North Miami Beach Commissioner Michael Joseph, who is a deeply flawed, and very racist human individual, uses the color of his skin as a weapon against anyone who criticizes him or holds him accountable for his actions.

Michael also has an extreme animosity toward Commissioner Barbara Kramer, who has been the most vocal about Michael’s lies and duplicity, as well his ethical and legal transgressions.  For some inexplicable reasons known only to his warped mind, Michael believes that he and “people who look like him” should get a pass on abhorrent behavior.

As those of us who think rationally know, the world doesn’t work that way.

At least, it shouldn’t.

At the February 15, 2022 City Commission Meeting, Michael completely lost it, beginning with “I’m the son of a preacher, and I was taught that if you have nothing good to say about someone, don’t say anything at all.  RAISED THAT WAY!”

And then he launched into a hypocritical, angry outburst, saying all kinds of “nothing good” about her because she has the sheer audacity to tell the truth about him.

Oh, and, because she’s “privileged.”

WATCH!

We will expound on Michael’s definition of “privileged” in a future blog.

For now, we’ll study how Michael defines “honorable.”

From the dais, Michael accused Barbara of demeaning him and his family.  Oh, really?  His family?

Like the time Michael falsely claimed that he and his family received death threats, yet he never called the police and he refused to produce any evidence that such “death threats” actually happened.

But he did throw one of his histrionic temper tantrums over it during a May 22, 2019 Strategic Planning Session.

WATCH!

Neverthess, He screamed even louder as he admonished Barbara for saying that she hates him.

And?

Michael obviously has no idea how many people really do hate him.  Especially this blogger.  And it has absolutely nothing to do with the color of his skin.  He’s hated for being an obnoxious, rude, self-absorbed, manipulative liar.

And yet, as Michael was attacking Barbara, he produced crocodile tears as he exclaimed, “I’m proud of who I am!”

He even dug his heels in with the absolute lie that Barbara “questioned” the time when McKenzie Fleurimond wordlessly walked off the dais to allegedly console Michael when he had to leave due to the death of a family member.

Then again, Michael is inherently incapable of understanding the truth, much less speaking it.

He closed his diatribe by saying, “I was raised better.  And when I see my maker, and I will, I can say that I was honorable.”

“Honorable!”

Oh, really?

Let’s see how Michael’s actions compare to the actual definition of “honorable.”

Michael Joseph showed the world just how “honorable” he was when he sneakily placed a stack of papers on the table next to the Agendas thirty minutes before the September 17, 2019 CRA Special Board Meeting for visitors to make it appear as if his documents contained official City business, which they did not.

When confronted, he claimed he had no idea how that stack of papers got there.

Then he was caught red-handed on camera as the perpetrator!

WATCH!

He was subsequently censured for his duplicity, but that wasn’t nearly the first of Michael Joseph’s “honorable” deeds, nor was it the last.

He first showed his true, evil colors in 2018 when the Commission had to temporarily fill two vacant seats on the dais and he was vying for one of them.  In an attempt to eliminate the competition, Michael flat out lied to this blogger about another contender, Paule Villard, in the hopes that the bad publicity would knock her out of the running.

But, hey, Michael Joseph is “HONORABLE.”

In retaliation for Barbara’s choosing another candidate, Ingrid Forbes, over Michael for a temporary Commission seat, he conspired with this best friend, Hector Roos, to get even with her by sending out emails from an alias, Ike Runner, for the purpose of humiliating and defaming her.

We found out Michael was behind the fake emails because he had Hector try to recruit then-Commissioner (now-Mayor) Tony DeFillipo to help them unseat Barbara.  Hector Roos sent Tony a draft of a proposed letter he had prepared to be signed by a person yet to be determined (possibly Tony), along with an email giving Tony talking points for the press “after this is submitted.”

Fortunately, Tony refused to go along with the evil plot and exposed Michael for the malicious demon that he is.

Ironically, Michael was playing both sides of the proverbial aisle.

At the same time he was attempting to secure Tony’s help to unseat Barbara, Michael was falsely promising Tony’s opponent, Robert Dempster, that Barbara agreed to endorse him.  Unaware of Michael’s malicious scheme, when Mr. Dempster ran into Barbara at a political meeting, he fully expected to receive her endorsement.  He was furious with her when she told him she had no idea what he was talking about.

Thanks to Michael’s evil machinations, Barbara became yet another unwitting victim of his countless tangled webs of deceit.

But, hey, Michael Joseph is “HONORABLE.”

In retaliation for Tony’s refusal to conspire with his scheme, as we reported in The dirtiest of all North Miami Beach campaign tricks!, “A mystery hit piece arrived in North Miami Beach mailboxes last week against Tony DeFillipo, who is running for Mayor … referring to Tony’s slate of candidates as the Tony “Soprano” DeFillipo’s Crime Family.”

The disclaimer on this mailer stated, “Paid for by AFSCME PEOPLE.”  AFSCME is the acronym for American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which is the union for the general employees of North Miami Beach.

Almost immediately, it was discovered that AFSCME had nothing to do with this mailer, and that the real person behind this scheme was none other than Michael Joseph’s best friend and campaign strategist, Hector Roos.

But, hey, Michael Joseph is “HONORABLE.”

Then there was the time that Michael tried to get Tony DeFillipo disqualified for running for Mayor by incessantly badgering then-City Attorney Sarah Johnston to reinterpret the City Charter’s unambiguous language about term limits.  Michael wanted Ms. Johnston to revisit, and obviously override, a previous legal opinion issued two years earlier that clearly proved Tony’s eligibility to run in 2020.

Not only did he meet with her “following the December [2018] Commission meeting,” he also sent her four follow up harassing emails in “January 2019, February 2019, April 2019, and June 2019.”

When Ms. Johnston refused to do his bidding despite his meeting with her and following up with her on four separate occasions, Michael went on an opinion-shopping expedition by approaching two attorneys from the firm Weiss Serota Helfman Cole & Bierman, who declined his request.

Michael, of course, lied to the Miami Herald reporter claiming that Sarah Johnston was “the only attorney” whose legal opinion he solicited, and “chalked up her characterization of him as opinion shopping to ‘an innocent exaggeration about my interest in the term limit rules.’”

Not surprisingly, Michael also lied about how many times he contacted Ms. Johnston, claiming in an email that “I only recall having two conversations with you,” and asking her to “correct the record.”

In response, Ms. Johnston replied [emphasis ours]:

“I disagree with your recollection my responses are clear and consistent about the frequency of and content of your inquiries. I can not control the inferences that may be made based upon my factual response and I’m confident that you are not suggesting I misrepresent what has occurred because of a Miami Herald reporter inquiry.

I have not had any conversations with the media and have not responded to any media requests although many of the “anonymous” requests and claims on this issue have copied members of the media.

Thank you
Sarah”

In retaliation (are you beginning to see a pattern here?) for Sarah Johnston’s publicly calling him out, Michael Joseph “anonymously” filed a complaint against her with the Miami-Dade County Commission on Ethics & Public Trust in an attempt to have her fired and replaced with his own candidate, for which she was categorically cleared of all wrongdoing.

But, hey, Michael Joseph is “HONORABLE.”

If all of this isn’t absolute proof how “honorable” Michael Joseph is, when Antonio Ortega filed to run against Michael in 2020, he desperately tried to get Antonio fired from his job with Jacobs Engineering Group, the company that had until recently been running the city’s water utility for three years.  Prior to that, Mr. Ortega was a City of North Miami Beach employee.

As we reported in Devil on the Dais! The twisted duplicity of Michael Joseph, Part 4, on September 6, 2020, the Miami Herald reported that Michael Joseph accused Jacobs of “pulling the strings for Ortega’s and [also Jacob’s employee Liliya] Spektor’s campaigns,” and quoted him as saying, “Voters should be upset that the water contractor appears to be running their employees against commissioners who sided with residents and voted to terminate their management agreement,” he told the Herald.

Once again, Michael lied to the Herald reporter.

Mr. Ortega filed to run on January 10, 2020, a full eight months before Michael convinced four of his colleagues to terminate the contract with Jacobs on August 4, 2020.

Ms. Spektor filed to run on August 11, 2020, one week after the deal was already done.

Jacobs had absolutely nothing to do with its employees’ decision to run for office.  Furthermore, as the Herald reported, “Jacobs has made it clear that they won’t be allowed to continue working for the company if they’re elected.”

But that fact didn’t deter Michael Joseph from publicly committing slander against the city’s former vendor.

Within days after Antonio Ortega filed to run for office, Michael threatened the principles of Jacobs with termination of the city’s contract if they didn’t pressure its employee to drop out of the race.  Jacobs refused to be blackmailed and Antonio Ortega continued his campaign.

But, hey, Michael Joseph is “HONORABLE.”

Also during the 2020 election, Michael bullied the owner of a business in the City for removing his campaign sign, which Michael placed on an owner’s property without permission.  Michael had his good friend and personal lawyer, Stephen Hunter Johnson from the firm Lydecker | Diaz, trick Commissioner Fortuna Smukler into telling the business owner that “people are saying they’re racist.”

The owner was furious over false accusations of racism.

Fortuna was also upset at being duped, but after she ruthlessly stabbed Barbara Kramer in the back at the last Commission Meeting, we have no sympathies for that disloyal she-devil.

But, that’s a tale for a future blog.

After Michael Joseph started a war between the City of North Miami Beach and an established business, and falsely accused the owner of racism, he once again pretended to be a victim because he’s black.

He even sent out the following inflammatory, race-baiting text during the election to instigate a race war in the City:

But, hey, Michael Joseph is “HONORABLE.”

And last, but certainly not least by a long shot, is the time Michael Joseph attempted to blackmail Weiss Serota attorneys Dan Espino and Brett Schneider into issuing a false legal opinion in exchange for his vote to hire them.

As we reported in There is No Public Trust, both lawyers confirmed under oath that Michael Joseph exploited his official position of a potential City bidder.

In Mr. Espino’s testimony, he quoted Michael as explicitly saying, “Look, I’d be willing to consider you guys for city attorney if you’re willing to reconsider the opinion about term limits for the mayor.”

Mr. Schneider confirmed that account in his testimony, by stating under oath, “Michael said something like, ‘You know, I would be willing to consider, you know, going outside and hiring a firm and, you know, going with Weiss Serota if you guys were to reconsider a legal opinion that your firm had given about the current mayor’s eligibility to run again.’”

Former City Manager Esmond Scott was also interviewed during the course of that investigation, and something even more disturbing about Michael was revealed in his testimony.

Although Mr. Scott said he did not have “first-hand knowledge” about Michael’s attempt to bribe the Weiss Serota lawyers, when asked if Michael’s coercion of Mr. Espino sounded “like a serious offer of my vote for changing your opinion?,” he responded with, “Absolutely.  Absolutely.  But then I dare say I’m not surprised.  Because I’ve heard some crazy stuff with him.  Him being Michael Joseph.”

He further explained, “Well, I remember coming down to [Ethics Investigator Mike Murawski’s] office some time ago, just to speak about some of the things I’ve heard him ask for — the things that he has said, the things that he’s tried to influence, for example. Trying to tell us not to go ahead with annexation.  And I remember calling me personally and saying that he’s begging me not to proceed with annexation.  And it was a point where it would dilute the Haitian vote.“

Although a large majority of the residents who live in the proposed annexation area, referred to as the “donut-hole,” are members of the Orthodox Jewish community, some of whom even donated to his campaign, he is clearly hostile to the idea of accepting those Jews as taxpaying, vote-casting residents of North Miami Beach.

Especially since their sheer numbers would “dilute the Haitian vote,” and reduce the chances of fulfilling his goal of an all Haitian Commission.

In other words, “I’ll take your money and your support.  But, I don’t want you voting in North Miami Beach.  Stay in your damn lane, Jews!”

But, hey, Michael Joseph is “HONORABLE.”

Apparently, Michael Joseph’s definition of “honorable” is the exact opposite of its actual meaning.

Then again, we are not surprised.

Because as we have proven time and time, and time again, just how DIS-HONORABLE an individual he really is.

And that’s really the nicest thing we can say about Michael Joseph, who in reality is nothing but a lying, manipulating, blackmailing, race-hustling, diabolical demon unleashed from the fiery bowels of Hell by none other than Beelzebub himself.

And that’s our definition of the “honorable” Michael Joseph.

Or as we fondly call him, the Devil on the Dais.

Stephanie