Showing posts with label Arturo O'Neill. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Arturo O'Neill. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Part 2 of 2 - re Hallandale Beach's groundbreaking tonight at B.F. James Park and the lingering controversy re the swimming pool situation in this small city. How a death at a city pool in 1991 -and race identity politics- continues to roil this city's political and financial decisions. How poor choices made today out of anger or opportunism by Cooper, Sanders & Lewy may sharply limit the options of a majority of city residents for years into the future

Part 2 of 2 - re Hallandale Beach's groundbreaking tonight at B.F. James Park and the lingering controversy re the swimming pool situation in this small city. How a death at a city pool in 1991 -and race identity politics- continues to roil this city's political and financial decisions. How poor choices made today out of anger or opportunism by Cooper, Sanders & Lewy may sharply limit the options of a majority of city residents for years into the future 
I've heard from a few different people regarding what I wrote yesterday about tonight's groundbreaking tonight at B.F. James Park, and how the cost of that park doubling up to $5 Million, as a result of what's being done with a swimming pool there, may well mean that there's now NOT enough money to fix South Beach Park, which is actually the busiest park in the city and the busiest part of the city beach.

Some of the readers who wrote thought I might be unaware of what happened here years ago, and how many of those negative attitudes I described in my email and subsequent blog post here might explain some things we are seeing now, so felt obliged to tell me what they remembered.

Long story short: Five-year old boy drowns at City of Hallandale swimming pool in 1995 that was later known as Peter Bluesten Park....Big lawsuit against the city...
This drowning comes four years after City of Hallandale closed and then covered-up a swimming pool at Dixie Park in Northwest Hallandale, outraging residents.

It's all largely in the 1995 Miami Herald article I have copied and pasted at the bottom of today's email/blog post so you know the facts as publicly stated.

Though I wasn't living in HB then, being up in Arlington County, VA -45-minute walk from Key Bridge and Georgetown- I have read lots of the newspaper articles about what really happened at that city pool and have met and heard people from NW and elsewhere complain about how indignant and angry they were that the HB City's Commission of the time's
ham-handed response.
This followed by four years the city closing and then covering-up of a pool in NW HB, rather than resolve the larger questions that existed at the time.
Like fixing and rehabbing the pool complex and not neglecting it so much in the future. 

(Though to be fair, there STILL seems to be a lot of misunderstanding and "mis-remembering" of the basic facts of the case, and some of that is responsible for the lingering and unsupported conjecture about what "really happened." 
In our community, just as is true with lots of others in this country, some people much prefer to have their own "facts" they choose to believe, and ignore facts they deem inconvenient.)

The NW community felt like they'd been taken advantage of and punished for the simplest of all reasons -they had been! 

I also know from first-hand experience that that incident was brought up A LOT when Comm. Sanders was running for office the first time in the weeks before the Nov. 2008 election, after he had been appointed in that sham procedure that summer that Arturo O'Neill, sitting next to me in the Commission Chambers, predicted moments before it happened.

The one where Mayor Cooper intentionally ignored the city's established rules and procedures for filling a vacancy that had been used the year before -with Keith London after Joe Gibbons was elected to the Florida Houseand refused to let the public speak at the meeting.

That's a meeting that someone at Mike Satz's office should have been able to use as a stepping stone towards a big promotion if anyone there had been paying even the slightest attention, given ALL the illegality and fraud that intentionally and knowingly took place that night.

Sanders and his supporters specifically argued that if Sanders or another African- American from NW was not there on the dais, there would always be the possibility that the city's powers-that-be at HB City Hall, who in the past as well as today, continue to show a disturbing patronizing and  condescending anti-democratic, anti-resident attitude, would do the same
thing again.

That's a hard thing to argue against when you know it's 100% true, which is a psychological burden that anyone who wants better and smarter pro-reform people on the HB City Commission as a whole, like me and so many others of you in this city honestly DO, have to deal with, even though we had nothing to do with why that psychological burden is actually there from 18 years ago..

The problem, of course, is that the very person who is there from NW is so completely unsatisfactory and underwhelming, so consistently NOT up to the task of the very job he ran for and won -twice.

That's why I specifically mention online in my blog on how consistently and rather maddeningly unprepared Comm. Sanders is for meetings, his very poor communication skills with constituents -ignoring them for years by refusing to return phone calls and emails, and then, per the very controversial Diplomat LAC proposal, refused to come to the affected neighborhood in NE HB! 
Something I've mentioned many times on this blog when it happened.

In the days before that Diplomat LAC issue came before them, people from other parts of Broward County who served on Broward's Planning Council -like HB Comm. Michele Lazarow does now- actually drove to HB to see for themselves the area in question and see how it might be negatively affected by all the many condo towers the size of The Duo, esp. traffic, because THEY were so conscientious and keen to know all the facts and as much context as possible re such an important public policy decision.
A decision that they well understood would permanently change the face of this city, with its ONE east-west road thru the city.

Meanwhile, a member of the HB City Commission continually refused to meet with HB residents in their own NE neighborhood -Comm. Sanders.

Yes, Comm. Sanders, who runs for elective office only to ignore the majority of the city's residents -constituents!- from the start! 
Most people would do the exact opposite once they got elected to keep them motivated and in the fold, but his choice is to ignore them

I've really hit hard on Comm. Sanders lack of a work ethic when it comes to the most basic aspects of his job, regardless of where he lives: ensuring proper oversight and public accountability of the city's operations by the elected city commission.

Oversight, the one thing Sanders is supposed to do is the very thing he consistently is least interested in, because he's unwilling to do the work required, preferring instead to swallow whole everything he is told by the City Manager's staff, which comes with an agenda that is NOT positive for either HB residents, taxpayers or small business owners.

Comm. Sanders is, by any reasonable standards, woefully unprepared and even worse as his votes earlier this month re the HB CRA showed, unwilling to change, adapt or evolve.
Unwilling to do the right thing when the golden opportunity is just sitting there, waiting for him to put-up or shut-up after all these years, per the AG's Opinion or getting the FL JLAC to do an audit of the HB CRA.

Instead, Sanders did what he has always done -protect the mayor's flank and given in to the very city employees who are responsible for so very much of the longstanding problems in this city, problems that are NEVER properly and permanently fixed, solved or eliminated.

And so here we are... again, spending more money than is either logical or prudent, all because of what happened in the past in this small city.
Which will limit our community's choices in the future. 

-----
Miami Herald
ANGER BOILS TO THE SURFACE IN WAKE OF BOY'S DROWNING
By Greg Brown,
 Herald Staff Writer
August 13, 1995
Just five weeks on the job, Pastor Nathan Robinson finds his flock in turmoil -- engulfed in anger, grief and confusion.

Everywhere he goes, harried faces plead: What happened to 5-year-old James Lee Johnson, who drowned July 24 in Hallandale's City Park pool? 

Robinson will lead a candlelight vigil at 8 p.m. Wednesday at the pool. Another group led by Hallandale activists plans a community meeting at 5 p.m. today at St. Ann's Episcopal Church, 701 NW First Ave., Hallandale. 

The telephone rings perpetually at St. Luke Primitive Baptist Church in Carver Ranches. Some callers allege racism against James, who was black. While the camp counselors in charge of James were black, the lifeguards on duty were white. Others call to grieve or learn new information. 

"I have to address this church in the morning. I have to address the family almost every night. I have to address people when I walk down the street in Carver Ranches," Robinson said. 

"I have to give them answers. They ask questions. It's a position God has put me into." 

Anger is a natural reaction to such a meaningless death. James, under the eyes of four adults, drowned unnoticed in four feet of water at the pool at 202 SE Fifth St. in Hallandale. According to police documents, two minutes of inattention left James floating face down. 

James' death the next afternoon, July 25, at Miami Children's Hospital has been ruled an accidental drowning. He was buried July 29.

Some in Hallandale see the death as proof that the city's elected officials, all of whom are white, care little about what happens to the city's mostly black northwest section. 

Neighbors of the Johnsons in West Hollywood are numb with shock. They want answers. Now. 

"I'm both angered and appalled at the whole situation," said Lynnessa Wooten, 34, who lives near the Johnsons outside Carver Ranches. 

Wooten says racial issues divert attention from Hallandale's responsibility -- to explain how the boy died. 

"I think it started the instant they found that child at the bottom of that pool," she said. "I think at that instant somebody started covering the city of Hallandale's rear end." 

The commissioners say they are upset by the death, too, but can't speak in detail about the accident. They say they haven't been officially briefed. With a lawsuit likely to be filed against the city, they say, public comment would be improper. 

Karen Woodfin, 28, of Hallandale, is white. Her daughter, Amber Le-Master, 6, was in the swimming group with James on the day he died. 

A stranger to James' mother, Yvoncia, Woodfin attended the boy's wake July 28. She called Pastor Robinson to talk about the loss. 

She, too, says race is beside the point. 

"My daughter was in that camp from the first day. It could easily have been her," said Woodfin. "A drowning, a death, being hit by a car. It can happen to anyone. It doesn't hit that close to home until it happens to you." 

But civic activist Angie Glass, 58, has no qualms about raising the question of race. For her, James' death is the result of city negligence toward the northwest neighborhood. 

Before the civil rights movement, Hallandale's blacks were segregated in northwest Hallandale. Starting in the mid-1950s, Glass said, the neighborhood's dirt roads turned to gravel and were eventually paved. Road signs were installed. 

She prefers those days of a segregated community that blacks could call their own. Northwest "was an excellent community," she said. "We had our ma-and-pa grocery stores. We had our theater. We had a pool." 

The few amenities in the neighborhood have now deteriorated. The city has made no credible moves to rebuild them, Glass said. 

In 1991, the pool at Dixie Park, in the heart of northwest Hallandale, closed, deemed a hazard beyond repair. Today, a muddy crater stands in its place. 

"Everything we got in the '50s they've taken back," Glass said. 

For residents like Cathy Williams, 39, the disparities are crystal clear. 

"It's always considered another town," said Williams. "You look at the landscaping in the southwest section. You look at the pool in the southwest section. They refurbish the paddleball courts every other year. It's a big difference, and it's not a secret. It's lying right there." 

City commissioners adamantly deny that they've shortchanged the northwest. Between 1988 and 1994, the city obtained more than $3.6 million in federal grants to improve the neighborhood. 

Hallandale's city government faces more than criticism from some of its residents. It may face a lawsuit. 

James' family says it plans to sue. Under state law, a city must be warned six months before a lawsuit can be filed. A letter from a Miami law firm representing the family was received by the city this week, but City Attorney Dick Kane says it doesn't constitute a proper notice of intent to sue. 

Hallandale has been sued before for accidental drowning. In 1994, the city and county settled a suit filed by the parents of Willie Roberts, an 8-year-old boy who drowned at a county park under the supervision of a city camp program. 

And in May of this year, the city paid $170,000 to the family of Ramon Turnquest, a 7-year-old boy killed crossing under the care of a city-paid crossing guard. The driver of the car was considered primarily at fault in the Turnquest case. 

City negligence is not necessarily the cause of these accidents, Kane said. 

"The greatest swimmers in the world drown. The most careful people have accidents," Kane said. "My point is, you shouldn't attribute liability to the city because of an accident." 

Commissioner Dotty Ross campaigned in the northwest section before taking her seat in March. 

A volunteer water safety teacher at City Park in the early 1960s, Ross is flabbergasted to hear that people are complaining about the city's handling of James' death. Amid a dozen pink phone message slips on her desk, she said, not one is about the drowning. 

"When you're in public office, the telephone calls I get are not accolades. People call to complain about things." 

She takes the anger to heart. It's a tragedy, Ross said, and the city's image is important when emotions are involved. Hallandale is not taking the death lightly, nor the feelings of blacks who feel slighted. 

"If that's their perception, it's just as real."

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Still a case of different rules for goose and gander in Hallandale Beach, depending upon whether you're a citizen or the City

Still a case of different rules for goose and gander in Hallandale Beach, depending upon whether you're a citizen or the City.

I'll be at City Commission meeting at 3 pm to talk about agenda item 9D -highlighted in red below- the city's so-called security cameras, maintained by the HB Police Dept. and the city's abject failure for almost 4 YEARS under former (sleepwalking) City Attorney David Jove to have the city itself be in compliance with State Law.
Yes, the very warning signs it requires businesses in HB to publicly post when they use security/surveillance cameras on the premises.
That it fines business owners who don't comply.

After all, as we are always told, ignorance of the law is no excuse.
But the City of Hallandale Beach has known for years that it didn't comply -it just didn't care.
Still doesn't.


Underneath the city's only security camera on the City Hall side of the municipal complex. The parking lot light closest to it -less than 10 feet away- has only worked for about one month out of the past 44 months since the camera was first placed there. But at a City Commission meeting, in response to my complaints that he and the city had neglected safety problems at City Hall for years -how many dozens of photos have I placed here that proved THAT?- former Police Chief Magill said that the public parking lot light(s) being out didn't really matter. Well, it's STILL out. Who could make this up? October 2, 2011 by South Beach Hoosier

In case you don't want to take my word for it, here's some proof of the above from almost exactly THREE YEARS ago. Just saying...

Arturo O'Neill under the same security camera. October 15, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

A pitch black parking lot is not an inviting prospect at any time, especially after a HB City Commission meeting that was long on hot air and short on, yes -wait for it- ILLUMINATION. October 15, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

"And the flag was still there..."
That pitch black parking lot behind Arturo is the one closest to the Hallandale Beach Police Dept. HQ. October 15, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

In fact, the city's Code Compliance office has already cited RK Associates in the past two years because the parking lot on Hallandale Beach Blvd. for Publix, that placed cameras in front of their building when, they opened their liquor store next door, STILL does NOT have those simple signs that Target has always had.
I've seen the city's written complaint myself.

That was soaking wet.
That was lying on a sidewalk on HBB & SE 14th Avenue.
That I took inside and gave the Publix manager for his attention, knowing that I'd mention it publicly when it was appropriate.
Now you know.

At the HB City Hall complex that is roughly two city blocks by two city blocks, there is but ONE warning sign -near the Employees entrance on U.S.-1.



Above and below, the employee entrance to Hallandale Beach City Hall off U.S.-1/S. Federal Hwy. Note the parking lot pole to the right of the entrance. Do you see THE sign?
Just ignore those city vehicles in the foreground that never seem to leave the parking lot's reserved spaces for city vehicles.
If they don't use them, why don't they move the cars to the back so the public can park there instead?
If you wonder about that, too, clearly you've never lived here. That's SOP hereabouts.
October 2, 2011 photos by South Beach Hoosier


There's no signs near the public entrances to HB City Hall, the HB Police Dept or the HB Cultural Center buildings, or the three vehicular entrances to the complex -nada.

FYI: Below, a shot of this month's calendar captured on Sunday afternoon when my friend and fellow HB civic activist Csaba Kulin and I walked around the HB City Hall complex before the Dolphins-Chargers game, and I personally showed him the graffiti and vandalism directly in front of the complex that HB City Manager Marc Antonio STILL says he NEVER noticed in front of the building he's worked at for the past ten years.

Which, no doubt, pleases the very people who put it there to no end, since it proves how truly disconnected from reality City Hall really is.
As if we needed any more evidence of that...



REGULAR AGENDA

CITY COMMISSION, CITY OF HALLANDALE BEACH

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 05, 2011 1:00 PM and 7:00 P.M.

http://www.hallandalebeach.org/files/00413/Exported%20OV%20Docs/Agenda%20Outline%20for%202011-10-05%2013-00.htm

1. CALL TO ORDER

2. ROLL CALL

3. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE

4. STUDENT CITIZEN OF THE MONTH AND SCHOOL ACTIVITY UPDATE

5. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION - Items not on the Agenda ( To be heard at 1:15 PM)

6. PRESENTATIONS

A. Proclamation Celebrating October 16-22, 2011 as "Florida City Government Week"

B. Proclamation Proclaiming October 10-14, 2011 as " National School Lunch Week"

C. Proclamation Proclaiming October 9-15, 2011 as "Fire Prevention Week"

D. Proclamation Proclaiming October, 2011 as "National Domestic Violence Awareness Month"

E. Presentation Regarding Activities at the Village of Gulfstream Park (Suzanne Friedman, Development Representative, Village of Gulfstream Park) CAD#029/04

7. CONTINUATION OF CITY BUSINESS FROM PREVIOUS MEETINGS

8. CONSENT AGENDA

A. Approval of Draft Minutes - Regular City Commission Meeting of September 21, 2011 (Supporting Docs)

9. CITY BUSINESS

A. Investment Policies Update - General Employees and Professional Management Pension Plans (Staff: Director of Finance)(See Backup) CAD# 007/11 (Staff Report, Supporting Docs)

B. Consideration of Approval of the 2011 Annual Floodplain Management and Hazard Mitigation Plan Evaluation Report (Staff: Director of Public Works, Utilities & Engineering)(See Backup) CAD# 030/03 (Staff Report, Supporting Docs)

C. Pursuant to Chapter 23, Article III , of the City of Hallandale Beach Code of Ordinances, Consideration of an Extension to the Short Term Agreement with Choice Recycling, Incorporated, for the disposal of Municipal Solid Waste in accordance with the terms and conditions of said Agreement, as amended. (Staff; Director of Public Works, Utilities & Engineering) (See Backup) CAD# 018/10 (Staff Report, Supporting Docs)

TO BE HEARD AT 3:00 PM

D. Pursuant to Chapter 23, Section 105, Award of Contracts, of the City of Hallandale Beach Code of Ordinances, Request Authorization to Increase Contract for Additional Services under RFP # FY 2006-2007-004, Cameras System Upgrade and Expansion, to Aware Digital, Inc., in an Amount Not -To-Exceed $143,653.90, plus an additional $20,000.00 for miscellaneous upgrades and maintenance. (Staff: Director of Public Works, Utilities, & Engineering) (See Backup) BP#023/07 & CAD #038/05 (Staff Report, Supporting Docs)

TO BE HEARD AT 4:00 PM

E. Pursuant to Chapter 23, Section 105, Award of Contracts, of the City of Hallandale Beach Code of Ordinances, Request Authorization to Award RFP # FY 2010-2011-006, Hallandale Beach Elevated Water Storage Tanks Project, to the Lowest Responsive, Responsible Bidder, Worth Contracting, Inc., in an Amount Not-To-Exceed $289,025.00 for the Beach Tank Rehabilitation, and to reject the Utility Services Company Inc., bid for the Bluesten Tank Rehabilitation. Furthermore, Authorize a 5% Contingency for Unforeseen Circumstances. Also Consideration of Permanent Removal of the Bluesten Elevated Water Tank and Replacement with a Monopole for Community Utilization. (Staff: Director of Public Works, Utilities & Engineering) (See Backup) BP#005/08 (Staff Report, Supporting Docs)

F. Resolution of the City of Hallandale Beach, Florida, Authorizing the Submittal of a Response to the Request for Proposal for the Purchase of the Hallandale Beach Post Office Property Located at 500 South Federal Highway and Authorizing the City Manager to Negotiate the Purchase of said Property under the First Right of Refusal as Set Forth in the Property's Warranty Deed. (Staff: Director of Parks and Recreation) (See Backup) BP# 012/08 (Staff Report, Supporting Docs)

G. Consideration of an Alternative City Budget Process (Commissioner Lewy) (See Backup) (Staff Report, Supporting Docs)

10. COMMISSION PLANNING

11. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION - Items not on the Agenda (To be heard at 7:00 P.M.)

12. PUBLIC HEARINGS (To heard at 7:15 P.M.)

A. Application #38-11-CU by Alvaro Lopez d/b/a Hallandale Reception Requesting a Conditional Use Permit to Operate a Banquet Hall Pursuant to Section 32-175(d)(1) of the City's Code of Ordinances at the Property Located at 772 E. Hallandale Beach Blvd. (Staff: Director of Development Services) (See Backup) CAD# 015/08 (Staff Report, Supporting Docs)

The Planning and Zoning Board Recommended Approval of this Item at their August 24, 2011 Meeting by a Roll Call Vote (4-0).

This is a Quasi-Judicial Item

B. Application #39-11-CL by MB Gulfstream LLC d/b/a Martini Bar Requesting a Nightclub License Pursuant to Section 5-9 of the City's Code of Ordinances in Order to Serve Alcoholic Beverages Seven Days a Week Until 6:00 A.M. at the Proposed Martini Bar Located at 601 Silks Run, Suite #2497 in the Village at Gulfstream Park. (Staff: Director of Development Services) (see backup) (Staff Report, Supporting Docs)

The Planning and Zoning Board Recommended Approval of this Item at their August 24, 2011 Meeting by a Roll Call Vote (4-0).

C. Application #52-11-AV by Julio Berrio Requesting a Variance from Chapter 5, Section 5-6(d), Relative to the Distance Requirements Between Establishments Selling Alcoholic Beverages and a Church, School or Public Park at the Property Located at 1630 E. Hallandale Beach Blvd. (Staff: Director of Development Services) (See Backup) (Staff Report, Supporting Docs)

D. An Ordinance of the City of Hallandale Beach, Florida, Amending the Code of Ordinances to Address Firearm Regulations Preempted by State Law by Amending Chapter 19, "Offenses and Miscellaneous Provisions'; and Amending Chapter 21, "Personnel"; Providing for Conflicts, Providing for Severability; and Providing for an Effective Date. (Staff: Acting City Attorney) (See Backup) CAD# 008/11 (Staff Report, Supporting Docs)

13. COMMISSIONER COMMUNICATIONS - Items not on the Agenda

A. COMMISSIONER LEWY

B. COMMISSIONER LONDON

C. COMMISSIONER ROSS

D. VICE MAYOR SANDERS

E. MAYOR COOPER

14. CITY ATTORNEY COMMUNICATIONS - Items not on the Agenda

15. CITY MANAGER COMMUNICATIONS - Items not on the Agenda

16. ADJOURN


Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Perfidy is backstabber Alexander Lewy's middle name: examining his duplicitous behavior that he'd prefer you ignore

Above, February 16, 2010 photo by South Beach Hoosier of participants at Hallandale beach City Comm. Keith London's monthly Resident Forum meetings, which mayor Joy Cooper has frequently crashed in the past, even though she herself refuses to have anything resembling it. Just like the rest of her Rubber Stamp Crew of Julian, Ross & Sanders, her puppets on a string.

So who's the shy person holding paper in front of his own face?


Why it's none other than
Alexander Lewy who has fairly regularly attended London's meetings since the unpopular Diplomat LAC issue late last year, despite the fact he's running against London.

I have dozens of such photos from this particular meeting, as well as his appearances at several other
London meetings before and since, this was just the most absurd one of several.

After this particular meeting over eight months ago, several 'regulars' commented to me -without any prompting on my part- that they couldn't help but notice Lewy's odd paper-holding behavior, as I shot photos of the entire room every so often during the two hours it lasted, dividing the room into into thirds from where I was sitting in the front, near the door, to be sure to get everyone in it.

Though I had noticed it, too, while shooting, I thought perhaps they were exaggerating, and it was just a sign of his boredom, perhaps, but once I got home, I resolved to make a point of really looking closely at the photos.


What I noticed was that despite the fact that
Lewy was in less than 20% of all the photos I shot that night, every photo taken of his part of the room shows him holding that paper in front of his face, like it was some sort of mask.
But it wasn't a costume party and we already knew who he was.

As to the comments about it being odd behavior, I agree.

Who am I to argue with self-evident logic like that?


Lewy
attends the meetings despite having previously told me that he thought that the HB
residents who attend were... well, that's what this post is about: what Alexander Lewy really thinks about Hallandale Beach's most civic-minded residents.

It probably won't surprise you to learn that that condescending Lewy disparages them behind their backs.
Yes, yes, now you have it!


Correct, that's where Lewy the Liar becomes Lewy the Backstabber.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVC2j_Kdw8c
It's a seamless transition.

Below is a letter I wrote a year ago to a couple of dozen people throughout South Florida who pay close attention to what happens in local govt., including some print and TV reporters whom I trust, but mostly, the recipients were Hallandale Beach's most civic-minded residents.
It appears below exactly as I wrote it a year ago.

This should answer any lingering questions you may have about Alexander Lewy.

----------
November 5th, 2009
3:30 p.m.

Last year, I wrote an email to some folks, possibly including yourself, where I mentioned in passing a few things going on around HB that I wanted to draw your attention to because -shocker- they seemed typically screwed-up examples of HB City Hall chronic neglect.

I concluded like so many of my emails with the comment that later in the day, I'd be over at Panera's or Starbucks later at a particular time in case anyone was free and would like to talk about the subjects in more depth or any other issue pertaining to what was going on hereabouts.
Admittedly, pretty tame stuff.

But somebody in Hallandale Beach, typically, thought this was pure revolutionary talk, and an opportunity to endear himself with someone named Joy Cooper.

After weeks of asking around and trying to look at this logically, i.e. who stands to profit, Alex Lewy emerged as the person whom every other recipient of that particular email I've spoken to believes is the party who shared it with Mayor Joy Cooper.

If you didn't already know, Lewy often met her and talked to her at length at various restaurants around town when he was running for City Commission, according to people I trust who were eyewitnesses, esp. the now-defunct Frankie's.

Many well-informed people in the city believe that Lewy was the second candidate that the Cooper Crew supported last Fall, just in case Dotty Ross got the well-deserved heave-ho she was due because of her chronic lack of attention to details, literally, blind to what's going on in front of her.

To repeat what I said on October 22nd:
At the Sunrise Park opening ceremony yesterday afternoon, if you can believe this, Comm. Ross invited him to address the small crowd after she was finished by referring to him as "John Sanders" instead of Anthony.

Fourteen months after
she approved him as interim commissioner and actually voted for him, after admitting on the dais that she didn't know who he was or anything about him, this is the logical consequence.
Trust me, I was there and her puppet-masters in the crowd were clearly squirming in their seats as she flubbbed the simple hand-off.

Yes, Dotty Ross: The Girl in the Bubble.

So perhaps you're asking yourself, what's the big deal if the email I wrote was so tame, if not lame, right?

Well, what was completely different from any previous or subsequent emails was that later, Cooper wrote a very weird rambling email referencing that specific email of mine, full of what could only be called childish gibberish, full of syntax and spelling errors, that she sent to both Michael Butler and myself -after midnight.

But then she's sent emails to some people in this community before that said or implied "Drop dead."
I know those people, and they've told me about it, and in some cases, even saved the email.
Tell me, which email address of hers do you think she used?

Before the final few people I sent my email to told me individually who they thought had shared that letter with Cooper -each naming Lewy, just as previous recipients had- I had a few encounters with Lewy that left me cold and speaks volumes about him and his overweening
ambition.

It also left me convinced that he should be kept away from any and all power and responsibility as long as possible, and not just because of his age, his inexperience or lack of tangible accomplishment of note -on his own.
Because of his character, or, rather the lack of any character.

For many of us who want genuine reform, government transparency and accountability in this city, so it will be more pro-active and attractive to residents, newcomers and businesses, we know that will require a 180 degree change in the anti-democratic culture of corruption and deceit that currently pervades HB City Hall -so much so that HB residents and business owners are actually repelled by it- we've not been afraid to say as much in public.

(A friend of mine even had a conversation with Mayor Cooper within the past two weeks and brought this matter of public participation up. Well, if you can believe it, Cooper responded that she actually sees the lack of people attending City Commission meetings as a positive sign, an indication that residents are happy with the way things are, ending with the typical Cooper dig, "unlike Hollywood.")

But not everybody is comfortable speaking their mind in public, even if they desire it, which is something I understand, even if it makes things more difficult than I wish it were.

After all, Caesar Rodney's vote in Philadelphia was as important as the ones cast by Adams, Jefferson or Hancock, but outside the Mid-Atlantic states, few people know of his important role in creating the Declaration of Independence, since he wasn't known as an orator.
But guess who's on the U.S. quarter representing the State of Delaware?
And in Statuary Hall inside the U.S. Capitol building?
Caesar Rodney.

1999 Delaware State Quarter
The reverse was designed and engraved by William Cousins.
Caesar Rodney was a delegate to the Continental Congress. He rode 80 miles on horseback to cast the deciding vote in favor of independence. In his lifetime, he held more public offices than any other Delaware citizen.

But when you run for office in this city, you have to either be FOR change or the status quo.
One or the other, not both.

It's typical of his huge ego that Alex Lewy somehow convinced himself that, having never done anything, he'd wage a campaign that allowed him to tap the labor resources and contacts he had thru dint of his ethnic handholding job working for Kendrick Meek, and finesse this important last point by continually saying one thing to one group and another to still another group.

This hardly makes him unique in politics, of course, but in a small town like this, when it's fairly well-known who's for reform and who's a bosom buddy of the Cooper & Good Crew at City Hall, even profiting from sweetheart deals, that forked tongue approach is not really a smart
tactic, since eventually, you're self-serving nature will emerge and be exposed.

This crack in the armor showed itself to me shortly after I had endorsed Arturo O'Neill and Carlos Simmons for City Commission, not that it was worth much as we all saw, otherwise we'd ALL be living in a much more NORMAL, less combative and infinitely better-managed city, with MUCH MORE transparency and accountability for citizens.
Early voting had already started over at the HB Cultural Center and late one Tuesday afternoon, as I had been doing for days, I swung by the area in front to see what sort of crowds were outside and to talk to Arturo and Carlos and their family and friends who were working the crowds in the parking lots.

Plus I took a few minutes top explain to reporter Mark Joyella from Channel 10, who was doing some LIVE stand-up reports, why he'd have nothing behind him to frame the shot at 11 p.m., on account of all the parking lot and auxiliary lights there being out, just like the ones in front of City Hall and the Police Dept.

Well, while walking on the sidewalk about 5:45 p.m. from the Cultural Center, where I'd just bought a Coke from their vending machine, to City Hall for Comm. London's 6 p.m. Resident Forum, where I suspected some local candidates would appear, who do I run into but the aforementioned Alex Lewy.

Naturally, I mentioned where I was headed and asked if he'd be coming by for a bit, since it only seemed natural, since I'd heard that Ken Gottlieb, Rick Saltrick and some other candidates would attend. (They did.)
Well, in retrospect, I only wish I'd had my video camera with me, because Lewy proceeded to whiff on my innocuous comment and reveal himself for the sort of prick I'd long since suspected he was.

He said that not only would he NOT be swinging-by Comm. London's meeting of concerned HB citizens, he scoffed at the very idea that HB citizens would attend those meetings in the first place, and at Comm. London in particular for holding them, saying that they were pointless.

So ask yourself, what sort of person runs for office despite being openly dismissive of not just the people in that town in general, but the most concerned and well-informed people in the city?
Alex Lewy.

So, guess who comes into the room a few minutes later, when
it's FULL, to make an election pitch for themself?
Alex Lewy

I resisted the urge to grill Levy and expose him as the worst sort of condescending, know-it-all hypocrite when Comm. London asked if anyone had any questions, but I was biting my tongue the whole time.

Once the final votes came in from the only precincts I really cared about, i.e. who was the guilty party who forwarded my email to Joy Cooper, and every single vote was for Lewy, that was that.
Now everyone knows.

I mean what are the odds that everyone thinks it's Lewy and everyone is also wrong?
A LOT of people detest Alex Lewy, sure, but some are merely ambivalent, from not really knowing him and yet they all named him.
The very people who are paying the most attention to what's going on in this city.

When you think about it, because of his reflexive self-serving nature, trying to please someone in power like Cooper completely fits Lewy's pathology.

In discussing the Ben Gamla Charter Hebrew School matter in mid-October with some other HB residents, after mentioning some other matters of concern, I wrote the following:

Of course, if
Alex Lewy had won and edged Dotty Ross out last November, the basic problem would still remain, since he is someone who is very clearly confused about personal ambition being a substitute for a personality, or even a political framework for understanding how
the
world works, or ought to. This gets to the fundamental problem of his consistently self-serving personality and poor judgment.

In my opinion, much like
Mayor Cooper now, Lewy would positively do somersaults or jump off a roof in order to get into the good graces of someone with influence like Peter Deutsch, his friends and political and financial campaign supporters in order to advance his own aims.
That's why Lewy is someone who needs to be rejected at every single opportunity,since he is exactly the sort of person who gets into politics for all the wrong reasons.

Well, two weeks later, I still stand by what I wrote then, and if anything, think I was tame.

I strongly suggest that any of you who ever think about dealing with him, think twice.
Since last Fall's election, I've kept my distance from him and suggest you do the same.
He's slimy and NOT to be trusted.
By the way, since I've been doing more video shoots of HB at night for reasons that you'll soon be able to see for yourself, I'm in a position to mention here, yet again, that 3 of the 4 public parking lot lights closest to the East-side entrance to HB City Hall are STILL out, including the one just a few feet from the only police-controlled surveillance camera on that side of the building.

Just like last week
.
And last month.
And last year.

Hallandale Beach City Hall, including the City Manager and the Police Chief know all about it, they just consciously choose to do NOTHING about it.
Just a reminder, that's the city where YOU live.

So in that regard, what's the difference between the dismissive and apathetic -not to mention negligent- attitudes of City Manager Mike Good and corrupt Police Chief Thomas Magill and Alex Lewy?
There is none.


Keeping with that theme of the city's incompetency and neglect,
yesterday morning I heard the the new Hallandale Beach City Hall tactic re the public ever seeing the docs re city's $50,000 CRA grant to the faux newspaper, the South Florida Sun-Times.Mayor Joy Cooper said the docs are "proprietary" and can't be shared with public!
And seemed very pleased with herself!

Twenty years after the Fall of the Berlin Wall, Hallandale Beach still needs glasnost!


Plan on posting a lot of info on my blog over the weekend and finally start posting video I keep talking about.
Seeing is believing.

Will be at Panera's today from 4-6 p.m.

Adios!

Dave