View Podcast on St. Augustine's Environmental Crisis

Watch two brief podcasts on St. Augustine's environmental crisis and sequelae:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWh7u-RA-_4
Video Description
Discussion with Ed Slavin about Mayor's remarks.


YouTube™ – Broadcast Yourself


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOrSClOTgCM
Video Description
Discussion with Ed Slavin about Brownfield Project

AND ON GOOGLE VIDEOS:

TALKIN' ABOUT St. Augustine 1-
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6280495555555604086&pr=goog-sl

TALKIN" ABOUT St. Augustine 2 -
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6098661160160693860

Thanks for looking,

jdp

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HELP CHANGE HISTORY -- REPORT ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION OF LAND, AIR, WATER, WETLANDS and PEOPLE to National Response Center 1-800-424-8802 --

Help change history in the Nation's Oldest (European-founded) City of St. Augustine and in St. Johns County, Florida.

If you see a "developer," factory, government agency, or other organization or individual polluting, clearcutting, filling in wetlands, exposing workers and residents to toxic chemicals, destroying our homeland, then do something about it.

Call toll-free to report it to the National Response Center 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, every single day of the year. You will speak to a young Coast Guard petty officer (or civilian employee), part of an organization that works with federal and state law enforcement. The Coast Guard petty officer or civilian will take your information and give you a report number. Save that report number -- follow up on your report. Don't take no for an answer.

The only reason that our City of St. Augustine is about to be fined over for its "serious" violations and "lack of good faith" in dumping in our Old City Reservoir is that a call was made on February 17, 2006 to National Response Center 1-800-424-8802. This report (report number 788280) deprived government officials of plausible deniability.

If you see pollution, take action, take pictures, take the time to care and call National Response Center 1-800-424-8802.

One call to 1-800-424-8802 (and followups) was all it took to expose our City's serious, toxic illegal pollution of the Old City Reservoir, with pollution continuing even after criminal investigators arrived and Mayor GEORGE GARDNER promised "answers."


Don't expect government agencies guilty of desuetude (nonenforcement) to do thier jobs without your help. Don't expect developers, their lawyers or City or County officials to do their job without your help -- report pollution.

Don't "let George do it" -- you make the call. Don't expect the FDEP, SJRWMD, EPA, City, County or other government agency to enforce the law if you don't report pollution when you see it.

Be prepared to answer a few pertinent questions about what you saw, including date, time, location, owner, air temperature, wind speed/direction, weather conditions. You can give your name or remain anaonymous. The most important thing is to make the call and get the report number, so that you and others can follow up.

Don't hang up without getting a report number -- it's essential and it is the job of the National Response Center to take the information and convey it to those who can do something about it, promptly, courteously and efficiently.

No more coverups.


Call the National Response Center and help change history and protect our environment. You will be glad you did.

Our beautiful City of St. Augustine and St. Johns County are worthy preserving, protecting and defending from greed and corruption and prejudice (see below).

"It's A Dump, But We're Going to Turn It Around"

Like the line from the TV series, "St. Elsewhere," "it's a dump but we're goijgn to turn it around." New and longtime residents make this a "small but cosmopolitan city," in the words of St. Augustine Record reporter Peter Guinta in Editor and Publisher Magazine earlier this year. Our decidedly unhip City Hall, with its racist, ethnocentric, homophobic, anti-arts, anti-music, anti-iibertarian, andi-envirnmental animus has been caught illegally dumping and is fixing to be fined by the State of Florida for its "serious" envoronmental violations. It's been blasted by federal courts for violating the First Amendment. It's been blasted by the st. Augustine Record newspaper for trying to chill First Amendment rights. See below. Come on along, we're going to have lots of fun making this City better.

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rev. Andrew Young Incarcerated in St. Augustine, Florida, June 1964 -- From Dr. Bronson's History Tours

Our City of St. Augustine, Florida must apologize for its uncivil wrongs, as one individual and one church did in the movie, "Dare Not Walk Alone." Ten suggestions appear in the article below this one. Photo courtesy of Dr. Bronson's History Tours website. http://www.drbronsontours.com/bronsonkingcivilrights.html
http://www.drbronsontours.com

"A SEAT AT THE TABLE" FOR AFRICAN-AMERICAN AND INDIGENOUS TRIBAL PEOPLE IN ST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA (AFTER 441 YEARS)

"A SEAT AT THE TABLE" FOR AFRICAN-AMERICAN AND INDIGENOUS TRIBAL PEOPLE IN ST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA (AFTER 441 YEARS)

The new Mayor, JOSEPH LEROY BOLES, JR. can do a lot to bring about healing ancient wounds in our Ancient City by proposing the following:
1. Canceling all future junkets/trips to Aviles, Spain, NYC, Germany and elsewhere and canceling all future government subsidies to fancy masqued balls and using the monies saved to erect a Civil Rights Monument in the Slave Market Square (instead of forcing Civil Rights Heroes to raise funds to pay for a public monument).
2. Enacting a Human Rights Ordinance (HRO)(see below) and using it and moral suasion to end de facto segregation by City Hall, St. George Street merchants, Realtors (R) and other local employers and to remove vestiges of racist stereotypes (visible from the Castillo);
3. Ending the de facto segregation in the St. Augustine Police Department (59 of 59 white officers) and Fire Department (28 of 28 white firemen).
4. National recruitment of the next City Manager, City Attorney, City Police Chief and other Department heads, ending all-white, all-male, all-political mismanagement structures that were so insensitive to our people and environment that they unlawfully deposited the contents of the old illegal city dump into the Old City Reservoir -- one of the most obnoxious acts of environmental racism ever seen.
5. Making preservation of the African-American community and ending poverty goals of our City government, with efforts to assure equity and fairness in providing City services (including restoring 1928 trolleys).
6. Establishing a Reconciliation Commission for the purpose of encouraging the sort of apologies and understanding seen in the documentary, "Dare Not Walk Alone," including a resolution of the St. Augustine City Commission apologizing to local and national victims of Civil Rights violations, inviting Rev. Andrew Young and other surviving victims to a celebration of diversity and brotherhood. This Reconciliation must necessarily include full, candid historical apprciation for indigenous tribal and Africa-American history, including a "St. Augustine National Historical Park" embracing our City and an "emerald necklace of parks," including Fort Mose.
7. Making preservation of African-American and other minority-owned businesses a priority, with efforts to develop talents and skills for true economic development.
8. Annexing the rest of West Augustine and providing full City services.
9. Providing for seven City Commissioners to be elected by districts, assuring every community is represented in City Hall;
10. Ending what soon-to-be-ex-Mayor GEORGE GARDNER admits is "rampant corruption" in City Hall, a hidden tax on every resident and visitor..

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said St. Augustine was the "most lawless" city in America. Time to take action for reconciliation and brotherhood, to help recover
our city's tarnished reputation?

If we're going to attract and retain talented young people and become a world-class City, racism must be extirpated (just like homophobia). Cities are competing to attract and retain talented young people by being "hip."

Jim Crow and Apartheid never were hip and all vestiges of racial discrimination must be extirpated in St. Augustine, Florida.


What do you think?

"A SEAT AT THE TABLE" FOR GAY AND LESBIAN PEOPLE IN ST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA (AFTER 441 YEARS)

City of St. Augustine Mayor-Elect JOSEPH LEROY BOLES, JR. has stated that everyone should have a "seat at the table."

Based on that commitment, we expect Mr. BOLES to work to repeal the City's invidiously retaliatory, discriminatory June 13, 2005 policy banning all but government flags from being flown on the Bridge of Lions (BOL). He will also want to work to adopt a Human Rights Ordinance (HRO), as in some seven other Florida jurisdictions.

Mr. BOLES was the only St. Augustine Commissioner who had the courage to vote against Mayor GEORGE GARDNER's rude government-flags-only-Bridge of Lions (BOL) flag rule on June 13, 2005.

We salute Mayor-elect Boles for that vote and for joining VICE MAYOR SUSAN BURK, who voted with Mr. BOLES to support Rainbow flags at the May 23, 2005 meeting (but missed the June 13, 2005 meeting).

These two Commissioners, both lawyers, are the only consistent votes on our City Commission in favor of respecting the First Amendment

The government-flags-only policy abolished what a federal judge found was a public forum for freedom of expression. This is only one more outrage wrought by soon-to-be-ex-mayor GEORGE GARDNER, who brags of attending 36 churches but has seemingly learned nothing in any of them.

The government-flags-only policy is insulting to everyone who lives in this 441-year-old-city, which is saddled with a government still lacking decent respect for human rights in a place where the Declaration of Independence was burned in 1776, and where John Adams and John Hancock were burned in effigy in 1776 in our Slave Market Square).

Only one more vote is required to erase soon-to-be-ex-Mayor GARDNER's angry June 13, 2005 government-flag-flying only policy, as insulting a vote as ever held by any segregationist government anywhere in the world. Only because a federal court ruled that our Bridge of Lions was a public forum under the First Amendment did MAYOR GARDNER, COMMISSIONER ERROL JONES and Commissioner DONALD CRICHLOW determine that they would end the public forum. Bigger homophobes have never before greased a chair in any City Hall -- the BOL flagflying vote is part of what Mayor GARDNER admits to be "rampant corruption" in City Hall..

Like GARDNER, his government-flags-only policy is an embarrassment to a great city, which St. Augustine Record's Peter Guinta calls this "small but cosmopolitan city (see below).

City Commissioners must adopt a Human Rights Ordinance, banning discrimination in housing, public accommodations, employment and education, extirpating discrimination on the basis of race, color, creed, religion, national origin, gender, and sexual orientation from the Nation's Oldest City.

Our City of St. Augustine has an existing housing anti-discrimination ordinance on the books dating to 1964. It's time to update it, provide real remedies, cover more people, and add employment, education and public accommodations.

It's time and it's right. We must make amends for our City Founder's anti-Gay animus, which ended in murder in 1566.

It is fitting that such an ordinance be adopted here because St. Augustine was founded by Pedro Menendez de Aviles, perpetrator of what is North America's first recorded anti-Gay hate crime, in 1566.


We spend public funds to "honor" Menendez, who is guilty of what may be the first, recorded anti-Gay hate crime in North American history: he admitted having a Gay man killed (the story was written down by Menendez's brother-in-law).

Are we "honoring" the first in a long line of dictatorial government officials?

Does that honor empower soon-to-be-ex-Mayor GEORGE GARDNER to insult anyone who asks them questions?

Where does our City "honor" and celebrate the history of the people who did most of the working in its history?

In 1566, Florida's first Governor had a Gay man killed because he was a "Sodomite and a Lutheran." Florida's first Governor Pedro Menendez de Aviles is "honored" with a statue in front of City Hall, an oil painting in the Commissioner's secret inner sanctum (a gift of the Spanish government), Commissioners' annual visits to Spain (at public expense), festivals for his birthday and landing/invasion, streets and a high school.

That's rather like celebrating Cain, the first murderer in the Bible, by spending public funds and erecting statues, paintings, holidays and high schools in Cain's honor.

Meanwhile, our City does virtually nothing to honor the Native Americans and African Americans who did the work and paid the price for government abuses of power, 1566-2006. This is due to Mayor GEORGE GARDNER's Philistine concept of "positive" and "negative" history -- one that is not taught by scholars at any university -- yet another of GARDNER's open-mouth, insert-foot statements that will not be missed when he ceases to be Mayor of St. Augustine, Florida

Let freedom ring and diversity reign in the Nation's Oldest City.

We need to abolish the Bridge of Lions (BOL) government-flagflying-only policy aimed at discriminating against GLBT people and we need a Human Rights Ordinance (HRO).

By their votes on the BOL and HRO, Commissioners can help heal history's wounds and build a better City -- he sort of place that is attractive to young residents, who will help determine our Citys future. (See below)


Homophobia is decidedly unhip and is bad for business.

What do you think?

Cities compete in hipness battle to attract young

In "Cities compete in hipness battle to attract young," reporter
Shaila Dewan wrote in the November 25 New York Times that the future of our economy and culture is being determined by cities determined to make young people 25-34 yars old comfortable. It appears that St. Augustine, Florida City Hall is doing everything else, including it decidedly unhip hostility to artists, musicians, entertainers, African-Americans, women, Gays, Lesbians, workers, and persons who veneate the First Amendment. Young people leave St. Augustine after college because there are not enough good jobs. Employers are not encouraaged to start new businesses that would attract and keep young people in St. Augustine.


Instead, we have a "rush to the bottom" -- who can construct the tackiets t-shirt shop with the most obnoxoius storefront in a historic building, with the fewest good jobs? My vote goes for the old F. W. Woolworth store on King Street, which instead of being used by the church that owns it for wholesome activities (like the old Toy Store and lunch counter) is now a venue for tawdry t-shirts.

We need the Department of the Interior and the National Park Service to help save our City of St. Augustine with a "St. Augustine National Historical Park/." See below.

St. Augustine Record photo of Rainbow Flags on Bridge of Lions, June 2005

Time to Investigate, Prosecute Threats to Environmental Activists

Time to Investigate, Prosecute
Threats to Environmental Activists

In St. Augustine and St. Johns County, government and corporate bullies have threatened environmental activists.

They've done it in the daytime and done it in the nighttime.

They've done it in writing and they've done it in televised meetings.

They've done it in sotto voce and they've done it by raising their voices.

They've done it by employment and business blacklisting.

They've violated federal criminal laws, including the Racketeer-Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), 18 U.S.C. 1961 et seq.

They've done it directly and indirectly.

Our City Commissioners even passed a resolution, 5-0, to seek sanctions and attorney fees against Dr. Dwight Hines, Ph.D., for filing an open records request (after refusing to agree to mediation by the State Attorney General's office), with Mayor-Elect JOSEPH LEROY BOLES, MAYOR GEORGE GARDNER, VICE MAYOR SUSAN BURK, COMMISSIONERS ERROL JONES and DONALD CRICHLOW voting to seek attorney fees to make Dr. HINES "pay the piper." It turns out that our City of St. Augustine lied in state court filings, claiming that requested documents did not exist. Our City has since produced 45 pounds of documents it claimed did not exist.

Our City Planning and Zoning Director, MARK KNIGHT, threatened to fireall of the members of the Street Tree Advisory Committee and abolish the committee if they did not vote to adopt a report he had written for Tree City USA application purposes. (See beloow).

Our former City Attorney, JAMES PATRICK WILSON, even threatened to have Dr. Dwight Hines, Ph.D. and I arrested for making requests for government documents. (See below).

City and county government officials' bullying and threats have only shown their lack of merit in winning approval of 80,000 new homes in this corrupt city and county.

Ideas have consequences -- the idea that greedy corporations get to destroy our environment and intimidate, coerce and restrain protected activity has consequences.

FDEP has found our City's illegal dumping was a "serious" violation and that our City of St. Augustine showed a "lack of good faith," which is to say bad faith.

Congressional investigations of Florida's corruption are inevitable.

Congressman John Dingell (D-Michigan), incoming Chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee recently quoted the Lord High Executioner said in the Mikado, "I've got a little list."

Let's stand up to bullies. State, county and city legislation procured through fraud can be set aside to the wrongdoers. Excessiive congestion can be treated as a public nuisance. Time for a growth moratorium and state and federal grand juries.

Our Town: We're Going to Clean Up Our Beautiful City of St. Augustine, and St. Johns County Florida (With Your Help)

The message of Thornton Wilder's play, "Our Town" was that most people don't even know they're alive until they're dead.

That is why most of us put up with environmental depredations, exploitation and corruption from our governments and our employers and our corporations.

Most people are too busy surviving from paycheck to paycheck to have the time to know or to care very much about what greed is doing to our planet. Life rushes by. Then we die.

In 1992, I purchased a copy of Al Gore's book, "Earth in the Balance," from a store called Dream Street here in St. Augustine, while we were on vacation. It is an amazing book that I started reading here in St. Augustine, at a crucial stage. Our Florida vacation was right after a three-week trial of an environmental and nuclear whistleblower case against the world's largest arms merchant (then called Martin Marietta, now Lockheed Martin). Punitive damages were awarded by District Chief Administrative Law Judge Theodor von Brand for this sadistic employer's retaliating by putting a cancer survivor with a suppressed immune system next to radioactive waste barrels and in toxic rooms, telling him to sit there when he was not out doing menial chores -- retaliation for appearing on CBS Evening news about cancer risks, raising concerns about environmental sample preparation and a pregnant secretary ordered to carry radioactive samples on the seat of a pickup truck at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, owned by the U.S. Department of Energy Oak Ridge Operations. (On appeal, political influence may have taken away the victory, but not the truth of the nuclear weapons industry and how it uses fear and smear to suppress truth-telling by employees).

Al Gore's book, "Earth in the Balance," and that Oak Ridge National Laboratory case changed me forever.

No longer did I do what most people do most of the time -- muddle through, cower to power and constantly worry about money, power, success and pleasing some uninformed lugubrious goober who doesn't know peaturkey about a durn thing.

After defeating Bush's beastly Senators and Congressman, we must be thankful.

Our nation, as one client said of his own situation at ORNL, has "nowhere to go but up."

Moving to St. Augustine, Florida at the end of the 20th century, we saw a beautiful, bucolic, natural paradise and were glad to be a part of it.

Brian was the first to notice and report -- "it's crooked around here." He was absolutely right.

Then we saw government officials working to ruin it at the behest of organizations that call themselves "developers." That's like calling arms merchants "government contractors" -- it's a smokescreen, a euphemism and damning with faint praise.

"Developers" that clear-cut every living thing must be stopped. These land-raping scalawags have bad taste in landscaping, bad taste in architecture, and seek to make up for it by clearcutting God's grandeur and to cover it all up by cultivating "friendships" with weak-kneed politicians. Look at the new, ugly buildings, including stripmalls, storage units, a garish three-story building, the monstrous 825 Anastasia Boulevard condos (marring the view from our city's wonderful Gypsy Cab restaurant).

We saw how County Commissioners and City Commissioners responded to neighborhood concerns, with disdain and eyerolling. We saw residents disrespected as one neighborhood after another fell prey to these "developers," Organization Men who want to clear-cut everything, know the price of everything and know the value of nothing.

Then we saw how public officials responded to illness caused by ASHLAND's polluting APAC asphalt plant on SR207 -- doling out county contracts despite FDEP fines and ASHLAND's status as a convicted felon violator of the Clean Air Act, while refusing to treat it is a public nuisance, with an Assistant County Attorney and DEP inspector claiming in two-part harmony that it was "just old people" and cold weather that was the problem. It turns out that the plant had a cracked kiln at a plant that should never have been located next to homes, schools, senior citizens housing and a nursing home) but was allowed to do so by county and state regulators guilty of desuetude -- nonenforcement of environmental laws. The plant must be moved -- there is no justification for putting an industrial plant next to existing homes and schools, where it poses a risk of explosions (not to mention ASHLAND's own fire-setting, which took place last year when managers ordered an employee to use a blowtorch to clean asphalt from a conveyor belt). A look at the 25 homes destroyed by a Massachusetts industrial explosion yesterday should persuade St. Johns County Commissioners to file a public nuisance lawsuit and make ASHLAND move the plant, as it said it was going to do last year.

We saw how North Florida public officials responded to free speech rights -- by violating them as to artists, entertainers, musicians and Gay and Lesbian people. We helped the St. Augustine Pride Committee apply to fly Rainbow flags for the third year last year, turned down by 3-2 vote on May 23, 2005. A federal judge ruled on June 7, 2005 that our City of St. Augustine violated the First Amendment, ordering Rainbow flags to fly June 8-13, 2005.


Earlier this year, we saw how our City of St. Augustine took the contents of the old illegal city dump on Riberia Street, dumping it into the Old City Reservoir -- 20,000 cubic yards, 30 million pounds, enough to fill in six Olympic size swimming pools to a depth of six feet or to cover a football field to a depth of 11.2 feet.

We saw how our City refused to answer questions, though Mayor GEORGE GARDNER promised "answers" at the February 27, 2006 Commission meeting.

Then we saw how our Mayor used his last comments as Mayor to denounce us for asking too many questions (and the St. Augustine Record defended our rights against the tatterdemalion political machine's attack)(see below).

Then we saw how our Florida Department of Environmental Protection proposes to fine our City the grand amount of $46,000 (and change) for major violations -- our City's illegal excavation and dumping of contaminants in water. Unfortunately, under current policies and failure to consider that the conduct in quo went on for years, the DEP proposed fine works out to $2.30 per cubic yard, less than the value of the coquina that was formerly in the "pits" in which people have fished and swam in clean water for years.

Greater fines must be provided for polluting this beautiful state.

Our legislature must increase fines, criminal penalties and enforcement capabilities for environmental crimes.

The suggested fine of $46,000 (and change)(or any higher amount that might be ordered after a hearing) must be paid out of personal funds by CITY MANAGER WILLIAM B. HARRISS, MAYOR GEORGE GARDNER, VICE MAYOR SUSAN BURK, COMMISSIONER ERROL JONES, COMMISSIONER DONALD CRICHLOW and MAYOR-ELECT JOSEPH LEROY BOLES, JR. -- every single one of whom we attempted to contact in writing this article. None have returned our calls.

How is it that the proposed fine was kept under wraps until after the election?

Did someone owe favors to Messrs. BOLES and GARDNER? We're still waiting for a timeline from FDEP.

We're waiting for greater candor from DEP and the City of St. Augustine. Why were voters deprived of the information about the proposed $46,000 fine? Who is responsible for suppressing this information until exactly one week after the elections?

St. Augustine city government's unjust stewards can be recalled from office if they do not resign.

The $2.30 per cubic yard fine may be a token amount, but it actually represents a sea change in attitudes here in North Florida.

While $46,000 (and change) is not nearly enough, it signals FDEP concludes our City is guilty of several "serious" violations, with penalties enhanced for the City of St. Augustine's "lack of good faith," which is to say "bad faith" by bad managers and bad public officials who have contempt for our natural environment.

$46,000 (and change) is a large fine of a governmental agency that has been abusing its powers for 441 years -- longer than any other government in the United States of America.

Due to this 441-year history, St. Augustine makes a perfect laboratory for democracy because its people live in a "small but cosmopolitan town," in the words of St. Augustine Record reporter Peter Guinta's letter in "Editor and Publisher."

Governments in Florida long tolerated and perpetrated environmental pollution.

Governments in Florida devastated our wetlands and have still not stopped.
Florida even named Broward County after one environmental miscreant, Florida Governor Napoleon Bonaparte Broward, who thought it was a cool rule to destroy wetlands.

Never again. Wetland destroyers must be exposed and prosecuted, as in Mississippi, where one "developer" built homes in wetlands, resulting in sewage backups (and was represented by a lawyer who is now EPA Regional Administrator, Jimmy I. Palmer).

DEP's official press spokesperson seems confused about criminal conduct, wanting to help the City of St. Augustine create the false impression it won't be prosecuted. DEP's flak does not speak for federal and state criminal prosecutors and investigators.


The November 14, 2006 draft proposed DEP-City of St. Augustine, Florida consent decree states in haec verba that it does not settle any City's criminal wrongdoing, which may include obstruction of justice (see below) and a pattern of illegal dumping on the same and other sites in the past.

Mayor GEORGE GARDNER's November 6, 2006 8 PM E-mail claiming that EPA and FDEP found "no criminal intent" is, at best facetious -- he wishes it were true.

FDEP's spokesperson had no grounds to state to the St Augustine Record newspaper that the criminal case was over, as Captain Stewart Roemack told me that the criminal case addressed only "a very narrow sliver" of the City's alleged environmental crimes.

More when we receive and review FDEP criminal investigation file on the "very narrow sliver" that has been investigated to date.

Federal and state agencies are still investigating dumping and coverup:
1. EPA CID telling the FDEP on February 27 that the violations were "de minimis when FDEP found them to be "major";
2. Possible obstruction of justice, discouraging witnesses from testifying, giving City Manager WILLIAM B. HARRISS an award expressing the Commissioners' "confidence" in him days after the criminal investigators arrived;
3. Our City's longtime dumping history;
4. Our City Commissioners' "willful blindness," continuing dumping two days after criminal investigators arrived and Commissioners were quizzed about the illegal dumping).

Expect Congressional investigators to be all over St. Augustine and St. Johns County to see what corruption creates -- clearcutting, ugliness and illegal dumping.

The proposed consent decree is negotiable and persons opposed can and will be heard through the administrative process. Read the proposal and tell us what you think.

On February 27, 2006, City Manager WILLIAM B. HARRISS was laughing when I asked questions about his illegal dumping. Did he already have fallguys in mind? Did he know that any criminal case would be fixed by his friends?

The proposed consent decree knocks into a cocked hat the old hat assumptions that the St. Augustine political machine is invulnerable.

As my friend and mentor J.D. Pleasant says, "they'll say and do anything."

The answer of FDEP and the people of St. Augustine and North Florida is, "enough."

Individual citizens can function as "private attorneys general," reporting pollution to the National Response Center, as we did in this case. Call 1-800-424-8802 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, every single day of the year. Be sure to get the case number from the Coast Guard petty officer or civilian employee and use it to keep on top of it -- just as we did on pollution by our Nation's Oldest City. Don't take no for an answer.

Never again will anyone take seriously the dismissive, condescending assumption of St. Augustine city officials (and "developers") that they can do anything they want to Our Town and our county.
Those who said "you can't fight City Hall" were wrong.

The Rainbow flags flying on the Bridge of Lions last year, and the $46,000 (and change) proposed FDEP fine proves you can, and win.

There's no turning back. "Good government" must be a reality, not just a punchline for greedy developers' political action committees.

The whole world is watching.

The Old City Reservoir case has now also established that the St. Augustine Record newspaper is becoming a force for good in our community, exposing the illegal dumping and sequelae and standing up to Mayor GARDNER's mean-mouthed retaliation against asking questions about illegal dumping and what he admits is "rampant corruption" in City Hall (the number of which Mayor GEORGE GARDNER ever answered is exactly zero).


In yesterday's St. Augustine Record (November 22, 2006), the major headline was on the dumping fine proposed by DEP (below).

Yesterday, reformer Ben Rich became County Commission Chairman. A retired federal law enforcement officer, Mr. Rich doesn't exactly cower to power, either.

Organizations that pollute and destroy our environment -- including the City of St. Augustine -- are being exposed.

Investigations of Sunshine violations, Open Records violations, environmental violations -- and more -- will be pursued. United citizens working for good government are an unstoppable force, their wonders to behold and be thankful for. See below.

You ain't seen nothin' yet!

Happy Thanksgiving -- we're especially thankful that Europeans did not kill all of the indigenous tribes and haven't destroyed all the trees yet. We're thankful that everyone is watching the Nation's Oldest City now.

We're thankful that the "St. Augustine National Historical Park" and restoring 1928 trolley cars might help restore our city and its environment, with an "emerald necklace of parks." See below.



We expect our City to start honoring 11,000 years of history (not just 441 years) and to show dignity, respect and consideration toward all of our citizens, regardless of race, color, religion, creed, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, income, perceived social or economic status.

Thornton Wilder's play, "Our Town," won the Pulitzer Prize in 1938, inspiring generations with its message about how little most people appreciate the joys of life.

St. Augustine, Florida is a beautiful place that must be treasured and preserved from the greedy, the corrupt and the mismanaged clique in City Hall.

This is our Town.

We're working to save our Town from the polluters and corrupters and the bigots.

No more coverups in Our Town, please.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Ed Slavin
Box 3084
St. Augustine, Florida 32085
904-471-7023

City faces $46,000 fine

City faces $46,000 fine
By KATI BEXLEY
kati.bexley@staugustinerecord.com
Publication Date: 11/22/06


The Florida Department of Environmental Protection has proposed that the city of St. Augustine be fined more than $46,000 for dumping materials from an old landfill into a borrow pit on Holmes Boulevard.

Also, the consent orders have a litany of recommendations to clean and assess contamination at the sites that could cost the city more than $250,000, John Regan, city chief operations officer, said Tuesday. He said the money will come from the city's general fund.

"The city's plan is to be highly responsive to (Environmental Protection)," he said.

The agency sent two draft consent orders to the city this week of its findings in the criminal investigation of the dumping.

In January, the city took 20,000 cubic yards of material from an old landfill on Riberia Street and placed it in a borrow pit on an 80-acre site on Holmes Boulevard.

Jill Johnson, Environmental Protection spokeswoman, said Tuesday that the criminal investigation has been closed due to lack of evidence.

Regan was out of the office for the Thanksgiving holiday and said he had not reviewed the documents well enough to give thorough comments.

Bill Harriss, city manager, was also out of the office for Thanksgiving and did not return a call for comment.

The consent order on the Holmes Boulevard site says there are contaminants in the soil, sediment and groundwater in the area the Riberia Street materials were dumped.

Environmental Protection found elevated levels of arsenic, vinyl chloride and thalium, a metal similar to arsenic, that violate the state's water quality standards, Johnson said. The report also says the contaminants could "reasonably cause pollution of the surface water and/or further pollution of the ground water."

Ever since Environmental Protection sent a warning letter to the city on March 15 about the dumping the city has been forthcoming about its "errors."

The materials put into the borrow pit came from a 3.35-acre salt marsh creation project at the end of Riberia Street, Regan has said. The city is restoring wetlands at the Riberia site and it needed to remove the material promptly so seasonal trees could be planted, he has said.

Regan said Tuesday that the city was not surprised by the penalties, but it will "evaluate the monetary amount to see if they agree with it."

The city has 30 days to reply to the consent orders. Johnson said they are used as a negotiation tool and are considered drafts until signed by both the city and Environmental Protection.

Regan said the city will meet with William Pence, the city's environmental attorney of Akerman and Senterfitt in Orlando, and GeoSyntec Consultants, of Jacksonville, next week to review the consent orders.

"We want to do what's fair to (Environmental Protection) and to the city," he said.

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Thank you, St. Augustine Record for Editorial on Sunday (November 19, 2006(see below)

Thank you, St. Augustine Record

I am honored and humbled for your support and for exposing City Hall's animus toward even asking questions about its pollution and what Mayor GEORGE GARDNER admitted last month to be "rampant corruption." Both the First Amendment and our Ancient City are worth preserving, protecting and defending.

Thank you and Happy Thanksgiving!

Ed Slavin
Box 3084
St. Augustine, FL 32085
904-471-7023

Editorial: Always important to stick to your guns

St. Augustine Record
Editorial: Always important to stick to your guns
From Staff
Publication Date: 11/19/06

Soon-to-be-former-Mayor George Gardner let one rip at the St. Augustine City Commission meeting last week when he went after city gadfly Ed Slavin.

For those of you who don¹t know, Slavin is a regular at City Commission meetings. He is quick to point out what he thinks is wrong with city government, which is plenty.

Slavin is not subtle. If he thinks you¹re a crook, he¹ll tell you to your face.

And, yes, Hizzoner is correct that Slavin can be abrasive, although he¹s always polite when he calls us, even if he is questioning our competency, which means he¹s not always alone in his views.

Hizzoner pointed out that Slavin has asked the City Commission about 200 questions, which the mayor thinks is an abuse of the public comment section of its meetings.

And he went after Slavin, pointing out that he was disbarred in Tennessee in part because of his harassment and intimidation of officers of the court. Slavin questioned judges¹ competency in court and hurled insults at other lawyers.

Well, that¹s true.

It¹s also true that without Slavin the citizens of St Augustine would not have known the city was illegally dumping waste material in a borrow pit off Homes Boulevard.

After the mayor spoke, he got a standing ovation from almost everyone in the room. Only our reporter and Slavin remained seated.

We¹re here to tell you this. Ed Slavin is brilliant. Not just bright, brilliant. The Supreme Court of Tennessee, in finding fault with him, acknowledged his ³intellect and legal skills.

Here¹s some stuff you may not know about Slavin. As the editor of the Appalachian Observer in 1982, he filed a request to get some federal documents declassified. Because of his persistence, he found out and shared with the world that the Department of Energy Oak Ridge (Tenn.) Operations had ³lost¹¹ 2.4 million pounds of mercury in Oak Ridge. Later it turned out they had actually lost 4.2 million pounds of mercury.

His work discovered widespread DOE and contractor misconduct. That became a national story.

He went on to become a public interest attorney, armed with his view of never giving up because individuals can change history.

Yes, Slavin is persistent. Yes, he overplays his hand a lot. Yes, he can be obnoxious. And, yes, we would not want to be on the receiving end of Slavin¹s barbs any more than we already are.

But we¹re happy that there are gadflies like Slavin in our world. They add texture to our public forums and, as in the case of the illegal dumping, get it right sometimes.

So, to our public officials, we suggest you get thicker skins.

To those of you who stood up to applaud the mayor after he lambasted Slavin, shame on you for trying to stifle free speech. All of us should defend people¹s right to express their views, even when they are unpopular.

And to Slavin, you may want to soften your delivery, but don¹t be hushed. Remember that it¹s not important to be popular; it is important to stick to your guns.


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Letter: Journalists, get tough on corruption, Halyburton

Letter: Journalists, get tough on corruption, Halyburton


David Brian Wallace
St. Augustine
Publication Date: 11/19/06


Editor: Across America, we voted for change and against dishonesty/corruption, "thumping" Bush, electing Democratic majorities.

Two City Hall incumbents (Joe Boles and George Gardner) ran from issues, resembling N.Y. Congresswoman Susan Kelly, running from journalists asking about former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley (she was defeated).

After defeating Commissioners Maguire and Stern, St. Johns County voters rejected a proposal to elect county commissioners both from at-large seats and districts. Let's elect politicians by districts, as suggested by Lincolnville's Peter Romano, who nearly defeated City Manager William Harriss' machine, which allegedly pressured employees to remove Romano's yard signs.

Despite Boles' endorsements by 12 former mayors, Romano was nearly elected mayor, disgusted by what Gardner conceded to be "rampant (City Hall) corruption." In 2008, let's elect Peter Romano mayor and Ken Bryan county commissioner.

More than 1,000 people move to Florida daily, raising our consciousness, changing electoral math, rejecting public official corruption, exploitation and environmental devastation.

In 2008, Floridians will help elect a new president. No more stolen elections. Journalists must work much harder, investigating and holding officeholders accountable. Let's expose corruption and mismanagement.

Cynical right-wing Republican developer voter/candidate suppression efforts must be exposed and stopped.

In 2004, county/city officials were caught repaving Lincolnville's only polling-place parking-lot on election day when pollwatcher Peter Romano woke up Gardner and got it stopped.

We need more in-depth coverage, please, of election machinery and procedures.

Please investigate Election Supervisor Penny Halyburton. Question her self-promoting expenditures on freebies bearing her name and her attitude toward African-Americans, non-incumbents and persons with disabilities. No door-opening courtesies for seniors/blind/disabled unless requested? Once ordering a pollworker suffering a heart attack to keep working? Americans with Disabilities Act and civil rights violations?

Like Republican Katharine Harris, Republican Halyburton isn't independent (doing incumbents' bidding to exclude one St. Augustinian from ballots).

Let's retire Halyburton, replacing her with an independent professional.


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Here's the Text of October 18, 2006 Complaint About Keeping Candidate Off Ballot in Retaliation for Asking About Illegal Dumping

ED SLAVIN
P.O. Box 3084
St. Augustine, Florida 32085-3084
(904) 471-7023
October 18, 2006
Honorable Nilgun Tilek
Director, Office of Investigative Assistance (OIA)
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
United States Department of Labor (USDOL)
200 Constitution Avenue, N.W. Room N3119
Washington, D.C. 20210 via fax to 202-693-2369

ED SLAVIN v. WILLIAM B. HARRISS, JAMES PATRICK WILSON, JOSEPH BOLES, SUSAN BURK, DONALD CRICHLOW & ERROL JONES (each of whom is named in their personal, individual and official capacities for compensatory and punitive damages, frontpay, attorney fees and injunctive relief), CITY OF ST. AUGUSTINE , FLORIDA (COSA), MAYOR GEORGE R. GARDNER and PENNY HALYBURTON, SUPERVISOR OF ELECTIONS (named solely for injunctive relief and not monetary damages).
SWORN, VERIFIED CERCLA, TSCA, SWDA, FWCPA WHISTLEBLOWER COMPLAINT

Dear Ms. Tilek:

I hereby file this sworn complaint pursuant to 29 C.F.R. 24.3(c):

1. In retaliation for my April 20, 2006 environmental whistleblower complaint, enclosed, Respondents contrived to keep me off the ballot for St. Augustine City Commissioner, violating the environmental whistleblower laws. As a candidate:
A. I am an applicant for employment and jurisdiction exists under DOL case law; and
B. Respondents are guilty of illegal blacklisting in retaliation for my filing a DOL environmental whistleblower complaint and reporting environmental crimes.

2. I hereby respectfully request that OSHA investigate and order a special election, along with all of the other relief requested in the April 20, 2006, along with punitive damage under TSCA and SdWA, attorney fees and frontpay for the Commissioner's salary, provided that no tax funds are sought and that all damages should be paid by individual Respondents..

3. By September 21 & 25 letters Respondent Election Supervisor PENNY HALYBURTON, in a manner strongly suggesting that it was at the behest of the other Respondents, deprived Complainant of the right to run for City Commissioner.

4. Respondent WILSON abruptly resigned his job on October 12, 2006 and Respondents violated Florida Sunshine laws by an illegal October 13, 2006 meeting. FDLE is investigating.

5. Respondent CRICHLOW and the other Commissioners have been involved in attempting to assert that Complainant is not a City resident, violating Sunshine laws by discussing the asserted need for a survey of our street, for the purpose of violating my environmental whistleblower rights..
My street address is exempt from disclosure pursuant to F.S. 119 and may not be disclosed by DOL to any requester pursuant to FOIA..

6. Election laws have been inconsistently applied and Respondent HALYBURTON has acted in response to ex parte communications from some of the other Respondents.

7. For further details, please see my April 20, 2006 complaint (on appeal to ARB).

8. Further details will be provided to the investigator but are not provided here due to the sensitive nature of the ongoing environmental criminal investigation commenced on February 27, 2006..

9. It is my understanding that my campaign account may remain open pending the outcome of this litigation and that funds may be used to support this litigation.

10. Please assign your best investigator and not one from the Atlanta region, for reasons that I will share with you by telephone.

As the ancient equitable maxim states, :"Let justice be done though the heavens fall.

Respectfully submitted,

ED SLAVIN
COMPLAINANT

Enclosure

c. Mr. William Pence, Esquire (via fax to 407-843-6610)
Mr. Michael Hill, USEPA OIG SAC, Atlanta (via fax)
Respondents (via fax)


STATE OF FLORIDA
COUNTY OF ST. JOHNS
DECLARATION OF ED SLAVIN
I, Ed Slavin, swear and declare pursuant to the penalty of perjury set forth in 18 U.S.C. § 1001 and 28 U.S.C. § 1746 that all of the statements in the foregoing document are true to the best of my knowledge and belief. Today is October 18, 2006. Further affiant saith not.


ED SLAVIN

Here's the Text of the April 20, 2006 Environmental Whistleblower Complaint Re: Limiting Time for Questions re: Illegal Dumping

ED SLAVIN
P.O. Box 3084
St. Augustine, Florida 32085-3084
(904) 471-7023
APRIL 20, 2006
Honorable Nilgun Tilek
Director, Office of Investigative Assistance (OIA)
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
United States Department of Labor (USDOL)
200 Constitution Avenue, N.W. Room N3119
Washington, D.C. 20210 via fax to 202-693-2369

ED SLAVIN v. WILLIAM B. HARRISS, JAMES PATRICK WILSON, JOSEPH BOLES, SUSAN BURK, DONALD CRICHLOW & ERROL JONES (each of whom is named in their personal, individual and official capacities for monetary and injunctive relief) and CITY OF ST. AUGUSTINE , FLORIDA (COSA) (named solely for injunctive relief and not monetary damages).:
SWORN, VERIFIED CERCLA WHISTLEBLOWER COMPLAINT

Dear Ms. Tilek:

1. In 1964, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said that Respondent CITY OF ST. AUGUSTINE (COSA) was "the most lawless city in America." Respondent COSA is presently under criminal investigation for illegal dumping in the Old City Reservoir as a result of my protected disclosures to federal and state officials on and since February 17, 2006. Respondents are all "persons" subject to DOL jurisdiction pursuant to the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA), 42 U.S.C. § 9610. Please accept this sworn, verified, timely CERCLA whistleblower complaint of Respondents' unlawful retaliation against me as a journalist, violating CERCLA rights.

RESPONDENTS' UNLAWFUL RETALIATION

2. The retaliation in this action was taken by Commissioners JOSEPH BOLES, SUSAN BURK, DONALD CRICHLOW, ERROL JONES (named in their personal, individual and official capacities) and Mayor George Gardner (not named as a respondent) At the behest of Respondent City of St. Augustine's Respondent City Manager WILLIAM B. HARRISS, Respondents took two illegal actions last week:
a. On April 10, 2006, Respondent St. Augustine City Commissioners JOSEPH BOLES, SUSAN BURK, DONALD CRICHLOW, ERROL JONES, named as Respondents responsible for payment individually, see infra, paragraph 47) and Mayor George Gardner (not named as an individual respondent) all incorrectly, irregularly and improperly announced their supposed "understanding." without announced public hearing or Sunshine notice, that (contrary to longstanding practice of at least one year) City citizens would no longer be permitted to speak in public comment sessions at both the beginning and end of Commission meetings. Meanwhile, the Respondents have no restrictions or time limits on developers and their lawyers, allowing them to speak at length and at will, without ever filling out a speaker card, popping up to the podium (while Commissioners and at least one developer lawyer have been observed pre-screening citizen speaker cards in a manner that exerts a chilling effect on public rights to comment on environmental issues).. Later during that meeting, a St. Augustine Police Officer moved toward the front of the Alcazar Room in City Hall, halfway to the podium as I was speaking on utility matters, as if expecting a pre-arranged Commission signal to arrest me for protected activity.

b On April 11, 2006, at a specially called hearing, Commissioners BOLES, BURK, CRICHLOW, JONES, voted 4-0 (Mayor Gardner was absent), refusing to honor City's January 6, 2006 promise to pay Roto-Rooter for removal of a sewage obstruction on City-owned right of way at my residence, violating my rights to nondiscrimination under CERCLA. The City's Police Chief sat in on the hearing, although he was not a witness.

RETALIATION FOR COMPLAINANT'S CERCLA PROTECTED ACTIVITY

3. On February 17, 2006, I reported to the National Response Center, allegedly illegal dumping by the Respondent City of St. Augustine at the Old City Reservoir. (Report No. 788280). The report was protected activity under CERCLA. That disclosure has been verified as completely accurate and resulted in a criminal, civil and administrative investigation.

4. On February 24, 2006, I spoke with EPA and interviewed Mayor George Gardner, who told me that Respondent St. Augustine City Manager WILLIAM B. HARRISS had told him that dumping was taking place at the Old City Reservoir had occurred, but that HARRISS claimed it was "clean fill." COSA had been ordered by the St. Johns River Water Management District not to dump anything and violated SJRWMD's orders, dumping 20,000 cubic yards of material. The investigation must scrutinize whether Mayor Gardner was deceived by HARRISS about the City's illegal dumping practices.

5. On February 27, 2006, I accompanied federal and state investigators to the Old City Reservoir, pointing out the City's violations and sharing video evidence with them. City officials somehow learned of the videos, twice requesting copies, the first time on the evening of February 27 outside the City Commission meeting. I twice declined this revealing request, respecting the request of the FDEP's criminal investigator that I not share this evidence with the City. By requesting copies of the video, the City sought to monitor citizen protected activity and gave the impression of surveillance -- how did the City learn that there was a video in the first place?

6. By E-mails starting on February 24 and by February 27, March 13, March 27 and April 10, 2006 in-person questions at the beginning and end of public, televised, regular COSA Commission meetings, I asked questions about the illegal dumping by Respondents, with the written questions numbered 1-77.

7. Not one question was ever answered to date, despite the Mayor's promise on February 27 for "answers." I shared copies of my E-mails with news media, including the St. Augustine Record (daily newspaper) and FOLIO Weekly (weekly newspaper), I have earned Respondents' ire and obloquy by raising critical questions about their unlawful activities, including pollution. Please see my weblog: cleanupcityofstauginstine.blogspot.com

8. The St. Augustine Record printed a front-page banner headline story last week, reporting the state's investigation of our City.

9. Every single one of the Respondents has stonewalled my questions.

10. This Respondent City's unreconstructed attitude toward environmental pollution and coverups is not unlike the public officials in Clay County, whose government has been in the throes of its own illegal dumping scandal and criminal indictments..

11. On March 13, 2006, Respondents BURK, CRICHLOW, BOLES and JONES publicly proclaimed their undying admiration of Respondent HARRISS, with the four defending him against what they claimed were unwarranted criticisms by Complainant (who while not named was understood to be the subject of their comments, which took place before public comments, outside the ordinary course of business in City meetings). Then and there, Respondent BOLES said regarding the illegal dumping questions, without irony, that he was "tired" of Complainant "trashing" HARRISS. Complainant was lambasted by Respondent BURK as a "disgruntled citizen," (e.g. for asking questions about pollution of the Old City Reservoir). Of course, this country was founded by "disgruntled citizens." BURK's abusive use of the adjective "disgruntled" before "employee" is a common semantic tactic of employers retaliating against protected activity. Retaliation came less than one month after being publicly labeled as "disgruntled" by the Vice Mayor. Commissioners have in the past publicly used words like "team player" as a complement, while insisting that their City Manager is doing a perfect job. In Abrams v. Baylor College of Medicine, 581 F.Supp. 1570, 1574 (S.D. Texas 1984), affirmed in relevant part, 805 F.2d 528 (5th Cir. 1986), the Court rejected pretexts for discrimination in refusing to send Jewish physicians to a program in Saudi Arabia, including a "team player" requirement. A "team player" does not blow the whistle or criticize management. "Team player" is freighted with the speech-chilling implication that one is willing to "go along to get along," say what management wants to hear, and do what one is told by managers, no matter what the ethics or legality of the situation. In the political corruption case of United States v. Salvatti, 451 F.Supp. 195, 197-98 (E.D. Pa. 1978), one witness testified that "when she complained to the Mayor about Mr. Carroll's pressure, and advised him that the proposed payment to the Sylks would be totally improper and probably illegal, the Mayor chided her for not being a team player." See also Fitzgerald v. Seamans, 384 F.Supp. 688,697n7 (D.D.C. 1974), affirmed, 553 F.2d 220, 224 (D.C. Cir. 1977), reversed, Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800 (1982); Nixon v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 731 (1982) (remarks of President Nixon et al. on need to fire Department of Defense whistleblower A. Ernest Fitzgerald after he testified before Congress on C-5A transport cost overruns); Broderick v. Ruder, 685 F.Supp. 1269 (D.D.C. 1988)(sexual harassment at Securities and Exchange Commission); Tomsic v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co, 85 F.3d 1472, 1474 (10th Cir. 1996); Geddes v. Benefits Review Board, 735 F.2d 1412, 1416, 1420 (D.C. Cir. 1984) (Washington Metropolitan Transportation Authority considered workers' compensation claimant not a "team player"); Davis v. California, 1996 WL 271001 (E.D.Cal.1996); Schloesser v. Kansas Dept. of Health & Environment, 766 F.Supp. 984 (D. Kansas 1991); Stradford v. Rockwell International, 48 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. (BNA) 697, 49 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 38,828,1988 WL 159939 (S.D.Ohio); Seymour M. Hersh, "Annals of National Security: The Intelligence Gap -- How the digital age left our spies out in the cold," The New Yorker, December 6, 1999 at 58, 62.

12. As a direct and proximate result of the CERCLA protected activity set forth in paragraphs 3&5, by March 15 letter (received March 20, 2006 by Respondent COSA's Public Works Department office), Respondents received a letter from Florida's Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP), notifying the Respondents of the commencement of a proceeding and ordering them to take remedial actions. This is a proceeding under the meaning of the CERCLA whistleblower provision. I will E-mail the DOL investigator the FFDEP's letter and 38 color photographs in PDF format. One of the many environmental violations identified by FDEP is lack of proper safety training for City employees on hazardous material handling -- OSHA is requested to investigate further. Mr. HARRISS is believed to be the person principally responsible for the illegal dumping at issue in the proceeding in quo. Reportedly, not a door gets painted in St. Augustine City Hall without Mr. HARRISS' orders. Not one good thing ever happens in our Nation's Oldest City without Mr. HARRISS taking credit for it, using the apparatus of City government as his personal public relations machine. It is "not worthy of belief," DeFord v. TVA, 700 F.2d 281, 286 (6th Cir. 1983) to suppose that 20,000 cubic yards of unclean fill would be dumped in the Old Reservoir without Respondent HARRISS' direct orders.

13. By March 27 COSA proclamation, Mayor George Gardner and the Respondents, BURK, CRICHLOW, BOLES and JONES publicly praised Respondent HARRISS, while ignoring my prior suggestion that City Commissioners give Mr. HARRISS a performance evaluation, just as other government employees receive. It is believed that Mayor George Gardner reluctantly joined in the accolades, with Mr. HARRISS grinning at the Mayor who once promised to check Mr. HARRISS' illegal actions handing him an award... The COSA proclamation in honor of Mr. HARRISS had an intended effect of discouraging City employees from cooperating with criminal investigators and the news media.

14. By April 7 Out in the City (Jacksonville) newspaper column circulated in St. Augustine, Jacksonville and elsewhere, I broke the story of the Respondents' alleged environmental lawbreaking at the Old City Reservoir, in pertinent part stating inter alia:
. Last year, St. Augustine city commissioners rejected rainbow flags 3-2, -- two more votes than in prior years. Although a federal judge ordered the city to fly the rainbow flags for six days, reactionary city burghers then banned further non-government flag-flying,by a 3-1 vote. St. Augustine residents saw how their city is being ruled.
We're learning more. Our government is now under criminal investigation for secretly dumping 20,000 cubic yards of metal, plastic, asphalt, etc. into Old City Reservoir, a spring-fed coquina lake with once-pure water where working families fished and swam that is now contaminated by enough stuff to fill in six Olympic size swimming pools six feet (or cover a football field over eleven feet deep).
Former EPA Regional Administrator John Hankinson compares the lake to "an open sore right down to the aquifer." The St. Johns River Water Management District is cooperating with criminal investigators.
Now politicians who insulted gays and allegedly polluted a reservoir will answer to voters.
As"Tip" O'Neill said, "all politics is local."

15. Paragraphs 3-6 &, 14 describe protected activities under CERCLA.

16. Respondents were all on notice of the protected activities in paragraphs 3-6.

17. Some or all of the Respondents were on notice of the protected activity in paragraph 14.

18. Paragraphs 2a & 2b are retaliation prohibited by CERCLA in retaliation for the protected activity alleged in paragraphs 3-6 & 10.

19. In addition to the retaliation set forth in paragraphs 2a & 2b, Respondent JAMES PATRICK Wilson has bragged of using City computers and resources to gather background material on the undersigned, constituting unlawful surveillance. It is believed that City employees have wasted millions of dollars in tax and grant monies, parts of which have been spent investigating critics of the City administration, by licit and or illicit means.

20. The retaliation complained of in paragraphs 1a & 1b is in extraordinarily close temporal nexus to the protected activity since February 17, 2006.

21. Elapsed time from the Out in the City column to the retaliation was three (3) and four (4) days.

22. Elapsed time from the February 27 questions to the action complained of was 42 and 43 days, respectively. Respondents' illegal motives are beyond cavil.

23. Respondents had no lawful business reasons for the actions complained of in paragraphs 2a & 2b.

24. The action complained of in paragraph 2a was also in violation of the Florida Sunshine Law, as no public notice was given of the restriction on people asking questions at both the beginning and end of the meeting.

25. The actions complained of in paragraph 2b were taken on April 12, at the end of a one hour nonpublic meeting behind locked doors, with the press and public excluded and the meeting held in a place differently than originally announced. Mayor/Commissioner Gardner was not present for the meeting, in which Respondents admitted not reading the administrative record, which contained E-mails from City Attorney JAMES PATRICK WILSON, reflecting his actual malice and willful disregard of the truth, and willful intent to injure us. Our City Commissioners are guilty of not viewing the hearing appealed from and decided to affirm a decision refusing the City's commitment to pay for removal of a sewage obstruction on the City right-of-way. Respondents BOLES, BURK, CRICHLOW and JONES violated CERCLA and my constitutional right to a fair administrative adjudication before a neutral decisionmaker. See, e.g., United States v. Mississippi Valley Generating Co., 364 U.S. 520, 548 (1961), citing Matthew 6:24 -- "no [person] can serve two masters," holding that laws and rules preventing conflicts of interest is aimed "not only at dishonor but at conduct that tempts dishonor." A "fair trial [and appeal] in a fair tribunal is a basic requirement of Due Process." In re Murchison, 349 U.S. 133, 136 (1955); Aetna Life Insurance Co. v. Lavoie, 475 U.S. 813 (1986).. This Due Process requirement applies to agencies as well as to judges: it has been violated. See Withrow v. Larkin, 421 U.S. 35, 46 (1975); Gibson v. Berryhill, 411 U.S. 564 (1973); American Cyanamid v. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), 363 F.2d 757, 764-67 (6th Cir. 1966); Tumey v. Ohio, 273 U.S. 510 (1927); Ward v. City of Monroeville, 409 U.S. 57 (1972). See also Hornsby v. Dobard, 291 F.2d 483, 487 (5th Cir. 1961); Berkshire Employees Assn. v. NLRB, 121 F.2d 235 (3d Cir. 1941); Texaco v. FTC, 336 F.2d 754, 760 (D.D.C. 1964), vacated on other grounds, 381 U.S. 739 (1965); Aldom v. Borough of Roseland, 42 N.J. Super. 495, 127 A.2d 190 (1956); Pyatt v. Mayor and Council, 9 N.J. 548, 89 A.2d 1 (1952); Petition of Jacobson, 234 Minn. 296, 48 N.W.2d 441 (1951); State Board of Dry Cleaners v. Thrift-D-Lux Cleaners, 40 Cal.2d 436, 254 P.2d 29 (1953); Driscoll v. Burlington-Bristol Bridge Co., 10 N.J. Super. 545, 77 A.2d. 255 (1950), aff'd 8 N.J. 433, 86 A.2d 255 (1950), cert. denied, 73 S.Ct. 25; Jones v. State Dept. of Public Health & Welfare, 354 S.W.2d 37 (Mo. App. 1962); Wilson v. Iowa City, 165 N.W.2d 813 (Iowa 1969); Josephson v. Stamford City Planning Board, 151 Conn. 489, 199 A.2d 690 (1964); Glass v. Mackle, 370 Mich. 482, 122 N.W.2d 651 (1963); S&L Associates, Inc. v. Washington Twp., 61 N.J. Super. 312, 160 A.2d 635 (1960), aff'd in part and rev'd in part, 35 N.J. 224, 172 A.2d 657 (1961); Jones v. MacDonald, 33 N.J. 132, 162 A.2d 817 (1960); Bracey v. City of Long Beach, 73 N.J. Super. 91, 179 A.2d 63 (1962).

26. Respondent City Attorney JAMES PATRICK WILSON was empowered to lead the Commissioners by the nose, stating the "issues" and manipulating the outcome. Both James Madison and William Blackstone would have roundly rejected this ruling on a case by a person who raised and created the tissue of an "issue" against me. James Madison wrote in The Federalist, Number 10: "No [person] is allowed to be a judge in his [or her] own cause, because [his or her] interest would certainly bias [her] judgment, and, not improbably, corrupt [her] integrity .... " As Blackstone wrote, "it is unreasonable that any [person] should determine [her] own quarrel." 1 William Blackstone, Commentaries at 91. Respondents BURK, BOLES, CRICHLOW and JONES ruled on a "quarrel" of their own creation. This was unconstitutional and a violation of my CERCLA rights.

27. The purpose of the actions complained of in paragraph 2a and 2b was to coerce, restrain and chill exercise of CERCLA protected activity before the COSA City Commission.

28. Mayor George Gardner is not named as a Respondent to be held individually liable in this action. He is not being named today because of what I still currently believe to be his earnest, sincere efforts on December 30, 2005 to January 6, 2006 were to provide the services the City is lawfully required to provide (at issue in paragraph 2b) and because his actions regarding paragraph 2a are believed to have been based upon inflammatory rhetoric and flummery by the other Respondents.

29. Respondent COSA's designated Hearing Officer (and Chief Operating Officer) John Regan is not named as a Respondent in this action today due to what I currently believe to have been his earnest, sincere efforts were to hold a fair hearing. After the hearing he held in January 2006, Mr. Regan was pressured by City Manager William HARRISS to rule contrary to the law and facts. In discussing the case with me at his instance by phone, Mr. Regan said that he served at "the pleasure of" Mr. HARRISS and could be fired "at will," with no right to hearing or appeal.. Mr. Regan and other persons who are involved with environmental issues have never been briefed about their environmental whistleblower rights by Respondent City Attorney Wilson Mr. Regan is right to fear retaliation by HARRISS. So do all City employees and many City residents. Injunctive relief is required.

30. There is probable cause to believe that Respondents may also have violated:
a. Criminal and civil laws against civil rights conspiracies by public officials. 18 U.S.C. §§ 2, 241, 243, 42 U.S.C. § 1985; and.
b. The oath of office required of every public official under the U.S. Constitution, Article VI to uphold the Constitution of the United States, in which officeholders promise to "preserve, protect and defend" our U.S. Constitution...

31. I respectfully request declaratory, affirmative action and injunctive relief against COSA and every single one of the individual Respondents. I request compensatory damages and other relief against the individual Respondents, whose ultra vires actions are outside the scope of their lawful duties and must be paid for by the individual Respondents and NOT by taxpayers.

32. Upon information and belief, at least some of the Respondents have discussed these issues among themselves ex parte, in violation of Florida law, as evidenced by their preserving a united front on:
a. March 13 & 27 on public criticism of HARRISS' environmental devastation;
b. April 10 on the unprecedented, unlawful limitation on public speaking; and
c. April 11 in the sham Commission water and sewer service obstruction hearing and their arbitrary, capricious and unconstitutional:
i. one-hour time limit;
ii. extraordinary unwritten rules;
iii. outcome-predetermined result;
iv. secretive hearing location behind locked doors, excluding the public and other news media from attending. The hearing was initially set for the City Commission's customary location (the Alcazar Room) and changed without discussion, forcing me to argue the appeal under an expensive oil portrait of Spanish colonial Governor Pedro Menéndez, who ordered the murder of a "Sodomite and a Lutheran" -- the first anti-Gay hate crime in North American history, as I reported in The Collective Press in June 2005 and in Out in the City (cover story);
v. Refusal to read any parts of the record or to view the City's own hearing videotape (or hold the hearing in a room with a VCR or allow time for presentation of the videotape) of the unresponsive, rude behavior of Respondent COSA's Administrative Officer Timothy Burchfield, Assistant City Attorney James Whitehouse, while Respondent BOLES claimed that I was "rude" for revealing Respondents' pollution and retaliation and insisting on fair procedures;. And
vi. Refusal to rule for us despite undisputed Requests for Admissions and unrebutted Proposed Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law, and unanswered Motions for Default Judgment and Summary Decision.

33. COSA's retaliatory action (paragraphs 2a & 2b) requires prompt remedial action by DOL. See Jenkins v. EPA, 92-CAA-6 (Sec'y May 18, 1994)(CERCLA); Marcus v. EPA, 92-TSC-5 (Sec'y Feb. 7, 1994); Tyndall v. EPA Inspector General, 93-CAA-6, 95-CAA-5 (ARB, June 14, 1996); Erickson v. EPA & OIG (Erickson I)(Hon. Clement J. Kennington, September 24, 2002 RDO); Erickson v. EPA (Erickson II), 2003-CAA-11 (Hon. Clement Kennington, November 13, 2003). In response to Erickson I, a series of high-level EPA managers claimed not to have read Judge Kennington's RDO, at best showing "willful blindness." See "Voluntary Environmental Self-Policing and Self-Disclosure," 60 Fed. Reg. at 66,711 (1995) about how EPA may refrain from criminal referral IF violations are not due to "willful blindness" or corporate executive complicity. See also, William S. Duffey, Jr. & Phyllis B. Sumner, "Collective Knowledge and Willful Blindness—New Liability Under Old Law," South Carolina Lawyer, Jan./Feb. 1994, at 32.

34. "Willful blindness" is exactly what Respondents have shown by berating Complainant, praising Respondent HARRISS and refusing to answer any of the 77 questions regarding the illegal dumping, while taking the retaliatory actions limiting public speaking and otherwise retaliating.

35. The first hate crime in North American history was committed by Pedro Menéndez, founder of COSA, who ordered the murder be committed in secret (exposed by my June and August 2005 articles, quoting historical records found in the St. Augustine Historical Society). For 440 years, COSA has had an unrivaled 440 year history of human rights violations and government secrecy, including a lack of respect and sophistication about rights to criticize officials and participate meaningfully in government, e.g.:
a. Beating, clubbing, incarcerating and maiming civil rights demonstrators 1963-4, when St. Augustine was refusing to comply with civil rights laws. A police riot and racist violence resulted in the arrest of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who called it "the most lawless city in America.." See the film by Jeremy Dean, Dare Not Walk Alone (2006). Andrew Young, later our UN Ambassador, was clubbed while police watched. St. Augustine's 59 policemen today are all-white in a City that is 15% African-American while our City still refuses to annex African-American areas of West Augustine, which is charged 25% more than City residents for water and sewer;
b. First Amendment violations in denying Gay Americans the right to fly Rainbow flags on the Bridge of Lions, found by United States District Judge Henry Lee Adams, Jr. on June 7, 2005 in St. Augustine Pride Committee v. COSA;
c. Voting Rights action violations including refusing to discuss or answer questions about the possibility of annexing the African-American area of West Augustine outside our City limits, which is as a result still charged 25% more for water and sewer service (despite holding himself out as a civil rights advocate).
d. Spending public funds on extravagant trips to Spain, Germany and New York City for themselves (with one 2005 trip to New York City costing over $8100 alone for the Respondent Commissioners, HARRISS, their spouses and significant others, who were also feted at private dinners by bonding companies),
e. Violating the rights of entertainers and artists on St. George Street, as found by federal courts; and
f. Burning the Declaration of Independence, John Adams and John Hancock in effigy in the Slave Market Square in 1776.

36. Acting pursuant to the illegal customs of COSA in violating its citizens' rights, Respondents HARRISS, WILSON, BOLES, BURK, JONES AND CRICHLOW acted ultra vires when they violated environmental laws. They are part of a dysfunctional management culture in COSA in which officials are dominated by large organizations and spend public funds unwisely, without public discussion of purchasing practices or pollution. In that culture Respondents should be investigated over their participation in a culture of possibly
habitual Sunshine Law violations, one allegedly involving frequent meals, entertainment and travel shared by Respondent COSA's City Commissioners for decades.

37. Respondent Commissioners BOLES, BURK, JONES and CRICHLOW showed animus in their blithe, bold, admitted refusal to read the administrative record in the matter at issue in paragraph 2b. Ruling on an appeal without reviewing the record shows "prejudice," defined as "an avertive or hostile attitude." Gordon W. Allport, The Nature of Prejudice (1954) @ 8-10.

38. Respondents BOLES, BURK, JONES and CRICHLOW showed animus by their admitted, undisputed refusal to read or view the administrative record by four persons who once falsely presented themselves as "reformers" speaks volumes. The Commissioners admitted they had not read the Proposed Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law (PFFCL), viewed the videotapes, read the motions. The Administrative Record was nowhere present in the hearing room. The "willful blindness" of Respondents CRICHLOW, JONES, BURK and JONES and BOLES (both on illegal dumping and their refusal to answer citizen questions or read the Administrative Record) is freighted with animus toward citizens' CERCLA protected activity rights, evidencing their hatred and loathing of Complainant for asking questions about COSA's illegal dumping at the Old City Reservoir..

39. Respondent Commissioner CRICHLOW is an architect whose clients include natural and jural persons and small and large organizations seeking City permits and approvals, who seldom recused himself until an ethics complaint was filed against him last year. CRICHLOW now sometimes recuses himself, looks at Complainant and smiles, sometimes even laughing or joking at the idea of a good-ole-boy being required to identify possible conflicts of interest to the electorate and recuse himself.. In May 2005, Respondent CRICHLOW was quoted by FOLIO Weekly (Jacksonville-based weekly newspaper) to the effect that the City would not allow the Audubon or Human Society to fly their flags on the Bridge of Lions simply because a "bird or a dog" was killed in Colonial times, comparing Gay and Lesbian people to animals and trivializing the Nation's first recorded anti-Gay hate crime, done on orders of the Florida Governor who was St. Augustine's founder. Every year, Respondents CRICHLOW, et al. join in celebrating Pedro Menéndez's birthday at a COSA taxpayer-subsidized masqued ball that includes a champagne toast, "viva Menéndez!" On April 11, 2006, Respondent CRICHLOW was heard questioning St. Augustine's Police Chief about an allegedly "Vietnamese" shrimpers in Maria Sanchez Lake, near one o Respondent CRICHLOW's homes.

40. Respondent Commissioners JOSEPH BOLES is a local attorney who has done legal work for animal rights causes. BOLES is understood to have close links to local developers and to be a close friend and golfing buddy of Respondent CRICHLOW. BOLES has been observed making faces at citizens' speaker cards as he is the first person who reads them and passes them down to his right, to Respondent JONES and Mayor Gardner. Mr. BOLES was observed January 9 shaking his head to City staff when citizens asked to present videotape of existing environmental and drainage problems on a site of ancient indigenous significance, on which he supported placing condominiums and a strip mall. (Mayor Gardner dissented from Graubard's Planned Unit Development project).

41. Respondent Commissioner SUSAN BURK is a local domestic relations lawyer who has zealously defended the rights of women. Her alleged ex-boyfriend, Robert Graubard, is a developer who received City permission to build projects in wetlands, including condominiums and a strip mall on a sacred Indian site that may contain 2000-4000 year old religious sites and burial sites. Mr. Graubard should be interviewed to confirm statements he has allegedly made, bragging about monies he contributed to elect Respondent BURK. Commissioner BURK has previously shown her willingness to engage in flummery regarding possible illegal conduct by Respondent HARRISS. On or about April 11, 2005, Respondent HARRISS came up to me without introducing himself and threatened me with arrest for "disorderly conduct" after a City Commission meeting in which I had raised concerns about the City's annexation policies, the Voting Rights Act being violated by those annexation policies, and environmental concerns about one annexation (suggesting a "motion to table," which the Commissioners passed). In response to concerns about Respondent HARRIS' threats Respondent BURK sent an E-mail denying this conversation had taken place, claiming that she had exited the room with him. Commissioner BURK sent her denials of HARRISS' threats by E-mail to her fellow Commissioners. Commissioner BURK's denials were then rebutted immediately by an affidavit I had already secured from a witness, Ms. Sue Neely, who heard HARRISS' threats. Commissioner BURK did not further respond regarding HARRISS' threats. Her angry denial that they took place -- and Respondent HARRISS' joking publicly about her frequently changing her mind -- makes her an unreliable witness, whom the investigator should approach with caution. Other persons speaking from the audience without officially recognized are not arrested or threatened with arrests, including developers, City Chief Administrative Officer Timothy Burchfield and Respondents HARRISS and WILSON, who make remarks and talk while other persons are speaking without censure or sanction. This situation of the laughing, talking and immaturity of Burchfield, HARRISS and WILSON is known to Commissioners, who have done nothing to inculcate respect by City employees for persons engaged in protected activity..

42. Respondent Commissioner JONES is a social worker employed for St. Johns County Schools and has close ties to developers, including Robert Graubard. Like Respondent BOLES, Respondent JONES has been observed making faces at citizens' speaker cards as he passes them to his right, to Mayor Gardner.

43. Respondents BURK, CRICHLOW, JONES and BOLES refuse to do their homework on local projects adversely affecting our ancient city and community's environment and history. Their poor grasp of parliamentary procedure leaves them at the mercy of the Respondent City Manager WILLIAM B. HARRISS. Commissioners' shallow remarks during the Commissioner's Comments segment of the agenda range from purely personal to religious to mundane. Respondents almost never answer or address the real concerns of City residents about environmental health issues.

44. The actions of Respondents BURK, CRICHLOW, JONES and BOLES at issue in this complaint (paragraphs 2a & 2b) are intended to chill CERCLA protected activity at a time when illegal dumping is just beginning to get public scrutiny.

45. Illegal dumping can have harmful, toxic and fatal effects on children, families and public health, Respondents' illegal dumping in the Old City Reservoir. Respondents attempt to punish protected activity and chill free speech rights or inflict an oath of omerta on City employees and residents is a clear and present danger to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness by St. Augustine residents.

FULL REMEDIES ARE RESPECTFULLY REQUESTED

46. Therefore, I respectfully request the following remedies after an investigation, hearing and discovery:
a. Orders reversing the actions complained of in paragraphs 2a & 2b;
b. Joint and several liability of individual respondents (with no financial contribution sought by the City, its residents or its taxpayesr) for damages and remedies, with the requirement that the individual Respondents call their own insurance carriers and hire their own lawyers, since retaliation is ultra vires their COSA job responsibilities and violates the oath they took pursuant to Article VI of the United States Constitution;
c. Compensatory damages to be ordered by the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ);
d. Legal fees and expenses to be ordered by the ALJ;
e. Notices to citizens and employees, including website information and posters informing everyone of their rights under CERCLA and other environmental whistleblower laws;
f. Orders to Respondents to cease and desist violating citizens' civil and constitutional rights to engage freely and without coercion in protected activity under whistleblower laws;
g. Injunctive relief and affirmative actions to prevent any further violations or discrimination against other citizens and employees and order posting of notices to all citizens and employees of all remedial orders in this case, including allowing citizens to speak unmolested and unimpeded by de facto or de jure content restrictions, prior restraint or deviations from the long-prevailing public comment policies;
h. Orders that Respondents conduct mandatory meetings of all of Respondents' employees, and training sessions in which all employees are required to attend, during normal working hours, during days or times exclusively dedicated to that purpose, with no other work to be done, to apologize for the hostile working environment. Snell v. Suffolk County, 611 F.Supp. 521, 531-32 (E.D.N.Y. 1985)(requiring Warden to appear before correctional officers to remedy hostile working environment, requiring him to forbid discrimination, racially hostile acts, assure prompt and severe discipline of violators, designation of an affirmative action officer to remedy violations, and establishment of human relations workshops). For verification and emphasis, I respectfully requests that the apology be videotaped and that the video apology be shown to all of Respondents' managers once each year and be shown during the orientation of each new, rehired or transferred COSA employee in perpetuity;
i. Mandatory protected activity and sensitivity for each of Respondents' employees and agents from the top down and skill assessment of managers, on the fundamental rights of all citizens employees to report concerns and be advised of their whistleblower rights, and to have those rights respected, without fear, favor or reprisal;
j. An order by the Secretary of Labor against Respondents and their agents and contractors and successors to cease and desist from surveillance or giving the impression of surveillance (including demanding a copy of video provided to EPA and FDEP the same day it was provided and the City Attorney JAMES PATRICK WILSON's bragging of his use of Google® to coerce, restrain and intimidate persons engaging in protected activity and the presence of the Police Chief and officers in public meetings, abused in menacing manner by the Respondents);
k. An order referring Respondents to the Justice Department, FBI and EPA Office of Inspector General for investigation of their possible violations of 5 U.S.C. §§ 1505, 1512 and or 1513 (retaliation against protected witness or informants). See supra, pp. 7-8 (EPA "willful blindness" standard on crimes applicable to COSA as respondent in whistleblower cases);
l. Appointment of monitors to verify compliance with DOL's orders, with continuing unannounced access to the workplace to verify posting requirements;
m. The use of firm deadlines that trigger hearings;
n. Imposition of per diem liquidated damages of $10,900 per day in the event the remedial order is not complied with;
o. Other changes intended to make the environmental whistleblower statutes and the First Amendment live (at last) in the COSA workplace, and to counter Respondents' chilling effect on citizen and employee rights under the Acts.
p. Ordering every manager named in it to read the RDO and be tested on it, with a test of sufficient length and complexity to test comprehension of the subject matter.
q. An order declaring that the "pollution exclusion" in the City's insurance contract bars the expenditure of any insurance company monies on defense of this action.
r. Such other, further and general relief as the Court finds right and just, necessary and proper, with a view toward extirpating all forms of anti-whistleblower retaliation in the Nation's Oldest City, from this day forward.

47. There is no question of DOL's inherent authority to hold accountable those intentional wrongdoers accountable qua individuals, rather than looking to City taxpayers (once again) to pay for the City government's malfeasance. See Schemm v. Pro Transportation, 2001-STA-11 (Honorable Clement J. Kennington, January 19, 2001)(denying motion to dismiss individual respondent); Gagnier v. Steinmann Transportation, Inc., 91-STA-46 (Sec'y July 29, 1992)(ALJ properly added respondents referenced in formal complaint); Wilson v. Bolin Associates, Inc., 91-STA-4 (Sec'y Dec 30, 1991)(amending complaint to charge the person actually responsible for firing). See also Dempsey v. Fluor Daniel, Inc., 2001-CAA-5 (Hon. Edward C. Burch, June 27, 2001 RDO); Donovan v. Diplomat Envelope, Inc., 587 F.Supp. 1417 (E.D. N.Y. 1984), aff'd. 760 F.2d 253 (2d Cir. 1985) (table); Kelley v. Thomas Solvent Co., 727 F. Supp. 1532, 1541-44 (W.D. Mich. 1989) (individual corporate officers or directors personally under section 107 of CERCLA); Meredith v. Federal Mine Safety & Health Review Commission, 177 F.3d 1042, 1052-56 (D.C. Cir. 1999); See United States v. Dotterweich, 370 U.S. 277 (1943); see also United States v. Iverson, 162 F.3d 1015 (9th Cir. 1998)(CEO incarcerated for directing the dumping of barrels of toxicants into sewers). 33 U.S.C. §1367 (1994); 30 U.S.C. §815(c)(1994); 29 U.S.C. §660(c). See also York v. Tennessee Crushed Stone Assn., 684 F.2d 360, 362 (6th Cir. 1982); Paroline v. UNISYS Corp., 879 F.2d 100 (4th Cir. 1989), vacated on other grounds, 900 F.2d 27 (4th Cir. 1990); Steele v. Offshore Shipbuilding, 867 F.2d 1311 (11th Cir. 1989); Maturo v. National Graphics, Inc., 722 F.2d F.Supp. 916 (D. Conn. 1989); Guyette v. Stauffer Chemical Co., 518 F.Supp. 521, 525-26 (D.N.J. 1981); Robson v. Eva's Super Market, Inc., 538 F.Supp. 857 (N.D. Ohio 1982); Kinnally v. Bell of Pennsylvania, 748 F. Supp. 1136 (E.D. Pa. 1990); Hall v. Gus Constr. Co., 842 F.2d 1010, 1015-16 (8th Cir. 1988); Robinson v. Jacksonville Shipyards, 760 F. Supp. 1486 (M.D.Fla 1991); Tafoya v. Adams, 612 F.Supp. 1097 (D. Colo. 1985); Owen v. Rush, 636 F.2d 283 (10th Cir. 1980); Jeter v. Boswell, 445 F.Supp. 946 (N.D. W. Va. 1983); Kyriazi v. Western Electric Co., 476 F. Supp. 335, 340 (D.N.J. 1979); Ponton v. Newport News Sch. Bd., 632 F. Supp. 1056), 1068-69 (E.D. Va. 1986). See also Vakharia v. Swedish Convent Hospital, 824 F. Supp. 769, 784 (N.D. Ill. 1983); Gaddy v. Abex Corp., 884 F. 2d 312, 318-19 (7th Cir. 1989); EEOC v. Vucitech, 842 F.2d 936, 942 (7th Cir. 1988).

48. Monitors to ensure compliance are necessary and proper. See Robinson v. Jacksonville Shipyards, 760 F. Supp. 1486, 1545 (M.D. Fla. 1991)(appointing plaintiff's attorney organization, the NOW Legal Defense Fund, as monitor to assure continued compliance with remedial order in sexual harassment case, subject to employer's right to advise the court about the feasibility of implementation). See Belton, § 8.9 (Other Nonmonetary Relief -- Hostile Environment) at 283, characterizing the Robinson case's monitoring provision and involvement of the NOW Legal Defense Fund as both "important and innovative."

49. DOL has the power to order Respondents cease and desist from surveillance or giving the impression of surveillance. Consolidated Edison Company, 4 NLRB 71, 94 (1937), enforced, 305 U.S. 197 (1938); Atlas Underwear Co. v. NLRB, 116 F.2d 1020, 1023 (6th Cir. 1941); NLRB v. Ford Motor Co., 119 F.2d 326 (5th Cir. 1941); Press Co. v. NLRB, 118 F.2d 937 (D.C. Cir. 1940), cert. denied 61 S.Ct. 1118; NLRB v. Baldwin Locomotive Works, 128 F.2d 39, 49 (3d Cir. 1942); NLRB v. Jasper Chair Co.., 138 F.2d 756 (7th Cir. 1943); NLRB v. Collins & Aikman Corp., 146 F.2d 454, 455 (4th Cir. 1944). Have Respondents given the impression of surveillance? It is well known by DOL that --
whistleblowers often face some type of surveillance from either the government, the industry, or some other private investigator. The experience can be very frightening and can add an ominous presence to the misery of blowing the whistle.... We often advise that if someone is watching you, he or she wants you to become affected by the surveillance and to act irrationally about it. It can be another way of bullying you into a mistake.
Government Accountability Project, et al. Courage Without Martyrdom -- A Survival Guide for Whistleblowers 5 (1989)(Emphasis added). I request a remedy for surveillance or giving the impression of surveillance, in order to halt future lawbreaking. See NLRB v. Anchorage Times Publishing Co., 637 F.2d 1359, 1365-6 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 454 U.S. 835 (1981); NLRB v. Randall P. Kane Co., 581 F.2d 1124, 1131 (9th Cir. 1978); NLRB v. Squire Shops, Inc., 559 F.2d 486, 487 (9th Cir. 1977); NLRB v. Miller Redwood Co., 407 F.2d 215, 218 (9th Cir. 1978); NLRB v. Intertherm, 596 F.2d 267 (8th Cir. 1979); Russell Stover Candies, Inc. v. NLRB, 551 F.2d 204, 207 (8th Cir. 1977); NLRB v. Speed Queen, 469 F.2d 189, 191 (8th Cir. 1973); NLRB v. Hawthorn Co., 404 F.2d 1205, 1208-09 (8th Cir. 1969); Olsen Rug Co. v. NLRB, 304 F.2d 710, 714-15 (7th Cir. 1962); NLRB v. Tidelands Marine Service, 339 F.2d 291 (5th Cir. 1964); National Phosphate Corp., 211 NLRB 567 (1974); Fotomat Corp., 207 NLRB 461 (1973); J.P. Stevens & Co., 245 NLRB 198 (1979); Laidlaw Waste Systems, 305 NLRB No. 5 (1991); see also Local 309, United Furniture Workers v. Gates, 75 F.Supp. 620, 625-26 (N.D. Ind. 1948); Alliance to End Repression v. City of Chicago, 742 F.2d 1007 (7th Cir. 1984); Handschu v. Special Services Divn, 349 F.Supp. 766 (S.D.N.Y. 1972); Presbyterian Church (USA) v. United States, 870 F.2d 518 (9th Cir. 1989); Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends v. Tate, 519 F.2d 1335 (3d Cir. 1975); Paton v. LaPrade, 524 F.2d 862 (3d Cir. 1975); Cf. Fr. Robert F. Drinan, "First Amendment Endangered" (book review) 78 Geo L.J. 2057 (1990). Injunctive relief against Respondents engaging in surveillance or giving the impression of surveillance must be ordered by DOL. Otherwise, "[o]nly a brave soul would dare to express anything other than orthodoxy under such circumstances." White v. Davis, 120 Cal. Rptr. 94 (1975).

MOTION TO DISQUALIFY COSA CITY ATTORNEY'S OFFICE
AND RESPONDENT JAMES PATRICK WILSON
UNDER THE ATTORNEY-WITNESS RULE

50. I hereby respectfully move and request that Respondent JAMES PATRICK WILSON, COSA's City Attorney's Office and all of the City Attorney's employees be disqualified from ever representing Respondents in any aspect of this matter since WILSON, et al. intentionally made themselves percipient witnesses by their illegal actions.

51. It would be unseemly for Respondent MR. JAMES PATRICK WILSON to represent COSA, its Commissioners, or anyone other than himself -- to do so would violate the lawyer-witness rule. See Hull v. Celanese Corp., 513 F.2d 568, 571 (2nd Cir. 1975); Westinghouse Elec. Corp. v. Gulf Oil Corp. 588 F.2d 221, 225 (7th Cir. 1978); IBM v. Levin, 271, 283 (3d Cir. 1978); Cardinale v. Golinello, 42 N.Y.2d 288 (N.Y. App. 1977). Goss Graphics Systems, Inc. v. Man Roland Druckmaschlinen Aktiengesellschaft, 2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 181000 (N.D. (N.D. Iowa 2000) (disqualifying Kirkland & Ellis); Asyst Tech. Inc. v. Empek, Inc., 962 F.Supp. 1241 (N.D. Cal. 1997)(disqualifying Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati); New Jersey Blue Cross/Blue Shield v. Phillip Morris, Inc., 53 F.Supp. 2d 338, 347 (E.D.N.Y 1999) (disqualifying Winston & Strawn); Islander East Rental Program v. Ferguson, 917 F.Supp. 504, 506 (S.D.Tex. 1996)(disqualifying Fulbright & Jaworski); Shadow Traffic Network v. Superior Court. 29 Cal Rptr. 2d 693 (Ct. App. 1994) (disqualifying Latham & Watkins); USFL v. NFL, 605 F. Supp. 1448, 1544 (S.D.N.Y. 1985)(disqualifying Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison). See, also Westinghouse Elec. Corp. v. Gulf Oil Corp. 588 F.2d 221, 225 (7th Cir. 1978); IBM v. Levin, 271, 283 (3d Cir. 1978); Hull v. Celanese Corp., 513 F.2d 568, 571 (2nd Cir. 1975); Cardinale v. Golinello, 42 N.Y.2d 288 (N.Y. App. 1977). See, also United States v. Mississippi Valley Generating Co., 364 U.S. 520, 548 (1961)(citing Matthew 6:24 -- "no man can serve two masters" -- holding that preventing conflicts of interest is aimed "not only at dishonor but at conduct that tempts dishonor.")

52. It would at best "tempt dishonor" for WILSON to have any role in defense of the other Respondents in this action, having repeatedly been involved in violating CERCLA. None of WILSON's actions are privileged.

RESPONDENTS MUST PRESERVE ALL EVIDENCE

53. COSA must preserve all evidence. Please order them to do so. . COSA has been uncooperative in providing documents to citizens in the past and I fear that COSA will withhold evidence from DOL in response to this complaint.

RIGHTS TO ASK QUESTIONS ABOUT ILLEGAL DUMPING
AND OTHER ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES WILL BE
PRESERVED, PROTECTED AND DEFENDED

54. I considered myself to be an environmentalist since before the first Earth Day, when I was 13. As an undergraduate at Georgetown University, I worked for three U.S. Senators. After law school, I clerked for the Chief Judge of the U.S. DOL Department of Labor, served as Legal Counsel for Constitutional Rights of the Government Accountability Project, won punitive damages actions federal agencies thrice in 2002-2003 in environmental whistleblower cases. As a journalist before law school, I was recommended for a Pulitzer Prize in 1983 by the Anderson County, Tennessee District Attorney for winning declassification of the largest mercury pollution event in the history of this planet (4.2 million pounds of mercury emitted by Oak Ridge nuclear weapons plants). I published seven articles on civil rights issues in American Bar Association publications 1986-1992, including two in the Judges' Journal.

55. I have frequently spoken out on environmental issues in this county, the eighth fastest growing county in America, a place where political chicanery and civil rights violations have a long tradition dating back hundreds of years. Not one of the Respondents has demonstrated any commitment to environmental protection. Far from it, they have deposited 20,000 cubic yards of contaminants in the Old City Reservoir, a place where local residents fished and swam for generations.

56. By telephone, Mr. John Regan made derisive reference to "what you have done," referring to me, for having reported the City's actions to the National Response Center, resulting in the commencement of a proceeding under federal environmental laws.

57. As a result of "what [I] have done," (actually, more precisely my truthfully, candidly reporting "what [Respondents] have done"), I have been publicly vilified and punished by Respondents for my CERCLA environmental protected activity.

58. Meanwhile, Respondents have not answered a single question and seek to stonewall the press, the public and environmental regulators and investigators.

59. As Thomas Jefferson said, "I swear before Almighty God eternal hostility over every form of tyranny over the mind of [hu]mankind." Like any good diplomat, I will not take no for an answer. As the marble carving over the Georgia Supreme Court's bench (site of the Erickson I trial in 2002) proclaims
Fiat justitia ruat coelum ("Let justice be done though the heavens fall").

60. By copy of this complaint, I hereby place Respondents on notice that I expect them to comply with CERCLA and other laws from this day forward and that I will continue speaking out on their environmental lawbreaking and other abuses of power, e.g., illegal dumping in the Old City Reservoir. I further expect, pendente lite, that the Respondents will:
A. Restore the status quo ante regarding speaking at Commission meetings, without forcing citizens to choose whether to speak before or after the meeting, but allowing them to do both as has been the case for at least one year; and
B. Grant a rehearing on our MLG&W v. Craft hearing appeal, in which an injustice was intentionally done to punish me for CERCLA protected activity.

61. If Respondents do not remedy the violations complained of by 5 PM on April 24, I hereby respectfully request a full and fair investigation of Respondents' invidious discrimination and retaliation for revealing their illegal dumping to EPA and state regulators to remedy the violations of my God-given rights under the First, Ninth and Fourteenth Amendment rights and CERCLA. Be not afraid.

Respectfully submitted,

ED SLAVIN
COMPLAINANT

c. Mr. William Pence, Esquire (via fax to 407-843-6610)
Mr. Michael Hill, USEPA OIG SAC, Atlanta (via fax)

STATE OF FLORIDA
COUNTY OF ST. JOHNS
DECLARATION OF ED SLAVIN
I, Ed Slavin, swear and declare pursuant to the penalty of perjury set forth in 18 U.S.C. § 1001 and 28 U.S.C. § 1746 that all of the statements in the foregoing document are true to the best of my knowledge and belief. Today is April 20, 2006. Further affiant saith not.

ED SLAVIN