Showing posts with label Blog by Bett. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blog by Bett. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Once again, thru his words & misdeeds, Alexander Lewy is proving that he is EXACTLY who we always thought he was -a career politician in training

Folks, I warned you last year!
Above, Alexander Lewy and his campaign sign at the entrance of the Hallandale Beach
Cultural Center, i.e. taxpayer property, 2010.
IF it was legal to put campaign signs there on city property, within the Supervisor of Elections' no campaign sign zone, in front of the building where Early Voting and voting takes place, where I vote, isn't it reasonable to assume that at least one of the dozens of other candidates on the ballot last year might've thought to do it, too? But they don't because it's not allowed.
And putting your campaign sign there and on other parts of city hall property, daring someone to complain about it, doesn't make it legal either.
Yet another example of the HB Code Compliance ignoring what's right in front of them -per usual. And Lewy ignoring the rules that everyone else has to abide by.
2010 photo by South Beach Hoosier.



Once again, thru his words & misdeeds, Alexander Lewy is proving that he is EXACTLY who we always thought he was -a career politician in training

We in this ocean-side city between Aventura and Hollywood are merely his humble political stepping stool.

But it seems to me that
Alexander Lewy's already stumbling badly from the start...

In the
Google Alert I received Monday night, while I was watching the always amusing Castle on TV, I discovered a story in the Miami Herald, below, that I missed seeing, and it mentions Hallandale Beach Commissioner Alexander Lewy.
So imagine my surprise to see him quoted about a story in Tallahassee about bologna... I mean legislation being crafted.

You probably won't be too surprised to discover that once again,
Alexander Lewy, the person who in the past:
a.) supported the
Diplomat LAC over the community's objections, which is part of why he got campaign money from the Diplomat's law firm,
b.) the person who currently supports the mayor's absurd and
un-safe two-way streets proposal for NE 8th & 10th Avenues, even recently telling a resident against it that THEY had "their facts all wrong" but couldn't say why he supported it,
c.) the person who has supported the expansion of the city's Red-Light Camera$ operation, and, d.) the person who has said in the past that he supports the Ben Gamla Hebrew Charter School being placed in that largely single-family NE neighborhood, in this particular instance mentioned in the article, is taking the pro-government, anti-taxpayer/homeowner position. Surprise!!!

The evidence was clear even before last November's election that Lewy just absolutely hates the idea of any government -anywhere- not having the money they want to do whatever the politicians want to do, esp. in Hallandale Beach, whether the taxpayers want it or not, including charitable contributions.

Those financial contributions with taxpayer's funds were the subject of my March 10th post titled
, Hallandale Beach Hides Financial Contributions From Public Record" as policy -stealthy public records are longstanding issue under mayor Joy Cooper

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/hallandale-beach-hides-financial.html

BrowardPalmBeach New Times

Public Records
Hallandale Beach Hides Financial Contributions From Public Record
By Stefan Kamph,
Thursday, March 10, 2011 @ 11:21AM


​Most people are proud of their charitable donations and don't mind publicizing them a bit.

But the people who run the city government of Hallandale Beach are not most people.
All of the donations that a city makes to charity are supposed to be available as public records, including who the checks went to, what accounts they came from, and the amounts of the contributions.
Read the rest of the post at:
http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/juice/2011/03/hallandale_beach_hides_financial_contributions_from_public_record.php

Today's follow-up -

BrowardPalmBeach New Times

Oops! Redacted Hallandale Beach Transactions Were Taken from Wrong Accounts
By Stefan Kamph,

Tuesday, March 22 2011 @ 12:11PM


Well, that's a relief.
Good to know that the City of Hallandale Beach wasn't covering up some massive intrigue when it covered up charitable contributions in public records with no explanation. No, they were just covering up a good old blunder: taking money from the wrong bank account.


Read the rest of the post at: http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/juice/2011/03/redacted_hallandale_beach_contributions_explained.php

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Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/03/21/2127048/house-wants-voters-to-decide-on.html
House wants voters to decide on property tax cuts

By Mary Ellen Klas, Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau
March 21, 2011

A move to give all Florida property owners a deeper property tax cut continued to gather steam in the Florida House Monday as a committee voted to put the measure on the ballot as early as 2012.

The bill, approved by the House Community & Military Affairs Subcommittee, would give commercial property owners and those with investment homes in Florida, a tax break that would match the one residential property owners now have under the Save Our Homes provisions of the state constitution.

If approved by voters, the maximum increase in the assessed value of commercial and non-homestead property would go from 10 to 3 percent. First-time home buyers would get a one-time $200,000 tax credit and all other homeowners would not see their taxes rise unless their property values increased.

The proposal, in effect, would give voters the option of enacting the deep property tax cuts sought by Gov. Rick Scott, who this year called for a $1.4 billion reduction in property taxes. Legislators have said they are unlikely to agree to it because it would require deeper cuts than they are prepared to make in the face of a $3.8 billion budget deficit.

But if voters approve the measure, economists predict the change will result in $231 million in revenue losses to cities and counties in the first year and as much as $1.2 billion in three years.

“We can’t handle that,’’ said Devin Suggs, lobbyist for the Florida League of Cities. He said that rather than benefit from an upturn in the economy, the proposed amendment would hurt cities and counties because they couldn’t capture any of the growth in property values.

Hallandale Beach city commissioner Alexander Lewy warned that the measure could mean a loss of $900,000 to his city alone — more than the city’s annual fuel bill, more than the city pays for sewer, water and utilities and more than the cost of a new fire truck. “I ask you to please reconsider this because it would really be hurtful to the residents you represent,’’ he said.

But Rep. Chris Dorworth, R-Lake Mary, the bill’s sponsor, called that argument a red herring. He said this gives businesses the tax certainty they need to bring jobs to Florida.

The proposed constitutional amendment is similar to a proposed amendment legislators put on the ballot in 2010 to cap increases in the assessed value of non-homestead property at 5 percent a year. That measure was thrown off the ballot by a Tallahassee judge.

Rep. Scott Randolph, a Orlando Democrat, voted against the bill because it locks in the inequities created by the Save Our Homes amendment, which caps increases in property assessment at three percent a year. Now, however, if people’s homes don’t rise in value but are assessed at below market rates, they can be required to pay more taxes. Under Dorworth’s bill, if people’s property values don’t rise their taxes don’t rise.

-----

And we all know who the present head of the anti-citizen.taxpayer Florida League of Cities is, don't we?
Joy Cooper, our city's contribution to heated political rhetoric that sheds little light.
http://www.floridaleagueofcities.com/

Some things to ponder:
Those of you who told me last year that Lewy wasn't "as bad" as I repeatedly documented in emails and blog posts, and said that Lewy was going to make a positive difference, when, EXACTLY, is that going to be happening?

When,
EXACTLY, is Lewy's first unscripted public meeting with the community taking place over at the HB Cultural Center, at his cost, just as London has been doing for years?
Or, is
Lewy still waiting for Cooper, Ross & Sanders to FINALLY have their first one after all these years?

When is Lewy going to actually second London's common sense motion to have a community meeting/forum on the two-way street proposal that City Manager Mark Antonio has even admitted in city documents should've already taken place -in the past.

That necessary important public meeting which, as of today, is
STILL NOT scheduled?

So far,
Lewy has played his role perfectly as a member of the Cooper Rubber Stamp Crew, and he has done nothing to alter that public perception since his election five months ago.
He's exactly what we thought he was.


By the way, if you haven't seen it in a while,
Bett Willet's blog, Blog by Bett, is quite instructive as her entry from March 9th, about the City of Deerfield Beach, is both informative and humorous (in a sad way), and could just as easily describe the highly questionable work-ethic and sleepwalking antics of the HB City Commission -save Keith London- who swallow what they're given with nary a peep.

http://blogbybett.blogspot.com/

Monday, May 17, 2010

re South Florida's elected officials and law enforcement continually acting ignorant of First Amendment rights -feigned ignorance or real stupidity?

Below is a copy of an email that went out to a few dozen pretty well-informed people around the State of Florida late Monday afternoon as a bcc.

The email also went out as a CC to the following individuals:
Katie Fisher of the First Amendement Foundation in Tallahassee, http://www.floridafaf.org/; Dominic Calabro of Florida Taxwatch, http://www.floridataxwatch.org/, someone who has proven himself to be a person who won't put up with alibis or nonsense from govt. bureaucrats abusing their authority or failing to give proper accountability; Doug Lyons of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, and Anders Gyllenhaal and Edward Schumacher-Matos of the Miami Herald.

In the near future, there will be much more context and details to the story below about legal, ethical and bureaucratic excess in -surprise- Tamarac, the city that along with Deerfield Beach and Pompano Beach continually fights Hallandale Beach for the title of most venal and corrupt.

Those helpful details and context will include some particulars on the continuing pathetic performance of Broward County Sheriff
Al Lamberti, someone who needs one of his many apologists or minions throughout the county to tell him to wake the hell up and stop sleepwalking his way thru his job, and in particular, STOP disrespecting the very citizen taxpayers who pay his salary.
We are not amused!

This isn't Sparta, Mississippi, comprende, and he doesn't get to pick and choose which laws he want to follow.
What doesn't he understand about that?


Message to the South Florida news media: Al Lamberti's 'hall pass' has expired, so please stop treating him like he's some frigging old-line royal, okay?
It's very uncomfortable to read and watch and only makes you reporters who walk on eggshells in your stories about him seem even more like sycophants than you are.

And now to the email:

In case you missed it the first time, last month, please consider the following material below as predicates for today's email from Broward community activist Bett Willett to myself, and ask yourself, where-oh-where is Michael Satz and the Broward State Attorney's Office or Judge Victor Tobin's free-floating anti-corruption crew to make examples of all the miscreant pols and LEOs in South Florida?
MISSING IN ACTION!

And are things really so bad in South Florida's media community in the year 2010 that the news media willingly ignores example after example of South Florida city attorneys pretending they DON'T know what's permitted at public meetings under the State and Federal Constitution?
Really?

Once upon a time in South Florida media, Hallandale Beach's reflexively anti-democratic city attorney David Jove's continual winking at self-evident violations of the state's Sunshine Laws by the City Manager, Mayor and City Commission would've gotten a reporter's attention and resulted in an utterly devastating front page story, along with a handy chronology graph
of all the curious things that had transpired while he was present but looking away, all while drawing a taxpayer-funded paycheck.

Alternately, I would've come home tired from practice after school and would've seen a devastating Ike Seamans or Susan Candiotti story -with very long legs!- that would've literally caused his family to cry after it aired, and it would've been thoroughly sourced and 100% accurate.

Which would make it powerful as hell and a warning to others like him to shape-up and fly right -or else!

A story that would've been updated often as more and more people told what they knew and had seen, with video showing Jove's nonchalant attitude towards the law being bent, broken and ignored with him just sitting there.
And we'd have literally gulped at his sheer stupidity.
But now?

Outside of a handful of reporters, these stories just sit there, limp, waiting for a better-late-than-
never arrest to suddenly give some news editor or TV news director's the idea to give the story some well-needed oxygen.

If public corruption is a 24/7 effort by public officials in South Florida, and it is, is it too much to ask that in the year 2010, a local Miami TV station or newspaper actually have a few reporters whose only job is reporting on and investigating municipal, county and state chicanery, who promptly return emails and phone calls.

While I lived in the Washington, D.C. area for 15 years, I was fortunate enough to come to know more than a fair amount of people who'd won Pulitzer Prizes, and even more people who should've but didn't, if you believed what they told me at Oriole ballgames at Camden Yards.

The one characteristic they all shared is a genuine willingness to reach out to people who actually know something of value and to try their best to be approachable, since they never knew when or how a compelling story would make itself known to them.
You know, our old friend serendipity?

In South Florida, it's not exactly Breaking News that there are far too many reporters and editors who are NEITHER.

They practically have to receive invitations to be convinced to show-up for some government meeting or public policy matter.
(Question: When did that become the job of the citizen, to convince the reporter to actually show-up and do THEIR job?)

And everyone knows who they are, regardless of what city or county you live in, because they are the same names that always come up in private conversations.

That's fine, after all, I'm not a publisher or a TV station general manager, but then they shouldn't expect me to care when they are the next one thrown overboard because of either the economy or a station management shake-up or "creative differences."

And trust me, that's the opinion of the majority of people I know down here who follow local government and politics VERY CLOSELY.

They're the same discerning folks who agree with me that South Florida NOT currently having a dynamic Cable TV station with a local hard-news focus is a deep embarrassment that belies the area's claims to sophistication.

------------------------

1.) From: Bett's G-Mail
Date: Fri, Apr 16, 2010 at 2:22 PM
Subject: Tamarac

I went to the Tamarac Commission meeting after being asked by the Colony West folks to speak to the commission about Amendment 4 and golf course conversions, read below from my blog about what happened:

Friday, April 16, 2010
-
Civil Rights Trampled in Tamarac

http://blogbybett.blogspot.com