City Sewage Dumping Hearing Required

Don't let the City staff pull a fast one and refuse to hold a public hearing on the proposed Consent Order on eighteen (18) sewage spills.




From: easlavin
To: nshaver ; rhorvath ; nsikeskline ; lfreeman ; tneville
Cc: neil ; ancientcityweekly ; joboyle ;
Sent: Sun, May 8, 2016 12:15 pm
Subject: Public Hearing Required on FDEP Consent Order on Eighteen (18) Sewage Spills by City of St. Augustine, 2015-2016

Dear Mayor Shaver, Vice Mayor Horvath and Commissioners Freeman, Sikes-Kline and Neville:
1. Please reschedule this item for an advertised public hearing, upon Mayor Nancy Shaver's return to St. Augustine.
2. The proposed FDEP consent order on eighteen (18) sewage spills is currently on the consent agenda.
3. Public comment is urgently required, but only AFTER the presentation by the City Manager, and NOT in general public comment BEFORE the presentation.
4. The City of St. Augustine has a long history of environmental pollution crimes, coverups and environmental racism.
5. It would invite litigation to deny the public an opportunity to speak on the proposed consent order.
6. That's what occurred during 2007-2008, when the public was denied the right to speak on a consent order, after a St. Augustine Record advised us of our rights to speak.
7. Judith and Anthony Seraphin, Dr. Dwight Hines, Diane and Jerry Mills, David Thundershield Queen and I -- and all other residents -- were unlawfully denied the right to speak on dumping of a landfill in a lake (Old City Reservoir).
8. We seven residents successfully appealed the City-FDEP consent decree to a DOAH ALJ, resulting in 40,000 cubic yards of contaminated solid waste being disposed of properly, in Nassau County landfill, instead of dumping it in Lincolnville a/k/a "The Pollution Peninsula," at what is now the Dr. Robert Hayling Freedom Park.
9. As a result, Folio Weekly called me an "environmental hero" in a 2008 cover story by Anne Schindler, now with First Coast News.
10. "We, the People" have a right to be heard about the propriety of the proposed Consent Order terms.
11. Do not attempt to limit our First and Ninth Amendment rights and our rights pursuant to Article I, Section 24 of our Florida Constitution to speak out about the City's repeated sewage pollution events, which are literally a stench in the nostrils of our Nation's Oldest City.
12. Please vote 5/9 to direct the City Manager to reschedule this item to a future meeting as a public hearing, with testimony under oath and cross-examination by the public.
Thank you.
With kindest regards, I am,
Sincerely yours,
Ed Slavin
www.edslavin.com
Ancient City Weekly
904-377-4998