Monday October 12th, 2020
I'm very happy to be writing to you today to share some positive developments in our slice of the world in SE Broward, and let you know that I'm endorsing a candidate in the Hallandale Beach City Commission election on November 3rd.
A very savvy, energetic, and hard-working friend of both mine and my friend and fellow civic activist, Csaba Kulin's, Maggie Ivanovski, is a woman who has been part of the group of the hardcore pro-reform, pro-financial accountability civic activists we all know, and have worked very closely with in Hallandale Beach for well over ten years to reform Hallandale Beach.
She decided a few months ago to finally take the plunge and run for Seat #3 of the Hallandale Beach City Commission, after having previously considered running for City Commission twice over the years, but ultimately decided that she couldn't due to family and career demands.
Maggie is in this race to win it, and then do the hard work that comes next.
Despite not running previously, Maggie has been a CONSTANT public presence at nearly every HB City Commission, CRA, and HB Quadrant meeting of the past 15 years, as well as at innumerable neighborhood meetings around town of very frustrated HB residents that Csaba and I attended. Sometimes, they were even meetings that he and I organized for the sole purpose of countering proposals/ordinances at HB City Hall that we all believed were contrary or even dangerous to HB residents' best long-term interests on a whole host of issues.
Whether at small intimate meetings of 6-10 people at homes in Golden Isles, or at condo or hotel meeting rooms that drew several dozens of interested people, while most people were content to just sit and listen to others, Maggie was in the moment and asked hard questions and made effective points.
Then as now, Maggie is a go-getter who will not sit on the sidelines when the future of Hallandale Beach and its Quality of Life is being discussed, and that's precisely the sort of person you need on the HB City Commission right now - to hit the ground running!
In that respect, Maggie has been one of the few savvy, well-informed, and independent-minded voices for genuine reform, public transparency, and financial accountability that Csaba and I and others could absolutely count on to be present in the Commission Chambers or anywhere else in the city to push back.
When it was time to speak intelligently and calmly when the HB City Commission or CRA were yet again trying to mislead the public or otherwise engage in historical revisionism or a coverup, as has, unfortunately, so often been the M.O. in HB over the years, Maggie was there to be counted on, and would and did push back against the ridiculous ideas and ordinances that have come regularly like clockwork at City Hall over the past 15 years.
Unlike most HB residents who, typically, only speak publicly at meetings when a matter directly affects their own neighborhood, as is also true in Hollywood, Maggie has been notable for not being afraid of speaking publicly for OTHER HB neighborhoods, and doing so with a stronger knowledge of the facts and the possible consequences of a bad decision than most of the people seated up on the dais with a vote. Yet another reason why you should be voting for her NOW.
Most people in Hallandale Beach who know Maggie outside of her job as a very successful Broward realtor, or from seeing her in the Golden Isles Drive neighborhood she's lived in for nearly 25 years -she's also been the President of the Golden Horn Condo for the past 10 years, with no increases in condo maintenance fees that whole period!- know her as a hard-working HB/Broward civic activist.
An activist that was NOT afraid to call out HB Commissioners and staff to account for their continual failure to not only accomplish various goals or priorities on-time or on-budget, but in particular, for calling them out publicly for their failure to properly and fully engage the residents, Small Business owners, and stakeholders of the community.
As you and I both know, the HB City Commission under its leadership of the past 20 years has often preferred to do as much as possible under-the-radar, regardless of what the state's Sunshine Rules say about that kind of behavior.
Behavior which hasn't gone unnoticed by the office of the Broward Inspector General, in part, sometimes, due to my own fact-filled letters to them connecting-the-dots.
As Csaba and I could both tell you, Maggie's inability to run previously was definitely Hallandale Beach's loss, because I can assure you that if she was already on the HB City Commission, most if not all of the completely unnecessary melodrama, finger-pointing, and public embarrassment that has been associated with the HB City Hall the past four years would not have been allowed to reach the current tipping point -where HB residents feel personally upset by who represents them on the City Commission.
And that definitely includes controversial Seat 3 incumbent, Anabelle Taub-Lima.
That is to say, where the Commission's incivility and penchant for talking about pet issues or projects and go on and on about them instead of sticking to the agenda, has consistently generated negative newspaper headlines and TV newscasts for the city's residents, doing done nothing for their dwindling faith that people at City Hall really WERE trying their best.
At a certain point, you can no longer ignore the overwhelming evidence that's looking you in the face, can you?
As I've previously written in numerous emails that you have received and from scores of blog posts that tens of thousands of other people read on my popular blog, since I returned to South Florida in late 2003 to care for my dad and step-mother, after living and working in Washington, D.C. for the previous 15 years, it's long been the case that the editors at the Sun-Sentinel and Herald, as well as the assignment editors at the four English-language Miami TV stations, ONLY do stories on HB when it involves crime or something happening at HB City Hall that has nothing at all to do with Good Government or the proper functioning of democracy.
A fact that I know better than almost everyone, since I've then written about it with much more context in fact-filled emails, blogged about it on my blog, and then tweeted about it on my popular Twitter feed, so that lots of influential people down here in South Florida and in Tallahassee can see what's going on, too.
Maggie is the only person I know in HB who comes even close to Csaba's level of dedication to making sure that the average HB resident and Small Business owner is properly heard, and not taken advantage of or misled by the City Commission and its often-belligerent and headstrong city staff.
Like us, Maggie is fully committed to reforming the city and bringing it kicking and screaming into the 21st Century when it comes to increasing the level of public scrutiny, public oversight, and civic engagement, and ensuring that a meaningful degree of financial accountability is always present.
In short, injecting the proper amount of common sense and skepticism to absurd proposals and bad public policy ideas that should never be approved.
While Maggie is very friendly and engaging, she also is very much a modern, professional woman. In her case, a very successful realtor, and in the recent past, even a member of the South Broward Realtors group that weighs in on political endorsements.
Maggie understands from all the craziness and finger-pointing at HB City Hall that she's been a first-hand observer of for so many years that her job as a Commissioner is NOT to be best friends with the city staff, nor is it to make ponderous and long-winded speeches about some pet issues that have nothing at all to do with the city's proper operation.
Rather, a big part of her job is to make sure that the City Manager and the staff provide the City Commission with the most accurate and recent information they need -when they need it- to make the best possible decisions on behalf of the people she represents.
People who have consciously chosen to make HB their home or locate their business there, and who deserve so much better representation than they have received the past 15 years.
Everyone who has spent any time at HB City Hall knows that's true, given how opining out loud about pet issues and non-germane subjects far from the city have increasingly come to dominate the talk on the dais, as well as be one of the things that has resulted in the city garnering so many bad headlines.
Because Maggie has been a constant presence for so long at HB City Hall, she has a very good institutional knowledge of the many issues, problems, people, questionable ethics, and wasted opportunities that have come before, a knowledge that NONE of the other candidates in her race has.
Frankly, Maggie has forgotten more about what has happened there than what the rest of them know, collectively.
Maggie knows, like Csaba and I do, who voted for what in the past, and also knows who the people are who've continually thought nothing of coming to HB City Hall to speak on behalf of their clients and then proceed to lie, exaggerate, and embellish, yet never suffer any negative consequences for this false representation, to the public's chagrin.
Csaba and I both know very well that Maggie's can-do attitude and professional demeanor was and is desperately needed right now at Hallandale Beach City Hall to prevent even more embarrassing episodes starring HB elected officials and bureaucrats.
We firmly believe that it will only be when people like Maggie are actually ON the HB City Commission that things in the city will change for the better -and stay that way!
People like Maggie who are hard-working and conscientious enough to be properly prepared for all public meetings, and have actually done ALL the reading before the meeting starts, instead of simply showing up and winging-it and then deferring to everything the staff recommends, as has more often been the case, as so many of my past blog posts have described in detail.
Unlike the other candidates in the race, Maggie will DO the required reading AND the heavy lifting and WILL be prepared to ask hard questions of not just the city staff, but also the attorneys and the members of the development teams coming before the city who want variances and favors and, often, financial inducements to do the right thing they should should already be willing to do.
It's also why I've been busy using my extensive national, state and South Florida campaign experience to help Maggie out.
I want THE best-qualified person in this race to actually get elected, and actually make the positive changes the city needs to be the sort of place it should already have been many years ago.
I'm helping Maggie because I do not want her to come in a close second or third to a woman like Cynthia Cabrera, who claims to be a longtime HB resident, but who, unlike Maggie, has been largely invisible and unconcerned when bad things were happening in Hallandale Beach.
What kind of qualification is Cabrera's longtime apathy?
That Cabrera is neither as personally experienced or as well-informed as Maggie about the specific issues that have plagued and dominated what's happened at Hallandale Beach City Hall for years is clear, since when Maggie attended meetings, every Commissioner and staffer from the City Manager's office knew exactly who she was the moment she walked into the room.
That's what happens when you show up, open your mouth and push back hard against bad ideas and unethical behavior.
Cynthia Cabrera claims to be a longtime Hallandale Beach resident, but the truth is that you can't find anyone in town who recalls her being even one-tenth as involved, reliable, or as public as Maggie has been FOR YEARS in defending and articulating the best interests of the average HB resident and Small Business owner at HB City Hall.
You can't for the simple reason that Cabrera was invisible.
Cabrera's innumerable campaign signs can't make up for that harsh reality.
For all of Cabrera's talk of being a longtime HB resident, her very own LinkedIn profile lists her as having lived and worked in the Washington, D.C. area for at least three years from 2013-2016. You don't have to take my word, see for yourself:
Exactly!
To make matters worse, Cabrera does herself no favors by being so free in accepting large campaign dollars from real estate developers, as her campaign disclosures make quite clear.
Given Hallandale Beach's unique location and demographics, real estate developers will always be viewed somewhat skeptically by many residents, who want to protect their investment and Quality of Life, so it makes you wonder why nobody in the local South Florida news media, especially the South Florida Sun Sentinel, ever bothered to ask these hard questions about Cabrera, or ask her the most obvious question of all: Why was she SO invisible on matters of local concern to people like you?
You don't need me to tell you that you deserve a whole lot better on the HB City Commission than a disinterested woman like Cynthia Cabrera.
Maggie is in this race to win it, and then do the hard work that comes next.
Please let me know that you are willing to reward Maggie's many years of very hard work and civic engagement over so many years to make Hallandale Beach better for both its residents and Small Business owners, and not reward people who have never been there for you, your family and neighborhood in Hallandale Beach.
Maggie is more than deserving of your highest endorsement in this race, she is deserving of your VOTE to make Hallandale Beach's government better, more efficient, and more accountable to the people who live there.
Even now Maggie can use your help, so if you are interested, please contact her today via her cell phone number, (954) 646-2573, or via her campaign email:
m.ivanovski2020@hotmail.com
Dave
