It's been obvious for a while now that Miami City Attorney Victoria Mendez has hitched her wagon to Joe Carollo's crazy train.

Below are 2 photos that I took of her last November essentially making a "house call" on a Friday afternoon to Domino Park at the time that Carollo and his staff were figuring out how to setup their Last Friday Of The Month musical events.

Mendez claimed that she did these kinds of "house calls" for all the commissioners, but in 10 years I've never seen her on the streets of Miami for any reason having to do with city business.

Carollo's previous allegations against Francis Suarez and Emilio Gonzalez for their alleged misbehavior, along with what is expected to be his effort - an effort that rumors have indicated has already been written up in the form of a Resolution by an Assistant City Attorney on Mendez's staff to fire the City Manager - is but just one of several moves that Carollo allegedly has up his sleeve as he continues to move forward in his quest to take control of the city through a series of moves that if not completely illegal, are clearly unethical, unprincipled and destined to sow rancor and distrust throughout the city, and all destined to take Miami back to those crazy days of yesteryear when Carollo traveled with his own Israeli bodyguards, had city hall swept for bugs every month, and generally behaved like his rightwing dicktator pals in several Latin American kleptocracies.

In response to the above email, Mendez replied that, "There are no documents responsive to your request."  

She did not however, answer my $64,000 question of whether Suarez and Gonzalez will choose their own attorneys, or whether she will be the one who makes that decision.

Stay tuned, next week's commission meeting could turn out to be a 3 Popcorn Event.

THE REGALADO/MILTON CONNECTION

Several weeks ago, Tomas Regalado went to the Ribbon Cutting ceremony of a new apartment complex called the Miami Bay Club, built by the Milton family.  That's Cecil Milton to the right of the Mayor in the below photo taken at the ribbon cutting.

Next door to this apartment complex is the city's Albert Pallot Park, which starting in 2014 has been an interesting study in the dysfunctional way the city works.

At the October 23, 2014 Commission meeting there were two Resolutions introduced related to this park. The important one was the second one, which was not included in the agenda of the Commission meeting.

The first resolution allowed the Miltons to rent a 13,000 square foot portion of the park to use for the storage of construction materials and equipment, including a crane for ,200 a month.

This second Resolution had to do with a desire on the part of Joseph Milton to fix up the park through donation $2.5 million through the construction of a seawall, as well as other improvements.

This offer of a donation came with a very lucrative string attached.

In return for his $2.5 million, which, under a provision in the city's Master Zoning Code was defined as a Public Benefit donation, Milton would receive waivers that he could use on another project he might build in a T6 zoned area

This morning the Miami Herald did a story about Pallot Park, which is located at 39th Street on the Bay, next to an apartment building built by the Milton Brothers.

In her story, Linda Robertson referenced the fact that the so-called improvements to the park by the Milton brothers, which included a sea wall, and the inclusion of 4 Giant Dominos in a configuration that would create the letter M, was approved by the Miami City Commission last October.

     "In October Miami city commissioners voted unanimously to

     accept the donation of the $485,000 M sculpture from the

     Milton family. Joseph Milton, who built three new apartment

     buildings surrounding the park to replace his father’s old ones,

     is paying $2.5 million to refurbish the park as part of the city’s

     Public Benefits program. "

Robertson failed to explain what the city's "Public Benefits" program is, and how it works., nor did she go back in time and see just how this deal really came into play, something I did back on July 7, 2017, when I wrote my story alleging that then Mayor Tomas Regalado was living in the Milton's apartment building on SW 37th Avenue rent free.

In fact, this so-called donation by the Miltons and the revelation by then Commissioner Marc Sarnoff that Regalado was the one who had orchestrated this deal behind the scenes, was part of my argument that the rent free deal was part of a Quid Pro Quo that would give the Milton's a $5 million return on their $2.5 million donation.

You can read that part of my 2017 story below: