Showing posts with label Michele Lazarow. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Michele Lazarow. Show all posts

Thursday, December 13, 2018

#murder - Sad news re murder of 2010 Hallandale Beach 'missing woman' Lynda Robin Meier confirms our worst fears -and reminds us of HBPD's incompetency, failure to perform professionally then under Police Chief Thomas Magill. As I wrote about at the time




The very sad news regarding the apparent murder of 2010 Hallandale Beach 'missing woman' Lynda Robin Meier confirms our collective worst fears, but for many of you longtime readers of the blog, it should remind you of lots of things that have been written about and analyzed in this space many times before, namely the Hallandale Beach Police Dept.'s longstanding incompetency, indifference to facts and appearances, failure to perform professionally then under Police Chief Thomas Magill. As I wrote about at the time.

Above, June 4, 2011 photo of Hallandale Beach Police Dept. HQ, across from HB City Hall, by South Beach Hoosier. On the one-year anniversary of Lynda Meier's disappearance, just as has been the case every single day since she vanished on June 4th, 2010, there was no flyer about her on the outside of the HB Police Dept., the City Hall bldg. or the nearby HB Cultural Center. 
Or anywhere in the entire city. SNAFU!


Yes, that jaw-dropping fiasco in 2010 where the Hallandale Beach Police Dept. NEVER put up ANY posters at ANY of the dozens of restaurants, retail stores, parks that residents visit daily, in the days immediately after Meier's disappearance, where a possible witness may've been found. 
Not one.

 I know that from personal experience because in the days afterward I walked from I-95 to State Road A1A and personally spoke to nearly every store owner/manager and business owner on that route to inquire if someone from HBPD or HB Crime Watch had come by to ask if they could put a flyer in their window. Not one business ever responded yes to my simple question, and given that everyone wanted to help, they asked ME if I knew why HBPD and Crime Watch NEVER came by.
I told them why and they glumly shook their heads in silent agreement.
And there was no good reason for this failure except failure at every level and a lack of effort.

 They NEVER even so much as put one up at next door City Hall, but sure as hell, there was a taped missing poster for someone's pet at the time, right next to the City Hall front door.
But not for Lynda Meier.

Mendacious and incompetent Hallandale Beach Police Chief Thomas A. Magill, who made the small ocean-side city of Hallandale Beach in Broward County a never-ending laughingstock thru his self-serving words, highly questionable actions and disreputable behavior.


Remains found of Hallandale Beach woman missing since 2010, source tells Local 10
Lynda Meier last seen June 4, 2010
By Roy Ramos - Reporter, Jeff Weinsier - Investigative Reporter
Posted: 12:13 PM, December 13, 2018Updated: 6:23 PM, December 13, 2018
JULY 1, 2010 
What's THE worst possible thing you can do during an active search for a 'missing person'? Another tale of HB incompetency under Police Chief Magill

JULY 9, 2010
The answer to my question of last Friday re Lynda Robin Meier will be answered on Saturday morning
https://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/answer-to-my-question-of-last-friday-re.html
SEPTEMBER 12, 2010
100 Days Missing: Lynda Meier of Hallandale Beach has been gone for over 14 weeks, so where are all the "missing" flyers around town?
https://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/100-days-missing-lynda-meier-of.html

 JUNE 8, 2011
Lynda Meier's disappearance one-year later: apathy and absence of effort & thought by the HBPD and the South Florida news media loom larger than ever
https://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/lynda-meiers-disappearance-one-year.html
That same mentality by HBPD is what had caused me to get so angry in 2010 with the Meier case because HBPD and HB Crime Watch -the latter then led by Alexander Lewy before he was elected a HB City Commissioner months later- did NOT do the bare minimum you'd expect from such a group, especially in such a time-sensitive case.
The sort of thing that we have all routinely seen done in a TV newscasts, a fictional drama or in motion pictures. Why?
Because it's common sense.

 Because we know that people have a short memory and attention span for what seems like inconsequential things/facts that don't fit their daily lives.
So you have to get that information from those people before it completely evaporates.
But those efforts, the sort of thing we all have a reasonable right to expect in case of such an emergency, sadly and rather predictably, didn't take place.

Specifically,they chose NOT to pass out flyers themselves in the immediate area of US-1 and Hallandale Beach Blvd. at the time Meier went to that Bank of America branch to capture the attention of joggers, drivers, pedestrians, or anyone who might've seen something, or even use trained volunteers from the Crime Watch group.

The Police compounded this by also refusing to post fliers in nearby popular stores or restaurants until long past the point that any possible witness had long since forgotten what they might've seen or heard many weeks and months before for a fleeting second.
There was not a single police flier about the 2013 double murder posted on the bulletin board at Panera Bread until July! Five months later!

I know this because I have a photo of the flyer there shortly after it went up -too late.
Many of you received a copy of it from me in an email that July bemoaning HBPD's inability to get out of their own way.

And in case you might've forgotten, Michele Lazarow, the HB City Commissioner who lives closest to where this crime too place, someone who actually lives not so far away, and who'd just been elected weeks before, was NOT allowed to attend HBPD's meeting with the neighborhood.
A meeting that Mayor Joy Cooper was allowed to attend.
What does that tell you?
What sort of image does that convey to the public?

There's so many aspects of these two crime stories that stink to high heaven and still cause me to grieve for these families and their inability to get the closure they need and deserve, to say nothing of the questions never asked publicly about the enormous amount of time it took for HBPD to finally release a photo of a person of interest in the double murder case, and then, made that photo next-to-impossible to find on the city's own website!

But rather than repeat them all here, in case you want to have your memory jarred in a profound way, here are my last two blog post about the double-homicide, though there have been MANY more emails detailing the numerous policy and procedural failings of all the relevant parties and the failure of the South Florida news media to publicly question and criticize what in any other part of the country would be coming under justified criticism.

(If you want to know more details, contact me and we can always meet at Panera Bread or somewhere else and dissect the HBPD blunders all over again.)

FEBRUARY 11, 2013 
Still no new news or facts in Hallandale Beach re January's double-murder of Toronto couple in Venetian Park neighborhood; Important Three Islands neighborhood public meeting tonight at 7 p.m.

SEPTEMBER 6, 2013 
Crime and (No) Punishment in Hallandale Beach: Observations on Rachel Mendleson's spot-on Toronto Star article on January's double-homicide of a Toronto-area couple in the Three Islands neighborhood of Hallandale Beach, which remains unsolved 8 months later. I still believe the Hallandale Beach Police Dept. has done a very poor job of engaging in outreach and making it as easy as possible for the community to access relevant info about the case that could prove helpful, just as HBPD and HB Crime Watch completely botched public outreach in 2010 following the disappearance of HB resident Lynda Robin Meier, who has never been found. Just like others at HB City Hall, HBPD continues to never learn from experience







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Wednesday, February 7, 2018

#schadenfreude - Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper's long-overdue public comeuppance and takedown for her despotic, authoritarian and corrupt reign at HB City Hall finally comes via an arrest by the FBI. Cooper's arrest suddenly awakens the long-slumbering South Florida news media to the high level of corruption and incompetency taking place there that I told you about at the time. So where were they? #ethics

#schadenfreude - Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper's long-overdue public comeuppance and takedown for her despotic, authoritarian and corrupt reign at HB City Hall finally comes via an arrest by the FBI. Cooper's arrest suddenly awakens the long-slumbering South Florida news media to the high level of corruption and incompetency taking place there that I told you about at the time. So where were they? #ethics



This is my first public post on what's happened in Hallandale Beach the past two weeks and my -your/our- giant sense of #schadenfreude at Mayor Joy Cooper being arrested by the FBI, just as I had always dreamt it would happen in my writer's mind, even while I've written dozens of emails to friends and news media in Broward and South Florida and state officials in Tallahassee, and a like number of phone calls.

Just days before she had to turn herself into law enforcement authorities to avoid a perp walk arrest in public, while walking from the Winn-Dixie to Panera Bread on Hallandale Beach Blvd., I nearly ran head-on into the despotic Joy Cooper as she and her paranoid and combative tag-team partner 
husband walked into one of my favorites, Piola. 
Cooper saw me on the sidewalk about 12 yards away and did a quick double-take.
Perhaps she didn't recognize me dressed-up with a suit and tie! :-)

It may have been her last meal in public before reporting to jail Thursday morning, after clearing-out most of her official office at HB City Hall earlier!

For you newcomers, Cooper is the same creepy, feckless, liberal, anti-democratic misanthrope who, among other depredations, at a Hallandale Beach City Comm. meeting many years ago, while talking to then-Comm. Bill Julian of her "Rubber Stamp Crew" as they walked into the room, called me 
"a Nazi" and then called Comm. Keith London "a Hitler."

And she did all of this on the second floor of HB City Hall when I was the only member of the public -actually, the only other only person there!- in the room, going over some careful notes I'd taken earlier, before the meeting was adjourned.
A meeting where she gave off her usual vibes that she wishes it weren't open to the public.
I hadn't said anything all day, just sat in the chair, taking notes when something seemed esp. ill-considered or preposterous. Which was every few minutes.

But that was enough to raise Joy Cooper's ire and make her say what she really thought.
As I've long said, Cooper (and her insufferable ego) is her own worst enemy! 
She's done it again!
Same Doral-based newspaper & Editorial Board that's ignored Hallandale Beach for years now suddenly imagines itself an expert. #arrogance #chutzpah LOL!

Fear and Loathing in Hallandale Beach: City rife with feuds, conspiracies and a call for state takeover.

Monday morning's Miami Herald article on Hallandale Beach is the worst kind of after-the-fact journalism, sort of what you might've seen at a crummy state college newspaper in the mid-1980's before the Internet existed, since the twonreporters don't talk to even one HB citizen who is actually well-informed and knows the real facts. 
Despite how easy it is in 2018 because of technology to find one or two or five well-informed persons.
That's not journalism, that's just plain old apathy, nothing less.

Seriously, would you take restaurant recommendations from someone who doesn't ever eat out?
Of course not, so why would you listen to people in HB who really don't know what's going on ramble about things they don't understand?
And why would newspaper reporters post their comments when that's apparent.
It's mind-numbing -and pretty insulting!

This article is so feeble that it is unable to even convey a reasonable sense of context for recent past history in HB, beyond simply regurgitating some news headlines, most of which never appeared in the Herald itself because they stopped sending a reporter to cover the city many years ago.
Plus, it fails to give people in HB credit who actually deserve credit for attempting to reform things and bring genuine transparency and accountability.
Instead, it treats everyone as being on one side or another.

Or In Anabelle Taub's case, alone on an island, becoming increasingly irrelevant to the process and ultimately, engendering LOTS and LOTS of anger among former supporters.  

Where's the Herald story on Comm. Sanders resigning after funneling $800,000 to people and groups DIRECTLY connected to him? And his family?
Oh, that's right. They NEVER ran one.
That gives you an idea of how myopic, patronizing and out-of-the-loop the Herald is in 2018.

Bythe way, I read this article by 10 AM and yet nobodycalled me or texted me or emailed me their thoughts about it before 6 PM Monday night when I left my office for the day.
That's how few people read the Herald.
That is a portrait of irrelevancy.








@FLGovScott - What's Past is Prologue: Freud & Jung together could NOT possibly plumb the depths of thin-skinned, ethically-challenged mayor & town bully 's super-size ego and sense of entitlement. 🌴🏖️🌊http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2017/11/whats-past-is-prologue-thin-skinned_18.html …


Damn, I'm prescient! 😊 "An open door policy for developers is Mayor 's credo. Always has been, always will be," sayeth me in 2012. "mayor who just can't say NO" to real estate developers. http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/10/video-channel-10-investigative-reporter.html …


Memories! " Mayor defending her freelancing, breaking of city's rules in order to help her friends." "Special Rules for Special People" form of advocacy = rogue activities of mayor in city that has seen plenty of thosehttp://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2013/11/on-wednesday-night-hallandale-beach.html …


"Observations on the Dysfunction Junction in : Thin-skinned Mayor ": "Look honestly upon the uniformily unsatisfactory results that years of this myopic and self-destructive behavior has wrought for everyone involved in the city"




@richardcorcoran @JeffreyBrandes @CGreenbarg @SueGunzburger @Florida_Bulldog In short, exactly like I've been saying for over 10 years, complete w/ , photos & video. But now, AFTER an arrest, media is interested - NOT when it was happening! 😏http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2016/11/hallandale-beachs-bright-future-depends.html …



In 2010 was w/ in his car waiting to film GUILTY Cooper, Julian & Ross arrive @ HB PostOffice w/ "outhouse" festooned w/racist fliers, i.e. London = Mexican, one re & . Took photos of 'em! Media yawned!





@GlennaOn10 1/ Sorry, but @RosemaryOHara14 is NOT a credible person to speak on or anywhere else re what's taken place in past 12 years under Mayor 's unethical reign of ruin/incompetency. 😏😠@RedBroward @BillyCorben @crespogram @dwightyoakamfan



2/ Over 5 months since Comm. Anthony Sanders🤥 resigned in disgrace, @RosemaryOHara14's @SoFlaOpinion STILL hasn't posted 1 Op-Ed re him steering nearly $1M in city/CRA funds to groups/church he controlled + family. The same Sanders THEY always endorsed. Why?🤔😠




Mayor 's allies -esp. at faux newspaper she poured LOTS of CRA 💰 into- rush into the breach w/ bec they don't like . Facts have NEVER been her friend during her ruinous reign, so won't become friends now.



2013: Two Democratic state senators short-circuit Florida Legislature’s plan to audit troubled Hallandale Beach CRA: Eleanor Sobel and Oscar Braynon II. 



When will media cover mayor 's pals & trying to help her stay out of prison, just like they helped her prevent and legislature fm performing audit on HB CRA -that wld have revealed MILLIONS 💰mis-spent?🤔 😠



Where were Oscar Braynon II, Joe Gibbons, Shevrin Jones & Barbara Sharief when CRA was wasting MILLIONS 💰 -in THEIR district- under , which @BrowardIG's Final Report called "gross mismanagement" re YEARS w/lack of accountability? Missing in action! 😠



Archives: 's non-compliance w/'s to cover up messages to/from Mayor , HB CityMgr., &nd to prevent fm doing independent audit of HB CRA so public wld FINALLY know where all the MILLIONS 💰 went.



Archives: Primer on how an apathetic news media/Editorial Boards and legislature largely ignored the CRA scandal under Mayor that wasted MILLION$ 💰via crony capitalism, to help supporters of her "Rubber Stamp Crew." 😠 http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2013/07/per-tonights-crucial-hallandale-beach.html …

South Florida Sun-Sentinel
OPINION
Hallandale - needs a new - way of doing - business
January 30, 2018
Michele Lazarow

Michele Lazarow is a Hallandale Beach city commissioner.
Hallandale Beach is an easy punching bag for the editorial board. Corruption has dominated the headlines in our city for years. Along with it has come a series of ugly encounters involving elected officials. What I believe was missing from the Jan. 28 editorial was an understanding of the political and ethical divide in our city.

Joy Cooper, Bill Julian and Anthony Sanders have been political allies who have voted together, campaigned together, raised funds together and been part of the problem that has driven the negative headlines about Hallandale Beach. Cooper is under felony indictment. Julian escaped criminal charges but admitted on camera to soliciting and agreeing to accept gifts from a developer while negotiating his vote for their project. Sanders resigned last year after the Inspector General's investigation revealed that he and his family pocketed tens of thousands of dollars as he voted on millions in contracts at the taxpayer's expense.

Fighting their corruption has never been easy and has at times created an ugly spectacle. Recently, Commissioner Anabelle Taub enlisted people to take video of Vice Mayor Keith London and me in an attempt to intimidate and harass us as she uses it to spin an inaccurate depiction of our actions on social media. While it may not have been the ideal way to handle the situation, Vice Mayor London responded by approaching them as they sat in commission chambers. He took video of them so that they would know that they were not going to harass us while maintaining their anonymity.

Following Mayor Cooper's recent indictment, our city has an opportunity to move forward without the kind of political division and infighting that have plagued Hallandale Beach for so long. Most of all, we have an opportunity to move past the corruption that has permeated city hall and return power to the residents of Hallandale Beach.

As elected officials, we won't agree about every issue. However, we can move from an era of fighting over each disagreement to one where debate is robust, decorum is routine and policy, rather than politics drive decisions. The residents of Hallandale Beach deserve nothing less.

Rather than lumping all of Hallandale Beach's leaders together, give those of us who have fought against the corruption an opportunity to usher in a new era in the city.

We have a special election on March 13. The Sun Sentinel's Editorial Page Editor Rosemary O'Hara will moderate a debate between the candidates, scheduled on Feb. 27 at 6:30 p.m., at the Hallandale Beach Cultural Center. If you live in Hallandale Beach, please make a point of being there so that you can get to know the candidates and their qualifications. It is critical that we elect someone who can help usher in a new way of doing business and running government in our city.

Rather than reviving the mistakes of the past, we must take the opportunity to choose our best and most qualified to help lead us into a brighter future.

Michele Lazarow is a Hallandale Beach city commissioner.


And to conclude, something having not much to do with Joy Cooper personally, except for the fact that it involves Hallandale Beach City Hall and a lack of moral scruples.



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