As expected, Doral City Manager Joe Carollo was fired Monday in a special meeting called by Vice 
Mayor Christi Fraga.
Public Works Director Jose Olivo will serve as interim manager until Mayor Luigi Boria — who looked like it was Christmas — nominates someone new. The council talked about having someone in place in 30 days, but decided to discuss the process again at a special meeting Thursday. Seems like everyone has someone in mind (more on that later).
After the meeting, Fraga told the press she had not intended to make a motion to terminate Carollo when she first called the meeting last Wednesday. Instead, she was going to inquire about a series of issues that she saw with the administration, including the failure to move on items in a timely fashion and the recent revolving door of personnel and so many key department heads leaving lately.
She said that Carollo’s press conference at City Hall Friday, which she criticized for being during city hours with the use of city staff, had forced her to take that step.
During that press conference, Carollo said a relative of her husband’s had approached the mayor last October to offer her vote — the third vote he needed — to oust the city manager back then. Boria’s attempt failed 3-2, with Fraga voting against as well as Councilwomen Ana Maria Rodriguez and Bettina Rodriguez-Aguilera. Carollo said he was told this by the mayor, who he also said reported the incident to the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office.
Fraga on Monday said those were “pure lies” and she told Ladra she had not been approached by authorities about 
any investigation. “Those are just rumors,” she said.
She characterized Carollo’s accusations as a desperate attempt to discredit her and said it was his M.O. “Just look at his past, not only as a politician but also here since he has been here,” she said.
Carollo hinted at the press conference he held Friday, and sorta again Monday, that he was being targeted as a whistle blower and while he would not say if he intended to avail himself of protection under that law, he has spent the weekend conferring with attorneys.
The meeting at 5 p.m. Monday was caliente and well attended by both residents and the media. Councilwoman Sandra Ruiz, the only one who voted with the mayor in October, pounced on the chance to second Fraga’s motion to terminate the manager. She said the city’s reputation had suffered enough.
Councilwomen Rodriguez-Aguilera and Rodriguez, the dissenting voters, made very strong statements.
Rodriguez said that while she understood that the city’s image had suffered and that the high turnaround “was disconcerting,” she did not think that the city manager was necessarily to blame. She noted that in the past 18 months, or since Boria was elected mayor, there have been three city managers — well, four now — as well as three different city attorneys and three different police chiefs.
“And there is a common denominator in those 18 months,” she said. Guess who she was talking about.
Rodriguez-Aguilera said that one of the reasons for some of the personnel flight, such as the the recent resignation of the Planning and Zoning Director who Fraga said would make a fine city manager — mind you, she wasn’t planning on firing Carollo (wink, wink) — was because of harassment from the mayor.
“I will ask you to stop disrespecting me,” Boria told her, saying she was disrespecting “the office of the mayor.”
He demanded her apology. Rodriguez-Aguilera refused. “I will not apologize for something that is true. I am not lying.”
The verbal spar got heated when she was refused the opportunity to speak a second time on the matter.
“This is not Venezuela,” she said. The audience booed her. Later she explained that she felt like she was in a dictatorship — but while Ladra does believe she was bamboozled, that’s a stretch.
After he was fired, Carollo stood and walked out of the room. He turned over his keys and had a quick impromptu press conference in the 3rd floor lobby after the cameras rushed out of the room behind him, aggressively and agitatedly daring the media to corner Boria on the bribery story and inquire about his report to the SAO.
“Go and ask him, did he or didn’t he do that? How is it Ms. Fraga is upset with me when it is Boria who reported her,” he asked.
Which is part of the problem with Carollo: His denuncias always come after he is threatened with termination. It’s a defense mechanism. If Boria was so bad, how come he didn’t quit and come clean months ago? If he does business with the Venezuelan government, as Carollo claims — and he tried to use his position to get better zoning on his kids’ land and he played some funky math with the rent for his campaign office, as he claimed in October — why didn’t know this two years ago when “Crazy Joe” campaigned for and with the mayor?
Maybe that delayed response which seems more retaliatory than whistle blower, is what makes Carollo hard to believe or, worse, have empathy for. He pretty much deserves it, doesn’t he? Heck, Ladra is surprised that this bromance lasted this long. Remember, I gave it less than a year.
Back in council chambers Monday, the majority of the public applauded Carollo’s ousting and said the city had to move on.
“He’s done real damage to the city,” said Manny Sarmiento, president of the Doral Chamber of Commerce. “it’s time to come back to what we were. Because we’re not right now.”
But Richard Glukstad said that the city had spent enough time on the drama and had to get back to real service, like finishing parks and providing more benefits for empl0yees. “You don’t deal with the real issues,” he told the council.
He also scolded Boria and said that Carollo’s mess was the mayor’s making.
“He’s in your church, Luigi. You brought him here. And every one of you voted unanimously to bring him here,” Glukstad said. “And all of a sudden he’s no good? From one day to the next?”
Well, not really from one day to the next.
Doral: Joe Carollo fired amid shots at heated meeting added by Ladra on
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Manny- you’re right the others are the henchmen Blom, Childress and Eliza Rassi. Let’s start with Blom- he does nothing all day while
Reaps the credit for the upward strides the police department has made. It’s not him it’s all the great staff he brought in. The guy is also a sarcastic, arrogant prick with half a brain. More one Blom later. Albert Childress is a half wit with a dark past (I feel bad for his wife) he doesn’t know his ass from his elbow. Make no mistake Childress you were chosen because you came with strings. He makes no viable contribution to anything and is a bully who is racist and sexist and reverse ageist. Very telling if they did not pick you as interim. Eliza Rassi is another bully that has to go. She bullies and intimidates her employees when she wakes up on the wrong side of the bed. Her finances are all screwed up and I wouldn’t doubt she did some unsavory accounting for joe. These books need to be checked… Under a microscope! More on her soon.. Oh and there’s also the latest, Vangates, she’s a flim flamer who purports to be a lawyer but it’s obvious once she gets talking she knows nothing. She’s a fraud. More on her later…
Mr. Sarmiento thinks that he can get away with not paying his city occupational license, and still apply for a grant. He hadn’t paid it for about 2 years and what happened is you got a manager who wasn’t into the political accept and started looking into companies that weren’t paying and he got caught and that’s what upset Mr. Sarmiento, and if he can’t remember he said he didn’t want the grant money so he didn’t get it (It’s in the video of the City council meeting). He withdraw his application, it’s no ones faught put his. He should have paid his license fee’s and not have with drawn his application. And we all know that Mr. Cabrera will run and also continue to try and get money though under ground lobbying and back door pays.
Getting rid of the other part as expressed by this individual is clearly the plan to control the city by spurious interest, people who need the city to make a living. We lost track and we lost decency and ethics in a city populated by people with no respect for others, for true separation of duties, decency. i would suggest they all publish their income tax returns and a clear balance sheet of their private finances to show they made the money in the real world, if they have nothing to hide there should be no problems. I am sure we will see our friend Pete Cabrera returning to the polls…I just ask to any individual at the age of all this people, how can you afford this time in public service? just think twice and you will understand the real facts behind these interests. They are all part of the same kind of individuals who live from the state, the public and their taxes. Individuals who do not deserve our respect. Luigi Boria is another case, i would not question his personal business now, he made the money outside the government and that is how he bought his way in. What i question is his capacity to manage. or better his inability to manage and listen and respect and follow normal management processes. He is not there at all which is typical of people who used to manage its own company. We need another kind of individuals, and by the way nobody talks about Boria’s complain about Christie Fraga… one of them is lying.. you choose whom…. Mr. Sarmiento is pissed off because he did not get a grant.. as usual people looking for grants.. own it in your own business leave government alone… and our money…..
We are definitely better off without Joe Carollo. As President of the Doral Chamber of Commerce I can attest to the fact that Mr. Carollo used bullying tactics and lies to deny the DCC a CBO Grant which we had qualified for. In a City Council meeting he stated that he did not know anything about the DCC. Our VP and myself met in Mr. Carollo’s office just after he was hired to explain the DCC and to present ourselves.
In his POST-EVICTION press madness he accused me of lying to the IRS. I am in the process of requesting the recordings from the media so I can get them to my lawyer who is considering slander charges.
1/3rd of the chaos-causing individuals are now gone. In November we need to focus on the final sweep of the other 2/3rds, during the City Council elections.
Thank God for the sanity of Sandra Ruiz and Christy Fraga, and for the stability and maturity that Mayor Boria is beginning to display. I believe that we are getting back on track towards renewed prosperity in Doral.
Manny Sarmiento – CEO / President
Doral Chamber of Commerce, Inc.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/04/30/4090352/doral-can-do-better.html
This is what happens in a city when you elect to office individuals such as Luigi Boria, who have no cultural attachment to our country and barely speaks English. He hired Carollo over Meritt Steirheim, a proven, efficient manager. Carollo fired many innocent people in Doral, including the head of the media office who is a very respectable and professional lady. Good to see Carollo go but it’d be better if Boria had joined him on the way out the door. This type of buffoonery makes us all look bad.
great article. Now lets get Frank Carollo, the bozo out of the City of Miami.