Showing posts with label Amy Sherman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Amy Sherman. Show all posts

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Censorship? Guilty as charged! What do Miami Herald's Sergio Bustos, Marc Caputo, Mary Ellen Klas, Toluse Olorunnipa, Erika Bolstad, Patricia Mazzei and Amy Sherman all have in common? Of shirking their responsibilities as reporters! They have ignored all negative stories about Marco Rubio and immigration reform this week, and feign ignorance of what everyone else in the country is talking about -and reporting on: Ryan Lizza re #RubiosFolly

Censorship? Guilty as charged! What do Miami Herald's Sergio Bustos, Marc Caputo, Mary Ellen Klas, Toluse Olorunnipa, Erika Bolstad, Patricia Mazzei and Amy Sherman all have in common? Of shirking their responsibilities as reporters! 
They have ignored all negative stories about Marco Rubio and immigration reform this week, and feign ignorance of what everyone else in the country is talking about -and reporting on: Ryan Lizza re #RubiosFolly


Each one is a complicit member of the Hear No Evil/See No Evil/Speak No Evil reporting crew at the Miami Herald's feeble third-tier political blog, Naked Politics, that has completely ignored anything and everything over the past week about the furor erupting from Ryan Lizza's New Yorker column about the Schumer-Rubio immigration bill, S.744, i.e. Rubio's Folly



The influential piece which featured Rubio aide Alex Conant saying something controversial that won't win him any friends in Northwest Miami, and which has been discussed and analyzed in hundreds of national websites and blogs, but NOT in the main newspaper or political blog of the city where Rubio is from and the state that he represents in Washington. 
Not sure how I can make that any simpler for those of you who are late arrivals to the blog on this story.
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/


Conant doesn't mention that he's in the center of the storm:
https://twitter.com/AlexConant
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/21/us/politics/stealth-campaign-from-the-white-house-for-an-immigration-bill.html

As of 4 p.m. today, as these links prove, there NADA for the sixth day in a row in the Herald.
How do you simply ignore the story and pretend that nobody is noticing what you're doing?
http://www.miamiherald.com/search_results?aff=1100&q=%22Marco+Rubio%22

And as for Rubio's new penchant for continually talking but never actually explaining, nothing has changed at his Twitter account since I mentioned this matter on Wednesday
There's still nothing new there since June 7th about anything, and nothing in over a month on immigration.
Hmm-m...



There's a very good reason why I've hardly ever mentioned that blog on these pages, and it has everything to do with them ignoring so much news everyday that would be news in others cities, that Naked Politics is perhaps the least important media political blog on the entire East Coast of the United States.
Really.

Even in Miami, with its traditionally low standards for performance and competency, they don't give awards to professional reporters who go out of their way to ignore timely and relevant news about important public policy issues. 
But that's exactly what has taken place the past six days.

In fact, the Tampa Bay Times broke their own news blackout on the Lizza & Rubio story on Tuesday by running something by Alex Leary on their far-superior but-still very liberal political blog, The Buzz, which I mentioned her the other day and linked to.

But despite the fact that most of the best blog pieces on the Herald's site are from the West Coast, the Herald editors have consciously chosen NOT to post that story even though it's the most-important one of the week.
The same way they buried the Jeb Bush appearance that fell flat earlier in the week

The next time that you are somewhere in Florida and spot one one these reporters or Herald Executive Editor Aminda Marques or Managing Editor Rick Hirsch, walk right up to them and ask them why they were so afraid of printing the truth, and were content being seen as stooges.

With all the amazing technology in the world that makes it easier than ever before for a reporter to do their job well, these particular Herald reporters are ostriches who put their heads firmly in the sand and wait for it all the uproar to be over.

And then, MAYBE, just maybe, Marc Caputo will write another one of his famous after-the-fact pieces that are painfully defensive in nature, and totally unpersuasive on the facts, which here, could not be more clear that the herald has shirked their responsibilities.
Yes, if they gave a Pulitzer Prize for THAT, Caputo and the Herald would be standing pretty every year..

The Schumer-Rubio merit-based immigration farce
http://washingtonexaminer.com/the-schumer-rubio-merit-based-immigration-farce/article/2532223

http://www.miamiherald.com/search_results?aff=1100&q=%22Marco+Rubio%22




Thursday, April 29, 2010

The last time the Miami Herald mentioned Hallandale Beach City Hall's incompetency and antics was...

Despite all the self-evident cronyism, public corruption and intentional deceit emanating from the City Hall of this ocean-side city for years, the Miami Herald has sent a reporter to a City Commission meeting here just once since June of 2008.

For that dearth of coverage, while everything was going to hell, we can thank current Broward editor Jay Ducassi and his predecessor, Patricia Andrews.

What follows is an excerpt from the last item the Herald ran that dealt with actual governance in Hallandale Beach.
You remember August of last year, don't you?

Tiger Woods
and Sandra Bullock were, separately, happily married to their spouses, Tom Brady was poised to take the Patriots back to the Super Bowl after an injury, and the Florida Marlins were still fighting for a National League Wild-card spot.
And
Marco Rubio, whom I'd seen wow a crowd two months earlier, was trailing badly in state polls that South Florida's know-it-all reporters said proved Rubio simply didn't have the requisite experience and resources to beat a popular incumbent governor like Charlie Crist.
Some reporters even darkly hinted that it might be because he was Hispanic.

Hmm-m-m...


Miami Herald

POLITICAL BEAT
Monday, August 10, 2009
By Amy Sherman
HALLANDALE BEACH MINUTES APPROVED -- A FEW YEARS LATER

Hallandale Beach City Commissioner Keith London, often at odds with other city officials, cried foul at a meeting Wednesday as the commission approved meeting minutes as old as 2003.

"It seems a little bizarre to go back and approve minutes going back six years," said London, suggesting that the city is violating its own procedure about creating written minutes "as soon as practical."

London is also ticked that the city decided to publish brief minutes rather than a verbatim transcript. "They don't want people to know what's going on," he said in an interview.

At the meeting, acting City Clerk Shari Canada said her audit found some minutes that had yet to be officially approved. They included meetings where the commission sat as other city boards.

"The fact that they are tardy is of no legal consequence," city attorney David Jove said.


Mayor
Joy Cooper said if the public wants to review debate from meetings, anyone can come to City Hall and review the video.

Monday, April 5, 2010

As Diana Wasserman-Rubin goes buh-bye, will Angelo Castillo be the ethical White Knight to help slay Broward's corruption dragon?

The political shoe that's been floating out there in
the ether for months finally dropped today -with
a loud thud heard all throughout Broward
County
.

W
ith it, an opportunity to make Broward's civic
society and troublesome County government
more
accountable and transparent
to the beleaguered
taxpayers it purports to serve, will get the
fair
chance it's been largely denied of late.


Since I've written about him here any number
of times before,
it's not exactly much of a secret
that I'm a fan of
Pembroke Pines Commissioner
Angelo Castillo, and have been hoping that,
regardless of what decision
DWR made this Spring
about her own political future,
he would endeavor
to throw his name into the ring and enter the
District 8 Commission race, a district which
includes a sliver of northwest Hallandale
Beach.

Well, now that my hope has actually become
a reality,
in the coming days and weeks, I hope
to share with you here
some thoughts on which
of the many savvy, common sense ideas of his
I believe can
make a positive difference in
resolving Broward's very frayed social and
ethical nerves and short-sighted economic funk.

You can laugh if you like, but I think that
the
positive difference that one good man with
foresight, integrity
and conviction can make
at a time of great political crisis, will,
in the
long run, be proven out when Angelo Castillo
wins.

The
Herald posted the story below online after
midnight this morning, the
Sun-Sentinel
at
3:01 a.m.

Map of Broward County Commission District 8 is here:
http://gis.broward.org/maps/webPDFs/CommissionDistricts/comdist8.pdf

-----

Miami Herald

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/04/04/1563465/leader-opting-out-of-run-for-reelection.html

County commissioner opting out of run for reelection

By Amy Sherman

April 5, 2010

Broward County Commissioner Diana Wasserman-Rubin will announce at the end of Tuesday's commission meeting that she will not seek reelection due to her struggle with Parkinson's disease -- and not because of the investigation by the Broward State Attorney's Office into her business dealings.

Wasserman-Rubin, 63, has been a trailblazer in Broward politics. She was the first Hispanic School Board member elected countywide and, later, the county's first Hispanic mayor. But the Southwest Ranches resident has been the subject of rumors for months that she would step down or not seek reelection due to her health or the investigation that appears to relate to her husband's grant-writing work.

By stepping aside, Wasserman-Rubin will leave her Southwest Broward commission district -- which includes portions of Pembroke Pines and Miramar -- the only one with an open election contest this fall. Pembroke Pines City Commissioner Angelo Castillo, a Democrat, is expected to jump into the race and face Republican Christopher Max Ziadie, a Toys `R' Us manager from Pembroke Pines.

In January, Broward State Attorney's Office spokesman Ron Ishoy revealed that his office was investigating ``the business dealings of Commissioner Wasserman-Rubin and that subpoenas have been issued.''

The subpoenas seek records over a 10-year period involving Richard Rubin, the commissioner's husband. Rubin has done planning or grant-writing work for several Broward cities, though he no longer does work in the county. In 2008, Wasserman-Rubin paid $15,000 civil penalty and restitution for violating state ethics laws after voting for a grant her husband wrote.

She has said she did not know he would earn extra income, and that she routinely supported such projects within her district.

ETHICS REFORM

The news about the current Wasserman-Rubin investigation coincided with renewed interest in Broward ethics reform after the September arrests of County Commissioner Josephus Eggelletion, School Board member Beverly Gallagher and former Miramar City Commissioner Fitzroy Salesman -- all charged in separate federal corruption probes.

Eggelletion pleaded guilty and was sentenced last month to more than two years in prison, Gallagher pleaded guilty last month and awaits sentencing in June, while Salesman's trial is underway.

Wasserman-Rubin said she had not spoken to prosecutors about their investigation and said her decision to not run for reelection to the $92,000-a-year job was unrelated to that case.

She said she was diagnosed with Parkinson's about six years ago. She shared the news with family members and friends but not publicly because she felt she could still perform her county job.

But Wasserman-Rubin said that as her symptoms became more obvious, she decided it was time to focus on her health. She said her doctor ``felt I would feel better if I didn't have the pressure I had with this particular job.''

NEW ADVOCACY

She said she wants to become an advocate for Parkinson's treatment and research. The disease is a neurodegenerative brain disorder that typically progresses slowly, according to the National Parkinson Foundation.

"There is no advocacy for Parkinson's in Broward,'' said Wasserman-Rubin, who hopes to help establish a place where those with the disease or their caregivers can turn for support.

She said she would fully participate in her job until the November election.

Wasserman-Rubin, who was born in Havana and moved to Florida as a teenager, fell into politics.

When a seat opened up on the South Broward Hospital District board in 1984, then-Pembroke Pines Mayor Charles Flanagan wanted to appoint his lawyer, Jeff Wasserman. But when he heard then-Gov. Bob Graham wanted to appoint a woman, Flanagan asked Wasserman's wife at the time -- Diana -- to apply.

"My first reaction was, `What do I know about healthcare?' '' she told the Miami Herald in 1988. She applied -- and got the spot.

In 1988, Wasserman-Rubin was elected to the School Board. She won a spot on the County Commission in 2000 and was chosen by her peers to serve as the county's first mayor -- a largely ceremonial post -- in 2002. She remains the only Hispanic on the nine-member commission, which includes one other minority: Al Jones, who is black.

POSSIBLE CANDIDATES

Wasserman-Rubin's announcement allows other potential candidates enough time to jump in before the official qualifying period in June. The news is expected to lead to a flurry of political activity to fill the seat in a district that leans heavily Democratic and is split among whites, blacks and Hispanics.

Pembroke Pines City Commissioner Angelo Castillo is president of Broward House -- an agency that serves people with HIV and AIDS. Castillo has close relationships with the key voting bloc of Democratic retirees in his city, and was easily reelected in March.

Barbara Sharief, a black woman and owner of a home healthcare business who lost a race against Wasserman-Rubin in 2006 and was elected to the Miramar City Commission last year, has also been mentioned as a potential candidate.

County Commission District 8 includes portions of Weston, Southwest Ranches, Miramar, Pembroke Pines, Pembroke Park, Hallandale Beach and West Park.

-----

Broward Beat
Castillo Running For County Commission

By Buddy Nevins

Pembroke Pines Commissioner Angelo Castillo didn’t wait long – about seven hours to be precise.

Castillo filed to run for the seat being abandoned by Diana Wasserman-Rubin just before 2 p.m. on Monday.

Read the rest of the post at
http://www.browardbeat.com/castillo-running-for-county-commission/

See also:

Wasserman-Rubin Will Quit Commission; Castillo, Others Looking At Race
By Buddy Nevins
April 5, 2010
http://www.browardbeat.com/sources-wasserman-rubin-will-quit-commission/

and

Mayo on the Side
blog
Will Geller switch races to replace Wasserman-Rubin?
Posted by Michael Mayo
April 5, 2010

http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/columnists/mayo/blog/2010/04/will_geller_switch_races_to_re.html

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Amy Sherman's Herald post re Gunzburger v. Geller; Ron Book tries to snag HB

What follows is an email that I sent Miami Herald reporter Amy Sherman Tuesday evening about something she wrote that day, in anticipation of Wednesday morning's Hallandale Beach City Commission meeting.
Much of it will no doubt ring familar to those of you who try to make a habit out of coming here from time to time when you can, while for others, some of the following information may no doubt prove]
to be quite surprising or even troubling.

I'll have a full report on Wednesday's meeting about lobbying on Thursday.
__________________________________________
To: Amy Sherman <asherman@herald.com>,
cc: Michael Putney <mputney@local10.com>,
Terry Sheridan <Terry.Sheridan@incisivemedia.com>,
Steve Bousquet <bousquet@sptimes.com>,
Adam Smith <adam@sptimes.com>,
William March <wmarch@tampatrib.com>,
Aaron Deslatte <adeslatte@orlandosentinel.com>,
Breanne Gilpatrick <bgilpatrick@miamiherald.com>,
Beth Reinhard <breinhard@herald.com>,
Marc Caputo <mcaputo@miamiherald.com>,
Mary Ellen Klas <meklas@miamiherald.com>,
Jennifer Liberto <jliberto@sptimes.com>


Tuesday December 2nd, 2008

Dear Ms. Sherman:

Regarding your Herald post yesterday about former State Senator Steve Geller and his effort to be elected to the Broward County Commission in 2010.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/broward/story/793947.html

A few weeks ago in another matter involving Geller, I sent part of the the email below to some of your colleagues in South Florida news rooms, print and electronic, as well as some savvy Tallahassee-based reporters, some of whom are also getting this addendum.

In retrospect, I see that I should've double-checked my list of names and made sure to include you as well, so consider this email an attempt to correct that unintended oversight.
----------------------------------------------------------
Call me old-fashioned but I'd really love to see some stories in the not-too-distant future about what's going on with the investigations surrounding the two people who have died needlessly on Millennium property while Steve Geller has been their attorney, lobbyist and schmoozer-in-chief: Albert Avenhaim and Myron Kafka.
http://millennium-group.blogspot.com/2007/02/blog-post.html

Maybe finally see a story about Brian Bethell, the person who murdered Albert Avenhaim in Hallandale Beach in 2006, in a string of at least three separate murders across Broward County that were THE lead story for quite some time -and then nothing.
As of a few weeks ago, the Broward Court website says that Bethell will have a competency hearing the week before Christmas.
(Obviously, that will be delayed even farther because of the broken water main problem at the Broward County Courthouse.)
---------------------------
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
March 6, 2008,

FORT LAUDERDALE
Family of man killed in elevator files lawsuit,
The family of an elderly man who died trapped between an elevator door and its security gate has filed a wrongful-death suit against several businesses involved in the gate's installation and maintenance, an attorney said Wednesday.
Among those named in the Feb. 13 suit are Associates in Internal Medicine, 2500 Hallandale Beach LLC and Millennium Real Estate Holdings.
Myron Kafka , 81, died in the Millennium Plaza, at 2500 E. Hallandale Beach Blvd., in July.
He stepped off the elevator on a Saturday, the elevator door shut and the gate kept him trapped until the following Monday, July 23, said attorney Rick Ellsley, who represents Kafka's daughter. ----------------------------------------
There hasn't been a single story in the Herald that mentions Bethell since January 7th?
January 7th of 2007.
And that was just a few sentences.
And the Sun-Sentinel? Try November 12, 2006.
Nice follow-up!

That's a record rightly deserving of derision, one to be tossed onto the bonfire when discussing the current deficiencies of South Florida's local news coverage, newsprint division as proof of how local reporters and editors, print and TV, have been sleeping on the job when it comes to following-up on these particular stories.

Millennium and their various partners have some rather grandiose plans to transform that property into a huge office and condo complex a block from the Intracoastal.
And who's leading that effort?
Well, none other than garrulous Steve Geller, someone I'm very open about regarding as a cancer on Broward County's political system and public policy arena, as my blogs make clear.

Yes, the very same Steve Geller that has for so long kept his govt. "hat" at HB City Hall.
I know that Steve Geller represents Millennium's interests because I was at public meeting Millennium was required to hold in Dec. of 2006 at HB's Cultural Center behind their City Hall.

I got there early, expecting some fireworks because of the predictable concerns about the project further exacerbating the already bad neighborhood traffic-flow on HBB -heading towards the beach- the out-of-proportion size of the plan, etc., and sat at the table next to where a Miami Herald reporter was seated.

Just moments after I got there and had grabbed a donut and some coffee, and returned to the table I had all to myself, in walked Geller and his retinue with trademark showy boisterousness, with him not waiting even two beats before continuing on a harangue disparaging then-Gov.-Elect Charlie Crist in tones that would've been loud enough for everyone in the room to hear if the room had been half-full, say, 150-200 people.
As it was, counting his Millennium crew and the interested public, there were no more than 25 people in that room, so his voice was bouncing off the walls.

To be so self-absorbed as to publicly belittle Crist in front of people -and a reporter- before he'd even taken the oath of office, showed me the side of Geller I'd often read and heard about, but never actually seen in person for myself.
But I recognized the type, since I'd had dealings with Rahm Emanuel in Washington at the DCCC, before he was anybody of note, and he already had that insufferable attitude and condescending ego thing down pat that later served him so well at The White House.

(Among his many other tasks was playing the role of errand boy, where he'd walk the three blocks to the NYT's DC Bureau on Eye Street, and relay messages to and from Times columnists Maureen Dowd and William Safire, plus myriad editors, who became bosom pals and Emanuel boosters, which is obvious from all sorts of evidence if you know where to look and whom to ask, positive coverage being the most obvious.
I will tell you that I still have a photo of him at Maureen's (first) book party on Capitol Hill, where, typically, like Geller, he's holding court like he's in The Arabian Nights.

I used to witness it all the time because I swung by the Times just about every day, plus, my reporter/editor friends there who were well aware of my disdain for Emanuel, proved to be great first-hand sources for sightings of him.
Not that I was alone on an island in Washington in my disdain for him and his "fixer" culture of cronyism, inspired in large part by Tony Coelho, which is always part of the problem and NEVER part of the solution.)

Geller's whole shtick was so over-the-top as to be farcical, and I debated whether I should dispense with the pleasantries and simply drop my knowledge on Geller and his client, in front of the reporter and public before the public presentation was over.
Ask them why the lighting around that property has been SO BAD for SO MANY YEARS that anyone who knows the property knew the parking lot was a DISASTER just waiting to happen.
In the end, I simply didn't trust the reporter to properly report the facts, synthesize the narrative and connect all the dots, so I kept my mouth shut.

Given my interests and background, I've been to hundreds of these sorts of meetings over the years, both in the D.C. area and South Florida, but still, listening to the sheer obfuscation and mis-direction coming out of Geller's mouth, his Pooh-poohing of the patently obvious traffic problems, as if a magic wand had been waved over them, rendering them invisible, well, it was all I could do to not ask him straight out if he and his business pals even recognized the name of the murdered Albert Avenhaim -and then go on offense.

A few months later I witnessed Geller wearing the attorney/lobbyist hat he loves, the one where he gets paid to alternately persuade/schmooze/ply city officials -also his constituents- to grant favors to or accept the plans of his myriad corporate clients who pay him so handsomely.

In this particular case, it was Geller playing hardball at a Hallandale Beach City Commission hearing, where he bullied and hectored HB residents in the neighborhood who had the temerity to oppose his client, DOMUS, and their plan to build a 19-story bldg. on a U.S.-1 site that's half of what HB's own rules require, and therefore, needed a variance.
That's why developers pay him the big bucks!

If ever actually completed, according to some, it would be the tallest building on U.S.-1 in Broward south of downtown FTL.
But, as had already become routine by then, the Herald never sent a reporter to the HB commission meeting, so never knew about any of this.

You and others might want to see the videotape of that particular meeting sometime, as it's quite instructional in how Geller tries to bulldoze those who attempt to get in his way, even when they are entitled to be represented and have the floor.
Geller actually tried to prevent a person who owns property next to his client's from being able to speak, even though that person ought to have more right to be heard on the issue than anyone else.
It was quite a circus!

Well, months later, their variance in hand, the DOMUS site on U.S.-1 has been FOR SALE for MONTHS.

It's a shame that South Florida's media didn't write about Geller's recent over-the-top performance at a Hallandale Beach City Commission meeting where he was honored with the key to the city, such as it is.
For folks like me who, quite correctly, view Geller and his ilk as part of the problem and not part of any possible solution, it was CLASSIC Steve Geller, full of feints, mis-direction and nonsense masquerading as sincerity and statesmanship.

The only thing that was more galling than Geller's grandstanding move of passing out Geller-branded campaign tchotchkes, flotsam and jetsam to the City Commission as part of a Clearance Sale -which the Commissioners rather predictably played with like infants, while Geller's colleagues snapped photos of the whole sorry spectacle!- was the performance of HB Mayor for Life Joy Cooper.

Cooper constantly interrupted herself to decry the voter-mandated term-limits laws that would "deprive" her of Steve Geller's continuing presence -or in my opinion, 'reign of error'- in Tallahassee.
Right, the sort of evil genius who authors an Amendment regarding real estate and foreigners and then later admits, "The problem with passing it is the way it's worded. I'm afraid people will get confused."

Perfect!!!

Though it's not high on my list, per se, before the New Years football bowl games get here, I plan on putting Geller's recent over-the-top performance at City Hall on the internet for anyone and everyone to see.
It's like the film of the Hindenburg crash: upsetting and compelling all at the same time.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2380118142773657669&hl=en
If nothing else, it surely deserves a wider audience than the handful of people who've seen it to date.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
excerpt from Miami Daily Business Review,
April 20, 2007
Opposition to beachfront complex mounts
By Terry Sheridan:

[Pompano Beach City Commissioner Kay] McGinn is irate about Geller's role and
calls his representation of Ocean Land "deplorable."
"It's my opinion that state representatives should not represent developers who are
putting up massive projects," she said.
Geller, a land-use attorney with the Hollywood firm Geller Geller Fisher & Garfinkel,
said McGinn is entitled to her opinion, "as wrong and uninformed as it may be. ...
I'm a part-time legislator. Developers are legal in this state, and so is representing them."

http://www.miamiherald.com/548/story/347482.html
Miami Herald
No lobbying ban for Broward commissioners
By Breanne Gilpatrick
Secember 17, 2007

Potential Broward county commissioners who lobby other local governments won't need to worry about giving up their side jobs, after the county's Charter Review Commission rejected a proposed referendum to ban the practice.
The ballot measure, which died in a 10-7 vote, would have prevented commissioners from lobbying Broward's School Board, cities and hospital districts on behalf of a private client, but not for the county itself.
County Commissioner Sue Gunzburger urged the government reform panel to approve the
proposed ban on Wednesday.
''If I'm selling widgets and I go to the city of Hallandale Beach to sell widgets on behalf of my client,'' Gunzburger said, "I think I have a lot more influence because at one point Mayor [Joy] Cooper might want to come to the County Commission.''
Supporters also pointed out that county commissioners making $92,000 a year probably don't need to moonlight.
But opponents said they didn't want to exclude potential commission candidates.
''We need to look at how we might affect someone's profession and how we might prohibit
a certain profession from participating in the process,'' said Charter Review Commission member Hazelle Rogers, who is also a Lauderdale Lakes city commissioner.

Reader comments to Gilpatrick's article is at:
http://pod01.prospero.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?msg=24424.13&nav=messages&webtag=kr-miamitm

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
So, when exactly will South Florida media come clean about all the rumors that Geller's supporters and cronies are spreading throughout Broward that Comm. Sue Gunzburger will either retire or resign for "health reasons," rather than risk the predictable mean-spirited and expensive campaign that Geller and his allies promise to break the bank for, if necessary?
(As if your post yesterday didn't underline that point.)

If a blogger like myself has already heard them repeated more than a few times around the county at different events and venues, including the recent SFRTA Broward County workshop in Dania Beach -though to be fair, I think I do get around more than most local bloggers- and knows them to be false, surely full-time reporters have heard them, too.
And knows exactly who's spreading them, too!

Really, it's time to start seeing some actual names in print, so everything's out in the open.

And what's new with my bête noire Geller's CCE, Floridians for a Stronger Tomorrow? http://www.floridiansforchange.org/
Has the Mardi Gras Casino given it any more since their $30k 13 months ago?
And in the Birds-of-a-Feather Dept., not much of a shocker that Larry Smith has tossed him some loot, too.

Speaking of the disgraced former Hollywood Congressman, whom I used to cringe when watching while at the dozens and dozens of House Foreign Affairs Comm. hearings I used to be at all the time, who also used to be Hallandale Beach's lobbyist, Wednesday morning at 10 a.m. at Hallandale Beach City Hall, lobbyist Ron Book will attempt to add the City of Hallandale Beach to his long laundry list of lobbying clients, for $50k.
http://eyeonmiami.blogspot.com/2007/09/could-one-lobbyist-be-this-good-by.html

But some of us in HB aren't real crazy about the idea of either being represented by
a.) someone who doesn't want to have to follow the ethical rules that everyone has to abide by, or
b.) find ourselves at the very bottom of his long To-Do list, especially given that as long as Joy Cooper is mayor, more than ought to be true, the city's position will likely be adverse to many of his longstanding, higher-paying clients, including our neighbors.
What does he do then?
Exactly my point!

At that point, HB will likely becomes nothing but excess baggage for him to be tossed out the window to lighten the load.
Since that's so utterly predictable now, why go through the charade of thinking that city taxpayers are getting a good deal with Book, just for having our names on some list of his?
That's typical shortsighted HB City Hall thinking!

And in case you didn't know it, get a load of the city's memo on this matter.
http://www.hallandalebeachfl.gov/files/2008-12-03/Agenda%20Outline%20for%202008-12-03.htm

Interesting to me that the agenda itself on the city's joke of a website doesn't mention the specific amounts at issue, which are $50k and $20k:
D. Pursuant to Chapter 23-105, Hallandale Beach Code of Ordinances, Request Authorization to Award RFQ# FY2008-2009-001, State Lobbyist and State Funding Proposal to Ronald L. Book, P.A. and Corcoran & Associates, Inc. If approved, Authorize the City Manager to Conclude Contract Negotiations and Renew the Contracts in the Best Interest of the City.
(Staff: Manager of Intergovernmental Relations) (see backup)
BP #007/09 (
Staff Report)

My favorite part of the memo is this telling sentence:
"...Although the City continues to require a Democrat oriented lobbyist as
its primary representative, it would be in the best interest of the City to retain
a Republican representative as well...

"Required?"

That's just a small part of why they're The Gang That Can't Shoot Straight.

Frankly, I think that it's positively inconceivable that the HB City Commission would be asked by the City Manager's Office to vote at Wednesday's City Commission meeting on a contract for lobbyists without ALL the Commissioners having formally met the principals involved who will be performing the services, yet that's the current reality.

It's also contrary to common sense to have the Commissioners vote on that without having been provided a list -made public- of all their other clients, so that when push comes to shove, HB taxpayers know in advance that they are paying for someone whose first interest is them, NOT a more influential, longstanding or higher-paying client.

As a HB taxpayer and concerned citizen, the person who will actually be paying for these services, that seems like the very least we can expect from the Commissioners who are supposed to represent us.

Plus, well, to be honest, he's not exactly the person who lives up to the letter and spirit of "full disclosure" is he?
No, to the contrary, he actually went to court to prevent laws from being enforced, to circimvent the public from gaining information about him and his clients.
That attitude doesn't seem like the letter and spirit of transparency to me.

As for Corcoran and Associates, they represent Mardi Gras Racetrack & Gaming Center. In fact, on their own website, http://www.corcoranfirm.com/testimonials.aspx they have a lengthy list of clients who sang their praises, one of whom is that HB concern on Pembroke Road, on the border of Hollywood.

"No one delivers like Corcoran and Associates! I had an extremely controversial issue before the Legislature and the pure class, finesse and professionalism of Corcoran & Associates helped bring the issue to a successful close."
Dan Adkins, Vice President Hollywood Greyhound Track

That would be the same Dan Adkins of Mardi Gras Casino who last year consciously and continually REFUSED to cooperate with the consulting firm hired by the City of Hallandale Beach City Commission to develop a new city Master Plan.
This lack of cooperation was mentioned a few times by the consultants at the public unveiling of the plan at the HB Cultural Center, as well as subsequent quadrant meetings throughout the city, as a real handicap to them in accurately completing their project as quickly as possible.

I mention this because some people in the area, especially those at HB City Hall who have less than an arm's-length relationship with him and the facility, seem to have completely forgotten this simple fact.
I haven't.

Since he and the company are very involved in many activities within the city and make contributions to groups in the city that have very close relationships to people at HB City Hall, Mr. Adkins has never publicly accounted for his noteworthy non-cooperation in one of the most important planning tools the city has.

So with Corcoran and Associates, just as with Ron Book, will a lobbyist hired by the city of HB have a primary loyalty to the city, or another client?
I'll bet I can guess the answer to that.