It Takes a Village to Protect 10,000 Years of History and Our Beautiful Northeast Florida Environment

http://forums.staugustine.com/cgi-bin/bb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=2&t=204921#000009

My hat is off to "Hardware Bob" for the color photo and aerial picture of Red House Branch. Our City Commissioners received information afflicted by what Sir Winston S. Churchill might call "terminological inexactitude." Let the entire site now be protected and not neglected.
We need a world-class investigation by UF archeologists, followed by world-class preservation by the National Park Service, State of Florida, City of St. Augustine and St. Johns County. Thanks again to Mayor Gardner for voting against the project on January 9, and for asking questions -- if you had been given accurate information about wetlands (see Bob's second photo), you might have prevailed.
Robert Kennedy would tell his staff, "Don't tell me what I should have done, tell me what I should do now." Any one of the four Commissioners who supported the project is empowered to reconsider it.
Of course, there are ancient equity cases going back over 200 years (in Mississippi, Maryland and elsewhere) that say that legislation procured through fraud may be set aside as to the wrongdoer.
Meanwhile, the lesson in all of this is that we need transparency in the Nation's Oldest (European-founded) City.
We need to consider hiring an independent Inspector General and/or Ombudsman. We need an Online Reading Room.
We need to assure that all of the City's agenda notebook contents for our City must be published on the web, as the County and SJRWMD already do.
We need to protect the independence of City professionals like Mr. Halbirt.
We need City Commissioners who are more skeptical (as some once were), asking questions instead of insulting persons asking questions.
The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.
Thanks again, "Hardware Bob."
I salute you!