#Ethics still matter in South Florida! Stephanie Kienzle of Votersopinion.com keeps her eyes firmly on what's going on with the VERY CURIOUS legal antics of FL state Rep. Joe Geller, even as most of South Florida's news media keeps ignoring what's right in front of us.

According to ever-vigilant Stephanie Kienzle at VotersOpinion despite what appears to be his obviously unethical -and possibly illegal- delay tactics, it looks like Florida state Rep. Joe Geller is going have to face the music for lying to the Courts in Miami.

Geller certainly plays a mean game of four-corners defense to try to run the clock out, but then consider Geller's client: North Miami Beach City Council member Phyliss Smith, who is accused of... wait for it: absentee ballot fraud!

And it's abundantly clear that she has considerably less than a fig-leaf for a defense.

And did I mention that she refused a court order to turn over relevant records?

Is the Fat Lady about to sing? http://t.co/MkSWKYpnyo http://t.co/0Li01kaG1Z

— Stephanie Kienzle (@dwightyoakamfan) September 17, 2015

VotersOpinion blog

September 17, 2015

Despite the obviously unethical, and possibly illegal, delay tactics employed by Joseph S. Geller, Esquire, the lawsuit filed against North Miami Beach “Councilwoman” Phyllis Smith is finally moving ahead.  In a few short days, she’ll be compelled to answer the allegations of absentee ballot fraud.

Read the rest of Stephanie's fact-filled post at: http://www.votersopinion.com/2015/09/17/is-the-fat-lady-about-to-sing/

Some of you more informed readers will recall that earlier this year while wearing his legislator hat, Joe Geller tried to make logic stand on its head by offering a bill that would, as the legislature's own website put it:

"Repeals requirement that write-in candidate reside within district represented by office sought at time of qualification."

Who could possibly think this is a good idea for civic engagement, public accountability and genuine transparency? 

Joe Geller did. 

Fortunately, the bill died:

http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/Sections/Bills/billsdetail.aspx?BillId=54025

(For those of you reading this who don't know, Joseph S. Geller is also the former mayor of the long ethically-challenged town of North Bay Village in northern Miami-Dade County, and more recently was elected to the state House of Representatives last November as a dependable knee-jerk Liberal vote.

Thus, Geller represents those parts of southeast Broward County that are the most important parts of our "beat" on this blog: Hallandale Beach and Hollywood, and necessarily, Geller's various actions and antics in Tallahasse and locally are part of our regular focus.

Yes, he's the brother of the former state Senator for this area, lobbyist/lawyer/developer mouthpiece Steve Geller, who was the frequent subject of so many posts on this blog in the past, including when he ran for Broward County Commissioner in 2010 -BEFORE actually living within the district. 

Fortunately for everyone in this area, and common sense, his track record in office and strange sense of what he as a lawyer/lobbyist was entitled to do was found wanting, and Commissioner Sue Gunzburger was handily re-elected, with stronger ethics in Broward one of her key legacies.) 

Kudos to my friend, truth-telling Stephanie for keeping her eyes firmly on the ball while most of the South Florida news media seems to be too distracted and giddy from the return of the football season to notice that there ARE still a LOT of very unsavory things going on with pols in South Florida 

and the Sunshine State that ARE worth investigating and making public.

And worth prosecuting!

Tomorrow on my blog I'll have some interesting details and background info you may want to peruse regarding another case of an official in power in South Florida whose track record makes clear that he is an unrepentant serial abuser of the public trust.

Despite this, he remains both surprisingly aloof and intent on maintaining his very clear sense of entitlement, despite self-evident facts that would make others in his position resign out of either sheer guilt or embarrassment.

Or both!

But he remains steadfast and without remorse, making decisions that affect lots of South Florida residents everyday.

Such is the price we all pay for living in an area of the country where to our collective and continuing dismay, we have FAR MORE than our fair share of elected officials and govt. officials with more self-confidence and hubris than common sense.

Stay tuned!

Dave

Twitter: @hbbtruth,https://twitter.com/hbbtruth/with_replies
http://www.hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/HallandaleBeachBlog

Mini-review of April 16, 2008 HB City Comm. mtg.

Wednesday April 16th, 2008

11:45 p.m.



Just got back from spending four hours at the Hallandale Beach City Commission meeting.


They took a breath and a break at 11:30 after a long night and that was my cue to come home.


Am currently watching ABC News' Nightline's review of the Clinton-Obama debate, which I'll probably watch in its entirety some other time on C-SPAN, and will soon be rewinding my videotape that caught tonight's new episode of longtime TV favorite Criminal Minds., which I LOVE! http://www.cbs.com/primetime/criminal_minds/


Don't mind telling you, I was greatly concerned when it became clear that the wonderful Mandy Patinkin was leaving the show, but what better way to try to replace a great character on a show that requires great ensemble skills than getting a great and talented professional like Joe Mantegna, who makes everyone look better -just like Dan Marino and Michael Jordan.

See http://www.cbs.com/primetime/criminal_minds/ , http://www.mandypatinkin.net/cd.html and http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001505/ )


Given those wonderful skills, the show's producers were genius casting his character as someone who'd previously been a 'lone wolf' while creating the BAU team at Quantico.
That's right -casting against type!


Some times, it really works!


Not that I don't still find myself singing or humming Patinkin's particular versions of great American standards, since I went thru two copies of his great eponymous album while living in D.C., often listening to it over and over -and over -while walking, running or biking along The National Mall on way over to Reagan National Airport or Arlington National Cemetery.
See http://www.mandypatinkin.net/cdmp.html


Will have more to say on Thursday about the HB City Commission meeting, including fireworks in afternoon session, and some other things, but these are the two main points I wanted to leave you with until manana:


1.) For the presentation on the Oasis project on the 11oo block of East Hallandale Beach Blvd., Joseph Geller filled-in and took over first-chair for brother Senator Steve Geller who was still up in Tallahassee.


2. The Oasis project passed the city commission's first reading, along with an amendment by Comm. Keith London that would ensure that the project's flex units would revert back to the city if there were no progress on the ambitious project within 48 months of pulling the first permit for phase one, which will be the five-story retail and commercial office development along HBB -153,000 square feet- and the four-story garage behind it.


The 27-story residential building, which would border a future and absolutely necessary S.E. 2nd Street, will be the second phase.


This particular amendment is the city learning the painful lessons of The European Club on HBB and Three Islands, which failed colossally and is still an empty and ugly area eyesore after all this time.


Judging things by a PowerPoint presentation, of course, is no way to judge anything so large.
What I saw actually looked pretty good, but...

That particular lesson was learned the hard way by current and former members of the Hollywood City Commission -Comm. Richard Blattner?- who lamented out loud two weeks ago tonight, when comparing how great Radius looked on Young Circle -on paper and against the city commission wall- and the sad current reality, where it creates a canyon effect, albeit a curved canyon. See http://www.radiuscondo.com/ and

http://localism.com/article/186587/Desperately-seeking-a-Seller-Radius-Condo

Well, it's not like there weren't critics of Radius, witness the very last breaths of Beth Dunlop's impassioned 2004 column in the Herald, "Razing of history may bust Hollywood's boom" which pondered whether the City of Hollywood would be as wise and prescient as the hard-working man who had founded the city decades ago, Joseph Young.

The excerpt below comes from the smart, savvy and civic-minded folks at Balance Sheet Online, a Hallandale Beach Blog linked fave since Blog Day One.
http://www.balancesheetonline.com/bdunlop.htm

CAMPED OUT
When Radius opened its sales office, potential buyers camped out overnight to be first in line -- reminiscent of old photos of the 1920s land boom. Radius has great slogans -- ''Once you've gone round, you'll never be square again'' and ''Don't be square. Live the circle.'' -- but perfectly unexceptional architecture, blocky buildings on the usual podium, with a half-hearted tower at the corner where Tyler Street and Federal Highway meet Young Circle. It does not set any standard.
And those standards are all-important.

Downtown Hollywood could fulfill the vision of Young, or it could end up looking just like another suburban office park. The first step is to stop the Great Southern project cold and determine to preserve the city's tiny historic core; without it, there's no identity. The second step is to exact high standards of design for every new building that will line the rest of the circle, making sure that each one contributes rather than detracts.

Young's ''City Beautiful'' endured the tribulations of the decades, and today, it's still possible to see his dreams and ambitions in three dimensions, as a city. But now we're in a new boom, and far too little seems sacred any more, putting the ideals that created Hollywood, created Florida, at risk. Wouldn't it be a crime if it is this boom that leads to the real bust?

Which reminds me, I wonder if that Starbucks downstairs on the U.S.-1 side finally opened yet?

Must check that out in the next day or so when I see if all that junk on the northeast Circle opposite the Radius, south of the Papa John's, has been cleaned up after all these months of it festering and mocking eager visitors to the Arts Park.