While we wait for the Honorable Peter R. Lopez to hand down his decision on the Chernoff v. Joseph lawsuit, let’s take a quick look at yet another taxpayer-funded vacation taken by ex-City Manager Arthur “Duke” Sorey, his staff, and the four Criminal Commissioners who hired him, that resulted in absolutely no public purpose for the benefit of North Miami Beach residents.

On June 28, 2022, Duke’s former “Executive Assistant,” Ashley Francois, sent an email to all City Commissioners “to advise the Mayor & Commission that members of the City and Police Administration will be visiting New Orleans, LA on Friday, July 8, 2022, for an onsite demonstration of a new all-in-one emergency call management solution, APEX” according to the attached Memo.

CARBYNE©, which offers APEX, and other emergency call software systems, is the brainchild of CEO and founder Amir Elichai, a former Israeli Army officer who served in the special elite forces and the intelligence corps (which has nothing to do with this blog but we thought it was really cool).

Considering that Miami-Dade Fire Rescue handles all 911 dispatch calls for the entire county, the North Miami Beach Police Department has absolutely no need for this type of software system.  There was no reason for anyone in the City to go, much less elected officials.

Nevertheless, Michael Joseph, McKenzie Fleurimond, and Paule Villard took Duke up on the offer.

Surprisingly, Daniela Jean sat this one out, which is quite odd since she never turns down a “free” vacation.

For company, Duke also invited ex-City “Attorney” Hans Ottinot to partake in the festivities of a Big Easy mini-vacation, even though he had even less of an excuse to travel.

Duke’s former Assistant Manager, Kemarr Brown, was originally scheduled to go, but for some reason backed out.

She did, however, send Duke’s secretary “Executive Assistant” — along with her taxpayer-funded Purchasing Card — in her place.

If Kemarr Brown had consulted the City’s Procurement Policy & Procedures (assuming she even knew one existed), she would have known that Section III, Limitations on Use of Procurement clearly states, “The Procurement Card may be used only by the employee whose name is embossed on the card. No other person is authorized to use the card.”

Then again, she learned from the master of corruption.

According to the documents we received in response to our Public Records Request, the taxpayer-funded New Orleans vacation for Duke and his entourage cost North Miami Beach residents a total of $7,087.59!

This total includes the $417.36 charged on Kemarr Brown’s P Card for Hans Ottinot’s hotel room, and the $178.26 charged on Duke’s P Card for Hans’ airline ticket.

In fact, Duke’s staff knew very well how problematic it was for Hans to go on this trip as evidenced by an email chain between Sophia Taylor, the Assistant Finance Director hired by Duke on May 19, 2022, and Ashley Francois, the secretary “Executive Assistant” who also should never have gone.

On February 15, 2023, seven months after the New Orleans trip, Sophia emailed Ashley asking for help in closing out her Fiscal Year 2022 General Ledger, which she was unable to give to the Auditors until she received approval for City “Attorney” Hans Ottinot’s travel expenses.

Sophia wrote, “I just need a little blurb (to say something along the lines of “the expenses for the CA were incurred for XZY purpose”), since we can’t do a travel form, as he is a contractor with the City.”

In other words, “Make something up — a little blurb — because Travel Authorization Forms are only to be used for City employees and officials.”

Hans was neither.

Despite the urgency, Ashley finally responded a week later on February 22, 2023, advising Sophia that then-Finance Director Agnew Jean-Pierre had told her he would “discuss the CA travel prior to his departure.”

This would be the same Agnew Jean-Pierre who who submitted a fraudulent affidavit to cover for Paule Villard’s suspicious $1,000.00 P Card charge.

Needless to say, Agnew resigned shortly after resident Keith Myers exposed him for this fraud.

Sophia responded almost immediately with, “Agnew is no longer with the City.. I did mention this to him way back when I first discussed it with you; his response was that your department would provide a memo or a blurb just explaining that the expense was incurred for xyzzy, to attach to the statement in lieu of the travel form. How do we move this forward now so we can get the GL closed out FY2022? Can you please reach out to Kemarr to discuss the resolution to this. The expense was already incurred by your department, we need to document it.”

“A blurb.”

Um, okay.

Sophia also requested a Travel Authorization Form for a trip that ex-Assistant City Manager Gedel “Beelzebub” Merzius charged on his taxpayer-funded P Card, which was subsequently canceled.

Ashley responded by completely ignoring Sophia’s question about Hans Ottinot’s unauthorized trip, but telling her that with regard to Gedel’s canceled trip, “this is not a transaction that was processed by me. I will attempt to search for documentation surrounding this trip cancellation.”

Because in the Sorey Administration, the art of buck-passing was an Olympic sport.

We have no idea if Sophia was able to resolve her Hans dilemma since that’s the end of the email chain, but we’re quite sure a forensic audit of the City’s finances will get to the bottom of it.

Nevertheless, Ashley Francois apparently never bothered to consult the North Miami Beach Travel Policy (assuming she even knew it existed), or she would have known that Paragraph IV(B) clearly states:

B.  A Travel Authorization Form (see Attachment 1) must be completed prior to the incurrence of any travel related costs.  The authorization form should be completed in its entirety and include reasonable supporting documentation such as conference registration forms and agendas, hotel, airfare, meal allowance, car rental and mileage estimates. Unauthorized travel expenditures will not be reimbursed by the City and any credit card charges for unauthorized travel expenses will be paid by the cardholder.

Since the travel expenses charged on the City’s credit cards on behalf of Hans Ottinot were never authorized prior to their incurrence, Duke Sorey owes taxpayers the sum of $178.26 and Kemarr Brown owes $417.36, both of which were charged on their taxpayer-funded P Cards.

Demand a refund!

Even worse, Ashley’s Travel Authorization Form was not completed until July 27, 2022 — 20 days after her trip to New Orleans.  Since she did not have approval before incurring all those travel related costs, all of Kemarr Brown’ P Card charges on behalf of Ashley Francois totaling of $1,986.89 that Kemarr Brown charged on Ashley’s behalf were never authorized.

Demand a refund!

Furthermore, even though travel related costs of $1,548.08 were approved on Ashley’s Travel Authorization Form, albeit after the fact, $438.81 of those additional charges were never approved!

Demand a refund!

Furthermore, while illegally using Kemarr Brown’s taxpayer-funded credit card, Ashley charged $68.30 at the River Blends Cafe for “dinner with the Commissioners.”  Considering that “the Commissioners” all received per diem checks in advance of their trip for meals, absolutely no meals should have been charged on anyone’s P Card!

Incredibly, the receipt for this “dinner” charge has mysteriously gone missing.

DEMAND A DAMN REFUND!

But, good luck getting any of your hard-earned tax dollars back because Duke, Kemarr, and Ashley are no longer employed by the City of North Miami Beach.

Than again, it’s a small price to pay for finally getting rid of them!

Michael Joseph, Mckenzie Fleurimond, and Paule Villard all received per diem meal checks in the amount of $185.00 each, but they spent more on their hotel rooms than what was approved on their Travel Authorization Forms.

Michael’s hotel should have cost $344.45, but according to the invoice from the Hilton New Orleans Riverside, he was charged $417.36, or an additional $72.91.  Also, due to a flight change, Michael’s $499.95 airline ticket was $113.35 higher than the approved $386.60, making the total cost of his trip $1,102.31 even though he was only approved for $910.40.  He should reimburse taxpayers for the difference of $191.91.

McKenzie’s hotel also cost $90.32 more than the approved $327.04, according to the invoice in the amount of $417.36.  At $315.19, his airfare was exactly as approved, but the total cost of his trip was $917.55, or $90.32 more than the $827.23 he was authorized to spend.  McKenzie should also reimburse taxpayers for the overage of $90.32.

Paule’s hotel room also cost $65.92 more than the approved amount of $351.44.  According to the invoice, her room cost $417.36.  Although her airline ticket cost the $290.95 she was authorized to spend, this amount included a $70.00 charge for not one, but two checked bags!

How many changes of clothes did she need for a two night stay anyway?

In any event, Paule’s total trip cost $893.31, or $65.92 more than she was authorized to spend.  Good luck trying to get reimbursed from that deadbeat.

Nevertheless, the $2,913.17 taxpayers spent to send these three to New Orleans for two days was a complete waste of money since they had absolutely no business going on this trip in the first place.

Then again, it’s only a five minute walk from the Hilton New Orleans Riverside to Bourbon Street in the heart of the French Quarter.

Just saying.

And finally, since the City’s Criminal Chief Executive Officer, Arthur “Duke” Sorey, did not submit a Travel Authorization Form, we have no way of knowing exactly how much his three-day vacation in the Crescent City cost taxpayers.

However, here’s what we do know.  According to the hotel invoice and his P Card charges, Duke spent:

• $728.30 for his hotel room;
• $425.72 for airfare;
• $10.50 for a “cab ride in New Orleans;” and
• $427.39 on July 8, 2023 at Drago’s Seafood Restaurant on “dinner with the Commissioners,” including a 22% tip.

We don’t know if Duke received a per diem check for his meals, but we assume that Duke’s secretary “Executive Assistant,” Ashley Francois, did.  We also assume that she joined “the Commissioners” for dinner on taxpayer dime, each of whom each received $34.00 for “dinner” in their respective checks.  Since their dinners were charged on Duke’s P Card on the night of July 8, 2023, they need to each reimburse North Miami Beach taxpayers for the money they pocketed from a meal they didn’t have to pay for.

Demand a refund!

Needless to say, the City never purchased the APEX call management system.  In fact, we’re pretty sure Duke had no intention of actually purchasing this expensive new toy, but like Daniela, he never turned down a taxpayer-funded vacation.

At the end of the day North Miami Beach taxpayers got absolutely nothing in return for their $7,087.59 “investment” by paying for this motley crew’s New Orleans vacation.

Not even a lousy tee-shirt.

But that was just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

We’re told that “a few too many” employees in the North Miami Beach Police Department also tagged along, but we have no idea who or how much that entourage cost taxpayers.  We aim to find out.

Then again, money is no object when someone else is paying the bill.

The bad news is that for two years, North Miami Beach taxpayers were bilked out of literally millions of dollars that were spent on personal vacations, food orgies, chauffeur-driven City vehicles, self-promotional parties, trumped up “legal” bills, Friends & Family vendors, and of course, Paule Villard’s re-election campaign.

Barring a miracle, you’ll never get that money back.

The good news is that the perp walks have already begun, and hopefully more will follow.

The even better news is now that North Miami Beach is under new management, the days of squandering your hard-earned tax dollars are finally over.

But, do not get complacent.

It’s your responsibility to make sure history doesn’t repeat itself by electing individuals with integrity to your City Commission.  As it stands now, you are just one criminal vote short of another disaster, and that’s too close for comfort.  The time to start preparing for November 2024 is now!

Stay vigilant!

Stephanie