Smart word-to-the-wise re the Matt Cooper problem for Hallandale Beach-area residents/voters/business owners 10 weeks before November's General Election

Smart word-to-the-wise re the Matt Cooper problem for Hallandale Beach-area residents/voters/business owners 10 weeks before November's General Election

Yes, it's getting to be that time of the election cycle again: time for election signs to start cropping up for the November General Election on November 4th. 
Or in the case of the person shown above and below, time to start removing political signs erected by other Hallandale Beach citizens, employing their Constitutionally-protected right to express their opinions. You see, Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper's son, Matt, is NOT so crazy about that right of free opinion and dissent.
Especially when we "dissent" against his mother.

Smart word-to-the-wise re the Matt Cooper problem for Hallandale Beach-area residents/voters/business owners 10 weeks before November's General Election

Do you recall this email and blog post of mine from November 11, 2012? 
If not, or you never read it in the first place, please read it again...

Hallandale Beach's Midnight Vigilante is no Paul Revere! Caught in the act: Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper's son's Midnight Ride of campaign sign-stealing -on Election Day!; Anything goes now in HB -even political intimidation- as Broward IG & Broward SAO sleepwalk while laws & ethics are repeatedly laughed at by pols in power; @MayorCooper, #FDLE, @myfloridalegal, @fbi.gov
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/11/hallandale-beachs-midnight-vigilante-is.html

So, in the "Lessons Learned" Dept., here's where we stand: After Labor Day, if you ever see serial social misfit Matt Cooper hanging around your home, property or business that has a political campaign sign
located somewhere on it, especially at night, please be sure to grab either your cell phone or camera ASAP and make sure that you take some quick photos of him in action -for evidence.
And obviously, don’t forget to take photos of his getaway vehicle, esp. the license plate! 
And before you ask, I'm not sure if he's still using a vehicle with a very large New York Yankees "NYT" logo on the back window, as was the case in 2012.

If you've read any of the articles that have previously been written about him, you already know that Matt Cooper has a track record of bending the rules and breaking the law, and using the name of his
mother, Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper, as both a shield and a sword against both law enforcement and the community's own sense of decency.

BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes
"My Mother Is the Mayor; I'll Spit All Over Your Kids," and Other Tales From Hallandale Beach 
By Stefan Kamph 
Mon., May 16 2011 at 8:43 AM
http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2011/05/hallandale_beach_matt_cooper_spit_on_your_kids.php

(As many of you know from fact-filled anecdotes that many longtime HB residents have told us over the past ten years, apparently, he's not even the only male in the family who acts like he's "golden" -and an "Untouchable.")

Of course, things being the way they are now here in Hallandale Beach -and have been for years- where clear-cut rules, ordinances and laws have been and continue to be routinely ignored or winked at because of
who’s violating them, whether that's R.K. Properties or FECR Properties.

RK is treated VERY differently -better- from other property owners and parties in this city, witness their longstanding failure over more than 4-5 years for them to comply and put in the required camera
surveillance warning signs regarding their security cameras in their parking lot in front of and adjacent to the Publix Supermarket and the Publix Liquor store at 1400 Hallandale Beach Blvd.

http://rkcenters.com/florida/publixplaza/Publix%20Hallandale.pdf

Plus, many of you also know from previous emails and conversations with me this year about other very curious things they've been able to get away with for years at their other Hallandale Beach Blvd. properties that nobody else in the area would be able to get away with -and nothing happens to them. 
Nada!

Then there's what I call the Florida East Coast Realty//Jerome Hollo fiasco.
FECR Properties was required to fix their parcel on the SW corner of U.S.-1 and Atlantic Shores Blvd. once they bought it in December of 2012 and return it to its previous state until they began building on it.
Not that I ever believed they would actually build anything on it, having bought it for a song, to the complete surprise of The Mard Gras Casino, and clearly trying to re-sell it for a big profit.
Before I left the area for the summer at the beginning of June, they somehow had been able to get away with NOT complying with the city's so-called rules for 18 months. And counting...

More on that here, in chron order:
February 8, 2013
Friday begins a very bumpy couple of weeks for real estate developer Jerome Hollo and his plan to NOT pay Hallandale Beach taxpayers the $450,000 that Florida East Coast Realty owes them. And a storm is coming...
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2013/02/friday-begins-very-bumpy-couple-of.html

March 20, 2013
Csaba Kulin sounds the alarm over Hallandale Beach City Hall's aggressive attempts to prevent HB citizens from knowing just how much taxpayers will be paying the Police under their new union contract and how they arrived at those figures; HB City Commission's First Reading on this item is tonight at 6:30 p.m.; decision on waiver of $450k in fines owed by Florida East Coast Realty to be decided tonight
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2013/03/csaba-kulin-sounds-alarm-over.html

April 19, 2013
Wither Florida's Sunshine Laws? Part II: Investigating the continuing dysfunction, lack of appropriate disclosure of public information and the generally imperious anti-citizen attitude at Hallandale Beach City Hall under Mayor Joy Cooper; Yet MORE on the City of Hallandale Beach's failure to comply with legally-required public disclosure/lobbying laws, as well as the accuracy and timeliness of public records on HB's own website; Lobbying records that are supposed to be timely and accurate are TWO MONTHS old, making any pretense of genuine lobbying disclosure a joke; @MayorCooper
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2013/04/wither-floridas-sunshine-laws-part-ii.html

Yes, sometimes, sadly-enough, an oft-repeated rhetorical question for those of us living in Hallandale Beach to pose to the mirror is, "Is there any end in sight to HB City Hall's attempt to give away money to people and groups who neither deserve it nor who've done anything to honestly earn it?"

You'd almost think there were gushing oil wells behind Hallandale Beach City Hall, bubbling-up Texas Tea.

So, it's not like there aren't already plenty of successful predicates in this city for groups and individuals trying to get away with things when they have access to power or influnce, and similarly, Matt Cooper has continued to get away with his self-evident uncivil behavior, time-after-time.

In case you’ve never seen them before, just for some context, the photos of him in that link at the top of this email were taken just a bit after Midnight on Election Day 2012, less than seven hours before polls opened-up around the city.
He is photographed just moments after he’s been caught stealing someone else’s campaign signs and placing them into his getaway vehicle.
That is to say, he was caught stealing campaign signs of people opposed to his mother’s autocratic reign of ruin, where as well know so well, countless opportunities and incalculable amounts of money have been routinely wasted over the years so that Mayor Cooper could get her way on some policy or decision, despite the great cost to the rest of the community via their wallet and present and future Quality-of-Life.

In the next 10 weeks, if you spot Matt Cooper trying to illegally remove campaign signs from your property or that of your neighbors or friends -or attempting to deface one- DON’T bother to call the Hallandale Beach Police Dept., since they’re unlikely to lift a finger -and may well give you static for your trouble.
Instead, please email me your photos, along with the date, time, and any relevant circumstances/context, along with your contact info and names of any other witnesses, and I’ll follow-up with you ASAP.

I'll make sure that the concerned residents and small business owners of our community who make it their business to care about such things, get word about it in a timely fashion.
And, of course, I’ll also make sure that the so-called legal authorities who are supposed to deal with this sort of matter get all the relevant facts and are made to do their job -instead of ignoring the facts like they did 21 months ago- so that an appropriate punishment can be meted-out to someone who is so clearly used to
getting away with anti-social behavior.
I'll publicly put THEM on the spot to do what they didn't do two years ago -anything.

I'll also let the local news media know all the details they need to know, though we all know from sad experience over the recent years that it's foolish to think that necessarily having a compelling story in
Hallandale Beach involving illegal behavior or undue influence will actually catch their attention, much less, merit any column inches or airtime. Why?
Because it's in Hallandale Beach...

Once again, thru his words & misdeeds, Alexander Lewy is proving that he is EXACTLY who we always thought he was -a career politician in training

Folks, I warned you last year!
Above, Alexander Lewy and his campaign sign at the entrance of the Hallandale Beach Cultural Center, i.e. taxpayer property, 2010.
IF it was legal to put campaign signs there on city property, within the Supervisor of Elections' no campaign sign zone, in front of the building where Early Voting and voting takes place, where I vote, isn't it reasonable to assume that at least one of the dozens of other candidates on the ballot last year might've thought to do it, too? But they don't because it's not allowed.
And putting your campaign sign there and on other parts of city hall property, daring someone to complain about it, doesn't make it legal either.
Yet another example of the HB Code Compliance ignoring what's right in front of them -per usual. And Lewy ignoring the rules that everyone else has to abide by.
2010 photo by South Beach Hoosier.


Once again, thru his words & misdeeds, Alexander Lewy is proving that he is EXACTLY who we always thought he was -a career politician in training

We in this ocean-side city between Aventura and Hollywood are merely his humble political stepping stool.
But it seems to me that Alexander Lewy's already stumbling badly from the start...

In the Google Alert I received Monday night, while I was watching the always amusing Castle on TV, I discovered a story in the Miami Herald, below, that I missed seeing, and it mentions Hallandale Beach Commissioner Alexander Lewy.
So imagine my surprise to see him quoted about a story in Tallahassee about bologna... I mean legislation being crafted.

You probably won't be too surprised to discover that once again, Alexander Lewy, the person who in the past:
a.) supported the Diplomat LAC over the community's objections, which is part of why he got campaign money from the Diplomat's law firm,
b.) the person who currently supports the mayor's absurd and un-safe two-way streets proposal for NE 8th & 10th Avenues, even recently telling a resident against it that THEY had "their facts all wrong" but couldn't say why he supported it,
c.) the person who has supported the expansion of the city's Red-Light Camera$ operation, and, d.) the person who has said in the past that he supports the Ben Gamla Hebrew Charter School being placed in that largely single-family NE neighborhood, in this particular instance mentioned in the article, is taking the pro-government, anti-taxpayer/homeowner position. Surprise!!!

The evidence was clear even before last November's election that Lewy just absolutely hates the idea of any government -anywhere- not having the money they want to do whatever the politicians want to do, esp. in Hallandale Beach, whether the taxpayers want it or not, including charitable contributions.

Those financial contributions with taxpayer's funds were the subject of my March 10th post titled, Hallandale Beach Hides Financial Contributions From Public Record" as policy -stealthy public records are longstanding issue under mayor Joy Cooper

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/hallandale-beach-hides-financial.html

BrowardPalmBeach New Times
Public Records Hallandale Beach Hides Financial Contributions From Public Record
By Stefan Kamph,
Thursday, March 10, 2011 @ 11:21AM

​Most people are proud of their charitable donations and don't mind publicizing them a bit.

But the people who run the city government of Hallandale Beach are not most people. All of the donations that a city makes to charity are supposed to be available as public records, including who the checks went to, what accounts they came from, and the amounts of the contributions.
Read the rest of the post at: http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/juice/2011/03/hallandale_beach_hides_financial_contributions_from_public_record.php

Today's follow-up -

BrowardPalmBeach New Times
Oops! Redacted Hallandale Beach Transactions Were Taken from Wrong Accounts
By Stefan Kamph,
Tuesday, March 22 2011 @ 12:11PM

Well, that's a relief.
Good to know that the City of Hallandale Beach wasn't covering up some massive intrigue when it covered up charitable contributions in public records with no explanation. No, they were just covering up a good old blunder: taking money from the wrong bank account.

Read the rest of the post at: http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/juice/2011/03/redacted_hallandale_beach_contributions_explained.php

-----

Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/03/21/2127048/house-wants-voters-to-decide-on.html
House wants voters to decide on property tax cuts
By Mary Ellen Klas, Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau

March 21, 2011

A move to give all Florida property owners a deeper property tax cut continued to gather steam in the Florida House Monday as a committee voted to put the measure on the ballot as early as 2012.

The bill, approved by the House Community & Military Affairs Subcommittee, would give commercial property owners and those with investment homes in Florida, a tax break that would match the one residential property owners now have under the Save Our Homes provisions of the state constitution.

If approved by voters, the maximum increase in the assessed value of commercial and non-homestead property would go from 10 to 3 percent. First-time home buyers would get a one-time $200,000 tax credit and all other homeowners would not see their taxes rise unless their property values increased.

The proposal, in effect, would give voters the option of enacting the deep property tax cuts sought by Gov. Rick Scott, who this year called for a $1.4 billion reduction in property taxes. Legislators have said they are unlikely to agree to it because it would require deeper cuts than they are prepared to make in the face of a $3.8 billion budget deficit.

But if voters approve the measure, economists predict the change will result in $231 million in revenue losses to cities and counties in the first year and as much as $1.2 billion in three years.

“We can’t handle that,’’ said Devin Suggs, lobbyist for the Florida League of Cities. He said that rather than benefit from an upturn in the economy, the proposed amendment would hurt cities and counties because they couldn’t capture any of the growth in property values.

Hallandale Beach city commissioner Alexander Lewy warned that the measure could mean a loss of $900,000 to his city alone — more than the city’s annual fuel bill, more than the city pays for sewer, water and utilities and more than the cost of a new fire truck. “I ask you to please reconsider this because it would really be hurtful to the residents you represent,’’ he said.

But Rep. Chris Dorworth, R-Lake Mary, the bill’s sponsor, called that argument a red herring. He said this gives businesses the tax certainty they need to bring jobs to Florida.

The proposed constitutional amendment is similar to a proposed amendment legislators put on the ballot in 2010 to cap increases in the assessed value of non-homestead property at 5 percent a year. That measure was thrown off the ballot by a Tallahassee judge.

Rep. Scott Randolph, a Orlando Democrat, voted against the bill because it locks in the inequities created by the Save Our Homes amendment, which caps increases in property assessment at three percent a year. Now, however, if people’s homes don’t rise in value but are assessed at below market rates, they can be required to pay more taxes. Under Dorworth’s bill, if people’s property values don’t rise their taxes don’t rise.

-----

And we all know who the present head of the anti-citizen.taxpayer Florida League of Cities is, don't we?
Joy Cooper, our city's contribution to heated political rhetoric that sheds little light. http://www.floridaleagueofcities.com/

Some things to ponder:

Those of you who told me last year that Lewy wasn't "as bad" as I repeatedly documented in emails and blog posts, and said that Lewy was going to make a positive difference, when, EXACTLY, is that going to be happening?

When, EXACTLY, is Lewy's first unscripted public meeting with the community taking place over at the HB Cultural Center, at his cost, just as London has been doing for years?
Or, is Lewy still waiting for Cooper, Ross & Sanders to FINALLY have their first one after all these years?

When is Lewy going to actually second London's common sense motion to have a community meeting/forum on the two-way street proposal that City Manager Mark Antonio has even admitted in city documents should've already taken place -in the past.

That necessary important public meeting which, as of today, is STILL NOT scheduled?

So far, Lewy has played his role perfectly as a member of the Cooper Rubber Stamp Crew, and he has done nothing to alter that public perception since his election five months ago.
He's exactly what we thought he was.

By the way, if you haven't seen it in a while, Bett Willet's blog, Blog by Bett, is quite instructive as her entry from March 9th, about the City of Deerfield Beach, is both informative and humorous (in a sad way), and could just as easily describe the highly questionable work-ethic and sleepwalking antics of the HB City Commission -save Keith London- who swallow what they're given with nary a peep.
http://blogbybett.blogspot.com/

"Hallandale Beach Hides Financial Contributions From Public Record" as policy -stealthy public records are longstanding issue under mayor Joy Cooper

Above, the Hallandale Beach City Hall monument sign on the NW corner of U.S.-1/Federal Hwy. and S.E. 5th Street, across the street from Gulfstream Park Race Track & Casino and The Village at Gulfstream Park retail complex. It doesn't look like a brick wall, but for Hallandale Beach citizens and taxpayers trying to get public information and answers in a timely and efficient fashion, as they are guaranteed the right to under the Florida Constitution, it is -and has been for a very long time. March 9, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Is it true that "Hallandale Beach Hides Financial Contributions From Public Record"?
Ye$!

A stealthy approache to public records and lengthy delays in getting them are a longstanding issue and specialty-of-the house at HB City Hall under mayor Joy Cooper's long reign of ruin. You could almost call it a tradition, if by tradition, you mean a lengthy and often expensive obstacle course.
I do.

In fact, it's said by some very smart and well-informed HB residents who have lived here longer than me that the Broward State Attorney's Office has even sent written warnings to the city within the past few years because of both numerous complaints and the SAO apparently feeling their previous attempts to communicate the importance of the city ACTUALLY COMPLYING with STATE LAW were falling on deaf ears.

After you've heard the same story from dozens of people over several years, and you know from experience what REALLY happens at HB City Hall under Joy Cooper/Mike Good/Mark Antonio, and I clearly know better than most, dispiriting as it is, you have no reason to not believe it's true.

Perhaps I should make a public records request for the SAO document, don't you think?

One of the things that particular "tradition" here instills in you is a knowledge that even before you submit your request for PUBLIC RECORDS, citizens will NOT receive the sort of respectful response they would get in most other South Florida cities, and that there will often be demands that you pay absurd amounts up-front -due to the city's own poor record-keeping- not because the query is actually so hard to complete if things were better organized.

There are so many egregious examples of this problem at Hallandale Beach City Hall under this regime with regard to access to public records and even more importantly, the public's ability to access them in a timely fashion before required public meetings -Diplomat LAC, circa 2009, anyone?- that I have literally gotten myself hoarse telling reporters, editors and producers at the Miami Herald, South Florida Sun-Sentinel and the local Miami TV stations about the self-evident facts.

What was the South Florida media's response?

To promptly ignore it, even the absurd example of mayor Joy Cooper forcing the city to sue my friend, Michael Butler, of Change Hallandale, for demanding access to public records that the Florida Constitution explicitly guarantees.
http://www.changehallandale.com/

That story, of Mayor Cooper turning the Florida Constitution completely upside-down to save herself public embarrassment, and other local pols and civic groups mouse-like stance on the
sidelines, should have been on the front page of the local section of the newspapers and on TV.
In most cities in this country it would've been.

But here in South Florida, it was largely ignored, except for some Michael Mayo columns and blog posts after Michael was sued.

The South Florida media's unwillingness to do their "job" in favor of doing soft stories on breast milk and bra sizes, has led many citizens of this part of Southeast Broward County to make certain assumptions, based entirely on past experience and first-hand observations.
Assumptions that have proven time and again to be 100% true.

One assumption is that the majority of print/TV reporters down here are, in fact, simply lazier and not as smart as the reporters and columnists they see regularly on TV elsewhere.
There's simply no curiosity or desire to unearth facts.

Some, in fact, like at the Miami Herald, are resistant to information.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/03/06/2100244/when-herald-staffers-dont-answer.html

That itself is a fact that has now gone onto be part of this area's "common knowledge."

The second assumption is that nobody on the current City Commission except Keith London is willing do any hard work or express any concern about the upside-down way that information and access to it by the public is handled by City Hall via the City Manager and City Attorney's office.

In fact, from the evidence, it could hardly be clearer that Joy Cooper and her Rubber Stamp Crew of Dotty Ross, Anthony A. Sanders and Alexander Lewy are completely disinterested in the subject of employee performance, no matter how bad and unsatisfactory it is, and just there like bumps on a logs when it's brought up.
They see, hear and speak 'No Evil.'

In fact, they even have the gall to publicly berate HB citizens and residents speaking at public City Commission/CRA meetings about the city's longstanding failures and inability to solve problems -on time and under budget and with transparency- with Dotty Ross being by far the worst offender.

Ross berates citizens even before they have said anything -while they're still walking to the microphone!

The third assumption built on first-hand observation and past history is that the sleepwalking news media of South Florida is mayor Joy Cooper's best friend.
You know, the Joy Cooper who is the head of the Florida League of Cities?

Yes, in case you were wondering, it often DOES occur to many of us living here and paying close attention to matters large and small affecting this ocean-side city that IF the local news media had simply done even 10% of the fact-based reporting here they should've done the past seven years, Joy Cooper would have NEVER become the public face of that anti-taxpayer group, one that always seems to be looking for a way to empower elected officials and keep the Florida public on the outside looking in.

In a different time and place and with very different reporters with a more traditional view of
journalism, Cooper's embarrassing paper trail would simply be too much to overcome, even for other Florida pols to swallow.
She'd literally be a reporter's favorite piñata.

But with no media-generated paper-trail...
Besides, why do you think she created that website of her's when she did, because she really cares what anyone living here really thinks? LOL!


Today, Stefan Kamph of the BrowardPalmBeach New Times has once again shed a needed light on the mendacious and outrageous business-as-usual way approach that HB City Hall employs to get thru the day.
I'm already very familiar personally with the particular situation cited, one of many, having talked to Dr. Judy Selz and heard her describe in detail what happened -and didn't.

You would think it wouldn't be so hard to get elected officials and govt. employees to actually do the right thing -competently and consistently- and to follow the state law.
But in Hallandale Beach, you'd be wrong.

BrowardPalmBeach New Times
Public Records Hallandale Beach Hides Financial Contributions From Public Record
By Stefan Kamph,
Thursday, March 10, 2011 @ 11:21AM

​Most people are proud of their charitable donations and don't mind publicizing them a bit.

But the people who run the city government of Hallandale Beach are not most people.

All of the donations that a city makes to charity are supposed to be available as public records, including who the checks went to, what accounts they came from, and the amounts of the contributions.

Read the rest of the post at:
http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/juice/2011/03/hallandale_beach_hides_financial_contributions_from_public_record.php

Sorry, discerning news consumers in FL aren't buying the self-pity being sold by Tallahassee-based media re Gov. Rick Scott, the anti (Charlie) Crist

I've been waiting a bit to drop this post of mine just to see if there was any more secondary coverage of this story about new Florida governor Rick Scott and the expectations, assumptions and presumptions of the Tallahassee-based media that covers the Florida legislature, the governor's office and what passes for Junior Varsity political intrigue and machinations.

I figured I'd give it about a week and a week has come and gone, so here we are.

Excerpt from my email of January 31st titled SunshineStateNews.com: Gov. Rick Scott, Hero; Press Corps, Zero

Below, a variation of the story that received prominent coverage last week in the Miami Herald and the St. Pete Times and several other places around the state, all to little practical effect

You remember, the story about the last-minute dinner at the Governor's Mansion, where the person chosen to be the 'pool reporter' had other plans and said nyet, throwing 'journalism' into a tailspin?

Meanwhile, no matter how many facts and photos I use to persuade South Florida print or TV reporters to express any curiosity at all about a public building in Hallandale Beach -just steps from the beach- that has only been open three times to the public in what will be 42 months on Thursday, and for which hundreds of thousands of Hallandale Beach taxpayer dollars has been spent, and no doubt, wasted, reporters just yawn.

With one exception, Stefan Kamph Hallandale Beach's North Beach Facility Might Finally Open, After Four Years
http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/juice/2011/01/hallandale_beach_north_beach_opening.php

That, after all this incompetency, the the city manger here has pledged to keep it closed to the taxpayers of this city is the ultimate insult, but to local reporters, they just roll their eyes at this news, one more fact they could care less about.

It's a story which if it happened in Coral Gables or Miami Beach would've been on the front page of the Herald's very loosely-edited State & Local section, perhaps with some critical comments later in the editorial page asking with mock dismay, who elected the unelected City Manger, Mark Antonio, to keep a public building closed to the public?

But because it's not located in those cities, it wasn't the predicate to a zinging editorial that lowered-the-boom on Antonio and HB City Hall.

It's the news story that never happened, the one that so perfectly illustrates the dilemma for Hallandale Beach citizen taxpayers -caught between the longstanding incompetency and anti-democratic nature of HB City Hall officials, pols and their cronies, and a press corps that doesn't even pretend to be curious.

But now, I'm supposed to care about a meal at the governor's mansion, featuring some people I've never heard of?
No sale.

-------

Miami Herald
Scott's media limits upset journalists
By Michelle Morgante Associated Press
January 20, 2011

TALLAHASSEE- Journalists who cover Florida's capital complained to industry leaders Tuesday that the new administration of Gov. Rick Scott is skirting free-press traditions and attempting to control their work by limiting access to events and being slow to provide public records.

Speaking to the board of the Florida Society of News Editors, nine Tallahassee correspondents said Scott's team is imposing an unprecedented level of control over access to Scott and to events that previously would have been considered open. The governor's office also has tried to "cherry-pick'' reporters to provide pooled reports to the rest of the press corps, instead of allowing the journalists to choose.

Bob Rathgeber, senior staff writer for The News-Press of Fort Myers, said Scott, a former healthcare executive, apparently wants to continue operating as if he were still in the private sector, not public office.

"He doesn't care whether we have complaints or not,'' Rathgeber said. "He's from the private sector and he's a private guy.''

The journalists pointed to several examples, including a post-inauguration reception held on the scenic 22nd floor of the state Capitol, where Scott's staff restricted access to a select few.

The event was in a public building and the entire state Legislature had been invited, noted Mary Ellen Klas of The Miami Herald. "That, on its surface, struck me as a public meeting. . . . There's no reason they should be shutting the public out.''

But Klas and others, including an AP reporter, were booted out. The reporters said Scott's staff said a pooled report would be provided and argued that the journalists had accepted the arrangement. She and the other reporters speaking Tuesday said they'd never accepted such a deal. Pool reports typically are only agreed to when space is unavoidably limited, such as aboard an airplane, and the selection of the journalist is made by the participating media groups.

A voice message and an e-mail seeking reaction Tuesday from Scott's communications director, Brian Burgess, were not immediately answered.

The reporters also pointed to an incident last week, when Scott and several lawmakers gathered at the governor's mansion for a dinner. Scott's staff made no announcement about the dinner but, upon deciding the press should be alerted, quickly sought a reporter to provide a pooled report.

Dave Royse, executive editor of the News Service of Florida, said he was invited to be the pool reporter although the dinner was nearly over. He could not accept, but offered a reporter from his staff in his place. When that reporter was rejected, Royse said he declined to participate for ethical reasons.

The party being covered "can't pick and choose the reporter,'' he said. The correspondents said they would consider creating terms for pooled reports, such as an ordered list of reporters to be called on. But Paul Flemming, state editor for Gannett's Florida bureau, cautioned against encouraging greater use of pools: "I think it's dangerous to go down a pool path at all.''

Jim Baltzelle, FSNE president and Florida chief of bureau for The Associated Press, said the incidents raised concern about the freedom of the press. He said FSNE would consider how to formally respond.

Aaron Deslatte, Tallahassee bureau chief for the Orlando Sentinel, said he's been given very little access to the governor because during Scott's campaign, his staff considered the newspaper "hostile.'' He said his only recourse has been to make several requests for public records. But the administration, he said, has been slow to respond and, in one case, said it would charge him $400 for printing by an outsourced provider even though Deslatte said the information is available electronically.

There are currently 51 reader comments at:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/01/19/2022456/scotts-media-limits-upset-journalists.html

A more realistic view of what transpired -or didn't- with some well-chosen sarcasm, was expressed elsewhere.

SunshineStateNews.com
Gov. Rick Scott, Hero; Press Corps, Zero

By Nancy Smith
Posted: January 31, 2011 3:55 AM

Thank God we found out Thursday night that the governor and his guests "dined on mesquite grilled swordfish, corn macque choux, and Florida strawberry shortcake."

Or did they?

Can the people of Florida be absolutely sure? What if diners were really inside that mansion chowing down on roast beef, spinach casserole and English trifle?

How might that have torpedoed the ship of state?

Read the rest of this spot-on post at:
http://www.sunshinestatenews.com/story/governor-rick-scott-hero-press-corps-zero


See also:
http://www.flgov.com/
http://www.flgov.com/news-releases/
http://www.myflorida.com/

Just added my two cents to the debate and website... New Times: "Hallandale Beach's North Beach Facility Might Finally Open, After Four Years"

Looking west from the Atlantic Ocean and the beach towards the Hallandale Beach Water Tower, Fire/Rescue station, North Beach Community Center.
October 26, 2010 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Below is the email that I sent out this morning to my well-informed grapevine after finally deciding to comment on this BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes article of yesterday. It'll be interesting to see if any other reporters FINALLY show-up on Tuesday to grill Mayor Cooper or City Manager Antonio about this longstanding scandal.

In any case, on Monday I plan to invite the State Attorney's Office to attend.

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BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes

Hallandale Beach's North Beach Facility Might Finally Open, After Four Years

By Stefan Kamph, Fri., Jan. 21 2011 @ 6:36AM

Mike Butler is facing an uphill battle. He's the blogger and gadfly of record in Hallandale Beach (the 40,000-citizen heel of the Broward boot), and he's the one who calls out the city for spending through its reserve funds, paying its city manager nearly half a million bucks a year, and leaving the beach in suboptimal conditions.

Read the rest of the post at:
http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/juice/2011/01/hallandale_beach_north_beach_opening.php

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Here's what I posted above:

To paraphrase a sports maxim, Hallandale Beach City Hall can't stop Change Hallandale and Hallandale Beach Blog, they can only hope to contain them.
And they will FAIL at that.

The biggest problem that the status quo Cooper Crew have is that while my friend Michael and I and many other concerned HB residents are entirely forthright, transparent and public about the sort of city we'd like HB to be, and equally clear about the sort of accountable public policy that we believe ought to prevail here -which, at at a minimum, is a dollar's worth of service/product for a dollar's worth of taxpayer's funds, plus some innovation with common sense instead of the longstanding secrecy and duplicity- history has shown us that the Cooper Crew is deathly afraid to share PUBLIC information in a timely fashion and debate the issues based on facts in public forums -without their completely controlling the forum or the microphone.

Plus, they have shown over-and-over again that they can't ever admit being wrong about something, and are equally unwilling to admit that other people actually have good ideas, too.

Friday afternoon at 4 p.m, about 45 hours AFTER HB City Manager Mark Antonio said at Comm. London's 'Resident Forum' that the (taxpayer-funded faux newspaper) South Florida Sun-Times was City Hall's main avenue for informing residents -despite the fact that nobody actually reads it because it's nothing but PR and propaganda- I swung by the North Beach Community Center with a copy of that laughable rag.

I walked around the area as I have so many countless dozens of times and took notes -and photos and video.

Here's what I found: One smallish banner hanging on the side of the Fire Station facing NOT the passing traffic on State Road A1A, but rather facing south towards The Beach Club and residents leaving that condo complex.

There were ZERO signs on the doors of the Community Center bldg. itself, ZERO sandwich boards advertising it on the beach or on the A1A sidewalks.

There were ZERO of the city's electronic message boards that are ALWAYS seen on U.S.-1 and Hallandale Beach Blvd. two weeks before the city's overly-aggressive PAL has something THEY want to promote.
(Why exactly does PAL have special rules that allow them to do whatever they want? Nobody ever wants to say why they get special privileges in this city.)
.

Looking east from State Road A1A/South Ocean Drive & Hallandale Beach Blvd, Hallandale Beach, FL. July 3, 2009 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

As for the faux newspaper that Mark Antonio said would have word about Tuesday afternoon's public unveiling, almost 42 months after it was given to the city for FREE on August 3rd, 2007, the event that only two of the concerned residents at London's meeting had even heard about prior to Antonio mentioning it there, well, they had ZERO words about it in the last issue before the event.

Not wanting to be hasty, I gave a copy of it to a friend to read and asked him to carefully double-check and see if he saw a single word about Tuesday's event at the North Beach bldg. NOPE!
There was NOTHING there.

Typical!

That's the anomie-centric HB City Hall Crew in a nutshell: unable to even mange to get a word in edgewise about their little spectacle in the fake newspaper that THEY themselves keep alive thru HB taxpayer-subsidies.
How absurd!

Video of City Manager Antonio's remarks at Comm. London's Wednesday night meeting, along with photos and video from Friday of the North Beach Community Center will be on my blog on Sunday, where I already have dozens of photos of its neglect over the past three-and-a-half years, along with numerous blog posts about its longstanding mismanagement.
http://www.hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/

Many of them ask the basic question that NEVER is answered: Why have mayor Joy Cooper and past and current city managers adamantly refused to hold a city-wide forum where citizen taxpayers of this city could weigh-in on what THEY want that building to be for?
That discussion should've taken place YEARS AGO!

Nobody has a problem with the city to make revenue from renting the place out on weekends, as I've mentioned at numerous budget meetings, but what taxpayers DON'T want is for it to continue to be off-limits to them Monday thru Friday, and used exclusively, as it has been, as a warehouse for the city's office chairs, and a beach-side clubhouse for PAL and other City Hall cronies, as my past photos on the blog have shown.
That public facility doesn't belong to them, it belongs to all of us.

By the way, Hallandale Beach City Hall DID finally 'fix' the large water fountain located in front of the North Beach bldg. and the Fire Station last month.
It only took the city 16 months to get water into the fountain.
Congrats!