LTC 07-2003 CITY OF MIAMI BEACH
Office of the City Manager
Letter to Commission No.
TO:
FROM:
SUBJECT:
Mayor David Dermer and
Members of the City Commission
Jorge M. Gonzalez ~
City Manager (~ ,u"~
THANKSGIVING DAY PARADE "SONG"
Date: January 9, 2003
The purpose of this LTC is to respond to an e-mail sent to each of you by Mr.
Jose Behar. In his e-mail, Mr. Behar states that he spoke to Michael Aller,
Director of Tourism and Conventions and Chief of Protocol, about six months ago
about a song for the Thanksgiving Day Parade. Mr. Behar states that Michael
asked him to write a song but Michael states that Mr. Behar asked him if he could
write one. Not wanting to be rude, and open to possible, creative new ideas,
Michael agreed to listen to a tape of Mr. Behar's song.
When Michael began to meet with the representatives from CBS who were
producing the parade, he shared a copy of the song, but the CBS Television
Network has a policy of not airing any musical material that has not already been
recorded and trademarked. Michael has tried to explain to Mr. Behar CBS's
policy, but unfortunately, Mr. Behar has not responded very positively to the
news and blames Michael for not doing enough to get his song on the air.
Mr. Behar continues to be upset about the circumstances and has e-mailed each
of you as well as myself and several members of the Administration. My Chief-
of-Staff, Ramiro Inguanzo, spoke to Mr. Behar on December 31, 2002, to again
explain that the City had no creative control regarding the production of the
Thanksgiving Day Parade, and that unfortunately, that CBS could not play his
song during the Parade.
Given the potential national television exposure of the Parade, many entertainers
had contacted Michael expressing their interest in participating somehow. Given
the success of the Parade, Michael has already received many requests for
participation in next year's parade. These requests are all forwarded to the CBS
parade producers who work on putting the production together.
If you have any questions or need any additional information regarding this
matter, please feel free to contact Ramiro Inguanzo at extension 6697.
JMG/ri/pw
caomb
Page 1 of 1
From: Pedro Roque [mellow30@stis.net]
Sent: Sunday, December 29, 2002 07:58 PM
To: caomb
Subject: can you help/is this the way a city employers
I work at a deli call Arnies&Richies 520 41st steet Miami Beach FL,Ira a waiter there my name is Jose Behar Im
53yrs I live at 1426 Michigan ave Miami Beach,telephone 305-6953901 E-mail mellow30~.STIS.net, let me give
you some info before I explain, Im a song writer and have an unreleased CD with 17 songs I wrote and I've been
waiting for a break to get into the music business and out of the waiter business,now my case, about 6 months
ago Michael Aller director of tourism and convention of Miami Beach walked into the deli I work in as he often
did,knowing I was a songwriter because he had heard my CD,he asked me to write a theme song for Miami
Beach(2 witnesses that work there heard him and are willing to testify),he said if he liked it he would play it
nationwide on thanksgiving day in the thanksgiving day parade and then it would become the theme song for
Miami Beach and would be played many times everytime something relating to tourism would come up, you'll get
great exposure and collect all royalties he said but I'll (Michael Aller) have exclusive rights he said, I agreed and
we shook hands(the 2 witnesses will testify to this),l went to work and worked hard because I knew this could be
the break I was wating for, I contacted the producers of my CD to give them the good news,up to this point they
where hesitant to spend anymore money for promoting the CD because of my age and the fact that nobody knew
me,but when they heard the news they said that if I did write the theme song for Miami Beach and it did play in
thanksgiving day parade,they would definitely spend money in promotion using the fact that I wrote the theme of
Miami Beach as a promotional tool,anyway it took me 2 months to write the song Michael had told me more or
less what he wanted,it was like a comercial inviting people to Miami Beach,he said he would only needed a
cassete tape and if he liked it he would get the people to produce&record it,so after working on the song for 2
months I made a cassete tape and personally delivered it to him at his office at the Miami Beach city hall,2 days
later he came to the deli very excited telling me he loved the song and would defenetly use it(one of the 2
witnesses that heard him asked me to write the song was there that day too and heard him saying this too) I was
dancing to it he said I love it and Im going to get Desmond Childs(famous songwriter) who is my friend to work on
it, I was happier than I've been all my life finally I was going to get the break I've been wating all my life for, about
3 weeks went by and he came to the restaurant again and I asked who the song was going and he said great, I
started telling everybody about the song and everybody including many custumers and employers where very
happy for me and we where all waiting for the big day,I didn't see or hear from Michael for about another month
when he came into the deli and I aked him about the song,will I get to meet Desmond Childs I asked and he
replied oh Desmond could not do it CBS is producing the song and its currently in production(and he told the
same to one of the witnesses) I thought it was a little strange but I was still very excited after all CBS even
bigger,then I asked hin how I would know what part of the parade it would play on because I had the producers of
my CD wating to hear it and a lot of other people and his answer was, you'll have to sign some release forms for
me and CBS and then they will let you know I said ok and didn't hear from him for a while,I read in the Miami
newspaper about the recording of a parade in Miami Beach about 3 weeks or a month before the thanksgiving
day parade to be aired on the thanksgiving day parade and I thought to myself this must be where my song is
going to play but why hasent anybody called me about signing any releases so I called Michael at city hall he
answerd the phone and I said Michael they are recording a parade on the beach tomorrow and I havent heard
anything whats going on? he said he was in a meeting and could not talk but ashured me the song was playing, 8
days before the parade when still no one asked me to sign any releases I was getting a very bad feeling so I
wrote a letter to Michael that said I had the producers of my CD wating to hear the song along with many many
people I had told,I dont want to look like an idiot I said please take just one minute of your time to call me and let
me know whats going on and I gave it to his secretary because he wasen't in,he didnt even have the decency to
call me,the song never played and I spend 2 months working on it and he said he loved it and was using it, I didn't
asked him he asked me its not fair all my hopes down the drain,why the liesl have witnesses to back up
everything I'm saying, my name is Jose Behar my telephone# is 305-695-3901 Im at this number monday to fdday
at 8am or after 8pm weekends I'm in and out my E-mail is mellow30~STIS.net thank you very much Jose
Behar12/29/02
12/30/2002