We’re old enough to remember that time El Portal Mayor Claudia Cubillos falsely accused Vice Mayor Omar C. Nickerson of lying.

At the July 23, 2019 Council meeting, she claimed at hour 1:01:01 of the meeting video that he made a motion at the July 16, 2019 Administration & Finance Committee Meeting to hire Norman Powell as the permanent Village Attorney.

As we reported in El Portal: The shady alliance of Claudia Cubillos and Norman Powell, Mr. Nickerson said, “As you know I have the utmost respect for Mayor Cubillos,” but then denied that he made the motion to hire Norman.  He also reminded her that he was the one who wanted to wait until after the budget was finalized, but that she was the one who was pushing for Norman’s appointment.

When she kept insisting that it was his motion, he shook his head no, she threw her hands up and said, “There’s video of that.”

So we dug up that meeting video, and sure enough at minute 26:26 Chairman/Vice Mayor Nickerson asked if anyone wanted to make a motion, and Councilwoman Roman declared, “I’ll motion to make the interim attorney our permanent attorney.”

To the best of our knowledge, Claudia has yet to apologize for accusing Mr. Nickerson of lying … or even for her own lie about him.

Then again, Mayor Cubillos is no stranger to telling lies whenever it suits her.

Like the time she claimed that Norman’s salary would be “all-inclusive,” when we all know that’s not even close to the truth, as we reported only yesterday in El Portal: South Florida’s shadiest little Village just got a whole lot shadier!

Well, we’re about to add one more lie to Claudia’s catalog of lies.

At the May 5, 2020 meeting of the Village’s Public Safety Committee, Vice Mayor Nickerson once again incurred Claudia’s wrath at hour 1:17:12 of the meeting video.

When she asked him why the matter of the FEMA reimbursement was not included in the tracking report for the Administration & Finance Committee, which he chairs, Mr. Nickerson told her that he was “under the impression that there was an investigation going on.”  He went on to explain that he wanted to wait until the investigation was complete before he can include it in any discussions about the Village finances.

When Mr. Nickerson finished his discussion at hour 1:22:59, Claudia exploded!

She raised her voice and spat out:

“So, I wanna add a couple things.  Number one, if you’ve got a formal letter saying we’re actually in an investigation, then I kindly ask you to show it to the Manager, because we’ve received “rumors,” oh, you know “this and that,” but none of that has been concrete.”

Seriously, she kept doing that thing with her fingers as she flat out denied any “rumors,” and emphatically stated, “If there’s an investigation, it cannot take two years for them to show us the problem!”

Oh, dear, did she step into a steaming pile of you-know-what.

Fourteen days later at the May 19, 2020 meeting of the Administration & Finance Committee, it was revealed that the Village was in fact under investigation by U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

It was also revealed that interim Village Attorney Norman Powell had known about this investigation for at least seven and a half months before Claudia kept insisting it was nothing but a rumor.

At hour 1:48:45 of the meeting video, Councilperson Anders Urbom dropped a bombshell.  “I have a couple comments.  So, um, after tens of months, and then after a great many efforts by our Manager, our Attorney, the Councilpersons, our Mayor, we arrived at a lengthy conversation with the Florida Emergency Management.  At the end of that lengthy conversation he told us it sounds like FEMA has your answers, we don’t know, so we’re still in the same exact spot we were back on day one.  And so my, I have a very large concern because I watched the Public Safety meeting and our Mayor seems to be unaware that there is a FEMA investigation into our application.  I feel perfectly comfortable to say that because I wanted to understand what was the process here and not rely on what people were saying, right?  So one day I sat with our Manager and she walked it through with me.  I think she was three and a half weeks here on the job when that happened … so I really did want to sit with our Manager and understand how we arrived at this situation of not having clear answers, right?  And so, I can tell you because I saw the letter from FEMA that submissions by our contractor, you know, triggered an investigation that they termed a 100% document review.  So that’s what’s going on right now, is a 100% document review of our FEMA application, and I am baffled that our Mayor would not be aware of that to the point that she would accuse anybody who was saying that there was a investigation of making things up, operating rumors, etc.  So I have fairly direct questions to both our Attorney and our Manager about why our Mayor is not aware of that investigation.”

Village Manager Christia Alou then assured him that while she can’t speak for the the Mayor, she is aware of that letter.

At that point, Councilperson Roman asked Powell to read the letter for the record.

Instead of simply reading the letter as requested, launched into a nearly 10 minute “introduction” in an attempt to sugarcoat the bad news and, apparently, cover for the Mayor’s “unawareness” of the fact that the Village of El Portal is being investigated by the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

We are going to quote Norman’s cringe-worthy ten minute speech, which we painstakingly transcribed verbatim, so you can see for yourself how he tried to squirm out of a very uncomfortable situation – you know, like avoiding the truth.

(We’re also giving extra brownie points to anyone who can correctly guess the number of times Norman said “um,” “uh,” and “you know.”)

“The, the process of getting information from FEMA and also from the local state level, uh, I can’t even describe it as anything but Herculean.  But, um, you know, I personally sat in on numerous meetings with, uh, uh, lobbyists, our consultants, with our Manager, um, some of them have concluded that they’re, um, we’re in, we have, basically strategized, you know, come up, tried to come up with so many different routes to get answers.  Um, the only definitive statement, and I think Councilperson Urbom is a hundred percent correct, is the letter that we received back on September 24th, 2019.  The letter, um, for the record, is very, um, nondescript.  Um, it, it references that there are discrepancies with, um, submissions made by the contractor, specifically as it relates to not only El Portal but various other cities that the contractor provided services for, um, but it doesn’t provide anything definitive that, from a Village perspective, would give us the, um, marching orders if you would, to be able to turn to the contractor and frame a cause of action, if you will.  Or to frame a statement of “you did this wrong, you did that wrong.”  So, one of the things in response to this letter that, um, that the Village did through my office was reached out to the author of the letter, who is, um, Gary Stanley, and I put the record, the letter on the record, um, so that it’s clear and I’ll submit it to the, uh, uh, the department, um, the Village has it so, um, it should be part of the record because this is very serious.  Um, I reached out directly through, to Gary Stanley, um, in a correspondence requesting that he meet with the Village through its representatives to provide the Village with more definitive factual, um, basis for the allegations and in his letter.  Um, that letter was received and we tracked it but there has been no response.  Um, and I will share that letter with, um, the Committee after we get off the, to-, um, today’s meeting so that you know that we have not just simply let the letter come into the Village without trying to give further information.  Um, yesterday’s conference call, you are correct.  It pretty much was simply echoing the fact that they are currently reviewing the, ah, the Village’s application along with other cities that the contractor provided services for.  Um, however, they were nondescript in terms of defining timing, you know, can we get something in writing so that we can have a clear understanding of what the real issues are?  Um, everything that the Village has been provided, other than this letter from FEMA, which again I don’t believe provides any real, um, definitive statements as to what the real problem is, um, because when you, and I’ll read the sections that are operative in the letter, when you read the letter it just pretty much it’s, it’s undifferentiated concerns that have been attributed to the Village and I think, um, Councilperson Urbom [is] a hundred percent correct.  Regardless of whether or not they’re gonna tell us what they think the problem is because they’re looking at it, it has triggered the, the hundred percent review.  So, even though the Village’s funds have been obligated, um, there has been this directive from the Governor’s office to release funds, FEMA has made the determination that because they’re looking at our Village along with other municipalities, is that they’re not gonna release or direct the release of any funds unless there has been this hundred per-, this hundred percent vetting of the, um, the, um, um, reimbursement applications.  So, you know, what’s the horizon?  You know, uh, Mr. Moskowitz [unintelligible] answer for us because he’s being told by FEMA to, uh, to wait for their process to complete its, um, course.  Now certainly I know that, um, the Mayor, I can only speak to what I know that the Mayor’s aware of, in my presence, she, uh, she received the same letter that I’m referring to.  Um, other than that, you know, I know that, that there’s been articles written.  There’s been statements made.  There’s been, just like any other, um, process that takes on a life of its own…”

At this point Councilperson Urbom interrupted Norman’s long-winded diatribe to say, “I’m only going off the verbiage in that letter.”

In other words,

Nevertheless, Norman pressed on.

“No, no, I understand.  And I’m not even quarreling with what you’re saying, because what I think you’re saying is, you know, completely consistent with what’s in the letter.  But, what I’ve, what my point is, is that because the Village is in the unenviable position of, you know, fighting to get its reimbursement, you know, begging for meetings to tell us where we are, what’s wrong, what is it that we need to do, you know, we, we, we’re even at the position where, Jesus, if, if, if we have to take an adversarial position with a provider, whether that’s the contractor, a debris hauler, you know, a consultant, we’ll do it.  But, what’s the cause of action?  You know, what is the, what is the, um, you know, the allegations you put even in a demand letter?  What are the allegations you would even put in a, um, complaint?  So, you know, the letter, um, well …”

Councilperson Urbom once again had to interject with, “My only concern at the present is why we’re continuing to be contracted with the same contractor.  That’s …”

Norman broke in with, “Before I cut you off, I’m sorry.  I thought that, that contract has expired.   The only, it’s only, it was, it’s uh, been expired.  The only thing the contract is doing for the Village is, I understand, is, and I think the Manager can provide better light to that, is responding to all of the RFIs that have come in response to this hundred percent audit.  These requests for information, um, are uniquely within the consultant’s purview to respond to, the Village doesn’t have that ability to do that, so whatever there has been an RFI that has been issued, whether that’s, relates to, um, vetting, you know, weight, photos, GPS, whatever, whatever the department is looking at, uh, FEMA’s looking at, um, we have to utilize them to do it.  Um, so, under contracts you’re obligation to do that.  But, my understanding, and I think this is part of what’s gonna segue into the next item, which is G5, is what are we gonna do about this season going forward?  Um, and the Manager can present that in a minute.  But I think, I think that’s important since we’re talking about it so that we’re complete, you know, the letter came in on September 24th, 2019, and if you’ll indulge me I’ll read the entire letter so that it’s complete and then I’ll ask, um, Yenise to make this a part of the record for this meeting.  The letter came in on September 29th, it references Disaster Consultant Concerns, and it states…”

Then Norman FINALLY read the letter for the record, which is what Ms. Roman originally asked him to do before he took everyone on a wild ride to nowhere.

The very best part of the May 19, 2020 Administration & Finance Committee was at hour 2:02:30 when Vice Mayor Omarr C. Nickerson spoke up.

He reminded everyone for the record that he was the recipient of Claudia’s wrath two weeks earlier at the Public Safety meeting for daring to insinuate that the Village was under investigation by FEMA.

The Vice Mayor then put up the September 24, 2019 letter from FEMA, which clearly states that the Village is UNDER INVESTIGATION.

Vice Mayor Omar Nickerson once again was forced to say, “I have utmost respect for the Mayor.”

“I think she’s a great Mayor, but … what happened to me in that Public Safety meeting, it was unfounded.  It should not have happened, because everyone knows me, and I have never in all my years while on this Village Council, I’ve never attacked anybody.  I’ve never talked down to anybody.  I’ve never been disrespectful to anybody.  Even when, and this is why I was hoping the Mayor was gonna be here tonight because I never like to talk about people when they’re not here, and I’m not talking about her, but even when I was attacked I was still respectful.  I never raised my voice at her or anybody else and I never will.  But, and Mr. Attorney, this is toward you also because … when I was attacked, when I said we were under investigation, the Mayor said I was wrong.  And then, Mr. Attorney, she went to you, and you said ‘I know of no investigation!’  You said I was wrong on the record.”

Norman had the audacity to say, “Because I’m not aware of any investigation.”

WAIT, WHAT????

Nickerson was aghast and said, “Is this not the letter you just read?

Norman:  “But it’s not an investigation, it’s an inquiry.”

WAIT, WHAT????

Mr. Nickerson then read aloud the part of the letter that reads, “however, it is incumbent upon us to fully investigate…”

Norman:  “Yeah, but most people consider an investigation something criminal in nature, but the Village is not under investigation…”

The Vice Mayor was having none of that.  “I said, according to FEMA, we were being investigated.”

This went back and forth several times until Norman said, “Maybe we’re miscommunicating.”

Yeah, sure, Norman.

And maybe cows can fly.

Nevertheless, we have burning questions.

Will Norman continue fall on his sword for Claudia?

Will Claudia ever stop lying?

Will either of them ever apologize to Omarr for treating him like a child and completely disrespecting him?

Will cows ever really fly?

We didn’t think so, either.

Stephanie