June 21, 2012
An Open Letter to City of Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado
Dear Mayor Regalado,
As a resident of the City of Miami and the Village of Coconut Grove, I was shocked and outraged that the City panel meeting to hear proposals for the development and leasing of the City-owned marina and waterfront in Coconut Grove was closed to the public and press last night. This panel presentation which will ultimately impact the next 40 years of the marina, waterfront and public access should not be held in private.
This is the most basic form of “Transparency in Politics” and I’m disgusted that our City employees feel they have a right to close off the meeting.
Even if City employees were able to come up with a quasi-legal maneuver to close this meeting, why would they want to? Aren’t the City employees there to serve the residents of the City and to steward the progress and growth of the City? Who benefits by closing this meeting? By closing it, the panel members are only opening themselves up for closer scrutiny. What are they trying to hide? What’s going on in the panel presentations that they don’t want residents seeing and hearing?
I strongly urge you to immediately open these and all future meetings and documents to the public and press.
Sincerely,
Liam Crotty
P.S. To read what happened last night, go here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/06/19/2859947/miami-panel-weighs-bids-for-marina.html
What are your thoughts? Should these meetings be open to the public?
21JUN2012
Hi Liam –
Your letter to Miami’s mayor was excellent and to the point !!!!!! Very well done, and said.
You probably do not remember me, but four years ago, when you were still living in the Kennebunk area, you took several shots of my golden retriever and I, as a promotional fund-raiser for the Animal Welfare Society, outside their facilities. You had one of our shots on you homepage. I am kneeling next to “Jamie”. Suddenly, exactly one week after the photo-shoot, our beloved ‘boy’ died.
You were nice enough to bring the photos we ordered over to our home on School St, up the blook from the Consolidated School.
The three of us, AND Serge, sat on our deck, and talked about our dogs, and the interesting story of how you hooked up with Serge.
I found out that you relocated to the Miami area thru your “blanket” emails. For us, we were saddened, but happy for your move. We have kept up with what appears a growing, and maybe flourishing photo career. You seem to be well connected, in both the political “jungle” and the cultural scene of South Florida. Well done!! For being down in Fla. for a relatively short time, you have been getting a good amount of business, especially considering that you did not have a local reputation.
Two last things, your photos of the updated Rockwell’s which was at the KBK Town Hall, and on the cover of the local paper were very good, and will be missed by Mainers. Finally, one of your wedding shoots at Key West, I believe, there was a shot of the pier, water, lights and water at night that was just spectacular.
I felt that I just had to contact you after reading your letter. We need more citizens to speak out, so our elected/appointed official cannot merely ride roughshot over the populace.
Be well, and continued success, health & happiness.
Best regards — liz and fred ross, and now DARCY, (yet another golden)
p.s. – loved the recent shots of your neighbor’s pup. He is absolutely adorable.
Thanks Fred.