St. Augustine City Commissioners, please reject the proposed ordinance 2018-11, which would make Planning and Zoning Board members into "cat's paws" or "hired hands" -- removable "without cause" by the City Commission.
It must be rejected.
Here's my e-mail and Open Records request to Commissioners:
-----Original Message-----
From: Ed Slavin
To: nshaver
Sent: Fri, Aug 24, 2018 5:40 pm
Subject: Request No 2018-341: St. Augustine City Commission must protect PZB, HARB and Code Enforcement Administrative-Judicial Independence; Proposed Ordinance 2018-11 Research?
An independent judiciary "is the safeguard of our liberty and of our property under the Constitution."
—Charles Evans Hughes, 1907.
"Go into any courtroom, and there will preside an independent judge beholden to no government power." —President Ronald Reagan, 1988 speech to the Soviet people.
Dear Mayor Shaver and St. Augustine City Commissioners Freeman, Sikes-Kline, Horvath and Neville:
1. Please swear in all legislative hearing witnesses on proposed Ordinance 2018-11, including City staff.
2. Kindly ask questions, demand answers, and reject misguided proposed Ordinance 2018-11, which would make City of St. Augustine property-related board members into "hired hands" or "cat's paws."
3. Enacting Ordinance 2018-11 would greatly reduce public confidence in our government. We have had a veritable "demolition derby" at the behest of developers in recent years. This clear and present danger to our history and nature demands more protection of board member independence, not less. City Commission must encourage and not discourage independent, fair-minded decisions enforcing City codes, without fear or favor of special interests. Don't make St. Augustine Planning and Zoning Board, Historical Architectural Review Board and Code Enforcement members removable without cause by the City Commission.
Ordinances - Second Reading.8.B.1. Ordinance 2018-11: Amends portions of Section 2 of the City Code creating an at will board membership for city boards and provides removal procedures across all boards with or without cause. (I. Lopez, City Attorney)(Emphasis added).
5. To protect our rights, ill-advised Proposed Ordinance 2018-11 must be rejected. It smacks of staff retaliation for the First Amendment protected activity of outstanding, intelligent, scrupulous, ethical board members.
6. Do not indulge staff demands to declare "Open Season" on PZB, HARB and Code Enforcement Board members' administrative-judicial independence.
7. Like the Seventh Amendment right to jury trial, which Justice William Rehnquist called a "bulwark against oppression," administrative-judicial independence protects our constitutional rights. As Supreme Court Justice Byron White wrote in the Spring 1991 issue of the prestigious, peer-reviewed American Bar Association Judges' Journal:
For a judicial system to serve its ends, citizens who sue or are sued, or who are in trouble with the government, must be able to trust the system to decide cases honestly and fairly. They are entitled to expect that those who judge them will not be mere cat's paws for the powerful or the government. The system must not only be an honest one in fact, it must also appear to be what it purports to be. This is the lesson from our past, and its critical nature deserves some investigation of that history. For several cen- turies in England, judicial appointments were made at the pleasure of the king, who could remove judges at will and who was apt to consider judges part of his personal entourage.
8. Please respect and protect the integrity of City administrative-judicial hearings and decisional independence, which are essential to Due Process. The fundamental policy of the City of St. Augustine must protect Due Process and the independence of volunteer administrative adjudicators, who like juries are the conscience of our community. Don't enact Ordinance 2018-11, which might cause board members to be harassed, intimidated and threatened with firing, simply for insisting on administrative judicial independence. See Edward A. Slavin, Jr., "ALJ Independence Undermined -- What the Department of the Interior is Doing and Why" 31 ABA Judges Journal 26 (Spring 1992)(enclosed).
9. St. Augustine City Commission must reject proposed Ordinance 2018-11 at the Monday, August 27, 2018 meeting.
10. Request No 2018-341: Please provide all documents on proposed Ordinance 2018-11, including lobbying, ex parte contacts and legal research, if any.
11. Please have the Clerk swear in all public hearing witnesses, making all testimony on Proposed Ordinance 2018-11 under oath. This includes any attempts at unsworn "testimony" by any Commissioner or staff member. Don't accept or allow any unsworn, captious, hearsay, unreliable, fanciful or fact-free arguments in favor of allowing continued staff hazing and pressures upon "at will" PZB, HARB and Code Enforcement board members.
12. Please, let us all learn the truth on the etiology of Proposed Ordinance 2018-11, with extra time to ask probing questions of Mr. Birchim and Ms. Lopez, with all answers under oath, on possible staff harassment or hazing of board members, including PZB members Carl Blow and Karen Zander, et al.
Thank you.
With kindest regards, I am,
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