The big news isn’t that Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo fired his one-time campaign manager, right hand man and District 3 Liasion Steven Miro. The big news is why.
Sources tell Ladra that Miro made a complaint to the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office recently about Carollo using city funds and city personnel to campaign for Alex Diaz de la Portilla‘s county commission bid, which the former senator lost, coming in third, last month. This about those events at almost every elderly public housing facilities and comedores in the district — and maybe $3,000 or so worth of paella. 
Miro would not comment on the investigation into Carollo using city funds and people — practically everyone on his staff — to promote Diaz de la Portilla. Both men are in a photograph here from Carollo’s own Instagram account, posted May 19, at the Little Havana Nutrition and Activities Center, handing out paper platefuls of paella. Miro would only say that he had hired Matthew Sorelson as his attorney to sue for wrongful termination. “I was given no justification. I am not a slacker. I work,” he said.
Sorelson works with JC Planas and was one of the lawyers working for Alfie Leon, who challenged Carollo’s residency days after he lost last year’s commission runoff election, with only 47%. Leon lost his final appeal last month when a judge, in essence and loathe to overturn an election, basically said he acted too late. Sorelson confirmed to Ladra Wednesday night that he had been retained by Miro but would not comment further on the merits of the case.
Carollo did not return two calls and two text messages to he and his wife’s cellphones late Wednesday. But if it’s true, it would be a little ironic in the sense that Carollo said he was fired as city manager in Doral by Luigi Boria because he was cooperating in state attorney led investigations against the then mayor. He was a whistleblower. Now he is firing the guy who blew the whistle on him?
Ladra has three sources, including one very close to the investigation, who told her that Miro had made the complaint to the SAO in recent weeks. And it may be a good one: There are photos all over social media indicating that Carollo used city resources to campaign for Alex. “This week, I was able to visit our seniors and bring a paella lunch,” Carollo wrote on the Instagram Post. Facebook photos on his wife’s page from an event at another public housing facility are posted under “A big day! Supporting senator Alex Diaz de la Portilla in his career to the Miami-Dade County Commission District 5.”
There are also a number of complaints against Carollo being investigated simultaneously by the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust — which should maybe just open a Carollo division. Miro, we’ve been told, is included in at least one of those complaints.
Read related: We get Joe Carollo in Miami — and all the drama, interest it comes with
But of course he is. In fact, people for the most part think of him as Carollo’s go-to guy for all the dark stuff. Miro practically ran Carollo’s campaign. Blogger Al Crespo called Miro the commissioner’s “enforcer,” and here they are, seemingly buds, on the night of Carollo’s victory a little more than six months ago.
“Since Carollo has been Commissioner, Miro was the guy who it was claimed would show up at your door if you pissed Joe off, like he was alleged to have done a couple months ago when he showed up with cops and tried to get the owners of that illegal sandwich shop on SW 8th Street arrested,” Crespo wrote when he announced the firing in his blog this week.
One can’t help but wonder if that’s one of the ethics complaints.
So what made Miro, who has been carrying Carollo’s mud for years, suddenly turn around and turn him in to the SAO?
Well, dicen las malas lenguas that it was because he supported Zoraida Barreiro, like Carollo was reportedly going to do until he pulled the old switcheroo again at the last minute. Barreiro — who made it into the runoff June 19 against Eileen Higgins — had endorsed Carollo against Leon after she came in third in the Miami race. And Crazy Joe was expected to return the favor. Only he apparently changed his mind. At least he did it this time before Barreiro called a press conference about his endorsement.
But it might also be because it is one thing to take some uniforms with you to flex some muscle with a sandwich guy that has no permits but refuses to close shop, and it is quite another to steal public dollars for political favors. And the line has to be drawn somewhere.

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There’s a reason why both Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez and Commission Chairman Esteban Bovo — who hopes to be the next county mayor — have endorsed Zoraida Barreiro in the District 5 commission race: They want to stay in control.
They like things the way they are.
Barreiro would be a known entity, a Republican on an increasingly partisan board who would likely vote along the same “party” lines as her husband, former Commissioner Bruno Barreiro, whose abrupt resignation to run for Congress set the stage for this shotgun wedding election to benefit his beloved. Who said romance is dead?
Zory Barreiro is of the dynasty, by marriage not blood, but still a newby to the dais and would likely take to King Carlos and Bobo Bovo like a baby to a, um, a blanket. They would be her mentors. And she would definitely be a vote in their pocket, whether she knows it or not.
Read related: Eileen Higgins makes history leading special county race against the odds
Eileen Higgins, on the other hand, could upset the apple cart. Higgins is la gringa activist, a really newby who, despite living here only a few years, actually won the first round, topping both Barreiro and former Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla with 35% of the vote (Barreiro got 33% but is still considered the front runner). Higgins would likely follow the likes of Daniella Levine Cava and Barbara Jordan, other Democrats on the dais.
And with Higgins, the Dems would have a majority on a body that has been evenly split. Let’s count ’em: Jordan, Jean Monestime, Audrey Edmonson, Sally Heyman, Levine Cava, Dennis Moss. That’s six. Commissioner Xavier Suarez is an NPA like yours truly. Bruno and the other five that are left — Rebeca Sosa, Javier Souto, Joe Martinez, Jose “Pepe” Diaz and Bovo are all Republican. The even split stays if Barreiro wins the runoff. But if Higgins wins? It could really change the dynamics on that dais.
Translation: Gimenez might lose control.
A perfect example is the living wage ordinance that passed purely on partisan lines and that the mayor later vetoed. A potential commission override would need a super majority so one more person than the 7 who passed it. If that vote were to happen with Barreiro on the dais, she would vote no. If Higgins was up there, that’s a yes vote right there.
Of course, this dynamic may not translate to every issue. After all, Daniella finds herself voting solita all the time — against the mega mall, against expanding the Kendall charter school, against the FP&L Turkey Point water reuse deal, against the CDMP case converting industrial zoned land to residential in West Kendall, against loosening the Sunshine Laws.
And how many votes have been 7-6 that might have gone the other way with someone like Higgins on the board?
Levine Cava, who is often the dissenting vote on items and the lone, if soft, voice of reason, has endorsed Higgins, naturally.
Read related: Dems push full court press for Eileen Higgins in District 5 county race
“I think she sees eye to eye with me on environmental issues, on labor issues on transit issues.”
And on sanctuary cities. Gun control. Gender neutral bathrooms.
Higgins might change the conversation on these social issues and her presence might just give some of the other Democrats (yes, Ladra is talking to you Sally) the courage to be themselves.

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Coral Gables City Manager Cathy Swanson-Rivenbark is not totally in the clear, yet.
Swanson has dodged a series of professional bullets as her administration has waged an unpopular war with the police chief, lied to commissioners, got caught spying on at least one citizen activist and more. But if Swanson thought she was going to be able to move on, she was kidding herself. The can is open. The worms are multiplying.
Now, Commissioner Vince Lago wants to talk about the way Swanson tried to manipulate the investigation on her handpicked lacky, Frank Fernandez, who was subsequently hired as assistant city manager and public safety director. Lago sent the mayor and other commissioners a memo Friday, urging discussion on an email from Swanson to an outside investigative agency that Ladra exposed on Political Cortadito last month.
Read related: Coral Gables needs outside agency to investigate ‘anonymous’ complaint
In the 2015 email that causes Lago concern, Swanson-Rivernbark basically says her mantra. “Look away, look away. Nothing to see here.” But she says it in instructions to an independent investigator paid by the city to do background investigations on people who are being hired for an assistant manager position.  Ladra would think this independent background investigation would become particularly important and necessary if the person being considered was the city manager’s lacky back in Hollywood, where she was accused of misspending $1 million and where an investigation by the Inspector General of Broward found she intentionally and repeatedly lied to and manipulated that city commission and to have violated several city rules.
Lago’s full memo sent at 4 p.m. Friday and copied to Swanson and City Attorney Miriam Ramos lays out what happened:
“I have recently been made aware of some information that heavily concerns me. In May 2015, City Manager Cathy Swanson-Rivenbark initiated the hiring process to employ the Assistant City Manager/Director of Public Safety, Frank Fernandez. Standard protocol requires all individuals seeking employment with the City of Coral Gables to undergo a background investigation.
In an email dated May 2, 2015 (enclosed) the City Manager requested the International Association of Chiefs of Police’s background investigator contracted by the City to: “neither seek nor include any information for Broward PBA or Jeff Marano individually as it will hold no credibility nor value in my decision making”. The Assistant Director of Training and Professional Services for the International Association of Chiefs of Police responded to our then Human Resource Director, Elsa Jaramillo with the following statement: “We will not comply with Ms. Swanson-Rivenbark’s request in any way. For the background investigation to have merit, we will not restrict the investigation in any way or limit access to sources”.
As government officials it is our duty and obligation to be transparent and accountable. Interfering in hiring protocols such as background investigations can jeopardize our city’s image and in a worst case scenario, allow an individual with an unpleasant background to work in our community. We are thankful and fortunate this is not the case in this instance.
Regardless of the character of the person or entity the City Manager was requesting to exclude as part of the investigation, the process was interfered with nonetheless. We must never tolerate this kind of behavior especially when our City is known to uphold the highest standards when hiring police officers and personnel. According to the International City/County Manager Association’s (ICMA) Code of Ethics, City Managers demonstrate by word and action the highest standards of ethical conduct and integrity in all public, professional, and personal relationships in order to merit the trust and respect of the elected and appointed officials, employees, and the public. To interfere in hiring processes breaches the public trust and makes citizens doubt our City’s governing practices which city officials should always remain cautious about.
If you would like to discuss this incident in more detail, I invite you to do so at the upcoming Commission meeting on June 12, 2018.
Let’s go over part of that, shall we?
“Interfering in hiring protocols such as background investigations can jeopardize our city’s image and in a worst case scenario, allow an individual with an unpleasant background to work in our community. We are thankful and fortunate this is not the case in this instance,” Lago wrote.
But how does he know that. How can we really trust the final report? Did it come from the city manager’s office?
Ladra reached out to Jeff Marano, who was credible enough to be elected as president of the Broward PBA by the men and women of that police force, and asked him if he was ever called by the IACP investigator regarding Frank Fernandez. Guess what: He wasn’t.
“They were never going to call me. That investigator is Frank’s buddy,” Marano said this weekend.
Frank Fernandez
What would he have wanted commissioners to know? “He’s looking for the chief’s job. He got run out of the city of Miami and run out of the city of Hollywood, where everybody called him ‘Mama’s Boy,’” Marano said, and we don’t have to guess too hard who “mama” is.
“He’s anti-cop. He’s hated in Miami. He is not well liked in Hollywood. He wants to wear Ed Hudak‘s uniform. He will not stop until he gets rid of Ed Hudak. He is not a good guy,” Marano said, adding that Fernandez was suspected in a bunch of anonymous complaints when he was deputy city manager in Hollywood, including the one that got the Broward city’s chief fired.
Hmmmmm. What a coincidence.
Again, from Lago’s memo: “To interfere in hiring processes breaches the public trust and makes citizens doubt our City’s governing practices.”
My point exactly.
Read related: Coral Gables manager’s petty reprimand on chief backfires on her
And what do you mean by “we must never tolerate this kind of behavior,” Vince? That Swanson-Rivenbark should be fired? Because Ladra really can’t see any other way through this. That public trust you talk about is already broken. This latest breach is not the first crack. And Ladra is just not sure how Swanson-Rivenbark is ever going to be able to regain that.
Or even if she’ll try.
She hasn’t been remorseful. She has never apologized. She only rescinded the vicious and vendetta reprimand against the chief “for the good of the city” not because she knew she was wrong. She didn’t even reach out to the women police officers whose pool party was turned into a political hatchet job against their will and who have been vilified and bullied online. She dragged her feet and only allowed the investigation of those anonymous insults recently and reluctantly.
And how can we ever trust any investigation that she signs off on again? She tried to mess with the investigation into Fernandez. She stretched the needless and retaliatory investigation into Hudak so she could smear him in an unwarranted reprimand that she later had to take back. And she forced the police chief to accept a head of Internal Affairs that was handpicked by the lackey she handpicked and didn’t want investigated.
¿Que que? ¿Que arroz con mango es este?
What more do we need Swanson-Rivenbark to do before commissioners can agree that the trust here is irrevocably broken? Gone forever? Dead?
Does she need to go ahead and without commission approval, suspended a study they instructed her to do of development on the U.S. 1 corridor, incurring a $50,000 penalty for interrupting it? Oh, wait. She already did that.
Read related: Coral Gables cover-up on police ‘spy’ protects city managers
Does she need to suspend a suspected spy with pay so that the spy can get her full pension and keep her secrets? Oh, wait. She did that, too.
Does she need to waste city resources, time and credibility on her personal vendetta against the police chief, causing morale problems and concerns among residents? Check that off the list also.
Seems to me that June 12 can’t come soon enough and that every commissioner (except you Pat Keon… we know Cathy owns you for whatever reason) should put this discussion item on the agenda. Nobody elected you to let the city manager do whatever she wants. When you have a city manager that is asking for another cheek in an investigation — something she seemingly got — you don’t know what else she’s done or is capable of doing.
Swanson’s days seem inevitably numbered. It’s just a matter of how long she can draw it out.
Ladra asked Marano if he would grace us with his presence June 12. He said he’d put it on his calendar. Maybe he can finally tell commissioners what it was that Swanson-Rivenbark wanted so desperately to keep from them.

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Yes, we already know that former State Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla is the biggest loser in the special shotgun wedding election in Miami-Dade District 5, getting shut out of the runoff by Zoraida Barreiro and Eileen Higgins — his third loss in a hisif.
Fifth, if you count his brothers’ defeats. 
And, yes, Higgins is the big winner, with an upset that surprised even herself.
But, as usual, there are other winners and losers from the race. And they are:
WINNERS
Miami-Dade Democrats — Local Democrat leadership put a lot of effort and money into the non partisan race backing Higgins, the sole Democrat against three Republicans (Carlos Garin doesn’t count with only 5%). The party paid the pricy consultant’s bills. Even Tallahassee Mayor and gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum reached out, tweeting to voters during early voting that they should support Higgins. And it is the third special election win for them in six months, with Sen. Annette Taddeo beating former State Rep. Jose Felix “Pepi” Diaz and lobbyist Javier Fernandez beating the much better financed Andrew Vargas, a proxy for former State Rep. and U.S. Ambassador Carlos Trujillo. No doubt Juan Cuba is in a good mood these days.
Women — No matter what happens in the runoff June 19, there will be another woman on the commission, and that is a good thing because it will make the dais more balanced. While there can never me an even split among 13 board members, it was 8 men and 5 women when Bruno Barreiro, who resigned from this seat to run for Congress, was on the dais. No matter what, it is now 7-6.
Christian Ulvert — After helping Annette Taddeo this pretty much solidifies Ulvert as the go-to golden boy for special elections. But that is not all he’s done. He has also now beat a Diaz de la Portilla three times: First in 2012 with Jose Javier Rodriguez against ADLP in House District 112, then with J-Rod again against Miguel Diaz de la Portilla for the Senate in 2016. And now this. Eh, just another notch in his belt. Over the past decade or so, Ulvert has built an operation to help Democrats get elected. There was State Rep. Luis Garcia, J-Rod (three times), Miami-Dade Commissioner Daniella Levine Cava, former Miami Beach mayor and gubernatorial candidate Philip Levine. Watch: The Democrats are going to name a sandwich after him. And then he’ll be even more cocky.
Voters — After weeks of terrible negative attacks against the two dynasty candidates — even Higgins got a swing or two in there — voters will likely get a reprieve. Not from all the negative mail. Just from the really ugly kind. There might still be some reference to the Bruno love for the Marlins deal or overly dramatic concern over Higgins’ lack of history here. But it’s not going to be evil. En otras palabras, now that Alex is gone, nobody will be calling anyone a communist whore.
LOSERS
“Crazy” Joe Carollo — The Miami Commissioner endorsed ADLP and even went with him to distribute pastelitos and swag at campaign events in elderly housing and comedores.  It could have been a tit tat thing, since ADLP helped Carollo win his commission seat last year. Or it could just be that the Dean has burned so many bridges and friends that he is forced to scrape the bottom of the barrel.
Carlos “Mr. Giveaway” Gimenez — The Miami-Dade mayor endorsed ADLP and his family — and principally his son CJ Gimenez, the mediocre but well-connected lobbyist — reportedly worked on the senator’s campaign. Now they can go back to hanging out in Joe Carollo’s office.
Did I forget someone? In either column? Please feel free to share in a comment below any winners and/or losers that escaped Ladra’s attention.
Until the next election — which happens to be in 27 days.

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Political newby heads into runoff with Zoraida Barreiro
Gringa political virgin Eileen Higgins either waged a very good campaign or voters in Miami Beach and Little Havana are tired of the same ol’, same ol’.
Higgins pulled a rabbit out of her hat Tuesday with an amazing upset, not just squeaking into a runoff as Ladra had predicted, but beating the front runner by two whole points in a special shotgun wedding election for Miami-Dade Commission that everyone expected her to lose. She goes into round two with Zoraida Barreiro, wife of the last commissioner in District 5, who everyone expected to win.
Higgins still has a runoff to go but she won round 1 with 35% of the vote, ahead of Barreiro with 33% and former State Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla was six points under that with 27%.
Pobrecito Alex. He has now lost three comeback bids. He was always running for number 2 in this District 5 commission race , because Barreiro — the wife of a 20-year incumbent — always had the advantage. Still, Ladra bets it hurts him to get beat by someone named Eileen Higgins who has only been in Miami for four or five years.
Maybe ADLP — who got no love from any notable Republicans and late nods from Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez and Miami Commissioner Crazy Joe Carollo — will get the message: Nobody wants you back in office. In the background is where you win.
Higgins had a very solid grassroots campaign and the support of local and state Democrats — who pushed hard for her — as well as most of the labor unions, which could have contributed to this win against two sorta incumbents with dynasty names and more money. Higgins raised just over $50,300 by Friday. Zoraida had raised $139,120 and ADLP had reported raising $92,150.
What makes it more amazing is that it didn’t happen over a three or four month period. It happened in four weeks. And in a special shotgun wedding election orchestrated to benefit the wife of former Commissioner Bruno Barreiro, who really didn’t have to make his resignation effective immediately but did because Republicans with political machines do very well in special elections.
“We took a newcomer who is passionate about issues and deeply involved in the community and that is why she was able to put together the right resources in a short amount of time,” said Christian Ulvert, a Democratic political operative whose team worked on Higgins’ campaign. “We targeted the right voters. It was a turn-out game.”
And that included Republicans, because Ladra knows quite a few who broke with the party — even though this is a non partisan race, it is sorta not — and Cuban-Americans who broke with tradicion to vote for la gringa Democrata.
“The stronghold Republicans had in Miami-Dade County is about to be gone,” Ulvert said, reminding Ladra that this is the third special election — which used to be a gift to the GOP — in six months won by the blue team. It comes on the heels of wins by Democrat Sen. Annette Taddeo (finally) against a state GOP giant like Jose Felix “Pepi” Diaz (who beat ADLP, too) and lobbyist Javier Fernandez, who slayed Andrew Vargas, the handpicked proxy of former State Rep. and U.S. Ambassador Carlos Trujillo.
But Ladra is not so sure it was as anti-Republican as it was anti-incumbent — because both Barreiro and ADLP seem like incumbents, don’t they — and anti-dynasty. The first mail piece that dropped in the special election was a Higgins piece against political dynasties. That’s not a Democrat message. That’s not a Republican message. It’s a voter message.
“Tonight, voters showed that they are ready for fresh leadership and a new vision,” Higgins told a crowd of supporters who gathered at a Brickell pub to celebrate. “The residents of District 5 rejected status quo politics and are ready to elect a champion who will fight for a transit system that works, combat sea level rise with a plan and delivers on affordable housing initiatives.
“I’m ready to work harder to earn the votes of District 5 residents as we gear up for the June 19th election,” she said, because there is a runoff less than a month away and Higgins is again — despite the short-lived victory Tuesday — the underdog.
 

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