One week ago today, Norman Powell was living the high life, enjoying his unchecked power as the municipal attorney for North Bay Village.

That evening it all fell apart when the Mayor and Commission contemplated firing him.

Things just got worse from there.

Two days later, the Miami Herald revealed that Powell filed an ethics complaint against the lawyer who was likely next in line to take his place, accusing Jose Smith of “unregistered lobbying” for the position.

Powell also retaliated by firing Smith’s firm, Bryant Miller Olive, P.A., as outside counsel for the Village.

When VotersOpinion called him out on his Douche Nozzle tactics, Norman got his panties twisted and threatened this blogger with a subpoena.

After poking that particular bear, on Sunday night the Village Attorney sent an email to his Mayor and Commission, to defend his irrational decision to terminate the BMO contract, claiming that the firm’s labor attorney, David Miller, “was unprepared to discuss the basic terms” of a former manager’s contract.

However, he neglected to mention that Norman Powell himself drafted that contract behind closed doors, at the behest of former Mayor Connie Leon-Krepps, without David Miller’s knowledge.  Miller obviously “was unprepared to discuss” something which he knew nothing about.

Powell also had the audacity to complain that Miller never disclosed that his wife is a reporter for the Miami Herald, a newspaper that had “printed several articles, often negative, about Village contracts and separation agreements. ”

He continued, “Imagine for yourself a situation in which your own personal or business attorney was in the position of advising you on difficult subjects, and his or her spouse was working for an entity that was printing articles about the details of your case.”

Never mind that the “entity” known as the Miami Herald, an internationally distributed periodical with 1 million local readers and 17.3 million worldwide, publishes literally hundreds of stories a day, 99.99999% of them NOT about North Bay Village.

Never mind that  Carol Marbin Miller is a nationally recognized journalist who never covers local politics.  Ms. Marbin Miller is the senior investigative reporter at the Miami Herald, whose articles about abused and neglected children in state facilities and foster care have earned her a ton of accolades and awards in journalism.

In other words, Norman, you’re not that important.

In that same email to the Commission, Powell was also compelled to explain why he caught the apparently unwanted attention of VotersOpinion by writing:

On another note, a local blogger from North Miami published a piece concerning me.  She is someone I have had a cordial relationship with for about 15 years; and I called to offer my comments and give my perspective on positive achievements.  She instead misconstrued my intent and now accuses me of mal intent [sic] because of a phone call.  In the world of journalism of which blogging is loosely associated, authors generally invite comment and welcome opposing views, especially from the focus of their written piece.  Either sincerely or otherwise, however, she has chosen to misrepresent my willingness to offer a different perspective as haranguing.  I want to assure you all this is not the case.

His imaginary version of our telephone conversation aside, for the record this “local blogger” has NEVER had a relationship with Norman Powell, cordial or otherwise.

In fact, prior to our phone call on Thursday, December 13, 2018 at 3:39 PM, this “local blogger” had NEVER met, spoken to, or corresponded with Norman Powell.

He’s obviously confused.

The same way he was obviously confused when he tried to bring a concealed weapon on a flight at Miami International Airport on February 2, 2018 and was promptly arrested, as reported this morning in the Miami Herald article, “City attorney arrested by TSA for a gun in his carry on, didn’t tell commissioners.

(Click here to read the arrest report: Powell Arrest Affidavit)

When asked by reporter Sarah Blaskey (who, unlike David Miller’s wife, does cover North Bay Village) why he never disclosed his arrest to the Mayor and Commission a month later when they hired him as Village Attorney, Powell said, “I don’t believe I mentioned it because I didn’t really think it was important.  Basically it was simply the weapon was improperly stored. I paid a fine and moved on.”

Oh, really?

“According to Florida law, weapons are not allowed into airport terminals, not even with a concealed weapons permit. A violation of the terms of concealed weapons permits is a second degree misdemeanor, subject to heavy fines,” the Miami Herald noted.

And yet, according to the Criminal Court Docket, Powell’s lawyer David Raben, made the whole thing go away for a mere $108.00 in court costs.

Powell returned the favor by hiring Raben “to do legal consulting for North Bay Village,” for which he was paid $3,700.00.  That “legal consulting” included “private meetings with Powell and then-Vice Mayor Andreana Jackson,” who vigorously protested Powell’s firing on Tuesday night.

Oh, really?

Powell wants the North Bay Village Mayor and Commission to believe that it was a conflict of interest to retain attorney David Miller because he happens to be married to an investigative reporter at the Herald.

And yet, somehow there was no conflict of interest when he hired the lawyer who defended him on criminal charges.

Seems legit.

Miami Lakes attorney Michael “Pitbull” Pizzi (and this blogger’s lawyer) told the Miami Herald, “Whether it violates the law or the ethics code doesn’t matter in my opinion.  It shows such horrible judgment, and it presents an appearance of impropriety and breached the trust of the city commission, breached the trust of the people, and he should immediately resign or be fired.”

Ya think?

After narrowly escaping the ax at last Tuesday’s Regular Commission meeting, we’re told that a Special Meeting is scheduled for Thursday, January 3, 2018 for the purpose of discussing Norman Powell’s future (or not) as Village Attorney.

Unless he decides to do everyone a favor and resign before he gets fired.

Don’t count on it.  We’re pretty sure he’s not gonna give up a sweet $204K gig without a fight.

But, wait.  There’s more!

The Miami Herald also published today, Inside El Portal’s lone jail cell: A powder keg of confiscated rifles and ammunition, which reported, “For the last four months,  thousands of rounds of ammunition and a cache of high-powered weaponry have sat in dozens of boxes in the lone holding cell of the tiny village of El Portal’s police department.”

The stash, which includes “21 rifles, two handguns, a shotgun, holsters and scopes and thousands of rounds of ammunition,” belonged to a federal judge who took hostages, including his girlfriend and her brother, and then killed himself during a stand-off.

An anonymous resident circulated an email with a photo of the stored arsenal and expressed concern that it is a “‘physical hazard’ to the nearby Tot-Lot children’s playground,” according to the article.

The resident put the blame squarely on Village Attorney … Norman Powell, who of course, made excuses as to why the haul is still sitting in the holding cell four months later.

All of them about as believable as all of his other ones.

In the meantime, the Village of El Portal can now add Norman Powell’s name to its growing list of troubled city officials who have been arrested, are headed for prison, under investigation by FEMA, and smacked with over $90K in federal tax liens.

And, like North Bay Village, El Portal is a municipality that just fired it’s Chief of Police for blowing the whistle on corruption.

Or, as Norman Powell calls it, “Home, Sweet, Home.”

Oh, and more to come on El Portal.  Stay tuned.

Meanwhile, head over to North Bay Village Reality Based Community blog for Kevin Vericker’s take on Norman Powell’s latest troubles.

Stephanie