
via City of Miami, Debbie Dolson

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Update 4:50 p.m.: This morning, District Judge Rodney Smith denied Bill Fuller and Martin Pinilla’s emergency motion for a temporary restraining order against Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo and canceled tomorrow’s hearing on the grounds that the plaintiffs “cannot establish irreparable harm.” The judge deemed it “pure speculation” that the plaintiffs would “suffer irreparable harm…once Defendant’s home is protected through the homestead exemption,” adding that “generally courts do not issue preliminary injunctions in order to maintain assets which could be used to satisfy a potential money judgment.”
Further, Smith noted, the motion would interfere with Carollo’s duties as a commissioner. If they wanted to challenge the new redistricting, he suggested they file a separate lawsuit.
“Plaintiffs seek to enjoin Defendant from exercising his legislative responsibilities, not from taking retaliatory actions against Plaintiffs,” the judge wrote. “Any challenge to the City Commission’s redistricting decisions should be challenged through a voter redistricting lawsuit.”
For weeks, Coconut Grove residents have been fighting what some call a “blatantly racist” redistricting map that will split their community among three separate Miami City Commission districts rather than keep it intact as it currently stands. The goal is to siphon roughly 28,000 voters out of District 2, the skinny coastal district that includes Brickell, downtown Miami, and the Grove, in order to ensure that each of the city’s five commission districts represents an equitable population in light of the 2020 U.S. Census.
Despite the public outcry, the commission is scheduled to vote on the controversial redistricting map this Friday, March 11.
But before that transpires, one 11th-hour drama must play out.
On Tuesday, William “Bill” Fuller and Martin A. Pinilla, two Little Havana entrepreneurs, filed an emergency motion in federal district court, seeking a temporary restraining order to bar District 3 commissioner Joe Carollo from voting on the redistricting map.
The plaintiffs contend that the matter constitutes a conflict of interest for Carollo – whom, it just so happens, they are suing in the same federal venue. That ongoing complaint, which was filed in October of 2018, targets the commissioner in his personal capacity as a citizen. It alleges that after Fuller supported Carollo’s opponent in the 2017 run-off election for city commission, Carollo engaged in targeted harassment when he staked out Fuller’s properties and affiliated businesses and called in false complaints to code enforcement and city employees. (For more on that lawsuit, see “Qualified Immunity Can’t Shield Joe Carollo From Ball & Chain Lawsuit,” published in New Times on February 18.)
The restraining order zeroes in on a curious carve-out in the proposed redistricting map that would append a trapezoidal chunk of northern Coconut Grove into Carollo’s District 3 – a chunk that just so happens to include a home that Carollo purchased in 2001 for $574,700. Estimates of its current value fall in the $2.5 million to $2.8 million range.
A March 4 New Times story quotes Carollo saying, “I have a property there, so what?”
What’s the big deal?
Well, because Carollo hasn’t lived at that Morris Lane property since running for office in District 3 in 2016 – he rents a home in Little Havana to meet residency requirements – Florida’s homestead exemption laws don’t apply to it. That means the Coconut Grove property would be considered a vulnerable asset should Fuller and Pinilla prevail in their lawsuit. But if commissioners vote to approve the proposed district maps on Friday, Carollo could move back into the home without relinquishing his District 3 seat and claim the homestead exemption.
“Carollo is attempting to wield the power of his office to protect his home from the judgment Plaintiffs will inevitably obtain in this case,” states the emergency motion, which is embedded at the end of this article. “If Commissioner Carollo succeeds in creatively redrawing the boundaries of the district he represents to include the only home he owns, he can continue retaliating against Plaintiffs with impunity.”

A proposed Miami City Commission redistricting map moves Ransom Everglades middle school and Joe Carollo’s house out into District 3.
Courtesy of Debbie Dolson
Most recently, in February, a federal appeals court ruled that Carollo cannot claim immunity to shield himself from the lawsuit because the plaintiffs’ allegations concern actions that fall outside of his professional duties.
Notably, Fuller and Pinilla attached to their emergency motion a March 2021 letter from the city’s insurer, Brit Global Specialty USA, alerting Carollo that the company would not reimburse him or the city for any damages incurred by Fuller’s and Pinilla’s lawsuit.
“As Commissioner of District 3, you are an ‘Insured’…, but only ‘while acting within the scope of [your] duties as such,'” the letter states. “Should it be determined through the course of this litigation that your alleged actions were outside the scope of your duties as Commissioner for the City of Miami, then your alleged actions would not meet the requirements of the definition of “Assured” as cited above. Therefore, you would not be entitled to reimbursement as an assured under this policy.”
On Tuesday night, Carollo’s attorney, Benedict Kuehne, filed a response to the’ emergency motion, arguing that it allowed insufficient time to respond before Friday’s redistricting meeting.
“A matter like this needs time to respond and it should not be done on an emergency basis,” Kuehne tells New Times.
A hearing is set for 1:30 p.m. Thursday at the federal district courthouse in Fort Lauderdale to determine whether Carollo will be barred from participating in the redistricting discussion and vote, which is still on the agenda for the following day at 10 a.m. at Miami City Hall.