Showing posts with label Palms Coalition. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Palms Coalition. Show all posts

Thursday, July 20, 2017

#Ethics - More context, facts and fall-out to consider re Hallandale Beach Comm. Anthony A. Sanders' "misconduct" in office, per Broward Inspector General. Naturally, Sanders being Sanders, he views the public finally learning all the facts about what he has been doing in office as “an assassination on my character.” Surprise!

#Ethics - More context, facts and fall-out to consider re Hallandale Beach Comm. Anthony A. Sanders' "misconduct" in office, per Broward Inspector General. Naturally, Sanders being Sanders, he views the public finally learning all the facts about what he has been doing in office as “an assassination on my character.” Surprise!

What follows below is an updated version of an email that I sent out LAST Wednesday morning before Noon regarding the then-latest breaking news from the office of John W. Scott, the Broward Inspector General, regarding what most well-informed people in this area of South Florida have long considered to be the the longstanding, self-evident unethical behavior and actions of Hallandale Beach Commissioner Anthony A. Sanders.

I sent it out to roughly 175 interested parties ecompassing citizens, journalists, civic groups and state legislators throughout Broward County, South Florida and the Sunshine State.
That is to say, sent it to selected email inboxes of well-informed people thoroughout the State of Florida who have an abiding and longstanding personal and or professional interest in seeing to it that the government that is closest to the people in Florida, the municipal level, is NOT, in the end, simply a stealthy transference of wealth between a community's citizens and taxpayers to its elected officials and bureaucrats.
A members-only ATM for insiders who know how to fix or finesse the system they are supposed to be providing oversight over on behalf of... the People.

But what do you do when someone is perfectly willing to brazenly break the spirit and letter of ordinances, laws and basic morality in order to get their way, whatever that might be?
Someone who, basically, calls the bluff of civil society and law enforcement in Broward County, and literally dares any one of them to stop him from doing what he wants to do and will keep doing?
Someone like Commissioner Anthony A. Sanders.

The people who received that email of mine last Wednesday, and prior emails over the years regarding Comm. Sanders and his actions, are serious people of substance, purpose and public influence.
And what they also have in common, to varying extents, is being more than a little aware of the longstanding public corruption and financial chicanery that has taken place at Hallandale Beach City Hall for years, often in the person of Comm. Sanders.

Thanks in large part to my efforts over the years to publicize things on this blog and via the South Florida news media, as well as a handful of hard-working, high-minded friends who have wanted nothing less than for Hallandale Beach to FINALLY be a better, smarter, safer and better-managed community, not the public laughingstock it has been for many years under notoriously thin-skinned Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper.

To repeat the unhappy truth that I have written here so many times before today, literally, a reality where many South Florida print and TV reporters "joke" about how truly bad the state of things were and are in HB, and then use that as their own reason not to get involved and actually REPORT the facts and context of what's going on in HB, because, afterall, "that's just Hallandale Beach."

For those of you who are new to this fact-based bIog, I'm glad you came by to check it out today and get some more important facts on this matter regarding public corruption, as well as important context and nuance to better make sense of it all.

You should bear in mind as you read this that over the past ten years I have written DOZENS of fact-filled blog posts here about the VERY curious and dysfunctional actions and behavior of Comm. Sanders, connecting-the-dots on how VERY SHORT he has come up in the public's estimation on so many important areas of the job, compared to both what the community has a right to reasonably expect in an elected official -like actually doing your homework and being familiar with the facts being discussed on the dais for one thing!- and more importantly, what the community needed to see up on the dais in the way of resolve and fidelity to public accountability, oversight and transparency.

Over-and-over, Comm. Sanders has come up woefully short and usually been just about the least-informed person in the entire Commission Chambers when an issue or policy was being discussed, analyzed or voted upon, whether in his role as a City Commissioner or as a CRA Board Member.

But that unfortunate reality, that burden that Hallandale Beach's residents and Small Business owners have had to carry for so long, has never prevented the South Florida Sun-Sentinel's Editorial Board from endorsing Sanders, owing to their longstanding pledge to support diversity on the dais, even if it comes at the risk of complete incompetency.

What the Hallandale Beach community got in Sanders was entirely predictable, someone who felt entitled to do whatever he wanted, and to ignore rules and public expectations he found either troublesome or cumbersome.
I was one of a handful of people in this area who called it publicly many, many years ago, within days and weeks of him being apppointed to the HB City Commission under strange circumstances that were entirely contrary to the city's own written procedures.

But the South Florida Sun-Sentinel's liberal Editorial Board has never let self-evident facts-on-the-ground regarding Comm. Sanders performance in office get in the way of their efforts to make sure that he was on the five-member City Commission, even when he couldn't publicly explain himself or his troubling track record in the newspaper's very own pre-election group candidate interviews, according to people who were there.

In Hallandale, Sanders, London 
By Sun Sentinel Editorial Board
In Seat 1, four people are vying for office, including incumbent Anthony Sanders.The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board encourages voters to retain Sanders. His experience and knowledge of the issues make him the better choice for this southeast Broward city of about 38,000.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/opinion/endorsements/fl-endorsement-hallandale-gs1008-20141025-story.html


At this point, don't hold your breath that these same reporters and editors are finally going to publicly own up to their own serious and serial mistakes in judgment in a future editorial.
Meanwhile, look hard at what the Sun-Sentinel's selfish and short-sighted whims have done to this community.



Above, Broward Inspector General John W. Scott at a Broward League of Women Voters event in Coconut Creek, FL that I attended on January 24, 2013, with four other concerned Hallandale Beach residents and activists.

Let me put it this way... on the day that I took this photo of Mr. Scott in 2013,I all but knew most of the major points detailed in his office's preliminary report, the subject of last week's news articles.

Again for the benefit of newcomers to the blog, I'm a person who was constantly feeding the IG's office with tips consisting germane facts and context they weren't getting elsewhere.
Inconvenient facts for Comm. Sanders, who, for all his brazeness in exploiting his ties to nonprofits who receive money from the Hallandale Beach CRA, which has mis-spent and wasted millions of dollars over the years, and which Comm. Sanders never cared to know what happened to the money, or even whether it was spent for the intended purpose.
What he cared about was directing the money $$$ -deciding who would get it.
Now, you'll learn why.

There's one more thing you should know about Comm. Sanders before reading my comments. Call it context, call it nuance, call it whatever you like. 
As best as anyone in the city can figure, there has NEVER been a single proposed development anywhere in the City of Hallandale Beach in the 10-plus years since Anthony A. Sanders has been a HB City Commissioner that he did not vote FOR,.
No matter how ill-conceived it was, no matter how unpopular it was with neghborhood residents, no matter how unsightly or just plain ugly it was, no matter if the city's own professional staff recommended against approving it.

Even by the very, very low ethical/public policy standards of South Florida, that is a remarkably dubious track record and proof positive of Comm. Sanders always looking at well-financed developers and their large teams of experts and consultants as a means to an end. 
He has always claimed that there would be secondary economic (ripple) effects in Northwest Hallandale Beach -the area that he claims as his own desite the fact that everyone on the HB City Commission is elected citywide- but as we can see both then and now, the actual economic ripple effect that resulted was NOT the one that most reasonable people would've expected.

Even Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper, the ringleader of what I have long called the Cooper Rubber Stamp Crew that for so many years ran this city into the ground and disrespected its residents and small business owners, actually managed to vote against a few proposed real estate developments.
But not clearly disconnected-from-reality Comm. Sanders.


It's been common knowledge for the longest time -in part because I've mentioned it so frequently here on the blog and in my frequent emails after something Mayor Cooper herself said and did- that her biggest fear has long been that the true facts about the state of this city and its longtime mismanagement under her actually get out and penetrate the minds of the people in this state whose opinion she deeply cares about.
It helps feed her enormous ego.

That is to say, her pals throughout the area and up in Tallahassee, like the folks at the Florida League of Cities or former state Sen. Eleanor Sobel, the latter of whom as I've written here so often, was always happy to play guard dog for her up in Tallahassee, and help keep the germane facts from getting made public, as Sobel did in running interference for the mayor re the city's completely mismanaged and unethical CRA with the bicameral Joint Legislative Audit Commitee.

All to prevent an honest audit so that Hallandale Beach residents, taxpayers and small business owners could finally discover where all the tens of millions of HB CRA dollars went.
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Date: Wed, Jul 12, 2017 at 12:42 PM
Subject: #Ethics matters - More context, facts and fall-out to consider re Hallandale Beach Comm. Sanders' "misconduct" in office, per Broward Inspector General



Right now, I'm trying hard not to gloat about this long-overdue news and turn of events,
given all the dozens and dozens of fact-filled pieces I've written on my blog and in emails
to many of you over the past 11 years about Comm. Anthony A. Sanders, starting with his curious and completely illegal selection to the City Commission by Hallandale Beach Mayor 
Joy Cooper in 2006 to replace Comm. Francine Schiller, who was ill.

Mayor 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 scheduled second City Commission meeting of the month, which is to say, that there would have been plenty of time for public comments re the city's extant policies for filling vacancies.

But Mayor Cooper didn't want the best prospective candidate in the city to fill the position, she consciously wanted Sanders.  

Cooper she did so by blatantly violating the city's own rules and protocols -used just 
the year before for Keith London to replace then-HB City Commissioner Joe Gibbons on the Commission after his election to the Florida state House, in large part because she knew that then-City Attorney David Jove was a veritable bump on a log.

Jove was someone who wouldn't do anything to jeopardize his outrageously large pension by reminding the mayor that what she was doing was patently illegal under the city's very own rules.

Once on board as part of Cooper's Rubber Stamp Crew, Sanders was noticeable for his
almost-immediate very curious and confounding unethical ethical behavior and actions
-or complete inaction when positive action, oversight and genuine accountability were necessary but Sanders was NOT up to the task.
Not up to the responsibilities he owed the citizens of Hallandale Beach.

I gave SO MUCH information over the years to the Broward Inspector General via emails
about Sanders and his retinue of hacks and apologists in HB, sometimes including specific
information about the non-profits associated with him -including recipients of CRA loans
that didn't file required yearly reports to the IRS and didn't spend the money for their
stated purposes- to say nothing of the complete lack of public information and transparency
about the sources of the funding and where it all went.

And do I need to even remind you how many dozens of time I wrote on the blog and in emails that Sanders was so brazen from the get-go that that he didn't even bother to recuse himself from voting on the dais, as required, when the city wanted to buy his old property for more than it was worth, despite the city having no actual (written) purpose for the building if they acquired it.

You know, the former Sanders property at 501 N.W. 1st Avenue that became the city-owned
building that he could use for free afterwards, and which famously had Sanders, Cooper and
Bill Julian campaign signs all over it for weeks before elections?
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-city-of-hallandale-beachs-rules-are.html
Yes, despite it then being a city-owned building.



Check out this 2012 Local10 video with reporter Glenna Milberg: about what the Broward Inspector General had to say about the fishy deal with the purchase of Comm. Sanders' property.

She wanted to interview Sanders, but he didn't want to have anything to do with the questions that might come his way from one of the few widely-respected reporters in South Florida:
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/07/video-local10s-glenna-milberg-examines.html


In case you forgot some of the details, here's an excerpt from that 2012 email, that was
also received by the Broward IG.

Wednesday September 26th, 2012
3:05 p.m.

I received a phone call from Csaba Kulin this afternoon and he mentioned several
disturbing things to me that I believe that all concerned Hallandale Beach residents
ought to know about.

Some of the facts he shared are ones that we all might've predicted would happen
at some point in the final six weeks with Comm. Anthony A. Sanders re-election
effort, given,

a.) the truly abysmal job Sanders has done in office the past four years, and the 
fact that he's refused to meet with resident taxpayers like you and me in public 
and simply tell the truth about what really happened with that 2009 land sale to
the city, where the only parties who profited was Comm. Sanders and his wife,
Jessica, and,
b.) Sanders foolishly and illegally refused to recuse himself that Spring, and
actually voting to give himself free use of the building he "sold" until it is demolished,
courtesy of a motion by then-Commissioner Bill Julian that passed 4-1.

So you have the proper context, now that he has his own yards signs, Csaba has
been busy campaigning and walking neighborhoods in NW HB for the past week,
sometimes with Gerald Dean, sometimes by himself.

Csaba told me that he is being told over-and-over by residents that he speaks with
at their homes that someone from Comm. Sanders' campaign have been a very busy
beaver, indeed.
It turns out that someone from Team Sanders has been illegally placing Sanders 
yard signs in residents' front yards without their permission.

According to Csaba, they're everywhere- but not by choice.

When asked why they don't simply remove them or call to complain, residents say
that they know that regardless of what they do, another Sanders sign will be placed
there overnight if they do anything to remove it, which is apparently what has already
happened to some people who wouldn't put up with the effort to coerce the neighborhood.

Given these circumstances, some residents, esp. older residents, are quite understandably
intimidated, and reluctant to draw attention to themelf by removing the illegally-placed
campaign signs from their own yards,
They have become unwilling victims of Sanders' desire to stay in office and ride
the gravy train however long he can, by hook or by crook.

Not that Sanders is telling the truth to anyone in NW HB, either, since as 
we've all discussed previously, the truth is NOT Sanders' friend!
It's one of the reasons why Sanders initially refused to cooperate with the
Broward Inspector General and his team of investigators,

Yes, expect a lot more details to come out in the coming weeks and months 
regarding matters and behavior involving Sanders and his associates that I have 
pointed at and hinted at over the years, that were begging for some kind of 
plausible, reasonable explanation from him but which got... none.





Florida Bulldog
Report: Hallandale commissioner Anthony Sanders “engaged in pattern of misconduct”
By William Gjebre, FloridaBulldog.org 
JULY 11, 2017 AT 10:58 AM



A preliminary report by the Broward Inspector General’s Office says Hallandale Beach City Commissioner Anthony Sanders “engaged in a pattern of misconduct” when he “failed to disclose payments” made to him and other family members by a community group which Sanders voted to give thousands of dollars in city grants and other funding.
The July 7 report obtained by Florida Bulldog also said that Palms Community Action Coalition Inc. (PCAC) made contractual payments to Higher Vision Ministries, where Sanders is the pastor and the only paid full-time employee. The report adds that Sanders solicited and received contributions for the church from developers seeking to do business with the city.
PCAC is a Hallandale Beach-based nonprofit organization that provides job training and community development services to local residents.
Read the rest of the article at:
http://www.floridabulldog.org/2017/07/report-hallandale-commissioner-anthony-sanders/










South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Hallandale Commissioner Anthony Sanders engaged in misconduct, Inspector General says

Susannah Bryan, Reporter, Sun Sentinel

July 11, 2017 7:45 PM

Anthony Sanders used his position as a Hallandale Beach commissioner to approve nearly $1 million in funding to a nonprofit that made monthly payments to the church he founded and also paid his immediate family, according to a Broward Inspector General’s report obtained by the Sun Sentinel.

Sanders, 56, failed to disclose the payments he, his wife and two sons received from the Palms Community Action Coalition, according to the Inspector General’s preliminary report. Sanders’ wife at one point served as executive director of the nonprofit, which had a mission of job training, job placement and community outreach.

“Sanders engaged in a pattern of misconduct that violated Florida ethics laws, the Hallandale Beach city charter and the Broward code of ethics for elected officials,” the report says.


Read the rest of the article at:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/fl-sb-sanders-hallandale-oig-investigation-20170711-story.html








WSVN News
Video at http://bcove.me/295w22ub

Hallandale Beach commissioner accused of ethical misconduct involving non-profit
Brian Entin
July 12, 2017

HALLANDALE BEACH, FLA. (WSVN) - A Hallandale Beach commissioner is being accused of using his elected position to financially benefit him, his church and his family.

Hallandale Beach City Commissioner Anthony Sanders has another position as a pastor, but the Broward County Inspector General said Sanders voted to allow money to go to a non-profit, which was benefiting his church and family.

“I’m a pastor, so this is what we call an attack from the enemy,” Sanders said. “It is an assassination on my character.”


Read the rest of the article at:
http://wsvn.com/news/local/hallandale-beach-commission-accused-of-using-non-profit-funds-for-personal-use/


Florida Bulldog
Hallandale freezes payments for city development, jobs programs citing waste & fraud
By William Gjebre, FloridaBulldog.org
JULY 19, 2017 AT 6:00 AM

Hallandale Beach City Manager Roger Carlton has ordered what could be a multi-million dollar freeze on all payments under two city jobs and business development programs, saying they “have lost their way.”
Carlton acted about what he said was “waste” and possible fraud weeks before a report by county investigators became public last week that accused City Commissioner Anthony Sanders of failing to disclose payments he received from a local community group awarded city funds, including money under the two programs, with his backing.
In a June 5 memorandum obtained by Florida Bulldog, Carlton, who was appointed city manager by a new reform-minded city commission majority, expressed outrage about the flawed city programs and public apathy about them.
Read the rest of the article at:
http://www.floridabulldog.org/2017/07/hallandale-freezes-payments-for-city-programs/?mc_cid=aa57462b51&mc_eid=5dfd4ab366






Happy to share some good news with the long-beleaguered citizens and Small Business owners of Hallandale Beach and South Florida, who have desperately need more news and days like this one - where people in power who consciously do bad things, yet felt a sense of entitlement, FINALLY get caught and publicly held to account.

So, what's Broward State Attorney Mike Satz going to do?
Good question!

While we are asking good questions, here's another: Why is #SoFL media NOT asking #Broward's #UsualSuspects in government and public policy to speak publicly about what they think abt Comm. Sanders & Family's unethical behavior, helping themselves to #HallandaleBeach $?

Where's the great ethical insight from 
state Sen. Gary Farmer, or his predecessor, Eleanor Sobel, or Oscar Braynon II, the latter two of whom helped protect the HB CRA's butt for  so long in Tallahassee despite all the squandered millions of dollars because their pal Joy Cooper insisted on it.

You remember that, don't you?
I talked about it so often on the blog and on Twitter and in emails and...?

Florida Bulldog
Two senators short-circuit Legislature’s plan to audit troubled Hallandale Beach CRA
By Willliam Gjebre, BrowardBulldog.org 
NOVEMBER 26, 2013 AT 6:13 AM

A Florida Legislature’s joint auditing committee is dropping its inquiry of Hallandale Beach’s questionable use of local redevelopment funds at the urging of two area state senators, one a long-time acquaintance of Mayor Joy Cooper.
Democratic Senators Eleanor Sobel and Oscar Braynon II, representing portions of Hallandale Beach, could not be reached for comment, despite repeated calls, to elaborate on a letter they signed recommending against a state audit or any action related to the controversial city spending of Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) funds.
In addition, the committee will not ask the Florida Attorney General for an updated opinion on how CRA funds can be used. This was a contentious issue between the city and the Broward Inspector General’s Office which found that Hallandale Beach had “grossly mismanaged” millions of dollars in CRA funds while ignoring a 2010 opinion that limited CRA spending to “bricks and mortar” redevelopment projects.

Read the rest of the article at
http://www.floridabulldog.org/2013/11/two-senators-short-circuit-legislatures-plan-to-audit-troubled-hallandale-beach-cra/#commentlist

My favorite line from above?
Neither Sobel nor Braynon responded to multiple requests for comment about their letter recommending against a state audit.





Where's the wise and learned counsel from the Broward League of Voters or The Broward Workshop or the Urban League of Broward County, whom the South Florida news media is forever telling us is still relevant to things in Broward County, all apparent evidence to the contrary?

What about some pithy comments from some reputed religious expert to comment on the idea of a pastor (who is also an elected official) deciding that charity, in the form of non-profit monie$, really DOES begin at home, as Sanders has shown?

What about former Hallandale Beach City Commisioner and state Rep. Joe Gibbons, or current state Reps. Joe Geller or Shevrin Jones?
I kid, of course, because the last three are well-known BS artists with a connection to Hallandale Beach, but whom nearly everyone who pays attention to things political herebaouts knows are three people who could really care less about what happens in HB, much preferring the sound of their own voice and its constant stream of false narratives and sweet nothings to the harsh glare of reality -their pal Sanders is a lying hypocrite who wants to play the victim after he broke the law.

Well, not to say I told you so but all-too-predictably, the South Florida news media is not doing anything remotely like asking people of any kind of power or influence in Broward County to weigh-in publicly on what seems like an easy softball of a question.
The sort of basic follow-up that for most of th 20th Century would have been expected by the press corps, regardless of the size of the city involved or the power of the public figure who had disgraced themself.

But South Florida's news media doesn't want to ask any probing questions of anyone about corrupt Hallandale Beach City Commissioner Anthony A. Sanders. or why the same news media didn't say anything about him when there was not just smoke billowing at Hallandale Beach City Hall, but a veritable Towering Inferno.

Just something for you all to consider the next time the press corps here in South Florida waxes philosophic and wonders aloud why most of them are neither trusted or respected by South Florida's residents.





Dave 

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

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


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


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

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

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

Given how (rightly) critical I tend to be in this space of the South Florida press corps, I just wanted to let you all know that some people in it, such as it is, DO still try to do the right thing.
You have to acknowledge when someone does that.
  
-----
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Hallandale Beach City Commissioner Anthony Sanders benefits from sloppy city management
City willing to drop $7,500 loan mistake, but Sanders might repay
Michael Mayo, Sun Sentinel Columnist
7:44 PM EDT, March 26, 2012


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How is it that, 
a.) despite all the money that Mayor Cooper and the HB City Commission and the two most recent City Manager(s) have tried to funnel to both groups completely under the control of Comm. Sanders and his wife, JessicaEagle's Wings Development Center and Higher Vision Ministryand,
b.) despite the effort thru a motion by Comm. Alexander Lewy to steer over $2000,000 to them last year at a City Commission meeting well after Midnight, NOT on an advertised agenda item and with hardly anyone but city staff present -where Lewy deliberately wrote his motion so as to NOT have to publicly identify the party who was getting the money, but instead, described them citing their so-called job-creating/placing success, even though those so-called achievements have NEVER been independently-verified by anyone, and are NOT believed by anyone in this city NOT named Sanders or working for the city- neither one of the two groups has a working website that you can find on the Internet, no matter how long and hard you search.


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


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


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


Seriously, a non-profit in the year 2012 without a website that has glowing testimonials to anything they've ever actually done?
You'd think they'd want to talk about what they've done for the community and city if they had actually done something worthwhile, at least something that the public and foundations could check out.


But instead, there is NOTHING.


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


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


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


In the days ahead, I hope to have some more news for you about yet another semi-stealthy figure in the city who has been the lucky recipient of a lot of taxpayer dollars under some very questionable circumstances, whom I recently discovered has NOT been an IRS-accredited non-profit after all, even though I think that they claimed they were in order to get some taxpayer's dinero.
Hmm-m...
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I've written a variation of the above a few times in those emails of mine, and every time before I sent it out, I double-checked for at least 15 minutes to try to find those imaginary websites.
Each time, nothing had changed, and what I'd written was 100% true.
It's still true today, now that I'm finally posting it online and sharing it with you.

Monday, February 7, 2011

There's what Joy Cooper says -and there's reality. Here's a dose of reality to chew over; What does Jessica Sanders do exactly?

I've been sitting on this for a while now, just waiting for the right time to post it, though truth be told, the well-informed and concerned citizens of Hallandale Beach have been talking about this issue for quite some time.

That is, why there's so very little public accountability on behalf of city taxpayers for public funds at Hallandale Beach City Hall, especially when it involves City Hall cronies and people they are used to rewarding for political support, no matter how preposterous the planned use of the funds.

In the case at hand, in the letter at the bottom, that involves among others, Jessica Sanders, the wife of HB Comm. Antony A. Sanders.

That you've seen so little mention of it elsewhere only proves what I and so many others paying attention here have been saying, not only about the state of the South Florida news media in the year 2011, but how utterly delighted Joy Cooper and her Rubber Stamp Crew are that the press is sleeping on the job.

That makes it much easier for them to keep doing what they're doing and avoid detection.

But before I share with you a letter about the nitty-gritty reality of failed policies and wasted tax dollars in this city -Hallandale Beach Weed and Seed- let's look at the fantasy world of HB mayor
Joy Cooper as expressed in yesterday's Miami Herald, which carried a Guest Op-Ed from her in her role as head of the Florida League of Cities, just one of the reasons that she is around less-and-less.
Well, besides her home in Colorado.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/02/06/2052839/we-want-to-work-with-the-governor.html

Miami Herald
February 11, 2011

We want to work with the governor

Florida’s cities wholeheartedly share Gov. Rick Scott’s objective of creating jobs and fostering an economic climate in which employers and families can thrive. Our cities can play a key role in this important mission, and cities stand ready to work shoulder to shoulder with Scott.

City officials want to create a new partnership with state leaders. This is why, as president of the Florida League of Cities, I created the Keys to the Cities Task Force. The task force created Keys to the Cities — a resource to provide additional insight into issues important to Florida’s cities, coming from the perspective of more than 400 communities in which the majority of Floridians live, work, learn, worship and play.

The task force’s document, which can be found at www.floridaleagueofcities.com, has focused on the following areas:

• Improving fiscal accountability and responsibility

• Making government smarter

• Investing in opportunity

• Fiscal responsibility for the future

• Managing and sustaining recovery

We believe that, working with the governor and the Legislature, we can take our state to higher levels of excellence by promoting smart policies that couple spurring growth with respecting the long-term principle of home rule.

Keys to the Cities extends a hand of friendship and cooperation across the levels of government to provide the new administration with a valuable blueprint for building this important relationship to benefit Floridians.

As the government closest to the people, a city has a unique bond with its residents. Each one of Florida’s 410 cities is unique. But no matter their size or scope, all cities have the same goal: to deliver varied, high-quality services in an efficient and responsive manner; enhance residents’ quality of life; and promote education, employment and economic development.

We understand the challenges and opportunities Scott will face. With an eye on building a better and more-prosperous future, the cities look forward to opening a proactive and productive dialogue with state leaders. We stand ready to provide assistance to achieve the overarching goals we share.

Joy Cooper, mayor, Hallandale Beach

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Improving fiscal accountability and responsibility?
Really, how about starting in the city where you have been mayor for so long?

How about real tangible consequences for city employees and contractors who DON'T do their job promptly and fail to deliver a dollar's worth of work or service for a dollar's worth of taxpayer's funds?

How about YOU and your Rubber Stamp Crew stop voting to break the city's very own requirements for who can be given CRA grants and loans, especially when they don't meet most of the very low thresholds, not just one?

But no, you and your cohorts prefer to make excuses for why the city's own rules must be continually trampled.
That's YOUR track record, year-after-year.
And where are the positive results?

Which leads me to the letter below that was sent to Hallandale Beach city manager
Mark Antonio and stamped January 26th by his office.
It speaks volumes, and it's just the tip of the iceberg of longstanding problems in this city that
Cooper and City Hall have ignored, hoping nobody would notice.


In the weeks and months ahead on this blog, since the local media shows no genuine curiosity for stories that once upon a time, real reporters responded to -esp. after you give it to them on a silver platter- you'll see more and more photos and video here of these problems.


My aim is that whenever possible, to work on cutting out the middle-man: the South Florida news media.


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As always, to keep up with the latest fiasco or spectacle in Hallandale Beach under the Cooper & Antonio regime, go to my friend Michael Butler's blog, Change Hallandale,
http://www.changehallandale.com/