While Florida gubernatorial candidates talk about re-inventing the wheel, Meg Whitman says innovation, technology will be key to California's success

Meg Whitman 2010 campaign video: Meg Whitman says innovation, technology will be key to California's success  http://youtu.be/S34aTv7wNdY

Now THIS is how you make a political video that appeals to the common sense of intelligent and well-informed people who always vote: you're honest about the current economic reality and describe a plausible scenario for changing things for the better, not spouting condescending nonsensical generalities about how the economic future of the state is sunshine.
Please!

The contrast in intellectual heft and strategic focus between this Meg Whitman video and the dim-witted TV political ads and website videos coming out of Florida could hardly be greater, and from a Florida voter's perspective, hardly more dispiriting.
I last wrote about the contrast between the gubernatorial candidates in Florida and California on July 25th:
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/with-99-days-til-election-day-politico.html

I've got some blog posts coming up soon about the alternative energy approaches of Alex Sink, Bill McCullom and Rick Scott, and to say that they are vague and unfocused is a gross understatement.
Even worse from my perspective, Sink's approach, as distilled from reading her own website and several environmental websites and blogs, seems to unduly rely on Washington largess, which is to say that she thinks that D.C. will simply give money to Florida so that pols in Tallahassee can pick-and-choose some economic winners in the alternative energy industry.

I'm going to go out on a limb(!) and say that kind of politics-as-usual approach would enrich friends, family members, past supporters and cronies of the elites in Tallahassee, but NOT the entrepreneur in South Florida that has an innovative business plan that satisfies consumers and will make money within three years, and won't be dependent on government subsidies for its sheer existence.

That's not a constructive strategy to create well-paying jobs and a viable industry, esp. in South Florida, but is sweet music to lobbyists, who will once again say that local and county govts. need them to do their magic in Washington, with taxpayers footing the tab.

We don't need more taxpayer-funded lobbyists in Washington, we need more high-tech jobs in Florida that are based on the free market system of providing a desired service to consumers at a price they deem reasonable enough to use.

If you doubt what I'm saying about the contrast in quality of the candidates for governor between California and the three currently running in Florida, simply go to Whitman's campaign sites for yourself and see what's there. They are well-designed, easy to navigate and full of useful information presented in an attractive manner that isn't a confusing mishmash of images.

Which is to say, that her sites are the exact opposite of the Miami Herald and South Florida Sun-Sentinel's websites, which are uninviting jumbled messes that seem to have no logical rhyme or reason other than to send you involuntarily to one of their sponsors.

Meg Whitman's got a damn impressive resume that's based on integrating innovative ideas and the ability to give consumers a product they find useful; has the right kind of personal temperament to handle the ups-and-downs of the office she's seeking; and has the demonstrated ability to create enthusiasm among others for her ideas and policies. Plus, quite clearly, she has some very smart and creative people around her to advise her, not the usual political retreads.

Your homework assignment is to compare and contrast Whitman with candidates from Florida.

Official Meg Whitman campaign website:
http://www.megwhitman.com/index.php
Meg Whitman campaign YouTube Channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/Meg2010Campaign

Must-see TV today: Humphrey Bogart in Deadline U.S.A. at 4 p.m. on TCM

"A big-city editor brings down a mobster, saves his newspaper and re-unites with his ex-wife."


"That's the press, baby. The press! And there's nothing you can do about it. Nothing!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgdE-qPv6kw



Deadline U.S.A. may well be the best Bogart film that most people have STILL not seen for themselves, so do yourself a favor before leaving for work Wednesday morning and make a point of setting your VCR or DVR or whatever electronic gadget you schedule your TV life with, and make a point of recording this film Tuesday afternoon at 4 p.m. on Turner Classic Movies, DirecTV 256.
http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=72550

I've probably seen this film about a dozen times by now and because I've seen all of Bogart's other films SO many more times, this is still one that surprises me with each new viewing as I find myself noticing things for the first time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPTo_YAJ21s



Do you know the difference between a journalist and a reporter?
Jim Backus will explain it to you at a bar full of veteran reporters who've heard the same joke for decades, but who still laugh each time it's told.

I came across this short trailer for an upcoming PBS documentary called Stop the Presses: The American Newspaper in Peril while looking for something else a few weeks ago. It's already been shown in some TV markets but I don't recall it being in South Florida yet.

Hope it'll be as good as the one on the LA Times last year, even though that one started trailing off a bit towards the end, probably because there was no hero riding in on a white horse at the end -with $$$. If you don't blink, there's also a few seconds of Anders Gyllenhaal of the Herald speaking. It was uploaded on June 2nd.


AMS Pictures - Stop the Presses
Uploaded by ggallucci. - Watch feature films and entire TV shows.

I later found its website: http://www.stopthepressesdoc.com/

Some of the newspaper blogs I read include:
http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/
http://gannettblog.blogspot.com/
http://davisullblog.blogspot.com/

Three weeks from tonight, everyone will be asking, "What's Kendrick Meek going to do for a job now?"

For reasons that are pretty obvious to anyone who's got half-a-brain and who's been paying close attention, the slippery-slope part of Kendrick Meek's political career begins in earnest three weeks from tonight, when I expect him to lose the first competitive election he's ever been in, losing to Jeff Greene in the Florida Democratic U.S. Senate primary.
That will be to the great consternation of condescending liberal Dems all over the state, who were ready to serve the nomination up to him on a silver platter despite his clear lack of accomplishment, almost as an offering of penance.

Sure, because having two people with such low name recognition and actual accomplishment as Alex Sink and Kendrick Meek at the top of the ticket is such a compelling narrative. LOL!

While it's still indeed possible for people of little-to-no consequence but lots of ambition and a ton of family connections to get elected to the U.S. Senate, especially if you are from a state with a small population -and I met many such people in my 15 years in Washington- Kendrick Meek has finally had his Close Encounter of the Third Kind -Contact- with the new dynamics of Florida being the fourth-largest state in the nation.

That's a lesson that many pols in this state learned the hard way a few years ago, when it was clear that the old ways of creating a working coalition that wins had changed forever, especially when you threw the Internet and Social Media into the mix.
Apparently, Kendrick Meek didn't get the memo.

Perhaps that memo was sent to him in Washington while he was in Haiti immediately after the earthquake in January, playing the role of melodramatic pol for all the assembled network TV cameras, behavior which left a very bad taste in many Florida voters' mouth.

And yes, before you ask, I did, in fact, catch Meek on Fox News in those first few hours after the quake struck, when he was LIVE with Geraldo Rivera and just happened to have a video-camera with him.

(I actually snapped a screenshot or two of that interview with my camera after I got over my initial shock of seeing Meek there, but I wasn't able to pull up the photo from the computer archives before posting this now.)

Meek's knee-jerk orthodoxy in casting congressional votes with seemingly little thought, his inability over several terms to develop a reputation for being either an expert in some field, a respected deep-thinker, or a person with the personal skills to persuade more independent-minded centrist Members on an important vote, and his general lack of accomplishment has left a wide opening for someone who would exploit those self-evident weaknesses with vigor.

In Jeff Greene, he's met someone who enjoys tweaking him over his mediocre track record and who can call him out on all these things, not just one, and actually put his money where his mouth is.

-----

So what do you think Kendrick Meek's next job will be after his term is up in January?

Send me your best prognostications, either practical or sarcastic or both, and after a time, but before the August 24th primary, I will run some of them here for the amusement and edification of other Hallandale Beach Blog readers around the world, where of late, our friends in Sweden have come on strong to pass Italy for 8th place. Just chalk it up to the appeal of Timoteij and Molly Sandén.

FYI: The photo of Kendrick Meek at the top of this post is from a piece of Jeff Greene direct mail that I received Tuesday afternoon.
As much as people talk about Greene's vast financial resources, the thing that's most noticeable to me as a former political operative and political junkie, as well as a South Florida voter who has kept all the campaign lit that's been sent this year, regardless of the particular office, is that his direct mail is simply more interesting, attractive and well-designed than anyone else's.
That still counts for something.

Public meeting on Hallandale Beach Wal-Mart expansion is 6 p.m. tonight at HB Cultural Center

Tonight will be the public meeting on the Hallandale Beach Wal-Mart expansion plans at the Hallandale Beach Culture Center at 6 p.m., so make arrangements to be there so you can hear for yourself what their plans are.

All photos on this page taken July 27th, 2010 by South Beach Hoosier. Now about the absolutely ridiculous location of the public notice sign, above, that was placed just off of north-bound Three Islands Blvd., next to shrubs of a professional office building that has been completely vacant ever since I returned to South Florida over six years ago... and which is far from any street lights, insuring that almost nobody saw it, since very few people actually walk on that sidewalk, and if you're driving and need to make that right turn, you can't read it since traffic is constantly turning.

In fact, you'd probably assume it's just snipe advertising of the sort that this city is positively drowning under, no thanks to the city's lackluster Code Compliance office, which continually ignores self-evident violations all over the city, including boats in areas they're not allowed -like restaurant parking lots!- or advertising signs on the U.S.-1 median directly in front of HB City Hall and Gulfstream Park for weeks at a time...
Well, perhaps that's not completely true.

I suppose IF you are walking out of the HB Three Islands Fire Station across the street, between 7 a.m. and 6:30 p.m., you can see the public notice sign, even if you can't read it from there.

But then it's not really put up for the benefit of city employees, is it?
No, it's supposed to be placed in a VISIBLE location on the applicant's property for the benefit of the immediate neighborhood and interested citizens of the city.



The back side of the sign, HB's Three Islands Fire Station across the street, around 6:45 p.m.


As it gets darker, the sign begins to fade from view...


...and you notice that there are no street lights focused on that side of the street.

Dark, darkerer, darkest...


That white square on the right is the public notice sign reflecting back my camera's flash.
And did I mention yet that where the sign is placed is NOT Wal-Mart's property nor the property of its landlord?
It's true!

Shouldn't something like that actually matter, legally?

So, why wasn't the sign placed somewhere near the entrance to the store so that all the customers and interested citizens who would have an interest in this issue could see it for themselves?

Because that would be too easy and logical, and that is simply NOT how things are done in Hallandale Beach.

If you needed proof of that, consider the situation just a few months ago with the yellow public notice signs regarding the requests of several nightclubs at The Village of Gulfstream Park for extended serving hours.

They lay on the ground in front of Gulfstream Park's entrance on U.S.-1 for well over a week BEFORE the HB City Commission meeting -and for two weeks after THAT!

This, despite the fact that it's located directly across the street from HB City Hall.

That's how they roll in Hallandale Beach!

Yohanna's trip to Finland in May: Thank You for the Music; Into Your Arms; Jóhanna Guðrún Jónsdóttir

I'd been meaning to post this video of Yohanna rehearsing in Kuopio, Finland two months ago, capturing her singing both an ABBA favorite, Thank You for the Music, as well as Nick Cave's Into My Arms.

Though I've spoken of Yohanna more than a few times here in the past, I think even more than the previous videos of hers that I've shared here -the last new one being from a Christmas show in Stockholm that aired on TV3's "En Sång För Hemlösa 2009" (A Song For The Homeless 2009), where she sang a few songs, including a tremendous version of Don't Save It All For Christmas Day, see my January 1st post, http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/wow-yohanna-sings-dont-save-it-all-for.html - you can really see her tremendous earnestness and sense of purpose.
Of, quite literally, wanting to get every note and chord just right

Over the weekend, while I was watching a Marlins-Padres ballgame on TV, a friend from overseas with a good memory emailed to remind me about a couple of posts I'd talked about in the abstract that had yet to materialize in this space yet.

You may well recall some of these as well, from prior posts of mine or thru emails, but as it happens, one concerned Yohanna's trip to Finland -Suomi.
I'd told her previously that my plan was to put this video and some comments up over the Memorial Day weekend, sometime between watching the Indy 500 and the anti-climatic NCAA Lacrosse Mens Championship game between Duke and Notre Dame, but that, well, she hadn't seen it yet.
Oops!!!

Having received that gentle reminder, I'm now sharing the video that Tiia Santavirta first uploaded for Chaos Tube at http://www.youtube.com/user/TiiaSantavirta

More photos of the trip are available at http://teamyohanna.blogspot.com/ and more Yohanna videos can be seen at the TeamYohanna YouTube channel, http://www.youtube.com/user/TEAMYOHANNA

British Labour leadership debate on BBC Radio's 5 live with Victoria Derbyshire was ab fab -everything U.S. debates aren't: illuminating & humorous

In my Friday post I referenced having gotten up very early Thursday in order to do something. That something was getting-up in time to listen to the BBC's 5 live broadcast of the British Labour party leadership debate from Stevenage, north of London, in Hertfordshire. The Wikipedia entry for Stevenage says among other things:

In 1861 Dickens commented "The village street was like most other village streets: wide for its height, silent for its size, and drowsy in the dullest degree. The quietest little dwellings with the largest of window-shutters to shut up nothing as if it were the Mint or the Bank of England."

Not unlike most of you, so many times in the past, I've gotten up early for things that have proved quite underwhelming and disappointing personally, and I wondered the night before if this was going to just be the latest such incident.

For instance, in my own case, in the mid-'80's, when I lived in Evanston and Wilmette, just north of Chicago, right off Lake Michigan, I once caught the first "El" train of the morning to meet a friend of mine at O'Hare who was on lay-over for a few hours for her flight to Europe, but she was so tired from her late-night flight from the West Coast that she was barely awake while we had the Tartan Tray restaurant at O'Hare pretty much to ourselves, almost like it was a VIP suite.

(I used to know the layout of O'Hare like the back of my hand for it was easier to navigate than my own neighborhood, since once you knew the basic parameters, it was easy to get around, even logical, a far cry from MIA when I was using that so often in the '70's and '80's. I especially loved the Tartan Tray restaurant because they were always friendly, delicious and safe after midnight, with very reasonable prices for an airport vendor. Plus, the radio reception there was among the best in the entire airport, even if you weren't near a window.)

So getting back to Thursday morning, not surprisingly, given how closely I follow what's going on in Great Britain, I've been closely following all the press stories and leaks surrounding the five candidates vying to succeed Gordon Brown as leader of the Labour Party, even as they fight for a job where they don't know exactly when Prime Minister David Cameron might call for a new general election and they will have to show their mettle during a 4-6 week window of a campaign: Andy Burnham, former Foreign Secretary David Miliband, his brother Ed Miliband, Ed Balls and Diane Abbott.

Just as is often true in team sports, sometimes it's better to not be the guy who follows a certain head coach or manager but rather to be the one after that, where the legacy, good or bad, has dissipated enough so that you can be judged on your own relative merits.
See Vince Lombardi, Earl Weaver and Ara Parseghian.

Gordon Brown was the person who had the unenviable task of succeeding someone who had fundamentally changed the public perception of the British Labour Party, Tony Blair without ever having been voted in as PM himself, and he suffered greatly for it, not unlike Gerald Ford's presidential campaign in 1976.

Since Cameron's election, something I openly hoped for on this blog, I've read with great interest the stories in the British press, especially in The Times and The Telegraph, as well as those on BBC Radio 5 live and TV4 News, the various heartfelt and exasperating interviews with former Labour leadership personnel about how the longstanding personality clashes between the Blair and Brown wings of the party had caused continual friction and heartburn for many caught in-between in ways that had never been publicly known 'til recently.

There were always lots of rumors, but it turns out that where there was smoke there WAS, in fact, fire.
And at this debate, you'll hear plenty of very specific criticisms for how that party cleavage affected morale and political decisions during the last campaign.

This cleavage between the two wings was particularly problematic when it came time to have an agenda (manifesto) that could win in non-Labour strongholds.

Like the most liberal Democrats here in the Northeast U.S. and on the Left Coast, many Labour MPs have very safe constituencies that allow them to travel around the country stumping on behalf of the party and other candidates, with very little concern that they'll lose their own election because of all the natural institutional advantages they have, which have little, if anything, to do with them personally.
The best example of this in Florida is the dreaded Debbie Wasseman-Schultz for instance.

It's all very well and good for her to spout very liberal, reflexively pro-Obama nostrums since she doesn't run from an evenly remotely competitive district, but for those Dems who come from evenly divided congressional districts, or even Republican-leaning districts, like many of the DLC candidates I've mentioned here previously, it's not such an easy thing to simply vote with blinders on.

What made listening to this debate -and watching it via streaming- so fantastic was that the host, Victoria Derbyshire, was like a combination of the best of Ted Koppell and Charlie Rose, plus those rare great old moments on NBC's "The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson," where politically astute pols of the late '60's and early '70's would eagerly
answer questions from Johnny that were either personally revealing or sometimes fraught with political danger, especially if you bombed and came across poorly, knowing the whole nation was watching.

Just like all young comics appearing on Carson for the first time, you desperately wanted Johnny's approval!


Johnny Carson, Rolling Stone 287, March 22, 1979,
Photo by Annie Leibovitz

I only read this article about 50 times when it first came out!


Derbyshire was masterful going from one candidate to another to elicit some intensely personal insight or political reflection to some often very difficult questions of a sort that you rarely if ever see on American TV, due to American pols reluctance to appear and 'let it all hang out' as it were. And she even got some of the candidates to personally call each other out in a way that you never see here publicly.

If you consider yourself even slightly a political activist or Anglophile or both and watch this video -available for viewing until Wednesday night U.K. time- you will get a first-class education into how to conduct a proper political debate that is both informative and lively, and something we should very much like to see more of on this side of the Atlantic.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00t7f6q




http://www.bbc.co.uk/5live/#two

Listen to the Labour leadership debate

Read listener comments from 5 live Connect

It can't be said better than this - Howard Troxler in 7/29/10 St. Pete Times: St. Petersburg's cynical plan to thwart Amendment 4 (redux)

I was up early Thursday morning for a reason I'll reveal in my next post, and after reading some of the early stories and columns that had made their way to my trusty Blogger Dashboard, I sent this excellent Howard Troxler column around as an email to the same couple of dozen well-read and concerned citizens throughout South Florida and the state that I'm always communicating with.

Some had already seen it, but it proved to be quite a healthy cold shower for those who'd thought that as ridiculous as some of the anti-Amendment 4 rhetoric had gotten the past few months, there was no way that any of Florida's local governments would be stupid enough to try to mess with something as basic as listening to the will of the people as expressed thru a vote. Forgetting, of course, where we live.

Judging by the responses I got throughout the day via emails, I think it's safe to say that those few people have been completely dis-abused of this lazy thinking now, after digesting the true significance of this column.
I also wondered if perhaps the Republican National Committee might not end up having some doubts about the logic of awarding the 2012 Republican National Convention to the Tampa Bay area after hearing about this kind of anti-democratic nonsense masquerading as public policy, which, frankly, is straight out of the Florida League of Cities playbook.

------
Well, in any activity affecting government and the public's rights in Florida, someone inevitably has to earn the sobriquet of "Most brazen."

Far too often, our mismanaged and unethical City Hall crew here in Hallandale Beach makes our city the unwitting winners in competitions where there are no real winners, http://sunshinereview.org/index.php/Hallandale_Beach,_Florida but for once, it looks like HB is going to have to simply watch from the stands as St. Petersburg makes a mockery out of democracy and voting.

I, for one, am happy to let them take the slings and arrows, though I'm sure that the City of Miami, given their track record of late, per their recent CRA shenanigans -see below- is working hard on 'halftime adjustments' so they can try to catch-up and then pass St. Pete in the waning days to win that dubious title.
If anyone can do it, it's the City of Miami.

Past columns of St. Pete Times columnist Howard Troxler are at: http://www.tampabay.com/writers/howard-troxler
He's one of a number of their columnists and reporters that I link to on my blog also.
That's not by accident.

--------
St. Petersburg Times
http://www.tampabay.com/news/st-petersburgs-cynical-plan-to-thwart-amendment-4-redux/1111712
St. Petersburg's cynical plan to thwart Amendment 4 (redux)

By Howard Troxler, Times Columnist

Posted: Jul 28, 2010 06:19 PM
In Print: Thursday, July 29, 2010

With St. Petersburg's final decision not until September, let's take another look at that city's attempt to thwart Amendment 4.

Amendment 4 on this November's ballot is known as "Hometown Democracy." It says that voters of each Florida city and county should have direct say over certain growth decisions.

By "certain growth decisions," I mean changes to each city and county's "comprehensive plan," a huge, complicated document governed by state law. Every city and county in Florida has one.

Right off the bat let's suppose that Hometown Democracy is just a terrible idea. All those elections!

The issue here is what St. Petersburg proposes to do if the voters pass it anyway.

Here is St. Petersburg's idea:
The city is creating a decoy map, calling it the only "plan" covered by Amendment 4, and declaring that this simplistic, pretty-colored map is the only thing voters control.

Meanwhile, the city's real comprehensive plan — and the real decisions about where developers will build — would stay under the control of the City Council.

It is a trick that will surely be challenged in court.

Naturally, the City Council approved it by a 7-1 vote on its first reading.

The city bats its eyes sweetly and claims that it is just trying to make Amendment 4 "better."
(This reminds me of an off-color joke; e-mail me at htroxler@sptimes.com and I'll tell it to you.)

The city also claims that it would still hold an election for most big developments. I do not believe that for one nanosecond.

Listen:

(1) The whole idea of Amendment 4 is to achieve voter control of comprehensive plans — REAL comprehensive plans. Creating a decoy plan does not make Amendment 4 "better." It guts it.

(2) The argument that Amendment 4 is a bad idea still cannot justify the city's end-run around the Constitution.

Amendment 4 might be a lousy idea. But if 60 percent of the voters of this state vote in November to put it in our Constitution anyway, then the city should obey it.

The mayor and members of the City Council took an oath to defend the Constitution, didn't they? Or did each one mutter under his or her breath, right hand in the air: "Except when I know better than the stupid voters"?

(3) If this trickery is allowed to stand by the courts, then the petition process in the Florida Constitution is meaningless.

This is the most important thing at stake. The Constitution is even more important than what the Sembler Co. is going to build next.

If the government in Florida can defy the voters by tricks and labels, then the Constitution does not matter. The voters can pass any change, and the government can just re-name the thing in question and go on with its business as usual.

In sum, this is a disingenuous attempt to dodge democracy.

It speaks poorly for the seven council members who voted for it. It speaks poorly for the mayor and his staff who are pushing it. It is morally wrong.

How can the City Council do it? How can its members walk around in public, holding their heads high, proud of trying to beat down the ignorant riff-raff, proud of trying to block citizens from running their own democracy and their own Constitution, all so they can keep letting developers build what they want?

-------

Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/07/21/1741412/request-for-cra-funds-for-miami.html#ixzz0uPLcGSIk

2 Miami commissioners want CRA funds to pay staff
By Charles Rabin
Posted July 21, 2010

Two Miami commissioners want to transfer $105,000 from community redevelopment funds to their own offices, a move experts say could be illegal and skirts the intent of helping blighted communities.

The request, to be voted on Thursday, comes as commissioners grapple with a free-falling city budget -- and as they look for ways to shore up their own staff finances.

"They're over budget in their commission offices, big time,'' said Mayor Tomás Regalado, among those questioning the idea.

Legal experts say Community Redevelopment Agency money -- intended to spur redevelopment in blighted areas -- should not be shifted outside the impacted communities. If the vote passes Thursday, the CRA money would flow to City Hall in Coconut Grove, well outside the targeted districts.

Two commissioners head CRA districts, and both support the transfer: Richard P. Dunn II and Chairman Marc Sarnoff.

Commissioners, who make up the CRA boards, are being asked to take $52,500 from the Southeast Overtown/Park West CRA and transfer that money to their district offices to cover "necessary expenses incurred in the discharge of duties.''

That CRA district is run by Dunn. The same total is being sought at the Omni CRA, headed by Sarnoff.

Dunn said top staffers in his office, such as chief aide Alexander Koteles, spend about 30 percent of their time dealing with CRA issues, visiting constituents to study their concerns. CRA money "goes to the commissioner's budget to cover for the person who spends time at the CRA,'' said Dunn.

Sarnoff echoed Dunn.

"You have all those obligations you never had before,'' said Sarnoff.

The two resolutions would grant the respective chairs $30,000, and each other commissioner $15,000.

Some observers question the wisdom -- and legality -- of such a move.

"It's a real gray area because you're not allowed to spend CRA money on city services,'' said Brad Knoeffler, a Park West developer. "They don't have any money in the general fund. They're looking for money.''

The state says property tax dollars accumulated in a CRA district must stay within that boundary. The statute also demands CRA money be spent on projects that have a chance of bringing economic vitality to an area.

In a letter to Dunn, CRA Executive Director James Villacorta, a former assistant city attorney, quoted a state statute that says a ``commissioner shall receive no compensation for services, but is entitled to the necessary expenses, including travel expenses, incurred in the discharge of duties.''

Frank Schnidman, director of the Center for Urban Redevelopment Education at Florida Atlantic University, disputed Villacorta's opinion.

Commissioners are ``basically providing a slush fund out of CRA money that is supposed to be used for slum and blight. It's an attitude that's pervasive in Miami,'' Schnidman said.

Replied Dunn: ``I disagree. A slush fund is when something is provided without services.''

Schnidman and Knoeffler believe the CRA money would be better spent on propping up local businesses in Park West, Overtown or the Omni area.

Dunn says he's in a tough spot. Commission budgets have been slashed to under $250,000.

That money comes from the city's general fund, or through property tax dollars. Office staff is paid through a commissioner's budget.

Sarnoff said a pair of audits show his office is over budget after being slashed in the cost-cutting move by the city, which is on the brink of financial collapse. But Sarnoff says he has enough unspent money from previous years he can roll over to balance his books.

"But yes, under both budgets, we'd be over budget,'' said Sarnoff.

Dunn, who admits his office is slightly over budget, denies using CRA money to balance his books.

"No I'm not,'' said Dunn. ``I mean it helps. It helps to stabilize my books.''

Reader comments at:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/07/21/1741412/request-for-cra-funds-for-miami.html?commentSort=TimeStampAscending&pageNum=1#none

Not mentioned here on the press page for the City of Miami CRA when I checked Thursday afternoon, http://ci.miami.fl.us/cra/Press_Releases.htm, is the fact that the Miami City Commission fired multi-area CRA Director James Villacorta late last Thursday night.

Miami Commission fires head of Community Redevelopment Agencies http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/07/23/1743826/miami-commission-fires-head-of.html

This comes as no surprise to anyone with common sense who watched in dismay the way the City of Miami put logic on its head by intentionally changing the boundaries of the CRAs, without a public vote for affected voters, in order to scare up more public money for the poorly-located Marlins Stadium in Little Havana, on the site of the iconic Orange Bowl.
That karma is going to be a real bitch in a few years!

City of Hallandale Beach 2011 Budget Workshops begin Wednesday afternoon at City Hall at 4 p.m.

Like many people in Hallandale Beach with an abiding interest in the future of this city, I received a copy of this email from Comm. Keith London on Monday regarding the city's public budget workshops that begin this afternoon at City Hall at 4 p.m.. As it happens, I happen to agree with what he says.

If anything, Comm. London is being charitable about what has been going on here, especially about the favored few getting their hands on taxpayer dollars too frequently without much -if any- genuine scrutiny, public accountability or transparency.

For a city with so many self-evident, longstanding problems that have merely been kicked down the road each and every year, without much if any serious attempt to address the root cause, there was far too much back-scratching with certain people the City Manager seemed determined to cultivate for reasons that still remain unclear.

That these people made out like bandits, even as the city commissioners and the public continually were forced to find out after-the-fact about tens of thousands of dollars going out the back door to people and groups that seemed to have undue influence already, only further raises the stakes now, and puts the the public skepticism of the City Manager and his employees' honesty and professionalism right on the table for discussion.

Having attended these workshops for the past few years, they offer the rare opportunity to ask tough questions of the city commissioners and staff -to literally kick the tires and check under the hood- I can tell you that they can often be eye-raising and troubling for all sorts of reasons.

Recently, the best questions were ones never asked by the City Commission because they were afraid to know the answer, since that would require a commensurate action take place that they were reluctant to take while Mike Good was City Manager -remind him that they were his boss, and that they were the elected policy-makers, not him.

If you come to this blog even fairly often, I'm sure this last point has been made crystal clear to you by now, as the number of times that four of the five commissioners have voted no on a proposal over the past year can be counted on one hand.

But how will the City Commission act at these budget workshops in the post-Good era, with two seats up in November and so much public anger and antagonism towards them for failing to be the proper custodians of the city's funds the public expected?
Well, that's where the curiosity factor comes in...

See also: http://www.changehallandale.com/

-------------

Everyone,

Please plan on attending the City of Hallandale Beach Budget Workshops scheduled for this Wednesday, July 28, 2010 and Thursday, July 29, 2010 at 4:00 PM at city hall. The workshops will include a review of our millage rate and property taxes. This is your opportunity to voice your concerns.

For too long, the elected officials in Hallandale Beach have provided residents and business owners their “spin” on the city’s budget.

While calling themselves fiscal conservatives, our elected officials have allowed the city’s budget to increase by $46.6 million over the last five years, a 48% increase!

During the same time, vital services have been cut, while fees and assessments have increased. And our property taxes continue to increase. Last year alone, Hallandale’s millage rate increase, on a percentage basis, was the highest increase in Broward County.

In the past five years, the city’s property value has increased by $1 billion, but instead of seeing tax decreases, the residents and business owners have seen increases in their taxes and fees.

It is time to stop the unnecessary spending, and reduce the city’s inflated budget.

Tell your City Commissioner’s to stop wasting your tax dollars. As your commissioner, and as I have done in previous years, I will vote NO on the budget if I see continued waste in our budget.

Tell your City Commissioner’s not to raise the millage rate, and to realize that the taxpayer is not an endless stream of money to be wasted by them. I will vote NO if the millage rate is raised.

The following are just a few examples of waste and abuse of your tax dollars:

• Charitable contributions should be made only to organizations providing essentials, like food and shelter. Strict accountability must be attached to every dollar so the taxpayers know their money is being used wisely.
• Stop spending taxpayer’s money on needless visits to Washington DC and Tallahassee.
• Stop buying band uniforms for charitable organizations.
• With people struggling, and even some losing their homes, its time to reduce taxes and let taxpayers choose to whom they want to make charitable donations!
• I will vote NO on charitable contributions if there are donations that go beyond the basic necessities.
• Hallandale currently pays the Sun Times over $50,000 a year for advertising, FIVE times what the city spent with them just a few years ago. Who is benefiting from this unnecessary expenditure? And why was it never voted on by the city commission?
• I will vote NO for the budget if there is money for the Sun Times.
• Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) loans made with NO collateral in direct conflict with our policy and rules. Our city attorney did nothing to prevent our own rules from being broken. This breach of the public’s trust cost “our” city $75,000 last year.
• This vote was 4:1 I was the only NO
• Spending tax dollars to end a contract with former city manager Mike Good, despite him being “FIRED” for not coming to work. The city attorney and mayor signed this contract each year since 2003. Due to our city attorney’s failure to address severe contract deficiencies, and the Mayor’s refusal to address them, the taxpayers must now pay:
• Nine months severance
• Health insurance for him and his family for the next 19 years
• All costs to earn a masters degree
• This vote was 4:1 I was the only NO vote
• This year, the city must spend $100,000 for the City Attorney’s pension plan
• The City Attorney earns over $200,000 annually
• The City Attorney outsourced over $350,000 to outside council in order to avoid political heat from the mayor
• “Our” city attorney is more concerned with keeping his job than following the law.

Road-tripping across the U.K in an RV with a Swedish pop star is fun... Robyn - Hang With Me (Official Video); @robynkonichiwa

RobynVEVO: Robyn - Hang With Me. Uploaded July 28, 2010. http://youtu.be/-3a2qoyONVA

Road-tripping across the U.K in an RV with a Swedish pop star is fun...
Robyn - Hang With Me (Official Video)
Just wondrous!
The single comes out in the U.S. the first week of September.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQh7sbU00CM

http://www.youtube.com/user/SwedishStereo

http://www.konichiwa.se

Robyn, @robynkonichiwa https://twitter.com/robynkonichiwa

*Speaking of Robyns, if anyone out there in the blogosphere knows the whereabouts of the beautiful and beguiling Robyn Hunter, originally from Ft. Smith Arkansas, The Washington School of Ballet in Washington D.C., volunteered at Crisis Hotlines in suburban Maryland, who worked for Perseus at the Army-Navy Building in Washington, D.C., and who is possessed of an absolutely amazing voice and sense of humor, please let me know at the email address above.* I will be eternally grateful.


The last time I can remember a song this catchy that I liked that also featured a carnival ride in the video was the late Kirsty MacColl in "New England."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fwtFSEovro



Last July I sent out this email to some friends around the country who'd known me for quite some time, and I thought since Kirsty's name popped into my head again, I'd include an excerpt here:

...after watching an old video of her singing "New England" that a friend sent a link to me of yesterday, completely out-of-the-blue. His reason for sending it?
Turns out that last week, he'd run into a former girlfriend of mine -with a fabulous voice- on a flight from D.C. back to Chicago, who used to sing/play that song all-the-time.

And a few hours later, after that trip to the 1980's via the South Beach Hoosier Time Machine, when I first turned on my computer after watching Wimbledon, this awful story over at the beach just jumped off the Sun-Sentinel's website.

Divers hit by speeding boat off Hollywood Beach 
BY JOSE PAGLIERY, The Miami Herald
2:51 PM EDT, July 5, 2009

A boat traveling dangerously close to the Hollywood Beach shore slammed into two divers Sunday morning before gunning its engines and disappearing.
A third diver was not injured....

Both victims, a father and son, were quickly transported to hospitals nearby, according to Hollywood Fire Rescue.

Someone needs to really make an example of these people on the boat who tried to mow down some innocent people today, and thought they could get away with it.

Lately, it seems like every other time I'm at the beach, especially in Hallandale Beach near the iconic Water Tower, whether reading the newspaper or doing some writing, esp. when the water is flat, I see some near-misses that make me anxious as people on the boats completely ignore the lifeguard's whistles, just taunting them.
One of these days...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirsty_MacColl

http://www.justiceforkirsty.org/news.htm

Like you really need me to tell you that Mexico is NOT our friend!