A Good Start, But Bosses We Don't Need -- St. Augustine Beach Charter Review Committee Has Its First Meeting

Members of St. Augustine Beach's decennial Charter Review Committee had their first meeting last night. Committee members will have until March 17, 2014 to make recommendations about possible revisions to the St. Augustine Beach City Charter. Several Charter Review Committee members disagreed with Election Supervisor Vicki Oakes, who issued an illegal ukase that the Charter provisions must be on the Primary ballot (with low turnout). Oakes has never provided any legal basis for her obstructionism. There is none. Any proposed Charter changes need to be on the November 2014 ballot to avoid the perception the City is being sneaky, by putting hte changes on a low-turnout August primary ballot. Committee members (and this observer) also rightly chafed at facilitator Marilyn Crotty's crotchety ways, including her arranging chairs with members backs to the audience, not having the sessions televised on St. Augustine Beach's cable TV channel, and supposing that a City Charter should "not tie the hands" of City government officials because it is "their right and privilege to govern" as they like until such time as they're defeated for re-election. That is so wrong -- the wisdom of our Founders is directly opposite Crotty's trite trope. Like a Constitution, a City Charter is supposed to "tie the hands" of government officials -- there are some things they simply may not legally do. (Like pass a tax increase with only two affirmative votes -- see below). Marilyn Crotty's stilted stance, the sequelae of years of University-level think-tankery for Florida government agencies, does not pass the laugh test. The Committee members are qualified and experienced. They won't be bossed and bullied by the likes of Marilyn Crotty or Vicki Oakes, two cognitive misers, mediocrities "who know not that they know not that they know not." As Justice Felix Frankfurter's words, Committee members need to focus on creating "a working instrument of government," and not "a meaningless collection of Ennglish words."