Just a reminder that on February 22, 2020, the City of North Miami was operating at a deficit of $4,153,430.77.
As of today, according to North Miami’s Real-Time Debt Clock™, that hole grew to $5,053,361.91.
Now that we’ve established how North Miami racks up debt even faster than Councilwoman Mary Estimé-Irvin, here are some more fun facts to know and tell.
All of which can be found on the city’s very own “Transparency Portal.”
On February 9, 2020 we reported that the city had already spent $13,724,510, or 82% of its budgeted $16,720,589 for Operating Expenses.
Imagine our surprise when we checked this morning and found that as of March 14, 2020, although the Budgeted Operating Expenses increased by $296,829, the 2020 Actual Operating Expenses mysteriously decreased by $6,627,931.
Can Interim City Manager Arthur “Duke” Sorey explain how $6.6 Million, which he already spent, disappeared from the books?
Moving right along.
On February 22, 2020, we reported that even though former City Manager Larry Spring was instructed to cut the special events budget down to $400,000, the Mayor and Council’s Adopted Budget for special events was actually $662,476 — over 65% more than they promised to spend.
When we checked the “Transparency Portal” today, we discovered that the Amended Budget now included an additional $20,459 for special events for a total of $682,935.
Granted, considering how fast Duke Sorey can spend taxpayer money, flushing yet another $20K down the proverbial toilet is hardly worth mentioning.
What is noteworthy (and by noteworthy, we mean alarming), however, is that Duke exceeded his own budget for the “Multi-use Event Venue” known as Red Garden by $352,014. After promising the Mayor and Council that the city’s General Fund would only pay out $200,000, he took it upon himself to spend an outrageous $552,014.
And that’s in addition to the $523,236 already spent on this project by the North Miami Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) as of February 28, 2020, which is $23,236 more than he told the Mayor and Council would be spent from this Fund.
Can Interim City Manager Arthur “Duke” Sorey explain where he found an unbudgeted $375,250 to make all his Hedonistic Pleasure Palace dreams come true?
Moving right along.
On September 17, 2019, the North Miami Mayor and Council voted to pass a budget for the upcoming Fiscal Year 2019-20. According to TAB B of the Agenda for that meeting, Section 2 of the proposed Ordinance authorized the City Manager to “implement Budget amendments (revenue and/or expenditure), to appropriate or un-appropriate funds as required during the fiscal year, and to amend the prior fiscal year budget, to facilitate the year-end closing process.”
While we have no idea if the adopted budget was amended before or after former City Manager Larry Spring was finally terminated on January 31, 2020, we do know that the budgets for both the General Fund and The Enterprise Funds were drastically increased since the Mayor and Council gave their unanimous approval last fall.
According to the Budget in Brief on page 42 of the Adopted Budget, the Mayor and Council approved a total budget of $179,536,306 for Fiscal Year 2019-2020. This amount includes the total for all of the city’s Funds.
However, according to the city’s “Transparency Portal” for all of the city’s Funds, the Amended Budget is now $206,209,433.
Which basically means that the City Manager took it upon himself to increase the city’s budget by $26,673,127.
And it was all done behind closed doors.
If the Mayor and Council were even aware that this was done, they’ve never publicly mentioned it.
Considering that we are nearly halfway, or 46.2%, through this fiscal year …
And considering that the General Fund has only received $28,286,593, or 38.9%, of Duke’s projected $72,649,143 …
And and considering that the Enterprise Funds have only received $115,110,068, or 16.6%, of Duke’s projected $90,698,237 …
And considering that the city has been operating in the red for 25 out of the last 28 quarterly reporting periods …
Fiscal disaster in North Miami is inevitable.
The only variable is when it will happen.
Can Interim City Manager Arthur “Duke” Sorey explain how the hell he plans to end up with a balanced budget at the end of this fiscal year?
This is, of course, meant to be a rhetorical question.
We have to believe that no elected official, even one as half-witted as Mary Estimé-Irvin, would ever consider appointing Duke Sorey as the permanent city manager.
Then again, we’re probably giving them too much credit.
North Miami residents deserve better.
Stephanie
On 3/10, you reported that Estime-Irvin’s home had been sold to Michael Etienne. As of today (3/17), the property appraiser has not recorded any sale of the home at 155 NE 131 Street. It is still owned by VWC LLC.
Where did you obtain that information?
The Quit Claim Deed was recorded on February 10, 2020 in Official Records Book 31814, at Page 1308 of the Public Records of Miami-Dade County, Florida. It takes a while for the tax appraiser to post all new recorded deeds on its website. He has until August of each year when the proposed tax notices (TRIM) are sent to property owners.
Okay. Interesting development on that one. Thanks.
This is a developing story. Stay tuned for more details. Blog coming soon.
It appears to me the North Miami city council has become an oligarchy. There resourcefulness in exploiting the rules and regulations of their elected position is riddled with inquiry. They have an adverse passion where self-interest supersedes civic duty. It is long overdue that this corrupt incompetence be brought to heel. For many of us in the know, this blatant hypocrisy within local city government is nothing new, especially, when abysmal policy decisions go unchallenged by the electorate. Thomas Jefferson once remarked, and I quote “the greatest calamity which could befall {us would be} submission to a government of unlimited powers.” There you have it … need I say more.
I could not agree with you more. Self serving elitist who have fooled the sheep that elected them. The electorate are like sheep being led to the slaughter, or people drinking the cool aid.
After rereading this blog, I guess one could say that the current pandemic of coronavirus has done what nobody else on the council or in the city managers office could do about the special events and wasted money on them. We won’t see any large gatherings or need to budget money for special events in the near future.