If it weren’t bad enough that North Miami Beach Criminal Commissioner McKenzie Fleurimond publicly embarrassed himself on Channel 10, his colleague, the demonic Michael Joseph, and City “Attorney” #SorryHans Ottinot added even more humiliating buffoonery to a City that’s become the clown show of South Florida.

Wednesday, February 15, 2023 marked the 120th day that the now former Commissioner Michael Joseph had not attended a meeting of the City Commission, and according to Article II, Sec. 2.5 of the North Miami Beach Charter, he has officially vacated his seat.

In honor of this momentous occasion, Commissioner Jay Chernoff filed a Verified Complaint for Declaratory Judgment and Injunctive Relief Requiring the Removal of Michael Joseph as North Miami Beach Commissioner, the title of which speaks for itself.

Article II, Sec. 2.5 of the North Miami Beach Charter clearly states, “If any Commissioner has failed to attend a meeting of the City Commission for a period of one hundred and twenty (120) days, the seat of such Commissioner shall automatically become vacant.”

Michael Joseph has not attended a meeting of the City Commission since October 18, 2022, which was exactly 123 days ago.  Google it if you don’t believe us.

According to a February 16, 2023 Miami Herald article, however, he claimed, “he did not attend the Dec. 22 meeting because he was ill. He added he planned to attend the January meeting, but was advised by City Attorney Hans Ottinot not to ‘because Mr. DeFillipo keeps disrupting meetings and showing up.'”

For one thing, the first Commission meeting he skipped was December 20, 2022, not “Dec. 22.”

For another, he never advised the City Clerk that he wasn’t going to the meeting, much less because he “was ill.”

And finally, “Mr. DeFillipo” attends — and presides over — meetings because he is the Mayor.

Whether Michael likes it or not.

The truth is that Michael boycotted the December meeting not because he was ill, but because his temporary gig as “Vice Mayor” was scheduled to end that night so that Commissioner Jay Chernoff could assume the title.

In fact, that very morning Michael instructed his campaign worker, Harville McGregor, to send an email (obviously written by Michael himself) to City officials and to the media to falsely accuse the Mayor of “hiding his residency.”  Michael used his manufactured scandal as an excuse not to attend the meeting that night.

Michael also foolishly told the Herald, “You can’t say the charter finds that I’ve vacated my seat, but don’t have an issue with regards to the mayor. You can’t say there’s an issue for me, but not for him.”

Oh, yes, we can.

While Chapter VII, 7-5 of the North Miami Beach Code of Ordinances states, “Should any elected official of the City of North Miami Beach, during his term of office, change his bona fide residence from within to without the City of North Miami Beach, his seat on the Council shall be automatically vacated and forfeited,” not a single person has proven that Mayor Anthony DeFillipo doesn’t reside in the City of North Miami Beach.

The burden of proof is on his accuser, not on the Mayor.

It is an absolute and indisputable fact, however, that there has been no physical presence of Michael Joseph at a Commission meeting since October 18, 2022.

The evidence of his attendance, or lack thereof, is self-evident.

Comparing the two scenarios is merely a false equivalence.

Or, as Hans Ottinot’s “law” partner, Pamela Ryan, would say … math.

The Herald article also spotlighted the infinite ignorance of the City “Attorney.”

“An email from Ottinot to Joseph said the 120-day mark had not been reached. ‘The public records indicate that the first meeting you failed to attend was the city commission meeting in December 2022. The 120 days are calculated from that date. December 20, 2022, was not 120 days ago,’ Ottinot wrote Joseph in an email on Thursday afternoon, adding the interpretation was consistent with past precedent set by the city.”

Oh, really?

The Charter states, “If any Commissioner has failed to attend a meeting of the City Commission for a period of one hundred and twenty (120) days …”

The Charter does not say, “If any Commissioner has failed to attend a meeting of the City Commission for a period of one hundred and twenty (120) days from the date of his first missed meeting …”

Then again, it’s not the first time that #SorryHans has deliberately misinterpreted the Charter in order to protect one of his criminal bosses.

Furthermore, if the Strip Mall “Lawyer” was referring to Frantz Pierre, the only other elected official who was removed for non-attendance at Commission meetings, when claiming that “the interpretation was consistent with past precedent set by the city,” he was wrong about that, too.

According to a January 25, 2018 Memorandum of Law prepared by Jean Olin, Esq., Frantz Pierre had not physically attended a Commission meeting since August 17, 2017.  That’s when the clock started.

That is the only “past precedent” that the incompetent Hans Ottinot could possibly be referring to, and it doesn’t even prove his point.

Then again, the jurisprudential illiteracy of Hans & Co. should come as no surprise.

After all, Pamela Ryan actually opined at a public meeting that while four out of five votes would be a supermajority, “Robert’s Rules doesn’t [sic] say you need a supermajority.  It just says two-thirds.”

In the real world a two-thirds vote IS a supermajority, but in Ottinot “Law” World, they are two very different things.

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

In the meantime, the now-former Commissioner Michael Joseph, who has violated the North Miami Beach City Charter by failing to attend a Commission meeting for more than 120 days, has found himself on the receiving end of a legitimate lawsuit filed by a sitting Commissioner for the purpose of enforcing the very same Charter that he has violated in more ways than one.

Once the Judge has determined that Michael Joseph is in violation, then and only then will he be deemed to have vacated his seat.

Despite Michael’s claim that Jay Chernoff’s lawsuit against him is “a distraction from the ongoing civil suit regarding DeFillipo’s residency,” he’s conveniently forgetting that the lawsuit that the Mayor filed has to do with having a quorum for Commission meetings, and has nothing to do with “residency.”

Mayor Anthony DeFillipo has not been served with a lawsuit by anyone, nor has the City Commission voted to direct the City “Attorney” to legally pursue the removal of the Mayor.

If Michael Joseph actually believes that Tony does not reside in North Miami Beach, he had every opportunity to personally file a lawsuit — the same way that Jay filed one against him, yet he chose not to do so.

Instead, Hans Ottinot merely waved his magic “legal” wand and illegally decided that Tony vacated his seat after “he hired an unofficial private investigator, privately funded, to question where the Mayor lives,” as Channel 10’s Glenna Milberg reported on Wednesday.

Hans has absolutely no right to claim that Tony isn’t the Mayor, yet he persists in doing so.

Worse, he is illegally advising both Michael and his co-conspirator on the dais, McKenzie Fleurimond, to violate the Charter by boycotting Commission meetings.

While McKenzie is completely ignorant about, well, pretty much everything, Michael Joseph has no such excuse since he happens to be a lawyer, albeit not a very good one.

Still, since he somehow managed to pass the Bar exam, he should at least be able to read and understand the City Charter.  Instead, he used Hans Ottinot’s flawed “legal” advice as an excuse to violate the very Charter he swore to uphold when he took his Oath of Office.

None of this will end well for any of them.

Knowing full well he was quickly approaching the dreaded 120-day mark, Michael tried to call a “special meeting” several weeks ago “to discuss DeFillipo’s residency.”  At the February 8, 2023 hearing on Tony’s lawsuit against the City to require a quorum, Luis E. Suarez — the lawyer illegally hired by Hans — told the Court that the “Vice Mayor attempted to call a special meeting.”

What Suarez didn’t say is that, Vice Mayor or not, Michael Joseph had no authority to “call a special meeting.”

According to Article II, Sec. 2.4 of the City Charter, “Special meetings shall be called by the Mayor for the consideration of emergency matters upon the written request of the City Manager or upon the request of five members of the Commission other than the Mayor.”

As usual, neither Hans Ottinot nor Michael Joseph have any idea what’s in the City Charter, and even if they do, they have no intention of adhering to it.

In fact, Michael actually had the chutzpah to tell the Herald that he won’t attend Tuesday night’s meeting “if DeFillipo is on the dais,” because he won’t “be a party to fraud.”

Coming from a fraud like Michael “Mike” Joseph, whose entire identity is an alias, that’s so adorable.

The voters of North Miami Beach sent a loud and clear message last November that they were sick and tired of the lawlessness in North Miami Beach.

They dumped Paule Villard and elected Jay Chernoff for that very reason.

And now Jay is returning the favor by doing everything in his power to restore law and order to the chaos.

Now that Michael Joseph has vacated his seat, and McKenzie’s recall election is in the works, that’s a good start.

Since Daniela Jean ignored Michael’s fake “workshop” on Wednesday, and attended the official one on Thursday, we’re still holding out a glimmer of hope that Daniela Jean will come to her senses.

Hopefully, she’ll show up on Tuesday so that the Mayor and Commission can take out the rest of the trash, conduct the People’s Business, and give the residents the change they voted for.

In the meantime, let’s send Michael off in style.

Stephanie