Now that ex-North Miami Beach City Manager Arthur “Duke” Sorey finally admitted that he didn’t get the job because of what he knows, which is pretty much nothing, but because of who he knows and who he’s “been good to,” let’s take a look at how he paid that favor forward.

Duke Sorey knew from day one that there were only four bosses he had to please in order to keep his job, Criminal Commissioners Michael Joseph, McKenzie Fleurimond, Paule Villard, and Daniela Jean, and he governed himself accordingly.

When he wasn’t being openly hostile to Mayor Anthony DeFillipo, Commissioner Fortuna Smukler, and then-Commissioner Barbara Kramer, he was ignoring them as if they didn’t exist.  Truth be told, as long as he had a four-criminal majority on the dais, the non-criminal elected officials were invisible to him.

Duke also knew that the November 2022 North Miami Beach municipal election was the most important one in his pathetic life, so he pulled out all the unethical and illegal stops to make sure that Paule Villard would keep her seat.

As we all know, he really “been good to” her.

Right out of the box on May 17, 2021, he began overtly managing her re-election campaign by hiring political operative Willis Howard as her personal campaign consultant under the concocted title of “Chief of Staff.”  At a starting base pay of $127,305, Willis Howard’s only job was to make sure Paule’s name and face were plastered all over every single piece of the North Miami Beach landscape, even on the City’s trash cans.

Fitting.

Miraculously, Willis Howard disappeared from the payroll right after the election.

In addition to Paule’s first $100,000 Publix gift card giveaway debacle in June 2021, Duke also stole even more money from City coffers so Paule could hold another Campaign Rally Gift Card Giveaway Event six months later, this time using Federal funds, when she began to campaign in earnest.

We’d love to tell you how much of the CARES Act funding was used the second time around, but as far as we can tell it was never placed on any Agenda or voted on by the Mayor and Commission.  Like Duke Sorey’s employment contract, it just happened when no one was paying attention.

Just as campaign season was heating up, Duke approved Paule’s hijacking (and by hijacking, we mean theft) of two of Commissioner Fortuna Smukler’s events to claim as her own.

The first was Fortuna’s Back to School Health Fair & Supplies Giveaway, which was advertised on July 9, 2022.  Paule had her taxpayer-funded campaign workers in the Public Affairs Department prepare a nearly identical flyer under her own name, which she began distributing eleven days later on July 20, 2022.

The second event that Paule stole from Fortuna was her Recycle Shoe Drive, which the City first started advertising on August 19, 2022 on Facebook, and continued advertising through the month of October.

Paule’s fake “shoe drive” flyers mysteriously began appearing at the October 13, 2022 Washington Park Voter’s Counsel candidate forum, but was never advertised on either the City’s Facebook or its website.

In between stealing two events from Fortuna, Paule also hijacked the NMB Library’s Passport Event, which the City first advertised on Facebook on July 27, 2022.

Five days later on August 1, 2022, Paule hijacked the event with her co-conspirator on the dais McKenzie Fleurimond, and  Reggie Leon, an elected official in Miami Gardens, who was also running for re-election so they can campaign together on YOUR DIME!

Paule Villard committed all these acts of theft with Duke Sorey’s blessing.

Duke really stepped up the taxpayer-funded campaign events for Paule as the election got closer and closer.  Between “hosting” random Town Hall Meetings and weekly “Meet & Greet” events (where Duke Sorey publicly called this blogger a racist), he couldn’t get Paule’s name and face out there fast enough or often enough.

He also approved (most likely encouraged) all her purchases of self-promotional campaign-like items such as tents, tee shirts, coffee mugs, pens, tote bags, and more, with her name and face emblazoned on them.

Duke also bullied the Police Department’s union into endorsing Paule Villard.

Then there were all the code violations committed by Paule and her slate mates, Mark St. Vil and Hans Mardy, that Duke ordered code officers to ignore.

Duke also ignored Paule’s code violation when Paule used her taxpayer-funded campaign tent in front of houses where former North Miami Mayor Andre Pierre held her fundraisers.

And, of course, Duke looked the other way when the signs of the opponents of Paule & Co. were getting vandalized, destroyed, and stolen.  Candidate Jay Chernoff’s car was also vandalized at one of Paule’s Town Hall Campaign Events.  We suspect, but can’t prove, that he ordered the Police Department to ignore the complaints, even in the face of video evidence.

Even in broad daylight!

Even after all that election interference, Paule Villard lost the election.

And Duke knew without his majority four-Criminal Commissioner vote, he would soon be fired.

He also knew that as long as the remaining three Criminal Commissioners would be able to boycott Commission meetings, he would continue to receive his undeserved paycheck.

As a result of his conspiring with Michael Joseph, McKenzie Fleurimond, Daniela Jean, and ex-City “Attorney” Hans Ottinot’s, Duke Sorey collected an extra base pay of $80,000 for the four months from December 20, 2022 (when he was supposed to be fired) through March 21, 2022 (when he was finally fired) that he didn’t earn and didn’t deserve.

That figure, of course, doesn’t even begin to include his $200 monthly cell phone allowance, a $900 monthly UNACCOUNTABLE “executive expense,” $4,383.67 monthly retirement contribution, and his $182.50 monthly insurance premiums, for an additional compensation of $5,666.17 per month, or $22,665 on top of the $80,000 base pay, for a grand total of $102,665 of taxpayer money that Duke Sorey collected for four months after the Mayor and Commission intended to fire him.

Not including, of course, all the food he could charge on his taxpayer-funded P Card.

According to his Employment Agreement, upon termination without cause, Duke Sorey is only entitled to “twenty (20) weeks of his regular base salary” and “health insurance for (20) weeks.”

Unfortunately, because Jay Chernoff was the swing vote to fire Duke without cause, he will receive an additional $92,308 in base salary and approximately $250 worth of health insurance, or a total of $92,558 of your hard-earned money.

If he had been fired with cause, Duke would have walked away with bupkes.

And even that was more than he deserved.

Hopefully, a forensic audit will result in a bright orange jumpsuit for the cretin who never should have been a City Manager in the first place.

In Bye, Duke! (Part 3), we’ll tell you about all the other people that Duke “been good to,” courtesy of North Miami Beach taxpayers.

Stay tuned.

Stephanie