Crony capitalism

Professor Robert Reich, former Labor Secretary, says crony capitalism is destroying our Nation and our economy. There's a $53 million annual City of St. Augustine budget, $25 million annual St. Augustine Beach City budget, $500 million annual St. Johns County budget -- no Inspectors General to root out waste, fraud, abuse, misfeasance, malfeasance, nonfeasance, flummery, dupery, nincompoopery, political patronage, no-bid contracts and other forms of crony capitalism.

$80,000 For 11-Page Document? City Visioning Process Under Fire and Questioning: ST. AUGUSTINE RECORD INVESTIGATION By Sheldon Gardner

April 26, 2014 Visioning Small Group Breakout Meeting at Treasury


St. Augustine visioning: $80K
1995 vs. 2015
Posted: May 30, 2015 - 9:22pm

By SHELDON GARDNER
sheldon.gardner@staugustine.com
After nearly two years and about $80,000, St. Augustine’s visioning process is almost finished.

What taxpayers are getting for their money is an 11-page document. The document is intended as a map for St. Augustine’s future and a method for preserving the community’s character.

The plan focuses on parking and traffic solutions as the top priorities. The plan also stresses the need for balance in the community between the interest of tourists, residents and other community members in decision making.

“We don’t feel done,” said Vice Mayor Roxanne Horvath, who chaired the visioning committee. “We’re going to be reviewing this every year, hopefully.”

Horvath spearheaded the effort to refresh the city’s vision. The last visioning was done in 1995 and produced a more than 100-page document with a slew of projects and goals to accomplish.

While Horvath is happy with the city’s progress, not everyone is. And some residents hope this plan is actually implemented and has some teeth.

Resident Ilan Wolffberg has attended many of the visioning meetings.

“I think this is disappointing,” Wolffberg said. “I don’t see anything in this that says there will be anything different or exciting.”

In the meantime, the consultant/facilitator who is being paid for this work thinks the city is getting a great plan for the future.

1995 vs. 2015

The 1995 visioning started in 1993 in Charleston, S.C., when St. Augustine officials and other visited to get ideas. Officials wanted to study a city dealing with similar needs: Balancing the interests of tourists and residents.

The 1995 project, which included Mayor Greg Baker, emerged from that trip. The steering committee in 1995 received feedback from 10 committees focused on specific areas, including traffic and tourism. More than 200 people participated in the process, and the project developed more 200 strategies, according to the city. Those strategies included encouraging use of U.S. 1 instead of San Marco Avenue for north and southbound through traffic. Another strategy was to keep the Bridge of Lions to two traffic lanes.

Project updates were done in 1996 and 1998, which were progress reports on the goals the vision wanted to accomplish. About 52 percent of strategies that were the city’s’ responsibility had been accomplished, according to the city. Two years later, about 81 percent of those strategies had been finished.

The latest vision plan is much smaller. It focuses on four strategic priorities and goals to help the city get there. The focus areas are livability, character, authenticity and vitality. About 30 goals and objectives are listed in the plan.

The visioning effort began about a year and a half ago and is essentially finished, though the City Commission could suggest changes.

The commission will also likely provide their thoughts about establishing a comprehensive mobility plan for the city, one of visioning’s goals.

The cost of visioning to the city is expected to be about $79,231 once the final payment is made to Analytica. Meeting supplies cost about $1,068. Sign language interpreters for the meetings cost about $3,662. The remaining amount went to the facilitator.

The money is coming from the city’s general fund.

Herb Marlowe’s firm is being paid $74,500 for facilitating the effort. He is part of the firm, Analytica.

He said residents of St. Augustine are getting a plan for their money.

“It’s a pathway, a map to the future, that if followed and adopted ... will create the community folks want to have,” Marlowe said.

The plan

The vision plan came about after about a year and a half of work by the committee. The work involved about two dozen meetings and review of more than 500 survey responses, as well as conversations with people in the area and town hall meetings.

“Traffic and parking were top of mind in every conversation and with every group,” according to the visioning plan. “No single solution will eliminate this barrier. Therefore, we recommend that the first priority of the city be developing and implementing a holistic solution that encompasses parking solutions, alternative means of transport, creative uses of existing assets and accessibility.”

The plan also encourages a system for reviewing the visioning plan.

Among other things, the vision plan is intended to make St. Augustine a better place to live, protect the city’s features and historical character and to enhance economic activity, according to the plan.

Goals in the plan include improving mobility, encouraging growth of small businesses and experiences that are historically accurate, improving the city’s entrance corridors and maintaining a healthy ecosystem. Making establishing a comprehensive mobility plan the top priority in the city is one of the objectives, as well as establishing a heritage tourism task force and developing a comprehensive utility and infrastructure plan.

Some more specific objectives are eliminating overhead cabling and eliminating billboards.

‘Some teeth’

Residents had different opinions on the visioning process.

John Versaggi, who also serves on the Flagler College town and committee and also attended a visioning workshop, said private sector plans that he has had experience with have ended up on the shelf.

“I hope that in this visioning process we put some teeth in the plan and adopt it and live with it,” Versaggi said. “Not just call it mission accomplished and put it away.”

Versaggi had not read the final plan but said he believes having a vision for the city is important, and approved of the $80,000.

One resident not satisfied with the visioning process is Wolffberg.

Wolffberg, who has attended many of the visioning meetings, lived inside the city limits when visioning began. Now he lives outside of the city but still in St. Johns County.

Wolffberg said things in the plan point to areas that the city already knew were problems, such as the focus on mobility. One of the vision’s ideas is to create a mobility committee. He said when he thinks of a vision he thinks there would be a plan envisioning more drastic changes.

Marlowe said the point of a vision plan is to express a community’s set of values. He said the steering committee worked hard to listen to the community, and the themes reflect what St. Augustine citizens wanted.

“And that’s really critical in a vision plan,” Marlowe said. “The whole basis of this plan is not so much a specific this or that ... You’re not getting into the details because to do that is to really cross boundaries. That’s the work of the commission.”

The committee

The Visioning 2014 & Beyond steering committee has evolved since the process began. Some members dropped out and have been replaced. The point was to find people in the community who represented a variety of interests, including businesses and residents and institutions.

About eight people participated through the entire process, including Grant Misterly, a St. Augustine resident and former candidate for City Commission.

Misterly said one thing visioning accomplished was pulling together a group of about 20 people over time with different goals and concerns, and bringing forth from that a cohesive plan. He said solutions for traffic problems was one of his top priorities. St. Augustine should start taking a comprehensive approach to solving those problems instead of “playing Whac-A-Mole” by fixing problems here and there, he said.

He said he believes the plan did a good job of capturing people’s goals and concerns.

“It really kind of lays out a map for the future of St Augustine.”

Wolfgang Schau, a Davis Shores resident and member of the steering committee, said he believes the group needed a facilitator to accomplish its goals.

“My opinion is that without an outside facilitator we would have not gotten where we are today,” Schau said. “It’s a big milestone achieved now but we do not consider the work as completely (done).”

The document is not the end goal for the committee, Horvath said.

However, it does represent the finish line for the officially sanctioned process by the City Commission.

Horvath said she wants the city to move forward with task forces in keeping with the vision plan to move forward with the changes. But the most important is the comprehensive mobility plan.

As for the money, Horvath said she thinks $80,000 will have been well spent.

“It’s a plan, it’s the map, it’s the priorities that have come from the different input from community and the …committee, prioritizing and trying to spell out what we want to try to accomplish in the next few years,” Horvath said.

HAZZARD COUNTY, FLORI-DUH? A MODEST PROPOSAL TO CHANGE THE NAME OF ST. JOHNS COUNTY TO APPEAL TO WICKED EVIL DEVELOPERS

(Satire alert)

A few weeks ago, I proposed, in satire, "St. Philistine," an artificial island for swells, thugs, mugs and one-percenters.

Tonight, inspired by my old friend Boomer Winfrey's column and my instanter research on the case of House of Bryant, Inc. v. City of Lake City, Tennessee, No.: 3:14-CV-93-TAV-HBG (E.D. Tenn. 2014)(Judge Varlen May 28, 2014 order denying preliminary injunction against City of Lake City changing its name to "Rocky Top," after legislation was signed by the Tennessee Governor and passed by the Tennessee Legislature), I propose the following:

St. Johns County could change its name to "HAZZARD COUNTY" in appreciation for the tv series, "The Dukes of Hazzard" without infringing on intellectual property rights. Lake City, Tennessee is now known as "Rocky Top," by action of the Governor, Legislature and City Council. This renaming took place despite the songwriters' federal court claims of "likelihood of confusion and/or trademark infringement, false designation or false description, unfair competition, passing off, false advertising, declaratory judgment establishing likelihood of dilution, dilution, willful and/or exceptional conduct, unlawful taking, deceptive trade practices, common law trademark infringement, Tennessee dilution and injury to business reputation, civil conspiracy, and other claims not yet discovered…"

What if we change the name of St. Johns County to HAZZARD COUNTY, as an homage to "THE DUKES OF HAZZARD" and its comical Southern corruption?

We could bring in new revenue without resort to a 16.66% sales tax increase!

By rebranding itself as "HAZZARD COUNTY, corrupt St. Johns County could thus appeal to developers worldwide with better branding on its peculiar institutions.

What better way to market our county's unique brand of flummery, dupery, nincompoopery, misfeasance, malfeasance, nonfeasance, waste, fraud, abuse, no-bid contracts, clear-cutting, overdevelopment, bribery, chicanery, Kluckery and general Republican degeneracy and Democratic febrility and senility?

Having sold its wares to dishonest developers for decades (remember World Golf Village and Alan Roberts and a $16.9 million St. Johns County Convention Center adjoining the MARRIOTT)?

St. Johns County could take it to another level, inspired by Sheriff ROSCOE P. COLTRANE and BOSS J.D. HOGG and the television program, "THE DUKES OF HAZZARD" (1979-1985).

Of course, Sheriff DAVID BERNARD SHOAR and County Administrator MICHAEL DAVID WANCHICK make COLTRANE and HOGG look like pikers.

We have much better-educated, nuanced and interesting crooks and schnooks than the Hollywood stereotypes in the DUKES OF HAZZARD. Guys like ROBERT MICHAEL GRAUBARD and assorted criminals and developers from all over the world, represented by the ilk of the late developer mouthpiece GEORGE MORRIS McCLURE, who was tossed out of ROGERS TOWERS law firm for being too crooked. (Speaking of developer mouthpieces, our corrupt County officials are now giving them "incentives" to build office buildings -- like voting "incentives" for robbers! On what theory? There's not enough clear cutting, wetland filling and wildlife killing that developer mouthpieces need incentives?

In real life, Sheriff DAVID BERNARD SHOAR's evil works and pomps are reported in The New York Times, PBS Frontline, Dateline NBC, Good Morning America and The Guardian, not to mention Dr. Phil.

And there was no GEORGE MORRIS McCLURE character on the DUKES OF HAZZARD -- his closest fictional avatar was SNIDELHY WHIPLASH.

But, mutatis mutandis, "HAZZARD COUNTY, FLORIDA" could complete its sell to corrupt developers by co-sponsoring not only the dumb 'ole waterslide that supercilious consultant proposed in 2009 as part of the County's $300,000 “Tourism Master Plan,” which was developed by an international consulting firm after a “quick driving trip” around St. Johns County, as the St. Augustine Record reported September 24, 2008. It initially recommended a water slide park, eschewing African-American, Hispanic and GLBT history, and mentioning nothing about the proposed St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore, first proposed by Mayor Walter Fraser, Senator Claude Pepper, et al. in 1939.

Changing our name to HAZZARD COUNTY, St. Johns County could then compete with the developers who inspired the renaming of Lake City, Tennessee as Rocky Top, Tennessee, with the following (taken from Judge Thomas Varlen's 2014 opinion), noting the developers being developers, and including city and county officials and their Bubba buddies, promised:

lavish development, investment, and construction if the city were to rename itself” [Id. at 3]. Those developments include spending an estimated $147.425 million to construct, in four phases, a 3-D interactive theater, a train ride, a laser-tag arena, a 1,500-seat theater, a Rocky Top Sweets & Candies Emporium, various merchandising (clothing, toys, books, etc.), a river-pirate themed restaurant, a water park, a train depot, a loading dock and shopping center, a functioning train called the Rocky Top Express that will travel to the University of Tennessee during football season, a hotel and banquet hall, a Rocky Top sports arena, an office and administrative building, and an amusement park [Id.]. The name change was presented to the Tennessee General Assembly and Senate, and both approved [See Doc. 19]. At the hearing, the parties informed the Court that the governor has signed the bill authorizing the name change, thus leaving only a city council vote to effectuate the name change [Id.].


Our County could complete the picture proposed by the dodgy "Rocky Top, Tennessee" developers with an International Corruption Museum at World Golf Village (to be inaugurated by the dodgy U.S.-Spain Council?). There's already a corruption museum in the Ukraine and one planned in Albany, New York.

Of course, the Rocky Top developers, being greedy and ethically challenged (just like our local developers), went ahead and infringed on trademarked and copyrighted material despite the lawsuit, so their activities were enjoined by Judge Varlen earlier this year.

Bad developer, no consumer ripoffs!,

The renaming of Lake City, Tennessee as "Rocky Top" co-opted one of the state songs, also the name of an FBI undercover operation, which Wikipedia reports: "resulted in over 50 convictions[2] and the incarceration of several politicians, most notably state House Majority Leader, Democrat[3] Tommy Burnett. Two targets of the investigation committed suicide: Tennessee Secretary of State Gentry Crowell (in December 1989, just before he was scheduled to testify for a third time before a federal grand jury) and long-time State Representative Ted Ray Miller of Knoxville (after being charged with bribery).[1][2] Following the scandal, Tennessee established limits on political contributions and placed new restrictions on lobbying.[2]"

What do y'all reckon?

Would it be more evocative, attractive and truthful for devilish developers and energumen self-aggrandizing commissioners to rename our county something less saintly than St. Johns County? How about HAZZARD COUNTY, FLORI-DUH?

Full disclosure: Rocky Top is partly located in Anderson County, Tennessee, where our Appalachian Observer newspaper was located in the county seat of Clinton. On July 4, 1981, Publisher Ernest F. Phillips and I distributed our "Prospectus" in Lake City (now Rocky Top). We promised to hold local governments accountable, and we did. Sheriff DENNIS O. TROTTER, demented, corrupt Democratic Sheriff of Anderson County, Tennessee, was arrested by the FBI less than three (3) years later and served four (4) years in the penitentiary.


The New York Times


State's Attorney RALPH JOSEPH LARIZZA and Sheriff DAVID BERNARD SHOAR f/k/a "HOAR"

Train-hater?

Retired Judge ROBERT KEITH MATHIS, who helped cover up the Michelle O'Connell shooting case for District Attorney RALPH JOSEPH LARIZZA, showed his prejudices again earlier today, commenting on a Carl Hiassen column: "olddog 05/30/15 - 08:27 am 22If Ed Ball
If Ed Ball, then president of FEC, couldn't make a profit running passenger trains, this group doesn't stand a chance. The biggest question is "who on earth wants to go from Miami to Orlando, or vice versa?". I can't imagine why anyone would want to go to either place, but if they did, why the train? The Orlando airport is not a hub, like Atlanta, so why fly from there instead of Miami? Why take a train to Miami so you can get mugged. But wait, you can get to Miami, rent a car and get carjacked! Now it makes sense." Cranky old ex-Judge MATHIS opposes energy-efficient passenger rail. Is there anything this cranky old man approves of (other than his bitter-segregationist-judge father)?

IT'S OUR MONEY: Florida Tax Funds Invested in DOW MUSEUM OF HISTORIC HOMES -- From Secretary of State Spreadsheet Received 5/21/2015

Speculator DAVID BARTON CORNEAL describes the DOW MUSEUM OF HISTORIC HOMES as "the heart of St. Augustine." Kenneth Worcester Dow gave the Museum to the Daytona Museum of Arts and Sciences -- with his art collection -- on the agreement it would be preserved.

As William Wordsworth wrote, "we have given our hearts away, a sordid boon. Getting and spending we lay waste our powers." The Daytona MOAS should be investigated for breach of fiduciary duty. The City of St. Augustine should deny the proposed hotel in HP-1. It's our money -- here is documentation from the Florida Secretary of State of some of the $2 million invested with state tax funds in OUR precious DOW MUSEUM OF HISTORIC HOMES -- sold to a speculator for only $1.7 million:



$350,000, 2002
Colonial St. Augustine Exhibit

PROPERTY: A one-block area of St. Augustine bordered by St. George, Bridge, and Cordova Streets; consisting of 10 houses, courthouses and gardens, existing today as Old St. Augustine Village, an historic site owned by the Museum of Arts and Sciences.
PROJECT: Funding is requested to develop a major comprehensive exhibition program to interpret the resources of the Village block as part and parcel of the important historical events that took place in St. Augustine. "Colonial St. Augustine: First America" will provide a seamless educational experience that interprets the area's history in a variety of ways by linking interactives and video elements in the historic structures with authentic artifacts and thematic exhibitions that interpret various periods in the history of St. Augustine. In addition, the Museum will offer educational programs, tours, special events, living history opportunities, workshops and specially developed Fl history curriculum for 4th & 5th graders as an integral part of the overall exhibition program.
RECOMMENDATION: Delete marketing costs and make a substantial contribution to the exhibit project.

Development and installation of a comprehensive exhibition program to interpret the resources of the Old St. Augustine Village historic site to include:
a. Video program production;
b. Interactive and multimedia hardware;
c. Interactive kiosks and cases;
d. Interpretive programming; and
e. Exhibit installation, materials, wall murals, and text panels.

$425,000, 2000
Property: A one-acre site in the oldest section of St. Augustine containing nine important structures, including Spanish Colonial period and Territorial period houses and significant archaeological features such as the Rosario Defense Line (c. 1750) and portions of a colonial period cemetery (pre-1750). The village when complete will feature permanent and changing exhibition galleries in each of the houses for Florida history collections, historic house tours, and a host of Florida history education programs. Six of the nine structures are planned to open to the public in April 1999.

Project: This final phase will rehabilitate the last three of the nine houses; the Spear Coach House (c.1872); the Worcester House (c. 1899); and the Rose House (c. 1905). Work will include: selective demolition; repair or replacement of roofing, gutters and downspouts, brick piers and chimneys, wood siding and trim; repair of porches, stairs, handrails, floors; restoration of windows, doors, interior plaster; installation of insulation, electrical, HVAC, and plumbing systems; painting; site work; architectural services.

Recommendation: No change to the scope of work. Make a substantial contribution to the project.

a. Restoration/rehabilitation of the Spear Coach House, Worcester House and Rose House structures to include:
1. Selective demolition;
2. Repair or replacement of roofing, gutters and downspouts, brick piers and chimneys, wood siding and trim;
3. Repair of porches, stairs, handrails, floors;
4. Restoration of windows, doors, interior plaster;
5. Installation of insulation, electrical, HVAC, and plumbing systems;
6. Painting;
7. Site work; and
8. Architectural services.


$30,000, 1999
Property: The Carpenter's House is a part of the square block of buildings assembled by Kenneth Dow which the Museum of Arts and Sciences is transforming into a house museum village. The house itself is a frame vernacular building constructed in the 1880's and is on its original site at the center of the complex. It will be use as a visitor's host and orientation center as well as library and docent reception facility.

Project: The project will complete the building's rehabilitation and includes repairs to structure and finishes, as well as the installation of new systems.

Recommendation: Contribute to project.

A. Rehabilitation of the building for use as a museum orientation center to include:
1. Repairs to structure and finishes;
2. Installation of new systems; and
B. Direct project administrative expenses not to exceed 10% of the total Project cost.


$475,000, 1999
Property: This phase of the St. Augustine Historic Museum Center addresses three buildings, the Territorial Period Canova de ì
Medici House built in 1839, the Star General Store, 1899, and the home of novelist William Dean Howells ("The Rise of Silas Lapham", ì
"Southern Lights and Shadows"), 1904. Each building portrays a distinctive period or character of St. Augustine's checkered ì
history.
Project: This project will rehabilitate for museum purposes each of the three houses; the work includes finishes, roofing, ì
structural repairs systems, and window and door repairs.
Recommendation: No change to scope of work.
1.renewal of interior and exterior finishes
2.repairs to roofs and reroofing
3.structural repairs
4.installation of mechanical,electrical and plumbing systems;and
5.repair of windows and doors
b.related architectural services
c.direct project administrative cost not to exceed
10% of the grant award amount.

1995, $200,000
St. Augustine Historic Museum Complex
1.selective demolition
2.repair of exterior stucco finishes;
3.repair,restore or replace wood windows,doors
and shutters
4.install new roofing
5.repair deteriorated wood framing
6.repair cracks in coquina exterior walls;
7.install gutters and down spouts
8.repair balcony
9.clean and repair tile flooring.
10.repair and replace plaster wall and ceiling finishes
11.rebuild stairs to original configuration;
12.install new eletrical service
13.restore/replace wood trim
14.paint interior and exterior surfaces
15.install new heating system
16.repair or replace plumbing;system
17.install security and fire alarm system

1994, $26,000
Prince Murat House

1992, $15,000
St. Augustine Historic Museum Complex

TOTAL: $1,521,000

(Prior spending not in data base -- records in St. Augustine Historical Society Research Library put total cost of state investment at $2 million)

Record -- Sort of -- Covers DENNIS HASTERT Story

Buried in the back of the news section, tiny story, not mentioning he paid hush money to conceal sex with male high school student. Pitiful headline about how "finally" there's a scandal involving DENNIS HASTERT. Pitiful. Record run by Ronald Reagan's "Eleventh Commandment" -- "Don't criticize another Republican." Pitiful excuse for a newspaper.

June 1, 2015 (Monday) Update: finally a little 'ole AP Q&A that explains why HASTERT allegedly agreed to pay the $3.5 million. How many so-called "Family Values" Republican posturing homophobes DON'T have something to hide? It boggles the mind. SPEAKER DENNIS HASTERT kept the House in session in July 2004 to consider a constitutional amendment banning Gay marriage, and in 2005-2006, he covered up for MARK FOLEY. Sick hypocrite.

Did Houston's No-Zoning, No-Planning Anarchy Help Cause Floods?

In 2015, Houston, Texas still lacks zoning and has poor planning. The result is the hideous floods we saw recently. We lived in Houston for two years and it is the most hideous City in America -- tacky, ugly and mosquito-ridden, with sulfurous refinery emissions, and condos next to auto repair joints next to honky tonks next to churches next to fried chick joints next to scrapyards next to vacant lots. Some 25% of the land is unoccupied, leading to sprawl. In H.L. Mencken's phrase, Houston looks like it was designed by someone "with a libido for the ugly."
Worse, there is poor drainage (see photo).
In contrast, Memphis, Tennessee (where I lived during law school) learned its lesson from 1880s Yellow Fever epidemics, when Memphis ceased to exist and lost its corporate charter from Tennessee.
There is exquisitely good drainage in Memphis, almost none in Houston.
LESSON: we need more zoning and planning, not less.

Two CORNEAL Stop-Work Orders Issued on DOW MUSEUM OF HISTORIC HOMES

City Planning and Building Director David Birchim earlier today wrote residents, staff and Commissioners that he had issued two (2) stop work orders on the DOW MUSEUM OF HISTORIC HOMES property:

I have gotten together with my staff and have taken the following actions regarding your inquiry.

1. A building permit was not issued for the masonry wall inside the DOW property. A stop work order was issued requiring the property owner to obtain HARB approval, obtain an after the fact building permit to include inspections and obtain archaeology clearance. An archaeology permit has been submitted, but the city archaeologist has not had time to go out to the property yet, he is busy on Spanish Street. Failure to obtain after the fact approvals would result in a code enforcement action being taken.

2. A building permit was not issued for the small masonry knee wall on the southwest corner of Bridge Street and St. George Street. I sent the city’s historic preservation planner to take a look at what was done and asked her to give me her professional opinion, which I trust. I will forward her email regarding this wall for your records. A stop work order was issued today requiring the property owner to obtain an after the fact building permit.

….

Let me know if you have any questions.
David Birchim

Dennis Hastert, Former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Indicted for Perjury to FBI and Bank Crimes: NOT IN TODAY's ST. AUGUSTINE RECORD PRINT EDITION

From very first words in the indictment, it looks like this case is rooted in payoffs to conceal Hastert's "misconduct" related to his being a high school wrestling coach. What could that be? The alleged scheme began in 2010, the same year that Penn State University/Sandusky pedophile scandal resulted in criminal charges.
$3.5 million for silence/compensation for "misconduct" is alleged to have begun in 2010.
I saw nothing on this indictment of the former Republican Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives in the print edition of today's St. Augustine Record.
Wonder why?
The Morris Communications family's dull Republican Record also eschewed coverage of the conviction/sentencing of BERNARD KERIK, RUDOLPH GIULIANI's NYPD Chief, whom President GEORGE W. BUSH wanted as his Secretary of Homeland Security.
Pitiful.
When President Obama was elected, the St. Augustine Record was the only newspaper in the world that left it off its front page.
Pathetic.
The WRECKORD is biased in favor of Republicans and developers.
A stench in the nostrils of St. Augustine?
What do y'all reckon?

Update: Saturday, May 30, 2015: Buried in the back of the news section, tiny story, not mentioning he paid hush money to conceal sex with male high school student. Pitiful headline about how "finally" there's a scandal involving DENNIS HASTERT. Pitiful. Record run by Ronald Reagan's "Eleventh Commandment" -- "Don't criticize another Republican." Pitiful excuse for a newspaper.

Update: Monday, June 1, 2015: Record finally prints Q&A revealing allegations of high school student molestation at issue in Hastert case.

CORNEAL DEFAMED PROFESSOR, LOST TWO LAWSUITS IN DECEMBER 2014 -- BULLY PA. LAWYER LACKS CREDIBILITY ON CONVERSION OF DOW MUSEUM OF HISTORIC HOMES TO $500/NIGHT HOTEL SUITES

Fitology owner wins defamation lawsuit against North Club president
BY CLAYTON OVER
cover@centredaily.comDecember 18, 2014

A Centre County jury has ruled that the owner of a State College fitness center defamed the co-owner of another local gym.

In December 2012, David Corneal, a local attorney and owner of the North Club, 1510 Martin St., filed a suit alleging that two former instructors, Jinger Gottschall and Claire Colebrook, used the confidential list of members at his gym to draw members to a fitness center they planned to open.

A countersuit alleged defamation on the part of Corneal and, on Tuesday, the jury agreed and awarded $22,000 in damages to Gottschall and Fitology, the fitness center she runs at 542 Westerly Parkway.

Colebrook was not a plaintiff in the defamation countersuit, Gottschall’s attorney, Bernard Cantorna, said.

Because Gottschall also is a Penn State professor of kinesiology, after her departure from the North Club, Corneal sent an letter to the university, addressed to then-president Rodney Erickson, the head of the kinesiology department and other university administrators, accusing Gottschall of using her status as professor for personal gain and to “unethically” take business from the North Club, according to an email from Cantorna’s office.

Gottschall conducted a study at the North Club in 2011, which gave her access to the member list, according to the letter, which was submitted as evidence.

An investigation was conducted by the university that found the accusations to be unfounded, according to a press release from Cantorna’s office.

Corneal’s attorney, Devin Chwastyk, said there was no comment from his client.

“We’re evaluating our options,” Chwastyk said of the possibility of an appeal.

Clayton Over can be reached at 231-4631. Follow him on Twitter @ClaytonOver.


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Read more here: http://www.centredaily.com/2014/12/18/4514454_fitology-owner-wins-defamation.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy

CORNEAL's SPURIOUS LAWSUIT AGAINST TWO FITNESS INSTRUCTORS SHOWS HIS LACK OF CREDIBILITY ON DOW MUSEUM OF HISTORIC HOMES PUD CONVERSION TO $500/NIGHT HOTEL SUITES

Jury Rejects Fitness Club's Lawsuit Accusing Penn State Professors of Stealing Clients
by Steve Bauer on December 18, 2014 5:45 AM
StateCollege.com

A Centre County jury rejects a lawsuit that a State College gym owner filed against two former fitness instructors.
And in an about face, one of those instructors has won a defamation suit against her former employer.
The dispute goes back several years.
The original complaint was filed in December 2012 by attorneys representing David Corneal, the owner of The North Club at 1510 Martin St.
The lawsuit claimed that Claire Colebrook and Jinger Gottschall used confidential membership information in an attempt to siphon clients from The North Club in order to start their own fitness business.
Both Colebrook and Gottschall -- who are also professors at Penn State -- taught classes part-time at The North Club until November 2012. They later opened Fitology LLC at Westerly Parkway Plaza.
"David Corneal and The North Club alleged that Dr. Gottschall and Dr. Colebrook accessed and utilized confidential client lists to directly solicit customers which would be in violation of Pennsylvania law," says Bernie Cantorna, the attorney who represented the defendants.
In August of 2010 the pair signed a contract with The North Club that included a non-compete clause. However, a later contract, signed in August of 2012 made no mention of a non-compete clause. In court documents, attorneys for The North Club said the later contract "did not cancel or supersede the operative 2010 Agreements."
According to Cantorna, Corneal sent a letter to several Penn State officials, including then-president Rodney Erickson, outlining the allegations against Gottschall. The letter claimed that Gottschall had offered to perform a research study in partnership with the university's Kinesiology Department and had used the research for personal gain. The letter also states that Gottschall told students at The North Club she was starting her own studio and encouraged them to join the new club.
"Gottschall and Colebrook improperly used their position of trust as employees and agents of The North Club for the purpose of misappropriating The North Club's confidential and proprietary membership information to divert business from The North Club," said court documents filed in 2012.
Cantorna says, "We countersued alleging that they had defamed Dr. Gottschall. ... those allegations were effectively and essentially made to Dr. Gottschall's direct supervisors including the president of Penn State and that they were defamatory and damages were due."
In court documents filed Wednesday the jury ruled Gottschall and Coiebrook did not breach their contract with The North Club and that the plaintiffs did defame Gottschall and Fitology LLC. The jury ordered the plaintiffs to pay $10,000 in damages and $12,000 in legal fees.
Cantorna says there were efforts to settle the case right up until the trial began. "All we asked for from Mr. Corneal and The North Club was a letter of apology," he says, adding the letter "would be published privately to the individuals that [Corneal] had sent letters to, accusing Dr. Gottschall of conduct which we said was false and alleged was defamatory.
"Both of my clients are extremely pleased. They're grateful to the jury because they feel they gave a little bit of their good name back, which no one had any right to take."
StateCollege.com contacted Devin Chwastyk, the attorney representing Corneal in this case. Shwastyk says his client declined to comment.

Enough Privatizing of the Commons, Already

Epidemic of privatization and outsourcing in St. Augustine must stop. Now.

Ex-Mayor JOSEPH LESTER BOLES, JR. and our ill-advised City Commission followed City Manager JOHN PATRICK REGAN's advice in 2010, outsourcing the 450th celebration to a brand-new "First America Foundation," handing over $275,000 to lawyer DONALD WALLIS and other cronies, with no experience in organizing even a child's birthday party," as Folio Weekly reported. We stopped them. Most of the money was returned, thanks to pro bono legal representation by Holland & Knight of eighteen of us; we also stopped an illegal five-commissioner trip to Spain to "conduct business."

In 2014, following advice of the late lawyer GEORGE MORRIS McCLURE (Lighthouse lawyer and board member), St. Johns County transferred the St. Augustine Lighthouse to a 501c3: citizen Edward Ruben Anderson is challenging the zoning change. See below. Unfriendly signs now warn neighbors not to walk their dogs on former county park lands.
That's sick.

Flagler College and its alter ego St. Augustine Foundation have walled off the Spanish Garden on Hypolita & St. George Streets since 2001. You can't access and enjoy the park behind the fence, and its statue of Queen Isabella, except for one day per year.
Despicable.

St. Augustine Commissioners voted 4-1 (Mayor Shaver dissenting) to lease the former Salt Run Community Center to the all-white St. Augustine Yacht Club for twenty years, at below market-rates.
Disgusting.

Local commercial landlords hounded street artists, musicians and friendly businesses out of our town, attacking the First Amendment, for decades, with our City spending our treasure and embarrassing us in the eyes of the world, repeatedly losing lawsuits.
Disgraceful.
A new lawsuit is likely because four out of five Commissioners (all but Mayor Shaver) don't appreciate worker rights and the need for "lively" streets. St. George Street has become "one big t-shirt shop," says PZB member Cathy Brown.

Developers empowered by City Manager JOHN PATRICK REGAN, tried to take our City land at the south end of Riberia Street (Punta de Buena Esperanza, or Cape of Good Hope, since the early 1700s), call it "Riberia Pointe" and lease/sell it for a coral-growing scheme, an aquarium and children's museum.
We stopped them.
Lincolnville residents Nancy Shaver, Cash McVay, Blake Souder and Judith Seraphin stopped them -- it is now a passive park, and Nancy Shaver is now our Mayor. Nancy Shaver has empowered neighborhoods to resist schemers.

Before he lost re-election, then-Mayor JOSEPH LESTER BOLES, JR. slicked through a Planned Unit development for the massive Shipyard development along our San Sebastian River, without sufficient protection for public rights to walk along the boardwalk.
Dodgy.

Before lost re-election, then-Mayor JOSEPH LESTER BOLES, JR. had secret meetings with DAVID BARTON CORNEAL about the Dow Museum of Historic Homes, which Kenneth Worcester Dow gave to the Daytona Museum of Arts and Sciences MOAS with the promise they would be protected forever. Our State of Florida gave some $2 million for home restoration and museum exhibits. Now the Daytona MOAS has unethically sold the homes to DAVID BARTON CORNEAL, who wants to turn the museum into a fancy-bears $500/night hotel.
We'll just see about that.

Just what we need for our 450th -- another hare-brained scheme.
Enough privatization.
Enough corruption of the public interest for private profit of greedy lugubrious goobers and gaseous windbags.
Support the establishment of the St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore. www.staugustgreen.com Preserve St. Augustine forever involute, and halt the depredations of the 0.01% and their tawdry tedious tacky tendentious tools.

On January 15, 2015, Commissioners upheld an appeal of a building permit for a 7-Eleven in our historic area on eleven legal grounds. Unanimous.
7-Eleven appealed and quickly settled, with our City Commissioners voting to spend a mere $1.4 million to buy the property at the corner of May & San Marco.
Unanimous.

On January 27, 2015, Commissioners denied two (2) 70 foot tall buildings on U.S. 1.
Unanimous.

Commissioners are now making decisions without fear or favor, based upon the facts and law of record, with competent legal advice.
Thank you to all.
"It takes a village" to save "our village," as lawyer Henry Dean, former executive director of two Florida water management districts referred to our smaller neighbor of St. Augustine Beach (where under his guidance, voters opted to put a ban on buildings taller than 35 feet in the Charter).

REAL Newspaper Needed Here in St. Augustine, Florida

We need a real newspaper.
One that reports the news "without fear or favor."
One with fewer typos and fewer egos.
One with more news.
One with courage.
In the Pentagon Papers case, a new Nixon-Republican judicial appointee, U.S. District Court Judge Murray Gurfein (later an appellate judge) famously wrote, ""The security of the Nation is not at the ramparts alone. Security also lies in the value of our free institutions. A cantankerous press, an obstinate press, an ubiquitous press must be suffered by those in authority in order to preserve the even greater values of freedom of expression and the right of the people to know." United States v. N.Y. Times Co., 328 F. Supp. 324, 331 (S.D.N.Y. 1971).


United States District Court Judge Murray Gurfein (later promoted to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals)

ADA Complaint Filed on City and County Refusal to Provide Live Video Coverage of May 26, 2015 and Certain Other Meetings

USDOJ ADA Complaint Filed -- Reference Number 15-7jynb-6xxj -- Joint City of St. Augustine-St. Johns County meeting May 26, refusing to provide video coverage access, in violation of Americans with Disabilities Act

1. Refusal to provide live streaming video of May 26, 2015 joint City Commission-County Commission meeting despite three (3) written requests to do so, and availability of full modern accoutrements in the meeting venue, the Northeast Florida Airport at St. Augustine Conference Center.
2. Refusal to hold meeting in an accessible location or cancel the meeting after ADA issue raised -- meeting was held in difficult-to-access location -- not at City Commission or County Commission buildings -- located 2/10 of a mile from U.S. 1 and very difficult to access for anyone taking public transpiration or having a disability or not driving a motor vehicle.
3. Expressed intent to continue holding joint meetings at the Northeast Florida Airport at St. Augustine Conference Center, without any effort to make them accessible.
4. Refusal to respond to three (3) e-mails sent before the illegal meeting, requesting reasonable accommodation (coverage on the City's and County's cable tv and internet streaming video coverage), and refusal of City Manager JOHN PATRICK REGAN P.E. and County Attorney PATRICK FRANCIS McCORMACK, Esquire to telephone messages before the illegal meeting.
5. Holding other meetings that were not provided on cable tv and internet streaming video coverage.
6. A pattern and practice of holding meetings not accessible to shut-in disabled people by intentionally refusing to provide cable tv and internet streaming video coverage.
7. Failure to provide close-captioning for the hearing impaired on internet and streaming video coverage.

--------
Sent: Mon, May 25, 2015 1:56 pm
Subject: Re: Please cancel illegal joint City-County meeting set for Tuesday, May 26 on short notice, at inaccessible location, untelevised, in daytime, in violation of Florida Sunshine Law and Americans with Disabilities Act

Dear John and Mike, et al:
1. Do I understand correctly that no public comment is being allowed at tomorrow's Stealth meet-and-greet meeting of ten City and County Commissioners? Why?
2. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was once in Edward Bennett Williams' box at a Washington Redskins game when a referee made what he thought was a bad call: Kissinger reportedly got up and yelled: "On vot theory? "On what theory" do County and City Commissioners plan to hold a fraternity-style meet-and-greet, without adequate notice, without streaming tv or cable tv coverage, while excluding public comment?
3. This is a stench in the nostrils of our Nation on this Memorial Day, when we honor those who sacrificed their lives for our freedoms.
4. I spoke to County Commissioner Jeb Smith and to St. Augustine Mayor Nancy Shaver about this outrage this morning, before the ceremony honoring Afghanistan and Iraq war dead. I have not yet received a written reply from either of you, or anyone from the City or County staff.
5. My father taught me -- as JFK's father taught him -- that you have to stand up to people with power or they walk all over you. (The South Jersey Chapter of the 82nd ABN DIVN ASSN is named after my father, the Edward A. Slavin Chapter) . In his honor, and in pursuit of our legal and constitutional rights, I write you for a third time on Memorial Day, asking you to cancel this illegal, unseemly meeting out of the Sunshine.
6. As mentioned below, "The whole world is watching."
7. If you hold the meeting as planned, nothing good can come from it. In the words of my Georgetown University Professor Jose Sorzano (later Deputy UN Ambassador under Jeanne Kirkpatrick): "Ideas have consequences." The idea that the two of you can schedule a meeting that conflicts with a previously noticed School Board meeting, off-camera, untelevised, in a remote location, ignoring ADA and public transportation accessibility concerns, on short notice, has consequences. It will only increase the perception that our City and County governments are unaccountable and that they still resemble what Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said of St. Augustine in 1964: "the most lawless place in America."
8. Thank you in advance for canceling the ill-advised joint City-County Commission meeting that the two of you unilaterally set for May 26.
With kindest regards, I am,
Sincerely yours,
Ed Slavin
www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com
www.fourowls.blogspot.com
Box 3084
St. Augustine, Florida 32085-3084
904-377-4998


-----Original Message-----
From: easlavin < easlavin@aol.com>

Sent: Sun, May 24, 2015 4:42 pm
Subject: Re: Please cancel illegal joint City-County meeting set for Tuesday, May 26 on short notice, at inaccessible location, untelevised, in daytime, in violation of Florida Sunshine Law and Americans with Disabilities Act

Dear John and Mike, et al.:
1. No response from anyone -- that acts as an "adoptive admission" and "admission by silence" under the Federal Rules of Evidence.
2 . Chairwoman wrote several e-mails to Mr. Reynolds which constitute "non-denials" in the immortal words of Benjamin Crowninshield Bradlee, Washington Post Editor, during Watergate.
3. You are both maladroit managers and both deeply insensitive to First Amendment rights and Sunshine and Open Records rights and the appearance of impropriety.
4. Please cease and desist from any and all Sunshine and Open Records violations, from this day forward.
5. Your actions demand creation of independent Inspectors General.
Thank you in advance for canceling the illegal meeting set for May 26.
With kindest regards, I am,
Sincerely yours,
Ed Slavin
www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com
www.fourowls.blogspot.com
Box 3084
St. Augustine, Florida 32085-3084
904-377-4998


-----Original Message-----
From: easlavin < easlavin@aol.com>
Sent: Sat, May 23, 2015 9:51 pm
Subject: Please cancel illegal joint City-County meeting set for Tuesday, May 26 on short notice, at inaccessible location, untelevised, in daytime, in violation of Florida Sunshine Law and Americans with Disabilities Act

Please cancel illegal joint City-County meeting set for Tuesday, May 26 on short notice, at inaccessible location, untelevised, in daytime, in violation of Florida Sunshine Law and Americans with Disabilities Act

Dear Messrs. Wanchick and Regan, et al:
Please cancel and reschedule the secretive meeting of the St. Augustine City COmmission and St. Johns County Commission you two have set for May 26, 2015 for a remote Airport conference room or else face possible civil, criminal and administrative complaints -- including ethics, Sunshine and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) complaints -- as:
1. The meeting is on too-short notice, which is not "reasonable notice."
2. The meeting is in an inaccessible location for people taking our maladroit almost non-existent system of public transportation.
3. The meeting is in a location without streaming video or cable tv coverage, and past County meetings there were never broadcast, either live or on tape delay -- shut-ins and disabled people will never be able to view the meeting. This is part of a pattern and practice of SJCBCC violations of ADA by holding untelevised meetings shut-ins cannot view.
4. The meeting is in the daytime, when most working people, students and teachers have difficult attending (all City meetings begin at 5 PM).
5. The meeting is an "appearance of impropriety" -- why are you again seeking to avoid and evade our Florida Sunshine law, Article I, Section 24 of our Florida Constitution, enacted in 1992 with the votes of 3.8 million people (82%).
6. The two of you with your history of Sunshine and Open Records compliance problems embarrass local residents.
7. Now you plan to hold a "retreat" meet-and-greet away from public scrutiny, off-camera, on short notice -- a secretive meeting, embroiling and involving ten (10) of our City and County elected officials in your secrecy.
8. Enough.
9. This ill-advised meeting is contrary to the genius of a free people, as we prepare to celebrate Memorial Day, honoring generations of Americans who sacrificed their lives and limbs for our freedoms.
10. Due to our imminent 450th anniversary of St. Augustine, the whole world is watching, as the Michelle O'Connell shooting case has proved, with coverage by The New York Times, PBS Frontline, Dateline NBC, Good Morning America, Dr. Phil, Folio Weekly, First Coast News and the Guardian , among others. The whole world is watching St. Augustine and St. Johns County governments. You both lack sufficient respect for and appreciation of First Amendment protected activity, you both lack a welcoming spirit, and you both must cease and desist from all lawbreaking. Now, please. The ball is in your court.
11. T his ill-advised, poorly-planned, no-agenda, inaccessible, short-notice joint meeting is an outrage, deeply insensitive, and repeats longstanding County Administrator misconduct in scheduling meetings at the same Airport conference room whenever the County Administrator seeks to avoid public scrutiny.
12. This is not " transparency" and it does not pass either the laugh test or the smell test.
13. Please cancel and reschedule the illegal May 26, 2015 joint City-County meeting. Herein faileth not. Please govern yourselves accordingly.
14. Thank you in advance for your kind cooperation from this day forward.
15. Please call to discuss. I am available to take your calls at your earliest convenience this weekend.
With kindest regards, I am,
Sincerely yours,
Ed Slavin
www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com
www.fourowls.blogspot.com
Box 3084
St. Augustine, Florida 32085-3084
904-377-4998

August, 1990, Chicago: American Bar Association Annual meeting investigates security clearance denials, revocations and due process violations: Ed Slavin, chair program on security clearance due process with (left to right), Ropes & Gray lawyer Len Coburn; Judge Robert Bamford; Judge Delbert "Chip" Terrill; General Hugh Overholt; Ed Slavin, program chair, then Government Accountability Project Legal Counsel for Constitutional Rights (also Young Lawyers Division Human and Civil Rights Committee Chair and YLD Liaison member of the ABA Individual Rights and Responsibilities Section); Steptoe & Johnson partner, Richard K. Willard (elbow only)(former U.S. Assistant Attorney General); Government Accountability Project Legal Director Thomas M. Devine; ACLU lobbyist Leslie Harris; and Dr. Franklin Kameny, Ph.D., (American Gay rights icon and himself a victim of a wrongful security clearance revocation rubber-stamped by Civil Service Commission and United States Supreme Court, later apologized for by Presidents Clinton and  Obama).
Our ABA Young Lawyers Division, National Council of Administrative Law Judges and Individual Rights and Responsibilities Section and Administrative Law Section won passage of an ABA House of Delegates resolution on security clearance reform in Honolulu in August 1989.  Then Viveca Novak wrote a Common Cause Magazine cover story. Then Congressman Don Edwards and Gary Sikorski co-chaired six days of security clearance reform hearings during 1990-1991, leading to proposed Bush I executive order not being issued, and reforms under Presidents Clinton and Obama.

Photo credit: Robert I. Teir

Neglected Infrastructure on Trial -- Administrative Law Judge Hears Challenge to City's Neglected Infrastructure, Involving Lighthouse Zoning Change

City Manager JOHN PATRICK REGAN, P.E. with sewage "pipe" leaking semi-treated sewage effluent into San Sebastian and Matanzas Rivers, 2009
(Then-City Manager WILLIAM BARRY HARRISS violated Sunshine laws by "polling" Commissioners for five years, avoiding public discussion of yet another example of City of St. Augustine lawbreaking).

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once called St. Augustine "the most lawless city in America."

Now an independent Administrative Law Judge from the Department of Administrative Hearings (DOAH) with the State of Florida will decide whether the City of St. Augustine favored the Lighthouse and Museum with zoning changes inconsistent with the Comprehensive Plan. It is the second most visited spot in St. Johns County (after the Castillo), with a quarter million visitors annually. Neighbors are afraid of more development and threats to their safety. They want sewers and sidewalks they City of St. Augustine has never provided their neighborhood, bordering Salt Run, a Class II waterway that produces oysters and hosts the St. Augustine Yacht Club on leased city property that was once their Salt Run Community Center and a neighborhood breakfast and lunch restaurant.

Lighthouse Park neighborhood resident Edward Ruben Anderson and his wife were denied sewer service for their home on Magnolia, with a letter saying service was "not available" by the City of St. Augustine.

City of St. Augustine Public Works Director MARTHA GRAHAM admitted today to Mr. Anderson's cross-examination question that the City has a policy of allowing developers to build new homes and hook up to sewer service without affording homeowners with septic tanks the right to hook up their homes first. Lighthouse Park and West Augustine neighborhoods largely lack sewer service, and there are no plans to do anything, although the City's Comprehensive Plan vaguely promises to do something by the year 2030.

The hearing took three hours and thirty minutes, of which only some 50 minutes was Mr. Anderson's case-in-chief. Mr. Anderson testified and presented exhibits establishing that the City sewage system was "at capacity," and that the sewer plant was located on a flood zone and could not be expanded. Mr. Anderson noted that the City made contrary claims in its legal prehearing statement defending its findings granting the Lighthouse's zoning change, asking the Administrative Law Judge to resolve the factual question.

Mr. Anderson testified that the zoning changes for the Lighthouse increased density and intensity without complying with Comprehensive Plan requirements for sanitary sewers, with all of the Lighthouse Park neighborhood's homes using septic tanks, which pollute Salt Run, from which oysters are harvested. City sewage capacity of 4.9 million gallons per day is already "at the breaking point," Mr. Anderson said, noting recent spills (which the City blamed on rain, power outage and human error). Mr. Anderson quoted March 12, 2013 Code Enforcement testimony by Deputy Public Works Director Todd Grant, establishing that there was no sewer capacity to handle the Lighthouse Day Care Center. City testimony admitted that the Lighthouse has two septic tanks serving the Keeper's House and another location, as well as sewer service.

Mr. Anderson testified that adding 24 hour operations and new uses, such as weddings and events, to the Lighthouse would add to the sewage crisis, decreasing the quality of life and increasing water pollution and congestion in the Lighthouse Park and Salt Run area. This poses potential damage to our City's and State's reputation and to the tourism industry and real estate values, Mr. Anderson said.

The Administrative Law Judge, recognizing that Mr. Anderson's concerns were of general applicability throughout the Nation's Oldest City, eloquently stated, "you could have taken any permit brought by the City and brought this case," stating things are generally "worse." Mr. Anderson readily agreed. Mr. Anderson pointed out that new demands on the City's at-risk sewer system were posed by massive expansion at Northrop Grumman (1400 employees), Flagler Crossing (which claims 888 residential units on its website), and the massive Shipyard development, with retail and office space, boat storage and boardwalk on the San Sebastian River.

Mr. Anderson testified that the Lighthouse has been converted from Government Use to private, with loss of recreational access to formerly public lands without any increased benefit to the public. As the City's public hearings on the change established, non-paying residents are no longer allowed in former county-owned lands, including the dune and hammock area, which now bear unfriendly, menacing signs. Mr. Anderson testified about school children, among them his own, currently walking on roads and lacking sidewalks and other amenities.

The four witnesses were Mr. Anderson, fired former City Planning and Zoning Director MARK KNIGHT, City Public Works Director MARTHA GRAHAM, City Planning and Building Director DAVID DOUGLAS BIRCHIM, and Lighthouse Director Kathy Fleming. Counsel were Sidney Franklyn Ansbacher for the Lighthouse and Ralf Brookes for the City of St. Augustine. Trial was before Administrative Law Judge Bram Canter of Tallahassee, who will write an appealable order based upon written briefs of the parties citing to the transcript and applicable laws.

As soon as Mr. Anderson testified that he regulates sewage and sanitation for the State of Florida, fired former City Planning and Director KNIGHT's eyebrows went up, and except for smoke breaks, he paid rapt attention throughout. (KNIGHT's demeanor is normally languid and lizard-like, as if he had not a care in the world. Likewise, KNIGHT's hand-picked successor, DAVID BIRCHIM, blushed and was red-faced from the beginning of the hearing when Anderson testified with mastery of the subject (even the top of BIRCHIM's bald head turned red).

In defense counsel's best call of the day, there was no cross-examination of Mr. Anderson. Not a single question.

St. Johns County owned the Lighthouse property and leased it, until the late land use lawyer GEORGE MORRIS McCLURE (Lighthouse attorney and Board member) engineered a sweet deal where the County gave up ownership for a mere $200,000. (More privatization of the commons).

When the Lighthouse's and the City's turn came, they dropped the ball and ever required. The City "deferred" to the applicant Lighthouse, whose lawyer Ansbacher quickly succeeded in boring the ALJ, who put his hand on his head and finally interrupted, repeatedly attempting to focus the respondents on relevant evidence responsive to Mr. Anderson's concerns. After only 22 minutes of the respondent's putative "defense," emitting every known fact about lighthouse history and construction, the ALJ asked incredulously, "Wait a second, why do we need to know this?" The ALJ cut off testimony by KNIGHT that was repetitive of Ms. Fleming's testimony on the amendment, calling it "redundant."

When Ms. Fleming testified that historic Lighthouse reconstruction after a hurricane could take "years," the ALJ questioned the relevance, stating he understood it took "a long time." The ALJ twice said the respondents were emitting non sequiturs, or "red herrings," stating to KNIGHT that "the City of St. Augustine wouldn't let the Lighthouse rebuild if there were a hurricane" without the questioned Comprehensive Plan amendment? KNIGHT was flummoxed, as his patent-pending parade-of-horribles arguments (learned from years under tutelage of the late GEORGE MORRIS McCLURE) was hoist on its own petard.

Toward the end of the hearing, after some 2.5 hours of wandering, waddling and weird defense testimony, the ALJ said, "You should be addressing the points that [Mr. Anderson] made."

DAVID DOUGLAS BIRCHIM has had only one employer since he received his Planning degree from the University of Tennessee 17.5 years ago -- the City of St. Augustine. BIRCHIM does not handle questioning very well. BIRCHIM was angry and frustrated and unresponsive when Mr. Anderson asked him on cross-examination when boat-building becomes "light industrial," banned next to schools, resembling a robot when he gave a rote answer about Henry Ford and the industrial revolution.

Likewise, Public Works Director MARTHA GRAHAM, a City employee since 2008, was clueless ineffectual and inarticulate when asked how many homes in Lighthouse Park had septic tanks and no sewer service ("I don't know the figures," with City counsel not offering to provide them. (I requested this information from the City a year ago; I am still waiting and I suppose the ALJ would have liked to have known, too).

City Manager JOHN PATRICK REGAN, P.E. (photo above with sample of neglected infrastructure) never appeared in the room, even as spectator.

After a short off-the-record consultant with Messrs. Anderson, Brookes and Ansbacher, the ALJ provided for proposed orders to be provided by the parties fifteen days after they receive the transcript.

Observers believe that the case of Anderson v. City of St. Augustine points the way to:
1. Stop overdevelopment in its tracks;
2. Force the City to provide sewer and sidewalks to neglected neighborhoods like Lighthouse Park and West Augustine;
3. Start complying with its 14th Amendment duty to provide equal services;
4. Stop destroying our history, nature and quality of life in the name of greed; and
5. Adoption of the St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore to fund badly needed City services, while preserving and protecting our City's and area's history and nature forever. www.staugustgreen.com

Watching in the back of the room were several worried developer lawyers, while KNIGHT sat at a City table reserved for the Chief of Police between smoke breaks. For a time, earlier, longtime City Planning and Zoning Board and St. Augustine Port and Waterway Commission member Carl Blow watched from the same table as sewage pollution in Salt Run was discussed by Mr. Anderson.

Never mentioned was the Fourteenth Amendment Equal Protection clause. That's not traditionally an issue before Administrative Law Judges, but the City of St. Augustine could be sued for violations by people whose homes are not connected to sewers, because the City favors developers over residents.

What a wonderful world! The whole world is watching (Including Special Prosecutor and the FBI)

It's another beautiful day in a wonderful place. The birds are chirping, the fish are jumping, the surfers are surfing, the tourists are spending, and the big-shot crooks are plotting and the small-bore schnooks are complaining.
Why do the heathen hick hack sad sacks rage?
Too much scrutiny.
Too many open records requests.
Too many concerned citizens.
I feel like an opossum -- every day I wake up in a new world.
Yesterday, a sweet lady gave me a bouquet after the Memorial Day ceremony at our Slave Market Square, thanking me for "all you do for us." I am honored to live here and to help win more than 33 progressive victories since a federal judge ordered Rainbow flags to fly on our Bridge of Lions on June 7, 2005, a great First Amendment victory that signaled the Establishment that this is No Place For Hate.
Since November 5, 1999, we've seen the changes, from backwater to increasingly progressive cool hip exciting place, aided by investigative reporting by Folio Weekly, First Coast News, WJXT-4, The New York Times, PBS Frontline, Dateline NBC, Good Morning America, Dr. Phil, The Guardian, et al. Thanks to Al Gore helping invent the Internets, people in Australia are reading about our crooks, which means that investors who would otherwise ship money here won't do so unless and until there is Justice for Michelle O'Connell. The FBI and a Special Prosecutor are investigating Sheriff DAVID BERNARD SHOAR and all his works and pomps. As LBJ said after Selma, "We SHALL overcome!"

"The Unwelcome Wagon" Approach to Public Participation -- How's That Working Out?

Monson Motel Owner James Brock pours muriatic acid into hotel pool occupied by J.T. Johnson and other protesters, shocking the Nation, June 18, 1964

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called St. Augustine "the most lawless city in America."

In 1963, after promising Vice President Lyndon Johnson they would hear black people's concerns, St. Augustine leaders left them a tape recorder to leave a message -- refusing to meet with them.

in 1964, Monson Motel owner James Brock pours muriatic acid into a hotel pool occupied by J.T. Johnson and other protesters, shocking the Nation, helping President Lyndon B. Johnson break a Senate filibuster and enact the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

On April 11, 2005, after speaking out about 15th Amendment civil rights matters, the then-City Manager WILLIAM BARRY HARRISS said, "I could have you arrested for disorderly conduct."

In December 2006, attending my first St. Johns County Legislative Delegation meeting (speaking in favor of the St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore) for the first time I ever spoke at any County meeting, I was given the evil eye by three aberrant public employees -- by County Commission Chair JAMES EDWARD BRYANT's uber-secretary, Frances Neelands, by St. Johns County Road and Bridge Department Director, and Sheriff-for-Life DAVID BERNARD SHOAR.

In many ways, is it still the most lawless city in America? Jim Crow law prevails in many ways. Our City is guilty of arresting artists and musicians, harassing homeless people for plugging laptops into bandshell outlets, holding secretive meetings in remote locations and discouraging and limiting public comment (only three minutes, and not on every agenda item, as at St. Johns County, St. Augustine Beach, and other local government agencies)? Meanwhile Open Records requests are disdained while Sunshine laws are skirted. Enough.

Evidently, these "bears of little brain" think that if you're mean to people, they won't come back. It didn't work for Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Dr. Robert S. Hayling, D.D.S., Ambassador Andrew Young, or anyone else. They keep thinking that if they're mean, it will give them some sort of interpsychic satisfaction. Diagnosis: they're crazy.

Case in point: trying to deny public comment at this morning's joint City-County Commission meeting (public comment was allowed after my e-mails, without any apology.

Case in point: insulting public comment speakers. Did not work for Mayor JOSEPH LESTER BOLES, Jr. He's gone. So are ERROL JONES, SUSAN BURK and other maniacal jerks (BURK famously wrote a hate letter to the Record after leaving office, accusing public comment speakers of being "rude." BURK was crude and rude, rolling her eyes from the very first time I spoke to City Commission, looking at the sky, and generally acting as if she were put-upon by having to hear from anyone who was not her relative, client, lover or campaign contributor (or several of those things).

Case in point: limiting public comment, sometimes to less than three minutes (bought-and-paid-for Historic Architectural Review Board Chair PAUL M. WEAVER, III did that to me recently, for a speaker who came all the way from Colorado to inform our debate, arbitrarily inflicting a 7:30 pm closing, and limiting me to two minutes even though there were no other public comment speakers)(WEAVER and HARB member JEREMY MARQUIS are both working for DAVID BARTON CORNEAL on his hare-brained scheme to turn the Dow Museum of Historic Homes into a $500/night suite hotel in the midst of the HP-1 historic neighborhood).

Case in point: developers, government contractors (prospective and actual), Northeast Florida Transportation Organization and government employees (any 'ole government will do), elected officials and favored people get to go on and on, yammering about nothing in particular. Twice St. Augustine Beach let proponents of no-bid contracts speak to Commissioners without time limit. That's despicable.

But if you have something to say, there's a gavel ready to bang at you. (When I spoke to HARB on May 21, you can actually hear a deputy City clerk say in the background, "35 seconds left," either to herself or perhaps to a waiting SWAT team?). That's invidiously discriminatory, and a violation of the First Amendment.

On November 12, 2014, at his last meeting as Mayor, I thanked him for his service and then asked then-Mayor JOSEPH LESTER BOLES, JR. for "a few extra seconds" and he responded, "I don't mind giving you a few extra seconds because after ten years, this will be the last time I ever have to listen to you." As William F. Buckley, Jr. once asked, "Why does baloney reject the grinder?"

What gooberishness. So much for Southern hospitality. These people are Philistines. The are social dominators and hick hack dictators. "They know not that they know not that they know not," as Senior Special Agent Robert E. Tyndall puts it best.

Every time I ever testified before Congressional subcommittees, I always had five (5) minutes, with more time for questions. Diverse views were heard and heeded. Congressional earings were never hidden in remote locations at inconvenient times to hide from the public.

When I cross-examined Department of Energy and Union Carbide officials before the Oak Ridge City Council about mercury pollution on May 23, 1983, I took twenty (20) minutes, live on cable tv. The Rest is History.

To those fuming furious feeble fumbling fulsome unfriendly local officials who send out the Unwelcome Wagon, How's that working out for you? Our reform mayor is beloved, your sins have found you out, and everyone appreciates what she's doing to restore democracy -- from our military veterans, to our Tea Party friends to the Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, all of which she's spoken to and interacted with in the past five (5) days.

Sheriff For Life? DAVID BERNARD SHOAR Says He's Running Again!

A Washington, D.C. alternative news weekly, City Paper, once called Mayor Marion Barry "Mayor for Life."

St. Johns County, Florida Sheriff DAVID BERNARD SHOAR was elected in 2004 over the more backward candidate, Glenn Lightsey, garnering support of well-meaning people who thought he was "liberal," as well as some $250,000 in corporate CA$H. Exposed by Folio Weekly, First Coast News, The New York Times, PBS Frontline, Dateline NBC, Dr. Phil, The Guardian and Good Morning America for his role in the coverup of the September 2, 2010 Michelle O'Connell shooting, SHOAR has been in hiding. He was nowhere to be seen at Memorial Day services, but was at Barnes & Noble this morning, appearing to weigh some 300 pounds. Life has not been kind to the High Sheriff.

Sheriff DAVID BERNARD SHOAR a/k/a "DAVID SHOAR" f/k/a "DAVID BERNARD HOAR," has an immense ego and de minimis ethics, hiding behind a formerly choirboy countenance. You may now officially call the High Sheriff "HIS IMMENSENESS" because he is insouciant and pig-ignorant about what people think of him after his coverups were revealed in national and international news media (long neglected by the St. Augustine Record, whose hagiography of SHOAR has always been shockingly shameful and shameless).

On May 11, 2015, Sheriff SHOAR appeared before the St. Augustine Republican Club and stated that he was running for re-election in 2016 and 2020. He also stated that he is running on his Christian (sic) beliefs (sic), and that he will defend his deputies even if he has to go down with them.

As JFK once said, "Sometimes party loyalty demands too much." But fealty of a misfeasant Sheriff to malfeasant deputies is simply malodorous and mendacious and oleaginous -- like RICHARD MILHOUS NIXON's "defense" of H.R. HALDEMAN and JOHN EHRLICHMAN, whom he "defended" out of fear of what they could reveal about him (and did).

Sorry, DAVID, no one wants you to run for Sheriff again -- no one honest and honorable, anyway. DAVID, we hardly knew ye. Go on, git.

Luftwaffe Veteran Honored At St. Augustine National Cemetery on Memorial Day

Nazi Fuhrer ADOLPH HITLER with his Luftwaffe (Air Force) Commander-in-Chief HERMAN GOERING


Nazi LUFTWAFFE Veteran KURT G. HUMMELL, Honored at St. Augustine National Cemetery Ceremony on Memorial Day, 2015

Yesterday, May 25, 2015, is a date that will live in infamy. At the annual Memorial Day service at St. Augustine National Cemetery, someone snuck in, at the end of all the U.S. veterans who died during the year, the name of a non-U.S veteran, "Kurt Hummell, German Luftwaffe." "I was one of those Nazis," Kurt Hummell told me back in 2007. Not in recent memory has any veteran of a foreign power been honored in our St. Augustine National Cemetery.

Kurt Hummell's wife, Emily Hummell, a member of the Daughters of the Confederacy, worked for years as a supervisor for Southern Bell Telephone (later South Central Bell), an active Republican Party member who went to several Republican National Conventions as a delegate, and was for 24 years a member of the Board of Anastasia Mosquito Control. Kurt Hummell attended every Mosquito Control Board, sitting very close to his beloved wife, of whom he was proud.

For nine months, Robin Nadeau, Don Girvan, Jeanne Moeller, John Sundeman, others and me worked tirelessly to convince Mosquito Control to reverse an illegal, no-bid $1.8 million luxury Bell Jet helicopter purchase. One day, Chairwoman Barbara Bosanko (spouse of ex-County Attorney Daniel Bosanko) had enough. Chairwoman Barbara Bosanko said, "I'm calling the cops" and she did. Later, speaking to Mosquito Control, I said words to the effect that my father machine-gunned Nazis for my right to be here and speak at this podium. After the meeting, Kurt Hummell walked up to me and said, "I vas von of dose Nazis!" I was nonplussed, and said something conciliatory. Mrs. Emily Hummell ultimately changed her vote on the helicopter after staff duplicity was revealed to her, leading to reversal of the helicopter purchase and full refund of the $181,000 deposit.

Kurt and Emily Hummell met when Kurt was a prisoner of war at Camp Blanding. They fell in love and married, and he stayed in the U.S. No one wants to re-fight World War II 70 years later. But Military Officers Association President Rick Erkelens, other veterans, and me questions how it was that a Nazi Germany Luftwaffe veteran came to be honored at St. Augustine National Cemetery yesterday morning. Like Reagan's speech at Bittburg, it is reflective of insensitivity and bad staff work, at the very least.

Washington Post on Capitol Hill Workers Working The Night Shift

Lovely long article in May 20, 2015 Washington Post about all of the thousands of workers who work through the night cleaning, disposing of trash, polishing, waxing, painting, maintaining and protecting our U.S. Capitol and Congressional office buildings. It speaks of workers as people, talks about the importance of their work, and treats them as heroic.

Steve Hendrix, "The Capitol’s Shadow Army -- Hundreds on the night shift tidy the corridors of power after democracy’s workday is done (Washington Post, May 20, 2015).

Why can't other U.S. publications ever write about workers as anything other than objects, if at all?

Why are the only people treated as important people with money and power? The 1% are dumbing down debate, destroying the middle class, destroying lives, while debates on tax, living wage and other policies treat people as expendable digits. Enough.

Look at the "profiles" in any newspaper (including the better ones).

The Post article may be read here.

Dying for Freedom, or For Mistakes

Delightful selection on WFCF 88.5 Flagler College Radio​ of Memorial Day music since Saturday! Songs I had never heard before, or heard maybe once, years ago during college freshman year at Georgetown, when the Vietnam war was rasping to a close. Thank you, WFCF. By chance, I was serendipitously interviewed by WJXT-4 this afternoon at Slave Market Square by Ethan Calloway, who asked my interpretation of the meaning of Memorial Day. I said we honor those who "fought for our freedoms" as well as those who died due to "mistakes." Happy Memorial Day.

Memorial Day

I just read a column in the St. Augustine Record that stated that 1400 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment (PIR) soldiers were killed by naval gunfire during the invasion of Sicily in 1943 (other accounts give lesser numbers, but it was reportedly the worst friendly fire event in U.S. history).

I had never heard of that before.

My father jumped into Sicily that day with the 505th PIR; one digit off and he would have ceased to exist, and I would never have been born. Dad never mentioned the naval gunfire deaths of his comrades. Never. I've been to 82nd reunions with him, heard him tell stories about three combat jumps and sequelae (North Africa, Sicily and Normandy).

Reading about the 504th PIR carnage for the first time this morning, it seems that the Navy commanders told the 82nd generals they could not guarantee the paratroopers safety, and that sailors were never told of the paratrooper planes. Army anti-aircraft artillery on Sicily joined the Navy in killing the 504th PIR paratroopers.

Later, for D-Day, stripes were painted on the underbellies of C-47s so that the Navy wouldn't kill any more paratroopers.

Many of the soldiers, sailors, marines and coast guardsmen we honor on Memorial Day were killed due to "mistakes" by unaccountable, malfeasant officers and policymakers.

Vietnam comes to mind.

As former U.S. Navy Lt. (JG) John F. Kennedy said when he was President, "There's always some poor SOB who doesn't get the word." That would include policymakers and military leaders alike, it would appear.

My father taught me to question authority, and he did so in the 82nd, and for that he is honored to this day. The South Jersey Chapter of the 82nd ABN. DIVN. ASSN. is named for my father, the "CPL Edward A. Slavin Chapter).

Democratic Judas Goats and Benedict Arnolds in St. Johns County

Our St. Johns County Democratic Executive Committee is bossed and bullied by demented Judas goats and Benedict Arnolds, not real Democrats.
When asked if they ever investigated local governments and spoke at meetings, DEC officials told a new resident "We used to have a guy like that" but we didn't like that, and ran him off. (That would be me, I reckon!)
When County officials propose a 16.66% sales tax increase, Democratic State Committeeman WILLIAM McCORMICK denies there's any "fat," based upon untelevised, scripted dog-and-pony shows on the budget.
We have no Inspector General.
We have no Ombuds.
St. Johns County refuses to adopt either one, while wasting money on lavish manager salaries and no-bid contracts.
McCORMICK's latest column in Sunday's Record is good for cat litter.
These are not Democrats, they are Dixiecrats, lugubrious goobers and hick hacks whose dysfunctionality now makes the St. Johns County Democratic Party a third party (after Republicans and "Others").
Call them what they really are: UNDERCOVER REPUBLICANS.
Pitiful pathetic unpatriotic unprogressive Democrats supporting a regressive sales tax increase? Never investigating fraud, waste, abuse, misfeasance, malfeasance, nonfeasance, flummery, dupery and nincompoopery in County government.
BILL McCORMICK's wife is Vice Chair of LEN WEEKS' all-white "Sister Cities" board.
BILL McCORMICK played the Pope in disgusting Pedro Menendez Noche de Gala procession(s).
BILL McCORMICK often goes to the podium as a self-identified "Democrat" who "voted for you."
BILL McCORMICK brazenly, bitterly blocked any endorsement of the St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore in 2009 by DEC.
BILL McCORMICK openly notoriously heckled me at an FDEP meeting when I raised concerns about St. Augustine sewage pollution.
Bill McCORMICK is a bully, a noisome ex-Dean who still thinks he is Lord of all he surveys (see the smirk on his face dressed as Pope).
WILLIAM McCORMICK is a Judas goat.
McCORMICK's an uncool, unhip, uncool, uninformed rich man blocking progress, with another dumb 'ole demented column in today's Record.
McCORMICK and others like him are the reason that there has not been a Democratic candidate running for a county-wide partisan office since 2006 -- that was nine years ago. But we do have a Democratic headquarters, full-time, full of bossy backstabbing BOLESIANS, maladroit out-of-touch other-directed people like our Democratic State Committeewoman ANNETTE CAPELLA and our Democratic Executive Committee Chair NELL TOENSMANN, discouraging anyone from ever criticizing the government or doing anything worthwhile.
They are cognitive misers. Color them part of the problem here in notoriously corrupt St. Johns County, where rebarbative St. Johns County Sheriff DAVID BERNARD SHOAR's and cronies' coverup of the Michelle O'Connell shooting case rightly earned internationally acclaimed investigations by The New York Times, PBS Frontline, Dateline NBC, et al. but not one word from any Democratic source, or from any current public official except for one courageous leader: reform Mayor of St. Augustine, Nancy Shaver.

32 Years Ago Tonight -- I Cross-Examined Oak Ridge DOE and Union Carbide Nuclear Officials On World's Largest Mercury Pollution Event At Meeting of Oak Ridge, Tenn. City Council

As Appalachian Observer Editor, and soon-to-be Memphis State University law student, I was happily cross-examining Department of Energy nuclear weapons plant officials at Oak Ridge, Tennessee City Council. Transcript available on request in PDF.
No three minute limit.
It was in East Tennessee, by God, where men are men, women are women, and government officials are held accountable. It was a place where free people talked back to their government officials, asked questions and demanded answers -- our God-given right as Americans, for which my father jumped out of C-47's and machine-gunned Nazis in North Africa, Sicily and Normandy.
The cleanup of nuclear weapons plants began after that night, when I asked, "Does being DOE mean never having to say you're sorry?" and "If the Soviet Union had dumped … mercury all over Oak Ridge, would that not be considered an act of war?"
(4.2 million pounds of mercury into the workers' lungs and brains, into creeks and ground water, no warnings, no protection, threats of prosecution against anyone who broke the Atomic Energy Commission's and successors oath of omertà.)
Total cost by 2057, my 100th birthday, of cleaning up all U.S. nuclear weapons plants: may exceed $300 billion.
Total payout in flawed workers' compensation system enacted in 2000: $11 billion.
Total days served in prison by miscreant mendacious managers exposing workers and residents to toxics: ZERO.

ILLEGAL MAY 26, 2015 CITY-COUNTY MEETING MUST BE CANCELLED (Letter to City Manager JOHN PATRICK REGAN, P.E. and St. JOHNS COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR MICHAEL DAVID WANHICK)

UPDATE: No response to me, but caterwauling e-mails from Chairwoman Bennett to Tom Reynolds (see below)

Please cancel illegal joint City-County meeting set for Tuesday, May 26 on short notice, at inaccessible location, untelevised, in daytime, in violation of Florida Sunshine Law and Americans with Disabilities Act

Dear Messrs. Wanchick and Regan, et al:
Please cancel and reschedule the secretive meeting of the St. Augustine City COmmission and St. Johns County Commission you two have set for May 26, 2015 for a remote Airport conference room or else face possible civil, criminal and administrative complaints -- including ethics, Sunshine and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) complaints -- as:
1. The meeting is on too-short notice, which is not "reasonable notice."
2. The meeting is in an inaccessible location for people taking our maladroit almost non-existent system of public transportation.
3. The meeting is in a location without streaming video or cable tv coverage, and past County meetings there were never broadcast, either live or on tape delay -- shut-ins and disabled people will never be able to view the meeting. This is part of a pattern and practice of SJCBCC violations of ADA by holding untelevised meetings shut-ins cannot view.
4. The meeting is in the daytime, when most working people, students and teachers have difficult attending (all City meetings begin at 5 PM).
5. The meeting is an "appearance of impropriety" -- why are you again seeking to avoid and evade our Florida Sunshine law, Article I, Section 24 of our Florida Constitution, enacted in 1992 with the votes of 3.8 million people (82%).
6. The two of you with your history of Sunshine and Open Records compliance problems embarrass local residents.
7. Now you plan to hold a "retreat" meet-and-greet away from public scrutiny, off-camera, on short notice -- a secretive meeting, embroiling and involving ten (10) of our City and County elected officials in your secrecy.
8. Enough.
9. This ill-advised meeting is contrary to the genius of a free people, as we prepare to celebrate Memorial Day, honoring generations of Americans who sacrificed their lives and limbs for our freedoms.
10. Due to our imminent 450th anniversary of St. Augustine, the whole world is watching, as the Michelle O'Connell shooting case has proved, with coverage by The New York Times, PBS Frontline, Dateline NBC, Good Morning America, Dr. Phil, Folio Weekly, First Coast News and the Guardian, among others. The whole world is watching St. Augustine and St. Johns County governments. You both lack sufficient respect for and appreciation of First Amendment protected activity, you both lack a welcoming spirit, and you both must cease and desist from all lawbreaking. Now, please. The ball is in your court.
11. This ill-advised, poorly-planned, no-agenda, inaccessible, short-notice joint meeting is an outrage, deeply insensitive, and repeats longstanding County Administrator misconduct in scheduling meetings at the same Airport conference room whenever the County Administrator seeks to avoid public scrutiny.
12. This is not "transparency" and it does not pass either the laugh test or the smell test.
13. Please cancel and reschedule the illegal May 26, 2015 joint City-County meeting. Herein faileth not. Please govern yourselves accordingly.
14. Thank you in advance for your kind cooperation from this day forward.
15. Please call to discuss. I am available to take your calls at your earliest convenience this weekend.
With kindest regards, I am,
Sincerely yours,
Ed Slavin
www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com
www.fourowls.blogspot.com
Box 3084
St. Augustine, Florida 32085-3084
904-377-4998

Update: Second e-mail (May 24, 2014)
Dear John and Mike, et al.:
1. No response from anyone -- that acts as an "adoptive admission" and "admission by silence" under the Federal Rules of Evidence.
2. Chairwoman wrote several e-mails to Mr. Reynolds which constitute "non-denials" in the immortal words of Benjamin Crowninshield Bradlee, Washington Post Editor, during Watergate.
3. You are both maladroit managers and both deeply insensitive to First Amendment rights and Sunshine and Open Records rights and the appearance of impropriety.
4. Please cease and desist from any and all Sunshine and Open Records violations, from this day forward.
5. Your actions demand creation of independent Inspectors General.
Thank you in advance for canceling the illegal meeting set for May 26.
With kindest regards, I am,
Sincerely yours,
Ed Slavin
www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com
www.fourowls.blogspot.com
Box 3084
St. Augustine, Florida 32085-3084
904-377-4998