CITY OF ST. AUGUSTINE'S POLLUTION ("DOCUMENTED ENVIRONMENTAL VIOLATIONS") RESULTS IN STATE AND FEDERAL DENIAL OF GRANTS, EARMARKS

WILLIAM B. HARRISS
Photo credit: J.D. Pleasant

JOHN REGAN, left next to "pipe", right

St. Augustine City Hall -- you can too "Fight City Hall"


"We do things a little differently in Florida," Governor CHARLES CRIST recently stated. At times that is pronounced Flori-DUH!

Case in point: here in St. Augustine, our Nation's Oldest European-founded City, with the Oddest Government, City Manager WILLIAM B. HARRISS, Republican Lord of All He Surveys, Best Friend of Treekillers and Wetland-Fillers (and CIty Manager for Life) secretly put 40,000 cubic yards of solid waste in the Old City Reservoir. HARRISS was caught. Our City was fined. HARRISS wasn't fired. HARRISS wasn't hauled in front of a grand jury. HARRISS wasn't prosecuted. (Not yet).

Then HARRISS secretly put semi-treated sewage effluent in our saltwater marsh, for years, with the secret approval of City Commissioners. The saltwater marsh is at the confluence of the confluence of two rivers (Matanzas and San Sebastian). The City was allowed to work of its fine by encouraging restaurants not to deposit grease in sewers. HARRISS wasn't fired. HARRISS wasn't hauled in front of a grand jury. HARRISS wasn't prosecuted. (Not yet).

Then HARRISS and our City of St. Augustine applied for state and federal grants and earmarks. The City has been told it is ineligible because of its environmental violations, unjust stewardship of our environment and wasteful spending.

A $1.75 million sewer plant aeration and motor control center upgrade would have been eligible for state grants, but won't get them because of "documented environmental violations." The City of St. Augustine will take the money from its reserve fund of approximately $4 million. See May 4, 2009 memo to HARRISS from Public Works Department, in notebook for May 11, 2009 CIty Commission meeting (Consent Agenda item No. 5).

As the Ancient City of St. Augustine approaches its 450th anniversary and our State of Florida approaches its 500th anniversary, we need new leadership.

No more dull Republicans. No more government pollution. No more crooks. No more schnooks. No more HARRISS' dirty looks.

And the next time City Manager WILLIAM B. HARRISS, henchman TIMOTHY BURCHFIELD or henchman JOHN REGAN thinks it's cute to dump illegally or destroy wetlands and wildlife habitat, remember: "the whole world is watching!"

What do you reckon?