A Headquarters EPA civil rights investigator and an EPA civil rights lawyer interviewed me by telephone last this afternoon about my March 22, 2016 complaint against Florida Governor RICK SCOTT for vetoing the $200,000 appropriation for West Augustine sewers while leaving alone the $2,820,000 for Summer Haven River dredging of sand deposited after a hurricane.
My complaint triggering the investigation by the EPA Office of Civil Rights was filed pursuant to Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the Fourteenth Amendment. . A
Yes, that 1964 Civil Rights Act, which was enacted thanks to the courage of our friends and neighbors here in St. Augustine, Florida in 1964.
President Lyndon B. Johnson broke the filibuster of Senate segregationists based upon events here in St. Augustine -- international news.
Yes, so I invoked the 1964 Civil Rights Act when I filed a March 22, 2016 complaint against Florida Governor RICK SCOTT with the Justice Department over his unseemly, unconstitutional ukase -- his veto of a mere $200,000 for West Augustine sewers.
Here it is:
-----Original Message-----
From: easlavin
To: vanita.gupta
Sent: Tue, Mar 22, 2016 3:18 pm
Subject: Re: Civil Rights Investigation of Florida Governor RICK SCOTT's Veto of $200,000 West Augustine Sewer Matching Grant (and Governor's Chief IG's Refusal to Investigate EOG staff)
-----Original Message-----
From: easlavin
To: vanita.gupta
Sent: Tue, Mar 22, 2016 3:15 pm
Subject: Civil Rights Investigation of Florida Governor RICK SCOTT's Veto of $200,000 West Augustine Sewer Matching Grant (and Governor's Chief IG's Refusal to Investigate EOG staff)
Dear General Gupta:
Thank you for your wise years of government and private bono practice in advancement of civil rights.
Will you direct your Civil Rights Division staff to please help us remedy decades of civil rights wrongs here in St. Augustine, Florida, today?:
A. Pursuant to Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, please direct the Civil Rights Division and the FBI to investigate Florida Governor RICHARD LYNN SCOTT's veto of $200,000 for West Augustine sewers for a struggling low-income African-American neighborhood, while not vetoing a project in the same county (St. Johns) to spend $2.8 million appropriation to dredge Summer Haven River, which a storm filled with sand (benefitting a few wealthy vacation home owners)(attached).
B. I requested an investigation by the Florida Chief Inspector General's office on March 19, 2016. I received a maladroit response March 21, 2016 (attached), inter alia investigating nothing and ducking jurisdiction of my "concerns" -- illegal invidious discrimination against black people by the Executive Office of the Governor, RICHARD LYNN SCOTT in violation of Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the Fourteenth Amendment
C. The facts are irrefragable, as documented in my unrebutted March 18, 2016 letter to Ms. Melinda Miguel the Florida Chief Inspector General (response attached):
1. Please investigate Florida Governor RICK SCOTT's outgoing Chief of Staff (Ms. MELISSA SELLERS), his Deputy Chief of Staff (Mr. KARL RASMUSSEN), and others on the Executive Office of the Governor (EOG) staff and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) staff for procuring and recommending the Governor's March 17, 2016 8 PM line item veto of a $200,000 legislative matching grant appropriation for engineering work for West Augustine, Florida sewer service. Their actions violate the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the Fourteenth Amendment, and thus constitute waste, fraud and abuse under CIG jurisdiction.
2. This $200,000 matching grant legislative appropriation was passed by our State of Florida 2016 legislature. Why? To promote public health and economic development for West Augustine -- a long-neglected low-income African American neighborhood in wealthy St. Johns County -- a struggling, poor black community that was historically the victim of environmental institutional racism by both St. Johns County and the City of St. Augustine, Florida, which Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called "the most lawless city in America."
3. E coli. from leaking West Augustine septic tanks contaminates sanitary drinking water wells, risking disease and death -- it is an imminent life safety hazard and a clear and present danger to public health. West Augustine was long denied annexation into the City of St. Augustine and it was denied sewers by both the City and the County. Why? Due to decades of institutional racism on the part of City and County officials. Our louche local governments were insouciant, intolerant and insolent -- until very recently -- toward environmental justice, civil rights and the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. During 2005-2006, our then St. Augustine City Manager (WILLIAM BARRY HARRISS) actually dumped a landfill in a lake in West Augustine. HARRISS perpetrated other environmental crimes in low-income communities including sewage pollution of our saltwater marsh at the south end of Lincolnville, founded by freed slaves in 1866. The City and HARRISS were never being prosecuted by Florida or federal officials. This desuetude of law enforcement does not give people a sense of confidence in our state and federal environmental regulators. [HARRISS now works for Sheriff DAVID SHOAR. Governor SCOTT unlawfully named HARRISS on or about August 2, 2013, as the lone "public" member of the Florida Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission (FCSTC). There can be only one person per employing agency (except the state prison system) F.S. 943.11(1)(b), and the "citizen" member cannot be a law enforcement officer eligible for appointment as such, F.S. 943.11(1)(a).]
4. Malign governmental neglect of the low-income African-American community of West Augustine, Florida has been well documented by local newspapers, by my blog and in television documentaries by Flagler College graduate Jeremy Dean ("Dare Not Walk Alone") and by former United Nations Ambassador Andrew Young ("Crossing in St. Augustine"), et al. Enough discrimination.
5. Florida Governor RICHARD LYNN SCOTT's veto of a small line item of only $200,000 is blatant environmental racism and a violation of Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution: the same EOG staff did not recommend a line item veto of $2,885,005 appropriation in the very same county for river dredging for Summer Haven vacation homes.
6. Respondents MELLISSA SELLERS and KARL RASMUSSEN are unjust stewards who procured an unjust veto; it potentially puts at risk all federal grants for violation of Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
7. This line item veto is without business or public policy basis. It is freighted with prejudice, animus, waste, fraud and abuse of the legislative veto process -- outrageous, intentional invidious discrimination against African-Americans in violation of the United States Constitution, which RASMUSSEN and SELLERS swore to uphold as a condition of their oath of office.
8. This line item veto evidences environmental racism, discrimination against a low-income community. Yet rich people in Summer Haven got a $2.9 million legislative grant for river dredging benefitting vacation homes, where there is no imminent life safety hazard. Why?
9. Both the West Augustine African-America community and our City and County Commissioners are now united in resolving the problem, yet the Governor's maladroit, staff recommended a line veto, which now potentially subjects our State of Florida to a federal funds cutoff under Title VI.
10. On what theory did Respondent top EOG staffers MELISSA SELLERS and KARL RASMUSSEN procure this wrongfully racist veto by the Governor?
11. We still don't know why Governor SCOTT vetoed the $200,000 appropriation. My efforts to obtain EOG documents have been unavailing to date. See my four pending Open Records Requests Nos. 2016-106 through 2016-109 (below).
12. I respectfully request that you commence an investigation immediately: please secure, preserve and protect all evidence relevant to your civil, criminal and administrative investigation, to prevent deletion, spoliation, or material alteration of documents.
13. I am today alerting the U.S. Department of Justice and Environmental Protection Agency.
14. By copy of this e-mail, I am advising Respondents MELISSA SELLERS, KARL RASMUSSEN, et al. in EOG that any document destruction, any e-mail deletion, any material alteration of documents, any post hoc creation of documents, any spoliation of evidence, any witness tampering or any other sort of obstruction of justice could be prosecuted as federal crimes (and be subject to federal grand jury and Congressional investigation).
Fiat justitia ruat caelum. (Let justice be done though the heavens fall.)
The only response was the maladroit March 21, 2016 form letter (attached), signed by Erin Romeiser, Investigations Manager, Florida Governor's Chief Inspector General who has not returned my call and whose staff states that this IG curiously has "no special agents."
Thank you, General Gupta, in advance, for directing the Civil Rights Division and FBI to investigate Governor Scott's veto of a mere $200,000 for West Augustine sewers.
With kindest regards, I am,
Sincerely yours,
Ed Slavin
www.edslavin.com
904-377-4998
-----Original Message-----
From: easlavin
To: cig
Sent: Sat, Mar 19, 2016 3:48 pm
Subject: Investigation by Florida Chief Inspector General Melinda Miguel of EOG Staff Procuring Governor Scott's Veto of $200,000 West Augustine Sewer Matching Grant
Dear Chief Inspector General Miguel:
1. Please investigate Florida Governor RICK SCOTT's outgoing Chief of Staff (Ms. MELISSA SELLERS), his Deputy Chief of Staff (Mr. KARL RASMUSSEN), and others on the Executive Office of the Governor (EOG) staff and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) staff for procuring and recommending the Governor's March 17, 2016 8 PM line item veto of a $200,000 legislative matching grant appropriation for engineering work for West Augustine, Florida sewer service. Their actions violate the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the Fourteenth Amendment, and thus constitute waste, fraud and abuse under CIG jurisdiction.
2. This $200,000 matching grant legislative appropriation was passed by our State of Florida 2016 legislature. Why? To promote public health and economic development for West Augustine -- a long-neglected low-income African American neighborhood in wealthy St. Johns County -- a struggling, poor black community that was historically the victim of environmental institutional racism by both St. Johns County and the City of St. Augustine, Florida, which Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called "the most lawless city in America."
3. E coli. from leaking West Augustine septic tanks contaminates sanitary drinking water wells, risking disease and death -- it is an imminent life safety hazard and a clear and present danger to public health. West Augustine was long denied annexation into the City of St. Augustine and it was denied sewers by both the City and the County. Why? Due to decades of institutional racism on the part of City and County officials. Our louche local governments were insouciant, intolerant and insolent -- until very recently -- toward environmental justice, civil rights and the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. During 2005-2006, our then St. Augustine City Manager (WILLIAM BARRY HARRISS) actually dumped a landfill in a lake in West Augustine. HARRISS perpetrated other environmental crimes in low-income communities including sewage pollution of our saltwater marsh at the south end of Lincolnville, founded by freed slaves in 1866. The City and HARRISS were never being prosecuted by Florida or federal officials. This desuetude of law enforcement does not give people a sense of confidence in our state and federal environmental regulators. [HARRISS now works for Sheriff DAVID SHOAR. Governor SCOTT unlawfully named HARRISS on or about August 2, 2013, as the lone "public" member of the Florida Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission (FCSTC). There can be only one person per employing agency (except the state prison system) F.S. 943.11(1)(b), and the "citizen" member cannot be a law enforcement officer eligible for appointment as such, F.S. 943.11(1)(a).]
4. Malign governmental neglect of the low-income African-American community of West Augustine, Florida has been well documented by local newspapers, by my blog and in television documentaries by Flagler College graduate Jeremy Dean ("Dare Not Walk Alone") and by former United Nations Ambassador Andrew Young ("Crossing in St. Augustine"), et al. Enough discrimination.
5. Florida Governor RICHARD LYNN SCOTT's veto of a small line item of only $200,000 is blatant environmental racism and a violation of Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution: the same EOG staff did not recommend a line item veto of $2,885,005 appropriation in the very same county for river dredging for Summer Haven vacation homes.
6. Respondents MELLISSA SELLERS and KARL RASMUSSEN are unjust stewards who procured an unjust veto; it potentially puts at risk all federal grants for violation of Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
7. This line item veto is without business or public policy basis. It is freighted with prejudice, animus, waste, fraud and abuse of the legislative veto process -- outrageous, intentional invidious discrimination against African-Americans in violation of the United States Constitution, which RASMUSSEN and SELLERS swore to uphold as a condition of their oath of office.
8. This line item veto evidences environmental racism, discrimination against a low-income community. Yet rich people in Summer Haven got a $2.9 million legislative grant for river dredging benefitting vacation homes, where there is no imminent life safety hazard. Why?
9. Both the West Augustine African-America community and our City and County Commissioners are now united in resolving the problem, yet the Governor's maladroit, staff recommended a line veto, which now potentially subjects our State of Florida to a federal funds cutoff under Title VI.
10. On what theory did Respondent top EOG staffers MELISSA SELLERS and KARL RASMUSSEN procure this wrongfully racist veto by the Governor?
11. We still don't know why Governor SCOTT vetoed the $200,000 appropriation. My efforts to obtain EOG documents have been unavailing to date. See my four pending Open Records Requests Nos. 2016-106 through 2016-109 (below).
12. I respectfully request that you commence an investigation immediately: please secure, preserve and protect all evidence relevant to your civil, criminal and administrative investigation, to prevent deletion, spoliation, or material alteration of documents.
13. I am today alerting the U.S. Department of Justice and Environmental Protection Agency.
14. By copy of this e-mail, I am advising Respondents MELISSA SELLERS, KARL RASMUSSEN, et al. in EOG that any document destruction, any e-mail deletion, any material alteration of documents, any post hoc creation of documents, any spoliation of evidence, any witness tampering or any other sort of obstruction of justice could be prosecuted as federal crimes (and be subject to federal grand jury and Congressional investigation).
Fiat justitia ruat caelum. (Let justice be done though the heavens fall.)
Thank you.
With kindest regards, I am,
Sincerely yours,
Ed Slavin
www.edslavin.com
904-377-4998
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