Miami taxpayers could be on the hook for City Commissioner Joe Carollo‘s frivolous and ridiculous lawsuit against the mayor, city clerk and others to take the strong mayor referendum off the ballot. They could be billed for his political stunt.
The lawsuit was dismissed — practically laughed out of court — in an 18-page ruling Saturday by 
Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Miguel M. de la O, who said that Carollo’s arguments had no merit. Not a single one. He basically called Carollo a sore loser who, having lost the vote at the dais when the commission voted to put the question on the ballot, turned to the courts.
Read related: Judge calls Joe Carollo sore loser, rips apart strong mayor lawsuit
Carollo has 30 days to appeal, though in matters of elections the courts want things expedited and the fact he hasn’t appealed yet indicates he took his spanking hard. But whether he appeals or not, the legal costs incurred so far can be estimated at between $25,000 and $80,000, depending on how many attorneys he had “consulting” on it. That could include Tania Cruz, the daughter-in-law of Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez, who got an email exactly two minutes and three seconds after the court’s online system confirmed receiving the case from lead attorney Jesus Suarez.
Suarez, who works for the Genovese Joblove & Battista law firm, doesn’t work for free and someone is going to have to pay him for his work. Neither he nor Carollo returned calls.
“No payments have been made at this time,” City Attorney Victoria Mendez told Ladra after I asked. Keywords: At this time. That doesn’t mean that he won’t be paid in the future.
Read related: Joe Carollo files late campaign report, with $60K for mayor’s daughter-in-law
And, in fact, he could be paid from city funds after all. Carollo filed the lawsuit as a city commissioner, not as a citizen or as a voter. The first line of his emergency complaint says so.
“Plaintiff/petitioner JOE CAROLLO, as an individual and as a commissioner in the City of Miami, Florida, sues Defendants/Respondents …” The keywords here are as a commissioner.
Que descarado! That’s what’s called trying to “achieve standing” so the city would be on the hook — meaning he would be making taxpayers pay for this political feud.
Is Carollo going to do this every time he loses a battle on the dais? Every time the other commissioners vote against him, is he going to take it to court and make taxpayers foot the bill?
That could get very expensive.
Miami taxpayers could be on hook for Joe Carollo’s frivolous lawsuit added by Ladra on
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