Updated at 5:58 p.m.
Poor accounting, no-bid contracts and misappropriation of public funds — these and more allegations are levied against a City of Miami commissioner by his successor on a city park board, who wants the Miami-Dade Inspector General's Office to investigate.
Miami Commissioner Miguel Gabela accused Commissioner Joe Carollo of using public funds from the Bayfront Park Management Trust to further his own political objectives in other parts of the city. The Trust oversees Bayfront and Maurice A. Ferré parks in downtown Miami.
At an emergency meeting of the Trust on Tuesday, Gabela levied a litany of accusations after performing an investigation into the Trust's finances and systems when he took over this February for Carollo as chairman. Carollo served as Trust chairman from 2017 until Gabela took the reins.
"He is bringing forward his political career on the Bayfront Trust’s dime," Gabela said from the dais. "I’d like to call for a forensic audit that should have been done a year ago."
In the room during the meeting, Carollo called the proceedings a "kangaroo court." He claims that Gabela is misusing park funds by overspending for holiday events.
Carollo accused Gabela of taking free tickets to Ultra Music Festival this past March and bringing his family members. Gabela did not deny this during the meeting, saying that other city commissioners were also at that same event.
The allegations
During the meeting, Gabela showed photos of Bayfront Park staff placing food in grocery bags marked with the logo for Carollo's District 3. Carollo's office holds several grocery distribution events in Little Havana, which is not within the Trust's purview.
Jose Suarez, former executive director of the Trust, called into the emergency meeting to say that Bayfront Park employees were expected to fill these bags at the behest of Carollo, and would sometimes have to work overtime after hours to perform other duties in Little Havana for Carollo.
Other photos showed pickup trucks with "Bayfront Park" written on their sides at the set-up area for a concert on Calle Ocho in Little Havana. The District 3 commission office has its own budget of taxpayer dollars that are meant to be used for events and initiatives within the district. The park's budget is meant to be used for park maintenance and projects.
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The trust has an annual budget of between $10 million and $20 million, made up of taxpayer dollars from the City of Miami as well as park fees.
Carollo contacted WLRN after the meeting and said that he did use Bayfront Park as a staging area for his grocery distributions, which were paid for out of his office's budget. He also admitted that Bayfront Park trucks were used at events in Little Havana, but said this was not inappropriate or illegal.
"What is wrong if they want to contribute to a district event? There’s nothing wrong here," Carollo told WLRN.
Gabela also alleged that the Trust had poor record keeping for its finances, and payments were made without proof of management review or approval. He claimed contracts were given out without a transparent competitive bidding process.
Former Bayfront Park Management Trust member Cristina Palomo also attended Tuesday's emergency meeting. She stated publicly that a singular bid for a controversial dog and cat statue exhibit at the park was sent to the personal emails of Carollo and his wife, Marjorie, rather than to Trust members. The Trust ended up paying $1 million out of its pool of taxpayer funds for the statues without any further bidding.
Palomo resigned over the project, which she called “poorly vetted” and “untransparent,” in 2023.
Asked about the bid being sent to his and his wife's personal emails, Carollo underscored that the project was ultimately approved by the Trust board.
"What’s important is that the trust members voted for that and they were able to look at every aspect of this corporation and everything they presented," he said."
Further allegations levied by Gabela include an irregular payment of $150,000 by the Trust to América TeVé, a local Spanish language television network, for broadcasting Bayfront Park's 2025 New Year's celebration.
"Usually the broadcaster pays us to get broadcasting rights because they get advertising revenue," Gabela said.
The commissioner said he would refer his findings to the Miami-Dade County Office of the Inspector General for review, and would call for a formal audit of the Trust's finances.
"If this investigation finds evidence of waste, fraud, or abuse of public funds, we promise to hand it over to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for them to review and potentially prosecute," Gabela said in a written statement.
The lawsuit
The Trust and Carollo are already in the midst of a lawsuit brought by former Trust director Jose Suarez, and former finance director Jose Canto. The pair sued in January alleging similar issues of funds mismanagement, poor accounting and personal benefits tendered to Carollo and his family using park funds.
One claim in Suarez and Canto's lawsuit that raised eyebrows was that of the existence of a "money room" in the Bayfront Park facilities where cash collected by park staff was kept on open tables.
"Apparently the money was stored in what was called the 'money room' and at times there would be employees that would take, I don't know, 20, 30, 40 thousand dollars in cash to the bank to deposit," Suarez said at a press conference in January.
Carollo's personal attorney, Marc Sarnoff, was in attendance at Tuesday's meeting. He told WLRN he was there in his fiduciary capacity to watch the proceedings.
