Request for common sense suggestion​s for the Hallandale Beach City Manager candidates to strongly consider enacting if hired to clean-up the dysfunction at HB City Hall

Below is a slightly expanded version of an email I sent out early  Friday night to a couple of dozen very smart and well-informed folks living in Hallandale Beach, Broward County and points beyond, including some pols you may've heard of...

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March 23rd, 2012

9:45 p.m.

Request for common sense suggestion​s for the Hallandale Beach City Manager candidates to strongly consider enacting if hired to clean-up the dysfunction at HB City Hall

Over the weekend and into next week I'm planning on cobbling together a list of about 12-15 different areas of concerns about the City of Hallandale Beach and the way it works -or more often, doesn't- for the perusal of not only other concerned HB residents like you who are greatly dissatisfied, but who DO NOT KNOW what's really been going on for years like you do, but also for the four HB City Manager finalists selected at Wednesday's City Commission meeting. (See Tonya Alanez's Sun-Sentinel article about that at bottom.)

I'll likely send it out as an email by mid-week and also post it to the blog for the wider world to read and consider, since given past history here, I have grave doubts about how the city's planned public meet-and-greet for the four candidates at the HB Community Center on Friday night will be stage-managed.

Personally, I'd prefer that NO elected officials or city employees be allowed to attend that event,
since the mayor and commissioners will have already have had plenty of time to ask questions
individually of each candidate by then, plus, will be seeing them again the next day, too.
The public should have as much time to interact with the candidates as possible.

I don't want to talk to one of the candidates about a serious concern with the mayor, one of the
commissioners, or even someone from the City Manager's office hanging around and eavesdropping.

(And can we expect the new City Manager to have the freedom to tell the highly-paid current Asst. City Managers to resign this summer, so that the new CM can hire anyone he or she feels would be better-qualified, and who'd actually respond to citizens instead of actively avoiding giving them honest answers, instead of saying -totally true- "Don't worry"? 
Hallandale Beach desperately needs someone smart and savvy -and fair- along the lines of the City of Hollywood's Cathy Swanson-Rivenbark )

If you have any good ideas on any subject that you feel are important for others to know about,
whether relating to existing city public policy, city practices -i.e. any of the several bad habits
that never change or die- to add to my initial draft below, most especially if you have any good anecdotes or photos that buttress your particular points, please send 'em to me this weekend.
Or, if you want, I'd be happy to run YOUR list on my blog, too, plus any photos or anything
you want to add.

In some ways, I'd like to think of it as a Visitors Guide to the reality of living in exasperating
HB for someone thinking of moving here that really wants to make a positive difference, but
who also is smart enough to want to know where all the bodies are buried before they sign
onto the dotted line.

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My 3/23/12 Draft

Some suggestions for all of the Hallandale Beach City Manager candidates to strongly consider

1.) re New Police Chief, replacing current one who is "retiring" in a few months:

Your new hire should be from outside of South Florida, and definitely NOT someone from within HB's existing ranks, since the new Chief also needs to be someone who actually takes constructive criticism and is willing to change policies and plans that continually prove they DON'T work.
Which means bringing FRESH EYES to the situation!

Someone who is willing to aggressively cut-out the established cliques and sense of favoritism that are so well-known and established here.

Someone willing to assign pro-active foot patrol cops near various traffic choke-points throughout the day, esp. during 'the season.'

Intersections of
a.) State Road A1A & E. Hallandale Beach Blvd.
b.) NE/SE 14th Avenue &E, Hallandale Beach Blvd
c.) E. Hallandale Beach Blvd. & U.S.-1/Federal Highway
d.) W. Hallandale Beach Blvd. & NW/SW 10th Terrace

This is the intersection where Denny's & IHOP are across the street from each other, and the last real intersection going to or from I-95.
In fact, this is such an important intersection in Hallandale Beach -supposedly- that it was the first place the city placed a red-light camera after the state officially allowed them last year.

This, despite the fact that the city was completely unwilling to share with citizens any sort of
chronological traffic incident reports showing whether it was actually the scene of more red-light running than other locales, or at least near the top.

If it's really about safety and NOT money, as I believe it is here in this city and have shared on this blog and with Broward Commissioners Gunzburger and Sharief, wouldn't you put the tools you have where they would do the most good?
And as I have written here many times in the past with photographs showing the reality of the situation, wouldn't you make sure that the red-light warning sign was actually very visible to drivers instead of largely hidden by trees and obscured by other signs?
Yes, if your aim was safety and not revenue.

Considering the millions of tax dollars going to the HB Police Dept. every year, and not so wisely, either, just like in other cities, residents and drivers should know that there are certain roads here during the day where their odds of seeing a real live cop -and not a decoy police car- are pretty good, so they can have a degree of confidence of safety as well as know where the nearest cop is located in case of some emergency.

Unfortunately, too many HB cops are desk cops who never seem to leave the immediate Police HQ and City Hall area during their day shift, a fact that is obvious to anyone looking at the parking lot, where there are so many police cars that never ever move for months on end. Just like the Code Compliance vehice in front of City Hall.

We also need a new police chief who will strike the proper balance and take the long-term approach by enacting new rules strictly regulating the number of hours per week and month that HB cops can do off-duty work.
HB taxpayers are already paying far too much in salaries and benefits -average of about $140,000 a year per officer- to continually have grousing, sleepy, and un-focused cops showing-up on the scene when contacted.

Sleepy cops are a danger to themselves and the community and around here, as most of us know from personal experience, they also tend to be angry and resentful cops, something we already have entirely TOO MANY of!

Per the above comments about the HB Police Dept., consider the following anonymous comments by HB cops at
http://forums.leoaffairs.com/viewtopic.php?f=409&t=98243&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=45
and look up http://forums.leoaffairs.com/search.php and search for "Hallandale"
http://forums.leoaffairs.com/viewtopic.php?f=409&t=98243&p=671414&hilit=Hallandale+Beach#p671414

More to come...
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www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/fl-hallandale-city-manager-finalists-20120322,0,2317946.story

Orlando Sentinel
Hallandale Beach narrows field of city manager candidates
By Tonya Alanez, Sun Sentinel
5:09 PM EDT, March 22, 2012

HALLANDALE BEACH
In their search for a new city manager, commissioners on Wednesday narrowed a field of nine candidates down to four.

They'll make their final pick April 2.

More than 70 applicants applied to replace retiring City Manager Mark Antonio. That pool was initially whittled down to nine finalists, which city commissioners reduced further on Wednesday.

The four candidates vying to be Hallandale Beach's next top executive are:

• Corey Alston, South Bay's city manager;

• Renee C. Crichton, Miami Gardens' deputy city manager;

• Alvin B. Jackson Jr., Hallandale Beach's current Community Redevelopment Agency's director;

• Susan A. Stanton, an accountant in Fort Lauderdale's Housing and Community Development Division.

The finalists will tour the city and meet city staff and department heads on March 30. They will also meet the public at a reception at the city's Cultural Community Center, 410 SE Third St.

Beginning at 8:30 a.m. March 31, the candidates will interview one-on-one with commissioners, followed by a 1:30 p.m. group interview in the commission chambers.

The final selection could be made then or at a 6 p.m. April 2 commission meeting.

Antonio, 55, is set to retire June 29 after 25 years with the city. He earned $165,000 a year.

Upon retirement, Antonio says he is looking forward to spending time with his wife and family, traveling and getting into community volunteer work.

Assistant City Manager Antonio assumed the top job after former City Manager Mike Good was fired in June 2010 for chronic absenteeism, an uncommunicative work style and questionable contracts.

The city is now grappling with the results of a recent audit of its Community Redevelopment Agency that found "general disorganization of the city's files and records," including incomplete land acquisition and commercial loan files.

City officials say they have updated policies and rectified problems "to ensure that the mishandling of paperwork doesn't happen again."

In 98 more days/14 weeks from today, oblivious Hallandale Beach City Manager Mark Antonio goes buh-bye! And take your myopia with you, too!

Looking south from U.S.-1/Federal Highway towards Hallandale Beach City Hall and HB Police Dept. HQ. March 21, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier.  


Can you make out what those shiny adhesive letters at the bottom of the street light pole above spell out?
That is to say, the store-bought adhesive reflecting letters that were clearly placed there on purpose with attention to detail by people who wanted to make sure that everyone driving into or past the HB City Hall and HB Police Dept. HQ noticed their handiwork, esp. at night.
After all, they're perfectly positioned to catch headlights, just like others throughout the city.


No?
Okay, well, here's a slightly closer look...

 

March 21, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier. 

Yes, it reads "HGS."
Do you remember them?

Or their opposition hereabouts, "est," "Doloe Greys," "AQ"...

Sure you do, if you're a regular reader of the blog or a HB resident or business owner, since they're the same folks that for years who have left their unmistakable tags on the vast majority of available traffic signs, traffic poles, mail boxes, parking lot signs and writable surface in Hallandale Beach, whether walls or sidewalks.
No, they don't discriminate on surfaces since they just want everyone to know who did it.

The tags, reflective letters and regular spray paint, are most noticeable, though, to both residents and visitors alike, when driving, biking or walking along U.S.-1/Federal Highway, as you leave or enter Aventura in Miami-Dade County, where it's Biscayne Blvd., and leave or come into Broward County and Hallandale Beach, with the Gulfstream Park Race Track & Casino and the upscale Village at Gulfstream Park retail complex right there, the largest employers in the city.

Above, "HGS" on the bottom of the street light pole next to the U.S.-1/Federal Highway (southwest) entrance to Village at Gulfstream Park. The graffiti has been there for well over three years, the same amount of time one of the two street lights on the pole has been COMPLETELY MISSING. This is yet another one of the many things that the geniuses at Gulfstream never quite catch onto that create a very bad first impression of the place. And for good reason! February 23, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

The persistence of the graffiti problem along the main streets of this city for YEARS paints not only a very bad impression of this city, it creates an even worse one for the people who are paid to manage this city and supposed to be able to TRY to resolve self-evident problems.


Those crews responsible for the graffiti are also over-represented all along Hallandale Beach Blvd., whether in the nooks and crannies of individual stores, like the doors of Little Caeser's Pizza, or parking lot signs, where they have long since taken over the Nick's parking lot off N. First Avenue, just north of HBB, a popular place for cops.

I've written about them and their unattractive handiwork here a few times, posting photos.

But as it concerns "HGS" today, I mean to reference the graffiti tags that are in front of Hallandale Beach City Hall and Police Dept. HQ right now.
Like right this second.

And just like yesterday.

And last week.

And last month.

And last year.

And... so on. 

Yes, last year, 2011.

I've never previously mentioned it here on the blog but in the Fall of 2011, during the Public Comments part of one particularly frustrating HB City Commission meeting, I walked to the microphone and quite enthusiastically scolded Hallandale Beach City Manager Mark Antonio for how truly oblivious he'd been -and ineffective- in resolving numerous self-evident Quality-of-Life problems that have plagued and frustrated HB residents, families and business owners for YEARS.
And I specifically mentioned the very ones that they and their neighbors have been forced to look at every day for YEARS -graffiti.

Old Dixie Highway & S.E. 9th Street, across the street from Bluesten Park, the largest city park, and four blocks from the Police Dept. HQ and City Hall. March 21, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier. 

Problems with rampant graffiti that Antonio (and his highly-paid assistants) either consciously ignored or pretended not to notice from their bunker on U.S.-1, since noticing would actually require some tangible action on his/their part and the city's, not to mention, the HB Police Dept., so famous for otherwise generally shrugging their shoulders when presented with a problem to solve, as has been noted here on the blog previously.


Well, as you might imagine, Antonio didn't take the public criticism of his unsatisfactory performance very well, esp. since I was somewhat detailed in describing the hard-to-miss tags at well-known locales all over town, a point that was reinforced by all the nodding heads in the audience as I spoke.

But I saved my big guns and sarcasm for the end, which is why I and so many other HB residents I know who were there, or who watched the proceedings online, were literally incredulous at hearing City Manager Antonio admit that he had never noticed all the graffiti along U.S.-1, from the Aventura-HB city line/County Line up to Hallandale Beach Blvd.and beyond, which has been omnipresent for YEARS.

Including the graffiti that was near, adjacent to and in front of Hallandale Beach City Hall and the HB Police Dept. HQ.

Like this other one on the sidewalk, DIRECTLY even with the public entrance to HB City Hall and the HB Police Dept.

 
March 21, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

And across the street from this scene and HB City Hall...


The Village at Gulfstream Park.  March 21, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier.  

You would've thought that I had super-vision or something, rather than 20/15 vision -until a few months ago- because the one thing I never expected was for Antonio to admit that he hadn't noticed it.

I expected the usual litany of excuses that we residents in HB have become accustomed to hearing to explain why we all just had to live with negative results, while other cities at least try to actually solve their problems, not just accept defeat.


Getting angrier than I have been at any South Florida public/civic meeting, before or since, I said something along the lines of that admission of his speaking volumes for how little attention he'd really been paying all these years as Assistant City Manager, given his responsibilities to actually do something positive, and reminded him and the audience of the fact that he had worked in that building ever since it opened.

Readers with a good memory will also recall that I also told his assistant, Jennifer Frastai, all about these sorts of problems four years ago, when I spent almost an entire hour with her and former Asst, CM Franklin Heilman in a conference room in the CM's office, explaining the source of longstanding citizen frustration in this city,.

I gave very detailed explanations and a reminded them that they could always look at this blog for contemporaneous photos to prove it, since the problems weren't exactly secrets.

The two of them did NOTHING with the information.

I concluded my remarks by saying that to me, Antonio, who wears glasses, was incredibly myopic, perhaps conveniently so, and needed to open his eyes for a change to see what was right in front of him.

Not just the graffiti, but all the other many messed-up things in this city, starting with how his own dysfunctional and uncivil bureaucracy and red tape dispenser continually angers citizens, playing favorites as I've mentioned previously, with special rules for special people.

And then I told everyone in the room that all the City Manager needed to do to see how accurate I was was to walk out the Chambers door and walk over to the nearby sidewalk and see what was right in front of City Hall, even as I spoke.

That, of course, was the proof positive of his longstanding myopia.

It's clear months later after saying that that Antonio had no genuine interest in ever opening his eyes and now, he's on 'cruise control,' more oblivious than ever, with him recently acting more like he's a sixth city commissioner trying to persuade a colleague of something, rather than an un-elected administrator who is supposed to work for the city commission and carry out their policies, not his own.

Why 'cruise control'?

Because he knows that after June 29th, this city is not his problem anymore.

March 21, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier. 

Minutes before taking the photographs above on Wednesday outside the current HB City Hall, I swung by the old HB City Hall on Dixie Highway, between S.W. 3rd & 4th Streets, and it too looked like it has for well over ten years: a filthy eyesore of a black hole to the nearby  middle-class neighborhood, and a completely wasted economic opportunity for the whole city, even though it's just feet from where an FEC commuter train station will be located in a few years that connects downtown Miami and Palm Beach County, which could really re-energize this city in multiple ways. 
How would you like to have to look at this every day from YOUR house?

Do you know another name for wasted opportunity in HB?

Yes, "another Joy Cooper and Mark Antonio success story!"


One almost down, one to go in November -Cooper.

More of the same ol' incompetency and obliviousness at Hallandale Beach City Hall, inc. Sunshine Law violations -agenda Staff Reports still missing from city website 2 hours before City Comm. mtg.

Above, Hallandale Beach City Hall, where today, as always, despite what it may say in the Florida Constitution, citizen taxpayers are always low man on the totem pole.

March 21, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier. 

Below is my email sent this afternoon to Hallandale Beach City Commissioner Keith London and to many, many other interested parties in Hallandale Beach, Broward County and points beyond.

It's the very definition of self-explanatory.

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March 21, 2012

4:15 p.m.

Dear Comm. London:

As if I hadn't already been an eyewitness to one incident after another over the past eight years where the City of Hallandale Beach and its elected officials, administrators and city employees have consciously sought to avoid complying with both the spirit and the letter of Florida's Sunshine Laws, including, being physically prevented from attending a publicly-noticed public meeting on the second floor of City Hall -a meeting which was mysteriously postponed moments before I was able to get upstairs, with your assistance- today reveals yet the latest example of the city's longstanding failure under

Mayor Joy Cooper and City Manager Antonio to give citizens what they are legally entitled to: the right to access public information.

Information prepared by city employees for city officials, ALL of whom are paid by the city's taxpayers.

The mendacious culture of secretiveness at Hallandale Beach City Hall needs to end -and finally be investigated!- and the latest evidence of that duplicity is that today, as of 4:00 p.m., two hours before the HB City Commission meeting starts at 6 p.m., ALL of the city-prepared Staff Reports on tonight's agenda items are MISSING from the city's website.

All ELEVEN.

(And this is far from the first time this sort of thing has happened.)

Instead, when you click the links on the city's website you are directed to a city website page that reads, "We're sorry, but there is not a web page matching your entry."

I have copied and pasted the agenda below and have highlighted the missing elements below in red.

Citizens taxpayers in this city are long past being tired of City Manager Mark Antonio's feeble excuses for longstanding incompetence and obliviousness at HB City Hall, by both him personally and his very highly-paid staff.

As much as that bothers me, though, and it does more than i can say here, I, in particular, am also long past being tired of the self-serving alibis being offered up by city IT Dept. head, Ted Lamott,for why he and the city employees under his supervision STILL CAN'T figure out a way to place public information on the city's website in advance of meetings so that residents can actually read it a reasonable amount of time prior to a public meeting, a public meeting where recorded votes will be taken and taxpayer's money will be expended.

It seems very simple.

It is, and it's also their job and responsibility.

And yet here we are once again -in the dark.

This is the same fellow, Lamott, who, along with his staff, were UNABLE to place the correct time for city commission meetings on the city's electronic message board on U.S.-1 for many, many months last year.

The culture of obliviousness!

This, though, despite being told about it many times, the last time, last year, by a very exasperated me at a public City Commission meeting, who for the life of me, couldn't understand why this seemed like it was the Manhattan Project to him and his staff.

The illegal and undemocratic policies that have flourished for years at Hallandale Beach City Hall NEVER seem to wind-up with any sort of public accountability or reasonable punishment, as it seems clear that under the current occupants, there is no penalty for longstanding incompetency or the consistent outright breaking of the state laws -over-and-over.

In the case of the mayor and the city commission, the state constitution, which they and you are obliged to both respect, follow and uphold.

There's a reason why it's mentioned in the oath of office.

So, whom does the buck stop with?

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http://www.hallandalebeach.org/files/2012-03-21/Agenda%20Outline%20for%202012-03-21%2018-00.htm

REGULAR AGENDA

CITY COMMISSION, CITY OF HALLANDALE BEACH

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 21, 2012 6:00 PM

1.     CALL TO ORDER

2.      ROLL CALL

3.     PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE

4.     PUBLIC PARTICIPATION  - Items not on the Agenda (To be heard at  6:15 P.M.)

5.     PRESENTATIONS

A.    Proclamation Proclaiming April as Water Conservation Month (Staff: Director of Public Works, Utilities and Engineering) (See Backup) (Staff Report, Supporting Docs)

TO BE HEARD AT 6:15 P.M.

B.    Presentation by the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) of Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting for Fiscal Year Ended September 30, 2010 and the Distinguished Budget Presentation Award for the 2010-2011 Budget. (Staff: Director of Finance) (See Backup) (Staff Report, Supporting Docs)

TO BE HEARD AT 6: 30 P.M.

6.     CONSENT AGENDA

A.    Approval of Draft Minutes

1.     Regular City Commission Meeting of March 7, 2012 (Supporting Docs)

7.     PUBLIC HEARINGS (To be heard at  6:30 P.M.)

A.    An Ordinance of the City of Hallandale Beach, Florida, Approving and Authorizing the City Manager to Execute a Contract with AAAA Crosstown Towing and Recovery, Inc. ("AAAA") for Towing Services; Providing for Conflict; Providing for Severability; Providing an Effective Date. (Second Reading) (Staff: Police Chief) (See Backup) (Staff Report, Supporting Docs)

ON MARCH 7, 2012, THE CITY COMMISSION APPROVED FIRST READING OF THE ORDINANCE BY A ROLL CALL VOTE OF 5/0.

TO BE HEARD AT 6:30 P.M. 

8.     CITY BUSINESS

A.    A Resolution of the Mayor and City Commission of the City of Hallandale Beach, Florida, Authorizing the City Manager to Award Bid # FY2011-2012-005, 36th Year CDBG Public Works Improvement Block Grant Project, to the Lowest, Responsible, Responsive Bidder, Acosta Tractors, Inc., in the Amount-Not-to-Exceed $544,640.69; Authorizing a 10% Contingency for Unforeseen Circumstances; Authorizing the City Manager to Execute the Agreement with Acosta Tractors, Inc.; and Providing an Effective Date. (Staff: Director of Public Works, Utilities & Engineering) (See Backup) CAD #011A/10 (Staff Report, Supporting Docs)

B.    A Resolution of the Mayor and City Commission of the City of Hallandale Beach, Florida, Authorizing the City Manager to Approve the Implementation of a New Capital Project for the Creation of Wetland Areas within the City; Creating a Waterways Improvement Enterprise Fund; Authorizing the City Manager to Execute the Necessary Documents and Establish Appropriate Accounts to Implement the Project; and Providing an Effective Date.    (Staff: Director of Public Works, Utilities & Engineering)( See Backup)CR #049/11 (Staff Report, Supporting Docs)

C.    A Resolution of the Mayor and City Commission of the City of Hallandale Beach, Florida, Declaring a Unique Circumstance Pursuant to Chapter 23, Section 107, Exception to Bid Requirements, of the City Of Hallandale Beach Code of Ordinances; Authorizing the City Manager to Enter into an Agreement with Thunder Demolition Inc. in an Amount Not-to-Exceed Seventy-One Thousand Four Hundred Dollars ($71,400.00) to Complete Demolition Activities in the Property Located at 416 NE 8th Avenue, Hallandale Beach; Authorizing a Ten   Percent (10%) Contingency for Unforseen Circumstances during the Demolition Process; Authorizing the Expenditure of up to Eighty Thousand Dollars ($80,000.00) to Restore the Site; Authorizing the City Manager to Execute all Related Documents; and Providing an Effective Date. (Staff: Director of Public Works/Utilities & Engineering) (See Backup) CAD #018/11 (Staff Report,Supporting Docs)

D.    A Resolution of the Mayor and City Commission of the City of Hallandale Beach, Florida, Authorizing the City Manager to Award RFP FY#2011-2012-010 Building Department Services  to  City of Hallandale Beach, Development Services Department, Building Division, to Provide Buildling Department Services; Authorizing the City Manager to Execute the Agreement with City of Hallandale Beach, Development Services Department, Building Division; and Providing an Effective Date. (Staff: City Manager) (See Backup) BP#017/12 (Staff Report, Supporting Docs)

E.     A Resolution of the Mayor and City Commission of the City of Hallandale Beach, Florida, Authorizing the City Manager to Execute Work Order No. 1 for Professional and Planning Services by AECOM Technical Services, Inc., Utilizing RFP #2007-2008-004, Continuing Services and Comprehensive Services, to Create a Wayfinding and Signage Plan and a Gateway Monument Design in an Amount Not-to-Exceed $15,500; and Providing an Effective Date. (Staff: HBCRA Executive Director)(See Backup) BP#013/12 (Staff Report, Supporting Docs)

TO BE HEARD IN CONJUNCTION WITH HBCRA BOARD OF DIRECTORS SPECIAL MEETING AGENDA ITEM #4.B.

F.     Consideration and Adoption of Final Chapter of Citywide Parks Master Plan (Staff: City Manager)(See Backup) BP#012/08 (Staff Report, Supporting Docs)

G.    Discussion to Amend the City Charter to Allow for Filling of Vacancy for the City Commission (Staff: Interim City Attorney) (See Backup) CAD# 003/11 (Staff Report)

H.    Discussion of Hiring of City Manager (Staff: Director of Personnel/Labor Relations) CAD#002/12 (Staff Report)

TO BE HEARD AT 7:30 P.M.

9.      COMMISSION PLANNING

10.  COMMISSIONER COMMUNICATIONS - Items not on the Agenda

A.    COMMISSIONER LEWY

B.     COMMISSIONER LONDON

C.    COMMISSIONER ROSS

D.    VICE MAYOR SANDERS

E.     MAYOR COOPER

11.   CITY ATTORNEY COMMUNICATIONS - Items not on the Agenda

12.  CITY MANAGER COMMUNICATIONS - Items not on the Agenda

13.  ADJOURN

ProPublica's Lois Beckett on how politicians are presenting themselves to different audiences and whether they have a responsibility to tell people about the personal information they collect about them on Facebook, Google and other social media

http://www.propublica.org/article/how-to-win-facebook-friends-and-influence-people
ProPublica

How to Win Facebook Friends and Influence People

by Lois Beckett, ProPublica,  
March 13, 2012, 1:31 p.m.

Instead of picketing outside company headquarters, an advocacy group is using Facebook ads to try to influence people whose profiles identify them as employees of Freddie Mac or JPMorgan Chase.

The anti-foreclosure ad campaign, which launches today, asks Freddie and Chase employees to talk to their CEOs about a veteran -- a former Marine -- who's facing eviction in California.

"This is not any sort of attack on the employees there," said Jim Pugh of Rebuild the Dream, which is running the ad campaign. "We're trying to let them know what's happening."

The ad that targets Freddie Mac employees features a small picture of CEO Charles Haldeman's face, and the message, "Freddie Mac did what???? Freddie Mac is evicting a former Marine who's been trying to pay his mortgage. Tell CEO Haldeman to work out a fair deal with him!" according to a copy of the ad provided by Pugh.

The JPMorgan Chase ad is similar, but with a Chase logo instead of an executive's face.  

We've contacted Freddie Mac and JP Morgan Chase spokespeople for comment, and also reached out to Freddie Mac and JPMorgan Chase employees on Facebook. If you've seen one of these ads, please let us know.

 Targeted online advertising is nothing new. (As anyone who has changed their Facebook status to "engaged" can tell you, a simple update can bring a deluge of new ads.) But political campaigns and advocacy groups are increasingly adopting the same microtargeting tactics that companies use.  

Rick Perry's campaign, for instance, targeted faith-focused ads to people in Iowa who listed themselves as Christians on Facebook, and ads featuring his wife to the state's female conservatives, Politico reported.  

According to FEC data, Endorse Liberty, a super PAC that supports Ron Paul, has led the way on Facebook expenditures, spending a total of $241,508 through January 2012.

And it's not just Facebook and Google where campaigns and activists are doing microtargeting. The music site Pandora announced last year that it would be selling political ad space targeted to the zip codes of particular listeners, the Wall Street Journal reported.

There's nothing inherently problematic about targeted ads. Campaigns have been using direct mail to target particular voters for decades. Digital targeting can be a cost-effective way of spending advertising dollars, especially for smaller groups, like Rebuild the Dream, which sees the ads as a great way to get more bang for their buck in terms of reaching their intended audience. (The group also launched a special donation drive specifically for the Facebook ad buy.) ProPublica even used Facebook ads to try to find sources for our 2009 series, When Caregivers Harm.

But as the ability to use data to reach particular people grows more sophisticated, targeting risks crossing privacy lines, as demonstrated by a recent New York Times article on how Target knew a teenage customer was pregnant before her father did.

What's clear is that if all this microtargeting translates into electoral gains, the scale and sophistication of these efforts will continue to grow, and the data science that gained traction in 2008 will become a regular part of campaigning. In the meantime, the Obama campaign's already substantial data team continues to hire statistical modeling analysts and analytics engineers.

The increasing ease and flexibility of online targeting also raises new questions about how politicians are presenting themselves to different audiences, how much campaigns need to tell their supporters about the personal information they collect -- and what will happen to the massive databases of voter information collected during the 2012 presidential campaign. Will they be sold? Passed on to other politicians?

Rebuild the Dream, which focuses on economic issues, was launched by MoveOn.org in 2011, but has been independent since January, Pugh said. The group's president is former Obama green jobs adviser Van Jones.

Pugh worked on the Obama campaign's digital analytics team in 2008 while also trying to finish a Ph.D. dissertation in robotics, and later did similar work for the Democratic National Committee. He said he was not sure what kind of reaction the ads would receive.

"I would imagine that people are fairly used to targeted ads at this point," he said. But while people who work in politics and advocacy may be used to receiving Facebook ads targeting specific causes, "It's hard to know in advance how unusual it will seem to the employees of Freddie Mac and JP Morgan Chase."
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