T
he brand new Mayor and Commission of North Miami Beach need to hit the ground running and immediately undo the damage committed by their predecessors – an unelected body of seat-fillers, who made every wrong decision humanly possible.
Like their baffling vote to appoint the ethically- and criminally-challenged Frantz Pierre as Vice Mayor a mere three hours after the Ethics Commission threw the book at him for exploiting his “official” position. Luckily, that shortsighted decision was invalidated when Frantzie was arrested at last and charged with eleven felony counts.
Proving once again that karma is a formidable foe.
Then there was the conspiracy to appoint Beth Spiegel as interim mayor while she was running for the position against her colleague, Tony DeFillipo, which gave her the unfair advantage of incumbency to benefit her mayoral campaign.
As soon as Beth accomplished her personal mission to get rid of her arch nemesis, City Attorney Jose Smith, for daring to challenge her compulsion to be the smartest person in the room, she dropped out of the race. Surprising absolutely no one.
Not to be outdone, the absentee ballot fraudulently “re-elected” faux “Commissioner” Phyllis Smith, proceeded to commit one of many acts of stupidity by moving to fire City Manager Ana Garcia.
With the exception of Tony, the remaining bobbleheads on the dais followed Beth and Phyllis down the rabbit hole and terminated Jose and Ana, a debacle that cost North Miami Beach taxpayers the sum of $290,238.46 in settlement, and an additional $12,240.00 in outside counsel legal fees, for a grand total of $302,478.46.
But, wait. There’s more!
On October 29, 2018, one week before the municipal election, Beth Spiegel called yet another Special Meeting (her seventh since she was appointed in April!) to discuss, among other things, the Recruitment Process for City Attorney and City Manager.
At least, that was the alleged game plan.
Beth’s hidden agenda, however, was immediately revealed at hour 3:08:39 of the meeting video, when she announced that interim City Manager Esmond Scott and interim City Attorney Sarah Johnston were each entitled to a twenty week severance package.
Because she wants to “leave the city moving forward constructively.”
Um, okay.
Right on cue, Phyllis chimed in with, “Sarah has been working 26 hours a day for the last two weeks,” before shilling for Joe Geller as City Attorney, as usual.
If that move weren’t preposterous enough, and because North Miami elected officials shouldn’t have all the fun flushing money down the toilet, Commissioner Barbara Kramer ridiculously pushed to give both Esmond and Sarah one year contracts.
In the name of “stability,” of course.
Um, okay.
Ironically, after Jose Smith’s and Ana Garcia’s Separation Agreements were approved, Barbara Kramer emphatically stated that she wanted to perform a search for a permanent manager and attorney.
All of a sudden, however, she believes that “now is not the time to be looking for a new manager.”
She also admitted that “we obviously can’t discuss a contract to hire the city manager and city attorney to give them a contract,” although she really wished she could.
Then she granted her own wish by doing just that.
Although Barbara even questioned the legality of her own motion, she forged ahead nevertheless, and no one – neither the City Clerk nor the Assistant City Attorney – stopped her from doing so.
Barbara was correct that a discussion item cannot lead to an action item calling for a vote, as she very well knows.
In fact, at a Commission meeting held on February 5, 2018, Tony DeFillipo was called out by Barbara when he nominated Ketley Joachim as a replacement commissioner because the Agenda only called for a discussion item about The Process of Filling a Vacant Commission Seat Under the City Charter.
Somehow, all of that was forgotten so that Beth could push her real agenda through before her swan song was over.
As someone who has been in office for nine and a half years, Barbara Kramer should have known better.
Besides, Sarah Johnston doesn’t even qualify for the job of City Attorney according to its own guidelines. NMB’s published City Attorney Recruitment Brochure states, “The ideal candidate has ten (10) years of increasingly responsible experience in management and the practice of law (preferably municipal).” According to her City Attorney Profile, which is published on the city’s website, Sarah Johnston has only been an attorney for eight years, and was hired by Jose Smith in 2014 as his assistant.
Even worse, the entire debacle of a procedure was flawed and improper. Not to mention illegal.
Item 6 of the Citizens’ Bill of Rights in the City Charter reads:
6. Right to Notice. Persons entitled to notice of a City hearing shall be timely informed as to the time, place and nature of the hearing and the legal authority pursuant to which the hearing is to be held. Failure by an individual to receive such notice shall not constitute mandatory grounds for canceling the hearing or rendering invalid any determination made at such hearing. Copies of proposed ordinances or resolutions shall be made available at a reasonable time prior to the hearing, unless the matter involves an emergency ordinance or resolution.
Also, Article I, Section 2-2.1(a) Agenda of the City Code states:
a. Required; Preparation by City Clerk. The business to be transacted coming before the City Commissioners shall be governed and regulated by an agenda prepared by the City Clerk and concluded five (5) business days preceding the City Commission meeting and posted and delivered by 5:00 p.m.
Furthermore, Florida Statute 286.0114(2) regarding Public Meetings, states:
(2) Members of the public shall be given a reasonable opportunity to be heard on a proposition before a board or commission. The opportunity to be heard need not occur at the same meeting at which the board or commission takes official action on the proposition if the opportunity occurs at a meeting that is during the decision making process and is within reasonable proximity in time before the meeting at which the board or commission takes the official action. This section does not prohibit a board or commission from maintaining orderly conduct or proper decorum in a public meeting.
The negotiation and entering into of contracts for two of the Commission’s Charter Officers was not placed on the Agenda for the October 29, 2018 meeting. There was no Resolution publicly noticed regarding employment contracts or severance pay to the interim Charter Officers for the public to review beforehand, nor was public comment permitted.
Although Beth Spiegel claimed that her only intent was to provide severance packages to Esmond and Sarah, in a classic “bait and switch” move, she disregarded her own motion and encouraged Barbara to forgo the discussion item entirely and offer them one year contracts.
Clearly this action is a violation of the Citizens’ Bill of Rights, the City Code, the Florida Statutes, as well as the city policy regarding discussion items.
Furthermore, the “bait and switch” pulled by the Mayor and Commission is exactly what the court warned against in Law and Information Services vs City of Rivera Beach, 670 So. 2nd 1996 (Fla. 4th DCA 1996).
In his Advisory Legal Opinion 2003-53, Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist cited this case and opined:
However, this office would strongly recommend that the city commission postpone formal action on controversial matters coming before the board at a meeting where the public has not been given notice that such an issue will be discussed. The purpose of the notice requirement of the Sunshine Law is “to apprise the public of the pendency of matters that might affect their rights, afford them the opportunity to appear and present their views, and afford them a reasonable time to make an appearance if they wished.” In the spirit of the Sunshine Law, the city commission should be sensitive to the community’s concerns that it be allowed advance notice and, therefore, meaningful participation on controversial issues coming before the commission.
Aside from all the legal stuff, the hiring of a permanent City Manager and City Attorney one week before the election was just plain wrong.
Commissioners in several local municipalities, such as Miami Lakes and North Bay Village, wisely chose not to “rule from the grave” by saddling incoming elected officials with Charter Officers they didn’t appoint.
Clearly, this is a decision that rightfully belongs to the brand new City Commission, five members of which will be sworn in on Tuesday, November 27, 2018:
- Mayor Anthony DeFillipo
- Commissioner McKenzie Fleurimond
- Commissioner Michael Joseph
- Commissioner Fortuna Smukler
- Commissioner Paule Villard
Their first order of business should be to clean house and hire a City Manager and a City Attorney of their own choosing.
North Miami Beach residents deserve better.
Stephanie
I hate to have to correct you but the bobbleheads on the dais who terminated Jose and Ana, did not cost the citizens of NMB $302,478.46. In fact they cost the citizens competent leadership that helped to save a ship that was sinking, to say the least. It is to be noted that most of the accomplishments that happened under George, Ana and Jose have not been seen yet. Yes the reserve accounts are not at zero, like when they started. Yes development is happening, not like when they started. Yes contracts are under control, not like when they started. But the majority of the new development has not hit the tax roles yet. It will be interesting to see what the new commission will do with all that extra money. Give it away like some of the newbies have said or give it back to the homeowners like it should be.
You are absolutely correct. I was only calculating the current monetary loss to taxpayers, but not the potential loss in terms of long term economic stability. You are also correct that every single one of the gains NMB has made since 2011 was a direct result of George Vallejo’s vision for the city. Certain people take pleasure in attacking George because of his campaign finance violation – a misdemeanor that hundreds of politicians in Florida commit every single year, and simply pay the $1,000 fine when caught. Many of those politicians are, in fact, serial offenders. They merely write the check to the Florida Elections Commission a couple times a year, and then do the same thing all over again every time they run for office. This is not to excuse George for what he did. He owned up to it, took responsibility, and took his punishment. But his offense wasn’t even in the same league as the actually felonies committed by Myron and Frantz, neither of whom is off the hook. Despite the tiresome lies told by Ray Marin and David Templer, George was never arrested. Katherine Fernandez Rundle needed a scalp to prove she’s “tough on crime,” and George was an easy target. Especially since he isn’t married to a Circuit Court Judge!
In any event, if it weren’t for George, as well as Ana and Jose, both of whom he was instrumental in bringing to NMB, your city would still be stuck in the 1980s … and completely in the red. It will be interesting to see if the new commission will be fiscally responsible with taxpayer money and continue on the right path, or bring everything to a screeching halt and piss it all away like their counterparts in North Miami.