Confederacy of Dunces -- St. Augustine Beach Wasted $9500 on A Worthless Study of Government Services

ROBERT E. LEE, Ph.D. of Naples, Florida was guilty of droning on and boring residents in the St. Augustine Beach City Commission meeting room -- delayed in exercising their right to public comment for an hour -- an academic and former City Manager was paid $9500 for a worthless study of city services.
ROBERT E. LEE talked to city employees, but not one single resident.
ROBERT E. LEE is a schnorer.
ROBERT E. LEE is a phony.
Schnorer ROBERT E. LEE's presentation was a snorer.
ROBERT E. LEE's one good recommendation -- a forensic audit because the City has only one employee handling its finances, a breach of fiduciary duty -- fell on deaf ears, and he soft-pedaled it by saying that the City's regular auditor could do it, when the standard of care is for a forensic audit to be done by an auditor outside the City's regular auditing and chain of command!
ROBERT E. LEE did not talk about the City's high EMR rating, its resulting high workers' compensation bills and lack of a safety culture compared to other governments (including St. Johns County, which has safety awards).
ROBERT E. LEE did not talk about the City's for no-bid contracts and Sunshine and Open Records violations.
The academic did not talk about the City's never auditing Florida Power & Light and other franchise taxpayers.
The academic did not talk about the City's EEO policies -- zero African-Americans out of 50 employees.
The no-bid ROBERT E. LEE contract was rightly opposed by citizen Robert Kahler before it was issued, at the request of Commissioner Sherman Gary Snodgrass.
LEE is principal in Local Government Advisors, Inc., apparently operating out of his residence.
LEE's baby talking report could have been written by a graduate student (and probably was).
The LEE report, obviously a block and copy snow job, was so patronizingly presented that people were angry.
I was the only citizen who addressed the ROBERT E. LEE report.
I spoke against it, and told Commissioners they wasted their money on another no-bid contract.
There was loud applause from the St. Augustine Beach residents in the audience.
Never again should contracts be let for just under the threshold for competitive bidding ($10,000).
In fact, the threshold needs to be returned to $5000, which it was until quietly changed in 2004.
Never again should local governments waste money on worthless studies by academics and on no-bid contracts.
Pitiful.
Our local governments need never again give a contract to ROBERT E. LEE, or act like a Confederacy of Dunces.
It's our money.
ROBERT E. LEE's report:


ROBERT E. LEE, Ph.D.