Talk about awkward: Steven Miro, the former chief of staff fired by Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo in 2018, is back at City Hall this week as special advisor to newly elected Commissioner Miguel Gabela.
Miro said his job would be to run the district offices and “make sure the constituent services are up to par, which they haven’t been.” He is going to be making $60,000 a year, which is more than he did as Carollo’s staffer before he became a whistleblower and got fired in 2018. Miro had gone to the State Attorney’s office to report PaellaGate, Carollo’s use of district funds to campaign with Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla, in the county commission race of 2017, with the Spanish dish at elderly housing.
The city settled a wrongful termination lawsuit for $120,000 in 2019.
Read related: Joe Carollo fires staffer who reported abuse of office to the State Attorney
Miro told Ladra that Diaz de la Portilla – who was arrested on public corruption charges in September, suspended and then lost his re-election bid — had left a lot in his District budget, which rolls over from year to year, for Gabela to address areas that have been ignored for years (more on that later).
“There’s so much money. He really wasn’t doing anything in his district,” Miro said.
There’s $2.8 million in the anti-poverty fund, for example. Apparently, ADLP only spent some of that money the first year after he was elected, when he was still sober. But nothing afterwards.
“As long as the city is in the green, that money is rolled over every year,” Miro said, adding that other earmarked accounts have similar rollovers. “From 2020, he basically didn’t do anything.”
Read related: Miami’s Alex Diaz de la Portilla loses re-election bid to Miguel Gabela on 4th try
That may suck for District 1 residents who haven’t gotten anything for three years, but it’s also good because who knows what Diaz de la Portilla would have done with those funds.
Miro hasn’t run into Carollo yet. And he doesn’t seem worried. After all, he’s been vindicated.
“If I run into him, I run into him,” he said.
Oh, to be a fly on that wall.
Steven Miro is back at Miami City Hall as new commissioner’s special advisor added by Ladra on
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