Aaaah, transparency!
Gotta love it!
Despite the fact that there is a very public record filed among the gazillions of public records of Miami-Dade County, in the Land of Oz Village of Biscayne Park, public records are just figments of my imagination.
And bloggers who dare speak the truth get immediately attacked by the Keepers of the Gate.
Or, in this particular instance, the Wall.
As I mentioned in a previous post, the Village of Biscayne Park applied for a $700,000.00 grant from the county to construct an “Eighteen Foot Tall Wall along FEC right‐of‐way,” the Project Description for which reads, “Reduces risk of damage to community by train wreck caused by sabotage or accident. With the potential for the new high speed rail this project is even more important.”
Almost immediately, one of the Village Idiots, er, I mean Village Commissioners, flat out denied that there was ever such an application.
Oh, REALLY?
I guess we’ll just see about that.
On Friday, July 22, 2016, I made a public records request with Maria C. Camara, the Village Clerk of Biscayne Park regarding this grant.
I received this response.
As promised, on Monday, July 25, 2016, I received this email.
Wait, WHAT???
Of course, this made absolutely no sense. So I responded.
This morning I received a response.
DAFUQ?
Seriously, folks. I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried.
Of course, I was only too happy to provide the Village Clerk of Biscayne Park a link to, and copy of, a public record in order to help her find her own public records.
And, I did it at no charge as a public service.
Unbelievable!
But, in the event that the Clerk of the Village STILL can’t find her own public records, I also made a public records request with Miami-Dade County, “for copies of any and all documents relating to this grant application.”
Since the Biscayne Park Commissioners have already demonstrated that math is hard for them, it’s understandable that reading is just as difficult.
But, just in case any of them are literate, and in order to refresh their memories, here is a screen shot summary of their own grant applications as published among the public records of Miami-Dade County
As you can clearly see, the grant request to build a wall is only one of four requests that Biscayne Park presently has on file with Miami-Dade County.
As you can also clearly see, despite their protestations to the contrary, the Commissioners of Biscayne Park have every intention of building a wall.
And, they want the County to pay for it.
But, they desperately didn’t want you to know about it.
Oh, goody. This is gonna be fun.
Stephanie
Fascinating story, perhaps more so because preparing for a train wreck sounds like a silly thing. That’s like trying to foolproof your house from a plane crash.
Could there be socio-economic reasons for the wall? Train barriers in other parts of the country separate from areas from each other in very inconvenient ways for car-less people on either side of the tracks.
Many municipalities do construct walls, especially those abutting Interstate 95. I believe those walls are mainly to keep out noise from traffic. There might be other reasons, but that one makes the most sense. If Biscayne Park wanted to build such a wall for that purpose, I would completely understand. The noise from trains can be very loud. What doesn’t make sense is that the commissioners want to annex a piece of property that would not be accessible from their side of the railroad track. There is NO direct access point anywhere without having to go through another municipality.
What makes even less sense is why they are trying to hide their public records and even deny they ever made such an application for this grant. That’s the bigger issue.
Because they are “Liars, Liars, Liars and their pants are on Fire”, that’s why.
What’s the issue here? What’s the big deal? If at one time there was a proposal to build a wall to deter noise, crime or for safety reasons, then that’s legitimate. Who cares?
Furthermore, if at one time there was a proposal to build this wall and then another proposal to annex a different piece of land east of the railway tracks, then there’s nothing wrong with that either; the village may have different priorities and ideas and leadership and different times. Just because a wall was proposed at one point in the past, it doesn’t mean the village is beholden to that position in perpetuity.
Try to be somewhat reasonable and have a little bit of nuance and thoughtfulness. Please either save your vitriol for those who actually deserve it or go find a new hobby.
Have a nice day.
I’m a firm believer in Sunshine Laws. Either they are obeyed or they are not. In this instance, regardless of whether the wall is a good or bad thing, there is a major screw up at Village Hall when it comes to public reocrds. That fact alone deserves to be exposed.
But, thank you for sharing.