Wednesday, February 25, 2015

City missed another grant application deadline; grant concerns muzzled: A tale of two meetings




Retiring State Rep. Ronald "Doc" Renuart, M.D. gently blew the whistle on the City of St. Augustine tonight, February 25, 2015 at the St. Johns County Legislative Delegation Meeting.
Thank you!
Thank you, Doc, for speaking out about the flummery, dupery and nincompoopery afflicting Our Nation's Oldest City!
While St. Augustine City Manager JOHN PATRICK REGAN, P.E. was speaking about a grant application, Rep. Renuart reminded him to apply on time this year -- last year, the City of St. Augustine was late in applying for a multi-million dollar grant for West Augustine utilities. Who knew?
Never heard about the missed deadline at any City meeting.
Another coverup?
Most of West Augustine lacks sewer service, resulting in e. coli contamination of drinking water, the sad and preventable sequelae of decades of invidious racist discrimination, pointed out by former UN Ambassador Andrew Young and Flagler College alumnus Jeremy Dean in their documentaries, "Crossing in St. Augustine" and "Dare Not Walk Alone."
This is not the first time our local governments have missed grant application deadlines.
Pitiful.
The City of St. Augustine, no model of public administration, has missed other grant application deadlines, including one for a Lightner roof replacement (delayed ten years due to then City Manager WILLIAM BRUCE HARRISS' nephew missing a deadline.
It missed another deadline last year, after I offered to help it win National Park Service technical assistance with global ocean rise for the Bayfront north of the Bridge of Lions, including the Castillo de San Marco. (PAUL WILLIAMSON could not get a couple letters from local organizations to complete the application on time, and City Manager JOHN PATRICK REGAN left me a message on his way to the airport to go to Spain on another junket saying the City would apply "next year.")
The City of St. Augustine has also paid out some tens of thousands of dollars to FRED FOX ENTERPRISES over the years for grant application "services," and in the past Commissioners were told the organization would receive ten percent of grant proceeds, which is not an allowable cost judder Title 41 of the U.S. Code and Code of Regulations.
This is something I was unable to tell Commissioners February 23, 2015 before the gavel was prematurely banged and I was rather abruptly told to sit down. Oy vey!
It appears that our tatterdemalion City of St. Augustine extralegal staff misled Mayor Nancy Shaver, once again: this time, they conflated a HUD Community Development Block Grant public hearing and a Fair Housing public hearing into one hearing, attempting to cabin my protected activity about two subjects into one three minute segment.
We forgive you, estimados pavos.
Don't do it again.
The whole world is watching.

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