Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Request No. 2015-402: Happy Veterans' Day

Ed's note: records in quo were finally provided several hours after I sent this e-mail to our evasive County Executive MICHAEL DAVID WANCHICK and County Attorney PATRICK FRANCIS McCORMACK. Happy Veterans' Day.

Sent: Tue, Nov 10, 2015 7:30 am
Subject: OPEN RECORDS VIOLATIONS: Request No. 2015-402:
Dear Pat and Mike:
1. I know that St. Johns County government officials have deep-seated emotional problems with my First Amendment protected activity and Open Records requests, but this is embarrassing. Where are the copies of the records that I requested in Request No. 2015-402, on October 30, 2015?
2. Fees were paid in full, five (5) days ago.
3. Copies have still not provided, five (5) days later. This is unacceptable, illegal, immoral and not "reasonable" under our Open Records law.
4. I was taught in 1974 in Senator Ted Kennedy's office as a freshman at Georgetown how to run a photocopy machine -- how about if I run the machine and you provide a full refund of fees paid in good faith expecting prompt customer service?
5. BTW, I was the guy in EMK's office who took the Senator's press release to three Senate press galleries on 11/21/74 kvelling about the Senate's override of President Ford's veto of the Freedom of Information Act (a veto urged by Ford Administration flummery-meisters Messrs. Antonin Scalia, Richard Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld). I was the guy who got the mercury pollution declassified in Oak Ridge, Tennessee -- largest mercury pollution event in the history of this planet.
6. Ever since 1974, I've seen rebarbative reprobates, from sea to shining sea, drag their heels, inflict big fees, and whine about government transparency, including the two of you and officials in St. Augustine and St. Augustine Beach.
7. There's still no County Ombudsman or Inspector General, and we see the effects daily: corruption, waste, fraud, abuse, developer favoritism, flummery, dupery, nincompoopery, misfeasance, malfeasance, nonfeasance, no-bid contracts, inept customer service, First Amendment violations, civil rights violations and discrimination.
8. I wear our unjust stewards' scorn as a badge of honor.
9. The City Attorney of St. Augustine Beach resigned last night: if the two of you can't do your jobs without fear or favor, you need to quit, too and be replaced by more honorable civil servants who do their jobs without fear, favor or favoritism.
10. Tomorrow is Veteran's Day: the South Jersey Chapter of the 82nd ABN DIVN ASSN is named for my dad, who was awarded three Bronze Stars and machine-gunned Nazis in three combat jumps on two continents to secure our freedoms -- freedoms that you and other local officials seemingly besmirch and violate on a routine basis.
11. In honor of Veterans Day: please comply with my requests in full, by 2 PM today, providing scanned and Bates-numbered copies for request No. 2015-402 without charge due to the delays, providing a full refund on account of unaccountable delays. Photocopying is not a non-delegable duty, and no one person's absence in a 1000 person organization is any excuse for your foot-dragging delays. In the words of Governor Richard Lynn Scott, "Let's get to work."
Herein faith not. Govern yourselves accordingly.
Thank you for your prompt cooperation, from this day forward, with all of my pending requests, without any further evasions.
Cordially,
Ed Slavin
www.edslavin.com
904-377-4998

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