BREAKING:  VotersOpinion just learned that North Miami Parks, Recreation and Cultural Arts Director Derrick Corker was suspended.  No word on whether it was with or without pay, but we’ll update as soon as we find out.

In the meantime, here’s what happened.

In any other municipality, an employee who steers city business to his private company by extorting a city vendor or licensee would find himself in the unemployment line.

In North Miami, however, obviously neither the law nor the rules of civil society apply.

The first inkling residents had that trouble was afoot was at the February 11, 2020 Council Meeting, when Tenikka Jones came up to the podium during citizens’ forum (hour 2:47 of the meeting video) and cryptically referred to “claims and allegations that have been raised to the council members.”

WATCH!

At the time, residents had no clue what she was talking about.

Nor did they know about a complaint that was filed with the City of North Miami on June 19, 2019 against Parks, Recreation and Cultural Arts Director Derrick Corker by Lawrence Jones, President of North Miami Youth Football/Cheerleading, Inc., and his agent Donna Bibbins, or the investigation by the North Miami Police Department that took place as a result of their complaint.

According to a recent Miami Herald article, He runs North Miami parks. Why is his side job selling jerseys to a city football team?, the North Miami youth football program consists of eight teams which “compete against teams from other South Florida parks under the group known as the Miami Xtreme Football League.”

On November 22, 2017, North Miami Youth Football/Cheerleading, Inc., then under the umbrella of Optimist International (the “Optimist Club”), entered into a License Agreement with the City of North Miami to run its youth football and cheerleading program, as well as its concession stand.  The License Agreement expired on December 31, 2017, and it is unclear if it has ever been extended or renewed.  It also appears that the football organization is no longer associated with the Optimists.

The football organization also receives public funding of $8,000 per year from the City of North Miami, which funds are used to run the program, including the purchasing of uniforms and equipment.

The bigger problem, however, is the allegation that Derrick Corker has been abusing those public resources to enrich his own personal company, ELJEFE7NINE LLC, a Florida Limited Liability Company.  The members of this company are Derrick Corker and his son, Devon R. Corker.

According to the Miami Herald, “City employees are required to disclose outside employment.  North Miami would not say whether Corker had revealed his ownership in the company.”

If the city won’t comment, it’s a pretty sure bet that he did not.

The Herald article reported that “the North Miami Youth Football and Cheer program says Corker steered a taxpayer-funded contract for new uniforms to a Plantation company that has worked with him in the past. When Corker sent the organization artist renderings of the uniforms, they noticed the distinct El Jefe 7NINE logo on the jerseys and pants.”

By making a personal profit from a city funded program, Mr. Corker clearly has a conflict of interest at the very least.

He may, in fact, have even committed a felony.

But let’s start at the beginning.

In response to the complaint filed by Mr. Jones and Ms. Bibbins, an Administrative Review was conducted by North Miami Police Department Sergeant Michael Gaudio, who interviewed them on June 27, 2019.

According to the Investigative Summary dated August 27, 2019, the complainants advised him that in 2019 the city moved the program’s activities Cagni Park, and requested that they change their name from the Redskins to “a more socially acceptable name.”  The city also agreed to give the football program a “lump sum of forty-two thousand dollars ($42,000) to cover the expenses for the football and cheerleading uniforms, as well as the football helmets.”

Mr. Jones also told Sergeant Gaudio that Derrick Corker “was responsible for preparing and administering the forty-two thousand dollars.”  Corker then “initiated a bidding process” for the new uniforms.  Mr. Jones provided quotes from three vendors “that sold quality sporting equipment,” but Corker told them he only needed two since “he would provide the third vendor.”

This process was problematic from the start.  Derrick Corker was tasked with “preparing and administering” the $42,000 grant to the football program.  Beyond that, Corker had absolutely no business involving himself in the bidding process.

Mr. Jones then obtained bids from two vendors, which were “rejected” by the city because they were made out to the organization and not directly to Derrick Corker and the City of North Miami.  Since two of the bidders were arbitrarily disqualified, Corker’s vendor, Quick Prints, LLC, in Plantation, Florida, was “awarded the commission to create and provide the uniforms.”  When Mr. Jones and Ms. Bibbins attempted to ask Corker about the uniforms, he “began to become difficult and would intimidate them when questioned about the selection process,” according to the Police Department’s Investigative Summary.

When the sample uniforms were received, Mr. Jones and Ms. Bibbins noticed they had a “distinctive ’79’ tag on them with a lion’s head” on them which Ms. Bibbins recognized as the logo of Derrick Corker’s clothing company, “ELJEFE7NINE.”  In his report, Sergeant Gaudio noted, “Ms. Bibbins realized that Mr. Corker sold his own product to the team.”

Jones and Bibbins ended their interview by telling the investigator that “Mr. Corker was not acting in the best interest of their organization and felt his business practices were unethical.”

Ya think?

In fact, the City’s Code of Ordinances, specifically Section 2-316(c) Prohibition on transacting business within the city, of Chapter 2, Article VI., Division 1. Conflict of Interest, specifically prohibits city employees, or members of their immediate family, from entering into contracts or transacting any business if they have “controlling financial interest, direct or indirect with the city or any person or agency acting for the city.”

The Code also warns, “Willful violation of this subsection shall constitute malfeasance in office and shall effect forfeiture of office or position.”

And yet, for some reason, Derrick Corker still has his job.

A month later on August 23, 2019, Sergeant Gaudio then interviewed Williamsen Exemer, the owner of Quick Prints, LLC, the vendor who provided the uniforms to the football program.  Mr. Exemer told the investigator that he has “done work with Mr. Corker for several years,” and that he also provides tee-shirts for the city’s summer camp program.  He also said that he and Derrick Corker both subcontract their clothing orders with the same company in Pakistan, “and has a result, [they] have the same designs with only the ’79’ logo differentiating the two companies’ apparel.”

When asked how the ’79’ logo ended up on the uniforms he ordered, Exemer told the Miami Herald that “he had no idea” since “a logo would appear only at the buyer’s request.”

Since the buyer was actually the City of North Miami, which paid $17,800 for the uniforms, and Derrick Corker is not only an employee of the city but the person “responsible for preparing and administering” that payment, we can’t help but wonder who besides Corker would request that the ’79’ logo be put on the uniforms he ordered.

But maybe that’s just us.

And even though “Exemar insisted that he paid Corker no money for steering the contract his way,” we can’t help but wonder why Corker made sure his preferred vendor got the bid.

So, yeah, we tend to be cynical.

Especially when it comes to the North Miami Friends & Family Plan.

Even more especially when Corker’s BFF, and fellow aficionado of “Sophisticated Dancers,” is none other Interim City Manager Arthur “Duke” Sorey.

Oddly, while Sergeant Michael Gaudio interviewed the complainants and the vendor who sold the uniforms to the city, he never bothered to interview the actual subject of the complaint – Derrick Corker.

In the nearly ten years since VotersOpinion has been in existence, we have reviewed at least a dozen or more police investigative and internal affairs reports.  This is the only one that we have seen where the subject of the complaint was not interviewed.  We can only conclude that this complaint against Derrick Corker wasn’t taken seriously.  We are not surprised.

Needless to say, we’re also not surprised that this North Miami Police Department’s Administrative Review Case No. 19-04 found that “no criminal activity was discovered.”

After all, any friend of Duke’s is a friend of the Chiefs.

In conclusion, even though NMPD Sergeant Michael Gaudio determined there was no criminal activity committed by Derrick Corker, he “noted” that the city employee violated:

1. Section 2-11.1, sub section (t) of the City of North Miami Vendor Guide “Conflict of Interest and Code of Ethics Ordinance.”
2. Sale of goods from personal business.

Sergeant Gaudio omitted the fact that Section 2-11.1(t) is actually a Miami-Dade County Ordinance dealing with a Cone of Silence, and which is merely referenced in the city’s Vendor Guide.

For some reason, Gaudio didn’t “note” Corker’s violation of North Miami’s own Conflict of Interest Ordinance, Section 2-316(c) Prohibition on transacting business within the city, which we already referenced above, the violation of which “shall constitute malfeasance in office and shall effect forfeiture of office or position.”

We can’t imagine why.

Sergeant Gaudio apparently didn’t bother to research Florida law, either, or he also might have “discovered” that Corker’s actions constituted a violation of Florida Statute 112.311(1), which states, “It is essential to the proper conduct and operation of government that public officials be independent and impartial and that public office not be used for private gain other than the remuneration provided by law. The public interest, therefore, requires that the law protect against any conflict of interest and establish standards for the conduct of elected officials and government employees in situations where conflicts may exist,” as well as 112.311(5), which states, “It is hereby declared to be the policy of the state that no officer or employee of a state agency or of a county, city, or other political subdivision of the state, and no member of the Legislature or legislative employee, shall have any interest, financial or otherwise, direct or indirect; engage in any business transaction or professional activity; or incur any obligation of any nature which is in substantial conflict with the proper discharge of his or her duties in the public interest.”

One of the “specified offenses” constituted as a felony is described in Florida Statute 112.3173(2)(e)(6), which is defined as “a public officer or employee who, willfully and with intent to defraud the public or the public agency for which the public officer or employee acts or in which he or she is employed of the right to receive the faithful performance of his or her duty as a public officer or employee, realizes or obtains, or attempts to realize or obtain, a profit, gain, or advantage for himself or herself or for some other person through the use or attempted use of the power, rights, privileges, duties, or position of his or her public office or employment position…”

The conviction of such felony shall result in Florida Statute 112.3137(3) FORFEITURE.-, which states, “Any public officer or employee who is convicted of a specified offense committed prior to retirement, or whose office or employment is terminated by reason of his or her admitted commission, aid, or abetment of a specified offense, shall forfeit all rights and benefits under any public retirement system of which he or she is a member, except for the return of his or her accumulated contributions as of the date of termination.”

Had Gaudio performed a more thorough investigation, he would have recommended that the matter be referred to the State Attorney’s Office for review.

Instead, Gaudio signed off his Investigative Summary by “noting” that he informed North Miami Police Chief Larry Juriga of “the administrative violations discovered.”

In turn, Juriga deemed the case closed by the Police Department and passed the buck to the City Manager to deal with “administratively.”

The file was then dumped on the desk of then-City Manager Larry Spring on August 26, 2019 who did absolutely nothing for five months until January 31, 2020, when he …

• Pocketed his taxpayer-funded check worth 32 weeks of his salary
• Packed up his taxpayer-funded Apple iPad, and
• Drove off into the sunset in his taxpayer-funded $49,000 SUV

Spring also refused to talk to the Miami Herald, so there’s that.

And as of now, Derrick Corker still has his job.

Also courtesy of North Miami taxpayers.

(Although, depending on the outcome of his suspension, that may change.)

This entire scandal would have been swept under the rug, never to see the light of day had it not been for Ms. Tenikka Jones, who once again came before the City Council two weeks later with “very serious concerns” about North Miami Parks & Recreation Director Derrick Corker.

WATCH!

Thanks to the persistence of Ms. Tenikka Jones, who refused to back down and held North Miami public officials accountable.

Kudos to Miami Herald reporter Aaron Leibowitz for bringing this story to light.  Sunshine is the best disinfectant!

North Miami residents deserve better!

Stephanie