St. Johns County, Florida Board of County Commissioners Vice Chairman Clay Murphy is right: our laws need to be written in plain English. On March 19, 2025, I wrote the Commissioners:
On Wednesday, March 19, 2025 at 09:31:04 AM EDT, Ed Slavin <easlavin@aol.com> wrote:
Good morning:
1. Commissioner Clay Murphy, Vice Chair of the SJC BoCC, wisely suggested March 18, 2025 that we write St. Johns County's laws in plain English. It's about time.
2. Please send me any documents directing County staff and government contractors like Inspire Placemaking, et al. to use plain English in writing our laws, including our Comprehensive Plan and tree protection law. If none exist, please direct that plain English be used in writing our laws, from this day forward.
3. Please also send me the documents instructing staff and contractors that photographs be used in our laws, to show what is and is not allowed by County laws and rules. This should make it easier for lay people to comply with our laws. If no such documents exist yet, please use photos in writing rules, from this day forward.
In 1988, as counsel to the AFL-CIO Occupational Health Legal Rights Foundation, i filed rulemaking comments on an EPA proposal to notify farmworkers about pesticides.
Use of "tagmemic clause analysis" found that rather than plain English (or Spanish), the notices were full of dangling clauses, more complicated than Dostoevsky or Tolstoy.
Thank you.
With kindest regards, I am,
Sincerely yours,
Ed Slavin
Box 3084
St. Augustine, Florida 32085-3084
www.edslavin.com
(904) 377-4998
2 comments:
Same thing at the Veterans Healthcare Administration. 400,000 people writing new laws every day... sometimes contradictory, and sometimes results in denial of care and rights violations.
Speaking of laws, Mrs Joseph said that Komando's influence in Tallahassee was "illegal." So trying to get more tax money allocated to SJC is illegal. Brilliant. And she's telling an attorney and everyone else what is legal and what isn't. The "because I say so" effect is in full swing here and elsewhere. Just making statements just to make them is trending.
Post a Comment