November 9, 2011

Mr. Juan C. Silva Internal Services Department Facilities and Utilities Management Division 200 N.W. 1st Street Miami, FL 33128

RE:

Permit for Government Center Outside Courtyard

Dear Mr. Silva: This is written in response to your letter dated November 4, 2011, in which you address the current permit we hold to exercise our free speech rights in the Outside Courtyard at the Government Center. You have stated that our permit will expire on November 10, 2011 at 5:00 p.m. Our permit, however, does not have an end date and therefore does not expire at that time. Therefore, it appears that the County will be revoking our permit. This restriction on our First Amendment rights is only permitted if it is narrowly tailored to serve a significant government interest and provides ample alternative channels of communication. The location for which the permit was approved is Government Center Outside Courtyard. This encompasses the entire courtyard area, not just the West Lawn, and includes the grassy area north of the West Lawn. In order to cooperate with your efforts, we will voluntarily move out of the area we are currently occupying, and move into another area which remains within the scope of our permit. Thus, the County can accomplish its construction goals without revoking our permit, and therefore has no reason to do so. Any attempt to revoke our current permit would be a violation of our First Amendment rights, as such a restriction would not be narrowly tailored to serve a significant government interest. In fact, the restriction would be wholly unnecessary. The fact that we have occupied the Outside Courtyard for the past three weeks in cooperation with the County and local law enforcement is a demonstration that the permit rights as they are being exercised do not conflict with any countervailing significant government interest. Thus there is no basis for revoking our permit or otherwise infringing on our free speech rights at this time. We are sending this letter in a good faith attempt to find a solution which will allow the County to implement its construction plans, while at the same time retaining our ability to voice our political message. However, because our permit covers the entire Government Center Outside Courtyard, we do not believe that we must reapply for a new permit once the construction is complete. As stated above, we will move with the understanding that grassy area north of the West Lawn is covered by our current permit. We hope you will be amenable to this compromise, and look forward to hearing your response. We request that you provide us with a written response by 2:00 p.m. on Thursday, to clarify your current position and provide us with an opportunity to respond. Sincerely,

Alex Ospina