richter (R)
* Senator Jeremy Ring (D) of Margate
* Senator Ronda Storms (R)
* Senator John Thrasher (R)
* Senator Stephen R. Wise (R)

Sen. Garcia is widely-expected to run for mayor of Hialeah later this year, as current mayor Julio Robaina is among those actively running for Miami-Dade County mayor in the race to succeed recalled mayor Carlos Alvarez.

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Bill to repeal red-light cameras squeaks by first Senate panel
http://www.sunherald.com/2011/03/29/2983459/bill-to-repeal-red-light-cameras.html

Brent Batten:
Red light cameras keep company in the black
Posted March 28, 2011 at 4:34 p.m.
http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2011/mar/28/brent-batten-red-light-cameras-legislature-672/

http://reason.com/blog/2011/03/30/red-light-cameras-at-risk-in-f