Common sense questions about public policy, process and public engagement -to say nothing of financial risk- continue to dog @AllAboardFla and the Fortress Investment Group as they seek $1.75 billion in tax-exempt bonds from the Florida Development Finance Corporation for their planned Miami-to-Orlando express train, via Fort lauderdale and West Palm Beach. Some observations on what we know and what reporters should have been asking all along, but were NOT.

This is an expanded version of an email that I wrote about All Aboard Florida that was sent out around South Florida and Florida this morning shortly after I received a Twitter notification from someone at the group FloridaNOTAllAboard, @FLNOTAA who describes themselves thusly:
"We are a grassroots group of citizens who have created this page to help facilitate communication and inform residents that are affected by AAF."
floridanotallaboard.com

Since I'd been planning on posting something about All Aboard Florida this week, once I received that message, I decided to write something today instead of waiting until later in the week.

Those of you unfamiliar with some of the issues here and my own perspective on the frustrating and often confounding public transportation scene in Florida may want to consult my blog post from March 26th and use that as a predicate:
South Florida has once again redefined the meaning of "Free Ride." But shouldn't we all realize by now that when it comes to #TransportationPolicy in #SoFL, there's no such thing as a free ride? But #Miami pols, @Tri_Rail & @AllAboardFla can't help themslves when it comes to taking taxpayer dollars and taking credit for something BEFORE the facts are ALL in
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2015/03/south-florida-has-once-again-redefined.html

----------

So, look who seems to have finally woken up from many years of his Rip Van Winkle-like slumber? 

Columnist Michael Mayo of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, who for many years was one of the few full-throated voices in the South Florida news media willing to publicly tell the truth and speak ill of the powerful, comfortable, affluent and influential of our part area of the Sunshine State. 
That is to say, the same small handful of people of means and influence in South Florida who, over the years, have become quite accustomed to them and their favorites pet causes being catered to (and indulged in and promoted) by the South Florida press corps, no matter how wrong or dubious they were regarding an issue of public concern. 
To an extent, frankly, that would be embarrassing in most parts of the country, but which has become commonplace here, where there's a real paucity of reporters with old-fashioned notions of serving the public FIRST.

That is also to say that Michael Mayo was someone who used to be mentioned and linked to rather frequently here at Hallandale Beach Blog, in large part because of his willingness to call things exactly what they were here in Hallandale Beach and environs with respect to the illegal, unconscionable or downright stupid things that routinely took/take place at Hallandale Beach City Hall.

Mayo, to his great credit, unlike the majority of the news media in South Florida, was NOT content to just look away or merely swallow whole the PR spin served up by the usual Suspects at HB City Hall, whether Mayor Joy Cooper or her usual partners in dubious/unethical/shady shenanigans that embarrass the beleaguered residents of this ocean-side Broward city just north of the Miami-Dade County line, namely, HB City Commissioners Anthony A. Sanders and William 'Bill" Julian.

But for whatever reasons -and I have my own educated hunches- things changed with Mayo and what he chose to write about and make his primary focus.
To me and several other people in my circle of friends and acquaintances in South Florida and around the Sunshine State, he seemed to retrench, which was disappointing, given how few people seemed willing to do what he did in the first place.

The change made him seem like he not only avoided going after low-hanging fruit in our area that needed to be swatted at, but not even bother to aim for high-minded fruit on the top shelf, either.

But for today at least, he's back with some well-placed energy and moxie, asking overdue questions that others in the #SoFL media universe have been very, very reluctant or afraid to ask publicly.

"But the bigger question is this: If All Aboard Florida is such a good idea and has a reasonable chance of success, why is it falling on junk bond investors to back them, instead of AAF’s deep-pocketed corporate parent, Fortress Investment Group?"

South Florida Sun-Sentinel
All Aboard Florida bonds involve 'high degree of risk'
By Michael mayo
August 4, 2015
11:37 a.m.

Getting $1.75 billion in tax-exempt bonds approved by a state board on Wednesday looks to be the easy part for All Aboard Florida.

The seemingly harder part for the proposed Miami-to-Orlando express train: Getting investors to buy the risky unrated bonds (junk bonds, in financial parlance), and being able to make an estimated $105 million in annual debt payments to repay the bonds.

Read the rest of the column
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/michael-mayo-blog/sfl-mayo-aaf-bonds-20150804-story.html

This is esp. interesting in light of my tweets last week to Brian Bandell of the South Florida Business Journal reminding him of the tone-deaf and self-inflicted problems of All Aboard Florida a few years ago when it came time for them to actually engage the public in Broward County, whom they wanted to completely ignore in their original scoping meetings.

But then I started complaining about it loudly and publicly via emails, phone calls and blog posts to some responsive local officials -and certain key news media members- in South Florida, who agreed with me that given the scope of what was at stake, the All Aboard Florida geniuses core belief that they could literally force everyone in Broward who was interested in this plan -because there's a Fort Lauderdale station- to have to travel to a not-great area of downtown Miami at night, on a

weeknight when the Miami Heat were in the NBA playoffs, was probably NOT the greatest idea in the world.

But the decision to ignore Broward's residents -AAF's own future customers!- was entirely indicative of the decision-making prowess of the AAF braintrust.

Personally, I'm not against the idea, I merely find it hard to believe that in August of 2015 that there remain SO MANY basic questions, policy and process, that are both unasked and unanswered to my satisfaction, and clearly part of that has been because of the cheerleader attitude taken by so many in the South Florida press corps towards this plan.

That sort of bias and un-professionalism reminds me of the same media's attitude towards the Dolphins' terrible idea just a few years ago of forcing taxpayers to pay for stadium improvements at Dolphins Stadium, i.e Joe Robbie Stadium.

(You recall how badly that flopped, given that the owner of the team and the stadium, Stephen Ross, is only one of THE richest Americans alive today.)

The South Florida media was played like a fiddle by the Dolphins and their PR people and lobbyists, 
with several usually-solid reporters even being reduced to playing the role of little kids on "exclusive tours" of the stadium with the Dolphins then-President Mike Dee.

(Okay, you got it out of me -it was Lauren Pastrana of CBS4 News in Miami. For mojnths I watched her story out at the stadium and it made me cringe every time.)

That is to say, the media could look and listen to what was said, but seemingly couldn't ask adult questions. 
Like perfectly reasonable questions about why the Dolphins seem to have intentionally chosen NOT to repaint some areas of the stadium so that it would look worse as they and the NFL engaged in a PR battle via the media to force South Florida taxpayers to pay the freight so that perhaps the NFL might deign to have the Super Bowl played there in the future.

Some day.

Maybe!

A basic question I have had and never seen answered adequately is how will the City of Fort Lauderdale and/or Broward County government and All Aboard Florida legally keep the Fort Lauderdale train station-cum-transit center from being over-run by the army of transients and 
homeless, which has been the sad reality for the Broward County Transit main HQ off Broward Blvd. & Andrews Avenue the past few years, as anyone who has used it or gone to the McDonald's next door well knows.

It's both sad and tragic on many levels and... made worse by the fact that it is within two blocks of the Broward County Govt. HQ building and Fort Lauderdale City Hall.

But that everyday reality is also why some people don't use public transit and specifically don't go THERE.

Despite the fact that both are places that people ACTUALLY go to in real numbers.

If the public doesn't buy into a Fort Lauderdale train station/transit center right away, or have doubts about their safety and that of their family, no amount of PR spin and attempted media manipulation will prevent it from quickly becoming a No-Go Zone.

Another White Elephant monument to South Florida's long history of elected officials and "insiders" being persuaded/conned into forking over taxpayer dollars and rights for what was supposed to be, after all, yes, a private enterprise endeavor.

"But the bigger question is this: If All Aboard Florida is such a good idea and has a reasonable chance of success, why is it falling on junk bond investors to back them, instead of AAF’s deep-pocketed corporate parent, Fortress Investment Group?"

Yes, what is the reason for that lack of enthusiasm?

You can follow Lisa Broadt, aka @TCPalmLisa for live coverage of the meeting.

LIVE on #Periscope: ...and the real action begins...it's public comment time. ALL ABOARD HEARING, PART II #TCPALM https://t.co/NgV4Q4nVgK

— Lisa Broadt (@TCPalmLisa) August 5, 2015

I encourage you to do so.

Adios!

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

Why would you even consider voting for such a despicable person as Bill Julian for the Hallandale Beach City Commission? Besides Julian's creepy habit while an elected official of illegally parking in Handicapped Parking spaces for YEARS, when you add his truly terrible judgment and penchant for saying and doing the wrong thing, why would you even consider giving him a voice in deciding this city's future?; @SandersHB

May 16, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier. © 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved. 

Above, the official shield used to be used for "Official Business" only for former Hallandale Beach City Commissioner William "Bill" Julian, now running desperately to regain a seat on the City Commission. 

Julian claims in his campaign advertising to be honest and full of integrity, but the reality for Hallandale Beach's citizen taxpayers is that Julian is anything but that. 

Regular readers of this blog already know that's true because I've shown the damning evidence consistently over the years as it has grown, and you don't have to take my word for it, the evidence of Julian's own words and actions so overwhelming make the case AGAINST him
having any power in this community and any say-so about this city's future.

Here are just some of the most recent blog posts about Julian and his shocking lack of scruples: 

In Hallandale Beach, it's déjà vu all over again with Bill Julian's very sketchy ethics in plain view for all to see; In every way that is important, Julian is unfit to be elected and make decisions about this community's future, http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/10/in-hallandale-beach-its-deja-vu-all.html

No longer a secret in Hallandale Beach: More details on Bill Julian's longstanding anti-democratic tendencies while HB City Commissioner - he wanted to require residency of 3 years in order to run for local office in HB!; The worst enemy of Bill Julian is a smart voter who pays attention and who possesses a good memory; @MayorCooper, @SandersHB, @AlexLewy

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/09/no-longer-secret-in-hallandale-beach.html

Classic Bill Julian being Bill Julian -Why the rush at Hallandale Beach City Hall in 2009 to buy the Sanders property, with no actual plan in place for its use? Julian -"for the good of many, many people in Hallandale." Just NOT for the good of HB's own taxpayers!
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/08/classic-bill-julian-being-bill-julian.html

But the reality today is that lots of Hallandale Beach citizens and other interested parties are coming to this blog who have never done so before, and have no idea what I've written about Julian before in detail and with photos to prove it and who aren't interested in plowing thru the blog archives to find the dozens of references to Julian's displays of unethical behavior and incompetency -which continue to this day, as he illegally uses my copyrighted photographs on his campaign website and in his campaign advertising- so I'm boiling it down to the most egregious case.

The example that stands for everything else you need to know about Bill Julian, and which breaks the camel's back.

Have you ever heard the saying that how you act and behave when nobody can see you is when you really reveal your true character? I suspect, like me, that you have. 

So if that's true, what do you think it reveals about someone's character when they consciously choose -hundreds of times- to act in egregiously anti-social and illegal ways -and are brazen about doing so publicly on govt. property?

The vast majority of govt. officials who have a reason to carry a real badge denoting some power DON'T park in Handicapped Parking spaces like Bill Julian routinely did for MANY YEARS all over this city, but perhaps most egregiously, while hanging-out with his pals and eating and drinking at The Beachside Cafe at the city's North Beach. 

Why couldn't Julian just act like a normal human being, like a regular Hallandale Beach citizen, and simply park in the nearby city garage for $1 an hour? 

It would have been so easy. 

But that is not how Bill Julian rolls.

Instead, for many, many years, as regular beach-goers like myself and the young Jeff Ellis & Associates lifeguards could observe first-hand for ourselves, literally dumb-founded at Julian's sheer audacity, he regularly parked in THE only Handicapped Parking space at North Beach near the sidewalk. 

Or, if that space was occupied by someone for whom it was intended, equally as bad and carrying the identical FINE amount as parking in a Handicapped Parking space, Julian parked his car in the Handicapped Access parking space, a spot legally designated to allow cars and vans to help discharge people in wheelchairs or who otherwise required assistance getting out of a vehicle. But it's NOT for parking! 

And most assuredly, it is NOT for parking by able-bodied City Commissioners like Bill Julian to use and abuse. preventing someone who really needed it from using it. 

So why did Julian do it hundreds of times over the years, just like he routinely parked in officially designated No Parking or Emergency Only parking spots all over Hallandale Beach, whether retail, hotel, condos, et al?

Things that I and lots of other people have observed and commented on.

Hard as it is to believe, in my opinion, it's because Bill Julian feels a deep sense of entitlement and believes he is owed something by society at large.

It's the same troubling reason that when no citizens were present for a HB City Commission mtg. in Room 257 at City Hall, Julian brazenly made a motion to triple the salaries of HB City Commissioners like himself, voted FOR it -it passed- and said publicly afterwards that he felt like he ought to be paid like a corporate executive because of all the work he did in what everyone knows is a part-time job.

To me and many of the most concerned and well-informed residents of this small city, the photo I've chosen to place at the top of this blog post represents a lot of things, and one of them is that William "Bill" Julian was and is so full of himself that he had no problem in publicly identifying himself on his car's dashboard where everyone could see it.

It also shows that he wanted the people who could do something about it, his pals at HBPD, to know whom it was and to look the other way -because of who he was. 

Special privileges for special people.

And as you'd no doubt guess, the Police Dept. ignored what Julian did over-and-over.

Like hapless Sergeant Schultz in Hogan's Heroes, they "see nothing."   

What sort of person does this and actually flaunts it?

A person who publicly feigns modesty but who has clearly shown thru his own words and actions that he's full of pomposity, a sense of entitlement and possessed of a giant chip on his shoulder. 

Through these and similar acts that have happened hundreds of times over the years throughout this city while he was a public official sworn to uphold the laws of this state, Bill Julian showed what a truly despicable person he is.

When you add that knowledge to Julian's already well-known bad judgment and his knack for saying and doing the wrong thing, why would you even consider voting for such a person?
So DON'T!

Meet the new Bill Julian, same as the old one! And still utterly without remorse for any of the mountain of negative things he has done in the past to the residents and taxpayers of this city thru his bad judgment.

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South Florida Sun-Sentinel

For one politician, Hallandale Beach's land purchase seems heaven-sent

Michael Mayo, News Columnist

February 22, 2009

The Hallandale Beach City Commission moves in mysterious ways. Take the case of Higher Vision Ministries and the Eagle's Wings Development Center in the city's impoverished northwest area.

At a hastily called Feb. 12 special meeting, the commission approved buying the church-owned property where the Eagle's Wings community center stands for $235,000.

That's $35,000 more than the city's most recent appraisal of the land (in November), nearly $90,000 more than the value listed by the Broward property appraiser and $190,000 more than the church paid for the land in 2001.

Considering the way the economy and local real estate market have been tanking, that's a pretty sweet deal for Higher Visions.

So who runs the church and the social-service center? Pastor Anthony Sanders.

The same Anthony Sanders who's a Hallandale Beach commissioner.

"We were supposed to do this two years ago, long before I was on the commission," Sanders said Friday. "Back in early 2007, the price was $350,000. This should have been done a long time ago, but the city kept dragging its feet."

Sanders, elected to the commission in November after being appointed last summer, abstained from the 3-1 vote. He said the price was fair, noting two other appraisals that valued the property at $275,000 and $230,000.

But one city-sponsored appraisal put it at $147,000, and the most recent valued it at $200,000.

Given the circumstances, Commissioner Keith London (the lone dissenter) said the city should have waited longer. Or at least had the sense to take up the matter as a clearly labeled agenda item at a regular commission meeting.

The land purchase wasn't listed on the agenda for the special meeting. It was brought up as "other business" during the session called by Mayor Joy Cooper on an unrelated matter. The meeting wasn't held in the commission's usual spot where sessions are videotaped, but instead was in an upstairs room without cameras.

"Does this pass the smell test?" said London. "I don't think so."

You'd think Hallandale Beach commissioners, who took a public relations pounding for engineering a pay raise in a similarly sneaky way a couple years ago, would have learned by now.

The city, through its Community Redevelopment Agency, has vague plans to build an affordable housing project on the block where the center stands.

"We're doing it for the good of many, many people in Hallandale," said Vice Mayor Bill Julian, who approved the deal with Cooper and Commissioner Dorothy Ross.

London didn't understand the rush: "If somebody said we have to buy this parcel by a certain date to complete a plan or it will fall through, then I could see doing it. But there is no plan."

I called City Manager Mike Good to get their version of events but didn't hear back.

Sanders said the deal closed on Feb. 13, the day after the special meeting, with the money already in the bank. The Eagle's Wings center hasn't been given an eviction date, he said. The center, which provides computer and other training classes and submits food-stamp applications for residents, was open on Friday.

"Is it standard to buy a property from a commissioner and then let them use it rent-free?" London said.

Sanders said London is grousing because of "envy."

"This isn't a personal thing," London said. "It's a finance issue."

Sanders' church bought the property for $45,000 in 2001. Eagle's Wings has received $130,000 in city grant money this decade, along with county and state contracts. The nonprofit agency's 2007 tax return listed income of $113,190 in government grants.

Sanders, a longtime activist in the northwest area, said the city's purchase of the property is "just a drop in the bucket," noting the $12 million the city spent to acquire land for a park in a better part of town.

Sanders has been critical of the redevelopment agency's stagnant efforts in the northwest. Two-thirds of Hallandale Beach falls within the CRA boundaries, including robust areas near Gulfstream Park.

"When the economy was up, we didn't do anything [in northwest] and now the economy is down and they say we can't do anything," said Sanders. "So when can you do something?"

Seems like Sanders' commission colleagues have already done plenty for him.

Absolutely pummeled! Hallandale Beach Comm. Anthony A. Sanders & ex-Comm. Bill Julian both bomb at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel's Editorial Board meeting for HB candidates Monday morning, while Csaba Kulin, Michele Lazarow and Gerald Dean shine while enthusiastically making the case for a pro-reform City Hall that actually serves taxpayers to replace the corrupt and unethical one we've been stuck with for years under Joy Cooper and her Rubber Stamp Crew; Kulin, Lazarow & Dean recount in detail most of the major issues and recent scandals; @SandersHB, @AlexLewy

Hallandale Beach City Hall. October 13, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier. © 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved.

Not that this news will come as any great shock to anyone who pays close attention to what actually happens in Hallandale Beach, but if you didn't already hear, the word on the street courtesy of some of the people who were at the table themselves is that sphinx-like HB Comm. Anthony A. Sanders and former ten-year commissioner, general laughingstock and 2012 candidate William "Bill" Julian absolutely bombed at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel's Editorial Board meeting Monday morning before their three-employees asking questions.

That group consisted of editorial writer Douglas Lyons, columnist Michael Mayo, and someone else whose name I have forgotten at the moment, speaking to the six City Commission candidates for a little over an hour at the Sun-Sentinel's HQ, following the one hour mayoral candidate interview with Mayor Joy Cooper and Comm. Keith London.

Typically, both Sanders and Julian seemed completely unprepared for what they were walking into, which is how they usually appeared to me and others observing them at City Commission meetings over the years, unprepared to get at the heart of any particular matter other than to repeat or mumble things they's heard city staff tell them prior to the meeting.

Talk about a lack of work ethic!

Sanders and Julian seem to have thought they were going to a friendly family Bar BQ dinner, somewhere where everyone would say nice things about each other, instead of a vetting panel of serious people who didn't care about their feelings who would be asking probing questions about their truly terrible and embarrassing records in office, as well as ask them to explain what their future plans were if re-elected and elected in their respective cases.

What Julian and Sanders also clearly hadn't counted on so much was not only the directness of the probing questions fired at them by the three employees of the Sun-Sentinel, but the glee and eagerness with which three of the other four candidates -my friends Csaba Kulin, Michele Lazarow and Gerald Dean- were prepared to positively hammer them over-and-over with cold-hard facts and votes they couldn't refute and even some embarrassing questions and admissions, too. 

Surprise!

From all accounts, more than three years after-the-fact, Sanders could STILL NOT intelligently

explain to the Sun-Sentinel with a straight face what the specific facts and context of the

sale of his and his wife's land to the city were, and why, 

a.) they received more money than the property was really worth,

b.) why there was and STILL IS no city plan for the building that taxpayers like you and me 

paid $235,000 for, but only receive the measly sum of $20 a year in rent from a non-profit run

by Dr. Deborah Brown, who is, 

c.) a longtime Joy Cooper ally who has been receiving tens of thousands of dollars a year in CRA funds and city grants.

The folks from the Sun-Sentinel simply were NOT buying the cock-and-bull story that Sanders was trying to peddle to the, and it didn't help him at all that Michael Mayo was one of the three people peppering him with knowing questions since Mayo has already written several fact-filled columns on the land transaction over the last few years that positively blister Sanders and unmask his carefully-crafted image and show him as the not-so-ethical pastor he is.

Mayo was all-too-familiar with the germane facts that Sanders has found far too painful to share with HB taxpayers in public at any point in the last three years, as I've been saying here on the blog for so very long.

Sanders basically cut his own throat in public and was exposed for what he is, which is fine with me.

I only wish there was video of it so I could play it for you here, so you could see it for yourself and many people in town could finally admit that they were conned.

By the way, lest we forget, thanks to a Bill Julian motion made in 2009, Sanders & Co. get to keep using the city-owned building for free until it is leveled... whatever year or

decade that turns out to be.

If you can believe it, despite you and me and seemingly everyone else here talking about it for so long -and so disappointingly, after the HB City Commission essentially changed the election rules in mid-course and dis-enfranchised us- the folks at the Sun-Sentinel did NOT know that thanks to the doings of that same City Commission, three candidates will be elected to office in three weeks, on November 6th, even though the ballots will still remain marked to Vote for No More Than Two -NOT THREE.

That particular point came up when my friend Csaba Kulin complained about the way the HB City Commission -thanks almost entirely to the partisan and selfish efforts of Comm. Lewy, a.k.a. Lewy the Liar- had completely botched the entire election process by cancelling the originally-scheduled January 15th vote for someone to serve the remaining two years of Comm. London's term, because he resigned effective Election Day in order to run for mayor against Mayor Cooper in three weeks.

(You know, where Lewy ignored the fact that prominent Broward Democrat Angelo Castillo already did in Pembroke Pines and what Charlotte Rodstrom was and is now doing in Fort Lauderdale that Lewy pretends that he's so very, very upset about here -London running in January for his old seat if he lost to Cooper. 

But, of course, Lewy is far too chicken to ever say anything publicly about Castillo and Rodstrom, of course. 

Nope, he just keeps his mouth shut because he knows what would happen to him, the unctuous career-politician-in-training, if Broward Dems got a whiff of what he'd been saying in HB about London and heard him say the same thing about Castillo and Rodstrom, even though it's the exact same thing, 

yes, once again proving that for the young self-aggrandizing Lewy, always trying to play the angles, principles are more a matter of convenience than anything else.)

According to what Csaba told me hours later on Monday afternoon, the folks from the Sun-Sentinel were, literally, dumb-founded at finding out how this process had been mishandled -intentionally as we all know- and that the three of them seemed aghast that they did NOT know such a crucial fact before the meeting started.

To which I say, yeah, so imagine how WE feel, knowing that we are being prevented from voting for a third candidate in an election for an all At-Large City Commission where three candidates WILL be elected, not two.

Needlessly repeating history once again in Hallandale Beach to limit voter's choices; Comm. Anthony A. Sanders dares the South Florida news media to report on his adamant refusal to tell the truth to HB residents he's supposed to represent re the four-year old ethical scandal swirling around him. Except for Michael Mayo, Bill Gjebre & Glenna Milberg, the news media here has been rolling over like a lapdog, instead of playing the role of watchdog; @SandersHB, @MayorCooper, @AlexLewy

actsofsedition video:  Local10/WPLG-TV Miami: "City's pricey purchase." 
On July 26, 2012, Local10 reporter Glenna Milberg went to Hallandale Beach City Hall to learn more details about the curious case involving HB City Commissioner and Pastor Anthony A. Sanders and the rushed sale of his and his wife's property at 501 N.W. 1st Avenue, to the city in 2009 -when the city had ZERO written plans for what it would actually do with the property afterwards!- for about $89,000 more than it was actually worth. 
For well over three years now, since the purchase was finalized, Sanders has  consistently stonewalled Hallandale Beach taxpayers asking about the exact details of this deal, and he refused to speak with Milberg on the day of her appearance at City Hall, too. 

You'd think that if he were honest and done nothing wrong, he'd desperately want to defend himself publicly and give his side of the story, but he doesn't do that now -and he DIDN'T even before there was a Broward Inspector General. 
To the vast majority of well-informed HB residents and other interested parties, people who have been completely underwhelmed by his dismal puppet-like performance on the dais -including other elected officials in Broward County I have personally spoken to on the matter- the reason that Sanders won't talk to taxpayers about it is because it's exactly what it appears to be -a quid pro quo. 

The city purchased property it didn't need and overpaid for it, and Mayor Joy Cooper forced Sanders onto the City  Commission, and in exchange, he supports Cooper regardless of what the issue is, no matter how preposterous or lacking it is in common sense. Which makes him one of the three members of Cooper's current Rubber Stamp Crew.

Unfortunately, other than this Milberg segment in July, the occasional piece by South Florida Sun-Sentinel columnist Michael Mayo in 2010 and 2011, or the Broward Bulldog's William Gjebre this year, South Florida reporters have completely ignored this story and the larger issue of an elected official -and Pastor- who for well over four years has avoided responding truthfully to and interacting with HB taxpayers and business owners he is supposed to be accountable to.  
So why do the other reporters in South Florida refuse to report or prod on this matter? 

Well, with 58 days until Election Day and with no sign that this reporting apathy is going to change, some residents wonder what's going on in particular with the Miami Herald and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, both of whose Editorial Boards rather surprisingly endorsed Sanders in 2008 over much better-qualified candidates. 
Some HB residents genuinely wonder if the newspaper's beat reporters, Carli Teproff and Tonya Alanez, are under orders from editors or higher-ups on the food-chain to ignore the Sanders ethics story altogether, as well as his adamant refusal to speak publicly with residents, in order to keep the mediocre and perpetually under-prepared Sanders in office. 


While it may sound crazy to those of you living outside of this city, how else do you reasonably explain the complete failure of the Miami Herald and the South Sun-Sentinel to print ANYTHING about Sanders that's written by their own people, NOT the Broward Bulldog? That is, other than sheer apathy and unprofessionalism?
What is that OTHER reasonable alibi that explains their abject failure to report the news that people here want to read more details about? 
For instance, to state the most obvious question, will Broward State's Attorney Mike Satz bring charges against Comm. Anthony A. Sanders and his wife Jessica or anyone else at HB City Hall before Early Voting begins here for the November 6th election? 
We'd like to know BEFORE the election!  
http://youtu.be/XlOgkrL9CWI

What follows is an excerpt of an email that I wrote and sent out this past Tuesday to various people up-and-down the management chain at the Miami Herald and South Florida Sun-Sentinel, plus other selected print/TV reporters and columnists in the area.

It was also sent as well to about 150-175 residents, business owners, civic leaders and other very interested parties with a keen interest interest in seeing this part of Broward County grow and become all it can be, which will necessarily mean it becoming unshackled from the likes of autocratic and thin-skinned Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper and her very negative and alienating sphere of influence.

People really do avoid moving here or locating a business here simply because of the bureaucratic fiefdom and crony capitalism culture that she has created here, one that is totally unhealthy and destructive long-term to everyone not named Cooper.

Owing to the fact that at least some of the people who received it on Tuesday do NOT often hear from me or necessarily know that "What's past is prologue" here in Hallandale Beach times TEN, it necessarily repeats some pretty basic things about this city that most of you more-regular readers of the blog already know and could probably recite back to me were we ever to meet.

I apologize for that but I can't assume that our common knowledge is their particular common knowledge and frame of reference, so I kept it pretty simple in some cases by bringing up come connections to things going on now as best I could.

Again, keep in mind that this was sent out the day before the HB City Commission meeting Wednesday night that attracted so many people, and where everything came fast-and-furious as some new information was introduced into the equation that I didn't know when first writing
this.

Not that this new information in any way excuses the South Florida news media's glaring failure over the past five years to accurately and fairly report local news as it actually is, and NOT as some would have it or like it to be.
Say, the way the two local Editorial Boards would prefer that you NOT know certain information, especially before an important election.
-----

First, a history lesson, since it's clear that at least some of you need it:

Four years ago last week, Pastor Anthony A. Sanders was forced down the throats of Hallandale Beach citizens by Mayor Joy Cooper ignoring the city's own rules and made an interim City Commissioner; he was elected 9 weeks later. 
Today marks 9 weeks exactly until Election Day, leaving only 62 days before a majority of citizens here vote in person. 

Four years ago, Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper forced Anthony A. Sanders down the throats of Hallandale Beach residents by filling a HB City Commission vacancy that wasn't even legally vacant, and wouldn't be for another three weeks, days AFTER the second City Commission meeting of the month, where there would have been plenty of time for public comments re the city's extant policies for filling vacancies. 

Cooper she did so by blatantly violating the city's own rules and protocols -used just the year before for Keith London to replace Joe Gibbons on the Commission after his election to the State House- in large part because she knew that then-City Attorney David Jove was a veritable bump on a log, someone who wouldn't do anything to jeopardize his outrageous pension by reminding the mayor that what she was doing was patently illegal under the city's own rules.

Cooper didn't care that the whole thing was a sham from beginning-to-end since she was in on it. Cooper already knew that then-City Manager Mike Good actually wrote then-Commissioner Francine Schiller's letter of resignation, not Schiller, at her condo, or that it, supposedly, ALL happened after Friday at 5 p.m., so that way they wouldn't have to legally place anything about it on the printed agenda for the following Wednesday night's City Commission agenda.

(Not that the the agenda was on the city's website then, though, since that didn't happen until the following Monday.)

There was nothing accidental or coincidental about when and where Schiller resigned.
Cooper didn't leave anything to chance, and made a point of NOT allowing basic fairness, democracy or following the rules to get in the way of her getting her way, her number-one priority.

It was a complete contrivance from beginning to end, and again, Joy Cooper didn't care then or afterwards about the spirit or the letter of the law, she only cared about getting what SHE wanted -another pliable puppet on the Commission.

Fairness? Please!

That's why she NEVER allowed any member of the public to speak before she ramrodded Sanders into the position, despite how obvious and egregious her actions were, or how many HB citizens in the Chambers wanted to speak about what she was so obviously trying to do.

Why do I bring this up? 
Because history is repeating itself, possibly starting tomorrow.
Mayor Cooper and two of her Rubber Stamps, Commissioners Lewy and Sanders are working together on passing a proposal coming up before the Commission on Wednesday whereby they enshrine their own personal bitterness and political pettiness into the city charter.

Item 11B  http://www.cohb.org/files/2012-09-05/Agenda%20Outline%20for%202012-09-05%2013-00.htm

More on that in a moment, as you see what links these stories...

Back to Sanders... 

For 39 months, since May of 2009, when his property was bought by the city for more than it was truly worth by any reasonable appraisal standard, despite the the City NOT having a single written plan for what they would do with it afterwards, 39 months since all of that $235,000 was placed into his bank account within 48 hours, practically light-speed in this city, Anthony A. Sanders has adamantly refused to speak to the citizens of this community about this matter, regardless of how much controversy has swirled around him and his wife Jessica.

Sanders honestly believes that he is above having to explain himself to the very public he is supposed to represent, and is intent on saying nothing before Election Day.

Sanders thinks this in part because he knows, like I do, what the grand total actually has been in news coverage re his refusal to talk to the public face-to-face -NOTHING.

That's the grand total of the Miami Herald, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Channel 4 News, Channel 6 News, Channel 7 News and Channel 10 News -NOTHING.

No articles, no columns, no editorials -no nothing.

Sanders laughs at and ignores his own constituents and he also laughs at and ignores the  South Florida news media, whose lack of effort has been duly noted by everyone in this community.

So it this how the last 62 days of the campaign are going to go down, with the South Florida news media implicitly appeasing Comm. Anthony A. Sanders and his wife, Jessica, by refusing to say anything about it and make no effort at all?

I recently asked the woman who knows, Cathie Schanz, the head of the city's Parks & Rec. Dept., whether her dept. had officially received any formal request from Comm. Sanders or his wife reserving a room at any of the city-owned facilities to have a public meeting to finally discuss this.

You can see the answer below for yourself:

(I've removed the actual email addresses here as well as info about me.)

From: Hallandale Beach Blog
Sent: Tuesday, August 21, 2012 3:14 PM
To: Parksrecreation
Cc: Hallandale Beach Blog

Subject: re Comm. Anthony A. Sanders and possibly renting space at city-owned facilities

August 21, 2012

Dear Ms. Schanz: 

Since you're in a position to know as Director the city's Parks & Recreation Dept, can you please tell me whether as of today, if Hallandale Beach Comm. Anthony A. Sanders has reserved either a room or the auditorium at the HB Cultural Center, or any other room in any other city-owned facility -like the closed-to-the-public North Beach Building- for any non-campaign public purpose in the next eleven weeks? 

I ask because a few weeks ago, I'd heard that after his doggedly refusing for three years to speak in person to the community about what he really knew, Comm. Sanders was finally going to talk to HB residents, taxpayers and business owners about what had transpired, what with the city rushing to purchase his property without any semblance of a written plan in place, for more money than the property was worth, even to the point of the city getting the entire sale amount into his bank account within 48 hours, a quickness and efficiency that I and other concerned HB residents found quite...well, astonishing. 

Especially since taxpayers have never seen the city apply similar speed and energy applied with respect to any other project (or purchase) in this city the past eight-plus years I've livedhere, even when it was probably actually needed. Obviously, if Comm. Sanders is scheduled to speak on this matter, I'd like to know and to be able to tell others about it as well, so any information you can provide me about this matter would be most appreciated.

-----
From: Schanz, Cathie 

Date: Tue, Aug 21, 2012 at 4:10 PM
Subject: RE: re Comm. Anthony A. Sanders and possibly renting space at city-owned facilities
To:  Hallandale Beach Blog 

Vice Mayor Sanders does not have any non-campaign public purpose rentals in the next eleven weeks.

Cathie Schanz, CPRE

Hallandale Beach Parks and Recreation Director

-----

And so here we are 9 weeks before an election, and the very individual that was endorsed by both newspapers in 2008 has not had a single thing written in either newspaper about his deliberate refusal to speak to the public about this matter for over three years, the single biggest scandal in the city, because of what it represents about the way things have been done in this city under this mayor?

Why are the Herald and Sun-Sentinel consciously avoiding mentioning this or anything else about Sanders' embarrassing track record of ethics and crony capitalism? Why?

Why the dogged refusal to report on Sanders unwillingness to face the music with citizens as both paper's Editorial Boards would no doubt be publicly saying if this were happening in a larger city, esp. in Miami, Hialeah, Coral Gables, Hollywood or Ft. Lauderdale?

The media does itself no favors by consciously avoiding unpleasant news about someone it once foolishly painted a rosy picture of, a promise that has gone completely bust, and one of the logical consequences of this is that you will have marked yourself as entities NOT to be trusted in this community.

If you keep avoiding it for another nine weeks, as many people here think you will, there'll be logical consequences, and one is that anyone in this city who pays close attention to what happens here will have nothing to do with either one of the reporters assigned to this city.
Why should they (we) indulge you, after you've continually refused to simply report

news that is considered "news" by the very people who actually live here?

Once you've been publicly labeled persona non grata and someone not to be trusted

due to your calculated avoidance of news stories, there's no going back.

Just saying...

Having previously gotten rid of someone once before who was legally-elected and replaced them illegally, Schiller by Sanders, now, Cooper, Lewy and Sanders together are attempting to repeat history by trying to game the electoral system.

I recently wrote some friends in the area...

In case you've forgotten or never knew, earlier this spring, Comm. Lewy tried -unsuccessfully- to actually force an unscheduled mid-August election upon all of us here in Hallandale Beach, due to his own personal and political interests, seemingly unconcerned with the fact that so many residents of this city would be out-of-town for the summer then, just as was the case in June with the vote on the Beachwalk development project on the Intracoastal, where so many of the people most-directly affected by that proposal were NOT in a position to speak to their interests.

So what's Lewy's goal? 

Simple, to take away Comm. Keith S. London's ability to run for his own HB City Commission seat on January 15th, in the unlikely event he loses the Mayoral election in November.

That other people are also affected, seven possible candidates and this city's citizenry's ability to vote for candidates of their choice, ought to make angry anyone who values democratic principles for who THEY want.

Absent a public referendum that affirmatively ratifies that and makes it legal, Comm. Lewy, Mayor Cooper and Comm. Sanders have no legal authority under the city's charter or the state's constitution to attempt to shorten the term of office of a duly-elected public official in this state, absent provable misconduct resulting in expulsion- something that most well-informed people we know around here already know, or which several State offices in Tallahassee would've told them if they'd simply asked.

But like bullies and political outliers everywhere, rules aren't for this crew, so they didn't ask, mostly because it didn't really matter what the answer would be -they already knew what they'd be doing, regardless of the law.

Question: Is there any city in South Florida that currently requires a sitting elected official running for another elective office to be forced from his present office many months before an election, rather than the date of the election, as Lewy, Cooper and Sanders propose.

In a word - NO.

But that's what these three already tried and failed at.

There's certainly not one in Ft. Lauderdale or Pembroke Pines, since in both communities, ones that easily dwarf Hallandale Beach in size, population and prestige, sitting commissioners there have (or will) resigned to run for another elective office with their resignation date being that upcoming Election Day, NOT some earlier date chosen arbitrarily by their colleagues with the sole intent of scoring political points and consolidating their power, as is so obviously the case here with Lewy, Cooper and Sanders.

If you don't already know the names of those candidates in Pembroke Pines and Ft. Lauderdale, who ran for their own seats again, perhaps you'll recognize them when I say them now: Anglelo Castillo and Charlotte Rodstrom.

It's entirely possible that many citizens and elected officials in those cities didn't like what Comm. Castillo did in 2010, or even what Comm. Rodstrom will be doing in a few months, to re-capture a seat she was already elected to and resigned from.

In fact, it's probably likely.

But you don't see their colleagues in those cities attempting to change their city's charter out of spite, did you, as if that was really the appropriate response, rather than letting the public decide who they  wanted and who they didn't want? 

Nope, changing a city's charter, it's constitution, completely out of personal pique and political spite is what the small minds of our own small city think of first over at HB City Hall, and typically, they have the audacity to think they can actually get away with it without anyone noticing it or suffering any personal or career consequences for their naked anti-democratic efforts.

We beg to differ.

    

Democracy is messy, but isn't that part of what makes it compelling?
Cooper, Lewy and Sanders may succeed Wednesday night at the First Reading by being too-clever-by-half, but ultimately, they ought to be careful what they wish for, since there are hundreds and hundreds of people like me who will be only be too happy to give these three the "credit" they want for limiting voter's choices -right before Election Day.

Nine weeks from today...

----------

My July 17, 2012 blog post was a particularly good overview of some of the issues I spoke about regarding the longstanding ethical cloud that Comm. Sanders has been under, so you may want to refer back to it: 

re Hallandale Beach Comm. Anthony A. Sanders' stealthy "meetings." From the same man who's stonewalling the Broward Inspector General, who NEVER returns your phone calls or email, and who WON'T visit your neighborhood to meet with you or your neighbors; #HallandaleBeach, @SandersHB, @MayorCooper, @AlexLewy

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/07/re-hallandale-beach-comm-anthony.html

I followed that up with this one on July 28, 2012: 
Video: Local10's Glenna Milberg examines an ethical & financial problem in Hallandale Beach that I've been writing about for over 3 years re Comm. Anthony A. Sanders, who KEEPS stonewalling the public; Keith London: "Broward Inspector General closing in on Hallandale Beach, Mayor Cooper and Vice Mayor Sanders"

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/07/video-local10s-glenna-milberg-examines.html