Saturday, April 12, 2025

This subtle corruption of our St. Johns County government is indefensible, and must be ended at once

Controversial Interim St. Johns County Attorney RICHARD CHRISTIAN KOMANDO has lots of irons in the fire.  Without disclosing it to County Commission, KOMANDO was recently the criminal defense lawyer who defended two brothers charged with some $23 million in criminal tax evasion. KOMANDO did this white collar criminal defense work while he is our County Attorney. KOMANDO told reporters that off-the-books work is "common" in the construction industry.   Appalling.

Read Justice Department press release here.  Read U.S. District Court docket here: CONFLICTED SJC COUNTY ATTORNEY, RICHARD KOMANDO, DEFENDS CORPORATE CRIMINALS IN FEDERAL COURT. (Steve Patterson, USA Today/Jacksonville Times-Union, March 20, 2025)





Brothers TRAVIS MORGAN SLAUGHTER and TRIPP CHARLES SLAUGHTER were indicted on February 22, 2023.   When appointed to the temporary Interim County Attorney job and when applying for the permanent County Attorney job, RICHARD CHRISTIAN KOMANDO never disclosed his legal representation of the SLAUGHTER brothers, or any other corporate crime clients.  Wonder why?

Before the Times-Union reported on the SLAUGHTER BROHERS criminal convictions, Interom County ATTORNEY RICH KOMANDO arrogantly refused to disclose his client list to Commissioner Ann Taylor and to me.    He still won't share his client list.

Wonder why?  What does he have to hide?

You tell me.

We have a Right to Know.

As Thomas Jefferson said, "a public office is a public trust."

Appointed to be Interim County Attorney in 2024 on a 4-1 vote, at the behest of his "friend," DeSANTIS-appointed then-Commissioner ROY ALYRE ALAIMO, JR., RICH KOMANDO told Commissioners last year that he would not seek the permanent County Attorney position. Now he seeks the permanent position, with a public meeting on March 25, 2025.

RICH KOMANDO was hired in his own name, but the County pays his law firm. 

RICH KOMANDO's law firm has applied for the position of permaennt County Attorney, not KOMANDO. 

Naturally, two developer-funded St. Johns County Commissioners, SARAH ARNOLD and CHRISTIAN WHITEHURST, are OK with the KOMANDO firm applying for the job, as demonstrated by their colloquy at the March 18, 2025 Commission meeting.  They pointed out that the County's job posting did not exclude law firms.  Ordinarily, County Attorneys are living, breathing natural persons. That dawg won't hunt.

I await responses to my February 17, 2025 requests for documents on KOMANDO, including time, gift, expense and travel records and list of all of his clients. 

Florida voters adopted our Sunshine and Open Records laws with 3.8 million votes in 1992 (83%)

We have a right to know.

The County Commission voted 3-2 last month to hire KOMANDO's law firm, seeking "influence."

The BRADLEY, GARRISON & KOMANDO law firm is co-owned by the current Florida House Rules ande Ethics Committee Chair, SAMUEL PAUL GARRISON, who will be Florida House Speaker for 2026-2027.

We need a full-time County Attorney, as we've had for decades.  Enough political patronage, backroom deals by "insiders," and influence peddling. 

It's our money. It's our County.  Voters supported a change in County government in 2022 and 2024. 

We don't need to hire as St. Johns County Attorney a corporate law firm owned by a Florida elected official.

We don't need to empower land-raping speculators to hire the County Attorney as private counsel. 

We don't need any more flummery, dupery and nincompoopery from unjust stewards of our environment here in what we call "God's country."

We, the People, must drive the money changers from the temple of our democracy.

Enough.  

This subtle corruption of our County government is indefensible, and must be ended at once.


The facts are irrefragable.

1. St. Johns County is still controlled by secretive speculators, land-raping corporations that clearcut and destroy our forests, our cherished wildlife and our quality of life here in what we call "God's country,.,"

2. Our St. Johns County Commission voted 3-2 to hire the secretive corporate law firm of the Florida House Speaker-designate, current Rules and Ethics Chair, to be our County Attorney in the fastest-growing County in Florida!  SAMUEL PAUL GARRISON is the House Speaker-designate. GARRISON's law partner, RICHARD CHRISTIAN KOMANDO, was awarded the temporary "interim" County Attorney position in 2024 on recommendation of  his "friend," Mr. ROY ALYRE ALAIMO, Jr., then a St. Johns County Commissioner (who was appointed by Governor DeSantis to the vacant seat created by the COVID death of Commissioner Paul Waldron)  Governor DeSantis was our former Congressman from St. Johns County. (ROY ALAIMO was defeated in the closed Republican primary for re-election by a former highway patrolman, Clay Murphy.  I filed a HUD Title VI civil rights complaint on February 29, 2024 after Commissioners voted to appoint KOMANDO as Interim County Attorney.  No other candidates were considered. No background investigation.  No conflicts check. No  compliance with EEO laws.  KOMANDO said he would not seek the permanent job. KOMANDO and his law partners sought it and got the gig anyway.  

Under the "non-delegation doctrine," United States Supreme Court precedents hold that a core government function can't be delegated to corporations.  The County Commission's proposed delegation of the County Attorney job to a private law firm violates the delegation doctrine. 

1. Under the "non-delegation doctrine," in Justice Cardozo's words,  it is "delegation run riot" to delegate a core government function (County Attorney) to a corporate law firm?  You tell me.

2. No scholarly research on this question has ever been provided to the St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners by the law firm in quo, which demands we outsource our St. Johns County Attorney position to a private law firm, BRADLEY, GARRISON & KOMANDO, P.A., in which the future Florida House Speaker (and current Florida House Rules and Ethics Committee Chair) is a named partner.  

3. The non-delegation doctrine is alive and well, as it was when the United States Supreme Court overturned the National Industrial Recovery Act, which wrongfully delegated rulemaking functions to private iindustry.   See, e.g.,   A.L.A. Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States, 295 U.S. 495, 551, 553 (1935)(Cardozo, J., concurring)("the Sick Chicken" case); Panama Refining Co. v. Ryan, 293 U.S. 388 (1935)(the "Hot Oil" case); Carter v. Carter Coal Co., 298 U.S. 238 (1936)("Bituminous Coal Conservation Act of 1935" delegation of price-fixing to private parties).  

4.    Sadly, three SJC County Commissioners voted 3-2 in support of this contract violation of public policy.   Restatement of Contracts, 2d, sec 178 (Contract Violation of Public Policy).

All that remains is negotiation of a contract.  

Let's scrutinize Vice County Commission Vice Chair Clay Murphy's contract negotiations, which he promised me would  public under the Sunshine law.

On Friday, March 28, 2025, at 6:07 pm, SJC BoCC Vice Chair Clay Murphy, 904-669-3987, wrote:
"Ed, the negotiations have not bred (sic) scheduled. I will let you know so you can attend."
Ed Slavin responded, "Thank you.:
Commissioner Murphy responded, "Yes Sir."

But, wait, wait: there's more:  there was no "negotiation," no public meeting as required by Sunshine law, and as promised by Vice Chair Murphy.

The proposed contract, signed by KOMANDO, is an unconscionable "contract of adhesion," or take-it-or-leave-it contract.  Read it for yourself, here:

Presenter: Commissioner Clay Murphy, Vice-Chair

8. County Attorney Agreement for Legal Services. On March 25, 2025, the Board, by

majority vote, selected Richard Komando of Bradley, Garrison & Komando, P.A. to serve as County Attorney and authorized Commissioner Clay Murphy to enter into contract negotiations for a contract for legal services. A draft Agreement for Legal Services will be presented for review and consideration by the Board.


https://stjohnsclerk.com/minrec/agendas/2025/041525cd/04-15-25REG08.pdf


Let's tell County Commissioners what we think of Commissioner Murphy's breach of his duty of fair representation and failure to negotiate.

There was no public negotiation meeting.  

President John F. Kennedy said, "Let us never negotiate out of fear.  But let us never fear to negotiate."  What was Commissioner Murphy afraid of?  Did the owners and controllers of St. Johns County -- call them developers, or the Property Party -- threaten his barbecue business (Sonny's franchises)?  What threat, coercion or promise made Commissioner Murphy sell us out.

Let's tell Commissioners what we think Commissioner Murphy's secrecy.  

Enough.

Enough secrecy, flummery, dupery and nincompoopery.  

Enough corruption of our government.

Enough third-rate County Commissioner representation, as if we were a sixth-rate County.  

The first or second fastest-growing county in Florida deserves better than fast buck artists trying to profit from government t service. The BRADLEY,  GARRISON & KOMANDO, P.A. law firm contract must be rejected. It is a stench in the nostrils of our Nation.

In the words of the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, "Secrecy is for losers -- for people who don't understand the value of the information."  

As James Madison wrote William T. Barry on 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."
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1 comment:

Pete said...

Exaggeration, false narratives, bogus claims, framing, conspiracy theories...it never ends here. Proof and evidence or it's BS!!!!

11:54 AM

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