Above, 1923 three-cent U.S. postage stamp featuring president Abraham Lincoln.Hallandale Beach is NOT the Land of Lincoln in any way, shape or form.
BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes
Almost-Great Ideas
Hallandale Beach Mayor Not Exactly Forming Coherent Responses to Constituents
By Matthew Hendley
August. 25 2011 at 12:42 PM
More egregious than even Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper's chronic and well-known syntax and spelling problems, described above, is something that is NOT even remarked upon in the Broward NewTimes article but which in my mind is even more contemptible -the complete disconnect that two of the HB City Commissioners, Dorothy "Dotty" Ross and Anthony A. Sanders, have with the majority of the community that DOES pay attention to what actually happens in this ocean-side town, and at HB City Hall in particular.
In fact, most pay far more attention and are far more engaged than either of the two commissioners themselves, who on and off the dais evince the persona of sleepwalking people looking for a bed to crawl back into.
In Hallandale Beach, it might well be easier to find an authentic letter written in the hand of Abraham Lincoln than it is to find a single letter or email from Ross or Sanders responding intelligently or with any sense of understanding to a constituent/neighborhood's concerns.
I know from personal experience and from listening to my friends complain for years that Ross and Sanders simply do NOT respond promptly by email, either intelligently or any other way.
It's as if computer email was never created in the first place and we're all still using the Pony Express.
But we aren't, are we?
No, we aren't.
Likewise, since 2008, neither Ross or Sanders meet -individually- at regularly-scheduled meetings that they host themselves with residents and business owners in venues where the public is welcome, as is the case with Comm. Keith London.
Why not?
If you were them, wouldn't you want to know fairly regularly what residents in your city think?
It seems like the most obvious thing in the world, but they are clearly afraid to do so.
Personally, I suspect that it's because Ross and Sanders can NOT satisfactorily answer questions themselves that are put to them by HB citizens, and most of my friends share this same belief.
They need City Manager Antonio or his staff whispering the answers to them.
But they're his boss, NOT the other way around.
The other thing that's completely obvious to anyone coming to a HB City Commission meeting for the first time is that both Ross and Sanders lack ANY discernible curiosity at all, and are perfectly content to say very little when a lot of questions and more accountability are precisely what's required.
They are simply NOT up to the job.
It's very disheartening to see that at least two of the five elected people sitting on the dais are completely disconnected from reality when there are SO MANY other people in this ocean-side community that are fully capable of sitting there and taking their position of authority seriously.
And fully capable of showing more attention, of being better prepared for the public meetings, and, most of all, of demanding more of themselves.
Combined, that means a more energized City Commission demanding more serious and frequent answers from staff and Dept. heads instead of the prattle that so often masquerades as information exchange at Hallandale Beach City Hall, mortifying citizens like me and my friends.
The City Commission's job is NOT to be everyone's pal and to tell every single city employee that comes before them what a great job they're doing.
Clearly, a lot of them are doing a completely inadequate job, and we can all see the results of that ineptitude and lack of attention to detail all around us.
It's everywhere.
So why did Ross and Sanders run for office if they are not prepared to perform the necessary tasks expected of them, including occasionally meeting with constituents and answering their questions?
The seats of both Ross and Sanders are up in November of 2012 and in my opinion, both have very, very little to point to in the way of positive accomplishment or active engagement with the whole community to commend them.
And in Sanders' case in particular, his ridiculous and self-serving intimation that HE is THE representative of NW Hallandale Beach, is both galling and a canard.
Perhaps he has to believe that in order to go thru the motions or walk around town, I don't know, but in this small city of under five square miles, all city commission members are At-Large.
Yet Sanders has amply demonstrated thru both action and word that he has VERY LITTLE active interest in anything going on in the city east of U.S.-1, which is where most of the city's population is located.
Whether it's the longstanding mess at the public beach under the mis-direction of the city's DPW Dept. under John Chidsey, Mayor Cooper's anti-democratic Golden Isles overlay plan, NE's longstanding objections to Ben Gamla, etc, etc.
He was AWOL on those important issues just like Ross was AWOL from two months of meetings so far this year.
Ross is not running for re-election and Sanders is clearly pinning much of his hopes for re-election on a repeat performance of the 'Obama effect'.
Both of them have been solid and consistent votes for the crony capitalism that has plagued HB City Hall for years under Mayor Cooper, where taxpayer money and resources have been regularly squandered, with little positive to show for it, and genuine opportunities to noticeably improve the Quality of Life here have been blown left-and-right.
They both have got to go if this community is going to be anything like what it ought to be already, given its location and resources.
Instead, it continues to stagnate with incurious and disconnected people at the helm, golden opportunities slipping thru their fingers everyday.
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For more fascinating images of Abraham Lincoln, see these at the Indiana Historical Society's website:
