Category: Government

After telling Historic City News that she has been “getting nowhere” with County Administrator Michael Wanchick since February, Mary Lawrence, an organizer for the liberal-leaning, but non-partisan, political group “Indivisible St Johns”, made an official request to use the county auditorium for an upcoming meeting.

Today, the Florida House of Representatives passed Joint Resolution 7105 which amends the State Constitution to increase the homestead exemption by $25,000. This measure, if approved by the voters in 2018, will increase the overall exemption to $75,000 for hard-working Florida homeowners.

In an April 26th Historic City News article titled, “House members grease way for public meetings to become secret,” we reported that the House Government Accountability Committee had unanimously approved a Bill that would allow private one-on-one meetings of local elected officials, even when they serve on the same decision-making boards.

The 58-year-old city manager of Cross City, Gary David Pinner, was suspended by the City Council for a period of 30 days on March 27, 2017. Craig Riley of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, requested and obtained a warrant for Pinner’s arrest on official misconduct charges. Pinner was arrested today and transported to the…

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“Everything secret degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe that does not show how it can bear discussion and publicity.” Lord John Acton Over the past month, since Monday March 27th, St Johns County Sheriff David Shoar has attempted to conceal the names of contributors and the amounts of money that he solicited…

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In the latest episode of “Who the Hell are our Representatives representing?”, the Florida House just passed CS/SB 118 unanimously — a Bill that allows automatic administrative sealing of criminal history records.

In what would be a substantial change to the state’s Sunshine Law, Historic City News reporters were shocked to learn that a House committee approved a bill that would allow private one-on-one meetings of local elected officials.

Florida’s Constitution Revision Commission will spend the next roughly 14 months traveling the state listening to residents, identifying and researching issues.  No later than 120 days prior to the November 2018 elections, the Commission will recommend ballot language to the Secretary of State.