A former Miami city manager, testifying Tuesday in the federal civil trial of Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo, said his staffers were “terrified” of the powerful politician, and felt he was “targeting” a Little Havana businessman’s properties for building code violations.
Emilio Gonzalez, an Army veteran and former U.S. Intelligence officer who served as Miami City Manager from 2018 to January 2020, was the first witness called in a federal trial involving a lawsuit brought by William Fuller and his business partner, Martin Pinilla.
Fuller and Pinilla allege that Carollo retaliated against them after they publicly supported his political opponent in the 2017 election. They said he used the city’s code enforcement office, police, and the fire department to harass their businesses.
During his testimony, Gonzalez said several of his employees came to him with concerns that Carollo was specifically targeting Fuller’s properties, requesting Code Compliance inspectors investigate various businesses the entrepreneur owned in Little Havana.
Fuller’s attorneys produced excerpts of emails to Gonzalez from his then-deputy city manager, assistant city managers and even former Miami Police Department Chief Jorge Colina, each of whom expressed concerns over directives from Carollo to go after Fuller-related properties.
“I would hear from employees that they were terrified. They were afraid to say ‘no,’” Gonzalez told jurors.
Gonzalez testified that Carollo took him on two walking tours of Calle Ocho, home to many of Fuller’s properties, at the beginning of his tenure as city manager. During those tours, Gonzalez said, Carollo raised concerns about possible code issues and pointed out businesses that he thought had no business being on Calle Ocho because they weren’t Hispanic.
In one instance, Gonzalez said that Carollo pointed to a mural that he didn’t like because it “had too many Black people on it.”
“He didn’t want people to think Little Havana was a Black neighborhood,” Gonzalez said, prompting multiple objections from Carollo’s attorneys. The judge overruled the objections..
Gonzalez also testified that City Attorney Victoria Mendez contacted him on several occasions, asking him to “pasar la mano” to Carollo, or to “assuage” his worries, because the commissioner was concerned that Fuller’s properties weren’t being investigated or shut down.
'Pasar la mano'
Gonzalez resigned in January of 2020 after a commission meeting in which Carollo publicly complained that the manager wasn’t doing his job and called for his firing, all while Gonzalez was at home with his ailing wife. Gonzalez testified that he went to the next commission meeting to defend himself and rebut all of Carollo’s points, but the meeting was adjourned and cut short before he could speak.
“I thought that was cowardice,” Gonzalez said.
When Carollo’s attorneys questioned Gonzalez, they made the point that commissioners are allowed to bring possible code violations to the attention of Code Compliance and to the city manager. They further argued that code violations are often brought up regarding safety concerns, and that when people perform construction work without permits, it can endanger the public, a point Gonzalez acknowledged.
Carollo’s attorney, Benedict Kuehne, pointed out several properties belonging to Fuller and Pinilla that had work done reportedly without a permit.
Kuehne also had Gonzalez describe a code violation he witnessed firsthand at one of the pair’s properties. Gonzalez recalled an instance at Union Beer, a bar on Calle Ocho, in which there was an unpermitted boxing match going on in the backyard of the property. Gonzalez said Carollo alerted him to the violation, and Gonzalez then directed his staff to deal with the issue once he witnessed it himself.
“The jury is listening attentively and we will tell the truth of what happened during the trial,” Kuehene told WLRN after Tuesday’s testimony.
The trial returns Monday, April. 17. Former Miami police chiefs Jorge Colina and Art Acevedo are expected to testify.
Correction: This story was updated to clarify that Emilio Gonzalez resigned after Joe Carollo called for his firing. A previous version of this story said he had called for his 'resignation.'
