Inept, unprofessional, and unprepared for the job, North Miami Beach City Manager Arthur “Duke” Sorey has finally gotten his 15 minutes of fame.

Or, rather, his 15 minutes of infamy.

All the local, national, and even international new coverage of the closure and evacuation of Crestview Towers Condominium flooding the airwaves for the past six days has only served to confirm that Duke Sorey has absolutely no idea what he’s doing.

Based on the chaos at City Hall, it’s painfully clear that North Miami Beach’s pirate ship is sailing without a captain.

At the start of a holiday weekend last Friday night, Duke Sorey made the snap decision to immediately evacuate the 156-unit Crestview Towers Condominium, after a January 11, 2021 inspection report magically surfaced.   In his cover letter, Professional Engineer Roberto Barreiro deemed the building structurally and electrically “no safe [sic] for the specified use for the continued occupancy.”

Although this report appears to be addressed to the North Miami Beach Building Department, it was never delivered to the City until the afternoon of Friday, July 2, 2021.

In the aftermath of the tragic building collapse in the City of Surfside, cities across Miami-Dade County rightly went on hyper-alert to make sure all their buildings were safe and habitable.

Not to be outdone, and seeing a potential news story, Duke Sorey decided that a six month old inspection report was an immediate threat to public safety.

So he called a press conference to make sure the media filmed him throwing more than 300 Crestview Towers residents out on the street, with absolutely no advance warning, and with nowhere to go.

Because giving residents enough time to make proper housing arrangements would not have been the BREAKING NEWS story Duke was hoping for.

There are dozens, maybe hundreds, of older buildings throughout the County have been neglected and are in need of immediate inspection and repairs.  Even though Crestview Towers is certainly not the most dilapidated building in Miami-Dade County, it was the only one dramatically closed and evacuated for the benefit of the media.

After he pulled that publicity stunt, it quickly became clear that Duke Sorey had absolutely no idea what to do next.

But, he got his 15 minutes!

So there’s that.

Craving the limelight, Duke Sorey continues to call press conference after press conference, milking the limelight as much and as often as he can.

In the meantime, however, from his sealed off ivory tower on the fourth floor of City Hall, he’s been doing damage control.  We’re told he’s been calling building officials from cities around Miami-Dade County not only to confirm that he did the right thing, but to ask for advice on what he should do going forward.

Because playing City Manager on television is not the same thing as doing it in real life.

Once again, Duke Sorey hammed it up at yet another press conference held today in front of the condemned building.  He had no new news to report other than that he’s stretching his 15 minutes of infamy a little longer.  But, he was able to get his face in front of local television camera crews for posterity.

Anyone embarrassed yet?

The only actual news reported was North Miami Beach Police Chief Richard Rand’s announcement of a pending criminal investigation.

As WSVN Channel 7 reported, Chief Rand said, “I have been getting emails and complainants that are complaining that there is a possibility, not saying that we’ve proven anything yet, that there’s possible misappropriation of funds by this association and the associations in the past.”

“There’s nothing concrete that I can tell you right now,” Chief Rand told Local 10 News.  “These are allegations that are coming in now.”

During the press conference, the Chief disseminated valuable information for condominium unit owners, including where to bring their complaints against their associations, which are regulated by the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR).

WATCH:

It should be noted that Chief Richard Rand is the last remaining intelligent department head in North Miami Beach.

Unfortunately, he has to answer to the most incompetent administration in the history of North Miami Beach.

Our sincere condolences, Chief.

Fortunately, Florida State Senator Jason Pizzo also stepped up by taking matters into his own hands and bringing in a much needed team of actual smart people to rescue Duke Sorey from drowning in the abyss of incompetence.

In a July 7, 2021 email to Duke and the other moronic Charter officer, City Attorney Hans Ottinot, Senator Pizzo laid out an entire action plan for NMB City Officials to follow going forward.

And to make sure that Duke & Co. don’t screw it up, the Senator included copies of his email to:

• Lourdes Gomez, Director of Regulatory and Economic Resources
• State Representative Christopher Benjamin
• Julie Brown, Secretary of the DBPR
• Spencer Hennings, Ombudman of DBPR
• Tasha Carter, Florida’s Insurance Consumer Advocate
• Courtney Coppola, Deputy Chief of Staff to the Governor
• Senator Pizzo’s legislative aides, Maggie Gerson and Teri Cariota

We urge you to take the time to read Senator Pizzo’s email in its entirety so you can see what real leadership looks like.

And then thank your Higher Power that he beat out Daphne Campbell in 2018.

In the meantime, North Miami Beach residents, unless you get involved in your City, and round up some qualified candidates to run for Commissioner in November 2022, you are stuck with this hot mess for four more years.

Stephanie