Prologue to Hallandale Beach City Comm.'s meeting re FY 2011-12 budget; HB Charter Review Comm. is dog-chasing-its-tail at its worst: SNAFU

Below is an email I wrote early Monday morning to my common sense friend and fellow concerned Hallandale Beach activist Csaba Kulin, with bcc's to the usual collection of about 75 or so well-informed people and news media in Hallandale Beach and Broward County, with not a single fan of Hallandale Beach mayor Joy Cooper among them.

As you know, they're mutually exclusive -well-informed Hallandale Beach citizen taxpayers and supporters of Cooper and her Rubber Stamp Crew of Ross, Sanders & Lewy.

It largely concerns what passes for normal in Hallandale Beach -SNAFU- some preliminary thoughts of mine on the city's political near-future, and a link to a very useful article on Florida's Sunshine Laws and attorney-client exemptions to it.

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Dear Csaba:

Re your question about Hallandale Beach City Commission's Monday night meeting re, the city's FY 2011-12 budget NOT being on city's website with the appropriate required, agenda info -less than 24 hours before the meeting- see the article below that was, written by Comm. London's appointment to the HB City Attorney Selection Committee.

It's after your original email.

This is the ad the city ran in the Miami Herald a week ago:

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Mark Goldstein is a partner in the Miami law firm of Wolfe & Goldstein, P.A. He practices in the field of local government litigation. Prior to entering private practice Mr. Goldstein served as the city attorney of the City of Hallandale Beach from 2000-2003, and as a senior assistant city attorney for the City of Miami Beach. He received his B.A. from Yeshiva University in New York City and his J.D. from the University of Miami School of Law.

In case you forgot, the other members of the HB City Attorney Selection Committee are, hard as it is to believe, Commissioner Lewy – Rachel Alters, Esquire, Commissioner Ross – Bill Julian, Vice-Mayor Sanders – Murvin Wright, Mayor Cooper – Eudyce Steinberg.

Yes, despite everything that he personally did for years to make this city a perennial, laughingstock, and being kicked-out of office last year, Bill Julian is on both this AND the Charter Review Comm., who, as you and I have been discussing for weeks, despite being half-way thru their life cycle, has yet to place a single bit of the information that has been presented to them, the past few months on the city's website, despite City Manager Mark Antonio's specific promise to the community at the very first meeting back in July -where Keith London and I were the only members of the public in the room- that HB taxpayers would be able to see the information and actually be able to follow along.

*Blog readers, see for yourself how pathetic this is:

http://www.hallandalebeachfl.gov/Search.aspx

(That was also my LAST meeting of theirs! They should've taken my suggestion, of meetings every other Saturday 10 a.m.-Noon if they wanted people to, show up in the summer.)

That the CRC foolishly refuses to read your informed letters into the record, even, when you are the ONLY person who has written them, speaks volumes about what a typical HB farce it is.

Some good people got suckered into that.

As you and I and so many others in the city who are interested in reform and genuine financial accountability at HB City Hall have informally discussed for months, I definitely believe that a voter-initiated, signature campaign effort to get pro-reform, pro-taxpayer issues directly before the voters via referendum in the spring -before everyone leaves for the summer- perhaps in conjunction with the recall effort previously discussed by various people -thereby bypassing the Cooper Rubber Stamp Crew on the HB City Commission- makes more and more sense, given how the current dog-chasing-its tail CRC operation in HB is going.

I checked the webpage on the city's website at 1:30 a.m. Monday morning, and you, are 100% correct, Csaba.,

http://www.hallandalebeachfl.gov/index.aspx?nid=-404&badlink=/files/00368/Exported%20OV%20Docs/Agenda%20Outline%20for%202011-09-26%2018-00.htm

The legally-required required information is NOT there.

Surprise!

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From: Csaba Kulin

Date: Sun, Sep 25, 2011 at 10:58 PM

Subject: Agenda for 9/26/2011 CC Meeting.

To: Mark Antonio , Cc: Mayor Joy Cooper , Commissioner Alexander Lewy , Commissioner Keith London ,

Dear Mr. Antonio.

In preparation for tomorrow's CC meeting I was going to read the Agenda and look at the supporting documents. Below is the message I found on my computer when I tried to look at it.

Is it legal to conduct a meeting without proper notification of the public of the Agenda? Please check with your City Attorney?

While you are looking at the City's web site, please look at the sorry state of the Charter Review Commission web site also.

The IS department is asking for about a half a million dollars next year. Do you think we should expect a bit better service?

Sincerely,

Csaba Kulin

We're sorry, but there is not a web page matching your entry.

You entered: www.hallandalebeachfl.gov/files/00368/Exported OV Docs/Agenda Outline for 2011-09-26 18-00.htm

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http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb6367/is_4_78/ai_n29083643/?tag=mantle_skin;content

Florida Bar Journal

April, 2004,

Shade meetings: overview, pitfalls, and recommended changes

by Mark Goldstein

Yes, she MUST be going! Comm. Ross is leaving City Hall and Comm. Sanders should join her -soon! Recall solves problems and makes HB better & saner!

Above, a photo I snapped the day before last November's election.
To quote from my blog post of Election Day 2010, November 2nd: http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/hallandale-beach-mayor-joy-cooper-comm.html

"Even weirder than Ross coming back to snap photos of her handiwork was her trying (unsuccessfully) to provoke some sort of physical confrontation with me as I was talking and walking outside of the Post Office with the Hallandale Beach Postmaster about some safety concerns at the branch. Pathetic!"

Reliable Sources -you remember them!- have told me that Hallandale Beach City Comm. Dotty Ross quite literally shocked the hell out of everyone at a HB Kiwanis luncheon Thursday when she announced that she wouldn't be seeking re-election next year, and would, instead, support former Comm. William Julian, notorious Handicapped Parking violator, who, deservedly, came in third in a three-way election in November for two seats.

Some of you in the know will recall that recently Julian had intimated to some HB residents that he was planning on running for mayor next year against ten-year incumbent Joy Cooper and current Commissioner Keith London.

(There are currently no term limits in place in HB for mayor or city commission, though that may well be changing if I and some of my like-minded friends have anything to do with that in the coming months.)

According to Mr. Reliable Source, among those appearing to be most shocked and visibly upset was Joe Kessel, a man of many hats in this small ocean-side city: perpetual HB taxpayer nemesis, financial hand-out and City Hall spy/lobbyist & mouthpiece. Kessel apparently has been considered running.
No, really.

In case you forgot how he figures into things here, please review my video from 2010 in which Kessel sells-out the HB community on the Diplomat LAC proposal without EVER publicly disclosing that at the time he was a paid HB City Hall spy/lobbyist, albeit, one who NEVER registered with Broward County as is required by law.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrbd9Ha39JM

Oh, you have no idea how much the well-informed folks in this community wish Joe Kessel would run for City Commission, so he would be forced to publicly answer questions about his curious ethics and questionable behavior, questions that he has heretofore avoided answering.

For more interesting reading on Kessel's adventures, see:
http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/search/index?keywords=%22Kessel%22&x=11&y=17

Well, all this being said, I still see no reason that there should not be a launch in the Fall to RECALL Comm. Ross and Comm. Sanders and start reclaiming this city from Joy Cooper's Rubber Stamp Crew, and force the mayor's hand, knowing that an actual election to fill those two spots would be required by law within -I think- 90 days.

(As of today, unless something changes, I'm going to speak with the Broward Supervisor of Elections Office next week to try to get some definite answers to questions everyone is wondering about regarding the recall process here in Broward County: dates, number of signatures required and deadlines, etc.)

A successful recall of disconnected Ross and Sanders, which I've previously discussed, including on Wednesday, would give those of us in this city who are committed to bringing this city fully into the 21st Century, a chance to get two pro-reform, pro-accountability and pro-transparency people into place before so many HB residents leave for the summer -before they are boiled alive like those of us who stay.

As you may recall, in the abstract, my general idea is to have the RECALL vote in the WINTER and have the actual election to replace the two of them the same day in February or March that the Florida Presidential primary takes place, with the winners serving their terms thru November 2012.

That way, if they do a good job in forcing this city into a much-needed U-Turn in its public policy discourse and execution, if they choose, they can then run for re-election for a full four-year term.
Or, they could let some other pro-reform folks carry the torch forward by vying for those two slots, plus the one that would be on the November 2012 ballot to fill the remaining two years of Comm. London's term, since he will have to resign at some point to run for mayor in November.

As you may or may not know, here in Florida, even as I write this, the Presidential primary dates have yet to be set by the Republican-controlled state legislature in Tallahassee, but as you can well imagine, the beauty of this approach is that that date will be one where more voters will be participating anyway -and the county will be paying most of the election's costs.

How great would it be to wake-up here the day after Election Day next November and know that you have a 4-1 majority at HB City Hall that's actually in favor of common sense, hard work, proper preparation before a City Commission meeting, civility -and adherence to Robert's Rules of Order- and public policy arguments that are based on agreed-upon facts, and NOT
anecdotal stories, lingering animosities, foolish grudges and general peevishness?

To actually have not just MULTIPLE people in elective office who encourage open discussion and a free-flow of public information with the public they serve, but a MAJORITY on the City Commission?

A MAJORITY who DON'T believe that it's appropriate for City Hall staffers to hide and hoard information the taxpayers are entitled to know about, and who have made it their practice the past few years to dole it out grudgingly to the public -after they file Public Records Requests!

That is, AFTER they have been given to City Hall pals and cronies and to the lawyers and lobbyists of developers.

Imagine THAT as a REALITY in Hallandale Beach, instead of the completely dysfunctional, upside-down situation we currently have with the current crew in office -and their minions.

Imagine knowing that citizen concerns or complaints at HB City Hall are taken seriously -not greeted with a shrug of the shoulders or ignored for YEARS by highly-paid staffers- and handled professionally and promptly, or that HB city employees whose work-ethic and dealings with the public are NOT up to expectations will be FIRED, not covered-up or even promoted?

Well folks, it's there for the taking, but you have to show you'll work for it:

a genuine participatory democracy in Hallandale Beach to make this city the optimistic, well-run and ingenious city it ought to be, not the longstanding misfit it is now under Joy Cooper and her Rubber Stamp Crew of Ross, Sanders & Lewy.