Showing posts with label Michael Satz. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Michael Satz. Show all posts

Thursday, October 18, 2018

How do you solve a problem named Mike Satz? Speculation by Buddy Nevins on whether Broward's state's attorney should run for re-election after 42 years in office gives me a chance to piggy-back and raises some questions of my own regarding Satz & Co's underwhelming performance and the state of ethics in Broward County and Hallandale Beach today, as per Joy Cooper

How do you solve a problem named Mike Satz? Speculation by Buddy Nevins on whether Broward's state's attorney should run for re-election after 42 years in office gives me a chance to piggy-back and raises some questions of my own regarding Satz & Co's underwhelming performance and the state of ethics in Broward County and Hallandale Beach today, as per Joy Cooper

 How do you solve a problem named Mike Satz?

Now there's a question...

 As veteran Broward County political observer and Broward Beat blogger Buddy Nevins writes about and speculates about some of the behind-the-scenes moves swirling around whether Broward State Attorney Michael Satz will defy common sense yet again and run for re-election after being in office since 1976, and who might or should run for the office if he doesn't, I hold a mirror up to Satz and his many past failures to act in ways that I believe he should have.

 That includes one huge lingering question that so many people in Hallandale Beach, Hollywood and other parts of South Florida routinely ask me when I'm minding my own business somewhere, regarding the arrest last December by the FBI of then-Hallandale Beach mayor Joy Cooper on multiple felony counts: "Dave, what took Satz so long?" He sat on almost five years of audiotapes of Joy Cooper bragging about her influence to undercover FBI agents posing as real estate interests.






So, continuing on the subject of Satz, per this story and tweet below by blogger Red Broward, i.e. Tom Lauder,
Hallandale Beach Mayor Keith London Pays Disgraced Former County Commissioner With PAC Funded By Developers & Casinos
https://redbroward.com/2018/10/15/londonpac/

 First, I have known and communicated with Tom for many years. I meant to his tweet on Monday afternoon when I first saw it and read the piece.
I even meant to respond to the other day via a tweet storm but got tied up with something else before I really could.
Then, once I started, I didn't have enough time or energy to do it justice the way I wanted to... folks, real tears!
I discovered that my beloved laptop's not working properly so that what I wrote and saved as a file there on Monday night when I got home isn't available for me to write and post here now.
So, that said, I've added a smaller ad hoc version of that response of mine to Tom's story and tweet below my own tweet.

There's more at: https://twitter.com/RedBroward/with_replies

 Tom: I appreciate that you have a very different take than me re Keith London, now Hallandale beach mayor and someone that I have known for roughly 12 years, many of them when he and I spoke or saw one another 3-4 times a week at times when things were going crazy at South Florida's #1 home of chaos, Hallandale beach City hall.

 That's your right, of course, but Keith -whom I haven't spoken to for longer than 45 seconds in more than 5 years, despite so many people even now persisting in thinking that we're somehow tied to the hip like we often seemed to be years ago- has to deal with reality and one of them is that #Gaming and #Gambling interests have ALWAYS mattered in a small city with two separately-operated casinos & race tracks. (The town and this part of Broward was run by Organized Crime just a few decades ago, as any historian can tell you, and as I know you know as well.)

Not to tell you what to think or how to write your posts and tweets but... personally, I think it'd be a good idea to remind your readers when you write about people associated with Hallandale Beach's "gaming interests" who are communicating with or helping Keith with some effort of his, like it's some sort of nefarious plot, you simply need remind them to take a look at a map and see that Gulfstream Park Race track & casino and its Village at Gulfstream are, literally, across the street from Hallandale Beach City Hall.
AND it's still THE largest employer in the city, such as it is.
That explains Gulfstream Park's interest in what goes on across the street.

But that said, I also need remind you that I have personally been one of the -if not THE- biggest critics of Gulfstream Park's management and its operations in the city for the entire length of the 11 years that I have had my influential blog that LOTS of well-informed people in South Florida read to get insight and perspective they don't get elsewhere.
It's why so many people call me and write me to tell me something or even argue a point, including TV/print reporters and newspaper columnists, some of whom are outside of South Florida but who have an interest in what goes on in South Florida, good and bad, whether in Miami, Tallahassee or Washington, D.C.
It's why reporters and bloggers and other, like you, tag me in their tweets, because they know I know the score and can usually add something to what's on the table.

 At HB City Commission meetings as well as many public events and especially on my blog, I have openly laughed at and enjoyed publicly poking large holes in Gulfstream's feeble excuses for all sorts of actions they've taken over the years, including their well-known propensity in the past to use ex-mayor Joy Cooper as their personal go-to person to get everything they wanted.
Sometimes, as in 2013, that included quite justified large fines for operating against the city's own code and trying to get away with things simply because of who they are -used to calling the tune.
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2013/11/gulfstream-park-race-track-casino-will.html

 Cooper, typically, loved to say she'd take care of it and tried to ram waivers of fines down the HB City Commission without any documentation or even any staff prep, and ignore their proscribed government oversight role. Cooper didn't care, but she also didn't get her way because I let the public know what was what. And one TV reporter in particular - Bob Norman of Local10.

 Local10: Mayor wants $52K fine against Gulfstream Park waived
No vote taken on waiving fine at Hallandale Beach budget meeting
By Bob Norman, Reporter, bnorman@Local10.com, and Ben Candea, Senior Web Producer, bcandea@local10.com
Published On: Oct 04 2013 06:13:16 PM EDT   
Updated On: Oct 04 2013 11:51:10 PM EDT
http://www.local10.com/news/mayor-wants-52k-fine-against-gulfstream-park-waived/-/1717324/22282006/-/p0vivbz/-/index.html


My intimate knowledge of the facts and not just the prevailing media or party narrative, along with some demonstrated shrewdness, plus, actual results, are why I've succeeded in getting negative stories about Gulfstream and other parties on local Miami TV newscasts when they've acted in truly egregious ways that shocked any reasonable person's idea of propriety.
In this case, Gulfstream Park was used to carrying a Big Stick -and was not afraid to use it.
But I'm not afraid of bullies.
Guess how that turned out in the end because of me?

 But all of that said -and it's easy to find on my blog's archives- it is demonstrably true that the Diplomat Hotel and its management team and crew of legal and PR mouthpieces also had a TON of influence at HB City Hall and used that influence and leverage routinely to get what THEY wanted, too, even when HB residents made clear that they were against it, including, famously, the 2009 RAC plan that called for multiple condo towers to go up around their golf course north of F-rated Hallandale Beach Blvd. that were all over twenty-five floors and would have ruined many residents quality of life, including people on Diplomat Parkway who paid thru the nose for homes with unobstructed golf course views and who did not want their home in near-perpetual shade.

 Gulfstream has tried to exploit that perception and beat them at their own game. It's that simple.

 So when writing about the amount of campaign funds that Gulfstream Park gave, be sure to mention that while Gulfstream backed both Michele Lazarow and Annabelle Taub-Lima in their pre-acrimony days vs. Diplomat-backed, ethically-flawed ex-HB Comm. William "Bill" Julian, they still got out-spent by the Diplomat and its minions desperate to get Cooper's pawn Julian back on the dais to do her bidding.
Just saying, proper context and perspective have a place in the Keith London pieces you write.
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Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Ray Downs latest article about poorly-managed Hallandale Beach causes reasonable people to ask: How many more times must residents of Hallandale Beach ask who's more consistently incompetent and lax, the Broward State's Attorney Office or the Hallandale Beach Police Dept.? @RayDowns




Broward NewTimes
Why Hallandale Beach Paid $150,000 to Family of Unarmed Man Shot by Cop  
By Ray Downs 
Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Honestly, how many more times must residents of Hallandale Beach ask who's more consistently incompetent and lax, the Broward State's Attorney Office or the Hallandale Beach Police Dept.?
Just when you think it can't get any worse, #EvenWorse knocks on the door and enters, as today's amazing article by Ray Downs makes clear.
Ever see the initial or final report done 2 years ago by the independent Police consultants re HBPD's request for accreditation, and the Dept.'s response?
I ask because I spoke for quite a bit to the consultants with lots of facts, figures and jaw-dropping anecdotes they'd never heard about previously, anecdotes that fairly illustrated the sad reality of policing here.

Judging by their puzzled reaction in this newest story, I highly doubt the elected members of the HB City Commission have actually read the accreditation reports, all this time later.
Feel free to draw your own conclusions about the Commission's curious work ethic and laissez-faire attitude about fully upholding their job responsibilities and finally holding the HB Police Dept. accountable for its actions and
behavior.

Fortunately, the Broward SAO contest will be one of the most-important election races in all of Broward next year, as new people with energy and determination, to say nothing of a desire to FINALLY bring it firmly into the 21st Century, seek to replace the present myopic embarrassment of a State's Attorney we have in Mr. Satz, and his equally ineffectual and unresponsive staff with people who see their job as SAO as being pro-active and fully-engaged with the community in practice, not just for photo-ops.

Those new candidates for Satz's job won't be quiet all year about that race even if the South Florida news media tries to snooze away the year like they did in 2012, when as I blogged at the time, the Miami Herald's first real story about the campaign actually ran AFTER Early Voting had started and AFTER the paper's Editorial Board had already endorsed Satz.
Sorry, that's not quality #journalism.
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Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Per tonight's crucial Hallandale Beach CRA meeting at 6 p.m., here's an HB CRA primer to bring FL legislators and the press corps up-to-speed, as well as the South Florida Editorial Boards that have been ignoring it at their peril -News Flash: the FL Legislature is NOT going to TOLERATE the sort of self-evident waste of MILLION$ via crony capitalism that HB's CRA Board has been doing for years under the direction of Mayor Cooper

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, after returning to South Florida after 15 years in 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 NEVER worked in the year that  Renee C. Miller has been City Manager. But guess what, 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 when it comes to a consistently unsatisfactory performance for HB taxpayers and businesses in exchange for their taxes. August 7, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier. (c) 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved
Per tonight's crucial Hallandale Beach CRA meeting at 6 p.m., here's an HB CRA & absence-of-ethics primer to bring FL legislators up-to-speed, as well as the South Florida press corps and Editorial Boards that have been ignoring it at their peril - News Flash: the FL Legislature is NOT going to TOLERATE the sort of self-evident waste of MILLION$ via crony capitalism that HB's CRA Board has been doing for years under the direction of Mayor Cooper
My friend and fellow Hallandale Beach and Broward County civic activist Csaba Kulin writes with his customary conviction and precision:
Hallandale Beach adopted the “rope-a-dope” tactics a long time ago. Mayor Cooper and her friends on the commission will take a lot of punches but will not change their ways on less the Governor, the State or Broward County comes down on them like a ton of bricks.
Maybe this time someone will not only listen but will help us to bring an end to this gross mismanagement of our City and CRA. Promises and cover-up will no longer do. A few people benefit at the expense of the rest of the City/CRA.
We need to know the truth, we are entitled to the truth.
We will see tonight who is going to vote for transparency and open government and who is NOT.

And will Broward State's Attorney Mike Satz and Broward Inspector General John W. Scott -or one of their representatives- be present tonight to bear witness to what happens here?

 What about anyone from Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi's regional office in Fort Lauderdale, which has also been completely asleep-at-the-switch for years on this and so many other matters in Hallandale Beach involving Florida's Sunshine Laws and very curious civic administration, doing absolutely nothing about things like months and months of legally-required lobbyist disclosure documents missing from HB City Hall and the city's own website?

If you attend tonight's meeting at City Hall, please be sure to bring along your cameras and video recorders so that you can capture the moment and perhaps capture something going on in the Commission Chambers that I don't see, and I will even give you an incentive.

I will buy a delicious coffee and pastry at the Panera Bread here in town for the non-reporter who sends me the best photo of themselves standing with Mayor Joy Cooper's bosom pal/Broward lobbyist Judy Stern,

 Stern was partners with the mayor and City Manager Renee C. Miller in vigorously fighting against the request of HB Commissioner Michele Lazarow and former HB Comm. Keith London to the Broward County Commission on June 4th to have a thorough audit of the HB CRA done by the Office of Broward County Auditor Evan Lukic,

 In that way, HB residents, taxpayers and small business owners could FINALLY find out where ALL the millions went, since Mayor Cooper has NEVER wanted a thorough audit of the entire CRA performed by an independent third-party.
That's the last thing she wants!

 For the record, as of 1:50 p.m. today, I have still NOT been provided copies by the city of the text messages sent between Judy Stern, Mayor Cooper and City Manager Miller regarding their efforts to thwart an audit of the CRA by the county, weeks after my simple Public Records Request was made.

If you are reading this far from the heat and humidity that is Hallandale Beach in the summer, especially those of you reading this up in Tallahassee, here's what you need to know: It's been Mayor Joy Cooper's great fortune to be an elected official in South Florida at a time when the vast majority of the local public is both apathetic and intensely cynical, and the local press corps, with just a few exceptions, has been both incurious and unwilling to report on what is in plain sight .
And that combination has been my community's great collective misfortune.

By the way, my October 15, 2012 post below, "Ethics? Not for us!" has now been seen over 35,052 times as of Noon.

And without further ado, here's the past 18 months worth of the Greatests Hits of the Hallandale Beach CRA waste, ethics and corruption scandal.

JULY 9, 2013
"High Noon" in Hallandale Beach on Wednesday night? After so many months of HB City Hall intentionally stonewalling the public, the city's long-running CRA scandal and the Broward IG's damning report of the HB CRA Board, alleging "gross mismanagement" of millions of dollars, will FINALLY get a public airing on Wednesday at 6 p.m. at HB City Hall; Is the Florida Joint Legislative Auditing Comm. poised to come to the rescue of long-suffering HB residents who've longed for a complete audit of the entire CRA for many years, and want to see some punishment after years of ZERO accountability and little tangible to show for the MILLIONS that went out the door?
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2013/07/high-noon-in-hallandale-beach-on.html

 JUNE 28, 2013
More intentional Hallandale Beach City Hall misdirection & deception re HB CRA - Media Trackers Florida has more proof of the unseemly behavior at City Hall that HB citizens recognize on sight from past experience: "Hallandale Beach Officials Failed to Document Contacts with Florida Lobbyist"
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2013/06/more-intentional-hallandale-beach-city.html

JUNE 10, 2013
Don't say it with flowers, say it with subpoenas! Subpoenas finally drop on the heads of Hallandale Beach officials, including Mayor Joy Cooper, and now the Joint Legislative Auditing Comm. is showing genuine interest in getting the WHOLE TRUTH from the HB CRA about what happened to all that money. Yes, the scandal in Broward County involving MILLION$ that the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and their Dana Banker & Rosemary Goudreau have been ignoring for months. Future owners of the Sun-Sentinel, please take note!

JUNE 5, 2013
When it comes to Public Integrity, it's "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" at the Broward State Attorney’s Office: What are all you people in Hallandale Beach who want good, clean government looking at me for, anyway? Why are you expecting me to actually do something about the longstanding corruption, incompetency and malfeasance at Hallandale Beach City Hall, to say nothing of what the Broward Inspector General's office just called the city's "gross mismanagement" for years of the HB CRA? After all, I'm only the Broward State's Attorney

JUNE 3, 2013
Questions, questions and more questions about Tuesday's important Broward County Commission meeting re possible audit of controversial Hallandale Beach CRA; Meeting now has an added feature: City Manager Miller and CRA Attorney Zelkowitz who publicly argued that the Broward IG didn't have legal authority over the HB CRA, will now be speaking and playing the role of Wiley E. Coyote before the boulder falls on them. Must-see TV! HB citizens want the truth, not more stonewalling, finger-pointing and spin from city's elected officials and city employees

MAY 31, 2013
Given the longstanding mismanagement and corruption involving MILLIONS of dollars at Hallandale Beach CRA, why has Broward's independent Office of Inspector General refused to hold a single outreach mtg. with citizens in Hallandale Beach, while OIG has met with other Broward civic groups? It's very perplexing and counterintuitive to getting cold hard facts out into the sunshine and the public realm

MAY 22, 2013
Mark your calendar for June 4th! Latest news re controversial Hallandale Beach CRA: Keith London set to appear at Broward County Commission and urge them to heed the recommendations of the Broward IG's damning report on HB CRA, urge Broward County Auditor to perform audit and get a full-accounting for HB taxpayers of where the $70 million has gone; Need to get FL Joint Legislative Auditing Comm. more involved, per my previous emails to Sen. Jeremy Ring

MAY 3, 2013
Csaba Kulin asks Hallandale Beach City Attorney Whitfield THE question HB citizens have long wondered, esp. as the Broward IG's Office has been busy investigating the city and turning-up mountains of incriminating and jaw-dropping evidence: Who at HB City Hall is supposed to make sure that applicable laws, ordinances and rules, especially those regarding ethics and conflicts of interest, are followed and enforced fairly? Teaser Alert: You won't like her answer

APRIL 24, 2013
The Broward IG returns serve on Hallandale Beach's embarrassing and mis-behaving tinhorn pols & officials re HB CRA. They get a dose of cold hard reality poured on them, the first of so many to come in their well-deserved comeuppance in the court of public opinion. Their karma is going to be a bitch!; @MayorCooper, @SandersHB, @AlexLewy

APRIL 19, 2013
Wither Florida's Sunshine Laws? Part II: Investigating the continuing dysfunction, lack of appropriate disclosure of public information and the generally imperious anti-citizen attitude at Hallandale Beach City Hall under Mayor Joy Cooper; Yet MORE on the City of Hallandale Beach's failure to comply with legally-required public disclosure/lobbying laws, as well as the accuracy and timeliness of public records on HB's own website; Lobbying records that are supposed to be timely and accurate are TWO MONTHS old, making any pretense of genuine lobbying disclosure a joke; @MayorCooper

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

APRIL 4, 2013
Follow-up email to FL Gov. Rick Scott about MILLION$ more down the drain at Hallandale Beach City Hall. MORE of what we already knew and always suspected and now it's Q.E.D. yet again -Bill Gjebre in Broward Bulldog: "Hallandale city managers erased millions in code violation fines with little oversight"; @MayorCooper, @SandersHB, @AlexLewy

MARCH 19, 2013
Part I: Investigating the continuing dysfunction, lack of appropriate disclosure of public information and the generally imperious anti-citizen attitude at Hallandale Beach City Hall under Mayor Joy Cooper; Matters that anyone could see if they just looked -I looked and here's what I found in late February 2013

MARCH 14, 2013
Is Hallandale Beach Comm. Alexander Lewy -Lewy the Liar- running for FL House 100 in 2014? Yes, but opponents/voters have a treasure trove of evidence to show why he's a poor choice to represent anyone anywhere, given his uncontrollable know-it-all personality and pro-govt. mindset, and penchant for always thinking he knows best, even when self-evident facts show why he's wrong; Friends Helping Friends Dept.: Last Tuesday Lewy was honored by group at the same address he voted to give $200k CRA loan to (that still owed taxpayers money for previous loan) and voted $50k to just weeks ago. Plus, another deal for Rabbi Tennenhaus; @AlexLewy
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2013/03/is-hallandale-beach-comm-alexander-lewy.html

FEBRUARY 20, 2013
No end in sight for Hallandale Beach's ethical problems with CRA funds: The Palms Community Action Coalition's lack of public transparency -and Murvin Wright's fingers in so many pies- are THE logical result of years of unethical dealings in Hallandale Beach, wherein taxpayer & CRA dollars routinely go out to pals of City Hall, and compliance with laws, common sense and real-world notions of oversight and conflict-of-interest take second place to personal/political gain
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2013/02/no-end-in-sight-for-hallandale-beachs.html

DECEMBER 18, 2012
Good news for Hallandale Beach taxpayers! Rare victory for common sense and financial accountability at City Hall courtesy of Comm. Michele Lazarow
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/12/good-news-for-hallandale-beach.html

DECEMBER 16, 2012
Public corruption & incompetency hiding in plain sight - The Hallandale Beach CRA and its Exec. Director, Alvin Jackson, along with CRA "Directors" like Alexander Lewy, show their true colors -yet again! One thinks he's above the law and the other one wants to ignore the law on how CRAs operate; Broward Bulldog: Broward IG says Hallandale made “immense” gaffe in overseeing $12.7 million in city bonds; @AlexLewy, @SandersHB
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/12/public-corruption-incompetency-hiding.html

NOVEMBER 9, 2012
Hallandale Beach's Midnight Vigilante is no Paul Revere! Caught in the act: Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper's son's Midnight Ride of campaign sign-stealing -on Election Day!; Anything goes now in HB -even political intimidation- as Broward IG & Broward SAO sleepwalk while laws & ethics are repeatedly laughed at by pols in power; @MayorCooper, #FDLE, @myfloridalegal, @fbi.gov

 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
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-city-of-hallandale-beachs-rules-are.html

 OCTOBER 15, 2012
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
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/10/ethics-not-for-us-follow-up-to-my-post.html

 SEPTEMBER 19, 2012
More tough questions for Hallandale Beach taxpayers to ponder as voting draws near on 2013 budget for controversial CRA; Why can't the city provide real oversight and criticize Jessica Sanders' continued inability to properly manage the Palms Community Action Coalition, which gets CRA funds? Because her husband is a commissioner, the same man who hides from savvy taxpayers rather than answer their questions about his land sale to the city in 2009 -for MORE than property was worth!; @MayorCooper, @SandersHB, @AlexLewy 
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/09/more-questions-as-hallandale-beach-gets.html

 JUNE 28, 2012
Hallandale Beach's political corruption is hiding in plain sight -"Your Tax Dollars at Work" Hallandale Beach CRA (City Commission) Says Hands Off to Broward Inspector General; Mayor Joy Cooper's stonewalling initiative begins in earnest, since the true facts are NOT her friend
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/06/hallandale-beachs-political-corruption.html

 JUNE 26, 2012
Cornered! Pious Comm. Anthony A. Sanders consistently ignored Hallandale Beach's most-concerned taxpayers, and now, as they see their suspicions about him proving to be entirely justified by an IG investigation, because of his own words, deeds and votes, they're urging him to quit and come clean. Words, deeds and votes that the South Florida press corps has almost completely ignored for four long years.

 http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/06/cornered-pious-comm-anthony-sanders.html

 JUNE 23, 2012
As we get closer-and-closer to the real targets in Hallandale Beach of Broward IG John W. Scott's inquiry, longstanding questions begin to get the overdue attention they always deserved, while many of the 'Usual Suspects' have good reason to be VERY concerned; @MayorCooper, @SandersHB, @AlexLewy

 JUNE 22, 2012
The more you know about the culture of corruption and incompetency in Hallandale Beach, the less this news surprises you: A week later, Hallandale Beach's elected officials and employees are still REFUSING to cooperate with the Broward Inspector General's Office in their probe of HB City Hall

 http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/06/more-you-know-about-culture-of.html

 JUNE 3, 2012
From the blog's cold storage vault, circa 2010: Another Hallandale Beach story the South Florida news media originally ignored for YEARS: faux journalism & crony capitalism with taxpayer dollars for allies of HB City Hall
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/06/from-blogs-cold-storage-vault-circa.html

 MAY 31, 2012
In light of more news stories re bad Hallandale Beach CRA loans, Csaba Kulin and I thwart yet another of City Hall sycophant Andrew Markoff's desperate attempts at revisionist history of City Hall's trail of crony capitalism under Mayor Joy Cooper and her Rubber Stamp Crew; @MayorCooper, @SandersHB, @AlexLewy
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/more-news-stories-about-curious.html

 APRIL 12, 2012
An IG investigation! Finally! Plus, more curious CRA matters to ponder - William Gjebre in BrowardBulldog: Broward Inspector General's office zeroing-in on Hallandale Beach after numerous reports re city's curious CRA loans and land purchases with no written plan in place for the latter
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/ig-investigation-finally-plus-more.html

 MARCH 9, 2012
Wednesday night's HB City Comm. mtg. re the gory details of Marcum LLP's audit of the City of Hallandale Beach and its entrenched anti-Sunshine, anti-taxpayer culture
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/03/wednesday-nights-hb-city-comm-mtg-re.html

 MARCH 7, 2012
Csaba Kulin continues connecting-the-dots on Marcum LLP's devastating audit of Hallandale Beach, revealing how city's own rules were routinely broken and leaving taxpayers on the hook
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/03/csaba-kulin-continues-connecting-dots.html

 MARCH 6, 2012
More on the $20 Million of Hallandale Beach city contracts that went unchecked -Csaba Kulin re Marcum LLP's limited audit of "Exceptional" Hallandale Beach City Hall and its longstanding dysfunctional practices that insult HB taxpayers
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/03/more-on-20-million-of-hallandale-beach.html

 FEBRUARY 16, 2012
Miami Herald's Fred Grimm weighs in -again- on the faux newspaper in Hallandale Beach and its sweetheart CRA deal from HB City Hall to be a propaganda arm
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/02/miami-heralds-fred-grimm-weighs-in.html

 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
-----

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 and real prosecution of the people directly in charge and pushing these illegal and incompetent policies, not the minions.

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.
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Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Is Kristin Jacobs poised to become 'the last straw' and the cynical face for voters of the ever-expanding Broward candidate residency scandal? Yet MORE residency problems in Broward County per Media Tracker Florida: Jacobs wants to run for FL House 96 while living in House 93, even while convincing evidence suggests that at least 5 current members of the Broward Legislative Delegation may be knowingly breaking state law, practically daring Broward State's Attorney Mike Satz & Co. to actually do something; Videos by Local10 investigative reporter Bob Norman show he's NOT afraid to go after South Florida's unethical pols and ask the hard questions



Is Kristin Jacobs poised to become 'the last straw' and the cynical face for voters of the ever-expanding Broward candidate residency scandal? Yet MORE residency problems in Broward County per Media Tracker Florida: Jacobs wants to run for FL House 96 while living in House 93, even while convincing evidence suggests that at least 5 current members of the Broward Legislative Delegation may be knowingly breaking state law, practically daring Broward State's Attorney Mike Satz & Co. to actually do something; Videos by Local10 investigative reporter Bob Norman show he's NOT afraid to go after South Florida's unethical pols and ask the hard questions 
Could Kristen Jacobs really be dumb enough to think that she can get away with it, too?
Yes.


Media Tracker Florida
Florida House Candidate Kristin Jacobs Tries to Hide Residency Problems
By Tom Lauder 
July 1, 2013
House of Representatives District 96 candidate Kristin Jacobs asked state election officials to hide her address from the public in the wake of new evidence that suggests she lives outside District 96.
In an affidavit filed with the State of Florida, Jacobs asked state elections officials to redact her home address. The Florida elections website shows Jacobs’ paperwork for the District 96 seat, but her address is blacked out. Jacobs filed for the District 96 seat, but numerous public records show Jacobs actually lives in District 93, which is represented by George Moraitis (R-Fort Lauderdale).
Read the rest of the post at:

Anyone want to guess how many Broward state legislators actually LIVE full-time in the district they were elected to? Anyone?

 It's another one of Broward State's Attorney Mike Satz's lasting legacies to all of us as Broward citizens that he and his crew are unwilling to make an example out of someone breaking the law he is sworn to enforce and prosecute lawbreakers.

Maybe if Sazt & Company had actually gone hammer-and-tong after one of these legislative miscreants a few years ago who thought they could pull the rug over voters' eyes and knowingly violate the Florida Constitution -and told Broward County Commissioners that he'd 'no longer accept their wink-wink residency, too- and abandoned their See No Evil/Hear No Evil/Speak No Evil mindset, the problem wouldn't have mushroomed to the extent that it clearly has while he has been in charge and done NOTHING.

 Yes, Black & White carpetbaggers everywhere you look in Broward!

Unethical politicians hiding in plain-sight are Bob Norman's favorite kind of people to bring the hammer down on: Joe Gibbons, Perry Thurston, Jared Moskowitz, Hazelle Rogers, Maria Sachs...

 Local10 News video: 
 Broward Commissioner's residency claims don't hold up, 
North Miami mayor sued over city's residency rule
Bob Norman, Reporter, bnorman@Local10.com
Published On: Jun 25 2013 03:07:21 PM EDT   Updated On: Jun 25 2013 11:00:00 PM EDT, 
video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player, 
Related article at: http://www.local10.com/news/more-elected-officials-living-outside-districts/-/1717324/20709398/-/pok1gcz/-/index.html


Local10 News video: 
Florida Democratic leader caught living outside district
Author: Bob Norman, Reporter, bnorman@Local10.com

Published On: Jun 12 2013 03:34:55 PM EDT   Updated On: Jun 12 2013 11:00:00 PM EDT

video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player

 Related article: http://www.local10.com/news/investigation-finds-elected-officials-with-houses-outside-their-districts/-/1717324/20516720/-/bwp40jz/-/index.html

Local10 News video: 
Senator caught on video staying outside district, Maria Sachs has home in Boca Raton, claims to reside in Lauderdale condo
Bob Norman, Reporter, bnorman@Local10.com
Published On: Jun 26 2013 04:45:07 PM EDT   Updated On: Jun 26 2013 11:00:00 PM EDT
video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player
Related article at http://www.local10.com/news/south-floridabased-state-senators-residency-debated/-/1717324/20726464/-/r2lhe4z/-/index.html








And as if there weren't already serious ethical issues involving her, Florida state Senator Maria Sachs sets a now LOW in unethical behavior among South Florida pols.
 Democrat Sachs, who defeated Ellyn Bogdanoff in 2012 and who was endorsed by the Miami Herald, is so lazy & unethical that she even failed to disclose her legislative salary on her required disclosure forms three years in a row.

Palm Beach Post

Editorial: Sachs case shows why ethics laws remain too lax.

Posted: 4:33 p.m. Sunday, June 16, 2013
BY ANDREW MARRA - PALM BEACH POST STAFF WRITER

For three years, state Sen. Maria Sachs, D-Delray Beach, skirted state law by failing to publicly disclose all of her financial assets on mandatory state disclosure forms. When questions were raised before her election last year, she brushed them off as “negative campaigning” and said she had not even bothered to go back and look at the reports.

The Florida Commission on Ethics was not so dismissive. Last week, it announced that it had found probable cause that Sen. Sachs had violated Florida’s disclosure rules for elected officials by not properly reporting her net worth or her ownership of a Tallahassee condo. According to the commission, she failed even to disclose her legislative salary.

These transgressions occurred from 2008 to 2010, and by 2011 Sen. Sachs had begun including the omitted information in her new financial reports. After the ethics commission began an investigation, Sen. Sachs also filed amended forms for the years in question. As a result, the ethics commission said it will not seek to impose fines or take further action.

The senator has said the omissions were unintentional. Accidental or not, she is hardly the first elected official to fail to properly disclose her finances as required by law. Indeed, last week the ethics commission faulted four other current and former legislators for similar failings.

Questions about Sen. Sachs’ financial disclosures were raised last October by Sid Dinerstein, then the chairman of the Palm Beach County Republican Party. His complaint to the ethics commission was baldly political, but Sen. Sachs was wrong to dismiss it out of hand. The requirement that candidates and elected officials disclose their assets reveals to voters any agendas that otherwise would be hidden, and is so fundamental a concept that it is included in the state’s constitution.

The Legislature passed a sweeping ethics reform package this year. But the bill actually makes it easier for officials to correct flawed financial disclosure reports without penalties, and it failed to give the ethics commission the much-needed ability to initiate its own investigations, even into disclosure reports that are obviously flawed. Until that authority is granted, one of the few ways for it to investigate omissions like Sen. Sachs’ will be politically motivated complaints.

Andrew Marra for The Post Editorial Board

-----
After her victory, 
"State Democratic Party Chairman Rod Smith sent out a statement congratulating Sachs on her campaign and called her a "rising star" in the state Democratic Party."


 The news directors at CBS4, NBC-6 and 7News and the editors at the Miami Herald need to wake-up from their summer coma and admit that they've been completely asleep on this scandal from the very beginning, and need to acknowledge that there are LOTS of people all over South Florida who HAVE noticed this failure.
And also noticed their complete failure to make a serious effort to catch-up.
Why?

 Why so much resistance to doing hard news?
Of pushing back against elected officials and putting them in their place?
Why are you in your job if you don't want to cover and investigate what people are genuinely interested in that is also important to society?

 And don't think we forgot about you down in Miami-Dade, Frank Artiles, and the way blogger Elaine de Valle caught you a few years ago still living at the home you said you would move out of if you got elected.
My April 21, 20111 blog post on this subject was titled, Elaine de Valle's Political Cortadito blog channels Sherlock Holmes and catches the crook red-handed: FL Rep. Frank Artiles. Blogger 1, Lying Pol 0
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/elaine-de-valles-political-cortadito.html

 Speaking of how many of Broward's legislators live elsewhere, why is it that the website of the Florida Conference of Black State Legislators is managed by a company located in Spain? http://fcbsl.org/  http://www.arsys.es/
When you go to a list of members, on my computer Google Translate pops-up and asks you if you want to translate Spanish. http://www.fcbsl.com/#!/members 
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Wednesday, June 26, 2013

More proof that "Despicable" lives in Broward County, too. How much damage can one man do to a single County in Florida in the year 2013? When it's Mike Satz, the answer is PLENTY!; Broward Bulldog: "State drops burglary case against teen; Satz tolerates police misconduct, Finkelstein says again"

 
The screenshot of Michael Satz on Local10's "This Week in South Florida" that I last used on June 5, 2013 in my blog post titled, "When it comes to Public Integrity, it's "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" at the Broward State Attorney’s Office: What are all you people in Hallandale Beach who want good, clean government looking at me for, anyway? Why are you expecting me to actually do something about the longstanding corruption, incompetency and malfeasance at Hallandale Beach City Hall, to say nothing of what the Broward Inspector General's office just called the city's "gross mismanagement" for years of the HB CRA? After all, I'm only the Broward State's Attorney"
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2013/06/when-it-comes-to-public-integrity-its.html
and before that, in my November 6, 2012 blog post titled, "Satz does NOT rhyme with success: Vote NO on Miami Herald's sorry 2012 local and state election coverage: Proof? Their editorial board endorsed carpetbagger Joe Gibbons of Jacksonville and over-the-hill mediocrity Mike Satz BEFORE paper ever printed a single article about their races. Slipshod Herald editors then run thread-bare story about them AFTER the August Primary Early Voting period had started. As usual, too little too late at One Herald Plaza!" http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/11/satz-does-not-rhyme-with-success-vote.html

Speaking of "Despicable" as I was in yesterday's blog post about the sickening scandal involving the Metropolitan Police in London, and allegations that some members of the force there not only withheld evidence about the murder of an innocent teenage in 1993, but also orchestrated smears against his family, here's more proof, as if we needed  it, that truly  "Despicable" lives in Broward County, too.

So, how much damage can one man do to a single county in Florida in the year 2013? 
Well, when that man has been given a lot of power and discretion and his name is Mike Satz, the answer is considerable damage indeed. 
Damage that even the smartest among us can't even begin to completely know the full extent of right now, but will only come to learn about in the years to come. 
No doubt, after he inflicts even more damage on us by allowing the legions of corrupt and unethical people to continue to ply their trade.

 When Mike Satz pricks us, by consistently failing to do his important job properly, of lacking the desire to enthusiastically go after dishonest cops, corrupt lobbyists and unethical elected officials and make public examples of them, and of failing to go after the hiding-in-plain sight corruption in all of its guises in THE most-corrupt county in Florida, especially in this small corrupt and poorly-run city, do we not bleed? 
Yes, we do.
Profusely.

Broward Bulldog
State drops burglary case against teen; Satz tolerates police misconduct, Finkelstein says again
By Dan Christensen,BrowardBulldog.org 
June 25, 2013 AT 6:30 AM
The Broward State Attorney’s Office has dropped a felony burglary charge against a 15-year-old boy who defense attorneys say was coerced by Fort Lauderdale Police into falsely confessing to a crime he did not commit.  
Broward Public Defender Howard Finkelstein is making an issue of the case as “yet another instance of police misconduct” that Broward State Attorney Michael Satz has done nothing to correct.
Read the rest of the article at
http://www.browardbulldog.org/2013/06/state-drops-burglary-case-against-teen-misconduct-by-cops-tolerated-by-satz-says-finkelstein/

 "Again."
Just like Satz did last week, last month and last year.
And it's true.

And the proof is not only all around us in this county, it is right here for you to read and imagine in your own mind:
Hittleman argued the boy had not been informed of his Miranda rights against self-incrimination, and that police repeatedly had threatened to call Child Protective Services to take away his sister’s two-year-old toddler if he “did not admit to committing the burglary.”
“If I admit it to you, you won’t take my sister’s baby, right?” the boy asked a detective, according to defense court filings.Hittleman’s conclusion:
“It is hard to conceive of circumstances more coercive than those presented here.”
Wow, as if all the negative things we've been told for years by well-informed people about the Fort Lauderdale Police Dept. hadn't jolted us enough, threatening to take little kids away to get confessions.
Despicable.

 Yes, more than ever, Mike Satz not only seems to be Joy Cooper's secret weapon for staying
out of jail (and purgatory) for all the serious damage she's personally wrought upon this city and its citizens the past ten years, as he and his bungling staff have been perfectly oblivious to everything going on here, he also is the wrong person in the wrong place at the wrong time. 
Year-after-year.

Not that you asked, but I will NEVER vote for anyone currently working at the Broward State's Attorney's office.
Period.

This curious photo of the mayor's son appeared in my blog post titled, Hallandale Beach's Midnight Vigilante is no Paul Revere! Caught in the act: Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper's son's Midnight Ride of campaign sign-stealing -on Election Day!; Anything goes now in HB -even political intimidation- as Broward IG & Broward SAO sleepwalk while laws & ethics are repeatedly laughed at by pols in power; @MayorCooper, #FDLE, @myfloridalegal, @fbi.gov
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/11/hallandale-beachs-midnight-vigilante-is.html
As for the above situation, if you're curious what happened afterwards, when the Office of the Broward Inspector General and the Broward State's Attorney's office were properly notified about this and many other curious things, like campaign signs for Joy Cooper, Anthony A. Sanders and Bill Julian on city-owned property, i.e. taxpayer property, as well as on church property, for weeks and months, all of which is illegal? 
Nothing.

And yes, in retrospect, I should've described it as "Election Eve," but you get the point nonetheless
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