Doral Council Members Approved Spokesperson Ordinance
This Tuesday, Doral council members approved spokesperson ordinance that establishes a new guideline about the relationship between the media and the City representatives.
As part of this ordinance, the mayor will have the authority to designate a spokesperson as the city official voice, as well as appointing a council member to act as such.
“The ordinance came to be amended because the council in our strategic planning session in February felt we needed to speak with one voice as a council when we make a collective decision,” Mayor Juan Carlos Bermudez said to NBC Miami.
In addition to this, the spokesperson ordinance also states that council members are not allowed to speak to the media on behalf of the city unless they are designated as spokespersons.
This means that when public officials talk to the media, they must specify that their comments or statements are personal viewpoints.
About this, council member Christi Fraga said to NBC Miami that although council members are not formally being censored “by creating a censure you are creating a sanction, which means when I go out to the media to speak, I am in fear of being censured by my colleagues (…) because they may not agree with what I said”.
Mayor Bermudez and some council members have gradually eroded citizen powers (advisory boards) and now we see the erosion of most democratic powers given to council by our constitution. It is a borderline dictatorship with its allies and enemies set against each other, with ultra-nationalists in control of our government. But at the end of the day, it is all caused by the quiet acquiescence of our apathetic citizenry and even some council members!
The director of the Brechner Center for Freedom of Information says the Doral ordinance is constitutionally questionable.
“It’s symbolically something that might deter somebody from speaking,” Frank Lomonte said. “And the Supreme Court has always said, we don’t want to chill people from speaking, we don’t want to intimidate them, especially not on political issues.”
Rick ,
That was a very good post . Thank you for it .
I like Bermudez as a person but when he endorsed Commissioner Jose Pepe Diaz ( people should have researched him a bit in non bid airport , etc contracts ) I knew he wasn’t the same Mayor/ Politician as before .
Fraga may not realize it but if she ran for Mayor against him , she would win.