On March 21, 2023, the North Miami Beach Mayor and Commission finally held it’s first post-election meeting, thanks solely to Judge Valerie R. Manno Schurr’s Order Granting Plaintiff’s Emergency Motion to Compel Commissioners Attendance at Commission Meeting.
As expected, the Agenda for that meeting was excessively long due to the fact that the City had not been able to conduct any public business since October 18, 2022, thanks to the boycotting of meetings by three Criminal Commissioners, Michael Joseph, McKenzie Fleurimond, and Daniela Jean.
Ever since the election, they’ve been grieving the loss of their fourth co-conspirator, Paule Villard, and their voting majority on the dais.
But even more than missing their corrupt little friend, the three Criminal Commissioners needed to make sure that their personal manservant, a/k/a ex-City Manager Arthur “Duke” Sorey, kept his job long enough for him to approve several of their pre-planned taxpayer-funded vacations and sign off on their uncontrollable Purchasing Card (P Card) spending.
Before Duke was fired, McKenzie and Michael had already planned another taxpayer-funded vacation to the National Haitian American Elected Officials Network (NHAEON)’s January 27-29, 2023 Leadership Retreat Program held in Weehawken, New Jersey, and another to Washington, DC to attend the National League of Cities Congressional City Conference on March 24-25, 2023.
If Duke had been fired in December as the New Majority on the dais intended, Michael and McKenzie’s travel plans would have been canceled.
And while they refuse to show up at Commission meetings unless they are Court ordered, they have no problem spending thousands and thousands of your tax dollars to fly around the country for photo ops.
In fact, McKenzie “donated” $1,000.00 of your money to 5000 Role Models of Excellence on his taxpayer-funded P Card …
Just so that he and Michael could pose for this photo op with Congresswoman Frederica Wilson at the conference last week.
McKenzie is awfully generous with other people’s money, especially when he can take full credit for the “donation.”
Meanwhile, because the Agenda was never completed at the March 21, 2023 Commission meeting that they were ordered to attend, the new City Manager, Mark Antonio, sent the Mayor a Memo on March 22, 2023.
The Mayor responded by requesting that a meeting be announced and posted. The Clerk then sent out an email to all elected officials advising them of the City Manager’s request for a Special Meeting.
Not a single one of the Criminal Commissioners responded.
Yesterday — nine days after the Manager’s Memo was issued — the Clerk sent out this email advising that “quorum has not been established for the requested Special Meeting.”
We’re not sure what McKenzie’s and Michael’s definition of “role model” is, but we can tell you that anyone elected to public office is obligated to perform the duties of that office. Michael and McKenzie, and their partner in crime, Daniela Jean, have shirked their responsibilities to represent the residents of North Miami Beach by refusing to attend Commission meetings and conduct the People’s Business.
McKenzie Fleurimond and Michael Joseph are certainly no role models. They are nothing but frauds.
But, we already knew that.
The good news is that on March 27, 2023, City Manager Mark Antonio issued a City Business Travel Moratorium, excluding all taxpayer-funded travel without a “public purpose benefiting the City residents.”
We’re also told that City Manager Antonio has deactivated all the Commissioners’ P Cards, and they will only be activated on an as needed basis.
Damn, we love this dude!
It’s obvious why the three Criminal Commissioners refused to show up to meetings — they desperately wanted to keep Duke Sorey employed for as long as possible.
Under the new administration, they won’t be able to steal your hard earned tax dollars any more.
Too bad, so sad.
McKenzie, Michael, and Daniela are just gonna have to pay for their own vacations from now on.
And, whether they like it or not, they will be showing up for Commission meetings.
Either willingly or by Court Order, if necessary.
Just saying.
Stephanie
It’s that “I’m sorry, your card has been declined,” message that is going to be the most powerful.
I think the cards were deactivated before the trip to DC. I wonder how Michael “Uber King” Joseph paid for his ground transportation. Was it painful for him to use his personal credit card? Will McKenzie have vacation withdrawals when he can’t travel every other week? So many questions…
So them not showing up for a special meeting… doesn’t that defy the court order or was the order only for the March 21st meeting? If so, it needs to be expanded or it’ll be another 120 days of no shows.
Since the April 4th meeting is simply a continuation of the March 21st one, I think the current Court Order still stands. But that’s just my not so expert opinion, and a Judge will need to decide that.
What does seem obvious, however, is that these three clowns fully intend on holding up city business indefinitely by constantly refusing to have quorum. The difference now is that they’ll have to pay their own legal fees to defend their actions, so that may deter them. Especially McKenzie and Daniela, who don’t have real jobs and wouldn’t even have an income if they couldn’t suck off the government teat. At least Michael is a lawyer, albeit not a very good one, but we assume he’s good enough to convince his bosses that he deserves a paycheck.
As long as these Criminal Commissioners keep up their antics, the next year and a half is going to be bumpy for the City, but the good news is that they won’t be able to rip off the taxpayers anymore. The party is over for them!
I reviewed the memorandum sent by Sorey on March 13, 2023 to the Mayor and commissioners, Sorey stated that “This itemized report reflects three calendar years (2020, 2021, and 2022)”
Fleurimond’s charges for 2022 are only itemized from 09/06/22 – 12/28/2022, during which time he managed to spend approximately $4,700 on travel to Congressional Black Caucus, Smart City Expo USA and NHAEON. What happened to the previous 8 months of charges?
Michael Joseph’s itemized charges are only for 09/14/2022 – 10/02/2022. That’s 18 days during which time he spent about $982 on travel to the Congressional Black Caucus Conference in D.C.
There are 3 charities that he donated to during that time, in the total amount of $1,706.25 which are NOT policy compliant, as indicated on the itemized list. Did he reimburse the City for that amount?
I did write to the City Manager advising him that there are huge blocks of time missing from Michael and McKenzie’s lists. I never heard back, so thanks for reminding me. I’ll have to follow up.
Steph