NO COMMISSIONER JUSTIFIES CITY MANAGER WILLIAM B. HARRISS EXPECTING WORKERS CITIZENS TO RISK LIVES FOR HARRISS' INEPT DECREPIT REGIME

CITY OF ST. AUGUSTINE EXPECTS WORKERS AND CITIZENS TO RISK OUR LIVES FOR CITY MANAGER WILLIAM B. HARRISS' INEPT, DECREPIT REGIME

At last night's City Commission meeting, Mayor JOSEPH LEROY BOLES, JR. seriously asked City Attorney RONALD BROWN for legal advice about citizens in the audience wearing t-shirts, mentioning, among others, City Commission candidate Judith Seraphin (who was wearing her election t-shirt, stating “I won’t DUCK the issues.”

It was concluded that City Commission had no power to dictate sartorial splendor. But wills, estate and trust lawyer JOSEPH LEROY BOLES, JR. claimed to have the power to prevent candidates from using the City’s soapbox for campaigning or politicking (as if Commissioner ERROL JONES, et al hadn’t done so before).

BOLES was rude to Democratic Congressional candidate Faye Armitage several months ago, making ungracious remarks when she introduced herself to Commissioners. It seems that BOLES is a Democrat In Name Only (DINO) but supports plug-ugly mean-spirited Republican mugs like Congressman JOHN MICA and Representative WILLIAM L. PROCTOR.

As a result of BOLES’ noting and seeking legal advice about citizens’ attire, I noted the incongruity of his micromanaging t-shirts but not pollution, speaking to Commissioners was proudly wearing an Obama/Biden t-shirt and an “I voted early” sticker),

Mayor JOSEPH LEROY BOLES, JR. asked for a legal opinion on t-shirts worn by private citizens, but no one ever asked any legal opinions before:(a) dumping 40,000 cubic yards of contaminated solid waste in the Old City Reservoir, resulting in fines; or (b) dumping treated freshwater sewage effluent in our saltwater marsh from the City’s sewage plant, for years, while HARRISS held private briefings delaying replacement of a shredded “pipe” missing 120 feet – that’s not a pipe, it’s a colander.

Remarking at this incongruity, no one defended the indefensible.

Nor did anyone defend the City’s lack of a safety culture, as demonstrated by asking City workers to handle shredded, rusty, sewage effluent pipe without gloves and asking untrained workers to sift through 40,000 cubic yards of contaminated solid waste before moving it from Lincolnville to West Augustine to the Old City Reservoir.

I proposed that St. Augustine agree to abide by OSHA, including Section 11.c., which protects worker rights to raise safety concerns, and agree to an environmental whistleblower policy that protects employee rights to make disclosures to government, the news media and public interest groups.

No one disagreed. No one denied employees are afraid to speak their truths out of fear of the autocratic City Manager WILLIAM B. HARRISS, he who must be obeyed. No one defended HARRISS – not even embattled City Commissioner ERROL JONES, a/k/a ERRONEOUS JONES.

Organized citizens have caught WILLIAM B. HARRISS in two overt acts of environmental crimes, yet he has never apologized, falsely blaming “incompetents” when the fault was with his autocratic, authoritarian, intimidating management style, a stench in the nostrils of our Nation’s Oldest City.

Voters are already voting out other-directed ERROL JONES, a/k/a ERRONEOUS JONES, whose nastiness and intimidation of voters is backfiring. See below.

Elect Judith Seraphin and Jimmy Owens to the City Commission. See my Sunday column in the St. Augustine Record.