Troubling Reports re:Selection Criteria for New Commissioner To Be Appointed to Unexpired Term of William L. Leary

DONALD CRICHLOW WAS THE ARCHITECT OF THE PROPOSED "BISHOP's BUILDING" ABOVE, UNANIMOUSLY DEFEATED 4-0 BY HIS CITY COMMISSION COLLEAGUES IN 2009, WHICH WOULD HAVE RUINED DOWNTOWN VIEWS OF FLAGLER COLLEGE AND OUR CATHEDRAL BASILICA

 I was troubled to read that there may be a move afoot to appoint former St. Augustine Commissioner DONALD CRICHLOW to Commission, and that Commissioners are suggesting that one must have been a former Commissioner.  Prior Commission service is not a Bona Fide Occupational Qualification (BFOQ).

Why require that the Commission appoint a "has been?"

No illegal "has been" requirement should limit the diversity of the Commissioner chosen to complete William L. Leary's term.  Our former City Commissioners either retired by choice or by the peoples' choice in elections.  DONALD CRICHLOW retired, supporting William Leary (so did I).

But DONALD CRICHLOW does not get to "take his seat back" because Leary is moving to California, as if CRICHLOW were some Republican lord of all he surveys, with a "right of reverter" in "his seat.".


Requiring appointment or annointment of a former City Commissioner makes one the chosen one more likely to be prejudiced against Gays (three then-Commissioners voted twice against the Rainbow flags in 2005, causing the City to lose money on attorney fees for the City's and the Gay Pride group's counsel in a successful First Amendment case, which resulted in Rainbow flags flying on our Bridge of Lions in honor of Gay Pride, June 8-13, 2005).  It is likely that at least two of those former Commissioners would likely vote the same way again on Rainbow flags (DONALD CRICHLOW and GEORGE GARDNER); a third, ERROL JONES, made the motion to add "sexual orientation" into the Fair Housing ordinance, but he is not a candidate for his old job, for which he got about 14% of the vote in the August Primary. 

We have made a lot of progress here.  We don't want to go backward by choosing CRICHLOW.

Looking at the "recruiting pattern" of the City Commission, most recent members were members or Chairs of the Planning and Zoning Board (PZB).  Good judgment on planning and zoning matters is essential to important job of the City Commissioner, who must sit in quasi-judicial hearings and render just decisions, or get the City sued.  PZB membership would be a Bona Fide Occupational Qualification (BFOQ) and would embrace about half the candidates who have or are likely to express interest, including DELTRA LONG, JOHN VALDES, GRANT MISTERLY, STEVEN SCHUYLER and   DONALD CRICHLOW.

The notion of appointing our former City Manager's golfing buddy -- DONALD CRICHLOW -- shows a lack of imagination. 

Who is DONALD CRICHLOW?   He's a developer-driven architect, former PZB Chair, former City Commissioner, a “cognitive miser” who never used one cliché when three would do – CRICHLOW's worst-ever is “We don't want to re-invent the wheel!” (Often several times a meeting, like a ritual incantation showing his conventional way of thinking about nearly everything. Just for fun, go check USPTO.gov website – this “reinventing the wheel” has been done by humankind several hundred thousand times – how else do bicycles ride on sand, Space Shuttles land and Mars Rovers rove?) 

As an architect and deeply conflicted City Commissioner, CRICHLOW represented his own architectural clients before Commission-appointed PZB and Historic Architectural Review Board, and state ethics officials allowed him to get away with it.   (How intimidating to citizen board members!).   When CRICHLOW's projects were before the Commission, he sometimes failed to recuse himself, and sometimes failed to get up out of his seat and leave the room.  Finally, after ethics complaints, CRICHLOW learned how to recuse himself and leave the room.  Appoint him again and he will do it to us again, using his Commissioner's job as a way of getting work for developers, thereby embarrassing all of us and putting our colonial history at risk.

CRICHLOW misused his architectural talents and his public office. Working for speculator and t-shirt store owner Danny Schecter and zoning lawyer George McClure, DONALD CRICHLOW designed and tried to inflict his ugly “Bishop's Building” on both his city and his own church (Cathedral Parish), ultimately resulting in Diocese of St. Augustine buying eastern half of Bank of America parking lot, thereby preventing further future threats to our city's downtown historical grandeur.  Thank God.  Our community's views were heard and heeded, but not by CRICHLOW, who claims ancestry going back to 1599 in our town.

DONALD CRICHLOW is a Gay-hating bigot. CRICHLOW's errant anti-Gay remarks to Folio Weekly and his two (2) votes against Rainbow flags in 2005 render him out of step with our times and utterly unqualified to lead our City.  So do his views on racial reconciliation and civil rights.

On February 26, 2007, City Commissioners passed a civil rights resolution, an attempt at apologizing for mistreatment of civil rights protesters, including local residents, Mrs. Peabody, Rev. Andrew Young and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., here in 1963-64. 

Commissioner DONALD CRICHLOW wanted it watered it down, supposedly fearing “liability,” as if an apology could lead to a lawsuit nearly five decades after the fact (on what theory?).

CRICHLOW was then the only whitecommissioner who voted against the resolution, which passee 3-2; disgusted, Commisioner Errol Jones understandably voted against thewatered-down version of his own resolution.

http://staugustine.com/stories/022707/news_4432045.shtml

CRICHLOW thinks of citizen activists as “enemies” and “obstructionists” with a “vendetta,” telling colleagues “don't engage them.”

In August 2010, the City halted plans to send four Commissioners to Spain “to conduct business,” which would have been a violation of Article I, Section 24 of the Florida Constitution and our Florida Sunshine Law. Eighteen local residents (including me) suceeeded without filing a lawsuit (we were represented by Holland & Knight, which made Open Records requests and was planning to sue the City of St. Augustine over Sunshine violations. In response, DONALD CRICHLOW called us “enemies,” with the St. Augustine Record article stating CRICHLOW had cancelled plans to go on the trip:

Crichlow, who leaves the board in November, went on his first and only trip to Spain last year with his daughter.
He said a commissioner's duty is to promote the city, "especially right now with the 450th (birthday celebration) coming up."
But some residents have threatened legal action if the delegation left, he said.
"'These people are obstructionists and no friends of St. Augustine. It's almost like they have a vendetta against (us). They're harming taxpayers. They're enemies of the city.'
Crichlow did not give names.
Dropping out would save him a lot of work. "I'm not going to miss not having to do that. From 9 a.m. in the morning to 11 p.m. at night, you're either at dinners, receptions, parades or church. It's tiring and stressful." All business conducted was done by the mayor. "We did ceremonial things together," he said. "We were never part of any business."
http://staugustine.com/news/local-news/2010-08-19/city-cuts-roster-cost-spain-trip#.URkwPPKiF_Q

Those of us on CRICHLOW's "enemies list" were proud to be there, like everyone listed on Richard Nixon's enemies list.  See Judith Seraphin's response to CRICHLOW's insults, here.

DONALD CRICHLOW is capable of saying equally inane things about almost any subject, including persecution of artists and entertainers for painting and signing and illegal dumping of solid waste in our Old City Reservoir.  With likely visits by the King and Queen of Spain, the President of the United States (and a perhaps a future Pope on the horizon), we don't need DONALD CRICHLOW embarrassing our City ever again.

We've come a long way since DONALD CRICHLOW left.  Dodgy developers are less likely to get their way.  Commission meetings are conducted on a higher intellectual level -- policy not provincialism. 

Upon reflection, I sincerely hope that our Commissioners will agree that the likelihood of CRICHLOW at this stage in his life ever changing his deeply-held views (a/k/a "deep-seated prejudices") are highly improbable – the Latin term for his chances would be “de micromis” (microscopic, which is even a smaller chance than de minimis).

My expectation is that former PZB Chair DELTRA LONG will be appointed the the next member of our St. Augustine Commission, later this month, to take the place of the irreplaceable, irreplaceable William Leary.  DELTRA LONG is a former PZB Chair and a community and African-American leader respected by all – as a student, she was one of the students who courageously helped desegregate St. Augustine High School. White former classmates who once harassed her now love her and hug her.  She is a likely unifying figure with legal education, longtime community involvement, savvy and compassion. She barely missed being in the top two candidates in the August Primary (some 12 votes). She reportedly declined to take a position against the proposed eighteen-pump 7-Eleven gasoline station on May Street (it would have disqualified her from voting in any quasi-judicial hearing on the issue).  That lost her votes in Nelmar Terrace and Fullerwood, because she didn't explain the recusal possibility.  Also, a number of misguided African-Americans voted not for her but for then-commissioner Errol Jones (who came in fourth), out of sympathy, empathy or possible perceptions that Jones had been treated unfairly by SAPD and the Courts.  (I don't particularly believe he was treated unfairly -- his behaviors had gone unchecked for years when HARRISS was City Manager and had Jones' vote in his pocket on all things, including illegal dumping and Environmental Racism.)

Selecting DELTRA LONG will restore racial diversity to the St. Augustine Commission in time for the 50^th anniversary of the 1964 Civil Rights Act is celebrated here next year. She is most likely to succeed, build community and exceed our expectations.

Selecting DONALD CRICHLOW would be a backward step.

Yes we can!

                                                                                    

"THEY'VE HAD THEIR TURN -- NOW ITS OUR TURN"  (That's DONALD CRICHLOW ON THE RIGHT AND CONTROVERSIAL FORMER CITY MANAGER WILLIAM B. HARRISS ON LEFT)

"Tired of all this rights stuff," indeed!  Harrumph!