Editorial: What’s taking you so long?

Before every Primary and General Election for quite a number of years, Historic City News has announced our recommendations of political candidates for local office. Judging by our bulging e-mail box last week, readers look forward to hearing our opinions before forming their own and wonder why we haven’t published our endorsements.

First, the Primary elections resolved a number of issues that we identified as problematic. Write-in candidates withdrew, and, overall, our Primary candidates were successful. Congratulations to the winners. We look forward to reporting on your accomplishments in the coming years.

Next, there is an extremely important issue pending that goes to the core of our mission to report on fraud, waste, abuse by government officials, and to demand transparency, accountability, and responsive government on all levels.

Cronyism, favoritism, protectionism, and nepotism, are just a few of the “isms” that lead to the breakdown of the public trust. Also, we repeatedly see examples where a sense of entitlement by elected officials and their appointees to citizen boards, evolves into a mindset of “insider vs outsider” or “us vs them”. It’s destructive.

The people who can make a difference in the instant case know who they are. They are armed with the information they need to do the right thing — their test will not be easy. How six commission candidates in the City of St Augustine deal with the current situation will separate the “politicians” from the “real leaders” — and — the “talkers” from the “doers”.

We’ll know Monday night, the 13th. We’ll make our recommendations Tuesday.

Early voting starts October 20th. Election Day is Tuesday, November 4th.