CONFLICT OF INTEREST: Kindly withdraw HUNTER S. CONRAD employment offer, respect First Amendment and avoid organizational conflict of interest

Controversial St. Johns County Clerk of Courts and Comptroller HUNTER C. CONRAD has not responded to calls to withdraw his name from consideration to be St. Johns County Administrator Ad Interim.   Wonder why?








-----Original Message-----
From: Ed Slavin
To: coc ; pmccormack ; rross ; bcc1jjohns ; bcc2jsmith ; bcc3pwaldron ; bcc4jblocker ; bcc5hdean
Sent: Sat, Dec 7, 2019 7:24 pm
Subject: CONFLICT OF INTEREST: Kindly withdraw HUNTER S. CONRAD employment offer, respect First Amendment and avoid organizational conflict of interest

Good evening: 

1. No draft contract has yet been provided.  Why?
2. Conflicts of interests are to be scrupulously guarded against. See, e.g., United States v. Mississippi Valley Generating Co., 364 U.S. 520, 548 (1961)("the 'Dixon-Yates' case," involving TVA rivals' conflicts of interest in a proposed Memphis coal-fired powerplant), citing Matthew 6:24 -- "no [person] can serve two masters," holding that laws and rules preventing conflicts of interest are aimed "not only at dishonor but at conduct that tempts dishonor."   All conflict of interest laws are based upon Matthew 6:24 ("A man cannot serve two masters"), which the unanimous Supreme Court decision by Chief Justice Earl Warren deemed to be both a "moral "moral principle" and a "maxim which is especially pertinent if one of the masters happens to be economic self-interest."  
3. Please reconsider and kindly withdraw the inchoate, ill-advised job offer to HUNTER S. CONRAD, a partisan politician who is the only person considered for a nonpartisan position as St. Johns County Administrator Ad Interim. 
4. Former County Commissioner Mary Kohncke documented in an open letter the Commission's illegal preference for all-Republican appointees.
5. This is viewpoint discrimination in violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments.
6. Our First Amendment deserves "breathing space."  NAACP v. Button, 371 U.S. 415, 433 (1963) New York Times. v. Sullivan, 3766 U.S. 254 (1974); Gasparinetti v. Kerr, 568 F.2d 311, 314-17 (3d Cir. 1977)(illegal restrictions on policemen’s First Amendment rights); Philadelphia Newspapers, Inc. v. Hepps, 479 767, 772, 777 (1986)(O’Connor, J.)(newspaper entitled to breathing space in defamation case); Hustler Magazine v. Falwell, 485 U.S. 46, 52, 56 (1988) (Rehnquist, J.) (magazine parody of TV preacher entitled to breathing space); Keefe v. Ganeakos, 418 F.2d 359, 362 (1st Cir. 1969)(Aldrich, C.J.)(chilling effect on First Amendment illegal suspension of teacher over Atlantic Monthly article on Vietnam War); Parducci v. Rutland, 316 F.Supp. 352, 355, 357 (M.D. Ala 1970)(Johnson, C.J.)(chilling effect in illegal firing of English teacher over Kurt Vonnegut’s Welcome to the Monkey House.
7. Despite constitutional law demanding that the First Amendment deserves "breathing space," the all-Republican St. Johns County Commission is about to use the position of County Administrator to reward a Republican friend. 
8. As Justice Robert Houghwot Jackson wrote for the Supreme Court, "If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion, or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein." West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943).
9. If HUNTER S. CONRAD becomes Interim County Administrator and then returns to be Clerk of Courts and Comptroller, he will occupy a revolving door of dozens of ethics violations:  (a) Recommending his own Clerk of Courts FY 2021 budget to Commissioners as County Administrator; (b) Running the County for multiple months; then (c) Returning as Clerk of Courts and Comptroller to supervise the putative Inspector General and Comptroller, ruling on any allegations of maladministration by himself as County Administrator
10. Does this revolving door violate create untenable conflicts of interest?  Yes. 
11. It is a blatant conflict of interest, illegal, immoral and unseemly, a stench in the nostrils of our Nation for HUNTER CONRAD to stand astride these two offices in a revolving door.  
12. James Madison wrote in The Federalist No. 10: "No [person] is allowed to be a judge in [his/her] own cause, because his interest would certainly bias his judgment, and, not improbably, corrupt his integrity. With equal, nay with greater reason, a body of men are unfit to be both judges and parties at the same time . . . .".
13. The Supreme Court held in In re Murchison, 349 U.S. 133, 136 (1955) (Black, J.), "[O]ur system of law has always endeavored to prevent even the probability of unfairness. To this end no man can be a judge in his own case and no man is permitted to try cases where he has an interest in the outcome." See also TWA v. Civil Aeronautics Board, 102 U.S. App. D.C. 391, 392, 254 F.2d 90, 91 (1958). Spencer v. Lapsley, 20 How. 264, 266 (1858); Publius Syrus, Moral Sayings 51 (D. Lyman transl. 1856) ("No one should be judge in his own cause."); Blaise Pascal, Thoughts, Letters and Opuscules 182 (Wight transl. 1859) ("It is not permitted to the most equitable of men to be a judge in his own cause.").
14. As William Blackstone wrote, "[I]t is unreasonable that any man should determine his own quarrel," 1 W. Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England 91 citing Dr. Bonham's Case, 8 Rep. 114a (C.P. 1610); see also City of London v. Wood, 12 Mod. 669, 687 (1701)(Lord Holt)(invalidating fine for refusal to serve as sheriff recovered by the city in its own court of Mayor and Aldermen). See also Aetna Life Ins. Co. v. Lavoie, 475 U.S. 813 (1986)(overruling case where Chief Justice of Alabama Supreme Court sat in judgment of case that would set precedent for his own pending case); Ward v. Village of Monroeville, 409 U.S. 57 (1972); Gibson v. Berryhill, 411 U.S. 564 (1973); Withrow v. Larkin, 421 U.S. 35 (1975); Cinderella Career and Finishing Schools, Inc. v. FTC, 425 F.2d 583 (D.C. Cir. 1970); American Cyanamid Co. v. FTC, 363 F.2d 757 (6th Cir. 1966); SCA Services, Inc. v. Morgan, 557 F.2d 110 (7th Cir.1977). 
15. HUNTER S. CONRAD's proposed blatant conflict of interest, an admittedly revolving door relationship involving two (2) lucrative offices, one elected and one appointed -- Clerk of Courts and County Administrator -- is the sort that that Anglo-American courts have been protecting us against for some 409 years. since at least 1610. Dr. Bonham's case, supra; Tumey v. Ohio, 273 U.S. 510, 522-24 (1927) (Taft, C.J.).  See also Laird v. Tatum, 409 U.S. 824, 828 (1972) (Rehnquist, J.), holding that it is well-settled that a government official is disqualified from ruling on a case "if [s]he either signs a pleading or brief" or "if he actively participated in any case even though he did not sign a pleading or brief."  
16. Don't take my word for it -- what will HUD or FEMA or their respective Inspector General criminal investigators say?
17. Please stop, look and listen.
18. Please heed our Founders' wisdom, supra.  
19. Please don't vote to name conflicted HUNTER S. CONRAD Interim County Administrator.
20. CONRAD's selection doesn't withstand scrutiny, taken:                               (a) in possible violation of Sunshine laws,                                                     (b) without a background investigation,                                                        (c) without posting or advertising,                                                                 (d) outside the ordinary course of business, and                                         (e) in violation of civil rights and conflict of interest laws and principles.  
21. Please call me to discuss this weekend.

Thank you.

With kindest regards, I am,

Sincerely yours,

Ed Slavin

904-377-4998

www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com

www.edslavin.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Ed Slavin
To: coc ; pmccormack ; rross ; coc ; bcc1jjohns ; bcc2jsmith ; bcc3pwaldron ; bcc4jblocker ; bcc5hdean
Sent: Fri, Dec 6, 2019 4:43 pm
Subject: Request No. 2019-684: Draft HUNTER S. CONRAD employment contract, including OCI clause/research

Good afternoon:
1. Please send and post today the draft HUNTER S. CONRAD employment contract as St.Johns County Administrator Ad Interim for presentation at the December 9, 2019 special meeting, including any provisions on organizational conflict of interest and ethics.

2. Does Mr. CONRAD have a prohibited conflict of interest, if he returns to Clerk of Courts and Comptroller, on ANY Inspector General complaint about his own maladministration during his suzerainty as the County Administrator Ad Interim?  

3. How can Commissioners possibly justify not posting or advertising the position before they voted to do it on November 19, 2019?

4. Please explain it to me.

Thank you.

With kindest regards, I am,

Sincerely yours,

Ed Slavin

904-377-4998

www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com

www.edslavin.com