North Miami Beach City Manager Arthur “Duke” Sorey can’t spend your tax dollars fast enough.

Then again, Duke wasn’t hired for his fiscally responsible style of “management,” as evidenced by the Red Garden Sinkhole he left behind in North Miami for his successor to clean up.

Duke Sorey was hired precisely because he promised Commissioners Michael Joseph, McKenzie Fleurimond, Paule Villard, and Daniela Jean that he would would give them the green light to spend whatever they wanted on anything they wanted.

And, boy, did they take advantage of the opportunity.

In P Card Madness, Part 1 and Part 2, we told you that the elected officials spent a grand total of $41,830.87 on their P Cards in the first six months of the current fiscal year.  Of that amount, Duke’s four Criminal Commissioner bosses were responsible for $32,196.36.

The almost evicted deadbeat Commissioner McKenzie Fleurimond finished first in the P Card Olympics by charging a whopping $13,457.23 on his taxpayer-funded credit card, followed by Michael Joseph, Daniela Jean, and Paule Villard, with average charges of about $9,300.00 each.

Commissioner Fortuna Smukler finished fifth by spending $8,742.60, although $2,000.00 of that amount was pre-approved for the purchase of Target gift cards for the children of Highland Village.

Mayor Anthony DeFillipo came in sixth with an expenditure of $891.91, and the ultra fiscally responsible Commissioner Barbara Kramer came in dead last by not using her P Card at all.

Note even once.

That’s how you do it, folks.

As much damage as the elected officials have done, they don’t even come close to how much Duke Sorey has blown of your tax dollars.

In the nine month period from September 5, 2021 through June 4, 2022, Duke rang up an outrageous $55,860.49 on his taxpayer-funded P Card.

Because an annual salary of $247,200, plus a cell phone and expense allowance of $13,200 a year, is simply not enough for the care and feeding of the most incompetent City Manager in the history of North Miami Beach.

He sure “secured the bag” when he rolled into NMB.

 

Then again, no one ever accused Duke Sorey of being classy.

Let’s take a close look at all the things Duke Sorey wasted $55,860.49 of your tax dollars on for the last nine months.

As always, we prepared a handy dandy spreadsheet so you can see at a glance the damage he’s done.

We’ll break this down by category.

For starters, Duke Sorey charged an astronomical $10,161.43 on food.

Granted, not all that food was for his personal consumption, but they are YOUR tax dollars nevertheless.

Some of the food purchases were for Commission conferences and meetings, which typically begin at 5:00 pm and last until well past midnight.  The elected officials will usually grab a quick meal in between meetings in order to sustain them for the long night ahead.

In the days before Duke came on the scene, the City Manager would have simple meals brought in, such as pizza or subs, for the Commissioners, their three Charter Employees and their assistants.  The spread would usually cost no more than $100 to $150 at most, if that.

Since Duke took the helm, he’s going all out by feeding everyone, including his entire staff, who don’t even attend the meeting, but go home with doggie bags in hand.

This, of course, is an unnecessary expense.

But Duke doesn’t care.  After all, it isn’t his money.

Here is a breakdown of Duke’s food purchase spending.

Duke Sorey also spent a lot of money traveling around the country on taxpayer dime.

Which could explain why he never answers phone calls or emails.  He’s always out of town.

Duke’s airfare and hotel stays alone cost taxpayers $17,041.25.

For some unknown reason, Duke charged the sum of $2,963.48 on his P Card for Mayor DeFillipo’s travel and registration fee for the United States Conference of Mayors Winter 2022 Meeting. on January 18-21, 2022.  The fee was $2,500.00, and the Mayor’s airfare was $463.48.

Duke also insisted on attending that conference despite the fact that he is not a mayor.  This unnecessary trip cost North Miami Beach taxpayers $2,286.73, including $1,500.00 for his registration fee and $786.73 in airfare.

A week after he got back, Duke hopped on a plane for another unnecessary trip to Chandler, Arizona, to attend the National Haitian American Elected Officials Network (NHAEON)’s Leadership Retreat Program, despite the fact that he’s neither a Haitian American nor and elected official.  That particular mini-vacation cost North Miami Beach taxpayers a total of $1,167.68, including the $450.00 registration fee.

On March 9, 2022, Duke charged $736.74 on his P Card to send his second Assistant City Manager, Kemarr Brown, on a trip to Dallas even though she had only been on the City payroll for five minutes.  We assume she accompanied him to the “P3 Conference in Dallas, Texas,” which was hosted by the International Society for Concrete Pavements.

Keep in mind that no City Manager in North Miami Beach has ever needed two Assistant Managers before.  Duke probably needs the backup since he’s never at work anyway.

Moving right along.

You may have noticed that many of the features on the City’s website have not been updated since Duke Sorey was hired, including but not limited to, Campaign Treasurer’s Reports, Quarterly Financial Reports, and the check register.

Nevertheless, Duke is so concerned about the City’s computer server security that on September 23, 2022, he charged $850.00 to a company called SHI International Corp.

We Googled this company, which advertises “Security, Productivity, Cloud & Infrastructure IT Solutions,” and found this:

 

So we clicked the link on the company’s website and found this:

Since the company’s website had obviously been attacked by a hacker, for sport we visited its Facebook page and found a post dated five days before the security breach, ironically claiming that SHI International Corp. “can educate our customers on the latest attack and network defense trends.”

Folks, we could not make this stuff up if we tried.

Since November of last year, Duke has been charging $96.29 a month to have his $44,701.67 taxpayer-funded SUV washed at Prestige Auto Spa in North Miami, where he lives.

We have no idea why his car can’t be washed at the City’s own fleet department.

We also don’t know why the taxpayers are footing the bill for his fuel so he can drive to North Miami and beyond, but that’s just us.

Meanwhile, the North Miami Beach residents who pay Duke’s salary are struggling mightily to put gas in their own cars.

On January 8, 2022, Duke charged $278.16 to the At Home Store, also in North Miami, which advertises itself as “The Home Décor Superstore.”

We don’t know what he purchased there, but we assume he got a good deal.

Duke also inexplicably charged a total of $544.74 for flowers.

We hope he got lucky.

Duke Sorey also “donated” a grand total of $6,800.00 of your money, without your permission, to two organizations.

On March 1, 2022, he charged a total of $4,300.00 to “PAYPAL *HLA LAW ORG.”

A Google search revealed that this was paid to the Haitian Lawyers Association.

So he could attend this party.

Once again, this $4,300.00 expenditure had absolutely no public purpose for the benefit of North Miami Beach residents.

Duke also “donated” $2,500.00 to For a Bright Future Foundation, which is for a good cause, but again, has absolutely no public purpose for the benefit of North Miami Beach residents.

Not only do NMB taxpayers NOT get a tax deduction for these “donations,” but these charges may be a direct violation of the City’s Procurement Card Policy & Procedures, with respect to “Gifts and donations.”

Then again, almost all the P Card statements of the elected officials and City employees that we’ve reviewed so far contain multiple violations.  Obviously, following proper protocol isn’t a thing in North Miami Beach now.

And finally, please note that the column in our spreadsheet marked “Fees” include the amounts Duke charged on his P Card for membership dues and registration fees for events.

This would include Duke’s April 8, 2022 charge in the amount of $2,138.00 for an event held May 14, 2022 called the Legacy Miami Magazine’s “16th Annual Power Gala,” to honor “the Most Powerful and Influential Black Business Leaders for 2022.”

Hilariously, Criminal Commissioner Paule Villard was honored as a “Black Business Leader” when she has never owned or operated a business in her entire life, and couldn’t even run a lemonade stand.

The only “entrepreneurial” endeavor Paule has ever accomplished was to fund her re-election campaign with taxpayer money.

Sources tell us that anyone can receive an “honor” for a hefty fee, or “donation,” to the magazine, and we believe it.  Since the tickets for this event only cost $200.00 each, there’s no other explanation how Duke could blow $2,138.00 of your tax dollars on this event other than this video.

Such a deal, huh?

We’ll wrap up this blog by giving you an example of just how egregious Duke’s spending is, so we thought we’d compare it to the P Card charges made by Ana Garcia, who was the City Manager from August 28, 2013 until she was abruptly, and in our opinion wrongly, fired on June 28, 2018.

We just happened to have copies of four of Ana’s P Card statements in our archives dated October 4, 2017, November 4, 2017, January 4, 2018, and February 4, 2018.  For some reason we’re missing the statement dated December 4, 2017, but whatever.

During those four months of her tenure, Ana Garcia charged a total of $308.27 on her taxpayer-funded P Card.

We then reviewed Duke’s P Card statements for the same months of October 4, 2021, November 4, 2021, January 4, 2022, and February 4, 2022.

During those exact same four months of his reign of terror tenure, Duke Sorey charged a total of $25,099.02!

Folks, we can’t make this stuff up.

Let’s consider the fact that the City of Dania Beach, which hired Ana Garcia as its City Manager on March 12, 2019, ended Fiscal Year 2020-21 with a total fund balance of $50.6 MILLION, which is an INCREASE of $6.7 MILLION from the previous fiscal year, and with reserves in the amount of $25.9 MILLION, according to it’s FY21 Annual Comprehensive Annual Report., which is published on its website.

North Miami Beach, on the other hand, has only posted a “Draft” version of the report on its website, in which the critical Manager’s Discussion & Analysis was deliberately omitted.  Although Duke tried desperately to hide this information from the public, luckily we obtained a copy.

As you might expect, the outlook isn’t pretty.

Duke ended Fiscal Year 2020-21 with a total fund balance of $48.6 MILLION, which is a DECREASE of $2.0 MILLION from the previous fiscal year, and with reserves in the amount of $15.6 MILLION.

Keep in mind that Dania Beach’s FY21 Budget was $94,548,770 as compared to North Miami Beach, which had a FY21 Budget of $166,827,798, yet Ana Garcia still ended up with $10.3 MILLION more in reserves than Duke Sorey did.

If they don’t, they should.

We’re also happy to report that, unlike North Miami Beach, there is absolutely no public corruption in the City of Dania Beach.

As an aside, this blogger’s daughter finally left NMB after a stray bullet went through her bedroom window on Thanksgiving Day, 2019 — and moved to Dania Beach.

Coincidence?  We think not.

Needless to say, she made the right choice.

Unfortunately, the residents who choose to remain in North Miami Beach — or simply can’t leave for whatever reason — are stuck with Duke Sorey as long as he has a four-criminal vote on the dais.

As you can see, elections have consequences.

But you can do something to fix the mess your City is in.

Get involved with your government.

And then vote responsibly on November 8, 2022.

Stephanie