Controversial County Commissioner RONALD F. SANCHEZ eats a lot and talks about eating a lot, and talks a lot, often without thinking. Listen to him sometime. SANCHEZ would talk a starving dog off a meatwagon.
Thirteen days ago, Commissioner SANCHEZ proposed during Commissioners' comments erecting a parking garage for our St. Augustine Amphitheater.
SANCHEZ never checked with the City Manager, City Commissioners, City Planning and Zoning Department, Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Division of State Lands, Division of State Parks or Anastasia State Park Superintendent.
No one likes the idea. Not one person at the St. Augustine Farmers' Market liked the idea, and I asked people two Saturdays in a row. Not one person at the St. Augustine City Commission visioning meeting liked the idea. Not one person at the St. Augustine Beach Ciy Commission meeting liked the idea.
No one wants or needs a Parking Garage at this beautiful site. It would ruin the ambience and destroy beautiful old oak trees, which have been around for hundreds of years.
As my mother would say, "all of SANCHEZ' taste is in his mouth." The only people who would want a Parking Garage are architects, engineers and construction contractors. SANCHEZ evidently favors them (he is a former home builder), perhaps expecting campaign contributions if he runs for re-election next year.
My former boss, U.S. Senator Gary Warren Hart, once distributed a memo to his staff, advising them how to evaluate each legislative proposal before Congress. One of the key points was to ask: "Is it based on need, or greed?"
Like Gordon Gekko in the movie Wall Street, SANCHEZ must believe that "Greed is good."
SANCHEZ wants to add $1 to each ticket at each Amphitheater concert to subsidize his attempt to monopolize the market for Amphitheater parking, which could be held to violate the antitrust laws, subjecting the County to triple damages antitrust liability if it were sued by Anastasia Baptist Church, the Elks Lodge, and others who rent parking spaces for Amphitheater concerts.
SANCHEZ shows contempt for public opinion, our environmental values and our antitrust laws -- he thinks the St. Johns County government should be empowered to violate antitrust laws, monopolize event parking and destroy protected trees, in violation of its 30 year lease from the State of Florida for the Amphitheater, which forbids cutting a single tree or erecting any structure without state management plan approval.
Thanks to the Mumford & Sons concert, we're on the world stage now, with full credit to City and County staff for working together. It would be a shame if SANCHEZ persisted and if Pollstar magazine and other entertainment industry publications wrote about St. Augustine Amphitheater tree-killing and monopolization attempts instead of writing about the cool place, one of the top small venues in the country, which regularly hosts national acts (as well as former President Bill Clinton, sans saxaphone).
SANCHEZ is wrong. What do you reckon?
Prediction: SANCHEZ's hare-brained Amphiteater Parking Garage scheme will die (whether SANCHEZ seeks re-election or not). See E-mail from State of Florida, below.
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