Thanks to "Joy Cooper being Joy Cooper" and Comm. Anthony A. Sanders' continued stonewalling of the truth, July 2012 was the third-busiest month ever in the five-year history of Hallandale Beach Blog; Some upcoming blog posts at HBB to be on the lookout for; @MayorCooper, @SandersHB, @AlexLewy

Above, a snapshot of one of the "columns" Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper supposedly wrote herself for the fake newspaper that receives $50,000 in city CRA funds -that ought to be going to removing "blight"- despite a majority of Hallandale Beach residents being opposed to it, since it not only doesn't actually cover local news and activities, not even City Commission meetings, but it also allows ZERO opposing points of view to appear in it, not even Letters to the Editor. It's pro-City Hall and pro-Joy Cooper 24/7.

Last month from this propaganda perch of hers, Cooper -or a ghostwriter- wrote, "I understand and share the frustration of many residents who have contacted me to state that they are fed up with the undertones of negativity within our City. I have chosen not to respond to the negative comments directed at me as they do not warrant recognition or validation. Commission records are documented and the truth eventually surfaces..."

Yes, the truth about what has been going on in this city does eventually surface, but no thanks to Joy Cooper and her Rubber Stamp Crew of Ross, Sanders and Lewy, all of whom it can truthfully be said, that facts are NOT their friend. The city's own records show that $2,000 in campaign contributions were made to Cooper's mayoral re-election campaign from a Phoenix-based company that makes money from red-light cameras, and days later, Cooper punked the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and wrote an essay there that extolled the wonders and virtues of red-light cameras, but made no mention of their financial contribution to her.

Cooper did this despite the fact that RLCs were the number-one cited complaint of HB citizens in a poll -that she herself pushed to conduct- because of how Cooper personally rushed the RLC program through, refusing to share pertinent safety information with citizens. And what do you know, the cameras were placed NOT in the specific parts of HB roads with the most-consistently high number of traffic accidents or incidents, but rather in places where the city could make the largest amount of money. Revenue, not safety was Cooper's number-one concern then. The poll of HB's citizens merely proved it.

Yes, the truth eventually surfaces, quite often, much sooner than she likes! On this blog.

July 2012 was the third-busiest month ever in the five-plus year history of the Hallandale Beach Blog, with 23,036 individual pageviews, or an average of 743 individual pageviews per day.

The busiest day of the month was July 23rd with 1,072 individual pageviews.

That day I penned the two posts below regarding the words and actions of the mendacious and misanthropic current Mayor of Hallandale Beach, Joy Cooper.

What's worse? The galling audacity of the feckless Sun-Sentinel giving free space to thoroughly-mendacious Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper, 16 weeks before the election, or her stridently self-serving lies re Red-Light cameras in Hallandale Beach, which she and her Rubber Stamp Crew rammed thru to gain more revenue for the city? American Traffic Solutions could NOT be any happier for the free plug, and will no doubt have a campaign check to Cooper on its way soon -if it's not there already; @MayorCooper
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/07/whats-worse-galling-audacity-of.html

Follow the money? Okay, here it is: $2,000 on page 3 of Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper's most-recently filed Treasurer's Report is from American Traffic Solutions-related entities who support installation of Red-Light Cameras. Like what she railroaded thru in HB. What are friends for, after all?; @MayorCooper

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/07/follow-money-okay-here-it-is-2000-on.html

Those two particular posts really seemed to have hit people where they live, and lit a fire under some people who perhaps pay less attention to details than I do.

I mention this because I not only received a higher number of "hits" that day than usual, but I also received a higher number of emails and phone calls from people in the area I don't usually talk to and see on a pretty regular basis, almost all of whom said a variation of the following: 

While they'd always known that the mayor was excessively egotistical and a ham-handed self-promoter, it was the very depth of her self-serving nature and here tone-deafness that they were unprepared for.
Unprepared for her blindness to the public appearance of a mayor writing something in the Sun-Sentinel that directly benefits the economic interests of a company (and its minions) that had just made financial contributions to her re-election campaign to the tune of $2,000.

What can I say, It was all Joy Cooper being Joy Cooper.
I only brought it to your attention.

That, unfortunately, is what makes the Miami Herald's and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel's reporters and columnists, as well as the reporters at the the four English-language TV stations complete unwillingness to report such things all the more remarkable.
That is, if by remarkable I mean galling and frustrating.
I do.

-----

Some upcoming posts at Hallandale Beach Blog that you may want to take special notice of include...


An object lesson in bad journalism -from entirely predictable sources

When someone is both a Pastor and a City Commissioner as Anthony A. Sanders is, and neither hat will tell the truth to the public he's supposed to represent about an ethical problem that's been going on for three years, what's the proper role of the press corps? Hint: Ignoring it is NOT the right answer.

A beloved 1960's song of my youth is found on YouTube, with the most amazing audio quality I've ever heard on YouTube; almost made me cry!


Hypocritical Mainstream Media & Janet Robinson: Forget what you've heard: grilling MSM hypocrites thru use of known facts is FUN! Fired ex-NY Times CEO Robinson's $24 Million parachute -for failure- is finally getting her the unwanted media scrutiny she always deserved but never received from others in the MSM club

Hooray! #FailObamaRussiaReset as Goldman Sachs + Putin = FAIL. Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act passes Congress over Obama's threats to cave-in to Russians

"A" as in Aftonbladet and awesome! "The Girl Who Played With Fire": Extended Edition 

Why don't we see more ingenious efforts like the "Stockholm Boat Sessions" in South Florida, LA, Chicago or New York? Lack of imagination, apathy or simply too many Twenty and Thirty-something female marketing reps running things who are too obsessed with Social Media and don't understand the power of LIVE music?

Signs of Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper's ineffectiveness, myopia and lack of attention to detail are everywhere you look in this city. All you have to do is open your eyes. So why does so much of the South Florida press corps keep its 'Eyes Wide Shut,' and keep quiet about what they ALREADY know?

Interesting odds and ends, myths, and Tall tales re Sweden AND Iceland that I plan on finding out about in-person in a few weeks

LA bans the Plastic Bag. Then what? NYC bans large sodas. What's next in the Nanny State of Obama's America, as local govt.'s conduct social experiments with your choices?

re Hallandale Beach Comm. Anthony A. Sanders' stealthy "meetings." From the same man who's stonewalling the Broward Inspector General, who NEVER returns your phone calls or email, and who WON'T visit your neighborhood to meet with you or your neighbors; #HallandaleBeach, @SandersHB, @MayorCooper, @AlexLewy

Above,  501 N.W. 1st Avenue in Hallandale Beach polite society and public policy circles is considered THE most egregious example of dozens of exasperating and highly-questionable examples of dubious government spending and crony capitalism that've taken place on Mayor Joy Cooper's watch, and one of the most dubious of any in Broward County, which is REALLY saying something. It's the infamous former property owned by HB Comm. Anthony A. Sanders that has seen so many tens of thousands of Hallandale Beach taxpayer dollars and CRA dollars poured into it. The one the city rushed to buy and overpay for despite having no plan of any kind in place for what it would do with it once it was bought. For what, THIS? So the city can receive one dollar in rent a year? photo by South Beach Hoosier © 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

Showing the sort of personal initiative that we need to see more of around Hallandale Beach if we're going to succeed in bringing the sort of long-overdue and genuine good government initiatives that Hallandale Beach City Hall desperately needs, like "real" transparency and financial accountability and oversight that are worthy of the name, Chad Lincoln has this update on the latest efforts by Hallandale Beach Comm. Anthony A. Sanders to evade both his moral and sworn duty to follow the laws of Florida and Broward County and speak with the Broward Inspector General.

Coupled with that, of course, Sanders continuing refusal -for 46 months now- to speak with residents from the whole city and level with them about the ethical cloud he and his wife Jessica have put themselves under since he was placed on the City Commission in August of 2008 by Mayor Cooper in a manner that was NOT consistent with the city's own established-rules -which had been used the year before.

Not leveled with residents of the entire city after being endorsed by both the Miami Herald and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel based on his... well, we're not sure exactly, but we have our suspicions, too, just like all of you do, given how poorly Sanders performed for the two months prior to that 2008 election, often not saying anything more than replying "here" during the perfunctory role call at the beginning of the City Commission meeting.

Yes, those 2008 endorsements of theirs definitely reeked of patronizing condescension, but to be fair, perhaps both newspapers thought that because he was both an African-American and a pastor, that he would bring some sort of intangible qualities to the mix, and would, at a minimum, be an honest and earnest representative of the entire community, and bring to light matters that might otherwise never see the light of day.

Oh that it were all true...

Instead, though, the sad reality for all of us is that instead of bringing something positive to the mix, Sanders has been the very craven picture of what there was already too much of at City Hall on the City Commission -Joy Cooper's Rubber Stamps.

Sanders genuinely seems to believe that he owes no duty to the citizens of this community.

There will likely be more about this matter before the end of the week, as Comm. Sanders attempts to continue to successfully stonewall the law until AFTER the November election 17 weeks from today, with HB taxpayers now on the hook for paying an outside counsel, who will no doubt continue to tell Comm. Sanders exactly what he wants to hear.

Continue to tell Sanders what he seems to really believe, based on his own words and actions and lack of candor with us and fidelity to the law -that he is above not only the law, but also the reasonable norms and expectations of a public official in the 21st Century: of having to actually interact with the very public he purports to represent.

Hallandale Beach Commissioner Anthony A. Sanders could hardly be more obvious in his condescending contempt for both the law, the norms of society and for us as individuals, citizens and taxpayers of this very poorly-managed city, which very clearly doesn't sweat the small stuff.

This community's patience with Anthony Sanders has run out.

-----

Chad's update is a follow-up to his two written comments placed in the Broward Bulldog, http://www.browardbulldog.org/ the first on June 23rd, the second on July 5th

Chad Lincoln

June 23, 2012 at 1:07 pm

It’s time for Commissioner Sanders to resign from the Commission.

His and his wife’s dealings with the City have never been at arms length. Their persistent shoving of their snout into the City’s coffers has begun to appear as Pay for Play for political support in the NW quadrant of Hallandale. Is Mayor Cooper buying votes in the North West Quadrant with Taxpayer monies? Is she using the Sanders as her conduit? In Hallandale Beach and with this Mayor one sure has to probe the issue. It’s time to follow the money.

And while Commissioner Lewy claims these troubling transactions predated his election to the Commission. he has dirt some of the same dirt on his hands during his tenure. Commissioner Lewy moves in lock step with the mayor in all dealings of Mayor Cooper and Sanders. Example: he can not escape his recent attempt to funnel $200,000.00 to Sander’s wife’s training business in the NW Quadrant. $200 grand!!! Commissioner Lewy, was brazen in the attempt undertaken at 2AM, but gutless in his not stating clearly who he was seeking to designate the money too. Typical Hallandale cronie politics as practiced by Mayor Cooper and her merry band of ….

Oh, and some one should explain why the citizens of Hallandale would even consider returning EX Commissioner Julian to office when it was he that signed the contract to give Sanders a windfall purchase of the property. Julian approved and bought the property at huge price over appraised values. Could Ex Commissioner Julian have shoved his snout in the coffers right along along with Sanders?

Am I the only one that feels the need to shower the slime off, after learning more of the loathsome practices by Mayor Cooper and her cronies that are being foisted upon We the People of Hallandale?

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

Chad Lincoln

July 5, 2012 at 11:13 am

Public Announcement:

Chad Lincoln,

Community Activist

Hallandale Beach Resident

Friday., June 29th. 2012, at 1:54 P.M. I had a surprising yet welcome call from an unfamiliar number (954) 540-5200*. When I answered a tentative lady introduced herself as Jessica Sanders, wife of Hallandale Beach Vice Mayor Sanders.

After the quick introduction, Mrs Sanders launched in to a civil discussion where in she expressed objection to my recent public postings on the Broward Bulldog about the City Commissions expressed unwillingness to cooperate with the Broward County Inspector General’s (IG) investigation. She continued to insist the basis of the IG’s investigation is based upon half truths and lies. Mrs. Sanders wanted to know why I would make statements as I did to demand City officials stop avoiding the IG’s investigation? And yes, I did color those posts with questions being asked about their conduct. For which I do not apologize.

In this 23 minute discussion, Mrs. Sanders repeatedly requested I sit down with her and Vice Mayor Sanders to hear the truth (as they believe it). I was gratified with the offer, but had stipulations where: the meeting would be an open meeting to include myself, other Hallandale residents, and interested community activists and leaders; and the content of the meeting must be factual and honest. She verbally accepted the idea and we agreed a meeting was long past due for them to air out the financial dealings she and her husband have had with the City Commission and the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) which involved material sums of tax payer money and benefits.

In the service of this offer and to accelerate the possibility of such a open forum, of facts and figures supported by documentation and minutes and notes of meetings, I am attempting to reserve a room at the Hallandale Cultural Center (behind city hall) large enough to hold a large number of attendees. I will publish date as soon as the meeting date is set and approved by Mr. & Mrs. Sanders.

This notice will be sent via the same online news pages/blogd, plus HB residents with email addresses, additionally by Hallandale Beach “code red” telephone robo calls where residents are not on the DNC list, and notice to the media in the hopes they will publish the event as well as attend and report. Of course representatives of the Broward County IG’s office will be notified of the public meeting.

I agree with Mrs. Sanders, this dark cloud hanging over the City Commissioners’ conduct deserves to be aired and answered to the peoples benefit, and to protect the names of the Commissioners and ex member Julian in the community. Such a meeting potentially benefits all.

I thank Mrs. Sanders and Vice Mayor Sanders for coming forward and proposing this opportunity for the community.

*Note: Telephone number (954) 540-5200, is published in association with the following organizations, represented by Mrs. Sanders:

• Palms Community Action Coalition – Cell Phone

• Broward County Health Department – Alternate contact

• Eagles Wings, HB Contact phone

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

July 15th UPDATE on Vice Mayor Sanders’s Public Meeting:

On Friday July 6th, I went to the HB Cultural Center and contracted for rental of the main meeting room capable of holding 100+ attendees for a Public Forum where Vice Mayor Sanders and his wife could address the citizens interested in their disclosure of their dealings with the city of HB. That date set was July 24th. 2012 from 6:30PM to 8:30PM on Approved Permit # 3033.

In booking the room I made it clear to “Louise” who was booking the room that I had to confirm Vice Mayor Sanders and his wife’s schedule, and an alternate date for July 23rd. was available if needed.

Louise stated she was uncertain if the rental would be free of charge or not, and that was to be determined when she checked with her supervisor. I told her if by policy it would not be free, I would write the City Manager to request a waiver of the fees as is the established policy under prior CM San Antonio. It was clear that as soon as I confirmed the Sander’s attendance we would settle the charges if any.

Friday evening, before I reached the Sanders’ about t 6:00PM A voice message was left for me by a woman from City Hall that Vice Mayor was not going to attend a Non City Forum on the 24th, and that even though the City Hall was closed over the week end, I had to call and confirm I still wanted the date and my willingness to pay (a $450 fee) before Monday morning or they would cancel the date at the open of business. So the date was cancelled by “book club” tactics at the doings of Vice Mayor Sanders and the squeeze out of the contract date.

The recording did state that I was welcome to attend Vice Mayor Sanders “regular” citizen forum to be held in the near future. That tidbit was interesting as I nor anyone else I can find this side of the Dais knows anything about Vice Mayor Sanders Holding regular forums for Hallandale Beach Residents. We all seemed to know about those held by Commissioner Lewy and Commissioner London, but Vice Mayor Sanders town halls, are a best kept secret of Hallandale Beach.

Subsequently, I spoke directly to Vice Mayor Sanders after the Special meeting of the Commission held to award Tommy Lopez, ex lifeguard, the Key to the City on July 9th. 2012. aI spoke to him in chambers over the dais in a public discussion which was looked on by Commissioner Lewy. Vice Mayor Sanders wanted to impress upon me that his wife did not run his calendar and had no authority to make appointments for him. He again stated I was welcome to attend his meetings where he would discuss matter important to the community. He seemed unsettled by my response in asking why he had Jessica call me to establish just such a meeting. (And further I impressed upon him that he made no effort to inform the public of his meetings as did Lewy and London.) My understanding with Jessica Sanders was I would get a meeting room as quickly as possible and get back to her to square things up on her end for attendance. That was the deal and I had every reason to expect Vice Mayor Sanders and his wife actually were talking with one another.

The public meeting was frustrated by Mayor Sanders. The People were close to establishing a venue for Vice Mayor and Jessica Sanders to hold a public forum about their financial dealings with the City of Hallandale. (That meeting was at their request.) Such a meeting is very much to their mutual benefit if they expect to have the support of the citizens in the future. So what we have learned is that there is to be a meeting held by Vice Mayor Sanders where in he and maybe Jessica Sanders will discuss their financial dealings with the City of Hallandale Beach.

I’m not going to hold my breath, don’t you either.

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

South Beach, Hallandale Beach, Florida. This and all photos below are from May 30, 2012 and were taken by South Beach Hoosier. 

© 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

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

Early this morning in an email to the Sun-Sentinel's Ihosvani Rodriguez, I wrote the following:

I  just needed to clarify something.

In your article, Hallandale Beach lifeguard fired after participating in beach rescue
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/hallandale/fl-hallandale-beach-lifeguards-20120703,0,5326638.story do you mean the lifeguard who saved someone from dying,
Tomas Lopez, left one of the HB lifeguard stands that, contrary to what the city's insurance docs likely claim, are NOT now properly grounded for lightning strikes?

© 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

Something the city already knows about, which is the city's legal responsibility and a HB taxpayer's lawsuit nightmare if someone is injured?
Yeah, sort of like the city still not having fixed or replaced 28 broken lights at Bluesten Park, three blocks from City Hall, for well over nine months and counting... 

Specifically, the lifeguard stand on South Beach that still has graffiti on it and had metal city signs underneath it for 4-5 months because the city's DPW is so poorly managed and bereft of anything resembling a strong work ethic or attention to detail, to remove them and place them in the correct place? 
And which was still under the South Beach lifeguard stand many weeks after I first called DPW on my cell phone in late May while standing next to it, to complain, when these photos were taken?

Those lifeguard stands?

© 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

© 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

You mean THOSE lifeguard stands with metal underneath them just asking to be zapped

by lightning?

© 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

The beach where not so far away from those old and unsafe lifeguard stands there are faded, 30-year old Broward County signs from when southern Broward County was still using the 305 area code, the Miami Dolphins were still playing in the Orange Bowl, and BEFORE Dan Marino was playing quarterback for the Dolphins?

That neglected public beach?

© 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

Do you mean the beach where the weekend before the city's Parks Master Plan meeting of Monday May 31st re possible changes and improvements to South Beach, the sign with the meeting info came down, and rather than simply re-hammering it into the wooden pole, someone from the city dragged it next to the dumpster and left it there?

Which, of course, meant that anyone who went to the beach that entire weekend or Monday morning who didn't already know about the meeting would have had no idea about it, or what the rendering on the left actually meant?

That neglected public beach?

I spy: the missing meeting sign hidden next to the dumpster! 
© 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

The beach with the nearby dumpster without the fence enclosure the city requires of all businesses owners in the city with dumpsters, to hide the dumpster from public view, just like the city has been violating its own ordinances for YEARS at North Beach?

After I saw this for myself the afternoon of the meeting, I actually left the beach and drove over to City Hall and spoke in-person with the new Parks Director at her office to both tell her what I'd seen, but to also offer it up as yet another self-evident example of how things were/are routinely done in this city since I have lived here -with a lack of professionalism and with an almost completely contemptuous disregard for the taxpayers and residents of this city.

Which is to say half-assed! And with no consequences for continued sub-par performance.

But the reality is that in this city, it's DPW who is in charge of the beach, not Parks & Rec.
That's where the blame lies, along with just-departed City Manager Antonio, and the current Mayor and City Commission.

© 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

Could there possibly be any garbage dumpsters in South Florida that are closer to the Atlantic Ocean than these two from the City of Hallandale Beach at North Beach? (The ones you can see because the city doesn't have the required fencing hiding them.) I don't think there are! 

Area to the left is The Apogee condos in Hollywood under construction. 

The public beach where for years, as they do elsewhere, the city just laughs at following its own rules and ordinances, to say nothing of city commissioners ignoring state laws about NOT illegally parking in disabled parking spaces?

© 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

One of the many photos I snapped over the years of Julian's ID on dashboard while he was parked illegally in disabled or disabled- access parking spaces next to the Beachside Cafe at North Beach.  

(The latter is a common sense state law that for YEARS was routinely abused by former HB Comm. Bill Julian -running again this year- when he drove to the Beachside Cafe, continually parking in what was then THE only disabled parking space nearby, being sure to let everyone know whose car it was, as ID shows.)

Like the public beach -as depicted in photo above- that has dumpsters that have only needed lids that actually fit and cover the garbage since... 

Those public beaches?

The beaches that rightly ought to be taken away from the control of the city's DPW Dept., who have clearly demonstrated over many years that they are clearly NOT interested in giving HB taxpayers the appealing and clean beach they desperately want, and NOT giving them a dollar's worth of service for a dollar's worth of taxes?

The ones whose care should be outsourced to a licensed and experienced contractor to beautify and properly maintain?

Those public beaches?

Oh, okay, now I got it.

I just wanted to make sure that we were talking about the same beaches in HB I know about, and have been closely observing for years as they have fallen into rapid decline due to the city's very own longstanding neglect, apathy and incompetency.

After all, I certainly wouldn't want to jump to any erroneous conclusions.

Kudos to Tomas for keeping his integrity intact and not hesitating from doing the right thing.
I only wish that most of the people at Hallandale Beach City Hall who've been making the big bucks for years were as deserving of the community's trust, respect and admiration as Tomas was by his display of integrity.
But they're not.

No, sadly, my experience is that when they actually do the right thing, it's usually by accident, NOT by design.
And the proof of that is all around us in this city.

Bob Norman's must-see video of Florida Panthers president, who DOESN'T want to answer questions about $7.7 million sweetheart loan from Broward County

The must-see Bob Norman investigative video I have for you at the bottom of this post, from Thursday night's Channel 10 six o'clock newscast, is the perfect follow-up to my recent emails to some of you out there in the blogosphere on the never-ending subject of the NHL's Florida Panthers asking the Broward County Commissioners, their landlord at the Bank Atlantic Center, for a multi-million dollar loan, an egregious example of crony capitalism.


It's a subject that I first raised here on the blog in a November 6, 2011 post titled, The Florida Panthers hockey team's owners & mgmt. are about to get a cold dose of economic reality falling on their head -no taxpayer money for you!

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/florida-panthers-hockey-teams-owners.html


I was wrong about the "no taxpayer money for you" part, though, as on Tuesday afternoon, the Commission caved-in to specious reasoning by a vote of 6-2.


It was the worst sort of crony capitalism, as instead of just picking winners and losers, and in this case, one where one party will profit much sooner at the expense of the other -as so often has happened the past ten years in my own city of Hallandale Beach with CRA loans under the direction of Mayor Joy Cooper- the County Commission was given financial information days before the vote by County Auditor Evan Lukic that the deal as reconfigured from November would make taxpayers 'The Biggest Loser,' they went ahead and voted for it, anyway.


The most recent South Florida Sun-Sentinel articles on this anti-taxpayer vote:

Panthers deal enriches arena operator, not Broward, county auditor charges

By Brittany Wallman, Sun Sentinel

January 17, 2012  9:26 p.m.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/fl-arena-waste-watch-broward-20120117,0,7670061.story

Florida Panthers back at table with new loan request, $7.7 million Broward vote Tuesday

By Brittany Wallman, Sun Sentinel

January 31, 2012  4:10 a.m. EST, 

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/florida-panthers/fl-panthers-loan-newdeal-20120130,0,7432033.story

Broward Politics blog

Lobbyist Watch: Milledge says county shouldn't be looking for profit from Panthers

By Brittany Wallman, Sun Sentinel 

January 31, 2012  02:56 PM

http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/broward/blog/2012/01/broward_gives_panthers_a_win_o.html

Broward says yes to Florida Panthers $7.7 million loan

By Brittany Wallman, Sun Sentinel

January 31, 2012  6:55 p.m. EST

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/fl-broward-panthers-loan-20120131,0,635932.story

My favorite take away is from the first one from January 21st:

Broward County has gotten the short end of the stick in its financial deal with the Florida Panthers, and a proposed loan would only tip the scales further, the county's auditor charges.

To date, the county has paid more than $90 million for the arena that serves as the Panthers' home, and gotten back just $331,000 in profit-sharing.

The Panthers side of the scoreboard is far brighter, according to county records. Since the doors at BankAtlantic Center opened 13 years ago, Arena Operating Co., the Panthers' sister company that runs the arena, has rung up a reported $117.4 million in profits. That's more than 353 times what the county has banked.

This absurd loan to the Florida Panthers, via the use of the county's hotel bed tax,
is opposed by the Greater Ft. Lauderdale hospitality industry, a preening, self-important and self-serving group to be sure, but one which most people would agree has a much better idea about what tourists do and do not want to do when they visit Broward than the County Commission, and going to a Panthers game on the outskirts of The Everglades near nothing but a huge shopping mall -Sawgrass Mills- is NOT one of them.

My last bit of context for you to absorb before watching Bob Norman's eye-opening video is this Forbes.com video featuring the Florida Panthers' smug and tone-deaf president Michael Yormark.


Yormark won't answer reasonable questions from an actual reporter from the area like Bob Norman, someone who WONT feed him marshmallow questions like Forbes.com's Executive Editor Mike Ozanian does.



Forbes.com video:, Winning Panthers Look To Cash In. January 11, 2012.
http://youtu.be/wCld3dhT3V0

SPORTSMONEY 
January 12, 2012 @ 3:12PM
Panthers Skate Towards More Revenue

Article at: 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/mikeozanian/2012/01/12/panthers-skate-towards-more-revenue/

The Channel 10 video, and the antics of the people shown, speaks for itself.



WPLG-TV
Bob Norman's Blog
The BankAtlantic shuffle
Published On: Feb 02 2012 08:03:45 AM EST  
Updated On: Feb 02 2012 08:26:55 AM EST

http://www.local10.com/news/blogs/bob-norman/The-BankAtlantic-shuffle/-/3223354/8582968/-/i3du6wz/-/

Coming tonight on Channel 10's 11 p.m. newscast, Bob Norman asks, Where are the profits?

Dear Broward County Taxpayers: "Jennifer Gottlieb was absent." It's already a tired and familiar refrain, isn't it?

Type the phrase "Jennifer Gottlieb was absent" into a search query on Google and watch how many times you get a response, even for this year.

And when you consider how poorly education is covered by the South Florida press corps, those numbers really make you wonder.

(And yes, in case you were wondering, the Miami Herald still hasn't mentioned anything about Tuesday night's Broward School Board budget meeting, which the Sun-Sentinel's Cara Fitzpatrick writes about below.

You know how that is, it being north-of-the-border and all and the Herald not being so interested in what happens with 40% of its customers...)

To say nothing of Gottlieb blowing-off the hugely important public Education Forum in Hallandale Beach in June on Hallandale High School -which I attended- when her partner-in-crime on the Broward County School Board, Ann Murray, also of next-door Hollywood, was also a no-show, despite the fact that it took years to make that meeting a reality and they both all about that meeting long before.

But they were too busy to show.

But as you know from reading this blog, when Gottlieb was keen to try to engage in PR spin over her handiwork regarding the much-criticized Beachside Montessori Village school that she is so emotionally attached to, both Gottlieb and Murray had two hours to talk in Hollywood at a meeting that I also attended, which also attracted some well-informed activist friends from HB, Csaba and Catherine.

Because there are so many posts here on the antics and ethics of Jennifer Gottlieb here, go to

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/search?q=%22Jennifer+Gottlieb%22

and when you eventually finish reading the last post on the page, click the link on the right that says "Older Posts" and you'll continue in a reverse chron order.

Unfortunately, due to the limitation of the Blogger template and the quantity of posts, they literally can't all appear on the same page.

And in case you forgot or never knew, when she ran for re-election last year while the sitting Chair of the School Board, Jennifer Leonard Gottlieb won with 50.02% of the votes, garnering only 73 more votes than the combined total of runner-up Susan Eleanor Madori's 35,884 and third-place finisher Nicholas "Nick'' Sakhnovsky's 25,040 votes.

Just saying...

By the way, since nobody else seems to be asking, what's new with that "Secret" account at South Plantation High School that turns out not to have been so secret that lots of people in charge didn't take advantage of it despite Broward Schools written rules?

Or any legal investigations into Ann Murray's behavior and antics?

Or the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights inquiry into the admission practices at Beachside Montessori Village in Hollywood and Virginia Shuman Young Elementary in Fort Lauderdale, and whether they discriminate against minority students?

Broward taxpayers and voters want to know!

As the blog post below by Brittany Wallman makes clear, I guess it's a good thing that Jennifer Gottlieb isn't a Broward student, otherwise her excessive absences would be a real cause for concern.
Maybe even a sign that she was becoming a juvenile delinquent.

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

www.sun-sentinel.com/news/education/fl-broward-schools-budget-passed-20110802,0,2632970.story

School Board approves tentative budget that would cut tax rate

By Cara Fitzpatrick, Sun Sentinel

9:34 PM EDT, August 2, 2011

The Broward School Board approved a $2.9 billion tentative budget Tuesday that would lower the tax rate slightly but would slash almost 2,400 jobs, most of them teachers.

The School Board voted 6-2 to approve the budget, with a total school tax rate of $7.42 per $1,000 of taxable property value, down from $7.63 this year. Board members Nora Rupert and Laurie Rich Levinson voted against the budget plan. Jennifer Gottlieb was absent.

Final approval of the budget is expected in September.

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Moms & Dads blog

Broward school district rats out students who skip classes

By Brittany Wallman

August 2, 2011 08:55 AM
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sfl-mtblog-2007-02-its_showtime_now_sit_down_and_1-story.html

re Topix, Sun-Sentinel's reader comments site; Venture Beat: Online news gatherer Topix aims for election-ad dollars

Some of you are already quite familiar with the downside of using the Topix reader comment boards affiliated with newspaper websites.

If you're in South Florida like me, it's pretty likely you're familiar with it from having seen the South Florida Sun-Sentinel's, where scurrilous, hateful and racist comments were/are routinely posted there just for the hell of it, and people could literally post things things there that were/are NOT factually true, with no fear of it being deleted, despite what the newspaper lamely claims.

Want to accuse someone you don't even know of being drunk at 9 a.m. and causing a traffic accident? Welcome aboard!
This is from today about the Channel 10 news van accident in Fort Lauderdale:
3 hurt in accident involving WPLG Ch. 10 live truck in Fort Lauderdale
http://discussions.sun-sentinel.com/20/soflanews/fl-van-overturn-20101015/10

I saw things there repeatedly about someone I knew that were NOT at all true, but it hardly mattered that it wasn't true, because there it stayed, day-after-day, week-after-week, month-after-month.
(For the record, it was from West Hollywood Dissident.)

If you wanted to publicly say that your ex-girlfriend/ex-husband or ex-roommate was a vampire, a deadbeat, a drug user, a fleeing felon or a Justin Bieber-lover, that was the place for you to vent your wrath!
And it shows!

Well, this Oct. 13th article from Venture Beat informs us about the TOPIX geniuses' newest strategy to get more political advertising $$$.

But fortunately, some smart readers chime-in and share even more personal horror stories and ruin the TOPIX party.
Sweet!

I found the article today after I received an email in my inbox from Topix this morning telling me -deceptively- implying that someone had a new message, presumably responding to something I'd written at some point in the past.

That seemed odd, since I haven't used it in a while since their site was such a mess.

Such a mess, in fact, that I'd written an email to the Sun-Sentinel's management many, many weeks ago.
Official response? ZERO!

Way to be accountable, legacy media!

-----

Hi Hallandale Beach Blog,

CitizenTopix sent you a message on Topix.

To see the message, click this link:
(I deleted this for obvious reason to post it here on the blog.)

Topix

-----------

But rather than seeing a link I'd click to see the new comment -and my own original comment, since they didn't say what the subject was- as with the DISQUS comment system, http://disqus.com/, which I use when commenting on material at TheWrap and the various mediabsitro.com industry websites, it was essentially a sales pitch from TOPIX's new effort, Citizen TOPIX.

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

CitizenTopix

“Sounding off for the citizens”

A Governor, Sheriff, and Dog Catcher walk into a bar...

Topix Election 2010: Citizen Sound-Off is the place to discuss the November 2nd Midterm elections that matter to you. From big-name governor races all the way down to hotly contested county commissioner seats, you can share and debate your opinions with folks from down the street or across the state.

Get started right now: http://www.topix.com/pr/election2010

Are we missing a race for your town? We could use your local expertise!
Just head over to this form and fill in the blanks:
http://bit.ly/topixelections

Vote early. Comment often.

See you at the polls!

Citizen Topix

------

As you might imagine, they were NOT persuasive.

------

Venture Beat

Online news gatherer Topix aims for election-ad dollars

October 13, 2010 Riley McDermid

With its launch of Election 2010: Citizen Sound-Off today, online news aggregator Topix is now the only website to couple localized voter information with a platform for open participation. But can it channel this big election into even bigger ad dollars?

Read the rest of the post at:
http://venturebeat.com/2010/10/13/online-news-gatherer-topix-aims-for-election-ad-dollars/

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See also:

"Entertainment Industry Analysis, Breaking Hollywood News" in TheWrap http://www.thewrap.com/

http://www.mediabistro.com/

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/

http://www.mediabistro.com/webnewser/

http://www.mediabistro.com/agencyspy/

http://www.mediabistro.com/sportsnewser/

http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/