COMMISSIONER TODD NEVILLE vs FIRST AMENDMENT of US CONSTITUTION

With only nine months under his belt in any elected public office, freshman city commissioner Todd D. Neville, a local Certified Public Accountant, has moved the City Attorney, Isabelle Lopez, to take on his case against Historic City News, a free press, and citizen journalist Michael Gold, for exposing campaign contributions taken by Neville from a local developer and his attorney.

At the commission meeting two weeks ago, Neville referred to a Historic City News article that followed his vote and comments in favor of developer, David Corneal; his son, local attorney Seth Corneal, and David Corneal’s attorney, Ellen Avery-Smith — all of whom made individual campaign donations to Neville.

Apparently Neville didn’t like the exposure of his campaign contributions, claiming, in as many words, that protection specifically afforded to the press under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, did not protect Historic City News — if he felt that the facts, as we reported them, did not match his own version of the facts.

Without any public hearing or commission vote, Neville set the City Attorney to task in obtaining an opinion from a staff attorney at the State Ethics Commission. And, based on that response, had the City Attorney go further and make a demand on the editor, Michael Gold, and Historic City News, for a full retraction of the article which he feels unjustly discredits him.

When the City Attorney issues an e-mail using her official title and bearing the Official Seal of the City of St Augustine, without prior commission approval, it is doubtful that the “official act” on her part correctly conveys the authority under which she is acting; and any obligation of the business owner to comply with such demands is likewise in doubt.

At issue is whether or not an attorney-client privilege between the City Attorney and the five individual commissioners exists; or whether such relationship only exists between the city attorney and the five-member panel as a whole. At least one outside attorney, whose area of practice includes municipal government law, believes the latter; suggesting the city attorney could be “overreaching”.

In addition to Historic City News, Neville’s attempt to silence publication of his official actions was picked up by other local news reporters. They all expressed common-sense concern about the chilling effect of any government entity taking legal action against a reporter who wrote unfavorably about any elected or appointed public official.

Despite all of the negative publicity about Neville’s demands and his use of the City Attorney to coerce Historic City News and its editor to cease carrying out their constitutionally protected activity, the City Clerk has posted the agenda for Monday night’s commission meeting and it includes an item by the City Attorney for further discussion of the legal issues involved.

If Neville can find just two more votes on the City Commission that agree with him that the resources of the City of St Augustine should become obligated in pursuit of his folly, Historic City News will be within their right to seek compensation for damages under Florida’s SLAPP suit law, and otherwise.

It’s your tax money. How do you want to spend it?