It should be pretty clear by now to anyone with the capacity to think that ex-North Miami Beach City Manager Arthur “Duke” Sorey should have been fired for cause.  In fact, there’s plenty of evidence that he should be indicted for malfeasance, misfeasance, and outright public corruption.

But, as we all know, Miami State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle will turn a blind eye to the actual corruption permeating throughout North Miami Beach City Hall, such as election fraud and extortion, as long as these crimes are committed by members of a certain voting bloc.

Nevertheless, even if we never have the pleasure of seeing Duke Sorey’s mugshot on the front page of the Miami Herald (although we’re working on that), rest assured we will do everything in our power to make sure that he’ll never get another job in the public sector anywhere ever again.

As we told you in Bye, Duke! Part 1 and Part 2, Duke Sorey’s embarrassing stint as the CEO of NMB was the result of a perfect storm — a confluence, if you will, of regrettable events that resulted in a disastrous outcome.

Although North Miami Beach residents rose to the occasion and took their City back last November, the criminals running their government were not going to go down without a fight.  They were not about to easily give up all the taxpayer-funded food, vacations, chauffeurs, campaign assistance, and double dipping on health insurance, that they were able to literally steal from the City coffers under the corrupt Duke Sorey regime.

They are having a hard time accepting the loss, but they better get used to it.

When all is said and done, they’re gonna have to shut up, and sit there, and take the same exact bitter medicine they dished out to Mayor Anthony DeFillipo, former Commissioner Barbara Kramer, and Commissioner Fortuna Smukler for the last two years.

And we’re gonna love every single minute of it.

Meanwhile, we’re still uncovering so much dirt, we’re gonna need a bigger shovel.

As we already reported, Duke Sorey infamously bragged on Island TV, “It’s still not all what you know but who you know and who you been good to.”

We also told you that he was very good indeed to ex-Criminal Commissioner Paule Villard in the hopes of keeping his overpaid, undeserved job until at least November, 2024.  Unfortunately for Duke, she lost her bid for re-election.

But it was a triumphant win for the the residents of North Miami Beach, especially when Duke Sorey was handed a pink slip at the March 21, 2023 Commission meeting.

Paule wasn’t the only person Duke’s “been good to” — with your money.

Remember good old Lesly Prudent, the “not politically connected” political operative, who conspired with Criminal Commissioners Michael Joseph and McKenzie Fleurimond, ex-City “Attorney” Hans Ottinot, and two randos named Harville McGregor and Jean Jean-Louis, to try to oust Mayor Anthony DeFillipo from his seat?

It turns out that Duke had already recruited Lesly to assist in Paule’s re-election campaign as far back as March 16, 2022, when he signed a Waiver of Bid for Lespri Enterprises Inc., the Florida corporation Lesly Prudent formed in 2006, and through which he is paid to advertise on his radio show at WLQY 1320AM on Sundays from 1:00 to 2:00 PM.

Chapter III of the City’s Code of Ordinances, also known as the “Purchasing Ordinance of the City of North Miami Beach, Florida,” prescribes “the manner in which the City shall control the purchase of materials, supplies, equipment, construction, professional, and certain contractual services of the City, and to maintain a high ethical standard of all officers and employees of the City in connection therewith.”

This Ordinance also created the position of Chief Procurement Officer, whose job it is to oversee all purchases for the City of North Miami Beach, including the selection of goods and services through a bidding process.

Sec. 3-4.5 provides for several exemptions to the bidding process by the use of a Waiver of Bid by the Manager, and also provides for a formal bidding waiver “with a five-sevenths (5/7) affirmative vote of the City Commission declaring the waiver of competitive bidding/competitive proposals to be in the best interests of the City.”

And finally, Sec. 3-4.9 states that “the City Manager may waive the formal bidding procedure up to fifty thousand ($50,000.00) dollars…”

On May 16, 2022, we made a Public Records Request for “all Bid Waivers issued from April 20, 2021 through and including the present date,” but as usual, Duke Sorey derailed our request by presenting an invoice for $91.59, which we refused to pay.  On July 29, 2022, however, we managed to obtain those bid waivers through an alternate method.

Thanks to Commissioner Fortuna Smukler, who asked for and received all of Duke’s bid waivers, we discovered that the Waiver of Bid for Lespri Enterprises Inc. was deliberately omitted from the batch we originally received.

Of course, it’s not a surprise why he wanted to hide it from us, since he knows Lesly Prudent has been on our radar as far back as 2010.  In fact, he made his very first VotersOpinion appearance in 2011 for his shady ties to Former Commissioner/Current Convicted Felon Frantz Pierre.

The first thing that stands out on this bid waiver is that Duke listed the cost of Lesly’s “service” to the City as $49,000.00, which means this waiver was able to be slipped in at just under the Manager’s threshold of $50,000.00, thereby conveniently bypassing the need for “a five-sevenths (5/7) affirmative vote of the City Commission.”

Duke also had to justify waiving the bidding process to make sure Lesly would be able to benefit by Duke’s “generosity” as quickly as possible.

After all, the November election was just around the corner, and Paule needed all the advertising on Haitian radio that your money could buy.

According to the City’s online check register, from March 9, 2022 through December 21, 2022, Lespri Enterprises, Inc. was was paid a total of $68,700.00, which exceeds the Manager’s waiver limit by $18,700.00.  Furthermore, the City Commission never voted to waive this bid by the required “five-sevenths (5/7) affirmative vote.”

On March 5, 2023, we made another public records request for copies of the following invoices for checks paid to Lespri Enterprises, Inc., which we finally received on March 22, 2022:

1. Check #1026804 dated 3/9/22 for $850.00
2. Check #1027586 dated 4/13/22 for $850.00
3. Check #1028476 dated 5/25/22 for $7,000.00
4. Check #1029007 dated 6/15/22 for $7,000.00
5. Check #1029803 dated 7/20/22 for $7,000.00
6. Check #1031543 dated 9/21/22 for $14,000.00
7. Check #1031926 dated 10/19/22 for $7,000.00
8. Check #1032089 dated 10/27/22 for $11,000.00
9. Check #1033417 dated 12/21/22 for $14,000.00

The first two $850.00 checks were to specifically advertise the City’s “home renovation program” and “rent assistance program,” respectively.  From May to December 2002, Lesly was paid $7,000.00 per month to, “Broker and secure radio advertising contracts with specific radio hosts within the Haitian American Community to inform and educate local constituents about the programs and services offered by the City of North Miami Beach.”

We were especially suspicious, however, about the additional $11,000.00 Lesly received on October 27, 2022, less than two weeks before the November 8, 2022 election.  Our suspicions were confirmed when we saw the invoice.

We’re old enough to remember when another North Miami political operative, Carline Brown a/k/a “Teacher Carline,” also “educated” listeners of her radio program how to “vote correctly,” according to a September 25, 2012 Miami Herald article.

“When you receive those absentee ballots at home, don’t let anyone take them,” she told listeners in one ad in Creole. “You must consult with someone you trust, or consult Teacher Carline. She’ll help you understand what’s on the ballot in order to vote correctly.”

Like her close personal friend, Lesly Prudent, Carline Paul also received public funding for her radio show.  In FY 2010-11, Carline Paul’s and Lesly Prudent’s now-defunct non-profit organization, Haitian American Youth of Tomorrow, Inc., received a $14,000.00 grant “to teach members of the Haitian community about the voting process.”

“Teacher” Carline came under fire when she didn’t disclose that at the same time she was working for several political campaigns through her now-defunct for-profit company, Afrovisions PR/Advertising & Educational Consultant, Inc., and when she unethically used her nonprofit to promote candidates and arranged “for HAYOT kids to work as volunteers.”

Lesly Prudent also blurred the ethical lines when he was paid by the City of North Miami for advertising, when he was actually shilling for candidates on his radio show.

We have no doubt that Lesly was probably doing the same for Paule Villard last fall.  Especially when she was on his radio show campaigning almost every day leading up to the election, yet she has no radio advertising listed on her Campaign Treasurer’s Report for that period.

Lesly Prudent’s interest in wanting Paule to get re-elected was purely financial.  Like all the other employees and vendors that Duke Sorey was being “good to,” as long as the status quo remained, Lesly could still collect $7,000.00 a month for doing absolutely nothing, and his wife, Rose, could still be on the City payroll.

When all of this collusion failed to get Paule re-elected, the criminal collective had to come up with Plan B.

So Lesly Prudent was recruited to hastily form a bogus “non-profit” two days after the first quorum-less meeting, disingenuously calling it North Dade Neighbors Alliance, (while convincing hapless CBS Miami reporter Joe Gorchow that he wasn’t politically motivated), for the purpose of hiring a private investigator to conduct an “investigation” on the Mayor’s residency.

And, as we’ve proven time and time again for over the last decade, Lesly Prudent is very much politically motivated.

Ex-City “Attorney” Hans Ottinot, who stood to lose $60,000.00 a month plus all the fake “legal” bills he could slap together, was obviously in on the conspiracy.  Knowing full well the “outcome” of the “investigation,” Hans presented his fictitious “legal opinion” that the Mayor was no longer the Mayor.

Hans, who had no authority to proclaim anything of the sort, also illegally hired Sham Lawyer Luis E. Suarez without the express approval of the Mayor and Commission, who was paid over $200,000.00 of your tax dollars to vigorously and maliciously perpetuate the hoax.

And even though Duke Sorey flat out lied at the March 21, 2023 Commission meeting when Commissioner Smukler asked him who approved the payments to Suarez, and he responded that the City “Attorney” did and he had nothing to do with it, we have the receipts.

Duke’s two Assistant City Managers, Gedel “Beelzebub” Merzius and Kemar Brown, signed off on all of those checks.  Since Duke had the title of City Manager, the buck stopped at his desk.

But, wait!  THERE’S MORE!

Three months before the election on August 12, 2022, Duke entered into another $10,000.00 no-bid contract to hire a for-profit company called Haitian American Research Company, LLC (HARC), as a “CONSULTANT for canvassing services relating to CITY programs and activities.”

The “Professional Services Agreement” was only in effect for fifty (50) days and automatically terminated on September 30, 2022,

The alleged “Scope of Services” include “engaging in door-to-door canvassing efforts” and “raising awareness within the North Miami Beach Community of key City programs and initiatives,” including but not limited to:

• Driveway Approach Program
• Lights, Camera, Action Program
• NMB Scholarship Program
• Teen Chat Program
• Gift Cards Program

Raise your hand if anyone knocked on your door to “raise your awareness.”

No one?

This is not surprising since the two invoices Haitian American Research Company, LLC presented the City with on August 12, 2022 and August 30, 2022  were only for “Marketing Mail to North Miami Beach Area Residents” to “raise awareness” for:

1. August 14 Book Bag Community Event;
2. August 21 Rock the Vote Community Event;
3. Publix Gift Cards Distribution; and
4. A token shout out for Hispanic Heritage Month Events.

Not a single word about “engaging in door-to-door canvassing” or any of the other “Scope of Services” items except, of course, Paule Villard’s taxpayer-funded Gift Card Giveaway Campaign Event.

As usual, the Haitian American Research Company, LLC, also had a “Consulting Services Agreement” for “census canvassing efforts” with the city of North Miami, dated August 1, 2020 when Duke was the Deputy Manager there.

While the fact that Duke used the same company in North Miami Beach is not all that big a deal, you need to know that the registered address of HARC is 550 NE 124 Street, North Miami, which is the same office of none other than former North Miami Mayor Andre Pierre, the head of the organized crime ring that had been running North Miami Beach until the November 2022 election.

Even more interesting, the owner of the Haitian American Research Company is one Jean M. Pierre who, as it turns out, is related to Andre Pierre.

Clearly, this was nothing more than a $10,000.00 “gift” to yet another Friends & Family member of Duke Sorey.

Ironically, right after Duke’s stupidly revealing statement that it’s “not what you know, but who you know, and who you been good to,” he went on to say:

“In making it this far, you know, I have to give a lot of thanks to the Haitian community.  Yeah, they definitely embraced me my whole time in North Miami.  I think we all have worked together and I’ve helped and they helped, and you know, they were the forefront of me going to North Miami Beach, and really, um, you know, opened the door and paved the way for me to walk into North Miami Beach, so that’s my story.  That’s how I got here.” 

WATCH!

Either he’s too ignorant to know that he is just the useful idiot of his Haitian community “friends,” or he’s perfectly okay with being used because there’s something in it for him in return.

Either way, Duke Sorey is the ultimate play for pay chump.

And don’t think for one minute that the North Miami Beach Criminal Commissioners aren’t getting a piece of the action.

Even though the party is finally over for the criminals who ran your City for the past two-plus years, you’ll never get back the literally hundreds of thousands of dollars they stole from you.

You’ll never get back the award-winning North Miami Beach Police Department they systematically dismantled and destroyed.

You’ll never get back the five months of no Commission meetings because the criminals refused to show up.

You’ll never get back your peace of mind knowing that you’re only one election away from another catastrophic apocalypse.

Stay vigilant!

In the meantime, we’ve given you more than enough reasons why Duke Sorey should have been fired for cause and literally tossed out of City Hall with nothing but the Styles by Kutty rags on his back and the red gangsta “dress” sneakers on his feet.

Just saying.

Stephanie