Do you consent to the consent agenda?

City Manager John Regan does not place all items of business on the public agenda before Mayor Shaver and members of the St Augustine City Commission during their twice-monthly meetings.

During the regular business meeting on Monday, January 12, 2015 at 5:00 p.m., nine items, four of which involve spending money, may be approved, without discussion, by means of the “consent agenda”.

In addition to a $1,072.00 payment to Support Services, another $3,115.33 payment to Gunster Law Firm, and the donation of a city-owned vehicle to the City of Lumpkin, Georgia, Tim Fleming, Deputy Director of General Services, has his eyes on $750,000.

In a classic case of the-cart-in-front-of-the-horse, the City is preparing an application for a Small Cities Community Development Block Grant in the amount of $750,000, to cover the cost of … well, we have no idea given the records provided.

Perhaps staff is going to do a repeat of the 450th Commemoration — try to get the money first before there is any programming or definable expense to justify the request.

The consent agenda item includes the approval of unknown persons to comprise a “Citizen’s Advisory Task Force” to review and approve a project, or projects, for inclusion in the grant application.

In other words, these unnamed appointees will come up with something on which to spend three-quarters of a million dollars.

St Augustine hasn’t had good luck in recent years with appointed citizen boards, committees, and task forces. A handpicked few, often conflicted because of personal business relationships, have peppered the composition of all these boards; merely changing hats and seats at the table before the next meeting.

The committees have not included outsiders — citizens who might question authority, or whose skin might be too dark, or whose net worth or lifestyle might not mirror that of the insiders who were making those appointments.

The commissioners have the authority to remove items from the consent agenda and have them heard during the public meeting.