Sent: Tuesday, April 8, 2025 at 02:21:46 PM EDT
Subject: AMCD Chair Becker, please modify our April 10, 2025 Anastasia Mosquito Control District Commission agenda
To: Anastasia Mosquito Control Commission of St. Johns County Chair Pangiotta "Trish" Becker.
Dear Chair Becker:
A. Would you please be so kind as to direct AMCD Director Dr. Xue and AMCD staff to kindly cease and desist from manipulating our AMCD agendas to avoid and prevent public debate about Anastasia Mosquito Control Commission of St. Johns County mismanagement?
B. Please add to the April 10, 2025 AMCD discussion agenda:
1. Monthly Financial Report. (Should never be on Consent Agenda again).
2. DVEC/Mosquito Museum cost overruns (41%), including statsus of Museum completion and cost overruns, which currently stand at 41% over the original budget. This increase is reflected in the June 2024 total cost resolution.
3 Reforming District contracting procedures.
4. Draft FY 2026 AMCD budget.
5. Independent Auditor Selection Committee, a state requirement avoided and evaded by AMCD.
6. Etiology of the "Friend of the City of St. Augustine" status conferred on Chair Becker on St. Augustine Facebook page on April 4, 2025 at 4 PM.
7. Evaluation of District's Whistleblower Protection Policy, complaint procedure and compliance with nondiscrimination laws.
8. Please vote to remedy District's noncompliance with my 2024-2025 Open Records requests.
9. Please agree to mediation by Florida Assistant Attorney General Pat Gleason, Special Counsel for Open Government, of my Open Records requests. AMCD never responded to my request for mediation.
10. Please vote to refrain from ever again informing the public that on DVEC Museum that AMCD is "within budget," as this statement appears to be materially false and misleading. Cost overruns of +41%. Outrageous., The forced resolution budget number is being used as the basis, which does not accurately reflect the District's true financial status. It is important to disclose to the public that the District went over budget by $1 million without obtaining any Board approval.
11. Please place on our agenda a report on the status of the Florida StateAttorney Opinion regarding Board members returning their illegally received bonuses for the 2022/2023 fiscal year.
12. Please place on our April 10, 2025 agenda a motion for the Board to instruct SGR legal counsel to look into the allegations of pay-to-play involving Dr. Xue. There have been allegations made by former commissioners that Dr. Xue allegedly paid and/or offered to pay commissioners in cash or offered them District positions in exchange for their support of his continued employment or for voting in a specific manner. Additionally, there are allegations that current Board members may have received cash or had personal expenses covered by Dr. Xue to secure their loyalty.
CONCLUSION: AMCD MUST STOP ITS LAWBREAKING
Chair Becker, you broke your word to me, in writing, about a meeting on records noncompliance.
Chair Becker, you never got back to me with a date for meeting on my records requests.
At our March AMCD meeting, a retired Smith, Gambrell & Russell partner, now "Of Counsel," took the place of Ms. Hodges due to an asserted schedule conflict. That lawyer wrongfully obstructed my right to comment on three (3) agenda items until after they were voted. This was illegal, insouciant and uncouth.
Chair Becker, you suffered and permitted that violation of my rights.
The SGR "Of Counsel" was wrong.
His services, such as they are, may no longer be required.
We have a Right to Know. It's our money.
As James Madison wrote W.T. Barry August 4, 1822, "A popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or perhaps both. Knowlege will for ever govern ignorance: and a people who mean to be their own Governours, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives." Our Florida Sunshine and Open Records laws were adopted as Article I, Section 24 of our Florida Constitution in 1992, by vote of 3.8 million Florida voters (83%). Sadly, some local governments opposed it, and some still seek to undermine it. Sadly, some AMCD staff have violated these rights, enforcing a de facto oath of omertà, concealing documents from Commissioners, Board members and citizens. "Secrecy is for losers," as the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan said it best. See Senator Moynihan's book, SECRECY: the American Experience (1999).
Thank you.
With kindest regards, I am,
Sincerely yours,
Ed Slavin
Box 3084
St. Augustine, Florida 32085-3084
www.edslavin.com
(904) 377-4998
On Thursday, March 20, 2025 at 12:05:07 PM EDT, Ed Slavin <easlavin@aol.com> wrote:
Dear Dr. Qualls:
1. Your responses are, at best, facetious.
2. Will AMCD kindly agree to mediation by the Special Counsel for Open Government, Ms. Pat Gleason?
Thank you.
With kindest regards, I am,
Sincerely yours,
Ed Slavin
Box 3084
St. Augustine, Florida 32085-3084
www.edslavin.com
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