In case you’re wondering how much North Miami’s Red Garden and its “Super Bowl Experience” cost taxpayers, wonder no more.  We’ve got the info.

Or, some of it anyway.

Truth be told, it’s anyone’s guess how many invoices were not included in the documents we finally received on February 20, 2020 after repeated requests since our first public records request dated January 8, 2020.

But, let’s analyze what we do know so far.

We’ll first take a look at all the money Interim City Manager Arthur “Duke” Sorey spent on outside “consultants” for their “expert opinions” about promoting a special event in North Miami.

Because absolutely no one on the city’s payroll knows anything about holding special events.

The city entered into three Consulting Agreements dated November 18, 2019, each for a term of four months from November 1, 2019 through February 29, 2020.  Each of these firms were to be paid the sum of $3,000.00 per month, or $12,000.00 per Agreement, for a total of $36,000.00.

In exchange for Thirty Six Thousand of your tax dollars, these three companies were contracted to provide “consulting services, design, and programming for the City’s NoMi Red Garden Project.”

Well, that certainly clears things up.

One of those contracts went to Jeffy Van, LLC, a “professional business services” company formed in 2015 by Jeffy Mondesir, who is also the owner of Randy’s Restaurant & Lounge in North Miami.

In 2018, Mondesir’s political action committee Our City Our Future raised over $25,000.00 to push the spectacularly failed $120 million GO Bond down the throats of North Miami voters.

Yet, somehow his consulting “expertise” entitled him to a taxpayer funded $12,000.00 fee.

The second $12,000.00 contract was given to Maximillian Consultants, Inc., a company formed in 2015 by Sandy Dorsainvil, former Manager of the Little Haiti Cultural Complex and current real estate associate at Metro1.

According to her company’s website, “Maximillian Consultants [sic] overall focus is to preserve the cultural identity of all Americans.”

And yet, it is completely unclear exactly what “consulting services” this company provided for Duke’s Super Bowl Experience.

The third company to score a $12,000.00 “consulting” contract for the Red Garden is Purforce Group, LLC.  This company, which has been in business since 2018, is owned by Terry Louis, a/k/a Terry Pierrelouis.

Purforce Group does not have a website, but “according to Eventbrite, this firm is a self-described “marketing, promotions and event curating company.”

According to its Facebook page, it has promoted a total of six events since December 6, 2019 before signing on to “consult” for Duke Sorey’s Red Garden.

According to the City of North Miami’s “transparency portal,” each of these three “consultants” were paid $6,000.00 so far for November and December, 2019.  We have no way of knowing if they received the remainder of their fees for January and February since the check register has only been updated through February 6, 2020.

Which also happens to be approximately when Duke Sorey took over as Interim City Manager.

Raise your hand if you think Duke’s hiding something.

Those three sketchy “consulting” arrangements were only the tip of the proverbial ice berg.

In September of last year, Duke Sorey commissioned a $21,000.00 “proposal for professional services” from The Pierre Organization, LLC, a business formed in 2018 by Toussaint Pierre at the same Pembroke Pines address as the law office of attorney Toussaint R. Pierre.   (We assume they are the same person or, if not, somehow related.)

This “consultant” was paid in full on December 27, 2019 by Check Number 259389, but which does not appear in the city’s “transparency” portal’s check register.

We can’t help but wonder how many other checks are also missing from the city’s website.

Raise your hand if you think Duke’s hiding something.

There’s also a $50,000.00 proposal for “Community Outreach” from South Florida Consulting Firm, Inc., which was formed on October 1, 2019.

This business is owned by Williams Coracelin of Miramar, and is located at 790 NE 155 Street, North Miami Beach, which is a single family home owned by Renald and Marie Chery, who do not appear to be related to either Mr. Coracelin or his brand new corporation.

Even though this company is only five months old, its proposal boasts of “an administration with combined experience of over twenty (20) years in public relations.”

This “consultant” was hired “to provide an education campaign for the City of North Miami regarding the Red Garden Project.”

According to the proposal, their “underlying goals is [sic] to reach out to the residents and businesses in the community and familiarize them with the Red Garden so that they understand that it will directly benefit them.”

Because North Miami residents have no idea what’s good for them unless they’re “educated.”

Just like that time Duke Sorey wasted well over $300,000.00 in taxpayer money in a desperate attempt to “educate“ North Miami residents into voting for the failed GO Bond initiative.

Nevertheless, here’s what $50K worth of “community outreach” buys:

Seems legit, no?

Fortunately, so far the city has only shelled out $15,000.00 to South Florida Consulting Firm, Inc.  Since the North Miami “transparency portal” is anything but transparent, we have no idea if the city has paid the remaining $35,000.00.

And finally, we’re still curious about the combined $300,300.00 paid to Robert Rivera Consulting LLC and TDG Sports & Entertainment LLC, since our public records request response did not include contracts or invoices for either company.

In fact, the only documentation we received regarding either of these firms was one $12,000.00 invoice for “Pallet Bars for Red Garden Permanent Fixture” from Robert Rivera Consulting, Inc., which was paid out of the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency’s account, and is not even included in the above general fund expenditures.

Raise your hand if you think Duke’s hiding something.

Let’s recap.

As soon as Duke Sorey conceived the idea of developing his Hedonistic Pleasure Palace “Multi-use Event Venue” known as Red Garden, he thought nothing of dipping into the city coffers to appropriate $107,000.00 worth of taxpayer money in order to line the pockets of Friends & Family Members “Consultants.”

He also co-signed off on payments totaling $300,300.00 worth of unaccountable expenditures to two additional “consulting” firms.

And that was just the beginning.

In our next installment of Your Tax Dollars, we will examine the other the invoices for goods and services we did managed to wrestle from the city in response to our public records request.

Although it’s a pretty sure bet that the actual cost of obtaining and developing this property is way more than the public is being told.

North Miami residents deserve better.

Stephanie