SCARE TACTICS: City Manager John Regan's Halloween Attacks on Ethics Complainants --- Unethical?

The City of St. Augustine was conned on its purchase of swampland at 91-93 Coquina. The Florida Ethics Commission may have been conned, too. The reflexive rodomontade emitted by St. Augustine City Manager JOHN PATRICK REGAN, P.E. and Public Works Director MICHAEL G. CULLUM, P.E. -- freighted with animus, unethical and retaliatory? You tell me. 

Waiting on documents, but what I've read suggests that some more thin baloney was sliced in Tallahassee, by Republicans, to benefit Republicans, in that mythical beast they call the Florida Ethics Commission. What do you reckon?

Shockingly one-sided, shallow coverage in the St. Augustine Record today (below) on dismissal of ethics complaints against City officials.  

It's hard to discuss it intelligently when the Record breaches its duty to investigate rather than serve as amanuensis. I've requested all the state files. 


But I will say: attacking two ethics complainants in the news media is unethical.  That's what City Manager JOHN PATRICK REGAN, P.E. and Public Works Director MICHAEL G. CULLUM, P.E. have just done, in the Halloween 2019 edition of the St. Augustine Record, in lurid hostile page one quotes.  That's wrong.

In contrast, there's no such quote from Vice Mayor LEANNA FREEMAN, who touted her bona fides as an ethical lawyer, but cast no aspersions (or asparagus) in the direction of former Commission election opponent Ms. Susan W. Rathbone.

From the State AG's office memo at the link in the Record article, it appears some thin baloney was sliced to fix the case involving 91-93 Coquina land purchase. 

It looks like the case turned on whether there was a benefit to FREEMAN and REGAN property values from the purchase.  

An incurious State AG advocate relied on an academic journal article, not actual appraisals of the prospective alleged increase in value of City Commissioner LEANNA FREEMAN and City Manager JOHN REGAN from creating the passive park at 91-93 Coquina.

The Record quotes from two louche liars, REGAN and CULLUM, insulting Ms. Susan W. Rathbone, et al. for filing complaints, calling them "frivolous" and "politically motivated."

REGAN until recently brandished his lifelong Republican Party affiliations on the City's website.  He's supposed to be nonpartisan. 

JOHN PATRICK REGAN's rude reflexive rodomontade, his TRUMPlike, complaint -- the complaints were "politically motivated" -- shows his narcissism, his delusions of adequacy and his lack of respect for the process.  

Likewise, MICHAEL G. CULLUM's frivolous accusation of frivolity shows he lacks character.

Like two drunken fratboys high-fiving one another after a football game, the nasty mean-spirited, unethical CULLUM/REGAN quotes dispel any notion that the City Manager does not need oversight or checks and balances.'

These two Republican political party animals have shot their mouths off enough.  We deserve facts,  to fury, open debate, not orotund prevarications about a half-million dollar wasted on swampland.

Watching MIKE CULLUM try to be diplomatic is like watching a duck try to fornicate with a football, and just as entertaining.  This low-ethics individual threatened me publicly over questions on the 91-93 Coquina swampland purchase, asking me to "step outside" after I asked a few tough questions he and his satellite, Assistant Public Works Director TODD GRANT, P.G. refused to answer on-camera January 31, 2019 at a pre-meeting before the secretive "Keeping History Above Water" conference. 

Left to their own devices, do you reckon these two boorish Gator-goobers would get the City of St. Augustine into other peccadilloes, waste, fraud, abuse, misfeasance, malfeasance, nonfeasance, flummery, dupery and nincompoopery?

Perhaps. 

RFK said, "it is not enough to allow dissent, we must demand it, for there is much to dissent from."  We demand:

• data, not derision; 
• ethics, not excuses and evasions;
• good science, not "dry-labbing" 
• sound engineering, not lies and "warm fizzes."

I've filed Open Records requests for data the Record's shallow reporting denies us.

More later.

From The St. Augustine Record:

Ethics complaints dismissed against St. Augustine officials
By Sheldon Gardner
Posted Oct 30, 2019 at 6:45 PM
Updated Oct 30, 2019 at 7:02 PM

The Florida Commission on Ethics recently found no probable cause that ethics laws were violated after investigating complaints against three city officials, according to a news release from the ethics commission.

The complaints were filed against City Manager John Regan, Public Works Director Mike Cullum and Commissioner Leanna Freeman.

The complaint filed against Regan focuses on a city bayfront project and a tour involving a firm employing Michelle Regan, John Regan’s daughter.

Matthews Design Group supervised the project and used REG Architects as a subcontractor. REG hired as a subcontractor Cotleur & Hearing landscaping company, where Michelle Regan worked as a landscape architect and provided some work on the bayfront project.

During an investigation by the Florida Ethics Commission, Regan said he didn’t direct the city subcontractor to hire the firm.

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REG President Rick Gonzalez said that neither Regan nor Matthews Design Group suggested Cotleur and Hearing for the project, and that it was his decision.

After Regan learned of the firm’s involvement, he eventually asked for REG to remove Cotleur and Hearing from the project because ”‘the optics weren’t good,’” according to the investigation. He was advised by the city attorney, who followed up with an Ethics Commission attorney to confirm, that the arrangement appeared to not violate ethics laws.

He also disclosed the relationship at a March 2015 Commission meeting.

Another focus of the complaint was that Regan led a tour of the city with officials from Cotleur & Hearing, including his daughter, and others. Regan said he gave the tour because the firm had a client who was interested in landscape designs used by the city, and he said the the tour wasn’t related to any city project, according to investigation documents.

According to the documents, Regan “said he believed leading the tour was a recruiting tool that could generate future development in the City of St. Augustine and allow him to make business connections.”

Regan said it is a routine thing to provide tours to developers and others.

Another complaint focuses on the city’s purchase of 91 and 93 Coquina Ave. in Davis Shores.

Complaints say that Regan and Cullum provided misinformation to the Commission about purchasing the land and that the purchase would have benefited Regan and Freeman because they live in the area. Everyone denied there was any intent to provide misinformation or benefit any public official.

The information presented to the Commission was that purchasing the property would provide access to make flooding improvements and that a property owner had told the city to leave when crews tried to make improvements.

But after speaking with the Commission, Regan learned that the person was not a property owner. Also, he learned the city had an easement over a creek to do work at one point, though it had disappeared because of erosion.


The investigation found that Freeman and Regan wouldn’t receive a property value increase and that there was no probable cause behind the complaints against them and Cullum.

St. Augustine resident Susan Rathbone made the complaints about the Coquina Avenue purchase, and attorney Zachery Kellery, of Palatka, filed the complaint about the contract issue and city tour involving Regan and Regan’s daughter.

In an email to The Record on Wednesday, Rathbone stood by her complaints and wrote that she believes the officials’ actions diminished public confidence.

“I put my trust in the justice system, and this time, was let down, as they claimed their actions did not violate any law over which the Ethics Commission has jurisdiction,” Rathbone wrote. “This will not keep me from trying to hold our public servants accountable in the future.”

Kellery couldn’t immediately be reached for comment on Wednesday afternoon.

On Wednesday, Regan described the complaints against him, Freeman and Cullum as “politically motivated.”

“I’m just glad that the state of Florida did a thorough investigation,” Regan said.


Freeman said Wednesday that she’s been practicing law in Florida since 1996 and has never had a bar complaint.

“Personally, I very much value our ethics rules and responsibilities, and they are a very important part of my professional life,” she said.

Cullum said residents are welcome to ask city officials questions if they have concerns.

“I want to encourage residents to touch base ... with city staff to talk about the facts of projects before they decide to file a baseless and frivolous ethics charges in the future,” he said.

City of St. Augustine Establishment Hates Reform, Demands to Make Mayor a "Team Player," and No Longer Elected by People. This is Freighted With Anti-Reform Agenda, Animus.

1. It is equivalent to a confession when misguided people who would erase your rights to vote for Mayor of St. Augustine prattle on about the need to end "turbulence" and pick a "team player" for Mayor.
2. "Team player" is not a bona fide occupational qualification for elected officials.  The term "team player" is deeply offensive and wholly inappropriate, implying as it does keeping secrets.  When President RICHARD MILHOUS NIXON ordered the firing of Pentagon cost analyst A. Ernest Fitzgerald in retaliation for his truthful Congressional testimony and candid answers about C-5A cargo aircraft cost overruns, President NIXON gave tape-recorded orders to fire Mr. Fitzgerald because he was not a "team player."  Case law is replete with examples of "team players" participating in and covering up crimes.  We don't want any of our elected officials to be "team players."  We want honest representation, not an oath of omertà.

3. Corrupt officials have often stigmatized people disclosing wrongdoing as "not team players," or worse. 

4. On March 13, 2006, after I reported to EPA and DEP our City government for dumping a landfill in a lake, Vice Mayor SUSAN BURK, Commissioners DONALD CRICHLOW, JOSEPH BOLES and ERROL JONES publicly proclaimed their undying admiration of  HARRISS, with the four defending him against what they claimed were my unwarranted criticisms. (Our City eventually paid a fine of more than $31,000 for the illegal dumping of 40,000 cubic yards of contaminated solid waste in our Old City Reservoir, a coquina pit  lake that former EPA Region 4 Regional Administrator John Henry Hankinson told me was "an open sore going straight down to our aquifer and groundwater"). Then and there, on March 13, 2006, Commissioner BOLES (later that year elected to the first of four terms as our Mayor) said regarding my illegal dumping questions, without irony, that he was "tired" of me "trashing" City Manager WILLIAM BARRY HARRISS.  I was lambasted by BURK as a "disgruntled citizen," (e.g. for asking questions about pollution of the Old City Reservoir).  I wear their scorn as a badge of honor: the consent decree speaks for itself -- the City was wrong and never apologized for its chilling our free speech rights and winking at criminal wrongdoing.  (Does being the City of St. Augustine mean "never having to say you're sorry?"

5. History repeats itself, as Commissioner LEANNA FREEMAN (ex-partner of BURK's in a law firm that was known as "FREEMAN & BURK") moves to take away your right to vote for Mayor.  FREEMAN looks at the ceiling when I speak to Commissioners, yawns without covering her mouth when other Commissioners speak, showed her rudeness toward Mayor Nancy Shaver, and helped create a hostile working environment, ending in Mayor Shaver's stroke and resignation.
6. Of course, this country was founded by "disgruntled citizens."  Few of us are "full gruntled," in the words of the late Andy Rooney. BURK's abusive use of the adjective "disgruntled" is a common semantic tactic of people retaliating against protected activity.  

7. St. Augustine City Commissioners have in the past publicly used words like "team player" as a complement, while insisting that their City Managers are doing a perfect job. In Abrams v. Baylor College of Medicine, 581 F.Supp. 1570, 1574 (S.D. Texas 1984), affirmed in relevant part, 805 F.2d 528 (5th Cir. 1986), the Court rejected pretexts for discrimination in refusing to send Jewish physicians to a program in Saudi Arabia, including a "team player" requirement. A "team player" does not blow the whistle or criticize management. "Team player" is freighted with the speech-chilling implication that one is willing to "go along to get along," say what management wants to hear, and do what one is told by managers, no matter what the ethics or legality of the situation. In the political corruption case of United States v. Salvatti, 451 F.Supp. 195, 197-98 (E.D. Pa. 1978), one witness testified that "when she complained to the Mayor about Mr. Carroll's pressure, and advised him that the proposed payment to the Sylks would be totally improper and probably illegal, the Mayor chided her for not being a team player." See also Fitzgerald v. Seamans, 384 F.Supp. 688,697n7 (D.D.C. 1974), affirmed, 553 F.2d 220, 224 (D.C. Cir. 1977), reversed, Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800 (1982); Nixon v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 731 (1982) (remarks of President Nixon et al. on need to fire Department of Defense whistleblower A. Ernest Fitzgerald after he testified before Congress on C-5A transport cost overruns); Broderick v. Ruder, 685 F.Supp. 1269 (D.D.C. 1988)(sexual harassment at Securities and Exchange Commission); Tomsic v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co, 85 F.3d 1472, 1474 (10th Cir. 1996); Geddes v. Benefits Review Board, 735 F.2d 1412, 1416, 1420 (D.C. Cir. 1984) (Washington Metropolitan Transportation Authority considered workers' compensation claimant not a "team player"); Davis v. California, 1996 WL 271001 (E.D.Cal.1996); Schloesser v. Kansas Dept. of Health & Environment, 766 F.Supp. 984 (D. Kansas 1991); Stradford v. Rockwell International, 48 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. (BNA) 697, 49 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 38,828,1988 WL 159939 (S.D.Ohio); Seymour M. Hersh, "Annals of National Security: The Intelligence Gap -- How the digital age left our spies out in the cold," The New Yorker, December 6, 1999 at 58, 62.

8.  Thus, in 2015, I objected to $1950 spent on "training" of Commissioners in how to be "team players" to be insulting, unnecessary, contrary to the genius of a free people and yet another example of waste, fraud and abuse in City Hall.  

9. Thus, in 2019, I oppose demands to erase your right to vote for Mayor. 
10. Tell City Hall to increase accountability, not eliminate it.  Come speak on November 12, 2019. City Commission meets at 5 PM at City Hall, 75 King Street, Commission meeting room, 1st Floor.  Decisions are made by people who show up. Show up in favor of your voting rights.

Mayor question advances in St. Augustine. (SAR)

Is The Gang of Four now only three? Commissioner Nancy Sikes-Kline voted with Mayor Tracy Upchurch against this outrage, perpetrated by Commissioners JOHN OTHA VALDES, LENNNA SOPHIA AMARU FREEMAN and a reluctant ROZNNE HORVATH. 

I responded to the 3-2 Commission vote by enlisting the U.S. Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, Voting Section, to investigate and asked it to investigate and be prepared to file federal court litigation under the Fifteenth Amendment and Voting Rights Act.









Mayor question advances in St. Augustine
By Sheldon Gardner
Posted Oct 29, 2019 at 4:59 PM
St. Augustine Record

St. Augustine commissioners voted to create an ordinance that would put a question about the mayor’s selection on a ballot.

The ballot would ask city residents whether they want the mayor’s seat to be a regular Commission seat. In that case, commissioners would choose the mayor among their own ranks every two years.

As it stands, residents elect a mayor every two years.

The mayor controls Commission meetings and is the ceremonial face of the city but doesn’t have any more voting power than other commissioners. The city manager handles the city’s daily operations and is responsible for implementing policies set by the Commission.

On Monday, commissioners voted 3-2 to have the city attorney bring back the ordinance on first reading in November, with Mayor Tracy Upchurch and Commissioner Nancy Sikes-Kline dissenting.

The ordinance needs two readings and positive votes to be successful.

If the ordinance is adopted, the plan is to have the question go on the presidential preference election ballot in March, but the August primary is a backup if there’not a Republican presidential primary.

Commissioners supported having the question on a ballot in an election that will get the most turnout aside from the general election. Concerns have been raised about the general election ballot being crowded with other items.

The mayor issue came up as part of the city’s charter review. In addition to clarifying and updating other parts of the charter, the Commission is looking at more substantial issues.


That includes the mayor’s election and residency requirements for commissioners.

The Commission voted 5-0 on Monday to move to second reading an ordinance that would put another question on the ballot: whether commissioners should have to be city residents for at least a year before qualifying for election.

Commissioner John Valdes in April raised the issue of whether to change how the city handles the mayor position.

He said at the time that the city’s current method is confusing for newcomers who are familiar with cities where mayors have more power, and that “sometimes having a mayor that puts on the cloak of a big-city mayor causes turbulence that wouldn’t necessarily be there.”

Valdes made similar comments on Monday.

He supported having the mayor’s role rotate among commissioners based on seniority. But he also raised concerns about the road ahead.

“Also, it also troubles me putting it on the ballot because it will turn into a huge item with a lot of misinformation flying around and end up being divisive, probably,” he said.


Vice Mayor Leanna Freeman said the role of the mayor is a figurehead position, so the outcome of the referendum wouldn’t mean a substantive change for the city.

She said she’s heard from people who support keeping things the way they are and people who support changing things, and she said she supports letting voters make the decision.

Commissioner Roxanne Horvath said there is confusion among residents about the mayor’s role.

Sikes-Kline supported putting away the issue, and she said she’s heard from people who like things the way they are.

“Most of the time, it’s worked pretty well for us,” she said.

Upchurch said people already decided the issue in the 1980s after the Commission “unilaterally changed the mayor.”

“That’s how we got here, when Ramelle Petroglou, our first woman mayor, was removed late at night in a Commission meeting. That was the event that caused us to go to an elected mayor,” he said.

He said he thought the city should remove the item from consideration and move on.

“I don’t know what problem we’re trying to fix,” he said. “I’m unaware of ... sure, have there been tumultuous times under an elected mayor? Absolutely. Have there been tumultuous times under appointed mayors? Absolutely. Will there be in the future? Of course there will be.”

REJECT misguided move to abolish elected St. Augustine Mayor position

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt said in his State of the Union address, January 6, 1941:  "We must especially beware of that small group of selfish [people] who would clip the wings of the American eagle in order to feather their own nests." 

Anyone who demands to remove a check and balance in our democracy better have a darn good reason. 

There are NO principled reasons for revoking your right to vote for the St. Augustine Mayor. 

"Here sir, the people govern," as Alexander Hamilton said.

"We get to overthrow our government every two years," as the character "Josh Liman" said on The West Wing.

St. Augustine residents first elected their Mayor in 1812 under the landmark Spanish Constitution.  See historian Susan Parker's column here.

Should we retain the elected mayor's position in St. Augustine as a check on the powers of the City Manager?  Yes.    

I strongly agree with St. Augustine Mayor Tracy Wilson Upchurch, who wisely frankly said so on October 14, 2019.   Watch here (click on Item 7B). 

Who would erase vested voting rights, in violation of legal and constitutional rights?  One person:
JOHN OTHA VALDES:

• third generation Florida building contractor and developer, elected to Commission in 2018;
• voluntarily testified in support of dubious projects, including DOW PUD and San Marco Hotel;
• fined for illegally demolishing a building on Washington Street, of which he said, "I can make it fall down."
• homestead property tax fraudster caught claiming 100% homestead exemption for his St. George Street property, while renting out a garage apartment on AirBnB, with a phony address on the mailbox.
• former owner of a Saudia Arabian construction company who sold it to British and Saudi partners.

VALDES claims to love St. Augustine, but mostly profits from it, and was willing to tear down a building without a permit, stating to the City Inspector, "I can make it fall down. 

VALDES has a hate-on for Mayor Nancy Shaver and any reforms.

VALDES wanted to give voting rights to nonresident business owners, which would be illegal.  

Undeterred, VALDES also said he wanted to eliminate the City Mayor's position because:

•  someone moving here. from Chicago might be "confused" that we have a strong Mayor and not a City Manager form of government.
• electing our Mayor causes "turbulence."

Developers and their cat's paws want to pick their own Mayor.  

The title would "rotate" among Commissioners, as in that perfectly malfeasant, mediocre City government in St. Augustine Beach. 


Mayor/Professor Upchurch answered that it takes him "two minutes" to explain to his students that St. Augustine has an elected Mayor and a strong City Manager.  If Flagler College students can understand this, surely even people moving from Chicago will understand.  It's not rocket science.

Freshman Commissioner JOHN OTHA VALDES is perfectly mediocre as an elected official.  He should not get to be Mayor for a Year by rotation. , 

JOHN OTHA VALDES rather reminds me of Senator Carl Curtis (R-Neb.), who never read Ralph Nader's book on auto safety and did not want to hear his testimony, but tried to interrupt.  Senator Robert F. Kennedy (D-N.Y.) then told Senator Curtis to let the witness finish.  Senator Curtis replied, “I have no objection to hearing his testimony, but when he loses me with—,” Senator Kennedy finished the sentence: “With big words?”

Like Senator Curtis, Commissioner VALDES can't handle the truth.  The City staff induces the result he wants by depriving Commissioners of objective research, simply preparing an ordinance.  

Enough of one-sided staff advocating for erasing voting rights and destroying our history. 

We in the reality-based community appreciate the refreshing candor of Tracy Upchurch, the history and law professor with personal hands-on experience as our legislator, our past Mayor and as a scholar.   

The imperious behavior of St. Augustine City Managers needs checks and balances -- more not less.  

We need countywide, applying to our City, an:

• lobbying disclosure, 
• ethics ordinance, 
• Inspector General and
• Ombuds. 

Since I moved here on November 5, 1999, two successive St. Augustine City Managers, WILLIAM BARRY HARRISS and JOHN PATRICK REGAN, P.E have: 

• subjected our City to fines and civil, criminal and environmental investigations for overt acts of pollution and environmental racism.
• got our City fined for putting a landfill in a lake, the Old City Reservoir on Holmes Blvd.
• unsuccessfully spent $200,000 on legal fees, unsuccessfully demanding approval to move the landfill from the lake to Lincolnville (seven us filed an administrative complaint and the 40,000 cubic yards of contaminated material is now in a Class I landfill in Nassau County).
• got our City fined for dumping semi-treated sewage effluents in our saltwater marsh at the south end of Lincolnville, never discussing it in a public meeting, violating Sunshine by "polling" Commissioners to save 
• got our City repeatedly found liable by federal courts to have violated First Amendment rights, resulting g in damages and spending on legal fees for both sides by:
• confiscating copies of St. Aug Dog newspaper and banning its distribution on St. George Street.
• criminalizing art and music in our historic area.
• served as doormats for dodgy businesses, easily duped by devious developers, some proposing hare-brained schemes:
• some of which Commission approved (The Collector Hotel privatizing Dow Museum of Historic Homes, privatizing Lighthouse Park Community Center as private Yacht Club, privatizing one block of Cuna Street for benefit of one LOUIS JOHN ARBIZZANI of New Orleans, Louisiana), and 
• some of which we stopped (coral growing tanks, aquarium and children's museum on top of garbage dump in violation of state law, now Dr. Robert S. Hayling, D.D.S. Freedom Park), halted thanks to Nancy Shaver, Blake Souder, Judith Seraphin, Cash McVay an d other activists.
• spent tens of thousands of dollars on engineering studies to put structures on top of the old garbage dumps at the south end of Lincolnville (the area is now Dr. Robert S. Hayling, D.D.S. Freedom Park).
• engaged in secretive meetings with business and property owners, including years of meetings without a written record with LOUIS JOHN ARBIZZANI and then BROUDY FAMILY.
• maintained close and self-serving relationships with seedy characters.

When it comes to government structure, Mayor Tracy Upchurch knows whereof he speaks.  
His father and grandfather preceded him in the legislature.  His father preceded him as Mayor.

Our City has named Hamilton Davis Upchurch Park for his late father, who in 2007 spoke out against yet another power grab -- an irregularly-drafted, defective "starter charter" -- speaking publicly against it at St. Johns County Commission.  

Hamilton Upchurch's wise words against MICHAEL DAVID WANCHICK's and THOMAS G. MANUE's charter inspired me.  Citizens  ultimately helping activists block (twice on the ballot in 2008).  We, the People of St. Johns County twice defeated an unwise County Charter, which. would have undue concentrated power without checks and balances.  He and I both testified against it.

Professor Tracy Upchurch teaches history and law at Flagler College, and is a lawyer, former mayor and former state legislator, the third generation Upchurch in the state legislature.  

Mayor Upchuch was selected by Commissioners March 4, 2019 to fill the vacancy created by Mayor Nancy Shaver's February 28, 2019 resignation, three days after her  stroke after a Commission meeting adjourned.   


Some anti-democratic developer tools want to claw back and wrench away the people's vested right to select their Mayor.  

People of the Lie, those who "want to clip the wings of the American Eagle to feather their own nests," demand to:

• take selection of Mayor back from the people in St, Augustine and give it to Commissioners.  
• eliminate the two year Mayor position.  
• make seat 3 a four year seat, and have the Mayor picked by Commissioners.  

It is unlikely voters would approve.  If they did, unleashing Commissioners to rotate among themselves, perhaps they could give each annual pretend-Mayor a lighted sign for the roof of their house and car, asking plaintively, "DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM??"

(That was the question that Commissioner ERROL DONLEVY JONES had for arresting offices in 2013, when he was interfering with a police investigation. of his kinfolk.  JONES has since been arrested twelve times).

When I was thirteen, the U.S. Senate rejected a mediocre nominee for the Supreme Court, G. Harrold Carswell, overriding the plea of Senator Roman L. Hruska (R-Neb.) that the mediocre deserve representation.

In a revealing tv news interview on March 16, 1970, Hruska said,  "Even if he [Carswell] were mediocre, there are a lot of mediocre judges and people and lawyers. They are entitled to a little representation, aren't they? We can't have all Brandeises and Frankfurters and Cardozos."

All of our Mayors can't be Nancy Shavers, but the people of St. Augustine deserve the right to choose them. 

Footnote: The United States Senate rejected Carswell's nomination on April 8, 1970 by a vote of 51-45, giving President Nixon a second Senate rejection of a Supreme Court judicial nominee; in 1969, it rejected Nixon's choice of Clement Haynsworth.

Footnote: another plea for mediocrity (and for not electing our Mayor) appeared in a dodgy former California small town Mayor's dupery Wednesday column in the mullet wrapper.


From NPR:
March 16, 1970
(This day in history) 

As the Senate is in the process of debating the nomination of Judge G. Harrold Carswell as an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court -- to fill the seat vacated by Abe Fortas -- Nebraska Republican Roman Hruska says in a TV interview, "Even if he [Carswell] were mediocre, there are a lot of mediocre judges and people and lawyers. They are entitled to a little representation, aren't they? We can't have all Brandeises and Frankfurters and Cardozos."

The Senate will reject Carswell's nomination on April 8 by a vote of 51-45, giving President Nixon a second consecutive setback; in 1969, it rejected Nixon's choice of Clement Haynsworth.

Battle Creek residents mull citizen-led ballot initiative for direct election of the mayor. (Battle Creek, Michigan Enqurier)

The trend in America is to electing mayors and not appointing them. Even where there is a strong city manager form of government, throughout Florida and the United States, we elect our Mayors. Why? As Alexander Hamilton said, "Here, sir, the people govern."

From the Battle Creek, Michigan Enquirer:

Battle Creek residents mull citizen-led ballot initiative for direct election of the mayor

Elena Durnbaugh, Battle Creek EnquirerPublished 8:00 a.m. ET Oct. 24, 2019

CONNECTTWEETLINKEDINCOMMENTEMAILMORE

Jerry Steiner isn't satisfied with Battle Creek's city government. 

He said he was hoping, that this time around, City Commissioners would do what the people wanted and allow a direct election of the mayor.

That didn't happen. 

"I've just been sitting back a lot because I know that a lot of African Americans, and a lot of citizens, period, are dissatisfied with the way government is run here in Battle Creek," he said. "My whole concern is that the community has a voice, and I don't feel they had a voice this time...I sit by and let that go, and my grandmama — I sure wish she would come back from the grave and whoop my butt."

When City Commissioners were discussing whether to put direct election of the mayor on the ballot last week, giving people a voice was at the heart of their discussion.

Several commissioners who voted against the resolution said that they didn't think it did enough to improve representation in the city. It needed six votes to pass. It got five.

Some residents feel Commissioners missed the mark and support a plan to start a petition to get direct election of the mayor and a new ward system on the ballot. 

"It's time for a change," Battle Creek resident Janice Banks said. "They choose among themselves. They've been doing it a long time." 

Choosing who represents the city

Battle Creek has a council-manager system of city government, which means that the mayor is not the chief executive of the city and doesn't make decisions for the city apart from the City Commission. Electing the mayor wouldn't give Battle Creek residents any more influence on city policy than they already have, but for voters like Steiner, it's not about electoral power. It's about choosing who represents the city. 

"When you think of city government, you think of the mayor," he said. "What has happened here in Battle Creek is that the City Commission has gotten so powerful with this political cronyism, you know, 'We're going to pick the mayor among ourselves because you the population aren't qualified to do it'...To place such an important decision in the hands of such a small group of people is a slap in the face to the hard working people here in Battle Creek."

Prior to the Board of Commission's vote on direct election of the mayor, Ward 3 Commissioner Kate Flores did an informal study on how well Battle Creek's current electoral system has promoted broad representation. 

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The data showed that, in the last two decades, all of Battle Creek's mayors have been white, most have been men and most have lived south of Columbia Avenue. Only two people of color have ever served as mayor in a city where approximately a third of the residents are non-white, according to the 2017 American Community Survey. 

Steiner said letting people chose who will represent them as mayor would help people feel more included in their government. 

"It would come from among the people," he said. "African Americans, in my opinion, have gotten so disenfranchised with city government they just say, 'Oh, just another thing. They're just going through their changes.' And like I say, one year somebody's vice mayor, another year somebody's chosen as mayor, and it goes back and forth."

Banks said that a direct election of the mayor could bring the community together and cited the support Kalamazoo Mayor Bobby Hopewell has received from his city.

"They right behind him. Picked him up: 'This is my mayor.' That's what I like. That's called unity. Togetherness," she said.

Banks said that right now, she doesn't feel like her voice can be heard in city government. 

"They have these conversations, and certain people can talk. They don't let everybody talk now. I've been to those meetings, too. They jump right over me... That's OK. I understand. But I say, hey, we pay taxes, if you don't do none of that, at least give us our opinion. We pay for that." 

Battle Creek resident Jeremias Andrews expressed similar concerns. 

"Whenever citizen movements or bodies of citizens get together to want to do something, they hack it up and destroy it," he said. "When you have a city who says constantly 'We want citizen engagement. We seek citizen engagement. We crave it'... When they get it, they don't take it." 

Blue Ribbon Advisory Committee

Battle Creek has debated direct election of the mayor for a long time. The primary focus of the 2018 Blue Ribbon Advisory Committee was to make recommendations for selection of the mayor and vice-mayor. 

One of the recommendations put forward by the committee was the direct election of both mayor and vice mayor. In another proposal, the Blue Ribbon Committee recommended increasing the number of wards from five to seven while reducing the number of at-large positions from four to two.

Most committee members felt that completely restructuring the system would create a commission that better represented Battle Creek neighborhoods, but the Board of Commissioners only took up the recommendation for direct election of the mayor and planned to leave the current ward system in place. 

Some members of the committee were against the city commissioners passing a resolution for the direct election of the mayor without restructuring the ward system because they thought it would dilute under-represented voices in the community.

"It's worse from a democratic standpoint," Blue Ribbon Advisory Committee member Andy Helmboldt said. "It makes it easier for a demographic minority to win an oversized majority of seats." 

"Anyone who understands the geographical makeup of our neighborhoods in Battle Creek and has looked at our ward map in the last 20 years or more can see that our current ward breakup does not mirror neighborhoods in the best way that it could," Andrews said. "So I was disappointed in that. Disappointed because that would give us much broader representation around town, and it would give people the opportunity to vote for mayor and vice mayor." 

Andrews said that although Battle Creek has a weak mayor system, the position is still important because the mayor helps chose board positions and sets the tone for commission meetings.

"I'm also disappointed that our Commission voted against that incremental step," he said. "That was an opportunity to make a move forward, right? Is it the exact perfect move? Maybe not... however, incremental steps get you there...I feel like we have paralysis by over analysis." 

Ballot initiative

Now that the resolution for direct election of the mayor has failed, community members are considering a citizen-led petition to put the Blue Ribbon plan on the ballot. 

Under state law, in order to get a proposal on the ballot, 5% of qualified and registered voters in a city need to sign a petition. In Battle Creek, that would be nearly 2,000 signatures, according to the Calhoun County Clerk's Office. 

Helmboldt said that a petition is going to happen, and he plans to be highly involved.

A citizen-led initiative would be "the next best thing" to the Commission putting the Committee's full recommendation on the ballot, Helmboldt said.  

"Definitely preferable to the proposal the commission voted on," he said in an email.  

Helmboldt said that the petition would have to list the seven ward system and the direct election of the mayor as two separate items, based on his understanding of what the city attorney has said at commission meetings.

Steiner said he would support a petition to get direct election of the mayor on the ballot, and he wants to do what he could to let people know about the issue. 

"It's time for a change," he said. "Look at what they're doing down here in local government...Five people out of nine decided what what going to happen for 51,000 people...I believe in fair play. I believe in it, and I don't think that was fair." 

Contact Elena Durnbaugh at (269) 243-5938 or edurnbaugh@battlecreekenequirer.com. Follow her on Twitter at @ElenaDurnbaugh.