Bob Norman's blog post re red-light cameras in Hallandale Beach has drawn some very interesting comments worth checking-out by Csaba Kulin, Michael Mayo and Charlotte Greenbarg re Hallandale Beach Mayor Cooper's credibility. Or, rather the lack of her credibility.

Above, Hallandale Beach City Hall Municipal Complex, where the city's own records show a track record of Mayor Joy Cooper and the City Commission compromising public safety for increased revenue for them to spend. So where's Police Chief Dwayne Fluornoy in all of this? Missing-in-action! Thanks for nothing, Chief! August 5, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier.   © 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

Bob Norman's blog post re red-light cameras in Hallandale Beach has drawn some very interesting comments worth checking-out by Csaba Kulin, Michael Mayo and Charlotte Greenbarg re Hallandale Beach Mayor Cooper's credibility. Or, rather the lack of her credibility.

Bob Norman's Blog

Studies: Red light cameras causing more accidents

Published On: Aug 27 2012 10:43:57 AM EDT  

Updated On: Aug 27 2012 11:53:07 AM EDT

http://www.local10.com/news/blogs/bobnorman/Studies-Red-light-cameras-causing-more-accidents/-/3223354/16278442/-/3sgf1jz/-/index.html

My friend and fellow Hallandale Beach/Broward civic activist -and HB City Comm. candidate- Csbaba Kulin first told me about Mayor Joy Cooper's clear-cut lies to the Broward County Commission within minutes of her stating them at the time, since he knew -as we all do- that the Broward County Commission sitting in that room was obviously in no position to know whether or not HB actually had those countdown clocks at all or some HB intersections where a red-light camera existed at the time.
They took Mayor Cooper at her word.
Big mistake!!!

Csaba also had spoken with me and written me -and many of you reading this- about the idea of Broward County Traffic & Engineering slightly lengthening the time for the yellow light to allow drivers to completely get out of the those intersection before Comm. John Rodstrom first mentioned it last year at one of the Commission meetings, which, if I'm not mistaken(?), was one of the ones where American Traffic Solutions was trying to get the County to allow them to tap into the County's system, and the Comm.'s response to cities supporting ATS in this effort was, essentially, so what about our cut of the money for the access?
http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/broward/blog/2011/09/browards_rodstrom_ready_to_gra.html

Adding an additional second to the ITE minimum yellow yielded 53% reduction in violations, producing the greatest benefit of all the factors studied

         -Texas Transportation Institute 
         http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/02/243.asp

Isn't greater safety what we all want?

Yes, you'd think so, but unfortunately, the record-to-date shows that this has NOT been Mayor Cooper's priority, given her consistent three-year pattern of patronizing lies, mis-truths, innuendo and fallacious reasoning on this subject.
More revenue for the city has always been the carrot for her, and she didn't care what she had to say or do to get it.

And now, given the analytical report on HB red-light cameras that was issued last that I cited on my blog on Saturday, City of Hallandale Beach prints analysis that refutes Mayor Joy Cooper's mendacious efforts on red-light cameras - "In summary, there is no safety benefit to the citizens, and there is no financial benefit to the taxpayer due to automated for-profit law"
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/08/city-of-hallandale-beach-prints.html
which Bob Norman linked to, we see the logical results of Mayor Cooper's efforts in Hallandale Beach -less safety, more revenue.

We all know that she wants to expand their use if re-elected in November, regardless of what the results to-date have been.

That's not my idea of public safety, and yet another reason why she needs to be defeated 70 days from today.

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!

Above,  501 N.W. 1st Avenue in Hallandale Beach, FL, the property in question. May 22, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier. © 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

An old friend named "Mr. Long-Term Memory" suggested I re-post this 2009 Michael Mayo column, highlighting the fact that the City of Hallandale Beach's money -your tax money- was placed in Comm. Anthony A. Sanders bank account SO quickly

Doesn't everyone have a good enough relationship with their bank that when you give them a check for hundreds of thousands of dollars, they put it in your account within 24 hours and don't make you wait?

"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.

Yes, Classic "Bill Julian being Bill Julian" years before that temporary respite of his that lasted a few days that some of his supporters told us took place in the weeks immediately following his November 2010 defeat.

Sort of a like a very long eclipse of the sun.

Yes, here in Hallandale Beach, many of us who are very concerned about what goes on in this city have had the experience of having been told by a former Julian supporter that he was so down after losing that he was actually engaging in retrospection, something he never did while in office.

We were told that Julian now fully realized that he'd made some mistakes and told supporters of his as much.

Even told them that his biggest mistake by far was listening to Mayor Cooper too much and doing what she wanted, and voting the way she wanted, instead of being more objective, but that if given a chance, he'd learn from those mistakes "next time."

But then what happened once he said that he wanted to run yet again?

Yes, that sudden conscience of Julian's disappeared just as quickly as it had appeared out of nowhere.

So let me ask you, other than perhaps to a few friends and supporters many months ago, some of whom are now former supporters who've been "scared straight," when and where have the residents and taxpayers of Hallandale Beach ever actually heard Julian publicly admit what he'd done wrong in office during his many, many years on the City Commission?
Publicly explain why he was wrong?
Puublicly what, if anything, he learned from the experience of being a loyal Cooper Rubber Stamp that would make people want to give him yet a third chance?

I'll answer my own questions.

Residents and taxpayers of Hallandale Beach have never heard Julian publicly say and do those thing because it's never happened in the 20 months since Julian was forcibly ejected

from office.
He's still without remorse.
Meet the new Bill Julian, same as the old one!

----------

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.

Latest on Broward IG's investigation of curious Hallandale Beach CRA policies & loans; despicable Bill Julian talketh, Andrew Markoff spinneth, but neither tells the whole truth, of course. They can't because the real facts are NOT their friend.

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

Note to former Hallandale Beach City Commissioner William "Bill" Julian, a 2012 candidate who claims to be honest and full of integrity but is anything but that: 

Most real agents or people who carry real badges denoting some power DON'T park in handicapped parking spaces like you did for SO MANY YEARS all over this city, esp. to hang-out with your pals and eat and drink at The Beachside Cafe on the city's North Beach. Why couldn't you just act like a normal human being and park in the nearby city garage for about a dollar an hour? It would have been so easy.

But instead, for many, many years, as regular beach-goers and the young Jeff Ellis & Associates lifeguards could see for themselves, literally dumb-founded at your sheer audacity, you regularly parked in THE only disabled parking space at North Beach near the sidewalk. Or, if that space was occupied by someone for whom it was actually intended, equally as bad and carrying the identical FINE amount as parking in a disabled spot, you parked your car in the Handicapped Access parking spot, a spot legally designated to allow cars and vans to discharge people in wheelchairs or persons who otherwise required assistance getting out of the vehicle. 

But it's NOT for parking! 

And most assuredly, it is NOT for parking by able-bodied City Commissioners like you were who wanted to drink and eat with your pals and be lazy about it.
So why did you do it, year-after-year?
Because YOU felt entitled and owed something.

You were so full of yourself that you had no problem in putting your little calling card right out where everyone could see it on your dashboard, and your pals in the Police Dept. of Thomas Magill always looked the other way because of who you were, didn't they? Yes, they did, on those infrequent times when they actually came to the beach.

But the truth of the matter is that, in the end, all your pomposity and sense of entitlement showed was what a truly despicable person you are, because that's what people who park illegally in handicapped spaces are -despicable.

And you did that for MANY YEARS!


Elsewhere on the ethics beat, Bill Gjebre has the latest news on the Broward IG's continuing probe of the City of Hallandale Beach and its CRA program run by the City Commission.
Mostly more of Bill Julian being Bill Julian: saying that he won't talk publicly about what he told the investigators and then quickly babbling like a brook.
Broward IG questions former Hallandale commissioner about CRA deals, newspaper loan
http://www.browardbulldog.org/2012/07/broward-ig-agents-quiz-former-hallandale-commissioner-about-cra-deals-newspaper-loan/


So, to repeat what we already knew, there never was a written plan for the Sanders property when it was bought and there is still no plan for it now that the city rents it out for a dollar a year to serial CRA fund recipient Deborah Brown.
No plan!


So why all the urgency at the time then to purchase it, Comm. Julian and Mayor Cooper, if there was no written plan or strategy? 
Well, as is mentioned elsewhere in the reader comments, Julian was a puppet in good standing and didn't ask and probably didn't even care.


Now, of course, Julian actually has the gall to sound resentful when asked why he said and did certain things while in office for ten years, as if wasn't really him, just his doppelgänger.
All this has really proven is that Julian was never fit to be a city commissioner in the first place and the fact that he never really learned anything at all, proves it, just as is the case with Sanders.
Simply showing up is not good enough.

In the interest of complete accuracy and everyone reading this blog knowing the true facts, I must note here that once again, the very same Andrew Markoff who has spent so much time over the years publicly defending mean-spirited Mayor Cooper and the recently departed small-minded City Manager Mark A. Antonio, and the whole culture of corruption, incompetency and second-rate accountability to the public that they had come to embody, someone who has remarked so often that everyone who's been critical of them, including myself and many of you reading this, are not just wrong, but fail to understand how local govt. is supposed to operate, is the same guy who in a matter of hours on Thursday had already commented three times on the Broward Bulldog website about a story put up in the morning.


Which is to say that, yes, once again, as he has so many times at so many South Florida websites and blogs, Markoff actually wrote more words and lines than the author of the article that was being posted.
And yes, once again, as has become increasingly common in his efforts to attempt to divert people away from the facts surrounding this investigation or any questioning of what City hall wants, he used his poison pen to attack a South Florida reporter for being a tool of... well, whatever the latest conspiracy theory  in his head is these days.


Though I have never spoken with him in person nor spoken on the phone, I'm quite sure that Bill Gjebre, just like another recent target of his, Sun-Sentinel columnist Michael Mayo, is not losing any sleep about what mendacious Markoff thinks of him, and for good reason, given Markoff's chronic inability to tell the truth or keep his thin-skinned feelings and long-standing grudges out of the way.


If you read his querulous comments at the Bulldog website and had never heard of this blog, you might be surprised to discover that Markoff is actually part of one of the groups that is under current investigation, the Palm Community Action Coalition, which receives money from HB City Hall and is run by Comm. Anthony A. Sanders' wife, Jessica,


Yes, it sounds familiar alright, because it's the very same group whom I've mentioned here many times before whose sweetheart deal with City Hall gives them -her- the use of an office on city property at the Hepburn Center, and the use of city personnel and resources, despite their lack of publicly communicating just what this group actually does other than act as a paid booster squad and cheerleaders for City Hall policies.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/06/22/v-fullstory/2863431/inspector-general-digging-into.html


As usual, in both his written comments on websites and in person at City Hall, where he has felt perfectly at ease attacking Comm. Keith London and myself, and in May, adding Sun-Sentinel columnist Mayo in one comment at a May city commission meeting that Mayo was present at, as part of this personal conspiracy theory of his that must explain everything, Markoff has once again neglected to mention that he is part of a group being investigated.


Markoff has already picked his side in the status quo vs. reform battle in this city, and he's selected the side of Mayor Cooper and her Rubber Stamp Crew and their crony capitalism pals in the community, which perhaps is part of why she selected him for the city's Charter Review Committee advisory group, though he carefully avoids mentioning that publicly, too, as well as the fact that he was alone on an island there in his Minority Report, an outcast amongst his own kind.


Yet despite having chosen sides, Markoff still wants to act like he's an umpire who can call balls and strikes on others, based on his own very liberal politics and strange whims and sensibilities. The sort that caused him to sit in front of Panera Bread for so long trying to get people interested in an Obama front group he was involved with.


That sort of intellectual dishonesty, always a disqualifying character trait for me, is part and parcel of why nobody I know in this town trusts Andrew Markoff.
It's also part of his personal M.O., as he has verbally stabbed numerous people in the back in this community over the years who've attempted to befriend him or help him in some way, myself included.


A few years ago, I was foolish enough to spend dozens of hours with him, giving him a reality check tour of this city to point out why things were the way they were here -poorly-run in every way, shape and form- and why it was so important that they be changed.
I even ran what essentially was a free ad for his own website on my blog for around six months or so, a website that I'd actually made suggestions about.

Some of you might even remember it from four years ago.
Not from you going to it, but for me running it on my blog for so long, just to help him out.


No matter, after awhile, completely out-of-the-blue, after not having spoken to him in over 18 months, he felt that it was time to attack me.
The next thing I knew, I was being repeatedly attacked over on the Broward NewTimes blog comment forums by him.
It was so odd. 


Attack me and others who want new faces and policies at City Hall so this city can get out of its funk and be a more normal city.
This experience of trying to be friendly to him only proved again the validity of the maxim that no good deed goes unpunished.


As we've mentioned previously with respect to our frequent use of the Frog and the Scorpion fable on the blog and in my emails in the past to describe the actions and behavior of the mayor, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scorpion_and_the_Frog, 
Markoff, like Mayor Cooper, can't help being who he is, and Teaser Alert, in the end, he always turns on people who help him, so watch out...


And now you know the rest of the story...

Just the latest questionable ethical circumstance re Hallandale Beach Comm. Anthony A. Sanders in his uninspiring 43-month reign of obliviousness that's seen so many of them already

Above, a copy of a 2011 letter -exactly as it appeared when given to me- to Hallandale Beach City Manager Mark A. Antonio and the HB City Commission from The Palms Coalition civic group of northwest Hallandale Beach, just one of many issues they've expressed their great concern and frustration with as it regards getting straight answers to some basic questions regarding matters involving Comm. Anthony A. Sanders and his wife, Jessica. There were no newspaper articles following-up on this issue and Comm. Sanders has never answered these questions from the dais he sits on, preferring, as always, to ignore them, like he has so many other issues and problems in this city that he consciously seems to want to remain oblivious to. But just because Comm. Sanders wishes they'd disappear doesn't mean the questions this group and the ones that are raised by other concerned citizens in this town will simply blow away. Instead, they linger and hover over him -omnipresent..


My own comments today follow South Florida Sun-Sentinel columnist and blogger Michael Mayo's column from last Monday, which I suspect is the first of many to come from him and others.

Just so you know, unlike so much of what I have personally witnessed over the past eight years in Broward County and South Florida, where local TV/print reporters or columnists come to public policy or city/county govt. meetings just long enough to be recognized by some of the participants and write down a few things in their notepad, or have their cameraman shoot enough B-roll to make it seem like they actually were witnesses to something or another, despite leaving before any votes are cast, Mayo actually stayed the entire length of that torturous March 7th Hallandale Beach City Commission meeting, which went well over five hours and ended well after midnight, just so that he could speak with Hallandale Beach City Comm. Anthony A. Sanders in-person.

His reason for the self-inflicted torture?

To have Sanders try to explain away the circumstances surrounding this very curious loan forgiveness by the city to the tune of $7.500, and what the perpetually-indulged and sense-of-entitled commissioner intends to do to remedy it to taxpayers satisfaction, if anything, given that he is running for re-election in November, and already had a lot of curious things to come clean on, including money his wife gets from city loans or grants.

Given how (rightly) critical I tend to be in this space of the South Florida press corps, I just wanted to let you all know that some people in it, such as it is, DO still try to do the right thing.

You have to acknowledge when someone does that.

  

-----

www.sun-sentinel.com/news/columnists/fl-hallandale-mayocol-b032712-20120326,0,1063313.column

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Hallandale Beach City Commissioner Anthony Sanders benefits from sloppy city management

City willing to drop $7,500 loan mistake, but Sanders might repay

Michael Mayo, Sun Sentinel Columnist

7:44 PM EDT, March 26, 2012

How many times has this happened to you: a lender makes a $7,500 error in your favor, and when the mistake is discovered the lender says, "No sweat, forget about it."

Banks aren't that forgiving. But the city of Hallandale Beach has been, at least in the case of a borrower who's also a city commissioner.

City officials now admit commissioner Anthony Sanders and the church he runs got an unwarranted extra $7,500 forgiveness on a city loan repaid in early 2009, during his first year on the commission. The loan was for improvements to a property Sanders and his church eventually sold to the city for a big profit in February 2009.

Because the error was rolled into the legal sale documents, the city isn't attempting to recover the money, Hallandale Beach spokesman Peter Dobens said.

"The city made a mistake, we admit the mistake, but we'll move forward," Dobens said. He said it's no different than if a bank realized it used wrong figures in a real estate closing three years after the fact.

Sanders told me Monday that he might repay the $7,500 if the city gives him and his church members a letter of apology and a detailed explanation. Considering Sanders is running for re-election this year, that's probably a wise political move.

"The error is frustrating and disappointing," Sanders said. "Everybody who had a part in this is gone, and now it falls on me."

Nobody is sure how or why the extra $7,500 forgiveness was credited to the payoff in early 2009. "There was no justification for it," Dobens said.

A recent report by an accounting firm faulted city administrators for sloppy recordkeeping, disorganization and poor oversight. Longtime City Manager Mike Good was fired by the commission in 2010. Hallandale is now searching for a new city manager, with Good's replacement, Mark Antonio, set to retire.

"There was a good-faith effort by [Sanders] to pay off the loan correctly three years ago," Dobens said. "This has nothing to do with him or Higher Visions," the commisioner's church.

Earlier this month, before the city confirmed the mistake, when I asked Sanders if he got a special break because of his commission position, he bristled and said, "Absolutely not."

All told, Sanders and Higher Vision Ministries didn't have to repay $15,000 of the $46,000 loan. The original loan terms from 2002 (when Sanders wasn't on the commission) called for $7,500 forgiveness if he made timely payments for five years. That was standard for city Community Redevelopment Agency loans.

Sanders' Higher Vision Ministries bought the property, 501 NW First Ave., for $45,000 in 2001. It was sold to the city's CRA for $235,000 in February 2009. Sanders abstained from the vote approving the sale, which triggered controversy because the price exceeded two city appraisals and came during the real-estate meltdown.

-----

Let me begin by repeating a query that I've made more than a few times in emails over the past few years to well-informed people who pay close attention to things in SE Broward, some of whom are elected officials and others of whom are quite knowledgeable about government ethics:

How is it that, 

a.) despite all the money that Mayor Cooper and the HB City Commission and the two most recent City Manager(s) have tried to funnel to both groups completely under the control of Comm. Sanders and his wife, Jessica, Eagle's Wings Development Center and Higher Vision Ministry, and,

b.) despite the effort thru a motion by Comm. Alexander Lewy to steer over $2000,000 to them last year at a City Commission meeting well after Midnight, NOT on an advertised agenda item and with hardly anyone but city staff present -where Lewy deliberately wrote his motion so as to NOT have to publicly identify the party who was getting the money, but instead, described them citing their so-called job-creating/placing success, even though those so-called achievements have NEVER been independently-verified by anyone, and are NOT believed by anyone in this city NOT named Sanders or working for the city- neither one of the two groups has a working website that you can find on the Internet, no matter how long and hard you search.

That's more than a little curious, don't you think?

It's the year 2012, folks, and you can now create a decent website for almost nothing at all, cost-wise, and yet, all these years later, they have NOTHING about either entity on the Internet with their basic contact information, a description of what they actually do, an organization chart, or even a list of the Board of Directors and list of meetings when they meet.

Not even a link to or copy of their IRS 990 Form.

Seriously, a non-profit in the year 2012 without a website that has glowing testimonials to anything they've ever actually done?

You'd think they'd want to talk about what they've done for the community and city if they had actually done something worthwhile, at least something that the public and foundations could check out.

But instead, there is NOTHING.

In short, the two Sanders really have nothing tangible to show HB residents and others where all those HB tax dollars they've received over the years have gone.

Nothing.

Me, I find that MORE than a little curious, and I know from my conversations with many if not most of you, that you suspect something NOT quite kosher about these financial matters either.

By the way, good luck finding another property near the one the Sanders sold to the city for a ridiculous profit -and which the city I believe now rents to some group for, yes, $1- that was valued at anywhere near the same price as the appraisal the Sanders received.

In the days ahead, I hope to have some more news for you about yet another semi-stealthy figure in the city who has been the lucky recipient of a lot of taxpayer dollars under some very questionable circumstances, whom I recently discovered has NOT been an IRS-accredited non-profit after all, even though I think that they claimed they were in order to get some taxpayer's dinero.

Hmm-m...
-----


I've written a variation of the above a few times in those emails of mine, and every time before I sent it out, I double-checked for at least 15 minutes to try to find those imaginary websites.
Each time, nothing had changed, and what I'd written was 100% true.
It's still true today, now that I'm finally posting it online and sharing it with you.

Michael Mayo offers up latest proof that while Broward State Attorney Mike Satz continues sleeping on the job, Florida's Sunshine Laws are meaningless for Florida's citizens; Keith Poliakoff makes like Icarus -nose-dive!

Michael Mayo offers up latest proof that while Broward State Attorney Mike Satz continues sleeping on the job, Florida's Sunshine Laws are meaningless for Florida's citizens; Keith Poliakoff makes like Icarus -power-dive!

How completely unsurprising to discover that the heavy-hand in this ridiculous matter belongs to Keith Poliakoff. Someone, perhaps a family member or friend I suppose, once thought he was so important, so very important, that 'someone' created an entry for him on Wikipedia.

Now even if you are reading this from somewhere in South Florida, much less, somewhere else in the U.S or overseas, you're probably asking yourself, "Why would a Broward County-based lobbyist and mouthpiece for land developers, and the city attorney of insignificant SW Ranches, a town that 99% of South Florida would never have a reason to visit, merit an entry in Wikipedia?"

Why indeed!

Well, it turns out that he didn't merit one, because they yanked that entry after someone paying close attention to what goes on around Broward County, invoked a Wiki rule that the entry "Doesn't indicate importance or significance of a real person."

http://deletionpedia.dbatley.com/w/index.php?title=Keith_Poliakoff_(deleted_01_Jul_2008_at_19:52)

Whoever you are who sent up that flare so that Keith Poliakoff, like Icarus, could be brought back down to earth with a thud, thank you on behalf of people who are on the front-lines of Florida's Sunshine Laws, even while most of the people drawing a government salary who are supposed to be helping us are sleeping on the job!

Tack sa mycket!

-----

www.sun-sentinel.com/news/columnists/fl-ranches-lawsuit-mayocol-b032912-20120328,0,3824998.column

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Southwest Ranches shouldn't be rewarded for thwarting Sunshine Law

Activist's attempt to photograph records turns into $17,000 legal headache

Michael Mayo, Sun Sentinel Columnist

7:54 PM EDT, March 28, 2012

How's this for outrageous: A town violates a citizen's rights and Florida's public records law, then goes after the victim for $17,000 in legal costs after a judge dismisses the aggrieved citizen's lawsuit.

It's a chilling tale, one that should concern anyone who cares about freedom and good government.

"We're gonna lose our country if this stuff is allowed to stand," Southwest Ranches resident Bill Di Scipio told me.

Much coverage has focused on the pittance Di Scipio sued for: $1.25, the amount he grudgingly paid for eight photocopies after his lawful bid to snap his own iPhone photos of public records was halted by the town clerk last October. Florida's public records law clearly allows files that are open for inspection to be photographed.

Thus Di Scipio's lawsuit, filed in November. He had formed a group opposing a proposed federal immigration detention center in his small town on Broward's western fringe. He said he's encountered roadblocks and delays trying to gather information. Like many activists, he can be passionate and pushy.

This month, Broward Circuit Judge John Murphy dismissed the lawsuit. Di Scipio said he plans to appeal. The town argued the clerk's actions became moot when it belatedly agreed that Di Scipio could photograph the records.

A few weeks ago, town attorney Keith Poliakoff said Southwest Ranches would seek to recover $20,000 in legal fees from Di Scipio. Poliakoff said in this case the prevailing side can bill the loser for costs.

"It should serve as a lesson: don't sue unless you have a case," Poliakoff said.

But to me, the town seems to be delivering a more sinister message: If you dare fight city hall, you might have to pay dearly.

"It's harassment and intimidation," said John McKnight, Di Scipio's attorney.

On Wednesday, Poliakoff said the amount might be around $17,000, with a "few thousand" in hard costs like filing fees and court reporters, but he didn't provide a detailed breakdown. The final amount will be set by the judge.

I'm still scratching my head how there's such a big bill on a small case that never went to trial. It took me less than an hour to read the case file; the town's dismissal motion was seven pages. Poliakoff said his lawyers spent a lot of time reading Di Scipio's website.

I requested a fee breakdown from Poliakoff, but didn't hear back. The town took depositions from Di Scipio's wife and another activist. An attorney for Corrections Corp. of America, which wants to build the detention center, sat in on one deposition.

"They were asking for things that had nothing to do with my case — they wanted the source code for our website," Di Scipio said. "They were raping us for information."

Said Poliakoff: "That's what discovery is — a fishing expedition for anything we can use in a defense. He's the one who sued."

Di Scipio said he sued so the town would "stop playing games" with public records law. Poliakoff said the town didn't violate anyone's rights and called the suit "frivolous."

I call the outcome dangerous. Southwest Ranches initially thwarted the law. It shouldn't be rewarded for it.

-----

The Official Anti-Mike Satz website: http://www.mikesatz.com/

When providing a Sun-Sentinel reporter with much-needed context re HB, we're reminded again of Comm. Lewy's penchant for craveness, verbosity & duplicity and City Manager Antonio's knack for under-performance

Above, one of the small army of City of Hallandale Beach vehicles -in this case, Code Compliance- that never ever move from their spot in front of or behind the HB City Hall/Police Dept. HQ complex off of U.S.-1/Federal Highway, even while residents and visitors often have to drive around and around the complex looking for a place to park. It's been like this all around the complex for well over eight years and the powers-that-be, Mayor Cooper and City Manager Antonio, continue to ignore resident's calls to keep city vehicles in the back. A few summers ago, a dry one in comparison to normal, I actually took photographs of a couple of COHB cars that had the same exact thing: spider webs that went from the ground to the back tire and then to the bottom of the back seat door on the Driver's side. That's the anti-taxpayer attitude that passes for normal here! March 21, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier. 


Below is a copy of an email that I wrote last Friday night to South Florida Sun-Sentinel reporter Tonya Alanez, who along with Sun-Sentinel columnist and blogger Michael Mayo, were in attendance at the March 7th Hallandale Beach City Commission meeting, sitting just a few feet away from me, as I recorded certain parts of the meeting and watched the usual antics of the Joy Cooper Rubber Stamp Crew, this time, as they tried to prove a negative -why the Marcum LLP report was actually, well, apparently  good news.

Yes, just ignore those 250 or so "exceptions" Marcum made note of in doing a very shallow review of just some records the city was willing to cough-up, not the array of ones the citizens of this community wanted reviewed for other factors, including fraud, given the millions of tax dollars involved.

No, this is NOT that promised review of the March 7th meeting I mentioned a few posts back, where there were a number of public policy issues that really stood out and demand your attention and notice.

For instance, Comm. Alexander Lewy foolishly making a motion to preclude the elected city commission from actually speaking on the matter of the RK Associates development project on N.E. 14th Avenue so the public in the Chambers could hear their rationale for voting however they were going to vote, on an agenda item I had forgotten was even going to be discussed that night.

Perhaps Lewy did so because developer RK has a solid and consistent history of late of NOT living up to their word or the signed agreements with the city on behalf of the city's taxpayers, something you'd think that City Manger Antonio felt was worth mentioning.
He didn't.
Surprise!

Those of us paying close attention to these matters the past few years already know, though I doubt that would include either Comm. Lewy or Sanders, given that they voted for the motion along with Comm. Ross and Mayor Cooper.
Surprise!

When I showed-up for the evening meeting I hadn't planned on speaking during the Public Comments on that agenda item, but after witnessing Lewy's galling gambit, and listening to an incredulous and quite reasonably-exasperated HB citizen, Michele Lazarow, ask Lewy to explain why he felt the need to make such an unusual motion -which I may've have witnessed maybe once in the past six years that I can recall off the top of my head- and her NOT hearing a good response from Lewy the Liar, I decided that someone need to be reminded of the pink elephant in the room.

After admitting I hadn't planned on speaking, I reminded everyone there in the room and at home watching via their computers, with great specificity, that RK was a serial violator, picking on but the lowest-hanging fruit -their complete failure three years later to comply with the city's signage requirements in the Publix grocery store parking lot off of NE 14th Avenue and HBB, per the surveillance cameras and the next-door Publix Liquor store.
The signs were supposed to be present when the liquor store opened but three years later -NADA!

I know about this because I'm the person who three years ago walked the city's wet-and- shriveled-up paper Code Compliance complaint into Publix and handed it to their on-duty manager, after seeing it lying on grass near the parking lot one rainy day while walking back to my home from a walk up to the beach and back.
Like me, it was soaking wet, and it looked to have long since been separated from the wooden stick it had been attached to, far from where anyone at Publix or RK would ever have sees it.
Yes, a case of Classic HB Theater of the Absurd!

Again, those required signs were STILL missing three years later!

And as if I could have scripted it better myself, that night, RK said it wanted to provide LESS than the required number of parking spaces the city's own staff was asking for.
Surprise!

Last I heard, they STILL owe the public parking spaces for other parts of their retail complex north of Hallandale Beach Blvd. over where the Kirova Ballet studio is located, towards Diplomat Parkway, but...
But again, this isn't THAT blog post!

-----
March 16, 2012




Dear Ms. Alanez:

re your article, Hallandale Beach bans 'human signs' but halts enforcement
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/fl-hallandale-human-sign-ban-20120315,0,6117918.story
Hmm-m...if you knew the true facts, you'd know why that Lewy quote from your article is a perfect combination of faux sanctimony and utter hypocrisy, and even more than is usually the case with any self-serving thing Comm. Lewy says, it's a case of consider the source...

"Without any type of regulations, we would have sign wavers on every single street corner and every single block," Commissioner Alex Lewy said

Let me explain why.


As is customary in most American cities, the hefty candidate packets given to all city candidates in Hallandale Beach by the City Clerk's office upon filing have a section that details the city's own rules regarding where campaign signs can and can't be legally placed within the city.
(Did you know the City of Hallandale Beach also forbids candidates for any political office from using (independently-owned) bus benches within the city limits?)


So, given this information, you'd naturally think then that the same city Code Compliance Dept. that actually cited Comm. Keith London in 2010 for having his one campaign sign on his own front yard -since only one is allowed- a few inches too close to the sidewalk, WOULD see all if not some of the many illegally-placed Alexander Lewy campaign signs in front of and around HB City Hall itself for days and days during both Early Voting and prior to the 2010 General Election in November, right?


I mean especially since the Code Compliance office is right there at HB City Hall, and most of the cars in the City Hall parking lot off of U.S.-1 are assigned to Code Compliance, despite the fact that MANY MANY MONTHS often go by when those vehicles DON'T MOVE, while city residents continually strain to find a place to park for important evening meetings there, right?


And then when you add in all those myriad political campaign signs that have been plucked by Code Compliance for whatever reason, whether illegally or not, and which remain in the back seats of those very cars for days if not weeks at a time, as anyone who has been to City Hall at those particular times knows, including former candidates, well, it's so noticeable that observant people like me even snap photos of the signs in the cars, and see the same signs inside, day-after-day.


But to answer my own question, no, the city's Code Compliance office DIDN'T see those Lewy signs just feet away from their own cars, they just look the other way. 
That's how things are done here.


There's your enforcement of sign ordinances in this city -special rules for special people.


That is, unless you walk into City Hall and wait 10 minutes like I did for someone from that office to actually come to the public window so you can tell them and make a formal complaint when they say they'll get to it.
Unless you won't leave until you actually send a city employee outside their own building to pick the illegal signs up, and then wait and follow the city employee to see that they actually do it, since the signs have either been there illegally for days or the better part of a day, depending upon what day it is.

"Without any type of regulations, we would have sign wavers on every single street corner and every single block," Commissioner Alex Lewy said.

It never ends with him. 


Later...

City spokesman Peter Dobens said the city is confident that its ordinance is constitutional but as a precaution has suspended enforcement while awaiting additional legal review and an opinion from City Attorney Lynn Whitfield.

"The city doesn't believe that it is a free speech issue, because it's clearly an advertisement. However, when it came up, that's when the city said, 'Let's take a look at it,'" Dobens said.

Now that's funny!

It's really too bad that as has been the case for YEARS now, the Sun-Sentinel, the Herald and all of South Florida's TV stations missed the two public meetings, where the City Commission showed no interest in the First Amendment rights of HB business owners, as well as the city's P&Z meeting weeks before that.

I'm sure that if this had been attempted in another city closer to, well, the oblivious Herald's own HQ, given the likely economic results, it would've gotten some coverage, but if it happens in HB, no, everyone in the news room just shakes their head and says, "No, we'll pass."

Not that this lack of living bodies in the back of the room stopped me:
Regulating signage & advertising during a bad economy? Oh, so that's the ticket to economic recovery in Hallandale Beach
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/10/regulating-signage-advertising-during.html

As it was, when I specifically asked the city's staff at the P&Z meeting during public comments whether or not any of those affected businesses, especially the ones that the city was clearly targeting, had been informed about the proposal, that meeting as well as the upcoming Commission meetings by the city, i.e. them, to ensure some degree of fairness, given that nobody was there, they basically shrugged their shoulders.

There's your evidence of the City of Hallandale Beach going the extra-mile for local businesses!

And yet how entirely predictable was the result of the city's actions?

I already knew from experience that there would be a drop-off for the affected businesses, and as you dutifully reported...

Seven out of 10 customers said they came to his gold-buying business because they remembered his Uncle Sam sign holders, Ezekiel said. Business is now down about 40 to 50 percent, he said."We're crippled enough in this economy, there's no reason to cripple us more," Ezekiel said. "It's like a billboard, they constantly see it, he makes them laugh, he makes them smile and they remember and they come in."

When the business closes up, and it becomes yet another one of the many, many empty storefronts in this city, esp. on HBB in particular, be sure to make plans to come back around HB City Hall and ask the same city commissioners who voted for it whether they have any second thoughts, and even better, just whom do they think is really going to rent those storefronts anyway, some upscale businesses looking to relocate?
Really?

And yet even while they purport to be working towards solving a problem few people think is a real problem, the city looks the other way as the folks from PAL -who already get plenty from HB taxpayers, with little oversight- can put up their advertising signs, sandwich board signs and even city-owned electronic message boards all over town, regardless of whether it's fair or even placed in a safe location, something they don't do for even the city's own important meetings.

Yes, like the Golden Isles Tennis Center where the mayor plays, whose sandwich board sign has been on a median near the Publix on HBB almost un-interrupted for years.
Huh, I wonder why?

Over-and-over in Hallandale Beach under Mayor Cooper, it's a case of special rules for special people.

Next time you're driving south to Hallandale Beach from Hollywood on U.S.-1, one of the city's three main streets, pay attention to how many city blocks on your right -the west side- between Atlantic Shores Blvd. and NE 3rd Street actually have an open business.

There's one (small) block.
That's it.

Though you and I have never officially met or spoken, you're probably smart enough to realize in advance that you are never going to get anything even remotely resembling the unvarnished truth from the city's not-so-talented and not-so-observant new taxpayer-financed spin-meister, Mr. Dobens, given that this city under this administration, for all its lip service, prefers to keep its residents in the dark for as long as possible, rather than trust them to make up their own minds with freely-shared information.
Like adults.

I strongly suggest you take a look at these contemporaneous comments and photos of mine so that when the city loses its case, as I'm sure they likely will, you'll at least have some knowledge for better understanding that they never really took anyone' else's opinion into consideration.

That's how they do it here under the present Joy Cooper Rubber Stamp Crew.

Or, you can just do a Google Images search for "alexander lewy" "campaign signs" and get much the same.

The first dozen or so photos that appear in the search results are all ones that I snapped at the time -there's your proof of both his obliviousness and his hypocrisy, both of which have been on almost continuous display since he was elected, and which shows no sign of abating.

For instance..

1. 
   You're surprised? 13 days before HB election, Alexander Lewy was ...

   hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/.../youre-surprised-13-days-befor...

   Oct 28, 2010 – 13 days before HB election, Alexander Lewy was ALREADY running afoul of rules -no campaign signs on City Hall land, capisce? Uncouth ...

   
   

   
   

   Once again, thru his words & misdeeds, Alexander Lewy is proving ...

   
   

   hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/.../once-again-thru-his-words-mis...

   Mar 22, 2011 – Above, Alexander Lewy and his campaign sign at the entrance of the... IF it was legal to put campaign signs there on city property, within the ...
2. Hallandale Beach Blog: Weather forecast: 100% chance of stone ...
3. hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/.../weather-forecast-100-chance-o...

   Oct 22, 2010 – Above, October 10, 2010 photo by South Beach Hoosier of Alexander Lewy and Bill Julian campaign signs on Atlantic Shores Blvd., Hallandale ...

As for your Friday night post, VIDEO: No love lost between Hallandale Mayor Joy Cooper, Commissioner Keith London
http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/broward/blog/2012/03/video_no_love_lost_between_hal.html

you DON'T mention that the predicate for this was City Manager Mark A. Antonio and his staff failing to make copies of Marcum LLP's supposed last-minute four-page addition to the public record, actually available to the public, who'd been waiting for the agenda item to come up for quite some time.

Marcum's reps publicly stated that they had turned over the documents to the city at 4 p.m., but though Antonio and his highly-paid staff of assistants had well over five hours to make copies by the time it finally came up -since it was NOT on the city's own website, and yet would be voted upon- Antonio & Co. failed to do the logical and responsible thing, which in case you forgot, even Mayor Cooper was not very happy about either.

So, Antonio having failed to do something simple and obvious, while they yakked and yakked and actually debated whether or not to direct the staff to make copies, someone showed some initiative and got positive results.
Which is why they took the 15-minute break after Comm. London returned with copies for everyone in the room to actually read for the first time, including the taxpayers in the room, whom they all supposedly work for, though you wouldn't know it from their attitudes and work ethic.

While I like most concerned residents of Hallandale Beach am glad to see someone from the South Florida news media actually showing-up here for a change -and actually staying for the whole meeting- while I'm mindful of the fact that you have limited space, if you can't actually make more of an effort to incorporate any of the actual context or nuance that's actually going on here, frankly, in my opinion, it's actually almost worse than nothing, because it perpetuates the popular idea among the extant news media that the residents of this particular community are entitled to LESS actual democracy, transparency and competency in government than other communities, or news coverage, simply because of where we live in South Florida.
We aren't.