Have you ever been reported to the police for exercising First Amendment rights in America? I have. It happened in St. Augustine Beach, Florida, whose dysfunctional city government is a constant source of amazement.
Violating the First Amendment and abusing her public trust, St. Augustine Beach PZB Chair JANE WEST, environmental lawyer, has twice called the cops on me (Ed Slavin), blatant retaliation for disagreeing with her:
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JANE WEST reminds me of JAMES BYRNES, a Reagan-era Department of the Interior official, who factually iled an Inspector General criminal complaint against my seven Indian Probate Judge clients judges, filing a complaint against them for signing a one page petition defending Chief Judge Parlen McKenna a against retaliatory reduction-in-force.
The DoI IG bluntly told the official (JAMES BYRNES) to stop filing trivial, frivolous complaints and wasting the time of a law enforcement agency.*
SABPD Chief Robert Hardwick needs to do the same with JANE WEST.
We know JANE WEST's actions were unconstitutional, violating the First Amendment.
Violating the First Amendment and abusing her public trust, St. Augustine Beach PZB Chair JANE WEST, environmental lawyer, has twice called the cops on me (Ed Slavin), blatant retaliation for disagreeing with her:
- in November 2017, after I wrote PZB Chair WEST and questioned her legal authority to file an application for appointment to a vacant City Commission for another person, DAVID BRADFIELD, the only one of fourteen (14) candidates who did not follow instructions and file a letter explaining his interest. WEST drooped by her business card, a handwritten note, and an obsolete eight-year old resume for City Commission applicant BRADFIELD. She filed a police report because I sent her an e-mail? The police told her they would talk to me about it. (They didn't).
- in September 2015, I questioned WEST's mishandling opposition to the DOW PUD, now known as THE COLLECTOR, owned by DAVID BARTON CORNEAL In response she called the police; and complained of my telephone call and text messages. Commander JAMES PARKER told me not to call her again; he was later fired.
Snowflake JANE WEST
lacks respect for the First Amendment.
JANE WEST reminds me of JAMES BYRNES, a Reagan-era Department of the Interior official, who factually iled an Inspector General criminal complaint against my seven Indian Probate Judge clients judges, filing a complaint against them for signing a one page petition defending Chief Judge Parlen McKenna a against retaliatory reduction-in-force.
The DoI IG bluntly told the official (JAMES BYRNES) to stop filing trivial, frivolous complaints and wasting the time of a law enforcement agency.*
SABPD Chief Robert Hardwick needs to do the same with JANE WEST.
We know JANE WEST's actions were unconstitutional, violating the First Amendment.
BUT Is she utterly ungrateful and ungracious? I thrice recommended JANE WEST, to:
My 2015 dissent expressed to JANE WEST was sincere.
I wrote about it here. http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/09/will-hp-1-neighbors-appeal-dow-pud.html
Like too many hick hack politicians and too many local business operators, environmental litigator JANE WEST is thin-skinned and can't stand criticism.
The St. Augustine Record's advice to local government officials about me in 2006 resonates:
to our public officials, we suggest you get thicker skins.
To those of you who stood up to applaud the mayor after he lambasted Slavin, shame on you for trying to stifle free speech. All of us should defend people¹s right to express their views, even when they are unpopular.
Thin-skinned JANE WEST reminds me of the unethical chintzy St. Augustine restauranteur who told unhappy customers, "I'm calling the cops" (he actually did)!
In America, business owners call the police to chill, coerce and intimidate First Amendment protected activity.
PZB Chair JANE WEST is in pari delicto with the indelicate routine habit and practice of local yokel redneck peckerwoods who think calling the cops is their innate right as capitalists (like LEN WEEKS' abuses of artist rights on St. George Street, 1993-date).
Such unnecessary police calls are unethical, unseemly and ungracious. If JANE WEST can't stand the heat, let her leave the PZB and stop
My communications with JANE WEST are First Amendment protected activity. Her reporting them to the police raises questions about her ethics and mental stability.
When she did a good job defending PZB's position on the EMBASSY SUITE, I reached out to shake her hand. She snootily shook her head, her hands at her sides. I responded, "You're not going to shake my hand?"
She replied, "I practically have a restraining order against you."
I replied, "You're crazy."
She walked away.
Is JANE WEST unprofessional, uncouth, unkind and unconstitutional?
Does PZB Chair JANE WEST have emotional problems with First Amendment protected activity? Does she lack trustworthiness?
Her conduct of quasi-judicial hearings leaves much to be desired, e.g., failing to request disclosure of ex parte contacts. She is mean-spirited. She leaves early or misses joint meetings with the City Commission. She arrived late at the last PZB meeting, giggled about it, interrupting with a gavel thwack my effort to get an answer to my question about Embassy Suites Phase II, which I had asked in public comment (which she missed due to her intentional tardiness, claiming she had come "from the county.")
Her tawdry tattletale tactics are both petty and vindictive.
I later filed a records request, reading of her two (2) police calls yesterday.
I am appalled.
"How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child."
Footnote:
Quoting JAMES BYRNES' actions, I published a peer-reviewed 1992 ABA Judge's Journal article on the Indian Probate Judges' case, also featured in an American Bar Association Journal cover story. See Edward A. Slavin, Jr., "ALJ Independence Undermined - What the Interior Department Is Doing and Why" 31 Judges J. 26 (1992).
- St. Augustine Beach Mayor GARY SNODGRASS. for a junior alternate position, introducing him to her during a meeting recess, stating, "She saved Briny Breezes!" (singing her praises for successful environmental litigation that stopped a small town from being torn down). She got the gig and moved up to Chair.
- Citizens who hired her to fight the proposed 7-Eleven at May & San Marco. She did an excellent job and the project was halted.
- Citizens who hired her to fight the proposed DOW PUD. She did a crummy job, was ill-prepared, forgot about a scheduled meeting with clients, failed to file pre-hearing motions on procedural issues, and refused to pursue an appeal, abruptly dumping her clients.
My 2015 dissent expressed to JANE WEST was sincere.
I wrote about it here. http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/09/will-hp-1-neighbors-appeal-dow-pud.html
Like too many hick hack politicians and too many local business operators, environmental litigator JANE WEST is thin-skinned and can't stand criticism.
The St. Augustine Record's advice to local government officials about me in 2006 resonates:
to our public officials, we suggest you get thicker skins.
To those of you who stood up to applaud the mayor after he lambasted Slavin, shame on you for trying to stifle free speech. All of us should defend people¹s right to express their views, even when they are unpopular.
Thin-skinned JANE WEST reminds me of the unethical chintzy St. Augustine restauranteur who told unhappy customers, "I'm calling the cops" (he actually did)!
In America, business owners call the police to chill, coerce and intimidate First Amendment protected activity.
PZB Chair JANE WEST is in pari delicto with the indelicate routine habit and practice of local yokel redneck peckerwoods who think calling the cops is their innate right as capitalists (like LEN WEEKS' abuses of artist rights on St. George Street, 1993-date).
Such unnecessary police calls are unethical, unseemly and ungracious. If JANE WEST can't stand the heat, let her leave the PZB and stop
My communications with JANE WEST are First Amendment protected activity. Her reporting them to the police raises questions about her ethics and mental stability.
When she did a good job defending PZB's position on the EMBASSY SUITE, I reached out to shake her hand. She snootily shook her head, her hands at her sides. I responded, "You're not going to shake my hand?"
She replied, "I practically have a restraining order against you."
I replied, "You're crazy."
She walked away.
Is JANE WEST unprofessional, uncouth, unkind and unconstitutional?
Does PZB Chair JANE WEST have emotional problems with First Amendment protected activity? Does she lack trustworthiness?
Her conduct of quasi-judicial hearings leaves much to be desired, e.g., failing to request disclosure of ex parte contacts. She is mean-spirited. She leaves early or misses joint meetings with the City Commission. She arrived late at the last PZB meeting, giggled about it, interrupting with a gavel thwack my effort to get an answer to my question about Embassy Suites Phase II, which I had asked in public comment (which she missed due to her intentional tardiness, claiming she had come "from the county.")
Her tawdry tattletale tactics are both petty and vindictive.
After WEST refused to shake my hand, it was late. But I later briefly informed St. Augustine Beach Commissioners about her rude behavior at the last PZB meeting. (I forgot to mention her taking two months off, going to Colorado again). It was late; next time, should I go into detail, or let sleeping dogs lie?
I later filed a records request, reading of her two (2) police calls yesterday.
I am appalled.
"How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child."
Footnote:
Quoting JAMES BYRNES' actions, I published a peer-reviewed 1992 ABA Judge's Journal article on the Indian Probate Judges' case, also featured in an American Bar Association Journal cover story. See Edward A. Slavin, Jr., "ALJ Independence Undermined - What the Interior Department Is Doing and Why" 31 Judges J. 26 (1992).