Wednesday, September 20, 2017

TODD NEVILLE & RON RAWLS VIOLATING PRIVACY RIGHTS UNDER COLOR OF LAW?

Good article in Historic City News (below) on alleged post-Hurricane Irma chicanery by Vice Mayor TODD DAVID NEVILLE and REV. RONALD RAWLS, JR.
1. TODD DAVID NEVILLE is an angry, developer-directed C.P.A. who refuses to disclose his client list.  NEVILLE is a notorious First Amendment violator, having misused City Attorney time and City money in 2015 to explore a bogus lawsuit against Michael Gold and Historic City News for expressing an opinion. NEville never reimbursed the City for this improper use of attorney time to research a libel lawsuit. Libel lawsuits are personal to the individual and may not be filed by government agencies. This is well-known to anyone in high school. Angry "ODD TODD" NEVILLE was grandstanding because he can't stand criticism about his conflicts of interest.
2. "ODD TODD" NEVILLE is one of the most despicable public servants this side of Aaron Burr. His running for Commissioner in 2014 was planned by louche lobbyists and developers and professional campaign creators.
3. RONALD RAWLS, JR. is a hater, whose hate rally at St. Paul's included an invitation to bigot DOUG RUSSO to speak in the same blessed place where Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke, making a Bible-based defense of slavery (while refusing to allow thinking people opposed to monument removal, disrespecting retired Flagler College History Professor Thomas Graham, refusing to let him speak until Sandra Parks, others and I called out and asked that Prof. Graham be allowed to speak. RAWLS then cut Prof. Graham short. Watch the video.
4. RAWLS, did NO legal research before his demagogic demand to take down legally protected monuments to local war veterans.
RAWLS' wife is a UF law professor seeking a judgeship in Alachua County (where they live),
5. The ladies who erected the monuments were engaged in First Amendment protected activity. Removing the monuments would invite a civil rights lawsuit by the 25,000 Menorcan descendants in St. Johns County, who are rightfully hurt by a non-resident minister's deep insensitivity to their ancestors' only memorial.
6. Removing the General William Wing Loring monument would be a felony under Florida law; it is a grave. It is also not on City property, but state-owned property under suzerainty of Governor Scott and the Board of Trustees of the Florida Internal Improvements Trust (the Governor and Cabinet). Fifteen minutes of research would have told RAWLS this before he began his angry "crusade," unadorned by a single word about healing here in St. Augustine.
7. RAWLS had no interest in the monuments until after Charlottesville. He wanted publicity.
8. RAWLS sold the roof tiles from historic Echo House, breaching his duty to the trust and the City St. Augustine, then obtained a demolition permit to demolish 2/3 of it, based on nastiness from parishioners who testified that God told RAWLS to tear down Echo House for parking for his failed school.
9. RAWLS now has a demolition permit to destroy the remaining 1/3 of Echo House if funds are not forthcoming to preserve it. RAWLS has contempt for our St. Augustine history, whether African-American or Menorcan.
10. RAWLS' financial spreadsheet on Echo House establishes beyond peradventure that RAWLS did nothing to restore Echo House. Was this based on legal advice from the late developer mouthpiece George Morris McClure?
11. RAWLS hates Gay marriage but calls himself a "Christian." I called for RAWLS to "take down" his YouTube anti-Gay marriage rant, posted after President Obama supported Gay marriage in 2012. (RAWLS did not respond to me, but made the video private.)
12. NEVILLE exhibits disdainful looks during the Commission's opening prayers.
13. What do RAWLS and NEVILLE have in common?
14. Both RAWLS and NEVILLE are angry political opportunists, phony baloney pikers -- willful men who don't give a fig about anyone anything but their own self-aggrandizement.
15. RAWLS and NEVILLE possibly committed a fraud on the people whose private information they collected, violating their civil rights under color of law.
16. The 1871 Civil Rights Act (a/k/a "Ku Klux Klan Act") civil provisions, codified at 42 U.S.C. 1983 & 1985, and privacy laws, may empower RAWLS' and NEVILLE's victims to sue the demagogic duo for violation of their fundamental rights.
17. The St. Augustine City Commission should consider issuing a censure to Messrs. NEVILLE and RAWLS at its meeting on Monday, September 25, 2017.
18. The State's Attorney and U.S. Attorney need to investigate RAWLS and NEVILLE.
19. We, the People have the right to a recall election to remove NEVILLE from office. Check out Florida Statute §100.361.
20. I have requested NEVILLE provide us with all documents on this sordid affair under the Open Records law and Florida Constitution, Article I, Sec. 24.


City of St Augustine not conducting door-to-door survey

After readers reported that they had been approached by door-to-door canvassers Saturday, asking questions about damage done to their home during the hurricane, Historic City News set out to determine what agency was conducting the survey.
NEVILLE – RAWLS
We contacted the appropriate emergency management team and asked about obtaining results from the residential canvassing, only to be told that the City of St Augustine had not been asked to conduct such a survey.
We were provided a copy of a flyer that introduced the canvasser as a volunteer from St Paul A.M.E. church, but displayed the official coat of arms of the City of St Augustine, and individually named vice mayor Todd Neville.
We contacted City Attorney Isabelle Lopez and asked if any non-government organization had been authorized by the City of St Augustine administration to canvass possible victims of Hurricane Irma under the auspices of any official endorsement, partnership, or participation.  Lopez responded, “I am not aware of it.”
St Augustine Mayor Nancy Shaver, a Lincolnville resident, told reporters that she first learned of the flyers when one of her neighbors brought a copy to her.  Shaver contacted City Manager John Regan with essentially the same question.  Shaver says that Regan told her “no”.
One church volunteer, Judith Seraphin, told Historic City News that she showed up to volunteer Saturday morning in response to an e-mail from Reverend Ron Rawls asking for volunteers.  Seraphin told us that she was provided a walking list and a stack of flyers, but no identification card.  She believed the church was responding to a request from the City to collect this information.  She says she was told that the results of the canvassing would be turned over to the City; but, when she asked Rawls today, he informed her that the information was provided directly to Todd Neville.
While compassion, assistance, and solidarity are generally prevalent in the aftermath of natural disasters, unscrupulous individuals and organizations also use these tragic events to take advantage of those in need.
After Hurricane Matthew, Mayor Shaver reported that there were many people taken advantage of by door-to-door solicitors seeking repair work and donations to help families in need.  She offered a word of caution to residents to protect their personal information, to ask for identification of any solicitor, and to report any suspicious activity.
Since Hurricane Katrina swamped the City of New Orleans in 2005, widespread reports of system failures changed the way all future federal emergency management actions are executed.
Some of the most important lessons learned were adopted by the United States Congress into the “Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006”.  One of the great observations made was that there are risks to the integrity of natural disaster operations when federal, state, county and municipal governments establish “rival chains of command”.  Today, in an emergency like Hurricane Irma, there is one, unified chain-of-command.
Even though some participants are elected public officials, the management of an emergency incident must adhere to the operational plan approved by the official chain-of-command.  Participants are prohibited from using their elected office to individually conduct tandem operations, simply to capitalize on the crisis for personal political gains.
If you have questions or need help here are some important numbers:
  • City Police 911 or non-emergency 904.825.1074
  • County emergency food, water, or shelter 904.824.5550
  • Federal Emergency Management Agency 800.621.3362
  • National Disaster Fraud Hotline 866.720.5721

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