If you’ve been suspecting that North Miami Beach Commissioner Paule Villard is a manipulative liar (and terminally stupid), last Thursday night’s commission meeting will eliminate all doubt.

Paule’s Item 16.1 on the Agenda, vaguely entitled “Reference to Charter Officials,” was brought up at hour 1:11:14 of the meeting video.  Since no further details were provided on the Agenda, no one – not even her colleagues on the dais – had any idea what she planned to discuss.

At least they shouldn’t have known if they were heeding Florida Sunshine Laws.

It didn’t take long, however, for everyone watching the meeting to realize that Paule Villard had previously discussed her intent with at least one of her colleagues, Commissioner McKenzie Fleurimond, behind closed doors out of the Sunshine.  And considering the way the “discussion” went during the meeting, it certainly appeared that the conniving Commissioner Michael Joseph and their Puppet Commissioner Daniela Jean were also in on the nefarious scheme.  None of them had any intention of discussing anything.  They had a specific plan in mind, and they intended to carry it out regardless of the desires of their colleagues or public opinion.

Villard began her “discussion” by bringing up the ill-fated trolley fiasco that she and her duplicitous comrades initiated at the January 5, 2021 commission meeting, again as a “discussion” item, during which the four of them abruptly cancelled a contract with Limousines of South Florida, a highly reputable company, in the hopes of replacing it with the fly-by-night, shady and inexperienced ProKel Mobility, with no municipal or trolley experience.

A lawsuit is now pending.

It’s important to keep in mind that the registered lobbyist for ProKel is none other than former North Miami Mayor Andre Pierre, an extremely charming but devilishly calculating individual, who has earned second place in the Triple Crown’s Most Despised Professions category of Lawyer-Politician-Lobbyist, finishing slightly behind blue ribbon-winner Joseph S. Geller.

Because in the “new” North Miami Beach, all roads now lead to Andre Pierre.

On Tuesday night, Paule began her meandering diatribe by insulting residents who “don’t know how government works”, whining about the “hundreds of thousands of dollars” spent on consultants, and complaining about not having money to give away to her constituents.  She summed up her pointless point by taking stupid to a whole new level with, “I’m not getting the buck for my money.”

Forget mixing metaphors … Paule Villard positively mangles them!

Right on cue, Puppet Commissioner Daniela Jean piped in by prefacing her preplanned speech with, “As a newcomer I’m obviously giving everybody the benefit of the doubt, and learning as I go, and also bringing the government experience that I have…”

Daniela Jean, who’s been an elected official for five minutes, would have you believe that she absorbed her vast government experience by osmosis at the City of North Miami, where she started out as a part-timer for 13 months, and then as a full-time employee for the next six years as a low-level office grunt.

I have shoes older than the government experience she brings to the table.

In fact, considering that I’ve been a civic activist in North Miami Beach since she was 2 years old, and blogging since she was barely old enough to drink, my shoes and I have more government experience than she can ever hope to have in her lifetime.

According to the Employee Performance Evaluations beginning on page 44 of her personnel file, which we obtained via official Public Records Request, Daniela Jean’s Overall Performance Ratings were rated “Satisfactory/Expected Performance” in every year, except for 2017 when she received her one “Above Satisfactory” rating.  That was the same year she received “Outstanding” ratings in “Personal Appearance,” “Attendance,” and “Safety,” but none in actual job performance categories.

In her six years of employment, Daniela Jean never once received an Overall Performance Rating of “Outstanding/Exceptional,” nor did she ever hold a supervisory position.

Or as we say in the private sector, a non-essential employee.

Despite her obvious lack of government experience, Daniela Jean blathered on and on for five more minutes about how she plans to spend taxpayer money on useless programs and her pie-in-the-sky initiatives, while not offering even one solution to any problem whatsoever.  She might want to stop talking and start listening to the adults in the room for a while before she continues to prove how much she has to learn.

Then again, Daniela Jean wasn’t plucked from obscurity and recruited to run for office for her government experience.  She was recruited for one reason, and one reason only – to serve as the fourth member of a Machiavellian voting bloc.

And so far, mission accomplished.

Commissioner McKenzie Fleurimond, who allegedly had absolutely no idea why Paule brought up a “discussion” about their Charter employees, claimed that his “main concern when it comes to charter officers” is that the city needs “more of a boutique experience when it comes to our legal department.”

Which is as essential as Daniela’s government experience.

He then “casually” mentioned as an aside that the City of Tamarac recently hired a “boutique firm” as interim attorney.  He added, “That firm to me is a possibility that we can consider.”

And like magic, he pulled out of a hat the “boutique law firm” belonging to one Hans Ottinot, Esquire who, according to the Florida Bar directory, is the “Managing Partner” of a one-partner law firm, Ottinot Law, P.A.

This would be the same individual who was rumored to be North Miami Mayor Philippe Bien-Aime’s pick for City Manager last year after the Council fired Larry Spring.  Rumor also had it that Mr. Ottinot was demanding a starting salary of $400,000, and insisting that the position not be advertised to other potential candidates.  In the end, however, Hans Ottinot did not apply for the position.  We suspect he backed out when word got out about his outrageous demands.

Also not surprisingly, one of the Tamarac City Commissioners instrumental in the hiring of Hans Ottinot’s one-lawyer firm is none other than Mike Gelin of North Miami fraudulent bidding infamy.

That would be the same Mike Gelin who tried to scam the Evaluation Committee into granting him “local preference” points even though his company ranked third place in the scoring.

In fact, the Miami Herald reported:

“At a City Council meeting in July, Mike Gelin, who goes by his middle name, told the councilors: “We are the only local North Miami firm that bid on this contract.”

But calling Gelin Benefits Group a “local business” in North Miami would appear to be a stretch. The company’s website lists a Fort Lauderdale address and makes no mention of North Miami. And it’s not clear that the company has any tangible presence in the city.

What it does seem to have is a “virtual office” — the right to an address and a mailbox in an office suite in a North Miami strip mall known as Causeway Square.

Little wonder that Mike Gelin also hates police officers.

Not surprisingly, one of Hans Ottinot’s closest friends is none other than Andre Pierre.  So close, in fact, that we’re told they’ve even vacationed together on more than one occasion.

Meanwhile, North Miami Beach Commissioner Michael Joseph, a/k/a the insidious Devil on the Dais, was the next to speak during the meeting.  He expressed the “same concerns” as his three comrades on the dais.  Michael echoed Paule Villard’s complaints about consultants, claiming that “on the managerial side” the city spends a lot of that money that “could have been used for giving out money to our residents, to our small businesses…”

He also grumbled that North Miami Beach didn’t put enough “skin in the game as much as we should given the fact that we’re not really taking care of our own.”

In other words, he wants the City of North Miami Beach to dole out taxpayer money to residents and business owners of his personal choosing.

Michael then made an incredibly stupid “analogy” when he said, “If we have a personal cook, and that cook is always doing Uber, do we actually have a cook?”

Oh, dear!  We are definitely not dealing with rocket scientists here.

Finally, Michael claimed that he wanted a “discussion” and a consensus, when it was painfully obvious to everyone watching the meeting that Michael and his comrades had already decided the fate of the City Attorney and the City Manager.

At this point, Mayor Anthony DeFillipo had to remind the rocket scientists on the dais that, “We are not an entitlement city.”

He had to explain that the City of North Miami Beach does not have a population exceeding 50,000, and as such, it is not entitled to “Federal funding to help entitled metropolitan cities and urban counties meet their housing and community development needs,” in accordance with the U.S. Housing and Urban Development’s Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) program.

As much as the four clueless clowns on the dais  want to be North Miami 2.0, which has an estimated population of 62,504, it’s not gonna happen.  North Miami Beach, on the other hand, has an estimated population of 42,161.

But Paule, Daniela, McKenzie and Michael don’t care about actual facts.

Or ethics, or city charters, or state laws.

They have an agenda, and they’re not about to let anyone or anything, stand in the way.

Despite Mayor DeFillipo’s earnest call for unity, at hour 1:52:00 of the meeting, Paule Villard made her true thoughts known.  She proceeded to launch into a mad rant for the benefit of her Facebook Live audience, which she regularly entertains during Commission meetings when she’s supposed to be legislating.

What really stood out was when she addressed Tony directly and said, “I remember when WE first came on in December 2018,  Mr. Mayor you did not feel like the manager and the attorney at that time – you really wanted to get rid of them.  But that was your prerogative because of the way that you saw them.  And, you know, this is like how WE feel our city is and this is and how WE feel charter officers are, and I can talk from my seat, too.”

Who is the royal WE she was referring to?

It was obvious that she was speaking about herself and her three colleagues on the dais, with whom she appeared to have already collaborated in order to plan what was about to go down.

Mayor Tony kept urging his colleagues to schedule a workshop to discuss their concerns like “rational adults” and “leaders,” especially because “we can’t discuss this among ourselves because of Sunshine” laws.

Apparently, Paule, McKenzie, Michael, and Daniela wanted to have nothing to do with being rational adults.

Or leaders.

Or Sunshine Laws.

That ship has sailed.

Like a broken record, McKenzie Fleurimond spoke and reminded them that he “did mention the conversation about more of a boutique experience for the City of North Miami Beach.”  He then “wanted to see if there was any appetite for it.”

The Mayor broke in and said there was a conflict of interest since Hans Ottinot worked for a vendor of the City of North Miami Beach.  No one seemed to care.

Incredulously, McKenzie added, “I don’t know if he is going to accept our offer, but in order to find that out I wanted to see if this is palatable for the rest of the Commission.”

As if he didn’t already know he had the votes!

McKenzie then brazenly made a motion to “extend an offer at the same terms that our current city attorney has at this time.  If there’s a second, then there’s a second.  If not, then we’ll go forward.”

As expected and right on cue, Paule Villard seconded his motion.

It should be noted that the current City Attorney for North Miami Beach is the 75-member full service law firm of Weiss Serota Helfman Cole & Bierman, PL, and is paid $55,000 per month, or $660,000 per year.

During the “discussion,” Puppet Commissioner Daniela Jean balked at the $55,000 a month the city was paying the firm, and wanted to know “how that is really benefiting us.”

Even with all her government experience, Daniela still has no clue how budgets work.

So let’s school her.

During Fiscal Year 2016-17, the City had an in-house attorney and staff, the salaries of which were budgeted for $602,100.  Added to that amount were other wages, taxes, benefits, and operating costs in the aggregate amount of $809,626, for a total City Attorney Department budget of $1,111,726.

The following year FY 2017-2018, then City Attorney Budget actually increased by $39,404.

By Fiscal Year 2018-19, the City changed direction and hired the full-service firm, Weiss Serota, to replace the in-house attorney.

Accordingly, the annual budget for the City Attorney’s office decreased by $163,090.

For Fiscal Year 2019-20, the City Attorney’s budget remained the same, even though Weiss Serota came in under budget by $29,406 for the previous year.

And, finally, for the current Fiscal Year 2020-21, the the City Attorney’s Budget was decreased another $58,040, or $221,138 less than what was budgeted for an in-house attorney.

If Daniela actually believed that the City was paying a single attorney $55,000 a month, she’s clearly mistaken.

She’s also stupider than even we imagined.

So much for her “government experience.”

Despite calls for a workshop from the Mayor and Commissioner Barbara Kramer, Paule Villard made it clear that she was not open to discussion since it was obvious that she and her three comrades had already agreed upon the outcome of McKenzie’s motion to hire Hans Ottinot as the City Attorney.

“If we feel we can get more for our, you know, for our money, or whatever, I mean, if four people say, I mean, we have a motion so if four people say they want, you know, the attorneys want month to month, and that’s, um, so if we feel like, uh, we need something different, to try something new, and the person I believe that Commissioner Fleurimond says, uh, first of all, I would like …”

The Mayor, who also realized that Sunshine violations had taken place, interrupted her run-on sentence to ask, “But, Commissioner.  How do you know there are going to be four?  What about if there are five?  How do you know there are gonna be four?”

Paule must have realized she inadvertently spilled the beans.  So she quickly covered her tracks by saying she meant that four was the minimum needed for a vote.

Nevertheless, Paule plowed on.

“What I was trying to say was, you know, I think we should do justice to that person that, uh, to this other attorney,” she said, pretending she had no idea what his name was.

She then asked the Mayor if he would affirm that “this other attorney” did work for a vendor of the city and that there was definitely a conflict of interest.

When the Mayor emphatically stated, “I attest and I affirm,” Paule Villard slyly retorted, “I’m gonna tell you, you’d probably be wrong.”

Oh, REALLY?

How could she possibly have known that unless she had already spoken to Hans Ottinot and recruited him for the job of City Attorney?

The truth is that Hans Ottinot was fired by R.K. Associates in late October of last year.  However, since R.K. (according to its website) is “a privately held, family-owned real estate development company,” Ottinot’s termination was not public knowledge.

And because this company has not done business with North Miami Beach in years, if ever, the Mayor probably had no idea, either.

Nevertheless, Paule was visibly anxious to get Ottinot appointed and kept pressing for a Commission vote.

Commissioner Fortuna Smukler objected to the appointment, saying that she has no idea who Hans Ottinot is, much less whether or not he’s a decent attorney.  She said it wasn’t fair to her or anyone else to hire an attorney without having the opportunity to meet him.

Her four colleagues ignored her.

Daniela Jean once again showed her complete ignorance by bringing up the money paid to Weiss Serota.  Even McKenzie felt compelled to explain to her how City Attorney budget works.

When Barbara Kramer had her chance to speak, she took the opportunity to point out, as we mentioned above, that Paule seemed to know a lot more about Hans Ottinot’s employment status than she should have if she had no idea McKenzie was going to move to appoint him.

Oops!

Barbara also intimated that Puppet Commissioner Daniela Jean should understand the legal department and its budget before she opines on matters she knows nothing about.

In response, Paule once again tried to defend the appearance of her Sunshine violations by claiming she had absolutely no knowledge of Hans Ottinot or “who he even works for.”

Yeah, right.

Paule then said she only mentioned it “because he’s not here to defend himself.”

Defend himself from what?

From his future bosses asking about his employment history?

Apparently Paule thinks everyone else is just as stupid as she is.

Of course, we know she’s simply lying, because – like her original mentor, convicted criminal Frantz Pierre, lying is what she does best.

And once again, Paule desperately tried to push through a vote on the motion to hire Hans Ottinot, by echoing McKenzie’s comment, “if we have an appetite” to hire “that person,” as if she didn’t even know his name.

Even with a prepared script at her disposal, Paule Villard is a really bad actor.

When Commissioner Fortuna Smukler finally had the chance to speak she asked if anyone knew what Hans Ottinot was going to charge the City for his legal services.  Furthermore, “How can we be making a decision without even knowing how much they’re charging?”

Of course, none of the four colluding comrades had given any thought about silly little details like their charter employee’s salary.  They intend to give away the farm like their counterparts in North Miami do.  After all, it’s not their money.

McKenzie responded with, “My goal is, based on my motion, was to open it up, see what’s out there, but in the interim place Mr. Ottinot in the attorney’s position while we see what’s out there.”

He then dropped a bombshell when he nonchalantly said, “My motion was also clear in making an offer similar to the current contract that we have with our current City Attorney.”

Let’s get this straight.

McKenzie Fleurimond actually believes that a ONE-PARTNER LAW FIRM so far off the grid it has no website, should be paid the same $55,000 a month that a well known, legally diversified 72-MEMBER LAW FIRM receives!

At that moment, Barbara Kramer’s jaw literally dropped at the sheer insanity of it all.

Interestingly, Puppet Commissioner Daniela Jean, who was oh-so-astonished that Weiss Serota was receiving $55,000 a month from the City, had absolutely no problem whatsoever reaching deep into the taxpayers’ pockets to pay the exact same amount to the hand-picked candidate of their choice.

Kinda makes you wonder, huh?

Just saying.

Ironically, McKenzie kept saying, “If he were to accept,” pretending that a deal had not already been made.

McKenzie then proved he’s either a liar or stupid when he announced that Mr. Ottinot was “picked up” by the City of Tamarac, which he claimed was “an entitlement city with over 100,000 residents.”

If he had actually done his homework, McKenzie would have known that the City of Tamarac has a population of 65,669, which is considerably less than 100,000.

He only had to visit the City’s website to find out its actual demographics.

But, hey!  Let’s go with McKenzie’s “stats” … which were off by only 34,331 people.

It should also be noted that the City of Tamarac’s Fiscal Year 2020-21 Budget is $184,292,023 …

As compared to North Miami Beach’s Fiscal Year 2020-21 Budget of $166,827,798.

Which is $17,464,225 less than Tamarac’s budget.

Meanwhile, the City of Tamarac, which hired Hans Ottinot as its Interim City Attorney on January 4, 2021, is paying him $225.00 per hour, according to the executed Agreement for Interim Legal Services.  Assuming he’ll work a full-time, 40-hour week, that amounts to $39,000 a month.

If North Miami Beach pays him $55,000 a month, that total amounts to $192,000 a year MORE than he earns from Tamarac – a city with more than double the land mass, a budget that’s 10% higher, and a population that’s 30% larger.

Nevertheless, despite the blatant appearance of a conspiracy, despite their complete incompetence, and despite their collective stupidity, Paule, McKenzie, Michael, and their empty-headed puppet Daniela used the power of their majority to appoint the so-called “boutique” one-member law firm of Hans Ottinot as the North Miami Beach City Attorney.

To the surprise of absolutely no one.

North Miami Beach voters, who voted for these conspiratorial, incompetent and stupid elected officials, can now enjoy their “boutique government experience.”

Meanwhile, however, this is not the end of the story.

In Part 2, we’ll spill the beans on all the dirt we dug up about your new City Attorney that they all were hoping would stay buried.

As well as their insidious plans to replace the City Manager.

Stay tuned …

Stephanie