Here it is September, and we’re still trying to wrest the June special event invoices from the clutches of Duke Sorey’s sweaty little fists.

We were, however, able to get an updated list of employee terminations and new hires.  We reported last month that as of August 4, 2021 Duke had increased the City’s payroll by $633,448.14.

By August 27, 2021, twenty-three days later, eight more employees were either fired or resigned, decreasing the payroll by $316,390.42 ….

… Only to have the payroll increased again by $327,794.27 when North Miami Beach City Manager Arthur “Duke” Sorey hired five new employees, thus increasing the payroll by an additional $11,403.85, for a total increase in payroll of $644,851.99.

To put this outrageous spending into even more perspective, between April 20, 2021 and August 27, 2021, the City lost fifty-eight (58) employees whose salaries totaled $2,297,670.40, or an average salary of $39,615.01 per person.

During that same time period, Duke hired fifty-five (55) employees whose salaries total $2,942,522.39, or an average salary of $53,500.41 per person, for a total average salary increase of $13,884.40 per person.

If you’re starting to think that Duke Sorey has a bit of a spending problem, you’d be right.

This is the same irresponsible loser who literally blew through $6,564,184.62 of North Miami’s taxpayer money so he could be the Master of Ceremonies for the Super Bowl Party of his life.

But, why should Duke care?  It’s not HIS money!

Besides, he has the blessing of the four criminal Commissioners — Michael Joseph, McKenzie Fleurimond, Paule Villard, and Daniela Jean — who hired him to do their bidding so they can campaign for re-election on your dime.

During May 2021 alone, Paule “Party Animal” Villard was largely responsible for the unprecedented $57,808.38 spent on special events in one month, followed closely by her co-conspirator Daniela Jean, who also relishes a random celebration as long as it doesn’t come out of her own bank account.

While we still don’t have all the receipts for June, the spending that we can account for so far is, needless to say, outrageous.

Once again, the Commission Mall Cop, Paule Villard, leads the pack by blowing through an astounding $18,183.03, not including the $100,000 she illegally expended for the purchase of 1,000 Publix gift cards to distribute to her future voters.  As of July 19, 2021, only 785 of those cards were accounted for — 623 gift cards were distributed on June 5, 2021 to the general public, and 162 gift cards were distributed to the Jewish community by Alan Sakowitz on June 7, 2021.

After repeated requests to the Clerk for nearly a month for the names and addresses of the recipients of the remaining 215 cards, she finally provided a list of 174 individuals who are allegedly “homebound” and “who obtained a gift card by delivery.”

That brought the total of distributed gift cards up to 959, leaving 41 gift cards, worth $4,100.00, still unaccounted for.  When pressed for an accounting of those 41 cards, the City advised, “The extra gift cards are still in the possession of the City and have not been used yet. The City plans to use the extra gift cards in November to purchase turkeys for a Thanksgiving turkey giveaway.”

We will continue to follow that money trail and see where it really goes.

Paule certainly didn’t skimp on the festivities at her “Father’s Day” event, which was actually held five days late on June 25, 2021, but whatever.

Once again she co-hosted her personal party with her go-to non-resident undertaker, and the once and future commission candidate, Evans St. Fort, the former mayoral candidate for five minutes, who actually owns and lives in a home in Broward County on which he and his wife declare a double homestead exemption.  Fortunately, he dropped out of the race before he was outed as a fraud.

He’s still lying — this time under oath and penalty of perjury — but that’s a story for another blog.

The wasteful spending will continue in Fiscal Year 2021-22, as evidenced by Duke Sorey’s proposed budget, which is nothing more than an almost exact replica of the fraudulent budget he convinced the North Miami Mayor and Council to pass for its Fiscal Year 2018-19.

At tonight’s Public Budget Hearing, Duke will ask his seven new bosses, the North Miami Beach Mayor and Commission, to approve his proposed boondoggle of a budget for FY 2022.

We can’t help but wonder how many Mountain Dews he guzzled while coming up with this financial disaster.

Let’s take a quick look at how Duke plans to bankrupt the City of North Miami Beach.

According to his Staffing Summary, he’s only adding four (4) positions to the City’s employment roster.

Yet, according to Budget Details City Manager Report summary, the addition of four (4) employees to the workforce will increase the City’s payroll by $1,463,624.

That, of course, makes absolutely no sense.

But in Duke Sorey World, budgets don’t have to make sense.

As you can see by Duke’s proposed General Fund Summary, he is increasing the FY 2022 budget by $4,131,583 over last year, even though expenditures outpaced revenues for FY 2021, which will result in a Fiscal Year deficit of $7,575,204.

The bigger problem with Duke’s proposed budget is his estimate of expected Government-Wide revenues for FY 2022, especially as compared to last year’s actual revenues.

Even though the FY 2021 budget accounted for $166,827,798 in revenue, the estimated actual revenues fell short by $13,065,842.

Instead of taking that shortage into consideration for FY 2022, and decreasing the budget, Duke actually increased his Government-Wide Revenues by $5,990,258 over last year’s miscalculated prediction (most likely due to the unforeseen pandemic), and a whopping $19,056,100 more than last year’s actual revenues.

It’s even worse on the expense side of the equation.

Although the FY 2021 budget called for Government-Wide Expenses of $166,827,798, and the City only expended an actual estimate of $159,278,929, coming in under budget by $7,548,869, the City still spent $5,516,973 more than it received in revenues.

Duke’s wishful thinking is a train wreck in the making.

Then again, Duke is used to running cities on multi-million dollar deficits.  Keep in mind that Duke is the creator of fraudulent budgets and the author of North Miami’s $14.6 million deficit.

But, why should he care?  It’s not HIS money!

The worst offenders in Duke Sorey’s proposed fraudulent North Miami Beach budget are the four Commission leeches, Michael Joseph, McKenzie Fleurimond, Paule Villard, and Daniela Jean, who — as we predicted — increased their own Mayor and Commission Budget by an astronomical $421,780!

Also, as predicted, they will now be just as fiscally irresponsible as their Comrades in North Miami, whose FY 2021-22 Proposed Budget budget is the highest in the City’s history.

But, why should they care?  It’s not THEIR money!

We have examined Duke’s entire proposed North Miami Beach FY 2022 budget, and it’s literally the biggest disaster in the history of North Miami Beach.

Even worse than the infamous former City Manager Kelvin Baker’s catastrophic excuse for a budget.

If you wish to watch or attend the Budget Circus Hearing at 6:00 tonight, here is the info from the City’s website: