Joe Carollo lashes out at Ladra, says other commissioners live out of district

It appears that Ladra has hit a nerve.

In a community meeting last week about the redistricting process, Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo lashed out against this blogger for exposing that his Coconut Grove house on Morris Lane has been drawn into his district so he can move back in and protect it from seizure when he loses one of the many lawsuits against him.

Then, according to a short clip of a video taken by someone there, he promised to expose another commissioner who doesn’t live in the right district at the March 11 meeting.

Ladra can’t wait, even though it’s probably Alex Diaz de la Portilla, who says he lives with his baby brother Renier Diaz de la Portilla in a small apartment with Renier’s wife and their son, David, in District 1, but really lives at the East Hotel and condos at Brickell City Center.

We don’t know who provided The Dean with such nice digs, but maybe Carollo will tell us on March 11. He doesn’t want to tell us who owns the Little Havana house that he says he and his wife Marjorie live in — or if he even pays rent.

All this came up when Joshua Ceballos from Miami New Times asked Carollo to respond to the claim that it could be a conflict of interest for him to vote on a redistricting map that so obviously benefits him personally.

“First of all, I think you need to go to the dictionary or state statutes and find out what a conflict of interest is. There is no conflict of interest here anywhere,” he said, and maybe Carollo needs to see the definition. Webster’s says that it is “a conflict between the private interests and the official responsibilities of a person in a position of trust.”

Which is exactly what this is. Carollo wants to vote on the controversial redistricting map that he will directly benefit from because of the little dingleberry carved into his district that includes his $2.2 million mansion.

But since the message is strong and true, he attacks the messenger.

“Second of all, when you say the people, the people that you are talking about is a blogger … the same blogger that during the recall where they spent at least $100,000 that was not put into any political action committee, in other words, illegally… and this is the same blogger that was attacking me then. Because this blogger receives contributions for her good work and writing,” Carollo said, trailing off here and there as he is apt to do.

“The same people that recruited her four years ago are the same people who recruited her now to come up with these stories.”

Well, yes and no. Yes, Ladra receives contributions for her good work and writing, and no, the Morris Lane house story did not come from the same sources (recruiters is so underworld) who worked on the failed 2020 recall.

“And you know the original person that came up with that? And the one that told her to write that? The same guy that started the recall against me.”

Ladra has no idea who he is talking about. Because Carollo himself has blamed so many different people: First, it’s Bill Fuller, the Little Havana businessman and owner of Ball and Chain who Carollo has retaliated against for his political support of Alfie Leon, who lost to the commissioner by 250 votes in 2019. No, no, it’s Joe Arriola, the onetime city manager and former chairman of the Jackson Memorial Hospital Public Health Trust Board, who pledged $100,000 to the failed recall effort. No, wait! It’s the Venezuelan Chavistas that in Carollo’s cramped mind have been chasing him since his days as city manager in Doral.

Ladra guarantees you, dear readers, that none of those people mentioned the Grove house and redistricting to Ladra. Especially not the Chavistas.

“Just to be clear,” Ceballos responded, “I believe you are referring to Elaine de Valle from Political Cortadito.”

“Absolutely,” Carollo said.

“Just to be clear,” Ceballos continued, “I’m not getting this from her blog. I’m getting it from social media.”

Ouch. That hurts, Josh. And where do you think social media got it from?!?

“She’s the one saying it after Mr. Russell told her about that,” Carollo said, getting it wrong again. Wasn’t it the Chavistas?

Then he pivots again, because that’s what he does best. “If you’re so interested about this, you should find out where all of us commissioners live,” Carollo told the reporter. “You should.

“Ms. de Valle says that I live in Coconut Grove in this house that you’re talking about. She says I don’t live in Little Havana.”

Whoa. His reading comprehension is not good. Ladra said that he lived in his Coconut Grove house within the year before he ran for office, as was claimed in the lawsuit that had cellphone pings and utility bills to prove it. Ladra also said that he may be living in that cute Little Havana house now — stranger things have happened — but that the home very coincidentally was purchased in a quick deed sale on April 2018, the same month he moved in, by a company that Ladra cannot trace the owner of.

“She even went as far as to say that when I moved into the house in Little Havana four years ago, that the deed changed right during that time, and that ‘We don’t know who the owner is.’ That it’s probably Jorge Mas and Beckham. If not, it’s somebody else that needed or wanted the marina contract. That I need to show the payments that I’m making because I’m getting free rent. And this is what she is being told to write to defame me.”

Okay, let’s review the public documents.

Carollo did move into the house on 10th Street on April 23, 2018, only five months after winning the election, according to his own qualification documents filed with the city clerk. A month later, the house was purchased for $100, according to Miami-Dade property records, which listed the owner as 2015 2 IH2 BORROWER L P, which had purchased the property from IH2 PROPERTY FLORIDA L P, which purchased the property in 2015.

The companies are all inactive, according to the Florida Division of Corporations, and trace back to someone named Mark Solls in Dallas, TX.

So the house could belong to Mas or Beckham or a lobbyist or anyone with interests before the city. Or they could be paying Carollo’s rent. Ladra was speculating. Because that’s relevant. It could be another one of those conflicts of interests that Carollo can’t define. So he should just come clean.

“But you know what,” Carollo went on. “I’m not going to bust anybody’s bubble here today. On March 11, please come. ‘Cause I like to do things face to face. And if people want to talk about homes, if people want to talk about certain things, we’re going to have a dandy time,” he said about Friday’s special commission meeting on redistricting.

“You see, I’m not a punching bag.”

No, he’s a clown. And City Hall is his circus.

Editor’s note: Ladra does get contributions from time to time from readers who know it takes a lot of time to investigate these shenanigans and connect all the dots as well as dollars to pay for public records and internet servers and software. Nobody has to pay Ladra to write about Joe Carollo, because that is a labor of love. But if anyone wants Ladra to spend more time sniffing around Crazy Joe and his conflicts of interests and abuses of power, you can let her know in a note with your donation to her PayPal link. Thank you for your support.

And thank you, Commissioner Carollo, for this fundraising opportunity.

Joe Carollo, redistricting

Joe Carollo lashes out at Ladra, says other commissioners live out of district added by Ladra on March 6, 2022
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