READ IT HERE: I filed USDOJ Voting Rights Act Complaint Against City of St. Augustine, Florida, whose Commissioners voted 3-2 to move toward erasing citizen voting rights to vote for Mayor

I've filed a complaint with USDOJ on Fifteemth Amendment and Voting Rights issues, none researched by the itty-bitty city's maladroit City Attorney, ISABELLE CHRISTINE LOPEZ, or her assistant, JOHN CARY, thus empowering lawbreaking (again by Commissioners). 

Kudos to Mayor Tracy Upchurch and Commissioner Nancy Sikes-Kline for their votes. Come speak out on November 12, 2019 and talk to Commissioners JOHN OTHA VALDES, LEANNA SOPHIA AMARU FREEMAN and the reluctant Commissioner ROXANNE HORVATH.

When faced with government wrongdoing, as we did October 28, 2019 at St. Augustine City Commission, I do not flinch. That's how God made me, my parents raised me and my mentors taught me. Read my October 29, 2019 complaint below:

-----Original Message-----
From: Ed Slavin
To: voting.section
Cc: serdelyi ; wfusco ; voakes ; rhorvath ; tupchurch ; nsikeskline ; jvaldes ; ilopez ; jcary ; jim.sutton ; stuart.korfhage ; sheldon.gardner ; sheltonhull ; georgio ; sheltond ; sam ;...
Sent: Tue, Oct 29, 2019 1:06 pm
Subject: URGENT: City of St. Augustine, Florida Commissioners vote 3-2 to move toward erasing citizen voting rights to vote for Mayor -- REQUEST FOR INVESTIGATION OF VOTING RIGHTS ACT and FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT VIOLATIONS

To: Honorable U.S. Attorney General William Barr and 

Honorable Assistant Attorney General Eric S. Dreiband for Civil Rights Division

U.S. Department of Justice 

Robert F. Kennedy Justice Department Building

Washington, D.C. 

Dear General Barr and General Dreiband:
1. Please investigate current voting rights concerns about the City of St. Augustine, Florida, which the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once called "the most lawless City in America."

2. At its October 28, 2019 meeting, our St. Augustine City Commission voted 3-2 to schedule for first and second reading an ordinance that would put on a 2020 primary ballot a measure taking away citizens right to vote for Mayor.  Interim Mayor Tracy Upchurch and Commissioner Nancy SIkes-Kline dissented.  Voting for the proposal were Vice Mayor LEANNA SOPHIA AMARU FREEMAN, a lawyer, JOHN OTHA VALDES, a contractor and ROXANNE HORVATH, an architect. People in St. Augustine were first able to vote for Mayor in 1812, in Spanish colonial times.  Evisceration of that right is being proposed pursuant to a custom, usage, practice and procedure of violations of civil rights by the City of St. Augustine, Florida, a frequent defendant in federal court actions since the 1960s.  This affront to our Constitution and our democracy is proposed by JOHN OTHA VALDES, a controversial freshman City Commissioner -- earlier this year, VALDES actually suggested giving voting rights to nonresident business owners!  Watch October 28, 2019 video here, at item 7B: https://staugustinefl.swagit.com/play/10282019-861

3. Controversial St. Augustine City Commissioner JOHN OTHA VALDES' proposal to delete vested voting rights to vote for St. Augustine's Mayor was unadorned by any mature policy research by City staff.  Our unassertive City Attorney, ISABELLE CHRISTINE LOPEZ, lacks the ability to say "no" to bad ideas, including ideas that may violate the 15th Amendment and the Voting Rights Act.  Please interview Ms. LOPEZ and kindly take her deposition.   In 2015, she entertained the notion of the City filing a lawsuit for libel on behalf of one of the Commissioners, wasting staff time and resources on an illegal proposition that would have subjected the City to constitutional rights litigation under New York Times v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254 (1964).  (I have shared this complaint with the City's learned defense counsel, Ms. Susan Erdelyi, from the law firm of Marks, Gray, in hopes of her educating City officials, once again).

4. Commissioner JOHN OTHA VALDES' indecent proposal is an affront to our civil and constitutional rights as Americans.  It is a stench in the nostrils of our Nation and everything that we stand for as a people.

5. St. Augustine City Attorney ISABELLE CHRISTINE LOPEZ now admits she did NO research on either the Voting Rights Act or the 15th Amendment.  Please see See response to my Open Records Request No. 2019-484, below.

6. St. Augustine City Attorney ISABELLE CHRISTINE LOPEZ did NO 15th Amendment or VRA research on VALDES' unelected Mayor proposal,.

7. No objective analysis or memo was ever provided to Commissioners, e.g., a list of all the jurisdictions in Florida with strong city managers and elected Mayors. 

8. The City of St. Augustine needs an elected Mayor as a check and balance on the power of its strong City Manager.

9.  Brian and I moved here on November 5, 1999. For 20 years, I have observed a long train of abuses by two successive City Managers, WILLIAM BARRY HARRISS and his hand-picked successor, JOHN PATRICK REGAN, P.E.  

10. The St. Augustine City Manager's largely unchecked power has often been responsible for lawbreaking, including repeated acts of intentional pollution, including depositing a landfill in a lake and polluting our saltwater marsh with semi-treated sewage effluent, resulting in fines and consent decrees. 

11. The City of St, Augustine abused a long series of annexations to dilute minority voting strength from 25% to less than 12%, 1964-date.

12. Elimination of an elected Mayor position for a temporary, rotating Mayor would virtually eliminate the possibility of African-Americans ever electing a Mayor here.

13. Thus, USDOJ must initiate a civil, criminal and administrative investigation of the City of St. Augustine for violations of the Voting Rights Act and 15th Amendment, just as it did in United States v. City of Memphis, Tennessee. (This litigation was after my suggestion to the USDOJ Civil Rights Division career deputy at an ABA meeting in Denver, Colorado in February 1989).

14.  Please direct the FBI and U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida to monitor the November 12, 2019 St. Augustine City Commission meeting for the first reading of this illegal, unconstitutional proposal.  If the St. Augustine, Florida City Commission does not come to its senses at its November 12, 2019 meeting (the day after Veterans' Day), please bring an action in federal court seeking injunctive relief on behalf  of the people of the United States of America, to right the wrongs wreaked by three (3) misguided City Commissioners.

Let justice be done. 

Thank you.

With kindest regards, I am,

Sincerely yours,

Ed Slavin

904-377-4998

www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com

www.edslavin.com

-----Original Message-----
From: St. Augustine Public Records
To: Ed Slavin
Sent: Tue, Oct 29, 2019 9:31 am
Subject: RE: Request No. 2019-484: 15th Amendment and VRA research on unelected Mayor propsoal

The City of St. Augustine does not posses any documents related to your public record request.

From: Ed Slavin  
Sent: Monday, October 28, 2019 1:20 AM
To: Darlene Galambos ; John Valdes ; Isabelle Lopez ; John M. Cary ; Leanna Freeman ; Nancy Sikes-Kline ; Roxanne Horvath ; John Regan ; Lucy Fountain ; Meredith Breidenstein
Cc: gardner@aug.com; nancyshaver77@gmail.com; news@historiccity.com; news@actionnewsjax.com; jessica.clark@firstcoastnews.com; aschindler@firstcoastnews.com; jim.sutton@staugustine.com; cottrell.sf@gmail.com; sheldon.gardner@staugustine.com; stuart.korfhage@staugustine.com
Subject: Request No. 2019-484: 15th Amendment and VRA research on unelected Mayor propsoal

Dear Ms. Galambos, et al.:
Please send me: 

1. any legal research on the 15th Amendment and Voting Rights Act and the notion of erasing the right of people to elect the St. Augustine Mayor, along with 
2. any objective memos on the subject, or 
3. any actual complaints leading to the notion.

Thank you.

With kindest regards, I am,

Sincerely yours,

Ed Slavin

904-377-4998

www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com

www.edslavin.com