Re invisible Florida state Rep. Marie Woodson, and the equally-invisible Brian Paruas and David Raskind, Hollywood City Commission candidates who completely fail to do the basics required of them: be informed and show up

Updated Friday September 18th, 2026

Originally posted Thursday September 17, 2026

In 2026, have you seen state Rep. Marie Woodson in-person at any 1301/Portofino-related public meeting, whether hosted by the city, The Related Group, at a neighborhood Civic Association  meeting, or at any Hollywood City Comm./Broward County Comm. campaign event or forum?

I have no reports of that ever having been the case so far in 2026, but obviously, it's entirely possible that someone I know was at such an event/mtg. and simply didn't notice her, or, completely forgot whether they saw her or not when I asked this same question in an email to some Hollywood/Broward friends last month.

Folks who are among the area's most well-informed and enthusiastic civic activists, most of whom you already know or would recognize. 

Esp. when you look in the mirror!  

Policy-wise, Marie Woodson has largely stayed completely invisible re 1301 since she was first elected, and just a reminder, back in April when LIVE Local was being revised for the 4th year in a row in Tallahassee, she was a no-show.

She did not vote on it on the House floor right before it went to the state Senate for final passage.

Was she sick, miss her flight, have car trouble that day??? No idea.

I've checked the myriad websites and Twitter feeds of the Sun Sentinel, Herald and all four English language TV stations make no mention of it.

To me, it's odd behavior for a woman who says she's seriously considering a run for Hollywood mayor in 2028 against popular former mayor Peter Bober, someone whom I have supported in the past and and am on good terms with.

(More recently, his son and my youngest niece were both undergraduates at Yale at the same time.)

 

Woodson's public reputation thus far is that of a dependable, knee-jerk liberal Democrat not known for either her independence or willingness to push back hard against the ideas or agenda of Florida Dem leaders and their powers-that-be.

Reminder about tonight's Hollywood City Commission District 3 candidate forum at David Park.

The event is no longer a real “forum” like the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce's a few weeks ago, and the reason for that is because Alex Recio's opponent, David Raskind, recently pulled out, but Recio assures me that he will be there to answer questions from the public. 

Raskind's rationale is here from Monday's The 7 & Beyond Substack by Steven Paul Schneider, wherein Raskind wrote something with the completely ballsy and self-justifying headline:

 

‘I’m Not Interested In Earning A Hall Pass From The Establishment’
David Raskind Explains His Decision To Withdraw From Upcoming Candidate Forum

https://stevenpaulschneider.substack.com/p/im-not-interested-in-earning-a-hall

Classic Raskind, and very on-brand for him, such as it is

Which is to say that from my POV, it's completely tone-deaf and misses the larger point of why anyone runs in the first place.

I suppose the best way to rebut what Raskind says is to simply repeat what one very well-informed friend of mine wrote to me recently about him and some of the other know-nothing people putting themselves forward in Hollywood as City Commission candidates who never did any of the actual preliminary hard work the past few years: showing up in-person at community events- but equipped with tailor-made excuses for why they were always the no-shows.

Always a spectator. 😒

And as if that was not bad enough, as a starter, people who have NOT made a genuinely serious effort to bring themselves up to speed on the issues Hollywood residents and stakeholders care about most, given that they are running at a disadvantage that they themselves are 100% responsible for. 

Invisibility and lacking community trust is a bad wan to run for office.

"Every time I want to give David Raskind a chance, he goes and insults everyone who is the most involved and has taken so much time away from their own families to volunteer for their community. 

He simply doesn’t understand how totally disrespectful he comes across. 

It’s like when District 1 candidate Brian Paruas when he says he couldn’t be involved because he works and has a family. #wtf???

So do a lot of us, and we still do it!" 

Reminder: Paruas is one of the candidates running in District 1 against my super-well informed and well-qualified friend, Catherine "Cat" Uden,

Paruas seems to think that him posting Instagram post of himself with friends and family at various restaurants around town is a substitute for community involvement when it was needed in the past.

Uh, it's not.

From my POV, one of the chief personal criticisms of Paruas is that among the majority of the city's most-involved and well-informed civic activists, he has been Missing-In-Action on one issue and matter after another for YEARS.
Whether the Broward County 911 Emergency antenna, the all-too-frequent personnel changes at the City Manager's office, the low personal regard that so many residents have for the performance of the Hollywood Police, including why it took so long for the city to initiate body cameras, when much smaller cities had them YEARS before? 

Why was there no sense of action among Mayor Levy and the Commission?

Paruas, like Raskind, was simply NOT there when the community needed some pushback against Josh Levy's Rubber Stamp Crew.

And now, Paruas has Levy's endorsement.

Why do you suppose that is?

Dave

David Bruce Smith  

My blog, now eponymous, , formerly called Hallandale Beach/Hollywood Blog: 

http://www.hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/

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

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-bruce-smith-b945b376/

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

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DavidSmith0215

Update re the incompatible 1301 S. Ocean Drive project for multimillionaires on Hollywood Beach that The Related Group and Hollywood Mayor Josh Levy have been trying to cram down the community's collective throat for YEARS now

This is what we want to keep, and not let it simply become a memory!
A small reminder of why I and all of my savvy, sensible friends -like Cat Uden- push back so hard versus the serial, nonsensical public policy and misanthropy emanating from #HollywoodFL City Hall the past few years, both the elected Mayor and City Commission, as well as the city's imperious, feckless, and thin-skinned highly-paid bureaucrats. ☀️🌴🏖️😎. 

Hollywood Beach, Florida photo by Catherine "Cat" Uden.

Below, an edited and expanded version of the email that I sent out this morning right around 1:00 am regarding the incompatible 1301 S. Ocean Drive 26-story project for multimillionaires on Hollywood Beach that The Related Group and Hollywood Mayor Josh Levy have been trying to cram down the community's collective throat for YEARS now, despite the vast majority of the community that actually knows the pertinent facts making clear throughout that time that they are firmly AGAINST it. 

Against it today, tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year. NO means NO! 

-----

Just a short note before I go to sleep, having received Steve's email/Substack post, at bottom, late tonight and not immediately seeing it in my inbox because of my watching the Winter Olympics on TV: The current Hollywood City Manager, Mr. Keller, is someone whom I have never liked or supported -and who in any case is on his way to retirement in a few weeks.

IMO, he's already checked out and is biding his time. So all that said, he is NOT of a mind to actually do the right thing for the area's citizens re the incompatible 1301 project before he walks out the door, as far as saving THE most natural remaining part of Hollywood Beach for posterity.
Mr. Keller does not care about that part of Hollywood Beach's future, nor does he care about the past memories that so many of us have with it and why, even if we actually preferred using the beach area near what used to be the one-and-only garage off of Johnson Street, we DO want to see it preserved exactly AS IT IS.

So that said, there's no point in any Hollywood resident thinking even for a moment that he's suddenly -magically- going to see the light and change his spots when he's already more than halfway out the door for good right now.

In his letter below to the Broward Planning Council, which I hasten to remind you, also includes Hollywood Mayor Josh Levy, the individual who more than anyone else in Hollywood has tried to cram this Related Group project for multimillionaires -with its $4 million dollar starting prices- down the throats of the vast majority of the community who zealously opposes it, Keller rather conveniently forgets to mention several salient facts, only one of which I will share with you now, owing to the lateness of the hour, 12:55 am. Wednesday morning.

Among the most important of these facts is that Mr. Keller consciously neglects to mention in his recitation of the history of how the City of Hollywood first managed to obtain the 1301 S. Ocean Drive parcel in the first place from The Summit condominium is that there was a precondition/codicil in the contract that the City of Hollywood had to agree to, and then sign an acknowledgement of, in order to receive the parcel years ago.

That precondition was an important one: the property could ONLY be used for community/

recreation/educational purposes. 

Period.

I myself have personally attended several public meetings in Hollywood since this project came forward as a P3 project, replete with all the secrecy of The Manhattan Project -designed to keep residents and stakeholders in the dark- and heard people say they were on the Board of Directors of The Summit condominium -located across the street on the north of 1301- and publicly declare that they have copies of the germane docs that show that the clause was put in the deal to ensure that the City of Hollywood could never go back on the deal in the future. 

Their biggest fear?
A perfectly understandable one given where The Summit is located on State Road A1A and Hollywood Beach, and how the pay-for-play local government hereabouts is conducted: The City would sell the land to a developer that would build something there in the future.
Perhaps something that would tower over The Summit and ruin thereby ruin both its ambiance and the views that at least some residents there enjoy and were paying a premium for, both at the time, and in all of the ensuing years.

IMO, the City of Hollywood is breaking that original deal with The Summit and any halfway honest judge -even in Broward County- viewing the relevant docs would agree and rule that this project simply can not go forward.

And that, of course, would leave Hollywood Mayor Josh Levy with egg on his face, having to explain to the very people at The Related Group and its 1001 minions and the other developer friends of his who dumped close to $100k into his 2024 re-election campaign coffers in its closing weeks, why HE could not get it across the finish line.

But of course this is only one of the many things that is both completely unethical and wrong with the deal. My blog is full of fact and photo-filled posts making those points in ways that are easily understandable in making the case AGAINST it

Letter from Hollywood City Manager Sides with Private Developers on 1301 Project Land Use Designation.
Broward Planning Council Meeting Set for Feb. 26, at 10 am, Room 422, Broward County Government Center; Follow Up Article Coming
Steven Paul Schneider
February 17, 2026
Letter from Hollywood City Manager Sides with…
https://stevenpaulschneider.substack.com/p/letter-from-hollywood-city-manager/comments

See also the anti-1301 Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100080492761252 and Cat's campaign Instagram page at 

https://www.instagram.com/catudenforhollywood/

Dave

David Bruce Smith  

My blog, now eponymous, formerly called Hallandale Beach/Hollywood Blog: 

http://www.hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/

Twitter: @hbbtruth, https://twitter.com/hbbtruth/with_replies
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-bruce-smith-b945b376/

Instagram: @hbbtruth https://www.instagram.com/hbbtruth/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DavidSmith0215