Miami commissioner to call for Carollo's removal from city agency caught up in lawsuit

Miami Herald

05-02-2025

Miami City Commissioner Miguel Angel Gabela plans to call for the removal of Joe Carollo as chairman of the Bayfront Park Management Trust, a downtown city agency at the center of a federal whistleblower lawsuit filed by two former employees who made accusations about financial improprieties and accounting issues at the agency.
At the next Miami City Commission meeting on Feb. 13, Gabela said he will ask his colleagues to vote on removing Carollo as chairman of the Trust — a post Carollo has held since 2017. The agency, which maintains downtown's Bayfront and Maurice Ferré parks, generates revenue from hosting large-scale events like the Ultra Music Festival. The chairperson role is held by one of Miami's five city commissioners.
READ MORE: Former employees sue Joe Carollo, say he used Miami city agency for personal gain
Gabela said that he is calling for a 'vote of no confidence' and that Carollo should 'relinquish' the chairmanship 'because of all the controversy that's been happening.'
'And if Carollo wants to go to battle with me because of that, we'll go to battle,' Gabela said.
Gabela said he would be open to becoming Trust chairman if Carollo is voted out. That would mark yet another major leadership change at the Bayfront Park Management Trust in the past two months. In December, the agency's executive director, Jose Suarez, and its finance director, Jose Canto, departed from the agency.
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The pair filed a federal lawsuit last month against the Trust, Carollo and a Trust board member who is also Carollo's personal accountant, alleging that they were pushed out of the agency after raising concerns when they made 'unsettling discoveries' and set out to fix 'accounting issues' in the agency.
Some of those alleged discoveries included the absence of an adequate accounting or auditing system; no policy or procedure to ensure vendors were selected through a competitive bidding process; and no requirement for expenses paid by the Trust to be supported by a contract or invoice. Carollo has denied the lawsuit's allegations, accusing the plaintiffs' attorney Jeff Gutchess of filing the lawsuit as leverage to force the city's hand to settle a different lawsuit involving the operators of the Ball & Chain nightclub, who are also represented by Gutchess.
Gabela's reason for wanting to remove Carollo as the agency's chairman extends beyond the lawsuit's allegations. He pointed to comments Carollo made at a City Commission meeting in June that, 'I think there should be a new chairman when we bring this up again in the first meeting of January.' Gabela said that if Carollo is 'a man of [his] word,' he should bow out.
Carollo is termed out of his District 3 seat at the end of the year. Gabela said it will ensure a smoother transition for whichever commissioner takes over the agency if they can step in months before Carollo's term ends rather than in late 2025.
'It wouldn't be fair to the new person coming in for Carollo to turn it over in November,' Gabela said. He also took umbrage at the fact that the city recently hired Shutts & Bowen, the law firm that employs former City Attorney Victoria Méndez, to defend Carollo in the lawsuit.
'Somebody has to hold his feet to the fire,' Gabela said of Carollo.
Meanwhile, Carollo has a competing proposal that he plans to introduce at the same meeting next week. His proposal would 'abolish' the Bayfront Park Management Trust altogether and instead create a unit within the Parks Department to oversee Maurice Ferré Park and Bayfront Park.
Carollo said his proposal is unrelated to the lawsuit.
Speaking about the lawsuit at Monday's Bayfront Park Management Trust meeting, Carollo said the plaintiffs are 'cowards' for making what he described as bogus claims.
'I am not a coward,' Carollo added. 'I might be accused of a lot of things. But one that I never have been, never will be, is a coward.'