Ed Slavin endorsed by former St. Augustine Beach Mayor S. Gary Snodgrass. Thank you, I am honored, sir!

Thank you! I am honored by the October 19, 2026 endorsement on Facebook by beloved former St. Augustine Beach Mayor S. Gary Snodgrass. He wrote "Ed and I may not always agree, but I have never doubted his commitment to doing the work, understanding the issues, and doing what he believes is right. He is a hardworking advocate for mosquito control, open and honest government, and accountability. He listens, speaks plainly, and is willing to hold elected officials responsible to the people they serve. Ed’s commitment to mosquito control is also deeply personal, shaped by what malaria meant for his family. I strongly support his candidacy for the Anastasia Mosquito Control District of St. Johns County. I hope you will join me in voting for Ed on or before November 3."

FIGHTING CORRUPTION in St. Johns County -- Let's make this magical place safe for democracy!

As Shakespeare wrote, "what's past is prologue."  The Tempest, Act II, Scene 1.  (Robert Aiken sculpture at National Archives, Washington, D.C.).

I have a record of fighting corruption, since 1978.

I am running for Anastasia Mosquito Control District of St. Johns County (AMCD), seat 2.  I would be honored to have your vote on or before November 3, 2026).

I helped halt the no-bid, illegal purchase of a $1.8 million TEXTRON Bell Jet Helicopter incapable of killing a single skeeter.  We won a full refund of our $180,000 deposit.

It appears that NOT ONE of my opponents has ever stood up against CORRUPTION here  in St. Johns County, where I have lived since November 5, 1999. 

Tom Wicker's journalism professor at the University of North Carolina said, "If you're telling a story about a bear, bring on the bear."  The bear here in what we call "God's country" is CORRUPTION, my friends. 

Reforming St. Johns County starts with you.  

And it starts with Mosquito Control. 

We love this beautiful place.  Rose Kennedy's favorite Bible verse was "to whom much is given, much is expected."

President Woodrow Wilson said we "must make the world safe for democracy."

"The love of money is the root of all evil." 1 Timothy 6:10.

Corruption is the root of all evil in our governments. Everywhere. Americans agree.

I am running for Anastasia Mosquito Control District of St. Johns County (seat 2) and I would be honored to have your vote on or before November 3, 2026.  Help me help you.  Let's fight corruption together.

I've been investigating, reporting on and exposing corruption since 1978.  

From Appalachia to Washington, D.C.  to California to Florida, I've investigated corruption and empowered Americans to resist waste, fraud, abuse, discrimination and petty boodling.

Here in St. Johns County, a corrupt former Sheriff was fired by the Florida Senate under Article IV section 7 of our Florida Constitution for corruption.  But Sheriff David Shoar's website lied to us for years  that corrupt Sheriff Lawrence O. Davis was "exonerated" by our Florida Senate, which removed him from office by 44-2 vote in 1971. 

Sadly Sheriff Robert Hardwick, the current Sheriff, abuses our Sheriff's website to pay homage to Sheriff Shoar, who with State's Attorney Ralph Joseph Larizza was  culpable in the coverup of the September 2, 2010 murder of a Sheriff's deputy's girlfriend, Ms. Michelle O'Connell.  That deputy is still on the payroll in 2026.  

County Court Judge Charles Tinlin and U.S. District Court Judge Brian J. Davis both found probable cause that Jeremy Banks committed homicide, killing Ms. Michelle O'Connell on September 2, 2010.  Sheriff Shoar declared it was as "suicide" before the sun even rose.  

Robert Hardwick was the investigator for the State's Attorney Ralph Joseph Larizza. Investigator Hardwick and his Assistant both thought Banks committed homicide and wanted an exhumation and autopsy.  

Larizza conveniently recused himself from the Michelle O'Connell case while Hardwick was at the FBI National Training Academy in Quantico, Virginia.  

When Michelle O'Connell's family finally arranged for an exhumation and independent autopsy, it found Michelle's jaw was broken. She was a victim of domestic violence.  Her killer remains employed by the County Sheriff and can retire in 2027.  It's our money.

We in the reality-based community disdain deception and condemn dangers to democracy, like promiscuous proliferation of FLOCK cameras and wasteful, out-of-control spending on edifice complexes for the Sheriff and Mosquito Control Commission.

We in the reality-based community don't approve of wasteful spending or harmful rhetoric.d

We don't need more overpriced Taj Mahals, no-bid contracts needless flubdubs or dishonesty.

Massive cost overruns and self-dealing must stop.

County Commissioners make more than $100,000 per year.

Mosquito Control Commissioners make $400 a month, but voted to give themselves illlgal "Christmas bonuses of $1000, violating Florida law pay cap of  $4800/year.  Thanks to WJCT/Jacksonville Today and reporter Noah Hertz for publicizing it.  It's our money.  

In the spirit of the 27th Amendment, it's wrong for public officials to raise their own pay during their current term of office. 

It was good enough for James Madison and it's good enough for St. Johns County.  

Let snollygosters go elsewhere. 

I am against wasting your money on self-aggrandizement, sweetheart contacts, domestic and foreign travel and conventions without trip reports or valid government purpose.

Our County elected officials sold out our citizens to the likes of private equity taking over Bayview, the beloved Skilled Nursing Facility Commissioners unanimously voted July 20, 2021 to sell its lease with the County to dodgy private equity interests that control dozens of nursing homes.'

Our elected officials in 2016 actually voted to allow PARC GROUP, controlled by the greedy WINN-DIXIE DAVIS FAMILY, to erase its legal commitment to dedicate 40 acres of Nocatee development to affordable housing, for the lucre of $800,000.  

This vicious vote violated our citizens' civil rights.  

So did the WINN-DIXIE DAVIS FAMILY's 2026 demand to alter state law to allow development of "agricultural enclaves" on demand. That dopey, dubious devilish  proposition was rejected 3-2 by our newly empowered St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners, which voted against the rebarbative, ridiculous ROGERS TOWERS' corporate law firm's rote demand to muck up some 4420 acres of mostly old growth forest.

Our elected officials voted 3-2 in 2025 without a conflicts check to hire a corporate lawyer, RICHARD CHRISTIAN KOMANDO,  as County Attorney, while allowing him to represent private clients, including the SLAUGHTER BROTHERS, roofers convicted in federal court for defrauding IRS and workers. It's time for KOMANDO to go.  

The odious otiose oleaginous corporate lawyer lied, in writing, to reform County Commissioner Ann Taylor, extravagantly claimed that his client list was secret and somehow protected by attorney-client privilege.  This louche liar needs to clean out his desk and get out of the County Commission building. Now.

Both our Anastasia Mosquito Control District Director and our County Administrator are Chinese Americans. Each of them have taken vacations in Communist China each year. Both are imperious, vastly overpaid potential security risks and treat our local government employees as servants, serfs and vassels. 

In the annals of St. Johns County's legendary corruption, in the history of its sins, crimes and torts many at the behest of bootleggers, organized crime devious developers, the case of Trey Alexander Asner is instructive.  

Mr. Asner was the County's historic preservationist, but he did his job "too well" for corrupt County officials, who fired him for preserving African-American history (Canright House and the 1953 St. Johns County Jail Annex, where the Rev. Dr. Maartin Luther King, Jr. and some 1000 civil rights protesters were incarcerated 1963-1964).  The building is now preserved, but Andrews wanted to demolish it. It's time for her to go.

Paid $360,000/year, maladroit County Administrator Junyao "Joy" Andrews still won't meet with Mr. Asner, and neither will criminally-charged Commissioner Sarah Salley Arnold.  

Pray for them. 

Vote for qualified candidates who will stand up to corruption in our town and our time.

I would be honored to be your voice standing up to corruption and self-dealing, starting with Mosquito Control.

My Father helped liberate the first French town from the Nazis on D-Day, June 6, 1944, before the sun even rose that day.

The late David Brian Wallace and I first visited St. Augustine in 1992 and fell in love with the place and its history. We were then living in Washington, D.C., where Brian worked for the American Association for the Advancement of Science and I graduated from Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and was honored to represent American whistleblowers.

Brian and I moved to St. Augustine on November 5, 1999.  A few weeks later, the truth emerged; Brian said, "it's crooked around here!"  He was right.  

We were ashamed when we realized the level of corruption here.  Ever since, I've worked to solve the problem. 

When the City of St. Augustine dumped a landfill in the Old City Reservoir a coquina pit lake, friends informed me and I helped them resolve the problem of environmental racism in West Augustine.  I reported the City to the National Response Center, which assigned the Environmental Protection Agency and Florida Department of Environmental Protection to investigate. The coquina pit lake was cleaned up and the 80 acre site off Holmes Blvd. Extended will soon feature affordable housing.

.In 2006-2007, my mentor, League of Women Voters leader Robin Nadeau, recruited me to help oppose Mosquito Control's $1.800,000 no-bid TEXTRON Bell Jet Helicopter incapable of killing a single skeeter. It was freighted with waste, fraud and abuse.  I asked my Mother, a longtime former Purchasing Secretary for corporations and a county college. She would not buy a helicopter without competitive bidding.  

But our Mosquito Control Commission voted 3-2 to buy the fancy-bears helicopter.  Mosquito Control Commission Director Dr. Xue likes to spend money and too often gets his way.  We, the People defeated his wasteful spending. After ten months, Mosquito Control Commissioners voted unanimously cancel the illegal no-bid helicopter and got a full refund of our 10% deposit.  We, the People won!

When Mosquito Control illegally used pesticides near Bald Eagle nests, I reported AMCD to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.  

When a negligently piloted Mosquito Control helicopter allegedly nearly killed six golfers with a helicopter at a county golf course, one of the near-victims told me. No helicopter will ever again endanger our wildlife or people.

I am appalled at the alleged fake Voter Guides scandal afflicting both parties, apparently.

I have been your watchdog on Mosquito Control for twenty years.  Help me help you.

The next global pandemic could be a mosquito-borne disease,  We will be prepared with good science, sound planning and resistance to wasteful spending.  It is up to us to reject 41% cost overruns and other irregularities. 

Remembering the Holy Thursday Agreement for Historic Preservation (April 13, 2017, updated September 1, 2026)

On September 1, 2026,  I reminded St. Johns County Commissioners of the Holy Thursday agreement. It was within the context of the greedy DAVIS FAMILY's demand to rezone some 4400 acres of land pursuant to a corrupt special interest bill that their louche lobbyists enacted.

 Commissioners rightly voted to seek an injunction. 

At their September 15, 2026 meeting, County Commission voted 3-2 to deny the wealthy, entitled entrenched WINN-WINN-DIXIE DAVIS FAMILY's indecent proposal.  

So let the DAVIS family sue, or request a special magistrate pursuant to F.S. 70.51.  

Everyone who spoke on their proposal can and would be heard before the Special Magistrate. 

The Holy Thursday agreement points the way to a possible compromise and the "just, speedy and inexpensive" determination of this action. 

 As President John Fitzgerald Kennedy said in his Inaugural Address:

 "Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate."

Mediator Terrence Edward Schmidt, a former U.S. Navy weapons officer, who helped Florida Bar disbar F. Lee Bailey..

Big victory in 2017.  

Faster than a speeding dump truck, what we know and love in St. Augustine and St, Johns County is being demolished,  I convinced our Historic Architectural Review Board to declare the 1880 Victorian a local historic landmark.  The City of St. Augustine City Commission affirmed it, 4-1 (Vice Mayor "Odd Todd" Neville, dissenting).  Then the applicant requested a 70.51 mediation.  The historic Victorian, Wisteria House, was saved, from demolition.  Yes we did.  Yes we can!

The 1880 Victorian home on Grenada Street, across from City Hall, was moved and saved.  It is now a restaurant (Lobstah on a Roll) and one or two apartments.  

We, the People triumphed over the formidable feculent fascist forces that seek to destroy our history and nature here in St. Augustine and St. Johns County.   

Longtime locals, including former County Commissioner Isaac Henry Dean, and me, call St. Johns County "God's country."

It takes a village.

I wrote on this blog that day:

IT TAKES A VILLAGE TO SAVE A VILLAGE, AND ONE SPECIAL VICTORIAN

The lovely historic home at 32 Grenada Street will be preserved by mediated settlement, subject to City Commission approval. KUDOS to the participants in today's successful mediation before Terrance Edward Schmidt, including Lee Geanuleas, U.S.N. (Ret.), Melinda Rakoncay, Trey Asner, B.J. Kalaidi, St. Augustine City Manager John Patrick Regan, P.E., Assistant City Attorney Denise May, Planning and Building Director David Birchim, Historic Presevation Director Jenny Wolfe, 32 Grenada Street (now called WISTERIA HOUSE) building owner Louis John Arbizzani and lawyer Sidney Franklyn Ansbacher of Upchurch, Bailey & Upchurch.

The St. Augustine Record was not there. So much for its bragging Palm Sunday house ad, in which it claimed to cover the news in City Hall, while attacking blogs.

I was there, taking copious notes (almost half a legal pad) and helping our City secure the victory for historic preservation.

WISTERIA HOUSE, will be preserved and moved one lot to the south to a lot where the current building has an authorized demolition permit. There will eventually be town homes built on the adjacent lots. The City will not pay to move WISTERIA HOUSE.

The marathon seven hour session was anxiously awaited by local residents who say, "enough is enough" when it comes to preserving and protecting our history and nature in St. Augustine, Florida.

It takes a village to save what County Commission Vice Chair Henry Dean has called "our village."

Today we saved a building. 

Each of the 63+ public interest victories here since June 2005 represents a tribute to the character of our community, and the cooperation of people who love St. Augustine. Like any good diplomats, we will not take "no" as if it were an answer.

From this day forward, our City officials know they are empowered to declare buildings local landmarks, and halt the damn demolition derby perpetrated by the likes of FLAGLER COLLEGE, FLORIDA SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF AND BLIND, and assorted sordid "developers" (read: speculators).

From this blog, from April 20, 2017:

32 Grenada Street, forever declared a local landmark after LOUIS JOHN ARBIZZANI demanded demolition permit

Did you read interesting St. Augustine Record article, five (5) days after our successful mediation preserving 32 Grenada Street (Wisteria House)? Northern Ireland has its "Good Friday Agreement," making the peace among warring tribes of Catholics and Protestants. Will April 13, 2017 go down in history as St. Augustine's "Holy Thursday Agreement," freighted with meaning?  Will the Holy Thursday agreement mark the beginning of true historic preservation, stopping the wrecking crews and demolition derby of our historic homes, nature and culture in the Nation's Oldest City? 

Each of the 63+ public interest victories here since June 2005 represents a tribute to the character of our community, and the cooperation of people who love St. Augustine. Like any good diplomats, we will not take "no" as if it were an answer.

From this day forward, our citizens and City officials know they are empowered to declare buildings local landmarks, and halt the damn demolition derby perpetrated by the likes of FLAGLER COLLEGE, FLORIDA SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF AND BLIND, and assorted sordid "developers" (read: speculators).

What do you reckon?


Posted April 18, 2017 12:02 am
By SHELDON GARDNER sheldon.gardner@staugustine.com

Local landmark in St. Augustine to be restored under agreement


The house at 32 Granada St. in St. Augustine, recently named a local landmark, appears to have been saved from destruction.

Attorneys for both the city and John Arbizzani, property owner, met recently to resolve the building’s future. The plan now is for the building to be restored, said Denise May, assistant city attorney.

The main issue had been whether the late 19th century building is historically significant. Some have pointed to its Victorian style and former residents as reasons to keep it.

Arbizzani, whose team contested the building’s significance, wanted to demolish it so he could develop the property, but residents pushed back.

The Historic Architectural Review Board named the building a local landmark in September, which gave board members the option of denying demolition. The City Commission upheld the landmark designation in January.

After that, the city and Arbizzani went into dispute resolution, which avoids a potentially costly court battle.

“The city’s position was to save the structure,” May said. “That was our goal and we met that goal.”

May said complete details about the agreement will be available in a couple of weeks from the special magistrate who oversaw the case, but she shared some highlights. Once the language is fine-tuned, the agreement will go to the City Commission for a vote, she said.

Under the agreement, the house will not only be saved, but also will be restored, she said. The building will be moved to the lot just south so more parking can be developed. Arbizzani will pay for moving the house, May said.

The city plans to create and manage the added parking spaces and take in revenue to cover the cost, she said. The city already leases land from Arbizzani for the parking lot just north of 32 Granada St.

Arbizzani could develop 32 Granada St. into a commercial venture under its zoning of Commercial Low-One. Under the agreement, the city will also defer the cost of utility connection for 10 years, she said.

Spanish Colonial-style townhomes are another option discussed for the site, said Lee Geanuleas, a city resident who attended the dispute resolution meeting.

He voiced concern about the possibility of townhomes and their compatibility with that slice of town. And while he’s also worried about the stability of the house when it is moved, Geanuleas called the agreement a “reasonably good outcome.”

Neither Arbizzani nor his attorney responded to a request for comment.

Of the history that people touted when trying to save the building, artist Antonio Vedovelli was one of the main figures.

Vedovelli retired in St. Augustine and starting painting in the 1920s, developing “a highly personal folk style often described as primitive or naive,” according to a book on Florida paintings called “Reflections” by Garry Libby. His paintings include one of the Ponce de Leon Hotel (now Flagler College) in the 1940s.

An army sergeant who was on his honeymoon bought one of Vedovelli’s paintings, and that connection led Vedovelli to show his work at the Perls Galleries in New York, according to the book.

“Antonio Vedovelli’s reputation soared after the exhibition, allowing him to purchase a large house at 32 Granada Street in St. Augustine,” according to the book.

Melinda Rakoncay, a city resident who also went to the meeting, said she was happy to see the city stand up for the property and its status as a landmark.

“To see our city staff going to bat for [the property], that made me feel really good about the city,” she said.

Mosquito Control and Overdevelopment

May I please have your vote on or before November 3 for Anastasia Mosquito Control District of St. Johns County, seat 2? The next global pandemic could be a mosquito-borne disease. We must be prepared with data, research, education, and environmentally-friendly, non-toxic natural pesticides.

I am running for Anastasia Mosquito Control District of St. Johns County in the November 3, 2026 election.  May I please have your vote?

Flooding is increasing.  Increased flooding flows from every single proposed "development" here. Mosquitoes flourish amid flooding. 

The frequency and severity of storms and flooding is increasing.  We must use good science to prepare for the storms and remediate the flooding.  

We must protect people from persistent flooding, evidenced by testimony at government meetings.  

Whenever a development (sic) proposal is discussed, residents testify about flooding.  Too often, our governments are flummoxed, failing to present scientific evidence in response. 

Our Anastasia Mosquito Control District of St. Johns County does its best to apply good science to mosquito control.  It has five Ph.D. scientists.

But our St. Johns County Commission has no Chief Scientist, no Chief Economist, and makes decisions substantially unencumbered by good data and good science.  

Poorly-staffed County Commissioners rather remind me of what Sir Winston Spencer Churchill said in 1937, "The Government simply cannot make up their mind, or they cannot get the Prime Minister to make up his mind. So they go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all powerful to be impotent. So we go on preparing more months and years – precious, perhaps vital to the greatness of Britain – for the locusts to eat."

Mosquitoes are eating us alive.  Building "developments" in mosquito swamps is unwise and unscientific.  It needs to stop. 

Our St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners and our Anastasia Mosquito Control District of St. Johns County are two separate local government agencies, with their own boards.  

SJC abolished its Intergovernmental Relations Committee under  controversial former County Administrator MICHAEL DAVID WANCHICK (2007-2019), who sought a County takeover of mosquito control.  We, the People stopped him. 

Our County must better regulate "development" by greedy "developers," who build homes in swamps, exposing residents to hordes of mosquitoes. 

Worldwide, some 1,000,000 people die every year after mosquito bites. My Father was bitten by a mosquito in Sicily in 1943, contracting malaria.  We saw his suffering.  Due to the effects of malaria, I was born fourteen (14) years later, after my parents prayed to Saint Jude (patron Saint of hopeless causes).. 

Our County's "Growth Management (sic)" staff must consult with experts with our Anastasia Mosquito Control District of St. Johns County and AMCD's scientists and professionals.  

Every single "development (sic) order" must include a mosquito control plan. Every single one. No excuses. Protection against mosquito-borne diseases must not be a "hopeless cause."

I am running for Anastasia Mosquito Control District of St. Johns County (Seat 2) in the November 3, 2026 election.  

May I please have the honor of your vote?

Thank you.

With kindest regards, I am,

Sincerely yours,

Ed Slavin

Box 3084

St. Augustine, Florida 32085-3084

www.edslavin.com

http://www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com

http://www.staugustgreen.com

(904) 377-4998

TIME FOR A NATIONAL SEARCH! -- DAVID DOUGLAS BIRCHIM RETIRING -- St. Augustine City Manager has had only one employer since circa 1997 (updated October 12, 2026)

I would be honored to have your vote on or before November 3, 2026 for Anastasia Mosquito Control District of St. Johns County (seat 2).  Love this magical place. Moved here on November 5, 1999.

St. Augustine needs a national search for a City Manager.  Who among us would disagree?

Expressing the trite and ungrammatical view that St. Augustine is "very (sic) unique," and violating both grammatical rules and the reasonable expectations of probity, our rather unsophisticated St. Augustine City Commissioners dumped the decision of a national search into the laps of future City Commissioners at their October 12, 2026 meeting.  

Meanwhile, the Commissioners oddly renewed the horse and carriage franchise for the Cushion family, after cancelling their carriage licenses due to documented lawbreaking and horse abuse allegations. 

The word "unique" never carries a modifier.  It's unique or it's not.  

But the third rate City Commissioners in sixth rate City of St. Augustine government remain mired in schtick and horse manure, that stinky substance that one cleans out of horse barns, and which allows corruption to flourish.  

In April, 2005, DAVID DOUGLAS BIRCHIM told me "there is no corruption in the City of St. Augustine."  We were discussing zoning and planning, and he was then the understudy to MARK ALLEN KNIGHT, the City Planning and Zoning Director.

St. Augustine and St. Johns County are "unique" in corruption history, perhaps requiring their own chapter in a future edition of Mark Grossman's book, POLITICAL CORRUPTION IN AMERICA --An Encyclopedia of Scandals, Power and Greed, and coverage in Brendan Ballou's PLUNDER -- Private Equity's Plan to Pillage America.

That pervasive stinky St. Augustine corruption allowed feculent former City Manager WILLIAM BARRY HARRISS to dump a landfill in a lake (Old City Reservoir) and hornswoggle haughty naughty Commissioners that it was "clean. fill." Longtime Atlanta-based EPA regulator John Marler told me that "there are no bedsprings in clean fill." No toilets, either. But our Old City Reservoir was contaminated, smeared, bleared and teared with contaminated solid waste, dumped there by HARRISS & Co.

Thanks to my late friend Diane Mills, who gave Ms. Sherry Badger a video camera for Christmas. 

Thanks to Sherry Badger, the video evidence of the illegal dumping was documented and provided by me on a DVD to  the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency criminal investigators.

City Attorney James Patrick Wilson drove with asked City Manager HARRISS if he had a permit to dump the landfill in the lake, to which the rebarbative reprobate scheming City Manager replied, "I'm gonna git one."  (HARRISS never did).

Under HARRISS' maladministration, misguided St. Augustine city burghers long attacked talented visual artists and musicians, running them off St. George Street at the behest of greedy businessmen, whose cat's paw was a former City Manager.  See First They Came for the Artists (Ed Slavin & Georgio Valentino, Folio Weekly, March 19, 2019).  

Yes, my friend, the place described as the "most lawless city in America" by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., our beloved City of St. Augustine now aspires to be a "Compassionate City." It's time to prove it with a national search, instead of promoting the next good-ole-boy in line.

Mediocrity and municipal corruption led investigative reporter Lincoln Steffens to write a book called The Shame of the Cities. 

Our Nation's Oldest City is run by hollow Organization Men, typified by the incumbent City Manager, who never had another employer other than the City of St. Augustine since he graduated from the University of Tennessee in 1997.  

BIRCHIM was recommended for an interview by TRACY WILSON UPCHURSH, a third generation City Mayor, who was  also a third generation State Representative, a corporate lawyer, whose handwritten letter to then City Manager William Pomar noted that privileged DAVID DOUGLAS BIRCHIM's unnamed uncle was a Flagler College Professor.  While  BIRCHIM's contract expires June 2, 2028, he's resigning now. Good career move, after repeated failed, uninspiring, unproductive work.

We need to hire more qualified people, not more clones and clones of clones of clones.  

A national search is the standard of care. Anything less is more horseshit, willful wanton negligence, recklessness and neglect of duty.

A national search allows consideration of qualified candidates from everywhere, seeking the best and the brightest, complying with civil rights laws -- instead of considering only the mediocre yokels whose decades of mistakes keep getting repeated, decade after decade.   (In the immortal words of the late United States Supreme Court  Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., "Three generations of imbeciles is enough.")

My late Irish-German grandmother would have called these superficial, slow-thinking St. Augustine Commissioners "hopelessly provincial."  

No class. No courage. These are not reformers.  These are Babbits practicing conformity to the expectations of the owners and controllers and Epstein Class. 

As my Mother would say, "We are surrounded by mediocrities."

Tell Commissioners: It's time for a national search for St. Augustine City Manager, as I wrote in the St. Augustine Record in my April 26, 2010 Guest Column, here:

City of St. Augustine press release: 

On Tuesday, September 29, 2026 at 10:07:33 AM EDT, CityStAug Communications <info@citystaug.com> wrote:

September 29, 2026

 

City Manager David Birchim announces retirement

 

Commission will select interim city manager

 

On Monday, September 28, City of St. Augustine City Manager David Birchim submitted his letter of retirement to City Commissioners, effective Wednesday, December 16, 2026. Birchim was selected from three candidates in May 2023 to serve as City Manager, following former City Manager John Regan upon his retirement in June of that year.

 

Upon retirement, Birchim will have 29 years of dedicated service to the City of St. Augustine, decades of experience in professional urban planning and public administration, including more than 23 years in supervisory and leadership positions.  His extensive knowledge of City operations, commitment to public service, and leadership have helped guide the organization and advance important initiatives.

 

During his tenure as City Manager, Birchim worked closely with the City Commission, staff, residents, and community partners to manage City resources while addressing the challenges of a growing and evolving community.  His leadership reflected a commitment to balancing St. Augustine’s future with the preservation of the history and character that make the city unique.

 

Birchim’s career closes with many successes to his credit, including the creation of the Community Services Department and development of the Dignity Pavilion, advancing the West King Street Parking Garage and new Anastasia Island fire station initiatives, and most recently, a complete revision to the City’s management and operations of Nights of Lights, the globally recognized, community holiday event.

 

“It has been an honor to serve the City of St. Augustine and to work alongside such a dedicated team,” said Birchim. “Throughout my career, I have had the privilege of being part of many projects and initiatives that will have a lasting impact on the city.  I’m grateful to the City Commission, staff, community partners, and especially our residents for their trust and support.  St. Augustine is an extraordinary and special place.  I’m proud of what we have accomplished together and confident in the City’s continued success.”

 

Birchim holds a Master of Science Degree in Planning from the University of Tennessee.  He is accredited by the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) and Florida Public Pension Trustee Association (FPPTA).  He was promoted from Planning and Building Director to Assistant City Manager to specifically be responsible for overseeing special projects such as land development, affordable housing, legislative funding initiatives, and the resilient shoreline initiative.

 

The City Commission accepted Birchim’s letter, releasing him from his contract which is set to expire on June 2, 2028.  At the next meeting when all commissioners are present, they will select an interim City Manager to allow the final decision to made by the newly seated board in 2027.

 

Media inquiries may be directed to Melissa Wissel, Communications Director, at 904.293.3307.

 

#  #  #  #

 

Attachment: Retirement letter submitted by City Manager David Birchim, September 28, 2026

 

 

Melissa Wissel

Communications Director

City of St. Augustine  |  Communications Department

P.O. Box 210  |  St. Augustine, FL 32085

Office: 904-825-1053

Mobile: 904-293-3307

Email: mwissel@citystaug.com

Fax: 904-825-1096

www.CityStAug.com 

 

 

    

____________________________________________________________________________

Please Note: Florida has a very broad Public Records Law.  Unless specifically exempt by state law,

written communications to city officials or staff regarding official city business are public records

available to the public and media upon request. If your email communication is related to official 

government business, it may therefore be subject to public disclosure.

 

July 11, 1983: Al Gore's Mercury Pollution Hearing in Oak Ridge, Tennessee -- Largest Mercury Pollution Event in World History (4.2 Million Pounds)

43 years ago.  

I spent a day with then-Rep. Gore on July 11, 1983 at a hearing he chaired on Oak Ridge Y-12 Nuclear Weapons Plant mercury pollution.

Good man.  

Members of Congress wanted answers, or at least then-Rep. Al Gore and some others acted like they did, Newspapers around the nation reported the then newly "declassified" Oak Ridge Y-12 Nuclear Weapon Plant pollution, including the largest mercury pollution event in world history.  For background read Elliott Marshall's July 8, 1983 article from SCIENCE Magazine, published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).  Anderson County District Attorney General James Nelson Ramsey recommended me for a Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting over the mercury declassification,

43 years ago on July 11, 1983, shortly after lunch, I was testifying under oath about Y-12 nuclear weapons plant mercury pollution before an historic Congressional hearing, co-chaired by two (2) Tennessee members of the U.s. Congress, in the packed Oak Ridge Museum of Atomic Energy auditorium, on stage, before Tennessee Democratic Congress members Albert Gore, Jr., and Marilyn Lloyd, who were co-chairing meetings of their two House of Representatives Science and Technology subcommittees, one on Oversight and Investigations, chaired by Gore and the one on Energy Research and Development, chaired by, Marilyn Lloyd (D-Chattanooga).   

Oak Ridge nuclear weapons plant workers were forbidden to talk about health problems, poisons including mercury were promiscuously consumed and recklessly emitted, a scientist was fired for taking "unauthorized soil samples" and asking questions about mercury.  The 1977 Elwood mercury inventory report was stamped "Business Confidential" by Union Carbide.  

That's the way it was, until our tiny tabloid Appalachian Observer weekly newspaper's November 1982 FOIA and declassification request was granted by DOE on May 17, 1983, some 182 days after we asked for it.  (After its massive illegal pollution was exposed by DoE document releases to us, Union Carbide did not rebid for the Oak Ridge contracts and was later perpetrator of tens of thousands of poisoning deaths and injuries in Bhopal, India).

Chairman Gore, later Vice President, honored our request to his superlative staffer, Steve Owens: then-Rep. Gore swore in all the witnesses, conducting an investigative hearing -- first time ever in the entire history of U.S. nuclear weapons complex.Before then, there were secret meetings -- held on a small secure room in the apex fourth floor of the Capitol high above Congress -- before the secretive Joint Commission on Atomic Energy, which protected the Atomic Energy Commission, ERDA and DOE from public scrutiny.

During a recess in the Gore hearing, I stood on the steps of the Museum of Science Atomic Energy, conferring with the two standup, courageous local DAs and two local County Attorneys whose territory embraced Oak Ridge.  

They jokingly called themselves "the Gang of Four" and contemplated filing a sworn, certified public nuisance lawsuit in a Tennessee state court.  But the State Attorney General's office assured them that the State AG would filing be a federal pollution lawsuit.  Thus, the State AG thereby discouraged and halted filing of powerful state court nuisance litigation by our four local elected government lawyers in Anderson and Roane Counties.  

The July 11, 1983 hearing began federal investigations of the foul, fetid feculent federal nuclear weapons complex, source or great misery here in America.  

Years of investigative reporting and activism. nationwide, ultimately resulted in adoption of federal workers compensation legislation in 2000 (the defective Energy Employees Occupational Injuries Compensation Act or EEOICA, which I opposed in detailed written testimony as consisting the toxic, hostile working environment, as lacking in Due Process, with no hearings, no appeals, no discovery or depositions).  

Some $12 billion has been disbursed in EEOICA payments to the workers that Gore's hearing ignored.  (During my testimony, I drew eye-rolling, raised eyebrows and arch questions from Rep., Marilyn Lloyd, asking me about my "scientific background."   Rep. Lloyd asked me to "name" anyone "hurt in any way" by the mercury.  I replied, "J.C. Wilson Jr.," who suffered from mercury pollution, including constant vomiting and Technicolor hallucinations, as the Knoxville newspapers and Appalachian Observer documented.  Rep. Lloyd's offensive reply was that Mr. Wilson was "inside the area," as if that were irrelevant or exculpatory! 

After lousy louche lying DOE lapdog Marilyn Lloyd, a Tennessee Democrat, left Congress:

• DOE named Marilyn Lloyd to the Energy Advisory Board 
• DOE named ORNL's 80 acre environmental and life sciences complex for Mariyn Lloyd.  
• Lockheed Martin Corporation CEO Norman R. Augustine appointed Marilyn Lloyd to its Lockheed Martin Energy Research Corporation board, at a time when Lockheed was still the contractor for five DOE plants in three states with 20,000 employees.  

ORNL said in a press release, :"Lloyd served 20 years as U.S. Congress representative of people in Tennessee's Third Congressional District. She was chairman of the Energy Subcommittee of the House Science and Technology Committee and moved many landmark bills that helped shape the U.S. energy policy. Lloyd, a Democrat, retired in January 1995."

(Lockheed was later cancelled as Oak Ridge Operations contractor due to its environmental ineptude, as demonstrated to its harsh response to workers concerned about the poisoned workplace.  Was Lockheed's noncompliance largely due to DOE's forcing its predecessor, Martin Marietta, to retain all but twelve of 4000 maladroit Union Carbide managers at five plants in three states employing 20,000 people?) 

No one ever went to prison or jail for even a day for putting 4.2 million pounds of mercury into local creeks and groundwater, and into workers’ lungs and brains, without signs, fences, respirators, warnings or basic protections. Half the free world’s mercury was in Oak Ridge: Union Carbide and the Atomic Energy Commission and successor agencies “LOST” 10% OF IT.   

Years after the hearings and billions were spent on cleanup, mercury levels are rising.

Thanks to activists and former U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), DOE is currently spending another sone $125 million to keep mercury from entering East Fork Poplar Creek, which is still being contaminated daily by mercury that is still leaching out from the Y-12 Nuclear Weapons Plant.

"It is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error." Those are the words of United States Supreme Court Justice Robert Houghwot Jackson, America's prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials. 

As I wrote in the St. Augustine Record on November 8, 2014:

On Nov. 21, 1974, our United States Senate enacted the Freedom of Information Act, joining the House in voting to override a veto by President Gerald Ford (whose veto was pushed on him by then-DOJ lawyer, Antonin Scalia, and White House aides Richard Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, who wanted government to remain secretive).

I was 17, a “hick from the sticks” — first-semester Georgetown University freshman, an intern known for my walking/working speed in Senator Ted Kennedy’s office as “Fast Eddie.” I carried three stacks of Senator Kennedy’s legal-sized, stapled, freshly-mimeographed press release to three Senate press galleries, cheering the veto override and enactment of the Freedom of Information Act.

I read it on the Senate/Capitol subway, promising transparency. I walked up a marble staircase, past a gigantic painting of Lincoln with his cabinet, signing the Emancipation Proclamation. My heart leaped with joy.

Eight years later, as the fledgling Appalachian Observer tabloid's first editor, I used FOIA to ask for government data on mercury pollution; a long kept secret by Union Carbide’s Y-12 nuclear bomb builders in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. We won, and on May 17, 1983, the largest mercury pollution event in world history was declassified — 4.2 million pounds of mercury emitted into the environment and workers’ lungs and brains, which continues leaking into creeks and groundwater today (subject of a new $125 million mercury cleanup plant advocated by Senator Lamar Alexander).

Nuclear weapons plants cleanup may be achieved by circa 2057, by my 100th birthday, at a cost that may top $300 billion.

Forty years after FOIA, Americans work to hold our governments accountable, seeking to breathe life into open records laws.

As Ben Franklin said in Philadelphia after our Constitutional Convention in 1787, we have “a republic, if [we] can keep it.” Will we?

We Americans ended slavery, but can we ever stop being slaves to secrecy?

We Americans eradicated smallpox and polio, but can we ever eradicate political corruption?

Enough flummery.

We must make our governments more transparent.

… Let us have a government truly “of the people, by the people, and for the people,” as Lincoln promised at Gettysburg.

Let us have what [Mayor] Nancy Shaver calls a “no surprises” government. Now.

In 1977, I was a 20 year old staffer for Senator Jim Sasser, assigned to cover as a legislative research assistant the creation of the Department of Energy under President Carter, among other issues. We had no idea at that time what DOE had done to Tennesseans and other Americans. No one but DOE knew that.

Six years after that, and less than nine years after carrying Ted Kennedy's FOIA press release to the Senate press galleries, the mercury losses in Oak Ridge were declassified on May 17, 1983, at request of Appalachian Observer Publisher Ernest F. Phillips and me, the editor, a beardless youth of 26. 

The Al Gore hearing followed, like a bird on a wagon. 

People were outraged.  

Yet, at the hearing, I was the only witness to call for criminal prosecution.  No one was ever prosecuted. 

43 years later, we can now conclude that Oak Ridge would never be the same again. 

The DOE complex began a "culture change," and was forced to focus on whistleblower protection, environment, safety and health. The multi-billion dollar cleanup of DOE sites continues, nationwide. Read all about it. 

All witnesses were sworn in at the request of our elected Anderson County Attorney David Alexander Stuart and me (Mr. Stuart, then 26, was later my co-counsel in several landmark whistleblower cases.  With DA Jim Ramsey, Mr,. Stuart was a member of the group who humorously referred to themselves as "the Gang of Four" -- two District Attorneys General and two County Attorneys acting as government watchdogs, contemplating jointly filing a sworn public nuisance complaint against DOE and Union Carbide under Tennessee nuisance law. Alas, the State Attorney General and the Legal Environmental Assistance Counsel filed first, and the "Gang of Four" did not go ahead with their inchoate plans).

Other disclosures around the country, sought by activists from all walks of life, have shown the Nation a picture of sublime ugliness: the Cold War took tens of thousands of Americans as unwilling victims, without informed consent. Now we know all too well that our Nation faces a moral crisis involving DOE, truly the “moral equivalent of war,” one that will test who we are as a people. 

As Dr. Susan Arnold Kaplan, Ph.D. wrote in 2005:

The public first learned of DOE environmental releases in 1983 when the agency announced the release of mercury from the Y-12 Plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The announcement, which was prompted by a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by Ed Slavin,1 marked the beginning of DOE’s Environmental, Safety, and Health (ES&H) projects nationwide.2 

Former Department of Energy Oak Ridge Operations Manager Joe Ben LaGrone told me in a 2012 telephone conversation after I read his oral history interview that I was indeed "the crowbar" who got the mercury pollution declassified and forced action. Mr. LaGrone stated that Department of Energy officials sent him to Oak Ridge the new Manager without telling them of the expected declassification.  

Not only that, but the Presidential libraries of President Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan show that two Presidents were never briefed on the scandal.

In 2014, former Department of Energy Deputy Assistant Secretary Robert Alvarez wrote of Y-12:

The mercury threat. Activities at Y-12 have produced multiple environmental challenges; perhaps the largest is mercury pollution.

During the crash program to build thermonuclear weapons in the 1950’s and early 1960’s, Y-12 purchased about 24 million pounds of mercury to purify lithium. Of that amount, about 10 percent (2.4 million pounds) was released into the environment or could not be accounted for inside buildings. To put the problem in perspective, Y-12 mercury losses are about eight times the annual mercury emissions estimated by the Environmental Protection Agency for the entire United States during the years 1994 and 1995. 

Despite the well-recognized hazards of mercury, a neurological poison, workers were not provided with adequate protection from it. People living nearby, including hundreds of school children, were exposed for years to an estimated 73,000 pounds of mercury released to the air. In 2012, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry concluded that “elemental mercury carried from the Y-12 plant by workers into their homes could potentially have harmed their families (especially young children).” A rough measure of harm to workers can be found in compensation statistics maintained by the Department of Labor. Nearly 9,000 Y-12 workers have received some $417 million for exposure to non-radioactive substances. 

The Upper East Fork Poplar Creek and Bear Creek continuously transport about 500 pounds of mercury from heavily contaminated soil on the site to downstream areas. The contaminated creeks then feed into the lower Watts Bar reservoir of the Tennessee River and the Clinch River, where tens of tons of mercury have accumulated in sediments. In 2002, nearly 40 percent of the anglers using the Watts Bar Reservoir continued to eat mercury-contaminated fish, despite a public ban on consumption. African-Americans were the least aware of the ban and were the most vulnerable to potential harm. 

After recognizing the magnitude of the mercury problem at least 35 years ago, the Energy Department is just beginning to construct a water treatment plant to remove mercury from the contaminated creeks and to reduce offsite mercury run-off. The total cost of mercury cleanup at Y-12 has not been determined. However, it may rival the cleanup costs of profoundly contaminated areas such as the Hanford Site in southeastern Washington state. 

The DOE Nuclear Weapons complex, to paraphrase Lincoln, is guilty of “idolatry that practices human sacrifices.” 

DOE’s American victims must be compensated fully, fairly and swiftly. It may be cleaned up by the year 2047, at which time I will be 90 years young. 

Cleanup of the entire nuclear weapons complex may eventually be achieved for as little as $400 billion. In the immortal words of the late Senator Everett McKinley Dirksen (R-Ill.), "A billion dollars here, a billion dollars there, and pretty soon you're talking about real money."

I was honored to testify before then-Rep. Al Gore at his July 11, 1983 hearing on the Oak Ridge mercury pollution crisis, which was said to have been a classified secret (kept even from President Jimmy Carter and President Reagan according to their Presidential libraries).  In reality, the only "classification" was Union Carbide's "business confidential" stamp, but so cowed and cowardly was our nuclear weapons industrial technostructure that Union Carbide was giving our government orders.

Secretary of Energy Donald Paul Hodel hornswoggled Joe Ben LaGrone into leaving DoE San Francisco Operations and moving his family to Oak Ridge by stating there were mere "management problems," never disclosing my pending mercury FOIA declassification request.  Mr. La Grone personally walked East Fork Poplar Creek and personally counted some 100 pollution discharge pipes, none with federal permits.  

Born in 1899, scion of an old Tennessee political family, appointed to the U.S. District Court by President Harry Truman, Eastern District Chief Judge Robert Love Taylor ruled against DOE in the case of Legal Environentsl Associations Foundation v. Hodel, holding that there was no "national security" exemption from anti-pollution laws. DOE was gobsmacked.  Nuclear weapons contractors seethed.

Gore's hearing helped give the government a spinal implant.  

The hearing and Judge Taylor's ruling were victories, thanks to fine work by Gary Davis and Natural Resources Defense Council lawyers on, the landmark case applying environmental laws applying to lawbreaking feculent federal bomb factories in Oak Ridge. 

But to this day, 43 years later, I wish that Al Gore had done his job better.  

Al Gore needed to do more than hold one (1) hearing -- no further hearings ever investigated the Environmental Justice issues that I raised (e.g., moving an entire segregated African-American community next to the creek).  

Wonder why?

Al Gore lost interest in Oak Ridge mercury and environmental health issues after he was elected to the U.S. Senate.  When he was Vice President, we tried to urge Gore to meet with some of the workers sickened by Oak Ridge nuclear weapons plant poisons, to no avail.  Meanwhile, Gore's 2000 presidential campaign was run by Lockheed Martin Washington lobbyist PETER KNIGHT.

Al Gore was seemingly raised to be President, the son of courageous Democratic. populist U.S. Senator Albert Gore, Sr. (He and then-Senator Kefauver joined with Kentucky Senator Alben Barkley and Texas Senator Lyndon Johnson).  

Al Gore, Jr., held some 1200 town hall meetings in Tennessee as Congressman (1977-1985) and Senator (1985-1992).  Sadly Gore seemed distant to Tennesseans as Vice President (1993-2001).   

I reckon that Al Gore lost Tennessee in 2000 largely because he lost interest in Tennessee issues like the Oak Ridge worker illnesses exhaustively covered by the Nashville Tennessean.  It did not help Gore's Presidential candidacy that his long Secrect Service caravan was obstructing I-40 traffic every Friday afternoon, as Air Force Two landed and he and his entourage drove some 42 miles from the Nashville airport to Carthage, his ancestral home, a joke for Nashville DJs that hurt his support in Democratic Middle Tennessee).  (The Gore-Lieberman presidential campaign failed to carry either Tennessee or Arkansas in 2000, and was found to have lost to Texas Governor George W. Bush by 537 votes in Florida.)

The month after Gore's July 11, 1983 mercury hearing, I went on to start Memphis State University Law School, went on to clerk for Memphis labor and civil rights attorney Dan M. Norwood, and then went ib to clerkships with Judges Charles P. Rippey and Chief Judge Nahum Litt at the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Administrative Law Judges, work at the AFL-CIO Occupational Health Legal Rights Foundation and Government Accountability Project and private practice, including Oak Ridge matters. 

So I'm contemplating Al Gore's desuetude of Congressional oversight, with little or no followup after initial headlines, and his also doing a wonderful job for a proud shining momentous open public hearing 43 years ago, touching on what Pope Francis later wrote in his encyclical, Laudato Si, about humankind turning this frail planet into "a pile of filth."

On balance, Gore's hearing on July 11, 1983 was a great day in American history. If Hollywood made a film and asked about music, I would suggest, "The times they are a-changin," or else "the world stood upside down" (played at Yorktown by our fledgling U.S. Army when Lord Cornwallis surrendered to President George Washington).  Or in the words of the ad jingle, "Oh, thank Heaven for 7/11.