Remember when the North Miami Mayor and Council voted to reduce the cost of Special Events from $700,000 to $400,000 before passing the FY2019-20 budget? And for five whole minutes they actually believed it would happen.
It didn’t take long for reality to set in. As everyone knows, in the Land of North Miami budgets are mythical creatures with no definitive proof of existence. A possible sighting was reported in 2014, but it was never investigated or confirmed.
Since 2016, the City has closed out the end of every fiscal year in the red, as we reported in North Miami’s CAFR: A True Story in Snapshots.
As of September 30, 2019, North Miami ended Fiscal Year 2018-19 with a CUMULATIVE RUNNING DEFICIT OF $14,697,136.
It should come as no surprise that Deputy City Manager Arthur “Duke” Sorey’s pet project infamously known as the Red Garden Sinkhole has been a monumental disaster.
We also clearly remember Deputy Duke’s ten minute Special Presentation at the January 28, 2020 Council Meeting when he told the Mayor and Council that he budgeted $200,000 from the General Fund for his signature event, “Uncle Luke’s World Superbowl Experience.”
At least we think he said $200,000.
WATCH!
According to his “Superbowl Promotional Contracts” slide, the City entered into two “Revenue Sharing Contracts” for $100,000 each.
As it turns out, the $200,000 cost was merely a figment of Deputy Duke’s imagination.
And it only got worse from there.
As of February 8, 2020, he spent $486,521.
By March 5, 2020, the expenditures grew to $552,014.
As of May 20, 2020, the General Fund expenditure increased to $680,485.
And by June 14, 2020, that number blossomed to $693,190.
And, finally, as of June 30, 2020, Deputy Duke Sorey spent A GRAND TOTAL (so far, anyway) OF $874,652 just so he could be the Master of Ceremonies for the Super Bowl Party of his life.
The additional $173,162 spent on June 30, 2020 was to reimburse the North Miami Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) for expenses that it should never have paid in the first place.
Upon reviewing the invoices for these amounts we have been able to identify two of these reimbursements:
- $100,373 to ABC Party Rentals, Inc., d/b/a Diamonette Party Rental for the Super Bowl party tent rentals; and
- $64,693 to Innovative Multimedia Services for the Super Bowl media video and sound system, including sixteen (16) 65″ big screen televisions for $1,697.10 each that the City could have purchased on Amazon for less than half that price.
(Note: We are only in possession of invoices from Innovative Multimedia Services through January 28, 2020 totaling $59,773.63; however, there are two more invoices totaling $4,920.00 for which we have made a public records request. We have also not been able to identify the invoices for the remaining four amounts totaling $8,096, but we have made a public records request for those invoices as well.)
Florida’s Community Redevelopment Act of 1969 “found and declared that there exist in counties and municipalities of the state slum and blighted areas which constitute a serious and growing menace, injurious to the public health, safety, morals, and welfare of the residents of the state.”
According to Florida Statute 163.355(2), the purpose of a CRA is for the “rehabilitation, conservation, or redevelopment, or a combination thereof, of such area or areas, including, if appropriate, the development of housing which residents of low or moderate income, including the elderly, can afford, is necessary in the interest of the public health, safety, morals, or welfare of the residents of such county or municipality.”
The Miami-Dade County Board of Commissioners approves the creation of CRA’s, which it administers and oversees. There are 11 municipalities within the County that operate CRAs, including North Miami.
According to the County’s website:
Primary community redevelopment objectives as defined by legislation include:
-
- To address the physical, social and economic problems associated with slum and blighted areas.
- To encourage local government to improve the physical environment (i.e. buildings, streets, parks, utilities) through rehabilitation, conservation or clearance/rehabilitation.
- To convey local community redevelopment agencies the power to expend public funds as a means to improve slum and blighted areas.
- To enhance the tax base in the redevelopment areas by encouraging private investment through channeling of tax increment revenues into public improvements within the designated areas.
- To eliminate substandard housing conditions and to provide adequate housing to residents of low or moderate income, particularly the elderly.
Traditional projects include:
-
- Streetscapes and roadway improvements
- Building renovations
- New building construction
- Flood control initiatives
- Water and sewer improvements
- Parking lots and garages
- Neighborhood parks
- Sidewalks and street tree plantings
The plan can also include redevelopment incentives such as grants and loans for such things as facade improvements, sprinkler system upgrades, signs and structural improvements.
Nowhere in the Florida Statutes or the Miami-Dade County’s Code of Ordinances does it allow CRA funds to be expended on Super Bowl party tent rentals or multimedia video and sound systems.
Nor was Duke’s Super Bowl party even remotely “in the interest of the public health, safety, morals, or welfare of the residents.”
Just saying.
After being forced by former City Manager Larry Spring and then Deputy City Manager Arthur “Duke” Sorey to spend over $173K on prohibited expenditures, Interim CRA Director Rasha Cameau began putting pressure on the City to reimburse the money.
On June 30, 2020, she succeeded.
Thanks to the diligence and hard work of Ms. Cameau, the North Miami Community Redevelopment Agency was recently granted a 30-year renewal by Miami-Dade County. She is not about to risk it all by giving the County a reason to dissolve her agency because of the typical malfeasance committed by North Miami’s management.
In the final analysis, the CRA recouped $173,162 of the $522,092 it spent on Duke Sorey’s Red Garden Sinkhole, bringing the total funds expended by the CRA down to $348,930, well under its budget of $500,000.
Which is just one of the many reasons Rasha was promoted to Executive Director.
BRAVO!
Meanwhile, Duke Sorey plundered the General Fund by spending $874,652 on his Red Garden Sinkhole – MORE THAN FOUR TIMES HIS $200,000 BUDGET!
Which is just one of the many reasons Duke was passed over – once again – for the City Manager position.
Too bad, so sad.
Between the CRA and the General Fund, North Miami taxpayers have spent an astonishing $1,223,582 on Duke Sorey’s Hedonistic Pleasure Palace Red Garden fiasco.
And every single penny of it has gone to waste.
Like this lovely astroturf that cost North Miami taxpayers an astronomical $102,950.
Which is now rotting in the brutal South Florida weather on an abandoned vacant lot.
And those sixteen big screen televisions worth $27,153.63 that he put a RUSH! delivery order on?
They’re collecting dust in a storage room somewhere on the Red Garden property that North Miami taxpayers are renting for $8,000.00 a month …
… For the next four years.
It’s painfully obvious that the root of all problems in North Miami is none other than Arthur “Duke” Sorey!
Considering all the trouble he’s caused by his fraudulent budgets, deficit budgets, hiring friends and family, firing whistle-blowers, contracting high priced consultants, furloughing working class employees, and the constant withholding of public records, it’s a miracle that Duke Sorey still has a job.
If nothing else, Duke Sorey’s hare-brained, budget busting money pit known as the Red Garden Sinkhole should be his undoing.
Hopefully, newly arrived City Manager Theresa Therilus, Esq. will do herself (and North Miami taxpayers) a favor by un-Deputizing him and sending him back to his humble beginnings at Parks & Rec.
Or she could do the fiscally responsible thing and save taxpayers well over a $100K a year by having him escorted out of City Hall.
Works for us.
Stephanie
UPDATE: We just received a copy of a Memorandum from City Manager Theresa Therilus to the Mayor and Council with an attached spreadsheet of Red Garden Expenditures prepared by Duke Sorey. According to this accounting, this project cost a total of $1,361,615, broken down as follows:
- $545,917 was spent from the CRA;
- $80,776 was spent by the City; and
- $734,921 was called “Catalyst Weekend Expenses.” HUH???
If anyone knows what “Catalyst Weekend Expenses” is, please let us know.
Catalyst Weekend Expenses…who’s checkbook does that come out of?
I’ve followed this saga very closely and this is the first I’m hearing of this entity. Last minute plot twist in this saga. “See what happened was…” Cool story, bro. I’ve got a lot of expenses to assign this entity if they are in the business of bailing out people’s bills…somehow I doubt it works that way though…
Should I send all my bills to Duke and have him write checks from the “Catalyst Weekend Expenses” account? That would really help a girl out.
Stephanie and Laura … we should plug a lick
I’m sorry, did you say he was the Master of Ceremonies at an event he organized with public money?
As I responded to you on Twitter, in all fairness, he didn’t officially MC the event. I was talking more about to his strutting around and acting like a big shot, as if it was his personal party. He sure spent tax dollars like there was a money tree in his back yard.