I've written our St. Augustine Mayor and City Commissioners twice this morning, once asking them to allow public comment on Proposed Ordinance 2019-42, which would erase your right to vote for Mayor, the other, asking them to disclose all ex parte comments on it:
On Tue, Nov 12, 2019, 7:35 AM Ed Slavin <easlavin@aol.com> wrote:
Dear Mayor Upchurch, Vice Mayor Freeman, Commissioners Sikes-Kline, Horvath and Valdes:
1. Would you please be so kind as to vote to allow public comment on the first reading of the proposed ordinance 2019-42, asking citizens to vote to end citizen rights to vote for our Mayor of St. Augustine, Florida?2. The staff's draft agenda for our November 12, 2019 St. Augustine City Commission meeting states inter alia, "NO PUBLIC HEARING REQUIRED." Why?3. Please allow public comment as part of the first reading record in the event of federal court voting rights litigation under the 15th Amendment.4. Please place proposed Ordinance 2019-42 first reading at the front of tonight's agenda, where it belongs.
5. From this day forward, will you please allow public comment on all first readings of all ordinances, and all matters to be voted on by Commissioners? F.S. 286.0114 requires it and the First Amendment demands it.6. Our St. Augustine City Commission still has the most crabbed approach to public comment, the sequelae of retaliation by former City Manager WILLLIAM BARRY HARRISS & Co. when we objected to his illegally dumping a landfill in a lake, 2005-2006. That was an environmental crime, which was eventually remedied after seven of us petitioned the Florida Department of Administrative Hearings to undo a settlement that would have allowed 40,000 cubic yards of contaminated solid waste to be brought back to Lincolnville in 2000 truckloads. Born of environmental crimes, WILLIAM HARRISS' angry chauvinism still infests our Nation's Oldest City, and its approach to public comment, creating a hostile working environment.7. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. said it best, "It is revolting to have no better reason for a rule of law than that so it was laid down in the time of Henry IV. It is still more revolting if the grounds upon which it was laid down have vanished long since, and the rule simply persists from blind imitation of the past.” Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.,The Path of the Law (January 8, 1897 address at Boston University Law School), 10 HARVARD LAW REVIEW 457 (1897)
Thank you.
With kindest regards, I am,
-----Original Message-----
From: Ed Slavin
Sent: Tue, Nov 12, 2019 8:07 am
Subject: Request No. 2019-548: Ex parte contacts on Proposed Ordinance 2019-42, City of St. Augustine, Florida -- stripping citizens of vested right to vote for Mayor of St. Augustine, Florida
Dear Mayor Upchurch, Vice Mayor Freeman, Commissioners Sikes-Kline, Horvath and Valdes:
Please disclose all ex parte contacts on Proposed Ordinance 2019-42, including but not limited to any and all ontacts from:
- Ex-Mayors, including Messrs. LEN WEEKS (CLAUDE LEONARD WEEKS, JR.) and JOE BOLES (JOSEPH LESTER BOLES, JR.), et al.
- LOUIS JOHN ARBIZZANI
- DAVID BARTON CORNEAL
- WILLIAM BARRY HARRISS.
- TIMOTHY J. BURCHFIELD
- Developers
- Chamber of Commerce
- Republican and Democratic Parties
- County Commissioners
- Sheriff DAVID SHOAR
- Election Supervisor VICKY OAKES
Thank you.
With kindest regards, I am,
Sincerely yours,
Ed Slavin
904-377-4998
www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com
www.edslavin.com
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