At yesterday's St. Johns County Board of County COmmissioners meeting, controversial St. Johns County Commissioner RONALD SANCHEZ chuckled mockingly when he mentioned the federal government had shut down.
SANCHEZ, one of five Republicans on the five-member board, is one of ten county-wide eected Republican in partisan seats.
That's right -- one party rule (just like this County had under putative Democrats since the Civil War).
We're not laughing, Mr. SANCHEZ. The government shutdown is serious business, which could affect the economy and the full faith and credit of the United States. Ideologues and apparatchiks are wrong.
At that same meeting, SANCHEZ proposed a parking garage for Anastasia State Park (below).
People are laughing at that one, but they are laughing at SANCHEZ, and not with him.
What do you reckon?
Wednesday, October 02, 2013
Tuesday, October 01, 2013
Parking Garage for Anastasia State Park?
Controversial County Commissioner RONALD SANCHEZ wants to erect a parking garage adjacent to the St. Augustine Amphitheater. He said so at this morning's St. Johns County Commission meeting. He wasn't laughing.
This bizarre idea is a non-starter. Hint to St. Johns County Commissioner RONALD SANCHEZ: "Drop the oyster and leave the wharf," as my Irish grandmother would say.
St. Johns County government operates the St. Augustine Amphitheater subject to a lease with the State of Florida.
The amphitheater and parking lot are both located in Anastasia State Park, a treasure that will one day become part of the St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore.
There are NO parking garages located in any of the 161 state parks in the entire state of Florida, a Florida State Parks spokesman revealed today.
NONE.
Let's keep it thataway.
Anastasia State Park Superintendent Paul Crawford was never contacted by SANCHEZ before SANCHEZ spoke.
Why?
City of St. Augustine City Manager John Patrick Regan, P.E. was never contacted before SANCHEZ spoke.
Why?
So much for SANCHEZ' respect for intergovernmental cooperation -- he contacted neither our State Park Superintendent nor our City Manager.
The late United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman, J. William Fulbright, called this syndrome "The Arrogance of Power."
SANCHEZ offered in Commissioner comments today his errant opinion about building a parking garage in a State park, which would be the only one in the State of Florida (out of 161 state parks).
We don't want golf courses in our state parks.
We don't want parking garages in our state parks.
We don't want environmental destruction in our state parks.
That's why they're called "parks" (instead of golf courses, parking garages or toxic waste dumps).
We can halt the people whom John Muir called "temple destroyers" forever.
How?
1. By telling SANCHEZ to knock it off.
2. By electing a replacement for SANCHEZ (whose part-time Commissioner job paid him $65,967.28 last year, the Times-Union reports).
3. By embracing "America's Best Idea" -- our National Parks.
The St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore, first proposed in 1939, will combine some six current state parks, water management district land, preserving and protecting them forever. www.staugustgreen.com
Yes we can!
This bizarre idea is a non-starter. Hint to St. Johns County Commissioner RONALD SANCHEZ: "Drop the oyster and leave the wharf," as my Irish grandmother would say.
St. Johns County government operates the St. Augustine Amphitheater subject to a lease with the State of Florida.
The amphitheater and parking lot are both located in Anastasia State Park, a treasure that will one day become part of the St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore.
There are NO parking garages located in any of the 161 state parks in the entire state of Florida, a Florida State Parks spokesman revealed today.
NONE.
Let's keep it thataway.
Anastasia State Park Superintendent Paul Crawford was never contacted by SANCHEZ before SANCHEZ spoke.
Why?
City of St. Augustine City Manager John Patrick Regan, P.E. was never contacted before SANCHEZ spoke.
Why?
So much for SANCHEZ' respect for intergovernmental cooperation -- he contacted neither our State Park Superintendent nor our City Manager.
The late United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman, J. William Fulbright, called this syndrome "The Arrogance of Power."
SANCHEZ offered in Commissioner comments today his errant opinion about building a parking garage in a State park, which would be the only one in the State of Florida (out of 161 state parks).
We don't want golf courses in our state parks.
We don't want parking garages in our state parks.
We don't want environmental destruction in our state parks.
That's why they're called "parks" (instead of golf courses, parking garages or toxic waste dumps).
We can halt the people whom John Muir called "temple destroyers" forever.
How?
1. By telling SANCHEZ to knock it off.
2. By electing a replacement for SANCHEZ (whose part-time Commissioner job paid him $65,967.28 last year, the Times-Union reports).
3. By embracing "America's Best Idea" -- our National Parks.
The St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore, first proposed in 1939, will combine some six current state parks, water management district land, preserving and protecting them forever. www.staugustgreen.com
Yes we can!
St. Johns Visitor and Convention Bureau, Inc. Contract Expired
at 11:59 PM last night, September 30, 2013.
That's a good thing. Now we can ask our Tourist Development Council and St. Johns County Commission to open the matter for competing bids and proposals, emphasizing diversty and historic and environmental tourism.
The VCB lacks sensitivity. Hint: I'm still waiting for that list of GLBT-friendly lodgings that I requested several weeks ago.
Snooty SJC VCB eschews reaching out to African-American, Hispanic, GLBT and youth tourists, preferring to sell Ponte Vedra golf vactions to rich white golfers.
That's a good thing. Now we can ask our Tourist Development Council and St. Johns County Commission to open the matter for competing bids and proposals, emphasizing diversty and historic and environmental tourism.
The VCB lacks sensitivity. Hint: I'm still waiting for that list of GLBT-friendly lodgings that I requested several weeks ago.
Snooty SJC VCB eschews reaching out to African-American, Hispanic, GLBT and youth tourists, preferring to sell Ponte Vedra golf vactions to rich white golfers.
Why do the heathen rage against diversity in St. Augustine?
Failed 2012 City Commission candidate candidate Michael Gold (f/k/a "Michael Tobin") has written another errant "editorial" on his histrionic Historic City News website, raging against diversity.
Mr. Gold quotes controversial former City Manager William Pomar, who quit under pressure in 1998, as saying "the Bohemians have taken over the city."
Mr. Gold also says "nobody's ever heard of" Grammy-winning Mumford & Sons, whose 25,000 fans loved our city last month.
Mr. Gold once again ululates against diversity, e.g. "carpetbaggers" and "scallywags" and "awful politicians."
Mr. Gold has previously editorialized against the civil rights monument to Ambassador Andrew Young in our Slave Market Square, calling him an "outside agitator."
Mr. Gold quotes controversial former City Manager William Pomar, who quit under pressure in 1998, as saying "the Bohemians have taken over the city."
Mr. Gold also says "nobody's ever heard of" Grammy-winning Mumford & Sons, whose 25,000 fans loved our city last month.
Mr. Gold once again ululates against diversity, e.g. "carpetbaggers" and "scallywags" and "awful politicians."
Mr. Gold has previously editorialized against the civil rights monument to Ambassador Andrew Young in our Slave Market Square, calling him an "outside agitator."
Friday, September 27, 2013
Restoring Trust in Government, Restoring Winter Wonderland
County Administrator Michael Wanchick has a lot of explaining to do.
Having just won a $21,000 raise to which he was contractually entitled (without putting it on the agenda before the day of the meeting) and having won approval of a legislative agenda (without putting it on the agenda on the meeting), he's abolished the popular Winter Wonderland (without putting it on the agenda, ever).
That's right. County Commissioners did not vote to close Winter Wonderland.
Wanchick made the decision.
That's the same way Wanchick closed the Galimore Center Pool -- by calling controversial then City Manager WILLIAM BARRY HARRISS and asking him if it was okay. HARRIS and WANCHICK never cheked with anyone. City Manager John Patrick Regan, P.E., and CIty Commissioners reopened a revivived Galimore Center Pool earlier this year, with support from the Jacksonville Jaguars to make it free of admission prices.
Government is supposed to work for us. The stated reason for closing Winter WOnderland is that county employees are tired of working at Christmas. We're tired of government employees with backward-bending labor supply curves.
St. Johns County needs to hire seasonal and temporary employees and keep Winter Winterland going, a suggestion I made earlier this week and which Commissioner Cyndi Stevenson has written is "logical and rational." That's how our Mosquito Control Commission does it, hiring seasonal and temporary workers during summers.
County Administrator Michael Wanchick needs to learn from our City of St. Augustine and City Manager Regan. Wanchick needs to learn about customer service, listening to your customers and constituents, and stop making bad decisions in secrecy.
For while our City of St. Augustine has miraculously ahieved great things in the last three years under Mr. Regan, our County Government's recrudescence of flummery, dupery, and hick hackery embarasses every single one of our 200,000 St. Johns County residents. Sunshine violations, Open Records violations and ugliness to citizens have been all too frequent at the County level, particularly involving the Tourist Development Council and the controversial St. Johns County Visitor and Convention Bureau, Inc., recipient of millions of dollars of no-bid governmental largesse every single year.
It's our money.
It is up to us. It is up to us -- it is our time, our place and our government. St. Johns County residents, keep asking questions. Demand answers. We're all in this together.
Having just won a $21,000 raise to which he was contractually entitled (without putting it on the agenda before the day of the meeting) and having won approval of a legislative agenda (without putting it on the agenda on the meeting), he's abolished the popular Winter Wonderland (without putting it on the agenda, ever).
That's right. County Commissioners did not vote to close Winter Wonderland.
Wanchick made the decision.
That's the same way Wanchick closed the Galimore Center Pool -- by calling controversial then City Manager WILLIAM BARRY HARRISS and asking him if it was okay. HARRIS and WANCHICK never cheked with anyone. City Manager John Patrick Regan, P.E., and CIty Commissioners reopened a revivived Galimore Center Pool earlier this year, with support from the Jacksonville Jaguars to make it free of admission prices.
Government is supposed to work for us. The stated reason for closing Winter WOnderland is that county employees are tired of working at Christmas. We're tired of government employees with backward-bending labor supply curves.
St. Johns County needs to hire seasonal and temporary employees and keep Winter Winterland going, a suggestion I made earlier this week and which Commissioner Cyndi Stevenson has written is "logical and rational." That's how our Mosquito Control Commission does it, hiring seasonal and temporary workers during summers.
County Administrator Michael Wanchick needs to learn from our City of St. Augustine and City Manager Regan. Wanchick needs to learn about customer service, listening to your customers and constituents, and stop making bad decisions in secrecy.
For while our City of St. Augustine has miraculously ahieved great things in the last three years under Mr. Regan, our County Government's recrudescence of flummery, dupery, and hick hackery embarasses every single one of our 200,000 St. Johns County residents. Sunshine violations, Open Records violations and ugliness to citizens have been all too frequent at the County level, particularly involving the Tourist Development Council and the controversial St. Johns County Visitor and Convention Bureau, Inc., recipient of millions of dollars of no-bid governmental largesse every single year.
It's our money.
It is up to us. It is up to us -- it is our time, our place and our government. St. Johns County residents, keep asking questions. Demand answers. We're all in this together.
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Playing Scrooge, St. Johns County Amphitheater Abruptly Ends Six-Year Run of "Winter Wonterland," Free Family Friendly Entertainment Including Ice Skating, Ice Slide and Artificial Snow
Were St. Johns County Commmissioners even asked to approve this debacle?
I have requested documentation.
Our County and its Amphitheater management is behaving like Ebenezeer Scrooge.
The only reason given in today's St. Augustine Record newspaper was that county employees being "tired" of working long hours during the holidays. At least they were told the truth. For that, we thank them.
But so much for our St. Johns County government's willigness to deliver services and attract tourists.
Ice skating earned fees; the rest was free, and people loved it.
Children and adults who never saw real snow looked forward to it.
Those who have seen real snow and missed it looked forward to it.
County Scrooges abolished it without listening to their customers -- you and me.
What economists call a backward-bending labor supply curve should not be the answer. Poor planning on the County Administrator's part should not negate a popular community amenity. What galling governmental gooberishness.
Kindly use some creativity, County Administrator Michael Wanchick.
Go advertise for and hire temporary and seasonal workers, like the Anastasia Mosquito Control Commission of St. Johns County does during the summer.
Then your workers won't be "tired."
Then you won't waste money on overtime.
Then you can restore Winter Wonderland.
Start listening to your customers, the way the City of St. Augustine does.
Restore Winter Wonderland.
Stop being authoritarian apparatchiks with an attitude.
No more lame excuses for bad government decisions.
We're "tired" of dumb government decisions, from St. Johns County to the Capial.
I have requested documentation.
Our County and its Amphitheater management is behaving like Ebenezeer Scrooge.
The only reason given in today's St. Augustine Record newspaper was that county employees being "tired" of working long hours during the holidays. At least they were told the truth. For that, we thank them.
But so much for our St. Johns County government's willigness to deliver services and attract tourists.
Ice skating earned fees; the rest was free, and people loved it.
Children and adults who never saw real snow looked forward to it.
Those who have seen real snow and missed it looked forward to it.
County Scrooges abolished it without listening to their customers -- you and me.
What economists call a backward-bending labor supply curve should not be the answer. Poor planning on the County Administrator's part should not negate a popular community amenity. What galling governmental gooberishness.
Kindly use some creativity, County Administrator Michael Wanchick.
Go advertise for and hire temporary and seasonal workers, like the Anastasia Mosquito Control Commission of St. Johns County does during the summer.
Then your workers won't be "tired."
Then you won't waste money on overtime.
Then you can restore Winter Wonderland.
Start listening to your customers, the way the City of St. Augustine does.
Restore Winter Wonderland.
Stop being authoritarian apparatchiks with an attitude.
No more lame excuses for bad government decisions.
We're "tired" of dumb government decisions, from St. Johns County to the Capial.
Friday, September 20, 2013
Prejudiced City of Jacksonville, Florida Advertises It's "On Fire"
An Google (R) banner ad on the New York Times website caugh my eye yesterday: t was for the dull city of Jacksonville, Florida's downtown, which the ad improbably proclaimed is "on fire" and is Jacksonville's "ORIGINAL HOT SPOT." I kid you not.
So much for irony.
Jacksonville barely survived a huge fire in May 3, 1901 which started in Spanish moss used to fill mattresses at a matterss factory. The conflagration then spread quickly from wood building to wood building, destroying a total of 140 city blocks, burning 2368 buildings, and leaving 10,000 people homeless. Jacksonville was under martial law. The 1901 Jacksonville fire was the largest and most destructive fire in the history of the Southeastern United States.
So much for overpad advertising geniuses with yellow ties and cufflinks, and their legendary lack of appreciation for history.
Speaking of which, St. Johns County has squandered tens of millions of dollars on its no-bid contractor, the St. Johns County Visitor and Convention Bureau, Inc., which spends money on dull ads in Reader's Digest and Better Homes and Gardens, while eschewing ads to reach out to Youth, African-American, Hispanic and Youth tourism markets, and only surveying the top 50% of income earners each year.
VCB has no Antitrust and Civil RIghts compliance policies, and it shows.
It's our money.
That contract must be re-bid.
TDC needs to spend more money on PR and free media. The last time the New York Times travel section ran an article devoted to St. Augustine was September 5, 2003.
The next TDC contractor needs to do better. We need to emphsize our Nation's Oldest City's diversity and tolerance. I called and asked for a list of Gay-friendly lodgings in St. Augustine and St. Johns County several days ago -- no response. Our Cities of St. Augustine and St. Augustine Beach have enacted Fair Housing ordinances, forbidding discrimnation on the basis of sexual orientation and other factors.
Our TDC must embrace diversity, encouraging Youth, African-American, Hispanic and GLBT tourism, instead of hiding our light under a bushel basket. That woudl include an ad campaign poking fun at Jacksonville, whose prejudiced pachyderm City Council voted last year NOT to protect GLBT people from discrimination, a stench in the nostrils of our Nation and the State of Florida.
How about "St. Augustine Celebrates Diversity While Jacksonville Incinerates the Bill of Rights?"
What do you reckon?
Meanwhile, I'm not encouraging anyone to spend any money in Jacksonville, a prejudiced place where TaliBaptists control City Hall.
So much for irony.
Jacksonville barely survived a huge fire in May 3, 1901 which started in Spanish moss used to fill mattresses at a matterss factory. The conflagration then spread quickly from wood building to wood building, destroying a total of 140 city blocks, burning 2368 buildings, and leaving 10,000 people homeless. Jacksonville was under martial law. The 1901 Jacksonville fire was the largest and most destructive fire in the history of the Southeastern United States.
So much for overpad advertising geniuses with yellow ties and cufflinks, and their legendary lack of appreciation for history.
Speaking of which, St. Johns County has squandered tens of millions of dollars on its no-bid contractor, the St. Johns County Visitor and Convention Bureau, Inc., which spends money on dull ads in Reader's Digest and Better Homes and Gardens, while eschewing ads to reach out to Youth, African-American, Hispanic and Youth tourism markets, and only surveying the top 50% of income earners each year.
VCB has no Antitrust and Civil RIghts compliance policies, and it shows.
It's our money.
That contract must be re-bid.
TDC needs to spend more money on PR and free media. The last time the New York Times travel section ran an article devoted to St. Augustine was September 5, 2003.
The next TDC contractor needs to do better. We need to emphsize our Nation's Oldest City's diversity and tolerance. I called and asked for a list of Gay-friendly lodgings in St. Augustine and St. Johns County several days ago -- no response. Our Cities of St. Augustine and St. Augustine Beach have enacted Fair Housing ordinances, forbidding discrimnation on the basis of sexual orientation and other factors.
Our TDC must embrace diversity, encouraging Youth, African-American, Hispanic and GLBT tourism, instead of hiding our light under a bushel basket. That woudl include an ad campaign poking fun at Jacksonville, whose prejudiced pachyderm City Council voted last year NOT to protect GLBT people from discrimination, a stench in the nostrils of our Nation and the State of Florida.
How about "St. Augustine Celebrates Diversity While Jacksonville Incinerates the Bill of Rights?"
What do you reckon?
Meanwhile, I'm not encouraging anyone to spend any money in Jacksonville, a prejudiced place where TaliBaptists control City Hall.
Ambassador Andrew Young Speaks at Flagler College
Former United Nations Ambassador Andrew Young was in St. Augustine again. Ambassador Young spoke to public fora twuce at Flagler College this week, sharing his vision of non-violence, which he proved with the whole world watching, during peaceful protests against Jim Crow segregation here in St. Augustine during 1964.
As Dr. King's top aide, Young was savagely beaen here in June 1964 leadeing demonstrators into our Slave Market Square. Andrew Young surveved and overcame bigotry. He was elected Congressman, appointed by President Jimmy Carter as our United Nations Ambassador and was then elected Mayor of Atlanta. He is one of my heroes, honored since 2011 with one of two civil rights monuments in our Slave Market Square.
Andrew Young has donated his video archives and papers to Flagler College, which has done an oustanding job in educating students about Civil Rights and preseving our history.
Footnote: It now appears that Flagler College is evolving into a place that respects academic freedom - it is a joy to behold.
We shall overcome!
As Dr. King's top aide, Young was savagely beaen here in June 1964 leadeing demonstrators into our Slave Market Square. Andrew Young surveved and overcame bigotry. He was elected Congressman, appointed by President Jimmy Carter as our United Nations Ambassador and was then elected Mayor of Atlanta. He is one of my heroes, honored since 2011 with one of two civil rights monuments in our Slave Market Square.
Andrew Young has donated his video archives and papers to Flagler College, which has done an oustanding job in educating students about Civil Rights and preseving our history.
Footnote: It now appears that Flagler College is evolving into a place that respects academic freedom - it is a joy to behold.
We shall overcome!
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Check out Flagler College's brand new online St. Augustine Civil Rights Library
www.civilrightslibrary.com
Let the healing continue!
Great job by Flagler College, President Bill Abare, Professors Michael Butler, Casey Welch, C.B. Hackworth, and Flagler College students, starting with Andrew Young's oral history collection and adding materials from archives all across America.
Tonight's reception was in the Flagler College Dining Hall (formerly Hotel Ponce de Leon, a once-segregated place where African-American high school students were arrested by Sheriff L.O. Davis.
During the program, I was moved to tears by the personal journey of two white Southern students, especially Brittany, whose local family once bragged about beating and nearly killing Dr. Robert S. Hayling, DDS. Brittany has now told her family that Dr. Hayling and Rev. Young are two of her biggest heroes!
As President Harry S Truman said, "The only thing new under the sun is the history you don't know."
The work continues, the dream survives and we shall overcome!
Thank you, Flagler College.
Let the healing continue!
Great job by Flagler College, President Bill Abare, Professors Michael Butler, Casey Welch, C.B. Hackworth, and Flagler College students, starting with Andrew Young's oral history collection and adding materials from archives all across America.
Tonight's reception was in the Flagler College Dining Hall (formerly Hotel Ponce de Leon, a once-segregated place where African-American high school students were arrested by Sheriff L.O. Davis.
During the program, I was moved to tears by the personal journey of two white Southern students, especially Brittany, whose local family once bragged about beating and nearly killing Dr. Robert S. Hayling, DDS. Brittany has now told her family that Dr. Hayling and Rev. Young are two of her biggest heroes!
As President Harry S Truman said, "The only thing new under the sun is the history you don't know."
The work continues, the dream survives and we shall overcome!
Thank you, Flagler College.
GOVERNOR RICHARD SCOTT GOOFS, Gives "Citizen" Rep. on Florida Criminal Justice Standards Commission to Former City Manager WILLIAM BARRY HARRISS
Messrs. Charles Jones, David Frisby, Howard Elliott, J. Scott Purdy, Patrick Halperin and Ms. Pauline Robinson all in good faith applied for the job of the one citizen member of the Florida Criminal Justice Standards Commission (CJSTC), out of nineteen (19) members.
Instead, Governor Richard Scott may have inadvertently given the one (1) citizen representative spot to an ineligible appointee, controversial former City of St. Augustine City Manager WILLIAM BARRY HARRISS (whose three references were Commissioners Donald Crichlow, Mayor Joseph Boles, Jr., and City Attorney Ronald Wayne Brown).
WILLIAM BARRY HARRISS stated in his applicatio that he has been a reserve Sheriff Deputy for 24 years and Florida Secretary of State records show that HARRISS is Chairman of the "St. Johns County Sheriff's Office Four Star Association, Inc.," working with and for SHERIFF DAVID SHOAR.
City of St. Augustine records show that HARRISS receives more than $109,000/year in retirement from the City of St. Augustine. WILLIAM BARRY HARRISS now works for Sheriff David Shoar, whom HARRISS mentored and help get elected Sheriff in 2004, helping raise $250,000.
Now both WILLIAM HARRISS and Sheriff DAVID SHOAR both serve on CJSTC -- both are from the St. Johns County Sheriff's Office -- the same employing agency. Thus, it strongly appears that WILLIAM BARRY HARRISS may be ineligible for the Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission "citizen" position to which Governor Richard Scott appointed him. Why? Under two (2) separate subsections of Florida law, CJSCTC membership is prohbited. There can be only one person per employing agency (except the state prison system) F.S. 943.11(1)(b), and the "citizen" member cannot be a law enforcement officer eligible for appointment as such, F.S. 943.11(1)(a).
I have reported the facts to the Governor's Appointments Office and await comment.
What do you reckon?
Update, September 20, 2013: no response from the Governor's Appointments Office.
Meanwhile, a ululating FDLE lawyer, PHIL LINDLEY, has hung up the telephone on me three (3) times, while the "Anonymice" at FDLE send unsigned letters demanding $300 (or $4500) to search for records between CJSTC (or all of FDLE) since August 2, 2013. LINDLEY is the nastiest, most lugubrious goober I've ever dealt with in government on an Open Records or FOIA request in 39 years (other than WILLIAM BARRY HARRISS himself, who threatened to have me arrested for "disorderly conduct" when I first spoke to St. Augustine City Commissioners April 11, 2005, asking that they stop violating the Fifteenth Amendment by annexing white residential areas, but not annexing the historically African-American areas of West Augustine located outside city limits.
HARRISS' influence still extends to Tallahassee, which we knew during 2006, when he avoided and evaded indictment and trial for illegal dumping of 40,000 cubic yards of solid waste in our Old City Reservoir.
HARRISS and LINDLEY are two of a kind: We wear their scorn as a badge of honor.
St. Johns County Commission Violates Sunshine Laws Without Adequate Public Notice
St. Johns County Commission Chairman Jay Morris and Commissioners Cindi Stevenson, Ronad Sanchez and Priscilla (Rachael) Bennett showed contempt and disrespect for Sunshine and Open Records on September 17, 2013 (yesterday) by amending their agenda only yesterday morning, sneakily voting without public notice under Sunshine and Open Records laws to approve:
(a) a Legislative Agenda that includes advocacy for more Open Records Act exemptions, and
(b) a $21, 000 raise to the County Administrator, Michael Wanchick.
This is an outrage.
Only one member of the public, Ms. B.J. Kalaidi, was present to see it.
Kudos to Ms. Kalaidi for attending meeting and raising concerns.
County Commissioners "bear watchin'."
Enough secrecy, snarkiness and sneakiness.
Our St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners must treat the law and the people with dignity, respect and consideration.
We hired Mr. Wancick to end St. Johns County corruption, flummery, dupery, nincompoopery, waste, fraud, abuse, misfeasance, malfeasance and nonfeasance.
Seveal years ago, in the wake of illegal campaign promises to fire Wanchick, then-Commissioners voted Mr. Wanchick a $500,000 golden parachute in the event he is fired without cause -- what Commissioner Sanchez admits is a "poison pill."
In exchange for his raise (to which he was contractually entitled and which he had rejected for years during non-union countyemployee furloughs and pay freezes), why not end the "poison pill," which could no longer be legal under current Florida law, which limits severance pay?
Why not let the public discuss that option?
Why silence the people by Stealth?
The worst "poison" here is BCC's poisoning of the waters of democracy -- the notion that under one-party rule, Commissioners can stick anything on the agenda the morning of a meeting and pass it without public comment.
What lugubrious gooberisness. What errant nonsense. This is contrary to the genius of a free people.
Commissioners: kindly vote to reconsider your actions at your next meeting, giving any interested citizens the chance to comment on the Legislative Agenda and Mr. Wanchick's evaluation and raise, treating us like grownups in a democracy (instead of the children of a tyrannical, patronizing, paternalistic dictator).
You may fear the Tea Partiers and want to silence them.
You may not want the public debating new Open Records exemptions.
But we have a right to speak -- all of us -- not just the one citizen who attended BCC's meeting the afternoon of September 17, 2013.
We shall overcome.
(a) a Legislative Agenda that includes advocacy for more Open Records Act exemptions, and
(b) a $21, 000 raise to the County Administrator, Michael Wanchick.
This is an outrage.
Only one member of the public, Ms. B.J. Kalaidi, was present to see it.
Kudos to Ms. Kalaidi for attending meeting and raising concerns.
County Commissioners "bear watchin'."
Enough secrecy, snarkiness and sneakiness.
Our St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners must treat the law and the people with dignity, respect and consideration.
We hired Mr. Wancick to end St. Johns County corruption, flummery, dupery, nincompoopery, waste, fraud, abuse, misfeasance, malfeasance and nonfeasance.
Seveal years ago, in the wake of illegal campaign promises to fire Wanchick, then-Commissioners voted Mr. Wanchick a $500,000 golden parachute in the event he is fired without cause -- what Commissioner Sanchez admits is a "poison pill."
In exchange for his raise (to which he was contractually entitled and which he had rejected for years during non-union countyemployee furloughs and pay freezes), why not end the "poison pill," which could no longer be legal under current Florida law, which limits severance pay?
Why not let the public discuss that option?
Why silence the people by Stealth?
The worst "poison" here is BCC's poisoning of the waters of democracy -- the notion that under one-party rule, Commissioners can stick anything on the agenda the morning of a meeting and pass it without public comment.
What lugubrious gooberisness. What errant nonsense. This is contrary to the genius of a free people.
Commissioners: kindly vote to reconsider your actions at your next meeting, giving any interested citizens the chance to comment on the Legislative Agenda and Mr. Wanchick's evaluation and raise, treating us like grownups in a democracy (instead of the children of a tyrannical, patronizing, paternalistic dictator).
You may fear the Tea Partiers and want to silence them.
You may not want the public debating new Open Records exemptions.
But we have a right to speak -- all of us -- not just the one citizen who attended BCC's meeting the afternoon of September 17, 2013.
We shall overcome.
Successful Mumford & Sons Festival Weekend Shows the Way to Our Future
The happiest crowd I've ever seen.
Well managed public transportation. Bicycle-and pedestrian-friendly streets. P
eople flying in from all across America and overseas, to listen to great folk music and groove on our Nation's Oldest City.
Young, cool, hip diverse people who've already re-booked rooms for future visits.
Travel habits formed for a lifetime.
In addition to the paid concert at Francis Field, three free stages, including one at City Hall (Lightner Museum), beautifully lit.
Kudos to City and County staff and elected officials for proving that government can work for the people.
Lesson: We can and will do it again, St. Augustine.
The Future: More diversity and culture, more music festivals, an American Reunion honoring Civil Rights pioneers and Native American history, visits by President Obama and Pope Francis for our 450th, and enactment of the St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore, protecting our history and nature forever. www.staugustgreen.com
Yes we can!
Well managed public transportation. Bicycle-and pedestrian-friendly streets. P
eople flying in from all across America and overseas, to listen to great folk music and groove on our Nation's Oldest City.
Young, cool, hip diverse people who've already re-booked rooms for future visits.
Travel habits formed for a lifetime.
In addition to the paid concert at Francis Field, three free stages, including one at City Hall (Lightner Museum), beautifully lit.
Kudos to City and County staff and elected officials for proving that government can work for the people.
Lesson: We can and will do it again, St. Augustine.
The Future: More diversity and culture, more music festivals, an American Reunion honoring Civil Rights pioneers and Native American history, visits by President Obama and Pope Francis for our 450th, and enactment of the St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore, protecting our history and nature forever. www.staugustgreen.com
Yes we can!
Friday, September 13, 2013
Welcome Mumford & Sons, Thank City Leaders, Forgive the Few Misguided Philistines
The day has arrived -- the two day Mumford & Sons music festival begins today.
Welcome, folk musicians and fans!
Thank our City Manager John Patrick Regan, P.E. and other City leaders for helping re-brand our City as a cool place to be proud of, with history and beauty and nature, full of creativity and energy, daring to be great.
After this Mumford weekend, our City will hopefully no longer deserving the sobriquet of the "most lawless" City in America (as Dr. King rightly called it in his June 11, 1964 letter to Rabbis, which resulted in the largest mass arrest of rabbis in U.S. history, and the desegregation of St. Augustine and the rest of the United States).
Forgive the "Anonymice" and Philistines, including the hate posters and the St. Augustine Record's new Publisher, "people of the lie" who think hate is fun and profitable. See below.
Welcome, folk musicians and fans!
Thank our City Manager John Patrick Regan, P.E. and other City leaders for helping re-brand our City as a cool place to be proud of, with history and beauty and nature, full of creativity and energy, daring to be great.
After this Mumford weekend, our City will hopefully no longer deserving the sobriquet of the "most lawless" City in America (as Dr. King rightly called it in his June 11, 1964 letter to Rabbis, which resulted in the largest mass arrest of rabbis in U.S. history, and the desegregation of St. Augustine and the rest of the United States).
Forgive the "Anonymice" and Philistines, including the hate posters and the St. Augustine Record's new Publisher, "people of the lie" who think hate is fun and profitable. See below.
IN HAEC VERBA: Letter to St. Augustine Record Publisher DELINDA FOGEL re: Re: Anonymous Death Threat and Incitement to Violence Against St. Augustine City Officials in 7/24 post on staugustine.com
Dear Ms. Fogel:
1. Please identify the anonymous one-time poster (MSM2147), who at 6 AM on July 24, 2013 posted the following unprotected death threat on your on your St. Augsutine Record website:
"The people say, "You Are ALL FIRED".
How stupid can you get and live another second.
The indidviduals who even considered having Mumford and Sons come to St. Augustine without having a plan in place should all be taken out and shot in the plaza in the center of St. Augustine for all to see who the stupid individuals who are running our city."
http://staugustine.com/news/local-news/2013-07-22?page=1
2. I look forward to meeting with you to discuss journalistic standards (and lack thereof) at the Record.
3. Today's St. Augustine Record carries an article about a victim of cyberbyllying -- a Lakeland girl who committed suicide. the Record has been aiding and abetting cyber-bullying for years. You must stop it, now.
4. Please enforce your Posting Rules, from this day forward.
Thank you.
With kindest regards, I am
Cordially,
Ed Slavin
Clean Up St. Augustine
www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com
PO Box 3084
St. Augustine, Florida 32085-3084
904-377-4998
1. Please identify the anonymous one-time poster (MSM2147), who at 6 AM on July 24, 2013 posted the following unprotected death threat on your on your St. Augsutine Record website:
"The people say, "You Are ALL FIRED".
How stupid can you get and live another second.
The indidviduals who even considered having Mumford and Sons come to St. Augustine without having a plan in place should all be taken out and shot in the plaza in the center of St. Augustine for all to see who the stupid individuals who are running our city."
http://staugustine.com/news/local-news/2013-07-22?page=1
2. I look forward to meeting with you to discuss journalistic standards (and lack thereof) at the Record.
3. Today's St. Augustine Record carries an article about a victim of cyberbyllying -- a Lakeland girl who committed suicide. the Record has been aiding and abetting cyber-bullying for years. You must stop it, now.
4. Please enforce your Posting Rules, from this day forward.
Thank you.
With kindest regards, I am
Cordially,
Ed Slavin
Clean Up St. Augustine
www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com
PO Box 3084
St. Augustine, Florida 32085-3084
904-377-4998
Thursday, September 12, 2013
IN HAEC VERBA: ST. JOHNS VISITOR AND CONVENTION BUREAU, INC. HAS ADMITTED ITS ACTIONS BY SILENCE -- September 16, 2013 St. Johns County Tourist Development Council Meeting Will Discuss Rebidding of Contract, Civil Rights, Diversity and Antitrust Concerns -- IT'S OUR MONEY!
Dear Messrs. Hastings, McCormack and Wanchick:
1. Please supply tomorrow morning a PDF of a single security camera photo of the nongovernmental TDC members and staff talking with one another, standing up, behind the dais before the last TDC meeting began.
2. Please respond to my May 22, 2013 concerns about breach of contract, diversity, antitrust concerns and the expiration of the VCB contract and rebidding of the contract.
3. Please place these matters on the TDC agenda for the September 16, 2013 meeting.
4. Please see below -- my May 22, 2013 letter is now an adoptive admission and admission by silence..
Thank you.
With kindest regards, I am,
Sincerely yours,
Ed Slavin
Clean Up City of St. Augustine, Florida
www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com
Box 3084
St. Augustine, Florida 32085-3084
904-377-4998
-----Original Message-----
From: easlavin
To: pmccormack; mwanchick ; ghastings
Sent: Wed, May 22, 2013 3:48 pm
Subject: Possible VCB breach of contract; diversity and antitrust concerns; contract expiration later this year; competitive bidding requirements
Dear Messrs McCormack, Wanchick and Hastings:
Please investigate whether VCB is in material breach of its contract with SJCBCC by:
1. Discussing pricing in meetings, in violation of possible antitrust laws. On May 7, 2013, at the SJC WGV Convention Center, MMGY Vice Chairman Peter Yesawich, Ph.D. urged VCB members to raise their prices. MMGY advises some 200 tourism enterprises in some ten countries. This advice to raise prices is, at best, unseemly. Dr. Yesawich's advice may expose VCB and SJC to antitrust liability concerns; moreover, it is wrong for government money to disbursed to a contractor (MMGY) whose Vice Chairman urges competitors to raise their prices. From this day forward, VCB and its contractor must obey antitrust laws. Competition is our economy's fundamental policy -- we don't need government-sponsored administered pricing (or price-fixing and monopolistic practices).
2. Violating the spirit and letter of St. Augustine and St. Augustine Beach Fair Housing laws re: sexual orientation and gender identity, e.g. by not advertising our non-discrimination policies and by not projecting a Gay-friendly image consistent with our cities' values, as declared unanimously by elected officials. Sadyly, VCB has a history of anti-Gay actions, as when its call center told a Gay man from Austin, Texas to go elsewhere for his vacation.
3. Violating federal Civil Rights laws and the Fair Housing Act by using nearly all-white figures in its marketing brochures, entirely leaving out Indians, with only a few happy African-American slaves and few Hispanics, during this, the 500th anniversary of Spanish Florida. There are some 199 images of white people, no Native Americans, four Hispanics and eleven African-Americans (mostly slaves) in the VCB's latest travel brochure on our area. Please review pertinent civil rights case law and advise VCB of its legal, moral and ethical duties.
4. Pointedly refusing to advertise in Miami, apparently based upon MMGY's prejudices. This is a poor reflection on our County's commitment to diversity. In targetting tourists to recruit, MMGY staffer Cindy Muretta refused to say why in public, but she earlier said that marketing is a question of "who you want to invite to your party." We don't need those decisions contaminated by secrecy and bigotry -- it makes us look bad.
5. Targeting only the richest 50% of Americans, when we average 40% vacancy rates in local lodging. We are all God's children, and we don't need MMGY to tell us to "redline" tourists who are not high-income.
6. Ignoring African-American, Native American, Hispanic, GLBT and youth markets, based on shallow research and superficial assumptions by MMGY, the longtime consultant.
7. Contracting with MMGY, the largest international travel consulting firm, which has potential conflicts of interest, including giving advice to Disney. Please obtain a complete MMGY client list and perform suitable conflicts checks. Please see that future contracts have full competitive bidding and transparency, and no conflicts of interest.
8. Not focusing advertising on our City's 450th commemoration heritage tourism goals, e.g., increasng African-American and Hispanic tourism, especially from Miami. Instead of advertising in Miami, money is being spent recruiting tourists from The Villages, Savannah and Augusta.
9. Wasting bed tax money on dubious, high-priced consulting contracts, e.g., MMGY. How much money has MMGY ever received over the years, including commissions?
10. Not complying promptly with legal and contractual requirements to respond to public record requests -- my May 20, 2013 request to VCB for copies of VCB's Antitrust and Civil Rights compliance policies have not yet yielded one (1) VCB document -- not even a cogent or coherent answer as to whether VCB even has any compliance policies. Does it?
This multi-milllion dollar government contractor operation needs to have its consciousness raised, and quickly. Our 450th and 500th commemorations are in progress, and VCB is not advertising in Miami due to some horribly bad advice from MMGY -- whatever basis MMGY has to give such advice must be shared with the public now. Our City leaders were not aware that VCB was not advertising in Miami -- this shows a level of secrecy that requires an agonizing reappraisal of the nature, structure and performance of VCB and whether it should have another contract (and whether MMGY should have another contract).
I look forward to talking and meeting with you, and with the BCC and two City Commissions on these issues in contemplation of whether VCB's and MMGY's contracts should be renewed later this year, and if so, under what terms to protect the public interest, especially in diversity, civil rights and antitrust compliance. See my blog post at www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com
Thank you.
With kindest regards, I am,
Sincerely yours,
Ed Slavin
Clean Up City of St. Augustine, Florida
www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com
Box 3084
St. Augustine, Florida 32085-3084
904-377-4998
1. Please supply tomorrow morning a PDF of a single security camera photo of the nongovernmental TDC members and staff talking with one another, standing up, behind the dais before the last TDC meeting began.
2. Please respond to my May 22, 2013 concerns about breach of contract, diversity, antitrust concerns and the expiration of the VCB contract and rebidding of the contract.
3. Please place these matters on the TDC agenda for the September 16, 2013 meeting.
4. Please see below -- my May 22, 2013 letter is now an adoptive admission and admission by silence..
Thank you.
With kindest regards, I am,
Sincerely yours,
Ed Slavin
Clean Up City of St. Augustine, Florida
www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com
Box 3084
St. Augustine, Florida 32085-3084
904-377-4998
-----Original Message-----
From: easlavin
To: pmccormack
Sent: Wed, May 22, 2013 3:48 pm
Subject: Possible VCB breach of contract; diversity and antitrust concerns; contract expiration later this year; competitive bidding requirements
Dear Messrs McCormack, Wanchick and Hastings:
Please investigate whether VCB is in material breach of its contract with SJCBCC by:
1. Discussing pricing in meetings, in violation of possible antitrust laws. On May 7, 2013, at the SJC WGV Convention Center, MMGY Vice Chairman Peter Yesawich, Ph.D. urged VCB members to raise their prices. MMGY advises some 200 tourism enterprises in some ten countries. This advice to raise prices is, at best, unseemly. Dr. Yesawich's advice may expose VCB and SJC to antitrust liability concerns; moreover, it is wrong for government money to disbursed to a contractor (MMGY) whose Vice Chairman urges competitors to raise their prices. From this day forward, VCB and its contractor must obey antitrust laws. Competition is our economy's fundamental policy -- we don't need government-sponsored administered pricing (or price-fixing and monopolistic practices).
2. Violating the spirit and letter of St. Augustine and St. Augustine Beach Fair Housing laws re: sexual orientation and gender identity, e.g. by not advertising our non-discrimination policies and by not projecting a Gay-friendly image consistent with our cities' values, as declared unanimously by elected officials. Sadyly, VCB has a history of anti-Gay actions, as when its call center told a Gay man from Austin, Texas to go elsewhere for his vacation.
3. Violating federal Civil Rights laws and the Fair Housing Act by using nearly all-white figures in its marketing brochures, entirely leaving out Indians, with only a few happy African-American slaves and few Hispanics, during this, the 500th anniversary of Spanish Florida. There are some 199 images of white people, no Native Americans, four Hispanics and eleven African-Americans (mostly slaves) in the VCB's latest travel brochure on our area. Please review pertinent civil rights case law and advise VCB of its legal, moral and ethical duties.
4. Pointedly refusing to advertise in Miami, apparently based upon MMGY's prejudices. This is a poor reflection on our County's commitment to diversity. In targetting tourists to recruit, MMGY staffer Cindy Muretta refused to say why in public, but she earlier said that marketing is a question of "who you want to invite to your party." We don't need those decisions contaminated by secrecy and bigotry -- it makes us look bad.
5. Targeting only the richest 50% of Americans, when we average 40% vacancy rates in local lodging. We are all God's children, and we don't need MMGY to tell us to "redline" tourists who are not high-income.
6. Ignoring African-American, Native American, Hispanic, GLBT and youth markets, based on shallow research and superficial assumptions by MMGY, the longtime consultant.
7. Contracting with MMGY, the largest international travel consulting firm, which has potential conflicts of interest, including giving advice to Disney. Please obtain a complete MMGY client list and perform suitable conflicts checks. Please see that future contracts have full competitive bidding and transparency, and no conflicts of interest.
8. Not focusing advertising on our City's 450th commemoration heritage tourism goals, e.g., increasng African-American and Hispanic tourism, especially from Miami. Instead of advertising in Miami, money is being spent recruiting tourists from The Villages, Savannah and Augusta.
9. Wasting bed tax money on dubious, high-priced consulting contracts, e.g., MMGY. How much money has MMGY ever received over the years, including commissions?
10. Not complying promptly with legal and contractual requirements to respond to public record requests -- my May 20, 2013 request to VCB for copies of VCB's Antitrust and Civil Rights compliance policies have not yet yielded one (1) VCB document -- not even a cogent or coherent answer as to whether VCB even has any compliance policies. Does it?
This multi-milllion dollar government contractor operation needs to have its consciousness raised, and quickly. Our 450th and 500th commemorations are in progress, and VCB is not advertising in Miami due to some horribly bad advice from MMGY -- whatever basis MMGY has to give such advice must be shared with the public now. Our City leaders were not aware that VCB was not advertising in Miami -- this shows a level of secrecy that requires an agonizing reappraisal of the nature, structure and performance of VCB and whether it should have another contract (and whether MMGY should have another contract).
I look forward to talking and meeting with you, and with the BCC and two City Commissions on these issues in contemplation of whether VCB's and MMGY's contracts should be renewed later this year, and if so, under what terms to protect the public interest, especially in diversity, civil rights and antitrust compliance. See my blog post at www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com
Thank you.
With kindest regards, I am,
Sincerely yours,
Ed Slavin
Clean Up City of St. Augustine, Florida
www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com
Box 3084
St. Augustine, Florida 32085-3084
904-377-4998
AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM: Putin's Wrong
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, formerly a KGB agent, eschews American exceptionalsim, writing in yesterday's New York Times Op-Ed page that we're all created equal.
Funny he should mention that -- in 1776, Americans were the first ones in history who ever bothered to write that down.
While we all have our faults, I'd hate to think that many of us would take seriously the cant emitted by the descendant of the Russia Okhrana, the Czarist Secret Police (founded 1565, the same year as St. Augustine).
America is exceptional -- our ancestors emigrated from eery country in the world, seeking to make a better place and a better life.
ON the other hand, Russia is the source of many of those immigrantws, many forced out in anti-Semitic pogroms, apparently including at least one of my Polish ancestors (in 1888).
While the Czars and Stalin killed tens of millions, we were preserving, protecting and defending human rights, including the rights of ethnic and religious minorities, including Supreme Court decisions like Chambers v. Florida (1940) and West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette (1943).
While Russia was perfecting the gulag, we were perfecting the civil rights lawsuit, with Thurgood Marshall going from a young NAACP lawyer escaping from Houston, Texas in a car trunk to a Supreme Court Justice laying down the law of the land.
What minority group in Russia can claim such a record?
Certainly not GLBT people, whom Putin and neo-Nazis and their allies in Russia have legislated against in 2013.
Again, America is not perfect, but we are exceptional, as demonstrated by the progress in our own town of St. Augustine. In 1566, the first anti-Gay hate crime in North American history was committed here. In 2005, a federal court ordered rainbow flags to fly here in honor of Gay Pride. In 2012 and 2013, our itty bitty cities of St. Augustine and St. Augustine Beach passed GLBT rights protections.
Try doing that in dictator Putin's Russia -- you would go to jail for flying the Rainbow flag, or for advocating the extipration of anti-Gay discrimination.
Funny he should mention that -- in 1776, Americans were the first ones in history who ever bothered to write that down.
While we all have our faults, I'd hate to think that many of us would take seriously the cant emitted by the descendant of the Russia Okhrana, the Czarist Secret Police (founded 1565, the same year as St. Augustine).
America is exceptional -- our ancestors emigrated from eery country in the world, seeking to make a better place and a better life.
ON the other hand, Russia is the source of many of those immigrantws, many forced out in anti-Semitic pogroms, apparently including at least one of my Polish ancestors (in 1888).
While the Czars and Stalin killed tens of millions, we were preserving, protecting and defending human rights, including the rights of ethnic and religious minorities, including Supreme Court decisions like Chambers v. Florida (1940) and West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette (1943).
While Russia was perfecting the gulag, we were perfecting the civil rights lawsuit, with Thurgood Marshall going from a young NAACP lawyer escaping from Houston, Texas in a car trunk to a Supreme Court Justice laying down the law of the land.
What minority group in Russia can claim such a record?
Certainly not GLBT people, whom Putin and neo-Nazis and their allies in Russia have legislated against in 2013.
Again, America is not perfect, but we are exceptional, as demonstrated by the progress in our own town of St. Augustine. In 1566, the first anti-Gay hate crime in North American history was committed here. In 2005, a federal court ordered rainbow flags to fly here in honor of Gay Pride. In 2012 and 2013, our itty bitty cities of St. Augustine and St. Augustine Beach passed GLBT rights protections.
Try doing that in dictator Putin's Russia -- you would go to jail for flying the Rainbow flag, or for advocating the extipration of anti-Gay discrimination.
ST. AUGUSTINE EXCEPTIONALISM -- Another Beautiful Day in A Beautiful Place, And We Are Winning
It's another day in a beatiful place.
The frogs, lightning bugs, butterflies and wildlife are coming back, after years of being dosed with organophosphates -- our Mosquito Control Commission listened.
Musicians will be playing all over St. Augustine for the Mumford & Sons festival tomorrow and Saturday -- at three free stages as well as at Francis Field. After years of busting musicians, artists and entertainers, none have been arrested since the death of Greg Travous.
After years of First Amendment violations and federal court victories, our City is treating citizens with respect.
The story of why Mumford & Sons chose St. Augustine was in Sunday's Record. hey liked our covering GLBT people in the Fair Housing ordinance.
It takes a village.
Last August, my friend Amy telephoned on her way to work, chagrined at Jacksonville's City Council voting AGAINST GLBT equality.
"We'll take care of it," I told her.
Our Mayor and City Commissioners, City Manager and City Attorney took care of it, with Commissioners voting to adopt a Fair Housing ordinance on the spot in late August (unanimously), then again on first and second readings (unanimously), rejecting the taunts of the Ku Klux Klan and the tormented, soulless Anonymice on hate sites (including the Record's own Anonymice posters).
The ordinance passed on December 10, 2012. The next day, City Manager John Regan told a Mumford & Sons conference call about the ordinance, saying how proud he was.
They grooved on it, realizing this is not the "most lawless" City in America any longer.
Sure, it has its faults. But St. Augustine (like St. Augustine Beach) has reached out to endorse GLBT equality -- St. Augustine Beach voed unanimously to enact both Fair Housing and Equal Employment ordinances.
Years before them, our Sheriff, David Shoar, and before him, our Mosquito Control Commission, adopted unanimous nondiscrimination policies for their own employees.
Years ago, our City illegally annexted white residential areas, decreasing minoriy voting strength, violating the Fifteenth Amendment -- we stopped it in 2005.
Years ago, our City treated GLBT people disdainfully, violating the First Amendment, resulting in United States District Judge Henry Lee Adams, Jr. ordering Rainbow flags to fly on our Bridge of Lions from June 8-13, 2005.
Years ago, African-American areas were denied equal services, violating the Fourteenth Amendment. Today, Riberia Street is fixed for the first time in history ($10 million project, in one piece instead of over ten years). Today, plans are afoot to provide sewer service for West Augustine, which will help bring new small businesses, home construction and a branch campus from Florida Memorial University (formerly Florida Normal, whose professors and students were run out of town for protesting segregation here).
Years ago, our City dumped its solid and sewage waste illegally in African-American areas, including 40,000 yards dumped in our Old City Reservoir. Today, the sewage pipes are fixed and the solid waste in West Augustine and Lincolnville has been cleaned up, and plans are being discussed for an aquarium and children's museum a the south end of Riberia Street.
Here in our Nation's Oldest City, "we take care of our own."
As Dr. King and other ministers have said, "the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."
With your help, justice prevails.
With your help, justice will continue to prevail -- the Tourist Development Council and the St. Johns County Visitor and Convention Bureau, Inc. must obey the law, and they will, including our Antitrust and Civil Rights laws. We will teach them manners. We will teach them to treat GLBT, Youth, Jewish, Hispanic and African-American tourists with respect, showcasing our history (instead of pandering to rich white male golfes and promiscuously violing Sunshine laws at the drop of a hat). We will teach them to stop discussing price-fixing in meetings.
With your help, we will teach the University of Florida, its historic properties and their lessees to stop wasting money with no-bid leases without security deposits, and to stop race and sex discrimination in hiring and promoting employees.
Don't be discouraged by a few remaining official oppressors at the county level, or with their Anonymice rudeness.
Don't indulge the nattering nabobs of negativism.
Many appear to be cognitive misers who have never had a happy day in their lives, especially now that equality rules our town.
Many of these same crabbed, crabby, bitter people had nothing nice to say when we were working to clean up our City government.
Some are people who always reflexively supported the ancien regime, heaping scorn, aspersions (if not asparagus) on those of us insisting our City comply with our Constitution and our Bill of Rights.
Color them KKK, closet KKK, or just plain wrong.
With your help, we are winning.
The KKK will never again elect another City Commissioner.
Don't stop thinking about tomorrow.
What do y'all reckon?
The frogs, lightning bugs, butterflies and wildlife are coming back, after years of being dosed with organophosphates -- our Mosquito Control Commission listened.
Musicians will be playing all over St. Augustine for the Mumford & Sons festival tomorrow and Saturday -- at three free stages as well as at Francis Field. After years of busting musicians, artists and entertainers, none have been arrested since the death of Greg Travous.
After years of First Amendment violations and federal court victories, our City is treating citizens with respect.
The story of why Mumford & Sons chose St. Augustine was in Sunday's Record. hey liked our covering GLBT people in the Fair Housing ordinance.
It takes a village.
Last August, my friend Amy telephoned on her way to work, chagrined at Jacksonville's City Council voting AGAINST GLBT equality.
"We'll take care of it," I told her.
Our Mayor and City Commissioners, City Manager and City Attorney took care of it, with Commissioners voting to adopt a Fair Housing ordinance on the spot in late August (unanimously), then again on first and second readings (unanimously), rejecting the taunts of the Ku Klux Klan and the tormented, soulless Anonymice on hate sites (including the Record's own Anonymice posters).
The ordinance passed on December 10, 2012. The next day, City Manager John Regan told a Mumford & Sons conference call about the ordinance, saying how proud he was.
They grooved on it, realizing this is not the "most lawless" City in America any longer.
Sure, it has its faults. But St. Augustine (like St. Augustine Beach) has reached out to endorse GLBT equality -- St. Augustine Beach voed unanimously to enact both Fair Housing and Equal Employment ordinances.
Years before them, our Sheriff, David Shoar, and before him, our Mosquito Control Commission, adopted unanimous nondiscrimination policies for their own employees.
Years ago, our City illegally annexted white residential areas, decreasing minoriy voting strength, violating the Fifteenth Amendment -- we stopped it in 2005.
Years ago, our City treated GLBT people disdainfully, violating the First Amendment, resulting in United States District Judge Henry Lee Adams, Jr. ordering Rainbow flags to fly on our Bridge of Lions from June 8-13, 2005.
Years ago, African-American areas were denied equal services, violating the Fourteenth Amendment. Today, Riberia Street is fixed for the first time in history ($10 million project, in one piece instead of over ten years). Today, plans are afoot to provide sewer service for West Augustine, which will help bring new small businesses, home construction and a branch campus from Florida Memorial University (formerly Florida Normal, whose professors and students were run out of town for protesting segregation here).
Years ago, our City dumped its solid and sewage waste illegally in African-American areas, including 40,000 yards dumped in our Old City Reservoir. Today, the sewage pipes are fixed and the solid waste in West Augustine and Lincolnville has been cleaned up, and plans are being discussed for an aquarium and children's museum a the south end of Riberia Street.
Here in our Nation's Oldest City, "we take care of our own."
As Dr. King and other ministers have said, "the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."
With your help, justice prevails.
With your help, justice will continue to prevail -- the Tourist Development Council and the St. Johns County Visitor and Convention Bureau, Inc. must obey the law, and they will, including our Antitrust and Civil Rights laws. We will teach them manners. We will teach them to treat GLBT, Youth, Jewish, Hispanic and African-American tourists with respect, showcasing our history (instead of pandering to rich white male golfes and promiscuously violing Sunshine laws at the drop of a hat). We will teach them to stop discussing price-fixing in meetings.
With your help, we will teach the University of Florida, its historic properties and their lessees to stop wasting money with no-bid leases without security deposits, and to stop race and sex discrimination in hiring and promoting employees.
Don't be discouraged by a few remaining official oppressors at the county level, or with their Anonymice rudeness.
Don't indulge the nattering nabobs of negativism.
Many appear to be cognitive misers who have never had a happy day in their lives, especially now that equality rules our town.
Many of these same crabbed, crabby, bitter people had nothing nice to say when we were working to clean up our City government.
Some are people who always reflexively supported the ancien regime, heaping scorn, aspersions (if not asparagus) on those of us insisting our City comply with our Constitution and our Bill of Rights.
Color them KKK, closet KKK, or just plain wrong.
With your help, we are winning.
The KKK will never again elect another City Commissioner.
Don't stop thinking about tomorrow.
What do y'all reckon?
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
Governor Appoints Harriss; Is Appointment Illegal?
Effective August 2, 2013, for four years, controversial former St Augustine City Manager William B. Harriss became the only citizen appointee on the Florida Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission. But Harriss works for the St Johns County Sheriff, David Shoar. Harriss' appointment may thus be illegal.
Saturday, September 07, 2013
The Long Arm of The Law Reaches Out From Chile to NYC to Deltona, Florida
In Jacksonville on Wednesday, a lawsuit was filed against the alleged murderer of a Chilean folk singer. The suit is brought on behalf of a 1973 Chilean murder victim's estate, his widow and and his two surviving adult offspring against a former Chilean military officer trained at the School of the Americas in Panama.
The wrongful death lawsuit was filed on September 4, 2013 against a Deltona man. The Chilean immigrant allegedly murdered Victor Jara, a folk musician, song writer, university professor and progressive activist who supported Chilean President Salvador Allende and helped to get him elected with his songs about inequality.
Pedro Pablo Barrientos Nunez (Barrientos), the defendant, now living in Deltona, Florida, is graphically and in detail described in the complaint as torturing and killing Chilean folk musician Victor Jara after the September 11, 1973 coup led by General Augusto Pinochet. Pinochet's coup plotters killed some 3000 Chileans.
Barrientos is subject of a pending extradition request by Chile, and is charged with muurdering Victor Jara. The Orlando Sentinel says it was unable to reach him for comment.
United States District Judge Marcia Morales Howard of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida (Jacksonville Division) is assigned to the case, Jara v. Barrientos, which asks for a Jury Trial.
It was Judge Howard who found in 2009 that the City of St. Augustine violated the First Amendment in its unconstitutional mistreatment of visual artists, resulting in an out-of-court settlement and payment of attorney fees. Before John Regan became City Manager, our City of St. Augustine arresed hundreds of artists and entertainers over the years in violation of the First Amendment, and has repeatedly been fund to have acted illegally.
The lawsuit was filed by the Jacksonville law firm of Smith, Hulsey & Busey, the international law firm of Chadbourne & Park LLP and the Center for Accountability and Justice on behalf of Victor Jara's estate, widow and surviving adult offspring.
The wrongful death lawsuit was filed on September 4, 2013 against a Deltona man. The Chilean immigrant allegedly murdered Victor Jara, a folk musician, song writer, university professor and progressive activist who supported Chilean President Salvador Allende and helped to get him elected with his songs about inequality.
Pedro Pablo Barrientos Nunez (Barrientos), the defendant, now living in Deltona, Florida, is graphically and in detail described in the complaint as torturing and killing Chilean folk musician Victor Jara after the September 11, 1973 coup led by General Augusto Pinochet. Pinochet's coup plotters killed some 3000 Chileans.
Barrientos is subject of a pending extradition request by Chile, and is charged with muurdering Victor Jara. The Orlando Sentinel says it was unable to reach him for comment.
United States District Judge Marcia Morales Howard of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida (Jacksonville Division) is assigned to the case, Jara v. Barrientos, which asks for a Jury Trial.
It was Judge Howard who found in 2009 that the City of St. Augustine violated the First Amendment in its unconstitutional mistreatment of visual artists, resulting in an out-of-court settlement and payment of attorney fees. Before John Regan became City Manager, our City of St. Augustine arresed hundreds of artists and entertainers over the years in violation of the First Amendment, and has repeatedly been fund to have acted illegally.
The lawsuit was filed by the Jacksonville law firm of Smith, Hulsey & Busey, the international law firm of Chadbourne & Park LLP and the Center for Accountability and Justice on behalf of Victor Jara's estate, widow and surviving adult offspring.
Thursday, September 05, 2013
Welcoming Mumford & Sons (and Diversity)
Exciting times.
Mumford & Sons is coming September 13-14, with a concert downtown at Francis Field.
St. Augustine has made a lot of progress since WILLIAM B. HARRISS left as City Manager.
Our Fair Housing ordinance covers GLBT people, unlike bigoted Jacksonville.
Our City now promotes civil rights instead of violating them.
Our City no longer arrests artists, musicians and entertainers.
Our City honors Environmental Justice, instead of polluting communities of color.
Our City promotes diversity, while our County remains in torpor.
Our City has done more with Mumford & Sons concert to promote Diversity and the Youth tourism market than our County has ever done with our bed tax money.
Meanwhile, nattering nabobs of negativism (Whetstone-Maguire and their mostly "Anonymice" toadies) take pitiful potshots. Be not afraid. These are the same mossbacks whose lawbreaking St. Johns County Visitor and Convention Bureau, Inc. (VCB) shows contempt for Youth, GLBT, African-American and Hispanic tourism, wasting money on ads in Reader's Digest and Better Homes and Gardens, and refusing to embrace and support new "attractions," such as the St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore. www.staugustgreen.com
Thanks to the vision of our City leaders, we're on the world stage now, and we need to be more image conscious.
Let's end Sunshine and Open Records violations.
Assure transparency.
Report lawbreaking by government officials.
Stamp out corruption, wherever it may appear.
End government abuses of power, by any government entity or agency.
Embrace our diversity and reach out to African-American, Hispanic, Youth and GLBT tourism markets.
Work to establish the St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore.
Work tirelessly to make St. Augustine a beter place.
Yes we can!
Mumford & Sons is coming September 13-14, with a concert downtown at Francis Field.
St. Augustine has made a lot of progress since WILLIAM B. HARRISS left as City Manager.
Our Fair Housing ordinance covers GLBT people, unlike bigoted Jacksonville.
Our City now promotes civil rights instead of violating them.
Our City no longer arrests artists, musicians and entertainers.
Our City honors Environmental Justice, instead of polluting communities of color.
Our City promotes diversity, while our County remains in torpor.
Our City has done more with Mumford & Sons concert to promote Diversity and the Youth tourism market than our County has ever done with our bed tax money.
Meanwhile, nattering nabobs of negativism (Whetstone-Maguire and their mostly "Anonymice" toadies) take pitiful potshots. Be not afraid. These are the same mossbacks whose lawbreaking St. Johns County Visitor and Convention Bureau, Inc. (VCB) shows contempt for Youth, GLBT, African-American and Hispanic tourism, wasting money on ads in Reader's Digest and Better Homes and Gardens, and refusing to embrace and support new "attractions," such as the St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore. www.staugustgreen.com
Thanks to the vision of our City leaders, we're on the world stage now, and we need to be more image conscious.
Let's end Sunshine and Open Records violations.
Assure transparency.
Report lawbreaking by government officials.
Stamp out corruption, wherever it may appear.
End government abuses of power, by any government entity or agency.
Embrace our diversity and reach out to African-American, Hispanic, Youth and GLBT tourism markets.
Work to establish the St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore.
Work tirelessly to make St. Augustine a beter place.
Yes we can!
September 5, 2003
Ten years ago today, George Bush was President.
Jeb Bush was Governor of Florida.
George Gardner was Mayor of St. Augustine.
We were in a hot war in Iraq.
And ten years ago today was the last time the New York Times Travel Section ran an article dedicated to St. Augustine.
Ten years.
Why?
Those cynical contractors who spend our 4% tourist bed tax dollars are more interested in advertising -- receiving commissions along the way -- than they are in public relations and promoting legitimate news media coverage by the gold standard in the travel business -- The New York Times Travel Section.
Ten years.
Some 3,652 days since the New York Times Travel Section dedicated an article to St. Augustine.
That's a long time.
What are we paying for with our bed taxes?
What are we getting?
All-white brochures that leave our Native-American, Jewish, Roman Catholic, Menorcan, Greek, Civil War, Civil Rights and African-American heritage.
Non-diverse brochures put to shame by World Golf Village, which has more African-Americans in its tourist literature than does the Tourist Development Council's tedious, tatterdemalion, tepid contractor, the St. Johns County Visitor and Convention Bureau, Inc.
Pitiful.
Putrid.
Politicians and staff who "know not that they know not that they know not."
Meanwhile, our St. Johns County Tourist Development Council and its clubby contractor, the St Johns County Visitor and Convention Bureau, Inc. have spent tens of millions of dollars on "touurist development," wasting our bed tax money.
On what exactly?
Inflated salaries?
Contracts?
Advertising in Reader's Digest and Better Homes and Gardens?
Meanwhile, with one two-day concert, our City of St. Augustine has done more to effect friend-raising than $30 million in TDC/VCB waste, fraud, abuse, misfeasance, malfeasance, nonfeasance, secrecy, sloth and silliness.
The Mumford & Sons Concert promises to build our "brand" among young, cool hip people. Environmental and historic tourists spend twice as much and stay twice as long as the credulous Reader's Digest readers preferred by Virginia Whetstone's Visitor and Convention Bureau.
The VCB contract must be rebid.
The VCB must records must be open to public inspection.
VCB must cease and desist from racism and homophobia.
TDC must adverise our strengths.
TDC's contractor (whoever it is) must never again discuss pricing in its meetings again.
TDC must focus like a laser beam on the St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore. www.staugustgreen.com
It's our time, our town and our bed tax money -- spend it wisely or not at all.
What do you reckon?
Jeb Bush was Governor of Florida.
George Gardner was Mayor of St. Augustine.
We were in a hot war in Iraq.
And ten years ago today was the last time the New York Times Travel Section ran an article dedicated to St. Augustine.
Ten years.
Why?
Those cynical contractors who spend our 4% tourist bed tax dollars are more interested in advertising -- receiving commissions along the way -- than they are in public relations and promoting legitimate news media coverage by the gold standard in the travel business -- The New York Times Travel Section.
Ten years.
Some 3,652 days since the New York Times Travel Section dedicated an article to St. Augustine.
That's a long time.
What are we paying for with our bed taxes?
What are we getting?
All-white brochures that leave our Native-American, Jewish, Roman Catholic, Menorcan, Greek, Civil War, Civil Rights and African-American heritage.
Non-diverse brochures put to shame by World Golf Village, which has more African-Americans in its tourist literature than does the Tourist Development Council's tedious, tatterdemalion, tepid contractor, the St. Johns County Visitor and Convention Bureau, Inc.
Pitiful.
Putrid.
Politicians and staff who "know not that they know not that they know not."
Meanwhile, our St. Johns County Tourist Development Council and its clubby contractor, the St Johns County Visitor and Convention Bureau, Inc. have spent tens of millions of dollars on "touurist development," wasting our bed tax money.
On what exactly?
Inflated salaries?
Contracts?
Advertising in Reader's Digest and Better Homes and Gardens?
Meanwhile, with one two-day concert, our City of St. Augustine has done more to effect friend-raising than $30 million in TDC/VCB waste, fraud, abuse, misfeasance, malfeasance, nonfeasance, secrecy, sloth and silliness.
The Mumford & Sons Concert promises to build our "brand" among young, cool hip people. Environmental and historic tourists spend twice as much and stay twice as long as the credulous Reader's Digest readers preferred by Virginia Whetstone's Visitor and Convention Bureau.
The VCB contract must be rebid.
The VCB must records must be open to public inspection.
VCB must cease and desist from racism and homophobia.
TDC must adverise our strengths.
TDC's contractor (whoever it is) must never again discuss pricing in its meetings again.
TDC must focus like a laser beam on the St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore. www.staugustgreen.com
It's our time, our town and our bed tax money -- spend it wisely or not at all.
What do you reckon?
Sunday, September 01, 2013
Spanish Bakery Returns, But UF Needs Lessons in Competitive Bidding, Antitrust and Civil Rights Compliance, Teamwork, Fiduciary Duty and Friend-raising -- Five Year Sweetheart Lease Agreement With Virginia Whetstone's New "Spanish Bakery LLC," With No Security Deposit!
The University of FLorida inked a five year no-bid lease with Virginia Whetsone to take over the Spanish Bakery, 42 1/2 St. George Street, which had closed. She's hiring the original baker.
Good news on the one hand, for those of us who love our Spanish Bakery on St. George Street.
Bad news for UF's ethics and effectiveness as manager of state historic properties.
There was no Invitation to Bid. No Request for Qualifications. There was no Invitation to Negotiate. No transparency at all. Zilch. Nada. Nunca. Why?
The sweetheart lease contract involves no security deposit. Why?
The sweetheart lease was signed secretly for "Spanish Bakery LLC" by Virginia Whetstone on August 9, 2013 (witnessed by Bruce Maguire) and sgned secretly by Ed Poppell, Secretary/Treasurer of "UF Historic St. Augustine, Inc." on August 13, 2013.
Monthly rent (including sales tax) begins at $3,235.12 and escalates to $3,501.18 during the fifth year.
Bad news for government openness, competitive bidding, teamwork and friend-raising.
UF signed the lease without vetting Whetstone with our City Manager. The Whetstones are litigious cognitive misers most noted for suing the City, consumer groups and others in frivolous lawsuits.
Many of us won't eat the Whetstone-Maguires chocolate (or ice cream) because they've been such pestilential purveyors of noxious notions -- wanting to rid St. Augustine of street musicians and artists, opposing improvements that help African-Americans, demanding government favors every time they deign to attend a City Commission meeting, showing their true colors as dodgy developer doormats (as when Bruce Maguire served on St. Johns County Commission).
UF was dead wrong to sign a sweetheart contract with Whetstone without vetting it with our City Manager and without competitive bidding.
We don't cotton to no-bid contracts around here, Mr. Poppell.
We don't like government agencies inking no-bid contracts, Mr. Poppell.
We don't approve of governments that breach their fiduciary duty.
We expect better from UF.
Rose Kennedy's favorite Bible verse was, "To whom much is given, much is expected." We expect UF to be a good neighbor, and not team up with Robber Baron rich guys.
The City must re-examine its relationship with UF hesto presto, and demand answers.
Why no antitrust analysis? Why no civil rights analysis? Why not open bidding up to others? Why no transparency before the fact?
In the 1906 words of scholar Edwin Alvord Ross about "criminaloids," UF was "in a hurry and not particular about the means
UF must assure compliance with antitrust and civil rights laws by its lessess, as required by Supreme Court precedent, or it could be sued for civil rights violations.
What is UF doing to require compliance with civil rights and antitrust laws by its lessees?
The State Auditor needs to ask these questions, and more, pendente lite.
Memo to the mossback Whetstones, you better not discriminate against anyone in your stores. St. Augustine is on the world stage now. The whole world is watching.
In the words of the Tom Hanks character in the movie "Saving Private Ryan": "Earn this."
Good news on the one hand, for those of us who love our Spanish Bakery on St. George Street.
Bad news for UF's ethics and effectiveness as manager of state historic properties.
There was no Invitation to Bid. No Request for Qualifications. There was no Invitation to Negotiate. No transparency at all. Zilch. Nada. Nunca. Why?
The sweetheart lease contract involves no security deposit. Why?
The sweetheart lease was signed secretly for "Spanish Bakery LLC" by Virginia Whetstone on August 9, 2013 (witnessed by Bruce Maguire) and sgned secretly by Ed Poppell, Secretary/Treasurer of "UF Historic St. Augustine, Inc." on August 13, 2013.
Monthly rent (including sales tax) begins at $3,235.12 and escalates to $3,501.18 during the fifth year.
Bad news for government openness, competitive bidding, teamwork and friend-raising.
UF signed the lease without vetting Whetstone with our City Manager. The Whetstones are litigious cognitive misers most noted for suing the City, consumer groups and others in frivolous lawsuits.
Many of us won't eat the Whetstone-Maguires chocolate (or ice cream) because they've been such pestilential purveyors of noxious notions -- wanting to rid St. Augustine of street musicians and artists, opposing improvements that help African-Americans, demanding government favors every time they deign to attend a City Commission meeting, showing their true colors as dodgy developer doormats (as when Bruce Maguire served on St. Johns County Commission).
UF was dead wrong to sign a sweetheart contract with Whetstone without vetting it with our City Manager and without competitive bidding.
We don't cotton to no-bid contracts around here, Mr. Poppell.
We don't like government agencies inking no-bid contracts, Mr. Poppell.
We don't approve of governments that breach their fiduciary duty.
We expect better from UF.
Rose Kennedy's favorite Bible verse was, "To whom much is given, much is expected." We expect UF to be a good neighbor, and not team up with Robber Baron rich guys.
The City must re-examine its relationship with UF hesto presto, and demand answers.
Why no antitrust analysis? Why no civil rights analysis? Why not open bidding up to others? Why no transparency before the fact?
In the 1906 words of scholar Edwin Alvord Ross about "criminaloids," UF was "in a hurry and not particular about the means
UF must assure compliance with antitrust and civil rights laws by its lessess, as required by Supreme Court precedent, or it could be sued for civil rights violations.
What is UF doing to require compliance with civil rights and antitrust laws by its lessees?
The State Auditor needs to ask these questions, and more, pendente lite.
Memo to the mossback Whetstones, you better not discriminate against anyone in your stores. St. Augustine is on the world stage now. The whole world is watching.
In the words of the Tom Hanks character in the movie "Saving Private Ryan": "Earn this."
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Mossbacks and Their Bizarre Beliefs
As quoted in my unrebutted August 28, 2013 letter (below), controversial St. Johns County Sheriff David Shoar's website reports that Rev. Dr. Martn Luther King, Jr. was arrested by "Federal agents" here in St. Augustine in 1964. Not true. Local law enforcement did it. Did the same SJSCO staffer write Shoar's 152-page report, attacking FDLE agents for inestigating the shooting death of a deputy's girlfriend as a homicide? You tell me?
The Florida National Guard (FNG) Commanding General told a packed Flagler College Auditorium audience that Saddam Hussein had something to do with 9/11. Untrue.
The Florida Air National Guard (FANG) Commanding General spoke on Memorial Day 2013 of America's wars in a service at our National Cemetery, oddly omitting any mention of the Civil War, speaking ONLY of wars against foreigners. How dull. How insensitive to American history -- more than 600,000 Americans fought and died to let freedom ring. In fact, there are graves of USCT (U.S. Colored Troops) at the cemetery, near where he stood -- under his feet, but not on his mind. Our Nation's epic fight for equality was not on his narrow mind. Then FANG trashed all copies of the speech, paper and electronic. He's a part-timer, working as an airline pilot. Why is he giving speeches, and mangling our history (nearly as bad as FNG alumnus, Sheriff David B. Shoar)?
What a bunch of lugubrious goobers. What an embarassment for St. Augsutine.
Both Sheriff David Shoar and Florida National Guard Generals hold some bizarre beliefs.
These are people with degrees and titles. Some (like Shoar) are well-read.
Their bizarre beliefs are downright frightening.
These are "cognitive misers" with guns, who get to decide who will live or die.
What else do they believe? What do they do in their high-tech government palaces?
Pray for them. And as JFK said, "Here on Earth, God's work must truly be our own."
Ask questions. Demand answers. It's our town, our time and our rights.
What do you reckon?
The Florida National Guard (FNG) Commanding General told a packed Flagler College Auditorium audience that Saddam Hussein had something to do with 9/11. Untrue.
The Florida Air National Guard (FANG) Commanding General spoke on Memorial Day 2013 of America's wars in a service at our National Cemetery, oddly omitting any mention of the Civil War, speaking ONLY of wars against foreigners. How dull. How insensitive to American history -- more than 600,000 Americans fought and died to let freedom ring. In fact, there are graves of USCT (U.S. Colored Troops) at the cemetery, near where he stood -- under his feet, but not on his mind. Our Nation's epic fight for equality was not on his narrow mind. Then FANG trashed all copies of the speech, paper and electronic. He's a part-timer, working as an airline pilot. Why is he giving speeches, and mangling our history (nearly as bad as FNG alumnus, Sheriff David B. Shoar)?
What a bunch of lugubrious goobers. What an embarassment for St. Augsutine.
Both Sheriff David Shoar and Florida National Guard Generals hold some bizarre beliefs.
These are people with degrees and titles. Some (like Shoar) are well-read.
Their bizarre beliefs are downright frightening.
These are "cognitive misers" with guns, who get to decide who will live or die.
What else do they believe? What do they do in their high-tech government palaces?
Pray for them. And as JFK said, "Here on Earth, God's work must truly be our own."
Ask questions. Demand answers. It's our town, our time and our rights.
What do you reckon?
ST. JOHNS COUNTY SHERIFF DAVID B. SHOAR ASKED TO RESPOND to False Information on Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Praise for Sheriff L.O. Davis, On St. Johns County Sheriff's Website, on 50th Anniversary of Dr. King's "I Have A Dream" Speech
Dear Sheriff Shoar:
We both love our Nation's Oldest City, St. Augustine, which stands between "hope and history." There are reasons today (50th anniversary of Dr. King's "I have a dream" speech) to be concerned that our history must be accurate.
A. Sheriff Shoar, it appears that both your SJCSO website and your 2012 Annual Report appear to glorify Sheriff L.O. Davis, with your 20th Century Sheriffs history section stating in haec verba:
"One major development that his tenure as Sheriff saw was the civil rights movement, a challenging time for our nation, state and county. In 1963, the Reverend Martin Luther King and his associates came to St. Augustine, the oldest city in the nation. St. Augustine became the site of many demonstrations. During one of these, Dr. King was arrested by Federal agents and booked into the St. Johns County Jail. Shortly afterwards, Dr. King and others were released from jail.
The climate was stressful in those years, but with Sheriff Davis' leadership the community held together. This nation moved forward after the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Sheriff Davis was well respected in the community." (Emphasis added). http://www.sjso.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/20th-cen-sheriffs.pdf
B. Thus, some questions occur:
1. Does SJCSO have any research materials on Dr. King and Sheriff L.O. Davis that formed the basis of the statements about them on your website and in your 2012 Annual Report? What are they? Please provide citations.
2. Who wrote the statements on Dr. King and Sheriff Davis in the "Sheriffs of the 20th Century" portion of your website and in your Annual Report? Quo vobis videtor?
3. Are those persons aware of Davis' corruption and support of segregationists? Were you?
4. Your website section on "Sheriffs of the 20th Century" appears simultaneously to demean Dr. King and to glorify Sheriff L.O. Davis. Why? The 2012 Annual Report also appears to glorify Davis. Why?
5. The SJCSO website section on "Sheriffs of the 20th Century" falsely asserts that Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was "arrested" here in St. Augustine by "federal agents." That never happened. Local law enforcement arrested him.
6. How long has this materially false information about "federal agents" arresting Dr. King in St. Augustine appeared on our SJCSO website? Who wrote it? For what purpose?
7. Are you planning to take it down? When? Please advise.
8. The 2012 Annual Report says no taxpayer funds were used for its printing or distribution. Why not?
9. Who paid for printing and distribution of the report? Please provide documents.
10. Will you please retract and apologize publicly for the falsehoods in your name about "federal agents" arresting Dr. King, and for glorifying Davis, as you did for those threatening t-shirts you distributed in 2008?
Our Nation's Oldest City is now on the world stage -- we do not need to be embarassed by faux Fox News style Civil Rights "history" emanating from the SJCSO, lauding a segregationist and insulting both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on the 50th anniversary of the "I have a dream" speech." http://www.sjso.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/20th-cen-sheriffs.pdf
I look forward to hearing from you today by the close of business.
Thank you.
With kindest regards, I am,
Sincerely yours,
Ed
Ed Slavin
Clean Up St. Augustine
www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com
Box 3084
St. Augustine, Florida 32085-3084
904-377-4998
We both love our Nation's Oldest City, St. Augustine, which stands between "hope and history." There are reasons today (50th anniversary of Dr. King's "I have a dream" speech) to be concerned that our history must be accurate.
A. Sheriff Shoar, it appears that both your SJCSO website and your 2012 Annual Report appear to glorify Sheriff L.O. Davis, with your 20th Century Sheriffs history section stating in haec verba:
"One major development that his tenure as Sheriff saw was the civil rights movement, a challenging time for our nation, state and county. In 1963, the Reverend Martin Luther King and his associates came to St. Augustine, the oldest city in the nation. St. Augustine became the site of many demonstrations. During one of these, Dr. King was arrested by Federal agents and booked into the St. Johns County Jail. Shortly afterwards, Dr. King and others were released from jail.
The climate was stressful in those years, but with Sheriff Davis' leadership the community held together. This nation moved forward after the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Sheriff Davis was well respected in the community." (Emphasis added). http://www.sjso.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/20th-cen-sheriffs.pdf
B. Thus, some questions occur:
1. Does SJCSO have any research materials on Dr. King and Sheriff L.O. Davis that formed the basis of the statements about them on your website and in your 2012 Annual Report? What are they? Please provide citations.
2. Who wrote the statements on Dr. King and Sheriff Davis in the "Sheriffs of the 20th Century" portion of your website and in your Annual Report? Quo vobis videtor?
3. Are those persons aware of Davis' corruption and support of segregationists? Were you?
4. Your website section on "Sheriffs of the 20th Century" appears simultaneously to demean Dr. King and to glorify Sheriff L.O. Davis. Why? The 2012 Annual Report also appears to glorify Davis. Why?
5. The SJCSO website section on "Sheriffs of the 20th Century" falsely asserts that Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was "arrested" here in St. Augustine by "federal agents." That never happened. Local law enforcement arrested him.
6. How long has this materially false information about "federal agents" arresting Dr. King in St. Augustine appeared on our SJCSO website? Who wrote it? For what purpose?
7. Are you planning to take it down? When? Please advise.
8. The 2012 Annual Report says no taxpayer funds were used for its printing or distribution. Why not?
9. Who paid for printing and distribution of the report? Please provide documents.
10. Will you please retract and apologize publicly for the falsehoods in your name about "federal agents" arresting Dr. King, and for glorifying Davis, as you did for those threatening t-shirts you distributed in 2008?
Our Nation's Oldest City is now on the world stage -- we do not need to be embarassed by faux Fox News style Civil Rights "history" emanating from the SJCSO, lauding a segregationist and insulting both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on the 50th anniversary of the "I have a dream" speech." http://www.sjso.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/20th-cen-sheriffs.pdf
I look forward to hearing from you today by the close of business.
Thank you.
With kindest regards, I am,
Sincerely yours,
Ed
Ed Slavin
Clean Up St. Augustine
www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com
Box 3084
St. Augustine, Florida 32085-3084
904-377-4998
Honoring Civil RIghts Victories and Remembering Civil Rights Violators -- Kudos to Peter Guinta and Marcia Lane -- Two Excellent St. Augustine Record Articles on Civil Rights Today
Harry Truman said, "The only thing new under the sun is the history you don't know." When we moved to St. Augustine in 1999 (and first visited here in 1992), we had no idea there was a rich African-American and Civil Rights history here. Why?
For openers, the all-white St. Johns County Tourist Development Council and all-white Visitor and Convention Board -- both tax funded to the tune of millions of dollars annually -- do not honor that history and do not respect our diversity. They are a stench in the nostrils of our Nation's Oldest City.
We are making progress. There are two civil rights monuments in our Slave Market Square.
And there are two excellent articles on the front page of the st. Augustine Record today on civil rights issues, marking the 50th anniversary of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I have a dream speech" at the Lincoln Memorial.
One, by Peter Guinta, profiles Irvin L. Brunson, Tallahassee artist writing his book about St. Augustine desegregation struggles, which say his parents' car and next door neighbor's home firebombed in retaliation for First Amendment protected activity in speaking out against Jim Crow segregation (and their African-American children attending previously all-white schools).
The second, by Marcia Lane, describes Flagler College's online civil rights archive, the Civil Rights Archive of St. Augustine, Florida, coordinated by Emmy-winning journalist J.B. Hackworth and four Flagler College students. The collection will debut on September 18th at a reception from 4-7 pm at Ponce de Leon dining room at Flagler College.
Today's article describes the thrill of discovery of Hackworth's students finding archival and video materials, including Andrew Kustodowicz uncovering a documenting evidencing what we would today call a "push-poll": distributed by St. George Street Pharmacy, then a local drug store, the document asked customers, "If we integrate, will you continue to eat here?"
Much remains to be uncovered about this era, but the Flagler College archive is a treasure trove, and deserves our support.
Reading original materials is food for thought. Consider the 1976 University of Florida oral history interview with longtime St. Johns County Sheriff Lawrence O. Davis, in which he describes being present at the Ku Klux Klan rally where Dr. Robert B. Hayling, D.D.S. and two other African-American were caught watching the proceedings, severely beaten and nearly burned to death because "they got injured because they went to a place where they shouldn't have gone."
In the 1976 UF interview, Davis (a convicted felon) described said of segregationists, "All they wanted was to have a good time, and beat the tar out of people, that's all." (page 43).
Sheriff L.O. Davis described his friend, segregationist "Hoss" Manucy, whom he made a special deputy (page 69), as never expressing the desire to kill anyone: "he--himself is not a violent peson, you know. And uh, so he'd tell anybody, 'I don't believe in killing anybody. I think we ought to keep them here. We ought to beat them up here..." (page 58).
Davis described Hoss Manucy's local street toughs, who beat Rev. Andrew Young into unconsciousness here: "they weren't bad kids. It was just the idea that, uh, they'd found something they could have a lot of fun in." (page 75).
Davis admitted using the "sweat box" on civil rights protestor-prisoners, then "a legal deal." (page 60).
Davis described how Jacksonville Times-Union reporter Hank Drain hated Dr. King: Davis said Drain "often said, 'The best thing in the world we could do is to put that guy underneath the jail -- that Martin Luther King -- forever.' He hated him. He was the worst buzzard he'd ever seen -- a rattlesnake in disguise and everything....He despised him." (page 46). Davis said that after Dr. King was murdered, he called the St. Augustine Police Chief and said he was "going to burn him up" and was "sick and tired of making a hero out of him." Davis said that Drain instead wrote a "beautiful article" about Dr. King for the Times-Union.
Davis told the University of Florida oral history interviewer that Dr. King was a "communist," (page 47) and didn't deserve the Nobel Peace Prize (pages 47-48).
Davis blamed outsiders -- black and white -- for what happened in here, claiming that only 20% of the segregationist "rabble rousers" were local residents, and that others drove from KKK country -- Palatka, Ocala and other northern Florida towns.
Take a gander at the St. Johns County Sheriff's Department website today, and the SJCSO's 2012 Annual Report -- it claims "federal agents" arrested Dr. King in St. Augustine. That never happened. It also expresses fawning, uncritical admiration for the criminal Ku Klux Klan Sheriff L.O. Davis (1949-1970).
This makes one wonder about the true beliefs of controversial St. Johns County Sheriff David B. Shoar (2005-date). No mention of Davis' material support for the KKK, Atlanta bomber-lawywer J.B. Stoner, and other hate groups. Why?
I'm writing Sheriff Shoar and will publish his answers to my questions.
To be continued....
For openers, the all-white St. Johns County Tourist Development Council and all-white Visitor and Convention Board -- both tax funded to the tune of millions of dollars annually -- do not honor that history and do not respect our diversity. They are a stench in the nostrils of our Nation's Oldest City.
We are making progress. There are two civil rights monuments in our Slave Market Square.
And there are two excellent articles on the front page of the st. Augustine Record today on civil rights issues, marking the 50th anniversary of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I have a dream speech" at the Lincoln Memorial.
One, by Peter Guinta, profiles Irvin L. Brunson, Tallahassee artist writing his book about St. Augustine desegregation struggles, which say his parents' car and next door neighbor's home firebombed in retaliation for First Amendment protected activity in speaking out against Jim Crow segregation (and their African-American children attending previously all-white schools).
The second, by Marcia Lane, describes Flagler College's online civil rights archive, the Civil Rights Archive of St. Augustine, Florida, coordinated by Emmy-winning journalist J.B. Hackworth and four Flagler College students. The collection will debut on September 18th at a reception from 4-7 pm at Ponce de Leon dining room at Flagler College.
Today's article describes the thrill of discovery of Hackworth's students finding archival and video materials, including Andrew Kustodowicz uncovering a documenting evidencing what we would today call a "push-poll": distributed by St. George Street Pharmacy, then a local drug store, the document asked customers, "If we integrate, will you continue to eat here?"
Much remains to be uncovered about this era, but the Flagler College archive is a treasure trove, and deserves our support.
Reading original materials is food for thought. Consider the 1976 University of Florida oral history interview with longtime St. Johns County Sheriff Lawrence O. Davis, in which he describes being present at the Ku Klux Klan rally where Dr. Robert B. Hayling, D.D.S. and two other African-American were caught watching the proceedings, severely beaten and nearly burned to death because "they got injured because they went to a place where they shouldn't have gone."
In the 1976 UF interview, Davis (a convicted felon) described said of segregationists, "All they wanted was to have a good time, and beat the tar out of people, that's all." (page 43).
Sheriff L.O. Davis described his friend, segregationist "Hoss" Manucy, whom he made a special deputy (page 69), as never expressing the desire to kill anyone: "he--himself is not a violent peson, you know. And uh, so he'd tell anybody, 'I don't believe in killing anybody. I think we ought to keep them here. We ought to beat them up here..." (page 58).
Davis described Hoss Manucy's local street toughs, who beat Rev. Andrew Young into unconsciousness here: "they weren't bad kids. It was just the idea that, uh, they'd found something they could have a lot of fun in." (page 75).
Davis admitted using the "sweat box" on civil rights protestor-prisoners, then "a legal deal." (page 60).
Davis described how Jacksonville Times-Union reporter Hank Drain hated Dr. King: Davis said Drain "often said, 'The best thing in the world we could do is to put that guy underneath the jail -- that Martin Luther King -- forever.' He hated him. He was the worst buzzard he'd ever seen -- a rattlesnake in disguise and everything....He despised him." (page 46). Davis said that after Dr. King was murdered, he called the St. Augustine Police Chief and said he was "going to burn him up" and was "sick and tired of making a hero out of him." Davis said that Drain instead wrote a "beautiful article" about Dr. King for the Times-Union.
Davis told the University of Florida oral history interviewer that Dr. King was a "communist," (page 47) and didn't deserve the Nobel Peace Prize (pages 47-48).
Davis blamed outsiders -- black and white -- for what happened in here, claiming that only 20% of the segregationist "rabble rousers" were local residents, and that others drove from KKK country -- Palatka, Ocala and other northern Florida towns.
Take a gander at the St. Johns County Sheriff's Department website today, and the SJCSO's 2012 Annual Report -- it claims "federal agents" arrested Dr. King in St. Augustine. That never happened. It also expresses fawning, uncritical admiration for the criminal Ku Klux Klan Sheriff L.O. Davis (1949-1970).
This makes one wonder about the true beliefs of controversial St. Johns County Sheriff David B. Shoar (2005-date). No mention of Davis' material support for the KKK, Atlanta bomber-lawywer J.B. Stoner, and other hate groups. Why?
I'm writing Sheriff Shoar and will publish his answers to my questions.
To be continued....
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
About Last Night: In West Augustine Sewer Vote, "Here We Right a Wrong" -- Yes We Can!
More evidence of healing: thanks to the persistence of St. Augustine's African-American community leaders, including Greg White and Ken Bryan, last night, Dr. King's dream came alive in the St. Augustine Coy Commission meeting.
Last night, St. Augustine Coy Manager John Patrick Regan, P.E. also saw his own dream of 1998 -- equal customer service -- finally being realized.
Fifteen years ago, as the young newly appointed City of St. Augustine Utilities Director -- who moved with his wife and family to St. Augustine from Gainesville Utilities -- Regan saw massive pollution in West Augustine from septic tanks.
Why?
Rabid racists who ran the St. Augustine City government had never bothered to provide sewers, or water, for West Augustine.
Under successive generations of unenlightened leadership, the City's Jim Crow government denied equality to its citizens -- sewage Apartheid has long been a threat to public health.
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called St. Augustine the "most lawless" city in America in 1964 (referring to the more publicized aspects of segregation, but he might as well have been referring to the Fourteenth Amendment violations of unequal city water and sanitary sewage systems.
Dr. King was assassinated in 1968. Meanwhile, St. Augustine continued on its course. St. Augustine Mayor Joseph Shelley, who appeared on national television justifying Jim Crow abuses,remained on the City Commission for years. His name is among those that appear on the 1973 City Hall cornerstone in Lightner Museum Courtyard.
Despite opposition in 1998, John Regan, P.E. determined to provide equal services for his customers. That means clean water uncontaminated by e. coli.
In 2011, a majority of water wells in West Augustine were found to be contaminated by e. coli -- this was the direct and proximate of malign neglect -- willful wanton negligence and racism on the part of City officials. City officials never extended sanitary sewers to "them" (African-American residens).
These radical racists who made people get sick and die.
I did not know of these facts until I saw Flagler College graduate Jeremy Dean's 2005 film, "Dare Not Walk Alone."
From 1998 to 2013 was a long time to wait.
In waiting, John Regan reminds me of General Kutuzov's line in Tolstoy's "War and Peace": "Patience and time."
Fifteen years after Regan was harshly questioned for utility spending in West Augustine, two successive racist City Managers have retired. Regan is now the City Manager of our small (13,000 person) Oldest City, which hosts millions of visitors annually and is on many of the recent international "best" lists for everything from Christmas lighting to romance to retirement.
"We're on the world stage now," as Lincoln put it.
Equality and equal opportunity are two of the reasons why -- our City has attracted Mumford & Sons based on its being a cool, hip, tolerant place, as evidenced by our City's December 10, 2012 enactment of GLBT rights protections in our Fair Housing law.
Under new management, our City of St. Augustine last night voted to comply with the Fourteenth Amendment Equal Protection Clause and Environmental Justice: Our City will provide sewers in West Augustine, approving three initial projects and county use of Community Development Block Grants (CDBGs)for unit connections.
The Ku Klux Klan will never again elect a St. Augustine City Commissioner.
KKK values have been replaced with Rainbow values.
Our City honors and respects diversity.
As a result of the West Augustine sewage vote, expect growing economic development and educational opportunities.
Expect new home and business construction along the West King Street corridor.
Expect a University branch campus here.
Florida Memorial University (formerly Florida Memorial College) is a traditionally African-American school now based in Miami Lakes. FMU's campus was in West Augustine until racists ran it out of town in 1968 because its students supported and participated in nightly mass demonstrations against segregation, led by Dr. Robert Hayling, D.D.S., the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rev. Andrew Young, with Florida Memorial students marching from the West King Street campus to the Slave Market Square.
The land is still there. FMU still owns it. FMU is planning to come back and build a branch campus.
The dream of Dr. King, Lincoln and the framers of our Fourteenth Amendment are both alive and living in our Nation's Oldest European-founded City, St. Augustine, Florida.
On the monument to interned Japanese-Americans in Washington, D.C. are the words: "Here we right a wrong."
St. Augustine righted another wrong last night. We're on a roll.
What's next?
West King Street deserves an Interstate 95 interchange, to remedy the racist redlining of West Augustine by the State of Florida DOT in 1964.
Here, we can right another wrong.
Yes, we can!
Last night, St. Augustine Coy Manager John Patrick Regan, P.E. also saw his own dream of 1998 -- equal customer service -- finally being realized.
Fifteen years ago, as the young newly appointed City of St. Augustine Utilities Director -- who moved with his wife and family to St. Augustine from Gainesville Utilities -- Regan saw massive pollution in West Augustine from septic tanks.
Why?
Rabid racists who ran the St. Augustine City government had never bothered to provide sewers, or water, for West Augustine.
Under successive generations of unenlightened leadership, the City's Jim Crow government denied equality to its citizens -- sewage Apartheid has long been a threat to public health.
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called St. Augustine the "most lawless" city in America in 1964 (referring to the more publicized aspects of segregation, but he might as well have been referring to the Fourteenth Amendment violations of unequal city water and sanitary sewage systems.
Dr. King was assassinated in 1968. Meanwhile, St. Augustine continued on its course. St. Augustine Mayor Joseph Shelley, who appeared on national television justifying Jim Crow abuses,remained on the City Commission for years. His name is among those that appear on the 1973 City Hall cornerstone in Lightner Museum Courtyard.
Despite opposition in 1998, John Regan, P.E. determined to provide equal services for his customers. That means clean water uncontaminated by e. coli.
In 2011, a majority of water wells in West Augustine were found to be contaminated by e. coli -- this was the direct and proximate of malign neglect -- willful wanton negligence and racism on the part of City officials. City officials never extended sanitary sewers to "them" (African-American residens).
These radical racists who made people get sick and die.
I did not know of these facts until I saw Flagler College graduate Jeremy Dean's 2005 film, "Dare Not Walk Alone."
From 1998 to 2013 was a long time to wait.
In waiting, John Regan reminds me of General Kutuzov's line in Tolstoy's "War and Peace": "Patience and time."
Fifteen years after Regan was harshly questioned for utility spending in West Augustine, two successive racist City Managers have retired. Regan is now the City Manager of our small (13,000 person) Oldest City, which hosts millions of visitors annually and is on many of the recent international "best" lists for everything from Christmas lighting to romance to retirement.
"We're on the world stage now," as Lincoln put it.
Equality and equal opportunity are two of the reasons why -- our City has attracted Mumford & Sons based on its being a cool, hip, tolerant place, as evidenced by our City's December 10, 2012 enactment of GLBT rights protections in our Fair Housing law.
Under new management, our City of St. Augustine last night voted to comply with the Fourteenth Amendment Equal Protection Clause and Environmental Justice: Our City will provide sewers in West Augustine, approving three initial projects and county use of Community Development Block Grants (CDBGs)for unit connections.
The Ku Klux Klan will never again elect a St. Augustine City Commissioner.
KKK values have been replaced with Rainbow values.
Our City honors and respects diversity.
As a result of the West Augustine sewage vote, expect growing economic development and educational opportunities.
Expect new home and business construction along the West King Street corridor.
Expect a University branch campus here.
Florida Memorial University (formerly Florida Memorial College) is a traditionally African-American school now based in Miami Lakes. FMU's campus was in West Augustine until racists ran it out of town in 1968 because its students supported and participated in nightly mass demonstrations against segregation, led by Dr. Robert Hayling, D.D.S., the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rev. Andrew Young, with Florida Memorial students marching from the West King Street campus to the Slave Market Square.
The land is still there. FMU still owns it. FMU is planning to come back and build a branch campus.
The dream of Dr. King, Lincoln and the framers of our Fourteenth Amendment are both alive and living in our Nation's Oldest European-founded City, St. Augustine, Florida.
On the monument to interned Japanese-Americans in Washington, D.C. are the words: "Here we right a wrong."
St. Augustine righted another wrong last night. We're on a roll.
What's next?
West King Street deserves an Interstate 95 interchange, to remedy the racist redlining of West Augustine by the State of Florida DOT in 1964.
Here, we can right another wrong.
Yes, we can!
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
First Amendment Update
Delighted that proposed Rule 4.705 and other SJCBCC public comment rules discussion is postponed until 9/3 meeting. More later.
Our right to ask questions shall be preserved and protected and not neglected.
What do you reckon?
Ed Slavin
904-377-4998
Our right to ask questions shall be preserved and protected and not neglected.
What do you reckon?
Ed Slavin
904-377-4998
Monday, August 19, 2013
First Amendment Violation -- St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners Considers Ban on Citizens Asking Qustions -- Proposed Board Rule 4.705 is Unconstitutional
St. Johns County's Board of County Commissioners (BCC) tomorrow (August 20) will be asked by the County Attorney, PATRICK McCORMACK, to approve a blatant First Amendment violation, to be carved into the rules of the Commission, forbidding citizens from ever again asking questions of Commissioners, unless they are merely "rhetorical" and don't seek answers.
Why? What is County Administrator MICHAEL WANCHICK & Co. afraid of -- being asked questions he doesn't want to answer? In the words of William F. Buckley, Jr., "Why does baloney reject the grinder?"
The provision, proposed Section 4.705 of BCC policies, is contained in agenda item 10 at tomorrow's BCC meeting, to be presented by County Attorney PATRICK McCORMACK.
It is as unconstitutional as it is unfriendly and unseemly -- what were they thinking?.
Evidently, some County staffers want citizens to be seen and not heard. This is absurd and abusive, like a similar rule instituted at the United States Tennessee Valley Authority under Chairman Marvin Runyon (former Nissan Chair and later U.S. Postal Service Chairman).
You have a constitutional right to ask questions.
America works best when we ask questions.
This proposed Rule 4.705 is contrary to the genius of a free people.
Keep asking questions.
If 4.705 is adopted, it needs to be challenged at every meeting, and in court.
What do you reckon?
Ed Slavin
Clean Up St. Augustine
www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com
Box 3084
St. Augustine, Florida 32085-3084
904-377-4998
Why? What is County Administrator MICHAEL WANCHICK & Co. afraid of -- being asked questions he doesn't want to answer? In the words of William F. Buckley, Jr., "Why does baloney reject the grinder?"
The provision, proposed Section 4.705 of BCC policies, is contained in agenda item 10 at tomorrow's BCC meeting, to be presented by County Attorney PATRICK McCORMACK.
It is as unconstitutional as it is unfriendly and unseemly -- what were they thinking?.
Evidently, some County staffers want citizens to be seen and not heard. This is absurd and abusive, like a similar rule instituted at the United States Tennessee Valley Authority under Chairman Marvin Runyon (former Nissan Chair and later U.S. Postal Service Chairman).
You have a constitutional right to ask questions.
America works best when we ask questions.
This proposed Rule 4.705 is contrary to the genius of a free people.
Keep asking questions.
If 4.705 is adopted, it needs to be challenged at every meeting, and in court.
What do you reckon?
Ed Slavin
Clean Up St. Augustine
www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com
Box 3084
St. Augustine, Florida 32085-3084
904-377-4998
Friday, August 16, 2013
Rude, crude, insulting comments on St. Augustine Record's hate website
The St. Augustine Record did an excellent public service by today's lead story, about the Florida National Guard's animal torture in the name of medic training. Great job.
Hours later, it seems that the Record has gone back to its old ways -- it has posted some deranged hateful comments suggesting that PETA members be used instead of animals for decapitation, shooting and disemboweling for medic training.
The Record's Posting Rules are not enforced against hate speech (only against progressives). The Record's tatterdemalion website is a veritable free fire zone for hate speech -- including death threats directed against City commissioners and staff, and hate speech directed against PETA -- may be published.
The St. Augstine Record website is an electronic Ku Klux Klan bulletin board, a liability and an embarassment to our Nation's Oldest City. If you're looking for anonymous hate speech, the Record is the place under the new Publisher, Delinda Fogel. Ms. Fogel is a CPA who evidently thinks it's profitable to print hate speech and increase the number of eyeballs on the Record's website. She actually asked last week if I had a journalism degree, and said if I didn't like their website, maybe I shouldn't read it. See below.
What do you reckon?
Hours later, it seems that the Record has gone back to its old ways -- it has posted some deranged hateful comments suggesting that PETA members be used instead of animals for decapitation, shooting and disemboweling for medic training.
The Record's Posting Rules are not enforced against hate speech (only against progressives). The Record's tatterdemalion website is a veritable free fire zone for hate speech -- including death threats directed against City commissioners and staff, and hate speech directed against PETA -- may be published.
The St. Augstine Record website is an electronic Ku Klux Klan bulletin board, a liability and an embarassment to our Nation's Oldest City. If you're looking for anonymous hate speech, the Record is the place under the new Publisher, Delinda Fogel. Ms. Fogel is a CPA who evidently thinks it's profitable to print hate speech and increase the number of eyeballs on the Record's website. She actually asked last week if I had a journalism degree, and said if I didn't like their website, maybe I shouldn't read it. See below.
What do you reckon?
Thursday, August 15, 2013
IN HAEC VERBA: Ed Slavin Letter to Senator Bill Nelson, Calling For Senator Nelson to Help Halt to Florida National Guard Animal Cruelty and for Senate Armed Services Committee Field Investigation of Florida National Guard Misfeasance, Malfeasance, Nonfeasance, Waste, Fraud, Abuse and Discrimination
http://m.staugustine.com/news/local-news/2013-08-15
Dear Senator Nelson:
1. Please see Peter Guinta's story in the August 16, 2013 St Augustine Record newspaper, "Guard plans to main animals for medic training," and kindly investigate and halt this animal cruelty today.
2. In your capacity as the third-ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, please denounce and help halt forever this outrageous illegal animal cruelty and waste of federal funds.
3. Meanwhile, please ask the Florida National Guard (FNG) to halt this planned activity this morning, hesto presto.
4. Please ask Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin to hold investigative oversight hearings here in St. Augustine this fall on the nature, structure and performance of the FNG, including waste, fraud, abuse, misfeasance, malfeasance, and discrimination.
5. Two (2) unscholarly, insensitive FNG generals have wasted federal funds and given offensive, inane and inept speeches, including: (a) one at a St. Augustine history program at Flagler College falsely claiming Saddam Hussein had something to do with 9/11, and (b) one on Memorial Day 2013, entirely omitting our ancestors' Civil War sacrifices (though he was speaking at the St. Augustine National Cemetery in close proximity to African-American of soldiers who fought to save our Union, buried in graves marked USCT, for U.S. Colored Troops).
6. Meanwhile, FNG's generals have perpetrated this monstrous inhumane animal torture, which is expected to begin today and last all weekend in Tampa.
7. Enough of FNG's "Amateur Hour." Please stop the ineptitude.
8. Please sponsor in the Senate Armed Services Committee an amendment to the DOD authorization bill providing for cutoff of all federal funding for this sort of sordid, wasteful, callous cruelty to animals, from this day forward.
9. Senator Nelson, please pick up the phone, call General Titshaw, and kindly ask that he halt these cruel and unAmerican activities, today, forever.
10. I look forward to hearing from your Chief of Staff, Pete Mitchell, by phone later this morning to inform us that the animal cruelty training is halted. Meanwhile, I have already asked the City of St. Augustine and SAPD to investigate possible state law crimes, and possible violations of the City's leases to FNG.
Thank you.
With kindest regards, I am,
Sincerely,
Ed
Ed Slavin
Clean Up St Augustine
www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com
Box 3084
St. Augustine, Florida 32085-3084
904-377-4998
Dear Senator Nelson:
1. Please see Peter Guinta's story in the August 16, 2013 St Augustine Record newspaper, "Guard plans to main animals for medic training," and kindly investigate and halt this animal cruelty today.
2. In your capacity as the third-ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, please denounce and help halt forever this outrageous illegal animal cruelty and waste of federal funds.
3. Meanwhile, please ask the Florida National Guard (FNG) to halt this planned activity this morning, hesto presto.
4. Please ask Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin to hold investigative oversight hearings here in St. Augustine this fall on the nature, structure and performance of the FNG, including waste, fraud, abuse, misfeasance, malfeasance, and discrimination.
5. Two (2) unscholarly, insensitive FNG generals have wasted federal funds and given offensive, inane and inept speeches, including: (a) one at a St. Augustine history program at Flagler College falsely claiming Saddam Hussein had something to do with 9/11, and (b) one on Memorial Day 2013, entirely omitting our ancestors' Civil War sacrifices (though he was speaking at the St. Augustine National Cemetery in close proximity to African-American of soldiers who fought to save our Union, buried in graves marked USCT, for U.S. Colored Troops).
6. Meanwhile, FNG's generals have perpetrated this monstrous inhumane animal torture, which is expected to begin today and last all weekend in Tampa.
7. Enough of FNG's "Amateur Hour." Please stop the ineptitude.
8. Please sponsor in the Senate Armed Services Committee an amendment to the DOD authorization bill providing for cutoff of all federal funding for this sort of sordid, wasteful, callous cruelty to animals, from this day forward.
9. Senator Nelson, please pick up the phone, call General Titshaw, and kindly ask that he halt these cruel and unAmerican activities, today, forever.
10. I look forward to hearing from your Chief of Staff, Pete Mitchell, by phone later this morning to inform us that the animal cruelty training is halted. Meanwhile, I have already asked the City of St. Augustine and SAPD to investigate possible state law crimes, and possible violations of the City's leases to FNG.
Thank you.
With kindest regards, I am,
Sincerely,
Ed
Ed Slavin
Clean Up St Augustine
www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com
Box 3084
St. Augustine, Florida 32085-3084
904-377-4998
IN HAEC VERBA: Ed Slavin Letter Requesting City of St. Augustine, SAPD, Take Action on Florida National Guard Animal Torture, Reported in Friday's St. Augustine Record, thanks to Whistleblower, PETA and Peter Guinta's article -- Let's Halt These UnAmerican Activities, Todayhttp://m.staugustine.com/news/local-news/2013-08-15
http://m.staugustine.com/news/local-news/2013-08-15
Dear Mr. Regan and Chief Lueders:
1. Please see Peter Guinta's story in today's St Augustine Record newspaper, and
kindly investigate any possible criminal conspiracy to commit violations of
Florida animal cruelty laws, with planning, approval and ratification of animal
cruelty evidently taking place at Florida National Guard (FNG) offices here in
St. Augustine.
2. Please ask FNG to halt this activity, hesto presto.
3. By copy of this email, I alert and request others to support you in your
efforts, and to cutoff all state and federal funding for this wasteful, callous
cruelty to animals, from this day forward.
4. Please send me a copy of the City of St. Augustine's lease with FNG, and
kindly exercise all of our City's rights as a landlord concerning any illegal
activities on our premises.
5. Let's halt these unAmerican activities, today.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Ed Slavin
Clean Up St Augustine
www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com
Box 3084
St. Augustine, Florida 32085-3084
904-377-4998
Dear Mr. Regan and Chief Lueders:
1. Please see Peter Guinta's story in today's St Augustine Record newspaper, and
kindly investigate any possible criminal conspiracy to commit violations of
Florida animal cruelty laws, with planning, approval and ratification of animal
cruelty evidently taking place at Florida National Guard (FNG) offices here in
St. Augustine.
2. Please ask FNG to halt this activity, hesto presto.
3. By copy of this email, I alert and request others to support you in your
efforts, and to cutoff all state and federal funding for this wasteful, callous
cruelty to animals, from this day forward.
4. Please send me a copy of the City of St. Augustine's lease with FNG, and
kindly exercise all of our City's rights as a landlord concerning any illegal
activities on our premises.
5. Let's halt these unAmerican activities, today.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Ed Slavin
Clean Up St Augustine
www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com
Box 3084
St. Augustine, Florida 32085-3084
904-377-4998
CONTACT INFORMATION FOR FLORIDA NATIONAL GUARD -- Ask Them to Stop Animal Cruelty Today
Major General Emmett Titshaw
The Adjutant General
St. Francis Barracks
82 Marine Street
St. Augustine, Florida 32084
Department of Military Affairs
St. Francis Barracks (904) 823-0364
Public Affairs Office (904) 823-0166
Florida Air National Guard
St. Francis Barracks (904) 823-0601
Tampa (813) 233-2251
Counter Drug Program (904) 823-0440
The Adjutant General
St. Francis Barracks
82 Marine Street
St. Augustine, Florida 32084
Department of Military Affairs
St. Francis Barracks (904) 823-0364
Public Affairs Office (904) 823-0166
Florida Air National Guard
St. Francis Barracks (904) 823-0601
Tampa (813) 233-2251
Counter Drug Program (904) 823-0440
Kudos to National Guard Whistleblower, PETA and Peter Guinta for Revealing Florida National Guard's Planned Cruelty to Animals!
Friday, Aug 16, 2013
Guard plans to maim animals for medic training
By PETER GUINTA
peter.guinta@staugustine.com
A Florida National Guard medical company plans to shoot, stab, dismember and disembowel live pigs and goats in Tampa today to prove something it already knows — that using medical simulators is better than maiming animals.
The unit is the 256th Area Medical Support Company, and the training is until Monday.
According to a Guard statement released Thursday, “This study is funded by a Department of Defense grant to the University of South Florida’s Center for Advanced Medical Learning and Simulation. It will study hemorrhaging control, airway management and emergency medical skills.”
After a whistle-blower exposed the study to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, PETA announced the study as unnecessary and cruel.
The organization further asked Adjutant General Emmitt “Buddy” Titshaw to cancel the activity and follow Department of Defense policies requiring the use of nonanimal training methods when available.
However, the Guard indicated through its statements that the study would proceed as planned.
Justin Goodman, director of PETA’s Laboratory Investigations Department, said medical simulation is the future of military medical training so “no more animals need to be stabbed, mutilated or shot to make this point.”
When questioned about the study, the St. Augustine-based Guard would not speak for the record but instead released a second prepared statement.
“The Florida National Guard appreciates and values the input of our Florida citizens and members of advocacy organizations such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals who feel strongly about this matter,” the statement said. “We are pleased to be supportive of the process that will validate viable alternatives to LTT for our combat medics.”
LTT stands for “live trauma training.”
PETA also re-released an undercover video of a similar training program in Virginia Beach obtained last year showing Coast Guard medics using tree branch trimmers to cut off the legs of goats while the animals were still alive.
In the short film, Coast Guard medics worked with personnel from the private military contractor Tier 1 Group, a Crawfordville, Ark., company formerly known as Aggressive Training Solutions. Tier 1 is owned by Cerebus Capital Management, which also owns Remington Arms, Bushmaster Firearms International and DPMS Panther Arms.
On camera, medics are heard joking about their work.
One said, “Gotta write a song about cutting the limbs off goats.”
Another medic repeatedly stabs a goat with a scalpel and pulls out its internal organs.
Goodman said military and civilian studies have proven that simulators better prepare medics and doctors to perform life-saving trauma.
“That many U.S. military facilities and 80 percent of our NATO allies already use exclusively nonanimal simulation methods to train their personnel is further evidence that the switch (to simulators) could be made tomorrow without subjecting more animals to harm and death,” he said.
In the video, director Oliver Stone, speaking for PETA, said the nation’s military needs the best medical care possible, but doesn’t need to kill 10,000 animals a year to accomplish that.
He called the practice “barbaric.”
“We don’t need to cut animals with scalpels, shoot them in the face or hack them with an axe. Those are nothing like real battle wounds,” Stone said. “This is the 21st-century. There are more humane ways.”
Guard plans to maim animals for medic training
By PETER GUINTA
peter.guinta@staugustine.com
A Florida National Guard medical company plans to shoot, stab, dismember and disembowel live pigs and goats in Tampa today to prove something it already knows — that using medical simulators is better than maiming animals.
The unit is the 256th Area Medical Support Company, and the training is until Monday.
According to a Guard statement released Thursday, “This study is funded by a Department of Defense grant to the University of South Florida’s Center for Advanced Medical Learning and Simulation. It will study hemorrhaging control, airway management and emergency medical skills.”
After a whistle-blower exposed the study to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, PETA announced the study as unnecessary and cruel.
The organization further asked Adjutant General Emmitt “Buddy” Titshaw to cancel the activity and follow Department of Defense policies requiring the use of nonanimal training methods when available.
However, the Guard indicated through its statements that the study would proceed as planned.
Justin Goodman, director of PETA’s Laboratory Investigations Department, said medical simulation is the future of military medical training so “no more animals need to be stabbed, mutilated or shot to make this point.”
When questioned about the study, the St. Augustine-based Guard would not speak for the record but instead released a second prepared statement.
“The Florida National Guard appreciates and values the input of our Florida citizens and members of advocacy organizations such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals who feel strongly about this matter,” the statement said. “We are pleased to be supportive of the process that will validate viable alternatives to LTT for our combat medics.”
LTT stands for “live trauma training.”
PETA also re-released an undercover video of a similar training program in Virginia Beach obtained last year showing Coast Guard medics using tree branch trimmers to cut off the legs of goats while the animals were still alive.
In the short film, Coast Guard medics worked with personnel from the private military contractor Tier 1 Group, a Crawfordville, Ark., company formerly known as Aggressive Training Solutions. Tier 1 is owned by Cerebus Capital Management, which also owns Remington Arms, Bushmaster Firearms International and DPMS Panther Arms.
On camera, medics are heard joking about their work.
One said, “Gotta write a song about cutting the limbs off goats.”
Another medic repeatedly stabs a goat with a scalpel and pulls out its internal organs.
Goodman said military and civilian studies have proven that simulators better prepare medics and doctors to perform life-saving trauma.
“That many U.S. military facilities and 80 percent of our NATO allies already use exclusively nonanimal simulation methods to train their personnel is further evidence that the switch (to simulators) could be made tomorrow without subjecting more animals to harm and death,” he said.
In the video, director Oliver Stone, speaking for PETA, said the nation’s military needs the best medical care possible, but doesn’t need to kill 10,000 animals a year to accomplish that.
He called the practice “barbaric.”
“We don’t need to cut animals with scalpels, shoot them in the face or hack them with an axe. Those are nothing like real battle wounds,” Stone said. “This is the 21st-century. There are more humane ways.”
Monday, August 12, 2013
No, Ms. Fogel, I don't have a degree in journalism
When I questioned her about publishing anonymous death threats last week, St. Augustine Record newspaper Publisher Delinda Fogel asked if I "have a degree in journalism?"
No. See below. It does not seem to inhibit my ability to ask questions, to seek truth and to know right from wrong. It never has and never will, Ms. Fogel.
This morning, a three story resort hotel near Disney World in Orlando collapsed into a sinkhole. The Associated Press reported, as it has previously, that sinkholes are a problem in Florida because of limestone.
That's shallow.
Could it be that sinkholes are also problem in Florida because of groundwater mining by greedy developers, which is permitted by incurious water management districts?
Please dig deeper, Associated Press.
Try to investigate (not obfuscate).
The whole world is watching.
Don't forget to watch tonight's St. Augustine City Commission meeting on streaming video to see if the St. Augustine Record has any defense of its website violating its own Posting Rules, recklessly maintaining a place for hate.
No. See below. It does not seem to inhibit my ability to ask questions, to seek truth and to know right from wrong. It never has and never will, Ms. Fogel.
This morning, a three story resort hotel near Disney World in Orlando collapsed into a sinkhole. The Associated Press reported, as it has previously, that sinkholes are a problem in Florida because of limestone.
That's shallow.
Could it be that sinkholes are also problem in Florida because of groundwater mining by greedy developers, which is permitted by incurious water management districts?
Please dig deeper, Associated Press.
Try to investigate (not obfuscate).
The whole world is watching.
Don't forget to watch tonight's St. Augustine City Commission meeting on streaming video to see if the St. Augustine Record has any defense of its website violating its own Posting Rules, recklessly maintaining a place for hate.
IN HAEC VERBA: COURTYARD BY MARRIOTT Speculator-Developer Demands to Be Relieved of Contractual Obligation to Pay $560,000 for Drainage Improvements -- City of St. Augustine Beach Never Had Copy of Any Franchise Agreement and Speculator-Developer Refuses to Provide It (If One Exists)--
Alas, dear readers, the St. Augustine Record has not reported on this issue.
Wonder why?
----------
Dear Mayor Snodgrass:
1. The City of St. Augustine Beach (SAB) has never had any verification that there was ever any franchise agreement with Courtyard by Marriott, Mr. Ashdji and Mr. Bhoola (Please see SAB correspondence below, and attachment.)
2. Why?
3. IF there was ever a franchise agreement with Courtyard by Marriott, and IF there still is one today, the people have a Right to Know. Marriott won't respond to my calls and E-mail correspondence. Both Messrs. Bhoola and Ashdji decline to produce any documentation establishing the existence of any franchise agreement. Mr. Bhoola told me that Mr. Ashdji "would have" a copy of any such agreement, a phrase that is pregnant with the admission that Mr. Bhoola does not have a copy of any such agreement).
4. Do you agree that the people have a Right to Know, and without further flummery on the part of the speculator-developer, which is demanding to be relieved of its contractual obligation to pay $560,000 for drainage improvements (which are ongoing now in reliance on its contractual obligation)?
5. If there is no proof that there ever was (or is) a franchise agreement, do you believe that approval of this Planned Unit Development (PUD) was, at best, negligent?
6. Do you agree that rote routine rubberstamping of speculator-developers' desires must never be permitted to happen again in SAB?
7. Do you agree that the United States Attorney for the Middle District of Florida and the FBI SAC need to know about this situation? Will you make the referral, or will you ask the City Attorney to do so?
8. Will you promise a higher standard of ethics and disclosure from this day forward, including placing speculator-developers and others under oath during all quasi-judicial hearings?
9. Will you support adding a strong Code of Ethics and Disclosure in the City Charter?
10. I look forward to hearing from you today.
What do you reckon?
With kindest regards, I am,
Sincerely yours,
Ed
Ed Slavin
Clean Up St. Augustine
www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com
Box 3084
St. Augustine, Florida 32085-3084
904-377-4998
-----Original Message-----
From: Cathy Benson
To: easlavin
Cc: Max Royle
Sent: Mon, Aug 12, 2013 11:02 am
Subject: FW: Courtyard by Marriott franchise agreement
Mr. Slavin,
In response to your records request, we have searched our files, but have not
located any agreement between Mr. Bhoola and Marriott Hotels or between Mr.
Ashdji and Mr. Bhoola. The only tie we have it the attached "Owner Permission"
form, which I doubt is what you were hoping to find. The development agreement
does not require any additional documentation that Mr. Ashdji and/or Mr. Bhoola
are associated with Marriott.
Cathy Benson
Deputy City Clerk
City of St. Augustine Beach
2200 A1A South
St. Augustine Beach, FL 32080
904-471-2122
PLEASE NOTE: Under Florida law, most communications to and from the City are
public records. Your e-mails, including your e-mail address, may be subject to
public disclosure.
-----Original Message-----
From: Max Royle
Sent: Friday, August 09, 2013 4:39 PM
To: Ed Slavin
Cc: Cathy Benson
Subject: RE: Courtyard by Marriott franchise agreement
Mr. Slavin, Do you mean Mr. Bhoola's agreement with Marriott? If so, I don't
think the City has it. I'll ask Ms. Benson on Monday to check the files. Max
-----Original Message-----
From: Ed Slavin [mailto:easlavin@aol.com]
Sent: Friday, August 09, 2013 4:32 PM
To: Max Royle
Cc: Cathy Benson
Subject: Re: Courtyard by Marriott franchise agreement
No. The developer/speculator's agreement with Marriott-- do we have a copy?
Please respond today.
On Aug 9, 2013, at 4:33 PM, Max Royle wrote:
> Mr. Slavin, The City doesn't have a franchise agreement with the owner of the
site for the Courtyard by Marriott Hotel. The City has an approved planned unit
development for the Hotel. If this is what you mean, Ms. Benson on Monday will
research the City's records and provide the information to you. Max
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ed Slavin [mailto:easlavin@aol.com]
> Sent: Friday, August 09, 2013 3:41 PM
> To: Max Royle
> Subject: Courtyard by Marriott franchise agreement
>
> Please send. Thank you.
Wonder why?
----------
Dear Mayor Snodgrass:
1. The City of St. Augustine Beach (SAB) has never had any verification that there was ever any franchise agreement with Courtyard by Marriott, Mr. Ashdji and Mr. Bhoola (Please see SAB correspondence below, and attachment.)
2. Why?
3. IF there was ever a franchise agreement with Courtyard by Marriott, and IF there still is one today, the people have a Right to Know. Marriott won't respond to my calls and E-mail correspondence. Both Messrs. Bhoola and Ashdji decline to produce any documentation establishing the existence of any franchise agreement. Mr. Bhoola told me that Mr. Ashdji "would have" a copy of any such agreement, a phrase that is pregnant with the admission that Mr. Bhoola does not have a copy of any such agreement).
4. Do you agree that the people have a Right to Know, and without further flummery on the part of the speculator-developer, which is demanding to be relieved of its contractual obligation to pay $560,000 for drainage improvements (which are ongoing now in reliance on its contractual obligation)?
5. If there is no proof that there ever was (or is) a franchise agreement, do you believe that approval of this Planned Unit Development (PUD) was, at best, negligent?
6. Do you agree that rote routine rubberstamping of speculator-developers' desires must never be permitted to happen again in SAB?
7. Do you agree that the United States Attorney for the Middle District of Florida and the FBI SAC need to know about this situation? Will you make the referral, or will you ask the City Attorney to do so?
8. Will you promise a higher standard of ethics and disclosure from this day forward, including placing speculator-developers and others under oath during all quasi-judicial hearings?
9. Will you support adding a strong Code of Ethics and Disclosure in the City Charter?
10. I look forward to hearing from you today.
What do you reckon?
With kindest regards, I am,
Sincerely yours,
Ed
Ed Slavin
Clean Up St. Augustine
www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com
Box 3084
St. Augustine, Florida 32085-3084
904-377-4998
-----Original Message-----
From: Cathy Benson
To: easlavin
Cc: Max Royle
Sent: Mon, Aug 12, 2013 11:02 am
Subject: FW: Courtyard by Marriott franchise agreement
Mr. Slavin,
In response to your records request, we have searched our files, but have not
located any agreement between Mr. Bhoola and Marriott Hotels or between Mr.
Ashdji and Mr. Bhoola. The only tie we have it the attached "Owner Permission"
form, which I doubt is what you were hoping to find. The development agreement
does not require any additional documentation that Mr. Ashdji and/or Mr. Bhoola
are associated with Marriott.
Cathy Benson
Deputy City Clerk
City of St. Augustine Beach
2200 A1A South
St. Augustine Beach, FL 32080
904-471-2122
PLEASE NOTE: Under Florida law, most communications to and from the City are
public records. Your e-mails, including your e-mail address, may be subject to
public disclosure.
-----Original Message-----
From: Max Royle
Sent: Friday, August 09, 2013 4:39 PM
To: Ed Slavin
Cc: Cathy Benson
Subject: RE: Courtyard by Marriott franchise agreement
Mr. Slavin, Do you mean Mr. Bhoola's agreement with Marriott? If so, I don't
think the City has it. I'll ask Ms. Benson on Monday to check the files. Max
-----Original Message-----
From: Ed Slavin [mailto:easlavin@aol.com]
Sent: Friday, August 09, 2013 4:32 PM
To: Max Royle
Cc: Cathy Benson
Subject: Re: Courtyard by Marriott franchise agreement
No. The developer/speculator's agreement with Marriott-- do we have a copy?
Please respond today.
On Aug 9, 2013, at 4:33 PM, Max Royle
> Mr. Slavin, The City doesn't have a franchise agreement with the owner of the
site for the Courtyard by Marriott Hotel. The City has an approved planned unit
development for the Hotel. If this is what you mean, Ms. Benson on Monday will
research the City's records and provide the information to you. Max
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ed Slavin [mailto:easlavin@aol.com]
> Sent: Friday, August 09, 2013 3:41 PM
> To: Max Royle
> Subject: Courtyard by Marriott franchise agreement
>
> Please send. Thank you.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)