Wednesday, January 27, 2021

Real Estate developers are clearly exploiting current lack of public transparency/engagement regarding development in #HollywoodFL during #COVID19 pandemic. Why's the city doing nothing to compensate? Residents are frustrated w/lack of participation.

Real Estate developers are clearly exploiting current lack of public transparency/engagement regarding development in #HollywoodFL during #COVID19 pandemic. 
Why's the city doing nothing to compensate? Residents are frustrated w/lack of participation.

I'll have much more to say about this subject in the coming days here on my blog, but for now I have two simple questions that I and many other concerned Hollywood residents believe are well worth asking and pondering: 

a.) Why is the current Hollywood City Commission -especially the two newly-elected members, Linda Hill Anderson and Adam Gruber- ignoring both the "optics" and the real life public policy dimensions of this situation, and NOT offering a reasonable solution for the Planning & Development meetings, as long as the city's less-than-dynamic pandemic rules prevent full in-person public participation by the neighborhood and the larger community?

b.) How come the City of Hollywood has the resources to arrange things so that the Hollywood Sustainability Advisory Committee, a committee that many if not most of you may not have even known existed, can have Virtual meetings that allows for citizen engagement, as they are on Thursday, yet for some reason, they can not do that for the much-more important Planning & Development Board?  

In case you did not know, the Planning & Development Board is one of the six citizen advisory Boards and Committees in Hollywood that REQUIRES appointees to file both a yearly Financial Disclosure Form as well as quarterly Gift Disclosure Form, while the Hollywood Sustainability Advisory Committee is... not.

That distinction shows what the city itself believes are the most important boards, no?

https://www.hollywoodfl.org/155/Boards-Committees

 

Color me less-than-impressed with how the city and its elected leaders have handled this matter thus far, and less-than-impressed that it may well be DAYS before most of the public in Hollywood ever finds out what really happened Tuesday night at Hollywood City Hall.

Clearly, I am not the only one who feels that way right now.


My tweet from Tuesday afternoon: https://twitter.com/hbbtruth/status/1354197430493978624



Below, my post to Nextdoor Hollywood from Monday at https://nextdoor.com/news_feed/?post=174916686&init_source=search



Dave

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Monday, January 18, 2021

"Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase." - Martin Luther King.


"Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase." 
- Martin Luther King, Sept. 1962. #MLK

I was a young seven-year old kid living in #Memphis with my family that April night in 1968 when we returned home from a trip to #McDonalds and like so many nights before, I raced to the TV set in the living room to beat my two younger sisters to be the one who turned on the TV. 
Who was going to be the "boss of the TV," as we called it among the three of us.
(We didn't have a TV with a remote control!)


 As my parents walked in and settled down on the family couch, to see what was on TV, literally, within one minute, came the Breaking News that Dr. King had been shot elsewhere in the city. 
And the news only got worse as the night went on as news soon confirmed that Dr. King had died as a result of the assassination attempt, and soon there was widespread looting and violence in Memphis, the very things he had adamantly opposed. 

Eventually came the news that the city was under curfew, and sometime before midnight, because my family lived in a new-ish apt. complex that was on the same road as the nearby Armory, my parents and I and many of our neighbors watched in silence from the sidewalk/curb as tanks driven by members of the mobilized National Guard drove towards downtown Memphis, because the city's powers-that-be had decided that this would show the people who was boss.

Memphis sanitation strike met with hostility, misunderstanding from media
Tom Charlier, Memphis Commercial Appeal
Updated March 30, 2018


 As my mother tells the story, one of my neighbors remarked on the irony of U.S. Army tanks being used to try to stop violence by Americans who were upset about the murder of a great man who had won the #NobelPeacePrize.

It was the first time I remember ever hearing this strange word: #irony.

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Tuesday, January 12, 2021

The continuing problems of Broward County's Animal Shelter clearly shows that the Broward County Commission and Administration can not or will not solve what needs to be fixed. Quite rightly, Hallandale Beach Comm. Michele Lazarow, a longtime animal advocate, wants to know: “They had all summer to do this -why are they waiting until January?" Another case for Broward having an elected countywide Mayor who is held accountable for results.

The continuing problems of Broward County's Animal Shelter clearly shows that the Broward County Commission and Administration can not or will not solve what needs to be fixed. 

Quite rightly, Hallandale Beach Comm. Michele Lazarow, a longtime animal advocate,  wants to know: “They had all summer to do this -why are they waiting until January?" 

To me, this story shows the true cost to Broward residents in the chronic lack of personal accountability and positive results in Broward County by not having one person in the county who is an elected countywide Mayor who is accountable to everyone, and who can set an agenda that will last for more than one year. 

Instead, Broward residents must suffer with unaccountable and unelected jokers who are called mayor, like Steve Geller.

More of my comments below this account of what I tweeted out Tuesday afternoon.


I've included the text from the germane tweets in case you can't make out all the information

HallandaleBeach/Hollywood Blog @hbbtruth


1/ .@Susannah_Bryan 
Animals left in dark for hrs = just 1 of problems @ #Broward #AnimalShelter. “This is not news to those of us who have been saying this for years” - animal advocate + #HallandaleBeach Comm. @MLVegan. “What are they going to do now...”

Animals left in the dark for hours — that’s just one of the problems at Broward’s animal shelter.
Yet another scathing audit has uncovered a slew of problems at Broward County’s troubled animal shelter, lambasted by activists for years over allegations of neglect and incompetence that they say...
https://t.co/g7sWj39eYS?amp=1



2/ MT @Susannah_Bryan 
#Broward animal advocate Ana Campos worries abt animals being subjected to barrage of construction noise. “That is terrifying to an animal. It’s going to sound like a war zone... They’re going to bite and bark and freak out.”
Broward animal shelter will close for six months. The closure will make it easier for construction crews to fix problems with the shelter’s ventilation system. Shelter animals will remain in the building during construction.
https://t.co/BGBBAYlxfO?amp=1





3/ MT @Susannah_Bryan 
#Broward animal advocate + #HallandaleBeach Comm. @MLVegan has been on the line for 2 hours (since 10 am) waiting to comment @browardinfo mtg. re #Broward #AnimalShelter audit. When it was her turn to speak, commissioners were told she was not on the line.

4/ MT @Susannah_Bryan
After being passed over while waiting to speak re #Broward #AnimalShelter audit mtg., animal advocate/#HallandaleBeach Comm. @MLVegan texted Comm. @beamfurr to let him know. Now they’re trying to reconnect to her. Instead, they've got another speaker!




5/ MT @Susannah_Bryan 
“We are angry and tired,” #HallandaleBeach Comm. @MLVegan tells @browardinfo, referring to years of #animal advocates railing abt problems at county-run #AnimalShelter.
Says #Broward County administration + Commission to blame for problems.


6/ MT @Susannah_Bryan
Fact checking #Broward #AnimalShelter costs: @Michaeludine says it takes in 1,400 animals a year, spends $5,700 on each. Not true, says #animal advocate/#HallandaleBeach Comm. @MLVegan. Shelter takes in closer to 14,000 animals per year, spends $570 apiece.




@CBSMiami @nbc6 @wsvn @WPLGLocal10 @caitielee0917
7/ There really shld NOT be so much confusion re numbers and costs appearing in an... audit.
MT @Susannah_Bryan
Page 67 of #Broward #AnimalShelter audit: The shelter impounds approx. 14,000 live animals each year.

@CBSMiami @nbc6 @wsvn @WPLGLocal10 @caitielee0917 @Buddynevins @Florida_Bulldog @Susannah_Bryan
8/ This story shows true cost to #Broward residents in lack of accountability/results by NOT having elected countywide Mayor. Instead, unaccountable/unelected joker #SteveGeller.

@CBSMiami @nbc6 @wsvn @WPLGLocal10 @caitielee0917 @Buddynevins @Florida_Bulldog @Susannah_Bryan
9/ Perfectly reasonable question re #Broward #AnimalShelter: “They had all summer to do this -why are they waiting until January? - #animal advocate/#HallandaleBeach Comm. @MLVegan

This is one of those times where I don;t have to use all kinds of adjectives in my post to describe
what is going on, because it is completely self-evident to anyone who wants to open their eyes and look at where the problems are.

The Broward County Commission and its highly-paid staff is VERY, VERY lucky that this agenda item on the audit of the Broward County Animal Shelter took place during a pandemic, because if this had been a normal meeting where interested parties  could show up and speak under Public Comments, there would have been dozens and dozens more people who would've present at at the County HQ on Andrews Avenue to speak in-person.
And I would have been one of them.

Even worse, that meeting would have been chock full of kids with signs and their angry middle-class Moms, and that would have been the worst possible optics for these nine elected officials, who spend so much time reassuring us that they have excellent people in place to deal with and manage things.
No, what we know from experience is that they have staff that is highly-paid.

Their competency and tin-eared reactions has been the problem.
That's clearly been the case in many areas of public policy -including the battle for allowing Uber into the county- and now we know that problem extends to many other parts of Broward's bureaucracy, and we know with a high degree of certainty that one of those areas is something as non-controversial as the proper care and treatment of animals.

You don't need me to tell you that Broward residents and taxpayers deserve so much better than this from our elected officials.
You know it in your gut!

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">More half-assed &#39;results&#39; fm feckless <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Broward?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Broward</a> Comm. as animals suffer @ its <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AnimalShelter?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#AnimalShelter</a>. <br>Another case for an elected countywide Mayor? <br>YES!<br><br>“They had all summer to do this -why are they waiting until Jan.?&quot; -🐶lover/<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/HallandaleBeach?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#HallandaleBeach</a> Comm. <a href="https://twitter.com/MLVegan?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MLVegan</a><a href="https://t.co/ejJ2QGSCRw">https://t.co/ejJ2QGSCRw</a> <a href="https://t.co/62Z5A7Hcqw">pic.twitter.com/62Z5A7Hcqw</a></p>&mdash; HallandaleBeach/Hollywood Blog (@hbbtruth) <a href="https://twitter.com/hbbtruth/status/1349427693255843841?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 13, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


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