St. Augustine Shores Service Corp.
St. Augustine, Florida
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Shores association meeting turns lively; police called
Article Courtesy of the St. Augustine Record
By KEN LEWIS - Staff Writer 
Posted August 09, 2002

A 7 p.m. public meeting became a public outcry Thursday when the president of the St. Augustine Shores Service Corp. called a sheriff's deputy to remove a speaker from the building.

Some 60 irate Shores residents were still with the speaker outside the meeting house at about 8:30 p.m. as a deputy calmed them. The board members had gone home.

Nobody was arrested.

The outcry was an offshoot of a legal fight over the use of "greenbelts" in St. Augustine Shores, said Board President Terry Brannon. Greenbelts are strips of land owned by the Service Corp. that are supposed to be natural and not cultivated by residents, he said.

Several residents said they have always done what they wanted with the greenbelts.

Brannon said he adjourned the meeting after a resident used profanity. He said it blew up after he called a deputy because the resident would not leave.

 
St. Johns County Sheriffís deputy Tom Hill talks to St. Augustine
Shore homeowner John Geiszler after a raucous meeting
of the community's association on Thursday night. 
By PETER WILLOTT, Staff
The people amassed outside the meeting house -- the Riverview Club on Christina Drive -- were angry because the board sent out letters saying that "clearing or encroachment" of the greenbelts was unlawful and an act of trespassing.  It was personal, too.
St. Augustine Shores homeowner Lil Geiszler holds a flyer calling for the impeachment of the head of the community association, Terry Brannon, after a raucous meeting of the group on Thursday night. By PETER WILLOTT, Staff
 
"I think that he is a total zealot as to doing things his way. He is an extremely power-hungry man," said John Geiszler.

Brannon said that Geiszler used obscenity during the meeting and it led to the adjournment. He said Geiszler's refusal to leave the building led to the uproar.

He said that Geiszler's attorney had contacted him over the greenbelt dispute and told him to speak to Geiszler only through him. The attorney was supposed to be at the meeting Thursday, but he did not show up. Brannon said the

result was that he did not want to talk to Geiszler.

The disgruntled group outside the Riverview Club included several men and women who said that Brannon does not run the meetings according to the will of the people.

Geiszler said that during the meeting, people cried out that Brannon was a "dictator," and "acting like a King."

Brannon said the 60 people at the meeting were a small fraction of the 3,054 property owners at St. Augustine Shores.

"We have to get the business done. We have to have the cooperation of the community to have a peaceful meeting," Brannon said.

Several people also said the board members of the Service Corp. have violated the state's Sunshine Law. Brannon denied this.

The Service Corp. might hold a meeting Tuesday night if Geiszler's attorney can show up, Brannon said. 

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