Dodgy devious fourteen year incumbent RICHARD O'BRIEN seeks a fifth term.
Summary of St. Augustine Beach Mayor RICHARD O'BRIEN's abuse of the public trust, 2008-date:
1. Sought unconstitutional SLAPP injunction against government watchdog Tom Reynolds in retaliation for protected activity in filing ethics complaints with Florida Commission on Ethics and raising concerns about government mismanagement. Made false police report after October 26, 2016 hearing, despite hearing Honorable Howard McMillen, Circuit Court Judge, modify his order to allow Mr. Reynolds to engage in First Amendment protected activity at City Hall.
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/10/illegal-injunction-against-government.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/10/st-augustine-beach-mayor-rich-obrien.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/10/illegal-injunction-against-tom-reynolds.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/06/ethics-complaints-filed-against-obrien.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/10/slapp-suit-delay-sab-mayor-obrien-hires_25.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/10/national-response-center-report-no.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/10/waiting-on-response-at-or-before.html
3. Pushes an agenda that largely consists of City government policies protective of his hotel business; pushed to outlaw competing house rentals and food trucks.
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2008/07/st-augustine-beach-settles-rental.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2008/04/does-st-augustine-beach-mayor-have_08.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/06/food-truck-park-awesome-idea.html
4. Votes in bloc with other commissioners, with three of them contributing campaign funds to ANDREA SAMUELS, installed in as Mayor for 2016 to keep Undine Pawlowski George from her turn as mayor, violating rotation custom.
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/10/sab-faction-of-four-three-of-five-st.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/02/questioning-st-augustine-beach.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/12/erroneous-and-erratum-re-st-augustine.html
5. Uses private e-mail address for government business, for which St. Augustine Beach Manager demanded $507 -- plus fifteen (15) cents per printed page - to search and provide Commissioners' private-address e-mail on public issues.
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/06/sab-e-mails-507-deposit-plus.html
6. Demanded special zoning favors for himself and his wife; made possible material false statements about wanting to live in one of two McMansions he demanded to build, pressuring PZB and Commission to get his way.
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/06/mayor-obriens-statements-inoperative.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/04/mayor-obriens-two-mcmansions-on-agenda.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/04/mayor-obrien-leave-dais-due-to-conflict.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/04/record-buries-sab-conflict-of-interest.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/03/sab-mayor-obrien-appeals-4-2-pzb-denial.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/03/an-inconvenient-truth-not-in-record.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/03/4-2-pzb-vote-rejects-sab-mayors-illegal.html
7. Pushed sale of 6.1 acre city park to Publix shopping center owner and voted to hire and retain conflicted developer lawyer DOUGLAS NELSON BURNETT as City Attorney. O'BRIEN and Commissioners voted to hire BURNETT in 2009 and repeatedly retained his services despite concerns that he could not represent developers and the City of St. Augustine. BURNETT's St. JOHNS LAW GROUP law firm finally quit in 2015 and BURNETT was replaced in 2016 amid ethics and incompetent concerns -- including advertising his law firm on the City's website, and representing the Publix shopping center owner (whose logo was on his website), when that shopping center owner wanted to buy a 6.1 acre city park. O'BRIEN supported giving BURNETT a "plaque" to honor his "service." BURNETT:
1. Never disclosed his ST. JOHNS LAW GROUP client list.
2. Never provided evidence of a "conflicts check" by ST. JOHNS LAW GROUP.
3. Advertised his ST. JOHNS LAW GROUP law firm on City of St. Augustine Beach website.
4. Advertised on his website that he represented shopping center owner that wanted to buy City-County park for less than we paid for it.
5. Sent his ST. JOHNS LAW GROUP associates to meetings he did not attend, some who were not listed in engagement letter.
6. Gave conservative, pro-developer legal advice.
7. Represented 7-Eleven, a Japanese multinational corporation (through ST. JOHNS LAW GROUP associate JAMES GEORGE WHITEHOUSE) in efforts to inflict twelve gasoline pumps at May & San Marco in the the historic City of St. Augustine, which would have endangered deaf and blind students at the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind, and other residents, while adding to traffic problems at the failing intersection ("We, the People" defeated 7-Eleven, which sold the property to the City of St. Augustine for $1.4 million; the property will now be the locus of an elliptical roundabout to solve the traffic problem 7-Eleven would have exacerbated).
8. Quit as City Attorney just a few months after his ST. JOHNS LAW GROUP-SAB 2009 engagement contract was renewed in 2015, without readvertising the position.
9. Billed SAB taxpayers a quarter of a million dollars since 2009.
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.co.nz/2015/12/plaque-to-city-attorney-developer.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/11/city-attorney-doug-burnett-quits-in-st.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/11/pr-spin-ii-sab-attorney-resigns.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2014/03/stt-augustine-beach-deserves-scrutiny-i.html
8. Retaliated against First Amendment protected activity by policemen and government employees, including 3-2 vote to fire all St. Augustine Beach Police officers because ten of them filed a complaint against then-Chief Robert Hedges, stating overt intent to retaliate because of their complaints, with Commissioner ANDREA SAMUELS saying the Police Department had become "political." We, the People persuaded Commissioners to reconsider, and seventeen jobs were saved -- Commissioner Sherman Gary Snodgrass, a former HR manager for Excelon, switched in time. Ironically, in 2016, Commissioners ANDREA SAMUELS publicly referred to "my 17 police officers," as if they were serfs, vassals or bullets in her gun. How gauche and louche.
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2012/11/record-wrong-on-st-augustine-police.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/07/commr-samuels-my-17-police-officers-how.html
9. Engaged in possible Sunshine violations and elder abuse in Commissioners' false attack on an octogenarian, accusing him of being "anti-Semitic" for using the word "tushy."
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/06/sunshine-misdemeanors-and-elder-abuse.html
10. Routinely violates free speech rights, scheduling "special" or "continuation" meetings where opening general public comment is denied; sets meetings to conflict with City of St. Augustine Commission meetings.
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/07/sab-violates-first-amendment-rights.html
Support Rosetta Bailey and Maggie Kostka for City Commission in St. Augustine Beach. Independence and integrity matter.
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