City of St. Augustine Violates Equal Employment Laws By Refusing to Post, Advertise 450th Anniversary Job

In the streets of St. Augustine in 1964, our police and sheriff's deputies rioted with the KKK, helping President Lyndon Johnson break the Senate filibuster and enact the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

Our City of St. Augustine was called "the most lawless" city in America by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It still is.

Controversial City Manager WILLIAM B. HARRISS just hired another white male manager.

The new hire begins work April 1, assigned to run the City's 450th Anniversary celebration. HARRISS did so without a job description or a national search.

The person chosen is a fine man, a scholar and a gentleman, and is very qualified. I even encouraged Dana Ste. Claire to run for Mayor last year. He's got guts -- when he was HARB Chair, he talked of using eminent domain to save endangered buildings. I am sure that he will do a fine job, and would likely have been chosen even after a national or international search. But that's not the point.

This is about policy and compliance with civil rights laws by the very City whose racism helped show the world the need for the 1964 Civil Rights Act..

St. Augustine City Commissioner Leeana Freeman deserves praise for asking questions. (See story below).

MARGO POPE, the St. Augustine Record editorial writer, deserves no praise for not asking questions -- her latest suckup editorial (below) shows she's in deep denial -- there's a corrupt political machine running our City and County governments. MARGO POPE reminds me of what Robert Kennedy said about Daniel Patrick Moynihan -- he "knows all the facts and he's against all the solutions."

HARRISS admittedly polled Commissioners on Ste Claire's hiring -- this was another violation of Florida's Sunshine Law.

The point about the City of St. Augustine hiring of someone without advertising is that it is invidiously discriminatory and violates EEO principles.

What's their hurry? W

hy won't the City Manager write a job description and post and advertise the job? WILLIAM B. HARRISS is such an effete, offensive good-ole-boy that it would never occur to him to do anything straight and honorable. What can you say about a reckless thug who dumped 40,000 cubic yards of solid waste in our Old City Reservoir?

The City of St. Augustine put the cart before the horse (again), which is why there is only one woman (and no African-American) manager out of 350 full-time equivalent employees in a City government serving 13,000 residents (and 5 million tourists), with a $50,000,000annual budget.

Shame on the City of St. Augustine.

Shame on the St. Augustine WRecKord!