Growling "Grow Up," MAYOR JOSEPH LESTER BOLES, JR. Dismisses EEO and Sunshine Concerns in City Attorney Hire

Without anything on the agenda, without an ad in the Florida Bar Journal, the City of St. Augustine abruptly hired last night as City Attorney the current Assistant Attorney, Isabelle Lopez. The motion was approved unanimously.
Once again, the City of St. Augustine has hired someone for one of the top three posts -- the only people it hires -- without proper Sunshine notice or public discussion.
Once again, the City of St. Augustine has filled a top post without a proper EEO search.
The same thing happened when the current and prior City Managers were hired in 1998 and 2010.
The same thing happened when the current City Attorney was hired twice (temporarily and permanently) in 2008.
In contrast, there was a proper search when the current City Clerk was hired.
When I filled in a card to speak and handed it in, it was ignored and not handed to Mayor BOLES.
When I raised my hand to speak, it was ignored.
When I said, "no EEO search," eight-year incumbent MAYOR JOSEPH LESTER BOLES, JR. growled, "Grow up!"
The last time an adult said that to me was in 1978, when billionaire Alabama coal operator GARY NEIL DRUMMOND sat at a table with legendary investigative reporter Charles C. Thompson, II and me at Duke Ziebert's restaurant in Washington, D.C. I told Mr. DRUMMOND that it would be a misprision of a felony if he knew about fraud by other coal operators and did not report them to the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Department of Justice. In much the same contemptuous tone as Mayor BOLES, DRUMMOND said, "Grow up, Ed."
For the record, I like Isabelle Lopez -- a lot! In fact, in 2011 she was recommended to me as counsel in a potential civil lawsuit: her then-employer, a private law firm, did not allow her to take such actions. She is a competent attorney. That's not the point.
The point is the City does not comply with Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, whose passage we celebrated on July 2.
It is unfair to Ms. Lopez and to the reputation of the City of St. Augustine not to have done a proper EEO search and Florida Bar Journal ad.
The same hopelessly provincial considerations that led the City to refuse to do a proper EEO search in selecting a City Manager led to the refusal to do one for the City Attorney.
Any attorney who was interested in the job should have been able to apply, just as anyone interested in the City Clerk's job could apply.
Refusal to post and advertise top job openings is pregnant with the reality that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission needs to investigate the City for pattern and practice race, sex, disability and age discrimination.
There are no African-Americans in management.
The City has some 350 employees and a $50 million budget for a city of 14,000.
There are only two of twelve top managers who are women (including Ms. Lopez).
Failure of a city government with a long history of intentional racial discrimination to advertise job openings is deeply offensive.
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said St. Augustine was "the most lawless city in America." Sixteen rabbis were arrested here standing up for justice. Six of them returned for a visit last month.
One of them pointedly advised local residents to be "pests for justice." That's how God made me. We stand up for our own.
Just when we think we've made progress, the City Commission shows contempt for democracy and civil rights.
In the immortal words of Justice Robert Houghwot Jackson, our prosecutor at Nuremberg, "What does it all mean?"
This decision stinks.
In the words of President Harry S Truman, Mayor BOLES, "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen."