{"id":5546,"date":"2025-10-15T21:59:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T21:59:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/5546\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T21:59:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T21:59:06","slug":"rival-accuses-carollo-of-having-city-staffers-remove-campaign-signs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/5546\/","title":{"rendered":"Rival accuses Carollo of having city staffers remove campaign signs"},"content":{"rendered":"

MIAMI \u2014 A pair that tussled during public meetings is now sparring over a campaign sign incident just weeks before Election Day, as both run for mayor of Miami.<\/p>\n

Anna Suarez-Burgos said two weeks ago that the first set of signs had disappeared. Then, she said, the video shows what happened on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

A city vehicle approaches, removing campaign signs for her neighbor, Miami mayoral candidate and former city manager Emilio Gonzalez.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has become a banana republic,\u201d Suarez-Burgos said.<\/p>\n

Then, she said she spotted something else.<\/p>\n

\u201c(A staffer\u2019s shirt<\/a>) had the name of \u2018District 3 Joe Carollo,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cSo consequently, I was in an uproar because how is that possible? I called Emilio and let him know, \u2018Here we go again.\u2019 After he did that to Ball & Chain<\/a>, now he continues to overstep his power.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gonzalez, who posted the video to social media<\/a>, called it part of \u201cthe weaponization of government.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy is it that the office of a sitting commissioner, who is also a candidate running against me, has his personnel out here taking my signs down?\u201d Gonzalez asked. \u201cThere is a right way, a wrong way, there is probably a legal way, a not-so-legal way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carollo told Local 10 News that he did not direct staffers to remove any signs.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, I don\u2019t get involved in that,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have a district person in charge of that who handles it the same way it\u2019s been handled for years, the same way that this district office has taken down thousands of illegal signs throughout this district. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe staffers were directed by Tony Wagner, who heads that. I do not know what signs they picked out, how many are commercial, how many are private, how many are for different candidates.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carollo said any sign \u201cplaced illegally on city property…will and has to be taken down.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe totally respect signs that are placed on private property, and that is where they should be placed \u2014 and that is where he needs to place his, like the other candidates,\u201c he said.<\/p>\n

Carollo says city code<\/a> prevents placing signs on public rights-of-way, including swales \u2014 and rules are rules.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd by the way,\u201d Gonzalez said, \u201cwho better to talk about breaking the law than Commissioner Carollo?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, that is a staffer,\u201d Carollo said. \u201cAnd what are they doing wrong? Tell me what they are doing wrong there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Suarez-Burgos said, \u201cIf I can\u2019t put it on my swale, notify me, don\u2019t go and take the sign off,\u201d saying officials should focus on putting this place \u2014 Miami \u2014 back together.”<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you go to Little Havana, it is packed with dirt and trash on every other corner,\u201d she said. \u201cWhy don\u2019t they concentrate on that? That would be a good thing. Or overgrown trees, or cleaning the street, or crime.\u201d<\/p>\n

Howard Wasserman, a law professor at Florida International University, calls the actions questionable.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not entirely clear if he, as a city commissioner, has the authority to be the one to remove the signs as opposed to police or code compliance,\u201d Wasserman said. \u201cEthically, there is something unsettling about someone who is both a government official and a candidate for office using the appearance of his government office to try to affect the election.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gonzalez characterizes it as \u201cborderline election interference.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that you have an official city vehicle coming down the street just to pull out campaign signs \u2014 you mean to tell me that\u2019s all taxpayers can expect from our city employees? \u2018Hey, I don\u2019t like those signs, go take them down.\u2019 No,” he said. \u201cAnd this is part of the reason why I am running. This has to stop.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carollo chuckled when asked about the video.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy reaction is, I have not seen the video,\u201d Carollo said. \u201cBut my reaction is that (Gonzalez) is an individual (who) is very frustrated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Local 10 News contacted a city spokesperson to inquire if district staff have enforcement authority to remove campaign signs, if any other candidates other than Gonzalez had their signs removed from public swales, but have not heard back. <\/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 A pair that tussled during public meetings is now sparring over a campaign sign incident just…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5547,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[225,227,226],"class_list":{"0":"post-5546","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\/5546","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=5546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}