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.

Read Full Story

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.

Read Full Story

Jose Suarez has a 1998 arrest for soliciting a prostitute

Read Full Story

A downtown activist and member of the Bayfront Park Trust Management advisory board has resigned because of a no-bid giveaway contract for $1 million worth of public art — dog and cat sculptures, like the Little Havana roosters in — for Maurice Ferre Park, which is also managed by the trust.

But it’s really about Commissioner Joe Carollo, who is chairman of the BPTM, and his handling of that group — and it’s money. This proposal originally was sent to Carollo and his wife’s personal email.

Read Full Story

Less than five months ago, Miami Commissioner Frank Carollo got fellow board members of the Biscayne Park Management Trust — which oversees all activities at Bayfront and Museum parks — to approve a no-bid $2 million contract for a playground that would be paid for with funds from the Omni CRA.
Tuesday, he will ask the same board to forgive many more millions in future fees they would have collected from the same community redevelopment agency.
But could this be more than a typical bait and switch? Is this just one more step in the commissioner setting himself up for a cushy job?
First, Carollo pushed out the longtime director, Timothy Schmand — who had been managing events at both parks or writing grants for the trust for 25 years — after the two became involved in a debate about the Rolling Loud music festival, which Carollo tried to get cancelled. Schmand has said he was long considering a move, but everyone believes that Carollo pressured him. And the timing sure was convenient.
Then, he convinced the board, which voted 4-5, to buy a $2 million playground for Museum Park with no competitive process and bill the Omni CRA for the cost.
Around the same time or soon after, Carollo pushed for a significant pay increase for the executive director — a position that is still vacant — from $135,000 to $148,000, and a 25% increase in retirement benefits. for the position, presumably to attract a more and better applicants.
Read related story: Miami’s Frank Carollo climbs a familiar campaign money tree
And, most recently, he proposed an increase in ticket surcharge for all events at Bayfront Park and the commission passed it two weeks ago.  The more expensive the ticket, the higher the surcharge — and the more money collected by the parks management trust for the executive director, whoever she or he is, to spend.
Carollo, who loses chairmanship of the trust when he leaves office next month, has no place to land. He was supposed to run for mayor against Commissioner Francis Suarez, but that fizzled when his brother, Crazy Joe Carollo, filed to run for commission. Nobody was going to vote for two Carollos. Still, he waited until the last possible moment to let Suarez off the hook, until almost the qualifying deadline that he was not going to run. The next best thing is county commission, which some say Carollo, a public accountant, has had his eye on all along, but Miami-Dade Commissioner Bruno Barreiro doesn’t have to resign to run for Congress. And, in the meantime, executive director of the Biscayne Parks Management Trust is not a bad gig. Especially now that he’s made it so much better.
And if he doesn’t want the job, why won’t he say so? At the last trust meeting in August, board member Ralph Duharte asked point blank if Carollo was angling for the executive director’s position — and Carollo refused to answer. “I think that question is off-base and I’ll be honest with you, I won’t even dignify that question with an answer,” Carollo said. A Miami Herald story said that Duharte later noted that the exchange was curiously deleted from the minutes of the meeting.
And Carollo has been cagy and cryptic with his answers to others who have askedthe same question, never fully putting it to rest. A former trust board member said “there is no doubt that Mr. Carollo has been and is now maneuvering to give himself the job as executive director of the trust.”
It sure looks that way. And it wouldn’t be the first time he uses his palanca as commissioner. In 2012, after he was stopped by a Miami police officer in his vehicle, Carollo told him to “call the chief” and got out of the ticket. An ethics investigation ensued and he pleaded no contest, paying more than $2,000 in fines.
Read related story: Frank Carollo pleads no contest to ‘call the chief’ ethics charge
A sitting board member, however, cannot be hired by the trust for two years after he or she leaves the board. But that rule can be waived by a unanimous vote of the city commission. Enter the Omni CRA thing.
The speculation is that Carollo cut a deal with the head of the Omni CRA to “remove all current and future obligations with respect to the Omni CRA’s monetary contribution for capital improvements at Museum Park, as contained in the Inter-local Agreement” in exchange for supporting his bid for the trust director’s job. The endorsement is not the only thing that would give him an edge with the commission. Political observers expect Carollo to say the incease in the tickeet surcharge will make up for the lost CRA funds — which could be somewhere between $20 and $30 million — that the CRA can then use for affordable housing.
Key words: Affordable housing. Because that is how he’s trying to sell it to the commission. Everybody loves affordable housing and more money for it.
Maybe Frank makes for a great executive director. But he’s already awarded one no-bid contract with the playground. And he’s abused his position before. And the fact that he’s making this power play behind the scenes and being so cryptic about it is enough warning to give commissioners pause.
They should let Carollo run for Congress like everybody else.

Read Full Story

It’s good to have palanca. Just ask Jesse Manzano-Plaza.

The political consultant and strategist, who ran the campaign of Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez (at least until the mayor was forced into a runoff when others were brought in), got a break Tuesday when the members of the Bayfront Park Management Trust Board voted to keep him on despite having been absent from at least five meetings from June to December.

It’s a bit ironic that the guy who made up that mayoral candidate Raquel Regalado had missed multiple meetings as a school board member — when she had missed none, just skipped the presentations part — hasn’t gone to a meeting in at least six months. In fact, Manzano-Plaza missed enough meetings to get booted off the board if not for a special waiver that seems to have been invented just for him.

Guess he was too busy campaigning, going on radio shows, making stuff up and obsessing about soccer. Wonder how many meetings he misses during his next campaign.

Read related story: Jesse Manzano and Carlos Gimenez together again for 2016

Apparently, Manzano had missed the June 28, July 26, September 27, October 25 and a December 2016 meeting of the Bayfront Park Trust Board, a nine-member board, led by Miami City Commissioner Frank Carollo, that manages Bayfront Park and Museum Park. 

Board members used to get voted off for missing three consecutive meetings or four meetings in a calendar year, according to the city code. But the city somehow rewrote the rules so that Jesse could stay on.

“It’s a new thing that the city clerk came up with,” Timothy Shmand, director of the Bayfront Park Management Trust, told Ladra Tuesday afternoon.

“The amended city code provides a board member subject to removal the opportunity to seek and obtain one attendance waiver during the board member’s tenure on a particular board,” Shmand wrote to the board members on Jan. 13. “The BPMT board is asked to consider such a waiver for Mr. Jesse Manzano-Plaza.”

The email says he missed four consecutive meetings but Shmand told Ladra he also missed a meeting in December.

It was a unanimous decision. Except Jesse didn’t vote. Naturally. That would be too much, no?

Read related story: Who does Carlos Gimenez spokesman really represent?

Why did Shmand ask to keep him on?

“He adds to the board,” he told Ladra. “He’s got insight into the way things happen in Miami that are valuable. When I need an opinion or advice, he’s always available.”

Yeah, um, well, except the last six months.