Feud between Billy Corben and Joe Carollo escalates at commission meeting
Documentary filmmaker Billy Corben and Commissioner Joe Carollo are locked in a war of words that grew tense in Miami City Hall on Thursday, with references to Carollo’s 2001 arrest on a domestic-violence charge and Corben’s penchant for mocking Cuban-American politicians by posting images of them dressed like Fidel Castro.
Corben, a frequent social commentator and City Hall critic, tried to address commissioners at the end of Thursday’s publiccomment period. He said he wanted to talk about proclamations given out in the morning to commemorate
Women’s
History
Month.
Commissioner Ken Russell explained the public is only allowed to comment on actions that the commission could take based on the published meeting agenda.
Corben asked for clarification because Carollo, a former Miami mayor with a sharp tongue and hard-charging attitude, had previously gone on a rant about Corben during the March 11 meeting, a random non-sequitur unrelated to the discussion that commissioners were having.
At that time, Carollo said he would be discussing Corben and his family at future commission meetings. Russell maintained Corben couldn’t comment, and Deputy
City Attorney Barnaby
Min said “the right to speak is prior to any action that is to be taken by the city commission.”
“So am I to understand that it’s the position of the city attorney that the commissioner could use the dais as his bully pulpit at any time about any citizen and there will be no opportunity for public comment?” Corben asked, to which there was no direct response.
Carollo had been roused. He launched into a diatribe about Corben, whom he called “the biggest bully in this town,” for his frequent socialmedia criticism of City Hall and Miami’s elected officials.
“Every Cuban-American member of this body that holds high office in this government, he has attacked, defamed, and dressed up as Fidel Castro,” Carollo said. “Imagine what he would say if we would dress him up as Yasser Arafat, Hitler, Saddam Hussein. He’d be screaming what he calls everybody. Everybody to him is a racist, everybody is corrupt. He defames everybody.”
Carollo also challenged Corben to debate him in the middle of Southwest Eighth Street in front of Versailles. The commissioner repeatedly taunted Corben by calling him “little Billy Cohen,” using the filmmaker’s legal surname. Corben has made no secret that he has used a stage name since he was a child actor. Corben has previously said when his critics attack him while using his legal name, it amounts to the use of an anti-Semitic dog whistle.
After Corben asked for clarification if he could get his two minutes and Carollo told Corben to “grow up Billy,” Carollo said Corben should respond directly to anything Carollo had said. Russell acquiesced. Then Corben started recounting Carollo’s 2001 arrest for hitting his then-wife with a tea container that he said he meant to throw at a wall. Carollo was Miami’s mayor. Corben has on multiple occasions tweeted the audio recording of Carollo’s daughter calling police the night of the incident.
Carollo and Commissioner Manolo Reyes cut Corben off, and Reyes said he was trying to keep things civil.
“You made presentations and proclamations for Women’s History Month, and I think the history of this city is important,” Corben said.
Corben paid for a truck to drive in front of City Hall on Thursday with a large video screen playing a television news report on the 2001 arrest. The clip includes audio from the daughter’s phone call to police.
The battery charge against Carollo was dropped after the completion of a family counseling program, according to the Miami Herald archive.