As Super Bowl 47 draws near, I recall "Cool American" chips in Stockholm and the only sign I've seen in two weeks back in Hallandale Beach that someone else here pays attention to detail; #superbowl47

Saw this attention to detail at the joint Pepsi and Tostitos display almost immediately after taking a few steps into the Publix grocery store in Hallandale Beach earlier this week.
So, do you see it?
The Roman numerals?
Correct, XLVII.
As in Super Bowl 47.

When I saw it, it was almost like it was a message that intended just for me, given how much I appreciate attention to detail and context.

If you think most kids at Hallandale High and other area high schools would recognize it, you obviously aren't paying attention. Kids in this area are woefully ignorant, which explains a lot, but that's a subject for another time.


http://youtu.be/OrYTsVw53iA
For about the 15th year in a row, I will skip the Super Bowl halftime show tomorrow and either take a short walk outside, or check online for any interesting Super Bowl-related news stories, especially anecdotal ones that will either later prove to be untrue, or be so asinine that I'll wonder why they're even being mentioned. 

While I was in Sweden for about 8 days in January, I noticed many interesting things that I'll be dropping on you readers of the blog in the weeks and months to come as they seem particularly germane.
Today, though, as it concerns Tostitos, I noticed one amusing thing worth mentioning here while twice stopping at the Subway restaurant at Kungsgatan 61, next to the always-busy 7/11 at the corner of Vasagatan in downtown Stockholm -a few blocks from my hotel- where I was waited upon by the very friendly owner/general manager.
(It's opposite the Kebab House; tell the manager at Subway that the guy from South Florida with the Dolphins cap he spoke to sent you.)


View Larger Map

Instead of calling their Cool Ranch chips just that, in Scandinavia and Northern Europe, Tostitos markets them as "Cool American," as the photos below makes clear. 

See also http://metrobloggen.se/americaninsweden/i_miss_doritos_but_olw_chips_will_do/

By the way, for whatever it's worth, Google Maps and Pepsi in South Florida might want to get on the same page because as I found out today, their entry seem to be run by the same folks that gave me such bad directions in Stockholm a few times last month, as the following makes clear.


View Larger Map
  

When you live in a city run by turkeys... you recognize them on sight

Above, the candy corn-beaked turkey and Publix Ligram Pair Pilgrim salt and pepper shakers that greeted everyone this morning for breakfast at my sister's home in Pembroke Pines, Thanksgiving Day 2012. 
This candy and cookie-based turkey hybrid was her boss' wife's brilliant idea, and as we all chowed down our breakfast, it sat there quietly on the table, mocking our notions of actually eating healthy this weekend.
But on Monday... with our trip to Sweden approaching, we're going to start eating more healthy -again- in earnest, and get back into the sort of daily exercise regimen that once had been our daily routine up in the Nation's Capital.


sisko923 YouTube Channel video: Publix Thanksgiving "Salt and Pepper" Commercial. Uploaded December 26, 2008. http://youtu.be/BVLOydduvqg

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-----
March 16, 2012




Dear Ms. Alanez:

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

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

Let me explain why.


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


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


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


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


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


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


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

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

It never ends with him. 


Later...

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

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

Now that's funny!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

For instance..

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

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

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

   
   

   
   

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

   
   

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thursday's 6 pm meeting is time for Hollywood residents to make sure that prospective Hollywood City Manager candidates are 'scared straight' by the reality of the city's situation

Now that the holidays are over and the decorations have been stored away, it looks like it's finally time for the concerned residents of Hollywood to turn out and see if prospective Hollywood City Manager candidates can be 'scared straight' by the reality of the bad situation the city's elected leaders have put city taxpayers in.
More after the email I received Wednesday morning from the City of Hollywood.

-----
From: <NotifyMe@hollywoodfl.org>
Date: Wed, Jan 4, 2012 at 10:57 AM
Subject: 01-04-12 City Manager Candidates Interview This Week

City of Hollywood, Florida

Office of the City Manager

NEWS RELEASE                                     FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

                                                                                          

January 4, 2012

Contact:  Raelin Storey

                 Public Affairs and Marketing Director

Phone:     954.921.3098

Cell:         954.812.0975          Fax:     954.921.3314

E-mail:     rstorey@hollywoodfl.org

City Manager Candidates to Interview with Commissioners

and meet with Residents

Six Finalists in Hollywood January 5^-6, 2012

Hollywood, FL - The six candidates for the position of Hollywood City Manager will be in Hollywood on Thursday, December 5 and Friday, December 6 as part of the recruitment process.  At a Special City Commission Meeting on December 13, 2011 the search firm conducting the City Manager recruitment process, Affion Public, presented the City Commission with six candidates for the position.  A total of 60 resumes were received and Affion Public conducted several rounds of interviews including background screening before arriving at the top six candidates.  The candidates are:

David Andrews - Assistant Town Manager/Finance Director, Town of Paradise Valley, AZ

Jim Chisholm - City Manager, City of Daytona Beach, FL

Robert Frank - City Manager, City of Ocoee, FL

Doug Hewett - Assistant City Manager, City of Fayetteville, NC

Horace McHugh - Assistant City Manager, City of Oakland Park, FL

Frank Ragan - Former City Manager, City of McKinney, TX

Information on all six candidates is available on the City's website, www.hollywoodfl.org under "Hot Information."  On Thursday, January 5, 2012, a meet and greet with the public is scheduled from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Art and Culture Center of Hollywood, 1650 Harrison Street.  There will be a Special City Commission Meeting in the Commission Chamber of Hollywood City Hall where the Commission will interview each of the six candidates on Friday, January 6 beginning at 2:00 p.m.  City Hall is located at 2600 Hollywood Boulevard.  This meeting is open to the public and will be broadcast on Hollywood Community Television (Comcast Channel 78 and AT&T Uverse) and streamed live on the City's website, www.hollywoodfl.org.

For media inquiries, contact Raelin Storey, Public Affairs and Marketing Director at 954.921.3098.

# # #

Once upon a time I might've said that it was hard to believe that this is the first time that the City of Hollywood was sending this particular information out, but over the past two years, sending something important out one day -or even a few hours- before a public event took place, a common occurance for years here in Hallandale Beach, has become "the new normal" in Hollywood, with crummy results and lower public attendance to match those feeble efforts.


Other than The Balance Sheet blog of Sara Case and Laurie Schecter, 
http://balancesheetblog.wordpress.com/2012/01/02/city-manager-finalists-here/
there's been absolutely ZERO info about the Hollywood City Manager meetings distributed anywhere around Hollywood, esp. where the public congregates, a point that was proven to me all over again a few days ago while I spoke to a manager at the Publix at Young Circle.

January 2, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier

(Earlier in the afternoon, after a visit to Hollywood Beach with my sister visiting from the Mid-Atlantic, I discovered from a reliable source that the Young Circle Shopping Center's landlord, Equity One, with two empty storefronts on either side of the news stand I often frequent -the only place to buy the Daily Business Review- quite preposterously, wants $9K and $11k a month for the spaces.
No wonder they've been empty since July!)


The Publix manager hadn't heard anything about the City Manager meetings, and while I realize that that is not the only supermarket in the city, it does have a certain significance because of its location.
He'd never heard from the City, the CRA, the Chamber of Commerce...


They're all asleep at the wheel.


It was yet another instance, like so many over the past few years I'm personally familiar with, wherein the business community of Hollywood was finding out something important at the-last-minute.
And again, how do you NOT have something posted at or near that Publix or at the Arts Park, one block away from where Thursday's meet-and-greet will take place.


Sounds familiar, right, but not just because it sounds like it's straight out of the Hallandale Beach City Hallplaybook.


It's just like Hollywood's embarrassing and unsatisfactory outreach effort a few years ago to tell the public about the Bernard Zyscovich meetings being held re the new Downtown Hollywood Master Plan.
You could find nothing about it anywhere in Downtown Hollywood.


I know because I walked east on Hollywood Blvd. from Dixie Highway to the east side of Young Circle and never found a single notice or flier about the Zyscovich meetings on any window, bulletin board or kiosk.


It makes you wonder wonder what the proper function of a Chamber of Commerce is if it's not to disseminate info to the local business community?


But then as many of you have previously discussed with me before, that role, at least in this part of South Florida, seems to be more one of acting as a cheerleader for whoever is at City Hall, and NOT as a fair and judicial representative of lots of Mom & Pop stores and restaurants that are just barely scraping by in this economy, and who are paying their annual dues.


That's how they've done it here in Hallandale Beach for years since I moved back here from the Washington, D.C. area, where the head of the organization had no qualms about speaking at public meetings in favor of bad ideas championed by the mayor and city commission -the Diplomat LAC- and slamming HB citizens who opposed it.


All her bombast WITHOUT ever mentioning in her comments that all the HB citizens in the room were paying part of HER salary.
And tell me, when was that vote of all the HB CoC members in 2009 on the plan that got approved days before Christmas?
Exactly.


If all goes as planned, I expect to be at the 6 p.m. Thursday meeting mentioned above, with questions and facts ready in case there's an opportunity to inform the prospective new City Manager what he's got to look forward to, since all the candidates are men.


A good place to start is to ask them if they have a rough idea of how many empty storefronts there are within four blocks of where the meeting is taking place at the Art & Culture Center of Hollywood, 1650 Harrison Street, because many have been empty for YEARS.

Wednesday's Hollywood CRA mtg. features Chip Abele's Block 55 LLC/1740 Polk Street project -inc. the new Publix- getting units from RAC for hotel

Above, looking west at Hollywood City Hall. November 1, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Chip Abele's Block 55 LLC/1740 Polk Street project -including a new Publix- looks to be getting an additional 25 units from the RAC for a hotel component.

Wednesday's 10 a.m. Special/Joint Hollywood City Commission/CRA meeting features the return of our old controversial friend, Block 55, who has been the subject of so many posts here, and LONG meetings at Hollywood City Hall for yours truly the past few years.

Like actually running out of memory cards and rechargeable batteries after well over two hours of video-recording LONG.

And, of course, the city will likely be pulling the financial plug on the Holocaust Documentation Center.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/11/01/2482484/hollywood-holocaust-center-may.html

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/09/07/2395576/hollywood-tells-holocaust-center.html

I had planned on being at this meeting but won't be able to attend after all.

Here's the two agenda items for Block 55:

http://agenda.hollywoodfl.org/cache/00001/115/PO-2010-46.pdf

and http://agenda.hollywoodfl.org/cache/00001/115/R-2011-227.pdf

from http://agenda.hollywoodfl.org/cache/00001/115/AGEN%2011-2-11%20Joint-Special.pdf

Proposed modifications will result in the following thresholds:

397 residential units

104 hotel rooms (52 residential units)

15,000 sq ft (approx.) ground floor retail/office

46,031 sq ft (approx.) regional grocery chain (Publix)

941 car parking garage including grocery chain

Proposed building height are as follows:

Publix- 24’ (2 stories)

Parking garage- 94’ (8 stories)

Hotel- 114’ (10 stories)

Residential buildings range from - 224’ (22 stories) to 266’ (25 stories)

Looking northwest on Tyler Street -north of the Publix. At left is the two condo towers comprising Hollywood's former #1 condo-mania case study, The Radius, off of U.S.-1 -with Starbucks on the ground floor. On the right is the much-older Town House Apt. complex and the advertising billboard on the Abele property, both of which which will be knocked down. November 1, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

A much closer view of the shot above looking northwest from Tyler Street. November 1, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Even closer, peeking over the fence, looking northwest from Tyler Street. November 1, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Looking due north over the fence towards Polk Street. November 1, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Looking northeast over the fence on Tyler, with the Hollywood Beach Country Club & Golf Resort two blocks north in the distance. November 1, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Looking due south on Tyler Street towards Equity One's Young Circle Shopping Center retail complex, which includes a Publix, Walgreens, Subways and a news stand among other things. (The latter being where I used to buy the Daily Business Review.) November 1, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Looking northeast from the south side of Tyler Street towards N. 17th Street. November 1, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

View Larger Map

The Street View on Google Maps looking northwest from the intersection of Tyler Street and N. 17th Street, Hollywood, FL.

The regular Hollywood City Commission meeting is at 1 p.m.

http://agenda.hollywoodfl.org/cache/00001/114/AGEN%2011-2-11.pdf

FYI: In case you have had this problem in the past, too, I was at Hollywood City Hall Tuesday afternoon and happened to have the chance to talk to City Clerk Patricia Cerny about some problems this past summer with the online agendas and video archives NOT activating unless you use Internet Explorer -a problem I've previously mentioned here at the blog- which she didn't know anything about but has promised she'd investigate.

It's not unlike the problem the Broward County Commission used to have a few years ago with streaming of their meetings.

You could only do it using Internet Explorer, but there wasn't anything on the website saying so. Now you can watch them at home or work using other browsers.

Still a case of different rules for goose and gander in Hallandale Beach, depending upon whether you're a citizen or the City

Still a case of different rules for goose and gander in Hallandale Beach, depending upon whether you're a citizen or the City.

I'll be at City Commission meeting at 3 pm to talk about agenda item 9D -highlighted in red below- the city's so-called security cameras, maintained by the HB Police Dept. and the city's abject failure for almost 4 YEARS under former (sleepwalking) City Attorney David Jove to have the city itself be in compliance with State Law.

Yes, the very warning signs it requires businesses in HB to publicly post when they use security/surveillance cameras on the premises.

That it fines business owners who don't comply.

After all, as we are always told, ignorance of the law is no excuse.

But the City of Hallandale Beach has known for years that it didn't comply -it just didn't care.

Still doesn't.

Underneath the city's only security camera on the City Hall side of the municipal complex. The parking lot light closest to it -less than 10 feet away- has only worked for about one month out of the past 44 months since the camera was first placed there. But at a City Commission meeting, in response to my complaints that he and the city had neglected safety problems at City Hall for years -how many dozens of photos have I placed here that proved THAT?- former Police Chief Magill said that the public parking lot light(s) being out didn't really matter. Well, it's STILL out. Who could make this up? October 2, 2011 by South Beach Hoosier

In case you don't want to take my word for it, here's some proof of the above from almost exactly THREE YEARS ago. Just saying...

Arturo O'Neill under the same security camera. October 15, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

A pitch black parking lot is not an inviting prospect at any time, especially after a HB City Commission meeting that was long on hot air and short on, yes -wait for it- ILLUMINATION. October 15, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

"And the flag was still there..."
That pitch black parking lot behind Arturo is the one closest to the Hallandale Beach Police Dept. HQ. October 15, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

In fact, the city's Code Compliance office has already cited RK Associates in the past two years because the parking lot on Hallandale Beach Blvd. for Publix, that placed cameras in front of their building when, they opened their liquor store next door, STILL does NOT have those simple signs that Target has always had.

I've seen the city's written complaint myself.

That was soaking wet.

That was lying on a sidewalk on HBB & SE 14th Avenue.

That I took inside and gave the Publix manager for his attention, knowing that I'd mention it publicly when it was appropriate.

Now you know.

At the HB City Hall complex that is roughly two city blocks by two city blocks, there is but ONE warning sign -near the Employees entrance on U.S.-1.

Above and below, the employee entrance to Hallandale Beach City Hall off U.S.-1/S. Federal Hwy. Note the parking lot pole to the right of the entrance. Do you see THE sign?

Just ignore those city vehicles in the foreground that never seem to leave the parking lot's reserved spaces for city vehicles.

If they don't use them, why don't they move the cars to the back so the public can park there instead?

If you wonder about that, too, clearly you've never lived here. That's SOP hereabouts.

October 2, 2011 photos by South Beach Hoosier

There's no signs near the public entrances to HB City Hall, the HB Police Dept or the HB Cultural Center buildings, or the three vehicular entrances to the complex -nada.

FYI: Below, a shot of this month's calendar captured on Sunday afternoon when my friend and fellow HB civic activist Csaba Kulin and I walked around the HB City Hall complex before the Dolphins-Chargers game, and I personally showed him the graffiti and vandalism directly in front of the complex that HB City Manager Marc Antonio STILL says he NEVER noticed in front of the building he's worked at for the past ten years.

Which, no doubt, pleases the very people who put it there to no end, since it proves how truly disconnected from reality City Hall really is.

As if we needed any more evidence of that...

REGULAR AGENDA

CITY COMMISSION, CITY OF HALLANDALE BEACH

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 05, 2011 1:00 PM and 7:00 P.M.

http://www.hallandalebeach.org/files/00413/Exported%20OV%20Docs/Agenda%20Outline%20for%202011-10-05%2013-00.htm

1. CALL TO ORDER

2. ROLL CALL

3. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE

4. STUDENT CITIZEN OF THE MONTH AND SCHOOL ACTIVITY UPDATE

5. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION - Items not on the Agenda ( To be heard at 1:15 PM)

6. PRESENTATIONS

A. Proclamation Celebrating October 16-22, 2011 as "Florida City Government Week"

B. Proclamation Proclaiming October 10-14, 2011 as " National School Lunch Week"

C. Proclamation Proclaiming October 9-15, 2011 as "Fire Prevention Week"

D. Proclamation Proclaiming October, 2011 as "National Domestic Violence Awareness Month"

E. Presentation Regarding Activities at the Village of Gulfstream Park (Suzanne Friedman, Development Representative, Village of Gulfstream Park) CAD#029/04

7. CONTINUATION OF CITY BUSINESS FROM PREVIOUS MEETINGS

8. CONSENT AGENDA

A. Approval of Draft Minutes - Regular City Commission Meeting of September 21, 2011 (Supporting Docs)

9. CITY BUSINESS

A. Investment Policies Update - General Employees and Professional Management Pension Plans (Staff: Director of Finance)(See Backup) CAD# 007/11 (Staff Report, Supporting Docs)

B. Consideration of Approval of the 2011 Annual Floodplain Management and Hazard Mitigation Plan Evaluation Report (Staff: Director of Public Works, Utilities & Engineering)(See Backup) CAD# 030/03 (Staff Report, Supporting Docs)

C. Pursuant to Chapter 23, Article III , of the City of Hallandale Beach Code of Ordinances, Consideration of an Extension to the Short Term Agreement with Choice Recycling, Incorporated, for the disposal of Municipal Solid Waste in accordance with the terms and conditions of said Agreement, as amended. (Staff; Director of Public Works, Utilities & Engineering) (See Backup) CAD# 018/10 (Staff Report, Supporting Docs)

TO BE HEARD AT 3:00 PM

D. Pursuant to Chapter 23, Section 105, Award of Contracts, of the City of Hallandale Beach Code of Ordinances, Request Authorization to Increase Contract for Additional Services under RFP # FY 2006-2007-004, Cameras System Upgrade and Expansion, to Aware Digital, Inc., in an Amount Not -To-Exceed $143,653.90, plus an additional $20,000.00 for miscellaneous upgrades and maintenance. (Staff: Director of Public Works, Utilities, & Engineering) (See Backup) BP#023/07 & CAD #038/05 (Staff Report, Supporting Docs)

TO BE HEARD AT 4:00 PM

E. Pursuant to Chapter 23, Section 105, Award of Contracts, of the City of Hallandale Beach Code of Ordinances, Request Authorization to Award RFP # FY 2010-2011-006, Hallandale Beach Elevated Water Storage Tanks Project, to the Lowest Responsive, Responsible Bidder, Worth Contracting, Inc., in an Amount Not-To-Exceed $289,025.00 for the Beach Tank Rehabilitation, and to reject the Utility Services Company Inc., bid for the Bluesten Tank Rehabilitation. Furthermore, Authorize a 5% Contingency for Unforeseen Circumstances. Also Consideration of Permanent Removal of the Bluesten Elevated Water Tank and Replacement with a Monopole for Community Utilization. (Staff: Director of Public Works, Utilities & Engineering) (See Backup) BP#005/08 (Staff Report, Supporting Docs)

F. Resolution of the City of Hallandale Beach, Florida, Authorizing the Submittal of a Response to the Request for Proposal for the Purchase of the Hallandale Beach Post Office Property Located at 500 South Federal Highway and Authorizing the City Manager to Negotiate the Purchase of said Property under the First Right of Refusal as Set Forth in the Property's Warranty Deed. (Staff: Director of Parks and Recreation) (See Backup) BP# 012/08 (Staff Report, Supporting Docs)

G. Consideration of an Alternative City Budget Process (Commissioner Lewy) (See Backup) (Staff Report, Supporting Docs)

10. COMMISSION PLANNING

11. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION - Items not on the Agenda (To be heard at 7:00 P.M.)

12. PUBLIC HEARINGS (To heard at 7:15 P.M.)

A. Application #38-11-CU by Alvaro Lopez d/b/a Hallandale Reception Requesting a Conditional Use Permit to Operate a Banquet Hall Pursuant to Section 32-175(d)(1) of the City's Code of Ordinances at the Property Located at 772 E. Hallandale Beach Blvd. (Staff: Director of Development Services) (See Backup) CAD# 015/08 (Staff Report, Supporting Docs)

The Planning and Zoning Board Recommended Approval of this Item at their August 24, 2011 Meeting by a Roll Call Vote (4-0).

This is a Quasi-Judicial Item

B. Application #39-11-CL by MB Gulfstream LLC d/b/a Martini Bar Requesting a Nightclub License Pursuant to Section 5-9 of the City's Code of Ordinances in Order to Serve Alcoholic Beverages Seven Days a Week Until 6:00 A.M. at the Proposed Martini Bar Located at 601 Silks Run, Suite #2497 in the Village at Gulfstream Park. (Staff: Director of Development Services) (see backup) (Staff Report, Supporting Docs)

The Planning and Zoning Board Recommended Approval of this Item at their August 24, 2011 Meeting by a Roll Call Vote (4-0).

C. Application #52-11-AV by Julio Berrio Requesting a Variance from Chapter 5, Section 5-6(d), Relative to the Distance Requirements Between Establishments Selling Alcoholic Beverages and a Church, School or Public Park at the Property Located at 1630 E. Hallandale Beach Blvd. (Staff: Director of Development Services) (See Backup) (Staff Report, Supporting Docs)

D. An Ordinance of the City of Hallandale Beach, Florida, Amending the Code of Ordinances to Address Firearm Regulations Preempted by State Law by Amending Chapter 19, "Offenses and Miscellaneous Provisions'; and Amending Chapter 21, "Personnel"; Providing for Conflicts, Providing for Severability; and Providing for an Effective Date. (Staff: Acting City Attorney) (See Backup) CAD# 008/11 (Staff Report, Supporting Docs)

13. COMMISSIONER COMMUNICATIONS - Items not on the Agenda

A. COMMISSIONER LEWY

B. COMMISSIONER LONDON

C. COMMISSIONER ROSS

D. VICE MAYOR SANDERS

E. MAYOR COOPER

14. CITY ATTORNEY COMMUNICATIONS - Items not on the Agenda

15. CITY MANAGER COMMUNICATIONS - Items not on the Agenda

16. ADJOURN