Once upon a time, the City of North Miami Beach was the rising star of Miami-Dade County.

The ribbon cutting ceremony for the Marina Palms Yacht Club and Residences in 2017, held the promise of growth and prosperity not seen in NMB in decades.  The original two-tower project, envisioned by former Mayors Jeff Mishcon and Ray Marin, and halted by the 2008 devastating market and real estate crash, had finally come to fruition.

The elegant Grand Opening celebration was a rousing success.

This first class development was the envy of its neighboring cities — so much so that even the Greater North Miami Chamber of Commerce wanted in on the action.

As recently as 2019, the landing page of the North Miami Chamber’s website was sporting a photograph of NMB’s landmark development.

Although the Chamber has since been shamed into removing its misleading advertising, it still appears in the archives of Google images.

Because the internet is forever.

And yet, in two short years, North Miami Beach has toppled from its pedestal and has become the laughing stock of Miami-Dade County.

The downhill slide began with the sudden forced resignation of former Mayor George Vallejo, whose grand vision for North Miami Beach was the driving force behind its rebirth.  Combined with the January 2018 ouster (and recent Court ordered temporary return) of the fraudulently “re-elected” Commissionweasel Frantz Pierre, and the March 28, 2018 resignation of Commissioner Marlen Martell (who left to manage North Bay Village), there were now three vacancies on the dais.

The final nail was hammered into the coffin on November 6, 2018 when Michael Joseph, McKenzie Fleurimond, and Paule Villard were elected to the City Commission, and culminated with the 2020 election when they got in bed with shady North Miami operatives to install a Puppet Commissioner, Daniela Jean.  Once she was elected, Team Apocalypse took control of the City and began to dismantle it, piece by piece.

It was bad enough when they conspired to hire the uniquely incompetent, and ethically challenged, Hans Ottinot as the Interim City Attorney, who can’t even read a simple title of an Ordinance without stumbling over his own words.

But now, they’ve sunk the image of North Miami Beach even lower.

Team Apocalypse then had to get rid of former City Manager Esmond Scott, who ran the City far too professionally to suit them.  And even though Mr. Scott “looked like” Michael Joseph, which seems to be his first criteria about everything, he hailed from the “wrong” Caribbean island, according to Paule Villard, who took to complaining on Haitian radio that the “Jamaicans” have run the City for too long.

Most importantly, however, Esmond Scott was actually qualified to be a City Manager, not to mention was the epitome of refinement — the polar opposite of North Miami reject, Arthur “Duke” Sorey, who knew he was going to be hired as the City Manager of North Miami Beach more than three months ago — long before Team Apocalypse acquiesced to a phony “60-day search” for one.

As expected, as soon as Duke Sorey was hired on April 20, 2021, he celebrated by hosting a very different party from the Grand Opening of Marina Palms and posted this classless gem on Facebook.

According to Urban Dictionary:

And at an unprecedented $240,000 annual salary, we can easily “#PictureDukeRollin” in the dough of NMB residents’ hard-earned tax dollars.

As for his unpolished and outrageously crass demeanor, don’t say we didn’t warn you.

After all, this is the same thug who blew an astonishing $1,223,582 of North Miami taxpayer dollars on his Red Garden Sinkhole, just so he could be the Master of Ceremonies for the Super Bowl Party of his life.

And now, Duke Sorey is about to blow through NMB’s $30 million reserve account on his next Big Idea.

It sure looks like his plug really hit a lick this time!

Will someone please tell Duke Sorey that Ebonics is so 1996?  It’s not edgy anymore.  It’s just ill-bred.

And this unprofessional, uncouth, unpolished, and undignified embarrassment of a human being is now the Face of North Miami Beach.

This unholy union didn’t happen in a vacuum.  A series of unfortunate circumstances converged to create the perfect storm.  Let’s review them.

For one thing, Jewish activist Alan Sakowitz, who doesn’t even live in North Miami Beach, stupidly endorsed Michael Joseph and convinced hundreds of his newsletter’s recipients that he would “support the needs of our community.”

Little did the unsuspecting Sakowitz and his followers realize that Michael merely tolerates the NMB Jews as long as they stay in their lane.

During a recent Ethics Commission investigation of Michael Joseph, transcripts revealed that he tried to slow-walk the annexation of an area populated mostly by Orthodox Jews because if they became North Miami Beach residents, “it would dilute the Haitian vote.”

Another large voting bloc either didn’t vote in this race at all, or they did choose Michael over his opponent, Antonio Ortega, because he was endorsed by Mayor Anthony DeFillipo, who supported the controversial Dezer Development proposed in their Eastern Shores neighborhood.  Their aversion to Tony, and anyone they believed was associated with him, aided and abetted the re-election of Michael Joseph.

These are the same people who inadvertently helped Michael Joseph get his Puppet Candidate, Daniela Jean, elected by encouraging Eastern Shores resident Ruth Abeckjerr to run for office, a lovely woman with good intentions but absolutely no chance of winning.  A crowded field of six candidates, including Ms. Abeckjerr, Henry Rafael Dube, Ketley Joachim, Margie Love, Dianne Weiss Raulson, and Daniela Jean, were vying for that seat, which was being vacated by the termed-out Phyllis Smith.

Unfortunately, because no one in that race received at least 51% of the votes, in a run-off election between top vote-getter Daniela (33.57%) and Ghost Candidate Margie Love (18.73%), who ran her entire “campaign” by email from the self-quarantined safety of her keyboard.

Worse, the day after the general election, instead of vigorously hitting the campaign trail, Margie closed her campaign account, claiming she ran out of money, and continued on her merry way sending out emails of cute cat pictures and other nonsense.  From the beginning, Margie had refused to accept donations and insisted on funding her own campaign — to the tune of a ridiculous $45,564.30!

And yet, at the most critical juncture of the campaign, she suddenly — and very stupidly — decided she had already spent enough.  Even more infuriating, Couch Potato Margie has already threatened to run again — and possibly screw up another election.

Daniela, on the other hand, actively sought donations which totaled $17,938.29 — not counting, of course, all the dark PAC money amassed by her benefactors, especially her close personal “friend,” a well-known, married elected official with deep pockets.

Not surprisingly, with only an 11.45% turnout, Daniela beat Margie with nearly 60% of the 2,779 ballots cast on November 17, 2020.

And finally, not that it would have mattered in the least, Commissioner Fortuna Smukler told VotersOpinion that she really liked applicant Ricardo Mendez for the position of City Manager, who we believe was by far the best candidate.  For reasons known only to her, she decided at the last minute to vote for the worst possible candidate, Duke Sorey.

There has been speculation that Fortuna, a Cuban American, was concerned about voting for another Cuban American out of fear of appearing biased.  If true, this is absolutely absurd.  After all, Team Apocalypse have already proven they will always choose a Haitian American over anyone else, regardless of qualifications.  While Duke is not a Haitian, he already has a track record in North Miami of hiring Haitians over anyone else, especially Hispanics and whites.

And, speaking of identity politics, since Duke was hired on April 20, 2021, several non-Haitian North Miami Beach employees have already been asked to resign, or are outright quitting because they see the writing on the wall.

Last month, fully aware of the disaster coming down the pike, the City’s long-time Finance Director Janette Smith and NMB Water Department Director Jafeth Baez both resigned.  And just last Friday, the highly qualified Assistant City Manager Sharon Ragoonan was forced to either resign or be fired.

We also hear there are others ready to jump ship.

There are also rumors of a possible shake-up in the Police Department.  This does not bode well at all for residents, who for decades have had the privilege of being professionally served by the award-winning North Miami Beach Police Department.

In 2019, we reported that the North Miami Beach Police Department was the first law enforcement agency in Miami-Dade County to become accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, Inc. (CALEA) in 1991, and the first ever in the County to achieve “EXCELSIOR” status.  One of the criteria for this award is that agencies must pass five successful reaccreditation cycles.  The honorary distinction of “EXCELSIOR” recognition takes 17 years to achieve and is the highest recognition the accreditation agency bestows.

On June 26, 2019, the North Miami Beach Police Department achieved this honor for the third time in a row!

Today our command staff met with the commission for Florida law enforcement accreditation. It is our pleasure to announce that we have once again achieved the excelsior status! We have been an accredited law enforcement agency for over 22 years. #316 pic.twitter.com/rbEyPKIiJ2

— North Miami Beach PD (@myNMBPolice) June 26, 2019

Under the outstanding leadership of Police Chief Richard Rand, there is no doubt that the North Miami Beach Police Department is on its way to achieving this honor for the fourth time in 2022.

Unless, of course, Arthur “Duke” Sorey screws everything up by bringing in his second rate police cronies from North Miami — just because he can.

As everyone knows, elections have consequences.

Team Apocalypse may have the majority voting bloc on the dais, but as we’ve already witnessed by their choice for City Attorney and City Manager, they certainly do not have the best interests of North Miami Beach residents in mind.  These four are selfishly eyeing the City’s reserves in order to increase their salaries, get fully paid health insurance coverage, hire personal assistants, and throw expensive parties every week.

By hiring Hans Ottinot and Duke Sorey, they are guaranteed that nothing will stand in the way of their greedy, self-serving agenda.

Michael Joseph, McKenzie Fleurimond, and Daniela Jean simply do not care that Duke Sorey is unprofessional, uncouth, unpolished, and undignified.

Paule Villard, of course, doesn’t know any better.  For obvious reasons.

All Team Apocalypse cares about is that Duke has full control over the City’s checkbook, and they have full control over him.

What could possibly go wrong?

Stephanie