Showing posts with label lifeguard. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lifeguard. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

When Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper writes "Setting the record straight about the lifeguard contract" in her "column" in the faux newspaper, what she really means is... that it's her way or the highway, facts be damned



When Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper complains about "negativity" in her "column" in the faux newspaper that HB taxpayers are forced to subsidize against their wishes, like she did recently, above, what she REALLY MEANS is how much SHE hates when well-informed and attentive Hallandale Beach residents who want the city to be run much better than it is now -and has been for years- tell the truth about her own unsatisfactory performance in office the past ten years. And the very real culpability of top city officials.


People like myself and many others that I regularly mention by name here on the blog.

This is because of Cooper's own well-known thin-skinned ego and longstanding inability to see what regular residents see all around them -how Cooper's myopia continually gets in the way of solving problems.


The resounding proof of that came to me this morning, just a few minutes ago actually, via an email I received from my friend Csaba Kulin, who is vacationing with his wife and family and their grandchildren in Ohio.


It gives you more than enough proof, as if neededabout what HB Mayor Joy Cooper really thinks about HB residents actually, well, taking serious matters like beach safety seriously, and genuinely paying attention to the city's very own details.

Surprise!

Yes, here in Hallandale Beach, Cooper thinks it's her way or the highway -facts be damned.

The only thing I've edited below is removing the email addresses.


---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Csaba Kulin 
Date: Wed, Aug 1, 2012 at 9:51 AM
Subject: The Mayors Response

From:"Csaba Kulin" 
To: "Cooper, Joy" 
Cc: "Vice Mayor Anthony Sanders", "Commissioner DorothyRoss", "Commissioner Keith London", "Commissioner Alexander Lewy"

Subject: Re: FW: Agenda Item 11-B IN-House Lifeguard Program, 8/1/2012
Date: Wed 08/01/12 09:46 AM

Honorable Mayor,
There is a reason a reason I am negative at times. I found out more detail from the Miami Herald article about the Lifeguard Project than from the city's official Agenda's supporting documents. Where was the PowerPoint presentation link in the Agenda?
Still missing the Budget numbers associated with the project. Projected salaries and benefits for the new positions? Do you have it? Will the Commission and the residents find out after the item has passed?

The pool company charged $334,000 and that included a profit. Why does it cost 2 times as much for the City to do the task without a profit?
Talking about insulting. The documentation included with Item 11-B insults my intelligence and most of our residents trying to form an informed opinion. The residents have the right to know, ahead of time of the meeting, all the details of how you are going spend our money.
Yes, someone dropped the ball at the City by NOT monitoring the lifeguard program sufficiently.

--- jcooper wrote:

From: "Cooper, Joy" 
To: "'ckulin"
Subject: FW: Agenda Item 11-B IN-House Lifeguard Program, 8/1/2012
Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2012 19:59:20 +0000

BTW is there a reason your tone in these emails are always negative and insulting?
From: Cooper, Joy 

Sent: Tuesday, July 31, 2012 3:58 PM
To: Cooper, Joy
Subject: RE: Agenda Item 11-B IN-House Lifeguard Program, 8/1/2012

From: Cooper, Joy 
Sent: Tuesday, July 31, 2012 3:54 PM
To: 'ckulin'
Subject: RE: Agenda Item 11-B IN-House Lifeguard Program, 8/1/2012
Thank you for you comments.

From: Csaba Kulin 
Sent: Monday, July 30, 2012 5:49 PM
To: Cooper, Joy; Vice Mayor Anthony Sanders; Ross, Dotty; London, Keith; Lewy, Alexander
Subject: Agenda Item 11-B IN-House Lifeguard Program, 8/1/2012
Honorable Mayor, Vice Mayor and City Commissioners,

The City Commission should not blame “outsourcing” for the fiasco with the Lifeguard Program. Blame whoever was responsible for monitoring the program. Someone dropped the ball. Someone has to monitor all outsourced programs.

The City Manager is asking for blank check to create a new program called “In-House Lifeguard Program” without any meaningful documentation.
How could you vote “YES” based on the documentation provided in the Agenda?
Who is going to staff the life stations? Fire Rescue, Police or parks personnel?

For the next fiscal year the City Manager budgeted $334,000 for Lifeguard Services. Where is the “fiscal impact” of the CM’s request?
Is the new program cost neutral?

We need a lot more detail before we can give the City Manager a “blank check”.

Sincerely,

Csaba Kulin

re Lifeguard & public safety situation in Hallandale Beach: Still smarting from negative worldwide publicity following lifeguard Tomas Lopez's firing, Hallandale Beach to start a new safety effort at beach based on... well, what exactly? City's fake solutions as outlined in today's agenda DON'T solve real safety problems at public beach; #HallandaleBeach

 
July 31, 2012 photos by South Beach Hoosier.© 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved


re Lifeguard situation in Hallandale Beach: Still smarting from negative worldwide publicity following lifeguard Tomas Lopez's firing, Hallandale Beach to start a new safety effort at beach based on... well, what exactly? City's fake solutions as outlined in today's agenda DON'T solve real safety problems at public beach

I really can’t believe that on a day when I have a friend from overseas visiting the area, and when I ought to be doing something other than this, I’m back at my computer writing -yet again- about another completely avoidable situation the City of Hallandale Beach has gotten itself into for all of their usual reasons -lack of attention to detail, and lack of proper accountability by the city's elected officials and oversight of the city's top bureaucrats.

Today's important HB City Commission meetings at 1 and 7 p.m. regarding public safety on the city's public beaches, and the unsatisfactory solutions proposed, i.e the In-House Lifeguard Program (Item 11B)
could best be described thusly: the city's so-called "plan" is no plan at all.
At least not one you would want to bet your family's life on.

July 31, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier.© 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved


What you see on the agenda in terms of info is very underwhelming and not a good sign of out-of-the-box thinking by new City Manager Renee Crichton.
Especially since in my opinion, the City Commission, and more specifically, the prior two City Managers and City Attorney bear most of the blame for the current situation because they were NOT payng attention to details when they needed to, but were, instead, just going thru the motions.

Originally, before I saw the posted agenda, I was just going to suggest that the commission members limit their comments during the meeting out of deference to to our new Estonian friend Mr. Samartsev’s recent desire to “shake the money tree” hereabouts in six months. 

But in actually reading the agenda, I noticed that they are, regrettably, once again prepared to rush into a dark tunnel without any knowledge of whether or not a a train is already inside the tunnel and coming right towards them, without any tangible plans, budgets or supporting documents, just a desire to DO something.
And to DO that right away. 

The very thought of that gives me shivers down my spine, and ought to do the same for you if you live anywhere around here.

Generally when you outsource a function that's usually been performed by city employees, it does NOT mean that you sign the contract and forget about it until the next time the contract comes up for renewal. 
The City Manager, along with appropriately-designated subordinates, needs to be on top of the outsourced function for signs of problems as well as to make constructive improvements when indicated.

You don't micro-manage the function, per se, but the city must ensure that the contract's terms are being properly adhered to, whether that's all their employees being properly licensed, or doing regular spot inspections to ensure that the work was performed to the specific standards the citizens of this city have a right to expect, considering they're paying for their own safety.

But even all these weeks later, I'm still hearing from various sources that this is NOT at all how things were done routinely under former City Attorney David Jove or the former City Managers, Mike Good and Mark A. Antonio, because there's so little evidence to the contrary.

And then again, there's the personal experience of actually having seeing them in-person for years and seeing with my own eyes how underwhelming their own performances were for city taxpayers and residents, so strong was their desire to keep the mayor happy.

July 31, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier.© 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

And what about their highly-paid assistants?
The very people whom we all know will have had a large hand in crafting this completely unsatisfactory "plan" being offered up today, as if it was a serious effort.

My own belief is that at the time the contract was signed three years ago, the city didn't have all the pertinent information available that the Commission needed to properly evaluate the relative merits of this company, keeping in mind that they were only going to do or allow what the commission specified, nothing more.

This also makes me wonder now if besides a copy of the contract in a folder, whether the commissioners even have carefully reviewed copies of the actual monthly reports for the past three years.
Have they? 

No, their past performance the past few years does NOT exactly recommend them to us, and cause us to give them the benefit of the doubt.
In fact, their own laughable work ethic and lack of attention to detail causes just the opposite reaction in us and our friends.

Did they have a copy of Jeff Ellis and Associates' own updated procedures and work rules, as well as copies of the insurance policies to hold the City harmless, etc? 
The easiest thing in the world to do is to simply blame the concept of outsourcing and the particular company they hired to do the job, as I wrote here recently.

Rather than do that, the commissioners ought to take a hard look into the mirror and ask themselves a few questions, the most important of which was did the city just go thru the motions on these matters?
It sure seems that way to me and most of the other residents I speak to who have some familiarity with this matter.

Because the company resigned, the City Commission is being asked to allow City Manager Crichton to establish an 'In-House Lifeguard Program.' 
I'm sorry to say that the supporting documents I've seen on the city's website consists of what can charitably be called a list of cities with pools or ocean frontage, with no information on the extent of "Lifeguard Program” of other cities with similar needs. 

How many employees, police/fire rescue personnel full time/part time would be required on the beach? 
No information provided as to the budget of each town for beach patrol.

After all these weeks later, that's simply unacceptable, and no sound person would say the information provided is any basis upon which to make an intelligent and reasonable decision.

In fact, the information provided by city staff seems more like a reason to postpone making any FINAL decisions at todays two meetings until the commission had been provided enough information to make that educated and informed decision, which is the very least we can expect on an issue this important.

July 31, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier.© 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

I've heard and read all the same comments on what happened that you all have, on who is at fault, etc., but one thing that is clear is that nobody blames the people hired by Jeff Ellis to patrol the beach.
That is, anyone who actually lives within an hour of here.

They were and are conscientious, efficient and responsible, more than the city had any reason to expect given that they were only being paid less than nine dollars an hour.
Their level of pay didn't prevent them from doing their best and to put the safety of all beach- goers first, whether HB residents or visitors.
Were that current city employees were as conscientious and consistent in the performance of their duties and responsibilities as these lifeguards have been.

In talking to my friend and fellow HB and Broward County activist -and HB City Commission candidate- Csaba Kulin a few days ago on the phone, he later piped in via email with these comments and questions for the commission:

The City Manager should have submitted a budget along with the Resolution as to the cost of her proposal. I know she budgeted $334,000 for the 2012-2013 fiscal years for Lifeguard Services (001-7230-572.34-55).  Is this program cost neutral? 

Does she have any idea of the cost of this venture? 
You do not know and do NOT vote on this until you have a full picture.

If they don't, Csaba and I and many well-informed citizens of this community are in agreement that this will be a replay of what the HB City Commission has agreed to do dozens of times in the past, where inevitably, they'll find out some bit of information too late, after the horse is out of the barn, and then we taxpayers will have to watch in stunned amazement as they try to reinvent the wheel once again, when it doesn't have to be that way.

Some people have even sent emails to me asking why in the name of regionalism and common sense the City of Hallandale Beach doesn't approach the City of Hollywood about using their well-respected lifeguards, at least as an interim solution?
Good question!

July 31, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier.© 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

The numerous high-rise condos south of South Beach Park can't really imagine that after everything that has happened in this city the past month, that the rest of the city is going to pay for lifeguards -salary and pensions- for them, if HB residents can't readily use "their" beach, can they?
That's a complete non-starter!
And yet with Joy Cooper in charge...

I fear today's two meetings could well turn out to be real DISASTERS, both financially and policy-wise, which is to say, SNAFU, since the HB City Commission doesn't make good decisions when they have plenty of time, much less, when they are under the gun for good reason and know full-well that the entire city, region and South Florida press corps are paying close attention.

That isn't helped when they are given inadequate information and poor policy choices by the new City Manager and her staff.

They all need better choices and more time, otherwise, someone's life, maybe even someone we know, could be in danger sometime soon -and unnecessarily so.

July 31, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier.© 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Tomas Lopez, the Fired Lifeguard at the Center of the Storm in Hallandale Beach, will be a guest on Sunday's "This Week in South Florida with Michael Putney" at 11:30 a.m. on Channel 10, after ABC News "This Week"; #hallandalebeach

Tomas Lopez, the Fired Lifeguard at the Center of the Storm in Hallandale Beach, will be a guest on Sunday's "This Week in South Florida with Michael Putney" at 11:30 a.m. on WPLG-TV/Channel 10, after ABC News "This Week."


Fired lifeguard to receive key to city 
Published On: Jul 06 2012 05:44:01 PM EDT
http://www.local10.com/news/Fired-lifeguard-to-receive-key-to-city/-/1717324/15431192/-/136v7nsz/-/index.html

The South Beach lifeguard stand, Hallandale Beach, FL. May 30, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier. © 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved


This was WPLG-TV/Channel 10- Miami's first report on the unfolding story Wednesday with reporter Jacey Birch.

This was their follow-up on Thursday with reporter Todd Tongen.


CNN's John Zarrella on the Hallandale Beach story that caused an uproar around the world. http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/05/us/florida-lifeguard-fired/index.html


ABC News Matt Gutman's report from Thursday that aired on Good Morning America
video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player
ABC News video: Correspondent Matt Gutman on Fla. Contractor That Fired Lifeguard For Saving Man Outside Zone Reconsidering. July 5, 2012.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/fired-fla-lifeguard-reinstated/story?id=16716225
Video at http://abcnews.go.com/US/fired-fla-lifeguard-reinstated/story?id=16716225


My first post on this stort from Wednesday
Lifeguard Tomas Lopez helps save the day at the city's public beach but get's fired for his trouble. Meanwhile, Hallandale Beach City Hall continues to act neglectful and NOT do what it's legally supposed to do around the beach areas, and nothing happens. Nobody is fired. Just more mindless bureaucratic apathy and incompetency from the same old crew!
http://www.hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/07/lifeguard-tomas-lopez-helps-save-day-at.html

My follow-up post
Tomas Lopez story results in predictably anemic response by Hallandale Beach City Hall as growing public outrage re harsh treatment of lifeguard Lopez by his company, Jeff Ellis & Associates -an unpersuasive form letter- shows City Hall's longstanding myopia remains. Story has touched a nerve all over the world about moral imperatives and importance of doing the right thing despite strong possible negative consequences. We desperately need to change the culture and personnel at City Hall ASAP!
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/07/lifeguard-tomas-lopez-helps-save-day-at.html