MIAMI — Two more candidates for Miami mayor say their campaign signs have also been removed by city staff working for Commissioner Joe Carollo, who’s also running for the office.

It comes a day after former city manager and candidate Emilio Gonzalez said Carollo’s staffers were caught on camera taking down his supporters’ signs.

Carollo’s staffers say they’re doing nothing wrong — but candidates are questioning whether incumbent commissioners are playing by their own rules.

Former Miami City Commissioner Ken Russell, who’s running for mayor, says a resident told him staffers for Carollo removed some of his signs.

He calls the removals, which Carollo staffers claim are because of supporters improperly placing signs on city swales, “politically motivated” and “selective enforcement.”

“Just like Emilio Gonzalez, it is wrong because that is not (Carollo’s) staff’s job,” Russell said. “That is an elected official’s internal staff for legislative work. It is not for enforcement. They are not code enforcement — this is not their job."

Gonzalez called the removals “borderline election interference” in an interview with Local 10 News on Wednesday.

“Why are they not managing everything that is wrong in the swales?” Russell continued. “If someone has planted a tree incorrectly, placed a sidewalk incorrectly, placed a bollard incorrectly, that is all against the code. But these are things we allow because we allow the residents to manage their swales.

He said campaign signs are residents’ “First Amendment right to speak.”

“And if they missed the line — maybe it’s here, maybe it’s there — there are no set rules because it’s in the platting of each property," Russell said. “So who is measuring this? The job of his staff is to advise code (enforcement) if there has been a violation in their neighborhood.

“Honestly, that’s not what I felt my role was to be as an elected official. Enforcement officer? No. I am there to help my residents comply.”

Carollo defended his staff’s actions but said he had nothing to do with the sign removals.

“Yeah, that is a staffer,” he said of a video circulating on social media. “And what are they doing wrong?”

Citing city code, Carollo told Local 10 News the issue from his view is improper placement.

“We respect totally signs that are placed on private property,” he said.

A district staffer for Carollo told Local 10 News they have removed about a dozen campaign signs placed in violation of code on public swales for Carollo’s mayoral opponents — Russell, Gonzalez, and Miami-Dade County Commissioner Eileen Higgins, who is vying to become Miami’s first woman mayor.

She called it another part of the “long history of the weaponization of code enforcement” by city officials against their political foes.

“This is just another example that we have a city that doesn’t work for the people,” Higgins said. “You have city employees — rather than building affordable housing or working on flood projects or improving our parks — literally doing the bidding of corrupt politicians. It’s ridiculous. It needs to stop.”

Meanwhile, over at Lemon City Park, a re-election sign for Commissioner Christine King is affixed to the fence of a public park — appearing to be in direct violation of city code.

City employees picking and choosing which campaign signs to keep up and which to remove is what some candidates for mayor find problematic.

“This is like what happened with Ball & Chain,” Russell said. “It is called selective enforcement. Are you enforcing everyone that way? No, you haven’t been. Suddenly this issue is bothering you, and why? Because that person is running against you.”

Local 10 News has been reaching out to the City of Miami since Wednesday, inviting them to provide a statement to address claims of “selective enforcement” and to clarify whether a commissioner’s district staff have the enforcement authority to remove campaign signs — or if that action can only be taken by code compliance and/or the Miami Police Department.

On Thursday morning, we also asked King’s office if she plans to remove her re-election campaign sign, which is affixed to city-owned property, in order to comply with city code.

We have yet to hear back.

Interactive graphic:

Copyright 2025 by WPLG Local10.com - All rights reserved.