St. Augustine City Commission meeting of 9-14-09

The St. Augustine City Commission meeting of 9-14-09 with their hired gun, out of town attorney trying desperately to make his latest plan to ban Constitutionally protected activity in the historic Plaza de La Constitucion was like watching a spastic middle schooler build a Rube Goldberg machine while covered with honey and tormented by Africanized bees.

Nobody was buying it with even Earoil Jones pointing out how crazy it was to expect to rent six of twelve little 8'x10' spaces (cells) to street performers all of whom would be performing their own music, less than ten ft. away from other performers doing their own act, with different music, different tempo, disharmoniously trying to stand out from the others, and all while six vendors would be selling their wares to passing tourists in The Slave Market.

Could anything be less likely to succeed?

Of course no one even hopes for the program to succeed, this being all one more attempt to ban the artists and performers from the Plaza in a manner that could pass Constitutional muster, be accepted on review by an appeals court judge after the local county court Judge (probably Tinlin) approves the city's enforcement of this outlandish ordinance.

It seems that someone who has control over the SACC and their City Mismanager William B. Harris (locally known as 'Will Harass') has only one true interest and that is to write a true story about the Stinkiest little tourist trap in Florida with the craziest, quirkiest laws since the frontier towns of the old wild west.

Anyone with six hours to spend on really amusing, if confusing and contorted, municipal shenanigans should obtain a DVD copy of the recorded meeting from the City's records clerk, make a huge batch of popcorn and watch this circus. Maybe with a few cold beers to make it go down a little smoother.

Stay tuned for further developments as this farce makes its way through the inevitable battles sure to ensue.

St. Augustine City Attorney & City Manager, City Commission

Artists' and Performers' freedom of Expression

Do you care about the freedom of expression of other artists?

The city of St. Augustine, Florida is trying again to deprive artists and performers of their Constitutionally protected rights of expression by denying them access to the public forum in, of all places, The Plaza de La Constitucion, the oldest free open-air public market place in the United States. For over twenty years and consistently since 1995 the St. Augustine City Commission has repeatedly written and passed ordinances banning or restricting artists and performers in order to impede or eliminate their activities in the historic section of "The Nation's Oldest City." Despite having each ordinance declared unconstitutional and unenforceable in Federal Court they keep coming back with new laws crafted under the guidance of their hired out-of town attorney Michael Kahn, locally called the "Kahn Man" because he continues to misadvise the commission that this time the new ordinance will pass constitutional muster.

In the year 2000 they finally succeeded on one level, getting the 11th Circuit Court to agree that they could set "Time, Place and Manner" restrictions on the activities on a limited portion of historic Saint George Street. Performers were banned from several blocks of the street and for a short while artists were restricted from working or selling there. Later artists were permitted to produce but not sell artworks on Saint George Street. As an attempt at appeasement artists and performers were promised that they could operate freely in the nearby Plaza de La Constitucion. The city even promised that they would 'spend money to advertise their presence there and with signage and advertising make tourists aware of the alternate venue'.

Instead the city began almost immediately to curtail artists' and performers' activities in The Plaza, charging permit fees which they were later made to refund; allocating unfit spaces and limiting hours of operation. Then last year they passed an ordinance to ban all sales and First Amendment protected activity in The Plaza. Four artists sued and were granted an injunction by the Federal Court in Jacksonville. The city was ordered to pay attorney's fees and pay compensation to the artists.

Now the City Commission, again under the advise of their hired gun Michael Kahn, is trying once again to circumvent the court's order, write a new unconstitutional ordinance severely limiting freedom of expression, even protected activity, in The Plaza and wasting more tax-payer dollars in another twisted attempt to control, limit and ultimately eliminate freedom of expression in the historic Plaza de La Constitucion. They believe eventually they will prevail as they have plenty of taxpayer money to waste while the artists have very little resources to fight in court.

Will you just ignore this government interference in the Constitutionally protected rights of free Americans or can you help? Will you join the fight?

If you can volunteer to appear at a fundraising event or donate an article to be auctioned off to benefit the legal war-chest of the struggling artists and performers of St. Augustine, please contact this writer,

J.D. Pleasant

PO Box 788

St. Augustine, Florida 32085

(Phone number will accompany letters)