Saturday, September 08, 2007

OPEN LETTER TO ST. AUGUSTINE MAYOR JOSEPH LEROY BOLES, JR.

Dear Mayor Boles:
1. I have filed a complaint and petition for rulemaking today with the St. Johns River Water Management District (SJRWMD) regarding our City's providing putatively "free" water to 43 of 350 employees, who therefore have no incentive to conserve water. SJRWMD has already acknowledged receipt of the complaint and petition for rulemaking today, which you may view in its entirety at www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com
2. Water is not a "free" good for anyone on this planet. Wateris a scare resource that the fundamental public policies of the State of Florida require be conserved.
I am unable to identify any other Florida jurisdiction that provides "free" water for employees. If SJRWMD responds affirmatively to the proposed rulemaking, there will be either a rule or an order foribidding the City from providing this sui generis employee benefit. In the interregnum, as my mother would say, will you kindly "drop the oyster and leave the wharf?" Kindly heed Ms. Kalaidi's excellent suggestion and drop the alleged "benefit," which is of no benefit to our City, our State or our society.
3. Your indecent and rude behavior in response to Ms. B.J. Kalaidi's and others' concerns at the first of two TRIM meetings was notable, as was your failure at that meeting to: (a) salute the flag, (b) say a prayer or (c) televise the meeting (sine qua nons of every other St. Augustine City Commission throughout the year.
4. Your belligerent behavoir at the untelevised meeting -- including inflicting illegal limitations on citizens' rights to ask questions and obtain answers at a TRIM hearing -- shows that you lack respect for democracy. I am ashamed of your actions.
5. When you said "NO!" to Ms. Kalaidi's request that our City stop paying water bills for 43 City employees, you earned the complaint and petition for rulemaking that I filed with SJRWMD earlier today. The least our City should do is weigh the costs and benefits, instead of acting, in FDR's words (quoting Dante) like a government "frozen in the ice of its own indifference."
6. Please provide television coverage for the next TRIM meeting on September 20th.
7. Please see that City staff provide answer to the 140 questions by close of business on Friday, September 20th, so we may post it on www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com and discuss those answers when City Manager WILLIAM B. HARRISS testifies under oath at the September 20 TRIM budget hearing.
8. Please treat citizens with dignity, respect and consideration from this day forward.
9. Please respect citizens' rights to obtain answers to questions, under oath, including the 140 questions I provided you with on September 6th.
10. Please cease and desist from any future insulting behavior, e.g., your muttering mumbling "ad nausem" remark in response to my testimony at the hearing.
11. As President Thomas Jefferson said, "I have sworn upon the altar of Almighty God eternal hostility over every form of tyranny over the mind of [humankind]."
12. If you think that being mean to citizens makes you a bigger or better person, you are sadly mistaken. As President Thomas Jefferson Clinton said in his Second Inaugural Address, "Nothing great was ever accomplished by being small."
13. Please feel free to call me to discuss the budget and my 140 budget questions.
14. Please let me know if any of your legal clients is selling property that falls within any of the proposed St. Augustine adult business/entertainment district zones. If so, kindly recuse yourself from chairing any City Commission meetings or voting on the proposed adult business/entertainment zones.
15. Thank you for your prompt attention to these matters. I look forward to seeing you at Monday's City Commission meeting. Kindly remember, you work for us (and not the other way around).
Thank you again.
With kindest regards, I am,
Sincerely yours,
Ed Slavin
www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com
Box 3084
St. Augustine, FL 32085-3084
471-7023
471-9918 (fax)

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