Good riddance to bad rubbish (2)

Without SUSAN BURK in the City Commission, there will be one quite like her to roll her eyes and sneer at citizens concerned about government waste, fraud, abuse, misfeasance, malfeasance and nonfeasance, or to patronize neighborhoods, or to praise the City Manager.

ROBERT MICHAEL GRAUBARD's ex-paramour kissed him on the lips in City COmmission chamber and has repeatedly sought city favors for him and her other buds.

BURK was wonderful fighting for the First Amendment rights of St. George Street artists and entertainers. I voted for her for mayor and commissioner. I regret the errors. BURK was skilled at manipulating a progressive image to conceal the soul of a Republican motelier, someone who had an exaggerated sense of entitlement while doing little for our city.

I say good riddance to bad rubbish -- she was a phony wannabe liberal who did little for the people of our city, for whom she gave not a fig, stating last year that she no longer met with citizens. What an arrogant varmint -- what a barnacle on the underbelly of the ship of life -- she never did anything for the City of St. Augustine except take money to travel to NYC, Germany and Spain.

BURK never had any ideas, but she was a nuisance.

In contrast, GEORGE GARDNER had ideas and meant well, but he was also co-opted by City Manager WILLIAM B. HARRISS' politics of fear and smear.

So under the thumb of HARRISS and PHIL McDANIEL was GARDNER that he read a prepared script attacking me as his mayoral swan song on NOvember 13, 2006, leading to a wonderful St. Augustine Record editorial defending me from his efforts to chill free speech rights.

GARDNER learned from being used by HARRISS and McDANIEL and grew up in the job.

As a commissioner for the past two years, GARDNER's made efforts to hold the city accountable, but was still overly deferential to the City staff that polluted our City Reservoir and aquifer. In private life, expect GARDNER to be more outspoken, now that he is no longer being intimidated by HARRISS and pettyfogging City Attorney RONALD BROWN.

Both GARDNER and BURK were absent on November 13, 2007 when City Commissioners voted to approve the deal to bring contaminated solid waste back to Lincolnville. They were there earlier during the meeting and did not say they were leaving. I reckon the reason they weren't at the November 13, 2007 meeting was because in their hearts, they disapproved of the City's deal to repatriate solid waste to Lincolnville.

The months later, after we defeated them in the court of public opinion and were about to do so before a a Department of Administrative Hearings Administrative Law Judge) BURK and GARDNER voted with their colleagues when community organizers exposed the City-State scheme and the waste is being sent to a Class I Landfill as the state had ordered in the first place, after my February 2006 complaint to the National Response Center.

Speaking of good riddance to bad rubbish, earlier this week there was a contractor's meeting at the Old City Reservoir, where several dozens of questions were asked about the scope of work and when it will be completed.

It seems that the City of St. Augustine delayed putting the project out for bids for months and now expects the contractors to make up for its poor planning.

Touring the grounds of the Old City Reservoir I was reminded that when Americans fight tyranny, we always win.