Challenge to Mayor Boles and Commissioners to Answer Questions, Open Debate and Vote on Every Budget Line Item on St. Augustine Budget

Dear Mayor Boles:
1. Will St. Augustine City Commissioners kindly vote on every single line item in our City Budget at the September 20th TRIM hearing, as our City has done in the past?.
2. Will you please allow citizens to speak and answer our questions without interruption, insult or condescension, from this day forward? Last night, your sputtering, muttering remark, "ad nauseam," immediately after I spoke, showed hostility to First Amendment protected activity. Where are your manners? When citizens ask for 1.5 years about illegal dumping of our old city dump into the Old City Reservoir, we deserve answers. The fact that cleanup is not in the budget -- and you refused to answer questions -- shows contempt for democracy. I admired your principled stand (twice) in May and June 2005 regarding the Rainbow Flags on the Bridge of Lions. I thought we shared an appreciation for the First Amendment. Was I mistaken in my respect for your respect for our Founding Fathers and the First Amendment?
3. Thomas Jefferson said that "a public office is a public trust" and he also said that "I have sworn upon the altar of Almighty God eternal hostility over every form of tyranny over the mind of [humankind]." Being mean to concerned citizens does not inspire trust and confidence in any government -- it never has and it never will.
4. I hereby challenge you to open public debate on the budget, to answer all questions in writing and in person, and to present city staff to answer questions under oath (including questions about the illegal dumping and the City's failure to include any funds for cleanup in the budget).
Thank you.
With kindest regards, I am,
Sincerely yours,
Ed Slavin
Box 3084
St. Augustine, FL 32085-3084
471-7023
471-9918 (fax)