Video: Channel 10 investigative reporter Bob Norman on the ethical dealings of Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper and The Related Group's $20k worth of campaign gratitude after her YES vote for their Beachwalk project while the most-affected HB residents were still gone for the summer; @Mayor Cooper, @SandersHB

Above, looking east at Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper's large 2" X 8" campaign sign at the corner of Hallandale Beach Blvd. & S.E. 26th Avenue, at the foot of the west side of the State Road 858 Bridge over the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. October 19, 2012 photos by South Beach Hoosier. © 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved.

It's the sort of prime advertising location in the city that comes to you when you've been nothing but Bosom Buddies with The Related Group and their merry band of secondary players for years-and-years, like Greenberg Traurig attorney Debbie Orshefsky and Richard Cannone, a Planning Administrator and registered lobbyist for Calvin Giordano & Associates, and not incidentally, the city's former Director of Development Services, whom concerned and observant residents long thought consistently worked harder for big  developers and their minion pals trying to get a deal at HB City Hall than he ever did in representing the best long-term interests of Hallandale Beach residents and taxpayers.

I know because I was one of those concerned and observant residents, which led me to write this about him on November 9, 2010 Addition by subtraction: Richard Cannone leaving City of Hallandale Beach for PA; let's hope his replacement is more forthcoming, honest than he was   http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/addition-by-subtraction-richard-cannone.html

All of these players in the development game have been lavish in their praise for Mayor Cooper after her very hard push in mid-summer for the approval of The Related Group's 31-story project on the water, despite its unanimous rejection by the city's Planning & Zoning Board.

Mayor Cooper was especially eager to vote on this and get it done before most of the HB  residents most directly affected by the project could return here in late August. How much praise?

Over $20,000 worth of praise. 

WPLG-TV, Miami

Bob Norman's Blog

Should it be illegal?

By Bob Norman

Published On: Oct 18 2012 10:20:21 AM EDT  

Updated On: Oct 18 2012 11:07:10 AM EDT

Video is at: http://www.local10.com/news/blogs/bobnorman/Should-it-be-illegal/-/3223354/17039128/-/v2xsce/-/index.html

As we have seen with specificity here on the blog the past two weeks, when you are Joy Cooper and you have lots of generous developer friends, plus their friends, you can afford to buy nice campaign re-election signs with $20,000, even if Team Cooper carelessly erects many of them in places that are illegal under the city's own rules, rules she knows well, having both voted for them and lived with them for the past ten years.

But what are simple rules to you when your real estate development pals are so damn generous with their campaign checks?

And let's not forget strip mall developer R.K. Centers of Sunny Isles, who not only writes incumbents like Joy Cooper big checks, but also allows her large campaign signs to be placed on their prominent properties along Hallandale Beach Blvd. For instance, near the city's one and only Publix. 

R.K. Centers also fully supports Comm. Anthony A. Sanders and former Comm. William "Bill" Julian, whose signs appear in front of the Publix property, with Julian also on the opposite side of the street near two separate entrance to Winn-Dixie and to Panera's, Boston Market and Starbucks.

Together, these two unethical characters are three bricks shy of a load, but the fact that they're not bright or attentive very much appeals to R.K. because it makes it easier for them to get what they want around here, like the very large sign for Five Guys that on Wednesday they sought a variance for at their property at the Sage Bagel Plaza.

The proposed sign  is far too large according to the city's own rules, and was rejected by the city's Planning & Zoning Board. You tell me, what do you think is going to happen in the end when Cooper and Sanders vote on it for a second and final time in a few weeks?

Yes, real estate developers just love Joy Cooper, and it's easy to see why. 
She's the mayor who just can't say NO. 
And neither are Cooper's Rubber Stamps: Sanders and Julian.

Above and below: An open door policy for developers is Mayor Joy Cooper's credo. "Always has been, always will be." At least for another two weeks! (The gate was already open -looks broken to me.)

Looking east towards the Intracoastal and The Related Group's three giant condo towers on State Road A1A/South Ocean Drive, The Beach Club, and to the north by a few hundred feet in Hollywood, Related's The Apogee , still under construction, where the construction crane is pictured. Here's what that is supposed to look like when finished: http://www.apogeebeachcondos.com/

Above, looking northeast from the site of the Beachwalk project towards the State Road 858/HBB bridge, with hotels and condos in Hollywood on State Road A1A in the distance.

All October 19, 2012 photos above by South Beach Hoosier. © 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved.

Greenberg Traurig attorney Debbie Orshefsky at the lectern making the formal Power Point presentation to the Hallandale Beach City Commission for her client, The Related Group, on behalf of their Beachwalk development project on the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, with their army of professional hired hands and lobbyists seated in the first thee rows. So why was HB Chamber of Commerce (and Lady-in-Pink) President Carole Pumpian sitting there if she wasn't being paid? Hmm-m... June 6, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier. All Rights Reserved.

Back on July 29, 2012, I wrote about the quid pro quo, pay-to-play culture that exists in Broward County and which is more self-evident here more than most other cities, in a blog post I titled, Approval for The Related Group's Beachwalk project in Hallandale Beach pays off quickly for Hallandale Beach Comm. Anthony A. Sanders. Follow the money? Okay, here it is: $2,500 on page 4 of Sanders' most-recently filed Treasurer's Report is from individuals & entities supporting Beachwalk's approval, including, predictably, Greenberg Traurig; #HallandaleBeach, @SandersHB, @MayorCooper http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/07/approval-for-related-groups-beachwalk.

Will upcoming NHL owner's lockout affect the $7.7 million loan from Broward County to Florida Panthers owner Michael Yormark, which he's clearly counting on to prop him up?

Below is a slightly-edited version of an email that I sent this afternoon to Broward County Administrator Bertha Henry, along with some other links that some of you may find of use if you are NOT already up-to-speed on the issue at hand, which, long story short, is a very unsuccessful professional sports franchise getting a multi-million dollar loan from a government entity who also happens to be their landlord.

When and if I hear from Ms. Henry in the near-future with respect to some answers to my questions, I'll share here what she had to say about what's going on with Michael R. Yormark and the Florida Panthers at the newly-renamed BB&T Center in suburban Sunrise, far from most of South Florida, out near The Everglades.

The reason I decided to even write the email and post it here is because of the continuing popularity in South Florida and other NHL cities of a February post of mine about some eye-opening video of Florida Panthers CEO Michael Yormark dodging some very reasonable questions by Channel 10's Bob Norman at the Broward County Govt. Center moments after the County Commission meeting, which I watched online.

Some of you who pay attention to such things may well say, correctly, that this video presages the amazing video weeks later in the same building of Broward attorney, flack and lobbyist Bernie Friedman revealing his true nature, and thinking somehow that his clever remarks have more weight than video of what he is doing and saying. 

Yes, the infamous elevator kerfuffle which played out exactly as these things so often do, with the predictable 'kill the messenger ' waterfall of words in the readers comments from staunch liberal Democratic activist and lobbyist Seth Platt, where he posted at least 8 separate posts, as if somehow seven was not enough.

Well, now we now all over again that "Eight is Enough," with Seth Platt in the Grant Goodeve role. Like a certain political commissar here in HB, reading Platt is like water torture. 
Platt seems to be the "Tokyo Rose" of Broward County political social media, at once both everywhere, but also with nothing of substance to say that you're really interested in, instead, also the very picture of a tone-deaf self-promoter.   

If you have not see those two videos, they're really 'must-see' in every respect, and I can tell you with certainty that if Channel 10 embedded their news segments, they'd have been anchors on this blog within minutes of them first airing.
------

Will the upcoming NHL owners lockout affect the $7.7 million loan from Broward County to Florida Panthers owner Michael Yormark, which he's clearly counting on to prop him up?

Dear Ms. Henry:

Are the Florida Panthers and Michael Yormark still legally entitled to the $7.7 million loan from Broward County if, legally, they're NOT a going concern as of the start of the NHL season on October 13th?

During the upcoming strike, which is, of course, more properly called an owner's "lockout," since Mr. Yormark's company will NOT be offering the public a product, service or benefit -or honoring tickets already sold to ticket holders (taxpayers) of this county- if those funds have NOT already been disbursed, wouldn't it be prudent to place them in an escrow account now so that they can't be used to stanch the expected financial bleeding in Plantation once the season comes with no games

being played?

If you have some time this weekend, you might want to peruse his Twitter feed.

http://twitter.com/PanthersYormark

Do you want to know a name that rarely if ever appears on his Twitter feed? 

It's "Broward."

Yes, it's true.

Also rarely appearing there: Ft. Lauderdale or Plantation, where the team plays...

In fact, none of those names have so much as appeared once since July if then.

I stopped looking when they weren't mentioned since at least July 31st.  

When you read it you see rather quickly that his is a lifestyle that's full of trips on private luxury jets and expensive steak houses and reading books on business leadership, as if reading about it was a substitute for doing it.

All this after he asks for a handout of over $7 million from taxpayer's elected officials that in my opinion could have been MUCH better used. 

Say, well, for something that visiting tourists to Broward County would actually benefit from, and tell their friends about so they'd come down for a visit, too.

Look at me and my old-fashioned notions about how tourist bed taxes ought to be used!

No wonder I'm not flying on private jets these days and chowing-down at expensive steak houses in LA, NY and Vegas like Yormark and deducting it as a business expense.

-----
Perhaps you were one of the persons in South Florida who got this email from me seven months ago... All links still work.

Date: Fri, Feb 3, 2012 at 2:53 AM
Subject: FYI re WPLG-TV/Miami video: The BankAtlantic shuffle: Florida Panthers president doesn't

want to answer questions about $7.7 million sweetheart loan from Broward County

This video from the Thursday night 6 pm newscast is the perfect follow-up to my previous emails

on this subject, 

http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/broward/blog/2012/01/broward_gives_panthers_a_win_o.html

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/fl-broward-panthers-loan-20120131,0,635932.story

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/florida-panthers/fl-panthers-loan-newdeal-20120130,0,7432033.story

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/fl-arena-waste-watch-broward-20120117,0,7670061.story

My favorite take away is from the last one:

Broward County has gotten the short end of the stick in its financial deal with the Florida Panthers, and a proposed loan would only tip the scales further, the county's auditor charges.

To date, the county has paid more than $90 million for the arena that serves as the Panthers' home, and gotten back just $331,000 in profit-sharing.

The Panthers side of the scoreboard is far brighter, according to county records. Since the doors at BankAtlantic Center opened 13 years ago, Arena Operating Co., the Panthers' sister company that runs the arena, has rung up a reported $117.4 million in profits. That's more than 353 times what the county has banked.

This absurd loan to the Florida Panthers, which is opposed by the Greater Ft. Lauderdale hospitality

industry, a preening, self-important and self-serving group to be sure, but one who has a much better

idea about what tourists do and do not want to do when they visit than the county commission, and

going to a Panthers game on the outskirts of The Everglades near nothing but a huge shopping mall

is NOT one of them.

But first, here's the Florida Panthers' tone-deaf Michael Yormark in a video from Forbes;
Yormark's the clown who who won't answer questions below.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/mikeozanian/2012/01/12/panthers-skate-towards-more-revenue/

The Channel 10 video, and the antics of the people shown, speaks for itself.

http://www.local10.com/news/blogs/bob-norman/The-BankAtlantic-shuffle/-/3223354/8582968/-/i3du6wz/-/

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

Also see my post of early February, one of the most-popular of the year:
Bob Norman's must-see video of Florida Panthers president, who DOESN'T want to answer questions about $7.7 million sweetheart loan from Broward County"
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/02/bob-normans-must-see-video-of-florida.html

as well as these two pieces from Channel 10

Florida Panthers hockey prez a Twitter twit?
By Bob Norman
Published On: Apr 25 2012 08:28:07 AM EDT
http://www.local10.com/news/blogs/bobnorman/Florida-Panthers-hockey-prez-a-Twitter-twit/-/3223354/11810974/-/xg164e/-/index.html

WPLG Editorial: Fla. Panthers' Pres. rantings
Author: Dave Boylan, VP and General Manager of WPLG.

Published On: Apr 26 2012 11:59:27 AM EDT  

Updated On: Apr 26 2012 12:16:46 PM EDT

http://www.local10.com/station/WPLG-Editorial-Fla-Panthers-Pres-rantings/-/1716906/11983462/-/6r7i0rz/-/index.html

-----

Panthers skate on, despite uncertain labor future

By TIM REYNOLDS (AP Sports Writer)

September 14, 2012

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/panthers-skate-despite-uncertain-labor-172909851--nhl.html

http://nhl-red-light.si.com/

http://blogs.sun-sentinel.com/sports_hockey_panthers/

http://miamiherald.typepad.com/flapanthers/

http://wqam.com/fastfeed/florida-panthers 

Ethics questions re someone (Rosalind Osgood) who teaches ethics -and her Tallahassee lobbyist friend- who also happens to be a candidate for Broward School Board District 5

Might be time for the South Florida news media to have a nice heart-to-heart talk with Broward School Board candidate Rosalind Osgood, cited in this disturbing piece that I first discovered via one of my many Google Alerts:

Media Trackers
Broward School Board Candidate Tapping Funds from Controversial Lobbyist

By Tom Lauder

24TH AUG 2012 AT 17:05

Broward School Board candidate Rosalind Osgood is tapping funds from controversial Tallahassee lobbyist David E. Ramba, official campaign records show. Heading into the November runoff for the School Board position, Ramba, his companies, and political committees under his control have already given $4,000 to Osgood.

Read the rest of the post at:

http://florida.mediatrackers.org/2012/08/24/broward-school-board-candidate-tapping-funds-from-controversial-lobbyist/

The most obvious question of several would be to ask her what she SPECIFICALLY plans to do for Broward County kids, parents and taxpayers if elected from District 5 that doesn't involve churches.
But then there are all those other obvious questions, too.

On the other hand, her opponent, Torey Alston, has been specific, consistent and articulate about what tangible goals he supports in changing the fractured culture at the very unpopular, disconnected and self-serving elected Broward School Board, where along with their top-heavy administrative staff, their policy-making for years has largely consisted of chasing their tails and getting upset about how they are portrayed (accurately) by the news media who holds a mirror up to them. (That's Ann Murray's specialty!)

Alston has also been specific, consistent and articulate about how he would accomplish those goals if elected -including expanding vocational training opportunities- which is precisely the sort of specifics that civic-minded parents and taxpayers are always calling for in an election year, right?

I mention that here because the political romantic in me thinks THAT should really count for something, something positive, but if nobody in the South Florida news media notices...

And just so we're clear about what I mean by that, that's REAL reporting about the race in the Herald and Sun-Sentinel that consists of more than a dozen two-sentence paragraphs about their bios AFTER Early Voting has already started.
To say nothing of what ought to be on TV newscasts.

That is, if the news media really believes that public education is as important as they keep saying it is, even while the Herald STILL lacks an engaged and well-informed Education blog in the year 2012.

Just saying...

With 13 weeks to go until Election Day, if you happen to see evidence in your part of Florida of the clumsy heavy-hand of Tallahassee lobbyist -and flashing red-light fethishist- Roger A. Pennington and his pals in an election campaign, please contact us!

With 13 weeks to go until Election Day, if you happen to see evidence in your part of Florida of the clumsy heavy-hand of Tallahassee lobbyist -and flashing red-light fethishist- Roger A. Pennington and his pals in an election campaign, please contact us!

We want to help shine a light on their efforts to manipulate, deceive and malign, even if it's far from our own poorly-governed and poorly-managed ocean-side city in South Florida, because we know instinctively that usually, but not always, more sunlight is the best disinfectant against those who wish to hide from public scrutiny.  

If you've forgotten who Pennington is and what he's about, I refer you to my October 30, 2010 blog post, The mystery man behind the pro-Alex Lewy 527 ad/flier attacks on Keith London; the multiple ethics rap sheet on lobbyist Roger A. Pennington

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/mystery-man-behind-pro-alex-lewy-527.html


The fliers pictured here were part of his failed effort to defeat Comm. Keith London's re-election effort in 2010.
Because London is not only running for mayor in November against the past ten-years of Mayor Joy Cooper's ruinous reign, but is actually eager to publicize and discuss her awful voting record in office, her chronic bad judgment, and her truly contemptible personal public behavior towards Hallandale Beach citizens at City Hall, those of us here who are in favor of genuine reform and meaningful accountability, know that it's only a matter of time before the likes of Pennington and his ilk, as well as other lobbyist pals of Cooper in Tallahassee, make a return visit to our mail boxes via their slick, untruthful and anonymous campaign fliers.

We're all waiting patiently for the first sign of this new wave of mendacity, because Cooper can't win when the largest number of HB voters know the facts and the context, she can only win when if she can successfully obfuscate, deceive and malign -and the news media obliges her by completely ignoring what's right in front of them.

To paraphrase what I said in that 2010 post... 

Supporters of Joy Cooper and her Rubber Stamp Crew, past and present -William "Bill" Julian, Dotty Ross, Anthony A. Sanders and Alexander Lewy- live in a strange and perplexing upside-down universe where the laws of logic and reason that you and your family deal with everyday, simply don't exist. 

For them, a better future for Hallandale Beach's residents, taxpayers and business owners is a 5-0 vote on the City Commission.

A future where even less oversight takes place than now, if you can imagine such a thing. How do you get less involved than auto-pilot?

A place where reasonable questions are never asked, much less, answered honestly by highly-paid and often under-performing city employees, and a place where the Cooper Rubber Stamp's pals and cronies like Joe Kessel, Dr. Debrorah Brown and Joe Johnson can always count on their support in the future when they have a hare-brained idea that is laughed at and rejected by local banks when they seek loans there.

They act like your tax dollars are a pot of gold that was just unearthed and it's first-come, first-served, and they plan on getting as much as possible.

But when you're on the HB City Commission, because of the CRA's monies, it's like being a member of the Loan Committee of a bank, isn't it? The applicant's idea or plan doesn't have to actually make sense, or even conform to the existing city rules, which you can always vote to over-ride anyway, right?

No, it only has to get the majority of votes cast by the City Commission. Which is why the Rubber Stamp Crew positively HATES questions.
Because questions have to be answered.

It's precisely because of the crony capitalism antics and failures of Cooper and her Rubber Stamp Crew that  Broward County Investigator General John W. Scott and his agents came  into the picture within the past few months, where naturally, the three with the most to fear from more citizens knowing what they were routinely doing, thought they'd challenge his legal authority using your tax dollars, not their own.

Approval for The Related Group's Beachwalk project in Hallandale Beach pays off quickly for Hallandale Beach Comm. Anthony A. Sanders. Follow the money? Okay, here it is: $2,500 on page 4 of Sanders' most-recently filed Treasurer's Report is from individuals & entities supporting Beachwalk's approval, including, predictably, Greenberg Traurig; #HallandaleBeach, @SandersHB, @MayorCooper

Above, Hallandale Beach City Hall, February 13, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier. © 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

Approval for The Related Group's Beachwalk project in Hallandale Beach pays off quickly for Hallandale Beach Comm. Anthony A. Sanders. Follow the money? Okay, here it is: $2,500 on page 4 of Sanders' most-recently filed Treasurer's Report is from individuals & entities supporting Beachwalk's approval, including, predictably, Greenberg Traurig; #HallandaleBeach, @SandersHB, @MayorCooper 

http://www.hallandalebeach.org/DocumentView.aspx?DID=2499
See Page 4 of those contributions, items # 17, 20, 21, 22 and 23.

Naturally, this being Hallandale Beach, where there's nothing that's predictable when it comes to bad behavior, also appearing were some predictable names who like the Cooper Rubber Stamp Crew: Comm. Dotty Ross and former Congressman and former city lobbyist Larry Smith and... former HB Commissioner William "Bill" Julian.

Hmm-m... so why exactly is Julian giving money to one of his own opponents in this November's election? See page 3, item # 11.

That's a good question.

[But then that sort of questionable "logic" is precisely why Julian was thrown-off the commission by voters in 2010, and why this dreadfully incompetent man who for years has exhibited such terrible judgement in continually bringing disgrace to himself and to this town thru his clownish, boorish and illegal behavior -voting to triple his own pay at a City Commission meeting with no citizens or camera present, parking illegally in Handicapped Parking spaces and No Parking Zones all over town for many, many years- MUST be kept away from any position of power in this city. The crazy part now is that Julian acts like people aren't hip to his whole charade as the nice guy who means well. He ISN'T!

He's the guy with a sense of entitlement who consciously parked his own car in those spaces illegally with his Commissioner ID badge right on the dashboard for you, me and everyone else, including the police, could see, instead of following a very simple law. No, Bill Julian is indeed a thoroughly reprehensible and despicable individual who got away with his serial immoral and illegal behavior for years in this town because of his official position. IF he had lived 150 years ago or more in many parts of the Midwest and Plains, he would have rather quickly found himself run-out-of-town by the energized citizenry, angry at forever being made media laughingstocks by his silly prattle, buffoonish antics, tomfoolery and lack of attention to detail, his specialty!]

Okay, let's see if I have this correct.

On June 6th, at its Second Reading before the five-member Hallandale Beach City Commission, Comm. Anthony A. Sanders voted to approve the too-large and incompatible development project by The Related Group on the Intracoastal Waterway -with its octopus-like tentacles stretched over to the city's dirty and poorly-maintained North Beach Park- that I've written SO MUCH about this year on the blog.

And when Sanders spoke, which he doesn't do a lot of, and doesn't do particularly well despite his being a Pastor, he spent almost all of his time talking about jobs and job-training.

Hmm-m... 
I wonder whom he thinks should be involved with THAT?

I think we all know who that would be.

In fact, in her opening remarks weeks earlier, The Related Group's attorney, Debbie Orshefsky, of Greenberg Traurig, actually wasted little time before pivoting from talking about the basics of the project in her Power Point presentation to an extended pitch aimed directly at Sanders, saying that the developers knew how important jobs and job-training were to him. LOL!

BOOM!

Just like that, Orshefsky went right to the heart of what everyone in the room who follows these things closely knew would be the one-and-only issue that mattered for Comm. Sanders, 

Jobs for... well, maybe for people like Jessica Sanders, eh?

This, despite the fact that all the commissioners under our city's At-Large system are supposed to represent ALL residents of this city equally, including the very people who live in the neighborhood where the Beachwalk project could be erected.

Wow, it was so patently obvious as to be completely over-the-top, even for Hallandale Beach.
Especially for an excellent attorney like Orshefsky, who is always extremely well-prepared -unlike, oh, Comm. Sanders himself- since regardless of whatever else I or my friends in Broward County might think of the relative merits of the projects that she's become the public face for here in Hallandale Beach, next-door Hollywood or before the Broward County Commission, she is always very well prepared and ready to pounce on a mistake.

Now, though, suddenly, a month later, Sanders has received $2,500 in 2012 campaign contributions from people and entities with an interest in The Beachwalk's  approval.

Approval given during the middle of the summer, when most of the residents who live near the project and who will be most adversely-affected by it, are actually out-of-town for the summer until Labor Day.

Tell me, what do you suppose Village of Gulfstream Park and Beachwalk lobbyist Suzanne Friedman, who wrote a campaign check to him, feels is Sanders' best trait as a commissioner?

Is it the fact that for almost four years in office now -47 months this week- Sanders has carefully and aggressively avoided directly interacting publicly with this community's most well-informed citizens? Hmm-m...

Could it be Sanders' continual refusal over so many months in 2009 to even meet in-person with HB residents living in the very NE neighborhood most adversely-affected by the proposed Diplomat project that both Friedman and Orshefsky worked for, making their jobs easier, knowing that Sanders wasn't going to even pretend to care what those residents thought?

Especially given his refusal to even return their phone calls or emails asking him as an elected representative of theirs to meet with them in the neighborhood itself, so that he could see, literally, their perspective on the matter?
Or the point-of-view they'd be losing if he voted yes, as he did!
Hmm-m... possibly.

Or, could it just be that what Friedman and other lobbyists like her most like about Sanders is that he not only doesn't ask good questions to speak of, but that even the bad ones he does ask, he always asks in such a halting and confusing fashion -like he just showed-up to the meeting and doesn't really quite know what he's doing there or what everyone is talking about- that it throws everyone else off?

Which certainly helps them, yes, given Sanders four-year track record of ALWAYS voting for every single development proposal that has come before him, no matter how poorly thought-out, no matter how unpopular with neighbors or the whole city it might be.

Yes, those feeble and circular questions of Sanders that are so painful to watch and hear in-person, that it's not at all uncommon for people in the commission chambers to get up while he's speaking and leave the room for a few minutes to gather themselves outside, and get a breath of fresh air, because the whole scene inside is too much for them to bear.
Been there, done that.

-----

Miami Herald

Proposed hotel gets tentative approval in Hallandale Beach - Miami developer Jorge Pérez gained preliminary approval from the Hallandale Beach commission to build a more than $90 million project on the Intracoastal Waterway.

By Carli Teproff

June 7, 2012

Despite concerns over traffic and parking issues, the Hallandale Beach Commission gave its tentative approval for Miami developer Jorge Pérez to build a more than $90 million Beachwalk project on the city’s Intracoastal Waterway. 

The commission voted unanimously late Wednesday night to allow the Related Group to construct a 216-suite hotel and 84 residential units where the once-popular Manero’s restaurant stood. The project would also include improvements to a city park and a beachfront restaurant. 

If the commission gives it a final green light, the hotel would be the city’s first overlooking the waterway and within walking distance to the beach. 

“I think we are all in a consensus that we need a hotel in the city,” said Vice Mayor Anthony Sanders after the meeting. “But we have to achieve some sort of balance.” 

Many in the beachside community say that only having two hotels hampers its ability to compete with other neighboring beachside communities including Sunny Isles Beach and Hollywood. 

“It can only enhance our lives,” said Toula Amanna, the owner of Flashback Diner in Hallandale Beach. “It’s about time we start functioning as a vacation destination.” 

Some details still need to be worked out before any final approval. 

The developer is going to work with the city to address some concerns, including traffic on Diana Drive and creating more parking to fit the demand. 

“We are going to work on it,” said Debbie Orshefsky of Greenberg Traurig, the lawyer representing the Related Group following the four-hour meeting. 

Orshefsky said the proposed 31-story building on 1.68 acres at 2600 E. Hallandale Beach Blvd., will bring something to the city it doesn’t have: a suite hotel and residential complex. “Mixed use projects make sense,” she said. 

But residents say they also bring traffic. 

Peter Ramirez, who lives on Diana Drive, said parking is already a problem along the residential street, which is lined with condominium buildings. 

“I think you are overlooking the impact it’s going to have on our little neighborhood,” he said. 

Hallandale Beach resident Rodger Reynolds said “there needs to be more thought given to what the city is giving up to the developers.” 

“There are other impacts the city is going to have to pay for because of this project,” Reynolds said. 

In order to build the project, the city will have to turn over the right of way for a portion of unused roadway. There will also be other concessions, including allowing the developer to build 451 parking spaces instead of 619, which is required by code. 

In exchange, the developer agreed to spend $2.5 million on renovation to the city’s North Beach Bark and add a beachfront restaurant — to be managed by the developer — that could generate revenue for the city. In addition, the developer would give the city $200,000 for park maintenance, $250,000 for public improvements and $300,000 for affordable housing improvements. 

Commissioner Keith London said in order for him to vote for the project on final reading, scheduled for June 20, he would want the developer to agree to make park improvements and build the restaurant before or at the same time as the hotel. 

He said the city’s leverage is the road. 

“Without our piece of property, their project cannot happen,” London said. 

Also on London’s lists of concerns: Diana Drive, parking and the amount of money the city would make from the restaurant. The developer has agreed to share profits from the restaurant. 

Commissioner Alexander Lewy shared some of the same concerns. 

“Our requests are not outrageous,” Lewy said. “We need to make sure they would have the least amount of impact on the neighborhood as possible.” 

While some recognize there would be more traffic, others say the city needs a financial boost and more places for people to work. 

“This is a very good thing from what I see,” said Hallandale Beach resident Anthony Lewis. 

“Our town needs these jobs.”

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South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Hallandale considers 31-story hotel/condo

By Tonya Alanez, Sun Sentinel

6:27 p.m. EDT, June 7, 2012

HALLANDALE BEACH—

City residents rooting for the jobs, beach improvements and infusion of money that would come with a proposed 31-story hotel/condo project outnumbered those bemoaning the accompanying parking woes and congestion at a Wednesday night City Commission meeting.

Beachwalk, with its 84 residential units and 216 hotel suites slated for the plot where Manero's Restaurant used to be, would be the city's biggest development project since the Gulfstream Village expansion in 2007.

"It's a bare lot that's not doing anything for any of us," city resident Joe Kessel told commissioners. "It makes sense to me when we take a property from $2.4 million to $90 million."

The $90-million project would include a small, light-fare restaurant and a five-story parking garage on Hallandale Beach Boulevard at the southwestern base of the Intracoastal drawbridge.

"Jobs, jobs, jobs," another resident, Anthony Lewis, said. "We need jobs. This is a very good thing from what I see."

In unanimous decisions, city commissioners tentatively agreed to let the developer, Related Group, design the project outside current zoning requirements. They also tentatively agreed to give the developer a half-acre sliver of land next to the site.

"It just amazes me you could even consider this kind of project," said Carol Nyren, who lives on nearby Diana Drive. "That is going to change the way everybody on this street lives."

The biggest issue is a shortage of parking spots and the overflow that could end up on Diana Drive. The plan for the project has about 167 fewer parking spaces than the city code requires.

Another concern is the number of people who will actually live and stay at the hotel.

The development would have 84 year-round residential units and 216 two-bedroom suites, which could be rented as 432 hotel units by dividing each suite into a one-bedroom suite with a kitchen and a separate one-bedroom unit.

Because the property is not zoned for residential property, the city would have to give a special approval to allow it.

Commissioners will vote on those specific issues later.

"This is just moving the ball down the field," Mayor Joy Cooper said of Wednesday's decisions.

"Codes are created on purpose, to protect people," resident Peter Ramirez said. "We're overlooking the impact that it's going to have on our little neighborhood."

Representing the developer, Debbie Orshefsky made the hard sell.

Among the advantages, she listed:

-- The city would reap nearly $4.6 million in annual revenue, including $531,000 in ad valorem taxes.

-- The developer would contribute $3.6 million to the city for traffic improvements, affordable housing and other uses.

-- The project would create 260 jobs: 150 in construction, 70 at the hotel and 40 at a beach club.

-- The developer would pour $2.5 million into the city's North Beach Park, making upgrades, building restrooms and an 180-seat indoor/outdoor restaurant. The city would get a minimum of $5,000 a month from restaurant sales.

-- The hotel would operate a free shuttle, open to the public, to the beach.

Murvin Wright liked the sound of it all: "It is a very needed stimulant for the entire community."

The developer is targeting South American investors, who would stay here during their winter, our summer.

"The economy in South America is very robust, and they want to invest in a place where they culturally feel very comfortable," Orshefsky said in an interview during a break from the meeting.

Commissioners listed their sticking points for city staff to hash out in negotiations with the developer, namely ensuring parking would not be a problem, making beach park improvements before building the hotel, and ensuring that jobs would primarily go to Hallandale residents.

Just to remind everyone reading this who may've forgotten, almost everyone in town was in favor of the hotel component, including me.
it's the completely un-needed condos and the give-away with the public park that rankled everyone.

That, plus the refusal by Mayor Cooper and City Manager Crichton to wait until September to bring the matter up after all these many years of that property sitting vacant.

The citizens of this city won't be forgetting that.
No, there's an election 100 days from today!

Thinking out-loud about what we really saw at last week's meeting re The Related Group and their Beachwalk project in Hallandale Beach; What North Beach may really be like in future if city foolishly makes that a de facto 'Related' boutique beach; What are the ethics of HB CoC's involvement with these development deals?

Greenberg Traurig attorney Debbie Orshefsky at the lectern making the formal Power Point presentation to the Hallandale Beach City Commission last Wednesday night for her client, The Related Group, on behalf of their Beachwalk development project on the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, with their army of professional hired hands and lobbyists seated in the first thee rows. June 6, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

I really hadn't planned on adding any more today to what I has posted earlier this afternoon re the Beachwalk project from The Related Group, but... 
I chose to send out an email to the usual concerned folks in South Florida letting them know that since I first sent them that email early Thursday morning which was the template or First Draft of my blog post today, I'd added some factual odds and ends, so I sent them the link to the new-and-improved version here on the blog.

And then I thought of some other things I should've added in the first place, so...here's what I just sent out.
Reminder: I'm in favor of the hotel, but NOT the 84 condos there, and I'm strongly against any coupling of this deal with Related or any of their subsidiaries with the use of the public beach, North Beach.

Now excuse me, but I have to run because I have a pending date with an iced coffee in our fair city because it's still brutally hot, even with all the rain.
(It was only about 97 degrees yesterday outside my kitchen window.)

------
On the blog post I just posted online, I added a few more revealing photos and pithy facts since

my email of early Thursday morning.

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/06/hallandale-beach-mayor-joy-coopers-old.html

I spent a few hours on Thursday afternoon in the conference room of the Planning Dept. at Hollywood City Hall looking thru banker boxes of the submitted documents, renderings, surveys and other odds and ends for Beach One Resort and The Apogee, mostly looking at parking info and easements. I'll probably be back there on Monday, too.

I hope to add some of the facts I unearthed to the public conversation early next week, because it's not just a question of access to the public beach -and what kind of beach and under whose de facto control?- but also how many -if any- public parking spaces will be available at next door Beach One Resort hotel or at The Apogee hotel/condo, since if there aren't enough, imagine the resulting chaos if the City of Hallandale Beach goes ahead and makes this colossal blunder by falling for the sweet nothings and siren song of Jorge Perez & Co.

After all, we all know from experience and to our own sorrow how easily duped the HB City Commission is.

How they are almost reflexively unable to ask the sorts of savvy questions that show originality and a degree of familiarity with the submitted documents that most of us would act if we were in their seats, and supposed to be looking at the BIG PICTURE for all of HB's citizens.

But listening to them, you'd think Related was guaranteeing the city $60 million a year for ta proposed restaurant, not $60,000.

That's embarrassing!

Good luck trying to find the respective shade studies that will show what the cumulative effect will be on North Beach after Noon when those two properties -plus The Beach Club- are finally built.

As I stated previously, their attorney, Debbie Orshefsky won't show that to you -even if she had it- and while she was willing to show via a rendering what the beach would look like from the ocean when all the properties are present, she never showed an accurate one that was from the perspective of someone actually ON THE BEACH.

Ever been in the bottom of a canyon?

And did you also notice how few people it showed present on the beach, even though we're

talking about the addition of hundreds and hundreds of hotel rooms and condos? 

I know that I did.

Notice anything missing in this rendering from last Wednesday, the only one they presented

of the beach from a beach-goer's perspective?

Correct, they "forgot" to actually show the 41-story Beach One Resort property in it, since

it'd clearly be present in this particular shot above if it was done based on actual known facts.

Tell me, do you really think they forgot, or do you think they didn't want HB residents -and the

very incurious HB City Commissioners -to think about it, much less, the adjoining

20-story Apogee condo/hotel, also owned by The Related Group?

I want the beach to change, but for the better for all of us, who finally deserve to have a nice beach after so many years of truly embarrassing third-rate beach conditions and aesthetics, not for the MUCH WORSE, which will surely be its fate if The Related Group gets its hands on it and treats it like a boutique beach in order to market it to prospective buyers of their condos.

I trust that I will see many more of you present in person on Wednesday night than for last week's First Reading, considering it's such a critical moment in this city's future about such an invaluable resource -and there's no conflict with a Heat-Thunder ballgame, either!

Now I have something for all of you to think about over the weekend, given what we've seen for years here about who sits with whom at these meetings re development issues.

Or, more recently, last Wednesday night, when Hallandale Beach Chamber of Commerce president Carole Pumpian sat in the second row next to Related's PR person and Chamber Board member Suzanne Friedman, and was surrounded by the army of professional hired hands working for Related to get this bad idea passed.

Yes, as usual, Carole Pompian, dressed in pink above, WASN'T sitting with just regular Hallandale Beach citizens. 

Hmm-m... is Pumpian actually working for Related or one of its associated parties to get this passed? 
I can't say with any certainty since, unfortunately, the city's current list of lobbyists hasn't been updated since March 16th.

http://www.cohb.org/files/Lobbyist%20Registration%20List_CURRENT_3_16_12.pdf

She certainly hasn't publicly declared that she's lobbying for them at the Commission meetings, but then again, look where she's sitting. 
Everyone else in those three rows is working to pass this very bad idea.

So here's my question: Under the City of Hallandale Beach's rules on lobbying and ethjics, are people receiving a benefit other than money from developers (or their team) who work or speak on behalf of an issue like Beachwalk before the City Commission required to publicly disclose that pertinent fact?

For instance, hypothetically(!), if The Related Group takes a few well-known HB Chamber of Commerce people with connections to the HB City Commission out to lunch or dinner to brainstorm over a strategy to persuade the HB City Commission to approve the plan, and then those same people from the CoC speak in favor of it -or, if Related writes a check out to the HB CoC to thank them after such a 'working meal"- ethically, don't the parties who speak need to publicly disclose this arrangement to the Commission, even if they aren't required to register as lobbyists, per se?

Hmm-m...

Well, here's your answer according to the city itself.

http://www.cohb.org/index.aspx?NID=835

Lobbying means communicating directly or indirectly, in person, by telephone, by letter, or by any other form of communication, on behalf of any other with any City Commissioner, any member of any decision-making body under the jurisdiction of the Commission/Board, or any City employee, where the lobbyist seeks to influence a decision to me made by the Commission or Board, a decision to be made any decision-making body under the jurisdiction of the Commission or Board, or a final procurement decision to be made by a City employee.

Lobbyist is defined as any individual who engages in lobbying, as defined above, regardless of whether he or she receives any compensation for such lobbying.

I added that red highlight above for your careful consideration.

I'll be asking for that updated lobbyist list from the HB City Clerk on Monday.

FYI: On Saturday I'll finally be posting "Part 2 of 2 re The Beachwalk project in Hallandale Beach -Initial comments & ruminations on Wednesday night's HB City Comm. meeting; calling out Carole Pumpian, crony capitalism mercenary"