Despite everything, Cooper the best for job
After her acquittal on public corruption charges, we expected Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper to exit the public stage. For while prosecutors had failed to prove she participated in an illegal scheme to raise campaign cash, the stories about her meeting with FBI agents posing as developers, a Dunkin’ Donuts bag stuffed with cash and a hotshot lawyer who claimed he “had the vote of the mayor” are not so easily forgotten.
Instead, Cooper sought reinstatement last December and is now running for re-election. And the crazy thing is, we encourage voters to re-elect her. For despite the whole unseemly mess, Hallandale Beach, a city that should be so much more than it is, has failed to field a challenger who could do a better job.
Cooper’s institutional knowledge of the city and its government is unrivaled. She’s been on the city commission for 18 years, except for her two-year suspension, when she successfully fought charges of official misconduct, accepting a $5,000 illegal campaign contribution and soliciting contributions in a government building.
Cooper’s January 2018 arrest was shocking, for as Hallandale’s longtime mayor, she had become a fixture in Broward politics. Shewas a past president of the Broward League of Cities and a leader of the county’s penny sales tax campaign for transportation. But closer to home, Cooper presided over a divided and dysfunctional commission that has held the city back.
Cooper never testified at her trial, but shewants you to knowthat she never took any bribes or illegal campaign contributions, and never gave the pseudo-developers a guarantee that shewould vote for their project. She notes that the prosecution’s star witness, disgraced lobbyist Alan Koslow, spent that Dunkin’ Donuts money on breast implants for his paramour.
Without a doubt, Koslow lost any and all credibility when he testified: “If I said it, it doesn’t mean that’s true.”
Yet it remains hard to square an FBI recording in which Koslow shows Cooper the developers’ proposed donation to her campaign against then-Commissioner Keith London, her nemesis, and asks if the number would do. “No, add a zero,” she replies.
During a joint candidate interview with the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board, we pressed Cooper on that remark. She said the snippet doesn’t tell the whole story, that she could legally talk about her campaign, that she “never asked” for a contribution and, feeling pressured, she got up and left the meeting. “I did not solicit anyone. They solicited me.”
So, that’s that. The jury took just two hours to acquit her. A fewweeks later, Gov. Ron DeSantis reinstated her as mayor. This is her first campaign since.
Cooper said her opponents may want to go negative, but “I think I amthe most knowledgeable, well-versed candidate that understands municipal issues, understands the budget, understands how critical it is towork with the resources we have in the community, but also leverage partnerships between the county, the state and the national levels to get this job done.”
Cooper faces Joy Adams, who owns a house cleaning company; and Carmen Gimenez, a Venezuelan exile who founded a nonprofit that helps refugees come to America.
After Cooper was suspended, Adams ran for mayor against London and won, resoundingly. But 13 months later, she had to give up the seat when Cooper was reinstated.
During her brief time as mayor, Adams told us that she is proud to have donated part of her salary to the Hallandale Food Pantry and to have led a drive that delivered 315 pairs of sneakers to four schools and the homeless shelter. While laudable, charitable endeavors are not the most important aspect of a mayor’s job. Adams appears dedicated to staying above the fray in this campaign. On the commission, she also tried to ensure civility. But she said that “when you have personalities that are notworking together, that’s your downfall.”
Adams is most concerned about the city’s financial problems. She said she would like to change the CRA’s boundaries to drive more of those tax dollars into the city’s general fund.
Cooper said the city faces a $1.9million budget shortfall, but noted that the CRA’s funds are bonded, which means its boundaries cannot be changed. The moment spoke volumes about Cooper’s experience.
Gimenez, the third candidate, is an enigma. She first took the podium at city hall in 2018 to claim that London had hired her then-boyfriend, a private investigator, to track his political opponents. London batted back the allegation by pointing to a deposition in which her boyfriend had said his Russian boss had ordered the surveillance on behalf of a prominent local developer.
Also, according to a report by WLRN’s Tim Padgett, South Florida’s Venezuelan expat community appears torn as to whether Gimenez fled Hugo Chavez’s government or grabbed as much as she could as a low-level Chavista before emigrating here.
In our questionnaire, we ask candidates about any endorsements they’ve received. Rather than list specific groups or individuals, Gimenez said she had been endorsed by the Mexican-American community, the Cuban-American community, the Italian-American community and half a dozen other ethnic groups. She also cited the endorsement of “many international singers,” though she did not say which ones.
During our interview, Gimenez also said she has lined up European and African investors to do business in the city, but declined to name them. “We have a lot of plans, but as you know, I cannot say that, those plans, becausewe have a council, we have to discuss everything with them.”
We encourage Gimenez to gain a greater understanding of the American political system before running for office.
We encourage Adams, who seems to truly care about the city, to fully throw herself into the philanthropic causes she seems to most value.
Andwe encourage the voters of Hallandale Beach to vote for Joy Cooper.