With interviews set to begin this week, the North Miami Mayor and Council have finally begun their search for a permanent city manager.  Forty two individuals applied for this position online, and another 73 submitted their resumes by email.

If we told you we reviewed all 115 applications, we’d be lying.

We’d also be wasting our time.

The truth is, we already know that it doesn’t matter how many applicants vie for the job, or how qualified any of them may be.

When deciding on a new city manager, North Miami elected officials have historically shown a preference for narrowing the field down to a few individuals who align themselves with their own personal agendas.  They have publicly considered outside applicants in order to appear objective, but behind the scenes they manipulate the process to make sure their preferred candidate remains in the running.

There can be no other explanation why the current interim city manager Arthur “Duke” Sorey is now one of the 15 finalists, despite the fact that he’s the least qualified of the bunch.  And yet, somehow, he still has the best chance of getting the job.

Duke has lobbied vociferously to ensure he is the only candidate of consideration so it’s certainly possible the interim manager will have support for his lobbying efforts when his candidacy goes before the council.

Even if you believe even half the “accomplishments” he boasts on his resume, there’s no disputing that Duke deserves all the credit for the disastrous money pit known as the Red Garden.

Duke Sorey also deserves all the credit for putting together “Uncle Luke’s World Superbowl Experience” at the Red Garden held earlier this year during Super Bowl Weekend.

By way of background, the Super Bowl event was held at a former blighted private property in North Miami, known as the “Denmark Property.”  The Denmark Property, located along NW 7th Avenue, was long home to derelict statues and rocks, and was an eyesore for many years to the point the owner had accumulated over a million dollars of code compliance fines.

Instead of foreclosing on the property, which the City was legally able and compelled to pursue, in May of 2019 former City Manager Larry Spring and then-Deputy City Manager Duke Sorey opted to enter into a Settlement Agreement with Alhambra Heights 635, LLC, the owner of Denmark Properties.  According to the agreement, the city agreed to waive the million dollars in back fines owed to North Miami taxpayers, only to replace that debt with an $8,000 per month, or $96,000 a year, for the next five years, which Settlement Agreement was ratified by the Mayor and Council.

It gets worse.

On January 2, 2020, while the Mayor and Council were on hiatus, the city entered into a Memorandum of Understanding between the City of North Miami (the “City”) and Uncle Luke’s Records, LLC (“Ambassador and Promoter”), for a “revenue sharing” venture, under the following terms:

2.6 Promoter agrees to a revenue sharing of net profits with the City. Promoter and City will split net profit 50/50 until the City receives $100,000. Thereafter the Promoter will receive 100% of net profit up to the next $100,000. Thereafter the City and Promoter will split net profits with the City receiving 20% and the Promoter receiving 80%.

2.7 Promoter will partner with Master of Auto Body Repair, Inc. (“MOB”) to provide a Car Show Event on February 1, 2020. Promoter’s share of the MOB car show revenues will go toward the City’s initial $100,000.00 50/50 net profit split indicated in section 2.6 above.

2.8 Promoter will make a contribution of $10,000 to the City of North Miami’s Utility Assistance Fund.

While Luther Campbell, President of Uncle Luke Records, LLC, agreed to contribute $10,000 to “the City of North Miami’s Utility Assistance Fund,” the City turned around and committed “to provide Cash and in-kind support up to $100,000.”

Yeah, we’re scratching our heads, too.

As we already reported, according to the City of North Miami’s “transparency portal” as of February 8, 2020, the city spent the sum of $486,521 from the general fund for this event, even though only $200,000 was budgeted.

In a follow-up blog on March 7, 2020, we noted that as of February 27, 2020, the expenses for the Super Bowl party totaled $552,014.

It’s anyone’s guess how many of the event’s invoices were not included in the documents we finally received on February 20, 2020 after we made repeated requests since January 8, 2020.

As of March 31, 2020, however, those expenses increased to a whopping $680,485.

So on May 10, 2020 we made another public records request for three of the new invoices paid in March totaling $119,373.50.

After compiling all the invoices we received, North Miami resident Laura Hill prepared a spreadsheet, which reflected total payments of $1,139,124.69.

Of those expenses, the North Miami Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) had agreed to pay up to $500,000.  As of February 28, 2020, however, the CRA actually spent $523,236.

UPDATE:  As of February 28, 2020, the CRA spent $482,654, as evidenced by our corrected spreadsheet, and therefore, was still under budget.

In short, the North Miami CRA paid $523,236 $482,654 of the invoices we received, and the remaining $615,888.69 $656,470.69 was paid by YOUR TAX DOLLARS from the city’s general fund.

However, since the city’s website reflects total general fund payments of $680,485, there are still $64,596.31 $24,014.31 worth of expenses that remain unaccounted for.

On top of this, despite the fact that no events have been planned for the Red Garden in the foreseeable future, North Miami taxpayers are still on the hook for a lease that cost them nearly half a million dollars.

Talk about a sinkhole!

We are still trying to get to the bottom of this whole mess, but it won’t be easy.

As far back as February 20, 2020, Laura Hill made a public records request for “a copy of each expense related to the Red Garden Superbowl party for each day it was held. I would like a copy of the amount of tickets sold, the amount of the ticket sale price received and a total sum of incoming revenue from the ticket sales. I would like a copy of any sponsors who contributed to the event and the amount of the contribution or type of contribution.”

While she did receive copies of some of the expenses, the city did not respond to her request for an accounting of the ticket sales and sponsor contributions.

In an ensuing chain of emails, Laura Hill followed up by first writing:

“It’s now been over 2 months and I have not received the information.  Several other citizens have also requested financial information regarding the Superbowl party at Red Garden.  Why has this information not been forthcoming from the City of North Miami administration?  When can we expect to hear a synopsis of the financials associated with the Red Garden and Superbowl weekend as we were promised many weeks ago?  Does the City administration intend to give the requested information to residents in compliance with the State of Florida Statues regarding public information?”

She received a response the next day from the City Manager’s office stating, “The reason for the delay is that we are waiting for a response from the corresponding vendors that handled sponsorships and ticketing, the city contracted out those services.”

After several more emails back and forth with no response forthcoming, Laura Hill once again sent an email today, copying Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust Director Jose Arrojo, the following:

“So, the City of North Miami did not receive or track any earned revenue for Superbowl weekend? The ticketing agency provided no documentation of numbers of tickets sold? No point of sale information was given to the City from beverage sales?

I’m very confused. Why would this be the case?

Or are departments just not turning over publicly requested information?

Has to be one or the other.

Please advise. It’s been an unreasonable amount of time.

Laura Hill”

We are told this will be her final email before action is taken.

Just saying.

As you can see, Arthur “Duke” Sorey’s Red Garden Sinkhole has been nothing but a monstrous money pit for the City of North Miami, for which he is solely responsible and for which he has adamantly refused to provide the financial records.

Yet, he had the audacity to blame Uncle Luke for not paying his fair share.

At the April 28, 2020 City Council meeting, he defended his lack of transparency with the excuse that the City “has been having challenges with Mr. Campbell.”

He also announced that he “had the attorney send him a demand letter.”

WATCH!

In a battle between Duke v. Luke, our money’s on Luther Campbell.

In the meantime, Duke is “working on getting that report together.”

Yeah, sure.  We’re not holding our breath.

And yet, despite the unmitigated disaster known as Red Garden that Arthur “Duke” Sorey created, he actually believes he deserves to be appointed as permanent City Manager.

In a normal city, none of this would be acceptable.

But in North Miami, it’s just another Wednesday.

In a normal city, Duke would have been sent packing.

But in North Miami, he’s as good as hired.

Stephanie