Food fight! Miami meeting promises more Joe Carollo conflict with mayor

Even without the big “secret” city manager appointment, the meeting of Miami city commissioners Monday promises to be another battle between Commissioner Joe Carollo and his main target, Mayor Francis Suarez.

Carollo is likely to denounce the way Suarez announced his manager selection — he hates being left out — and his hiring of a stand-in mayor, former Congressman Carlos Curbelo, to act as a go-between with them. But he also has an item on the agenda to discuss Suarez’s salary, outside employment and the city’s expenses on the mayor’s security detail.

Suarez has another item on the agenda to discuss the city’s legal costs defending Carollo from multiple lawsuits, including a federal first amendment complaint by Little Havana businessman Bill Fuller, who owns Ball and Chain, and a lawsuit for violating public records law filed by his former Chief of Staff Steven Miro, which was settled out of court.

Who knows which came first, the chicken or the egg? But we are going to have a food fight on Monday.

“You are the one draining the city’s funds for your ego.”

“No, I’m not! You are!

“No, you are!”

This is why people say the city commissioners are acting like children in a playground and the government has become a dysfunctional chaotic circus where no serious business can be done.

For the record, Ladra has been trying to get the public records on Carollo’s legal expenses for weeks. The city attorney’s office finally sent something late Friday — but I know it’s not all the documents responsive to the request. They are cruising for another lawsuit.

The records I did get indicate that the city has spent at least $171,982 since 2018 on Carollo’s outside counsel, Benedict Kuehne, to defend him in the Fuller case. The last payment sent by the city was Jan. 27. That’s on top of the $120K or so that he racked up suing to stop the strong mayor referendum, which he didn’t stop.

Another check sent to attorney Matthew Sarelson in just last month was for a settlement on a Miro’s public records law violation lawsuit. The amount: $19,989.89 — which is just under the $20K that would have to go before commission for approval. That’s not a coincidence. In a neat little trick, the city also wrote another check for somewhere around $3,000 to cover the attorney’s fees. So that means the settlement actually cost taxpayers around $23K and City Attorney Victoria Mendez found a way to pay it — two checks to the same attorney (perhaps on the same day?) — without bringing it up in a public forum.

That second check was among the documents missing from the public records the city provided Ladra with. That’s not a coincidence, either.

The records also did not include the amount of hours the city attorney’s office has worked on Carollo’s cases. For example, in the Miro case, there were three attorneys there to defend the city on just one day: Doug Harrison, Eric Eves and Dominic Gibbs. There was also reference to emails sent also to assistant city attorney Barnaby Min and paralegal Stephanie Schloss-Sassi. Their time is paid by taxpayers. Time is money. And the city spends an awful lot of money farming stuff out to outside counsel — maybe because these folks are busy defending Carollo when they could be allocated to the other cases.

Ladra was told by an assistant city attorney that there were no responding documents for that. But what attorney’s office doesn’t keep track of what cases get what billable hours? Please. There is certainly a spreadsheet somewhere for us to know how much that case, by day, costs taxpayers in those salaries?

Carollo will defend himself by saying that Fuller recently pleaded no contest to code enforcement violations. He said it on radio. He said it on the Jim DeFede show on CBS4 Miami. He will say it at the public meeting tomorrow… raising his voice on key words… talking in that sing song fashion he has… fast and then slower and pausing… every …few… words… for dramatic effect. He will say or intimate that he is vindicated because of that resolution. But he is not.

It was never Carollo’s job in the first place to go after Fuller so practically single-mindedly that the chief of police, the code enforcement director, the commissioner’s former staff attorney and Miro, his former chief of staff — who was fired after he reported abuse of office — all say they were uncomfortable with how Fuller was politically targeted. Their testimony suggests that Carollo used city staff as his own personal gestapo to go after his perceived political enemies.

Fuller reportedly supported another candidate in the 2017 race. As soon as Carollo was elected, he made it his mission to go after Fuller for whatever he could get on him. There are photographs that show Carollo personally driving and lurking around the man’s bar and properties to get photos of people coming in and out. Like a hired goon. Photographs. Multiple witnesses.

So it’s cost the city $172,000 so far but can you imagine how much more it will cost the city when Fuller wins?

Certainly it’s not as much as Suarez spends on his personal detail security, which Ladra says he might not need if it weren’t for Carollo’s violent temper and past (remember, this is the guy who hit his wife in the head with a ceramic teacup). Would you hang around City Hall without security knowing that Carollo was after your ass?

Not entirely sure why else Suarez — who does sometimes act like a celebrity mayor — would think he needs a bodyguard, which, by the way, is also going to Paris to protect him there. Perhaps those costs are unnecessary. Carollo won’t be in Paris.

According to Al Crespo, the city has spent almost $100,000 on just the on-duty police officers that guard Suarez’s house and family from October of last year to Feb. 10.

This has the potential to end up, as usual, in another grudge match between Carollo and Suarez where they insult and accuse each other and do little else than try to get the best dig in.

Get your popcorn ready. The best show on Earth is about to begin.

Francis Suarez, Joe Carollo, Miami politics

Food fight! Miami meeting promises more Joe Carollo conflict with mayor added by Ladra on February 24, 2020
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