Thursday, August 7, 2014

ICYMI: President Obama's job approval is now at an all-time low of 40%. The U.S. opinion poll about Obama whose negative results were buried by the very TV network who paid for it... Surprise! It's NBC News; Thanks to Fox News Channel's Chris Stirewalt, I know what they were ignoring. @cstirewalt continues the great work at "FOX News First" of finding the news & news nuggets I want to hear more about

The following is from an email that I sent out yesterday, early Wednesday afternoon, to my always-curious and very well-informed crew of friends and associates with a News Junkie gene located around Florida and thw world beyond, who, like me, can't watch and read everything, so you have to pick and choose your times and share what you know, when you can, oui?
In retrospect I really should've blogged it and simply sent an email out with links to it, but sometimes, even after all these years of having a blog and now an ever growing Twitter feed, @hbbtruth https://twitter.com/hbbtruth you don't think of it first at the time.

 My post today are my thoughts regarding something I'd read in the FOX News First daily email, which is written by Chris Stirewalt, @cstirewalt, which I have previously mentioned here on the blog because of how often I see some interesting facts or anecdotes that I don't see elsewhere.

 ---
The poll referenced below in the Fox News newsletter that I get in my email inbox every weekday, which was financed in part by NBC News, is the very same opinion poll that last night's NBC's Evening News
conscipuously avoided mentioning last night. Really.


The very last thing that you'd expect, competition being what it is or at least used to be... once upon a time.
No, you would expect that absent some terrible/amazing story that knocks everything else off the lineup, given their direct involvement, the results of the poll would be one of the first 10 news stories reported upon, but it wasn't.
Why do you suppose that is?

That sort of attitude is precisely the sort of thing that only encourages most reasonable people, regardless of their personal or political positions, to doubt the veracity of so much of what they see reported upon -and only encourages them to wonder as I often have on my own blog over the past few years about the increasing number of legitimate news stories I know about taking place in South Florida that are either being consciously ignored, spiked or buried.

Despite all the advances in technology over the last two decades with regards to improved newsgathering equipment that makes it easier than ever to report, in my part of South Florida, more than ever, the stories that are being ignored by the news media greatly outnumber the ones that are actually reported upon in some manner or fashion, no matter how compelling or important they genuinely are.
A muzzled or lethargic press is not the same thing as a free press, no matter how many more instances we see all the time of this discouraging attitude.

-This is just an excerpt- see bottom for whole newsletter
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Fox News First Daily Politics
Date: Wed, 06 Aug 2014 09:51:27 -0400
Subject: Fox News First -- Crisis mode: Obama leadership woes sinking
Dem hopes | Walsh heading for the exits? | Grimes gets a 'Billigan'
from Bubba | Establishment scores, doesn't sweep in primaries | What
cheese?

FOX News First:  August 6
By Chris Stirewalt
CRISIS MODE: OBAMA LEADERSHIP WOES SINKING DEM HOPES

The WSJ/NBC News poll dropped like a bucket of cold water on Washington, where fevered attacks over legislative minutiae and blame-placing in recent weeks has caused politicians to forget what is actually going on. And what’s going on is that Americans are deeply frustrated with their president, his refusal to govern by normal means and his handling of crises at our border and around the world. Foreign policy seldom intrudes into the midterm election discussion, but when the world seems to be falling apart, Americans get anxious and upset with their commander in chief and his party. That’s clearly what’s happening here. Sixty percent of respondents said the U.S. is in decline, only 35 percent were satisfied with America’s role in the world, and just 21 percent said that the next generation would be better off.



The president likes to say that he can act alone on domestic issues, a dubious supposition. But on international affairs, an area in which American presidents have enormous latitude, the situation is dire.
Respondents offered a negative assessment of the U.S. response to the Ukrainian war, the Syrian civil war, the conflict in Gaza, the rise of ISIS and especially the flow of illegal immigrant minors across the southern border. Just 11 percent were satisfied with the handling of the border crisis. Overall, just 36 percent of respondents approved of Obama’s handling of foreign policy, 12 points lower than ahead of the 2010 vote.



The consequences for November are ominous for Democrats. Republicans are in slightly better shape in the generic-ballot test than they were at this point in 2010, the year that a wave election washed away the Democratic majority in the House. The president’s job approval, now at an all-time low of 40 percent in this poll, is 7 points lower than it was four years ago. The reality is setting in that Democratic hopes of
holding the Senate are winnowing, a realization that could turn a bad year into a rout. The president promises more executive action to mobilize base supporters on immigration and corporate taxes, but with numbers like these, Democrats will be increasingly unwilling to hustle for what looks like a lost cause. And the harder the president goes in rallying his base, the deeper he will sink in the estimation of moderate voters who are so fed up with his administration.



-- 90 days until Nov. 4 --


 You can read the whole thing here, via Chris Stirewalt's Twitter account:





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Friday, August 1, 2014

It's a damn shame that FL House Rep. Joe Gibbons will now have to go to Tallahassee to do his job instead of... avoiding South Florida reporters armed with 'inconvenient facts; Florida redistricting meets Broward County Commission Seat 1 race


It's a damn shame that FL House Rep. Joe Gibbons will now have to go to Tallahassee to do his job instead of... avoiding South Florida reporters armed with 'inconvenient facts' in his continuing attempt to explain away his dreadful record of insignificance in Tallahassee, and longstanding track record of perpetually looking the other way at what was taking place in his supposed "home" of Hallandale Beach under the direction of his friend Mayor Joy Cooper, especially as it relates to the misuse of the city's CRA,with her directing ill-founded schemes that made it an ATM for her political cronies and pals.

When the concerned citizenry of HB publicly proclaimed its genuine desire in 2013 for JLAC to perform an independent audit that would investigate where all the millions in CRA dollars went over the recent past, with Joy Cooper deciding where the money went, as I've written here many times, what did Joe Gibbons do?Nada!

It's also a shame that as soon as the FL House does what they need to do in order to meet the judge's order, regardless of how long it actually takes, Gibbons will inevitably say that there's just "not enough time" left for a no-holds-barred debate with Beam Furr in the HB/Hollywood area, a debate the public wants 
PRIOR to the primary for the Broward County Comm. District 1 seat.

You don't have to be as prescient as me or as familiar with Gibbons' M.O to know that cold, hard facts are NOT and have never been Gibbons' best friends.
Instead, Gibbons will no doubt continue playing the role of elusive rabbit to Furr's measured, fact-based issues campaign that actually compares and contrasts their records.

As it happens, I will have a nice fact-filled blog post next week on the issue of ethics and Joe Gibbons, and as you can imagine, it will deal with his lack of them, even when dealing with the federal government.
Who lies to the feds about something that's so easy to check on? Guess!

It'll feature irrefutable facts and a back-story that you have never read or heard about before.
Yes, think of it as my primary campaign 'contribution.' :-)

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Friday, July 25, 2014

So it's come to this? An online quarantine! U.S. Congress members and their legion of genius(!) staffers are placed in the penalty box by Wikipedia after months of intentional mischief & mis-edits that catches the attention of @CongressEdits. But it's not like local, county and state officials (and their staffers) are any different with their deliberate attempt at mis-direction, esp. in Florida and the use of Twitter








@CongressEdits https://twitter.com/congressedits

 For an example of the curious self-editing and treatment of news from politicians in South Florida see this blog post from May 9, 2012 titled "The curious case of Broward County Comm. candidate Marty Kiar's Tweets, which, for me, are more revealing for what they DON'T say"
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/curious-case-of-broward-county-comm.html
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Monday, July 7, 2014

Public Policy Life in South Florida: Billionaire Miami developer Jorge Pérez acts like he's a billionaire sports owner, and thinks his Pérez Art Museum Miami -on public land directly across from his luxury condos- is entitled to more taxpayer $$$. And he might just get it...







My comments below article.

 Miami Herald
Pérez Art Museum seeks sharp boost in county funding
By Douglas Hanks dhanks@MiamiHerald.com
July 6, 2014
The Pérez Art Museum Miami wants a $2.5 million boost in government support, with taxpayers set to cover a third of the museum’s budget next year.Housed in a new $130 million waterfront headquarters built largely with government money, PAMM’s celebrated debut late last year also tripled the non-profit’s annual operating expenses, to $14 million from $5 million. Private dollars have not kept pace with the higher costs, leaving a gap that PAMM wants Miami-Dade to help close with a 60 percent increase in the museum’s operating subsidy from hotel taxes, according to interviews and budget documents.
Read the rest of the article at:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/07/06/4218146/perez-art-museum-seeks-60-percent.html

 Be sure to read reader Gary Rosen and Richard Strell's comments below the article at the URL above, which are very similar to what I've heard from others who've gone to the museum.
Can't begin to tell you how disappointed people I spoke to back in March & April, who were leaving it were: actually angry, yet almost philosophical about  yet another bad decision and blown opportunity for South Florida to suffer through for years to come, just like Marlins Stadium.

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Monday, June 23, 2014

#tonedeaf -Once again, Hallandale Beach's thin-skinned, attention-hog of a mayor, Joy Cooper, is saying exactly the wrong thing at the wrong time to frustrated Hallandale Beach residents, taxpayers & small business owners. This time, about increasing the minimum wage, despite the fact that as residents know only too well, far too many of the city's employees and contractors consistently under-perform and yet have no fear of repercussions they'd face anywhere else

Well, so much for starting the new week off in a good mood.
Today's New York Times should serve as a real wake-up call to those in the Hallandale Beach community who, counter-intuitively given the mountain of evidence to the contrary, have been content for years to simply look the other way regarding the lingering questions about Mayor Joy Cooper whenever any discussion occurred amongst straight-talking family members or out-of-town friends about how a city like Hallandale Beach, located in a great geographic location between Miami and Fort Lauderdale and next to the beach, has continued to be such a self-evident mess under her the past dozen years.

 That a mean-spirited woman like Joy Cooper with such a demonstrated history of being completely oblivious to the reality of how poorly Hallandale Beach has been run for years under her ruinous anti-democratic reign, and how manifestly under-performing and insolent such a high percentage of the the city's employees have been and continue to be -including Dept. heads and key Administrators- is, admittedly, NOT news.

So that said, why should any of us who DO pay attention to matters hereabouts be the least bit surprised that Cooper is now publicly trying to draw attention to HERSELF by calling for a pay increase for those same employees, as well as the city's army of not-so-competent contractors -i.e Lanzo on NE 14th Avenue in the never-ending pipe/road project from hell; or the firm responsible for the city's third-rate website or the one responsible for the poorly-performing streaming of City meetings, often with no audio or picture for 30 minutes or more...?

 More $$$ that Joy Cooper wants to dole out that comes from us -with her taking the bows and thanks- when what we should really be getting from HB City Hall is a long overdue refund and an apology. In fact, multiple apologies!

How truly out-of-touch with HB residents and small business owners is Mayor Cooper?
As if any of us needed more evidence to add to the mountain that's staring us in the face, the article below from today's New York Times shows us.
She wants taxpayers to be be paying more in salary to employees and contractors, Exhibits A and B in what is at the heart of this city's problems: incompetency and bad performance.

To give you a better sense of how true that is, I'll soon be sharing here -complete with fact-filled photos that leave no question about what the reality of the situation is- one self-evident example after another showing how months after I publicly chastised City Manager Renee Miller for about five minutes straight at the combined NE/SE/Beach Quadrant meeting at the The Hemispheres condominium meeting room over on the beach.
Very specific examples of how it's not just Hallandale Beach residents that have realized how phony Miller's high-minded rhetoric and claims to be a reformer were in 2012, but others in Broward County as well.

The short version is that I told Miller that her claims to actually welcome public/neighborhood input and ideas, were, based on the past two years of history, an exaggerated and self-serving lie, and one that her own staff now realized, too. 
Then told her that the proof that her own staff and Dept. heads were tuning her and her high-minded rhetoric from 2012, and having no problem at all in being publicly insolent to the community, with absolutely no fear of repercussions from HER, were precisely what happened to me and has happened to so many of you, belied by Miller's own unsatisfactory behavior/performance/attitude.

I publicly identified three people -including two Dept, heads: Schanz at Parks & Rec and Parkinson at DPW- whom I had contacted via email, both in September and in the weeks prior to the Quadrant meeting, re specific questions involving the HB Parks bond issue and some longstanding problems with the city's Mini Bus transportation system that directly and adversely affects riders.
Problems that the people in charge showed absolutely no desire to accept responsibility for or attempt to satisfactorily resolve.
It will come as no surprise to you that none of the three city employees responded as we'd have a right to expect, despite sending reminders to them that they had failed to respond.
(And that none of the self-evident problems was resolved either.)

And, of course, they've never responded to me in the weeks and months SINCE the Quadrant meeting, despite the fact that they were in the room when CM Miller specifically said that she expected better of her staff. And that, in the end, the person responsible was her.
Well, in most parts of the country, I'd have heard from one of the three in the days afterwards, but here, nothing from the three of them and Miller.
So, yes, it'll be another example of me having to pull off another embarrassing band-aid re HB City Hall's longstanding incompetency and bungling that the local press continues to ignore and that the public has had ENOUGH of to last them a lifetime.

In case you hadn't realized it, a dubious anniversary draws near.
The next few days mark exactly two years since a serious mistake in judgement was made and Rene Miller was hired as Hallandale Beach City Manager.
Despite plenty of people in town giving her the benefit of the doubt long after she proved how unsatisfactory she was to the task, including some of you, Miller has not only proven a compete fraud as to being a reformer and being willing to try new innovative ideas the public supports, she has in fact tried to consolidate her power at HB City Hall by hiring LOTS of cronies of hers from the City of Miami Gardens, her former employer, including the recently-hired new head of Personnel in HB.

Simply put, after two years of her NOT coming anywhere close to effectuating any of the much-needed positive attitude and performance changes among the city's army of employees, City Manager Renee Miller clearly can't be trusted any longer with OUR city's future.
Miller needs to be replaced as City Manager AFTER November's elections, where new faces on the dais will not repeat past mistakes and ignore the reality of perpetual dysfunction that HB residents, taxpayers and small business owners experience everyday.
A long overdue reality check needs to be firmly delivered at HB City Hall this November.
  
--------------
New York Times
Mayors Put Focus on How to Raise Wages for Lowest-Paid Workers in Cities
By SHAILA DEWAN
June 22, 2014

DALLAS — About one in five people in Hallandale Beach, Fla., live below the poverty line. Though it is a small city — 37,000 people, a horse track and a greyhound track — its mayor, Joy Cooper, bellied up to the table during a jobs committee discussion on Saturday among the nation’s mayors and fired off a few questions about raising the minimum wage, if not for the whole city, at least for businesses with city contracts.

“I want to make sure my employees are cared for properly,” Ms. Cooper said later. “I want to have a high-quality work force.”

Read the rest of the article at: 
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Thursday, June 19, 2014

Observations re Leo Grachow's selection as Hallandale Beach's interim Commissioner: "I thought he was a perfect fit for the job." So says a clearly disconnected-from-reality Comm. Bill Julian, who DIDN'T rate Grachow best, but instead voted BEST the least-qualified of the 3 finalists! Meanwhile, the candidate giving the single-best oral presentation, Chad Lincoln, received a 1 (out of 25) from HB's notoriously thin-skinned Mayor Joy Cooper; voting distribution chart


Above, the May 20th, 2014 voting results of the four members of the Hallandale Beach City Commission for an interim Commissioner to serve the final five months of Comm. Alexander Lewy's term, winnowing a large field of prospective candidates down to eight and then to three. My friend and fellow Hallandale Beach & Broward County activist, Csaba Kulin, one of the eight semi-finalists, created this very helpful chart based on information provided to him afterwards by the City Clerk. Columns 1-4 denote who received votes to make the Top Three and Columns 6-9 indicate the specific number from 1-25 each candidate received.  

Before I step all over my lede below, I should mention that one of the most striking things to happen that evening, something noticed by anyone paying close attention in the room or watching on TV, but as usual, NOT mentioned by Sun-Sentinel reporter Susannah Bryan three days later -as so many salient facts about what really goes on in HB are never acknowledged or mentioned by her in print- was that the individual candidate who the clear consensus of the public in the Commission Chambers felt gave the single-best four-minute oral presentation of the evening, my friend Chad Lincoln, received a measly score of 1 from Mayor Joy Cooper. That is to say, a 1 out of a possible 25 points.

Even if you had never read this pro-reform blog of mine before, or read the rest of this individual blog post, that's really everything you need to know about our thin-skinned, fact-challenged and consistently anti-democratic mayor in a nutshell.

It's been common knowledge for the longest time -in part because I've mentioned it so frequently here after something Mayor Cooper herself said and did- that her biggest fear has long been that the true facts about the state of this city and its longtime mismanagement under her actually get out and penetrate the minds of the people in this state whose opinion she cares about.

That is to say, her pals throughout the area and up in Tallahassee, like the folks at the Florida League of Cities or state Sen. Eleanor Sobel, the latter of whom as I've written here often last year and this year, is always happy to play guard dog for her up in Tallahassee, and help keep the germane facts from getting made public, as Sobel did in running interference for the mayor re the city's completely mismanaged and unethical CRA with the JLAC.

All to prevent an honest audit so that Hallandale Beach residents, taxpayers and small business owners could finally discover where all the tens of millions of CRA dollars went.

So, all this said, smart, articulate and creative straight-talkers like Chad and Csaba were always going to be persona non grata to her no matter what they said or did, despite the fact that they DO know much more about the city and how it's doing than the three candidates who made the final cut. 

Cooper and Julian eliminated the single person most clearly able to articulately challenge and rebut her on the facts and on the policy, with Cooper giving Chad one-tenth of the total that she gave to the person she rated just above him, whom she gave a 10 to.
Yes, the Gospel according to Joy Cooper.

And Comm. Anthony A. Sanders didn't even vote for Grachow to make the Top Three, even while selecting two generally unknown people from Northwest who rarely if ever speak at City Hall during public comments and made blah oral presentations when they had the chance to speak for four minutes that night, so you can see that he has NOT changed a whit since embarrassing himself over his vote to approve the incompatible condo tower at 2000 S. Ocean Drive in April, something that the articulate and affluent voters over on the beach won't be forgetting come November when Sanders is on the ballot.

Now, back to the question of Leo Grachow's selection as Hallandale Beach interim Commissioner: "I thought he was a perfect fit for the job."
So sayeth a clearly disconnected-from-reality Commissioner Bill Julian.

Julian, the HB City Commissioner who was the only one of the four of them voting on Tuesday May 20th, who didn't vote for Etty Sims to be among his Top Three choices of the 8 semi-finalists when he had the chance. Julian was the idiot who rated Sheryl Natelson the highest of the final three -Grachow, Sims, Natelson- despite the fact that she didn't know the answers to most of the questions asked of her, and completely whiffed on all three fact-based questions posed to all the three candidates by Comm. Michele Lazarow, unlike Etty Sims and Leo Grachow.

Honestly, how do you rate the worst-performing candidate of the final three as your highest-scoring, which, in fact, is exactly what Julian did? Well, when you are Bill Julian, it's what we've come to expect and fear -logic and reason as completely alien concepts.

(But I will mention that in the weeks since ranking Mayor Cooper's pal Sheryl Natelson first, Julian has been appointed to his old position of Vice Mayor. Just saying...)

You'd think the Sun-Sentinel reporter who was actually present and saw the whole thing acted out in mind-numbing detail for three-and-a-half hours might have noticed that twisted logic, eh?
Maybe asked Julian directly afterwards how it came to be that the candidate who received the most votes to be in the Top Three, after a very good oral presentation and then nailing the answers in the Q&A, Etty Sims, hadn't even made Julian's list at all.
Maybe ask Sanders why he didn't vote for Grachow to make the Top Three if, as Julian says, "he was perfect for the job."
Or, ask how it is that the ONLY candidate who 3 of the 4 commissioners ranked as among the Top Three, Etty Sims, DIDN'T get the position.
Those are the questions begging to be asked.

But then that would require Susannah Bryan to do some real reporting, wouldn't it, instead of merely engaging in stenography and taking what is handed to her by the city? Yes.

All of this was exactly the sort of result we could have predicted. 
And in the case of myself and some of you out there, DID. 
That given a chance, Bill Julian would find a way to blow a golden opportunity to do the right thing for the community and would, instead, screw things up -yet again.

Predicted that the bad, incompetent, incorrigible and completely disconnected-from-reality 
Bill Julian, the very City Commission candidate who promised the entire city in 2012 that he'd really change his spots, and would, IF given a 2nd chance to serve -after being kicked off by voters in 2010- finally show sound judgement for a change, instead of continually being a laughingstock, 
NEVER left and never ever changed for the better. It's just that some of you desperately wanted to believe he'd really changed. 
Nope.
Cooper, Julian and Sanders are exactly what they look like.
-----

Sun Sentinel
Hallandale Beach's newest commissioner sails through first City Hall meeting
By Susannah Bryan, Sun Sentinel
7:11 PM EDT, May 23, 2014

 HALLANDALE BEACH

 Longtime mediator Leo Grachow may have just the right stuff to bring peace to a sometimes testy city commission, some say.

 The native New Yorker was chosen from a field of 18 candidates Tuesday and sworn in as a commissioner the very next evening.

 After the swearing-in ceremony, Grachow took a seat on the dais for his first meeting as a commissioner.
"It was a long agenda and sometimes that can get contentious," Grachow said. "But it went pretty smooth."
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Monday, May 26, 2014

Poignant! Barry Gibb: The last Bee Gee goes it alone, by Anthony Mason via @cbsnews #SundayMorning; @GibbBarry #resilience :-)






My last post on Robin Gibb and all things Bee Gees was on April 15, 2012, with a nod to the title of their Spirits Having Flown album, which came out right before I turned 18, and was titled: 
Tears soon to be flowing like rivers: Robin Gibb remains near death in a coma in a west London hospital, just days after his 'Titanic Requiem' premiered at Westminster Central Hall on Tuesday http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/tears-soon-to-be-flowing-like-rivers.html
Anthony Mason's interviews with iconic music figures always bring out something special, just like his great piece on Glen Campbell did, which I recounted here on June 26, 2012 in a blog post titled, As a beloved music icon begins to leave the stage for good, due to Alzheimer's, we stop and wonder if a more beautiful song could possibly be sung about two such incongruous words? "Wichita Lineman," et al - Glen Campbell's Long Goodbye makes us so very sad and wistful; see him while you can...
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/06/as-beloved-music-icon-begins-to-leave.html
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Saturday, May 10, 2014

A Question of Ethics & Process: Why should someone who in the past consistently failed to show up for her official duties -and was removed- deserve to be rewarded and made an interim Hallandale Beach City Commissioner on Tuesday night?; Sheryl Natelson's excessive absenses & tardiness at P&Z meetings

Below is the email that I sent out earlier this afternoon with respect to Tuesday's important decision, and some information that not a lot of people in this city are privy to.
I've removed email addresses and I am the DBS below, of course.
------

May 10, 2014

I've been waiting until now to send this email out to you all since I was unsure until yesterday whether the rumors I'd heard were true that current HB Planning & Zoning Board member and just-elected chair Sheryl Natelson was going to put her name forward as a candidate to be named the interim HB City Commissioner this coming Tuesday night.

Yesterday's email from the city, with the complete list of candidates that I shared with you all, finally answers my question, and now that I know the reality, I can share with you now what my real concern was and continues to be about Natelson: the very bad example it sets for the future of this city of rewarding someone who was removed from the HB P&Z Board for failure to consistently appear at meetings
and consistently showed-up LATE for meetings when she did deign to appear- within no time at all, is re-appointed to the second-most important body in this city by Mayor Cooper, her longtime patron who appointed her years ago.
·         Steven Carlo;
·         Albert J. Chiaravalle;
·         Susi Correa;
·         Howard Garson;
·         Harriet Ginsberg;
·         Leo Grachow;
·         Ann Henigson;
·         Keenan Z. Johnson;
·         Samantha Kleinman;
·         Csaba (Chuck) Kulin;
·         Charles Lincoln;
·         Sheryl S. Natelson;
·         Edward Pickett;
·         Anthony H. Romano;
·         Thomas Sands;
·         Etty Sims;
·         Von Thomas;
·         Phil Washington; and
·         Diane Lyon Wead.
This past March's HB P&Z meeting was like a sad replay I've seen far too many times for comfort in this city.
There was only one agenda item and Natelson showed-up long after that matter was thoroughly discussed and a vote had taken place by the Board members who DID take their responsibility seriously and showed-up, just as they were expected to do.
Furthermore... well, I think my previous comments to the City Clerk about what Natelson did after she finally showed-up speaks volumes, so read that below and draw your own conclusions.

I don't oppose Natelson merely because she's been a consistent and unwavering pro-development vote for what this community has vigorously opposed, with her often speaking from the dais more like she was the 
developer's point person on a project, rather than a person who was supposed to be looking to get all the facts out and look out out for the best long-term interests of you, me and the community at large.
And I don't oppose her just because she has consistently supported projects that were completely incompatible to the HB neighborhood it was situated in.
I oppose her for both of those things, plus I personally believe that her ethics and motivations are suspect, which her OWN behavior and actions have done nothing to dispel over the years -and currently.
Now you know the pertinent facts.

Good luck Tuesday night, Csaba, Chad and Diane!


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Talmadge, Chris 
Date: Wed, Apr 30, 2014 at 4:38 PM
Subject: FW: PRR re HB Planning & Zoning Board memmber Sheryl Natelson's excessive absenses & tardiness at P&Z meetings; her violation of Sunshine Laws from the dais
To: 


Mr. Smith,
Here are the records you requested about Sheryl Natelson. See the second attachment for her attendance records for the years 2011-2014.
Thank You.


From: James, Sheena
Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 2014 3:11 PM
To: DBS
Cc: Talmadge, Chris; Dominguez, Christy; Jefferson, Althea
Subject: RE: PRR re HB Planning & Zoning Board memmber Sheryl Natelson's excessive absenses & tardiness at P&Z meetings; her violation of Sunshine Laws from the dais

Good Afternoon Mr. Smith,

We are in receipt of your request and will provide the requested records within 3-5 business days.

Additionally, I thought it may be helpful for you to know, based on the policy governing Boards and Committees, the City Clerk’s Office conducts reviews of the attendance records biannually and takes the necessary action.  Upon the 2013 review of attendance records for the Planning & Zoning Advisory Board for the period 2011-2012, Ms. Natelson was removed from the Board due to excessive absences (see letter attached).  Ms. Natelson was later reappointed by the City Commission to the Planning and Zoning Board as of March 6, 2013 (click here to see action taken under Item #6E of the March 6, 2014 meeting Minutes).

I have also forward this request to our City Attorney. 

Please do not hesitate to let me know if you have any additional questions in the interim.

Regards,  

Sheena D. James, MBA, CMC
City Clerk
City of Hallandale Beach
400 South Federal Highway
Hallandale Beach, FL 33009
Ph#: (954) 457-1339
Fax#: (954) 457-1342


From: DBS
Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 2014 1:35 PM
To: James, Sheena
Cc: Dominguez, Christy; Scott, John W.
Subject: PRR re HB Planning & Zoning Board memmber Sheryl Natelson's excessive absenses & tardiness at P&Z meetings; her violation of Sunshine Laws from the dais

April 23, 2014

Dear Ms. James:

I'm writing today to make a formal Public Records Request for the Hallandale 
Beach Planning & Zoning Advisory Board attendance logs, specifically, Board 
member Sheryl Natelson's for the years 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014.

Ms. Natelson once again showed-up late for last month's meeting, as she has 
so many times over the past few years, arriving well after the only matter on the 
public agenda was publicly discussed and voted upon by the members who 
actually deigned to appear on time.
In my opinion, she should have been dismissed from the Board many years 
ago under the city's existing rules regarding attendance, due to her frequent 
absences and frequent tardiness, frequently arriving well after meetings 
have commenced.

Since nobody at HB City Hall seems much inclined to raise this point publicly, 
I will, and will examine those records you can provide to make my feelings and 
the known facts publicly known.

Additionally, there is a yet another serious matter which I need to bring to your 
attention.

Just moments after the March P&Z meeting ended, while Natelson was still 
on the dais in the Commission Chambers, she began to lobby other members 
of the Board to make her the new Chair of the Board despite the fact that it 
is expressly forbidden for her or any other Board member to discuss Board 
business with other members, esp. in such an egregious fashion that fails to 
follow either the spirit or letter of this state's Sunshine Laws.

Among other things, Natelson specifically mentioned that in her opinion, being 
an attorney would make someone an ideal choice to be Chair of the Board 
because many of the skills that go into being a good attorney are also ones 
that she believes are helpful for someone serving in the position of Chair, 
the Chair of the second-most powerful govt. body in this city.
As if it was lost on anyone that she is an attorney.

She also proceeded to cite what she thought were some of the failings of 
the just-resigned longtime Chair, Arnold Cooper, among them, that in her 
opinion, the Board had not properly benefited from Mr. Cooper's professional 
expertise, which I believe is that of an engineer

It was hard not to see all this and hear what was being said because I was 
one of only three citizens in what was otherwise an empty Commission 
Chambers.

Since City Attorney Whitfield has made abundantly clear since she has been 
here that she does not believe it is part of her job description to be "the ethics 
police," and because I believe that the citizens of this community are entitled 
to have people making important decisions for the community to be people
who not only obey ALL the appropriate laws and rules, not just the ones they 
like, but to actually embue the spirit of the Sunshine Laws, I am forwarding 
a copy of this email to you to the Office of the Broward Inspector General 
for their attention.

Sincerely, 
DBS, 10-year Hallandale Beach resident

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