Above, the never-ending embarrassment for us as Hallandale Beach taxpayers and the world of journalism. October 8, 2010 photo by South Beach Hoosier.
What follows is a Draft of a March 2010 blog entry that while it contains certain elements regular readers may recognize from previous posts here, was never itself posted online this way. And was, of course, 100% true when I wrote it, too.
Looking at it now, I can't help but wonder if Broward Inspector General John W. Scott and his crew of investigators, who are already busy investigating the city, have spoken yet to former Hallandale Beach CRA Manager Bobby Robinson or former HB Director of Development Services Richard Cannone, now of Calvin, Giordano & Associates.
(At HB City Hall Cannone is now considered a registered lobbyist and has visited HB City Hall numerous times on behalf of The Related Group's Beachwalk proposal on the Intercoastal that was unanimously rejected in January by the HB Planning & Zoning Board, but which, this being HB, comes back anyway to the entire City Commission this coming Wednesday night. More on that in a separate blog post on Mo0nday.)
If not, Mr. Scott & Company should definitely be making a VERY STRONG effort to do so -now.
(At HB City Hall Cannone is now considered a registered lobbyist and has visited HB City Hall numerous times on behalf of The Related Group's Beachwalk proposal on the Intercoastal that was unanimously rejected in January by the HB Planning & Zoning Board, but which, this being HB, comes back anyway to the entire City Commission this coming Wednesday night. More on that in a separate blog post on Mo0nday.)
If not, Mr. Scott & Company should definitely be making a VERY STRONG effort to do so -now.
I can personally think of about a hundred or so concerned Hallandale Beach citizens who, given enough of a head's up, would be happy to bring a cup of coffee with them from Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts and then plop down $10 a piece to sit down and observe an interview held in the middle of the auditorium of the HB Cultural Center, so we could finally hear their own accounts of what was REALLY going on that had/has so many HB taxpayers rightly upset.
How public information about development proposals was kept from the public, or so we can all find out which squeaky wheels in town were asking to be greased via CRA funds, with an almost guaranteed lack of appropriate accountability or follow-up.
Reminding you again, the following is from March 2010...
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How public information about development proposals was kept from the public, or so we can all find out which squeaky wheels in town were asking to be greased via CRA funds, with an almost guaranteed lack of appropriate accountability or follow-up.
Reminding you again, the following is from March 2010...
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The City of Hallandale Beach subsidizes one-sided propaganda thru $50k grant to FAUX newspaper.
Above, the document that memorializes the fact that the City of Hallandale Beach subsidizes one-sided propaganda thru a grant and loan to FAUX newspaper.
And yes, that is the same FREE fake newspaper that gives Mayor Joy Cooper a "column" to extol her particular brand of ill-informed nonsense and half-truths without fear that a Letter to the Editor will EVER appear that directly refutes and corrects her serial mis-statements.
The Sun-Times not only DOESN'T run them, they DON'T print ANYTHING the slightest bit critical of Hallandale Beach City Hall, Mayor Cooper or City Manager Mike Good and his high-paid staff.
Just so you know, as of just a few months ago, HB's city manager and staff made more in salaries than the Hollywood City Manager's Office, despite the City of Hollywood being well over THREE TIMES larger in both size and population.
Guess who'd never ever mention that salient fact?
Yes, Craig Farquhar's faux newspaper that serves as propaganda arm to Hallandale Beach City Hall.
November 8, 2009 photo by South Beach Hoosier
The faux newspaper that serves as the propaganda arm to Hallandale Beach City Hall and the Joy Cooper & Mike Good Regime, the South Florida Sun-Times.
This particular vending machine is located but two feet away from one of the emergency fire exits of The Flashback Diner on U.S.-1/South Federal Highway, across from Gulfstream Park.
In a normal, well-run city, they'd be removed to another place on the property.
But in Hallandale Beach, a trio of vending machines can be placed right next to an emergency exit in a building one block from HB City Hall, and nobody there EVER notices the self-evident violation!
They are deaf, dumb and blind to everything around them. .
Twenty years after the Fall of the Berlin Wall, Hallandale Beach, Florida still needs glasnost!
November 5th, 2009 Update re South Florida Sun-Times, above.At yesterday morning's Hallandale Beach City Commission meeting, I heard the new official Hallandale Beach City Hall stalling tactic regarding the actual citizens and taxpayers of this city being able to see the documents regarding City Manager Mike Good's decision to give $50,000 in city CRA money as a grant to the faux newspaper called the South Florida Sun-Times, above.
Mayor Joy Cooper was practically gloating Wednesday when she foolishly said that she thinks that the particular documents are "proprietary" and can't be shared with public!
Can she really be that arrogant and anti-democratic in public, he said rhetorically.
Can she really think that she can trump the State of Florida Constitution and the protected rights that Florida citizens enjoy under our Sunshine Laws, forever, and that there won't be legal and political consequences for her personally and the city?
To answer my own question, yes, Joy Cooper is indeed that arrogant, that anti-democratic and that egotistical. Proprietary?
Sure, because in the current economy of the year 2009, actual for-profit companies want to model their own behavior on an inferior product like the faux newspaper, the Sun-Times, that doesn't actually generate a profit, has a very poor reputation and that rather than accurately reflect the news of the community in its pages, good and bad, exists as a propaganda arm of Hallandale Beach City Hall and the mayor and city manager who give it money, just like the Hallandale Beach Chamber of Commerce.
Twenty years after the Fall of the Berlin Wall, Hallandale Beach, Florida still needs glasnost!
Below, the phony "story" the city placed in the faux newspaper the week before the 2008 election:Mayor Joy Cooper was practically gloating Wednesday when she foolishly said that she thinks that the particular documents are "proprietary" and can't be shared with public!
Can she really be that arrogant and anti-democratic in public, he said rhetorically.
Can she really think that she can trump the State of Florida Constitution and the protected rights that Florida citizens enjoy under our Sunshine Laws, forever, and that there won't be legal and political consequences for her personally and the city?
To answer my own question, yes, Joy Cooper is indeed that arrogant, that anti-democratic and that egotistical. Proprietary?
Sure, because in the current economy of the year 2009, actual for-profit companies want to model their own behavior on an inferior product like the faux newspaper, the Sun-Times, that doesn't actually generate a profit, has a very poor reputation and that rather than accurately reflect the news of the community in its pages, good and bad, exists as a propaganda arm of Hallandale Beach City Hall and the mayor and city manager who give it money, just like the Hallandale Beach Chamber of Commerce.
Twenty years after the Fall of the Berlin Wall, Hallandale Beach, Florida still needs glasnost!
This is the phony, one-sided story Hallandale Beach City Hall had placed in the faux newspaper the week before the November 2008 election, in order to try to ensure that Anthony A. Sanders got elected.
It was dis-honestly titled Setting the Record Straight: On the Purchase of Eagles Development Center, and carried no byline or identifying author information.
Most well-informed people in the city have long-believed that it was actually written by someone in the HB City Manager's Office, likely one of the Asst. City Managers.
Which is to say that some highly-paid city employee, whose salary and pension are paid for with taxpayer funds, was instructed to concoct a lie masquerading as a news story, in order to placate at least one elected city official, in order to ensure that facts about an interim City Commissioner were covered-up and that said interim City Commissioner was elected.
That's how absurd life in Hallandale Beach is, and where was the South Florida news media when this originally happened, even after they were repeatedly told what was going on?
Completely Missing in Action, as usual!
