North Miami Beach Commissioner Michael “Mike” Joseph is up to his old devious tricks.

Once again, most likely with the help of his BFF Hector Roos, Michael has perpetrated yet another “anonymous” attack against a member of the Commission.

As VotersOpinion reported last September in Devil on the Dais! The twisted duplicity of Michael Joseph, Part 1, using the pseudonym “Ike Runner,” Michael/Hector sent an email to City Attorney Sarah Johnston accusing Barbara Kramer of not maintaining residency in the city when she sold her home on October 31, 2017, and moved to another residence in Eastern Shores.  “Ike Runner” also copied a slew of residents and reporters from local media, including this blogger, apparently hoping one of them would pick up this “story” and run with it.

A month later in October 2018 we reported in The dirtiest of all North Miami Beach campaign tricks!, “A mystery hit piece arrived in North Miami Beach mailboxes last week against Tony DeFillipo, who is running for Mayor … referring to Tony’s slate of candidates as the Tony “Soprano” DeFillipo’s Crime Family.”

Then last summer, as we reported in Devil on the Dais! The twisted duplicity of Michael Joseph, Part 2, a certain someone filed an “anonymous” complaint with the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust against City Attorney Sarah Johnston, and then conveniently leaked the complaint to the Miami New Times.

Two days after the Miami New Times article was published, former North Miami Beach Appointed Mayor Beth Spiegel, who now lives in New Mexico, sent a scathing email to city officials, denouncing the Commission’s intent to hire a private firm, and viciously attacking City Attorney Sarah Johnston, which was all based on the article’s one-sided take on a commission discussion.

Michael then printed out Ms. Spiegel’s email, made copies in the City Clerk’s office when she left the room, and surreptitiously placed them on the visitors’ table outside the Commission Chambers before a meeting, as if it were official city business.

Unfortunately for Michael, his contemptible act of cowardice was caught on surveillance camera.

WATCH!

His devious duplicity earned Michael a censure from his colleagues on the dais.

Watch!

Michael Joseph flat out refused to apologize for his abhorrent conduct.

Even worse, instead of humbly learning from his mistakes, he arrogantly repeated his false accusations against City Attorney Sarah Johnston during the Commission reports, once again referring to former Mayor Beth Spiegel’s email, and saying, “I look forward to the Ethics Commission coming forward with their findings…”  Before he could finish his sentence, the Mayor cut him off and said, “Commissioner, if you keep on that route I’m gonna cut your microphone off.”

We’re happy to report that, despite all of Michael’s best efforts to destroy her, City Attorney Sarah Johnston was categorically cleared of all wrongdoing by the Miami-Dade County Commission on Ethics and Public Trust.

Despite his very public, and very humiliating censure, Michael showed no remorse whatsoever.  In fact, to this day he continues his vendetta of evil against the Mayor and anyone else he perceives as an enemy.

Unfortunately for Michael, he has no idea just how many enemies he’s made.

And yet, he keeps on pushing the envelope.

And pushing people way past their breaking point.

Apparently frustrated that his furtive attempts to get rid of Barbara Kramer, Tony DeFillipo and Sarah Johnston have hit a brick wall, and combined with the fact that he now has a challenger for his seat, Michael has become even more desperate to get his adversaries out of the way.

His latest tactic is even more underhanded than ever.

As we’ve already proven, Michael Joseph has been known to secretly start rumors, pretend he knows nothing about it, and then take advantage of the fallout when those rumors are spread.

We know because this blogger has a personal history with Michael Joseph.

In 2012, the aforementioned Hector Roos introduced me to Michael the first time he ran for office against incumbent Barbara Watson for District 107 of the Florida House of Representatives.  Several years – and three campaigns – later, it became quite apparent that my instincts about Michael were completely wrong, and that he had played me from the very beginning.

My first clue was in June 2018 when he gave VotersOpinion a false “tip” about Paule Villard, a fellow contender for a vacancy-filling position on the dais.  Michael claimed that a “friend” of his heard Paule announce on Haitian radio that she already knew she was getting the appointment, thereby giving the false impression that Paule had insider information.  Unfortunately, I took the bait without verifying this “tip,” sent out a regrettable email to city officials, and ended up looking foolish and worse.

Despite the fact that I publicly outed Michael Joseph as the source of this rumor, he obviously has no shame … because it appears he’s done it again!

On February 9, 2020 another “anonymous” email was distributed under the pseudonym “Silent Dogood” to several former and current North Miami Beach residents, the private emails of two Commissioners, Jose Arrojo, Executive Director of the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust, and two Miami Herald reporters, falsely claiming that Mayor Anthony “Tony” DeFillipo was not eligible to run for a second term due to “term limit rules.”  He also blind copied an untold number of other recipients, with the exception of this blogger, of course.

Interestingly, just as Michael Joseph did when he went on the attack of City Attorney Sarah Johnston, the anonymous “Mr. Dogood” invoked the name of former Mayor Beth Spiegel, praising her “for crafting the strong term limit language we have in the charter (probably the toughest in Florida!).”

The anonymous “Mr. Dogood” also attached a draft of a lawsuit that he threatened to file against the Mayor, the City of North Miami Beach, the City Clerk and the Supervisor of Elections, asking for an injunction prohibiting the Mayor from qualifying “as a candidate or appear[ing] on the ballot for the office of Mayor for the 2020 City of North Miami Beach Municipal Elections to seek election to an additional term.”

In response to this “anonymous” email, on February 7, 2020 City Attorney Sarah Johnston responded to this false allegation in an email to the Mayor and Commission stating, “I want to ensure all of you have the same information and provide some clarity on what appears to be inaccurate information.  Over the last year and a half there has been numerous inquiries, public records requests and false allegations surrounding term limits.”  Ms. Johnston included several  attachments including “emails, text messages, memorandums analyzing the current and former Charter language, and current Charter language which provide clarity on this issue,” as well as “a memorandum analyzing current Mayor Anthony F. DeFillipo his length of service, the term limits and current charter language which make it clear that he is eligible to run for office from Group 1 in November 2020.”

On February 11, 2020, Mayor Tony DeFillipo replied to Ms. Johnston asking, “I would like to know in reference to the below statement and my eligibility to run in 2020 in your email who has made these numerous inquiries, and to whom has this question been posed to besides yourself if anyone else?”

Ms. Johnston responded by email dated February 14, 2020 advising him that there have been two anonymous requests, as well as an “anonymous complaint to the Miami Dade County Ethics Division made false allegations regarding term limits.”

She also provided copies of those two “anonymous” public records requests:

1. The first was dated dated September 16, 2019 from jose.rs@aol.com asking for copies of legal opinions from outside counsel Jean K. Olin and Weiss Serota Helfman Cole & Bierman about “term limits and their corresponding discussion,” and “particularly the conversation including Marlen Martel,” who resigned from the Commission in March 2018.
2. The second “anonymous” request dated February 5, 2020 from from miamivoice3@gmail.com asking for “former North Miami Beach Commissioner Marlen Martel’s inability to run for the 2018 election for city commissioner because of the term limit rule from the city charter. Also, can you provide a copy of the email to Mrs. Martel informing her off [sic] this opinion and her disqualification.”

We find the public records request from jose.rs@aol.com particularly curious.  This “anonymous” individual previously contacted this blogger via this site and by email last September alerting me to the very same Miami New Times article that was published when Michael Joseph leaked his “anonymous” complaint against Sarah Johnston.  After several email exchanges with jose.rs@aol, we began to suspect this was yet another one of Michael Joseph’s and/or Hector Roos’ pseudonyms.  We are now firmly convinced of it!

In her email, Ms. Johnston further stated that prior to the November 2018 election, Commissioner Fortuna Smukler had heard a rumor that if Tony “won in November 2018 [he] would be termed out in November 2020 and asked me if that was true.  I followed up with her a couple of months later, explained that rumor was not true and clarified the charter language and she was satisfied with the response.”

Ms. Johnston also noted that resident Mubarak Kazan had wanted to know “which current elected officials would be eligible to run for Mayor in November 2020.”

But, according to the rest of Ms. Johnston’s email, it certainly appears that the real culprit in the starting and spreading of this rumor is none other than Michael Joseph.

We know this because Ms. Johnston further explained to Mayor Tony DeFillipo:

Commissioner Joseph told me around January 2019, that he heard you had reached your term limit and asked me to look at it, I followed up with shortly thereafter with the same information I had explained previously (the current charter language) and he asked me for another opinion.  Several months later he again asked about the term limit language and possible opinions from Jean Olin and I provided him the 2016 memo from Ms. Olin which analyzes the former Charter and the analyses of the current Charter from [Weiss Serota attorney] Robert Meyers, he insisted that there must be truth to the rumor he heard about term limits and wanted another opinion-I explained the issues with opinion shopping and the current Charter language was not ambiguous.

It was brought to my attention that Commissioner Joseph asked two attorneys from Weiss Serota to look at Roberts Meyers opinion again which they declined.

Despite the fact that for over a year City Attorney Sarah Johnston provided irrefutable proof of Tony’s eligibility to run for re-election in the form of emails, text messages, memorandums and legal opinions, Michael Joseph continued to hound her for a response that would concur with his patently false allegation.

Michael Joseph even went so far to illegally solicit the services of two attorneys from the city’s outside counsel Weiss Serotta and asked them to review the opinion issued by another member of their own firm.

By now it should be obvious to anyone that Michael Joseph is desperate to disqualify Mayor Tony DeFillipo from running for re-election.

It should also be obvious that by distributing the “anonymous” email and threatened lawsuit from “Silent Dogood” attacking Tony, Michael Joseph and his best friend/partner-in-crime Hector Roos have cooked up yet another harebrained scheme to wreak havoc at North Miami Beach City Hall.

The positively evil acts of duplicity perpetrated by Michael Joseph eclipse even the sneakiest of antics committed by former NMB Commissioner Frantz Pierre.  As hard as it is to believe, Frantzie at least had one redeeming quality – he was actually quite personable and nice to almost everyone.

Michael, on the other hand, has rightly earned the reputation at City Hall of being a bully and a tyrant, especially when he doesn’t get his way.  The sooner he is removed from office, the better it will be for everyone who has the misfortune of coming in contact with him.

The good news is that he has drawn a challenger, Antonio Ortega, for the election this November.

If the voters of North Miami Beach do the right thing, Michael Joseph will be gone for good.

Stephanie