Remember when North Miami Assistant City Manager Arthur “Duke” Sorey presented the GO Bond Educational Campaign Budget at the April 10, 2018 City Council meeting?
As it turns out, North Miami city officials are unclear on the concept of the word “budget.”
According to the Duke’s Handy-Dandy Powerpoint Pitch, the City budgeted the sum of $108,350 to entice, cajole, dupe, threaten, educate North Miami voters to approve doling out $120,000,000 to the Mayor and Council for the purpose of throwing even more lavish parties, traveling to Caribbean resorts, subsidizing electric bills, settling lawsuits, building stuff.
Or something.
The first item on the GO Bond Educational Campaign Budget is for the amount of $15,000 to be paid to the Mosaic Group. According to the Duke (Minute 25:01 the meeting video), “that’s the group that developed the message that is basically running our campaign for us. Um, they’re doing all the collateral, all the promotional materials, the mailers, the designs, everything is what they’re doing.”
Or something.
In case you’re wondering what The Mosaic Group actually does, head on over to its website, where it boasts, “Our mission is to build credibility and increase visibility for our clients. We are your visibility team!”
While The Mosaic Group certainly did increase visibility of North Miami’s GO Bond Campaign, its attempt to build credibility of the increasingly obvious incompetence of city officials failed miserably.
But the real cost of the GO Bond Educational Campaign Budget should permanently crush what little credibility City Manager Larry Spring and his duplicitous Deputy Duke had in the first place.
As we’ve already mentioned, the publicized budget of $108,350 didn’t include the $35,500.00 paid to radio shows to promote the GO Bond. But, it appears that’s just a drop in the bucket compared to how much money was actually paid to The Mosaic Group to be its visibility team.
Public records revealed that two checks were issued to Upscale Events by Mosaic, LLC, d/b/a The Mosaic Group – one on March 29, 2018 in the amount of $66,250.00, and another on April 20, 2018, another check was issued to The Mosaic Group in the amount of $50,937.08.
Yes, you read that correctly. Despite Deputy Duke’s assurance that The Mosaic Group would be paid $15,000.00 for “basically running our campaign,” the City of North Miami actually shelled out a grand total of $117,187.08!
But, here’s the best part.
On May 4, 2018, we made this public records request: “Please provide a copy of the contract between the City of North Miami and Upscale Events by Mosaic, LLC, d/b/a The Mosaic Group.”
Yesterday, we received the following response from the City: “After a thorough search we have found no contracts associated or awarded to Upscale Events by Mosaic, LLC, d/b/a The Mosaic Group.”
Wait, WHAT?
No contract? No bid?
According to Section 7-129(a)(10) of your North Miami City Charter, the City Manager or his designee only has the authority to “[a]pprove and sign off on all purchase orders up to twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000.00).”
Furthermore, Section 7-137(a) states, “Competitive sealed bidding shall be used for the award of contracts over twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000.00).”
All of which begs the following questions:
- How did a $15,000.00 budgeted item turn into an expense of $117,187.08?
- Why didn’t the City of North Miami enter into a contract with this vendor?
- Who gave Larry Spring the authority to approve a purchase over $25,000.00?
- Why was there no bidding process initiated for an award over $25,000.00?
- What goods or services did North Miami taxpayers actually receive in exchange for their $117,187.08?
- Who chose The Mosaic Group and why?
More importantly, in light of the North Miami Friends & Family Plan, the obvious question is…
- Which city official is related to one of The Mosaic Group’s team members?
Anyone care to answer? That’s okay, we’ll wait.
In the meantime, since the City never signed a contract with The Mosaic Group, we made another public records request: “Attached are copies of two checks remitted by the City of North Miami to Upscale Events by Mosaic, LLC, totaling $117,187.08 for the stated purpose of “NOMI GO BOND MARKETING.” Please provide copies of all invoices submitted to the City of North Miami related to these checks.”
And, again, we’ll wait.
North Miami residents deserve better.
UPDATE: Here are the invoices totaling the $117,187.08 paid to The Mosaic Group.
- Invoice #1049 $16,250.00
- Invoice #1051 $50,000.00
- Invoice #1063 $16,250.00
- Invoice #1065 $34,6887.08
These are not itemized invoices. No one knows exactly what The Mosaic Group actually did to earn all this taxpayer money. Remember, folks … it FAILED!
UPDATE #2: Here are the itemized invoices: Nomi Go Bond Invoices and Details
Stephanie
THE CITY OF N MIAMI IS IN DESPERATE NEED OF AN INDEPENDENT, FORENSIC FINANCIAL AUDIT. This should come from the Governor’s office if possible.
N Miami is not a rich city but the council and administration spend like there is no tomorrow. IT IS OUR MONEY AND AN INVESTIGATION IS NEEDED!!!!
Why is the N Miami City Council putting up with City Manager Larry Spring and Assistant City Manager Arthur “Duke” Sorey? If they worked for a corporation interested in quality from their employees they would both be looking for new jobs. Taxpayers are paying for incompetence with both of these individuals. It’s past time to clean house!!!
Indeed, the 50k check wasn’t even for something they did, but a “retainer” meant for them to do future work.
That they needed another 30k+ suggests they have an itemized list of these expenses. The fact that city wrote them another check suggests someone from Mosaic must have communicated the need for more money to someone in the city.
who who who indeed
Since the blog was posted, we received a set of itemized invoices from Mosaic, which included $45,000 for “canvassers.” We made a public records request for the names of those “canvassers” and how much they were individually paid. Still waiting for a response. In the meantime, I will upload the itemized invoices for your review.
I don’t notice any receipts in that itemized list. We’re supposed to take their word for it?
The city walks blindly when writing checks.