Letter: Commission needs to listen to taxpayers

Letter: Commission needs to listen to taxpayers

James S. Arpaia
St Augustine, FL

Dear Editor:

The members of the Board of County Commissioners have obviously already made up their minds to build a 72,000 square-foot facility on their campus next to the “Taj Mahal”.

After the denigrating remarks made to me by Chairman Jay Morris at the Tuesday St Johns County Commission meeting, I can see that the Board does not want to hear any taxpayer input, or consider any reasonable public discussion, before rendering their verdict on this $11 million dollar project.

The facts are:

• The Health and Human Services Department, the primary tenant, is in a “state-of-flux”, with no long-term commitment to any facility.

• The primary area of concern for Health and Human Services is in the neighborhoods of St Augustine, not north on US-1, causing less availability to the people needing their services.

• There is no justification for a 72,000 square-foot facility, because at this point, no one actually knows how many people will be working in the proposed facility.

The above facts would make me lean toward renting a facility in the immediate area until further determination of need is established.

At the very least this project needs more public disclosure — not a rush to build by taking a “Taxpayer-be-Dammed” approach.