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.
The post Ralph Rosado’s payback to Joe Carollo: Abolish Miami’s Bayfront Park Trust appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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… Bayfront Trust, affordable housing, traffic calming
The Miami Commission agenda for Tuesday’s meeting is 123 pages long and has almost 90 items — and that’s counting the 14 consent agenda items as one. There are 17 public hearings, 25 proposed resolutions, four ordinances on first reading, three ordinances on second reading, an emergency ordinance on “aggressive panhandling,” eight discussion items, 15 planning and zoning items and 15 items under “board and committees” that are mostly appointments that never get made.
Take out the board appointments and that’s still a whopping 74 items.
Some of these are pretty important and expected to draw a large crowd of opponents, usually, or supporters, rarely, in what’s going to be a spillover turnout. Bring a folding chair. The commission is slated to vote on the proposals by Commissioner Damian Pardo to take lifetime term limits to the voters and change the election year to 2026, extending everyone’s terms by a year. Both these things are expected to have dozens of speakers and lengthy back and forth on the dais.
Commissioner Joe Carollo, who is known for drawing things out and loving the sound of his own voice, will bloviate for hours.
Read related: Miami lifetime term limits, election year change intertwined, like bait & switch
Commissioner Miguel Gabela has a number of interesting items on the agenda, like the termination of the existing agreement for the audit of the Bayfront Park Management Trust — which was chaired by Carollo, who is accused of misusing the its funds — and the authorization for the Trust to contract with its own external and independent auditor to conduct a forensic audit. And he wants his colleagues to approve the Trust’s $30 million budget.
He also wants the city manager to take “any and all steps necessary” to enter into an interlocal agreement with Miami-Dade or another local governmental entity to refer all “non-criminal complaints” regarding violations of the city code made against sitting elected officials. This is, on paper, in order to avoid any appearance of bias, impartiality, and perceived or real conflicts of interest. But it’s also probably a reaction to Carollo presenting photographs of Gabela’s home at the last commission meeting and questioning if he has violated zoning laws against the number of boats he can have tied to or number of cars he can have parked on his property.
But the best Gabela measure is a resolution to issue a subpoena to William Ortiz, Carollo’s chief of staff, to answer questions about his role in the said “investigation” of Gabela’s use of his properties. The city charter allows the commission to issue subpoenas to witnesses “for the purposes of investigating official acts and conduct of a city official.” Isn’t that what he wants the county to do?
A controversial item on a 287g agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, for city police officers to be deputized and conduct immigration enforcement, “may be deferred,” as it said on the online agenda Monday evening. It sorta has to be deferred now that they said it “may be deferred.” Which is good. Because the 80-some items that are still on the table are going to take the meeting into the wee hours of the morning.
Read related: Miami could join 250 Florida cities with 287g contract to help ICE vs immigrants
There should be a rule against this. Oh, wait. Ladra thinks there is.
According to the city’s municipal code, in Sec. 2-33, the “total number of items that may be scheduled on a regular city commission agenda shall not exceed 60 items,” and “all matters on the consent agenda shall count as one item.”
Is that why they have this meeting identified as a “special meeting?” To get out of that? There’s nothing special about it. It is the same meeting that they cancelled or rescheduled from June 12, because Commissioner Christine King‘s father died and she had to travel for the funeral. So why is it now a “special meeting”?
Ladra expects a lot to be deferred when the agenda is set, before public comments, which means that people who go to speak on a particular item may not be able to speak, and get sent home or back to work after making the time to be there. This happens way too often in the city of Miami — people have complained already at several meetings — and needs to be addressed as an issue.
But that’s probably not gonna happen Tuesday. Because there are other time-suck items that may not be deferred, which include:

A personal appearance by someone at the Miami Downtown Development Authority to “inform the commission and the public about their mission and the work they do.” So a promotional ad for the DDA at a time when some residents are calling for the end of a special tax on residents that funds it — and the budget may grow from $13 million to $21 million next year (!) — or to put it on the November ballot for the public to decide. There’s also a resolution sponsored by Pardo to accept $1.2 million from the DDA to spend on increased policing within its boundaries.
A resolution approving a proposal from Motorola Solutions, after a competitive process, to provide portable smart radios along with related “enablement” and training for $30 million over the next seven years.
A resolution, sponsored by King, authorizing the city manager to execute a no-bid contract for a 99-year lease of city property at 1199 NW 62nd Street to Yaeger Plaza Partners for the development of an affordable renting housing project. It is proposed to have 135 units — studios, one bedroom and two bedroom units — for individuals and families whose income is greater than 22% of Annual Median Income (AMI) but no greater than 80%. There would also be a ground floor of retail and a clinic to provide affordable primary health care for low and moderate income individuals. Last October, the city’s Housing and Commercial Loan Committee approved awarding $3 million in Miami Forever bond funds for the development of the project.
A resolution, sponsored by Carollo, to transfer $2.4 million of Community Development Block Grant funds earmarked for economic development in District 3 in previous years to the Department of Real Estate and Asset Management to purchase six parcels, with a combined market value of almost $8.5 million, according to the Miami-Dade Property Appraiser. Where is the city going to get the other $6 million? Oh, wait, actually it’s another $12 million because the city is proposing to pay $14.5 million in total for all the properties, at Southwest 8th Street and 9th Avenue, are owned by Auyantepuy Investments, which is represented by attorney Barry Simons and has a Doral address that is the same address, and same suite number, for Garam Global Solutions, formed May 19 by Gabriel Rodriguez and Alejandro Machado. Auyán-tepui, which is phonetically practically identical, is the most visited and one of the largest tepuis, or grouping of tabletop mountains or “mesas,” in the Guiana Highlands. In Venezuela.
The transfer, sponsored by Gabela, of $586,000 in CDBG funds allocated in 2020-2021 (why is that still around?) from the housing and community development department to parks and recreation for improvements at Charlie Delucca Park in District 1.
A resolution authorizing the city manager to negotiate the sale of 5.5 acres of city-owned land on Watson Island, next to the Jungle Island theme park, to Ecoresiliency Miami for a cumulative total of at least $135 million and the development of condos, commercial spaces and a public waterfront park. That includes $15 million to the city for affordable housing projects. For this to move forward, it will require a four/fifths vote Tuesday. The final lease agreement would have to be approved by a public referendum vote.
A resolution authorizing, by a four/fifths vote, the five year extension of a concessionaire contract with Eventstar Structures for the provision of tent structures at Miami Marine Stadium Park.
A resolution authorizing the city manager to “expeditiously request” the Miami-Dade Department of Transportation and Public Works (DTPW) consider proposed traffic flow modifications to 22 locations in the residential neighborhoods of District 1 to ease cut-through traffic and speeding during morning and afternoon rush hour — and exempt the required balloting process for property owners.
A resolution, sponsored by Carollo, authorizing the city manager to “expeditiously request” the Miami-Dade DTPW consider traffic flow modifications at 26 locations in the residential Silver Bluff neighborhood, where a bunch of illegal street closures were ordered re-opened by a judge in 2023 after Miami-Dade sued the city. Again, the move would “waive the required resident concurrence and exempt the balloting process in order to expeditiously proceed with the design and construction of traffic calming devices.”
Not to be left behind, Commissioner King has sponsored an item also authorizing the city manager to “expeditiously request” the Miami-Dade DTPW consider traffic flow modifications at 10 locations in District 5. She also wants to skip the required resident concurrence and exempt the balloting process. Why ask?

There are also some complicated planning and zoning matters having to do with changes in zoning and land use, appeals of denials and at least one amendment to the Miami 21 code having to do with attainable housing and density.
Ladra is tired just reading the agenda.
Take your vitamins. Drink cuban coffee. Bring a snack. The commission meeting begins at 9:30 a.m. at City Hall, 3500 Pan American Drive. It can also be seen live on the city’s website.
The post Miami commission to talk term limits, election date, DDA, Watson Island… appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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It’s been a little more than three months since Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo was accused of using the Bayfront Park Management Trust as a personal slush fund for himself and his political pals. But we’re about to find out that there’s been even more misuse of the public monies during some of the eight years that Carollo was chairman of the city agency.
Commissioner Miguel Angel Gabela, who was made chairman of the Trust after Carollo was stripped of the title, has called for an emergency Trust meeting Tuesday to discuss “newly discovered items identified during the initial review of the organization and to advise the board that additional issues are pending,” according to a press statement sent over the weekend. City officials and trust members — including the new executive director, Raul Miro — will be there, starting at 1 p.m., to “address the findings and outline potential next steps regarding the park’s administration and future.”
Miro was named director last month, because the last director, Jose Suarez, was pressured to leave after confronting Carollo about questionable Trust transactions.
Read related: Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo and the Bayfront Fountain of corruption
Suarez, once Carollo’s chief of staff, and finance director Jose Canto say they were forced to resign after they questioned the “lack of proper accounting practices and procedures that enabled Carollo to use the Trust’s funds to pay for Carollo’s own political ventures, his District 3 political office, his political allies, his District 3 social media provider, a 2007 van to use as a veterinarian mobile that was never used and was likely overpriced, and the commissioner’s holiday party.
“Carollo has attempted to use the Trust to pay or provide premium benefits to Carollo’s personal friends, including paying $20,000 for a yacht party for Carollo, his friends and family, and District 3 Office,” their legal complaint, filed in January, says. Another $45,000 was diverted to the Little Havana Fridays events that Carollo’s started to compete with an already popular event organized by critics — which has nothing to do with Bayfront or Maurice Ferre Park, which is also overseen by the Trust.
“Together, these wrongful expenditures totaled hundreds of thousands of dollars of misused and wasted Trust funds in less than one year, and Carollo has chaired the Trust for the past eight years without any legitimate oversight.”
So, it is safe to assume that some of the other seven years have been looked at, and already there were problems found.
Gabela did not return several calls to his cellphone. He is still mad at Ladra for calling him out on the pensions he wanted to propose last year. But in a statement, Gabela said, “This is a critical moment to ensure transparency and accountability in how we manage one of our city’s most cherished public spaces.”
Ladra does not know why it is an “emergency” meeting. Couldn’t Gabela just bring these issues up at the commission meeting on Thursday, when everyone is going to be there? At least it is going to be at City Hall, not the bunker where the Trust usually meets, so that may encourage more participation. The press release says “all residents, community leaders, and members of the media are encouraged to attend.”
This comes on the heels of a couple of contentious choques entre Gabela y Carollo. They have really gone after each other in the last two meetings, with Gabela calling Carollo a Nicolas Maduro wannabe and Carollo addressing Gabela as Tony. Tony Soprano. Carollo tried to derail the establishment of the Allapattah Community Redevelopment Agency, which he had previously supported, and everyone knows it’s because Gabela is the new Bayfront Trust chair.
Ladra has heard whispers about what they may be ready to reveal Tuesday: More details about discrepancies with the cash receipts from parking — called the “money room,” which held tens of thousands of dollars at a time — and the safety issues that led to the fountain, which just completed a $5.5 million renovation, being closed down again after Carollo rushed to get it open and operating for his big New Year’s Eve bash, which ended up being a long, free commercial for the commissioner, who wants to run for mayor this year.
Read related: Bayfront Park board member resigns on Joe Carollo’s $1 mil no-bid giveaway
But there has to be more. Because Carollo was in charge over there for eight years. A lot of graft can happen in eight years.
Carollo’s control of the Trust has been shady for years. There was a petition to remove him as chair of the Trust in early 2024, before any of the recent allegations were even made. That would include drugs that reportedly disappeared from the vet mobile, which was purchased for $115,000, which seems hugely over inflated and could be one of the kickbacks that the complaint says are rampant in the agency.
Then there is the $1 million spent on the Dogs and Cats Walkway that never went through a competitive process because the sculptures were reportedly provided by a friend of the commissioner’s wife, Marjory Carollo. That led to the resignation of a board member in 2021.
Then there is the outdoor gym that was put in place last year without the proper permitting or process. Was that also a non-bid award? To one of his friends? For a kickback? That might explain why he fought so hard to keep it there.
So, there are likely some big revelations coming on Tuesday. But Ladra also hopes they say that there’s more digging to be done.
The post Commissioner Miguel Gabela set to expose more Bayfront Park Trust issues appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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It took a lawsuit against him for abusing his power, but Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo was finally stripped of his post as chairman of the Bayfront Park Management Trust, which he has been leading for almost eight years. This comes a month after a whistleblower lawsuit from two former employees who say that Carollo used the Trust as his own personal slush fund.
Commissioners voted 3-2 Thursday — only Chairwoman Christine King sided with Crazy Joe — to remove Carollo as chair. They also replaced him with Commissioner Miguel Gabela, who led the effort to oust him.
“I know you’ve done some good things in the park,” Gabela had told Carollo. “But things have gotten out of hand.”
Carollo and the city were sued last month by former Trust Executive Director Jose Suarez and former Finance Director Jose Canto, who say they were forced to resign after they reported shoddy accounting practices that allowed Carollo to giveaway contracts to his friends and get kickbacks from them. They also said that Carollo used the funds raised by the agency, which oversees both Bayfront and Maurice Ferre parks, to fund his own office events and promote his political profile.
Read related: Miami Joe Carollo Bayfront scandal snares Coral Gables pal Javier Baños
While King said that the commission had already scheduled new board chair appointments for the March meeting, and she didn’t mind waiting, Gabela said the recent news gave the removal a sense of urgency. Commissioner Manolo Reyes agreed.
“It’s about time we stop it, so we don’t get any more black eyes,” Reyes said.

Despite having promised last year to step down in January, Carollo defended his stewardship and called a visibly uncomfortable Chief Financial Officer and Assistant City Manager Larry Spring to the podium help him justify himself, pointing to annual audits and emails that show Commissioner Damian Pardo had also asked questions about the Trust’s funding. Wow. The commissioner in the district of the two parks that the Trust oversees — Bayfront Park and Maurice Ferre Park — dared to asked questions about operations and expenditures? You gotta be kidding.
They should all have been asking questions.
Of course, Carollo used his mic to attack everyone else.
“One of the worst things in life is to be so successful at something, they kill you for it,” he said, WHAT, saying the ouster was motivated by “envy.” No, it was motivated by good common sense.
He reserved his most pointed remarks for Gabela, again, hinting that the District 1 commissioner had made a mistake going after”a guy who was really your biggest supporter here for Allapattah.”
King asked for the commissioner to keep his comments short and non-confrontational. “You want to have a kangaroo court,” he shouted at her and demanded to have his say “if I’m going to be thrown in the dirt by so-called colleagues.”
Read related: Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo wants old lackey to lead Bayfront Park Trust
Carollo said he had every intention of stepping down in January and it’s why he rushed to finish the Bayfront fountain project.”It wa you who was here and Mr. Pardo by Zoom who voted to bring all the boards to the March 13 meeting,” he told Gabela
At that point, King was so frustrated that she called for a pee-pee break. “You know what? I have to go to the bathroom,” she said. “This meeting is in recess.”
But when she came back, it did not get better.
Carollo continued with the emails he said showed that Pardo’s office wanted a formal investigation into the inventory, and specifically the controlled substances, in a veterinarian trailer that the Trust had overpaid for by tens of thousands of dollars. “This is all behind the city manager’s back, going direct to police.
“Mr. Pardo abused his power. Mr. Pardo abused his office… by going directly to the police chief and falsely claim he had anonymous complaints and people coming up to him at meetings.

“Mr. Gabela went to the radio, the Miami Herald, to put my face in the dirt, to try to humiliate me,” Carollo said, tone deaf to the fact that he doesn’t need anybody to humiliate him since he does such a good job himself.
Carollo said that his enemies, the Little Havana businessmen who won a federal First Amendment lawsuit against him and former State Rep. Manuel “Manny” Prieguez, who the commissioner pointed to in the audience — who was laughing out loud — were behind the effort to oust him. He said Prieguez represents a company that wants to put events on at Bayfront Park.
“His handlers got a hold of him right away and told him what to do,” Carollo said about Gabela.
Gabela shot back: “The only person that handles me is my wife.”
Read related: Joe Carollo wants to abolish Miami’s Bayfront Park Management Trust
He called the question three or four times before they actually voted because Carollo went on and on about the war against him.
Gabela has been trying to remove Carollo from the Trust since at least last June. Guess he needed the controversy of a whistleblower lawsuit alleging mismanagement of funds to get it done.
“You’re problem is you’re like Maduro,” Gabela said, comparing Carollo to the Venezuelan dictator. “You don’t want to leave.”
In the end, Carollo said he did not have time for the Bayfront Trust and wanted to give it up — just not to Gabela, who he said wanted the chairmanship “for all the wrong reasons.”
In related news, there was no appetite, as Commissioner Carollo noted, to abolish the Bayfront Trust and, before the chairmanship vote, he voted along with the rest of the commission to unanimously reject the his own measure.
He should have given the chairmanship up then.
The post Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo loses Bayfront Park Trust to Miguel Gabela appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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The newly-restored and functional water fountain at Bayfront Park was on full display for New Year’s Eve. At least in the commercials played that night on the America Tevé broadcast of the party. But this week is the official ribbon-cutting.
There will be a press conference at 6 p.m. Wednesday with Mayor Francis Suarez and District 3 Commissioner Joe Carollo, who is chairman of the Bayfront Park Management Trust. This is happening one day, less than 24 hours, before Carollo proposes the abolishment of the Bayfront Trust and on the heels of accusations that he has been using the agency as a slush fund for favors to his pals and kickbacks.
Que cara mas dura.
Read related: Joe Carollo wants to abolish Miami’s Bayfront Park Management Trust
Carollo and the city have been sued by two former Management Trust employees who say the were threatened and forced to resign after they reported shoddy accounting practices led to widespread misuse of Trust funds. The lack of proper accounting procedures “enabled Carollo to (a) use the Trust’s funds to pay for Carollo’s own political ventures; (b) use the Trust’s funds to support Carollo’s District 3 Political Office (c) use the Trust’s funds to pay and overpay Carollo’s political allies; (d) use the Trust’s funds to overpay Carollo’s District 3 Social Media provider, (e) waste the Trust’s funds on a 2007 Vet mobile that was never used and that had a suspicious and seemingly untraceable past; and e) seek to use the Trust funds to pay for Carollo’s Holiday Party,” the complaint, filed by former executive director Jose Suarez and former financial director Jose Canto, states.
“Together, these wrongful expenditures totaled hundreds of thousands of dollars of misused and wasted Trust funds in less than one year, and Carollo has Chaired the Trust for the past eight years without any legitimate oversight.”
But, hey, we got a fountain.
Read related: Miami paid $150K for one long Joe Carollo commercial on New Year’s Eve
The Mildred and Claude Pepper Fountain at Bayfront Park, built in 1990, had been dry for longer than it was working. The city stopped operating it little by little because of costs and then it became the base for some balloon vendor. Last summer, the Trust began a renovation project that cost $5.5 million and, while the original design created by Japanese-American architect Isamu Noguchi has been preserved, they have added 500 lights and 800 jet streams and a “water screen” that projects videos and images.

“Seeing that fountain light up, other than the births of my children and my marriage, is one of the happiest moments of my life,” Suarez said last month during the State of the City address. Obviously, he’s had a dour life. And he needs to get out more.
The Trust’s interim executive director, Barbara Hernandez, told Axios Miami that the fountain is “still in the testing stage” and that the Trust is “working on a schedule for show times.” She also said that the cost to operate and maintain the fountain is between $20,000 and $30,000 a month. That’s between $240,000 and $360,000 a year.
Maybe they should seek a sponsor.
The post Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo and the Bayfront Fountain of corruption appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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Jose Suarez has a 1998 arrest for soliciting a prostitute

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