With no less than three articles citing me or my website, MiamiSprings, in last week’s River Cities Gazette, I think the people of Miami Springs deserve a response. First, let me respond to Bermello’s accusations of plagiarism and copyright violation. The images I posted on MiamiSprings and Facebook are protected by what’s called “Fair Use.” To quote the Public Counsel Law Center, “Fair use is a copyright principle based on the belief that the public is entitled to freely use portions of copyrighted materials for certain purposes, such as commentary and criticism, nonprofit educational purposes, or parody. This principle recognizes that society can often benefit from the unauthorized use of copyrighted materials, when the use furthers scholarship and education or informs the public.” Basically, you can’t hide behind copyright laws to avoid “commentary and criticism” especially on a public project the citizens are paying for. Clearly, I have been attempting to inform the public in Miami Springs about the city’s current pool plans and even went so far as to offer an alternative. God forbid someone tries to create an alternative design that some city officials didn’t want the public to see. That leads me to being called the leader of the “Pool Complainers.” Let me be clear. I am a big proponent of a new community swimming pool. There are legitimate concerns as to why we need to do this right now with the city’s current financial issues and unresolved police negotiations. As the only one in this debate who actually swam for Miami Springs Senior High School, I have a big affinity for keeping competitive swimming as an option for Miami Springs for the next 50 years. It pains me that the city never fully vetted a hybrid plan that would include 8 lanes, but eliminate the extra $623,000 multi-use facility. It pains me that nobody questioned how the new decks are much larger than our current deck space. It pains me that nobody asked Bermello to come up with a plan B proposal that would include 8 lanes, remove the $623,000 extra building and still stay within the $5 million budget. That’s why I not only provided criticism, but optional solutions. I even PhotoShopped a version of an alternate solution for the residents to see. How many people would go that far? Now, despite all the talk that the city has been working on this for nearly a year, it is only recently that the designs have been available. On a special meeting June 16, 2014, Bermello provided an oral presentation on various alternatives for the aquatic facility design according to the city’s minutes. On June 23rd, the city had a meeting discussing conceptual drawings and locations for the pool. On July 2nd, during a holiday week, the city had a special meeting discussing the hybrid pool concept. Council requested an additional public meeting for Friday, August 22nd to receive citizen input prior to the presentation for the final schematic at the August 25th Council meeting. On August 25th the city approved the current plan. Up until August 25th, the residents didn’t know if they liked the pool plan or not as it was still fluid. In other words, we didn’t know what the design was going to be until the city approved at least a tentative design. At the very first meeting after finally having a solid plan of what the city was going to build, citizens spoke up. Some spoke out against the financing. Some spoke out against the cost. Some spoke out against the design itself. Bottom line, the residents spoke up at the very first meeting they could to express their concerns after getting a final pool design. Up until August 25th, nobody knew what the design was going to be. So to say that to the residents who showed up on September 8th that they were late is very disheartening. I can understand if residents waited months, but they spoke up at the very first opportunity after finally getting a firm plan. Do we have a contract with a builder yet? If the answer is no, it’s not too late. If the people of Miami Springs demand changes to the pool, this council should listen. Finally, I have one last matter. I have been running MiamiSprings for 17 years. It has always been the most popular Miami Springs website. According to Alexa (the website research firm) MiamiSprings is among the top 100,000 websites in the U.S. The city’s website doesn’t even make it to the top 200,000. The articles I post are usually about local news and events. When posting my personal opinion, I’ll call it out as an editorial as I did regarding the pool designs. The Miami Springs mayor obviously did not like my editorial and went so far as to call my arguments a “bunch of lies.” He equated my editorial and the concerns I had over the pool project as the equivalent of an article in the National Enquirer. To that I asked the mayor, “What did I lie about?” After initially feeling disappointed by the mayor’s accusations, I came to the realization, the mayor will call his opposition liars as a cheap way to attempt to discredit legitimate debate on an incredibly expensive and important project for all of us. I am disappointed the mayor called me a liar, but I think I’ll wear it as a badge of honor. It tells me that my honest and legitimate concerns were not appreciated by at least some city officials. It further tells me that some city officials would prefer I not share my opinions with the residents of Miami Springs. To that, I say good luck. My goal will always be to keep Miami Springs residents informed of what’s going on in Miami Springs. Now, more than ever. Sincerely, Nestor Suarez Publisher / Owner MiamiSprings
Posted on: Tue, 16 Sep 2014 12:54:23 +0000
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