Pity St. Augustine, Florida Mayor JOSEPH LEROY BOLES, JR.

Pity controversial St. Augustine, Florida Mayor JOSEPH LEROY BOLES, JR.
Uriah Heeplike, St. Augustine Mayor JOSEPH LEROY BOLES, JR. buys advertisements that tout his services to senior citizens on the basis that he is Mayor and Chairman of the Council on Aging.
BOLES refused to disclose client names and real estate interests in connection with the St. Augustine "Red Light District" fiasco (see below).
BOLES was part of the unprosecuted Sunshine violations in which an entourage of twelve (12) went to NYC in March 2005.
BOLES was part of the unprosecuted Sunshine violations in which five commissioners met without proper notice in October and December 2006 to hire as temporary and permanent City Attorney a non-resident, violating the Sunshine law and City Charter, and met without proper notice in December 2006 to abrogate artist/vender rights to engage in commerce in Plaza de la Constitucion (a/k/a Slave Market).
BOLES is pilloried in this week's FOLIO WEEKLY as a mean-spirited Scrooge who doesn't care a fig about the homeless and who rants randomly, in Archie Bunker self-aggrandizement, embarrassing our Nation's Oldest City with his remarks about not wanting to be "paralyzed by compassion."
The BOLES dude is a dud -- does BOLES ever remember when he sold out?
After the Record editorial October 6 said the St. Augustine National Historical Park was a "good idea," only two days later BOLES on October 8 moved to stick public comment at the end of Commission meetings, chilling free speech by residents who want to clean up the city of St. Augustine, naming three of them in their perorations ((B.J. Kalaidi, David Thundershield Queen and Ed Slavin).
Previously, Hizzoner BOLES attempted to insult me at the non-televised budget hearings for wanting to "federalize" St. Augustine's history. What a whiner -- the National Park Service will do it better than BOLES & Co can possibly imagine in their crabbed craniae.
Why would BOLES and his cronies vote last night 3-2 (Vice Mayor DONALD CRICHLOW and Commissioner and ex-Mayor GEORGE GARDNER dissenting) to limit public comment on non-agenda items until the very end of the meeting (except in situations where a City Commissioner sponsors your comments earlier)?
Mayor BOLES is rude and crude and brusque.
BOLES fancies himself, City Manager HARRISS and developers above the law and above the rest of the mortals without influence, whose calls he won't return. BOLES & Co. can't stand criticism. They're ashamed of their actions and don't want to be reminded. They don't want to reform anything. They want to drive around with their noses in the air, like the very Republican lords of all they survey, pretending not to have damaged our City, its history, environment, archaeology and culture.
BOLES & Co. have repeatedly coerced, restrained and intimidated First Amendment protected activity. In 2007, City Commissioners were guilty of voting to accept a new survey purporting to kick two activists out of our City. BOLES has allegedly issued a "gag order" against his own mother (who supports the proposed St. Augustine National Historical Park, National Seashore and National Scenic Coastal Highway). See below.
Mayor JOSEPH LEROY BOLES, JR. said in 2006 that he wanted to be Mayor because of his "sense of humor," evidently mistaking affected joviality for wit. BOLES asserted his skill as a "consensus-builder" and offered his unadorned belief that the Mayor's job is only "ceremonial."
The voters almost canceled the coronation, disgusted by our City's illegal dumping.
Now our City is tanking and being taken over by misanthropes. BOLES and his somnambulistic crew empower the tree-killing, wetland-destroying robots like ROBERT MICHAEL GRAUBARD and others spending money from banks and foreign investors from Australia, India, Korea and China, among other places.
Will St. Augustine, Florida Mayor BOLES kindly "lead, follow or get out of the way?"
If BOLES runs for Mayor again, the 2006 City Charter Amendment will require Mayor JOSEPH LEROY BOLES, JR. to resign from his four-year seat (with his term otherwise expiring in the year 2010).
Be of good cheer, for a reformer might be elected Mayor -- and St. Augustine's Mayor JOSEPH LEROY BOLES, JR. could be out on his ear in a little more than a year.
Bring it on!
Why? From A-Z,
evidently, being JOSEPH LEROY BOLES, JR. means:
A. Never having to say you're sorry?
B. Never reading a book?
C. Not doing his homework as well as his predecessor?
D. Never taking your work (or working class constituents) seriously?
E. Always taking everything personally?
F. Taking as many junkets as possible and being enthralled to City Manager WILLIAM B. HARRIS?
G. Refusing to answer questions on budget flummery and our City's illegal dumping (20,000 cubic yards of old city dump contents into the Old City Reservoir, without SJRWMD permits, enough stuff to fill in six Olympic size pools to a depth of six feet or cover a football field to a depth of 11.2 feet)?
H. Getting all riled and hostile and interfering when City Manager WILLIAM B. HARRISS is questioned by the citizenry?
I. Interrupting public comments as often as possible, without offering answers or information?
J. Never having any basis for his opinions?
K. Incessantly talking tackily about tourism, solely in terms of money (never about education, ideas or public service)?
L. Mangling the pronunciation of virtually every Spanish word that ever passes his lips, while regularly re-using every bloody trite trope in his limited lexicon (e.g., "don't reinvent the wheel") at every opportunity, sounding like an anti-literate energumen, with cliches by the carload, instead of the Mayor of the Nation's Oldest City)?
M. Never acting on any public suggestions (unless it's a Whetstone/ Maguire)?
N. Holding two annual budget hearings on Thursdays, outside the schedule and presence of CATV coverage (and unadorned by clergy or flag-saluting), refusing to answer public questions at workshops on budget and adult entertainment issues (then complaining about poor attendance at the workshops, held during the daytime).
O. Refusing to answer over 150 questions and suggestions on the budget?
P. Saying one of the crassest prayers in the history of Christendom when a clergyman was late?
Q. Never asking any tough questions of City Manager WILLIAM B. HARRISS?
R. Never giving HARRISS a performance appraisal?
S. Never criticizing anything done by the City, preferring to smirk like a sibilant TV sportscaster?
T. Over-relying upon City Manager WILLIAM B. HARRISS for his opinion on everything?
U. Deferring to persons whom FDR would call "economic royalists" (including clients he refuses to disclose) on the future of our City?
V. Removing public meeting seats?
W. Kicking public comment speakers to the end of the meeting?
X. Disrespecting Mayor BOLES' own mother, Maureen, who told me that she supports the National Park, Seashore and Scenic Coastal Highway, is a duly appointed member of the city's historic advisory committee (who once ran the Lightner Museum) but whom JOSEPH LEROY BOLES, Jr. allegedly ordered not to talk (because she might be "quoted on Ed Slavin's blog)?"
Y. Acting like a sneak-thief by purporting to redefine the City boundaries without a public hearing.
Z. Acting like a sneak-thief by purporting to change public participation at City Commission meetings without a public hearing.
Angry, antsy, St. Augustine, Florida Mayor
JOSEPH LEROY BOLES, JR. is in a rut. After ten (10) months, the evidence is in on JOSEPH LEROY BOLES, JR. No one likes JOSEPH LEROY BOLES, JR. very much as Mayor.
BOLES hasn't accomplished anything. Both BOLES and City Manager WILLIAM B. HARRISS have been booed at public events.
They are possibly the most unpopular people in our City's history.
Is St. Augustine Mayor JOSEPH LEROY BOLES, JR. too big for his britches?
Is St. Augustine Mayor JOSEPH LEROY BOLES, JR. a failure?
Is St. Augustine Mayor JOSEPH LEROY BOLES, JR. a martinet?
Is St. Augustine Mayor JOSEPH LEROY BOLES, JR. worse than Mayor LEN WEEKS?
Not even LEN WEEKS would have told a citizen he couldn't stand up to a big oil company where a neighborhood's rights were concerned.
Does St. Augustine Mayor JOSEPH LEROY BOLES, JR. suffer from delusions of adequacy?
Is there any hope for St. Augustine Mayor JOSEPH LEROY BOLES, JR.?
What do you reckon?
As Bill Clinton said in his Second Inaugural: "nothing great was ever accomplished by being small!" By that standard, BOLES is (in the punchline to a joke my mother once told me) daily growing "smaller and smaller and grayer and grayer -- for God's sake, keep your eyes out for the cat!"