A proposal by St. Johns County Commissioner Ann Taylor to hold a voluntary meeting on the upcoming Nights of Lights event has sparked frustration and disagreement among members of the St. Augustine City Commission.
Taylor appeared before the city commission during a recent budget meeting to invite city staff and law enforcement representatives to a “meeting of the minds” scheduled for October 6.
She emphasized that the gathering would be informal, not a task force, and aimed at improving coordination ahead of this year’s event.
“What I would love is to have some representatives from the city. You know, hopefully the city management, I’d love to have a police chief involved, or certainly a representative,” Taylor said. “It’s just so important that we all work together.”
Taylor has been a vocal critic of the city’s handling of the event, including its decision to shorten its duration.
But several city commissioners pushed back, arguing the city has already invested months of planning and public engagement and that it was too late for fresh input from the county.
Commissioner Jim Springfield was among the most vocal critics, opposing participation in the meeting and expressing frustration with the timing and the perceived lack of earlier collaboration.
“Thirty-one years we’ve been doing it,” Springfield said. “We were surprised. Last year, no one had any idea that we were going to have the influx that we did. We had no choice in the advertising. We didn’t fund any advertising. We make almost no money. Increased money off the sales tax goes to the state… Hotel rooms are filled and taxes are added on to the hotel rooms. They go to the county.”
He continued, “I don’t normally get fired up, but this has got me fired up that now somebody else wants to be involved in the planning when we invited everybody to be involved.”
Vice Mayor Barbara Blonder echoed the concern about city staff being asked to re-engage after months of work.
“I’m frustrated that the staff has spent so much of their expertise and time developing an outstanding plan… and they’re still spending time responding to or reacting to additional requests,” Blonder said. “There are a lot of other things that have gotten dropped in this last month and a half.”
Mayor Nancy Sikes-Kline expressed skepticism and questioned the clarity of the county’s intentions — speculating that the ultimate goal was “scrutiny” of the city’s Nights of Lights spending.
The county agreed to infuse the city’s event’s budget with $850,000 in bed tax money, a sum Sikes-Kline said was given with “no strings.”
“It just doesn’t feel great,” she said. “There’s something about it that’s bothering me that doesn’t feel like it’s this wonderful, warm, fuzzy thing. You know… That said, if this is an opportunity to be positive, make a contribution, opportunity to make things better, to clarify messages, then I’m in favor.”
Commissioner Cynthia Garris argued that the city should take part in some fashion given the county’s sizable contribution to this year’s Nights of Lights budget.
“It’s just meeting and finding out what’s going on, and whoever goes to the meeting can come before the commission and tell us what was discussed,” she said.
Garris argued that it would be indecorous for the city not to participate.
“The only difference in the 31 years that you indicated — we never went to the county and asked for $850,000 either,” she said. “We did it on our own revenue.”
Commissioner Jim DePreter took a moderate stance, deferring to City Manager David Birchim. “As far as the immediate decision in front of us, I’ll leave it to our city manager… My understanding is our plan is pretty solidified.”
Ultimately, while the commission did not formally vote, there appeared to be a consensus that city staff could attend the meeting if deemed useful — but that the plans for this year’s event are largely cemented.
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