Showing posts with label Red Broward. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Red Broward. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 23, 2018

Some things never change, like the abysmal level of #ethics in Hallandale Beach. Names change, roster of allies change, but HB determined to see itself as special and deserving of special rules, not ones the rest of world and Florida are governed by

Some things never change, like the abysmal level of #ethics in Hallandale Beach. Names change, roster of allies change, but HB determined to see itself as special and deserving of special rules, not ones the rest of world and Florida are governed by
Below are my Twitter responses to Red Broward blogger Tom Lauder's piece from last Tuesday 
about some very curious doings behind Hallandale Beach City Hall at the Cultural Center, a place where the city's self-evident political, racial and social polarization are always present during Early Voting.
 
@RedBroward BUSTED? Hallandale Beach Commissioner Caught With Illegal Voter Card Targeting African-American Churches
That polarization, especially its racial component, is something that I have personally witnessed to my amazement dozens and dozens of times the past 15 years, which was often carried-out with the help of former Mayor Joy Cooper and her campaign supporters, always so quick to help someone who can help them out when nobody is looking.
But nothing compares to the skullduggery that takes place on the actual Election Day, esp. at the neighborhood sites in Hallandale Beach, where you can be forgiven for plausibly thinking the Balkan Wars of the 1990's were still taking place.
Yes, for so long, rather than fighting over what were the best ideas or best solutions for the city's many longstanding problems, problems and imperfections that I can literally recite from memory, what you find are years-old personal and political grievances writ large never far from the surface, complete with the motley cast of characters and hangers-on always play to type and cliché, with fist-fights, calls to 911 and then the rush to cast themselves as a victim to their friends and the general public. It's all so sad and pathetic and... predictable. 

(I even recall the Election Day scene at Ingalls Park in southwestern Hallandale Beach within the past ten years, where several Hallandale Beach police cars were forced to respond to a call about an actual fight involving involving Dr. Deborah Brown herself, where about 6-8 HB cops were positioned afterwards in the area to keep Brown and her Cooper-supporters from trying to physically intimidate or verbally harass supporters of pro-reform candidates at Ingalls Park that I knew. Yet another low in a sea of so many head-shaking things under Cooper's reign of ruin.)

Most of you know will know nothing at all about this matter below, but on the chance that you have been thinking about things other than elections today, five days before the real Election Day, it's a sad reminder that so many of the things that I and so many of you have fought against for many years, namely, against unethical behavior, doesn't just exist but THRIVE in a city of less than 5 square miles.
A city where it should actually be quite easy to reach residents, Small Business owners and voters if you were serious about communicating your concerns and solutions.
By the way, please don't sleep on the #scoop that I mention below regarding what former HB Mayor Joy Cooper did when contacted by the Office of the Broward Inspector General and the Broward state's attorney regarding the only arrest made in the entire years-long HB CRA scandal that wasted tens of millions of dollars.
http://www.broward.org/InspectorGeneral/Documents/20130418OIG11020FinalReport.pdf

http://www.broward.org/InspectorGeneral/PublicationsPress/Documents/OIG11020-201405219-BrownMemo.pdf

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https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-2014-05-20-fl-hallandale-band-director-arrest-20140520-story.html
School director charged with stealing city funds
Robert Nolin, Sun Sentinel

The director of a private arts school in Hallandale Beach — and onetime recipient of a city humanitarian award — has been charged with bilking thousands in city funds earmarked for a student trip.

Deborah Brown, 52, Hallandale Beach, surrendered herself to Broward Sheriff's investigators Monday on a charge of grand theft. A warrant had been issued for her arrest last week with bond set at $1,000.

Brown, band leader for Gulfstream Middle School in Hallandale Beach, is also director of the Palms Center for the Arts, a nonprofit school for drama, dance and music. In March 2010, she received a $5,000 grant from the city's Community Redevelopment Agency for a class trip to Washington, D.C.

According to police reports, Brown only spent $323 on the trip. The remainder she diverted for private use: $2,000 in cash withdrawals for herself and her brother; $683 for a payment to an Orlando resort timeshare; $258 for a rental car; and $200 in cellphone costs.

The fund diversion was uncovered during an audit of the city's CRA by the county's inspector general.

In January 2010, two months before the alleged theft, Brown received Hallandale Beach's Martin Luther King Jr. Humanitarian Award for 25 years of community service.

City spokesman Peter Dobens said Brown was never a city employee and only received grant money for her after-school music program. "We haven't had a relationship with her for a couple of years," he said.

Despite the arrest, Brown will retain her band leader job. Under School Board policy, employees charged criminally will not be disciplined until their case is concluded. "It doesn't affect her current job status," district spokeswoman Nadine Drew said of the arrest.

Mayor Joy Cooper said Brown's educational work has benefitted the community. "Dr. Brown has helped many needy children through PCA's art programs," she said.

rnolin@tribune.com or 954-356-4525

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"The Broward County Inspector General’s Office has launched another inquiry into Hallandale Beach’s Community Redevelopment Agency, three years after finding the city “grossly mismanaged” millions of dollars in CRA funds."
http://www.floridabulldog.org/2016/06/browards-inspector-general/

Joy Cooper did this WITHOUT ever telling the elected HB City Commission about the letter she received from law enforcement, never asking them what they thought should be done, or even having a recorded vote on the matter.
Instead, Cooper wrote back that her good friend, the convicted Dr. Brown, did NOT have to pay back the thousands of dollars she stole that, according to her own CRA application, was supposed to help kids, a fact that she took full advantage of when she was using the money to buy cosmetics or help pay for her condo.
Just as she had done previously dozens of times, Joy Cooper just decided she would nudge the elected City Commission out of the way and substitute her own very bad judgment.
Predictably.
So yes, you are right, I have provided you with a bit of a scoop, since I first heard about it when it took place, but I ask you, how come the South Florida news media has STILL never reported on this fact, despite it taking place LAST YEAR?
Why didn't they mention it?
   
@RedBroward BUSTED? Hallandale Beach Commissioner Caught With Illegal Voter Card Targeting African-American Churches






















More tomorrow re the ethical scandal behind the ethical scandal at Hallandale Beach City Hall that the South Florida news media has slept on the past 18 months.
Even if you think you know how thin-skinned, self-referential and flat-out LOW former Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper was prepared to go in order to hold onto power, you just won't believe the level of chutzpah Joy Cooper can show, even to law enforcement officials.
Really!
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Monday, June 15, 2015

Thoughts on the continuing Burnadette Norris-Weeks ethics problem in Broward County: Thru her actions, attitude and behavior, Broward SOE attorney Norris-Weeks has come to personify the worst unethical excesses of Broward County's pay-to-play culture and the insider's sense of entitlement that pro-reform pols and citizens have fought hard to eliminate.

Thoughts on the continuing Burnadette Norris-Weeks ethics problem in Broward County: Thru her actions, attitude and behavior, Broward SOE attorney Norris-Weeks has come to personify the worst unethical excesses of Broward County's pay-to-play culture and the insider's sense of entitlement that pro-reform pols and citizens have fought hard to eliminate.

 Since last Spring when I took advantage of the Ultra Music Festival being downtown to also take some photos for the last time of what was then left of the partially-destroyed Miami Herald building from directly in front of One Herald Plaza -a building overlooking Biscayne Bay that I had been in dozens and dozens of times from the 1970's thru the mid-'90's when visiting The Miami News, but which by this time was also missing some of the letters from its iconic sign- I've been meaning to write something about what I have long sensed is the real lack of backbone and community engagement and push back among many of Broward County's current and in some case well-known civic groups and their leadership that, in the abstract, ought to be doing MUCH MORE publicly to lead the fight to make Broward's future better for everyone.
Not least, among those in civil society who actually follow the letter and spirit of the law, especially ethics laws meant to provide transparency to the public and inspire trust in institutions by them.

Push back by actually taking people to task by putting their feet to the fire and publicly embarrassing them or shaming them when their unchecked egos, ambition and sense of entitlement to go off the charts the way that Burnadette Norris-Weeks has clearly done the past few years, given that in the current environment, with our present collection of sleepwalking news reporters, she has absolutely no fear that the South Florida news media would ever hold a mirror or TV camera up to her, and show it to the public to inform them and educate them about her behind-the-scenes dealings.
As would happen in most though not all parts of the U.S. -or at least used to.

 So, to better understand this vexing issue involving one Broward insider's ego and over-the-top sense of entitlement, I've posted this collection of information in reverse chron order, most recent at top.

I remind many of you, especially you newcomers to the blog, that for many months, I was often the only Broward citizen present at those early morning meetings of the Broward County Ethics Commission meetings at Broward County Govt HQ, which I dutifuly videotaped and took notes on to be entirely accurate, in-between sips of McDonald's coffee.

Week-after-week, month-after-month, I saw who was and who was NOT trying their best to fullfill the hopes of Broward's long-frustrated citizens on the issue of finally getting the much-needed, stronger ethical rules for Broward elected officials and employees and the people they interact with. I saw who was and who was NOT making the honest effort to change the unacceptable status quo that then-existed and markedly improving it in both letter and spirit.

So with that in mind, I can tell you that Burnadette Norris-Weeks was NOT a Profile in Courage 
then and she was NOT years later when serving on the appointed Broward County Charter Commission, where she had the rare opportunity to serve the long-term best interests of Broward citizens, businesses AND incorporate notions of Good Government Best Practices.

But instead of doing that, Norris-Weeks voted AGAINST Broward citizens like you and me from even being able to vote at the polls that November, and to decide the outcome of the issue of a countywide-elected mayor for Broward County, as the public would be able to do in 99% of America.

But NOT here in Broward County, and Burnadette Norris-Weeks was one of the small handful of people who voted AGAINST you and I even being able to vote for or against it, much less, voting and deciding it one way or the other.

A helpful reminder from me in 2009 of Burnadette Norris-Weeks' anti-democratic sensibility: 

And now we read that last week Norris-Weeks was appointed by ethically-challenged Broward County Comm. Dale Holness to the new incarnation of the Broward Charter Review group. 
Why?

What possibly justifies this woman's continual bad judment and curious sense of ethics and propriety from being represented over-and-over on important Broward panels in ways that are genuinely harmful to both Broward citizens and the larger business community?
Why should the public expect anything different from her this time but more of her anti-citizen actions that prevent genuine accountability and oversight, to say nothing of actual improvement in governance?

If you wonder why Broward County is still mired in the state of continual funk it's been in for years, and why no matter where in the county you go, the public (and the news media) consistently is bewildered at what they hear about what's REALLY going on, wonder why the public has so very little trust and respect for Broward's myriad govt. agencies and functions, it's because of the accurate perception that establishment insiders like Norris-Weeks have consistently used her position to give herself unfair, anti-competitive advantages over others.

And the public perception that Norris-Weeks, when on Broward govt. panels, uses that role to further special interests, NOT for the benefit of the majority of Broward taxpayers and Small Business owners, who are very much against crony capitalism and pay-to-play govt., is right in the records for everyone to see.
Once Broward gets around to making it public a year later...

So tell me, why haven't you or I seen a single story yet on Norris-Weeks' multiple episodes of curious behavior and bad judgment on Channel 4, 6, 7 or 10's newscasts? 

Or in the Miami Herald?

Good question.



But first things first...
Clearly, one of the few times that one of the most ardent opponents of ethical reform in Hallandale Beach, Andrew Markoff, was said to be correct.



Broward Elections Lawyer Owes Nearly $11,000 In Broward County Taxes 
Posted on January 29, 2015 by Red Broward

Commissioner: Ban elections office attorney from politics  
WRITTEN BY THE SUN-SENTINEL POSTED: 06/04/2015, 02:29PM 

Broward Beat
Some Commissioners Fed Up With Elections Chief
By Buddy Nevins

 It was Broward Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes’ turn in the barrel this week.

 Snipes got grilled – her word for the 30-minute cross-examination was “bullied” – by Broward County Commissioner Mark Bogen on Tuesday.

 Like a prosecutor questioning a murderer, Bogen started out something like this: “Would you agree the most important thing for any supervisor is to run efficient and impartial elections?”

 It went downhill from there for Snipes.
Read the rest of the post at 
www.browardbeat.com/some-commissioners-fed-up-with-elections-chief/







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Broward Beat

 By Michael J. Ryan

The following is an open e-mail Mayor Mike Ryan of Sunrise calling for a policy governing political activity by any Elections Office lawyer.
The background:  Commissioner Mark Bogen last week called for a clear policy governing Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes’ attorney. He did this after discovering that the office lawyer Burnadette Norris-Weeks had actively taken part in campaigns.

Read the rest of the column at:
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Broward Beat
By Buddy Nevins

Burnadette Norris-Weeks — the beleagued Elections Office attorney who is embroiled in a fight over her politicking — obviously hasn’t heard the age-old expression: If you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen.
Norris-Weeks has lashed out at Sunrise Mayor Mike Ryan for daring to criticize her actions — campaigning for candidates at the same time she is supposed to be an impartial Broward Elections Office official.

Read the rest of the column at:


Other than the fully-engaged reaction from Sunrise's mayor, I'm unaware of anything by the people who ought to be The Usual Suspects.
Just silence from The Broward League of Women Voters, The Broward Workshop, The Broward Alliance CEO Council, or even the Good Government Initiative at the University of Miami, under former Miami-Dade County Comm. Katy Sorenson, who was long known as the most pro-reform supporter of strong and effective ethics on that ethically-challenged and corrupt group that seems to be on perpetual probation for crimes against taxpayers and common sense.

 How much of this is because of business and political connections, large and small, and how much of this is because of race, and the fear of being taken apart publicly for simply saying the facts aloud while the local news media largely averts its eyes for whatever reason?
That latter point is something that Buddy Nevins references above in his June 5th account of Broward Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes appalling performance the past few years and the public criticism of her that has only grown MUCH LOUDER.

Up to a point.
And that point in my opinion is the same one that explains the silence now on Norris-Weeks.
Commissioners won’t say much of this publicly because of politics:Its politically incorrect to attack one of the few black office holders in Broward.Perhaps more important, Democrats – eight of the nine commissioners  — fear they would be alienating their base in the African American and Caribbean American community if they publicly condemn Snipes.
Another aspect of this whole matter that I have written about a lot in recent emails but not yet here on the blog concerns the selection by crony capitalism-loving Broward Comm. Dale Holness of Burnadette Norris-Weeks to the Broward Charter Review panel for the second time in a row: why does #SoFL have so many more unethical and incompetent political and government officials than other areas of the U.S. its size? Especially among African-Americans?

 Is it the lack of a large enough pool of educated, Middle Management types who DON'T depend on the public payroll for their personal & professional advancement?

You don't have to be a political junkie or news junkie to realize that #SoFL and #Broward are lacking in the very type of people who in most parts of the country actually make up a good portion of the middle management of well-run companies that actually manufacture tangible consumer and industrial goods, instead of selling the hope of sand, surf and sun to visitors.

Also, how is it that in the year 2015, the Broward Workshop,with all the access to resources and media professionals they have, do NOT have a Twitter feed? 
Seriously.
Their charming and always-helpful Exec. Director, Kareen Boutros, is someone whom I like, after first meeting her at the previous edition of the Broward Charter Review meetings in 2008, but it's time for them to get into the 21st Century.

I'm grew up and was educated in South Florida in the 1970's, but still I continue to be #dumbfounded and #frustrated by what is tolerated and passes for "Normal" around here that would simply NOT be acceptable behavior and conduct in the rest of the U.S. then or now.
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Monday, May 13, 2013

Spring 2013 Observations re Broward School Board: controversial District 1 member Ann Murray gets a challenge from someone who'll go right at her, Felicia Brunson -will a third viable candidate join them by 2014?; Broward School Auditor Patrick Reilly finds more appalling evidence of School system's waste of taxpayer dollars, and as usual, Broward civic activist and Audit Comm. member Charlotte Greenbarg is 100% correct in analyzing the situation and saying it's what we think, too -it's the usual toxic combination of insubordination, entitlement and longstanding incompetency



Red Broward YouTube Channel video: "Michael Putney: Ann Murray Has To Go" -Veteran Channel 10 reporter and fave of the blog, Michael Putney, their Senior Political Correspondent and longtime host of their popular "This Week in South Florida" Sunday morning public affairs program, chews up and calls-out District 1 Broward School Board member Ann Murray for her unacceptable words and behavior, saying she "has to go." Uploaded March 29, 2011. http://youtu.be/EL0S6YSYi-s
Spring 2013 Observations re Broward School Board: controversial Broward School Board member Ann Murray gets a challenge from someone who will go right at her, Felicia Brunson -will a third candidate join them by 2014?; Broward School Auditor Patrick Reilly finds more appalling evidence of School system's gross waste of taxpayer dollars, and as usual, Broward civic activist and Audit Comm. member Charlotte Greenbarg is 100% correct in analyzing the situation and saying it's what we think, too -it's the usual toxic combination of insubordination, entitlement and longstanding incompetency
Broward Beat
School Board Member Who Used “N” Word Draws Black Opponent
By Buddy Nevins

May 7, 2013
School Board member Ann Murray, who was reprimanded for making a bigoted statement using the “N” word, has picked up a re-election challenge from a black elected official.
Vice Mayor Felicia Brunson of West Park holds her kick off fundraiser tonight.

I mentioned Felicia Brunson's candidacy to unseat southeast Broward incumbent Ann Murray to some of you hereabouts a little over a month ago, via emails or in conversations, when I asked if you'd been contacted yet by Brunson, either by email, phone or direct mail,
since I know that, quite logically, Brunson views Hallandale Beach as prime pouncing territory for her, given Ann Murray's disastrous time in office and complete disregard and contempt for HB and its kids, parents and taxpayers in every way that counts for anything -like actually showing-up at a public event in HB once in a while, besides ones where Supt. Robert W. Runcie is around.


That is, except for Murray's PR stunts like the one last year at the Broward School HQ, where Joy Cooper and Anthony A. Sanders showed-up for a School Board meeting to be thanked by Murray for all the city -them!- do for the kids!

I have that whole thing on videotape and trust me, it's quite a scream watching the three of them -Murray actually left the dais to stand with them- to compete and try to out-do one another in the Flattery Dept.
A scream, that is, except for it being so damn dishonest and despicable, given the true facts-on-the-ground since she has been in office.

My many previous blog posts about Ann Murray are located here:
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/search/label/Ann%20Murray

I would not be at all surprised if another candidate gets into the District 1 race, and frankly, I hope that one will, esp. if that is someone who's savvy enough to keep publicly hammering home the true facts about what should be happening instead of what is happening with Broward Schools.

Like being able to discipline or fire perpetually insubordinate employees who continually disregard explicit instructions from their bosses -Supt. Robert W. Runcie and the School Board- and in this particular case, have cost Broward taxpayers over a million dollars. 

South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Audit: Broward schools paid $1 million for canceled project
By Karen Yi, Sun Sentinel
May 4, 2013
Broward schools paid more than $1 million toward a construction project that had already been terminated by Superintendent Robert Runcie, according to a new audit report that found the payments were for work never completed.
The $4.8 million project to construct maintenance offices in Pembroke Pines was scrapped last January after the work lagged for more than three years, failed to meet state standards and proceeded despite an expired contract, prior audits show.
"Both the board and Superintendent directed that this project stop. In spite of this fact, over $1 million was paid," said audit committee member Charlotte Greenbarg. "We have a situation of gross insubordination on the part of staff members."
Reed the rest of the article at:

The audit report is here: http://www.broward.k12.fl.us/auditdept/facilityreports/2012-13/ac_2013_0502_current_status_fcm_000917_zone_4.pdf

A Broward School Board candidate who will talk-the talk and  walk-the-walk about aggressively work for more public accountability and aggressively ridding the Broward School system and taxpayers of the army of bad, incompetent and insubordinate employees that continue to plague it, whether front line workers, administrators or teachers, is precisely the sort of person that I will happily support and vote for every time.

In spite of the fact that the Broward School Board and Supt. Runcie directed the project to stop and nothing more be done, the Deputy for Facilities, Tom Lindner, his staff and the General Counsel ignored the directive and Royal Concrete Concepts was paid more than $1 Million.

See also:
Broward schools facilities chief resigns under pressure
By Scott Travis
December 4, 2012
http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2012-12-04/news/fl-broward-administrator-shakeup-20121204_1_superintendent-robert-runcie-broward-schools-facilities-chief-tom-lindner

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