Showing posts with label recycling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label recycling. Show all posts

Friday, September 5, 2008

re Comm. Keith London's sensible lawsuit against the City of Halandale Beach

Today for your consideration I have an excerpted copy of an email that I sent out earlier this afternoon to some people I know in Hallandale Beach and beyond who are greatly interested in the city's future and welfare.
And some of the better reporters and columnists in the state of Florida, not just locals.

To better appreciate what I've written, think back to what I mentioned last month to you all about Ingalls Park, a Hallandale Beach park which has a recycling facility on its northern border, which I used yesterday.
It's just one block south of Hallandale Beach Blvd., one of the three main thoroughfares in the 4.4 square mile city:
August 28th post, Turning lemons into lemonade the Hallandale Beach way: start submarine races...
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2008/08/turning-lemons-into-lemonade-hallandale.html
August 7th post, A New Low in HB? Yes! Condescending Deal Results in Sanders Selection as Interim Commissioner,
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2008/08/new-low-in-hb-yes-condescending-deal.html

So, when exactly is the public citywide meeting in Hallandale Beach about all the changes coming for the city's recycling program?
There is no meeting.

Sh-h-h-h!!!

Don't say that out loud -or else!

Meanwhile, Operation "Deep Sleep" continues apace.


Recyclables in trunk ready for a run to Ingalls Park,
Sept. 4, 2008; photo by South Beach Hoosier

Ingalls Park, 735 SW 1 Street, Hallandale Beach, FL 33009
August 31, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier

Ingalls Park, 735 SW 1 Street, Hallandale Beach, FL 33009
I've told you in past posts that for months the city's recycling dumpsters located here were missing lids. Then months later, once lids were installed, someone got the genius idea to place square holes in them. Here's the proof.
The lid is exactly as I found it, neatly framing the city sign within the hole,
August 31, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier


Hallandale Beach Commission Chambers moments before Pastor Anthony Sanders, in front row, was sworn in as a Commissioner.
Sept. 3rd, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier


A few minutes later, Comm. Anthony Sanders takes his seat on the dais.
Sept. 3rd, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier
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Since each of you are among the small sub-set of civic-minded and savvy residents of Hallandale Beach who actually have an accurate sense of the behind-the-scenes context and mischief for many of City' Hall's self-serving moves and policies, I wanted to share some news that many of you probably haven't heard about yet.
While I'm the first to say that I don't know ALL the facts of this, I DO have an unusually good insight into the larger issues at play here because of some recent things I've personally observed.

It's an insight into the competing forces to shape Hallandale Beach's future, and the GREAT potential for harm if we allow the current 'status quo' crowd running things, to continue to thwart not only the spirit and letter of the law involving Florida's Sunshine Laws, but also continue to thwart the public's trust and sense of accountability, even when that proves embarrassing to HB City Hall.
Their first response to everything seems to always be protecting or covering-up, rather than a full public disclosure and dealing with the facts at hand.
The deplorable situation with HB Police Chief Thomas Magill is a perfect example.

As many of you know from past conversations with me at myriad city meetings and community events, even before I launched my blogs early last year, in order to be better informed, I had the good sense to have "Hallandale Beach" included among my Google Alerts, since I couldn't very well read everything myself.
This has sometimes proven to be a much more inspired idea than you can imagine, since I see something below the surface.
Such was the case Monday night, when I first learned thru a Google Alert of Comm. Keith London's sensible lawsuit against the City of Halandale Beach.

While I have not spoken to him specifically about the lawsuit, it's clear to me based on past actions and words that at least part of his effort is intended to better identify and carve out an area of permissible public discussion and accountability, so that as an elected official of this city, he can actually respond more intelligently to legitimate questions posed to him by city residents about matters of public interest, in this case, the city's never-ending lawsuit against Waste Management, than simply say, "I can't talk about it or recycling or..."

While he's legitimately precluded from discussing certain matters he's privy to, the idea that if he talks about recycling in general, or responds to resident complaints, like mine, about the city's poor management of the current system, is preposterous.
It's yet another troubling example of the usual pattern of over-reaction, panic and cover-up by Mayor Joy Cooper, City Manager Mike Good and City Attorney David Jove.

Depending on how things shake out with Hurricane Ike this weekend, I'll be writing more on this subject at HBB over the weekend but I did want you to have access to some information so that you know the basics.

Since many of you regularly attended Comm. London's Resident Forums before the summer break, I hardly need remind you how distracting it was for everyone in that small room, to have Mayor Cooper continually insinuate herself into the proceedings by 'crashing' these get-togethers, which, after all, are intended so that HB residents can talk forthrightly and voluntarily about their concerns -to Comm. London and other interested citizens like us.

Especially since so many of those legitimate concerns relate to City Hall's generally unfriendly and un-cooperative approach to public participation and transparency, where common sense and vision are lacking even while shrillness and obfuscation are everywhere.

The fact that Mayor Cooper refuses to host this sort of event herself, though she could, but feels perfectly free to be the 'elephant in the room' at Comm. London's event, and to be so obvious about taking notes of who said what, is troubling on many levels.
More than anything, to me at least, this behavior reveals her well-known thin-skinned ego, continuing inability to take criticism, constructive or otherwise, and seriously consider another person's perspective, even when it's more-experienced or better-informed than hers.

The idea that Mayor Cooper can't stand the idea of Hallandale Beach residents actually meeting independently of her City Hall crowd, with her ability to limit people's comments to three minutes and interrupt/bully them, was brought home to me personally as many of you already know, by her unsolicited post-midnight email to me two weeks ago.

As most of you know, I had expected to post my rejoinder to her email on my blog by now, but will have that up very soon for you to draw your own conclusions.
And I don't think you'll be disappointed.

That attitude of hers was present in spades at one Resident Forum in particular, when I brought up my own experience of seeing some self-evident problems with city recycling facilities, among other things, a complete absence of ANY directional signs near them, insufficient number of bins for a citywide facility... and the city's plan to get rid of the facility without any public discussion of the rationale or the alternatives.

As if one cue, Mayor Cooper immediately felt the need to play traffic cop and warn everyone to be careful, as if we didn't all know what she was really doing: trying to head off criticism by waving the lawsuit around like a bloody shirt, a tactic she's employed many times in the past.
As if the negligence and poor planning of the city -again!- was a topic that was permanently verboten.

You'd think that by now she'd have realized that one of the more obvious downsides to her constant efforts at self-promotion, a la Mara Giulianti, is that she now sees ANY criticism of the city as a criticism of her.

So, that said, here's the info below.

I don't suppose it went un-noticed by most of you that absolutely nothing involving Wednesday's HB City Commission meeting, including Pastor Sanders being sworn in, was deemed news worthy enough to be included in the Miami Herald on Thursday.
Didn't think so.

WFOR video re London's lawsuit and Sanders swearing-in
http://cbs4.com/video/?id= 61578@wfor.dayport.com
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London v. City of Hallandale Beach
Plaintiff: Keith London

Defendant: City of Hallandale Beach

Case Number: 0:2008cv61393
Filed: August 29, 2008

Court: Florida Southern District Court

Office: Fort Lauderdale Office [ Court Info ]

County: Broward

Presiding Judge: Judge William J. Zloch

Nature of Suit: Other Statutes - Antitrust

Cause: 28:1331 Federal Question

Jurisdiction: Federal Question

Jury Demanded By: None
City's 'trash talk' ban leads to lawsuit
Published: Sept. 3, 2008 at 1:08 PM

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla., Sept. 3 (UPI) -- A Florida city commissioner has filed a civil rights suit over a motion he claims goes too far in muzzling discussion about trash collection.

Hallandale Beach City Commissioner Keith London contends the motion passed by the commission in regards to another lawsuit is so vague that commission members could be hauled in front of the Florida Commission on ethics for simply raising the subject of recycling and trash collection.

"I don't even know if just talking to you about my own lawsuit will be used to say I am violating the (motion)," London told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

The motion was passed due to settlement talks in a lawsuit between the city and a trash disposal company over alleged overcharging.

The Sun-Sentinel said Wednesday that London said he believes there are other reasons for the motion, particularly the alleged intent to stifle his disagreements with fellow commission members.
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www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-flbspeech0903sbsep03,0,1724913.story

South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Suit asks if trash talking can make you an outlaw
Commissioner sues city over his free speech rights
By Ihosvani Rodriguez
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
September 3, 2008

Hallandale Beach

A city commissioner has filed a civil rights suit against his own city claiming his colleagues are preventing him from talking trash — literally.

Commissioner Keith London's federal lawsuit attacks a motion passed in May that prohibits commission members from discussing anything related to a pending lawsuit between the city and Waste Management Inc.

That includes meetings about "waste management, garbage, trash, recycling and related issues," and violators could be reprimanded or brought before the Florida Commission on Ethics.

London claims the commission's mandate is so vague, he wonders if it allows him to discuss who in his household should put out the trash at night.

"I don't even know if just talking to you about my own lawsuit will be used to say I am violating the [motion]," London said Tuesday. He wants a judge to decide and for the city to pay his attorney's fees, nothing more.

City Attorney David Jove declined to comment Tuesday, saying he had not seen the suit London filed Friday.
Hallandale Beach is in talks with Waste Management to settle the 2002 suit that claims the company overcharged the city for dumping garbage into landfills instead of recycling and composting it.

Pushing for the motion in May, City Manager Michael Good complained that someone was leaking confidential information about the lawsuit negotiations.

London, often the lone dissenter on the commission, denied being the source of any leaks. He said the motion was designed to silence his constant opposition.

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WFOR Channel 4 videos of "Hallandale"
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Truveo search video across the Web for "Hallandale"
Take special note of

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Friday, June 20, 2008

Talking globally, polluting locally in Hallandale Beach. Another galling example of hypocrisy that exposes what elected officials and bureaucrats at South Florida City Halls say -and what they actually DO!

Talking globally, polluting locally in Hallandale Beach. Another galling example of hypocrisy that exposes what elected officials and bureaucrats at South Florida City Halls say -and what they actually DO!

Hallandale Beach City Hall, second floor conference room
May 13, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier
The bottle creates a simulated image, as the inner back of the bottle features a depiction of a beach scene, with the city's Water Tower and logo framing the image on the front.
June 20, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier


A close-up view of the front of the plastic Hallandale Beach water bottle.
June 20, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

The first photograph above was taken by South Beach Hoosier in mid-May at Hallandale Beach City Hall, during a lunch break of a public meeting among the City Commission, the City Manager and his staff and Dept. directors discussing preliminary plans and projections for the city's budget, which will be finalized in August.
There were periods during each agenda item for residents to ask questions, and I twice took advantage of this opportunity, the subjects of which will be discussed in future posts here.

Upon entering the second floor conference room, which was actually two smaller rooms with a room divider pushed to the side, one encountered a table full of coffee, bagels, some spreads and packs of eight-ounce plastic water bottles -featuring the iconic Hallandale Beach Water Tower on them.
They were provided by the city for members of the City Commission, the City manager and his staff and the public, since the meeting was slated to be an all day affair. (And it was.)
The first photo, one of several that I snapped of those plastic bottles in a Hallandale Beach City Hall garbage bin, was taken for the simple reason that there were no plastic or cardboard recycling bins in the room.

This was ironic given that earlier, your faithful blogger had asked a series of simple yet relevant questions of the City Commission, City Manager Mike Good about his staff about the self-evident problem over at the beach that everyone ignores.
How, despite their great lip service over the past few years about taking better care of the city's resources, which would have to start with the beach itself, among many other problems, there was a complete absence of ANY recycling bins at the beach, stretching back several years.

You can literally find plastic bottles and aluminum cans everywhere on the beach, whether rusting and mixed-in with the protected plants like sea oats and sea grapes, or overflowing the garbage cans, especially on three day weekends, with the predictable increase in refuse.
You'd think this would all be easy to predict, but then you have to remember where you are...

That leads to an ancillary problem, since unlike the City of Hollywood's general practice on their beaches, Hallandale Beach uses garbage receptacles on the beach without lids.
So, the conscious decision to place garbage cans without lids at the windiest place in the city leads to entirely predictable results, since it doesn't take much for items to simply pop out or blow out of the bins, with the city's lifeguards, who are contractors from Jeff Ellis and Associates, forced to clean-up, too, rather than concentrate solely on their number one job of public safety.

I'll have separate posts soon on the garbage and recycling problems at Hallandale Beach, replete with photos that illuminate the nature of this easily-solved but longstanding bureaucratic problem, which is the logical result of a continued lack of common sense, proper governance and oversight in the city of city employees at 400 S. Federal Highway.

The problem in that conference room is duplicated whenever the city hosts public meetings or events next door at the Hallandale Beach Community Cultural Center, as they did last Wednesday for a Joint Meeting of the City of Hollywood and HB City Commissions, to discuss items of mutual interest, or the previous week for the Hurricane Forum.


 Personally, to the great consternation of some friends, I've always recycled, going back to my fifteen years of living in Arlington County, VA, where it was mandatory, but where a large numbers of brightly colored bins were provides to city residents.

 Arlington County also had a large and well-thought out recycling facility less than a mile from my home, just a block or two away from The Ballston Mall, and a block south of the Ballston Metro Station and the headquarters of the National Science Foundation.
It could hardly have been better organized, better run or well lit at night, as there were huge tractor trailers with slots that segregated each of the many recycled items they accepted there.

 See


 These factors not only removed the usual alibis people make for not participating, since it was on the way to lots of places people were already in the habit of visiting, but also tended to make it rather self-policing, since it was always very obvious when someone else was putting the wrong material into a trailer bin.
And unlike this area, all Arlington County fire stations are equipped with buckets or bins near their entrances or parking lots where residents could turn in household batteries, which weren't supposed to be put in with regular garbage.

 Frankly, over the years, I've even grown accustomed to re-using my own plastic water bottles over and over, or filling a 20-oz Coke bottle with Brita-filtered water if I'm going to be outside for a while.
Since they fit snug in the small tote bag I take with me everywhere, it's often proved a lifesaver on those days when I find myself having walked farther than I planned, or stuck somewhere when I need to fight off a coughing fit -like at a public meeting.

But, obviously, I'm not typical of this area in terms of my ingrained recycling habits, since I've got a relative down here who not only doesn't recycle -anything- but who loves taunting me when I'm over at their home before they toss something into their kitchen garbage bin, knowing full well that it's something that I'd be recycling if I were at my home.

http://www.miamiherald.com/548/story/576857.html

 Miami Herald
Anti-bottled water campaign enlists mayors to causeBy Taylor Barnes
June 20th, 2008

 An aisle at the Publix on Seventh Street in downtown Miami gleams with shelf upon shelf of bottled water that boasts of originating from the French Alps to Fiji.
But those bottles of water are increasingly coming under attack from environmental activists, who maintain tap water is better and bottled water is economically unsound and environmentally harmful, a position the bottling industry disputes.
The city of Miami has joined the fray, ordering officials in March to stop spending city money on bottled water in under two-liter containers.
Miami's Mayor Manny Diaz is among more than a dozen mayors calling on municipal governments to phase out bottled-water purchases in a resolution to be presented at the U.S. Mayors Conference, which begins Friday in Miami.
The bottles aren't just out at City Hall. Pacific Time and Fratelli Lyon, neighboring restaurants in Miami's Design District, have stopped selling bottled water and only serve tap. Sales of bottled water at Pacific Time used to bring in $80,000 in annual revenues from sales of about 12,000 bottles, the restaurant's chef and owner Jonathan Eismann said Thursday at an event to promote tap usage.
Eismann said that not selling bottles reduces waste and is a way to "encourage more sustainable eating habits.''

 But bottled water remains ubiquitous with many consumers, like Ariadna Barrantens of Miami, who shun tap water and exclusively drink bottled.
While picking up a few gallons at Publix this week, she said she uses bottled water even to make coffee because she does not trust the quality of what comes out of her faucet. She added, though, that she sometimes wonders whether bottled water is much better.
The belief that tap water is less healthy and less pure than bottled water has city officials and activists worried.
Deborah Lapidus, who represents the Think Outside the Bottle campaign that organized Thursday's event, blames ''tricky marketing and clever labels'' used by companies selling bottled water for the perception their products are better than tap.
Bottling industry officials contend bottled water is purified more than tap water. Allegations by anti-bottle activists are simply ''green-washing,'' said Kevin Keane, a spokesman for the American Beverage Association. He said bottled water is convenient and is useful during emergencies such as hurricanes.
Lapidus' group argues that the popularity of bottled water reduces the political will to maintain and improve infrastructure to ensure quality municipal water. Still, she encourages people to switch to tap water and praised Miami for having some of the highest-quality tap water in the nation.
Diaz supports the cause, saying that Miami has great water and it's cheaper.
City Commissioner Marc Sarnoff, who pushed for the City Hall ban -- which he says could save the city as much as $200,000 a year -- joined the tap movement because of concerns about litter. He said 85 percent of bottles are not recycled, and contribute to clogging in Miami's sewer systems.
He attributed current flooding in Brickell and the Venetian Islands to sewer systems stuffed with the plastic containers. He also pointed out that it takes petroleum to make the bottles, holding up a plastic bottle filled with dark liquid. He said almost a quarter of the liquid represented the oil needed to produce and transport the bottle.
The pro-tap movement has yet to make a dent in sales of bottled water, which continued to grow in 2007, according to John Sicher, editor and publisher of Beverage Digest magazine. He said the sales growth had slowed slightly from 2006 to 2007. He attributed that to the economic downturn and said it was ''too early to tell'' if the movement against bottled water was affecting the industry.
The trend is taking hold in some quarters. On a recent film shoot in South Beach, the producers of the new comedy Farlanders, starring John Krasinski and Maggie Gyllenhaal, banned coolers of water bottles from the set.
Instead, cast and crew were given washable aluminum bottles that they filled from large water jugs, said city of Miami Beach film coordinator Graham Winick. Cups for cold drinks like punch and soda were made from corn, as were the trash bags. Coffee cups were biodegradable, too, Winick said.
'It is the first almost fully `green' shoot we've had,'' Winick said in an e-mail.

Miami Herald staff writer Douglas Hanks contributed to this report.
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Also read this amusing article

New York Times
Water, Water Everywhere, but Guilt by the Bottleful
By Alex Williams
August 12, 2007

 On a recent family vacation in Cape Cod, Jenny Pollack, 40, a novelist and public relations associate from Brooklyn, did something she knew she would come to regret. She did it on the spur of the moment. She did it because she felt desperate.

Besides, the giant illuminated Dasani vending machine was just standing there, like a beacon.
So, with her reusable plastic Nalgene bottles dry and her son Charlie working up a thirst in an indoor playground, she broke down and bought a bottle of water. To most people it would be a simple act of self-refreshment, but to Ms. Pollack it was also a minor offense against the planet — think of all the oil used to package, transport and refrigerate that water.

Read the rest of the story at:
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