Showing posts with label Hallandale Beach Fire Dept.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hallandale Beach Fire Dept.. Show all posts

Friday, April 1, 2016

How the latest ethical outrage in Hallandale Beach -captured by Local10's Terrell Forney- showing innocent people being taken advantage of, roils us and reminds us why an increasing number of people are choosing to leave South Florida

IF you ever wondered why so many otherwise normal and relatively contented people who have lived in South Florida for quite some time eventually packed-up and left, well, there are, of course, 1001 reasons that combine varying degrees of logic and common sense, and not simply foolish whims followed upon. 

That's especially the case when people choose to make life decisions on one of the deadly hot days of July in South Florida, when the life and energy can literally be sucked out of your body for doing nothing more physically demanding or complicated than simply getting out of your car and walking into an air conditioned store.  
Inescapable Fact: Air conditioning explains South Florida's growth and history so much more than geography ever possibly could plausibly explain.

Often, some reasons for leaving the area are better than others, and one non-personal reason is that you simply get tired of living somewhere where the general idea of NOT taking of advantage of other people is not the outlier, but rather the exception to the rule.
And so it goes in Hallandale Beach, with a company that I'd never heard of before called 400 Broward Inc., which owns property on Foster Road in the Northwest part of the city. 
This company apparently thought nothing of renting out its apartments to people without properly informing them that the building was in foreclosure, and which based on the Local10 video below, has owners who seem keen to keep their tenants security deposits, to boot. 

Hallandale Beach Commissioner Keith London recently penned an email that explained his own take on the situation affecting at least 26 HB residents, which has been handled so badly by so many parties, including some information explaining how, according to Comm. London, the HB CRA fits in to the equation, or blame if you will. 
Comm. London states in his email that as of now, "The CRA has NO defined plan for this building or the vacant land," which is located right near a new planned Hallandale Beach Fire Station and the new HBFD HQ.

Well, this sort of non-sensical and half-assed approach to public policy and taxpayer funds by the HB CRA will NOT surprise longtime readers of this blog, since for nine years, one of the running ethical and journalistic themes of this blog, quite literally, the subject of dozens of posts here, has been the circumstances and fall-out of the grossly-under-reported story of what actually took place in 2007, when a small plot of land in NW Hallandale Beach -with an extant building- belonging to City of HB Commissioner Anthony A. Sanders and his wife Jessica was purchased by the HB CRA.  
Purchased for more than it was worth!

This purchase was made despite there being... yes, no written, agreed-upon or voted-upon plan for how that specific land would be used for the betterment of the HB community in fulfilling the stated aims and intentions of rules and language establishing CRAs by the State of Florida.
That Comm. Sanders was allowed to vote on the deal at the time and did NOT choose to (or be asked to) recuse himself -facts which were NOT publicly reported at the time or after except by myself- is typical for how common sense public policy and issues involving ethics, Sunshine Laws, propriety and notions of govt. oversight have been handled in HB for so long under a series of City Attorneys and City Commissions under Mayor Joy Cooper.

That is to say, with no public push-back by any responsible law enforcement or ethical group to investigate the circumstances at the time, or afterwards.
In fact, under the property deal that the city negotiated with Anthony and Jessica Sanders, as I've mentioned numerous here previously on the blog -and which most people in South Florida who know me personally also know- I personally told the Office of the Broward Inspector General that Comm. Sanders was even allowed to continue to use the building for FREE AFTER it was purchased. 
Now THAT is a sweetheart of a deal.

http://keithlondon.com/hallandale_beach/index.php/2-uncategorised/339-commissioner-london-fights-to-have-city-help-relocate-tenants

 


More than almost any recent South Florida-centric story I can think of, this recent news report by Local10 reporter Terrell Forney spoke volumes about what life in South Florida has increasingly become for residents of South Florida, even for lots of well-to-do and resourceful people I know who previously thought they'd live here for the rest of their lives. 
Which is to say, way past #frustrating.

They see something like this outrage in HB happen that should NOT ever happen and ask how things like it can KEEP happening here. To little or no public outrage.

Some people manage to deal with it by only being around South Florida for part of the year, which has increasingly become the chief coping mechanism for many people I know with longtime connections, homes or relatives back in Ohio and North Carolina.  
But for others, well, unless they get out of the area for a bit every now and then to recharge themselves, they get emotionally beaten down and burned-out by the daily assault on their conscience of so much chronic apathy, gross official/govt.  incompetency/myopia, and lack of resolve by society at large to publicly hold irresponsible and unethical people and businesses accountable for their actions.
It weighs on them in visible ways, and you can only imagine how it is for people with less resources at their disposal.

As of today, there has been no organized public outcry against the company behind this self-evident unethical housing melodrama, which is typical of how public life and society in South Florida operate unless a well-funded individual or influential group with some backbone and resolve decides to finally wade in and get directly involved.
And start calling people and groups out with a vengeance.

See my tweets below the Local10 video to be reminded of an important underlying issue regarding the proposed new Hallandale Beach Fire Station and Fire Dept. HQ, a matter I have written about previously on the blog many times before, with various degrees of shock and amazement, as the powers-that-be at Hallandale Beach City Hall continually sought to foolishly place a valuable tool and resource in the worst possible location for it and the public's safety -because they can!

It's another example of the longstanding nonsensical public policy notions that have been percolating inside Hallandale Beach City Hall disguised as economic development, when it's really nothing more than the marriage of the city's longstanding practice of crony capitalism and an Edifice Complex under longtime Mayor Joy Cooper.

Local 10 News, Miami
Hallandale Beach apartment residents forced from homes after building goes into foreclosure
Commissioner fights to have city help relocate tenants

By Terrell Forney - Reporter
Posted: 6:04 PM, March 23, 2016
Updated: 6:08 PM, March 23, 201

http://www.local10.com/news/local-10-investigates/hallandale-beach-apartment-residents-forced-from-homes-after-building-goes-into-foreclosure#

In reverse chronological order:



















Want more specific info about the many shady and unethical antecedents in HB I cite above? 
Just contact me!

Dave

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

Friday, February 4, 2011

Another weekend of 'Chicken' with the public's safety in Hallandale Beach as City Hall continues to ignore self-evident safety problems at RR crossing

Darkness on the Edge of Town, 6:20 p.m. Looking at S.E./S.W. 3rd Street FEC Railroad crossing from S.E. 1st Avenue. February 3, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.


South Florida Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/hallandale/fl-hallandale-crossing-closing-20110202,0,1531328.story
Hallandale Beach Boulevard to close at FEC tracks for 3 days
Crossing will be rebuilt from Feb. 6-9

By Michael Turnbell, Sun Sentinel

6:40 PM EST, February 2, 2011


HALLANDALE BEACH

Hallandale Beach Boulevard will be closed at the Florida East Coast Railway tracks east of Dixie Highway for three days starting Sunday.


The crossing will be reconstructed.


The closure will begin at 6 a.m. Sunday. The crossing will reopen at 6 a.m. Feb. 9.


There will be separate detours for cars and trucks.

Eastbound automobile traffic will be detoured south on Dixie Highway, east on Southeast Third Street and north on Southeast First Avenue. Westbound traffic will be directed north on Northeast First Avenue, west on Northwest Third Street and south on Dixie Highway.


Eastbound truck traffic will be detoured north on Northwest Eighth Avenue, east on Pembroke Road and south on Federal Highway. Westbound truck traffic will be directed north on Federal Highway, west on Pembroke Road and south on Dixie Highway.

-------


For those of you living in the S.E. Broward County area who need the above information to be placed into its proper perspective, and for the even larger number of you readers who want some added insight into how even small things in the city I live in can reveal deep Grand Canyon-like examples of longstanding incompetency on the parts of several parties and agencies,
pay attention.

The street described above as the temporary east-bound route, S.W. 3rd Street and S. Dixie Highway, is where the city's Fire-Rescue vehicles
usually come screaming eastbound across the FEC Railroad tracks a few times a day -with ZERO firetruck warning signs on any of the nearby streets, including U.S.-1 -a longstanding problem throughout the city.

Hallandale Beach Fire/Rescue truck.
February 4, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier
.



That street is noteworthy for being near pitch-black at night, a longstanding fact well-known to not only many lower-level City of Hallandale Beach employees, for many, many months, but also to HB Fire Chief Daniel Sullivan and HB City Manager Mark Antonio.

In fact, t
he Fire Chief's office is less than two blocks away.

http://www.hallandalebeachfl.gov/index.aspx?nid=24

As it happens, City Manager Antonio was reminded of this in December at a public meeting on the myriad problems experienced by business owners along Fashion Row, held at Dekka, just five blocks north of that intersection.

Dekka, 139 N.E. 1st Avenue, Hallandale Beach, FL (954) 455-2616
February 4, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.


Absolutely Fabulous 20 N.E. 1st Avenue, Hallandale Beach, FL (954) 455-5200
February 4, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

My friend Michele, who owns the popular boutique above, was given nothing but grief from HB City Hall and Code Compliance for the longest time about her desire to actually IMPROVE the appearance of her store, costing her un-necessary time and money. Why?
February 4, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier
.


The graffiti-scarred parking lot sign for Nick's Restaurant, off Fashion Row, next to the FEC railroad tracks, the most obvious of several graffiti targets on Hallandale Beach Blvd. near the railroad tracks. In Hallandale Beach, as I've written here on the blog before -and will be doing again soon with lots and lots of photos- graffiti stays on surfaces large and small for months and years at a time, as if, somehow, customers don't notice it and it don't wonder if an area is sketchy.
Where in the world is the Hallandale Beach Chamber of Commerce and where are the HB police?
Good questions!
February 4, 2011 photo by
South Beach Hoosier.



I know th
at City Manager Antonio knows that area on 3rd Street and the FEC is pitch-black because the person who reminded him of this simple public safety fact at that meeting was me.

What's happened since?
NOTHING.
Their patented specialty.

In fact, the block east of Dixie Highway there -
adjoins the former City Hall complex as it comes to the city's Fire/Rescue HQ- is as dark as a black hole, and has been an accident waiting to happen for MANY, MANY YEARS.

Considering what drives by there everyday, should a road that crosses a railroad track
really continue to be one of THE unsafest streets in all of S.E. Broward instead of one the best lit?

Yes, it seems counter-intuitive to logic based on other places I've lived, but that's
how HB City Hall rolls!
No detail is TOO obvious or TOO large to be... noticed.

It would be a shame if someone got injured or killed there this weekend because of the added traffic there and longstanding negligence, which would be a slam-dunk for any attorney suing the city and the county and the...


Just feet away, in fact, on south-bound Dixie Highway, there's a speed limit sign -
on a pole with a street light that's been out since March- that has been completely obstructed for nearly a year.

The public safety negligence in the city and that area in particular is so well-known
that it was memorialized forever a few years ago when Google's Street View came by and caught it on film, a fact I've already highlighted on my blog a few times.
See for yourself!


http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&q=W+Dixie+Hwy,+Hallandale+Beach,+Broward,+Florida&aq=&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=34.671324,89.824219&ie=UTF8&geocode=FctVjAEdtgk5-w&split=0&hq=&hnear=W+Dixie+Hwy,+Hallandale+Beach,+Broward,+Florida&ll=25.981869,-80.148332&spn=0.009606,0.02193&z=16&layer=c&cbll=25.981839,-80.148301&panoid=mdakDjW2f1cLUn7nr-skpA&cbp=12,187.3,,0,4.65


The
Broward County Transit bus stop there, hidden by a hedge, is so dark and grim at night that it might as well just be a stop on the way to the morgue in a Friday the Thirteenth film.
Just saying... be careful.



The three photos on this page were taken within ten minutes Thursday night, and you can see the complete lack of appropriate road lighting.
In fact, the only light that you see in the photos, besides that emanating from auto headlights, are from signs and reflecting material caused by my camera's flash.
If I hadn't used the flash, you wouldn't even see that.


Trust me, when you're there, it's even darker than these photos depict.

And it has been like this for a long, long time.

In the upside-down world of
Joy Cooper/Mike Good/Mark Antonio, it's yet another success story!


Darkness on the Edge of Town, 6:25 p.m. Looking at S.E./S.W. 3rd Street FEC Railroad crossing from S.E. 1st Avenue. February 3, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.


Darkness on the Edge of Town, 6:30 p.m. Looking at S.E./S.W. 3rd Street FEC Railroad crossing from S.E. 1st Avenue. February 3, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.




Bruce Springsteen - Darkness On The Edge Of Town (Live 1978)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqGld8_HpOQ


Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band - Candy's Room

Capitol Theatre, Passaic, NJ. 1978 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oTFJhhWW8g

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

Monday, November 16, 2009

Oh, say can you see... Guess which city's flag ignored Fort Hood and Veteran's Day?

For those of you who are new to this
blog or who may occasionally think
I'm too critical of the denizens of
Hallandale Beach City Hall, such as
City Manager Mike Good and his
highly-paid staff, Mayor Joy Cooper,
her dependable Rubber Stamp
Crew
of Commissioners William Julian,
Dotty Ross and Anthony A. Sanders,
plus the grab-bag of Dept. directors,
let me return to a central tenet of this
blog.

It should help connect-the-dots
for you.



In my humble opinion, you earn trust
and respect from the community by
consistently showing sound, reasonable
judgment; of being scrupulously fair
in the performance of your duties;
and of being competent, professional
and efficient in carrying-out those
responsibilities, starting with small
easy to resolve problems.


Then, gradually, like a child shedding
their bike's training wheels, you can
begin handling things more complicated.
Like gravity.


But if you chronically keep screwing-up
the smaller matters that are self-evident,
of being un-necessarily egotistical,
adversarial and hyper-sensitive to
any constructive criticism regarding
the safety and Quality-of-Life of the
citizens of this community, I DON'T
have to trust you.


I DON'T have to respect you or have
faith that you can handle more complex
matters simply because you want me
to believe you can.

I don't.


Why should I or anyone else in this
community when you have utterly
failed, by both words and action,
year-after-year, to earn the trust
of the community?


So, that said, you may've heard last
week about the massacre at Fort Hood
as well as being aware that Veteran's Day
was being celebrated on November 11th.
It was "In the news."




Below, how those two separate events,
which required the appropriate but
easily-understood flag etiquette being
employed, were handled by the City
of Hallandale Beach under the current
Cooper & Good regime.



Above, the American flag at Hallandale Beach
City Hall last Monday, November 9th,
when it was supposed to be at half-mast
per the president's direction, in honor of
the Fort Hood victims.




Video from last Monday night showing this
yet again, with attention once again to the
dark conditions of the public parking lot
outside HB City Hall and the HB Police Dept.
HQ.



The Hallandale Beach Fire/Rescue
station on Three Islands Drive
on Wednesday November 11th,
Veteran's Day.



A closer shot of the flag on the Hallandale
Beach Fire/Rescue flagpole.



Even closer.

Yet another one of Hallandale Beach Fire
Chief Daniel Sullivan's screw-ups to
add to the list.

But don't worry, I'm sure he's "handling it."

That's exactly why I'm concerned.

Yet another Hallandale Beach Keystone Cops
success for Mike Good and Daniel Sullivan.

It's one stupid screw-up after another...

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Illusory Hallandale Beach budget cuts equal no fireworks, but we are not fooled by HB City Hall's lies and deceptions

July 4th, 2009

Have been watching and listening all afternoon to some
very interesting and troubling news stories today via
Britain's Channel Four, while trying to get some work
done on some overdue emails and the blogs, before
heading up to Hollywood Beach later for their fireworks,
since Hallandale Beach cut them out this year on
account of costs.

"Costs?"

Right, that poor excuse for HB City Hall's perennial bad
planning and haphazard management that has proven
so ineffectual to anyone paying attention, like citizen
taxpayers, business owners and investors.

And speaking of looming budget cuts, what tangible,
concrete results do city taxpayers have to show for
the $50,000 that the HB City Commission gave the
Hallandale Beach Chamber of Commerce, which
effectively buys the silence of those involved from
ever publicly criticizing HB City Hall, and the very
people who run things so poorly?

I mention this as budget meetings draw near because
I'm going to be finding out over the next few weeks thru
some public records requests, phone calls and questions
at hearings and ask for evidence they deserve ANYTHING
in a year of supposed budget cuts that saw fireworks
cut, one of the few things every year that actually lures
usually apathetic HB residents over to the public beach,
except for when friends or family come down to visit
during holidays.

I'll share the results of what I find out with you here on
the blog, because, thus far, in the time that I have been
observing things here in HB, they seem every bit a
laughingstock, literally, a perpetual motion machine.

A perpetual motion machine that bears little resemblance
to the issues and work that other Chamber of Commerces
did in other towns and cities I've lived in, where being a
member doesn't deprive you of your tongue at City Hall,
as seems to be the case here without exception.

From City Hall's bunker perspective, what better and
more emphatic way to attempt to show (deceive) the
city's populace that you're serious about your budget
cuts than lopping off Fourth of July fireworks?

But IF that's so, then explain to me why the city could
and would spend almost $3,700 on a new office for
Mayor Joy Cooper back in January, even though there
was nothing physically wrong with her old one?

She just asked for it and it was done, end of story.
Adios $3,762!
What about the perceptions six months ago?

For details on costs and expenses associated with
Mayor Cooper's new office, see

IF costs and public perceptions are NOW so suddenly
important, explain to me why, as the Sun-Sentinel's
Jennifer Gollan chronicled, Mayor Cooper made the
conscious decision to stay overnight for a few days at
a downtown Miami hotel of some note and expense,
The Intercontinental, at taxpayers expense, for an
event she was attending.

This despite the fact that according to the city's own
website, she's right next to everything here.


For more on that particular Joy Cooper fiasco, complete
with the original news articles and true facts, see my
January 25th post aptly titled:
My mayor went to the Inaugural but all I got was
the bill and her imperious attitude!

It includes this truly classic Joy Cooper bluster, after
having had her behavior and attitude publicly exposed.
I repeat it here, word-for-word:


South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Broward County officials are traveling on your dime

Conventions are only miles from home, but South Florida

officials bill taxpayers for luxury hotels and chauffeured rides

By Jennifer Gollan
January 11, 2009

Although the national mayors convention was only 34 miles from his home, Lauderhill Mayor Richard Kaplan decided it would be too difficult to commute. So he billed taxpayers $995 to stay five nights in June at the four-star InterContinental Miami hotel.

"I would have to get up at 3 or 4 in the morning to miss the rush-hour traffic," Kaplan said. "It gets to be very time-consuming."
Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper also attended that convention. Instead of making the 20-mile trip, she charged taxpayers $796 for four nights at the hotel.

Pembroke Pines Mayor Frank Ortis, with a commute of 25 miles, billed taxpayers $889.48 for four nights.
When asked about it six months later, Ortis said "it doesn't make any sense to stay overnight in Miami," and reimbursed the city for his hotel bill.
Indeed, while not expressly prohibited under their formal policies, Pembroke Pines, Hallandale Beach and Lauderhill generally bar employees from staying overnight in Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties. Cooper, however, declined to repay the city for her stay, saying it was a business-related expense.
"I am not there fluffing my own feathers," she said. "Rather than dragging through traffic it was just easier to stay overnight. ... Why would I reimburse the city for part of my job?"
Honestly, could I make that up?

For the record, here's the exact distance from Hallandale
Beach City Hall to the hotel that Mayor Joy Cooper
couldn't manage:


Driving directions to 100 Chopin Plaza,
Miami, FL 33131
17.7 mi – about 26 mins
400 S Federal Hwy
Hallandale, FL 33009
1.Head east on SE 5th St toward S Federal Hwy/FL-5/US-1
7 ft
2.Turn right at S Federal Hwy/FL-5/US-1
Continue to follow FL-5/US-1
0.9 mi
3.Take the exit toward NE 203rd St/FL-854
0.3 mi
4.Turn right at NE 203rd St/FL-854
Continue to follow FL-854
1.2 mi
5.Turn left to merge onto I-95 S
14.4 mi
6.Take exit 2C & 2A on the left towardBiscayne Blvd
0.7 mi
7.Merge onto SE 3rd St (signs for Biscayne Blvd/SE 3rd St)
0.2 mi
8.Slight left at S Biscayne Blvd/FL-5/US-1/US-41
233 ft
100 Chopin Plaza, Miami, FL 33131




"Costs" also doesn't explain why -yet again!- the
American flag has been missing from in front of the
Hallandale Beach Fire/Rescue station next to
the public beach on State Road A1A for MONTHS,
as a walk by there yesterday afternoon quickly
confirmed, just like my previous 20 visits before that.
(See photo below.)

Yes, yesterday, July 3rd, 2009, which was the 23rd
straight month that the so-called 'community center'
beneath the iconic Hallandale Beach Water Tower
was closed to the regular taxpayers and residents of
Hallandale Beach, with ZERO citywide public meeting
or Forums on it ever having been held over those two
years under Mayor Cooper or City Manager Good.
And there's nothing currently on the horizon, and that's
not by accident, folks.
That's how little they think of you!

See my April 14th post about that, complete
with photos, which I called, and for good reason:
Hallandale Beach -An interpretive house of cards
that falls apart at the slightest touch of rationality
and evidence

Consider whom we have at the helm as city manager
and mayor, Mike Good and Joy Cooper, two people
with, at best, a tenuous grasp of both reality and the
obvious, which the rest of us see very clearly, even
if it's unpleasant, but which they are forever blind to.

Examined thru that prism, it all begins to make a
certain amount of sense in a 'Garbage In, Garbage
Out' city structure, where continued poor performance
and inability to accomplish something on time and
on budget, or demonstarted poor relations with citizens
is no serious barrier to keeping your job, or even
getting a raise.

Seriously, at this point, you think I'm surprised that
they don't have an American flag flying at the entrance
to the public beach for the Fouth of July weekend?
Nope, not me.

They perform predictably and incompetently, just as
I and so many other people in this city interested in
genuine reform and civic improvement could've predicted
days ago.
Oh wait - I DID predict this early Monday evening
over at Starbucks!

More telling and embarrassing photos of the city's dirty
and unkempt public beach will be here over the next
few days.


Looking south on State Road A1A towards the
HB Water Tower and The Beach Club from the
Hollywood side of the cityline.
July 3, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Looking due east from State Road A1A towards the
HB Water Tower.
July 3, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

So where, exactly, the day before Independence Day,
is the American flag on that city flagpole next to the
public fountain, which has also been empty for weeks?

The same place it's been for MONTHS: Missing in action

What do you know, that's the responsibility of HB's new
DPW Director, John Chidsey, the same fellow who still
hasn't responded to my email of April regarding the Dept.'s
poor performance and the rather self-evident embarrassing
condition of the public beach, that caused even the
Miami New Times to mention it.

Question:
Is it true that less than five months on the job, Chidsey
has already gone on vacation?

Answer: On my way to run an errand this past week,
I ran into someone -a very trustworthy and well-informed
person at HB City Hall, an oxymoron- that Chidsey
wasn't around this past week, but ought to be back on
Monday.

Sure, because why would you want to actually go over
to the public beach you're responsible for, before the
first time so many taxpayers and residents show-up there
for the city's smaller-scale Fourth of July celebration,
and actually walk around a bit and make sure that it
doesn't look like crap? So he didn't.

That's how much he and his father-in-law care for you,
Hallandale Beach.

The day before Independence Day, the public beach
in HB looked no different than it did last week, last month
and last year.
Which means things are definitely getting worse.

The flies were really out in force yesterday at the South
Beach, no doubt because the city STILL uses garbage
cans without lids at the windiest place in the city, which
I noticed as the flies made bombing runs at my bagel
from Panera's.

And, shocker, just like last week and last month and
last year, there were zero light blue recycling bins
up at crowded North Beach.

And in case you were wondering, there were lots of
aluminum cans and garbage all over the supposedly
protected plants, as well as the usual piles of hundreds
of cigarettes that the city never actually cleans up or
sifts, preferring instead to just cover them over with sand.
They don't clean the beach so much as level it!

But there were three empty light blue recycling bins over
on South Beach, lying on their side next to the park-side
of the public restrooms.
Hm-m-m... must be some kind of experiment, huh?

Yes, the John Chidsey Experiment that Isn't working
out for Hallandale Beach taxpayers or beach-goers.