Two days before Governor Ron DeSantis unveiled a Frederick Douglass statue in St. Augustine’s Plaza de la Constitución, city leaders voiced concerns over what they said was its hasty installation.
While officials praised the choice of Douglass at their Monday meeting, they said the state sidestepped local authority and set a risky precedent.
City officials said the state notified of the incoming statue on the previous Friday, leaving minimal time to review its imminent residency in the Old City’s signature gathering place.
Commissioners emphasized that their objections were not to the sculpture itself — they lauded Douglass’ legacy and his historic 1889 speech in St. Augustine — but to the way his arrival was handled.
They said local procedures for approving monuments, which can take months of planning and community consultation, had been bypassed.
“Well, it’s subverted all of our procedures, our codes,” Vice Mayor Barbara Blonder said.
“We’re a property right state, and we own that property that could, I’m not a legal scholar, but that could be considered a taking,” she continued.
Some commissioners warned that the precedent of the state placing statues without city approval could lead to controversial installations in the future.
“We could have statues of Donald Trump in place of the lions and be forced to rename the Bridge of Lions Donald Trump Bridge,” Commissioner Jim Springfield said to illustrate the point.
Several commissioners contrasted the swift Douglass installation with other city projects, noting that some monument proposals had taken years to plan, secure funding, and receive public input.
Mayor Nancy Sikes-Kline and Commissioner Cynthia Garris said they understood unease over the process, but said the statue’s value overrode those concerns on this occasion.
The commission agreed not to take formal action before the unveiling and said they would revisit a formal endorsement at a future meeting.
