Looks like Broward County is finally serious about recouping the millions in CRA funds that cities like Hallandale Beach have mishandled and squandered via incompetency and crony capitalism. Couldn't be clearer that HB City Manager Renee C. Miller still wants to keep stonewalling taxpayers!
A slightly-expanded version of an email that I sent out Wednesday afternoon to my In-Crowd
of concerned residents and taxpayers in Hallandale Beach and throughout Broward County as well as concerned civic activists around the Sunshine State, along with cc's to people in our state capital of Tallahassee whom I've communicated with in the past year, ostensibly, because they more than most people in the legistlature have a strong interest in this matter of CRAs, and Florida cities continually using them for purposes for which the enabling legislation was NOT intended, as my many previous blog posts on this subject and audits have made crystal clear.
Among the lucky recipients this time were: Florida CFO Jeff Atwater, outgoing FL Senate President Don Gaetz, powerful FL state Sen. Jack Latvala, and FL state Rep. Lake Ray, who is Chair of the Joint Legislative Auditing Committee.
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More soon on the blog on the subject of the scandal-plagued Hallandale Beach CRA, along with the EXCESS MILLIONS of tax dollars that have been and will be paid to a small number of the City of Hallandale Beach's highest-paid employees in pensions -including the past 3 City Managers: Mark A, Antonio, Mike Good & R.J. Intindola- which current City Manager Renee Miller still can't explain with a straight face.
Yes, more than TWO YEARS after Miller personally promised community activist Csaba Kulin in-person that she would give him the docs he sought from the city via Public Records Request provisions of Florida's Sunshine Laws, after the city had refused to fully comply with the law, just like the CRA funds issue, City Manager Miller can't and won't tell the truth and has refused to turn the germane public documents over.
Documents that would show who at HB City Hall made the decision on who would and would not be in the managament pension plan, and who decided that they'd be paid at a much-higher rate than they were scheduled to receive.
Or as it was then-described in the Broward Bulldog, "authorize the granting of retroactive retirement credit."
Hallandale’s ex-top managers collect fat pensions from retirement plan they pushed a decade ago
Altered rules let ex-Hallandale city manager’s son-in-law join lucrative pension plan
The city even had the audacity to claim to Csaba that it didn't even know who was a part of the pension plan! Really.
But then this is the same city that in 2011 had its CRA purchase land for use as a park at a price that was higher than it was really worth, but then this year, we were told repeatedly by Miller that having CRA funds used to fix/modernize the city's very poorly-maintained parks within the CRA district was NOT a good thing, and that citizens needed to vote in November for a Parks Bond issue instead.
This despite the fact that the HB City Commission has written the question so that any funds approved by voters in November could, in fact, be used for whatever purpose the City Commission wanted.
Which is to say, NOT used exclusively for Parks, as I have long argued was necessary in order to give HB taxpayers some degree of confidence that a yes vote would indeed be for what citizens at the ballot box intended.
In essence, HB City Hall wants the Bond issue approved so they can create a new slush fund for themselves to continue their years of arrogant crony capitalism.
And, of course, as I've have commented upon many times over the 18 months since it was released, it speaks volumes about her lack of transparancy and accountability that Renee Miller still refuses to place the Broward IG's damning report of the city accusing it of "gross mismanagement" on the city's website -or even post the city's own response.
Yes, the "response" that HB taxpayers and the CRA had to pay for that was nothing but a complete whitewash of responsibility.
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HallandaleBeachBlog
#HallandaleBeach still lying abt. its (invisible) oversight/accountability of $12.6M in CRA funds it mishandled :-( http://www.browardbulldog.org/
Broward Bulldog
Broward to seek return of CRA tax dollars mishandled by cities; Millions at stake
By William Gjebre, BrowardBulldog.org
September 4, 2014 AT 6:35 AM
Broward will seek the return of county property tax dollars from city community redevelopment agencies that hoarded that money instead of spending it on projects to fight slum and blight that are ready to get underway, according to County Administrator Bertha Henry.
The county’s toughened stand follows recent findings by Broward’s Inspector General that Margate deliberately mishandled $2.7 million in CRA funds. It also comes amid fresh criticism about the way Hallandale Beach allegedly handled its community redevelopment funds.
Read the rest of the article at:
