Governor DeSantis continues to surprise me. Keep up the good work. I love how he's taking on algae pollution, banned fracking, appointed a Chief Science Officer, and asked for resignation of every single industry hack on the South Florida Water Management District. Every single one.
Gov. DeSantis Pledges $2.5 Billion for Environment, Asks SFWMD Board to Resign
Governor Ron DeSantis spent the day touring the state announcing big changes to the way his office will handle water issues. He started by signing an executive order to dramatically increase funding for the Everglades, algae research, and a ban on hydraulic fracking. He ended the day in Stuart, Florida announcing he had asked for the resignation of every board member at the South Florida Water Management District.
The morning began with a quick boat tour of the Little Hickory Bay behind Bonita Beach, where Governor Ron DeSantis stood, flanked by conservation leaders, a fishing boat captain, and state legislators. After docking, he signed an executive order to spend 2.5 billion dollars on work and research to solve water flow problems, algae blooms, and other environmental concerns.
“That represents one billion dollars more than the previous four years,” DeSantis said.
His order also calls for the appointment of a “Chief Science Officer” and moving enforcement of environmental law under the jurisdiction of the Department of Environmental Protection- as opposed to the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission; which oversees enforcement now. Two moves that stood out to Conservancy of Southwest Florida President Rob Moher.
“I think the enforcement and the focus on science have been critical missing pieces and that’s a big missing piece that we have not had on the table that is now on the table,” Moher said.
The executive order also establishes a “Blue-Green Algae Task Force,” creates an “Office of Environmental Accountability and Transparency,” and urges the South Florida Water Management District to immediately push forward with the Everglades Agricultural Area Reservoir.
DeSantis signing executive order 19-12.
CREDIT RACHEL IACOVONE / WGCU
The Governor also expressed frustration with the Army Corps of Engineers, and his executive order includes language holding that agency to account.
“We want them to understand the effects that the blue-green algae has had on the coastal communities and to do everything in their power – which I don’t think they’ve done so far- to mitigate that,” DeSantis said.
Later in the day at a stop in Stuart, DeSantis announced he’d sent a letter to every member of the South Florida Water Management District board thanking them for their service, and asking for their resignation – effective immediately.
Governor DeSantis' letter to the South Florida Water Management District board members
CREDIT DESANTIS NEWS RELEASE
This is the same board that, just before the election late last year, approved to lease 16,000 acres – which was to be used in the EAA Reservoir Project – for farming by New Hope Sugar Company through 2027.
I just learned that our friend and mentor, Dr. Abraham Cohen, Ph.D. has died. Abe was a model mensch, a retired professor and psychologist who studied under Abraham Maslow.
Abe taught me so much. Abe had a wonderful life and was a treasured member of our community here in St. Augustine. He was a WWII Army Air Corps Captain of B-17s, who helped bomb Munich. He flew numerous graves registration missions, carrying dead soldier's bodies after the war. After his military service, Abe drove a cab and earned his degrees on the G.I. Bill of Rights.
My heart goes out to his family at the loss of their father and grandfather.
Abe meant so much to me -- he was a friend, a mentor, a mensch.
He lived a wonderful life and helped so many people. We will miss him greatly.
From the St. Augustine Record:
January 1, 2019 Abraham Cohen, 92, died at home. In the 1930s Abe survived polio at the age of eight. He received Sister Kenny treatments and was well enough at the age of fifteen to swim for the Catholic swim team and become a lifeguard in Coney Island and Brighton Beach. He enlisted early in the Army, later in the Army Air Corps, with his parents' permission. He flew B17s in Europe until the end of WWII, when he was reassigned to flying VIPs and graves registration. His stories from the post war period are legend among his family and friends. When he returned to the US, he finished high school then attended Brooklyn College and CCNY on the GI Bill, also driving a cab to make ends meet. His degree there was in physics. He was married to his first wife, Alice Sheff, who recently predeceased him, and they moved together to Levittown. There he continued his education while his wife was teaching and earned his PhD in psychology. He and Alice divorced in 1963. In 1964 he married June Elsie Bayard, at teacher, whom he had met while working as a school psychologist at the Howell Road School in Valley Stream. After their daughter was born, Abe and June moved to Hempstead. Abe went on to teach at Adelphi University, there starting We Care and Psychological Services. He also had a private practice in his house, and served as co director for the Drug Commission in East Meadow, NY. Abe worked so very hard all of his life, rising at six am six days a week and coming home most weeknights at ten o'clock. He never missed a Sunday with his daughter, taking her to museums, or flying. In 1983, Abe retired and moved to St Augustine, FL. June followed him after finishing her pension a few years later. They had many happy years together here, and they both became vital members of their community. They were active members of the Unitarian Fellowship, and Abe loved his discussion groups, many of which will be very fondly remembered by his friends. In 2011 June began a long illness. Abe stepped right up to the plate and took loving care of her and charge of all her affairs. He was a tremendous comfort and source of strength to all during that time. During his last years, Abe suffered from severe copd, some memory loss, a renal tumor, and sick sinus syndrome. He lived with his daughter, and despite the kind, gentle attempts by his good friends he was not persuaded from the haven of his home often. He did like to go to Walmart on the weekends, and got much love from the staff there when he arrived and checked out.
Abe is predeceased by June, Alice, his parents, Manya and Louis Cohen, his sister Doris Sager, his nephew, Bill Bayard, his grand nephew, Billy Bayard. He is survived by his daughter, Jean Harris-Letts, MD of St Augustine, his granddaughter, Eve Letts of Gainesville, his sister in law, Marion Payne, his nieces and their husbands, Susan Bayard Whiting, Bob Whiting, Patricia Bayard, Vincent Jockimo, Maggie Bayard. He also is survived by his many dear friends. In lieu of gifts or flowers it is requested donations be made in his name to the following causes/charities: Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Southern Poverty Law Center, ACLU. Services are planned at graveside at Union Cemetary in Fort Edward, NY in August, 2019.
Published in St. Augustine Record on Jan. 10, 2019
JOE SAVIAK has been hired as Executive Director of the Flagler County Sheriff. SAVIAK left Flagler College last month.
Why this matters:
SAVIAK threatened the Florida Board of Law Examiners and judges with criminal and civil actions when he flunked the Florida Bar.
SAVIAK falsely attacked Bill Nelson as an. anti-Semite in 1998.
SAVIAK made false and malicious attacks on Mayor Nancy Shaver, 2016-2018.
SAVIAK made illegal threats agains me in 2016.
SAVIAK claimed he would not be hired by many colleges and universities because he's a "Christian" and a "conservative."
Flagler College wisely decided it no longer needed SAVIAK's services, such as they are.
So Flagler County Sheriff Frederick "Rick" Staly hired him?
Wonder why?
I've asked the Flagler County Sheriff for the Joe Saviak hiring documents, including the job vacancy announcement to which he responded, showing where it was posted/advertised:
job application,
job description
document showing date of creation of position and vacancy
letters of recommendation/reference,
c.v./ resume,
undergraduate school transcript,
law school transcript,
published or unpublished writing samples,
interview notes and videotapes,
background, fitness-for-duty and security clearance investigations,
Without a plan, without a clue, the City of St. Augustine City Manager wants to spend $250,000 buying a property susceptible of flooding from clients of politically connected TROY BLEVINS.
This smacks of favoritism, like the $229,000 purchase of a carwash at King and U.S. 1 from NORBERT TUSEO in 2010.
It's our money.
Come speak out against this deal.
How much would you pay for this Coquina Avenue property?
This property, approximately 0.64 acres total, is conveniently located next to a city sewer lift station on a street that Public Works Director, Michael Cullum, says is susceptible to tidal flooding.
In a land grab already underway, you will pay $459,000, or more, if St Augustine City Manager John Regan has his way. And you’ll have absolutely nothing to say about it. This dilapidated family estate stands almost the same as it did in the 1950’s — never improved, modernized, it doesn’t have air-conditioning, and arguably it shouldn’t be occupied given its state of disrepair.
Basically, it’s a teardown.
The property appraiser, Eddie Creamer, has judged the fair market value of the .46-acre lot and 1959-era, 968sf wood-frame house, at $222,758 and the .18-acre vacant lot at 91 Coquina Avenue at $137,270. Total appraised value for both is $360,028, according to his office records.
But before Christmas, with no public notice or hearing and with no advance notice before the commission, Regan took it upon himself (which he has no authority to do with obligations of this size) to write an offer to purchase the property located at 91 and 93 Coquina Avenue for $459,000.00. He wrote to the listing agent, “The property is of high interest to the City for a variety of reasons,” but the commission and the public do not know about it.
The Estate of Jo Meldrim is administered by her daughter, Carolyn Moore, and she has hired multi-talented radio personality, A.D. Davis foreman, and Coquina Coast Realty LLC real estate mogul, Samuel “Troy” Blevins — at least for a couple of months until his license expires.
Before her death in 2016, Meldrim and Moore made property tax payments for the two properties totaling $7,633.04. If the City buys the property, that recurring revenue will stop.
If you would like to be heard, this item comes up on the January 14th agenda and is under
ITEM 7-B ITEMS OF GREAT PUBLIC IMPORTANCE
7.B.1. Program update for the ongoing Resiliency, Adaptation and Sustainability Program. (M. Cullum, Director, Public Works).
7.B.2. Discussion of potential Coquina Avenue land acquisition. (M. Cullum, Director, Public Works).
If you plan to attend, the commission meets in the Alcazar Room of City Hall, located at 75 King Street, on Monday, January 14, 2019, beginning at 5:00 p.m. Speaker cards are available at the back of the meeting room. Complete one and return it to the Clerk if you would like up to be heard before the commissioners for 3-minutes.
St. Augustine Beach Mayor Undine Celeste Pawlowski George, center, Vice Mayor Margaret England (left) and Commissioner Donald Samora, right, sworn in by City Attorney James Patrick Wilson January 7, 2019 -- watched by controversial twice-fined ex-Mayor and Commissioner Richard Burtt O'Brien (far right), who nominated George for a second term as Mayor, as photos are taken by incurious St. Augustine Record reporter Sheldon Gardner (far left) and St. Augustine Beach City Manager Bruce Max Royle, won falls asleep in meetings, a datum that Gardner hasnevershared with her readers. Pitiful.
There were no cupcakes present, nor alcohol, and no members of the St. Augustine Beach Civic Association, for the inauguration of Mayor George to her second term as Mayor, and her third term as Commissioner.
Is this latest RICHARD LYNN SCOTT faux pas a case of res ipsa loquitur -- the thing speaks for itself?
Serving the end of his two terms in office as Governor, Florida's freshman Senator, RICK SCOTT, left the inauguration of our new Governor DeSantis early, after making dozens of last-minute appointments, got sworn in as Senator at 4 PM on Tuesday, January 8, 2019, then holding a fundraiser in Washington, D.C. during the third week of President DONALD JOHN TRUMP's government shutdown, competing with the same time as Governor DeSantis' inaugural ball in Tallahassee.
From Tampa Bay Times:
Rick Scott holds party during government shut down
His 'Sunshine Ball' seeks $100,000 donations to his political committee
Rick Scott promised to "get something done" if elected Florida Senator. Today he becomes a senator, and one of the first things he will get done is raising money for his political committee.
He hosts a black tie Sunshine Ball tonight in Washington, where donors are asked to contribute up to $100,000.
The gala party at the Andrew Mellon Auditorium comes in the midst of a federal government shut down. Thousands of federal workers are going unpaid, while Scott donors will pay at least $25,000 for a photo opportunity with Florida's new senator.
Scott is scheduled to be sworn in at 4 p.m., and Florida's senior Senator, Marco Rubio, will attend.
"Senator-elect Scott is excited to start his term in the U.S. Senate and fight for Florida families," Scott spokesman Chris Hartline said when asked about the Sunshine Ball. "During his 8 years as governor, Governor Scott didn't accept a salary. In the Senate, he will be donating his full salary."
The 7 p.m. Sunshine Ball conflicts with The Governor's Inaugural Ball for Ron DeSantis at the Donald L. Tucker Civic Center in Tallahassee. Donors and supporters of both will have to choose which bash to attend.
President Donald Trump will cut into Scott's party, holding a prime time , Oval Office TV address about the government shut down and southern border fence at 9 p.m.
The Senate on Tuesday evening is also scheduled to consider its first bill of the new Congress, a Middle East defense and policy package that just so happens to be sponsored by Sen. Rubio.
Sounds like Special Counsel Robert Swan Mueller, III is headed toward another Gambino-style rollup, with our President* DONALD JOHN TRUMP at the center of Russian-organized influence operations contaminating our democracy. Let justice be done though the heavens fall.
From Huffington Post and The New York Times:
Mueller, Feds Probe Ukrainian Officials Who Attended Trump’s Inauguration: Report
Some of the officials reportedly hoped to gauge how they could become influential to the new administration, in order to boost issues favorable to Russia.
Special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign has zeroed in on at least a dozen Ukrainian officials in politics and business who may have used Trump’s 2017 inauguration to advocate for pro-Russia policies and business deals, The New York Times reported Thursday.
According to the report, various officials attended big-ticket events hosted by Trump’s inauguration committee, using the opportunity to meet with Republican lawmakers and Trump allies, including by holding some meetings at Trump’s hotel in Washington. Several of the officials reportedly hoped to gauge how they could become influential in the eyes of the new administration, in order to boost issues favorable to Russia — such as lifting U.S. sanctions imposed after Russia’s seizure of Crimea — or land business deals.
Mueller and other federal prosecutors have opened inquiries into the officials, part of a larger thread of developments involving pro-Russian lobbying in Ukraine.
Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was convicted last year for crimes related to his work as a pro-Russian lobbyist in Ukraine. This week, Mueller’s investigation revealed in a court filing that it has accused Manafort of providing internal polling data from Trump’s campaign to suspected Russian intelligence operative Konstantin Kilimnik, another figure in Mueller’s investigation.
The Florida Senate's response to the open notorious public demeaning sexual harassment and retaliation by its former Appropriations Chair JACK LATVALA was to try to sweep future complaints under the rug, while dispensing more than $1 million in settlements and defense costs, obliging the victim never to apply or work for the Florida Senate again.
This stinks.
From Politico:
Under the new rules, if the complaint is not tossed by the special master or a Senate president-appointed select committee, it goes to a separate select committee appointed by the Senate president. | AP Photo
Senate’s quiet post-Latvala rules overhaul draws criticism from advocates
TALLAHASSEE — One year after sexual misconduct investigations took down former state Sen. Jack Latvala, the Florida Senate has rewritten its process for handling the sort of complaints that hastened the powerful senator’s resignation, including axing the requirement for an outside legal review.
The new chamber rules apply to a rules complaint filed for any reason — not just sexual misconduct. But the process for dealing with these complaints has been defined over the past year by the Latvala resignation, which was aided in large part by a rules complaint filed by legislative staffer Rachel Perrin Rogers, who said Latvala had long sexually harassed her.
New state Senate President Bill Galvano, the Bradenton Republican who crafted the rules, said he wanted to clean up the process for handling rules. But sexual harassment experts fear that some of the changes could present a challenge to victims who want to use the Senate rules complaint process.
The overhaul of how the Senate handles rules complaints includes, among other things: an option to move forward with an investigation without an outside probe; procedures that could result in complaints going through two committees appointed by the Senate president; and a new gag order discouraging senators from discussing publicly any filed rules complaint.
“I thought the whole process should be cleaned up so it was clear what steps we needed to take to avoid ambiguity,” Galvano said.
The new rules were adopted last week by the 40-person Senate without public discussion. Any incoming Senate president gets the chance to re-write chamber rules, including those related to complaints, ahead of their two-year term as presiding officer. Galvano stressed that his changes include a new 30 day timeline to take action once a complaint is filed, which prevents a complaint being “buried with inaction,” and that a copy must now also be filed with the Senate general counsel. Galvano said that new requirement is a “check on the president and rules chair” because the general counsel would have an obligation to report any criminal misconduct to outside law enforcement.
If some of the changes had been in place last year, they could have impacted Perrin Rogers’ rules complaint, which played a big role in forcing Latvala’s resignation.
Under Senate rules in effect at the time Perrin Rogers filed her rules complaint, any complaints not thrown out for lack of evidence had to be turned over a special master for an outside investigation. In Perrin Rogers’ case, after a lengthy investigation separate from the Senate process, special master Ronald Swanson eventually confirmed Latvala had a lengthy track record of sexual harassment, and recommended that law enforcement investigate allegations that Latvala, who was the Senate budget chief, traded sexual favors for legislative help. Charges were never brought related to the quid pro quo allegations.
Latvala announced he was resigningin Dec. 2017 after Swanson’s report, the second against the embattled senator, was released. Both investigations started after POLITICO reported that six women, including Perrin Rogers, anonymously accused Latvala of harassment or groping.
Under the Senate’s new rules, the requirement for that outside special master investigation would no longer exist. The new rules still allow for the Senate Rules Committee chair to turn over a complaint to an outside special master, like Perrin Rogers’ was, but a complaint can now also be sent to a select committee appointed by Galvano. He says the additional option will help streamline the process in cases that are not complex and where a full outside investigation is not required to determine if there is probable cause.
“Sometimes a select committee can do the job depending on the circumstances, and I wanted to have that flexibility to find probable cause,” he said.
But Tina Tchen, a Chicago-based attorney who was Michelle Obama’s chief of staff and a co-founder of a new legal defense group for sex harassment victims called Time's Up, told POLITICO that complaints should trigger an automatic outside probe.
“Especially when the allegation is against a member, it’s important to have an independent outside investigation outside of their peers,” Tchen said. “It’s normal to have punishment by the members. But you need to have that punishment informed by an outside investigation ... You want people who are trained in trauma-informed investigations.”
Tchen pointed to Maryland as a model for dealing with sexual harassment in state government. The state recently changed its policies to require that an independent investigator handle complaints.
She also said the rules set too high of a bar for victims to report an incident of sexual harassment.
“Sexual harassment complaints are unique. In these kinds of complaints, there’s not always a lot of documentation,” said Tchen. “The collection of the evidence is what happens in an investigation. This is asking them to get all the evidence before the complaint.”
Under the new rules, if the complaint is not tossed by the special master or a Senate president-appointed select committee, it goes to a separate select committee appointed by the Senate president. The second committee, which can have different members than the first committee, would consider any report put together by the special master for the first committee. It could either reject the report, approve its recommendations, or come up with its own set of recommendations.
“The second committee is a serious concern,” Rory Gerberg, a Harvard University fellow focused on sexual harassment and assault training, said after POLITICO provided her a copy of the new rules to review.
She said the biggest problem is that a second committee is only deemed necessary if the initial investigation comes out in favor of a person filing the complaint. It means a successful complaint can then go to a second committee, which can re-write the initial findings and come up with their own.
“It’s bad enough when findings of misconduct are not sanctioned by institutions. This is worse,” Gerberg said. “It allows the Senate to avoid sanctioning that conduct by actually re-writing the version of history, potentially pulling out from victims the one form of justice they would otherwise have — the mere recognition that it happened.”
“That’s devastating,” she added.
Galvano said the two layers — the first special master or select committee review, then the second select committee — help add clarity. The first, either a special master or select committee, determines if there is probable cause, while the second is tasked with further investigation and finalizing a final recommendation, which could be punishment or tossing the complaint.
When asked why a complaint would potentially go through two separate committees, Galvano replied: “Because they are two separate functions.”
Though each committee would have a different scope, Rick Johnson, a longtime employee rights attorney, agreed the new rules were problematic, calling the potential two-committee approach a “needless obstacle in the path of justice for the victim.”
“I’m concerned about the offender getting to go before a second select committee if the first one does not dismiss the complaint,” said Johnson, who represented Kathy Jennings in her 1990s sexual harassment case against then-state Rep. Fred Lippman.
“I know of no other area of law that provides for a simple do-over if the accused simply does not like the first outcome,” said Johnson, who was asked for comment after POLITICO showed him a copy of the new Senate rules.
He also expressed concern over new language added to the rule that prohibits a senator “from speaking publicly about the merits or substance” of a rules complaint. As the Latvala saga unfolded, there were several senators who spoke to the members of the media about their perception of the issue, including high-profile press conferences calling on Latvala to resign.
Galvano said the rule was driven by the fact he does not think senators should speak publicly to a complaint against a member that they may later have to vote to reprimand or expel from the Senate.
“It’s public perception, but also you don’t want to taint the process with early judgment,” Galvano said. “The same member could ultimately end up making the final judgments.”
Gerberg, the Harvard fellow, disagreed, calling the new language a “gag order dressed in the language of due process.”
“To ban any Senator from speaking due to the theoretical potential they may be askedto sit in judgment is draconian,” she said.
Johnson, the longtime employee rights attorney, compared it to if Congress put in place a rule preventing members from discussing ongoing investigations.
“I would hate to see a rule prohibiting Congress from public discussion of Trump’s misdeeds on the grounds that they may someday have to vote on impeachment,” he said.
Democratic state Sen. Lauren Book (D-Plantation) condemned Latvala’s “scorched earth” tactics last December as he publicly fought Perrin Rogers’ complaint against him through the press. She defended the updated rules to POLITICO as more comprehensive and said they wouldn’t keep her from speaking out to the press in the future.
But, she acknowledged that if she did speak to the press about a future complaint, she could be barred from the Senate’s new select-committee process, or potentially even from a chamber vote to punish the senator.
Book, a victim of childhood sex abuse, sponsored an anti-sexual harassment bill that died in the Senate at the end of last session. She said there was perhaps a need to carve out sexual harassment complaints and give them their own section of the chamber’s rule manual. Book is planning on filing another measure to overhaul the state government’s policies on sexual harassment next legislative session.
“That’s why we are continuing to move forward with our bill and continuing to look at these issues," said Book . “This is a step in the right direction.”
Other additions to the Senate’s rules for handling rule complaints include:
— Adding “admonishment” to the potential penalties a member could face. It would be the least severe punishment that now could be doled out under the Senate rules, which also include a censure, formal reprimand, or being expelled from the chamber.
— The new rules also offer an informal punishment for senators who commit rules violations that might be “inadvertent, technical, or otherwise de minimisviolations.” Galavano said the option should be available for very minor rule violations.
its $900,000 settlement and unknown cost of legal defense and SLAPP litigation,
JACK LATVALA's, its disgraced former Appropriations Committee Chair and his open, notorious sexual harassment of women in the Capitol and private clubs.
So I asked Governor Ron DeSantis, the State Library and Information Services Director, Amy Johnson, State Senate President William Galvano and Senator Travis Hutson for help. Still waiting for records requested one week ago.
-----Original Message----- From: Ed Slavin To: rddesantis ; desantis.opengov ; archives Cc: BETTA.KATHERINE ; BROWN.DEBBIE ; PublicRecordsRequests ; PEREZ.MICHELLE ; rddesantis ; desantis.opengov ; hawkes.jeremiah ; galvano.bill.web ; hutson.travis.web ; wgalvano ; georgio ; waltbog Sent: Fri, Jan 11, 2019 9:08 am Subject: Re: Ed Slavin Request No. 2019-6: Florida State Senate $900,000 EEOC sexual harassment and retaliation settlement in Rachel Perrin Rogers v. State Senator Jack Latvala, et al./ florida Senate Public Records Request #19
Dear Governor DeSantis and Ms. Johnson: Please send me all documents concerning any briefings or responses by Governors Rick Scott and Ron DeSantis and staffs to the Florida State Senate's:
1. Toxic hostile working environment and documented sexual harassment by Senate Appropriations Committee Chair JACK LATVALA.
2. 2018 lawsuit against EEOC in federal court seeking to terminate EEOC's jurisdiction
3. $900,000 EEOC settlement obliging sexual harassment victim to quit her job and never apply for work with the Florida Senate again
On deadline.
The Senate has not yet provided any documents in response to my week-old requests No. 2019-6.
Will you and your respective staffs please help me get our public records released today?
Thank you.
With kindest regards, I am,
Sincerely yours,
Ed Slavin
904-377-4998
www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com
www.edslavin.com
-----Original Message----- From: Ed Slavin To: hawkes.jeremiah ; galvano.bill.web ; hutson.travis.web ; wgalvano Sent: Thu, Jan 10, 2019 5:17 pm Subject: Re: Ed Slavin Request No. 2019-6: Florida State Senate $900,000 EEOC sexual harassment and retaliation settlement in Rachel Perrin Rogers v. State Senator Jack Latvala, et al./ florida Senate Public Records Request #19
Dear Senators Gslvano and Hutson:
Please direct your staff to send the records. On deadline.
Please call me to discuss this settlement and Senate's SLAPP lawsuit against EEOC.
Thank you.
Cordially,
Ed Slavin
-----Original Message----- From: Ed Slavin To: hawkes.jeremiah Sent: Fri, Jan 4, 2019 8:14 pm Subject: Ed Slavin Request No. 2019-6: Florida State Senate $900,000 EEOC sexual harassment and retaliation settlement in Rachel Perrin Rogers v. State Senator Jack Latvala, et al./ florida Senate Public Records Request #19
Dear Mr. Hawkes: 1. Please call me to discuss.
2. Please send me the requested documents.
Thank you.
With kindest regards, I am,
Sincerely yours,
Ed Slavin
904-377-4998
www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com
www.edslavin.com
-----Original Message----- From: Ed Slavin To: PublicRecordsRequests Cc: georgio ; BETTA.KATHERINE ; BROWN.DEBBIE ; Hawkes.Jeremiah ; PEREZ.MICHELLE ; rddesantis ; hutson.travis.web ; scottopengov ; waltbog Sent: Fri, Jan 4, 2019 6:14 pm Subject: Re: Ed Slavin Request No. 2019-6: Florida State Senate $900,000 EEOC sexual harassment and retaliation settlement in Rachel Perrin Rogers v. State Senator Jack Latvala, et al./ florida Senate Public Records Request #19
Dear Ms. Perez:
1. The Florida State Senate's delay is disdainful and disrespectful to the public's constitutional Right to Know, voted by 83% of Florida voters in Article I, Sec. 24, Florida Constitution.
2. Please send documents. Now.
3. As James Madison wrote, "Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives."
4. Please call me today to discuss.
5. Please include "Request No. 2019-6: Florida State Senate $900,000 EEOC sexual harassment and retaliation settlement in Rachel Perrin Rogers v. State Senator Jack Latvala, et al." in the title of all e-mails and correspondence.
The Senate received your public records request dated January 4, 2019, for the following:
·“Please send me all of the documents on Rachel Perrin Rogers v. State Senator Jack Latvala, et al., involving a reported $900,000 EEOC settlement re: sexual harassment and retaliation by former State Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Jack Latvala. Please include all draft settlement agreements and documents on discussion and discussion between the parties, negotiations on the amount and terms of settlement, legal filings, analytical statements of position, briefs, EEOC and court investigative statements, affidavits, depositions, etc.”
A response to this request will be given in a reasonable amount of time. Should this request result in an extensive use of Senate information technology resources, clerical or supervisory assistance, an extensive use fee estimate will be provided for approval prior to processing the request.
The Senate provides this response pursuant to Article 1, Section 24 of the Florida Constitution, section 11.0431, Florida Statutes, and Senate Rule 1.48. Under Article 1, Section 24(c) of the Florida Constitution, each house of the Legislature is exclusively authorized to adopt rules governing the enforcement of the maintenance, control and disposition of public records with respect to their own public records.
The Senate will be in contact should any additional information be needed. Otherwise, a notification will be sent once the records are ready for release.
Sign here, ma'am Here's $900,000 of state tax money, but you'll never work in Tallahassee again!
That's how incoming Florida State Senate President William Saint "Bill" Galvano (R-Pinellas)(left) just settled a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission case alleging sexual battery by former State Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Jack Latvala (R-Pasco/Pinellas).
Senator Latvala's alleged, public sexual misconduct was exposed in 2017 by Politico, which reported rude, crude, demeaning, degrading public grab-ass behavior directed at six women. A former legislator, Congressman Matt Gaetz (R-FL1), described Latvala as "an absolute hound."
Latvala allegedly:
Offered women lobbyists legislation in exchange for sex,
Touched and made public comments on women's body parts, and did so in the Capitol complex and in Tallahassee's secretive private clubs, including at least one whose rules ban reporters.
Senate Appropriations Chair Latvala resigned in 2017, did not run for Governor and escaped criminal prosecution in 2018. Now one Latvala victim, Rachel Perrin Rogers, is getting $900,000 of your tax money, but she is legally forbidden to apply for any job with the Florida State, by settlement that effectively ends her Tallahassee political career.
Saying he desires to "move forward," Florida Senate President Galvano approved the $900,000 settlement, avoiding a jury trial and open public court testimony by Tallahassee politicos about louche, loutish, libidinous Latvala's routine habit and practice toward women staffers and lobbyists.
"Moving forward?" Exactly where, Senator? Waiting to interview him.
In October, emitting a half-baked "state's rights" argument, Florida Senate sued the United States of America EEOC in a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP), asserting Eleventh Amendment "sovereign immunity" from the 1991 Government Employee Rights Act. The Florida Senate vowed to go the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals when Judge Hinkle said he thought he lacked jurisdiction. Florida Senate paid law firms Sidley & Austin and Holland & Knight to litigate before an EEOC Administrative Law Judge and federal courts. The Florida Senate's SLAPP case was dismissed as moot last month after the $900,000 settlement, now final.
What''s next?
Our Florida State Senate must act to:
Force Latvala to pay for the $900,000 settlement. (His net worth is reportedly $7.4 million)
Reject the settlement clause barring Ms. Rogers from ever applying for a job with the Florida State Senate again.
Hold public hearings.
Apologize to Ms. Rogers and other victims.
Otherwise, there's no remedy for Tallahasee's toxic, hostile work environment.
Why this matters:
It's our money.
It's our government.
Extirpating discrimination and ending hostile working environments is a fundamental human right.
Yale Law Professor Owen M. Fiss wrote a 1984 article, "Against Settlement," arguing that some cases are so important that they require trials, not settlements. (What if Brown v. Board of Education were settled on the quietus, without no legally binding precedent?).
Federal courts exist to remedy dysfunctional lawbreaking organizations -- like lawbreaking police departments, workplaces, schools and prisons. That's what happened in the 1990s in NOW Legal Defense Fund's landmark Robinson v. Jacksonville Shipyards case, in which United States District Judge Howell Webster Melton, a St. Augustine resident, empowered women workers and transformed another grab-ass workplace with intense remedial scrutiny.
In contrast, the $900,000 "cash-and-go" Rogers settlement leaves Florida's State Senate unreformed and leaves Latvala and other tortfeasors "unwhipped of justice."
Discrimination victims have a right to remain in their job, in a non-hostile working environment.
But when the employer and employee agree in settlement that there is a toxic, hostile working environment, wise employment lawyers counsel their clients not to go back to work in a radioactive snake pit.
At Oak Ridge National Laboratory in 1994, a clerical employee working with decades-old environmental paperwork was retaliated against for asking questions. Some 125 clerical employees were working in inappropriate office space, on top of the radioactive, toxic remains of ORNL's Molten Salt Reactor Experiment -- never decontaminated or decommissioned, causing radioactive criticality and fluorine release risks to employees. The victim agreed to a cash settlement and never to reapply for a.job with Lockheed Martin ever again, appending a list of some 150+ subsidiaries worldwide. Why? Reinstatement to a radioactive snake pit would not work.
Despite Politico's reporting and the #Me Too movement, will our Florida State Senate remain a toxic, hostile, radioactive working environment, a snake pit for ethical employees?
Would you want your sister to work there?
A Senate committee hearing is required to determine who authorized the Senate lawyers' demand that Ms. Rogers never apply, and never work, for the Florida State Senate again.
Rather than thank, praise and promote the whistleblower -- and remedy the toxic hostile working environment -- the Senate's cynical settlement treats Ms. Rogers like a leper, shaming the victim and providing a "lettuce poultice."
The Rogers v. Florida settlement was negotiated by Florida State Senate General Counsel Jeremiah Hawkes, 41, a failed county court judge candidate whom the Florida Bar website currently predicts will be President of the Florida Police Lawyers Association until "2030." Jeremiah Hawkes worked for Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco and was Florida House General Counsel under then-Speaker Marco Antonio Rubio, now U.S. Senator. His brother Joshua is a member of the Florida Ethics Commission and Foley and Lardner law firm associate.
Rogers settlement signer Jeremiah Hawkes is the son of lobbyist Paul M. Hawkes, former Chief Judge of the First District Court of Appeals in Tallahassee, against whom ethics charges were dismissed as "moot" after he resigned over a $49 million "Taj Mahal" courthouse. (Florida's Supreme Court's opinion reserved continuing jurisdiction if Paul Hawkes ever became a judge again). Paul Hawkes was a prosecutor, a Republican legislator from Citrus County, a top staffer to Gov. Jeb Bush and two (2) Republican House speakers (Daniel Webster and Thomas Feeney), and a friend of Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran, former House Speaker. Paul Hawkes' lobbying clients include Big Sugar, utility monopolies, Florida Court Clerks and Comptrollers Association, the Florida Conference of District Court of Appeal Judges, the Florida Medical Association, the Florida Public Defender Association, Florida State University Foundation, Shands Hospital, insurance companies, cities, school boards, and the greyhound racing industry.
In Tallahassee, who will speak for Florida State Legislature employees?
Thanks to the Florida Cabinet, led by brand-new Democratic Agricultural and Consumer Affairs Commissioner Nikki Fried, for doing justice in the case of the Groveland Four.
Only 70 years late. As Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, quoting Theodore Parker, "the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
Hate continues to infest our state, but this news is a great coda to the work of Thurgood Marshall, Stetson Kennedy and Gilbert King, whose Pulitzer Prize history helped persuade new Republican Governor Ron DeSantis.
Governor Desantis' Republican predecessor, Governor RICK SCOTT, refused a pardon.
70 years after ‘miscarriage of justice,’ Florida pardons four black men accused of rape by white woman
Walter Lee Irvin speaks with his attorneys, including chief counsel for the NAACP and future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, during his trial in 1952. Irvin was accused of kidnaping and raping a young Florida housewife and sentenced to death. (Bettmann/Getty Images)
Seventy years ago in Groveland, Fla., a white teenager named Norma Padgett accused four black men of kidnapping and raping her in a car on a dark road.
Two of the men would eventually be shot dead by the segregationist sheriff of Lake County and his angry mob, and the other two wrongfully convicted of crimes on little evidence. The Groveland Four, as they became known, inspired a Pulitzer-winning book and have been considered for decades one of Florida’s most grave injustices and a case study on failed rule of law in the Jim Crow south.
And on Friday, the state’s clemency board voted to posthumously pardon all four men — Ernest Thomas, Samuel Shepherd, Charles Greenlee and Walter Irvin.
After hearing testimony from family members of the men and Padgett herself, now in her late 80s, newly-inaugurated Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said this case was a “miscarriage of justice” and that the “only appropriate thing to do is to grant pardons.”
“I hope that this will bring peace to the their families and their communities,” DeSantis said after the formal vote, which took place after his first cabinet meeting as governor.
Within days of Padgett’s accusations, Shepherd, Greenlee and Irvin had been jailed and Thomas was dead, shot and killed by an angry mob — led by Sheriff Willis V. McCall — who had chased him 200 miles into the Panhandle. In Groveland, black-owned homes were shot up and burned, sparking chaos so intense the governor eventually sent in the National Guard.
Despite the lack of evidence, a jury quickly convicted the three still alive.
Greenlee, just 16 at the time, was sent to prison for life.
Shepherd and Irvin, friends and Army veterans, were sentenced to death, but the U.S. Supreme Court later overturned their convictions and ordered a retrial. Before that could happen, though, McCall shot them both. Shepherd died at the scene, but Irvin — who played dead — survived, and his sentence was later commuted to life in prison.
Sheriff Willis V. McCall of Lake County, Fla., is shown following the shooting of two black men, Samuel Shepherd and Walter Lee Irvin, whom he was transporting from the Florida State Prison at Raiford to Tavares, Nov. 7, 1951, for a hearing prior to their re-trial for the rape of 17-year-old Norma Padgett. (AP Photo)
Carole Greenlee was in her mother’s womb when her father was accused of raping Padgett. He had been in Lake County that day looking for a job, a way to provide for his young family.
After his conviction, his wife would bring the infant Carole for visits every Sunday, but eventually the became too difficult.
Carole didn’t see her father again until he was paroled in 1962. She was a pre-teen.
Charles Greenlee did not appeal his conviction, according to PBS, and spent 12 years in prison. He died in 2012 at age 78.
Shepherd and Irvin, however, did appeal, and although the Florida Supreme Court initially upheld their convictions, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously overturned them.
They were shot by McCall on their return trip from prison to Lake County, where a new trial awaited them.
In his second trial, Irvin was represented by future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, but was once again convicted after a speedy deliberation. They appealed again, but the U.S. Supreme Court denied the case. The governor at the time also rejected a clemency appeal and scheduled Irvin’s execution.
But an emergency stay saved his life, and a newly elected moderate governor commuted Irvin’s sentence to life in prison after commissioning a report on the case.
Irvin was released in 1968 and died two years later, of a heart attack, on a trip back to Lake County for a funeral.
In 2016, the city of Groveland and Lake County apologized to the men and their families. A year later, the state of Florida apologized as well.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis will suspend Broward County SHERIFF SCOTT ISRAEL this afternoon, in front of the Sheriff's office, where he is expected to speak about government accountability.
What's next?
Last month, I wrote then-Governor-elect DeSantis asking him to order an independent investigation and forensic audit and to suspend St. Johns County Sheriff DAVID SHOAR over the Michelle O'Connell case coverup and the $700,000 embezzlement by SHOAR's Finance Director.
Florida governor to suspend Sheriff Scott Israel over Parkland massacre response, source says
See Tapper's full interview with Sheriff Israel27:59
(CNN)The Florida sheriff whose office responded to the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland will be suspended by the state's new governor Friday, a source familiar with the process told CNN.
Gov. Ron DeSantis will suspend embattled Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel over the handling of the 2018 mass shooting, in which 17 students and teachers were killed by a former student.
The governor is expected to make the official announcement at 3 p.m. at the Broward County public safety complex, during an event billed as "a message on holding government officials accountable."
The Broward County Sheriff's Office would not comment on the report.
"Sheriff Israel has received no official word from the governor or his office of the purpose of this visit. The sheriff remains steadfast in continuing to serve the citizens of Broward County as well as the men and women under his leadership," the sheriff's attorney, Stuart Kaplan, told CNN.
Parkland survivors push for change in gun laws02:25
The Miami Herald reports that the governor will name retired Coral Springs Police Sgt. Gregory Tony as Broward's interim sheriff.
Soon after the February 14 mass shooting, Israel faced criticism about his agency's response, including calls for his resignation. A recent draft report by a public safety commission tasked with investigating the shooting found several failures and missteps, including among some of Israel's deputies.
According to Florida statute, the governor has the power to suspend the sheriff for actions such as "misfeasance" and "neglect of duty" and may fill the office by appointment for the period of suspension. The actual power to remove the sheriff from office is in the hands of the state Senate.
According to the body's website, it makes "final dispositions" on whether to reinstate a suspended official or remove him from office.
Nikolas Cruz has confessed to being the gunman, and carrying out the shooting at his Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, his former school, according to court documents. The attack, which also left dozens injured, is one of the deadliest mass shootings in recent US history.
Eleven days after the massacre, more than 70 Republican representatives and Florida House Speaker Richard Corcoran sent a letter to then-Gov. Rick Scott asking him to suspend the sheriff for what they called his "incompetence and neglect of duty."
In April, Broward County sheriff's deputies took a largely symbolic vote of no confidence against Israel, with union President Jeff Bell vowing to ask the governor to consider removing Israel. The sheriff said then the vote reflected only "a small number" of BSO employees and the union representing the vast majority of employees "solidly supports the leadership of this agency."
In December, the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission, which is investigating the shooting, released its draft report. Some of the failures and missteps highlighted in the commission's report ranged from unlocked and unmanned gates on the Parkland campus to an inadequate public-address system. The report also said former Deputy Scot Peterson, the school resource officer, was "derelict in his duty" and "failed to act consistent with his training and fled to a position of personal safety" during the mass shooting. Peterson instructed deputies to stay away from the building where the shootings took place, the draft said.
Several responding Broward sheriff's deputies were either seen on camera or described as taking time to retrieve and put on ballistic vests as well as removing and replacing other equipment while shots were still being fired in the school, the report said.
The commission presented its final report to state officials on January 2.
Thanks to our heroic St. Augustine Mayor Nancy Shaver, who has been in Washington, D.C. this week working on ocean level rise issues, showing flood maps and raising the consciousness of our representatives. Mayor Shaver met with Senator Marco Antonio Rubio, Congressmen John Rutherford and Michael Waltz, et al. Good work! From Facebook:
Productive conversation with St. Augustine Mayor Nancy Shaver on addressing the impacts of sea-level rise and flooding on our coastal communities.
A solid meeting-one of many this week in DC. Meetings with Representatives Rutherford and Walz as well as Representative Murphy’s staff, and Jan Peelen, the Dutch attaché for water and infrastructure, and Melissa Roberts and Jay Faison of the American Flood Coalition. Preserving and protecting Saint Augustine is job #1!
Some small towns in Florida are run by satraps, with looney laws that are enforced rarely, if at all, staying on the books, a trap for the unwary who might be ensnared in a web of unconstitutional official behavior.
They're like a real-life version of Hollywood Movies populated by wicked evil Southern Sheriffs, redneck peckerwood Porky's-like jurisdictions, with humorless elected officials like the city council in Footloose.
Check out the law banning surfing in Hallandale Beach, long the mafia's favored gambling den in South Florida, run by Meyer Lansky.
Meanwhile, organized criminals and "developers" carve loopholes big enough to drive entire condominium projects or Leviathan Levittowns through.
From Sun-Sentinel:
Later dude, Florida town tells surfers. Not so fast, say legal experts By Susannah Bryan Sun Sentinel (TNS) Jan 11, 2019 Updated
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. — Surfers who dare to catch waves off Hallandale Beach are breaking a town law that bans the sport.
But the ban itself may be illegal, experts say.
A landmark ruling handed down 48 years ago prohibits cities from outlawing surfing.
“That could be taken to court,” said Tom Warnke, executive director of the Florida Surfing Museum in West Palm Beach. “The (Florida) Supreme Court ruled you could regulate it, but you can’t ban it.”
Hallandale’s ban has been on the books for at least a decade.
Back in 1964, the town of Palm Beach banned surfing. Soon Riviera Beach and Palm Beach Shores outlawed the sport too. The Florida Supreme Court struck down those bans in 1970, citing them as arbitrary and unreasonable.
City Attorney Jennifer Merino, who’s been with the city since February 2017, says Hallandale’s long-standing ban needs to be changed. Merino says she’s working on a revised law that could be voted on by the commission as soon as next month.
Bob Jarvis, a law professor at Nova Southeastern University, says the legal precedent regarding a ban on surfing is clear.
“A city can ban surfing in an area where it might be dangerous because of rocks or ships coming out or where they might be colliding with swimmers,” Jarvis said. “But you can’t do a blanket ban.”
Jarvis said Hallandale is likely not the only city to run afoul of a landmark case.
“This happens all the time,” he said. “Think of how many ordinances a town has. And a lot of ordinances are on the books and never get enforced.”
Hallandale Beach has not cited anyone for violating its ban, city officials say. And if the lifeguard gives them a verbal warning, most people comply.
In Hallandale, surfing isn’t the only forbidden sport.
Scuba diving, spear fishing and skim boarding are also prohibited.
And four years ago, Hallandale outlawed the use of watercraft along its 1.7-mile beach.
Hallandale’s law defines watercraft as any vehicle, vessel or craft designed to move across or through water. And that includes kayaks, paddleboards and personal watercraft like Jet Skis, city officials say.
without knowing the elevation, and putting it on the Commission agenda:
without having a survey,
without having a title search,
without researching Florida Forever funds,
without researching FEMA grants,
without considering eminent domain,
without considering a conservation easement, and
without due diligence?
The property in quo on Coquina Avenue has an elevation above sea level of 3 to 4.5 feet. In ten years, sea level rise of 2 feet is projected. Is the City Manager ahead of his skis, ultra vires, expressing the City's interest in the property without a vote of City Commission? IF the City is even interested, it must look to get the property:
cheap or free, or
by donation, or
with eminent domain, or
with third party funding from:
Northeast Florida Land Trust
FEMA or
"Florida Forever" grants -- which our neighboring City of St. Augustine Beach used to acquire two (2) parks.
Listen, read and learn Monday, January 14, 2019. The land floods and will flood. It will soon be covered with water. In ten years, the land will be underwater, suitable for a reflecting pool for all of us to use in reflecting on what some would demurely call our City's "mistakes" -- starting with Davis Shores being built on swamp and fill, 1920-date and decades of malign neglect and environmental racism toward Lincolnville and West Augustine. Suitable for a memorial. To the influence of Troy Blevins or reactivity of labile Commissioner Leanna Sophia Amaru Freeman? What about naming rights? How about the JOHN PATRICK REGAN, P.E. Reflecting Pool? Memo to City Manager and staff: We need data-based decisions, so that this is not another example of government waste in St. Augustine, Florida -- purchase of real estate at the behest of an influential person, like the stinky $229,000 NORBERT TUSEO MEMORIAL CAR WASH purchase, which could have been purchased for much less.
Our St. Augustine City Manager, JOHN PATRICK REGAN, P.E., is sadly ahead of his skis on this one, possibly being other-directed by Vice Mayor LEANNA SOPHIA AMARU FREEMAN, a family law attorney. She needs to drop the oyster and leave the wharf -- land acquisition, park and ocean level rise decisions must be based on data, not favoritism toward WFOY radio personality Troy Blevins and his desire to make a commission from City Commission through his real estate business. Enough flummery, dupery and nincompoopery. If we need the land, let's get it cheap or free. No more ripoffs like the $229,000 NORBERT TUSEO MEMORIAL CAR WASH, another "emergency" purchase. Do your due diligence. Now. Here are my two related pending records requests: -----Original Message----- From: Ed Slavin To: jregan ; nshaver ; mcullum ; dgalambos Sent: Fri, Jan 11, 2019 2:10 pm Subject: Request No. 2019-35: URGENT: Elevation and sea level rise map for 91-93 Coquina Avenue
Dear Mayor Shaver, Messrs. Regan, Cullum and Graham and Ms. Galambos: Please send all City e-mails on the elevation and sea level rise map of 91-93 Coquina Avenue, including all elevation representations by the seller and agent.
Thank you.
With kindest regards, I am,
Sincerely yours,
Ed Slavin
904-377-4998
www.cleanupc1ityofstaugustine.blogspot.com
www.edslavin.com
-----Original Message----- From: Ed Slavin To: dgalambos ; jregan ; mcullum ; pwilliamson ; nshaver ; sgraham ; tgrant Sent: Fri, Jan 11, 2019 4:01 pm Subject: Request No 2019-36: URGENT re: 91-93 Coquina Avenue Data Quality Act Compliance (JOHN REGAN, P.E. REFLECTING POOL)
Good afternoon: Please send me the 91-93 Coquina Avenue:
Data Quality Act compliance documents,
peer review
Army Corps of Engineers consultations,
cost-benefit analysis
discussions of alternatives, including no action,
environmental impact statements,
business plan
spreadsheets,
ethics opinions,
legal opinions,
appraisals,
planning documents,
geotechnical reports,
communications to and from Commissioners and residents,
exploration of land donation instead of purchase,
seller and agent background investigation,
research supporting the nation of spending City funds to buy land that will be inundated imminently, and
ideas on naming rights (e.g, JOHN REGAN, P.E. REFLECTING POOL).
New Florida Governor RONALD DION DeSANTIS suspended a Sheriff today. It was not St. Johns County Sheriff DAVID SHOAR, but "you ain't seen nothin' yet." Go read Florida Governor's Executive Order 09-14. Legal, eloquent, eloquent and devastating to corrupt Sheriffs in Florida. We expect our governments to be accountable. We expect our government to suspend unjust stewards under Florida Constitution Article IV, Section 7, setting up a trial in the Florida Senate. Eight deputies heard gunshots and did to enter the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School because Sheriff SCOTT ISRAEL's active shooter policy did not require officers to stop an.active shooter. Instead of saying "shall," it said only "may." From CBS Miami:
FORT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) – Governor Ron DeSantis said on Friday afternoon that he has signed an executive order removing embattled Broward Sheriff Scott Israel from office.
Governor Ron DeSantis was at the Broward Sheriff’s Office headquarters where he delivered “a short statement saying he has suspended the Sheriff.” DeSantis was joined by parents of victims of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre.
Several of those parents thanked Governor DeSantis for “Keeping his campaign promise.”
According to Florida statute, the governor has the power to suspend the sheriff for actions such as “misfeasance” and “neglect of duty” and may fill the office by appointment for the period of suspension. The actual power to remove the sheriff from office is in the hands of the state Senate.
GOVERNOR DESANTIS’ PRESS CONFERENCE IN ITS ENTIRETY
According to the state Senate website, it makes “final dispositions” on whether to reinstate a suspended official or remove him from office.
DeSantis named retired Coral Springs Police Sgt. Gregory Tony as Broward’s interim sheriff.
Tony will be the county’s first African-American sheriff.
CBS4’S JIM DEFEDE OFFERS HIS PERSPECTIVE IN VIDEO PLAYER BELOW
Tony’s resume cites advanced degrees and he runs a company focused on active shooter training and response, including efforts to train civilians on ‘stop the bleed’ techniques.
It was reportedly Andrew Pollack, whose daughter Meadow died in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High massacre, that recommended Tony.
While campaigning last year, DeSantis said on multiple occasions that Israel should be suspended for how he and his office handled the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
Seventeen people died and 17 more were hurt on Valentine’s Day when self-confessed shooter Nikolas Cruz walked through an open gate, into the MSD freshman building and opened fire.
During a November meeting of the MSD Safety Commission, Israel was brought in to answer questions.
He was asked about a perceived lack of urgency from initial arriving deputies at the school, who, in some cases, did not immediately run toward the gunfire and did not have annual active shooter training.
Israel said that any deputies who are found to have acted inappropriately or failed to act would be dealt with.
Commission members also grilled Israel over BSO’s policy for deputies dealing with an active shooter.
They said the policy as written provided deputy’s discretion on whether to confront the shooter.
Alaina Petty was killed in the MSD shooting. Her father Ryan said the failure of BSO deputies to rush into the freshman building to confront the shooter and an active shooter policy that allowed them to avoid doing so is evidence of a failure of leadership at the agency.
“I’ve called for Sheriff Israel to resign and he’s refused to do that so I’ve subsequently called for his removal and I hope Governor will do that today,” he said.
Petty said those in charge of responding to the shooting have not acted quickly enough or sufficiently enough to fix mistakes that happened.
“The response from those that had a responsibility to make sure our kids and our teachers were safe have still not recognized the mistakes that were made that day and tried to change them,” he said.
“I think BSO needs a different leader,” said Debbie Hixon whose husband Chris was killed in the MSD massacre.
Hixon said the inaction by multiple deputies when shots were being fired in a school building as a sign of a failure of leadership.
“They had all those other people that reacted very similar so to me that’s more of a systemic issue than it is an individual acting on his own,” she said.
Jeff Bell, the president of the Broward Sheriff’s Office Deputies Association, said the Sheriff failed to focus on training, among other criticisms.
“There’s a big cultural change that needs to happen,” he said, “I think we’re gonna get the opportunity soon.”
If removed, Israel is likely to fight the move in the Florida Senate or possibly in court.
Florida Senate President WILLIAM SAINT GALVANO uses the title "Senator" repeatedly on the website of his developer law firm -- which has its own in-house land planner -- to market his services to corporations. I say it is an appearance of impropriety and should be investigated by FBI and outlawed by Florida ethics law. This is not like a school board member who owns a feed store. It's not like GALVANO were a feed store owner and used the title of school board member on his feed store website. This is our State Senate President, WILLIAM SAINT GALVANO. Who will file complaint(s)? I have sent an Open Records request: -----Original Message----- From: Ed Slavin To: galvano.bill.web ; wgalvano ; jeremiath.hawkes ; stillman.kerrie ; doss.virlindia ; anderson.chris ; rscott ; msuskauer Cc: georgio ; waltbog Sent: Fri, Jan 11, 2019 7:16 pm Subject: Request No. 2019-37: Florida Senate President WILLIAM SAINT GAVANO Using "Senator" in Law Firm Marketing Materials Some Eight (8) Times on One (1) Page
Dear Sen. Galvano, Florida Bar President Suskauer and Chair Scott, Senate General Counsel Hawkes, Ethics Commission General Counsel Anderson, Ms. Doss and Ms. Stillman: 1. Please send me any legal opinions or orders on the ethics of a public official marketing his legal professional services using his elected office title.
2. Please send me any research on the ethics, efficacy, legality and perception of Senate President WILLIAM SAINT GALVANO immodestly referring to himself some eight (8) times on one (1) corporate law firm marketing webpage as "Senator," openly and notoriously selling his wares and marketing his services to developers and other corporations by trading on his public office.
3. If you believe this is not a breach of the public trust, or of the lawyer's ethical duties, please explain it to me, like I were a six year old.
4. Please include scholarly legal and ethics citations that support or oppose your position.
5. Please call me to discuss.
Thank you.
With kindest regards, I am,
Sincerely yours,
Ed Slavin
904-377-4998
www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com
www.edslavin.com
From the GALVANO law firm GRIMES, GOEBEL, GRIMES, HAWKINS, GLADFELTER & GALVANO, PL, website:
As a litigator with over 20 years of experience, Senator Galvano has successfully litigated jury and bench trials in both state and federal courts throughout the United States and maintains an impressive record for results. Senator Galvano concentrates his trial practice in the areas of commercial litigation, government relations, and eminent domain. He regularly contributes the benefit of his skills to complex bankruptcy litigation and other insolvency matters.
In addition to his trial practice Senator Galvano has substantial experience in representing clients in sophisticated commercial and business transactions. He assists both public and private clients with governmental law, including procurement issues. With the many changes in our healthcare laws, he has tailored his practice to assist his corporate clients through the myriad of ever changing regulations. Senator Galvano represents healthcare providers, insurers, and related industries.
In addition to his impressive legal career, Senator Galvano was elected in 2002 as a member of the Florida House of Representatives for District 68 and continued to serve until term limited in 2010. In 2012, Senator Galvano was elected to the Florida Senate for District 21 and continues to serve the public and his community with pride and honor.
PROFESSIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
Admitted to the Florida Bar in 1992 Senator Galvano has also been admitted to practice before the the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida and the Florida Supreme Court and the Supreme Court of the United States of America. He is an active member of the Florida Bar Association and the Manatee County Bar Association (for which he formerly served on the Board of Directors).
Senator Galvano is a current member of the Florida Senate and a former member of the Florida House of Representatives. He is a member of the Manatee Sheriff’s Advisory Council. He is a member of the Kiwanis Club of Bradenton and formerly served on the Board of Directors. He also formerly was a trustee for Mote Marine Laboratory and served on the Manatee County YMCA Board of Directors.
Two days ago, I wrote St. Augustine Beach Mayor UNDINE PAWLOWSKI GEORGE about her unconstitutional, unctuous, ukases and rude behavior at the Tuesday, January 8, 2019 City Commission meeting, where she:
repeatedly gaveled people for First Amendment protected activity -- applauding some of the 33 speakers who unanimously opposed the plan, which was tabled
angrily read at the audience, without eye contact, rat-a-tat-tat, a statement attacking opponents of her PASSPORT LABS, INC. parking app scheme, mocking people for "misinformation"
demanded to inflict her app idea without any effort to resolve questions about:
lack of disabled parking spaces, violating ADA
lack of public support for paid parking
opposition to privacy-invading app payments using credit cards
illegal unconscionable contract of adhesion contrary to public policy in a "Confidential" contract that violates F.S. 119.0701
I asked for any legal research supporting her ukase on applause, addressing it to the St. Augustine Beach City Police Chief City Attorney, Florida Bar, Florida Police Lawyers Association, city insurance defense lawyer. No response. I asked to talk to Mayor GEORGE about her bad excuse for performance art, as if channeling the ghosts of Richard Milhous Nixon, Captain Queeg from the Caine Mutiny, and Col. Nathan Jessup from A Few Good Men. In the immortal words of William F. Buckley, Jr., "Why does baloney reject the grinder?"
Perhaps psychiatry or a walk on the beach might help this joyless juvenile St. Augustine Beach Mayor UNDINE GEORGE. St. Augustine Beach Mayor UNDINE GEORGE is already drawing comparisons to her petty, mean, vindictive predecessor, disgraced, defeated ex-Mayor ANDREA SAMUELS, and raging redneck boor disgraced former St. Augustine City Manager WILLIAM BARRY HARRIS.
I rated UNDINE GEORGE our "Worst Mayor" in Folio Weekly superlatives last week. She reminds me of the narrow-minded joyless city officials in the movie, "Footloose." Mean Mayor UNDINE GEORGE has a "whim of iron": it was she who first pushed the notion of using credit cards and smartphones to pay for parking in a small beach town, arising from her:
untruthful claims that St. Johns County is close to adopting paid parking:
still-undisclosed "colleague" communications, which she refuses to disclose, and
wondrous reported experience with the glories of smartphone app parking in a courthouse garage in Gainesville.
Police officers have a legal duty to disobey illegal orders, like those that Mayor GEORGE would like to give to remove people engaging in First Amendment protected activity. Police officers will not indulge the delusions of this juvenile judgmental Mayor, whose hare-brained smartphone parking app scheme is in flames. The next time Mayor UNDINE GEORGE makes an illegal order, as she did to citizens Tom Reynolds and Merrill Roland eleven months ago, Chief Robert Hardwick is now on notice that he is duty-bound to refuse it, or risk being sued for civil rights violations for violating the First Amendment.
Here's the e-mail correspondence:
-----Original Message----- From: Ed Slavin To: comugeorge ; hardwickra ; mroyle ; serdelyi ; ACAP ; hawkes.jeremiah ; pat.gleason ; jpwilson ; braddatz Cc: laureldean1 ; tomcushman ; sheplaw ; little ; mills ; gary ; sgarysnodgrass ; comrobrien ; comdsamora ; commengland ; commkostka ; sheldon.gardner ; jim.sutton ; waltbog Sent: Wed, Jan 9, 2019 11:28 am Subject: Request No. 2018-28: URGENT: Legal status of applause and laughter and other protected activity at St. Augustine Beach City Commission
Dear Mayor George:
Please call me to discuss your irascible behavior at the January 8, 2019 St. Augustine Beach City Commission meeting.
Cordially,
Ed Slavin
904-377-4998
----------
Dear Mayor George, Mr. Wilson, Ms. Erdelyi, Ms. Raddatz, Mr. Royle, Chief Hardwick, Ms. Gleason, Mr. Hawkes, et al.
1. Please send me any First, Ninth, Fourteenth Amendment, F.S. 286, Florida Constitution Article I, Section 24 or other legal research or Attorney General opinions on whether the Mayor of St. Augustine Beach, a licensed attorney, may selectively gavel and bark at people and threaten to remove American citizens from a public City Commission meeting (not a quasi-judicial hearing) in retaliation for non-disruptive free speech, e.g., merely applauding or laughing -- while appearing on other meeting videos leading applause and laughter herself, ex officio as Mayor.
2. If no such legal research exists, please ask the Florida Bar, Florida Police Lawyers Association, Florida State Attorney General, St. Augustine Beach City Attorney and insurance defense counsel for their research or opinions.
3. Please send me any insurance policy sections or training manual units for peace officers on their mandatory legal duty under constitutional, civil and human rights law, as reflected in FDLE Law Enforcement Officer Ethical Standards of Conduct Rule 2.5, or otherwise, to disobey an illegal order by a elected or other government official, e.g., by Mayor Undine George inveighing against free speech, e.g., applause or laughter:
2.5 Police officers must obey lawful orders, but must refuse to obey any orders the officer knows would require the officer to commit an illegal act. If in doubt as to the clarity of an order, the officer shall, if feasible, request the issuing officer to clarify the order. An officer refusing to obey an order shall be required to justify his or her actions. (Emphasis added)
4. Please send me the Florida Bar, Florida Police Lawyers Association, Florida Attorney General, FDLE, FCJSTC or SABPD training, seminars and manual information and best practices for police officers who may find themselves thrust into political questions by a civilian government official who may issue illegal orders, seek to make false police reports, or to misuse police officers to intimidate, coerce, restrain, chill or retaliate against protected activity or status. See United States Supreme Court's June 2018 decision in Lozman v. City of Riviera Beach. https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/17pdf/17-21_p8k0.pdf
5. Please send me any League of Cities or law review articles, or case studies or research, on the historic outcomes for elected officials who abuse their authority, including those who stigmatize and mischaracterize human applause and laughter as "outbursts," or who otherwise seek to stigmatize protected activity as "disruptive," including the journalistic, electoral, civil, criminal, Florida Bar, administrative and psychiatric response(s) or sequelae.
Our new Governor rightly suspended a corrupt School Superintendent who covered up and failed to report child abuse and malfeasant teachers to state officials, while refusing to testify before the Grand Jury. I heartily agree with Governor Ron DeSantis' righteous action under Florida Constitution, Article IV, Section 7.
Read the recommendation from Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran and Grand Jury report here.
FROM WUWF:
Okaloosa School Superintendent Mary Beth Jackson Suspended By Governor
Governor Ron DeSantis has suspended Okaloosa County School Superintendent Mary Beth Jackson.
The governor made the announcement during a short news briefing this Friday morning in Tallahassee.
“As you remember there have been several grand jury reports that have been very scathing about her conduct and her dereliction of duty,” said DeSantis in reference to the investigation into Jackson’s handling of a 2016 report of alleged child abuse involving a six-year-old autistic boy at Kenwood Elementary School.
“Those grand juries recommended that the Department of Education looked at ways to hold her accountable,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis said he received a memo this week from new Commissioner of Education Richard Corcoran recommending Jackson’s suspension.
Watch video here: https://thefloridachannel.org/videos/1-11-19-press-availability-with-governor-ron-desantis/
View the PDF copy of the signed letter submitted to Governor DeSantis by Commissioner Corcoran here: https://www.flgov.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Okaloosa-Letter-.pdf
View a PDF of the executive order here: https://www.flgov.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/EO-19-13.pdf
In 2017, Northwest Florida Daily News, reported that the Okaloosa County School District was investigating a child abuse case involving a teacher and a then 6-year-old non-verbal student on the autism spectrum. The alleged abuse had occurred nearly a year before the student's parent became aware of the situation.
In August 2017, the student's teacher, Marlynn Stillions was arrested as well as school district investigator Arden Farley and former Kenwood principal Angelyn Vaughan. In Jan. 2018, Assistant Superintendent Stacie Smith was arrested in connection with the alleged abuse case. The State Attorney's concluded their criminal investigation of OCSD in June 2018 with no indictments of school district officials.
Taking Jackson’s place, the governor appointed Assistant Superintendent Marcus Chambers.
“I’ve been able to meet and interview him, and uh, I think, he’s [gonna] do a really good job,” DeSantis said of Chambers.
Jacksonville TV stations tell you more about what's going on in St. Johns County than the unreliable Record! Read the Record reprinting of Sheriff's press release and then the WJXT story, below.
1. Once again, Sheriff David Shoar failed to call in FDLE and investigated one of his own officers. In contrast, Sheriff Neil J. Perry would have recused himself (even calling FHP to investigate deputy car wrecks and fender-benders). 2. Once again, Sheriff David Shoar speaks only in a press release. 3. Once again, no reporting by the Record -- it ran the Sheriff's press release. 4. No reportorial critical thinking skills were exercised in the printing of this account. The St. Augustine Record is a lapdog, not a watchdog, of Sheriff's office. 5. The Sheriff's firing of officer Jeffrey Lewis Cook during the arrest is high camp drama. Is this an unforced error that could be construed by a court as unfair prejudicial pretrial publicity, enabling the criminal defendant deputy to seek a change of venue or question the integrity of the investigative process? 6. This story badly needed an investigative reporter to ask questions, not an amanuensis or stenographer or accomplice to hit the "enter" key for the Sheriff's PR flak and brother-in-law, Commander Charles Mulligan. 7. Sheriff Shoar's self-described bad performance art in the firing scene makes him a fact witness in the case of State of Florida v. Jeffrey Lewis Cook. 8. Was this Shoar's cry for help and attention? Or oerhaps an attempt to distract Gov. Ron DeSantis from the case for suspending Shoar, arising out of State of Florida v. Raye Brutnell ($700,000 embezzlement by Sheriff's Finance Director); State of Florida v. Jeremy Banks (Michelle O'Connell homicide)? 9. Shoar knew that Gov. DeSantis was about to suspend Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel, which he did yesterday, 1/11/2019. 10. Governor DeSantis should exercise his power to suspend Sheriff Shoar under Florida Constitution, Article IV, Section 7. « less
St. Johns County deputy sheriff arrested on molestation charge By The Record Posted Jan 11, 2019 at 5:00 PM St. Augustine Record
Detectives with the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office’s Special Victims Unit arrested a fellow deputy sheriff on Friday following an overnight investigation into allegations of a molestation incident believed to have happened nearly a decade ago.
Jeffrey Lewis Cook, 51, of St. Augustine, has been fired from the Sheriff’s Office and arrested on a single count of lewd and lascivious molestation, a Friday news release said.
According to that release, the investigation began late Thursday night when someone contacted Sheriff David Shoar “concerning a series of events where the suspect had inappropriately touched her over the course of 6 years, while she was a juvenile.”
The last contact is believed to have occurred nearly 10 years ago.
Investigators with the Special Victims Unit met with the individual for an interview and later contacted Cook and advised him of the criminal complaint against him.
He was arrested after his interview and fired by Shoar as detectives were arresting him, the release said.
Cook was a 17-year veteran of the Sheriff’s Office.
“Anyone who has heard me speak on these types of crimes, knows that I value our children, as well as seniors, as our highest priority for protection,” Shoar said in the release. “I am both angry and saddened by these events, and while this incident involves one individual, it is not reflective of our agency or this honorable profession.”
“Detectives are continuing their investigation into the allegations against Cook,” the release said. “Although there are no indications of any other victims, anyone with additional information is asked to contact Detective Sergeant George Harrigan at 904-209-2443.”
Jacksonville TV stations tell you more about what's going on in St. Johns County than the unreliable Record! From WJXT:
St. Johns County deputy accused of groping young girl
Jeffrey Lewis Cook, 51, charged with lewd & lascivious molestation
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. - A St. Johns County Sheriff's deputy was arrested and fired in response to allegations that he fondled a young girl, authorities said Friday.
According to the Sheriff's Office, a criminal complaint was filed against Jeffrey Lewis Cook, 51, of St. Augustine. The 17-year veteran was placed under arrest following an investigation into lewd and lascivious molestation, which is said to have occurred over the course of six years.
Sheriff Shoar stated, “Anyone who has heard me speak on these types of crimes, knows that I value our children, as well as seniors, as our highest priority for protection. I am both angry and saddened by these events, and while this incident involves one individual, it is not reflective of our agency or this honorable profession.”
Detectives are still investigating. There were no indications of any other victims, investigators said.
Records show this wasn't the first time Cook was fired from the St. Johns County Sheriff's Office. In 1994, Cook was responding to a vandalism complaint when he got into an altercation with an African American man who was carrying a gun in his waistband.
Cook maced the man, not knowing he was an off-duty agent with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, records show. The NAACP contacted former Sheriff Neil Perry about the confrontation, and Cook was later fired.
According to documents, Cook sued the Sheriff's Office claiming he was wrongfully terminated. In 1995, he was reinstated with back pay.
Copyright 2019 by WJXT News4Jax - All rights reserved.
/s3.amazonaws.com/arc-wordpress-client-uploads/tbt/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/08055817/scottball.jpeg)
