Tonight, St. Augustine begins its celebration of Nights of Lights, which runs through January 31, 2007.
What a beautiful place to live and work.
What a crisp, clear evening to enjoy the lights and history and scenery.
What a contrast between our history and beauty on the one hand and our City government's histrionics and ugliness on the other.
The occasion symbolizes what our City could be if only it were not a cesspool of what Mayor GEORGE GARDNER admits is "rampant corruption," if only we'd dedicate ourselves to a "St. Augustine National Historical Park," run by the National Park Service, in stead of a Nixonian band of wastrels, taking junkets to NYC, Spain, Germany, etc., while wasting taxpayer money on an underutilized $22 million parking garage and illegally dumping the contents of our old illegal dity dump into the Old City Reservoir.
So angry was our tatterdemalion lame duck St. Augustine Mayor GEORGE GARDNER that he used his last meeting as Commission Chairman to abuse persons trying to Clean Up the City of St. Augustine, Florida, using the meeting to declare who is Number One on his Enemies List. See below.
GARDNER's four Commission colleagues (and City Manager WILLIAM B. HARRISS), lustility applauded his rodomontade. They're all thin-skinned, with much to be embarassed about, including the illegal dumping of 30,000,000 pounds of contaminants in the Old City Reservoir.
Instead of talking about National Park Service and what it can do for our City with a Democratic Congress, the vindictive, vincible, vitriolic, GARDNER -- acting as if he were victim instead of victimizer -- has used his "bully puplit" and his newsletter to stigmatize First Amendment protected activity.
Reformers and progressives wear GEORGE GARDNER's scorn as a badge of honor. See below.
Saturday, November 18, 2006
Thanks, MAYOR GARDNER
!Thanks, MAYOR GARDNER
Being Number One on MAYOR GEORGE GARDNER's Enemies List Greatly Expands Readership of www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com
ST. AUGUSTINE MAYOR's Swan Song: MAYOR GEORGE GARDNER Calls Questioning "Harassment," Proves He's No "Reformer" -- Uses Government Funds to Spread "Enemies List"
Our blog readership has greatly expanded, thanks to controversial lame duck St. Augustine Mayor GEORGE GARDNER's anger.
What a week!
Thanks to Mayor GARDNER, the local readership of this blog has increased greatly since Monday night, November 13.
Call it the law of unintended consequences (or just desserts).
On November 13 (Monday night) I shared with St. Augustine City Commissioners the thought that we need a "St. Augustine National Historical Park," based upon the success of the New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park. (See letter in yesterday's St. Augustine Record, reprinted below).
Rather than respond on the merits, lame duck Mayor GEORGE GARDNER took it upon himself to read his scripted last words in Commissioner comments as Mayor, pejoratives and anger directed against me for asking too many questions (none of which he ever answered), e.g., about our City's illegal dumping of the entire contents of the old illegal city dump on Riberia Street into our Old City Reservoir (see below). He said I had "some good ideas," but said I was a pest.
He has now circulated these words as his latest newsletter, using government funds for purposes of obloquy, ridicule and blacklisting.
How would a 20-year-old feel about speaking in a public meeting knowing that Mayor GARDNER stands ready to abuse his public office to stifle dissent?
The First Amendment, in its majesty, empowers the people and the press to be pests and to ask questions. It is not for GARDNER to judge.
As William F. Buckley, Jr. once said, "Why does baloney reject the grinder?"
I wear GARDNER's scorn as a badge of honor.
Thrice GARDNER campaigned as a reformer and reformed nothing. I voted for him in 2002 and 2004. I supported his opponent in 2006 and will be proud to help make Peter Romano St. Augustine's Mayor in 2008. Mr. Romano may be a registered Republican (and Messrs GARDNER and BOLES may be registered Democrats), but as JFK said, "sometimes party loyalty demands too much."
Our St. Augustine City Commission races are nonpartisan and Peter Romano cares about our City, its people, neighborhoods, history, budget and government ethics. I was proud to support his campaign and I will do it again.
GARDNER's personal pique at my
supporting Mr. Romano (who almost defeated GARDNER) is matched by his anger at my asking questions. His low threshold for questions reminds me of characters on the classic TV detective show, Columbo (Peter Falk). Inevitably the wealthy murderer would grow increasingly irritated at Lt. Columbo's asking just one more question. The murderer would yell and accuse Columbo of "harassment," sometimes calling in political chips with LAPD or other city officials. The denouement was not far away -- the murderer was soon caught.
Finis.
Those who are caught seldom react with amity to those who catch them. As my mother says, "it's not the hangman but the murderer who brings dishonor on the house."
As GARDNER brayed, yes, I've been accused of "harassment" before, by public officials who lack respect for the First Amendment, including the late Tennessee Sheriff DENNIS O. TROTTER and School Superintendent PAUL EUGENE BOSTIC, Sr. (More below). I wore their scorn as a badge of honor, too.
Not unlike Cato the Censor, Mayor GEORGE GARDNER thinks it's his job to decide what's proper and improper dissent, "positive" and negative history (in the context of the 1566 murder and the Bridge of Lions Rainbow flags), and good and bad citizenship.
Busy, busy, busy.
Based on his history, St. Augustine Mayor GEORGE GARDNER has emotional problems about First Amendment protected activity.
His response to the federal court order finding he violated the First Amendment by rejecting Rainbow flags was to ban all but government flag-flying on the Bridge of Lions. The vote was 3-1 (Commissioner BOLES dissenting), with GARDNER joined by DONALD CRICHLOW and ERROL JONES in banning all but government flag-flying (see below).
GARDNER's retaliatory response to questions about illegal dumping was to announce a ukase, without a vote, but supported by all Commissioners (showing conscious parallelism and possible Sunshine violations), that persons could not speak at both the beginning and end of the meeting in public amounts -- that we had to choose, disingenuously claiming that this had always been the case, when persons spoke at both the beginning and end of meetings at least ten times during 2005-2006.
As GARDNER spewed angry rhetoric in my direction Monday night (November 13), I worried about Mayor GEORGE GARDNER's health.
GARDNER choked out his words, like a man who held grudges for my supporting his opponent, Peter Romano, who came within a very few votes of unseating GARDNER.
GARDNER reminds me of the provincial monarch in the movie Amadeus, who complained that a Mozart opera had "too many notes." GARDNER knows no more about investigative reporting than he does about manners or music (playing recorded music at the Lincolnville Festival, drowning out live jazz)..
The simple palpitating truth of the matter is that St. Augustine Mayor GEORGE R. GARDNER, Mayor-Elect JOSEPH LEROY BOLES and Commissioners DONALD CRICHLOW and ERROL JONES have disgraced their public offices.
They take trips to NYC, Spain and other locales, wasting our money.
They won't answer questions.
They get increasingly pugnacious when held accountable.
On November 13 (Monday night) Commissioner SUSAN BURK said that the re-election of GARDNER and the election of BOLES as Mayor meant people were pretty happy, claiming it was a "vote of confidence" in the government.
She's wrong.
She's not happy.
She misses too many meetings to be taken seriously. Her remarks -- and those of other Commissioners -- are too often off-the-cuff, reflecting no preparation and little interest in asking good questions or making good public policy.
Candidates are either kept off the ballot or discouraged from running by a clique that is not above using City resources for blacklisting purposes, as Mayor GARDNER's E-mails and speech proves.
Mayor GARDNER's not happy.
Mayor GARDNER's slim margin of victory was less than the undervotes (the people who voted for neither candidate for Commission Seat 3). A switch of only 205 votes would have elected forensic account Peter Romano of Lincolnville to City Commission -- upsetting all of the developers, government contractors and political patronage hacks who depend upon the City's largesse for their existence.
Here's the official results for Mayor and Commissioner:
COMMISSION -- SEAT 3
George Gardner 2291 54.97%
Peter Romano 1872 45.03%
Undervotes 318
MAYOR of ST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA
Joseph Boles 2376 57.13%
Peter Romano 1763 42.87%
Undervotes 326
Hint: People are not happy with a bloated $50,000,000 annual budget for a town of 13,000, or with officialdom's high marginal propensity for White Elephants and Junkets (WEJs).
Hint: We're not happy with a government that wastes money on a $22,000,000 White Elephant Parking Garage that is more than half-empty, or with annual trips to Spain, frequent trips to NYC, trips elsewhere, or with what would appear to be habitual Sunshine violations.
Behaving more like a spoiled child -- or King George III -- than the elected mayor of an American city, GEORGE GARDNER's swan song was not to list any putative accomplishments, but to talk about the author of this blog (Ed Slavin).
Gardner sounded like Richard Nixon on White House tapes -- like those on Nixon's Enemies List, I'm proud to have made the cut.
In my lifetime, I've been honored to meet and greet several of the members of Nixon's Enemies List. My work at the Government Accountability Project on security clearance reform was funded by none other than Stewart R. Mott, the General Motors heir who gave $1 million in campaign contributions to Senator George McGovern's 1972 campaign for President.
Every single one of the members of Nixon's Enemies List was proud to be on it.
Likewise, I am proud to be on GARDNER's Enemies List, apparently the first and only person to have been publicly disclosed as being on it to date.
I have recently reviewed my treasured copy of the Final Report of the Watergate Committee, Gerald Gardner's Watergate Follies book of photo captions, and other Watergate-era books.
MAYOR GEORGE GARDNER bears more than a passing resemblance to the political style of President Richard Nixon (the only President to resign and the only President to receive a Presidential Pardon).
For a good time, be sure to watch Sir Anthony Hopkins' portrayal in the title role in Oliver Stone's "Nixon" -- it's almost as if MAYOR GEORGE GARDNER had studied the film, decided to repeat history, or once traveled "to San Clemente to sit at the feet of the master," as Nashville lawyer John J. Hooker, Jr. once said about former U.S. Senator (and Labor Secretary) William E. Brock III (a/k/a "the candy man from Lookout Mountain," in Senator Jim Sasser's immortal words).
By the way, I was in the Nashville Tennessean newsroom the night that Tennessee Governor Ray Blanton saw the new Governor (Lamar Alexander) sworn in early because Blanton was reported by the FBI to be about to sign 30 more pardons for convicted murderers.
Like Ray Blanton, City Manager WILLIAM B. HARRIS' St. Augustine political machine has the same mantra: "there's politics in everything [they] do," whether it is denial of equal city services to retaliation against City Board members and employees or the expectation that professionals observe an oath of omerta to obtain and keep city jobs, contracts and services. A neighborhood can't even ask for a speed hump, no through trucks sign or oppose an annexation without being oppressed by the likes of HARRISS. From one end of the City to another, the stories are the same: people are treated disrespectfully by government employees who respect only corporations and their influence.
By putting me at the top of his Enemies List, Mayor GEORGE GARDNER shows how threatened he is by dissent.
GARDNER also misses the point --- citizens in a democracy seeking to hold governmental institutions accountable do not crave the favor of those who are wrongdoers, whether in Tennessee or Florida or Washington, D.C.
My ancestor Ellen Kennedy emigrated from Ireland in 1849 with neighbors at age 6, her entire family having died in the Irish potato famine, the result of British policies using food as a weapon against Irish Catholics. There is now a memorial to the millions of British potato famine victims in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
My father machine-gunned Nazis and won three Bronze Stars with the 82nd Airborne Division in WWII protecting our liberties.
Our Founders pledged "our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor" fighting for liberty.
Our generation can do no less than stand up to oppressors, including arms merchants and polluters like LOCKHEED MARTIN or public officials like GEORGE GARDNER.
Upon hearing and reading Mayor GARDNER's unseemly screeching, I am reminded of the late Anderson County (Tennessee) Sheriff DENNIS O. TROTTER, twice Tennessee Sheriff of the year, who said I was "the most dangerous reporter" he "ever met," and who said "I'm running this Sheriff's Department, Ed Slavin is not," and who said, "I wouldn't return your [damn] phone calls if you was sitting out there in the mud," and who threatened to have me sued for libel. TROTTER was investigated by the FBI and taken out of the Anderson County (Tennessee) Courthouse in handcuffs on May 21, 1983, charged with federal felonies, pleading guilty and spending four years at La Tuna Texas Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) and later at the Maxwell Air Force Base FCI. After he emerged from prison, TROTTER drove to Memphis, where he agreed to settle my RICO and civil rights lawsuit against him for stirring up the bogus libel lawsuit. Since insurance companies wisely determined that the businesses of Anderson County, Tennessee did not include bribery, racketeering and drug conspiracy, when TROTTER and his cofelons settled with me, they paid their own funds, not insurance funny money.
DENNIS O. TROTTER demanded as a condition of settlement that I never contact him; we made the pact mutual. It's too bad, because I would love to have interviewed him in later years and asked him about what he had learned from his experiences.
Upon hearing GARDNER's ukase, I am reminded of the late Anderson County (Tennessee) School Superintendent PAUL EUGENE BOSTIC, JR., whose contracting abuses and abuses of employees were legendary, and exposed by the Appalachian Observer. Like GARDNER, BOSTIC would make personal attacks on me from his seat at the School Board table, where he sat as if he were the lord of all he surveyed for some 13 years, until a young reporter arrived from Georgetown University, asking questions no one had ever asked before. To his credit, BOSTIC said before his untimely death that he felt that we had done the right thing in exposing abuses in the Anderson County School Department.
I've been accused of "harassment" by nuclear weapons plant managers, including those ethically challenged Union Carbide and Atomic Energy Commission managers who dumped 4.2 million pounds of mercury into East Fork Poplar Creek in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, the largest mercury pollution event in world history. Workers were exposed to 30-60 times the then-prevailing standard for mercury in the air, without respirators.
Two lawyers for DOE and its contractor organizations watched in the Tennessee Supreme Court chamber in 2004 and had everything to do with the matters to which GEORGE GARDNER so inartfully refers to in his angry Enemies List communications.
In the year 2000, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson finally apologized to nuclear weapons plant workers for the unsafe working conditions that killed and maimed so many of them, with Congress enacting unjust legislation giving workers $150,000 in cash in bizarre legislation that resembles a bribe more than it does a valid workers' compensation system. See
"Compensating Americans' Toxic Injuries from U.S. Nuclear Weapons Production: The 106th Congress Should Reject DOE's ‘Trojan Horse Bill," (September 21, 2000 written statement to U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Immigration and Claims), together with three attachments: Fact Sheet, Section-By-Section Analysis and Text of Proposed Legislation Covering All DOE Victims and Repealing Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) Discretionary Function Loophole for Ultrahazardous Activities, and draft Nuclear Weapons Workers, Atomic Veterans and Residents Compensation and Health Act (NWWAVARCHA) of 2000,.; Ed Slavin, "Why Not the Best Compensation System For All Nuclear Weapons Victims?" (April 6, 2000), ; "DOE's Toxic, Hostile Working Environment Violates Human Rights," March 22, 2000 U.S. Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, .
In 1983, I was recommended for Pulitzer Prize by local District Attorney for May 17, 1983 DOE declassification of Oak Ridge, Tennessee mercury pollution, based on FOIA letter sent as Appalachian Observer (weekly newspaper) Editor -- the largest mercury pollution event in world history (DOE's "coverup" was excoriated by TVA Chairman S. David Freeman and covered by SCIENCE and major national news media), with a investigative hearings held on July 11, 1983 by then-Reps. Al Gore, Jr. and Rep. Marilyn Lloyd, where I called for criminal prosecution of those responsible for pollution of our environment and poisoning workers. .
Costs of the cleanup of Oak Ridge pollution exceed $5,000,000,000,000.
The Department of Energy Oak Ridge Operations and its contractors and their lawyers never forgave me. Any Evil Empire views those who would end its abuses as harassers. Remember what the Soviets said about President Ronald Reagan?
What I've endured in retaliation for representing whistleblowers is nothing compared to the daily harassment faced by American employees, including those in the City of St. Augustine. See www.desuetudehurtspeople.blogspot.com.
I am thankful to GEORGE GARDNER for finally speaking his mind and showing his true colors.
His anti-Gay animus during the debate on the Rainbow flags was suppressed. Now that GARDNER's animus against the First Amendment and equality have "come out of the closet."
GARDNER's emotional display of
ill will toward criticism was like a confession. Confession is good for the soul.
GARDNER needs to keep talking.
Now GARDNER can give sworn testimony before federal and state fora about illegal dumping, conflict of interest, Sunshine violations, retaliation and harassment of city employees and others.
Those responsible for the misconduct should be required to pay for it, including the cleanup of the Old City Reservoir.
When I filed federal administrative complaints against those St. Augustine officials who tried to silence me and keep me off the ballot, I specifically asked that no tax monies be spent on legal defense or settlement -- that the wrongdoers should pay for it all themselves. Silencing dissenters is not the lawful business of the City of St. Augustine.
GARDNER said he did not know what an Inspector General was, who asked me on December 31, 2005 to call for the firing of CITY MANAGER WILLIAM B. HARRISS, but who lacked the will and skill to do anything about what he now concedes to be "rampant corruption" in City Hall. (See below).
As my friend David Thundershield Queen wrote (see below), GEORGE GARDNER meant well but he was ineffective.
GARDNER's limited vision and lack of support doomed any efforts to reform St. Augustine city government.
The smirk on City Manager WILLIAM B. HARRISS' face upon receiving a heck-of-a-job award in the midst of a pending criminal investigation of illegal dumping said it all.
GARDNER now disdains public and press questions.
GARDNER is a mediocrity.
GARDNER's entire newspaper experience was with GANNETT, monopolistic purveyor of such mediocrities as my hometown newspaper (the Camden, N.J. Courier-Post), USA Today, and the First Coast News duopoly (combing NBC and ABC affiliates into one monopolistic broadcast, an experiment I've asked that FCC end.
MAYOR GEORGE GARDNER's longwinded swan song Monday night (November 13) shocked viewers who called me.
Instead of listing anything he might have considered to be his accomplishments, GARDNER's swan song about "Ed Slavin" resembled Richard Nixon's White House Enemies List or his 1962 press conference after losing his bid for Governor, attacking the news media and saying "you won't have Richard Nixon to kick around any more because this is my last press conference."
Is GARDNER's accusation of "harassment" projection? This is a man who has allegedly been accused by three women of sexual harassment.
GARDNER's own wife, SALLY GARDNER, personally harassed Peter Romano at the ACCORD civil rights table on November 4 at the Lincolnville Festival, interrupting his discussion of property taxes to say "you don't pay property taxes." (Gardner is a disabled veteran and exempt).
Such gracelessness under fire is becoming a trademark for the GARDNERS.
Meanwhile, GARDNER has never answered my questions about illegal dumping, Sunshine violations, government waste or mismanagement. He's not answered my questions about his failure to disclose his possible conflict of interest in failing to disclose his wife's receipt of income from the man who was offered a bottle of liquor to testify at an April 2005 annexation hearing. See below and May 3, 2005 FOLIO Weekly article cited.
GARDNER's never answered why City Attorney JAMES PATRICK WILSON left or why the Commissioners violated the Sunshine law in the October 13, 2006 meting or why they accepted his resignation and told him to sit at home until January 31, 2006, instead of letting him work until that day as he planned.
What's going on here?
Like Nixon's statement, "I'm not a crook," GARDNER only called attention to himself with his affectation of martyrdom.
GARDNER's attacking a questioner by name was not the first time he has done so. See David Thundershield Queen's letter below.
Like Commissioners ERROL JONES, SUSAN BURK, DONALD CRICHLOW and JOSEPH LEROY BOLES, JR., GARDNER is thin-skinned. He's never had anyone ask so many questions before.
GARDNER planned to lose his cool, reading a prepared statement.
GARDNER never responded to the suggestion of a "St. Augustine National Historical Park," resembling the New Bedford Whaling National Park.
In the final analysis GARDNER's prepared pejoratives showed he has "no class" -- just as JFK said about Nixon after his 1962 press conference, attacking the news media.
Say goodnight, Mayor GARDNER and thanks for increasing the readership of this blog -- permanently -- and for making me feel young again. As FDR once said, "I'm an old campaigner and I love a good fight." We're working for honest government and no intimidation and harassment will stop us from speaking the truth.
Being Number One on MAYOR GEORGE GARDNER's Enemies List Greatly Expands Readership of www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com
ST. AUGUSTINE MAYOR's Swan Song: MAYOR GEORGE GARDNER Calls Questioning "Harassment," Proves He's No "Reformer" -- Uses Government Funds to Spread "Enemies List"
Our blog readership has greatly expanded, thanks to controversial lame duck St. Augustine Mayor GEORGE GARDNER's anger.
What a week!
Thanks to Mayor GARDNER, the local readership of this blog has increased greatly since Monday night, November 13.
Call it the law of unintended consequences (or just desserts).
On November 13 (Monday night) I shared with St. Augustine City Commissioners the thought that we need a "St. Augustine National Historical Park," based upon the success of the New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park. (See letter in yesterday's St. Augustine Record, reprinted below).
Rather than respond on the merits, lame duck Mayor GEORGE GARDNER took it upon himself to read his scripted last words in Commissioner comments as Mayor, pejoratives and anger directed against me for asking too many questions (none of which he ever answered), e.g., about our City's illegal dumping of the entire contents of the old illegal city dump on Riberia Street into our Old City Reservoir (see below). He said I had "some good ideas," but said I was a pest.
He has now circulated these words as his latest newsletter, using government funds for purposes of obloquy, ridicule and blacklisting.
How would a 20-year-old feel about speaking in a public meeting knowing that Mayor GARDNER stands ready to abuse his public office to stifle dissent?
The First Amendment, in its majesty, empowers the people and the press to be pests and to ask questions. It is not for GARDNER to judge.
As William F. Buckley, Jr. once said, "Why does baloney reject the grinder?"
I wear GARDNER's scorn as a badge of honor.
Thrice GARDNER campaigned as a reformer and reformed nothing. I voted for him in 2002 and 2004. I supported his opponent in 2006 and will be proud to help make Peter Romano St. Augustine's Mayor in 2008. Mr. Romano may be a registered Republican (and Messrs GARDNER and BOLES may be registered Democrats), but as JFK said, "sometimes party loyalty demands too much."
Our St. Augustine City Commission races are nonpartisan and Peter Romano cares about our City, its people, neighborhoods, history, budget and government ethics. I was proud to support his campaign and I will do it again.
GARDNER's personal pique at my
supporting Mr. Romano (who almost defeated GARDNER) is matched by his anger at my asking questions. His low threshold for questions reminds me of characters on the classic TV detective show, Columbo (Peter Falk). Inevitably the wealthy murderer would grow increasingly irritated at Lt. Columbo's asking just one more question. The murderer would yell and accuse Columbo of "harassment," sometimes calling in political chips with LAPD or other city officials. The denouement was not far away -- the murderer was soon caught.
Finis.
Those who are caught seldom react with amity to those who catch them. As my mother says, "it's not the hangman but the murderer who brings dishonor on the house."
As GARDNER brayed, yes, I've been accused of "harassment" before, by public officials who lack respect for the First Amendment, including the late Tennessee Sheriff DENNIS O. TROTTER and School Superintendent PAUL EUGENE BOSTIC, Sr. (More below). I wore their scorn as a badge of honor, too.
Not unlike Cato the Censor, Mayor GEORGE GARDNER thinks it's his job to decide what's proper and improper dissent, "positive" and negative history (in the context of the 1566 murder and the Bridge of Lions Rainbow flags), and good and bad citizenship.
Busy, busy, busy.
Based on his history, St. Augustine Mayor GEORGE GARDNER has emotional problems about First Amendment protected activity.
His response to the federal court order finding he violated the First Amendment by rejecting Rainbow flags was to ban all but government flag-flying on the Bridge of Lions. The vote was 3-1 (Commissioner BOLES dissenting), with GARDNER joined by DONALD CRICHLOW and ERROL JONES in banning all but government flag-flying (see below).
GARDNER's retaliatory response to questions about illegal dumping was to announce a ukase, without a vote, but supported by all Commissioners (showing conscious parallelism and possible Sunshine violations), that persons could not speak at both the beginning and end of the meeting in public amounts -- that we had to choose, disingenuously claiming that this had always been the case, when persons spoke at both the beginning and end of meetings at least ten times during 2005-2006.
As GARDNER spewed angry rhetoric in my direction Monday night (November 13), I worried about Mayor GEORGE GARDNER's health.
GARDNER choked out his words, like a man who held grudges for my supporting his opponent, Peter Romano, who came within a very few votes of unseating GARDNER.
GARDNER reminds me of the provincial monarch in the movie Amadeus, who complained that a Mozart opera had "too many notes." GARDNER knows no more about investigative reporting than he does about manners or music (playing recorded music at the Lincolnville Festival, drowning out live jazz)..
The simple palpitating truth of the matter is that St. Augustine Mayor GEORGE R. GARDNER, Mayor-Elect JOSEPH LEROY BOLES and Commissioners DONALD CRICHLOW and ERROL JONES have disgraced their public offices.
They take trips to NYC, Spain and other locales, wasting our money.
They won't answer questions.
They get increasingly pugnacious when held accountable.
On November 13 (Monday night) Commissioner SUSAN BURK said that the re-election of GARDNER and the election of BOLES as Mayor meant people were pretty happy, claiming it was a "vote of confidence" in the government.
She's wrong.
She's not happy.
She misses too many meetings to be taken seriously. Her remarks -- and those of other Commissioners -- are too often off-the-cuff, reflecting no preparation and little interest in asking good questions or making good public policy.
Candidates are either kept off the ballot or discouraged from running by a clique that is not above using City resources for blacklisting purposes, as Mayor GARDNER's E-mails and speech proves.
Mayor GARDNER's not happy.
Mayor GARDNER's slim margin of victory was less than the undervotes (the people who voted for neither candidate for Commission Seat 3). A switch of only 205 votes would have elected forensic account Peter Romano of Lincolnville to City Commission -- upsetting all of the developers, government contractors and political patronage hacks who depend upon the City's largesse for their existence.
Here's the official results for Mayor and Commissioner:
COMMISSION -- SEAT 3
George Gardner 2291 54.97%
Peter Romano 1872 45.03%
Undervotes 318
MAYOR of ST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA
Joseph Boles 2376 57.13%
Peter Romano 1763 42.87%
Undervotes 326
Hint: People are not happy with a bloated $50,000,000 annual budget for a town of 13,000, or with officialdom's high marginal propensity for White Elephants and Junkets (WEJs).
Hint: We're not happy with a government that wastes money on a $22,000,000 White Elephant Parking Garage that is more than half-empty, or with annual trips to Spain, frequent trips to NYC, trips elsewhere, or with what would appear to be habitual Sunshine violations.
Behaving more like a spoiled child -- or King George III -- than the elected mayor of an American city, GEORGE GARDNER's swan song was not to list any putative accomplishments, but to talk about the author of this blog (Ed Slavin).
Gardner sounded like Richard Nixon on White House tapes -- like those on Nixon's Enemies List, I'm proud to have made the cut.
In my lifetime, I've been honored to meet and greet several of the members of Nixon's Enemies List. My work at the Government Accountability Project on security clearance reform was funded by none other than Stewart R. Mott, the General Motors heir who gave $1 million in campaign contributions to Senator George McGovern's 1972 campaign for President.
Every single one of the members of Nixon's Enemies List was proud to be on it.
Likewise, I am proud to be on GARDNER's Enemies List, apparently the first and only person to have been publicly disclosed as being on it to date.
I have recently reviewed my treasured copy of the Final Report of the Watergate Committee, Gerald Gardner's Watergate Follies book of photo captions, and other Watergate-era books.
MAYOR GEORGE GARDNER bears more than a passing resemblance to the political style of President Richard Nixon (the only President to resign and the only President to receive a Presidential Pardon).
For a good time, be sure to watch Sir Anthony Hopkins' portrayal in the title role in Oliver Stone's "Nixon" -- it's almost as if MAYOR GEORGE GARDNER had studied the film, decided to repeat history, or once traveled "to San Clemente to sit at the feet of the master," as Nashville lawyer John J. Hooker, Jr. once said about former U.S. Senator (and Labor Secretary) William E. Brock III (a/k/a "the candy man from Lookout Mountain," in Senator Jim Sasser's immortal words).
By the way, I was in the Nashville Tennessean newsroom the night that Tennessee Governor Ray Blanton saw the new Governor (Lamar Alexander) sworn in early because Blanton was reported by the FBI to be about to sign 30 more pardons for convicted murderers.
Like Ray Blanton, City Manager WILLIAM B. HARRIS' St. Augustine political machine has the same mantra: "there's politics in everything [they] do," whether it is denial of equal city services to retaliation against City Board members and employees or the expectation that professionals observe an oath of omerta to obtain and keep city jobs, contracts and services. A neighborhood can't even ask for a speed hump, no through trucks sign or oppose an annexation without being oppressed by the likes of HARRISS. From one end of the City to another, the stories are the same: people are treated disrespectfully by government employees who respect only corporations and their influence.
By putting me at the top of his Enemies List, Mayor GEORGE GARDNER shows how threatened he is by dissent.
GARDNER also misses the point --- citizens in a democracy seeking to hold governmental institutions accountable do not crave the favor of those who are wrongdoers, whether in Tennessee or Florida or Washington, D.C.
My ancestor Ellen Kennedy emigrated from Ireland in 1849 with neighbors at age 6, her entire family having died in the Irish potato famine, the result of British policies using food as a weapon against Irish Catholics. There is now a memorial to the millions of British potato famine victims in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
My father machine-gunned Nazis and won three Bronze Stars with the 82nd Airborne Division in WWII protecting our liberties.
Our Founders pledged "our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor" fighting for liberty.
Our generation can do no less than stand up to oppressors, including arms merchants and polluters like LOCKHEED MARTIN or public officials like GEORGE GARDNER.
Upon hearing and reading Mayor GARDNER's unseemly screeching, I am reminded of the late Anderson County (Tennessee) Sheriff DENNIS O. TROTTER, twice Tennessee Sheriff of the year, who said I was "the most dangerous reporter" he "ever met," and who said "I'm running this Sheriff's Department, Ed Slavin is not," and who said, "I wouldn't return your [damn] phone calls if you was sitting out there in the mud," and who threatened to have me sued for libel. TROTTER was investigated by the FBI and taken out of the Anderson County (Tennessee) Courthouse in handcuffs on May 21, 1983, charged with federal felonies, pleading guilty and spending four years at La Tuna Texas Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) and later at the Maxwell Air Force Base FCI. After he emerged from prison, TROTTER drove to Memphis, where he agreed to settle my RICO and civil rights lawsuit against him for stirring up the bogus libel lawsuit. Since insurance companies wisely determined that the businesses of Anderson County, Tennessee did not include bribery, racketeering and drug conspiracy, when TROTTER and his cofelons settled with me, they paid their own funds, not insurance funny money.
DENNIS O. TROTTER demanded as a condition of settlement that I never contact him; we made the pact mutual. It's too bad, because I would love to have interviewed him in later years and asked him about what he had learned from his experiences.
Upon hearing GARDNER's ukase, I am reminded of the late Anderson County (Tennessee) School Superintendent PAUL EUGENE BOSTIC, JR., whose contracting abuses and abuses of employees were legendary, and exposed by the Appalachian Observer. Like GARDNER, BOSTIC would make personal attacks on me from his seat at the School Board table, where he sat as if he were the lord of all he surveyed for some 13 years, until a young reporter arrived from Georgetown University, asking questions no one had ever asked before. To his credit, BOSTIC said before his untimely death that he felt that we had done the right thing in exposing abuses in the Anderson County School Department.
I've been accused of "harassment" by nuclear weapons plant managers, including those ethically challenged Union Carbide and Atomic Energy Commission managers who dumped 4.2 million pounds of mercury into East Fork Poplar Creek in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, the largest mercury pollution event in world history. Workers were exposed to 30-60 times the then-prevailing standard for mercury in the air, without respirators.
Two lawyers for DOE and its contractor organizations watched in the Tennessee Supreme Court chamber in 2004 and had everything to do with the matters to which GEORGE GARDNER so inartfully refers to in his angry Enemies List communications.
In the year 2000, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson finally apologized to nuclear weapons plant workers for the unsafe working conditions that killed and maimed so many of them, with Congress enacting unjust legislation giving workers $150,000 in cash in bizarre legislation that resembles a bribe more than it does a valid workers' compensation system. See
"Compensating Americans' Toxic Injuries from U.S. Nuclear Weapons Production: The 106th Congress Should Reject DOE's ‘Trojan Horse Bill," (September 21, 2000 written statement to U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Immigration and Claims), together with three attachments: Fact Sheet, Section-By-Section Analysis and Text of Proposed Legislation Covering All DOE Victims and Repealing Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) Discretionary Function Loophole for Ultrahazardous Activities, and draft Nuclear Weapons Workers, Atomic Veterans and Residents Compensation and Health Act (NWWAVARCHA) of 2000,
In 1983, I was recommended for Pulitzer Prize by local District Attorney for May 17, 1983 DOE declassification of Oak Ridge, Tennessee mercury pollution, based on FOIA letter sent as Appalachian Observer (weekly newspaper) Editor -- the largest mercury pollution event in world history (DOE's "coverup" was excoriated by TVA Chairman S. David Freeman and covered by SCIENCE and major national news media), with a investigative hearings held on July 11, 1983 by then-Reps. Al Gore, Jr. and Rep. Marilyn Lloyd, where I called for criminal prosecution of those responsible for pollution of our environment and poisoning workers. .
Costs of the cleanup of Oak Ridge pollution exceed $5,000,000,000,000.
The Department of Energy Oak Ridge Operations and its contractors and their lawyers never forgave me. Any Evil Empire views those who would end its abuses as harassers. Remember what the Soviets said about President Ronald Reagan?
What I've endured in retaliation for representing whistleblowers is nothing compared to the daily harassment faced by American employees, including those in the City of St. Augustine. See www.desuetudehurtspeople.blogspot.com.
I am thankful to GEORGE GARDNER for finally speaking his mind and showing his true colors.
His anti-Gay animus during the debate on the Rainbow flags was suppressed. Now that GARDNER's animus against the First Amendment and equality have "come out of the closet."
GARDNER's emotional display of
ill will toward criticism was like a confession. Confession is good for the soul.
GARDNER needs to keep talking.
Now GARDNER can give sworn testimony before federal and state fora about illegal dumping, conflict of interest, Sunshine violations, retaliation and harassment of city employees and others.
Those responsible for the misconduct should be required to pay for it, including the cleanup of the Old City Reservoir.
When I filed federal administrative complaints against those St. Augustine officials who tried to silence me and keep me off the ballot, I specifically asked that no tax monies be spent on legal defense or settlement -- that the wrongdoers should pay for it all themselves. Silencing dissenters is not the lawful business of the City of St. Augustine.
GARDNER said he did not know what an Inspector General was, who asked me on December 31, 2005 to call for the firing of CITY MANAGER WILLIAM B. HARRISS, but who lacked the will and skill to do anything about what he now concedes to be "rampant corruption" in City Hall. (See below).
As my friend David Thundershield Queen wrote (see below), GEORGE GARDNER meant well but he was ineffective.
GARDNER's limited vision and lack of support doomed any efforts to reform St. Augustine city government.
The smirk on City Manager WILLIAM B. HARRISS' face upon receiving a heck-of-a-job award in the midst of a pending criminal investigation of illegal dumping said it all.
GARDNER now disdains public and press questions.
GARDNER is a mediocrity.
GARDNER's entire newspaper experience was with GANNETT, monopolistic purveyor of such mediocrities as my hometown newspaper (the Camden, N.J. Courier-Post), USA Today, and the First Coast News duopoly (combing NBC and ABC affiliates into one monopolistic broadcast, an experiment I've asked that FCC end.
MAYOR GEORGE GARDNER's longwinded swan song Monday night (November 13) shocked viewers who called me.
Instead of listing anything he might have considered to be his accomplishments, GARDNER's swan song about "Ed Slavin" resembled Richard Nixon's White House Enemies List or his 1962 press conference after losing his bid for Governor, attacking the news media and saying "you won't have Richard Nixon to kick around any more because this is my last press conference."
Is GARDNER's accusation of "harassment" projection? This is a man who has allegedly been accused by three women of sexual harassment.
GARDNER's own wife, SALLY GARDNER, personally harassed Peter Romano at the ACCORD civil rights table on November 4 at the Lincolnville Festival, interrupting his discussion of property taxes to say "you don't pay property taxes." (Gardner is a disabled veteran and exempt).
Such gracelessness under fire is becoming a trademark for the GARDNERS.
Meanwhile, GARDNER has never answered my questions about illegal dumping, Sunshine violations, government waste or mismanagement. He's not answered my questions about his failure to disclose his possible conflict of interest in failing to disclose his wife's receipt of income from the man who was offered a bottle of liquor to testify at an April 2005 annexation hearing. See below and May 3, 2005 FOLIO Weekly article cited.
GARDNER's never answered why City Attorney JAMES PATRICK WILSON left or why the Commissioners violated the Sunshine law in the October 13, 2006 meting or why they accepted his resignation and told him to sit at home until January 31, 2006, instead of letting him work until that day as he planned.
What's going on here?
Like Nixon's statement, "I'm not a crook," GARDNER only called attention to himself with his affectation of martyrdom.
GARDNER's attacking a questioner by name was not the first time he has done so. See David Thundershield Queen's letter below.
Like Commissioners ERROL JONES, SUSAN BURK, DONALD CRICHLOW and JOSEPH LEROY BOLES, JR., GARDNER is thin-skinned. He's never had anyone ask so many questions before.
GARDNER planned to lose his cool, reading a prepared statement.
GARDNER never responded to the suggestion of a "St. Augustine National Historical Park," resembling the New Bedford Whaling National Park.
In the final analysis GARDNER's prepared pejoratives showed he has "no class" -- just as JFK said about Nixon after his 1962 press conference, attacking the news media.
Say goodnight, Mayor GARDNER and thanks for increasing the readership of this blog -- permanently -- and for making me feel young again. As FDR once said, "I'm an old campaigner and I love a good fight." We're working for honest government and no intimidation and harassment will stop us from speaking the truth.
CHESTER STOKES' MADEIRA -- GOVERNMENT-SUBSIDIZED LOWER NINTH WARD HOUSING PROJECT? PONCE GOLF COURSE DECLARED "BROWNFIELD," DEVASTATION TAXING
CHESTER STOKES' MADEIRA -- GOVERNMENT-SUBSIDIZED LOWER NINTH WARD HOUSING PROJECT? PONCE GOLF COURSE DECLARED "BROWNFIELD," DEVASTATION TO USE TAX CREDITS
As expected, Commissioners voted 3-2 to declare a contaminated golf course a "brownfield." (See prior articles below). The discussion might well have been scripted and the Commissioners might well have been Disney World automatons for all the impact that public speakers had on our captive City Commissioners.
To their credit, MAYOR GEORGE GARDNER and Vice Mayor SUSAN BURK Monday night (November 13) voted
(as expected) against controversial developer CHESTER STOKES' plan to declare the former Ponce de Leon Golf Course a brownfield, allowing the developer to use your money to tear up the 1916 Donald Ross designed golf course, so that babies will one day play in soil that may be contaminated with arsenic and organophosphate pesticide poisons.
To his discredit, Mayor GARDNER did not swear in any of the witnesses at the public hearing.
There's no excuse for a public hearing without sworn testimony.
To their discredit, several Commissioners did not comply adequately with the rule on disclosing ex parte contacts. It is not enough for Commissioner DONALD CRICHLOW to say that he had them -- he must say what the nature of the ex parte discussion was -- did it include discussion of whether he might be an architect for residences built on the site? Nor is it enough for Commissioner SUSAN BURK to refuse to state what ex parte discussions she had.
Ponce developer CHESTER STOKES allegedly procured annexation and rezoning through material false statements that he was not going to use public funds to destroy the golf course and the nature that so many people enjoyed.
CHESTER STOKES could be stopped with a civil RICO lawsuit if it turns out that he and his lawyers made materially false representations to Commissioners (e.g., that he would never use government funds for his nature-destroying projects). STOKES is now going to receive substantial tax credits (tax expenditures) to destroy the Ponce, its nature and wildlife.
CHESTER STOKES is a major contributor to the campaign of Commissioner ERROL JONES, who insulted those opposing the destruction of the Ponce de Leon Golf Course.
By way of non sequitur, Commissioner ERROL JONES noted that the Golf Course was once racially segregated (and that his late father could not play there). JONES did not say whether his father had been a golfer. JONES played the race card from the bottom of the deck, sounding mean. His lack of respect for citizen-activists is notable -- it is not enough that JONES tell environmental activists that he disagrees with them -- he has to raise his voice, insult them and play the race card, too.
Talking to Lincolnville residents at the Lincolnville Festival on November 4-5, I heard strong opinions from African-American people that Commissioner ERROL JONES does not represent them and that he favors corporate interests.
Commissioner ERROL JONES implied that prior public accommodations segregation somehow justified his vote that the nature and land should be destroyed and that the golf course should be given taxpayer-subsidized "brownfield" status to convert wildlife habitats into homes built on contaminated land, increasing the population of St. Augustine by 10%.
By that specious logic, JONES would presumably favor demolition of the Castillo San Marco National Monument (built with slave labor) and demolition of every building built in the City of St. Augustine prior to the adoption of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
Yet the emotionally overwrought (and intellectually disingenuous) JONES had the temerity to call the Save the Ponce group "emotional."
This is, at best, facetious.
A former FDEP staff testified in favor of the brownfield (a man who is now a consultant for CHESTER STOKES). The former FDEP staffer testified only months after leaving state government employment, contrary to the rule that prevails in federal agencies).
Florida needs ethics laws with teeth restricting the activities of former government employees, to avoid what Ralph Nader has called "the deferred bribe."
Other witnesses testifying in favor of Mr. CHESTER STOKES' tax credit subsidized brownfield bingo- included State Farm insurance salesman HERBIE WILES and lame duck County Commissioner BRUCE MAGUIRE, one Democrat, one Republican, who sat next to each other all night long, making common cause to increase the City's population by 10%, entirely insouciant to the use of tax credits (tax expenditures) to empower evisceration of the Ponce, its wildlife, trees and wetlands.
Mr. WILES is perhaps noted for having been involved in a legal effort to take over the nonprofit corporate charter for the building that owns St. Augustine's American Legion post, a gift from the Hamblen estate. That effort fizzled in court and was exposed by the St. Augustine Record, whose reportage was revealing for the tactics of local businessmen including WILES' partner, PIERRE THOMPSON, who was never charged criminally with the October 2001 cutting-down of an eagle nest tree, with the United States Attorney apparently letting the statute of limitations expire. THOMPSON is grandson of the Record's founder, whose family no longer owns the Record (now owned by Morris Communications).
Can the Ponce still be saved? Will the Record call for use of eminent domain to create parks locally, and call on Congress to create a "St. Augustine National Historical Park?"
Will national environmental groups step in to stop the devastation of wildlife and wetlands?
If the Ponce wildlife and wetlands are to be preserved, the Ponce must be condemned through eminent domain, perhaps by the U.S. Department of the Interior, to become part of an "emerald necklace of parks," as suggested in my letter in Thursday's St. Augustine Record (see below).
The alternative could be another Katrina-style disaster, wrought as a result of lax regulations and desuetude by the City of St. Augustine, Army Corps of Engineers, St. Johns River Water Management District and Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP)(which my friend David Thundershield Queen says really stands for "Don't Expect Protection")
Developers enthrall four of these governmental entities, although Congressional oversight may soon make them quake in their boots in the 110th Congress.
As opponents suggested on November 13, quoting City Manager WILLIAM B. HARRISS, the low-lying area could be destroyed in the first Category 4 hurricane, with homes built on marshland swept inland, wiping out the County Courthouse and other inland properties.
Why would any rational investor or lender want to built in a low-lying area after Katrina? We expect developers to be greedy, but we also expect bankers and investors to be rational.
It's not just irrationally exuberant to build in wetlands -- it destroys natural flood controls and threatens death and financial ruin.
See "The Matrix -- Wetlands of Mass Destruction," by Ed Slavin, on Miami Indymedia (see below)
It could be a breach of fiduciary duty (and possible securities violations) for such persons to invest in CHESTER STOKES' Madeira development, the logical equivalent of building sand castles in New Orleans' Ninth Ward.
What do you think?
As expected, Commissioners voted 3-2 to declare a contaminated golf course a "brownfield." (See prior articles below). The discussion might well have been scripted and the Commissioners might well have been Disney World automatons for all the impact that public speakers had on our captive City Commissioners.
To their credit, MAYOR GEORGE GARDNER and Vice Mayor SUSAN BURK Monday night (November 13) voted
(as expected) against controversial developer CHESTER STOKES' plan to declare the former Ponce de Leon Golf Course a brownfield, allowing the developer to use your money to tear up the 1916 Donald Ross designed golf course, so that babies will one day play in soil that may be contaminated with arsenic and organophosphate pesticide poisons.
To his discredit, Mayor GARDNER did not swear in any of the witnesses at the public hearing.
There's no excuse for a public hearing without sworn testimony.
To their discredit, several Commissioners did not comply adequately with the rule on disclosing ex parte contacts. It is not enough for Commissioner DONALD CRICHLOW to say that he had them -- he must say what the nature of the ex parte discussion was -- did it include discussion of whether he might be an architect for residences built on the site? Nor is it enough for Commissioner SUSAN BURK to refuse to state what ex parte discussions she had.
Ponce developer CHESTER STOKES allegedly procured annexation and rezoning through material false statements that he was not going to use public funds to destroy the golf course and the nature that so many people enjoyed.
CHESTER STOKES could be stopped with a civil RICO lawsuit if it turns out that he and his lawyers made materially false representations to Commissioners (e.g., that he would never use government funds for his nature-destroying projects). STOKES is now going to receive substantial tax credits (tax expenditures) to destroy the Ponce, its nature and wildlife.
CHESTER STOKES is a major contributor to the campaign of Commissioner ERROL JONES, who insulted those opposing the destruction of the Ponce de Leon Golf Course.
By way of non sequitur, Commissioner ERROL JONES noted that the Golf Course was once racially segregated (and that his late father could not play there). JONES did not say whether his father had been a golfer. JONES played the race card from the bottom of the deck, sounding mean. His lack of respect for citizen-activists is notable -- it is not enough that JONES tell environmental activists that he disagrees with them -- he has to raise his voice, insult them and play the race card, too.
Talking to Lincolnville residents at the Lincolnville Festival on November 4-5, I heard strong opinions from African-American people that Commissioner ERROL JONES does not represent them and that he favors corporate interests.
Commissioner ERROL JONES implied that prior public accommodations segregation somehow justified his vote that the nature and land should be destroyed and that the golf course should be given taxpayer-subsidized "brownfield" status to convert wildlife habitats into homes built on contaminated land, increasing the population of St. Augustine by 10%.
By that specious logic, JONES would presumably favor demolition of the Castillo San Marco National Monument (built with slave labor) and demolition of every building built in the City of St. Augustine prior to the adoption of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
Yet the emotionally overwrought (and intellectually disingenuous) JONES had the temerity to call the Save the Ponce group "emotional."
This is, at best, facetious.
A former FDEP staff testified in favor of the brownfield (a man who is now a consultant for CHESTER STOKES). The former FDEP staffer testified only months after leaving state government employment, contrary to the rule that prevails in federal agencies).
Florida needs ethics laws with teeth restricting the activities of former government employees, to avoid what Ralph Nader has called "the deferred bribe."
Other witnesses testifying in favor of Mr. CHESTER STOKES' tax credit subsidized brownfield bingo- included State Farm insurance salesman HERBIE WILES and lame duck County Commissioner BRUCE MAGUIRE, one Democrat, one Republican, who sat next to each other all night long, making common cause to increase the City's population by 10%, entirely insouciant to the use of tax credits (tax expenditures) to empower evisceration of the Ponce, its wildlife, trees and wetlands.
Mr. WILES is perhaps noted for having been involved in a legal effort to take over the nonprofit corporate charter for the building that owns St. Augustine's American Legion post, a gift from the Hamblen estate. That effort fizzled in court and was exposed by the St. Augustine Record, whose reportage was revealing for the tactics of local businessmen including WILES' partner, PIERRE THOMPSON, who was never charged criminally with the October 2001 cutting-down of an eagle nest tree, with the United States Attorney apparently letting the statute of limitations expire. THOMPSON is grandson of the Record's founder, whose family no longer owns the Record (now owned by Morris Communications).
Can the Ponce still be saved? Will the Record call for use of eminent domain to create parks locally, and call on Congress to create a "St. Augustine National Historical Park?"
Will national environmental groups step in to stop the devastation of wildlife and wetlands?
If the Ponce wildlife and wetlands are to be preserved, the Ponce must be condemned through eminent domain, perhaps by the U.S. Department of the Interior, to become part of an "emerald necklace of parks," as suggested in my letter in Thursday's St. Augustine Record (see below).
The alternative could be another Katrina-style disaster, wrought as a result of lax regulations and desuetude by the City of St. Augustine, Army Corps of Engineers, St. Johns River Water Management District and Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP)(which my friend David Thundershield Queen says really stands for "Don't Expect Protection")
Developers enthrall four of these governmental entities, although Congressional oversight may soon make them quake in their boots in the 110th Congress.
As opponents suggested on November 13, quoting City Manager WILLIAM B. HARRISS, the low-lying area could be destroyed in the first Category 4 hurricane, with homes built on marshland swept inland, wiping out the County Courthouse and other inland properties.
Why would any rational investor or lender want to built in a low-lying area after Katrina? We expect developers to be greedy, but we also expect bankers and investors to be rational.
It's not just irrationally exuberant to build in wetlands -- it destroys natural flood controls and threatens death and financial ruin.
See "The Matrix -- Wetlands of Mass Destruction," by Ed Slavin, on Miami Indymedia (see below)
It could be a breach of fiduciary duty (and possible securities violations) for such persons to invest in CHESTER STOKES' Madeira development, the logical equivalent of building sand castles in New Orleans' Ninth Ward.
What do you think?
Preserving Historic Buildings for Use as T-Shirt Shops, or as Part of a St. Augustine National Historical Park Under NPS Jurisdiction??
Is there more to preservation than preserving local buildings for t-shirt shops? (Local businessmen Wednesday reportedly prevailed on a paid, "blue ribbon" historic advisory panel to recommend no changes to the use of state-owned buildings mismanaged by the City of St. Augustine, making it hard to see the point of going through the exercise).
Instead of a $4 million new NPS visitor center, why not a visitor venter in a resotred buildihng, as in the New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park (see my letter in the November 16, 2006 St. Augusitne Record, below).
Instead of a $4 million new NPS visitor center, why not a visitor venter in a resotred buildihng, as in the New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park (see my letter in the November 16, 2006 St. Augusitne Record, below).
CITY INTIMIDATES TREE CITY USA ADVISORY COMMITTEE, THREATENS TO FIRE MEMBERS FOR FIRST AMENDMENT PROTECTED ACTIVITY
It was reported at the November 13 (Monday night) City Commission meeting by Tree Advisory Committee Chair and environmental activist Ms. Gina Burrell that City of St. Augustine Planning and Zoning Director MARK KNIGHT threatened to fire all of the members of the City's Tree Advisory Committee -- every single one of them -- over their resisting approval of the City's Tree City USA application, based upon their belief there has been a lack of support from the City for tree preservation efforts.
CITY COMMISSIONER ERROL JONES and Mayor GEORGE GARDNER both implied that the citizen advisory panel members' withholding their vote resembled "blackmail."
Nothing could be further from the truth. As Edmund Burke said, government officials owe the public their independence and their thinking -- they should not be rubberstamps.
Obviously, HARRISS, KNIGHT and Commissioners expect "their" appointees to advisory committees to agree with them and tolerate threats to fire them if they disagree.
Not one Commissioner criticized City Planning and Zoning Director MARK KNIGHT for his threatening appointees to what was defensively characterized as a "staff advisory committee."
With such disrespectful attitudes, why in the name of all that's holy would anyone volunteer to serve on a City Board again, knowing that they are expected to be merely rubberstamps and lickspittles for the likes of City Manager WILLIAM B. HARRISS and City Planning and Zoning Director MARK KNIGHT?
The City of St. Augustine is run by a small group of unenlighthened and willful men who have repeatedly violated citizens' First Amendment rights, as held by Federal Courts in the case of St. George Street artist and Bridge of Lions Rainbow Flags.
Not criticizing KNIGHT -- and not reprimanding him -- shows that all five City of St. Augustine Commissioners are in on the First Amendment violations. It's their party and you can't disagree.
If you want to save trees, and refuse to approve the package the staff proposed for Tree City USA certification, you're going to be fired.
Our Commissioners don't want public involvement to be meaningful -- they use boards and commissions as doormats to justify their prejudices.
They're willing to let MARK KNIGHT threaten the ladies and gentlemen of the Tree Advisory Committee.
Why? What governmental purpose is served by ratifying such threats? Is the purpose fo MARK KNIGHT's threats to show how powerful he is and to put the fear of WILLIAM B. HARRISS into everyone who lives and works in our Nation's Oldest City?
Pursuant to Supreme Court precedent, our Nation's Oldest City must adopt a whistleblower protection ordinance and protect City employees, members of City Boards and City residents from such outrageous threats and retaliation.
Penalties for any future whistleblower rights violations should include fines, mail terms and firing. Enough Nixonian tomfoolery, flummery and dupery.
What do you think?
CITY COMMISSIONER ERROL JONES and Mayor GEORGE GARDNER both implied that the citizen advisory panel members' withholding their vote resembled "blackmail."
Nothing could be further from the truth. As Edmund Burke said, government officials owe the public their independence and their thinking -- they should not be rubberstamps.
Obviously, HARRISS, KNIGHT and Commissioners expect "their" appointees to advisory committees to agree with them and tolerate threats to fire them if they disagree.
Not one Commissioner criticized City Planning and Zoning Director MARK KNIGHT for his threatening appointees to what was defensively characterized as a "staff advisory committee."
With such disrespectful attitudes, why in the name of all that's holy would anyone volunteer to serve on a City Board again, knowing that they are expected to be merely rubberstamps and lickspittles for the likes of City Manager WILLIAM B. HARRISS and City Planning and Zoning Director MARK KNIGHT?
The City of St. Augustine is run by a small group of unenlighthened and willful men who have repeatedly violated citizens' First Amendment rights, as held by Federal Courts in the case of St. George Street artist and Bridge of Lions Rainbow Flags.
Not criticizing KNIGHT -- and not reprimanding him -- shows that all five City of St. Augustine Commissioners are in on the First Amendment violations. It's their party and you can't disagree.
If you want to save trees, and refuse to approve the package the staff proposed for Tree City USA certification, you're going to be fired.
Our Commissioners don't want public involvement to be meaningful -- they use boards and commissions as doormats to justify their prejudices.
They're willing to let MARK KNIGHT threaten the ladies and gentlemen of the Tree Advisory Committee.
Why? What governmental purpose is served by ratifying such threats? Is the purpose fo MARK KNIGHT's threats to show how powerful he is and to put the fear of WILLIAM B. HARRISS into everyone who lives and works in our Nation's Oldest City?
Pursuant to Supreme Court precedent, our Nation's Oldest City must adopt a whistleblower protection ordinance and protect City employees, members of City Boards and City residents from such outrageous threats and retaliation.
Penalties for any future whistleblower rights violations should include fines, mail terms and firing. Enough Nixonian tomfoolery, flummery and dupery.
What do you think?
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Let's Preserve Our History With a "St. Augustine" National Historical Park"and Investigate and Prosecute St. Augustine's Polluters, Wetland Destroyers
Letter: Create National Park to showcase our history
Ed Slavin
St. Augustine
Publication Date: 11/16/06
Editor: Why waste millions constructing a new Castillo Visitor Center? Let's learn from urban national parks, including the New Bedford (Mass.) Whaling Historical Park, (13 city blocks, 32 acres), with its cost-saving National Park Service visitor center in a restored building.
Let's ask Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., to propose a "St. Augustine National Historical Park," showcasing all of St. Augustine's history -- Castillo, city gates, historic streets, Slave Market Square, Government House, bayfront/seawall/harbor, Spanish Quarter Village, Anastasia State Park, Fort Mose, Ponce de Leon Golf Course, Red House Bluff, Magnolia Street, Salt Run and other archaeological/natural treasures.
Let's protect forever an "emerald necklace of parks." Let NPS preserve and interpret history, including Native American and African-American history.
Let us be decisive, bold and creative.
Let's tax tourists more to fund preservation. Let's win grants and restore our city's 1928 trolley-car system, solving traffic congestion.
Architect Daniel Burnham said, "Make no little plans for they do not inspire" followers.
At Thanksgiving, be thankful for Democratic victories restoring sanity.
Let's ask Congress to expose/halt Florida government chicanery, e.g., defective election systems; political gerrymandering/corruption; environmental racism; wetland-destruction; tree-killing/clear-cutting; St. Augustine's willful dumping of our old city dump into Old City Reservoir; dumping by JEA, Clay County and Venice, which intentionally dumped semi-treated sewage, pleading guilty to three federal felonies.
As the Record reported, St. Johns River Water Management District specifically ordered our city managers not to dump in and there were no Army Corps permits to excavate the old dump.
Claims of "inadvertence" by city officials are misleading. We need vigorous Congressional investigations and enforcement of environmental criminal laws against executive/managerial wrongdoers, from nuclear weapons plants to oil tankers to city hall. Congress must preserve history and investigate what Mayor George Gardner candidly admits is City Hall's "rampant corruption."
Click here to return to story:
http://staugustine.com/stories/111606/opinions_4208261b.shtml
© The St. Augustine Record
Ed Slavin
St. Augustine
Publication Date: 11/16/06
Editor: Why waste millions constructing a new Castillo Visitor Center? Let's learn from urban national parks, including the New Bedford (Mass.) Whaling Historical Park, (13 city blocks, 32 acres), with its cost-saving National Park Service visitor center in a restored building.
Let's ask Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., to propose a "St. Augustine National Historical Park," showcasing all of St. Augustine's history -- Castillo, city gates, historic streets, Slave Market Square, Government House, bayfront/seawall/harbor, Spanish Quarter Village, Anastasia State Park, Fort Mose, Ponce de Leon Golf Course, Red House Bluff, Magnolia Street, Salt Run and other archaeological/natural treasures.
Let's protect forever an "emerald necklace of parks." Let NPS preserve and interpret history, including Native American and African-American history.
Let us be decisive, bold and creative.
Let's tax tourists more to fund preservation. Let's win grants and restore our city's 1928 trolley-car system, solving traffic congestion.
Architect Daniel Burnham said, "Make no little plans for they do not inspire" followers.
At Thanksgiving, be thankful for Democratic victories restoring sanity.
Let's ask Congress to expose/halt Florida government chicanery, e.g., defective election systems; political gerrymandering/corruption; environmental racism; wetland-destruction; tree-killing/clear-cutting; St. Augustine's willful dumping of our old city dump into Old City Reservoir; dumping by JEA, Clay County and Venice, which intentionally dumped semi-treated sewage, pleading guilty to three federal felonies.
As the Record reported, St. Johns River Water Management District specifically ordered our city managers not to dump in and there were no Army Corps permits to excavate the old dump.
Claims of "inadvertence" by city officials are misleading. We need vigorous Congressional investigations and enforcement of environmental criminal laws against executive/managerial wrongdoers, from nuclear weapons plants to oil tankers to city hall. Congress must preserve history and investigate what Mayor George Gardner candidly admits is City Hall's "rampant corruption."
Click here to return to story:
http://staugustine.com/stories/111606/opinions_4208261b.shtml
© The St. Augustine Record
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
WHAT A CREATIVE WAY TO OBSTRUCT AN ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME INVESTIGATION OF ILLEGAL DUMPING BY THE NATION:S OLDEST (EUROPEAN-FOUNDED) CITY
If you were a truck driver or a profssional engineer employed by the City of St. Augustine, how helpful would you bewith criminal investigators knowing that the City Commissioners stood behind the City Manager and that you could be fired at will, with no training informing employees of their federal environmental whistleblower rights?
On February 27, 2006, EPA and FDEP investigators began an investigation of illegal dumping by the City of St. Augustine.
On March 13, 2006, City Commissioners reacted with pejoratives over criticism and questioning of City Manager WILLIAM B. HARRISS, voting to give him a heck-of-a-job award and expressing their confidence, while refusing to give him a performance appraisal during his eight years as City Manager.
With City Manager WILLIAM B. HARRIS grinning from ear to ear, on March 27, 2006, Commissioners adopted the folllowing:
P R O C L A M A T I O N
WHEREAS, the City of St. Augustine is extraordinary among places in the world and is fortunate to have William B. “Bill” Harriss as its City Manager, a person whose passion for the City and professional commitment to the City is unmatched; and
WHEREAS, in his more than two decades of service to the people of St. Augustine as Chief Financial Officer, General Services Director, Assistant City Manager and now as City Manager, Mr. Harriss’ philosophy of administration through strong team-building consistently inspires the City’s more than 350 employees to aspire to do their best, and
WHEREAS, through responsible fiscal planning, Mr. Harriss has ensured the City’s solid financial standing and earned its sound management the highest respect; and
WHEREAS, with honest enthusiasm for the highest level of proficiency in every aspectof his work, Mr. Harriss’ prudent management has resulted in improved reliability of service for the City’s 10,000 utility customers while continually upgrading infrastructure, and
WHEREAS, by making public safety a high priority, Mr. Harriss has lead the fire and police departments to create a safe community for the City’s 14,000 residents and millions of annual visitors.
NOW, THEREFORE, it is with great pride that the St. Augustine City Commissionrecognizes the outstanding contributions made by William B. “Bill” Harriss to the people of St. Augustine, commends him for his professional commitment, and expresses its full confidence inhis management of the City.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, we have hereunto set our signatures and caused the Seal of the City of St. Augustine to be affixed this 27th day of March in the year of our Lord twothousand six and the four hundred fortieth year of the founding of St. Augustine, the Nation’sOldest City.
George Gardner, Mayor
Susan Burk, Vice Mayor
Joseph Boles, Commissioner
Donald Crichlow, Commissioner
Errol Jones, Commissioner
On February 27, 2006, EPA and FDEP investigators began an investigation of illegal dumping by the City of St. Augustine.
On March 13, 2006, City Commissioners reacted with pejoratives over criticism and questioning of City Manager WILLIAM B. HARRISS, voting to give him a heck-of-a-job award and expressing their confidence, while refusing to give him a performance appraisal during his eight years as City Manager.
With City Manager WILLIAM B. HARRIS grinning from ear to ear, on March 27, 2006, Commissioners adopted the folllowing:
P R O C L A M A T I O N
WHEREAS, the City of St. Augustine is extraordinary among places in the world and is fortunate to have William B. “Bill” Harriss as its City Manager, a person whose passion for the City and professional commitment to the City is unmatched; and
WHEREAS, in his more than two decades of service to the people of St. Augustine as Chief Financial Officer, General Services Director, Assistant City Manager and now as City Manager, Mr. Harriss’ philosophy of administration through strong team-building consistently inspires the City’s more than 350 employees to aspire to do their best, and
WHEREAS, through responsible fiscal planning, Mr. Harriss has ensured the City’s solid financial standing and earned its sound management the highest respect; and
WHEREAS, with honest enthusiasm for the highest level of proficiency in every aspectof his work, Mr. Harriss’ prudent management has resulted in improved reliability of service for the City’s 10,000 utility customers while continually upgrading infrastructure, and
WHEREAS, by making public safety a high priority, Mr. Harriss has lead the fire and police departments to create a safe community for the City’s 14,000 residents and millions of annual visitors.
NOW, THEREFORE, it is with great pride that the St. Augustine City Commissionrecognizes the outstanding contributions made by William B. “Bill” Harriss to the people of St. Augustine, commends him for his professional commitment, and expresses its full confidence inhis management of the City.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, we have hereunto set our signatures and caused the Seal of the City of St. Augustine to be affixed this 27th day of March in the year of our Lord twothousand six and the four hundred fortieth year of the founding of St. Augustine, the Nation’sOldest City.
George Gardner, Mayor
Susan Burk, Vice Mayor
Joseph Boles, Commissioner
Donald Crichlow, Commissioner
Errol Jones, Commissioner
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