Remember when the former North Miami Beach Mayor Beth Spiegel pushed through a vote to appoint former Councilman Frantz Pierre as Vice Mayor mere hours after his being found guilty of “intentional abuse of position” by the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust?

Good times!

It kept getting worse from there.

In the months before the November 2018 election, this group of un-elected seat fillers proceeded to undo all the success achieved by the previous administration by destroying all vestiges of progress accomplished by former Mayor George Vallejo after decades of stagnation.  They began by firing the best City Manager and City Attorney in the history of North Miami Beach, and appointing their lesser qualified assistants, who would do the bidding of the commission’s every whim.  A round of terminations soon followed, purging the city of its most highly qualified employees, but who were apparently deemed a threat to the new management.

The current city commission seems hell bent on putting the last nail in the coffin.

Last Thursday night, the newly elected commissioners gave the City Clerk her walking papers for no apparent reason whatsoever.  This latest act of collective stupidity was set in motion by none other than Paule Villard, a/k/a Frantz Pierre 2.0, who falsely accused City Clerk Pamela Latimore of falsifying a public record.

Except that she did no such thing.

After blowing who knows how many taxpayer dollars conducting a witch hunt investigation of Ms. Latimore and her computer, and eventually finding that she did absolutely nothing wrong, this clown posse of a commission decided to fire her anyway.

A public records request of all emails between the recently appointed City Attorney Sarah Johnston (who was only too eager to take former City Attorney Jose Smith’s shoes after The Purge) and outside counsel Brett J. Schneider, Esquire, of Weiss Serota Helfman Cole & Bierman revealed that city officials were building a case against Ms. Latimore as early as February 28, 2019.

Apparently gearing up for the inevitable, on March 18, 2019 Johnston sent Schneider an unexecuted copy of Resolution R2018-71 , which repealed Resolution R2016-82 providing due process for charter officers facing termination and affords them the courtesy of a dignified departure.

How convenient.

On Thursday, May 16, 2019, the City Clerk was unceremoniously fired at a Special Commission Meeting, scheduled at 5:30 PM, when most residents were either still at work or stuck in rush hour traffic.

This hastily convened meeting was conveniently not posted on the city’s website.

Nor was it “posted on the front door of the City hall at least twenty-four hours prior to the holding of same,” as required by the North Miami Beach City Charter.

Nor was it published in the Miami Herald, or any other newspaper regularly read by residents of North Miami Beach.

The notice was, however, published a scant two days earlier in the the Daily Business Review, a periodical read almost exclusively by lawyers, and buried deep inside the bowels of an obscure publication that 99.9% of North Miami Beach residents have no idea even exists.

Make no mistake folks, this was done by design to ensure that the Special Meeting would be sparsely attended for the purpose of limiting public input.

Had this meeting been noticed in advance and publicized widely, residents would have come out in droves to speak out against the unjustified firing of a City Clerk for no reason other than to serve the personal agenda of Commissioner Paule Villard, and which was aided and abetted by City Manager Esmond Scott, whose responsibility it is to publicize public meetings.

We have our own thoughts as to why this this witch hunt was put into motion, but for the time being we’ll keep our own opinions to ourselves.

Civic activist, former business agent for AFSCME Florida Council 79, and North Miami’s 2017 Women Who Inspire honoree, Elizabeth Judd, however, very publicly blasted the North Miami Beach Commission for being “insensitive, uncaring, and incompetent.”

Within an hour after the Commission fired City Clerk Pamela Latimore, Ms. Judd took to Facebook and posted:

Ms. Judd continued:

More than a dozen of her followers, mostly African Americans, expressed their similar belief that Ms. Latimore was fired for not being Haitian.

While we believe the real reason is even more insidious, Ms. Judd and her followers are firmly of the opinion that North Miami Beach is undergoing an “ethic cleansing,” if you will.  They are extremely vocal about the unjust firing of Ms. Latimore.

Frankly, it’s hard to disagree with that assessment.

The Hispanic community of NMB, for example, has been witnessing a similar pattern.

Beginning with the firing of the former City Manager and City Attorney, both of whom happen to be Hispanic, the newly appointed City Manager Esmond Scott, who happens to be a Bahamian American (correction: Mr. Scott is Jamaican American), promptly fired Assistant Manager Candido Sosa-Cruz and replaced him with Sharon P. Ragoonan, a Trinidad & Tobago native.  Within the next few months, three other Hispanic department heads were forced out by management.  We’re also told that Commissioner Paule Villard is unhappy with the Chief of Police, William Hernandez, because in her opinion, he hasn’t appointed enough Haitians in high-ranking positions.  We fully expect Chief Hernandez will be the next Hispanic department head to be fired or forced to resign.

City Clerk Pamela Latimore, one of the few African American department heads in North Miami Beach, has now been replaced by Andrise Bernard, a Haitian American long-time city employee who just happened to obtain her municipal clerk certification about a month and a half ago after attending a 3-4 year course.  Shortly after presenting Bernard with her certification, Latimore was fired.

But we’re sure it’s just a coincidence, of course.

Whether or not racial or ethnic discrimination was at play in the firing of Pamela Latimore, the fact remains is that she did absolutely nothing wrong.  So let’s take a look at how all of this unfolded.

As we previously reported, at a March 19, 2019 Commission meeting, Commissioner Paule Villard publicly accused City Clerk Pamela Latimore of falsifying a public record, using the exact same tactics used by her mentor, Frantz Pierre – making false accusations with absolutely no proof whatsoever.  Villard made this allegation after Ms. Latimore denied Villard’s request to issue a “Key to the City” to a North Miami Beach resident.

Paule Villard then illegally directed City Manager Esmond Scott to Seize Ms. Latimore’s computer and open an investigation on her, based on what is at best a flimsy allegation.

If Commissioner Villard suspected foul play by one of the Commission’s three charter employees, it was incumbent upon her to bring it before her colleagues on the dais and ask for a vote to conduct an investigation.

Instead of asking the Commission for direction, the City Manager unilaterally decided investigate a fellow charter employee, over whom he has no authority whatsoever.

Once things spiraled out of control, the Commission then voted to hire outside counsel Weiss Serota Helfman Cole & Bierman to investigate Villard’s baseless allegations.  Outside counsel, in turn, took it upon themselves to hire Sharon P. Kelley of EmpLar Consultants LLC (see page 57 of the public record we obtained) to conduct the investigation.

On May 13, 2019, Kelley issued her Report, which unequivocally exonerated Ms. Latimore of all wrongdoing.  She concluded that “Latimore did not inappropriately alter a public record.”

Furthermore, the investigator determined that it was “unsubstantiated that Latimore inappropriately created a public record,” and that it was also “unsubstantiated that Latimore was rude to Commissioner Villard.”

In response to Villard’s bogus allegation that Latimore “failed to record her leave time,” Investigator Kelly also determined that “Latimore did not falsify her time.”

Ms. Kelley did concur, however, that “Latimore used a firm tone in the February 19th telephone conversation” and was “disrespectful to Commissioner Villard,” during a subsequent meeting in which Villard alleged that Latimore “yelled at Villard, slammed her hands on the table and yelled that they could have her job.”

Considering that Villard “questioned her integrity,” Latimore’s reaction is quite understandable.

Here’s the thing.

According to a May 5, 2019 letter to the investigating team from Pamela Latimore’s attorney, Michael A. Pizzi, “this entire investigation is without proper authority and is an unlawful attempt to create a subterfuge for unwarranted adverse action based on motives that violate Ms. Latimore’ Rights under Title VII, the City Charter and the Florida Whistleblower Statute” and simply “relates to a petty and ridiculous dispute over giving a Key to the City.”

Mr. Pizzi adamantly asserted that:

1. Ms. Latimore never engaged in any misconduct, never was insubordinate and never failed to perform her duties as required under the City Charter;
2. Under the City Charter, individual commissioners have no authority to give orders to staff and must give direction by majority vote;
3. Commissioner Villard was informed that although the Clerk had been delegated reasonability to develop policies for giving out Keys to the City, Ms. Villard could bring the issue in front of the City Commission and the City Clerk would be happy to follow any direction, as she always has.
4. At no time did the Commissioner simply sponsor an Agenda item to provide a Key to the City to whomever she wished or sponsor an item to change or establish polices in this areas.
5. At no time did the Clerk violate any Ordinances or policy directives of the City Commission.
6. At no time did the City Clerk alter any public documents. The Policy Memo at issue was emailed to various officials dating back to 2016 (ie: Mayor, City Attorney) and may have different dates based on when it was pulled up and emailed. But, the policy remained the same, although the date may have changed on the document each time she pulled it up and emailed it.
7. To be clear, this was a policy that had been disseminated and taken on and off agendas going back to 2016. Neither past or current mayors, who are the Ceremonial heads of Government, objected to how this issue was handled.
8. The City Commission has at all times been free to establish polices, pass Resolutions or vote to give direction to the Clerk on the issue of Keys to the City. The Clerk will follow that direction and has never failed to follow that direction.

In conclusion, Mr. Pizzi reaffirmed that:

City Clerk Pam Latimore has now been falsely accused of fabricating documents, been slandered, been illegally ordered to resign and had her computer confiscated. All because a new Commissioner did not get her way in terms of giving out a Key to the City. To date, neither the Commissioner nor anyone else has sponsored an item to give the Clerk alternative direction on this issue.

It is apparent that the Clerk has been improperly targeted for impermissible reasons. This entire matter has created a hostile work environment and trampled on her Rights under the City Charter, State and Federal Law.

As we all now know, Investigator Sharon P. Kelley agreed that City Clerk Pamela Latimore was cleared of any and all wrongdoing with regard to the bogus allegation that she “altered or inappropriately created a public record.”

And yet, on Thursday, May 16, 2019, at a hastily convened (and possibly illegally noticed) Special Commission Meeting, five of the six elected officials decided that facts don’t matter.

Paule Villard wanted Pamela Latimore gone, and she got her wish.

Is this incident indicative of an “ethic cleansing,” as Elizabeth Judd and her colleagues suggest?

We can’t say for sure.

What we do believe, however, is that the firing of City Clerk Pamela Latimore, an exemplary eight-year employee of the City of North Miami Beach, as well as the President of the prestigious Florida Association of City Clerks, for absolutely no discernible reason, other than a petty dispute over the issuance of a Key to the City, was instigated by an elected official who already had a personal vendetta against the City Clerk for refusing to conduct an illegal recount when she lost the 2015 election against then-Councilwoman Marlen Martell.

Villard’s acrimony only increased during the 2018 election when Ms. Latimore dared to fine her for filing a Campaign Treasurer’s Report past the due date.

The same way Ms. Latimore had no choice but to fine Mayor Anthony F. DeFillipo as well as former Commission candidates Ketley Joachim, Robert Dempster, Henry Dube, Alter Gambarte and Dianne Raulson, for their late filings of Campaign Treasurer’s Reports.

But, Paule Villard took it personally.

Although Ms. Latimore had no authority to waive the fine, Villard apparently believed the rules didn’t apply to her.

Hence, her desire for vengeance against City Clerk Pamela began in earnest.

The blood feud began with Villard’s assertion of false allegations, continued with ethically questionable actions by the City Manager, and culminated at a sketchily noticed public meeting, scheduled for an hour too early in the day for most residents to attend in support of City Clerk Pamela Latimore.

Whether or not the firing of the city’s African American Clerk was ethnically motivated, there is, at the very least, an appearance of impropriety.

At most, the Commission may have violated any number of Miami-Dade County Ethics Rules & Ordinances, as well as the Citizens’ Bill of Rights.

Then again, based on their actions in the past twelve months (Mayor DeFillipo excepted of course), the North Miami Beach City Commission is apparently not concerned about an appearance of impropriety, much less ethical behavior.

But this time, if the Black community of North Miami Beach has anything to say about it, we have a feeling this scandal will not be going away any time soon.

Just saying.

Stephanie