If you ask anyone to describe the now-former North Miami Beach City Manager Esmond Scott, you’re sure to hear the words honest, ethical, fair, dignified, and most of all, a gentleman.
Esteemed author, historian, and Virginia Hall of Fame honoree John Walter Wayland could very well have had Esmond Scott in mind when he penned this quote:
The True Gentleman is the man whose conduct proceeds from good will and an acute sense of propriety, and whose self-control is equal to all emergencies; who does not make the poor man conscious of his poverty, the obscure man of his obscurity, or any man of his inferiority or deformity; who is himself humbled if necessity compels him to humble another; who does not flatter wealth, cringe before power, or boast of his own possessions or achievements; who speaks with frankness but always with sincerity and sympathy; whose deed follows his word; who thinks of the rights and feelings of others, rather than his own; and who appears well in any company, a man with whom honor is sacred and virtue safe.
None of these qualities have ever been used in the same sentence with North Miami Deputy City Manager Arthur “Duke” Sorey.
In fact, the first word out of the mouth of anyone who has ever had a Deputy Duke encounter is thug.
And yet, this classless wonder, who is the exact polar opposite of the elegant and stately Esmond Scott, is the number one pick of North Miami Beach Commissioners Michael Joseph, McKenzie Fleurimond, Paule Villard, and their hand-picked puppet Daniela Jean, to replace Esmond Scott as City Manager.
Not that this should surprise anyone, since water really does seek its own level.
North Miami residents and employees watched Monday night’s North Miami Beach Special Commission Meeting in anxious anticipation that they will finally be rid of the scourge that has been plaguing their city for seventeen years.
Their hopes were dashed, however, when the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse were forced to retreat after three of their colleagues and many North Miami Beach residents denounced the attempted coup to overthrow their city government by bad actors.
And make no mistake. This is precisely their plan, aided and abetted by shady North Miami operatives, who see NMB as fertile ground to expand their corrupt empire.
Fortunately, Esmond Scott was able to secure a fair separation agreement before he successfully escaped from the hellhole now known as North Miami Beach.
He will be sorely missed.
As soon as Mr. Scott’s separation agreement was approved by the Commission, the NMB Evil Clown Show show began.
At hour 1:00:03 of the meeting video, Michael Joseph, a/k/a the Devil on the Dais, asked for a point of personal privilege and immediately made a motion to “nominate Arthur Sorey to be our next City Manager.”
Then he actually said with a straight face that Duke could “take this ship, which is currently without a captain, to make it the best it can be.”
Right on cue, Michael’s co-conspirator McKenzie Fleurimond said, “I’ll second it for the purpose of discussion.”
Then all hell broke loose.
The mere thought of replacing Esmond Scott, who is the epitome of refinement, grace, eloquence, and integrity, with a crude, contemptible thug like Duke Sorey, is nothing short of blasphemous.
Commissioner Barbara Kramer, who was chomping at the bit, was the first to speak up and say, “WE ARE NOT DOING THIS AGAIN!”
She then rightfully demanded that a legal and ethical process be implemented to search for the proper candidate for City Manager, unlike the tyrannical manner in which the City Attorney’s position was filled.
At hour 1:08:47, Michael Joseph hilariously said that he believes “Duke Sorey is qualified to be our next City Manager. He has over 20 years of experience in municipal work. He’s been educated at FIU. He’s been educated at Harvard. He’s currently a Deputy City Manager but before that he was a City Manager for quite some time. I feel that he’s done a lot of great work in his community in our sister city over in North Miami and I feel that he could do great work here if given the opportunity. I just want to give that offer to him. Because right now we need the best and brightest, and I feel that Arthur Sorey brings that to our table and that’s why I made that motion.”
Except that not one word of it is even remotely true.
Let’s start with Michael’s false claim that Duke was “educated at Harvard,” which is a blatant lie.
Back in December of 2016 we reported:
In addition to Sorey’s prior arrest for Grand Theft Auto, and his questionable participation in North Miami’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program to buy and finance his home (gouging $50,000.00 from taxpayers in the form of a note that will be forgiven), the City of North Miami also blew $12,800.00 on his “education.”
In July, Arthur Sorey took a three week leave, while being paid a “Training” salary of $19,388.96 on taxpayer dime, to attend the Harvard Kennedy School for Executive Education.
The city also paid an additional $1,969.47 for his travel, lodging and meals.
We assume, however, that he paid for his own entertainment.
All in all, North Miami taxpayers shelled out $34,158.43 so that Duke Sorey can display one-third of an Executive Certificate in Public Service on his desk.
Right next to his ritual budget season breakfast.
In order to collect the remaining two-thirds of that Certificate, he’ll be required to attend two more three-week sessions.
We’re sure North Miami taxpayers can’t wait to blow another $68,316.86 so Duke can finally earn yet another useless certificate to pad his resume with.
Oh, and in case you’re wondering about that peep show meme, it’s a well-known “secret” that Duke and his BFF, the former-and-fired North Miami Parks & Rec Director Derrick Corker, have a special fondness for “gentlemen’s clubs.” So much so in fact that, word has it, Deputy Duke has a stripper pole installed right in his home for his personal entertainment when he has company.
As for all the “great work” Michael Joseph claims that Duke Sorey has done for “our sister city” North Miami, let’s take a quick look at his “accomplishments.”
As we reported last June, the City of North Miami finally published the Fiscal Year 2018-19 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR), which revealed that under Duke Sorey’s “leadership” as Interim City Manager:
- North Miami ended Fiscal Year 2019 with a CUMULATIVE RUNNING DEFICIT OF $14,697,136;
- Duke Sorey & Co. BORROWED $14,334,387 from the Water and Sewer Fund to plug his gaping budget hole;
- The City of North Miami has been OPERATING ON A BUDGET DEFICIT SINCE 2016; and
- The city is on the VERGE OF A STATE OF FINANCIAL EMERGENCY.
We also revealed that before Duke took the helm, the City of North Miami had ended every fiscal year with surpluses in the millions. In March of 2016, however, Duke was appointed Interim City Manager the first time, and proceeded to literally blow through North Miami’s entire $9.1 million surplus from Fiscal Year 2015, and ended Fiscal Year 2016 with a deficit of $.9 million under his watch.
Although Duke Sorey applied to be the permanent City Manager, in 2017 the North Miami Mayor and Council passed him over in favor of Larry Spring.
In the ensuing years, the deficit ballooned to over $14.6 million under the “leadership” of Spring and his Deputy Duke.
Larry Spring took off with his golden parachute on January 31, 2020, and Duke once again became the Interim City Manager.
Duke’s main “leadership accomplishment” during his second stint as Top Dawg of NoMi was to force almost all city employees to take two furlough days a month, which amounts to a 10% cut in pay, and many employees were laid off.
And then he blamed COVID, as if North Miami weren’t already near fiscal insolvency thanks to his mismanagement.
Meanwhile, despite the global pandemic, under North Miami Beach City Manager Esmond Scott’s genuine leadership, not a single city employee took a pay cut, and there were absolutely no layoffs.
And once again, the Mayor and Council took a hard pass on Sorey’s application and hired Theresa Therelus as City Manager on July 1, 2020.
North Miami’s Fiscal Year 2019-20 CAFR won’t be available until (hopefully) next month, so we won’t know until then how much financial damage Duke Sorey did in North Miami before she arrived.
What we do know, however, is there is a reason Duke Sorey will NEVER be City Manager of North Miami.
Not the least of which was that his unbudgeted $1,223,582 Red Garden Sinkhole certainly contributed to whatever whopping fiscal deficit will be revealed once the audit is published.
As we reported last July in Will Duke Sorey’s Red Garden Sinkhole finally be his undoing? We can only hope!, while the Mayor and Council were on winter hiatus, Duke Sorey secretly contracted with Luther Campbell to stage “Uncle Luke’s World Superbowl Experience”, just so he could be the Master of Ceremonies for the Super Bowl Party of his life.
All of this is just the tip of the iceberg of Duke Sorey’s malfeasance, incompetence, and unsuitability to be the North Miami Beach City Manager. If you have any doubts about that, we’ll be more than happy to put you in touch with a number of North Miami residents and employees who will confirm that conclusion.
In response to the motion on the table to appoint Duke Sorey, Commissioner Paule Villard launched yet another one of her infamously insane rants. At hour 1:15:46 of the meeting video, she truly showcased her inherent stupidity for all the world to see. Get your popcorn ready while we recap it for your entertainment.
For one thing, we had to laugh every time she said, “We are all professionals here.” We hate to burst her moronic bubble … on second thought, we love it … by pointing out that elected officials are no “professionals.” Despite the overblown egos of Paule and her comrades, who are legends in their own minds, normal people who happen to get elected are not celebrities. They have no delusions of grandeur. Getting the most votes does not qualify a candidate as a “professional” anything.
In Paule’s case, however, we’ll concede that she’s a professional alright. A professional embarrassment to the City of North Miami Beach. It’s become quite obvious to anyone who’s been paying attention that Paule Villard is literally the stupidest elected official in this administration – and quite possibly in the entire history of NMB government.
But many of you aren’t aware that her former “career” as a City of Miami cop was equally as dreadful as her lackluster record on the dais.
Before retiring twenty years to the day after she was sworn in, Officer Villard received a slew of formal write-ups and reprimands for the mishandling of evidence, tardiness, violating the chain of command, making unauthorized purchases, and leaving or not even showing up for assignments without permission.
Most egregiously, however, Paule Villard constantly lies about anything and everything.
In fact, her official bio on the North Miami Beach website is complete fiction, beginning with her claim that she retired as a Police Sergeant.
According to her official retirement documents from the City of Miami Police Department, however, Paule Villard retired as a Police Officer, not a Sergeant.
If Paule Villard can so smoothly lie publicly about her job history, despite documented evidence to the contrary, how can anyone believe a damn thing she says from the dais?
Even though she claimed she had absolutely no clue (yeah, right!) that Michael was going to nominate Duke Sorey for City Manager, she profusely proclaimed Deputy Duke’s many “virtues.”
Paule gushed, “I just want to put a word for Mr. Sorey because I know he’s been in the City of North Miami for a long, long time, and he, you know, they have a lot of plans and they have so many different things and I’m sure he can come out and, you know, take, take, where Mr. … uh, eh, Mr. Scott, you know, left off, and I think, you know, that’s a good idea to bring him as an interim.”
Hmmm.
According to Rocket Scientist Paule Villard, North Miami has “a lot of plans” and “so many different things.”
And that’s why Duke Sorey deserves to be the City Manager of North Miami Beach.
Oh, okay. We’re sold.
Paule Villard would do well to keep her thoughts to herself and just continue mugging for her Facebook Live camera …
From her bed.
And in her nightgown.
Because she’s a “professional.”
In all seriousness, though, after lots of residents verbally smacked the crap out of the Four Evil Clowns, they finally retreated and all the Commissioners agreed to appoint Assistant City Manager Horace McHugh as Interim City Manager.
Amazingly, Mr. McHugh just happens to be the President-Elect of the Florida City and County Management Association (FCCMA), our state’s chapter of the prestigious International City/County Management Association (ICMA).
In addition, the City of North Miami Beach is also fortunate to have on its management staff Assistant City Manager Sharon Ragoonan, also a member of the ICMA, currently serving on its International Committee, and formerly served on the Welcome Committee. Ms. Ragoonan is also the former Vice Chair of the Professional Management Matters Committee of the Florida City/County Management Association (FCCMA), and currently the only nomination for the FCCMA District V Director Seat that represents the interests of Miami-Dade and Broward counties.
Either one of these two highly qualified individuals could easily step in and run the City of North Miami Beach in the most professional way imaginable.
Because, unlike elected officials, they actually are professionals.
Of course, these two distinguished individuals – or any other qualified person – will never be chosen by the four “professional” dolts on the dais, who have apparently already hand-picked the profoundly unqualified Duke Sorey to come in, take over, and sign whatever blank check they put in front of his sub-and-Mountain Dew-stuffed face.
The only thing standing between the Four Evil Clowns and the worst imaginable City Manager in the history of North Miami Beach is fervent outcry by the taxpayers who are going to foot the bill for the biggest disaster to ever darken the doorsteps of City Hall.
We here at VotersOpinion can only do so much.
We’ve given you the true facts (click all the links and see for yourselves).
We’ve given you dozens of reasons why Deputy Duke is one hot mess of a human being.
We’ve given you $166.8 million reasons why North Miami Beach is worth saving from the clutches of evil.
But if the residents of North Miami Beach don’t band together and demand that your Commissioners do the right thing, we simply cannot prevent the inevitable apocalypse from destroying your city.
Please log on to your Virtual City Commission Meeting today, February 25, 2021 at 5:00 PM, and tell your elected representatives that you want an open and fair process in the search for a new City Manager.
North Miami Beach residents deserve better.
Stephanie
Can these 4 clowns be recalled? I can’t believe this is the caliber of representation in our City. Please tell me there is something we can do besides voting any of them out next time. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was voter fraud involved to get them elected in the first place. Don’t we have normal people willing to run in North Miami Beach?
Oh, there definitely was voter fraud, as well as Sunshine violations. The problem is unless it can be proved, there’s nothing anyone can do about it. These four have learned how to game the system – it’s not that difficult to do – and they will get away with it.
Unless Florida tightens up the elections and ethics laws, and the enforcement of them, unethical people will continue to run for office, get elected, and pull shit like this once in office.
I’d advise you to contact your state representatives and ask them to fix it, but that’s probably a waste of time since this bullshit is how so many of them got to Tallahassee in the first place. Unless you can get them out of office (and preferably arrested) at the local level, they will keep moving up the food chain and bring their corruption with them all the way to DC. Once that happens it’s too late since there are no term limits there. Congress is filled with hundreds of idiots who started out by cheating their way into local politics.
It’s a vicious circle that won’t end unless North Miami and NMB residents wake the hell up, get involved, demand election integrity, find quality people to run, and make sure they get elected.
When you vote for an elected official you want to feel confident that your candidate of choice has the ability to hire the most qualified individuals for both the City Manager and City Attorney positions. Both positions carry a lot of responsibility in terms of running a city on a day-to-day basis. Surprisingly, decisions made from both departments can be critical to your quality of life.
What’s tricky for residents is that both positions are unelected positions. Therefore, residents essentially have to trust their elected officials to find the most qualified person for the job. This can only be done by performing extensive due diligence. In fact, many municipalities hire recruiters to find that one person who fulfills all of the needed criteria. It’s not unusual for them to recruit outside the area, by the way. Clearly there is a level of professionalism missing in NMB, who would rather revert to the “friends and family program” to fill these two very important positions.
I thank you for always having and reporting the facts. This circus act is really getting old. I watch the commission meetings with bated breath, waiting for the moment they nominate some loser to our fine City. I read your blog and feel sick to my stomach and more angry than I have felt in years. I will say I get a real kick out of your hysterical references to these clowns. Duke looks like the worst of the worst! Thanks Michael Joseph you piece of s***.
Duke is the worst of the worst. And, yes, Michael Joseph is a huge piece of SH*T.
This is all very obvious and very fishy way of doing things, what surprises me is that there is no way of reprimanding or firing commissioners for misbehaving , for breaking the rules. We need more citizens and residents to get involved, even if its only on virtual meetings and to listen and approve good stiff and block everything else especially something that sound and is stupidly so obvious to be wrong.
Because of your blog, Villard summoned her posse to send in comments that the city clerk read into the record at tonight’s commission meeting. These comments all stated how wonderful she is. It was so laughable and pathetic. You hit a nerve with her. It was so obvious because the timing couldn’t be better. Good job. Love what you are doing. This city is going down the tubes
Personally, I found it flattering and quite adorable that she’s so intimidated and afraid of me. It is pathetic, though, that she’s expending so much energy defending her own stupidity instead of actually doing something productive and trying to at least look like a professional human being. But, hey, she still has plenty of time for another Facebook Live episode from her bed.
Also, it’s been duly noticed that not once, but twice, two members of the commission asked for answers of their fellow colleagues on whether or not they had communications with Duke Sorey. I assume they are trying to see if it was already in the bag to hire him. The silence was deafening even to someone like me, Not one commissioner answered either of the same question.
They won’t answer because they have all colluded with each other and with Sorey and promised him the job. It’s a done deal. You watch!
If they answer they will either have to tell the truth (which they will never do) or lie (which is what they always do). So they arrogantly refuse. They will get away with it because the attorney they colluded to hire will back them up. You watch!
Congratulations, NMB voters. You are the proud constituents of the most corrupt and the most racist government in the history of North Miami Beach. Well done!
For NMB city residents and taxpayers, upcoming attractions under the leadership of Arthur “Duke” Sorey III as your city manager … this is what he did to my elderly mother by covering up a major failure of North Miami’s 9-1-1 system in 2015 … while he was interim city manager …
https://www.votersopinion.com/2015/11/18/the-chief-lenny-dance-blame-it-on-the-county/
More into this cover-up by Mr. Sorey ..
https://www.votersopinion.com/2015/11/25/chief-lenny-the-buck-stops-here-ha-ha-just-kidding/
One thing I haven’t seen mentioned is that we lost probably one of the best Chief’s of Policy the city has had in William Hernandez. Another step towards the bleep hole like the City of North Miami is
I believe Chief Hernandez was set to retire this year. I don’t know if the bullshit going on sped it up or if this was his plan to begin with. I do know, however, that Interim Chief Rand is going to do a fantastic job, assuming they don’t fuck him over. I heard that the four clowns like Rand for Chief, but you know they can’t be trusted to tell the truth about anything. Once they get Sorey in there, don’t be surprised if he brings in someone from North Miami who is of the “correct” ethnicity. That’s all those bigots really care about. They don’t give a crap if someone is qualified for the job, as long as the person isn’t white or Hispanic.