Who is DENNIS KNOX BAYER?

Florida Bar Number 512737
$275/HOUR FLAGLER BEACH ATTORNEY HIRED TO "PROSECUTE" LEN WEEKS CODE ENFORCEMENT CASE over WEEKS' illegal destruction of Don Pedro Fornell House.
NO CROSS-EXAMINATION.
NONE.
WHY?
WAITING FOR DENNIS BAYER TO ANSWER.

Sent: Thu, Nov 13, 2014 3:10 pm
Subject: Ineffective assistance of outside counsel on LEN WEEKS' unlawful destruction of 210-year old Spanish colonial Don Pedro Fornell house in St. Augustine, Florida

Dear Mr. Bayer:
1. Blackstone said cross-examination was the greatest engine ever invented for discovering the truth.
2. You did not cross-examine Len Weeks at the November 12 City of St. Augustine Code Enforcement hearing.
3. Why?
4. What instructions were you given by City Attorney Isabelle Lopez (who hugged LEN WEEKS at the conclusion of the Code Enforcement hearing)?
5. Please call to discuss your hiring, preparation and billing.
6. It might be a breach of fiduciary duty to pay you.
7. I hereby object to the City of St. Augustine anything for your services. I suggest you not send a bill.
Thank you.
Cordially,
Ed Slavin
www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com
904-377-4998




Dennis Knox Bayer, Esq.

Dennis Bayer received his Juris Doctorate from University of Florida College of Law in May of 1985. He also holds a Bachelor of Science in Zoology, from the University of Florida.

Mr. Bayer specializes in environmental law, trial practice and estate planning. His clients include local governments, small business owners, neighborhood associations, and individuals. His trial practice emphasizes litigation of environmental, civil rights, land use, probate, real estate and criminal defense cases. He also works with clients facing foreclosure and debt collection claims.

In his fifteen years of mediation practice, he has handled a variety of cases including land use, regulatory takings, real estate, probate, commercial disputes and personal injury.

Mr. Bayer has previously been awarded the water conservationist of the year by the Florida Wildlife Federation. He also assisted with obtaining Outstanding Florida Water designate for the Tomoka River, Spruce Creek, and Lake Disstion. His work on environmental lands has assisted with over 5000 acres of land being conserved in Florida.

He is admitted to practice before the U.S. District Court, Northern, Middle and Southern Districts of Florida and the U.S. Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit. He has been published in Trial Magazine in an article on joint and several liabilities in toxic tort litigation. He has lectured for various groups including the Game and Freshwater Fish Commission and the Florida Marine Patrol law enforcement training classes.

Mr. Bayer is a former member of the Flagler County and Volusia County Land Acquisition Committees, Children’s Advocacy Center for Volusia and Flagler Counties, The Rape Crisis Center, The Halifax Indian River Task Force, The Environmental Enforcement Network, The Child Protection Team and ICARE.

Education and Achievements

University of Florida – B.S. Zoology

, 1981
University of Florida College of Law – J.D., 1985
Selected Outstanding Student Leader, University of Florida, 1985
Water Conservationist of the Year- Florida Wildlife Federation for prosecuting Amtrak for illegal sewage dumping, 1989

Professional Associations and Memberships

Florida Bar Association
Federal Court, Middle District of Florida
Certified Circuit Court Mediator
Flagler, St. Johns and Volusia County Bar Associations
Christian Surfers International
Board of Directors for the Jesus Clinic
Flagler County Chamber of Commerce






NO CROSS EXAMINATION OF LEN WEEKS.
NONE
LEGAL MALPRACTICE?

OSHA: Investigate, Fine LEN WEEKS

Sent: Thu, Nov 13, 2014 12:10 pm
Subject: City Fines Ex-Mayor for Unsafe, Illegal Destruction of 210-Year Old Spanish Colonial Don Pedro Fornell Home; OSHA MUST Investigate CLAUDE LEONARD WEEKS, JR. Under OSHA General Duty Clause

Dear Secretary Perez and Mr. Ross:
1. Please direct OSHA Region 4 enforcement personnel to investigate and to fine Respondent LEN WEEKS, a/k/a CLAUDE LEONARD WEEKS, JR., et al. for the September 25, 2014 destruction of a building that risked worker lives at 62A Spanish Street, a 210-year old Spanish colonial building.
2, The evidence is now irrefragable and includes:
A. City of St. Augustine Assistant City Manager Timothy Burchfield's October 3, 2014 investigative report;
B. Collateral estoppel based on November 12, 2014 City of St. Augustine $3600 Code Enforcement fine; and
C. Undisputed November 12, 2014 sworn testimony before the St. Augustine Code Enforcement Appeals Board, including Respondent LEN WEEKS' lengthy admissions to working without permits and to ignoring City and consultant instructions, advice and common sense on trenching. WEEKS has a Master's Degree in Construction and has been a licensed contractor since 1977. He has experience with historic buildings and was Chairman of the St. Augustine Historic Architectural Review Board.
3. Mr. Secretary and Mr. Ross, the Respondent LEN WEEKS, admittedly worked without permits and he recklessly destroyed an historic building, risking worker lives. This is not the first time that WEEKS did so. WEEKS violated worker rights. WEEKS knowingly endangered worker lives.
4. Please fine LEN WEEKS, et al. the maximum $70,000 for violation of the OSHA General Duty Clause.
5. Please refer LEN WEEKS, et al. to the FBI and U.S. Attorney.
6. Please afford LEN WEEKS, et al. their due process right to an open public hearing before an OSHRC ALJ.
7. I will request intervenor or amicus currie status before OSHRC and I hereby request e-mail notification of the OSHA fine upon issuance.
Thank you.
With kindest regards, I am,
Sincerely yours,
Ed Slavin
www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com
www.staugustgreen.com
904-377-4998

Eject Corruption From St. Augustine City Hall

Now. The voters have spoken.

Who is ISABELLE CHRISTINE LOPEZ?

St. Augustine City Attorney.
Florida Bar Number: 89818
Six-figure salary, paid by you and me.
Hugged former Mayor LEN WEEKS after yesterday's Code Enforcement meeting resulted in $3600 fine.
Hugged. Respondent. In Code Enforcement Hearing.
After she sat in back of meeting, saying nothing, letting Assistant City Attorney and outside counsel do almost nothing to assist board.
Formerly Assistant St. Johns County Attorney, formerly LEWIS, LONGMAN & WALKER attorney.
Should government attorneys be hugging code enforcement respondents in public?
Should government attorneys be inept, decrepit and allied with Temple Destroyers?
Should government attorneys be in bed with crooked developers?
What do you reckon?

VICTORY! Ex-Mayor LEN WEEKS FINED $3600 FOR DESTROYING HISTORIC BUILDING, WALL, WORKING WITHOUT PERMITS

Justice having been done, expect CLAUDE LEONARD WEEKS, JR. to appeal.
What's next?
Based on undisputed testimony about habitual lawbreaking by the former HARB Chair and ex-Mayor:
1. Expect his Florida contractor's license to be investigated, revoked or suspended?
2. Expect OSHA to investigate him and fine him for endangering workers?
3. Expect him to resign from the Parking and Traffic Committee?
4. Expect him to resign from the St. Augustine Visioning Committee?
5. Expect his insurance companies to deny coverage and file declaratory judgement lawsuits?
6. Expect his no-bid lease for 81 St. George Street with soon-to-be-ex-Mayor JOE BOLES to be investigated?
7. Expect his architect, wife and children to behave like cretins in response to First Amendment protected activity?
8. Expect all his works and pomps, including unconstitutional criminalization of art and music, to be undone?
9. Expect growing support for a St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore? www.staugustgreen.com
10. Expect all future demolition proposals by speculators and Flagler College to get the gimlet eye?
What do you reckon?
As LBJ said to Congress after Selma, "We SHALL overcome!"

Coverup? St. Augustine Record Reports on LEN WEEKS fine without quoting City's report on his willful, heedless, reckless acts in destroying 210-year old building

Weeks fined thousands in building collapse
Posted: November 12, 2014 - 6:42pm

By SHELDON GARDNER
sheldon.gardner@staugustine.com


St. Augustine’s code enforcement board voted in favor of fining Len Weeks more than $3,000 in connection with the collapse of the property at 62 Spanish St.

A fine for $3,000 was approved for the violation of emergency demolition of a colonial structure without approval of the Historic Architectural Review Board and the St. Augustine City Commission. The majority of board members found that Weeks created a condition that led to the collapse of the building and the ultimate decision to demolish the building.

Weeks’ crew was doing work on the site before building permits had been issued, a city review found.

Crews had dug a trench around the building, which was originally constructed in 1807, before it collapsed in late September. The building was one of 31 colonial structures in St. Augustine at the time.

The board also voted, not unanimously, to fine Weeks $500 for removing a coquina wall from the site without proper approval and $100 for doing work at the site without an archaeology permit to bring the total fine to $3,600. The recommended fine for the coquina wall was up to $5,000 alone.

William Rosenthal made the motion for the $3,000 fine, citing Weeks’ experience as a contractor.

“Mr. Weeks certainly should have been more knowledgeable ... less hasty,” Rosenthal said.

City officials testified at the hearing, including Building Official Will Franke and City Archaeologist Carl Halbirt. Among other things, they said work began before permits were issued.

Franke recalled going to the site after getting a call from Weeks on Sept. 25 after the building began to collapse.

“It was cracking and falling as we were looking at it,” Franke said.

Franke and other experts later decided that the building could not be salvaged and that it needed to be demolished because it was a public safety hazard.

Weeks said the work was intended to strengthen the building.

“It’s heartbreaking to me that it’s gone,” he said.

Weeks said he was working on a strict timeline given to him to fit in with the city’s work on Hypolita Street. City officials began construction in April on the Downtown Improvement District project, a $3.3 million effort to improve Hypolita, Spanish and Treasury streets.

He also said there was no way to be sure the work he did was the cause of the collapse, and there may have been other factors. He also said the building was not that strong at the time of its collapse.

“There just wasn’t much holding it together,” Weeks said.

He said the timing of the permitting probably would not have mattered. The city did a review of the events that led up to the collapse, from a staff perspective, and concluded the same thing.

Weeks did not deny that work began before permitting.

However, he said he believed he already had authorization from the Historic Architectural Review Board to take down the coquina wall at the site. He had submitted plans in late 2012 for the site.

The coquina wall is more than 50 years old, he said.

“I never once considered that I did not have permission to remove that wall,” he said. “In my mind, to remove that wall, wasn’t an issue.”

3 PM Hearing On 62A Spanish Street Illegal Demolition by Ex-Mayor CLAUDE LEONARD WEEKS, JR.

"It is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error." Those are the words of Justice Robert Houghwot Jackson, America's prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials.

Today the St. Augustine Code Enforcement Board will hear an appeal by CLAUDE LEONARD WEEKS, Jr. from more than $10,000 in fines for his illegally destroying a 210-year old Spanish colonial building at 62A Spanish Street, without permits.

Come testify. Come watch. Watch on cable tv. Watch on www.cosatv.com
Share your knowledge of the events of September 25, 2014, a date that will live in infamy. Be prepared to appeal to City Commission if the Code Enforcement Board errs, pursuant to Section HP 1.8 of our Comprehensive Plan.

The facts are as follows:

1. LEN WEEKS owns -- and as his own contractor destroyed -- a 210-year old historic building and putting workers' lives at risk by trenching all the way around the building, violating City of St. Augustine ordinances by working without any permits.
2. A City report finds that LEN WEEKS admittedly disobeyed instructions and requirements of City employees, including City Planning and Building Director David Birchim, City Historic Preservation Planner Jennifer Wolfe, City Archaeologist Carl Halbirt, City Building Inspector Inspector William Franke.
3. LEN WEEKS also failed to follow the advice of his own engineer, William Freeman and his own architect Jerry Dixon.
4. This is not the first time that LEN WEEKS has worked without a permit in the historic area of Our Nation's Oldest City.
5. LEN WEEKS chairs the City of St. Augustine Historic Architectural Review Board (HARB).
6. LEN WEEKS also chairs the City of St. Augustine Parking and Traffic Committee.
7. LEN WEEKS also serves on the all-white St. Augustine Visioning Committee.
8. LEN WEEKS is partner with Mayor JOSEPH LESTER BOLES, JR. in a no-bid lease from the City of St. Augustine for 81 St. George Street, at 1/5 to 1/10 of market rates, sublet without City permission to the current owners of FLORIDA CRACKER CAFE and SAVANNAH SWEETS.
9. MAYOR JOE BOLES IS LEN WEEKS' ATTORNEY AND BUSINESS PARTNER.
10. LEN WEEKS has a Master's degree in Construction from the University of Florida, has been a licensed general contractor since 1977, chairs the Historic Area Council of tbe Chamber of Commerce and has long demanded arrests and criminal prosecution of artists and musicians and entertainers on St. George Street, while seeking special rights for property owners.

As Justice Robert Jackson began his prosecution at the Nuremberg Trial, "The wrongs which we seek to condemn and punish have been so calculated, so malignant, and so devastating, that civilization cannot tolerate their being ignored, because it cannot survive their being repeated."

"Let justice be done though the heavens fall" is the ancient equitable maxim.

Folio Weekly re: State Senator JOHN TRASHER Being Given Tenure at FSU, Along With Presidency, Mansion, Bonuses and Other Perks

CITIZEN MAMA
NEW FSU PRESIDENT THRASHER RECEIVES TENURE
It won’t endear him to a faculty that didn’t want him anyway


By Julie Delegal
Posted 10/8/14
It was easy-breezy. In a land where small electric fans cause tornadoes of political outrage, the simple contract negotiations between State Sen. John Thrasher and his new employers, the Florida State University Board of Trustees, were refreshingly smooth.

The terms appear to be completely pro forma. Except for one little detail. The devil is in that detail.

It wasn't the $2.15 million price tag for President Thrasher's 5-year contract that bothered me. We know that, at $430,000 per year, Thrasher's in the middle of the pack among presidential salaries for Florida's state universities. And it wasn't the fully staffed university-owned home, either, although that's an intriguing benefit, given that other university heads get as much as $50,000 per year in housing allowances. The club memberships are to be expected, as is the potential $100,000-per-year bonus.

The detail that had me choking on my coffee related to another presidential perk, passed along by the state's media in an "oh, by the way" manner. From the News Service of Florida: "The trustees also intend to grant Thrasher, who received his undergraduate and law degrees from the Tallahassee school, a tenured faculty appointment as professor in the College of Law."

A tenured faculty appointment as law professor? I'm sure his fellow professors are beside themselves. And they're not the only ones.

Rewind to early September, when FSU's faculty senate passed a resolution that recommended against hiring Thrasher — a non-academician — as president. The faculty didn't recommend anyone else specifically, just anyone but Thrasher.

At heart, professors are teachers, and their protest was not unrelated to Thrasher's declared war on public school teachers. It's a war that's spanned the terms of three governors: the current governor, Rick Scott (this magazine went to press before the election); the former-but-would-be-again governor, Charlie Crist; and another former governor and would-be-president, Jeb Bush, also known as 
Gov. Default.

In 2010, Sen. Thrasher leaped tall buildings to pass the controversial "teacher tenure" bill, only to have the landmark legislation nullified by Gov. Crist's veto pen.

There were numerous reasons for rejecting Senate Bill 6, but this sentence, from Crist's April 15, 2010, veto letter, conveys the gist: "Some of these directives are quite overreaching, such as not allowing multi-year teacher contracts, choosing arbitrary percentages for calculating a teacher's effectiveness, and permanently decertifying an excellent teacher in Florida who simply needed improvement two out of the previous five years on the job."

Gov. Default was not happy.

Bush, you see, had been (and still is!) busy touring the country talking about education reform. A big plank in his reform platform is accountability, which, through SB 6, dovetails perfectly with the political right's hatred of labor unions. Never mind that a teacher's union status, or tenure status, has never been linked to student performance outcomes. It didn't stop Sen. Thrasher from pushing through SB 6's reincarnation, SB 736, the following year.

Never mind, either, that the test scores we now use to evaluate teachers aren't reliable indicators of teacher effectiveness over time. Given how many times the state Board of Education has switched the goalposts, tweaked the cutoff scores and cushioned school grades, the test scores may not be a reliable indicator of anything at all.

But Gov. Default can't be bothered with the details. He's got a national campaign to run in 2016, and he needs his home state to be on board with his teacher accountability plans. Those plans abolished tenure as we knew it for new public school teachers in Florida.

But not for newly minted Professor Thrasher.

Unlike many professors who teach every day at Florida State University but have not yet attained tenure, the man who's made a career out of politics can teach as long as he likes.

"Tenure," in the academic world, means that those who earn it are welcome to stay for the duration of their careers, unless there's just cause to fire them. With Florida's public school teachers, the term "tenure" was batted about more colloquially to signify a multi-year contract with similar due-process protections. Not anymore. Our public school teachers, with their year-to-year contracts, are just one step above at-will employees.

For President Thrasher to accept a tenured professorship, without earning that position through years of working in the classroom, would be the height of hypocrisy.

A version of this column appeared on Context Florida.

John Doar, R.I.P.

Lawyer John Michael Doar has died, aged almost 93.
Another of my heroes is dead. He will be missed by all who love justice.
John Doar guided the House Judiciary Committee in its impeachment inquiry into RICHARD MILHOUS NIXON, resulting in Nixon's resignation. Earlier, Mr. Doar was Attorney General Robert Kennedy's Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil RIghts, later promoted to Assistant AG. Mr. Doar patiently guided DOJ lawyers and FBI agents in desegregating Southern elections, schools, employment and public accommodations.
After allegedly not doing enough to protect murdered civil rights workers, Mr. Doar personally prosecuted the Mississippi KKK members and Sheriff's deputies who conspired to murder three civil rights workers and bury them in an earthen dam. The civil rights workers were Mickey Schwerner (known to KKK as "Jewboy" and "Goatee"), his African-American deputy, James Chaney, and Andrew Goodman. Mississippi KKK members and law enforcement were angry at a successful boycott of a Meridian, Mississippi store that refused to hire blacks while relying on black customers. Mr. Doar had never prosecuted a criminal case., but he won seven convictions for federal criminal civil rights violations of seven Mississippi Klansmen for the murders of three civil rights workers. The jury was all white. Never before in Mississippi was any white person convicted of committing an act of violence against any black person. (The case is dramatized in the 1988 movie, Mississippi Burning).
Mr. Doar helped persuade Congress to enact the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, using the moral force of constitutional law and federal courts to end what he called a "caste system," the only country to do so without war, revolution or massive violence.
President Barack Obama said without Mr. Doar's efforts, "Michelle and I might not be where we are today." The President described Mr. Doar as "one of the bravest American lawyers of his or any era." "Time and time again, John put his life on the line to make real our country's promise of equal justice for all." "He was the face of the Justice Department. He was proof that the federal government was listening."
Mr. Doar was a longtime protege of St. John Barrett (my boss as an antitrust paralegal in 1980, who like Mr. Doar was a graduate of the Boalt Hall School of Law at the Univresity of California at Berkeley. While I never met Mr. Doar, he ranks among my legal heroes. In an antitrust case he was prosecuting, Mr. Barrett showed me and taught me how to use the pre-computer system of "events slips," multiple-ply carbon color-coded typed notes, which Mr. Doar's lawyers used to dictate and used to organize and marshall information to win civil rights cases and the Nixon impeachment investigation (At least in the 1960s and 1970s, Mr. Doar didn't trust computers because of security concerns).
Mr. Doar was a "country lawyer" from Northern Wisconsin, a Republican (a "Lincoln Republican") who was always impeccably prepared and who stood up to wrongdoers, even in his own law firm, reporting a lawyer who withheld material evidence in an antitrust case involving Kodak.
Mr. Doar led the judicial investigation of Miami U.S. District Judge Alcee Hastings, resulting in then-Judge Hastings' impeachment for bribery and removal from office (Hastings is now a Congressman).
In Jackson, Mississippi, after the 1963 murder of Medgar Evers, Mr. Doar confronted a group of angry African-Americans throwing bricks,stones and bottles; he defused a potential riot and massacre, saying, "My name is DOAR.
D-0-A-R. I'm from the Justice Department. And anyone here knows I stand for what is right. Medgar Evars wouldn't want it this way." Years later, Mr. Doar said. "I wasn't concerned about my safety. Perhaps I should have been. I wasn't hit by any of the projectiles. they were sort of skipping in front of me."
Mr. Doar told C-SPAN in 2009, "Countless black citizens in the South couldn't vote. They were second-class citizens from cradle to grave. The discrimination was terrible, brutal." Mr. Doar's and RFK's vigorous efforts secured Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendment rights for millions of Americans.
At the University of Mississippi, a/k/a "Ole Miss," during weeks of rioting and bad feelings, Mr. Doar stayed in James Meredith's dormitory room, empowering the desegregation of Ole Miss with federal forces. Mr. Doar's dismantling Jim Crow segregation was not popular with certain white elected officials. Flying the Confederate flag above the American flag on the Alabama State Capitol, Alabama Governor GEORGE CORLEY WALLACE openly spoke of wanting to shoot Mr. Doar, which once led New York reporter Jimmy Breslin to write, in his Watergate history (How the Good Guys Finally Won): "Don't miss." Mr. Doar's fellow prep football players at St. Paul's Academy described him as "fearless."
We need more lawyers like John Michael Doar.

Veterans Day

On Veterans Day, I remember my late father (1913-2003), Ed Slavin, Sr., a veteran of three World War II combat jumps (Normandy, Sicily and North Africa), winner of three Bronze Stars, a machine-gunner who slayed Nazis to secure our freedom, for whom the "Corporal Edward A. Slavin Chapter" (South Jersey) of the 82nd Airborne Divn. Assn. Inc. is named. When he appeared on Philadelphia TV documentary on Memorial Day 1998, I learned for the first time about the three Bronze Stars; he told me, "They gave one to everyone who jumped" into Nazi-occupied territory.

Kenneth Worcester Dow's Letter: Village donor wants local involvement

Letter: Village donor wants local involvement

Kenneth Worcester Dow
St. Augustine Record
Published Saturday, August 04, 2001
My name is Kenneth Dow. I donated my property between Cordova Street and St. George Street in St. Augustine to the Museum of Arts and Science in Daytona with the goal of restoring these homes to their original beauty.

Once restored, these homes would serve as a quality museum complex housing my family furnishings, specific artwork, and treasures that I had collected specifically for these homes. The focus of this project has never wavered, and neither has my intent to see it through to its fruition.

I have made myself clear from the conception of this project that I want the property to remain as historically original as possible. The Museum of Arts and Sciences assured me that the Village Museum would house the quality artwork, furniture, and other belongings that I have donated specifically for this project, to make the Village Museum a credible, historically accurate display.

It saddens me to read, and hear the turmoil over the Village Museum. I personally want to thank all my friends and the St. Augustine residents who made the grand opening of the village such a huge success.

I watched in awe as the wonderful night unfolded before me, and I shared in the joy that we all felt that night, seeing a lifetime of work recognized and appreciated. I thought that my dream of housing a quality, credible museum complex was fulfilled.

I hope Gary Libby will restore a more workable, friendly relationship with the St. Augustine community, and return to our original (and only) goal of making an authentic historical village and a quality museum with wonderful learning opportunities for all to delight in for years to come.

I strived for years trying to create a collection to be proud of, and made acquisitions to the collection with a museum in mind. It is deeply distressing to me to think that all of my hard work in the research and acquisition of materials, referencing and verifying records is all for naught. I am saddened to think of what will become of my prized collection.

Last Word, Last Laugh

Tonight, November 10, 2014, I spoke to City Commission, thanking Mayor JOSEPH LESTER BOLES, JR. (and his golfing buddy, Commissioner DONALD CRICHLOW) for their public service.

I asked for a few extra seconds while speaking about Compassionate St. Augustine.

After I left the City's "$30,000"+ podium, BOLES said "I don't mind giving you a few extra seconds because it's the last time in ten years that I will ever have to listen to you."

+ $30,000 That's what indignant BOLES said it cost when he and other-directed WILLIAM BRUCE HARRIS bossed commissioners forbade us to show at the podium, or on camera, the "science experiment" with coquina porosity, showing how rapidly water flowed through coquina (porosity 47-53% in connection with illegal dumping, shooing us to do out of camera range. We forgive you, Mayor BOLES.

Of course, I had the last laugh, and you can hear me laughing at BOLES' barb at this link, here .

The future of our Nation's Oldest City is secure with Nancy Shaver due to be sworn in as our next Mayor at 7:30 pm on Monday, December 1, 2014.

Three cheers for everyone who made this historic day possible.

Privatization Continues: Dow Museum of Historic Homes Sold to DAVID BARTON CORNEAL

The Dow Museum of Historic Homes has been sold by the Daytona Museum of Arts and Sciences to millionaire State College, Pennsylvania lawyer DAVID BARTON CORNEAL.
DAVID BARTON CORNEAL is pondering privatizing the museum into a complex of bed and breakfasts.
We'll just see about that.

P.S. Four (4) days after this post, the MORRIS COMMUNICATIONS owned St. Augustine Record got around to reporting, not questioning anything about the deal, hectoring it with a front page press release, not asking how a museum gets privatized before our eyes, knelling, in haec verb:

St. Augustine's Dow Museum of Historic Houses sold for $1.7 million
Posted: November 12, 2014 - 6:13pm
PETER.WILLOTT@STAUGUSTINE.COM The Dow Museum of Historic Houses is on Cordova St. in St. Augustine and features a collection of nine historic houses dating from 1790 to 1910.
PETER.WILLOTT@STAUGUSTINE.COM The Dow Museum of Historic Houses is on Cordova St. in St. Augustine and features a collection of nine historic houses dating from 1790 to 1910.







By STUART KORFHAGE
stuart.korfhage@staugustine.com
After a near miss a year ago, the Dow Museum of Historic Houses of St. Augustine has a new owner.

In a deal that was closed Nov. 5, St. Augustine resident David Corneal purchased the property at 149 Cordova St. for $1.7 million.

The property almost ended up being the site of the Children’s Museum of St. Augustine, but that agreement, which was for a reported $1.5 million, ended when the Children’s Museum decided to pursue other sites. It first tried Riberia Point and is now slated to occupy part of the Shipyard Project.

Corneal said he acquired the property because he wants to preserve a vital piece of St. Augustine’s history.

As proof, he’s already started restoration work.

To make the property financially stable, Corneal said his intention is to make it something of a historic inn. He said there is no plan to alter what is there — only refurbish it.

“I’m not going to modify the buildings because they’re historic,” he said. “We will divide (the buildings) into suites where people can come and stay with their families.”

Plans for this use are still in the early stages. Corneal knows he will have to go through the various city planning boards to obtain authorization to pursue such plans.

But he wanted to start the restoration process as a sign of good faith, proof to city officials and neighbors that he’s serious about preserving history.

“I think that this city is on verge of state of Renaissance, that it’s going to make a huge comeback in historic significance, and I think this is a perfect place for it,” Corneal said.

Corneal has already shown his willingness to restore a historic property in a financially viable way.

He owns several pieces of property in the area, most notably the old M&M Market on Bridge Street. He purchased that from the city and is in the process of turning it into several residential units and a small restaurant.

The St. Augustine City Commission had turned away those interested in returning that property to a convenience store that sold alcohol, tobacco products and lottery tickets.

That commitment to use a historic building for a purpose the community and the government was asking for made Corneal a comfortable choice for the previous owner, the Museum of Arts & Sciences of Daytona Beach (MOAS).

Andrew Sandall, executive director of MOAS, released a statement in support of Corneal, based on his plan to preserve the Historic Houses.

“The Museum of Arts and Sciences has been working with interested individuals and organizations for several years now with the aim of returning the Dow Museum back to local ownership,” he said in an email.

“We are happy that a new owner was found who understood the historical significance of the properties and their unique place in the story of Florida’s most historic city.”

The Historic Houses museum sale went through quickly once it was put back on the market, especially considering the limitations of the property.

Selling agent Rob West of Coldwell Banker Premier Properties, who was assisted by Judith Schuyler, said the historic property wasn’t just going to be sold off to anyone.

“We didn’t want anybody who wanted to knock down the buildings and redevelop it,” West said. “It’s such a unique property.”

West said the property was just listed in September, and he found just the buyer he needed in Corneal.

West said he was able to find out about Corneal’s interest by talking with another local real estate agent. Finding such a perfect fit in so brief a time was a pleasant surprise for all parties.

“This is a really good buyer who is going to do the right thing with the property,” West said. “I was very pleased that Mr. Corneal bought it and was going to preserve it.”

Added Tanya Liebal of Century 21 St. Augustine Properties, the agent for Corneal: “(Corneal) is 100 percent into preservation. It sounds like we really did find the right person (to take over the property). I really hope that the city will support him.”

CANCELLED: The November 15, 2014 meeting of federal St. Augustine 450th Commemoration Commission IS CANCELLED. No new date yet

Mayor BOLES' LAST MEETING

TOMORROW, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2014 AT 5 PM, 75 KING STREET.

November 9, 1989: Fall of the Berlin Wall 25 Years Ago

25 Years Ago Today:
On November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall fell. I was the Legal Counsel for Constitutional Rights at the Government Accountability Project.
Earlier that day, I had gave a speech to some 93 U.S. Department of Labor Administrative Law Judges at their annual training conference in Fort Lauderdale, Florida (asking them to be more sensitive to whistleblower rights).
That evening, I was on the telephone with clients, colleagues and friends in my hotel room before dinner when the videos shone: kids dancing on top of the Berlin Wall.
Wow!
The fall of the Berlin Wall had special meaning for me as one of German, Polish and Irish ancestry, whose significantly "better half" (Brian) was conceived in East Germany and born in West Germany.
The struggle for freedom and democracy continues.
Here, there and everywhere.
As LBJ said after Selma, "We SHALL overcome!"