Commissioners' Heckling and Censorship of Public Comments at St. Augustine City Commission Meetings

City staff and Commissioners obstructed efforts to show 38 FDEP photos of pollution of the Old City Reservoir at last night's City Commission meeting, refusing to allow showing of the photos, obtained from FDEP on CD-ROM. Commission meetings are becoming the equivalent of "happy talk" during an election year, with proclamations but no substance. Reducing rights to speak at both the end and beginning of Commission meetings and Commissioner heckling/interruption of speakers has a chilling effect on First Amendment rights. Our City was found to have violated First Amendment rights last year in the Bridge of Lions Rainbow flag case. See my column in this month's Out in the City, quoting Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who said the City of St. Augustine was the "most lawless" city in America. We shall overcome.