Another classic Hallandale Beach screw-up! Friday's supposed public Meet-and-Greet of HB City Manager candidates is STILL not on calendar of city's own website; this failure on something very simple is the latest Mark Antonio 'success' story!
As of 4:30 p.m. today, Thursday, there is STILL nothing on the City of Hallandale Beach's website about Friday's supposed public Meet-and-Greet of Hallandale Beach City Manager candidates in less than 26 hours, http://www.
"They will also meet the public at a reception at the city's Cultural Community Center, 410 SE Third St."
if the city's own website doesn't mention it, and it doesn't now, does this event really exist?
The only thing on the city's website mentioning the community meeting on Friday comes up under an entry for -wait for it- Saturday!
As shown above, there's nothing on the city's website about Friday under "Calendar."
As I stated over the weekend in my post titled, When providing a Sun-Sentinel reporter with much-needed context re HB, we're reminded again of Comm. Lewy's penchant for craveness, verbosity & duplicity and City Manager Antonio's knack for under-performance, http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/03/when-providing-sun-sentinel-reporter.html
not that it's my decision to make, but personally I'm opposed to any of the HB City Commissioners being present on Friday during what is supposed to be the public's time talking with the various candidates because I think that,
a.) the foreknowledge of that fact would cause many concerned residents NOT to show up, and,
b.) having them there would cause both the candidates and the public to be more uncomfortable than they need be. After all, it's NOT a First Date, it's a meet-and-greet, right?
In any case, if more than one HB City Commissioner shows up Friday at the HB Cultural Center for what is supposed to be the "Community" meeting at 6 p.m., absent an adequately-timed Public Notice, plenty of time before the event -because whatever else it will be, it is NOT a sudden "Emergency" meeting- it would seem to me to be a violation of the state's Sunshine Laws.
Isn't this sort of thing supposed to be the responsibility of the city's new paid spin doctor, Mr. Dobbens?
Yes.
Isn't this the sort of basic information that he personally should've made sure was on the city's website LAST WEEK, given that the City Commission made the cut to four candidates last Wednesday?
Yes.
Isn't this sort of incompetent and half-assed effort, the latest in a long litany of them, precisely why I and Michael Butler and so many other concerned residents told City Manager Mark Antonio to his face in 2010 why HE was wrong in NOT listening to the overwhelming majority of this community, and instead, stubbornly insisting that the city give $50,000 in taxpayer's money to the faux newspaper, The South Florida Sun-Times, to act as a propaganda sheet, and HIS desire and subsequent decision to hire someone to act as PR spin-meister to make the city look good, when all it would actually accomplish is show conclusively how poorly-run the city is under him?
Yes.
IF this were a well-run city, everyone living and working here would already know it and would not only be able to see the tangible examples of why this city's budget has nearly DOUBLED in the past seven years when they drove and walked around, but could also recount the reasons to anyone who asked.
But it isn't a well-run city, it's a mess because of the years of bad decisions and judgments by people at HB City Hall, elected and un-elected..
And now, on this very simple matter, one that most cities manage to be able to handle without any major problems -put accurate information on their own website in a timely fashion- we are left once again to wonder why all that taxpayer money had to be spent so foolishly, down a rat hole.
But the answer to that question is the same as it was last week, last month and last year and the year before that: because un-elected City Manager Mark Antonio wanted it that way.
