The good news is that the end is in sight

The good news is that the end is in sight

Michael Gold, Editor
HISTORIC CITY NEWS

This evening at 5:30 p.m., Flagler College radio will air the St Augustine public affairs director’s weekly homage to the designated city employee responsible to rehabilitate it’s tarnished image as a bottomless money pit.

For more than five-years, self-serving insiders have profited from what has amounted to little more than a looting of the city treasury in the name of the “450th Commemoration” — and now, the city’s chief law enforcement officer is being paraded out “to share lots of information regarding Celebrate 450”.

Isn’t he supposed to be doing something more important for the $100,771.26 a year salary we’re paying?

I don’t know how much information he can share in a 15-minute radio program; but, maybe he has been the only employee with a high enough security clearance to actually know what we are getting in return for the nearly $4 million of taxpayer money that apparently will culminate in “cutting and serving of the city’s anniversary birthday cake”.

And in March of 2009, didn’t we hire Dana Ste. Claire specifically to be “executive director” of all things 450?

In addition to Ste. Claire’s $89,603.61 a year salary, and marketing employee-turned-consultant-turned-plaintiff Charlie Seraphin’s $78,000 a year paycheck, you would have thought we would be running on autopilot — four months before show time.

Well, I suppose, as public affairs director, Paul Williamson is expected to give us fifteen minutes of reassurance in exchange for his $74,254.51 a year.

At the end of the day, all the big promises have distilled down to a five-day event that kicks off with three days of music on multiple stages scattered through the city’s downtown historic district; which will not be a bad thing, but it will be the most overpriced thing this city has encountered in the last 450 years.

You can hear Police Chief Loran Lueders on The Break Room on Wednesdays at 5:30 p.m. and Saturdays at 8:00 a.m. on WFCF/88.5FM. Programming is available for on-demand listening

Listen to this episode by clicking this link.