Questions are being raised -again!- about South Florida reporters' curious notions of journalism, esp. continuing to leave out important context & questions about ethical conflict-of-interest -and burying the lede- re the City of Hollywood, Broward County PBA, Traci Callari & Eleanor Sobel. "Hollywood suing pension boards over perk known as '13th check"

I'll admit it: I really hate lazy, incurious reporting that's neither accurate or timely, and which doesn't ask the questions that NEED to be asked to give proper context, yet, wants to take a bow for their effort anyhow.
And South Florida in the year 2015 is positively swimming in this sort of bad journalism.

South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Hollywood suing pension boards over perk known as '13th check'
Susannah Bryan, Staff writer
July 12, 2015

City Hall is taking on all three employee pension boards, saying their leadership broke state law by sending lucrative "13th checks" to retired firefighters, cops and other employees periodically over the past nine years.

The payouts have ranged from $200 to more than $26,000. The cost of the payouts next fiscal year comes to $9 million for all three pension boards, city officials say.

Hollywood commissioners agreed Wednesday to file a lawsuit against the pension boards for sending the checks to retired workers despite the pension plans being severely underfunded.

Read the rest of the article at:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/hollywood/fl-pensions-hollywood-13th-check-20150710-story.html

Quick, can any of you tell me what important context is NOT mentioned at all in the above Sun-Sentinel article about the City of Hollywood's financial priorities, and where questions about any
prospective voting conflicts faced by City of Hollywood Comm. Traci Callari are, in my opinion, the buried lede?

For those of you who have either known me personally for a while, or perhaps have Followed me for any amount of time via the blog or Twitter, the answer is rather obvious.
Callari's own husband, James, i.e. Jamie, a City of Hollywood detective.
He's mentioned unfavorably in this 2005 NewTimes piece about the way the Broward PBA has for years attempted to make the HPD its puppet,
http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/news/hollywoods-finest-6314673
and mentioned in this one from 2013 about his curious notions of.. well, let's just say it's NOT good.
http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2013-02-02/news/fl-dea-hollywood-clash-20130202_1_dea-agent-cones-hollywood-police-officer

Given what seems self-evident, Comm. Callari's husband would likely be slated to receive a generous check in the future if the city continued to do business in an obviously prejudicial way to current and future taxpayers and its own financial future. 
What's the reason that it isn't mentioned at all so that any reader reading this story might know this salient fact from the outset and be free to draw their own conclusions about Comm. Callari's sense of priorities, whatever they are, such as they are?


Correct. 
Once again it's asleep-at-the-wheel Sun-Sentinel beat reporter Susannah Bryan, the same reporter I've written about so often in this space because of my and many other SE Broward residents dissatisfaction with her.
Residents, civic activists and business people in Hollywood AND Hallandale Beach who want to know all the pertinent facts. 

For instance, last September 26th:
Some informed commentary, context and important facts that you didn't read about in Susannah Bryan's recent Sun-Sentinel article about Hollywood City Manager Cathy Swanson-Rivenbark and some of her critics re the 'million-dollar mistake.' Trust me, you'll thank me later!
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2014/09/some-informed-commentary-context-and.html

Bryan consistently fails  to summon up enough strength or energy to actually ask reasonably-hard, pointed or even follow-up questions of public officials and city bureaucrats, especially in Hallandale Beach after they say and do things that logic can not explain by any stretch of the imagination.

Yes, the very same beat reporter that, years after-the-fact, has NEVER written at all -much less, knowledgeably- about the Broward PBA (intentionally?) breaking Hollywood's voter-approved city charter law about campaign election reporting requirements and contribution limits in Hollywood city elections.
Those new rules came about after Hollywood's appointed Charter Review Comm. responded to the public by getting it included on the ballot.

(I know because I sat in on some those Hollywood Charter Review meetings where increasing the expected levels of ethics and fair-dealing at Hollywood City Hall, and getting increased 
accountability and oversight for the public were stressed. 
As opposed to what actually transpired at Hallandale Beach's Charter Review meetings.)

That charter change took place BEFORE the Broward PBA's zealous efforts of November 2012 to oust several incumbentsand get at least one of their troika of candidates elected to prevent the public from keeping close watch over the purse.

The Broward PBA succeeded in getting Traci Callari on the Commission as a reliable pro-PBA and anti-taxpayer vote after ousting incumbent Heidi O'Sheehan, AFTER the Broward PBA forces were thoroughly trounced at the ballot box earlier by Hollywood voters across the city in a
referendum revolving around issues involving the city's union contracts/pensions and the city's budget hole, a vote that the Broward PBA and its president Jeff Marano has never either accepted or forgotten.

And let's not forget that it was the Broward PBA that got Florida state Senator Eleanor Sobel to have the City of Hollywood investigated by the Florida Joint Legislative Auditing Comm. in Tallahassee, since the Broward PBA endorsed Sobel and agressively worked the polls for her. 
Yes, the same Tallahassee group composed of state Senators and state representatives that Sobel DIDN'T want to see investigate the City of Hallandale Beach and her longtime friend, Mayor Joy Cooper, for their shockingly lax management, year-after-year, of the HB CRA, which saw $80 Million dollars wasted, with near-zero oversight.
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2013/11/sandbagged-independent-audit-of.html

Foe those of you who forgot or never knew about Eleanor Sobel's stealthy work to protect her friends and special interest group pals from any legitimate scrutiny and oversight, see my blog posts from:

October 17, 2013
Instead of looking-out for you and your Hallandale Beach neighbors, HB's craven state legislators (Sobel, Gibbons, Jones & Braynon) are doing Mayor Joy Cooper's dirty work in Tallahassee, making excuses for her ten years of oversight/policy failures with the HB CRA; #JLAC
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2013/10/instead-of-looking-out-for-you-and-your.html

November 2, 2013 
Latest news re Hallandale Beach CRA: Where are Joe Gibbons, Shevrin Jones and Barbara Sharief hiding? They're NOT adequately representing HB citizens who want to find out where the $80 Million in CRA funds has really gone; Response of JLAC re my inquiry re legislator's letters re prospective audit of Hallandale Beach CRA by JLAC
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2013/11/latest-news-re-hallandale-beach-cra.html

November 29, 2013 
Sandbagged! Independent audit of Hallandale Beach CRA was in offing by Florida JLAC, but Hallandale Beach's beleaguered citizens/taxpayers get stabbed in the back by Eleanor Sobel, Oscar Braynon II, Joe Gibbons, Shevrin Jones and Barbara Sharief. Why? To help HB mayor Joy Cooper preserve her facade that everything here is okay; @mayorcooper
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2013/11/sandbagged-independent-audit-of.html

Eventiually, the City of Hollywood sued the Broward PBA soon thereafter for breaking the city's campaign finance rules. 
So where exactly have you heard about THAT in South Florida?

For the record, as of today, the South Florida media parties who've never once mentioned these salient facts about Comm. Traci Callari includes the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, the Miami Herald, News4/WFOR-TV, NBC6/WTVJ-TV, WSNV-TV and Local10/WPLG-TV. 
Plus, rather predictably, the Hollywood Gazette and the South Florida Sun-Times. 
Which means everyone who OUGHT to be investigating and explaining the facts in a useful context.
#Surprise #NotSurprised

Which, of course, is why blogs like mine exist.
Unless something unexpected happens, this specific issue will be covered in more depth soon on my blog, with useful fact-filled links that connect-the-dots, along with a shout-out to former Hollywood civic activist Sara Case, co-editor of the greatly-missed Hollywood Balance Sheet blog. 

Sara, now living up near Washington, D.C., is the only person besides myself to ever mention how very curious it is that such important facts and context about this matter of great financial importance to Hollywood residents and Small Business owners, never seemed to see the light of day in-print or on-air, despite how much people say they want to know MORE about what's really going on at South Florida city halls in general, and theirs in particular.
That speaks volumes about the current sorry state of journalism and the people who populate the news media in South Florida.

Dave
Twitter: @hbbtruth, https://twitter.com/hbbtruth
https://twitter.com/hbbtruth/with_replies
http://www.hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/HallandaleBeachBlog

Some informed commentary, context and important facts that you didn't read about in Susannah Bryan's recent Sun-Sentinel article about Hollywood City Manager Cathy Swanson-Rivenbark and some of her critics re the 'million-dollar mistake.' Trust me, you'll thank me later!

Some informed commentary -and important facts- that you didn't read about in the Sun-Sentinel's story titled, "City seeks inquiry - Hollywood manager stands up to critics of 'million-dollar mistake,' says 'I'm not leaving'"

Trust me, you'll thank me later and have more context!

My comments are below the article.

----
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
City seeks inquiry - Hollywood manager stands up to critics of 'million-dollar mistake,' says 'I'm not leaving'
Susannah Bryan , Staff writer
September 19, 2014

Commissioners were split on whether to fire the city manager, butunanimously agreed to ask the Broward inspector general to investigateCity Hall's "million-dollar mistake."

In violation of city code, Hollywood administrators spent $935,000 on35 temp workers without commission approval over the past two years.The workers were assigned to the police and fire departments,utilities and general administration.

Commissioners rejected City Manager Cathy Swanson-Rivenbark's requestearlier this month to approve the spending retroactively.

Read the rest of the post at:
http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2014-09-19/news/fl-million-dollar-mistake-hollywood-fallout-20140918_1_city-manager-hollywood-administrators-commissioners-traci-callari
---

In case you faithful readers of the blog had forgotten, this Sun-Sentinel reporter, Susannah Bryan, is the latest of the many Sun-Sentinel reporters I've privately and publicly lambasted for years for their habit of consistently being too lazy and apathetic to mention even .01% of what they observed at Hallandale Beach City Hall. 

That is, WHEN they've deigned to actually show-up! 

To say nothing about all what they willfully ignored outside City Commission Chambers, which is hard to overstate and easy to pinpoint if you've been paying attention.  

Well, in any case, as this article makes clear, it's not like the percentage is much higher when Bryan is covering what goes on a few miles just north of us over at Hollywood City Hall.


In the article above, Bryan completely neglects to mention in print that the opinionated citizen she quotes on this matter, Jeff Brodeur, is part of a small hardcore and very opinionated group of largely West Hollywood residents who are forever bitching about how bad they have it compared to other parts of the city.
Forever complaining about how badly Hollywood city employees have had it, and for reasons that are not always publicly stated, really can't stand all the attention (and CRA money spent) on the Hollywood Downtown area.

(First, I should state that I've been as critical as just about anyone re what the CRA was doing downtown years ago. And not just in emails but at public meetings where I said that  I was completely underwhelmed by the public outreach efforts regarding publicizing the public meetings of the new Master Plan for Downtown Hollywood developed by Bernard Zyscovich and his firm, particularly the efforts by the CRA and the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and the business community as a whole. It was pathetic.
I even told Cathy Swanson-Rivenbark of my misgivings and related to her in a one-on-one meeting how badly I thought this had been botched, when she was the Assistant City Manager.

I mentioned that many of the obvious public places around Young Circle like Publix, Starbuck's and the ArtsPark, places where large number of the neighborhood is everyday, never had a single flyer put up on a bulleting board or front window so that the average Hollywood citizen would know what was taking place in their own neighborhood.
She agreed and resolved to nopt let opportunities like that get watsed agin in the future.

Second, it's not like it was ever going to be easy to fix the decades of lazy thinking about retail vs. residential priorities, to say nothing of the myriad retail mismatches and logistical and aesthetics mistakes in that important area of SE Broward that are still evident.
But the difference between me and Brodeur is that I know from personal experience that that area should turn around economically almost overnight once there's a reliable Tri-Rail Costal train station built nearby that can whisk Hollywood residents points north and south with regularity for work and recreation. 
Yes, Young and Middle-Aged Professionals who don't think simply being able to listen to FM radio while stuck in traffic is that appealing a prospect compared to being able to relax on a train that gets them back and forth much quicker and with less stress -and also listening to the same stationvia whatever electronic device they prefer. )

Since that is in fact the case, it should come as no surprise that Brodeur is also a longtime opponent of not only the Hollywood CRA, both in the abstract as well the reality, but quite naturally, also a
longtime critic of Hollywood City Manger Cathy Swanson-Rivenbark.
Cathy is someone whom most of you already know I've been very publicly supportive of for many years, both in my personal emails and my posts on the blog.
I've personally been an eyewitness to her genuine smarts, savvy and moxie over the years in figuring out how best to improve a, not-incidentally, NOT-so-perfect Hollywood, and make it a better place for everyone, not just well-to-do people living on the beach or near downtown.
I've personally seen how she sweats the small details and has always strived for creating maximum public transparency and public interaction.
I only wish that she was the City Manager of Hallandale Beach -or even better, the County Administrator of Broward County.

Jeff Brodeur's background is something I know for a fact from past experience, mostly from keeping informed and going to hundreds of Hollywood city/civic meetings over the past 11 years.
In fact, I'd know about him even if I hadn't gone to those meetings, from my voluminous email archives of past newspaper and blog articles, which makes that point abundantly clear.

Oh, like say this one from last year, when the Balance Sheet Blog was still up and running:
http://balancesheetblog.wordpress.com/2013/03/25/balance-sheet-in-the-crosshairs/
He is, in my eyes, the very picture of the sort of person who gives civic activism a bad name.
I don't want to be lumped in with him.

So why doesn't the Sun-Sentinel's Hollywood beat reporter Susannah Bryan know this?
More to the point, WHY doesn't she disclose ANY of this important context to readers so they have more facts to judge what's really going on in ths matter?
Why don't you ask Bryan's bosses at the newspaper?

As it happens, Jeff Brodeur was also very supportive three years ago of state Sen. Eleanor Sobel's efforts to get a JLAC investigation of Hollywood in late 2011, when Sobel was doing the bidding of the Broward PBA, who had previously endorsed her and spent a LOT of time, money and resources in defeating Tim Ryan and Ken Gottlieb in that very nasty and expensive state Senate race in SE Broward. Though some would say infamous race.

Yes, the same Eleanor Sobel who in her role as Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper's bosom pal, has done everything and then some the past two years to prevent state legislators and investigators on the JLAC from investigating what her friend Joy Cooper had actually been doing for years as Chair of the HB CRA, directing where all the HB CRA millions went, with no practical or consistent oversight and accountability from anyone at City Hall -including her.
As the Broward IG's damning 2013 report made clear.

The same Broward PBA  who in 2012 endorsed Traci Callari, the current Hollywood Commissioner who attempted to fire the City Manager this week. 
In the process of pumping and funneling as much money as they could into Callari's 2012 campaign, in order to defeat then-Hollywood Comm. Heidi O'Sheehan, who had been part of the majority of the City Commission for common sense who supported the vote for a public vote on pension costs that were threatening to make the city's future untenable.

An election that the Broward PBA later lost pretty overwhelmingly, despite their deep pockets, media histrionics and dirty tricks.
In doing so, the Broward PBA violated Hollywood's campaign finance rules that had previously been overwhelmingly approved by Hollywood voters as part of a Charter amendment. Why?
(And why was the Broward PBA and the city's later lawsuit against it never ever discussed in print or TV by the South Florida news media?)

So back to the question of why?
So that the Broward PBA could get who they wanted elected, come hell of high water? 
Yes. Traci Callari, whose husband is a Hollywood Police Officer.
All you need is some larger perspective to see how all these things are inter-connected and see how the losers of one issue never quite forget, and are forver trying to get vengeance on the people who bested them however they can, regardless of what the issue is.
So, from this we have learned quite well that the Broward PBA is always spoiling for a fight with anyone brave enough to hold them to account, which is why they have had it in for Beam Furrr, since the former Hollywood City Commissioner -and current Democratic nomineee for Broward County Comm. District 6- was asking questions publicly many years ago about the Police and Fire Pension when others in the community were reluctant to speak up and take sides.

So perhaps the real question for all of us in Hallandale Beach and Hollywood who are civic-minded and in favor of a thorough discussion of the issues this year is this one: Why, after all these years, is
the Sun-Sentinel's very own beat reporter for Hollywood and Hallandale Beach so consistently unable or unwilling to see what I and so many of you can see quite easily?
Good question. 
Why don't you ask Susannah Bryan's bosses at the newspaper?

That mediocrity in effort and results by the Sun-Sentinel is why I and so many of you reading this know in advance why the coming Sun-Sentinel coverage of the Hallandale Beach City Commission races will be so very feeble and pathetic.
Why despite having 45 days, anything they do will appear just days before the election, instead of early enough so that they can be fair, probing and thorough -and actually useful to HB residents.

And we know from painful experiences in the past that this half-assed approach and effort by the Sun-Sentinel only helps the very people who are already in office ruining this city with their consistently sinister/myopic judgment and seemingly neverending unethical behavior, both the electeds and the well-paid bureaucrats who never get held to account for their serial misdeeds and lies to the public at large.

Bad journalism is STILL happening in plain sight in South Florida: Why are Herald and Sun-Sentinel beat reporters ignoring campaign finance disclosure violations story re Broward County PBA in Hollywood? Violations that appear quite deliberate. On this, as with so many other dozens of stories that the public wants to know MORE about, these reporters and their editors are sleepwalking

Bad journalism is STILL happening in plain sight in South Florida: Why are the Herald and Sun-Sentinel beat reporters ignoring campaign finance disclosure violations story re Broward County PBA in Hollywood? Violations that appear quite deliberate. On this, as with so many other dozens of stories that the public wants to know MORE about, these reporters and their editors are sleepwalking

Once again, for about the millionth time since they've had the Hollywood and Hallandale Beach reporting beats for their newspapers, the Miami Herald's Carli Teproff and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel's Tonya Alanez are NOT reporting news they know about.

Why in the world is there a time-delay in reporting news to readers that happened WEEKS ago?

In most large cities not located in Florida, especially Northeastern and Midwestern cities that still have pretensions to being 'newspaper towns,' the information would've been in the newspaper the very next day, and the local TV stations, as per usual, would've suddenly gotten interested in the story, too, and gone to work that day in either ferreting out some real answers, or at least making their viewers know what the basic facts were and who the parties involved were. 
But here, it's weeks later and there's still nothing about it.

What are they, reporters, publicists or spin doctors?

It's a very familiar refrain to news-hungry residents of this part of Broward County.

My fact-filled blog post on this matter is coming this week, and I'll very likely take aim at some of the most egregious apologists for both the union and the reporters.
And I'll have some of the questions that we should've already seen posed weeks ago to the people involved at the PBA.