Two years ago, Florida School for the Deaf and Blind illegally paid lawyer SIDNEY FRANKLYN. ANSBACHER to lobby the Florida legislature for eminent domain legislation that would have destroyed St. Augustine's historic Nelmar Terrace and Fullerwood neighborhoods.
We, the People, defeated SIDNEY FRANKLYN ANSBACHER, handing a Pyrric victory to ANSBACHER and longtime FSDB Chairman WILLIAM L. PROCTOR, a/k/a "MASSA PROCTOR," our then-Representative and Flagler College's Chancellor. The legislature provided that no eminent domain power could ever be used against Fullerwood and Nelmar Terrace, and that no eminent domain could be used in St. Augustine for ten years. Finis.
Monday night, St. Augustine Commissioners heard for the first time that it was illegal under Florida law to build anything on top of a landfill, ending SIDNEY FRANKLYN ANSBACHER's client's dream of building a Children's Museum and a profit-making acquarium at the suth end of Riberia stret, on the site of the longtime illegal dump operate by the City of St. Augustine in an African-American nighborhood.
That land must become a park.
Meanwhile, the Small Business Administration Inspector General must initiate a civil, criminal or administrative investigation of lawyer SIDNEY FRANKLYN ANSBACHER's clients, who stated on the Internet that they were "donating" the land for the St. Augustine Aquarium, which they did not own and never owned. SHAWN and KATHY HIESTER own St. Augustine Aquarium LLC and Marine Consevation Partners, which had engaged a local law firm and local architect in pursuit of a project that U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) attorney Linda George told me yesterday could never be approved.
Why?
First, neither SBA nor its Certified Development Companies (CDCs) nor amy banks will ever lend money for projects on top of landfills.
Second, neither SBA nor its CDCs lend moeny for Planned Unit Developments, which the HEISTERs, the Aquarium and the Children's Museum had planned to present to the City Commission in May.
Their lawyer was SIDNEY FRANKLYN ANSBACHER.
Did they almost get away with a fraud on the public and a fraud on the SBA and banks?
Credit is due to Lincolnville activists, who once again have won.
Discredit is due SHAWN HEISTER, who had no detectible experience with running aquariums, puffed his putative "partners," sought to buy city land and represented that he already owned it on the Internet, SHAWN HEISTER previously convinced the City of Pembroke Pines to outsource some 200 government jobs to his profit-making corporation, winning a no-bid contract in a secret "shade meeting," an apparent Sunshine violation because neither labor negotiations nor litigation was involved. The offices of the City of Pembroke Pines is closed on all Fridays. How odd that much-touted outsourcing of government jobs to the private sector would have such deletrious effects on service.
Discredit is due to our City Attorney, RONALD WAYNE BROWN, who once again has shown himself mediocre, at best, failing to point these things out. BROWN is the former law partner of GEOFFREY DOBSON in DOBSON & BROWN, which long represented both local governments and developers, a walking conflict of interest. Citizens defeated DOBSON & BROWN when they told our mosquito control commission that a $1.8 million no-bid helicopter purchase was "sole source." The helicopter was not "sole source," nor was it needed, and the contract was cancelled, with full refund. RONALD WAYNE BROWN did not return two telephone messages yesterday.
BROWN is a likable guy, reminiscent of Professor Harold Hill in "The Music Man." BROWN rides a motorcycle in his spare time, and he served and contributed to the St. Augstuine Beach's Charter Review Committee, which recommended a permanent 35 foot height limit on buildings. BROWN knows government law.
But color BROWN colorless, and AWOL in this case -- both BROWN and Assistant City Attorney ISABELLE LOPEZ should have uncovered the law and facts and then advised and protected the city, BEFORE a Letter of Intent was signed on his letterhead. This was truly Amateur Hour.
Next time, we expect better legal work and better vetting work!
Too often, our American governments -- including our Nation's Oldest City -- are victimized by crooks and schnooks, oligopolists, ogres, tree-killing, wetland-filling "developers," Bib Business, and avaricious vendors.
Let's get tough on Corporate Crime in the Suites, please!
From this day forward.
Now.
SIDNEY FRANKLYN ANSBACHER is a wolf in sheep's clothing. He is both a corporate shark and legal scholar, with numerous publications and Bar activities. He earned an LL.M. in 1985 from the University of Arkansas, and righty brags of his extensive environmental and land use planning law experience on his Upchurch, Bailey & Upchurch website.
Having written environmental lending standards for Florida banks, SIDNEY FRANKLYN ANSBACHER -- of all people -- should have known that the landfill PUD project was what Lincolnville activists called a "non-starter."
Yet SYDNEY FRANKLYN ANSBACHER billed the HIESTERs and their investors for environmental and land use planning advice that left egg on the face of his law firm, his clients, the city of St. Augustine, two City Attorneys, two financial institutions that considered the loan -- while leaving once again the impression that local land use lawyers are crooks and that local officials are babes in the woods who need better protection against schnooks and con artists. In Florida, one does not need a license to call oneself a "developer."
Peripatetic perseverting perspiring Falstaffian lawyer SIDNEY F. ANSBACHER told Commissioners that he was once a State of Florida environmental attorney. Wearing no tie and no jacket, only an orange shirt, ANSBACHER said he once wore a white Afro and weighed 150 pounds as a government attorney (or so he told Commissioners last month), noting that he no longer has very much hair and weighs twice as much. It's all about SID, you see -- his opinions, his experience, his expertise -- we are supposed to do what he says. What a waste of a good education.
Whenever SIDNEY FRANKLYN ANSBACHER comes before a government agency from now on, the board members should consider the fact that he is a recidivist -- ANSBACHER prevaricates for a living. ANSBACHER engaged in illegal lobbying that would have destroyed two neighborhoods (Nelmar Terrace and Fullerwood), and ANSBACHER engaged in unfair and deceptive trade practices that might have destroyed a third (Lincolnville).
Local environmental and land use planning lawyers like SIDNEY F. ANSBACHER, JAMES GEORGE WHITEHOUSE, DOUGLAS NELSON BURNETT and the late GEORGE MORRIS McCLURE are a stench in the nostrils of Our Nation's Oldest City.
They seldom appear before local boards and commissions without representing dodgy developers with greed-centered plans that are contrary to the public interest.
They misrepresent facts and law.
They talk down to our elected officials. They have contempt for democracy.
They get angry when their sins find them out.
Foiing them is fun.
"We band of brothers" and sisters here in St. Augustine have perfected the technology for foiling such flummery, dupery and nincompoopery. Our leaders listen to us.
We are not threatened by their works and pomps, their testa-lying experts, their technological turkeys or the termagants who enable them (like the histrionic SBA CDC Vice President in Jacksonville who lied to me and threatened me yesterday, claiming it was "harassment" to send her E-mails about her putative loan client's flummery). She mocked me as pathetic for asking questions about a project she heard was "dead." She threatened to report me to "the police" for harassment, e.g., First Amendment protected activity in questioning an SBA CDC. She proceeded to ask who I was, and I told her, identifying the title of this blog. She said, "That's nothin'"
Maybe so.
Her name is KRISTEN TACKETT, and she is Vice President of FLORIDA FIRST CAPITAL FINANCE CORPORATION (FFCF), an SBA CDC. SBA has her name and number, and knows of her threats and flummery.
The threats from TACKETT are bizarre.
Deja vu all over again?
Eighteen days ago, I spoke with SHAWN HEISTER, back on March 27, 2014, about his Aquarium project, after he read my FOIA request to SBA and called me out of the blue.
"Who are you?," HIESTER loudly demanded.
"Who are you?," indeed. I told him.
We talked for some 90 minutes.
HIESTER's wannabee lenders, including TACKETT, have not yet answered any questions. Did HEISTER get money from banks based on prevarications? We don't know yet. SBA is processing my FOIA requests.
Is HIESTER threatening to sue the City of St. Augustine?
We don't know yet.
HIESTER lawyer SIDNEY F. ANSBACHER has not returned a telephone message.
SHAWN HIESTER was angry Monday night.
He may be impliedly threatening a lawsuit.
If he sues, our Nation's Oldest City will countersue, and win sanctions for frivolous civil litigation.
Meanwhile, SBA OIG may investigate HIESTER's scheming. TACKETT is sure to be interviewed. So is ANSBACHER. So are other local professionals, who should have known better than to plan two buildings on top of a landfill
In response to HIESTER and TACKETT, Who are we?
We are We the People of St. Augustine.
It is our town and our time.
We are being heard and heeded.
No longer do dodgy "developers" like ROBERT MICHAEL GRAUBARD, WALLACE DEVLIN or SHAWN HIESTER get their way automatically.
No longer do cackling corporate crooks get their way here.
This is the City of St. Augustine -- it is not Palatka.
Yes, "the Bohemians have won," to quote the late hick hack St. Augustine City Manager WILLIAM POMAR.
Yes, our leaders listened, again.
Yes, we can.
How cool is that?
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