The Three Amigos are no more.

Miami commissioners Joe Carollo and Alex Diaz de la Portilla traded sharp barbs at a commission meeting Thursday — publicly accusing each other of ethical and maybe criminal lapses — in the wake of a scandal about a ghost employee at the Omni CRA who is ADLP’s longtime lackey and bag woman.

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A real street fight between neighbors erupted earlier this month at an impromptu press conference about the street fight between the city of Miami and Miami-Dade County over the closure of several roads in Silver Bluff.

And it’s all in time for this year’s city elections.

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Political observers knew it was a bad idea to give Miami City Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla the chairmanship of the Omni CRA. Now he is under investigation for having hired a longtime lackey as a ghost employee.

Jenny Nillo, a onetime state senate plantidate and longtime campaign and legislative worker for ADLP, is making around $53,000 as a community liaison. She was hired as soon as The Dean made chairman.

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City commissioners in Miami could officially give the redistricting consulting contract to Miguel de Grandy on Thursday.

That’s expected. The contract was taken from former State Sen. Bill Galvano, a pal of Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla, last month and De Grandy was already spoken of as the chosen replacement.

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Ladra has mixed feelings about the results of the Miami commission runoff.
On the one hand, there is dread for the people of Miami who now have Commissioner Crazy Joe Carollo to deal with. But on the other hand, Political Cortadito has four more years of fun ahead, as well as perhaps more national appeal even. The political blogger is thrilled. The government watchdog and justice seeker is somewhat disappointed, to say the least.
Why? Some people believe that Carollo is the uncorruptable whistleblower type that Miami needs. But Ladra has seen him evolve in the last few years, supporting people like Doral Mayor Luigi Boria and Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez and all the inside deals both of those politicos entail. You can bet that this gives the Gimenez friends and family — who helped Carollo in this campaign and were front and center at the victory party — a new express lane in their governmental welfare pursuits.
Read related story: Joe Carollo implies alliance with brother, Bruno Barreireo, in mailer
Don’t be surprised if you see one of the county mayor’s children get a job in the city. My money is on Barby Rodriguez-G, the daughter-in-law with the water and sewer job, the one who isn’t hooking up with a former senator in Boston hotel rooms (that we know of anyway).
Carollo won pretty easily. He had 56% of the vote with just the absentee ballots counted shortly after 7 p.m. Tuesday. Because of low turnout, it was a 280-vote gap that Alfie Leon, the former policy advisor for Commissioner Frank Carollo, could make up…but didn’t. By the time early voting was counted, that gap grew to 336 votes. Election Day couldn’t save Alfie.
While he closed the gap with 117 more votes on Election Day than Crazy Joe, it wasn’t enough. With 16 of 17 precincts reporting at 8 p.m., Carollo still won with 52% to his 48%.  The last precinct would have to be the biggest and in Leon’s own neighborhood for him to come back from this. And it’s certainly not a mandate for Carollo. But still comfy enough that he’ll be insoportable from the get-go.
Who am I kidding? Ya esta insoportable.
On his way to become the protagonist and maybe run for mayor against Mayor Francis Suarez in 2021 — because you know that’s the end game, right? — we can rely on Carollo to make news on the regular. We probably don’t even have to wait for commission meetings. The Miami Herald should give David Smiley a raise and an intern.

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Former Miami Mayor Joe Carollo, in a runoff Tuesday for his brother’s city commission seat, dropped a mailer Friday that indicates he is being endorsed by both his brother, Commissioner Frank Carollo, and Zoraida Barreiro, another commission candidate — and wife of Miami-Dade Commissioner Bruno Barreiro — who came in third in the Nov. 7 election.
But it doesn’t look like a real endorsement and actually stinks of fake news.
The mailer doesn’t explicitly say that that his brother and the Barreiros support Carollo. Instead, it uses photographs of the families and really vague language that certainly leave that impression.
“The Barreiro and Carollo families are united to keep working together in our community,” reads the front, with pictures of the Barreiro family and Frank Carollo’s family flanking a photo of Joe Carollo and his wife.
The other side of the mailer, paid for by the Miami Firefighters political action committee, says “Years of service to the community cannot be forgotten. While others just finished moving to our area promising villas and castles, the Barreiro and Carollo families have a long tradition of working for our community.”
Read related story: It’s Alfie Leon and ‘everybody and their mothers’ vs Joe Carollo in runoff
Carollo was forced into a runoff with Alfie Leon, his brother’s former policy aide, after he failed to get more than 30% of the vote. He already got the endorsement of the two last place finishers, Alex Dominguez and Jose Suarez. But they didn’t even get 10% combined. A nod from Zoraida Barreiro, who got 20%, (and, by extension, Commissioner Bruno) could certainly give him an edge over Leon. And he needs it because everybody else is working against Crazy Joe.
Calls and texts to Commissioner Bruno Barreiro were not immediately returned. But he had told Ladra earlier this week that he and his wife would not be endorsing or supporting Carollo.
Freddy Delgado, president of the Miami firefighters union, did not immediately return a call and text from Ladra. He might be dodging all journalists because of the four firefighters that got fired for harassing a black colleague.
It is entirely possible that the picture of the Barreiros and their two children, as well as the photo of Frank Carollo’s family, was used without their explicit permission. The mailer’s language is vague and general enough and it doesn’t say they are endorsing him, although it does say they are “united,” but, since it is in Spanish, that could mean that they are both involved in helping the community — not that they do it together.
Certainly one would think that if Carollo had the official Barreiro seal of approval, the campaign and/or the firefighters PAC would put that out front and center and use more specific words, like “endorse” and “support.”
So this looks like an intention to fool the voting public.
Unless both Carollo’s brother and the Barreiros are — wink, wink, nod, nod — helping him without explicitly saying they are helping him by just looking the other way. After all, if they were not supporting him, one would also think that Commissioner Barreiro — who is running for Congress and could have made a deal — would not wait to say so.

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