Let justice be done, at last.
My January 14, 2025 letter to Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, reportedly to be our next U.S. Senator from Florida, and to Assistant Attorney General Patricia Riste Gleason:
Sent: Tuesday, January 14, 2025 at 04:41:14 AM EST
Subject: URGENT re: ANASTASIA MOSQUITO CONTROL DISTRICT OF ST. JOHNS COUNTY RECORDS AND INVESTIGATION
Honorable Ashley Moody, Attorney General &
Honorable Patricia Riste Gleason, Special Counsel for Open Government
Florida Attorney General's Office
The Capitol PL-01
401 South Monroe Street
Tallahassee, Florida 32399-6536
Re: ANASTASIA MOSQUITO CONTROL DISTRICT OF ST. JOHNS COUNTY RECORDS LAW VIOLATIONS
Dear General Moody and General Gleason:
1. I am writing to request the Florida Attorney General's urgent attention and assistance concerning our Anastasia Mosquito Control District of St. Johns County, an independent special taxing district whose members voted to gave themselves illegal bonuses in violation of the $4800 annual Commissioner pay cap in F.S. 388.141 AMCD's CFO, Scott Hanna, apparently used misleading accounting codes for the illegal bonuses. AMCD distributed thousands of dollars in government funds to at least one Board member for tuition reimbursements and Chamber of Commerce Leadership St. Johns events. AMCD is still stiffing me on Open Records requests in violation of Article I, Section 24 of our Florida Constitution and F.S. 119. Please help protect our rights to government documents under F.S. 119 and Florida Constitution Article I, Section 24 (adopted on 1992 by vote of 3.8 million people (83%)
2. Would Florida Assistant Attorney General Patricia Gleason please be so kind as to mediate my long-pending Florida Open Records requests with our Anastasia Mosquito Control District of St. Johns County, most of which have been neglected since September 2024?
3. Will AMCD kindly agree to mediation by Assistant Attorney General Patricia Gleason?
4. Will Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody and FDLE please initiate a civil, criminal and administrative investigation of AMCD and a forensic audit?
5. General Moody, General Gleason: Please help remedy AMCD's wrongful withholding of our governnment documents and information from the people of St. Johns County concerning waste, fraud, abuse, misfeasance, malfeasance and nonfeasance. AMCD has a history of wasteful spending and secrecy. In 2005, in a contract violation of public policy, AMCD illegally purchased a $1.8 million luxury Textron/Bell Jet Long Ranger Helicopter without competitive bidding, violating the District's purchasing policy. AMCD never defined bona fide needs or showed why it purchased the luxury jet helicopter in quo was incapable of killing a single mosquito, was unadorned by tanks, nozzles or spraying equipment, without providing a landing pad, pilot or plan. It took us ten (10) months and several sets of replacement new AMCD lawyers: we persuaded AMCD to cancel the illegal contract after public outrage.
6. In 2005, AMCD purchased $3.2 million worth of swampland from the influential Usina family, with no competitive bidding, with no appraisal and and with no environmental survey. AMCD then built its lavish new headquarters, including a $4.5 million mosquito museum on the swampland property (36% cost overruns remain unjustified). AMCD's swampland property is now flooding. AMCD has now placed on the January 15, 2025 meeting "consent agenda" a $400,000 item on the flooding. Please investigate. (One of the Commissioners sent me a text message on January 13, 2025, again refusing tol communicate, and informing me that she would see me at the meeting on Thursday -- the meeting is actually on Wednesday.
7. My efforts to obtain documents and answers on issues of AMCD waste, fraud and abuse have been futile in 2024, since CFO Scott Hanna was given responsibilities for records requests. CFO Scott Hanna has a conflict of interest in doing this work, which seeks documents about his own questionable actions. 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 wrongfully 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). 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.")
8. My records requests to AMCD during 2024 were disrespected, repeatedly ignored and not promptly or properly acknowledged. Meanwhile, I have I been subjected to a toxic hostile working environment? Who can defend staff dragging their heels on my requests for months, not acknowledging them and insulting me -- the CFO verbally threatened me with being ruled "out of order" at the December meeting, suggesting possible collusion with a misguided now-former Commissioner who defends the illegal Commissioner bonuses, who angrily attacked me at an AMCD meetings after I opposed the illegal bonuses, reported by local news media? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fH-hrV1mFyo
9. I have been a watchdog of AMCD since 2005. I received 55,640 votes countywide (38%) when I ran for AMCD Commissioner in November 2024. After questioning their illegal bonuses, AMCD staff's unprofessional threats and gaslighting are unworthy of an independent scientific and technical organization charged with protecting public health from mosquito-borne diseases, which kill some one million people annually worldwide. AMCD staff has also been disrespectful and disdainful to at least one of the Commissioners who requested information and answers. Knowing and appreciating Ms. Patricia Gleason's decades of governments service for the Attorney General and former Governor Charles Crist, I know she will help protect the public's Right to Know.
10. By copy of this e-mail, I am notifying the AMCD this morning of my requests for mediation by Florida Attorney General Special Counsel for Open Records Patricia Gleason of my records requests and my request for a civil, criminal and administrative investigation of AMCD. I request that AMCD immediately share with me copies of all documents AMCD may create. share or send in. response. No more secrecy. AMCD must answer fully all of my pending reocrds requests,
Thank you.
With kindest regards, I am,
Sincerely yours,
Ed Slavin
Box 3084
St. Augustine, Florida 32085-3084
www.edslavin.com
(904) 377-4998
Followup letter:
On Tuesday, January 14, 2025 at 10:49:57 AM EST, Ed Slavin <easlavin@aol.com> wrote:
Dear General Moody and General Gleason:
AMCD CFO Scott Hanna is in no position to search for records revealing his own mismanagement of public funds. He has a conflict of interest. Conflicts of interest must 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 principle" and a "maxim which is especially pertinent if one of the masters happens to be economic self-interest." 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 . . . ."
Thank you.
With kindest regards, I am,
Sincerely yours,
Ed Slavin
Box 3084
St. Augustine, Florida 32085-3084
www.edslavin.com
(904) 377-4998
