Showing posts with label State of Florida. Show all posts
Showing posts with label State of Florida. Show all posts

Monday, November 6, 2023

re Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody's office fighting a ruling on lobbying restrictions on Florida's elected officials: The cautionary tale of Steve Geller and Joe Gibbons track record makes a reasonable person realize we NEED even stronger and more meaningful ethics laws in the Sunshine State



re Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody's office fighting a ruling on lobbying restrictions on Florida's elected officials: The cautionary tale of Steve Geller and Joe Gibbons track record makes a reasonable person realize we NEED even stronger and more meaningful ethics laws in the Sunshine State 

As I have told most of you loyal readers of the blog via emails or in-person since before 2018 -some of you, in fact, SEVERAL TIMES!- I truly wish the Florida law mentioned last week in Florida Trend, below, had been a state law in effect back when: 

a.) Present-day Broward County Commissioner Steve Geller was a state senator, with a public office located at Hallandale Beach City Hall no less.
In theory if not practice, Geller was supposed to be representing the citizens and stakeholders of Hallandale Beach in the Florida state Senate in Tallahassee, yet at the time, was free to legally lobby AGAINST their interests -as well as those of HB's elected officials- on behalf of any of his lobbying clients, and,

b.) Joe Gibbons, the ex-Hallandale Beach City Commissioner and then-Florida state Representative -so, like Steve Geller above, in theory, representing the interests of citizens and small business owners of Hallandale Beach and West Park in the Florida House of Representatives in Tallahassee- yet, Gibbons was legally free to lobby AGAINST the interests of the city's residents, stakeholders and elected officials, on behalf of his other clients. And did.

Clients that Hallandale Beach citizens and stakeholders were completely unaware of, even if a particular project he was somehow financially involved in was being discussed on local TV newscasts or in the Miami Herald or South Florida Sun Sentinel, since unless his name is specifically mentioned, how would you know he was connected to it?
You wouldn't.

In one particular egregious case regarding Joe Gibbons WHILE he was a Florida state Representative, a case that I chronicled here on the blog MANY TIMES at the time, Gibbons was working FOR the interests of a large, well-heeled South Florida real estate development company involving a VERY UNPOPULAR development proposal on the beach. Specifically, one proposed for 2000 S. Ocean Drive.
What is now referred to as 2000 Ocean, below.





A proposed development that was opposed by both the city residents living closest to it, at the Parker Plaza condos, as well as the majority of the rest of the community.




The latter, a reflection of the fact that the city's elected officials, City Manager and CRA officials seemed even more intent than usual in bending over and rushing the project through with as little public engagement and input, and handicapping the public by NOT making PUBLIC INFORMATION available to me and them as soon as it was available.
(Yes, not only the common thread but actually the default position of Hallandale Beach elected officials and City Managers since I first returned to South Florida 20 years ago, after working and living in Washington, D.C. for roughly 15 years, often on behalf of some of the largest of Fortune 500 companies, and the nation's most influential law firms, PACs and lobbying groups.)

Typically for Broward County pols, where no interest looms larger than self-interest, Joe Gibbons did all of this while he was running against first-term incumbent Beam Furr for his Broward County Commission seat representing SE Broward County, including Hollywood. 
If you were a normal person, you'd think that the issue would have caused the South Florida news media to be all over it, given that it was happening while Gibbons was campaigning for public office again.
But you'd be wrong.

As I wrote about many times here on the blog, absolutely ZERO members of South Florida's press corps, print or TV or even NPR affiliate WLRN, were interested in asking any hard questions about that particular arrangement, despite the unethical optics of it, to say nothing of the huge amount Gibbons reportedly would have received if he had succeeded: $200,000 according to well-informed people involved in the process.

And the worst part of all, a FACT that I wrote about then on my blog and in emails to many of you, Gibbons NEVER even did the bare minimum the city's extant ethics and lobbying laws REQUIRED.

That is, Gibbons never filed the required lobbying docs at HB City Hall, as every other lobbyist is required to do, yet he had many conversations with City Commissioners and top city staffers at the time, including several with unethical Comm. Anthony Sanders, a man who later was forced out by Broward Inspector General John Scott because of Sanders steering nearly a million dollars in HB CRA funds to his family and friends, naturally, because the city was unwilling and unable to do even the most basic oversight of the millions of dollars in the city's CRA pot.
(For the record, the Miami Herald has STILL never reported in-print that he was forced to resign -or else!)

That Joe Gibbons, who lived in Jacksonville with his family while he was a state Representative, while claiming, falsely, to be a full-time bona fide Hallandale Beach resident, was a great believer of rules for you and me, but NOT for him. Surprise!

Even now we STILL don't know who the real priorities of Steve Geller and Joe Gibbons were when they were public officials in Tallahassee or Broward County: the public or their own financial interests?




---

NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA
Florida attorney general's office fights a ruling on a lobbying restriction
Jim Saunders | The News Service of Florida | 10/26/2023

Pointing to securing the “public trust,” Attorney General Ashley Moody’s office has asked a federal appeals court to overturn a decision that blocked part of a 2018 state constitutional amendment imposing new restrictions
on lobbying.

U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom this summer issued a permanent injunction against a restriction on state and local officials lobbying other government bodies while in office. Bloom said the restriction violated First Amendment rights.

But in a 62-page brief filed Wednesday at the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, lawyers in Moody’s office disputed that the restriction is unconstitutional and said paid “lobbying by public officials threatens the integrity of and public confidence in democracy.”

Florida’s restriction alleviates the threat of financial quid pro quos and their appearance in a direct and material way,” the brief said. “It prevents elected and executive-level officers, who wield political influence, from taking, or appearing to take, dollars … for political favors … in derogation of public trust.”

The 2018 amendment, which was proposed by the state Constitution Revision Commission, sought to bar public officials from lobbying “for compensation on issues of policy, appropriations, or procurement before the federal government, the Legislature, any state government body or agency, or any political subdivision of this state, during his or her term of office.”

The remaining plaintiff in the case is Miami-Dade County Commissioner Rene Garcia, after Bloom ruled that another plaintiff, South Miami Mayor Javier Fernandez, did not have legal standing.

Garcia, a former state House member and senator, is executive vice president of New Century Partnership, a firm that provides lobbying and other services. Garcia said he turned down at least two clients who sought lobbying services for legislative appropriations in Tallahassee because of the restriction, according to Bloom’s ruling.

In the filing Wednesday, Moody’s office took issue with the injunction applying to officials across the state. The brief said that if Bloom’s ruling is upheld, it should apply only to Garcia.

“Because Garcia’s injury is limited to the fear of enforcement against him, the court could have afforded complete relief by enjoining the state defendants from enforcing the restriction against only him,” the brief said. “By enjoining the restriction as to all public officers in the state, the district court departed from traditional equitable practice.”

Bloom, who is based in South Florida, ruled that the 2018 constitutional amendment and a law that carried it out placed “content-based, overbroad restrictions on speech.”

“Contrary to defendants’ assertion, the in-office restrictions target speech based on the context of the speech and its content,” Bloom wrote.

But the state’s brief Wednesday said that “no matter the public office or the lobbied government entity making political decisions, Florida has a substantial interest in preventing officeholders from being (or appearing to be) bought and paid for in the political arena while holding public office in public trust.”

Bloom did not block another part of the voter-approved amendment that restricts former state and local officials from lobbying for six years after leaving office.

Thursday, January 16, 2020

Looking ahead at Hallandale Beach/Hollywood Blog to everything in 2020 that we'll be analyzing, discovering, examining and writing about with our customary nuanced and fact-filled way, including news via new platforms to better inform the public in South Florida and beyond in ways they can better use, appreciate, and share with others so that more people are in-the-know.

Looking ahead at Hallandale Beach/Hollywood Blog to everything in 2020 that we'll be analyzing, discovering, examining and writing about with our customary nuanced and fact-filled way, including news via new platforms to better inform the public in South Florida and beyond in ways they can better use, appreciate, and share with others so that more people are in-the-know.


My 2019 photo of the Andrew Antonaccio mural at 1900 Hollywood Blvd. in Downtown Hollywood, featuring da Vinci's Mona Lisa masterpiece. I've been using this photo at the top of my blog since the summer of 2019 to replace the by now familiar photo of the iconic rainbow-colored Hallandale Beach Water Tower on State Road A1A that I've been using on the blog since starting it in 2007.


My photo of July 6, 2019 of the Fabio Onrack mural a few blocks farther west in Downtown Hollywood at 2050 Hollywood Blvd., on S. 21st Avenue, just south of Hollywood Blvd. 
It features iconic 20th Century artists Salvador Dali, Frida Kahlo and Jean-Michel Basquiat.




Today I'm looking ahead and talking out loud about some of the things in 2020 we'll be analyzing, covering, discovering, examining and writing about with our customary nuanced and fact-filled way.

It'll also feature news about some new-and-improved platforms to better inform the public in South Florida and beyond about some important matters of public concern in ways they can better appreciate, use and share with others.



Fortunately, many people in our area have perches that allow us to take a long (term) view and not the all-so-familiar, myopic takes on the news and events that far too much of South Florida's news media seems to prefer for reasons of their own involving either laziness, lack of due diligence, or confusion on whether they are journalists or publicists.
That's a REAL pernicious problem in South Florida, especially with reporters under the age of forty.
Too many seem to prefer shallow takes completely lacking historical context or intellectual heft that are instantly forgettable.

Like nearly everything that appears in the troubled and bias-laden Miami New Times, once actually voluminous and fun to read, to which can't seem to see straight out of its inability to treat people fairly, and not write pieces based strictly on personal/political spite or animus.
Almost everything written there reeks of indignation, much of it of the know-it-all kind that sells in places where everyone calls for diversity yet always agrees.
That's called consensus, not diversity. 






Just so you know, there will be a LOT of interesting news, commentary and insight about Hollywood, Hallandale Beach and Broward govt./political/public policy doings coming the next few weeks, so don't think I've taken the holidays off. No. I've been busy writing away and putting my little nuggets of information into storage until the holidays were over and people were of a mind to start reading things that are not frivolous.

Usually, but not always, at the Panera Bread on Sheridan Road in Hollywood, not far from where I live these days, as opposed to the days I lived in Hollywood Lakes on Wiley Street and just north of Young Circle on Filmore Street, west of U.S.-1











That necessarily includes returning to the antics of Wednesday Hallandale Beach City Commission meetings at 5:30 pm due to the return and reboot of Joy Cooper to the local political scene. I anticipate some antics and melodrama, since all that time away from the passing scene has got to have built up quite a lot of need in her to show everyone what's what.
Certainly that's what the South Florida news media is expecting, so I expect they'll be more likely to actually show up when something important is going on instead of the sillier issues that drew them like flies the past 2-3 years. Which is all to the good. 

I'll be there more often, too, to observe and report back here with what's what, including some news about an expensive financial fiasco the HB CRA is involved in that will likely explode in February unless cooler heads prevail.
Slim odds of that if you've seen who's at Hallandale Beach City Hall these days.

I hope to be able to be finished writing some positive stories I've started regarding some dynamic new entrepreneurs who have come to the area and who are making a very positive difference in the general attitude of things hereabouts as it concerns satisfying customers. 

Like my marketing-savvy friend, John Wiltsey, who worked so successfully for so many years for the fashion house Chanel, which included LOTS of traveling to fascinating luxurious places I've only read about and seen photos of but where lots of hard work goes on, too, according to him.
John's dream turned reality in Downtown Hollywood late this past summer with the opening of
Camp Cocktail Bar + Grill, on the corner of Hollywood Blvd. and N. 21st Avenue, at 2051-B Hollywood Blvd.
That's the same block on the north side of Hollywood Blvd. where popular GoBistro! and it's newer brother, GoGai! is located, as well as Tasta Gelato & Cafeteria. 



2051-B Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood, Florida 33020
+1 (754) 263-1175
campcocktailbar@gmail.com

I first profiled Tasta Gelato and its five owners, longtime childhood friends from Italy and Sicily, back in October of 2016, over three years ago, even before they officially opened, when I was able to get a behind-the-scenes view, with lots of photos, and was able to tell how and why they chose to locate in Downtown Hollywood over many other possible sites throughout the U.S., including, naturally, South Beach.





https://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2016/10/how-why-italys-tastagelatos-first.html

Other people who've made a VERY positive impression on me since I returned to Hollywood last April include Craig Avera and Rose White, the owners of Cali Coffee just north of Sheridan Road on N. 29th Avenue, west of 1-95, in front of the Holiday Inn Ft. Lauderdale-Airport. 



2650 N. 29th Aveue, Hollywood, Florida 33020
+1 (954) 251-3274
https://calicoffee.net/
https://www.instagram.com/calicoffeeofficial/

+1 (954) 251-3274
Open 5 AM – 10 PM

In the near-future you'll be reading here about how Craig and Rose's business has succeeded in ways they could not have imagined, and how that very success will lead them in 2019 to open two other Cali Coffee locations in Broward County, and what's behind that expansion. 
I know the locations, but you'll get no reveals from me right now.

Over the last few months, once fall finally got here, there has been Antonio Cao, owner of Cao Bakery & Cafe, who I had the opportunity to speak with both before he opened his new location, and during a little community sneak peak when the neighborhood and many area civic activists could get together and check it out.
The new location has their official Grand Opening next Thursday, the 23rd, at 5 pm!


Above, Hollywood Park East Civic Association President Tom Lander and Hollywood Mayor Josh Levy, with microphone, on the night of December 17th, when Cao opened for a few hours to give some members of the Hollywood community a sneak peak of things to come and food to be savored.
I made sure to sample everything that could be sampled. 
A few times!








A huge thanks to our friends and supporters, especially the people have stuck thru since the heat and humidity of last summer: Mark at Mickey Byrnes Irish Pub, and Jimmy at The Greek Joint.
I'm so appreciative for them being supportive of our efforts at Hallandale Beach/Hollywood Blog ever since we returned to Hollywood in late April, with the idea of continuing to get more useful and original news, information, context and informed commentary out to you, however you choose to receive it online.

I also hope to soon be announcing some new dynamic advertisers to the blog very soon, including some new businesses in Hollywood, Hallandale Beach and throughout South Florida that have people are talking about in positive tones! Some restaurants and real estate projects and even maybe something for those of you who own pets...

2020 is going to be an amazing year in many respects, including two areas that occupy so muc of my time, sports and politics, starting off with a Super Bowl at Hard Rock Stadium in less than three weeks that will bring lots of excited and curious visitors to our area -though not as many non-game fun activities as I hoped we'd see in Hollywood- plus, a great Summer Olympics in Tokyo to look forward to, plus national, state, county and city elections.

In case you didn't know, the Orange Bowl Committee will be hosting a Bowl Championship Series (BCS) National Championship game next January at Hard Rock Stadium, and just like last night's game in New Orleans between Clemson and LSU, that game in 12 months in South Florida will bring tens of thousands more excited people from all over the U.S. to our perch in the world, most of whom won;t even have tickets to the game but who just want to enjoy the spectacle and the partying going on beforehand. That's what college loyalty does!

I've got a number of interesting out-of-town and even overseas trips to look forward to over the next 12 months, details of which you will be reading plenty about here in the weeks beforehand. That includes one up to Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, a place that I have never visited before, despite having read about it in books and magazines and seen it in TV shows and films for many decades.

I'll be there not to see the sights so much as to see my brilliant and very talented niece Jenny play for the Yale Bulldogs Women's Lacrosse team, where she is a freshman this year after starting the past  four years for one of the top high school lacrosse programs in the U.S., where she and her Glenelg Gladiators won three Maryland state championships in their division. 
That trip to New Haven is going to be both a fun and surreal experience after everything I have ever known, read and seen in tru and fictitious films centered on Yale, 

Plus, at North Miami Beach Senior High, I had a friend and classmate in most of my many AP classes who became our valedictorian my senior year, and he chose to get out of Dodge and away from the heat and humidity of South Florida, while I chose the Midwest and Indiana University.

And in February we'll be firing up our YouTube Channel and Instagram again in the new year after a lot of inactivity, and start sharing some very useful non-text information and news with you in some interesting ways that you'll value and want to share with your friends in the area and elsewhere.  



I should also mention that I have recently downloaded WhatsApp again, so those of you who communicate with me fairly often via my cell phoen number will now have a way of knowing what, if anything, is on my mind from any one hour to another, via checking out my WhatsApp status page.
I decided I needed to be more affirmative about what I was doing or thinking since so many people tell me after-thefact, "I wish you'd told me about THAT at the time."
Well, you now have your wish!




Tuesday, October 20, 2015

An open letter to Florida CFO Jeff Atwater about the long overdue need for CRA reform in Florida. Today's Florida Bulldog expose by William Gjebre is a perfect example of why these spending/ethical reforms were needed... YESTERDAY: @Florida_Bulldog: Fort Lauderdale to use “poor people’s money” to subsidize transit for affluent?

October 20, 2015

Dear Mr. Atwater:

Per the enclosed story from this morning's newest expose in the Florida Bulldog
'Fort Lauderdale to use “poor people’s money” to subsidize transit for affluent?,'
I had some quick thoughts to share with you.

I do so because your record in public service shows that more than seems true with 
99% of the elected officials in this state, you've proven to be someone who shows 
via word and deed that you believe in both the spirit and letter of Florida's laws 
governing public accountability and spending, not just the abstract idea of them. 

Given my experience in Hallandale Beach, which I have recounted to you previously, 
where over a period of years, tens of millions of HB CRA dollars were mis-spent with 
no genuine accountability and no meaningful oversight, -where the Broward Inspector 
General's damning report showed high-ranking, highly-paid city/CRA staff 
essentially went on the 'honor system' with recipients who were friends of HB 
City Hall, including NOT even requiring CRA fund recipients to show any evidence 
they were actually doing or making progress towards what they claimed they'd 
accomplish with the CRA fundsI keep waiting for the Florida Legislature to do what
they keep saying they want to do, namely, tighten-up CRA rules so that clearly-understood 
rules are set so that both the public and the cities will know in advance what city CRA 
Boards can and can NOT do with CRA funds.

And chief among these is NOT continue to use them as slush funds and "found money" 
to pay for the things involving public policy that those in charge DON'T want the public 
either to get wind of or have any real input on, regardless of how many people it might 
ultimately affect.
This continuing misbehavior by local government corrodes public trust and alienates 
people who do believe that CRAs can serve a very useful purpose.

After all, how can I trust someone in government who will do whatever they want 
whenever I'm not looking?

I appreciate that you're no longer in the legislature and are sensitive to the limits of your 
own office's authority and official duties, but if the legislature is going to keep punting, 
why not consider launching a public campaign to bring some of these excesses to light, 
and create some momentum for more pressure to be exerted to make the needed reforms
that Florida residents deserve?

The current system, and the repeated reluctance of city/CRA attorneys to tell their 
bosses to rein-in their worst instincts, puts the honest public officials in Florida who DO 
believe in transparency and genuine publiengagement in difficult positions, especially 
when their bosses or their colleagues who don't believe in openness, want to continue 
to keep their thumbs on the scale to get their way and keep the public thoroughly 
disadvantaged -and in the dark.

Given all the spending horror stories that have taken place throughout the state with 
respect to CRAs, why is the effort to finally enact meaningful CRA reforms in Florida 
NOT being pushed seriously NOW in Tallahassee?
Just wondering, since the public knows that it's LONG OVERDUE

I just posted this letter to my blog.

In the near future, I'll be happy to post any response that you and your office or any of 
the state legislators receiving this email as a cc choose to respond with. 
------------
end of letter

Here's the article and the tweet about it that I encourage all of my blog's readers to share. 



Florida Bulldog
OCTOBER 20, 2015 AT 5:41 AM
Fort Lauderdale to use “poor people’s money” to subsidize transit for affluent?
By William Gjebre, FloridaBulldog.org 
OCTOBER 20, 2015 AT 5:41 AM
Fort Lauderdale’s recent approval of a no-bid contract to update the plan for the troubled Northwest-Progresso-Flagler Heights Community Redevelopment Agency has raised concerns about a lack of public input amid a rush to add projects not in the current plan at the expense of community needs.
Scott Strawbridge, who serves on the CRA’s 14-member advisory board, has called for outside review of the agency after he and his colleagues were informed that City Manager Lee Feldman signed a $24,500 contract with a private firm in August to amend the current CRA plan, last updated in 2001.
Read the rest of the article at:
http://www.floridabulldog.org/2015/10/fort-lauderdale-to-use-poor-peoples-money-to-subsidize-transit-for-affluent/