RUDENESS: City staff turned their backs on public speakers at April 25, 2019 PZB workshop on Comprehensive Plan

Does Being The City of St. Augustine Mean Never Having to Say You're Sorry?

We had an ethical Mayor. of St. Augustine for 1550 days, December 1, 2014 to February 28, 2019, energetic, effervescent, empathetic, brilliant. 

But ever since Mayor Nancy Shaver's stroke and resignation, the City of St. Augustine has changed.

Our City Hall managers lack a welcoming spirit. Unless you're a wealthy corporation or individual, the City is still haunted by the ham handed spirit of former Mayors and City Managers. 

City government has been regressing, badly backsliding, back-back-back into the bad-ole-days of the stinky bad-ole-boys, who:

• allowed the KKK to rule our town, 
• obstructed First Amendment rights of Gays, journalists and artists, repeatedly losing in federal court, even losing a jury verdict over suppressing Warren Celli's St. Aug Dog newspaper.
• allowed developers to rule our town, 
• doled out no-bid contracts, leases and zoning favors to themselves and their cronies
• dumped a landfill in a lake in West Augustine, avoiding criminal prosecution, 
• dumped millions of gallons of sewage in our pristine waterway, and 
• treated citizens with rudeness, contempt and disdain.

Case in point about City Hall backsliding:

April 25, 2019 City Planning and Zoning Workshop meeting --for three hours, two City staff members sat with their backs to the podium from which public commenters spoke about affordable housing and the future land use map as part of the once-ever-seven-year Evaluation and Appraisal Report (EAR) of the City's Comprehensive Plan.  

The process is being improved over the way it was under the likes of pompous tatterdemalion cognitive miser Mayor JOSEPH LESTER BOLES, JR., business partner with commercial property owner CLAUDE LEONARD WEEKS, JR., history-destroying, artist-arresting ex-Mayor, who on September 25, 2014 demolished 211-year old Don Pedro Fornells House, working without permits (fined only $3700 by City Code Enforcement Board).

Watch April 25, 2019 video here.

PZB members listened and looked me in the eye.

But City staff kept their backs turned during every public speaker's presentation -- every single one.

Turning their backs on the public -- that's uncouth.

Here's the e-mail trail establishing it was no mistake or accident -- no one has ever responded to apologize, explain or excuse their rude behavior, a synecdoche for the maladministration festering in St. Augustine City Hall.:


-----Original Message-----
From: Ed Slavin
To: askinner ; jcary ; jregan ; reganj
Cc: pzb ; georgio ; tomcushman ; tupchurch ; lfreeman ; rhorvath ; nsikeskline ; jvaldes ; dbirchim ; lfountain ; tburchfield ; dgalambos ; waltbog
Sent: Sat, Apr 27, 2019 9:12 am
Subject: Re: City of St. Augustine Planner and Assistant City Attorney Turned Their Backs on Public Speakers at April 25, 2019 PZB Workshop Meeting

Dear  Ms. Skinner and Messrs. Regan and Cary:
1. I would like to quote you on the back turning: what do you have to say?

2. Does being a City of St. Augustine professional staff member "mean never having to say you're sorry?"

3. Where are your manners?

Thank you.

With kindest regards, I am,

Sincerely yours,

Ed Slavin

904-377-4998

www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com

www.edslavin.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Ed Slavin
To: askinner ; jcary ; jregan ; reganj
Cc: pzb ; georgio ; tomcushman ; tupchurch ; lfreeman ; rhorvath ; nsikeskline ; jvaldes ; dbirchim ; jregan ; lfountain ; reganj ; tburchfield ; dgalambos ; waltbog
Sent: Fri, Apr 26, 2019 6:00 pm
Subject: Re: City of St. Augustine Planner and Assistant City Attorney Turned Their Backs on Public Speakers at April 25, 2019 PZB Workshop Meeting

Any response?

With kindest regards, I am,

Sincerely yours,

Ed Slavin

904-377-4998

www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com

www.edslavin.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Ed Slavin
To: askinner ; jcary
Cc: pzb ; georgio ; tomcushman ; tupchurch ; lfreeman ; rhorvath ; nsikeskline ; jvaldes ; dbirchim ; jregan ; lfountain ; reganj ; tburchfield ; dgalambos ; waltbog
Sent: Fri, Apr 26, 2019 8:27 am
Subject: City of St. Augustine Planner and Assistant City Attorney Turned Their Backs on Public Speakers at April 25, 2019 PZB Workshop Meeting

Dear Mr. Cary and Ms. Skinner:
1. Your backs were turned to the public throughout the entire three-hour PZB workshop meeting yesterday, April 25, 2019.  

2. When I and other public speakers addressed the PZB and the two of you from the portable podium (located directly behind you),  the two of you did not turn around or make eye contact.  

3. Toward the end of the meeting, after I pointed out the fact that your backs were turned to the speakers, you still did not turn around and look me in the eye.

4. Such provocative behavior is considered authoritarian, gauche, discourteous, disrespectful, disdainful, a little creepy and deeply offensive.

5. I expect an explanation of your unwelcoming, unfriendly, uncouth, behavior, and perhaps an apology.  

6. Please don't do it again.

Thank you.

With kindest regards, I am,

Sincerely yours,

Ed Slavin

904-377-4998

www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com

www.edslavin.com

Here is the bio of one the two hick hack back-turning apparatchiks St. Augustine Assistant City Attorey JOHN CARY, whose ungracious, unconstitutional actions toward a homeless woman (in his first jury trial) began our March 20, 2019 Folio Weekly cover story, "First they came for the artists":

John Cary, Assistant City Attorney

Mr. Cary received his Bachelors of Arts (BA) degree from the University of Akron in Akron, Ohio. He received his Master's of Public Administration (MPA) from the University of Central Florida, taking courses focusing on Urban and Regional Planning. He received his Juris Doctor (JD) from the Florida State University School of Law in 2009, following five years as a Space and Missile Operations officer in the United States Air Force, where he was stationed at Vandenberg Air Force Base in Lompoc, California, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, in Cape Canaveral, Florida, and Cavalier Air Force Station, in Cavalier, North Dakota.

Mr. Cary was inspired to attend law school while taking the Land Use and Planning Law course in the final semester of his MPA degree. While he enjoyed planning and zoning and transportation issues, he really loved the legal aspects of land use. In law school, he took as many land use and local government-related courses as he could.
   

Mr. Cary began his legal career with the City of Ocala. He then went on to serve in all three branches of the state government: as an Attorney for the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, as a Chief Attorney of Professions for the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, and as the Senior Supervising Attorney/Operations Manager for Court Education in the Office of State Courts Administrator. Mr. Cary is thrilled to return to Municipal Law by joining the City Attorney’s office in January of 2018.

In addition to assisting the City Attorney in all assigned matters, Mr. Cary serves as advisor to the Code Enforcement, Adjustments and Appeals Board, the Lincolnville Community Redevelopment Agency, the Civil Service Board, and as police advisor to the St. Augustine Police Department.  Mr. Cary prosecutes all municipal code violations as well as coordinates and assists outside counsel in multiple litigation matters involving the City and represents the City in all Land Use and Environmental Dispute Resolution petitions.

Mr. Cary is a member of the Florida Bar, in addition to being licensed to practice law in Michigan and Colorado.