St. Johns County and City of St. Augustine both need independent Inspectors General to root out fraud, waste, abuse, misfeasance and malfeasance
Otherwise, how dare they try to raise our taxes without an IG to question spending?
Government is expensive. Corruption is a cost we can't afford any longer.
The county spending spree (front page article in today's St. Augustine below) and the guilty plea of former County Commission Chair THOMAS MANUEL to bribery charges (expected tomorrow) put to rest any doubt that this is perhaps the most corrupt county in Florida.
So what do we do? Vote Democratic. We need to end one-party misrule.
We need Inspectors General. Commissioners refused to add one to their County Charter last year -- citizens defeated their half-baked charter (twice).
Don't take no for an answer -- President Ronald Wilson Reagan said he wanted Inspectors General "meaner than a junkyard dog" to protect the public fisc.
State and federal agencies, Miami-Dade County, Wayne County Michigan (Detroit) and New Orleans have Inspectors General.
What are we waiting for?
Otherwise, the good-ole-boy system will continue to waste our funds and betray the public trust. If you call R.J. LARIZZA's State's Attorney's office and tell them about lawbreaking by a local government official, they will tell you to "call the Sheriff."
That is, at best, facetious when it is the Sheriff's political machine you're complaining about. The SAO won't even mention the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE).
Come 2010, let us have a St. Johns County Inspector General with integrity and independence, who can investigate big-shot crooks without fear or favor. Then lets work for an Inspector General in the CIty of St. Augustine.
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