Newly elected Miami Commissioner Ralph Rosado has a whole new staff at his District 4 office that are not new to politics. Heck, some of them are not new to Miami.
Rosado’s director of constituent services is Lazaro Quintero, the former director of constituent affairs for Mayor Francis Suarez and the guy who was the go-between for the mayor and developer Rishi Kapoor — who was paying the mayor a $10,000 a month “consulting” fee, an arrangement that is under investigation by the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office.
Quintero was the one who made a call to the zoning department on behalf of Kapoor that paved the way for a zoning waiver and, ultimately, a building permit in late 2022.
Quintero also happens to be the cousin of Gloria Fonts Suarez, the mayor’s wife.
Quintero is clearly Suarez’s man in the D4 office and may be why he in invested $1 million from his political action committee to get Rosado elected. But is he also there to help Rosado achieve the level of success (read: side gigs) that Suarez has reached.
Read related: Francis Suarez, Joe Carollo spend $1.6 million to elect Ralph Rosado in D4
Rosado’s new chief of staff is his old chief of staff from when Rosado was the city manager at North Bay Village. This is a reward for Leo Cosio‘s stalwart campaigning during the election June 3.
“The last month has been a wild ride and I’m grateful for every minute,” he wrote last month on LinkedIn. “From being named a finalist for City Manager of Biscayne Park, to knocking doors for my dear friend and one of the most qualified candidates (now elected official) I’ve ever known, and ultimately deciding to join his team, I am not the same person today that I was just a few weeks ago. This is Leo 4.0!”
Leo 4.0 is paid $159,800 a year. He is the highest paid new D4 staffer. Quintero is next with a salary of $145,631 a year.
Meet the rest of the new staff:

Christian Molina, the deputy chief of staff at $116,400 a year, is also a refugee from North Bay Village, where he was a legislative aid to the manager for 10 months and a chief of staff for the mayor and commission for 11 months. After that, he worked the last eight months as an legislative assistant to Miami-Dade County Public School Board Member Joe Geller.
Jennifer Torna is the commissioners new director of communications. She was the communications manager at the city of North Miami for a year before that and worked at WDNA as a development assistant and membership director for more than five years.
Director of Community Affairs and Special Projects is Alex Duran was the parks and recreation director in the city of Sweetwater for two years and worked as a staff assistant for Marco Rubio for six months when the secretary was a senator. He also served as an executive committeeman for the Miami-Dade Republican Party. He makes $94,500 a year.
Ihosvany Romero, who just got his Bachelor’s degree from Florida International University with a major in political science and government, is the D4 legislative coordinator at $62,300.
Joaquin Bierman gets $59,500 as another legislative coordinator in the D4 office.
Special Projects Coordinator Yovani Pinero was a property management supervisor for three years before he was hired June 10 at a salary of $58,500 a year. He was also on city of Sweetwater’s Neighborhood Improvement Advisory Board.
Milagros Loyal is a known boletera who is now the senior affairs liaison and is paid $55,700 a year. This is likely a reward for her work on the special election, where she collected ballots at the Smathers building. Loyal has worked for the city before — and was fired by Commissioner Miguel Gabela for misusing a city vehicle. But hey, she can get votes.

Notice how there is not one but two legislative coordinators. Does that mean we’re going to see a lot of proposed legislation coming out of Rosado’s office?
Read related: Bromance break-up at Miami City Hall as Joe Carollo and Ralph Rosado split
Rosado, who replaced the late Manolo Reyes, kept five district aides as well as District Director Anna Fernandez and Office Manager Christina Casanova, who las malas lenguas say got a pretty big raise (she makes $87,500 a year now) from Rosado and eyebrows are raised about maybe her having helped the campaign from inside.
Taken together, the District 4 staff is costing the city almost $1.2 million — just in salaries. That does not include benefits and expenses.
Hopefully, it will be worth it to residents.

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While there is a new chairman at the Miami Downtown Development Authority in freshly minted City Commissioner Ralph Rosado, it looks like the 58-year-old agency, which is tasked with assisting and incentivizing business in the urban core — hasn’t exactly shaken off the stink of recent scrutiny, with legit questions still swirling around its bloated budget and some very curious decision-making.
New face, same ol’ funk.
A number of Brickell and downtown condo dwellers have been complaining to the city commission and the administration about the DDA since the 15-member board voted earlier this year to give $100,000 to the UFC, a sports organization worth an estimated $12 billion. A closer look revealed that the agency had also given $450,000 — $150K a year for three years — to woo the FC Barcelona soccer club headquarters from New York to Miami, and $175,000 to the 2026 College Football Playoff National Championship host committee for, well, good measure maybe.
And, to boot, there are a lot of well-paid and overlapping staff positions with bloated salaries.
Some residents say they don’t want a 15-member board of insiders spending their tax dollars on things like trolley paint jobs and soccer club wooing while residents juggle $20 million assessments and skyrocketing insurance bills.
Read related: Ka-ching! Miami DDA is doling out more checks to billionaire companies
Leading the charge is James Torres, president of the Downtown Neighbors’ Alliance and an unofficial spokesperson for fed-up condo owners. “We want a divorce,” Torres said. “They’re double taxing us.”
““This is about fairness and democracy,” Torres said. “All we’re asking is for the City to give residents the opportunity to decide for themselves whether this additional tax should continue. No other community is forced to pay this surcharge, and it’s time to ask: should we?”
Torres has tried to engage the city in finding a solution. He has suggested the city change the structure and make the DDA more like a business improvement district, taxing only the commercial property owners and businesses — not the residents. And if the city doesn’t want to do that, then he wants them to put the future of the DDA on the ballot.
At the last commission meeting, Commissioner Joe Carollo moved to put a nonbonding question about the DDA on the November ballot. But it died for lack of a second.
Rosado, who was quick to abolish the Bayfront Park Management Trust, has said that the budget was possibly bloated and that there needed to be reform, including more residents on the 15-member board.
Brickell’s not happy either.
“Brickell is not downtown. Downtown is not Brickell,” said Ernesto Cuesta, president of the Brickell Homeowners’ Association. “This is taxation without representation. We don’t see the services.”
Ladra gets it. Condo life ain’t cheap. Especially if you’re getting hit with a $12,000 special assessment and a bonus tax for a group that, according to many residents, does nada for their quality of life.
Read related: Effort to dissolve Miami DDA cites ‘bloated’ salaries, redundancy, UFC gift
The DDA is made up of 15 hand-picked board members tasked with “economic development” in downtown. But more than half of its funding — 58 percent — comes from residential property owners. You know, the folks who actually live here. The same folks who are footing the bill for DDA pet projects like the $450K to FC Barcelona to move their U.S. office here and open a souvenir shop on Flagler. Because apparently what Miami really needed was another overpriced jersey store.
But wait, the DDA says, it’s all for the greater good: economic development, business grants, license plate readers, and a free trolley that still somehow manages to pass you by. And the agency does have its champions. But most of the people who spoke in favor of keeping the DDA at last week’s commission meeting — and every meeting where this has come up — are board members or employees or businesses that have benefitted from their grants. In what looked like a desperate PR campaign, former homeless people who are now employed by the DDA — known as “yellow shirts” because of their uniform — were paraded before the commissioners, pleading to save their jobs.
The DDA partners with Camillus House to provide economically disadvantaged and formerly homeless individuals opportunities for employment in what they call “the Downtown Enhancement Team,” so they get training and experience to reenter the workforce. Among the jobs they do: Street sweeping, litter and illegal dumping removal, graffiti abatement, sidewalk power washing and landscape installation and maintenance.
Oh, and serving as props for the DDA’s advocacy at commission meetings.
In reality, the DDA allocates just 1.25% of its $22 million budget to address the homelessness crisis that residents face every day. And that $22 million budget has grown from $13.5 million last year. That is more than a 50% increase. Some of this is given back to the city, for enhanced police patrols as one example.
Meanwhile, downtown residents are still feeling less safe, the historic Olympia Theater is on the auction block, and the Miami DDA is celebrating the long-overdue reopening of — wait for it — two whole blocks of Flager Street.
This is the Flagler Street promised in 2019. It doesn’t look like that, yet.
Yes, two. After three years of construction hell — that’s 40 months of barricades, bulldozers, broken promises and busted businessess — City Hall, the DDA and the Flagler Business Improvement District want a pat on the back for reopening a fraction of what was supposed to be a full five-block transformation project originally launched in 2019.
Leaders blame the delays partly on the COVID pandemic. “There have been a few issues with getting the contractor to stay on schedule,” Terrell Fritz, the director of the Flagler BID, told CBS News Miami in a story aired Wednesday.
Ladra’s not saying a makeover wasn’t needed. The new look — with its fancy brick pavers, outdoor café space, and what they’re calling a “festival streetscape” — does add a little Paris flair to the gritty downtown core. And yes, it’s great that Bespoke Barber Pub owner Clara Henao got to hang a liquor license next to the clippers thanks to some DDA assistance. Cheers to that.
But while the DDA touts this reopening as a “success story,” three blocks remain a construction zone. Officials say the dominoes will fall faster now — but after 40 months, Ladra’s not holding her breath.
Behind closed doors, the story is different. “We’ve put in millions and millions of dollars,” a resident said at the most recent DDA board meeting. The video was posted on Twitter by Torres.
“We’ve put in street furniture and every single piece of street furniture is either damaged, scratched, has huge chunks taken out of it.” By the time all of Flagler Street is open, “the assets we invested all these million of dollars on are already going to be 25 or 50% into their lifespan.”
Read related: Op Ed by DNA President James Torres: Miami doesn’t need a DDA anymore
If this is what the added DDA tax buys, it’s no wonder Brickell and Edgewater residents want out. They should demand a refund.
Because when you can’t get five blocks of downtown paved in under half a decade, it gets a little harder to sell the story that the DDA is “enhancing quality of life.”
Unless, of course, your idea of “quality” is dodging scaffolding while waiting for a trolley.
Still, Torres and other residents aren’t buying it. In a recent survey by the Downtown Neighbors’ Alliance, about 56% of the 850 respondents said the DDA hasn’t made life better. Maybe because the DDA’s idea of improving safety is buying more cameras while sidewalks crumble and scooters fly like weapons of war.
He and those who think like him say that if the DDA truly stands behind its value to the community, it should welcome this opportunity to let taxpayers decide. “Let our people vote. It’s fair, democratic, and long overdue,” Torres said.
While the commission took no action on Thursday, the DDA opponents in Brickell and Edgewater and downtown still want some relief. Not more red tape. Not more marketing gimmicks.
And definitely not more soccer swag.
The post Downtown, Brickell residents still question Miami DDA benefits, future appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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Well, that didn’t take long.
It took Joe Carollo less than a month to go from proud political padrino to spiteful ex in the case of newly-elected Commissioner Ralph Rosado, who Carollo helped usher into office with more than half a million from his political action committee and hours upon hours of his unique political strategy.
“He is such a huge disappointment,” Carollo said, on his morning radio show.
This was predictable. Pinky is only the latest name scrawled onto Joe’s ever-growing Burn Book of Betrayals. But it may be a record in the quickness. Even the bromance with former Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla lasted longer.
Just six weeks ago, Carollo was allegedly burning the midnight oil during the special election for District 4. He told The Miami Herald he stayed up until the wee hours writing and designing those negative campaign mailers. But
He also burned his own political capital. Literally. According to the most recent campaign finance report, he spent at least $547,000 from his Miami First PAC, mostly attacking Jose Francisco Regalado and his family, which includes former Miami mayor and current Miami-Dade Property Appraiser Tomas Regalado and Miami-Dade Commissioner Raquel Regalado. He was spotted out in the sun at Douglas Park, directing the TV ad that Rosado filmed with his mother in law. Carollo’s wife Marjorie was there, too, with a clipboard in hand. Taking notes?
In other words, the Carollos poured their time, sweat and money into Rosado’s campaign. And while they were already sorta estranged, Carollo has made formidable enemies out of the Regalado clan. They’re not going to get over it any time soon.
“The worst political mistake of my life,” Carollo said last week on his radio show, about supporting Rosado.
Really, the worst? It wasn’t the weaponization of city departments to target political foes? Or losing a$63.5 million lawsuit for violating someone’s First Amendment rights because of who they supported in your election? Or using public tax dollars to raise your political profile? Or the misspending of monies while you were chair of the Bayfront Park Management Trust?
If political missteps were an Olympic sport, he’d be a gold medalist.
Read related: Joe Carollo wants to abolish Miami’s Bayfront Park Management Trust
Carollo also has a long list of former employees that have turned on him (and testified against him). This new and sudden breakup, which is a surprise to nobody, seems to stem from the swing vote that Rosado made to cancel this year’s mayoral and commission races in favor of moving the municipal election from odd to even years. Carollo has threatened to run for mayor and could benefit from the current clown car of candidates that will definitely drive a runoff.
Rosado was also the swing vote for the lifetime term limits, which would stop Carollo from returning to office, and pushed the dissolution of the Bayfront Park Management Trust to next year when Carollo wanted to do it immediately. Because, while the investigation and audit into the abuse of funds during his chairmanship would continue, the witnesses might scatter to the winds.
So, instead of Carollo getting a majority on the dais with Rosado’s election, he’s been losing all his important votes.
Carollo does not return calls or texts from Ladra. But he talked to The Miami Herald’s Tess Riski and took the credit for getting Rosado elected. “If Mr. Rosado had not had an angel like Joe or Marjorie Carollo, he never, never, never would have gotten elected,” he told the Herald.
Right. Because angels accuse candidates and their families of animal abuse and ties to drug trafficking.
Crazy Joe owned up to the negative campaign — and also said that Ralph “100%” knew what was up. So much for that positive, issue-focused campaign Rosado claims he ran. ¿Verdad, Ralph? He’s got gaslighting down to a science. Remember when he told Political Cortadito that Joe wasn’t even present during his campaign video shoot at Douglas Park? When told there was a video of Joe and Marjorie behind the camera, like Spielberg and Spielbergita, he stammered and said he’d get back to Ladra, which he never did. Then, to the Herald, he claimed Joe just happened to be “in the area.”
In the area? ¡Niño, por favor!
Read related: Miami’s District 4 candidate Ralph Rosado is backed, helped by Joe Carollo
Now Rosado is officially dead to Joe. “I didn’t expect him to come here to be a lap dog — another lap dog — for Mayor Suarez,” Carollo fumed in the Herald story.
Mayor Francis Suarez, meanwhile, says that Carollo’s breakup is the result of “the recent Commission votes that could impact his and his family’s ability to continue making a living out of the city taxpayer’s pockets.
“For the past two and a half years, our office has had a positive working relationship with Commissioner Carollo’s office,” Suarez was quoted as saying in the Herald, in what amounts to a declaration of war. “However, now Commissioner Carollo is throwing out baseless claims hoping something sticks.
“You have to ask: why now, and not a year ago or two years ago? These are the same political tactics we’ve seen for years, and they’re as transparent today as they have ever been.”
But that’s weird. Because everyone knows that Suarez — who dumped $1 million of his own PAC money into Rosado’s campaign — and Carollo worked together to get the urban consultant elected to replace the late Manolo Reyes. It was coordinated, even though Suarez denies it. Las malas lenguas say they are also both raising money for a new political committee that will fight the lifetime term limits on the ballot.
It’s not just for papi. Yes, former Miami Mayor and Miami-Dade Commissioner Xavier Suarez is threatening to run for mayor. It’s also for the current mayor himself. Baby X is only 47. He might need a safety net in a decade or two.
Read related: Francis Suarez, Joe Carollo spend $1.6 million to elect Ralph Rosado in D4
As for why now? It’s very possible that Carollo is trying to change the conversation. He wants to distract people from the court appeal he and the city just lost to Bill Fuller and Martin Pinilla, who own Ball & Chain, and their $63.5 million jury award for violating their first amendment rights, as well as the investigation into the commissioner’s use of the Bayfront Trust funds as his own political piggy bank, kickbacks and all.
He could also be trying to throw Rosado under the bus for the absentee ballot fraud investigation that is allegedly happening or going to happen after several senior voters reported voting for Rosado because they were told they would lose housing, meals, day care or other services if they didn’t (more on that later).
Whatever the reason is, Thursday’s commission meeting promises to have at least one pelea: Carollo against Rosado or Gabela or Commissioner Damian Pardo — who Rosado was caught having lunch with at Pollo Tropical in what is now a sign of the coming breakup — or Mayor Suarez, if he decides to show up.
And if history tells us anything, it won’t be long before Carollo finds someone new, another gem in his flawless legacy of political backstabbing, to bankroll, micromanage, and eventually denounce.
The post Bromance break-up at Miami City Hall as Joe Carollo and Ralph Rosado split appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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Questions raised about intimidating senior voters
Newly-elected Miami Commissioner Ralph “Pinky” Rosado was elected with a lot of help from his friends, mostly two veteran politicians who poured around $1.6 million into his campaign for a special election last month that drew 5,346 people — or 11% of the District 4 registered voters.
According to the most recent campaign finance reports, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez spent almost $1.1 million from his political action committee, including $900,000 that went directly to Rosado’s PAC, Citizens for Ethics in Government, and another $170,000 that went to the mayor’s political consultant, Jesse Manzano.
Commissioner Joe Carollo spent $547,000 from his PAC, Miami First, just since May, including more than $311,000 in TV ads (and it’s a safe bet to say Carollo made a commission on those), $34,976 in radio spots (which he also makes commission on) and at least $34,131 in mailers.
While the last contribution to Suarez’s PAC was $1 million made by Citadel Founder Ken Griffin in 2023 — which was supposed to go to the mayor’s fat chance presidential bid — much of the money donated to Miami First in the second quarter comes from real estate and development interests in the city, like:

$100,000 from affordable housing developer Mabruk USA
$100,000 from the owners of a vacant lot valued at $6 million at 191 SW 12th Street. The address is associated with a larger development project called 1 Southside Park, which includes residential units, office space, a hotel, and retail.
$50,000 from Mastec, which is owned by Jorge Mas, who is developing Miami Freedom Park.
$50,000 from 5 South River LLC, owned by renowned restaurateur Roman Jones, who wants to create a dining destination along the Miami River and has a vacant lot across from Kiki’s on the River, his Mediterranean restaurant that caters to a jet-setting crowd on the outskirts of downtown Miami.
$25,000 from real estate investor and developer Arnaud Karsenti.
$25,000 from Aabad Melwani, the operator of the Rickenbacker Marina, who was allegedly shaken down for a contract extension by former Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla, according to a civil lawsuit brought by lobbyist and former State Rep. Manny Prieguez.

In total, Team Rosado outspent Regalado by more than 10-1, flooding the airwaves with attack spots and carpet-bombing the district with mailers that will haunt the abuelitas dreams for weeks.
When you add other moneys contributed to Rosado’s campaign and his PAC — including $100,000 of his own money — Rosado raised more than $2 million to beat Jose Francisco Regalado, the son of the former Miami mayor, current Miami-Dade Property Appraiser Tomás Regalado, and brother to Miami-Dade Commissioner Raquel Regalado. Rosado got just over 55%, or 2,938 ballots cast in his favor.
That comes out to about $709 per vote.
And for a 532-vote margin!
That’s quite an investment. And certainly not a grassroots campaign. It’s more like artificial turf.
Read related: Ralph Rosado is a fraud, liar, puppet trying to become Miami commissioner
Rosado has kept telling everyone that he will be an independent voice on the commission. But it looks more like he’s a sock puppet with two hands all up in it. In fact, one of his first acts was to abolish the Bayfront Park Management Trust, which Carollo failed to do back in February but Rosado handled it for him last week. Rosado also voted for the change in election year, which effectively cancels the election for mayor and two commission seats, giving Suarez and Carollo an extra year in office. It’s easier for Suarez to raise money for a 2026 campaign for governor as a sitting mayor than a former mayor. And Carollo wants the city to keep paying his legal bills.
But that’s not even the worse part.
In May, Joe Carollo was spotted directing Ralph Rosado recording a TV ad. Rosado lied about it.
Las malas lenguas say that senior residents at the city’s public housing buildings, like Smathers Plaza, were told that their rent assistance, home-delivered meals or other city services would end if they voted for Regalado and not Rosado. They were told that both Suarez and Carollo were supporting Rosado — for different reasons, of course — and would be angry if he didn’t win.
Now Ladra’s going to say what candidates and their attorneys usually love to say: “These are baseless allegations.” But they could be legit. And they should be investigated, though Ladra could not independently confirm that it would be. And we know that Carollo, who represents District 3, had a Mother’s Day event at Smathers — which is in District 4. Sure, he says he might run for mayor. But he didn’t have events in other districts. Just where the special election was going to be within a month.
Read related: Is Miami’s Joe Carollo using District 3 public money to campaign in District 4?
To coin a phrase of the moment, this is what democracy looks like — in Miami, anyway: low turnout, no debates, lies, attack content written by political operatives and questions about intimidation of elderly voters. Just another campaign in the Magic City. That’s how we sendup with a commissioner elected by 2,938 people out of nearly 47,000.
That’s not a mandate. That’s a marketing scam. And this wasn’t an election. It was the sale and purchase of a commission seat.
So now, District 4 has a commissioner who says he’s working for the people — while being ushered into office by the same two guys who want to control every inch of power left in Miami government before their scandals catch up to them.
The only thing worse than the low turnout in Miami is the low bar.
The post Francis Suarez, Joe Carollo spend $1.6 million to elect Ralph Rosado in D4 appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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After what turned out to be yet another City Hall cage match between Miami commissioners Joe Carollo and Miguel Gabela, the commission voted to abolish the Bayfront Park Management Trust. Not right now. But by January of next year.
This was Commissioner Damian Pardo‘s brilliant idea. Both he and Gabela folded fast like a pair of vinyl strap lawn chairs. And they didn”t have to. It looked early on like they could have killed the whole concept of ending the Trust with a 2-2 vote because Commission Chairwoman Christine King had to leave after the lunch break. Carollo even said he didn’t want to take up the item because he knew it could be killed with a tie. Didn’t they get it? And when Commissioner Ralph Rosado said he wanted to hear the item, they had the opportunity to do just that.
And they blew it. Damn newbies!
Read related: Miami’s Ralph Rosado aims to kill the Bayfront Park Trust for Joe Carollo
In the end, the Trust was finished with a surprising 3-1 vote. Surprising because Carollo voted against it and Pardo and the new Bayfront Trust chair, Gabela — who had been fighting for the Trust’s survival somewhat aggressively — voted for the abolition. Next year, the management of both Bayfront Park and Maurice Ferre Park — and the millions that Bayfront takes in from vendors and events — will be in the control of the city manager’s office.
Or something. They have six months to figure it out. Maybe they can vote to reinstate the Trust, instead.
Rosado, elected last month to replace the late Manolo Reyes, was the one who sponsored this item. But alert readers might recognize it as a stunt Carollo pulled in February. That was one month after he and the city were sued by two whistleblowers who were forced to resign from the Trust after they found financial discrepancies that indicate fraud and abuse by Carollo, who was the chairman for the past seven years. There is no way the two things are not related.
Rosado said it was his own idea. He’s been watching the Bayfront Park Trust for years and it’s an embarrassment, he said. It’s a distraction and a black eye on the city of Miami.
But Carollo first proposed this in February, right after he was accused of using the Trust funds as his own personal political piggy bank. And his accusers have the receipts.
Also, Rosado he had just told the commissioners to give the Miami Downtown Development Authority a chance to address issues that were brought by residents who don’t want to be taxed anymore so that the agency can just give the money away to billionaire brands like the UFC and FC Barcelona, while paying bloated salaries for duplicated position.
So, the DDA, which was established in 1967, deserves another chance. But the Bayfront Trust, created 20 years later in 1987, does not? Check.
Carollo, who was removed as chair earlier this year after the allegations of his abuse of the funds surfaced, claims the park flourished under his management. Millions in revenue! Events galore! The fountain danced! And the grass practically trimmed itself!
Read related: Commissioner Miguel Gabela set to expose more Bayfront Park Trust issues
But Gabela has launched an investigation and financial audit into the Trust’s finances under Carollo’s leadership, which might be why he wants it abolished now, not later. It’s hard to interview witnesses if they are scattered to the winds.
It was hard to watch Gabela cave in to Carollo, especially after he was so vehemently against the abolition. Turning up the volume and getting personal with jabs — he flashed a picture of Joe in his wifebeater shirt and reminded folks about that arrest — it almost seemed at one point that he was going to throw a chair.
Carollo accused Gabela of trying to politicize the Trust and stage a personal vendetta. Gabela countered by pointing out the pile of lawsuits, the whispers of mismanagement, and the fact that an actual forensic audit is in motion something that would normally make most public officials go quiet, but not Carollo, whose middle name might as well be “Litigation.”
It’s all gotten so familiar, you could almost set your watch to the shouting.
The post Miami Commission ends Bayfront Park Management Trust in surprise vote appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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

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