Why We Publish The TAMPOA Board's Minutes
One of our readers, an Annex owner, questions why we publish the TAMPOA Board minutes. He accuses us of publishing the TAMPOA Board Minutes for motives other than being informative to Annex residents. With a bit of twisted logic this "owner" suggests that we could be not acting in the best interests of Annex owners since the minutes are emailed to the owners. As usual his logic omits several facts.
First, not all owners have email addresses. He would know this if he had bothered to pick up a resident's directory from the TAMPOA office. This directory lists not only the owners' names and addresses but their email also.
Second, the minutes are not mailed to the owners. Anyone who does not have email (or has not provided an email address to TAMPOA) will not get the minutes.
Third, the minutes are not published on the TAMPOA website, although they should be. This blog fills that communication gap. From the contact we've had with owners, most of them appreciate our efforts. We suspect that, while he won't say so, this owner also appreciates our efforts, for otherwise he would have no one to whine to. (We don't see his style of posts on other Key West Blogs.).
Fourth, not all residents of TAMPOA are owners. Some are long term renters. They are apart of the Annex community and deserve to know how the Board is acting, since they are governed by the Board's rules. Many of them eventually become owners.
Fifth, we publish news of interest to Annex residents as well as the Key West community, and the TAMPOA Board's minutes contain news. We could edit them, as a newspaper would do, but then folks like Anonymous would gripe that we had left out important parts. So, we publish them without editing, and let our readers judge the content.
Sixth, we get the feeling that this owner thinks that by publishing the Board's minutes we are somehow aiding the enemy, whoever that may be in his head. Unfortunately, that is the kind of thinking that has made the residents of Key West hate the Annex. They get the (perhaps unintended) message that folks like this owner think of them as the enemy. We don't have the "we / them" phobia that this owner seems to exhibit in his comments. We hope that by full and open communication, instead of being Annex residents and City residents, we can all be just Key West residents. Wouldn't that be something to achieve in 2007?
This owner also suggests that it is "too bad that the bahama village consortium [lack of capitals his] does not publish their minutes." He assumes they have or keep minutes, but nonetheless we agree with the concept that an organization that purports to represent a community and has minutes should make them widely available to its constituents. Unfortunately, the TAMPOA Board doesn't do this on the TAMPOA website so it is hard to criticize some other organization for not publishing their minutes. And, if we could get the Bahama Village Consortium's minutes (assuming they exist) and they were newsworthy, we might consider publishing them. However, we think it is likely that the Bahama Village Blog likely will do that job nicely without interference from us.
Finally, this owner wonders whether we will be publishing the City Commissioners' depositions from the "TAMPOA v. City" Southard street litigation. If we were to obtain copies, depending on their content, we certainly would consider publishing newsworthy portions of them. The reality, however, is that the depositions are likely to be too long to publish verbatim on this blog and would have to be excerpted -- since lawyers can ask questions in depositions that they might not be able to ask at trial and witnesses can say things that might not be admissible at trial. In addition, in some litigation, certainly in federal court, the depositions are not routinely filed with the Clerk of Courts, but are retained in the attorneys' file until needed for a specific purpose such as a Motion for Summary Judgment. Even then, initially only excerpts are filed and opposing counsel has the right to file the other pertinent parts. This procedure is designed to save filing space in the Clerk of Court's Office, since depositions in any one case can be voluminous. The depositions, therefore, may be hard to obtain. Depending on the skill of the attorney(s) asking the questions, the depositions (of all the parties) may, indeed, be interesting.
First, not all owners have email addresses. He would know this if he had bothered to pick up a resident's directory from the TAMPOA office. This directory lists not only the owners' names and addresses but their email also.
Second, the minutes are not mailed to the owners. Anyone who does not have email (or has not provided an email address to TAMPOA) will not get the minutes.
Third, the minutes are not published on the TAMPOA website, although they should be. This blog fills that communication gap. From the contact we've had with owners, most of them appreciate our efforts. We suspect that, while he won't say so, this owner also appreciates our efforts, for otherwise he would have no one to whine to. (We don't see his style of posts on other Key West Blogs.).
Fourth, not all residents of TAMPOA are owners. Some are long term renters. They are apart of the Annex community and deserve to know how the Board is acting, since they are governed by the Board's rules. Many of them eventually become owners.
Fifth, we publish news of interest to Annex residents as well as the Key West community, and the TAMPOA Board's minutes contain news. We could edit them, as a newspaper would do, but then folks like Anonymous would gripe that we had left out important parts. So, we publish them without editing, and let our readers judge the content.
Sixth, we get the feeling that this owner thinks that by publishing the Board's minutes we are somehow aiding the enemy, whoever that may be in his head. Unfortunately, that is the kind of thinking that has made the residents of Key West hate the Annex. They get the (perhaps unintended) message that folks like this owner think of them as the enemy. We don't have the "we / them" phobia that this owner seems to exhibit in his comments. We hope that by full and open communication, instead of being Annex residents and City residents, we can all be just Key West residents. Wouldn't that be something to achieve in 2007?
This owner also suggests that it is "too bad that the bahama village consortium [lack of capitals his] does not publish their minutes." He assumes they have or keep minutes, but nonetheless we agree with the concept that an organization that purports to represent a community and has minutes should make them widely available to its constituents. Unfortunately, the TAMPOA Board doesn't do this on the TAMPOA website so it is hard to criticize some other organization for not publishing their minutes. And, if we could get the Bahama Village Consortium's minutes (assuming they exist) and they were newsworthy, we might consider publishing them. However, we think it is likely that the Bahama Village Blog likely will do that job nicely without interference from us.
Finally, this owner wonders whether we will be publishing the City Commissioners' depositions from the "TAMPOA v. City" Southard street litigation. If we were to obtain copies, depending on their content, we certainly would consider publishing newsworthy portions of them. The reality, however, is that the depositions are likely to be too long to publish verbatim on this blog and would have to be excerpted -- since lawyers can ask questions in depositions that they might not be able to ask at trial and witnesses can say things that might not be admissible at trial. In addition, in some litigation, certainly in federal court, the depositions are not routinely filed with the Clerk of Courts, but are retained in the attorneys' file until needed for a specific purpose such as a Motion for Summary Judgment. Even then, initially only excerpts are filed and opposing counsel has the right to file the other pertinent parts. This procedure is designed to save filing space in the Clerk of Court's Office, since depositions in any one case can be voluminous. The depositions, therefore, may be hard to obtain. Depending on the skill of the attorney(s) asking the questions, the depositions (of all the parties) may, indeed, be interesting.
posted by Conchette at 7:47 AM
2 Comments:
The only ones who can see your blog are only those who have access to a computer. Any individual that has access to a computer can have a free e-mail account and thus have access to e-mail (ie. hotmail,etc.) and thus could and would get minutes of TAMPOA meetings. Only those without e-mail would need to go to the office and see the minutes. Your blog would not help them. Once again your reasoning is suspect and I suspect you have a hidden agenda which ain't so hidden.
Sorry, detective, no hidden agenda here. It's right in the open. Our goal is to distribute the news we report on as widely as possible. After all, what could TAMPOA have to hide if it is as pure as the sand at Smathers Beach?
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