Orlando Sentinel re: Law Enforcement Officials Who are Members of the Ku Klux Klan

Florida KKK leader says law enforcement officers are drawn to his group

By Anthony Colarossi

The Orlando Sentinel

Updated: 9:00 a.m. Friday, Jan. 8, 2010

Posted: 8:51 a.m. Friday, Jan. 8, 2010

The Imperial Wizard of the United Northern and Southern Knights of the Ku Klux Klan is guarded about discussing his organization's membership.

But this much Cole Thornton openly shares: Florida cops belong to his Klan group because he said they like its rigid standards and its adherence to a strict moral code.

"They (police officers) like the fact that we support law enforcement," said Thornton, who is based in the Gulf Coast community of Englewood. "These guys are out there putting their lives on the line and we back them."

He would not name those law-enforcement officers, but Thornton said he thinks that being a member of a "traditional Klan" group "makes them a better cop."

Thornton's comments come in the wake of the firing of an Alachua County corrections officer who acknowledged he was a member of Thornton's Klan organization. Wayne Kerschner was fired Dec. 29.

A year ago, the Fruitland Park Police Department investigated one of its officers who was linked to Klan groups. James Elkins denied he was associated with a Klan chapter and resigned.

Florida ranks third nationally (behind California and Texas) in the overall number of identified hate groups, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, an Alabama-based group that provides tolerance-education programs, offers legal representation against white supremacists and tracks hate groups. The center defines a hate group as one that states other groups or people are somehow lesser or inferior.

Mark Potok, director of the center's Intelligence Project, which investigates such groups, said membership in organizations such as Thornton's have swelled in recent years.

However, Potok has found no evidence that Klan membership by police officers in Florida — or any other state — is on the uptick. He knew of one other case, in Nebraska, of an officer being removed because of his Klan affiliation.

"I doubt very much whether he (Thornton) has many police officers at all in his organization," Potok said. "I've not seen anything to suggest any significant influx of law enforcement into the Klan. ... There is an absolutely clear conflict between being a law-enforcement officer and a member of the Klan."

Central Florida law-enforcement agencies declined to speculate about their officers belonging to the KKK.

"I don't have any knowledge one way or another," Volusia County Sheriff's Office spokesman Gary Davidson said. "Where there are two, there may be more, but I have no specific knowledge to confirm or refute what they're saying."

But Lt. Stephen Maynard with the Alachua Sheriff's Office said: "I have no reason to doubt his (Thornton's) claims."

Maynard said it's likely other law enforcement-officers belong to secretive groups such as the Klan — as do people working for private businesses and perhaps even the media. The difference, he said, is that no organizations outside law enforcement endure the level of scrutiny and "self-policing" that can identify such group membership.

"While we're certainly not proud that we had this individual working for us ... we are glad this investigation did reveal this and we could remedy the problem by terminating him," he said.

Thornton praised Kerschner this week and said he would support him if Kerschner challenged the firing.

"He's one of the finest officers I have," he said. "If he was violating what it takes to be a (law enforcement) officer, he would have violated what it takes to be a Klansman, and we would have booted him out. We have pretty high standards, as do they."

Thornton insisted his Klan organization is not a hate or terrorist group, and he said it opposes violence by its members. "You're not going to do this movement one bit of good sitting in a jail cell," he said.

He said his group's membership has grown because of issues such as the government's handling of illegal immigration and school prayer and a desire to preserve "white heritage."

The United Northern and Southern Knights of the Ku Klux Klan is listed as one of 56 Florida "hate groups" identified by the law center.

Southern departments have Klan history

Illegal immigration has helped feed much of the growth within hate and far right-wing extremist groups, Potok said. More recently, President Barack Obama's election has caused their numbers increase as well, he said.

Klan membership is generally kept secret, but local Klan chapters in the past were well-represented by law enforcement.

Former Orange County Sheriff Dave Starr, who served from 1949 to 1971, was identified as a Klansman in sworn statements to the FBI. So was former Apopka police Chief William Dunnaway and other powerful county and city officials who ran local government agencies decades ago.

Those affiliations were documented when the Orlando Sentinel obtained decades-old FBI records in 1991.

"Southern police departments were filled with Klansmen and Klan sympathizers in the '50s and '60s," Potok said.

Orlando police Sgt. Barb Jones said any officer suspected of being a Klan member today would be written up for violating department regulations. If the suspicion were sustained, the officer would be disciplined "to include termination," Jones said.

Department policy prohibits membership or connection "with any subversive organization except when necessary in the performance of duty and then only under the direction of the Chief of Police." A U.S. Attorney General's list of subversive organizations includes the KKK.

In the Lake County Sheriff's Office, employees must behave in a way that does not discredit themselves, the department or the community. If a deputy were suspected of being a KKK member, the claim would be investigated immediately, officials said.

"If the allegations were proven to be true, the employee's services would no longer be of value to the Sheriff's Office or the community," Lake Sheriff Lt. John Herrell explained. "It would be a tremendous conflict of interest to task someone affiliated with a hate group with the responsibility of serving our community and enforcing the laws."

Pictures emerge of Fruitland Park officer

Last January, Fruitland Park police Chief J.M. Isom began an investigation of James Elkins after Sumter County officials notified him that a Bushnell post office box in Elkins' name was listed as a mail point on a recruitment flier for the United Northern and Southern Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.

Then photos of Elkins in a Klan gown and hood — and a police badge — emerged. And the Lake County Sheriff's Office provided documents showing Elkins became a Klansman in 2006 and later a "district Kleagle" — or recruiter — of the National Aryan Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.

Elkins resigned before Isom's investigation was completed. Isom said the findings showed that he lied about his KKK membership when he applied for the job as a Fruitland Park officer.

Thornton knows both former officers well. He said Kerschner had a long history with the Alachua Sheriff's Office and no racial complaints.

Elkins, he said, had family problems that bothered his Klan group and was "on the verge of being banished." "Jim was an embarrassment to the Police Department — and to us," he said.

Isom still considers the Elkins episode to be an embarrassment. He said he thinks his department would be on solid legal ground terminating Elkins or anyone else with such a dubious affiliation.

As for Thornton's insistence that law-enforcement officers have joined his organization because of common goals and interests, Isom said, "They're going to say anything to make themselves look good. ... They don't believe in the law. They take the law into their own hands, at least they did back in the old days."

Ribert F, Kennedys' 1966 Day of Affirmation Speech in South Africa

As Robert Kennedy said in South Africa, “each time a [person] stands up for an ideal or speaks out for the rights of others, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples can form a current that can sweep away the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”

This is our town, and our time, and we're not going to "give up."

We're going to continue working for government accountability and for a St. Augustine National Historical Park , National Seashore and National Civil Rights Museum. www.staugustgreen.com

OCCUPY ST. AUGUSTINE

Occupy St. Augustine will hold a rally at City Hall, 75 King Street, at 3 PM on December 12th.

There will be another rally at City Hall at Noon on December 17th.

Come meet your neighbors, make history and work for change!

St. Augustine Record re: First Occupy St. Augustine Rally

Occupy St. Augustine rallies in Plaza

Posted: November 5, 2011 - 11:52pm

Back | Next

By DARON DEAN, daron.dean@staugustine.com

Occupy St. Augustine participants gather in the Plaza de la Constitucion on Saturday afternoon.

• By SHELDON GARDNER

sheldon.gardner@staugustine.com

An Occupy St. Augustine rally drew more than 200 people — some for and some against — to the Plaza de la Constitucion for several hours Saturday.

The local movement was inspired by Occupy Wall Street and other Occupy movements worldwide. And, like other Occupy protests, people from a wide variety of backgrounds came out, including college students, small business owners, professional organizers, a college professor or two, artists, and musicians and retired school teachers.

Part of the protest was about speaking out for the “working poor,” said Terry Buckenmeyer, one of the organizers of Occupy St. Augustine. He said he relied heavily on social media to organize the movement.

Protestors came representing a variety of causes, but the overall theme was frustration with “corporate greed” and what many of them perceive to be an unresponsive and ineffective federal government.

“The biggest complaint is that people feel disenfranchised,” said Daryl Price, a retired middle school teacher from Michigan. He and his wife moved to St. Augustine six years ago.

He came to the protest with his wife, Kathy, and his grandson. A sign leaning against his grandson’s stroller read “Bail out our schools.”

There are “too many teachers being cut back,” said Daryl Price, who taught for 35 years

“We felt like we had to do something,” said Kathy Price, about why they came to the protest. She taught physical education in Michigan.

“It seems like we have all this money for these wars …” but not enough for Social Security and other safety nets, she said.

More than a dozen people took turns speaking at a lectern in front of the gazebo in the Plaza, including college professor and St. Augustine resident Vanessa Friedman. She also owns a consulting firm with her husband.

“I’m also a business owner, entrepreneur and capitalist,” she said. She was out there: “Because I’m very concerned about the injustice and inequality in this country.”

Several people lined the plaza facing the multi-story Wells Fargo across the street. A few of them wore plastic masks of Guy Fawkes, the Englishman executed for conspiring, unsuccessfully, to blow up King James I of England and both Houses of Parliament in 1605. Some with their signs in tow stepped across the road to get their pictures taken in front of the bank.

The protesters weren’t all well-received by passersby.

Chris Fulmer, of St. Augustine, held up a sign that read “Why do we need regulation? Because ‘Thou shalt not steal’ never caught on.” She and her husband, Matthew Fulmer, said they were questioned by a few people who passed by the protest.

One man came up to Matthew Fulmer and said, “You are so misled.” And a business owner approached Chris Fulmer to tell her that he isn’t hiring right now “because he doesn’t like the current administration.”

There also were signs that dissented with the protestors.

One cardboard sign, placed near a light pole, read: “Your (sic) wasting valuable shopping time.”

Some signs were less easy to understand, including one that simply read “Brains” in drippy red lettering,

Members from the local Tea Party came out to protest the protestors, but they left the Plaza shortly after the protest began. One Tea Party member carried a sign that read: “The Tea Party does not Occupy. We Work for A Living.”

Later on in the afternoon, a line of Occupy St. Augustine protesters paraded around the plaza chanting: “The people, united, will never be defeated,” “We are the 99 percent” and “This is what democracy looks like.”

What will Occupy St. Augustine do next? “It will be whatever the people of St. Augustine want and need it to be,” protest co-organizer Buckenmeyer said.

*

Quotes from Occupy St. Augustine

* “Are we to remain among that untouchable class called unemployed?” — John Foster, single father, retired carpenter, and current business administration student at St. Johns River State College.

* “There is no leader. I am one of many.” — Logan Guidry, 19, theater arts and business student at Flagler College. He is a member and co-organizer of the movement.

* “I’m for capitalism, but I’m not for greed” — Kathy Price, retired school teacher and St. Augustine resident.

* “A lot of people are afraid to be here because they’re afraid to be fired.” — Terry Buckenmeyer, co-organizer of Occupy St. Augustine.

* “It’s the future of the youth. We need to stand up…” — Jeff Sica of Palm Coast. He came to St. Augustine because it was the closest Occupy protest he could find.

* “This is the potential start of something...awareness” — Vanessa Friedman, business owner and college professor from St. Augustine.

*

Signs from Occupy St. Augustine

* “Government is NOT your DADDY.” — sign from a Tea Party member.

* “Cure electile dysfunction” — sign at the protest.

* “Ideas are bullet proof” — sign at the protest.

* “The beginning is here” — sign at the protest.

Ponte Vedra Recorder re: Occupy St. Augustine

St. Johns County residents Occupy St. Augustine

• Written by Sarah A. Henderson
• Friday, 11 November 2011 17:23

Rosalinda Sanquiche holds up a sign protesting the Citizens United decision at St. Augustine’s Plaza de la Constitución Saturday. In the Citizen’s United decision, the U.S. Supreme Court deemed that corporations could make unlimited campaign contributions. Sarah A. Henderson

Above the murmur of the crowd is the soft thumping of Rosalinda Sanquiche’s drum.

The St. Augustine resident stands beating her small drum with one hand and holding a sign in the other — one of dozens of protest signs poking through a crowd of county residents Occupying St. Augustine’s Plaza de la Construcion Saturday afternoon.

The protest, organized by three St. Augustine friends, is the realization of a local populous idea, Sanquiche said. She said Ethical Markets Media, a grassroots group of which she is part, has been very supportive of popular protests like ones seen in business districts in cities across the country.

“We finally have a popular uprising,” Sanquiche said.

While it may not have been an uprising, the four-hour Occupy St. Augustine protest had some popular support. A few hundred people gathered to voice their grievances with Wall Street and the U.S. Government in the city’s historic plaza.

“I see it as the average working Americans coming together to say that the system is broken,” said Terry Buckenmeyer, one of the event organizers.
Many who attended Occupy St. Augustine agree with the organizer’s sentiment.

“The economy still sucks,” said Chris Fulmer, a St. Augustine resident. “The people at the bottom are suffering, and the people at the top are making more than they ever did before.”

Spurred by New Yorkers in anger over wealthy corporations, the Occupy Wall Street movement as a whole has spread across the nation and now carries St. Johns County in its wake.

“[Corporations] only have profit as their goal,” said St. Augustine resident Cynthia McAuliffe. “At what cost? The cost of the people.”
While it was initially started in protest of high earners in the corporate sectors — branded the 1 percent — and the loss of jobs by the middle and lower classes — the 99 percent — the movement brought protests of all kinds to the Plaza Saturday.

Anti-war. Anti-tax. Anti-banks.

Paul Wise, who spoke at Saturday’s one-day rally, said he attended to voice his concerns about how difficult it is for many to get by financially in America.

“Everybody who works a 40-hour job in America should be able to afford an adequate and decent lifestyle,” Wise said.

Retired Marine John Hathaway agrees and added that it’s the banks who should take the blame for the economy.

“The banks have collapsed our economy, and no one has gone to jail,” he said.

But Annette Cappella, chair of the St. Johns County Democratic Party believes the local grievances are about jobs — a popular opinion she said that has created a movement that transcends political party lines.

“I don’t think you can call it liberal or conservative — it’s a populous movement,” she said. “This should be a nonpartisan thing because it affects everyone no matter what party.”

President of the Ponte Vedra Democratic Club, Chris Awerdick, agrees.

“I think that movement is like anything else — it’s not about party, it’s about people,” she said. “Everybody should be able to go out and have a sit or stand in — that’s what’s this country is about.”

While Awerdick said she is unaware of any Ponte Vedra residents who attended the St. Augustine event and she has not participated in any gatherings either, she believes the movement is a positive one.

“This is a group of people coming together to stand up for what they believe in,” she said. “I think that is commendable.”
Stepan Kira, corresponding secretary of the Republican Club of Ponte Vedra Beach, said his group sees the movement differently. The only way he would participate in

the Occupy movement would be by counter-protesting, he said.

“All of us are just looking at it and shaking our heads and saying, ‘Why don’t you just get a job?’” Kira said. “The [Occupy movement participants] are looking for handouts — they all want something for nothing.”

Kira said he thinks the protest groups shouldn’t target corporations but the federal legislature instead.

“They don’t seem to understand the problem doesn’t lie with [the banks and Wall Street],” he said. “Occupy the Capitol. Get them to fix our problem. The problem is in Washington.”

He believes there is no real focus to the movement.

“You ask three different people why they’re there, you get three separate answers,” he said.

Palm Coast resident John Coffey agrees that it’s a pretty multi-dimensional movement with different people voicing different concerns, but he said it’s not necessarily a bad thing.

“Even though there are a lot of different thoughts of what should be done, they all support each other,” he said.

Cappella said the individuals just need to find some direction. She said once they find that, they will have the potential to grow and have an impact at the state and national level.

Kira agrees. If unified, the Occupy groups across the nation could be politically powerful group, he said.

“If someone decides to create an organization out of it, they could be a counter to the Tea Party,” he said.

Hathaway hopes his effort Saturday and those of other county residents will eventually help bring attention to their national concerns.

“Perhaps we’re just redressing our grievance to ourselves,” Hathaway said, “but it seems to me it’s started a conversation — it’s changed the national conversation.”

For drum-toting Sanquiche, though, it’s not about grievances at all.

“We have the power to make the change we want,” she said. “No grievances, just power.”

sarah@opcfla.com
(904)686-3941

Huffington Post re: Occupy St. Augustine and the Unexpected Hostility of the Local Tea Party

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Inventing Division -- Why Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party Won't Join Forces

Rupert Russell | Nov 22, 2011 3:26 PM EST

Comments (12)

When the Flagler College sophomore Logan Guidry, 19, saw the Occupy Wall Street protests spread across the world, he thought: "Let's bring it to our town." He cobbled his friends together and began to organize the first OWS protest in their small historical seaside town of St Augustine, Florida. They invited every group that was fed up with the status quo to join them, including the local Tea Party. "We certainly plan to be there, but we'll be there to protest them," was the response from a local Tea Party leader, Lance Thate. He organizes regular small-scale protests of his own, complete with period costumes and the revolutionary Gasden Flag that depicts a rattlesnake over the words "don't tread on me."

Logan was as disappointed as he was surprised: "They were the first to protest these issues like the bank bailouts. You could say the Tea Party movement in some ways was the original 'Occupy' protesters." After all, the exact same Gasden flag has been waved at OWS events from Boston to Los Angeles to New York. Both have seen much of their wealth vanish, both are frustrated at the banks and the politicians who have sided with them. "I'm 84 and MAD as HELL," read the sign of an elderly lady in a little gray blouse at Zuccotti Park, but it would have been right at home at Glenn Beck's 9/12 rally in Washington, D.C. Some Tea Party activists have been spotted at various OWS protests around the country, but the crossover has been minimal. Why? Why is the common frustration at the status quo divided in two?

Imagine, for a moment, an entirely different kind of division. An artificial one; one we've just made up. Perhaps we tossed a coin in front of a crowd of students and divided them into the "heads" team or the "tails" team. Or randomly put one team in red bibs and another in blue ones. How would they respond? Would they care about their arbitrarily defined group? An array of psychological experiments stemming from the work of Henri Tajfel suggests that they would. They'd care a lot. If you asked them to divide up money, they'd give more to members of their own team than the other team. If you asked them to describe any success they had they'd put it down to ingenuity and hard work, but the other team's victories they'd put down to chance and good fortune. If you asked them to tell you about who made up each team, they'd see their own group as diverse and varied but the other group as an homogenous block characterized by their most extreme member. If you gave them a statement on a social or political issue, they'd say that it probably came from their group if they agreed with it, and the other group if they didn't.

In other words, you can invent divisions just by labeling people. This is because social divisions -- "heads" vs. "tails" or "red bibs" vs. "blue bibs" -- quickly became cognitive divisions. They became the basis of how we perceive, judge and favor one another. What's so surprising about these experiments is that in every case the students knew that the division was random and arbitrary. And when we turn to labels in the real world --"red" & "blue", "Democrat" & "Republican", "traditional" & "cosmopolitan" -- we'll see that the psychological effect is exactly the same.

The power of "red" and "blue" to distort our judgments was explored by Abraham Rutchick at California State University, Northridge, Joshua Smyth at Syracuse and Sara Konrath at the University of Michigan. They created two maps of the 2004 presidential election. The first map colored states in blue that went to Kerry, and red that went to Bush. The second map was subtler: each state was a shade of purple. The redder the shade, the more votes Bush received and the more it was blue, the more it leant to Kerry. They then made another change: half of the maps reported the precise share of the vote and the other half didn't. Participants were given one of the four maps and were asked a series of questions about what they thought Democratic and Republican voters were like in general and what they were like in individual states. Amazingly, they found that the presence of statistics had no impact whatsoever. Instead, people worked off the visual labels of "red" and "blue" entirely. Those who had the first map divided into red and blue saw Democrats and Republicans as more extreme and more divided than those who had the second map colored by hues of purple.

In this experiment, the 2004 map showed us how the labels we use to organize information isn't just descriptive -- it's prescriptive. But the 2004 map was more than just an experimental device. It was a symbol that embodied the geographical battle lines of a nation-wide "culture war." As Pat Buchanan put it, in his now legendary 1992 address to the Republican National Convention, it was a battle that could be neatly divided by faith and family. It was between those who believed in the "freedom to choose religious schools" and for the "right-to-life" and those who believed that "gay and lesbian couples should have the same standing in law as married men and women." While Buchanan's characterization of this division is controversial, the notion of a "divided America" is not. And this consensus among politicians and pundits flies in the face of two decades of social scientific research that has consistently debunked the idea. It persists for precisely the reason that subjects in the "tails" or "heads" groups will agree that both groups are fundamentally different with the same passion as that with which they'll disagree over what those differences are.

A whole host of studies, starting in 1996 with a landmark paper by Paul DiMaggio at Princeton University and his colleagues, have found Americans are not polarized into two rival camps divided by irreconcilable values. And when you do find regional differences in belief, it doesn't match up with how people actually live their lives. Red states claim to be more religious and hold traditional values but also have high rates of divorce and teenage pregnancy. Blue states, on the other hand, claim to be more secular and liberal in their attitudes but their marriages last longer and they have fewer teenage pregnancies. Furthermore, Mark Regnerus at the University of Texas in Austin found that while of all religious groups Evangelical teenagers professed to believe in abstinence the most, they were also the most sexually active when compared to Mormons, Jews and mainstream Protestants.

Even when you look among committed partisans -- registered "Democratic" and "Republican" voters -- there's a remarkable convergence in what they profess to believe. Sure, there's a difference on hot-button issues like homosexuality, but when you compare their beliefs over a diverse set of issues, there's only a marginal difference between them -- 14 percent. However, knowing someone's voter registration can tell us with a reasonable degree of accuracy who they're going to vote for, their occupation, the kind of neighborhood they live in, their race or ethnicity, and sometimes even their gender. How can this be?

It's simple: the labels "Democrat" and "Republican" are an intrinsic part of how large groups of people define themselves. And these labels magnify and exaggerate the differences between them, which, at the same time, keep these groups apart. That's why the Tea Party chapter in St Augustine showed up on Cathedral Street to protest the Occupy Wall Street gathering, just as they promised. "We don't agree and so we're here to put our noses in," said the chapter's chairman, Dave Heimbold. It didn't matter that they hold similar grievances or use the same slogans. They felt different.

And this difference lies in the way these groups have labeled themselves. It isn't just a matter of semantics. Like the red and blue maps or red and blue bibs, it's also aesthetic. It's the piercings and tattoos, the drum circles and tie-dye T-shirts at Zuccotti park. It's the homemade tea-bag hats and period costumes, the guns and trucks. But the semantics polarize these images. They bend our perception to focus on what is extreme, what is the most visibly different, and then use those characteristics to define the whole group as a homogenous mass. We block out those who don't conform to this picture. We block out those who look just like us. The prism that refracts our perception also functions as a social prison. It invents division.

Shady Developer Wants to Revive Morbund Sebastian Inland Harbor Project

This project would create unneeded condos in the wrong place and at the wrong time. Florida already has one half million unoccupied condos. Enough!

It should be redesigned as a public-private partnership, to include the National Civil Rights Museum, a National Park Service Visitor Center, a parking garage, battery-powered trolleys to take tourists around St. Augustine, with shops, outdoor cafes, and a working waterfront with shrimp boats selling fresh seafood (like Tarpon Springs) and a place for artists and entertainers to perform and entertain (like Mallory Square in Key West, and St. George Street before it was ruined by unjust laws violating the First Amendment.

Enough crappy condos like the ones that were almost inflicted on one of our City's gateways. Former UN Ambassador Andrew Young needs to contact Wells Fargo and ask them to donate the land to the National Civil Rights Museum and the National Park Service.


Looking east down King Street, a rendering depicts the proposed Sebastian Inland Harbor. Rendering Courtesy of PQH Vargas

St, Augustine Record re: hoping to revive Sebastian Inland Harbor Project

Looking east down King Street, a rendering depicts the proposed Sebastian Inland Harbor. Rendering Courtesy of PQH Vargas


-Looking north along the San Sebastian River, this file photo shows construction on the Sebastian Inland Harbor, underway Saturday, August 18, 2007. by DARON DEAN, daron.dean@staugustine.com


San Sebastian Inlet developer hoping to revive project
Developer working to regain control of San Sebastian project from bank
Posted: November 30, 2011 - 11:31pm



By PETER GUINTA
peter.guinta@staugustine.com

A proposed 11-acre mixed-use development project at King Street and the San Sebastian River tanked due to the 2007 recession, but it’s trying to be revitalized by its original investor, St. Augustine officials said this week.

Mark Knight, city director of planning and building, said, “There are people with a strong interest in (this project). There are no contractual obligations or development plans yet, but they’re looking at it.”

The original architectural plans, drawn up by PQH Architects and Engineers of Jacksonville, showed a restaurant to be built just west of San Sebastian Winery, a surface level parking lot built on the Riberia Street side, office buildings and condominiums with retail on the main body of the property, and a 2-acre, 46-slip marina, containing a public river walk and plaza.

Other developers also presented ideas, such as putting a parking garage off Riberia Street and a clock tower in the shape of the St. Augustine Lighthouse at the corner of Malaga and Lorida streets.

Lorida Street has been renamed San Sebastian Drive since that time.

City officials calculated that the project, estimated to be worth $50 million after build out, would pay $600,000 to $700,000 per year in taxes.

But the property sits in a Community Redevelopment Area, meaning that the city must plow back that money into parking other project requirements the “reduce blight” in the CRA.

This week, Wallace Devlin of The Devlin Group, one of the developers, said that he’s discussing and negotiating with Wells Fargo and is hopeful to get back on track with the site.

“We have never stopped working on this project,” Devlin said. “It’s going real well. We’ve been working with architects and engineers all this time. I’m hoping for some good news.”

The marina dredged there in the early stages is “pretty much complete,” Knight said.

But Assistant City Manager Tim Burchfield said Wednesday that the marina basin may have to be redredged and the docks maintained after both seeing no activity for five years.

“The marina’s silted in some,” he said. “They would also need to build a dock house.”

City Attorney Ron Brown said that after the property was foreclosed, the bank formed Redus Financial Investments LLC, perhaps to act as an independent buyer in case the property went to the courthouse steps, he said.

The question being asked is: Who owns the bulk of the harbor property now?

Brown said, “We’d like to know that, too. It would be nice to get all that resolved.”

Part is owned by Devlin, Schueth & Grunthal own the King Street restaurant part and Matt Merritt of Ponte Vedra Beach and Rich Newton of Atlanta, partners in the Merritt & Newton Group, also own part.

Burchfield said, “The sooner something happens there, the better. Anything we get is better than what we have now.”

Sebastian Inland Harbor project time line

n St. Augustine acquired the property from the San Sebastian River to Riberia Street in the 1980s, paying $1 million for 12 parcels in anticipation of a large commercial development being built at the city’s main entrance corridor.

n The city negotiated with Gainesville developer Ken McGurn for five years, but the two sides never signed a contract.

n Just as the commission was about to sign with McGurn, St. Augustine developer Doug Randall came in at the last minute and offered $1 million more than McGurn was willing to pay.

n Some commissioners thought that unfair and city staff created a points system to rank those companies desiring to take on the project.

n The Vestcor Companies and Hutson Land Companies were the top choices, but both firms pulled out after the Sept. 11, 2001, tragedy, claiming that the times were now too uncertain to invest.

n The contract went to the city’s second choice: San Sebastian Harbor Partners LLC., which offered $3.75 million for the property. The company said it would codevelop the site with The Devlin Group of Ponte Vedra Beach taking on the residential and marina aspect, and Schueth & Grunthal, a Jacksonville real estate company, taking on development of the retail aspect. A fourth firm, Triarc International, of Celebration, would build a hotel and conference center on the site.

n Wachovia Bank, now Wells Fargo, loaned $20 million to the developers.

n When the recession hit in 2007, building stopped and the property went into foreclosure.

A 1975 poem, dedicated to Tea Party members of Congress and Florida GOVERNOR RICHARD SCOTT AND ST. JOHNS RIVER WATER MANAGEMENT DISTRICT

Little Boy Blue
Come blow your horn—
They’ve sprayed extra chemicals
On the corn
The soil is dying
The rivers could weep
And the people to stop it
Are fast asleep

-Barbara Jurgensen & Murray Goodwin, A Polluter’s Garden of Verses, 1975

IN HAEC VERBA re: Raising the Consciousness of the St. Augustine, Ponte Vedra & The Beaches Visitors & Convention Bureau

From: Ed Slavin
Sent: Friday, December 02, 2011 11:47 AM
To: 'Jay Humphreys'
Subject: RE: St. Augustine | Ponte Vedra Travel offers -- Lincolnville Farmers Market, Civil Rights Tourism, St. Augustine National Historical Park, National Seashore and National CIvil RIghts Museum

Dear Jay:
1. Thank you for your E-mail.
2. We appreciate your promised efforts to publicize the Lincolnville Farmers Market, and your recent efforts to encourage Civil Rights Tourism. Keep up the good work.
3. However, I would encourage you to bring a renewed urgency and creativity to your work. We can and must do better.
4. Our local economy is stagnant.
5. Small businesses dependent on tourism have closed or are in distress.
6. Both workers and business owners are hurting.
7. Graduates of our local schools don’t stay here, because there are not enough good jobs.
8. We must think anew and act anew.
9. It is imperative that we “get out of the ditch.” How – we need to grow our stagnant local economy with pollution-free “green” jobs associated with environmental and historic tourism, which we know will attract tourists who spend more and stay longer.
10. You write: “St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore: Our job is to encourage visitation to Florida’s Historic Coast by making potential visitors aware of what we have to offer. We can’t promote attractions or amenities that do not currently exist.”
11. Why? Who says? Where is it written? Pursuant to the Open Records law, will you please send me a copy of the pertinent job descriptions that support this assertion?
12. My understanding is that you have been involved in helping pave the way for new “attractions or amenities” in the past.
13. You should also do so for the National Civil Rights Museum and the St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore, on a non-discriminatory basis, as required by our Constitution and Civil Rights laws.
14. You write: “If and when the Park and Seashore become a reality, we will be in the forefront of efforts to promote them.”
15. Your “job” today must be to become far more proactive, helping make St. Augustine a better place for residents and visitors by creating permanent, sustainable “attractions” or “amenities” in time for the 450th birthday of St. Augustine (2015), 500th anniversary of Spanish Florida (2013), 50th anniversary of the 1964 Civil Rights Act (2014).
16. Thus, I would appreciate your renewed personal and organizational commitment to this effort.
17. Please encourage public discussion of scope of the St. Augustine National Park, National Seashore and Civil Rights Museum legislation and help us get it enacted into law.
18. You can start by linking your website to www.staugustgreen.com and by encouraging all those tourism writers to discuss it in their stories. With your help, I know we will succeed.
19. Is that too much to ask?
Sincerely,
Ed Slavin
www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com
829-3877



From: Jay Humphreys [mailto:JHumphreys@FloridasHistoricCoast.com]
Sent: Friday, December 02, 2011 10:48 AM
To: Ed Slavin'
Subject: RE: St. Augustine | Ponte Vedra Travel offers -- Lincolnville Farmers Market, Civil Rights Tourism

Dear Ed:

Thanks for your quick response to our recent email to thousands of potential visitors who have asked to stay informed of the latest tourism-related activities on Florida’s Historic Coast. We value your feedback and hope the following adequately addresses your concerns.

Lincolnville Farmers’ Market: Yes! We did indeed fail to include it in the listing referenced in the email. In our defense, we have just introduced a new website for the destination and we are working to insure the more than 600 events we list annually are up-to-date. Because of the newness of the Lincolnville Farmers’ Market, it hasn’t yet appeared in all of the information outlets we utilize. However, it appears each week in our Wednesday “This Weekend” in St. Augustine, Ponte Vedra & The Beaches news release that goes to thousands of recipients including all of the county’s accommodations, attractions and tourism-related managers plus the news media in Jacksonville, Tampa and Orlando. It is also included in our new Travel Planner magazine that should be available for distribution in hardcopy and online editions in early January. So we are working to get the word out about the new farmers’ market. Thanks for bringing its omission in this instance to our attention.

Civil Rights Tourism: As you know, we have ghost tours, culinary tours, pub tours and numerous tours of the city’s long-history as part of the Spanish Empire. So far, however, local tour businesses have largely ignored the Civil Rights aspects of our history. Of course, there are some notable special-occasion or part-time exceptions including David Nolan’s wonderful Lincolnville tours. In lieu of having such a tour service that could be actively promoted, we have devoted considerable attention to that fascinating and inspiring part of or local history. The tours we provide to dozens of travel writers who visit each year always include the Civil Rights story. We have actively pitched the story to publications and other travel media and we have had some successes. Our previously mentioned “This Weekend” news release carries information about events at Fort Mose and the Civil Rights story is always included in our full color Travel Planner. This year’s edition of the Travel Planner (125,000 copies distributed) features a full-page story about the area’s African-American history, including the Civil Rights period, and includes information about ACCORD’s Freedom Trail markers and a link to their website. This feature story is included in the 2012 edition as well. In addition, the 2012 edition of our Travel Planner includes information on St. Augustine’s role in the passage of the Civil Rights Act (with references to Dr. Hayling, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. the SCLC, etc.) and the 50th Anniversary of that landmark legislation. There is also a half-page, full-color photo of the new St. Augustine Foot Soldiers monument in the Plaza.

St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore: Our job is to encourage visitation to Florida’s Historic Coast by making potential visitors aware of what we have to offer. We can’t promote attractions or amenities that do not currently exist. If and when the Park and Seashore become a reality, we will be in the forefront of efforts to promote them.


Thanks again for your comments, especially regarding the omission of the Lincolnville Farmers’ Market from some of our promotional tools. We’ll certainly correct that oversight. Our office is devoted to the continued success of promoting St. Augustine, Ponte Vedra & The Beaches as a popular destination for visitors. Your interest in our work is appreciated.

Best regards for the holidays!

Jay


Jay Humphreys
Communications Director
St. Augustine, Ponte Vedra & The Beaches
Visitors & Convention Bureau
29 Old Mission Avenue
St. Augustine, FL 32084
Phone: 904.209.4424
TF: 800.418.7529
Cell: 904.669.2945
Fax: 904.829.6149
www.FloridasHistoricCoast.com




From: Ed Slavin [mailto:ed@globalwrap.com]
Sent: Thursday, December 01, 2011 2:06 PM
To: 'ssather@getaway4florida.com'
Subject: RE: St. Augustine | Ponte Vedra Travel offers -- Lincolnville Farmers Market, Civil Rights Tourism

Good afternoon:
1. I note that we list two (2) area Farmers Markets, but not the one in Lincolnville. This oversight makes St. Augustine and St. Johns County appear ethnocentric and insensitive to diversity.
2. Would you please list the Lincolnville Farmers’ Market, Galimore Center, Riberia Street, St. Augustine, Sundays 11-3? http://www.lincolnvillefarmersmarket.com/
3. I note that we still lack adequate coverage of Civil Rights tourism.
4. We must tell the truth about our history, as Mayor Boles has stated. Would you please add the Andrew Young Crossing Monument and the Civil Rights Foot Soldiers Monument?
5. Finally, would you please post a link to the page on the proposed St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore, www.staugustgreen.com?
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Ed
Ed Slavin
www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com
Box 3084
St. Augustine, Florida 32085-3084
904-829-3877

From: Florida's Historic Coast [mailto:stacey@floridashistoriccoast.ccsend.com] On Behalf Of Florida's Historic Coast
Sent: Thursday, December 01, 2011 11:47 AM
To: Ed Slavin
Subject: St. Augustine | Ponte Vedra Travel offers

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Hi, just a reminder that you're receiving this email because you have requested information about St. Augustine | Ponte Vedra on Florida's Historic Coast. Don't forget to add ssather@getaway4florida.com to your address book so we'll be sure to land in your inbox!

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NIGHTS OF LIGHTS SHINES A LITTLE BRIGHTER THIS YEAR.


That's because for the first time in six years, the mighty Bridge of Lions graced the Nights of Lights stage with its magnificently illuminated architecture. Now that renovations are complete, the ancient, cherished bridge takes its place alongside the oldest city. The city will shine in its holiday best as millions of white lights illuminate the ancient streets. Downtown comes alive with the spirit of the season as carolers fill the air with music. The city buzzes with holiday cheer while St. Augustine Beach and the historic Lighthouse add seaside joy with sparkling holiday lights and events. There are art walks that tour over 30 galleries serving up hot cocoa, cookies and the like, while holiday concerts, a Christmas parade and a dazzling regatta all make the season special. It all happens now through January 31.
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The Grande Illumination Parade

From the Government House they march, looping their way through downtown St. Augustine to the city gates and returning to the west end of the plaza, all the while their parade path illuminated by the candles and lanterns of spectators. It's a fife and drum corps march in full regalia, and it all culminates with muskets firing volleys of joy in celebration and carolers singing into the night.
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Regatta of Lights

Just north of the Bridge of Lions, the Holiday Regatta of Lights floats its way down the St. Augustine Bay in a celebration of the season and the city's maritime roots. Hosted by the St. Augustine Yacht Club, the Regatta of Lights features dozens of sailboats, trawlers, shrimp boats and many other vessels, all adorned with lights and floating in parade formation.
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CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE
LISTING OF EVENTS


Beards Trimmed; Broken Bones Set

When it comes to attractions in St. Augustine, it's difficult to find a visitor to the oldest city who hasn't walked along St. George Street, the nine-block, pedestrian-only thoroughfare that's famous for its shops and restaurants. But few visitors walk the street southward from the Plaza de la Constitucion.
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St. Augustine, Ponte Vedra & The Beaches Visitors & Convention Bureau | 29 Old Mission Avenue | St. Augustine | FL | 32084

IN HAEC VERBA: Quoted in 2006 Article, SJRWMD Lawyer Bragged of "Control" Over University of Florida Research on Environmental Issues

MIAMI INDYMEDIA: The Matrix: Wetlands of Mass Destruction (WMD) -- Why Florida's wetlands are being destroyed and who benefits.
By Ed Slavin

Miami Independent Media Center

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Original article is at http://miami.indymedia.org/news/2006/10/6295.php Print comments.

The Matrix: Wetlands of Mass Destruction (WMD)
by Ed Slavin Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2006 at 11:26 AM
EASlavin@aol.com 904-471-7023 P.O. Box 3084, St. Augustine, Florida 32085

Why Florida's wetlands are being destroyed and who benefits.

THE MATRIX -- Wetlands of Mass Destruction (WMD)
By Ed Slavin
http://www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com
Copyright (c) 2006

Earlier this year, journalists reported record numbers of alligator attacks in Florida. Wonder why?

Businesses and governments have killed off half of Florida's wetlands, destroying alligators' natural habitat, along with fish, wildlife and water quality. As Hurricane Katrina showed, wetland destruction kills people and destroys their property during post-hurricane floods made ruinous by removing wetlands' natural flood controls.

In the 21st century, some wetland wrongdoers are being prosecuted and convicted of felony crimes against nature. Half of America's wetlands have been destroyed.

At least 100,000 acres of Florida wetlands were destroyed by development, roadbuilding, mining and farming 1990-2004, despite America's "no net loss" policy, as the St. Petersburg Times reported in 2005.

Wetlands teem with life and protect people and property from flooding.

Northeast Florida's Sierra Club dubbed St. Johns River Water Management District (SJRWMD or District) "Watersheds of Mass Destruction" after it approved Freedom Commerce Center's controversial request to destroy the forested headwaters of Jacksonville's Julington-Pottsburg Creeks (even though the Army Corps of Engineers, with primary jurisdiction over wetlands near navigable waters, opposed it).

America is not the only country with anti-wetlands leaders. Duke University scientists investigating Saddam Hussein's destruction of Iran-Iraq wetlands give talks on his "Wetlands of Mass Destruction."

Wetland destruction was long U.S. government policy. Katrina was not the first hurricane killing people left unprotected by widespread wetland destruction. Hundreds of Florida farmers near Lake Okeechobee died during 1926-27 floods.

In the 1840s, Harvard-educated lawyer/historian Buckingham Smith worked for the federal government, lambasting the "utter worthlessness" of the Everglades and "the entire region." In 1904, Florida Governor Napoleon Bonaparte Broward pushed filling in wetlands, "saving" the Everglades to be "drained and made fit for cultivation."
Criminologist Edward Alvord Ross wrote in 1907 that some seeking "success" are "in a hurry" and "not particular about the means," showing "criminaloid" personalities.

"Service to Mankind?"

South Florida's Broward County (and a Jacksonville bridge) are still named for Broward.

The Everglades are in critical condition, object of a crash $8 billion federal project.

Like Napoleon Bonaparte Broward, wetland-fillers thought "they were doing a service to mankind," as Washington Post reporter Michael Grunwald writes his book, "Swamp."

The Everglades, Florida and the Politics of Paradise."

Former EPA Regional Administrator John Henry Hankinson, Jr. joked at a conference that he had recently moved to Florida and done what tourists had long done -- "bought swamp."

Rising real estate prices mean that there's "a lot of possibility for any land in Florida," Hankinson told us.

Built in wetlands In south central St. Johns and Northern Flagler Counties, sixteen square mile Flagler Estates is home to 7300 people in 2500 homes, considered the last bastion of affordable housing in St. Johns County. The St. Augustine Record reports that County officials granting building, water and septic tank permits without inspecting lots. Meanwhile, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) inspected and denied at least 20 permits, prohibiting purchasers from placing mobile or manufactured homes and fining some homeowners. Flagler Estates was developed by Florida General Equities of Boca Raton, which advertised home lots nationwide, showing prospective purchasers the land by airplane. FGE (now defunct) never built promised roads and amenities. .

Across Florida, airplane passengers observe similar rectangular wetland developments, slashed across wetlands. Some date back to the 1920s Florida real estate boom, some never lived in, still scarring Florida's wetlands with broken promises to prospective Floridians.

Year after year, Florida's wetlands are filled in by speculators and developers (who need no professional licenses, unlike construction contractors).

"Most permits are granted," says St. Johns River Water Management District Jacksonville Service Center Director David Miracle, with developers usually modifying applications to receive approval. There are only five inspectors for six counties to examine wetland destruction, he says, with staffing remaining constant amidst a real estate boom.

During 2003, the St. Petersburg Times reported, only 300 of 14,000 DEP permit applications were turned down, with developers seeking legislation in 2005 to make it even easier to fill in wetlands under ten acres.

Those who fill in wetlands illegally usually have an easy time, given "after the fact permits."

Six Square Miles Damaged, $100 Per Acre Check to UF

One forest owner damaged six square miles of North Florida wetlands and was barely slapped on the wrist. From 1996-2005, Holland M. Ware filled in 77 acres of wetlands and hurt another 3800 acres hydrologically in St. Johns and Flagler County landowner, without seeking or obtaining permits. Ware admitted his employees filled in the wetlands and built (without permits) 9 miles of new roads, 11 miles of new ditches, and 6.4 miles of alterations on existing ditches. Ware reportedly bought some 37,000 acres in the two counties for an estimated $40 million in 1996.

SJRWMD last year quietly approved a weak "consent decree" settlement with Ware, agreeing to let Ware pay $329,000 to the University of Florida for water and soil research and to reimburse over $38,000 in investigation and monitoring costs.

SJRWMD waived all civil, criminal and administrative penalties and gave "after the fact" permits. Nothing in the settlement negates the fact that Ware's UF check is a tax deductible business expense. SJRWMD Board members asked only a few questions before approving Ware's settlement.

Ware's penalty is less than $100 per acre of damage, based on SJRWMD's own calculations. SJRWMD attorney Ms. Tara M. Boonstra says that "there's no doubt that someone intended to dig ditches" and build roads and that the "ditchdigging and roadbuilding were on purpose."


No Fear

Florida boasts more wetlands than any other state (save Alaska) -- twenty percent of the total. Developer political influence means that wetland-fillers do not fear SJRWMD, the State or federal regulators, St. Johns Riverkeeper Neal Armingeon says.

Armingeon writes that landowners can "fill wetlands (happens all the time) and never be fined. DEP might issue a consent order BUT that RARELY requires the landowner to pay a fine or remove illegal fill. It's really an ‘after the fact permit'. With land values what they are, even if they [were fined], the cost of filling pales in comparison to land costs."

Teresa Monson, SJRWMD's spokesperson said "we're just not going to respond." However, Miracle concedes that the District routinely grants developers "after the fact permits" when they did not apply.

The Ware settlement was the District's largest-ever violation and settlement.

Ms. Boonstra says "there's a lot of flexibility for crafting these settlements -- if the violator had not entered into this, we would have had to pursue more time consuming costly enforcement actions that might never have yielded a result ... it's a package that makes a lot of sense." If SJRWMD seek fines, it must try its case in a State Circuit Court.

Landowner Holland M. Ware of Hogansville, Georgia reportedly owns over one million acres of Southern forests, recently angling to purchase another 200,000 acres in Northeast Florida. Ware plants ten new trees for every tree cut.

Requiring Ware to donate a small sum of money to UF is not exactly deterrence or punishment Ware is a wealthy philanthropist who lives part of the year in Ponte Vedra Beach. He's given generously to animal welfare causes, including Auburn University's veterinary school, with buildings bearing his name. In 1993, his Georgia Book Warehouse donated over 800,000 books to low-income children, the Atlanta Project (TAP) and former President Jimmy Carter's foundation reports.

Ware's 2005 SJRWMD consent decree does not require firing any managers, banning anyone from working in forestry, donating any land for parks or requiring anyone to live onsite. It gives SJRWMD access until December 2009, with designated "restoration" chores under a timetable, with possible $200 fines if the timetable isn't kept. Ware and his consultant, The Forestry Company, are "already ahead of schedule," SJRWMD's Dave Miracle states.This isn't the first time that landowners have ever filled in Florida wetlands without a permit, Hankinson says.

Elsewhere, farmers and developers filling in wetlands go to jail. SJRWMD has never reported wetland-fillers to prosecutors.

SJRWMD's lawyer explained that she formerly worked for the UF Foundation and that the District wanted "control" of fine money for research. If paid into the state general fund, "we have no control over that.... we wanted to get something that would benefit our agency here locally.".

"I'm a tree farmer," working "land that I've had for fifty years," Ware said, noting that "we growing a lot more wood than we're using" and that there's "an excess supply of wood."

Ware's trees will ultimately belong to the charitable foundation that bears his name.

Ware said of the destruction of a bald eagle nest tree by a St. Augustine developer, Pierre Thompson. (October Collective Press). "I haven't heard of it -- I've never known of anybody destroying" a bald eagle nest before.

Ware said of his consent decree that "they asked me not to discuss that one ...we manage everything well."

Asked if he had fired any managers for filling in wetlands to build miles of illegal roads and ditches, Ware said, "I couldn't comment on that."

In the American West, most forest land is government-owned. In the South, most forests are privately owned.

Ware comes from a wealthy Georgia family long accustomed to getting its way. His mother told a historian how she boarded a train in New York in 1927 but was told it did not stop in Hogansville. Her father picked up the telephone and saw to it that the train stopped in Hogansville.


"Water Flows Uphill Towards Money"
Picking up the telephone and using contacts is what lobbyists do. Recent federal statistics show America's lobbyists spending over one billion dollars per year. That's a lot of phone calls and cocktail parties for government officials.

In the water-short American West, people say "water flows uphill towards money." With two pro-business brothers named Bush as President and Governor, Florida developers need not even pick up the telephone to win their way. Governor Jeb Bush's appointees push for developer agendas without being asked -- it's their job.

SJRWMD now wisely orders us not to water your lawn more than two days per week. Yet St. Johns County Commissioners recently voted over $3 million in "incentives" for an industry that would use 1.2 million gallons of water daily for bottling beverages.

SJRWMD is "very political," Riverkeeper Armingeon reports. Florida is facing an "incredible onslaught" from developers demanding to fill in wetlands Does SJRWMD's "business as usual" encourage violators? Take a look at the matrix.

The Matrix Revealed

SJRWMD says that it calculates penalties pursuant to its own "internal" guide, a "penalty assessment matrix" that it cribbed from EPA and Florida's DEP.The matrix has never been reported before.

The matrix sets minimal penalties for violations and was adopted over 20 years ago, with no indexing for inflation. Maximum fines are $10,000 per violation. The matrix says, "Reduce by 1/2 all categories for potable water cases."

EPA's maximum fines are $25,000 per day per violation, rising to $75,000 for second offenders.

The matrix was never approved by the Board or published for public comment. SJRWMD claims it "does not have the force and effect of law,' but says it uses it to assure consistency between four District offices.

Riverkeeper Neal Armingeon says "With the limited fines, it almost ‘pays' to violate the wetland laws."

The matrix does not consider the price of the property or the value of a landowner's holdings or the financial motive (and possible gain) for filling in wetlands.

Disrespect for Environmental Law

Justice Louis D. Brandeis said when "government becomes a lawbreaker," it promotes disrespect for the law, and anarchy. Government remains a lawbreaker in filling wetlands.

SJRWMD approved a move by St. Johns County to build Holmes Blvd Extension very close to several sensitive coquina pit lakes. The District's approval apparently violated its own rules. It claimed it "approved" the project on a 3-3 tie vote by its Board of Governors in September 2002.

Spokesperson Teresa Monson says the District follows Roberts Rules of Order and that tie votes "disapprove" proposals. Despite the tie vote, Holmes Blvd. Extension was built on the pretext that the District did not follow Roberts' Rules.

Building the new county road ironically allowed discovery of illegal dumping by the City of St. Augustine at the Old City Reservoir. As retired EPA regional National Pollution Discharge Emission System Branch Chief John Marler says, what St. Augustine dumped "is obviously not clean fill, which is concrete and dirt usually." "There are no mattress springs in clean fill." (See "Oldest City Trashes Reservoir." Collective Press, April 2006, http://www.collectivepress.org).

Unlike other violators, an "after the fact permit" is not an option for the City of St. Augustine, SJRWMD and FDEP spokesmen say -- the agencies want the reservoir cleaned up and have rejected months of city flummery. St. Augustine's City Attorney James Patrick Wilson resigned October 12 and it is unknown if it was in protest of the city's environmental violations. The city hired the law firm of longtime government and property lawyers Geoffery Dobson and Ronald W. Brown to serve as interim city attorneys.xxx

Like the City of St. Augustine, Florida governments often violate environmental laws and orders, District spokeswoman Teresa Monson says. Nassau County's Judicial Center was illegally built on wetlands without a permit. Jacksonville Electric Authority was guilty of massive dumping of raw sewage, with a DEP penalty of only some $80,000 (reduced from ten times that much). In Marion County, old limerock pits were once used as dumps, Hankinson says. Marion County was rejected when it sought to fill in a sinkhole, rejected by both the SJRWMD Board and Governor's cabinet, Miracle says.

The inherent problem with punishing governmental environmental wrongdoers is that fines are paid by taxpayers, Monson explains

Former EPA Regional Administrator John Hankinson says that other resolutions include consent decrees requiring additional environmental projects, as in Atlanta, which was required to perform "Supplemental Environment Projects (SEPs) in lieu of fines" under a settlement, instead of paying money to the U.S. Treasury. Atlanta was required to "buy and restore stream channels to keep pollution out of the streams." Hankinson says, "we really stuck it to the City of Atlanta," making it protect the environment.
Environmental enforcement employees must again "feel that their leadership is supportive... it comes and goes I guess," Hankinson said.

Profitable Wetland-Filling

Large organizations profit together from wetland-filling, which is why no Florida trade association supports wetland restrictions.

Florida Power & Light is allegedly connecting power to buildings in wetlands built without proper permits. Florida landowners sometimes obtain permits for "agricultural" structures, only to build homes, Florida's Public Service Commission has been requested to consider a proposed rulremaking to ban utility connections to wetland-destroying projects without proper permits, but rejected it on procedural grounds, leaving the way open to renew the request under the next Governor.

Bureaucratic tangles result in two different agencies evaluating wetland permits by the same developer on different sides of the same street, with insufficient coordination. SJRWMD issued no permits for Robert Graubard's subdivision with 20 homes built in a wetland, now causing frequent road and sidewalk flooding adjacent to St. Augustine High School.

SJRWMD admits water "crests" and covers Lewis Speedway after rainfall. "Someone is going to get killed," one resident says.

SJRWMD staff found "drainage issues" at the archaeological site after an on-site inspection on March 2. DEP regulates the homes built across the street in a wetland, while SJRWMD regulates the one next to the high school.

On January 9, St. Augustine Commissioners approved a Robert Graubard project previously said to contain some six acres of wetlands, now said to contain none, Mayor Gardner dissenting. The site includes a significant archaeological find and the City has yet to send the report to the state archaeologist, with St. Augustine City Archaeologist Carl Hallbirt never given the report.A recent SJRWMD report inaccurately claimed there were no wetlands. SJRWMD promised to consult local residents regarding archaeological issues, but issued permits without informing them, apologizing and blaming it on the developer's changing names and bureaucratic SNAFUs.

Earlier this year, when the archaeological site and wetlands were up on the block for approval of a modified planned unit development (PUD), St. Augusting officials refused to see evidence of flooding. St. Augustine City Commissioner Joseph Boles, Jr. -- now a candidate for mayor -- allegedly shook his head "no" when citizens sought to show photos of the flooding to Commissioners on January 9th. As Ms. Sherry Badger wrote in the October 22 St. Augustine Record: "On January 9th, Commissioner Joe Boles voted to put a strip mall and condominiums where there are unexamined Indian villages, risking floods and vehicle accidents near three schools, risking children's safety." Ms. Badger wrote that, "Commissioners voted 3-2 to destroy history, falsely claiming Indian sites were protected. We asked to show videotapes and photos, including Lewis Speedway underwater during football games, school functions and parent pickups. Looking toward the planning director, Mr. Boles shook his head 'no' at our request. In response, staff then claimed there were technical problems with video equipment and city staff needed to have viewed them first. They kept cable TV viewers and commissioners from seeing just how dangerous Lewis Speedway is when it's flooded due to speculators destroying wetlands." http://www.staugustinerecord.com

Mayor candidate Boles had no response to Ms. Badger's letter at the October 23 Commission meeting during Commissioners' comments after Ms. Badger spoke.

North Florida's project-by-project divisions of labor between agencies are supposed to avoid duplication. They can also result in a narrow view of what problems exist with drainage. On the Lewis Speedway-Twelve Mile Swamp drainage, the District blames the County, not DEP or itself. Two different agencies are in charge of permits for developments on the same creek, directly across the street from one another.

The lack of inspectors means that swamps are sometimes quietly drained before permits are sought, with regulators seldom the wiser.

Hankinson says "it is not unusual for landowners to quietly do land preparation to reduce the wetland character of the land" and to "make more attractive for other uses down the road." Two homeowners agree, noting how developers cut trees (some not on the developer's property, without permission. One developer offered $1000 per acre for their lot, demanding the homeowners throw in their three bedroom home for free. Trees were cut without permits on her land and adjacent property, the homeowners allege.

Could SJRWMD do more? Does it need more inspectors? Miracle won't say.

Could SJRWMD be sued by pollution, flood, disaster and auto wreck victims killed, injured or made homeless by its policy of allowing buildings to be built in wetlands, causing floods? While governments are sometimes protected by the doctrine of "sovereign immunity," citizens might sue for damages under state tort law and federal environmental laws.

Organizations filling in wetlands are supposed to create new ones in "mitigation" projects, many of which prove to be unsupervised and unworkable.

Hankinson and Armingeon agree that SJRWMD, the Corps of Engineers, EPA and other agencies must be better environmental stewards. So does the Government Accountability Office (GAO), which reported in 1989, 1993 and again in 2005 that the Corps does little to assure that there will be "no net loss" of wetlands.

While the Jacksonville District office of the Corps was rated better than most, tripling inspections from 2003-2004, GAO also found that it "lost" 13 files on wetland "mitigation."

Agencies' "Neglect"

GAO found "The Corps has consistently neglected to ensure that the mitigation it has required as a condition of obtaining a permit has been completed." "The Corps priority has been and continues to be processing [development] permit applications," the GAO reports.

GAO reported that under Corps of Engineers rules, once the Corps "decides to proceed with an administrative penalty, it cannot subsequently refer the case to the Department of Justice for legal action."

One EPA Wetlands Person for Eight States

Like the Corps and District, EPA is also understaffed. Hankinson says there is only one of the 1200 EPA Atlanta employees works on wetland issues in eight states (Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina and South Carolina). "We go after the little ones," an EPA staffer told a St. Johns County resident calling about wetland violators in 2000. EPA seldom uses its veto power over wetland projects. Hankinson says prior administrators used vetoes sparingly in Florida, halting Miami landfills and rock plowing in East Everglades.

EPA rarely vetoes a wetland project, Hankinson says. After Hankinson threatened a veto over mining near the Okeefenokee Swamp in Georgia,: the project was halted.
Meanwhile, Florida's war against wetlands continues. Yet some wetland despoilers (even cities) face criminal charges for wetland-destroying "business/"

City Pleads To Felonies

In April 2005, the City of Venice, Florida pled guilty to three felony counts of Clean Water Act violations -- polluting wetlands with partly treated sewage effluent, damaging Knight Trail Park and Curry Creek.

Venice City Attorney Bob Andrews bragged to EPA, "We violate, you fine us, we pay the fines and move on." City Manager George Hunt (since resigned) said pollution and fines were part of the City's "cost of doing business."

Venice admits its illegal "business" destroyed pine trees, damaged vegetation and left wildlife homeless. Venice replaced its entire utility department with a contractor: it paid a $110,000 fine and was placed on probation. Federal agents are still investigating "The Executive Group," including former City Manager Hunt.

Developer Sent to Fed Pen

In December, Mississippi developer Robert Lucas was sentenced to nine years in prison for 41 counts of mail fraud; unpermitted trenching, draining, and filling of wetlands; and unpermitted discharge of sewage to wetlands, as well as for conspiracy to commit those crimes. Lucas' daughter, Realtor® Robbie Lucas Wrigley and his engineer, M.E. Thompson,Jr., P.E. were also convicted.

Lucas defrauded 250 low-income, first-time homebuyers who put mobile and manufactured homes on one to five acre lots in Big Hill Acres, his 2620 acre development located near Biloxi, half in wetlands (advertised as "high and dry").
Lucas put septic tanks in wetlands despite health concerns and state and federal stop-work orders.

Lucas' engineer falsely certified septic tank systems. Sewage backed up into homes.
Lucas and his daughter added handwritten notations to sales contracts falsely claiming disclosure to purchasers.

Uncharged was Lucas' lawyer, who testified May 18, 2005 at Lucas' criminal about that he was "mad" and took umbrage" at EPA, advising Lucas to proceed, lambasting EPA as being "very heavy-handed," "unethical" and "on a crusade to destroy" Lucas, describing residents "exacerbated" and "agitated."

Lucas' lawyer disputed the wetland status of only six acres, while seeking a "global settlement" that would allow an "after the fact permit." Lucas' lawyer testified, "we had no reason to deviate from our plan."

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution compared the Big Hill Acres case to a John Grisham novel.

Lucas' lawyer from 2000-2001 was none other than Jimmy I. Palmer, Jr., Mississippi's Department of Environmental Quality Executive Director from 1987-2000. President Bush named Palmer on October 18, 2001 as EPA's Regional Administrator.

EPA Regional Administrator, Palmer has vetoed no wetland projects. Efforts to obtain comment were futile.

After Palmer testified against his own agency, lawyer Jeff Ruch of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) blasted Palmer, noting he had never vetoed any wetland projects and "never met a developer he didn't like." Ruch called for Palmer's resignation, asking "when did he stop representing developers?"

Likewise, critics like Armingeon say that federal and state agencies' "business as usual" is to work with developers, not prosecute.

SJRWMD's current Governor-appointed members include "a utility representative, an agriculture/farming representative, an investor, a businessman, a lawyer, a marketing/public relations person, an environmental consultant, a citizen-activist and a Realtor® -- a wide variety of occupations," Miracle says.

A more fairly balanced membership might include people of more diverse backgrounds, more attuned to the importance of environmental/health issues. How about a Green Party leader, a biology professor, a nurse, a physician, a plumber, a factory worker, a shopkeeper, a retired judge, a birdwatcher, a veterinarian, a landscaper/nurseryman and a fisherman?

A newly revived Board might demand higher penalties and criminal prosecution for willful wetland-killers, eliminate"permits after the fact" and reject the outdated assumptions of a long-secret 20-year old "matrix."

Florida's water management district members are appointed by the Governor. Floridians will soon elect a new one.

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Washington Post: Cuddly puppies help law students de-stress before exams

By Jenna Johnson, Published: December 1

The stress of looming exams at George Mason University School of Law lifted for a couple of hours Thursday, thanks to the arrival of 15 homeless and adoptable puppies with velvety ears, soul-searching eyes and names like Doughboy, Sugar and Sue.

“Especially this time of the year, law school seems to ruin your life,” said Allison Tisdale, 24, a third-year from Texas who didn’t go home for Thanksgiving because she had to study. Holding a squirming puppy, she said, “you get to be human again.”

After the Yale Law Library added a “therapy dog” named Monty to its collection in the spring, a number of other law schools have used the gentle yapping of puppies to break the stifling pressure that blankets their campuses. Thursday was the second time Mason’s law school, in Arlington County, partnered with a Chantilly-based rescue group for “Puppy Day.”

Law school is designed to be stressful and competitive — professors are preparing students to work long hours for demanding bosses at large firms. The economic doldrums and scarcity of jobs after graduation have only added to the pressure.

Studies have found that the legal profession has higher-than-average rates of depression and problems with substance abuse. Many law schools now teach students how to balance the stress of late-night legal research, tort outlines and case summaries with healthy habits: running marathons, volunteering or hanging out with a pet.

“If people don’t learn how to balance their lives in law school, and then, if they go to a big firm, chances are they won’t balance their lives there, either,” said James E. Leffler, executive director of Lawyers Helping Lawyers, a Virginia nonprofit organization that offers assistance with substance abuse and mental-health issues. “They need to learn to take care of themselves and to also look out for their colleagues.”

At the University of Maryland School of Law, members of each incoming class meet in small groups with Dawna Cobb, the assistant dean for student affairs, who practiced law for 22 years while raising a family.

Some of Cobb’s messages: It’s okay to cry, but not for hours each day. Sleep is important. Eat healthy. Monitor your drinking. Find an outlet for stress, such as exercise, singing or knitting. And her door is open if you need to talk.

“Part of being a professional is knowing when you need to ask for help,” Cobb said she tells her students.

Many law schools offer in-house counseling centers and stress-management seminars. Finals season brings a flurry of activities to ease pressure: Georgetown University Law Center will serve up a carb-heavy “Night Owl Breakfast” next week. At the College of William and Mary Law School, a student group is organizing yoga classes, massages and meditation sessions.

Over the past three years, the Washington and Lee University School of Law transformed its third-year curriculum from a traditional hit-the-books regimen to hands-on experiences similar to practicing in the real world. In addition to making students more marketable, school officials hope it teaches them how to structure their lives after graduation.

“Law school is becoming more like life,” said Washington and Lee law professor James E. Moliterno. “I’m not a psychologist, but my take on life is that if you have experience with the things that can stress you out, the better prepared you are to handle those things.”

For high-strung law students, dogs and other animals can also provide a soothing presence. That’s a lesson researchers have learned from others in stressful environments, including soldiers in war zones and patients in rehabilitation centers.

At George Mason’s law school, which has more than 700 students, dozens took a break Thursday from their immersion in contracts, torts, criminal law and the like and gathered for more than two hours in the school’s atrium to play with the puppies. The animals had been saved recently from euthanasia in West Virginia shelters by A Forever-Home Rescue Foundation. The four litters of puppies are living with four foster moms until they are adopted. They are a mix of breeds, but many of them look like beagles or Labrador retrievers.

“There’s nothing like a puppy to make someone smile,” said Debbie Marson, a volunteer with the foundation. “It’s great for the students, and it’s great socialization for the dogs.”

When the puppies arrived, many seemed nervous around the mob of strangers. But as the students stroked their silky coats, they chilled out. Several fell asleep in the arms of future lawyers.

“I think they are sensing our stress,” said Tashina Harris, 23, a second-year student from Manassas who cuddled Summer, a white puppy with brown spots. “They’re reminding us we need to take breaks.”

Klan Country Being Transformed Before Our Eyes -- It Takes A Village

"The antidote to prejudice is reality."
-- Rep. Barney Frank

Former St. Johns County Commission Chairman Ben Rich told Folio Weekly that St. Johns County was "one of the last bastions of the KKK."

St. Augustine and St. Johns County were Ku Klux Klan country.

The Klan is still here, partly merged into the Republican Party and the Tea Party, as my late friend Stetson Kennedy said it best. It is fitting that KKK-infiltrator Stetson Kennedy's KKK robes are being donated to the Smithsonian, where they will become part of the new Museum of African-American History. KKK robers belong in a museum, along with the certain former public officials who never heard of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments -- cognitive misers with antebellum attitudes.

So much progress has been made here, that we are prouder than ever to live here. As I wrote in the St. Augustine Record on Sunday,

"Thanksgiving comes at a time with much for which to be thankful.

I am proud to have lived in St. Augustine for 12 years. Our City and County Commissioners are increasing in competence and compassion, respecting diversity and equality. Riberia Street is being fixed, at last. West Augustine will soon get proper sewer and water service, finally. Decennial redistricting is now being accomplished without surrendering to illegal demands to dilute minority voting strength....We’re thankful that for the first time in 71 years, our public officials are discussing the proposed National Park and Seashore. I salute them.

St. Augustine Record: Klan robes going to Smithsonian

By PETER WILLOTT, peter.willott@staugustine.com
Sandra Parks and Richard Rousseau hold Klu Klux Klan robes that they are donating to the Smithsonian Museum. Parks' robe belonged to her late husband civil rights activist Stetson Kennedy. Rousseau's robe belonged to his great grandfather who was a member of the KKK in Nassau County.

By PETER GUINTA
peter.guinta@staugustine.com

Few Floridians fear the Ku Klux Klan any more — its heyday was 1915 to 1929 — but two artifacts from that organization’s ugly and violent past will leave St. Augustine next week as donations to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

Sandra Parks, wife of the late civil rights author and Florida legend Stetson Kennedy, will carry two authentic Klan robes and hand them to curators of the future National Museum of African-American History.

St. Augustine is planning its own Civil Rights Museum, but Parks said these robes are significant.

“The level of exposure that (they) will have in the Smithsonian is much better than the exposure they would have here,” she said. “People will come to understand the brutality of what was a domestic terrorist organization.”

Parks said the more historically valuable of the two is a bright scarlet robe handed down to Richard M. Rousseau of St. Augustine, who said it had been owned and worn by his great-grandfather, Phineas Miller Nathaniel Wilds of Yulee, who farmed 600 acres on the St. Mary’s River.

Wilds served as an “Imperial Kludd,” or chaplain, of the Joe Wheeler No. 80 Order of the Klan of Fernandina, Fla. He lived in Nassau County all his life and died at 80 on Jan. 20, 1930, a year that saw Florida with 15,000 Klan members.

An Imperial Kludd’s ritual book was called a “kloran.” Wilds is buried in a small family cemetery on that land.

Rousseau said he was donating the robe on behalf of his family.

“When my great-grandfather died, the robe was given to a great-aunt, who kept it until the 1960s,” he said. “Then it was given to my first cousin, Margaret Sue Rousseau Barthel of Pensacola, who had it until 2000. Then it was given to me. Until my cousin gave me the robe, I had no idea of any family member being in the Klan.”

Kennedy’s all-black robe indicated that it was worn by a Knight of the Klavaliers, an organization directed by a man called the “Night Hawk,” who was in charge of security at “klonvocations,” or gatherings.

Outsiders called the group “The Flog Squad” for its assaults on unauthorized observers of its rites.

Parks said Kennedy had infiltrated the Klan before writing his 1946 book, “Unmasking The Klan,” and he wore a white robe at klonvocations.

“If he had ever worn the black one at a Klan meeting, he would have talked about it,” Parks said. “Stetson was among the group of Klansmen who were supposed to find whoever was leaking information to the FBI, and that was Stetson.”

One mystery: The black robe is made of satin, which meant it was made sometime after the 1940s.

It features a skull and crossbones with “KKK” stitched in white behind them. The black hoods have eye holes to keep the member’s identity secret.

“I don’t know where he got it,” Parks said.

Kennedy was never discovered by the Nighthawks. His identity was only revealed much later when his name was published in court transcripts, Parks said.

Parks and Kennedy were married for eight years, until his death this year.

“He only wore the black robe once, after he was asked to put it on by schoolchildren,” Parks said. “He didn’t like to wear it. The Klan was really abhorrent to him.”

New York Times/Pro Publica: WALL STREET IS ALREADY OCCUPIED

Wall Street Is Already Occupied

by Jesse Eisinger
ProPublica, Nov. 30, 2011, 12:12 p.m.

Last week, I had a conversation with a man who runs his own trading firm. In the process of fuming about competition from Goldman Sachs, he said with resignation and exasperation: “The fact that they were bailed out and can borrow for free — It’s pretty sickening.”

Though the sentiment is commonplace these days, I later found myself thinking about his outrage. Here was someone who is in the thick of the business, trading every day, and he is being sickened by the inequities and corruption on Wall Street and utterly persuaded that nothing had changed in the years since the financial crisis of 2008.

In this column, co-published with New York Times' DealBook, I monitor the financial markets to hold companies, executives and government officials accountable for their actions. Tips? Praise? Contact me at jesse@propublica.org

Then I realized something odd: I have conversations like this as a matter of routine. I can’t go a week without speaking to a hedge fund manager or analyst or even a banker who registers somewhere on the Wall Street Derangement Scale.

That should be a great relief: Some of them are just like us! Just because you are deranged doesn’t mean you are irrational, after all. Wall Street is already occupied — from within.

The insiders have a critique similar to that of the outsiders. The financial industry has strayed far from being an intermediary between companies that want to raise capital so they can sell people things they want. Instead, it is a machine to enrich itself, fleecing customers and exacerbating inequality. When it goes off the rails, it impoverishes the rest of us. When the crises come, as they inevitably do, banks hold the economy hostage, warning that they will shoot us in the head if we don’t bail them out.

And I won’t pretend this is a widespread view in finance — or even a large minority. You don’t hear this from the executives running the big Wall Street firms; you don’t hear it from the average trader or investment banker. From them, we get self-pity. For every one of the secret Occupy Wall Street sympathizers, there are probably 15 others like Kenneth G. Langone, who, like downtrodden people before him, is trying to reclaim and embrace a pejorative, “fat cat.”

The critics are more often found on the periphery, running hedge funds or working at independent research shops. They are retired, either voluntarily or not. They are low-level executives who haven’t made scrambling up the corporate hierarchy their sole ambition in life. Perhaps their independent status removes the intellectual handcuffs that come with ungodly bonuses. Or perhaps they are able to see Big Money’s flaws because they have to compete with the bigger banks for dollars.

Are these “Wall Streeters”? To civilians, they work on the Street. Bankers at the bulge-bracket firms wouldn’t think they are. But that doesn’t mean they don’t count. They know the financial business intimately.

Sadly, almost none of these closeted occupier-sympathizers go public. But Mike Mayo, a bank analyst with the brokerage firm CLSA, which is majority owned by the French bank Crédit Agricole, has done just that. In his book “Exile on Wall Street” (Wiley), Mr. Mayo offers an unvarnished account of the punishments he experienced after denouncing bank excesses. Talking to him, it’s hard to tell you aren’t interviewing Michael Moore.

Mr. Mayo is particularly outraged over compensation for bank executives. Excessive compensation “sends a signal that you take what you get and take it however you can,” he told me. “That sends another signal to outsiders that the system is rigged. I truly wish the protestors didn’t have a leg to stand on, but the unfortunate truth is that they do.”

I asked Richard Kramer, who used to work as a technology analyst at Goldman Sachs until he got fed up with how it did business and now runs his own firm, Arete Research, what was going wrong. He sees it as part of the business model.

“There have been repeated fines and malfeasance at literally all the investment banks, but it doesn’t seem to affect their behavior much,” he said. “So I have to conclude it is part of strategy as simple cost/benefit analysis, that fines and legal costs are a small price to pay for the profits.”

Last week, in a Bloomberg Television event, both Laurence D. Fink, the chairman and chief executive of the mega-money management firm BlackRock, and Bill Gross, the legendary bond investor, evinced some sympathy for the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Over the last several decades, “money and finance have dominated at the expense of labor and Main Street, and so how can one not sympathize with their predicament?” Mr. Gross said, speaking of the 99 percent. “To not have sympathy with Main Street as opposed to Wall Street is to have blinders.”

It’s progress that these sentiments now come regularly from people who work in finance. This is an unheralded triumph of the Occupy Wall Street movement. It’s also an opportunity, to reach out to make common cause with native informants.

It’s also a failure. One notable absence in this crisis and its aftermath was a great statesman from the financial industry who would publicly embrace reform that mattered. Instead, mere months after the trillions had flowed from taxpayers and the Federal Reserve, they were back defending their prerogatives and fighting any regulations or changes to their business.

Perhaps a major reason why so few in this secret confederacy speak out is that they are as flummoxed about practical solutions as the rest of us. They don’t know where to begin.

Over the next year, maybe that will change. Things are going to be tough on Wall Street. Bonuses will be down. Layoffs are coming. Europe seems on the brink of another financial crisis. Maybe from that wreckage, a leader will emerge.