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Angry Mob Tosses Ukrainian Politician Into the Trash. (NBC News, September 16, 2014)

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While I do strongly disapprove of the water and the tire, the symbolic speech of Ukrainians depositing a corrupt Russian-loving politician in the trash resonates.

It made me think of stunningly, stinkingly corrupt St. Johns County Sheriff DAVID SHOAR, who

  1. Legally changed his name from "HOAR" in 1994, who:
  2. Covered up the September 2, 2010 murder of Michelle O'Connell in the home of Deputy JEREMY BANKS, using BANKS' service weapon;
  3. Covered up the January 31, 2019 murder of Eli/Ellie Washtock, who was investigating the September 2, 2010 murder of Michelle O'Connell;
  4. Covered up the $702,771+ embezzlement by RAYE BRUTNELL, not "recusing himself," but requesting another Sheriff of his own choice to "investigate";
  5. Blocked a forensic audit of the St. Johns County Sheriff's office;
  6. Threatens Commissioners with letter grades;
  7. Obstructs Commission requests for information;
  8. Conceals spending by his 501c3;
  9. Takes copiou$ quantities of campaign ca$h from developer$ and gambling interests;
  10. Drops developer money bombs on candidates with ethics, including Nancy Shaver, J. Kenneth Bryan, Ben Rich, Sr., et al.
  11. Is so reviled that the last five (5) candidates that he endorsed LOST, including:
  • St. Augustine Beach Mayor ANDREA SAMUELS (whom he endorsed on Sheriff's letterhead)
  • St. Johns County Commission candidate DICK WILLIAMS.
  • St. Augustine Mayor JOSEPH LESTER BOLES, Jr., defeated by Nancy Shaver in 2014.
  • St. Augustine Mayor candidate KRIS PHILLIPS, defeated by Nancy Shaver in 2016.

From NBC News, September 14, 2014:





Are Bill Taylor’s notebooks Trump’s Nixon tapes? (Dana Milbank, WaPo)

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During Watergate, at age 16 in 1973, I was glued to the televisions in the English and History Resource Center at Clearview Regional High School in Mullica Hill, N.J. and the faculty lounge at the Camden County College in Blackwood, N.J. Today's students should be equally enthused and enjoy the hearings of the House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, commencing November 13, 2019.

I never worked for the Snake Department, as it has become. But I fondly remember being threatened by a lobbyist by multinational corporation, BECHTEL, who said, "if you write that article, you'll never work for the State Department." I replied, "ma'am, I don't want to work for the State Department. The article was published and helped slam the door on coal slurry pipelines, defeated by 2-1 vote in the U.S. House of Representatives.

As a 17.5 year old Georgetown undergraduate, I heard Ralph Nader speak on August 28, 1974 (Feast of St. Augustine), volunteered to work for Senator Ted Kennedy the next day, and worked for EMK and then Senators Gary W. Hart (D-Colo.) and James R. Sasser (D-Tenn.)

My experience was all on the Senate side. Once upon a time, my college roommate, Edward Francis McElwain, ventured over to the House side of the Capitol, as political tourists, if not theorists (the word that autocorrect just suggested to me, thank you!). We observed House members wearing leisure suits. Not up to Senate Standards.

I don't pretend to understand the U.S. House of Representatives. The late Howard Henry Baker, Jr. (R-Tenn.), once quipped that there were two things in life that he did not understand -- "the Middle East and the House of Representatives."

But from what I've seen so far, the House Intelligence Committee and House Judiciary Committees are doing an excellent job.

From The Washington Post:

Impeachment Diary
Opinion

Are Bill Taylor’s notebooks Trump’s Nixon tapes?

Add to list
President Trump greets visitors as he walks to board Marine One on Oct. 25. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
President Trump greets visitors as he walks to board Marine One on Oct. 25. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)


He also kept the encrypted WhatsApp messages he exchanged with Gordon Sondland, Kurt Volker, Rudy Giuliani and others at the center of the scandal. Together, they paint a near-comprehensive picture of the Ukraine imbroglio, from the ouster of the former ambassador to the attempts to condition U.S. aid and a presidential meeting on an announcement by the Ukrainian president that his country would investigate Joe Biden’s son and the Democrats.
Trump administration officials have refused to turn over documents to the impeachment inquiry. They have persuaded a dozen top officials to defy subpoenas for their testimony. But they couldn’t do anything about Bill Taylor’s notes. His scribbles and texts provided the road map that congressional investigators used to confirm Taylor’s account with other central participants. 
As the deposition transcript reveals, Taylor’s notes show that White House officials knew well in advance of the president’s now-infamous call with Ukraine’s president that their actions could be problematic. Taylor recounted how Sondland, before a June call with the Ukrainian president, got the State Department not to allow stenographers on the call, as was typical. “In response to his request, they said, ‘we won’t monitor and . . . we certainly won’t transcribe because we’re going to sign off.’ ”You won’t hear anybody say, “read the transcript!” for that one.
Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, also rescheduled the call time but didn’t tell diplomats who were supposed to be on the line, Taylor testified, because Giuliani’s “irregular channel didn’t have a respect for or an interest in having the normal staff participate.”
Taylor described the July 18 video conference when a disembodied voice of a budget official said U.S. aid to Ukraine had been suspended and “the directive had come from the president.” It became his “clear understanding,” Taylor testified, that unless the Ukrainian president pursued Trump’s politically motivated investigations, he wouldn’t get the military aid or a presidential audience.
Taylor recalled that Ukrainian officials “were just desperate” upon learning the aid was held up. He said the Ukrainians understood they were being presented with a “condition” — that is, a quid pro quo — for a meeting with Trump. He recalled the ire of national security adviser John Bolton and others when they realized what Giuliani’s crew was doing.Taylor is a credible witness by virtue of his résumé: West Point. Infantry officer with the 101st Airborne in Vietnam. A diplomat under every administration since Ronald Reagan’s. He didn’t want the job when Trump officials recruited him: “I was concerned that there was . . . a snake pit in Kyiv and a snake pit here.”
But he’s also effective because he wrestles the snakes with skill. From the first moments of his deposition, Republicans interrupted with procedural complaints — “This whole hearing is out of order,” proclaimed Rep. Chip Roy (R-Tex.) — then tried to probe him on Burisma, the Ukrainian firm that Hunter Biden advised.
Wasn’t Burisma “a shady organization”?
“I don’t want to say more than I know.”
Was Biden “tapped for the board because his dad was the vice president”?
“I’m here as a fact witness.”

Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) wanted him to agree that Ukrainians “in almost all cases” supported Democrats and provided “dirt” for Hillary Clinton.
“When you say ‘Ukrainians,’ that paints a broad brush,” he replied.
He further explained that while it is acceptable for the United States to ask for help from Ukraine on possible violations of U.S. law, it’s “improper” to pressure another country to investigate violations of its own law — and extraordinary to insist that they investigate a specific company.
But that is what Trump did with Giuliani’s shadow — and shadowy — operation. They tried to conceal what they were doing in advance, cover it up later and stiff-arm the congressional investigation. But it’s all right there, in Bill Taylor’s little notebooks.

TRUMP CLUB LEADER Dr. MICHEL SERGE PAWLOWSKI, D.Sci. CURSES U.S. REP. ADAM SCHIFF AT CITY MEETING

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Using two barnyard epithets, an angry Dr. MICHEL SERGE PAWLOWSKI, D.Sci., predicted that House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Adam Schiff was going to get his "a-- kicked." (Dr. P.  used a four letter word beginning with S instead of Chairman Schiff's surname)

Dr. P. appeared at St. Augustine Beach City Commission tonight to whisper something to his daughter at the dais. (She's Mayor Undine Celeste Pawloski George, Esq., who is term-limited in encumbering the rotating Mayor's position.

I shook his hand as he was leaving, and asked "How do you like your "President now?"

He said he loved DONALD JOHN TRUMP.  I asked if he had read the transcript of the July 25, 2019 Presidential pressure telephone call to the President of the Ukraine, or the depositions.

No response.

Footnote: Dr. P. took an adjudication withheld on vote fraud charges, registering to vote here before he was a resident, while he was still a high-level of FEMA in suburban Maryland.



The scope of Trump’s corruption is mind-boggling. New developments show how. (WaPo)

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Never before in. American history has there been a more corrupt President*. The victories in Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Virginia point the way: we've had enough of DONALD JOHN TRUMP. Looking forwards to the Blue Wave in St. Augustine and St. Johns County, Florida, where arrogant ME-Publicans, like DIANE SCHERFF, TOM RIVERS and vote fraudster Dr. MICHEL SERGE PAWLOWSKI, D.Sci. look down there noses at lesser mortals, conning good people into voting against themselves. Let the Blue Wave continue!


 (Mandel Ngan/AFP)
(Mandel Ngan/AFP)

Fruit Cove residents win fight against Daily’s gas station. (Action News Jax; SAR)

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Congratulations to the residents of Fruit Cove and thanks to Commissioners Henry Dean, James K. Johns, Jeb Smith, Jeremiah Blocker and Chairman Paul Waldron.

The vote was unanimous. Increasingly, Commissioners are not taking their orders from developers. Now, neighbors have a fighting chance when they marshal the facts and speak out against injustice here in St. Johns County, a/k/a "God's Country."

From Action News Jax:

Fruit Cove neighbors win battle; Daily's Place will not move forward

By: Lorena Inclán , Action News Jax 
Updated: 
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - A unanimous decision made by St. Johns County commissioners well into the evening Tuesday led to cheers and applause from the audience.
Commissioners voted 5-0 to deny the proposal for rezoning that would've allowed a 24/7 Daily's Place convenience store and gas station to set up shop on Otoes Place.
Homeowners turned out in full force against the proposal for their Fruit Cove neighborhood.
They were a well-organized group of homeowners who even showed up color coordinated, wearing red, in a move that sent a clear message to commissioners. 
Action News Jax showed you the area where the Daily's Place was being proposed.
The county's zoning board had already recommended that this project not move forward. 
The county commissioners take that recommendation into consideration but it's ultimately their call. 
Since that decision by the zoning board, the applicant for the rezoning is now the owner of the property.
A representative for Daily's Place gave commissioners a lengthy presentation detailing what would be built and the benefits to the community, in the company's view.
But neighbors pushed back. They were concerned about such issues as traffic, property values going down, noise, health concerns stemming from the fumes and possible petroleum leakage into their well water.
Action News Jax spoke to homeowners, who said the whole process has brought the residents of their Fruit Cove neighborhood closer together. 




From The St. Augustine Record:

Residents of a Fruit Cove neighborhood are celebrating a win against a proposed Daily’s gas station.
County commissioners voted 5-0 Tuesday to deny a request for a future land use amendment that would have changed the designation of the land from Residential B to Community Commercial.
The 7.7-acre property is located on either side of Otoe’s Place and State Road 13 at the entrance to Fruit Cove Estates.
It used to be a plant nursery until First Coast energy bought it, hoping to build a 12-pump gas station with a 24-hour Daily’s convenience store and car wash on one side of the property and office buildings on the other side.
The property is currently zoned Community General to provide a buffer between residential and high-density commercial development, and the owners did not request a rezoning.
But residents of the surrounding neighborhood were concerned that a gas station would generate traffic, pollute their well water and disrupt their quiet neighborhood.
“People in our neighborhood will be breathing car exhaust and gas fumes anytime they are outside,” said resident Joann Leskanic. “At this time of the year, I like to open my windows and have some fresh air, and I don’t want to be polluted.”
A future land use amendment is needed to build the gas pumps, but everything else is currently allowed under the existing zoning. In a presentation to county commissioners, representatives for First Coast Energy explained that the alternative development could include a 75,000-square foot shopping center.
They argued that a shopping center would generate many more vehicle trips compared to a gas station, based on a computer model formula. But residents stated they would still prefer a shopping center over a gas station.
“When we bought our property, we looked at what commercial property could be behind us because we were concerned, and when we saw what could be there, we were satisfied that that was a place to make our home — our forever home,” resident Marion Edwards said. “Now with this proposed change, you wonder if you are ever going to be able to sell your property once you’re sitting next to a gas station.”
Commissioner Jimmy Johns questioned why the applicant was insisting on creating a driveway on Otoe’s Place, the only access point to the neighborhood and the route children take to get to their bus stops every morning.
“I can understand the office part because there’s only one access point, but to the constituents’ concerns, the traffic generated on Otoe’s Place by that driveway is substantial,” he said, adding that the vehicles would bring fuel contamination runoff into the neighborhood.
Last month, the Planning and Zoning Agency voted to deny recommendation to the board of county commissioners, citing incompatibility with the surrounding residential neighborhood. Commissioners seemed to agree.
“It is obvious that the community — that the citizens that are most impacted by this — do not want this,” Commissioner Jeremiah Blocker said. “I understand we want businesses in St. Johns County, we want economic growth and development, that’s important. I do have concerns about the storage tanks, I do have concerns about the water pollution.”
In the end, the Commission voted in favor of its constituents, who broke into applause.
“This comp plan amendment is totally incompatible with this neighborhood and residents who lived there for 20-25 years,” Commissioner Henry Dean said. “I cannot, in good conscious, support this comp plan [amendment].”

WHO IS PATRICK FRANCIS McCORMACK?

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  • Maladroit St. Johns County Attorney, 
  • Developer doormat, 
  • Louche lobbyist pal, submarined lobbyist registration
  • Enemy of Open Government
  • Blocks efforts to open "emergency meetings" to County tv coverage.
  • No legal scholar
  • Gives erroneous or vacillating answers
  • Habitually violates your right to Open Records 
  • Concealed water use record for home of Deputy Jeremy Banks the night of the Michelle O'Connell murder on September 2, 2010, claiming he sent computer server(s) to North Carolina, without so much as a bill of lading
  • Charter member of the Smirking Turkey Society (STS)
  • Asked for his contract fifty (50) days ago.
  • Where is it, PATRICK?

PATRICK FRANCIS McCORMACK,
St. Johns County Attorney
(Photo credit: Historic City News blog)

-----Original Message-----
From: Ed Slavin
To: bdixon ; pmccormack ; mwanchick
Cc: rross ; dlehmann ; bcc1jjohns ; bcc2jsmith ; bcc3pwaldron ; bcc4jblocker ; bcc5hdean
Sent: Thu, Nov 7, 2019 5:41 pm
Subject: Re: Request No. 2019-393: St. Johns County Attorney Patrick Francis McCormack contract

Dear Mr. McCormack:
1. I asked for your contract on September 18, 2019 at 9:22 AM -- seven (7)  weeks and one day ago -- 50 days.
2. I am mystified as to the delay. 
3. Your maladroit approach to Open Records requests is indefensible, and must be ended at once.
4. Kindly honor your oath under Article VI of the U.S. Constitution, from this day forward.
5. Enough discrimination, avoidance and delay from St. Johns County,
Thank you.
With kindest regards, I am,
Sincerely yours,
Ed Slavin
904-377-4998
www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com
www.edslavin.com



-----Original Message-----
From: Betty Dixon
To: easlavin@aol.com
Cc: Regina Ross ; Diane Lehmann
Sent: Wed, Sep 18, 2019 9:22 am
Subject: RE: Request No. 2019-393: St. Johns County Attorney Patrick Francis McCormack contract

Dear Mr. Slavin,
I am writing to acknowledge receipt of your public records request.  St. Johns County will determine if it has any records that are responsive to your request.  If any such records are located, we will compile them and redact any exempt material prior to providing them to you.  Per St. Johns County Administrative Code 104.6, the County may request a deposit for costs if an extensive records search takes more than fifteen (15) minutes to locate, review for exempt information, copy (if requested), and re-file the requested material.  Should it be determined that the nature or volume of the public records requested requires the extensive use of information technology resources, or extensive clerical or supervisory assistance, or both, then we will first respond with an estimate of the additional charges for the actual costs incurred, and whether a deposit will be required.  In such instance, the records will be compiled only after you approve the charges and the County receives any required deposit.  Payment for the total or remaining costs can be made when the records are available.  If the actual cost is less than your deposit, you will be refunded the balance.  If you fail to provide the cost deposit within thirty (30) days, your request will be closed.
Thank you,
Betty Dixon
Legal Services Specialist
Office of County Attorney
500 San Sebastian View
St. Augustine, FL. 32084
Office: 904-209-0817
This electronic transmission and any documents accompanying it contains information intended solely for the individual or entity to which it is addressed, and may include confidential information. This information will be made available to the public upon request (Florida Statute 119.01) unless the information is exempted according to Florida law. Unauthorized disclosure of confidential information contained herein is prohibited by Federal Regulations (42 CFR Section 481.101), HIPAA, Sarbanes-Oxley and State law. If you are not the intended recipient of this message or a person responsible for delivering it to the addressee, you are hereby notified that you must not disseminate, copy, use, distribute, publish or take any action in connection therewith. Unauthorized disclosure of confidential information is subject to prosecution and may result in a fine or imprisonment. If you do not want your email address released in response to a public records request, do not send electronic mail to this entity. Instead, contact this office by phone or in writing. If you have received this communication in error, do not distribute it. Please notify the sender immediately by electronic mail and delete this message. Thank you
From: Ed Slavin <easlavin@aol.com
Sent: Tuesday, September 17, 2019 6:58 PM
To: Patrick McCormack <pmccormack@sjcfl.us>; Michael Wanchick <mwanchick@sjcfl.us>
Cc: Commissioner James K. Johns <bcc1jjohns@sjcfl.us>; Commissioner Jeb Smith <bcc2jsmith@sjcfl.us>; Commissioner Paul Waldron <bcc3pwaldron@sjcfl.us>; Commissioner Jeremiah Blocker <bcc4jblocker@sjcfl.us>; Commissioner Henry Dean <bcc5hdean@sjcfl.us>
Subject: Request No. 2019-393: St. Johns County Attorney Patrick Francis McCormack contract
Dear Mr. McCormack:
Please send.  
Thank you.
With kindest regards, I am,

The Berlin Wall is long gone. Its notorious prison still stands. (Christian Science Monitor)

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The night that the Berlin Wall fell, I had just spoken before some 100 U.S. Department of Labor Administrative Law Judges at an annual training conference in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

I spoke to them about the need for sensitivity to whistleblower rights, as Legal Counsel for Constitutional Rights of the Government Accountability Project.

I was invited to speak by my mentor, Chief Administrative Law Judge Nahum Litt.

My speaking time was changed abruptly to the very end of the conference, when some judges were fixing to leave -- changed on orders of his faithless, feckless Deputy, JOHN MICHAEL VITTONE, Senator Mitch McConnell's law school roommate (who later got me suspended and disbarred in Tennessee for raising concerns about injustice).

In my hotel room, that night, I watched on television as kids from East and West Berlin were standing on top of the Berlin Wall.

Within two years, Communism had fallen. And amidst desalinization in America, nuclear weapons whistleblowers were coming forward, starting with Charles D. "Bud" Varnadore at Oak Ridge, Tennessee and Edwin L. Bricker at Hanford, Washington. I was honored to help represent both gentlemen. And as Nathan Hale once said, "my only regret is that I have but one life to give for my country."

We caught Oak Ridge National Laboratory Analytical Chemistry Division Director WILBUR DOTREY SHULTS assigning an ethical employee recovering from cancer, with a suppressed immune system, to a seat three radioactive waste barrels xxx

From Christian Science Monitor:



The Berlin Wall is long gone. Its notorious prison still stands.

WHY WE WROTE THIS

A prison in the shadow of the Berlin Wall was almost as infamous as the concrete barrier. Three decades after the fall of the wall, a reporter talks with those jailed at the time for their cultural choices.



Wolfgang Kumm/picture-alliance/dpa/AP
Near Alexander Square in central Berlin, the Keibelstrasse prison was part of East German police headquarters. Journalists tour the site in August 2018, prior to the prison's limited opening as an educational center for students. 

On Feb. 5, 1989, Chris Gueffroy was the last person to be shot dead trying to flee East Germany over the Berlin Wall. And it was to the Keibelstrasse prison, in the shadow of the wall, that his mother, Karin, was summoned two days later “for the clarification of a fact.”
She told a policeman there that her 20-year-old son was “like a wild colt, you can’t hold him back,” she later recalled. The East German policeman told her that Mr. Gueffroy had “committed an assassination attempt on a military officer” and had “died a few hours ago.”
The history of Keibelstrasse prison was intertwined from the start with the story of the Berlin Wall, which was finally breached 30 years ago on Nov. 9, 1989. East German leader Erich Honecker used the prison as a command center from which to orchestrate security installations for the wall even as it was being built in 1961.
Today the forbidding four-story building remains closed to the general public, but it has been opened to school tours as a memorial to Germany’s history of division and as a warning to young people about the forces behind that history.
“This is where people were broken,” Berlin’s education senator, Sandra Scheeres, reminded her audience as she opened Keibelstrasse in February.

A peek into old East Germany

The penitentiary’s 140 cells are small and dank, its furnishings with the thin, poorly made look common to so many East German artifacts. Scrawled graffiti on the walls speaks to the hopes of East Germans who chafed against dictatorship: One is a drawing of a cityscape above a misspelled caption, “New Yorck City – The Big Dream’s.”
As soon as the wall across Berlin had been built – mostly out of hastily assembled cinder blocks – Keibelstrasse began to serve its new purpose. Anyone caught trying to cross the “Anti-fascist barrier” was taken there by the notorious East German People’s Police, Volkspolizei, known as VoPos.
“The VoPos used to arrest people hanging around the Berlin Wall who were suspected of trying to escape,” says Jochen Staadt, an expert on East German history at Berlin’s Free University. “They were interrogated in the Keibelstrasse. Then they would be handed over to the Ministry of State Security [Stasi].”
“In principle there was no such thing as a political prisoner in the GDR [German Democratic Republic]. Anyone against the system or who wanted to escape was a criminal,” says Mr. Staadt.
Sometimes, that included rock fans.
In October 1969, thousands of young East Germans flooded into the capital, drawn by a rumor that the Rolling Stones were going to perform on top of the Springer publishing building in West Berlin. The Springer skyscraper was tall enough that East Germans would be able see the British rockers from their side of the wall.
The Stones never played.  But that didn’t stop the VoPos from rounding up disappointed fans and branding them as “anti-social” and “rowdies.”
“Once they arrived in Berlin, hundreds were arrested and many of them were kept here at Keibelstrasse. The whole place was full,” says Jan Haverkamp, an education officer at the jail. “Boredom was a big factor. You were supposed to sit there and think about what you’d done,” he says. Reading material was thin – Karl Marx’s “Das Kapital” was encouraged and every day inmates were given copies of “Neues Deutschland,” the ruling party’s mouthpiece.

Jailed for opposing the regime

Toni Krahl, singer with the rock group City, recalls being hauled into Keibelstrasse for protesting the Soviet invasion of Prague in 1968.
“The wall was very present. It was a bit like living in a port city – at a certain point you could go no further. Everyone had links to people who live in the West, who had gone over,” he recalls.
“I thought I was there for the morning. It turned into an interrogation. At 2300 hours my arrest warrant was read out for state subversion,” he says in an interview, every inch the veteran rock star with his shaved head and tinted glasses.
Mr. Krahl was sentenced to three years. Daily life was rough, and exercise in the cells was not permitted. Pillows were never changed and toothbrushes handed down from previous prisoners. “Then there were roll calls. You stood with your back to the window and called out your name, number, and the phrase ‘No unusual occurrences.’”
“I served 100 days, 100 nights. And then I was out. As unexpectedly as I went in,” Mr. Krahl recalls.

Witness to intimidation and beating

Florian Havemann was first brought to Keibelstrasse in 1966 for wearing a top hat, waistcoat, and frock coat to celebrations of an anniversary of the GDR. The authorities were not amused by his sartorial satire.
“They thought by wearing a top hat I was trying to drag the GDR into the grave,” he says in an interview at his art gallery at Friedrichstrasse, one of the old Berlin Wall border crossings.
“It had a terrible reputation. Everyone knew what the Keibelstrasse was. There was a young man who leaned against the wall. He was supposed to stand up straight, away from the wall. They beat him up very badly. That was the first evidence of police terror I’d seen.”
Mr. Havemann recalls his costume as a revolt against the norms of the East German society he grew up in.
Such expressions of revolt landed thousands in Keibelstrasse jail over three decades. And since the wall came down, there have been different reactions; some people in the former East – especially older citizens – feel Ostalgie for the good old days. Some have flourished in the newly democratic atmosphere. Others have shifted from the hard left to the hard right.
“I tried to push for democratic reforms back then. People had different expectations. No one thought the GDR would just disappear like that!” says Mr. Krahl. “In the West, nothing changed. For the people here, the initial euphoria wore off. Some were disappointed. But others have done well. There is more than one side to this story.”

The Trump Defense Strategy (Chattanooga News Free Press cartoon)

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South Carolina Republican Lindsay Graham was a leader of the House of Representatives in impeaching President Bill Clinton for perjury. Now he refuses to read transcripts of depositions showing bribery and other high crimes and misdemeanors by President* DONALD JOHN TRUMP. What a lugubrious goober.

He reminds me of chauvinistic local ME-Publicans in St. Augustine, Florida, cognitive misers who know not that they know not that they know not.

From the Chattanooga News Free Press:





Trump ordered to pay $2 million to charities over misuse of foundation, court documents say. (WaPo)

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Splendid work by The Washington Post and New York Attorney General.  The Rule of Law is once again triumphant over Trumpery and thievery.   Bumptious billionaires who steal have no business in the White House.  Enough. It's time for Trump to go.





Trump shuts down foundation amid allegations of illegal conduct
President Trump shut down his Donald J. Trump Foundation, the subject of a lawsuit alleging Trump used the charity's money for personal and political gain. (Joyce Koh, Breanna Muir/The Washington Post)

Laughing or Giggling at SAB Government PR Being Printed in Hysterical City News?

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At St. Augustine Beach City Hall Wednesday night, November 6, 2019, there was spontaneous giggling overheard during the City Commission meeting.  Someone opened the door from the Commission meeting room to the hallway near the City "Manager" and girlish giggling could be heard.

The City Hall in St. Augustine Beach is so joyless that I was wondering what the source was.  Could it be Cindy Walker, City Manager Max Royle's PR person, talking to an IT person and watching the City Commission meeting room?

Ot could it be that they read the PR article printed word-for-word-for-word by HISTORIC CITY NEWS blog about a St. Augustine Beach "celebration" of the 30 year Reign of Error of BRUCE MAX ROYLE, 80 year old maladroit City "Manager" for Life of the City of St. Augustine Beach?




City of St Augustine Beach celebrates 30-years-of-service by City Manager


Historic City News received word that as part of its celebration of 60-years as a municipality, the City of St Augustine Beach surprised City Manager Bruce Maxwell “Max” Royle with a cake in honor of 30-years-of-service.
On October 25, the City hosted an open house recognizing 60-years of memories with a “step back in time”. The birthday coincided with Florida City Government Week, which seemed an appropriate time to recognize Royle, who completed 30-years-of-service on July 24th.
“It has been very rewarding to serve our wonderful City in this capacity,” said Royle during the ceremonies. “I am thankful for this opportunity, the City, and its residents.”
For the prior week, the public could visit City Hall and peruse artifacts from the City’s past, including historical display with pictures. During the open house, families could visit the trivia table while they enjoyed refreshments. 
Cindy Walker, spokesman for the City of St Augustine Beach, thanked the City’s residents, the St Augustine Historical Society, the St Augustine Beach Civic Association, St Augustine Beach volunteers, and community partners for their contributions to the display. “The City would also like to recognize Mayor George and Vice Mayor England for providing the refreshments served at this event,” Walker told local reporters.

Florida City Government Week, sponsored by the Florida League of Cities, is a celebration that raises awareness about the importance of municipal government. The League is the official organization of the municipal governments in Florida.


Washington Post Union Report Cites Pay Disparities Across Gender And Race. (WAMU/DCist)

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Equal pay for equal work is a sine qua non of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, enacted after the courage of activists arrested here in St. Augustine, helping Lyndon Johnson to break the segregationist filibuster in the United States Senate.
Fully 55 years after adoption of the 1964 Civil Rights Act -- made possible after 1000 arrests here in St. Augustine -- so many employers still discriminate. Thanks to the Guild for exposing unequal pay at The Washington Post. I've asked for years, nicely, that the City of St. Augustine and nther local employers adopt comparable worth principles and remedy employment discrimination. I reckon there will have to be litigation, as when EEOC recently sued RANDALL RINGHAVER's RING POWER for race discrimination. From WAMU and the DCist:





Washington Post Union Report Cites Pay Disparities Across Gender And Race



Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP
Members of The Washington Post’s union released a report this week that details large discrepancies in salary between white men and women and people of color.
The median salary for women is about $18,000 less than men, according to The Washington Post Newspaper Guild, which found that the gender pay discrepancy almost exclusively exists among journalists under 40.
As a collective group, employees of color also earn less than their counterparts. The study found that women of color in the newsroom, for example, are paid 35% less than white men — around $30,000 — when comparing median salaries.

But the report notes that controlling for age, which the Guild used as a stand-in for experience, does “close the gap significantly between white men and men of color and also between white women and women of color.” The discrepancy in gender pay, however, remained “fairly consistent.”
In addition to disparities in pay, the Guild found a striking lack of diversity in salaried positions at the Post. More than 70% of salaried workers are white, per the report. Black employees make up 8.8%, Asian employees 8.3%, Hispanic or Latino employees 4.7% and employees with two or more races 2%.
Additional details from the report include: 
  • The Post’s newsroom gender makeup is majority female (51.8% women and 48.2% men). 
  • The paper distributes merit raises based on performance evaluation scores on a scale of 1-5, and while it was consistent on distributing raises evenly across gender and race, 85% of those who earned a four or higher were white.
  • Men received 51.7% of those merit raises, and women received 48.3%, even though the gender makeup of the newsroom is almost exactly the reverse of those numbers (see the first bullet point).
  • Desks with the highest median salaries (such as National, Financial and Investigative) had higher percentages of white men.
“The members of the Post Guild believe that true progress can only be achieved when we begin with the facts. And the facts tell us that The Post has a problem with pay disparity,” the report reads.
Management broadly disputed the Guild’s findings in a statement, calling it “seriously flawed.” Kristine Coratti Kelly, vice president of communications at the Post, said in an emailed statement that the report left out relevant factors that it considers when determining employee salaries including position, years of experience and performance.
“It is regrettable that the Guild published a report on pay that does not appear to accurately account for these and other relevant factors, which have nothing to do with race or gender. In fact, the Guild concedes that its study’s ‘topline numbers such as median salary by gender or race and ethnicity cannot capture the entire story of pay at The Post,’” she said. “It is disappointing that the Guild chose to issue it. The Post told the Guild before its release that we had many questions about their methodology.”
Kelly did not elaborate to DCist on what aspects of the study are flawed.
Katie Mettler, a national general assignment reporter and the co-chair of news for the Guild, pushed back on the criticism.
“Of course we would never dock the company for awarding people who are high performers, but I think it’s unfair to say that the data and the analysis we did was inaccurate solely because we were unable to factor in experience, particularly because the company did not give us information on experience.” Mettler said.
The Guild’s reporting effort was led by Steven Rich, a Pulitzer Prize-winning data journalist, and it included 28 other staffers who looked at salary data provided by management in July. The team said it analyzed 950 positions that are eligible for membership in the union, 707 of which are salaried positions.
The only area where women and men were found to earn the same is in the Posts’ commercial division. That, however, is met with inequalities across race and ethnicity — the median salary for white employees is $88,000 and $83,445 for people of color—as well as a wider age discrepancy that suggests some workers of color are paid less despite having more experience.
This is not the first pay study the Guild has conducted. In 2016, it also identified pay disparities across the paper’s staff. At the time, Post management dismissed the results and declined an invitation by the Guild to address the issues collaboratively, according to the report.
While the report notes that pay discrepancies at the paper have narrowed since the mid-1900s, when it was still owned by the Graham family, it maintains that pay during the era of billionaire owner Jeff Bezos still cannot be considered equal.
Rich said via email that the Guild would consider gaps within a few percentage points to be effectively equal, because there are always exceptions when it comes to pay.
In a narrative section of the report, anonymous employees described some of their experiences firsthand.
“We don’t know what we should be paid, because no one tells you that in college,” said a woman who is described as a 35-year-old award-winning journalist who started at the Post in the mid-2000s. “You take what you’re offered, and then you’re on this track.”
A man on her team currently earns more than $30,000 above her salary, according to the report, and she said she had only gotten a substantial raise after getting a competing offer.
“It’s always disgusted me that the only way we can get what we deserve is by getting an offer somewhere else,” she said. “How is that a way to show that you value someone?”
Mettler said including employee voices was a key part of showing how pay disparity affects employees on an individual level.
“It was really important for us to recognize that conversations of pay and pay equity cannot be solely based on the data,” said Mettler. “The numbers can’t necessarily tell the full story, and that’s why we provided the testimony section, as well. We do that in journalism stories. We don’t publish raw data and call it journalism, we look for the people that are affected by the patterns we see in data.”
The Post is not the first newsroom to grapple with apparent pay discrepancies.
Last year, the union representing employees at the Los Angeles Times released a similar pay studythat looked at positions eligible for the collective bargaining unit. It also found that women and people of color are paid less than white men and, even when controlling for age and job title.
At the Post, Guild members recommended that the company eliminate the news intern program (which hires former interns for two years at a lower salary), stop asking people how much they earned at their previous jobs and institute periodic salary reviews, among other suggestions.
“We really wanted this pay study not to be the end of the conversation, but the beginning,” Mettler said. “We recognize these are not easy structures to fix overnight, they are complicated, and the problem is nuanced, and we felt it was our responsibility to not just point out the problems but help solve them.”
This story originally appeared in DCist.

Thinking about it’: Donna Deegan eyes Congressional run against John Rutherford -- From broadcast news to ballot box? Time will tell. (Florida Politics)

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Former First Coast News anchorwoman Donna Deegan would be a formidable candidate to run against incumbent dull Republican Congressman JOHN HENRY RUTHERFORD.

Our Florida Fourth Congressional District embraces all of Nassau County, most of Duval County (Jacksonville), and the northern half of St. Johns County, including St. Augustine and St, Augustine Beach.

Venceremos!

From A.G. Gancarski and Florida Politics:







Jacksonville broadcast media legend mulls run for Congress. 

FEDERAL

‘Thinking about it’: Donna Deegan eyes Congressional run against John Rutherford

From broadcast news to ballot box? Time will tell. 
Jacksonville broadcast media legend Donna Deegan is voluble by nature, but was terse Friday when asked if she was running for Congress.
“Thinking about it,” Democrat Deegan said about a potential run against entrenched Republican incumbent U.S. Rep. John Rutherford.
Deegan has been “encouraged to run” for the plurality-Republican seat encompassing Nassau, St. Johns, and a gerrymandered chunk of Duval County.
At least one consultant suggests a launch after Veterans Day, which Deegan would not address on the phone. Her path from media to politics has been an interesting one.
Deegan, a Jacksonville native and alumna of Bishop Kenny High School, anchored for First Coast News from 1992 to 2016, showing in that role a penchant for hard news and a willingness to dive into challenging stories.
While anchoring for First Coast News, Deegan faced challenges of her own: Specifically, three bouts of breast cancer.
Indomitably, she overcame all three occurrences, documenting her journey in two memoirs and, in 2008, beginning “26.2 with Donna: the National Marathon to Finish Breast Cancer.”
Deegan — a cousin of the ever-loquacious Jacksonville City Councilman Tommy Hazouri — long ago transcended her former role as newscaster.
By the 2018 campaign, Deegan was a more-than-capable advocate and campaign surrogate for Democratic Gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum.
Gillum carried Duval County handily in both August and November, and the instant credibility Deegan’s early support afforded him factored into what some consultants called “a surge.”
However, a run against Rep. John Rutherford would come with its own challenges.
In Q3 of 2019, Rutherford reported just over $70,000 raised, giving him $228,900 raised for the election cycle, and $443,376 on hand.
The vast majority of the funds raised in the quarter came from corporate political action committees, or PACs.
Rutherford, a former three-term Jacksonville Sheriff, faced his toughest challenge in a battle royale style 2016 GOP primary to replace outgoing Rep. Ander Crenshaw.
Since then, he has been protected by a combination of strong name identification, a deep red district, and underwhelming challengers, as well as a strong Republican plurality. He typically garners roughly 70 percent of the vote.
But he has never faced a challenger like Donna Deegan.
Still, institutional protections abound for the political lifer.
GOP voters comprise 286,013 of the district’s 577,173 registered voters, compared to 155,073 Democrats, with independents and third party registrants making up the balance.
Expect that Rutherford’s political consultants, including takedown artist Tim Baker, would dig deep for oppo should there be any significant voter break Deegan’s way.
At least in a theoretical sense, Rutherford and Deegan could each face a primary challenge, offering nominal complications ahead of the fall ballot.
Perennial candidate Gary Koniz, who has run as Republican and independent in the past, seeks to fly the banner of the Grand Old Party in 2020.
Media types are familiar with Koniz’s blast emails, which advance fringe theories, complete with idiosyncratic capitalization.
Koniz has yet to ramp up his fundraising machine, if FEC filings are any indication.
If Rutherford should survive Koniz’s primary challenge, Democrat Monica DePaul awaits in the general election, according to filings with the state of Florida.
DePaul, a substitute teacher, had floated a run in the 2018 Democratic primary before withdrawing and preemptively announcing a 2020 run.
Like Koniz, DePaul has thus far avoided fundraising.
Written By
A.G. Gancarski has been a working journalist for over two decades. Gancarski has been a correspondent for FloridaPolitics.com since 2014. In 2018, he was a finalist for an Association of Alternative Newsweeklies "best political column." He can be reached at a.g.gancarski@gmail.com.
 1 COMMENT

WHISTLEBLOWER RETALIATION: JOEL BOLANTE COMMITTED SEXUAL HARASSMENT -- FLAGLER COLLEGE COVERED IT UP, FIRED VICTIM, WRONGFUL TERMINATION LAWSUIT ALLEGES

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FLAGLER COLLEGE allegedly fired a highly-rated professor who reported about sexual harassment of herself and students by Professor JOEL BOLANTE, who has since been promoted as director of its "Public Administration" program, which receives local government funds to educate government employees. BOLANTE is the former UnderSheriff of the St. Johns County Sheriff's Department, who was intimately involved in the coverup of the September 2, 2010 murder of Ms. Michelle O'Connell in the home of St. Johns County Sheriff's Deputy JEREMY BANKS.

FLAGLER COLLEGE has no tenure, no union and lacks respect for free speech: it has been run like a big 'ole Southern plantation, under the thumb of WILLIAM LEE PROCTOR, Chancellor, former state representative and Republican Lord of All He Surveys.

 So it's not at all surprising that when one of its Public Administration professors, former St. Johns County UnderSheriff JOEL BOLANTE was accused of sexual harassment, Flagler College did no investigation and fired the alleged victim. Now the case is pending in St. Johns County Circuit Court, awaiting a jury trial before the Honorable R. Lee Smith.

The lawsuit was recently amended, with some 130 pages of documents on the Circuit Court's website, alleging civil rights violations and breach of contract.

Flagler College allegedly promoted JOEL BOLANTE was promoted after the sexual harassment allegations. I've reached out to Flagler College President Joseph Joyner and will report his comments if he calls me back.


(Photo credit: Flagler Live)

There's Sheriff DAVID SHOAR's then-UnderSheriff, JOEL BOLANTE, center, alleged tortfeasor, with 7th Circuit State's Attorney RALPH JOSEPH LARIZZA, left, helping pick Dr. PREDRAG BULIC, M.D., (the 23rd District Medical Examiner who helped cover up the September 2, 2010 murder of Michelle O'Connell in the home of Sheriff's Deputy JEREMY BANKS, at the behest of Sheriff DAVID SHOAR, who legally changed his name from "HOAR" in 1994).






FLAGLER COLLEGE was founded with funds from the heirs of HENRY MORRISON FLAGLER, the Big Oil baron who founded Florida East Coast Railroad and was responsible for the business plan of Standard Oil Company, now Exxon, which created the international oil cartel and bears responsibility for global climate change.

It actually has a "Vice President" in charge of "Marketing and Communications."

Imagine what that says about the place -- a "Vice President" for "Marketing?"

Here's an article from News4Jax:







Ex-Flagler College professor claims she was fired after reporting misconduct allegations

Lawsuit seeks more than $15,000

By Frank Powers - Assignment manager





ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. - A former assistant professor at Flagler College is suing the private school, claiming she was fired in retaliation after she accused another faculty member of sexual misconduct.
According to the lawsuit, in Feb. 2018, Tina Jaeckle brought to the school's attention allegations of sexual misconduct by Joel Bolante, who at the time was Flagler's director of investigations into sexual misconduct. Jaeckle told the school that Bolante "maintained inappropriate sexual relationships with students, which created a power imbalance between professor and student thereby creating a discriminatory and hostile education environment on the basis of sex."
Bolante joined Flagler College after retiring from the St. Johns County Sheriff's Office. The lawsuit says multiple third parties warned the school about Bolante's behavior, but that an investigation was never conducted.
According to the suit, an investigation into Jaeckle was opened a month after she came forward with the allegations against Bolante. The investigation into Jaeckle said her class attendance was poor, that she was canceling classes to attend outside activities and was teaching at another institution without prior approval. Jaeckle was not interviewed by Flagler College, and was fired in June 2018.
In 2017, she had a performance review that gave her a 5/5 and noted "very meaningful contributions to the criminology program," and she was reappointed to the faculty. Jaeckle had been a professor at Flagler College since 2003, records show.
The lawsuit seeks in excess of $15,000. A response from Carol Branson, Flagler College's vice president for marketing and communications, reads:

"This is an active legal proceeding, so unfortunately, I am unable to provide a comment on the lawsuit at this time."
Copyright 2019 by WJXT News4Jax - All rights reserved.


Here's Dr. Jaeckle's bio:


Dr. Tina Jaeckle
  • Assistant Professor in the Social and Behavioral Sciences at Flagler College
Dr. Tina Jaeckle received Bachelor of Science Degree from Florida Southern College in Lakeland, Florida in Criminology and Sociology in 1990 and completed a Master's Degree in Social Work from the University of Houston in 1995. She has been a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in Florida for approximately 18 years. Dr. Jaeckle also completed a second Master's of Science Degree in Criminal Justice with a specialty track in the Behavioral Sciences from Nova Southeastern University. In 2007, she completed a Ph.D. in the Humanities and Social Sciences with a major in Conflict Analysis and Resolution (specialty in conflict and crisis management) from the same institution. Dr. Jaeckle is presently an Assistant Professor in the Social and Behavioral Sciences at Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida. She is a Florida Supreme Court Certified Family and Dependency Mediator and a Primary Trainer and Substantive Expert in the areas of family dynamics, domestic violence, child abuse, and effectively managing crisis issues within high-conflict families. Dr. Jaeckle is board certified in both emergency crisis response and bereavement trauma through the American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress and holds Diplomate status with the same organization. Additionally, Dr. Jaeckle is a member of the American Red Cross Mental Health Crisis Team; serves as the mental health training consultant for the St. Johns County Sheriff's Department and crisis hostage/negotiation unit and crisis intervention team; is a visiting professor at the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Virginia; serves as the chair of the crisis intervention section of the Association for Conflict Resolution; and is an active member of the FBI's Future's Working Group and the Homicide Research Working Group. She completed her dissertation research on the trauma and cultural representations of conflict and crisis among the Sudanese Dinka political refugees who have resettled in Jacksonville, Florida.
Contributions to the National Center of Crisis Management 
It is my intention to serve on the Speaker's Bureau for the National Center for Crisis Management as well as provide at least one article for publication online or in the organization's regular journal magazine. I am also open to discussing additional opportunities as appropriate.
Tina Jaeckle, Ph.D., L.C.S.W
4705 Cattail Lagoon Way
Ponte Vedra Beach, FL 32082
(904) 237-2008



Dr. Tina F. Jaeckle
Ponte Vedra Beach, FL 
Profession: Clinical Social Work; Trainer
Certifications
Diplomate, American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress
Fellow, National Center for Crisis Management
Board Certified in Emergency Crisis Response
Board Certified in Bereavement Trauma

Investigating discriminatory St. Augustine Beach non ad valorem assessments for trash collection

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Sheriff candidate and St. Augustine Beach citizen Thomas F. Reynolds has rightly skewered Mayor UNDINE CELESTE PAWLOWSKI GEORGE for not paying the $74/year garbage collection. fee.  

Meanwhile, Commissioner Maggie Kostka pays both the $74/year garbage fee for her second floor apartment AND a fee for the dumpster for her business, Conehead's Ice Cream Parlor, which also pays hundreds of dollars a year for a dumpster.

Once again, City "Manager" BRUCE MAX ROYLE is shown to be incompetent -- making one Commissioner pay double, and the Mayor pay nothing.  

Other than Mayor UNDINE CELESTE PAWLOWSKI GEORGE,   how many other favored residents of St. Augustine Beach are exempt from garbage fees?

Mr. Reynolds has requested a criminal investigation of Mayor Georg.e 

I've asked St. Johns County Tax Collector Dennis Hollingsworth to:

  • "please investigate the accuracy and completeness of the flawed data provided to the Tax Collector by the City of St. Augustine Beach for its non ad valorem assessments for solid waste pickups...':
  • provide documents and state whether: 
  • "St. Augustine Beach Mayor Undine Celeste Pawlowski George ever been assessed any ad valorem solid waste collection fee for 107 11th Street?
  • the non ad valorem assessments by the City of St. Augustine Beach ever audited or verified by the St. Johns County Tax Collector?






-----Original Message-----
From: Ed Slavin
To: taxcollector
Sent: Fri, Nov 8, 2019 11:20 am
Subject: Fwd: Request No. 2019-522: St. Augustine Beach non ad valorem assessments


Dear Mr. Hollingsworth:
1.  Will you please investigate the accuracy and completeness of the flawed data provided 
to the Tax Collector by the City of St. Augustine Beach for its non ad valorem assessments for solid waste pickups?
2. Has St. Augustine Beach Mayor Undine Celeste Pawlowski George ever been assessed any ad valorem solid waste collection fee for 107 11th Street?
3. Are the non ad valorem assessments by the City of St. Augustine Beach ever audited or verified by the St. Johns County Tax Collector?
4. Please provide 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: Keely
Sent: Fri, Nov 8, 2019 11:16 am
Subject: Re: Request No. 2019-522: St. Augustine Beach non ad valorem assessments

Thank you.

With kindest regards, I am,
Sincerely yours,
Ed Slavin
904-377-4998
www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com
www.edslavin.com



-----Original Message-----
From: Keely Murrah, C.F.E.
To: easlavin@aol.com
Sent: Fri, Nov 8, 2019 11:10 am
Subject: RE: Request No. 2019-522: St. Augustine Beach non ad valorem assessments

Good morning Mr. Slavin,
You would want to discuss your concerns with the SJC Tax Collectors office as they handle non ad valorem fees.
Kindly,
Keely


Keely Murrah, C.F.E.
4030 Lewis Speedway, Suite 203
Saint Augustine, Florida 32084
Phone: (904) 827-5500 ext. 4523
Fax: (904) 827-5580
www.sjcpa.us

Email disclaimer: This email and any attachments may contain confidential and privileged information and are solely for the use of the intended recipient(s). If you have received this email in error, please notify the sender immediately, and delete the original message. If you are not the intended recipient, please do not use, disclose, disseminate or distribute this email or any information contained in this email. Please be advised that emails are subject to the Florida Public Records Act, and any response to this email may be a public record.

This email has been scanned for viruses and malware, and may have been automatically archived by Mimecast Ltd.




Dear Mr. Creamer:
1.  Will you please investigate the accuracy and completeness of the flawed data provided SJCPA by the City of St. Augustine Beach for its non ad valorem assessments for solid waste pickups?
2. Has St. Augustine Beach Mayor Undine Celeste Pawlowski George ever been assessed any ad valorem solid waste collection fee for 107 11th Street?
3. Are the non ad valorem assessments by the City of St. Augustine Beach ever audited or verified by the St. Johns County Property Appraiser?
4. Please provide documents.
Thank you.
With kindest regards, I am,

Ringo Starr to Play in St. Augustine -- Presumably NOT the Imposter Touted TWICE in St. Augustine Record in 2009

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WJCT and St. Augustine Record have reported that Ringo Starr, former Beatle, a/k/a Sir Richard Starkey MBE (born 7 July 1940), will play at our St. Augustine Amphitheater (the "Amp") next year. 

How cool is that? 

I do hope they're right.  

In 2009, a PR person from the Casa Monica Hotel picked up the telephone and told The St. Augustine Record that Ringo Starr was staying there. 

 He wasn't.

Yet the rubes at the Record, credulously reported, without actual reporting, TWICE reported it on page one. 

Reporters Lori Pounder and Kati Bexley reported the story, twice, on page one.

Pitiful.

Here's what I wrote about it in 2009:


Wednesday, March 04, 2009


RIngo Starr Reporting


1. What can you say about a newspaper that takes a call from a corporate public relations maven (at Casa Monica Hotel) and reports that ex-Beatle Ringo Starr's in town, when he's not? See below.

2. What can you say about a newspaper that reports whatever City Hall denizens want reported, and little else about City Hall?

3. What can you say about a newspaper whose longtime staffers are so thoroughly compromised by pretend-friendships with the likes of WILLIAM B. HARRISS, WILLIAM L. PROCTOR and JOHN LUIGI MICA that they forget how to cover the news?

3. What can you say about a newspaper that didn't have a front-page article when Obama was elected President?

4. What can you say about a newspaper that didn't have any news story when a local soccer mom was nominated to run for Congress, then refused to cover her campaign against an entrenched right-wing Republican?

5. What can you say about a newspaper that is bound and determined to cower to power and cover up real news, never reporting on [2008 County Commission candidate] RANDY BRUNSON's taking free and then cheap rent from hotelier KANTI PATEL?

6. What can you say about a newspaper that prints rumors, or the purport of rumors, while not checking facts?

7. What can you say about a newspaper that continually ignores public concerns in public meetings, whose reporters all but sit in the laps of City officials in the back of the meeting room?

8. What can you say about a newspaper that was only the third newspaper in Northeast Florida to report on St. Augustine's illegal dumping (after The Collective Press and Out in the City, Jacksonville's Gay newspaper), but does not investigate further, while relegating the news to the 7th most important story of the year (and habitually calls the Old City Reservoir a "water-filled borrow pit?")

9. What can you say about a newspaper that has proof on videotape (on its website in the introductions in the Record's candidate interviews) that Commissioner ERROL JONES did not deny Judith Seraphin's concerns about his drunkenness in meetings, but never asked JONES to comment or ran a story about it?  [2019 update: JONES has since been arrested twelve times.]

10. What can you say about a newspaper whose Grand Poohbahs cancel a meeting with two Democratic ladies whose campaigns were all but ignored journalistically and editorially given short shrift, with no good excuse?

11. What can you say about a newspaper that aligns itself with the powerful, not the people, then scratches its collective head about its low circulation?

12. What can you say about a newspaper that prints anonymice comments below news stories and articles, even reproducing them in the paper every Monday?

13. What can you say about a newspaper that encourages homophobia and worse, devoting endless mash note articles to terrorist ["Operation Rescue" founder] RANDALL TERRY, inflating the size of his crowds at anti-Gay rallies, while opining against the Federal Court order upholding the First Amendment right to display Rainbow Flags on our Bridge of Lions?

14. What can you say about a newspaper that won't cover any issue involving corporations (even cab companies) with any depth, failing to report that only cab companies were allowed to speak on a taxicab meter resolution at the behest of JOSEPH LESTER BOLES, JR., the tatterdemalion, prevaricating, tacky, termagant who thought himself qualified to be Mayor (which he said was only a "ceremonial position") because of his "sense of humor." We're not laughing, Mr. BOLES.

15. What can you say about a newspaper that prints City of St. Augustine and Congressman JOHN MICA press releases without attribution, but treats Democrats as diseased, while failing and refusing to even inform readers exactly what it is that JOHN LUIGI MICA does in Washington, D.C., while urging he be re-elected for pork barrel reasons?

16. What can you say about a newspaper that fires an award-winning longtime cartoonist for drawing a cartoon about a generic school official, not even referring to St. Johns County, because the School Superintendent [JOSEPH JOYNER],  PHIL MCDANIEL and other schoolmarms raised a ruckus (collective protected activity) -- but refuses to consider First Amendment defenders who object to such anti-free-speech firings (on the basis of collected protected activity).  [Update: Cartoonist Ed Hall's career has since taken off, winning national acclaim.  The St. Augustine Record has not had local cartoons since his retaliatory firing.  School Superintendent JOSEPH JOYNER is now Flagler College President, and PHIL McDANIEL runs the St. Augustine Distillery.]

17. What can you say about a newspaper that confused "public" with "pubic," running a front-page banner headline about 100 Years of Pubic Service in 1994?

It's called the ST. AUGUSTINE RECORD. To its credit, it is good about printing local opinons, and has printed some 50 of my letters and columns since 2000.

But the ST. AUGUSTINE RECORD still has a long row to hoe to become a real newspaper.

If it is to survive into the 21st century, it must listen to people, and treat them with dignity, respect and consideration.....






'This Is Not Normal': US Judge Denounces Trump's Attacks on Judiciary. (Connecticut Law Tribune)

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Kudos to U.S. District Court Judge Paul Friedman of the United States District Court of the District of Columbia. He's joined Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Neil Gorsuch, among others, in calling out DONALD JOHN TRUMP's bumptious, babified attacks on our American judiciary. Three cheers for Judge Paul Friedman.



Paul FriedmanSenior District Judge Paul Friedman in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi / ALM)
A federal judge on Wednesday publicly denounced Donald Trump over his attacks on the judiciary, declaring that the president has undermined confidence in the legal system by impugning members of the federal bench and disparaging decisions against his administration.
Senior Judge Paul Friedman of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, delivering the annual Judge Thomas A. Flannery Lecture in Washington, highlighted several examples from the past two years in which Trump assailed judges for ruling against his administration.

Friedman bemoaned what he said was the growing belief that jurists reflexively decide cases in line with their political beliefs, and he said at least some of the blame for that trend rests with Trump.
“We are in uncharted territory,” Friedman said, in an address trumpeting the importance of an independent judiciary.

“We are witnessing a chief executive who criticizes virtually every judicial decision that doesn’t go his way and denigrates judges who rule against him, sometimes in very personal terms. He seems to view the courts and the justice system as obstacles to be attacked and undermined, not as a co-equal branch to be respected even when he disagrees with its decisions.”
Later, he added: “This is not normal. And I mean that both in the colloquial sense and in the sense that this kind of personal attack on courts and individual judges violates all recognized democratic norms.”
Friedman’s remarks, rare for a sitting trial judge, were met with a standing ovation inside the ceremonial courtroom of the E. Barrett Prettyman Courthouse. Many judges from the federal trial and appeals courts were in attendance, along with Trump appointees, including Jessie Liu, the top federal prosecutor in Washington, and former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

“I couldn’t have said it better myself,” said Senior Judge Royce Lamberth, a Reagan appointee and former chief judge of the federal trial bench, as the event concluded.
Friedman’s remarks came just hours after Trump and Senate Republican leaders gathered at the White House to celebrate the 156 trial and appellate judges the administration has appointed to courts across the country. “I will do everything in my power to halt judicial activism and to ensure the law is upheld equally, fairly and without political prejudice for all of our citizens,” Trump said during his remarks. Trump lambasted what he called “resistance” judges who have issued nationwide injunctions against the administration.
Friedman called attention to examples where Trump pilloried individual judges. In 2016, Trump cited the Mexican heritage of San Diego-based District Judge Gonzalo Curiel of the Southern District of California to question whether he could rule impartially in a fraud case against Trump University. On the campaign trail, Trump called the Indiana-born Curiel a “hater of Donald Trump,” demanded that the judge recuse himself from the case and said that someone “ought to look into” him.
“His introduction of such personal ad hominem attacks against the judge set a terrible precedent and encouraged others to join the chorus,” Friedman said. “This was beyond a dog whistle. This was a shout.”
In his speech, Friedman said he was disheartened more broadly by the politicization of the judiciary. He said it has become routine for press coverage of the courts to identify the president who nominated the judge or judges who decided cases.
“In reading the newspaper, I sometimes think ‘Clinton judge’ is a part of my name,” he said.
Friedman took senior status in 2009, allowing him to take on a lighter caseload. In recent years, his most publicly visible rulings have relaxed the restrictions on John Hinckley Jr., who in 1981 attempted to assassinate then-President Ronald Reagan.
Friedman’s remarks broadly echoed recent lamentations from other federal trial judgesand U.S. Supreme Court justices, who seize opportunities to tell the public that members of the high court are not “politicians in robes.”
Appearing recently for a discussion at Yale Law School, Justice Elena Kagan struck back at the political labels often seen in news reports about the Supreme Court.
“Sometimes the way the press talks about the justices—well, those are the ‘Democratic’ and those are the ‘Republican’ justices—I think this is a very harmful thing for the court,” Kagan said. “I think it’s incumbent on us to do the best we can to not act in ways that bring it on.”
Last year, Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. rebuked Trump after the commander in chief criticized an “Obama judge” in California for delivering a court ruling against the administration in an immigration case.
John Roberts Chief Justice John Roberts Jr., U.S. Supreme Court.  (Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi / ALM)
“We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges,” Roberts said in a statement issued by the court. “What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them. That independent judiciary is something we should all be thankful for.”
Friedman underscored Roberts’ speech in his address Wednesday and pointed also to federal appeals court judge’s opinion in 2017 in a travel-ban case.
In that opinion, Judge Jay Bybee of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit agreed with Trump on the legal issues surrounding his administration’s ban on visitors from seven predominantly Muslim countries. But he used the opinion—dissenting from the Ninth Circuit’s decision not to review a panel decision against Trump—to condemn the “personal attacks” on judges.
“Such personal attacks treat the court as though it were merely a political forum in which bargaining, compromise, and even intimidation are acceptable principles,” Bybee wrote, without explicitly referencing Trump’s comments on the case. “The courts of law must be more than that, or we are not governed by law at all.”

Read more:

READ IT HERE: I filed USDOJ Voting Rights Act Complaint Against City of St. Augustine, Florida, whose Commissioners voted 3-2 to move toward erasing citizen voting rights to vote for Mayor

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I've filed a complaint with USDOJ on Fifteemth Amendment and Voting Rights issues, none researched by the itty-bitty city's maladroit City Attorney, ISABELLE CHRISTINE LOPEZ, or her assistant, JOHN CARY, thus empowering lawbreaking (again by Commissioners). 

Kudos to Mayor Tracy Upchurch and Commissioner Nancy Sikes-Kline for their votes. Come speak out on November 12, 2019 and talk to Commissioners JOHN OTHA VALDES, LEANNA SOPHIA AMARU FREEMAN and the reluctant Commissioner ROXANNE HORVATH.

When faced with government wrongdoing, as we did October 28, 2019 at St. Augustine City Commission, I do not flinch. That's how God made me, my parents raised me and my mentors taught me. Read my October 29, 2019 complaint below:











-----Original Message-----
From: Ed Slavin
To: voting.section
Cc: serdelyi ; wfusco ; voakes ; rhorvath ; tupchurch ; nsikeskline ; jvaldes ; ilopez ; jcary ; jim.sutton ; stuart.korfhage ; sheldon.gardner ; sheltonhull ; georgio ; sheltond ; sam ;...
Sent: Tue, Oct 29, 2019 1:06 pm
Subject: URGENT: City of St. Augustine, Florida Commissioners vote 3-2 to move toward erasing citizen voting rights to vote for Mayor -- REQUEST FOR INVESTIGATION OF VOTING RIGHTS ACT and FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT VIOLATIONS

To: Honorable U.S. Attorney General William Barr and 
Honorable Assistant Attorney General Eric S. Dreiband for Civil Rights Division
U.S. Department of Justice 
Robert F. Kennedy Justice Department Building
Washington, D.C. 

Dear General Barr and General Dreiband:
1. Please investigate current voting rights concerns about the City of St. Augustine, Florida, which the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once called "the most lawless City in America."
2. At its October 28, 2019 meeting, our St. Augustine City Commission voted 3-2 to schedule for first and second reading an ordinance that would put on a 2020 primary ballot a measure taking away citizens right to vote for Mayor.  Interim Mayor Tracy Upchurch and Commissioner Nancy SIkes-Kline dissented.  Voting for the proposal were Vice Mayor LEANNA SOPHIA AMARU FREEMAN, a lawyer, JOHN OTHA VALDES, a contractor and ROXANNE HORVATH, an architect. People in St. Augustine were first able to vote for Mayor in 1812, in Spanish colonial times.  Evisceration of that right is being proposed pursuant to a custom, usage, practice and procedure of violations of civil rights by the City of St. Augustine, Florida, a frequent defendant in federal court actions since the 1960s.  This affront to our Constitution and our democracy is proposed by JOHN OTHA VALDES, a controversial freshman City Commissioner -- earlier this year, VALDES actually suggested giving voting rights to nonresident business owners!  Watch October 28, 2019 video here, at item 7B: https://staugustinefl.swagit.com/play/10282019-861
3. Controversial St. Augustine City Commissioner JOHN OTHA VALDES' proposal to delete vested voting rights to vote for St. Augustine's Mayor was unadorned by any mature policy research by City staff.  Our unassertive City Attorney, ISABELLE CHRISTINE LOPEZ, lacks the ability to say "no" to bad ideas, including ideas that may violate the 15th Amendment and the Voting Rights Act.  Please interview Ms. LOPEZ and kindly take her deposition.   In 2015, she entertained the notion of the City filing a lawsuit for libel on behalf of one of the Commissioners, wasting staff time and resources on an illegal proposition that would have subjected the City to constitutional rights litigation under New York Times v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254 (1964).  (I have shared this complaint with the City's learned defense counsel, Ms. Susan Erdelyi, from the law firm of Marks, Gray, in hopes of her educating City officials, once again).
4. Commissioner JOHN OTHA VALDES' indecent proposal is an affront to our civil and constitutional rights as Americans.  It is a stench in the nostrils of our Nation and everything that we stand for as a people.
5. St. Augustine City Attorney ISABELLE CHRISTINE LOPEZ now admits she did NO research on either the Voting Rights Act or the 15th Amendment.  Please see See response to my Open Records Request No. 2019-484, below.
6. St. Augustine City Attorney ISABELLE CHRISTINE LOPEZ did NO 15th Amendment or VRA research on VALDES' unelected Mayor proposal,.
7. No objective analysis or memo was ever provided to Commissioners, e.g., a list of all the jurisdictions in Florida with strong city managers and elected Mayors. 
8. The City of St. Augustine needs an elected Mayor as a check and balance on the power of its strong City Manager.
9.  Brian and I moved here on November 5, 1999. For 20 years, I have observed a long train of abuses by two successive City Managers, WILLIAM BARRY HARRISS and his hand-picked successor, JOHN PATRICK REGAN, P.E.  
10. The St. Augustine City Manager's largely unchecked power has often been responsible for lawbreaking, including repeated acts of intentional pollution, including depositing a landfill in a lake and polluting our saltwater marsh with semi-treated sewage effluent, resulting in fines and consent decrees. 
11. The City of St, Augustine abused a long series of annexations to dilute minority voting strength from 25% to less than 12%, 1964-date.
12. Elimination of an elected Mayor position for a temporary, rotating Mayor would virtually eliminate the possibility of African-Americans ever electing a Mayor here.
13. Thus, USDOJ must initiate a civil, criminal and administrative investigation of the City of St. Augustine for violations of the Voting Rights Act and 15th Amendment, just as it did in United States v. City of Memphis, Tennessee. (This litigation was after my suggestion to the USDOJ Civil Rights Division career deputy at an ABA meeting in Denver, Colorado in February 1989).
14.  Please direct the FBI and U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida to monitor the November 12, 2019 St. Augustine City Commission meeting for the first reading of this illegal, unconstitutional proposal.  If the St. Augustine, Florida City Commission does not come to its senses at its November 12, 2019 meeting (the day after Veterans' Day), please bring an action in federal court seeking injunctive relief on behalf  of the people of the United States of America, to right the wrongs wreaked by three (3) misguided City Commissioners.
Let justice be done. 
Thank you.
With kindest regards, I am,
Sincerely yours,
Ed Slavin
904-377-4998
www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com
www.edslavin.com



-----Original Message-----
From: St. Augustine Public Records
To: Ed Slavin
Sent: Tue, Oct 29, 2019 9:31 am
Subject: RE: Request No. 2019-484: 15th Amendment and VRA research on unelected Mayor propsoal

The City of St. Augustine does not posses any documents related to your public record request.
From: Ed Slavin  
Sent: Monday, October 28, 2019 1:20 AM
To: Darlene Galambos ; John Valdes ; Isabelle Lopez ; John M. Cary ; Leanna Freeman ; Nancy Sikes-Kline ; Roxanne Horvath ; John Regan ; Lucy Fountain ; Meredith Breidenstein
Cc: gardner@aug.com; nancyshaver77@gmail.com; news@historiccity.com; news@actionnewsjax.com; jessica.clark@firstcoastnews.com; aschindler@firstcoastnews.com; jim.sutton@staugustine.com; cottrell.sf@gmail.com; sheldon.gardner@staugustine.com; stuart.korfhage@staugustine.com
Subject: Request No. 2019-484: 15th Amendment and VRA research on unelected Mayor propsoal
Dear Ms. Galambos, et al.:
Please send me: 
  1. any legal research on the 15th Amendment and Voting Rights Act and the notion of erasing the right of people to elect the St. Augustine Mayor, along with 
  2. any objective memos on the subject, or 
  3. any actual complaints leading to the notion.
Thank you.
With kindest regards, I am,

DEMOCRACY UNDER SIEGE: The urgency of preserving and protecting voting rights in St. Augustine, Florida

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Who should pick St. Augustine's Mayor? 
You? 
Or them?


Some St. Augustine Commissioners, developers, want to divest you of your vested voting rights to vote for Mayor.

St. Augustine burghers demand to rig the rules against citizens. First they wanted to allow nonresident business owners to vote (illegal). Now they want an end to electing Mayors. The Establishment demands to prevent St. Augustine from ever again electing a reformer quite like Nancy Shaver, ending the threat to the livelihood of those who look to government as a cash register, or "an annex to their own affairs," as FDR put it.  

In response, I've asked USDOJ Civil Rights Division to investigate St. Augustine City Commission's October 28 move toward eliminating cherished rights to vote for Mayor, 

Beware "a small group of selfish [people] who would clip the wings of the American eagle in order to feather their own nests." So said Franklin Roosevelt in his "Four Freedoms" speech in 1941. 


In a democracy, one needs damn good reason to wall off voting, or any of our system's "checks and balances." 

"Good fences make good neighbors," as Robert Frost put it:  
"Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out."


There is NO principled reason for walling out vested rights to vote for St. Augustine Mayor,

As Mayor, Nancy Shaver served as the accessible conscience of our community, presiding at meetings, representing the City, and serving as a "bulwark against oppression," as Justice Wiliam Rehnquist said about jury trials. 

Since the 1980s, St. Augustine voters voted, twice, to elect our Mayors.  There's no need to insult or second-guess voters with a third ballot.  

St. Augustine residents first elected their Mayor in 1812 under the landmark Spanish Constitution.  Voting rights for Mayor were later deleted  and Commissioners rotated as Mayor by vote of Commissioners in the bad 'ole days, when Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called St. Augustine :the most lawless city in America in 1964.   Long trains of abuses by successive City Managers include dumping a landfill in a lake, polluting our saltwater marsh, seeking to develop buildings on top of old garbage dumps, racist annexations diluting minority voting strength; First Amendment violations harassing artists, musicians and journalists -- all dutifully reported for decades in Folio.

Lessons learned: After four (white, male) Commissioners deposed Ramelle Petroglu, the City's first woman mayor, in 1985, residents voted -- twice -- to amend their Charter to protect their right to vote for Mayor.  During 2014-2018, residents thrice elected a reform Mayor Nancy Shaver, who served with honor for 1550 days. She asked questions, demanded answers and expected democracy in St. Augustine.  The New York Times reported in 2017 how she was the object of a "money bomb" from Sheriff David Shoar. 

She had a stroke, resigned and was replaced by former Mayor Tracy Upchurch, ad interim. 

"We get to overthrow our government every two years," as the character "Josh Liman" said on The West Wing.  Who could be against that?   Opponents of reform want "their" town back.  They'd like to residents' constitutional right to vote for Mayor, without ever doing any constitutional law research.  They have two hollow arguments, data-free, solving non-existent problems:

  • "Confusion": some of you are "confused" that we have a "strong Mayor," when we have a "strong City Manager" form of government.
  • Only "team players" will be Mayor, thereby ending "turbulence" (read: "Democracy.")

"Team player" is NO qualification to be Mayor.  A "team player" in government and business parlance means one who willingly keeps wrongdoing secret.  When Pentagon cost analyst A. Ernest Fitzgerald in retaliation for his truthful Congressional testimony -- candid answers about C-5A cargo aircraft cost overruns -- President Richard Milhous Nixon gave tape-recorded orders to fire him, stating he was not a "team player."  Case law is replete with examples of "team players" in coverups of crimes.  We want honest representation, not an oath of omertà.  https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2019/10/city-of-st-augustine-establishment.html

I agree with Mayor Upchurch: the elected mayor's position is a check and balance on the City Manager. Commissioner Nancy Sikes-Kline agrees  . 

  • Any "confusion" is de micromis.  Checks and balances on the power of the City Manager are provided by an elected Mayor, our chosen leader. 
  •  There is a long list of cities with strong city manager form of governments AND elected mayors.  

Who wants to "rotate" Commissioners into the Mayor's job, like the old "Queen for a Day" tv show (as in deeply-dysfunctional St. Augustine Beach)?  

  • An eleven-year Commissioner who never ran for Mayor, but wants it on her resume.  Vice Mayor Leanna Sophia Amaru Freeman, local divorce lawyer, had ethics charges dismissed last month in Tallahassee, with NO testimony at a one minute and 16 second Florida Ethics Commission hearing that cleared her of ethics charges of conflict of interest for not recusing herself from voting on a dubious land purchase.   (Freeman bragged on Facebook she would increase neighboring Davis Shores property values, including her own.  Citing dozens of academic articles, de hors the record, the Florida Ethics Commission developed no actual appraisal or testimony, relying on "warm fuzzies" from City officials.  Freeman and the "Gang of Four often blocked Nancy Shaver, even on a bathroom break and a 450th commemoration forensic compliance audit.  Freeman's a close ally of former Mayors LEN WEEKS and JOE. BOLES, who have a long-term no-bid lease on 81 St. George Street City property at 1/5 market rent (Folio, August 2014, http://folioweekly.com/THE-BLOGGER-THE-LEASE-AND-THE-ST-AUGUSTINE-MAYORS-RACE,10719)
  • Steve Cottrell, St. Augustine Record columnist, reclusive former unelected mayor of Nevada City, California (pop. 3068), who's demanded since 2015 we stop electing Mayors here. 
  • Developers and campaign contributors, who support Commissioner JOHN OTHA VALDES, a third generation Florida contractor/ developer who describes himself as a "fixer -- I fix things," https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2018/07/the-fixer-john-otha-valdes-makes.html, who moved to St. Augustine from Saudi Arabia after selling his company to Saudi and British partners, who --
  • claimed 100% homestead property tax exemption while renting his garage apartment on AirBnB as "oceanfront" property in Lincolnville. 
  • was fined only $224 by Code Enforcement Board after an illegal demolition after being denied a permit, saying "I can make it fall down.: 
  • testified in support of controversial zoning favors as a candidate.
Commissioners ignored repeated requests to create the City's first-ever Charter Review Commission (recommended by City consultant, Gulf Coast State University Prof. Robert E. Lee, Ph.D., a former city manager who in 2015 recommended one, after Commissioners imported him to lecture them about becoming "team players"). 

No response to my suggestions to allow votes on charter amendments creating an Ombudsman, Inspector General, ethics commission, lobbying disclosures or other improvements that will preserve, protect and enhance liberty.  Why wonder why?

What's next?

Commissioners must hold two (2) public hearings before  putting this turkey on a March 2020 primary ballot. If passed, there would be no more elected Mayors, only rotating figureheads.  

Speak out Tuesday, November 12, 2019 and Monday, December 9, 2019 at 5 pm.  The swing vote is Commissioner Roxanne Horvath, an architect, who initially seconded Mayor Upchurch motion to "table" the idea and to "send it into outer space forever." (She wants more discussion.)





After Florida election cybersecurity review, officials mum on election system patches. 'This is a very real threat for Florida,' Florida secretary of state says

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Our Nation was attacked by Russian forces during the 2016 election. Florida is not ready for the 2020 election. As Sir Winston Spencer Churchill said in 1937, "The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays, is coming to its close. In its place we are entering a period of consequences."


After Florida election cybersecurity review, officials mum on election system patches

'This is a very real threat for Florida,' Florida secretary of state says

By Jim Turner, News Service of Florida
CNN Image
The federal court hearing in Florida on whether to count thousands of rejected mail-in and provisional ballots concluded on Wednesday after more than five hours without a decision from Judge Mark Walker.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - A cybersecurity review has been completed of state and county elections systems following disclosures of Russian hacking during the 2016 elections.
But details of what was found remain under wraps, along with information about system patches and what further multimillion-dollar steps are being taken to protect against future attacks.
Florida Secretary of State Laurel Lee said Tuesday that sharing details of the security breaches and protective steps taken by the state and in all 67 counties would expose the systems to “those who seek to do harm to our elections infrastructure.”
“This is a very real threat for Florida,” Lee said during an appearance at an annual Associated Press pre-session gathering for reporters and editors. “Every single day domestic actors and foreign actors attempt to penetrate our Department of State networks and the networks of supervisors of election around the state.”
Lee reiterated that no election results were altered in the 2016 hacks and that the state has “no finish line” when it comes to elections security.
“There is work that we have to do to be prepared for 2020,” Lee said. “I am very confident in the partnership that we have with the supervisors of elections and the resources we have to complete that necessary work.”
In May, Gov. Ron DeSantis ordered the review focused on cybersecurity after he was advised by the FBI that election records in two counties were hacked by Russians in 2016. DeSantis said he was told that the hackers accessed voter-information files, not the systems involved in vote tallying.
DeSantis said he had signed a non-disclosure agreement that barred him from identifying the two counties, but the Washington Post and Politico subsequently reported that rural Washington County in the Panhandle was one of the targets.
DeSantis called the review a “top priority,” noting the state has funneled millions of dollars in recent years into improving elections security, including distributing $14.5 million in federal grants to supervisors of elections in 2018.
During her appearance at the Associated Press event Tuesday, Lee also addressed problems that have shut down a state Division of Elections website for petition gatherers.
Lee said registration paperwork for people collecting signatures for proposed constitutional amendments, such as amendments about banning possession of assault weapons, legalizing recreational marijuana and raising the minimum wage, are being recorded by hand until the problems are solved.
A subsequent news release from Lee’s office said additional staff members have been assigned to the registration process.
“We do not want our process to result in a delay to any petition gatherers who wish to register,” Lee said Tuesday. “We do believe that the manual process that we have in place as of today is achieving that.”
Lee said the problem is believed to be a capacity issue.
“We simply didn’t anticipate the number of petition gatherers who would be attempting to register on the site,” Lee said. “This is the first year that the Department of State has been involved in this process in this way, and we did not have an accurate anticipation of just how many of these petition gatherers would be attempting to register.”
The website was created as part of a law DeSantis signed in June that placed new restrictions on the petition-gathering process, which plays a critical role in getting constitutional amendments on the ballot.
The law, in part, requires organizations to pay petitioners by the hour, rather than by signatures collected, and for petition gatherers to register with the state.
News Service of Florida

New documentary spells out voter suppression efforts. (Tallahassee Democrat)

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Voter suppression is a way of life for certain authoritarians explained to me circa 2007 by ROBERT THORNTON SMITH, the local Republican apparatchik and dirty trickster.  

SMITH recruits shills and ringers to file to run as write-ins to close what are required to be universal primaries under our Florida Constitution. 



ROBERT THORNTON SMITH and WILLIAM LEE PROCTOR 
(photo credit: Maureen Ortagus)

Here's a Bill Cotterell column from the Tallahassee Democrat about voter suppression techniques:






New documentary spells out voter suppression efforts | Cotterell



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Let’s just toss out a couple of suppositions, to see what seems politically plausible as we start our year-long countdown to the elections.
Suppose some bad guys wanted to steal an election, so they round up a bunch of imposters and sneak them into your town — whole busloads of them — and then find out which local residents don’t plan on voting. So they pretend to be those people, cast illegal ballots and drift out of town totally unnoticed.
Of course, it takes thousands of them to swing the election, but somehow word of the conspiracy never leaks. You and your neighbors simply don’t notice all these strangers suddenly showing up to vote – some of them 10 or 15 times — and nobody gets suspicious when a few longshot unknown candidates mysteriously pull off shocking upsets.
Yeah, that could happen. Sure.
For our second scenario, let’s imagine that one political party sees itself losing black, Hispanic and poor voters – so it either has to change policies, to win them back, or figure out how to stop as many of them as possible from voting. It opts for door No. 2.
The activists hire some lawyers and consultants to draw political districts favoring one party. They raise the specter of massive voter fraud — that first supposition mentioned above — and pass a passel of laws designed by make it harder to cast a ballot, if you’re statistically more likely to support the other party.
Yeah, sure, that could happen. In fact, it has happened and will continue happening, in new ways, as long as the courts strike down each new means of suppressing the vote of those not in power.
Methods and results of targeted disenfranchisement are aired in a hard-hitting documentary, “RIGGED: The Voter Suppression Handbook,” being exhibited at the FSU College of Law on Tuesday evening. The 75-minute film will be followed by a panel discussion featuring executive producer Tim Smith, former Leon County Commissioner Bob Rackleff and Tallahassee Pastor Willis Whiting, who fell victim to Florida’s notorious vote purge of the 2000 presidential election.
The film outlines 10 ways to limit voting. There’s “packing and cracking” in reapportionment, concentrating minority voters into as few districts as possible or splintering them among multiple electoral tracts. There’s plain old intimidation, with sheriffs demanding that vulnerable voters prove to the cops’ satisfaction that they belong at the polls. There is shortening of early voting periods, always hitting the times most convenient for certain voting blocs.



The documentary emphasizes that, despite claims of massive vote fraud by leaders ranging from President Trump to Gov. (now Sen.) Rick Scott of Florida, actual in-person cheating is virtually non-existent. Trump is shown claiming he would have won the popular vote, not only the Electoral College, if millions of people hadn’t voted illegally for Hillary Clinton. We also see his blue ribbon Commission on Election Integrity convening and dissolving without accomplishing anything.
The polemic elides a couple points. In deploring voter ID laws, it fails to point out that people can cast “provisional” ballots that are counted, if their registration is later verified. It also skips over the fact that, in purging voter rolls of people who’ve died or moved away (or just don’t care), county supervisors commonly send one or two letters to each registrant – who are then moved to an inactive list, where they can reactivate if they wish.
But the prevailing message of “RIGGED” — that powerful, well-financed forces have made laws with the clear result (and inescapable intention) of making it hard for minority and poor people to vote – is convincingly documented.
Toward the end of the film, Trump is seen telling supporters at a campaign rally, “You see what’s happening. The process is rigged. This whole election is being rigged.”
The president was right. But he probably didn’t mean “rigged” the way the filmmakers demonstrate.
You can see a preview of the documentary at https://vimeo.com/296045604
Bill Cotterell is a retired Tallahassee Democrat capitol reporter who writes a twice-weekly column. He can be reached at bcotterell@tallahassee.com.
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