Hallandale Beach's latest scandal grows by the day. Fact update, with new info re #HallandaleBeach's corrupt and unethical govt./political sensibility.
Long past time for Alex Lewy to answer some hard questions from public & press about what he knows or has any involvement in the electronic surveillance scandal
This is an important update to my last post, of October 21, 2016, Unethical and corrupt political & govt. culture of Hallandale Beach City Hall being exposed for what it is tonight on Local10 News, via Bob Norman; So what have Alex Lewy and Joy Cooper been commiserating about recently? Their mutual Keith London & Michele Lazarow obsession!
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2016/10/unethical-and-corrupt-political-govt.html
Necessarily, I'll be incorporating much of what I wrote then into this piece so I'm going to try to join them together so that you have a much better understanding of what's been going on in Hallandale Beach for many, many years with the current incompetent Joy Cooper Rubber Stamp Crew holding the reins of power, while the vast majority of South Florida's press corps looked on, drolly, saying and reporting precious-little-to-nothing.
https://twitter.com/AlexLewy/status/779777131199037440
Lewy's twitter feed has been changed to private very recently. I wonder why.
He was always so keen to tell everyone just what he thought.
Endlessly...
Long past time for Alex Lewy to answer some hard questions from public & press about what he knows or has any involvement in the electronic surveillance scandal
This is an important update to my last post, of October 21, 2016, Unethical and corrupt political & govt. culture of Hallandale Beach City Hall being exposed for what it is tonight on Local10 News, via Bob Norman; So what have Alex Lewy and Joy Cooper been commiserating about recently? Their mutual Keith London & Michele Lazarow obsession!
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2016/10/unethical-and-corrupt-political-govt.html
Necessarily, I'll be incorporating much of what I wrote then into this piece so I'm going to try to join them together so that you have a much better understanding of what's been going on in Hallandale Beach for many, many years with the current incompetent Joy Cooper Rubber Stamp Crew holding the reins of power, while the vast majority of South Florida's press corps looked on, drolly, saying and reporting precious-little-to-nothing.
So, I have received quite a lot of responses from my email and blog post of late Friday afternoon, most of it, though not all, positive.
State criminally investigating Hallandale Beach political spying case
Politicians say they discovered illegal tracking devices attached to their cars
By Bob Norman - Investigative Reporter
Posted: 7:00 PM, October 21, 2016
Updated: 7:18 PM, October 21, 2016
http://www.local10.com/news/lo
Politicians say they discovered illegal tracking devices attached to their cars
By Bob Norman - Investigative Reporter
Posted: 7:00 PM, October 21, 2016
Updated: 7:18 PM, October 21, 2016
http://www.local10.com/news/lo
State criminally investigating #HallandaleBeach political spying case https://t.co/LiZjGMRC42 pic.twitter.com/LqZKd24nA3— WPLG Local 10 News (@WPLGLocal10) October 21, 2016
Plot thickens in hallandale beach political spying case
By Bob Norman - Investigative Reporter
Posted: 5:59 PM, October 24, 2016
Posted: 5:59 PM, October 24, 2016
Hallandale Beach commissioners say they have new info on who is behind a spying campaign targeting the Commission https://t.co/BSLYgdPFJ8— WPLG Local 10 News (@WPLGLocal10) October 25, 2016
First, what I heard from you, and then what I realized I neglected to mention yesterday
in the email that might've better helped your understanding of the facts.
To wit, some useful context and nuance.
I was pressed for time as it neared six o'clock but in retrospect, I wish I'd have waited
that extra minute or two to get it in...
I've edited some of this to make it clearer, since some of you might not be as familiar
with the pertinent facts as others.
"David, How come you did not mention that as a HB Commissioner, Alex Lewy
voted for the 2000 S. Ocean Drive project that allowed a 36-story building be built,
practically in the ocean, and much closer to the actual shoreline than other HB
buildings, thus ignoring not only global warming concerns, but also approving
the variance without the developer meeting the City of Hallandale Beach's OWN
criteria for going past the Florida Coastal Construction Line, CCL?
The direct result of this move was to BLOCK the views of roughly 250 condominium
owners to the ocean, even though 95% of the HB residents who actually took the
time to attend and speak at the HB City Commission meetings on the project clearly
and publicly OPPOSED it?"
Some of you will recall that this was the very same development project that involved
former HB City Commissioner and state Rep. Joe Gibbons, that I wrote about several
times via emails, tweets and blog posts, raising questions whether he had, in fact,
followed the city's rules requiring him to register as a lobbyist on the matter, and the
potential he had to make up to $200,000 if he succeeded.
See:
As to the link of Alexander Lewy that I included yesterday that was the original tweet
that Mayor Joy Cooper was responding to on September 20th when she wrote
Lewy's twitter feed has been changed to private very recently. I wonder why.
He was always so keen to tell everyone just what he thought.
Endlessly...
Now when some of you went to Lewy's initial tweet, it showed nothing but the news that his Twitter handle was now PRIVATE, after being public for many years.
Nothing was ever too personal for him to not share and reveal it.
So what happened?
When Alex Lewy first posted this specific tweet and I first saw it -and Mayor Cooper
as well- what he had uploaded to his Twitter feed were strange-looking photos of Hallandale Beach City Commissioners Keith London and
(Notwithstanding their recent endorsements in Hallandale Beach,
@SunSentinel To change decorum and direction, choose Anabelle Taub
and Michele Lazarow in Hallandale Beach sunsent.nl/2ePhNd
for many years I have been very critical of the Sun-Sentinel's coverage of Hallandale
Beach and the Editorial Board consistently ignoring controversial issues in HB for many, many years that if they happened almost anywhere else in Broward County, would have likely been the subject of a series of blistering editorials, most especially re the HB CRA scandal and the millions of CRA dollars that went...
somewhere.
One of the many reasons for that opinion of mine was that it's clear from people who were physically present in the room during past interviews that that the people on the Editorial Board asking questions, themselves, frequently did NOT know basic
facts that most HB voters and residents already knew and were considering, or even quite angry about.
Not that the paper wrote about that particular anger or why it existed.
Like, for instance, how many people were running for the seats or why HB voters were recently NOT allowed to vote for a candidate for each open seat, and instead, could only vote for two people, with the candidate coming in third being elected as well.
Who voted to make it that way for voters?
Cooper, Lewy & Sanders.
Another reason for that opinion is the case of one person involved in the endorsement process showing overt favoritism for Comm. Sanders in ways that seemed particularly egregious, and the Editorial Board not directly challenging Sanders on any of the MANY controversial and unethical things he has done since being appointed to the Commission in an anti-democratic fashion in August of 2008, rather than the Mayor simply following the city's written rules for filling a Commission vacancy.
Instead, Cooper demanded a vote many weeks BEFORE it was necessary -or there even, legally, WAS a vacancy- and never allowed the public to speak that night.
The Editorial Board has never asked Comm. Sanders how he could justify voting for every single development project that has come before him at City Hall.
Not 85% or 90% as might be common in most cities over such a period of time, but 100%.
Really, 100%? Yes. :-( )
@SunSentinel To change decorum and direction, choose Anabelle Taub
and Michele Lazarow in Hallandale Beach sunsent.nl/2ePhNd
for many years I have been very critical of the Sun-Sentinel's coverage of Hallandale
Beach and the Editorial Board consistently ignoring controversial issues in HB for many, many years that if they happened almost anywhere else in Broward County, would have likely been the subject of a series of blistering editorials, most especially re the HB CRA scandal and the millions of CRA dollars that went...
somewhere.
One of the many reasons for that opinion of mine was that it's clear from people who were physically present in the room during past interviews that that the people on the Editorial Board asking questions, themselves, frequently did NOT know basic
facts that most HB voters and residents already knew and were considering, or even quite angry about.
Not that the paper wrote about that particular anger or why it existed.
Like, for instance, how many people were running for the seats or why HB voters were recently NOT allowed to vote for a candidate for each open seat, and instead, could only vote for two people, with the candidate coming in third being elected as well.
Who voted to make it that way for voters?
Cooper, Lewy & Sanders.
Another reason for that opinion is the case of one person involved in the endorsement process showing overt favoritism for Comm. Sanders in ways that seemed particularly egregious, and the Editorial Board not directly challenging Sanders on any of the MANY controversial and unethical things he has done since being appointed to the Commission in an anti-democratic fashion in August of 2008, rather than the Mayor simply following the city's written rules for filling a Commission vacancy.
Instead, Cooper demanded a vote many weeks BEFORE it was necessary -or there even, legally, WAS a vacancy- and never allowed the public to speak that night.
The Editorial Board has never asked Comm. Sanders how he could justify voting for every single development project that has come before him at City Hall.
Not 85% or 90% as might be common in most cities over such a period of time, but 100%.
Really, 100%? Yes. :-( )
To be honest, my initial thought upon seeing the photos of London and Lazarow were that they looked exactly like photos that a private investigator might take if he was tailing someone for a client.
Which, quite naturally, makes me -and perhaps you as well- wonder who took the photos that Lewy posted publicly in an obvious attempt to infer something sinister, when it also could be seen by most people, much less, people who live in HB and who know them, to be seen as two friends who happen to be candidates, talking outside of a place where they were there to talk about their candidacies with other people who could actually play a role in THEIR futures.
Frankly, it would be weird for them to not be talking, given that they are friends.
That Lewy was foolish enough to post it should not be surprising to anyone who kept their eyes focused on him and noticed the sorts of curious things that always seemed to be going on around him, including his often-messy personal melodrama that some of you have been privvy to.
There's a sound and compelling reason why I first started calling Alexander Lewy "Lewy the Liar" many years ago on my blog after I saw and experienced first-hand his phony, self-serving nature. In fact, I coined that nickname six years ago this past weekend:
Lewy has clearly thought for quite some time that he could (and perhaps even had) fooled nearly everyone hereabouts, including the press corps, and made his over-weaning personal ambition and personal nastiness fairly well disguised as public service to fool most people, but it hasn't worked for most of the city's well-informed citizenry, including many of you.
Most of you know exactly who and what kind of person Alex Lewy is.
Whether this city's well-informed citizenry actually constitutes a majority of HB voters is the question that will be decided on Election Day.
That's why every vote counts.
