Miami leaders have always been a sly bunch. But Suarez and Carollo are vying to break records | Opinion
Who’s the most corrupt politician in Miami-Dade County history?
It’s tough to say.
In a region with a rich and colorful Hall of Shame of elected officials using public service to enrich themselves, the competition is stiff.
Remember Superintendent Johnny Jones, charged in 1980 with using $9,000 in school funds to purchase gold plumbing fixtures for his vacation home?
He was sentenced to three years in prison.
But Jones’ 24-karat faucet now seems peanuts compared to the sums Miami Mayor Francis Suarez — under investigation by the county ethics commission after the Miami Herald disclosed shady conduct — may have been inappropriately earning and accepting as undisclosed gifts.
A $34,000 Formula One VIP weekend he now says he’ll pay for, but doesn’t show receipts. A $170,000 payout from a developer.
He’s in deep legal trouble, but displaying no shame, Suarez is running for president of the United States as if nothing were happening at home. Donald Trump’s grift lowered the bar on who is electable — and the Miami mayor is campaigning with his own brand of see-no-evil, hear-no-evil confidence.
Because that’s how Miami pols have rolled for decades.
READ MORE: Ethics commission is investigating Miami Mayor Francis Suarez’s work for a developer
Luxury & side gigs
But Suarez would do well to review the past.
Remember brash County Commissioner Miriam Alonso’s investing in real estate with money of suspiciously unknown origin? She seemed to get away unscathed. Then, her corruption multiplied as she tried to hide wrongdoing — until she and her husband, Leonel, were arrested for diverting some $78,000 from her re-election campaign for their personal use.
“A syllabus for a course titled Corruption 101,” the Miami-Dade Inspector General called it in 2002 in the 47-page affidavit supporting Alonso’s arrest on charges of grand theft, unlawful compensation and exploitation of her official position.
Her daughter and son-in-law also were charged with grand theft for using leftover campaign funds to buy a house.
I remember covering an Alonso press conference at a Little Havana restaurant, where she had served the media mounds of arroz con pollo. I was one of a few who refused to eat. She insisted.
“Conflict of interest,” I said in Spanish. “I don’t take gifts.”
She looked at me as if I were an alien descended from Mars.
No, ethics aren’t expected or required.
Today’s next-generation politicians also think they can slide under the radar with in-our-face violations.
As if he weren’t in enough trouble, Suarez on Thursday announced on Twitter a campaign fundraising event — selling raffle tickets to see soccer star Lionel Messi’s South Florida debut.
“I’m entering everyone who Venmo’s @Suarez24 $1 for a chance to win FRONT ROW tickets to see Lionel Messi’s debut in Miami!” he said.
The gimmick, however, may violate Florida campaign finance and gaming laws.
Lots of people, including journalists, publicly told the mayor that his scheme to raise the funds needed to qualify for the first Republican presidential debate Aug. 23 may violate regulations.
But, as of this writing, his neon pink and purple ad was still up on all his social-media accounts.
The ‘Godfather’
Part of the problem in Miami-Dade County is that people don’t stand up to corruption. Voters seldom punish miscreants — which is why they run for office again and again without a care.
No matter how low they fall, we re-elect people like Little Havana Godfather Joe Carollo, who has put the city in quite the bind — a $63 million bind — after years of harassing two businessmen who supported his political opponent, putting their livelihoods in jeopardy.
Last month, Carollo was found guilty by a Fort Lauderdale civil court jury of using city staff to pounce on businessmen Bill Fuller and Martin Pinilla. Carollo doesn’t have the money to pay, so the men are suing the city of Miami to collect.
They allege Miami is liable for Carollo’s conduct — and they’re right.
Carollo used code enforcement and police to target Fuller and Pinilla day and night. The city manager could’ve said no, but didn’t. The only one who did, the new police chief, was fired in a nauseating one-man act of repudiation by Carollo staged from the dais with the assistance of Chief Art Acevedo’s ready-made enemies.
Will Miami be forced to pay out in Carollo case? It’s a multimillion-dollar legal question
Everyone knew what boorish Carollo, a former two-term mayor, was capable of. But voters, in 2017, elected the same guy they first elected in 1979 at age 24.
Carollo won because he runs a well-oiled machine that feeds the right kind of anti-communist rhetoric — and he delivers benefits to allies.
Politicians are pliable and generous with constituents who need City Hall-issued variances, a parking ticket removed, funds allocated to their agencies and much more.
And let’s face it. Some of us are shock-proof.
Remember County Commissioner Joe Gersten?
In 1993 — unable to shake the inquiry into his dealings by then State Attorney Janet Reno after he was caught lying about being at a local crack house in the company of a prostitute who plotted to steal his blue Mercedes-Benz — he fled to Australia.
Politicians feared high-charged, no-nonsense Reno.
But there’s growing sentiment that Suarez, Carollo and others go without proper scrutiny because State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle doesn’t vigorously investigate complaints like those of Fuller and Pinilla.
Her office denies this.
In Carollo’s case, the Broward State Attorney’s Office is investigating whether criminal charges should be filed to avoid a potential conflict of interest “due to the fact that a potential investigative witness in these matters is a close relative of one of the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s employees,” spokesman Ed Griffith told me Thursday via email.
In Suarez’s case, Fernandez-Rundle has discussed what has been termed “a possible probe into Miami Mayor Francis Suarez,” and is “working with” Jose J. Arrojo, executive director of Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust, he said.
Ultimately, justice may only be served by voters.
If the state attorney doesn’t deliver deterrence, then voters should.
They must stand up to Carollo and Suarez’s free-wheeling behavior — and make sure they never hold public office again.
This story was originally published July 14, 2023 at 10:21 AM.
