On the heels of an opinion from the Florida Attorney General about the change in election year approved by city of Miami commissioner, Coral Gables Commissioner Melissa Castro wants to reverse a decision by the City Beautiful to move their municipal elections from April of 2027 to November of 2026, effectively shortening everyone’s terms by five months.
Castro, who voted against the May 20 “unconstitutional” ordinance that changed the election date, will introduce legislation at Tuesday’s commission meeting that would repeal the ordinance and restore the April election date. She said the change should be taken to voters and is leaning on a letter sent to the city of Miami last week from Attorney General James Uthmeier that challenges that city’s authority to make the change without taking it to voters first.
She has also asked Uthmeier to weigh in on the Gables decision.
“Let me be clear: Residents — not politicians — should decide when elections are held and how long elected officials serve,” Castro wrote in an email sent Monday to Coral Gables residents. She had urged the city attorney to seek Uthmeier’s opinion on the matter in May. “When that didn’t happen, I submitted a formal request myself,” Castro wrote in her email.
Read related: Coral Gables changes city elections to November, cuts terms by 5 months
Her letter to Uthmeier is dated June 23. Two days later, last Wednesday, the AG issued “a clear and forceful legal opinion directed at the City of Miami,” Castro wrote in her email. “Changing the date of its municipal elections or the terms of office for elected officials without a vote of the electors violates the County Charter and provisions of the 1885 Constitution.
“He further warned that if municipalities continue down this path, his office will take all available legal actions to stop it.”
Castro also quoted former Miami-Dade County Mayor Alex Penelas, a political analyst for NBC6, who said that any official who votes in favor of moving the election could risk suspension from office.
We should be so lucky.
Of course, Penelas was talking about the Miami commissioners before their final decision last week. But Castro says it could also apply to the Gables.
“These warnings were and remain clear, yet some elected officials on the Coral Gables Commission are still doubling down. Just because something is legally possible doesn’t mean it’s ethically or democratically right. In this case, it’s also illegal,” she wrote.
Mayor Vince Lago, who has tried for years to move the election (a similar move in 2023 failed), sponsored the ordinance. Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson and Commissioner Richard Lara, who was elected in April, also voted for it. Castro would need one of them to switch their votes and is likely hoping that the message from Uthmeier to the city of Miami would cause them to be more cautious. Commissioner Ariel Fernandez, who said it should go to voters, already voted against it.
Castro’s email also touched on the referendum ballot question that the commission did put on the ballot. She said there was “a lot of misinformation” because residents believe it is about moving the elections to November of even years. It is not. That’s been done, without any voter input. The language in the ballot question would prohibit any future commission from changing it back.
The exact language: “Prohibit changing the City’s general election date away from November of even-numbered years through the adoption of an ordinance by the City Commission, in so far as that prohibition is not in conflict with state law.”
“This ballot question only restricts future Commissions from doing what the Mayor and Commissioners just did,” Castro wrote.
“In short, it’s political smoke and mirrors,” she wrote. “The majority of this Commission moved the election date without your vote then turned around and put a ballot question on the ballot pretending to protect your rights after the fact. It’s hypocrisy at its finest. Coral Gables is following the same deceptive playbook we’ve seen in Miami.
“It’s vintage Miami Politics 101 and it doesn’t belong in our city.”
Read related: Miami commissioners should shorten their terms for election year change
Why do residents believe that they will have a say in the change? Because the ordinance that commissioners approved in May actually says so. Despite the ballot language that has been officially written, the ordinance passed by the commission 4-1 specifically has a clause stating that there will be a future election to “affirm” this change.
“WHEREAS, should this Ordinance be adopted by the City Commission, the City also wishes to send a question to the electors of the City for affirmation of this change during a special election to be held at a later date as determined by the City Commission.”
That does not sound like it is about future changes. That sounds like it is an “affirmation of this change.” This change.
City Attorney Cristina Suarez and spokeswoman Martha Pantin have stonewalled Ladra’s repeated questions about that “whereas” language in the ordinance. Instead, they repeats the same line about the state law allowing them to make the election date change without voter approval.
“Whether or not the question passes, elections remain in November,” Pantin wrote in an email. “As I explained below, the question being put to voters is about future changes to elections.  They are not being asked about changing the election. Thery are being asked if in the future should a City Commission wants to move the election date, would they have to put the question to the voters. If they vote yes, future Commissions will need to send the question to the voters. If they vote no, future Commissions could change by ordinance, both scenarios provided they are not in conflict with state law.”
But that’s not what Ladra was asking. And that’s not what the ordinance says when the whereas states there will be a future vote of “affirmation of this change.”
Ladra asked outside attorneys what they thought about this discrepancies in the ballot language and the ordinance.
“I agree with you, they are asking for an affirmation of the current change to move elections to November and the ordinance is not written with wording for future changes requiring the vote of the residents. So you are correct,” said Ignacio Alvarez, who ran unsuccessfully for Miami-Dade Sheriff and has a practice in the Gables.
Calls and emails to Uthmeier’s office were not returned. Lago, Anderson and Lara also did not answer or return calls.
The city commission in Coral Gables starts at 9 a.m. Tuesday at City Hall, 405 Biltmore Way, and can also be viewed online on the city’s website or on the city’s YouTube channel.
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Expect lawsuits and challenges to follow term extension
Most people think that moving the city elections in Miami from odd to even years, to coincide with the midterm and general election, is a good idea to both save more than $1 million a year and, more importantly, boost turnout from the low two-digits to more than 65% or 70%.
But there is a better way of doing it than what happened Thursday, when three commissioners voted to cancel this November’s election for mayor and commissioner in dictricts 3 and 5 and move it to 2026 — and, effectively, give themselves an extra year in office. Which, by the way, could be a violation of the city’s own charter and Miami-Dade county’s ethics laws, which prohibit electeds from voting for anything that benefits themselves — like an extra year in office and the salaries and benefits that provides.
They each just voted to give themselves an extra $100,000 or so. Ladra smells a Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust investigation.
Read related: Miami Commissioners pass election date change — and steal an extra year
Expect lawsuits and injunctions to stop the ordinance from taking place. The Florida Attorney General had said earlier in the week that the state would not stand by and allow this without going to a public vote. AG James Uthmeier‘s office has not returned calls for reaction to Thursday’s vote. Probably too busy planning and boasting about Alligator Alcatraz (more on that later). Other candidates have also said they were preparing to take legal action.
But if this stands, voters will have just elected Ralph Rosado, who voted in favor of the change, to a five-year term. Chairwoman Christine King, who also voted for the change — surprisingly, since as a lawyer she usually likes to avoid legal challenges — won’t have to run for re-election until next year. And Commissioner Joe Carollo, who voted against it, is not termed out this year, but next year. The first terms for Commissioners Miguel Gabela, who voted against it, and Damian Pardo, who sponsored this ordinance and was the third vote in favor, would be five years long as their re-elections are moved from 2027 to 2028.
Which brings up another point, this change flies in the face of the decision that voters did make in 2012 to limit terms to a total of eight years. With this change, every single one of the commissioners up there, whether they voted for it or not, could get nine.
Or would they be barred from running again after serving the first five years?
Expect at least one of the legal challenges to be based on that.
Which leads us to the better way: Rob Piper, the leader of the 2020 recall effort against Carollo who is, or was, running for commission in District 3, said Thursday during public comments that he would be willing to shorten his term by a year if voters passed the change on the ballot. “But cancelling the election is undemocratic,” Piper said.
Former Commissioner Ken Russell, who is, or was, running for mayor told Political Cortadito that he would, also, take a year off his term if voters approved it beforehand. The petitions circulated by Stronger Miami include a change in election year taken to voters and starting in 2028. “If voters say yes, they understand that means truncating the terms,” Russell said.
Former City Manager Emilio Gonzalez, who has also filed papers to run for the mayor’s seat, has publicly said he would be willing to serve a shorter term if it was the voters’ wish. In a text, former Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla said he would be “good with anything the people decide.” Keyword: People.
Miami-Dade Commissioner Eileen Higgins, who has also filed to run for mayor this year, said she, too, would take a year hit.
“Every resident deserves a voice in shaping our future, and that starts with fair elections and transparent leadership,” Higgins said in a statement provided to Political Cortadito. “That’s why I would support reducing the new Mayor’s term by one year and moving the election to 2028 to achieve optimal voter participation.
“As Mayor, I will propose this within my first 30 days in office, to let voters – not politicians – make the decision at the ballot box in 2026. I’m ready to cut through the dysfunction and build a safer, more affordable, and responsive Miami.”
That’s really the only way to do this without disenfranchising voters. Nobody elected Carollo or Pardo or Rosado or King or Gabela to serve a five year term. If they put the change on the ballot, with the change taking place in 2028, voters could be informed that anybody elected in 2025 or 2027 would have truncated terms. That sounds infinitely more fair and appropriate.
So why not do that? Pardo has said that he had to hurry because the appetite to make this change was now, not later. But that’s without even taking it to a public vote, That’s not a good enough reason. Does he just not want to shorten his own term by a year? Because if he were re-elected in 2027, and they went this way instead, his term would end in 2030.
Others say that Pardo wants to run for mayor himself next year.
Either Pardo or Rosado or King — one of the three who voted for this monstrosity — should bring it back for reconsideration and vote against it so that this much more equitable and reasonable model can be taken.
Read related: Miami election change to 2026, term extensions hinge on Christine King
This is not Haiti or Venezuela.
Stronger Miami, the newly-formed coalition of residents and community-based organizations collecting petitions on the change in election, as well as expanding the commission to nine districts and putting fair districting into the city code, issued a statement calling this vote an example of “backroom politics” and political manipulaiton.
“Extending elected officials’ terms without voter approval is not reform—it’s disenfranchisement, plain and simple,” the statement reads.
“We are especially concerned by this decision’s apparent intent to benefit term-limited politicians under the guise of administrative efficiency. Democracy is not an inconvenience. Elections are not optional. The people of Miami deserve a voice in shaping their future—not to be sidelined by those in power.
“This vote underscores the urgent need for Stronger Miami’s proposed charter amendment, which offers a clear, community-led path to genuine reform. We will continue to mobilize, organize, and advocate until every Miamian’s vote—not just those with political connections— is protected and respected.”
 
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Chairman Anthony Rodriguez can claim the chaos
In what is one of the most egregious abuses of power that Ladra has witnessed in decades of government reporting, the Miami-Dade Commission sat silently by while a resident who had gone to County Hall to have her voice heard was violently dragged out of Commission Chambers last week by at least four officers and eventually arrested on trumped up felony charges.
And the cowards have not said anything since.
While they all bear responsibility for allowing this to happen, unnecessarily, the biggest burden falls on Commission Chairman Anthony “A-Rod” Rodriguez, who caused a lot of confusion in his hasty attempt to mute the large crowd that had gone to speak against an agenda item at Thursday’s meeting that would authorize an agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement on reimbursement and public records for detainees (more on that later).
Read related: Miami-Dade could go above and beyond to help ICE with local detainees
Rodriguez said that if even only one person spoke, then that would be the public hearing and nobody could speak about the issue again if it were taken up later (fully knowing it was not going to be taken up later). This was confusing people, especially since the county attorney said that no, they could speak later. Which means Rodriguez was lying. The item also said the agreement would be retroactive, so people were wondering if that meant it had already been implemented.
In a video shot by The Miami Herald’s Doug Hanks, (who also captured the featured image above) Camila Ramos is dragged from the Miami-Dade Commission Chambers June 26.
Camila Ramos, a real estate agent who went before the commission to oppose the agreement, was still in jail Friday afternoon, nearly 24 hours after she was dragged out of county hall. According to the Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation Department’s online inmate search, she was at the Turner Guilford Knight corrections center until she was released around 4 p.m., with a $7,500 bond on charges of aggravated battery of a police officer and resisting arrest with violence.
Another protester who was also arrested was also released.
Attorney Bruce Lehr, who is representing Ramos, told Political Cortadito that the first charge was already changed from first degree felony aggravated battery to battery, a third degree felony. This is based on the allegation that she struck a police officer in the face with a closed fist. But anyone who watches the video can see that Ramos was not in control of her own body as police grabbed her by her arms, her wrists, her legs and even her hair to drag and carry her out of commission chambers. She may have hit someone by accident while she was flailing about.
In fact, the video taken by The Miami Herald should come with a disclaimer for gratuitous violence.
“No, no, noooo,” she is heard saying as they surround her and grab her. “I’m just asking about the process. I just asked about the process.” She goes limp. She probably weighs 110 pounds soaking wet.
“Let go of me, let go of me, let go of me, let go of me” Ramos wails, and everybody stands by and does nothing. She grabs a man’s sleeve as they drag her off, but he just smirks. “No! No!”
Ladra is not sure it’s her or someone else who says “Stop what you’re doing.” Then Ramos tells the officers that she’ll leave on her own. “Let me go. Let me go. I can stand and I can be quiet. No! Let me go. I have a right to understand this process.”
They ask her if she can walk. She says she needs to take a breath. So they keep dragging her out.
That kind of escalation was completely unnecessary.
And not one commissioner had the nerve to stand up for this constituent. They let it continue to escalate as people in the audience watched completely in shock. Someone could have simply said something like, “Hold on a second. Let her leave on her own two feet. Ma’am, contact my chief of staff outside the chambers and I will hear your concerns. I’m sorry about this.”
That would have taken guts. But it’s much easier to let this just happen and then, well maybe so many people won’t show up to public meetings and get all up in their business.
That”s why, instead, “We will have order in this chamber,” is all that Rodriguez repeated. At one point he smiled and shrugged his shoulders. “We will have order in this chamber.”
Quite tellingly, none of them have been reachable. Calls to Rodriguez, Sen. Rene Garcia, and commissioners Juan Carlos “JC” Bermudez, Oliver Gilbert, Eileen Higgins, Danielle Cohen Higgins and the communications director for Commissioner Marleine Bastien, were not answered nor returned. And, while all of them are quick to make sweeping statements about local, state and national issues — especially to support or oppose something Donald Trump did — not one single statement had been issued as of Friday morning.
Read related: Miami-Dade leaders react to Donald Trump’s new ‘xenophobic’ travel ban
Only Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, who also did nothing as they dragged Camila Ramos away, made a statement Friday that spoke about the general chaos — Rodriguez at one point recessed the meeting and came back — but made absolutely no mention of the total police overreaction and violation of Ramos’ rights (more on that later).
“I know many people in our community have concerns about this issue, and it was unfortunate that yesterday’s meeting escalated the way it did when people were there simply to make their voices heard,” La Alcaldesa said in her statement. “It’s critical that all residents have the opportunity to address their elected officials on topics impacting our community, and I’m glad that the Board ultimately did hold a public hearing so that residents could be heard.
“Public input is an essential part of an accessible, accountable local government and as elected officials we should encourage all residents to exercise their right to participate in local decision-making.”
What happened Thursday will not encourage anyone to participate. In fact, it will serve as a chilling factor and keep people away from County Hall for public comments. Wouldn’t that make Rodriguez and Gilbert, who has been slow to hand over the chairman’s reins, happy? They are the biggest champions of silencing the citizens and have both often stymied the First Amendment rights of other speakers throughout the years.
Rodriguez often cuts comments from two minutes to one minute because there are just too many people who want to speak. Nosy busybodies. He has also shut the mic off in mid sentence more than once. That’s what he did recently to Kendall activist Mike Rosenberg, founder of the Pets’ Trust Initiative and president the Kendall Federation of Homeowner Associations. But first, Rodriguez warned him, as caught in this video clip posted on YouTube.
“Mr. Rosenberg, I think you’ve been made aware to stay on topic, on the item you’re here to speak on,” the chairman told Rosenberg at the May 20 meeting, where the activist had gone to speak about an idea to help save stray animals. An item on the agenda about banning the feeding of strays had been withdrawn, Rodriguez said, so Rosenberg had no right to speak on it. Rosenberg says the agenda was not set until after the public comments, so the item was set to be deferred but had not yet been. It was not a pretty exchange.
“It didn’t say withdrawn yesterday when I looked at the agenda. It changed somewhere overnight,” Rosenberg said.
“I’m not going to debate that right now,” Rodriguez told him.
Rosenberg knew he would be cut off. “I’ve seen it before,” he said. But he cited rules that showed the reasonable opportunity to be heard was before the setting of the agenda. Or he began to, anyway, before Rodriguez interrupted him.
“We don’t ask questions from the podium,” Rodriguez said. We don’t? Then where is it that the public can ask questions of matters before the commission? And Rosenberg wasn’t asking a question, by the way. “You’re down to a minute, 20,” the chairman added. But when Rosenberg — the only speaker at that meeting — started to speak again, he was cut off because Rodriguez did not want to hear about it for even 80 seconds.
That’s asking too much? That our electeds listen for 120 seconds?
“Just ask yourself if this would encourage you to want be a part of this board of county commissioners and be involved in our community,” Rosenberg told Political Cortadito. “Two hours to get downtown and 90 minutes to get home. Only one speaker and they stopped me.”
Yeah, no. The answer is no.
There is a long history at Miami-Dade of cutting speakers off or discouraging. public comment in other ways. Some of the rules are ridiculously obvious for their single intent to curve public discourse. If you speak at one meeting, you can’t speak at another, even if more commissioners are there the second time. Chairpersons before Rodriguez — Gilbert for sure but also Chairmen Esteban “Stevie” Bovo and Jose “Pepe” Diaz — have also been known to thwart any public comments from constituents.
Read related: Miami-Dade’s Esteban Bovo cuts public speech on i-word
But it has never risen to the level of Thursday’s escalation of intimidation.
According to one person who was at the chambers on Thursday when Camila Ramos was dragged out, the officers were shouting and one who was there even had a rifle. Another person said that the members of her group were pushed and shoved by police officers. Why is there an officer with a rifle at a commission meeting? What’s next? The National Guard? It certainly did seem like what happened Thursday would not have happened if hostilities toward protesters had not been turned up nationwide.
What the commission wants to do is to stifle any criticism. The attitude Rodriguez puts on during meetings is precisely intended to thwart public comment. He couldn’t care less. We need more people like Camila Ramos willing to stick her neck out to say that our comments and opinions matter.
And less cowards on the county commission.
While they stayed spinelesslessly silent after what happened Thursday, all the way in Surfside, Mayor Charles Burkett sent an email Friday morning to his staff as a warning that this should not happen in their town. “This is really bad. I can’t think of any good reason why a situation like this ought to evolve with a woman on the floor with two very strong police around her,” Burkett wrote.
“We must never allow something like this to happen under our watch.”
Don’t you wish some county commissioner had said that?
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Whether or not the city of Miami cancels this year’s election, effectively extending the mayor’s and commissioners’ terms by a year, all depends on Commission Chairwoman Christine King.
The first reading of an ordinance to move the Miami city elections from odd to even years, effectively cancelling this year’s election and extending the mayor’s and commissioners’ terms by a year — passed 3-2, with King and Commissioners Ralph Rosado and Damian Pardo voting in favor. Commissioners Joe Carollo and Miguel Gabela voted no.
But King said she was only voting in favor for the first reading, so she has reservations. And, hopefully, enough people have advised her to vote no on the second round.
Read related: Miami Commissioners pass election date change — and steal an extra year
The biggest reason, however, that King’s vote may swing the other way is that, as she likes to remind everyone at almost every meeting, she is an attorney. So, she knows this action is going to be challenged. Perhaps even by the state.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier on Wednesday doubled down on his opinion that the city could not move the elections year without first going to the voters for approval. He says the city charter, and the Miami-Dade County charter, supersede the state law that City Attorney George Wysong has relied on.
“The State will not tolerate such an unconstitutional deviation,” Uthmeier wrote in a letter to Mayor Francis Suarez and the commission. “You should immediately cease the process of enacting the ordinance to move the date of municipal elections and change the terms of office for elected officials in the City of Miami. The citizens of Miami deserve — and are entitled to — the right to make this decision, directly.”
He cited the city charter, which says the election is in odd years, and the county’s Home Rule Charter, which requires the 37 municipalities in Miami-Dade to take any major charter change to the voters.
It seems logical. From what Ladra has known from decades covering government, local rules can be stricter than state rules but not looser. And then municipalities have to follow those stricter rules.
Uthmeier says there will be “consequences” and has threatened to “consider taking all available options.” The state is not the only one who has threatened to sue. Several would-be candidates for mayor and commission — including former Commissioner Ken Russell, former City Manager Emilio Gonzalez, mayoral candidate Michael Hepburn and Little Havana activist Denise Galvez Turros, who is running for commission in District 3 — have also threatened to take legal action.
Many of them and other critics have called this nothing but a power grab.
Read related: Miami lifetime term limits, election year change intertwined, like bait & switch
“If Commissioner Pardo were truly serious about reform, he’d be fighting to expand representation, not restrict it,” said Downtown Neighbors Association President James Torres, a onetime commission candidate in District 2 and frequent critic of Pardo’s.
“One of the most impactful proposals raised in recent months — is to increase the number of City Commission districts from five to nine. Miami has nearly half a million residents — yet only five commissioners. Many cities of similar or even smaller size have nearly twice as many districts, giving neighborhoods a stronger voice and better access to their government. It’s time we caught up,” Torres said.
“When you expand districts, you bring government closer to the people. You make sure that places like Downtown and Brickell — vibrant neighborhoods with growing populations — finally have a seat at the table. That’s how you empower voters. That’s how you strengthen democracy. Not with bans. Not with backroom extensions. But by making sure every corner of this city has a voice.”
There is currently a petition being circulated to put expanded districts on the ballot (more on that later).
Uthmeier also posted his letter on X, the platform formerly known as twitter. “Home to thousands of patriotic Cuban Americans who know better than most about regimes that cavalierly delay elections and prolong their terms in power, the City of Miami owes to its citizens what the law requires,” Uthmeier wrote.
In light of Uthmeier’s strong words, it is possible that Commissioner Rosado, who voted in favor of the outright change — giving himself five years instead of four in his first term — goes back also and decides to take it to the voters, instead.
But King, the attorney who is always trying to avoid legal battles, knows that this is one giant lawsuit waiting to happen and will most likely switch her vote based on that. It gives her cover.
The meeting begins at 9:30 a.m. Thursday at City Hall, 3500 Pan American Drive, and can also be watched live online at the city’s website and on YouTube.
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Newly-elected Miami Commissioner Ralph Rosado has been in office for less than a month. But, already, he somehow knows that the Bayfront Park Management Trust is superfluous and needs to be abolished.
Sound familiar? That’s because Commissioner Joe Carollo, who poured perhaps up to $1 million into Rosado’s campaign through his political action committee — and even directed his TV ad in a park — has been trying to do it since he was caught using the trust monies as his own political piggy bank.
This is the first of Rosado’s payback. There is no other reason.
Rosado lives in and represents District 4, which is furthest away from the downtown urban core of all the districts. The Bayfront Park Trust was never part of his campaign platform. It’s possible he didn’t even mention it once in his campaign.
But it sure would make Carollo happy.
Read related: Joe Carollo wants to abolish Miami’s Bayfront Park Management Trust
Earlier this year, Carollo was sued by two former employees who said they were forced to resign, or basically fired, after they uncovered massive amounts of discrepancies in the Bayfront Trust’s books. Carollo has been accused of abuse, fraud, and the corrupt mismanagement of the funds — which he used to pay for District 3 events and to give questionable contracts with friends and neighbors who may have given him kickbacks. He was chairman of the agency, which oversees Bayfront and Maurice Ferre parks, for seven years.
In February, he put an item on the agenda that would abolish the Trust and replace it with a new “Division of Bayfront Park and Maurice Ferre Park” within the Department of Parks and Recreation. It wasn’t because this was a good idea. For seven years, Carollo defended the Trust as an important agency operating what he called the city’s Central Park.
It didn’t happen. Instead, Carollo was removed as chair Commissioner Miguel Gabela was appointed chair.
In May, the new executive director, Raul Miro, announced that the Miami-Dade Inspector General’s office had launched an investigation.
“Based on the facts uncovered thus far, there is significant evidence that Joe Carollo, as chair of the Bayfront Trust, violated his fiduciary responsibility to the Trust, misused Trust assets and employees, entered into no-bid contracts without cause, misappropriated Trust funds to pay for his Commission Office expenses to further his own political ambitions, and fostered an environment of intimidation for employees,” reads a statement issued by the Trust in May.
Read related: Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo and the Bayfront Fountain of corruption
“The Trust will take swift action if wrongdoing is found, including referral to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement,” it reads. “Concerns regarding potential misuse of Trust employees for non-Trust functions, including supplementing city staff and potential conflicts with union contracts and insurance, are also being considered for referral to the State Attorney’s Office.”
There’s no reason to think that if the Bayftont Trust goes away, the investigation goes away, too. But, still, this is Crazy Joe’s way of lashing out and trying to hurt those he feels are hurting him. Which includes Gabela, the new chair of the Bayfront Trust, who launched the investigation and has been bashing Carollo openly in commission meetings. Bless him.
Gabela did not return calls to his phone. He has an item on the agenda to approve the Bayfront Trust’s $30 million budget for next year.
Rosado did not return calls to his phone. Carollo never returns calls.
And while the investigation would likely continue, even if the Trust were abolished, it’s just Carollo being his petulant child self and breaking the toy when he can’t play with it.
The Miami city commission meeting begins at 9:30 at City Hall, 3500 Pan American Drive, and can also be watched live online at the city’s website and on YouTube.
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