Showing posts with label Hallandale Beach CRA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hallandale Beach CRA. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 22, 2020

So where are the positive results and ROI of all the tens of thousands of dollars that Hallandale Beach CRA gave to FIU's Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management and to the South Beach Wine & Food Festival? South Florida news media collectively yawns.

 


So, I've got a bit of a secret to share with you loyal readers of the Hallandale Beach/Hollywood Blog today, just days before Christmas 2020. The COVID19 Christmas none of us wanted to go through.

Well, actually, it's NOT much of a secret. I mean, to be honest, it's been hiding in plain sight.
And certainly I've been talking about it to many people in emails, texts, and phone calls and in-person conversations at some of the handful of haunts in the area that were open and convenient for others to meet me over the past few months. Which includes a handful of the community-minded people reading this blog post today.

So here's the story in slightly more than a nutshell.
Hard-working and concerned residents and a few civic activists of Hallandale Beach -and to be fair, a few well-informed and concerned Broward County insiders who live elsewhere, like me in Hollywood- have been wondering for most of this year about a shoe that never seemed to fall from the sky.
Wondering, mostly, why nobody in the South Florida press corps was the least bit interested in investigating and reporting on YET ANOTHER Hallandale Beach CRA scandal that's been sitting there on a silver platter for nearly all of 2020, just waiting for someone to simply look at the self-evident facts and the public data, and metaphorically kick the tires and connect-the-dots.

Someone who would logically explain why, once again, the elected officials of Hallandale Beach were consciously choosing to spend many tens of thousands of dollars that the State of Florida mandates be used on matters centering chiefly on the removal of (self-evident) blight and slums in this city located in the SE corner of Broward County, right on the Atlantic Ocean. 

A city that should be, as I have argued for the soon-to-be 13 years of this blog, MUCH BETTER in all sorts of ways that matter to the people who live and work there and call it home, regardless of race, gender, political sensibility or economic status.
The people I know best and trust the most in Hallandale Beach are long past being tired of continual half-assed PR efforts to make unsatisfactory look passable, and deliberate stupidity look like a policy choice.

Specifically, they've been waiting for someone to investigate why tens of thousands of CRA dollars was given to the FIU Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management and to the South Beach Wine & Food Festival, for what, in the end, seems to have been... nothing but positive PR buzz.
Like self-publishing a vanity book using someone else's money.

No, there would be no unsightly, curb-unfriendly slums in Hallandale Beach to be razed, no HB neighborhoods that would be improved by this transaction.
But it would allow a handful of not-so-sharp elected officials in Broward to once again pat themselves on the back for imagining that they'd pulled the wool over the nearly 40,000 residents of the city and the perpetually sleepwalking news media of South Florida.
The same news media that somehow imagines that whatever happens in the Wynwood neighborhood of Miami, or over on Miami Beach, always seems to trump all other local news, no matter how banal or cringe-worthy those stories in those two places might be.


Since the local South Florida press corps didn't seem the least bit interested in investigating or reporting on this story involving bad to corrupt public policy and use of public funds, with a lot of curiosity and resolve, and fueled by some hazelnut coffee and a delicious steak + egg sandwich -with bacon!- I connected-the-dots on the latest #HallandaleBeach CRA scandal re $$$ given to #FIU + #SOBEWFF- in one afternoon at the Hollywood Panera Bread on Sheridan Street near where I live, all while listening to a college football game on the radio.
 
I'll be posting the results in 2021 right here on the blog.
I may even use this issue as a reason to once again start uploading some more original content to my YouTube Channel, after not doing that for many years.
I'd been itching to do that for month, as well as start posting more original content at Instagram, until #COVID19 struck and a lot of election year ideas and plans went by the wayside.



Dave

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/user/HallandaleBeachBlog     
https://twitter.com/hbbtruth/status/1341464316533477388?s=20

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Saturday, December 1, 2018

Recent Development & Real Estate issues in Downtown Hollywood and in Hallandale Beach, per Whiskey Tango closing, the same empty storefronts year-after-year, and the proposed SLS resort at the Diplomat Golf Course

Recent Development/Real Estate and business issues in Downtown Hollywood and in Hallandale Beach... per Whiskey Tango closing, the same empty storefronts year-after-year, and the proposed SLS resort at the Diplomat Golf Course. What are the city's respective CRAs really doing? 



Updated Monday December 3rd, 2018 2:00 pm
My plan over the Thanksgiving Weekend, besides eating lots of turkey and fixings and catching up on a lot of films and TV shows on DVD while I'm out-of-town in Central Florida visiting my Mom, was to post some cogent and overdue thoughts to my blog about the increasing level of frustration and anxiety -and desperation.

I've been hearing since last year from many Downtown Hollywood Business owners and store managers I know and have gained the confidence of thru my various activities in the area, including writing this fact-filled blog.
Concerned people who have sought me out to listen to them in-person or over the phone or via emails so that they can vent about what they see -and aren't seeing but have been expecting: tangible positive results.
Or to be factual, MORE tangible positive results, and not so much back-sliding and one-step forward and two-steps backwards.

They talk to me in part because they think that the titular heads of various interest groups in the city are not listening to them or seeing things their way, even though the issues are self-evident.
That direct communication is one of the advantages that I've gained over the years of writing my blog and being so deeply involved in so many things going on locally and in the region... For having developed a solid reputation around here for being honest, well-informed, and not being one who'd settle for either mediocrity or top-down leadership "wisdom."

But then I heard this week about Brian Bandell's article in the South Florida Business Journal about the Whiskey Tango on Hollywood Blvd. and 19th Avenue and why it'll be closing, and I'm now sensing that something MUCH more substantial is going to be required than what I planned.
See the back-and-forth between Brian and myself on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/hbbtruth/status/1067513381110931456





Many people I speak with are very disappointed and frustrated with what they see and the general unwillingness of the people in charge to confront problems head-on.
The people I speak with think that some major changes may be needed in some places if the Downtown Hollywood area is ever going to get out of its current holding pattern.

 Specifically, this concerns the direction and effectiveness of the Downtown Hollywood CRA under Jorge Camejo and the various "business" groups in the Hollywood area who sometimes seem to lack a certain amount of hubris or dynamism, and who, to both me and many of the business owners I'm talking about, appear unnecessarily condescending or patronizing to the public and their own members when asked to honestly explain what's going on -or isn't. 

 And speaking of holding patterns, it's just as bad if not worse in Hallandale Beach, where so many residents and Small Business owners have bemoaned to me all the empty business parcels on US-1/Federal Highway and Hallandale Beach Blvd. that were once going concerns, if not exactly thriving businesses. 

 The best example of several? The site of the former Kelly Chevrolet dealership, on the west side of the street between N.E. 6th & 7th Streets, which is now south and across the street from the new Atlantic Village retail area that at least offers a hope that things there may turn around if people give the new retailers an opportunity. 
Above via Google Maps, looking south from US-1/Federal Highway and N.E. 7th Street. I've been taking photos of this large empty lot for the past 15 years... and thinking about all the missed opportunities that have come and gone while the City of Hallandale Beach and its CRA have watched from the sidelines.
Above via Google Maps, looking south from US-1/Federal Highway and N.E. 7th Street.   

This property, which is located within the Hallandale Beach CRA, has been empty for at least 15 years, despite its location just a few blocks south of what was the Hollywood Dog Track/the Mardi Gras Casino/The Big Easy Casino. Why? 
Why is this large property that could be re-imagined in any number of interesting ways that could be good for the city and its residents was never brought up at any of the hundreds of HB CRA meetings I've attended the past 15 years?
It's one of the largest elephants in the room that is HB, and yet nothing but silence from anyone at HB City Hall.It's grating!  

 For those Hollywood Small Business owners and managers I've been speaking with, especially the ones who listen to a lot of NPR in South Florida via WLRN-FM, there's a certain amount of frustration and more than a little incredulous irony when they continually hear the paid promos for the Hollywood CRA on that station airs during their newscasts, talking about the wonders of locating a business to Downtown Hollywood. 
They wonder to themselves, "But where are the tangible results for me? Why, years later, do I STILL have so many empty storefronts near me? What's going on?" 

The SW corner of the intersection of Hollywood Blvd. and 19th Avenue with the re-imagined Mona Lisa mural has been vacant for over... ten years!

Real question: How can the Hollywood CRA keep promoting this iconic mural above which has not had a paying tenant below it longer than many people I know have lived in Hollywood? Do they not appreciate the irony of what they're saying?

And across the street from the mural on the NW corner, above, Via Google Maps, the front of Whiskey Tango, probably taken in the morning before they opened, since the east side bar area was always half-full anytime I walked by or walked in.
And now that it will be closing, what will be there and when will THAT open? And will it be even one-third as successful? 
Draw even one-third the number of people to Downtown Hollywood that it consistently did?

Instead of posting those thoughts of mine today, I'm going to delay those for a few days to add some more useful context, since if there's anything that seems to be lacking in the larger public discussion about what is going on in Downtown Hollywood and the Young Circle area, now and in the immediate future, it's informed context based on facts.
People who DO know things who are either afraid to speak publicly now about what they know or fear for various reasons -including the collective pressure that exits right now for Small Business owners in the Downtown Hollywood area to stay on the same page and sing from the same hymnal.
That includes, of course, NOT wanting to break away from the herd and make themselves future targets of retribution.
But in this as in so many issues in Broward County, especially in Hollywood and Hallandale Beach, we've seen that this adherence to conventional wisdom that is clearly NOT working most of the time, is actually chafing lots of people, most notably, the actual stakeholders actually employing people and paying taxes to the city who thought and think that they ought to have a little more say-so about what's going on -or isn't.

I will have a more complete post on development issues in Hollywood and Hallandale Beach the coming week.

Looking east towards Young Circle from Hollywood Blvd., July 2018.

As an aside, some of you who have not heard from me in a bit should expect to be hearing from me over the next few days about another matter that I've spoken to many of you about already over the past few weeks, namely, following-up with various businesses, companies, medical groups, legal practices, restaurants and hotels' interest in advertising on my blog for a very reasonable price, starting at just $90 a month.
That's a clear bargain relative to what the market is currently charging hereabouts, especially those platforms that charge a lot more and do not have audited numbers, no less.

For the record, for 2018, I'm averaging between 25,000 and 30,000 page views a month. :-)

Obviously, I'm always interested in talking to anyone in the area who'd be interested in advertising on my popular blog to reach the army of well-informed consumers, civic activists and Small Business owners who read it, like so many you, to say nothing of those of you who are actually #influencers, and can't go an hour without posting 
something original and compelling to Social Media that gets people talking.

IF you or someone you know might be interested in exploring this opportunity to differentiate your business from your competition, check out this link and drop me a line and I'll be happy to follow-up with you or them right away so that ad can be up ASAP.

Let's do some business this week and get your product or service in front of the tens of thousands of eyeballs that come to my blog every month!






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Per the article below, in case you can't get your bearings, the aerial POV of the rendering below is of what was the Diplomat Golf Course is looking southwest from roughly Atlantic Shores Blvd.

Naturally, me being me, influencer extraordinaire, :-)  I got tagged in Brian Bandell's tweet, since he usually tags me in most Hollywood and Hallandale Beach development and real estate stories he writes for the South Florida Business Journal. Brian knows from experience that I know what's what fact-wise, know where the bodies are buried, and what other facts and context can and should be added to the public conversation before everything is done.

In general I feel that if something is going to be there with that large a footprint, esp. cars on already#FDOT F-rated #HallandaleBeach Blvd., part of why the Broward County Commission nixed an even larger un-related plan there 9 years ago -the Diplomat LAC plan- that was rushed to approval by the HB City Commission just days before Christmas at a meeting where it did not come up on the public agenda until nearly 10 pm on purpose to cause residents to leave and NOT speak against it -when I was one of the persons leading the effort to fight it- it's a real plus that a firm like @SLSHotels, with a very good reputation for promotion and marketing savvy is going to be running it.
I've stayed at other SLS properties and they are sublime in many cases, my favorite adjective.
They especially know how to promote and advertise stylish places, a word that hasn't accurately described this property since I returned to South Florida in late 2003 from Washington, D.C..
The lack of attention to marketing basics was actually one of my principal arguments against that previous  plan, to the dismay of the Diplomat Hotel's general manager at the time, when I mentioned in very pointed comments before the Broward County Commission -with him sitting directly behind me- how weird it was that the people who owned and managed it did such a piss-poor job of promoting it.
Even now, you can't find a single directional street sign for it anywhere between I-95 or US-1 or A1A and the property itself.
You know that I'm a big believer in showing effort and doggedness, so the fact that the Diplomat couldn't or wouldn't do something so easy speaks volumes for why I've wanted them out
for years.
 🏖️🌴🌊⛳️


The owner of the Diplomat Hotel wants to build three hotel towers and one residential tower on its golf course in Hallandale Beach.
https://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/news/2018/11/06/broward-to-get-its-first-sls-resort.html

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Tuesday, October 23, 2018

Some things never change, like the abysmal level of #ethics in Hallandale Beach. Names change, roster of allies change, but HB determined to see itself as special and deserving of special rules, not ones the rest of world and Florida are governed by

Some things never change, like the abysmal level of #ethics in Hallandale Beach. Names change, roster of allies change, but HB determined to see itself as special and deserving of special rules, not ones the rest of world and Florida are governed by
Below are my Twitter responses to Red Broward blogger Tom Lauder's piece from last Tuesday 
about some very curious doings behind Hallandale Beach City Hall at the Cultural Center, a place where the city's self-evident political, racial and social polarization are always present during Early Voting.
 
@RedBroward BUSTED? Hallandale Beach Commissioner Caught With Illegal Voter Card Targeting African-American Churches
That polarization, especially its racial component, is something that I have personally witnessed to my amazement dozens and dozens of times the past 15 years, which was often carried-out with the help of former Mayor Joy Cooper and her campaign supporters, always so quick to help someone who can help them out when nobody is looking.
But nothing compares to the skullduggery that takes place on the actual Election Day, esp. at the neighborhood sites in Hallandale Beach, where you can be forgiven for plausibly thinking the Balkan Wars of the 1990's were still taking place.
Yes, for so long, rather than fighting over what were the best ideas or best solutions for the city's many longstanding problems, problems and imperfections that I can literally recite from memory, what you find are years-old personal and political grievances writ large never far from the surface, complete with the motley cast of characters and hangers-on always play to type and cliché, with fist-fights, calls to 911 and then the rush to cast themselves as a victim to their friends and the general public. It's all so sad and pathetic and... predictable. 

(I even recall the Election Day scene at Ingalls Park in southwestern Hallandale Beach within the past ten years, where several Hallandale Beach police cars were forced to respond to a call about an actual fight involving involving Dr. Deborah Brown herself, where about 6-8 HB cops were positioned afterwards in the area to keep Brown and her Cooper-supporters from trying to physically intimidate or verbally harass supporters of pro-reform candidates at Ingalls Park that I knew. Yet another low in a sea of so many head-shaking things under Cooper's reign of ruin.)

Most of you know will know nothing at all about this matter below, but on the chance that you have been thinking about things other than elections today, five days before the real Election Day, it's a sad reminder that so many of the things that I and so many of you have fought against for many years, namely, against unethical behavior, doesn't just exist but THRIVE in a city of less than 5 square miles.
A city where it should actually be quite easy to reach residents, Small Business owners and voters if you were serious about communicating your concerns and solutions.
By the way, please don't sleep on the #scoop that I mention below regarding what former HB Mayor Joy Cooper did when contacted by the Office of the Broward Inspector General and the Broward state's attorney regarding the only arrest made in the entire years-long HB CRA scandal that wasted tens of millions of dollars.
http://www.broward.org/InspectorGeneral/Documents/20130418OIG11020FinalReport.pdf

http://www.broward.org/InspectorGeneral/PublicationsPress/Documents/OIG11020-201405219-BrownMemo.pdf

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https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-2014-05-20-fl-hallandale-band-director-arrest-20140520-story.html
School director charged with stealing city funds
Robert Nolin, Sun Sentinel

The director of a private arts school in Hallandale Beach — and onetime recipient of a city humanitarian award — has been charged with bilking thousands in city funds earmarked for a student trip.

Deborah Brown, 52, Hallandale Beach, surrendered herself to Broward Sheriff's investigators Monday on a charge of grand theft. A warrant had been issued for her arrest last week with bond set at $1,000.

Brown, band leader for Gulfstream Middle School in Hallandale Beach, is also director of the Palms Center for the Arts, a nonprofit school for drama, dance and music. In March 2010, she received a $5,000 grant from the city's Community Redevelopment Agency for a class trip to Washington, D.C.

According to police reports, Brown only spent $323 on the trip. The remainder she diverted for private use: $2,000 in cash withdrawals for herself and her brother; $683 for a payment to an Orlando resort timeshare; $258 for a rental car; and $200 in cellphone costs.

The fund diversion was uncovered during an audit of the city's CRA by the county's inspector general.

In January 2010, two months before the alleged theft, Brown received Hallandale Beach's Martin Luther King Jr. Humanitarian Award for 25 years of community service.

City spokesman Peter Dobens said Brown was never a city employee and only received grant money for her after-school music program. "We haven't had a relationship with her for a couple of years," he said.

Despite the arrest, Brown will retain her band leader job. Under School Board policy, employees charged criminally will not be disciplined until their case is concluded. "It doesn't affect her current job status," district spokeswoman Nadine Drew said of the arrest.

Mayor Joy Cooper said Brown's educational work has benefitted the community. "Dr. Brown has helped many needy children through PCA's art programs," she said.

rnolin@tribune.com or 954-356-4525

----
"The Broward County Inspector General’s Office has launched another inquiry into Hallandale Beach’s Community Redevelopment Agency, three years after finding the city “grossly mismanaged” millions of dollars in CRA funds."
http://www.floridabulldog.org/2016/06/browards-inspector-general/

Joy Cooper did this WITHOUT ever telling the elected HB City Commission about the letter she received from law enforcement, never asking them what they thought should be done, or even having a recorded vote on the matter.
Instead, Cooper wrote back that her good friend, the convicted Dr. Brown, did NOT have to pay back the thousands of dollars she stole that, according to her own CRA application, was supposed to help kids, a fact that she took full advantage of when she was using the money to buy cosmetics or help pay for her condo.
Just as she had done previously dozens of times, Joy Cooper just decided she would nudge the elected City Commission out of the way and substitute her own very bad judgment.
Predictably.
So yes, you are right, I have provided you with a bit of a scoop, since I first heard about it when it took place, but I ask you, how come the South Florida news media has STILL never reported on this fact, despite it taking place LAST YEAR?
Why didn't they mention it?
   
@RedBroward BUSTED? Hallandale Beach Commissioner Caught With Illegal Voter Card Targeting African-American Churches






















More tomorrow re the ethical scandal behind the ethical scandal at Hallandale Beach City Hall that the South Florida news media has slept on the past 18 months.
Even if you think you know how thin-skinned, self-referential and flat-out LOW former Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper was prepared to go in order to hold onto power, you just won't believe the level of chutzpah Joy Cooper can show, even to law enforcement officials.
Really!
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Wednesday, August 23, 2017

Next week's Hallandale Beach budget meetings will be a forum for hard and long-overdue questions to FINALLY be asked in public, with honest answers required. HB residents and Small Business owners are in no mood to roll-over and take it like they've been forced to do the past dozen-plus years, as city/CRA funds were wasted in every way imaginable, with no oversight or accountability by people whose jobs it was to provide both

Above, Hallandale Beach City Hall. August 21, 2017 photo by South Beach Hoosier. © 2017 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved.

Next week's Hallandale Beach budget meetings will be a forum for hard and long-overdue questions to FINALLY be asked in public, with honest answers required. Hallandale Beach residents and Small Business owners are in no mood to roll-over and take it like they've been forced to do the past dozen-plus years, as city/CRA funds were wasted in every way imaginable, with no genuine oversight or accountability by people whose jobs it was to provide both!
Updated and Corrected August 23, 2017 at 11:35 PM

Below, for your consideration, some carefully chosen words of wisdom, borne of experience, to carefully think about in the coming days before the City of Hallandale Beach city and CRA budget meetings take place next week, Tuesday August 29th and Wednesday the 30th, at Hallandale Beach City Hall, which is open to the public.
At the bottom, following my comments, I have a copy of some well-thought out concerns
from my good friend and fellow Broward County civic activist, Csaba Kulin, someone who has been working tirelessly for years in 1,001 ways for HB to be the well-run city its residents want it to be. 
And deserved all along.

In my opinion, next week, many LONG OVERDUE actions will need to be taken by the HB City Commission to ensure that steps are being taken so that genuine financial accountability will FINALLY be undertaken that protects the city's residents and Small Business owners immediate and long-term future needs
It's hardly surprising that some of those necessary actions will cause some immediate pain and hardship to more than a few people, mostly city employees.

 But in my opinion, however painful, these cost-cutting moves need to take place now because despite what Mayor Joy Cooper has been saying to her loyal minions and acolytes around the city and to the news media, such as it is, Hallandale Beach is in very dire financial situation.

 Not quite where the City of Hollywood finds itself now financially, but not so far behind that the situation in HB could not be MUCH WORSE if bad and preposterous decisions of the sort that had become normalized at HB City Hall continue.
Preposterous decisions that continually rewarded poor performance and completely-inadequate oversight, and put HB taxpayers behind the financial eight-ball.

In my opinion, that's because rather than making some hard-but-necessary decisions in the past, of making some necessary sacrifices towards the long-term good, the Cooper Rubber Stamp Crew borrowed and borrowed and borrowed. 
And to what end?

Too often, to pay current operating expenses, the worst possible reason if done more than once for a non-emergency.
It has been my experience over the years that there are more than a few residents and city employees in HB who have a completely unrealistic opinion as to what the proper function and purpose of a city government is.
As I expect will be shown next week, finally, the city's core function is NOT to provide a job and a good-paying pension to anyone with a heartbeat, regardless of their ability and actual performance.

 This particular city budget will be the first one that will be examined in depth by three people on the Commission -Keith London, Michelle Lazarow and Anabelle Taub- who genuinely want MORE public accountability and oversight over how city funds are spent since I first returned to South Florida in late 2003, after 15 years of living and working in the Washington, D.C area.
That's a very long time for hard-working people and Small Business owners in HB to have to wait for the sort of overdue common sense and hard questions that are normal pretty much everywhere else in cities when it comes to budgets.

 More than a few of HB's Small Business owners have moved out of town specifically because of the combination of foolish financial and public policy decision-making being done at HB City Hall, often based on which of the Cooper Rubber Stamp Crew's friends could benefit from city funds.
Many of them are the very same people who were given a look by the Broward Inspector General. 
Names that I have mentioned on this blog many times over the years, and spoken to many of the same people reading this now, including print and TV reporters..

But in Hallandale Beach, for years under big-spending and thin-skinned Mayor Joy Cooper, the tradition for the City Commission was to essentially tell every Dept. head and every bureaucrat appearing before them at budget time that they were doing a really great job.
Somehow, everyone is in charge yet nobody is responsible!

 And then the City Commission would borrow money from their Reserves to give them baubles and gloss that would make this city appear semi-normal, when it was anything but that.
For far too long, collectively, the five-member HB City Commission did NOT take their financial oversight responsibilities seriously at this time of the year, with some members NEVER asking one question, even  when it came to funding the largest Departments in the city. Why?

 One of the answers, perhaps the most obvious to someone like me who knows their backgrounds, is that for so very long, none of them were current or former business people who had either owned or operated a very successful business for any reasonable period of time.
They've literally had no business acumen to draw up on.

But it was also true that one of the reasons might be that, simply put, for many of the past City Commission members, being liked by city employees, going along to get along, always seemed to be more important to them than being respected for doing a good job.
Every year, thru their words and actions, the Hallandale Beach City Commission showed that they really didn't know how to handle or mange public money.
Instead, whatever the city's senior staff said was okay by them.

 But some of us knew then -and know now- that the city's bureaucracy, particularly its highest-ranking and highest-paid bureaucrats, often weren't telling the WHOLE TRUTH. 
Weren't always disclosing important facts or potential conflicts, or even filling the City Commission in on what the practical long-term effects of doing something would necessarily be.
You know, the very sorts of things you would think their job would require them to do if they really wanted to keep their job?
Above, Hallandale Beach City Commission chambers. August 17, 2017 photo by South Beach Hoosier. © 2017 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved.

 In the opinion of myself and many other concerned people in this area of SE Broward, Florida's third-largest county, the bureaucracy has used that inattention to detail by the Commission to allow a succession of poorly-performing City Managers and Assistant City Managers to say and do pretty much whatever they wanted.

 As if they were the ones really making policy.
And they were - in conjunction with Mayor Cooper.

 How many times have I personally seen the other four City Commissioners finding out at a Commission or CRA meeting or Workshop, about an important decision that had been made at City Hall without their knowledge or required assent/consent because Mayor Cooper and some bureaucrats had decided it needed to happen?
Dozens and dozens of times...

Making the role of the publicly-elected representative sort of an afterthought, right?

 For instance, to cite a particularly galling case, that time in 2013 when Gulfstream Park 
Race Track & Casino, the largest employer in the city, and located directly across the street from Hallandale Beach City Hall, started building "temporary" horse barns on the south side of the track and to the southeast of the Village at GP retail complex off U.S.-1/South Federal Highway, without having been issued building permits? 

 So because they were used to getting what they wanted from the mayor, whose campaign they had always dutifully contributed to, they just kept doing what they wanted because they knew they could pick up the phone and call the mayor and bypass the normal administrative process, as well as their attempts to punish the city's Building Inspectors for actually doing their job correctly.
So without any information for the other Commissioners to read, Mayor Cooper tried to get them to waive the $52,000 in fines incurred by Gulfstream, owed to both the city and the State of Florida. 

 Fortunately, that effort failed. 
That time.

Local 10 News
Mayor wants $52K fine against Gulfstream Park waived

No vote taken on waiving fine at Hallandale Beach budget meeting
Author: Bob Norman, Reporter, bnorman@Local10.com
Ben Candea, Senior Web Producer, bcandea@local10.com
Published On: Oct 04 2013 06:13:16 PM EDT   
Updated On: Oct 04 2013 11:51:10 PM EDT
https://www.local10.com/news/mayor-wants-52k-fine-against-gulfstream-park-waived_2015112721023598

 Me? 
I'm the person who actually called investigative reporter Bob Norman at Channel 10 shortly after I was an eyewitness to this craziness and gave him the incredible play-by-play of what had transpired, along with some needed nuance and context.
And what do you know, soon thereafter, this story appeared on TV to make crystal clear to people throughout South Florida what had taken place in Hallandale Beach.

After several lengthy emails to the many Usual Suspects throughout our area and the state -including many of you reading this post today- describing the dysfunctional situation that never got investigated by the broward inspector general, I posted this photo-filled blog post on November 5th, 2013:

On Wednesday night, Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper has to defend her freelancing, breaking of city's rules in order to help her friends at Gulfstream Park Race Track & Casino with bldg. code fines they EARNED. Again! Her campaign contributors, Gulfstream Park, must really love her "Special Rules for Special People" form of advocacy, but why does she save her energy & love for a multi-million dollar company instead of insisting they follow the law and finally fix up their appearance problems?

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2013/11/on-wednesday-night-hallandale-beach.html

I especially like this part of what I  wrote:

...It's clear that Joy Cooper, quite literally, sees herself as indispensable.
But she is the mayor of a small city with a city manger form of government, not the mayor of a large urban city with a strong-mayor form of government, yet despite this difference and the well-understood written rules about what is and is not acceptable, she just keeps doing whatever she wants and dares anyone in a position of authority to stop her.

Cooper continues to show that she wants to make as many important decisions for the city (and everyone else) as possible, without adequate vetting and public disclosure.
As she tried to do on September 25th...

Based on what they have said and done the past nine months in genuinely reforming or dismantling many aspects of the incurious culture and operations at Hallandale Beach City Hall, clearly those days have come to an end under Vice Mayor Keith London and Commissioners Michelle Lazarow and Anabelle Taub.
The possibility of being a normal city and erasing the label of being a perpetual municipal laughingstock in South Florida is at hand.   
Finally!

 After everything that I have seen and observed over the years in Hallandale Beach, where people with responsible jobs and impressive titles -and accompanying large salaries- were neither impressive or responsible to HB taxpayers best interests, I believe the best plan to put the city on a more sound financial footing is one that forces "Innovation by Subtraction" down the throats of HB city employees.

 Far too many people within the city's bureaucracy have grown complacent and shown that they can not manage effectively or sensibly.
Let's stop pretending they can, and start making some long overdue changes.

My plan as of today, unless some big news comes up that takes my attention elsewhere, is to give LOTS of examples of this during those upcoming meetings, often with relevant photographs or video here at the blog to illustrate my points.
At bottom is the email that Csaba sent recently to Hallandale Beach City Manager 
Roger Carlton, with a cc to City Attorney Jennifer Merino.

After getting Csaba's email, my initial thought was to write a lengthy email of my own to Mr. Carlton, largely echoing and expanding upon many of Csaba's common sense thoughts and concerns.
But I've decided that I'll wait a bit so that I can be even more specific to Mr. Carlton and others about, how in my opinion, it seems that after a generally positive start, he's been more slow than I'd like to fully grasp the reality this area has had to live with for so many years regarding the city's policies, practices and budget priorities.
(How people with self-evident conflicts of interest had far too much access to and control over public funds, as well as the setting of public policy.)

Namely, who said what, who did what, and who in a position of authority,did nothing at all, when doing nothing only made very bad things even worse.
And what better time to acquaint Mr. Carlton with the facts and reality than when the city's budget is being written, examined and voted upon?
Clearly, there is MUCH he has to learn about what's been going on in HB for years,

Hallandale Beach City Commission - Budget Special Meeting Workshop, held at City Commission Chambers, 400 South Federal Highway

 Tuesday, August 29th and Wednesday, August 30th, 2017, at 11:00 AM 
Details and attachments: https://hallandalebeach.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=555917&GUID=586EC10D-C1D1-49F5-8CCA-80B383C4F014&Options=&Search=

Wednesday August 30th Workshop - 11:00 AM
Agenda: https://hallandalebeach.legistar.com/DepartmentDetail.aspx?ID=20843&GUID=020E7D1D-F811-4643-8FDD-0986CEBA0ED4

 Reminder: It's NOT too late to read or comment on my recent blog post, re the #YoungCircle Roadway Feasibility Study that I believe will make #HollywoodFL traffic worse, NOT better
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Csaba Kulin
Date: Fri, Jul 28, 2017 at 3:24 PM
Subject: Comment on Bulldog Article Comment
To: "CM. Roger Carlton"
Cc: Jennifer Merino 
Dear City Manager Carlton,
In the second Florida Bulldog article (7/19/2017) about Commissioner Sanders “pattern of misconduct” you were quoted “… It is extremely disappointing that there is no outrage in the community about these programs. No demands for reform have been publicly made to date”.
I disagree with those comments. Our community has been loud and clear on this topic for almost a decade.
We just could not get past Cooper/Julian/Sanders/Lewy to do anything about it.  
Do you want us to demonstrate on the steps of City Hall?
Do you want us to disrupt City Commission Meetings like an unruly mob?
Do you want us to threaten members of the City Commission?
No, that is not us.
We did better than that. We elected Commissioners Lazarow and Taub with a mandate to “drain the swamp” at City Hall.
Along with Vice Mayor London they hired a new City Manager, a new City Attorney and we expect you to clean up the mass left behind by the previous administrations.
We want you to focus the ongoing forensic audit on identifying all fraudulent transactions, recover all ill-gotten funds, and prosecute everyone who broke the law.
We remember the 100 million dollar budget of the past; we remember the 480 employee count. During the last five years it grew to a 135 million budget and 560 employees. How many of these new employees working on the “core functions” of the City?
I know you are busy so I will not go on. I am confident you will do your best and I support you in this effort.
I know it hard to put “genie” back in the “bottle” is six months.
I copied a few friends and encourage them to comment on this topic. They may have some additional good ideas for you to consider.
Sincerely,
Csaba (Chuck) Kulin
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