Fraudster Steven Kneapler, out of the blue released a letter a couple days ago calling out Frank Carollo for allegedly angling to become the Executive Director of the Bayfront Park Trust, where he is currently the Chairman of the Board by virtue of his position as a City Commissioner. The Miami Herald posted a story about this earlier this afternoon.
Carollo is destined to leave office in around a month as a result of term limits, and Kneapler who does nothing within the city limits without first getting approval from Tomas Regalado, decided a couple days ago to release the letter below.
It's interesting, and might even be true, but given that Tommy Regalado is running against Frank's older brother Joe for the District 3 seat that Frank currently holds, and that Joe held back in the day when he was in his early 20's - and who is ahead in the polls - you cannot ignore the possibility that this letter really has less to do with Frank, and any desire he might have to become the Executive Director of the Bayfront Park Board, and more to do with trying to create problems for Joe by calling out his brother, so that Tommy can then try and tie the brothers together in a negative way.
It's always fun to watch a low-life bottom feeder like Kneapler climb up on a soap box to talk about morals, transparency and abusing the public's trust, given all the nasty shit he's done over the years, starting when he and former Mayor Manny Diaz ran Monty's Seafood and Marina and were caught out for failing to pay the city their fair share of the proceeds.
That in no way means that Carollo might not have designs on becoming the Trust's new Executive Director, but if he does, that will all play out at a Commission meeting in November, where if it happened, it would be interesting to see Kneapler show up in person.
It's Miami, Bitches!
10/10/2017
“TRANSPARENCY (MORALS) IN OUR GOVERNMENT-WHERE ARE THEY?
To Members of the Board of the Bayfront Park Management Trust.
After listening to the cd of the last board meeting and attending the
Board meeting today 10/10/2017, I have the following thoughts.
Miami will soon have a bright young mayor, Francis Suarez and a sitting commissioner, Ken Russell who is contemplating running for Congress, I wish them luck. Miami also has a sitting Commissioner, Frank Carollo who is termed out of office (his commission seat) the end of next month who is also chairman of the Bayfront Park Management Trust. Mr. Carollo seems to think that he has all rights, title and interest to what happens with and at the trust, negotiating multimillion dollar contracts on behalf of the Trust on a no bid basis with input from the board “only after the fact”, stuffing the new operating budget with the annual cost and benefits of a full-time staff attorney in addition to the services provided by the city's legal staff which provides a staff attorney to the trust at any time the trust requests, stuffing the new operating budget with an increase for the annual salary of the future Trust executive director by tens of thousands of dollars a year, and a dramatic increase in the annual pension contribution for the new Trust executive director.
The previous executive director guided the Trust from a negative bank balance to a multi-million-dollar bank balance over the years and was more than thankful and satisfied with his salary and benefits until Frank Carollo made it uncomfortable for him to stay.
Mr. Carollo successfully stacked the board with the four (4) at large board members appointed by the City Commission which gave him the opportunity to push his agenda AND HIMSELF!
When asked by a board member who is an independent thinker at the last trust meeting when the budget was approved by Mr. Carollo's hand-picked majority, DO YOU WANT TO BE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NOT ONCE BUT TWICE, Mr. Carollo refused to give a simple direct answer and dodged the question.
To make matters more egregious and disingenuous, at the board meeting today, which I attended, when the approval of the minutes from the last meeting came up by Frank Carollo, board member Duarte noted that the question he asked twice at the last meeting regarding whether or not Frank Carollo wanted to be the executive director 'WAS CONVENIENTLY OMITTED', how's them apples? I really shouldn't have to go any further but unfortunately, I must.
There is no doubt that Mr. Carollo has been and is now maneuvering to give himself the job as the executive director of the trust and therefore on the city's dime if you will, with the help of his stacked board and the city commission, or certain member(s) of the city commission if he's successful.
The ordinance creating the Trust prohibits any board member from being the executive director, and the executive director has to be approved BY THE COMMISSION, so there is a myriad of possibilities, too numerous to go into of how Frank Carollo working in consort with certain Commissioners could accomplish his goal. Anything done in this regard would discredit the process of doing things the RIGHT WAY! According to the City's website there are only three (3) scheduled commission meetings left while Frank Carollo will still be a sitting Commissioner, October 12th (this week), October 26th and November 16th (assuming a runoff election for the district (3) commission seat).
The agenda for the City Commission meeting tomorrow has an item fr-6 sponsored by Frank Carollo, seeking to raise the surcharge on ticket prices over $100.00 for events. This is self-serving for him since theoretically it gives him more money to dish out in the future at the Trust, so don't tell me he doesn't have any plans to attempt to become the executive director. Mr. Carollo apparently knows nothing about business, price increases limit future growth. just as property tax increases limit your constituent base. So, what the Trust should do is run a more efficient business by paying attention to the overhead as opposed to PADDING THE BUDGET.
WE SHALL SEE WHAT IF ANYTHING THE COMMISSION DOES TOMORROW AND IF IT'S A PRELUDE FOR FRANK CAROLLO!
If Frank Carollo wants the job, then he should WAIT TILL HIS TERM AS A CITY COMMISSONER AND THEREFORE AS CHAIRMAN OF THE TRUST EXPIRES, SOMETIME THIS NOVEMBER. THE TRUST SHOULD HAVE THE CITY'S HUMAN RESOURCE DEPARTMENT DO A NATIONAL SEARCH FOR A QUALIFIED EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, AT WHICH TIME MR. CAROLLO CAN APPLY FOR THE POSITION AS WELL AS ANY OTHER CANDIDATE, but this should only be done “AFTER” the November election, when the trust has a new chairman or chair lady that is, by ordinance, appointed by the new commission, and only after the stacked four at large board members are also replaced by the new commission with independent thinkers for the benefit of the Trust and the City of Miami.
I personally like Frank, I have known him for almost thirty (30) years, but if he wants to further his political career which there is no doubt he does, he should be principled, follow the established process, LEAD BY EXAMPLE, and not abuse the privilege of office.
SO FRANK, WHY CAN'T YOU SIMPLY SAY AT THE MEETING OF THE TRUST ON 10/24 OF THIS MONTH THAT YOU ARE NOT SEEKING THE OFFICE OF EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE TRUST, OR IF YOU DESIRE TO DO SO SAY SO. YOU SHOULD THEN APPLY JUST AS ANYONE ELSE DOES WHEN THE CITY'S HUMAN RESOURCES DEPARTMENT SENDS OUT A REQUEST NATIONALY FOR A RESPONSE, BUT ONLY AFTER THE NEW BOARD HAS BEEN APPOINTED BY THE COMMISSION AFTER THE UPCOMING ELECTION ON NOVEMBER 7TH WITH THE RUNOFFS ON NOVEMBER 21ST.
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It would be sad for our new Mayor Suarez or Commissioner Russell to participate in this charade and start their higher office quest with a dark mark on their resume.
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Steve Kneapler- member of
The Bayfront Park Management Trust-former
The Waterfront Advisory Board-former
The Charter Review Committee-current
The 2000 Charter Review Committee-former
The Virginia Key Advisory Board-current
Copy to
David Smiley-the Miami Herald
RESUME FOR THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR ATTACHED
