“Pink slips” for commissioners and administrator

Historic City News was on hand when the Board of County Commissioners met Tuesday evening at a Public Hearing, expecting to adopt the county’s millage rate increases and budget for the next Fiscal Year — what they found waiting at the front door were “pink slips” for them and the County Administrator .

A group of members of the St. Augustine Tea Party stood guard at the front entrance to the County Administration Building, often referred to as the “Taj Mahal” due to its scale and grandeur. They were bearing the historical Gadsden flag; a yellow field depicting a rattlesnake coiled and ready to strike. The targets of their protest quietly entered the building through the rear.

Handing out “pink slips” was the protester’s way of calling attention to what they consider bloated spending practices at the county and the proposed millage rate increase the protesters say is needed to pay for it. The pink colored fliers focused on the high salaries earned by the commissioners ($1,200 per week) and administrator ($3,200 per week) who they say have laid off “working county employees” who earn far less.

In addition to the fictional layoffs threatened on the printed “pink slip”, the fliers advertised for jobs to hand them out. “No salary, no expenses, long hours listening to lying politicians,” the flyers said. “Be prepared to be marginalized, belittled, thrown out for no good reason, maybe jailed occasionally. Liberty is not free … RINOS need not apply.”

Members of the Town Crier Committee within the St. Augustine Tea Party who were involved Tuesday evening, are most often recognized and seen in period costume, walking the streets of St. Augustine, distributing free copies of the U.S. Constitution — the bedrock of their grassroots organization; that, they say, modern-day politicians at all levels of government have forgotten.

Photo credits: © 2011 Historic City News staff photographer