What are Joe Carollo's frivolous strong mayor lawsuits costing us?

It looks like Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo loves a good spanking.

After getting smacked down by a Miami-Dade Circuit Court judge who said his lawsuit to block the strong mayor referendum on the city ballot had absolutely no merit whatsoever, Carollo filed an appeal late Thursday — an 11th hour hail Mary to deny voters the chance to weigh in on this controversial charter change.

Carollo, who asked for an expedited hearing because the election is Tuesday, must think the strong mayor measure is passing. Why else appeal the decision this far in?

But, more importantly, who is paying for these frivolous lawsuits? What is this costing taxpayers? It’s costing them something. More than half of the eight (!) attorneys involved — including two former federal prosecutors — represent city or county employees or entities.

City Attorney Victoria Mendez represents the city, Mayor Francis Suarez and City Clerk Todd Hannon in the matter. Every hour that Mendez works on the case is paid by city taxpayers. Deputy Miami-Dade Attorney Oren Rosenthal, who makes $298,000 a year, represents Supervisor of Elections Christina White. Every hour Rosenthal works on the case is paid by county taxpayers (including city taxpayers).

But there is also outside counsel: Raquel Rodriguez, of McDonalds Hopkins, for the city and the city clerk, and Robert Martinez, of Colson, Hicks Eidson, for the mayor. Every billable hour of theirs for this case is on taxpayer’s back and on Carollo. That’s already a hefty bill for the city. Ladra made a public records request Friday for the payments or invoices so far but had not received a response as of the evening.

And we still don’t know whether the city will end up paying Carollo’s attorney, too. Mendez told Ladra on Friday that the city had made no payments to either Jesus Suarez, who filed the lawsuit, or Genovese Joblove Batista, his law firm.

But that doesn’t mean that there won’t be payments made later. Both the original motion and the appeal repeat that the plaintiff is Carollo, “individually and as commissioner of the city of Miami.”

It’s those last six words that could leave the city on the hook.

Carollo won’t talk about it. He did not return multiple calls and text messages. But the attorneys aren’t doing this for free.

There are no legal expenditures reflected in either Carollo’s PAC or the Miami Dade Residents First, the PAC belonging to Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez, who is using it to push a no vote.

Also, while she is not on the list of attorneys who got a copy of the notice, Gimenez daughter-in-law Tania Cruz is involved in some way. She got a text message from Jesus Suarez two minutes and three seconds after the lawsuit was first filed. “FILED,” it said, all in caps. Like he was reporting to a supervisor?

Then there are also Jennifer Blohm, Ben Keuhne and Marcos Daniel Jimenez representing the Miamians for an Independent and Accountable Mayors Initiative PAC, which gathered the petitions to put the question on the ballot. Strangely enough, Keuhne was on Carollo’s team just recently when the commissioner won a challenge to his residency.

One of the arguments made in the lawsuit is that the petition did not meet requirements — which Circuit Court Judge Miguel de la O ruled did not matter since it was the city commission that voted to put the measure on the ballot.

The main argument is exactly the same, which the judge categorized as tears over spilled milk: Carollo didn’t get his way on the dais and the question moved forward to the ballot. So he took his gripe to court.

Does this mean that he’s going to legally challenge other decisions that go against him on the dais?

Because that can get expensive.

Carlos Gimenez, Joe Carollo, strong mayor

What are Joe Carollo’s frivolous strong mayor lawsuits costing us? added by Ladra on November 2, 2018
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