In a bizarre "Special Meeting" held this morning at 8:15 AM, without adequate reason or adequate public notice, the City of St. Augustine this morning granted special relief from the City's archaeological fee for the purchase of 102 Bridge Street, whose owners are DAVID BARTON CORNEAL and SANDRA Y. CORNEAL, whose builder is JON BENOIT of BEHST BUILDERS and whose architect is DONALD CRICHLOW, interim City Commissioner. The vote was 3-0, with Commissioner CRICHLOW recusing himself. Commissioner HORVATH was out of town.
The owners claimed to be unaware of the city's archaeological fee.
Owner DAVID BARTON CORNEAL, born April 9, 1946, who registered to vote here on January 8, 2014, resides at 125 Marine Street, St. Augustine. He was a State College, Pennsylvania lawyer and professor at Penn State University. CORNEAL's architect is a St. Augustine City Commissioner, DONALD CRICHLOW.
As developers, DAVID BARTON CORNEAL and SANDRA Y. CORNEAL once sued Jackson Township in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania over a development they planned, arguing their due process rights were violated. The CORNEALs lost in the trial court and lost in the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, with a panel that included Samuel Alito, now a U.S. Supreme Court justice. Local officials were alleged to have called DAVID BARTON CORNEAL "that trouble-making yuppie from over the mountain."
We "trouble-making yuppies" here at St. Augustine are glad they CORNEALs moved to St. Augustine and are fixingup a blighted bulding at 102 Bridge Street.
But DAVID BARTON CORNEAL is a sophisticated investor. Was his 13th hour renegotiation of the deal at 8:15 AM before a poorly-noticed City Commission meeting a stench in the nostrils of our Nation's Oldest City?
DAVID BARTON CORNEAL, SANDRA CORNEAL and city staff were in an all-fired hurry to close their real estate transaction with our City on Monay May 12, 2014, the day of an evening City Commission meeting.
What's their hurry!?
The sales contract expires May 12th. It could have been extended for a day and allowed greater transparency, as Commissioner Nancy Sikes-Kline pointed out.
Did the CORNEALs threaten to walk away?
We don't know.
There are no records on the waiver of the archaeological excavation fee.
There are no legal or policy memoranda justifying waiver of the archaeological excavation fee.
Nada.
Zilch.
Three City staff, appearing to be tired, sleep-deprived and perhaps fearful for their jobs, inarticulately babbled and yakked the City of St. Augustine into waiving its fees because of their supposed misunderstanding.
DAVID BARTON CORNEAL is a lawyer who taught business law at Penn State University, spending half a semester on contract law.
DAVID BARTON CORNEAL and SANDRA Y.CORNEAL are experienced in real estate.
The notion that one-percenter, Pennsylvania lawyer DAVID BARTON CORNEAL et ux could not afford the archaeology excavation fee or that they and their Florida real estate lawyer son (Seth David Corneal), their architect (DONALD CRICHLOW) and their builder (JON BENOIT) were not aware of it is, at best, facetious.
Even if it were true, the assertion was unsworn, DAVID BARTON CORNEAL was not sworn in as a witness, there was no adequate public notice, there was no public hearing, and there is no procedure for fee waivers.
Even if it were true, it does not justify the waiver.
It insults our intelligence.
It makes people very angry.
It is a subsidy to the wealthy and influential.
It is an appearance of impropriety.
It is unethical.
It may violate Equal Protection and Due Process.
It has angered everyone who hears about it.
Everyone else building in an archaeological zone has to pay the archaeological excavation fee.
It is only one percent of the construction cost.
But these new residents, two one-percenters, got a waiver because they and their architect and builder whined.
This appears to be flummery, dupery, nincompoopery, waste, fraud and abuse.
This is yet another instance of bad legal advice by City Attorney RONALD WAYNE BROWN.
Is he inept?
Unscholarly?
Gullible?
This is yet another instance of St. Augustine city burghers acting like Gomer and Goober -- they are gullible, whether dealing with Florida Power & Light (30 year franchise renewal). COMCAST CABLE, or developers like ROBERT MICHAEL GRAUBARD and the CORNEALs.
This appears to be a $7500 to $18,000 fraud upon the public fisc.
This is a very bad precedent.
Worse, it was done outside the ordinary course of business, in a Special meeting, which only one member of the public attended and spoke to, at 8:15 AM, outside the ordinary course of business.
How transparently lacking in transparency.
This is Florida, with strong Sunshine laws, not Pennsylvania, the home state of corrupt Governor and Secretary of War Simon Cameron, whose crooked Civil War purchasing deals resulted in the word "shoddy" being added to our language, and quickly led to the adoption of the False Claims Act (and his being sent to Russia as Ambassador).
How gauche.
How louche.
How invidiously discriminatory in favor of the one percent.
"Special Meeting" notices were faxed to "media outlets" but not e-mailed to anyone, including this one, and were posted on the City's bulletin board and on the City calendar. No notices were sent to the 800 recipients of the City's weekly News and Notes e-mail, issued each Friday.
The meeting was not announced at Saturday's visioning steering committee meeting. The meeting notice was not provided former Mayor George Gardner's St. Augustine Repor.
Citizen B.J. Kalaidi rightly spoke in opposition to the fee waiver. In response to her concerns, the developer agreed to a deed restriction that the property could never be owned by a non-profit organization, assuring that it will remain on the tax rolls.
He agreed to give archaeological dig finds to the City. He agreed to pay for an expensive bronze historical marker.
Still, the archaeological fee was waived at a "special" meeting because, well, DAVID BARTON CORNEAL thinks that he is "special."
What a self-aggrandizing narcissist.
This short notice and Special meeting outside the ordinary course of business is unacceptable.
It looks and sounds crooked.
We must do better, we can do better and we will do better.
No more secret meetings.
No more dodgy developers getting special interest exemptions.
No more special privileges for Commissioners' clients.
Enough.
5/8/2014 Postscript:
Tthere is no legal or policy justification document from the City of St. Augustine. There has been no response to a message left for DAVID BARTON CORNEAL with his son, attorney David Seth Corneal.
There are no construction drawings on file with the City of St. Augustine, hence the waiver of the archaeological excavation fee was based upon a price estimate from the CORNEALs, not an actual application.
The former home of Thomas Jefferson's great-granddaughter, Maria Jefferson Epps Shine, deserves better treatment. It will be stripped of its inauthentic additions and moved closer to the street, yielding a treasure trove of archaeological finds about her life, and that of St. Augustine. The city will conduct archaeological investigations and own the artifacts.
Only DAVID BARTON CORNEAL, the "trouble-making yuppie from over the mountain" (as they called him in rural Pennsylvania) was allowed to escape from paying the archaeological excavation fee.
Why?
Did DAVID BARTON CORNEAL say, "please?" Listen to the archived video. I did not hear the word.
Did DAVID BARTON CORNEAL throw his considerable weight around? You betcha.
Did DAVID BARTON CORNEAL "make 'em an offer they can't refuse?" Apparently.
Did DAVID BARTON CORNEAL say "Do you know who I am?" (As former Commissioner ERROL JONES said to SAPD).
Did DAVID BARTON CORNEAL threaten to file a bogus lawsuit against the City of St. Augustine? Did he threaten to refuse to close on 102 Bridge Street? No records exist.
Did DAVID BARTON CORNEAL threaten or whine? On the tape, he sure sounds whiny to me?
Did DAVID BARTON CORNEAL use Commissioner DONALD CRICHLOW as a lobbyist? Yes. CRICHLOW recused himself. But he was present during public comment on the fee waiver.
Did DAVID BARTON CORNEAL make a donation to anyone's campaign or to the secretive 450th fund?
Did DAVID BARTON CORNEAL take anyone to dinner?
Why won't DAVID BARTON CORNEAL return my telephone message and answer questions?
This rich privileged one-percenter and recently registered St. Johns County Republican won't talk to me.
In the immortal words of the late William F. Buckley, Jr., "Why does baloney reject the grinder?"
Guardian of City of St Augustine, Ed Slavin well done.
ReplyDelete