We’re old enough to remember when Miami Beach Mega-Developer Russell Galbut & Family spent $10,000 to help former North Miami Beach Mayor/current Career Criminal Myron Rosner get re-elected.  In return, Myron succeeded in strong arming his colleagues on the Miami-Dade County Board of Rules and Appeals into wiping out $1.8 million in assessment fees the Galbuts owed to the City of Miami Beach.

Unfortunately for Myron, he lost his mayoral seat.

Fortunately for Galbut Family, the $10K campaign “donation” was money well spent.

As we recounted in Miami-Dade County Polictics: Business as Usual, on July 21, 2011 the Board of Rules and Appeals heard the case of 1100 West Properties, LLC, (owned by 1100 West Investment Holdings, LLC), d/b/a Mondrian South Beach.  The Mondrian Hotel, which was owned by the Galbut Family and represented by Miami Beach lobbyist Russell Galbut, was appealing the $1.8 million assessment.  During the hearing, Myron fervently urged his colleagues on the Board of Rules and Appeals to vote in favor of his benefactor, the Galbut Family.

We reported, “A short eleven minute recess took place at 3:25 p.m., after which Myron moved to grant the appeal in favor of the appellant.  The motion was seconded and passed by an 8-7 vote, but only after the Board’s Chairman, Jesus Gomez stated on record that ‘he felt uneasy about what has happened.'”

Knowing what a first-class bully Myron Rosner is, we can only imagine what took place during that eleven minute recess.

While the nightmare of Myron Rosner’s term on the dais ended over nine years ago, North Miami Beach residents are now dealing with someone just as dastardly as the felonious former Mayor.

Commissioner Michael Joseph is continuing the corrupt legacy that Myron left in his wake.

Including his direct ties to the Galbut Family.

Michael Joseph works for the law firm Galbut Walters & Associates.  And like Myron Rosner, Michael has enjoyed the “generosity” bestowed upon him in the form of campaign “donations.”

In 2018, the Galbut Family helped Michael get elected by contributing a total of $15,450 to his campaign from several of the Galbut Family’s hundreds of companies, as well as lawyers who work in their 4770 Biscayne Boulevard office.

For his 2020 re-election campaign, Michael once again turned to the Galbut Family for “donations.”  As of August 28, 2020, Michael Joseph has so far received a total of $12,950 from the Galbut Family companies, as well as an in-kind donation from a Galbut employee, and a company Michael formed last year with one of his colleagues in the Galbut firm.

The real mystery is why the Mega-Development Galbut Family, and especially its related law firm, is even remotely interested in having someone like Michael Joseph in their pocket.  It’s not as if he’s even a halfway decent lawyer.

In 2016, when North Miami Police Commander Emile Hollant was facing false allegations against him by his employer, he hired Michael Joseph to represent him.  Instead of filing a lawsuit against the city on behalf of his client, Michael succeeded in screwing up the entire case until Hollant finally fired him fourteen months later.

In the meantime, however, Michael antagonized North Miami City Attorney Jeff Cazeau and other city employees so egregiously that Mr. Cazeau was finally compelled to file a Bar Complaint against him.

In his August 11, 2017 letter to The Florida Bar, Mr. Cazeau explained that even after being advised not to do so, Michael repeatedly contacted city employees directly even though they were represented by legal counsel.  After the third time, Mr. Cazeau filed the Complaint with the Bar stating, “Unfortunately, despite several warnings Mr. Joseph continues to violate Rule 4-4.2,” which reads:

RULE 4-4.2 COMMUNICATION WITH PERSON REPRESENTED BY COUNSEL

    (a)   In representing a client, a lawyer must not communicate about the subject of the representation with a person the lawyer knows to be represented by another lawyer in the matter, unless the lawyer has the consent of the other lawyer. Notwithstanding the foregoing, a lawyer may, without such prior consent, communicate with another’s client to meet the requirements of any court rule, statute or contract requiring notice or service of process directly on a person, in which event the communication is strictly restricted to that required by the court rule, statute or contract, and a copy must be provided to the person’s lawyer.

    (b)   An otherwise unrepresented person to whom limited representation is being provided or has been provided in accordance with Rule Regulating The Florida Bar 4-1.2 is considered to be unrepresented for purposes of this rule unless the opposing lawyer knows of, or has been provided with, a written notice of appearance under which, or a written notice of the time period during which, the opposing lawyer is to communicate with the limited representation lawyer as to the subject matter within the limited scope of the representation.

In response, while The Florida Bar dismissed the Complaint, a Letter of Advice was issued admonishing Michael that the Committee Chair and the Bar “want to make it clear that their finding does not indicate that they condone your conduct in this matter.”  The letter went on to state that although they “have found No Probable Cause, they felt your actions regarding this case were problematic …”

The Florida Bar gave Michael a pass for the time being, and advised him, “we considered the fact that you are a relatively young lawyer and while your actions were improper, even if not the result of malintent, but rather a lack of knowledge, you are advised to thoroughly familiarize yourself with Rule 4-4.2 of the Rules Regulating the Florida Bar and Ethics Opinion 09.01.”

In conclusion, the letter cautioned Michael that “this type of conduct may be viewed more harshly in the future,” hoped he had “already learned a valuable lesson” in order to “avoid this type of conduct in the future,” and reminded him of his ethical obligations as a member of The Florida Bar.

After his debacle with Michael Joseph, Commander Emile Hollant hired a real attorney, filed a lawsuit, and eventually settled with the City of North Miami for an undisclosed amount.

Apparently, Michael is an even worse lawyer than he is an elected official.

Judging by his behavior on the dais for the past two years, he’s learned absolutely nothing from the Letter of Advice he was given by The Florida Bar.

For some reason, however, the Galbut Family apparently finds Michael enough of a useful idiot for whatever development plans they may have in store for North Miami Beach.

As for Michael’s current campaign for re-election, we have no way of knowing what contributions he has received, or from whom, between August 29, 2020 and September 25, 2020 because Michael has refused to file his G02 Campaign Treasurer Report, which was due September 18, 2020, or his G03 Report, which was due October 2, 2020.

Which begs the question …

What in the world is Michael Joseph hiding?

Whatever it is, it must be worth the massive penalties he’s racking up for deliberately violating the Florida Election Code.

The North Miami Beach 2020 Candidate Handbook states, “Pursuant to Florida election laws, any candidate failing to file a report on the designated due date shall be subject to a fine of $50 per day for the first three (3) days late and, thereafter, $500 per day for each late day, not to exceed 25 percent of the total receipts or expenditures, whichever is greater, for the period covered by the late report.”

Furthermore, “All fines must be paid from the candidate’s personal funds – not campaign funds.”

As of Friday, October 2, 2020, Michael Joseph owes fines in the amount of $5,650 to be paid by his personal funds for the eleven days late that he filed his G02 Campaign Treasurer Report

The clock just started ticking on his G03 Report.

But that’s only the beginning.

Michael’s G01 Campaign Treasurer Report for the period August 14, 2020 to August 28, 2020, and which was due (or postmarked by) September 4, 2020, was also eleven days late.

The manipulative Michael Joseph tried to con the City Clerk into believing that his envelope was postmarked September 4, 2020, when in fact that was merely the date he stamped it from his Hasler brand office postage meter.  As you can clearly see, the envelope was not actually postmarked by the United States Post Office until eleven days later on September 15, 2020.

And because he also filed his G01 Report eleven days late, Michael owes an additional $5,650 in fines to be paid by his personal funds.

As of Friday, October 2, 2020, Michael Joseph owes the City of North Miami Beach fines totaling $11,300.00.

You can bet we will be making sure he pays up.

After all, as a sitting elected official, Michael Joseph took an oath to represent the residents of North Miami Beach, not rip them off.

But, wait.  THERE’S MORE!

The Galbut Family isn’t the only Big Developer that Michael Joseph is now indebted to.

At the September 24, 2020 Commission Meeting, Michael voted for the controversial Ordinance No. 2020-07 and Ordinance No. 2020-08 to allow Dezer Development, LLC to redevelop the Intracoastal Mall, located just outside the residential Eastern Shores community.

According to a September 16, 2020 Miami Herald article, “Dezer Development wants to transform the site over 10 years by building a 250-room hotel, 2,000 multifamily units, 375,000 square feet of commercial and retail space, and 200,000 square feet of office space.  Towers would be up to 40 stories tall.  A canal would be dredged through the middle of the property.”

Needless to say, Eastern Shores residents are outraged at the prospect of compounding its already horrific traffic problem, due to the fact that there is only one entrance into the residential enclave.  They have nothing against developing the property, but they feel the traffic situation needs to be addressed first.  They also want the project’s building height to be scaled down to be more compatible with the neighborhood.

Michael Joseph, however, turned a deaf ear to Eastern Shores residents.

In fact, he barely spoke a word during the marathon 9-hour nightmare of a virtual commission meeting, during which he had to be admonished again and again to stop hiding his face behind a computer monitor and appear on camera for the quasi-judicial hearing.

Michael Joseph was apparently pursuaded by the developer’s claim that this project would provide “2,700 permanent jobs,” which claim he can now use as a campaign “promise” on his election advertising.

What you can bet he won’t disclose is that most of those jobs won’t materialize for at least five to ten years.

Nor will he disclose the fact that even when those jobs do become available, Dezer Development will not be obligated to hire locally.

But by refusing to file his Campaign Treasurer’s Reports, it’s obvious that Michael also doesn’t want to disclose how much Dezer Development and/or any of its related companies have donated to his campaign in order to entice him to vote for the project.

None of which is helping the street cred of Michael’s latest self-invented incarnation as a “progressive.”

True progressivism espouses “principles and policies based on Keynesianism, Marxism and other left-wing schools of socioeconomic thought.”

Michael, on the other hand, is fully embracing the right-wing school of crony capitalism, which is often “used to describe governmental decisions favoring cronies of governmental officials.”

All of which only serves to spotlight the blatant hypocrisy of Michael Joseph, who is clearly in the pocket of Big Development, and whose backing he needs to get re-elected.

Then again, as we already know, Michael Joseph is a complete fraud.  Nothing about him is real, honest, or ethical.

Fortunately for North Miami Beach voters, they have the power to send this phony, and his crony capitalism, packing.