Those who do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat it

Commissioner Bill Leary:
“Tourists love our carriages. The fundamental thing that sticks in my craw was this is not how we should treat people.”

Vice-Mayor Leanna Freeman:
“I had an unsettling feeling of unfairness about the first drafts of the ordinance.”

We have requested numerous times to be able to sit down with city administrators to work out a constitutionally viable ordinance that respects first amendment rights. We have never received the courtesy of a response.

It was felt that our new City Manager Mr. Regan would put aside the adversarial attitude of the former City Manager Harriss. We are disappointed.

So, Commissioner Leary, your statements on “unfairness” and “how to treat people” ring false to me. I have never seen a flea market vendor jailed for being on public property, nor has a carriage owner been jailed.

The City has put the street artists out of business illegally. Yes, Commissioner Leary, the tourists love the carriages and they also love the artists. They tell us this every time we are out there.

Travous, from Belleville, IL, died in St Augustine on August 20, 2011.

Leary quit in the middle of his first term in office, in January 2013, and then he and his wife moved to California.