City of Miami attorneys working on behalf of Commissioner Joe Carollo and against his recall prevailed in delaying the process some more Friday when the Miami-Dade Circuit Court judge that ruled against them on Tuesday allowed the city to keep the petitions from moving forward to the county’s Supervisor of Elections as they appeal his decision to do just that.
Ladra’s head is spinning, too.
Judge Alan Fine presided over an empty courtroom as seven 
attorneys — four on behalf of the city’s taxpayers — actually took turns talking on a speaker in front of him (thank the corona virus outbreak) and provided the recall group with a setback as he sided with the city.
Fine had ruled in favor of the Take Back Our City political action committee lawyers earlier this week when they sued to force City Clerk Todd Hannon to take the 1,914 recall Carollo petitions turned in to the city almost two weeks ago to the Miami-Dade County Elections Department. The judge said Tuesday that Hannon had to pick them up and deliver them Wednesday because the state statute said that was all he was authorized to do. Hannon had no jurisdiction on computing the time, the judge added.
An hour later, the city appealed and, because governments get automatic stays when they appeal, the PAC sued again to vacate the stay and get the petitions to the county, which then has 30 days to verify and validate the signatures — or not.
Read related: Miami city attorneys conspired, created ‘cheat sheet’ to top Joe Carollo recall
Assistant City Attorney Kerri McNulty — the same one who had originally reached the same conclusion about the computation of time as the attorneys — said that there was no irreparable harm because the election did not have to be in August or November. So it’s the Law Offices of Joe Carollo LLP that wants the recall election to cost the city, not the PAC.
Furthermore, McNulty added, a small number of petitions like this would not take the county 30 days to verify.
“They will get their election if they get through the procedural hurdles and any other challenges that come their way,” she said. She’s a prophet.
Recall attorney JC Planas and David Winker argued that the automatic stay applied to legislative and criminal cases, not an order where his honor had found that the city had failed in a “ministerial duty.” Planas also told the judge that legal maneuvering is just to delay the process and give Carollo the unfair advantage of more than a 30-day period during which he could go and get petition signers to rescind.
“He can undo the work,” Planas said.
McNulty called it “conjecture” — even though we’ve heard Carollo on radio say that just that might happen. But absent affidavits or evidence, Fine said he could not consider that argument. Cuban radio is never evidence.
Read related: Recall Joe Carollo lawyers win first round in court; city attorney appeals
The petitions will hang out then in Fine’s chambers on the 14th floor while the case plays out in the Third District Court of Appeals. And they might be lonely there for a while. The county courthouse was already kinda empty on Friday as schools and other municipal buildings shut down amid the corona virus outbreak.
The courtroom was empty and the entire proceedings were over a speaker by conference call. Fine had to turn it up at one point 
so the court reporter could hear. In addition to Planas was recall attorney David Winker and, on the part of the city, in addition to McNulty — may have had her phone on speaker at first because you could hardly hear her until she did something — was City Attorney Victoria Mendez, Deputy City Attorney John Greco and Assistant City Attorney George Wysong. Ben Kuehne, representing Carollo, was also at the telephonic meeting.
The city attorneys — and at least Winker — had been exposed the day before to Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who tested positive for corona virus on Friday. Mendez, for instance, was sitting right next to him at the commission meeting Thursday morning. He is self isolating. (More on that later).
Said Winker, who was also at City Hall on Thursday and should probably be self isolating: “I am confident Judge Fine’s well-reasoned decision will be upheld by the Third DCA and this appeal is nothing more than a stall tactic by the City.”
It was still unknown Friday when that hearing would be — and if it might be postponed due to the current pandemic.
Miami attorneys win and Joe Carollo recall petitions sit in judge’s chambers added by Ladra on
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