Peeling Away the Layers of Power at City Hall

This was going to be the year of “What can I do to help?” The year when Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, through his YouTube Cafecito Talks and Twitter interactions with global business leaders, was going to publicize the Magic City as the friendly alternative to high-tax regions like New York and California.

And for a time, it was. There were articles published on news websites and in magazines across the nation touting the migration of tech, venture capital and cryptocurrency companies toward the City of Miami.

But now the national headlines are about how Art Acevedo, previously the police chief of Houston, was fired as chief of the Miami Police Department after writing an eight-page memo claiming that Commissioners Manolo Reyes, Joe Carollo and Alex Diaz de la Portilla interfered with his efforts to reform the MPD, and the internal affairs investigation of a sergeant-at-arms popular with the three commissioners.

The memo, which was sent to Suarez and City Manager Art Noriega, also claimed that two of those commissioners – Carollo and Diaz de la Portilla – demanded that police investigate certain businesses for criminal activity, and that he would be taking his evidence to “the proper authorities.”

“After five months of observing these two commissioners and the negative impact they are having on (the) MPD and our business community, coupled with their unlawful obstruction of the (internal affairs) investigation ... I feel compelled to memorialize and report their unlawful and retaliatory conduct,” Acevedo wrote in his Sept. 24 missive.

Acevedo’s allegations were denounced as fabrications by Reyes, Carollo and Diaz de la Portilla. In two special commission meetings on Sept. 27 and Oct.1, Carollo spent hours refuting Acevedo’s charges or attacking the chief’s reputation, including re-airing sexual harassment allegations dating back to 2004.

Suarez, who recruited Acevedo from Houston, didn’t attend any of the hearings. When the mayor finally did comment, it was to lament that embattled chief couldn’t adapt to Miami’s culture. (Suarez’s spokeswoman did not return an email and text from the Biscayne Times requesting a comment.)

But will these new headlines of chaos in Miami have any impact on the migration of businesses opening in the City of Miami?

Dysfunctional Development

“I don’t think this will have any effect at all,” opined Tony Arellano, managing partner of DWNTWN Realty Advisors. “[Tech and venture capitalists] think this is just a little bit embarrassing.”

In fact, Arellano claimed, demand for office space, particularly in Wynwood and the Design District, remains very strong.

“The amount of demand for businesses to move into the county and city far exceeds the ability [of developers] to provide office space,” he said.

Ana Bozovic, a real estate broker and consultant, maintains that “the influx of money into the region has not abated and it is huge,” and that’s in large part due to the inhospitable environment in places like New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

“Any large urban area is going to have similar structural problems,” said Bozovic, founder of Analytics.Miami. “Is New York any better? There’s tons of dysfunction in any large city in America.”

Not everyone is so optimistic. Andrew Bernard, co-founder of Bitstop, a Miami-based ATM company that converts U.S. dollars into Bitcoin, admitted he didn’t know much about Acevedo’s suspension and termination, but he worried that there is a point when news stories on dysfunction at City Hall will have a negative impact.

“It could potentially sway people to look at other nearby municipalities to put down their roots,” Bernard said.

Billy Corben, a local documentarian who directed “The U” and the Netflix series “Cocaine Cowboys: The Kings of Miami,” goes a step further. Corben said city officials are already targeting some restaurants, bars and real estate developers, and that the Acevedo memo should serve as a warning to stay away.

“What I’m hearing from everyone I’ve talked to that has a business in food and beverage, nightlife and hospitality, is that they all wish they weren’t in Miami,” he said.

And part of the reason, Corben claimed, was Suarez has retreated from his leadership role of city government in order to promote cryptocurrency, or as the director calls it, “imaginary coins.” Filling in the void, Corben says, is Carollo, who has been a force and controversial figure in Miami politics for the past 42 years.

“Joe Carollo is now the de facto strong mayor … [he] runs the city and everyone answers to him,” Corben charged.

In a brief phone interview with the Biscayne Times, Carollo denied that he runs the City of Miami.

“I am 20% of the city commission,” he said. “There are five of us … That is all that I am.”

The Carollo Factor

Bill Fuller, managing principal of Barlington Group, owns around a couple of dozen properties on or near the SW 8th Street corridor in Little Havana. In recent years, he and his partners have attracted trendy restaurants, bars and art spaces. He said he’s been targeted by code compliance, police, food inspectors and even the Mami Parking Authority, at the behest of Carollo. In response, he’s been taking legal action.

Since 2018, Fuller and Barlington Group co-founder Martin Pinilla have been suing Carollo in federal court, alleging that the commissioner has been using city resources to target their properties and harass their tenants. On Sept. 30 of this year, Fuller and his partners filed another lawsuit in federal court against the City of Miami for $28 million. In this most recent suit, Fuller’s attorney stated that the city used “false pretenses” to revoke the certificate of occupancy of their popular Ball & Chain bar and nightclub in November 2020 and to launch a raid on Taquerias El Mexicano, which led to that place being shut down in August for purportedly being an unlicensed nightclub. Fuller’s suit stated that Taquerias is merely a restaurant that serves alcohol.

Fuller claimed Carollo is targeting his ventures because Alfonso Leon held a campaign rally at one of his properties. Leon competed with Carollo for the District 3 commission seat in November 2017, then challenged Carollo’s residency in court when he lost. Additionally, Carollo accused Fuller of trying to “de-Latinize” Little Havana and turn it into Wynwood. Both Fuller and Carollo are Cuban.

Carollo said all he wants to do is protect Miami’s residents from excessive noise and clamp down on purportedly corrupt code compliance officers who he believes are protecting certain businesses. Carollo further accused Fuller of renovating properties and operating valet lots without proper licenses, and asserted Fuller does business with people affiliated with the leftist, pro-Castro Venezuelan government.

“There is so much proof that Fuller has lied, point-by-point. He has committed fraud upon the court,” Carollo told the Biscayne Times.

Fuller denies Carollo’s allegations against him.

“[Carollo] expects for you to kiss his ass,” Fuller fumed.

Political Machinations

Corben said that Fuller’s tenants and business partners aren’t the only business operators being hassled at Carollo’s direction – they’re just the ones everyone knows about. And that perception is felt by many local business owners.

Three District 3 constituents told the Biscayne Times that shop and restaurant owners are terrified of displaying signs supporting another candidate for District 3 in their windows for fear of retribution by Carollo, whose anticipated reelection will be solidified Nov. 2 and by the time this article is in print.

“The thing you need to do is obey, to not speak your mind, to not support his opponents and to be a good little sheep,” said one constituent who wished to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation.

Carollo does have his fans.

Marc Sarnoff, a lobbyist and former commissioner, said Carollo wants safe streets, more affordable housing, and to serve Miami residents. However, “there (are) no ifs and buts to dispute the fact that commissioner Joe Carollo is a force to be reckoned with,” he said.

Attorney Juan-Carlos Planas asserts that force will erode the foundations at Miami City Hall because Carollo will attack and undermine anyone he can’t control, just like he did to Acevedo.

“I think the number one immediate impact is that it’s going to be hard to hire anyone from the outside,” said Planas, who took part in a failed effort to recall Carollo. “No one will work as a department head or manager inside Miami because of the chaos.”

Carollo has decades of political experience in Miami. He was a Miami city commissioner between 1979-1987, and mayor 1996-1997 and again from 1998 to 2001. During those times, he embarked on a series of feuds with city managers, police chiefs and even Mayor Xavier Suarez, Francis Suarez’s father. The elder Suarez, previously mayor of Miami in the 1980s, ran against Carollo in 1997 and initially won, until a judge reversed the election citing evidence of absentee voter fraud in 1998.

Now Suarez the younger is mayor.

Brenda Betancourt, president of the Calle 8 Inter-American Chamber of Commerce, said Suarez’s best option is to stay out of Carollo’s way.

“I don’t think the mayor has a choice,” she said. “If he wants to do anything in the city, he needs to have Carollo’s support on his side.”

Fuller, meanwhile, said he has rectified most of the city’s code issues and hopes to reopen Ball & Chain in a month. But Fuller said he’s now investing his money in real estate outside of the City of Miami, such as the $7.5 million purchase of Mai-Kai restaurant in Broward’s Oakland Park. Fuller insisted that he knows of “a lot of other groups who are pulling their investments out of Miami.”

“Why do business in a town like this when there are other cities who will welcome you with open arms?” he asked.