multi-million dollar civil verdict<\/a>. <\/p>\nThe issue has already been deferred twice, with some commissioners warning that it may have a chilling effect on city leaders who feel like the city doesn\u2019t have their backs.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re set to vote again in late November on whether to cover Carollo\u2019s legal fees.<\/p>\n
The two candidates headed for a mayoral runoff weighed in.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe person (who) does the thing should pay their own legal fees when they are abusing their power as an elected official,\u201d candidate Eileen Higgins said.<\/p>\n
Candidate Emilio Gonzalez said, \u201cIf it comes out, which I believe it did in the court, that he was acting in a personal capacity, then we should not pay his legal fees.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf he was acting in an official capacity, I could see that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Commissioner Miguel Gabela said he doesn\u2019t \u201csee a good reason for that vote not to be taken.\u201d<\/p>\n
He believes the fees should be covered \u2015 but only to a point.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to cover your trial. We\u2019re going to cover your first appeal. We\u2019re then going to cover the en banc appeal, which is what I call the second appeal,\u201d Gabela said. \u201cThe only thing we\u2019re not going to cover is if you decide to go to the United States Supreme Court. We\u2019re not going to cover that. That\u2019s going to come out of your pocket.\u201d<\/p>\n
A federal jury found Carollo liable in 2023 for retaliating against two Little Havana business owners who backed his political opponent. <\/p>\n
Carollo, 70, has tried to appeal the $63 million judgment against him. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe taxpayer has been fleeced,\u201d Gabela said. \u201cI think we\u2019ve had enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
Documents from over the summer estimate that Carollo\u2019s defense has cost taxpayers at least $5 million. But Gabela said the longtime elected official\u2019s actions have had a domino effect.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would say right now the city is probably in for probably $30 to $35 (million) as of this point, not counting the losses that we still have to settle and the legal bills that we still have to pay,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The next Miami City Commission meeting is scheduled for Nov. 20.<\/p>\n
\ud83c\udfe0 News From Your Neighborhood<\/p>\n
Copyright 2025 by WPLG Local10.com – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI \u2014 With a loss in his attempt to once again be Miami\u2019s mayor, term-limited Commissioner Joe Carollo\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35924,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[225,227,226],"class_list":{"0":"post-35923","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hialeah","8":"tag-hialeah","9":"tag-hialeah-headlines","10":"tag-hialeah-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}