As expected, the July 18, 2023 North Miami Beach Commission meeting was a total clown show.

It certainly appears that Michael Joseph, McKenzie Fleurimond, and Daniela Jean are bound and determined to keep the City in limbo, much as they have been doing since they lost their four-vote majority last November.

Knowing full well that a split 3-3 vote on any piece of legislation is an automatic “fail,” it quickly became obvious that they had conspired to stall every single Resolution and Ordinance on the Agenda.

As soon as Ordinance No. 2023-01 came up for its Second Reading, which was intended to move the previously adopted Ordinance No. 2016-9 to Article X of the City’s Code of Ethics, requiring elected officials to remain at City Commission meetings in order to maintain a quorum.

The original Ordinance was sponsored by former Commissioner Barbara Kramer in 2016 when two of her then-colleagues deliberately broke quorum at two separate meetings.

Unfortunately, there was no Code of Ethics on the books in 2016 (it was enacted two years later), so the Miami-Dade County Commission on Ethics and Public Trust had no jurisdiction to enforce Ordinance No. 2016-19.  As a result, self-enforcement was left up to the Commissioners based on an honor system.  Elected officials who cared about complying with municipal laws took this Ordinance seriously and stayed in their seats while conducting the People’s Business.

The new breed of corrupt politicians, however, are blithely unconcerned with doing the right thing.

Ever since the November 2020 election when Daniela Jean joined Michael Joseph, McKenzie Fleurimond, and Paule Villard on the dais and created a four-criminal majority, lawlessness has become the rule rather than the exception.

At the July 20, 2021 Commission Meeting, for example, the Mayor interrupted public comment to announce that Michael Joseph needed to leave immediately due to a death in the family (minute 40:18 of the video).

Before Michael even had a chance to exit the room, McKenzie quickly put on his mask, took off his headphones, and walked off the dais.

At that point, only four Commissioners were physically present because Paule Villard had been attending the meeting by Zoom.

To no one’s surprise Paule turned off her camera and refused to participate any longer.

With only four members remaining, the required quorum of five Commissioners was broken and the meeting had to be adjourned.

When McKenzie and Paule were later advised that they violated a City Ordinance by leaving a Commission meeting, they couldn’t care less.

As a result of McKenzie’s and Paule’s deliberate actions, on January 18, 2022 Barbara Kramer sponsored Ordinance No. 2022-01, Moving Quorum and Ethical Duty to Remain at a Commission to Article X Code of Ethics, which would authorize the Ethics Commission to enforce the quorum Ordinance and punish violators.

To no one’s surprise, the four Criminal Commissioners voted against being held accountable, and the motion failed with the usual 3-4 vote.

And as we all know by now, after the November election, the three remaining miscreants continued to violate the Ordinance for four months straight from December of 2022 until March of 2023 when they were Court Ordered to actually earn their undeserved paychecks by showing up.

Barbara Kramer’s ethics Ordinance (fittingly dubbed the Kramer Act) was brought back at the April 18, 2023 Commission meeting, and passed on its First Reading.

Interestingly, Michael Joseph and Daniela Jean were not in attendance, but McKenzie Fleurimond voted with his colleagues in passing this Ordinance by a 5-0 vote.

Also to no one’s surprise, at last night’s Commission meeting, McKenzie forgot he cared about ethics (or at least pretended to care) when his co-conspirators were present, and joined them in voting against accountability.

Acting Mayor Jay Chernoff and Commissioners Fortuna Smukler and Phyllis, who do care about ethics, accountability, and good governance, voted for the much needed Ordinance.

However, because there are only six members on the dais at present, all votes that end in a tie automatically fail.

And don’t think for one minute the three Criminal Commissioners won’t take advantage of the temporary loss of a deciding vote in order to hold the City hostage for as long as they can in order to punish residents for voting out Paule Villard and causing them to lose their majority on the dais.  They want you to suffer!

In fact, they care so little about the people they were elected to represent, the three Criminal Commissioners also also voted against Resolution No. R2023-52 to hold a Special Election on October 10, 2023 to fill the vacant mayoral seat.

Once again, a 3-3 tie vote caused the legislation to fail, and the People’s Business will now be stalled indefinitely.

But, the three will still be collecting their monthly $4,270.84 paychecks plus “free” health insurance, courtesy of all the little people who will once again not have a functioning government until possibly the next General Election in November of 2024!

The three Criminal Commissioners may think they have the upper hand by being able to hold the City hostage once again but, as the saying goes, what goes around comes around.

Michael, McKenzie, and Daniela were having a jolly old time until it came time to vote on the appointment of a Vice Mayor.

As fate would have it, it was Daniela Jean’s turn to hold the rotating, temporary title for the next four months.

The fun and games were over when Jay, Fortuna, and Phyllis all voted no.

Daniela was not happy.

Oh, well.  It’s called Karma for a reason.

Things will get even more interesting at the next Commission meeting when Michael and McKenzie ask their three jilted colleagues to approve the payment of the attorney’s fees incurred in their defense against the lawsuit Jay Chernoff had to file when they refused to show up for meetings for four months.

Don’t put that popcorn away just yet.

The drama is far from over.

In the meantime, we dedicate this classic to Daniela as a consolation prize.

Stephanie