WORLDWIDE INTEREST IN CLEANUP ST. AUGUSTINE

Yesterday, amid record views of this blog, a viewer in Paris, France read with interest what we posted exactly 2.5 years ago about the need for open government in St. Augustine. The comments are still true today:


Wednesday, April 12, 2006
Online Reading Room for City of St. Augustine, Florida

On February 16, 2006, I asked the City's Public Relations representative, Mayor and Commissioners to do what our County Commission does -- make its agenda notebooks public on the web. Two months later, St. Augustine has not complied. There is no online reading room. The EEOC report has not been supplied (while the County and the Water Management District each complied within hours of my requests.
JAMES PATRICK WILSON, our estimable City Attorney, demands we appear in person at offices to beg for documents, playing a cat-and-mouse waiting game. He wants us to "sell" us documents -- pay 15 cents per page for paper copies. This was my first request:
Dear Mr. Williamson:
Would you please be so kind as to place the complete contents of each of the Commissioners' agenda notebooks on the COSA website in PDF format, as SJCBCCC does? This online reading room procedure is also used by numerous federal and state agencies.Also, please send me the City's annual EEOC report in PDF format, as requested Tuesday.
Thank you.Now, 55 days later, we're still waiting for a St. Augustine Online Reading Room to be established. We're still waiting for the City's EEOC report to show up. This is the same City that Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called "the most lawless City in America," one where Jeremy Dean's documentary, "Dare Not Walk Alone" shows the institutional racism continues, a place where 59 of 59 police officers are white in a City that is 15% African-American. City officials say they're "tired" of "disgruntled citizens" criticizing "their" City Manager, WILLIAM B. HARRISS. Democracy is not beanbag. Those whose ideology is "don't make waves" do not belong in a community that is home to many surfers. Those whose Weltanschaung is "you can't fight City Hall" would perhaps be more comfortable in someplace other than St. Augustine, where voters get to overthrow our government every two years.

posted by Ed Slavin @ 6:39 PM