Talk about a lack of a welcoming spirit.
I just telephoned St. Augustine Beach Mayor UNDINE CELESTE PAWLOWSKI GEORGE at 3:47 PM today, October 17, 2018. Short call. I asked her about the agenda prepared by City Manager BRUCE MAX ROYLE for the October 17, 2018 City Commission workshop tonight on land development regulations, with NO public comment until the very end of the meeting, after discussion of the conflicted contractor, Fleet Associates, recommendations.
St. Augustine Beach Mayor UNDINE GEORGE said she'd try to do better.
Mayor UNDINE GEORGE then launched into a heated monologue, shrilly saying that I had "attacked and attacked and attacked" her. She said she had not supported the reduction of public comment time from three two two minutes. I told her she did not stand up for our First Amendment rights.
UNDINE GEORGE has lost her cool, again and again and again. Her September 11, 2018 Florida Elections Commission complaint against Tom Reynolds was found to be baseless by October 8, 2018 letter from FEC's General Counsel.
During our conversation today, I told Mayor GEORGE that, as the St. Augustine Record editorialized November 19, 2006 about the sister city of St. Augustine after its then-mayor blasted me, she needs a "thicker skin ."
Mayor GEORGE sua sponte brought up my concerns about her phony filing against Tom Reynolds, rejected on First Amendment grounds by the Florida Ethics Commission. She said it had "nothing to do" with the City or her role as "Mayor," and that therefore it was not a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP).
Mayor UNDINE GEORGE said her purpose in filing against Tom Reynolds was to keep her from ever being elected. She said that she had "succeeded."
That's a SLAPP complaint, by definition, Mayor.
I told Mayor UNDINE GEORGE that she should have ignored Mr. Reynolds' name calling posts on the Record website. I said she needed a thicker skin, and was acting irrationally, as when she used the word "attacked" to refer to First Amendment protected activity.
I tried to calm her down. Didn't work.
I told her that citizens have a right to the release of her e-mails on City business -- she has persisted in using two private e-mail accounts for City business.
Mayor UNDINE GEORGE then said, ""You do not deserve the 'gift' of my time." She ended the call after three minutes and 50 seconds. Sounds pretty egotistical for a real estate lawyer whose made a botch of being Mayor.
St. Augustine Beach is beset with problems and yet another angry "Mayor" who personalizes everything -- The Arrogance of Power, as Senator J. William Fulbright called it..
UNDINE GEORGE is one of three successive Mayors who have violated First Amendment protected activity. I called them all out at the October 1, 2018 City Commission meeting, saying they had given new meaning to the term "Devil's Triangle."
I miss St. Augustine Beach's former Mayor Sherman Gary Snodgrass.
Mayor Snodgrass's three successors -- angry ANDREA SAMUELS, (defeated in 2016 by Maggie Kostka), RICHARD O'BRIEN and UNDINE GEORGE have ALL lacked decent respect for our First Amendment rights.
Mayor Snodgrass, we miss you. He had humility and class. Even when he disagreed with you, he would listen. And change his mind, as he did in voting to save the jobs of some seventeen SAPBD members Commissioners voted to fire for First Amendment protected activity.
Mayor GEORGE: when most people make a mistake, they apologize. Not only do you NEVER apologize for anything, but you wrote Tom Reynolds and asked him to apologize after you were found by FEC to have filed a "legally insufficient" complaint
Does being "Mayor" of St. Augustine Beach mean "never having to say you're sorry?"
What's next: The November 13, 2018 St. Augustine Beach Commission meeting, and future meetings will shed light on the $100,000 sea oats scandal, SABPD report on thefts from "Beach Blast Off!" and other disasters. See if Mayor GEORGE changes her tune, or doubles down with the program of City "Manager" BRUCE MAX ROYLE, whose mismanagement she has ratified, de facto, sub silentio with her silence.
Stay tuned, pilgrims.
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