Csaba Kulin gets the Miami Herald's whitewash treatment: McClatchy's Co.'s Herald practices the opposite of giving credit where credit is due, editing out the name of the one person in South Florida most-responsible for finding out why and how 3 former Hallandale Beach City Managers will soon be multi-millionaires with taxpayer dollars; a story that Miami Herald reporters, editors and management have completely ignored for years!

Where did all the taxpayer money go? Good question! Csaba Kulin knows some of the answers. Imagine if we had City Commissioners here like him and Michele Lazarow who'd actually take their oversight  responsibilities for taxpayers seriously, and ask probing questions instead of just sitting on the dais and playing the role of rubber stamps for the mayor. Hmmm... October 24, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier. © 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved.

Csaba Kulin gets the Miami Herald's whitewash treatment: McClatchy's Co.'s Herald practices the opposite of giving credit where credit is due, editing out the name of the one person in South Florida most-responsible for finding out why and how 3 former Hallandale Beach City Managers will soon be multi-millionaires with taxpayer dollars; a story that Miami Herald reporters, editors and management have completely ignored for years!

It's a damn shame that the Miami Herald's editors have once again shown their infamous tin ear for Broward County news, their terra incognita,.

In this case, by editing-out the name from their version of this past week's latest embarrassing story about Hallandale Beach in the Broward Bulldog, written by Bill Gjebre, of the one person in South Florida most-responsible for finding out why and how 3 former Hallandale Beach City Managers and other highly-paid officials will soon be multi-millionaires with taxpayer dollars.

In doing so, they do a serious dis-service to someone whose diligent unpaid hard work for two years first turned-up evidence of financial self-service by Hallandale Beach's three most-recent City Managers, ripping-off Hallandale Beach taxpayers while producing sub-standard results that we can all see around us in this small ocean-side city, HB civic activist and City Commission candidate, Csaba Kulin.

Pension plan pays off big for ex-Hallandale Beach city managers  

Hallandale Beach’s former top managers collect fat pensions from a retirement plan they pushed a decade ago

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/10/23/v-fullstory/3063859/pension-plan-pays-off-big-for.html  

(FYI: The above story will disappear from Herald website in a few days, unlike Broward Bulldog's website.)

Seriously, folks, whom exactly did you think gave the reams and reams of information with copious notes to the Bulldog's Bill Gjebre in the first place, to get him fully-acquainted with all the pertinent facts and figures, Joy Cooper, the notoriously thin-skinned and ethically-challenged longtime autocrat of a mayor, under whose "leadership" the city's budget has nearly doubled the past 6-8 years, with hardly anything tangible for put-upon citizen taxpayers to point to except a Wastewater Treatment facility? 

Hardly!

And it's certainly not former HB City Manager R.J. Intindola, one of the central parties under-the microscope in the article.

As I've mentioned here previously, Intindola is the smug and poison pen online blogger who lives in Georgia, far from what's actually going on here, but who acts like he's a real player in what happens here. 

He not only isn't, of course, but his name now provokes laughs in people who know that he's been spinning a spiffy PR story about himself for many, many years that is now finally getting the genuine scrutiny it deserved many years ago, and best of all, using the city's own documents.

As we say in France, touché monsieur!

Hallandale’s ex-top managers collect fat pensions from retirement plan they pushed a decade ago

By William Gjebre, BrowardBulldog.org

October 22, 2012 at 6:23 AM

http://www.browardbulldog.org/2012/10/hallandales-top-managers-collect-fat-pensions-from-retirement-plan-they-pushed-a-decade-ago/

Some of you regular readers of the blog may recall this story from five months ago, in my blog post of May 19th:

Csaba Kulin exposes the multi-million dollar bill to be borne by Hallandale Beach taxpayers for having a disconnected City Commission that was -and is- NOT interested in paying close attention to detail or in asking tough questions. That's how and why former City Managers Intindola and Good have made out like bank robbers

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/csaba-kulin-exposes-multi-million.html

Which was followed-up by a large email and subsequent blog post here on Tuesday:

Thanks to Csaba Kulin's many months of diligently digging thru city records to find the truth -only some of which city had- we now know what the real cost to Hallandale Beach taxpayers has been for having an inattentive City Commission for so many years: Millions and millions of dollars for Intindola, Good & Antonio's pensions!

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/10/as-predicted-here-months-ago-thanks-to.html

And here's the real kicker -Csaba Kulin already has the proof of the city's embarrassing "smoking gun" that kicks this story up several notches from what's written here. 

The sort that, IF Broward County had a solid and dependable local prosecutor, leads to real investigations, real grand juries and real legal consequences.

A fact that the Miami Herald seems determined to find out about -after-the-fact.

And I happen to know it, too, thanks to months of listening to Csaba connect-the-dots.

Not that the Herald's beat reporter for Hallandale Beach, Carli Teproff, ever thought to look into any of this, even though I've sent her some of the information that positively connects-the-dots, months ago, just as I sent it to the Sun-Sentinel's Tonya Alanez.

Nope, they just couldn't be bothered.

And neither could anyone else in South Florida's deservedly-maligned press corps -except Bill Gjebre of the online Broward Bulldog.

Why?

You'd have to ask Teproff and Alanez for that answer, but I have my own suspicions.

No, seriously, why don't you ask them why they weren't interested in a news story involving a city they covered that involved millions of dollars?

If I was their editor, you can be damn sure I'd be asking, but then I wouldn't work for either news paper, now would I?

Nope.

One, the Sun-Sentinel, with a pay-wall that is suffocating the newspaper and making it even more irrelevant, and the other, the Herald that plans on erecting one soon that will only hasten its likely demise. 
Not that their reflexive geographical myopia helps them any! 

(But lure existing and new customers and eyeballs to pay for what new and original content? Ah, there's the rub! What do they have to offer people dis-satisfied with the current product, more of what they dislike?)

Csaba has done what the smartest prosecutors presenting a case before a jury do -letting people hang themselves with their own words.

In this case, Csaba not only has used their own words to help paint a story, but has also used the documents these folks created, the city's own documents, to show what has been going on for years below-the-surface of Mayor Joy Cooper's economic facade on S. Federal Highway.

A city which, if you didn't already know, has a rapidly declining Reserve fund because of its continual use to balance the city's books on everyday expenses, as well as Cooper's craven crony capitalism, an economic theory that treats the city's CRA funds like an ATM for her friends and supporters.

Especially for her loyal supporters in Northwest Hallandale Beach, where do-nothing Comm. Anthony A. Sanders happily plays the role of bank teller with citizen's tax dollars or CRA funds that are supposed to end blight.

Except Sanders acts like it's his money, not ours, and he wants to be thanked for it at the ballot box in ten days. 
No, I won't be thanking you for squandering money and refusing to face HB concerned citizens in person for over three years.
Sanders & Co. needs to get the heave-ho but quick come Election Day...

Csaba penned some words on Thursday that I have included below that spell it out pretty well for all to see and chew-on, especially the very bitter supporters of Cooper, as well as longtime Commissioners Bill Julian, Dotty Ross and Sanders.

This claque of aggressively loud-mouthed and high-strung supporters, whom, as you might imagine, don't much want to let the real facts and bad judgment of their heroes interfere with their preferred alternative-version of reality, where Cooper, Julian, Ross and Sanders are just super, just like the state of the city, and it's people like myself, Csaba, Mike Butler, Keith London and others interested in reform and transparency who are keeping the city down.

Yes, the Cooper Rubber Stamp Crew's collection of sycophants, oddballs and ne'er do-wells, with their grand sense of entitlement, who, in order to prove their worth to their heroes, almost routinely engage in the most juvenile and almost laughable stunts imaginable, of which stealing others' campaign signs is but, I suppose, the most basic of initiations.

For a few of them who are just barely tethered to reality, though, that also includes making phony phone calls to the Police Dept. in order to try to embarrass and frame people they hate.

(I'll get to that in a few days.)

That so many elected officials who have so very much to be publicly held accountable for, as well as their flunkies, drive around town and act above the law, would be laughable if it weren't so damn objectionable and obvious.

I described it here in detail as recently as Wednesday, and I suggest you go back to that post if you don't get the full picture of what things are like.

And now, finally, here's Csaba Kulin with the latest news on this pension matter: 

I have researched Management Pension Plan for two years. I have all the documents made available to me by the city. I did not find anywhere the City Commission-approved the prior year of service before the pension plan actually started.

The plan started in 2001 and R J Intindola should be receiving 13 months plus 4 years of time purchased. That is a bit over 5 years, not almost 25 years. R J Intindola should receive his 401K retirement, which is a lot less generous, prior to 2001 years of service.

I have been looking for two years for the authorization to give credit for “back service” years.
I was not able to find it for one reason. There is none.

The City Commission approved the plan but NOT the “prior service years”. I have no proof YET but I suspect it was approved, without City Commission’s OK, by the then City Manager R J Intindola. As far as know, R J Intindola was the first beneficiary of his decision.

This is not the end of the story. Will Hallandale Beach try to “claw back” and stop paying out ill-gotten pension payments? Will the Broward Inspector General look at the issue? Will the Hallandale Beach City Commission just say “let us forget about the past and concentrate on the mistakes we will make in the future” or we are going to get to the bottom of this. I will tell you after November 6, 2012
Here is the “smoking gun” from the current City Manager.

Hello Mr. Kulin,

I apologize for the delayed response but I wanted to be 100% sure that this information as correct. The city does not have an item that speaks directly to the credit of back time. I have attached for you all the documentation associated with formal actions adopting the management pension plan for your review.

Renee C. Crichton
City Manager
City of Hallandale Beach

-----

So I ask you, in a City Manager-style form of government like Hallandale Beach has had, who do you suppose made that crucial and expensive decision years ago regarding back time?

Teaser Alert -it wasn't the cute blonde beach lifeguard from Ft. Wayne.

Think much, much higher on the food chain.

Yes, just more reasons to vote for Keith London for mayor and Csaba Kulin and Michele Lazarow for city commission instead of the faces of unethical behavior and inadequate oversight and financial accountability, who desperately want to be on the dais a month from now -Cooper, Sanders and Julian.

http://kulin2012.com/

http://michelelazarow.com/

http://keithlondon.com/

Thanks to Csaba Kulin's many months of diligently digging thru city records to find the truth -only some of which city had- we now know what the real cost to Hallandale Beach taxpayers has been for having an inattentive City Commission for so many years: Millions and millions of dollars for Intindola, Good & Antonio's pensions!

Above, City of Hallandale Beach City Hall: where genuine accountability and financial oversight have been missing for so many years, which is why there is so little tangible improvement to show taxpayers in a city whose budget has nearly doubled the past 6-8 years. October 15, 2012. © 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

As predicted here months ago, thanks to Csaba Kulin's many months of diligently digging thru city records to find the truth -only some of which city had- we now know what the real cost to Hallandale Beach taxpayers has been for having an inattentive City Commission for so many years: Millions and millions of dollars for Intindola, Good & Antonio's pensions!

Broward Bulldog

Hallandale’s ex-top managers collect fat pensions from retirement plan they pushed a decade ago

By Bill Gjebre

October 20, 2012

A short-lived, perk-laden retirement plan has paid off big for some top Hallandale Beach officials who helped set it up a decade ago – but today it’s costing city taxpayers extra millions of dollars.

Read the rest of the article at:

http://www.browardbulldog.org/2012/10/hallandales-top-managers-collect-fat-pensions-from-retirement-plan-they-pushed-a-decade-ago/

And who's running for office here in two weeks who voted to approve this financial debacle?

Yes, William "Bill" Julian, shown below on his large campaign signs on the properties of some of Julian's strongest financial campaign supporters, all real estate developers.
I think you may've heard of them!

First, a sign on the parcel owned by real estate developer Richard Shan of Shanco. This is looking north/northwest off of Old Dixie Highway between S.E. 7th and 8th Streets, across the street from the city's largest park, Bluesten Park, about three blocks south of Hallandale Beach City Hall, and two long blocks west of The Village of Gulfstream Park retail complex
on U.S.-1/S. Federal Highway.

    

Second, the Raanan Katz family behind Sunny Isles-based commercial real estate developers R.K. Centers, at multiple locations on their huge retail complexes on both sides of Hallandale Beach Blvd. east of NE 14th Avenue. 
They have lots of Julian signs all over the place.

In this example, a sign as you look north near the Layne Blvd. entrance on the north property, off of Hallandale Beach Blvd., home of Winn Dixie, Boston Market, Panera Bread, Big Lots, Starbucks, Las Vegas Cuban restaurant, et al. 
That's The Duo condo towers in the background, on the south side of the Diplomat Golf Course and Resort.

Please be sure to read my May 19th, 2012 blog post on this subject full of more specific financial numbers and context on the topic of the inattentive Joy Cooper Rubber Stamp Crew and their willful ignorance of the looming pension disaster on the horizon:

Csaba Kulin exposes the multi-million dollar bill to be borne by Hallandale Beach taxpayers for having a disconnected City Commission that was -and is- NOT interested in paying close attention to detail or in asking tough questions. 

That's how and why former City Managers Intindola and Good have made out like bank robbers

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/csaba-kulin-exposes-multi-million.html

Yes, more reasons to vote for Csaba for City Commission two weeks from today...
http://kulin2012.com/

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fairness? Please!

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

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

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

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

Back to Sanders... 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

You can see the answer below for yourself:

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

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

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

August 21, 2012

Dear Ms. Schanz: 

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

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

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

-----
From: Schanz, Cathie 

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

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

Cathie Schanz, CPRE

Hallandale Beach Parks and Recreation Director

-----

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Just saying...

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

I recently wrote some friends in the area...

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

So what's Lewy's goal? 

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

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

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

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

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

In a word - NO.

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

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

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

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

In fact, it's probably likely.

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

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

We beg to differ.

    

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

Nine weeks from today...

----------

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

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

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

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

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

re Lifeguard & public safety situation in Hallandale Beach: Still smarting from negative worldwide publicity following lifeguard Tomas Lopez's firing, Hallandale Beach to start a new safety effort at beach based on... well, what exactly? City's fake solutions as outlined in today's agenda DON'T solve real safety problems at public beach; #HallandaleBeach

 

July 31, 2012 photos by South Beach Hoosier.© 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

re Lifeguard situation in Hallandale Beach: Still smarting from negative worldwide publicity following lifeguard Tomas Lopez's firing, Hallandale Beach to start a new safety effort at beach based on... well, what exactly? City's fake solutions as outlined in today's agenda DON'T solve real safety problems at public beach

I really can’t believe that on a day when I have a friend from overseas visiting the area, and when I ought to be doing something other than this, I’m back at my computer writing -yet again- about another completely avoidable situation the City of Hallandale Beach has gotten itself into for all of their usual reasons -lack of attention to detail, and lack of proper accountability by the city's elected officials and oversight of the city's top bureaucrats.

Today's important HB City Commission meetings at 1 and 7 p.m. regarding public safety on the city's public beaches, and the unsatisfactory solutions proposed, i.e the In-House Lifeguard Program (Item 11B)

http://www.hallandalebeachfl.gov/files/2012-08-01/Staff%20Reports/00010275.htm

could best be described thusly: the city's so-called "plan" is no plan at all.

At least not one you would want to bet your family's life on.

July 31, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier.© 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

What you see on the agenda in terms of info is very underwhelming and not a good sign of out-of-the-box thinking by new City Manager Renee Crichton.

Especially since in my opinion, the City Commission, and more specifically, the prior two City Managers and City Attorney bear most of the blame for the current situation because they were NOT payng attention to details when they needed to, but were, instead, just going thru the motions.

Originally, before I saw the posted agenda, I was just going to suggest that the commission members limit their comments during the meeting out of deference to to our new Estonian friend Mr. Samartsev’s recent desire to “shake the money tree” hereabouts in six months. 

But in actually reading the agenda, I noticed that they are, regrettably, once again prepared to rush into a dark tunnel without any knowledge of whether or not a a train is already inside the tunnel and coming right towards them, without any tangible plans, budgets or supporting documents, just a desire to DO something.

And to DO that right away. 

The very thought of that gives me shivers down my spine, and ought to do the same for you if you live anywhere around here.

Generally when you outsource a function that's usually been performed by city employees, it does NOT mean that you sign the contract and forget about it until the next time the contract comes up for renewal. 

The City Manager, along with appropriately-designated subordinates, needs to be on top of the outsourced function for signs of problems as well as to make constructive improvements when indicated.

You don't micro-manage the function, per se, but the city must ensure that the contract's terms are being properly adhered to, whether that's all their employees being properly licensed, or doing regular spot inspections to ensure that the work was performed to the specific standards the citizens of this city have a right to expect, considering they're paying for their own safety.

But even all these weeks later, I'm still hearing from various sources that this is NOT at all how things were done routinely under former City Attorney David Jove or the former City Managers, Mike Good and Mark A. Antonio, because there's so little evidence to the contrary.

And then again, there's the personal experience of actually having seeing them in-person for years and seeing with my own eyes how underwhelming their own performances were for city taxpayers and residents, so strong was their desire to keep the mayor happy.

July 31, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier.© 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

And what about their highly-paid assistants?

The very people whom we all know will have had a large hand in crafting this completely unsatisfactory "plan" being offered up today, as if it was a serious effort.

My own belief is that at the time the contract was signed three years ago, the city didn't have all the pertinent information available that the Commission needed to properly evaluate the relative merits of this company, keeping in mind that they were only going to do or allow what the commission specified, nothing more.

This also makes me wonder now if besides a copy of the contract in a folder, whether the commissioners even have carefully reviewed copies of the actual monthly reports for the past three years.

Have they? 

No, their past performance the past few years does NOT exactly recommend them to us, and cause us to give them the benefit of the doubt.

In fact, their own laughable work ethic and lack of attention to detail causes just the opposite reaction in us and our friends.

Did they have a copy of Jeff Ellis and Associates' own updated procedures and work rules, as well as copies of the insurance policies to hold the City harmless, etc? 

The easiest thing in the world to do is to simply blame the concept of outsourcing and the particular company they hired to do the job, as I wrote here recently.

Rather than do that, the commissioners ought to take a hard look into the mirror and ask themselves a few questions, the most important of which was did the city just go thru the motions on these matters?

It sure seems that way to me and most of the other residents I speak to who have some familiarity with this matter.

Because the company resigned, the City Commission is being asked to allow City Manager Crichton to establish an 'In-House Lifeguard Program.' 

I'm sorry to say that the supporting documents I've seen on the city's website consists of what can charitably be called a list of cities with pools or ocean frontage, with no information on the extent of "Lifeguard Program” of other cities with similar needs. 

How many employees, police/fire rescue personnel full time/part time would be required on the beach? 

No information provided as to the budget of each town for beach patrol.

After all these weeks later, that's simply unacceptable, and no sound person would say the information provided is any basis upon which to make an intelligent and reasonable decision.

In fact, the information provided by city staff seems more like a reason to postpone making any FINAL decisions at todays two meetings until the commission had been provided enough information to make that educated and informed decision, which is the very least we can expect on an issue this important.

July 31, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier.© 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

I've heard and read all the same comments on what happened that you all have, on who is at fault, etc., but one thing that is clear is that nobody blames the people hired by Jeff Ellis to patrol the beach.

That is, anyone who actually lives within an hour of here.

They were and are conscientious, efficient and responsible, more than the city had any reason to expect given that they were only being paid less than nine dollars an hour.

Their level of pay didn't prevent them from doing their best and to put the safety of all beach- goers first, whether HB residents or visitors.

Were that current city employees were as conscientious and consistent in the performance of their duties and responsibilities as these lifeguards have been.

In talking to my friend and fellow HB and Broward County activist -and HB City Commission candidate- Csaba Kulin a few days ago on the phone, he later piped in via email with these comments and questions for the commission:

The City Manager should have submitted a budget along with the Resolution as to the cost of her proposal. I know she budgeted $334,000 for the 2012-2013 fiscal years for Lifeguard Services (001-7230-572.34-55).  Is this program cost neutral? 

Does she have any idea of the cost of this venture? 

You do not know and do NOT vote on this until you have a full picture.

If they don't, Csaba and I and many well-informed citizens of this community are in agreement that this will be a replay of what the HB City Commission has agreed to do dozens of times in the past, where inevitably, they'll find out some bit of information too late, after the horse is out of the barn, and then we taxpayers will have to watch in stunned amazement as they try to reinvent the wheel once again, when it doesn't have to be that way.

Some people have even sent emails to me asking why in the name of regionalism and common sense the City of Hallandale Beach doesn't approach the City of Hollywood about using their well-respected lifeguards, at least as an interim solution?

Good question!

July 31, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier.© 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

The numerous high-rise condos south of South Beach Park can't really imagine that after everything that has happened in this city the past month, that the rest of the city is going to pay for lifeguards -salary and pensions- for them, if HB residents can't readily use "their" beach, can they?

That's a complete non-starter!

And yet with Joy Cooper in charge...

I fear today's two meetings could well turn out to be real DISASTERS, both financially and policy-wise, which is to say, SNAFU, since the HB City Commission doesn't make good decisions when they have plenty of time, much less, when they are under the gun for good reason and know full-well that the entire city, region and South Florida press corps are paying close attention.

That isn't helped when they are given inadequate information and poor policy choices by the new City Manager and her staff.

They all need better choices and more time, otherwise, someone's life, maybe even someone we know, could be in danger sometime soon -and unnecessarily so.

July 31, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier.© 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved