Missing Noche de Gala Records: Where Did Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars Go?

On April 14, 2010, Mayor JOSEPH LESTER BOLES, JR. incorporated the St. Augustine Trust for Historic Preservation, Inc. as a putative non-profit, with JOHN PATRICK REGAN, P.E. (City Manager now, recently select at the time) and DANA STE. CLAIRE (450th Director) as fellow board members. The St. Augustine Trust for Historic Preservation, Inc. was beneficiary of the annual Noche de Gala honoring the birthday of city founder Pedro Menendez de Aviles. Lightner Museum has not received any of the proceeds of the Gala for several years. Where did the money go? Efforts to obtain answers from BOLES, REGAN, STE. CLAIRE, the City of St. Augustine and its contractor (Casa Monica) have been unavailing. This morning I wrote one of the Gala's most generous funders, BAKER & HOSTETLER, the multinational corporate law firm that represented the City of St. Augustine after it dumped a landfill in a lake (at a cost of $300,000 in legal and engineering fees). See letter to attorney WILLIAM PENCE, below:



Letter to Baker & Hostetler partner WILLIAM PENCE, City of St. Augustine outside counsel
Sent: Fri, Feb 6, 2015 8:52 am
Subject: Re: Request No. 2015-38: Reconciliation, "true-up" and disbursement of Noche de Gala funds, 2010-2015: Where does all that money go?

Dear Bill:
1. Please call to discuss possible misuse of Baker & Hostletler funds for other than eleemosynary purposes by the Noche de Gala and the "St. Augustine Trust for Historic Preservation, Inc."
2. Please refer this matter to Baker & Hostletler firm management and firm ethics counsel.
3. Records have not been forthcoming. This secrecy violates the Open Records law and Article I, Section 24 of our Florida Constitution, enacted by 3.8 million voters in 1992.
4. Records not produced by the City include years of Noche de Gala accounting records in the custody of the City of St. Augustine's contractor, the Casa Monica Hotel.
5. I have alerted FPL to the issue in light of FPL's generous annual contributions to the Noche de Gala putative "fundraiser" for the Lightner.
6. Perhaps a court-ordered constructive trust and accounting is the appropriate judicial remedy re: hundreds of thousands of dollars received and spent for this City event.
7. I look forward to hearing from you this morning as to how Baker & Hostetler might protect its investment and protect the public interest.
Thank you.
With kindest regards, I am,
Sincerely yours,
Ed Slavin
www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com
www.fourowls.blogspot.com
904-377-4998