Thomas Jefferson wrote, "I have sworn, upon the Altar of Almighty God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."
From maladroit and mendacious decisions on zoning and planning to inept purchasing without competitive bidding, our Florida and local governments are a form of tyranny. Voters will soon decide on Governor DeSantis' tax proposal, but it is not enough.'
As my mother once said of Camden County College in Blackwood, N.J., "I am surrounded by mediocrities."
We need to fire the lousy louche lobbyists St. Johns County hires without public discussion or debate.
It's our money, damnit.
It's now budget time. It's time for all good citizens to study the proposed city, county, special taxing district, community development and municipal service districts spending.
The proposed Fiscal Year 2017 St. Johns County budget is $1.46 billion. There's more in city, special taxis district, community development and municipal service district spending.
Our local governments are no model of candor and ethics. The same County covered up the September 2, 2010 murder of Ms. Michelle O'Connell by Deputy Jeremy Banks with his service weapon, failing to provide electronic records on water use at his home on Sherlock Place, where Deputy Debra Maynard said Banks "smelled like a fresh shower."
Our maladroit malfeasant State's Attorney, Ralph Joseph Larizza, recused himself even though his then-investigator, Robert Hardwick and his assistant, Commander Parker, wanted Michelle's body exhumed and autopsied. When the family finally paid for an autopsy, it turned out that Michlle's jaw was broken, a fact missed by malfeasant medical examiner, Predrag Bulic.
Circa 2016, imperious County Commission Chairman Jay Morris presumed to try to browbeat me for asking budget questions. He stated that I had not attended the County's budget dog and pony shows.
Tbat year., Messrs. Jefrey Marcus Gray, Tom Reynolds and I attended the budget workshop. Medical Examiner Predrag Bulic, since deceased, was allowed by County Commissioners to escape answering for his work. It's our money,.
Our County's unjust stewards hold such meetings in inconvenient times and places, like during the daytime in the "Gauze Mahal" (County Health Building complex conference room), with limited time available.
St. Johns County Commissioners later fired one such practitioner of government waste and deception,
Michael David Wanchick encumbered the position of County Administrator for twelve (12) years, without. returning a single phone call from me.
When County Administrator Wanchick was fired, he said of his unanimous firing by Commission, "It's all that God damn Ed Slavin's fault."
I saw that each new Commissioner read a copy of the Roper report, documenting Wanchck's sexist male chauvinist piggery. Wanchick was finally fired for lying about letting a construction contractor use a Ponte Vedra beach for a staging area.
As William F. Buckley, Jr. would ask, "Why does baloney reject the grinder?"
Ask questions, demand answers and expect democracy.
It's our money.
Ask detailed questions. Do your research. Like any good diplomats, we won't expect no for an answer.
Any government budget can be cut by 10% -- that's what my late mentor, Chief Judge Nahum Litt told me in 1986. He was the Chief Judge of the United States Department of Labor from 1979-1995.
During the midst of the Reagan-Bush Administration, Chief Judge Litt was a light in the darkness, protecting administrative law judge independence, protecting the ALJs who guarantee worker rights protection. He was my mentor. and I miss him.
In South Africa, Senator Robert Francis Kennedy said on the Day of Affirmation, on June 6, 1966, "Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”
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