Recall Joe Carollo lawyers win first round in court; city attorney appeals

As if they haven’t spent enough of the taxpayer’s money trying to block an electoral process already, the Miami City Attorney’s office filed a notice to appeal Tuesday, an hour or so after a Miami-Dade Circuit Court judge ordered City Clerk Todd Hannon to deliver the recall petitions against Commissioner Joe Carollo to the Miami-Dade Elections Department — just like he was supposed to do last week.

City Attorney Victoria Mendez sent an internal memo late Tuesday where she asserted her own authority to stay the petitions while they appeal the judge’s decision. Why not? She has been acting like a judge the whole time. So, that means they’re trying to keep the petitions from the county still, in contempt of the judge’s order. God, I hope he finds her in contempt.

“The court granted the recall committee’s request for mandamus release, and ordered the clerk to forward the recall petitions to the County Supervisor of Elections by tomorrow, March 11, 2020. Because the court has ordered immediate action by the clerk, our office has filed a notice of appeal. The notice of appeal will operate to stay the proceedings,” she wrote.

“If you have any objections to the city proceeding with this appeal, please advise our office as soon as possible,” she followed. “Copies of the Judge’s order and the notice of appeal are attached for your review. Please advise if you have any further questions or require further briefing on this matter.”

Heck, that’s a lot more than Mendez said in court, Tuesday, when she took a back seat as a spectator and Assistant City Attorney Kerri McNulty — the same one who changed her “cheat sheet” opinion on the time computation three days after Mendez asked her to — took the lead arguing why the petitions were late based on her “revised” cheat sheet. It was like theater of the absurd.

Deputy City Attorney John Greco basically begged for his moment in the sun — the plaintiffs tagged-teamed so why can’t I? type of thing — and talked for a short while about something that the judge already knew. But I don’t remember what he said.

That’s because Ladra didn’t take notes like I usually would. Instead, I videotaped almost the entire hearing, thinking that it provided an opportunity to go back and get everything verbatim. I also planned to post the videos on YouTube because this stuff is better if you see it yourself. It was that good.

But that’s exactly what the city didn’t want.

Because at the end of the hearing, after Judge Alan Fine ruled in favor of the Take Back Our City political action committee that had collected the 1,914 signatures, his honor turned to me and asked me who I was. That was because someone with the city complained about me recording, because they were embarrassed by my story about their “cheat sheet” on the recall. On Monday, Political Cortadito broke the news that the city attorney’s office had been conspiring since Jan. 29, two days before the first petition was signed, to stop or delay or challenge the petition, on behalf of Commissioner Carollo.

I told the judge who I was and he said that I was not allowed to record the proceedings because I hadn’t asked permission. Who knew? This was a public courtroom and I had just as much right, I argued, as the television station to record. But he said he only had to let one camera in and that Telemundo had gotten permission. I should have said that mine would be aired in English and that the city was being retaliatory, but I didn’t think of that. Instead, I explained that (a) my phone had a whole lot more of the proceedings than the soundbites gotten by Telemundo, and that (2) I had panned to people’s faces, which was partly why it was so interesting.

Carollo side-eyeing me hoping I wouldn’t notice. Commissioner Marc Sarnoff — who said he was there because this was “an interesting case” — at one point couldn’t stop laughing after someone, I think it was Jay Rhodes from Carollo’s office, whispered a sweet funny something in his ear. Mendez sitting stone-faced and then nodding when she approved of an argument. Sarnoff moving to the back pew when Carollo came in late during the plaintiffs’ opening arguments and took his seat in the front pew. And Commissioner Keon Hardemon, who also had no reason to be there, kissing up to a very animated Sarnoff.

But that’s just the color, the inside stuff that political junkies like Ladra love.

What Mendez really doesn’t want the world to see is the epic fail the city’s arguments were, how the judge kept having to correct them, how JC Planas and David Winker, representing the Take Back PAC, easily tore up their silly strategy, laughing out loud at the very absurdity of their statements. The video captured the ridiculousness of their position in streaming action and each slap back from the judge for everyone to see for themselves.

That’s why Mendez or someone complained about me. To stop that from getting out.

From the judge’s order, which is pretty much what he said in court:

“Does a City Clerk have the discretion or authority to determine that a recall petition is untimely or must the Clerk strictly comply with Florida Statute 100.361(g) which states – ‘Immediately after the filing of the petition forms, the clerk shall submit such forms to the county supervisor of elections?’ The parties stipulated that the Clerk received the original petitions on March 2, 2020 and, for reasons stated in his letter later the same day, declined to forward them to the Supervisor of Elections. The parties assert contrary positions as to whether the petitions were timely filed and on other issues as well. This Court, for the reasons stated on the record, determines that the Clerk must strictly comply with the cited statute and that the Plaintiff has a clear right to the relief sought.”

The judge also said that there was “no statutory authority investing the Clerk with the discretion or authority exercised by the Clerk in this case,” and cited a precedent. Even the Second District Court of Appeals in 1989 agreed that any municipal clerk, being the employee of the elected to be recalled, could only be trusted with the ministerial duty of handing the petitions over to the county.

“Recognizing that this opinion may require a city official sought to be recalled to file a court action to test the legal sufficiency of the recall petition, we must still agree with the trial court that the city clerk’s function is ministerial only. Any change in recall procedure must rest with the legislature,” Fine quoted.

And — after the city’s attorneys suggested, quite cynically, that the PAC attorneys take the petitions to the county (knowing full well that makes them void) — he ordered the city clerk to come in the next day and pick up the petitions from his chambers to deliver them directly to the county elections department.

All of that is what Mendez didn’t want anyone to see.

And also maybe how she sat out on what is arguably the biggest (and maybe last) case of her life, where her own honesty and ethics have been impugned. She practically sulked behind McNulty and Greco when it should have been her big shining moment. Ladra is not a real lawyer, she only plays one on this blog, but I would have taken the podium and stood up for myself — if I really believed in my own argument, that is. If not, I might choose to have other people make it for me, if that’s an option.

In fact, Mendez acted like a guilty party the whole time. And she wouldn’t speak to me after the ruling in the lobby of the courthouse. I did post videos of those post hearing interviews and will be following up on what was said in some of them. I posted one down below, after the story.

But what makes this so egregious is that this is the same city attorney who has been working against the recall for a month, even before the first signature was signed, now using a judge to silence the very journalist who exposed her. The judge trusted that I deleted the 26 or 27 photos and videos. I am pretty sure the city attorneys — who looked more like a mafia’s law firm — wanted Fine to take away my phone.

“I wouldn’t use them anyway after the judge told me not to. I wouldn’t do anything illegal, unlike the city attorney’s office,” I said, for everyone, including the judge, to hear. The photos you see here I had already posted to twitter and did a save screen later (the judge didn’t say I had to delete anything from twitter).

One thing Ladra remembers well and can paraphrase, because the judge brought it up several times, is that Carollo has every right to sue on whatever grounds he wants — once the petitions were delivered to the county and with his own, private attorney. At the hearing, they even discussed that the city (read: taxpayers) only pay for Carollo’s lawyers fees if the recall is unsuccessful — which is why they are doubling down now and will try multiple times to derail it.

Por supuesto, Mendez can’t take a hint. Or was it Carollo who can’t afford the PR hit — something that will make Round 2 of petition gathering so much easier — and demanded the city appeal the decision. Ladra’s asked for the LSR but Mendez sent an email back saying there were no records responsive to my request. So, again, she is going rogue, doing whatever she wants or whatever Carollo tells her verbally. Doesn’t the city attorney need comm can appeal such a decision — and spend more taxpayer money — without a vote of the commission?

The city attorney must have not heard the judge because he said it was clear that the city had to simply turn over the petitions, that there was nothing else in the statute that gave the clerk or the city attorney the right or jurisdiction to compute the time. He told them that. He also seemed to say, a few times over and over, that future lawsuits — and everyone recognized there would be many future lawsuits — were to be filed by Carollo, and not by the city.

Carollo’s attorney, Ben Keuhne — who last year was blocked judicially when he and former Miami Lakes Mayor Michael “Muscles Pizzi tried to represent a corrupt law firm in Mount Vernon, New York, where they had earlier defended a corrupt mayor who paid them with monies syphoned form public coffers through that corrupt lawfirm — was in court with Carollo and also appealed the ruling. Remember, he is billing by the hour and the intend to make the city (read: taxpayers) pay.

“Commissioner Carollo is deeply disappointed with the mandamus ruling. He respects the decision of the Circuit Judge and intends to convince the Third District Court that the Recall process is not only flawed but is fraudulent,” Keuhne said in an emailed statement.

“The recall committee cannot be allowed to subvert the will of the voters through its scheme to violate Florida’s election laws. He is confident his lawyer, election law specialist Ben Kuehne, will prevail,” it said, and it’s kind of sad that Ben Keuhne is referring to himself in third person like that. “Commissioner Carollo intends to remain as the Commissioner elected by the people for the remainder of his term and will continue to fight for the people.”

Except what Carollo is doing is fighting the people. If the commissioner — who won in 2017 by the skin of 252 votes — had any real confidence in his electability, he wouldn’t fight this so hard. After all, the recall group has to collect three times as many signatures now. That’s more people than voted for him.

If Carollo was really so confident, he’d dare them to go to a Round 2. But, instead, he looks desperate to delay and/or derail this process and stay in power as long as possible. Kinda like a dictator. And he will use every dirty trick to do it, including the illegal use of the city attorney’s office for a matter a judge already said they had nothing to do with. Kinda like a dictator.

Meanwhile, the taxpayers are footing his bill.

The city attorneys have spent a month on fighting the recall. Ka-ching.

There were at least three of them in judge’s chambers Tuesday for thousands in billable hours. Ka-ching, Ka-ching.

And now the city is going to appeal a decision that was made to err on the side of the voters of the city? Ka-ching, Ka-ching, Ka-ching.

More tax dollars down the drain at the Law Offices of Joe Carollo, LLP.

Joe Carollo, Victoria Mendez

Recall Joe Carollo lawyers win first round in court; city attorney appeals added by Ladra on March 11, 2020
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