We’re old enough to remember when the one-time Deputy City Manager of North Miami, Arthur “Duke” Sorey, and his then-boss, Larry Spring, foisted a fraudulent budget on an unsuspecting City Council.  When caught red-handed with their corrupt fingers in the till by then-Assistant Budget Manager Terry Henley, Duke and Larry conspired to blame it all on the whistleblower.

At issue was a series of letters and emails Terry Henley sent to Larry Spring and Duke Sorey Henley warning them of a “$22 million deficit in the development of the FY 19 Preliminary Budget.”

In his final September 15, 2018 Memorandum, Terry Henley summed up:

The General Fund budget is 2% less in FY19 than it was in FY18 but City expenses increased significantly with 25 new police officers and 16 additional positions throughout the general fund.  Pension and contractual obligations also increased but the proposed Budget is balanced and less than last year.  In brief, the City Manager’s FY 18-19 Budget is balanced on the surface but in reality, the budget being proposed is a lie or unrealistic, exaggerated financial plan that is hiding a true deficit ranging from $5 to 20M.  I have been threatened, harassed, and discriminated against as I aggressively seek additional legal and ethical opinions on how best to proceed.

Five days later, Terry Henley was fired.

As we reported in BREAKING: Larry Spring and Duke Sorey under fire for fraudulent budget!:

Mr. Henley exposed serious problems with the city’s proposed budget for the fiscal year beginning October 1, 2018.  According to a September 21, 2018 letter sent from his attorney, William R. Amlong, to City Attorney Jeff Cazeau, Mr. Henley was offered “hush-money” to “go quietly away as City Manager Larry Spring and [Deputy Manager Arthur] Sorey push through what looks like a $70 million balanced budget, but one that really conceals $7 million to $20 million in deficits.”

When Henley wouldn’t take their bribe, he was promptly fired and escorted out of City Hall by a gang of North Miami’s “finest.”

In typical North Miami fashion, city officials began their usual and customary smear campaign against an employee whose personnel record was exemplary … until he refused to comply with their orders to cook the books.

 

Mr. Amlong also advised City Attorney Jeff Cazeau that Spring and Sorey had been taking money from the city’s “water plant revenue and storm water funds to plug the gaps in the budget – similar to the use of restricted funds that occurred at the City of Miami during Mr. Spring’s tenure as its Chief Financial Officer, which gave rise to the City of Miami’s being hit with a $1 million securities fraud judgment by the Securities and Exchange Commission.”

If that sounds familiar, it’s because the late Al Crespo had already exposed Larry Spring in “It’s Miami, Bitches!” Al Crespo on “irrepressible scalawag,” North Miami City Manager Larry Spring, in which he wrote:

He was the CFO when the city falsified its comprehensive annual financial reports in 2007 and 2008, and sold $153 million of municipal bonds to investors. During his years as CFO, the city fraudulently transferred millions of dollars from restricted capital project funds into the general operating fund to conceal declining fund balance that resulted in what became known as the SEC case that cost taxpayers millions in penalties and attorneys fees.

Spring’s tenure as the City’s Chief Financial Officer also included the attempt in early 2011 to bribe then embattled Chief of Police Miguel Exposito to resign.

No one in North Miami should have been surprised by Larry Spring’s method of municipal “management.”

No one in North Miami should have been surprised that the combination of Larry Spring and the king of fiscal mismanagement, Duke Sorey, teamed up to nearly bankrupt the City of North Miami.

No one in North Miami should have been surprised, since we previously reported:

Arthur “Duke” Sorey was already infamous for his fiscal mismanagement, as evidenced by his being sued by his first mortgage company for foreclosure, as well as by Capital One Bank (USA), N.A. for non-payment of a small credit card bill that he refused to pay.

Deputy Duke was also exposed for his questionable home purchase/loan through the city’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program.

Sorey then went on to negate the intention of North Miami’s Early Retirement Incentive Program (ERIP) by hiring even higher salaried employees under the Friends & Family Plan, thus increasing the payroll instead of reducing it by 30% as planned.

When Duke Sorey became the North Miami Beach City Manager, we reiterated our warning to residents that this hiring decision by the then-four Criminal Commissioners, Michael Joseph, McKenzie Fleurimond, Paule Villard, and Daniela Jean, would result in disaster.

And, as usual, we were right.

Which was one of the many reasons Paule Villard was voted out of office last November.

In April of 2020, Larry Spring defied all odds and managed to convince Miami officials to give him a second chance.

Disgraced Ex-Miami CFO @larrymspring — who led the city into a financial emergency and cost taxpayers $3M in securities fraud fines and legal fees — just got signed by city manager @ArtNoriega5 for $25,000 to handle the COVID-19 fiscal crisis #BecauseMiami https://t.co/YYo4lh9nZ7 pic.twitter.com/fjuq6KyCBq

— Billy Corben (@BillyCorben) April 23, 2020

And now, it’s déjà vu all over again.

Not only did Larry Spring worm his way back into the City of Miami as a “COVID Consultant,” he’s now slithered up the proverbial corporate ladder to become an Assistant City Manager.

And right on schedule, as expected, Larry Spring is embroiled in yet another scandal involving a fraudulent budget.

A November 30, 2023 Miami Herald article, Miami faces possible $56M shortfall after state regulators say budget vote was invalid, reported:

The city of Miami has been operating for two months without a valid budget and tax rate, according to state regulators, and an emergency vote is necessary to avoid forfeiting more than $56 million in tax revenue.

On Monday, the Florida Department of Revenue issued a notice to City Manager Art Noriega advising that the City Commission’s Sept. 28 vote on the property tax rate to fund the $1 billion budget was not valid because only four of five commissioners participated in the vote — a result of the arrest and suspension of former Commissioner Alex Díaz de la Portilla, who was charged with bribery, money laundering and other alleged crimes two weeks before the final budget hearing.

The state said if the commission does not properly approve the proposed tax rate at an upcoming meeting, Miami will forfeit its share of the half-penny sales tax distribution for 12 months, a penalty for noncompliance that would cost an estimated $56 million, according to Noriega.

According to the article:

On Thursday, Assistant City Manager Larry Spring insisted the city had a “valid and properly approved and appropriated budget,” despite the state’s determination that the final vote was invalid and could cost the city of tens of millions of dollars if not rectified with a new vote.

It will be interesting to see if Larry Spring will manage to worm his way out of this one without the help of his long-time protector, former Miami cop and accused sex offender Adam Burden, who was later hired by Larry as City Manager of North Miami to spy on that City’s police chief for him.

You will recall that Burden was then hired in North Miami Beach by City Manager Duke Sorey on August 10, 2021 as a part-time, $150,800 a year “Special Advisor to the City Manager,” to spy on that City’s police chief for him.

Yeah, Duke learned from “the best.”

The best corruptocrat in South Florida, that is.

Like a bad penny, Larry Spring turns up wherever and whenever he sniffs out a get-rich-quick scheme that will line his pockets with other people’s money.

In February of this year, when the three remaining North Miami Beach Criminal Commissioners were boycotting meetings for five months until they were Court Ordered to attend, Daniela Jean was spotted conspiring at a covert meeting with Larry Spring and North Miami political operative, Jeffy Mondesir.  As we reported in A Criminal Conspiracy:

According to the City’s Registered Lobbyist 2023 list, Jeffy Mondesir of Achievement Consulting Group, Inc., located at 1717 North Bayshore Drive, Miami, Florida 33133, became the lobbyist for “All Matters Pertaining To Venus Project.”  The President of Achievement Consulting is Larry Spring, who formed the company in 2012 while he was still working for the City of North Miami.

We also reported:

As she was leaving her January 25, 2023 rendezvous with her fellow North Miami partners in crime, Larry Spring and Jeffy Mondesir, she was overheard declaring, “We’re gonna bulldoze them.”

Then she hopped into a white Mercedes Benz and drove off into the sunset.

Public Self-Service must be nice, eh?

We’re not sure who Daniela Jean thinks she’s gonna bulldoze, but we’re pretty sure those words will eventually come back to haunt her.

Daniela was right about one thing.

Together with the tangled web of all of these con artists, grifters, and thieves, she and her co-conspirators on the dais, Michael Joseph and McKenzie Fleurimond, have succeeded into bulldozing every last vestige of good governance in the City of North Miami Beach.

As you can see, elections have consequences.

The three Criminal Commissioners need Paule Villard back on the dais so they can resume their goal of bankrupting the City of North Miami Beach for their own personal benefit.

And for the benefit of the likes of Duke Sorey, Larry Spring, and the rest of the corrupt gang members in the North Miami Circle of Corruption!

Paule Villard has already proven to be unfit for any public office, and this criminal should never be allowed within a hundred miles of the City’s checkbook!

NORTH MIAMI BEACH VOTERS,

DON’T ELECT A CRIMINAL FOR MAYOR!

PLEASE VOTE RESPONSIBLY!

ON DECEMBER 5, 2023,

VOTE FOR EVAN PIPER FOR MAYOR!

Stephanie