JAY SCHORR FOR MAYOR OF HALLANDALE BEACH

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JAY SCHORR’S

10 Ways in 10 Days

to Make Hallandale  Beach Government

Better and More Responsive

1.   Create a citizens’ oversight committee to oversee City Commission

The Citizen’s Oversight Committee will provide an important legislative check and balance on the commission.  The committee, in consultation with city residents, will have the power to overturn commission enactments, limit spending, approve land development projects, and weigh in on other issues under consideration by the commission.

This is truly democracy in action.

Committee composition:  Hallandale citizens – including laypeople and professionals spanning a CPA, lawyer, businesspeople, and other citizens who can bring their professional and common sense to bear on the economic, business, budgetary, political, and other areas crucial to proper governance.

2.   Cut city spending by 10% across the board, saving millions of taxpayer dollars.

The budget cuts will come as a result of conducting a line-by-line budget audit to create a lean, not obscene, budget.  We must pare down the over-bloated $100 million budget to make it compatible with the needs of a city the size of H.B.’s 40,000 citizens, residing within its 4.2 square-mile boundary.

3.  Cut tax/millage rate – made possible in part by budget cuts.

4.   Redefine Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) map to realistically reflect CRA’s purpose of redeveloping/rebuilding blighted areas and business districts– and save millions of taxpayer dollars.

The CRA board will consist of Hallandale citizens – culled from each of the city's four geographical sections - who will serve on a rotating basis.  Repeal the ordinance allowing commissioners to sit on the board.

5.   Establish a ‘No-Lobbyist’ policy in City Hall to afford equal access to, and influence on, commissioners for all Hallandale Beach citizens.

Restrict direct contact between commissioners and land development companies and other big ticket vendors who want to do business with the city - including their attorneys, agents, etc.  All direct contacts between the aforementioned development companies and the city shall be in consultation with the Citizen’s Oversight Committee.

6.   Amend the City Charter to allow for term limits to do away with career politicians.

Rather than a limit on the exercise of democratic rights, term limits is the ultimate expression of the people’s right to set and define the form and operational structure of its government.

7.   Sell nine city-owned properties, purchased for almost $30 million without any specific use in mind, to get these properties back on the tax rolls.

Include restrictive covenants that would preclude any land use detrimental to the city’s environment and other quality of life variables.

8.   Work with Comcast/interactive communications companies to develop interactive voting and other remote city forums to encourage citizen participation in city affairs.

9.  Develop and re-develop the city’s blighted business districts with the help of corporate sponsors.

Employing CRA funds, along with state grants and private corporate funding, transform the long-dormant corridors of ‘Shmata Row’ and other former business districts to into thriving commercial centers.  Pattern the development along the S. Dixie corridor after Winter Park’s Park Avenue area.

10.Create a Hallandale Beach Ethics Law, as allowed by the City Charter.

More than just echoing state ethics laws, draft an ethics law custom tailored for Hallandale Beach’s goverance needs.   Let’s make our elected officials really accountable for their actions and/or inactions.