Upcoming HB City Commission meeting re Flex units in Diplomat LAC; imagining The Masters golf tourney with giant condo towers like Diplomat's LAC plan

The ad above about the April 21st Hallandale
Beach City Commission meeting ran in Sunday's
Miami Herald.

If you haven't already heard, the Broward
County Commission meeting that was
scheduled to re-hear the Diplomat LAC's
incompatible proposal on April 27th,
has now been moved to Tuesday May 11th.
One month from tomorrow.

By the way, do you think The Masters Golf
Tournament the past week would've looked
better or worse on TV for home viewers IF
there'd been constant shots of giant 25-30 story
condo towers looming over the magnolia trees?

Say, something like this rendering, perhaps?

Above rendering courtesy of Don Boudria
Looking east towards the Intracoastal and Atlantic.

You'd probably have thought that the condo towers
seemed pretty incompatible with what the folks
at Augusta National seemed at pains to keep
emphasizing: nature and green, green everywhere.

Yeah, that's what I'd think, too!

Here's a question I wish I'd thought of asking the
Diplomat's attorney, Debbie Orshefsky of
Greenberg Traurig, on November 2nd at their
required informational meeting held at the HB
Cultural Center:

Are there ANY golf courses in the entire state
of Florida where the respective county approved
buildings this TALL to be located THAT close
to an existing residential neighborhood and
golf course, as part of a LAC?

My own guess is that if there were such instances,
being the very good lawyer that she is, Debbie
would've mentioned it a few dozen times by now;
she hasn't.
I don't think that's a coincidence.

Broward Comm Albert Jones and the future of the incompatible Diplomat LAC -and what does he really know about the lies spread by HB's Anthony Sanders?

Obviously, I've been talking to people all over the
county a lot about the Diplomat LAC proposal,
which, as I constantly remind everyone I speak
to about it, Hallandale Beach City Hall only placed
on the city's website for citizens to read 28 hours
before the first vote in mid-December.

One of the sub-plots that's come up is how this
may affect former Dania mayor and current
interim Broward Commissioner Albert C. Jones'
political future, if any, as he seeks to get elected
to a position he was appointed to by Gov. Crist.

There are some larger issues for people all over
the county to contemplate.

If, by virtue of his YES vote on March 23rd,
he believes that it is perfectly acceptable for
25-30 story residential buildings to be located
adjacent to single-family residential areas,
some only 25 feet away, will he also be voting
this same way for future development applications
in the rest of Broward County, including
the cities of Fort Lauderdale, Pembroke Pines,
Hollywood, Coral Springs, Miramar, Plantation,
Sunrise and Davie, as well as the entirety of the
Broward Commission District he hopes to
represent in the future as an elected
Commissioner?

If not, why then is he forcing Hallandale Beach
and nearby Hollywood citizens to bear this
particular burden when they are opposed to it,
and are already physically hamstrung by not
only having geographical barriers, but also
among the single worst traffic to be currently
found in all of South Florida?

How is it that he imagines having thousands
more residents in that area will not directly
affect the ability of people to evacuate when
the sites in question are ALL mandatory
hurricane evacuation areas?

There are many questions you could ask him,
but this might be the first

Please explain your rationale for your
March 23rd vote and why Broward residents
should not expect you to vote similarly for
future applications if you are elected.
Or, do you plan to make exceptions for other
cities, but not in this particular case with respect
to Hallandale Beach and Hollywood residents?

Another question to ponder is why would
politically-active Broward residents who live
outside of the 9th District currently represented
by Jones, especially in Hollywood or Hallandale
Beach, consider making small campaign
contribution to him if he is a solid vote FOR
developers' out-of-scale plans of a sort that
caused the Broward Planning Council's
professional staff to recommend DENIAL
of the proposal?

Well, they wouldn't if he votes for the Diplomat
on April 27th whereas they might consider it
if he votes against it.
Hmm-m-m...

Then again, if he votes for the Diplomat,
it's highly likely that they and their law firms,
lobbyists and consultants will show him
some love with campaign contributions
while those very same politically-active
residents of the county will contribute to
one of his many opponents.
That's politics: votes matter.

I personally think that April 12th or so is
plenty of time for him to have decided what
he's going to do, one way or the other on
the second go-round with this.

If he appears set on rejecting the community
again, as far as I'm concerned, that's it for
him and I personally plan to go to Plan B
with Comm. Jones.

That's the plan where his opponents
start asking these questions publicly
themselves, and he doesn't get elected.

According to the website of the Broward County
Supervisor of Elections (SOE) Jones still
does NOT appear on the official candidates list.
http://www.browardsoe.org/electioncandidates.aspx?eid=89

That same website notes that as of today,
the registered voters here break down as follows:
Democrat: 544,329
Republican: 243,802
Other: 240,806
Total: 1,028,937

Nobody here but us scorpions:
For what it's worth, if anyone out there was
thinking of whom they could contact on the
Commission to try to prevent this proposal
from going thru, I believe that any time
and energy directed at Ilene Lieberman or
Stacey Ritter is completely wasted.

That's especially the case after many people
from around the county who have dealt with
them in the past, inc. elected officials,
have contacted me and said that after hearing
and reading what's already transpired, they
agree with me that Lieberman and Ritter
literally can't help themselves.

You know, like the scorpion and the frog.
Except in this case, they're both scorpions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scorpion_and_the_Frog

These two still imagine themselves able to
pick and choose economic winners and losers
throughout the county based on whom they
know or who is involved in a project, i.e.
crony capitalism, the preferred method
employed at Hallandale Beach City Hall
to dispense taxpayer and CRA funds.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crony_capitalism

The Rodstrom Factor:
The fact that we never heard any specifics about
why some people in Broward thought Comm.
John Rodstrom would abstain last Tuesday
-just a feeling?- and still can't say, is sufficient
proof to me that Rodstrom is also a lost cause.

Rodstrom is also involved with the Margaritaville
bid in Hollywood's Johnson Street RFP that
I personally find so unattractive and objectionable,
and may will be at Hollywood City Hall on April 7th
at 4 p.m., when the entire City Commission sees
the presentations and formally asks questions for
the first time.
I'll be there also, of course.

To me, for better or worse, the entire fight for
the Diplomat LAC proposal lies with Comm.
Albert C. Jones.
Period.

It would be great if someone could convince
Jones that what is really going on in HB, with
Sanders & Co. seemingly trying to benefit either
financially or professionally -or both- from every
single proposed project in HB, thru so-called
'job programs' -regardless of how many
actual jobs are created, and to the apparent
exclusion of other groups involvement-
is not our opinion, it's a verifiable fact.

But you have to be willing to admit that
seeing is believing.

Some well-informed people throughout the county
tell me that just as is true with Comm. Diana
Wasserman-Rubin, Comm. Jones does NOT
really want to ask too many questions about HB
Comm. Anthony Sanders.

You know, like the entire South Florida news media,
save Sun-Sentinel columnist Michael Mayo?

Whether about the curious sale of his family property
to the city for far more than its appraised value
-for purposes that are still not at all clear-
or ask why so many of his associates and pals
seem to be getting sweetheart deals from the city
that seem absurd on their face and unpopular
with taxpayers.

For instance, City Manager Good deciding on
his own, without any input from the elected City
Commission, to give $25,000 to someone for
a summer camp that is not a non-profit.

Something that elected city commissioners only
found out about a week after the fact.

So, does anyone out there have any idea of how
much money in grants or loans that brother-and-sister
act Deborah Brown and John Brown have
separately received from the City of HB over
the past few years?

She's the woman, of course, who got the $25k
last year without the public or elected officials
knowing about it 'till it was too late.
See http://www.corporationwiki.com/Florida/Hallandale-Beach/deborah-brown-P1332185.aspx

Until a few weeks ago, I just assumed that Zamar
was a non-profit, but since it's incorporated,
it's clearly not, so why did they get the money
instead of someone else?
Better yet, if you have nothing to hide, why was
this kept from the public?

The fact that the city's CRA has been used as
an ATM for so long by HB City Hall for their friends,
and more recently, by Sanders' myriad acolytes,
without actually alleviating poverty or blight,
is going to come out sooner rather than later.

Comm. Jones needs to decide if he supports
the empty promises of the Diplomat and their
apologists like Sanders, or concrete results.

It's time for him to be a Profile in Courage
and do the right thing, or seal his fate with
Broward voters. Late this afternoon I was
informed that: Comm. Sanders was STILL
going around town, esp. churches, saying
the Diplomat LAC is good for "their community,"
but people who know the true facts are downright
insulted by the drop-in-the-bucket proposal
for Affordable Housing, and the Diplomat's
clear preference to not have the affordable
housing actually be at their actual site.

Naturally, they want to export it off-site just like
Gulfstream Park, Magna and Forest City did.
So, who profits from this, exactly?

Despite what you may have heard elsewhere.
the Palms Coalition decided not to support
the Diplomat LAC proposal as a group.

I'll bet that even Diana Wasserman-Rubin
knows this, but will she actually show-up at
the NW quadrant meeting on Monday at
6:30 p.m., at the city's Hepburn Center,
to see what the community actually thinks
about this?

It should be interesting to see what sort of
turn-out they get from their paid puppets,
or even whether the South Florida news media,
esp. TV, continues their apparent boycott of
this compelling story.

In fact, perhaps because it is scheduled for NW,
the news media will show-up, albeit, like the
much-needed military support that was too late
getting to Custer.

One thing you can count on though is that
the Diplomat's interests will be employing
a full-court press at this meeting to try to
spin it their way, with the same invisible faces
we never see at City Commission or CRA
meetings suddenly popping-up and telling
us how much they want it.

Some people will always put their own financial
interests ahead of the community's greater good,
and that's exactly what we'll see on Monday night.

I'll tell you who those people are.

Wednesday's N.E. Quadrant meeting in HB: a perfect opportunity to capture the angry mood of a city re over-development

Those of you who have called or written me in
the recent past and said that you'd have loved
to have covered this particular story earlier...
well, now you'll have your chance on Wednesday
night.
Mieux vaut tard que jamais.

Reminder: Next Wednesday, April 7th, is the
day that the Johnson Street RFP goes before
the Hollywood City Commission and the
commissioners finally get to pose questions to
the presenting teams, and vote for one team,
vote for both teams to proceed, or vote to start
over.

According to the City Manager's office, whom I
spoke to earlier today, their tentative schedule
is to have the regular City Commission meeting
at 1 p.m., the CRA meeting at 4 p.m. and their
combined CRA/City Commission meeting at 5 p.m.,
which is when the Johnson Street proposals
will come up.

I expect to have pared my video of the past
Johnson Street meetings down to the best
parts I recorded since last year and up on
the blog and YouTube page by this weekend,
so you might want to swing by and see what's there.

By the way, for those of you who don't know,
the DUO, pictured below, is located south of the
Diplomat Golf Course in HB and next to the
already commercially-zoned parcel the
Plumbers and Pipe Fitters Union already
owns that neighborhood residents can live with,
just as they are also okay with a new upscale
500-room hotel to replace the existing 60-room
building and a new adjoining small retail complex
to it, located in the center of the golf course.

We all genuinely wish they'd manage and market
the golf course better than they currently do,
so that more people would use it, but we don't
have any control over that.

It doesn't help, however, that they seem
completely disinclined to actually listen to
the honest criticism of the course by avid
golfers in the area, real consumers, as if the
self-evident problems will somehow resolve
themselves.

What the community and nearby Hollywood
residents oppose is the Diplomat's owner
proposal to build 4-5 more of these incompatible
out-of-scale condo towers in a single-family
residential neighborhood, on secondary roads,
and threatening the future of the golf course
if they do not get their way with the condos.

We will not let their threats and bluffs
go unanswered.


Below, DUO

Below, depiction of a Diplomat condo tower on Atlantic Shores Blvd.,

looking SE towards the Intracoastal and the Atlantic Ocean.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Csaba Kulin
Date: Tue, Mar 30, 2010 at 12:56 PM
Subject: N.E. Quadrant Meeting

Hello Friends;

Tomorrow night, the City of Hallandale Beach will hold a "quadrant" meeting to INFORM US what is going on and ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS we may have.

This is OUR TIME to ask about the DIPLOMAT LAC. NO 3 MINUTE CLOCK. It is OPEN to ANYONE. Even if you do not live in the N.E. area. Even if you do not live in Hallandale.

It does not get any EASIER to let the Mayor and Commissioners know how you feel about MORE TRAFFIC, MORE DEVELOPMENT, MORE HIGH RISES etc.

How would you like to see 6 or 7 high rises the size of the DUO on Diplomat Parkway? 900 residential units plus the 500 room hotel on Diplomat Parkway?

With 3000 residential units approved, do you think we need another 950 units to be approved? We have a ton of vacant, unsold and foreclosed units.

Wednesday, March 31, 2010 6:30 P.M. Towers of Ocean View South, 600 Parkview Drive, HB.

WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT, TELL YOUR FRIENDS TO COME.

WEAR A RED SHIRT OR BLOUSE SEE YOU THERE WEDNESDAY NIGHT

Csaba Kulin

President, Fairways North, Inc.

VP United Condominium Association of Hallandale Beac

----------------------

from Csaba Kulin
to Commissioner Anthony Sanders
date Tue, Mar 30, 2010 at 2:57 PM
subject Broward County Commission Second Meeting on the Diplomat LAC

Honorable Commissioner Sanders;

We, the presidents, directors and residents of Fairways North, Inc., Fairways Inc., Fairways South, Inc. and Seventeenth Green Condominiums joined together in a coalition to be able to better represent out interests, wishes and desires. The 450 residential units of our 4 associations stand shoulder to shoulder with each other to protect our quality of life. I am sure that our collective voice will be more difficult to dismiss than each of us individually, now and in the future.

As you know, we have achieved something very seldom happens. The residents of HB with the help many others, were able stop BIG MONEY even if its is not the final vote. The most important thing that it "DID NOT PASS". As I understand the Diplomat can come back for an "other bite of the apple" in April.

I am sorry that you found it in your heart to speak up against us, but what BC Commissioner Diana Wasserman-Rubin said was that really bothered me. She said "my 1360 registered voters in the N.W. section of Hallandale Beach, which I represent, want me to vote in favor of approving the Diplomat LAC". That was our 5th vote we needed to stop the LAC.

The 1360 registered voters of N.W. represent 6.5% of the 20,200 registered voters of HB. They are welcome to do whatever is in their best interest.

On the other hand, Commissioner, you were also elected by the other 93.5% registered voters of HB, and that 93.5 does not want the Diplomat LAC.

You are all about jobs, jobs and jobs. I agree with you, but you know that jobs are in hotels and commercial buildings. Residential units DO NOT create jobs. The Diplomat is already zoned for a hotel and a large commercial building with stores and offices. Please do not listen to the fear tactics of the Diplomat.

On behalf of the "Fairways Coalition" I ask you to meet with me/us to discuss what you are able and willing to do to help us secure that most important FIFTH vote on BC Commission on April 27, 2010.

To the Diplomat it is money, to some others it is politics but for us it is our quality of life is at stake. Tell me how any elected official can be for either of the first two?

The following Associations and Individuals stood shoulder to shoulder with us in this epic struggle. Not everyone was able to be at the Commission Meeting in person for various reasons but I can assure you, they were there with us in spirit. I hope the announcement after our victory will include the name HB Commissioner Anthony Sanders.

• Broward Coalition - President Charlotte Greenbarg
• Fairways Coalition Members
• Fairways South, Inc. President Michel LaPalme and Residents
• Fairways Inc. President Colin Edwards and Residents
• Fairways North, Inc. Board of Directors and Residents
• Seventeenth Green, Hon. Don Boudria, P.C.
• The Hemispheres President Julian Axelrod
• United Condominium Association of Hallandale Beach President Louis Parades
• Hollywood Lakes Section Civic Association President Terry Cantrell
• Hallandale Beach Vice Mayor Bill Julian
• Hallandale Beach Commissioner Keith London
• Dave Smith
• Catherine Kim Owens
• Former Hallandale Beach Mayor Sonny Rosenberg
• Drs. Bob and Judy Selz
• Golden Condo Association President Beverly Carawan
• Venetian Park Condo Association David Chizen
• And many, many others with their e-mail, phone calls and going the meetings.

Thank You,

Csaba Kulin

President, Fairways North, Inc

VP United Condominium Association of Hallandale Beach

Thoughts on the Diplomat LAC proposal, now scheduled for April 27, and the economic threats the Westin Diplomat is now making. How low can they go?

From: Diplomat Properties, LP
Sent: Mon, Mar 29, 2010 11:24 am
Subject: Diplomat Returns to Broward County Commission for Final Vote on April 27

The Diplomat LAC will return to the Broward County Commission for a final vote in the next few weeks. This follows a 4-4 tie vote at the public hearing on March 23, with one Commissioner not present. Throughout the public review process, plans have continued to evolve in response to community and public officials' comments. Most recently, the residential buildings planned for parcel B have been reduced to 5 stories. As a supporter, you understand how crucial the residential component is to preserving the golf course. Please help us get this message out. There will be no new hotel without a residential community within the project and there may be no golf course without the LAC. We hope that you will e-mail or call the county commissioners whose no vote indicates that they don't yet appreciate this crucial linkage. Ask that they vote Yes to allow this important project to move forward. (Commissioners Jacobs, Wexler, Gunzburger and Keechl voted no; Commissioner Lieberman was not present.) We appreciate everyone's support and will let you know the new County Commission meeting date as soon as it is confirmed.

http://campaign.constantcontact.com/render?v=001AOTdCtwnZM-kEPmDeh-ar8VKcVOHca1BcHUREzwyr-E98_8Ipi2GfpQ2T5JkGjKQEb2xnzKyOREwFtCMaB9_V3iwa7S31pUHDORP104kii1pwTUvcjrXi9bKWgPJdfeciXD24y-2tURUVHm94Pjq4u0SwIcO4qj4

I've told you all in previous emails and blog
posts here that the the union that owns the
Westin Diplomat Resort & Spa, as well
as the Golf Course, the Plumbers and Pipe
Fitters, as well as hospitality management
company Starwood and the high-paid
lawyers, lobbyists and myriad consultants
they've retained, would engage in serial lies
and misrepresentation in order to get their
way, and they have.
Now, you can see it for yourself, above.

"There will be no new hotel without a
residential community within the project
and there may be no golf course without
the LAC."

Yes, they'll huff and they'll puff and they'll blow
the Diplomat's golf course up if they don't
get their way.
Cue the the Three Pigs!

The next vote on the Diplomat LAC will take
place before the Broward County Commission
on April 27th at 2 p.m., not the 13th as was
stated here earlier.

So when is the South Florida news media
going to cover this story in a way that equates
to its actual importance to the community's
Quality-of-Life?

That's a good question.

After a number of conversations with people
in the area and around the county, I'll have
some thoughts to share in the next two weeks
on how we all think the Diplomat LAC proposal
-which you'll recall that Hallandale Beach
City Hall placed on the city's dreadful website
for citizens to read 28 hours before the first
vote in mid-December- may affect interim
Broward Commissioner Albert C. Jones'
political future, as he seeks to get elected
to a position he was appointed to by
Gov. Charlie Crist.
http://www.broward.org/district9/
http://gis.broward.org/maps/webPDFs/CommissionDistricts/comdist9.pdf

Jones was one of the four votes for the
Diplomat last Tuesday, yet curiously,
as of this afternoon, his name still does
not appear on the posted candidates list
of the SOE.
http://www.browardsoe.org/electioncandidates.aspx?eid=89

So am I the only one who wonders why
are there no news stories about Comm.
Diana Waseerman-Rubin, whose District
actually includes a small part of NW Hallandale
Beach, and how she barely(!) understands
what she is voting on with respect to this
matter, and why is she making no effort
to come to the actual area to see what's
at stake for local residents?

Is it because she thinks Hallandale Beach
City Comm. Anthony Sanders has magical
powers that will ensure a huge turnout for her,
assuming her name is even on the ballot?

I'm sure that Sanders political and campaign
support came up when she met Sanders
(and City Manager Good?) in person at the
city's Hepburn Center two weeks ago today,
but, days later, actually turned-down an
invitation from residents in the affected HB
neighborhood to see it from their ground-level
perspective.

She had no problem in driving east to Hallandale
Beach to meet with Comm. Sanders, but actual
HB residents, well, she made them come to her
office in West Park, one week ago today.

I guess she was afraid that if she really saw
what the residents were up against, it would
make it much harder for her to vote for the
Diplomat and against them, huh?

Better to keep their legitimate concerns as
an abstract idea, instead of real homes where
real people live.

Why isn't that curious choice of her's a
news story that serves as an entree into
the larger Diplomat story?

That's another good question.

Or what about Hallandale Beach mayor Joy Cooper
actually telephoning Diana Wasserman-Rubin
and telling her NOT to listen to the HB residents,
saying that they were naysaying "mavericks."

"Mavericks"?
No, just citizens of a city where the domineering,
thin-skinned mayor brooks no dissent, actively
engaging in participatory democracy despite
her disapproval.

That participatory democracy thing is something
she is, herself, deadly afraid of, which is why
she's okay with a City Hall-paid spy attending
meetings throughout the community for $2-3,000
a month, and reporting back to HB City Hall.

Wow, Joy Cooper speaking poorly about
HB residents behind their back, go figure?

But then if she's willing to call political opponents
of hers "Nazis" on City Hall property, inc. me,
and calling HB Comm. Keith London "a Hitler"
just moments later, it's really not so surprising.

That's how Joy Cooper rolls, as I've only been
saying here for years...

I spent some time over the weekend editing
all the photos and hours of video I shot of the
Broward Planning Council meeting of
February, and last Tuesday's Broward County
Commission, so that I can post them online
here and my under-utilized YouTube page
over the next few days,
http://www.youtube.com/user/hallandalebeachblog
so that not only the Hallandale Beach and
Hollywood communities can see what they
missed out on, but greater South Florida as well.

Perhaps they'll even pick-up on the general tenor
of the meetings, as well as the often mis-leading
information offered-up by many of our opponents.

That's especially the case with many local folks,
some of whom claim to have a connection to the
Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, who said
they were SO concerned about the economic
health of HB, but most of whom you and I have
NEVER seen before, not even at Hollywood
City Commission or CRA meetings, which I
frequently attend.

I don't really mind the people supporting the
Diplomat so much as their rather transparent
attempts to buffalo us in this process in such a
very condescending way, while acting like
they were the ones looking at "the big picture."

Yes, "the big picture" that you might otherwise
recognize as your family's daily existence
hereabouts and their future.

No, actually, we were the ones doing that "big
picture" scenario, they were the local opportunists
and butt-kissers looking at self-enrichment,
which is one of the reason that I found it so easy
to take some verbal shots at some of them during
my public comments, specifically referring to them
as "water carriers" for HB CIty Hall and the
Diplomat.

That's what they were, Ann Taylor pantsuits
or not.

It was their smug attempts to seem intellectually
elevated that I found grating, especially since
you know they'd never tolerate multiple 25-30
story condo towers next to their own home in
a single family residential area.

Guess what?
A new idea is close to coming to fruition
with regard to this particular underdog effort.
After some preliminary conversations with
some well-informed citizens and civic activists
from both HB, Hollywood and beyond, who,
frankly, have grown tired of these artificial
turf friends of HB's economy speaking on
behalf of their personal greed, wallets and
purses, I've agreed to create a handy roster
here on this humble blog that will allow those
of you following this effort from the comfort
of your own home to know whom some
of the players are.

I'm going to create a list of the local people
who have spoken on behalf of the Diplomat
at government meetings and ridiculed the
legitimate concerns of the affected
neighborhood's citizens.

That list will likely include their name as well
as the name and location of their business,
if any.

If they have a business located in Hollywood,
Hallandale Beach or Aventura, I will endeavor
to take a photograph of that business so that
you all will be able to recognize it and associate
that particular business in your mind with
someone who's perfectly content for your area's
Quality-of-Life to go down the tubes.

In fact, felt so strongly about it that they said so
publicly. That's their choice.

Of course, some of these folks work in enterprises
where they are heavily-dependent on taxpayer
funds for funding.
They sure don't act like it though.

Such an example is the Hallandale Beach Chamber
of Commerce, which last year got a brand new
office at taxpayer-built HB City Hall.
It's that room next to the HB City Commission
Chambers in the breezeway at City Hall.

The group's head Patricia Genetti, whose
organization receives $50,000 of taxpayers
funds this year, much of it going towards her
salary, has been an outspoken proponent of
the Diplomat's case.

Unlike the case in many parts of the country,
where these sorts of govt. financial relationships
require public disclosure whenever compensated
individuals speak before govt. agencies,
Patricia Genetti has chosen to keep quiet about
that $50k of taxpayer loot, as she has spoken
in favor of the Diplomat LAC before the
HB Planning & Zoning meeting in mid-December,
the HB City Commission meeting the very next day,
the Broward County Planning Council meeting in
late Febraury, plus last week's important Broward
County Commission meeting that resulted in a
4-4 tie vote.

That's four separate meetings that I can think of
just off the top of my head, plus Genetti also
spoke at length at the so-called informational
public meeting the Diplomat was required to
hold at the HB Cultural Center last year, where
she also decided to keep mum about the taxpayer
money she gets while speaking against the
interests of the majority of HB's citizen taxpayers.

Some people will find this information valuable
and some will not, just as some may choose
to tell friends and family about it and decide
that they want to boycott those particular
businesses while for others, it has no practical
effect whatsoever.

It's your choice, of course, but now you'll have
the information you need to decide whether
you want to patronize those businesses or
boycott them.

You're welcome.

Bad news for Diana Wasserman-Rubin, no fan of Quality-of-Life in Hallandale Beach & Hollywood: Angelo Castillo may oppose her and he will win

The Broward Beat column by Buddy Nevins that I link
to below just got posted this morning, which explains why
there is only one reader comment there thus far.

Yesterday DWR voted against the thousands of people in
the Hallandale Beach neighborhood -and nearby Hollywood
residents- that are quite literally under-the-gun from the
unpopular and incompatible Diplomat LAC proposal,
as she has cast her lot with HB City Comm. Anthony A. Sanders
instead of the larger number of residents in this area whose
family's Quality-of-Life would be negatively affected by
the multiple condo towers and the increased traffic that
come with them.

She actually told three HB residents who met with her
at her office on Monday afternoon that she personally
avoids coming into that part of HB -i.e east of U.S-1-
because of the traffic nightmare, where we all know
from experience that we NEVER see HB Police
actually on duty to prevent the gridlock that Aventura
prevents by ACTUALLY having a visible presence
on Biscayne Blvd. and giving real tickets to scofflaws
'blocking the box."

(Just like you, if I had a dollar for every time
I saw an emergency vehicle with a siren wailing
try to head west on Hallandale Beach Blvd.
towards Aventura Hospital while it's
bumper-to-bumper from Three Islands to U.S-1,
I'd be sporting a new car.
So where are those HB cops, anyway?)

But if a vote for the Diplomat helps DWR with keeping
Sanders' Pied Piper support in NW, i.e the promise of
future jobs for NW residents, she was only too happy
to throw you and your family's neighborhood and Q-O-L
overboard, and tell you that's just tough.

That's her choice, of course, and she's welcome to it,
but if she thinks that Anthony Sanders and his
consistently anti-democratic, anti-transparency
voting record, truly abysmal lack of preparation
for city meetings -not even bothering to show-up
for the city's final vote on their big Transportation
Master Plan meeting last year- over-budget and
YEARS overdue, won't be an absolute albatross
around HER neck, she's very much mistaken.

But then isn't this vote of her's only a self-evident sign
of how truly desperate she is that she's stuck with the
equally dis-connected Sanders, who all this time later,
STILL can't tell you to your face what the official
city plan is for the property the city bought from him
and his wife for more than it was appraised at,
with your tax dollars?

Rushed with urgency to buy this one piece of property
as if there were oil deposits underneath and eager
oil execs were jetting in from Houston to sign a deal.
You know, Texas Tea?

A nondescript property which you own that the city
is now renting out for a grand total of -yes- $10 a month.
(And guess who had that deal?)

So what's the long term plan, exactly?
Where's the written strategy?
There isn't one.

Sanders can't tell you any more than Joy Cooper,
Mike Good or Richard Canonne can explain what
the grand plan for the sixty-plus properties that the
city ALREADY owns, that has no apparent rhyme
or reason to it.

And by city, I mean that YOUR tax dollars bought
and own.

Without an actual written plan that everyone in this
city knows about and can read, there is no guideline
or deadline -and ZERO scrutiny and accountability
for Hallandale Beach taxpayers.

That's why it's the way it is -HB City Hall wants it
that way. It's the same reason that HB citizens only
saw the Diplomat's submitted application and docs
to the city placed on the city's website just 28 hours
before the first vote -the P&Z- with Mayor Cooper
and Commissioners Julian, Ross and Sanders
consistently refusing, meeting after meeting, to support
Comm. Keith London's common sense motion to place
them on the website far enough before the vote would
take place, so that everyone could read them and come
to understand what they were proposing and draw
their own conclusions.

That collective refusal to allow you, the citizen taxpayers
of this city, to actually know what was being proposed,
was no accident.

It was entirely intentional, which is why I made a point
of mentioning it yesterday when I spoke before the
Broward County Commission, to explain, in part, why
the majority of well-informed citizens here so
adamantly oppose the Diplomat's over-the-top plans
for numerous condo towers in a residential neighborhood.

The self-evident nature of the city's unfairness to us,
and their completely unprofessional and unethical conduct
-AGAIN!- as if HB City Hall was a silent partner in the
enterprise, trying to FIX things so we'd have little chance
to respond in a reasonable fashion, was galling, and the
local news media's completely ignoring that fact only
made it worse.

That's the price many of us currently pay for living in
a city with a corrupt City Hall at the same time we
have a sleepwalking local news media.

IF he chooses to run, I'll be enthusiastically supporting
Angelo Castillo for the good of both Broward County's
future as well as this city's, which desperately needs all
the help and good, positive ideas it can get.

Smart, savvy and dynamic common sense help that,
in my opinion, it ISN'T currently getting and won't
receive in the future from disconnected and uninformed
Diana Wasserman-Rubin.

It's taking longer than I expected to go thru the hours
of photos and video I shot at yesterday's Broward
County Commission meeting, but I will definitely have
some of the material up by late tonight.

----------
Broward Beat
http://www.browardbeat.com/opponent-closing-in-on-wasserman-rubin/
Opponent Closing In On Wasserman-Rubin
By Buddy Nevins
March 24, 2010

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

www.sun-sentinel.com/news/palm-beach/fl-wasserman-swamp-school-20100128,0,3130912.story
Wasserman-Rubin's husband played key role in controversial school land deal
By Scott Wyman, Sun Sentinel
January 28, 2010


The pull quote from the article below:
"I seldom get a call from the city," Wasserman-Rubin told those gathered at the
barbershop at 708 Foster Rd.
Just saying...

South Florida Times
July 2007; updated March 17, 2008

http://www.sfltimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=290&Itemid=42

Residents outraged over neighborhood neglect

Plucky underdog HB activists live to fight another day as Broward County Commission votes 4-4 on Diplomat LAC

Hallandale Beach Chicken of the Sea coming home to roost?
No, plucky Hallandale Beach residents know better than
to crow yet and prematurely count their chickens!
Fowl weather at Hallandale Beach may be very bad news
for Hallandale Beach City Hall and their lapdog acolytes.
February 14, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

I'm very, very pleased to say tonight that on Wednesday,
I will be posting my pithy comments and analysis,
along with some photos and video, of today's important
Broward County Commission meeting on the Diplomat
LAC proposal, which resulted in a series of 4-4 votes
on various motions, meaning that under the County's
rules, the next step will be yet another meeting before
the County Commission, on April 13th.

Three more weeks to try to peel away one of the other
county commissioners.
Political drama!

Stacey Ritter and Ilene Lieberman are lost causes
in more ways than one as I've mentioned here previously,
and didn't even need to be in the room for those of us
opposed to the Diplomat's condo towers to know
they'd already made up their mind, as I predicted here
-and I was right.

They weren't there, but you could feel the aloofness
and condescension over the phone line.

The over-confident Diplomat officials, unctuous
union lackeys and the high-priced lawyers,
lobbyists and consultants they've been paying for
months left the Broward Commission Chambers
in shock!

You see, they were counting their chickens
BEFORE they were cooked!

Sorry! Devastating blog post on lying, back-stabber Alexander Lewy to be delayed for a few days

Due to other pressing matters, namely,
the Diplomat LAC project coming before
the Broward County Commission on
Tuesday afternoon, my devastating blog
post -complete with photos and video-
that I had planned on running today,
which I think would have effectively put
the lie to the smug self-serving lies, serial
mis-statements and absurd exaggerations
and claims of experienced big-mouth
back-stabber Alexander Lewy, will be,
necessarily, postponed for a day or so.

But I know you won't be disappointed when
you finally see it.

Frankly, Hallandale Beach Blog's biggest
problem with this forthcoming blog post on
Lewy has not been with what to put in,
but rather, what telling and embarrassing
anecdote about him and his deceptiveness
and self-serving nature to leave out,
on account of time and space -and repetition.

I'll mention it again in the future but just to give
you some idea of his out-of-proportion sense
of self-importance and willingness to lie at the
drop of a hat, consider what I heard from a
person who is greatly admired and respected
in this county, even by people who may often
disagree with this individual.

Asked in late February at a public meeting
whether or not he was running for a seat on
the Hallandale Beach City Commission this Fall,
unctuous Lewy said "No."

Yet according to his own weird Facebook
campaign site, http://www.facebook.com/pages/Alexander-Lewy/34138291835
where fidelity to the truth is not a virtue,
it's clearly written in the top left that
"Alexander submitted paperwork to run
for City Commissioner on January 11, 2010."

And he continues to claim he's running.
But when asked about it six weeks later, he lied.

My point?

Well, ask yourself this simple question, which
speaks volumes on his chronic logrolling and
inability to be straight with people.

If Lewy is unwilling to be honest and is incapable
of telling the truth about whether or not he's
even running for office, something for which
there's no logical upside or advantage to him
to lie about, what makes you think he will be
forthright with you on an issue you genuinely
care about?

Sometimes a person's character is most vividly
revealed in a moment of genuine crisis, which
is what compelled John F. Kennedy to write
-with Ted Sorenson?- Profiles in Courage,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Profiles_in_Courage
so he could better come to understand how
these particular individuals he had chosen
from American history had made the particular
choices and decisions they had, often at great
personal risk and professional reputation.

There's a reason that book won the Pulitzer
Prize and why those sorts of basic questions
continue to greatly interest us today, since
people love to claim that they respect
straight-shooters, even if they disagree with
them, but finding actual proof that that's true
is always elusive.

But sometimes, it's in someone's complete
inability to be honest in answering a very
simple question that someone's character
-or lack thereof- is revealed.

Such is the case here, as Alexander Lewy's
untruthful answer shows what sort of person
he is -NOT the sort of person I want to see
have any degree of power, and certainly NOT
to make public policy decisions that will greatly
affect this city and its future.
And ours.

It's not too much to insist on honesty in candidates,
and by that simple measure, Alexander Lewy
has proven himself NOT QUALIFIED.

Shocker! South Florida TV stations ignore Diplomat LAC vote at Broward Planning Council

Miami's lazy, second-rate news media continued their hyper-local march into insipid insignificance today by ignoring some important news you could use about the area's near-future and quality of life, and how realistic and sensible planning rules are no match for high-priced lawyers, lobbyists and companies that will spend mucho dinero in political contributions to get the results they want, regardless of what citizens want.

You don't hire Greenberg Traurig and Becker & Poliakoff because you want subtle, though I did hear someone out in the hall during a break joking that Bernie Freidman and Alan Koslow "were just hired to hold Debbie Orshefsky's purse."
I guess that's what passes for lawyer levity in Broward these days.

But on the positive side, since they didn't cover this story that cried out for some air-time for all sorts of reasons, there'll be time for them to run at least one news story tonight on one of the four English-speaking TV stations about some local Miami woman who claims she's losing weight by doing something other than actually getting control of her own life, giving up her lazy ways or getting off the sofa and getting some real exercise.
Cue CBS4's Lisa Petrillo, reporting LIVE from South Beach!

Yes, five-and-a-half hours after their meeting started -late, of course- in a rambling and poorly-run advisory meeting, the Broward Planning Council voted against the explicit recommendation of their own professional staff this afternoon to deny the Diplomat LAC and instead passed it by more than a 2-1 vote, with only a handful of votes against.

All the predictable pols on the Planning Council were for it as we knew going in -plus some I didn't expect to be for it- preferring to kick the can further down the road than stop it dead in the tracks.

Many of the Planning Council members sounded exactly like the Diplomat employees and union members who were bussed in to the event, mouthing the same bland and cliched banalities on the dais, ones that Hallandale Beach residents have been hearing for so many months out of local pals of HB City Hall like Hallandale Beach CRA loan recipient Joe Kessel, longtime Joy Cooper family friend Gerry Natelson and the terribly annoying HB Chamber of Commerce mouthpiece, Patricia Genetti, who has thoroughly proven herself over two years to be no friend of Hallandale Beach's citizen taxpayers.
Boy are they ever a smug and tiresome lot!

Today, with Joy Cooper and Anthony A. Sanders both out-of-town, with William Julian up on the Council dais, and Keith London in the audience with HB residents and speaking against its approval, Dotty Ross was the only HB Commission member with no real excuse for missing this key meeting. But miss it she did.
Surprise!

I'd tell you the actual final vote tally here but since the Chair of the Planning Council never actually said it... I'm not going to mention his name.

I guess somewhere along the line in my 15 years in and around Capitol Hill, I got so used to U.S. House and Senate Committee roll calls, where common sense procedures are used and the Committee clerk actually calls the roll and then announces the final result of the vote immediately afterwards, rather than someone on a dais with an open microphone just blurting out "it passed," as happened today, I got fooled into thinking that everyone knew how to manage a proper roll call.
Based on what I saw today, clearly they don't.

I was not real impressed with very much of what I witnessed today in downtown Fort Lauderdale, whether it was the self-impressed union bosses in suits constantly getting-up and annoying others by walking the aisles like they were House Whips on the Floor of the House, telling their Members what to do, the numerous annoying female professionals in the chambers who kept talking on their cell phones even while the public was speaking down at the lectern, or folks you've never heard of walking around like they were waiting for someone to recognize them.

Sorry, dude, I don't follow Cooper City or Coconut Creek politics or wherever it is you're from, so I have no idea who you are, so could you please stop standing in the aisle so obliviously, and getting in the sight-lines of all the people who actually came to watch the meeting and not you?
Muchas gracias!

Wow, there were so many annoying people at this ponderous meeting!
Dear readers, you just have no idea!

And returning to the poor flow of the meeting in general, allowing Diplomat attorney Debbie Orshefsky to just go on-and-on to a fair-thee-well, congratulating her client over-and-over, and constantly repeating her pat phrases that I and many others have heard dozens of times by now -like something being "her favorite part"- in a meeting that didn't even get to the Diplomat LAC issue until 11:55 a.m., was downright brutal.

Trust me, being on the aisle seat on the last row in the chambers allowed me the opportunity to notice that this death-march of a meeting directly led to many people leaving the chambers for lunch -and never returning.
The fact that I had to continually move my camera tri-pod from beside my seat every time someone from my row got up to leave was the first tip-off.

In that sense, the Planning Council meeting was the exact opposite of the very well-run and very well-attended Citizen Budget Workshop I witnessed in Hollywood on Tuesday night, where, yes, there was a Steve Geller sighting in the lobby after I got in and had found a place to park -a block away- but I chose not to snap a photo.

And not that you asked, but if you didn't like Broward County Commissioner Stacey Ritter going into today's meeting, finding it embarrassing that someone as thoroughly mediocre, self-important and bereft of practical, original ideas as her could really have so much influence in this area, you left the meeting today shaking your head about this county's future, knowing that she will not leave the stage until she is dragged off.

Hollywood's brutally-honest financial meeting was as professional a meeting as any I've witnessed in my six years back here, and a real credit to City Manager Cameron Benson and his myriad Dept. heads.
It was a real model for how all cities in South Florida ought to run meetings.

In Hallandale Beach, though, it's but a distant dream.

More details on both of these meetings tomorrow, I've got some Olympics to catch up on.