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 THIS MONTH SunTrust Sunday Jazz Brunch
SUNDAY - FEBRUARY 3, 2019 - From 11:00 am to 2:00 pm on the first Sunday of every month, the SunTrust Sunday Jazz Brunch fills the air with jazz music performed on three stages along the historic New River. Each month, bands perform a wide range of jazz in downtown Fort Lauderdale along the Riverwalk. Picnic baskets, blankets, chairs, dogs, children and people of all age groups blend into one large Jazz Appreciation Fest. On FEBRUARY 3, 2019, Blues Therapy & Jazz will be at the Esplanade, Riverside Dixieland Band at the Broward Center Peck Courtyard and Pieces of Work will appear at the Connie Hoffman Gazebo. For additional information or to schedule an event nearby, call the Special Events Hotline at (954) 828-5363, or Click Here to e-mail Debbie Bylica or call 954-396-3622 and leave it on the responding voice mail.
CLICK HERE for Details 13th Annual Fort Lauderdale A1A Marathon and Half Marathon
- On SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 15th (3 PM - 8 PM) and SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 16th (10 AM - 6 PM), the pre-race Publix Health & Fitness Expo will be held at the Broward County Convention Center at 1950 Eisenhower Boulevard, Fort Lauderdale FL 33316. You can pick up your race packet and browse the vendor booths. A Fort Lauderdale signature event, the main run is scheduled for FEBRUARY 17, 2019. the 13th Annual 2019 Fort Lauderdale 5K run will take place SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2019 at the Merrill Lynch Building (450 East Las Olas Blvd in Fort Lauderdale). The 5K Run / Walk starts at 7:30 AM. Starting from the Gallery at Beach Place, the Kids fun Run will begin at 11:45 AM on SUNDAY FEBRUARY 17. Earlier on Sunday, the Marathon & Half Marathon start at 6:00 AM (Wheelchair Start at 5:45 AM). Partnering with the A1A Marathon, the Susan G. Komen 4th Annual Run for the Pink will start at 6:30 AM on SUNDAY FEBRUARY 17. The run through Birch State Park is at the beginning of the race instead of the end! This puts the park at miles 5 and 6 on the course instead of miles 23 and 24 for the marathon and half marathon. The race starts at 401 SW 2nd St in front of the Museum of Discovery and Science and heads east to Andrews Ave. and then to Las Olas and over the bridge to Sea Breeze Blvd ending on A1A where the Course turns North. Catching the sun come up over the Atlantic is a sight to be seen as runners will make their way up and down A1A to the finish. Finishers are awarded the Signature beach themed Finisher Medal, Technical Race Shirt and Runner Swag Bag. After the run, the Fort Lauderdale A1A Marathon hopes to cool your legs. Fresh fruit, bagels, water, energy drinks, and a post race Beach Party with loads of food, beverages, beer and live music.
For more information, Call 561-241-3801 or Click Here to e-mail. CLICK HERE to the Fort Lauderdale A1A Marathon Web Page27th Annual Florida Renaissance Festival
The month from FEBRUARY 9 to MARCH 24, 2019 is filled with medieval merriment. For 7 consecutive weekends, QUIET WATERS PARK in DEERFIELD BEACH will host a time machine that will transport you back to the middle ages. from 10:00 am til Sunset - including the Presidents Day Weekend. The dates for the festival are: SAT - SUN (FEBRUARY 9 - 10); SAT - MON (FEBRUARY 16 - 18); SAT - SUN (FEBRUARY 23 - 24); SAT - SUN (MARCH 2 - 3, MARCH 9 - 10, MARCH 16 - 17, and MARCH 23 - 24. Browse through the enchanted crafts Village where over one hundred merchants and artisans demonstrate and sell their wares. Behold glass blowing, hammered pewter, wooden toys, unique pottery, clothing and a wealth of other riches. Cheer Battling Knights, in full armor, as they mount their steeds, lower their visors, aim their lances and charge at full tilt, thrice daily. Play Games of Chance and games of skill such as archery, the test of strength, Jacob’s Ladder and more. Applaud Hundreds of Performers, not only on the twelve stages but literally all around you. Sword fighters, minstrels, magicians, mud-beggars, wenches and more. For all the world’s a stage. Feast on Hearty Food fit for a King! Experience succulent turkey legs, Scotch eggs, love knots (pretzels) and the Queen’s buns hot out of our bakery ovens before toasting the Royal Court with a tankard of ale or cider.
For more information, call (954) 776-1642 or (800) 373-6337, Click Here to email or Click Here to web site. The 31st Annual Las Olas Art Fair - Part II
Celebrating its 30th year, this South Florida tradition is regarded as one of the top events in America. Following in the footsteps of the tremendously successful PART I event in January, the annual PART II sequel will be held on SATURDAY, MARCH 2 and SUNDAY, MARCH 3, 2019 from 10 AM until 5 PM (rain or shine). Ft. Lauderdale’s Las Olas Boulevard is the ideal backdrop for this festival, blending an eclectic mix of artists, great weather and fantastic energy. As the second show of the season on Las Olas, this festival brings together longtime favorites with some of the newest names in the contemporary art scene. Life-size sculptures, spectacular paintings, one-of-a-kind jewels, photography, ceramics, and much more make for one fabulous weekend. Centrally located close to the Ft. Lauderdale International Airport, this show is a must-do if your springtime travels take you anywhere in South Florida! Admission is FREE! There is no Gate.
For more information, call (561) 746-6615, Click Here to email or Click Here to the 31st Annual Las Olas Art Fair - Part II web site. 41st anniversary Pride Fort Lauderdale Festival - On the Beach
Pride Fort Lauderdale is 41 year old organization that produces an annual celebration and tribute to the LGBT community and its unique culture. For the first time, on Saturday February 23, 2019 at 5:30 p.m., a pre-event "Carnaval Parade" will proceed down State Road A1A from Windamar Street (Sebastian Beach) to Fort Lauderdale Beach Park. On Sunday February 24, 2019, the annual Pride event will be held for the third time on Fort Lauderdale Beach. From 12 Noon to 8 PM, the festival will feature world renowned entertainers on two stages, more than 100 local & national exhibitors, food court and of course the world-class beaches of Fort Lauderdale. This year’s entertainment line-up includes American Idol fan favorites Ada Vox and Todrick Hall. The celebration concludes at 7:45 p.m. with an eye-popping fireworks display on the beach. The goal is to create a world-class Pride for a world-class city.
For more information, call 754-222-2234 or J.W. Arnold at 954-848-1894 or Click Here to email. Please CLICK HERE to check web page for more DetailsGalt Mile Reading Center - February Events
Every month, the Galt Mile Reading Center offers a schedule of engaging events tailored to the needs and interests of Galt Mile residents. Located at 3403 Galt Ocean Drive in Fort Lauderdale (directly across from Playa del Sol, Commodore and Southpoint), the library sponsors Book Reviews, Biographies, films, discussion groups, author presentations, performance workshops and special sales. Computer Classes equip local residents with the online and office skills critical to keeping abreast with our digital planet. Computer Classes are usually scheduled from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM on Tuesday. Space is limited to first 6 patrons. On TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, improve your photography skills and better utilize smartphone technology in SMART PHONE PHOTOGRAPHY (iPhone or Android) - presented by OASIS. Attend Language classes to learn Italian, Hebrew, French and Spanish. Call 954-357-7840 or CLICK HERE for more info about assorted 2019 CLASSES & DISCUSSIONS. CLICK HERE for the schedule of OTHER FEBRUARY OFFERINGS at the Center. Refreshments and admission are FREE.
For more information about the Galt Mile Reading Center, call (954) 537-2877 or CLICK HERE to web site. Beach Community Center - February 2019 Events
The Galt Mile Commnity Association fought for almost a decade to insure that our neighborhood was anchored by a wonderful Community Center. Located at 3351 NE 33rd Avenue in Fort Lauderdale (Between A1A and the Intracoastal near Oakland Park Boulevard), the Beach Community Center host a wide range of activities that pique interest, promote good health and stimulate the mind. Every Month, the Center sponsors Feature Films, ZUMBA Dance Classes, Party Bridge and Mah Jongg, Yoga, and Tai Chi. CLICK HERE to the 2019 Fitness Schedule. CLICK HERE for the Fall / Winter 2018 - 2019 Playbook. CLICK HERE for Ballroom Dance Instruction, Rumba, Fox-Trot, Hustle, Slow Waltz and Salsa at the Beach Community Center. CLICK HERE to Taekwondo for Kids and CLICK HERE to Tap for Kids . CLICK HERE for Pickleball Schedule. CLICK HERE to the CLUB 55+ Fall-Winter Program Listings. CLICK HERE for the CLUB 55+ FEBRUARY 2019 Calendar of Events. CLICK HERE to the CLUB 55+ locations and overview. Daytime events are scheduled from 8 AM in the morning through 6 PM.
For more information about the Beach Community Center, call Lee Glickman at (954) 828-4610, Fax (954) 565-0849, CLICK HERE to email or CLICK HERE to the Beach Community Center's web page. You can also email Susan Riestra by CLICKING HERE. Chabad February 2019 Events
Chabad Lubavitch of Fort Lauderdale, located at 3500 N. Ocean Boulevard, Fort Lauderdale. On MONDAYS, FEBRUARY 4, 11, 18 and 25 - from 6 pm - 7 pm, study "Demistifying the Secrets in Numbers" with Heshy Lipszyc. On TUESDAYS, FEBRUARY 5, 12, 19 and 26 - from 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm in the Chabad Social Hall, study "Crime & Consequence" - explore conviction, sentencing and criminal rehabilitation with Rabbi Yitzchok Naparstek. On FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2019, at 5:30 pm, come to a Community Shabbat Dinner to discuss "Your Spiritual Bucket List", a traditional Friday night community dinner with Guest Speaker Rabbi Tzvi Nightingale. On Shabbat, FEBRUARY 16, 2019 at 7:00 pm, join Chabad FLL for Havdalah followed by the blessing on the New Moon of Adar 1. Bonfire, music, noshes, l'chaim and more! On WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2019, at 7:00 pm, attend a "Healthy Living Awareness Event" - Farm to Table presented by Kevin of Criswell Farm & Market with a preface on healthy living presented by Deborah Cox, RN, BNS. Sabrina Mueller will demonstrate healthy no-cook recipes. Couvert: $10.
For additional information or to RSVP, call Gitty Levin at 954-568-1190 or CLICK HERE to Email. Located at 3500 North Ocean Blvd in Fort Lauderdale, CLICK HERE to Chabad Lubavitch of Fort Lauderdale website. 20th Annual South Florida Garlic Fest
Scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, February 9 and 10, 2019, the South Florida Garlic Fest (formerly the Delray Beach Garlic Fest) has become an institution in Palm Beach County and is affectionately named “The Best Stinkin’ Party in South Florida”. The epitome of homegrown talent and a cultural showcase providing an outlet for local artists and chefs to express themselves, the recently renamed South Florida Garlic Fest serves as a gathering festival focal point for musicians, artist of every genre and culinary artists. Each year over 40,000 local South Floridians attend to enjoy the premier food and entertainment event in South Florida. Having outgrown its former site, the event was moved from Delray to the 726 acre John Prince Park in Lake Worth. Dedicated to exploring the numerous health and culinary possibilities of garlic, among the countless recipes and unique dishes created by professional chefs in the Garlic Chef cooking competition and the Gourmet Alley concessionaires include Garlic Ice Cream, Argentinean Garlic BBQ and Garlic Fest crab cakes. The Garlic Fest has been featured on the Food Network and in countless national newspapers and magazines. Now in its’ 20th year, the Garlic Fest has donated over $610,000 to local non-profit organizations that support arts and / or education for youth.
For more information, call Nancy Stewart-Franczak at (561) 274-4663 or Click to E-mail. CLICK HERE to check the Garlic Fest web page. South Florida Fair
For 107 years since 1912, over a half million visitors enjoy 17 fun filled days at the South Florida Fair, one of Florida’s oldest and largest community events. This year, the Fair will take place from JANUARY 18 through FEBRUARY 3, 2019. In 1957, Palm Beach County gave the Fair 100 acres at its present site, which ultimately grew to 135 acres with primary access at 9067 Southern Boulevard in West Palm Beach. Fairgoers are entertained by first class stage shows, national concert performances, sensational midway rides, unique shopping and the best of fair food. Visitors experience educational and interactive experiences at historic Yesteryear Village, the award winning Agriplex, and each year are presented with a different themed exposition in the 80,000-square foot Exposition Center. Five stages of continuous entertainment await you this year at the 2019 South Florida Fair! The grounds attractions and educational shows in Yesteryear Village are sure to make your visit memorable.
For more information, call the Fair at 561-793-0333 or call Lorie Stinson at (561) 790-5245 or Click Here to email her. Please CLICK HERE to check web page for the jam-packed schedule and other DetailsBoca Raton Museum of Art 33rd Annual Outdoor Juried Art Festival
On SATURDAY & SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 2 and 3, 2019, the Boca Raton Museum of Art will host its 33rd Annual Outdoor Juried Art Festival from 10:00 am – 5:00 pm. The Boca Raton Museum of Art’s annual outdoor juried Art Festival has been named one of the nation’s Top 100. It features 200 of the nation’s best artisans who display and sell high-quality painting, sculptures, jewelry, fiber art, photography, ceramics, pottery, wood art, mixed media, graphic design, crafts, and art glass. Art Festival proceeds help support the Museum’s educational programs for children and youth. This year the Art Festival at Mizner Park (501 Plaza Real in Boca Raton) features an Art Activity Zone in the Amphitheater with performances and fun activities for the entire family.
For more information, call (561) 392-2500 or Click Here to email. Please CLICK HERE to check web page for more Details45th Annual South Florida Depression Glass Show
The South Florida Depression Glass Club invites you to the show from SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 2 (from 10 AM to 5 PM) through SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2019 (from 10 AM to 4 PM). It will take place at the EMMA LOU OLSEN CIVIC CENTER at 1801 NE 6th STREET, POMPANO BEACH. Featuring prominent dealers from all parts of the country specializing in American elegant, depression, kitchen and mid-century modern glass, pottery and dinnerware. Unique decor and tableware for your home from the 1920's and beyond! All the American glass companies working during the depression years and later will be represented such as Cambridge, Duncan Miller, Fenton, Fostoria, Heisey, Imperial, Morgantown, Northwood, Steuben, Tiffin, Westmoreland, and Viking to name a few. There will make available Glass Repair, Glass ID, Door Prizes, Free Seminars, Club Display and Much Much More!. Admission is $6 - check for online discount coupon.
For more information, please call 305-884-0335 or Click to E-mail.
Check web page by CLICKING HERE for DetailsPolynesian Cultural Festival
On SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23rd and SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2019, from 12 Noon to 7 PM on both days, the Polynesian Culture Association will sponsor the 15th Annual Polynesian Cultural Festival. The Festival will take place in Jaco Pastorius Park at 4000 North Dixie Highway in Oakland Park. Experience the culture, beauty and spirit of the Polynesian Islands at The Annual Polynesian Cultural Festival. The event offers authetic Polynesian entertainment & shows, Polynesian Catering, Hula Lessons, Fresh Flower Leis. Attendees will enjoy delicious food from the Polynesian Islands, watch fire and knife dancers, Hula dancers, a ukulele exhibition & other Island music, South Pacific arts and crafts, a Kids corner and much, much more! Admission is $10 per person, but children 12 and under attend for free.
For more information, please call Eric Waters at 954-630-4507, Click to E-mail or CLICK HERE to check the website for Details. North Ocean Beach Art Walk
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2019 - In the wake of SUNSET BLUE, the Galt Ocean Mile Shoppes neighborhood (AKA North Beach) has replaced the regular concert-driven street fair with a far more civilized - if not quieter - venue. Not to be outdone by Las Olas, North Beach or NOBE is exploiting a flood of new Galleries that aggregated to North Beach by sponsoring a FREE Art Walk on the first Saturday of each month. If you haven't strolled across the street recently, you may not have visited Paul’s Art Gallery, the Barry Gross Gallery, Mac Fine Art, Gallery 101, the North Beach Art Gallery or Rachel Henriques Art Studio. Some of them migrated here from the FAT (Flagler Arts and Technology) Village Arts District near downtown Fort Lauderdale, others from Miami. The area's redesignation as an Art's District has also drawn the Broward Arts Guild. New shops like Home Suite Home/Roberto Sanchez Design, La Dolce Vita Restaurant, the VIP Room and Salon Mantra bloomed while you were napping. Well, now you're awake. Get over there and see what you've missed. Better yet, Go there at 6 PM on SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2019, have dinner in one of the boutique restaurants and join the crowd for the Art Walk at 7 PM.
For additional information, CLICK HERE to check out their Facebook Link.
To see at the new shops in the area, CLICK HERE and click one of the categorey buttons on the right.“In The Style Of” Exhibit - Broward Art Guild
The Broward Art Guild is hosting “In The Style Of” Exhibit. Do you ever wonder what some of your favorite famous artists would be creating today? This exhibit features original works of art by local artists done in the style of one of the greats! Whether a "nod to" or a full on reincarnation.this promises to be one of most fun exhibits you'll see this year. Painting, sculpture, photography, mixed media and jewelry. Join us and meet the artists and vote for your favorite piece of art. Join us and meet the artists and vote for your favorite piece of art. Artwork to be original works that represent the style of a famous artist or artwork. NOT A COPY OF A FAMOUS PAINTING. Open medium & style. 2D, 3D & Jewelry. The event will be held at the BROWARD ART GUILD at 3280 N.E. 32nd Street in FORT LAUDERDALE. The Opening Free Public Reception: SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2019, from 6:30 PM to 9 PM.
For more information, call 954-537-3370 or Click Here to email or Click Here to WEB PAGE. Sistrunk Parade and Street Festival
On SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2019, from 9 AM to 7 PM, the non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation "Sistrunk Historical Festival" presents the Sistrunk Centennial Parade and Street Festival. The large parade and festival draw thousands of people to enjoy international foods, fellowship and networking, local and national entertainment, and family-centric activities. With hundreds of participants and thousands of spectators in attendance, the parade runs from 9 AM to 10:30 AM. Starting at Lincoln Park, the Parade marches east on Sistrunk Boulevard from NW 19th Avenue, and ending at NW 9th Avenue. Featuring marching bands, twirlers, step teams, classic cars, and decorative floats, the parade ends with a big Street Festival. This is a free event – everyone loves the Sistrunk Parade! For 30 years, more than 300,000 people have attended the SISTRUNK STREET FESTIVAL. Open from 9 AM to 7 PM, the Urban Music Festival offers plenty of food, arts & crafts, merchandise and information vendors, a health fair, and live local and national entertainment. A celebration of our rich cultural heritage and diversity featuring live bands and outstanding entertainment performing on two stages along Sistrunk Boulevard between NW 9 and NW 12 Avenues. Rated among the top community and music festivals in the tri-county area, this event has wide appeal to the entire family. Also, starting at 7 AM, the Sistrunk 5K Run will travel down Sistrunk Boulevard in the Dorsey Riverbend Neighborhood close to downtown Fort Lauderdale and Fat Village.
For more information, please call 754-779-4376, Click to E-mail or CLICK HERE to check Sistrunk Parade and Street Festival website. Riverwalk Noon Tunes
Every WEDNESDAY from FEBRUARY 6 THROUGH MARCH 27, 2019, The City of Fort Lauderdale, the Riverwalk Trust and the Fort Lauderdale Downtown Development Authority present Riverwalk Noon Tunes, a weekly free concert. The action is at Huizenga Plaza (32 E. Las Olas Boulevard) between 12 Noon and 1:30 PM. Gather with friends and coworkers for live outdoor music from top local artists. Bring your bagged lunch or enjoy a variety of delectables from the Riverwalk Gourmet Delights food kiosks stationed along Riverwalk. Be sure to use our FREE Riverwalk Water Trolley gets you to and from the event with ease! On WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, enjoy Country tunes by the Andrew Morris Band. On WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, Sabor Latino plays Latin & Jazz. On WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, Big City Dogs grinds out Classic Rock and Blues. On WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, Big Harvest pumps out Reggae.
For more information, please Call 954-828-4755, Click to E-mail or CLICK HERE to check web page for Details7th Annual Gala in the Gardens
On SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2019, Flamingo Gardens will host its 7th annual benefit Gala in the Gardens from 5 PM to 8 PM. Flamingo Gardens is at 3750 SOUTH FLAMINGO ROAD, DAVIE, Florida (on Flamingo Road between Griffin and I-595). They will be offering guests delicious food samplings from the area's finest restaurants and caterers paired with a variety of premium wines and craft beers amid the beautiful botanical gardens. Dine under the stars while enjoying live music and bid on the many great prizes in a silent auction items valued at over $40,000. New this year is a live auction as well. General Admission: $85/ $75 for Members. VIP Tickets: $110/ $100 for Members. VIP Tickets include reserved table seating and entry to VIP International Wine Gallery for exclusive pemium wine tastings. Admission also includes: 60-acre botanical garden, Native wildlife exhibits with panthers, bobcats, otters, alligators, Free flight aviary, birds of prey, golden and bald eagles, narrated tram ride through the tropical rainforest, Live Wildlife Encounter Shows 12:30, 1:30, 2:30 and Tours of Historic Wray Home 10-4.
For more information about Gala in the Gardens, call Cori Glick at 954-473-2955 x125 or Click Here to email or Click Here to Flamingo Gardens Gala in the Gardens web page. Galt Mile Bingo!
Throughout the year, various Galt Mile Associations sponsor weekly BINGO nights.
On TUESDAYS - from JANUARY through MARCH - GALT TOWERS invites their Galt Mile neighbors to 4250 GALT OCEAN DRIVE at 7:30 PM in the Galt Towers Social Room. For information about TUESDAY Bingo at Galt Towers, call (954) 563-7268
On WEDNESDAYS, head to REGENCY SOUTH at 3750 GALT OCEAN DRIVE for a fun-filled BINGO night beginning at 7 PM. For information, call Bob Pearlman at 954-547-4063. 16th Annual Palm Beach Fine Crafts Show 2019
The prestigious Palm Beach Fine Craft Show makes its triumphant return to the Palm Beach County Convention Center at 650 Okeechobee Boulevard at West Palm Beach, FL from February 15 through 17, 2019. This elegant showcase features the nation’s top contemporary craft artists, offering their latest celebrated works in a comfortable, indoor setting. The 16th Annual Palm Beach Fine Craft Show is a juried exhibition and sale of contemporary American & International crafts and design being produced by the Palm Beach Show Group. Three jurors who are experts in the field and newly selected each year choose artists from a large pool of applicants.
For more information, please call 561-822-5440 or Click to E-mail.
Check web page by CLICKING HERE for DetailsThe Taste of Coral Springs
On Tuesday, february 26, 2019, from 6:30 to 9 p.m., enjoy Wine, Spirit and Beer Samples, Cuisine from Local Restaurants and Caterers, along with Entertainment & a Silent Auction at the Coral Springs Center for the Arts (2855 Coral Springs Drive) in Coral Springs. Each year, the Taste lights up the night at the Coral Springs Center for the Arts as you and more than 850 of your closest friends sample delectable foods from local restaurants and wine and spirits from vendors and distributors, all of which is included in the admission price. Don’t miss your chance to spend a spectacular evening under the stars with fabulous themed entertainment and bid on exciting silent auction items. Previous Taste of Coral Springs events have contributed more than $455,000 to worthwhile charities.
For more information, Click to E-mail or Click Here to web site. Household Hazardous Waste Drop-off Events
To streamline the City Budget, effective October 1, 2013, Fort Lauderdale residents are no longer able to dispose of household hazardous waste (HHW), electronics, or yard waste at any of Broward County’s drop-off locations. Cooperative agreements with other cities provide our residents with free access to more frequent opportunities to dispose of hazardous waste and electronics. Fort Lauderdale residents are invited to participate in drop-off events at the following locations from 9 AM to 2 PM: SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2019 in the City of Coral Springs (4181 NW 121 Avenue); SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2019 in the City of North Lauderdale ( 701 SW 71st Avenue); SATURDAY, MARCH 2, 2019 in the City of Coconut Creek (4800 W Copans Road); SATURDAY, MARCH 30, 2019 in the City of Lauderdale Lakes (Vincent Torres Park @ 4331 NW 36th Street); SATURDAY, APRIL 27, 2019 in the City of Fort Lauderdale at Mill Pond Park (2201 NW 9 Avenue); SATURDAY, MAY 4, 2019 in the City of Tamarac (6011 Nob Hill Road); SATURDAY, JUNE 8, 2019 in the City of Pompano Beach (1660 NE 10th Street); SATURDAY, JULY 13, 2019 in the City of Fort Lauderdale at Mill Pond Park (2201 NW 9 Avenue). Acceptable materials include paint, pesticides, used motor oil, lawn chemicals, pool chemicals, propane tanks, fire extinguishers, household cleaners, automobile batteries, televisions, computers and accessories, fax machines, printers and cell phones. Do not bring microwaves, stereos, explosive materials, biohazardous (medical) waste or business-generated waste.
For more information, please Call 954-828-8000 or CLICK HERE to check the City web page for DetailsThe Lyrid Meteor Shower
While not one of the strongest of the annual meteor showers, it can be enjoyable to meteor observers thirsting for something after over three and a half months of weak meteor activity. The Lyrids generally begin on APRIL 16 and end on APRIL 26, with maximum generally occurring during the night of APRIL 21/22. At maximum, hourly rates can reach about 10 meteors per hour. The Lyrids are particularly interesting for two reason. First, observations have been identified back to at least 2600 years, which is longer than any other meteor shower. Second, the meteor shower occasionally experiences an outburst of about 100 meteors per hour and the reason is basically unknown. The Lyrids move rather fast. When you see a meteor, mentally trace it backwards. If you end up at Leo then you have probably seen a Leonid meteor! Following the discovery that the Leonid meteor shower was an annual display, a researcher in 1835 found enough evidence to support the existence of a probable annual meteor shower around APRIL 22 from the constellation Lyra. Edmond Weiss (Vienna, Austria) calculated that one comet orbit, that of Thatcher (1861 I), was found to come within 0.002 AU of Earth's orbit on APRIL 20. The peak rates of activity have remained relatively consistent from year to year with values generally between 5 and 10 per hour, although there have been unexpected outbursts. In 1849 and 1850, observers in New Haven and India, respectively, noticed "unusual numbers" of meteors on APRIL 20. Several observers in Florida and Colorado noted rates of 90-100 on APRIL 22, 1982. Four amateur astronomers from southern California observed the Lyrids during APRIL 20 to 24, 1974. Denning reported that weak traces of activity were present as early as APRIL 14 and as late as APRIL 26. Determinations for the Lyrids orbital periods range from 27 years to 300 years, primarily due to a lack of data. Comet Thatcher's period of 415 years is probably much more reliable today than the computed orbital period of the Lyrids. The relatively sharp peak of the Lyrids seems to be due to the overall lack of serious planetary perturbations. Observational evidence indicates the stream is at least 2600 years old.
For more information, CLICK HERE to Lyrid Meteor Shower Web Site. GMCA Presidents Council -
The next GMCA Presidents Council Meeting is scheduled for MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2019 from 7:30 PM to 9:00 PM. The meeting will be held at PLAYA DEL SOL CONDOMINIUM, 3500 GALT OCEAN DRIVE, Fort Lauderdale. Our thanks to PLAYA DEL SOL President Joseph Sclafani for hosting this important meeting. Pio Ieraci will chair the monthly Presidents Council meeting. Check GMCA CALENDAR for important meeting information.GMCA Advisory Board
The next regular meeting will be on THURSDAY, JANUARY 17, 2018 from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM at NICK’S ITALIAN RESTAURANT - 35th Street & NORTH OCEAN DRIVE (A1A) in FORT LAUDERDALE. President Pio Ieraci will chair the monthly Advisory Board meeting. Check GMCA CALENDAR for important meeting information.Commissioner Heather Moraitis’ Pre-Agenda Meeting MONDAY - Commissioner Heather Moraitis’ Pre-Agenda Meetings are on 6 PM on MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2019 at the Beach Community Center (3351 NE 33rd Avenue, Fort Lauderdale) and on MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2019 at Imperial Point Hospital. Two or more City Commissioners and/or Advisory Board members may be present at this meeting. All are welcome to attend.
CLICK HERE for Details or Check GMCA CALENDAR for Commissioner Moraitis’ bi-weekly Pre-Agenda MeetingsFort Lauderdale City Commission Meeting Convened in the CITY COMMISSION CHAMBERS AT CITY HALL, 100 N ANDREWS AVE, FORT LAUDERDALE. The next meetings are scheduled for TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 5 and TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2019. Conference Agenda - 1:30 PM, Regular Agenda - 6:00 PM. The City Commission meetings are generally held on the first and third Tuesday of the Month - aberrations due to holiday conflicts, etc. are posted. All are welcome to attend.
CLICK HERE for Details or Check the GMCA CALENDAR for meeting dates and times of Fort Lauderdale's City Commission. Fort Lauderdale Planning & Zoning Board Meeting WEDNESDAY - FEBRUARY 20, 2019 CITY COMMISSION CHAMBERS AT CITY HALL, 100 N ANDREWS AVE, FORT LAUDERDALE at 6:30 PM. The Fort Lauderdale Planning & Zoning Board Meetings are generally held on the third Wednesday of the Month - aberrations due to holiday conflicts, etc. are posted. All are welcome to attend.
CLICK HERE for Details or Check the GMCA CALENDAR for meeting dates and times of Fort Lauderdale's City CommissionCouncil of Fort Lauderdale Civic Associations General Meeting TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2019 (7:00 PM - MEET & GREET, 7:30 PM - MEETING) at City Hall, 100 ANDREWS AVENUE. President Marilyn Mammano convenes the monthly general meeting of the Council of Fort Lauderdale Civic Associations. The meeting will be held in the 8th Floor Commission Conference Room.
CLICK HERE for Details or Check GMCA CALENDAR for information about the monthly meetings January 2019 BCPA News - Marty Kiar
Read the JANUARY 2019 BCPA Newsletter by Broward Property Appraiser Marty Kiar. After Broward Voters relocated Marty from the Broward Commission to the Broward County Property Appraiser's office, where he reinvented aging protocols, and continuously updates Broward taxpayers about their property appraisals, exemptions, home values and how legislation may alter their tax bills. To address those questions, MARTY KIAR releases a MONTHLY NEWSLETTER. For Information about Save Our Homes amendment ramifications and the ubiquitous “Homestead Exemption”, check the Broward County Property Appraiser page on the Galt Mile Community Association web site, where Marty clarifies confusion surrounding the appraisal process and explains our rights in his monthly missives.
CLICK HERE to the Galt Mile Property Appraiser page and Click Here for Marty's JANUARY 2019 Newsletter.
CLICK HERE For Details!
MARKETS
There are many wonderful markets available to Galt Mile residents on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. CHECK THEM OUT!CORAL RIDGE GREEN MARKET - Every Saturday from 9 AM to 4 PM at Plaza 3000 at 3000 N. Federal Highway for Produce, gourmet items, flowers, etc. For information call Rachel O'Neill at 954-426-8436 or Click Here to email LIVING GREEN FRESH MARKET - Daily from 8 AM to 5 PM (1305 E Commercial Boulevard) for Fresh produce, teas, coffees, sandwiches, preserves, and lots of other goodies! For information call Anthony Papageorgiou at 954-771-9770 or Click Here to email LAS OLAS SUNDAY MARKET - Every Sunday from 9 AM to 2 PM at 333 East Las Olas Blvd. and SE 4th Avenue. For Produce, flowers, gourmet goodies. For information call Rachel O'Neill - TGMMC (The Green Market Management Company) - at 954-214-9933 or Click Here to email .BROWARD HEALTH FARMERS MARKET - Every Tuesday from 8 AM to 3 PM at Broward Health Medical Center (1600 S Andrews Avenue in Fort Lauderdale). Fresh picked local, organic and exotic fruits & vegetables, pure local honey, just picked organic greens, organic couscous, beans, lentils, rice, other grains! For information call Contact Cathy Schwartz at 954-831-2752 or Iris Casanova at 305-318-6148. WHOLE FOODS FARMERS MARKET - Every Tuesday from 4 PM to 8 PM at Whole Foods Market (2000 N. Federal Highway in Fort Lauderdale). Fresh picked local, organic and exotic fruits & vegetables, pure local honey, just picked organic greens, organic couscous, beans, lentils, rice, other grains! For information call Contact Cathy Schwartz at 954-831-2752 or Iris Casanova at 305-318-6148. FOOD IN MOTION - Every second Friday of the month – from 5 PM to 11 PM at Peter Feldman Park (310 NE 6th St, Fort Lauderdale). A monthly after dark, artisan food market offering Fresh produce & greens from local vendors & Flagler Village Farm, gourmet baked goods, chocolates & treats, bath & body items, Locally produced edibles: spices, sauces, pickles and more! Free beer. For information call (954) 785-7475 or Click Here to email MARANDO FARMS WEEKEND ARTISANS’ MARKET - Every Saturday and Sunday from 9 AM to 5 PM - located 2 blocks south of Davie Boulevard, 1 block west of Andrews Avenue (adjoining the railroad tracks) at 1401 SW 1st Avenue, Fort Lauderdale. For information call Chelsea Marando at 954.294.2331 or Click Here to email .
 VOTE EASY VOTE EARLY
2016 PRIMARY ELECTION - TUESDAY, AUGUST 30, 2016. 2016 GENERAL ELECTION - TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2016. NO FORT LAUDERDALE CANDIDATES IN THE MARCH 14, 2017 MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS - You do not have to wait until Election Day to vote. You do not need an absentee ballot or some special dispensation. Early voters can make known their will at a variety of different Broward sites. A new law enacted by Florida lawmakers increases possible early voting (EV) days. As a minimum, early voting must begin on the 10th day and end on the 3rd day before an election that contains federal or state races on ballot. In addition, the local SOE may offer EV on the 15th, 14th, 13th, 12th, 11th or 2nd day before such an election. Nearby locations include the Coral Ridge Mall (North or NorthWest Entrance) at 3200 N. Federal Highway in Fort Lauderdale, The Fort Lauderdale Branch Library (Art Serve) at 1350 E. Sunrise Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale, the North Regional Library/Broward College at 1100 Coconut Creek Boulevard in Coconut Creek, Emma Lou Olson Civic Center at 1801 NE 6th Street in Pompano Beach as well as the Wilton Manors City Hall at 2020 Wilton Drive in Wilton Manors. Early voting hours of operations are MONDAY - FRIDAY 9 AM - 7 PM; SATURDAY - SUNDAY 7 AM - 4 PM. Registered voters can avoid the traffic and the lines that plague overcrowded polling places. If you bring a signature-bearing photo id (preferably a Drivers License, although Photo Credit and Debit Cards are also OK) and a previously marked sample ballot, you'll whiz through the experience. VOTE EARLY! TRAFFIC PLUGS MAY 2017 - GALT AREA STREET CLOSURES - THROUGH SUMMER 2017 - A1A from Oakland Park Boulevard to Flamingo Avenue - Two lanes of traffic in each direction of A1A will be maintained at all times. Through Spring 2017, they will be shifted to the east side of A1A. 35 mph speed limit will remain in effect during construction. Single lane closures can be expected from 9:30 p.m. to 7:30 a.m. At signalized intersections, a lane may be closed for a period of two hours or less between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. A sidewalk will be maintained on at least one side of the road within the project limits. The right or outside lane in each direction will become a shared bicycle lane and will have temporary "sharrow" (share the road) pavement markings and signage. A1A NORTH OF OAKLAND PARK BLVD - Northbound traffic is shifted slightly west toward the center of the road. Southbound traffic will remain on the west side of the road. Traffic will be in this configuration through March 2017, while the contractor completes the reconstruction of the east side of the road. Two lanes will be open in each direction. Access from northbound Galt Ocean Drive to A1A will be restricted through April/May 2017. Motorists may access A1A via NE 41st Street, NE 36th Street and NE 35th Street. One northbound lane of A1A from Oakland Park Boulevard to Flamingo Road may be closed Monday through Friday between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. for drainage improvements. The crosswalk at NE 34th Street is closed until April while the business access road along the east side of the road is completed and the new sidewalk is constructed. Pedestrians will be directed to use the crosswalks at NE 32nd Street and NE 36th Street. Access to the business drive aisle from NE 33rd Street to NE 36th Street may be restricted Sunday through Wednesday night between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. for drainage work.
CLICK HERE for full details - YOU'VE BEEN WARNED!
CLICK HERE TO READ GMCA PRESIDENT PIO IERACI'S PRESIDENTS COLUMN!
PEACE ON EARTH
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GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS RELEVANT TO OUR COMMUNITY! READ THE GMCA'S CURRENT POLITICAL UPDATES FROM:
CITY COMMISSIONER HEATHER MORAITIS MARCH 24, 2018 - After being sworn in as Fort Lauderdale’s District 1 City Commissioner on March 20, 2018, Heather Moraitis released her first constituent Newsletter - an introductory edition slipped to the media a week earlier by her rookie Commission Assistant Melissa Coningsby. In her March / April 2018 Newsletter, Moraitis outlines her general objectives for the city drawn from a recent Neighborhood Survey, summarizes the progress of 14 Current Water and Sewer Infrastructure Projects in District 1, seeks to honor the 17 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School victims by fighting for school safety and gun control, cites her intention to host District 1 Pre-agenda Meetings at 7 p.m. in the Beach Community Center and Imperial Point Medical Center – respectively on the first and third Monday of each month, and closes by providing constituents with assorted contact options for enlisting her assistance.
STATEHOUSE REPRESENTATIVE GEORGE MORAITIS FEBRUARY 24, 2018 - Across the state, high-rise association homeowners are facing a $multi-million assessment to fund retrofitting a fire sprinkler system that they legally opted-out of seven years earlier. When Governor Scott broke his promise and vetoed last year's ELSS opt-out legislation, Statehouse Representative George Moraitis (R – Fort Lauderdale) and Association Advocate Ellyn Bogdanoff agreed to refile the bills in 2018, despite the enormous political obstacles to enacting legislation during an election year session. Since every Statehouse seat is up for grabs, along with 20 of the 40 Senate seats, deep-pocketed special interests are bartering with cash-strapped campaigning lawmakers for favorable votes. As a result, the 2018 committee process navigated by Moraitis' House Bill 1061 (HB 1061) and Senator Gary Farmer's companion Senate Bill 1432 (SB 1432) has degenerated into a minefield. Read on for the legislation's mid-session turmoil.
BROWARD COMMISSIONER CHIP LAMARCA JANUARY 5, 2018 - In his December 2017 LaMarca Letter, District 4 Broward Commissioner Chip LaMarca cites the newly built Ravenswood Bus Operations and Maintenance Facility and the new Animal Care and Adoption Center for having respectively scored Gold and Silver LEED certifications; apprises travelers about using the recently released 2018 Port Everglades Cruise Guide to build an entire vacation around a cruise; and applauds the Broward Water Partnership Rebate Program for saving a record breaking 1.5 billion gallons of water as of October 2017. While LaMarca’s Holiday Season missive extolls two recent County projects for meriting LEED Certification, few of his Broward constituents are conversant with the LEED Program, or why their elected officials celebrate LEED certified projects. This may help....
BROWARD BEACH ADMINISTRATOR NICOLE SHARP NOVEMBER 21, 2017 - After twenty years of knocking heads with foot-dragging bureaucrats in Tallahassee and Washington DC, while fending off demagogues who view tidal erosion as the “wages of sin” for befouling pristine barrier islands, delighted Galt Mile residents spent 2016 watching an armada of trucks ferry sand from upstate mines to severely eroded north Broward beaches. For two decades, officials advocating for beach renourishment argued that the beaches were indispensable to State and local tourism economies and provided the only real protection for people and property threatened by hurricanes and tropical storms. At the outset of the Segment II beach fix, Broward Beach boss Nicole Sharp assured Galt Milers that when the protection was tested, and storm surge snatched up yards of new beach, any eroded "hot spots" could be refilled without another excursion through regulatory hell. When fate sent Irma, Sharp rolled up her sleeves...
BROWARD COUNTY TRANSIT DIRECTOR TIM GARLING JANUARY 12, 2016 - On August 10, 2015, Broward County Transit (BCT) Operations Representative Oscar Correa told association officials that Broward County buses would clog Galt Ocean Drive throughout the A1A Greenway project’s duration - which he estimated at “two - possibly three years.” After three months of fomenting fear and frustration while chewing up public and private infrastructure, the neighborhood association and Commissioner Chip LaMarca negotiated their removal with Broward County Transit Director Tim Garling. In October, Broward County Transit (BCT) announced that the layover sites of four Broward bus routes would no longer obstruct Galt Ocean Drive. In December, the Route 72 Bus layovers was smuggled back to the Galt, reviving fears that Correa was right. What happened? Garling covertly relocated the layover here when it was thrown out of Lauderdale-by-the-Sea by the Town Commission - for repeatedly damaging Town property.
What's New?
ASSOCIATIONS
All of the members of the Galt Mile Community Association are entitled to maintain a website that reflects the relevant features and qualities of their residences. This is the link to the websites of the individual Associations. Recently added sites include Caribé, L’Hermitage II (connects to private web site), the current L’Hermitage Link Newsletter, Coral Ridge Towers South, and The Galt Merchants Association! In addition, 90% of the existing Association Sites have been recently upgraded. Check yours out! We’re delighted to see that the PLAYA DEL MAR website is BACK UP and RUNNING. The PLAYA DEL MAR web site offers the entire association newsletter. It also houses past newsletters in the Newsletter Archives! THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS! ANOTHER SURPRISE! The CORAL RIDGE TOWERS EAST Web Site has also been reincarnated. CORAL RIDGE TOWERS EAST resident and Webmaster Warren Eisenberg has done a wonderful job in bringing an online presence back for one of the first GMCA member Associations to create a web site! In April 2005, CORAL RIDGE TOWERS ORIGINAL established a web site. The GALLEON set up an independent web site and REGENCY TOWER'S web site was up and running again after an unexpected hiatus. In August, 2006, Director Jack Zink took the initiative to set up an independent web site for FOUNTAINHEAD. Also, PLAZA SOUTH has joined the club, kicking of its web site in June of 2008... congratulations! More good news! COMMODORE CONDOMINIUM deploys a web site created by First Services - its management company. The Royal Ambassador is using a Continental Connect site adapted for that association. The first association south of Oakland Park Boulevard accepted into the Galt Mile Community Association, The Tides at Bridgeside Square has a self-directed web site. Following a brief hiatus, PLAZA EAST had their management company set up a private website. SOUTHPOINT created a site in June of 2013 and PLAYA DEL SOL took the plunge in July. In 2014, L'AMBIANCE BEACH and Caribé opened self-directed websites. In 2018, OCEAN RIVIERA uploaded their association website. Among the Galt Mile's newer members are BERKLEY SOUTH and SEA RANCH LAKES NORTH
Click to CONDOS
DIRECTORS
The Galt Mile Community Association is administered by a Board of Directors, an Advisory Board, and the Presidents Council (an assembly of the Presidents, other officers, directors and managers of each member Association). They are depicted and briefly biographied in this section.
Who Are They?
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| AERIAL VIEW OF THE GALT OCEAN MILE SHORELINE |
 February 12, 2019 - Since 2002, Galt Mile associations have served as the lynchpin of this fight to block a predatory retrofit mandate that was repeatedly opposed by Florida lawmakers, and rejected outright by every other State in the country. Following the 2016 Declaratory Statement, Florida association attorneys were swamped with angry client inquiries about opposing this unwarranted and avaricious levy on association homeowners. As observed by former legislator Ellyn Bogdanoff, transferring this burden to a dedicated statewide organization would enable thousands of other impacted associations to add their voices – and resources – to ours. A new plan to dismember one of the costliest rip-offs in Florida history is underway. For the 411, Read on...
  If your Florida association is being victimized by this mercenary inequity... after perusing the ELSS Update, click any of the links to the FACTSS website, and if your association hasn't already joined this statewide effort to block a $multi-billion scam, what are you waiting for?
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Comm Lamar Fisher: January 2019 News
 January 29, 2019 - In his January 2019 Newsletter, District 4 Broward Commissioner Lamar Fisher opens by advocating for two bills floated in the legislature. One strengthens the current ban on texting while driving, while the other requires mandatory certification for Sober Homes. Fisher also supports a “Housing First” approach endorsed by the new Homeless Collaborative in their plan to end homelessness in Broward; describes how mooring buoys protect local reefs; offers a new “I Spy a Manatee” mobile app to help warn boaters where they must exercise extreme caution; reviews improvements in Fort Lauderdale / Hollywood International Airport that accommodate explosive passenger growth; and cites new vessels and itineraries at Port Everglades.
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Heather Moraitis: Parks and Police Bonds
 January 20, 2019 - In her December 2018 Newsletter, District 1 City Commissioner Heather Moraitis spins a March 12, 2019 special election as salvation for the City's parks, and an anchor for future public safety. Its actually a solicitation for voters to approve a tax hike, as two planned bond issues totaling $300 million will be folded into ballot questions. While $200 million will be dedicated to renovating, building out or creating municipal parks, $100 million will fund an upgraded Police Headquarters. After a decade of restraining the millage, City officials concluded that its time to pay the piper. Moraitis also thanks the North Beach neighborhood for hosting the successful November 28 Light up the Galt street fair; announces upcoming municipal events; and recruits District 1 volunteers to serve on their choice of several municipal Advisory Boards.
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December 2018 Tally LaMarca Letter
 January 11, 2019 - In his first constituent message since relocating to Tallahassee, newly elected District 93 State House Representative Chip LaMarca opens his December 2018 LaMarca Letter with Holiday greetings and an expression of gratitude for his political ascendancy. Still settling into his new digs in the State Capital, LaMarca reports his progress in selecting a site for a local District office (1827 NE 24th Street in Lighthouse Point) and accumulating new staff. Shortly after releasing his December update, LaMarca set up shop in Tallahassee at 1401 The Capitol, 402 South Monroe Street, Tallahassee, FL 32399 (telephone: 850-717-5094). LaMarca promised to protect the rights of association homeowners from the House floor. As always, we'll be watching.
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Homestead Express - 2019
  December 28, 2018 - The Florida Constitution provides all legal Florida permanent residents with a tax-saving exemption on the first and third $25,000 of the assessed value of their owner/occupied homes, condominiums, co-op apartments, and certain mobile home lots - if they qualify. Homesteaded properties are eligible for the protective “Save Our Homes” tax cap. Also available are a host of traditional and new exemptions for seniors, veterans, widows/widowers, first responders, active military, the blind, disabled persons and properties with build-outs for Mom, Dad, Grandma and/or Grandpa. Apply for exemptions in person, at an outreach event (Beach Community Center), by mail to BCPA, interactively online or by requesting “homesteads-on-wheels” (for house-bound applicants). Although exemption applications are considered "timely" if submitted by the March 1, 2019 "soft" deadline, they will still be accepted until the September 18 "hard" deadline if accompanied by any moronic excuse for tardiness. If you miss that, a "Good Cause" sob story won't make a difference - you're screwed!!! If taxes give you the willies... check through the 2019 incarnation of the Homestead Express!
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Heather Moraitis: The Homeless
 December 18, 2018 - After opening her November 2018 Newsletter with an expression of gratitude appropriate to Thanksgiving, District 1 City Commissioner Heather Moraitis details the City’s participation in a collaborative plan to assist the County’s homeless population, an effort to provide housing and offer services ranging from healthcare to employment preparation - in an environment that functionally decriminalizes homelessness. The business community, homeless advocates, charitable non-profits and Broward County are all on board with this “Housing First” homeless initiative. Moraitis also welcomes constituents to attend her Pre-Agenda Meetings; reviews upcoming municipal events; announces the City’s implementation of a Dockless Mobility plan (fostering the overnight city-wide proliferation of electric scooters) and encourages District 1 volunteers to fill a variety of available municipal Advisory Board positions.
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Comm Lamar Fisher: December News
December 11, 2018 - In his December 2018 Newsletter, District 4 Broward Commissioner Lamar Fisher uses his inaugural message to deliver insight into his initial agenda on the County board. Fisher opens with a commitment to maintain County beaches and help fortify the region against the impacts of climate change, especially the tidal flooding that wreaks havoc in District 4 coastal communities; affirms an intention to help channel newly voter-approved surtax revenues into relieving traffic congestion and enhancing connectivity; laments a dearth of affordable housing that inflames a County cost burden rated worst in the nation; and applauds the newly formed Homelessness Collaborative in Broward County, which is planning realistic interim and permanent low-barrier housing solutions while improving underutilized support services. Not bad for an initial roll-out...
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Heather Moraitis: Family Politics
 November 20, 2018 - District 1 City Commissioner Heather Moraitis wove her October 2018 Newsletter around a tribute to her “favorite state representative”, as term limits capped husband George Moraitis’ 8-year career in the Florida Statehouse. Commissioner Moraitis also announces the inaugural “Light up the Galt” event on November 28 in North Beach (formerly Galt Ocean Village); cites a monthly opportunity for local businesses to renew parking permits at the Beach Community Center; recruits volunteers for the Community Service Board; invites constituents to her Pre-Agenda Meetings; once again recommends implementation of a virtual neighborhood watch - a dividend of downloading the free Neighbors App by Ring; and closes by promoting use of the Lauderserv app to facilitate communication with the City.
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A Grateful LaMarca Heads North
November 11, 2018 - Chip LaMarca changed hats. On November 6, the 8-year District 4 Broward Commissioner snatched up the District 93 Statehouse seat vacated by departing Representative George Moraitis, defeating Democrat challenger Emma Collum by a 7% vote margin; 40,426 (53%) vs 34,927 (46%) with 1176 votes (1%) to Kelly Milam. Despite a Democrat majority, many Galt Mile voters subordinate partisan ties in favor of candidates who've reliably delivered on local issues - whether Republican or Democrat. Shortly after his election to the Broward Board, LaMarca saved the popular Galt Mile Library from terminal budget cuts. Later, he ended decades of frustration by restoring the shrinking beach. On November 6, he rode the banked good will to Tallahassee - but not without dropping a transitional thank you note.
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Pilot Project: New Trees on the Galt
 November 2, 2018 - Since his appointment as the neighborhood association’s block maintenance liaison with the City in late 2016, Galleon resident John Jors has worked closely with Galt Mile officials, City Parks Department personnel and Fort Lauderdale Urban Forester Mark Williams to improve spotty municipal maintenance, facilitate post-Hurricane Irma damage recovery, and replace crisis management with strategic planning. In his October 2018 Advisory Board Report, Jors updates progress of an on-street pilot project in which a sample of 26 heavily damaged trees are replaced with three test species better adapted to thrive in a windblown coastal habitat, laments unresolved lighting failures and incompatible vendor-installed sidewalk panels, and cites insufficient irrigation as a fatal impediment to the pilot project's success. Jors and Williams hope to replace decades of firehouse block maintenance with a research-based roadmap.
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Heather Moraitis: Penny Tax, OK to Park
 October 23, 2018 - In her September 2018 Newsletter, District 1 City Commissioner Heather Moraitis explores a Broward ballot question certified for the November election. A planned bump in the sales tax from 6% to 7% would provide County officials with 30 years of blank checks for the buildout and maintenance of countywide transportation improvements - a growing burden that will otherwise bloat homeowner and merchant property taxes. While outlining a County plan to relieve congested roadways and enhance connectivity, her report seeks to mitigate the confusion and distrust that tanked a similar ballot measure in 2016. Moraitis also notes a monthly opportunity for local businesses to buy parking permits at the Beach Community Center; invites constituents to attend her Pre-Agenda Meetings; endorses a free Neighbors App by Ring to enhance community safety; and suggests using the Lauderserv app to conveniently contact the City.
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LaMarca: Convention Cntr, FLL, Port
October 13, 2018 - In his September 2018 LaMarca Letter, District 4 Broward Commissioner Chip LaMarca describes recent improvements to the Broward County Convention Center Expansion and Headquarters Hotel project, reviewing design upgrades that include a 75% increase in exhibit areas, a 127% ballroom expansion and 143% more meeting space. LaMarca details the meteoric traffic growth at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport; cites Port Everglades for securing FEMA grants to enhance security infrastructure; recruits constituents to locally document King Tides flooding; and applauds the record number of pet adoptions at the Animal Care and Adoption Center during the August 18th "Clear the Shelter" event.
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Feldman Watch
 October 5, 2018 - When the City board was repopulated last year, and former District 2 City Commissioner Dean Trantalis took the reigns as Mayor, he told City Manager Lee Feldman in March that it was “time to move on” shortly before commissioners voted to give Feldman a 3 percent raise, to $255,523 a year. Not surprisingly, Feldman decided to test the waters. He threw his hat in the ring when former Tallahassee City Manager Rick Fernandez resigned in January after the state launched an ethics investigation into his involvement with lobbyist Adam Corey, a central figure in an ongoing FBI Tallahassee corruption probe. Feldman didn't get the job. At the October 9 Commission meeting, Mayor Dean Trantalis was joined by Commissioners Steve Glassman and Ben Sorensen in a 3-2 vote to pink slip Lee Feldman at the end of 2018. As Feldman can critically impact certain issues important to Galt Mile residents (such as parity with single-family homeowners with respect to water, sewer and stormwater rates), we will keep you updated.
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2018 Constitutional Clutter
 September 28, 2018 - Given the political fireworks launched during elections, most voters would rather flip a coin than self-educate about proposed Constitutional Amendments. As a result, unscrupulous politicians and industrial juggernauts religiously use them as vehicles for realizing outrageous measures that would otherwise wither under marginal scrutiny. Although thirteen Proposed Amendments were initially certified for the ballot, one of them – Amendment 8 - was scratched by the Florida Supreme Court. Three other measures - Amendments 7, 9 and 11 - were also struck down by court rulings and removed from the ballot - pending appeal. Nine surviving ballot measures could appear on the November 6, 2018 ballot, although many camouflage constitutional hop-toads couched in misleading Ballot language for the sole purpose of abridging your rights or draining your wallet.
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LaMarca: Budget, Evacuation, Pets
 September 17, 2018 - In his August 2018 Newsletter, District 4 Broward Commissioner Chip LaMarca takes a look at the proposed FY19 County budget, noting how an increase in property values will offset inflation-driven expenses, freezing last year’s millage rate at 5.6690 – and depicting how the new spending plan impacts homesteaded and non-homesteaded properties. Three months into hurricane season, LaMarca specifies the category of hurricane that respectively mandates evacuation from each of two coastal zones; announces expanded weekend hours at the Broward County Animal Care and Adoption Center, and closes by offering constituents free resources for exploring local government and communicating with government officials. LaMarca describes a potential budget shortfall created by a proposed additional Homestead Exemption on the November ballot - which cloaks a poison pill for Galt Mile Snowbirds.
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Heather Moraitis: Resiliency, New Budget
 September 8, 2018 - In her August 2018 Newsletter, District 1 City Commissioner Heather Moraitis looks at how the City plans to mitigate the adverse impacts of sea level rise with a series of infrastructure tweaks; invites constituents to attend the September budget hearings, visit her Pre-Agenda Meetings, serve on a municipal board and participate in her Telephone Town Hall Meeting. She also reminds us about the planned resurfacing of Bayview Drive from Sunrise Boulevard to Commercial Boulevard; asks that we Save a Life over Lunch; suggests using the free Neighbors App by Ring to enhance community safety; offers contact with the City through the Lauderserv app; and closes with boilerplate links for additional information. Of course, if those who marginalize the threat posed by carbon pollution are wrong, and greenhouse gasses irreversibly warm earth's climate, local or regional resiliency adaptations may be tantamount to shooting an elephant with a potato gun.
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Aquatic Complex: Shrine or Money Pit?
 August 29, 2018 - Following decades of deterioration and increasing obsolescence, Fort Lauderdale’s swimming Mecca is finally being renovated. The City’s swimming / diving legacy dates back to the early 1900s before the Civilian raft moored off the beach at the end of Las Olas Boulevard was replaced in 1928 by the Casino Pool in what later became DC Alexander Park. Plans to bring the Glory Days back to the Aquatic Complex failed in 2002, 2009 and 2013, when the Broward Inspector General brought focus to a rat's nest of contractor abuses in collusion with city officials. A recent eleventh hour "Hail Mary" agreement balanced the concerns of supporters who view the complex as a shrine and opponents who disparaged it as a money pit.
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July 2018 LaMarca Letter
 August 19, 2018 - In his July 2018 LaMarca Letter, District 4 Broward Commissioner Chip LaMarca relishes his recognition by the Florida Association of Counties (FAC) as a Presidential Advocate along with six other Broward Commissioners – and his receipt of FAC’s prestigious 2018 President’s “Commitment to Service” Award; imparts how the FAA credited Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL) for its outstanding safety protocols; reports that an FLL public artwork display entitled “Wavelength” has been honored by the Americans for the Arts; heralds the Port Everglades installation of PORTS (Physical Oceanographic Real-Time System) by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) - ending a threat to vessels in or near the Port that have been forced to rely on navigational data meant for shipping hundreds of miles north or south of the port; and closes with news about Broward County cornering 14 Achievement Awards from the National Association of Counties for innovative County government programs.
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Heather Moraitis: Pool Fix, Bayview, Apps
 August 10, 2018 - In her July 2018 Newsletter, District 1 City Commissioner Heather Moraitis welcomes a Commission decision to green light a Hensel Phelps Construction Co. proposal for renovating the fast decomposing Fort Lauderdale Aquatic Complex, the heart of the city’s century-long swimming and diving legacy. She also awaits All County Paving's planned resurfacing of Bayview Drive from Sunrise Boulevard to Commercial Boulevard; once again recommends implementation of a virtual neighborhood watch - a dividend of downloading the free Neighbors App by Ring; seeks to improve communications between constituents and the City through the Lauderserv app; announces her return to City Hall by August 13, before her first Telephone Town Hall Meeting on August 22. Having tasted the modern bells and whistles adorning competing swim centers, reclaiming departed national tournaments are going to be a hard sell, while local swimmers use the 18 other Olympic size pools in Broward County - which are less expensive and more convenient.
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FPL Blows $Billions - Heads Underground
 July 30, 2018 - Despite a 2006 order by the Florida Public Service Commission (FPSC) that energy utilities create storm-hardening plans to “minimize future storm damages and customer outages,” FPL instead soaked ratepayers for $3 billion to implement a plan to expedite the restoration of power after an outage. FPL dramatically failed to meet the FPSC objective, as Tropical Storm Irma knocked out power to 90 percent of FPL’s 5 million customer accounts — 11 million people - along with 6 million others - depriving more Floridians of power than any storm in history. Angry ratepayers, regulators and scores of municipal officials are questioning why FPL wasted $3 billion instead of burying the power lines. The short answer - it was more lucrative.
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June 2018 LaMarca Letter
July 20, 2018 - In his June 2018 LaMarca Letter, District 4 Broward Commissioner Chip LaMarca cautions constituents to prepare for the recently begun Hurricane Season; describes having signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) executed between Port Everglades and the Port of Limon, Costa Rica - to mutually promote trade, modernization and marketing initiatives; cites statistics that underscore substantial growth of the County's tourism economy during 2017; reviews "Passport to Broward", a 10-week Broward Academy program designed to enlighten college students about local government and their rights and responsibilities as citizens. LaMarca closes with a plea to participate in resurrecting the suspended Galt Mile Sun Trolley by completing a survey soliciting input useful for equipping a relaunched route with improved services, scheduling and destination sites. - Please peruse...
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Heather Moraitis: FPL, Apps, Sun Trolley
July 11, 2018 - In her June 2018 Newsletter, District 1 City Commissioner Heather Moraitis once again encourages constituents to download the Neighbors application by Ring, a sort of video doorbell that enables neighbors to enhance security through shared information - along with the lauderserv app to contact the city. Moraitis asks residential waste collection customers to separately put out yard waste and bulk trash on their respective pick-up days; recruits participation in a Sun Trolley survey to configure the future Galt Mile route; and announces that City Commission meetings will resume on August 21, after the annual Summer hiatus. She also commemorates the June 1st beginning of Hurricane Season by reminding residents to execute hurricane preparations while applauding an FPL plan to prevent or quickly recover from power outages - despite its abject failure. Read on...
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Hurricane Plan Pitfalls
 June 27, 2018 - Hurricane Season began on June 1, 2018. Every Galt Mile association crafted a Hurricane preparedness plan to protect its residents - and their homes. If County authorities order an evacuation, the association advises residents of the need to depart, immobilizes the elevators at a floor midway to the roof, turns off the pool pump and other amenities and dismisses employees. Associations typically announce the imminent shut down of the cooling tower and the domestic water system. However, depending on the circumstances, they may not follow through. Hurricane Irma revealed a disconnect between the National Hurricane Center and Florida jurisdictions about the kind of threat that should trigger an evacuation, the huge numbers of people who evacuate that shouldn't, and a glitch in association hurricane preparedness plans that can unnecessarily burden our most vulnerable residents. Read on...
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LaMarca: Economic Engines
 June 17, 2018 - Since initially elected, District 4 Broward Commissioner Chip LaMarca has staunchly supported the county’s economic engines. As Enterprise Funds, these money machines don’t burn through tax dollars, but sink or swim on inhouse profits. In his May 2018 constituent update, while enumerating a litany of world-class cruise vessels scheduled to serve Port Everglades travelers, LaMarca looks at two regional economic engines - major Broward transportation hubs - and serves up statistical evidence of dynamic growth in Port Everglades amd Fort Lauderdale / Hollywood International Airport. Despite its omission from LaMarca's May 2018 Newsletter, the Greater Fort Lauderdale/Broward County Convention Center is widely characterized as a third county economic engine, although crippling neglect annually veils a diminishing fiscal dividend. However, the County Board is about to launch a fourth attempt to correct this shortcoming, as the first three became victims of greed, turf protection and stupidity...
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Heather Moraitis: Sober Homes Law
 June 7, 2018 - In her May 2018 Newsletter, District 1 City Commissioner Heather Moraitis encourages constituents to download the Neighbors application (i.e. Ring), to access a series of security cameras for safety purposes; reminds us to separate yard waste from bulk trash; promotes the restoration of Florida Bright Futures Scholarship awards to their pre-recession levels; recruits volunteers to help in the Salvation Army kitchen and reviews the provisions of a Community Residences Ordinance approved at the April 17, 2018 City Commission meeting. It authorizes zoning regulations that govern the placement of Sober Homes within Fort Lauderdale. Until now, Federal law precluded local governments from regulating these Halfway Houses. While some are excellent, others are parasitically fraudulent and dangerous – and fuel the disintegration of residential neighborhoods. Maybe yours...
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April 2018 LaMarca Letter
 May 27, 2018 - In his April 2018 LaMarca Letter, District 4 Broward Commissioner Chip LaMarca describes how the Police Foundation will craft an After-Action Report (AAR) about the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, having concluded an AAR for the questionable police response to the Pulse Nightclub mass shooting in the City of Orlando. BSO's credibility was tarred by the High School shooting. Broward officials hope truthful introspection will begin to unring that bell. LaMarca celebrates April as National County Government Month, outlines the 90-year evolution of Port Everglades into a regional economic powerhouse, and notes how the latest new flights are contributing to the rapid expansion of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. Check it out...
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BCT Bus Blockade Booted from Galt
 May 18, 2018 - When Sun Trolley Executive Director Robyn Chiarelli notified Galt Mile officials that Broward County Transit (BCT) defunded the Galt Mile Route in June of 2017, Galt Mile President Pio Ieraci informed her that “BCT is no friend to the Galt Mile,” a conclusion he reached two years earlier – for reasons unrelated to the agency’s punitive Sun Trolley action. For almost 3 years, Broward County Transit maintained an on-street bus depot - called a layover - on Galt Ocean Drive. Buses blocked a handicap access ramp, pinched off traffic, blocked association driveways, and left a trail of damages to city and private property. The bus blockade finally departed on May 7, shortly after Broward officials learned about a planned Galt Mile demonstration threatened at Broward Government Center during a County Commission meeting. What a coincidence!!! Read on...
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Heather Moraitis: April in District 1
 April 25, 2018 - On April 17, 2018, District 1 City Commissioner Heather Moraitis delivered her second constituent Newsletter to the neighborhood association. Opening with an opportunistic plan to exploit a labor shortage in the world's fast-growing commercial airline industry, Moraitis connects Broward students with high-paying local jobs in Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport (FXE); urges constituents to nominate candidates for the 2018 Transportation Awards; equips residents near Executive Airport with the Aircraft Noise Abatement Reporting Line; lists a series of upcoming municipal events and invites District 1 residents to attend her bi-monthly pre-agenda meetings. Moraitis is also working on several Galt Mile issues. Dig in...
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Statutory Surgery: 2018 Association Bill
 April 14, 2018 - A few years ago, rampant abuses by rogue Condo Boards in Miami-Dade sparked a series of events that prompted revisions to the laws governing Florida associations. When a Miami-Dade Grand Jury issued a scathing report about the fraudulent rip-offs, it provided three Miami lawmakers with a golden fast-track to the Front Page. They crafted a 2017 bill anchored by a mandate providing that Board members who are convicted of committing crimes will be subject to Felony charges, although the legislation was rife with glitches, confusing language, and a boatload of unintended consequences. In 2018, District 93 Statehouse Representative George Moraitis filed House Bill 841 (HB 841) to resolve the statutory deficiencies while enhancing regulatory consistency in common interest communities - which is spin for applying regulations that already benefit condominiums to cooperatives and/or homeowner associations. For a breakdown of the 2018 Omnibus Association bill Read On...
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March 2018 LaMarca Letter
 April 2, 2018 - In his March 2018 LaMarca Letter, District 4 Broward Commissioner Chip LaMarca disparages the indefensible reaction by law enforcement to the murderous shooting spree at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School; describes how the devastation prompted Florida lawmakers to enact a school safety bill (SB 7026) comprised of gun control measures ordinarily anathematic in the Gunshine State; applauds the planned implementation of a training program to familiarize employees at Broward County's Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL) with the appropriate response protocols during an emergency; explores how improvements to the airport's Terminal 4 will expedite baggage claim procedures for air travelers; welcomes Lauralei Combs as the new Director of Broward County’s Animal Care and Adoption Division; and relishes the success of a Flag Disposal Program he sponsored last year...
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Comm. Heather Moraitis: District 1 News
March 24, 2018 - After being sworn in as Fort Lauderdale’s District 1 City Commissioner on March 20, 2018, Heather Moraitis released her first constituent Newsletter - an introductory edition slipped to the media a week earlier by her rookie Commission Assistant Melissa Coningsby. In her March / April 2018 Newsletter, Moraitis outlines her general objectives for the city drawn from a recent Neighborhood Survey, summarizes the progress of 14 Current Water and Sewer Infrastructure Projects in District 1, seeks to honor the 17 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School victims by fighting for school safety and gun control, cites her intention to host District 1 Pre-agenda Meetings at 7 p.m. in the Beach Community Center and Imperial Point Medical Center – respectively on the first and third Monday of each month, and closes by providing constituents with assorted contact options for enlisting her assistance. For Moraitis’ first message to constituents as District 1 Commissioner, Read on...
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Chuggling Chlorine Cocktails
 March 13, 2018 - In late February, a few Galt Mile residents sent emails to the neighborhood association asking about the acrid taste of their tap water. The complainants largely blame cross-contamination - as flooding and population growth increasingly overwhelm the City's aging water / wastewater infrastructure, faulting City officials for the infiltration of sewage and seawater into our sinks and showers. Although the City should have commenced salvaging the crumbling infrastructure years earlier, its not why the water tastes like gym socks. In fact, the nasty water is deliberately confected by the Treatment Division of the Public Works Water and Wastewater Operations Section. In short, our Water Gurus temporarily alter the chemical purification process as part of a regular system maintenance program approved by the EPA. For the 411 on the H2O, Read on...
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February 2018 LaMarca Letter
 March 5, 2018 - In his February 2018 Newsletter, District 4 Broward Commissioner Chip LaMarca documents his contribution to the 9th Annual Southeast Florida Regional Climate Leadership Summit held in his Broward County backyard; reports the construction approval of a new Foreign Trade Zone by the Port Everglades International Logistics Center, LLC and the relocation of Horizon Terminal Services' auto processing facility within the port; alerts constituents to Broward’s upcoming 41st Annual Waterway Cleanup at marine sites across the County; announces a new Libraries Division program that provides lifelong library cards to native Broward residents and benchmarks another record-breaking Sea Turtle Nesting Season with a review of the obstacles that were overcome. However, his admonition to tighten compliance with the local beach lighting ordinance understandably elicits mixed feelings along the Galt Mile, where residents already spent tens of $millions adapting association lighting plans to minimize illumination of nesting habitat – more than any other community in Fort Lauderdale.
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2018 ELSS Opt-Out: Weeks 3 - 6
February 24, 2018 - Across the state, high-rise association homeowners are facing a $multi-million assessment to fund retrofitting a fire sprinkler system that they legally opted-out of seven years earlier. When Governor Scott broke his promise and vetoed last year's ELSS opt-out legislation, Statehouse Representative George Moraitis (R – Fort Lauderdale) and Association Advocate Ellyn Bogdanoff agreed to refile the bills in 2018, despite the enormous political obstacles to enacting legislation during an election year session. Since every Statehouse seat is up for grabs, along with 20 of the 40 Senate seats, deep-pocketed special interests are bartering with cash-strapped campaigning lawmakers for favorable votes. As a result, the 2018 committee process navigated by Moraitis' House Bill 1061 (HB 1061) and Senator Gary Farmer's companion Senate Bill 1432 (SB 1432) has degenerated into a minefield. Read on for Bogdanoff's take on the legislation's mid-session turmoil.
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January 2018 LaMarca Letter
 February 15, 2018 - In his January 2018 LaMarca Letter, District 4 County Commissioner Chip LaMarca details his support for Beach Renourishment, improved Emergency Management protocols and tighter safety standards for Assisted Living Facilities - policy objectives cherry-picked from a County Legislative Program compiled annually for Broward lawmakers and lobbyists promoting the County's agenda in Tallahassee during the legislative session. LaMarca also updates air travelers about the opening of Concourse G East in Terminal 4 at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport; notes that a growing number of property owners are funding Clean Energy improvements with PACE Broward financing; and announces a new toll-free number for long distance inquiries about County government services, facilitating communication for out-of-residence snowbirds and snowflakes. Stuffed in LaMarca's legislative backpack is the seed for keeping a promise to Galt Mile residents.
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Roberts: Chlorine; Body Cam; Fire Sta. 54
 February 7, 2018 - In his February 2018 Newsletter, City Commissioner Bruce Roberts welcomes Commissioner-Elect Heather Moraitis to step into his District 1 shoes, announces Mayor Seiler’s State of the City Address at the recently transformed South Side Cultural Arts Center, alerts municipal water customers to the temporary introduction of free chlorine into our drinking water to boost the disinfection process, reports how a city IT team sought to cure a glitch in the FLPD body worn cameras pilot program by exploring how their Orlando peers deployed similar equipment, updates constituents about the progress of District 1 infrastructure projects either completed, currently underway, or on the drawing board, including the long awaited construction kick-off of Fire Rescue Station 54. Roberts closes with a list of upcoming events, essentially commission meetings leading up to the March 13, 2018 municipal election - and the swearing in ceremony a week later. Read on...
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2018 ELSS Opt-Out: Week 2
January 25, 2018 - On December 26, 2017, Association Advocate Ellyn Bogdanoff delivered a Holiday gift to thousands of Florida homeowners in high-rise associations. A message from the former State Senator revived their hopes for a legislative opportunity to dodge a $multi-million assessment - the cost of complying with a scam mandate to install an Engineered Life Safety System (ELSS). A few days before Bogdanoff’s December 26th “First Update”, George Moraitis filed House Bill 1061 (HB 1061) on Thursday, December 21, 2017. On January 2, 2018, Senator Gary Farmer filed Senate Bill 1432 (SB 1432) in the other chamber. On January 15, Bogdanoff updated supporters about the bills' progress in WEEk 2 of the 2018 Legislative session. Check it out...
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Delivering Disney: Keeping the Promise
January 16, 2018 - When Galt Ocean Drive residents voluntarily self-assessed funding for the broad range of civic upgrades known as the Galt Mile Improvement Project in 1995 (pink aggregate sidewalks, new traffic signals and signage, interred utility lines, pavered crosswalks, new landscaping, etc.), the City agreed to maintain the many improvements in “a Disney-like manner.” They didn't. Having watched the landscaping cycle through 12 years of avoidable brownouts, frustrated Galt officials were delighted when Commodore resident José “Chepo” Vega volunteered to pressure the City into keeping its promise. After eight years of fighting to keep our home safe and beautiful, Chepo retired last year. Scrambling to fill his shoes, neighborhood officials serendipitously hit the jackpot when Galleon resident John Jors picked up the gauntlet and hit the ground running. For some insight into his first few months as the neighborhood's block maintenance liaison, Read on...
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December 2017 LaMarca Letter
 January 5, 2018 - In his December 2017 LaMarca Letter, District 4 Broward Commissioner Chip LaMarca cites the newly built Ravenswood Bus Operations and Maintenance Facility and the new Animal Care and Adoption Center for having respectively scored Gold and Silver LEED certifications; apprises travelers about using the recently released 2018 Port Everglades Cruise Guide to build an entire vacation around a cruise; reminds Broward boaters to heed the slower seasonal speed limits to avoid collisions with migrating Manatees; and applauds the Broward Water Partnership Rebate Program for saving a record breaking 1.5 billion gallons of water as of October 2017. While LaMarca’s Holiday Season missive extolls two recent County projects for meriting LEED Certification, few of his Broward constituents are conversant with the LEED Program, or why their elected officials celebrate LEED certified projects. This may help...
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Round 2: ELSS Opt-Out First Update
 December 27, 2017 - Seeking to recapture a $multi-billion windfall, Fire Sprinkler Association lobbyists deployed a Declaratory Statement to circumvent State Law by manipulating a "skewed" interpretation of the Florida Fire Code, thereby authorizing local Fire Marshalls to demand that thousands of Florida high-rise associations retrofit a $multi-million Engineered Life Safety System (ELSS) - an arbitrary stewpot of fire safety features that invariably include a sprinkler system. Angered by this mercenary maneuver to relegate the intent of the legislature and scam $billions from association homeowners, Statehouse Representative George Moraitis (R – Fort Lauderdale) teamed with Association Advocate Ellyn Bogdanoff to file legislation providing associations with the right to opt-out of the costly ELSS. With one exception, every Florida lawmaker in both chambers approved the bills. When Governor Scott broke his word and vetoed the legislation, lawmakers began crunching a revised strategy for 2018 - until fate smiled - and convincingly inveighed the legislation's current readiness for Round 2.
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Fire Wiz Jeff Lucas Boosts Fire Rescue
 December 17, 2017 - Dispatched from each of the City's eleven Fire Stations, Fort Lauderdale firefighters annually respond to 55 thousand reported fires and medical emergencies. Fire Marshals don’t rescue people endangered by fire, or provide those threatened by medical emergencies with a chance to survive a harrowing ordeal. In the City of Fort Lauderdale, the Fire Prevention Bureau is answerable to Fort Lauderdale Fire Marshal Jeff Lucas, whose unique talent for engendering cooperation has manifested a sea change in Bureau operations. By crafting enforcement policies that incorporate the concerns of homeowners, merchants, neighborhood associations and civic organizations – while enlisting them as partners – Lucas has nosedived the number and severity of fires in Fort Lauderdale, an achievement that quietly merited a litany of honoraria from the City, the State and his peers.
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November 2017 LaMarca Letter
 December 8, 2017 - In his November 2017 LaMarca Letter, District 4 Broward Commissioner Chip LaMarca outlines how the recent expansion of Slip 2 in Port Everglades will enable the berthing of today's longer ships adjacent to the newly renovated Terminal 4, including Holland America Line’s Pinnacle-class ships, Princess Cruises’ Royal-class ships, and those of Carnival Cruise Line - currently the primary user of the newly extended berth; welcomes the 9th Annual Southeast Florida Regional Climate Leadership Summit to the Broward County Convention Center in mid-December; exhorts Broward taxpayers to take advantage of early-payment discounts for recently received property tax bills; applauds County Veterans Services Officers for helping Broward’s 127,000 veterans navigate the Veterans Administration System for benefits. While noting how the recently elevated ratings of bonds issued by Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport will enhance the airport's long term financial stability, LaMarca also observes how FLL cured an FAA dilemma that might have cost hundreds of $millions with a $2.5 million high-tech fix.
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Roberts: Go Big Go Fast
 November 30, 2017 - In his November/December 2017 Newsletter, District 1 City Commissioner & Vice Mayor Bruce Roberts updates progress for "Go Big, Go Fast!”, a comprehensive initiative launched by the City of Fort Lauderdale Public Works Department to improve, replace or enhance the City's aging infrastructure. Roberts details the status of 18 projects central to upgrading the City's water and wastewater system. He enumerates ongoing District 1 projects in Palm Aire West, Bayview from Sunrise to Commercial Boulevards, Twin Lakes and Lake Estates. Completed projects in 8 District 1 locations include the installation of speed humps, radar signs, striping/swale work and flexible delineators. Roberts provides a County email address for reporting downed stop signs and lists upcoming November and December events. He offers news-hungry constituents email updates while providing contact information for Robbi Uptegrove, his invaluable Commission Assistant.
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Beach Funds, Hot Spots & the Wish List
November 21, 2017 - After twenty years of knocking heads with foot-dragging bureaucrats in Tallahassee and Washington DC, while fending off demagogues who view tidal erosion as the “wages of sin” for befouling pristine barrier islands, delighted Galt Mile residents spent 2016 watching an armada of trucks ferry sand from upstate mines to severely eroded north Broward beaches. For two decades, officials advocating for beach renourishment argued that the beaches were indispensable to State and local tourism economies and provided the only real protection for people and property threatened by hurricanes and tropical storms. At the outset of the Segment II beach fix, Broward Beach boss Nicole Sharp assured Galt Milers that when the protection was tested, and storm surge snatched up yards of new beach, any eroded "hot spots" could be refilled without another excursion through regulatory hell. When fate sent Irma, Sharp rolled up her sleeves...
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October 2017 LaMarca Letter
November 11, 2017 - In his October 2017 constituent update, District 4 Broward Commissioner Chip LaMarca anticipates legislation that may provide a reliable funding source for renourishing eroded beaches and maintaining (and/or sand bypassing) coastal inlets - where 85% of the downdrift sand is lost to tidal erosion. LaMarca thanks FDOT for awarding Fort Lauderdale International Airport (FLL) $27 million, half the $54 million pricetag of a planned five-gate remote terminal east of Terminal 4, reviews a plan by President and CEO Stacy Ritter of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau to increase the agency's investment in digital advertising while using predictive analytics to harvest consumer feedback, welcomes prospective pet owners to "Roll with the Big Dogs", an incentivized invitation to bring home a supersized pet pooch with a Hefty Bag of free supplies. Since the county finally awoke to the need for a regional plan to fortify infrastructure increasingly overwhelmed by rising sea levels, LaMarca closes by recruiting constituents to help document tidal flooding in their neighborhoods during the autumn King Tides - generating data useful for mitigating the local impacts.
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The Storm Debris War
 October 28, 2017 - Shortly after Hurricane Irma pummeled Broward on September 10. Fort Lauderdale officials announced that the storm buried the city in 1 million Cubic Yards of debris. After first clearing the roadways (an estimated 60,000 cubic yards of sand was removed from A1A within two days of the storm), bulk trash haulers were scheduled to remove the debris by making three passes in each of 11 City Zones - as mandated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) regulations. The first pass (completed on October 15), collected storm-generated debris. While Fort Lauderdale targets the remaining mess, City officials are closely monitoring their contractors and subcontractors, as haulers across the state have been jumping ship - and heading for greener pastures (a bigger payday). When Hurricanes Harvey and Irma diluted regional recovery resources, Cities covered in debris used windfall contract rates to lure subcontractors from neignboring municipalities - thereby sacrificing their eligibility for FEMA reimbursement.
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September 2017 LaMarca Letter
 October 19, 2017 - In his September 2017 Newsletter, District 4 Broward Commissioner Chip LaMarca inventories the impacts of Hurricane Irma, lists Recovery Resources that serve as a financial safety net for individuals, repairs damage to their homes, offsets Businesses losses, and provides low interest Small Business Administration Disaster loans that help return storm victims to solvency; lists important Telephone Numbers that help residents restore lost access to communications, protect against post-storm scams and report price gouging for survival necessities. He observes that the Segment 2 beach renourishment exceeded expectations as a bulwark against Storm Surge while protecting $billions in upland property; and describes how the County teamed with the Humane Society to rescue abandoned pets and rebuild their strength before boarding them on flights to shelters across the country. After Hurricanes Harvey and Irma steamrolled Texas and Florida, the resulting shortage of recovery resources triggered a bidding war that spanned the southeastern states and fueled a regional epidemic of price gouging and actionable contract violations.
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The Irma Dividend
October 10, 2017 - On September 26, 2017, the Galt Mile Advisory Board convened an 11 a.m. luncheon meeting at Casa Calabria in the Ocean Manor Hotel. Not surprisingly, the meeting agenda was dominated by Hurricane Irma. Following a series of association damage reports submitted by officials from a dozen member condominiums and cooperatives, GMCA President Pio Ieraci announced that Galt Mile homeowners, tenants and business owners are eligible for financial relief from FEMA, and could apply in person, online or by calling the agency. After detailing his experience with the process, Ieraci concluded, “If a claim is approved, funds can either be mailed to the applicant, or deposited directly into his or her bank account.” While some of our neighbors sailed through unscathed, thousands more were forced to purchase airline tickets and inland hotel rooms - while others had to replace food that spoiled when power was interrupted. Galt Mile residents who sustained losses shouldn’t hesitate to apply for relief, especially since it was funded by your prior contributions to Internal Revenue.
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Water & Sewer Rates Roller Coaster
 September 30, 2017 - On August 28, 2017, Galt Mile officials Pio Ieraci, Eric Berkowitz and Fred Nesbitt met in City Hall with Commissioner Bruce Roberts, City Manager Lee Feldman and staffers from the utility billing department - specifically - those who generate invoices for water and sewer services. It was the latest in a series of meetings convened to correct a longstanding billing inequity that unfairly inflates water and sewer charges for association homeowners. Significantly enhanced during a 2009 rate reconfiguration implemented to plump water and sewer revenues prior to a City venture into the bond market, the billing disparity has since widened from a seriers of annual rate hikes. Correcting this discriminatory invoicing policy will save every Galt Mile condo or co-op owner hundreds of dollars each year. Read on...
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August 2017 LaMarca Letter
September 20, 2017 - In his August 2017 LaMarca Letter, District 4 County Commissioner Chip LaMarca regrets the Broward Board’s decision to decline a replay of the nominal FY 2017 millage reduction he successfully spearheaded last year; notes that WorldCity’s annual compilation of Port Everglades’ trade statistics heralds a rebound after several years of tentative growth; reviews the fast-growing number of new routes that contributed to FLL’s status as the fastest growing large hub airport in the country; advises constituents to enroll in AlertBroward, a new emergency notification system that provides subscribers with important information about an emergency; and closes by inviting Broward students to participate in the Mayor’s Art Challenge, a competition sponsored by the Broward Cultural Division. Read on...
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Irma, Jose, Katia, Lee and Maria in Play
September 8, 2017 - With Irma, Jose, Katia, Lee and Maria in play - a few informational resources seem appropriate. Click Here to a boatload of hurricane links, Click Here to the National Hurricane Center or Click Here to the National Weather Service. For a list of local hotels (with contact info) Click Here and then click the Broward City of your choice. ALSO - Click on your preferred killer storm below:
Hurricane Links
Galt Sun Trolley & BCT Bus Bunco
 August 22, 2017 - In his June 2017 Newsletter, District 1 Commissioner Bruce Roberts marked the Sun Trolley's 25th anniversary by applauding a litany of new services. Not surprisingly, he failed to mention that petulant bureaucrats at Broward County Transit (BCT) celebrated by defunding the Galt Mile Sun Trolley Route. Not to worry - Sun Trolley Executive Director Robyn Chiarelli has assured Galt Mile officials that the service will not be interrupted or reduced. As observed by Galt Mile President Pio Ieraci “BCT is no friend to the Galt Mile.” A BCT Bus layover has been blocking a handicap access ramp on Galt Ocean Drive since construction commenced on A1A. The busses often park on the sidewalk, or extend into the street and impede or block traffic (including an EMT). When asked by the City to relocate the Route 72 bus layover outside city limits, BCT officials instead agreed to return the busses to their original site at 41st Street and A1A when construction is complete, presumably in September. By the way, if a few more Galt Milers ride the Sun Trolley each month, BCT will be forced to restore the choked funding. For a snapshot of the Galt Link's bumpy evolution, and a summary of the BCT bus blockade Read on...
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July 2017 LaMarca Letter
 August 8, 2017 - In his July 2017 LaMarca Letter, District 4 Broward Commissioner Chip LaMarca explores how improvements to Terminal 1 at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL) - jointly funded by the County and Southwest Airlines - benefitted both stakeholders and travelers; cites the Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance for contributing to the County’s regional leadership in job growth; and warns constituents to prepare for the seasonal threat of hurricanes through November and the active transmission of Zika by mosquitoes that proliferate during South Florida’s May through October rainy season. Check it out...
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ELSS Retrofit - Round 2
July 24, 2017 - In response to a May 4, 2016 Declaratory Statement authorizing local Fire Marshalls to demand that thousands of Florida high-rise associations retrofit a $multi-million Engineered Life Safety System, Statehouse Representative George Moraitis teamed with Senator Kathleen Passidomo and association advocate Ellyn Bogdanoff to enact legislation enabling associations to forego this regulatory scam. Governor Rick Scott promised to withhold a veto if the bills were amended to require approval by 2/3 of the association’s voting interests to forego an ELSS retrofit - in lieu of a simple majority. Although the legislation was amended as suggested, he didn't keep his word. On June 26, 2017, the Governor vetoed the legislation. At a subsequent July 18, 2017 meeting with Galt Mile officials, Moraitis and Bogdanoff agreed to refile the legislation in the 2018 legislative session. Here's what happened...
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June 2017 LaMarca Letter
July 15, 2017 - In his June 2017 Newsletter, District 4 Broward Commissioner Chip LaMarca concludes that a significant increase in local property values should sufficiently enhance the County’s ad valorem revenues to cut taxes without impacting services; details competitive improvements to Port Everglades’ Southport Turning Notch, describes how a long-term agreement between the Port and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. will mutually enhance revenues; observes how these improvements helped elevate the Fitch Rating outlook on Port bonds from “stable” to “positive”. LaMarca applauds a Broward County Libraries Division program that temporarily enables free internet access for veterans, active military members and their dependents; congratulates ten County departments for winning a record 16 National Association of Counties Achievement Awards; invites participation in the Broward Academy’s ten-week educational series that examines the panoply of County Government services; and verifies that a key County E-911 Dispatch upgrade was approved for installation - as 30-year old intermittently operational radios are recycled into bullets and bottle tops..
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Roberts: Retail; Sun Trolley; Tax Cut
 July 2, 2017 - In his June / July 2017 message to constituents, District 1 City Commissioner Bruce Roberts notes how the values of South Florida retail markets are currently among the highest in the nation, as Fort Lauderdale's prosperity is bolstered by a robust economy, an unemployment rate below the national average, and total employment figures that reached a record high in 2016; announces the Sun Trolley's 25th year as the city's Community Bus Service; outlines a snakebit plan to insure the navigability of the city's canals by charging the cost of dredging to the owners of properties that line the canals (the plan was subsequently vaporized). Roberts laments how the legislature's placement of an additional $25,000 Homestead Exemption on the November 2018 ballot will tank City revenues; applauds 4 District 1 participants in the City of Fort Lauderdale's first Neighbor Leadership Academy Class and reviews a litany of planned improvements to the stretch of Sunrise Boulevard from Searstown eastward to the Gateway Shopping Plaza, an FDOT brainchild waitlisted for funding by Broward MPO.
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Oxy vs. Skag
 June 21, 2017 - At the February 18, 2010 GMCA Advisory Board meeting, City Commissioner Bruce Roberts lamented an explosion of disreputable local pain clinics, noting that within a few years, their numbers in South Florida jumped from 4 to 176. Drawing on his long experience as the City’s top cop, Roberts knew that the vast majority of drugs dispensed at these clinics wind up on the street. To many city officials, having unwittingly become the lynchpin of an East coast drug network seemed more intolerable than the thousands of lives it abruptly extinguished. Seven years later, as the Pill Mills fade into an embarrassing historical footnote; South Florida autopsy tables have never been busier. Here’s what happened...
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May 2017 LaMarca Letter
June 5, 2017 - In his May 2017 LaMarca Letter, District 4 Broward Commissioner Chip LaMarca details how to respectfully dispose of old, tattered and torn American flags that are no longer fit to serve as a symbol of our country, admonishes constituents to adequately prepare for the June 1 through November 30 Hurricane Season, encourages those seeking a new pet to drop in on the special “Beach Bud” adoption event, which heavily incentivizes welcoming a larger dog into one's family. LaMarca opens by outlining Broward County measures to combat a nationwide epidemic of opioid overdose deaths, a devastating scourge that overwhelmed South Florida morgues, decimated thousands of families and claims a record number of victims each month. How the campaign to close Pill Mills helped catalyze this crisis will be posted in the Tallahassee section. For LaMarca’s May 2017 insights, read on...
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Roberts: FXE; Census Data; GABP
May 27, 2017 - In his May 2017 Newsletter, City Commissioner Bruce Roberts notes how Fort Lauderdale is in one of the nation’s fastest growing metropolitan regions; celebrates the 70th birthday of Fort Lauderdale’s Executive Airport (FXE); announces new LauderWorks and LauderStreet websites that provide information about road closures, special events and Public Works projects throughout the City; honors FLPD Sergeant Monica Ferrer for facilitating Fort Lauderdale’s recognition as a Purple Heart City; invites constituents to attend The Great American Beach Party on May 27; applauds this year’s nominees for induction into the annual Fort Lauderdale Walk of Fame; and closes by welcoming participation in the upcoming 2017 Telephone Town Hall Meetings” (speak with Roberts on June 14 at 7 p.m.).
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Bogdanoff Bags The Bill - Endgame
May 12, 2017 - Last May, Fire Sprinkler Association lobbyists successfully engineered a regulatory loophole to circumvent a 2010 State Law that enables high rise association homeowners to forgo spending $millions on retrofitting their home with fire sprinklers. Since then, associations that legally opted out of the sprinkler retrofit have been ordered by local Fire Marshals to install as Emergency Life Safety System (ELSS). Since an ELSS in older buildings includes a sprinkler system, when Statehouse Representative George Moraitis learned that Fire Sprinkler Association lobbyists circumvented the intent of the legislature in order to bloodlet $billions from association homeowners, he filed legislation that will allow high rise associations to also opt out of the ELSS. Given her intimate familiarity with the legislative process and the specific issues at stake, former Representative and State Senator Ellyn Bogdanoff also headed to Tallahassee. Last month Bogdanoff updated Galt Mile officials about the legislation’s progress through the first half of the session. Bogdanoff’s reports covering the frenetic second half of the session follow next, including an endgame that proved a double-edged sword.
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April 2017 LaMarca Letter
 May 10, 2017 - In his April 2017 constituent update, District 4 Broward Commissioner Chip LaMarca uses a pictorial roadmap to demonstrate how the Broward Convention Center will evolve into a full blown Exposition Community featuring a Headquarters Hotel surrounded by venues for entertainment, shopping, dining, and recreation - for both visitors and residents, announces the precursor to a lucrative long-term agreement between Port Everglades and Royal Caribbean Cruises, invites constituents to share in a rebate for promoting water conservation to our friends and neighbors and details how a newly installed State-of-the-Art Computer-Aided Dispatch (CAD) system will expedite emergency response times countywide - and help convince stakeholders that the Broward County Office of Regional Communications and Technology (ORCAT) and the Broward Sheriff's Office (BSO) can work together without a 15-round Smack Down.
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A Fat & Healthy Beach
April 25, 2017 - When construction vehicles rolled into north Broward beachfront staging sites on January 4, 2016, two decades of mind-numbing frustration began melting away. Although thousands of Galt Mile residents are delighted with the restored beach, their twenty-year ordeal provided first-hand insight into the structural consequences of tidal erosion. While watching the new sand migrate south along the coast, many are understandably apprehensive about County intentions to maintain the newly widened beach. To this end, Broward beach boss Nicole Sharp is overhauling the County’s Beach maintenance protocols. After projects in Port Everglades and Segment III stabilize the Broward coast, Sharp's plan to surgically address "Hot Spots" eviscerated by Mother Nature may not be a walk in the park - but it will help keep the beach fat and healthy, while postponing a return to the regulatory rat's nest from which we recently emerged.
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ELSS: April 2017 Legislative Update
 April 15, 2017 - When a skewed interpretation of the Florida Fire Prevention Code (FFPC) was implanted in a May 4, 2016 Declaratory Statement, it authorized local Fire Marshalls to demand that thousands of Florida high-rise associations retrofit a $multi-million Emergency Life Safety System (ELSS). Angered by a scheme that relegated the intent of the legislature, Representative George Moraitis filed House Bill 653, which would provide associations with the right to opt-out of the costly ELSS. Since members of the Fire Marshall's union openly employed by the Sprinkler associations are fighting to preserve their anticipated windfall, Association Advocate Ellyn Bogdanoff - who sponsored the 2010 Sprinkler opt-out legislation - is lobbying on behalf of Moraitis’ bill. On April 8, 2017, former State Senator Bogdanoff sent a message to GMCA officials to help update thousands of Galt Mile residents threatened with this questionable $multi-million assessment. Her week 5 review of the bill's progress recounts the obstacles that were overcome and those that remain. See where we stand...
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March / April 2017 LaMarca Letter
 April 6, 2017 - In his March / April 2017 LaMarca Letter, District 4 Broward Commissioner Chip LaMarca describes how a staged photo shoot of our recently widened beach will carry multiple messages to the State and Federal agencies charged with funding beach projects, blending a "Thank You" card with an invoice and a cordial reminder that their investment will yield a whopping tourism dividend. LaMarca also details how NEPA surveys required for Port Everglades' improvements will safeguard the environment; notes how a Port pilot program to enhance turn times expedited its first shipment of perishable cargo; welcomes Silversea Cruises' newest luxury cruise ship – Silver Muse – to its new winter homeport; applauds recognition of Broward's green communities by “Keep America Beautiful”; details how an Animal Care Division web portal will facilitate spay and neuter services for “community cats”; and explains how thousands of new parking spaces at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport will enhance the explosive growth anticipated for FLL in 2017. Read about it...
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Bogdanoff in Tallahassee
March 27, 2017 - On May 4, 2016, a State official issued a questionable interpretation of the Florida Fire Code (AKA: a Declaratory Statement) that empowered local Fire Marshals to require most high-rise associations to install an Emergency Life Safety System (ELSS). An undefined blend of fire safety elements (which includes fire sprinklers), Fort Lauderdale Fire Marshal Jeff Lucas characterized an ELSS as “more expensive than fire sprinklers”. Upon learning how a bureaucrat circumvented the Statutory right of associations to opt-out of the sprinkler retrofit, Statehouse Representative George Moraitis filed House Bill 653 on February 6, 2017. The bill would enable association unit owners to decide - by a full membership vote - whether their association should fund a $multi-million ELSS. Former State Senator Ellyn Bogdanoff, who authored the 2010 opt-out law, traveled to Tallahassee to help Moraitis enact his bill. Since the success of this bill will determine whether most Galt Mile unit owners will be forced to cough up a $multi-million assessment, Bogdanoff updates the legislation's progress with weekly reports. Read her recent messages...
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Evolution of a Homeless Program
 March 18, 2017 - In 2005, Broward County implemented a plan entitled “A Way Home: Broward County, Florida’s Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness”. Blending junk science and urban legend with untested theories about the root causes of homelessness, the plan required homeless candidates to demonstrate "housing readiness" by enduring a prolonged psychological, medical and sociological gauntlet of treatment, counseling and classes while bouncing between shelters and the streets. The vast majority skated when faced with this daunting regimen, and the program’s overall impact on homelessness was negligible. After Congress adopted Federal laws in 2009 that precipitated a nationwide "housing first" initiative, the Broward "A Way Home" plan and local homeless assistance programs were adapted to access new Federal funds. Since then, hundreds of homeless individuals and families have been housed, including more than 500 homeless veterans, and scores of our "chronic homeless" population. See what happened...
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Roberts: Galleria; Bad Bill; Galt A1A
March 7, 2017 - In his March/April 2017 Newsletter, District 1 City Commissioner Bruce Roberts anticipates another attempt by Galleria developers to placate leery City planners, introduces seawall compliance requirements, disparages a vacation rental bill by State lawmakers that would usurp the right of City residents to govern themselves, discusses a plan to decrease the number of pedestrians annually flattened by motoring tourists, reviews the progress of A1A renovations along the Galt Mile, provides a half dozen marginally useful City telephone numbers, applauds a mobile showers program for the homeless, invites perusal of newly available online police data, describes Symphony at the Waterways – a recently completed high-end senior living facility, enumerates a spectrum of parks programs, thanks constituents for marshalling through the Segment II beach renourishment, extolls employee happy talk on You Tube and notes a growing libretto of City accolades. Finally – skim some pedantic commentary...
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ELSS Ambush: Switching Scams
February 21, 2017 - Last May, Fire Sprinkler Associations successfully engineered a regulatory loophole to circumvent a 2010 State Law that enables high rise association homeowners to opt out of a costly sprinkler retrofit. Although many associations have since been contacted by local Fire Marshals about installing a $multi-million Emergency Life Safety System (ELSS), some have been directed to immediately install a full sprinkler system. Leveraging their required system approval, some local Fire Marshals have also specified an engineer and contractor for these installations. On February 6, 2017, former Representative and State Senator Ellyn Bogdanoff, who sponsored the 2010 sprinkler opt-out legislation, defined this dilemma while Representative George Moraitis announced having filed an ELSS opt-out bill - hopefully precluding one of the costliest rip-offs in Florida History. - Read on...
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January / February 2017 LaMarca Letter
February 12, 2017 - In his January / February 2017 LaMarca Letter, District 4 County Commissioner Chip LaMarca thanks officials in the County’s Natural Resources Division for their relentless pursuit of the recently completed Segment II beach renourishment, welcomes $8 million awarded by HUD to fund 19 projects for which ending homelessness is a shared objective, credits a collaboration among stakeholders in the Broward Water Partnership with new conservation measures, applauds “Fast Lane”, an expedited information check-out feature of the Broward Library’s new service model and observes that the 2016 Sea Turtle nesting season was earmarked by an unprecedented number of Loggerhead, Green Turtle and Leatherback nests. Unfortunately, many of this year's avalanche of Turtle nests failed to produce hatchlings. Curious? - Read on...
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Hi-Tech CarJacks & Publix Robberies
 January 30, 2017 - With the exception of a summer hiatus, the Galt Mile Community Association (GMCA) hosts an Advisory Board meeting on the third Thursday of each month. Among the monthly agenda items is a security report. In their capacity as law enforcement liaisons to the Galt Mile Community Association, FLPD Officers Tom Gestal and George Brandner provide the Advisory Board with a snapshot of local crime trends and recommendations for protecting local residents against emerging threats. Since September, they have been updating the Advisory Board about a spike in car thefts that predominantly impact several models of Infiniti. Unlike the standard smash and grab tactics that leave windows broken, or keylocks ripped from car doors, Gestal and Brandner noted how vehicles that were stolen or plundered were left undamaged. In January, Gestal warned about a series of violent robberies that victimized supermarket shoppers. To avoid becoming a target... Read Gestal's advice...
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Roberts: Body Cam, FLPD Chief, Sunny TV
 January 19, 2017 - In his January / February 2017 message to constituents, District 1 City Commissioner Bruce Roberts updates A1A roadway improvements bordering the Galt Mile neighborhood, describes a new online app useful for locating permit data, briefly bios Rick Maglione, appointed interim Chief of Police when Frank Adderley relocated to the Broward Sheriff’s Office, applauds the “Cops 4 Kids” program for providing schoolchildren with mentoring and positive role models, reviews the final stage of the Segment II Broward Beach Renourishment, notes improved graduation rates for traditional high schools in the Broward County Public School System and reports the launching of Hello Sunny TV, which streams live coverage of events, on demand content and realtime local beachcams to laptops, tablets and smartphones. To protect FLPD officers and the public by enhancing transparency and accountability, Roberts announces the long awaited implementation of an FLPD body worn cameras pilot program. For Roberts' 2017 kickoff message, Read on...
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December 2016 LaMarca Letter
January 10, 2017 - In his December 2016 LaMarca Letter, District 4 Broward Commissioner Chip LaMarca highlights some of Port Everglades 2016 benchmarks, topped by Congressional approval of a funding venue for the Port’s Master Plan improvements. By paving the way to deepen the port's channel and expand its turning notch, the new Federal law will enable the port to share in a post-Panamax economic jackpot. LaMarca also applauds Broward County for out-pacing most of the State’s other metro areas for job growth, noting that District 4 is the statewide leader for creating jobs in the fields of trade, transportation, and utilities. LaMarca closes his message by enumerating the health benefits of bike sharing - a sort of testament to Broward B-Cycle on its fifth Birthday, when it became the fiscal ward of health insurance carrier AvMed. After being rescued, the bikes were rebranded. See How...
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New Local Scam Targets Seniors
 December 30, 2016 - The holiday season is traditionally a time marked by inclusion, family, serene coexistence, charity – and a palpable uptick in fraud. The high profile personal data hacks of 70 million Target customers in 2013 and the fiasco at Sony in 2014 both took place during the holiday season, and it’s no coincidence that December was named National Identity Theft Prevention and Awareness Month. Although Holiday Season scams are a worldwide phenomenon, Federal Trade Commission (FTC) statistics confirm that the slime balls who drive this niche industry auger a preference for Floridians. Nick-named "Fraud Lauderdale" by insiders working both sides of the "Confidence Industry", the Venice of America features the 3rd highest complaint rate in the United States - Scam Central. FLPD Galt Mile liaison, Officer Tom Gestal recently informed the Advisory Board about a new scam. After targeting seniors in a half dozen Broward municipalities, an unusual yet effective "Fraud Ring" has arrived at the Galt Mile. It can only hurt you if you don't know how it works. Check it out...
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Homestead Express - 2017
December 20, 2016 - The Florida Constitution provides all legal Florida residents with a tax-saving exemption on the first and third $25,000 of the assessed value of their owner/occupied homes, condominiums, co-op apartments, and other “permanent residences” - if they qualify. Homesteaded properties are eligible for the protective “Save Our Homes” tax cap. Also available are a host of traditional and new exemptions for seniors, veterans, widows/widowers, active military, the blind, disabled persons and properties with build-outs for Mom, Dad, Grandma and/or Grandpa. Apply for exemptions in person, at an outreach event (Beach Community Center), by mail to BCPA, interactively online or by requesting “homesteads-on-wheels” (for house-bound applicants). Although exemption applications are considered "timely" if submitted by the March 1, 2017 "soft" deadline, they will still be accepted until the September 18 "hard" deadline if accompanied by any moronic excuse for tardiness. If you miss that, a "Good Cause" sob story won't make a difference - you're screwed!!! Learn about the 2017 incarnation of the Homestead Express!
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November 2016 LaMarca Letter
November 30, 2016 - In his November 2016 LaMarca Letter, District 4 Broward Commissioner Chip LaMarca announces the grand opening of the newly constructed Broward County Animal Care and Adoption Center, welcomes the world’s largest cruise ship - Royal Caribbean’s Harmony of the Seas - at Port Everglades, notes how the decision by Air Emirates to service the Greater Fort Lauderdale area will enhance international services at Fort Lauderdale - Hollywood International Airport, describes the TechGateway Initiative - a partnership between the Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance and Broward County Public Schools that will symbiotically benefit local students and the region’s fast-growing Tech Industry, applauds Broward County Parks for providing Veterans with an assortment of free camping services in November, and reminds boaters to avoid collisions with manatees that seasonally return to local waterways - usually in November
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Roberts: Surtax, Best of Web, Stormwater
 November 20, 2016 - In his November / December 2016 Newsletter, after welcoming the Holiday Season, City Commissioner Bruce Roberts makes a pre-Election Day effort to engender approval for the ill-fated penny sales tax - for the third time in 5 months. Building on last year’s 8th place ranking in data and technology by Digital Cities, Fort Lauderdale rated Digital Cities 2016 “Best of the Web” recognition by for its new website’s bells and whistles. After reporting a Commission decision to decline approval for couching an upgraded Galleria in a massive mixed-use complex laced with condos and poorly planned public use trade-offs, Roberts snapshots progress of a 2014 10-year plan to compensate for rising sea levels with a 3-phase reconfiguration of the City’s Stormwater infrastructure. Roberts wraps up his message with calendar tweaks.
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October 2016 LaMarca Letter
November 10, 2016 - In his October 2016 Newsletter, District 4 Broward Commissioner Chip LaMarca announces a resumption of the Segment II Broward Beach Project - couched in a “before and after” comparative pictorial, outlines an award winning water main project at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and congratulates airport director Mark Gale for his appointment to the Board Conference of Minority Transportation Officials, applauds Broward County Animal Care and Adoption Division for upping its live release rate and participating in the Perfect Exposure Project - which equips staff with shutterbug skills to facilitate animal adoptions. - Check it out...
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Soaking Fort Lauderdale Ratepayers
October 31, 2016 - In July of 2009, the City of Fort Lauderdale announced a new set of water and sewer rates for utility customers. When questioned about its impact on associations, City officials peddled pablum lifted from the Fort Lauderdale web site “The rate changes will result in an increase of less than $10 per month for 72 percent of single family residential customers.” Since association homeowners are evidently included in the other 28%, Galt Mile Managers, association Treasurers and Finance Committee members surmised that their share of the burden would be somewhat larger. Although assured by City officials that “The rates for single family homes and multi-family residences are identical.”, members of the neighborhood association’s Advisory Board soon learned that association homeowners are charged up to 90% more than their single family counterparts - for the same services. Curious? - Read on...
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September 2016 LaMarca Letter
October 21, 2016 - In his September 2016 constituent update, Broward District 4 Commissioner Chip LaMarca reports having realized a political objective central to his ideological zeitgeist – a tax cut. Sweetened by the fact that the 1% millage reduction will take place in Broward County, where LaMarca recently observed how voters “never met a tax they didn’t like.” Exercising his longstanding advocacy on behalf of local and regional economic engines, LaMarca applauds a property purchase that will expedite complementing the County’s Convention Center with a Headquarters Hotel and retail campus, notes how new technology and a consultant’s recommendations may smooth contentious stakeholder concerns about the Countywide E-911 service, describes how grant funding will help facilitate kitten adoptions and announces the opening of the new Animal Care and Adoption Center in October.
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Constitutional Flotsam
 October 12, 2016 - Given the political fireworks launched during Presidential elections, most voters would rather flip a coin than self-educate about Ballot questions or proposed Constitutional Amendments. As a result, unscrupulous politicians and industrial juggernauts religiously use them as vehicles for realizing outrageous measures that would otherwise wither under marginal scrutiny. Although five (5) Proposed Amendments were certified for the ballot, one of them – Amendment 4 - was approved by voters participating in the August 30 Primaries. Of the other four (4) proposed Constitutional Amendments that will appear on the November 8, 2016 general election ballot, one of the two that impact the proliferation of solar energy was admittedly crafted to scam a snoozing Florida electorate. Unfortunately it may work. Don't get caught napping while our energy industry drives up your bill. Read on for this year's Constitutional Clutter.
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August 2016 LaMarca Letter
September 20, 2016 - In his August 2016 Newsletter, District 4 Broward Commissioner Chip LaMarca congratulates eleven County departments named by the National Association of Counties for Achievement Awards (four snagged by the Risk Management Division); notes that Port Everglades rated Green Marine Certification and won German-based Hapag-Lloyd as a new customer; cites Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL) for a Green Practices Program that earned the J. Bryan Cooper Environmental Award for its Sustainable Strategic Initiatives in Terminal 4 and newly opened Concourse G; warns constituents to prepare for Hurricane Season and introduces a new mobile access to online tax data. LaMarca also details State and County efforts to choke off the slippery Zika Virus. After racing across South America and the Pacific, this mystery pandemic surged into South Florida, where health authorities worldwide know little more than we do about stamping it out
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Roberts: PACE; Sales Tax, FXE; King Tides
 September 10, 2016 - In his September / October 2016 Newsletter, City Commissioner Bruce Roberts prods constituents to complete hurricane preparations, suggests a new financing option for energy-efficient property improvements, thanks Fort Lauderdale bean counters for a spending plan that enhances City services while freezing the millage, congratulates the Budget Division for earning the Distinguished Budget Presentation Award, reviews sales tax ballot initiatives to upgrade failing infrastructure, applauds Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport (FXE) for hosting a drill to sharpen tactical emergency response, welcomes the installation of Global Entry Kiosks to expedite Customs procedures at FXE, encourages utilization of the CodeRED emergency notification system, updates high-level staff changes and alerts residents to impending flood risks during September’s King Tides.
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July 2016 LaMarca Letter
August 15, 2016 - In his July 2016 Newsletter, District 4 Broward Commissioner Chip LaMarca explains his recognition by the Florida Association of Counties for successfully lobbying Tallahassee lawmakers to boost allocations to beach renourishment projects and Seaport improvements, examines a new funding source for homeowners and businesses planning energy-saving property enhancements, reviews how a litany of new partnerships, improvements, and business agreements have strengthened Port Everglades’ operational and economic underpinnings, and applauds a new Broward Library Division service model that increased certain branch hours of operation without exploding the budget.
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Retrofit Roulette in Tallahassee
August 3, 2016 - In the past few months, Florida community association homeowners have been perplexed by unexpected regulatory bear traps. A requirement to retrofit condominiums and cooperatives with a budget-busting automatic sprinkler system, which the Florida Fire Code limits to existing high-rise associations, has suddenly evolved into a mandate for every association in the State, regardless of size. Although Broward Senator Jeremy Ring, Senate sponsor of the governing 2010 statutory opt-out amendment, informed DBPR Director Kevin Stansfield that the agency misinterpreted the relevant Statutes, it hasn't detered DBPR from enforcing a law that seemingly doesn't exist. Simultaneously, a May 2016 Declaratory Statement has empowered local fire marshals to require the installation of sprinklers in associations whether or not they voted to forego a sprinkler retrofit.
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June 2016 LaMarca Letter
July 21, 2016 - The June 2016 message from Broward Commissioner Chip LaMarca opens with a Property Tax primer, tracking an Ad Valorem dollar through the FY 2016 - 17 budget process. An ardent fan of Broward transportation infrastructure, our District 4 Commissioner recounts events at an FDOT-hosted Wave Streetcar Industry Forum and commends Port Everglades for helping client shippers comply with safety-based container weight verification requirements. After explaining how a joint Broward / Palm Beach water reclamation project will benefit both counties, LaMarca invites constituent participation in the Broward Academy’s ten-week educational series - which explores the panoply of County Government services.
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Moraitis: June 2016 Post-Session Update
 July 12, 2016 - In his June 2016 Newsletter, District 93 Statehouse Representative George Moraitis outlines how the 2016 State Budget may impact constituents. Moraitis takes pride in State contributions to planned improvements in Port Everglades, asserts that legislative leaders proved conversant with the importance of Beach Renourishment, reviews a series of appropriations to Everglades Restoration, cites a controversial tax cut package – capped by a “Back to School” sales tax holiday, describes a “historic investment” in Florida schools and applauds a $500,000 award benefitting Homeless participants in the City of Fort Lauderdale’s Rapid Rehousing Program. In contrast with last year's dysfunctional legislative gauntlet, the 2016 budget process was a love-fest.
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Boat Show: Back in the Soup
 July 3, 2016 - For the second time in a decade, Fort Lauderdale residents watched plans to improve Bahia Mar turn to vapor. During the past 40 years, the 39 acres of Barrier Island real estate stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Intracoastal Waterway served as epicenter of the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show. As the last few years of its Bahia Mar contract wind down, city officials fear that this Fort Lauderdale fiscal engine may weigh anchor and sail into some other South Florida coastal venue, destabilizing our municipal economy and sucker-punching the city budget. After reduced building heights cost them 8% of their condo sales, developers claimed that since city lease negotiators and boat show officials were eating their lunch, they declared that the project is "no longer economically viable" and pulled the plug - unless...
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New Law: Screening Military Tenants
 June 26, 2016 - On June 14, 2016, Executive Director Yeline Goin of the Community Association Leadership Lobby (CALL) alerted the Galt Mile Community Association to a legislative change that impacts how associations must process certain prospective lessees - specifically - the men and women who defend our country. On August 8, 2015, Florida Senator Aaron Bean (R - Jacksonville) filed Senate Bill 184 – a piñata of eclectic benefits for veterans and active duty members of the U.S. Armed Forces. Unanimously approved in both houses, the bill was enacted on April 15, 2016. After July 1, 2016, Associations will have to follow a new set of rules when screening servicemembers for tenancy eligibility - as per State Law.
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May 2016 LaMarca Letter
June 16, 2016 - In his May 2016 constituent Newsletter, District 4 Broward Commissioner Chip LaMarca snapshots the Segment II Beach Renourishment and outlines a planned 2020 Segment III South County beach fix. LaMarca also reviews recently expanded services at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, examines County progress in transforming the Greater Fort Lauderdale - Broward County Convention Center from a local meeting venue into a world class conference magnet, details how a May 14 Hurricane Preparedness Open House at the African-American Research Library and Cultural Center helped frame links between planning and survival, and explains how SWIM Central, a County program that teaches kids how to swim, befits May’s designation as National Water Safety Month. Now that the Galt Mile Beach has reclaimed it's robust 1960's zeitgeist, Nicole Sharp is exploring measures to prevent the beach from melting back into the sea.
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George Moraitis: 2016 Homeless Update
 June 6, 2016 - Despite Florida’s fetid reputation as a mine field for the homeless, Fort Lauderdale maintains one of the State’s most effective homeless safety nets, as roving teams of Homeless Advocates and FLPD officers annually make roughly 8,000 referrals to critical services for anyone who stumbles over the question “Where did you sleep last night?” In 2009, the City implemented a new weapon against this crippling epidemic. $1.5 billion made available in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 fueled the creation of Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Programs (HPRP) in participating jurisdictions, including Fort Lauderdale. Impressed with it's significant impact on the City's chronic homeless population, Representative George Moraitis has evolved into a passionate program advocate, and applauds the legislature for allocating $500,000 to continue housing those whose survival would otherwise be questionable. For his take on the City's progress, read Moraitis' May 2016 constituent update.
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Roberts: Galt A1A, E-911, Body Cameras
 May 24, 2016 - In his May / June 2016 Newsletter, City Commissioner Bruce Roberts alerts constituents to the City’s preliminary exploration of an independent Emergency 911 (E911) service, applauds the ISO Certification merited by the City’s Strategic Management System and strong Water and Sewer Bond Ratings assigned by Standard & Poors and Moody’s Investor Services, summarizes the progress of FDOT’s rehabilitation of A1A along the Galt Mile, updates FLPD’s planned approval of a Body Camera Program, solicits requests to investigate Properties that may be unregistered vacation rentals, and invites constituents to attend two FDOT public meetings - a May 24 review of planned improvements to the I-95 interchanges at Commercial Boulevard and Cypress Creek Road and a May 25 discussion about the Wave Streetcar Project. Roberts' message to constituents cloaks a costly message to the County, which may save your life!
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April 2016 LaMarca Letter
May 15, 2016 - In his April 2016 Newsletter, District 4 Broward Commissioner Chip LaMarca welcomes Broward Navy Days Fleet Week festivities to Port Everglades, notes that the F-35 Lightning “Joint Strike Fighter” will make it civilian debut at the Fort Lauderdale Air Show, enumerates “BrowardPetFix” spay/neuter programs such as SNIP, Portable Sterilization Units, Trap-Neuter-Release (TNR), and Returned-to-Field (RTF), applauds two restaurants in Broward County’s Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (Shula Burger in Terminal 1 and Food Network Kitchen in Terminal 3) for their recognition by USA Today “10Best” Readers’ Choice National top 10 list and cites a Sea Turtle Conservancy grant that enabled Broward County to protect nesting Sea Turtles by crafting and installing Sea Turtle informational signs at county-wide beach access locations.
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Bahia Mar: Rebirth or Snake Oil
 May 8, 2016 - Fort Lauderdale's two-legged economy is driven by tourism and the Marine Industry. Since the Annual Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show identifies South Florida’s $11.5 billion Marine Industry with the City of Fort Lauderdale, when a rumored relocation by Show Management CEO Efrem Zimbalist III threatened to hijack the yearly windfall, nerves in City Hall were stripped raw. While the world’s largest Boat Show is distributed over 7 sites in the city, including most of the City’s major Marinas and the Convention Center, ground zero is the Bahia Mar Resort & Marina at 801 Seabreeze Boulevard. The 39-acres of barrier island that cradles Bahia Mar from the Atlantic Ocean to the Intracoastal is owned by the City of Fort Lauderdale - and a new lease is up for grabs.
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Calling for Help: 911 is Still on Hold
 April 26, 2016 - Ten years after 80% of Broward’s voters mandated a countywide consolidation of emergency dispatch services in 2002, public officials from the county and its 31 municipalities finally acknowledged that doing so would shave precious minutes from the emergency response time – where the difference between life and death is often measured in seconds. For decades, emergency calls that were fielded in one of a dozen dispatch centers throughout the county were chronically dropped or “misdirected”. In other words, some people calling 911 about a robbery, break-in or a body on their front lawn might just as well have reported the incident to Dairy Queen. The county-wide system implemented on October 2014 has faced horrific growing pains, which a consultant may soon correct. This is what's happening...
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Gerrymander: A Tallahassee Team Sport
 April 17, 2016 - After four trials, three special sessions and eight rulings from the Florida Supreme Court, the lines delimiting Florida’s State Senate districts and Congressional districts were finally redrawn. Although the new district boundaries may minimally impact many jurisdictions, not so for the Galt Mile. A congressional district map and state Senate map used to define political boundaries since 2012 were both recently struck down by the courts when a coalition of voting rights groups spearheaded by the League of Women Voters and Common Cause provided evidence that districts were designed to protect either the Republican majority or incumbent Democrats. In 2010, Florida voters approved a constitutional prohibition against gerrymandering; five years later, the courts gave it teeth. Wanna see how?
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March 2016 LaMarca Letter
April 9, 2016 - In his March 2016 constituent update, District 4 Broward Commissioner Chip LaMarca cites a study that demonstrates how synchronicity between Broward’s key Transportation hubs fiscally fuel our community, reports that another lucrative Port Everglades tenant extended their relationship by 20 years, notes the onset of Sea Turtle nesting season, outlines how several competitive water conservation contests successfully met their objectives, describes Broward efforts to upgrade an antique county-wide Emergency 911 Radio system and details how unclaimed items abandoned on Broward County Transit busses are passed to charitable or educational groups for donation. Read on...
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Sine Die 2016: Surviving Assn Bills
March 26, 2016 - With a handful of exceptions, dozens of association bills filed during the 2016 Legislative Session were finally exiled to the ever-expanding Tallahassee boneyard. In the last week of the session, a set of companion bills in the House and Senate were poised to become legislative trains, repositories for bits and pieces of stalled legislation whose sponsors hoped to rescue from death on the calendar. Senate Bill 1050 filed by Senator Jeffrey Brandes (R - St. Petersburg) and House Bill 1187, sponsored by Representative James W. “J.W.” Grant (R - Tampa), relating to the Department of Business and Professional Regulations (DBPR), were besieged by lawmakers with bills destined for oblivion. Like most 2016 association bills, these trains never left the station. Take a look at a few survivors...
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Chlorine Noodle Soup
March 17, 2016 - Late last Summer, a few Galt Mile residents sent emails to the neighborhood association complaining about the odd taste of their tap water. One of our neighbors surmised that vengeful kids, having been ejected from the beach by the Galt Mile Security Patrol, somehow sabotaged their association's water. In fact, the perpetrator was the City of Fort Lauderdale. From May 10 through June 14, Water Services will temporarily alter the chemical purification process as part of a regular water distribution system maintenance program. Some may sense a strange taste or acrid odor, while others won't notice any difference. Since it takes approximately two weeks for the chlorine to clear, any perceived changes should dissipate by early July. For the 411 on the H2O, Read on...
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George Moraitis: Mid-Session Update
 | | MORAITIS |
March 8, 2016 - District 93 Statehouse Representative George Moraitis opens his 2016 Mid-session Legislative Update by thanking the Port Everglades Advocacy Team (PEAT) - Broward officials and businessmen who visit Tallahassee each year to promote enhancing the Port's competitive improvements. Annually packing an impressive schedule of meetings (36 last year) into one or two days, the team lobbies relevant Committee Chairs, legislative leaders and executive branch officials. Moraitis also cites Statehouse efforts to bolster education, applauds budgeted appropriations to Everglades Restoration and reviews the House version of a complex $1 billion targeted tax cut nested in House Bill 7099 filed by Representative Matt Gaetz (R – Fort Walton Beach). For the Moraitis Mid-Session Update, Read on...
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February 2016 LaMarca Letter
February 28, 2016 - In his February 2016 Newsletter, District 4 Broward Commissioner Chip LaMarca reports meeting in Tallahassee with officials from other Florida coastal communities to solicit lawmaker support for a reliable beach maintenance funding resource, describes how the Port Everglades Advocacy Team lobbied Tallahassee lawmakers to annually allocate at least $25 million to insure that Florida seaports remain economically competitive, details how a free Mobile Passport Control smart phone / tablet app can expedite processing by U.S. Customs for travelers at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, invites budding Broward entrepreneurs to hone their business skills at the 2016 Capacity Building Conference on March 4th and 5th, and applauds Broward County Library for showering patrons with a staggering 1.2 million eBooks in 2015. For the Commissioner's February update, Read on...
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Beach Project: Plowing Thru Segment II
 February 19, 2016 - After seventeen years of rain-dancing in Tallahassee, Congressional foot-dragging and gridlock in Washington DC and nearly two decades of broken promises by Broward officials, back-hoe excavators, bulldozers, front end loaders and off-road trucks descended on several beachfront staging areas along the North Broward coast. On January 4, the Broward Segment II project was launched in three municipalities. In Pompano Beach, a crew cloistered at SE 12th Street headed north. After initially heading north, another crew assembled at Palm Avenue in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea turned south toward Galt Ocean Mile. In Fort Lauderdale, a third staging area was located at Vista Park in Lauderdale Beach heade north, where the beaches at L'Hermitage and Southpoint were expanded. Approaching from different directions, the two crews will have completed replenishing the Galt Mile Beach by the end of March. Maybe you should cross your fingers...
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Return of the Bogus Estoppel Bills
 February 10, 2016 - During last year’s legislative session in Tallahassee, two Florida Lawmakers proposed bills in the House and Senate that would enhance the profitability of their “day jobs”. HB 611 was filed by Rep. John Wood (R - Winter Haven) while companion Senate Bill 736 was filed by Sen. Kelli Stargel (R – Lakeland). Although described by Realtors as the “estoppel certificate” bills, homeowners in more than 46,000 Florida community associations knew the legislation as “The Home Tax”. Fortunately, the bills were abandoned on April 28, 2015. Unfortunately, these wallet worms are back. Five months after the bills died on the Calendar, Wood (a realtor) filed House Bill 203 on September 18, 2015. Two months later, on November 3, 2015, Stargel (who owns and operates two Polk County Real Estate firms) filed a companion bill, Senate Bill 722. If these nest feathering bills aren't improved, prepare for a new budgetary line item in next year's spending plan.
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January 2016 LaMarca Letter
January 31, 2016 - In his opening 2016 Newsletter, District 4 County Commissioner Chip LaMarca polishes the economic halo adorning Port Everglades, including a record-breaking number of cruise passengers serviced on December 20, a decision by corporate cash cow Florida International Terminal LLC to renew its lease, and an unprecedented jump in rail freight attributable to the recently completed Intermodal Container Transfer Facility. Given his passionate concern for pets and Broward’s feral fauna, LaMarca reviews three newly approved programs crafted to abate the occupancy rate in the County’s animal shelter, and steers cat-lovers to grant recipient “Stray Aid & Rescue”, a mobile Wilton Manors spay/neuter clinic that will also vaccinate for rabies, clip an identifying ear notch and treat for debilitating feline bugs - for only $2 (a negligible co-pay to subsidize the rabies shot). LaMarca closes with an opportunity for ambitious conservationists to win $1000 for engineering and implementing a local water conservation program. For the Commissioner's first 2016 District 4 update - read on...
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Roberts: FLPD: Vacation Rentals; NTAS
 January 24, 2016 - In his January / February 2016 Newsletter, City Commissioner Bruce Roberts celebrates Fort Lauderdale’s designation as a Digital City for using technology to facilitate municipal objectives, notes that the Winterfest Boat Parade snagged 9th place in the 10Best and USA TODAY’s Readers’ Choice awards for Best Holiday Festival (although he neglected to mention that Fort Lauderdale was named number 3 in the Readers’ Choice runoff for Bikini-Watching), applauds the City’s number 10 ranking in a 4th quarter 2015 Industry Report by HomeVestors / Local Market Monitor listing the Top Ten Cities for Real Estate Investment, considers a pilot program that implores smokers to desist in certain City Parks, endorses “Reality Check”, which enables FLPD officers to treat wayward juveniles with a portable version of Scared Straight, warns against “self-radicalized” terror-mongers using the internet to up their game, summarizes initial impacts of the City’s new Vacation Rental Ordinance and relishes Port Everglades’ record-breaking growth. May as well get started...
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Banned Bus Booted Back to Galt Mile
January 12, 2016 - On August 10, 2015, Broward County Transit (BCT) Operations Representative Oscar Correa told association officials that Broward County buses would clog Galt Ocean Drive throughout the A1A Greenway project’s duration - which he estimated at “two - possibly three years.” After three months of fomenting fear and frustration while chewing up public and private infrastructure, the neighborhood association and Commissioner Chip LaMarca negotiated their removal with Broward County Transit Director Tim Garling. In October, Broward County Transit (BCT) announced that the layover sites of four Broward bus routes would no longer obstruct Galt Ocean Drive. In December, one of the Route layovers was smuggled back to the Galt, reviving fears that Correa was right. What happened?
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December 2015 LaMarca Letter
January 2, 2016 - In his December 2015 message to constituents, District 4 County Commissioner Chip LaMarca applauds Broward County Transit (BCT) for launching full-featured new buses onto local thoroughfares, describes how a burdensome access glitch to the Greater Fort Lauderdale/Broward County Convention Center will soon be corrected, advises pet owners to protect their furry companions against rabies, wandering off or getting snatched, and cites local photographer Fred Johnson for landing the cover page of the 2016 Florida Association of Counties Calendar. About buses - although we were promised that Buses from Routes 72, 36 and 11 would no longer use the Galt Mile as a depot, perhaps you noticed that Route 72 buses are again being stacked along Galt Ocean Drive. Is this a mistake - or did our Broward Officials play fast and loose with the truth??? We'll soon see.
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Segment II: Sandman at Hand
December 22, 2015 - For the past year, Galt Mile residents were repeatedly assured that the Segment II beach renourishment would begin following the November conclusion of Sea Turtle nesting season. It didn’t. For some veteran Galt Mile residents, nearly two decades of crushing disappointment replaced enthusiasm for the project with a numbing cynicism – on a hair trigger. Having grown accustomed to flimsy excuses, bureaucratic foot-dragging and political double-talk, leery Galt Mile residents attending a December 16 Segment II kickoff meeting seemed incredulous when project planners announced the January 4 start date. Working with the Feds, the State and 3 North Broward municipalities, Broward Officials finally pulled it off. During a Q & A, when Broward Beach Administrator Nicole Sharp divulged project details, even diehard skeptics conceded that the Beach is about to be fixed. See for yourself...
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November 2015 LaMarca Letter
December 11, 2015 - In his November 2015 Newsletter, Broward County Commissioner Chip LaMarca updates his District 4 constituents about the Segment II Beach Renourishment, notes that Port Everglades is entering the Preconstruction Engineering & Design (PED) phase, invites you to pay your property taxes, outlines the Conservation Pays rebate program for High Efficiency Toilets (HET’s), describes FPL's SolarNow exhibit at the Young at Art Museum and Library, applauds the Broward County Aviation Department's new Maintenance Facility for earning the LEEDs (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Silver Certification, outlines free NewVenture courses for budding entrepreneurs, and exhorts boating enthusiasts to watch for Manatees that migrate into the intracoastal to forage when the temperatures warm. For the Commissioner's District 4 November update - read on...
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Galt Link: New LBTS Hookup
 December 4, 2015 - From his seat on the Board of the Downtown Fort Lauderdale Transportation Management Association (DFLTMA) - the Sun Trolley’s parent agency - Fort Lauderdale City Commissioner Bruce Roberts learned that the Galt Mile route's ridership statistics inexplicably tanked along the leg that serviced Holy Cross and Imperial Point Hospitals - threatening the viability of the neighborhood's bus service. Installed last December as Sun Trolley Executive Director, Robyn Chiarelli cut a deal with Galt Mile Officials. After launching an informal referendum to determine if the declining ridership was due to a statistical glitch or the neighborhood's evolving transportation proclivities, Chiarelli used the resident feedback to reconfigure the Galt Link. While no one was watching, she simultaneously resolved an inherited fiscal snafu that might have otherwise crippled the service. Curious? - read on...
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October 2015 LaMarca Letter
November 24, 2015 - In his October 2015 Newsletter, Broward County Commissioner Chip LaMarca updates his District 4 constituents about the impending Segment II Beach Renourishment, applauds Port Everglades for earning LEEDs (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification for energy-efficient improvements to Cruise Terminal 4, welcomes the next generation of informational Sea Turtle signage headed for Broward beaches and announces a series of free ACT and SAT preparation courses offered at seven branch Libraries (although not available at the Galt Mile branch).
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Roberts: Boat Show; King Tides; P.L.A.Y.
November 15, 2015 - Opening his November - December 2015 Newsletter with a measure of Holiday Season gratitude for his constituents, their input and our City, District 1 City Commissioner Bruce Roberts welcomes the economic windfall generated annually by Fort Lauderdale’s International Boat Show, issues a blistering warning about the dangers of celebratory illegal fireworks, details a progressive after-school program called P.L.A.Y., cites the City Website for achieving a third place national ranking for government websites, reports City efforts to beat back the autumn King Tide seasonal flooding, credits the Transportation and Mobility Department (TAM) with securing a $42,000 grant to fund three additional painted intersections, notes that the City scored awards for “Small American Cities of the Future 2015/16” in the Overall and Economic Potential categories, invites participation in a combined Open Streets - Winterfest Family Fun Day event on November 22, bids farewell to a relatively uneventful Hurricane Season, and applauds the 300 volunteers who advanced 20 community projects by participating in the October 24 “Make a Difference Day” events. Among the topics parsed in his newsletter, his description of the current King Tide seasonal flooding as “unprecedented” carries a warning - which concerns you!
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Knock the Rust off Governing Docs
 November 1, 2015 - On October 19, 2015, Association Attorney Donna Berger blogged about a threat to associations that never knocked the rust from their governing documents. If the declaration, Bylaws, etc. that anchor an association aren’t regularly updated, the structure and protection they was designed to provide erodes. Berger likens relying on outdated documents to using a map where the topography has completely changed. Getting lost in a statutory Twilight Zone can cost a bundle - payable by unit owners. Over the past few years, lawmakers enacted a litany of new rights and protections for association homeowners - which may not apply to your association - or YOU!
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LaMarca: Enjoy the Ride!
 October 23, 2015 - On April 28, the Broward Commission sought to legalize services provided by transportation network companies (TNCs) by amending the Motor Carriers Ordinance with stiff regulatory requirements for drivers, maintenance standards for their personal vehicles, incremental insurance coverage, even a mandated local business office, prompting the TNCs to suspend access to its online platforms for Broward customers. As Uber recruits pressured reluctant commissioners with a truckload of emails rife with abusive complaints, they conceded to empowering the TNCs to self-regulate, while verifying compliance by perusing their books twice annually. Having successfully engineered the elimination of regulatory roadblocks, the TNCs resumed service in Broward following enactment of an October 13 Ordinance revision amenable to their business model. Read on for LaMarca's take on the sea change...
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Feds OK Beach Project
 October 15, 2015 - Once again, the Galt Mile community is anxiously awaiting the long-delayed Segment II Broward Beach Renourishment. Every non-comatose Galt Mile resident knows the project is scheduled to begin in November 2015 - just days away. Given the shrinking beach’s critical importance to the neighborhood’s economy and their quality of life, Galt Mile homeowners - and their associations - have passionately pursued its rescue for more than twenty years. 50 years - if you harken back to a 1965 entry in the Federal Register, when the 89th U.S. Congress appropriated a then whopping $1,093,000 to flesh out Broward’s severely eroded coast (Section 301 of Public Law 89-298, October 27, 1965). While the Galt Mile has never been this close to a beach fix, diehard skeptics numbed by decades disappointment will refrain from celebrating until they feel new sand between their toes. Here's where the project stands...
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September 2015 LaMarca Letter
October 1, 2015 - In his September 2015 Newsletter, Broward Commissioner Chip LaMarca probes the 2016 Broward spending plan (later approved by the County Commission), summarizes the most recent chapter of the County’s political tug-of-war with Uber and Lyft, describes how five deep-pocketed developers armed with political capital hope to bag the Convention Center Hotel, welcomes an early taste of the windfall fueled by the competitive improvements to Port Everglades, and underscores September’s designation as “National Preparedness Month” with events conceived to protect property owners from meteorological mayhem. The following may help fill in some blanks. - read on...
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The Galt Mile Bus Blockade
 September 23, 2015 - About two weeks after the Galt Mile A1A Greenway Project kicked off on July 27, 2015, residents in several local associations noticed daily traffic jams in front of their homes – invariably caused by Broward County buses. Dismayed association officials soon learned that the buses - often parked on both sides of Galt Ocean Drive – weren’t an anomaly. Seeking to minimize traffic impacts on work zones adjacent to planned A1A Greenway improvements, FDOT and the City asked Broward County Transit to shift buses that ordinarily "layover" on A1A - to Galt Ocean Drive. As a result, buses that formed up three and four deep on the east side of A1A just south of 41st Street were now boxing in Galt Mile associations - while threatening their drivers and pedestrians. To find out whether the problem will spread - or end - read on...
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Roberts: Galt A1A; Fire Award; Sharrows
September 15, 2015 - In his September 2015 Newsletter, City Commissioner Bruce Roberts updates his Galt Mile constituents about the improvements currently underway along their section of State Road A1A, applauds Fort Lauderdale Fire-Rescue for its recognition as a "Class 1" agency by the Insurance Services Organization (and for completing accreditation through the Commission of Fire Accreditation International), explains how the City’s upgraded credit rating will lower the tax bite for debt repayment, reviews a controversial Vacation Rental Ordinance crafted to quell concerns about abusive tenants without financially crippling responsible and compliant landlords, announces the inaugural implementation of “sharrows”, an infrastructure design feature that may help abate runaway cyclist and pedestrian fatalities, invites constituents to fill vacancies on City Boards or Committees and welcomes their attendance at his twice-monthly pre-agenda meetings. Read on...
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LaMarca: Dog Days in District 4
 August 31, 2015 - Following a year of high-testosterone ring toss for control of a County ordinance, the Broward Board and Uber are crafting an endgame that allows both sides to claim victory – and save face. Elsewhere in his August 2015 Newsletter, District 4 Broward Commissioner Chip LaMarca benchmarks a year of speeding cargo to railheads across the US via the Port Everglades Intermodal Container Transfer Facility (ICTF) - progeny of the Port and the Florida East Coast Railway (FECR), showcases pet-tracking facial recognition technology by Finding Rover, announces the Third Annual Go SOLAR & Renewable Energy Fest, applauds recognition of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL) as “Airport of the Year” by the Air Line Pilots Association International, celebrates August as Water Quality Month and invites constituents to "Stay Connected" using County social media. Check it out...
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Galt Mile A1A: Speedway to Greenway
 August 24, 2015 - What a mess. The long-rumored transmogrification of A1A along the Galt Mile is upon us. Since 2006, City and State (FDOT) bureaucrats have been pledging to transform the Galt Mile’s blighted A1A “speedway” into an opulent beach boulevard that safely embraces vehicles, pedestrians and bicycles while appealing to visitors and local residents. When neighborhood residents voted to approve their preferred design option in 2009, recessionary pressures compelled planners to split the venture into two less financially intimidating projects. An initial component that was completed in February, 2013, reduced the number of traffic lanes from 6 to 4, and modernized roadway infrastructure in preparation for a second project meant to “fine tune” traffic control and enhance the route’s appearance. Its successful completion will also deliver on a 6-year old promise to elevate the County's most decrepit stretch of A1A into a thoroughfare worthy of its 2009 designation as a "Florida Scenic Highway." Its about time...
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Beach Lighting: The Code Letters
 July 31, 2015 - When Fort Lauderdale passed its original Beach Lighting ordinance in 2003, official State policy was to dig up turtle nests on heavily populated “donor” beaches and transplant the eggs in mostly barren “recipient” beaches. The City plan backfired when the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) reversed its policy in 2006, and prohibited moving the nests without good cause. Instead of enforcing its ordinance on stretches of uninhabited beach, Commissioners suddenly faced blacking out heavily populated beach neighborhoods - endangering residents and visitors; drivers and pedestrians; while shredding its tourism economy. Commissioners optimistically assumed that Code officers would enforce the ordinance selectively, suppressing poorly conceived provisions that marginalized public safety. Unfortunately, as Code Managers were expunged amid administrative shake-ups, departmental policy flip-flopped between cooperative outreach and abusive tactics that immersed the ordinance in controversy while impairing its objective. During the past decade, these management lapses were often punctuated with caustic notices threatening civil fines for non-existent or unverified violations. At a July meeting engineered by City Commissioner Bruce Roberts, Code Compliance and Galt Mile officials addressed the latest version of this ill-conceived chronic threat and outlined a plan to quash future incarnations. To connect the dots, read on...
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LaMarca: Summertime in District 4
 July 22, 2015 - In his July 2015 Newsletter, District 4 Broward Commissioner Chip LaMarca laments the threatened departure of transportation network companies (TNCs) Uber and Lyft from Broward County, reviews an honorarium for 28 Broward County centenarians, announces newly available online access to Business Tax Receipts required by the County for all Broward businesses, celebrates July as Park and Recreation Month by citing benefits available in Broward parks, promotes a Defensive Driving Course to curb preventable collisions in deference to National Safety Month, seeks to protect pets from the adverse impacts of stressful Independence Day festivities and recommends a Training Course offered by the Office of Economic and Small Business Development that could equip building trades entrepreneurs with a competitive advantage. Tap in...
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Roberts: Fleet Win; Storm Plan, CO Gas
July 9, 2015 - In his July 2015 message to constituents, District 1 City Commissioner Bruce Roberts explains how the City complemented its hurricane preparedness strategy with planned applications for Federal funding, distilled its highly technical Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) into a user-friendly fiscal primer, credits Fleet Services Program Manager Carlos Berriz for the City Fleet clinching the 36th top spot in a field of 38.000 American public fleets, details how the Uptown Link - a shuttle bus launched last summer to service the Cypress Creek corridor - was administratively melded into a Sun Trolley and lists noteworthy municipal events through September. Jumping on two incidents recently splashed in the media as attacks by the “Silent Killer,” Roberts takes a hard look at Carbon Monoxide (CO) poisoning. So should you...
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Galt Mile Sun Trolley: Use it or Lose it!
 June 26, 2015 - Late last year, Fort Lauderdale City Commissioner Bruce Roberts warned neighborhood association officials of a possible threat to the Sun Trolley’s Galt Mile route. Along with Broward Commissioner Chip LaMarca, Roberts serves on the Board of the Downtown Fort Lauderdale Transportation Management Association (DFLTMA), the Sun Trolley’s parent agency. Having learned about an inexplicable decline in ridership on the Galt Mile route segment along Oakland Park Boulevard to Federal Highway, which services the Coral Ridge Mall as well as Holy Cross and Imperial Point Hospitals, Galt Mile officials met with interim Sun Trolley Executive Director Tara Crawford following a June 18 Advisory Board meeting. Since a drop in ridership could be used to downsize or end the neighborhood’s local bus service, association officials stressed how truncating the service would burden Galt Mile residents, and explored options to either enhance ridership or mitigate the impact of a service cutback. Here's what happened...
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LaMarca: May - June 2015 Update
 June 14, 2015 - In his May - June 2015 Newsletter, Commissioner Chip LaMarca adds another chapter to last month’s missive about legalizing Transportation Network Companies in Broward. The District 4 Broward Commissioner also describes County plans to open a Broward County Animal Care and Adoption Center that will house approximately 400 dogs and cats in a more comfortable environment than many of the homes they might be adopted into. LaMarca closes his message with an infrastructure update. Having rifled a quarterly asset management report filed by FDOT Maintenance Division, the Commissioner applauds the structural health of county bridges. However, the report also reveals some disconcerting data about those spans most often traversed by Galt Mile residents. Take a look...
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Broward Beach Boss Bags Brass Ring
June 1, 2015 - After reviving the dormant Segment II beach project in 2011, former Broward Beach Administrator Eric Myers spent the next 3 years chasing the required State and Federal permits. Having won a hard-fought struggle with FDEP for a State permit, when his crusade for a Federal Permit was taken hostage by NOAA Fisheries, an agency in the Commerce Department, Myers retired - passing the baton to Broward Natural Resource Administrator Nicole Sharp. Joined by District 4 Broward Commissioner Chip LaMarca, new beach boss Sharp hunted the remaining regulatory brass ring – a Federal Permit to reclaim vanishing Segment II beaches. Since the high-powered politicians recruited by Myers failed to dent the bureaucratic brick wall that cloisters Federal Agencies, Sharp turned to a resource for whom the federal regulatory jungle serves as a playground. It worked. The Segment II beach fix is scheduled to begin in November! Here's how she did it...
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Roberts: Road Fix; CodeRED; High Tides
May 20, 2015 - In his May 2015 Newsletter, District 1 City Commissioner Bruce Roberts explains how the Vision Zero Initiative can reverse the city’s astronomical pedestrian fatality rate while enhancing bike safety, offers contact information for reporting a variety of municipal concerns, lists dates when anticipated high tides may spur seasonal flooding in low-lying areas, spells out registration protocols for the CodeRED notification system, applauds Fort Lauderdale’s recent citation by NerdWallet as the 11th Greenest City in America and reviews the Advisory Board seats currently available to prospective District 1 volunteers. Describing a budgeting measure implemented to curb our tax bite, Roberts outlines how microsurfacing will stretch revenues by extending the useful life of municipal infrastructure. However, unless the city can successfully address unanticipated misconceptions about the project's purpose, public appreciation for the ad valorem relief could be marred by a firestorm of disappointment.
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LaMarca: Early Spring Update
May 10, 2015 - In his April – May 2015 message to constituents, Commissioner Chip LaMarca opens by reporting his receipt of an elusive federal permit for the long-awaited Galt Mile beach renourishment and projects a November project kickoff. After applauding county measures to conserve water, LaMarca reviews Broward infrastructure improvements, citing fiscal hallmarks achieved by Port Everglades and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, "Green" Paratransit and Express buses launched by Broward County Transit and construction of a Biogas Cogeneration Electric facility that will morph organic waste into electrical power for the Wastewater Treatment Plant in Pompano Beach. LaMarca also updates the controversial entry of transportation network companies (i.e. Uber, Lyft, etc.) into the Broward market, a local microcosm of a simmering conflict between unregulated web-based services and their traditional brick and mortar counterparts, which may change how the world does business!
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Gypsy Dent Grifters Sting Galt Mile
 April 26, 2015 - On your way out of the supermarket, while juggling groceries earmarked for the trunk, some guy parked next to you points out a dent in your car. Inveighing that this is your lucky day, he holds out a business card and mentions that he is an auto body repair technician who just got home from a long day at the service garage. What might ordinarily cost you $700 - $900 at the auto body shop, he will do for a mere $250. What’s more, you can watch as he restores your vehicle’s former glory. How can you go wrong? After carefully eyeballing his embossed laser-cut business card, you agree. When you wake up tomorrow, and you realize that you actually gave a stranger $250 to destroy the finish on your car, you'll spend the day struggling with whether you should file a police report - or make believe it never happened. You're not alone - Gypsy Dent Scammers have arrived on the Galt Mile!
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Lawmaking Realtors Pursue Profits
April 15, 2015 - Among the most controversial 2015 association bills are House Bill 611 filed by Rep. John Wood (R - Winter Haven) and companion Senate Bill 736 filed by Sen. Kelli Stargel - known as the “estoppel certificate” bills. Owners of properties governed by a community association must provide buyers or lenders with a statement of their financial status with the association prior to selling or refinancing their homes. As per State law (s. 718.116(8), F.S.), a condo seller (usually through a realtor or title company) will ask the association for a summary of his or her property's association debt as of a certain date - known as an Estoppel Certificate. Drafted by realtors and supported by title companies, the legislation was designed to flip the script, and shift the cost of preparing estoppel letters from the realtors’ paying customers (sellers) to the associations – an attempt to saddle the seller’s neighbors (that’s us) with the expense. Not surprisingly, the bills' legislative sponsors are both realtors who will directly benefit if successful. Golly Gee Willikers!!!
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Roberts: Bike Plan, Quiet Zone, Bridges
 April 4, 2015 - In his March - April 2015 Newsletter, City Commissioner Bruce Roberts introduces Lewis Landing as the City’s newest Park, notes technological improvements to Fort Lauderdale’s online Property Information Reporter, applauds the City’s participation in the League of American Bicyclists’ Bicycle Friendly America program, expresses his intention to serialize planned infrastructure improvements in his newsletters - beginning with the Bridge Master Plan and recognizes the Transportation and Mobility Department for having snagged the Broward Metropolitan Planning Organization’s prestigious Transit Priority Award. The Commissioner opens his message to constituents with an enigmatic heads-up for those disturbed by paralyzing noise – either from heightened seasonal air traffic at Executive Airport or federally mandated train horns. Ironically, their respective endgames differ as night and day.
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Developer Statutes OK Latent Defects
March 26, 2015 - When mortgage bankers cold cocked the world economy, and eliminated disposable income from the average family budget, overnight, millions of people could no longer afford their own homes; much less buy a new one. With the housing market at a standstill, developers with time on their hands turned their gaze to Tallahassee, where they are deified by lobbyists and worshipped as campaign cash cows by lawmakers. Fed up with court-ordered penalties for delivering substandard construction, in 2009, developer trade associations embarked on a multi-year strategy to block defrauded homeowners from plundering future profits. Since the courts refused to back off when developers were caught violating State law, they bought play for pay politicians to circumvent the offending statutes. While consumers snoozed, 4 such bills became State Law. Those strange fingers you feel on your wallet belong to a rookie lawmaker whose 2015 bill threatens every Floridian, with a special land mine for association homeowners.
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Galt Presidents Council Kicks Off 2015
 March 18, 2015 - On February 2, the Galt Mile Presidents Council convened its first 2015 meeting at Fountainhead Condominium. The agenda, traditionally packed for the year’s inaugural meeting, addressed a threat to the Galt Mile Sun Trolley, a media driven controversy over the City’s Homeless policy, and a predictable outburst during a Beach Renourishment update. Ordinarily, Presidents Council meetings are kept confidential, ostensibly to promote a free exchange of ideas (which range from revelatory to hysterical). Since many of the issues undertaken at the February meeting are of critical concern to all Galt Mile residents, traditional “discretion” will be set aside. See for yourself...
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LaMarca: March 2015 in District 4
March 5, 2015 - In his March 2015 Newsletter, Broward Commissioner Chip LaMarca reviews a regulatory benchmark for Port Everglades, record passenger traffic at Fort Lauderdale – Hollywood International Airport, Broward’s environmentally friendly commuter mini-buses, tax incentives for expanding businesses, an FP&L solar energy pilot program, a County adoption program for homeless pets, a Centennial celebration of the 13th Annual Broward Water Matters Day and a County event commemorating National Women’s History Month. Given his unrelenting support for Port Everglades, it’s no coincidence that LaMarca’s March message to constituents opens by applauding a long-awaited Federal green light for infrastructure improvements that will cement the Port’s future as a regional economic powerhouse. Here's Chip...
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Chepo: Cutting the Galt Mile Canopy
 February 20, 2015 - In early November, 2008, Commodore resident José “Chepo” Vega emailed a complaint to the Galt Mile Community Association about the “precarious” state of landscaping along Galt Ocean Drive. A few days later, he followed it up with an offer, exclaiming “While I was walking in front of my building, I saw someone walk into a low hanging tree limb. It could have blinded him. Why doesn’t the City pay attention to the landscaping on our block?” Since Advisory Board members were fed up with a decades-long cycle of neglect and block-wide brownouts followed by unconvincing apologies by Parks officials, when Chepo volunteered his time and horticultural acumen, he was appointed as the neighborhood's first Block Maintenance Liaison. Chepo has pressed, pushed, pulled and prodded City, County and association officials to whip the block into shape. While annually amputating dangerous low-hanging branches, Chepo observed that half the block's trees are gnarled, twisted and puny, resembling runted cartoon mutants. Here's why...
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Roberts: Lobby List, Firehouse, King Tide
February 8, 2015 - After opening his January/February 2015 newsletter with an outpouring of gratitude for the absence of an opponent in the municipal primary - and a plea to support his fellow incumbent Commission candidates - District 1 City Commissioner Bruce Roberts enumerates the City’s stand on issues soon to be undertaken by the Legislature, announces the completion of an interim facility that will temporarily house Fire Station #54 until the permanent structure is erected (City Project #P10914) at 3201 Northeast 32nd Street and outlines how recently implemented infrastructure improvements diminish the adverse impacts of rising sea levels due to Global Warming. Before closing with an offer to help constituents address their municipal concerns, Roberts welcomes Jenni Morejon as the new Director of the Department of Sustainable Development, the parent agency of Building Services and Code Compliance, two City divisions that are shaking off a bumpy history. Read on...
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2015 Galt Mile Wine & Food Festival
 January 30, 2015 - On Saturday, March 7, 2015, the 3rd Annual Galt Mile Wine & Food Festival will unfold in our back yard, resurrecting last year’s sequel to the 2013 inaugural event, when thousands of local residents and visitors were rewarded with a delightfully entrancing weekend afternoon – right across the street. The festival is produced by BocaRaton.Com and The Bites! Network – in partnership with the Galt Mile Community Association. From 4 to 8 PM, attendees will choose from scores of fine artisan wines, craft beers & spirits while enjoying distinctive food tastings; live cooking demonstrations; and authoritative insight into pairing each dish with the perfect libation - as outlined by some of South Florida’s most experienced sommeliers and renowned Top Chefs. To otherwise sample these extraordinary signature offerings, restaurant patrons would have to visit each establishment and order its iconic fare - an exercise that would take months and cost a fortune. Instead, you can spend a lazy Saturday afternoon trying them all, one masterpiece after the other, while strolling across the street from your home. By the way, as per an understanding negotiated by the neighborhood association, attending the event will enhance the value of your home. How? Read on...
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Galt Mile Construction Migraines
 January 19, 2015 - Throughout 2013 and 2014, the Galt Mile was bubbling with construction. Weeks or months after attending Special Assessment meetings convened to fund the improvements, unit owners watched engineers and contractors reincarnate badly eroded building features - preserving the value of their homes and their quality of life. Last year, some of the neighborhood’s largest associations underwent extensive concrete restorations, insuring that Plaza South, SouthPoint and Plaza East remain among the City’s most important properties. The neighborhood association monitors these projects, watching for unanticipated or abusive regulatory obstacles that might unfairly burden assessed unit owners and impede furure improvements for every association. Despite political tripping hazards rooted in turf protection, bureaucratic arrogance or garden variety stupidity, Galt Mile associations survived a tricky year.
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Homestead Express: 2015
December 29, 2014 - The Florida Constitution provides all legal Florida residents with a tax-saving exemption on the first and third $25,000 of the assessed value of their owner/occupied homes, condominiums, co-op apartments, and other “permanent residences” - if they qualify. Homesteaded properties are eligible for the invaluable “Save Our Homes” tax cap. Also available are a host of traditional and recently added exemptions for seniors, veterans, widows/widowers, active military, the blind, disabled persons and properties with build-outs for Mom, Dad, Grandma and/or Grandpa. Apply for exemptions in person, at an outreach event (Beach Community Center), by mail to BCPA, interactively online or by requesting “homesteads-on-wheels” (for house-bound applicants). Although exemption applications are considered "timely" if submitted by the March 2, 2015 "soft" deadline, they will still be accepted until the September 18, 2015 "hard" deadline if accompanied by any moronic excuse for dragging your feet. If you miss that, a "Good Cause" sob story won't make a difference - you're screwed!!! Learn about the 2015 incarnation of the Homestead Express!
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Galt Mile Holiday Season Leftovers
 December 17, 2014 - As we wend our way through the Holiday Season, events sometimes meld into a blur, and occasionally slip by unnoticed. While their relative impacts are less than critical, the following news snippets are either enlightening, or scratch an itch. In one recent incident, after a disabled Coral Ridge Towers South resident was victimized by a local merchant, his caretaker and a local news personality teamed up to script a final chapter worthy of the Holiday Season. Those with a passing curiosity about what happened to Commissioner “No” will learn the outcome of her latest local endeavor to re-enter public service. Finally, a summarized agenda item from the December GMCA Presidents Council meeting at Plaza South illuminates the status of our long-awaited Beach Renourishment. If you enjoy easy reading, check out these Holiday Season leftovers!
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Galt Mile Sun Trolley - A Bumpy History
December 10, 2014 - While most Galt Mile residents maintain vehicles in the garage or parking deck, our demographics include a larger than average community of dedicated pedestrians. Some lament being barred from a driver’s license by a DMV eye exam. Others evangelize the wellness dividend of endless constitutionals. Few will admit that they were forced to choose between a car, prescribed heart medication and one daily alternative to canned tuna fish. For necessities they can’t reach on foot, they needn’t humble themselves by asking for a lift – they board the Sun Trolley. For scores of our neighbors, the community bus is more than an eclectic party favor, it’s their sole access to medical or “quality of life” resources the rest of us take for granted. For an inside perspective of the Galt Mile Sun Trolley's bumpy history, Read on....
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Galt Mile: Predators vs. Security
 November 29, 2014 - As homeless-related incidents proliferated in the City over the past decade, they also exploded across the Galt Mile, mushrooming from a handful of cordial tithing opportunities to robberies, thefts and assaults. For years, a few well-meaning snowbirds slipped daily handouts to homeless regulars who were fixtures on nearby association or sidewalk benches. As predicted by four consecutive District 1 Police Commanders, these congenial bench dwellers were soon replaced by roving groups of street punks. While investigating a variety of security strategies to beat back the growing threat, the neighborhood association stumbled on an option that fell into the "Goldilocks Zone" of Security Services. Although rated by Security Pundits as "highly effective", the service was among the least expensive alternatives - a serendipitous impact of Galt Mile's tightly packed demographics. After the community's beachfront associations unanimously approved initiating the Galt Ocean Mile Security Patrol in 2006, the crime rate dropped precipitously. Unfortunately, predators who slipped through the cracks have staked out several neighborhood sites, turning them into gauntlets.
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Roberts: Homeless, Bullet Train, A1A Fix
November 20, 2014 - In his November - December 2014 Newsletter, after conveying seasonal tidings, City Commissioner Bruce Roberts announces the construction kickoff for All Aboard Florida’s downtown Fort Lauderdale station, reviews construction progress along A1A, asks constituents to name citizen volunteers worthy of official recognition, applauds NOVA students for recruiting a record number of “Adopt-A-Neighbor” volunteers (who assist homeowners with property improvements) and encourages registration for local CodeRED emergency alerts. After warning about elevated threat levels for storm surge ascribed to seasonal high tides, he concludes with a list of upcoming municipal events. However, in his opening message, Roberts laments an emotionally charged media campaign - orchestrated with the help of politically vested outsiders - and designed to reverse a city policy that balances the needs of the homeless with those of the general public.
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So - Who's Driving the Bus?
November 10, 2014 - The 2014 general election unleashed a second nationwide Republican wave in the last 15 years. This temperamental political alchemy twice flushed Rick Scott into the Governor’s Mansion by a handful of votes. . By garnering 48.2 percent (2,861,390) of the vote, versus 47.1 percent (2,800,808) for former Governor Charlie Crist, Scott pulled off his paper thin (64,267-vote) repeat victory. In 2010, he ambushed Alex Sink by 61,000 votes. Depending on which side of the aisle they call home, Floridians have Broward voters to either thank, or blame, for the next four years of Scott’s erratic stewardship. It seems that many West Broward voters used Election Day to catch up on their sleep. The following is a rundown of those currently empowered to make decisions on your behalf, and the stats they generated on November 4. Also posted are the voter responses to the 3 proposed constitutional amendments and the 2 Broward ballot questions. Dig in...
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Homeless: New Laws for New Plan
 October 31, 2014 - On July 20, 1993, the City of Fort Lauderdale passed Resolution 93-143, in which Beach Rule 7.5(c) prohibits panhandling, begging and soliciting on the Fort Lauderdale beach and nearby sidewalks. The nation’s first city to prohibit the homeless from begging “in a nonthreatening manner” in a public place, when outraged constitutional watchdogs – spearheaded by the ACLU – heatedly beat a path to the courthouse, the entire nation was dumbfounded when they got the boot. Carefully navigating a First Amendment tightrope, both former City Attorney Harry Stewart and predecessor Cynthia Everett have successfully drafted a half dozen ordinances that curb behavior deemed dangerous, inappropriate, a health hazard, or just plain disgusting (i.e. defecating on the sidewalk). Enacted in conjunction with a revised policy to address homelessness and reclaim city parks and sidewalks commandeered as flophouses. City officials claim that the new policy will deter activities that enable homeless behavior while increasing resources to programs and organizations that address the root causes of homelessness.
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Broward Ballot Backwash
 October 11, 2014 - The 2014 General Election Ballot contains two questions raised by Broward County, one sponsored by the Broward Board of County Commissioners and one proposed by the Broward School Board. Given the ethical tar pit that serves as the Broward County Commission’s historical bioniche (along with numerous County agencies - including the School Board); approving these initiatives without some measure of insight is tantamount to shooting oneself in the foot. The following missive will help Galt Milers sort through the two issues. After the official title and ballot summary (as featured on the actual ballot) - we scripted a brief diagnosis of underlying issues surrounding each voter “inquiry”. While most voters will see past the reauthorization oversight glitch in the first ballot question, the second question will epidemically fuel an $800 million Election Day migraine.
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Constitutional Target Practice
October 2, 2014 - On November 4, 2014, as Floridians reconfigure their Federal, State and local governments, Galt Mile residents will wrestle with decisions about their representation on the County Commission (Chip LaMarca or Ken Keechl), in the Florida Statehouse (George Moraitis or Scott Herman), in the Florida Senate (Maria Sachs or Ellyn Bogdanoff) and on the "Hill" (Lois Frankel, Paul Spain or Raymond Schamis). We will also be asked to decide myriad open Judgeships and positions on District Boards and Commissions. Given the limited impact they have on our lives, most voters would rather flip a coin than self-educate about filling more obscure elected positions (County judges, the Water Board, Children's Services, etc.). Unfortunately, since this also holds true for most Ballot questions and proposed Amendments, unscrupulous politicians use them as vehicles for realizing outrageous measures that would otherwise wither under minimal scrutiny. The 2014 ballot houses three proposed amendments to the Florida Constitution and 2 Broward County Ballot questions. Sponsored by tricky doggies, some aren't what they appear to be. Read on...
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LaMarca: Budgets & Buses
 September 24, 2014 - In his Autumn 2014 Newsletter, District 4 Broward Commissioner Chip LaMarca disparages plans by the Broward Commission and Broward County Transit to stick it to Taxpayers – and fare payers. For years, the County Board relentlessly funded an endless quest for pork. When the recession vaporized the seemingly bottomless property tax windfall, it forced a temporary suspension of irresponsible county spending. As the housing market rebounded last year, LaMarca proposes to leave some of the incremental property tax revenues in your pocket. Having finally implemented policies that began reversing years of decline, Broward County Transit (BCT) earned an upswing in ridership. Instead of utilizing increased farebox revenues to finance additional improvements, BCT decided to bang their new customers. Transit Gurus agree that nothing deters ridership like a fare hike. What's wrong with this picture?
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Roberts: Hurricanes, Bus Link, Firehouse
 September 10, 2014 -In his September - October 2014 Newsletter, City Commissioner Bruce Roberts exhorts District 1 constituents to adequately prepare for hurricane season, announces a recently launched Uptown Bus Link that more conveniently connects destination sites in the business district along the Cypress Creek corridor, reveals a new city telephone number for non-emergency public safety calls, acknowledges three Fort Lauderdale beach resorts named in Florida’s Top Ten by travel website “emantravels.com”, applauds recognition by Firehouse Magazine that Fort Lauderdale’s Firehouse 2 was the second busiest in the state and its Engine 8 was the busiest in Florida and number 10 in the nation, asks that constituents protect themselves by exercising prudent public safety measures and concludes with a list of upcoming civic events. His opening reference - a reminder to prepare our families for hurricane season - should disturb some Galt Mile associations - since they haven't updated their hurricane preparedness plan in almost a decade. Here's a test. Do you know anything about your association's Hurricane Plan?
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Docs vs. Glocks
 September 1, 2014 - During a July 21, 2010 medical interview with 26-year-old Amber Ullman, Ocala Pediatrician Dr. Chris Okonkwo asked the Summerfield mother of 3 girls about child-proofing her home. Consistent with 1983 TIPP protocols established by the American Academy of Pediatrics, medical director Okonkwo of Children’s Health of Ocala routinely asks if stairways and backyard swimming pools are gated with childproof locks, if each child has a car seat and bicycle helmet, whether smoking parents do so in the house and if driving teenagers have cell phones. When the physician asked if guns were kept in the home, Ullman went ballistic, prompting Okonkwo to end his tenure as her pediatrician - and triggering a series of cosmic showdowns. Within months, Florida lawmakers passed a law that criminalized free speech in the examining room, as Florida physicians who ask gun owning parents if they store their guns safely can be fined $10,000 or lose their license. Welcome to the Gunshine State!
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A Galt Mile Secret Weapon
 August 14, 2014 - Unless association officials are familiar with what neighboring associations are paying for security personnel, maintenance staffers, bookkeepers, receptionists, department supervisors, general managers, landscapers, etc., the association risks allocating too much or too little to fill open positions. Every competent association Treasurer is keenly aware that poorly managed compensation will skyrocket annual unit owner maintenance assessments. In 1996, Galt Mile Community Association (GMCA) officials explored the benefits of building a database that member associations could use to better manage labor costs. While saving Galt Mile associations untold $millions in the following 18 years, the annual Presidents Council Wage & Salary Survey evolved under the radar. Its time to let in some sunshine. Here's how it works...
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A1A: Final Fix and Facelift
August 6, 2014 - Shortly after Superstorm Sandy mangled 4 blocks of A1A and sliced away much of the Galt Mile beach, on December 10, 2012, more than 300 local residents, their elected City, County and State officials and Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) bureaucrats converged on the Beach Community Center. Since our future, both individually and as a community, hinges on the fate of our beach, we needed to know what remedies were being considered to restore Fort Lauderdale’s devastated coastal infrastructure. FDOT District Secretary Jim Wolfe explained how a turn lane and a greenway would be added to the 2-lane thoroughfare that was hastily carved from the roadway’s 2 surviving southbound lanes. After outlining plans for the $8.3 million short-term fix that was subsequently completed in June 2013, Wolfe said that the long-term solution would feature an elevated roadway bookended with bike lanes, and structural protections that would immunize A1A to future storm damage. Following 18 months of navigating its statutory construction process, FDOT kicked off the final plans to restore A1A on July 28. Here's how they are currently rebuilding Fort Lauderdale's Ocean Highway ...
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LaMarca: Summertime in District 4
 July 27, 2014 - Commissioner Chip LaMarca opens his July 2014 Newsletter with news of a County program conceived to reverse an annual summer spike in the tragic drowning deaths of local children who never learned how to swim. Turning to his older constituents, he warns against being lulled into paralysis by a decade of cyclonic calm (Superstorm Sandy excepted), urging utilization of Broward’s recently enhanced online Hurricane preparedness resources. After recommending a wide range of little known summertime family activities offered in Deerfield Island Park, LaMarca lists a series of "Let’s Talk Transit" meetings (that you already missed) and harkens to new art and performance projects that celebrate the upcoming "Broward 100" Centennial (which you haven’t missed). Given the seasonal inflation of Broward's homeless community, our District 4 Commissioner concludes by describing new homeless initiatives funded by healthy federal grant. See why this should resonate with Galt Mile residents...
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Roberts: Award; Action Plan; Budget
 July 19, 2014 - In his July - August 2014 Newsletter, District 1 City Commissioner Bruce Roberts savors municipal accolades bestowed on the City of Fort Lauderdale by the National Civic League. The League’s 1953 Chair, pollster George Gallup, characterized the All-America City Award as “A Nobel Prize for constructive citizenship.” All-America City Award finalists help define their homes by submitting three outstanding community projects. Specifically, the city was recognized for anticipating that a Chinese Menu of neighborhood improvements would ameliorate the failed culture of a school annually distinguished by an illiterate graduating class and transitioning a diurnal commercial storage district into a 24/7 Arts Center – “FAT Village”. A third project, entitled “Northwest Gardens Healthy Places” glorifies a reclaimed neighborhood’s “walkability”, while deliberately omitting how the creative bartering of contractor tax credits was leveraged to build a thriving neighborhood in the heart of a decaying ghetto. Why? Read On...
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LaMarca: Reclaiming Room Nights
 June 30, 2014 - In his June 2014 Newsletter, District 4 Broward County Commissioner Chip LaMarca advocates stoking one of our County’s key economic engines. Strategically located at Fort Lauderdale’s Port Everglades tourism nexus, enhancing the County’s aging Convention Center with a dedicated hotel and a facelift will plug a fiscal leak through which the County loses tens of $millions in new business every year. Without an affiliated hotel, the Convention Center is precluded from even bidding on more than one third of the prospective convention opportunities – those that require dedicated lodging. To compete with other second tier convention cities that offer onsite lodging, the Center must offset their lack of a hotel with a laundry list of expensive perks, further squeezing embattled profits. Three prior attempts by the County Commission to correct this competitive shortcoming fizzled, squelched by economic eccentricities, questionable judgment, turf protection... and greed. Number four could prove the charm - if the Broward Board avoids the pitfalls that earmarked those failures!
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The Beach vs. The Bureaucrat
June 22, 2014 - A bureaucratic blood blister that threatened the chronically delayed Segment II Broward beach project with an added 18-month freeze has been excised. To help quash one of the more asinine impediments faced by this snake-bit project, District 4 Broward Commissioner Chip LaMarca scripted major roles for the entire Broward Congressional delegation, both of Florida’s U.S. Senators, the Galt Mile Community Association and an army of Galt Mile residents. With officials in Pompano, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea and Fort Lauderdale playing bit parts, the eerie plan placed the beach fix back on track for its post-Halloween kickoff. In finessing or slugging their way over, around or through some of the Beach Project's most exasperating, infuriating and pointless obstacles since its inception 49 years ago, LaMarca and retired beach boss Eric Myers got a taste of the frustration experienced by Galt Mile residents for decades. For a tour of the asylum, Read on...
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Fort Lauderdale Tilts at Windmills
 June 12, 2014 - On February 17, 2009, President Barack Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) into law. A Keynesian response to the recessionary tar pit in which the previous administration couched our economy, the stimulus package sought to offset the loss of private spending with government spending. In addition to annually salvaging 1.6 million jobs from 2009 to 2012, the fiscal gambit helped avert a looming depression. The Recovery Act also funded a series of Department of Energy (DOE) Grand Challenges, starting with the $1/watt SunShot Challenge, which seeks to make solar power cost-competitive with electricity from fossil fuels by the end of the decade. Obama then launched the EV Everywhere Challenge, which set 2022 as the deadline for creation of a five-passenger electric vehicle that could economically and functionally compete with internal combustion engine vehicles. To help achieve this objective, after assembling a consortium likened to the Manhattan Project for Battery Technology, the DOE funded demonstration and deployment projects across the country (including 4 electric vehicle charging stations fueled by wind turbines in Mills Pond Park). What's more, if this consortium keeps hitting its marks, our planet is in for a wild ride!!!
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Assn Advocates Grease the Wheels
 May 27, 2014 - A majority of the content in the 2014 Omnibus Association Bill was adopted by sponsors Moraitis and Ring from a legislative agenda created by collaborating association officials from across the state and tailored by Community Association advocates. Prior to the Legislative session, these association officials examined the operational pitfalls and regulatory inequities that encumber common interest communities – and characteristically inflate the financial burden on unit owners. With organizational guidance from association advocates, the issues were prioritized and compiled into a legislative wish list. For decades, legislation favorable to association homeowners was enacted once every five or six years. In the five years since 2009, four major association bills were brought to fruition via the above process. While Statehouse Representative George Moraitis (R - Fort Lauderdale) was instrumental in driving this legislative windfall, he had a secret weapon. Working with association officials and the Galt Mile's voice in the Florida Statehouse were a unique cadre of legislative catalysts who call themselves "Association Advocates." As a result of their efforts, Galt Mile residents will enjoy more than a dozen new rights and protections as of July 1, 2014. Read on...
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2014 Omnibus Association Bill
May 19, 2014 - Last year, our District 93 Statehouse Representative George Moraitis teamed with State Senator Thad Altman (R - Melbourne) to pass House Bill 73, the 2013 session’s Omnibus Association bill. Broadly supported by association officials and advocates, the legislation repaired a litany of statutory glitches, erased deadlines for costly elevator and generator retrofits, forged tools to deter foreclosure-related delinquencies, simplified approval for 2-year board terms, strengthened financial reporting requirements for condominiums, approved impact glass windows for hurricane mitigation and shaped a dozen other Association improvements, many of which provided cooperatives with certain rights and protections historically monopolized by condominiums. Having pledged to continue addressing Statutory shortfalls in this year’s session, in February, Moraitis and Broward Senator Jeremy Ring filed 2014 association bills with scores of new rights and benefits, including the extension of several other essential Condominium protections to cooperative homeowners. Unanimously approved in the Statehouse and Senate, READ ON for a comprehensive summary of the new association bill's bag of tricks...
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Roberts: Chlorine; Wind Power; Crime
May 12, 2014 - District 1 City Commissioner Bruce Roberts opens his May 2014 Newsletter with optimistic news about the falling crime rate, describes Mill Pond Park as the City’s “in situ” laboratory for a tech-enhanced sustainable power source, reveals a new email address for Commission meeting input, notes a scheduling change for the Sun Trolley’s Galt Mile route, updates progress towards realizing the projected Schlitterbahn Waterpark, announces a cyclical chlorination cleanup of the City’s Water System, welcomes an improved Lauderserv Citizen Request Management System powered by QAlert technology and applauds a new study that cites Fort Lauderdale as the number 3 municipality in the nation for foreign-born tech entrepreneurs (after Miami and San José, California). While chlorinating the water system is largely a beneficial and safe process, the City should reveal the potential health risks to those with compromised immune systems or undergoing dialysis. For Roberts May 2014 constituent update, Read On...
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LaMarca: Mayors; Vote Site; Navy Days
May 3, 2014 - In his May 2014 Newsletter, District 4 Broward Commissioner Chip LaMarca lists agenda items from a District 4 Mayors Summit, affirms approval for an early voting site convenient to the Galt Mile, announces receipt of a long-awaited federal reimbursement for the South Broward Segment III beach renourishment completed in 2006, discusses in progress transportation projects along State Road A1A and the I-595 Express and recalls Broward Navy Days events during Fleet Week. In this final item, LaMarca refers to the USS New York, a warship fitted with skeletal steel salvaged from the World Trade Center's “Ground Zero” and named after the State and City where an unfathomable catastrophe unfolded on September 11, 2001. 7.5 metric tons of twisted Twin Tower steel forms the bow stem of an amphibious transport designed to fight the war on terror. Read on...
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Animal House: Disability Bill Busts
 April 25, 2014 - During the 2014 Legislative Session, bills were filed in the Statehouse and Senate that would prospectively impact how requested service animals must be integrated into no-pet and pet-friendly community associations. Currently, two Federal Laws – the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Fair Housing Act (FHA) – as well as a Florida Statute (Chapter 413.08, F.S.) dictate how associations must accommodate animals that provide therapeutic benefits to disabled persons. During the past decade, there has also been an epidemic of pet owners who abuse Federal and State disability laws to fraudulently circumvent an association’s no-pet rules. By soliciting documentation evidencing a fictitious infirmity from a complicit medical professional, owners have sought to immunize themselves against association repercussions for harboring a house pet in contravention of the governing documents. Sponsors claimed that the legislation would help clarify Disability entitlements while addressing burgeoning abuse. As occurs with predictable regularity in Tallahassee, they seem to have lost sight of their objective. Read on...
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Roberts: NextDoor, Quiet Zones, Bus Link
April 18, 2014 - In his April 2014 Newsletter, District 1 City Commissioner Bruce Roberts looks at the progress of local Bridge Repairs, a new bus link that better integrates the City's economically burgeoning uptown neighborhoods, a Broward MPO effort to quell growing concern about a serious obstacle to the proposed All Aboard Florida high-speed rail link connecting South Florida and Orlando, availability to District 1 residents of the free NEXTDOOR social networking software (the potential backbone of a virtual "Neighborhood Watch") and recognition by the National Complete Streets Coalition of Fort Lauderdale's 3rd place national ranking for having successfully implemented the program's policies. Although most South Florida residents are aware of the All Aboard Florida (AAF) rail project, familiarity with "Quiet Zones" - as referenced in the newsletter - is largely limited to residents in communities exposed to a daily blast cacophony by locomotive horns. Unless local MPOs along the project's planned route find some grant money, taxpayers will have to fund Quiet Zones to protect adjacent communities. They are not cheap! Read on...
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Florida Home Grown Flood Insurance Fix
 April 4, 2014 - As the Feds mop up the flood insurance nightmare they catalyzed two years earlier, some Tallahassee lawmakers are promoting legislation that would supposedly provide a “robust, competitive, private market alternative to the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).” Senate Bill 542, sponsored by Florida Senator Jeff Brandes (R - St. Petersburg), rolls out a welcome mat to private insurers willing to write residential flood policies in Florida. Built on the belief that flexibility will breed competition, Brandes’ bill would provide policyholders with menu options for selecting benefit amounts and deductibles, allowing homeowners to decide how much or how little coverage they want or need to purchase - ranging from a property's full replacement cost to the residual balance on a mortgage. It would also enable carriers to offer a buffet of insurance products from which policyholders can pick and choose, parceling coverage for contents, living expenses, secondary structures, etc. If the bill performs as marketed, it will be rubber-stamped by grateful lawmakers in other States with threatened flood plain communities. If not, the fiscal fate of those constituencies will remain hostage to the kneejerk eccentricities of a conflicted Congress.
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Flood Insurance Wack-A-Mole
 March 25, 2014 - When recovery efforts following Hurricane Katrina and Superstorm Sandy saddled the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) with a $24 billion debt, the U.S. House and Senate scrambled to pass The Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012 (BW-12). Along with extending the program's shelf life by five years, it tightened operational protocols, mandated a plan to repay the Katrina debt, modernized mapping technology and otherwise enhanced its actuarial credibility. Using faulty FEMA affordability projections, bill provisions that eliminated rate subsidies veiled a fiscal time bomb that later triggered homeowner hysteria in 20,000 communities across the Country and mass apoplexy on Capitol Hill. To avoid rate-shocking homeowners with annual premium increases of $2000 to $10,000, and crippling the recovery of tenuous housing markets, Congress fast-tracked relief legislation to the White House, where President Obama signed the bipartisan Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act of 2014 into law on March 21, 2014. Broward homeowners dodged a bullet!
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LaMarca: D4 Doings, Beach Botch, Vote
March 16, 2014 - In his March 2014 Newsletter, District 4 Broward Commissioner Chip LaMarca opens by touring March municipal events in Pompano, Lighthouse Point (his hometown) and Deerfield Beach. The Commissioner closes with a plea to “get out the vote”. Bookended by these District 4 housekeeping pleasantries, LaMarca ignites a flare for constituent help with the long-delayed Segment II beach renourishment. The Broward Shore Protection project mandates regulatory approvals from myriad Federal, State and local agencies. LaMarca and Broward Beach Administrator Eric Myers have been religiously slugging their way through these regulatory minefields. By the end of January, one obstacle remained - a boilerplate biological opinion by NOAA Fisheries. Upon investigating why repeated phone calls, emails and official correspondences went unanswered, they learned that the documentation sent to NOAA Fisheries - a line office in the Department of Commerce - was sitting UNOPENED on a bureaucrat's desk - ostensibly due to insufficient agency resources. Although County officials lack the juice to crack the Federal malaise, LaMarca contends that our Congressional representatives wield the appropriate political capital. That's where you come in. WE NEED YOUR HELP!!!
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2014 Pre-filed Association Bills
March 8, 2014 - In 2014, the annual dog and pony show in Tallahassee began on March 4th. As always, lawmakers whose agendas are shaped by the demands of proactive constituents or score-keeping campaign contributors jump-start their legislative wish-list by filing before opening day. This year, Representative George Moraitis filed House Bill 807 (HB 807) on February 4, 2014. Two days later, Senator Jeremy Ring (D - Broward) filed companion Senate Bill 798 (SB 798) in the other chamber. The bills form the early skeleton of the 2014 Omnibus Association Bill. Several Association bills that were pre-filed seek to increase the Safe Harbor limits that enable banks to dodge paying assessments on units frozen in foreclosure limbo. Others address the statutory underpinnings of Commercial Condominiums, the termination of an association, towing junkers left in the association parking deck and long-awaited rights and protections for parcel owners in Homeowner Associations. To see how the 2014 session is shaping up... Read on...
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FLPD: Nailing the Bad Guys with Math
 March 1, 2014 - By crunching data that marries historical consumer behavior with emerging trends, Walmart and Netflix adapt how they tailor their on-shelf product mix to specific events (i.e. what they stock before a hurricane, or after a holiday). Long utilized in business, predictive analytics has now been adapted to fight crime. Using the technology to "stop crime before it happens", the municipalities of Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Memphis, Rochester, Santa Cruz and Philadelphia ascribe sizable drops in the crime rate to predictive analytics. In January 2013, the City of Fort Lauderdale teamed with IBM to adapt its proprietary advanced analytics module to crime prevention under the company’s “First of its Kind” program, wherein researchers and clients use real-world applications to shake out the wrinkles of cutting-edge technologies. After an anticipated drop in Fort Lauderdale's crime rate, the City plans to implement the technology to streamline every City Department. Welcome to the 21st Century!
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Galt Mile Wine & Food Festival
February 23, 2014 - On Saturday, March 1, 2014, the 2nd Annual Galt Mile Wine & Food Festival will filter through our back yard, resurrecting last year’s blockbuster inaugural, when thousands of local residents and visitors were rewarded with a delightfully entrancing weekend afternoon. The festival is produced by BocaRaton.Com and The Bites! Network in partnership with the Galt Mile Community Association. From 4 to 8 PM, attendees will choose from scores of fine artisan wines, craft beers & spirits while enjoying distinctive food tastings; live cooking demonstrations; and authoritative insight into pairing each dish with the perfect libation - as outlined by some of South Florida’s most experienced sommeliers and brilliant Top Chefs. To otherwise sample these extraordinary signature offerings, restaurant patrons would have to visit each establishment and order its iconic fare - an exercise that would take months and cost a fortune. Instead, you can spend a lazy Saturday afternoon trying them all, one masterpiece after the other, while strolling across the street from your home. By the way, as per an understanding negotiated by the neighborhood association, attending the event will enhance the value of your home. How? Read on...
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Winn-Dixie: Frog Becomes a Prince
 February 16, 2014 - Until recently, the Galt Mile Winn-Dixie has struggled to shed a reputation for sub-par service, product lines befitting a third world banana republic and an environment more conducive to changing tires than handling food. Notwithstanding divergent opinions about the store’s customer service and product availability, raw convenience prompts almost every Galt Mile resident to cruise the aisles on a regular basis. After decades of failed attempts to improve the store, a rupture in natural law elevated the Galt Mile Winn-Dixie into a viable competitor for shoppers long loyal to Publix and Whole Foods. While implementing a marginally successful post-bankruptcy reorganizational comeback, former Winn-Dixie CEO Peter Lynch experienced a revelation. Instead of performing long overdue modest repairs to badly deteriorated stores that ran $1 to $2 million per store, Lynch would spend $5 to $6 million to completely gut the store's shell, and build upscale, attractive markets with product lines tailored to the community - a process called "Transformation". Since the company began developing Transformational stores in 2010, each new store turned a profit. Fortunately, the Galt Mile store was one of a handful selected for this process each year. In short, we lucked out. Check it out - you will not believe your eyes!
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Help Save the Beach!
 February 9, 2014 - Beach renourishment projects require regulatory approvals from myriad Federal, State and local agencies and stakeholders. To comply, Broward Beach Administrator Eric Myers spent the past few years submitting volumes of required documentation, timely responding to redundant agency inquiries and endlesly tweaking project parameters. In turn, every agency with standing approved the Segment II project... except one. Despite having received all the required documentation from Myers, the National Marine Fisheries Service (AKA NOAA Fisheries) - an agency in the Department of Commerce - remained silent. Phone calls, emails and official correspondences went unanswered. Broward Commissioner Chip LaMarca repeatedly went to Washington D.C., where he learned that all of Myers' documentation was sitting untouched on a bureaucrat's desk - collecting dust. During a pathetic Potomac "two-step", he was informed that the agency lacked the resources to read the documentation and return an opinion, despite having expeditiously done so for similar projects to the north and south of Segment II (Hollywood and Hillsboro). Since County Commissioners are ill-equipped to awaken dormant Federal bureaucracies, LaMarca and neighborhood association officials agreed that the logjam would only be broken if Galt Mile residents pressured our larger-fisted Federal Lawmakers to disturb the agency siesta long enough to send one lousy boilerplate opinion to the County. In short, WITHOUT YOU - OUR BEACHES WILL NOT BE FIXED!!! Read on to learn how you can help save our beach!!!
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LaMarca: 2013 - The Year in Review
January 30, 2014 - In his first Newsletter of 2014, Broward Commissioner Chip LaMarca takes us on a 12-month jaunt through the challenges he faced in 2013. Long concerned for the wellbeing of Veterans, LaMarca opens by radiating satisfaction for having engineered a free Broward Bus Pass for low-income Vets and participating in many of last year’s Fleet Week events - despite the Fleet’s conspicuous absence due to cost-cutting measures in the Military. LaMarca outlines his involvement in municipal events across his District 4 domain - including a mid-Summer Resource Fair in Deerfield Beach, the redevelopment of Atlantic Boulevard in Pompano Beach (and thwarting the planned departure of its popular Beach Library from the Barrier Island), the evolution of a Culinary Arts District in Oakland Park, a “bridge to Pier” revitalization project along Commercial Boulevard in Lauderdale-By-The-Sea, and the reclamation of storm-damaged A1A in Fort Lauderdale. Touching on Beach Renourishment and Port Everglades, LaMarca also revisits his commitment to enhancing the County's critical infrastructure while celebrating a limited victory against the often fatal practice of texting while driving. Read on for 2013 - the Year in Review!
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Roberts: Algorithms; NCIP; New Bridge
 January 23, 2014 - Commissioner Bruce Roberts opens his February 2014 newsletter by rolling out the welcome mat to new constituents from Laudergate Isles and Bal Harbour who were shifted into his jurisdiction - after the 2010 Census documented a sizable population disparity in the City's four Commission Districts. The Fort Lauderdale Police Department’s decision to beat back a rising crime rate with predictive analytics represents a paradigm shift in local law enforcement. Instead of beleaguered Police analysts pouring through thousands of reports in criminal justice databases to uncover crime connections, an IBM algorithm will crunch the data almost instantaneously. In every City where the technology was implemented, the crime rate plummeted. While it doesn't predict crime, as occurs in the Sci-Fi epic "Minority Report", it substantially increases the opportunity for Police Officers to be in the right place at the right time to either disrupt criminal activity or make quality arrests. Listed among the planned NCIP projects in the Commissioner's newsletter, a replacement of sidewalks throughout the Galt Mile neighborhood has been approved by the City, although it has neither been scheduled - nor funded. Read on for the whole update...
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Fort Lauderdale Water Park
 January 10, 2014 - When the City of Sarasota hijacked the Baltimore Orioles spring training program in 2008, the vacated Fort Lauderdale Stadium wound up in the City Commission’s lap. They could have either held a garage sale to attract another club, which would mean fixing it up and taking a beating on the rent, or consigning the once proud facility to a slow death hosting little league finals. Although City Commissioners endorsed a Schlitterbahn Development Group plan to redevelop the property into a 64-acre world class Water Park at a June 15, 2010 Commission meeting, it melted down when the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) refused to consent, as required by the 1947 agreement that conveyed the property to the City. Now that the City and Schlitterbahn have finally hammered out mutually agreeable terms with the FAA, the revived plan will transform Lockhart Stadium into a state-of-the-art tournament-sized multi-use athletic field that will permanently house the Fort Lauderdale Strikers, an immense futuristic Water Park, a Sports Village and a Resort featuring tree-top cabins with five-star accommodations - right down the block on Commercial Boulevard!!!
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OUR POSITION ON...
 1st ANNUAL LIGHT UP THE GALT! - On WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2018 from 6:00 - 10:00 PM, check out the North Beach Restaurants and Shoppes (at Oakland Park Boulevard and A1A) for an event that will bring the magic of the holiday season to the Galt Ocean Mile! Enjoy an enchanted evening of live music, entertainment, food and fun for the entire family. Festivities will take place along NE 32nd and 33rd Streets and will feature a kids zone, a holiday tree lighting ceremony at 7:00 p.m., and live performances by the Elisa Rego Band, Florida Sweet Tarts, Cindy Curtis and Company, and Fort Lauderdale Symphonic Winds. For more information, call 828-7275 or Click to E-mail. CLICK HERE to EVENT NOTICE.
 10th ANNUAL ASK THE ATTORNEYS SEMINAR - On WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2018 from 11 AM to 1 PM, all Galt Mile board members, property managers and residents are invited to attend a free seminar about new legislation and other issues related to HOA’s & Condos and Co-ops at South County Civic Center (16700 Jog Road), Delray Beach, FL. The class will be taught by Association Advocates ROBERT KAYE, ESQ and MICHAEL BENDER, ESQ from Kaye Bender Rembaum. Bring questions or discussion topics. For more information, call 954-776-1999 Ext. 242 or Click to E-mail. CLICK HERE to EVENT NOTICE.
 CORAL RIDGE TOWERS SOUTH - Annual White Elephant Sale
Coral Ridge Towers South will be hosting its huge, annual White Elephant Sale on SATURDAY, JANUARY 20, 2018 from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM in the Community Room at 3333 NE 34th Street. There will be thousands of gently-used items for sale, including jewelry, artwork, antiques, collectibles, dishes, small electricals, etc. All are welcome!!! For more information, please Click Here to E-mail Marie Altenburg
BOARD MEMBERS AND PROPERTY MANAGERS FREE CLASS - On WEDNESDAY, JULY 12, 2017 from 7:30 PM to 10:15 AM, all Galt Mile board members and property managers are invited to attend a free hot buffet breakfast and 2 hour CE Class at Galuppi's on the Green (1103 N. Federal Highway) in Pompano Beach. The class will be taught by Association Advocate MICHAEL BENDER from Kaye Bender Rembaum. A one credit class will address Covenant Enforceability for HOA’s & Condos (Course #9627463) 1 CAM CE Credit. The second class will be about Guest Restrictions & Screening Tenants & New Owners: Is it Worthwhile? (Course #9628051) 1 CAM CE Credit 1 HR / ELE. For more information, call (561) 508-0500, CLICK HERE to EVENT NOTICE, Click HERE to Email.
 BILLY SULLO SALON GRAND OPENING PARTY - On FRIDAY, APRIL 28, 2017 from 7:00 PM to 12:00 MIDNIGHT, all Galt Mile residents are invited to attend A Grand Opening Party at the Billy Sullo Salon + Spa located within the OCEAN MANOR BEACH RESORT at 4040 GALT OCEAN DRIVE in Fort Lauderdale. Along with Food and refreshments, Guests will be entertained by surprise guests and live music. Attendees may register for a chance to win a champagne spa day pampering gift basket and complimentary salon services. For more information, call (954) 635.2151, CLICK HERE to PARTY NOTICE, Click HERE to Email or CLICK HERE to Website.
A TRANSPORTATION CELEBRATION - On WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2016, all Galt Mile residents are invited to attend A TRANSPORTATION CELEBRATION from 5:30 p.m to 7:30 p.m. at the Fort Lauderdale Antique Car Museum at 1527 SW 1st Ave., Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Join Broward Commissioner Chip LaMarca; City Commissioner Bruce Roberts; James Donnelly Chairman, Broward Workshop Founder & CEO, Castle Group; Samuel E. Poole, III Partner, Berger Singerman; for a 'Hip to Jive' event that will focus on celebrating past accomplishments and embracing the future of transportation and economic growth in Broward County. Bringing guests back to the Roaring 20's, this event will feature Great Gatsby-Themed Décor, Light Fare & Drinks, Swing Band & Flapper Dancers. MOST IMPORTANTLY, EVERY GALT RIDER is a VIP Guest - and won't have to pay the $25 fee to attend. What's more - if you lack transportation, they will arrange it for you. For more information, call Laura Cromarty at (954) 294-1889, or Click HERE to Email or CLICK HERE to Web Notice.
 ORLANDO MEMORIAL SERVICE - On JUNE 17, 2016 at 1 PM, the City of Fort Lauderdale will honor the victims of the Orlando tragedy at a special Memorial Service. Entitled "United with Orlando - Standing for Equality". The service will take place at the Parker Playhouse (707 Northeast 8th Street) in Fort Lauderdale. Convened to show support for the City of Orlando, the LGBT community, and all who have been affected by this horrific act, in uniting against violence, terror, and hatred, the event is dedicated to promoting healing through tolerance, inclusion, and acceptance. Send a personal message to Orlando by signing the 4'x12' banner at the auditorium entrance. Also, the Blood Mobile will be stationed on site for those interested in donating blood. CLICK HERE for more information. CLICK HERE to download the Memorial Service Program.
 ZIKA VIRUS ALERT - On FEBRUARY 12, 2016, the State announced that the ZIKA VIRUS hit Florida, beginning with more than a dozen confirmed cases. A few weeks later, 55 cases were reported - and more on the way. Carried by the AEDES AEGYPTI MOSQUITO, the virus can afflict newborn babies with MICROCEPHALY, a neurological disorder that results in babies born with abnormally small heads, causing severe developmental issues and sometimes death. Although the mosquito migration cannot be controlled, associations can proactively protect the community by aggressively addressing this plague with the association's pest control contractor. For more information, call Bob LaMendola of the Florida Department of Health in Broward County at 954-213-0607, 954-290-9207, or CLICK HERE for prevention tips from the Florida Department of Health (ASSOCIATIONS - PLEASE DOWNLOAD, PRINT AND POST ON BULLETIN BOARD).
 BOIL WATER ALERT LIFTED! - On MONDAY, AUGUST 10, 2015, the State recommended that a Boil Water Advisory remain in effect. After discovering e-coli in a raw, untreated sample from a ground well that has been taken out of service, the Florida Department of Health in Broward County continues to recommend that the precautionary boil water advisory remain in effect for water customers in the City of Fort Lauderdale, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, Oakland Park, Port Everglades Authority, Village of Sea Ranch Lakes, Wilton Manors and sections of Davie and Tamarac (East of State Road 7/ 441). On Tuesday, August 11, at 2:30 PM, THE ALERT WAS LIFTED. For more information, call 954-828-8000, or CLICK HERE to Fort Lauderdale website.
 NORTH BEACH ART GALLERY 4TH ANNUAL CAR SHOW - On APRIL 25, 2015 from 4 PM to 8 PM - The North Beach Art Gallery (at 3334 NE 34 Street) is hosting its 4th Annual Car Show to benefit the Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital Foundation. Live entertainment by Rockabilly Band: Slip and the Spinouts. Classics, Hot Rods, Rat Rods, Exotics & Specialty. Raffle & Silent Auction, Artistic Vendors and food. - For meeting information, call 954-667-0660, email at info@nobegallery.com or CLICK HERE to Web Notice.
 COMMISSIONER BRUCE ROBERTS TELEPHONE TOWN HALL MEETING - APRIL 16, 2015 - from 7 PM to 8 PM - Talk to District 1 City Commissioner Bruce Roberts about programs, services or ideas to improve District 1 - and the City of Fort Lauderdale. Many District 1 Residents with listed phone numbers will receive a call prior to the start of the meeting. Neighbors can also call toll free (888) 409-5380 to join the conversation. - For meeting information, CLICK HERE to Web Notice.
 MAYOR JOHN P. “JACK” SEILER TELEPHONE TOWN HALL MEETING - MARCH 24, 2015 - from 7 PM to 8 PM - Talk to Mayor Seiler about City programs, services or ideas to improve Fort Lauderdale. Residents with listed phone numbers will receive a call prior to the start of the meeting. Neighbors can also call toll free (888) 409-5380 to join the conversation. - For meeting information, CLICK HERE to Web Notice.
 GALT LIBRARY CELEBRATION - FEBRUARY 12, 2015 - You are invited to a "WE LOVE OUR GALT LIBRARY" celebration from 2 PM to 4 PM on FEBRUARY 12 at the Galt Mile Reading Center (3403 Galt Ocean Drive). Sponsored by Friends of the Galt Mile Reading Center, the party will feature THE GALT PLAYERS performing Monologues and original short plays by INEZ GELLER - and Directed by Jeff Gaines. For Information, CLICK HERE.
CORAL RIDGE TOWERS SOUTH - Annual White Elephant Sale
Coral Ridge Towers South will be hosting its huge, annual White Elephant Sale on SATURDAY, JANUARY 17, 2015 from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM at 3333 NE 34th Street. Thousands of items, including jewelry, collectibles, household items, etc. will be available.. All are welcome!!! For more information, please Click Here to E-mail Marie Altenburg
FT LAUD FIRE-RESCUE EBOLA DEMO - THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2014 - The City of Fort Lauderdale Fire-Rescue will conduct a demonstration to showcase response preparedness to Ebola. On Thursday, October 23, 2014 at 1:30 PM at Fort Lauderdale Fire Station 53 (2200 Executive Airport Way) in Fort Lauderdale. Haz-Mat crews dressed in level C protective gear - as well as Broward Health representatives - will be on site to answer any questions. The Hazardous Materials truck will also be available for viewing. For more information, call Deputy Fire Chief Timothy C. Heiser at 954-298-6922 OR CLICK HERE to email OR CLICK HERE to Official Notice.
 LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS FORUM - SEPTEMBER 27, 2014 - from 11 AM to 12 NOON at the Galt Mile Reading Center (3403 Galt Ocean Drive) - Get important, nonpartisan information about the amendments and questions on the November 4 ballot. For Information, CLICK HERE or call Lynne Joshi at 954-563-3685 or CLICK HERE to EMAIL.
 BOOK SALE - SEPTEMBER 15, 2014 - from 10 AM to 2 PM at the Galt Mile Reading Center - at 3403 Galt Ocean Drive - Books, CDs, DVDs, Videos - HARD COVER 3 for $1 ($.50 each) PAPERBACKS 6 for $1 ($.25 each). For Information, Call 954-357-7840.
STATE OF THE CITY ADDRESS - THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2014 - Reception and Networking at 6:00 PM; Address by Mayor Jack Seiler at 7:00 PM. The City of Fort Lauderdale will host the annual STATE OF THE CITY ADDRESS on Thursday, September 4, 2014 at 6 PM in the new Huizenga Pavilion at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts (201 S.W. 5th Avenue). For meeting information, CLICK HERE to Web Notice.
GALT LIBRARY OPEN HOUSE - AUGUST 14, 2014 - You are invited to an OPEN HOUSE celebration from 2 PM to 4 PM on August 14 at the Galt Mile Reading Center (3403 Galt Ocean Drive). Sponsored by Friends of the Galt Mile Reading Center, celebrating the 40th year of BROWARD LIBRARY - We ARE STILL HERE!!! Refreshments - FREE. For Information, Call Marlene Barnes at 954-357-7853 or CLICK HERE.
 FREE MOVIE DINE-IN NIGHT - JUNE 25, 2014 - Sun Trolley invites you to a MOVIE, an Entree and a Fountain Drink - ALL FREE - down the block at the CORAL RIDGE 10 MOVIE THEATER - Choose a movie from THIS FLYER, print the flyer (ITS YOUR TICKET), CLICK HERE to RSVP for the movie you selected and bring your printed copy of the flyer to the CORAL RIDGE 10 MOVIE THEATER at 290 NE 3rd Ave in the CORAL RIDGE MALL (NO CAR? You can flag the Sun Trolley for a lift). You enjoy a movie, a meal and a drink - for FREE!!! - For information, call 954-761-3543 or CLICK HERE to the Sun Trolley Movie Info Page.
NORTH BEACH ART GALLERY 3RD ANNUAL CAR SHOW - RAIN DATE: JUNE 14, 2014 - from 6 PM to 10 PM - The North Beach Art Gallery (at 3334 NE 34 Street) is hosting its 3rd Annual Car Show to benefit the Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital Foundation. Live entertainment by Rockabilly Band: Slip and the Spinouts. Hot Rods, Rat Rods, Classics, Exotics, Specialty. Raffles and Artistic Vendors. - For meeting information, call 954-667-0660, CLICK HERE to email or CLICK HERE to Web Notice.
PUBLIC MEETING - TUESDAY, MAY 13, 2014 - Starts at 6:30 PM - The City of Fort Lauderdale will host a public meeting to discuss the recently completed Tortuga Festival and provide information regarding the upcoming Great American Beach Party and Memorial Day weekend activities. The public is welcome to attend and encouraged to provide input and feedback. - For meeting information, CLICK HERE to Web Notice.
VICE MAYOR BRUCE ROBERTS TELEPHONE TOWN HALL MEETING - APRIL 8, 2014 - from 7 PM to 8 PM - Talk to Vice Mayor & District 1 City Commissioner Bruce Roberts about programs, services or ideas to improve District 1 - and the City of Fort Lauderdale. Many District 1 Residents with listed phone numbers will receive a call prior to the start of the meeting. Neighbors can also call toll free (855) 269-4484 to join the conversation. - For meeting information, CLICK HERE to Web Notice.
BOOK SALE - MARCH 31, 2014 - from 10 AM to 2 PM at the Galt Mile Reading Center - at 3403 Galt Ocean Drive - Books, CDs, DVDs, Videos - HARD COVER 3 for $1 ($.50 each) PAPERBACKS 6 for $1 ($.25 each). For Information, Call 954-357-7840.
GALT LIBRARY CELEBRATION - FEBRUARY 13, 2014 - You are invited to a "WE LOVE OUR GALT LIBRARY" celebration from 2 PM to 4 PM on February 13 at the Galt Mile Reading Center (3403 Galt Ocean Drive). Sponsored by Friends of the Galt Mile Reading Center, for the second consecutive year - our Galt Library was recognized for outstanding achievement in the provision of Cultural Programming. NOT TOO SHABBY FOR SOME SLEEPY RETIREES!!! Speaker: Broward Library Director SKYE PATRICK. For Information, CLICK HERE.
A1A GREENWAY MEETING - DECEMBER 11, 2013 - from 6 PM to 8 PM - Diana Alarcon of the Transportation & Mobility Department will explain how plans for the A!A Greenway were revised - and CORRECTED - following the October 8 meeting. The revisions address widespread concerns by residents and merchants about problematic changes announced at the earlier meeting. Please show your support for the corrected plan by attending this important meeting. - For meeting information, call 954-828-3764, CLICK HERE to email or CLICK HERE to Web Notice.
 MOMENTS IN TIME GRAND REOPENING - OCTOBER 12, 2013 - from 7 PM to 10 PM - Come celebrate fall and the grand reopening party of MOMENTS IN TIME at 3429 GALT OCEAN DRIVE. Enjoy Cocktails and Passed Hors Oeuvres as we celebrate the New Menu, New Interior and the Same Great Service. Striving for Perfection in the Art of Food - For information, call 954-390-6095 or CLICK TO EMAIL.
 2013 FirstService Residential South Florida Conference & Exposition - OCTOBER 11, 2013 - from 7:45 AM to 5 PM at the WESTIN DIPLOMAT RESORT & SPA (3555 South Ocean Drive) in Hollywood - FirstService Residential – formerly known as The Continental Group - is hosting the 2013 FirstService Residential South Florida Conference & Exposition - a one day event that will bring the property management community together. It’s the chance for decision makers representing every facet of the industry to connect, share insight, discover new opportunities, forge new relationships and build new partnerships. For Information, Call 954-378-2302 or CLICKING HERE to email.
STATE OF THE CITY ADDRESS - AUGUST 21, 2013 - City of Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jack Seiler will deliver the "STATE OF THE CITY ADDRESS" on AUGUST 21, 2013 at Orange Bowl Field at Carter Park (1450 W. Sunrise Boulevard, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33311). Featuring the Dillard High School Marching Band, Cheerleaders, and Air Force JROTC, all are invited to attend the Advisory Board Reception and Networking from 6 - 7 PM followed by the Address at 7 PM. PLEASE RSVP by calling (954) 828-4752 or CLICKING HERE to email.
 LEAVE THE FIREWORKS HOME!!! - City of Fort Lauderdale Fire Marshal David Raines has asked Fort Lauderdale residents who plan to attend the July 4th celebration on the beach to leave their personal fireworks home and "let the professionals provide the fireworks show for you." To enforce the prohibition, the fire department will be joined by a police presence, fire inspectors, and lifeguards who will not permit the lighting of fireworks of any kind - and hopefully avoid the injuries that annually send spectators into local Emergency Rooms - or WORSE. CLICK HERE to read the Fire Marshal's sensible request.
FLPD CLICK IT OR TICKET - The Fort Lauderdale Police Department is participating in the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s “Click it or Ticket Campaign.” Every year during the annual Memorial Day Weekend, law enforcement agencies join forces day and night, from coast-to-coast, for an enforcement blitz to help increase the national seat belt usage rate. This campaign will run from MAY 20 to JUNE 2. While the campaign ends in June, FLPD will ticket scofflaws at an accelerated rate going forward. ITS THE LAW AND IT SAVES LIVES. TICKETS ARE EXPENSIVE AND YOU ARE ENTITLED TO SURVIVE - SO BUCKLE YOUR SEAT BELT - DON'T TEXT WHILE DRIVING - AND YOU WON'T GET NAILED!!!
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 Sea Turtle Lighting Meeting - Fort Lauderdale is considering making a change to its Turtle Lighting ordinance to insure that it addresses the safety and security needs of people as well as the survival of sea turtles. On MONDAY, JUNE 10, 2013, a meeting will be held in the Beach Community Center (3351 NE 33 AVE) from 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM to exlain the changes. Does Downtown Fort Lauderdale need to be dark for 9 months each year???
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 Here Come the Judges! - On WEDNESDAY, MAY 29, 2013 from 7 P.M. to 9 P.M. in the Community Advocacy Network (CAN) Law and Learning Center at 5297 W. Copans Road, Margate, FL. Join us for a Unique Event where Judge Alan Marks and a panel of esteemed Broward County Judges will answer your most pressing questions! For information, Click Here or call Julie Fishman at 954-213-0979 - or eamil her at jfishman@canfl.com.
CAN Legislative Town Hall Meeting - On FRIDAY, JUNE 14, 2013 from 12 Noon to 3 P.M. in the Community Advocacy Network (CAN) Law and Learning Center at 5297 W. Copans Road, Margate, FL. CAN’s Annual Legislative Town Hall is where a panel of your legislators and the CAN Lobby Team will join us for a panel discussion of the many issues that were debated, discussed and passed up in Tallahassee this year. For information, Click Here or call Julie Fishman at 954-213-0979 - or eamil her at jfishman@canfl.com.
Sun Trolley Expands Galt Route - Commissioner Bruce Roberts JULY, 2012 Newsletter reveals that the Galt Mile Route has been expanded to include Saturdays and Sundays. Earlier this year, the Sun Trolley route south to the Galleria - providing local residents with cheap and easy transportation to a world-class shopping venue. Galt residents can also access the Harbor Shops and Las Olas Boulevard. For information, call Patricia Zeiler at Sun Trolley - 954-761-3543 - or eamil her at pzeiler@suntrolley.com.
Presidents Council: Sea Turtles & Sandy - DECEMBER 2012 - On December 3, 2012, the Galt Mile Community Association convened a 7:30 PM Presidents Council Meeting at Plaza East Condominium. To address a growing community anger stemming from abusive and enigmatic Sea Turtle policies, an authoritative forum was configured to explain how these concerns will be resolved going forward. Since our future, both individually and as a community, is inextricably tied to the fate of our beach, we needed to know what remedies were being considered to restore Fort Lauderdale’s collapsed coast, 4 soggy blocks of A1A and our Galt Mile beach.
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 New FEMA Flood Maps Threaten to Skyrocket Galt Rates After 14 years, FEMA redrew Broward County Flood Insurance Rate Maps "FIRMs" that determine whether or not Galt Mile associations will have to pay $hundreds of thousands in future Flood Insurance premiums. This will cost every Galt Mile unit owner thousands of dollars. On NOVEMBER 16, 2011, those residents who attend a FEMA-sponsored meeting at the HERB SKOLNICK CENTER at 800 SW 36 Avenue in Pompano Beach from 4 PM to 8 PM will have a chance to prevent the impending assessments. Click Here to the Broward County FLOOD MAP Web page.
Galt Mile Reading Center Beats the Heat - On MONDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2011, County Commissioner CHIP LAMARCA addressed a Galt Mile Community Association Presidents Council meeting in the Commodore Condominium. After reviewing County progress in Beach Renourishment and Public Safety, he informed attendees that the Galt Mile Reading Center survived the County Budget process. THroughout Broward County's two September final Budget hearings, LAMARCA nursed the Library passed deep spending cuts that threatened its survival. Although the District 4 County Commissioner earlier advised Library supporters that he would find a political solution to salvaging the Galt Reading Center, he expressed gratitude for the support provided by the huge contingent of Galt Mile residents attending the hearings. Click Here to the Galt Library web page.
 Galt Mile Reading Center Meeting / Celebration - On THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 2011, from 2 PM to 4 PM, a combination meeting and celebration will take place at the GALT MILE READING CENTER / LIBRARY. Refreshments will be provided by Friends of the Galt Mile Library in celebration of reaching their recruitment target of 200 new mwembers. County Commissioner CHIP LAMARCA will adddress the Library's survival, a mission he adopted shortly after being elected to the District 4 County Commission seat. Click Here for more information.
 Sprinkler Retrofit Relief Bill Becomes Law - On June 1, 2010, Governor Crist surprised and delighted the 2 million proponents of Senate Bill 1196 - the omnibus association bill - by signing the bill into law. After all, the bill intensified an agenda that had already prompted two gubernatorial vetoes. The legislation’s passage has all the trappings of a Hollywood feel-good epic. To survive, the Bill had to circumvent significant obstacles erected by many of the State’s most formidable lobbies. For the first time in over a decade, controversial Association legislation didn’t self-destruct in deference to directives handed down by special interests. Since the legislative dynamic in Tallahassee hasn’t undergone some cathartic sea change and lobbyists still command enormous resources, HOW DID LEGISLATION WITH SO MANY POWERFUL ENEMIES SURVIVE A PROCESS ORDINARILY CONTROLLED BY THE HIGHEST BIDDER?
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 New No Soliciting Law - With some 1,600 "guests of the city" fluffing the bushes each night before nodding off in public parks (incremental to the 7,000 squirreled away in shelters), the unprecedented number of panhandling complaints clogging City Hall finally reached a critical mass. Enacted by the City Commission on MAY 1, 2012, the City of Fort Lauderdale’s new anti-soliciting ordinance precludes panhandling in certain zones, ostensibly to protect the privacy rights of citizens while engaged in particular site-specific activities. To sidestep First Amendment land mines, retiring City Attorney Harry Stewart stitched together a patchwork quilt of prohibitions that, when taken as a whole, criminalize panhandling in the entire downtown business district.
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 Calypso - A Deepwater Port and pipeline is planned for installation directly of the Galt Mile Beach. Its purpose is to offload liquid natural gas (LNG) from tankers into the Calypso Pipeline which will make landfall at Port Everglades. Past incidents in Cleveland and Algeria in which the gas ignited destroyed entire city blocks and killed everyone within the heat flux perimeter. Only Governor Crist can VETO this potential holocaust. The articles about the Calypso Project on the GMCA web site divulge the catastrophic safety hazards, damage to the maritime environment and the mandated cost to Broward taxpayers.
CLICK HERE to when Commissioner Teel first revealed project in December 2007
CLICK HERE for what happened at an April 2008 Presidents Council Calyposo presentation in Plaza South
CLICK HERE for how the City passed an ANTI-Calypso Resolution in May 2008
CLICK HERE to learn what happened at the Dania Calypso Meeting
CLICK HERE to see what happened at the Broward Legislative Delegation Calypso Workshop in August 2008
CLICK HERE to review the world-wide damage done by SUEZ, the Calypso parent company
CLICK HERE to read the environmental concerns of authoritative conservationist Michael Leech
CLICK HERE to read about huge new domestic shale gas deposits
CLICK HERE to read how the Governor stopped Calypso
CLICK HERE to informative LNG Links
CLICK HERE for more extensive LNG Links
CLICK HERE to see Resolutions and Letters opposing the Calypso Project
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 2011 Galt Mile Food Drive - In celebration of another successful effort, Executive Director Scott Woodburn of the Cooperative Feeding Program sponsored an April 9, 2010 awards event at the St Lawrence Gallery on A1A. Association volunteers and other local program supporters that were instrumental in delivering the most impressive result in the Galt Mile Food Drive's 5-year history. After calculating the final results, Woodburn exclaimed that this year's effort yeilded a record of 25,723.0 points - surpassing last year total by almost 6,000 points. A point represents one pound of food (or sundries) or one dollar. Galt Ocean Club is Grand Champion for total points (6,096 points and 28 pts per unit). Edgewater Arms Cooperative Association recorded the best statistics for total points per unit (5,863.5 points and 69 pts per unit). Following the trophy-winning Grand Champion was Edgewater Arms, CRT South, CRT Original, Commodore, Ocean Summit, Galt Towers, Playa del Sol, L'Hermitage II, CRT East and Regency Tower. The equivalent of almost 26 tons of collected food will help feed the recession-swollen ranks of hungry Broward families.
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 Please! - When you take your pet for a stroll down the Drive - please clean up afterwards. Its nothing less than inhumane to expect Fido to do all the work! Lets keep the Galt Mile clean!
 Free Turtle-Safe Lighting Review - MAY 2007 - On TUESDAY, MAY 22, Turtle-Safe Lighting experts from Florida Fish and Game will be offering FREE lighting reviews for Galt Mile Associations. They will make INEXPENSIVE suggestions and recommendations that will insure compliance with the City Ordinance WITHOUT sacrificing safety and security. Participation is voluntary. CALL MARIO SOTOLONGO at 954-828-6326 or CLICK HERE to email.
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 Ocean Rescue - Over the years, the Galt Mile has suffered its share of beach fatalities from Rip Currents! CLICK HERE to read about an unfortunate example. The CITY OF FORT LAUDERDALE OCEAN RESCUE now maintains a web page that offers the current beach hazards, including Rip Currents, Marine Pests, Intracoastal conditions and the Beach Warning Flag daily designation. CHECK HERE before you - or the kids - go to the beach!
CHECK OCEAN RESCUE DAILY HAZARD REPORT or
Read Recent Incident Report
 CODE RED - The City of Fort Lauderdale has instituted the CodeRED® Emergency Notification System -- a high-speed phone communication service for emergency notifications. This system allows the City to telephone either all subscribers or geographically-targeted areas of the City in case of an emergency situation that requires immediate action (such as a boil-water notice, missing child, evacuation notice, utility outage, fires or floods, bomb threat, hostage situation, chemical spill or gas leak). It then delivers a recorded message to either a live person or an answering machine, making three attempts to connect to any number. ITS FREE!!!
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Bus to Holy Cross - Car being fixed? Stuck in the house? You don’t have to hang about, waiting for someone to take you to Targets, the Beach Community Center or the Fort Lauderdale Beach area. For a quarter, you can comfortably travel to these locations all day during the week and on the weekend you can go downtown - for free - day and night! Now you can also ride to HOLY CROSS HOSPITAL in comfort and safety - FOR 25 CENTS! Starting APRIL 9, 2007, the Galt Ocean Mile Sun Trolley route will be extended to HOLY CROSS HOSPITAL all day Monday through Friday.
Read New Galt Mile Route Info
New Galt Route Map
New Galt Mile Timetable
 Flu Shots - Influenza Season has arrived - time to protect yourself! CLICK HERE to Locate Flu Shot Clinics.
Click for Flu Shot Locators
 Hurricane Claims Deadline - The Statute of Limitations to pursue a claim for property damage resulting from HURRICANE KATRINA will expire midnight, AUGUST 25, 2010 and for HURRICANE WILMA on OCTOBER 24, 2010. For Hurricane information, go to the HURRICANE PAGE. Available are up to the minute HURRICANE ADVISORIES and a huge section of useful HURRICANE LINKS.
For Additional Info
 Citizens Threatens Associations
In December, 2011, Florida Insurance Agents launched a campaign to inform some beachfront condo and cooperative clients that their rates are about to explode. Florida Governor Rick Scott turned his efforts to pressuring the Citizens Property Insurance Corp. board into dumping policies. By capping coverage at $1 million for buildings where more than 25 percent of units are rentals, the State's insurer of last resort will vitiate coverage for certain beachfront associations. Scott's appointees to the Citizens' Board characterized the rates paid by beachfront condos as "among the most inadequate rates that Citizens has anywhere.”
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 Lawmakers OK Construction Defects
From 2007 through 2012, Florida courts correctly ruled that developers were not entitled to saddle home buyers and their associations with substandard or defective construction, reinforcing longstanding implied warranties. Despite its pendency before the Supreme Court of Florida, construction industry lobbyists "rewarded" lawmakers for filing legislation that shielded developers from the legal repercussions of ignoring the building code. If a defective roof caves in ten minutes after the closing, you'd better find an umbrella. No class of service provider has ever been so fully immunized against negligence, malpractice and code violations. Not surprisingly, on APRIL 27, 2012, Governor Scott signed it in a heartbeat.
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 IMPACT RATED WINDOWS - The recent intensification of HURRICANE SEASON presents a new threat to Galt Mile residents and Associations. Protecting ourselves and our homes from this threat has become an urgent priority. The Florida Division of Emergency Management admonishes, “The most important precaution you can take to reduce damage to your home and property is to protect the areas where wind can enter. According to recent wind technology research, it’s important to strengthen the exterior of your house so wind and debris do not tear large openings in it. You can do this by protecting and reinforcing these five critical areas: ROOF | STRAPS | WINDOWS | DOORS | GARAGE DOORS” The Galt Mile Community Association, in an effort to assist residents and Associations to better protect themselves, published a series of articles about IMPACT WINDOWS, the only glazing able to effectively withstand hurricane force winds and the associated debris. “Through a Glass Darkly” gives scope to the issue. “The Regency Tower Window Project” describes how a member Association successfully tackled the problem. A forum hosted by the Presidents Council about IMPACT WINDOWS is reviewed in the “GMCA Presidents Council Windows Forum”. An explanation of the Code and associated nomenclature is offered in “The Miami Protocols”. CLICK HERE to check out various links to WINDOW INFO. PLEASE TAKE THE OPPORTUNITY TO FAMILIARIZE YOURSELF WITH THIS CRITICAL ISSUE!
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 TALLAHASSEE ARCHIVES - Any legislation oozing out of Tallahassee that impacts our homes, rights or lifestyles is reviewed in the Tallahassee page. Each year, the info is placed in the Tallahassee Archives. To see what happened in 2014, Click Here. To see what happened in 2013, Click Here. To see what happened in 2012, Click Here. To see what happened in 2011, Click Here. To see what happened in 2010, Click Here. To see what happened in 2009, Click Here. To see what happened in 2008, Click Here. To see what happened in 2007, Click Here. To see what happened in 2006, Click Here. For 2005, Click Here. For 2004, Click Here. Same with 2003, simply Click Here. To go to the Tallahassee Archive Index, Click Here.
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2015 POLITICS - TALLAHASSEE - Every year, we send an assortment of well-educated men and women to Florida’s State Capitol to represent us. They speak for us, act on our behalf, educate themselves about importatnt issues, learn how to work together and try to execute productive resolutions. Sometimes, their reasons for being there differ from those given to their constituents prior to Election Day; when this occurs, its usually a good time to consider “changing the guard”. Legislation affecting Galt Mile residents oozes out of Tallahassee annually, often unnoticed. The issues surrounding that legislation will be explained in this new TALLAHASSEE POLITICS SECTION. Before next year's legislative session, the articles will be relegated to the site's archives, setting the stage for the new session.
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 HURRICANE SEASON - BONNIE, CHARLEY, FRANCES, IVAN, JEANNE, KATRINA, WILMA! - We survived the GALT MILE's most active series of HURRICANE SEASONs. PLEASE look over the HURRICANE PAGE. Available are up to the minute HURRICANE ADVISORIES and a huge section of useful HURRICANE LINKS. MOST IMPORTANT - GARY A. POLIAKOFF, a pioneer in the field of Condominium Law, has executed a DISASTER PLAN tailored to the needs of GALT MILE ASSOCIATIONS AND THEIR RESIDENTS! BEFORE THE STORM speaks to the preparation necessary to avoid being victimized by unfortunate oversights - to the tune of $$$ MILLIONS. AFTER THE STORM addresses the steps necessary to successfully recover from disaster. DON'T PROCRASTINATE - READ IT! - DO IT!
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 ENTRY PASS - Armed with the knowledge that many domiciles are vacant during an evacuation, certain human insects will attempt to gain unobstructed access to the temporarily “easy pickings”. In response, police stationed at entrance checkpoints carefully scrutinize the identification of anyone attempting to return to the island, verifying credentials as either a resident or an owner/operator of a barrier island concern. If you can’t prove that you either live or work here, you won’t get in! CLICK HERE to learn how to get an ENTRY PASS!
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 HURRICANE FRAUD - Hurricane season, an annual source of emotional distress, brings out the best and the worst in us. There are several species of VAMPIRE that feed on the misery of the season’s victims. Two popular scams – “cleanup” and “emergency repair” - have developed into a cottage industry. FEMA and SBA impersonators are reviving old fashioned confidence schemes that have attracted the attention of Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist. These VULTURES are preying on people who've lost everything, towns desperately trying to right themselves and, quite possibly, YOU!
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 INSURANCE CYCLONE - Public concern about the season’s insurance impacts has sent bureaucrats scrambling from city hall to Tallahassee. Insurance lobbyists are gearing up for both overt and “under the radar” attacks on premiums, regionally and statewide. Carriers may threaten to abandon certain Florida insurance markets as part of their effort to force the Office of Insurance Regulation to float rates. Tallahassee wants to roll back the “Double Deductible” that Tom Gallagher terms “fundamentally unfair.”
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 WHEN THE BUDGET BURST - The City of Fort Lauderdale, despite benefitting from the highest per capita tax contributions ($570 per person) as compared to other large Florida municipalities, suffered a budget disaster. On December 16, 2003, the City Commission approved a financial package of cutbacks, layoffs, and program freezes designed by Acting City Manager Alan A. Silva as part of a two-year effort to help the City find its financial feet. How we were immersed in this mess is easy to follow but difficult to fathom. Mr. Silva put it succinctly, "We had been living beyond our means." Surprisingly, our elected representatives elected to ignore the wealth of danger signals that heralded our fiscal demise. Gulping down a bottle of aspirin, we documented the unfortunate experience. Check it out
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 A CHRONOLOGY - A 3 year period of gross mismanagement has transformed a city with an $18.3 billion tax base into a municipal basket case. Despite protests of surprise and shock by municipal representatives, the budget disaster we now face did not ambush Fort Lauderdale. City officials have had a ringside seat to a three year fiscal mismanagement spectacle. They were not, however, spectators. They were participants. The City's finance officials consistently warned of impending budget troubles. Memoranda went to Commissioners, the Mayor and their staff personnel. This is what happened...
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 GRETSAS Chosen New City Manager - At the MAY 17, 2004 City Commission meeting, Commissioner Cindi Hutchinson moved to select Gretsas for the point position in the war to reestablish Fort Lauderdale’s fiscal credibility. Characterizing Gretsas as “a person who has fire in his belly”, Commissioner Christine Teel seconded Hutchinson’s motion. The former Executive Officer of White Plains Mayor Joseph Delfino, Mr. Gretsas was never a City Manager...until now. City Commissioners are banking on his integrity and intensity, not his resumé.
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 Love Hits Treasury - In June 2004, City Auditor Renee Foley released a report concerning serious deficiencies in the City's Treasury Department. Her report concludes that, “No reliance could be placed on the systems to safeguard the city’s assets.” The City maintains no record of personnel who possess keys or the combinations to its safes. The current audit focuses on “severe deficiencies” in the way the Treasury Department tracks and handles money. City Auditor Allyson Love has been an extremely active part of the City's budgetary housecleaning effort. Her audits of the Parks Department and some questionable practices ascribed to a contractor doing business with the City have affirmed the City Commission's commitment to tightening fiscal controls.
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Sprinkler Controversy - The residents of the Galt Mile community are currently tolerating an exasperating and expensive ordeal that accompanies the massive renovation efforts required to bring their 20-30 year old buildings into the 21st century. The specter of another million-dollar project unceremoniously dumped on the top of this construction quagmire would have to be, at the very least, a clear and uncontested necessity.
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GMCA Fires Back - One of the country's premier legal condominium specialists, the well-known firm of Becker & Poliakoff, P.A., has offered to spearhead a lobbying effort to correct the critically flawed legislation that will result in your Association having to pony up over a million dollars to install a questionable "Fire Safety" system. Their success is contingent upon our willingness to help ourselves. Find out HOW!
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CHIEFS OFFER HELP - On October 30, 2003, Fort Lauderdale Fire Marshal Steve Kastner, Division Chief of the Fort Lauderdale Fire Prevention Bureau, and Chief Robert Edgar of the Emergency Medical Services Bureau met with GMCA Presidents Council Chairman Pio Ieraci and Advisory Board Member Eric Berkowitz to improve communications among the Fire Marshal’s office, the E.M.S. Division and the community. Marshal Kastner has invited the Galt Mile Community Association to request his official or unofficial input on any fire-related issue. He offered to provide timely advice to help any Association cope with the legislative confusion or the upgrading of their fire safety systems. He also agreed to suspend enforcement of the dogmatic provisions in the Fire Safety Legislation until the Legislation is claified in Tallahassee!
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TWO FIRE BILLS - While the opt-out provisions inherent in the Fire Safety Amendment are definitely a step in the right direction, they contain several irrational obstacles whose only discernible purpose is to increase our maintenance assessments in exchange for nothing. Two bills, Senate Bill 1938 and House Bill 747, have been drafted which will allow you to exercise your opt-out rights granted last session in an easier and more streamlined process. The deep-pockets lobbyists for the National Fire Sprinkler Association and the Plumbers and Pipe Fitters Union have launched a well-funded campaign to reverse last year’s achievements. A battle to defend that progress and retrieve control of our Fire Safety Standards is again underway!
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Broward Beach Coalition - The threat to our beaches has united concerned citizens, government, business, workers, and the environmental community in a partnership designed to alert our representatives to the disquiet precipitated by this impending disaster. The Broward Beach Coalition is a grass roots cross section of community interests that have conjoined to convey our concerns and the pertinent facts to the Governor, the Cabinet,and the community at large.
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Beach Victory - After over two contentious years of disappointments, delays, and deferrals, the Governor and the Cabinet finally issued the permit sought by the Broward County Department of Planning and Environmental Protection to proceed with the Beach Renourishment Project.
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Final Environmental Impact Statement - The FEIS addresses all of the concerns expressed by an assortment of official environmental watchdog agencies in response to the original Draft EIS drawn in March, 2002. It finally establishes a timeline for the project's implementation.
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Final Record of Decision - That’s it - its official - the plan has the blessing of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, all of the environmental watchdogs with authoritative standing and the people that live on the beach. Broward County now carries the ball. They will implement the southern segment of the project first, monitor the effects for 18 months, and complete the northern portion when the southern portion receives a clean bill of health.
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County Celebrates Beach Renourishment Kickoff - On May 6, 2005, a long-awaited celebration took place in Hollywood. The immediate beneficiaries of the Broward County Shore Protection Project, the municipalities of Hollywood, Hallandale Beach and Dania Beach, joined Broward County in throwing a party to highlight the project’s commencement. Joining Broward County and local municipal officials, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) and the Army Corps of Engineers, many civic and environmental groups (including the Galt Mile Community Association) that spent the past 5 years locked in a frustrating struggle to save Broward’s beaches were grateful to witness the project start.
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Cleveland Clinic - And then there were none. The Cleveland Clinic, along with the only emergency room on the Barrier Island, was gone. The Cleveland Clinic moved here via the acquisition of the old North Beach Hospital. Their stated intention was to "grow with the Barrier Island". They did. What happened?
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The 32nd Street Alley - STILL A MESS Despite repeated attempts by City Commissioner Christine Teel and others to bring the concerned merchants to the table to initiate a voluntary "clean-up" of the unsanitary state that persists, the lack of response has precipitated enforcement action by the City.
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AEDs - Sudden Cardiac Arrest - It happens quickly. Without warning. It can affect anyone - healthy adults, even teenagers. It cannot be prevented. There is no vaccine. Most do not survive. It's called Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) and there's only one way to treat it. DEFIBRILLATION. An untrained eleven year old child recently saved someone's life using an Automated External Defibrillator (AED). ANYONE CAN USE IT, SAFELY...and with no LEGAL LIABILITY!
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GMCA GRADUATES ITS FIRST CPR/AED CLASS The Galt Mile Community Association, having partnered with the Fort Lauderdale Department of Fire-Rescue to bestow certification training in CPR/AED for residents and employees of Associations that purchased defibrillators, graduated 15 students from REGENCY TOWER and SOUTHPOINT condominiums. Having several residents and/or employees certified in CPR/AED from each AED-equipped Association is not required but is recommended as part of a well-rounded AED implementation program. The free training is a LIMITED RESOURCE that is available on a first come, first serve basis to Associations that have already purchased and AED.
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Race with the Clock For years, the specter of a lawsuit delayed the acceptance of defibrillators by litigation-leery Associations. During the 2004 legislative session in Tallahassee, laws protecting Condo Associations, Cooperatives and Homeowner Associations from civil liability were enacted. The question confronting condo residents and their Boards is no longer, “What will happen to us if we purchase and install a defibrillator?” It is now, “What will happen if we don’t?”
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FLPD Crime Statistics - The Fort Lauderdale Police Department (FLPD) Crime Analysis Unit produces reports which depict our crime and service statistics. The reports are avaiable here.
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FLPD Crime Update - On November 17, 2004, Major Mary Negrey of Police District 1 sent a crime update for the Galt Mile neighborhood to Commissioner Christine Teel. She forwarded it to us.
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 FLORIDA Crime Statistics - FDLE's (Florida Department of Law Enforcement) Uniform Crime Report (UCR) system provides standardized reports on crime statistics based on data gathered from across the state. Reports that provide both summary and detail information are issued yearly. You can find data from 1994 up to the most recently released reports.
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THE HOMELESS - Fort Lauderdale Police Assistant Chief Chuck Drago suggests that the best way to contend with the recent infusion of homeless people permanently occupying the benches along Galt Ocean Drive is to stop giving them money.
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 ASK LORI! - Broward County Property Appraiser Lori Parrish responds to questions posed by residents about the value of their homes. Inqueries about the "SAVE OUR HOMES" amendent, the SENIOR EXEMPTION and the ubiquitous HOMESTEAD EXEMPTION are answered by the County's Property Appraiser.
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HOMESTEAD EXEMPTIONS - The Broward County Property Appraiser's Office will conduct special taxpayer sign-up sessions for the 2011 Homestead Exemption and Senior Exemption at City Hall, the Beach Community Center, and various Homeowners and Civic Associations this September, October, November, January, February, March and April. The Beach Community Center (3351 NE 33rd Street) sign-up dates are Friday 10:00 AM on July 29, August 26, September 30, October 28.
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GALT MERCHANTS ASSOCIATION - The Galt Merchants Association (GMA), an active member of the Galt Mile Community Association, was created to accomplish and promote a harmonious relationship between our residents and the businesses that service them. The GMA defines our residents' commercial needs and promotes those merchants who successfully satisfy them. The result is a highly diversified, competitive, and responsive collection of competent, helpful, and friendly vendors and service personnel. SEE WHO THEY ARE!
Go to Galt Merchants Association Website
NEW GALT SHOPPES DEVELOPMENT! - The Galt Merchants Association has shepherded its project to transform the Galt Ocean Shoppes into a unique tourist and shopping mecca through all the preliminary governmental and engineering hurdles. We now have a viable Master Plan designed to bring us the rest of the way!
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