Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Just say "whoa" to "done deal" USPS-Flagler Deal


Mayor Joseph Boles with Rep. JOHN LUIGI MICA, with MICA's assistant Wiley Deck and Flagler College William Abare behind them, meeting to discuss moving our Post Office, selling the building to Flagler College, and having the Post Office contract with an Augusta, Georgia real estate firm to place the Post Office at Ponce de Leon Mall. (Record photo by Peter Willott)

No competitive bidding here -- we must ask dozens of questions.

No competitive bidding for: (a) USPS selling the St. Augustine Post Office to Flagler College; and (b) USPS buying new land from an Augusta, Georgia real estate company.
Six months of hearings referred to in the last paragraph of thee article will require answers to questions about the process by which our downtown Post Office is being sold to a college that pays very little in the way of Payments In Lieu of Taxes (PILOT).
Will USPS keep our post office boxes downtown?
Were Sunshine laws violated?
Did the Mayor have authority to be involved?
Why won't Flagler College build a branch campus outside City limits, thereby reducing its impact on property tax collections?
Other colleges and universities have done just that.
Why won't Flagler College pay reasonable levels of PILOT (like Yale, which pays New Haven half of what it would pay in property taxes)?
We deserve answers, not "done deals" between USPS, Flagler College, the City of St. Augustine and Congressman JOHN LUIGI MICA.
What do you reckon?
www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com

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