STATEMENT OF STAUGUSTGREENTM, ST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA BEFORE THE U.S. SENATE COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND NATURAL RESOURCES IN SUPPORT OF NOMINATION OF SALLY JEWELL FOR SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR, AND
PROMPT ACTION ON ST. AUGUSTINE 450th COMMEMORATION COMMISSION AND ST. AUGUSTINE NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK AND NATIONAL SEASHORE
MARCH 7, 2013
Chairman Wyden, Senator Murkowski, ENR Committee members:
StAugustGreenTM supports the nomination of Sally Jewell to be America's 51st Secretary of the Interior. As the businesswoman and engineer who ran the $1.8 billion/year Recreation Equipment, Inc. (REI) Co-Op and the Vice Chair of the National Parks and Conservation Association (NPCA),, we know Ms. Jewell treasures the health, spiritual, wealth and job creation values of outdoor recreation. Our National Parks are truly “America's Best Idea,” as Ken Burns' acclaimed PBS series established, quoting Wallace Stegner. As Secretary of the Interior, we know that Sally Jewell will help preserve, protect and expand our National Parks, which help create more than 6.5 million American jobs.
StAugustGreenTM supports the creation of a St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore. See www.staugustgreen.com. StAugustGreenTM urges you to ask Ms. Jewell about
reviving the moribund St. Augustine 450th Commemoration Commission. The 450th Commission was created by Congress in 2009, but it still has no appropriation and is stalled. We are grateful that Secretary Ken Salazar heard and heeded our July 15, 2009 call for a diverse, knowledge-based Commission as required by the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA): appointed April 15, 2011, its members are diverse people with expertise in Florida, Hispanic, Native American, African- American and Civil Rights history, nature and National Parks, including former Senator Bob Graham, Rev. Andrew Young, Robert Stanton, Bruce Smathers, Gordy Wilson, Jay Kislak, Fr. Tom Willis,
Mayor Joseph Boles, Eduardo Padrơn, professors, et al. The 450th Commission lacks the $500,000 Congress authorized but never appropriated – it urgently needs it to do its job. The 450th Commission must be funded, start complying with FACA, stop holding secret telephone meetings in violation of FACA, reject the DoI Solicitor's erroneous 2011 conclusion of non-existent FACA exemption (as “operational committee”) and hold thoughtful meetings on conservation and protecting our history and natural resources, e.g. St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore.
In 1939, the St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore Act was introduced during the 76th Congress, supported by then-Mayor Walter Fraser, introduced by then-Representative Joseph Hendricks and then-Senators Charles Andrews and Claude Pepper to conserve this wonderfully unique place. That was 74 years ago. What exactly are we waiting for? St. Augustine deserves its rightful place. St. Augustine's story is our Nation's story. Diverse people lived, learned from each other and prospered here since 1565. Our Nation's oldest continually-occupied, European-founded City, St. Augustine has a rich history of cultural diversity – America's original melting pot since 1565. Many never learn this in schools, where British-centrism prevails. The story of the United States began in St. Augustine on September 8, 1565: the 800 colonizers included the first Hispanic-Americans, first African-Americans (freed and slave), first Catholics, first Jews and first women from Europe, along with many other firsts in what is now the United States. That was 42 years before Jamestown,Virginia and 55 years before Plymouth, Massachusetts. University of Florida History Professor Michael Gannon says, “When Jamestown was founded, St. Augustine was already up for urban renewal.”
Chairman Wyden said February 19, 2013 at Hanford, Washington's “B” Reactor, “there is an old saying that those who don't remember the past are doomed to repeat it.... My own view is that history isn't always ideal .... it is important to look deep into the well of history to get a clearer understanding

of what lies ahead." Sen. Wyden said Hanford and other Manhattan Project sites “must be preserved so future generations understand what went on here.” He said last year was the first in decades Congress hadn't protected our “special places.”
Europe's bloody religious wars were fought here: Spanish, French and English forces fought for hegemony in St. Augustine Northeast Florida. Europeans killed Europeans here, over dogma and which empire would rule. Our Matanzas River (“slaughters”) is named for one September 1565 event, where 270 Frenchmen were put to the sword. No monument to their memories exists in Florida. Likewise, the “Columbian Exchange” began here, with Native American and Europeans first interacting, sharing and fighting for dominance. No proper interpretation or monument to this remarkable exchange currently exists.
St. Augustine is a very special place and deserves protection: it was America's first in so many ways: we had the first Catholic Mass and first Thanksgiving feast (both on September 8, 1565). St. Augustine had America's first town plan (1586), first school, first church, first weddings, first baptisms, first hospital, first forts, first public square, first public market, first paved streets, first park, first system of weights and measures, first cattle, first horses, first pigs, first government with written records, first army and navy, first recorded marriages (including African-Americans), first freed slave communities, first African-American soldiers/sailors, first African-American general and first government anti-Gay hate crime (on Governor's orders in 1566).
St. Augustine residents' courageous activism and litigation produced landmark Congressional and federal court Civil Rights and First Amendment victories (including the 1964 Civil Rights Act and a series of landmark 1963-71 federal court public accommodations and school desegregation orders, a series of orders vindicating the rights of artists and entertainers (buskers) in St. Augustine's historic area, and a 2005 court order for Rainbow flags on historic Bridge of Lions in honor of GLBT history, including the Governor's ordering the 1566 murder of a Gay French translator of the Guale Indian language). While the Spanish Inquisition was here to a small degree, Spanish governors in St. Augustine never burned a single “witch” (unlike Salem, Massachusetts counterparts). St. Augustine was a small garrison town that beat the odds, surviving continuously since 1565, when other European settlements were swiftly abandoned (including the 1607 British settlement of Jamestown).
The Underground Railroad began in St. Augustine in 1687. Under Spanish rule, St. Augustine grew into America's first shining bulwark of freedom – the first Underground Railroad ran south to St. Augustine, starting in 1687, as Spain granted freedom to any British slaves who would become Catholics and fight for Spain. Slave revolts resulted in several British colonies upon slaves hearing the news of freedom in St. Augustine, Florida. The British were furious, as their former slaves settled here in 1738 the first freed slave settlement in America, at Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mosé (Fort Mosé). The British attacked St. Augustine in 1740, besieging it for 27 days. Spanish-freed slaves and Spanish soldiers fought off British invaders.
Hundreds of British indentured servants fled to freedom in 1777. During the 20-year British period, Menorcans, Greeks and Italians, who were British “indentured servants” (slaves by contract), fled to St. Augustine from the deadly failed mosquito-infested New Smyrna indigo plantations, “voting with their feet,” walking some 70 miles to freedom in St. Augustine in 1777. Their long walk to freedom deserves a National Historical Park, which can happen with state donation of several current state parks along the route they walked from New Smyrna to St. Augustine in 1777 – this should include wonderful bird and other wildlife observation points in three counties, already state parks. Imagine more than 130,000 acres of NPS protected land, at the stroke of a pen, including state parks along this freedom walk.

St. Augustine survived genocide, wars, arson, slavery, and segregation – and is the Oldest European- founded City in America about to observe its 450th birthday. St. Augustine survived and outlasted slavery, genocide of Native Americans (the Timucua tribe ceased to exist), Jim Crow segregation, hurricanes and the British, who thrice burned St. Augustine to the ground (1586, 1668 and 1702) and twice besieged it (1702 and 1740). Continental America's oldest masonry fort – Castillo de San Marcos – was started in 1672 in response to British arson and completed in 1695. The Castillo survived two British sieges and cannonballs with its its unique porous coquina shell construction and artisans' nightly masonry work restoring sections blown away by day. Great Britain owned St. Augustine for twenty years under the two Treaties of Paris, with two peaceful transition to British and back to Spanish rule in 1763 and 1784. Likewise, St. Augustine survived the Civil War without a single shot – in 1861, an Army sergeant turned over the Castillo's keys (Fort Marion), obtaining a receipt from the Confederates. In 1862, Confederates left peaceably when the U.S. Navy (with U.S. Marines) were sighted offshore. The fort was used as a military prison until the Spanish-American War in 1898 – it was a prison for selected American Revolutionary War patriots during the British period, and then for selected Native Americans (Osceola and fellow Seminole warriors; Kiowa; Apaches, including members of Geronimo's band and several of his wives) under the U.S. Army. The U.S. Government's controversial system of Indian boarding schools began right here at the Castillo, and was expanded to dozens of other sites around America. These schools are rightly deserving of NPS interpretation beyond that which was traditionally available at the Castillo.
Slavery began in St. Augustine, Florida on September 8, 1565 – not in Virginia in 1607, as often misreported. Jim Crow segregation was ended by what happened here in 1964, through the courage of local residents and visiting supporters -- the “St. Augustine Movement.” This history deserves NPS interpretation.
In 1964, St. Augustine's 400th anniversary was marred by KKK segregationists, allied with local law enforcement: their fury at peaceful Civil Rights protesters helped President Johnson break the U.S. Senate filibuster against the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The “St. Augustine Movement” was led by local African-American dentist Dr. Robert B. Hayling. Dr. Hayling brought Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Jackie Robinson. Here. The “St. Augustine Movement” saw the largest arrest of rabbis in American history, the Monson Motel swim-ins, St. Augustine Beach ocean wade-ins, the beating of Rev. Andrew Young and the arrest of Dr. King and the mother of Massachusetts' Governor Endicott Peabody. This was all daily national news.
White House tapes show that in dealing with Southern Senators, President Lyndon Johnson was empowered by the courage of “St. Augustine Movement” as much as by the nightly revolting images and page one headlines of St. Augustine beatings, shootings, muriatic acid poured into the Monson Motel pool, and an iconic photo of a policeman jumping into that pool to arrest J.T. Johnson, Al Lingo, Mamie Ford Jones, Peter Shiras and others for swimming there. After federal court rulings, state law enforcement (Highway Patrol and Fish and Game Commission, supervised by courageous State's Attorney Dan Warren) finally came to defend African-Americans, including those swimming in Atlantic Ocean amid wade-ins. Jim Crow segregation ended because of all that had happened in St. Augustine, Florida.
On July 2, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Today, women, racial and ethnic minorities, persons with disabilities and Gay and Lesbian people are protected thanks to the courage of the St. Augustine Movement – the 1964 Civil Rights Act was the precedent for human rights laws worldwide. Some of our St. Augustine neighbors who protested in 1964 survive: our elders are sharing their wisdom with future generations and working with Rev. Andrew Young, et. al on

several different Civil Rights museums, including the former dental office of Dr. Robert B. Hayling. Rev. Andrew Young said it best back in 1964: “We change history through finding the one thing that
can capture the imagination of the world. History moves in leaps and bounds.”
Next year, in 2014, America and St. Augustine will honor the 50th anniversary of our1964 Civil Rights Act. We and ask that the Committee Chair visit and advise us, and that you today urge Secretary- designate Jewell to work with you and us to make the anniversary meaningful, with creation of a new National Historical Park and Seashore.
Would this be the first National Seashore with a Civil Rights component? Under Florida laws at the time, the Atlantic Ocean was segregated under Jim Crow segregation. Protest wade-ins at St. Augustine Beach pier were international news. Today, formerly segregated African-American beaches statewide are in need of protection, including Bethune-Volusia Beach (near New Smyrna Beach), Virginia Key (Miami) and Bunche Beach (near Fort Myers) – may we suggest that the Senate ENR Committee kindly address with Ms. Jewell the urgency of preserving this history, including potential NPS status and protection and possible sequential referral legislation denying flood insurance to anyone destroying their historic homes?
The Secretary and the ENR Committee must ask Ms. Jewell to commit to continue and expand Secretary Salazar's commitments to the history of members of long-neglected minority groups.
In particular, St. Augustine's Native American, Hispanic, African-American and Civil Rights history deserves greater respect from DoI. What is to be done?
As Admiral Hyman Rickover once said to President Jimmy Carter (then a recent Naval Academy graduate: “Why not the best?” Why not a public-private partnership to present St. Augustine's diverse history to the world? How about planning with Hispanic-Americans, Native Americans, African- Americans and other diverse groups with NPS for the 450th? .
Could the ENR Committee please encourage the new Secretary and the 450th Commission to initiate immediate Town Hall discussions of the proposed National Historical Park and National Seashore, and what it might mean for St. Augustine?
A much better location for an NPS Visitor Center might be the abandoned “Sebastian Inner Harbor” project, where boat docks have already been built before the project was abandoned. This property is in foreclosure. Who better than Ms. Jewell, formerly WaMu bank's chief commercial lender, to ask and get bank approval to donate the land for a public purpose? Imagine a DOI-staffed public-private partnership – a National Civil Rights Museum – bordering on the San Sebastian River, site a currently bankrupt development, symbolizing “waters that run like justice” working waterfront, with shrimp boats (not unlike Tarpon Springs' sponge docks), with artists and entertainers (buskers) as in Key West's Mallory Square, with outdoor restaurants.
Currently, Native American, Hispanic, African-American and Civil Rights history is not given nearly enough attention in St. Augustine, either by NPS, or by anyone else.
We treasure our wonderful jewel of a 1672-95 Spanish fort, our Castillo de San Marcos – one of our most-frequently visited but most interpretation-deprived locations in the entire National Park Service. There is also the sister fort of Fort Matanzas. There is also Fort Mosé State Park (underfunded state
park threatened with closure), the site of first free black settlement in 1738). There is also a lone historical marker in St. Augustine Beach for beach wade-ins. There is a Civil Rights Foot Soldiers monument and an Andrew Young memorial in St. Augustine's Historic Slave Market square, where abolitionist and transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson first observed slave-selling in 1827 (with multitasking by the chair of the Bible Society and a slave auction being conducted in the public market across St. George Street). There is a small community history museum in Lincolnville. That is all there is at the present time.
Like Atlanta's Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. sites, St. Augustine deserves NPS ranger interpretation of African-American and civil Rights history at Fort Mosé, the Slave Market and the churches and homes of Lincolnville and West Augustine (where Civil Rights heroes lived, worked and planned peaceful protests). This will make history come alive, inspiring generations of future Americans to respect equality and the people who struggled to attain it.
The King and Queen of Spain are coming to St. Augustine in 2014. Now, more than ever, St. Augustine's key role in U.S. and world history deserves greater National Park Service attention. St. Augustine's wonderful natural beauty likewise deserves National Park Service protection.
With all this history and beauty, St. Augustine currently has two relatively small National Park Service installations – Castillo de San Marco National Monument (20.5 acres) and Fort Matanzas National Monument (some 300 acres). We can do better for future generations. With wise gifts of state and local public lands and wise stewardship by NPS and local residents, we will create a St. Augustine National Seashore. We will help protect against beach erosion and flooding, protecting glorious wetlands and beaches and private property.
We will protect the winter calving (baby-rearing) grounds of the endangered North Atlantic Right Whale (some 300 survive), endangered turtles' nesting grounds, and habitats of bald eagles, beach mice, butterflies and other endangered and threatened wildlife for future generations to enjoy. We will rescue historic lands threatened by “Temple Destroyers” (in John Muir's words).
Wrecking balls have already destroyed some of our history, including a 3000-4000 year old Native American Indian archaeological site just south of St. Augustine (destroyed to build a strip malls and condominiums). Florida is already blessed with some 500,000 unsold condominiums. St. Augustine is a national treasure, which must not be destroyed by mindless speculation and endless high rises, like South Florida.
These lands must be protected and not neglected – state parks and forests, water management district land, and county beaches, including Anastasia State Park and the Guana-Tolomato-Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve (GTM-NERR) – will be combined into a National Historical Park and National Seashore in two counties, one that will preserve at least 130,000 acres of beach and uplands, rescuing them from threats: closing or privatizing of our parks, e.g., with golf courses (Florida is already blessed with some 1200 golf courses, thank you, and some of those are failing financially). Every year since 2006, our St. Johns County Legislative Delegation has heard us, and talked about the St. Augustine National Historical Park and Seashore – our state legislators now know that we can save tens of millions of dollars by giving selected state lands to the National Park Service. Please see attached 2011 column from St. Augustine Underground (formerly published by Milwaukee Journal).
The St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore will help interpret American history that is too often neglected in our schools, including Hispanic, African-American, Native American and Civil Rights history. We have 11,000 years of Native-American history. NPS needs to do a better job of telling it, especially in St. Augustine, where ethnocentrism was long on display at the Castillo, where Native Americans were imprisoned in the 1800s.
St. Augustine has 500 years of European and African: history: a unique, multi-cultural blend of Spanish, Roman Catholic, African-American, Jewish, Greek Orthodox, Protestant, French, Menorcan, Greek, Italian, Irish, Haitian, Cuban, Civil War, Flagler-era, Civil Rights, Military, Nautical, Resort, Artistic and Musical history. Ray Charles and Marcus Roberts learned to play music in St. Augustine, at our Florida School for the Deaf and Blind. Many jazz musicians retire and play here.
Our local economy is still in the ditch, no matter what our local Chamber of Commerce says for quotation in our local newspaper. People are hurting. Stores and restaurants are vacant. Tourism is the engine of our economy. Environmental and historic tourists stay twice as long and spend twice as much, and they teach future generations of Americans to appreciate nature and understand our history. St. Augustine is rated as one of the best places to live, with the best schools, one of the best places to to retire, one of the most cultured places in Florida (Women's Day), hosts one of the ten best Christmas light displays in the world (National Geographic), and is one of 20 places in the world to see in 2013 (National Geographic).
With National Park Service branding, our City can recover from the Great Recession, just as recovered in past centuries, after hurricanes, British sieges, cannonballs and city-wide arson.
It is time for DoI to discuss the St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore.
Our draft legislation was called “perfect” by one of our former City Commissioners, who worked at the CEQ and DoI under Presidents Clinton and Bush. This was after a NPS attorney in 2009 refused to read our draft, while inaccurately writing that this would be criminal, misciting 18 U.S.C. 1913.
In 2011, the DoI Solicitor's office, in a shallow, outcome-driven letter, incorrectly took the position that the 450th Commission is an “operating committee,” which is not true. The Commission is not operating anything. A junior DoI attorney wrote the letter at the behest of Deanna Archuletta, then a DoI political appointee, who was attempting to justify her desire for secrecy with a slogan. Since that time, DoI has been violating the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) by having the 450th Commission conduct h conference calls and a secret meeting in South Florida. Enough secrecy. Enough delay. Government openness and accountability are essential in our democracy, and DoI must appreciate that fact.
Please ask Ms. Jewell to agree to full FACA compliance for the 450th Commission, including public meetings announced in advance with meaningful public participation and court reporter transcription (as took place at the first and only public 450th Commission meeting in St. Augustine on July 18, 2011). During that meeting, I requested that the Commission hear a presentation on the St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore. The audience applauded. The presentation has not yet been scheduled. The 450th Commission needs to get moving. Again, what are we waiting for?
From now on, DoI staff must open their hearts to our community, end their FACA violations and start helping St. Augustine plan for 2014 and 2015 and beyond – public participation is essential, as one of our former mayors has urged. Please ask Ms. Jewell about public participation today.

CONCLUSION
Thank you for helping St. Augustine, Florida win the respect she deserves from NPS and DoI. As Albert Camus said, “If you don't help us do this, then who else in the world will help us do this?”
Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, in an ad lib speech on July 18, 2011, came close to endorsing the St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore, referring to “your National Parks here” Let's make it a reality. Secretary Salazar said St. Augustine is “one of our Creator's most special places,” and that its contributions to history need to be made “known to our Nation and the world – that history is important to tell.”
StAugustGreenTM respectfully urges the U.S. Senate ENR Committee's support for:
A. The nomination of Sally Jewell to be our 51st Secretary of the Interior;
B. Full funding for the St. Augustine 450th Commemoration Commission; and
C. St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore. www.staugustgreen.com
By enacting the St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore legislation, we will conserve, preserve and protect nature, property and history, right wrongs, promote healing and teach tolerance. Our work is bipartisan, and will create another “public park or pleasuring-ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people,” as Congress wrote in establishing Yellowstone National Park on March 1, 1872 – 131 years ago. Will you please support “America's Best Idea” – a St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore – the best “legacy project” for the 500th anniversary of Spanish Florida (2013), 450th anniversary of St. Augustine (2015) and 50th anniversary of the 1964 Civil RightsAct(2014)?
Thank you. Respectfully submitted,
ED SLAVIN
StAugustGreenTM.
www.staugustgreen.com
PO. Box 3084, St. Augustine, Florida 32085-3084 904-377-4998
EASlavin@aol.com
One Attachment:(St. Augustine Underground column, formerly published by Milwaukee Journal).
Thursday, October 06, 2016
Wednesday, October 05, 2016
Wm. Stetson Kennedy's 100th Birthday: More Books Remain to Be Published!
One hundred years ago today, my late friend and mentor, Wm. Stetson Kennedy was born.
Stetson was a "freedom fighter," and that's exactly how he described me (in an inscription he wrote to me in signing one of his several books).
Wonderful news -- It turns out that Stetson left more books to be published. See Charlie Patton story, below:
Upon our second meeting, he called me "Stetson Kennedy, Junior" (as we were examining unexpurgated FBI files he obtained on the dynamite murder in their bedroom of NAACP activists Harry and Harriette T. Moore in Mims, Florida on December 25, 1951). On his way to the hospital for the last time in 2011, Stetson told his seventh wife, Sandra Parks, that he wanted the Moores to be honored and remembered. I've suggested that they be included in Statuary Hall, in Washington, D.C. Step one has been accomplished: Florida's legislature and governor have acted to remove the offensive statue of a Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith, a reprobate who had African-American prisoners of war murdered. Step two will come early next year, when the Moores statue may be voted to replace that of General Edmund Kirby Smith, a native of St. Augustine.
Here are a few articles about my friend and mentor, American civil rights hero Stetson Kenndy:
Posted October 4, 2016 03:51 pm - Updated October 4, 2016 09:23 pm
By Charlie Patton charlie.patton@jacksonville.com
Jacksonville Times-Union
Stetson Kennedy’s papers, now at UF library, include a number of unpublished book-length manuscripts
During Stetson Kennedy’s long life — he died at 94 in 2011 — only seven of his books were published.
But Kennedy, whose 100th birthday is Wednesday, apparently remained prolific, even in the three decades between the publication in 1959 of his fourth book, “Jim Crow Guide to the U.S.A.,” and the re-publication in 1989 of 1946’s “Palmetto Country.”
That led to renewed interest in Kennedy’s life as a folklorist, crusading journalist and passionate advocate of human rights and to the re-publication in 1990 of “The Klan Unmasked,” his tale of infiltrating the Ku Klux Klan, originally published in London in 1954 as “I Rode with the Ku Klux Klan.” Three more books were published in his lifetime and one has been published posthumously.
Will there be more posthumous books published?
Since 2013, when 202 linear feet of manuscripts were delivered to the University of Florida’s P.K. Yonge Library, James Cusick, the library curator, has been sorting the papers and discovering a number of book-length manuscripts in various states of completion.
By 1946, when he was 30 years old, Kennedy had completed the first draft of an autobiography he intended to title “White Boy,” his inspiration being Richard Wright’s “Black Boy,” a semi-autobiographical novel published in 1945.
“He continued adding to it, revising it, up until the end of his life,” Cusick said.
The first draft is in near publishable form, Cusick said. “It is kind of close to the form where he was ready to sit down with an editor.”
Whether Kennedy’s plan as the years passed was to publish that as a separate autobiography or make it part of what he was calling “Dissident at Large,” an autobiography covering his entire life, is unclear.
Kennedy’s widow Sandra Parks favors publishing the early autobiography as “Florida Boy.”
The manuscript for “White Boy” is in a style somewhat like “The Klan Unmasked,” a first-person active narrative, Cusick said. He said it reminded him of the voice of Philip Marlowe, the detective narrator of Raymond Chandler’s novels.
The manuscripts for “Dissident at Large” are of great interest because they reflect on “the invisible near decade of his life in Europe,” the period from about 1952 to 1960, Cusick said.
“It’s almost like a foreign correspondent report,” Cusick said. “For instance his account of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. He was there when the Soviet tanks rolled into Budapest.”
Those manuscripts also detail Kennedy’s travels through Russia and Mongolia into China in 1954-55.
While, like the first draft of “White Boy,” the early version is something that is probably ready to go to an editor, “the challenge would be to maintain Stetson’s voice and style,” Cusick said. “… But if somebody wants to do a biography of him, it’s fantastic material.”
The manuscript “Sex on Earth,” reflects a different side of Kennedy, “Stetson the ethnologist and anthropologist looking at the bonds between male and female,” Cusick said. “Very early on in life Stetson was interested in being a zoologist. But eventually he decided the most interesting animals are human beings.”
The strangest book-length manuscript Cusick found was “Lemon and Mullet.” He assumed from the title it would be another look at Florida folklore like “Palmetto Country” and “Grits and Grunts: Folkloric Key West,” published in 2010. Instead, it turned out to be a massive manuscript consisting of police reports Kennedy had written in the 1970s and 1980s, for the Florida Star, a newspaper targeted at Jacksonville’s African-American population.
“His idea was that if he compiled them all and wrote an introduction, it would offer a glimpse into what street life was like in Jacksonville in the ‘70s and ‘80s,” Cusick said. “As a research tool it’s quite interesting. As a manuscript it’s unpublishable.”
In addition to the book length manuscripts, the papers represent “a pretty good compilation of Stetson’s journalistic writings beginning in high school,” Cusick said. “Things that spark controversy today Stetson was writing about 50 or 60 years ago.”
While there are papers left to be examined, Cusick said the library is close to beginning to place items from the collection online. That includes a lot of audio, film and video, some of which is also being digitized so it can go online.
“Stetson always had a tape recorder with him and sometimes his talks were videotaped or taped,” Cusick said. “The first thing that will go online is a lecture he gave at the University of Nantes in 1990, a really nice one.”
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Posted September 30, 2016 12:01 am
By JARED KEEVER jared.keever@staugustine.com
St. Augustine Record
STETSON’S CENTENNIAL: Famed human rights activist and folklorist remembered with a month of events
Sandra Parks, widow of writer and human rights activist Stetson Kennedy, is pictured inside her downtown St. Augustine home on Thursday, September 29, 2016. Sitting alongside a collection of international editions of his works, she holds in her hands a Swiss edition of his famous book , “I rode with the Ku Klux Klan, later released as The Klan Unmasked.”
christina.kelso@staugustine.com A photograph of writer and human rights activist Stetson Kennedy in the mid-1940s at a speaking engagement after infiltrating and exposing the Ku Klux Klan sits alongside a collection of calling cards from klans throughout the nation and a framed Klan-Busters of America T-shirt inside the downtown St. Augustine home of his widow Sandra Parks on Thursday, September 29, 2016.
When Stetson Kennedy died in a Jacksonville hospital in August 2011, he was a little more than a month away from his 95th birthday. It was the end of a life that the famed human rights activist and folklorist had packed full of stories and fights for his favorite causes.
“Stetson never seemed to believe he was old,” his widow, Sandra Parks, said Thursday.
Seated in a window seat at Hot Spot Bakery and Cafe on Granada Street, Parks, 75, reflected on her late husband’s life and what he might have thought about his upcoming centennial celebration. Kennedy would have turned 100 on Oct. 5.
That will be the day of the Stetson Kennedy Birthday Celebration to be held at the Wilson Center on the south campus of Florida State College at Jacksonville.
The event kicks off a month’s worth of events meant to honor the man who famously infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan in the 1940s and lived to write about it in the book now titled “The Klan Unmasked.”
Events following the birthday celebration include a private concert to be performed by recording artists Billy Bragg and Sarah Lee Guthrie — granddaughter of Kennedy’s longtime friend, Woody Guthrie — at Kennedy’s old cottage on Lake Beluthahatchee on Oct. 14. Guthrie and Bragg will perform again during the Magnolia Music Festival at the St. Augustine Amphitheater the following evening.
There is another concert, titled “Showcase for Political Thought in Music,” scheduled for Oct. 23, also at Beluthahatchee, and a chorale celebration presented by the Sigma Alpha Iota Women’s Chorale Society, scheduled for Nov. 6 at the University of Florida.
It’s a fairly busy schedule, but one befitting a man who Parks, his seventh wife, said never slowed down and worked all his life to be an agent of change as well as to protect the environment and preserve folk culture and folk life.
“At the time of his death he had just approved the cover for what he called his ‘latest last book,’” she said.
Parks rattled off a list of accomplishments from Kennedy’s final years including the publication of two books, traveling to folk singer Pete Seeger’s 90th birthday celebration, and pushing a walker from the Valencia Street home where he lived with Parks to the Flagler College auditorium to speak before a state legislative redistricting committee and rail against the use of computer models to draw district lines. He called it “the 21st century version of the poll tax,” Parks said. Kennedy gave his last public speech on the 4th of July in Gainesville, less than two months before he died.
“His last years show us that what most people believe about aging, may limit us in what we expect to do for ourselves,” Parks said.
“Right to the end of his life Stetson seemed to think that people needed to understand what he believed about this democracy,” she added.
If that’s the case, then he would likely be pleased that people are still talking about him and working hard to make sure his story is told.
Two significant developments since his death, Parks said, are the organization of many of his papers in an archive at the University of Florida’s P.K. Yonge Library of Florida History and the development of a reader’s theater that performs pieces of Kennedy’s work and helps raise money for the Jacksonville-based charity Young Minds Building Success.
There is also a documentary about Kennedy, titled “Klandestine Man,” in the works. It’s in post-production now and is due out sometime in 2017 or 2018, according to Yael Luttwak, a producer and director with production company Spark Media. The company is currently running an IndieGoGo fundraising campaign to gather the money needed to bring the project to fruition.
It’s a cause that, Parks said, anyone interested in Kennedy’s legacy should consider supporting.
Not only will the finished project spread Kennedy’s story to a wider audience, the production company has agreed to hand over all of the audio and visual files — compiled over years of covering the man — to the archives in Gainesville, she said.
“In a nutshell, it’s the best birthday present anyone could give Stetson Kennedy,” his widow said. “It’s going to create a resource that extends far beyond Stetson.”
Parks speaks happily of the man she was married to for five years and knew for eight. Her stories suggest his life was one lived without regret, with purpose and perhaps best summed up by something he used to tell others.
“If you want a long life, pick a cause and stick to it,” she said, quoting her late husband. “If you want a good, long life, be sure it’s a good cause.”
“That’s my guy,” Parks said. “He had the greatest one-liners.”
For more information about Kennedy and the events surrounding his centennial, visit www.stetsonkennedy.com.
To contribute to the production of “Klandestine Man,” visit www.indiegogo.com/projects/klandestine-man.
Stetson was a "freedom fighter," and that's exactly how he described me (in an inscription he wrote to me in signing one of his several books).
Wonderful news -- It turns out that Stetson left more books to be published. See Charlie Patton story, below:
Upon our second meeting, he called me "Stetson Kennedy, Junior" (as we were examining unexpurgated FBI files he obtained on the dynamite murder in their bedroom of NAACP activists Harry and Harriette T. Moore in Mims, Florida on December 25, 1951). On his way to the hospital for the last time in 2011, Stetson told his seventh wife, Sandra Parks, that he wanted the Moores to be honored and remembered. I've suggested that they be included in Statuary Hall, in Washington, D.C. Step one has been accomplished: Florida's legislature and governor have acted to remove the offensive statue of a Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith, a reprobate who had African-American prisoners of war murdered. Step two will come early next year, when the Moores statue may be voted to replace that of General Edmund Kirby Smith, a native of St. Augustine.
Here are a few articles about my friend and mentor, American civil rights hero Stetson Kenndy:
Posted October 4, 2016 03:51 pm - Updated October 4, 2016 09:23 pm
By Charlie Patton charlie.patton@jacksonville.com
Jacksonville Times-Union
Stetson Kennedy’s papers, now at UF library, include a number of unpublished book-length manuscripts
During Stetson Kennedy’s long life — he died at 94 in 2011 — only seven of his books were published.
But Kennedy, whose 100th birthday is Wednesday, apparently remained prolific, even in the three decades between the publication in 1959 of his fourth book, “Jim Crow Guide to the U.S.A.,” and the re-publication in 1989 of 1946’s “Palmetto Country.”
That led to renewed interest in Kennedy’s life as a folklorist, crusading journalist and passionate advocate of human rights and to the re-publication in 1990 of “The Klan Unmasked,” his tale of infiltrating the Ku Klux Klan, originally published in London in 1954 as “I Rode with the Ku Klux Klan.” Three more books were published in his lifetime and one has been published posthumously.
Will there be more posthumous books published?
Since 2013, when 202 linear feet of manuscripts were delivered to the University of Florida’s P.K. Yonge Library, James Cusick, the library curator, has been sorting the papers and discovering a number of book-length manuscripts in various states of completion.
By 1946, when he was 30 years old, Kennedy had completed the first draft of an autobiography he intended to title “White Boy,” his inspiration being Richard Wright’s “Black Boy,” a semi-autobiographical novel published in 1945.
“He continued adding to it, revising it, up until the end of his life,” Cusick said.
The first draft is in near publishable form, Cusick said. “It is kind of close to the form where he was ready to sit down with an editor.”
Whether Kennedy’s plan as the years passed was to publish that as a separate autobiography or make it part of what he was calling “Dissident at Large,” an autobiography covering his entire life, is unclear.
Kennedy’s widow Sandra Parks favors publishing the early autobiography as “Florida Boy.”
The manuscript for “White Boy” is in a style somewhat like “The Klan Unmasked,” a first-person active narrative, Cusick said. He said it reminded him of the voice of Philip Marlowe, the detective narrator of Raymond Chandler’s novels.
The manuscripts for “Dissident at Large” are of great interest because they reflect on “the invisible near decade of his life in Europe,” the period from about 1952 to 1960, Cusick said.
“It’s almost like a foreign correspondent report,” Cusick said. “For instance his account of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. He was there when the Soviet tanks rolled into Budapest.”
Those manuscripts also detail Kennedy’s travels through Russia and Mongolia into China in 1954-55.
While, like the first draft of “White Boy,” the early version is something that is probably ready to go to an editor, “the challenge would be to maintain Stetson’s voice and style,” Cusick said. “… But if somebody wants to do a biography of him, it’s fantastic material.”
The manuscript “Sex on Earth,” reflects a different side of Kennedy, “Stetson the ethnologist and anthropologist looking at the bonds between male and female,” Cusick said. “Very early on in life Stetson was interested in being a zoologist. But eventually he decided the most interesting animals are human beings.”
The strangest book-length manuscript Cusick found was “Lemon and Mullet.” He assumed from the title it would be another look at Florida folklore like “Palmetto Country” and “Grits and Grunts: Folkloric Key West,” published in 2010. Instead, it turned out to be a massive manuscript consisting of police reports Kennedy had written in the 1970s and 1980s, for the Florida Star, a newspaper targeted at Jacksonville’s African-American population.
“His idea was that if he compiled them all and wrote an introduction, it would offer a glimpse into what street life was like in Jacksonville in the ‘70s and ‘80s,” Cusick said. “As a research tool it’s quite interesting. As a manuscript it’s unpublishable.”
In addition to the book length manuscripts, the papers represent “a pretty good compilation of Stetson’s journalistic writings beginning in high school,” Cusick said. “Things that spark controversy today Stetson was writing about 50 or 60 years ago.”
While there are papers left to be examined, Cusick said the library is close to beginning to place items from the collection online. That includes a lot of audio, film and video, some of which is also being digitized so it can go online.
“Stetson always had a tape recorder with him and sometimes his talks were videotaped or taped,” Cusick said. “The first thing that will go online is a lecture he gave at the University of Nantes in 1990, a really nice one.”
-----
Posted September 30, 2016 12:01 am
By JARED KEEVER jared.keever@staugustine.com
St. Augustine Record
STETSON’S CENTENNIAL: Famed human rights activist and folklorist remembered with a month of events
Sandra Parks, widow of writer and human rights activist Stetson Kennedy, is pictured inside her downtown St. Augustine home on Thursday, September 29, 2016. Sitting alongside a collection of international editions of his works, she holds in her hands a Swiss edition of his famous book , “I rode with the Ku Klux Klan, later released as The Klan Unmasked.”
christina.kelso@staugustine.com A photograph of writer and human rights activist Stetson Kennedy in the mid-1940s at a speaking engagement after infiltrating and exposing the Ku Klux Klan sits alongside a collection of calling cards from klans throughout the nation and a framed Klan-Busters of America T-shirt inside the downtown St. Augustine home of his widow Sandra Parks on Thursday, September 29, 2016.
When Stetson Kennedy died in a Jacksonville hospital in August 2011, he was a little more than a month away from his 95th birthday. It was the end of a life that the famed human rights activist and folklorist had packed full of stories and fights for his favorite causes.
“Stetson never seemed to believe he was old,” his widow, Sandra Parks, said Thursday.
Seated in a window seat at Hot Spot Bakery and Cafe on Granada Street, Parks, 75, reflected on her late husband’s life and what he might have thought about his upcoming centennial celebration. Kennedy would have turned 100 on Oct. 5.
That will be the day of the Stetson Kennedy Birthday Celebration to be held at the Wilson Center on the south campus of Florida State College at Jacksonville.
The event kicks off a month’s worth of events meant to honor the man who famously infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan in the 1940s and lived to write about it in the book now titled “The Klan Unmasked.”
Events following the birthday celebration include a private concert to be performed by recording artists Billy Bragg and Sarah Lee Guthrie — granddaughter of Kennedy’s longtime friend, Woody Guthrie — at Kennedy’s old cottage on Lake Beluthahatchee on Oct. 14. Guthrie and Bragg will perform again during the Magnolia Music Festival at the St. Augustine Amphitheater the following evening.
There is another concert, titled “Showcase for Political Thought in Music,” scheduled for Oct. 23, also at Beluthahatchee, and a chorale celebration presented by the Sigma Alpha Iota Women’s Chorale Society, scheduled for Nov. 6 at the University of Florida.
It’s a fairly busy schedule, but one befitting a man who Parks, his seventh wife, said never slowed down and worked all his life to be an agent of change as well as to protect the environment and preserve folk culture and folk life.
“At the time of his death he had just approved the cover for what he called his ‘latest last book,’” she said.
Parks rattled off a list of accomplishments from Kennedy’s final years including the publication of two books, traveling to folk singer Pete Seeger’s 90th birthday celebration, and pushing a walker from the Valencia Street home where he lived with Parks to the Flagler College auditorium to speak before a state legislative redistricting committee and rail against the use of computer models to draw district lines. He called it “the 21st century version of the poll tax,” Parks said. Kennedy gave his last public speech on the 4th of July in Gainesville, less than two months before he died.
“His last years show us that what most people believe about aging, may limit us in what we expect to do for ourselves,” Parks said.
“Right to the end of his life Stetson seemed to think that people needed to understand what he believed about this democracy,” she added.
If that’s the case, then he would likely be pleased that people are still talking about him and working hard to make sure his story is told.
Two significant developments since his death, Parks said, are the organization of many of his papers in an archive at the University of Florida’s P.K. Yonge Library of Florida History and the development of a reader’s theater that performs pieces of Kennedy’s work and helps raise money for the Jacksonville-based charity Young Minds Building Success.
There is also a documentary about Kennedy, titled “Klandestine Man,” in the works. It’s in post-production now and is due out sometime in 2017 or 2018, according to Yael Luttwak, a producer and director with production company Spark Media. The company is currently running an IndieGoGo fundraising campaign to gather the money needed to bring the project to fruition.
It’s a cause that, Parks said, anyone interested in Kennedy’s legacy should consider supporting.
Not only will the finished project spread Kennedy’s story to a wider audience, the production company has agreed to hand over all of the audio and visual files — compiled over years of covering the man — to the archives in Gainesville, she said.
“In a nutshell, it’s the best birthday present anyone could give Stetson Kennedy,” his widow said. “It’s going to create a resource that extends far beyond Stetson.”
Parks speaks happily of the man she was married to for five years and knew for eight. Her stories suggest his life was one lived without regret, with purpose and perhaps best summed up by something he used to tell others.
“If you want a long life, pick a cause and stick to it,” she said, quoting her late husband. “If you want a good, long life, be sure it’s a good cause.”
“That’s my guy,” Parks said. “He had the greatest one-liners.”
For more information about Kennedy and the events surrounding his centennial, visit www.stetsonkennedy.com.
To contribute to the production of “Klandestine Man,” visit www.indiegogo.com/projects/klandestine-man.
Journalist James T. Neal, R.I.P., incarcerated in Indiana in 1965 for First Amendment protected activity
Indiana journalist James T. Neal died last week.
We need more journalists, real journalists, like Mr. Neal, willing to speak the truth without fear or favor.
Mr. Neal was the third generation of his family to own, edit and publish the Noblesville Daily Ledger, an actual newspaper, in contrast to the St. Augustine Record, known here for years as Ye Olde Mullet Wrapper, an epithet and adjective conferred by Minorcan families who've lived hers since 1777, and shared by nearly every sentient critter else in Our Nation's Oldest City.
It happened before the Pentagon Papers.
In 1965, a local Indiana judge actually had James T. Neal cited for contempt of court by a local judge -- that was unconstitutional.
Mr. Neal was locked up in the pokey.
Mr. Neal was given a criminal record (later expunged) for his (rather mild) criticism of local courts, judges and law enforcement on criminalizing traffic violations.
DONALD TRUMP wants to alter libel laws to protect public officials and public figures from criticism -- that alone makes him unfit for office.
I never met Mr. Neal, but his spirit lives in all that we do here, like that of my late friend and mentor, Stetson Kennedy, who was born 100 years ago today.
Here is a lyrical remembrance by James T. Neal's granddaughter, Alexandra Petri, Washington Post, one of the most gifted and funniest writers of our time, a fourth generation journalist who is on a track to win one or more Pulitzer Prizes.
What do y'all reckon?
My grandfather and the First Amendment
By Alexandra Petri September 30
The Washington Post
My grandfather, enjoying the First Amendment. (Family photo)
“All things considered, it would seem like a good idea to write about my dog,” wrote James T. Neal.
It was Tuesday, July 20, 1965. Neal was editor of the Noblesville Daily Ledger, a small Indiana newspaper. The day before, he had been arrested and charged with contempt of court for a column he had written criticizing a judge’s new policy to crack down on traffic violations.
The case made local, then national headlines: EDITOR AT NOBLESVILLE RAPS JUDGE; ARRESTED (Rushville Daily Republican of Rushville, Ind.); CHARGE OF CONTEMPT FILED AGAINST EDITOR (Indianapolis Star); IRKED JURIST HAS EDITOR ARRESTED (The News-Palladium of Benton Harbor, Mich).
Neal had not expected to make national news defending freedom of the press. He had not expected his “County Line” column to make news of any kind. As he told the Kokomo Morning Times, “I write a 700-word piece for the County Line almost daily so I never know what to expect from each paragraph.”
He had certainly not anticipated that one paragraph in his Saturday column would so incense Hamilton County Circuit Court Judge Edward New that he would issue him a citation for contempt of court. The citation charged Neal with writing “a disdainful, despicable, scurrilous and contemptuous article about this court” that was “intended to inflict ridicule and indignity on the image of the Hamilton Circuit Court and embarrass the judge thereof, and all law enforcement officers in the county.”
No column would have merited arrest, but this one was considerably milder than the citation made it sound. Neal had called the newly announced policy, which would send all traffic violators to Circuit Court, “an excellent example of shotgun justice,” noting, “it isn’t necessary to upset a whole community to get at the handful of motorists who run wild on the highways. If the past proves a good example, what will happen is some kindly old lady will spend the night in jail for driving too slow, while some mad motorist charged with manslaughter will eventually stall his trial right out of court.”
So he was “dumbfounded” (his words, according to the Indianapolis Star) when the sheriff showed up at the Noblesville Daily Ledger office the Monday after the column ran to place him under arrest.
“I don’t mind if Neal wishes to criticize any of my judgments,” New said. “This is his right as a reporter. It is part of freedom of the press. But when he projects himself into the future, such as the reference to a little old lady, he is just crystal-balling. This is neither accurate nor good reporting. He’s making a prophecy of something that might never come. It is, in my opinion, direct and criminal contempt of court.”
New released Neal on his own recognizance (originally, the bail had been set at $50,000), recused himself and appointed a special panel of three judges from which a new judge was to be selected for the case. It was perhaps not the most impartial panel that could have been imagined; one of the members was the judge’s brother. New took the further step of removing legal notices — a source of advertising revenue — from the Daily Ledger. (The Indianapolis Star quoted him as saying, “I am well within my rights. I don’t see how I could honestly approve publication of legal notices in a paper which holds the court in contempt.”)
The public outcry was swift. Time Magazine wrote up the case. A representative of the Indiana Civil Liberties Union said he was “appalled.” The Indianapolis Star wrote a vehement editorial in Neal’s defense. It observed, “The reaction of the Hamilton Circuit judge to newspaper criticism seemed strangely out of place in an American court. It would have been more in the order of things in Castro’s Cuba, Soviet Russia, Red China or other countries where public officials consider themselves, like kings of old, beyond criticism.”
When Neal appeared in court for a hearing, spectators in black armbands packed the courtroom to show solidarity. Neal received a flood of calls, letters and telegrams from around the country — including, he said, a message from a man who asked to be billed for a year’s subscription as a sign of support.
Neal’s attorney asked for the case to be dismissed. So did the prosecutor, Walter A. Cornell, stating, “Just as the individual must be free to speak his mind, so the press must be free to publish its opinion.”
While waiting for his fate to be determined, Neal kept up criticism of the judge’s policies, this time with an editorial pointing out that New was “issuing court orders to obtain payment of unbudgeted expenses,” which “denies public scrutiny of the judge’s accounts.”
Finally, after considerable delays, the special judge chosen from the panel of three announced that he was withholding judgment, on the grounds that he had no jurisdiction.
“The special judge’s 16-page analysis of this case involving freedom of the press appears to have used the wrong facts to arrive at a wrong conclusion,” fumed the Daily Ledger’s editorial, entitled “Ruling Was Incredible”: “A special judge in effect ruled that the editor of the Ledger stood convicted of contempt of court by the original judge and while the law prevented the judge from punishing the defendant, it also denies the defendant the opportunity to purge himself of the conviction.”
The Indianapolis Star agreed. “The ruling leaves unanswered the question whether an editor can be summarily called to answer in court if he offends a judge by what he publishes,” it editorialized. “Special Judge [Robert] McNevin advised … Editor Neal to forget about defending the freedom of the press. Yet freedom of the press is precisely the issue.”
“The rights of the press are as much on trial as I am,” Neal told the Kokomo Morning Times.
It was not until three years, another two judges and an Indiana Supreme Court ruling later that Neal and the Ledger managed to answer the question. In September 1968, the charge was finally dismissed.
James T. Neal was my grandfather. He passed away this week.
In the days since losing him I have been hunting down this story in newspaper archives — partly to pay tribute to his work for journalism, but also, selfishly, so that I could hear from him again. And he is there to be found, in all the stories, in every interview, with his familiar quiet humor and steady dedication to doing what was right. Each sentence is a gift, another chance to wrap a familiar, beloved voice around myself like an old sweater.
In theory, there is no form of writing so transient as newspaper writing. Books are transient enough, and they are supposed to be placed carefully on shelves and treasured, whereas newspapers are printed with the understanding that they will be thrown away and used to wrap dead fish. How big or permanent can such writing possibly be?
But perhaps this is the wrong question.
“Freedom of the press is not a freedom for newspapers or other news media such as radio and television but for the people themselves,” the Ledger’s 1965 editorial on the court case concluded. “The press is only a means of communication by which the people inform themselves and express their views.”
The truly big stories never announce themselves. They start as small things; echo; grow immense. I find it strangely fitting that on Tuesday, July 20, 1965, the day after the arrest and citation, when my grandfather’s regular column appeared — as it had done and would continue to do six days a week for 25 years — he chose to dedicate it entirely to his Saint Bernard. (“Column On Dog On Safe Ground,” observed the Indianapolis Star.)
What I am learning, slowly, from writing every day, the thing that I am realizing my grandfather knew, is that you can actually say all the important, lasting things in the course of saying trivial, transient ones. That when you write about seemingly small matters like dogs and traffic violations what you are really saying is much larger, like, some principles are worth fighting for, and don’t worry, it’s going to be all right.
Alexandra Petri writes the ComPost blog, offering a lighter take on the news and opinions of the day. She is the author of "A Field Guide to Awkward Silences." Follow @petridishes
Tuesday, October 04, 2016
TOP TEN THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT ST. AUGUSTINE BEACH CITY COMMISSIONER ANDREA SAMUELS, seeking a third term, RUNNING AGAINST reformer MAGGIE KOSTKA for St. Augustine Beach Commissioner
UPDATED: November 2, 2016
Dictatorial, mercurial, two-term City Commissioner ANDREA SAMUEL has showed her insensitivity, immaturity and meanness repeatedly. She's callously indifferent to public concerns about signage, development, building height, mangrove tree preservation and the right of citizens to speak their mind without being intimidated by angry Commissioners (and her angry, mercurial spouse, ROBERT SAMUELS).
HECKLER ROBERT SAMUELS, et ux, Commissioner ANDREA SAMUELS
Left to right: SABCA President WILLIAM JONES, Commissioner ANDREA SAMUELS, et ux, SABCA VP ROBERT SAMUELS, tedious tendentious serial First Amendment violators.
City of St. Augustine Beach COMMISSIONER, ex-Mayor, ANDREA SAMUELS
1. Angry, dictatorial and insulting attitude toward citizens, colleagues and City staff, including interruptions, cutting remarks, eye-rolling, inappropriate laughter and discrimination, while favoring dodgy contractors, rejecting food trucks and sometimes actually telling concerned citizens, "THIS IS NOT A DIALOGUE!" Her antics earned a November 2, 2016 St. Augustine Record endorsement for her challenging opponent, reformer Maggie Kostka.
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/12/birthday-barbarism-at-st-augustine.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/02/questioning-st-augustine-beach.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/07/mad-about-ethics-complaints-mad-about.html
SAMUELS has used her husband to skirt Sunshine laws, apparently, with ROBERT SAMUELS meeting and talking with other Commissioners. SAMUELS' husband is a bully who loudly and widely spread Lashon hara about UNDINE PAWLOWSKI being a "LESBIAN" when she first ran for office against ANDREA SAMUELS in 2008 and was legally married to a woman. Then ROBERT SAMUELS spread Lashon hara about Commissioner UNDINE PAWLOWSKI GEORGE after she married former St. Augustine Beach Mayor Edward George. The SAMUELS obsess on Vice Mayor PAWLOWSKI GEORGE and do not conceal their hatred. This was demonstrated by the December 7, 2015 "cupcake" incident, involving then-Mayor SAMUELS' display of animus upon being given a birthday cupcake for Commissioner PAWLOWSKI-GEORGE's birthday by her father, Dr. Michel S. Pawlowski, D.Sci. http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/12/birthday-barbarism-at-st-augustine.html
As a loudmouth spectator at City meetings, ROBERT SAMUELS acts like rebarbative retromgnent ridiculing Republican lord of all he surveys: ROBERT SAMUELS is abusive: he frequently heckles and insults citizens in public meetings, on-camera, once making devil horns behind Tree and Beautification board member Ann Palmquist after she spoke in public comment. A devious defender of the status quo and developers, ROBERT SAMUELS once slithered to the podium to call me an "outsider" and to say I "stink" because I opposed reducing developer (and SAMUELS' campaign contributor) Farid Ashdji's contractual commitment to pay some $560,000 for infrastructure (Commissioners ultimately agreed with me and rejected Ashdji's extralegal, illogic demand, but no one ever chastised ROBERT SAMUELS for his creating a hostile working environment). Earlier this year, after citizens waited for 200 minutes before public comment before a joint meeting of the Commission, PZB and Tree Board, I spoke in favor of the St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore, with ROBERT SAMUELS waving his arms at me, saying there would "never" be a National Park and Seashore, and that he opposed a larger pier with a public-private partnership and a small civil rights museum. On October 20, 2016, ROBERT SAMUELS assailed and assaulted Commissioner Undine Pawlowski George.
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/06/heckling-by-commissioner-samuels-spouse.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2013/08/defeating-bullies-tyrants-and-bigots.html
4. Too cozy with big developers: As Mayor, in 2014, ANDREA SAMUELS toured Pier Park with DIEGO ARDID, South Florida developer from KEY INTERNATIONAL, City Manager MAX ROYLE and County Administrator MICHAEL DAVID WANCHICK, discussing possible trade of land for the former Holiday Inn property, without advance notice, videotape, news coverage or lawyer present. No records exist. ANDREA SAMUELS does not always tilt toward all developers, but it is a bad habit that offends people who love the small-town, low-rise working class St. Augustine Beach. As proof of her coziness with developers, Sheriff DAVID SHOAR has endorsed her, as has Flagler College Public Administration Professor JOE SAVIAK.
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2014/02/st-johns-county-administrator-and-st.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/10/sab-mayor-andrea-samuels-too-tall-hotel.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/09/sab-rejects-another-hotel-by-farid.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/04/beach-commission-approves-mayors.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/10/park-cell-phone-tower-rejected-5-0.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/09/sab-developments-to-get-automatic.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2014/02/how-do-i-evade-thee-let-me-count-ways.html
5. Irresolute, maladroit and ineffectual on enforcing City Charter's 35 foot building height limit. Result: an "edifice complex," with City staff giving significant encouragement to hideous McMansions blotting out the sun and ocean views and Embassy Suites to erect too-tall building at north end of St. Augustine Beach. The St. Augustine Record agrees, discussing this issue in its endorsement of Maggie Kostka -- ANDREA SAMUELS served on the Planning and Zoning Board and should have prevented this abortion of a skyscraper in our beloved low-rise St. Augustine Beach.
6. Manipulates St. Augustine Beach Civic Association (SABCA) and some its members, running SABCA as a dictatorship, even rejecting membership applications who disagree with SAMUELS (former Mayor Edward George and Commissioner Undine George) Sadly, SABCA functions as the SAMUELS' de facto political action committee. SABCA contributed $500 and volunteer time to a questionable developer political effort -- only item on the ballot in an off-year election -- to increase sales taxes for school infrastructure: result, developers were relieved of $150,000,000 in taxes and impact fees for an investment of $189,000-- this amounts to a Return on Investment (ROI) of some 33,200%. Meanwhile, SABCA is guilty of arrogantly demanding and and receiving no-bid $1/year leases and other unaudited, unexamined special favors, including exclusive use of City Commission meeting room for parties where alcohol is served (now banned): SABCA is the the only non-governmental organization (NGO) that is ever allowed to hold meetings in the St. Augustine Beach City Commission chambers (which were denied to the League of Women Voters as recently as 2014).
ANDREA SAMUELS as mayor in 2015 recused herself but continued to preside, allowing SABCA to use loud, obnoxious, offensive, boisterous, heckling supporters (led by husband ROBERT SAMUELS and SABCA President Sheriff's employee WILLIAM JONES), to demand and receive renewal of a $1/year, no-bid lease of City property.
The SAMUELS and JONES violate First Amendment rights of citizens. See item 7B, below.
SABCA receives St. Johns County Tourist Development Council bed tax funds, although the business case has not been made, with the Farmer's Market supposedly paying for the Wednesday concerts (SAMUELS serves on the Tourist Development Council).
WILLIAM JONES has repeatedly received mere wrist-slaps from Sheriff DAVID SHOAR (one of SAMUELS' contributors) for conduct that would get other employees fired and prosecuted.
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/07/sabca-alcohol-consumption-in-city-hall.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/09/alcohol-now-banned-at-st-augustine.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/06/ethics-complaints-filed-against-obrien.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/07/sheriff-shoar-coverup-for-dishonest.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/06/felonies-by-sheriffs-employees-illegal.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/12/sabca-president-william-jones-charges.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/11/beach-non-profit-gave-500-to-pro-tax.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/11/discuss-sabcas-500-pro-tax-pac.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/10/follow-money-18917500-tax-increase.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/10/whos-spent-106k-on-12-cent-sales-tax.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/08/recused-sab-mayor-andrea-samuels-bosses.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/08/vapid-no-bid-lease-article-in-st.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/08/no-glbt-rights-protection-in-proposed.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/08/high-pressure-sales-tactics-for-no-bid.html
A. By policemen and government employees, including 3-2 vote to fire all St. Augustine Beach Police officers because ten of them filed a complaint against then-Chief Robert Hedges, stating her overt intent to retaliate because of their complaints, with Commissioner ANDREA SAMUELS saying the Police Department had become "political." We, the People persuaded Commissioners to reconsider, and seventeen jobs were saved -- Commissioner Sherman Gary Snodgrass, a former HR manager for Excelon, switched in time. Ironically, in 2016, ANDREA SAMUELS publicly referred to "my 17 police officers," as if they were serfs, vassals or bullets in her gun. How gauche and louche.
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2012/11/record-wrong-on-st-augustine-police.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/07/commr-samuels-my-17-police-officers-how.html
B. By citizens, including fomenting unjust, unconstitutional 2015 arrest of former Code Enforcement Chair William Rosenstock for "stalking" same day as his letter in St. Augustine Record thanking County Commissioners for ending cabined "First Amendment zones" in county parks (including Pier Park), with ANDREA SAMUELS later allegedly stating, "we got him." All charges against Mr. Rosenstock were dismissed, but SAMUELS and SABPD never apologized. SABPD Commander Parker testified that he was not aware of the First Amendment's petition clause. Meanwhile, there was no prosecution of SABCA Vice President ROBERT SAMUELS when he body slammed a sign spinner, or or WILLIAM JONES when he tore Mr. Rosenstock's protest sign in two.
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/07/wm-rosenstock-stalking-charge-dismissed.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/04/june-20th-jury-trial-in-william.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/01/sabpd-unaware-of-petition-clause-in.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/12/sabca-president-william-jones-charges.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/08/sabca-vice-president-robert-samuels.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/08/raw-cooked-story-liberal-national-media.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/08/gotcha-government-has-gotta-go.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/08/jqc-should-review-judge-alexander.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/08/one-sided-record-article-on-retaliatory.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/08/not-hundreds-of-complaints-on-first.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/06/st-johns-county-violates-free-speech-at.html
8. Disdains environmental values and shoots from the hip, giving lots of lip: SAMUELS and her husband swore a Democratic loyalty oath and said they were Democrats, becoming members of the St. Johns County Democratic Executive Committee In July 2009 and voting against the proposed St. Augustine National Historical Park and Seashore. They are now registered Republicans. Both ANDREA and ROBERT SAMUELS have repeatedly, publicly attacked supporters of the proposed St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore, attempting to halt public debate. Like an ignorant Archie Bunker in drag, Commissioner ANDREA SAMUELS has stated "I don't care how tall the building is, I just don't want to lose FEMA" and "there are no mangroves here" as an effort to foil protection for legally protected mangrove trees (indeed, there are mangroves as far north as South Ponte Vedra Beach).
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/05/samuels-dont-care-how-high-building-is.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/05/protecting-mangrove-trees-in-st-johns.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/07/global-mangrove-conference-intellectual.html
9. Accepted campaign contribution from developers while still serving on the Planning and Zoning Board in 2008 and took contribution in 2016 from Sheriff DAVID SHOAR f/k/a "HOAR," whose endorsement of ANDREA SAMUELS on official St. Johns County Sheriff's Office letterhead may violate the Hatch Act.
http://electandreasamuels.com/images/david-shore-testimonial.pdf
http://apps.americanbar.org/buslaw/committees/CL121000pub/newsletter/200911/knapp.pdf
10. Fails to perform adequate oversight of maladroit City Manager MAX ROYLE, one of the shared flaws of the ruling "bloc of three" (Mayor RICHARD O'BRIEN, Commissioner SHERMAN GARY SNODGRASS and ANDREA SAMUELS). During 2016, St. Augustine Beach has repeatedly scheduled meetings that conflict with meetings of the City of St. Augustine, and sometimes on short notice. In September 2016, City Manager MAX ROYLE smirked at me and said, "You're the only one who complained." Nothing has been done to correct ROYLE, who admittedly falls asleep in meetings, and fails to supervise the City staff adequately (ROYLE even wrote a newspaper column admitting he falls asleep in meetings).
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/07/sab-violates-first-amendment-rights.html
CONCLUSION: Partisan, angry ANDREA SAMUELS has disgraced her public office. Vote for Maggie Kostka, a 24-year resident and small business owner, who listens to people and throw SAMUELS out of office for her unAmerican activities. Also elect Rosetta Bailey, whom the Record did not endorse in her race against entrenched fourteen-year incumbent RICH O'BRIEN, currently the Mayor of St. Augustine Beach.
Dictatorial, mercurial, two-term City Commissioner ANDREA SAMUEL has showed her insensitivity, immaturity and meanness repeatedly. She's callously indifferent to public concerns about signage, development, building height, mangrove tree preservation and the right of citizens to speak their mind without being intimidated by angry Commissioners (and her angry, mercurial spouse, ROBERT SAMUELS).
HECKLER ROBERT SAMUELS, et ux, Commissioner ANDREA SAMUELS
Left to right: SABCA President WILLIAM JONES, Commissioner ANDREA SAMUELS, et ux, SABCA VP ROBERT SAMUELS, tedious tendentious serial First Amendment violators.
City of St. Augustine Beach COMMISSIONER, ex-Mayor, ANDREA SAMUELS
1. Angry, dictatorial and insulting attitude toward citizens, colleagues and City staff, including interruptions, cutting remarks, eye-rolling, inappropriate laughter and discrimination, while favoring dodgy contractors, rejecting food trucks and sometimes actually telling concerned citizens, "THIS IS NOT A DIALOGUE!" Her antics earned a November 2, 2016 St. Augustine Record endorsement for her challenging opponent, reformer Maggie Kostka.
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/12/birthday-barbarism-at-st-augustine.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/02/questioning-st-augustine-beach.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/07/mad-about-ethics-complaints-mad-about.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/06/sunshine-misdemeanors-and-elder-abuse.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/05/samuels-dont-care-how-high-building-is.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/07/mad-about-ethics-complaints-mad-about.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2014/09/not-dialogue-saving-our-democracy-from.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2014/09/windstream-to-get-st-augustine-beach.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2014/06/st-augustine-record-re-ending.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2014/04/st-augustine-beach-violates-purchasing.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2014/04/in-haec-verba-my-april-1-2014-e-mail.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2014/03/let-public-be-damned-city-of-st.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2013/12/st-augustine-beach-finally-elects-its.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/05/samuels-dont-care-how-high-building-is.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/07/mad-about-ethics-complaints-mad-about.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2014/09/not-dialogue-saving-our-democracy-from.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2014/09/windstream-to-get-st-augustine-beach.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2014/06/st-augustine-record-re-ending.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2014/04/st-augustine-beach-violates-purchasing.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2014/04/in-haec-verba-my-april-1-2014-e-mail.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2014/03/let-public-be-damned-city-of-st.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2013/12/st-augustine-beach-finally-elects-its.html
2. Voted to hire and retain conflicted developer lawyer DOUGLAS NELSON BURNETT as City Attorney. SAMUELS and Commissioners voted to hire BURNETT in 2009 and repeatedly retained his services despite concerns that he could not represent developers and the City of St. Augustine. BURNETT's St. JOHNS LAW GROUP law firm finally quit in 2015 and BURNETT was replaced in 2016 amid ethics and incompetent concerns -- including advertising his law firm on the City's website, and representing the Publix shopping center owner (whose logo was on his website), when that shopping center owner wanted to buy a 6.1 acre city park. SAMUELS supported giving BURNETT a "plaque" to honor his "service." BURNETT:
1. Never disclosed his ST. JOHNS LAW GROUP client list.
2. Never provided evidence of a "conflicts check" by ST. JOHNS LAW GROUP.
3. Advertised his ST. JOHNS LAW GROUP law firm on City of St. Augustine Beach website.
4. Advertised on his website that he represented shopping center owner that wanted to buy City-County park for less than we paid for it.
5. Sent his ST. JOHNS LAW GROUP associates to meetings he did not attend, some who were not listed in engagement letter.
6. Gave conservative, pro-developer legal advice.
7. Represented 7-Eleven, a Japanese multinational corporation (through ST. JOHNS LAW GROUP associate JAMES GEORGE WHITEHOUSE) in efforts to inflict twelve gasoline pumps at May & San Marco in the the historic City of St. Augustine, which would have endangered deaf and blind students at the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind, and other residents, while adding to traffic problems at the failing intersection ("We, the People" defeated 7-Eleven, which sold the property to the City of St. Augustine for $1.4 million; the property will now be the locus of an elliptical roundabout to solve the traffic problem 7-Eleven would have exacerbated).
8. Quit as City Attorney just a few months after his ST. JOHNS LAW GROUP-SAB 2009 engagement contract was renewed in 2015, without readvertising the position.
9. Billed SAB taxpayers a quarter of a million dollars since 2009.
2. Never provided evidence of a "conflicts check" by ST. JOHNS LAW GROUP.
3. Advertised his ST. JOHNS LAW GROUP law firm on City of St. Augustine Beach website.
4. Advertised on his website that he represented shopping center owner that wanted to buy City-County park for less than we paid for it.
5. Sent his ST. JOHNS LAW GROUP associates to meetings he did not attend, some who were not listed in engagement letter.
6. Gave conservative, pro-developer legal advice.
7. Represented 7-Eleven, a Japanese multinational corporation (through ST. JOHNS LAW GROUP associate JAMES GEORGE WHITEHOUSE) in efforts to inflict twelve gasoline pumps at May & San Marco in the the historic City of St. Augustine, which would have endangered deaf and blind students at the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind, and other residents, while adding to traffic problems at the failing intersection ("We, the People" defeated 7-Eleven, which sold the property to the City of St. Augustine for $1.4 million; the property will now be the locus of an elliptical roundabout to solve the traffic problem 7-Eleven would have exacerbated).
8. Quit as City Attorney just a few months after his ST. JOHNS LAW GROUP-SAB 2009 engagement contract was renewed in 2015, without readvertising the position.
9. Billed SAB taxpayers a quarter of a million dollars since 2009.
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.co.nz/2015/12/plaque-to-city-attorney-developer.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/11/city-attorney-doug-burnett-quits-in-st.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/11/pr-spin-ii-sab-attorney-resigns.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2014/03/stt-augustine-beach-deserves-scrutiny-i.html
3. Nepotism, bigotry and bullying: ANDREA SAMUELS violated state ethics laws by voting for appointment of her husband, ROBERT SAMUELS, as a junior alternate member of the Planning and Zoning Board -- a fact never reported by the St. Augustine Record, or anyone (reported on for the first time on this blog earlier this year). While finding a violation, there was no penalty from the State Ethics Commission (her defense lawyer, MARK HERRON, is former Chair of the State Ethics Commission). SAMUELS' only legal defense: incorrect legal advice from City Attorney DOUGLAS NELSON BURNETT. http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/06/andrea-samuels-violated-ethics-laws.htmlhttp://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/11/city-attorney-doug-burnett-quits-in-st.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/11/pr-spin-ii-sab-attorney-resigns.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2014/03/stt-augustine-beach-deserves-scrutiny-i.html
SAMUELS has used her husband to skirt Sunshine laws, apparently, with ROBERT SAMUELS meeting and talking with other Commissioners. SAMUELS' husband is a bully who loudly and widely spread Lashon hara about UNDINE PAWLOWSKI being a "LESBIAN" when she first ran for office against ANDREA SAMUELS in 2008 and was legally married to a woman. Then ROBERT SAMUELS spread Lashon hara about Commissioner UNDINE PAWLOWSKI GEORGE after she married former St. Augustine Beach Mayor Edward George. The SAMUELS obsess on Vice Mayor PAWLOWSKI GEORGE and do not conceal their hatred. This was demonstrated by the December 7, 2015 "cupcake" incident, involving then-Mayor SAMUELS' display of animus upon being given a birthday cupcake for Commissioner PAWLOWSKI-GEORGE's birthday by her father, Dr. Michel S. Pawlowski, D.Sci. http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/12/birthday-barbarism-at-st-augustine.html
As a loudmouth spectator at City meetings, ROBERT SAMUELS acts like rebarbative retromgnent ridiculing Republican lord of all he surveys: ROBERT SAMUELS is abusive: he frequently heckles and insults citizens in public meetings, on-camera, once making devil horns behind Tree and Beautification board member Ann Palmquist after she spoke in public comment. A devious defender of the status quo and developers, ROBERT SAMUELS once slithered to the podium to call me an "outsider" and to say I "stink" because I opposed reducing developer (and SAMUELS' campaign contributor) Farid Ashdji's contractual commitment to pay some $560,000 for infrastructure (Commissioners ultimately agreed with me and rejected Ashdji's extralegal, illogic demand, but no one ever chastised ROBERT SAMUELS for his creating a hostile working environment). Earlier this year, after citizens waited for 200 minutes before public comment before a joint meeting of the Commission, PZB and Tree Board, I spoke in favor of the St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore, with ROBERT SAMUELS waving his arms at me, saying there would "never" be a National Park and Seashore, and that he opposed a larger pier with a public-private partnership and a small civil rights museum. On October 20, 2016, ROBERT SAMUELS assailed and assaulted Commissioner Undine Pawlowski George.
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/06/heckling-by-commissioner-samuels-spouse.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2013/08/defeating-bullies-tyrants-and-bigots.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/10/sab-mayor-andrea-samuels-too-tall-hotel.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/09/sab-rejects-another-hotel-by-farid.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/04/beach-commission-approves-mayors.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/10/park-cell-phone-tower-rejected-5-0.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/09/sab-developments-to-get-automatic.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2014/02/how-do-i-evade-thee-let-me-count-ways.html
6. Manipulates St. Augustine Beach Civic Association (SABCA) and some its members, running SABCA as a dictatorship, even rejecting membership applications who disagree with SAMUELS (former Mayor Edward George and Commissioner Undine George) Sadly, SABCA functions as the SAMUELS' de facto political action committee. SABCA contributed $500 and volunteer time to a questionable developer political effort -- only item on the ballot in an off-year election -- to increase sales taxes for school infrastructure: result, developers were relieved of $150,000,000 in taxes and impact fees for an investment of $189,000-- this amounts to a Return on Investment (ROI) of some 33,200%. Meanwhile, SABCA is guilty of arrogantly demanding and and receiving no-bid $1/year leases and other unaudited, unexamined special favors, including exclusive use of City Commission meeting room for parties where alcohol is served (now banned): SABCA is the the only non-governmental organization (NGO) that is ever allowed to hold meetings in the St. Augustine Beach City Commission chambers (which were denied to the League of Women Voters as recently as 2014).
ANDREA SAMUELS as mayor in 2015 recused herself but continued to preside, allowing SABCA to use loud, obnoxious, offensive, boisterous, heckling supporters (led by husband ROBERT SAMUELS and SABCA President Sheriff's employee WILLIAM JONES), to demand and receive renewal of a $1/year, no-bid lease of City property.
The SAMUELS and JONES violate First Amendment rights of citizens. See item 7B, below.
SABCA receives St. Johns County Tourist Development Council bed tax funds, although the business case has not been made, with the Farmer's Market supposedly paying for the Wednesday concerts (SAMUELS serves on the Tourist Development Council).
WILLIAM JONES has repeatedly received mere wrist-slaps from Sheriff DAVID SHOAR (one of SAMUELS' contributors) for conduct that would get other employees fired and prosecuted.
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/07/sabca-alcohol-consumption-in-city-hall.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/09/alcohol-now-banned-at-st-augustine.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/06/ethics-complaints-filed-against-obrien.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/07/sheriff-shoar-coverup-for-dishonest.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/06/felonies-by-sheriffs-employees-illegal.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/12/sabca-president-william-jones-charges.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/11/beach-non-profit-gave-500-to-pro-tax.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/11/discuss-sabcas-500-pro-tax-pac.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/10/follow-money-18917500-tax-increase.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/10/whos-spent-106k-on-12-cent-sales-tax.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/08/recused-sab-mayor-andrea-samuels-bosses.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/08/vapid-no-bid-lease-article-in-st.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/08/no-glbt-rights-protection-in-proposed.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/08/high-pressure-sales-tactics-for-no-bid.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/07/tdc-grant-panel-meeting-is-neither.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/06/st-johns-county-violates-free-speech-at.html
7. Retaliates against First Amendment protected activity: http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/06/st-johns-county-violates-free-speech-at.html
A. By policemen and government employees, including 3-2 vote to fire all St. Augustine Beach Police officers because ten of them filed a complaint against then-Chief Robert Hedges, stating her overt intent to retaliate because of their complaints, with Commissioner ANDREA SAMUELS saying the Police Department had become "political." We, the People persuaded Commissioners to reconsider, and seventeen jobs were saved -- Commissioner Sherman Gary Snodgrass, a former HR manager for Excelon, switched in time. Ironically, in 2016, ANDREA SAMUELS publicly referred to "my 17 police officers," as if they were serfs, vassals or bullets in her gun. How gauche and louche.
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2012/11/record-wrong-on-st-augustine-police.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/07/commr-samuels-my-17-police-officers-how.html
B. By citizens, including fomenting unjust, unconstitutional 2015 arrest of former Code Enforcement Chair William Rosenstock for "stalking" same day as his letter in St. Augustine Record thanking County Commissioners for ending cabined "First Amendment zones" in county parks (including Pier Park), with ANDREA SAMUELS later allegedly stating, "we got him." All charges against Mr. Rosenstock were dismissed, but SAMUELS and SABPD never apologized. SABPD Commander Parker testified that he was not aware of the First Amendment's petition clause. Meanwhile, there was no prosecution of SABCA Vice President ROBERT SAMUELS when he body slammed a sign spinner, or or WILLIAM JONES when he tore Mr. Rosenstock's protest sign in two.
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/07/wm-rosenstock-stalking-charge-dismissed.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/04/june-20th-jury-trial-in-william.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/01/sabpd-unaware-of-petition-clause-in.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/12/sabca-president-william-jones-charges.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/08/sabca-vice-president-robert-samuels.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/08/raw-cooked-story-liberal-national-media.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/08/gotcha-government-has-gotta-go.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/08/jqc-should-review-judge-alexander.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/08/one-sided-record-article-on-retaliatory.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/08/not-hundreds-of-complaints-on-first.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/06/st-johns-county-violates-free-speech-at.html
8. Disdains environmental values and shoots from the hip, giving lots of lip: SAMUELS and her husband swore a Democratic loyalty oath and said they were Democrats, becoming members of the St. Johns County Democratic Executive Committee In July 2009 and voting against the proposed St. Augustine National Historical Park and Seashore. They are now registered Republicans. Both ANDREA and ROBERT SAMUELS have repeatedly, publicly attacked supporters of the proposed St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore, attempting to halt public debate. Like an ignorant Archie Bunker in drag, Commissioner ANDREA SAMUELS has stated "I don't care how tall the building is, I just don't want to lose FEMA" and "there are no mangroves here" as an effort to foil protection for legally protected mangrove trees (indeed, there are mangroves as far north as South Ponte Vedra Beach).
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/05/samuels-dont-care-how-high-building-is.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/05/protecting-mangrove-trees-in-st-johns.html
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/07/global-mangrove-conference-intellectual.html
9. Accepted campaign contribution from developers while still serving on the Planning and Zoning Board in 2008 and took contribution in 2016 from Sheriff DAVID SHOAR f/k/a "HOAR," whose endorsement of ANDREA SAMUELS on official St. Johns County Sheriff's Office letterhead may violate the Hatch Act.
http://electandreasamuels.com/images/david-shore-testimonial.pdf
http://apps.americanbar.org/buslaw/committees/CL121000pub/newsletter/200911/knapp.pdf
10. Fails to perform adequate oversight of maladroit City Manager MAX ROYLE, one of the shared flaws of the ruling "bloc of three" (Mayor RICHARD O'BRIEN, Commissioner SHERMAN GARY SNODGRASS and ANDREA SAMUELS). During 2016, St. Augustine Beach has repeatedly scheduled meetings that conflict with meetings of the City of St. Augustine, and sometimes on short notice. In September 2016, City Manager MAX ROYLE smirked at me and said, "You're the only one who complained." Nothing has been done to correct ROYLE, who admittedly falls asleep in meetings, and fails to supervise the City staff adequately (ROYLE even wrote a newspaper column admitting he falls asleep in meetings).
http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/07/sab-violates-first-amendment-rights.html
CONCLUSION: Partisan, angry ANDREA SAMUELS has disgraced her public office. Vote for Maggie Kostka, a 24-year resident and small business owner, who listens to people and throw SAMUELS out of office for her unAmerican activities. Also elect Rosetta Bailey, whom the Record did not endorse in her race against entrenched fourteen-year incumbent RICH O'BRIEN, currently the Mayor of St. Augustine Beach.
Resolution 2016-42: City to Denounce "Sham" Write-in Candidates, Call for Legislative Reforms
UPDATE: Will be on the agenda for the November 14, 2016 St. Augustine City Commission agenda is Resolution 2016-42, drafted by City Attorney's office in response to the Commissioners' shared concerns about four universal primaries closed by five faux write-in candidates for Sheriff, Clerk of Courts and Comptroller, two County Commissioner seats -- an civil rights issue raised in my last column in the St. Augustine Record:
RESOLUTION 2016-42
A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY OF ST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA, URGING THE LEGISLATURE TO REVIEW AND AMEND STATE LAWS TO LIMIT SPOILER CANDIDATES’ ABILITY TO CLOSE PRIMARY ELECTIONS IN THE STATE OF FLORIDA.
WHEREAS, the State of Florida Constitution Article VI Section 5(b) provides for “open” primaries when all candidates for an office are members of the same political party; and
WHEREAS, an “open” primary has been defined as one in which any registered voter, regardless of party affiliation, may cast a ballot; and
WHEREAS, the State of Florida Constitution Article VI Section 5(b) states that:
“If all candidates for an office have the same party affiliation and the winner will have no opposition in the general election, all qualified electors, regardless of party affiliation, may vote in the primary elections for that office;” and
WHEREAS, the Florida Constitution does not explicitly address the ability of a write-in candidate to “close” a primary election, thereby creating a loophole that nullifies the amendment’s purpose; and
WHEREAS, Chapter 99.092(1), Florida Statutes, provides each person seeking to qualify for nomination or election to any office, except a person seeking to qualify by the petition process pursuant to s.99.095 and except a person seeking to qualify as a write-in candidate, shall pay a qualifying fee, which shall consist of a filing fee and election assessment; and
Res. 2016-42 (CA) Page 1 of 2
WHEREAS, write-in candidates are only required to file paperwork with election officials and are not required to pay qualifying fees; and
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COMMISSION OF THE CITY OF ST. AUGUSTINE:
Section 1. The City Commission of the City of St. Augustine does hereby state its opposition to write-in candidates’ ability to close primary elections and urges the legislature to thoroughly evaluate the procedures used when declaring candidacy for an election to ensure that voters are not disenfranchised.
Section2. The City Commission of the City of St. Augustine urges the legislature to pass legislation to make write-in candidates more accountable, for example by requiring them to at least collect voter signatures on petitions or pay a qualifying fee.
ADOPTED in Regular Session of the City Commission for the City of St.
WHEREAS, write-in candidates that run a sham race and manipulate the provisions of Florida election laws which are meant to broaden voter participation should be discouraged; and
Augustine, Florida this
day of
, 2016.
CITY OF ST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA
Nancy Shaver, Mayor-Commissioner
Res. 2016-42 (CA) Page 2 of 2
RESOLUTION 2016-42
A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY OF ST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA, URGING THE LEGISLATURE TO REVIEW AND AMEND STATE LAWS TO LIMIT SPOILER CANDIDATES’ ABILITY TO CLOSE PRIMARY ELECTIONS IN THE STATE OF FLORIDA.
WHEREAS, the State of Florida Constitution Article VI Section 5(b) provides for “open” primaries when all candidates for an office are members of the same political party; and
WHEREAS, an “open” primary has been defined as one in which any registered voter, regardless of party affiliation, may cast a ballot; and
WHEREAS, the State of Florida Constitution Article VI Section 5(b) states that:
“If all candidates for an office have the same party affiliation and the winner will have no opposition in the general election, all qualified electors, regardless of party affiliation, may vote in the primary elections for that office;” and
WHEREAS, the Florida Constitution does not explicitly address the ability of a write-in candidate to “close” a primary election, thereby creating a loophole that nullifies the amendment’s purpose; and
WHEREAS, Chapter 99.092(1), Florida Statutes, provides each person seeking to qualify for nomination or election to any office, except a person seeking to qualify by the petition process pursuant to s.99.095 and except a person seeking to qualify as a write-in candidate, shall pay a qualifying fee, which shall consist of a filing fee and election assessment; and
Res. 2016-42 (CA) Page 1 of 2
WHEREAS, write-in candidates are only required to file paperwork with election officials and are not required to pay qualifying fees; and
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COMMISSION OF THE CITY OF ST. AUGUSTINE:
Section 1. The City Commission of the City of St. Augustine does hereby state its opposition to write-in candidates’ ability to close primary elections and urges the legislature to thoroughly evaluate the procedures used when declaring candidacy for an election to ensure that voters are not disenfranchised.
Section2. The City Commission of the City of St. Augustine urges the legislature to pass legislation to make write-in candidates more accountable, for example by requiring them to at least collect voter signatures on petitions or pay a qualifying fee.
ADOPTED in Regular Session of the City Commission for the City of St.
WHEREAS, write-in candidates that run a sham race and manipulate the provisions of Florida election laws which are meant to broaden voter participation should be discouraged; and
Augustine, Florida this
day of
, 2016.
CITY OF ST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA
Nancy Shaver, Mayor-Commissioner
Res. 2016-42 (CA) Page 2 of 2
Historic Building Demolition Derby: St. Augustine Record Coverage Omits Names -- Wonder why?
IF you were rely upon the St. Augustine Record for news, you'd miss a lot on the demolition derby that has City Commissioners concerned.
For openers, the names of the willful people (and their corporations) destroying historic buildings (or parts of them) without permits is omitted:
They were:
o 125 Washington Street was illegally demolished without a permit by JOHN VALDES, longtime builder, third generation Florida construction contractor, former PZB Chair, former Historic Architectural Review Board HARB member, and former candidate for City Commission in 2014 (defeated by TODD NEVILLE), who withdrew his application to go back on HARB again on September 26, 2016.
o The rear of 86 Bridge Street was illegally demolished by a South Florida Limited Liability Company that has not identified its beneficial owners, to wit: GENESIS RE HOLDING 10 LLC
Then the names of the Historic Architectural Review Board witness (me) who testified and opposed the retroactive demolition permits is omitted.
You know why -- the Record apparently forbids giving any credit to any citizen, ever, who speaks out against injustice or mismanagement, whether B.J. Kalaidi, Thomas F. Reynolds, Jr., or me.
The Establishment here -- and advertisers like JOHN VALDES -- don't want you too well informed.
You might not vote for them or patronize their businesses.
You might speak out against them and tell them, as I publicly told JOHN VALDES, "Don't do it again."
When that happens, people elect reformers, like Mayor Nancy Shaver.
Here's the Record's tepid story:
Demolition policy to get review
Posted October 3, 2016 06:24 am - Updated October 4, 2016 08:39 am
St. Augustine Record
By By SHELDON GARDNER sheldon.gardner@staugustine.com
Commissioner Nancy Sikes-Kline recently asked for city officials to look into policies surrounding certificates for demolition, citing the number of demolition applications coming to the city’s Historic Architectural Review Board, and some applications fo
The city of St. Augustine could consider changing its policies related to demolitions.
Commissioner Nancy Sikes-Kline recently asked for city officials to look into policies surrounding certificates for demolition, citing the number of demolition applications coming to the city’s Historic Architectural Review Board, and some applications for approval after demolition had already been completed. The city is looking into issues surrounding demolitions as it creates a Historic Preservation Master Plan.
HARB, a board appointed by the City Commission, handles “The review of all applications for demolition permits for structures that are fifty (50) years old or older, which are listed on the Florida Master Site File maintained by the State of Florida Division of Historic Resources, or which have been designated as an historical landmark,” according to city code. “Also, review all applications for demolition permits for primary structures within historic preservation zoning districts and National Register districts for potential designation as an historic landmark.”
From January through September, the board approved at least 20 demolitions — whether full or partial, according to meeting minutes and video. Two after-the-fact demolition applications were recently denied.
HARB can grant approval for after-the-fact demolition requests, but they can also deny it.
Denial of an after-the-fact application means code enforcement can take action, said Jenny Wolfe, city historic preservation officer.
Sikes-Kline suggested that possible code enforcement financial penalties might not be enough to deter after-the-fact demolition applications.
“You can tear a building down and then stroke a $5,000 check and … throw that into the cost of a building,” Sikes-Kline said.
One idea for deterring after-the-fact applications is adding a penalty of not issuing a building permit for a certain time frame — like a cooling off period for six months to a year, she said. She also suggested having expiration dates on certificates of demolition.
Other commissioners had mixed opinions about the issues.
“I support that,” said Commissioner Leanna Freeman. “My only comment is that six months doesn’t seem like a very long time.”
Mayor Nancy Shaver said she supported reviewing the issue, but added, “If a building has gotten a demolition permit, I don’t see that the expiration date helps much because in theory it’s going to fall down or just get worse and worse.”
David Birchim, city planning and building department director, said the city’s Historic Preservation Master Plan consultant has been looking into the expiration date issue. Birchim said he expects an ordinance to be drafted.
Another issue the consultant is working on is clarifying what constitutes a partial demolition, he said. The city is also looking into how other communities approach the after-the-fact demolition issue.
Wolfe said the city would like the master plan to be done in early 2017.
She said she thinks the master plan will give the city the opportunity to create incentives to encourage rehabilitation of properties. Ideas include a fund for rehabilitation and making ad valorem tax exemption more accessible.
“As much as possible we like to balance the carrots with the sticks in terms of helping the people preserve their properties,” Wolfe said.
St. Augustine Record's Execrable News Values: H.S. Coach Firing Is News, Planning and Building Director Firing NEVER Reported
When a coach at Creekside High School was "fired" for not winning any football games, that made the front page of the St. Augustine Record's sport section this morning, October 3, 2016. What other high school teacher's firing is ever front page news? I question the Record's news judgment.
When St. Augustine City Manager JOHN REGAN fired Planning and Building Director MARK KNIGHT, that didn't get similar treatment. The word "fired" was never used. The City Manager's "spin" was the only "news" --- the article on his departure said it was a "resignation agreement."
No investigation. Not even when KNIGHT showed up, practicing law without a license, representing the likes of DAVID BARTON CORNEAL, who got his way on a dodgy demolition of Carpenter's House and turning the former DOW MUSEUM OF HISTORIC HOMES into a Planned Unit Development, for a fancy-bears speculative $500/night hotel.
So let me get this straight, Record owners, controllers, publishers, editors and reporters:
A. So a high school football coach with a Jewish name is fired, so you blare it with big headline on Rosh Hashanah, announcing to the world that he'll probably never get a coaching job because his players did not win enough football games.
B. The longtime Planning and Building Director, MARK ALAN KNIGHT, serving in the job since April 18, 1998 gets fired by the City Manager, and you don't use the word "fired" and you don't think it's news that he might be violating state criminal laws representing applicants?
Well, Record editors, I just don't think you're very good journalists.
Some of you aren't even journalists -- you're pitiful practioners of public relations for the moneyed special interests who clear-cut our forests, destroy our historic buildings -- for them and the local governments that buy advertisements and spoon-feed you what you call "news."
Posted June 3, 2014 12:01 am - Updated June 2, 2014 11:42 pm
By By SHELDON GARDNER sheldon.gardner@staugustine.com
Knight makes exit from position with St. Augustine
Planning and building director has been on paid leave since May
Mark Knight will officially retire from the city of St. Augustine in August.
Knight, 49, of St. Augustine Beach, has served as the director of the planning and building department, and he has been a city employee since 1998.
He signed an agreement with the city on May 22 ensuring his retirement on Aug. 19. He is on paid administrative leave through July 15. Knight made more than $93,000 in 2010.
“Mark is in a career transition,” City Manager John Regan said.
Regan declined to discuss the details behind Knight’s retirement. Knight said he is not sure what his next step is, and he had no other comment.
Regan said Knight is available for consulting since he remains a city employee.
David Birchim is acting director of the planning and building department.
A retirement agreement says the city of St. Augustine will pay Knight while on administrative leave and will provide severance payment. Between July 16 and Aug. 19, Knight will be paid his normal salary in bi-weekly installments as severance payment.
Knight is entitled to regular benefits before his retirement, and he will be paid his accrued, unused sick and vacation time via a lump sum payment. He also will get any pension benefits he is entitled to.
He signed the agreement on May 22, according to City Attorney Ron Brown. The agreement also relieves the city from any possible liabilities.
When St. Augustine City Manager JOHN REGAN fired Planning and Building Director MARK KNIGHT, that didn't get similar treatment. The word "fired" was never used. The City Manager's "spin" was the only "news" --- the article on his departure said it was a "resignation agreement."
No investigation. Not even when KNIGHT showed up, practicing law without a license, representing the likes of DAVID BARTON CORNEAL, who got his way on a dodgy demolition of Carpenter's House and turning the former DOW MUSEUM OF HISTORIC HOMES into a Planned Unit Development, for a fancy-bears speculative $500/night hotel.
So let me get this straight, Record owners, controllers, publishers, editors and reporters:
A. So a high school football coach with a Jewish name is fired, so you blare it with big headline on Rosh Hashanah, announcing to the world that he'll probably never get a coaching job because his players did not win enough football games.
B. The longtime Planning and Building Director, MARK ALAN KNIGHT, serving in the job since April 18, 1998 gets fired by the City Manager, and you don't use the word "fired" and you don't think it's news that he might be violating state criminal laws representing applicants?
Well, Record editors, I just don't think you're very good journalists.
Some of you aren't even journalists -- you're pitiful practioners of public relations for the moneyed special interests who clear-cut our forests, destroy our historic buildings -- for them and the local governments that buy advertisements and spoon-feed you what you call "news."
Speculator DAVID BARTON CORNEAL looks crushed as he learns my appeal from his demolition of Carpenter's House (temporally) delayed his DOW PUD application; at left is fired former City Planning and Zoning Director MARK ALAN KNIGHT; at right is ROGERS TOWERS law firm partner ELLEN AVERY SMITH
Posted June 3, 2014 12:01 am - Updated June 2, 2014 11:42 pm
By By SHELDON GARDNER sheldon.gardner@staugustine.com
Knight makes exit from position with St. Augustine
Planning and building director has been on paid leave since May
Mark Knight will officially retire from the city of St. Augustine in August.
Knight, 49, of St. Augustine Beach, has served as the director of the planning and building department, and he has been a city employee since 1998.
He signed an agreement with the city on May 22 ensuring his retirement on Aug. 19. He is on paid administrative leave through July 15. Knight made more than $93,000 in 2010.
“Mark is in a career transition,” City Manager John Regan said.
Regan declined to discuss the details behind Knight’s retirement. Knight said he is not sure what his next step is, and he had no other comment.
Regan said Knight is available for consulting since he remains a city employee.
David Birchim is acting director of the planning and building department.
A retirement agreement says the city of St. Augustine will pay Knight while on administrative leave and will provide severance payment. Between July 16 and Aug. 19, Knight will be paid his normal salary in bi-weekly installments as severance payment.
Knight is entitled to regular benefits before his retirement, and he will be paid his accrued, unused sick and vacation time via a lump sum payment. He also will get any pension benefits he is entitled to.
He signed the agreement on May 22, according to City Attorney Ron Brown. The agreement also relieves the city from any possible liabilities.
Monday, October 03, 2016
CELEBRATE PROGRESS AND VINDICATION: Three cheers for Hillary Clinton on ending cramdown arbitration "Gotcha clauses!"
As the late, great United States Department of Labor Associate Chief Administrative Law Judge James L. Guill and I warned in our article in the American Bar Association Judges Journal ("A Rush to Unfairness -- the Downside to Alternative Dispute Resolution" in 1989, mandatory cramdown arbitration agreements in employment, consumer and brokerage contracts are a clear and present danger to our civil and constitutional rights.
Thanks to The New York Times for its 2015-2016 investigation of this overbearing of on the part of unAmerican corporations, even startups.
This is sick.
My first article in the American Bar Association Judges' Journal, in 1989, at age 32, co-authored with U.S. Department of Labor Associate Chief Administrative Law Judge James L. Guill in 1989, called for abolition of contractual cramdown arbitration clauses.
Check out this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgC3N802Sjk
This forced arbitration garbage was invented by the likes of Harvard University, funded by the likes of Exxon and TRW, to cabin civil rights and environmental rights and consumer rights won during the 1960s and 1970s. See "A Rush To Unfairness -- The Downside to Alternative Dispute Resolution," American Bar Association Judges' Journal (Summary 1989), by Judge James Guill and Edward A. Slavin, Jr.
Locally, our Anastasia Mosquito Control Commission of St. Johns County got snookered, accepting arbitration clause in construction contracts.
That's wrong, contrary to public policy, and immoral -- mandatory arbitration clauses are corrupt and must be ended at once.
Last week, the U.S. Health and Human Services Department banned such clauses in nursing home contracts.
Our probable next President, Hillary Clinton, said in Ohio today (October 3, 2016) that she intends to seek authority for the Federal Trade Commission, Department of Labor and Federal Communications Commission to ban such clauses. Three cheers for Hilllary Clinton.
And after 27 years of watching the predictions Judge Guill and I made come true -- even cramdown arbitration in employment contracts, even cramdwown religious arbitration -- it's also gratifying that President Hillary Clinton wants to abolish this outrage. I met her once at an ABA House of Delegates reception in or about 1989 (Honolulu, I reckon) where she was being honored for increasing employment of women and minorities at corporate law firms. I congratulated her then and I salute her now.
Three cheers for Hillary Clinton!
Why are these men smiling? Northeast Florida Republicans
Fourth District Congressional candidate John Rutherford (center), likely our next Congressman, together with (left to right) our State Senator Travis Hutson, our St. Johns County Clerk of Courts Hunter S Conrad, Flagler College Professor Joe Saviak, Rutherford and to his right Deputy St. Johns County Clerk of Courts Patrick Kilbane, William Dudley, Kevin Doyle and, last, little Marky Miner (a putative financial advisor, opinionated Florida National Guard non-comssioned officer and former St. Johns County Commissioner, who once wrote disdainful remarks about President Barack Obama, on Facebook during a televised address on foreign policy, oddly responding to my criticism of his disrespect for his Commander in Chief by stating that his Commander in Chief is Florida Governor RICHARD LYNN SCOTT).
Eight NORTHEAST FLORIDA REPUBLICANS contemplating rebarbative Republican Presidential candidate DONALD J. TRUMP's latest scandal, while trying to grin and bear it. Not smiles so much as rictuses, like Richard Nixon's smirky turkey "smile."
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