Complete lack of concern shown by Eleanor Sobel, Joe Gibbons and Shevrin Jones for their Hallandale Beach constituents re wasted HB CRA $$$ is galling -and is noticed by LOTS of voters and reporters; Have HB's state legislators said or done a single thing re the Hallandale Beach CRA scandal, or done anything to help get a thorough audit of it by the Florida Joint Legislative Auditing Comm., so that HB residents can finally get the long-overdue financial accountability that HB Mayor Joy Cooper and her Rubber Stamp Crew of Lewy & Sanders have fought? So far, the answer is a big fat NO

My short and to-the-point email of Monday to the Florida Joint Legislative Auditing Committee in Tallahassee, jlac@leg.state.fl.us
http://www.leg.state.fl.us/cgi-bin/View_Page.pl?Directory=committees/joint/Jcla/&File=index_css.html&Tab=committees
regarding a matter of great public concern in the city I live in.

Monday August 19th, 2013

12:30 p.m.

To Whom It May Concern:

As of this morning, has the Florida Joint Legislative Auditing Committee received 

any correspondence from the following state legislators formally requesting that JLAC 

perform an audit of the Hallandale Beach CRA: Sen. Eleanor Sobel, Rep.  Joe Gibbons

and Rep. Shevrin Jones?

Living here, and being very involved in the effort to get your Committee to do one so that

citizens of this community can finally get the financial answers that we have long been

denied, I can tell you that there are no media reports of any of the three of them doing so,

thus far, so I just want to get confirmation of that fact.

Thank you for your assistance!

-----

For those of you who don't know, state Rep. Shervin Jones represents the part of Hallandale Beach west of the FEC Railroad tracks and Dixie Highway.
In my opinion, he is also a career-politician-in-training just like like Hallandale Beach City Commissioner Alexander Lewy, and obviously I mean that as a big warning sign for anyone who cares about common sense and actually solving problems, instead of relying on tried, tired and unproven ideas that come from liberal orthodoxy.

Jones has recently been brought up short by his caviar dreams and his West Park reality, the reality that gave him a gerrymandered seat for all practical purposes. But in a state like Florida with term limits, even a gerrymandered seat promising no competitive races doesn't seem as fun a sinecure as it once did, even for an African-American pol who had no real experience of any kind, yet drew no opposition when he first ran, in part because his father is the mayor of the city he's from.
That gives you an idea of what the district is like -not a lot of civic discourse.
More like a herd mentality.

The Honorable @RepSJones101 taking notes at the @AlexLewy event in #HallandaleBeach. #team101 pic.twitter.com/4ktw0juBs7
— Nick Steffens (@Nick_Steffens) June 24, 2013

Anyway, Jones, of FL House 101, who is supporting Lewy in his effort to replace term-limited Gibbons in the FL House District 100 seat in 2014, and Gibbons in his efforts to defeat former Hollywood City Commissioner Beam Furr in the 2014 race to replace term-limited Broward County Commissioner Sue Gunzburger -who endorsed Furr many months ago- is under investigation by the Broward State's Attorney office for his curious spending habits.
Or is it his expensive eating habits so very far from home?  

Broward State Rep. living large on his campaign money http://t.co/oXuKYX3ePo
— Buddy Nevins (@Buddynevins) August 2, 2013

Broward Beat
State Rep. Likes To Eat On Lobbyist’s Dime
By Buddy Nevins
August 2, 2013

State Rep. Shevrin Jones likes to eat….well…on his campaign’s dime.

He’s basically found a way for lobbyists like Ron Book, who donated $1,000, to pay for his meals.

Jones has spent roughly $2,000 of the $9,350 he raised from lobbyists on “meetings” and “campaign meetings” in various restaurants. Lobbyists were the only ones giving to his campaign.

Jones has no opponent.

Read the rest of the post and reader comments at
http://www.browardbeat.com/state-rep-likes-to-eat-on-lobbyists-dime/

State Attorney launches probe into state rep's campaign spending on meals. http://t.co/XehiRtydZg
— Buddy Nevins (@Buddynevins) August 12, 2013

Broward Beat
State Atty Investigates State Rep’s Campaign
By Buddy Nevins
August 12, 2013

The Broward State Attorney’s Office is investigating state Rep. Shevrin Jones’ campaign expenses, a well-placed courthouse source said.

The source said a Browardbeat.com post triggered the investigation into Jones’ spending at restaurants in addition to a campaign loan repayment.

Read the rest of the post and reader comments at
http://www.browardbeat.com/state-atty-investigates-state-reps-campaign/

Follow-up email to FL Gov. Rick Scott about MILLION$ more down the drain at Hallandale Beach City Hall. MORE of what we already knew and always suspected and now it's Q.E.D. yet again -Bill Gjebre in Broward Bulldog: "Hallandale city managers erased millions in code violation fines with little oversight"; @MayorCooper, @SandersHB, @AlexLewy

Palm tree obstructing the sun's powerful rays  at Hallandale Beach City Hall. And if there's any City Hall in Florida that needs more sunshine and scrutiny, it's Hallandale Beach's. May 28, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier. (c) 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved.

Below is a a copy of my Tuesday morning email to Florida Gov. Rick Scott, with copies to various Florida Legislative leaders and other public officials and interested parties throughout the Sunshine State, about the latest details to come out on what's been happening in one of the most unethical, incompetent and anti-taxpayer outposts in Florida, Hallandale Beach.
There's even less financial accountability and management oversight than we thought, and we didn't think there was very much to begin with.
And the shoes just keep dropping...

For some of you newcomers to this blog, in case you forgot whom I'm referring to in paragraph six regarding the very curious pensions changes that were made by someone at HB City Hall that netted million$ more to certain high-ranking people, by someone that HB City Hall won't name, it's former City Managers Mark A. Antonio, Mike Good, R.J. Intindola and former City Attorney David Jove. 

They're among the handful of people that this city's most well-informed and active citizens personally blame for the tens of millions of dollars that have been wasted and squandered the past 5-6 years, and whom logic and reason dictate should receive the highest degree of scrutiny by by public officials and law enforcement personnel in Tallahassee and at the Broward County Courthouse.
I've deleted the email addresses for obvious reasons.

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

To: Gov. Rick Scott cc: FL Attorney General Pam Bondi, FL CFO Jeff Atwater, Sen. Don Gaetz, Sen. Jack Latvala, Sen. John Thrasher, Sen. Joseph Abruzzo, Dominic Calabro of Florida Tax Watch, Broward Inspector General John W. Scott and Tim Donnelly of the Broward State Attorney's Office
April 3, 2013 Dear Governor Scott: Tens of million$ of tax dollar$ squandered here, tens of million$ of CRA dollar$ squandered there, pretty soon you're talking about real money. Sadly in the case of the city I've lived in the past nine years, Hallandale Beach, citizens have seen tens of millions of dollars continually squandered with no genuine accountability or oversight by either elected officials, or, highly-paid but incompetent city officials, despite all of them having a moral and fiduciary responsibility. And now we saw yesterday, via one of the articles below, that our well-founded suspicions have been confirmed as fact with even millions of dollars having been given away as party favors by the current City Manager and her two predecessors in forgiven fines. I'm sure you won't be too surprised to learn that the current City Manger doesn't want to end her power to play Santa Claus, saying that actually having the elected City Commission make the decisions about waiving fines over $50,000 would slow down the bureaucracy! Governor Scott, it's this city's longstanding incompetent bureaucracy, fiefdoms and mis-management that's responsible for literally ruining this city's current morale and future Quality of Life in the first place, by saddling current and future taxpayers with exorbitant bills for services that are NOT rendered: clean competent government.    And even now, three former City Managers, a former City Attorney, and a couple of dozen highly-paid former and current city employees are now laughing all the way to the bank, courtesy of beleaguered Hallandale Beach taxpayers, thanks to a very mysterious decision made over ten years ago regarding pension payments that were changed to exclusively benefit about 40 highly-paid city employees. And almost as if they needed to square the circle on their own jaw-dropping incompetency, many months after it was first requested, the City of Hallandale Beach STILL can't produce contemporaneous documents that say who the individual was at HB City Hall who decided, without City Commission approval, that these particular city employees would get their prior years of service paid-out to them at a MUCH-HIGHER rate than they actually earned at the time. In fact, HB City Hall STILL claims it doesn't have the full list of these former and current city employees who have benefited enormously from this mysterious decision by this mysterious official that will cost HB taxpayers millions and millions more than it should. What does all of this tell you about the scope of HB City Hall's lack of accountability to residents, taxpayers and small business owners? And the crazy part is that we still have in place many of the very same individuals legally and morally entrusted to do right by the citizens of this city, but who were and are so irresponsible about fulfilling their responsibilities that they didn't ever bother to verify any information submitted to the city for city/CRA grants or loans, before or after the funds were handed over to so-called non-profits, at least some of whom were actually NOT legally considered non-profits at the time by the IRS. Not that this salient legal distinction prevented City Hall from giving the money away to their cronies anyway, because as the city's very own documents have shown, there was never any appropriate follow-up to ensure that the funds were being spent properly or even as they were intended. Really. Do you see the unmistakable fact pattern that's present here, year-after-year? Governor Scott, THAT self-evident fact pattern of illegality, incompetency and gross mis-management is our daily reality in this city. Where's the cavalry? Broward Bulldog Hallandale city managers erased millions in code violation fines with little oversight By William Gjebre, BrowardBulldog.org  APRIL 2, 2013 AT 6:23 AM http://www.browardbulldog.org/2013/04/6915/ Broward Bulldog Split Hallandale commission votes to give Miami developer Tibor Hollo big break on fines By William Gjebre, BrowardBulldog.org  MARCH 22, 2013 AT 6:13 AM http://www.browardbulldog.org/2013/03/split-hallandale-commission-votes-to-give-miami-developer-tibor-hollo-big-break-on-fines/ And just a reminder, sir, it's all true and verifiable! Sincerely, DBS ----- Tuesday's email was the logical follow-up to my March 14th, 2013 email to Governor Scott about longstanding unethical behavior and corruption at Hallandale Beach City Hall, My open letter to Florida Governor Rick Scott about the longstanding corruption and incompetency at Hallandale Beach City Hall and environs re the HB CRA: More shocking proof of what I've written you several times in the past: Serial malfeasance and millions of dollars squandered by public officials as State laws/ethics were ignored, and with little genuine public oversight or transparency. Broward Inspector General Scott assails Hallandale Beach for past and continuing "gross mismanagement" -possible "criminal misconduct"; @MayorCooper, @SandersHB, @AlexLewy http://www.hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2013/03/my-open-letter-to-florida-governor-rick.html It started out like this... and got even better... FYI: Some follow-up to my March 7th email to you about longstanding culture  of corruption and incompetency at Hallandale Beach City Hall:  Broward Bulldog Hallandale mayor, ex-city managers defend millions in suspect spending to county agents By William Gjebre, BrowardBulldog.org  MARCH 14, 2013 AT 6:10 AM http://www.browardbulldog.org/2013/03/hallandale-mayor-ex-city-managers-defend-millions-in-suspect-cra-spending-to-county-agents/ And the pull-quote? Probably this: City records regarding payments to non-profit groups were so lacking, the report said, that investigators were “unable to reliably assess the amount of possible losses suffered by the CRA as a result of ‘misapplication of funding by non-profits.” Florida law does not permit the CRA to fund charitable donations to non-profits, the report said.

What's the difference between clean and Broward taxpayers 'being taken to the cleaners'? Bob Norman & Brittany Wallman on firm charging Broward taxpayers a million dollars a month to clean-up Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport

Above, looking NW at the Broward County Government HQ at 115 S. Andrews Avenue, Ft. Lauderdale, FL. January 3, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

What's the difference between clean and Broward taxpayers 'being taken to the cleaners'? Bob Norman & Brittany Wallman on the firm charging Broward taxpayers a million dollars a month to clean-up Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport; 

WPLG-TV, Channel 10, Miami, FL

Broward Commission tosses low bid

By Bob Norman
Published On: May 02 2012 08:45:27 AM EDT  
Updated On: Jun 11 2012 11:58:07 AM EDT
http://www.local10.com/news/blogs/bob-norman/Broward-Commission-tosses-low-bid/-/3223354/12481944/-/6dnvn7z/-/index.html
Be sure read the reader comments!

Meanwhile, as the 13-month old Sun-Sentinel article below proves, just like the above, over a year ago, Seth Platt, supercilious flack-for-hire, and a living-and-breathing reminder of much of what currently ails the Broward Democratic Party with moderate voters, was trying to throw his light-weight around and kill the messenger.

In 2011, his target was Broward County Auditor Evan Lukic and in 2012 it's Bob Norman of Channel 10 who pops Platt Junior's balloon full of hot air, bombast and self-importance.

(This blog post today is one of the ones that got delayed by my bad service from AT&T last month, due to their server.) 

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2011-05-10/news/fl-janitorial-waste-20110509_1_cleaning-contract-airport-director-kent-george-county-auditor

South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Broward overpaid almost $1 million to clean airport, audit says

By Brittany Wallman, Sun Sentinel

May 10, 2011

FORT LAUDERDALE — Broward visitors overpaid almost $1 million to clean the airport over the 2008-09 budget years, and the county still pays more than other Florida airport authorities for janitorial work, the county auditor says.

The new audit raises an alarm about a $63 million cleaning contract the county has with Sunshine Cleaning Systems Inc. Its 280 workers wash windows, clean toilets, vacuum carpets, and clean parking garages and sidewalks at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

At about $7.56 of cleaning per square foot, Broward's airport is paying more than twice what Miami's airport pays for similar work, county auditor Evan Lukic says in the just-released audit.

Relatively little in Lukic's audit -- about $15,500 worth -- is tied to alleged overbillings by Sunshine Cleaning. Rather, the mistakes he points to, totaling $950,000, were the county's. And county officials, including Airport Director Kent George, say they'll accept responsibility.

"Our aviation personnel did not do a great job in administrating this contract,'' George said on Monday. "Changes have been made. And it won't happen again.''

County Administrator Bertha Henry wrote to commissioners in a memo Thursday that "the underlying cause for this problem is a combination of staff insufficiency and to a lesser extent, competency.''

County commissioners are scheduled to talk about the audit on Tuesday, though the company has asked for a postponement. They will also consider extending Sunshine's contracts to clean the library and the South Regional Courthouse.

The scope of the problem with the airport spreads beyond George's turf. Sunshine's contract was vetted by county purchasing director Brenda Billingsley, placed on the September 2008 county agenda for Lukic, Henry, county attorneys and others to review at the time, and then approved by county commissioners.

George said the audit didn't shake his support for Sunshine.

"The company's performance at the airport has been very, very acceptable,'' he said on Monday. "They have done a good job with an aging facility and a growing passenger base.''

The contract included annual 4.1 percent raises for the cleaners that were higher than they should have been, Lukic says.

Just a few weeks after the cleaning contract was approved, the county changed its Living Wage Ordinance in a way that could have saved taxpayers $950,000 on the cleaning contract. On top of that, Sunshine paid its employees the lower wage but got to keep the extra that the county paid, Lukic says in his audit.

Lobbyist-attorney George Platt, who represented Sunshine in the contract negotiations, said the county insisted on creating the deal the way it was. He said the extra money was spent on employee benefits.

"It's just wonderful you can have a Monday-morning quarterback who was on the field and is now finding fault with a process he was part of,'' Platt said.

In the Thursday memo to commissioners, Henry says, "gaps still remain'' in county staff's ability to watch over contracts.

She asked staff to review the way the contracts are negotiated and said she will report their findings in 90 days. She also said she agrees with Lukic that the airport cleaning contract must be put back out for competitive bids.

Here's what happened, according to those involved: Inflation was so high when the cleaning contract was in the works, at 5.8 percent, that the county was afraid to pay for a contract that used the Living Wage Ordinance as its basis. The county's Living Wage was tied directly to increases in inflation.

So Sunshine agreed to pay $13.24 an hour in wages the first year, with a flat 4.1 percent raise each of the next four years. The contract was approved on Sept. 16, 2008.

Weeks later, on Oct. 7, the county voted to change its Living Wage to limit annual increases.

Lukic says purchasing director Billingsley knew the Living Wage law was about to be changed and asked George's aviation staff to reflect it in the contract. Yet no one followed up to make sure the contract was changed during negotiations, according to the auditor.

Henry said in her memo that after lots of explanations to her from staff about what happened and why, she heard "none that is acceptable to me and it will be addressed accordingly.''

V for Verdict: Ex-Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak finally gets his due -LIFE- for his role in deaths of unarmed Egyptian protesters last year at Tahrir Square, but, curiously, skates on the corruption charges, leading to chants of outrage in courtroom from indignant Egyptians

Telegraph TV video:Ex-Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak finally gets his due -LIFE- for his role in deaths of unarmed Egyptian protesters last year at  Tahrir Square, but, curiously, skates on the corruption charges, leading to chants of outrage in courtroom from indignant Egyptians. June 2, 2012. http://youtu.be/VTZbDc0ma9o

CAIRO — An Egyptian judge on Saturday sentenced former President Hosni Mubarak to life in prison for the killing of unarmed demonstrators during protests that ended his rule. It was the first verdict of an Arab ruler brought before the law by a popular revolt and for many Egyptians it may be the greatest achievement so far of the uprising that ended his rule.

Read the rest of the article at:

New York Times

Egyptian Court Sentences Mubarak to Life in Prison

By David D. Kirkpatrick
Published: June 2, 2012

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/03/world/middleeast/egypt-hosni-mubarak-life-sentence-prison.html


Meanwhile, somewhere in Broward County, someone -perhaps you- is likely to be heard saying the following while walking the aisles of Home Depot after first hearing this news on their car radio about the no-go on the corruption charges that seemed like a slam dunk:
"I didn't know that Mike Satz had a cousin in Egypt who was also a prosecutor."


Meanwhile, in other news around the Broward County courthouse... 
http://jaablog.jaablaw.com/2012/05/31/thursday-notes.aspx


------
http://www.youtube.com/user/telegraphtv/

When, if ever, is the sleepwalking South Florida news media going to demand that Broward County Comm. candidate Marty Kiar publicly answer questions about how his one precinct in Davie was the one placed in District 1? The silence on this matter is positively deafening, but the questions WON'T go away

Above, the middle two pages of the Martin Kiar for County Commission direct mail sent out recently that includes petition forms to get him on the ballot. In Hallandale Beach, after the city had a policy forever of accepting  petitions in lieu of a nominal fee for city candidates, the City Clerk's office has suddenly said that it no longer could accept them because there's no basis for them under current law. April 24, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier. 

When, if ever, is the sleepwalking South Florida news media going to demand that Broward County Comm. candidate Marty Kiar publicly answer questions about how his one precinct in Davie was the one placed in District 1? 
The silence from him on this matter is positively deafening, but the questions WON'T go away.


It's now officially less than 27 weeks until Election Day 2012.


In the six months since Florida state House member Martin "Marty" Kiar first publicly announced that he was going to run for term-limited Broward County Commissioner Ilene Lieberman's District 1 seat in November, AFTER the Florida Senate District he had his heart set on running for was redrawn by the state legislature in a way that would've proved particularly nettlesome for him by including much more of Palm Beach County, as an interested bystander who can't vote for or against him, I've waited patiently for Kiar to fully explain something pretty fundamental to the people of Broward County.


Waited patiently... and then some.
Just like many of you reading this post.


But now that it's less than 27 weeks and with no sign that he is going to do the right thing on his own, I feel that I need to ask this publicly?
Just when-oh-when is Kiar going to level with everyone in the area and fully explain to the public's satisfaction at a press conference -with serious reporters who show-up fully-prepared like Michael Putney- how the particular Davie precinct he lives in came to be the only one in the city carved-out in such a curious way that he's able to run for Lieberman's seat?


Not answered via a Tweet or via a publicist's press release, and not answered via a private telephone conversation with Broward Democratic Party head Mitch Caesar or to one of Kiar's 
supporters or godfathers in the community who think he's a swell guy, and then relayed to the public and news media.
Not at a press avail, but a real live press conference.


At a press conference when questions are asked and logical and reasonable answers are expected in response, without some intermediary choosing which questions get asked.


It's hardly an encouraging sign of getting to the entire truth of the matter -with all the facts revealed- much less, a sign of responsible enterprise journalism, that as of today, May 2nd, the Miami Herald has yet to even mention in print anything at all about Kiar actually going to the Broward County Government Center and signing-in to talk to Comm. Lieberman about redistricting.


Given that sad fact, you'll hardly be surprised when I tell you that the Herald has also yet to print anything at all about Kiar's lone Davie precinct being placed in County Commission District 1 at the County Commission's December 13th meeting.
Really.


Even more embarrassing for the Herald, despite the upcoming election and the matters coming up before the Broward Commission so far this year, here we are one-third of the way thru the year and there has NOT been a single article penned by an actual Herald reporter mentioning either Kiar or Lieberman.


The one thing that has appeared in print this year in the Herald about the curious Marty Kiar map was one of those shared pieces by Brittany Wallman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, and that was mostly about former Commissioner Ken Keechl running from another District, and didn't even appear until January 19th, five long weeks after the December 13th meeting that decided the matter.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/01/19/2598173/suddenly-defeated-broward-commissioner.html


Why was the Herald completely sleeping on this subject of Broward redistricting, just like they completely took a siesta on Lieberman's curious involvement with the stacked Broward County Courthouse Task Force a few years ago, which I wrote about here frequently?


You'll recall that the Herald's 'reporting' at the time, as such, consisted of small and insignificant semi-articles that were exactly the sort of one-sided, pro-new Courthouse pieces that the Broward legal community, esp. the judges, desperately wanted to see, with zero serious discussion of the costs and justification, much less, the issue of the County Commission going directly around the back of Broward taxpayers to push it thru.
Try to find those sycophantic Herald articles now!


You'll sooner find buried treasure at the former site of Pirate's World in Dania.


But then regular readers of the blog will recall that one of my many complaints in my December and January emails and subsequent blog posts here to Herald publisher David Landesberg and Executive Editor Rick Hirsh, concerned the Herald's feeble and non-existent coverage of Broward's redistricting, even while they were putting stories about Miami-Dade's on the front page.


It seems awfully curious to me that for an area that likes to claim that it's politically sophisticated and not a political or media backwater, this fundamental fact of how the Kiar map came into being out-of-nowhere has been allowed to go on and on, with Kiar just skating on this like he's Hans Brinker.


Especially considering how much Kiar's loyal supporters love to pepper blogs, both popular and obscure, with comments about how different he is from the other pols in this county, where a general culture of cronyism, corruption and short-cuts had already left its scars visible even before I returned to South Florida in late 2003.


To me, given who Kiar is and what he has done, and what we need in Broward now, he's the wrong person in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Kiar is going to be only 35 this year and has been in political office since he was 29, a few years out of law school.

What else has he done with himself?

Where else has he lived?

What has he experienced that's out of the norm?
Where's any evidence that he has anything other than the usual Broward Democratic  point-of-view on the proper role of government?


Based just on the publicly-available facts, Kiar's has been the very definition of a parochial and sheltered existence, the personable son of the town's mayor and city attorney.

It's all very well if small coal towns in rural Pennsylvania or Ohio or agricultural towns in Missouri find that sort of insularity comforting, maybe even heartening, but for Broward County to change and become what it needs to be in the 21st Century, in my opinion, it needs MORE serious responsible people who've actually lived elsewhere and seen different ways of doing things, and who have a personal track record of doing something tangible to make a positive difference, to boot.


To be honest, I don't personally consider signing your name onto legislation in Tallahasse that's practically written by the special interests, whether Democratic or Republican, and parrot talking points to be substantial, esp. when you never have to deal with the responsibilities of being in the majority and actually produce something, rather than playing the role of irritant.


To me, Kiar seems very... well, almost like a caricature of the typical Broward politician in the year 2012 -the familiar connections to the same powerful people and the same knee-jerk loyalties to the system that produced them.


(Except in his case, right now, Kiar has the burden of appearing to me to be both unformed and underwhelming, not unlike the worst and most troubling aspects of deceitful Hallandale Beach City Comm. Alexander Lewy, who not only lacks Kiar's personable friendliness, but who continues to mistake his own overweening ambition as a substitute for a personality, and who continues to tell people whatever he thinks they want to hear. Lewy's always playing the angles.)


I'm sorry, but I don't think that in the year 2012, given the stakes, you can't just vote for someone for political office because of their pleasing personality, otherwise, when tough and unpopular decisions need to be made, and they need to be persuasive with both their colleagues and the public in explaining why there's still more pain ahead, why would they suddenly show backbone and resolve when they've always used personality, not logic, to get things done?

In my opinion, however smart, clever or friendly Kiar may be, he doesn't really add anything

to the mix that is the Broward County Commission that's currently missing.
Another lawyer?
Really?


Broward County desperately needs elected officials and agency chiefs with vision who aren't  satisfied with the smug, status quo mediocrity we see all over the place here. 
It needs people who will perform genuine oversight over county spending and demand real accountability that doesn't give the benefit of the doubt to people (and their cronies) who always think that appropriating more money is the right answer.


Today's news tells the sad tale and why what I've said is true:

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Auditor: Broward too loose with 'other people's money'

By Brittany Wallman, Sun Sentinel

6:37 p.m. EDT, May 1, 2012

Broward County loosened controls on the public purse to the point that checks were paid with no documentation proving they should be, the county's independent auditor found.

The weak oversight of what one commissioner called OPM – Other People's Money – was so alarming, County Auditor Evan Lukic said he didn't wait to conclude his audit and immediately notified top county leaders.

Read the rest of the article at:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/fl-broward-financial-alarm-20120501,0,3573544.story


Reader comments at:
http://discussions.sun-sentinel.com/20/soflanews/fl-broward-financial-alarm-20120501/10


From my perspective, it's hard to shake the notion that Kiar is part and parcel of the same get-along gang that operates between Broward Blvd., the beach, and the County Courthouse that got us all into this mess in the first place, a crew that is NOT at all trusted or respected by well-informed Broward residents precisely because of how often their interests have taken priority over the community's, with the new County Courthouse debacle being Exhibit A.


Where was Marty Kiar's voice on that issue? 
Or, more recently, the Bank Atlantic arena bailout for the Florida Panthers?

Fact: There is no public record of Kiar saying anything on behalf of Broward's beleaguered taxpayers on these two issues involving millions and millions of dollars.

And seriously, not to laugh out loud here while I write this, but when you think about all the genuine problems this county has to solve in transforming itself into a dynamic area with a well-balanced economy that's NOT so dependent on hospitality-related jobs, and then look at Kiar's campaign lit above, and see that "supporting worker rights" is the second thing he lists, wow, it just shows all over again his very poor judgement and how myopic his world view really is.

Preserving the county government  bureaucracy as it is, and the money-train pension system that Broward taxpayers are slowly being strangled by at the county and city level, is NOT what most Broward voters are in favor of.

There's nothing there about increased accountability, more transparency or better efficiency.

Tell me if this sounds at all familiar:

A party functionary who occasionally made faux claims to reform is elected, grows to love power so much that they are quickly blind to their own numerous flaws and become even more part of the dysfunctional system... Ann Murray.
'Nuff said.


Even with term limits, Broward County taxpayers don't need more young career-politicians-in-training getting burrowing into the system when they are 35, especially ones who've done so little of genuine significance and are NOT associated with any innovative ideas or ways of thinking.
More defenders of the status quo are precisely NOT what we need more of on S. Andrews Avenue.


-----

BrowardBeat

State Rep. Marty Kiar’s Future in Limbo Because of Redistricting

By Buddy Nevins

December 4, 2012

http://www.browardbeat.com/state-rep-marty-kiars-future-in-limbo-because-of-redistricting/

BrowardBeat

Gerrymander! County Commission Carves Out A Seat For State Rep. Marty Kiar

By Buddy Nevins

December 16, 2011

http://www.browardbeat.com/marty-kiar-extremely-likely-to-run-for-county-commission/

Red Broward blog

Marty Kiar Met Ilene Lieberman Just Hours Before Redistricting Vote

December 19, 2011

http://redbroward.com/2011/12/19/marty-kiar-met-ilene-lieberman-just-hours-before-redistricting-vote/

*****Reader "Independent" has it right when they wrote in response:

"However, if you watch the meeting, Lieberman submitted right at the end a new map, which is posted, and with no public input. The hand drawn map was written specifically for Kiar, and it couldn’t pass cause it the district would be way too large. Then they worked out the Ritter-Lieberman-Jacobs Amendment. And then it appears she voted against her own agreed amendment."

BrowardBeat

Martin Kiar: I’m Running For Commission

By Buddy Nevins

January 3rd, 2012

http://www.browardbeat.com/martin-kiar-im-running-for-commission/

BrowardBeat

Lauderhill’s Kaplan Drops Out of County Commission Race  

By Buddy Nevins

January 5, 2012

http://www.browardbeat.com/lauderhills-kaplan-drops-out-of-county-commission-race/

Miami Herald 

Naked Politics blog

Rep. Martin Kiar will seek Broward County Commission seat

By Steve Bousquet of Tampa Bay Times

January 17, 2012

http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2012/01/rep-kiar-will-seek-broward-commission-seat.html

Broward Judge Patti Englander Henning strikes YET again! Same judge who foolishly took Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper's side in her/city's lawsuit against Michael Butler over his Public Records requests; the Oral Brown case

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Broward County Courthouse, 201 S.E. 6th Street, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301

Broward Circuit Couty Judge Patti Englander Henning strikes YET again! Same judge who took Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper's side in her/city's lawsuit against Michael Butler over Public Records requests

In case you forgot, Greater Ft. Lauderdale Convention & Vistors Bureau Director Nicki Grossman's sister, Patti Englander Henning, is the Broward judge who ruled that HB Mayor Joy Cooper's use of private email to conduct city business was a-okay, contrary to both common sense and Florida's Constitution.
She's nothing if not consistent in her approach to justice, as this new story makes quite clear.


Earlier Tuesday night, in an email about this very matter, I wrote that the judge would be on the ballot for retention in November, but I later came to find out that she is on the bench until 2015.
Damn the luck!


Please read this first before reading the South Florida Times story from last week, which I only came across Tuesday night:


BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes
Judge Patti Henning Strikes Again
By Bob Norman 
October 27 2009 at 3:21 PM
http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2009/10/judge_patti_henning_and_mayor_joy_cooper.php




South Florida Times
JUDGE’S ROLE IN MAN’S "HOG-TYING" DEATH CASE CRITICIZED
Written by Elgin Jones  
Friday, 13 April 2012

FORT LAUDERDALE — A lawsuit over the death of a Lauderhill motorist more than 10 years ago at the hands of Broward Sheriff’s deputies and paramedics remains active in the courts and the actions of a judge in the case are being called into question.

Read the rest of the article at: 
http://www.sfltimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9707&Itemid=331


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For those of you who are somewhat new to the blog and who never read this excellent Bob Norman piece in the NewTimes when it first came out in 2007, or when I have linked to it here, I suggest you take a hard look and get some more insight into Mayor Cooper's volatile temperament, constant desire to get her way and willingness to use the city's resources to get what she wants for her part of the city, as opposed to what's best for the whole community, and to get a sense of the judge's apparent tendency to ignore the state's laws in order to rule how she wants -they're like twins!- read this:

BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes

Storming the Castle

Hallandale Beach and a Broward judge are trying to drive a man from his home

By Bob Norman
August 23, 2007

http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/2007-08-23/news/storming-the-castle/

Mass Transit reality check from Reason TV: 17 Miles in Just 78 Minutes! Light Rail vs. Reality in LA; backwards South Florida can hardly laugh at LA!

Reason.tv video: 17 Miles in Just 78 Minutes! Light Rail vs. Reality in Los Angeles. Watt Smith plays the role of guinea pig going from LAX to Burbank to see what's true and what's not re LA's Light Rail system, and discover's that even riders would prefer faster buses, not expensive and slow trains. December 2011.

http://youtu.be/7P1bFR5LOcg

Don't act so smug in watching this, South Florida!

As I've detailed previously here and in emails, blog and newspaper comments elsewhere over the years, when the Miami-Dade Metrorail system was in the development stages, wonky transit nerds and Good Government public policy types were completely out-muscled and out-hustled by the local taxi cab industry -and their campaign contribution$- which is why a Metrorail route between Miami International Airport -aka M.I.A.- and the downtown Miami business/legal area then on Flagler Street, and beginning to rapidly move south to Brickell Avenue, was NOT the very first route completed, like it would be in almost any other normal community that didn't have natural obstacles between them.

But in Miami, it didn't happen.

In fact, you STILL can't get straight from MIA to downtown Miami or Brickell Avenue entirely via Metrorail in the year 2011, can you?

And in Broward County, despite the name, Tri-Rail's Airport station isn't really at Hollywood/Ft. Lauderdale International Airport, is it?

No, it's a few miles away in Dania, and you have to take a bus to actually get to the airport.

And there's currently no rail service to Port Everglades and all the thousands of tourists and employees there to... anywhere.

(And who can forget all my many -fascinating!- blog posts here in the past about the lack of a bus at the Tri-Rail station closest to Ft. Lauderdale Stadium & Lockhart Stadium -Coconut Creek- where the Orioles used to have spring training, and the complete lack of a city or county bus or shuttle that goes directly from the Tri-Rail station to the City of FTL-owned stadiums when events are taking place there, despite it being well over a mile away?)

Yes, South Florida has really been blessed the past forthy years with lots of real geniuses in charge of public transportation!

To better illustrate these points, especially for those of you reading this now who live far from the heat and humidity -and sunshine- of South Florida, here are two excerpt of email I've sent

the past four years.

The first was sent to Gabriel Lopez-Bernal, the founder of the very popular public policy and transit-oriented blog, Transit Miami, back on November 7th, 2007.

Gabriel listed this blog on the Transit Miami blogroll a few months after I started it and the South Beach Hoosier blog, the latter of which will be seriously tweaked and improved by the beginning of the new year. http://southbeachhoosier.blogspot.com/

Dear Gabriel:

Per Larry Lebowitz's insightful article about the latest "only in Miami" controversy, around the North corridor of the extension of the Metrorail, something the Herald neglected to mention when discussing the issue of the U-M's move to Chez Huizenga, and your good take on the situation which I read just a few minutes ago, http://www.transitmiami.com/2007/11/could-north-corridor-be-threatened-by.html

"MIA got luggage carts when?" is going to be my new generic response to how things can be the way they are in South Florida.

For instance, the Herald suddenly discovering that there are no general interest bookstores within the City of Miami city limits.

Luggage carts at MIA? That happened like, what, just 4-5 years ago???

When I was still living the Beltway Life up in Arlington, I could get a luggage cart at the Reagan National Airport Metro exit just seconds after going thru the farecard taker.

Don't quote me on this, but I think they had luggage carts at Le Bourget Airport in Paris when Lindbergh landed in 1927

Come on, you know how long it takes for all the good ideas to finally make their way to Miami!

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Want more proof of the lack of common sense on transit?

Here's an excerpt from a 2007 email of mine to Broward County Comm. Sue Gunzburger, the Commissioner for my part of Broward, telling her about a series of problems I had noticed even BEFORE the County initiated a new -and long overdue- express bus service along U.S.-1/

Federal Highway called The US-1 Breeze.

The route starts south of me in Aventura at the Aventura Mall, come north thru Hallandale Beach, Hollywood, Dania, stops at FLL airport, and then continues to downtown Ft. Lauderdale, near the County and Federal Courthouse and Broward Schools HQ, ending at the Broward County Central Terminal on Broward Blvd., just around the corner from the Broward County Govt. Center.

Since this service started four years ago, if nobody I know wants to come along in my car, I take this when I need to go up to Broward County Commission meetings -or the Ethics Comm. meetings- so I can read the newspaper, listen to ESPN Radio and drink some Iced coffee and be there in less than 45 minutes for less than two bucks -and don't have to pay for parking:

1. Considering the amount of public back-slapping Broward County engaged in after they finally decided to create the #1 Breeze, an idea that should've been done 10-20 years ago, how is it that less than one week before the service actually began, there were still NOT any printed schedules for the Breeze service available on existing #1 buses, the natural constituency of a new line?

Could you possibly sabotage your own efforts any worse?

Actually you could, since there were no easily visible symbols of some sort on US-1 in advance, indicating where the small number of stops would be.

That was the icing on the Breeze cake for me.

As it happens, I spent quite some time investigating this, not only on the phone talking to customer service folks with Broward Transit, but also employing old-fashioned shoe leather, actually walking US-1. You know, the route involved.

Trust me, Comm. Gunzburger, whatever you are told by Broward Transit on this matter needs to be completely disregarded, because it could hardly have been more self-evident they didn't know what they were doing.

How botched was it?

Well, customer service people I spoke to at Broward Transit, just days before the service began, couldn't tell me with any degree of certainty where the stop(s) in Hallandale Beach were to be located.

Or, as it turned out, where the ONE stop in Hallandale Beach was.

The whole subject of the lack of a sufficient number of city-created bus shelters in SE Broward in HB and Hollywood, will be the subject of a future blog post here, though I've broached it here in the past.

I mention this because the north-bound stop in HB for The Breeze consists of two benches across the street from McDonald's -with no sheltered roof to keep you out of the rain or sun.

The one south-bound stop is roughly the same but in front of a gas station.

In the entire length of Hallandale Beach, along very busy U.S.-1, there is exactly one bus shelter on the north-bound side of the road, and it's just two blocks south of Pembroke Road, the cityline with Hollywood.

Welcome to Joy Cooper's Hallandale Beach!

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seventhmetro'd video: Los Angeles Metro: The past, Present and Future of LA's Mass Transit

http://youtu.be/DGNpibdVuU0

From today's Transit Miami blog, relative to FDOT:

FDOT, Brain Surgeons, Engineers and Trust

StrongTowns video: Conversation with an Engineer, Street Project

http://youtu.be/_-6X1-SLOXM

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http://www.transitmiami.com/

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

Rail-Volution's 2007 Conference in Miami, Florida

http://www.railvolution.org/past-conferences/all-conferences

Summary of Lake Worth Charette; Transit Oriented Development

http://www.railvolution.org/rv2007_pdfs/rv2007_001a.pdf

Papers, Presentations and Highlights of other Rail-Volution annual conferences:

http://www.railvolution.org/past-conferences/all-conferences

Creating a Positive Future for a Minority Community: Transportation and Urban Renewal Politics in Miami: By Milan Dluhy, Keith Revell and Sidney Wong

http://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1013&context=penniur_papers&sei-redir=1&referer=http%3A%2F%2F

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

http://www.strongtowns.org/

http://www.strongtowns.org/journal/

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