No response from County Commission to my May 2, 2025 request. Wonder why?
That's 213 days.
That's six (6) months and twenty-nine (29) days.
Slowpokes.
Let's get this County moving again, and in the right direction.
The late, great U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan said, "Secrecy is for losers, for people who don't understand the value of the information."
When secretive corporate special interests take over our government, it is called "regulatory capture."
Our St. Johns County Attorney job is oddly outsourced to the corporate law firm of BRADLEY, GARRISON & KOMANDO, P.A.
One of the name partners (ROBERT MILNER BRADLEY) is a former State Senator, married to a current State Senator; BRADLEY is Chair of of the St. Johns River Water Management District.
The other name partner (SAMUEL PAUL GARRISON is the incoming Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives).
Does this politically-connected partnership account for the hubristic hauteur of the current conflicted County Attorney, RICHARD CHRISTIAN KOMANDO, who acts like he someone told him that he hung the moon? KOMANDO refused to provide Commissioner Ann Taylor with a list of his clients before the Commission voted to hire him. No conflicts check. No transparency. This stinks on ice.
Closer controls and better data are urgently required on our St. Johns County Attorney's Office. On April 15, 2025, by 3-2 vote of County Commission, the County Attorney's office was contracted out to BRADLEY, GARRISON & KOMANDO, P.A.. This is a corporate law firm owned by three politicians. BGK's lead partner is ROBERT MILNER BRADLEY, JR., a lobbyist, hired in 2025 to represent gambling interests -- FOUNTAINEBLEAU DEVELOPMENT, Mr. BRADLEY is current chair of the St. Johns River Water Management District. Partner SAMUEL PAUL GARRISON is current Florida House Rules and Ethics Committee Chair, and will be Florida Speaker of the House 2026-2027. Read my May 2, 2025 request that St. Johns County Commission require Quarterly Reports and Annual Reports from the County Attorney, as our City of St. Augustine has required of City Attorney since reformer Nancy E. Shaver was elected Mayor in 2014. https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2025/05/to-sjc-bocc-please-enact-ordinance.html
On Friday, May 2, 2025 at 08:00:07 AM EDT, Ed Slavin <easlavin@aol.com> wrote:
Dear SJC Commission Chair Joseph, Vice Chair Murphy, and Commissioners Taylor, Whitehurst and Arnold:
1. Our Nation's Oldest City of St. Augustine has a City Attorney Quarterly Report and Annual Report.
2. These reports are mandatory, and the standard of care. They have been required since reformer Nancy E. Shaver was elected Mayor in 2014.
3. These Annual and Quarterly reports allow St, Augustine our City Commissioners to evaluate, discuss and question the City Attorney's Office and its budget and priorities.
4. I've been attending St. Johns County Commission meetings for years. Ordinarily, during a time slot allocated for County Attorney Report, successive County Attorneys have smiled and said, "no report," sharing no information whatsoever. This shows contempt for democracy.
5. From this day forward, would you please be so kind as to pass an ordinance by consensus at our May 6, 2025 St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners meeting, requiring publication of County Attorney Annual Reports and Quarterly Reports, effective immediately, the public interest requiring it?
6. Please feel free to call me today to discuss records requests and report requirements.
7. It's our money and our County and our County Attorney's office.
8. Under current management, our County Attorney has avoided and evaded responses to records requests.
9. Mr. Komando stiffed Commissioner Ann Taylor's request for a list of his private clients.
10. Mr. Komando concealed his representation of the SLAUGHTER BROTHERS, convicted of federal tax fraud and workers compensation fraud.
11. On April 15, 2025, St. Johns County Commission hired a politically-connected corporate law firm as County Attorney. I have requested investigations. This unwise decision cannot stand.
12. We know now that the co-owner of that law firm, former State Senator ROBERT MILNER BRADLEY, JR. owns a lobbying firm, hired in 2025 to represent FOUNTAINBLEAU DEVELOPMENT.
13. Is St. Johns County Attorney secrecy, sloth and contracting out helping conceal mismanagement amid overdevelopment?
14. As the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan said, "Secrecy is for losers -- for people who don't understand the value of the information." See Daniel Patrick Moynihan, SECRECY -- the American Experience. (Yale University Press, 1999).
15. This County Attorney secrecy is unseemly and contrary to the genius and dignity of a free people.
16. Our Florida Constitution establishes our right to our government records and open meetings. Article I, Section 24 of our Florida Constitution was adopted by 83% (3.8 million votes) in 1992.
17. As James Madison wrote on August 4, 1822, "A popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or, perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives."
18. Please see:
Thank you.
With kindest regards, I am,
Sincerely yours,
Ed Slavin
Box 3084
St. Augustine, Florida 32085-3084
www.edslavin.com
(904) 377-4998
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