The city of Miami can stop paying Commissioner Joe Carollo‘s legal bills right now. Let him pay for his own appeal with the funds from his political action committee.
Carollo, who has spent more than $2 million of the taxpayers’ money defending himself from a federal lawsuit he lost Thursday, has a neat $1,380,295 sitting in the bank account for his Miami First PAC. If he wants to appeal the jury verdict — which granted $63.5 million in damages to two Little Havana businessmen who were retaliated against for supporting Carollo’s opponent in 2017 — let Carollo put his money where his big mouth is.
The city (read: taxpayers) isn’t necessarily responsible for the judgement, though the attorneys for Bill Fuller and Martin Pinilla could argue that city officials conspired with Carollo to carry out his illegal orders. At least taxpayers should not be on the hook for legal fees again!
Read related: Jury says Miami’s Joe Carollo abused power to violate 1st Amendment rights
It wouldn’t be the first time Carollo uses PAC funds to pay for legal fees. In 2018, Miami First paid Ben Kuehne — who is still his attorney on the current case — $28,000 to fight off the residency challenge from the 2017 opponent, who came within 252 votes in the runoff. Kuehne got another Miami First check for $1,000 in May of 2020, according to the campaign finance documents.
Certainly the $1.4 million Carollo has in hand — which he was probably saving for a delusional mayoral bid — can fund an appeal.
Granted, he hasn’t raised any PAC funds since October of 2021. But he can always reach out to his pals to make new or further donations if they want to support his legal maneuvers.
Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla, for example, who said the jury verdict is such a “miscarriage of judgement,” can give from his PAC to the Carollo defense fund PAC.
Of course, ADLP only has $660K in hand for his own delusional mayoral run, so he may not.
Miami’s Joe Carollo has $1.4 million in PAC to fund any appeal of jury verdict added by Ladra on
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Tricky Vicky the low IQ City Attorney of the City of Miami has a massive $425,000 pay and benefit package – paid by taxpayers. She is counting down the days until her pension vests and the taxpayers will pay her $150,000 per year for life. (Maybe she will get more?) Tricky Vicky is probably going to grift and double dip – getting her salary AND a pension.
Tricky Vicky has a low IQ. Everyone knows she is not too bright. But criminals love that she panders to them. She enables crimes. She is a big reason Carollo lost. Besides the fact Carollo is guilty. A smart attorney would have tried to settle. A smart attorney would NEVER have hired disgraced Marc Sarnoff to defend the guilty Joe Carollo AND diverted taxpayer money to defend that crook.
[…] Read related: Miami’s Joe Carollo has $1.4 million in PAC to fund any appeal of jury verdict […]
” When are these corrupt politicians going to be held accountable?”
The first disaster which must be voted out is DA Rundle , the Cosa Nostra enabler .
Unfortunately all you people are not the real Miami , regardless of politics you want honest politicos / officials and things done correctly with accountability .
The real Miami is pure apathy , voting on name recognition ( at least they vote as most do not ) , simply not giving a damn .
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” Well… Tricky Vicky works for the City Commission, so she can only be fired by the commissioners she covers up for ”
As the British say SPOT ON .
When you ONLY have to answer to one person / group you only have to keep that one person / group happy the ” little people ” are irrelevant .
I live in a small gated community in Doral , we finally removed the corrupt board and corrupt management company and the enabling lawyer is gone this week .
Our numbers just grew and grew yet 60 percent remain apathetic cowards who complained but that was all, the 40 percent was enough to make it happen.
One of many things was the board would pay the management company the monthly maintenance fee in check as proof they paid but the management company would return their money in cash .
The only one’s who can hire / fire management company is the board so things like this are bound to happen .
There are honest boards out there .
It is the exact situation you describe with city officials that can only be fired by Commissioners .
Either they kiss Commissioners butt or they are fired so the whole thing is an accident waiting to happen .
Simply stated,
Lets be the change that Miami Really needs!
Vote in November and Recall Krusty Carollo
Simple as apple pie
When are these corrupt politicians going to be held accountable? When are the citizens going to go out on the streets and protest about this or should we just sit around while they spend our tax dollars on themselves? It’s time the citizens do something about it! Let’s get together, let’s go out an protest. Carollo, Vicky Mendez, Suarez, Vince Lago – stop the madness and corruption already!
Should he pay back to us the taxpayers for all his lies now that he has been convicted
City of Miami taxpayers get screwed so many ways. City Attorney Vicky Mendez has a $425,000+ pay and benefit package. Because she has a low IQ and she is corrupt she would be unlikely to make over $60,000 in the private sector. Crazy Joe should pay his own legal fees. A Jury just decided his actions were illegal AND he was NOT authorized to play cop and play Code Inspector.
Well… Tricky Vicky works for the City Commission, so she can only be fired by the commissioners she covers up for. They are not going to do that. Crazy Joe, ADLP and King are square on her corner. Not going to happen until a new commission and a new mayor are elected. Unless she’s brought down by her dutiful husband, who is another crook. Then people wonder why Miami is such a corrupt place…
Wonder What If DTPR,DERM ,ATF,FHR, Fire Marshal and Others, Where ask To Investigate By all means This Are State and County Agencies And Check Their Licenses and Uses of This Business Practices, ?Questions ? What Kind of Liquor License and do They Have to Serve 51% Food To Liquor , Total Capacity of People in The Place Square foot ,How many Chairs Permitted on Tables , Grease Trap and Others ! Restaurant Where Required To Have Parking and Not in The Street
John, I could not agree with you more on your entire note. That said, Ms. Mendez has a lot of hiring potential, since she has inside knowledge of the City of Miami questionable intricacies, and will serve as an excellent lobbyist for any developer such as Rishi Kapoor’s Location Ventures.
Miami City Attorney Vicky Mendez bears some responsibility for the jury’s $63 million verdict. She enabled, protected and defended Joe Carollo’s lawless misconduct. Mendez has always been a liability. She’s not too bright. She wouldn’t last one week at a reputable law firm. She got lucky to land the City Attorney job, making more money from tax payers than she would have ever been able to earn at a private firm during the time she’s been the City of Miami’s top legal counsel. Whoever has the authority to terminate Mendez should have fired her ages ago.