David Villano

All I do know is that in previous years as a journalist, my colleagues and I have all seen reports that have been printed in one fashion or another that show actual spending.

And it's no surprise there are those with union contracts that allow this sort of thing are typically the high earners.

So you're going to see firefighters, police officers, occasionally managers.

But those are the folks that typically can increase their salaries dramatically.

And why it's an important policy issue for our readers and, of course, the residents of Miami and beyond should understand is because all of this impacts our pension spending.

And we touched on that a little bit.

There was a pension issue on the commission agenda last week that passed with with no discussion that is can will likely increase our pension payout to firefighters.

There was no cost analysis prior to the vote.

But that's the sort of thing that we feel that if we could.

Get it on the agenda through some of our reporting.

There might be some more informed decisions, some more informed comments from the residents before these kind of commission meetings.

Well, my understanding is that Commissioner Pardo has a policy within the office that his staff will not engage with the Coconut Grove Spotlight.

So we routinely seek comment or information, and there's no response.

We had a reporter working on a story last week on a very mundane subject, e-bikes.

Well, it's not mundane if you've been hit by one, but he reported contact in the office 14 times with no success.

Eileen Higgins, her office, the same.

We routinely ask them for information, including in advance of and following the meeting last week about the bond proposal.

No response, not even we'll get back to you.

So I have to say that we're a little surprised at that response.