Copyrighted:  2011,2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019

From being an intern at the TV station where Daddy is the News Director...

The lovely Camila is now an employee of the Bayfront Park Management Trust, where Commissioner "Comemerida" Carollo reigns like a tinpot dictator while claiming to be the most honest public official in Miami.

Hiring family members of Cuban exile radio and TV broadcasters and/or senior employees of stations has been a longtime practice in the City of Miami where Tomas Regalado in his first term had close to a dozen on the city payroll, which is part of the answer of why much of the local latin news media doesn't go after people like Carollo - or Regalado when he was Mayor - and explains why Carollo has received kid glove treatment from America TeVe.

The job of Office General Assistant seems to have been created for Camila Cossio, because a search of how the staff of the Trust was organized before Carollo became the Trust's Chairman shows that there was no Administrative Director position, the job now held by Valeria Sanchez, and there was no job titled Office General Assistant.

America TeVe for those who've been living in a haze filled fog of marijuana smoke just happens to be the TV station that was broadcasting Carollo's Viernes Pequena Habana musical entertainments at Domino Park in Little Havana.

THE MIAMI PARKING AUTHORITY HAS SO MUCH MONEY TO PISS AWAY THAT IT GAVE CAROLLO SPONSORSHIP MONEY

The bigger story involving the Viernes Pequena Habana musical entertainments however, is that in a phone call with former Carollo Chief of Staff Richard Blom on Wednesday, he told me that on the Thursday before the last Friday of every month, an employee from Carollo's office would go to the offices of the MPA and pick up an envelope containing checks to cover the payment of the entertainers at the Friday night events in Domino Park.

When questioned about this, Art Noriega, the Executive Director of the Miami Parking Authority admitted that Carollo came to him last year and asked him if the MPA would help sponsor these Friday night events, and given that he and Carollo had a "20 year history," Noriega agreed.

I can understand Noriega's position that by giving Carollo some money he reduced the chances of Carollo coming after him for one thing or another, but that the prevailing view of how to deal with a bully like Carollo is to concede to his demands only emboldens him into thinking he can get away with even more outrageous acts of thuggery, and ends up costing the taxpayers, who at the end of the day are the ones whose money is being used to pay off Carollo.

To date, the MPA has paid to total of $39,200 for talent and production. The detailed list provided by the MPA below identifies who got paid, and the amounts.

In January of this year I continued raising questions as to how much these events were actually costing the city, and why was the city providing the liability insurance for this event given that America TeVe was videotaping these events and then turning around and broadcasting them on Sundays as Specials, and selling advertising?

Under the guise of a so-called public event, a local TV station was actually generating content from which they were making money, and to this day, the city, and most especially the City Attorney has refused to produce a contract between the city and this TV station making any of this legal.

This is absolute bullshit!

And not only is it bullshit, but as predicted, it's bullshit that was destined from the beginning to have a very short term life expectancy, since as I revealed in a post earlier in the week, people have quit showing up.

To top it off, a woman named Martha Maza Victor, who claims that Carollo hired her to be the "talent coordinator" for these Friday night events has gone on Facebook to claim that she was screwed by Carollo for not paying her for 5 months worth of work.

As a side note to underscore just how sick and mean spirited both Carollo brothers are, when Frank was the Commissioner he hired a guy to be his policy director, and then treated him like shit.

The guy eventually had to go to the doctor to deal with the medical issues created by the stress of having to work in Carollo's office, and the doctor told him he had to take some time off.

When the guy told Frank that he needed to take time off to deal with the issues of stress, Frank fired him.

You can't make this shit up.

It's Miami, Bitches!

These monies do not account for all the costs associated with putting on these events - and in fact the MPA sponsorship raises a very troubling question of accountability, because first of all a search of the MPA Board Meeting Agendas and Monthly Budget Reports for the last 3 months of 2018 do not show any mention of this sponsorship being revealed, discussed or authorized, and secondly, how would anyone in the public  actually know what the real costs associated with this event were since the money coming from the MPA is not money that would show up anywhere in the city's book-keeping system.

Besides the MPA money and the city money, Noriega's recollection was that Carollo in the past had also mentioned getting money and/or services from other sponsors.

The so-called sponsorship by the MPA raises an even more important question of why should the MPA be giving away money in event sponsorships and spending public money to begin with because they really have no independent supervision, other than from a Board of Directors made up of 5 hand-picked political cronies and questionable stewarts of the public's trust like Larry Spring, who was captured on a wiretap offering former Miami Police Chief Miguel Exposito a $200,000 check as part of an alleged bribe offer for him to resign.

The agency operates independently and their only obligation to the city is to give them whatever money remains after they pissed away as much money as they can get away with on shit that has absolutely nothing to do with parking.

If there are other sponsors besides the MPA, who are they? How much have they donated? Do they have any family members now working for the city arranged for by Carollo? And most importantly, is there a way to independently account for any, or all of these so-called sponsorships and donations?

I first started raising questions about this event in November of last year when the city tried to unilaterally close down SW 8th Street for the first event, and was rebuffed by the FDOT.

Far too much time has gone by without a resolution of whether or not Joe Carollo was ever in the U.S. Marines, and while the answer to that question is important, there needs to be some refocusing on what Joe Carollo has been up to recently, and why this question about whether he lied about his military service is a distraction that either on purpose, or just through happenstance has taken folks attention away from far more serious issues.

So first, let be clear about Carollo and the question of whether he was ever in the U.S. Marines, and the whole issue of Stolen Valor.

I have never used those words in my stories because I don't believe that he has done anything that would prompt a criminal investigation into that crime being committed.

The Stolen Valor Act of 2013, is a specific federal crime and involves the wearing, or claims of being awarded one of 12 combat medals.  I have not found any evendence, nor do I believe there is any evidence he ever did that, or even for that matter made a claim of any military service during any of his campaigns for public office.

So, no one is going to arrest him, or charge him with that crime.

What he did, if he did it, is just do what politicians do all the time. He lied as a way to enhance his resume.

That in and of itself is not a crime, because politicians lie all the time, and as Miami Dade-County Circuit Judge Judge De La O, wrote in his October opinion on the lawsuit that Carollo filed against Francis Suarez over the referendum ballot question of Strong Mayor, "This court cannot, and will not, be the watchdog for accuracy in politics."

I have no answer as to why either Carollo hasn't stepped forward with ANY documentation that would establish that he was in the U.S. Marines, nor do I have an answer of why Colonel Klink hasn't stepped forward either to defend Carollo, if he was in the Marines, or denounce him if he wasn't.

But as important as this issue might be, it is secondary to the issues that I raised in stories that I did just before this issue erupted, and which I believe have now been largely ignored or overlooked.

Below are the two critical stories that I believe deserve and require a lot more attention by the news media.

The first one is the issue of the Miami Parking Authority issuing checks from their bank account to pay for talent and production costs for Carollo's Last Friday Concerts in Little Havana.

What I failed to include in my original story is that Carollo, like all the commissioners received $250,000 for Special Events - in his case events such as these Friday night concerts.

So, on top of the $250,000 that he should have used to finance these activities, he strong-armed Art Noriega to give him $39,200, as of the time of my story to cover some of these costs, and that fails to include another $3,150 to date that Noriega wrote off for Carollo's event taking over the parking lot behind Domino Park on Fridays.

To top it off, Noriega claimed that Carollo confided to him that he had other sponsors as well. Who were they? How much did they give Carollo?

And why did Martha Maza Victor find it necessary go on Facebook to claim that Carollo had stiffed her out of any payment for her services as the talent coordinator for these events.

She by the way is not the only person who allegedly claims to have been stiffed by Carollo.

This is a story that merits being covered by the news media, but not a word has appeared in the Miami Herald, New Times, the Community News, or any of the TV stations about any of this.

What's up with that? Why hasn't anyone gone to the City Manager and gotten him to explain how all of this is going on in, "His city?"

I also have to take to task Joey Flechas for his coverage of the firing of Richie Blom, Carollo's  former Chief of Staff, and point out that the public was not served well by his failure to provide them with a lot more information than he did.  

Not only did he NOT provide the readers of the Miami Herald with copies of Blom's emails which in this day and age represents a huge failure of responsibility to a newspaper's readership when it comes to including copies of any and all relevant documents as part of any story appearing on the web version of a newspaper, but if you read the actual emails written by Blom - that are below - you have to ask why didn't Flechas go to the City Manager and ask him what he had done after he was informed through Blom's emails that Carollo was engaging in "Profanity laden rants," with one of his department directors, and a representative of the Miami Marlins.

What the fuck is up with that?

The public is entitled to know what a guy who they are paying $265,000 a year, plus benefits, does when he's informed that city employees who he's responsible for, and a representative of a major sports team and major property owner in the city are being verbally abused inside of City Hall, and a reporter worth his salt would make it a point to try and find out and let his readers know.

Here is the portion of Blom's July 1st email where he describes these incidents     

"As I pointed out previously, I've witnessed your profanity laden rants when I've greeted people in the District 3 office who, for whatever reason, were not welcome there. One was a city department director and the other individual was a representative of the Miami Marlins. I continued to work closely with these individuals but made it a point to meet at a location other than our city hall office in order to avoid the unpleasantness that I've had to endure in the past. I also do my best to keep up with your “persona non grata” list."

You would think after reading just this paragraph, that another significant question that a news reporter would want to get an answer to, and maybe inform his readers was that the commissioner had/has a "persona non grata" list.

Whose on that list?

Imagine if Woodward and Bernstein back in the day learned that President Richard Nixon had an "enemies list," and then just decided that letting the readers know that such a list existed wasn't important?  

Again, what the fuck is up with that?

These stories are not just incidental incidents engaged in by Carollo, but represent part of a persistent and continuing pattern of willfull and abusive misbehavior that the citizens of Miami should be told about on a daily basis if necessary by the local news media.

My readership does not reach the wider community that the Miami Herald, New Times, and the local TV stations reach, and there is no excuse for the failure of these supposed protectors of the public's interest to do a damn site better job of reporting on what is little more than a continuing enterprise of grifting and abuse of power at Miami City Hall.

The Miami Herald claims in their daily hustle for new subscribers, "With your support we can hold those in power accountable."

That's bullshit.

True, they'll spend tens of thousands of dollars investigating a pervert pedophile who operated in Palm Beach county, but they won't spend $10 on doing the same kind of in-depth investigating and reporting on Miami City Hall, or Miami-Dade County Hall.

Those buildings and those politicians are exempt from the kind of attention that they gave to Jeffrey Epstein, because in Miami, the largely Cuban politcal players are protected by the Family and Friends Plan, even if they are as corrupt and crazy as Joe Carollo.

It's Miami, Bitches!

Below are letters and backup documents on the failure of the ULTRA folks to repair the damage they did to the city's property on Virginia Key. The information speaks volumes about what the city and the residents in downtown Miami can expect in the future from ULTRA.

Normally, I just post the videos of various community events without comment, because I figure that any comments that I make would be superfluous, but the candidate forum in Allapattah for the District 1 City Commission seat being vacated by Willie Gort will probably go down as an event that people who did attend will forever remember, and always describe by starting with the words, "You shoulda been there."

Without question, if the forum last night was a contest to discover who was the craziest candidate - Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the absolute batshit craziest of them all - that honor would go to Frank Pichel, who at one point stated that if he was elected the very first thing he would do the next morning would be to go to the headquarters where the trolly buses are kept, steal one, and begin driving it in the district.

His best line of the night - among some strong contenders - was when in summing up why folks should elect him he made it a point to remind everyone that among his many community accomplishments that qualified him to be a city commissioner were the people he had shot in the district during the years he was a cop.

I have written about Pichel before, (HERE, HERE & HERE,) and done my best to point out how batshit crazy he is, maybe as a result of ingesting too many of those drugs he was accused of selling while he was a cop, but the only reason that he should ever get elected to the city commission was if the city beforehand sold the television rights to the City Commission meetings for big bucks, because putting Pichel on the same dais with Joe "Comemierda" Carollo would definitely become, Must See TV

Speaking of "Comemierda," the speculation is that two, and possibly three of the candidates are allegedly considered as Carollo's flunkies including of course Diaz de la Portilla and Pichel. Who the the third one might be depends on who you talk to, but along with the speculation about that relationship, it was clear from their comments last night that Diaz de la Portilla and Eleazar Melendez are both in the pocket of Jorge Mas when it comes to supporting the Soccer Stadium Deal, including Diaz de la Portilla's claim that by law the city is now required to negotiate a deal with Maz over the property, which is a bald faced lie.

In truth, if they negotiate a contract that the commission does not find acceptable, the commission then has a right - as Carollo revealed in one of his stopped clock moments, and I wrote about - that they could then put the property back out for an RFP to allow other bidders to offer proposals on what they would do with the property, and for how much more than the $3.4 million annual rent.

On the other hand, Melendez has been telling folks for a while that he expects to get serious money from both Boy-Toy Mayor Francis Suarez and his former boss Commissioner "Sellout" Russell in the weeks before the election because of his willingness to be on their side on this issue.

Miami is one of those places where so-called forward looking progressives  show their willingness to start selling their votes to the yahoos and scammers even before they get elected.

Some of the other candidates also didn't fare much better, in part because they were clueless as to what they can, and what they can't do as a city commissioner, and also because the moderators didin't seem to know either, because asking a candidate for the city commission seat in Miami to speak on what they'd like to do for education - a city commissioner is not a school board member - is a waste of time, especially as it was pointed out by Hermida that there were so many issues and subjects that shoulda, coulda been raised that weren't.

Savvy moderators - in fact these guys both looked and acted as they were overwhelmed just being there - could have dealt with the allegations surrounding the destruction of absentee ballots in Diaz del la Portilla's last race for County Commission, and the loss of his parent's house as a resulte of multiple code violations, but then again, they'd have to have been acquainted with these issues, and neither one to my knowledge ever covered these stories. Both stories appeared first on the Crespogram. (Absentee Ballots, Code Enforcement, Code Enforcement.)

Things got so crazy, that after 51 minutes my camera decided to punish me for bringing it to such a shit show and quit recording, so I apologize, first that my video only includes the first 51 minutes, and secondly, that it seems that YOU TUBE is having a major problem allowing videos on their site to be shared, and so if you want to watch the video you'll have to do a copy /paste with this link: https://youtu.be/SivuobGWapw     

All you need to do is read the emails that former Chief of Staff Richie Blom wrote about the working conditions inside Joe Carollo's office to appreciate that Tanjha Quintana is probably not the only employee who goes to work in the morning either drunk, or with trepidation about what could happen that day. (See arrest affidavit HERE.)

Joe Carollo is mentally ill, and I blame City Manager Emilio Gonzalez for not intervening in some way after receiving Blom's emails - YOU CAN READ THOSE EMAILS BY SCOLLING DOWN TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE.

The City Manager has a responsibility to do more than shrug his shoulders and go and spend taxpayer dollars two or three times a week having lunch with the "Boys."

This incident is a RED FLAG that things are dangerously wrong inside the office of Commissioner Joe Carollo, and someone with authority has to step in before something even worse happens to one of Carollo's employees.

Instead of this being one of the legion of female city employees who you've shown little regard for in the past, pretend that this is a young 18 year old army recuit Colonel, and do what you would do to protect him!

You can't delegate this time. This is now your problem, so deal with it!