"Who benefits by closing this meeting?"

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
Coconut Grove