Help Wanted, BUT WHEN?: SJC To Hire Two Replacement Assistant County Attorneys. (Indeed.com website)

So St. Johns County is seeking to hire Assistant County Attorneys to replace the two who quit and went to work for Duval County. This was in the wake of Commissioners voting to hire RICHARD KOMANDO, identified as the "friend" of DeSANTIS-appointed Commissioner ROY ALYRE ALAIMO, JR., defeated in closed August 20, 2024 Republican Primary.  Now, will KOMANDO and the outgoing SJC St. Johns County Commissioners get to inflate the power of developers with more "dead hand control?"  Should;t' the hiring of new Assistant County Attorneys take place after our new Commissioners advertise the job of County Attorney after they are sworn into office in late November 2024?  Do we really want to trust an apparatchik like KOMANDO with influencing the future work of the County Attorney?  KOMANDO never applied for the job, but was sua sponte nominated for it by his "friend," ROY ALYRE ALAIMO, JR. defeated by Clay Murphy, who takes office as District 3 Commissioner in November.  You tell me.

I support a moratorium on hiring any new attorneys until we have new Commissioners.

I support a moratorium on hiring any new attorneys until Commissioners can perform a legal audit.

I support a moratorium on hiring any new attorneys until citizens can discuss the nature, structure and performance of the County Attorney's office, including its recent status as a doormat for corporate interests, including wealthy corporations and developers and government contractors. 

On Labor Day, I requested pertinent records. Interviews of prior County Attorneys were opened by SJC BoCC to citizens, thanks to Commissioner Isaac Henry Dean.  Here's my September 2, 2024 request to  St. Johns County:

Good morning:

Would you please be so kind as to e-mail me tomorrow morning, 9/3, the records on the recruitment process for Assistant County Attorney?  Please include the Florida Bar Journal ad (if any); all employment ad drafts and final display or line classified ad copy;job applications; County research on applicants; curriculum vitae; public record searches; evaluations; ratings; background investigations; interview panel qualifications and appointments; interview  notes and schedules; applicant writing samples; and recommendations or reference checks for the two (2) Assistant County Attorney position(s)? 

Please call me to discuss tomorrow.

Thank you.

With kindest regards, I am,

Sincerely yours,

Ed Slavin

Box 3084

St. Augustine, Florida 32085-3084

www.edslavin.com

http://www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com

http://www.staugustgreen.com

(904) 377-4998

From Indeed.com employment website:

Assistant County Attorney- job post

St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners

4.54.5 out of 5 stars

500 San Sebastian View, Saint Augustine, FL 32084

$90,210.87 - $125,546.22 a year -  Full-time

Benefits

Pulled from the full job description

401(k)

401(k) matching

Dental insurance

Employee discount

Flexible spending account

Health insurance

Health savings account

Full job description

St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners is seeking a Assistant County Attorney for our well-established County Attorney’s Office whose headquarters are located in beautiful St. Augustine, Florida.

St. Johns County residents enjoy a healthy quality of life with many perks including one of the top rated public school systems in the State of Florida, miles of beach shoreline, peaceful estuary scenery of the St. Johns River, long established agriculture and equestrian scene, and the nation’s oldest city, historic St. Augustine. In 2019 St. Johns County was ranked the 10th fastest growing county in the United States showcasing that there is truly something for everyone in St. Johns County!

The St. Johns County Attorney Office is responsible for providing legal services and issues legal opinions for the Board of County Commissioners, the County Administration, and other County staff.

Employees work in a team oriented environment with common goals in mind: to provide legal services in support of County government operations and for assisting in directing the operations of the County Attorney’s Office.

The newly selected Assistant County Attorney provides professional legal work of a difficult and responsible nature for St. Johns County. Assigned work is performed with limited independence within the framework of established policies and requiring considerable responsibility, initiative and judgment.

Examples of Duties:

The ideal Assistant County Attorney candidate must possess St. Johns County’s core values of compassion, innovation, and trustworthiness and must work well in a collaborative team environment. Some of the specific tasks include but are not limited to:

Drafts, negotiates, and approves county contracts, agreements, memoranda, and inter-local agreements prior to execution.

Provides legal opinion and advice to the Board of County Commissioners and to county staff.

Drafts pleadings, motions, legal opinions, legal briefs, proposed legislation, resolutions, ordinances, and requests for Attorney General Opinions.

Responds to and resolves issues related to subpoenas.

Attends meetings and provides legal counsel to the Board of County Commissioners and other local boards.

Processes public records requests.

Interprets and applies local, state, and federal legislative and regulatory laws.

Represents the county before courts of competent jurisdiction and administrative agencies.

Reviews and approves county initiatives for consideration by the Board of County Commissioners.

Represents the county in local, state, and federal court proceedings.

Responds to citizen inquiries.

Conducts public workshops.

Maintains a full-time presence on the job.

Performs other duties as assigned.

Minimum Qualifications:

Candidates for the Assistant County Attorney are encouraged to apply if they meet the following minimum qualifications:

Graduation from an accredited school of law.

Sufficient experience to understand the basic principles relevant to the major duties of the position, usually associated with the completion of an apprenticeship/ internship or having had a similar position for one to two years.

Must possess and maintain a valid Florida driver’s license and any other endorsements necessary to legally operate vehicles used while assigned to this position.

Must possess good interpersonal and communication skills in order to serve others.

Must be able to comprehend, speak and write the English language.

Must be able to operate a computer.

NOTE TO APPLICANTS:

Candidates may apply through St. Johns County’s Online Application System: https://www.governmentjobs.com/careers/sjcfl

Applications must be submitted through St. Johns County’s Online Application System in order to be considered. Paper documents, emailed resumes or otherwise are not accepted in lieu of an application. All applications must be submitted before the advertised closing date.

St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners is a drug free workplace and equal opportunity employer.

All employment actions are taken without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, handicap, disability, marital status, national origin, veteran status, or genetic information.

Job Type: Full-time

Pay: $90,210.87 - $125,546.22 per year

Benefits:

401(k)

401(k) matching

Dental insurance

Employee discount

Flexible spending account

Health insurance

Health savings account

Life insurance

Paid time off

Parental leave

Professional development assistance

Retirement plan

Tuition reimbursement

Vision insurance

Schedule:

Monday to Friday

Work Location: In person

If you require alternative methods of application or screening, you must approach the employer directly to request this as Indeed is not responsible for the employer's application process.

St. Augustine is hereby officially declared to be a no-bullying zone -- rabid hate sites, we are watching you! Racist, sexist, homophobes repent.

As Thomas Jefferson said, we "have sworn upon the altar of Almighty God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind" of humankind.

To those "Anonymice" who post hate speech anonymously, chilling First Amendment free speech rights, remember, "you can run but you can't hide," in Joe Louis' immortal words.

Jim Crow Government in St. Augustine, Florida Persists

American history was made in St. Augustine, Florida, where the first settlement of freed slaves was founded by Spaniards in the 1700s. This was the last place where Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was arrested before Congress and President Lydon Johnson enacted the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
Yet our City of St. Augustine, Florida continues to treat African-Americans as second class citizens.
Top managers are all-white and all-male, resembling a 1920s corporate boardroom.
Recruitment, as of the City Attorney, does not conform to legal standards for EEO searches.
Our City does not have a Human Rights Ordinance, like other Florida jurisdictions.
Our controersial St. Augustine, Florida City Manager WILLIAM B. HARRISS running City Hall as his own "'Ole Plantation." Like George Wallace standing in the schoolhouse door, HARRISS blockaded African-Americans and other civil rights advocates from erecting a monument to civil rights foot soldiers, falsely claiming the Plaza de la Constitucion (a/k/a Slave Market Square) was limited to colonial history, when it has monuments to Confederate and other war dead. When in 2005 City Commissioners directed that there be such a monument to civil rights foot soldiers, HARRISS haughtily insisted it must be raised by private fundraising. After arresting and beating people (including Andrew Young, later UN Ambassador and Atlanta Mayor), our City of St. Augustine refuses to spend public funds on a civil rights monument.
HARRISS dumped the entire contents of the old city dump into the Old City Reservoir off Holmes Blvd., a still-unprosecuted environmental crime that was a stunning example of environmental racism. When it was referred the matter by the National response Center in 2006, criminal investigators with EPA and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) did not bother interviewing HARRISS or any of the City Commissioners. That coverup is unravelling, under investigation by the FDEP Inspector General. (see below).
HARRISS became City Manager without national search or proper Sunshine notice in 1998. He's never had a performance appraisal, other than an attaboy plaque last year in the midst of a pending criminal investigation. HARRISS pledged his support for preserving history.
Yet haughty, heavy-handed HARRISS left African-Americans out of the City's official history, which is mandatory for persons to buy when they sit for the license to be an historic tour guide.
The St. Augustine Record's editorial page editor, Margo Pope, rightly editorialized on this subject in Febeuary.
See the editorial, below.
HARRISS also blockaded efforts to fly Rainbow Flags on our Bridge of Lions, which resulted in a federal court finding our City violated the First Amendment in 2005.
Is it time for tatterdemalion WILLIAM B. HARRISS and his errant enablers to go? What do you reckon?

Invasion of the Body Snatchers?

Invasion of the Body Snatchers?
Has a human body of an indigenous tribal member been removed from an archaeological site in the City of St. Augustine by someone other than our St. Augustine City archaeologist?
Have state and federal laws -- and Indian tribal rights -- been violated?
Will such indigenous burial site desecrations be reported and prevented in the future?
Will creation of the "St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore" (see below) preserve our history?
Let’s end the charade of the Nation’s Oldest City presuming to know how to preserve history, when our City Manager and staff are more interested in fattening speculators.
What credibility hath the City of St. Augustine in seeking grants or hiring a lobbyist?
For over eight years, there have been no performance appraisals of our estimable City Manager, WILLIAM B. HARRISS. Commissioners voted him a heck-of-a-job-Brownie plaque in the midst of a pending criminal investigation (see below). Commissioners every day ratify HARRISS’ April 13, 1998 coronation.
Our City Administration disrespects indigenous burials.
Our City Administration took the entire contents of the old city dump and puts it into the Old City Reservoir.
Cost of cleanup is expected to exceed $1,000,000.00.
What next, indigenous cemeteries deposited in the Old City Reservoir, too?
Will HARRISS & Co. be placed under oath and required to testify at the April 23, 2007 City Commission meeting?
Or will HARRISS arrange for more scapegoats to be fired?
How many careers will be shredded for HARRISS’ sins of omission and commission?
How many millions of dollars will be wasted?
How many indigenous graves will be desecrated?
How much longer will HARRISS remain in office?
Will St. Augustine voters vote to recall five City Commissioners who are lickspittles for HARRISS?

Editorial: City tour guide test lacks pivotal partof city's history

Editorial: City tour guide test lacks pivotal partof city's history Publication Date: 02/23/07
St. Augustine's official tour guide manual ignores a key part of St. Augustine's history: black history.
The manual, which is sold to prospective tour guides, encompasses a dress code, ethics, tour routes, basic historical information, historic sites, modern facts and figures and suggested readings about the city's history. Prospective guides are expected to study it and then be tested on its contents in order to become a licensed tour guide for hire.
The licensing was developed years ago after city officials heard numerous complaints about the lack of uniform tour information. Guides were not licensed and almost every tour was different depending on who told the story.
The city's past often was told through family histories, folk lore, and many times, half truths about St. Augustine's five centuries. For example, in years past, some guides would comment that Napoleon Bonaparte had visited St. Augustine's Prince Murat house on St. George Street. In truth, Murat was a nephew of Bonaparte.
It is not clear how the guide missed on the city's black history. It was last revised in 2002.
Examples of black history missing from the tour guide are:
Fort Mose de Gracia de Santa Teresa, the first free black settlement in what is now the United States. Mose was a fort and a town run by runaway slaves from the British colonies. Fort Mose protected the northern defense of Spanish St. Augustine from 1738 until 1763 when Spanish rule gave way to British rule. The fort itself is non-existent but the site is a state park, north of the city off U.S. 1.
Lincolnville, the city's oldest black business and residential section. It was established by freed slaves after the Civil War. It is one of the city's historic districts. Famed singer Ray Charles is said to have performed at clubs in Lincolnville while he was a student at the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind.
St. Augustine's role in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, including the arrest of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1964 for trying to integrate the Monson Motor Lodge Restaurant. St. Augustine was the only city in Florida where King was arrested. Numerous sites have recently been marked by the Civil Rights Memorial Projects Committee.
The St. Augustine City Commission must take charge of the problem and fix it because the study guide and test are part of the city's licensing requirement. It's time for St. Augustine City Commissioner Errol Jones to take the lead on getting the tour guide and test revised. He will find no shortage of black heritage groups in the city ready to help. We encourage him to move on this project soon.
St. Augustine's prospective tour guides deserve the most accurate information possible about the city's history. It's disgraceful that the city's official tour guide and test ignores black history. Click here to return to story:http://staugustine.com/stories/022307/opinions_4423046.shtml © The St. Augustine Record