Miami taxpayers could be on hook for Joe Carollo’s frivolous lawsuit

Miami taxpayers could be on hook for Joe Carollo’s frivolous lawsuit
  • Sumo

Miami taxpayers could be on the hook for City Commissioner Joe Carollo‘s frivolous and ridiculous lawsuit against the mayor, city clerk and others to take the strong mayor referendum off the ballot. They could be billed for his political stunt.

The lawsuit was dismissed — practically laughed out of court — in an 18-page ruling Saturday by Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Miguel M. de la O, who said that Carollo’s arguments had no merit. Not a single one. He basically called Carollo a sore loser who, having lost the vote at the dais when the commission voted to put the question on the ballot, turned to the courts.

Read related: Judge calls Joe Carollo sore loser, rips apart strong mayor lawsuit

Carollo has 30 days to appeal, though in matters of elections the courts want things expedited and the fact he hasn’t appealed yet indicates he took his spanking hard. But whether he appeals or not, the legal costs incurred so far can be estimated at between $25,000 and $80,000, depending on how many attorneys he had “consulting” on it. That could include Tania Cruz, the daughter-in-law of Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez, who got an email exactly two minutes and three seconds after the court’s online system confirmed receiving the case from lead attorney Jesus Suarez.

Suarez, who works for the Genovese Joblove & Battista law firm, doesn’t work for free and someone is going to have to pay him for his work. Neither he nor Carollo returned calls.

“No payments have been made at this time,” City Attorney Victoria Mendez told Ladra after I asked. Keywords: At this time. That doesn’t mean that he won’t be paid in the future.

Read related: Joe Carollo files late campaign report, with $60K for mayor’s daughter-in-law

And, in fact, he could be paid from city funds after all. Carollo filed the lawsuit as a city commissioner, not as a citizen or as a voter. The first line of his emergency complaint says so.

“Plaintiff/petitioner JOE CAROLLO, as an individual and as a commissioner in the City of Miami, Florida, sues Defendants/Respondents …” The keywords here are as a commissioner.

Que descarado! That’s what’s called trying to “achieve standing” so the city would be on the hook — meaning he would be making taxpayers pay for this political feud.

Is Carollo going to do this every time he loses a battle on the dais? Every time the other commissioners vote against him, is he going to take it to court and make taxpayers foot the bill?

That could get very expensive.

8 Responses to "Miami taxpayers could be on hook for Joe Carollo’s frivolous lawsuit"

  1. DA Kathleen Rundle also Cuban has a lot to do with this as far as looking the other way , enabling the corruption .

    What is considered corrupt outside of Miami is usually no big deal here .

  2. Christopher Davis ,

    ” These politicians are dirty as hell,and all their flunkies are in lockstep with each other.”

    Yes , I call them the ” Cuban Cosa Nostra ” just like the MAFIA .

    I am not that insane to think other Hispanics have higher political standards then we Cubans do but I know that Cuban politico’s here in Miami get away with what others can not .

    Many here have a warped and self defeating concept of ethnic pride , God forbid they look at at non Cuban politicians, officials .

    DA Kathleen Rundle also Cuban has a lot to do with this .

  3. Vote No on strong mayor ,

    Agree 100% and I’ll be voting ‘ NO ‘ but the problem here is the messenger not the message .

    Guys like Carollo , Gimenez, , Jose Pepe Diaz just to name 3 are self serving con men .

    I cant fathom most voters voting to give Gimenez or any politico here any more power but you never know .

  4. Hi to all,hmmm,I had a chance to read a little more on this crazy stuff with Miami-Dade County and the city of Miami.So let’s see how much I can get right in my writing.While Miami Commissioner Carollo might be crazy, he also is crazy as a Fox.He was the former Mayor of Miami.Miami Dade County Mayor was the Chief of Fire/Recue from 1991 to 2000,also he was the City Manger of Miami from 2000 to ? Cha-Ching $ Miami Dade County Mayor was also a Miami-Dade Commissioner for close to 2 terms/Cha-Ching,Miami-Dade County Mayor Gimenez really knows how to work the system he created at the present time.All you have to do is look at Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Geminez and who wouldn’t want to have a set up like a Monarchy for him and his Clan.All the city of Miami is doing is cloning what Miami-Dade County is doing.People in Miami just need to vote no on the Referendum that’s coming up.If Miamians in the Magic city decide to vote yes than they have no one to blame but themselves. Also,If you can put a Referendum up to vote yes the next time you can have a new referendum on the Ballet the next time to reject the Strong Mayor initiative the next time around.These politicians are dirty as hell,and all their flunkies are in lockstep with each other.If any real journalists want to find out the truth about this Miami Strong Mayor Referendum for the city of Miami all they have to do is ask the King of Miami-Dade County Carlos Gimenez and he has all the answers.

  5. …In American history, deficit budgets of State Governments were not permitted. It’s still so, with minor modifications by a small fraction of our 50 States. The Federal government is not bound by that rule. Cities’ budgets must also be balanced. Some cities act more like the Federal Government.

  6. Hi Ladra,can you please explain to all of us what has been going on with the Miami Strong Mayor Referendum on the Ballet ?Seems to be a whole bunch of moving parts here with this mess of Strong Mayor in Miami ? First off, Miami Mayor Francis Suerez is the one who wanted the strong Mayor ,however he had some issues with the Miami Commissioner’s agreeing on all the language/Goodies that the Mayor Suarez wanted to put forward on the Referendum in Nov.Time was or had run out so they had to play a Political game to confuse everyone including the Politicians themselves.Ladra :Please explain for all of us .

  7. We Don’t need Another Bad deal Strong mayor ? One is bad enough ! This is only a Way to Dictate Every Thing ? I Agree W/ Carollo !

  8. Carollo is correct. Voters should oppose the mayors request to be all powerful. Too bad he filed late and the judge ruled against him on technical grounds.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.