When it's a question of "Use it or lose it" for South Florida governments and federal funds, you can pretty well guess that all logic and reason goes out the window QUICK to spend, spend, spend... But now, state/local governments have an additional year to account for CARES Act funds, so will better decisions be made?

When it's a question of "Use it or lose it" for South Florida governments and federal funds, you can pretty well guess that all logic and reason goes out the window QUICK to spend, spend, spend... But now, state/local governments have an additional year to account for CARES Act funds, so will better decisions be made?

If you are a longtime reader of the Hallandale Beach/Hollywood Blog -let alone a relative newcomer like so many of you are in our stay home New Normal era of coronavirus- I know that you're as shocked as me to learn that in Miami-Dade County, federal CARES Act money is paying for many, many things that are NOT directly related to what most reasonable people would consider any aspect of the COVID19 pandemic. 

Or, as a very knowledgeable civic activist friend here in Hollywood told me when this article appeared in the Herald last Thursday, "The thing is, you can only imagine how much worse the flim-flammery  must be in Broward!"

Miami Herald
Cities scrambling to meet CARES deadline. Here's why that means more money for police
By Aaron Leibowitz and Joey Flechas, Miami Herald
December 24, 2020

With the deadline to allocate COVID-19 relief funds less than a week away, local governments across Miami-Dade County are scrambling to make sure they don't leave money on the table.

They're giving out more grocery gift cards. They're distributing rent and mortgage assistance. They're even getting reimbursed for costs with no direct connection to the pandemic — namely, salaries for police and firefighters dating back to March.

It's all part of a mad dash to the Dec. 30 deadline for Miami-Dade to distribute $474 million in CARES Act funds. As of Dec. 7, only about half of that money had been spent with more in the pipeline. Among the outstanding amount was $50 million from a $75 million pot intended to reimburse municipalities for COVID-related costs.

"It doesn't look like it's working out very well," said Joseph Corradino, the mayor of Pinecrest and a member of the Miami-Dade League of Cities executive board. "It looks like the deadline is getting short for everybody to get their act together."

Read the rest of the story at: https://t.co/PyLdk40ngg?amp=1

It's even crazier than it sounds when you know that cities 

"no longer needed to present documents to justify the use of CARES Act dollars for public safety workers. Instead, police and fire salaries "are deemed significantly COVID-19 related, thereby alleviating the need for extra paperwork such as duty rosters [and] daily activity reports," Miami-Dade's chief financial officer Edward Marquez said in a Dec. 7 memo."

https://twitter.com/aaron_leib/status/1342133685701775360

This in an area of the U.S. renown and some would even say infamous for trying to gouge the federal government, especially when it comes to weather-related cleanups, with many local municipalities specializing in hurricane hocus pocus. 

Legitimate expenses related to preparation, response and clean up are one thing, of course, but South Florida is also known for submitting requests to FEMA for cleanup payments when storms did NOT... actually hit our area.

You can only imagine how this all looks to the rest of the country. 

I guess it's a good thing the news media, especially national TV, never deigns to mention it, huh?

Miami Herald 

FEMA denies Irma money for three cities. One desperately needs it to pay off a loan

By Aaron Leibowitz, Miami Herald
December 2, 2020

The federal government has rejected millions of dollars in requests by three Miami-Dade County municipalities to pay for debris cleanup after Hurricane Irma, saying substantial parts of their submissions failed to properly document the work and prove it was eligible for reimbursement.

El Portal, Miami Shores and Florida City each used the same consultant, Disaster Program & Operations, to help with the complex reimbursement process after the September 2017 storm. After a lengthy review, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said the cities submitted flawed paperwork — and not just minor errors.

Read the whole article at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article247519230.html#:~:text=The%20federal%20government%20has%20rejected,it%20was%20eligible%20for%20reimbursement

https://twitter.com/aaron_leib/status/1334132540463046656

Just since I decided to write about this subject on the blog there's been a bit of a pivot in spending and accountability and reimbursement policy because of the language that Congress inserted into the bill that President Trump signed on Sunday.

Miami Herald
Last-minute law change could mean more COVID relief, grocery cards in Miami-Dade
By Douglas Hanks, Joey Flechas and Samantha Gross, Miami Herald
December 29, 2020

Read the whole article at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article248148830.html

Speaking of the serial mis-communicators in chief over the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and its Editorial Board, as of today, they've yet to mention in print that the bill that President Trump signed on Sunday means that CARES Act money given to state and local governments many months ago does NOT have to be used by Dec. 31. 

It's no longer "Use it or lose it."

But not one word of it in print from the sleepwalking Sun-Sentinel!

It's for many of the reasons stated so well in the preceding articles about local government's performance, namely underwhelming incompetency on the one hand and what can only be called benign neglect of public oversight by local Miami TV stations, that an idea is now percolating just below the surface among many people I am in regular contact with as so much of the South Florida news media increasingly looks to be taking a knee or biting its tongue when it comes to being objective, unbiased, or critical -by name- of the often inexplicable #COVID19 #pandemic responses we've all seen among County/City governments -and some nonprofits- in Broward and Miami-Dade.

The idea, such as it is, is that some prominent #SoFL bloggers -including me- are considering forming a Working Group in 2021 to critically and publicly examine the many mis-steps of the #Broward and #MiamiDade County Commissions, its cities and certain nonprofits.

That is especially true when it comes to South Florida elected officials' not-so-subtle hypocrisy on curfews and the wearing of face masks, where they prefer the school of Do As I Say, Not As I Do.

Along with some others, I'm planning on bringing some much-needed Sunshine to bear on the issues that in my opinion they have not been getting. 

One of the questions to be raised: What happens when unelected Broward County Administrator Bertha Henry makes a decision that is not supported by a majority of the elected nine-member Broward County Commission?

Like, for instance, the recent curfew that went into affect in Broward  that will be in effect December 25th through Monday January 4th from midnight to 5:00 a.m. each day, but which will be 1:00 a.m to 5:00 a.m. on Christmas Eve, Thursday night.

Broward Comm. Steve Geller was trotted out for a press conference right before Christmas and reporters, predictably, talked about it without actually saying out loud what the real process involved was, or for that matter, even mentioning that the emergency documents were signed by Henry, not by Geller or any other elected Commissioner.

So, on the one hand, the Broward League of Cities doesn't like the idea that Gov. Ron DeSantis has legally used his powers to prevent Florida cities from collecting fines on any curfew citations issued, but on the other hand, the mayors of Broward cities have made clear that they do NOT want to be seen or described as being a money-hungry politician trying to nickel-and-dime people to death during a pandemic.

That's known as trying to have it both ways, and up until now, the South Florida news media, and especially the four English language TV stations do not seem at all inclined on calling them out on this self-evident hypocrisy.

Bloggers, though, especially ones like myself who are well-informed and fact-based, have no such compunction about publicly calling out the hypocrisy.

As will be made increasingly clear in the coming weeks and months of 2021.

Hallandale Beach/Hollywood Blog: http://www.hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/ 

Twitter: @hbbtruth, https://twitter.com/hbbtruth/with_replies

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hbbtruth/ 

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/david-bruce-smith-b945b376/

Travel Massive: https://travelmassive.com/dbsmith

Initial thoughts and some background info re news about sale of land/mixed-use development near Gulfstream Park Race Track & Casino, per Brian Bandell at South Florida Business Journal, @SFlaBizBandell; more Lauderdale Lakes CRA hijinks

Developer pays $17M for site near Gulfstream Park in Hallandale http://t.co/Y7jgAEDzOT
— Brian Bandell (@SFlaBizBandell) February 3, 2015

Many of you longtime readers of the blog may recall 1000 E. Hallandale Blvd. as the former "Oasis" project, 
which lobbyist/legislator Steve Geller got approval from the HB City Commission for a number of years ago, despite the self-evident fact that common sense would dictate that there would need to be another east-west road south of there to support the steady flow of construction vehicles to and from the project for over a year without backing-up already-gridlocked Hallandale Beach Blvd.
Which would also allow the projects tenants and visitors to exit without all of it spilling onto F-rated Hallandale Beach Blvd.

That such a necessary road does NOT currently exist, of course, would seem to be highly problematic, but you know me, I'm old-fashioned that way.

Of course, IF the HB City Comm. had been using common sense at any point in the recent past, they would have NEVER allowed Gulfstream Park to even consider erecting their employee dorm -the one where the fence along the road is padlocked, an issue which the HBFD has been sleeping on for years! Surprise!- precisely where such a much-needed access road would go that would greatly reduce traffic on HBB by connecting Hibiscus Street on U.S.-1 to the area behind the Publix on NE 14th Avenue and the nearby Golden Isles community.

Most of you have seen my photographs and graphics showing precisely how this should have been done.

Here's a small reminder!

You remember Hibiscus Street at U.S.-1 don't you? 

The street where the sign of the bad marketing and neglect by Gulfstream Park hits you right in the face?

Me back on March 2, 2011 

Their own worst enemy: Big problems lie ahead for Gulfstream Park if they continue keeping HB community in the dark, esp. re night racing

Me in 2011: 

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/their-own-worst-enemy-big-problems-lie.html

It would be different if Gulfstream had/has little land to build upon, but the reality is that there were several perfectly acceptable locations on their HB property where the dorm going up would NOT have interfered with the HB community's long-term interests being served -less traffic on HBB.

Another wasted opportunity in HB to do the smart thing!

Here's a link to that signed 2010 Development Agreement

http://www.hallandalebeachfl.gov/DocumentCenter/Home/View/2213

By the way, speaking of CRAs wasting money, time and opportunities... here's our friend Chaz Stevens with some galling news that is a perfect snapshot of Southb Florida government in action:

The Lauderdale Lakes CRA is millions in debt, hasn’t launched a major project in years (but they have a nice community tomato garden and pays the CRA Director $150K a year to do just that)

https://www.myactsofsedition.com/blog/2015/02/03/a-quick-lauderdale-lakes-check-in/

#RealityCheck re #Ethics #Lobbying and #Transparency in the Sunshine State: My observations re Michael Van Sickler's spot-on article re lack of meaningful transparency in lobbying govt. in Florida - Former FL Attorney General Bill McCullom's contact with current FL Attorney General Pam Bondi's office raises questions about "special rules for special people"

My comments and observations are below this excellent article by Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau reporter Michael Van Sickler as it appeared over the weekend. 

- Michael Van Sickler at mvansickler@tampabay.com. Follow @mikevansickler.
http://www.tampabay.com/writers/michael-van-sickler/

It's one of the most-thorough stories on a topic of great importance to society, and me personally -how government and public policy are directly affected by third-party actors- that I've seen in quite some time in Florida.

I've added some links below that did not appear in the email about this subject that I sent out this afternoon to lots of concerned Florida residents, activists, pols and journos around the state, especially in Tallahassee and Broward County 

Former attorney general's contact with Pam Bondi's office raises questions http://t.co/uyP3nhaLQ5 via @TB_Times
— Michael Van Sickler (@mikevansickler) November 28, 2014

#Florida cartoon: As @mikevansickler reports, @BillMcCollum says he's an attorney dammit, not a lobbyist! #sayfie pic.twitter.com/xusttMg67K
— Andy Marlette (@AndyMarlette) December 1, 2014

-----
Tampa Bay Times
Former attorney general's contact with Pam Bondi's office raises questions
By Michael Van Sickler 
November 29, 2014 

When the cruise line Royal Caribbean sought to amend a 1997 consumer protection agreement with the Florida Attorney General's office, it hired a lawyer familiar with the agency's inner workings.

Former Attorney General Bill McCollum called on the staff of his successor, Pam Bondi. Six months after the June 2013 meeting, Bondi's office granted McCollum's request. 

Royal Caribbean's advertised rates would no longer have to include fees for services, like baggage handling and loading cargo. The fees, which can inflate a trip's cost by more than $100, could be listed separately from the company's advertised rates. 

On at least two other occasions, McCollum met with Bondi's staff to discuss two more clients - NJOY, an e-cigarette company, and HealthFair, which sells health screenings from mobile clinics. 

Read the rest of the article at
http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/former-attorney-generals-contact-with-pam-bondis-office-raises-questions/2208238

I guess Bill McCollum thinks he's former FL Senate Minority Leader and attorney/lobbyist Steve Geller, who for years was well-known for his penchant of down-lobbying City officials in Southeast Broward County, as well as Broward County employees/elected officials, people whom you'd think he was at least nominally supposed to be representing in Tallahassee, but whom it was often said he was largely indifferent or even hostile to if their interests were opposed to those of his many well-known and well-heeled clients.

But whenever Steve Geller was forced to answer question about the issue of whom he truly represents when he was wearing so many different hats, often at the same time -especially before and while he ran unsuccessfully for the Broward County Commission in 2010, losing in part because of lingering questions about his fidelity to common sense ethical norms, or even the fact that he did NOT actually reside in the Commission District he was running for- Steve Geller nonchalantly trotted-out the same lame and self-serving excuse that Bill McCollum has with respect to his numerous contacts with FL Attorney General Pam Bondi and her staff.

This issue of the public appearance of "special rules for special people" is one that strongly resonates with residents, activists and Small Business owners throughout the Sunshine State regardless of ideology, political party, age, gender and geography. 
It resonates precisely because the evidence is clear that the problem is only getting worse, even as it goes largely unreported and unremarked upon in South Florida's news media when it does occur, with the result that far too often the public finds out the facts AFTER a decision was made.

It's a problem that I have seen firsthand on many occasions over the past eleven years where I live, Hallandale Beach, and is one that our state legislators in Tallahassee clearly need to tighten-up dramatically, with similar efforts initiated to create more meaningful AND enforceable rules about transparency and lobbying registration at County Govt. Centers and City Halls across the state.

Which is to say, often the sorts of less-scrutinized locales where lobbyists like former state Rep. Joe Gibbons are currently more than content to work in the shadows and be shown deference, and often DON'T register as a lobbyist with the appropriate govt. entity when a public policy issue is being decided by that govt. body, even when they have a client directly involved in the outcome -and they are the one directly trying to fashion a specific result for their client.

Yes, even when it's clear from both the spirit and letter of the present ethics and lobbying laws that individuals like Gibbons ought to be registered as a lobbyist, as happened this past year in Hallandale Beach, with a proposed condo bldg. project on the beach for the super-rich asking for approval from the Hallandale Beach City Commission.
A proposed building that was by any reasonable standard, completely incompatible for the area.

Many of you reading this email today know only from from past emails of mine that in their failure to properly cover it, the South Florida news media for months ignored the fact that the ultimate decision and recommendations reached by the HB City Commission on this matter created the very real possibility that lobbyist Joe Gibbons would net $200,000 if his client had gotten their way, as I wrote in blog posts earlier this past Spring, and will be revisiting soon.

But like many past and present legislator-lobbyists in Florida, or former state officials, Joe Gibbons likes to act like has special privileges that put him above the reach of the state, county and municipal laws that were originally created to ensure that the public at large knew precisely whom all the players in the public policy drama were -and knew that information BEFORE any decisions were reached.

Instead, though, by NOT following the reasonable rules that others must observe, Gibbons and his lobbyist friends put the onus of enforcement on local and county officials to force him to do something that he clearly doesn't want to do, practically daring them to follow and enforce the law.
So guess how that usually turns out for the public, who has a legitimate right to know who all the players at the table are?

And how do you think that turns out in Hallandale Beach with a City Attorney like V. Lynn Whitfield, who has stated at city meetings that it's NOT her job to enforce ethics laws and rules the city already has on the books?

*In case you forgot about Whitfield's way of resolving matters -by ignoring them- see the short video I made titled "Csaba Kulin re Hallandale Beach City Attorney Whitfield's comments re her role on ethics" 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtpFnVOFA-I

Yes, you just have to think that Joe Gibbons and his lobbyist friends love City Attorneys like Whitfield with their counter-intuitive attitude that puts the public at a genuine disadvantage and effectively neuters the law.

As if the public isn't working at enough of a disadvantage, esp. regarding development issues, given this city's track record of trying to keep public info secret from residents and neighborhoods as long as possible, even on huge projects, witness the Diplomat RAC project with 5-8 25-story-plus condo towers proposed in a single-family neighborhood in NE HB that ultimately was voted down by the Broward County Commission months after it got passed by the HB City Commission days before Christmas in 2009.
The final plans were not made public by the city until 28 hours before the vote, which finally occurred near 2:43 a.m., as I wrote here at the time:

December 17, 2009 At 2:43 a.m., Hallandale Beach approves First Reading of controversial Diplomat Country Club LAC, 3-2
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/at-243-am-hallandale-beach-approves.html

Since Joe Gibbons is NOT an attorney, even though when he wasn't acting in his capacity as a state legislator, he worked as a lobbyist for a prominent law firm based in Tallahassee -despite his wife and kids living in Jacksonville for years while he claimed to be a permanent resident of Hallandale Beach, hundreds of miles away- Gibbons can't even use the sort eof xcuse offered by Geller.

By the way, since they get mentioned by name in the article above, in the late 1990's I did some consulting work for Dickstein Shapiro's office in Washington, D.C. on an important matter for them on behalf of Jacksonville-based CSX. 
Which we won.

Eleanor Sobel, Broward pol who wanted -and got- Hollywood taxpayers to pay $30k for her new FL State Senate office in 2009 now asks FL legislature for audit of Hollywood!

Pol who wanted -and got- City of Hollywood taxpayers to pay $30k for her new FL State Senate office in 2009 now asks FL legislature for audit of Hollywood!

Oh, "that's Rich."

No, that's just Eleanor Sobel being Eleanor Sobel!

What brings this to mind is this blog post today by Steve Bousquet of the St. Petersburg Times:

Legislature OKs audit of city of Hollywood

TALLAHASSEE -- The Legislature on Monday approved a request by Sen. Eleanor Sobel to step in and audit the city of Hollywood's shaky finances. Sobel appeared at a meeting of the Joint Legislative Auditing Committee in the Capitol to ask for the audit, citing the city's declaration of a state of "financial urgency," a recent 11 percent property tax increase, lucrative pension and health benefits for city employees and overly optimistic revenue projections.

Read the rest of the post at

http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2011/10/state-approves-audit-of-city-of-hollywood-.html

Plus, at the time, April of 2009, Sobel's name was already STILL on the same building across from Hollywood City Hall -where Rep. Elaine Schwartz's office was/is also located- from when Sobel had used it as her temporary pit-stop of a Broward School Board office when she pretended to care about kids for a few months while waiting for Steve Geller to be term-limited out of the state senate.

I was at the Hollywood City Commission meeting when this self-serving effort got pushed thru -even updating my photos before going inside- and Balance Sheet Blog co-editor Sara Case was the only member of the public with the integrity to publicly say that Hollywood taxpayer funds should NOT be used in this manner, esp. for a woman who could well afford to pay for it herself, or, even rent one of the dozens of empty storefronts in Downtown Hollywood.

I thought Sara was particularly good in zeroing-in on the problems in her comments that day before the City Commission.

I have to admit, though, I was somewhat confounded that Mayor Peter Bober, having brought up some spot-on reasons that I hadn't even thought of to justify voting against it straightaway, or, continue it to the near future, along with some modifications to it and some added clarity on the ethical and financial issues, then voted FOR it.

I found that confusing on his part and some arguments by Comm. Richard Blattner, and I don't think I was alone in the Chambers in that sentiment.

Until it was mentioned at that meeting, in passing, I didn't know anything about Hollywood taxpayers also having spent $20,000 in 2006 on improvements to Rep. Schwartz's office.

Sara's point in her then-editorial about the real answer to the problem being that they leave their government cocoon and rent a downtown storefront is, of course, something that was completely lost on the woman from the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce.

Instead, this was a done-deal from the word "go," and it passed despite the gaping holes in logic and questions about propriety and extraneous spending.

R-2009-072 - Resolution - A Resolution Of The City Commission Of The City Of Hollywood, Florida, Authorizing The Appropriate City Officials To Execute The Attached Agreement Between State Senator Eleanor Sobel, State Representative Elaine Schwartz And The City Of Hollywood For Lease Of City Office Space And To Reallocate Funds For The Renovations For New Offices For Senator Sobel In The Old Library Building. PASSED

Good to know that Sen. Sobel is trying to re-pay the PBA members' past help by expressing her new-found concern with extraneous government costs.

But where were those concerns of hers before when it involved her? MIA.

The photos above, all taken by me on September 20th, with the first showing the offices of Rep. Schwartz and Sen. Sobel and the second showing part of the view when you walk out of their office, looking west, at Hollywood City Hall.

In the next few days, once I find those old photos, I'll add them here for an Eleanor Sobel office compare-and-contrast.

Some contemporaneous articles about this story are:

a.)

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Broward Politics blog

Sen. Sobel to taxpayers: Spend $30k cleaning rat-infested space for my office

Posted by Brittany Wallman at 10:57 AM

By Ihosvani Rodriguez, Staff Writer

State Sen. Eleanor Sobel, D-Hollywood, wants new office digs in Hollywood, and it will cost city taxpayers about $30,000 for starters.

http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/broward/blog/2009/04/sen_sobel_to_taxpayers_spend_3.html

b.)

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Hollywood to rent office to state Sen. Sobel

By Ihosvani Rodriguez

6:12 PM EDT, April 1, 2009

Read the rest of the post at:

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/community/news/hollywood/sfl-sobel-office-b040209,0,4633755.story

Reader comments at:

http://www.topix.net/forum/city/fort-lauderdale-fl/T7MBKTSCTPCC6IQBT

-----

Balance Sheet Blog is at http://balancesheetblog.wordpress.com/

http://www.hollywoodfl.org/

October 13 Community Meeting re Beachwalk - 31-story mixed-use project at old 'Manero's' restaurant site; new gridlock-inducing plan for HB?

October 13 Community Meeting re "Beachwalk" - the 31-story residential/office/hotel/restaurant/garage planned for the old 'Manero's' restaurant site; new gridlock-inducing plan for Hallandale Beach?

Seriously, a 31-story property right across the street from the Walmart and on the west-side of the already poky, often-gridlocked Intercoastal Bridge on E. Hallandale Beach Blvd./State Road 858?

You're kidding me?

The already traffic-clogged road where out-of-town drivers (and even many locals) heading towards the beach and State Road A1A in the right/south-bound lane, CONSISTENTLY don't realize they are NOT supposed to STOP as they hit State Road A1A?

But despite the utter simplicity of the sign explaining this, STOP they do!

Oh do they ever!

That is, when they don't try to merge back into north-bound traffic at the last possible moment as they come to a stop at the red-light, often blocking both lanes.

Yes, I mean that road! Those drivers!

The only saving grace about this particular project -Beachwalk- is that it isn't that awful mess of a project called Millennium that lobbyist/lawyer and then-State Senator Steve Geller was pushing on behalf of The Related Group a few years ago that was to be located one block east at 2500 E. Hallandalle Beach Blvd.

The building and project that I've alluded to and written about here on the blog any number of times.

That's the VERY SAME building where the popular and well-regarded Padrino's restaurant is located, outside of which a horrific murder took place in February of 2006.

You'll recall that Albert Avenaim's murder was solved NOT by HB Police ingenuity or detection, but rather because but rather thru, the efforts of the alert Walmart employees at their Coral Springs location, after the guilty party, Brian Bethell, tried to use the his victim's credit cards, his second visit there.

That is, one of the credit cards of the three people Brian Bethell murdered.

You'll also recall Bethell felt so confident, he even brought along his girlfriend and her two toddlers, which, I think, tells you everything you need to know about him.,

That murder was one of the defining events that precipitated my creating this blog in the first place, and my second-biggest regret since returning from the Washington, D.C. area after 15 years up there was that I waited so long to start this blog, so that I could've done that particular story justice, given how it just disappeared from the local news media's horizon within a week or so, a fact I've mentioned on more than one occasion to many reporters down here who worked the story at the beginning.

*See more on Steve Geller and this particular murder at bottom of this post.

This one is being pushed by Greenberg Traurig's Debbie Orshefsky, who led the fight last year for the Diplomat LAC on behalf of the owners of the Westin Diplomat Resort & Spa, that was ultimately rejected by the Broward County Commission, as I chronicled here so many times.

Small comfort!

Info on the Beachwalk project, directly across from WalMart, and adjacent to Intercoastal Bridge is at Hallandale Beach Current Development Activities webpage:

http://www.hallandalebeach.org/index.aspx?NID=805

with plans at: http://www.hallandalebeach.org/DocumentView.aspx?DID=1891

Yes, this is the property that HB City Hall could've bought cheap for $2.92 Million to actually give this city's open land-starved residents public access to the water -but didn't, per my May 5th email to some of you out there.

This is the property to your right on east-bound HBB before you go over the bridge, i.e the old Manero's restaurant location, that Colliers Abood Wood-Fay has been trying to sell forver.

Yes, you're right, why didn't the City of HB snap it up and either make it a park and/or go into a partnership to have a nice public park and private restaurant there so that there would finally be one PUBLIC place in this city with access to water?

That's a good question for City Manager Antonio, Mayor Cooper and the rest of the City Commission.

------

South Florida Business Journal
Related Group buys waterfront site for 60% off
by Brian Bandell
Thursday, May 5, 2011, 3:42pm EDT -
Last Modified: Thursday, May 5, 2011, 4:20pm EDT

After handing over several of its condo projects to lenders, this time Jorge M. Perez and his Related Group are buying a property from a bank.

PRH-2600 Hallandale Beach LLC, an entity ultimately managed by the Miami-based developer, bought a Hallandale

Beach site along the Intracoastal Waterway from TD Bank for $2.92 million.

Read the rest of the article at:

http://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/news/2011/05/05/related-group-buys-waterfront-site.html

----------

PRH-2600 Hallandale Beach, LLC

Beachwalk

2600 E. Hallandale Beach Blvd

#47-11-DB (Major Development) #48-11-CU (Conditional Use) #49-11-Z (Rezoning) #51-11-RV (Road Vacation)

31-story mixed-use building with 84 residential units, 432 hotel rooms and 1,225 sq.ft restaurant

Pending resubmittal addressing DRC comments

DRC Planning and Zoning Board City Commission Estimated Site Plan Approval: December 2011

P

------

This is excerpted from some past posts here and at my other blog, South Beach Hoosier.

How do I know that Steve Geller represented Millennium?

I was one of the select few to attend a sparsely-attended public meeting that, Millennium was forced to hold in December of 2006 in Hallandale Beach Cultural Center, behind their City Hall.

I got there early, expecting some emotional fireworks because of the rather, predictable concerns about exacerbating the already bad neighborhood, traffic-flow on HBB, the completely out-of-proportion size of the plan, etc., and sat at the table next to Miami Herald reporter Jennifer Lebovich.

Once I got there and had grabbed a donut and some coffee and returned to the table I had all to myself, my biggest thought while jotting down some, thoughts in my legal pad was making sure to leave early enough so that I could get home and not miss a minute of a new episode of LOST.

Really. I'd forgotten to program my VCR.

But then, quite unexpectedly, to my great surprise, in walked Geller and his retinue with trademark showy boisterousness, with him not waiting even two beats before continuing on a rant/harangue disparaging then-Gov.-Elect Charlie Crist in tones that would've been loud enough for everyone in the room to hear if the room had been half-full -wishful thinking- say, 150-200 people.

As it was, counting his Millennium-related crew and the interested public, such as, it was, there were no more than 25 people in that room, so his voice was bouncing off the walls.

To be so self-absorbed as to publicly belittle Crist in front of people -and a, reporter- before he'd even taken the oath of office, showed me the side of Geller I'd often read and heard about, but never seen in person for myself.

But I recognized the type, since I'd had dealings with current Chicago mayor Rahm Emmanuel in Washington before he was anybody of note, per se, over at the DCCC, and he already had that insufferable attitude and ego thing down pat.

Geller's whole shtick was so over-the-top as to be farcical, and I debated back and forth in my head whether I ought to dispense with pleasantries and the subject at hand, and simply drop my knowledge of what hadn't transpired at 2500 HBB on Geller and Millennium, in front of reporter, Lebovich, once the presentation was over and the Q&A began in earnest.

In the end, having read most of her past articles, I just didn't trust Lebovich's ability to synthesize the narrative and connect all the dots in a way that would get all the pertinent facts out.

Given my interests and background, I've been to hundreds of these sorts of meetings over the years, but listening to the sheer obfuscation and, mis-direction coming out of Geller's mouth, his Pooh-poohing of the patently obvious traffic problems, as if a magic wand had been waved overthem, rendering them invisible, well, it was all I could do to not ask him straight out if he and his colleagues even recognized the name of, Albert Avenhaim -and then go on offense.

But it all would've been wasted on people who either didn't know or who'd already forgotten how bad the safety was there at Padrino's, with parking lot lights out for months at a time and the ones that did work were largely obscured by tree branches.

Who was responsible for the property's maintenance?

Steve Geller's client.

Hallandale Beach, failed Diplomat LAC proposal and Gunzburger v. Geller is subtext of Buddy Nevins post: BSO’s Latest Trip To Fantasyland

Disneyland Opening Day - Part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rHjoimz5XI

Speaking of Fantasyland, a not-so-funny thing happened to the well-heeled legal and lobbying forces of development behind the Westin Diplomat Resort & Spa's efforts to roll over the people of Hallandale Beach and Hollywood and make their Quality-of-Life go straight downhill.

As I extensively chronicled here earlier in the year to a fare-thee-well, a grass-roots coalition of concerned citizens in the community -including yours truly- organized themselves and beat back the Diplomat's efforts, despite being heavily out-financed and out-lawyered and the South Florida nes media largely ignoring the story.

Well, to be completely factual, we had no money and had no lawyer.
But everyone knows that the Diplomat management and their owners STILL want another bite of the apple in the future.

Today, Buddy Nevins gives us a peek at what was going on behind the scenes earlier this year and how the Broward Sheriffs Office was used in the election battle between Broward County Commissioner Sue Gunzburger and Steve Geller.

She voted "No" to development in the spring and she won the election in November. But now we're learning how some of the dots were connected on the developer's side.

-----

Broward Beat
BSO’s Latest Trip To Fantasyland
By Buddy Nevins

It is the season of fantasy.

There is the story of Santa Claus. There is the Sugar Plum Fairy.

Then there is today’s astounding flight of fancy on Sun-Sentinel.com that the Broward Sheriff’s Office actually investigated an allegation of extortion over a union endorsement last year.

The story is more proof that Broward Sheriff Al Lamberti has no business investigating the county commission.

Don’t get me wrong. The story is great.

Read the rest of the post at:
http://www.browardbeat.com/bsos-latest-trip-to-fantasyland/



Disneyland Opening Day - Part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bf2TMwtCUr4&feature=related

Disneyland Opening Day - Part 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0S_r4m9Zhw

"Lewy the Liar" - Alexander Lewy, Hallandale Beach's sycophantic, self-serving and insincere candidate for City Commission

Above, the email that was sent out by Hallandale Beach mayor Joy Cooper on Sept. 25th with the subject heading:
Mayor Joy Cooper invites you to SUPPORT ALEX LEWY (Sep 28, 2010)


Just curious, how many of the names on the invite above are lobbyists?
That's a good question.

Well, at first glance there's Suzanne Friedman, of course, who has worked for The Village at Gulfstream Park and on behalf of the unpopular Diplomat LAC proposal to put a handful of very large condo towers on the perimeter of the Diplomat Golf Course in NE Hallandale Beach, where expensive upscale single-family homes and numerous low-slung condos have long existed in close proximity.

It was pushed by the owners of the Westin Diplomat Resort & Spa in nearby Hollywood, the Plumbers and Pipefitters Union.

That proposal not only would've ruined the green views of HB residents who have lived there for years, but also threatened to make the current traffic disaster even worse, though the nearby roads already have the LOWEST possible ratings from FDOT they can have.

It's an area of Southeast Broward County with so much consistently congested traffic that former Broward County Comm. Diana Wasserman-Rubin admitted in a meeting with HB residents just days prior to that vote that she completely avoids the area because it's so difficult to get around.

Fortunately for Hallandale Beach and nearby Hollywood residents, the Broward County Commission decisively nixed that proposal the second time they looked at it this past Spring.

Alexander Lewy not only supported the unpopular and incompatible project, but has also received campaign contributions from some of the the folks behind it who were most interested in cramming it down the throats of HB residents.
Just saying...

Another lobbyist's name I recognize is lawyer Marty Cassini -said by everyone I know to be a really nice guy- who's a former staffer for former Florida Senate Minority Leader Steve Geller, and who is married to the mayor's daughter, Jaime.
As of a few weeks ago, Mayor Cooper's husband and son-in-law had contributed roughly about $1,500 combined to Alexander Lewy's political campaign.

And now on to my post for today, written ten days before the November 2nd election.

The title I've chosen today is particularly apt and gets to the heart of what so many Hallandale Beach citizen taxpayers and business owners -and other well-informed Broward County residents and civic activists- find so very unappealing and downright appalling about Alexander Lewy as a person and political candidate: "There's no there there."

"Lewy the Liar" - Alexander Lewy, Hallandale Beach's sycophantic, self-serving and insincere candidate for City Commission

Yes, I know, I know.
That quote about what is and is not "there" was first supposedly used by the author Virginia Woolf to describe the City of Oakland many, many, many moons ago, but it also accurately describes the lack of anything genuine about Lewy but his ambition.

His oleaginous insincerity positively knocks you out from the get-go if you are not careful, so beware.

He is, I'm afraid, one of those rather sad persons that I have met in my travels after growing-up in South Florida, in Bloomington, IN and then Chicago, Evanston, Wilmette, and then Arlington, VA and Washington, D.C., who NEVER quite seem to realize that by the time someone is close to age thirty, like Lewy, they should no longer have ambition as a substitute for a personality.
And yet they do, utterly convinced of their own destiny to be an important person.

Correct, this is the part where I channel some of the Midwestern values I assimilated over the years while living, learning and working in the Hoosier State and the Land of Lincoln, and say that it's better to be a person who does important things for others, rather than to be a person who thinks they are important.

What can I say, it's low-hanging fruit and I grabbed it, but that doesn't change the fundamental fact that it's completely true with respect to Alexander Lewy.

As I've personally observed him in person for years in his capacity as a staffer for U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, a resident of Hallandale Beach, and now as a two-time political candidate, Alexander Lewy is completely insincere and self-important in ways that would make many veteran congressmen I could name -and knew in Washington- positively blush.

To give but one illuminating example of this, earlier this year at a public hearing on the Diplomat LAC project, a friend of mine who is not only, arguably, one of the most-respected persons in South Florida, but also someone who's frequently sought by the local South Florida news media for their opinions, asked Lewy if he'd be running for office again soon.

While I am not entirely clear one way or the other if Lewy quite knew whom my friend was, per se, or even their longstanding reputation for honesty and integrity, I am 100% positive that the answer he gave in response to that rather simple and harmless question was that he was NOT going to be running again anytime soon.

Well, the kicker is that I knew that Lewy's answer was completely untrue, and the reason I knew it was untrue was because Lewy himself had already made a change on one of his own social media sites to indicate that he'd be running again this year for the Hallandale Beach City Commission, having already lost here in 2008.

Question: Why would Lewy lie about something like that?
There's absolutely nothing to be gained, and very few people even cared in the first place.
Exactly!

It's who Alexander Lewy is, sad to say.
A person seemingly incapable of even a scintilla of honesty, no matter the subject matter.

The next time I happened to see this particular friend of mine again, when we were at yet another civic event (outside of Hallandale Beach), they eventually told me the strange-but-true tale involving The Ambitious Mr. Lewy.

When I informed my friend that they has been intentionally deceived by the very source himself, the only thing I can print here that they muttered in response to finding out they'd been lied to, face-to-face, is "Lewy the Liar."

Of such unexpected moments are insightful political slogans born.
"Lewy the Liar," indeed!

I have known this stone-cold fact about Alexander Lewy for many months, and am happy to finally be able to share the news with you here.