Sexist Misogynist Max Royle, St. Augustine City Manager, Under Fire: PZB Chair, Vice Chair Resign in Protest

St. Augustine Beach Planning and Zoning Board Chair Jane West and Vice Chair Elyse Sloan have resigned, citing disrespect and dishonesty by City Manager BRUCE MAX ROYLE.

Three cheers for Ms. West and Ms. Sloan -- this is rather heroic and should lead to ROYLE's firing.

Now.

ROYLE previously tolerated years of alleged sexual harassment by Planning and Building Director GARY LARSON, who subjected a woman to sexual harassment, then years of a hostile working environment, failing to comply with EEOC laws and guidelines,

Now the top two PZB members have quit in protest,

It's time for ROYLE to go,

Now.

In America, resignation in protest is very rare,  compared to U.S. to Great Britain, where it is more common.

I applaud these two brilliant women for standing up to a corrupt developer-coddingly developer-driven, sexist, misogynist homophobe BRUCE MAX ROYLE, a mean and base bureaucrat who is a barnacle on the underbelly of the ship of life.

Economic royalist, developer loving ROYLE is responsible for the EMBASSY SUITES debacle.

MAX ROYLE is as lugubrious a goober as ever made a chair squeak, who has encumbered the position of St. Augustine Beach City Manager for thirty (30) years.

When we first moved here in 1999, Brian said, presciently, "It's crooked around here!"

This is why I'm running for St. Johns County Supervisor of Elections,

We must reform our local governments,

Now,

As Senator Robert Francis Kennedy once said, "It is not enough to allow dissent, we must demand it, for there is much to dissent from.... We dissent from the willful, heedless, destruction of natural beauty and pleasures."

From The St. Augustine Record:






By Sheldon Gardner
Posted at 4:15 PM

The chair and vice chair of the city of St. Augustine Beach’s Comprehensive Planning and Zoning Board have resigned, citing disrespect by city staff as one of the reasons for their departure.

Jane West, former chair, and Elise Sloan, former vice chair, sent a joint letter to commissioners announcing their resignation.

The board advises the Commission on a variety of development matters.

The two have served about 16 years on the board combined and made recommendations to commissioners under at least five different mayors, according to the letter.

The letter says that while board members’ findings and recommendations were given “due consideration” under former mayor and current Commissioner Undine George, their recommendations are increasingly being “ignored if not outright negated.”

“This primarily occurs by means of staff presentations to you about agenda items that we have thoughtfully deliberated,” the letter says. “Quite simply, the staff presentations fail to convey the factors considered by our board and often communicate to you a position that runs in stark contradiction to our board’s vote.”

The letter cites recent discussions about the Embassy Suites addition, which was approved, as an example, though both West and Sloan said that was not the reason for their departure.

“This contradiction was most recently experienced when despite identifying with precise clarity the numerous provisions of the Code and the Comprehensive Plan that the Embassy Suites expansion application triggered, the staff communication to the City Commission was that all the provisions of the Code and Comprehensive Plan had been fully complied with,” the letter says.

The letter suggests the city hire a planner.


The letter also says that West and Sloan have been disrespected by staff.

“Our complaints to the city attorney were apparently conveyed to the city manager and yet the behavior persisted,” the letter says. “Neither of us will continue to degrade ourselves by being subjected to outlandish admonishments, curt interruptions, sarcastic eye-rolling and other antics that are unbecoming of the public venue that we conduct our business in.”

City Manager Max Royle said commissioners have transcripts of planning board meetings to refer to at Commission meetings. Sloan said they’re not always ready on time.

The city posts recordings of planning board meetings on its YouTube channel.

When asked about the allegation of staff disrespect, Royle said, “I have no idea what that’s referring to.”

Mayor Margaret England said she was disappointed by the resignations.

“I have a lot of respect for Jane West and Elise Sloan and, of course, the Planning and Zoning Board as a whole,” she said.

England said she had already planned to have a joint meeting and workshop with the planning board to identify things that need to be worked on and to help both boards work well together.