ST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA MAYOR BOLES "FROZEN IN THE ICE OF HIS OWN INDIFFERENCE," REFUSES TO VISIT FIREHOUSE

At the September 6, 2007 city budget hearing, St. Augustine, Florida Mayor JOSEPH LEROY BOLES, JR. responded to one of my questions by pointedly refusing to visit the firehouse near his Anastasia Island home. Firemen there have reportedly experienced mold problems at the firehouse since at least 2000. Their concerns have fallen on uncaring ears. Their collective bargaining agreement (CBA) does not contain a safety and health provision.
In 2000, Florida Republican Governor Jeb Bush signed legislation abolishing safety and health protection for all state, county, municipal and special taxing district workers. Florida is one of some 24 states that provide no occupational safety protections or inspection for government employees.
I have asked our City of St. Augustine and the Anastasia Mosquito Control District of St. Johns County to voluntarily adopt OSHA standards.
I await their response.
In questioning the city about the fire budget last night, I raised concerns about the mold problem. BOLES said he would have "staff" look into it.
Unlike Mayor GEORGE GARDNER, JOSEPH LEROY BOLES, Jr. is not a hands-on Mayor. He has what labor economists would call a "backward-bending labor supply curve," which is to say that he doesn't work very hard.
BOLES said he was qualified to be Mayor of St. Augustine, our Nation's Oldest City, by his "sense of humor."
No one's laughing now, particularly after BOLES' materially false and misleading statements about St. Johns County refusing to help on the homelessness problem. As reporter Kati Bexley's story yesterday reveals (see below), St. Johns County was never even asked.
Like the Sun King of France, JOSEPH LEROY BOLES, JR. isn't a very good public official. He likes to party and doesn't do his homework (like all but one of his colleagues). BOLES habitually rubberstamps City Manager WILLIAM B. HARRISS and tree- killing, wetland- destroying real estate speculators.
BOLES' arrogant refusal to visit a firehouse located close to his home demonstrates St. Augustine's government is, in FDR's words (quoting Dante) "frozen in the ice of its own indifference."
All it would take would be three well-informed Commissioners to set policy, starting with an ordinance requiring City workers be given the full range of OSHA protections -- including OSHA Act Section 11(c) rights to be free of retaliation -- rights that were cruelly taken away from them by Governor Jeb Bush and tatterdemalion Tallahassee Republicans in 2000, on a tear to transfer worker safety duties to USDOL OSHA, sublimely indifferent to the rights of state, county, municipal and special taxing district employees.
St. Augustine and other local jurisdictions must start protecting worker rights again, no matter what the peculiar mindset and ideology of Hizzoner.