Floundering, Wannabee 450th Contractor Grifters Want City to "Sell its Wares" To Fortune 500 Companies, Developers

flounderingpresent participle of floun·der (Verb)

1. Struggle or stagger helplessly or clumsily in water or mud: "he was floundering about in the shallow offshore waters".

2. Struggle mentally; show or feel great confusion: "she floundered, not knowing quite what to say".

Yesterday afternoon, the DALTON AGENCY, a national advertising and public relations agency and INFNITY GLOBAL SOLUTIONS, a lobbying firm, pitched their services to St. Augustine City Commissioners at their regular workshop on our City’s 450^th anniversary celebration.

The pitch was not a success.

Using ever dull business cliché known to man, the assembled pitch-people floundered.

They bragged about their ability to get corporations to pony up money for “sponsorships,” giving such corporations whatever they want.

They bragged that they had developed a secretive, Sunshine and Open Records law-breaking Foundation for the 2005 Superbowl in Jacksonville. First, the Superbowl lost money. Second, the mention of the Foundation associated with the Superbowl was a non-starter, as Mayor Boles noted, because our City started a similar secretive foundation (First America Foundation), which failed. Mayor Boles asked, “Did anyone explain to you” that failure?” “That did not work well.”

Basic research would have told the pitchmen that FAF was a disaster. These pitchmen did not do their homework.

The DALTON AGENCY AND IGS pitchmen noted their work on “nine Superbowls,” attempting to draw a parallel between a one-day event (or “one-week” event as they corrected our Commissioners) with several years of commemoration of historical events, from 1513-1964.

The pitchmen were talking so fast I had to ask them to slow down when they got started. They were talking so quickly a court reporter could not have kept up with them.

Meanwhile, their slogans were among the sort of dross that substitutes for thought in multinational corporations.

Apparently not appreciating that the City of St. Augustine is a government, they promised to promote “your business.”

They promised “economic development” -- working to recruit corporations to build businesses here – apparently meaning developers – to move to St. Augustine.

Looking at DALTON AGENCY’s website, the number of potential organizational conflicts of interests boggles the mind. St. Augustine does not need the DALTON AGENCY, any more than a moose needs a hatrack.

We don’t need any more conmen promoting poorly planned residential housing, of the sort that the DALTON AGENCY’s clients like to foist on unsuspecting communities.

We don’t need any more no-bid contracts with grifters. We don't need advertising, branding and economic development by people who don't respect our history and nature, and who think the 450th is just another Superbowl, or "Stuporbowl."

Breach of fiduciary duty? Claiming to be a member of the Board of the “Stetson Kennedy Foundation” and “a Rotarian,” Dylan Rumrell (son of lawyer Richard G. Rumrell) introduced the group of Jacksonville business people, DALTON AGENCY AND INTERNATIONAL GLOBAL SOLUTIONS, of which he is putative team leader. It is a breach of Rumrell’s duty to the Stetson Kennedy Foundation for Dylan Rumrell to trade on Stetson Kennedy’s name, and that of his Foundation.

That’s disgusting.