1. Please supply tomorrow morning a PDF of a single security camera photo of the nongovernmental TDC members and staff talking with one another, standing up, behind the dais before the last TDC meeting began.
2. Please respond to my May 22, 2013 concerns about breach of contract, diversity, antitrust concerns and the expiration of the VCB contract and rebidding of the contract.
3. Please place these matters on the TDC agenda for the September 16, 2013 meeting.
4. Please see below -- my May 22, 2013 letter is now an adoptive admission and admission by silence..
Thank you.
With kindest regards, I am,
Sincerely yours,
Ed Slavin
Clean Up City of St. Augustine, Florida
www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com
Box 3084
St. Augustine, Florida 32085-3084
904-377-4998
-----Original Message-----
From: easlavin
To: pmccormack
Sent: Wed, May 22, 2013 3:48 pm
Subject: Possible VCB breach of contract; diversity and antitrust concerns; contract expiration later this year; competitive bidding requirements
Dear Messrs McCormack, Wanchick and Hastings:
Please investigate whether VCB is in material breach of its contract with SJCBCC by:
1. Discussing pricing in meetings, in violation of possible antitrust laws. On May 7, 2013, at the SJC WGV Convention Center, MMGY Vice Chairman Peter Yesawich, Ph.D. urged VCB members to raise their prices. MMGY advises some 200 tourism enterprises in some ten countries. This advice to raise prices is, at best, unseemly. Dr. Yesawich's advice may expose VCB and SJC to antitrust liability concerns; moreover, it is wrong for government money to disbursed to a contractor (MMGY) whose Vice Chairman urges competitors to raise their prices. From this day forward, VCB and its contractor must obey antitrust laws. Competition is our economy's fundamental policy -- we don't need government-sponsored administered pricing (or price-fixing and monopolistic practices).
2. Violating the spirit and letter of St. Augustine and St. Augustine Beach Fair Housing laws re: sexual orientation and gender identity, e.g. by not advertising our non-discrimination policies and by not projecting a Gay-friendly image consistent with our cities' values, as declared unanimously by elected officials. Sadyly, VCB has a history of anti-Gay actions, as when its call center told a Gay man from Austin, Texas to go elsewhere for his vacation.
3. Violating federal Civil Rights laws and the Fair Housing Act by using nearly all-white figures in its marketing brochures, entirely leaving out Indians, with only a few happy African-American slaves and few Hispanics, during this, the 500th anniversary of Spanish Florida. There are some 199 images of white people, no Native Americans, four Hispanics and eleven African-Americans (mostly slaves) in the VCB's latest travel brochure on our area. Please review pertinent civil rights case law and advise VCB of its legal, moral and ethical duties.
4. Pointedly refusing to advertise in Miami, apparently based upon MMGY's prejudices. This is a poor reflection on our County's commitment to diversity. In targetting tourists to recruit, MMGY staffer Cindy Muretta refused to say why in public, but she earlier said that marketing is a question of "who you want to invite to your party." We don't need those decisions contaminated by secrecy and bigotry -- it makes us look bad.
5. Targeting only the richest 50% of Americans, when we average 40% vacancy rates in local lodging. We are all God's children, and we don't need MMGY to tell us to "redline" tourists who are not high-income.
6. Ignoring African-American, Native American, Hispanic, GLBT and youth markets, based on shallow research and superficial assumptions by MMGY, the longtime consultant.
7. Contracting with MMGY, the largest international travel consulting firm, which has potential conflicts of interest, including giving advice to Disney. Please obtain a complete MMGY client list and perform suitable conflicts checks. Please see that future contracts have full competitive bidding and transparency, and no conflicts of interest.
8. Not focusing advertising on our City's 450th commemoration heritage tourism goals, e.g., increasng African-American and Hispanic tourism, especially from Miami. Instead of advertising in Miami, money is being spent recruiting tourists from The Villages, Savannah and Augusta.
9. Wasting bed tax money on dubious, high-priced consulting contracts, e.g., MMGY. How much money has MMGY ever received over the years, including commissions?
10. Not complying promptly with legal and contractual requirements to respond to public record requests -- my May 20, 2013 request to VCB for copies of VCB's Antitrust and Civil Rights compliance policies have not yet yielded one (1) VCB document -- not even a cogent or coherent answer as to whether VCB even has any compliance policies. Does it?
This multi-milllion dollar government contractor operation needs to have its consciousness raised, and quickly. Our 450th and 500th commemorations are in progress, and VCB is not advertising in Miami due to some horribly bad advice from MMGY -- whatever basis MMGY has to give such advice must be shared with the public now. Our City leaders were not aware that VCB was not advertising in Miami -- this shows a level of secrecy that requires an agonizing reappraisal of the nature, structure and performance of VCB and whether it should have another contract (and whether MMGY should have another contract).
I look forward to talking and meeting with you, and with the BCC and two City Commissions on these issues in contemplation of whether VCB's and MMGY's contracts should be renewed later this year, and if so, under what terms to protect the public interest, especially in diversity, civil rights and antitrust compliance. See my blog post at www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com
Thank you.
With kindest regards, I am,
Sincerely yours,
Ed Slavin
Clean Up City of St. Augustine, Florida
www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com
Box 3084
St. Augustine, Florida 32085-3084
904-377-4998
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