Former Miami City Manager Joe Arriola has filed a defamation lawsuit against one of the commission candidates in the Coral Gables election over a mailer that told voters he had been fired from the Magic City for taking bribes.
The lawsuit names Javier Baños, candidate in Group 3, and former Miami Commissioner Marc Sarnoff — who donated to the political action committee that paid for the negative piece — as plaintiffs.
“They said that I was fired for taking bribes and pay-to-play. And that’s an absolute lie,” Arriola told Ladra Wednesday.
Read related: Miami political pals of Javier Baños attack Alex Bucelo in Coral Gables race
Actually, the mailer said Arriola was “forced to resign due to pay-to-play developer scandal,” which obviously plays well in the Gables, where overdevelopment has been a central theme of the election. The mailer targeted former candidate Alex Bucelo, who came in third in the first round. Baños faces longtime soccer coach Kirk Menendez in the runoff.
Negative mail and false attacks in local elections have become the norm and most people never do anything about it. They file ethics complaints that have no teeth or impact and let it go. “They say, ‘Ah, it will go away,'” Arriola said.
“But I’m 74. All I’ve got is my reputation. I’ve never taken a penny in my life. I didn’t have to, either.”
That’s because he sold his family’s printing company for $42 million two years before former Miami Mayor Manny Diaz tapped him for the city’s top job in 2003. Stories from the Miami Herald in 2006 — used as exhibits in the lawsuit filed by former State Rep. J.C. Planas, attorney to the pols — show that Arriola resigned to take a job with Mike Fernandez‘s MBF Healthcare.
There is no indication he was pressured. In fact, the search for his replacement began before he left.
Read related: Kirk Menendez vs. Javier Baños is not as easy a decision as voters may think
Sure, there were a couple of scandals in Miami during his reign. Aren’t there always? It is Miami. But they had to do with an investment property Arriola owned with Diaz and former Miami Commissioner Johnny Winton and the fire fee settlement, not any bribes.
Baños said he first saw the mailer when he got it at his home. “But I didn’t draft it,” he told Ladra.
He said he didn’t even know who Arriola was before that. “I knew Daniel Alonso. He was the city manager when I was on the civil service board.
“But from what I understand and have read, there were disputes that led to the termination,” he said.
Read related: Joe Carollo recall and lawsuit chug along, but the damage is done
It’s hard to believe that he never heard of Arriola. The former city manager was key to the failed recall effort against Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo, which he pretty much single-handedly financed. Baños, if you recall, was the treasure and CPA to Carollo’s campaign and PAC accounts and his nomination to the Bayfront Park Management Trust.
“It looks frivolous because he’s a public figure,” Baños said about the lawsuit. “As far as I’m concerned, I haven’t said anything about Joe Arriola. It was not something I put together. My campaign didn’t put it together.”
Yes, but as Ladra has reported before, the Citizens for a Better Miami-Dade Government PAC has Baños email address and phone number on it. It is chaired by Bradley Cassel, a man he interviewed in the Community Newspaper’s studio. More importantly, a man who he calls his mentor.
Said Arriola: “They lied about me and it hurts my reputation. I’ve worked very hard all my life and I’ve raised millions of dollars for United Way and other worthy causes. Now it looks like I’m a crook and a thief?
“I’m not putting up with that shit.”
Complaint against Javier Baños by Joe Arriola by Political Cortadito on Scribd
Joe Arriola sues Javier Baños and Marc Sarnoff over ‘lies’ in PAC attack mailer added by Ladra on
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New day in Coral Gables,
Lol that was hilarious . I just looked it up and when caught in flagrant lies they simply lied even more but it certainly did not affect their political career in any way , go figure.
It is good to see all these rotten apples fighting amongst each other. Joe Arriola, the former City Manager and the former City Commissioner Marc Sarnoff facing off and going toe to toe. This also includes Joe “El Loco” Carrollo”. Who is being guided by Marc Sarnoff who is behind the scenes controlling the City of Miami. He is behind the hiring of Art Noriega and telling the Mayor Francis Suarez and City Commissioner Alex De La Portillo what to do to control Joe Carrollo.
Mr. Bathroom is part of the Carollo sarnoff family… Keep lying and lie until you believe it… Remember sarnoff stated he was a cop….lie…. Carollo said he was a marine….lie….a cop….lie and he came from cuba in Pedro Pan… Another fat lie. Saturday starts a new day in the Gables Kirk!
Tell Me Who You Hang around With and I will tell You Who you Are ? This is like A woman of This Life calling a Lady of the Oldest Profession a Prostitute
Wow! I always wonder why people are so afraid to use their names. It appears to me that they either do not tell the truth or are just repeating what someone told them or asked them to write. I have always maintained that as long as you are truthful there is nothing to fear. Why are pro-developers so angry that their plans to control the Coral Gables Commission is in jeopardy that they have to resort to personal attacks and made up stories? How come the developers’ choice, ie., Mr. Menendez, did not show up for the debate? What? His handlers couldn’t be there? He would have had to answer why he did not disclose all his financials issues? Did he forget to make public that besides his mother’s and his house he also had interests in another property in the same block?
C’mon guys, wake up and smell the coffee. The only reason
sitting commissioners are endorsing him is because they know he will do what they have been doing all along: pleasing the developers!
You would think Sarnoff would be too busy scheming to demolish Melreese Park and kill Miami’s only public golf course? Baby mayor Suarez even pays Sarnoff to kill the park.
Joe Arriola & Mike Fernandez – two arrogant blowhards. That relationship couldn’t have lasted very long.
100% behind you JOE ARRIOLA – it’s about time that we stand up to that sorry excuse for a Lawyer and a joke of a CPA – Javier Bathrooms whom has regrettably brought dirty Miami Politics into our “City Beautiful”
there is absolutely NO NEED for his disgusting ways to attempt to get elected to a serious position on the Coral Gables Commision and try to stain the great name of our Great City (to where he moved from South Miami after failing miserably there) only a few years ago yet he claims to have been “involved” in our community and commission meetings “for years!”.
Let’s sue the bald headed crook and expose him as well as all his cronies from the City of Miami for what he & they really are and hopefully we can extinguish any political aspirations he may have and with any luck – get him the hell out of our Great City and teach him a lesson of where “dirty politics”(and Carollo & Sarnoff) belong – in the toilet, Wanna- be Commisioner Bathrooms!
Joe Arriola was hired by the corrupt Manny Diaz. Then they had a falling out over several illegal schemes and then Diaz fired Arriola.
Marc Sarnoff has always been a creep. That dude always steals from taxpayers.
Dirty trickers and lying applicants . Can we just re-open qualifying and have a do over?
Arriola just waking up in the morning has more integrity than Baños, baños should be disbarred.
Banos already bringing the City of Miami trashy politics to Coral Gables. And still saying he had nothing to do with mailers from a PAC that lists his email as the point of contact. Get ready. Carrollo in Coral Gables!
Isn’t this the same Joe Carriola known for getting tossed out of Heat games for throwing temper tantrums at court side? Once part of the machine, now collecting dust in the barn.