NUMBER 85  -  SEPTEMBER 6, 2018

SELECTIVE CODE ENFORCEMENT: ONE MORE EXAMPLE OF WHY THE MIAMI CITY ATTORNEY NEEDS TO BE FIRED, AND WHY JOE CAROLLO CONTINUED ABUSE OF POWER IS GETTING COMPLETELY OUT OF HAND

Yesterday I posted a copy of the Closeout Report issued by the Miami-Dade Ethics Commission on the antics of Miami City Commissioner Joe Carollo, and his feud with Calle Ocho businessman Bill Fuller.

As part of my story about the  activities that led to Fuller's complaint, and the report by the commission I wrote:


          "Secondly, even though Fuller withdrew his complaint, this has

          not stopped Carollo from continuing to pressure various city

          departments to harass and create problems for him, his

          business partners and tenants"


Here is the latest such effort.

On August 31st, the Miami City Attorney's Office served one of Fuller's companies with an injunction to remove a handful of converted shipping containers that he's been trying to turn into a pedestrian marketplace on Calle Ocho.

I first wrote about this effort back in June after Joe Carollo attended a code enforcement hearing before one of the city's Special Masters, and where Carollo was unsuccessful in getting the Special Master to reverse his decision giving Fuller 30 days to correct those problems.

Carollo response to the Master's refusal to do what he wanted was to convince his fellow Commissioners to abolish the Special Master Program, although in recent days I've heard from city employees who predict that this hasty and vindictive effort will have unintended consequences that will come back to bite the city in the ass.

The latest effort to stop Fuller's project from going forward occurred on August 31st when the City Attorney filed a Complaint for Injunctive Relief against Fuller's company, alleging that:


          "2. The injunction alleges and will provide testimony

          that based upon an investigation within the past several

          weeks, the "container kiosks" for which there are

          permits at this time, have not been securely anchored

          as required.


          3.  As we are in the middle of Hurricane season and

          have a fast approaching tropical wave for this Labor

          Day Weekend."


So, even though Fuller has permits for the "container kiosks," the City Attorney decided to go after Fuller on a claim that they were not secured, and as part of the injunctive relief that her office asked for was the permission to "destroy every container kiosk that it removes from the Property."

There is no question that unsecured containers could present a problem, although the Tropical Wave cited in the complaint came and went without any of Fuller's "container kiosks" either suffering any damage, or worse creating a hazard for, or causing any damage to of the surrounding businesses and residences. (You can read the city's complaint at the bottom of this story.)

When I read the complaint yesterday, it struck me as extremely selective, because if there is one thing that anyone who drives around Miami knows, it's that the city has hundreds of shipping containers in all kinds of places throughout the city, some of them sitting in vacant lots, some in the back yard of houses, some of them painted and some of them embarrassing eye sores, and almost ALL of them unsecure against being picked up and dropped elsewhere in the case of a major hurricane or tornado.

So, deciding to see how many containers I could find in a drive from my house to the MRC building yesterday, I hopped in my car and did a drive around.

Below are the containers I photographed along the way. I didn't spend a lot of time doing this, and I'm sure that if I were to go out and spend 8 hours or so looking for unsecured containers I could probably find at least a hundred, if not more.

The important thing is, and I'm willing to be a dollar to a donut that this is so, is that none of the property owners on who's land these containers sit on have ever been served with an injunction and a lawsuit by the city, and none of them have ever been threatened with having their containers destroyed because they aren't secured.

Those are exclusive punishments reserved for the enemies of a thug like Joe Carollo, who it's evident is the one behind the lawsuit filed by the City Attorney's office, because he's repeatedly been seen bringing various city officials to look at these containers, and there is even some thought that if all else fals he wants the city to create a competing marketplace in the little park next to Domino Park.

This is what selective enforcement really looks like, and it's a nasty piece of business!

It's Miami. Bitches!

Support The Crespogram

TWO SCORPIONS IN A JAR: JOE CAROLLO SUES FRANCIS SUAREZ OVER HIS EFFORTS TO BECOME THE STRONG MAYOR OF MIAMI - HERE'S THE LAWSUIT

THE EMERGENCY HEARING OVER THE EFFORT BY THE CITY TO OBTAIN AN INJUNCTION AGAINST BILL FULLER & THE SHIPPING CONTAINERS ON HIS CALLE OCHO PROPERTY

In the first of two emergency hearings held before Miami Circuit Court Judge Miguel De La O, the judge denied - on procedural grounds - the city's petition requesting an injunction to remove a handful of modified shipping containers that local businessman Bill Fuller has been attempting to use as part of a new marketplace on one of his properties.

The denial was not a victory for Fuller, since the city can, and no doubt will refile the petition by the end of the day, but in the course of the hearing it was revealed that the city last night moved to nullify the building permit that they had issued Fuller for this project, providing more evidence, if any was needed, that there is clearly an orchestrated effort on the city's part to jerk Fuller around.

Here is the video of the hearing:

THE EMERGENCY HEARING OVER THE EFFORT BY THE CITY TO OBTAIN AN INJUNCTION AGAINST BILL FULLER & THE SHIPPING CONTAINERS ON HIS CALLE OCHO PROPERTY

The second emergency hearing held before Judge Miguel De La O, was over the lawsuit filed by Miami City Commissioner Joe Carollo challenging the petition drive, the language and the placement of a referendum on the November ballot that would allow Francis Suarez to become the strong mayor of Miami.

One of the interesting things about this hearing was that Ben Kehune, who had defended Joe Carollo in the lawsuit filed by Alfie Leon, in his election challenge over whether Carollo had legally lived within the District the full year, and who had defended Carollo in the recently withdrawn ethics complaint filed by Bill Fuller, showed up to represent the campaign committee that was created by Francis Suarez as the vehicle for his Strong Mayor campaign.

This hearing was primarily held to set in motion all of the legal steps that will take place in subsequent legal hearings that need to occur within the next 3 weeks in order to meet the dealines for absentee ballots being sent out.

The room was filled with lawyers news people and underneath the video I've posted several photos I took to give you a sense of who was there.

I'll make an effort to cover all of the hearings because this is an important case for everyone involved, and most of all for the citizens of Miami.

NUMBER 86  -  SEPTEMBER 7, 2018

HERE ARE THE PROPOSED ULTRA MUSIC FESTIVAL CONTRACT AND THE ORDINANCE FOR ALLOWING ELECTRIC SCOOTERS IN THE CITY OF MIAMI FOR NEXT WEEK'S COMMISSION MEETING - READ THEM OVER AND LET ME KNOW YOUR CONCERNS

THE 2011 - 2017 ARCHIVES ARE CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE