Record Endorses Roxanne Horvath for City Commission

Thoughtful editorial on the Horvath-Stafford race, but flawed in two respects:
1. Nondisclosure of the fact that Record Opinion Editor JAMES SUTTON dated Commissioner Nancy Sikes-Kline two decades ago. He tends to base editorials on her opinions, as when he attacked Mayor Shaver in 2015. When I called him on it in an e-mail, SUTTON wrote a column, calling me a "political gadfly and conspiracy theorist," lying that I had blogged about his long-ago romantic relationship with Commissioner Sikes-Kline. I didn't blog about it until he wrote his column. It seems really warped to confuse and conflate an e-mail with a blog and to attack someone for expecting integrity from a conceited St. Augustine Record Opinion Editor. What a lugubrious goober.
2. Shallow statement about not seeing Rev. Stafford at meetings -- we never see Himself, He Who Writes These Editorials, JAMES SUTTON, at any City meeting -- have never seen him at once since I started attending them in 2005. For that matter, when has any Record editor or publisher attended any city meeting since Margo Pope retired. They're above it, sending their reporters to "cover" meetings so that they can express opinions after being "informed" by the Establishment. That's not Kosher. It's uncool, uncouth and unkind (and possibly racist) to judge Rev. Stafford by a standard that the Record editorial board itself flunks, missing it by a country mile: "We asked if any had seen Rev. Stafford in the past few years at city meetings, festivals or functions — and the answers were all “no.” That is troubling. It’s easy to talk the talk of civic engagement; walking it is another thing entirely." Come to meetings, Record editorial board: stop hiding from We, the People and our concerns and ignoring public commenters in your stories.

Posted November 2, 2016 12:59 pm - Updated November 3, 2016 12:06 am
RECORD ENDORSEMENT: Horvath a voice of reason on City Commission

1 Comments

St. Augustine is fortunate to have two viable candidates seeking City Commission Seat 1. Roxanne Horvath is a four-year member of commission seeking another term. The Rev. Ron Stafford is the political newcomer seeking to unseat her — though he is no newcomer to St. Augustine or its issues. His goals are, first, to return permitted parking for residents, “hoping they will return downtown.” He’d like to see a bus system downtown, but had no plan on how that might be accomplished. We asked Stafford if he was running as a black man, most concerned about the predominately black area of town. He stated simply that his approach to city problems is not black and white. But he did contend that West Augustine has been “forgotten.” We believe the diversity he’d bring to the existing commission would be a plus for all the residents of the city.

Horvath has a rich resume. She’s been most active over her city term in spearheading the vision plan. To her, and her fellow commissioners’ credit, some of the document has been already integrated into reality, in terms of budgeting. She is an architect by trade, a skill that serves the city well. She’s also up on issues outside the city limits — and seems aware that St. Augustine isn’t a island in a larger sea of planning, serving four years on the Northeast Regional Planning Council.

Perhaps the biggest rap on the current City Commission is its discord from within. It is very real. We can’t see Stafford playing that game. He’s a measured, intelligent man. And we think it’s fair to say that, of all the sitting commissioners, Horvath and Nancy Sike-Kline have been the moderate voices of the group, essentially acting as buffers between the other players. So both candidates would mitigate animosity in an too often unreasonable political climate.

We asked several residents plugged into the heartbeat of the city a question and the answers we received were important. We asked if any had seen Rev. Stafford in the past few years at city meetings, festivals or functions — and the answers were all “no.” That is troubling. It’s easy to talk the talk of civic engagement; walking it is another thing entirely. Horvath gets around. We see it, as does the community. We think she’s in the better position to move the city forward. She has a proven record of making it happen in a quiet, decorous manner. For these reasons, we recommend sending Ms. Horvath back to continue the work she’s started on the commission. She can be trusted to follow through. We’d very much like to see Rev. Stafford on a volunteer city board or two. He seems like a very straight shooter who may benefit from a little more practice.