Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo can move back into his fancy, posh Coconut Grove house if the city gives final approval to the redistricting maps as they have been drawn, which divides the Grove into three separate districts.
The Morris Lane house Carollo reportedly moved out of just to run for office in 2017 has been drawn into his District 3 — at the end of a painful little dingleberry carve-out — by consultants guiding the redistricting process the city must go through every 10 years to accommodate population growth.
The maps were approved as is at a special commission meeting Friday. Commissioners are having community meetings to get input (re: pretend to include the community) before the final approval, scheduled for March 11.
Carollo, who just won re-election in November, is term limited in 2025 and would have to live in the district to stay in that seat through then. But he already found a way around the residency requirement, which he has no respect for, right? More importantly, las malas lenguas say he’s eyeing the mayor’s race next year, which is citywide. So it don’t matter where he lives.
Read related: Miami redistricting cuts Coconut Grove into three rather than add districts
Except in court, where Carollo is facing multiple lawsuits, including a federal lawsuit against him for violating the free speech of Bill Fuller and Martin Pinilla, who own the properties that include Ball and Chain, a Calle Ocho restaurant the commissioner targeted for political retaliation simply because they hosted an event for his opponent in 2017.
That lawsuit seeks at least $10 million in damages and a federal appeals court recently upheld the denial of Carollo’s motion to dismiss. Turns out he does not get “qualified immunity” as a city official because it was not part of his job to retaliate against the bar for its political speech.
The 6-bedroom, 5-bathroom, 5,000-square-foot Carollo house tucked between Tigertail Avenue and South Bayshore Drive is assessed at $1.4 million but has a market value of about $2.2 million, according to the Miami-Dade property appraiser.
Florida law prevents victorious plaintiffs from seizing any real property that is homesteaded. In other words, they can’t take the house he lives in, which would make any judgement difficult to enforce.
Carollo hasn’t reportedly lived in his Morris Lane house since, we’re expected to believe, a whole year before he ran for office in District 3. Everyone knows he “moved” on paper on purpose because he couldn’t have been elected in District 2.
Read related: Joe Carollo sued for violating free speech of Little Havana businesses
Alfie Leon, who lost the 2017 runoff by 251 votes, sued to challenge Carollo’s residency, which at the time was, officially, a smallish apartment in Brickell Station Lofts where he paid less than $50 a month in electricity.
Leon lost anyway.
Carollo and his wife Marjorie have since moved to a cute, little historic house in Little Havana, a couple of blocks from Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla‘s old family home, where he reportedly doesn’t live either.
Curiously, Carollo moved there in April of 2018, just as the home was bought via a quick deed. The owner is a corporate entity that is hidden behind another corporate entity and so on and so on. We don’t know how much rent he pays — if he pays rent at all — and to who. Perhaps Jorge Mas and David Beckham, who want Carollo to approve the upcoming Miami Freedom Park development, loaned him the house. Was it someone who wants the marina bid? Or another interested party? It should have to be disclosed who he’s renting from and what he’s paying.
Carollo hasn’t rented his own fancy home while he’s lived in District 3. There is no rent income listed on his financial disclosure form from last year. The commissioner also practically emptied the house last Thursday, dumping furniture and mattresses on the cul-de-sac’s circle just before Friday’s trash pick-up. Like he’s doing renovations or redesigning the place.
Maybe a precursor to moving back in? He must be confident that those redistricting maps are going to be approved as is.
Well, he’s got millions riding on it.
Miami’s redrawn maps could save Joe Carollo’s house from lawsuit grasp added by Ladra on
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Joe must go Resigned ASAP
[…] Read related: Miami’s redrawn maps could save Joe Carollo’s house from lawsuit grasp […]
[…] Read related: Miami’s redrawn maps could save Joe Carollo’s house from lawsuit grasp […]
[…] cannot claim a state homestead exemption on it. In a recent post, local blogger Elaine de Valle of Political Cortadito pointed out that the current round of redistricting might prove beneficial to Carollo, given that […]
[…] begged him not to divide the neighborhood into three commission districts, but he wanted to put his mansion house in his district, so that was more […]
[…] Read related: Miami’s redrawn maps could save Joe Carollo’s house from lawsuit grasp […]
[…] cannot claim a state homestead exemption on it. In a recent post, local blogger Elaine de Valle of Political Cortadito pointed out that the current round of redistricting might prove beneficial to Carollo, given that […]
The enabler of it all .
”
Just how corrupt is Katherine Fernandez-Rundle? THIS corrupt! ”
‘ When it comes to using her official position to protect her friends and destroy her political enemies, Miami State Attorney Katherine Fernandez-Rundle’s selective prosecution is as transparent as glass. As I wrote over two years ago in Absolute Power, “Keeping her friends in power empowers her , Keeping her friends close and prosecuting their enemies will ensure her continued reign as the most powerful politician in Miami-Dade County.”
So much corruption. Miami is a cesspool. Joe Carollo told Miguel Degrandy and Steve Cody to draw the maps to include his D2 house where he lives illegally. And Morningside in D2 could go to D5… The Grove should be kept intact.
CAROLLO FOR MAYOR SOUNDS GREAT !
Every smart person in Miami knew Joe Carollo and his wife were living in District 2, NOT the district Carollo was elected to serve. Carollo was breaking the law, again. Federal investigators should stake out his Grove house and his fake ghetto house. They should interview his police chauffeurs under oath.
What they are trying to do to the Grove is simply disgusting. Way to care about what residents want. Russell is too nice, the Grovites needed a brawler and he ain’t it.
Thank God you are still pursuing this. I wish others would get this out. I attended last night’s meeting with Ken Russell, and the consultant who drew up the current map version acknowledge that the Grove could be kept intact at US1 legally with other changes involving moving some of the north part of District 2. Carollo and ADLP were completely dismissive, and even irritated by over 100 Grove residents speaking with a united voice against the redistricting plan. ADLP even got a sharp rebuke from Christine King for his sarcasm after public comments were over. It is clear the move to do this plan involves ulterior motives, not just simple math. I asked the consultant directly ‘who picked up a pen, moved a mouse, pointed a finger or put pencil to paper’ to carve out that appendage to include Carollo’s house. He fell back on the pure math argument. So, Carollo just won the lottery in the redrawn version? He and ADLP are sure anxious to wrap this up and Reyes falls back on ‘nobody is special’… it doesn’t matter how the lines are drawn. What a clown show. The three amigos simply don’t like the political activism the Grove is well known for–activism that frequently gets in the way of their plans. Democracy? Who needs it?