Once again, North Miami Beach Criminal Commissioner Michael Joseph has summoned his surrogate army to carry out the Devil’s handiwork.
As we previously reported in Devil on the Dais! The Twisted Duplicity of Michael Joseph, Part 1, under the pseudonym of “Ike Runner,” Michael sent an email to former City Attorney Sarah Johnston accusing then-Commissioner Barbara Kramer of not maintaining residency after she sold her home and moved to another residence in the City.
Michael, a/k/a “Ike Runner,” also copied a slew of residents and reporters from local media, including this blogger, apparently hoping one of them would pick up this “story” and run with it.
And now, Michael Joseph has done the exact same thing again.
Due to his enduring deep-seated bitterness over Mayor Anthony “Tony” DeFillipo’s financial success, Michael is now on a mission to try to prove that Tony doesn’t live in North Miami Beach.
Instead of using an alias this time, however, Michael recruited 29-year old Harville McGregor, whom he paid $180.00 for “Targeted Voter Outreach” on March 24, 2015 when he first ran for office in NMB, to do his dirty work.
The young Mr. McGregor, who owns an inherited 25% interest in a North Miami Beach home, who has an almost non-existent internet presence, and who has no visible means of support, was the alleged author of an email and Complaint sent to the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust, falsely accusing Mayor DeFillipo of “not living in the City of North Miami Beach,” but in a new home in Davie.
In his Complaint, McGregor committed perjury under oath by attesting, “Based on personal knowledge, the Respondent is living in the new home,” when he has no knowledge, personal or otherwise, of anything of the sort.
Because it’s complete fiction.
Then, on December 20, 2022, McGregor allegedly authored another email, to City officials and media, copying them with his Complaint, and again falsely accusing the Mayor of “hiding his residency.”
Not surprisingly, today the Miami New Times published an article about the “breaking news” of an ethics complaint, which Michael Joseph’s flunky, Harville McGregor, obviously filed for the sole purpose of leaking it to the press.
Once again, this hare-brained scheme has Michael Joseph’s fingerprints all over it.
If you’re having a déjà vu moment, you’re not imagining it.
In 2019, as we reported in Devil on the Dais! The Twisted Duplicity of Michael Joseph, Part 2, Michael Joseph filed an “anonymous” complaint with the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust against then-City Attorney Sarah Johnston. He then conveniently leaked it to the Miami New Times, which (surprise, surprise!) published an article about the “breaking news” that yet another an ethics complaint had been filed.
He’s now found another gullible reporter at the same newspaper who is completely unaware of Michael Joseph’s disconnect with reality.
This new Complaint was clearly written by someone knowledgeable about real estate and construction law, and who is clearly not some random Gen Xer who hasn’t figured out the “complexities” of social media.
Once again, Michael Joseph’s actions are as predictable as his insane jealousy of Tony DeFillipo’s ability to pay “$1.2 million dollars in cash” for an investment property, when Michael will forever have to accept his fate of earning a mediocre living as a mediocre lawyer.
It would have been laughable had it stopped there, but Michael’s Complaint was obviously timed to disrupt the December 20, 2022 Commission Meeting in absentia, which his co-conspirator McKenzie used as an excuse to violate Chapter II, Article I, Subsection 2-2.1 of the City Code, as amended by Ordinance No. 2016-9.
Even worse, by childishly walking out of a meeting to prevent a vote on an item he didn’t like, McKenzie violated his Oath of Office as spelled out in Article I, Sec. 1-16 of the City Charter, which reads:
“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support, protect and defend the Constitution and Government of the United States and of the State of Florida, and the Charter of the City of North Miami Beach; that I am duly qualified to hold office under the Constitution of the State and the Charter of the City of North Miami Beach and that I will, well and faithfully perform the duties of Commissioner upon which I am now about to enter. So help me God.”
Now is also a good time to mention here that Chapter I, Sec. 1-8.1 of the North Miami Beach Code of Ordinances states that “the violation of any provision of this Code or any ordinance shall be punished by a fine not exceeding five hundred ($500.00) dollars or imprisonment for a term not exceeding sixty (60) days, or by both such fine and imprisonment in the discretion of the appropriate tribunal.”
This particular dereliction of duty is just one of the many reasons (which we will detail in a future blog) that McKenzie Fleurimond needs to be recalled as soon as possible.
Michael’s other co-conspirator, Daniela Jean, left the meeting even before McKenzie did, claiming she “didn’t feel well.”
As it turns out, Daniela had a panic attack and needed to be treated by Miami-Dade County Fire Rescue, according to witnesses on the scene outside City Hall.
Apparently, Commission Meetings are becoming “too hard” for Daniela’s oh-so delicate constitution to handle.
Perhaps she should just consider stepping down now for her own good before she has a full-blown nervous breakdown.
Just saying.
Make no mistake. This entire Shakespearean drama was orchestrated, once again, by Michael Joseph, whose evil heart, combined with a precipitously low emotional quotient, leads him to carelessly commit these blatant acts of subterfuge, without sufficient intellect to cover his own tracks.
And once again, he has been publicly unmasked as the “anonymous” perpetrator of chaos.
Despite fair warnings, McKenzie and Daniela have stupidly followed his lead to their own detriment.
All this fuss was over the fact that the Mayor and Commissioners desire to terminate the city attorney contract and move the City in a new direction.
After all, the only person standing between the Criminal Commissioners and the consequences of their actions is City “Attorney” Hans Ottinot, whose arrogance is only surpassed by his ignorance of the law.
Case in point, a real municipal attorney would have immediately advised McKenzie Fleurimond against violating the City Charter and City Code by breaking quorum.
Yet, Hans said nothing, which is one of the many reasons (which we will detail in a future blog) to terminate his contract and move on.
Instead, Hans Ottinot pulled the exact same stunt that another municipal attorney did in another local municipality a few years back, when that lawyer enlisted the help of elected officials in the minority to keep breaking quorum until the majority was willing to negotiate a generous settlement.
In fact, we suspect that gouging North Miami Beach taxpayers for even more money than he has already diverted is exactly what Hans is counting on in exchange for his “peaceful” departure.
In any event, the three Criminal Commissioners may be gloating right now that they obstructed City business and the will of the people by forcing the shutdown of a Commission Meeting, but this will not end well for any of them.
Assuming that any one or all three of them survive a recall election, which is already in the works as we speak, their future opponents will have a lot of campaign ad material for 2024, when they are up for re-election.
We can hardly wait.
In the meantime, don’t let his smile fool you.
Michael Joseph is truly the Devil in disguise!
Stephanie
Stephanie, we need you to come back to North Miami Beach and run for mayor after Tony! We need your strong voice on the dais to stop the riffraff from destroying the city!
I don’t see that happening since, unlike Tony, I actually live in Davie.
I do, however, strongly urge Barbara Kramer to run for Mayor. I hope she heeds the call to service!
These clowns have to wake up and get off the Democrat plantation. It’s a new day in NMB!
What can we do to help?
I know you’ll let us know where to sign the petition to recall Commissioner Fleurimond.
I’m embarrassed to tell people I live in North Miami Beach. Our image is tarnished with the foolish politicians.
I agree Barbara should run for mayor, also maybe we need to contact people at the miami New Times and let them know what has been happening in our beloved city….
That’s a great idea.
Let’s make up a story about four corrupt elected officials who hired a corrupt manager and a corrupt attorney, and went on to wipe out the surplus, drain the reserves, vacation and campaign on city dime, destroy a once great police department, make the employees cower in fear for their future employment, and then call anyone who objects a “racist.”
Oh, wait.
It’s not a story. It’s exactly what’s been going on for the last two years.
Exactly as I predicted, I might add.
Do you think the New Times will care about all this public corruption? Nah.
They’d rather take “hot tips” from a fabulist like Michael who does nothing but spin his paranoid, fictional tales of woe.
That fat, pompous, arrogant motor-mouth Fleurimonde continues to dig himself deeper and deeper in manure. Once mega-expensive Hans Ottinot is gone, the city will hire a law firm or attorney that is hundreds of thousands of dollars less expensive than he was. Fleurimonde is the fool who stated at the budget meeting that lowering the millage rate “will only save the average homeowner about $100” and “that he knows how to better use that money”.
His idea of a better use of YOUR money is to use it to raise his pay 3 times in the last 2 years, take work (vacation) trips to Washington DC , Denver, and other places on your dime, He also believes in contributing hundreds of dollars to the Democratic Party using his City-issued credit card to do so, a clear violation of city policy and another reason “someone is in trouble”.
He also was a key vote in enabling ex-criminal commissioner Paule Villardass in buying votes with her $525,000 Publix Gift Card Vote Buying Scheme, That number doesn’t include the administrative cost of over $383,000 needed to procure and distribute them unequally as they were.
Then this fat ass, just before he broke quorum, had the audacity to claim Hans was not being given the benefit of vetting his side of his removal. This is the same douche-bag that championed, without warning, firing of the City’s previous 70-person law firm, Weiss Serrota, at a Commission meeting. He motioned to fire them on the spot and motioned to appoint his “boutique law firm” of 3 employees that, after a nationwide search, ended up picking a law firm that looked just like him (except 180 pounds lighter) Weiss Serrota was not offered the opportunity of vetting to remain, and so we ended up with $720,000 a year Hans Ottinot, the highest paid attorney in the entire SouthEast of the United States. Included in that egregious amount was a 10% raise, using your tax dollars, to give Hans the Big Money Trophy and NMB’s Man of the Year candidate for the highest, most unnecessary expense of 2022. Instead of voting to lower the property tax millage rate for all residents, he motioned against doing so in order to fund his need to have regional city parades, festivals and pageants at the expense of NMB taxpayers.
In case anyone is interested, Motor Mouth McKenzie (a.k.a. 3M) violated Florida State Statute 286.012…which states Commissioners “are compelled to vote on all legislation when required to do so, and may not abstain from voting unless a clearly stated conflict is presented”.
That’s some real good stuff.