The continuing problems of Broward County's Animal Shelter clearly shows that the Broward County Commission and Administration can not or will not solve what needs to be fixed. Quite rightly, Hallandale Beach Comm. Michele Lazarow, a longtime animal advocate, wants to know: “They had all summer to do this -why are they waiting until January?" Another case for Broward having an elected countywide Mayor who is held accountable for results.

The continuing problems of Broward County's Animal Shelter clearly shows that the Broward County Commission and Administration can not or will not solve what needs to be fixed. 

Quite rightly, Hallandale Beach Comm. Michele Lazarow, a longtime animal advocate,  wants to know: “They had all summer to do this -why are they waiting until January?" 

To me, this story shows the true cost to Broward residents in the chronic lack of personal accountability and positive results in Broward County by not having one person in the county who is an elected countywide Mayor who is accountable to everyone, and who can set an agenda that will last for more than one year. 

Instead, Broward residents must suffer with unaccountable and unelected jokers who are called mayor, like Steve Geller.

More of my comments below this account of what I tweeted out Tuesday afternoon.

I've included the text from the germane tweets in case you can't make out all the information

HallandaleBeach/Hollywood Blog @hbbtruth

1/ .@Susannah_Bryan 

Animals left in dark for hrs = just 1 of problems @ #Broward #AnimalShelter. “This is not news to those of us who have been saying this for years” - animal advocate + #HallandaleBeach Comm. @MLVegan. “What are they going to do now...”

Animals left in the dark for hours — that’s just one of the problems at Broward’s animal shelter.
Yet another scathing audit has uncovered a slew of problems at Broward County’s troubled animal shelter, lambasted by activists for years over allegations of neglect and incompetence that they say...
https://t.co/g7sWj39eYS?amp=1

2/ MT @Susannah_Bryan 

#Broward animal advocate Ana Campos worries abt animals being subjected to barrage of construction noise. “That is terrifying to an animal. It’s going to sound like a war zone... They’re going to bite and bark and freak out.”
Broward animal shelter will close for six months. The closure will make it easier for construction crews to fix problems with the shelter’s ventilation system. Shelter animals will remain in the building during construction.
https://t.co/BGBBAYlxfO?amp=1

3/ MT @Susannah_Bryan 

#Broward animal advocate + #HallandaleBeach Comm. @MLVegan has been on the line for 2 hours (since 10 am) waiting to comment @browardinfo mtg. re #Broward #AnimalShelter audit. When it was her turn to speak, commissioners were told she was not on the line.

4/ MT @Susannah_Bryan
After being passed over while waiting to speak re #Broward #AnimalShelter audit mtg., animal advocate/#HallandaleBeach Comm. @MLVegan texted Comm. @beamfurr to let him know. Now they’re trying to reconnect to her. Instead, they've got another speaker!

5/ MT @Susannah_Bryan 

“We are angry and tired,” #HallandaleBeach Comm. @MLVegan tells @browardinfo, referring to years of #animal advocates railing abt problems at county-run #AnimalShelter.
Says #Broward County administration + Commission to blame for problems.

6/ MT @Susannah_Bryan
Fact checking #Broward #AnimalShelter costs: @Michaeludine says it takes in 1,400 animals a year, spends $5,700 on each. Not true, says #animal advocate/#HallandaleBeach Comm. @MLVegan. Shelter takes in closer to 14,000 animals per year, spends $570 apiece.

@CBSMiami @nbc6 @wsvn @WPLGLocal10 @caitielee0917
7/ There really shld NOT be so much confusion re numbers and costs appearing in an... audit.
MT @Susannah_Bryan
Page 67 of #Broward #AnimalShelter audit: The shelter impounds approx. 14,000 live animals each year.

@CBSMiami @nbc6 @wsvn @WPLGLocal10 @caitielee0917 @Buddynevins @Florida_Bulldog @Susannah_Bryan
8/ This story shows true cost to #Broward residents in lack of accountability/results by NOT having elected countywide Mayor. Instead, unaccountable/unelected joker #SteveGeller.

@CBSMiami @nbc6 @wsvn @WPLGLocal10 @caitielee0917 @Buddynevins @Florida_Bulldog @Susannah_Bryan
9/ Perfectly reasonable question re #Broward #AnimalShelter: “They had all summer to do this -why are they waiting until January? - #animal advocate/#HallandaleBeach Comm. @MLVegan

This is one of those times where I don;t have to use all kinds of adjectives in my post to describe

what is going on, because it is completely self-evident to anyone who wants to open their eyes and look at where the problems are.

The Broward County Commission and its highly-paid staff is VERY, VERY lucky that this agenda item on the audit of the Broward County Animal Shelter took place during a pandemic, because if this had been a normal meeting where interested parties  could show up and speak under Public Comments, there would have been dozens and dozens more people who would've present at at the County HQ on Andrews Avenue to speak in-person.

And I would have been one of them.

Even worse, that meeting would have been chock full of kids with signs and their angry middle-class Moms, and that would have been the worst possible optics for these nine elected officials, who spend so much time reassuring us that they have excellent people in place to deal with and manage things.

No, what we know from experience is that they have staff that is highly-paid.

Their competency and tin-eared reactions has been the problem.

That's clearly been the case in many areas of public policy -including the battle for allowing Uber into the county- and now we know that problem extends to many other parts of Broward's bureaucracy, and we know with a high degree of certainty that one of those areas is something as non-controversial as the proper care and treatment of animals.

You don't need me to tell you that Broward residents and taxpayers deserve so much better than this from our elected officials.

You know it in your gut!

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">More half-assed &#39;results&#39; fm feckless <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Broward?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Broward</a> Comm. as animals suffer @ its <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AnimalShelter?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#AnimalShelter</a>. <br>Another case for an elected countywide Mayor? <br>YES!<br><br>“They had all summer to do this -why are they waiting until Jan.?&quot; -🐶lover/<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/HallandaleBeach?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#HallandaleBeach</a> Comm. <a href="https://twitter.com/MLVegan?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MLVegan</a><a href="https://t.co/ejJ2QGSCRw">https://t.co/ejJ2QGSCRw</a> <a href="https://t.co/62Z5A7Hcqw">pic.twitter.com/62Z5A7Hcqw</a></p>&mdash; HallandaleBeach/Hollywood Blog (@hbbtruth) <a href="https://twitter.com/hbbtruth/status/1349427693255843841?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 13, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Hallandale Beach/Hollywood Blog: http://www.hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/ 

Twitter: @hbbtruth, https://twitter.com/hbbtruth/with_replies

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Travel Massive: https://travelmassive.com/dbsmith 

Hallandale Beach's sleazy, unethical political campaigns seem to have the fingerprints of melodramatic Anabelle Lima-Taub or Police Unions or both. Yet again. Surprise! In Hallandale Beach, DON'T reward people who have not earned your trust and your faith like Anabelle Lima-Taub and Cynthia Cabrera. Reward someone who was there speaking out for your and your neighbors best interests for YEARS: Maggie Ivanovski

Above: Hallandale Beach City Hall, February 2020. © Hallandale Beach/Hollywood Blog, All Rights Reserved

Updated October 27th, 2020 9:00 p.m.

Hallandale Beach's sleazy, unethical political campaigns seem to have the fingerprints of melodramatic Anabelle Lima-Taub or Police Unions or both. 

Yet again. Surprise! 

In Hallandale Beach, DON'T reward people who have not earned your trust and your faith like Anabelle Lima-Taub and Cynthia Cabrera. Reward someone who was there speaking out for your and your neighbors best interests for YEARS: Maggie Ivanovski

Since we last spoke... a LOT of things have been happening. Unfortunately, most of them were happening below-the-radar, and the people involved, including those behind a fake website, do NOT want you to know the truth about what they're doing. 

It just never ends, does it?

-------------------------------------

Monday October 26th, 2020

I'm writing this morning to share with you all some very useful context about some very disconcerting news I was recently made aware of about what's been going on for weeks below-the-radar in our slice of the world in SE Broward among the political and business class. 

People who care very much about who has control and power at Hallandale Beach City Hall after the election on November 3rd, one week from tomorrow, and care not a whit about you, your family and your community's best long-term interests.

Which is why I'm making you aware of it today when there's still time to do something about it, instead of complaining about it after the election.

Then it's too late!

Instead of linking to the following news article as I would usually do on the blog since I started it in January of 2007, because it is SO important AND 99% of you would never have heard of it or read it anywhere else, I'm going to post it here in its entirety, including links, so that you can fully appreciate the forces at work under-the-radar in Hallandale Beach and environs who want to have power and control at Hallandale Beach City Hall.

You know, where you the citizen, the public, are supposed to be the most important person in the pyramid.

My comments follow the article, which features Hallandale Beach as the worst example in the state of Florida for a very unpopular trend.

Imagine that!

If indviduals or a group know that they can just pay a small fine after-the-fact, violating state election laws, what's to force them to follow state laws on disclosure?

Nothing! 

They will consider it a small price to pay to get the results THEY want.

https://www.bradenton.com/news/politics-government/election/article246660838.html

ELECTIONS

That annoying barrage of political texts? It’s only going to get worse, Florida

By Linda Robertson

OCTOBER 23, 2020 10:25 AM

Texts like this one encouraging Floridians to vote by mail are among the 1 billion expected to be sent by political campaigns before Election Day on Nov. 3As election season reaches a crescendo, campaign ads aren’t just hanging from your doorknob, filling up your mailbox, cluttering your inbox, interrupting your favorite TV shows and beckoning from billboards. Politicians are capitalizing on an increasingly popular way to win your vote by inundating your cell phone with text messages.

More than a billion texts will be sent in support of Florida, statewide and national campaigns by Nov. 3, say candidates and their consultants. Like it or not, they’ve found texting to be an effective, efficient method for using personal data to engage directly with voters who spend half their waking hours on their mobile phones.

Because privacy is as quaint as the telephone booth, and voters’ cell numbers have been bought, sold, shared and rented out many times over, a candidate or volunteer or software company that is running a texting operation can greet recipients by first name in hopes of creating a rapport much harder to achieve ringing doorbells or broadcasting advertisements.

Cell phone users, hard-wired to at least glance at texts, also are more like to open them for a range of reasons, said Kevin Munger, assistant professor of political science and social media analytics at Penn State.

“People are resigned to getting spam calls and not listening or blocking them,” Munger said. “But their annoyance tolerance is higher for something they perceive as more important than a commercial pitch for a credit card or, say, selling Coke over Pepsi compared to Trump over Biden.”

Multiple times a day voters see texts soliciting donations, touting or bashing candidates, asking survey questions, coordinating campaign workers or encouraging them to cast their ballots:

“Hi John, it’s Israel with MoveOn. Politico reports that a ‘green tsunami’ -- a wave of donations from Democrats like us -- could flip control of the Senate! A Joe Biden presidency AND Democratic Senate are now within reach. Can you chip in $15 to help flip the Senate?”

“Looting. Rioting. Burning Cities. These are the realities of a Biden America. See this future for yourself & ensure it’s not ours.”

“Hi, it’s Michael from Vote From Home 2020. If you live at [insert your address] voting files suggest that you may not have requested a vote-by-mail ballot yet. If you change your mind you can still vote in person, so keep your options open by requesting a ballot.”

“Hey there John, I’m Diana with FL Research. We have a brief survey for Miami-Dade & we want to hear from you.”

The texts aim to tread a fine line between motivating and irritating voters. They come with one big advantage: People who delete emails without opening them or don’t answer calls from suspicious numbers can’t avoid texts. It’s an intrusion that also can backfire, strategists say.

“Voters have grown quite sick of texts. It’s another invasion of their privacy and their first reaction is often, ‘How did you get my number?’” said Evan Ross, president of the Aventura public affairs communications firm ,Public Communicators Group. He is running three Political Action Committees and advising 10 clients this election cycle, and they’ve sent a total of 100,000 texts. But those pings even get under his skin.

”I was in line for early voting when I received a text for the fourth time asking if I was committed to Biden and Harris,” he said. “I responded by telling the sender they need better data. They can’t be barraging people with repetitive texts and annoying them.”

The hope, Ross said, is a productive exchange, a conversation. Ideally, voter and candidate learn about one another.

“You’re able to make that crucial ask, ‘Can I count on your vote?’” he said. “A text can be so much more valuable than sending a mass mailer or knocking on a door when nobody’s home. But when a text is deleted out of frustration you’ve missed that connection.”

A COVID-19 BOOM

Texting has been especially useful since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. Ross knows a candidate in a condo-dense district who could not do the traditional door-to-door canvassing or host bagel breakfasts in meeting rooms. She switched to texting as her outreach solution.

The percentage of people who reply varies depending on how well an audience is targeted, but a 10-15 percent response rate is good, according to Ross and Nathaniel Lubin, co-founder of Survey 160, a software company that provides text-based polling and research services.

“At a time when people increasingly don’t answer their phones, SMS [Short Message Service texts of 160 characters or less] is an attractive way for analytics groups and pollsters to get meaningful data quickly and at scale,” said Lubin, who worked on Barack Obama’s campaigns in 2008 and 2012 when texting began to take off. “We typically do get higher response rates than other methods, especially for surveys. Texting is easier for respondents in that they get to choose when and how to respond, rather than needing to be available at the exact moment required by other channels.”

Ross saw a response Thursday that captured many voters’ feelings of text fatigue: “Who do I need to vote out of office to STOP these text messages? [With an emoji of a crying frowny face.]”

Though its use has exploded, texting remains largely unregulated by election and communications laws, allowing both savvy strategists and unsophisticated campaign managers to spread misinformation anonymously. Voters can receive a text and have no idea who is behind it. Disclaimers identifying who paid for the text messages are not required because there is too little space within the standard 160-character limit to fit that extra verbiage.

Lack of oversight and transparency has spawned some outrageous attack texts.

In the midst of another wild and nasty campaign season in Hallandale Beach, a text stating “Urgent Election Information” went out that appeared to be sent by incumbent commission candidate Michele Lazarow. It linked to a “Michele Lazarow For Commissioner?” website that disparaged and insulted Lazarow with bizarre headlines like “Breaks the Law and Incites Violence” and “Celebrates the Life of the ‘prophet’ Mohammed, an Oppressor of Women” and “Michele’s Dirty Relationship with Evan Ross.”

The mystery disclaimer at the bottom of the home page says: “I’m a concerned citizen of Hallandale Beach, and I have free speech guaranteed by the 1st amendment of the U.S. Constitution. I love Hallandale Beach, and I’m tired of Michele Lazarow allowing by [SIC] beloved city to look trashy!! Don’t vote for Michele please. Thank you!!!”

The deliberate misrepresentation and unaccountability for funding of the ad makes it illegal, but Lazarow’s attempts to trace the origin were fruitless. No one, including Commissioner Anabelle Lima-Taub, who is running for re-election in another district, or Mayor Joy Cooper — who have tangled with Lazarow in the past — has taken responsibility. Lazarow’s opponent, Dmitry Yakubovich, denied any involvement, saying “The politics have been very dirty in Hallandale over the past few elections. I’m not in favor of this. There’s no place for it in Hallandale.”

Lazarow and her advisor and friend Ross said they were “disgusted” by the deceptive message. The number that sent the text has been flagged by consumers complaining of robocalls and scams.

“The people who want to corrupt our city have proven they will break the law as they work to get me out of their way,” she said. “It’s clear these corrupting forces want Anabelle Lima-Taub, Joy Cooper and anyone other than me on the commission. I trust the residents of Hallandale Beach to see through the lies. I trust law enforcement to investigate and prosecute the criminals.”

“That’s the dark side,” said Ross, who created online and TV counterattack ads against Lima-Taub and Cooper with paid-for disclaimers from his Good Government PAC. “People can hide more easily on texts. In the cases of fraud, we need prosecutors to subpoena records and track the digital trail, but often law enforcement views these acts as political shenanigans that are not hurting anybody.”

LEGAL LOOPHOLES

The texting flood has grown as campaigns exploit a loophole in the Telephone Consumer Protection Act that was designed to control robocalls. Peer-to-peer texting allows a sender to send messages to recipients without their consent if they are sent one at a time. New tech companies with apps like Hustle, GetThru, RumbleUp and Opn Sesame have sprung up to generate millions of texts. Less laborious mass texting is allowed if recipients gave permission to be texted. Voters can usually stop receiving them by replying “stop” or “unsubscribe.”

“I identify 5,000 voters I want to reach legally through peer-to-peer texting,” Ross said. “I’d get carpal tunnel syndrome hitting send 5,000 times so I hire a vendor and pay a few cents per text for him to do the clicks. While robocalls were big 10-15 years ago, owning a landline is now like owning a typewriter. Texting is the booming industry. Campaigns are spending tens of millions of dollars on this platform.”

What does the future hold?

Ross predicts a trend toward expanded virtual communication for politicians. Campaign trails shrink when voters can tune in to town halls and rallies from home via Zoom. In-person hand-shaking and baby-kissing won’t disappear but candidates and constituents alike have learned during the pandemic how to reach people remotely.

“A local candidate could host Kamala Harris or Pete Buttigieg on the call because they don’t have to fly to Miami,” he said. “We’ve already seen higher citizen participation in city commission meetings on Zoom. Convenience and accessibility. Virtual platforms will increase engagement opportunities exponentially.”

Munger envisions a rise in campaign alliances with popular influencers.

“Influencer marketing has not yet fully penetrated the political scene,” he said. “That’s where all advertising is going these days. Eventually it will make texting seem as old-fashioned as calling people on their home phone.”

Miami Herald Staff Writer Nicholas Nehamas contributed to this report.

So in case you forgot who was on whose side in February of 2018, I'll remind you what I wrote at the time, and leave it to you to figure out now who regrets what they said and did, and who doesn't after things shook out the way they did.

Not that you would know this from any of the news articles or TV stories that have been written about the antics at Hallandale beach City Hall the past few years, but there are STILL lots of very negative reverberations still playing out in the city as a direct result of the embarrassing Rich Dally appointment/miscalculation.

Now I'm going to repeat some important points that I originally made two weeks ago in my blog post of October 12th, since there's no way of making them any more clearly.

If public honesty about who they are and they've done professionally in a job situation is the very least that we can expect from people who offer themselves up as prospective lected officials -and it is, the very least- what can be said about Vaping lobbyist Cynthia Cabrera, who claims publicly to be a longtime HB resident, but who, unlike Maggie, has been largely invisible and unconcerned when VERY BAD things were ROUTINELY happening in Hallandale Beach the past ten years. 

Where was she?

That Cabrera is neither as personally experienced or as well-informed as Maggie about the specific issues that have plagued and dominated what's happened at Hallandale Beach City Hall and the city more broadly for years is clear, since when Maggie attended meetings, EVERY Commissioner and staffer from the City Manager's office knew exactly who she was, and noticed her the moment she walked into the Commission Chambers.

THAT reaction is what happens when you have personally been actively engaged in improving the climate there, just as I have been, and show up ALL THE TIME, open your mouth and push back hard against self-evident bad ideas and unethical behavior.

Cynthia Cabrera has claimed on her website and to the news media and to Hallandale Beach voters to be a longtime Hallandale Beach resident, but the truth of the matter is that you can't find anyone in town who can honestly say that Cabrera has been even one-tenth as involved, reliable, or as public in her concerns as Maggie has been FOR YEARS in defending and articulating the best interests of the average HB resident and Small Business owner at HB City Hall.

The reason that nobody can say that Carbrera was even one-tenth as involved publicly is the simplest reason of all -Cabrera was invisible.

What kind of qualification for elective office is Cabrera's longtime apathy? 

Cabrera's innumerable campaign signs around Hallandale Beach can't make up for that harsh reality. When she lived here, she was a no-show.

Again, for all of Cynthia Cabrera's talk of being a longtime HB resident, HER very own LinkedIn profile lists her as having lived and worked in the Washington, D.C. area for at least three years from 2013-2016. 

You don't have to take my word, see for yourself:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/cynthiacabrera/

Exactly!

Does she think we'd just take her word for it?

To make matters worse, Cynthia Cabrera does herself no favors by being so free in accepting large campaign dollars from real estate developers, as her campaign disclosures make quite clear.

Given Hallandale Beach's unique location and demographics within Broward County, real estate developers will always be viewed here somewhat more skeptically by many residents than they are elsewhere.

People who quite naturally want to protect their personal investment and Quality of Life.

So that said, it makes you wonder why nobody in the local South Florida news media, especially the South Florida Sun Sentinel, ever bothered to ask these hard questions about Cabrera.

Or, to ask her the most obvious question of all: Why was she SO invisible on matters of important local concern when she ACTUALLY was living here daily?

When you review the facts as they are, not as Cabrera would have you believe they are, you don't need me to tell you that you deserve a whole lot better quialified person represnting you on the HB City Commission than a disinterested woman like Cynthia Cabrera. 

My friend Maggie is in this race to win it, and then do the hard work that comes next.

Like us, Maggie is fully committed to reforming the city and bringing it kicking and screaming into the 21st Century when it comes to increasing the level of public scrutiny, public oversight, and civic engagement, and ensuring that a meaningful degree of financial accountability is always present.

In short, injecting the proper amount of common sense and skepticism to absurd proposals and bad public policy ideas that should never be approved.

In Hallandale Beach, DON'T reward people who have not earned your trust and your faith like Anabelle Lima-Taub and Cynthia Cabrera, reward someone who was there speaking out for your and your neighbors best interests for YEARS:

Maggie Ivanovski.

 

Do what's best for you and your family and the community at large, and reward Maggie's many years of very hard work and civic engagement over so many years to make Hallandale Beach better for both its residents and Small Business owners, and NOT people who have never been there for you, your family and neighborhood in Hallandale Beach.

To me, as someone who actually was at all of those meetings for years and speaking out for you as well, Maggie is more than deserving of your highest endorsement in this race: your VOTE to make Hallandale Beach's government better, more efficient, and more accountable to the people who live there.

Above: My friend Maggie Ivanovski, the Seat 3 candidate with the MOST experience in battling the bad ideas and impractical ordinances that have been coming out of Hallandale Beach City Hall like clockwork for the past 15 years. 

The city will positively change for the better the moment she and her genuine

EXPERIENCE are representing you and reforming it from the inside, and making the City Commission much more relevant and accountable. 

But Maggie needs YOUR vote in order to make that a reality!

Even now Maggie can use your help, so if you are interested, please contact her today via her cell phone number, (954) 646-2573, or via her campaign email:

m.ivanovski2020@hotmail.com

Updated on October 26th, 2020 at 4:15 p.m. 

Since I posted this blog post earlier today, we've publicly heard from one of the Usual Suspects of Hallandale Beach government and public policy, and one of the persons cited in the Linda Robertson article, Democratic lobbyist Evan Ross, the guy who for YEARS has tried to personally insinuate himself -worm his way- into HB issues.

As it happens, he's also the same irritating guy who for many years has held court by sitting in the last row of the HB Commission Chambers near the back door, often sitting in the seats (w/electrical outlets) RESERVED for city staff, and of key importance here, a longtime friend and confidante AND campaign fundraiser for Comm. Michele Lazarow.

In short, not an objective source for any kind of information about the city and its citizens and their desires for elected officials who keep people like him at arms-length.

Surprise! He's also one of the Lazarow-affiliated persons trying to foist political cipher and Vaping lobbyist Cynthia Cabrera onto the City Commission, Seat 3.

I include that back-and-forth on Twitter here now for your amusement and education.

Ross' contemptible sense of entitlement and contempt for voters is readily apparent, no?

"It’s a two person race. The only candidates with any chance of winning are Lima-Taub and Cabrera. Encouraging people to vote for anyone other than Cabrera just helps give the bigot on the commission four more years to embarrass Hallandale Beach."

You know, it's almost as if Evan Ross thinks that he gets more say so than you do in deciding who gets to sit in the HB City Commission seats on the dais.

In case you can't quite make this text out, it reads:

Me: #HallandaleBeach's sleazy pol. campaigns seem to have fingerprints of melodramatic Lima-Taub or Police Unions or both. Surprise!

DON'T reward ppl who've NOT earned yr trust like Lima-Taub + Cabrera. Vote for a better HB via #MaggieIvanovski. https://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2020/10/hallandale-beachs-sleazy-unethical.html…

@MaggieforHB

Evan Ross: It’s a two person race. The only candidates with any chance of winning are Lima-Taub and Cabrera. Encouraging people to vote for anyone other than Cabrera just helps give the bigot on the commission four more years to embarrass Hallandale Beach.

Me: #FactsMatter: Lima-Taub has alienated most of the ppl who gave a cipher like her the benefit of the doubt in 2016 bec of HER own personal melodrama. Activists know

@MaggieforHB

has REAL EXPERIENCE: 10x's institutional knowledge of HB's issues/history as longtime no-show

😴

Cabrera.

And speaking of running anonymous and defamatory attack blogs, as Linda Robertson does in her article, Evan Ross has some experience in that department, too. Hmmm...

Cowardly Lobbyist Evan Ross gets smacked down at the Eleventh Judicial Circuit
BY STEPHANIE KIENZLE  

MARCH 11, 2019

https://www.votersopinion.com/2019/03/11/cowardly-lobbyist-evan-ross-gets-smacked-down-at-the-eleventh-judicial-circuit/#comments

Dave

Hallandale Beach/Hollywood Blog: http://www.hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/ 

Twitter: @hbbtruth, https://twitter.com/hbbtruth/with_replies

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hbbtruth/ 

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/david-bruce-smith-b945b376/

Travel Massive: https://travelmassive.com/dbsmith

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/user/HallandaleBeachBlog 

Why I'm for Maggie Ivanovski - and you should be too if you care about #HallandaleBeach residents having the much-better run city govt. they've long deserved: her YEARS of experience pushing back vs. HB City Hall's bad ideas, inadequate oversight

Above: My friend Maggie Ivanovski, the Seat 3 candidate with the MOST experience in battling the bad ideas and impractical ordinances that have been coming out of Hallandale Beach City Hall like clockwork for the past 15 years. The city will positively change for the better the moment she and her genuine EXPERIENCE are representing you and reforming it from the inside, and making the City Commission much more relevant and accountable. 

But Maggie needs YOUR vote in order to make that a reality!

Monday October 12th, 2020

I'm very happy to be writing to you today to share some positive developments in our slice of the world in SE Broward, and let you know that I'm endorsing a candidate in the Hallandale Beach City Commission election on November 3rd.

A very savvy, energetic, and hard-working friend of both mine and my friend and fellow civic activist, Csaba Kulin's, Maggie Ivanovski, is a woman who has been part of the group of the hardcore pro-reform, pro-financial accountability civic activists we all know, and have worked very closely with in Hallandale Beach for well over ten years to reform Hallandale Beach.

She decided a few months ago to finally take the plunge and run for Seat #3 of the Hallandale Beach City Commission, after having previously considered running for City Commission twice over the years, but ultimately decided that she couldn't due to family and career demands.

Maggie is in this race to win it, and then do the hard work that comes next.

Despite not running previously, Maggie has been a CONSTANT public presence at nearly every HB City Commission, CRA, and HB Quadrant meeting of the past 15 years, as well as at innumerable neighborhood meetings around town of very frustrated HB residents that Csaba and I attended. Sometimes, they were even meetings that he and I organized for the sole purpose of countering proposals/ordinances at HB City Hall that we all believed were contrary or even dangerous to HB residents' best long-term interests on a whole host of issues.

Whether at small intimate meetings of 6-10 people at homes in Golden Isles, or at condo or hotel meeting rooms that drew several dozens of interested people, while most people were content to just sit and listen to others, Maggie was in the moment and asked hard questions and made effective points.

Then as now, Maggie is a go-getter who will not sit on the sidelines when the future of Hallandale Beach and its Quality of Life is being discussed, and that's precisely the sort of person you need on the HB City Commission right now - to hit the ground running!

In that respect, Maggie has been one of the few savvy, well-informed, and independent-minded voices for genuine reform, public transparency, and financial accountability that Csaba and I and others could absolutely count on to be present in the Commission Chambers or anywhere else in the city to push back.

When it was time to speak intelligently and calmly when the HB City Commission or CRA were yet again trying to mislead the public or otherwise engage in historical revisionism or a coverup, as has, unfortunately, so often been the M.O. in HB over the years, Maggie was there to be counted on, and would and did push back against the ridiculous ideas and ordinances that have come regularly like clockwork at City Hall over the past 15 years.

Unlike most HB residents who, typically, only speak publicly at meetings when a matter directly affects their own neighborhood, as is also true in Hollywood, Maggie has been notable for not being afraid of speaking publicly for OTHER HB neighborhoods, and doing so with a stronger knowledge of the facts and the possible consequences of a bad decision than most of the people seated up on the dais with a vote. Yet another reason why you should be voting for her NOW. 

Most people in Hallandale Beach who know Maggie outside of her job as a very successful Broward realtor, or from seeing her in the Golden Isles Drive neighborhood she's lived in for nearly 25 years -she's also been the President of the Golden Horn Condo for the past 10 years, with no increases in condo maintenance fees that whole period!- know her as a hard-working HB/Broward civic activist.

An activist that was NOT afraid to call out HB Commissioners and staff to account for their continual failure to not only accomplish various goals or priorities on-time or on-budget, but in particular, for calling them out publicly for their failure to properly and fully engage the residents, Small Business owners, and stakeholders of the community.

As you and I both know, the HB City Commission under its leadership of the past 20 years has often preferred to do as much as possible under-the-radar, regardless of what the state's Sunshine Rules say about that kind of behavior. 

Behavior which hasn't gone unnoticed by the office of the Broward Inspector General, in part, sometimes, due to my own fact-filled letters to them connecting-the-dots.

As Csaba and I could both tell you, Maggie's inability to run previously was definitely Hallandale Beach's loss, because I can assure you that if she was already on the HB City Commission, most if not all of the completely unnecessary melodrama, finger-pointing, and public embarrassment that has been associated with the HB City Hall the past four years would not have been allowed to reach the current tipping point -where HB residents feel personally upset by who represents them on the City Commission.

And that definitely includes controversial Seat 3 incumbent, Anabelle Taub-Lima.

 

That is to say, where the Commission's incivility and penchant for talking about pet issues or projects and go on and on about them instead of sticking to the agenda, has consistently generated negative newspaper headlines and TV newscasts for the city's residents, doing done nothing for their dwindling faith that people at City Hall really WERE trying their best. 

At a certain point, you can no longer ignore the overwhelming evidence that's looking you in the face, can you?

As I've previously written in numerous emails that you have received and from scores of blog posts that tens of thousands of other people read on my popular blog, since I returned to South Florida in late 2003 to care for my dad and step-mother, after living and working in Washington, D.C. for the previous 15 years, it's long been the case that the editors at the Sun-Sentinel and Herald, as well as the assignment editors at the four English-language Miami TV stations, ONLY do stories on HB when it involves crime or something happening at HB City Hall that has nothing at all to do with Good Government or the proper functioning of democracy.

A fact that I know better than almost everyone, since I've then written about it with much more context in fact-filled emails, blogged about it on my blog, and then tweeted about it on my popular Twitter feed, so that lots of influential people down here in South Florida and in Tallahassee can see what's going on, too.

Maggie is the only person I know in HB who comes even close to Csaba's level of dedication to making sure that the average HB resident and Small Business owner is properly heard,  and not taken advantage of or misled by the City Commission and its often-belligerent and headstrong city staff.

Like us, Maggie is fully committed to reforming the city and bringing it kicking and screaming into the 21st Century when it comes to increasing the level of public scrutiny, public oversight, and civic engagement, and ensuring that a meaningful degree of financial accountability is always present.

In short, injecting the proper amount of common sense and skepticism to absurd proposals and bad public policy ideas that should never be approved.

While Maggie is very friendly and engaging, she also is very much a modern, professional woman. In her case, a very successful realtor, and in the recent past, even a member of the South Broward Realtors group that weighs in on political endorsements.

Maggie understands from all the craziness and finger-pointing at HB City Hall that she's been a first-hand observer of for so many years that her job as a Commissioner is NOT to be best friends with the city staff, nor is it to make ponderous and long-winded speeches about some pet issues that have nothing at all to do with the city's proper operation.

Rather, a big part of her job is to make sure that the City Manager and the staff provide the City Commission with the most accurate and recent information they need -when they need it- to make the best possible decisions on behalf of the people she represents.

People who have consciously chosen to make HB their home or locate their business there, and who deserve so much better representation than they have received the past 15 years.

Everyone who has spent any time at HB City Hall knows that's true, given how opining out loud about pet issues and non-germane subjects far from the city have increasingly come to dominate the talk on the dais, as well as be one of the things that has resulted in the city garnering so many bad headlines.

Because Maggie has been a constant presence for so long at HB City Hall, she has a very good institutional knowledge of the many issues, problems, people, questionable ethics, and wasted opportunities that have come before, a knowledge that NONE of the other candidates in her race has.

Frankly, Maggie has forgotten more about what has happened there than what the rest of them know, collectively.

Maggie knows, like Csaba and I do, who voted for what in the past, and also knows who the people are who've continually thought nothing of coming to HB City Hall to speak on behalf of their clients and then proceed to lie, exaggerate, and embellish, yet never suffer any negative consequences for this false representation, to the public's chagrin.

Csaba and I both know very well that Maggie's can-do attitude and professional demeanor was and is desperately needed right now at Hallandale Beach City Hall to prevent even more embarrassing episodes starring HB elected officials and bureaucrats. 

We firmly believe that it will only be when people like Maggie are actually ON the HB City Commission that things in the city will change for the better -and stay that way! 

People like Maggie who are hard-working and conscientious enough to be properly prepared for all public meetings, and have actually done ALL the reading before the meeting starts, instead of simply showing up and winging-it and then deferring to everything the staff recommends, as has more often been the case, as so many of my past blog posts have described in detail.

Unlike the other candidates in the race, Maggie will DO the required reading AND the heavy lifting and WILL be prepared to ask hard questions of not just the city staff, but also the attorneys and the members of the development teams coming before the city who want variances and favors and, often, financial inducements to do the right thing they should should already be willing to do.

It's also why I've been busy using my extensive national, state and South Florida campaign experience to help Maggie out.

I want THE best-qualified person in this race to actually get elected, and actually make the positive changes the city needs to be the sort of place it should already have been many years ago.

I'm helping Maggie because I do not want her to come in a close second or third to a woman like Cynthia Cabrera, who claims to be a longtime HB resident, but who, unlike Maggie, has been largely invisible and unconcerned when bad things were happening in Hallandale Beach. 

What kind of qualification is Cabrera's longtime apathy? 

That Cabrera is neither as personally experienced or as well-informed as Maggie about the specific issues that have plagued and dominated what's happened at Hallandale Beach City Hall for years is clear, since when Maggie attended meetings, every Commissioner and staffer from the City Manager's office knew exactly who she was the moment she walked into the room.

That's what happens when you show up, open your mouth and push back hard against bad ideas and unethical behavior.

Cynthia Cabrera claims to be a longtime Hallandale Beach resident, but the truth is that you can't find anyone in town who recalls her being even one-tenth as involved, reliable, or as public as Maggie has been FOR YEARS in defending and articulating the best interests of the average HB resident and Small Business owner at HB City Hall.

You can't for the simple reason that Cabrera was invisible.

Cabrera's innumerable campaign signs can't make up for that harsh reality.

For all of Cabrera's talk of being a longtime HB resident, her very own LinkedIn profile lists her as having lived and worked in the Washington, D.C. area for at least three years from 2013-2016. You don't have to take my word, see for yourself:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/cynthiacabrera/

Exactly!

To make matters worse, Cabrera does herself no favors by being so free in accepting large campaign dollars from real estate developers, as her campaign disclosures make quite clear.

Given Hallandale Beach's unique location and demographics, real estate developers will always be viewed somewhat skeptically by many residents, who want to protect their investment and Quality of Life, so it makes you wonder why nobody in the local South Florida news media, especially the South Florida Sun Sentinel, ever bothered to ask these hard questions about Cabrera, or ask her the most obvious question of all: Why was she SO invisible on matters of local concern to people like you?

You don't need me to tell you that you deserve a whole lot better on the HB City Commission than a disinterested woman like Cynthia Cabrera. 

Maggie is in this race to win it, and then do the hard work that comes next.

Please let me know that you are willing to reward Maggie's many years of very hard work and civic engagement over so many years to make Hallandale Beach better for both its residents and Small Business owners, and not reward people who have never been there for you, your family and neighborhood in Hallandale Beach.

Maggie is more than deserving of your highest endorsement in this race, she is deserving of your VOTE to make Hallandale Beach's government better, more efficient, and more accountable to the people who live there.

Even now Maggie can use your help, so if you are interested, please contact her today via her cell phone number, (954) 646-2573, or via her campaign email:

m.ivanovski2020@hotmail.com

Dave

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