As we already revealed, North Miami Beach Team Apocalypse – Commissioners Michael Joseph, McKenzie Fleurimond, Paule Villard, and Daniela Jean – conspired to hire North Miami reject Arthur “Duke” Sorey as the City Manager.  Not because he’s the most qualified candidate.  In fact, he’s precisely the useful idiot they need in order to complete their circle of corruption at the highest echelon of North Miami Beach government.

Regardless of whatever dance they perform at City Commission meetings by pretending to appease their colleagues, Mayor Tony DeFillipo, Commissioner Barbara Kramer, and Commissioner Fortuna Smukler, with an advertised search, do not be fooled.  It’s a done deal, and there’s nothing you can do about it.

The same way the fix was already in when they hired the questionably competent and ethically challenged Hans Ottinot as the City Attorney on January 28, 2021 and threw SIX HUNDRED SIXTY THOUSAND of YOUR tax dollars a year at him to do their personal bidding.

At the February 25, 2021 Commission Meeting, the Mayor and Commission went through the motions of discussing a process to hire a City Manager, even though Team Apocalypse was trying to rush through it.

Team Apocalypse, especially McKenzie, was adamantly against using a professional consulting firm to aid in the search – even after Mayor Tony offered to pay the $20,000-$30,000 out of his own pocket!

During the meeting, there was much discussion about each of the elected officials submitting a “criteria sheet” with a list of attributes they are looking for in a potential City Manager.  They were each to submit their “criteria sheet” to the Human Resources Department (HR), as well as the Interim City Attorney, for review and compilation.  Once a finalized wish list was prepared, HR was to post advertisement on relevant municipal job search engines and wait for responses to come in.

That was the process which was supposed to be followed.

Hans Ottinot, however, decided he didn’t have to follow any damn process, and took it upon himself to place the ad on Wednesday, March 3, 2021 without any input from his bosses, the City Commission.

Or, at least, without the input from Mayor Tony DeFillipo, Commissioner Barbara Kramer, and Commissioner Fortuna Smukler, all of whom were shocked to receive an email from Interim City Manager Horace McHugh on March 4, 2021, advising them, “The City Attorney requested that I forward this update regarding the City Manager Recruitment process.  The advertisement and job announcement were completed and circulated yesterday.  As a reminder the City Attorney is the lead on this, so please contact him if you have additional questions.”

We strongly suspect that Team Apocalypse was consulted by Ottinot, and that he deliberately left Tony, Barbara, and Fortuna out of the loop.  But, that’s just us.

Worse, it’s blatantly apparent that the “advertisement and job announcement” was deliberately written for an individual with the most basic of requirements so that the incompetent North Miami Deputy Manager, Arthur “Duke” Sorey, would qualify.

For example, the “minimum experience” that Team Apocalypse will settle for is “at least five (5) years of progressively responsible and/or managerial experience in a municipal or county government.  Experience in management of a municipality utility is desired. Keen understanding of municipal issues and government relationships in the State of Florida is preferred.”

Not coincidentally, Duke Sorey only became the “Deputy City Manager” of North Miami in March of 2015 — a scant six years ago!

The “minimum education” they require is anyone with a “Bachelor’s degree in public or business administration, political science, finance, or related field,” although a Master’s degree “is strongly preferred.”

Noticeably absent from the requirements are the actual essential areas of North Miami Beach municipal government, such as the management of the City’s:

• Water utility
• Community Redevelopment Agency
• Police Department
• Parks & Recreation Department, including its after school and summer camp programs
• Annexation initiative (which Michael Joseph is against because it will “dilute the Haitian vote”)
• Planning and Zoning matters
• Development projects in process
• Union negotiations

Then again, knowing Duke’s mismanagement record in North Miami, it’s probably best to leave these areas to the experts.

And, speaking of experts, let’s talk about Hans Ottinot’s “expertise” in municipal government.

Or lack thereof.

We have no idea why the City of Sunny Isles Beach  kept Hans Ottinot on the payroll as City Attorney for 14 years, a gig he never fails to mention every chance he gets, and which he didn’t exactly leave on good terms.

And, yes, we have all the dirt.

On January 4, 2019, Hans sent an email to Sunny Isles Beach (SIB) City officials announcing that “I am retiring from my position as City Attorney effective February 7, 2019,” and attached his Letter of Retirement.

On January 8, 2019, Mayor George “Bud” Scholl responded, “I am in receipt of your letter indicating your decision to join the private sector. I accept this decision. I am certain that the private sector will be both challenging and rewarding. On behalf of the Commission, the staff and the citizens of the City, I want to wish you many more years of success in your new venture with Raanan Katz and his organization. We all thank you for your years of service and dedication.”

On January 9, 2019, Hans decided to promote two employees in his office before leaving the City, allegedly “to provide sufficient back-up and support for the Office of the City Attorney upon my departure.”

Mayor Scholl responded to him in an email, “Given your imminent departure, I would appreciate you refrain from making any personnel changes without discussing them with me and the Commission first.  The Commission can decide what is necessary to accommodate the needs of the department going forward.  It is not necessary for you to make last minute changes for our benefit.  Thank you.”

And being the contentious schmuck that he is, Hans shot back an email basically telling him he had every right to make changes in his department and that it was none of the Mayor’s business, and closing with “I hope this email clarify [sic] the issue. Thank you again for your comments.”

Oh, it “clarify” something alright.  It “clarify” that Hans Ottinot is grammatically challenged.

But, we digress.

The Mayor, who is not grammatically challenged, simply responded with, “I am not going to spar with you on this issue.  Common sense would dictate that once you have tendered your notice to leave the organization, which you have, if you then felt compelled to make changes within your department there would be a discussion.  Thank you.”

Yes, common sense would dictate that Hans would have the common courtesy, but he is apparently in short supply of both.

Especially considering what happened next.

On the same day that Hans had announced his “retirement” as City Attorney on January 4, 2019, Sunny Isles Beach developer RK Centers issued a Press Release announcing the hiring of Hans Ottinot as Vice President of Government Relations and Chief Legal Strategies.

RK Town Center North is next to a property in Sunny Isles Beach that has been under consideration for a development since 2018 known as the Infinity Project.  As the then-City Attorney for SIB, Hans was well aware of the project and was involved the negotiations between the developer, GPI Real Estate Group, and the City.

On January 15, 2019, Hans sent an email to SIB City Manager Chris Russo advising him that he had met with Magaly “Maggie” Gordo, the president of the Sands Pointe Ocean Beach Resort Condominium Association, Inc. (Sands Pointe), who was a staunch opponent of the Infinity Project.  Hans advised Mr. Russo, “As a result of the conversation with Ms. Gordo, I reviewed the density and square footage calculations in the Zoning Code in comparison with the Comprehensive Plan.  It is important to note that it appears the density and square footage calculations in the Town Center Zoning District are inconsistent with the permitted density and square footage for the property in question in the Comprehensive Plan.”  Hans went on to claim that he didn’t know why the “Town Center Zoning Code appears to be inconsistent with the Comprehensive Plan,” but he asked the City Manager to review the documents and get back to him.

Keep in mind that Hans had been the City Attorney for SIB for the previous 14 years, and he was familiar with all of the City’s Zoning Codes as well as its Comprehensive Plan.

Also keep in mind that his new employer, RK Centers, was adamantly opposed to “a plan to upzone the area to allow for 6,000 hotel units and 1,000 residential units in an area to be called ‘Town Center District,'” according to The Next Miami’s July 17, 2019 article.

In fact, on July 18, 2019, RK’s new in-house attorney, Hans Ottinot, sued the City of Sunny Isles Beach in an attempt to stop the Infinity Project, under the pretense that the City Commission violated Florida’s Sunshine Laws.  Eleven months later on June 19, 2020, the case was dismissed.

Two months later on August 7, 2020, SIB’s new City Attorney Ed Dion filed a complaint against Hans with the Miami-Dade County Commission on Ethics and Public Trust, which was thoroughly investigated for over a year until, surprise, surprise, despite overwhelming evidence that Hans violated Sec. 2-11.1. (j) of the Miami-Dade County Conflict of Interest and Code of Ethics Ordinance, on January 12, 2021, Commission Advocate Michael P. Murawski recommended “no probable cause.”

This Section reads, “Conflicting employment prohibited. No person included in the terms defined in subsections (b)(1) through (6) and (b)(13) shall accept other employment which would impair his or her independence of judgment in the performance of his or her public duties.”

In a nutshell, there was a discrepancy between the Comprehensive Plan and Zoning Code in an area of the Town Center district, which the City was attempting to correct for several years.  Maggie Gordo and RK Centers were working together to fight the proposed corrections, and it was believed that Hans was secretly working with them and former Mayor Norman Edelcup while he was still a City employee.  The item had twice been placed on the Agenda for the Commission to resolve, and twice it was removed.

The Ethics Complaint filed by City Attorney Dion also alleged that Hans was in violation of the Sunny Isles Beach Code of Ordinances Chapter 33.7, Disclosure of interest in conflict of official duties; undue influence, Subsection (b), which reads, “No official, officer or employee of the City of Sunny Isles Beach shall, by his or her conduct, give reasonable basis for the impression that any person can unduly influence him or her improperly or enjoy his or her favor in the performance of his or her official duties or that he or she is affected by kinship, rank, position or influence of any party or person.”

Despite Murawski’s recommendation of “no probable cause” due to “insufficient evidence” of a conflict, Ethics Commission Executive Director Jose Arrojo added an Addendum to Analysis and Conclusion to the Advocate’s Memorandum, and opined on several important points, as follows:

“Section 33-7(b) of the City Code provides, in relevant part, that no city official, officer or employee shall by his conduct, give reasonable basis for the impression that anyone can unduly influence him in the performance of his official duties or that he is affected by position or influence of any party or person. Clearly, this section of the City Code is more restrictive than the comparable County Ethics Code provision inasmuch as it purports to prohibit conduct that creates a reasonable impression that a conflict of interest exists.”

“The City’s Planning and Zoning Director’s impression, as related to this agency, was that Mr. Ottinot’s assessment of the project’s non-compliance with the Comprehensive Plan was incorrect and may have been influenced by his prospective employer’s opposition to the project. The Director’s belief is buttressed by her assertion that Mr. Ottinot was very familiar with the City’s Comprehensive Plan and its density and square footage prohibitions.”

“The issue becomes then, from the Director’s position or that of a similarly placed person, whether it is reasonable to conclude that a well-informed and long-serving City Attorney may be providing an incorrect opinion to elected and appointed officials that supports the position of his prospective employer because he is affected by the position or influence of RK officials.”

“Had Mr. Ottinot sought guidance from the Ethics Commission when he began to negotiate his hire by RK, and certainly once he accepted the employment, he would have been advised that in order to avoid an appearance of impropriety and ward off the possibility that his conduct might give rise to a reasonable basis for the impression that RK was unduly influencing him in the performance of his official duties, or that he is affected by position or influence of any party or person – that he should recuse himself from any matter that might impact RK. Regrettably, such guidance was not requested nor afforded.”

In conclusion, while Mr. Arrojo was “still hesitant to agree that there is insufficient evidence to conclude that Mr. Ottinot’s conduct violated Section 33-7(b) of the City Code, … given the burden of establishing an ethics violation by clear and convincing evidence, that this matter be closed with no further action.”

In layman’s terms, the adage, “If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck,” won’t fly unless there is an actual smoking gun.

Corrupt and unethical public officials are well aware that it’s damn near impossible to is to score a “probable cause” finding from the Ethics Commission, and they take full advantage of that weakness.

As a parting gift to the City of Sunny Isles Beach, Hans Ottinot bullied his way into remaining on the City’s health insurance plan even though he wasn’t eligible.

On January 8, 2019, he sent an email to the City requesting his estimate payouts for sick and vacation days, and advising them he would “pay out of pocket for [his] health insurance under the retirement program,” which the Human Resources Department provided several days later.  Hans was also directed to the City’s COBRA, which is a limited continuation of group health benefits “under certain circumstances such as voluntary or involuntary job loss, reduction in the hours worked, transition between jobs, death, divorce, and other life events,” according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

Hans was not happy about this, and on January 14, 2019, Hans responded to the HR Director that, “I am not requesting COBRA and has [sic] never requested COBRA.  I have retired as a City Attorney and employee of the City.  I am entitled to participate in the City’s Retirement Health Insurance Plan at NO COST TO THE CITY.  There is no discretion in the decision to allow me to participate.  I will pay the premium for the health insurance.  As such, I would appreciate a revised letter confirming my right to participate in the City’s Retirement Health Insurance Plan.”

When Hans was advised by the City’s Risk Managers that, based on his age and years of service to SIB, he was not eligible to obtain retiree health insurance benefits under “State of Florida standards,” and that “Any variance from the current age or years of service requirements would most likely have an adverse effect on the City’s employee health insurance costs,” Hans went ballistic.

In response, Hans sent a 1,771 word, vicious attack on the City Manager and the Mayor, spewing venom so repugnant, and so personal, even we will not reproduce it here.

Suffice it to say, you never want Hans Ottinot to learn a single, solitary detail of your private life, because if you cross him, he will use it against you whenever the opportunity arises.

Hans also has no problem exploiting his own personal life to get his way, specifically his daughter’s health problems.

In his scathing, mostly unintelligible diatribe, which portion we choose to publish here, Hans wrote:

“ATTACK ON MY DAUGHTER’S HEALTH INSTEAD OF RED CARPET TREATMENT:

I thought that my resignation would cause you to run to my office and give me a high five.  You and the Mayor finally had an opportunity to govern the City in a dictatorial fashion without any checks and balances from my office.  It has been stated that my strong personality is a problem even though I am a nice guy.  I know very well you are working behind the scene to hurt me and my daughter due to her serious medical condition.  In fact, I was in Yael Londono’s [HR and Risk Management Director] office when you called her on her cell to give her instructions to jerk me.  Moreover, a number of employee have relayed to me that they are following your instructions to harass me during my final days with the City.

Your instructions to deny me the right to participate in the Employee’s Retirement Health Plan AT NO COST TO THE CITY is “PURE EVIL”.  You are well aware that my daughter is in constant need of medical care due to a deadly disease.  Since you told me that Mayor Scholl had requested to review my Retirement Benefit Package, not typical for a Mayor, I pray to GOD that he did not instruct you to deny me the ability to provide health care to my daughter AT NO COST TO THE CITY.   I know how things work around here.  Mayor Scholl is well aware of my daughter’s medical condition.   Indeed, my daughter, unselfishly, has helped One Blood-the company that Mayor Scholl works for, to find over 500 Blood Donors over the past 4 years during her annual blood drive.  She has also helped raised awareness of the importance of blood donation to more than 3 Million listeners of the radio station owned by the Cox Radio Group.  For information purposes, my daughter has had over 20 blood transfusions and has been hospitalized numerous times due to her medical condition.  Notwithstanding the knowledge of her condition and my 19 years of unselfish and dedicated service to the City, you, without any authority to do so, instructed your Staff to deny me the right to participate in the Retiree’s Health Plan AT NO COST TO THE CITY.”

Despite his insistence that his participation in the City’s group health plan would be “AT NO COST TO THE CITY,” the risk managers have already stated that it will have an adverse effect on the City’s employee health insurance costs.  We have already made public records requests for the financial information and will follow up as soon as receive those records.

We’re also pretty sure that by making his daughter’s health condition a public record, he violated her HIPAA rights.

Not that he cares, since he did the same thing to a North Miami Beach employee at a recent Commission meeting.

Yeah, Hans Ottinot is a real piece of work.

According to Florida Statute 112.0801(2)(a), a public employee who retires under the Florida Retirement System (FRS) “is considered a ‘retired officer or employee’ or ‘retiree’ as used in this section if he or she:

(a) Meets the age and service requirements to qualify for normal retirement as set forth in s. 121.021(29); or

(b) Has attained the age specified by s. 72(t)(2)(A)(i) of the Internal Revenue Code and has the years of service required for vesting as set forth in s. 121.021(45).

Depending on the Service Class of the employee and the year in which the employee enrolled, the age requirement range is 55 (for Special Risk Class) up to 65 (for Regular Class).  The required length of creditable service ranges from 25 to 33 years.

At the time Hans submitted his Letter of Retirement on January 4, 2019, he was only 49 years old and had served as the Sunny Isles Beach City Attorney since June 15, 2005, or less than 14 years.

Despite the fact that he was not eligible for participation in the retiree health insurance plan, the Sunny Isles Beach Commission was pressured into passing a Resolution amending Section 503:1 Titled “Retirement Benefits” of the City’s Personnel Policy Manual, according to the Add-on Item 10.L. of the Minutes of the Meeting, just to accommodate Hans Ottinot’s health insurance demands … and probably to just finally be rid of him already.

Meanwhile, Hans Ottinot’s law firm was recently hired as the Permanent-But-Really-Interim City Attorney for Tamarac, as well as the Interim City Attorney for North Miami Beach.  So far it appears he is not also receiving health insurance benefits from either city, but we have made public records requests for his updated employment contracts to confirm.

What we do know is that Hans Ottinot continued to burn bridges and cause headaches long after his “retirement” from Sunny Isles Beach on February 7, 2019.

On July 12, 2019, Mayor George “Bud” Scholl posted on the City’s website a notice to Residents and Property Owners of Sunny Isles Beach, addressing an “open letter to residents, which was recently circulated by Raanan Katz, the owner of a majority of commercial retail property (RK Centers) in our city and a part-time resident.”

Mayor Scholl stated that the letter “made a series of false and misleading statements intended to cause alarm to our citizens” regarding proposed changes to the City’s Comprehensive Plan to make it “remain consistent with the 13 approvals that have already been granted,” which Mr. Katz never opposed.”

However, the Mayor further explained, “Mr. Katz is fighting this, as are some residents of other properties near the proposed development because he believes the proposed development will have a detrimental effect on his shopping center. This challenge is even more ironic because our former City Attorney, Hans Ottinot, who advised the City as to the legal sufficiency of 12 out of the 13 formal approvals under the Town Center Plan, now works for Mr. Katz.”

Finally, Mayor Scholl noted, “In this instance, a billionaire commercial property owner, Mr. Katz, is putting his formidable amount of legal and financial resources to change the property rights of others that do not suit his own economic interests.”

Needless to say, the City filed a Complaint with the Miami-Dade County Commission on Ethics and Public Trust against Hans for his apparent conflict of interest.

When Hans learned of this Complaint, on October 11, 2019 he sent a scathing email to Ethics Commission Executive Director Jose Arrojo, in which he claimed that the Complaint filed against him by City Attorney Ed Dion was “frivolous,” “retaliatory,” and “bogus,” and that “Mr. Dion is paranoid and delusional.”

Hans had the audacity to admonish Mr. Arrojo.  “Based on our prior relationship, your investigator could have called me to find out the truth…,” he wrote as if he expected special treatment and favors because he and Mr. Arrojo had “both served on ethics panels” in the past.  He also disparaged Ethics Commission Investigator Nilda Olmo by insinuating that she “attacked” Maggie Gordo, the activist who was also interviewed as a witness.

Mr. Arrojo wasn’t having any of it.

In a response email, Mr. Arrojo “declined to address the substance” of his email, but stressed, “I do want offer a one comment in response to your characterizations of conduct attributed to a COE Investigator and fellow member of the Florida Bar.  No Investigator working for this agency would ever “attack” a witness or anyone else and also I would respectfully ask you not to use derogatory language to describe a fellow member of the Florida Bar in future public record email exchanges with this agency.”

Ouch!

Mr. Arrojo also reminded Hans that, as the subject of a Complaint, he is not entitled to any special treatment, such as an advance warning of an investigation.  He wrote, “If there ever comes a time when it would be necessary to speak to you about a matter that is being reviewed by the Commission on Ethics, we will certainly reach out to you directly when the appropriate time comes in our review.”

Ouch, again!

Considering that Mr. Arrojo was “still hesitant to agree that there is insufficient evidence to conclude that Mr. Ottinot’s conduct violated” Sunny Isles Beach City Code, the complaint was obviously neither “frivolous,” “retaliatory,” nor “bogus.”

Needless to say, Hans Ottinot burned all his bridges in Sunny Isles Beach, but not before leaving with a tidy severance and an undeserved “retiree” health insurance plan.

Meanwhile, he’s collecting two generous salaries from the Cities of Tamarac and North Miami Beach.

And, as we just discovered yesterday morning, Hans Ottinot’s newly formed, one-member limited liability company, HLA Consulting Group, LLC, is also being paid the sum of $2,500 per month, or $30,000 per year, from … the City of North Miami!

Ottinot’s company was formed on November 10, 2020.  He received three monthly payments of $2,500 through February 9, 2021.  Although the North Miami Financial Transparency Portal has only been updated through February 11, 2021, we assume he has already received a payment for March.  We have no idea what type of services he’s providing to the City of North Miami, so we made a public records request for the invoices corresponding to these payments.  We’ll keep you posted.

Keep in mind that this is the nearly bankrupt City that NMB’s Team Apocalypse is desperately trying to emulate.

According to the City of North Miami’s Financial Transparency Portal, OpenGov, as of this month there is a deficit of $5,975,756, and it’s not even halfway through the current fiscal year.

But, hey.  Go ahead and hire Duke Sorey.  What could possibly go wrong?

As we’ve already pointed out in a previous blog, when the City of Tamarac hired Hans Ottinot’s firm, Ottinot Law, P.A., as its Interim City Attorney on January 4, 2021, he was earning $225.00 per hour according to the executed Agreement for Interim Legal Services.  Assuming a 40-hour week, that amounts to $39,000 a month, or $468,000 per year.  On March 10, 2021, the Tamarac City Commission appointed him as their “permanent-until-someone-better-comes-along” City Attorney.  It was unclear if his new “title” came with a raise.  We will also keep you posted as soon as we receive our public records request for his new contract, if any.

The City of North Miami Beach is paying Ottinot’s firm an outrageous $55,000 per month, or $660,000 per year.

Hans Ottinot “retired” as a City Attorney to work in the private sector for RK Centers, a major national developer.  After less than ten months, however, the bloom was off the rose and he was fired.

For some reason, however, local city and elected officials think that Hans Ottinot’s alleged “legal expertise” is worth hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars.

Then again, it’s not their money.  Why should they care?

If North Miami Beach residents tuned into last Tuesday’s Commission Meeting, they already know how their hard-earned money is being spent.

We’ll report all the excruciating details in our next installment of Welcome to the “new” North Miami Beach.

Stephanie