Another St. Augustine Sunshine Violation? "Another Day, Another Dollar?"

Another St. Augustine Sunshine Violation?

Last night, some 70 citizens were treated disrespectfully, disdainfully, diffidently by City Commissioners who did not hold the promised public hearing on Ordinance 2007-11, tabling the motion and sending them away.  Good and decent people changed their schedules, including nuns and other religious people.
Families spent their hard-earned money  on babyssitters.  People rescheduled work and leisure activities.
Meanwhile, the City's outside contractor attorney wasn't even there.  City staff knew that the vote was going to be tabled.
How did they know?
Because City staff such as controversial City Manager WILLIAM B. HARRISS "poll" Commissioners, knowing in advance of each meeting how they will vote.  They then tell Commissioners, which violates the Sunshine law.
That's how whatever the concern of citizens, the City Manager always wins -- HARRISS always gets his way.
Like the casino that can never lose, the City Manager can always let one or two Commissioners vote against him, earning forgiveness from voters who can say, "well at least" [insert name of Commissioner] voted for us.  In this way people are co-opted, coddled and convinced that perhaps someone listens to them.
On the adult entertainment zones, Commissioner Donald Crichlow has been out-front against the notion of creating such zones.
Of course, no one will discuss the obvious solution -- put one zone with 4-6 parcels south of the Police Headquarters.  At several City Commission meetings, Commissioners have refused to acknowledge the idea, which is the sensible solution.
When I called and asked Commissioner Gardner and City Attorney Ronald Brown about it, he said it couldn't be done because of the alcohol sales buffering provision of proposed ordinance 2007-11.
Mayor JOSEPH LEROY BOLES, JR. said at one meeting that the Sebastian Winery owner might not like the sex zone near his business.
Commissioners apparently are reluctant to pick 4-6 parcels south of the SAPD HQ for fear of offending the DEVLIN GROUP, successor to the problem-plagued original developer of the moribund Sebastian Inner Harbor site, where lawyer GEORGE MCCLURE claims there is a "letter of intent" for a WESTIN HOTEL, sans any evidence or testimony presented at the August 13, 2007 public hearing on modifications to the Sebastian Inner Harbor Project.
Since alleged fraudfeasor ROBERT MICHAEL GRAUBARD and other real estate speculators are crawling all over the City of St. Augustine like maggots on a garbage can, our City Commissioners are other-directed, not inner-directed. They won't talk about issues citizens raise, such as the St. Augustine National Historical Park, National Seashore and National Scenic Highway.  They won't engage citizens for the betterment of our Nation's Oldest City.
In fact, it appears that that City's motivation in dumping the old city dump conents into the Old City Reservoir was to speed the "wetland mitigation" project associated with the Sebastian Inner Harbor project, built on a former Superfund site.  Former Mayor GARDNER revealingly said last year that he was running again for Commissioner, but not as Mayor, because he wanted to see projects through to completion, such as the Sebastian Inner Harbor site.
It would be "simple" as Mayor JOSEPH LEROY BOLES, JR. said, to have the adult entertainment zone out of site, away from neighborhoods, away from schools and away from tourists, south of the SAPD HQ.  But it would offend the developers who control our Nation's Oldest City.  Thus, our putative City leaders are on the horns of a dilemma.  They have reaped the whirlwind of their own creation.
They can't vote to put the entertainment zone south of SAPD HQ because GEORGE MCCLURE and the DEVLIN GROUP have said no.  How does Commissioner SUSAN BURK say "no" to her former boyfriend, ROBERT MICHAEL GRAUBARD?  How do Commissioners tell their campaign contributors and confereres "no?"
Instead, they were very disrespectfully to over 70 citizens who oppose their plans, unwilling to let them speak, BOLES said, because he's already heard it already.
At recent public hearings, BOLES hasn't bothered to swear in any witnesses, whether real estate speculators or citizens.  Last night he cancelled a public hearing based upon a spurious motion to table that was pre-planned, with the consultant lawyer not bothering to come to St. Augustine.
Last night, City Commissioners already knew -- and the City's lawyers already knew -- that ordinance no. 2007-11 was going to be tabled.
That's the point. 
Our City Commission is the captive of special interests.  It has no more interest in protecting the public interest than a hog.
Whether it is what RFK called the "willful heedless destruction of natural beauty and pleasures" or the location of a sin zone next to the site of the first Roman Catholic Mass in North America, the "fruits of the poisonous tree" are the same. There is no good legislation adopted by the City Commission of the City of St. Augustine.
As long as doormats are elected to City Commission -- and as long as WILLIAM B. HARRISS is still the City Manager -- our City will be mismanaged, subjected to waste, fraud, abuse, misfeasance, malfeasance and nonfeasance.
Meanwhile, BOLES has gagged citizens attending City workshops, including one on the budget last week and another on sex zones last month. At least Mayor GEORGE GARDNER allowed citizens to speak and ask questions at workshops. Under BOLES' suzerainty as Mayor of St. Augustine -- which he said was a "ceremonial" job when running last year -- public participation opportunities have decreased, as has the number of chairs in the City Commission meeting room.
In the midst of a putative budget crisis, MAYOR BOLES actually quibbled with a  Sierra Club presentation on "cool cities" that conserve energy and reduce global warming, questioning  the idea of buying energy-conserving vehicles on the basis they cost more (never mind the savings in "life cycle costs," subject of a bill by Senator Gary Hart 30 years ago).
Meanwhile, City Commissioner SUSAN BURK is off on another junket, this one to CARTAGENA, COLUMBIA.
As John Hinckley's lawyer Vince Fuller (of Williams & Connolly) said upon Hinckley's acquittal by reason of insanity, "another day, another dollar."
It's our mon