Corruption or not? Mayor Racks Up a $68,000 Cell Phone Bill
Mayor accused of racking up over $68K on city-issued cell phonemultiple excerpts from the article:
WEST MIAMI, Fla. (WSVN) -- The mayor of West Miami is in hot water over his alleged overuse of his city issued cell phone.
According to public records, Carasa has racked up huge charges on his city-issued cell phone, to the tune of more than $68,000 in international calls to the Dominican Republic.
The Miami-Dade Ethics Commission has begun an investigation on the mayor, and public corruption officials may have to go no further than the mayor's cell phone bills. They see to show that, starting the month after he was elected into office in May of 2006, hundreds of calls were made to the Dominican Republic. Some calls lasted more than three hours, costing more than $200 each.
In July of 2008, his Sprint cell phone bill reached $11,000, aside from what city officials describe as a brief humanitarian relief drive Carasa organized for the Dominican Republic in 2007. "We have no official business in the Dominican Republic," said City Manager Yolanda Aguilar.
In a letter to the city attorney, the mayor's attorney says Carasa was "never informed of any limitations on the use of the cell phone." A 2002 memo states that the cellular phones are for city business.
Sprint says it accidentally credited the mayor's cell phone bill for months, saying "a mistake just crept into our system and got out of hand." The company says it will eat that money and has turned off the mayor's international access. Sprint, however, is demanding payment for more than $5,000 in new bills and the city attorney concurs.
I have a couple of questions for the city: 1. How did you let it go on for so long? Was it only after Sprint demanded the city to start paying? I mean...they credited most except for NEW bills of more than $5000. There's a reason it was credit. 2. Who was he calling? Family?
For the group: What are your thoughts? Is this corruption? This doesn't seem to be adding up. What do you think?
posted by Rosko @ 5:08 AM
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