Political Tidbits: LaMarca, Lewy and Trash

 

BY BUDDY NEVINS

 

You wouldn’t know that County Commissioner Chip LaMarca voted against a countywide 911 plan last month from his Facebook page.

A LaMarca opponent pointed out that he has put a large picture of the numbers 911 on his page.

Misleading?

You can decide after reading below.

When asked why he posted the 911 picture by one of his Facebook “friends,” LaMarca replied:

 

Chip LaMarca I am on the EMS Council and it is EMS Awareness month.
Monday at 10:29am via mobile · Like · 2

 

LaMarca explained his 911 vote like this:

“I voted against the countywide paying for it,” he said. “The good old folks in Fort Lauderdale are earning $5.3 million (now).  Where is that money going (under the newly-approved system paid for the county)? ”

Good question.

There is a fairness question in the 911 system, which LaMarca point out.

I’m upset by one situation he mentioned.  Where  I live in — Plantation — will be paying for the countywide system and the city system because city hall refuses to join the newly-approved countywide system.

Here is Chip’s new Facebook photo:

 

Untitled

 

 

 

A Lot To Explain

 

 

Hallandale Beach Commissioner Alex Lewy has launched his campaign for state House.

One question: What about Hallandale Beach?

Hallandale Beach is one of the most mismanaged cities in Broward County.

That’s not my opinion.  Its also the opinion of the Broward Inspector General’s Office.

The city grossly misused Community Redevelopment Agency money, according to an inspector general report released last month.

Between 2007 and 2012, the CRA made more than $2.1 million in questionable purchases, including $125,000 in inappropriate loans and about $416,000 in improper use of bonds.

Lewy was elected in 2010.

I’m sure his opponents in the Democratic primary for South Broward and Northeast Miami-Dade’s House District 100, Joe Geller and John Paul Alvarez, will demand that voters know Lewy’s role in this mess.

I’ll be awaiting Lewy’s explanation.

 

Court Trashes Trash Station

 

The City of Sunrise had the right to block a trash recycling center three years ago, the Fourth District Court of Appeal decided this week.

Green Now and its owners Jim Feeley Jr. and Tom Baker Jr. sued the city after commissioners, reacting to protests from the public, rejected construction of the waste transfer station in early 2010.

Circuit Judge John Bowman ruled for the city in the case last year.

The appeals court agreed with Bowman that the city was within its rights when it voted down the trash station.

The two acres at the center of the controversy was in the Sunrise Industrial Park near Commercial Boulevard and the Sawgrass Expressway.

A Sunrise civic activist and a leader of the protests against the project was Mike Ryan.  That  role helped propel him into the mayor’s office in August 2010.

Here is an original story about the waste station in Browardbeat.com.

The city argued that a waste transfer station was not permitted under its code.  The owners contended it was allowed.

Since the Green Now controversy, the law in Sunrise has been tightened. Waste transfer stations are only allowed if approved by voters in a referendum.

Court Ruling

 



8 Responses to “Political Tidbits: LaMarca, Lewy and Trash”

  1. 911 says:

    When you use the word Lamarca and trash in the same sentence you are being redundant.

  2. All good says:

    Go on Chip, cheer on 911.

    A year or so from now the voters in Fort Lauderdale and Pompano who have been paying their fair share for 911 will understand that you voted against 911 most likely because cities like LHP and other BSO Contract Cities (Lauderdale Lakes?) paid a discounted rate or nothing for 911.

    Please feel free to deny the above saying that you voted against 911 because you are against raising taxes. If this is true, please let us know why you keep supporting the continued bailout of Lauderdale Lakes? I thought Republicans were against bailouts, expecially for entities who created their own problems?

    More ironic is the fact that the only way Lauderdale Lakes may be able to pay off their debt is because they raised their millage rate (i.e. raised taxes) to the highest allowed by law for a City. So in the end are you not supporting raising taxes by supporting Lauderdale Lakes?

    All good, I am sure those fiscally conservative R’s in your District have no problems with their tax dollars used a bail out for Lauderdale Lakes and Haitian Awareness Month.

    http://dailybroward.com/does-dale-holness-pork-project-benefit-holness-campaign-donors/

  3. just one vote says:

    LaMarca has realized he will be off the BCC dais come November 2014 in spite of any flip-flopping between now and then

  4. LaMarca is a disappointment says:

    Im a member of the GOP. I voted for him. .wont make that mistake again. LaMarca is such a disappointment , I can’t wait for him to be gone. He reeks of arrogance and self importance. This from a man whose home is in foreclosure. Everyone I’ve talked to feels the way i do.

  5. Are you asking the right? says:

    Ronny G lobby’s mommy Sue and suddenly changes her vote. Hmmmmmm

    Follow the bouncing ball and various motives.

    And to the moron about the Lauderdale lakes issue… Who was lobbying for Lauderdale lakes to be given more and more time on their past due bill?

  6. Kevin says:

    As Homer Simpson would say: “Operator! Give me the number for 911!!”

  7. AMWakeUpCall says:

    That’s outrageous to assert that “Hallandale Beach is one of the most mismanaged cities in Broward County.”

    A commissioner running for Mayor decided that filing an IG complaint against the city would be his electoral strategy. Much of what had been asserted was determined to be unfounded, but the way CRA money had been spent is not a matter of fraud or illegalities. It’s all a matter of opinion, and the IG’s opinion is based on an attorney general’s opinion that asserts that only “brick and morter” projects are applicable to CRA money.

    That opinion is not binding in the way that a court decision would be, and the city has asserted that it has other opinions about what’s best for the community. The matter is hardly settled.

    While surrounding communities in Broward have had sudden, unexpected budget shortfalls in the tens of millions of dollars, have gone completely bankrupt recently or have gone through city managers like fast food employees, somehow Hallandale Beach with its consistent fiscal reserves and infrastructure repair, replacement and development is deemed “one of the most mismanaged cities in Broward County.”

    Try not to be so easily duped by expressed opinions in a report that do not replicate settled law and political hacks that use continual negativity and personal attacks as a means of attempting steady employment while avoiding having to go out and get a real job.

    FROM BUDDY:

    I have read endless independent media stories — many in the main street newspapers and others on Internet sites I respect with no connection to Hallandale Beach politics — that detail how the CRA money was misused for political reasons.

    I stand by my opinion.

    Then their is the fact that the city commission over the past many decades has never seen a ugly high rise or a sprawling development they didn’t like. Do you really believe the public wanted that many projects or that much traffic? Hallandale Beach hasn’t had growth management. It has had growth mismanagement.

  8. AMWakeUpCall says:

    Buddy, the ugly high rises and sprawling development that were misplaced and mismanaged were many years and many commissions ago. That doesn’t make Hallandale currently “one of the most mismanaged cities in Broward.”

    The takeaway from the IG report is really a single line that basically says that the city personnel who had kept poor records for CRA purchases and city managers who hadn’t sufficient CRA experience to manage it to its better potential are gone now. The city has moved on and implemented newer policies and procedures that the IG report asserts have taken matters into hand prior to the IG investigation.

    As far as what Sonny Rosenberg, who’s about 95 years old now or others on past commissions had done, such as placing a Walmart on prime waterfront property by A1A or selling prime beachfront property for absurdly huge towers (and there were originally going to be even more of them), while the west side languished, that’s all long past. Nothing to be done about that now except to put a better focus on blighted areas and find their potential.

    I’ve watched that commission closely, and with Keith London gone they can now get through an entire agenda in about three to four hours. They work well together. They’re polite. They try. It’s citizen government. The prior commission hired an excellent city manager (Rene Miller)who also acts as Executive Director of the CRA after managing the CRA in Miami Gardens, developing their police department from scratch and being assistant city manager there for years.

    Mistakes are made and foolish assertions are made and votes that mean nothing are taken, but such is the game of citizen government. We cannot compare to the almighty. We should always compare to the alternative, and relative to all that goes on in Broward, Hallandale’s one great big splotch in mismanagement was appointing Keith London as an interim commissioner and then electing him twice. He had done not ONE SINGLE THING for the city other than continually trash it for his own self-perceived gain, including initiating complaints as a paid, acting commissioner with the IG to aide his run for Mayor. Good riddance.