Showing posts with label Etty Sims. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Etty Sims. Show all posts

Thursday, June 19, 2014

Observations re Leo Grachow's selection as Hallandale Beach's interim Commissioner: "I thought he was a perfect fit for the job." So says a clearly disconnected-from-reality Comm. Bill Julian, who DIDN'T rate Grachow best, but instead voted BEST the least-qualified of the 3 finalists! Meanwhile, the candidate giving the single-best oral presentation, Chad Lincoln, received a 1 (out of 25) from HB's notoriously thin-skinned Mayor Joy Cooper; voting distribution chart


Above, the May 20th, 2014 voting results of the four members of the Hallandale Beach City Commission for an interim Commissioner to serve the final five months of Comm. Alexander Lewy's term, winnowing a large field of prospective candidates down to eight and then to three. My friend and fellow Hallandale Beach & Broward County activist, Csaba Kulin, one of the eight semi-finalists, created this very helpful chart based on information provided to him afterwards by the City Clerk. Columns 1-4 denote who received votes to make the Top Three and Columns 6-9 indicate the specific number from 1-25 each candidate received.  

Before I step all over my lede below, I should mention that one of the most striking things to happen that evening, something noticed by anyone paying close attention in the room or watching on TV, but as usual, NOT mentioned by Sun-Sentinel reporter Susannah Bryan three days later -as so many salient facts about what really goes on in HB are never acknowledged or mentioned by her in print- was that the individual candidate who the clear consensus of the public in the Commission Chambers felt gave the single-best four-minute oral presentation of the evening, my friend Chad Lincoln, received a measly score of 1 from Mayor Joy Cooper. That is to say, a 1 out of a possible 25 points.

Even if you had never read this pro-reform blog of mine before, or read the rest of this individual blog post, that's really everything you need to know about our thin-skinned, fact-challenged and consistently anti-democratic mayor in a nutshell.

It's been common knowledge for the longest time -in part because I've mentioned it so frequently here after something Mayor Cooper herself said and did- that her biggest fear has long been that the true facts about the state of this city and its longtime mismanagement under her actually get out and penetrate the minds of the people in this state whose opinion she cares about.

That is to say, her pals throughout the area and up in Tallahassee, like the folks at the Florida League of Cities or state Sen. Eleanor Sobel, the latter of whom as I've written here often last year and this year, is always happy to play guard dog for her up in Tallahassee, and help keep the germane facts from getting made public, as Sobel did in running interference for the mayor re the city's completely mismanaged and unethical CRA with the JLAC.

All to prevent an honest audit so that Hallandale Beach residents, taxpayers and small business owners could finally discover where all the tens of millions of CRA dollars went.

So, all this said, smart, articulate and creative straight-talkers like Chad and Csaba were always going to be persona non grata to her no matter what they said or did, despite the fact that they DO know much more about the city and how it's doing than the three candidates who made the final cut. 

Cooper and Julian eliminated the single person most clearly able to articulately challenge and rebut her on the facts and on the policy, with Cooper giving Chad one-tenth of the total that she gave to the person she rated just above him, whom she gave a 10 to.
Yes, the Gospel according to Joy Cooper.

And Comm. Anthony A. Sanders didn't even vote for Grachow to make the Top Three, even while selecting two generally unknown people from Northwest who rarely if ever speak at City Hall during public comments and made blah oral presentations when they had the chance to speak for four minutes that night, so you can see that he has NOT changed a whit since embarrassing himself over his vote to approve the incompatible condo tower at 2000 S. Ocean Drive in April, something that the articulate and affluent voters over on the beach won't be forgetting come November when Sanders is on the ballot.

Now, back to the question of Leo Grachow's selection as Hallandale Beach interim Commissioner: "I thought he was a perfect fit for the job."
So sayeth a clearly disconnected-from-reality Commissioner Bill Julian.

Julian, the HB City Commissioner who was the only one of the four of them voting on Tuesday May 20th, who didn't vote for Etty Sims to be among his Top Three choices of the 8 semi-finalists when he had the chance. Julian was the idiot who rated Sheryl Natelson the highest of the final three -Grachow, Sims, Natelsondespite the fact that she didn't know the answers to most of the questions asked of her, and completely whiffed on all three fact-based questions posed to all the three candidates by Comm. Michele Lazarow, unlike Etty Sims and Leo Grachow.

Honestly, how do you rate the worst-performing candidate of the final three as your highest-scoring, which, in fact, is exactly what Julian did? Well, when you are Bill Julian, it's what we've come to expect and fear -logic and reason as completely alien concepts.

(But I will mention that in the weeks since ranking Mayor Cooper's pal Sheryl Natelson first, Julian has been appointed to his old position of Vice Mayor. Just saying...)

You'd think the Sun-Sentinel reporter who was actually present and saw the whole thing acted out in mind-numbing detail for three-and-a-half hours might have noticed that twisted logic, eh?
Maybe asked Julian directly afterwards how it came to be that the candidate who received the most votes to be in the Top Three, after a very good oral presentation and then nailing the answers in the Q&A, Etty Simshadn't even made Julian's list at all.
Maybe ask Sanders why he didn't vote for Grachow to make the Top Three if, as Julian says, "he was perfect for the job."
Or, ask how it is that the ONLY candidate who 3 of the 4 commissioners ranked as among the Top Three, Etty Sims, DIDN'T get the position.
Those are the questions begging to be asked.

But then that would require Susannah Bryan to do some real reporting, wouldn't it, instead of merely engaging in stenography and taking what is handed to her by the city? Yes.

All of this was exactly the sort of result we could have predicted. 
And in the case of myself and some of you out there, DID
That given a chance, Bill Julian would find a way to blow a golden opportunity to do the right thing for the community and would, instead, screw things up -yet again.

Predicted that the bad, incompetent, incorrigible and completely disconnected-from-reality 
Bill Julianthe very City Commission candidate who promised the entire city in 2012 that he'd really change his spots, and would, IF given a 2nd chance to serve -after being kicked off by voters in 2010- finally show sound judgement for a change, instead of continually being a laughingstock, 
NEVER left and never ever changed for the better. It's just that some of you desperately wanted to believe he'd really changed. 
Nope.
Cooper, Julian and Sanders are exactly what they look like.
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Sun Sentinel
Hallandale Beach's newest commissioner sails through first City Hall meeting
By Susannah Bryan, Sun Sentinel
7:11 PM EDT, May 23, 2014

HALLANDALE BEACH


Longtime mediator Leo Grachow may have just the right stuff to bring peace to a sometimes testy city commission, some say.


The native New Yorker was chosen from a field of 18 candidates Tuesday and sworn in as a commissioner the very next evening.


After the swearing-in ceremony, Grachow took a seat on the dais for his first meeting as a commissioner.



"It was a long agenda and sometimes that can get contentious," Grachow said. "But it went pretty smooth."


Saturday, August 25, 2012

City of Hallandale Beach prints analysis that refutes Mayor Joy Cooper's mendacious efforts on red-light cameras - "In summary, there is no safety benefit to the citizens, and there is no financial benefit to the taxpayer due to automated for-profit law"; @MayorCooper,


IhosvaniRodriguez video: Red light camera in Hallandale Beach has some seeing red.
This is the video accompanying South Florida Sun-Sentinel reporter Ihosvani Rodriguez's story of more than two years ago. Uploaded July 8, 2010. http://youtu.be/0wl8xGKzfTU

I was first informed of the existence of this very-thorough report on Friday evening by Hallandale Beach civic activist Etty Sims, whose common sense, hard work and dedication to this community continues to manifest itself in all sorts of tangible ways that improve the quality of life in this city.
I guess I don't have to tell you that I read it with very mixed emotions.

Pleased that its results and conclusion largely support what I and many other citizens in this community said two years ago -that Mayor Joy Cooper's efforts from the very beginning were contrary to good public policy, given that her real desire all along was increased revenue to the city, NOT increased public safety.

This point was first proven when the city refused to place the first one or the second one or...
at the places in this city where there was consensus that genuine safety problems existed.
Nope, they placed them where they could get the number$ they wanted that would make .
American Traffic Solutions happy.

As I said just a few weeks ago, that's precisely why ATS and its related entities have given the full amount they could to Mayor Cooper's re-election campaign coffers, shortly after she wrote 
this for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel
http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2012-07-22/news/fl-guest-cooper-cameras-mon0723-20120722_1_red-light-cameras-camera-program-red-light-runners
since she's running on November 6th against the one person on the HB City Commission who was honest enough and smart enough to see thru her pretense and artifice and vote NO, Keith London.

But while I was happy to see my points from two years ago correct all over again, I was disappointed that common sense was such a big loser in the first place two years ago, and that so many people in this community were willing to look the other way in order to get into or stay in the good graces of our thin-skinned and voluble mayor.

But here, like in many cities, there are always people want to be the mayor's buddies and apologists, and we certainly have more than our fair share in this city of under 40,000, including some former friends of mine.
Given the mayor's forceful personality but lackluster record, it's hardly surprising that so many of the butt-kissers and apologists for City Hall here are women, too.

As you can see for yourself, when you pop this URL, you will see the official HB graphics on the front page, too!


An Analysis of the City of Hallandale Beach Automated For-Profit Red Light Camera Program 
By Paul Henry 
August 18, 2012 

Despite a reduction in red light running crashes at the one intersection, this analysis has shown that the use of automated for-profit law enforcement devices has not increased the safety for the motoring public in the City of Hallandale Beach, Florida. To the contrary, from a safety perspective, the number of crashes for both intersections where it has been placed in 
use have increased, with significant increases at one intersection. There were no fatal crashes. 
A review of extended data for one intersection showed the same red light running crash 
reduction from 2008-2009 with no device use.

Read the rest of the report at:
http://retiredpublicsafety.com/documents/rlc/analysis/FL/Analysis_HB_RLC.pdf

So, two years later, after all the tires have been kicked and all the real numbers have been put to the test and been checked and double-checked, it seems that all the things that I wrote here on the blog about red-light cameras in Hallandale Beach, and which Hallandale Beach civic activist Csaba Kulin, HB Commissioner Keith London and thousands of other HB citizens made clear thru their overwhelming response to the city's own survey, have been proven 100% correct.

And who, using actual facts, has been proven wrong not only on the facts, but on the policy? 
Mayor Joy Cooper and her past and current Rubber Stamp Crew of Dotty Ross, Bill Julian, Anthony A. Sanders and Alexander Lewy, and Police Chiefs Magill and Fluornoy.
And the Florida League of Cities and American Traffic Solutions...

-----
The most recent posts of mine on the subject of red-light cameras in Hallandale Beach are here for your perusal. But there are earlier ones not listed here, so keep that in mind:

Jul 24, 2012
There's still LOTS of interest in Red-Light Cameras and Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper's self-serving behavior: i.e. City of Hallandale Beach's fact-free, heavy-handed imposition of RLCs by Cooper and her Rubber ...

Jul 23, 2012
The galling audacity of the feckless Sun-Sentinel giving free space to thoroughly-mendacious Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper, 16 weeks before the election, or her stridently self-serving lies re Red-Light cameras in ...

Oct 11, 2011
Below are some photos of a self-evident fact that I and many tens of thousands of other Hallandale Beach and Hollywood residents have known about ever since the red-light camera was installed on Hallandale Beach Blvd.

Sep 25, 2011
Commissioner London makes a motion to remove RED LIGHT Traffic Cameras in accordance with the recommendations from the city-wide survey – NO SECOND. · Three Islands Safe Neighborhood District - $357,000 in this ...

Jun 08, 2011
Staffers also said they are getting less than anticipated from the city's red light-camera program, a gambling revenue-sharing compact with the Seminole Tribe, and a number of state funds. Forrester vowed to keep a closer eye ...

Feb 24, 2011
No, as we've all suspected from the get-go, in this particular city, those red-light cameras are where they are because in this city -as opposed to the rationale of other cities that may actually let self-evident facts guide their ...

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Tomas Lopez story results in predictably anemic response by Hallandale Beach City Hall as growing public outrage re harsh treatment of lifeguard Lopez by his company, Jeff Ellis & Associates -an unpersuasive form letter- shows City Hall's longstanding myopia remains. Story has touched a nerve all over the world about moral imperatives and importance of doing the right thing despite strong possible negative consequences. We desperately need to change the culture and personnel at City Hall ASAP!

video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player
ABC News video: Correspondent Matt Gutman on Fla. Contractor That Fired Lifeguard For Saving Man Outside Zone Reconsidering. July 5, 2012.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/fired-fla-lifeguard-reinstated/story?id=16716225
Tomas Lopez story results in predictably anemic response by Hallandale Beach City Hall as growing public outrage re harsh treatment of lifeguard Lopez by his company, Jeff Ellis & Associates -an unpersuasive form letter- shows City Hall's longstanding myopia remains. Story has touched a nerve all over the world about moral imperatives and importance of doing the right thing despite strong possible negative consequences. We desperately need to change the culture and personnel at City Hall ASAP!
In short, in the official City of Hallandale Beach response thus far about the incident I discussed here yesterday, that was originally reported by Ihosvani Rodriguez of the South Florida sun-Sentinel, and which blew-up over the Fourth of July holiday to become international news, to the surprise of no one, the city says absolutely nothing about their own longstanding neglect, incompetency and culpability regarding the public beach areas, including the news that I shared with you that the two lifeguard stations on the beach are NOT grounded for lightning strikes, as they are supposed to be.


Lifeguard Tomas Lopez helps save the day at the city's public beach but get's fired for his trouble. Meanwhile, Hallandale Beach City Hall continues to act neglectful and NOT do what it's legally supposed to do around the beach areas, and nothing happens. Nobody is fired. Just more mindless bureaucratic apathy and incompetency from the same old crew!

By the way, if you didn't already know, the lifeguards are supposed to call their own company first in order to dispatch Fire/Rescue to the scene of trouble, despite the fact that HB Fire/Rescue is right next to the iconic Hallandale Beach Water Tower on State Road A1A and Hallandale Beach Blvd., on the border separating HB and Hollywood.  

Hallandale Beach Fire Station 60 is located in the building north of the city's iconic Water Tower on State Road A1A, just south of the Hollywood cityline. May 30, 2012 photos by South Beach Hoosier© 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved


When that was done, a lot of the life guards told me at the time that based on their past experience, this policy would inevitably cause casualties.

And I didn't even mention in my email and blog post of yesterday that, as I've noted here previously, for a very long time, the lifeguards lacked a motorized device that would allow the guards to actually respond to people caught in dangerous high wave/strong undertow situations far from shore, which greatly frustrated them and created a lot of anxiety on those sorts of days.
And lest you forget, we had an unusually high number of such days early last year, which was even more troubling when you know the lifeguards lacked the tools they desperately needed.
You'd think the city would've had a back-up plan after the one device they had -to share among the two lifeguard stands- broke.
You'd think that, but you'd be wrong -there was no back-up plan!

Is having Jeff Ellis and Associates' dispatchers calling 911 instead of the lifeguards on the scene part of what should be publicly discussed and re-examined while everyone is looking at what took place at the beach on Monday?
Should help for victims really be delayed from being dispatched solely because of company policy?

In my opinion, this whole topic ought to be the subject of a public meeting held at the city's Cultural Center, say, on a Saturday morning at 10 a.m., AFTER Labor Day when everyone is back in town, so that everyone who is interested can attend and hear what's what from Jeff Ellis, the city and any other people who have some knowledge to share, as well as HB residents?

Earlier today, Hallandale Beach civic activist Etty Sims, always a strong voice for common sense, financial accountability and the entire community's best long-term interests, sent the following email to HB City Hall and its denizens.

Along with her comments were links to just some of the dozen and dozens of news sites around the world that have reported on this troubling incident via a Google Alert on HB, a tool which I also receive and have encouraged you all to get as well if you live here, or one for your own community if you're anywhere else in the world.

Among the hundreds of news organizations and websites that have delved into this story are the BBC and ABC News, the latter of which did a three-minute story on it last night with reporter Matt Gutman during ABC Evening News, which was re-run this morning, the video of which I've posted at the top.

Here's Etty Sims' email:

Good morning city commissioners, mayor and city manager,

So Hallandale Beach is in the news all over the country and not for a good reason.
I am sure that you all heard about the incident on the beach.
If you read the comments to the stories on the different news media sites you will see that not only the private company that you, the commission hired to protect our beach goers , BUT the entire city's reputation is beefing affected negatively.

Please let us know what are you going to do about this issue.

if we want to improve our beaches, it is very important that beach goers  not only feel safe on our beach but are actually being protected by someone that cares about people's life and not the bottom line.
Since the lifeguard company's contract is coming  up for renewal, it is a perfect time to look into the different options available.
It is time to bring back the Beach in Hallandale Beach. Please make it a priority and transform the beach to a place that people want to go to. There are too many other options very close by such as Hollywood Beach Broadwalk.

Have a great summer 

Etty Sims


-----
Meanwhile... I continue to receive email from everywhere, including some thoughtful nuanced email from Las Vegas that gets right to the heart of the matter of what happened on Monday

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: City Manager <CityManager@hallandalebeachfl.gov>
Date: Thu, Jul 5, 2012 at 10:46 AM
Subject: RE: Lifeguard Tomas Lopez helps save the day at the city's public beach but get's fired for his trouble. Meanwhile, Hallandale Beach City Hall continues to act neglectful and NOT do what it's legally supposed to do around the beach areas...



Thank you for contacting the City of Hallandale Beach regarding the beach incident that occurred on July 2, 2012.  I am in close contact with Jeff Ellis of Jeff Ellis Management who has started a full investigation into the termination of their lifeguard.  The lifeguard is not a City employee, but was employed by Jeff Ellis Management, a private company contracted to provide lifeguard services for two city-owned beaches and the Municipal pool.  Jeff Ellis Management has committed to the City that if the lifeguard was terminated in haste, the company would move expeditiously to reinstate his employment.

It has always been the City’s policy that if there is an actual emergency inside or outside of the protected area, the lifeguard must respond. We do however have to ensure that certain safety protocols are followed to ensure the safety of all visitors to the City of Hallandale Beach.  At this time, the City is awaiting the facts of the termination and the results of our internal inquiry and the Ellis Management investigation.  Once the City has the results of the investigation, we can make an informed determination on the future of the relationship with this management company.

The City Hallandale Beach truly values your concerns and comments on this issue. The safety of our Beach patrons and the manner in which this service is provided is paramount to the City.  We are moving swiftly to address the situation.

Renee C. Crichton
City Manager
City of Hallandale Beach
400 S. Federal Highway
Hallandale Beach, FL 33009
954-457-1300 Phone