Local FL news coverage that is making a positive difference: In another FL city beset with egregious examples of CRA ethical shenanigans and rampant crony capitalism, Volusia County publisher Henry Frederick takes his responsibility to the community seriously, and asks hard questions about public ethics, government accountability and journalistic credibility. His fact-based straightforward questions are blunt when necessary: Is the Daytona Beach News-Journal protecting New Smyrna Beach Mayor Adam Barringer? And if so, why?; @NSBNEWSnet

nsbnews YouTube Channel video: Headline Surfer publisher Henry Frederick shows Volusia County Chairman Jason Davis film of how New Smyrna Beach CRA funds are actually being used, contrary to Florida law. Part I of 4. Uploaded April 29, 2013. http://youtu.be/RSoIXIp2OtA

In another Florida city beset with what seems to be egregious examples of CRA ethical shenanigans and rampant crony capitalism, Volusia County publisher Henry Frederick takes his responsibility to the community seriously, and asks hard questions about public ethics, government accountability and journalistic credibility in his part of The Sunshine State.

His fact-based straightforward questions are blunt when necessary, but then the facts seem to indicate that they are: Is the Daytona Beach News-Journal protecting New Smyrna Beach Mayor Adam Barringer? And if so, why? 

You read your morning newspaper and see stories written from the point of view of a mayor or city manager, neatly... fb.me/2XhTUVGwt
— Henry Frederick (@NSBNEWSnet) May 1, 2013

Headline Surfer
Is the Daytona paper protecting NSB Mayor Adam Barringer?

Posted Tue, 2013-04-30 06:34

By Henry Frederick

http://headlinesurfer.com/content/412000-daytona-paper-protecting-nsb-mayor-adam-barringer

See more on the misuse of New Smyrna Beach CRA funds and other Volusia County and Greater Daytona Beach antics/news at the nsbnews YouTube Channel at: http://www.youtube.com/user/nsbnews/

@NSBNEWSnet https://twitter.com/NSBNEWSnet

*Starting in the near-future, you'll start seeing videos like the one above on this blog. Some of which have already been recorded. 

Compare and contrast the effort and clearly pro-citizen tone taken above by the Headline Surfer, where wasted taxpayer dollars don't get the shrugged shoulders response it does from the Miami Herald and  South Florida Sun-Sentinel, at http://headlinesurfer.com/ with the intellectually fallow and taxpayer-subsidized faux newspaper of Hallandale Beach, which was specifically cited by the Broward Inspector General's Office in their damning report on the true costs of years and years of incompetent and almost-invisible oversight of Hallandale Beach's CRA, the myopic South Florida Sun-Times.

BROWARD INSPECTOR GENERAL FINAL REPORT RE: GROSS MISMANAGEMENT OF PUBLIC FUNDS BY THE CITY OF HALLANDALE BEACH AND THE HALLANDALE BEACH COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY

http://www.broward.org/InspectorGeneral/Documents/OIG11-020HallandaleFinalE-REPORT04-18-13.docx.pdf

Please be advised that the report can take up to a minute to open due to the many exhibits. 

It took 55 seconds for me.

Above, the document that memorializes the fact that the City of Hallandale Beach subsidizes one-sided propaganda thru a grant to the FAUX newspaper.

And yes, that is the same FREE fake newspaper that gives Mayor Joy Cooper a "column" to extoll her particular brand of ill-informed nonsense and half-truths without fear that a Letter to the Editor will EVER appear that directly refutes and corrects her serial mis-statements. 

The Sun-Times not only DOESN'T run them, they DON'T print ANYTHING the slightest bit critical of Hallandale Beach City Hall, Mayor Cooper or the present and past two City Manager and their high-paid staff, who, facts seem to show, did NOT perform their jobs professionally for years, given how the CRA scandal only seemed to grow and grow, with nobody at City hall paying any attention to where the dollars went and providing any genuine accountability for taxpayers.

Just so you know, as of early 2010, HB's city manager and staff made more in salaries than the Hollywood City Manager's Office, despite the City of Hollywood being well over THREE TIMES larger in both size and population. 

Guess who'd never ever mention that salient fact during budget talks -or ever? 

Yes, the Sun-Times!

Yes, the same preposterously one-sided one about a parallel world where HB City Hall and Mayor Joy Cooper and her pals and cronies are always right, always smarter and always looking out for HB residents, taxpayers and small business-owners, when the plain truth is the exact opposite.

Cooper, who has fought so hard and for so long to keep that money flowing to Craig Farquhar and Company , himself, an unethical hypocrite and poseur who while dependent on the city's purse, can't keep his checkbook boosterism and half-truths straight, claiming on the one hand to have had no opinion on the very unpopular Diplomat LAC proposal championed by Joy Cooper and her Rubber Stamp Crew a few years ago, but then all anyone had to do was check the Broward County website, and there was an email from Farquhar supporting it.
Bu-Bu... Busted!!!

(That out-of-scale development next to the Diplomat Country Club was eventually defeated by the Broward County Commission.)

Farquhar shows his support for the City Hall that feeds him by never allowing a Letter to the Editor to appear in-print, and by running a weekly so-called "column" by the mayor that in the time I have lived here, nine years, has never once read as if it was actually written by her, given her well-known spelling, syntax and metaphor problems that have been well-chronicled elsewhere.

(Lots of people in Hallandale Beach think they know who really writes those columns of hers, and based on the two names I hear the most, both attorneys, I tend to agree.)

Above, self-serving tripe served weekly! August 30, 2010 photo by South Beach Hoosier. (c) 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

Above is what passes for normal here in HB, but which is more accurately called propaganda elsewhere.

The perpetually-ridiculed and taxpayer-financed faux newspaper, South Florida Sun-Times, with one of the most egregious and laughable front pages of the past few years -and that's saying something! 

From my July 25, 2012 blog post title, When Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper says "setting the record straight" in her "column" at the taxpayer-financed faux newspaper, grab your wallet or purse, and be prepared to endure self-serving, nonsensical rationalizations that fail both the logic and reality test; 

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/07/when-hallandale-beach-mayor-joy-cooper_25.html

Broward Bulldog
Sweet deal for owners of Hallandale newspaper that features mayor as columnist

By William Gjebre, Broward Bulldog, 

February 9, 2012

http://www.browardbulldog.org/2012/02/sweet-deal-for-owners-of-hallandale-newspaper-that-features-mayor-as-columnist/

November 8, 2009 photo by South Beach Hoosier. © 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

The taxpayer-subsidized faux newspaper that serves as the propaganda arm for Hallandale Beach City Hall and Mayor Joy Cooper and her Rubber Stamp Crew - the South Florida Sun-Times. 

This particular vending machine was photographed in 2009 just two feet away from one of the emergency fire exits of The Flashback Diner on U.S.-1/S. Federal Highway & S.E. 3rd St. across from Gulfstream Park Race Track & Casino. 

Where it'd been in that same position for many years! 

In a normal, well-run city, they'd never have been allowed to be placed in the direct path of a Fire Exit, but in Hallandale Beach, a trio of similar vending machines can be placed right next to an Emergency Exit in a building one block from HB City Hall -and nobody there EVER notices the self-evident safety problem/code violation! 

More often than seems humanly possible, under the present imperious mayor, and with staffers who seem not at all interested in the best long-term interests of this city's residents, Hallandale Beach City Hall is deaf, dumb and blind to everything around them.

To the great detriment of residents, taxpayers and small business-owners who desperately want the city to be normal and be MUCH-BETTER than it has been allowed to be, and for problems to really be solved, NOT just ignored by city administrators and city employees and kicked further down the road. 

October 1, 2010 photo by South Beach Hoosier. (c) 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved 

The Hallandale Beach corollary to Paul Roderick Gregory's savvy piece at Forbes.com re the news media's assumptions & bias: What If 'President' McCain Was Running For Re-Election Against 'Senator' Obama?; What if 'Mayor' London was running for re-election against 'Comm.' Cooper?; @MayorCooper

 

Above, Hallandale Beach City Hall and Police Dept. HQ. September 4, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier. © 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

Well, someone else thought of my brilliant idea that came to me while watching the Republican and Democratic National Conventions over the past month, to show the rather self-evident Mainstream Media's assumptions, bias and even lack-of-curiosity, Paul Roderick Gregory, and he got it printed it at Forbes.com, which I've got at the bottom of this post and encourage you to send to friends.

Reading what Gregory wrote a couple of times over had the salutary effect of causing me to re-purpose in my own head some of the central questions at the heart of his and the current political campaign here in Hallandale Beach.

Which is how I come before you today and ask you to ponder the question: What if 'Mayor' London was running for re-election against 'Comm.' Cooper?

Yes, it really DOES make you think, doesn't it?

Especially about all the negative, anti-democratic and just plain nonsensical things that we have all borne witness to and endured, and know for a fact happened to Hallandale Beach residents and business owners due specifically to Mayor Joy Cooper's own illogical words, vengeful actions and thin-skinned ego.

Ones that the local south Florida news media have largely decided didn't happen because they weren't there in person to observe first-hand.

Yet all of us can recite them from memory, can't we?

The press corps' thinking seems to be that if Mayor Cooper really calls a citizen minding his own business and sitting in his seat at a City Commission meeting -yours truly- a "Nazi" in a conversation to perpetually disconnected then-Comm. Bill Julian, did it really happen if a reporter wasn't there? 

Yes, it happened and does happen, regardless of whether or not a reporter, columnist or TV cameraman is there -especially when a reporter is NOT there- but to them, no, not really, it's just an "allegation."

We are the Broward capital of "allegations" that really happened. 

Towards that end, in the next few days, because of an email I received from a very well-known and cutting-edge web hosting company, one that's offering a huge discount, I'll have a constructive suggestion and tip to share with those of you who've spoken to me over the past 18 months about starting a blog or website of your own, to share your thoughts -and document- what happens in this city, this area and this part of the Sunshine State.

Especially since neither Change Hallandale and Save Hallandale have posted anything new since last year.

That'd be a good thing for everyone in the community, esp. as long as CRA funds are funneled to a fake newspaper that consciously chooses NOT to report what is really going on here for fear of offending Mayor Cooper, who -along with her husband- has previously threatened the fake newspaper's owners, even to the point of threatening to put them out of business.

It really did happen, but I guess because a reporter wasn't there, it's only an "allegation."

Personally, I'm guessing it sure didn't seem like just an "allegation" to the person on the receiving end of the pointed verbal threats from Mayor Cooper and her husband.

Speaking of blogs and websites:

a.) have you come across this interesting one yet, Hallandale Truth? http://hallandaletruth.com/ 

b.) I was going to mention this about a week ago but I've taken the opportunity to look at Michele Lazarow's new campaign website and it's VERY well-done and put together.

Michele's website  is at: http://michelelazarow.com/

Her campaign's Facebook page is at: 

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Michele-Lazarow-For-Hallandale-Beach-City-Commissioner-2012/407115322683911

c.) If you didn't see my post about it a few weeks ago, Csaba Kulin's campaign website is at http://www.kulin2012.com/

Csaba told me that his plan is to try to update it fairly frequently and write about what's going on now in Hallandale Beach -or what isn't and ought to be, like Comm. Sanders and Bill Julian agreeing to actually show-up in public for an old-fashioned debate, where those two can be PUBLICLY asked questions that they've been dodging for YEARS. 

Csaba doesn't plan on letting his website remain static for the next six-and-a-half weeks, and he's already shown me some of what he's written after months of research about the city's finances and its ticking pension time-bomb.

Words that I think you'll all find of great interest!

-----

Forbes.com

Paul Roderick Gregory, Contributor

What If 'President' McCain Was Running For Re-Election Against 'Senator' Obama?

9/15/2012 @ 2:12AM

Imagine John McCain, having eked out a narrow victory in 2008, running for reelection against Illinois Senator Barack Obamaunder today’s economic and foreign policy circumstances. The following would be  a sample triumphant press report – New York Times,Washington Post, LA Times, what have you — dated Saturday September 15:

“President John McCain’s reelection bid is tottering on the verge of collapse. The raising of the black flag over the Cairo Embassy, the killing of the U.S. ambassador in Libya, and the outburst of violent protests throughout the Mid East appear to be the coup de grace to McCain’s faltering campaign. 

Read the rest of the post at:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/paulroderickgregory/2012/09/15/what-if-president-mccain-was-running-for-re-election-against-senator-obama/

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

Another classic Hallandale Beach screw-up! Friday's supposed public Meet-and-Greet of HB City Manager candidates is STILL not on calendar of city's own website; this failure on something very simple is the latest Mark Antonio 'success' story!

Another classic Hallandale Beach screw-up! Friday's supposed public Meet-and-Greet of HB City Manager candidates is STILL not on calendar of city's own website; this failure on something very simple is the latest Mark Antonio 'success' story!

As of 4:30 p.m. today, Thursday, there is STILL nothing on the City of Hallandale Beach's website about Friday's supposed public Meet-and-Greet of Hallandale Beach City Manager candidates in less than 26 hours, http://www.hallandalebeach.org/calendar.aspx consequently, despite the press reports to the contrary that there is an event scheduled, 

"They will also meet the public at a reception at the city's Cultural Community Center, 410 SE Third St." 

if the city's own website doesn't mention it, and it doesn't now, does this event really exist?

The only thing on the city's website mentioning the community meeting on Friday comes up under an entry for -wait for it- Saturday!

http://www.cohb.org/DocumentView.aspx?DID=2298

As shown above, there's nothing on the city's website about Friday under "Calendar."

As I stated over the weekend in my post titled, When providing a Sun-Sentinel reporter with much-needed context re HB, we're reminded again of Comm. Lewy's penchant for craveness, verbosity & duplicity and City Manager Antonio's knack for under-performance, http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/03/when-providing-sun-sentinel-reporter.html

not that it's my decision to make, but personally I'm opposed to any of the HB City Commissioners being present on Friday during what is supposed to be the public's time talking with the various candidates because I think that,

a.) the foreknowledge of that fact would cause many concerned residents NOT to show up, and,

b.) having them there would cause both the candidates and the public to be more uncomfortable than they need be. After all, it's NOT a First Date, it's a meet-and-greet, right?

In any case, if more than one HB City Commissioner shows up Friday at the HB Cultural Center for what is supposed to be the "Community" meeting at 6 p.m., absent an adequately-timed Public Notice, plenty of time before the event -because whatever else it will be, it is NOT a sudden "Emergency" meeting- it would seem to me to be a violation of the state's Sunshine Laws. 

Isn't this sort of thing supposed to be the responsibility of the city's new paid spin doctor, Mr. Dobbens?

Yes.

Isn't this the sort of basic information that he personally should've made sure was on the city's website LAST WEEK, given that the City Commission made the cut to four candidates last Wednesday?

Yes.

Isn't this sort of incompetent and half-assed effort, the latest in a long litany of them, precisely why I and Michael Butler and so many other concerned residents told City Manager Mark Antonio to his face in 2010 why HE was wrong in NOT listening to the overwhelming majority of this community, and instead, stubbornly insisting that the city give $50,000 in taxpayer's money to the faux newspaper, The South Florida Sun-Times, to act as a propaganda sheet, and HIS desire and subsequent decision to hire someone to act as PR spin-meister to make the city look good, when all it would actually accomplish is show conclusively how poorly-run the city is under him?

Yes.

IF this were a well-run city, everyone living and working here would already know it and would not only be able to see the tangible examples of why this city's budget has nearly DOUBLED in the past seven years when they drove and walked around, but could also recount the reasons to anyone who asked.

But it isn't a well-run city, it's a mess because of the years of bad decisions and judgments by people at HB City Hall, elected and un-elected..

And now, on this very simple matter, one that most cities manage to be able to handle without any major problems -put accurate information on their own website in a timely fashion- we are left once again to wonder why all that taxpayer money had to be spent so foolishly, down a rat hole.

But the answer to that question is the same as it was last week, last month and last year and the year before that: because un-elected City Manager Mark Antonio wanted it that way.

Csaba Kulin on Hallandale Beach's crony capitalism deal with a fake newspaper that stands ethics on its head and takes CRA money in exchange for being a City Hall propaganda machine

Above, the September 12, 2010 issue of the Stongsville Post, a genuine "community newspaper" that reports both sides on issues and controversies in its part of suburban Cleveland, Ohio

Today I'd like to share with you a copy of the email my friend and fellow Hallandale Beach/Broward County activist Csaba Kulin sent out on Monday concerning the continuing controversy surrounding what Csaba and I and many other concerned HB residents have long believed is the city's completely unethical and financially unsound arrangement with a faux newspaper located here in the city.

The problem is simple to understand: in exchange for operating as a propaganda arm of Hallandale Beach City Hall and its mayor of the past ten years, Joy Cooper, the owners receive funds from the city's CRA, which is generally supposed to be used to eliminate blight within the CRA zone of the city.

Since Csaba brings up his former full-time home of Strongsville, OH in his email from yesterday, I thought it was important to preface his new email with another instance where Csaba used Strongsville as a means for comparison to what passes for normal here in Hallandale Beach, so you could judge for yourself.

That instance comes from a Bob Norman blog post from last year, before he left the NewTimes for WPLG-TV, Channel 10, the ABC-TV affiliate here in South Florida, which concerned an email Csaba had written to Mayor Cooper and the other four members of the City Commission contrasting municipal spending habits and patterns of Strongsville to those in Hallandale Beach.  

BrowardPalm Beach NewTimes

Bob Norman's Pulp

Hallandale Beach Mayor Defends City in Sloppy, Error-Filled Email

By Bob Norman

April 27, 2011 at 8:54 AM Comments (55)

Ever heard of Strongsville, Ohio?

Neither had I, but it's apparently a suburb of Cleveland and a place where Hallandale condo president and activist Csaba Kulin used to live.

Kulin is amazed at the bloated cost of Hallandale Beach's budget compared to that of Strongville and recently wrote a letter about it to the City Commission.

Read the rest of the post and the reader comments at: http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2011/04/hallandale_mayor_joy_cooper_budget.php

----- 

Dear Friends and Hallandale Beach Residents,

I am sure by now you read or heard about the "sweet deal" the South Florida Sun Times receives from the City of Hallandale Beach. In case you are not aware of it, I included the link to the Miami Herald and the Broward Bulldog articles. My name was mentioned in both articles, so I decided to make a comment to both publications to state my position.

I hope you will find the stories informative. At the bottom you can see my comments.

Sincerely,

Csaba Kulin 

http://www.browardbulldog.org/2012/02/sweet-deal-for-owners-of-hallandale-newspaper-that-features-mayor-as-columnist/

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/09/2633582/hallandale-beach-newspaper-gets.html

From personal experience, I'm a great believer in the importance of an "independent community newspaper" that covers issues that larger mass circulations newspaper can't or won't cover. I know something about that because when I'm in Ohio for part of the summer every year, the town I lived in full-time before moving to Hallandale Beach has one of the best "community papers" in the country, the Strongsville Post. There was no community issue or policy that the Post won't send reporters to examine or report upon, and because of that, the newspaper remains trusted, popular, a good place to advertise a product or service, and accepted as an important part of the community there.

Conversely, that same experience informs my opinion that the South Florida Sun Times (SFST) failed the “independence” test the moment it asked for and accepted money from the City of Hallandale Beach for services NOT provided. The SFST, having accepted funds that could have been better spent elsewhere within the CRA zone to eliminate blight, has for years adhered to a policy that's ever mindful of biting the hand that feeds it.

As opposed to the Post in Strongsville, OH, the SFST has become a one-sided house organ in its "reporting," and has thus become both irrelevant and a subject of open ridicule throughout the community, practically a punch line. In my own condo complex, we routinely discard large bundle of unread copies that were placed in the condo lobby into the recycling bins every week.

A legitimate newspaper that aspires to consider itself a "community newspaper" should, without even having to think about it, write about both sides of an issue or policy, and must encourage and publish opposing points of view. So in our case here in Hallandale Beach, routinely publishing something against the “party line” given by Mayor Joy Cooper in her so-called "columns," rather than NOT publishing anything that challenges what she says, as is currently the case. And the same goes for publishing Letters to the Editor without censorship with respect to topic and content. They ought to publish updated police blotter and proceedings of the City Commission Meetings. The SFST currently does NONE of these things.

If the SFST continues to operate in its current fashion, they might as well change their name to PRAVDA.

The Hallandale Beach CRA, with policy set by the elected City Commission and the mayor, has had more than its share of problems in the recent past. One episode in particular is worth mentioning here as it's indicative of the sort of favoritism and cronyism it has practiced in the past, a story never mentioned in the SFST. A loan in the amount of $125,000 loan was given for what was called at the time, THE CITY CHANEL, and was promoted and developed by Steve Fecske of California, and his local partner, a person very well-connected to HB City Hall. Mr. Fecske’s previous expertise includes, among other things according to Google's search engine, developing pornography web sites.  Like Seinfeld said, “not that anything is wrong with that”.

The night of the city commission meeting, Hallandale Beach taxpayers showed up in force to vehemently oppose the proposed loan on its merits, as well as the transparent way the commission waived its own meager requirements that the business group did NOT meet. Commissioner Keith London took the lead in objecting to it from the dais, but because the mayor supported it, it passed. Where was the SFST?

Well, forward to today, the local partner has since passed away, the money expended from the CRA is lost, and nobody in charge is asking any questions about it. And the South Florida Sun Times remains silent.

In November, voters of Hallandale Beach will have a chance to make major changes in the way this city is governed and the public policies that guide it. Concerned voters who want a better-managed and more transparent City Hall that is proactively accountable to taxpayers, and NOT in love with crony capitalism excesses like the loan to the SFST, should heed the recent lessons that have cost them and their neighbors both money and lost opportunities to make this a better community, and should vote for reform candidates.

Csaba Kulin, candidate for Hallandale Beach City Commission

More about Hallandale Beach's unscrupulo​us crony capitalism deal b/w the faux newspaper, the SFST, and Mayor Joy Cooper, Cub Reporter...

 Above, a photo I took back on October 8, 2010 of the never-ending embarrassment...  for us as Hallandale Beach taxpayers and the world of journalism.
Below, a copy of the email that I wrote and sent out last Friday to the Usual Suspects thoughout South Florida and journalism watering holes in the U.S. and elsewhere.


Sixteen months ago, I wrote the following on my blog, just one of many over the years on the faux newspaper in Hallandale Beach. My biggest problem wasn't writing it, of course, but rather trying to decide which was THE most outlandish and absurd front page of the dozens they've run that I've kept...

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2010
Csaba Kulin's common sense take on the faux newspaper in Hallandale Beach that gobbles up taxpayer funds, the South Florida Sun Times



It's hard to imagine a more ridiculous, self-serving and un-true headline than this one from August 13, 2009 in the faux community newspaper, the South Florida Sun-Times: AHEAD OF THE GAME: Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper continues to do the job residents elected her to do -once again!

Read the rest of my post above at:http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/csaba-kulins-common-sense-take-on-faux.html

That followed by five months the effort to create...
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 2009
Hallandale Beach insiders to offer goodies/new propaganda TV channel to HB City Hall for $200k CRA loan Wed. morning.

As you'll recall above, despite NOT meeting most of the very-low standards the city usually required for a loan, the loan was made... more money down the drain!
That eye-opening post of mine from almsot three years ago is at: http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/hallandale-beach-insiders-to-offer.html

I'm planning on posting some more incriminating info about the SFST in a few days on my blog, possibly including some eye-opening video I still have from 2010 that makes clear how steadfast and stuuborn HB City Hall remains in trying to funnel money to people who, as I'll show, couldn't even do the one thing they needed to consistently do -reliably inform the people of this community.

That info will be news to most of you in Southeast broward and elsewhere I think, since what was in the Broward Bulldog and then the Miami Herald last Thursday is, as some of you already know, just the tip of the iceberg on this story about the mayor's ambition and desire to always get her way being subsidized by taxpayers dollars -yours.

http://www.browardbulldog.org/2012/02/sweet-deal-for-owners-of-hallandale-newspaper-that-features-mayor-as-columnist/
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/09/2633582/hallandale-beach-newspaper-gets.html Make sure you read the comments!

Below, more on Joy Cooper, Cub Reporter...
I was going to say Nancy Drew, but of course Nancy Drew in her stint as a reporter in the 1940's film series tried to bring facts to light, not to bury them; she cleared a girl of murder, after all.
http://www.archive.org/details/nancy_drew_reporter

Also, Nancy Drew never threatened a "publisher" before like the mayor and her husband did a few years ago when, out-of-the-blue, something true-but-unflattering about her somehow wound-up in the faux newspaper.

Again, I remind you, that something was true-but-unflattering, but as we all know, the mayor really hates hearing Inconvenient Facts, whether from me or any other citizen paying close attention to what's going on -or isn't- right in front of us, so, as you'd expect, she and her husband went to the "newspaper's" office and went ballistic.
They demanded that... well, that's the part of the story still to come.
-----

I also commend to you the following piece as well on the blatant disregard for fairness and journalism ethics.

South Florida Business Journal
Why fight City Hall when you get a h andout?
by Kevin Gale, Editor in Chief
Friday, February 10, 2012, 12:10pm EST
http://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/blog/2012/02/why-fight-city-hall-when-you-get-a.html

If you have a Facebook account, you can leave a comment... I don't, so can't.

See this mention of our mayor from last month...http://washingtonexaminer.com/local/dc/2012/01/occupy-protest-leads-arrest-assault-officer/165117

And in case you forgot one of the previous Joy Cooper crony capitalism deals with the faux
newspaper... I still have a copy of the letter and envelope that was sent out on HB City Hall
stationary to try to drum up business for a fake newspaper that nobody trusts or believes.

http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/columnists/story/850227.html
Miami Herald
Mayor, paper are very cozy in Hallandale
By Fred Grimm
January 13, 2009

It pays to be nice.
If only The Miami Herald had been a little nicer, a little more accommodating, a little less critical, some grateful mayor might be sending out swell letters to our potential advertisers.
Consider the South Florida Sun-Times in Hallandale Beach. A nice weekly paper. Very nice. Self-consciously nice. ''We do mostly positive stories. We don't do a lot of negative,'' Sun-Times President Craig Farquhar said.
No nasty (or otherwise) letters to the editor. (Too bad, given that Hallandale Beach residents are both literate and famously contentious. Their letters would liven up any newspaper.)
The Sun-Times (circulation about 55,000) especially eschews articles critical of the mayor of Hallandale Beach. Not exactly what you'd call a media watchdog when it comes to local government. More like a lapdog.
But niceness pays off. Last month, a surprising letter was mailed out to city businesses on official Hallandale Beach city stationery: ''Just about everyone is feeling the effects of the economy and doing what we can to get through tough times. In an effort to promote and support local businesses, the city encourages all businesses to advertise in the city's only local newspaper.'' The letter was signed by both Mayor Joy Cooper and City Manager Mike Goode.


LETTER STARTLING
For an old newspaper guy, who harbors an almost religious reverence for the contentious relationship between journalism and government, it was a startling read.
For Jeanne Roonoe, a businesswoman who has owned Dixie Top Shop down on Dixie Highway for 28 years, it was startling for other reasons. ''For one thing, the city mailed out these letters using first-class mail instead of bulk mail.'' But mostly she wondered why, when so many businesses are hurting, ``the city singled out just one to help.''
Because it pays to be accommodating. The Sun-Times runs a weekly column by Mayor Cooper. City Commissioner Keith London, often at odds with the mayor, claims that the paper refuses to print contrary opinions from him.
In particular, last fall after the mayor ran a column critical of a lawsuit London had filed against the city, the newspaper refused to publish the city commissioner's response. ''We chose not to run his article. We choose not to run lots of stories from people,'' Farquhar said.


SWEET DEAL
London, using Freedom of Information requests to pry the information out of City Hall, found that Hallandale Beach city government spent $18,500 buying ads in the Sun-Times over the past two years. The commissioner suggests that the newspaper, at city expense, has become a kind of unfiltered house organ for the mayor's office.
(However, to be fair, Mayor Cooper's latest column is not exactly a scintillating read. Not a whiff of controversy. No political attacks. No mention of her blood enemy Keith London.)
Mayor Cooper told the Sun-Sentinel that in exchange for the letters to potential advertisers, she expected stories in the Sun-Times that would ``promote the city.''
That happened to be the same term employed by the very nice president of the Sun-Times. ''We all have to work together to promote the city and business,'' Farquhar told me Monday.
Not that I have anything against being nice, even to mayors. It's just a peculiar ethos for a newspaper.

-----

I only wish the South Florida news media had taken this whole embarrassing situation more seriously when I knew about it and was writing about it before they were.
I constantly contacted all four English-speaking TV stations and both the Miami Herald and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel with the pertinent facts, delivering it on a silver platter with all dots already connected, but as you know if you read my posts at the time, the local news media just didn't care.
Not a whit.

All of which makes this sudden media interest in a longstanding situation that HB taxpayers have had to live with for years, now seem rather curious to lots of well-informed people I know and interact with regularly.
Adminstrators and elected officials from other cities and up at Broward County Govt. HQ and regular taxpayer citizens.
They all wonder why the concerns of HB residents didn't matter to the news media when it might've done some good.
It's a little after-the-fact, now.

Unfortunate denouement in the matter of BUTLER v. CITY OF HALLANDALE BEACH also shows the South FL news media for what they are -weirdly incurious

Above, October 9, 2010 photo of Hallandale Beach City Hall by South Beach Hoosier

Below, the sad and unfortunate denouement to the local situation involving my friend and fellow HB civic activist Michael Butler, the beginning, middle and end of which you NEVER saw mentioned once on local Miami TV newscasts, or -surprise!- in the Miami Herald.

----------

(But as some of you attentive readers out there have reminded me -though I saw it myself, too- the Herald did have the time, space and desire recently to mention something about a Romanian soccer player that you never heard of eating at some South Beach restaurant, since THAT'S considered news these days down at the Herald under the current regime.)

Yes, only the Sun-Sentinel's Michael Mayo and Brittany Wallman, and Bob Norman while at the New Times, back in 2009, have been the only print or TV reporters, editors or columnists to ever see the situation for what it really was and said anything publicly about this situation.

Pathetic!

Broward Politics blog

Mayo: Why are taxpayers footing Mayor Joy Cooper's lawsuit bill?

By Brittany Wallman,

October 29, 2009 09:59 AM

http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/broward/blog/2009/10/mayo_why_are_taxpayers_footing.html

Mayor Joy Cooper: "i Feel Like My Privacy Has Been Raped''

Posted by Brittany Wallman on October 27, 2009 04:28 PM

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2009-10-27/news/0910280127_1_city-hall-address-butler-s-request-public-records

BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes

Judge Patti Henning Strikes Again

By Bob Norman

Tuesday, Octover 27 2009 at 3:21 PM

http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2009/10/judge_patti_henning_and_mayor_joy_cooper.php

My friend and fellow HB civic activist Csaba Kulin emailed me this morning after getting news from me about this latest and final chapter in the case involving Michael, and shared a few thoughts with me that I'd like to share with you here and now, rather than in a separate post.

The key points Csaba mentioned that I'm excerpting here mirror many of the ones that some of you who have been following this situation closely have asked me the past two years, including the role of HB City Attorney David Jove, who as you recall from my June 28th post, is officially history a week from today, thanks goodness.

I was going to mention it to you that in the last moments of Jove's tenure he declared 3 victories for HB. One was over Michael. This was a monumental loss and expense for the City. They could have just denied his request and moved on.

If it was not city business, why did the City pay the Mayor's expenses?

That last question is a real bitch to answer isn't it, and is one that Mayo raised above, no?

And the answer is ????

By the way, for the record, last time I heard, Hallandale Beach taxpayers have been paying attorney Jamie Cole $185 an hour to pursue this suit on the city's behalf, even though in reality, it was at mayor Joy Cooper's behest.

Some of you readers in South Florida have told me in person or via email that Jamie Cole was a "great guy," and that if it hadn't been him, it would have been some other attorney who would've done the dirty laundry for Joy Cooper.

Perhaps.

Jamie Cole may or may not be a good guy, I don't know, since I have never had any personal interaction with him to judge him fairly one way or the other.

Or, he could be one of a million parasitical hack attorneys in Broward and Miami-Dade.

Or, he could be a hack by day and avenging angel at night.

I really can't say.

And neither can you.

All I can do is judge him by what he actually does.

What I do know for a fact is that he agreed to do the bidding of Joy Cooper, seemed to have no moral qualms about suing a Florida citizen trying to get information that he was legally entitled to ask for under the Florida Constitution, so that is how I will see him and judge him in the future -as Joy Cooper's personal henchman.
If the glove fits...

If all goes as expected, on Friday -and possibly Monday as well- some of you out there in the blogospere who are regular recipients of emails from me will receive a bcc from me re a public records request to the City of Hallandale Beach re certain individuals and entities that have been recipients of taxpayer funds via City/CRA loans and grants in the recent past under what can only be described as very curious and even questionable circumstances.

How many times can you FAIL to meet the low standards and REQUIREMENTS the city itself has set and still have no problem getting tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars?

How can votes even be taken by the City Commission or even approved by the City Manager on applications that are NOT even complete?

For those of you who will not be receiving the email later, that bcc will morph into a blog post by Monday night, and you can see it then if you care to.

----------

The following information is formatted slightly different than it appears on the Court's website due to indenting problems, i.e. paragraphs and indents wouldn't stay firmly in place here exactly as they appear on website. It got frustrating to keep editing and have the same problem occur over-and-over, no matter how many times I tried.

I've done my best to replicate the original but if in doubt, go to website!

http://www.4dca.org/opinions/July%202011/07-20-11/4D10-197.op.pdf

DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF FLORIDA

FOURTH DISTRICT

July Term 2011

MICHAEL BUTLER,

Appellant,

v.

CITY OF HALLANDALE BEACH, a Florida Municipality,

Appellee.

No. 4D10-197

[July 20, 2011]

HAZOURI, J.

Michael Butler appeals from a final judgment in a declaratory action

filed b y Th e City of Hallandale Beach (th e City), which sought a

declaration that a list of recipients of a personal email sent by Hallandale

Beach Mayor, Joy Cooper, was not sent in connection with the discharge

of a n y municipal d u t y and, therefore, is not a public record under

Florida’s Public Records Law, Chapter 119, Florida Statutes (2009).

The email in question was sent b y Cooper from her personal email

account, using her personal computer, and was blind carbon copied to

friends and supporters. Th e email itself was very brief, and contained

three articles that Cooper wrote as a contributor to the South Florida

Sun Times (Times) as a n attachment. Cooper h a s been a weekly

columnist for the Times for more than four years. Th e three articles

included as an attachment to the email were: (1) a transcript of the 2009

State of the City Address; (2) a transcript of Part Two of the State of the

City Address; a n d (3) an article about tax questions raised at prior

commission meetings.

The trial court found that Cooper was under no obligation pursuant to

the statute or ordinance to notify her friends a n d supporters that a

column had been published, and further that the City played no role in

Cooper’s decision to send the email to friends. Therefore, Butler was not

entitled to the names and email addresses of the recipients of the email.

We agree and affirm.

----------------------

- 2 -

Public access to records and meetings of public officials is established

b y Article I, section 24(a) of the Florida Constitution, which states,

“[e]very person has the right to inspect or copy any public record made or

received in connection with the official business of any . . . officer, or

employee of the state . . . except with respect to records exempted

pursuant to this section or specifically made confidential b y this

Constitution.” Section 24(c) provides that the state legislature, by a twothirds vote of each house of the legislature, h a s th e power to enact

exemptions to section 24(a)’s disclosure requirements. Art. I, § 24(c), Fla.

Const.

Section 119.011(12) defines a “public record” as:

[A]ll documents, papers, letters, maps, books, tapes,

photographs, films, s o u n d recordings, data processing

software, or other material, regardless of the physical form,

characteristics, or means of transmission, made or received

pursuant to law or ordinance or in connection with the

transaction of official business by an agency.

§ 119.011(12), Fla. Stat. (2009). And section 119.011(2) defines “agency”

as:

[A]ny state, county, district, authority, or municipal officer,

department, division, board, bureau, commission, or other

separate unit of government created or established b y law

including, for the purposes of this chapter, the Commission

on Ethics, the Public Service Commission, and the Office of

Public Counsel, a n d any other public or private agency,

person, partnership, corporation, or business entity acting

on behalf of any public agency.

§ 119.011(2), Fla. Stat. (2009). Cooper qualifies as a n “agency” as set

forth in section 119.011(2), since the Mayor is a municipal officer acting

on behalf of the municipality and is thus subject to the directives of this

section.

“The determination of what constitutes a public record is a question of

law entitled to de novo review.” State v. City of Clearwater, 863 So. 2d

149, 151 (Fla. 2003) (quoting Media Gen. Convergence, Inc. v. Chief Judge

of the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit, 840 So. 2d 1008, 1013 (Fla. 2003)).

In City of Clearwater, the Florida Supreme Court analyzed the issue of

whether e-mails are considered public records. In that case, a reporter

------------------------------

- 3 -

requested that the city provide copies of all e-mails either sent from or

received by two city employees over the city’s computer network. Id. at

150. At issue was whether the e-mails, by virtue of the city’s possession

on their network, were public records. Id. at 151. The court concluded

that the definition of public records is limited to public information

related to records, and further defined the term “records” as those

materials that have b e e n prepared with the intent of perpetuating or

formalizing knowledge. Id. at 154 (quoting Shevin v. Byron, Harless,

Schaffer, Reid & Assocs., Inc., 379 So. 2d 633, 640 (Fla. 1980)). The

court emphasized that the mere placement of an e-mail on a government

network is not controlling in determining whether it is public record, but

rather, whether the e-mail is prepared in connection with the official

business of an agency and is “intended to perpetuate, communicate, or

formalize knowledge of some type.” Id. (quoting Shevin, 379 So. 2d at

640).

The court in City of Clearwater also emphasized that a common sense

approach should b e used in determining whether a communication is

public record, and further emphasized that “[t]h e determining factor is

the nature of the record, not its physical location.” Id. Just as the

supreme court concluded that the mere fact that the email was a product

of the City’s computer network did not automatically make it a public

record, the City concedes that the mere fact that Cooper’s email was sent

from her private email on her own personal computer is not the

determining factor as to whether the email was a public record. Once

again, it is whether the email was prepared in connection with official

agency business a n d in t e n d e d to perpetuate, communicate, and

formalize knowledge of some kind. See id.

The City played no role in Cooper’s decision to write articles for the

Times. Th e City played n o role in identifying the topics about which

Cooper chose to write and exercised no control over the content of the

articles. The City played no role in Cooper’s decision to distribute or not

to distribute her Times articles, or the means by which she chose to do

so. Th e City played n o role in deciding to whom Cooper chose to

distribute the copies of her articles; Cooper herself decided to distribute

the articles to select personal friends a n d supporters at her own

discretion. The email that Cooper sent was not intended to perpetuate,

communicate, or formalize the City’s business; it was simply to provide a

copy of the articles to Cooper’s friends and supporters. The email was

not made pursuant to law or in connection with the transaction of official

business by the City, or Cooper in her capacity as Mayor.

--------------

- 4 -

As previously noted, Chapter 119 is a legislative clarification of Article

I, section 24(a) of the Florida Constitution, which provides that “[e]very

person h a s th e right to inspect or copy a n y public record made or

received in connection with the official business of a n y public body,

officer, or employee of the state, or persons acting on their behalf.” The

articles h a d been previously published where anyone could inspect or

c o p y them a n d th e email forwarding copies of the articles was not

prepared in connection with the official business of the Mayor or the

City.

We, therefore, affirm the trial court’s determination that these articles,

the email, email addresses, and names of its recipients were not public

records under Chapter 119.

Affirmed.

WARNER, J., and MONACO, TOBY S., Associate Judge, concur.

* * *

Appeal from the Circuit Court for the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit,

Broward County; Patti Englander Henning, Judge; L.T. Case No. 09-

22405 03.

Edward F. Holodak of Edward F. Holodak, P.A., a n d Louis C.

Arslanian, Hollywood, for appellant.

Andrea Flynn Mogensen of The Law Office of Andrea Flynn Mogensen,

P.A., Sarasota, for Amicus Curiae First Amendment Foundation, Inc., a

not-for-profit corporation.

Daniel L. Abbott a n d Jamie A. Cole of Weiss, Serota, Helfman,

Pastoriza, Cole & Boniske, P.L., Fort Lauderdale, for appellee.

Not final until disposition of timely filed motion for rehearing