Here's the Record's weak endorsement, followed by the irreparable facts on the Top Ten list on FREEMAN that the Record chose to ignore:
Posted November 4, 2016 12:06 am
RECORD ENDORSEMENT: Freeman has the credentials
The City Commission Seat 2 race has layers. There are the two candidates and then there may be two camps.
First the candidates. Leanna Freeman is the incumbent with eight years on the commission. Susan Rathbone is the challenger, seeking public office for the first time.
Freeman has a clear edge if experience in city governance counts. Prior to the City Commission, she served on the city’s planning and zoning board for five years, one as its chair.
She is, by vocation, an attorney, which is a valuable asset in understanding the increasingly complex issues the city faces.
Rathbone was a teacher and school administrator, currently on a professional hiatus. She says she can devote her full time to the city commission job.
Freeman says she plans her professional calendar around meetings and other city business well in advance.
One of the hot button issues is the balance of resident interests versus tourist interests. Freeman says the city does a good job, but with visitor numbers rapidly rising, there are areas in which the two chafe. But she points to a recent city effort at creating a master calendar of events, to help ensure no event overlap — and blocking out any new events at the busiest times of the year.
Rathhbone states flatly that the balance is “way off,” with residents getting the short end of the stick.
She’s for term limits, which is the norm for new candidates. We have to guess that Freeman is against them since she’s seeking a third term.
Rathbone is critical of city spending. She pointed to the cost of the 450th celebration and the new seawall project on the bayfront. It was an odd time, we thought, a week after the hurricane to pick a fight with an improved storm buffer. But there it is.
Then there are the normal charges from challengers about government transparency. We have to disagree on this one. While there’s room for improvement certainly, the meetings and website are more citizen-friendly than just a couple years ago.
Rathbone’s most damning charge is that the city is facing the same challenges it was eight years ago “with no marked improvement.” Freeman, differs, with a list of improvements, especially in city infrastructure projects. None of the candidates thus far have argued that we’ve done enough. More money could have been spent on these projects. But it’s only fair to note that the money would have come from some other area of the budget. Finances are dialed in, especially in a city of 14,000 with a third of its properties off the tax rolls.
Both candidates are smart and seem committed.
The second layer mentioned above is that it’s clear that Rathbone and Mayor Nancy Shaver are on a political team. Their answers to questions were eerily similar. The contest may balance on the team, rather than the candidates.
What the contest comes down to, for us, are the qualifications and institutional knowledge of the city issues. Leanna Freeman is articulate and straightforward in her defense of city governance. From where we sit (and we sit through a lot of city meetings), the past decade has been one of marked improvement across the board in key areas.
We recommend the voters return Freeman to the commission.
We would very much like to see Rathbone serve the city in countless other ways, including volunteer boards. She has a talent we’d hate to see wasted if she does not come out on top in this important election.
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Tom Reynolds
Freeman got to go ! Freeman is nothing more then the Weak & Bowels Puppet. She is the anchor stuck on the bottom preventing the ship from going forward. Freeman is unfriendly to residents and shows it at the meetings. Now if you like the completely out of touch with residents Weak & Bowels methods of running the City, No Bid Contracts, No City Audits, and NO Accountability.......Freeman is your Gal.
Fresh AIR is what Susan Rathbone will bring in a room that needs it. New energy with put the RESIDENTS FIRST THINKING and ACTIONS ! If you want all the taxpayer dollars accounted for, Rathbone is the choice.
If you want a kind, sweet, and caring listener to hear your city concern, Rathbone is your VOTE ! Let's get out of the mud. Accountability for all.
VOTE RATHBONE ...... Concerned..... Compassionate ........Change......
Susan Rathbone, the Residents Choice !
Suzanne Weed
Commissioner Leanna Freeman represents what is best for the City of St. Augustine. She serves with an understanding of our complex needs that should be valued and appreciated. Her skillful experience and competence, as outlined in the editorial, have no equal. The projects she has supported have been managed efficiently and expertly. More importantly, Commissioner Freeman puts extraordinary effort into ensuring the well-being of others in this community, consistently above her own. Never would this candidate imagine taking advantage of resources to better her own well-being. Recent evidence is her assistance to so many after Hurricane Matthew, despite her own home being turned to shambles. The list is long for all the wonderfully unselfish projects Freeman has enacted, created, supported; she serves to ensure the well-being of all residents and local businesses of this beautiful, yet rapidly growing, city. Commissioner Freeman is optimistic and approaches challenges positively and with hopeful collaboration. Sometimes caring, expertise, and brilliance can be overlooked, but if our community TRULY examines the qualities of Commissioner Leanna Freeman, that is all one will find.
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TOP TEN THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT ST. AUGUSTINE CITY COMMISSIONER LEANNA FREEMAN, seeking third term, running against reformer Susan Rathbone, President of the St. Augustine North Davis Shores (SANDS) neighborhood association
Updated: November 4, 2016
We, the People are rightly disappointed in Commissioner LEANNA FREEMAN, who seeks a third term as City Commissioner. She's let us all down, again and again, voting in lockstep against reform. Upon review of her record, I think that Commissioner LEANNA FREEMAN deserves more scrutiny than ever. What do you reckon?
Enough. Time to elect Ms. Susan Rathbone to St. Augustine City Commission.
LEANNA SOPHIA AMARU FREEMAN,
Two-term ST. AUGUSTINE CITY COMMISSIONER, SEEKS THIRD TERM
(Historic City News)
(Folio Weekly)
TOP TEN THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT ST. AUGUSTINE CITY COMMISSIONER LEANNA SOPHIA AMARU FREEMAN, seeking third term, running against reformer Susan Rathbone, President of the St. Augustine North Davis Shores (SANDS) neighborhood association.
Commissioner LEANNA SOPHIA AMARU FREEMAN:
1. Anti-consumer and pro-monopoly -- During 2016, she actually proposed a city ordinance to outlaw all taxicabs more than ten years old or with more than 250,000 miles, an ordinance drafted ab initio and proposed by FREEMAN at the behest of SAX TAXI, its owner, JAMES HOWARD and lawyer JAMES GEORGE WHITEHOUSE, lawyer with DOUGLAS NELSON BURNETT's ST. JOHNS LAW GROUP. Incredibly, Commissioner LEANNA FREEMAN pushed the idea for some eight months until she finally relented -- it would probably have violated the antitrust laws and constituted an unconstitutional taking in violation of the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Her delays cost the City staff time and extra advertising expenses for additional public hearings.
During 2009, FREEMAN said, "let them run their businesses and raise their rates" of taxicab companies demanding to install meters and raise rates, conforming to Mayor JOSEPH LESTER BOLES, JR., City Manager WILLIAM BARRY HARRISS and City Attorney RONALD WAYNE BROWN's determination that consumers could not speak on the rate increase -- but taxicab companies and employees could speak in favor of it, because the "rules" classed it as a "resolution," not an ordinance.
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2009/02/blog-post_4672.html
https://historiccity.com/2016/staugustine/news/florida/commissioner-freeman-questionably-menacing-taxis-58749
2. Pro-secrecy and opposes compliance audits of City's no-bid, sole source, "emergency" contracts: Angrily pushed back against no-bid, sole source, "emergency" 450th contract compliance audits -- her adolescent antics including behaving rudely, interrupting Mayor Shaver, "Is this meeting over? Is this meeting over? Do I have three votes? Do I have three votes to move forward?"
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/03/coverup-four-misguided-commissioners.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/03/gang-of-four-blocking-audit-and.html
https://historiccity.com/2015/staugustine/news/florida/auditing-the-450th-transparency-ahead-51596
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/04/speak-out-may-11-2015-at-st-augustine.html
3. Anti-reform: often appears other-directed by City Manager JOHN PATRICK REGAN, P..E., ex-Mayors LEN WEEKS and JOE BOLES and developers and votes in lockstep with Commissioners TODD NEVILLE, NANCY SIKES-KLINE and ROXANNE HORVATH, a/k/a "the Gang of Four," as she badly bungled her legal analysis and voted with three somnolent, supine, satrap Commissioners to support destroying DOW MUSEUM OF HISTORIC HOMES and turning it into a $500/night hotel, voting for DOW PUD after midnight on August 26, 2016, joining Gang of Four in opposing recess to deliberate another day after long contentious public hearing. The fix was in, the procedures cooked up by the City Attorney were unfair, and DAVID BARTON CORNEAL did not even have a court reporter. Wonder why?
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/08/the-shame-of-our-city.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/08/another-oddity-at-dow-pud-hearing.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/08/dow-pud-cordova-inn-reconsideration.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/09/cordova-inn-streets-inundated-dow-pud.html
4. Contemptuous of citizen concerns and data-based decisions: voted against accelerating street repairs of our decrepit ancient streets, through which vehicles have fallen into sinkholes -- joined Gang of Four in opposing Mayor Nancy Shaver's and residents' modest request to redirect 1/2 of % of City budget on fixing grade D+ streets, with 4-1 vote against on September 22, 2016, ignoring eight speakers and fifty e-mails
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/09/gang-of-four-strike-out-oppose-12-of.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/09/hcn-commissioners-refuse-to-increase.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/09/4-1-vote-against-fixing-city-streets.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/09/speak-out-for-more-street-paving.html
5. Unresponsive about discrimination, Sunshine and public records: City's representative to all-white St. Augustine Sister Cities Association, effectively run as covert operation by ex-Mayor LEN WEEKS -- she refuses to respond to requests for information or a meeting about Sunshine and Open Records concerns about organization to which at least three Commissioners belong.
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/09/remedying-all-white-st-augustine-sister.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2009/05/ex-commissioner-susan-burk-cants-stand.html
As a licensed attorney and respected local litigator, FREEMAN was curiously quiet and remained silent and said nothing when:
A. LOPEZ did libel law research for TODD NEVILLE (without NEVILLE reimbursing the City) in NEVILLE's meretricious demand to file a libel lawsuit against Michael Gold and Historic City News for expressing an opinion about NEVILLE's alleged conflict of interest concerning the DOW PUD.
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/09/doubly-unconstitutional-odd-todd.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/09/nothing-in-writing-no-memo-re.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/09/record-blasts-libel-threat-odd-todd.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/09/nebbish-neville-wants-city-to-fund.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/09/unamerican-attack-on-first-amendment-by.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/09/nebbish-neville-wants-city-to-fund.html
B. LOPEZ wasted more than $219,000 by not directing city's outside law firm to seek court-ordered attorney fees from the Whetstones in their frivolous, fraudulent dock litigation, begun by the late GEORGE MORRIS McCLURE, a friend of FREEMAN's and LOPEZ's -- even though seeking fees was discussed in a Shade Meeting
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/05/21939577-wasted-in-frivolous-fraudulent.html
C. Commissioner TODD NEVILLE abused Mayor Shaver for speaking to visual artists suing the City.
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/01/unconstitutional-antics-commr-todd.html
D. City never "stood up to FPL" and negotiated a better deal, instead, rubber-stamping a 30 year franchise renewal in 2008, despite FREEMAN's touting her law experience in 2008.
http://staugustine.com/stories/080608/politics_080608_033.shtml
Her opponents are both retired and have said they will dedicate all their time to being a commissioner. But Freeman said that doesn't mean they would be the best for the job.
"I think that having a lot of time on your hands doesn't exactly qualify you for the position," she said.
** Why are you running for this office: I hear the concerns of residents and feel that with my vaired experiences I can provide the leadership needed to address upcoming issues that will impact the quality of life now for generations to come.
** What is the position's greatest challenge: The greatest challenge will be to create policies that will enhance the quality of life for residents while simultaneously balancing the needs and health of our businesses.
** What is your greatest strength: I am by both nature and training, prepared to listen to new ideas and interpretations of old ideas without prejudgment. My view of St. Augustine citizenship has come to me as a business owner, as a resident with children and as a St. Augustine native.
http://staugustine.com/stories/080608/politics_080608_033.shtmlF. City continued discriminating against and retaliating against visual artists, resulting in two (2) federal court orders finding First Amendment violations in 2009 and 2012.
Despite her 2008 campaign promises, Commissioner LEANNA FREEMAN is unwilling to use her considerable legal skills to speak out against oppression, fraud, waste, abuse, misfeasance, malfeasance, nonfeasance and nonfeasance -- she is AWOL (Absent Without Leave) in the work to make St. Augustine a truly Compassionate City, " where human rights are respected and not neglected. Of all Commissioners, with her history of passionately defending rights in family law cases, she is the biggest disappointment -- compromiser, sellout and toady for City Hall corruption. God forgive her for her Philistinism.
G. Claimed credit for removal of "No Trespassing" signs from Loring Park, credit she did not deserve, while apparently shopping a story to the St. Augustine Record that omitted the City Attorney's role in soliciting UF to erect the signs, while bragging on her "accomplishment."
7. Wasteful: Spends city funds on junkets -- trips to Spain and elsewhere with her pals -- including trip where she fell for faux Picasso exhibit, which had to be replaced with another Picasso exhibit. Ignores government waste.
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2009/05/ex-commissioner-susan-burk-cants-stand.html
8. Easily distracted: Sometimes leaves daytime budget meetings early, missing public comment, based on luncheon appointments or her dumb 'ole divorce lawyer case work. FREEMAN set the tone in 2008, missing her very first City Commission meeting because she was "on safari."
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2008/12/leeana-freeman-misses-her-first-city.html
9. Not especially empathetic, not an original thinker and not a thought leader: Admitted when she ran in 2008 that she was recruited to run by her then law partner, SUSAN BURK, who said she recruited FREEMAN because they agreed on everything. FREEMAN claimed that she would "protect" our City -- she doesn't know the difference between our City ("We the People") and the denizens of City Hall, including directors who know not that they know not that they know not. LEANNA FREEMAN's repeatedly broken her word then and since, as with her support for the DOW PUD and other dodgy developer projects. In 2008, FREEMAN said, concerning her husband's St. George Street business and her law practice that: ""I have a vested interest in the city," she said. "I don't want to change the face of our city; that's not my goal. I want to protect (it)." http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2008/03/freeman-sullivan-seek-st-augustine-city.html
In 2016, FREEMAN is, in effect is asking for SUSAN BURK's seventh term. A fulsome, furious defender of City Manager WILLIAM BARRY HARRISS' works and pomps, including depositing a landfill in a lake, BURK infamously published a letter in the Record after her last term ended, accusing a "group" of public comment speakers of telling only "lies" and being "rude," showing her animus and bias for democracy and efforts to end corruption and lawbreaking in our town. http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2009/05/ex-commissioner-susan-burk-cants-stand.html
Of course, the landfill WILLIAM HARRIS dumped in the lake -- it's now in a proper Class I landfill. And WILLIAM HARRISS is gone.
10. Apparently lost interest in serving the people of St. Augustine, instead of special interests: LEANNA FREEMAN sometimes appears tired, inattentive, insouciant, unhappy, scrappy, burned-out, disdainful, raging, petulant, smug, spiteful, snooty, snobby mendacious, malicious or just plain bored. After two disappointing, disagreeable, disingenuous, tawdry, tedious terms as a St. Augustine Commissioner, serving since December 1, 2008. LEANNA FREEMAN sometimes doesn't do her homework. She sometimes brandishes disrespectful, eye-rolling, whining, provocative, mean-spirited, non-collegial and unprofessional demeanor toward many residents and Mayor Shaver, manifested in both her tone of voice and her body language, failing and refusing to maintain eye contact, looking away, looking askance, and showing precisely the same hauteur, sublime ugliness and bad manners as her former law partner, SUSAN BURK, former City Commissioner. Again, FREEMAN set the tone in 2008, missing her very first City Commission meeting because she was "on safari." http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2008/12/leeana-freeman-misses-her-first-city.html
LEANNA FREEMAN publicly embarrassed herself and Our Nation's Oldest City (perhaps for the last time) at the September 24, 2016 dedication of the ROBERT S. HAYLING FREEDOM PARK, sniping at Mayor Shaver that the City Manager REGAN would present an "accurate history" -- one that omitted the history of environmental racism since 1905 and citizens speaking out and remedying it, opposing efforts to dump illegally dumped material back in Lincolnville or to inflict a children's museum, a coral growing business or an aquarium where FREEDOM PARK is now located -- which would have violated Florida DEP guidelines forbidding construction on top of former landfills.
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/09/here-we-right-wrong-dr-robert-s-hayling.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/09/accurate-maladroit-commissioner-leanna.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/09/accurate-chronology-mayor-boles-abused.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/09/blog-post_24.html
CONCLUSION: It's time for LEANNA FREEMAN to be booted out of office. It's time for LEANNA FREEMAN to leave the City Commissioners' office she has encumbered and sometimes disgraced for eight years.
Recommendation: vote for and elect as City Commissioner Ms. Susan Rathbone, a community leader and former educator, to promote healing, accountability and rational debate, to preserve and protect our Nation's Oldest City, her history, culture, structures and environment.
Yes we can!
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