Monday, March 19, 2018

Preserving and protecting St. Augustine Beach











Here's my vision for St. Augustine Beach (SAB) -- preserving and protecting:

  1. "Our [beach] village," as County Commission Chair Henry Dean calls it.  Voters amended SAB Charter to establish a permanent 35-foot building height limit (already violated by new hotel).
  2. Our beaches -- we must end dune destruction, e.g., by then Mayor/Commissioner Richard O'Brien, and Dr. James Grimes. (whose consultant condemned "monstrous obnoxious dune").  Neither was prosecuted. (Florida DEP apparently stands for "Don't Expect Proection").  Support a St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore,  proposed in 1939 by St. Augustine Mayor Walter Fraser, Congressman Joseph Hendricks and Senators Claude Pepper and Charles Andrews. http://www.staugustgreen.com/draft-legislation.html
  3. Free speech -- end official oppression at meetings.
  4. Diversity -- desegregate all-white SAB City Hall.  St. Augustine Beach Civic Association, Inc. (SABCA) EVP Robert Samuels angrily opposes a small Civil Rights Museum honoring 1964 wade-ins. 
  5. Employee rights -- we helped reverse unconstitutional move by then-Mayor Andrea Samuels and Commissioner O'Brien to fire all seventeen police officers in retaliation for reporting  alleged misconduct by former police chief.  (Thanks to then-Commissioner Gary Snodgrass for changing his vote, saving SABPD from hostile takeover by Sheriff David Shoar).
  6. St. Johns County Ocean and Fishing Pier (Pier Park) -- County Administrator Michael David Wanchick refuses to discuss replacing deteriorating Pier.   Lacking sufficient parking, new Embassy Suites owner-developers covet adjoining Pier Park, meeting secretly with successive Mayors (O'Brien and Samuels), City Manager Max Royle and County Administrator Michael Wanchick.  NO documents exist.  Really? There's been NO comment from the 650-lawyer, 24-office Akerman LLP law firm, or its hotel-owner clients (the Ardids/Key International).  
  7. Transparency -- SAB demands fat fees for our records, while illegally abusing private e-mails. Royle gave FPL personal e-mail addresses of City Commissioners to facilitate secret communications before FPL's 30-year franchise renewal. 
  8. Authenticity -- "Small is beautiful," economist E.F. Schumacher wrote. SAB must remain an authentic, small, cool, hip, low-rise, surfer-friendly, environmentally-conscious, affordable beach-town.  Not another Boca Raton.
  9. Peace and quiet -- let's end noisome Pier carnivals (like Beach Blast).   Why not a family-friendly First Night with fireworks (but no alcohol sales) on New Year's Eve? Let's end blatant Beach Blast's "VIP Tent," where SABCA, FPL, Advanced Disposal (among other vendors, franchisees and lessees) paid thousands of dollars to quaff New Year's champagne with SAB Mayor Undine George, Vice Mayor Margaret England, Commissioner Donald Samora and City Attorney James Patrick Wilson.  An appearance of impropriety?  You tell me.
  10. Governmental integrity -- we need a County Ombuds, independent Inspector General and a national search to pick a new SAB City Manager.  
So who among us would disagree?   

SABCA's self-serving "leaders," that's who. They oppose National Seashore protection and SAB Civil Rights Museum; demand  government subsidies; buy influence with contributions; back developers; retaliate against free speech; block legally-required ADA disabled-parking spaces; and support O'Brien-McMansions.  Enough flummery, dupery, nincompoopery from SABCA -- SAB's small-town Tammany Hall. 

Leaders are listening.  St. Johns County Commissioners unanimously rejected SABCA's indignant demands to:
  • cabin free speech into a very small space in front of Pier Park bathrooms.  
  • maintain SABCA's scandalous, lucrative,18-year, no-bid, below-market-rate Wednesday Market contract.  
Good news: by popular demand, your County government will soon be issuing a Request for Proposals for an authentic Pier Park Farmer's Market, one run by people who will accept SNAP/EBT cards and will pay fair-market rent (like splendid new Saturday Amphitheater contractor).   

Character counts.  

Whenever citizens ask questions, SABCA attacks them with a vengeance.  Be not afraid, fellow citizens. 

In Dan Quayle's immortal words, "I wear [SABCA's] scorn as a badge of honor."  And as FDR said in 1936 of corporate oligarchs, "I welcome their hatred."    

 It's Springtime.  Ask questions, demand answers, and expect democracy.






HECKLER ROBERT SAMUELS, et ux, Commissioner ANDREA SAMUELS
Left to right: SABCA President WILLIAM JONES, Commissioner ANDREA SAMUELS, et ux, SABCA VP ROBERT SAMUELS, tedious tendentious serial First Amendment violators.
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