City Attorney ISABELLE LOPEZ disgraces herself and embarrassed our City by favoring the man who wants to turn DOW MUSEUM OF HISTORIC HOMES into a hotel in the Old City South neighborhood.
City Hall is desperate to push an unwanted $500/night "boutique"hotel into our Old City South neighborhood, where hotels and nightly rentals are illegal.
City Attorney ISABELLE LOPEZ ducked my requests for legal advice on illegality and failed to caution the clamorous crowd, as she does at all other quasi-judicial hearing. Color her biased toward dodgy developer DAVID BARTON CORNEAL and OLD ISLAND HOTELS INC.
On June 11, 1968, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote Rabbi Israel "Sy" Dressner that St. Augustine was the "most lawless city in America." Under Ms. LOPEZ's malfeasant suzerainty, is it still trending thattaway?
Read all about it:
From: easlavin
Sent: Fri, Jul 17, 2015 4:23 pm
Subject: Re: July 16, 2015 2 PM HARB hearing on DOW PUD -- Your Breach of Standard of Care -- Refusal to Respond to Requests for Legal Advice to HARB
Dear Ms. Lopez, Mr. Regan, Ms. Ratkovic and Mayor Shaver:
1. Dodgy developer DAVID BARTON CORNEAL and OLD ISLAND HOTELS, INC. are being shown favoritism by our City of St. Augustine, and by Ms. Lopez, our City Attorney on the matter of the DOW PUD. There are no plans. There is favoritism, sequelae of secret meetings involving ex-Mayor JOSEPH LESTER BOLES, JR.
2. This is unethical.
3. Ms. Lopez refused to give Historic Architectural Review Board (HARB) members advice on three (3) ethics and procedural issues at yesterday's HARB meeting. See below. She refused to give her customary lecture about the "clamor of the crowd" in the face of boisterous hecklers, refused to opine about HARB's failure to adopt procedural rules and refused to give advice about the unethical behavior of HARB member PAUL M. WEAVER, III voting on a matter that could be a precedent on an issue in which he has a pecuniary interest and has recused himself.
4. I wrote Ms. Lopez after the meeting. Since then, Ms. Lopez has refused to explain her conduct, with no response to my e-mail, asking "Why?"
5. Ms. Lopez has violated the standard of care.
6. Mayor Shaver, Ms. Ratkovic, Mr. Regan, please place this matter on the 7/27 agenda, and on the agenda for Ms. Lopez' performance evaluation.
7. The whole world is watching.
Thank you.
Cordially,
Ed Slavin
904-377-4998
-----Original Message-----
From: easlavin
To: ilopez
Sent: Thu, Jul 16, 2015 6:59 pm
Subject: Re: July 16, 2015 2 PM HARB hearing on DOW PUD -- Your Breach of Standard of Care -- Refusal to Respond to Requests for Legal Advice to HARB
Re: July 16, 2015 2 PM HARB hearing -- Your Breach of Standard of Care
Dear Ms. Lopez:
A. It was a major breach of the standard of care of a government attorney today at the HARB hearing on the DOW PUD for you to:
1. Give no opinion on the issue in this e-mail, when I requested it thrice before HARB. Why?
2. Refuse to caution DAVID BARTON CORNEAL's loud, obnoxious, heckling group of "local native" supporters about "the clamor of the crowd" in a quasi-judicial hearing when that has always been your practice since you have held the position of CIty Attorney. Why?
3. Give no opinion on the recusal issue on PAUL M. WEAVER, III voting on a matter that set the precedent on the ordinance 28-88(1) issue, when I cited Aetna Life Insurance Company v. Lavoie (1986). Why?
B. Your three omissions signal bias.
C. Your omissions are unethical.
D. They are an embarrassment to the City of St. Augustine.
E. I respect that you kindly apologize, resolve to give objective advice on the DOW PUD, recuse yourself or resign as City Attorney.
Please call to arrange time to discuss tomorrow.
Thank you.
WIth kindest regards, I am,
Sincerely yours,
Ed Slavin
904-377-4998
www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Ed Slavin < easlavin@aol.com>
To: Isabelle Lopez < ilopez@citystaug.com>
Sent: Thu, Jul 16, 2015 11:46 am
Subject: Re: July 16, 2015 2 PM HARB hearing -- Illegal to Consider DOW PUD Requests for Opinions and Certificates of Appropriateness -- HARB Has Not Adopted Procedural Rules
No published HARB rules provided on website or otherwise.
-------
On Jul 16, 2015, at 11:34 AM, Isabelle Lopez < ilopez@citystaug.com> wrote:
Mr. Slavin,
Please acquaint yourself with the HARB forms available from the Planning Department (as stated in my response below). You will see a series of requirements, including compliance with AGHP, available online at http://www.staugustinegovernment.com/your government/documents/AGHP2.pdf. Again, I do not have the public records requested, but the Planning Department does. They have already been copied on your request, and will respond at their first opportunity.
From: easlavin@aol.com [mailto:easlavin@aol.com]
Sent: Thursday, July 16, 2015 11:09 AM
Subject: July 16, 2015 2 PM HARB hearing -- Illegal to Consider DOW PUD Requests for Opinions and Certificates of Appropriateness -- HARB Has Not Adopted Procedural Rules
Dear Ms. Wallace, Mr. Roark, Mr. Wayland, and City staff:
1. Please delete from today's agenda -- and all future agendas -- any request for any certificate of appropriateness or opinion of appropriateness.
2. "Our Nation's Oldest City" has apparently never complied with its own historic preservation ordinance, Code Sec. 28-88(1), stating inter alia:
Sec. 28-88. - Procedures.
The historic architectural review board shall follow the following procedures:
(1)
The board shall adopt rules prescribing the procedure for making and reviewing applications for a certificate of appropriateness or request for opinion of appropriateness.
(2)
….
3. It would be illegal, unethical and unseemly for HARB to grant Mr. DAVID BARTON CORNEAL's and the OLD ISLAND HOTELS, INC. applications -- or anyone else's applications -- for certificate or opinion of appropriateness today.
4. HARB has never adopted rules, as required (Two "shalls" make it mandatory).
5. It is shocking that HARB has done business for so long without complying with our mandatory local laws, for as our United States Supreme Court ruled in Service v. Dulles, 354 U.S. 363 (1957), our governments must follow their own rules.
6. I have shared this e-mail with the Florida State Attorney General and with Mr. Peter Sorgi, the Boston counsel for the Estate of Kenneth Worcester Dow, and also with counsel for the applicants and with residents of the Old City City neighborhood.
7. Please delete all DOW PLANNED UNIT DEVELOPMENT related certificates and opinions of appropriateness, and any others, from your agenda today.
8. It would be illegal and an ultra vires act for HARB to decide any such applications without complying with Ordinance 28-88(1).
Thank you!
With kindest regards, I am,
Sincerely,
Ed Slavin
904-377-4998
www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Ed Slavin
To: Isabelle Lopez
Sent: Thu, Jul 16, 2015 10:40 am
Subject: Re: Request No. 2015-247: Any HARB procedural rules on making and reviewing certificates and opinions of appropriateness adopted as required by Ordinance 28-88(1)?
Thanks. No published rules, right? You realize the implications?
On Jul 16, 2015, at 10:25 AM, Isabelle Lopez < ilopez@citystaug.com> wrote:
Yes, the regular meeting begins at 1pm.
I have no responsive public records; the planning department may have responsive documents as may the HARB clerk in terms of motions or consensus regarding forms, content, or other guidance to staff and applicants.
1 comment:
Sad. It has become personal between you and she. Had hoped for better from city staff.
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