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Now we have witnessed not so much the 'last straw' as much as the last logical move that we've all, more or less, been anticipating since the 'August Surprise" resignation of Commissioner Fran Schiller.
A calculated move that suddenly brought Pastor Anthony Sanders into our midst at Hallandale Beach City Hall within five minutes of the announcement of a future vacancy, all without ever allowing the public to comment in any way before the vote took place.
A vacancy that was filled like a 'Rush-order' in five minutes, despite their being another regularly scheduled HB City Commission meeting two weeks later, well
before Schiller's resignation would go into effect.
A public meeting where HB citizens and residents could've spoken to the sort of qualifications or qualities they preferred in an interim commissioner, not
what kind Mayor Cooper and City Manager Mike Good preferred.
At a minimum, regardless of the public's own individual personal preference for a replacement, most would've insisted that the position be filled in exactly the same way as the last vacancy was handled in November of 2006, 21 months before, where Cooper and Good's City Hall repeatedly crowed to the press about theimportance of having a transparent and deliberate process in choosing Joe Gibbons' interim successor.
So what happened to that deliberate process back in August?
Simply put, that process became an Inconvenient Fact, and got in the way of what they wanted to do.
Deep down, are you really surprised that the same City Hall crew that made their TRIPLE 'salary grab of 2007' or that approved Mike Good's over-the-top city manager's contract in December, all without the item being properly placed on the agenda, being properly noticed for the public, and without any staff/backup documents being offered before the vote, over lunch, would do it again?
As I've said so many times, there's nothing coincidental about it -that's their default M.O., modus operandi.
They're serial offenders without any shred of remorse.
Seriously, why, given the current economy and the awful financial condition of the city, would Mayor Cooper want to spend over $3,700 for construction of a new office for herself, when there was nothing physically wrong with her existing one?
Because she can, and she doesn't really care at all what you think about it.
COMMISSIONER REQUEST
REQUEST #048/09
DATE: January 5, 2009
FROM: Commissioner Keith London
THRU: D. Mike Good, City Manager
The following information/action was requested by Commissioner Keith London as noted:
Please provide me with the following information:
- Copy of the time sheets for everyone who worked on Mayor Cooper new office space.
- Wages including benefits for everyone who worked on Mayor Cooper new office space
- Copy of expense reports for materials to create Mayor Cooper new office space.
- Copy of receipts of materials
- Original letter asking for a new office from Mayor Cooper
Additionally, please include what all commissioners have requested for office improvements
__________________________
Please take the necessary steps to complete the request and submit a Summary
Report to my office no later than January 19, 2009.
__________________________
DATE: January 13, 2009
TO: D. Mike Good, City Manager
FROM: William Brant, P.E., Director, Public Works, Utilities & Engineering
RE: Above Commission Request
SUMMARY REPORT:
Staff received request on November 18, 2008, (W/O # WF0031889, WF 0031987) to install window in room 202, move the Mayor's furniture and paint Commissioner Sanders Office. This project was completed by December 31, 2008.
Staff respectfully request to consider this CR completed and closed. (MM)
Labor / Wages
Pedro Perez $35.91 hr 48 hrs $1,724.00 Mayor's Office
Michael Harris $27.37 hr 24 hrs $560.00 Mayor's Office
Donald Williams $30.21 hr 7 hrs $211.00 Mayor's Office
Edward Ryan $30.21 hr 8 hrs $241.00 Sanders Office
Total 87 hrs $2,736.00
Invoices
K&K Mirror $360.00
Home Depot $237.40
Sherwin Williams $232.44
Total $829.84
PROJECT TOTAL $3,565.84
Staff Researching Request
Michael Morse $54.16 1.5 hrs $81.24
Dean Lettera $59.71 1.5 hrs $89.56
Yolanda Benitez $26.07 1 hr $26.07
Total 4hrs $196.87
PROJECT TOTAL INCLUDING ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF
84 HOURS $3,762.71
___________________________________
Department Head Signature Date
Department Director/Staff Time to Complete: 4 hrs
City Manager/Staff Time to Complete:
_________________________
DATE: January 19, 2009
TO: D. Mike Good, City Manager
FROM: Jennifer Frastai, City Manager Administrator
RE: Above Commission Request
SUMMARY REPORT:
The following is a list of furniture expenses:
Mayor Cooper's:
Conference Table: $968.08
Desk Chair: $333.98
Guest Chair: $230.45
File Cabinet: $423.85
Delivery/Set up/Freight: $205.00
Commissioner Sanders:
Desk Chair: $203.49
Desk Accessories: $242.43
Guest Chair (2): 334.80
_____________________
Department Head Signature Date
Department Director/Staff Time to Complete: 2 hrs
City Manager/Staff Time to Complete:
So why do you suppose Mayor Cooper waited until AFTER the November election
to demand a new office, despite their being nothing wrong with her old one?
It's not an aberration, it's simply the way they WANT to do their 'business':
self-dealing and doling out your tax dollars to the favored few, away from
the public glare of both citizen's notice or the attendant prying eyes of the local media, such as it is.
There's a logical reason that all these particular matters happened in a HB City Hall room, over lunch, where not a single camera is present, and where Minutes of that particular proceeding won't be publicly available for many, many months:
Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper, City Manager Mike Good -and yes-man City Attorney David Jove, who continually winks at both the spirit and letter of our state's Sunshine Laws- are desperately trying to evade public scrutiny and accountability, otherwise they'd stop doing the same thing over-and-over, year-after-year.
But they're not stopping, are they?
Back in early August, Arturo O'Neill was sitting next to me in the HB City Hall Chambers the moment that Comm. Fran Schiller's "surprise" announcement was made public.
Arturo immediately turned to me and even before Mike Good finished reading the Schiller resignation letter that he himself had written, said something amazingly prescient and remarkable.
Arturo said that he thought that Mayor Cooper would name Pastor Sanders
as interim HB commissioner, and might, in effect, leverage that interim
appointment for her political support in the future, plus support the city's
purchase of the Sanders' property, even at a higher cost than seems logical, given the current real estate market, the property's location, and, certainly not least, NO specific public plan to actually do anything there that anyone could point to.
In exchange for his seat at the dais and the mayor's support, at some point in the future, Sanders would try to elicit/create public support in NW Hallandale Beach to re-visit the crazy and unpopular waste plant idea that Mayor
Cooper and City Manager Good attempted to foist on that community for so very long.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have our new Nostradamus -my friend, Arturo O'Neill.
So far, 100% accuracy!
As soon as Arturo said it, it not only sounded 100% plausible to me, it sounded
exactly like the sort of crude sweetheart deal this HB City Hall crew would do,
regardless of how it looked publicly or the costs involved, financial or otherwise,
since as a practical matter, they practically dare HB citizens, residents and the press to do something about their unethical and questionable behavior by continuing to engage in it.
They've found a form of behavior and mode of operation that fits their particular self-interests, and they have no desire to abandon it.
Six-and-a-half months after Sanders was named a Hallandale Beach Commissioner, we now clearly see the logical and predictable result of that tactical move in August by Cooper & Company, just as Arturo presciently predicted.
We see the logical result of the Miami Herald and South Florida's Sun-Sentinel's editorial board election endorsement of Sanders for November's election, where the Sun-Sentinel wrote a story about the HB city commission
race AFTER their endorsement, and the Herald, well, they NEVER wrote even a single story about the HB race.
We see the logical result of the Herald's management and editors consciously choosing to NOT send a reporter to cover the HB City Commission meetings since early June of 2008, at the Joint City Commission meeting with the City of Hollywood, noteworthy for Mayor Cooper strongly suggesting the idea of Hollywood joining them in a lawsuit against the state because of their upcoming outfall requirements.
I've already mentioned to many of you over the past few weeks at venues all over the area that as far as I was concerned, Anthony A. Sanders' political honeymoon had long since ended, and that the very folks in this city who voted for him must now must be wondering just what exactly they got for their troubles in November.
I know for a fact that they wonder, because people have told me so, stopping me at grocery stores, coffee shops and even over at the beach, to share their disappointment and chagrin.
Of their dashed hopes that he'd be a positive voice for change and reform on the HB City Commission, and begin to undo the taint that has been attached to it for so many years.
And how they watch the Commission meetings from the Chambers or from their home on the city's under-utilized cable channel and wonder when he's going to actually -finally- ask a single good probing question from the dais that reveals some degree of knowledge about what's going on all around the city.
Instead, he gives the same canned responses and glittering generalities he's
been spouting for six months.
They wonder when he's going to actually show some independent thought, and
challenge something Mayor Cooper or City Manager Good says or does, not for the sake of disagreeing, but rather because he honestly disagrees with them and has what he believes is a better solution in mind to resolve a problem.
Instead, he simply nods in agreement, hour-after-hour, month-after-month.
Not a voice for change, reform or accountability, but rather just an echo chamber,
someone happy to be on the dais.
In the political and govt. system the City of Hallandale Beach operates in,
Sanders is supposed to represent ALL the citizens and residents of this city,
not just the ones in the NW part of the city, though you wouldn't necessarily
know it by what he and his supporters actually say and do.
And I say that as someone who gave him the benefit of the doubt, and who has long been in favor of a HB City Commission that was comprised of both fixed districts as well as at-large seats, like Aventura's.
If you're really curious and want to see what the real appraisal numbers for the Sanders property were before Mayor Cooper & Company appointed him to the commission, or forgot exactly how we got to this sad point, where the
public-be-damned is HB City Hall's motto, just go to my blog, since I publicly identified them LAST year.
Sanders property at 501 N.W. 1st Avenue, Hallandale Beach, Florida
The appraisal information then was as follows:
LB Slater Appraisal #13057 $147,000
LB Slater Appraisal #13057a $147,000
Butterfield Appraisal #8785 $275,000
Broward County Property Appraiser Value $146,360
Speaking of municipal boondoggles, if you haven't already seen it, please see the article and comments here:
As you may've noticed in the email address field above, I'm sending a cc of this to many people whom you've undoubtedly heard of or seen before, each of whom has power or influence to some degree by virtue of their job.
Some of them actually know all about what's been going on here in Hallandale Beach, and have either asked me or others about it via phone calls, emails or face-to-face encounters here in town, where they've seen for themself what things are really like here, dismayed at how self-evident the problems are, even while HB City Hall whistles past the graveyard.
Still others are folks who haven't shown any interest at all, but really ought to have, given their jobs, yet don't even bother to feign interest when they're made aware of what's been going on here for so long under the current HB City Hall crew.
I won't name names here, but they all know which category they fall into -and so do I.
In the future, you might want to ask some of them. especially the media people,
why there's such a pronounced indifference to what's going on here in the year 2009.
Ask them why it's so difficult for their media organization to cover local non-crime news in this part of Broward, and, IF this is going to continue, why
should you want to read/watch the words/video of people who are, at best,
indifferent to what's going on where you live.
It's your choice after all, and in the year 2009, they need you MUCH MORE
than you need them.
In particular, you might want to ask that question to the Herald's David
Landsberg, the paper's publisher and president.
I will tell you, though that for myself at least, the longer the newspaper makes the conscious choices they do, which ratify the status quo, the less the Miami Herald's future, if any, is an emotional issue for me, and becomes merely an
academic question.
As for me, I no longer concern myself with the personal feelings of South Florida politicians, government employees, news reporters, editors, producers and media management, who act like what I can readily observe everyday around me in this part of Broward County, is either NOT really happening, or isn't important.
I disagree and will make my future choices accordingly, and suggest that you do the very same.
