CONFLICT OF INTEREST? -- IN UNANNOUNCED MEETING, CITY HIRES DOBSON & BROWN, P.A., LAWYERS FOR REAL ESTATE SPECULATORS

CONFLICT OF INTEREST? -- IN UNANNOUNCED MEETING, CITY HIRES DOBSON & BROWN, P.A., LAWYERS FOR REAL ESTATE SPECULATORS

Our City Commissioners apparently violated the Sunshine Law Friday October 13th, deciding to designate the law firm of DOBSON & BROWN, P.A. (RONALD W. BROWN and GEOFFREY DOBSON as our City Attorney, one day after the resignation of City Attorney JAMES PATRICK WILSON, who abruptly resigned on October 12th. (See article below).
DOBSON & BROWN simultaneously represents
A. Real estate speculators;.
B. The City of St. Augustine Beach;
C. The Town of Hastings. www.lawdb.com
Conflicts of interests are to be scrupulously guarded against. See, e.g., United States v. Mississippi Valley Generating Co., 364 U.S. 520, 548 (1961)(the "Dixon-Yates" case involving TVA rivals' conflicts of interest), citing Matthew 6:24 -- "no [person] can serve two masters," holding that laws and rules preventing conflicts of interest are aimed "not only at dishonor but at conduct that tempts dishonor."
DOBSON & BROWN obstructed efforts to learn who held options on Town of Hastings properties before a massive annexation was voted last year.
DOBSON & BROWN's designation shows our City lacks common sense, unadorned by an understanding of basic principles.
DOBSON & BROWN's designation as the City's attorney is null and void due to our City's Sunshine violations.
Efforts to obtain the draft minutes of the Friday the 13th meeting are unavailing.
A message left for MAYOR GEORGE GARDNER has not been returned.
Our City has offered to sell us Mr. JAMES PATRICK WILSON's resignation letter for fifteen cents, refusing to fax it.
In the words of the American diplomat Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, "not one cent for tribute.
City Commissioners must drop the oyster and leave the wharf, drop DOBSON & BROWN's designation, and leave Assistant City Attorney Robin Upchurch in place until after the election and FDLE andGrand Jury investigations of the Sunshine violations unfold.
As is customary under CITY MANAGER WILLIAM B. HARRISS, our City has broken the law (again and again). Why in the name of all that's holy would you hire a law firm with conflicts of interest to advise our City at this critical stage, in the midst of rapacious developers and a criminal investigation of our City's illegal dumping?
It now appears that not one City Commissioner is actively protecting the public interest.
These Commissioners are undeserving of public support.
They're unwise and unjust stewards of environmental protection.
Enough of their profligacy and superficiality.
Their loose-as-a-goose approach to regulation, their nonexistent oversight, their material misrepresentations, require thorough investigations. (See below).
Mr. BOLES does not deserve to be Mayor and Mr. Gardner does not deserve to be Commissioner.