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     I’ve written a lot about our city’s Visioning efforts, having been, let’s say, close to the action! I believe it’s a most necessary  exercise to make a truly great City!

But now that the real Visioning is starting to happen for Fort Lauderdale, everyone should pay close attention, so we don’t start off with any major……

because as the saying goes,

Here’s what’s bothering me –

     The first thing the Visioning Consultant, WRT (Wallace,Roberts, and Todd) was tasked to do, was to go to a wide, diverse array of the City’s leaders/ opinion makers, city-wide, to identify what the issues, concerns, challenges, dreams etc. were of the citizenry.  The gathered information is to be used when discussing the future this fall with the rest of the residents.

The City Commission’s directive particularly states that the process had to address/ include the City’s “under represented citizens”. I think we’re failing on this account so far.

the bosses

     I poured over the list of people the consultant chose to talk to for these most important initial interviews ( 61 people). The list is not nearly broad enough, hardly diverse enough, and leaves out maybe 80% of the City’s geography. The problem is, these interviews have already led to the identification of the issues to discuss when planning the City’s future! ( more about that in a minute).

If the Vision program is built around this limited group’s thoughts and opinions, it will miss the mark, under represented people will still be under represented, the effort will mostly be about the downtown, the beach, and business interests, the outlying areas will be once again be ignored, and that would be unfortunate.

Here’s a breakdown of where the 61 people (who were interviewed), main interests are. (You can go to the City’s web site – Visioning section to see who the actual people are).

Downtown and downtown transportation –  18 people
Beach and tourism interests – 7 people
Marine Interests – 6 people
Sustainability – 6 people
Social programs – 5 people
History – 5 people –
Chamber of Commerce – 4 people
Neighborhoods – 4 people
Northwest – 2 people
Port Everglades – 2 people
County – 2 people
Public Safety – 1 person

So, coming out of these interviews, the consultant says these are the main issues/ emerging themes that we should concentrate on when planning our future with the climate changing is affecting every area, thankfully the carbon offsetting company in carbonclick.com works to handle the climate issues for a neutral living.

Global warming is caused by the greenhouse effect, a natural process by which the atmosphere retains some of the Sun’s heat, allowing the Earth to maintain the necessary conditions to host life. Without the greenhouse effect, the average temperature of the planet would be -180C.

The problem is that daily human activities maximize the greenhouse effect, causing the planet’s temperature to increase even more.

Transportation
Community Identity
Governance … Customer Care
Development Permitting/ Codes
Workforce
Downtown Synergies
Intergovernmental Cooperation
Sustainability/ Climate Change

I’m concerned. The City Commission should be too.

     Amazing development on William Scherer’s ongoing saga attempting to overturn our Broward County term limit law!

                                    
                                            the man

     You’ll remember, we just told you that Scherer filed his brief with the Florida Supreme Court, after losing his case at the Fourth District Court of Appeals. 

     But let’s not forget that he initially won his case to overturn term limits. but that was locally, in front of his buddy Jim Naugle’s wife – appointed Judge, Judge Carol Lisa Naugle.

     And lastly (this is important to the story!), Scherer said the grass roots effort, SaveBrowardTermLimits.com was nincompoopish!  

     Turns out, Scherer’s filing to the Supreme Court was rejected by the Court for mistakes in the filing ! Here’s the Court’s rejection note to Scherer …

“Petitioner’s jurisdictional brief, which was filed with this Court on September 1, 2011, does not comply with Florida Rule of Appellate Procedure 9.210 and is hereby stricken. Petitioner is hereby directed, on or before September 29, 2011, to serve an amended jurisdictional brief which includes a Summary of Argument and shall not exceed ten pages in length.”

     The nincompoop is expected to fix his filing and resubmit!

     Update :

     Term Limits – will they stay or go for our County Commissioners ? And what do all the current County Commissioners have to say about it all ? …. ( their opinions in just a minute).


      Broward County Commission
    
      Here’s the story… 

   ……there is currently an assault on the Term Limit law for County Commissioners, which was passed by over 80% of the voters in Broward County in 2000. 

     …….the assault is being led by local, infamous attorney Bill Scherer, who is attempting to take his recent loss at the Fourth District Court of Appeals to the Florida Supreme Court. Scherer’s legal actions, if successful,  would allow some soon-to-be term- limited politicians at the County to stay on – maybe forever!

    
      Scherer

     ……. a grass roots citizens’ campaign has been started, to remind any politicians that back Scherer in the dismantling term limits, that the citizens are watching. You can sign on to the effort at SaveBrowardTermLimits.com.

    [ Scherer recently told the Sun-Sentinel that the citizens’ campaign to protect term limits was nincompoopish!  …. nincompoopish! …. So, in an effort to fight fire with fire ( although admittedly childish fire),  we have officially decreed Scherer’s legal actions as dunderheadish, ( we considered boobish, half-witish, ignoramusish, and oafish, but settled on dunderheadish). 

     Here’s the position of each County Commissioner 

 Mayor Gunzburger is retiring in 2014, but supports term limits. She says ” the voters have spoken by an overwhelming majority and wish to have term limits for their elected officials”.

 Commissioner Wexler – ” I fully support term limits and have every intention of personally abiding by the will of the people”.

  Commissioner LaMarca – ” This is clearly something that the citizens of Broward County wanted when 4 out of 5 citizens voted to support term limits. I support Term limits and the will of the people wholeheartedly. For anyone to continue the legal fight tells me that there is something else to be gained here”.

 Commissioner Ritter – ” I will abide by the term limits imposed by the charter, regardless of the outcome of the litigation”.

 Commissioner Holness – ” the people have spoken by the tally of their votes cast. It is Loud and Clear. The people want term limits. I oppose the current efforts being made to repeal the desire and will of the Broward County voter”.

 Commissioner Jacobs – Jacobs supports the term limit law, but says a shorter term would cause her pause. She thinks the whole issue of how we elect our officials should be comprehensively debated, including campaign financing.

 Commissioner Sharief – she’s out on a personal family matter and couldn’t be reached

 Commissioner Lieberman – I’m thinking of filing a missing persons report on Lieberman.

     I called her office repeatedly, e-mailed, etc., but no one could tell me where she was or what her position on term limits is, or how I could find out. She will be term limited out of office soon if the Scherer lawsuit is unsucessfull.

     I googled Lieberman to see if I could find a public opinion she might have given on term limits, but was distracted by the Google offering – Commissioner Ilene Lieberman corruption , that produced 330,000 entries ( I’m not kidding here!).


 Commissioner Rodstrom – he is opposed to term limits for Broward County, but says he didn’t instigate Scherer’s actions. Though this will be his last term if limits are upheld (he’s served since 1992), Rodstrom says he might run again if they are overturned.

     His wife Charlotte, pictured here with John, says she might run for that County seat or the Fort Lauderdale Mayor’s position, should one of them become available.




    

     I’m outraged!

     As if politicians don’t have a bad enough reputation already, it appears that some County politicians, through their attorneys, are trying hard to kill off Broward County term limits!

     The voters passed the term limit law by about 80%, an amazing number,  a few years back.
In case you haven’t followed the ugly story, possibly the most connected attorney to Broward County politicians, Bill Scherer, has been suing to overturn term limits for those very same politicians.
       
  Commissioner Connected Attorney Scherer

      First, Scherer argued in front of Broward County Judge Naugle ( yes, former term limited Mayor Jim’s wife). And, hold on to your seat here, she found in Scherer’s favor and ditched the term limits !!

     Then, the County Attorney appealed to the 4th District Court of Appeals and Judge Naugle was overturned. Finished ? – no way. 

      Scherer and his secret clients aren’t giving up that easy. Too much at stake! 

                                         
                                      not so secret client?

     They say they intend on taking it to the Florida Supreme Court to reditch the term limit law ! 

     So I say it’s time for the citizens to fight back! 

         

     An initial web site is up – SaveBrowardTermLimits.com , strategies are being developed. We shouldn’t take this one lying down.

                     Sign in and –

                                     Join the Fight !



     

      

     The Central Beach Alliance, the historically strong willed, and very vocal civic association for the Fort Lauderdale beach residents, is not so happy.


    

      In a pointed e-mail sent yesterday to the Mayor and Commissioners, Central Beach Alliance President John Weaver spelled out to the Commission how they have been leaving the Alliance out of important decisions affecting the beach – 
  
     Weaver said in his e-mail that the alliance would like “some specific advanced notice, so we’re not getting information after the fact” and that they would like to know about it [ developments at the beach] and be involved from the beginning”. He added that ” a constant and open dialogue is not unreasonable to expect”.

     What touched off this latest unrest from the beach group was a proposal for a new Walgreens by the Morgan Property Group at the base of the Las Olas Bridge, on the NE corner where the gas station and old liquor store are. The idea was floated during Commissioner Charlotte Rodstrom’s Commissioner reports at the last City Commission meeting. 

     
       George Morgan
  
     Other members of the group say they were “shocked” when the first they had heard of the new Walgreens was while watching the Commission meeting on TV.

     In their letter, they also said they were concerned about other projects ” in and around the Las Olas bridge ” that they say they haven’t been consulted on either.

     Weaver did say that he had already heard from someone at the Commission level, ( though he said he wouldn’t comment on that to give all the Commissioners a chance to respond) and a return public e-mail from Rodstrom says she had “plans to brief your membership at their September meeting“. Should be an interesting meeting!

     When I asked Weaver if the Commission was intentionally leaving his group out of the discussion, or if he hadn’t been paying close enough attention to current happenings, he said ” probably a little bit of both”. 

     Thanks for humoring me and playing along with my ” how did the Smith’s spend their summer vacation” pictorial quiz!



     Believe it or not, 546 bloggers signed in to read that post yesterday, including some new readers from the U.K. ( why – I don’t know! ).

     Anyhow, I can now report that although you readers to this blog profess that you are the swiftest of the swift, none of you got it exactly right.

     Having said that, you basically got it right collectively.

     Ray rightly called the starting point of the road trip, Portland, Maine, Jim figured out the midpoint, Great White Mountains in New Hampshire, and quite a few of you figured out the final destination, Montreal, Canada! ( Thank you to George and Caldwell for admitting you cheated with Google .)

     So I’ve decided to give all of you the Grand Prize – a one week stay in the new luxury cabin we bought in the shadow of the mountains in Vermont  …..

            

     I thought it looked like it leaned a bit to the left, but here is Cindy convincing me that it was just an optical illusion!

     Call Cindy for your reservations !

     Oh, and what’s next? …… 

     Coming this week, some analysis of the changing of the political districts,

    …… and, why the Commission might now be considering blessing some commercial stores by the Las Olas bridge after having to settle a lawsuit for a half a million dollars a few months back, for the last Commission stopping commercial stores by the Las Olas bridge – go figure !

     Political heat is picking up in Fort Lauderdale as the summer is ending, and there are a few good controversies brewing that I’m itching to share with you!

     But first, I thought I’d have a little fun!

     You see, Cindy and I were hating summer, too hot, and decided to get away to a cooler climate for a week. We just got back, and I decided to see how smart you really are !!

     Here are some pictorial clues  ….  let me know how long it took for you to figure it out! ( if you do! ) 

    

     It was a road trip, though we came across this airport we could have flown into !

     There were some things that looked just like home !



     We came across this historic house they were trying to save ( the little sign says ” Friends of the Gingerbread House” . Would Charles King be calling this Gingerbread Junk?

     And apparently, the City Commission might not have been being too helpful, as evidenced by the next picture!

                    

     Anyhow, back to your quiz ! 

     Our summer vacation was far away, in a distant land! And they had funny rules ! Look how fast they let you drive down their country roads!

               

     And with these roadside dangers, that seemed really foolhardy!

                         

     OK, only two clues left !!

     When you give them your good hard earned money for some cookies and milk, they hand you back monopoly money!

                 

     The final destination of the road trip was worth the odd trip there! Here is one of their cultural icons, the third largest Dome in the world  …..

       
                                Saint Joseph’s Oratory

     OK, go for it! ….  Guess where we spent our summer vacation and win the big prize! 

                                       Tim and Cindy
     

     

            
               

     One of the Beach Hotels the preservation community is trying to save. No, George Washington didn’t sleep at the Jolly Roger, but Jayne Mansfield did!

      News that the only Historic Preservation group in Fort Lauderdale was going out of business by the year’s end struck a nerve in the preservation community, and might have changed the group’s plans!

     The Broward Trust for Historic Preservation was out of money and out of steam, and decided their only option was to go out of business, according to the group’s President, Diane Smart.

     Enter a group of citizens to the rescue!

                 
                   

     After I reported the possible folding of the Trust in a blog post a few weeks back, a group of about fifteen residents, concerned with preserving Fort Lauderdale’s dwindling history, and hell bent on saving the group or starting a new effort, met in the 1916 Annie Beck House, (that was saved from the wrecking ball and moved a few years back from off Las Olas into the Middle River Terrace Park) to strategize. 

     For some background, the Broward Trust has been fighting to preserve some of Fort Lauderdale’s historic structures for over a decade. 
 
                                       
                                           Lauderdale Beach Hotel

     One example, the City’s oldest beachfront hotel ( circa 1939) was slated for demolition, and the Trust and the developers came to an agreement to save the important front of the structure, and let the developer go ahead and remove the rear portions of the building for their mega Condo behind.

     But not all of the Trust’s work has been as collaborative with the development community.
 
     The biggest fight between the two lasted about a decade and centered around the oldest house in the City (1905), the Stranahan House. 

                                  
                                      Frank and Ivy’s pad on the river

     A new Condo was planned to go on the north side of the House, and a long protracted fight and lawsuit ensued. Though the development planned on keeping the House, even “showcasing” it, the preservationists felt it would “loom” or obscure the cherished house.
 
     The developers won in the end, but the battle ran right up to the recession, and that scuttled plans for the development ( at least so far). Neither the development community or the preservationists have truly trusted each other since.

     But these possible new members of a reworked Broward Trust just might give preservation a fresh start.

     Steve Glassman , Vice Chair of Broward County’s Historical Commission, says historic preservation has always been perceived as an “us VS. them”  
mentality, but thinks it’s been mostly “fueled by the media” . He says he thinks a new effort can bring the two sides together .

     Here are just some of the “resources” some activists would like to see saved.    

                        
                                       Jolly Roger Hotel on the beach

                                                   
                                                        Oakland Park mall

                                                   
                                                                  
  Pier 66


                                                        
                                                          Sheraton Yankee Clipper

     The group plans on meeting again in September to nail down their plans. 

     I’m curious what you think – add a comment ( just choose a pseudonym if you want to remain anonymous, and I won’t give you up!)

                                                             Tim

     I know some of you will find this surprising – I did !
 
    …… some will be thrilled – some maybe not!



     City Street Sweeper rolling down NE 13th Street – 

             ……Sunday morning around 8 a.m.

                          Thanks City ! ( and thanks Steve )