Showing posts with label Chaz Stevens. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chaz Stevens. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Happy Holidays from Hallandale Beach: A taste of chutzpah, hypocrisy & incompetency with your eggnog -again!- thanks to Mayor Joy Cooper




South Florida Sun Sentinel
Blogger's latest crusade: 'In Satan We Trust' plaques at city halls
By Susannah Bryan 
Dec. 29, 2015 1:52 PM

I'm torn b/w tweeting this to poke Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper publicly -the same thin-kinned HB mayor who called me a Nazi when she thought I could not hear her, BEFORE a HB City Comm. mtg. started- and my desire to not draw attention to Sun-Sentinel reporter Susannah Bryan, whom, unfortunately, I believe the evidence reasonably shows has done real damage to the community for years by her consciously favoring #frivolous over more serious reporting of issues in Hallandale Beach and Hollywood.
A fact I have written about many times on the blog previously with self-evident examples.

Which is to say, her apathy and HER refusal to report on things when they happen so that HB and Hollywood citizens can know the true facts, and not have to wait until 6-9 months later, or longer, AFTER a formal (and often criminal) investigation has begun.
Which has been Bryan's habit for years, with too many examples to mention quickly here -but then most of you already know some if not most of these examples by heart! :-(

If you hadn't already guessed by the headline, Blogger's latest crusade:  In Satan We Trust' plaques at city halls, this story involves our friend and fellow South Florida civic activist, Chaz Stevens.

In case you forgot some of the unintended irony of this article, which the reporter fails to note, Joy Cooper first ran for the HB City Commission in part, so she said at the time, to complain about what she said was the city's flagrant and self-evident use of religious items on taxpayer property at holidays in ways that she thought were inappropriate.

And once elected, Joy Cooper promptly did nothing about something that she'd previously said was a real problem. Something she'd be willing to sue the city about.
Surprise! 

I wrote about that issue six years ago on the blog: Happy Holidays from Hallandale Beach: A taste of chutzpah, hypocrisy and incompetency with your eggnog; Joy Cooper's change of heart after getting elected is just another one of those things that makes us all shake our heads

And so it goes...

More info about Chaz Stevens at 


Dave 

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Initial thoughts and some background info re news about sale of land/mixed-use development near Gulfstream Park Race Track & Casino, per Brian Bandell at South Florida Business Journal, @SFlaBizBandell; more Lauderdale Lakes CRA hijinks

Many of you longtime readers of the blog may recall 1000 E. Hallandale Blvd. as the former "Oasis" project, 
which lobbyist/legislator Steve Geller got approval from the HB City Commission for a number of years ago, despite the self-evident fact that common sense would dictate that there would need to be another east-west road south of there to support the steady flow of construction vehicles to and from the project for over a year without backing-up already-gridlocked Hallandale Beach Blvd.
Which would also allow the projects tenants and visitors to exit without all of it spilling onto F-rated Hallandale Beach Blvd.

That such a necessary road does NOT currently exist, of course, would seem to be highly problematic, but you know me, I'm old-fashioned that way.
Of course, IF the HB City Comm. had been using common sense at any point in the recent past, they would have NEVER allowed Gulfstream Park to even consider erecting their employee dorm -the one where the fence along the road is padlocked, an issue which the HBFD has been sleeping on for years! Surprise!- precisely where such a much-needed access road would go that would greatly reduce traffic on HBB by connecting Hibiscus Street on U.S.-1 to the area behind the Publix on NE 14th Avenue and the nearby Golden Isles community.

Most of you have seen my photographs and graphics showing precisely how this should have been done.
Here's a small reminder!

You remember Hibiscus Street at U.S.-1 don't you? 
The street where the sign of the bad marketing and neglect by Gulfstream Park hits you right in the face?

Me back on March 2, 2011 
Their own worst enemy: Big problems lie ahead for Gulfstream Park if they continue keeping HB community in the dark, esp. re night racing
Me in 2011: 

It would be different if Gulfstream had/has little land to build upon, but the reality is that there were several perfectly acceptable locations on their HB property where the dorm going up would NOT have interfered with the HB community's long-term interests being served -less traffic on HBB.
Another wasted opportunity in HB to do the smart thing!

Here's a link to that signed 2010 Development Agreement

By the way, speaking of CRAs wasting money, time and opportunities... here's our friend Chaz Stevens with some galling news that is a perfect snapshot of Southb Florida government in action:
The Lauderdale Lakes CRA is millions in debt, hasn’t launched a major project in years (but they have a nice community tomato garden and pays the CRA Director $150K a year to do just that)

Friday, October 10, 2014

Updated: It disappeared! South Florida Sun-Sentinel article -online Thursday- re allegations of indecent exposure being investigated by the Broward Sheriff's Office against Hallandale Beach Comm. Leo Grachow has disappeared completely from website; @TweetsByMAOS has more news on this unraveling story that HB City Hall is trying to stonewall


Blog updated October 14, 2014 Woman accuses Hallandale commissioner of indecent exposure in condo sauna
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/hallandale/fl-grachow-hallandale-sauna-20141009-story.html

So what happened to South Florida Sun-Sentinel's article -online Thursday- by Susannah Bryan re allegations of indecent exposure being investigated by the Broward Sheriff's Office against interim Hallandale Beach Comm. Leo Grachow, who is running in November to retain Seat 2 against former HB Comm. Keith London?

At the top is a photo of what that URL looks like at 3:30 p.m. today, many, many hours after I started being deluged with phone calls, emails and texts from people in the area asking me:
1.) if I knew what happened in the incident,
2.) why the city was trying to cover it up by refusing to legally produce public records for the newspaper, and 
3.) why the article disappeared from the Sun-Sentinel's website.
Unfortunately, I have no definitive answers, but strongly suggest you contact the newspaper directly and ask her; sbryan@tribune.com

For more on this issue, see what our friend up in Deerfield Beach, Chaz Stevens had to say on the matter, first yesterday afternoon, BEFORE the story disappeared, complete with some details;




https://www.myactsofsedition.com/blog/2014/10/09/bolo-issued-for-commissioner-leo-grachow-and-his-penis/


Chaz subsequently posted the following:



http://www.myactsofsedition.com/blog/2014/10/10/hallandale-beach-candidate-leo-the-lien-grachows-personal-financial-armageddon/

and then there was this well-aimed blast at the Heart of Darkness in Hallandale Beach, 400 S. Federal Highway


http://www.myactsofsedition.com/blog/2014/10/10/we-send-up-a-public-records-flare/

plus this


http://www.myactsofsedition.com/blog/2014/10/11/a-leo-grachow-penis-gate-update/

and most recently,


http://www.myactsofsedition.com/blog/2014/10/12/the-s-s-story-that-was-pulled/

It's noteworthy to me, and a rather sad commentary on the general lack of a sense of old-fashioned competitiveness or enterprise journalism among South Florida's news media that days after this story saw the light of day, at least for a few hours, that neither the Miami Herald or any of the four English-language TV stations have reported word one on this story, or why the City of Hallandale Beach is fighting so hard to keep public information AWAY from the public that is entitled to it by state law.
At least as of 9:50 a.m. today.

Why do you suppose that is?
Look at who runs things there: Mayor Joy Cooper, City Manager Renee C. Miller and City Attorney , V. Lynn Woodward. 
It's exactly what it looks like. 
People who do NOT want to see former HB Commissioner Keith London elected over Cooper-supported interim HB Commissioner Leo Grachow. 
Joy Cooper wants to keep her Rubber Stamp Crew intact!

These are, after all, the very same people who refused to turn over public information -phone records and text messages- that I was legally entitled to under the state constitution and had had formally requested in 2013 through a PRR.
I strongly suspected those records would show Cooper and Miller and others lobbying the members of the Broward County Commission and County Adminstrator to prevent an audit of the scandal-plagued Hallandale Beach CRA, which has wasted millions of dollars under Joy Cooper.

I never got those records I was legally entitled to, but I was proven 100% correct.
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2013/10/latest-on-curious-case-of-at-city-of.html

Meanwhile just on Sunday, with nothing on this blog newer than this post re Grachow, I had 2,355 pageviews, and I suspect most of them were headed to this particular post. 
Because what was their alternative if they wanted more news on this subject, other than from Chaz?
The so-called professional news media of South Florida was asleep at the switch!

My last blog post about Leo Grachow was this much-read one from June 19, 2014. Since the story hit the fan last week, nearly everyone around South Florida and environs who covers or follows politics and local govt., esp. in Broward County, to say nothing of Hb residents themselves, has been looking at it: 
Observations re Leo Grachow's selection as Hallandale Beach's interim Commissioner: "I thought he was a perfect fit for the job." So says a clearly disconnected-from-reality Comm. Bill Julian, who DIDN'T rate Grachow best, but instead voted BEST the least-qualified of the 3 finalists! Meanwhile, the candidate giving the single-best oral presentation, Chad Lincoln, received a 1 (out of 25) from HB's notoriously thin-skinned Mayor Joy Cooper; voting distribution chart

2014 Florida elections, Broward Sheriff's Office, Chaz Stevens, crime, Hallandale Beach, indecent exposure, Joy Cooper, Keith London, Leo Grachow, My Acts of Sedition, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Susannah Bryan, 

Saturday, February 15, 2014

Blogger, corruption-fighter and Friend-of-the-Blog Chaz Stevens getting his due yet again, as Buddy Nevins of Broward Beat connects-the-dots on what we've known for awhile: "Blogger Beats Sun-Sentinel Like A Drum"; irrelevancy of South Florida Sun-Sentinel

So, did you happen to read this the other day?
More thoughts re the almost-complete irrelevancy of South Florida Sun-Sentinel and blogger, corruption-fighter and Friend-of-the-Blog Chaz Stevens getting his due yet again.





Broward Beat
Blogger Beats Sun-Sentinel Like A Drum
By Buddy Nevins
February 12, 2014
Blogger Chaz Stevens has done it again – prompting prosecutors to launch an investigation of a city official.
This time it is Jonathan K. Allen, city manager of Lauderdale Lakes, who is being probed for alleged bid rigging.
Stevens has been pounding Allen for quite some time.
Read the rest of the post at:
http://www.browardbeat.com/blogger-beats-sun-sentinel-like-a-drum/

-----
See my previous blog posts below about Chaz doing what others, including (unfortunately) the vast majority of South Florida's reporters, were reluctant to do: actual investigating and fact-checking and holding elected officials and govt. bureaucrats accountable.
Where there's smoke there's not only fire, in South Florida, there's usually incompetency & corruption, too.  

December 6, 2010
South Florida's apathetic news media; Giving credit where credit is rightly due: Buddy Nevins: "Blogger Chaz Stevens Scores Again"
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/south-floridas-apathetic-news-media.html

April 17, 2011
Blogger Chaz Stevens vindicated, Sylvia Poitier arrested: An ethical journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/blogger-chaz-stevens-vindicated-sylvia.html

June 27, 2011 
A visit to The Institute for the Advancement of Political Corruption, in Deerfield Beach, is a trip your kids will never forget! And neither will you!
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/visit-to-institute-for-advancement-of.html

October 7, 2013
Chaz Stevens' latest blog post is a reality gut-check for the State of Florida re their lax enforcement of rules and laws re municipal CRAs, including where he lives in the Grand Duchy of Deerfield Beach, where bureaucratic self-enrichment is a tradition, not a rumor
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2013/10/chaz-stevens-latest-blog-post-is.html

Find more on Chaz here:

@TweetsByMAOS - https://twitter.com/TweetsByMAOS
www.myactsofsedition.com

Monday, October 7, 2013

Chaz Stevens' latest blog post is a reality gut-check for the State of Florida re their lax enforcement of rules and laws re municipal CRAs, including where he lives in the Grand Duchy of Deerfield Beach, where bureaucratic self-enrichment is a tradition, not a rumor

Welcome to the Hallandale Beach CRA! The familiar, graffiti-filled view greeting visitors looking south on U.S.-1/Federal Highway near the very dumpy-looking eastern entrance to the Mardi Gras Casino and Dog Track -the former Hollywood Dog Track- just two blocks south of the Hollywood cityline on Pembroke Road. Sure, why care about how shabby things have looked for years on one of the three main roads in the city when the CRA Board isn't going to spend any CRA funds there, but only in NW Hallandale Beach -where 13% of the city lives- despite the fact that the CRA also includes residents in NE, SE and SW, covering a majority of the city, including the area where HB City Hall is located. Yes, that's how the CRA here rolls. October 2, 2013 photo by South Beach Hoosier. © 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved.

Chaz Stevens' latest blog post is a reality gut-check for the State of Florida re their lax enforcement of rules and laws re municipal CRAs, including where he lives in the Grand Duchy of Deerfield Beach, where bureaucratic self-enrichment is a tradition, not a rumor

And in Hallandale Beach, where pointed criticism of spending tens of millions of CRA dollars with little to show for it years later is something that City Hall and the mayor who's been in charge just shrugs off, the reality that they'll waste millions more just to score and secure political points IS staring everyone in the face. 
But who's doing anything about it? 


On Sunday Chaz painted just the latest portrait he's done over the years of Broward County CRAs in action, in this case, from his vantage point on the far north side of the county, thus proving that the City of Hallandale Beach CRA in southern Broward, under duplicitous Mayor Joy Cooper, doesn't have the market to itself on dubious nonprofit logrolling, crony capitalism and bureaucratic self-enrichment.

(Though to be sure, Cooper's fervent efforts and those of her Rubber Stamp Crew to funnel what could be millions of scarce CRA dollars onto small parcels of land located on a one-way street that DOESN'T generate much traffic -and that her own neighbors would NEVER visit no matter what is actually built there- instead of being smart and faithful to the law's original intent and actually spending those funds in a way that'd actually eliminate blight, and bring new jobs to the CRA at prime spots on main streets with lots of traffic like U.S.-1 and Hallandale Beach Blvd., does bear much more public scrutiny from the local citizenry and press corps than it's gotten up to this point, requiring as it does some actual legwork and showing-up once in a while.)

And, of course, as we learn everyday, it's not just in Broward that CRAs and the elected officials who run them are ignoring the spirit and letter of the law of the original CRA enabling legislation in Tallahassee intended to eliminate blight, because there's everything -and then some- that's been going on for years in New Smyrna Beach, too, which we last chronicled here on May 1st:

Local FL news coverage that is making a positive difference: In another FL city beset with egregious examples of CRA ethical shenanigans and rampant crony capitalism, Volusia County publisher Henry Frederick takes his responsibility to the community seriously, and asks hard questions about public ethics, government accountability and journalistic credibility. His fact-based straightforward questions are blunt when necessary: Is the Daytona Beach News-Journal protecting New Smyrna Beach Mayor Adam Barringer? And if so, why?; @NSBNEWSnet

So, with all that as helpful predicate and palate cleanser for our main course, here's Chaz's piece from Sunday, complete with a great photo of the scene-of-the-crime:





MAOS blog
THE $3.4M ECC BUILDING IS LEASED 10 YEARS FOR $1.00
By Chaz Stevens 10/06/2013 

So the Deerfield Beach CRA is buying property for an over-inflated price, property with no actual CRA purpose, and then leasing it back to the City? Why?
Because they have the gall to try and seemingly nobody with any real power in this state has the will and resolve to try to stop them.
So why would they stop on their own? 
They won't until someone or something stops THEM.

Anyone in the future writing the history of the endemic anti-taxpayer sentiment and municipal public corruption in South Florida of the past 30 years will have more than enough material to choose from and will necessarily have to have several chapters on an era where cities and CRAs acted like they were a combination of robber barons, 1920's Florida land speculators and Robert Moses.

But even that wasn't enough for some city's CRAs, so they proceeded to not only walk up to the line of what is permissible or justified, but then brazenly jumped that line and openly dared anyone in the state to do anything about it, including anyone in Tallahassee.
They facilitated this process by hiring only CRA attorneys who would tell them exactly what they wanted to hear, at hundreds of dollars an hour.
And some people speculate that even includes CRA attorneys trying to figure out how the CRAs could avoid having to comply with Public Records Requests under Florida's Sunshine Laws and having to disclose (embarrassing) public records, and even blaming third-parties like AT&T for the failure to comply.
Yes, CRAs acting exactly like well-connected members of an organized crime group and CRA attorneys acting like old-style mobster lawyers.

And yes, you're right, again, that sort of mentality sounds more than a little bit like exactly what has been going on for many, many years in Hallandale Beach.
And remind me again, this effort of the CRA in Deerfield Beach Chaz describes eliminates blight how, exactly?

To quote the newly-revised editions of Shakespeare: "Rotten...Denmark...CRA...Broward County...Florida..."

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Happy 4th Anniversary, Mayor Cooper's un-necessary, taxpayer-subsidized office! Which, four years later, STILL isn't even listed on City Hall's own building directory; #HallandaleBeach, @MayorCooper


Above, Hallandale Beach City Hall, October 15, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier. © 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved.
Happy 4th Anniversary, Mayor Cooper's un-necessary, taxpayer-subsidized office! 
Which, four years later, STILL isn't even listed on City Hall's own building directory

Under the City of Hallandale Beach's charter, the only additional power that the elected mayor
has that the four elected city commissioners don't possess is the right to call a meeting and
the right to preside over it. 
That's it.
That's the whole list.

Over four years ago, Mayor Cooper convinced then-City manager Mike Good that despite the
fact that these differences were very slight on the face of it, she believed that she needed to have a much-larger office than her colleagues on the commission, and so, thousands of tax dollars were spent to ensure that Mayor Cooper got what she wanted.
Yes, no expense or amount of feigned ignorance is spared to keep her happy.

And not just a larger office in the back with the other commissioners, but right on the main hallway, just a short distance from where visitors get off the elevator.

Which is how four years ago this week, just as the mayor returned from the first Obama
Inaugural, at taxpayer expense,
that office burst onto the scene, becoming perhaps the only mayor's office in Broward County
or all of South Florida that isn't actually listed on their own City Hall's directory, in this case, the one located to your left as you walk thru the front lobby door.

Yes, because every queen must not only have her own palace, but her privacy... even it's paid for with taxpayer dollars.

In other news, somehow, inexplicably given the known facts, Hallandale Beach doesn't land
on the list of the worst-run cities in America because of... well, a technicality.
Because it's not among the 100 largest cities:

I know what you're thinking.
What a cruel fate for Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper -to be denied her rightful 
pride-of-place on a list of the worst-run cities in America, merely because our town is too short for the ride. 
Yes, it's so very, very cruel...

Saturday, July 28, 2012

Video: Local10's Glenna Milberg examines an ethical & financial problem in Hallandale Beach that I've been writing about for over 3 years re Comm. Anthony A. Sanders, who KEEPS stonewalling the public; Keith London: "Broward Inspector General closing in on Hallandale Beach, Mayor Cooper and Vice Mayor Sanders"




actsofsedition video:  Local10/Miami: "City's pricey purchase." 
On July 26, 2012, Local10 reporter Glenna Milberg went to Hallandale Beach to learn more details about the curious case involving Pastor and City Comm. Anthony A. Sanders' rushed sale of his and his wife's property at 501 N.W. 1st Avenue to the city in 2009 -when the city had ZERO written plans for what it would actually do with the property afterwards!- for about $89,000 more than it was actually worth. Sanders continues to stonewall Hallandale Beach taxpayers about the exact details of this deal as he has now for over three years, and he refused to speak with Milberg on Thursday. Outside of the city-owned property that the city now receives $10 a year in rent for, Mayor Joy Cooper's explanation was unconvincing for HB taxpayers. Three years later she continues to hem and haw when asked simple questions -and to defend the indefensible- as she still can't logically explain what the rush was to buy the property at a higher price, esp. if there was no definite plan in place. It was left to Comm. Keith London -the only vote against the purchase and Cooper's re-election opponent in November- to again explain why this deal was so egregious from HB taxpayer's point of view. It's just one of the dozens of inexplicable and nonsensical things that I've personally observed with Hallandale Beach taxpayer or CRA funds under Mayor Cooper's reign since I moved here. This time, it's drawn the full attention of Broward County Inspector General John W. Scott, who wants the commissioners to explain to him and his agents what actually happened and why. Uploaded July 27, 2012. http://youtu.be/XlOgkrL9CWI
(In case you didn't recognize him, the other individual interviewed at the property by Glenna Milberg  is Josh BrownIf you forgot what the story with him was, go back to my April 12th blog post titled, An IG investigation! Finally! Plus, more curious CRA matters to ponder - William Gjebre in BrowardBulldog: Broward Inspector General's office zeroing-in on Hallandale Beach after numerous reports re city's curious CRA loans and land purchases with no written plan in place for the latter http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/ig-investigation-finally-plus-more.html
 Per that post, you might reasonably ask, whatever became of Brown's failed attempt to commit fraud against the Broward Democratic Black Caucus? I don't know, you might want to ask Broward State's Attorney Mike SatzThat's his job.)
Friday morning I received the following email from Comm. Keith London about the segment with WPLG-TV's Glenna Milberg, above.


Keith S. London - City Commissioner Hallandale Beach
Broward Inspector General closing in on Hallandale Beach,
Mayor Cooper 
and Vice Mayor Sanders
_________________________________________________________
Your Tax Dollars at Work
What every citizen and taxpayer in Hallandale Beach should know about the purchase of Vice Mayor Sanders' property by Mayor Cooper and Bill Julian:
  • The “special” meeting (read minutes from that meeting) to purchase the property was held upstairs behind closed doors in a room far away from the public view.
  • The purchase was NEVER on a listed agenda with all the appraisals provided to the public to this day.
  • In addition, Mayor Cooper and Bill Julian voted and approved the purchase under “OTHER” in the secret meeting. They spent $235,000 on “OTHER”!
  • Commissioner Keith London was the only NO vote.
  • Besides “appraisal shopping”, here is another fact:
    "Mayor Cooper, you conveniently forgot to mention that the sale closed within hours of the vote. In what world other than yours, Mayor, do closing documents get produced and the check clear the bank in less than 12 hours?"
  • Question: "Mayor Cooper, what have you done with the property in the last 3 years?"
  • You leased it to another one of your buddies for 10 dollars per year!
  • That’s good business. Thanks for looking out for the taxpayer, Mayor Cooper!
Keeping you informed,
Keith
Commissioner Keith S. London
Phone: 954-494-3182
FacebookTwitter 

613 Oleander Drive
Hallandale Beach, FL 33009
email: keith@keithlondon.comwww.keithlondon.com
Political Advertisement paid for and approved by Keith S. London for Hallandale Beach Mayor, Non Partisan
I'm reprinting this from above in case it is hard to read:

Your Tax Dollars at Work
What every citizen and taxpayer in Hallandale Beach should know about the purchase of Vice Mayor Sanders' property by Mayor Cooper and Bill Julian:

The “special” meeting (read minutes from that meeting) to purchase the property was held upstairs behind closed doors in a room far away from the public view.
The purchase was NEVER on a listed agenda with all the appraisals provided to the public to this day.
In addition, Mayor Cooper and Bill Julian voted and approved the purchase under “OTHER” in the secret meeting. They spent $235,000 on “OTHER”!
Commissioner Keith London was the only NO vote.
Besides “appraisal shopping”, here is another fact:
"Mayor Cooper, you conveniently forgot to mention that the sale closed within hours of the vote. In what world other than yours, Mayor, do closing documents get produced and the check clear the bank in less than 12 hours?"
Question: "Mayor Cooper, what have you done with the property in the last 3 years?"
You leased it to another one of your buddies for 10 dollars per year!
That’s good business. Thanks for looking out for the taxpayer, Mayor Cooper!
----------
Chaz Stevens' Acts of Sedition blog: http://www.myactsofsedition.com/
His YouTube Channelhttp://www.youtube.com/user/actsofsedition

Thursday, April 12, 2012

When the subject is pet adoption and 'puppy mills' -not roses- Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper shows why I often invoke the fable about the scorpion and the frog. She's the scorpion, of course. Which is why so many voters here aim to kick her out on November 6th




ActsofSedition video: The April 4th, 2012 Hallandale Beach City Commission meeting promised HB residents and pet lovers the opportunity they've been waiting for for several years, but when so many people showed-up and wanted to have their voices finally heard, they got a first-hand lesson in how Mayor Joy Cooper does things -her way or the highway- as she is heard threatening to toss members of the public out. Mayor Cooper remains defiant as always, but Comm. Keith London and HB resident (and longtime opponent of puppy mills) Michele Lazarow comment to Local 10's Ross Palombo on what happened last week and the spectacle that is HB City Hall under the wearisome reign of the Cooper Rubber Stamp Crew. April 11, 2012. http://youtu.be/UNEn1jgTvw4


When the subject is puppy mills -not roses- Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper shows why I so often have invoked the fable about the scorpion and the frog to describe her to others who have never seen her in action, or, who can't quite believe that she is as described here here on the blog and elsewhere in South Florida's blogosphere. 


Well, she's the scorpion, alright, but whereas the scorpion in the fable can't help it, what's the mayor's excuse, after ten years as mayor?
The truth is that the mayor likes getting her way on everything, no matter how picayune the matter, even if it isn't sound public policy, and that is made worse by the fact that she also happens to see it as her prerogative as mayor to let everyone know what she thinks about everything.


Which is just one of the many reasons that so many voters here aim to kick her out on November 6th, so this beleaguered city can finally escape her clutches and breathe a little bit and relax -and start to become the city it ought to be already but isn't.


Friend of the Blog, Chaz Stevens of MAOS, posted this video from Local10/WPLG-TV's 11 p.m. newscast Tuesday night to his YouTube Channel on Wednesday, and as I saw it before hitting the sack this morning, I am happy to share it with you here, however long it stays up on YouTube.


Here are the links to the Channel 10 story and a related essay on their website, which DOESN'T embed news videos.


WPLG-TV/Channel 10 News

Puppy mill ban prompts shouting match at commission meeting
Citizens outraged at Hallandale Beach meeting
By Ross Palombo
http://www.local10.com/news/Citizens-outraged-at-Hallandale-Beach-meeting/-/1717324/10473368/-/102ko1b/-/index.html



WPLG-TV/Channel 10 News
How much is that doggy in the window?
Pet stores vs. Pet adoptions
By Barbara A. Besteni, Managing Editor, Local10.com
Published On: Mar 31 2012 09:17:49 AM EDT  
Updated On: Apr 02 2012 06:35:20 PM EDT
http://www.local10.com/Managing-Editor-Local10-com/-/1717430/4716224/-/ylj0rbz/-/index.html


Be sure to read the reader comments above!


To find other related videos on YouTube, use this URL to find them:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%22Hallandale+beach%22+%2B+%22puppy%22&oq=%22Hallandale+beach%22+%2B+%22puppy%22&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_nf=1&gs_l=youtube.12...5784.27444.0.29989.30.30.0.0.0.0.162.3203.12j18.30.0.


Obviously, like most of the concerned residents of Hallandale Beach who continually chafe over the jaw-dropping antics they observe at the city's dysfunctional City Hall and the local South Florida TV stations ignoring it, I'd have greatly preferred that Channel 10 and the other three English-speaking Miami TV stations had actually shown up for the meeting themselves.


Attending last week's meeting, the first of two required readings necessary to pass the proposal as an ordinance, which would make Hallandale Beach the first city in Broward County to pass such an ordinance, would have given them some much-needed first-hand context for better understanding what residents go through pretty frequently, and what I write about so often on this blog.


Plus, showing-up would have also given them more current B-roll for their archives and allowed folks at the station who couldn't make it to see how HB City Commission meetings so often get sidetracked in this small ocean-side city because the mayor is so ultra-sensitive to any sort of criticism.


Since the mayor doesn't really much care what others think to begin with, which is why she talks SO MUCH during the meetings and why the meetings run SO LONG, as mentioned here SO MANY times in the past -as recently as two weeks ago- it would have been nice for area reporters to see latest smoking gun for themselves.
The proof is all around the city, you only need to open your eyes.
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http://www.facebook.com/people/Michele-Lazarow/1498909170


http://www.myactsofsedition.com/


http://www.youtube.com/user/actsofsedition

Monday, June 27, 2011

A visit to The Institute for the Advancement of Political Corruption, in Deerfield Beach, is a trip your kids will never forget! And neither will you!

Today I make up for an oversight of mine and give more attention to someone who actually deserves it.
Someone who is the anti-Kardashian - Chaz Stevens.

Despite being at polar ends of Broward County, Deerfield Beach to the north and Hallandale Beach to the south -right next to Aventura in Miami-Dade County- these two cities are Kissin' Cousins in the world of South Florida municipal corruption and indifference to public appearances.

If a different person was in charge at the Broward State's Attorney's office, it's not so far-fetched to imagine that they'd have a temporary office located at those two respective city halls to make it easier for the investigators to get the requested docs -and save gas money from driving to-and-from the SAO's office in the Broward Courthouse in downtown Fort Lauderdale.
But - sigh- we have the person we do until next year's election.

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Excerpt from an email I sent Chaz Stevens about six weeks ago:

May 15th, 2011
10:55 p.m.

Dear Chaz:

I'd have said something congratulatory to you by now about this morning's Herald article but I've been having constant computer problems all weekend.
Je me regrette!

I'll try to post a comment on the Herald's site on Monday and will, hopefully, reference it on my blog later on Monday, after some time has settled to see which of your naysayers -who've never done anything themselves- come out of the woodwork to rain on your (long overdue) parade.

Longtime bomb-throwers like West Hollywood Dissident and Unowho, et al, who never seem to be right in either their predictions or their after-the-fact analysis when they've publicly attacked you, me, Keith London and many others we could name who want to reform this part of the Sunshine State.

I'm thinking that my comments at the Herald might be better taking one of them to the woodshed, as opposed to my simply saying what I think.

But who knows, perhaps I'll rise above the fray... and pay no heed to the peanut gallery of misfits that spins their wheels on other people's blogs and websites trying to make excuses for their
favorite political pets (miscreants) in Broward that we have been given in such generous amounts!
Instead, perhaps expose them at my blog for the frauds they are.

Cheers!

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In my comments above, I was referencing certain people who CONSTANTLY used Bob Norman's then-extant blog at the Broward NewTimes to go off-topic from what he'd written about, to delve into picayune matters that 99% of Norman's readers could care less about, including their various feuds with other readers, anonymous and otherwise.

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Miami Herald
Activist uses email blasts, blog to keep politicos honest
By Daniel Chang
May 14, 2011
Chaz Stevens is not a professional investigator, yet his digging has led to several Deerfield Beach officials facing corruption charges.
Prosecutors secretly admire him. Defense attorneys openly loathe him. And followers of Broward politics can’t seem to get enough of him.
Still, it’s hard to know what to make of Chaz Stevens, the rabblerousing activist who wields email blasts and a website — myactsofsedition.com — like a bludgeon, heaping scorn and ridicule upon, and leveling criminal complaints against his hometown public officials.

Since launching his tech-savvy anti-corruption crusade in 2007, Stevens’ tips to the State Attorney’s Office and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement have led to the arrests of three Deerfield Beach politicians for corruption, including ex-Mayor Al Capellini and former commissioners Stephen Gonot and Sylvia Poitier.

It’s a track record that might earn Stevens a great deal of respect and admiration — if only he didn’t take such conspicuous pleasure in degrading his targets with equal amounts of scurrilous name-calling, innuendo and condescension, delivered with a generous helping of narcissism.

“I have only one thing to declare,’’ Stevens blogged this week after a Broward jury convicted Gonot. “My genius.’’

Indeed, Stevens filed the initial complaint that led to an FDLE investigation of Gonot in 2008, then followed up with leads for investigators and prosecutors, including an email he sent last week to Assistant State Attorney David Schulson, the prosecutor, who had already rested his case but reopened it to share the new evidence with the jury.

Stevens’ tip to Schulson: that Gonot had flown to Las Vegas to participate in a poker tournament the morning after his best friend had cashed a $5,100 campaign check at the center of the state’s theft and misconduct charges.

The evidence provided a plausible motive for Gonot’s theft, and undermined the defendant’s claims that he was overwhelmed at the time with a divorce and the failing health of his parents.

It is unknown whether the revelation swayed the jury’s verdict, but Gonot’s defense attorney, Jeffrey Harris, attempted to discredit Stevens early in the trial, accusing the activist of trafficking in “rumor and innuendo,’’ and questioning why state investigators would take seriously complaints from such a source.

Stevens wears Harris’s remarks as a badge now, and makes no apologies for his clearly biased reporting on Deerfield Beach and on Gonot’s trial, from which he posted exclusive videos of the defendant testifying and provided running color commentary.

“People don’t like me because I am who I am,’’ Stevens acknowledges. “I wish people were smarter to see the message. They get so hung up on the messenger. It’s disappointing.’’

He began his civic activism by ridiculing city politicians with doctored photos and outrageous claims posted on his blog.

An expert in Photoshop, Stevens recalled one occasion where he took a screen grab from TV of Gonot, and edited the photo to look like it was taken from a surveillance camera. Then he alleged the image came from cameras Gonot had surreptitiously planted in city hall.

Stevens shivers as he recalls the “buzz’’ his post created.

“I got calls from city employees,’’ he said, laughing. “The police came and did a sweep of city hall. They didn’t find anything.’’

By 2008, Stevens was looking to take his watch dogging game to another level. He learned to cull public records for the types of facts that could stand up as evidence in a criminal complaint and, eventually, a court of law.

It was a turning point for Stevens’ activism. While his complaints against Gonot and Capellini were based on the investigative legwork of the alternative newspaper New Times and others, Stevens’ complaint against Poitier was the first to originate from his own exhaustive review of meeting minutes, financial reports and other documents.

Stevens launched his crusade against Poitier in 2009, brazenly taking on a matriarch of Broward politics first elected to the Deerfield Beach commission 37 years ago and who also had served on the Broward County Commission from 1985 to 1998.

By his count, Stevens filed 23 criminal complaints against Poitier. But what really seemed to push the 75-year-old politician to the point of exasperation was the incessant taunting and vilifying on Stevens’ blog, in email blasts, on T-shirts and in doctored photographs that he posted online.

In March, Stevens posted a video on YouTube of Poitier on the Deerfield Beach commission dais, threatening to sue the activist for libeling her reputation and calling for “a showdown.’’

He made much hay of this on his website, and even threatened to sue Poitier for defaming his character.

And then the roof caved in for Poitier.

On April 12, state prosecutors charged Poitier with five misdemeanor counts of falsifying records, based on an investigation launched by Stevens’ original complaint. (She has plead not guilty.)

Stevens was overjoyed.

“It’s a glorious day,’’ he crowed in an email blast addressed to the press. Contained in the same email was an example of Stevens’ unflagging activism — a criminal complaint he had filed with FDLE in March, alleging the Deerfield Beach Housing Authority had violated state laws on public bids.

Tom Connick, a Deerfield Beach attorney who represents housing authority director Pam Davis, said Stevens is “flat out wrong’’ about the agency. And though he gives Stevens credit for rooting out corruption among city officials, he takes issue with the manner in which Stevens works.

“There are some things which he has brought to light that appropriately should have been brought to light,’’ Connick said. “There are other things that he claims are problems or issues, and he’s just flat out wrong. They’re not. ... I think the tragedy of Stevens is that he appears to be essentially someone who gets his self esteem by destroying instead of being constructive.’’

Stevens said he piles on the insults and attitude for effect, and suggests it is a strategy.

“It irritates,’’ he said. “It draws attention. ... I’m kind of an attention whore.’’

Connick said Stevens abuses public records laws by issuing broad requests that require hours of manual labor and reams of printed materials. He accused him of making unfounded accusations and degrading women.

But what bothers Connick most is Stevens’ in-your-face style.

“His destructiveness is so overpowering and inextricably woven into his personality,’’ Connick said, “that he’s really a negative factor.’’

To be sure, Stevens’ over-the-top manner has earned him enemies.

He believes someone poisoned his dog, and said he sometimes fears for his personal safety.

Physical threats, though, don’t seem to get under Stevens’ skin like the anonymous comments about him posted online at various local news websites and ridiculing his living arrangements, love life, weight and employment status.

It’s the two-way rule of the Internet, giving equal platform to anyone with a keyboard, a computer and something to say.

Stevens, 46, says such comments used to bother him, but that he’s “grown a thicker skin’’ about the personal attacks.

“It doesn’t matter where I live,’’ he says. “It doesn’t matter if I have a girlfriend or not.’’

For the record, Stevens lives with his parents in Deerfield Beach.

“I travel a lot,’’ he said. “It doesn’t make sense for me to have a house.’’

He works as a freelance software designer and website developer, and estimates that he devotes about 60 percent of his free time to activism.

And though he doesn’t get paid for his work, Stevens does enjoy some fringe benefits — namely the attention, but lately something closer to fulfillment.

“Now it has meaning,’’ he said of his activism. “Now it serves a purpose. It serves a public good.’’

This is not Stevens’ narcissism talking.

In April, on the same day that Poitier was charged, Kessler International, a forensic accounting and investigative firm that has audited Deerfield Beach’s community development division and civic festivals, announced it had created a new award called “The Chaz.”

Michael Kessler, chief executive of the firm, said the award will be bestowed annually to an activist with a proven track record of exposing government corruption.

He credited Stevens for reaching out to his financial investigators with leads, which ultimately led to an audit by the U.S. Housing and Urban and Development’s Office of Inspector General, which ordered the city to repay $224,000 in grants after finding that Poitier and another commissioner, Gloria Battle, had violated federal regulations intended to curb special interests.

“He supplied us with a tremendous wealth of information at the onset,’’ Kessler said of Stevens. “If you followed his blog, there were always tidbits of information.’’

And while Kessler also noticed the heavy doses of scorn, ridicule and name calling on the website, he is willing to indulge Stevens’ personality based on his track record.

“You have to take the whole enchilada,’’ he said, “but I think it brings levity to a very serious situation. That levity sometimes can be detrimental, but ... I don’t think I’ve ever seen an email that he’s written that when we went back and looked at the documentation, that the documentation was false.’’

Stevens points out that he’s not a professional journalist or corruption investigator and has no credo he must follow.

“Who cares if you have to put up with my stupid foibles?’’ Stevens said of his brand of activism. “It’s a little greedy that you want a corruption fighter and a grown up.’’
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Following his missive this morning:

Subject: DBHA BSC: The Institute for the Advancement of Political Corruption

If you have the misfortune opportunity to have listened to Anus T. Connick's rave review of Deerfield Beach Housing Authority Executive Director Pamela Davis*, you'd not ever want to second guess her credentials. However, according to the published Roles and Responsibilities of the Board Commissioners, doing just that is at the top of their to-do list.

So being that the existing BOC won't allow you and I (mostly me) a chance at that discussion, let's take a moment this morning to discuss an issue regarding Davis' performance and you decide for yourself if she makes the grade.

Speaking of which, we are *not* grading on a curve.

Read the rest of the post at:


I wrote the following to Chaz this morning:


Come for the lack of oversight - stay for the star-spangled corruption!

And closer to us, hard by the Broward/Miami-Dade County line, coming soon: another look at what former Congresswoman Carrie Meek has been doing with all that free land and the tens of thousands of dollars that Miami-Dade County has been funneling her way for years.

Teaser Alert: Putting lots of photos of herself on a fact-free website DOESN'T make the project she promised the county an actual success.
Just saying...
Link
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