Bad St. Augustine City Manager, No Stimulus Money

CITY MANAGER WILLIAM B. HARRIS (Photo by J.D. Pleasant)

ASSISTANT CITY MANAGER JOHN REGAN, with "pipe" that long leaked sewage effluent in St. Augustine's saltwater marsh.


What Congress won't do is give our City of St. Augustine stimulus money, given the City's Environmental Racism, waste of public funds and recidivist pollution.

An Environmental Justice complaint is pending with the Environmental Protection Agency pursuant to EJ regulations and the 1964 Civil Rights Act (Title VI).

While Congress will likely fund St. Johns County projects with earmarks or stimulus money, any notion of Congress giving unaccountable WILLIAM B. HARRISS and his City Hall Gang any money is absurd.

Local progressives have been watching St. Augustine City Hall.

We've seen St. Augustine City Hall put 40,000 cubic yards of solid waste in the Old City Reservoir.

We've seen St. Augustine City Hall avoid, evade, prevaricate and downright lie about its putting 40,000 cubic yards of solid waste in the Old City Reservoir (On February 24, 2006, then-Mayor George Gardner told me it was "clean fill (sic)," to which EPA expert John Marler responded dryly, "there's no bedsprings in clean fill."

We've seen St. Augustine City Hall intimidate persons asking questions about its putting 40,000 cubic yards of solid waste in the Old City Reservoir.

We've seen St. Augustine City Hall drag its heels for three years about its cleanup of 40,000 cubic yards of solid waste in the Old City Reservoir, despite fines and orders to put the waste in a Class I landfill, the City resisted putting the waste in a Class I landfill, saying it would never agree to it.

We've seen St. Augustine City Hall dump treated sewage effluent in our saltwater marsh for years, through a leaky "pipe" that more closely resembled a colander.

We've seen St. Augustine City Hall conceal dumping sewage effluent in our saltwater marsh from the people for years, with the City Manager briefing Commissioners privately and obtaining their consent for delays -- a Sunshine violation that must be prosecuted by the State's Attorney's office.

We've seen St. Augustine City Hall attempt to coerce, restrain and intimidate persons asking questions about its dumping sewage effluent in our saltwater marsh.

We've seen St. Augustine City Hall pass unjust laws attempting to outlaw visual artists and musicians from sharing their talents with tourists, violating civil rights to engage in First Amendment protected activity (and hurting tourism).

We've seen St. Augustine City Hall refuse to adopt environmental whistleblower protections (which our Anastasia Mosquito Control District adopted November 20th).

We've seen St. Augustine City Hall miss a deadline to apply for a million dollar grant to fix the Lightner Museum/City Hall roof (apparently thanks to the the City Manager's hiring his own nephew).

We've seen St. Augustine City Hall tolerate police abuses that left Marshall Burns a quadriplegic, which caused taxpayers to spend some $1.5 million, spread over three years, above what was covered by insurance.

We've seen St. Augustine City Hall waste money on a $25 million White Elephant Parking Garage, a $1.1 million utility bill-paying building, and other costly flubdubs, while doing little for African-American and low-income residents, who must endure bad streets (Riberia Street is a disgrace) and invidious discrimination.

We've seen St. Augustine City Hall practice Apartheid -- environmental racism, employment discrimination and gross insensitivity (as typified by illegal dumping in African-American and low-income areas of Lincolnville and West Augustine).

We've seen a lot -- and documented it all.

St. Augustine's City Hall's actions are obscene.

And Congress was watching.

So exactly who was it who said, "You can't fight City Hall."

Yes, we can!

Let's work tirelessly to clean up St. Augustine's haughty City Hall and adopt a St. Augustine National Historical Park, National Seashore and National Scenic Coastal Parkway Act. See below.