FOLLOW me on my popular Twitter feed. Just click this photo! @hbbtruth - David - Common sense on #Politics #PublicPolicy #Sports #PopCulture in USA, Great Britain, Sweden and France, via my life in #Texas #Memphis #Miami #IU #Chicago #DC #FL 🛫🌍📺📽️🏈. Photo is of Elvis and Joan Blackman in 'Blue Hawaii'

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Showing posts with label ethics reform. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ethics reform. Show all posts

Monday, September 16, 2024

Now is the time to make up for the lost opportunity of the past decade to make sure that the Broward Public Schools are firmly under the Broward Inspector General's purview, to root out unethical and corrupt behavior

Above: The hulking octop[us-like presence at 600 SE Third Avenue, Fort Lauderdale that serves as the multi-armed and entangled HQ for the Broward County Public Schools and the governing Broward County School Board


Originally posted Monday September 16th, 2024, 
Updated Saturday September 21st, 2024 

Most of you who know me even reasonably well, whether from any of the hundreds and hundreds of public meetings, civic association meetings or forums I've attended in South Florida over the past 20 years since returning from the Washington, D.C. area, largely from here on my humble blog, via my popular Twitter feed, or via my fact-filled observational and strategic emails over the years -IF you are on my mailing list- know one thing about me.
I have been focused like a laser-beam on ethics in local government and public policy in South Florida since long before I created this blog 17 years ago. Probably since my family first moved here in the summer of 1968, me, aged 7 years old, but a very curious and precocious seven year-old to be sure.
And, a kid quite positive that South Florida did NOT make sense the way other places so often did, however imperfectly. That clearly hasn't changed.

Back when the Broward County Office of Inspector General was originally proposed by the Broward County Commission, in large part because of increasing public outcry and the heroic efforts of my own district County Commissioner, Sue Gunzburger, YEARS after such an office was desperately needed, I had the somewhat unique distinction(!) of often being the only member of the public -in all of Broward County!- who actually attended the appointed Advisory Board's meetings.

Meetings that were at 8 a.m. sharp at the County HQ on Andrews Avenue, maybe a mile walk from the photo up above. 
Me being me, the type of person who enjoys having hard evidence of what I saw and heard when I'm making the argument for or against an idea or public policy -and to guard against occasional moments of boredom or even almost falling asleep in a large county room- I brought along my fully-charged video cameras and lightweight tripod.
And I recorded what was said -and by who- no matter how inspired or banal. and made contemporaneous notes on who was in the room, who they were communicating with, and what they were otherwise doing. Sh-h-h... lobbyists!

Yes, despite the fact that the meetings were deemed something important in the larger scheme of the county's efforts to regain the public's trust after so many scandals over the years, someone made the conscious choice NOT to have the meetings in the County Commission chambers that were already equipped with TV cameras, to make everything easy.
Instead, they were held in a much-smaller room. 
Without any cameras.

And, so, was NOT recorded by the County, just me.
I was always VERY aware of the fact that I was usually the only member of the public in the room, AND and that I had some pretty quality video of the BTS workings of government that nobody else in South Florida had, whether the local news media or other interested parties, like local elected officials.

To be kind, the Advisory Board meetings were very much a Poor Man's version of the Constitutional Congress in Philadelphia, but with air conditioning and so-so coffee in the back of the room.
It was there, right near the county-provided coffee, where I parked myself at every meeting I attended to make myself available for quick chats with the members in attendance. 
I almost always brought bagels + donuts along from home to keep myself fully awake and full of enough energy to pounce or text on my telephone at the first sign of mischief.
There, not so much holding court as guarding the waterfront, along with a thermos of hazelnut coffee I'd brewed beforehand at home, I took copious notes. 

Over a period of several months, I came to know these appointed members like the back of my hand: I knew who was always diligent about being properly prepared from the start and ready to push for stricter ethical standards in the county, and, of course, who was, well, generally unprepared, winging-it, and always looking at their watch, ready to throw in the towel if that had a quorum. 
And there were a LOT of times I thought that the latter was going to happen! 

From Day One, I was always mindful of the fact that the only thing preventing the members from giving up was the sure knowledge that the appointees definitley did NOT want to publicly embarrass their political patrons by making it seem like ethics u. Do no harm! 😠 

 Before she eventually moved up to Lutz from Hollywood, my good friend and well-known South Florida civic activist Charlotte Greenbarg also appeared at times early in the AM, speaking for both common sense and with a deep and genuine appreciation for understanding human behavior in such a weird political dynamic.
One, where many members of the Advisory Board not only didn't want to embarrass the person who'd selected them for the position over others vying for it, but also because I knew for a fact that many of them clearly had their eyes on running for elective office some time in the near-future, IF they weren't already an elected somewhere in the county, or an important person at some interest group in Broward used to flexing their muscles. 

Charlotte had years of first-hand experience dealing with the all-too-frequent and frustrating incompetency and failures of the Broward School system by virtue of being the much-respected head of its Audit Committee, and so had an insight into the realities of School Board's operation and (often pointless) direction that none of the Advisory Board members could hope to match. 

Charlotte and I were folks in the community at the time who were willing to actually show up in-person to publicly support the much-needed IG Office, and consistently spoke under Public Comments asking that the office be sure to include the Broward School system. 
The reason, of course, is obvious, because everyone who knew anything about how things REALLY work/works in the county, knew that some of the worst financial/patronage excesses and rampant, endemic ethical corruption and misbehavior was located there. 
Often, as we know from numerous investigations, hiding in plain sight. 

But nobody was willing to do the right thing, least of all, in the Broward SAO. 

 Unfortunately, most of the people selected by the county commissioners at the time to represent them on the board had very different priorities, and were NOT particularly interested in seeing the Broward School system be included, as well as see that the office cover lots of other things in the county that were common with such IG offices around the country. 
Naturally, me being me, before the first meeting, I'd spent a lot of time researching just those very things, so that as often as possible, I'd speak to the members before and after meetings about what could be done to make the office even more effective. 

Here's me in 2014, when there was a push to expand the Broward IG Office's areas of concern and responsibility.

 But as I learned years ago in electoral politics at the national and state level -and trust me, the people selected to the IG Advisory Board were VERY political- the #1 rule in politics is... to know your universe. 

People who didn't even think the office should exist were very vocal on the Advisory Board, so pulling THEM in the right direction was, alas, a losing battle. 
Now, the public in Broward finally has the opportunity to make up for that lost time! 

Sun Sentinel
Voters could expand watchdog role - Initiative asks whether Broward County inspector general's responsibilities should include the school district
Scott Travis South Florida Sun Sentinel
September 14, 2024

School Board elections are over, but Broward voters can still decide in November whether they want some new oversight to help the district root out waste, fraud and corruption.

A ballot initiative will ask those voting in the general election Nov. 5 to say yes or no to expanding the role of the Broward County inspector general to include the Broward School District.

Read the rest of the article at:





WSVN-7 News
Proposed amendment would expand authority of Broward Inspector General to include independent oversight of school board operations


Dave













David Bruce Smith 

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




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Sunday, April 15, 2018

You only thought you knew how evil and corrupt former Hallandale Beach mayor Joy Cooper was. You have no idea. But you will soon! Don't worry, the Broward State Attorney's Office now has all the documents and info they need, thanks to the Broward Inspector General. Uh-oh!

You only thought you knew how evil and corrupt former Hallandale Beach mayor Joy Cooper was. You have no idea. But you will soon! 
Don't worry, the Broward State Attorney's Office now has all the documents and info they need, thanks to the Broward Inspector General. Uh-oh!


Coming soon: How former Hallandale Beach mayor Joy Cooper OBSTRUCTED public records requests for YEARS, violated Florida Sunshine Laws, even while head of the Florida League of Cities and deeply involved with the National League of Cities, as she was always quick to brag about at Hallandale Beach City Commission and CRA meetings, even when it was NOT germane to anything being discussed.

Of course, all that time, Hallandale Beach taxpayers were forced to pay for Cooper to attend their meetings all over the country as she tried to pass herself off as something other than what she was: respected.
But she was corrupt with a capital “C.”
As I had been saying and writing year-after-year even while the local news media largely refused to look into any of the dozens of matters that would have been reported upon if they happened in other parts of the country.

But don’t worry, the Broward States Attorney now has all the documents and information they need, thanks to the Broward Inspector General.
But David, isn’t the Broward SAO the same LEO office that knew for OVER 5 years, via recordings, that Hallandale Beach mayor Joy Cooper had already committed numerous felonies and misdemeanors, blatantly, yet still refused to have her arrested and charged?

Which means that the last five years of Joy Cooper in office were completely unnecessary and could have been prevented, since Florida Gov. Rick Scott would have removed Cooper from office then if SAO simply acted responsibly and with the public's best interests at heart? Oh sure, there's always that! 🙄🤨😠🤫🤔
The case involved hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars 💰💰 and was a subject that I blogged abt frequently at : The Future Foundation, a so-called non-profit that was run by Mayor Cooper and city employees with offices at city hall, but which had a very adversarial attitude towards thepublic knowing what they were doing.
Or even letting electdd officials know what they were doing, and why.

When I gave details of what was going on to the Miami Herald, South Florida Sun-Sentinel and the four English-language TV stations in Miami, the  news media was NOT interested! Surprise!








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Sunday, November 27, 2016

On Monday night, things change for GOOD in Hallandale Beach! Anabelle Taub and Michele Lazarow to be sworn in and welcome in an era of common sense, competency, transparency and lots of hard work and public accountability at City Hall for the city's long-suffering residents



Frustrated Hallandale Beach voters have finally taken their years of disappointment and anger out at the ballot box and in doing so, have consciously chosen to usher out the consistently failed policies and smirking, anti-democratic attitudes of Mayor Joy Cooper's Rubber Stamp Crew.

Now, with a 3-2 majority on the HB City Commission in favor of logic and reason actually making an appearance once in a while at 400 S. Federal Highway, people from all over the city are prepared -with open arms- to welcome in an era of common sense, competency, transparency and lots of hard work and public accountability for the city's residents.

To actually let public policy arguments and disagreements be over who has the best or most-sensible ideas and means for solving the city's many long-standing problems.
Which is exactly what its long-suffering residents and Small Business owners have desperately longed for the past 13 years -but never received in a tangible way that made a lasting, positive difference at City Hall.

But that was then and this is NOW...
On Monday night, please join your neighbors and concerned people from all over Broward County and visit Hallandale Beach City Hall at 6 PM to witness the swearing-in ceremony for Anabelle Taub and Michele Lazarow. 
And just watch what happens next...


All original photos on this page are by me, South Beach Hoosier. © 2016 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved.


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South Florida Sun Sentinel
As Hallandale Beach gears up for shift in power, more fireworks expected
Susannah Bryan, Reporter Sun Sentinel
November 11, 2016 7:26 PM

The nasty election season may have ended, but the drama in this oceanfront city is far from over.

The balance of power on the dais has now shifted from Mayor Joy Cooper to her political rivals, Commissioners Keith London and Michele Lazarow. The two, along with newly elected Anabelle Taub, vow that changes are coming.

Those changes could include a new city manager and city attorney, government meetings held at times more convenient to the public and a ban on Styrofoam pushed by London but blocked by Cooper.

The changing political landscape could even impact development in a city known for its gridlock.

Read the rest of the article at:






South Florida Sun Sentinel
Taub, Lazarow win big in Hallandale Beach after vowing to fight corruption
Susannah Bryan, Reporter Sun Sentinel
November 8, 2016 10:46 PM

Incumbent Hallandale Beach Commissioner Michele Lazarow and political rookie Anabelle Taub won their races in what some called Broward County's nastiest election.

Taub, a real estate agent, won in a landslide against incumbent Bill Julian, a retired horse trainer under state investigation for allegedly accepting favors from a developer.

"The residents of Hallandale Beach struck corruption with a fatal blow tonight," said Taub. "Hallandale Beach government will be restored to doing what it is supposed to — serving the residents."

Lazarow, an animal activist first elected four years ago, won handily despite a challenge from Alex Lewy, a former commissioner who stepped down in 2014, and Ann Henigson, a retired secretary making her fifth run for office.

"Tonight, we turned the page to a new chapter for Hallandale Beach," Lazarow said. "After the ugliest election cycle in our city's history, I am grateful that the residents of Hallandale Beach continue to have faith in me to fight for their interests."

Both winners vowed to root out corruption at City Hall if elected.

Read the rest of the article at:



 South Florida Sun Sentinel
Editorial: To change decorum and direction, choose Anabelle Taub and Michele Lazarow in Hallandale Beach 
October 18, 2016 9:09 PM
Citizens deserve so much better than what they're getting from today's five-member Hallandale Beach City Commission, which has divided into camps like two high school cliques.
The city faces serious challenges with traffic, flooding, crime and the pressure to build more high-rises. But the city commission, charged with finding solutions, is dysfunctional.
Arbitrary time limits squelch discussion on big issues, shouting matches break out and police have been called to remove certain commissioners. Relationships have gotten so bad that a parliamentarian had to be hired to enforce Roberts Rules of Order.
Neither side looks good in this 3-2 commission split. Both have attitude, mud stains and investigations into backroom shenanigans, one worse than others. Something has got to give. The Nov. 8 election offers that opportunity.

We have probably knocked on several thousand doors by now. My feet may never be the same. 😅 Rain or shine we are knocking on doors and I get to meet so many sweet elderly men and women (some of their circumstances break my heart), most speak Spanish or Russian, and are so grateful to having someone at their door speaking their language (I only know a few words in Russian). While  I ran because I wanted #Hallandale to be safer for my mom, I am now doing this for them too. I can't wait to start some volunteer efforts to reach out to seniors in my city (especially those who don't speak English). Nursing a nasty cold and painful feet, but taking this time to ponder on all the possibilities to be able to #payitforward. Giving back feeds my soul. 🌹#thiscoldcantholdmedown #communityoutreachgoals #hallandalefl #hallandalebeach
A photo posted by Anabelle Taub (@anabelletaub) on


South Florida Sun Sentinel
Silencing me silences the people who elected me 
Opinion - By Michele Lazarow
September 3, 2016 2:37 PM
Video at http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/89577225-132.html

When political power becomes more important than public service, the public loses. Unfortunately, that is what has happened in Hallandale Beach.

We have seen an Office of Inspector General investigation that found "gross mismanagement" of our CRA swept under the rug. Now there's an active investigation into a majorly flawed "community benefit" program, and an admission by an elected city official that he made a side deal with a developer before approving their massive project. Mayor Joy Cooper made matters worse when she not only had the microphones cut off at the city commission meeting, but also had Commissioner Keith London and me removed from the dais for attempting to discuss Bill Julian's public admissions of wrongdoing.

Though the mayor will say she is trying to maintain order, her move also has the effect of protecting her political majority. When she shuts off the microphones and silences the voices of two of the city's elected officials, the people she is really silencing are the residents of Hallandale Beach who elected us to be their voice on the commission.

Following Commissioner Julian's public admissions, I thought it was important that we discuss how the city plans to handle the situation before he played a role in deciding how we allocate more than $100 million of our taxpayer's funds. Cooper thought it more appropriate to have dissenting opinions removed from the dais by police. Imagine in Congress, one party having the other removed from the floor so that they cannot debate or vote on the issues they were elected to decide. It would be the leading headline on every national news broadcast and in every major newspaper in the country.

I will continue to raise this issue until I believe it has been appropriately addressed and remedied. I owe that to the people who elected me.

I got into politics as an advocate for animals. Now I am an advocate with a title and an important vote. I take that vote and the platform it provides very seriously.

As we move into election season, I would encourage the voters of Hallandale Beach to educate themselves on the candidates. I am one of those candidates. So is Bill Julian. We are not running for the same seat.

Voters have a chance to take back their city from a political system that is failing them. To do that, they must elect people who care more about public service than they do political power.

Our next commission meeting is Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. I encourage residents of Hallandale Beach to attend and sign up to speak during public comment. Your voice matters, but it must be heard.

Michele Lazarow is a city commissioner in Hallandale Beach. She can be reached at MLazarow@cohb.org
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Dave 

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Tuesday, January 5, 2016

The view from here: Connecting the collective energy of a community and channeling it into positive results has never been easy. But in Hallandale Beach, city officials are USUALLY a big part of the problem, not part of the solution. And that behavior continues apace...

May 20, 2012 photo of Hallandale Beach's very own "South Beach" by South Beach Hoosier. 
© Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved
The view from here: Connecting the collective energy of a community and channeling it into positive results has never been easy. But in Hallandale Beach, city officials are USUALLY a big part of the problem, not part of the solution. And that behavior continues apace...
The following post is an expanded version of an email that I sent out last Thursday afternoon to about 300-plus concerned residents, Small Business owners, civic activists, politicians and members of the news media in Hallandale Beach, Hollywood, Broward County and South Florida.

It's an email that I actually wrote many weeks ago and have kept in cold storage, waiting until last Thursday to send out, chiefly, for reasons concerning the calendar year that make perfect sense from my point of view.

Last Thursday, Dec. 31st was, officially, Renee C. Miller's last day as City Manger of Hallandale Beach, where, three-and-a-half years after being selected over candidates that I thought were better, and after she promised me and her many other doubters in this community to tangibly change the culture -and pathology!- of the city's bureaucracy and management style, top-down, she was finito.

It's clear in retrospect, as it was to me after just six months on the job, that Miller accomplished little of the things that she promised me and other concerned residents and small business owners to directly improve the quality of life in the city and the city's management. 

Those of you who were at the city's poorly-attended Town Hall meeting over on the beach in January of 2013 who saw Miller alternately ignore or obfuscate when I asked her some fact-filled questions that directly called her out on unfulfilled promises she had made to city residents -and to me to my face- including ones about Dept. heads ignoring longstanding citizens complaints that were self-evident, even after they were told about them or shown contemporaneous photos of the problem, know exactly how pathetic it was.

 Yes, continuing the pattern in Hallandale Beach where ignoring a genuine problem was treated by City Hall as the same as actually solving it.
Like it was a question of psychology, not competency.

Yes, the red tape at HB City Hall is as exhausting and thick as ever, and the mood is as autocratic as ever, too. Which is why Small Businesses continue to move out of the city rather than continue having to jump thru hoops -or continue hitting their heads against the wall.

 All of this continues to take place while the city's poorly-run and crony-filled HB Chamber of Commerce acts like an ostrich, with its head buried in the sand, instead of being innovative and proactive.
That is, unless it's time for its president and its Board to play the role of taxpayer-subsidized cheerleader for certain entrenched pols and business interests in the city who already have undue and outsized influence in this city of under 40,000, relative to their contribution to making it better.
Or at least as good as it ought to be already -but clearly isn't. 

My blog post about new Hallandale Beach City Manager Daniel Rosemond will be up on the blog later in the week. Teaser Alert for you newcomers to the blog -I'm NOT a fan of Rosemond.


My comments are below the article



South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Hallandale city manager quits
By Susannah Bryan, Staff writer
October 15, 2015

After more than three years at the helm, Renee Miller plans to step down as city manager by the end of the year.

Her resignation will take effect Dec. 31.

Miller, 38, cited a desire to spend more time with family in a resignation letter to her five City Commission bosses.

"I know it was a surprise to most of the members of the dais," said Miller, who is married and raising a two-year-old daughter. "But as family people, they understand the need to seek a better work-life balance. And that's what I'm really looking for."

In her resignation letter, Miller described her past three years as city manager as both a blessing and a challenge.

Read the rest of the article at:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-city-manager-quits-hallandale-20151012-story.html

Connecting the collective energy of a community and channeling it into positive results has never been easy.
But it’s especially difficult when the people running the city at City Hall have a LONG track record of NOT being either particularly competent or inspired, consistently DON’T follow Best Practices -or even Common Sense- and NEVER feel the slightest bit of public remorse for continually refusing to be held personally accountable to the public for their actions, words and votes.

No, unfortunately, the people currently at HB City Hall DON’T sweat the details the way they should, nor do they show any tangible interest in dramatically improving the city’s present and future Quality of Life and capture its true potential, thru either proven sensible ideas or meaningful innovation, to satisfy the citizenry and the Small Business community.

Year-after-year, the powers-that-be at City Hall have rejected adapting to new realities and making the overdue needed changes or improvements, despite concerned citizens and business people conscientiously pointing out the many, many self-evident problems at public meetings that anyone who lives and work here see and experience every day, but which City Hall continues to ignore.

Because this city has the wrong caliber of people making policy AND carrying it out, lots of potential opportunities to markedly improve and revitalize this city in exciting and innovative ways come and go –completely unrealized, leaving others to benefit from the city’s myopia and indecision -and bad judgment.

To this city’s current and future residents’ detriment, we’ve seen a culture take root at City Hall of arrogant,  self-interested elected officials and bureaucrats who are demonstrably anti-democratic and anti-accountability in their mindset, and impervious to change, even when it’s obvious to everyone but them.
It’s the difference between selflessness and selfishness.

The current crew prefers to continue doing things in the same old unproductive and unsatisfactory way that they have done them for years, even when it’s clear to everyone concerned that these tired, old methods and practices simply DON’T work and produce positive results and outcomes.

That reluctance to change was highlighted by their years of denial of the facts and engaging in completely self-serving and promiscuous behavior with respect to employing crony capitalism with limited public (CRA) funds, so that their friends and political supporters benefited.

In fact, more than three years and a half years later, many of these very same officials who did NOT provide anywhere close to the level of oversight and accountability they were legally bound to perform, still can NOT bring themselves to posting onto the city’s website, the Broward Inspector General’s damning report about their years of completely negligent and unsatisfactory oversight of the city’s CRA.

You have to be willing to imagine a different future and strategy for success before you can make it a reality.
Faking it, as this city has done for so many years, simply doesn’t work.

Me? I’m just someone working hard to spark and accelerate change for a better and more dynamic South Florida for EVERYONE, not just certain favored people, or forces in town who think they have a veto on every good idea that comes into town.

I'll have some more thoughts to share with you next week about the city and some thoughts about the caliber and quality of people we need to be willing to step up to the challenge of confronting the longstanding idiocy and incompetency that has held this city back, and as we are all too aware, kept its beleaguered residents unhappy with the results HB City Hall has continually portrayed as "normal," but which would clearly be unacceptable in 99% of this state's cities and towns.

My most recent previous blog post is here:
Happy Holidays from Hallandale Beach: A taste of chutzpah, hypocrisy & incompetency with your eggnog -again!- thanks to Mayor Joy Cooper

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