The city of Miami can stop paying Commissioner Joe Carollo‘s legal bills right now. Let him pay for his own appeal with the funds from his political action committee. Carollo, who has spent more than $2 million of the taxpayers’ money defending himself from a federal lawsuit he lost Thursday, has a neat $1,380,295 sitting in the bank account for his Miami First PAC. If he wants to appeal the jury verdict — which granted $63.5 million in damages to two Little Havana businessmen who were retaliated against for supporting Carollo’s opponent in 2017 — let Carollo put his money where his big mouth ..read more

Developing story: The news that Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago is getting monthly rental payments from a developer with several projects in the city is just the latest in a series of ethical lapses and questionable actions by the top politico in the City Beautiful, once a promising rising star in the local Republican Party. Lago is part owner of a property that is currently rented by Location Ventures, the same developer who is building a luxury condo on Ponce De Leon Boulevard and who has also offered to pay $9 million for a city-owned parcel in the downtown. Location Ventures CEO Rishi Kapoor ..read more

Rishi Kapoor offered to buy a city-owned property for $9 million The developer who paid Miami Mayor Francis Suarez $170,000 to “consult” while he navigated permits and zoning for his developments is also paying “rent” to Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago while he builds his luxury condo on Ponce de Leon Boulevard and seeks other projects in the City Beautiful. Vinnie is always following the footsteps of his brighter, hipper BFF. The Miami Herald revealed Thursday that Lago is part owner of a Ponce de Leon Boulevard storefront that has been rented to Location Ventures, the company owned by Rishi K ..read more

Attorney says the city should also be liable because of its role in abuse They said it was not about the money, but the businessmen who sued Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo for violating their first amendment rights and the attorneys who won them a jury award of $63.5 million on Thursday are going to go after his assets. “We’re going to collect the judgement,” said Jeff Gutchess, one of the attorneys representing Bill Fuller and Martin Pinilla, who argued that Carollo abused his power to retaliate against them and their tenants because a political opponent had a fundraising event at Ball and C ..read more

Commissioner may appeal $63.5 million award to Little Havana partners Miami City Commissioner Joe Carollo has been found by a jury of his peers in a federal civil trial of violating the first amendment rights of two businessmen who apparently supported Crazy Joe’s opponent in the 2017 election. The six-member jury ordered Thursday that Carollo pay $63.5 million in damages: That’s $8.6 million in damages and $25.7 million in punitive damages to Ball & Chain owner Bill Fuller and $7.3 million and $21.9 million in punitive damages to his business partner, Martin Pinilla. They claimed Carollo ..read more

Remember the Pets’ Trust? A whopping 64% of us approved this initiative on a non-binding ballot question in 2012. It aimed to direct budget dollars for animal services to a massive spay and neuter program to take care of the stray and abandoned dogs and cats that are overpopulating, particularly in the southwestern part of Miami-Dade. The Miami-Dade Commission and then-mayor Carlos Gimenez decided to ignore us. Otherwise, it would have been a mandate. But on Thursday, Miami-Dade Commissioner Raquel Regalado told a packed room of Kendall residents — including Pets’ Trust co-founder Michael Rose ..read more

Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava is building a war chest to seek a second term in November 2024, raising more than a $1.4 million in just the last two months. La Alcaldesa collected just a little less than $400,000 in her candidate campaign account — $282,885 in March, when she officially launched her re-election campaign, and $110,942 in April, according to the latest campaign reports. Her political action committee, Our Democracy, did much better, amassing more than $1 million — $811,850 in March and $205,275 in April. That means that $1.1 million was raised in just the first month of t ..read more

When Miami-Dade Commissioner Raquel Regalado goes Thursday evening to a town hall meeting hosted by the Kendall Federation of Homeowner Associations, it will be an act of courage. This is where the Calusa people live. Ladra fully expects some of them to come and pressure her to change her mind on the development of 550 homes on the 168-acre abandoned golf course now that there is evidence that protected Florida birds are nesting there. Save Calusa, a group of homeowners who have fought the development for years, went to court and won when a judge agreed that the vote to approve the zoning chan ..read more

Magistrate says city gerrymandered new boundaries A U.S. federal magistrate recommended earlier this month that the city of Miami toss out its new districts — finalized last year after weeks of heated meetings, multiple changes, and the objections of many residents — because they were gerrymandered by racial lines to keep the current candidates in office. The temporary injunction prevents the new districts from being used in November’s elections, but the city still has until Saturday to respond and then the group that sued — led by the American Civil Liberties Union — have until May 19 to res ..read more

Newly-elected Coral Gables Commissioner Melissa Castro was so excited about her first commission meeting on Tuesday, nothing would faze her. Her car wouldn’t start, her heel got stuck in the elevator door, the Uber driver turned the wrong way and made her a few minutes late. But none of it mattered. She was so psyched about her first chance to serve the residents that she took it all in stride. She was so happy to be there and so concentrated on the items in front of her, that she didn’t realize Mayor Vince Lago had been a condescending jerk, treating her like a little girl. Castro thought it ..read more