There must be a national search to find a new Planning and Zoning Director for the City of St. Augustine. The new Planning and Zoning Director must be knowledgeable about historic preservation and environmental protection, and be willing to stand up for preserving and protecting our City's authenticity against the likes of the 7-ELEVENs and ROBERT MICHAEL GRAUBARDs of the world, and the hick hacks who want to please them.
Mark Knight was hired as City Planning and Zoning Director on April 23, 1998, only five days after City Manager WILLIAM BRUCE HARRISS was hired in 1998 (in yet another Sunshine violation by the St. Augustine City Commission).
Last week, Mark Knight left his city job.
Why?
City Manager John Patrick Regan, P.E. told me yesterday it was "mutually agreed" but declined comment on "personnel matters."
There is no listed telephone number for Mark Knight.
Was Mark Knight an environmental whistleblower, concerned about the proposed location of a Children's Museum on top of contaminated landfill in violation of FDEP 2011 guidelines?
Was so-called "Riberia Pointe (sic)" development the root cause of his abrupt departure, with no party and no honor?
Was he forced out of his job as a result of exercising his federally protected rights to workplace dissent and to express differing staff views about environmental concerns?
If so, Mr. Knight has rights under the Solid Waste Disposal Act (SWDA) whistleblower provision, 42 U.S.C. 6971, and other federal environmental whistleblower laws, and has the right to file a complaint with OSHA within 30 days of clear and unequivocal notice of pertinent personnel action.
If so, this will be a teachable moment for the City of St. Augustine, where employees have so long feared to raise ethics, environmental, safety and health concerns.
Our City of St. Augustine must have a strong whistleblower policy, like the one that our Anastasia Mosquito Control District of St. Johns County adopted unanimously in 2007.
Never again should an employee fear retaliation for speaking the truth to power.
Never again should an employee raising environmental concerns have to wonder whether their job is at risk.
Postscript, May 28, 2014: The position will be advertised widely, there will be a full diversity search, and the position description is being re-written to emphasize Historic Preservation, Environmental Protection and Global Climate Change, Sustainability and Ocean Level Rise.
Meanwhile, the public's Right to Know is being impaired by RONALD WAYNE BROWN, St. Augustine's holdover WILLIAM B. HARRISS era City Attorney, who wrote as follows:
From Ron Brown rbrown@citystaug.comhide details
To Ed Slavin easlavin@aol.com
Cc Nancy Rawson nrawson@citystaug.com, Isabelle Lopez ilopez@citystaug.com, Debra Gibson dgibson@citystaug.com
Good Afternoon: In response to your correspondence of this date, the City of St.
Augustine understands the correspondence to include a request for the review
and copying of specified public records: the personnel file of Mark Knight. The
City provides the following comments:
1. The City possesses the described personnel file in a paper format consisting
of 213 pages.
2. The City charges the statutory fee of $0.15 per page for copies beginning
with the 11th page. The charge for copies, therefore, totals $30.45(203 x
$0.15).
3. The Public Records Act provides that certain information regarding Code
Enforcement Officers is exempt and confidential from public disclosure. As such,
pursuant to section119.071(4)(d)2.a., Florida Statutes, the following
information is exempt and confidential: home address, telephone numbers, date of
birth, photographs, names of family members, home addresses of family members,
telephone numbers of family members, dates of birth of family members, places of
employment of spouse and children and names and locations of schools and day
care facilities attended by children of the employee.
4. Redacting the exempted and confidential information will require the use of
staff time in excess of 15 minutes for which the City is entitled to charge the
public records requestor. The City estimates the time required in excess of 15
minutes is two hours at a wage rate of $18.25 per hour for a total of $36.50.
The City will incur and charge this cost regardless of whether the requestor
reviews the records only or requests copies without review.
5. The City is entitled to receive the costs of redaction and/or copying prior
to beginning work on said redaction or copies. The amount due for redaction and
copying totals $66.95. Please provide payment to the City Attorney's Office by
check made payable to the City of St. Augustine. The records will be available
within five business days following receipt of the required funds. Thank you.
-----Original Message-----
From: Isabelle Lopez
Sent: Tuesday, May 27, 2014 8:04 AM
To: Ron Brown
Cc: Nancy Rawson
Subject: FW: Mark Knight personnel file and differing staff views on Aquarium,
Child Museum and garbage-filled south end of Lincolnville
-----Original Message-----
From: Ed Slavin [mailto:easlavin@aol.com]
Sent: Tuesday, May 27, 2014 7:55 AM
To: Isabelle Lopez
Subject: Mark Knight personnel file and differing staff views on Aquarium,
Child Museum and garbage-filled south end of Lincolnville
Please send. Thank you.
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