ROGUE’S GALLERY, ST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA, 2008

ROGUE’S GALLERY, ST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA, 2008

In St. Augustine, Florida, there’s a good-ole-boy network that doesn’t qualify as true good-ole-boys. True good-ole-boys like to hunt and fish. True good-ole-boys don’t pollute prime bass fishin’ spots, like our Old City Reservoir. True good-ole-boys don’t cut down bald eagle nest trees. True good-ole-boys don’t destroy prime wildlife habitat or an historic 1923 Donald Ross golf links that also serves as a rookery.

The St. Augustine, Florida misanthropes often violate Sunshine laws and Open Records laws. They rip off taxpayers together. They laugh all the way to their banks.

Dramatis Personae, counterclockwise, from the Boss of Bosses (our own sinister St. Augustine Boss Tweed from Central Casting):

WILLIAM B. HARRISS, St. Augustine City Manager, got St. Augustine fined twice by Florida Department of Environmental Protection during 2007 and 2008, first for depositing contaminated solid waste in the Old City Reservoir and then for water pollution from a shredded sewage effluent pipe leaking into our salt water marsh (with HARRISS briefing Commissioners in private, violating Sunshine laws). HARRISS has made it his mission in life to violate environmental, Open Records and Sunshine laws, the First Amendment and citizens’ civil rights and civil liberties. HARRISS is responsible for ruining the ambiance of St. George Street and the Plaza de la Constitucion by making art and music crimes, running buskers out of town. HARRISS refused to allow the Gay Pride group to fly Rainbow flags on our Bridge of Lions, resulting in a 2005 federal court order against the City for First Amendment violations. Harrassing citizens with impunity (and seeming immunity), WILLIAM B. HARRISS has not had one (1) performance appraisal since he was hired on April 13, 1998 in a Sunshine violation meeting where John Reardon’s suggestion of a national search and performance appraisal were roundly rejected, with Stepford Wife City Commissioner SUSAN BURK saying if we hired a city manager from outside the city, they might wish to use St. Augustine as a stepping stone to a job somewhere else someday.

ERROL JONES a/k/a ERRONEOUS JONES, HARRISS’ henchman and staunchest defender on the City of St. Augustine City Commission -, made the motion to send contaminated solid waste back to Lincolnville. JONES votes frequently for misbegotten projects of speculator/developers ROBERT MICHAEL GRAUBARD and CHESTER STOKES and other campaign contributors and influential citizens. Such developers were called “worse than any carpetbagger” by County Commission Chairman Ben Rich. ERRONEOUS JONES frequently insulted citizens asking questions about illegal dumping practices and has appeared at public meetings intoxicated (as he did at the June 2008 Lincolnville Neighborhood Assn. meeting, where he caterwauled. JONES has done nothing for the Lincolnville and West Augustine communities, empowering WILLIAM B. HARRISS to commit crimes of nature there, including illegal dumping in Old City Reservoir in West Augustine, longstanding pollution by sewage effluent pipe in Lincolnville, and plans to bring the contaminated solid waste from Old City Reservoir back to Lincolnville, halted because of community opposition led by Judith Seraphin, who is running against ERRONEOUS JONES for City Commissioner, Seat 1.. ERRONEOUS JONES has called Judith Seraphin a “carpetbagger,” while Judith Seraphin proudly says she’s a “Southerner by choice.”

WILLIAM PENCE, AKERMAN SENTERFITT corporate law firm environmental lawyer, who wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars on legal and engineering fees to prevent criminal prosecution for environmental crimes. PENCE helped City of St. Augustine in unsuccessful coverup and effort to ship contaminated solid waste back to Lincolnville, the historic African-American community founded by freed slaves in 1866, which bears the brunt of the City of St. Augustine’s environmental racism.

DONALD CRICHLOW, City Commissioner and architect, who only recently started recusing himself from cases involving his clients.

JOSEPH LEROY BOLES, JR, Mayor of St. Augustine. A putative Democrat who supports Republicans like WILLIAM. L. PROCTOR. Short on substance, he bragged his sense of humor was his best qualification for office. Will we be laughing when the bills come due for WILLIAM B. HARRISS’ reign of error?

JAMES BRYANT, soon-to-be ex-County Commissioner, wisely decided not to run for re-election, the speculator/developers’ best friend on County Commission. BRYANT enjoyed exchanging favors with developers and never saw a tree-killer he didn’t want to hug.

CONGRESSMAN JOHN L. MICA, who refuses to discuss the proposed St. Augustine National Historical Park, National Seashore and National Scenic Coastal Highway, which is supported by his general election opponent, economist Faye Armitage. MICA.helped obtain $1.1 million federal grant for City’s misbegotten, money-losing, too-big $22 million White Elephant Parking Garage, which lacks any trolleys or other mass transportation component (city could have obtained 80% federal matching funds. MICA wrote $1.5 million for federal earmark for a tunnel to the Castillo de San Marco, admittedly without consulting the City of St. Augustine or any of its citizens. MICA empowers the City of St. Augustine in its resistance to reform and environmental protection. MICA has a zero rating three years in a row from the Disabled American Veterans, favors offshore oil drilling, and head-butted an ABC News cameraman who tired to ask him questions about his attending indicted former House Republican Leader TOM DELAY’s soiree at the Republican National Convention. MICA head-butt with his hairpiece, saying “my hair almost fell off.” Damon Runyonesque MICA even wears a pinky ring.

PIERRE THOMPSON, who on October 8, 2001 cut down a bald eagle nest tree and whose THOMPSON BROTHERS REAL ESTATE company pled guilty to Migratory Bird Treaty Act crimes earlier this year. In sharp and marked contrast, Florida Power & Light, cellular and regular telephone companies and other corporations preserve, protect and defend bald eagle nest trees. Philistine socialite PIERRE THOMPSON is the grandson of the founder of the St. Augustine Record and a friend of city and county commissioners. THOMPSONS built at least one ritzy subdivision a wetland, with thousands of tons of fill. THOMPSON’s longtime lawyers were the estimable former St. Augustine City Attorney GEOFFREY DOBSON and current City Attorney RONALD BROWN, who did not recuse himself from actions affecting THOMPSON’s interests. I am proud that I helped give our new U.S. Attorney’s office a spinal implant, after the statute of limitations was almost allowed to expire under U.S. Attorney Paul Perez. IF THOMPSON had cut down an eagle nest tree in the Eastern District of Texas, the Justice Department would have thrown the book at him and imprisoned him for violation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, and the Endangered Species Act. THOMPSON was also involved in tearing down two downtown African-American neighborhoods during 1964 (just before our City’s 400th Anniversary).

CHESTER STOKES, Jacksonville, Florida real estate speculator/developer campaign contributor to St. Augustine City Commissioner ERROL JONES a/k/a ERRONEOUS JONES, et al., CHESTER STOKES won St. Augustine City Commission annexation and zoning approval to destroy a 1923 Donald Ross golf links for speculative housing project (and then won city approval to treat the land as a “brownfield,” receiving over $1,000,000 in tax breaks, which the legislature never intended for destroying an historic golf course to build houses for the rich).

WILLIAM L. PROCTOR, Flagler College Chancellor and 20th District State Representative, who refuses to discuss the proposed St. Augustine National Historial Park, National Seashore and National Scenic Coastal Highway. PROCTOR is Republican lord of all he surveys in St. Augustine, paying the City the grand sum of $121,000/year for police services, a small fraction of the property taxes on $120,000,000 Flagler College properties, while draining the city of revenue every time Flagler College takes over another building. FLAGLER COLLEGE has few non-white students or professors and has until recently discriminated against GLBT students, dragging its heels for years in recognizing Club Unity. PROCTOR is known as “MASSA PROCTOR” to FLAGLER COLLEGE employees. FLAGLER COLLEGE is a right-wing rich kids’ school with no tenure for the faculty, no academic freedom, no unions and a censored school newspaper. A former football coach who writes nasty letters to constituents who disagrees with him (even insulting them in person), WILLIAM L. PROCTOR is an egotistical, angry, hierarchical, authoritarian control freak who got his job by apple-polishing for the illegitimate heirs of Henry Flagler, the brains behind the Standard Oil Trust. PROCTOR is responsible for taking the Spanish Garden and rules FLAGLER COLLEGE with an iron fist. PROCTOR’s an unpredictable, erratic, insufferably mean-spiroted bully aged 75, a throwback to the days of Jim Crow and one-party rule, an energumen in whom voters lack trust. PROCTOR’s hot under the color because Democrat Doug Courtney is running against him for the 20th District State Representative seat, winning support from diverse residents who want real representation.

MARK KNIGHT, St. Augustine Planning and Zoning Director, hired by HARRISS on April 18, 1998 after losing his position in Lake County. KNIGHT is nothing but a lapdog for the likes of ROBERT MICHAEL GRAUBARD, CHESTER STOKES and other speculators who have tried to destroy St. Augustine and St. Johns County with wetland-killing, tree-cutting chicanery.

GEORGE McCLURE, a developer lawyer formerly with ROGERS TOWERS law firm, got everything he ever asked for from St. Augustine City Commission and St. Johns County Commission, including winning permission for clients to destroy wetlands and build homes in marshes, while destroying a 3000-4000 year old indigenous native American Indian village for a strip mall and condos on Red House Bluff. McCLURE's latest project is trying to foist off a one cent sales tax so developers can be bailed out, with no strings attached.

JOHN REGAN, Chief Operating Officer of City of St. Augustine – he’s WILLIAM B. HARRISS’ "hey-boy," feverishly, fronting for HARRISS in dealing with communities victimized by St. Augustine’s environmental racism.

And last but certainly not least in our ST. AUGUSTINE ROGUES' GALLERY for 2008, there’s City Commissioner SUSAN BURK, who adamantly defends HARRISS. On April 13, 1998, she said if we hired a city manager from outside the city, they might wish to use St. Augustine as a stepping stone to a job somewhere else someday. She joined JONES in insulting persons who asked about the City’s illegal dumping in the Old City Reservoir. She’s the ex-girlfriend of tree-killer ROBERT MICHAEL GRAUBARD, who has allegedly bragged about using her influence and floor-planning her campaigns. GRAUBARD was forgiven a $15,000 tree-killing fine outside the ordinary course of business. BURK has laughed at citizens contemptuously when raising concerns about misfeasance, malfeasance, nonfeasance, waste, fraud and abuse. BURK is full of herself, playing with her hair and computer during Commission meetings, rolling her eyes, even remarking that it was “insane” to consider a public power utility for St. Augustine and St. Johns County, saying it was “a no brainer.” No, a "no-brainer" would be exercising effective government oversight after WILLIAM B. HARRISS was caught-red handed depositing 40,000 cubic yards of contaminated solid waste in the Old City Reservoir and lying about it (he told former Mayor George Gardner it was "clean fill," to which EPA's John Marler replied, "there's no bedsprings in clean fill." BURK is an energetic defender of the status quo (another dull Republican) and is primarily responsible for keeping the same City Manager for 10.5 years without so much as one (1) performance appraisal.

What do you reckon? Even though St. Augustine is a small city, it has big city problems, not the least of which is WILLIAM B. HARRISS and his band of allies, from the Courthouse to the Congress.

A new broom sweeps clean!

For more on our conflicted Republican State Rep. WILLIAM L. PROCTOR and the indictment of the Republican County Commission Chairman THOMAS G. MANUEL, please see below.