Text of July 15, 2009 letter to Secretary of the Interior Kenneth Salazar re: St. Augustine 450th and Federal Advisory Committee Act Compliance

July 15, 2009

Honorable Kenneth Salazar
Secretary of the Interior
1849 C Street, N.W. via fax to 202-208-6950
Washington, D.C. 20240

RE: ST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA 450TH COMMEMORATION COMMISSION SELECTION PROCESS MUST FOLLOW THE FEDERAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE ACT (FACA)

Dear Secretary Salazar:

Congratulations on your appointment by President Obama. We appreciate your support for our National Parks. The Omnibus Parks bill calls for you to appoint members of the “St. Augustine 450th Commemoration Commission.” PL-111-11, Sec. 7404.

Pursuant to the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), 5 U.S.C. App. 1, I request an inquiry into the selection process of the 450th Commission members. In a recent City of St. Augustine Commission meeting (July 13, 2009), it was disclosed to the public that City officials, with participation from the Governor and local Congressman are working together on making committee member recommendations to you. A city official, Mr. Dana Ste. Claire, said the City government wants to recommend St. Augustine 450th Commemoration Commission members who are “affluent” and “politically influential.” Mr. Ste. Claire further stated he wanted to name to foreign Ambassadors, from Spain and Great Britain.

FACA requires chartered committee memberships to be "fairly balanced in terms of the points of view represented and the functions to be performed." 5 U.S.C. App., §§ 5(b)(2), (c), 9(c), 10(a), (b), (c). FACA implementing regulations define "balance" to mean a "cross-section of interested persons and groups with professional or personal qualifications or experience to contribute to the functions and tasks to be performed". 41 C.F.R. § 105-54.204. Being “affluent” or “influential” is not a bona fide occupational qualification (BFOQ) for federal employment or appointment to a FACA Commission.

I request that you make no appointments until you and the Inspector General: (a) Evaluate the purpose of the Commission and its proposed composition/operation; (b) Take steps to ensure that the Commission has the genuine expertise and independence necessary to develop meaningful recommendations that will honor St. Augustine’s 11,000 years of human history.

St. Augustine’s indigenous American Indian history dates back 11,000 years. St. Augustine is the site of America’s first free African-American settlement (Fort Mose) and heroic June 1964 anti-segregation demonstrations led by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., which helped lead to the 1964 Civil Rights Act (the 50th anniversary is in 2014). Dr. King said the City of St. Augustine was the “most lawless” city in America. Dr. King used the leverage of St. Augustine’s 400th anniversary celebration to win needed changes.

Sadly, the government of our City of St. Augustine remains “lawless.” Federal courts have remedied the City of St. Augustine’s First Amendment violations that were directed against visual artists, Gays and Lesbians. State environmental regulators have fined the City over overt acts involving what many of us consider to be a pattern of environmental racism. Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) has fined the City of St. Augustine for illegal dumping of 40,000 cubic yards of solid waste in our Old City Reservoir (the City tried unsuccessfully to bring it back to the historic African-American community of Lincolnville). FDEP also brought an action against the City for illegal dumping of semi-treated sewage effluent in our saltwater marsh in Lincolnville (a pipe was leaking, with hundreds of feet of pipe missing – City Commissioners were told by the City Manager, but never told the public until a complaint was filed).

Will you please ask your staff to kindly inform those who are making St. Augustine 450th Commemoration Commission appointment recommendations – including Governor Charles Crist, Congressman John Luigi Mica and St. Augustine City Manager William B. Harriss -- that FACA governs Commission appointments and that FACA requires a “fairly balanced” Commission? Limiting Commission participation to the “affluent” or the “influential” violates FACA.

St. Augustine’s 450th Commission needs Americans with expertise in national parks, civil rights, ethnic studies, museums, geography, ecology, history, anthropology, archaeology, sociology, tourism, business, and other relevant fields.

With kindest regards, I am,

Sincerely yours,

Ed Slavin
P.O. Box 3084
St. Augustine, Florida 32085-3084
904-829-3877 (o)
EASlavin@aol.com
Clean Up City of St. Augustine
www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com

pc: Honorable Susan Sher/Honorable Michelle Obama
Honorable Bill Nelson
Honorable Earl E. Devaney
Honorable Melinda Loftin,
Honorable Cass Sunstein
St. Augustine Record Ponte Vedra Recorder Folio Weekly Times-Union
City of St. Augustine
Rev. Ron Rawls, NAACP