More than $606,000 in no-bid contracts?
SHERIFF DAVID SHOAR and EX-SHERIFF NEAL PERRY
Bagman MICHAEL GOLD f/k/a "MICHAEL TOBIN" and SHERIFF DAVID SHOAR f/k/a "DAVID HOAR"
Convicted felon Tennessee Governor Ray Blanton: "If you can't help your friends, who can you help?"
During the years 2001-2009, JR UNIFORM COMPANY (for which MICHAEL GOLD f/k/a "MICHAEL TOBIN," the Sheriff's bagman, is a commissioned salesman) raked in more than $606,000 in no-bid contracts. We're waiting on earlier figures from the year 2000, for which the SJCSO wanted to charge us earlier in the week.
As the late convicted felon Tennessee Governor Ray Blanton once said, "if you can't help your friends, who can you help?" Or as Jesse Unruh said, "Money is the mother's milk of politics."
The more than $606,000 in no-bid contracts is almost precisely one dollar for every one of the 611,294 gallons of sewage spilled by our City of St. Augustine into the San Sebastian River earlier this year -- a sewage spill for which Sheriff DAVID SHOAR and other FLorida law enforcement have not yet treated as a crime. (SHOAR is the ex-SAPD Police Chief whom City Manager WILLIAM B. HARRISS supported for Sheriff).
MICHAEL GOLD f/k/a "MICHAEL TOBIN" raised more than $250,000 for DAVID SHOAR during his 2004 campaign. SO entrenched was SHOAR that no one dared run against him in 2008. In fact, MICHAEL GOLD f/k/a "MICHAEL TOBIN" bragged on his hate website (which has only hagiography for SHOAR) on April 4, 2008:
In visiting with David yesterday, I think he will walk in to office come January 1. There are no strong contenders out there that could launch a credible campaign -- at least at this point.
If he runs un-opposed (sic), which I'm guessing he will, I would not be surprised to learn that this is his last 4 years. Time will tell, of course.
I'm going to see him again next week and we are going to go throuh (sic) some of the campaign stuff we've been storing from four years ago, just in case Wink
_________________
Here's the controversial St. Johns County Sheriff, DAVID SHOAR, openly and notoriously consorting with MICHAEL GOLD, the hate website operator at the hate website operator's 2008 graduation from Flagler College (the St. Augustine Record reported January 13, 2008 that GOLD was employed by the Sheriff's office):
MICHAEL GOLD f/k/a "MICHAEL TOBIN" and DAVID SHOAR f/k/a "DAVID HOAR"
Looking at the numbers, it appears that GOLD's family business, the JR UNIFORM COMPANY, actually lost business (to whom we don't know yet) since Sheriff DAVID SHOAR was elected.
Does JR UNIFORM COMPANY's declining market share of the Sheriff's business as a uniform distributor account for MICHAEL GOLD's bootlicking and pathological lying on his websites?
Does MICHAEL GOLD f/k/a "MICHAEL TOBIN" consider his hate websites a good marketing vehicle for JR UNIFORM COMPANY (and GOLD's private detective business) as far as the SJCSO and City of St. Augustine are concerned?
As a distributor of other companies' uniforms (and embroiderer) are GOLD and JR UNIFORM COMPANY facing increased price competition and downsized government purchases?
Are JR UNIFORM COMPANY and/or MICHAEL GOLD drawn by money-hunger and irrationality to attack progressives and to fawn shamelessly like lickspittles all over the City of St. Augustine, the SJCSO and other law enforcement agencies as a means of obtaining contracts?
Is MICHAEL GOLD unaware that it is a civil rights violation with remedies in federal courts for local governments to dole out jobs and contracts only to their political cronies and to deny contracts to those who back the wrong political candidates? O'Hare Towing Service v. City of Northlake, 518 U.S. 912 (1996). Probably not, for as ex-Commissioner Mary Kohnke revealed several years ago, St. Johns County government was requiring applicants for board appointments to be Republican. That is a violation of the First Amendment.
Is MICHAEL GOLD unaware that, in New York Times Associate Editor Tom Wicker's words, the ass-kisser demeans himself just as much as the ass he kisses?
What do you reckon? The five main conclusions to be drawn:
1. There must be tighter Board of County Commissioners oversight over the Sheriff and his $56,000,000.00 annual budget. Do we really need armed 21-year old youths with guns, TASERS and SWAT gear at Mosquito Control Board meetings to keep an eye on Commissioner John Sundeman and activist Ed Slavin (that would be me), as the St. Augustine Record reported earlier this year? Do we really need to buy helicopters, Cardigan sweaters and Pith helmets (with or without competitive bidding)?
2. There must be stronger state laws on local government purchasing, including tight reins on waste, fraud, abuse, misfeasance, malfeasance and nonfeasance by Sheriffs and other "constitutional officers" who don't know the value of a dollar and waste too much on flubdubs (including take-home Sheriff's cars). The Sheriff's spokesman wrote me this morning, "I do not believe those purchases called for competitive bidding." You can expect the minimum when you elect a Republican in a corrupt county known for one-party Republican misrule. We need to reform government contracting as we know it, from the Courthouse to Washington, D.C. St. Johns County Commissioners -- whom Sheriff SHOAR f/k/a "HOAR" called "the princes" on June 11, 2008 (see FBI tape transcript, below) must insist on competitive bidding, or cut the Sheriff's bloated budget. How can anyone possibly call themselves a "fiscal conservative" if they don't use competitive bidding for government purchases? Whether it is Republican Sheriffs NEAL PERRY's and DAVID SHOAR's no-bid contracts to Republican cronies, or Republican Congressman JOHN MICA's no-bid "earmarks" for campaign contributors, the lack of competition in government purchasing would gag a maggot.
3. The Statewide Grand Jury must investigate local corruption in St. Johns County.
4. Too much government spending is wasted on "flubdubs," as Abraham Lincoln called them. To rabid, reactionary Reichwingers like hate website operator, private investigator and uniform, Cardigan and Pith helmet salesman MICHAEL GOLD f/k/a "MICHAEL TOBIN," in the immortal words of Senator Gary Warren Hart (D-Colo.), "you won't get the government off your back until you get your hands out of its pockets."
5. We've not given credit to Sheriffs PERRY and SHOAR as the fashion plates these Republican fascists apparently are -- Pith helmets, Cardigan sweaters, sexy BDU shorts? Tres fey. Where's the muscle shirts, sequined purses and matching shoes? Do NEAL PERRY and DAVID SHOAR plan on posing for Gentlemen's Quarterly? Will Sheriff SHOAR f/k/a "HOAR" be holding a Republican fascism-fashion show? Will SHOAR be letting the community help choose the many, many varieties of uniform worn by "his" officers (who grow disenchanted with all his works and pomps every single day)?
Bagman MICHAEL GOLD f/k/a "MICHAEL TOBIN" and SHERIFF DAVID SHOAR -- Do their gloves match their shoes (and their Cardigan sweaters and Pith helmets)?
SHERIFF DAVID SHOAR and EX-SHERIFF NEAL PERRY
In secret, behind locked gates, our Nation's Oldest City dumped a landfill in a lake (Old City Reservoir), while emitting sewage in our rivers and salt marsh. Organized citizens exposed and defeated pollution, racism and cronyism. We elected a new Mayor. We're transforming our City -- advanced citizenship. Ask questions. Make disclosures. Demand answers. Be involved. Expect democracy. Report and expose corruption. Smile! Help enact a St. Augustine National Park and Seashore. We shall overcome!
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