Showing posts with label Josh Brown. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Josh Brown. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 23, 2018

Some things never change, like the abysmal level of #ethics in Hallandale Beach. Names change, roster of allies change, but HB determined to see itself as special and deserving of special rules, not ones the rest of world and Florida are governed by

Some things never change, like the abysmal level of #ethics in Hallandale Beach. Names change, roster of allies change, but HB determined to see itself as special and deserving of special rules, not ones the rest of world and Florida are governed by
Below are my Twitter responses to Red Broward blogger Tom Lauder's piece from last Tuesday 
about some very curious doings behind Hallandale Beach City Hall at the Cultural Center, a place where the city's self-evident political, racial and social polarization are always present during Early Voting.
 
@RedBroward BUSTED? Hallandale Beach Commissioner Caught With Illegal Voter Card Targeting African-American Churches
That polarization, especially its racial component, is something that I have personally witnessed to my amazement dozens and dozens of times the past 15 years, which was often carried-out with the help of former Mayor Joy Cooper and her campaign supporters, always so quick to help someone who can help them out when nobody is looking.
But nothing compares to the skullduggery that takes place on the actual Election Day, esp. at the neighborhood sites in Hallandale Beach, where you can be forgiven for plausibly thinking the Balkan Wars of the 1990's were still taking place.
Yes, for so long, rather than fighting over what were the best ideas or best solutions for the city's many longstanding problems, problems and imperfections that I can literally recite from memory, what you find are years-old personal and political grievances writ large never far from the surface, complete with the motley cast of characters and hangers-on always play to type and cliché, with fist-fights, calls to 911 and then the rush to cast themselves as a victim to their friends and the general public. It's all so sad and pathetic and... predictable. 

(I even recall the Election Day scene at Ingalls Park in southwestern Hallandale Beach within the past ten years, where several Hallandale Beach police cars were forced to respond to a call about an actual fight involving involving Dr. Deborah Brown herself, where about 6-8 HB cops were positioned afterwards in the area to keep Brown and her Cooper-supporters from trying to physically intimidate or verbally harass supporters of pro-reform candidates at Ingalls Park that I knew. Yet another low in a sea of so many head-shaking things under Cooper's reign of ruin.)

Most of you know will know nothing at all about this matter below, but on the chance that you have been thinking about things other than elections today, five days before the real Election Day, it's a sad reminder that so many of the things that I and so many of you have fought against for many years, namely, against unethical behavior, doesn't just exist but THRIVE in a city of less than 5 square miles.
A city where it should actually be quite easy to reach residents, Small Business owners and voters if you were serious about communicating your concerns and solutions.
By the way, please don't sleep on the #scoop that I mention below regarding what former HB Mayor Joy Cooper did when contacted by the Office of the Broward Inspector General and the Broward state's attorney regarding the only arrest made in the entire years-long HB CRA scandal that wasted tens of millions of dollars.
http://www.broward.org/InspectorGeneral/Documents/20130418OIG11020FinalReport.pdf

http://www.broward.org/InspectorGeneral/PublicationsPress/Documents/OIG11020-201405219-BrownMemo.pdf

--------
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-2014-05-20-fl-hallandale-band-director-arrest-20140520-story.html
School director charged with stealing city funds
Robert Nolin, Sun Sentinel

The director of a private arts school in Hallandale Beach — and onetime recipient of a city humanitarian award — has been charged with bilking thousands in city funds earmarked for a student trip.

Deborah Brown, 52, Hallandale Beach, surrendered herself to Broward Sheriff's investigators Monday on a charge of grand theft. A warrant had been issued for her arrest last week with bond set at $1,000.

Brown, band leader for Gulfstream Middle School in Hallandale Beach, is also director of the Palms Center for the Arts, a nonprofit school for drama, dance and music. In March 2010, she received a $5,000 grant from the city's Community Redevelopment Agency for a class trip to Washington, D.C.

According to police reports, Brown only spent $323 on the trip. The remainder she diverted for private use: $2,000 in cash withdrawals for herself and her brother; $683 for a payment to an Orlando resort timeshare; $258 for a rental car; and $200 in cellphone costs.

The fund diversion was uncovered during an audit of the city's CRA by the county's inspector general.

In January 2010, two months before the alleged theft, Brown received Hallandale Beach's Martin Luther King Jr. Humanitarian Award for 25 years of community service.

City spokesman Peter Dobens said Brown was never a city employee and only received grant money for her after-school music program. "We haven't had a relationship with her for a couple of years," he said.

Despite the arrest, Brown will retain her band leader job. Under School Board policy, employees charged criminally will not be disciplined until their case is concluded. "It doesn't affect her current job status," district spokeswoman Nadine Drew said of the arrest.

Mayor Joy Cooper said Brown's educational work has benefitted the community. "Dr. Brown has helped many needy children through PCA's art programs," she said.

rnolin@tribune.com or 954-356-4525

----
"The Broward County Inspector General’s Office has launched another inquiry into Hallandale Beach’s Community Redevelopment Agency, three years after finding the city “grossly mismanaged” millions of dollars in CRA funds."
http://www.floridabulldog.org/2016/06/browards-inspector-general/

Joy Cooper did this WITHOUT ever telling the elected HB City Commission about the letter she received from law enforcement, never asking them what they thought should be done, or even having a recorded vote on the matter.
Instead, Cooper wrote back that her good friend, the convicted Dr. Brown, did NOT have to pay back the thousands of dollars she stole that, according to her own CRA application, was supposed to help kids, a fact that she took full advantage of when she was using the money to buy cosmetics or help pay for her condo.
Just as she had done previously dozens of times, Joy Cooper just decided she would nudge the elected City Commission out of the way and substitute her own very bad judgment.
Predictably.
So yes, you are right, I have provided you with a bit of a scoop, since I first heard about it when it took place, but I ask you, how come the South Florida news media has STILL never reported on this fact, despite it taking place LAST YEAR?
Why didn't they mention it?
   
@RedBroward BUSTED? Hallandale Beach Commissioner Caught With Illegal Voter Card Targeting African-American Churches






















More tomorrow re the ethical scandal behind the ethical scandal at Hallandale Beach City Hall that the South Florida news media has slept on the past 18 months.
Even if you think you know how thin-skinned, self-referential and flat-out LOW former Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper was prepared to go in order to hold onto power, you just won't believe the level of chutzpah Joy Cooper can show, even to law enforcement officials.
Really!

Friday, March 6, 2015

ICYMI: the DOUBLE Hallandale Beach connection on the recent story about fired Miami Gardens police chief arrested after a prostitution arrest; Surprise! It's City Manager Renee Miller and the Hallandale Beach CRA

In case you forgot about this -or never knew it- the former Miami Gardens deputy Police Chief Paul Miller referred to in the Miami Herald article below about the just-resigned Stephen Johnsonwho resigned amid allegations of harassment and illegal stop-and-frisk tactics at the 207 Quikstop, is the husband of current Hallandale Beach City Manager Renee (Crichton) Miller.






Renee Miller, whom you will recall like it was yesterday, is the very same woman who so famously and frequently lectured us over recent years at HB City Commission and CRA meetings that one of the reasons that SHE was so well-qualified to undermine the valid and scathing criticisms that you and I have so frequently made public with self-evident evidence about the longtime incompetent and unsatisfactory doings of the HB CRA and the equally-curious, perplexing (and unsatisfactory) 

policies and practices of HBPD that routinely wastes personnel and resources like there's no tomorrow, was because... SHE helped create and manage them in Miami Gardens before she was (so foolishly) hired here.

Of course, when a certain charming, well-informed and well-known female HB civic activist of our acquaintance decided to contact the City of Miami Gardens last year to inquire about this boast of Renee Miller's and put it to the test, the folks in Miami Gardens more than scratched their heads.
Let's just say that THEY didn't quite remember recent history the way our current City Manager tells it. 
Not at all. 
Surprise!

In case you missed the amazing recent This American Life segment on the Miami Gardens Police Dept. and the 207 Quickstop while Paul Miller was Deputy Chief, it's here.
You might want to sit down before you listen to it!


The second HB angle on the story is that Police Chief Johnson was the pastor at HB-based Bethel House of God Church at 516 NW 4th Avenue, a past recipient of HB CRA largesse.

You might better remember Bethel from this doc written by Marcum LLP, a January 2012 draft for the City of Hallandale Beach in the form of an Agreed-Upon Procedures Draft in response to the HBCRA's years of completely inadequate and invisible financial control over millions of HBCRA dollars by City Managers Mike Good and Mark Antonio and their two -and current- Assistant City Managers, Nydia Rafols and
Jennifer Frastai, former City Attorney David Jove, Mayor Joy Cooper and the four other members of the HB City Commission acting as the CRA Board, where nobody drawing a HB paycheck ever bothered to verify whether CRA funds were being spent properly or prudently, to say nothing of being spent as outlined in their own formal requests for funding.
Or, whether it had simply been used for pocket money. 

Which as we know from the Broward State's Attorney's Office, happened in the case of one of Mayor Cooper's most-vocal political supporters, Dr. Deborah Brownthe little minnow that was arrested per Inspector General: Hallandale Beach ‘grossly mismanaged’ millions in public funds
while no HB elected officials or bureaucrats were arrested or fired.

Or perhaps you know Bethel House better from this doc from 2012;

Yes, THAT Dr. Deborah Brown.

From last Spring:

BROWN, DEBORAH R

INMATE INFORMATION

Arrest Number: 801400840 Arrest Date: 05/19/2014 
Race: B Sex: F DOB: 10/09/1961 
Height: 504  Weight: 179 Hair: BRO Eyes: BRO 
Arresting Agency: MAIN JAIL 
* Location: Main Jail 
* Visitation: 2B View Schedule
* Expected Release Date:  

click to enlarge  

CHARGE(S) INFORMATION

Charge Number:1
Case Number:14006686cf10a
Statute:812.014-2c1
Description:GRAND THEFT>$300<$5000
Charge Comment:NIC
Charge Status:PENDING TRIAL (Surety Bond is pending)
Bond Type:BD
Bond Amount:1,000.00
Disposition:
Projected Sent. End Date*:
* Subject to Change

The Deborah Brown the city gave its MLK Humanitarian of the Year award to, remember, even as I discovered on my own -long before the Broward IG- that she was routinely failing to file required non-profit financial documents for her group with the IRS.
Not that anyone at HB City Hall was checking that.

The very woman who annually leased property from the city/CRA in NW Hallandale Beach for years for peanuts -$10.
AFTER the city poured lots of taxpayer money into it.

Property that as you'll recall had previously belonged to Comm. Anthony Sanders and his wife, which was bought from them by the city for about $89,000 more than it was actually worth.
And when time came to vote on the purchase, not surprisingly, Comm. Sanders didn't
have the good sense to recuse himself on the vote, as HB's former City Attorney David 
Jove, the legal bump-on-the-log waiting to retire and collect his pension, simply let it all 
slide, as he had for so many years.

Trust me, the Local10 video with Glenna Milberg, as well as my own comments, speak volumes: 



The Hallandale Beach scandal that won't go away

Above,  501 N.W. 1st Avenue, which in Hallandale Beach polite society and public policy circles is considered THE most egregious example of dozens of exasperating and highly-questionable examples of dubious government spending and crony capitalism that've taken place on Mayor Joy Cooper's ten-year watch, and one of the most dubious of any in Broward County, which is REALLY saying something. 
It's the infamous former property owned by HB Comm. Anthony A. Sanders and his wife, Jessica, that has seen so many tens of thousands of Hallandale Beach taxpayer dollars and CRA dollars poured into it. 
For what, THIS?

A property which was bought by the city without ANY plan for its future use, and which is now rented to a non-profit for $10 a year, and which Sanders can still use for free? 
(Some of the above is from 2012 blog posts.) 
The same public property that Deborah Brown's brother, Josh, used for some very curious purposes, including, perhaps, at least temporarily for purposes of running for office.
But isn't using that a prohibited purpose on public property? 

Yes.

The same public property controlled by Deborah Brown that had partisan campaign signs for Mayor Cooper, Comm. Sanders and Comm. Julian on it for WEEKS in 2012 prior to the November election?
Campaign signs on taxpayer property? Yes.





From my October 15, 2012 blog post titled, 'Ethics? Not for us! Follow-up to my post re Hallandale Beach's unethical "business as usual" attitude, with "special rules for special people" if they are named Joy Cooper, Bill Julian and Anthony A. Sanders; What ethics? What rules? @MayorCooper, @SandersHB"

Deborah Brown's attack on a Keith London for Mayor volunteer at a HB election site at Ingalls Park in SW HB on Election Day in 2012 precipitated HBPD being called in to bring order there.
And actually having to keep many police officers on hand to make sure that Brown and 
other Cooper for Mayor supporters didn't start physically attacking their opponents -again.

Or did you never read about that bit of news in the Herald and the Sun-Sentinel?
For obvious reasons, you also never saw that fact appear in the HB CRA-subsidized South Florida Sun-Times, HB City Hall's propaganda sheet.
HB citizens' reality in the current media age is as certain as death and taxes: being ignored ad infinitum and watching as far too many print and TV reporters accept pablum from HB City Hall as an explanation rather than concentrating on what is right in front of them and raining cold hard facts down upon officials and forcing them to account for what REALLY happens here.

But then the reality here is that two groups that ought to be looking out for HB citizens, the Broward IG office and the Broward States Attorney office are NOT fully doing their job with any sign of gusto, either, given how much entrenched incompetency and corruption has been going for years in this target-rich environment.

As it happens, since I was at Ingalls Park within minutes of HBPD being called, I took several photos of all the HBPD cops forced to stand around for hours and hours doing nothing but drinking Cokes and playing with their cell phones.
I never ran the photos on my blog because at a certain point, even after all these years, no matter how hard I try to stay vigilant, how do you (I) accurately describe the surreal dimensions of HB's everyday reality?

Trust me, people in the rest of Florida and around the country can't believe what we routinely are forced to bear and to accept as "normal" every day in Hallandale Beach.
Nobody is going to help us but ourselves.
More thoughts on that next week.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

The City of Hallandale Beach's rules are clear -NO political activity on city property. But Josh Brown, Jr. doesn't care about our rules. He wants what HE wants, and our rules don't scare him...; @SandersHB

Below is a copy of an email that I sent to Hallandale Beach City Manager Renee Crichton and some other city officials around 3 p.m. Tuesday afternoon.

It's one that I felt was necessary after receiving a  disturbing phone call Tuesday morning about YET ANOTHER outrageous attempt by one of the more outlandish characters in this city with connections to HB City Hall, trying to get away with truly egregious behavior and intentionally trying to usurp the city's own rules, this time, in order to help their political friends. 

(If I told you that the friends are people NOT interested in genuine reform or financial accountability at HB City Hall, does that help narrow it down for you?)

I sent it to about 125 people, including bcc's to other elected officials in Broward County, some folks up in Tallahassee and a cc to the Broward Inspector General's office.
If I receive a response from City Manager Crichton I will print it here for you to peruse yourself.

FYI: The email references to DBS are in fact ones to yours truly, HBB.


-----------------------------------
Tuesday October 22, 2012 

Dear City Manager Crichton:

In my opinion, it's hardly surprising that someone with as checkered a public past as Josh Brown, Jr. would try to stretch and then break clear-cut City of Hallandale Beach administrative rules and ordinances designed to prevent people from taking advantage of city taxpayers.
No political activity on city property.

As you can read at the bottom of this email, the facts are pretty clear about what Brown has done in the past, the sort of unethical practices and fraud he has attempted in the past to take advantage of others, all in order to gain something of value to which he was not legally entitled to.
In the case cited below, trying to open a checking account under false pretenses, in order to solicit funds under the name of a political group to which he was NOT legally authorized to represent.
Keep that phrase in mind as you read this email -intentional misrepresentation.

Even though it's perfectly common sense on its own terms, it's no surprise to anyone that the city has rules that specifically forbid political campaigning by candidates or their representatives on city property for reasons that we can all understand and appreciate.

So, given these facts, what is surprising to me is NOT that Josh Brown, Jr. would think that he is too clever to get caught in attempting to break those rules and get away with engaging in political campaigning at city facilities, in order to directly assist his friend, Comm. Anthony A. Sanders, who votes on whether the non-profit group Brown  is a Director of receives city taxpayer funds or CRA funds.

The Hallandale Beach scandal that won't go away

(At a property owned by the city at 501 N.W. First Avenue. A property formerly owned by Comm. Sanders and his wife, and purchased by  the city without, as I have lamented, a legitimate plan. Plus, thanks to a motion made by then-Comm. Bill Julian in 2009, inexplicably, it allows former owner and current Comm. Sanders to use the parcel he already sold for FREE until the building is leveled. © 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved)

No, Brown and Comm. Sanders are clearly more than ships passing in the night,  so what IS surprising to me is that Brown honestly thinks that other citizens of this city, especially pro-reform citizens like myself and many of my friends who want this community to be MUCH more than it is now, would simply stand aside and let him succeed in perpetrating this fraud  he is currently planning for Wednesday night.

To wit, using the pretext of his reserving space at the city's new Foster Park facility -without paying for it himself!- for "voter education" as a ruse for Brown to conveniently have Comm. Sanders and Bill Julian come over for a bit and use that space to campaign with voters.

As I understand it, Brown then called what he was trying to do a "debate," something that was NOT mentioned in his formal request to use the facility according to a conversation I had with HB Parks & Rec. Director Cathie Schanz, when I called her about this matter Monday morning, to let her know what was really going on.

Frankly, I didn't think that it was right for Brown to not only get away with intentionally trying to break the rules and get away with something that is impermissible, and I also didn't like the idea of this sort of thing, after-the-fact, reflecting poorly on her Dept., solely because Brown was so confident that he could pull this off, including lying about what he was doing if need be.
Well, this email to you today is proof that he failed to carry out his misrepresentation and deception.

Besides, for something to be a real "debate," don't you actually have to have ALL of the candidates present to argue their various points and policies?
Of course, but that notion of basic fairness is NOT what Josh Brown, Jr. had in mind for Wednesday night.
No, instead, he wanted to take advantage of the city's taxpayers and ignore the city's own rules and play kingmaker, inviting people he liked to use city facilities to speak to voters -to campaign.
Period.

Despite all the people he knows in this city and who perhaps owe him favors, Brown does NOT get to write his own rules and laws in this city. 
Nor does he get to use the city's facilities, taxpayer facilities, as his personal or political clubhouse and hangout for himself and his pals.

It seems to me that it is long past time for Josh Brown, Jr. to accept that society and this city have rules and laws, and he is NOT above them.

From the public record we already know that Josh Brown, Jr. doesn't much care what others think about what he says and does, otherwise, he would never have been allowed to engage in his politically partisan remarks at the Foster Park opening ceremonies a few weeks ago.
Plain and simple, Brown and his friends will keep pushing the boundaries of right and wrong until he is finally stopped.

Owing to the importance of the city's rules actually being followed and fairly enforced, I'm sending copies of this letter to others in the community with a strong interest in that, with no "special rules for special people," as has been common practice here for years.

The most recent example of this attitude of entitlement is that on the property of the very city-owned building that Josh Brown Jr. spends so much time at, the one formerly owned by Comm. Sanders, is also where where political campaign yard signs for Comm. Sanders, Bill Julian and Mayor Joy Cooper were erected and allowed to stay.
For weeks.

Above, October 3rd, 2012 © 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

And the three of them still have political yard signs on church property.
Specifically, the S.W. corner of Chuch of Christ at Hallandale Beach, and the  intersection of First Avenue and S.W. 3rd Street, a well-traveled east-west secondary road.

I don't know you that well, Ms. Crichton, but I suspect that I don't have to 
tell you why the idea of political signs on church property isn't a good one, and is actually illegal, or what can happen to non-profits like churches if they engage in political activity.
The IRS is very clear about this point.

Inline image 2

Above and below, October 3rd, 2012.
© 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved
Inline image 4
© 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved
People who should know better, actual adults who already know the rules, have once again tried to seek an advantage by intentionally breaking rules and laws that we all have to follow.
No, they are NOT exactly role models for the very kids they say they are attempting to educate and influence.

Please make whatever arrangements you deem necessary with the assistance of the City Attorney, the Police Dept. and, perhaps, Code Compliance to ensure that they have the resources they need Wednesday night to prevent one well-known person with connections in this town from abusing the rules that everyone in this city is supposed to follow.

IF you don't stop this sort of effort now, it will only grow increasingly worse over the coming years.

Sincerely,

DBS, Nine-year resident of Hallandale Beach
http://www.hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/HallandaleBeachBlog



---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: InspectorGeneral
Date: Thu, Oct 4, 2012 at 10:31 AM
Subject: RE: re unscrupulous Josh Brown, Jr., Director of non-profit in Hallandale Beach that receives city funds - Why wasn't he prosecuted?
To: "DBS"


Your email  has been received by the Broward Office of the Inspector General.  Your information will be reviewed to determine what action will be taken.

Sincerely,

Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: cid:image001.png@01CD9292.68C95D40

Broward Office of the Inspector General

------ 


Sent: Wednesday, October 03, 2012 2:41 PM
To: Timothy Donnelly
Cc: InspectorGeneral; Attorney General Pam Bondi

Subject: re unscrupulous Josh Brown, Jr., Director of non-profit in Hallandale Beach that receives city funds - Why wasn't he prosecuted?


October 3rd, 2012

Below my email to you today is a self-explanatory email I sent to South Florida
Times reporter Elgin Jones almost a month ago.

In it, I asked Mr. Jones if he had any more information about the well-documented 
activities and behavior of Josh Brown, Jr. of Hallandale Beach, a state-registered 
Director of a non-profit in Hallandale Beach called Palms Center for the Arts, Inc., 
which is run by his sister, Dr. Deborah Brown, who is its President.

Activities that Mr. Jones documented in his columns and on YouTube with a victim 
of Mr. Brown's activities, which I have links to on that email to Mr. Jones.

This organization has received tens of thousands of city dollars for many years
and operates out of a city-owned building that saw many thousands of dollars
poured into it before they moved-in, for which they pay Hallandale Beach taxpayers
the rather princely sum of $10 a year in rent for a building that the city itself claimed
was legally appraised for $235,000. Quite a deal! 
For them, not Hallandale Beach taxpayers

To say the least, the known behavior of Mr. Brown could at best, charitably, be
described as unscrupulous, to say nothing if not mendacious, fraudulent and
likely criminal.
In fact, that's exactly what it looks like, Mr. Donnelly.

Even in Broward County, intentionally misrepresenting yourself and your position 
within a non-profit, the Broward Democratic Black Caucus, to bank officials for the
purposes of opening a bank account so that you can illegally solicit funds throughout 
Broward County for an organization that you are NOT legally authorized to represent,
is NOT kosher.
Or legal.

And then there's that lingering questions about how it came to be that the Internet
is absolutely chock-full of information that show that at some point in the recent 
past, after the Palms Center for the Arts moved-in, Josh Brown, Jr. used the address
of this non-profit on city-owned property as the address for a personal political 
effort of his. Really. 
As if that was the most natural thing in the world to do.

It certainly gives me and many other concerned Hallandale Beach residents some
useful insight into Brown's willingness to do whatever he wants, and to laugh at the
rules, protocol or laws that everyone else has to follow.

Given his status as a Director at the Palms Center for the Arts, Inc., which continues
to receive city funds, my two questions for you, Mr. Donnelly are simple ones.

1.) How can Hallandale Beach taxpayers have any confidence in an organization
that has, as a Director, a man that has already tried to commit fraud to help himself
to money destined for a non-profit that he was not legally entitled to? 
Why must Hallandale Beach taxpayers have to wonder when the next shoe is going
to drop?

2.) Why was Josh Brown, Jr. not prosecuted by the SAO for his documented illegal
actions?

In the past few years, when I have written you and your office fact-filled emails about
highly-questionable ethical or illegal behavior/activities about the City of Hallandale
Beach that I have personally seen or have knowledge of, or been the victim of,
your office have chosen NOT to respond in any way to my queries. 

As a consequence of that track record of indifference, Mr. Donnelly, I'm sending 
copies of this email to roughly about 150 people or so in South Florida.

That not only includes Hallandale Beach's most well-informed and concerned citizens,
but also certain print/TV reporters, columnists, producers and station management
as well as local area elected officials, and others.
People who have more than a passing interest in Hallandale Beach being free of corruption
and criminal activity or influence.

And just as importantly, city tax dollars or CRA funds NOT going down the drain 
or being absconded with, due to the chronic lack of appropriate oversight by the 
Hallandale Beach City Commission, or timely and thorough auditing, due to their
longstanding love of crony capitalism with CRA and tax dollars.

Perhaps I'll hear from you at some point, perhaps not.
Given the lack of response from the SAO office in the past, you'll certainly understand 
that I'm not exactly holding my breath.

Sincerely yours,
DBS

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From:"DBS"
Date: Fri, Sep 7, 2012 at 9:35 AM
Subject: re Your 2009 article, BROWARD DEMOCRATIC BLACK CAUCUS ELECTION VOIDED re Josh Brown
To: "Jones, Elgin"
Cc: "DBS"
September 7, 2012
Dear Mr. Jones:

re your 2009 article, BROWARD DEMOCRATIC BLACK CAUCUS ELECTION VOIDED

Have you ever heard or been given a reasonable explanation for why Dr. Deborah R. Brown's
brother, Josh Brown, Jr., whom you reference in your article, and a Director at the Palms Center
for the Arts, Inc. that she is President of, which, according to documents they themselves provided
to the City of Hallandale Beach last year,
is NOT a 501(c)3 as most people assume


was, apparently, never prosecuted by the Broward State's Attorney for his leading role in attempting
to commit a fraud against the Broward Democratic Black Caucus in 2009, by engaging in a coup
against a legally-chartered political organization, including as you wrote at the time of your interview
above, Josh Brown Jr. setting-up a bank account in their name and then later soliciting funds under
false pretenses?

While I appreciate that historically, misrepresentation is often hard to prove in court, per se, this sounds
pretty clear-cut to me.

Also, have you ever heard any sort of plausible explanation given for why Brown was apparently
allowed to illegally use the address of his sister's organization on City of Hallandale Beach-owned
land as an office address for a political campaign or organization of his?
Not a Post Office box he rented or one at a nearby Mailbox Etc. but the actual physical address of
property owned by taxpayers, 501 N.W. 1st Street.

It's this building, where at 0:56 of this July Channel 10 video, hey, what do you know, there's Director 

How has he been able to apparently skate on all these things?

If you have any information or update on these matters that you'd be willing to share, I'd greatly
appreciate hearing from you.

Sincerely,


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