Csaba Kulin takes a hard look at the 2013 budget for the City of Hallandale Beach and is VERY troubled by the ominous numbers and spending trends he sees. We need to "do more with less."

Above, where so very much of the damage is done to taxpayers and business owners of this city thru faulty financial decisions, bad judgement about public policy, and an almost complete lack of old-fashioned oversight: Hallandale Beach City Hall. April 17, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier. © 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

My friend and fellow Hallandale Beach and Broward County activist Csaba Kulin has taken a hard look at the 2013 budget for the City of Hallandale Beach, and he's VERY troubled by the ominous numbers and spending trends he sees. We need to "do more with less."

August 12, 2012

Dear Residents of Hallandale Beach.

On Monday and Tuesday, August 13 and 14, 2012, starting at 4:00 P.M. in Room 257 at HB City Hall -not in the Commission Chambers- extremely important budget negotiations will be taking place that DIRECTLY affects you and your family's financial well-being and quality of life in this city for the next 20-30 years. In short, our future.

I strongly urge you to personally attend these meetings in person and let your own voice be heard, because we know from experience that if the Commissioners are left to their own devices and biases, common sense and logic will rarely if ever intersect in these budget proposals.

I suggest that if at all possible, you try to read as much of the documents the City Manager has provided, as they are very good, but since it's several hundred pages long, I'll attempt here to highlight the most important sections of each area.

If Mayor Cooper follows the published agenda, City Manager Crichton will present and the City Commission will review the Proposed 2013 Budget on Monday.

After that, the City Manager will present for PUBLIC discussion, the three MAJOR INITIATIVES (Item 6A):

1. The issuance of a $56.7 million 20-30 year bonds to finance the Parks Master Plan recommendations, the new Main Fire Station and the Post Office Acquisition.

2. Proposed Natural Compressed Gas (CNG) Project.

3. Community Partnership Grants: Best Practices, Grant Management and Accountability.

PROPOSED BUDGET.

REVENUES. The General Fund revenues are projected to go up from $46.2 to $51.2 million, a five (5) million or 10.9% increase. The increase is due to a slight increase in property values and new construction. Total revenues are projected to increase from $79.5 to $85.9 million, about $6.4 million (8.1%).

EXPENSES. The General Fund expenses are projected to go up from about $51.9 to $57.8 million, a $5.9 million or 11.4% increase. Total expenses are projected to go up from $91.5 to 95.5 million, about a $4.0 million (4.3%).

Yes, almost $100 Million to run a city of our small size and population: 4.2 square miles, under 40,000 people.

Per capita spending of somewhere under $25,000 a year per resident.

I don't know about you, but I and my neighbors have long thought that we were not getting a dollar's worth of quality service for a dollar's worth of taxes. We are most certainly NOT getting $25,000 of value a year.

USE OF RESERVES. The City has budgeted over the past number of years Reserves or “rainy days funds” to finance the shortages between income and expenses. The amount ranged between $3.7 million in 2006 to $7.9 million in 2012. Most years the actual use of Reserves was less than budgeted. 

Last year the City budgeted $7.9 million and will use $4.8 million of the Reserves. Next year the City budgeted $6.5 of the $21.8 million Reserves, leaving the City with a total balance of $15.2 million. The City estimates that in 2014 we will use another $7.0 million, and in 2015, that we'll use another $7.0 million leaving the City with only a $1.2 million Reserve.

In 2016, three short years away, the City will have ZERO Reserves and will not be able to cover out expenses (see page 16).

To make matters worse, this budget, as far as I can see, does not include the additional $4.2 million “Budget Notes”.
In future years the City would have additional annual expenses operating the new parks ($1.7 million), payments on the $56.7 million bond issue (about $3.0 million).

After all, you don't just buy something like land for a park and open the doors. You have to carefully maintain it, yet it's common knowledge throughout this City that they've consistently done a poor job for years of properly maintaining the City's largest park, Bluesten Park, and yet that's only two blocks away from City Hall. That sort of myopic mismanagement is NOT an encouraging sign.

Why should we count on better results in the future from the same people who have been shown themselves to be chronic under-achievers for years?

COMMENTS: You may question why in today’s economic condition, the City’s expenses have to increase by 11.4%. One of the main reasons is that the City is adding 26 new full-time and 22 part-time employees costing the City $1.8 million dollars. Staffing level goes from 449 full-time equivalents (FTE) in 2012 to 492 FTE in 2013. That is 33 FTE higher than last year.

Our motto should be “do more with less” and we go the other direction.

As you may know, we will soon have a a new Marina on Three Islands Blvd. (3 P/T employees) and a new lifeguard program (10 full-time and 15 part time employees), but the City also added 16 other employees to the City’s payroll.

The result of the City's years of over-staffing and under-performance is that we now have the following frightening facts staring at us: the average cost of each City employee has gone from $58,592 in 2003 to $104,861 in 2013.

That is an amazing 81.83% increase. 
If the financial management of the City is allowed to continue as it is now, the residents will see a significant increase in property taxes in order to pay for the mismanagement of our City.

MAJOR INITIATIVES

ISSUANCE OF BONDS. The City Manager Recommends that the City issues $56.7 million 20-30 bonds to pay for the park Master Plan recommendations, the new Main Fire Station and to purchase the Post Office property.
The City already paid for B.F. James, Joseph Scavo and South Beach Parks, so why does the City want to borrow that $8.0 million if is all paid for?

The North Beach Park is paid by the developer who leased it. Both of those items add up to about $10.0 million. So the bonds should actually be about $46.7 million.

There two types of bonds available. General Obligation Bonds (GO) and Revenue Bonds (RB). The General Obligation Bonds require that the voters approve the issuance of the bonds. The survey recently commissioned by the City said that only 36% of the population is willing to pay $10 to $85 per $100,000 valuation to fund parks. The City Manager does not want to spend money on an election therefore she does NOT recommend General Obligation Bonds.

Interestingly enough, City Manager Crichton neglects to mention that the City is already paying for an election in January 2013.

The Revenue Bond does not require a vote of the residents. The City pledges the income from the improvements to pay off the bonds. A good example would be Turnpike bonds -it's paid off using the actual tolls collected. In our case, we do not receive a lot of revenue from parks and the City pledges the revenue from property taxes to pay off the loan.

In my opinion, the City stretches the spirit of a revenue bond, but that has never stopped our City Commission.

Needless to say, the City Manager recommends the Revenue Bonds approach, and forget about asking those pesky taxpayers to weigh-in, since you can never be depended on by them to be a “Rubber Stamp” anyway.

NATURAL COMPRESSED GAS (CNG) PROJECT. This is a environmentally-friendly proposal, but even the attached study questions its feasibility. I do not think our City should be on the “bleeding” edge of this project. We need to have a lot more economic study information as to actual costs and payback numbers. It is important to further investigate the project.

I hope this will help you understand the issues facing the City and you will realize the importance of attending Monday’s meeting at 4:00 P.M.

I am attaching a spread sheet with 2003 to 2013 employee costs, count and comparisons. Also you will find the links to the supporting documents provided by the City.

http://www.hallandalebeachfl.gov/files/08132012%20Additional%20Information%20for%20Fiscal%20Year%202013%20Budget%20Workshops%20Special%20Meetings.pdf

http://www.hallandalebeachfl.gov/files/2012-08-13-Supplemental%20Items.pdf

HBBudget2003-2013Personel.xlsx 32K   View   Open as a Google spreadsheet   Download

New Hallandale Beach City Manager Renee C. Crichton will be guest speaker at 6 p.m. on Wednesday night at Comm. Keith London's Resident Forum meeting at The Village of Gulfstream Park, next to Krön Chocolatier

Oops! There's been a sudden change of location for Wednesday's night's previously-scheduled Keith London monthly two-hour Resident Forum meeting, featuring new Hallandale Beach City Manager Renee C. Crichton as guest speaker at 6 p.m.

I discovered this afternoon via an email from him that rather than being held at the HB Cultural Center as usual, it will be held at The Village at Gulfstream Park at 1240 Silks Run, next to Krön Chocolatier at the corner of Derby Lane, the middle of the three entrances off of U.S.-1, closest to Brio Tuscan Grille. http://www.thevillageatgulfstreampark.com/directory


View Larger Map

I'm printing this in case you have a problem reading the details of the screen grab.

Everyone,

IMPORTANT: please note CHANGE of DATE and LOCATION for Commissioner Keith S. London Resident Forum

The Commissioner London August Resident Forum will be August 8, 2012 from 6 to 8pm at 1240 Silks Run in the Villages of Gulfstream. City Manager Renee Crichton will be speaking from 6 PM to 7 PM.

The new location is between Kron Chocolatier and the parking garage entrance on Silks Run. Park on the street, or for free in the North parking garage. Attached is a copy of the Villages of Gulfstream Directory.

After both Mayor Cooper and Commissioner Ross held “re-election” events at the Cultural Center in 2008, the City’s protocol manual was changed.

Now, because I am running for Mayor, the City of Hallandale Beach will not permit the use of any City property, despite the Resident Forum’s non-political nature. In addition I have been doing these meetings for over four years.

Please see the attached email from City Manager Renee Crichton.

 http://keithlondonformayor.com/meetingchange/Com_.%20London%20Use%20of%20the%20Community%20Ctr.pdf

I’d like to thank Gulfstream Park for graciously allowing me to utilize their venue. Please feel free to contact me with any questions or if you require additional information.

Keeping you informed,

KeithCommissioner Keith S. London

Everyone, IMPORTANT: please note CHANGE of DATE and LOCATION for Commissioner Keith S. London Resident Forum The Commissioner London August Resident Forum will be August 8, 2012 from 6 to 8pm at 1240 Silks Run in the Villages of Gulfstream. City Manager Renee Crichton will be speaking from 6 PM to 7 PM. The new location is between Kron Chocolatier and the parking garage entrance on Silks Run. Park on the street, or for free in the North parking garage. Attached is a copy of the Villages of Gulfstream Directory. After both Mayor Cooper and Commissioner Ross held “re-election” events at the Cultural Center in 2008, the City’s protocol manual was changed. Now, because I am running for Mayor, the City of Hallandale Beach will not permit the use of any City property, despite the Resident Forum’s non-political nature. In addition I have been doing these meetings for over four years. Please see the attached email from City Manager Renee Crichton. I’d like to thank Gulfstream Park for graciously allowing me to utilize their venue. Please feel free to contact me with any questions or if you require additional information. Keeping you informed, Keith Commissioner Keith S. London

Phone: 954-494-3182   613 Oleander Drive Hallandale Beach, FL 33009 email: keith@keithlondon.comwww.keithlondon.com Political Advertisement paid for and approved by Keith S. London for Hallandale Beach Mayor, Non Partisan

When Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper writes "Setting the record straight about the lifeguard contract" in her "column" in the faux newspaper, what she really means is... that it's her way or the highway, facts be damned

When Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper complains about "negativity" in her "column" in the faux newspaper that HB taxpayers are forced to subsidize against their wishes, like she did recently, above, what she REALLY MEANS is how much SHE hates when well-informed and attentive Hallandale Beach residents who want the city to be run much better than it is now -and has been for years- tell the truth about her own unsatisfactory performance in office the past ten years. And the very real culpability of top city officials.


People like myself and many others that I regularly mention by name here on the blog.

This is because of Cooper's own well-known thin-skinned ego and longstanding inability to see what regular residents see all around them -how Cooper's myopia continually gets in the way of solving problems.


The resounding proof of that came to me this morning, just a few minutes ago actually, via an email I received from my friend Csaba Kulin, who is vacationing with his wife and family and their grandchildren in Ohio.


It gives you more than enough proof, as if needed, about what HB Mayor Joy Cooper really thinks about HB residents actually, well, taking serious matters like beach safety seriously, and genuinely paying attention to the city's very own details.

Surprise!

Yes, here in Hallandale Beach, Cooper thinks it's her way or the highway -facts be damned.

The only thing I've edited below is removing the email addresses.


---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Csaba Kulin 

Date: Wed, Aug 1, 2012 at 9:51 AM

Subject: The Mayors Response

From:"Csaba Kulin" 

To: "Cooper, Joy" 

Cc: "Vice Mayor Anthony Sanders", "Commissioner DorothyRoss", "Commissioner Keith London", "Commissioner Alexander Lewy"

Subject: Re: FW: Agenda Item 11-B IN-House Lifeguard Program, 8/1/2012

Date: Wed 08/01/12 09:46 AM

Honorable Mayor,

There is a reason a reason I am negative at times. I found out more detail from the Miami Herald article about the Lifeguard Project than from the city's official Agenda's supporting documents. Where was the PowerPoint presentation link in the Agenda?

Still missing the Budget numbers associated with the project. Projected salaries and benefits for the new positions? Do you have it? Will the Commission and the residents find out after the item has passed?

The pool company charged $334,000 and that included a profit. Why does it cost 2 times as much for the City to do the task without a profit?

Talking about insulting. The documentation included with Item 11-B insults my intelligence and most of our residents trying to form an informed opinion. The residents have the right to know, ahead of time of the meeting, all the details of how you are going spend our money.

Yes, someone dropped the ball at the City by NOT monitoring the lifeguard program sufficiently.

--- jcooper wrote:

From: "Cooper, Joy" 

To: "'ckulin"

Subject: FW: Agenda Item 11-B IN-House Lifeguard Program, 8/1/2012

Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2012 19:59:20 +0000

BTW is there a reason your tone in these emails are always negative and insulting?

From: Cooper, Joy 

Sent: Tuesday, July 31, 2012 3:58 PM

To: Cooper, Joy

Subject: RE: Agenda Item 11-B IN-House Lifeguard Program, 8/1/2012

From: Cooper, Joy 

Sent: Tuesday, July 31, 2012 3:54 PM

To: 'ckulin'

Subject: RE: Agenda Item 11-B IN-House Lifeguard Program, 8/1/2012

Thank you for you comments.

From: Csaba Kulin 

Sent: Monday, July 30, 2012 5:49 PM

To: Cooper, Joy; Vice Mayor Anthony Sanders; Ross, Dotty; London, Keith; Lewy, Alexander

Subject: Agenda Item 11-B IN-House Lifeguard Program, 8/1/2012

Honorable Mayor, Vice Mayor and City Commissioners,

The City Commission should not blame “outsourcing” for the fiasco with the Lifeguard Program. Blame whoever was responsible for monitoring the program. Someone dropped the ball. Someone has to monitor all outsourced programs.

The City Manager is asking for blank check to create a new program called “In-House Lifeguard Program” without any meaningful documentation.

How could you vote “YES” based on the documentation provided in the Agenda?

Who is going to staff the life stations? Fire Rescue, Police or parks personnel?

For the next fiscal year the City Manager budgeted $334,000 for Lifeguard Services. Where is the “fiscal impact” of the CM’s request?

Is the new program cost neutral?

We need a lot more detail before we can give the City Manager a “blank check”.

Sincerely,

Csaba Kulin

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And to DO that right away. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And what about their highly-paid assistants?

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

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

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

Have they? 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Good question!

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

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

That's a complete non-starter!

And yet with Joy Cooper in charge...

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

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

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

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

Tomas Lopez story results in predictably anemic response by Hallandale Beach City Hall as growing public outrage re harsh treatment of lifeguard Lopez by his company, Jeff Ellis & Associates -an unpersuasive form letter- shows City Hall's longstanding myopia remains. Story has touched a nerve all over the world about moral imperatives and importance of doing the right thing despite strong possible negative consequences. We desperately need to change the culture and personnel at City Hall ASAP!

ABC News video: Correspondent Matt Gutman on Fla. Contractor That Fired Lifeguard For Saving Man Outside Zone Reconsidering. July 5, 2012.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/fired-fla-lifeguard-reinstated/story?id=16716225

Tomas Lopez story results in predictably anemic response by Hallandale Beach City Hall as growing public outrage re harsh treatment of lifeguard Lopez by his company, Jeff Ellis & Associates -an unpersuasive form letter- shows City Hall's longstanding myopia remains. Story has touched a nerve all over the world about moral imperatives and importance of doing the right thing despite strong possible negative consequences. We desperately need to change the culture and personnel at City Hall ASAP!

In short, in the official City of Hallandale Beach response thus far about the incident I discussed here yesterday, that was originally reported by Ihosvani Rodriguez of the South Florida sun-Sentinel, and which blew-up over the Fourth of July holiday to become international news, to the surprise of no one, the city says absolutely nothing about their own longstanding neglect, incompetency and culpability regarding the public beach areas, including the news that I shared with you that the two lifeguard stations on the beach are NOT grounded for lightning strikes, as they are supposed to be.

Lifeguard Tomas Lopez helps save the day at the city's public beach but get's fired for his trouble. Meanwhile, Hallandale Beach City Hall continues to act neglectful and NOT do what it's legally supposed to do around the beach areas, and nothing happens. Nobody is fired. Just more mindless bureaucratic apathy and incompetency from the same old crew!

http://www.hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/07/lifeguard-tomas-lopez-helps-save-day-at.html

By the way, if you didn't already know, the lifeguards are supposed to call their own company first in order to dispatch Fire/Rescue to the scene of trouble, despite the fact that HB Fire/Rescue is right next to the iconic Hallandale Beach Water Tower on State Road A1A and Hallandale Beach Blvd., on the border separating HB and Hollywood.  

Hallandale Beach Fire Station 60 is located in the building north of the city's iconic Water Tower on State Road A1A, just south of the Hollywood cityline. May 30, 2012 photos by South Beach Hoosier. © 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

When that was done, a lot of the life guards told me at the time that based on their past experience, this policy would inevitably cause casualties.

And I didn't even mention in my email and blog post of yesterday that, as I've noted here previously, for a very long time, the lifeguards lacked a motorized device that would allow the guards to actually respond to people caught in dangerous high wave/strong undertow situations far from shore, which greatly frustrated them and created a lot of anxiety on those sorts of days.

And lest you forget, we had an unusually high number of such days early last year, which was even more troubling when you know the lifeguards lacked the tools they desperately needed.

You'd think the city would've had a back-up plan after the one device they had -to share among the two lifeguard stands- broke.

You'd think that, but you'd be wrong -there was no back-up plan!

Is having Jeff Ellis and Associates' dispatchers calling 911 instead of the lifeguards on the scene part of what should be publicly discussed and re-examined while everyone is looking at what took place at the beach on Monday?

Should help for victims really be delayed from being dispatched solely because of company policy?

In my opinion, this whole topic ought to be the subject of a public meeting held at the city's Cultural Center, say, on a Saturday morning at 10 a.m., AFTER Labor Day when everyone is back in town, so that everyone who is interested can attend and hear what's what from Jeff Ellis, the city and any other people who have some knowledge to share, as well as HB residents?

Earlier today, Hallandale Beach civic activist Etty Sims, always a strong voice for common sense, financial accountability and the entire community's best long-term interests, sent the following email to HB City Hall and its denizens.

Along with her comments were links to just some of the dozen and dozens of news sites around the world that have reported on this troubling incident via a Google Alert on HB, a tool which I also receive and have encouraged you all to get as well if you live here, or one for your own community if you're anywhere else in the world.

Among the hundreds of news organizations and websites that have delved into this story are the BBC and ABC News, the latter of which did a three-minute story on it last night with reporter Matt Gutman during ABC Evening News, which was re-run this morning, the video of which I've posted at the top.

Here's Etty Sims' email:

Good morning city commissioners, mayor and city manager,

So Hallandale Beach is in the news all over the country and not for a good reason.

I am sure that you all heard about the incident on the beach.

If you read the comments to the stories on the different news media sites you will see that not only the private company that you, the commission hired to protect our beach goers , BUT the entire city's reputation is beefing affected negatively.

Please let us know what are you going to do about this issue.

if we want to improve our beaches, it is very important that beach goers  not only feel safe on our beach but are actually being protected by someone that cares about people's life and not the bottom line.

Since the lifeguard company's contract is coming  up for renewal, it is a perfect time to look into the different options available.

It is time to bring back the Beach in Hallandale Beach. Please make it a priority and transform the beach to a place that people want to go to. There are too many other options very close by such as Hollywood Beach Broadwalk.

Have a great summer 

Etty Sims

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Meanwhile... I continue to receive email from everywhere, including some thoughtful nuanced email from Las Vegas that gets right to the heart of the matter of what happened on Monday

Sarah Elizabeth has left a new comment on your post "Lifeguard Tomas Lopez helps save the day at the ci...":

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: City Manager <CityManager@hallandalebeachfl.gov>
Date: Thu, Jul 5, 2012 at 10:46 AM
Subject: RE: Lifeguard Tomas Lopez helps save the day at the city's public beach but get's fired for his trouble. Meanwhile, Hallandale Beach City Hall continues to act neglectful and NOT do what it's legally supposed to do around the beach areas...

Thank you for contacting the City of Hallandale Beach regarding the beach incident that occurred on July 2, 2012.  I am in close contact with Jeff Ellis of Jeff Ellis Management who has started a full investigation into the termination of their lifeguard.  The lifeguard is not a City employee, but was employed by Jeff Ellis Management, a private company contracted to provide lifeguard services for two city-owned beaches and the Municipal pool.  Jeff Ellis Management has committed to the City that if the lifeguard was terminated in haste, the company would move expeditiously to reinstate his employment.

It has always been the City’s policy that if there is an actual emergency inside or outside of the protected area, the lifeguard must respond. We do however have to ensure that certain safety protocols are followed to ensure the safety of all visitors to the City of Hallandale Beach.  At this time, the City is awaiting the facts of the termination and the results of our internal inquiry and the Ellis Management investigation.  Once the City has the results of the investigation, we can make an informed determination on the future of the relationship with this management company.

The City Hallandale Beach truly values your concerns and comments on this issue. The safety of our Beach patrons and the manner in which this service is provided is paramount to the City.  We are moving swiftly to address the situation.

Renee C. Crichton

City Manager

City of Hallandale Beach

400 S. Federal Highway

Hallandale Beach, FL 33009

954-457-1300 Phone

954-457-1454 Fax

re Beachwalk project in Hallandale Beach: Hallandale Beach Mom with common sense writes re the conditions at HB's North Beach. Yet City Hall STILL won't accept ownership of longstanding problems there, just like they've ignored city's education/White Flight problems for years

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Yes, it seems so nice from a distance, but ... 
North Beach, Hallandale Beach, FL

Earlier today I received an adroit comment regarding my post of last Friday titled, Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper's old threats & lawsuits re-emerge as Hollywood's Beach One Resort sues over its access to the beach, the latest shoe to drop in The Related Group's Beachwalk project that'd make HB's North Beach a de facto private beach for The Related Group's properties, NOT a public beach for HB residents
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/06/hallandale-beach-mayor-joy-coopers-old.html


In just a few sentences, she managed to get to the heart of so many longstanding problems in this city: the unwillingness of elected officials and highly-paid city employees in charge to first acknowledge the problems and to solve them to the satisfaction of Hallandale Beach taxpayers residents, and business owners.
Instead, out of habit or personal preference, they either ignore, deny, or kick the can further down the road.


Or, as has often happened when I've publicly discussed these matters, found myself personally attacked for pointing out what everyone but them seems able to see right in front of our collective faces. 


Barboryte wrote:

I went to this beach once and never again. I would rather drive to Hollywood boardwalk and spend money there and have my kids play in the sand and enjoy plenty of showers and clean beach.Maybe it's time to get up and sell and move from this town. All I see is our town being sold piece by piece to developers with absolutely no regard to the residents. 

Her comments are not unlike many I received over the recent years during the battle against Peter Deutsch's Ben Gamla Hebrew Charter School trying to force itself down the throats
of a single-family residential Northeast HB neighborhood, on N.E. 8th Avenue, with the promise of far more kids and traffic coming from outside of HB and southeast Broward than the neighborhood either wanted or could stand.


But associated with that issue was the related one that is the abject failure over the eight-plus years that I've lived here of Mayor Cooper and the City Commission and City Managers Good and Antonio to be serious and convene a citywide forum at the HB Cultural Center, say on a Saturday morning, run by a moderator and with experts present, where the city's educational problems and future could be FINALLY be discussed, calmly but honestly.


Frankly, it's as if everyone at HB City Hall was so afraid that the truth would be uttered by so many dozens and dozens of HB parents that it would actually hurt someone else's feelings, so instead, we simply had to just pretend, year-after-year, that the problem didn't really exist.
But it did and it still does.


Specifically, that would mean publicly airing a problem that I've written about here on the blog a few times but which nobody at HB City Hall wants to publicly acknowledge, but which as everyone who has lived here for any amount of time knows, is one of the main reasons that families move away from Hallandale Beach: the popular perception that the nearest public high school, Hallandale High School, is unsatisfactory and a poor educational choice.


So instead we have either White Flight to the more western suburbs of this county, or high school age kids attending private or charter schools located outside of this city.
That's NOT how you build a community -or keep one intact.


But year-after-year this problem has been allowed to exist below the radar.
And equally so, the awful conditions of this city's public beaches, which clearly ought to be a jewel and natural meeting place for the community, but which isn't.


Which, of course, explains why you are much more likely to run into someone you know from HB at Hollywood Beach, near Johnson Street on the Broadwalk, than you are at HB's own beaches.
People have and are voting with their feet -and their cars.


I'm now going to quote myself.
Really.


From my January 19, 2009 blog post titled, Welcome to Hallandale Beach: where old cigarettes and condoms party at the beach that HB Cops ignore!
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/welcome-to-hallandale-beach-where-old.html

As we all know from our travels, in many if not most American communities fortunate enough to have a beach, especially those dependent on tourism, the beach is an invaluable resource that's esteemed, treasured and given extra care and concern.

It's a place where city officials and elected officials constantly visit and hover around to keep track of not only its physical and aesthetic condition, but also to gauge the mood of resident and visitor beach-goers to see if there's any problems or concerns there they need to be aware of.

They are pro-active, NOT reactive and slothful and full of excuses as they are in Hallandale Beach. 

That public sentiment is often an early indicator of the residents' collective feeling about the town itself, since when resident taxpayers feel that a place as high-profile as the beach is going downhill, and not being properly looked after, it's only natural that they suspect that other things in the city they can't see are falling apart, too.

It's only human nature, but it's something the City of Hallandale Beach has been in utter denial about for years, as one problem after another has been left to fester there.Yet when confronted with the reality, they've instead put their heads in the sand.The evidence is all around you.

So, I was at North Beach on Saturday for well over an hour, checking things out, and as usual, it was fine as long as you only saw it thru the prism of the palm trees along Surf Road.

Yes, from there, everything always looks fine!

 Above, July 26, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

But once you've parked in the garage (the one that the mayor seems perfectly willing to give away) and were actually standing on the beach, you could tell that it was as filthy and unappealing as ever, though to be fair, for once, I didn't find any condoms or liquor bottles over near the rusty pipes that have been on the beach for years...

Snapshot of a poorly-maintained public beach: Finding a used condom near one of the only two park benches at 4 p.m., on a Friday holiday afternoon on a beach full of families. January 2, 2009 photo by South Beach Hoosier

It could hardly be clearer that HB City Hall and their DPW leadership STILL won't accept ownership of the longstanding problems there.

They act like residents who pay taxes for that beach to be properly maintained CAN'T see what has been in front of us for years and we don't know who is responsible.

They're wrong -we do.

We know EXACTLY who is responsible!

The very problems I telephoned DPW about two weeks ago -FROM the beach- which they said they'd take care of.

Among other things, that included the city's Beach sponsorship signs that we've seen there for the past few years, were still lying on the ground, not properly erected.

And were far from where they were supposed to be.

Like last time we were there.

And the week before that...

And the month before that...

According to the life guards, the sign on South Beach has been under the lifeguard stand -that STILL has graffiti on it- for easily 3 or 4 months, waiting for DPW to do the job they're paid to do -basic maintenance.

It's only further proof to me that, as I've been stating for years, the look and care of the public beaches has fallen so far below what is acceptable, that we should immediately take it away from a clearly-ineffective and dis-interested DPW, and privatize the function, just like the beach life guards are actually contractors for Jeff Ellis, not city employees.

A firm given the money that was previously appropriated to DPW for beach maintenance, and which has properly maintaining an attractive and safe beach as their only function, knowing that if they fail they'll be replaced.

I believe that almost anyone we choose would do a MUCH-SUPERIOR job by us as taxpayers then continuing to expect a dog that clearly won't hunt, like DPW, to suddenly learn to hunt.

Obviously if this happens, there also needs to be a commensurate cut in personnel numbers for DPW, since I'm certainly NOT going to reward DPW for doing a terrible job by letting them keep the same number of employees, since actions and consistent poor performance must have consequences, and that should include some for Hector Castro himself, the DPW Director.

http://www.hallandalebeachfl.gov/index.aspx?nid=19

So where exactly is Hector Castro on this matter, and WHY is it that he is never grilled about this longstanding failure at HB City Hall, when it's clearly a big enough and obvious enough problem that even Joy Cooper apologists were mentioning it at the June 6th City Commission meeting?

And why was his immediate predecessor or Antonio or Good never grilled, either?

Where is the personal and professional accountability at HB City Hall?

By the way, the life guards stands we have on the beach are NOT properly "grounded" for lightning strikes, which is both a liability issue and a maintenance issue.

Rather than have the city hand-over de facto control of the public beach called North Beach, so The Related Group can make it a boutique beach that caters largely to their residents and hotel clients for their three properties within four blocks of that location at the Hollywood-

Hallandale Beach city-line, and also maintain control of the public parking garage, too -both for thirty years- we should tell the City Commission to tell TRG, thanks but no thanks.

But do go ahead and build the hotel you can already build, because that is something that nearly everyone in the community agrees we need.

But build it WITHOUT the condo units, and WITHOUT tossing the North Beach parcel in as a sweetener -to a real estate corporation!

Then, we vote in November for a mayor and city commissioners who take their job as public representatives seriously, who actually DO their homework, read the background documents  fully and who actually show-up for HB City Commission meetings ready, willing and able  to ask tough, probing questions of city staff and applicants, for the benefit of this city's taxpayers, NOT for the benefit of developers or a certain group of people in town used to having their way.

And after those sort of people get elected in November -and they are NOT named Joy Cooper or members of her Rubber Stamp Crew named Anthony A. Sanders and William "Bill" Julian-  they can instruct our new City Manager, Renee Crichton, that owing to the longstanding neglect of the city's public beaches for years, fixing the public beaches is now deemed a HIGH PRIORITY, and she needs to come back to them within thirty days with some realistic proposals to make that a reality -ASAP!

One that also includes the possibility of the city privatizing the maintenance of the beach so that it properly reflects the fact that 13 years ago, the people of this community overwhelmingly voted to "put the beach back into Hallandale Beach."