- St. Augustine City Manager JOHN PATRICK REGAN, P.E., withheld candidate names and applications until after the only public comment period at the meeting where former state legislator, Upchurch Bailey and Upchurch partner and current Flagler College Law and History Professor Tracy Upchurch was duked in as interim Mayor of St. Augustine March 4, 2019 in a Triple Crown of Lawbreaking. REGAN's criminal Grand Theft of our democracy in Our Nation's Oldest and Oddest City was aided and abetted by Assistant City Attorney John Cary, who issued a patently false legal opinion that current Commissioners could not be considered because it was an "election" and not appointment, invoking the resign-to-run law, a proposition at which St. Augustine Beach City Attorney, and former St. Augustine City Attorney, James Patrick Wilson literally laughed when I told him that night.)
- St. Johns County Administrator MICHAEL DAVID WANCHICK and County Attorney PATRICK FRANCIS McCORMACK repeatedly make promiscuous use of "red files" to sneak stuff on agendas, including rubber-stamping a secret one-year-old MOU with FBI for a St. Johns County shooting range;
- St. Augustine Port, Waterway and Beach District NEVER provides backup material on its website.
As Justice Louis Dembitz Brandeis said, "Electric light is the best policeman. Sunlight is the best disinfectant."
From Gannett's Sioux Falls, S.D. Argus Leader, which printed my letter about our beloved neighbor, former South Dakota U.S. Senator George Stanley McGovern, our 1972 Democratic Presidential nominee, while Senator McGovern was reported to be in hospice there:
The Walworth County auditor faces charges of violating South Dakota law after she was arrested and charged with failing to follow state public meeting laws.
Walworth County Auditor Rebecca Krein is accused of violating a law that requires government entities to make documents available to the public when they are used during official meetings. Walworth County State's Attorney James Hare issued a warrant for her arrest last week after he received a complaint that Krein failed to make documents available for an Aug. 6 meeting.
Krein declined to comment on the advice of her lawyer.
David Bordewyk, the executive director of the South Dakota Newspaper Association, said Krein’s arrest is likely the first time a public official has been arrested in South Dakota for violating open meeting laws. Those laws were first drafted in 1965.
“I don’t think it’s ever happened,” Bordewyk said. “This would be a first.”
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Hare said the county has had a chronic problem of failing to follow public meeting and record laws. Agendas haven’t been posted on time, nor have meeting minutes. This has bred a lot of mistrust about county government among some residents there.
“This is why we have all these problems with government these days,” Hare said.
“It was chronic,” he added. “You don’t want the people coming into meetings with pitchforks and torches creating havoc. Give the people what they want.”
Krein is accused of violating a law that requires government bodies to make printed materials available to the public when those materials are distributed to the body or its employees for use during meetings. The material can be posted to the government’s website 24 hours in advance of a meeting, or available in printed form at the official business office.
If materials aren’t posted to the web site, it must be available for public inspection during the meeting.
Hare said his office deals with confidential information such as child and neglect cases.
“Other than that, everything in this building is public information,” he said.
Krein is charged with a class two misdemeanor, punishable with a maximum 30 days in jail and $500 fine.
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