Regan leaves the City of St Augustine

On May 28, 1998, John Patrick Regan, who had been the Senior Environmental Engineer for the City of Gainesville for roughly ten years, was newly hired to fill the position of Utilities Director for the City of St Augustine. After 25 years of service, this Friday, June 2, 2023, will be his last day as City Manager; the position he has held since July 1, 2010. He turned 61 years old on February 2nd.

Both Regan’s professional successes and some egregiously mismanaged failures are noted by Historic City News. He received a promotion to Chief Operations Officer in 2003, the equivalent of Assistant City Manager in today’s organization.

After the previous city manager, Bill Harriss, announced his retirement in April 2010, the City Commission agreed to name Regan as his replacement. An inside joke that was repeated in local media and engraved on a sign that occupied his desk read, Bill Harriss – John Regan’s “hey boy”. Given his performance during the previous five years, our “inside joke” for the departing John Regan is, “Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on your way out.”

Regan is the highest-paid employee of the City of St Augustine. His $219,137 salary, plus benefits under the 2023 budget, also exceeds anyone employed by the City of St Augustine Beach and rivals Hunter Conrad who is paid an annual salary of $227,088 to manage the entirety of St Johns County.

“My time with the City has been full of so many opportunities and challenges, but I would have to say the accomplishments I’m most proud of were those that took many years to achieve and weren’t overnight successes,” Regan observed. “We have implemented financial policies and procedures that ensure fiscal responsibility across all departments of the City, contributing to keeping us in excellent standing with our credit ratings, year after year. Our Fire Department achieved an ISO1 Rating, our Police Department is now fully accredited, and we are a nationally recognized municipality when it comes to mitigating Sea Level Rise and Resiliency.”

Under Regan’s leadership, several significant projects were finished, including the construction of the reverse osmosis water treatment plant, the Avenida Menendez Seawall, and the Downtown Historic Parking Garage.

Also under Regan’s leadership, was the production of St Augustine’s 450th Commemoration which almost certainly led to the political demise of former mayor Joe Boles. Under allegations of fraud, waste, and mismanagement, reaching nationwide, Boles, an 8-year incumbent on the commission, lost reelection to a relatively new resident. Nancy Shaver campaigned largely on the position that “nobody owned her”. Shaver won in three consecutive elections. Boles is now serving a three-month suspension of his license to practice law following an unrelated ethics investigation.

Another example of Regan’s mismanagement of the trust granted to him under the city charter is his handling of racial tensions that led to the uprooting of the Confederate memorial from the Plaza de la Constitución. The memorial, constructed in 1879 with private funds, was an authentic artifact recognizing the loss of 46 St Augustine soldiers during the American Civil War. At Regan’s direction and a staggering expense to city taxpayers under duress, the public memorial erected by the Ladies Memorial Association of St Augustine was moved to private property along Trout Creek in the northwest corner of St Johns County.