Showing posts with label Csaba Kulin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Csaba Kulin. Show all posts

Monday, October 12, 2020

Why I'm for Maggie Ivanovski - and you should be too if you care about #HallandaleBeach residents having the much-better run city govt. they've long deserved: her YEARS of experience pushing back vs. HB City Hall's bad ideas, inadequate oversight


Above: My friend Maggie Ivanovski, the Seat 3 candidate with the MOST experience in battling the bad ideas and impractical ordinances that have been coming out of Hallandale Beach City Hall like clockwork for the past 15 years. The city will positively change for the better the moment she and her genuine EXPERIENCE are representing you and reforming it from the inside, and making the City Commission much more relevant and accountable. 
But Maggie needs YOUR vote in order to make that a reality!

Monday October 12th, 2020

I'm very happy to be writing to you today to share some positive developments in our slice of the world in SE Broward, and let you know that I'm endorsing a candidate in the Hallandale Beach City Commission election on November 3rd.

A very savvy, energetic, and hard-working friend of both mine and my friend and fellow civic activist, Csaba Kulin's, Maggie Ivanovski, is a woman who has been part of the group of the hardcore pro-reform, pro-financial accountability civic activists we all know, and have worked very closely with in Hallandale Beach for well over ten years to reform Hallandale Beach.

She decided a few months ago to finally take the plunge and run for Seat #3 of the Hallandale Beach City Commission, after having previously considered running for City Commission twice over the years, but ultimately decided that she couldn't due to family and career demands.
Maggie is in this race to win it, and then do the hard work that comes next.

Despite not running previously, Maggie has been a CONSTANT public presence at nearly every HB City Commission, CRA, and HB Quadrant meeting of the past 15 years, as well as at innumerable neighborhood meetings around town of very frustrated HB residents that Csaba and I attended. Sometimes, they were even meetings that he and I organized for the sole purpose of countering proposals/ordinances at HB City Hall that we all believed were contrary or even dangerous to HB residents' best long-term interests on a whole host of issues.

Whether at small intimate meetings of 6-10 people at homes in Golden Isles, or at condo or hotel meeting rooms that drew several dozens of interested people, while most people were content to just sit and listen to others, Maggie was in the moment and asked hard questions and made effective points.

Then as now, Maggie is a go-getter who will not sit on the sidelines when the future of Hallandale Beach and its Quality of Life is being discussed, and that's precisely the sort of person you need on the HB City Commission right now - to hit the ground running!

In that respect, Maggie has been one of the few savvy, well-informed, and independent-minded voices for genuine reform, public transparency, and financial accountability that Csaba and I and others could absolutely count on to be present in the Commission Chambers or anywhere else in the city to push back.

When it was time to speak intelligently and calmly when the HB City Commission or CRA were yet again trying to mislead the public or otherwise engage in historical revisionism or a coverup, as has, unfortunately, so often been the M.O. in HB over the years, Maggie was there to be counted on, and would and did push back against the ridiculous ideas and ordinances that have come regularly like clockwork at City Hall over the past 15 years.

Unlike most HB residents who, typically, only speak publicly at meetings when a matter directly affects their own neighborhood, as is also true in Hollywood, Maggie has been notable for not being afraid of speaking publicly for OTHER HB neighborhoods, and doing so with a stronger knowledge of the facts and the possible consequences of a bad decision than most of the people seated up on the dais with a vote. Yet another reason why you should be voting for her NOW. 

Most people in Hallandale Beach who know Maggie outside of her job as a very successful Broward realtor, or from seeing her in the Golden Isles Drive neighborhood she's lived in for nearly 25 years -she's also been the President of the Golden Horn Condo for the past 10 years, with no increases in condo maintenance fees that whole period!- know her as a hard-working HB/Broward civic activist.

An activist that was NOT afraid to call out HB Commissioners and staff to account for their continual failure to not only accomplish various goals or priorities on-time or on-budget, but in particular, for calling them out publicly for their failure to properly and fully engage the residents, Small Business owners, and stakeholders of the community.

As you and I both know, the HB City Commission under its leadership of the past 20 years has often preferred to do as much as possible under-the-radar, regardless of what the state's Sunshine Rules say about that kind of behavior. 
Behavior which hasn't gone unnoticed by the office of the Broward Inspector General, in part, sometimes, due to my own fact-filled letters to them connecting-the-dots.

As Csaba and I could both tell you, Maggie's inability to run previously was definitely Hallandale Beach's loss, because I can assure you that if she was already on the HB City Commission, most if not all of the completely unnecessary melodrama, finger-pointing, and public embarrassment that has been associated with the HB City Hall the past four years would not have been allowed to reach the current tipping point -where HB residents feel personally upset by who represents them on the City Commission.
And that definitely includes controversial Seat 3 incumbent, Anabelle Taub-Lima.
 
That is to say, where the Commission's incivility and penchant for talking about pet issues or projects and go on and on about them instead of sticking to the agenda, has consistently generated negative newspaper headlines and TV newscasts for the city's residents, doing done nothing for their dwindling faith that people at City Hall really WERE trying their best. 

At a certain point, you can no longer ignore the overwhelming evidence that's looking you in the face, can you?

As I've previously written in numerous emails that you have received and from scores of blog posts that tens of thousands of other people read on my popular blog, since I returned to South Florida in late 2003 to care for my dad and step-mother, after living and working in Washington, D.C. for the previous 15 years, it's long been the case that the editors at the Sun-Sentinel and Herald, as well as the assignment editors at the four English-language Miami TV stations, ONLY do stories on HB when it involves crime or something happening at HB City Hall that has nothing at all to do with Good Government or the proper functioning of democracy.

A fact that I know better than almost everyone, since I've then written about it with much more context in fact-filled emails, blogged about it on my blog, and then tweeted about it on my popular Twitter feed, so that lots of influential people down here in South Florida and in Tallahassee can see what's going on, too.

Maggie is the only person I know in HB who comes even close to Csaba's level of dedication to making sure that the average HB resident and Small Business owner is properly heard,  and not taken advantage of or misled by the City Commission and its often-belligerent and headstrong city staff.

Like us, Maggie is fully committed to reforming the city and bringing it kicking and screaming into the 21st Century when it comes to increasing the level of public scrutiny, public oversight, and civic engagement, and ensuring that a meaningful degree of financial accountability is always present.
In short, injecting the proper amount of common sense and skepticism to absurd proposals and bad public policy ideas that should never be approved.

While Maggie is very friendly and engaging, she also is very much a modern, professional woman. In her case, a very successful realtor, and in the recent past, even a member of the South Broward Realtors group that weighs in on political endorsements.

Maggie understands from all the craziness and finger-pointing at HB City Hall that she's been a first-hand observer of for so many years that her job as a Commissioner is NOT to be best friends with the city staff, nor is it to make ponderous and long-winded speeches about some pet issues that have nothing at all to do with the city's proper operation.

Rather, a big part of her job is to make sure that the City Manager and the staff provide the City Commission with the most accurate and recent information they need -when they need it- to make the best possible decisions on behalf of the people she represents.
People who have consciously chosen to make HB their home or locate their business there, and who deserve so much better representation than they have received the past 15 years.

Everyone who has spent any time at HB City Hall knows that's true, given how opining out loud about pet issues and non-germane subjects far from the city have increasingly come to dominate the talk on the dais, as well as be one of the things that has resulted in the city garnering so many bad headlines.

Because Maggie has been a constant presence for so long at HB City Hall, she has a very good institutional knowledge of the many issues, problems, people, questionable ethics, and wasted opportunities that have come before, a knowledge that NONE of the other candidates in her race has.
Frankly, Maggie has forgotten more about what has happened there than what the rest of them know, collectively.

Maggie knows, like Csaba and I do, who voted for what in the past, and also knows who the people are who've continually thought nothing of coming to HB City Hall to speak on behalf of their clients and then proceed to lie, exaggerate, and embellish, yet never suffer any negative consequences for this false representation, to the public's chagrin.

Csaba and I both know very well that Maggie's can-do attitude and professional demeanor was and is desperately needed right now at Hallandale Beach City Hall to prevent even more embarrassing episodes starring HB elected officials and bureaucrats. 
We firmly believe that it will only be when people like Maggie are actually ON the HB City Commission that things in the city will change for the better -and stay that way! 

People like Maggie who are hard-working and conscientious enough to be properly prepared for all public meetings, and have actually done ALL the reading before the meeting starts, instead of simply showing up and winging-it and then deferring to everything the staff recommends, as has more often been the case, as so many of my past blog posts have described in detail.

Unlike the other candidates in the race, Maggie will DO the required reading AND the heavy lifting and WILL be prepared to ask hard questions of not just the city staff, but also the attorneys and the members of the development teams coming before the city who want variances and favors and, often, financial inducements to do the right thing they should should already be willing to do.

It's also why I've been busy using my extensive national, state and South Florida campaign experience to help Maggie out.
I want THE best-qualified person in this race to actually get elected, and actually make the positive changes the city needs to be the sort of place it should already have been many years ago.

I'm helping Maggie because I do not want her to come in a close second or third to a woman like Cynthia Cabrera, who claims to be a longtime HB resident, but who, unlike Maggie, has been largely invisible and unconcerned when bad things were happening in Hallandale Beach. 
What kind of qualification is Cabrera's longtime apathy? 

That Cabrera is neither as personally experienced or as well-informed as Maggie about the specific issues that have plagued and dominated what's happened at Hallandale Beach City Hall for years is clear, since when Maggie attended meetings, every Commissioner and staffer from the City Manager's office knew exactly who she was the moment she walked into the room.
That's what happens when you show up, open your mouth and push back hard against bad ideas and unethical behavior.

Cynthia Cabrera claims to be a longtime Hallandale Beach resident, but the truth is that you can't find anyone in town who recalls her being even one-tenth as involved, reliable, or as public as Maggie has been FOR YEARS in defending and articulating the best interests of the average HB resident and Small Business owner at HB City Hall.
You can't for the simple reason that Cabrera was invisible.
Cabrera's innumerable campaign signs can't make up for that harsh reality.

For all of Cabrera's talk of being a longtime HB resident, her very own LinkedIn profile lists her as having lived and worked in the Washington, D.C. area for at least three years from 2013-2016. You don't have to take my word, see for yourself:
Exactly!

To make matters worse, Cabrera does herself no favors by being so free in accepting large campaign dollars from real estate developers, as her campaign disclosures make quite clear.
Given Hallandale Beach's unique location and demographics, real estate developers will always be viewed somewhat skeptically by many residents, who want to protect their investment and Quality of Life, so it makes you wonder why nobody in the local South Florida news media, especially the South Florida Sun Sentinel, ever bothered to ask these hard questions about Cabrera, or ask her the most obvious question of all: Why was she SO invisible on matters of local concern to people like you?

You don't need me to tell you that you deserve a whole lot better on the HB City Commission than a disinterested woman like Cynthia Cabrera. 


Maggie is in this race to win it, and then do the hard work that comes next.
Please let me know that you are willing to reward Maggie's many years of very hard work and civic engagement over so many years to make Hallandale Beach better for both its residents and Small Business owners, and not reward people who have never been there for you, your family and neighborhood in Hallandale Beach.

Maggie is more than deserving of your highest endorsement in this race, she is deserving of your VOTE to make Hallandale Beach's government better, more efficient, and more accountable to the people who live there.




Even now Maggie can use your help, so if you are interested, please contact her today via her cell phone number, (954) 646-2573, or via her campaign email:
m.ivanovski2020@hotmail.com

Dave

Wednesday, June 6, 2018

re Hollywood extending the iconic Broadwalk south to Hallandale Beach city line; new Diplomat Development Agreement at tonight's 6 PM Hallandale Beach City Comm. mtg. will show what lessons have been learned -if any. We'll be watching!

re Hollywood extending the iconic Broadwalk south to Hallandale Beach city line; new Diplomat Development Agreement at tonight's 6 PM Hallandale Beach City Comm. mtg. will show what lessons have been learned -if any. We'll be watching!


My friend and fellow Broward County civic activist Csaba Kulin wrote the comments at the bottom of this email re the Diplomat Development Agreement while up in Cleveland for the summer, far from our oppressive heat and humidity. It's well worth reading because he knows the subject better than nearly anyone, and not just because he lives next door to the Diplomat Golf Course.

I'll be at Hollywood City Commission's 1:00 PM meeting and then head over to Panera Bread for a bit to get properly caffeinated and prepared, before heading over to Hallandale Beach City Hall to watch for any hijinks there.


If you know/hear anything useful about the new Diplomat Development Agreement this during the course of the day, please call me, since though I'll have my phone on mute at the afternoon meetings,I'll head out of the Chambers to call you back.

Interesting news at this morning's Hollywood CRA meeting, or at least, new to me...



I'll have more about this soon, but it's very interesting because as many of you know -and Comm. Hernandez pointed out- The Diplomat does NOT currently mention or promote the Broadwalk, largely because they want to keep all hotel guests on their property as much as possible.

Later, Mayor Levy discussed his speech to a group where he spoke about this Broadwalk expansion idea and it was warmly received. He then mentioned that he'd spoken to Diplomat management and they said they thought it'd be a good idea.
But the question in the minds among many people would be this:
Does The Diplomat really think that or did they just tell the mayor what he wanted to hear?

I don't know the answer to that question.
I will believe The Diplomat when they actually mention the Broadwalk by name in their own promotional materials and mention it online.
That would show a clear change in their attitude.

Many of you will recall that for years I've publicly asked why, if they are serious about it making it successful, The Diplomat didn't properly promote their golf and tennis property in HB.

I even said that very thing at the Broward County Comm. hearing many years ago when their first effort to build multiple incompatible condo towers on the perimeter of the golf course, which would have put many HB residents in near-perpetual shade, esp. on Diplomat Parkway.
The County Commission correctly rejected their plan.

It was rejected because, in part, The Diplomat could not explain why there are ZERO directional signs for their property on any main street in Hallandale Beach, even while there are, in fact, ones for very small churches, a point I mentioned.

The Diplomat's General Manager at the time was very unhappy that I asked questions he could not answer, and was cursing me as he got up from his seat one row behind me at the County Chambers, leaving after a loss he never saw coming.
Their defeat came about in large part due to Csaba's efforts, as well as my own to show South Florida residents and officials what was being proposed against the wishes of the city's residents, many who also spoke out against The Diplomat's plan to swamp a gridlocked area with thousands of more cars on an F-rated road.

Eight years later, there are still ZERO directional signs in HB for the Diplomat's Golf and Tennis property on HB streets. 
Draw your own conclusions about how committed they were to making that a success.

Louis Birdman, partners sell 127-acre Diplomat property in Hallandale for $43M
Dev site was approved for high-rises with 1,200 units

https://therealdeal.com/miami/2018/05/30/louis-birdman-partners-sell-127-acre-diplomat-property-in-hallandale-for-43m/ 

I've deleted the recipients of Csaba's email list and left the officials who are involved in the process.

​​​

---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Csaba Kulin 
Date: Tue, Jun 5, 2018 at 11:05 PM
Subject: New Diplomat Development Agreement Wednesday Evening
To:
Cc: Mayor Keith London <klondon@hallandalebeachfl.gov>, Vice Mayor Michele Lazarow <MLazarow@hallandalebeachfl.gov>, Commissioner Michael Butler <mbutler@hallandalebeachfl.gov>, "Comm.Rich Dally" <rdally@cohb.org>, "Comm. Anabelle Taub" <ataub@cohb.org>, Leigh-Ann Dawes <ldawes@hallandalebeachfl.gov>, Laurent Thibault <Fairways400@gmail.com>, Diane Lyon Wead <dianelyonwead@usa.net>


Friends,


Tonight as I was preparing for Wednesday’s (June 6, 2018) City Commission Meeting, I noticed Item 13 E.


“DISCUSSION OF THE AMENDMENT TO THE DIPLOMAT DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENT (STAFF: CITY MANAGER AND CITY ATTORNEY)”.


The meeting will start at 6:00 P.M. but it is at the very end of the Agenda, so I cannot tell you what time the Item will come up for discussion. No detail is given in the Agenda.


As you know, the Diplomat Golf Course had been sold recently. We heard rumors about the sale, we asked several Commissioners what is going on but we got no good answers. The City Manager made some comments as to what he is going to do with the “extra” money from the new developer. It is obvious that something was going on, out of the view of the residents.


Disgraced former Mayor Cooper and her similarly disgraced friends on the City Commission sold us out two years ago to the developers. Those commissioners are now gone, possibly going to jail.


We had been told that we cannot un-do the approved Development Agreement but we had been assured by members of the current City Commission that they do NOT support any changes to the current Development Agreement. I hope we can trust their words.


I do not want to sound the alarm bells at this time but I need to give you a “heads- up”. We need to watch Chanel 78 Wednesday evening, contact our city commissioners and do not be shy to speak up.


I do not think everyone at City Hall understands that we, the residents of Hallandale Beach, will fight tooth and nails to keep the Diplomat Golf Course a green space, not a condo jungle.


The main architects of the last deal, Cooper, Sanders and Julian learned the hard way, leave the Diplomat alone. They just did not listen.


Make sure you to let your views known to the City Commission.


Csaba (Chuck) Kulin

President
Fairways North, Inc. 

Wednesday, May 2, 2018

Important development and gridlock hearings/meetings in Hallandale Beach and Hollywood today: Huge Oasis development project on Hallandale Beach Blvd. and Hollywood CRA mtg re Downtown Hollywood commuter train station

Important development and gridlock hearings/meetings in Hallandale Beach and Hollywood today: Huge Oasis development project on Hallandale Beach Blvd. and Hollywood CRA meeting re Downtown Hollywood commuter train station




Tonight at 8:30 PM the City of Hallandale Beach City Commision is schedued to come face-to-face with its future direction when it has the Second of two required hearings on the second incarnation of the HUGE Oasis project on Hallandale Beach Blvd. next to Gulfstream Park Race Track & Casino's northern entrance on Hallandale Beach Blvd., which first came up ten years ago.

I attended those meetings, too, where then-state Senator Steve Geller represented the developer. At the time it featured two very large buildings as well, but seemed to be set back farther from the sidewalk so didn't seem quite so... looming, and featured a not-unattractive office and retail building in front of a residential condo.
Not fantastic, per se, but certainly much better than what HB usually has presented before them in terms of looks of proposed buildings and projects.
That was then.

Well, this new proposal has the buildings side-by-side, and what seems to me to be closer to the road and both large buildings will be residential, which means ... MORE cars on F-rated HBB.

This is a time-certain agenda item at 8:30 PM
But then you know how time certain things are in HB, so, get there earlier!


I plan on being at the Hollywood CRA meeting at 10 AM that will feature what's being called an "Updated Presentation" by Dana Little, Urban Design Director, Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council, regarding The Station Area Master Plan. 
That is to say, what's what with where the Hollywood Blvd. area commuter train station may be located and other useful information about what will completely transform Downtown Hollywood and US-1 once a commuter train is up and running, whether that's the Tri-Rail Coastal that I've championed forever, or something that's the creation of Brightline, not my favorite people these days, https://twitter.com/hbbtruth/status/989981873278541824
who seem very much to want to elbow SFRTA out of the picture entirely, and with it, some real public accountability and oversight. 

Not that the local South Florida news media is asking too many hard questions about that, though it's been low-hanging fruit for MANY MONTHS. 

I spoke with Dana Little and his associates a few months back at an informal meeting on the train station project for just under an hour at the Littman Center.
I was very surprised and angry that there were ZERO fliers and or sandwich boards on US-1 and in the downtown area, inc. on store fronts, about the meeting, just as there were none regarding the Young Circle meetings last year that I felt were preposterous on so many levels.
Very, very curious that.

Last I heard, the downtown train station will be on FEC tracks between Dixie Highway and N. 21st Avenue between Taylor and Fillmore streets, 4-6 short blocks north of Hollywood Blvd., in part because the city owns much of the land in that vicinity and can control what happens.
(Yes, the same Fillmore Street I lived on off US-1 for a few months after Thanksgiving until last month.)

I will also be at the Hollywood City Commission meeting scheduled for 1 PM, 
with some time afterwards to catch my breath, grab something to eat, write some clever and informed words on what I saw and then head over to Hallandale Beach to see what sort of turnout there is for the Oasis project, which will likely be the largest development project coming before the HB City Commission for the rest of the year.

Coincidentally, coming just as many of the city's best-informed citizens and part-time residents have fled for northern climes before the heat and humidity hit us like a hammer for the summer.
Like my friend and fellow civic activist Csaba Kulin to name but one.
Just as happened with the meetings regarding The Related Company's Beachwalk project a few years ago.
Sure, there's nothing at all curious about that.

----

5:45 PM Update

I've included a link to Google Maps here, right above my friend and fellow Broward civic activist Csaba Kulin's comments so that those of you who don't go by this site on Hallandale Beach Blvd. very much -the only east-west street that connects A1A to I-95 in HB- could et some useful perspective for what an unmitigated disaster this could be unless the developer and Gulfstream Park reach an accord so that construction crews entering and exiting the site spend a minimum amount of time on HBB.


It's time for Gulfstream Park to actually BE a good neighbor instead of just talking about it, having gotten their way years ago when they got the clueless city to approve their three employee dorms/apts.RIGHT WHERE Hibiscus Street should have been extended east from US-1 down to behind the Publix on 14th Avenue many years ago, so that local traffic, esp. Three Islands residents, could avoid HBB instead of being forced onto it, with ZERO 
alternatives.

Item is scheduled to come up at 8:30 PM tonight.


---


 Mayor London, Vice Mayor Lazarow and Commissioners,

What one hand gives the other hand takes it away.

On one hand you have done a great job fixing N. E. 14th Avenue. Narrowed the roadway to reduce speed, added a bicycle lane and created a lovely landscaping.

We are very happy about it. Thank you.


On the other hand you are about to approve the Oasis (1100 East Hallandale Beach Blvd.) with its flawed traffic proposal. Exiting the property you have to cross three (3) lanes of traffic to get to N.E. 14th Avenue and ether make a U-turn or turn left into N.E. 14th Avenue. It does not make any sense.

If you allow this to happen you just created a major problem for the next 100 years.


During the last 10 years no better solution has been found than this? There must be an effort made by the developer to come to an agreement with Gulfstream to allow an exit to Gulfstream Boulevard and N.E. 8th Avenue. It will cost money but otherwise the residents will suffer.

In my opinion when FDOT installed the dividers on Hallandale Beach Boulevard they significantly reduced the utility and value of that property.

The Oasis owners are sophisticated investors, they should have known this fatal flaw in this property.

Now you are facing no win situation tonight. Either the developer or the residents will be upset with you.

You can explain to the residents when you will be knocking on doors this summer.  

Sincerely,

Csaba (Chuck) Kulin 

---------


Tuesday, February 27, 2018

Longtime #HallandaleBeach civic activists and past supporters of Mayor #KeithLondon and Comm. #MicheleLazarow are DISMAYED and EMBARRASSED at what is taking place at City Hall now, with personal/political expediency trumping common sense and rational public discourse

Today's blog post serves as a logical follow-up to my last one regarding the long overdue arrest of longtime Hallandale Beach Mayor and despot Joy Cooper by the FBI on three felony counts and one misdemeanor count.

#schadenfreude - Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper's long-overdue public comeuppance and takedown for her despotic, authoritarian and corrupt reign at HB City Hall finally comes via an arrest by the FBI. Cooper's arrest suddenly awakens the long-slumbering South Florida news media to the high level of corruption and incompetency taking place there that I told you about at the time. So where were they? #ethics

I regret that this post of mine today will necessarily be about one-fifth as long as I'd like for it to be, but I have had much less time over the weekend to work on it than expected because of another big writing project of mine that's considerably more important to me and my future long-term happiness than the latest jaw-dropping antics and escapades in Hallandale Beach, so this is what will have to suffice for now until a few more days pass and I can connect all the dots for you here on the blog.

Before I get into it, I remind you that a a candidate's debate is scheduled to take place tonight at the Hallandale Beach Cultural Center from 6:30 until 9 PM, featuring the five candidates running to fill the term of disgraced former HB City Commissioner Anthony A. Sanders, whose resignation was NOT his idea, after the Broward Inspector General raised public questions about his fitness for office after they reported nothing but holes in his accounts of where $800,000 of HB CRA went -and why.
I will be at the debate so if you have not seen me in a while or have thought I did in fact move out to Las Vegas afterall in early October, please come over and say hello and see for yourself that it's really me, not a clone.

Excerpt from Hallandale Beach's Monday afternoon press release:

You are cordially invited to attend a Candidates Forum on February 27, 2018 from 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM at the Hallandale Beach Cultural Center located at 410 SE 3rd Street, Hallandale Beach, FL 33009.
This forum will feature the qualified candidates for the March 13, 2018 Special Election to fill the unexpired term for Commission Seat 1. South Florida Sun-Sentinel editorial page editor Rosemary O’Hara will serve as the moderator for this event.
All interested parties who plan to attend this event are encouraged to offer their questions on 3X5 cards the day of the event and/or email Ms. O’Hara in advance at rohara@sun-sentinel.com as she will be the sole judge of any and all questions asked.

A livestream of this event can be found of the City’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/CityOfHallandaleBeach

As for the latest news that I can mention quickly here, with much more facts and concerns and video to come in a few days, many longtime Hallandale Beach civic activists, friends of mine and past supporters of new Hallandale Beach Mayor Keith London and Comm. Michele Lazarow are DISMAYED and EMBARRASSED about what has been taking place at HB City Hall these days with them in the majority, where personal and political expediency seem to keep trumping common sense and rational public idiscourse regarding many different issues, large and small, including eliminating one of the city's few common sense procedures.







The selection two weeks ago of Rich Dally as a Hallandale Beach City Commissioner, that is, a complete unknown with no tangible public track record of being a well-informed voice in the community for increased #reform #accountability and #transparency at HB City Hall, at a HB City Commission meeting where the sole issue on the written public agenda was the expected selection of then-Vice Mayor Keith London to become interim mayor until November's election because of Joy Cooper being removed from office by Governor Rick Scott, NOT a vote on filling London's seat, caused most of the people I know and respect in the city to recoil at the very idea of the current majority channeling the very worst instincts of the since departed Cooper, whose thin skin and huge ego were constantly on display for the past 15 years, no matter the issue under discussion.

What the public saw after Keith London was voted in as interim mayor on a 2-1 vote was a government action that was NOT on the public agenda, should NOT have taken place then without the proper public notice being given, and what in almost every respect, resembled the sort of thing that Joy Cooper loved doing.
That is to say, doing something not because it was the right thing to do for the community at large, or even some part of it, but rather because she thought she and what I have long called her "Rubber Stamp Crew" thought they could get away with it.
It was that simple.
For years!

Then as now, it was exactly what it looked like, and yet I would hazard to say that few people who know Keith London even a fraction as well as I do, would have expected such a cynical, self-destructive and negative thing to be his first official act as Mayor.
And yet it was.

He squndered his opportunity to look like he was up to the challenge of running things instead of being the opposition, and seemed to act petty and argumentative just for the sake of being that way, with no apologies for how things appeared to the public.

Keith London voted for Dally to sit on the five-member HB City Commission until November, someone whose name he could not even pronounce correctly, and seemed to know very, very little about, yet took Comm. Michele Lazarow's nomination and endorsement of Dally as enough proof of his qualifications despite London having publicly nominated my very good friend and confidante, Csaba Kulin, for the post. Why?

Why did Keith London's replacement on the City Commission have to be named within ten minutes of London's elevation to the mayor's seat when the seat of disgraced Comm. Sanders has stood empty since last August, six long months ago?
He couldn't say and nether could anyone else on the dais.
Not that they tried.

Nor did they explain why they would vote on the three nominated candidates -Dally, Kulin and another friend of mine, Hallandale Beach businessman Rob Raymond- alphabetically instead of polling the three members and requiring them to name whom they were for on the first ballot.
Instead, because D comes before K and R, Dally was selected 2-1 and there was no vote on Kulin and Raymond.
#bizarre

The fact that Dally did such a very poor job of explaining who he was or why anyone in the city should have any confidence in him or even why HE deserved to be selected -after he was selected!- only made things worse and more laughably embarrassing for the city in general and him personally, since at no point did Dally actually state what his legitimate qualifications or expertise was.

What we were to learn over a few minutes was that he and his girlfriend have twins, that he is a loyal Democratic functionary, serving as head of the Broward Young Democrats.His actual job was never mentioned.
In short, he appears to be nothing but Alex Lewy 2.0, someone who aims to be a career politician with nothing to personally recommend him, as the many dozens of people who have called me in disgust or written me in the days since the absurd decision was made have all complained about in angry tones.
The whole thing could have been avoided if common sense were in abundance, but in HB, common sense is a rare mineral.

It would have been very easy for Keith London, Michele Lazarow and Annabelle Taub to show some common sense at the meeting and announce that the City Commission would take nominations for the former London Commission seat at the next scheduled Commission meeting, which would allow enough time for the public to weigh-in and for people to talk with their family and friends about whether they should place themselves in harm's way or not in nominating themselves.

These continuing series of bad decisions and remarkably poor judgment at HB City Hall are VERY troubling signs for all concerned.☹️

Troubling precisely because this bum's rush tactic to get Dally on the dais is the same one employed years ago at a City Commission meeting I was present at where Mayor Cooper personally selected and insisted upon unethical Anthony A. Sanders being installed as a Commissioner at a City Commission meeting where the issue was NOT on the public agenda.
That Cooper did not allow the public to ever speak on the matter, as I wrote on the blog at the time, was a germane fact which the South Florida news media failed to ever mention in their accounts.

Hallandale Beach already has an agreed-upon process for selecting a City Commissioner in the event of a vacancy, and it's the one used as recently as 2014, and, the same one used that resulted in Keith London becoming a City Commissioner in 2007. 

But if you can believe it, having avoided using it one week, it was promptly tossed-out by London, Lazarow and Dally last week at their meeting despite its great popularity with civic activists like me and many of the people I know precisely because it requires candidates to explain their interest, their qualifications and be subject to questions from the public and the Commissioners.
None of those things took place two weeks ago with Rich Dally.
Why?

That's a very good question.
You already know the names of the three people whom you should ask about it: London, Lazarow and Taub.

I don't personally know anyone in Hallandale Beach besides Comm. Lazarow who plans on voting for Dally in November when he runs for a full term. Nobody.
Everyone who has contacted me since Dally's selection has told me that under no circumstances will he be getting their vote.
Just saying...

I honestly don't think Rich Dally has any idea of what is in store for him in the coming months. 
(Or even, perhaps, on this blog.)
It won't be pretty.
An engaged citizenry and news media are unlikely to take Rich Dally's word for anything.