It may not rank as high on our corruption scales as a mayor charged with unlawful compensation for a secret lobbying gig or another politico getting passed $3,000 in closet kickbacks.
But we’re on a roll.
Miami Commissioner Frank Carollo may have used his elected position to get out of a traffic ticket last August. And the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust is going to have a hearing on the matter Tuesday, two months before Election Day in what may be a closer race than some think.
An investigation triggered by a complaint from Miami blogger Al Crespo led to a probable cause last November after investigators found that Carollo called Chief Manuel Orosa after being pulled over. Orosa called the area commander who called dispatch to have the officer that pulled Carollo over call him. Then the officer let the commissioner go with just a warning.
“The determination found that Carollo may have used or intended to exploit his position to influence police officials, which is a violation of the Conflict of Interest and Code of Ethics Ordinance,” investigators wrote.
Las malas lenguas say Carollo was stopped because he just couldn’t wait and drove his black Lexus around a line of cars that had formed, backed up, as the city doled out new recycling bins (wait, isn’t that like an oxymoron?) along Tigertail Avenue. As he passed the more patient drivers, driving in the wrong lane toward oncoming traffic, a copy assigned to traffic control for the city truck with bins stopped him.
Carollo’s attorney Ben Kuehne said in a written statement to the ethics board that the commissioner was not trying to get out of the ticket but that he decided, while he was pulled over, to call the police chief about a completely different matter — which was to inquire why police and city trucks were blocking the road. That doesn’t sound like a completely different matter to me. Sounds like he was justifying his actions, maybe.
Ladra imgaines the call going something like this: “Why the heck are there police and fire trucks blocking the road? I don’t have time for this. Do you realize your actions just got me pulled over? I better not get a freaking ticket!”
Malas lenguasalso say that the hearing comes because Carollo would not come to any kind of settlement or agreement for a fine. “It is proceeding to a hearing because there has been no indication from Mr. Carollo that he was interested in settling the case,” said Ethics Commission Advocate Michael Murowski.
Could it be that he was looking at larger consequences? Like removal from office, maybe? That would make for a public corruption superfecta — four electeds taken down for one wrong use of office or another in a single month.
But, alas, no such luck. Stop drooling. The most Carollo faces, Murawski told Ladra, is a $1,000 fine and a public reprimand.
Yes, it’s hard to believe he wouldn’t be removed from office if he is found to have “willfully” abused his seat — even if it was just to get out of a traffic ticket, in this case.
Still, at the very least, this could impact his re-election campaign.
Ladra tried calling him at the number he posts on his campaign website, but that is busy all the time. And an email to him was not returned Monday, but it’s Labor Day.
His challenger, Alex Dominguez, the 43-year-old pharmaceuticals salesman who is on the road all the time, said he can’t remember when the last time was that he was stopped for a traffic violation. Well, Alex, it was in 2009, you were cited with not wearing your seat belt and having no proof of insurance. He did get slapped with a couple of speeding tickets before that, one in 2004 and another in 2006, but he paid the citations. He didn’t try to weasel out of them.
And his license says “safe driver.”
Would Dominguez call the chief, if he’s a commissioner, to keep it that way?
“Absolutely not,” he said. “I think it’s a disgrace.”
Frank Carollo has ethics hearing for trying to get out of ticket added by Ladra on
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