It started with ex-Mayor JOSEPH LESTER BOLES, Jr. giving a no-bid contract and writing a check for $275,000 to his buddies to privatize the 450th, violating Sunshine laws with the First America Foundation, while planning Sunshine-violating "business trip" to Spain. We stopped both, with eighteen of us represented by the Holland & Knight law firm pro bono. ($100,000 was not retired and poorly accounted for by dodgy lawyer DONALD WALLIS, now with the Upchurch, Bailey & Upchurch law firm).
It continued with BOLES starting the "St. Augustine Trust for Historic Preservation, Inc." on April 14, 2010, with 450th Director DANA STE. CLAIRE and JOHN PATRICK REGAN, P.E. as co-directors (some three weeks after REGAN was selected to succeed WILLIAM BRUCE HARRISS as City Manager). That organization was listed as the beneficiary of the annual Menendez Noche de Gala, 2011-2014. No funds were ever shared with the City by the City's contractor in a dodgy contact.
It continued with BOLES and the other members of the Federal St. Augustine 450th Commemoration Commission holding illegal secret meetings, 2011-2015, in violation of the Federal Advisory Committee Act, based upon erroneous legal advice from the Department of the Interior Solicitor's office, procured by New Mexico politician Deanan Archuletta, then a Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Interior.
Millions of dollars have been spent on the 450th, with few answers and little accountability.
We must have an audit and investigations. See below.
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