ON CITY COMMISSIONERS RUSHING TO PICK DONALD CRICHLOW FOR VACANCY: State Attorney General Opinion on Need to Notify Public of Controversial Agenda Items in Advance

Picking a new City Commissioner was not on last night's agenda.  The vacancy was not even expected to exist until February 18, the date Commissioner WILLIAM LEARY had announced earlier this month.
But then outgoing Commissioner WILLIAM LEARY offered to make things easier for his colleagues by resigning seven days early, enabling his colleagues to pick a successor last night, when the matter was not even on the agenda. 
LEARY's colleagues appreciated the favor. 
Earlier, St. Augustine Mayor Joseph L. Boles, Jr. expressed to desire vote in DONALD CRICHLOW before -- and without -- public comment.  "I've been lobbied enough," he said  All four of his colleagues refused to go along with Boles.
Then, after LEARY resigned and after public comment, the other three remaining commissioners joined Boles in the coronation of  controversial ex-Commissioner DONALD CRICHLOW, a man who has shown marked racial insensitivity and anti-Gay outbursts, while mocking those of us who stopped an illegal four-commissioner trip to Spain as "enemies of the city." 
Richard Milhous Nixon's ghost is back. See below.  
Our Florida Sunshine law does not expressly forbid what Commissioners did last night -- duking in DONALD CRICHLOW when the vote was not on the agenda.  Commissioners can add items to agendas.  It happens all the time.
However, the State Attorney General has opined that "In the spirit of the Sunshine law, the city commission should be sensitive to the community's concerns that it be allowed advance notice, and therefore, meaningful participation on controversial issues coming before the commission." AGO 03-53.  Full text here: 
Watch to see if CRICHLOW still lobbies PZB and HARB for his architectural clients, and brings clients to the City Commissioners' office to impress them. 
During CRICHLOW's prior Commission service (2002-2008), PZB and HARB meeting minutes actually refer to "Commisioner CRICHLOW" -- this is a blatant conflict of interest, corrupt and unseemly, although not prohibited by Florida's weak ethics laws, according to Florida's incurious Ethics Commission, which never asked CRICHLOW for a copy of his contracts in quo.
How intimidating to PZB and HARB members to have a City Commissioner -- member of the Board that hears appeals from PZB and HARB -- show up and represent architectural clients.