Showing posts with label Dotty Ross. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dotty Ross. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

New year offers hope for Hallandale Beach's long-suffering citizens to end their city's long-standing reputation as a South Florida laughingstock & punchline: the home of so much long-standing incompetency, secretiveness, red tape and anti-taxpayer attitudes at City Hall under Mayor Joy Cooper. Recent moves by HB commissioners to pocket unused travel funds is perfect example of what needs to be held up to critical public scrutiny; re My 2014 endorsements for candidates to sweep out the mediocrity that infests City Hall, and increase public accountability, oversight and expectations of city employees

New year offers hope for Hallandale Beach's long-suffering citizens to end their city's long-standing reputation as a South Florida laughingstock & punchline: the home of so much long-standing incompetency, secretiveness, red tape and anti-taxpayer attitudes at City Hall under Mayor Joy Cooper. Recent moves by HB commissioners to pocket unused travel funds is perfect example of what needs to be held up to critical public scrutiny; re My 2014 endorsements for candidates to sweep out the mediocrity that infests City Hall, and increase public accountability, oversight and expectations of city employees
A recent Bill Gjebre article in the Broward Bulldog on the sad and pathetic state of public policy/legislating in the ocean-side city I live in here in Broward County struck me as the perfect point of departure for my first blog post of the year, since it so perfectly encapsulates so much of what is presently (and has been) wrong with the current five-member Hallandale Beach City Commission and the ingrained culture of self-dealing and crony capitalism that permeates HB City Hall.

So much incompetency and anti-taxpayer attitude that it actually repulses a majority of its own citizens with something to contribute and causes many who lack staying power to NOT get involved at all in the first place. Which explains why year-after-year, there are always large number of vacancies on the city's various advisory boards that never get filled.

And when a citizen's advisory  group is actually doing something helpful and invaluable, like the CRA Advisory Board, HB Comm. Alexander Lewy, Comm. Anthony A. Sanders and Mayor Joy Cooper strip it of some of its most intrepid and valuable voices -in rather transparent fashion- because those voices are asking hard questions about what has been going on for so many years at the direction of and approval of the the City Commission/CRA Board and City Manager's office, with little to no genuine oversight or accountability as the Broward IG's final report on the city explained in great detail.

Why invest the time and energy when you know that the City Commission and City Manager's office don't really care what your group thinks and will just ignore, rewrite or bury what you have to say and what your group has uncovered?
That, of course, only encourages the very forces that already control this city that are loyal to Mayor Joy Cooper and keep it a laughingstock and punch line for South Florida's news media. That is, to the extent the latter pay attention at all, which is rarely and always with a desire to NOT really delve into what -or rather WHO- is at the nexus of almost all of the city's longstanding problems -the ego and ambitions and failed policies of one woman: Mayor Joy Cooper.

I think if you've read this blog for any amount of time, you can immediately see what this article really paints a picture of -an ugly portrait of a poorly-managed city that is led by people who are not qualified to lead.

Broward Bulldog
Hallandale commissioners approve taking from the city, giving to themselves
DECEMBER 30, 2013 AT 5:51 AM
By William Gjebre, BrowardBulldog.org 

Miami Herald's version of Thursday's Broward Bulldog article that ran on Tuesday morning, includes some honest reader comments..
and the URL for that Tweet:
I strongly urge those of you with a Twitter account to Retweet it just like every HB item you find there.

As most of you know, personally, on this subject, I favored an approach where the elected HB City Commission voted publicly for a reasonable salary increase, and it either passed or didn't, so that the money trail was clear and unambiguous.
But in any case, I did NOT want to see ANY taxpayer dollars allocated towards a travel allowance being given to the commissioners as a parting gift.

Frankly, I'm completely dumbfounded that Bill Gjebre did not ask the most obvious question: Why, after all these years in office, over ten years, is Mayor Joy Cooper perpetually unable or unwilling to make hard choices when it comes to where she goes on the public dime and actually live within the generous limit?
Why is she even given one cent more? What's the justification? 

The reason she does that is that she knows the same thing we do -that there are 
NOT even three people with integrity on the current city commission to speak on behalf of the public at large. 
Their collective weakness empowers her to grab for more than she should have, more than is reasonable, just like all bullies do.

We know from practical experience that part of this equation is the that to  degree that is never written about or discussed publicly by the media, Mayor Cooper uses these quasi-govt. functions to further her own personal and political agenda. And not just a little, but a lot more than the majority of the people at these events.

After all, it's where she gets to shoot the breeze with her govt. cousins, corporate cronies and lobbyist pals who don't live here, and yet who keep telling her what a great job she's doing.

Like the folks at American Traffic Solutions (ATS), the red-light camera company from Arizona that rewarded her so generously at campaign time last year. And right before last year's election, what did she write about in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel when they foolishly asked her to write a Guest Op-Ed about the subject?
To the surprise of nobody, she wrote -somebody wrote!- something that sounded suspiciously like it could've come straight from the ATS PR Dept.

And just as I wrote at the time on this blog, the Sun-Sentinel exacerbated the situation by 
NEVER disclosing anything about Mayor Cooper's relationship with the company, or, their own chummy relationship with the various FL politicians involved with the politician-led Leagues: Cities, Mayors, Counties.
How much do they give them anyway? Or the Broward League of Cities?

Good question, how come nobody in South Florida's large press corps ever thinks to ask and investigate? Nobody ever puts a microphone directly in that group's leaders' faces and ask them why they are so afraid of disclosing that information to the very people who make their little club possible, taxpayers.
And what about those large legal bills/lobbying subsidized by citizens all over the county that includes payments to people who seem to have a wheelbarrow full of conflicts. Especially with Broward taxpayers, who are tired of being fleeced.

Where IS the list of how much in taxpayer money each Broward city gives the  Broward League of Cities, one of the least-transparent non-profit groups in the whole county, as I've mentioned previously with respect to their website?

Tell me, when Mayor Cooper was head pooh bah of the FL League of Mayors, consistently adopting and recommending anti-taxpayer moves in Tallahassee, and the other members of that group bemoaned their money woes in their cities, what do you think she told them?
Do you think she said what a great job ATS was doing of giving HB City Hall lots of loot and could do the same for them?
I do.

Who was she representing at those meetings, the people of HB?
No, herself.
One hand helps the other, especially at election time.

You doubt me, look at how they react when their ATM might be removed...

WTSP-TV, Tampa
Florida red light cameras would be strangled if new House bill passes 
6:55 AM, Dec 28, 2013
By Noah Pransky
Florida's League of Cities has come out strongly against RLC reforms and repeals.
http://www.wtsp.com/news/local/article/350392/8/Florida-House-going-after-red-light-camera-reforms

Speaking of no, who at HB City Hall is prepared to actually tell her no?
It's embarrassing that such a small city allows a thin-skinned bully of so little actual accomplishment and distinction to walk all over it time and again.

You might recall that a few years ago the ENTIRE five-member HB City Commission went to the FL League of Cities annual blowout in  Orlando -everyone!- even while much-larger Hollywood sent one person.
Correct, and among them that year that the same woman who refused to do her job, then-Comm. Dotty Ross, who refused to leave her office on the 2nd floor of City Hall so she wouldn't have to vote on whether or not to fire then-City Manager Mike Good

Not surprisingly, then-Vice Mayor Bill Julian didn't have the common sense to direct the then-City Attorney David Jove go up there and tell Ross that she was breaking the law and had to come down or live with the resultant legal consequences.
Ross's absence prevented a legal quorum from being present, even though as I 
documented at the time, she was not only there at City Hall, so was her carwhich didn't drive itself to HB City Hall.

Her failure to appear and vote unless there was a conflict of interest was a direct violation of state law and her oath of office, but what happened to Ross?
Nothing. Broward SAO Mike Satz and Co. being their usual underwhelming selves.

As the news year dawns, just a reminder of a few things: 

a.) In the new year, I won't be voting or endorsing anyone running for HB City Commission who is unwilling to consistently show integrity, backbone and forthrightness, especially on important financial and public policy matters. 
I will only support and endorse someone who articulates a consistent reformist point of view that champions citizen/taxpayer/small business rights, and makes clear that they are in favor of MORE public accountability, oversight and transparency at HB City Hall -and actual, 
tangible performance of its employees, not the current unacceptable situation of anything goes.

Why does this matter?
Because Bill Julian said in 2012 that he'd learned from his (many, many) mistakes and would act and vote differently on the dais if given a second chance.after being kicked-out in 2010 and coming in third in a three-way race..
He got elected almost 14 months ago but where's the tangible proof of him following through on those promises to the community do better and act more prudently on behalf of residents and taxpayers? 

b.) I also won't be supporting anyone who can't/won't figure out how to send even one public email in the course of their first few months in office, much less their first year in office, outlining their priorities for the city and laying out the specific steps they favor in accomplishing those goals. What's the plan?

c.) Everyone has individual strengths and weaknesses they bring to bear on a campaign,as well as different ideas for making this city the better place it ought to clearly be already but isn't, largely because of th awful public policy advocated and approved by the Cooper Rubber Stamp Crew.

That status quo majority is literally strangling the life out of this city, and as I kow from many conversations with people who have invested in this city, chasing some small businesses out-of-town thru HB City Hall's red tape and continued incompetence.
All made worse by City Hall's unwillingness to hold individual city employees and Dept. heads responsible, including the Police & Fire Dept.

That's precisely why getting many MORE people in town involved and having honest 
public discussions and debate is the only chance we have of saving the city.
That will be impossible without the genuine support and meaningful numbers from residents living on A1A.
Any approach that ignores this reality is doomed to failure.

So with that in mind, if a candidate doesn't appear to be capable of the sort of city-wide consensus-building we need, a straight-talker who is capable of hosting even one public meeting within a few months of their being elected, outlining their goals and what they see as the biggest problems to resolve within the city, I will let you know and you can act however you think is best.

In case you hadn't noticed or preferred not to be reminded of it because it's so dispiriting to consider, with respect to both b and c above, our current reality with both Commissioners Julian and Lazarow is such that although both got elected almost 14 months ago, each has failed to pass even the very low threshold I suggest.

Zero emails to the public at large or even a pretense of discussing public policy on a website of theirs so that HB residents would know what they were thinking,
Zero Q&A public meetings with HB residents, to say nothing of having anything approaching the scope and citizen interaction of what former Comm. Keith London did so successfully for so many years.
Yes, it's exactly what it looks like.

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Breaking News: Broward Inspector General's Final Report on Hallandale Beach City Hall's longstanding corruption & incompetency with CRA released today - FINAL REPORT RE: GROSS MISMANAGEMENT OF PUBLIC FUNDS BY THE CITY OF HALLANDALE BEACH AND THE HALLANDALE BEACH COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY

Above, Hallandale Beach City Hall Complex on S. Federal Highway/U.S.-1, where attention to details and appearances has never been their strong suit in the nine years I've lived here, since returning to South Florida after 15 years in the Washington, D.C. area. Thanks to the city's incompetent, myopic and poorly-managed DPW, the spotlights seen above in 2011 on the city's monument sign, at the corner of U.S.-1 & S.E. 5th St., have NOT worked since June of 2012. Which is to say that they have NOT worked since City Manager Renee C. Miller has been in place. But attention to details and appearances really DO matter when you are a government, and the situation with the lights is but the tip of the iceberg. The city's log of Visitors & Lobbyists, which is required by law to be up-to-date, was TWO MONTHS old as of last Friday. Really. August 7, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier. (c) 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved
FINAL REPORT RE: GROSS MISMANAGEMENT OF PUBLIC FUNDS BY THE CITY OF HALLANDALE BEACH AND THE HALLANDALE BEACH COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY

Now we need to see some logical follow-up in the way of prosecution.

Please be advised that the report can take up to a minute to open due to the many exhibits. 
It took 55 seconds for me.

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Csaba Kulin on Monday night's citizen 'blackout' at Hallandale Beach City Hall re first of two meetings re 2013 budget, courtesy of the Usual Suspects -Joy Cooper's Rubber Stamp Crew; Today's meeting is at 4 p.m.

Before reading what Csaba wrote and sent around town around Noon, I remind you of the earlier email I received from Hallandale Beach Comm. Keith London about the two 2013 budget meetings -the first of which was last night, the second of which starts at 4 p.m. today- since it concerns the obstacles being deliberately placed in residents way to attend these meetings, placed there by people at HB City Hall whose salaries you pay for:


Your Tax Dollars at Work
Hallandale's $100 Million Budget Discussion Held Upstairs in Room 257 instead of Commission Chambers
Weeks after posting the agenda that Budget Workshops will be held in Commission Chambers, staff moved the meeting to room 257, upstairs and difficult for the public to access.
City Hall closes its doors at 5:00 PM.
In order to attend the meeting, if you arrive after 5pm, you must go through the Police Department and be escorted upstairs.
To make access to the public easier:
  • Commissioner London motioned to hold the second budget meeting in Commission Chambers, on Tuesday August 14, 2012
  • These meetings are two of the most important meetings of the year. They should be in Commission Chambers
  • Commissioner London was not informed prior to the meeting
  • Commissioner Lewy seconded the motion for discussion
  • Commissioner Lewy stated "comfort of staff is not his priority"
  • Mayor Cooper stated "this is ridiculous and political and total BS" but also "the budget meeting worked fine last year in city commission chambers"
  • So which one is it Mayor Cooper? "BS" or "access and ease for the public"

The final vote was 3:2 London and Lewy for the public ease of access.
Cooper, Sanders, and Ross to hide upstairs away from those pesky members of the public.

Regards,
Keith
Commissioner Keith S. London


---------
August 14, 2012
Dear Residents of Hallandale Beach,
A couple of days ago I sent you a three page narrative about most important meetings of the year for residents of Hallandale Beach. The meeting was supposed to take place August 13 and 14, 2012 at 4:00 P.M. in the City Commission Chambers. At the last moment it was moved to room 257 of City Hall. City Hall closes at 5:00 P.M. and you can only enter trough the police station with an escort. I do NOT know how many of you tried but only one or two residents braved to come upstairs to room 257. Commissioners London and Lewy tried to move today’s meeting but Mayor Cooper, VM Sanders and Commissioner Ross voted to have today’s meeting upstairs away from those pesky residents. So much for encouraging public attendance.  
I was very disappointed that I did not see more of you at the meeting. The City is going to spend a $100 million of your dollars, 11.4% more than last year, hire 53 additional employees and issue bonds of $56.7 million dollars for a number of projects. You have to pay for 20-30 years the bonds and have millions of other increases to operate these projects. I hope you will find the time to come to today’s meeting and speak up.
There were about 5-6 topics the City Manager presented and the Commissioners discussed. I spent many, many hours to prepare myself to ask questions. After each topic the residents were supposed to be able ask questions prior to moving on to the next item. The Mayor did not ask the residents, there were only 2 or 3 of us, if we had any questions.
I was able to ask one question after the item was passed and everyone stood up started to go to have dinner. The Mayor did NOT ask if “anyone in the audience have questions?”
Do I have to whistle or knock a chair over to make some noise to be recognized? The person in charge of the meeting has to ask the audience. How difficult is that?
I did not have a chance to ask the City Manager a number of very important questions.
·         Why did she skip over the Staffing Changes on page 47? The City is adding 53 FTE additional employees costing $3.4 million dollars.
·         Why did the General Fund expenses increase $5.9 million dollars or 11.4%?
·         Why did personnel expense increase $6.4 million dollars or 15.4%?
·         Why did our personnel expenses increase 81.83% in the last 10 years? The rate of inflation was only 24.86%.
·         Why does it cost the City an average of $104,861 dollars per employee?
·         Why does the City want to issue $56.7 million bonds when about $10.0 million is already funded by the City or paid by a developer?
I had many other questions, more than most commissioners, but the Mayor did not want to hear them or just “forgot” to ask for them.
The question asked “why we NOT have more public participation?” The reason is, it is not encouraged by the Mayor. Sitting there for six (6) hours listening to obvious misstatements and omissions and not being able say a word?
Commissioner Lewy told me after the meeting “candidates are there to learn not to ask questions”. It may be so, but I was there as a resident, not a candidate. What are the residents at the meeting, potted flowers or decorations, seen but not heard?
I am not going tell you about the decisions made by the City Commission for a few days but I can tell you last night was a very discouraging evening for me.
I will try to gather enough strength to expose myself to another night of frustration.
I hope you will be there tonight at 4:00 P.M. and speak up.
It is your CITY and YOUR money, spend it the way you like to.
Sincerely,
Csaba Kulin

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

When Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper says "setting the record straight" in her "column" at the taxpayer-financed faux newspaper, grab your wallet or purse, and be prepared to endure self-serving, nonsensical rationalizations that fail both the logic and reality test

Above, the perpetually-ridiculed and taxpayer-financed faux newspaper, South Florida Sun-Times, with one of the most egregious and laughable front pages of the past few years -and that's saying something! August 30, 2010 photo by South Beach Hoosier(c) 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved
With only 16 weeks to go until Election Day, what's the over-and-under on the number of times that the faux newspaper, the South Florida Sun-Times, will place mayor and "columnist" Joy Cooper, Comm. Anthony A. Sanders or former Commissioner and occasional "columnist" William "Bill" Julian on the front page, knowing that if they aren't on the City Commission after November, there will be no more taxpayer dollars going to crony capitalist and propaganda sheet owner Craig Farquahar?


The whole enterprise is like one massive con job, designed to portray Cooper and her Runner Stamp Crew, as well as her clique of friends and hangers-on around town seem robust and civic-minded, instead of the combative, thin-skinned, not-so-bright and despotic autocrats they have repeatedly shown themselves to be. 


It's the most crass and craven sort of propaganda you can imagine, made worse by the fact that it's financed in part with Hallandale Beach taxpayers' dollars, a sytem of information control that Cooper, Ross, Julian, Sanders and Lewy all want to see continue as long as they can manage it, because the very last thing they want is a real community newspaper that is dedicated to factual reporting of what is -and isn't- going on here.
They positively hate THAT idea!


With this particular gang of nit-wits and overly-ambitious egos based on nothing but sandcastles, there's them and then there's everyone else.
There's their point-of-view and then there's, well, that's it.


October 1, 2010 photo by South Beach Hoosier(c) 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved 


It's one of the reasons that the faux paper doesn't post letters to the editor, online or in-print. 
They don't want to antagonize their bankers and partners in crime like Cooper, who, along with her husband, have threatened the fake newspaper's owner before for once having dared to print something by another Commissioner that was 100% true, but unflattering to Cooper and her thin-skinned ego.
Well, obviously, she couldn't let THAT slide!


So rather than simply take a deep breath and recognize that if you're a politician, no matter where, there will always be people who disagree with you or who genuinely dislike you, a fact that you have to accept, and one self-evident to people around the world -but not to the Coopers- their first reaction was to strike back and show everyone who was boss -them!


They actually forced the people running the fake newspaper to actually go out into the community and drive around at night to retrieve as many of the distributed copies of the issue as possible.
And to destroy them.
And to agree to never make reference to it again.
Or else!


Needless to say, the bully's threats worked.
That's Joy Cooper in a nutshell.


-----
In case you're new to this particular story, go back to these prior pieces that connect-the-dots:



February 16, 2012 Miami Herald's Fred Grimm weighs in -again- on the faux newspaper in Hallandale Beach and its sweetheart deal from HB City Hall to be a propaganda arm

FEBRUARY 14, 2012 More about Hallandale Beach's unscrupulo​us crony capitalism deal b/w the faux newspaper, the SFST, and Mayor Joy Cooper, Cub Reporter...

FEBRUARY 14, 2012 Csaba Kulin on Hallandale Beach's crony capitalism deal with a fake newspaper that stands ethics on its head and takes CRA money in exchange for being a City Hall propaganda machine
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/02/above-september-12-2010-issue-of.html

South Florida Business Journal
Why fight City Hall when you get a handout?
by Kevin Gale, Editor in Chief
Friday, February 10, 2012, 12:10pm 
EST
http://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/blog/2012/02/why-fight-city-hall-when-you-get-a.html

Sweet deal for owners of Hallandale newspaper that features mayor as columnist
By William Gjebre, BrowardBulldog.org 
February 9, 2012 at 6:11 AM

Friday, June 29, 2012

Is there any end in sight to Bill Julian's serial lies, revisionist history and sense of entitlement? Anything he won't say or do to get back on the dais? Unfortunately for Julian, character and competency really DO count, which is why my friend Csaba Kulin has him so spooked in this election. He has it and Julian doesn't.

Seriously, Bill Julian for Hallandale Beach City Commissioner? 
No thanks! In ten years he already did MORE THAN ENOUGH DAMAGE!


Is there any end in sight to Bill Julian's serial lies, revisionist history and sense of entitlement? Anything he won't say or do to get back on the dais? Unfortunately for Julian, character and competency really DO count, which is why my friend Csaba Kulin has him so spooked in this election. He has it and Julian doesn't. Csaba not only has that, but good ideas, financial common sense and a sense of purpose, too,
Meanwhile, Julian offers us nothing but warmed-over, failed Julian. No thanks!!! 
So, you know that Broward Bulldog article I mentioned on Wednesday to bring you up-to-date on the galling-but-true story that at least three of the five Hallandale Beach commissioners are actually stonewalling the Broward Inspector General's office to be saved from being forced to have meetings with agents and having to tell the truth about what they know about the CRA and other dirty City Hall doings?


The article where it was stated that they want to know the questions in advance and... what, so they could presumably practice acting sincere in front of a mirror for a few days before their interview?
Yes, that one!
  
Broward Bulldog
Broward Inspector General hits first legal hurdle; Hallandale CRA says hands off
By William Gjebre, BrowardBulldog.org 
JUNE 27, 2012 AT 6:25 AM
http://www.browardbulldog.org/2012/06/broward-inspector-general-hits-first-legal-hurdle-hallandale-cra-says-hands-off/

In case you somehow missed it, my thoughts on that article are here:
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.ca/2012/06/hallandale-beachs-political-corruption.html

I was minding my own business on Thursday, after posting my latest blog post, when out-of-the-blue, someone in Hollywood sent me an email about a particularly galling comment that Hallandale Beach's own court jester-cum-corporate jet-setter William "Bill" Julian had just posted on the article's website under reader comments.

Curious what this vengeful and disgraced pol with an over-sized sense of entitlement might be going on-and-on about at the Bulldog, I went into Favorites on my computer and pulled the website up, scrolling-down to see what had caused someone I don't hear from too often to suddenly feel compelled to send me a flare of an email.


What I found there was... well, pure, unadulterated Bill Julian in all of his most shameful and disturbing mania.
Honestly, is there no end in sight to Bill Julian's serial lies and mis-statements? 

To be factual -which, of course, is NOT Julian's strong suit, as everyone in town well knows- his short conversation with my friend and his City Commission opponent Csaba Kulin a few months ago went very differently than what Julian intimated in his comments on the Bulldog, a fact I know with certainty because I happened to run into Csaba less than an hour after he'd spoken with Julian, still somewhat astonished at Julian's amazing chutzpah and nerve, which is why I was compelled to write down what he said at the time.

But then It's hardly surprising that Bill Julian would attempt to intentionally mis-characterize something as minor as a momentary conversation and try to turn it to his advantage, because if we've learned anything about Julian over the many years we've all observed him, it's that his pettiness and desire to be seen as a victim knows no logical ends.
Just one of his many odd personality traits.

First off, contrary to what Julian says and alleges -"I have asked you if you would run your campaign as a gentleman, and it looks like you will not, as expected"- Csaba told me that Julian said that he hoped that the 2012 campaign would be conducted in a civil fashion, but said it not so much as a question but rather as a statement.
And said it in a rather imperious and condescending fashion, as if it was actually just a rhetorical question. 
Or, the words of someone whistling past the political graveyard, never looking down!

(Anyone in this community who has spent even a fair amount of time watching Bill Julian in action -an oxymoron!- as I have, would instantly recognize this classic "tell" of his. It's as if Julian can't help himself, and is so obvious when he is scheming and trying to take advantage of someone. He says the opposite of what he means. LOL!)

Csaba recognized a trap when he saw one and replied that while he would certainly not personally attack Julian, his family or anything else that was not germane to the campaign, when it came to Julian's record or fitness for office, well, that was a very different subject, altogether.
Julian's record in office, like every incumbent and former incumbent official's, deserves proper scrutiny and some genuine discussion before an election.

In Julian's case, as we've all learned to our dismay and chagrin at watching his foolish antics, that closet of his that's close-to-bursting with ten years of records of his confounding, irrational votes, his malapropisms, his egregious ethical and moral lapses, and his thin-skinned, child-like comments, is actually much more like a house of horrors for taxpayers.

Julian is, after all, the very same person who eagerly wanted to change the candidacy requirements in Hallandale Beach for mayor and city commission, and require candidates to have lived here for three years before running. He thought this idea of his was just a great notion, but even bump-on-the-log then-City Attorney David Jove seemed surprised and perplexed that with all the things that Julian could bring up, he'd be stupid enough to propose something that was so obviously UNCONSTITUTIONAL.

That moment just seemed to hang there forever as I watched Julian finally digest that what he was proposing was, far from an improvement, was about the most anti-democratic thing you could propose in a legislative body.
Well, besides making a motion to triple your own salary!
(More on that later.)

That my friends is precisely why Julian so desperately doesn't want his own dismal record in office to be part of the continuing public discussion and debate, and remind everyone why they kicked him out in 2010.

The centrality of this point was driven home when Csaba then proceeded to tell Julian to his face that he -Csaba- was going to do everything in his power to make sure that everyone in this city was as fully-educated as possible about Bill Julian's truly awful record and character while in office for ten years; as well as talk about tangible and realistic ideas for this city's future and what he'd do differently than Julian and the other candidates on the dais.

Yes, my friend Csaba is going to do just that over the next four months -the very last thing Julian wants!

Of course, to be fair, Julian is also handicapped by the fact that he is NOT used to running against someone who is more than comfortable going after his Achiles Heel -his own dismal record!

Even today, despite Julian having claimed to his pals and apologists last year that he'd finally learned his lesson -after being thrown out of office in 2010- and would do some things differently, we see from Julian's comments in the Bulldog that he has NOT changed his spots, NOT changed his true nature. 
Nope, it's the same ol' Bill Julian. 

Despite all of his talk, Bill Julian still shows absolutely no remorse, contrition or personal responsibility for any of the dozens of things he's said and done while in office that have cost this community dearly in lost credibility and lost opportunities to move ahead, and be the city that it ought to be already.
He has already done more than enough damage to this city!



Here's a medley of Julian hits from 2007, including his classic motion to triple his own pay at a meeting with no members of the public, that wasn't being filmed, raising commission salaries from $20,500 to $75,000: 
"Other people in this position in the corporate world would be making much more money than we are," Julian said. "It is a steep jump, but it just shows how little we received before. I don't think it's out of line at all.
Yes, classic Julian being Julian.

Miami Herald
HALLANDALE BEACH
Commissioners triple pay
By ALIZA APPELBAUM AND JENNIFER LEBOVICH
May 4, 2007

Hallandale Beach commissioners on Wednesday voted to more than triple their salary.
Over a taxpayer-funded lunch of steak and chicken sandwiches on Wednesday, Hallandale Beach commissioners raised their annual pay by nearly $55,000 and catapulted themselves into the salary stratosphere for part-time public servants.

Starting immediately, commissioners will earn $75,000 a year. 

In a tight budget year when the Legislature nixed raises for state employees, commissioners in the city of 35,000 voted 3-2 to more than triple their current salary of $21,196. 

Discussion of the raise, and the vote, came during the luncheon portion of the city's regular meeting -- the only part that is not recorded. It will be reflected generally in the city's minutes, which had not yet been prepared on Thursday. 

"I thought it was outrageous and completely out of line for an elected public official whose work is part time," said Mayor Joy Cooper, who asked commissioners to defer voting on the raise until the city's next budget meeting. 

The raise means commissioners will make substantially more than the elected leaders in some of Broward's biggest cities. 

Commissioners in Pembroke Pines -- a city of nearly 150,000 residents -- make $23,708, and the mayor gets $46,485. 

And commissioners in Fort Lauderdale earn $30,000 a year, while the mayor gets $35,000. 

COUNTY SALARY 

Broward County commissioners bring in $91,996 a year to oversee an airport, a seaport, parks and libraries for a county of about 1.8 million. 

"I'd like to get that kind of pay raise," said Ben Wilcox, the executive director of Common Cause Florida, a government watchdog group. "If they feel like they're worth that. I guess the final decision will be up to the voters the next time they come up for reelection, if they feel like that's too big a pay raise." 

Cooper pointed out that the city could face significant revenue cuts in the coming year, depending on what form of property tax relief is passed by the state Legislature, which plans a special session in June. 

"This is the absolute worst commission decision ever made in this city's history," said Cooper, who said she won't accept the increase. 

Vice Mayor William Julian proposed the raise during the lunch planning meeting in a conference room in City Hall. The issue was not on any publicized agenda. 

"If I was in their shoes I would bend over backward to make sure there was full notice and an opportunity for public discussion," said Wilcox. "After all, this is the public's money and they should have, I would think, the opportunity to weigh in on whether they feel the commissioners deserve that increase." 

Voting in favor were Julian and commissioners Dorothy Ross and Francine Schiller. Cooper and Commissioner Keith London voted against it. 

Julian said he had planned to propose an even higher increase. He likened the city to a corporation, and said the pay should be commensurate. He also praised the commission for lowering the tax rate and maintaining a healthy reserve fund. 

"Other people in this position in the corporate world would be making much more money than we are," Julian said. "It is a steep jump, but it just shows how little we received before. I don't think it's out of line at all." 

At the meeting, London suggested doing a comparison of salaries of elected officials in other cities before settling on a number. 

"I wanted more information and the opportunity to do more research," he said in an interview. "We didn't have enough information at that time to make a decision." 

FULL-TIME HOURS 

Ross -- who has been on the commission since 1995 -- defended the raise Thursday, saying it's a job that calls for full-time hours. "I'm experienced, I'm qualified, I'm trained and I'm worth it," she said. 

Schiller declined to comment. 

"I think that's an insane amount of money for a commission in a city our size," said Julie Hamlin, a Hallandale Beach resident who lost a bid for a commission seat during the last election. 

"It's not responsible at a time when we have a property tax and insurance crisis in the state that is bound to impact our city tax structure," she said. "It's totally crazy." 

'BEYOND BELIEF' 

When former Hallandale Beach Mayor Arthur "Sonny" Rosenberg got wind of the raise, he thought he had heard wrong. 

"It's tough to comment on it because it's beyond belief," said Rosenberg, who served on the commission for more than two decades and said he made about $9,000 in 2000. 

"I think they made a mockery out of public service, and I think Hallandale Beach is going to be the laughingstock of South Florida." 

Miami Herald staff writer Roberto Santiago contributed to this report

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Miami Herald
Hallandale leaders rescind their own big raise
By ALIZA APPELBAUM AND JERRY BERRIOS
May 4, 2007

Commissioners in the city of Hallandale Beach, who thought they were underpaid until they voted themselves a 254 percent pay raise Wednesday, might be feeling underpaid again today.

On Friday, less than 48 hours after they voted to more than triple their salaries from $21,196 to $75,000, chagrined commissioners rescinded their action. The move followed howls of outrage from residents and even their own state legislator, who was wrapping up work on a tough budget year in Tallahassee. 

"I am shocked as to their timing," said State Sen. Steve Geller, a Democrat who represents the city. 

"The salary increase will not stand," vowed Marie Jose Piedrahita, one of the 35,000 residents of the coastal city, just north of the Broward-Miami-Dade line and home to Gulfstream Park. "We will have it repealed." 

A group of citizens had hired the Law Store -- legal experts trained in municipal law -- to help them fight. But before anyone could act, Vice Mayor William Julian, who pushed for the pay raise earlier in the week, had a change of heart and pushed commissioners to hastily roll back the record-setting $55,000 raise. 

"I truly did not anticipate the reaction of my community and would not have proposed this action if I had," Julian said Friday in a prepared statement. 

Julian joined two other commissioners who voted to raise salaries over a private lunch on Wednesday. Mayor Joy Cooper and Commissioner Keith London opposed it. 

"I'm glad that the commission came to their senses and reconsidered this today," Cooper said Friday. "It is a very big relief." 

London said he opposed the raise because the commission did not have enough information. 

"When I make a decision, I try to make an informed decision," he said. 

Some residents criticized the commissioners for taking action outside the public eye -- deciding to give themselves the hike when their actions were not recorded. 

And when they decided to drop the unpopular idea on Friday, they did in the midst of an already scheduled, all-day workshop on Community Redevelopment, Housing and Growth Management. 

While Florida's Government in The Sunshine Law requires meetings between two or more elected officials be publicized so concerned citizens have ample opportunity to respond, commissioners say they did not violate that law. 

Cooper said she feels the vote was legal and took place in a public meeting. 

Bill Fielding, a resident who follows the commission's actions, disagrees. 

"That vote was steeped in impropriety," he said. "They did the right thing by revoking it." 

The Sunshine Law requires that "reasonable notice" be given for a public meeting, but commissioners may have considered this critical, leaving them less time than usual to give notice, said Barbara Peterson, president of the First Amendment Foundation. 

Ultimately, a judge would have to decide if a violation occurred, she said. 

Miami Herald staff writer Marc Caputo contributed to this report.
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Miami Herald
HALLANDALE BEACH
COMMISSION'S BIG RAISE SHORT-LIVED
By ALIZA APPELBAUM AND JERRY BERRIOS
May 5, 2007

After a public outcry, Hallandale Beach leaders quickly rescinded a raise that more than tripled their $21,196 salaries.
Commissioners in the city of Hallandale Beach, who thought they were underpaid until they voted themselves a 254 percent pay raise Wednesday, might be feeling underpaid again today.

On Friday, less than 48 hours after they voted to more than triple their salaries from $21,196 to $75,000, chagrined commissioners rescinded their action. The move followed howls of outrage from residents and even their own state legislator, who was wrapping up work on a tough budget year in Tallahassee. 

"I am shocked as to their timing," said state Sen. Steve Geller, a Democrat who represents the city. 

"The salary increase will not stand," vowed Marie Jose Piedrahita, one of the 35,000 residents of the coastal city, just north of the Broward-Miami-Dade line and home to Gulfstream Park. "We will have it repealed." 

A group of citizens had hired the Law Store -- legal experts trained in municipal law -- to help them fight. But before anyone could act, Vice Mayor William Julian, who pushed for the pay raise earlier in the week, had a change of heart and pushed commissioners to hastily roll back the record-setting $55,000 raise. 

"I truly did not anticipate the reaction of my community and would not have proposed this action if I had," Julian said Friday in a prepared statement. 

Julian joined two other commissioners who voted to raise salaries over a private lunch on Wednesday. Mayor Joy Cooper and Commissioner Keith London opposed it. 

"I'm glad that the commission came to their senses and reconsidered this today," Cooper said Friday. "It is a very big relief." 

London said he opposed the raise because the commission did not have enough information. 

"When I make a decision, I try to make an informed decision," he said. 

Some residents criticized the commissioners for taking action outside the public eye -- deciding to give themselves the hike when their actions were not recorded. 

And when they decided to drop the unpopular idea on Friday, they did in the midst of an already scheduled, all-day workshop on Community Redevelopment, Housing and Growth Management. 

While Florida's Government in The Sunshine Law requires meetings between two or more elected officials be publicized so concerned citizens have ample opportunity to respond, commissioners say they did not violate that law. 

Cooper said she feels the vote was legal and took place in a public meeting. 

Bill Fielding, a resident who follows the commission's actions, disagrees. 

"That vote was steeped in impropriety," he said. "They did the right thing by revoking it." 

The Sunshine Law requires that "reasonable notice" be given for a public meeting, but commissioners may have considered this critical, leaving them less time than usual to give notice, said Barbara Peterson, president of the First Amendment Foundation. 

Ultimately, a judge would have to decide if a violation occurred, she said. 

Miami Herald staff writer Marc Caputo contributed to this report

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Miami Herald
Op-Ed Local perspectives
HALLANDALE BEACH 
SALARIES ALMOST MATCHED EGOS 
May 5, 2007

Hallandale Beach has the buzz of a city on the verge of a renaissance. Voters here have chosen progressive leaders, as exemplified by Mayor Joy Cooper. The City Commission has been fiscally responsible enough to boast of reduced taxes. Braced by the hoped-for promise of slot machines in the city's two parimutuels, commissioners are well versed in city issues, open to new ideas and committed to citywide improvements. 

So why on Earth would three commissioners break faith with residents by giving themselves a $50,000-plus pay raise without even the courtesy of prior public notice? Whatever the reasons, common sense caught up with the trio (helped along by residents' uniform condemnation of the raise) on Friday. The salary hike was repealed by a 5-0 vote. 

Vice Mayor William Julian and Commissioners Dorothy Ross and Fran Schiller defied the democratic process in their Tuesday vote to raise their annual pay to $75,000 from $21,196. Ignoring the remonstrances of Mayor Cooper and Commissioner Keith London , the three voted on Mr. Julian's sudden proposal during an unrecorded, informal lunch meeting. No public notice, no public hearing. Even if residents had known about it they couldn't have commented on the proposed raises before the vote. 

The three declared themselves worth every cent of the raise because they work for the city full-time. Self-importance apparently puffed up these representatives of a mere 35,000 residents in a city whose charter outlines duties of part-time commissioners. The boost would have made their pay second only to Broward county commissioners' $91,996 salaries and more than twice that of elected officials in Broward cities five times Hallandale Beach's size. 

A chastened Mr. Julian on Friday proposed that the raise be repealed. Ms. Ross seconded the motion that was unanimously approved. Maybe it dawned on the three that the city may have to tighten future budgets if the Legislature, as is likely, puts limits on local governments' taxing powers. Such luxurious paychecks would offend residents who see their services cut back. 

The trio has one more fence to mend. They should tuck in their egos and offer city residents their humble apologies.

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South Florida Sun-Sentinel
HALLANDALE RESCINDS BIG PAY RAISE - COMMISSIONERS CHANGE THEIR MINDS ABOUT INCREASE WITHOUT PUBLIC NOTICE
By John Holland and Thomas Monnay Staff writers; Staff writers Joe Kollin, Kathleen Kernicky, Georgia East and Tony Man contributed to this report. 
May 5, 2007

The lunch that almost quadrupled their salaries became impossible to swallow just two days later.

Under intense pressure from their mayor and growing criticism across the state, Hallandale Beach city commissioners on Friday unanimously rescinded a Wednesday vote giving them an unadvertised, unprecedented pay raise of almost $55,000 a year. 

"I'm extremely happy. I feel like an elephant has been lifted off my back," said Mayor Joy Cooper, one of two commissioners to initially vote against the raise when it came up over lunch during a planning meeting. 

The vote for such a large raise without any public notice has many experts on government questioning the propriety of the move. 

Barbara Petersen, an attorney and president of the First Amendment Foundation in Tallahassee, pointed to what she called several possible problems. 

"They don't have to specifically spell out everything on an agenda, but they aren't supposed to be intentionally leaving off important items, and that's where this is really suspicious," Petersen said. "It raises questions of how three people would suddenly, out of the blue, decide to give themselves $55,000 raises without any prior discussions. It just smells funny." 

The controversy began Wednesday in an upstairs room at City Hall, during what the city agenda described as a planning and scheduling meeting. Vice Mayor Bill Julian proposed raising commission salaries from $20,500 to $75,000. With little discussion, commissioners Fran Schiller and Dorothy Ross backed the proposal and the vote passed 3-2. 

Cooper and Commissioner Keith London voted against the pay raise, which was not mentioned on the advertised City Commission agenda and had not been discussed at prior meetings. 

City Attorney David Jove said it is legal for commissioners to vote on city business during planning sessions because they are advertised and open to the public, even though they are held upstairs. 

"It's a Sunshine meeting," said Jove, referring to Florida's "Government in the Sunshine" laws requiring most meetings to be conducted in public with proper notice. 

Under state law, cities must advertise the date and location of their meetings and conduct public hearings on proposed laws and fiscal budgets. But commissioners can approve certain items, such as minor expenses, even though those items aren't part of the regular agenda. 

Julian insisted he did nothing wrong when he chose to bring up the matter at lunch instead of during the regular meeting, which is televised. 

"I have nothing to hide," he said. "Nobody comes to the public meetings, and this was done in the Sunshine with full advice from our legal staff." 

That didn't ease the shock for Cooper. 

"When Vice Mayor Julian started talking about it Wednesday, my mouth dropped," Cooper said. "And not only the discussion, but the amount involved was so outrageous." 

On Friday, during a special meeting at City Hall, Julian made a motion to rescind the raise, and his colleagues quickly agreed. But Julian later said commissioners deserve the raise because the position is like a full-time job and he would bring the matter up again. 

"I'm willing to negotiate. This is not written in stone," said Julian, adding he would be amenable to a salary of $50,000 a year. "This is not the mom and pop commission it used to be." 

Some local residents didn't agree. 

"It really is ridiculous. The city has a lot of problems and a lot of room to improve," said Mike Butler, a 10-year resident who lives in Golden Isles. "The three commissioners ... who have the most accountability for the conditions we're in today are the same three who voted for this." 

The timing of the raise and resulting publicity reached Tallahassee. The Florida Legislature is debating ways to lower property taxes, and considering eliminating them altogether, amid complaints that local and county officials are wasting taxpayer dollars. 

"That was the last thing we needed at a time like this when people are dying about property taxes," said State Rep. Joe Gibbons, D-Hallandale Beach, who served on the City Commission from 2003 until 2006. 

Pembroke Pines Mayor Frank Ortis, president of the Florida League of Cities, said this could unfairly cast a shadow other cities. 

"Hopefully, the Legislature will say that what Hallandale Beach did wasn't indicative of all municipalities and this was just one misguided city," he said. 

Assistant State Attorney Tim Donnelly, who heads the public corruption division, said he couldn't comment because the complaint is likely to be investigated by his office. He would only say that a willful violation of open meeting laws is a misdemeanor, while any other violations could result in civil fines up to $500. 

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Miami Herald
Commissioners in throes of gambling fever
Columnist Fred Grimm
May 6, 2007

Experts warned that this could happen.

A quiet seaside town like Hallandale Beach becomes a gambling Mecca, with a casino om the north side of town, another on the south. Suddenly once solid, sober are driven crazy by the scent of easy money. Until even the folks down at City Hall catch the fever. 

That's the only plausible explanation for what happened in Hallandale Beach last week. Three city commissioners were obviously consumed by a momentary gambling frenzy. They bet that no one would notice that they had voted themselves the kind of jackpot that would set off bells and sirens at the Mardi Gras's casino. 

It is a notorious symptom of gambling fever that the infected no longer grasp the value of a paycheck. Little Vegas Vice Mayor William Julian and Commissioners Dorothy Ross and Francine Schiller voted to up their annual pay from $21,196 to $75,000 as if they were talkin' chump change. 

WHEELING OVER LUNCH
They hedged their bets by putting the issue on their luncheon agenda, the only portion of the commission meeting not recorded. As if they hoped no one would notice. As if they assumed what happened in City Hall, stayed in City Hall. 

Lunch was a little like an all-you-can-eat casino buffet. Salad, sandwiches, crab cakes, chicken wings, pasta and, for dessert, $53,804 drizzled in chocolate. 

Another symptom of gambling fever renders addicts utterly impervious to the warnings of looming catastrophe from relatives, friends, associates. "I begged them to reconsider," Mayor Joy Cooper told me. They dismissed her as Mayor Kill Joy. 

Even modest raises have been bad bets in South Florida. Last year, voters in Parkland, where the mayor and commissioners make $2,400 annually, voted down raises. Same thing in Coral Springs. Voters in Miami-Dade County, where the $6,000-a-year county commissioners haven't had a raise since 1957, said no to pay increases. 

Commissioners in Cooper City caught so much hell trying after voting to raise their piddling salaries from $6,000 to $15,000, they decided to use most of the extra money on a landscaping project. 

The Hallandale Beach caper was even riskier. There was the usual voter reluctance to pad elected officials' salaries. And they voted to raise their salaries even as the state legislature, which will reconvene in June, threatens to whack away at the city's property tax base. "We could lose 40 percent of our budget," Mayor Cooper said. 

LIKE HIGH ROLLERS 


But there's no reasoning with the fever. Mayor Cooper and Commissioner Keith London warned them, but those three commissioners thought they were on a roll. They were hot. They blew on the dice, tripled their salary and figured to walk out of city hall like a high roller after a good night at Gulfstream Park. 

Oh my, what a bad bet. They voted for fat raises on Wednesday. Word got around town on Thursday. By Friday, their folly was splashed across the Miami Herald. 

And all hell broke loose. Constituents went berserk. State legislators, after hearing so many complaints from city politicians that budgets were tight, wanted to know how it was that Hallandale Beach was tossing money around like a drunken tourist at the Hard Rock. 

The fever subsided. On Friday the repentant gamblers slunk into a commission workshop meeting and voted to rescind their winnings. 

They had learned a hard, humbling lesson: If you're going to gamble in Little Vegas, stick to the slots.