flounderingpresent participle of floun·der (Verb)
1. Jamie Alvarez, Director of the First America Foundation, appeared before the St. Augustine City Commission January 10, 2011, presenting a report on what FAF has done since August.
2. There were more questions than answers, as Commissioners William Leary, Leeana Freeman and Nancy Sikes-Kline asked questions that Alvarez could not or would not answer.
3. FAF Chair Donald Wallis was inexplicably absent -- his absence was notable and inculpatory as well as unexplained.
4. Alvarez said FAF will hold a press conference at 10 AM on January 26th at Llambas House, where plans will be revealed that were not shared with City Commissioners, including the hiring of a local public relations firm, the creation of a logo and the announcement of a second sponsor.
5. Alvarez said FAF does not have a completed business plan and is “still working on it.”
6. Alvarez said only that FAF has “the framework of a plan.”
7. Alvarez said FAF has not identified any specific projects for the four years of celebrations.
8. Alvarez said FAF will not have more than 40 committees comprised of local residents, as planned in the Strategic Plan developed over a three-year period, before the City spun off the 450th celebration into a new private foundation.
9. Instead of committees, FAF will have “partnerships” with local groups.
10. Alvarez claimed FAF would have a website that will be “very transparent,” but admitted its Executive Committee and Board of Directors meetings are “private.”
11. Leeana Freeman asked to attend FAF meetings. Alvarez refused, saying the meetings are private.
12. Willilam Leary pointed out the need for better “oversight” of FAF, proposing an amendment to the FAF contract to provide for quarterly reports.
13. William Leary said he wanted FAF criteria for grants and contracts to be public.
14. Nancy Sikes-Kline said she wanted to review bylaws and other documents.
15. FAF Board member Joseph Boles, the Mayor, said “we owe it to FAF to at least get the logo” announced before asking serious questions.
16. Mayor Boles had asked Leary to ask questions of Donald Wallis privately, but Leary declined, with Boles staring at him as he asked questions on the BCS college football championship game night, when Boles and other Ccommissioners said they wanted to leave early.
17. William Leary said FAF “had the cart before the horse,” seeking funds without a business plan or strategic plan in place to show large funders like Coca-Cola where their money would go.
18. City Attorney Ronald Wayne Brown argued that FAF was just like any other vendor, and that Commissioners would not have the right to attend the Board meetings of a construction or hauling contractor.
19. Brown said “that’s not your job” to tell a contractor how to conduct its business: “we don’t go to meetings of vendor contractors.”
20. Freeman said she still wanted to request to attend FAF board meetings, simply to listen and observe.
21. “That’s their business if they want to let you in,” Brown said.
22. Alvarez said she would relay Freeman’s and Leary’s requests to the FAF Board.
23. Leary said that FAF would have a “significant impact” on the City and its 450th celebration and he wants oversight over FAF operations.
24. Leary said he wanted a workshop with the FAF Board and “I don’t see a downside to it.”
25. Alvarez said that while the City contracted with FAF to hold four celebrations (2012-2015), work is focused only on one of them (2012 – 200th anniversary of Spanish Constitution, with the monument in the Plaza de la Constitucion the only surviving one in the world because new monarchs had the monuments destroyed elsewhere).
26. City Manager John Regan said the FAF was “critical to the tourism industry.”
27. Alvarez said she did not know who posted the job posting for an Executive Director on the Nonprofit Jobs Cooperative, a fact that Alvarez and Errol Jones pretended was simply the belief of a local “newsletter” or “blog.” (Michael Gold’s Historic City Media, which has been rightly critical of FAF. See http://www.historiccity.com/2010/staugustine/news/florida/help-wanted-first-america-foundation-inc-5390, reporting in haec verba the text of the ad for the Executive Director’s job, which listed Wallis as the contact person. See also
28. Alvarez said the Executive Director of the FAF could not also serve as Executive Director of the federal commission on St. Augustine’s 450th anniversary.
29. Commissioners were flummoxed that Wallis did not appear.
30. Commissioners were disappointed that FAF was baby-talking them, spoon-feeding them, using the supposed report merely to announce an announcement, as Peter Guinta wrote in the St. Augustine Record article (below).
31. While Brown is claiming FAF is merely a vendor or contractor, the website for the First America Foundation lists City Hall as its address and telephone numbers:
Contact the 450th Commemoration Commission
Jamie Alvarez
Program Coordinator - St. Augustine 450th Commemoration
Data Ste. Claire
Director - Department of Heritage Tourism
Executive Director - St. Augustine 450th Commemoration Commission
Phone: 904.209.4226 • Fax: 904.825.1096
Mailing Address: P.O. Box 210 St. Augustine, FL 32085
Physical Address: 75 King Street, St. Augustine, FL 32085.
http://www.myfirstamerica.org/s14-Our-City-Contact.aspx
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