The Worst of Times, The Worst of Times: For Broward taxpayers & school kids, the era of "Marko the Bad & the Extravagant" seemed like it'd never end

No, it's not just your imagination.
The Miami Herald and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel have never reported on the hiring of James D. Stokes to replace Edward J. Marko as General Counsel for the Broward County School Board.

Or even the public meetings held to reach the final candidates, which I, at least, posted on my blog days in advance so that people would know what was going on.
I've been looking and waiting -nothing.

So I checked again after reading Buddy's Nevins' Broward Beat article this afternoon.

Result: We didn't find any Articles containing James Stokes.

Please refine your query and try again.

Per Buddy Nevins' jaw-dropping story, I'd complain to SE Broward School Board member Ann Murray about this situation, but since she hasn't been publicly seen in Hallandale Beach for a non-political purpose all year, there's no point.

Perhaps you feel differently, if so, here are the folks who remain after Tuesday's election results.

jennifer.gottlieb@browardschools.com

ann.murray@browardschools.com

robin.bartleman@browardschools.com
maureen.dinnen@browardschools.com

It'd be nice to see the South Florida news media actually try to ask the newly-elected School Board members on camera what they think of this outrage, and whether it seems at all consistent with what the so-called Integrity Comm., formally known by the tongue-twister, Commission on Education Excellence through Integrity, Public Ethics and Transparency, recommended for regaining the community's trust.
http://browardschoolsintegrity.org/

Oh yeah, and be sure to ask Integrity member Bob Butterworth what he thinks -on camera, too- about the very idea of the present School Board members voting on this before the new members are sworn-in.

Yet another nail in Broward Schools Supt. James Notter's coffin.
Please pass the hammer when you are through with it!

This afternoon I heard from Broward Coalition President Charlotte Greenbarg and Charlotte says:

"They're going to give the Stokes contract to the board Monday as they planned yesterday when they were negotiating with him. I was there."

After hearing that, all I can say is that from here in Hallandale Beach, it sure looks like a railroad robbery, and an "inside job" at that.

Note to self: I wonder if any Broward School Board members have ever been recalled from office before?
If not, there's always a first time, and I'd only be too happy to help get the party started.

I can think of two perpetual no-shows in Hallandale Beach I'd start with: rhymes with Gottlieb & Murray.

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Broward Beat
Outgoing School Board’s Last Minute Big Contract With Attorney
By Buddy Nevins

A $266,654 contract to give longtime School Board attorney Ed Marko an extra year’s employment is being rammed through a week before the new School Board takes office.

The contract appointing Marko “general counsel emeritus” is due to be voted on at next Tuesday’s meeting, the last meeting of the outgoing School Board.

The new Board will be sworn in a week later, on Nov. 16.

Read the rest of the post at:
http://www.browardbeat.com/outgoing-school-boards-last-minute-big-contract-with-attorney/

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http://eagenda.broward.k12.fl.us/cgi-bin/WebObjects/eAgenda.woa/wo/6.0.7.1.3.0.1.7.2.0.40.3.0.13.1.0.0.1.3

The School Board of Broward County, Florida Agenda
Created : October 11, 2010 at 06:46 PM

Public Hearing - Interview the Finalists for the General Counsel Position
October 11, 2010
Monday, 03:00 PM
K. C. Wright Administration Center
600 Southeast Third Avenue
Fort Lauderdale, Florida

---

CALL TO ORDER

PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

CLOSE AGENDA

PURPOSE OF MEETING:

For The School Board of Broward County, Florida to Interview the Finalists for the General Counsel Position, and any other items the Board deems necessary.

SUPERINTENDENT'S RECOMMENDATION:

1. Interview with Candidate for Position of General Counsel and Determination Whether to Authorize Contract Negotiations with a Selected Candidate or to Consider Other Alternatives for the Position of General Counsel To Interview a Candidate for Position of General Counsel and Determine Whether to Authorize Contract Negotiations with a Selected Candidate or to Consider Other Alternatives for the Position of General Counsel At the February 2, 2010 School Board meeting, The School Board authorized approval of the release of the Request for Letter of Interest (RLI) to seek interested and qualified candidates for the General Counsel position. Advertisements were run in the Sun-Sentinel, The Miami Herald, The Florida Bar News, Daily Business Review, Broward Barrister, Council of School Attorneys and the Broward County Public Schools website. Thirty-one (31) candidates submitted applications for the position of General Counsel. In accordance with the RLI, the following steps were taken. The applications were reviewed by the screening committee, Edward J. Marko, Esq.; Robert Soloff, Esq.; and Ms. Gracie Diaz. The screening committee identified those candidates who met the minimum qualifications for the position and whose resume and documentation indicated substantial experience in governmental and/or governmental law. As a result of the review, six (6) candidates were recommended to be interviewed by the Legal Services Committee. One of the six candidates withdrew, leaving five candidates who were interviewed by the Legal Services Committee. The committee reduced the field of candidates and decided to conduct a second interview with the two remaining candidates, Gary M. Glassman, Esq. and James D. Stokes, Esq. The Legal Services Committee recommended that both of those candidates be interviewed by The School Board. In accordance with the RLI, district staff conducted reference checks for the two remaining candidates. During that process, Mr. Glassman declined to provide a letter of reference from his supervisor at his current employer. Although he was informed that his failure to provide such a letter of reference would result in the withdrawal of his invitation to be interviewed by The School Board, Mr. Glassman declined to do so while requesting that he remain under consideration for the position. As a result of the lack of a letter of reference from his supervisor at his current employer, Mr. Glassman’s invitation to be interviewed has been withdrawn and Mr. Stokes is the only candidate being submitted to The School Board for an interview. There is no financial impact to the school district.

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South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Mayo on the Side blog

Will Broward Superintendent Notter start feeling heat for school district woes?

By Michael Mayo
October 22, 2010 10:35 AM

As if corruption arrests of two school board members and an ongoing state grand jury probe weren't enough, now comes the latest embarrassment for the Broward school district: a scathing federal audit that questions $15 million in disaster aid spending after the 2005 hurricane season.

The audit examined $15.7 million of $60.8 million (CORRECTION APPENDED: an earlier version had an incorrect figure of $65 million) in FEMA grants that the school district received after Hurricanes Katrina and Wilma.

Shockingly, it found problems with $15 million of the $15.7 million, nearly 95 percent, calling the district's expenses "unreasonable, unsupported, unnecessary or excessive."

Read the rest of the post at:

http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/columnists/mayo/blog/2010/10/federal_audit_another_black_ey.html

Mike Good: Not just fourth in a four-way race in Cooper City -a very bad fourth!

Cooper City's New City Commission 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QY05mwBG9R4

Not pictured above, former Hallandale Beach City manager Mike Good.

Not just fourth in a four-way race in Cooper City -a very bad fourth!

http://results.enr.clarityelections.com/FL/Broward/22350/39516/en/summary.html#

CITY COMMISSION DISTRICT ONE COOPER CITY (Vote For 1)

16 of 16 Precincts Reporting

		Percent	Votes
John Sims		39.30%	3,251
Gary Laufenberg		33.36%	2,760
Melissa Mears Megna		22.74%	1,881
D. Mike Good		4.61%	381
			8,273

As one civic activist I know commented in response after I'd shared this bit of news Wednesday morning in an email, "And that's a GOOD thing!"

http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/juice/2010/09/mike_good_cooper_city_commission_candidate_john_sims.php

To keep up on all things pro-reform Cooper City, which is currently the minority position on the City Commission led by misanthropic mayor Debby Eisinger, see http://coopercitycivicgroup.blogspot.com/



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHSChLzO9FU

More on the longstanding unethical maelstrom that is Debby Eisinger, out in western Broward County, far from the beach, home of the Cooper City Cowboys.

Eisinger, thru her bellicose words and often unethical behavior, is the poster child for all the ills that have taken over the state of FL in the past 10-15 years: a thin-skinned, anti-democratic elected official with both an edifice complex and a love of un-checked development, and a yen for the higher taxes that her ego demands in order to satisfy her govt. castle built upon sand.

In case you forgot about those problems, I refer you back to
Behind Florida's Exodus: Rising Taxes, Political Ineptitude
By Tim Padgett / Miami Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2009
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1919916,00.html

As I've recounted here more than a few times, when Eisinger was on the Broward County Charter Review Comm. in 2008, she voted against allowing Broward citizens to decide for themselves, in the November election, whether they wanted to have an elected county-wide mayor, instead of the preposterous current system wherein Broward county commissioners appoint one of themselves mayor for a year, with ZERO accountability to voters.

Bob Norman's recent New Times posts on Eisinger's mendacity are devastating:
http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/search/index?keywords=%22Debby+Eisinger%22&x=16&y=15

Especially this one from Sept. 23rd, Dirty Politics Shame City, Defame Candidate http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2010/09/cooper_city_background_checks.php
Be sure to read the Sept. 23 post below from David Nall, the City Commission candidate that was caught up in Mayor Eisinger's latest twisted and illegal City Hall gambit, and labeled a "criminal" by Cooper City City Hall.

He wasn't.
http://coopercitycivicgroup.blogspot.com/


City Apologizes For Calling Candidate Criminal
Channel 4 video at: http://cbs4.com/local/cooper.city.candidate.2.1931461.html

In case you haven't already heard about it or seen it for yourself, see the video about Cooper City at: http://www.youtube.com/user/browardperson and this explanation
http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/broward/blog/2010/09/cooper_city_mayor_miffed_over.html

----
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/10/28/1897384/apology-comes-too-late-for-candidate.html

Miami Herald
Posted on Thursday, 10.28.10
COOPER CITY
Apology comes too late for candidate Candidate for Cooper City's District 2 commission race says city's apology ``too late.''

BY SERGIO BONILLA
Special to The Miami Herald

David Nall just wanted to represent his city.

But after Nall, 43, filled out paperwork to run for commissioner, Cooper City hired an independent company to do a background check.

The result: Nall had been arrested for credit card fraud more than two decades ago.

Problem is, the report was wrong.

The city has since apologized and put a correction on its website, but Nall said it's too late for his campaign.

"The damage is already done,'' Nall said.

This is the first Cooper City election that requires background checks on candidates formayor and City Commission. All candidates had to sign paperwork consenting to background checks, Cooper City Attorney David Wolpin said.

The city hired IntelliCorp, based in Beachwood, Ohio. The report was submitted back to the city Sept. 13. IntelliCorp said it obtained the incorrect records from the Florida Department of Corrections.

After Nall notified IntelliCorp of the error, the company asked the corrections department to reinvestigate his record.

According to IntelliCorp, the corrections department confirmed its original findings.

However, a background check produced by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement showed Nall to have a clean record.

But the incorrect background check fell into the hands of his opponent for the City Commission District 2 seat. And now, Nall said, he feels the city has betrayed him.

"It was a malicious attempt to hurt my character,'' said Nall, the financial controller of GSD Contracting and a Little League coach for the Cooper City Optimist Club.

Several days after the report came back, Nall said, his opponent and her supporters were seen canvassing the gated community of Embassy Lakes with a copy of the background check in hand.

His opponent, Lisa Mallozzi, the incumbent, calls that a "flat-out lie.''

Before running for commissioner, each candidate signs a statement of ethical practices. One of the stipulations reads:

"I will neither use nor permit the use of malicious untruths or innuendos about an opponent's personal life, nor will I make or condone unfounded accusations discrediting an opponent's credibility.''

Nall said he felt that this rule was violated by Mallozzi.

Nall was irritated and embarrassed but it wasn't until his daughter found out about the accusation that he felt angry.

He was in the kitchen discussing the matter with his wife when their 10-year-old daughter asked, ``Daddy, you've been arrested? You're a criminal?''

"Now, it's affecting my kids,'' Nall said.

"You guys can attack me in anyway, but leave my family out of politics.''

In order to prevent another Nall situation in the future, Mallozzi said the agency should have to contact the candidates before releasing any information.

The recommendation has gone before the Cooper City Commission, but has not passed.

The Miami Herald's dismal Pony Express-style coverage of The World Series -compared to the New York Times- is a bad omen for readers

The Miami Herald's dismal Pony Express-style coverage of The World Series -compared to the New York Times- is a bad omen for readers, or, Breaking News at the Miami Herald STILL isn't the same as Breaking News elsewhere in the country.

Today's latest installment of "That's why they're the Herald"... which I've been meaning to discuss for ten days.

According to the Miami Herald, two of the headlines I've copied below were also Breaking News at 8 p.m. Friday night.

Breaking News
* Teen slashed with machete at North Lauderdale street brawl

* Democrat donor files suit against GOP congressional candidate David Rivera *

* NBA commissioner: Miami Heat is a global sports obsession

They are stories which had also been Breaking News all Friday afternoon in the same exact spot as they were, more or less, when I sent out an email to a few folks I know in the sports world and newspaper industry, at 3:47 p.m. on Saturday, October 30th, following the latest lethargic and embarrassing loss in the Randy Shannon era of U-M football.
(To UVA up in beautiful Charlottesville.)

One of which -shocker- was a puff piece to the NBA on the day of the Miami Heat's NBA home opener against the Orlando Magic, and a national telecast on ESPN.

To quote myself, "Guess it's been a slow news day at the Herald, huh? I hear there's an election coming up soon..."

Friday's edition of the New York Times for the South Florida market was printed in Deerfield Beach, about 25 miles or so north of me.

On 60% of the front page of the Times' Sports section were stories and columns about Game 2 of the World Series, reflecting that the Giants had won and were half-way to winning their first title in San Francisco.


The next page was entirely about the second game, also reflecting the final score.


Friday's Broward version of the Miami Herald, located exactly 14 miles away, simply had the words Late Game near the top of the sports section next to Game 2.
They had no information about the second game.
Really.

See for yourself.


It's low-hanging fruit I know, but why make it complicated to show how the Herald continues to sink deeper into the abyss, as it takes its remaining readers for granted?

Before the playoffs started, my prediction was Giants-Rangers, with the Giants winning in 6 games.

By the way, if you hadn't noticed it, the Herald now considers Broward County and it's readers so far away from the center of their strange upside-down News Universe, that in the recent past, they've now re-classified Broward County, and now place us in the distant outpost category of The Keys, as you can see just below the masthead and the headline about Meek.


Above, "Broward & Keys Final"

Speaking of San Francisco as I was -which I last visited in January of 2000, when I walked around the Giants new stadium on the Bay before it opened later that spring- I commend to you an illuminating blog post from last Tuesday by Alan D. Mutter at his excellent and noteworthy blog, Reflections of a Newsosaur, subtitled Musings (and occasional urgent warnings) of a veteran media executive, who fears our news-gathering companies are stumbling to extinction, http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/

Alan's post is about a Bay Area ice cream shop called Humphry Slocombe besting the San Francisco Chronicle, Ice cream shop out-‘fans’ S.F. Chronicle
http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2010/10/ice-cream-shop-out-fans-sf-chronicle.html#comments

As usual, Alan's post was informative and amusing, and holds lots of lessons for people at all levels of the news and media world, whether print or digital.

Lessons they'd be foolish to ignore.

You don't have to be Roy Black or Gerry Spence, you just have to care: Barney for the defense, your Honor

Barney for the defense
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppNMTQBhatM



Rafe Hollister (Jack Prince) sings Lonesome Road, Andy Griffith on guitar (1963)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDzUATl63vE

A Mayberry State of Mind/AMSOM is the online chapter of The Andy Griffith Show Rerun Watchers Club
http://www.youtube.com/user/AMSOMmp
http://amayberrystateofmind.com/default.aspx

http://www.mayberry.com/

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

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0341431/videogallery
http://www.tvland.com/shows/andy-griffith-show

Not surprisingly, The Andy Griffith Show was my favorite TV show as a small kid growing-up in mid-1960's Memphis, which was far, far away from a Mayberry existence before we left in 1968 for South Florida, three months after the MLK assassination there, and the subsequent riots and curfews, which I still remember.

The Tennessee National Guard drove their Army tanks right past our apt. complex at night on their way downtown as everyone in our neighborhood, young and old, watched quietly from the sidewalk, utterly transfixed, almost breathless, unsure of what the next day would bring.

Dr. King Is Slain By Sniper headline in the Memphis Commercial Appeal, April 6, 1968.

Because I was a very precocious kid and early reader, and was easily bored with kids books, just as Andy Griffith's hugely-popular TV show helped instill in me a certain moral compass about the right way you treat people, The Memphis Commercial Appeal was the newspaper that helped me learn to read and make sense of the wider world beyond the Mississippi River's banks.
http://www.commercialappeal.com/

Hallandale Beach mayor Joy Cooper & Comm. Dotty Ross get caught in their malicious political intimidation on Federal property. Can you spell F-B-I?

City of Hallandale Beach Commissioner Dotty Ross returning to the scene of the crime on Monday afternoon, camera in tow.

More proof, as if needed, of what can happen when your town's mayor is a well-known bully who will stop at nothing to destroy her political opponents, be they other elected officials or just citizens, albeit, citizens whom she has previously called "Nazis" at public meetings on City Hall property, thinking that nobody could hear her.
But they did.


(And by they, I mean myself, who was sitting alone in Room 215 at HB City Hall, waiting for a public City Commission meeting to start, and jotting down some thoughts in my trusty composition book that I use to take notes, an open can of Dr. Peper and a cup of Panera Bread coffee at the ready t stay properly caffeinated for what looked to be a very dull meeting.
Until, while talking to HB Commissioner Bill Julian upon entering the room, the mayor referred to me as a "Nazi" and calling HB Commissioner Keith London "a Hitler.") 

So guess who foolishly walked into a trap on Sunday night, Halloween, directly across the street from Hallandale Beach City Hall, and was caught red-handed on film?
And guess who would be stupid enough to return to the scene of the crime on Monday afternoon to gloat a bit and take photos of her personal handiwork.
Well, I'll give you two guesses, and Amelia Earhart and Princess Anastasia of Russia will not be accepted.

Yes, dear readers, you're reading my mind: the answer is Hallandale Beach mayor Joy Cooper, current President of the Florida League of Cities -for now- and one of the loyal members of her Rubber Stamp Crew at HB City Hall, Comm. Dotty Ross, who so recently and famously created a public row by her cruel and insensitive -and perhaps even racist- remarks, for which she has yet to publicly apologize.

As if nobody heard Ross at a City Commission meeting -but people were there and it was broadcast live and recorded! But nobody in the press asks about it.

Ross was publicly taken to task recently at a City Commission meeting by a HB citizen who recounted excatly what had taken place previously, but Ross just sat silently in her chair, as usual, the public's words going in one ear and out the other.
No, like her ethically-challenged friend and colleague on the City Commission, Bill Julian, desperately trying to stay in office, and our dear mayor, not only does Ross have a grand sense of entitlement, but like them, Ross doesn't know the meaning of the word remorse.

Ross is the older partner in crime who was, indeed, stupid enough, to return Monday afternoon, barely more than 12 hours after they'd been in that same U.S. Post Office parking lot to participate in an egregiously malicious and possibly even criminal act on Federal property, all which was aimed squarely at Hallandale Beach Comm. Keith London, who is running for re-election today.

Not that what the Cooper Crew said about African-American Congressman Kendrick Meek was acceptable, either, though I am personally very dismissive of him in general as most of you now.

I know this because I was there thirty minutes before Cooper & Ross and their masked gang of creeps were led into the parking lot by -yes!- a Hallandale Beach Police Dept. vehicle with its red beacon flashing, along with a city-owned outhouse on a tow truck flatbed driven by the city's contracted tow truck operator.

I captured some of the creepy moments in photos and video, most of which you will all be seeing in the coming days after I make some more copies for some people who might be investigating this soon.
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/civilrights/hate_crimes/hate_crimes

Sadly, I was not present when at least a few members of this same crew drove around the city afterwards defacing London's larger and more expensive campaign signs, which prompted the Hallandale Beach Police Dept. to start looking for them, and for official complaints to be made.

And you just thought it was boring, muggy Sunday night in Hallandale Beach?
This post today is just a teaser of what is to come, as the pendulum slowly swings back towards normalcy and possible legal trouble for the Cooper Crew's reign of sheer idiocy and incompetency that have made this city a veritable laughingstock in South Florida for years, with Cooper as Queen Bee.

I have lots of photos from Sunday night that will make this whole episode much more easy to comprehend.

Question: Has anyone who ever served as President of the Florida League of Cities before ever been stripped of that title before the year was up due to mis-conduct?
Hmm-m-m... I don't know the answer to that question.

I might just have to call their office up this week and ask them that question directly, because it seems like a pretty good one to ask publicly, as surely even for that dubious honorific, there must be some sort of ethical and professional standards of conduct, no matter how low, right?

Still, once more people start finding out the truth about what transpired Sunday night and hear just exactly what was posted on the outhouse, it's rather inevitable that people might also just begin to wonder if that crown might have to be worn by someone not named Joy Cooper, as once again, Joy Cooper's personal hatred has led her to participate in yet another creepy and murky escapade.

This time, because she and Ross and their pals were on Federal property when they engaged in their conduct, her regal status in this town will be completely meaningless to any law enforcement professionals investigating this.
To them, she's a nobody.

Where is the FBI when you need them?

Even weirder than Ross coming back to snap photos of her handiwork was her trying (unsuccessfully) to provoke some sort of physical confrontation with me as I was talking and walking outside of the Post Office with the Hallandale Beach Postmaster about some longstanding safety concerns at the branch. The Postmaster was not at all happy with Dotty Ross.
Pathetic!

Above, part of what Ross was taking a photo of, which has her own handwriting on it.

It just wouldn't be another embarrassing ethical incident involving Joy Cooper unless there was at least some ham-handed attempt by her minions and cronies to pump up her enormous-but-fragile ego, would it, even when she is trying to personally intimidate and embarrass political rival Keith London?
Nope!

Perfidy is backstabber Alexander Lewy's middle name: examining his duplicitous behavior that he'd prefer you ignore

Above, February 16, 2010 photo by South Beach Hoosier of participants at Hallandale beach City Comm. Keith London's monthly Resident Forum meetings, which mayor Joy Cooper has frequently crashed in the past, even though she herself refuses to have anything resembling it. Just like the rest of her Rubber Stamp Crew of Julian, Ross & Sanders, her puppets on a string.

So who's the shy person holding paper in front of his own face?

Why it's none other than Alexander Lewy who has fairly regularly attended London's meetings since the unpopular Diplomat LAC issue late last year, despite the fact he's running against London.

I have dozens of such photos from this particular meeting, as well as his appearances at several other London meetings before and since, this was just the most absurd one of several.

After this particular meeting over eight months ago, several 'regulars' commented to me -without any prompting on my part- that they couldn't help but notice Lewy's odd paper-holding behavior, as I shot photos of the entire room every so often during the two hours it lasted, dividing the room into into thirds from where I was sitting in the front, near the door, to be sure to get everyone in it.

Though I had noticed it, too, while shooting, I thought perhaps they were exaggerating, and it was just a sign of his boredom, perhaps, but once I got home, I resolved to make a point of really looking closely at the photos.

What I noticed was that despite the fact that Lewy was in less than 20% of all the photos I shot that night, every photo taken of his part of the room shows him holding that paper in front of his face, like it was some sort of mask.
But it wasn't a costume party and we already knew who he was.
As to the comments about it being odd behavior, I agree.
Who am I to argue with self-evident logic like that?

Lewy attends the meetings despite having previously told me that he thought that the HB residents who attend were... well, that's what this post is about: what Alexander Lewy really thinks about Hallandale Beach's most civic-minded residents.

It probably won't surprise you to learn that that condescending Lewy disparages them behind their backs.
Yes, yes, now you have it!

Correct, that's where Lewy the Liar becomes Lewy the Backstabber.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVC2j_Kdw8c
It's a seamless transition.
Below is a letter I wrote a year ago to a couple of dozen people throughout South Florida who pay close attention to what happens in local govt., including some print and TV reporters whom I trust, but mostly, the recipients were Hallandale Beach's most civic-minded residents.
It appears below exactly as I wrote it a year ago.

This should answer any lingering questions you may have about Alexander Lewy.

----------
November 5th, 2009
3:30 p.m.

Last year, I wrote an email to some folks, possibly including yourself, where I mentioned in passing a few things going on around HB that I wanted to draw your attention to because -shocker- they seemed typically screwed-up examples of HB City Hall chronic neglect.

I concluded like so many of my emails with the comment that later in the day, I'd be over at Panera's or Starbucks later at a particular time in case anyone was free and would like to talk about the subjects in more depth or any other issue pertaining to what was going on hereabouts.
Admittedly, pretty tame stuff.

But somebody in Hallandale Beach, typically, thought this was pure revolutionary talk, and an opportunity to endear himself with someone named Joy Cooper.

After weeks of asking around and trying to look at this logically, i.e. who stands to profit, Alex Lewy emerged as the person whom every other recipient of that particular email I've spoken to believes is the party who shared it with Mayor Joy Cooper.

If you didn't already know, Lewy often met her and talked to her at length at various restaurants around town when he was running for City Commission, according to people I trust who were eyewitnesses, esp. the now-defunct Frankie's.

Many well-informed people in the city believe that Lewy was the second candidate that the Cooper Crew supported last Fall, just in case Dotty Ross got the well-deserved heave-ho she was due because of her chronic lack of attention to details, literally, blind to what's going on in front of her.

To repeat what I said on October 22nd:
At the Sunrise Park opening ceremony yesterday afternoon, if you can believe this, Comm. Ross invited him to address the small crowd after she was finished by referring to him as "John Sanders" instead of Anthony.

Fourteen months after she approved him as interim commissioner and actually voted for him, after admitting on the dais that she didn't know who he was or anything about him, this is the logical consequence.
Trust me, I was there and her puppet-masters in the crowd were clearly squirming in their seats as she flubbbed the simple hand-off.
Yes, Dotty Ross: The Girl in the Bubble.

So perhaps you're asking yourself, what's the big deal if the email I wrote was so tame, if not lame, right?

Well, what was completely different from any previous or subsequent emails was that later, Cooper wrote a very weird rambling email referencing that specific email of mine, full of what could only be called childish gibberish, full of syntax and spelling errors, that she sent to both Michael Butler and myself -after midnight.

But then she's sent emails to some people in this community before that said or implied "Drop dead."
I know those people, and they've told me about it, and in some cases, even saved the email.
Tell me, which email address of hers do you think she used?

Before the final few people I sent my email to told me individually who they thought had shared that letter with Cooper -each naming Lewy, just as previous recipients had- I had a few encounters with Lewy that left me cold and speaks volumes about him and his overweening
ambition.

It also left me convinced that he should be kept away from any and all power and responsibility as long as possible, and not just because of his age, his inexperience or lack of tangible accomplishment of note -on his own.
Because of his character, or, rather the lack of any character.

For many of us who want genuine reform, government transparency and accountability in this city, so it will be more pro-active and attractive to residents, newcomers and businesses, we know that will require a 180 degree change in the anti-democratic culture of corruption and deceit that currently pervades HB City Hall -so much so that HB residents and business owners are actually repelled by it- we've not been afraid to say as much in public.

(A friend of mine even had a conversation with Mayor Cooper within the past two weeks and brought this matter of public participation up. Well, if you can believe it, Cooper responded that she actually sees the lack of people attending City Commission meetings as a positive sign, an indication that residents are happy with the way things are, ending with the typical Cooper dig, "unlike Hollywood.")

But not everybody is comfortable speaking their mind in public, even if they desire it, which is something I understand, even if it makes things more difficult than I wish it were.

After all, Caesar Rodney's vote in Philadelphia was as important as the ones cast by Adams, Jefferson or Hancock, but outside the Mid-Atlantic states, few people know of his important role in creating the Declaration of Independence, since he wasn't known as an orator.
But guess who's on the U.S. quarter representing the State of Delaware?
And in Statuary Hall inside the U.S. Capitol building?
Caesar Rodney.

The reverse was designed and engraved by William Cousins.

Caesar Rodney was a delegate to the Continental Congress. He rode 80 miles on horseback to cast the deciding vote in favor of independence. In his lifetime, he held more public offices than any other Delaware citizen.

But when you run for office in this city, you have to either be FOR change or the status quo.
One or the other, not both.

It's typical of his huge ego that Alex Lewy somehow convinced himself that, having never done anything, he'd wage a campaign that allowed him to tap the labor resources and contacts he had thru dint of his ethnic handholding job working for Kendrick Meek, and finesse this important last point by continually saying one thing to one group and another to still another group.

This hardly makes him unique in politics, of course, but in a small town like this, when it's fairly well-known who's for reform and who's a bosom buddy of the Cooper & Good Crew at City Hall, even profiting from sweetheart deals, that forked tongue approach is not really a smart
tactic, since eventually, you're self-serving nature will emerge and be exposed.

This crack in the armor showed itself to me shortly after I had endorsed Arturo O'Neill and Carlos Simmons for City Commission, not that it was worth much as we all saw, otherwise we'd ALL be living in a much more NORMAL, less combative and infinitely better-managed city, with MUCH MORE transparency and accountability for citizens.
Early voting had already started over at the HB Cultural Center and late one Tuesday afternoon, as I had been doing for days, I swung by the area in front to see what sort of crowds were outside and to talk to Arturo and Carlos and their family and friends who were working the crowds in the parking lots.

Plus I took a few minutes top explain to reporter Mark Joyella from Channel 10, who was doing some LIVE stand-up reports, why he'd have nothing behind him to frame the shot at 11 p.m., on account of all the parking lot and auxiliary lights there being out, just like the ones in front of City Hall and the Police Dept.

Well, while walking on the sidewalk about 5:45 p.m. from the Cultural Center, where I'd just bought a Coke from their vending machine, to City Hall for Comm. London's 6 p.m. Resident Forum, where I suspected some local candidates would appear, who do I run into but the aforementioned Alex Lewy.

Naturally, I mentioned where I was headed and asked if he'd be coming by for a bit, since it only seemed natural, since I'd heard that Ken Gottlieb, Rick Saltrick and some other candidates would attend. (They did.)
Well, in retrospect, I only wish I'd had my video camera with me, because Lewy proceeded to whiff on my innocuous comment and reveal himself for the sort of prick I'd long since suspected he was.

He said that not only would he NOT be swinging-by Comm. London's meeting of concerned HB citizens, he scoffed at the very idea that HB citizens would attend those meetings in the first place, and at Comm. London in particular for holding them, saying that they were pointless.

So ask yourself, what sort of person runs for office despite being openly dismissive of not just the people in that town in general, but the most concerned and well-informed people in the city?
Alex Lewy.

So, guess who comes into the room a few minutes later, when it's FULL, to make an election pitch for themself?Alex Lewy

I resisted the urge to grill Levy and expose him as the worst sort of condescending, know-it-all hypocrite when Comm. London asked if anyone had any questions, but I was biting my tongue the whole time.

Once the final votes came in from the only precincts I really cared about, i.e. who was the guilty party who forwarded my email to Joy Cooper, and every single vote was for Lewy, that was that.
Now everyone knows.

I mean what are the odds that everyone thinks it's Lewy and everyone is also wrong?
A LOT of people detest Alex Lewy, sure, but some are merely ambivalent, from not really knowing him and yet they all named him.
The very people who are paying the most attention to what's going on in this city.

When you think about it, because of his reflexive self-serving nature, trying to please someone in power like Cooper completely fits Lewy's pathology.

In discussing the Ben Gamla Charter Hebrew School matter in mid-October with some other HB residents, after mentioning some other matters of concern, I wrote the following:

Of course, if Alex Lewy had won and edged Dotty Ross out last November, the basic problem would still remain, since he is someone who is very clearly confused about personal ambition being a substitute for a personality, or even a political framework for understanding how
the world works, or ought to. This gets to the fundamental problem of his consistently self-serving personality and poor judgment.

In my opinion, much like Mayor Cooper now, Lewy would positively do somersaults or jump off a roof in order to get into the good graces of someone with influence like Peter Deutsch, his friends and political and financial campaign supporters in order to advance his own aims.
That's why Lewy is someone who needs to be rejected at every single opportunity,since he is exactly the sort of person who gets into politics for all the wrong reasons.

Well, two weeks later, I still stand by what I wrote then, and if anything, think I was tame.

I strongly suggest that any of you who ever think about dealing with him, think twice.
Since last Fall's election, I've kept my distance from him and suggest you do the same.
He's slimy and NOT to be trusted.
By the way, since I've been doing more video shoots of HB at night for reasons that you'll soon be able to see for yourself, I'm in a position to mention here, yet again, that 3 of the 4 public parking lot lights closest to the East-side entrance to HB City Hall are STILL out, including the one just a few feet from the only police-controlled surveillance camera on that side of the building.

Just like last week.
And last month.
And last year.

Hallandale Beach City Hall, including the City Manager and the Police Chief know all about it, they just consciously choose to do NOTHING about it.
Just a reminder, that's the city where YOU live.

So in that regard, what's the difference between the dismissive and apathetic -not to mention negligent- attitudes of City Manager Mike Good and corrupt Police Chief Thomas Magill and Alex Lewy?
There is none.

Keeping with that theme of the city's incompetency and neglect, yesterday morning I heard the the new Hallandale Beach City Hall tactic re the public ever seeing the docs re city's $50,000 CRA grant to the faux newspaper, the South Florida Sun-Times.Mayor Joy Cooper said the docs are "proprietary" and can't be shared with public!
And seemed very pleased with herself!

Twenty years after the Fall of the Berlin Wall, Hallandale Beach still needs glasnost!

Plan on posting a lot of info on my blog over the weekend and finally start posting video I keep talking about.
Seeing is believing.

Will be at Panera's today from 4-6 p.m.

Adios!

Dave