County Administrator MICHAEL DAVID WANCHICK and political boss DAVID BERNARD SHOAR (f/k/a "HOAR", Sheriff of St. Johns County
Go to the St. Augustine Amphitheater tomorrow for the Farmer's Market or the Bob Dylan concert.
Check out the huge swath of trees killed by St. Johns County's Board of County Commissioners without ever seeking a permit from the City of St. Augustine.
They are at the northeast side of the property the county leases from the state, subject to an agreement not to kill trees without permission.
There have been "verbal conversations" between the city and county staff, but only after the murderous tree killing orgy.
Disgraceful.
Despicable.
Illegal.
County Administrator MICHAEL WANCHICK and County Attorney PATRICK McCORMACK must answer questions. Now.
Here's the e-mail I sent the City of St. Augustine:
RE: St. Johns County government tree-killing in apparent violation of St. Augustine City Code secs 25-53 and 25-56 (2015); enclosed St. Augustine Amphitheater lease (see paragraph 8) and SJC-FDEP Land Management Plan
Dear Messrs Birchim and Lippi:
1. It appears the St. Johns County government's recent tree-killing at our St. Augustine Amphitheater violated both our St. Augustine City Code section 28-56 and section 8 of the FDEP-SJC lease. I requested documents on this event pursuant to my Request No. 2015-82, to which Mr. Birchim replied that he had no documents, but had "verbal discussions" with county staff.
2. Please investigate the unpermitted cutting of a large swath of trees at the northeast end of the property leased by the FDEP to the County for the St. Augustine Amphitheater's own private campground, adjoining the State's campground. The County lease boundaries are established by the enclosed Lease and Management Plan between SJC and FDEP.
3. Kindly assess a fine against the St. Johns County Administrator and Board of County Commissioners in personam the maximum under St. Augustine City Code section 25-56, as amended by ordinance 2015-09, which adds joint and several liability for organizations and individuals performing and directing illegal work (25-53), does not recognize after-the-fact permits for protected trees and raises the price of illegal tree-cutting to the following fees for after-the-fact permits:
$100 for each tree three (3) inches or more but less than seven (7) inches dbh.
$200 for each tree seven (7) inches or more but less than twelve (12) inches dbh.
$400 for each tree twelve (12) inches or more but less than twenty (20) inches dbh.
$800 for each tree twenty (20) inches or more dbh.
http://www.staugustinegovernment.com/the-city/featured-stories-archive/documents/Ord2015-09.pdf
4. Do not show any favoritism toward St. Johns County as a government agency, for as Justice Louis Dembitz Brandeis wrote, dissenting in Olmstead v. United States, 277 U.S. 438, 485 (1928): "Decency, security and liberty alike demand that government officials shall be subjected to the same rules of conduct that are commands to the citizen. In a government of laws, existence of the government will be imperiled if it fails to observe the law scrupulously. Our Government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the Government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy."
5. Let justice be done.
6. Enclosed are the FDEP-SJC Lease and Land Management Plan for our St. Augustine Amphitheater.
7. As the Plan and FSU report reveal, this land is potential home to endangered species, including wood storks, piping plovers, Anastasia Island beach mice and loggerheads. In the words of Woodie Guthrie -- friends with my late mentor Stetson Kennedy -- "this land is our land…."
With kindest regards, I am,
Sincerely yours,
Ed
Ed Slavin
www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com
www.fourowls.blogspot.com
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