North Miami City Council meetings are always entertaining.
The March 12, 2019 meeting was especially popcorn-worthy thanks to the hypocrisy of the lamest of all ducks, Mayor Smith Joseph.
The pregame show began with Tab I of the Agenda, entitled DISCUSSION REGARDING ADMINISTRATIVE VARIANCES MORATORIUM.
At hour 2:15:11 of the video, City Manager Larry Spring explained to the Mayor that the variance moratorium resolution passed by the Council at the last meeting needed to be modified.
Why?
Apparently, when Spring and City Attorney Jeff Cazeau “dealt with some of the after effects” of the moratorium, they “realized there needed to be a modification in order to properly continue to enforce certain provisions in the code.” He concluded with a request that the Mayor and Council revise their motion to clear up the mess that was created by the original moratorium resolution.
Is anyone surprised at this screw-up? After all, this is North Miami.
Councilman Scott Galvin sponsored this discussion because, as he explained, once they issued the moratorium “staff simply stopped writing citations for anything” under the apparently mistaken impression that there was a moratorium on issuing citations for all code violations.
Yep. North Miami.
Galvin then moved to approve the new language, which was seconded by Councilman Alix Desulme.
The City Clerk announced that there needed to be public discussion before voting. The Mayor objected, claiming this matter was only a discussion.
So Galvin withdrew his motion.
Councilwoman Carol Keys interjected that they needed “to vote to undo the vote we took, or modify the vote we took.”
At that point, Councilman Galvin threw his hands up and said, “Let’s open up the can of worms.”
Stating the painfully obvious, Galvin moved to “give direction to staff to continue to write violations for things that are in violation of our code,” adding that residents can appeal before the Board of Adjustment.
Even though the motion was seconded, the Mayor once again objected to public forum because “it’s wasn’t published as a resolution, it was published as a discussion.”
City Attorney Cazeau patiently explained, “Mayor, the way we’ve been conducting our meetings is that before an item is voted on you open it up to public ….”
Smith interrupted with, “You never had to open to public hearing when we have a discussion.”
Jeff Cazeau, “Because you don’t vote on discussion items. You’ve turned this discussion item into a vote and so you should open it up to public hearing.”
Once again, Scott Galvin withdrew his motion.
When the City Clerk announced that the motion is being withdrawn, Galvin said, “No, no, no, no, no, no, leave my motion, leave my motion.”
Despite the motion still remaining on the table, and despite the City Attorney’s directive, there was no public discussion before a vote was taken, and it passed 5-0.
Popcorn anyone?
The Mayor then finally announced, “Citizens forum is now open.”
Too little, too late.
The main event began at hour 2:31:10 of the video during Council reports.
Mayor Smith Joseph held up a document and claimed that he just received Florida Auditor General Sherrill F. Norman’s November, 2018 report regarding her October 10, 2017 Preliminary and Tentative Audit Findings for the period of 2013 through April, 2017.
Of the 30 findings made by the Auditor General, the Mayor was mainly concerned about only two of them:
- Finding 15: City expenditures were not always supported by fully executed purchase orders or contracts prior to payment and documentation was not always available to demonstrate the public purpose for the expenditures.
- Finding 23: P-card expenditures were not always properly approved, adequately supported, or for allowable amounts and allowable purposes.
What happened next was nothing short of astounding!
Mayor Smith “I Went to India with my Police Chief on Taxpayer Dime” Joseph had the chutzpah to say:
We have to admit there is a lot of traveling by administration. A lot of time you’re looking for people, before you know it they’re away. And as a Mayor, I don’t even know. The council members know, but I don’t, most of the time.
Maybe if the Mayor showed up at City Hall once in a while, he’d know, too.
Just saying.
He continued:
We could be more involved as to when people in the administration travel, and not just from the day before.
I mean we’re paying you guys. We hired you, we vote on hiring you, so you are our employees. So we should know in a timely manner what you guys are doing. It shouldn’t be a free-for-all, you know, all kinds of things being done in the way that people want it to be done.
But, the Mayor was just getting started.
And of course, I’m only touching the tip of the iceberg here. A lot of other things, a lot of dirty linens … are out there and people don’t want to talk about them. But when you have a little wound, they try to cover it. Sooner or later it comes out as a big wound.
We cannot hide the fact that we are under a microscope … by FDLE, by FBI … that’s why we get audited every so often. We’re lucky enough that they’re giving us warnings and alerts as to what we need to keep our eyes on.
But, truthfully, in the past four and a half years that I’ve been here I think we’ve been too slack as a council. We should keep a leash on the administration on the way they spend money, on their spending and their travel. That’s my recommendation.
We couldn’t agree more!
Spending is indeed out of control in North Miami.
For example, let’s take a look at the “fiscally responsible” spending habits of the Mayor over the last three years.
The Mayor and Council each have a Discretionary Fund of $7,000.00 to spend during each fiscal year.
In Fiscal Year 17 (October 1, 2016-September 30, 2017), the Mayor spent $47,134, leaving his fund $40,134 in the red.
In Fiscal Year 18 (October 1, 2017-September 30, 2018), the Mayor spent $75,863, leaving his fund $68,863 in the red.
So far in Fiscal Year 19 (October 1, 2018-September 30, 2019), in only five months, the Mayor has already spent $10,753, leaving his fund $3,753 in the red.
That total doesn’t even include the month of March – he still has more than two months to go.
One can only imagine the damage he’d do if he were allowed to run for a third term!
But, no worries!
All negative balances will be covered by the Capital Fund.
Courtesy of North Miami taxpayers, of course.
The Mayor went on to request a resolution authorizing the city council to approve in advance any travel by the City Manager and the City Attorney.
“It’s all about transparency,” he said.
Yes, Mr. Mayor, North Miami residents deserve a little transparency for a change.
Just saying.
Stephanie
There is absolutely NO reason for any individual in the city, from administration to the Mayor or Council members to EVER NEED to travel out of the country. And there are few occasions when even traveling out of the county are necessary. Trips to China, Israel, India, etc. are a luxury and should NEVER be on the taxpayer’s dime. North Miami is the most pathetic excuse for a responsible government. There should be a city ruling that if you travel past your allotted budget then you pay, not the taxpayers.
Finally the Mayor is acting like a Mayor and telling the Managers that they are his and the Lincoln’s employees. They are not their own bosses they answer to others. Too bad it only took the Mayor 4 years to finally speak up and to finally hold the leash. Because the leash was loose. The Mayor and no council person was holding it. I wonder if upon seeing how the city
Clerk had no problem telling the manager off via the check, the Mayor realize he could do the same. But let’s not only point fongets to the Mayor there are four others who could have held the leash but as always look the other way. I really do hope we get new people into city hall. We need a Mayor and council that will remind the staff that they are hire/voted upon employees and lying to them as Larry and Duke have ( ex: the Costco check will be mail, no their is nothing wrong with the budget) would not be tolerated. And Mayor and council also got to remember that they are our employees that we votes in.
Shame on the mayor for over spending and our council for doing nothing but collecting their paychecks, going on trips and looking the other way. LETS VOTE NEW PEOPLE IN!!!!!!!!
Acting like a mayor? More like a guilty-conscience trying to deflect attention from his own unethical behavior.
Too late too little. Nobody listened, nobody cared. All of a sudden they are all trying to act real ethical. What a joke they all are. Yes, shame on the council,, all of them.
Sir, If you care about “gentrifying” North Miami, first you need to find a home for, then RELOCATE, all the ducks that have been flushed out of the North Miami waterways. (Arch Creek and Emerald Lake to be specific). I am quite certain the ducks do NOT have webbed feet so they can walk around on HOT TAR. They need to have access to water! I believe that would be listed under ANIMAL ABUSE. Many of them are crippled intentionally by some residents on the street, and some are hurt because their feet are burned from the absurd length of time it has taken to repave the roads. Also, “widening 16th Avenue” would have made MORE sense without the concrete medians. The Fire Rescue truck can’t go north or south on 16th Ave., because the cars have no place to move out of the way. So, maybe, before you and your group “decorate” the new area behind the new Costco with some new park, maybe you should help remind the citizens of North Miami, especially those in the NE 123rd Street to 131st Street. (north to south) and NE 16th Avenue area to the train tracks (east to west) that we live in a CITY, not some third world farm country where there are chickens and roosters roaming around everywhere. Also, your “code enforcement officers” ought to look at the homes they sight for STUPID things AT NIGHT so they can see how many people live in 2 or 3 bedroom homes in single family dwellings. On my street alone (NE 128th – off 16th), I can show you at least 3 different houses that have 8 or more vehicles parked in the front yards of the homes 16th and I have lived in North Miami for over 45 years, and I have watched it deteriorate to the mess it is now. Respectfully,