Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo may have forced the city manager, and probably the city’s building director, to resign, and he may have his sights on Police Chief Jorge Colina. But it’s only because they are part of the administration’s leadership team.
Carollo is really after Miami Mayor Francis Suarez.
This week, the commissioner — empowered by
the two votes he now has on the dais — has two items on the agenda for Thursday‘s meeting.
One of them is a resolution “fixing and establishing the compensation for Mayor Francis X. Suarez.” And you just know he’s not going to propose a raise. The other’s is a discussion item about his outside employment.
You can bet the two are related.
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It looks like Carollo, a vindictive scorch-the-Earth type who wanted to pay the city manager $15 an hour for the remainder of his time — which is what kids get paid at Starbucks — wants to hurt Suarez financially. Maybe he will suggest the mayor make minimum wage. He wants Baby X to quit so he can be mayor.
These are arch rivals and City Hall is getting very Game of Thrones. Carollo wants to be King of Miami, and he’ll slowly and symbolically kill Francis, house of Suarez, son of Xavier — Joe’s ancient foe — to take the throne.
“With him, it’s hard to speculate what he’s going to try to do,” Mayor Suarez told Ladra Monday just after the Martin Luther King parade. He did not seem worried. “We’ll just have to wait and see. Day by day.”
The commission sets the mayor’s annual salary and they set it two years ago, when Baby X was elected, to $97,000. That’s the same that Mayor Tomas Regalado made. Mayor Manny Diaz, Jr., raised it to $150,000 but Regalado rolled it back when he was elected and Suarez got the same.
The issue of outside employment has been an issue with Carollo since the strong mayor campaign Suarez lost in 2018. One of the arguments used by Carollo to oppose it was that Suarez already has a full time job. Suarez has been a practicing attorney, like his dad, for 15 years. That includes the 10 years in office.
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And there are plenty of other examples of mayors working as attorneys. Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber is a practicing attorney. Doral Mayor JC Bermudez is a practicing attorney. Coral Gables Mayor Raul Valdes-Fauli is a practicing attorney.
Their mayoral salaries may be lower than Baby X’s — Gelber makes $10,170, Bermudez makes $68,000 and Valdes-Fauli makes $38,244 a year or so — but Miami is bigger.
The issue may also have to do with conflicts of interest. 
Mayor Suarez works for Greenspoon Marder, a firm with many attorneys who might at one point or another, need something from the city. Last year, a colleague represented Centner Academy, a private preschool that got approval to open in Buena Vista, despite residents’ opposition. The fear or question was that if the approval was denied, would Suarez veto the decision to please his bosses? Or would he risk getting fired? We never got a chance to learn.
“In a case where my firm represents someone before the commission, I would have to recuse myself and file the appropriate forms,” Suarez told Ladra. “Not sure it’s happened since I have been mayor and it happened a few times when I was commissioner.”
Joe would not return several calls and text messages.
The commission meeting start at 9 a.m. in commission chambers, 3500 Pan American Drive.
Crazy Joe Carollo’s true target is Miami Mayor Francis Suarez added by Ladra on
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