Who is JOHN H. "JAY" MORRIS, JR.? -– SO OFTEN TOUTING HIS “BUSINESSS EXPERIENCE,” ST. JOHNS COUNTY COMMISSION CHAIRMAN JOHN H. MORRIS, JR LED OHIO MULTINATIONAL CORPORATION THAT PAID MORE THAN $60,000,000 (SIXTY MILLION DOLLARS) FOR GOVERNMENT CONTRACT FRAUD; NOT SURPRISINGLY, COUNTY COMMISSION CHAIRMAN JOHN J. "JAY" MORRIS, JR. OPPOSES FLORIDA's SUNSHINE LAW

It is Sunshine Week in Florida.
In 2011, St. Johns County Commission Chairman JOHN H. “JAY” MORRIS, JR. let the cat out of the bag – he publicly ridiculed Florida's Sunshine laws in an article printed in the Ponte Vedra Recorder.
Morris reportedly said the best way to conduct business was in secret. When Rick Mansfield wrote the Record about it, Morris insulted the messenger, while inviting him "for a cup of coffee." The invitation appears to have been facetious.
Morris' anti-Sunshine views are contrary to the genius of a free people.
Enacted in 1992 with 3.8 million votes, Article I, Section 24 of the Florida Constitution, with 83% of the vote, our Sunshine and Open Records laws are the best in the Nation, better in many respects than even the federal Freedom of Information Act. Just ask former officials whose peculations and misconduct were exposed by journalists and citizens invoking our Sunshine and Open Records laws.

Under Chairman JAY MORRIS' secretive corporate leadership style, many St. Johns County board and committee meetings are being held away from the County's live streaming video and Government TV (GTV) cable TV channel, some in other buildings (not the Taj Mahal).
Why?
The County Administration Building Auditorium often sits vacant, while commissioners and board members meet in tiny rooms, where no one can view them on GTV.
Why?
A petition for rulemaking to open all meetings to TV coverage has been pending since February, without response by St. Johns County.
Why?

Corporate critters' control of St. Johns County government has consequences.

Born January 12, 1942, MORRIS worked for 22 years (circa 1977-1999) for RPM International, stating in his campaign that he led the Ohio-based multinational corporation from a $50 million corporation to a four billion dollar multinational holding corporation, which now has some 11,000 employees worldwide, selling industrial coatings for industry, roofing and consumer needs for coating products in some 150 countries, with employees and manufacturing plants in some 23 countries. RPM is the tenth largest company of its kind in the world.

RPM and its subsidiaries were frequent civil court defendants in asbestos and other toxic tort cases brought by workers and others alleging bodily injuries and property damages allegedly caused by toxic RPM products, includng negligent failure to warn and other negligent and reckless torts, fraud, breach of contract and fraudulent misrepresentation, among other allegations.

RPM and its subsidiaries were named by EPA as potentially responsible parties for cleanup of toxic waste at Superfund sites under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA). RPM agreed to pay for cleanup sites at multiple locations as a result of administrative and federal court litigation, involving pollution by companies making such products that included well-known household names such as Rust-o-leum.

JOHN H. "JAY" MORRIS, like so many American millionaires, retired to Ponte Vedra, Florida, first registering to vote there on January 3, 2001. He and his wife since 1959 had owned a home there in Ponte Vedra since 1978.

Last year, MORRIS' former company, RPM International paid out $60,058,963 – more than sixty million dollars – in settling a False Claims Act qui tam lawsuit brought by a former TREMCO subsidiary vice president.

The fraud case against RPM International was filed under seal and settled more than three years later, with monies distributed to both the whistleblower and to the U.S. Government (represented by the Civil Division of the U.S. Department of Justice), with funds also going to the State of Florida, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and the City of Chicago intervened.

The lawsuit against MORRIS' longtime company was filed under the False Claims Act, otherwise known as the “Abraham Lincoln law,” which was initially enacted during the Civil War to remedy the legendary corruption under Secretary of War Simon Cameron, when the Union Army was swindled by sellers of “shoddy” blankets that fell apart (hence the name “shoddy"), horses that were lame, guns that misfired, and uniforms that fell apart in the rain. (Cameron was so corrupt Lincoln sent him way, to be our Ambassador to Russia). The Lincoln law was revived by Congress in the 1980s (having been weakened before the outbreak of World War II, as a sop to corporations that wanted to become arms merchants, including anti-Semite Henry Ford's Ford Motor Company).

The qui tam False Claims Act action against MORRIS' former company of 22 years was filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, by former TREMCO Vice President Gregory Rudolph. Mr. Rudoph alleged that TREMCO and RPM defrauded the federal, state and local governments – including the Veterans Administration hospitals, the U.S. Army and the U.S. Air Force, nine states and the City of Chicago – by selling overpriced and shoddy roofing coatings.

Among the victims of leaky roofs in Florida were the University of Florida's Shands Hospital in Gainesville, Okaloosa County Schools, Sarasota County and the City of Pinellas Park.

Approved government contractors on a General Services Administration “schedule” are required to sell at the lowest price offered other purchasers.

In fact, RPM's TREMCO subsidiary granted deep discounts to the private sector -- 30-40% -- while offering GSA and other government customers only a 13.3% discount. Taxpayers were ripped off by MORRIS' former company.

The 69 page qui tam False Claims Act lawsuit was filed July 15, 2010 and settled on or about August 27, 2013.

What's next? Several large national plaintiff's class action law firms are circling RPM, presently preparing lawsuits against RPM and TREMCO for fraud (and possibly a shareholder's derivative action for breach of fiduciary duty).

MORRIS may be interviewed or deposed in the litigation. There may also be civil, criminal and administrative investigations, including the Securities and Exchange Commission, to examine whether RPM made materially false and misleading statements to potential investors.

There were no depositions taken of MORRIS during the False Claims Act case investigation, but MORRISS will likely be required to testify under oath by others allegedly defrauded with overpriced and shoddy roofing materials.

MORRIS noted in his County Commission District 4 campaign in 2010 that he was a member of the RPM International Board of Directors and its Executive Vice President, with suzerainty over all of RPM's coating business worldwide. MORRIS was also a Director of Fifth Third Bank, owner of at least 5% of RPM's stock according to disclosures filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

St. Johns County Commission Chairman JOHN H. “JAY” MORRIS, JR. makes bragging frequent reference to his “business experience” – you can't watch a meeting in which he doesn't brag on it at least once (even meetings concerned with tourism). He sounds like a broken record (for those of us who remember the days before Compact Disks and the Internets).

Did County Commission Chairman JAY MORRIS' “business experience” consist in pertinent part of marketing overpriced, shoddy roofing coatings and installations to governments and businesses?

I sent Chairman MORRIS the pertinent documents in PDF last week. He has time to study them. If you would like to read them, I can E-mail to you. (EASlavin@aol.com).

Chairman MORRIS ducked my calls and did not respond to repeated requests for an interview, including one expressed to County Attorney Patrick McCormack (whose office says the County and County Commission Chairman have no records on the RPM case, even though I sent MORRIS PDFs).

Chairman MORRIS did not even invite me "for a cup of coffee."
Wonder why?
What does he have to hide?
No comments were provided by either the Justice Department or the whistleblower's Washington, D.C. attorney, Mark Hanna, who cited a nondisclosure agreement, respectfully declining to provide answers or details. A Justice Department attorney hung up the telephone after curtly referring me to the Office of Public Affairs. A detailed message left with OPA was not responded to within the past week. RPM's PR department did not respond to a March 20 telephone message about MORRIS and the False Claims Act case.

But when I asked whistleblower Gregory Rudolph if MORRIS knew about the pricing practices before MORRIS left the company, he said, “What do you think?” I responded, “I think he probably knew." Mr. Rudolph did not deny it.

Mr. Rudolph's Boston lawyers at MurphyAnderson said in an August 2013 press release on “PR Newswire” that: “If Greg Rudolph had not courageously reported to the Government, it would never have known – and never recovered the $61 million. His brave efforts saved taxpayers millions of dollars, Rudolph's actions demonstrate that contractors must play by the rules when selling to the Government.”

Yesterday morning, March 18, 2014, at the Commission meeting, Chairman JAY MORRIS expressed umbrage that someone would run against him and be welcomed into the County Commission offices without an armed guard. "I do take it personal, Bill, when you recruit someone to run against me," MORRIS said to Commissioner McClure. "To bring him into the office right next door to my office" with MICHAEL GOLD, "Yeah, I do take that personal."

Has St. Johns County Commission Chairman MORRIS' corporate Weltanschauung had a corrosive effect on our democracy?

Read the page one story in the March 19, 2014 St. Augustine Record about County Administration Building (Taj Mahal) “security” concerns. From the hostility publicly directed by Chairman MORRIS and his colleagues yesterday at Commissioner William McClure -- in whose office Historic City News owner MICHAEL GOLD interviewed him.

Watch the tape.

There were some 27 minutes of perseverating by pusillanimous pachyderms. Poohbahs' putative “security” concerns expressed by Chairman MORRIS, Commissioner CINDY STEVENSON, RONALD SANCHEZ, and RACHEL BENNETT may be overblown – Commissioners may be more concerned that MICHAEL GOLD might report news, e.g., that he might observe what's going on in possible Sunshine violations by Commissioners.

Go to the County Commission website and view the tape -- agenda item number 9. Does this look like conscious parallelism to you? Was there an agreement before the meeting to go after dissenters who dared to disagree with MORRIS and encourage an opposition candidate? Does this not resemble something from Russia or Venezuela?

The five Commissioners' five offices are directly adjacent to one another, facilitating easy Sunshine violations beyond public view (if Commissioners were so inclined). Former County Commissioners have told me how easy it is to hear conversations in adjacent offices, and that if a Commissioner speaks loudly enough with his or her door open, other Commissioners may hear them.

Commissioner CINDY STEVENSON stated at yesterday's meeting that was so alarmed by the presence of GOLD and candidate Daniel Abel that she locked her door, saying it was the first time in ten years that she has ever locked her door. Doth the Commissioner protest too much?
GOLD often talks to her.
She does not appear to be afraid of GOLD.
STEVENSON said that County Commission service is "team play," implying that McCLURE was not a team player. Interesting dialectic -- Richard Nixon said on the White House tapes that Pentagon cost analyst A. Ernest Fitzgerald was "not a team player," ordering his firing. When I was trying whistleblower cases, I learned that case law frequently found that "not a team player" (and other expressions was equippolent of a confession.

Likewise, Commission Chairman MORRIS alleged that MICHAEL GOLD was the one who persuaded Mr. Abel to run against MORRIS. This shows that the animus expressed to GOLD in a public forum was retaliation for First Amendment protected activity. GOLD has a right to support candidates, to ask questions, and to criticize MORRIS.

MORRIS and three out of four fellow Commissioners singling out GOLD for abuse is a throwback to the era of County Commissioner JAMES EDWARD BRYANT, who ran the County with an iron fist, working hand-in-hand with developers.

I have often disagreed with MICHAEL GOLD, but I will today defend his First Amendment right to cover the news. It sounds like Commissioners' attack on GOLD and Commissioner Willi8am McClure is a tempest in a thimble, an effort to chill, coerce and repress First Amendment protected activity.
The Record article and Commission diatribe seems calculated to hold GOLD up to obloquy and ridicule.
Coupled with Commission Chairman JAY MORRIS' announced, open and notorious longime hostility to Sunshine laws, and the County's foot dragging on Open Records requests (even those from The New York Times), it seems that MORRIS' main agenda is to inflict more years of one-party Republican rule, RPM-style, complete with misfeasance, malfeasance and nonfeasance, waste, fraud and abuse, flummery, dupery and nincompoopery (as evidenced by the ADA-violating ATM machines at the County-run St. Augustine Amphitheater, illegally installed without a contract or bid or lease, from which the County is still profiting illegally with every $3 illegal ATM fee). Having possibly participated in a False Claims scheme involving RPM International, it is little wonder that MORRIS has remained silent about the ATMs for more than a year after I first reported the illegality.

St. Johns County Sheriff DAVID SHOAR, for whom MICHAEL GOLD has flakked (and raised money for in 2004), is listed as a fundraiser for MORRIS, who has raised more than $53,000.

Thus, it strongly appears that Sheriff DAVID BERNARD SHOAR f/k/a “DAVID HOAR” and MICHAEL GOLD f/k/a “MICHAEL TOBIN” are now backing separate candidates in the all-important District 4 County Commissioner's race. Wonder why?

GOLD often disapproves of corruption. Perhaps he sees through Sheriff SHOAR now, as a result of the Michelle O'Connell shooting case.

Perhaps GOLD and Abel will now blow the whistle on JAY MORRIS' possible involvement in government contract fraud at RPH International, and on MORRIS' rubbberstamping of SHOAR's budget.
When I asked the St. Johns County Administrator recently for the detailed budget justification of SHOAR's Sheriff budget for the last ten years, I got the response that there was none.
None.
Nope.
That's no way to run a government, or a business (or to run a government like a business, JAY MORRIS' tired trite trope).

MORRIS COMMUNICATIONS' St. Augustine Record so frequently publishes MORRIS' columns that one wonders if he is a relative. He is thin-skinned. He writes hostile columns whenever anyone criticizes him or the political machine of which he is a part. In 2011, MORRIS actually wrote a column that denied ever being a "liberal," as if that were a bad thing. MORRIS needs to be cross-examined by journalists and citizens about his business ethics at RPM. We need to investigate him with a gimlet eye.

So the next time County Commission Chairman JOHN H. “JAY” MORRIS brags about his business experience and opines that government should be “run like a business,” ask MORRIS, “like which business” What about the more than $60 million False Claims Act case settled last year against RPM INTERNATIONAL and TREMCO?

Nearly 20% of the settlement went to the U.S. Government, with the rest split with the whistleblower (who earned nearly $10 million), and with the affected states, including the State of Florida.

Keep asking questions.

It's our money.

What do you reckon?
Ed Slavin
Box 3084
St. Augustine, Florida 32085-3084
904-377-4998
EASlavin@aol.com

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