We’re old enough to remember when Dr. Smith Joseph was Mayor of North Miami.  Dr. Joseph lived in a condominium in the Sans Souci neighborhood that he purchased on June 21, 2012.  He first ran in 2013 and lost to Lucie Tondreau.  When she was indicted and removed from office, a special election was held on August 16, 2014.  Dr. Joseph ran again, and this time he won the mayoral race.

While covering the special election, we referenced an August 5, 2014 Miami Herald article, North Miami mayoral candidates have all faced criticism, which reported that Joseph and another candidate, Jean Marcellus, both “faced past allegations that they did not actually reside in North Miami when they qualified to run.”

Interestingly, “Marcellus was sued by council candidate Michelle Garcia in 2009 after he was elected to the City Council. The suit alleged that Marcellus lived in Miramar and lost an election for a Miramar City Commission seat, only a month before he claimed to move to North Miami in 2008 to qualify for the North Miami council election. A judge eventually ruled that Marcellus was eligible to keep his council seat.”

Interestingly, Dr. Joseph was never challenged in court over his residency, but he did tell the Herald, “Whoever makes those accusations has the burden to prove whatever they are accusing me of.”

At the time, we didn’t personally know either candidate, but we defended both their North Miami residencies nonetheless.

We reported:

“While Jean may not stay in one place too long, all of the addresses he’s claimed to live at within the last two election cycles are located in North Miami. As the article noted, a 2009 lawsuit challenging Jean’s residency was an epic fail. Therefore, there is no indication that he doesn’t live in North Miami.

“Somewhere in North Miami, anyway.

“Regarding Smith Joseph’s residency, I previously noted that “On June 21, 2012, Smith Joseph purchased the condominium located at his listed address of 2100 Sans Souci Boulevard, Apt. B706. On June 28, 2012, he quit claimed that unit to his company, SPS Enterprises, LLC. There is no record of where he lived from the time he sold his Miramar home until the day he purchased the North Miami unit. However, when he ran for office in 2013, it appears he was a resident of North Miami. He may or may not have been a bona fide resident, according to the charter, because I couldn’t tell you whether or not he lived the required twelve months in North Miami prior to the qualifying period. Since he didn’t win the election, this is a moot point at this time.”

“In my very humble opinion, Smith Joseph hangs his hat in North Miami and is qualified to run for Mayor.”

Ironically, since we vigorously defended the residency of both candidates, who happen to be Haitian American, we’re obviously doing “racism” wrong.

Even more ironically, Dr. Joseph’s North Miami residency was never challenged in court, despite the fact that it was well-known at the time that his wife owned a house in Davie and lived there with their children.

Sound familiar?

Mayor Smith Joseph ran and won again in 2017, and served out his final term until May of 2019.  Where he lived after that, no one knows, and no one cares.

The point being that throughout Dr. Smith Joseph’s entire nearly five years in office it was never a secret that his family lived in Davie, yet not one single North Miami political operative — not Andre Pierre, not Lesly Prudent, not Hans Ottinot, not a single one of them — questioned his residency, had a private eye follow and spy on him, commissioned a lawyer to “investigate” him, or claimed that Dr. Joseph “vacated” his seat.

And yet, these are the very same people who are doing these exact same things to North Miami Beach Mayor Anthony DeFillipo, and attempting to remove him from office.

We can’t help but wonder why that is.

We bet things would be very different if Mayor DeFillipo was Haitian.

Which is the whole point to their scheme to take Mayor DeFillipo down.

And these are the very same people who call this blogger a “racist.”

Their angst started with the November 8, 2022 North Miami Beach municipal election, and especially the run off two weeks later, which changed the entire power structure of the North Miami Beach City Commission.

Despite all the dirty tricks pulled by Paule Villard and her supporters at City Hall, including Duke Sorey’s misappropriation of public funds to aid her campaign, Commissioner Jay Chernoff beat her on November 22, 2022, and secured a new majority on the dais.

At their first scheduled Commission Meeting on December 20, 2022, which was childishly boycotted by Michael Joseph, Mayor Anthony DeFillipo and Commissioners Fortuna Smukler, Phyllis Smith, and Jay Chernoff made it perfectly clear that their first priority was to terminate the contract of City “Attorney” Hans Ottinot.

Knowing full well that Criminal Commissioners Michael Joseph, McKenzie Fleurimond, and Daniela Jean were about to lose their taxpayer-funded personal lawyer, protector, and enabler, Daniela pretended to be sick and walked out, leaving only five members on the dais, which is the exact number needed for a quorum.

Then, seeing the writing on the wall in the form of a motion, a second, and the calling of the question, McKenzie violated Ordinance 2016-9 by breaking quorum and walking out before a vote could be taken.

Then the retaliation began in earnest.

Here’s how it all unfolded.

Still butt hurt at losing his four-Criminal majority, Michael recruited a hapless kid by the name of Harville McGregor that he paid $300.00 in 2015 for “targeted voter outreach,” to file an Ethics Complaint with the Ethics Commission against Mayor Anthony DeFillipo.  On the day of the Commission Meeting, Michael had him send an email to City officials and the media falsely accusing the Mayor of “hiding his residency.”

Then, as Michael has done numerous times in the past, he “leaked” the fake news story that he concocted to the press in an desperate attempt to remove the Mayor from office.

According to the CBS Miami article, a private investigator was hired to literally stalk Mayor Anthony DeFillipo in an attempt to “prove” he doesn’t live in North Miami Beach.  “North Dade Neighbors Alliance is a non-profit comprised of concerned community members. The founder claimed not to be politically motivated. He told CBS4 the group hired a law firm to investigate the matter. The firm hired Countywide Investigations.”

The so-called “founder” is none other than Andre Pierre’s political operative, Lesly Prudent, who filed this so-called “non-profit” on December 22, 2022, two days after the aborted December 20, 2022 Commission Meeting.

This entire charade was orchestrated and engineered for the sole purpose of giving Michael an excuse to simply not attend the meeting and Commissioner Daniela Jean an excuse to feign illness and walk out.

As we all know by now, Clown Commissioner McKenzie Fleurimond had a planned temper tantrum and stalked off the dais immediately after a motion was made and seconded to to terminate City “Attorney” Hans Ottinot’s contract in order to prevent a vote from being taken.

Knowing his $60,000.00 a month job is on the chopping block, City “Attorney” Hans Ottinot actually told the press that the Mayor vacated his seat and that the Commission will appoint a replacement, neither of which is even remotely true.

Since then, the three remaining Criminal Commissioners have refused to show up for two calls for Special Meetings, a CRA Board Special Meeting and Regular Commission Meeting held Tuesday, January 17, 2023, a Commission Workshop held Thursday, January 19, 2023.

In anticipation of not being able to have a quorum for the January 17, 2023 Commission Meeting, Mayor Anthony DeFillipo had to be proactive.

So he had his attorneys file a lawsuit to require a quorum.

Knowing full well in advance that Michael, McKenzie, and Daniela weren’t going to show up, City “Attorney” Hans Ottinot attempted to cancel the CRA Meeting despite the fact its Board only requires four members for a quorum.

It didn’t work.

Attention North Miami Beach residents: This meeting has not been canceled! The City “Attorney” has no authority to do this. PLEASE SHOW UP AND SUPPORT YOUR CRA! https://t.co/ukVrQ7Xm6H

— Stephanie (@dwightyoakamfan) January 17, 2023

During the CRA Meeting, Hans is the one who scampered out of the meeting and vacated his seat, but the meeting went on as planned.

Immediately afterward, the Mayor and three Commissioners took their places on the dais for the Regular Commission Meeting and waited for a quorum of at least five members.

As expected, Criminal Commissioners Michael Joseph, McKenzie Fleurimond, and Daniela Jean refused to attend the meeting even though they were waiting in the lobby of City Hall for Hans to give them a signal that he successfully ousted the Mayor from his seat.

Their plot didn’t work.

Not that Hans didn’t do his best to make that happen by being his usual bully self, trying to intimidate the Mayor and the other Commissioners as he had done for the last two years.

It was so awesome watching Hans get shot down by the New Majority on the dais.

Even though the Commission Meeting couldn’t take place, the Mayor called for Public Comment, and the impromptu town hall was almost as awesome as watching Hans get bitch-slapped and then scurry like a rat out of the room.

WATCH HANS THROW A HISSY FIT!

Even better was the Commission Workshop held two night’s later when all four elected officials grilled Hans on whether or not he had the authority to remove the Mayor from the Commission, and he admitted he did not.

He conveniently “couldn’t recall” when he asked for a legal opinion on the Mayor’s residency from outside counsel.

He conveniently “couldn’t recall” how much this opinion cost taxpayers.

When pressed harder to look at his emails to the outside law firm, he conveniently “couldn’t get email on his phone.”

When Commissioner Smukler asked Hans point blank if the Mayor vacated his seat, and he replied “yes.”

When she continually pressed him to answer “yes” or “no” as to whether or not a judge ordered the Mayor to be removed, and he finally responded with, “A judge has not ruled yet.”

Oh.  Okay.

We guess Hans is not the judge, jury, and executioner — and certainly not the lawyer — that he pretends to be.

At the end of the workshop, Commissioner Phyllis Smith gave the City “Attorney” a clear directive to come up with a plan of action “to get our Commission working again and you’ll emails us that by the end of the day tomorrow.”

When Hans said he would “talk to the other Commissioners,” Commissioner Fortuna Smukler asked him what does that mean.

He responded he would talk to them individually and [unintelligible because, well, Hans Speak 🙄].

Commissioner Jay Chernoff exploded.

“Mister ‘Attorney!'” he exclaimed.  “You’re talking foolishly right now.  You did a lawsuit … you got an opinion from two Commissioners.  You got four up here which are telling you what to do!”

Hans had the audacity to say that there were only six elected officials on the Commission.

Fortuna was indignant and told him that his taxpayer-funded “legal opinion” was just that — an opinion, and that another attorney would have another opinion.

Jay had enough of his nonsense and asked City Manager Duke Sorey if he had enough funds in his discretionary account to “hire an attorney right now that would work for us.”

Phyllis added, “If we have to hire another attorney to do your job, that’s frightening!”

She wanted to know if Hans conferred with other municipal attorneys about this issue, and he said he spoke to all his colleagues.

Oh, Okay.

Finally, the Mayor said, “Is it the direction of the four Commissioners that are sitting here today, the Mayor and Commission having a Workshop … are we giving direction to the attorney as we’ve stated before that we want him to have [for us] tomorrow a document to show that he’s in the process of making sure that we have an injunction to have the other Commissioners show up?  Because at the end of the day, that’s what I’m achieving to do.  Now if he’s going to do it, because there was no action by this city attorney to make sure we have a quorum, that’s what I’m trying to accomplish.  That’s what we’ve all wanted to see here tonight so is that what we’re asking of the attorney?”

All concurred.

Phyllis Smith threw in that if the Commission needs to hire another attorney, “we have to do something with your salary, we have to do something if you’re not going to resign.”

The Mayor continued, “So you see, Mr. Attorney, you see you have four people here that are giving you direction.  We are your bosses.  While we respect the opinion that you have given, it’s not what we’re gonna go by.  You have a direction of four people on this dais to make sure that we file an injunction to make sure that we have a quorum up here at a special meeting as soon as possible so that can happen within a week or two.  That’s the direction you have been given here tonight.  Nothing more, nothing less.  If you want the script, you are not following what this City Commission has asked you to do.  My fellow Commissioners, is that what you want him to do?  Let the attorney know.  I don’t want it to come out of my mouth that I said it.”

His colleagues all said, “Absolutely!”

Jay added, “Get the three colleagues up here.  Get the City working.”

Instead of following the directive given to him by a majority of the North Miami Beach City Commission, the corrupt, incompetent City “Attorney” piggybacked on the Mayor’s lawsuit against the City in an attempt to oust him from his seat.

The Miami Herald reported about the slanderous, so-called Counter Claim, that “DeFillipo does not currently hold the office of mayor, but is actively holding himself out as mayor and purporting to conduct City business in that capacity.”

Furthermore, “It also alleges DeFillipo is attempting to schedule special meetings to terminate Ottinot as retaliation for purporting the mayor’s vacancy.”

Except that’s complete fiction.

As we mentioned above, there is already a very public record on video of the December 20, 2022 Regular Commission Meeting clearly showing that Hans was about to be fired until McKenzie Fleurimond walked out right on cue and broke quorum before a vote could be taken.

As retaliation for wanting to terminate the City “Attorney,” the Mayor has now been subjected to even more bullying and harassment than he’s already endured for the last two years at the hands of four Criminal Commissioners and a corrupt “lawyer,” who doesn’t want to lose the $720,000.00 a year job that he didn’t deserve in the first place.

The so-called Counter Claim also revealed the nefarious plot behind the attempted coup by the North Miami organized criminal ring wanting to hold on to the last vestiges of “power” they’ve stolen.  It quotes Sec. 2.1 of the City Charter, which states that the Vice-Mayor “shall act in the absence or disability of the Mayor and who shall exercise the powers of the Mayor when so acting.”

Anyone wanna guess who the current Vice-Mayor just happens to be right now?

It’s none other than the Devil on the Dais himself, Michael Joseph, who is the ringleader in the plot to oust the Mayor.

In fact, his Vice-Mayor gig was supposed to end at the December 20, 2022 meeting when the Vice-Gavel was to be passed to Jay Chernoff.

But, like ex-Criminal Commissioner Paule Villard did at the July 20, 2021 Commission Meeting when she deliberately broke quorum in order to, among other things, extend her Vice-Mayorship another month.

Twisted minds really do think alike.

Michael also told his fictional tale of woe to the Miami Herald by falsely claiming that the Mayor has to file a lawsuit to keep his seat, and that it’s the Mayor “hijacking the dais and holding hostage the people’s business.”

When clearly, it’s the City “Attorney” who is hijacking the dais by pretending that the Mayor has vacated his position, and the three Criminal Commissioners who are holding hostage the City by refusing to show up and do their jobs.

Which brings us to even more hilarity, and the Hans-coined “Frantz Pierre Precedent,” which has absolutely no resemblance to his attempt to illegally remove the Mayor from the Commission.

The incompetent City “Attorney” is trying to say that a January 25, 2018 Memorandum from a former (and actual) North Miami Beach City Attorney, Jose Smith, and attached legal opinion from Jean Olin, Esq. (also an actual attorney), stated that Frantz Pierre was to be removed from office for failing to attend a Commission Meeting for more than 120 days.

Frantz hired Benedict P. Kuehne, Esq. (also an actual attorney) and filed a lawsuit on February 22, 2018, disputing the allegation that he had missed 120 days’ of consecutive Commission Meetings, claiming that he had “participated and voted by telephone during three of the alleged “missed” meetings.  Since there was an issue of not having a quorum at the time because two other seats had become vacant, the Judge issued a Agreed Order on Motion for Temporary Injunctive Relief from Quorum, which allowed Frantz to attend the April 17, 2018 meeting for the purpose of establishing a quorum until the Commission could appoint replacement commissioners.

On July 25, 2018, both lawsuits became moot when Frantz Pierre was arrested on eleven — count ’em — eleven counts of felony charges and removed by Governor Rick Scott’s Executive Order 18-215.

The point is that Frantz Pierre ended up staying in his seat as a duly elected Commissioner until he was arrested and removed from office.

In the same way that former City Attorney Jose Smith could not unilaterally remove Frantz Pierre from office, the incredibly inept, corrupt City “Attorney” Hans Ottinot has more authority to remove Mayor Anthony DeFillipo from his mayoral seat.

Period.

By now you’re probably wondering what their end game is.  To understand that, you need to know that Michael Joseph, McKenzie Fleurimond, Daniela Jean, Hans Ottinot, and their puppetmaster, Andre Pierre, are only out for themselves.  They want two things and two things only — money and power.

The only thing standing in their way was a lost election, and they are desperate to get back the four-criminal majority on the dais they held for the last two years so they can continue raping the City coffers that North Miami Beach taxpayers fund.

They will lie, cheat, and steal to get what they want.

They will commit election fraud with impunity.

They have such utter contempt for you that they think nothing of thwarting democracy and the will of the people by desperately trying to unseat a duly elected Mayor, especially one who doesn’t “look like them.”

Meanwhile, the hearing on City “Attorney” Hans Ottinot’s “Counter-Claim” was held today.

In her final Order, the Judge ruled that she would not allow a temporary quorum of only four members of the Commission, but that she would “take under advisement the request to enter an order requiring the City of North Miami Beach Commissioners to attend the next (February 21, 2023) regularly scheduled North Miami Beach commission meeting.”

We have no idea if or when she will make a final decision, but we do know there is more to come.

To be continued …

Stephanie