He isn’t up for election this year, but Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo‘s political action committee had a really good fundraising quarter at the end of the year, getting $202,066 in contributions in the three months through Dec. 31.

What for? Maybe to pay the legal fees for his multiple appeals, since the days of him abusing the city attorney’s office are apparently numbered.

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Commissioners wife’s bank accounts could be next

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The battle cry is “Joe must go.” The aim is to remove Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo from the Bayfront Park Trust, where he is chair, because of what downtown residents say is an abuse of his power and mismanagement of Maurice Ferre Park, which is also under the trust’s purview.

In the same 24 hours as U.S. Marshalls posted seizure papers on the door at his Coconut Grove home — in connection with the $63.5 million judgement against him for violating the first amendment rights of two Little Havana businessmen (more on that later) — there’s a petition for Carollo’s removal from the Trust, begun by Downtown Neighbors Alliance President James Torres, who ran for commissioner in District 2 but lost. Torres and many other downtown residents — and anybody with a brain and a conscience — think that the new D2 commissioner, Damian Pardo, should chair these important boards that govern public parks in the heart of the district.

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After several hours of discussion and passionate public comment, the city of Miami Commission deferred making a decision on the repeal of the ordinances that allow LED billboards on city parks and a moratorium on approving any such signage for 30 days while new rules are adopted.

Basically, they passed the buck to the state, which still has to approve the large sign being erected at the Perez Art Museum Miami in Maurice Ferre Park. Why it is being erected without clearing this hurdle is interesting. Perhaps the sign companies that contributed funds to certain city commissioners’ campaigns also touched state legislators and they’re not worried.

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Rumors of Manolo Reyes’ impending death are vastly exaggerated. The Miami commissioner was diagnosed with leukemia last year, but has apparently responded well to treatment and is on the mend.

And – after what he’s seen the city go through in the last couple of months — he’s also on a transparency and accountability tear.

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Talk about awkward: Steven Miro, the former chief of staff fired by Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo in 2018, is back at City Hall this week as special advisor to newly elected Commissioner Miguel Gabela.

Miro said his job would be to run the district offices and “make sure the constituent services are up to par, which they haven’t been.” He is going to be making $60,000 a year, which is more than he did as Carollo’s staffer before he became a whistleblower and got fired in 2018. Miro had gone to the State Attorney’s office to report PaellaGate, Carollo’s use of district funds to campaign with Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla, in the county commission race of 2017, with the Spanish dish at elderly housing.

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