Call it Miami’s Crespo Law.
Al Crespo, a local blogger who has been critical of city officials, said he has been blacklisted by city officials and blocked from coming into the city’s admistration building where many public records are held.
Proof of the Crespo rule might have come Monday when the blogger tried to enter the building and was stopped and told he had to have an appointment, even as dozens of other citizens freely walked by security without being questioned.
“This is a sad state of affairs,” said Crespo, whose Crespo-Gram Report was recently blocked from city computers. “The city is $61 million in the hole, the mayor is under criminal investigation and the police chief is about to be fired in two weeks and they waste the entire morning on this.”
Crespo’s limited access to the building is the product of a new measure to ensure employee security, said Assistant City Manager Luis Cabrera.
But the new measures, which haven’t been approved by the city manager and were created Friday, only appear to apply to Crespo.
Cabrera couldn’t explain why other citizens were allowed to walk pass security without being questioned. Crespo was stopped by a security guard as soon as he entered the building.
The security guard said he was instructed that Crespo would need to declare where he was going and if he had an appointment.
Cabrera, who has become a target of Crespo, said all visitors would eventually have to go through similar security screening.
“We have drafted policies and procedures to protect our employees,” he said. “This is not about one individual. We cannot have someone jeopardize our employees or have someone interrupt our business.”
Crespo has broken several major political stories in recent months, including the city’s $200,000 offer to maligned Police Chief Miguel Exposito for his resignation. He also was the first to report former City Manager Tony Crapp was leaving the city after only a few months in his post.
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Cabrera said Crespo's blog was blocked from city computers because employees were spending too much time accessing the blog instead of working. Websites like MiamiHerald.com have not been blocked, although many media outlets often follow Crespo's reports.
Cabrera said other media outlets' websites haven't been blocked because they report news about the city and he doesn't consider Crespo's blog traditional media.
Crespo, who isn’t shy about speaking about his past as a convicted bank robber, often puts in wide-ranging public records requests to find stories or information for his blog.
On Monday, he was at the annex building to pick up records about Cabrera. Crespo was eventually allowed to retrieve the documents.
