Clean Up City of St. Augustine, Florida

In secret, behind locked gates, our Nation's Oldest City dumped a landfill in a lake (Old City Reservoir), while emitting sewage in our rivers and salt marsh. Organized citizens exposed and defeated pollution, racism and cronyism. We elected a new Mayor. We're transforming our City -- advanced citizenship. Ask questions. Make disclosures. Demand answers. Be involved. Expect democracy. Report and expose corruption. Smile! Help enact a St. Augustine National Park and Seashore. We shall overcome!

Monday, November 02, 2026

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

SAVIN' WITH SLAVIN. MOSQUITO CONTROL BOARD, SEAT 2. CELEBRATE INDEPENDENCE.

SAVIN' WITH SLAVIN.

My late mentor, Chief Judge Nahum Litt, taught me that any government budget can be cut by 10%.

Our Florida governments need to work harder.

Smarter.

Ethically.

I am running for independent Mosquito Control Board to help save your tax dollars.

I am for wiser spending.

I am against wasteful spending.

IT'S OUR MONEY.

Against what Abraham Lincoln would call "flubdubs."

In 2006-2007, I was honored to work with two AMCD board members and diverse citizens to halt an illegal no-bid Bell Jet Helicopter contract, for a luxury jet helicopter without a plan, without a pilot, without hanar, without a clue.

IT'S OUR MONEY. Let's spend it wisely, my friends.

ED SLAVIN FOR ANASTASIA MOSQUITO CONTROL DISTRICT OF ST. JOHNS COUNTY, SEAT 2.

VOTE ON OR BEFORE NOVEMBER 3, 2026.

CELEBRATE INDEPENDENCE.

LET'S MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

After Commissioner Gleason's Resignation in Protest, Mosquito Control District's Waste, Lawbreaking, Continue, Without Dissent

Update, April 9, 2025 to my April 1, 2025 post:

Local governments, behaving badly (continued), Anastasia Mosquito Control Commission of St. Johns County Edition, March 13, 2025.
On March 13, 2025, I attended the monthly meeting of the Anastasia Mosquito Control District of St. Johns County. It was the first meeting since the resignation in protest of AMCD Commissioner Martha Gleason. You can watch the video here: https://youtu.be/LfiGywuknUY?feature=shared
At 4 PM, there was a meeting of the policy committee, chaired by AMCD Chair Ms. Pangiotta "Trish" Becker. That meeting violated the District's own policies. The Districts policies require meetings be held with ten (10) days notice. No explanation for this violation of District rules. Our governments must follow their own rules, as the Supreme Court held in Service v. Dulles, 354 U.S. 363 (1957). https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/354/363/. Learned counsel for the District said not a word to defend this violation of a District policy in the first-ever meeting of the District's Policy Committee.
At 5 PM, the full Anastasia Mosquito Control District of St. Johns County convened, with four members, lacking a dissenting voice because Commissioner Martha Gleason had resigned the day before.
At the beginning of the meeting AMCD Chair Pangiotta "Trish" Becker read a lengthy statement lauding Commissioner Gleason. It sounded insincere, especially because Chair Becker and three other somnolent Mosquito Control Commissioners in past meetings frequently interrupted and failed to act upon Commissioner Gleason's concerns about apparent waste, fraud and abuse, including 40% cost overruns on the Mosquito Museum, which Chair Becker insists on calling an "Education Center," interrupting people and correcting them like a smarmy schoolmarm.
I quoted from Commissioner Martha Gleason's resignation in protest letter. No one responded.

The District voted to spend nearly $400,000 on a putative solution to the drainage problems, which have plagued the District since its purchase of swampland from the influential Usina family, for whom a local bridge is named. The Usinas were said to be friends of then-Chair Mary Tarver Willis (bought without competitive bidding, without an appraisal, and without a survey).

The District never answered my questions about the contract, including whether there was a proper engineering

In fact, there were three (3) motions, with no public comment allowed until after the three votes. This situation stinks.

The first motion, with public comment refused by Chair Pangiotta "Trish" Becker, was to set aside the Request for Proposals: it was needed because the RFP that was issued violated chapter 287.055 and because of the so called emergency they decided to go to a sole source contract approach.
287.055 Acquisition of professional architectural, engineering, landscape architectural, or surveying and mapping services; definitions; procedures; contingent fees prohibited; penalties.

Was the RFP properly ever even advertised ? The initial RFP had only one (1) response; that company does as does not provide engineering services as the initial RFP clearly asked for.

Maladroit attorney Daniel K. Bean, the attorney du jour, said public comment was somehow not required. This violated our Florida Sunshine law, adopted by 83% of Florida voters ini 1992 -- 3.8 million votes --- enshrined in our Florida Constitution as Article I, Section 24, F.S. 119 and F.S. 286.

Mr. Daniel Kearney Bean is the Chair of the Jacksonville Port Authority and Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Jacksonville NPR affiliate, WJCT. Reporter Noah Hertz of WJCT's Jacksonville Today broke the story of AMCD's lawbreaking $1000 "Christmas bonuses" for Commissioners -- bonuses evidently violating Florida state law, which sets a $4800 annual pay cap on part-time Mosquito Control District Commissioners' salaries. Thanks to Mr. Hertz's dogged reporting, the illegal $1000 Commissioner "Christmas bonuses" were rightly and properly rescinded, over protests from disgruntled former Board member Catherine Brandhorst, who missed some 37 meetings, resulting in the Board asking Governor Ron DeSantis to remove her under article IV, Section 7 of our Florida Constitution. DeSantis never responded, and Ms. Brandhorst plumped for an even larger bonus.

Mr. Bean was a U.S. Navy Captain, with 25 years of Navy service, including work as a Surface Warfare Officer and as a Judge Advocate. Mr. Bean is a graduate of Vanderbilt University and of the University of San Diego Law school (see biography below). He was editor of the Vanderbilt Hustler, the official student newspaper of Vanderbilt University since 1888.

Mr. Bean's Gambrell, Smith & Russell corporate law firm biography states that he is a "litigator" and a "probate lawyer. Mr. Bean is not a partner in his law firm. In fact, he is currently "Of Counsel" to the law firm of Gambrell, Smith & Russell, a 400 lawyer firm, based in Atlanta. The District's usual meeting counsel is attorney Ms. Lesekia Hodges, a former Assistant General Counsel of the City of Jacksonville, who has helped guide the dodgy Mosquito District on its many actions. Ms. Hodges was said to have "a schedule conflict." We missed Ms. Hodges' wise counsel at the March 13, 2025 meeting. Under Mr. Bean's tutelage, were our Florida Constitutional rights to public participation violated? You tell me. Watch the video.
https://youtu.be/LfiGywuknUY?feature=shared

*The Florida Bar website explains: An “of counsel” relationship is more than a mere referral arrangement. A lawyer may be considered “of counsel” if he or she has a regular, continuing relationship with a lawyer or firm in a capacity other than that of partner or associate. Opinions 72-29; 75-41; 71-49. Because of this close relationship, lawyers in an “of counsel” relationship are considered to be in the same firm for purposes of the conflict of interest rules. Opinions 72-41; 61-20. ABA Formal Opinion, Opinion 90-357, indicates that a law firm may be “of counsel” to another lawyer or law firm if the required close, continuing, regular relationship exists. In addition, when a lawyer is in more than one firm, the fee division rules will apply. The Professional Ethics Committee concluded in Opinion 94-7 that the fee division rules apply where a lawyer is “of counsel” to a law firm but also practices through the lawyer’s own firm." https://www.floridabar.org/ethics/etfaq/

Mr. Bean lacks Ms. Hodges' extensive experience with local government and records laws. Mr. Bean seemed a bit bored, unengaged, like he would rather be sailing, and as if he had what labor economists would call "a backward-bending labor supply curve." It appears that Mr. Bean violated citizens' cherished constitutional rights. The Board was fine with that: three of the ladies on the Board were seen laughing in the parking lot after the meeting. Did they think this was funny?

Watch the video.

https://youtu.be/LfiGywuknUY?feature=shared

Watch the video.
https://youtu.be/LfiGywuknUY?feature=shared

Do you see what I see? Total incompetence and lack of interest in their jobs exhibited by the Board as a whole: 1) Board members had not a single relevant question on any item; 2) Board members were obviously not familiar with the Board book as the attorney had to point to them repeatedly where items were located; 3) Board members expressed no curiosity about the status of the Mosquito Museum, the SIT building, the public records requests, the employee culture survey scope of service scope of work they requested the previous month, nor the independent auditor selection committee. Is this the best St. Johns County has to offer? They should be ashamed of themselves. Additional, the Board members are still collecting an additional $100 a month for expenses without showing receipts. Commissioner Martha Gleason requested that her stipend be stopped (and it was). Two Commissioners went to Puerto Rico for an American Mosquito Control Association conference earlier this month. Two members will soon go to Washington, D.C. for an American Mosquito Control Association conference.

On the afternoon of March 14, 2025, Martha Gleason posted on Facebook.

As the late great New York journalist Barry Farber would end each of his WOR radio broadcasts:

"To be continued."

Daniel K. Bean

Counsel / Jacksonville

Daniel (Dan) Bean is Counsel in the Litigation Practice of Smith, Gambrell & Russell, LLP.

Slavin family values -- putting people first

On June 6, 1944, my late paratrooper Father parachuted into France and helped liberate the first French town from the Nazis, before the sun even rose that day.

My Dad taught me, as JFK's dad taught me him, that "you have to stand up to people with power, or else they walk all over you."

In his spirit, my Mother helped organize the employees of Camden County College in Blackwood, N.J. into what became International Union of Electrical Workers Local 440. Mom got some 40 union cards signed in an hour in 1970. The clerical and custodial employees prevailed.

One of my law professors in Memphis told a mutual friend that I was a "natural born attorney." My Mother said, "I always knew you were an S.O.B."

My late mentor, the Honorable Nahum Litt, was the Chief Administrative Law Judge of the United Staes Department of Labor, 1979-1995.

Chief Judge Litt stood like Horatius at the bridge, protecting the independence of hearings in whistleblower and in workers compensation cases for Black Lung disease sufferers from the coalfields.

Judge Litt helped me to understand. We worked to understand administrative law's perversion of justice by rich and powerful corporations.

I later wrote about ACUS for Common Cause Magazine. In response, Congress defunded a federal agency from 1995-2010: the prestigious Administrative Conference of the United States lost funding because it wasted federal tax dollars on worthless studies by pro-agency law professors. ACUS sought to inflict Alternative Dispute Resolution on workers and corporations. ACUS sought to defang and declaw the Freedom of Information Act. ACUS sought to stifle lawyer representation of workers in cases against powerful employers, while encouraging non-lawyer representatives.

My Mother, my Father, and Chief Judge Litt taught me valuable lessons.

Here in St. Johns County, we're learning what happens when soulless corporations control and contaminate our governments.

Deforestation.

Flooding.

Unplanned overdevelopment.

Overcrowded schools with hundreds of unsafe portable classrooms.

Since 1981, I've investigated and helped expose corruption in our country.

I've lived in St. Augustine since November 5, 1999.

We've seen the murder of a Sheriff deputy's girlfriend reported in The New York Times and PBS Frontline,

My Mother had decades of experience in purchasing for Camden County College and corporations like F.W. Woolworth.

When I learned that our Mosquito Control Commission bought a $1.8 million no-bid helicopter, I asked my Mother if she would buy a helicopter withoutn competitive bidding: "absolutely not."

Working with the late Robin Nadeau, John Sundeman,Jeanne Moeller, Don Girvan, and other community leaders,

We, the People helped persuade our Mosquito Control District to cancel the no-bid contract. Taxpayers won a full refund of our MCD's 10% deposit.

Chief Judge Litt was tight as a tick with government money. Judge Litt taught me that any government budget can be cut by 10%. Here in St. Johns County, we have a $4.5 million mosquito museum, with 41% cost overruns. There's too much waste in government.

Mosquito-borne diseases kill one million people annually. My Father was bitten by a mosquito in Sicily in 1943 as an 82nd Airborne Division paratrooper.

I believe in miracles. They called me a "miracle baby."

Likely due to my Father's suffering from malaria, it took my parents a dozen years, praying to Saint Jude, (patron Saint of hopeless causes), before they were able to have their only child (me). Mom said the chances of my being born were less than one in 100,000.

We, the People, have achieved dozens of public interest victories here in the 21st century.

We can control pestiferous mosquitoes.

We can conquer corruption.

Yes we can!

Help me help you save money and save lives.

I would be honored to have your vote to serve on the board of the Anastasia Mosquito Control Commission, seat 2

Vote on or before November 3, 2026.

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

Bonuses for mosquito control board may have been improper. (Noah Hertz, Jacksonville Today/WJCT, November 26, 2024)

Update: October 2026: CATHERINE BRANDHORST, never fired by Governor DeSANTIS, has filed to run for a seat on the board of the Anastasia Mosquito Control District of St. Johns County, seat 2, the same seat for which I am running. I would be honored to have your vote on or before November 3.

From 2025: Great news coverage by Noah Hertz of yet another incorrigibly secretive, mismanaged and wasteful government organization here in corrupt St. Johns County! Outgoing outrageous Anastasia Mosquito Control District Commissioner Catherine Brandhorst (R), oddly claiming she's underpaid, missed some 37 meetings and still got paid for them. Governor RONALD DION DeSANTIS ignored AMCD's 4-1 vote to urge him to remove Brandhorst (R) under Article IV, Section 7 of our Florida Constitution. Wonder why? Imperious Commissioner Catherine Brandhorst missed the deadline to file for re-election by some two (2) minutes, and thankfully this unjust steward will no longer encumber a seat on AMCD after her final meeting on December 12, 2024. Full disclosure: I filed to run for that seat, which T.J. Mazzotta won in the November 5, 2024 election. He later resigned.)

AMCD's reigning attitude for years has been:"Can it be done in a more costly manner?" That was the Freudian slip (or Floridian slip) by Sandra Fein, one of my three opponents running for Anastasia Mosquito Control District of St. Johns County, seat 2. Ipse dixit. Let's reform AMCD. It's our money.

More on the AMCD Commissioner bonuses and ending waste, fraud and abuse

here: https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/25979735/3972261674353802785

https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2024/11/11222024-draft-remember-greediest-2024.html

The Anastasia Mosquito Control District is responsible for keeping the population of the blood-sucking pests down in St. Johns County. | Anastasia Mosquito Control District

Bonuses for mosquito control board may have been improper

By Noah Hertz

A board of elected officials in St. Johns County may have violated the law by giving themselves holiday bonuses for at least six years, including $1,000 the past two years.

The five-member board of the Anastasia Mosquito Control District approved the bonuses Nov. 21 for themselves and the agency’s 44 employees.

The Anastasia Mosquito Control District is responsible for keeping the population of the blood-sucking pests down in St. Johns County. | Anastasia Mosquito Control District

Bonuses for mosquito control board may have been improper

By Noah Hertz

Published on November 26, 2024 at 3:31 pm

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A board of elected officials in St. Johns County may have violated the law by giving themselves holiday bonuses for at least six years, including $1,000 the past two years.

The five-member board of the Anastasia Mosquito Control District approved the bonuses Nov. 21 for themselves and the agency’s 44 employees.

The holiday bonus is on top of the $4,800 annual salary board members take home — the maximum the state allows for mosquito control district board members.

One board member said the bonuses are necessary because, unlike the district’s employees, elected board members don’t receive regular raises.

“It’s simply not fair,” Commissioner Catherine Brandhorst said during the meeting last week. “Employees receive a raise every year. They receive a cost-of-living adjustment, and we receive nothing.”

But Florida law is fairly explicit on the issue.

Florida statute states that mosquito control board members cannot supplement their maximum $4,800 salaries with anything other than travel fees for official business.

Florida’s law also states that elected officials are barred from voting on any measure that would provide a direct monetary benefit to that official.

A Flourish table

The Mosquito Control District is a special taxing district separate from St. Johns County’s government. The district handles mosquito control through spraying insecticide, offers education on mosquitoes — like the disease vector museum the district operates — and conducts research on effective insect-killing. It’s all overseen by a five-member board of elected commissioners.

At least one of the commissioners is having second thoughts about the bonuses.

Commissioner Martha Gleason was absent from the meeting and questioned the vote after she said a constituent alerted her that the bonuses may be against the law.

“I want to assure you that I take this matter seriously and will be proposing a motion to revoke the Board bonuses at the upcoming December meeting,” Gleason posted on Facebook. “It is essential to uphold transparency and accountability in our actions as public servants.”

Gleason, who was elected to the board in 2022, told Jacksonville Today she wasn’t completely on board with the measure last year — although she voted to approve those $1,000 holiday bonuses for board members and staff. She said her main focus last year was on the staff.

But after hearing this year that the bonuses could be against the law, Gleason reached out to the board’s recently appointed attorney, Amy Myers.

Myers confirmed to Gleason this week that there is no provision in the district’s charter that “authorizes this additional compensation for Commissioners.”

“If there is authority elsewhere in the statutes, I am similarly unaware of it,” Myers continued.

Ben Wilcox, director of the government watchdog group Integrity Florida, isn’t aware of anything either. But, he said the state’s mechanism for investigating a potential violation like this relies on a constituent filing an ethics violation.

“I don’t know if the Florida Commission on Ethics would find that the complaint had legal sufficiency or not,” Wilcox told Jacksonville Today, “but it would still be worth somebody trying to file an ethics complaint.”

Larger bonuses proposed

The bonuses were nearly higher before the board settled on the $1,000 amount.

Commissioner Brandhorst recommended changing the bonuses to be based on merit: $500 for every year served on the board.

Brandhorst’s 14-year term on the board is coming to an end now that T.J. Mazzotta has been elected to her seat. Having served since 2010, Brandhorst would have taken home a $7,000 bonus under the change she proposed.

Her proposal didn’t go anywhere. Commissioner Trish Becker called it “wasteful.”

Jacksonville Today was unable to reach Brandhorst for comment this week.

It was not the first time Brandhorst has met with friction from fellow commissioners. Earlier this year, the board sent a letter to Gov. Ron DeSantis complaining about Brandhorst’s repeated unannounced absences and tardiness at the monthly board meetings.

The board holds public meetings once per month at the district’s headquarters at 120 EOC Drive near St. Augustine.

The topic of bonuses will be addressed at the next board meeting, at 5 p.m. Dec. 12.

Noah HertzReporter emailNoah Hertz is a Jacksonville Today reporter focusing on St. Johns County. From Central Florida, Noah got his start as an intern at WFSU, Tallahassee’s public radio station, and as a reporter at The Wakulla News. He went on to work for three years as a general assignment reporter and editor for The West Volusia Beacon in his hometown, DeLand.

Clean Up City of St. Augustine, Florida

Monday, November 02, 2026

Mosquito Control and Overdevelopment

SAVIN' WITH SLAVIN. MOSQUITO CONTROL BOARD, SEAT 2. CELEBRATE INDEPENDENCE.

After Commissioner Gleason's Resignation in Protest, Mosquito Control District's Waste, Lawbreaking, Continue, Without Dissent

Daniel K. Bean

Slavin family values -- putting people first

Bonuses for mosquito control board may have been improper. (Noah Hertz, Jacksonville Today/WJCT, November 26, 2024)

Bonuses for mosquito control board may have been improper

Bonuses for mosquito control board may have been improper

Larger bonuses proposed

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