ICYMI: While U see desperate people heading to University Hospital's E.R., the City of Tamarac see $$$, via @RLNOOZhttp://t.co/1qDrdYC7ax
— HallandaleBeachBlog (@hbbtruth) March 8, 2014
This video above ought to look familiar to almost anyone who lives in southeast Broward County, or in next-door northeast Miami-Dade County, the most traffic-gridlocked areas in the entire state of Florida. The reason? Lots of video of Hallandale Beach's detested red-light cameras in action!
Local10'sRoger Lohse reports:
Study: Red-light cameras making some Fla. intersections more dangerous
Feb 02 2014 11:34:20 PM EST Updated On: Feb 02 2014 11:47:11 PM EST
Per the independent survey (by mail) of Hallandale Beach residents that was conducted a few years ago by a Kansas-based company that my friend and fellow Hallandale Beach & Broward County civic activist Csaba Kulin references below, along with some previous emails of mine about the subject, it's important for those of you who are new to the blog or far from here to know that the survey was full of 'loaded' questions that were quite clearly of the City Commission's choosing-i.e. Mayor Joy Cooper's, NOT ones the public wanted to ask and get answers to, which is to say that the questions were deliberately tilted in favor of a positive response for the city to begin with- the red-light cameras were cited by Hallandale Beach residents as one of the 4 worst things about the city, a fact that the mayor consistently underplayed since she was the champion lobbyist of American Traffic Solutions, ATS,
Mayor Cooper consistently failed to see the facts that most of us could see clearly at the time: it was a pretense to increase the city's revenue, not a reasonable attempt to solve actual safety problems in this city that is boxed-in by the Atlantic Ocean and the Intracoastal Waterway to ther east and I-95 to the west, and only one road that bisects the city and allows north-south travel, U.S.-1/Federal Highway .
And she was perfectly happy to take money from drivers making legal right-hand turns on red when there was no oncoming traffic, if her cameras said that the drivers didn't wait long enough.
And what was the result of that?
Lawsuits that the city lost and had to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in refunds and damages.
Much of that citizen discontent was not just because of simple policy differences but rather as I've discussed here previously, because of the rather egregious and ham-handed way that the city's program and partnership with ATS was rolled-out, with little transparency and public disclosure about relevant details that citizens like me specifically asked for and were entitled to have. Details that, in the abstract, you'd think the city -any city- would want to have out on the table before the public if they were genuinely interested in getting the real facts out where everyone could see them so that smart choices were necessarily be made.
But Mayor Cooper and Hallandale Beach City Hall weren't interested in that.
Yes, it was yet another in the hundreds of examples over ther past ten years I've lived here where the powers-that-be at HB City Hall, like the HBPD, dis the mayor's bidding and did NOT cooperate because they wanted certain results, not a fair discussion and analysis of the problem and the unique geographical factors we have in this city: 3 city streets carry well over 90% of all traffic, and only one road exists that connects the eastern residents of the city on the beach with I-95.
A complete lack of options.
Plus, there's the city's failure to actually post warning signs like other communities routinely did -where you could see them.
Instead, they had them placed behind a bus shelter located near the entrance to a retail complex -home of The Knife Argentinian restaurant- so that you couldn't see the sign until you were even with it as you drove north on U.S.-1.
A sign that was located on the inside of the sidewalk, not where you could see it near the curb, as is the case for most but not all of those RLC warning signs in next-door Hollywood.
Even now, as I saw again yesterday, the city's warning sign on NW 10th Court & Hallandale Beach Blvd. is almost impossible for drivers to see given that there are multiple signs in front of it and it's placed in-between trees.
Just as it has been for YEARS.
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Csaba Kulin Date: Thu, Feb 27, 2014 at 12:24 PM Subject: Red Light Cameras in WSJ
February 27, 2014
Hallandale Beach Residents,
Due to the relentless hard work of our residents and three courageous Hallandale Beach commissioners, Commissioners Julian, Lazarow and Sanders we can say “goodbye” to the hated red light cameras. Unexpectedly even Vice Mayor Lewy joined the majority, stating in the Sun Sentinel that the time has come to remove them. Only the unrepentant believer in the red light cameras, Mayor Cooper voted to keep it.
I knew it was a bad idea from the start, thirty eight (38%) percent of our residents did not like it when the City surveyed us. Under the slogan of “the beatings will continue until morale improves”, we had to endure the punishment and enriched the coffers of ATS for several years to come.
There had been a lot written about the issue but today the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) had an article on its front page about “Number of Communities Using Red-Light Cameras Declines”. The article is good reading but please read the more than seventy reader comments. The comments reflect the public’s view on this issue.
I attached a link to the WSJ article for your convenience.
Date: Mon, Feb 24, 2014 at 3:55 PM Subject: FYI: Csaba Kulin re the City of Hallandale Beach's Red-Light Camera contract with American Traffic Solutions (ATS) which calls for city taxpayers to shell-out $150k if city terminates contract before Dec. 31 -as they've voted to do After all the dozens of blog posts and emails I've written on the subject of RLC's over the past few years, and all of the meetings I recorded, trust me when I tell you this: at NONE of the public meetings in Hallandale Beach that I or anyone else attended, before and after the ATS contract was signed and RLC cameras were initially erected -over the intense opposition of the majority of this community's citizens -in part because of where they were put up: NOT where traffic accidents involving speeding actually happened!- were termination fees discussed.
Least of all, mentioned publicly by Mayor Joy Cooper, who received so much from Arizona-based ATS via campaign contributions funds and emotional support, and whose tune she has always danced and sung in public and in Op-Eds. There was never any discussion of it or the the amount until AFTER the HB City Commission finally voted to get rid of it and the mayor was on the losing 4-1 side.
We got the specific numbers$ last week, weeks after the vote where both the City Attorney and City Manager couldn't answer numerous basic questions about the contract at the meeting where the vote to rid us of the cameras took place.
To most careful observers of what's going on here, which does not include the Herald or the Sun-Sentinel, the sudden need by City Hall to talk about termination fees seems like a rather ham-handed and obvious attempt by city administrators and city bureaucrats to justify keeping the contract, despite the will of the people actually being expressed forcefully thru the elected City Commission for one of the rare times in the past ten years, albeit years after they should've.
This from bureaucrats who routinely waste money hand-over-fist into the tens of millions.
re Unamortized amounts invested:
Also never discussed when Mayor Cooper and Police Chief Dwayne Flournoy were championing it as a safety measure despite all the evidence to the contrary that it was being done to generate revenue for City Hall: it would be HB taxpayers' obligations to pay for something -equipment- that would not be used if the contract was terminated.
Folks, it's NOT a perishable cake or pizza or a time-sensitive airline ticket we're being forced to pay for, it's metal, wires and software that can be used over-and-over.
So why are we going to have to pay ATS a hidden profit for something that the next govt. foolish enough to use it will also have to pay for?
Question for the media to ask the Mayor and Police Chief: if it's all about public safety, why all these years later are there still ZEROof the required warning signs for it on either west-bound or east-bound Hallandale Beach Blvd. as you approach that U.S.-1 intersection?
Thank you for your quick response to my e-mail and thank you for your explanation before and during the February 19, 2014 City Commission Meeting. As I stated to you at the time, I did not get your e-mail before the meeting and I did not have sufficient time to read the entire Agreement between the City and ATS. Now I had the time to read the Agreement and I do see the ARTICLES you referred to during the meeting.
To memorialize the essence of your comments let me see if I remember them correctly. Of course, if you remember differently, please let me know.
You told me that ARTICLE 1, TERM of the Agreement reads “the term of this Agreement be five (5) years and shall begin on the date immediately following conclusion of warning period”.That is the reason the Agreement shall not terminate until December of 2014.You are absolutely correct but you did not tell me about the “however” in the clause, the second part of ARTICLE 1.
The second part of the TERM Section reads “if the term of this Agreement extends beyond a single fiscal year of CITY, the continuation of this Agreement beyond the end of any fiscal year shall be subject to both the appropriation and the availability of funds in accordance with Florida law”. The language indicates to me that on less the City Commission budgets funds in the next fiscal year the Agreement is terminated at the end of this fiscal year, maybe earlier if no funds are available. No mention of the City’s obligation to pay ATS any “unamortized amounts invested”.
I mentioned in my comments ARTICLE 7, TERMINATION, Section 7.3, the CITY’s right to terminate the Agreement for “convenience”. Part 1 of the Section 7.3 reads “In the event this Agreement is terminated for convenience, VENDOR shall be paid for any services properly performed under the Agreement through the termination date specified in the written notice of termination”. I agree, the VENDOR should be paid for services already performed.
Part 2 of Section 7.3 reads “VENDOR acknowledges and agrees that it has received good, valuable and sufficient consideration from CITY, the receipt and adequacy of which are, hereby acknowledged by VENDOR, for CITY’s right to terminate this Agreement for convenience”. This tells me that the VENDOR has received sufficient consideration from the City to cancel for “convenience” at any time. No mention of the City’s obligation to pay ATS any “unamortized amounts invested”.
ATS may argue for “unamortized amount invested” in ARTICLE 7, TERMINATION, Section 7.5. In my opinion, this Section is very poorly worded, ambiguous and unconscionably one sided favoring ATS.
“Any termination of this agreement by the City shall be without any liability or damages to ATS, except if the Agreement is terminated pursuant to 7.1 above the City shall pay ATS the unamortized amount invested by ATS in the program at the date of termination by the City”. At a minimum, a comma should have been placed between “above and the City” to make the Section easier to read. What does this above sentence say? The City pays the entire 5 years worth of payments no matter what? Does the City have any contemporary documentation as to the “amortized amount invested” or ATS will give it to the City now?
I cannot understand how the City’s law department “signed off” on the cause and I do not believe our City Commission was made aware of this cause prior to approving the Agreement. Had the City Commission decided to cancel the Agreement one month into the 60 month contract, the City would have been required to pay close to $750,000 to ATS? Am I wrong to assume this?
In my opinion there are sufficient questions concerning this Agreement and a significant amount of money demanded by ATS to hire an outside counsel to advise the City as to the proper course to follow.
You stated that the City Manager has the information as to the dates of grace period and start of the Agreement. She also has documents as to the amount invested by ATS and an amortization schedule of amount invested by ATS. I will ask her for that information.
I hope you will find the time to correct me where I am wrong because I do not want disseminate partial or incorrect information.
From: "Whitfield, Lynn" To: "ckulin Bill Julian, "Lazarow, Michele" "Lewy, Alexander" , Commissioner Anthony Sanders CC: "Miller C., Renee" , "Rafols, Nydia M" Subject: RE: Red Light Camera Contract Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2014 23:01:30 +0000
Mr. Kulin
If you look at the contract, the effective date is not until after the expiration of the warning period. The warning period did not begin until after the cameras and system were installed which was not immediately after the contract was signed. With the installation of the cameras and the 90 day warning period the contract did not become effective until December 2009.
AV Preeminent ® rated, the highest rating by Martindale-Hubbell
AV Preeminent® is a registered certification mark of Reed Elsevier Properties, Inc.
Used under in accordance with the Martindale-Hubbell certification procedures, standards
And policies.
From: Csaba Kulin Sent: Wednesday, February 19, 2014 5:16 PM To: Billy Julian; Lazarow, Michele; Lewy, Alexander; Commissioner Anthony Sanders Cc: Whitfield, Lynn; Miller C., Renee; Rafols, Nydia M Subject: Red Light Camera Contract
Dear Commissioners,
In the short time I had to look over the ATS contract it seems to me that the City entered into a 5 year contract in 2009 with ATS.
ATS signed the Contract February 24, 2009 and the City signed the Contract March 5, 2009.
You can find the signatures on pages 19 and 20 of the Contract.
On less the City signed a 2 year option, the contact is just about expired.
I hope you have time to confirm my findings by tonight's meeting.
Csaba Kulin
---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sat, Jan 25, 2014 at 2:24 PM Subject: re Sun-Sentinel's incomplete story re red-light cameras getting the boot in Hallandale Beach -just another example of their shallow reporting missing-the-mark Would've been nice if the Sun-Sentinel, for a change -FOR ONCE- actually focused on the myriad reasons why HB citizens have been calling for RLC to go for years, including an honest accounting of the the history of Mayor Cooper, City Hall and HBPD consciously deciding NOT to share public info on traffic accidents so that citizens could actually see where largest number of accidents occurred.
Once again, when presented with a story on a silver platter about a dysfunctional HB story that cried out for some genuine depth in it, the Sun-Sentinel went for the bury-'em-with-quotes
approach that left HB's unique perspective completely unexplored, and has instead left objective observers just as confused as to why this happened here instead of happening in another city.
How can they bring the word trend into the story without ever explaining how it all happened?
What would those common components in other cities be that could make it happen elsewhere?
They don't say.
Until that paper is sold and new management and reporters are there, that paper
is an afterthought when it comes to local news and political coverage.
No mention at all of the city starting a RLC program before the state authorized one, and with so little attention to detail by the City, HBPD or then-City Attorney David Jove that required warning signs were actually obscured from the public driving by, as I noted at the time with photos connecting-the-dots.
All these years later, there's still ZERO warning signs on either east-bound or west-bound
Hallandale Beach Blvd. approaching U.S.-1
Those required warning signs on the median near NW 10th Terrace were NOT there when the
city started their program or when the state did but much later.
I know because I have the photos that show that lack of attention to detail at the time, and most of you have already seen them.
They didn't want to do that because they knew that if the facts came out, they'd be hard-pressed to explain why they were so insistent on placing cameras in places that'd clearly generate less REVENUE, including the illegal right-hand turn money they were getting hand-over-fist at the beginning that got the city so much negative media coverage across the state.
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Red-light cameras kicked to curb - Hallandale yanks them, but will others follow?
Local10 News reporter Roger Lohse on Hallandale Beach's perpetual beach erosion problems that were made worse in late October by Hurricane/Superstorm Sandy, especially in the city's southern beachfront area, which is now only a few feet wide. Eroding beach worries Hallandale Beach residents
The City of Hallandale Beach is hosting a community meeting re beach nourishment featuring federal, state and county officials on Tuesday, April 30th at 6 p.m. at the Hemispheres Condominium, 985 S. Ocean Drive, Hallandale Beach..
Urban Beach Weekend Fallout: Today's 4 p.m. meeting on Miami Beach of the Miami Beach Chamber of Commerce's Board of Governors may well be a "High Noon" of sorts for certain sycophants of South Florida's insular and greedy hospitality industry, so often disconnected to reality and forever offering up a smile to out-of-town visitors while often treating them in a second-class fashion -when not ripping them off.
Not that anything will happen to anyone on the CoC Board, per se, rather now we may well see who in that group can see the situation for what it really is, and will say so publicly, and who still swallows the Kool-Aid and will try to obfuscate, conflate and dissemble behind that curtain.
And despite the fact that someone was killed, almost unmentioned in the subsequent discussion among South Florida residents?
The truly dreadful performance of the Miami Beach Police Dept., seeming to show no appreciation for the fact that their unprofessional behavior -by losing their cool- nearly killed innocent people.
Is it merely bad training or... and their amateurish/standoffish handling of the media's legitimate inquiries are only making it look worse.
Here's the thing: nobody-but-nobody who lives in South Florida and who pays attention is the least bit surprised at what happened last week on Miami Beach -a police-involved shooting.
Most residents of South Florida, especially those who have traveled anywhere and have a history of having attended large outdoor events/festivals elsewhere in the country or the world, will tell you that all the ingredients were there for an explosion.
And now that it's gone off, what will happen?
Question: which newspaper had not a single word about this incident in their Sunday edition?
Yes, the same day thatChannel 10'sMichael Putneyhad an excellent discussion of the issue on hisThis Week in South Floridatelecast on Sunday morning, followingABC-TV's This Weektelecast?
Answer: theMiami Herald.
(I was going to post the video of the TWISF segment on UBW aso you could see it for yourself, but Channel 10 STILL hasn't put it on the website yet, as their most recent one is from May 22nd. It's the year 2011 -what's the hold-up???)
Seems to me that this afternoon's meeting could turn out to be ONE hell of a meeting!
Channel 10/WPLG-TV newscast video with reporter Ross Palombo: Video Gives Up-Close View Of Officer-Involved Shooting.
Includes video of Miami Beach Policeman who grabbed bystander Narces Benoit's cellphone recording and smashed it; driver kept SIM card!
Man behind rally to end Urban Beach Week says efforts got him fired
By David Smiley
June 7, 2011
.
When Peter Tapia took to Facebook to protest the rowdy parties that descend on South Beach every Memorial Day weekend and organized an anti-Urban Beach Week rally at city hall, his goal was to end the city’s annual but unofficial hip-hop street festival.
So far, the only thing Tapia’s activism has ended is his job.
Tapia, 23, says he was fired from his position as a Shore Club concierge Thursday after his bosses learned he was pushing to end Urban Beach Week, a rowdy and controversial hip-hop street party that was marred this year by two police-involved shootings in which an alleged gunman was killed and four bystanders were shot.
“I became unemployed because of all the attention I got,” Tapia said. “My employer decided it was a breach of contract.”
Tim Nardi, general manager of the Shore Club, said hotel policy would not allow him to discuss Tapia’s employment.
“I can’t confirm or deny his employee status,” Nardi said. “But any issue related to Peter did not have anything to do with this weekend.”
Nardi is also chairman of the Greater Miami and the Beaches Hotel Association.
Leading up to Memorial Day weekend, Nardi said Urban Beach Week is a historically positive event for Miami Beach’s hotels, which are typically packed with guests during the weekend. Nardi said Monday that he isn’t advocating for or against Urban Beach Week in the midst of controversy, but said the city’s hotels “welcome everybody to South Beach.”
Tapia said he had been previously warned by the Shore Club not to have involvement with the media and signed some kind of agreement. He also mentioned on Facebook that he was a Shore Club concierge, which he said his bosses didn’t appreciate.
“That’s something I shouldn’t have done,” he said.
Though Tapia was fired Thursday, he went ahead with a Friday rally that drew roughly 150 people. He said he will continue to push to end Urban Beach Week while looking for employment.
“Even though I lost my job I will still continue to fight for the community,” Tapia said. “I’m still active in this. We’re still organizing.”
It takes just one fool to ruin everybody else’s fun
By James H. Burnett III
June 2, 2011
There’s a civics lesson to be learned from the debacle that was the 10th annual Urban Beach Weekend in Miami Beach, and it’s a lesson we all learned in kindergarten – either when we were mush-headed 5-year-olds or when we read the book All I Ever Really Needed to Know I learned in Kindergarten.
And here is part one of that lesson: Even if nine out of 10 people exercise good sense, when number 10 makes a habit of acting, as my grandmother would say, “a fool,” he will ruin the other nine folks’ good time.
Eight people were shot at this year’s UBW along South Beach — one fatally — and three police officers were injured. Granted, fair questions remain as to whether some of the injured were actually innocent bystanders shot by cops who’d fired at a dangerous drunk driving suspect — and missed — like they were “shooting” a scene in a John Woo movie. But still.
During the gathering’s first year, 2001, a fatal shooting took place on South Beach. UBW has been tame some years. But in 2006, police snagged more than 70 firearms from partygoers, and in 2007 two men were killed in a drive-by shooting.
And no one with the ability to keep a straight face — and who isn’t a defense or civil rights attorney — would dare suggest that the occurrence of these crimes and weapons confiscations were likely to happen on South Beach when they happened, absent the coinciding UBW festivities.
I’ve never attended UBW — I’m too old, too far removed from college age, too easily bored by parties, and beginning to turn gray. But here’s how my good time was ruined by a similar gathering.
In the fall of 1989, when I was a young, svelte, even better-looking high school student in Virginia Beach, I held the unfortunate part-time job of women’s shoe salesman at the Leggett department store in a local mall, squeezing oversized, sweaty feet into new shoes that hadn’t done anything to deserve that punishment. I was working the night a riot broke out at the Labor Day weekend Greek Fest, a similar event to Urban Beach Weekend in that it brought together thousands of black college students (and thousands of local non-students who mingled with the visitors) for several days of nightclub and beach parties.
Residents of beachfront neighborhoods had been complaining to city officials for years that the rowdy spillover from Greek Fest was putting a serious crimp in their quality of life.
No one was seriously hurt, but stores and hotels along a 10-block stretch of Atlantic Avenue suffered so many broken windows it appeared they’d been visited by a hurricane. Police were overwhelmed. Looters had their way. Rifle-toting National Guard troops even responded.
When I left the mall close to midnight after staying late for inventory, the rioting hadn’t started, but the tensions were high. And before I’d made it three blocks on my drive home, I was pulled over by a police officer, who for the next 15 minutes questioned me nervously about where I was going and warning me that it had better not be to the beach. He let me go after I convinced him that my proximity to the mall, my suit, tie and name tag, and my lack of beachwear, were enough proof that I was going home.
The officer was out of line. But I’d never have encountered him if the fool (multiplied by several hundred) in my grandmother’s anecdote hadn’t turned a party sour. By way of the rioters, Greek Fest ruined my good time.
Frankly, I don’t care one way or another if Miami Beach decides to ban UBW and all related gatherings. But I hope the city follows Virginia Beach’s lead and makes the issue behavior and not race. If the majority of UBW attendees over the years had been white, their skin color would never sneak its way into the conversation. The conversation would be “Let’s keep these crazy folks off the beach…without chasing away the harmless people they mingled with.”
If UBW does come to an end, part two of that civics lesson is: You don’t have to do anything wrong to have your quality of life negatively affected. Spoilers are everywhere. And as the students and other mannerly attendees to UBW grow up and move on, hopefully they’ll remember this year and keep in mind that good times can be maintained if we can slap a scarlet letter on the spoilers and figure out how to impress upon them that they have two choices: straighten up and behave or be isolated out of the mainstream.
Shallow end of Miami TV News pool: Will it ever swim in the deep-end for one entire newscast and resist the siren song of dopey chick stories? No!
News stories on TV about important public policy issues, in this case, votes on the future of red-light cameras in Broward County, who needs it?! So seems the message from the hard-to-figure folks at Miami's Channel 4 News, WFOR-TV.
One week after News4 aired nothing about the vote on red-light cameras at the Broward County Commission last Tuesday morning on that night's 11 o'clock newscast...
Which, itself, came one week to the day after only WSVN-TV/Channel 7 News, in the form of Reed Cowan and his cameraman, bothered to send someone to cover the hugely embarrassing PR fiasco of a whitewash in Hollywood that Jennifer Gottlieb and Ann Murray of the Broward School Board attempted to perpetrate on the public...
...Channel 4 News did TWO separate stories on breast milk in one newscast.
Tuesday night, we once again saw the news judgment of the guy who replaced blog favorite Adrienne Roark as News4 News Director after she moved up and on to WFAA-TV in Dallas a year ago this month. Message received! Yes, we got the "Are you wearing the right size bra?" Really. Yes, that chick chestnut that all East Coast TV markets get at least once a year.. Yes, of course, it was a Lisa Petrillo story, how did you ever guess? Oh right -past experience!
So, do you think a female Ralph Renick could get a job now in Miami TV if she wasn't willing to do the kind of tripe that is so commonplace in Miami TV? Not any time soon from the looks of things.
Oh well, lest you completely give up hope completely, somebody from the world of Miami TV actually bothered to show-up last Tuesday morning to play grown-up reporter and report the news and that was WPLG-TV/Local10'sRoger Lohse. Here's his thorough story: Red Light Camera Expansion Hits Roadblock -A plan to expand the number of red light cameras in Broward County has been put on hold http://www.justnews.com/news/27046307/detail.html Here's the video: http://www.justnews.com/video/27049351/index.html
I will have a LOT more to say soon about what transpired at that Broward County Commission meeting last Tuesday, perhaps even some video clips highlighting some particularly embarrassing low-lights that some people in the audience felt the need to email and text me about as it was happening. My favorite excerpt was this one from someone whose identity will have to remain a secret:
You're missing quite the show.
Joy Cooper is in rare form.
Oh yes, Mayor Cooper's curious performance and equally curious choice of words, where her words at times seemed like "perjury" in the words of some HB and Broward residents viewing the show in person and at home told me later. THAT will definitely get the overdue scrutiny it deserves that it DIDN'T get in the Miami Herald last Wednesday.
Oh, did you miss that? One week later, the Herald has STILL NOT managed to put together an original story or column about what happened that day and what the future holds for roughly 45% of its readers.
Here it is, excerpted from the Sun-Sentinel's story by Brittany Wallman, since the Herald didn't bother to send their own reporter. I've highlighted below in blue what the Herald actually printed. South Florida Sun-Sentinel http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/fl-redlight-decision-20110301,0,1201570.story Red-light camera expansion on hold By Brittany Wallman, Sun Sentinel 6:30 PM EST, March 1, 2011
If red-light cameras are going to pop up all over Broward County, the cities would have to put up red-light countdown clocks and enforcement warning signs, and all would have to enforce the same way. That's what Broward County commissioners said they would want before they'd give the go-ahead to a major expansion in the controversial program.
Drivers in Broward routinely run late yellow lights or fresh reds, camera advocates say. They think red lights mean "STOPtional,'' one officer complained Tuesday.
A vote that would have allowed red-light cameras to proliferate was postponed at least 30 days so Broward's cities, the county and the camera vendor can hash out a standardized, cross-county way to treat drivers.
Commissioners also indicated they would want to collect a fee. They'd want cities to agree not to ticket drivers making right turns on red, as well. While those details are worked out, the county's staff will explore an alternative: making drivers sit an extra two seconds at the red light to clear the intersection before the signal turns green.
The great Roger Lohse story at Channel 10/WPLG-TV Miami on red-light cameras from two weeks ago that really got LOTS of people's full attention because it revealed that many South Florida cities were NOT contesting drivers in court who'd been issued citations, because of their fear that the law used would be ruled unconstitutional.
"Of the 199 cases he counted, there were only eight convictions. The bulk of the others -- 155 cases -- were dismissed by the cities that issued the citations."
Naturally, Hallandale Beach is one of those cities mentioned in the story. In fact, this news segment starts with Lohse standing near the city's electronic message board warning drivers about the law going into effect at west-bound Hallandale Beach Blvd. & N.W. 10th Terrace on Tuesday, which I have been mentioning here for the past several days. Red Light Tickets Not Sticking
A review of court cases shows many cases are being dismissed.
With Hallandale Beach's Keystone Kops in charge, when will the Avenaim family finally get justice? So, what's going on with Brian Bethell, the man who murdered Albert Avenaim of Aventura in Hallandale Beach -and two other innocent South Florida men- in 2006? http://cbs4.com/video/?id=13909@wfor.dayport.com The Brian Bethell who turned 43 recently. You know, the man who brought two small kids with him and his girlfriend when they decided to go on a shopping spree with the dead men's credit cards at a Coral SpringsWal-Mart, as they had done before? The man who was caught NOT due to anything in particular the Hallandale Beach Police Dept. had done, but rather because Mr. Avenaim's family had the good sense to take the initiative and put-up fliers at the store about the suspect, along with reward information. This was why store employees recognized Bethell when he swung back by the store. CBS-4's excellent reporter Ted Scouten did this report on the reward on March 3, 2006 http://video.aol.com/video-detail/wal-mart-employees-who-led-police-to-killer-get-reward/450206456 Yeah, the Hallandale Beach Police who were so concerned about the safety/conditions of the 2500 Hallandale Beach Blvd./Millennium complex for employees and visitors, that they provided evening security -from the comfort of their squad cars- for a few weeks after the murder of Mr. Avenaim. But who, when asked, specifically, refused to say whether or not they were off-duty while they were parked in their squad cars, and when asked about all the self-evident missing, broken or obscured parking lot lights near the crime scene, acted like they couldn't quite hear you, even though you were just inches away. This being HB, the squad cars were up near the Hallandale Beach Blvd. entrance, rather than being near the actual Avenaim murder crime scene. (Not that their superiors higher up the chain were any more forthcoming with information, as Chief Thomas Magill and Capt. Robert Rodgers both played dumb about that whole situation after I specifically asked them about it last June.) Yes, the Hallandale Beach Police whose concern for public safety was such that, according to Capt. Rodgers, they wouldn't specifically ask, encourage or nudge the owners of the complex towards fixing their longstanding safety/lighting problems. As it happens, those self-evident problems are ones I've discussed at length over the past two years with a few print and TV reporters here in South Florida, and which were NOT addressed by the complex's owners until only 3-4 weeks ago. Yes, the Hallandale Beach Police Dept. led by the still-serving Chief Thomas Magill, whom as I've chronicled here, is a man who tried to have two innocent Hallandale Beach Police officers criminally prosecuted -for something they didn't do. See http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2008/04/dial-m-for-magill-and-mendacity.html According to a recent check of the rather poky Broward County Clerks Office website, http://www.clerk-17th-flcourts.org/bccoc2/pubsearch/case_summary.asp?FMCE96017183=CIV&FMCE96017183=CIV&01017198CF10A=CRM&05116917TC30A=CRM&06006136MM10A=CRM&hidCaseNumber=06003321CF10A&06003321CF10A=CRM&06005634CF10A=CRM&06003572CF10A=CRM&06005168CF10A=CRM&CACE01010726=CIV&hidSendingPage=search_results&hidCourtType=CRM&hidGeneralType=CRM&hidS=party_public&SearchT=&mscssid=&user_type=&hidPageName=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.clerk-17th-flcourts.org%2Fbccoc2%2Fpubsearch%2Fpublic_search.asp%3F&btnSummary=View+Selected+Case Brian Bethell will FINALLY go on trial on the 28thof April -a week from tomorrow. Key Dates - Future Scheduled Events 04/28/2008 JURY TRIAL Judge: PAUL L BACKMAN You'd think that as the trial phase was getting closer, you'd see something about it in local media, but I've read nothing in the newspapers, seen nothing on TV, or, shocker, heard nothing about it on radio, in the South Florida of 2008 where a niche apparently exists for Mexican music but not an all-news radio station. Que pasa? Over the next few days, if everything goes according to schedule, I'll be cobbling together all the things that I already know and have already written about the Millennium situation -and kept in the deep freeze Draft for months- which, along with some photographs I've taken over the years, will buttress my points. I'll post them to both Hallandale Beach Blog and parent blog, South Beach Hoosier, too. http://southbeachhoosier.blogspot.com/ You can then draw your own conclusions. ________________________________ Speaking of the curious lack of media curiosity down here with regards to the upcoming Bethell murder trial, below you'll find a series of emails and notes which I've put together, which, taken in toto, paints a very accurate but damning portrait of the local news media as they currently choose to practice their craft. It also includes a bad memory for yours truly on a summer that might've been spent so much better. What will soon follow is an excerpted copy of an email that I sent on February 8, 2008 to about a half-dozen or so Local 10 TV reporters, including Roger Lohse. In case you don't recall the specifics of the news story under discussion below, it was Lohse'sLocal 10 news report on February 7th concerning the curious circumstances of the July 2007 accidental death of Myron Kafka of Hollywood, in the lobby of Millennium's HQ at 2500 Hallandale Beach Blvd. http://www.local10.com/news/13750861/detail.html Perhaps this might help jog your memory a bit: excerpted from: AROUND SOUTH FLORIDA The Miami Herald July 24, 2007 Miami Herald Staff Report
HALLANDALE BEACH BODY FOUND TRAPPED BETWEEN ELEVATOR, GATE An employee at a Hallandale Beach medical office discovered the body of an 81-year-old man early Monday morning, police said. The man, identified as Myron Kafka of Hollywood, was trapped between an elevator and a metal gate. The incident happened inside the Millennium Building, 2500 E. Hallandale Beach Blvd. The 5,000-square-foot structure houses several medical offices, authorities said. Police believe the slender man got caught between the gate and the elevator. He did not appear to be crushed, police said. "We don't know how he died or how long he has been there," said Andrew Casper, a Hallandale Beach police spokesman. _____________________________________ A later report from AP: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wirestory?id=3412355 Man Dies Trapped Between Elevator, Gate Elderly Man Dies After Becoming Trapped Between Elevator, Security Gate at Medical Building. The Associated Press
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. An elderly man died of a heart attack after he became trapped between an elevator and a security gate in a medical building, authorities said. The death of Myron Kafka, 81, was considered accidental, Hallandale Beach spokesman Andrew Casper said. Broward County Medical Examiner Joshua Perper said Tuesday that Kafka had been dead at least two days when staff from the building discovered his body on Monday. Kafka was trapped in the 14-inch space between the elevator doors and a locked, illegally installed security gate, authorities said. Perper said Kafka may have been there since Friday afternoon, when he was last seen alive. According to the medical examiner's report, Kafka had been at his doctor's office, located in the building. Officials ordered the gate removed and cited the property for installing it. _________________________________ Long ignored public safety problems at 2500 Hallandale Beach Blvd.; HB Police ignore problem Friday February 8th, 2008 I would like to speak with you soon -and possibly meet with you if possible- so we can talk about some other serious public safety problems I know about concerning the 2500 Hallandale Beach Blvd./Millennium complex, the subject of Roger Lohse's Thursday night report on Local 10's 11 p.m.newscast. They consist of some first-hand observations I initially noticed in the aftermath of the Feb. 10th, 2006 murder of Albert Avenaim of Aventura, outside of Padrino's Cuban Restaurant, in a particularly senseless death, even by South Florida's grisly standards. www.local10.com/news/7000578/detail.html http://www.websleuths.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-36379.html This Sunday will mark exactly two years since Mr. Avenaim's untimely murder. What do you suppose has changed about the Millennium complex, safety-wise, in those two intervening years? Nothing. And if you count the responsible property owners STILL not doing the minimum to do right by the public, and I do, it's actually worse than nothing, it's negligence. In the days after the murder, I saw some things that just didn't make any common sense, but which, to me, were self-evident signs of negligence -dare I say gross negligence?- by the property owners and management, abetted in part by the City of Hallandale Beach's own incompetence, which, typically, responded with a fig leaf, rather than employing a pro-active approach that showed some common sense and foresight. Frankly, I suspect most of what I know to be completely unknown to the various insurance companies that cover the myriad owners/investors of that particular property, since the insurance companies probably assume that there's no way their clients at Millennium would intentionally put people in harm's way, whether employees or patrons of the various business establishments renting space there. Through photographs I've taken of the property since Mr. Avenaim's murder two years ago, I can show that is NOT the case. If anything, a reasonable person might infer from the preponderance of evidence that their inaction fell far below the standard that one reasonably expects, and actually shows a callous disregard for public safety, since it's clear they haven't maintained the property in a safe manner. As you may already know, Millennium and their various partners have some rather lofty -I say grandiose- plans to transform that property into a huge office/condo complex showplace, complete with all sorts of amenities for their tenants and the public. And who's leading that effort? Well, none other than garrulous State Senator Steve Geller, the FL Senate Democratic leader, and someone I'm very open about regarding as a cancer on Broward County's political system and public policy arena, as my blogs make clear. Yes, the Steve Geller that has his office located at the HB City Hall. (Geller is one of the individuals I hold most personally responsible for the State of Florida moving its presidential primary from March to last week, despite the perfectly predicted downside of losing all Democratic delegates to the Denver DNC this summer.) How do I know that Geller represents Millennium? I was one of the select few to attend a sparsely-attended public meeting that Millennium was forced to hold, in December of 2006, in HB's Cultural Center behind their City Hall. I got there early, expecting some emotional fireworks because of the rather predictable concerns about exacerbating the already bad neighborhood traffic-flow on HBB, the completely out-of-proportion size of the plan, etc., and sat at the table next to Miami Herald reporter Jennifer Lebovich. Once I got there and had grabbed a donut and some coffee, and returned to the table I had all to myself, my biggest thought while jotting down some thoughts in my legal pad was making sure to leave early enough so that I could get home and not miss a minute of a new episode of LOST. Really. I'd forgotten to program my VCR. But then, quite unexpectedly, to my great surprise, in walked Geller and his retinue with trademark showy boisterousness, with him not waiting even two beats before continuing on a rant/harangue disparaging then-Gov.-Elect Crist in tones that would've been loud enough for everyone in the room to hear if the room had been half-full -wishful thinking- say, 150-200 people. As it was, counting his Millennium crew and the interested public, such as it was, there were no more than 25 people in that room, so his voice was bouncing off the walls. To be so self-absorbed as to publicly belittle Crist in front of people -and a reporter- before he'd even taken the oath of office, showed me the side of Geller I'd often read and heard about, but never seen in person for myself. But I recognized the type, since I'd had dealings with Rahm Emanuel in Washington before he was anybody of note, per se, and he already had that insufferable attitude and ego thing down pat. Geller's whole shtick was so over-the-top as to be farcical, and I debated back and forth in my head at the time whether I ought to dispense with pleasantries and the subject at hand, and simply drop my knowledge of what hasn't transpired at 2500 HBB on Geller and Millennium, in front of reporter Lebovich, once the presentation was over and the Q&A began in earnest. In the end, I just didn't trust the judgment of the crowd or Lebovich's ability to synthesize the narrative and connect all the dots in a way that would get all the pertinent facts out. Given my interests and background, and the fact that I've been to dozens of these sorts of development meetings over the years in Northern Virginia and D.C., I thought I had a pretty good idea how the evening would go. But listening to the sheer obfuscation and mis-direction coming out of Geller's mouth, his Pooh-poohing of the patently obvious worsening traffic problems on HBB if the project was approved, as if he could wave a magic wand over them, rendering them invisible, well, it was all I could do to not ask him straight out if he and his colleagues even recognized the name of Albert Avenaim -and then go on offense. As to the seriousness of the safety issues, this isn't just a hunch or my opinion, but rather something which I've captured with photographs over the past two years, though to their great shame and discredit, the City of Hallandale Beach's response, nothing, is almost as criminally negligent. (Even today, weeks after the Boca Mall murders!) I've spoken with great specificity about it with a number of people, including serious newspaper reporters as well as the Hallandale Beach Police Dept., including Capt Robert Rodgers and Police Chief Thomas Magill. The city and Police have done nothing, and the problems I know about remain much as they did two years ago: waiting for another innocent victim. (You'll recall that Mr. Avenaim's murder was solved NOT as a result of anything the HB Police Dept. did specifically, or even BSO, but rather thru the efforts of the alert Wal-Mart employees, after the guilty party, Brian Bethell, tried to use the third of his his victim's credit cards at their Coral Springs location, his second visit there. You'll also recall he felt so confident, he even brought along his girlfriend and two toddlers, which, I think, tells you everything you need to know about him. Unlike the situation with the individual who called police per the shooting of the BSO deputy in Hollywood late last year, after driving the suspect in his car to the Pawn Shop near 441, who received a monetary reward from Crime Stoppers, I believe Channel Ten reported that the Wal-Mart employees who thought something was fishy with Brian Bethell did not get any kind of reward from Crime Stoppers.) I myself grew-up in North Miami Beach, but spent lots of time in both Hollywood Beach and Hallandale, so I recall what it was like physically before the final capitulation to the condo canyons. When my family moved to South Florida in the summer of 1968, when I was seven, we stayed at the small hotel next to the iconic HB water tower for 2-3 weeks, until my parents found a suitable apt. in NMB they liked. Because of that fact, and our regular visits there over the years, I distinctly recall the way the beach in Hallandale looked then, with actual dunes of some height, and whispering pines along them. It was so peaceful and relaxing late in the afternoon. What's happened to that area of the public beach since then is a disgrace, with the city not even having the common sense to conduct a shadow study before approving The Beach Club project, which happened while I was still in the D.C. area. In order to keep my sanity, though it's far from the scope I had initially envisioned or hoped for, largely because of time constraints, I actually had to start a blog once I saw how absurd, pathetic and illogical things were done at HB's City Hall, where both "rhyme" and "reason" are unknown quantities. Honestly, I can't help think that fictional mid-'60'sSparta portrayed in In The Heat of the Night has nothing on Hallandale Beach now in the backwards department. Though I've lived in lots of different kinds of towns of varying sizes and nature all over the country, I've never heard of a real city where city employees were and are more risk averse to doing their job properly, and management was less reluctant to see to it that they did. Lax oversight hardly begins to describe it. Just so you know, that's the bias I bring to this matter. Not to laugh about it, but I literally saw another prime example just 48 hours ago, right on HBB, where you can see it within spitting distance of the HB Chamber of Commerce. Hiding in plain sight. Yes, the forest for the trees. Please contact me directly when you have some time to talk about the situation. Sincerely, DBS __________________________________________ To give you some better perspective on the above, here's an excerpt from an email I sent on February 21, 2008 and sent to someLocal 10News execs. More proof that Channel 10 News isn't what it used to be: the latest sad example
To: "Peter Burke" pburke@ibsys.com, "Michelle Solomon" msolomon@ibsys.com Some constructive criticism, on the chance that it may do some good... but I won't hold my breath. Two weeks ago, after watching Roger Lohse's Local10 news report on Feb. 7th on Mr. Kafka's death alongside the lobby elevator of Millennium LLC's HQ at 2500 Hallandale Beach Blvd., a property I'm very familiar with, I tried to alert him and some of your reporters to the fact that I was aware of information that could show that there was a continuing pattern of neglect surrounding the maintenance of the Millennium property, going back to at least the time of the Albert Avenaim murder at Padrino's Cuban Cuisine two years ago -in the very same retail/office complex. (Why yes, the very same one that State Senator Steve Geller, the FL Senate Democratic leader represents and lobbies on behalf of. Not that your news reports ever mentioned it) As it happens, February 10th was the second anniversary of Mr. Avenaim's murder. Sadly for you two, none of the half-dozen news reporters I emailed at Channel 10 bothered to respond to my query, despite my making it very easy for them to reach me and get the information. I have to tell you, Mr. Burke and Ms. Solomon, even by South Florida's often shallow-end-of-the-pool news standards, that sort of jaded and apathetic response among reporters still surprises. But it is what it is. Frankly, the sad truth is that other than Michael Putney and Glenna Milberg, there's no compelling reason to watch your oh-so-predictable newscasts. Not that you asked, but I've since spoken to a number of other reporters in town, print and electronic, some of whom immediately saw the facts for what they were, and were able to connect the dots -just as I described them. They didn't need to be asked twice. Having photographs to buttress my points surely went a long way towards assuaging any of their doubts, yet strangely, that didn't seem to cut much slack with your own reporters. By the way, the last time I checked, Brian Bethell, the man who murdered Mr. Avenaim and two other South Florida men two years ago, on his Friday spree killings-cum-Wal-Mart shopping sprees, was scheduled to go on trial in the not-too-distant future at the Main Broward County Courthouse in Ft. Lauderdale, with Judge Paul Backman presiding. You might want to have someone check that out if you could tear your reporters away from their steady diet of chick lit lite/yenta-oriented botox/diet/fashion/shopping/pseudo-celeb/Idol stories. In any case, I'll probably be there in court at first to take the measure of the jury and the D.A. to see how it all plays out. Also, before I close, since your particular company seems to place such a high value on "relevant and engaging content," you should know that the so-called related links on your website's story, below, are nothing but Walgreens cosmetics commercials -not news!And that's been the case for at least two weeks. So much for any sort of quality control. Please don't bother responding to this email, your reporters' actions(!) already speak volumes! DBS, Hallandale Beach, FL www.SouthBeachHoosier.blogspot.com www.HallandaleBeachBlog.blogspot.com Lawsuit Filed After Bizarre Elevator Incident Lawsuit Filed After Bizarre Elevator Incident. The family of an 81-year-old man whose body was found trapped between a security gate and elevator door at a medical building in Hallandale Beach last year... Article: http://www.local10.com/news/15251505/detail.html _________________________________________ Despite my specific admonition not to respond, what do you suppose I received on Feb. 21st? Yes, an email from Michelle Solomon, someone I'd heretofore never heard of before sending an email to her about my experiences with the apathetic and not-so-curious Channel 10 reporters. Subject: RE: More proof that Channel 10 News isn't what it used to be: the latest sad example Date: Thu, 21 Feb 2008 From: "Solomon, Michelle" msolomon@ibsys.com I have sent this to our news director and general manager.
Michelle Solomon Executive Producer Local 10 Interactive www.Local10.com WPLG WPLG-DT Miami-Fort Lauderdale 305-324-2604 Business msolomon@local10.com www.ibsys.com _________________________________________ And who is Michelle Solomon? Read this post from a Fort Myers-based blog and judge for yourself. The title says it all. Local10.com Miami Steals Blog Content http://activerain.com/blogsview/292203/Local1-com-Miami-Steals __________________________________________ Some other facts/bias you should know about in making up your mind about all this. I also sent a bcc copy of all my correspondence to and from Channel 10 to the head news person for Post-Newsweek, who is at at the ABC O&O in Detroit, WXYZ. I never heard back from her. As for Channel 10 itself, I applied and was accepted to be an intern at Channel 10 after my sophomore year at IU, the summer of 1981. But I got totally screwed out of the great gig by the IU Telecommunications Dept. Chairman. As it happens, the Chair back then was actually someone who knew me and my personality, since I'd gotten nothing but A's in all my Telecom classes, and was a heavy contributor to debate, especially in classes he taught. He couldn't quite believe that as a Junior-to-be, I'd already nabbed a sweet gig at the #1 TV news operation in the state of Florida, and a Post-Newsweek station at that. (This was back when Channel 10 under the late Ann Bishop, regularly whipped every TV station in sight.) I had some bright ideas about navigating that internship position into something better the following summer with thePost-Newsweek gang up in DC. I even had some IU friends in the suburban D.C. area, also Telecom students, who said that if things worked out for me with Kate Graham's15th Street Crew at the Washington Post or over at Newsweek, perhaps I could even live with them over the summer. Being in D.C. then would've been heaven, plus I'd have been able to get a first-hand view of D.C. years earlier than I actually did, which might've allowed me to be much smarter about some things once I got there, instead of the way things actually went once I got there. But instead of being happy for me or giving off Good Vibrations, the Chairman said that the dept. rules were that only students who had already completed their Junior year could get internships, or the credit that might go with it. I was told that the Dept.'s reasoning was that such a rule would prevent younger students from beating Juniors in the Telecom Dept. to the punch and grabbing precious internships. (Of course, the only other IU Telecom student I knew about in South Florida was Lisa Abrell, someone I spoke to fairly regularly in classes, and when I ran into her on campus. She was the bright and friendly daughter of WTVJ/Channel 4's Joe Abrell, who had been the station's News Director, Director of Public Affairs and public policy show host (Montage), and still later, served as a Dolphins VP under the Robbie family, being instrumental in the building of Joe Robbie Stadium. Certainly Lisa had opportunities I could only dream of, and while I understood how the Dept.s policy might make sense for the Indy or Louisville market, even Chicago, because of the sheer number of IU Telecom students, it made less sense when applied to someone like me, about a thousand miles away.) The fact that the Channel 10 Personnel Director had had good results in the past with IU student interns at other stations she'd been at was a tremendous help to me, but the fact is, we really hit it off, so she really, really wanted me to work there. In fact, to show what she was willing to do, after I'd heard the bad news from the Chair, she had me come down to the station so she could call the Chair up on the phone and plead my case, because she could see that I'd be a great addition to 3990 Biscayne Blvd. But despite the Personnel Director's powers of persuasion, it counted for nothing in the end. Unfortunately, as was so often the case at IU, rigid adherence to silly and unwieldy rules often counted for more than actual ability and desire. I could never look at that professor in quite the same way as I had previously, and made a point of telling other Telecom professors about what had happened to me, so they could warn younger students in the Dept. that the Telecom Dept. would NOT have their back. No internship for South Beach Hoosierat Channel 10 meant suddenly having to scramble at the last minute for summer jobs that would give me the means to pay three times what in-state Hoosiers were paying for classes.
