After getting fired for being the worst City Manager in the history of North Miami Beach, Arthur “Duke” Sorey filed a lawsuit against the City on July 21, 2023.

As we reported in Start popping! Duke sued North Miami Beach, and it promises to be a blockbuster!, there were a slew of reasons to fire him for cause.

Since that glorious spring day, we’ve uncovered even more examples of his flagrant corruption.

Nevertheless, in his lawsuit against the City, Duke wanted you (and a future jury) to believe that he was an exemplary employee, who did absolutely nothing wrong, and was wrongfully terminated.

If that weren’t amusing enough, Duke’s “new and improved” lawsuit is even more hilarious.  It’s a completely fictional account of how Duke sees himself — which is the exact opposite of reality.

Along with the City of North Miami Beach, Duke is suing suspended Mayor Tony DeFillipo and Commissioners Fortuna Smukler, Phyllis Smith, and Jay Chernoff, individually, alleging that they each acted “outside the scope” of their “authority by engaging in certain other misconduct.”

In other words, he’s not happy that they fired him for being incompetent and corrupt.

Fixed it for ya, Duke.

His Amended Complaint also includes new allegations that the four elected officials manipulated bids “to give certain vendors a wrongful advantage,” claiming this was “gross mismanagement, malfeasance, and misfeasance of City rules and procedures.”

In other words, Duke is accusing the Defendants of doing the exact same things that Duke himself was guilty of doing!

Duke specifically brought up the bid for “Citywide Grounds Maintenance Services,” which is a hoot since it was actually Duke Sorey who illegally manipulated the bidding process.  At the eleventh hour, he sneakily replaced the bid winner, Coco Tree Service Corp., with his preferred vendor, and member in good standing of the North Miami Friends & Family Plan, Country Bill’s Lawn Maintenance, Inc.

Here’s how Duke’s scheme went down.

At the October 19, 2021 Commission Meeting, the Mayor and Commission were set to vote on Resolution R2021-109 awarding Coco Tree with the maintenance contract, which had been Pre-Approved and Recommended by a panel consisting of the Directors of the Public Works, Water, and Parks & Rec Departments.

Inexplicably, McKenzie Fleurimond “requested to table the item due to the current vendor not being present and not able to answer additional questions,” according to the Minutes of the Meeting.  Duke, of course, concurred that the vendor wasn’t present, but he also neglected to announce that there was absolutely no need for the vendor’s presence since the signing of the Resolution for an already awarded bid was unnecessary.

Since Mayor DeFillipo and Commissioners Barbara Kramer and Fortuna Smukler wanted to finalize the contract and voted against tabling the item, there was obviously a hidden agenda and agreement between Duke and his four Criminal Commissioners, who all voted in the affirmative.

During the meeting, Commissioner Kramer texted this blogger that she was curious why McKenzie would table an item approving a bid that had already been awarded.

I quickly looked up the list of bidders and I knew immediately what Duke and McKenzie were up to.  I texted back to Barbara, “You watch.  Duke wants to give the contract to Country Bill’s, and he’s using McKenzie to make it happen!”

Sure enough, I was right!

As usual.

The next month at the November 16, 2021 Commission Meeting, Duke tried to sneak this item into the Consent Agenda, hoping no one would notice so it would pass along with the seven other items as a single vote.  Luckily, it was pulled from the Consent Agenda and moved to Legislation, according to the Minutes of the Meeting.

At hour 1:12:07 of the meeting video, the Resolution came up for discussion and vote.  At hour 1:18:08, Duke announced that he decided to change the recommendation and award the bid to — drum roll, please — COUNTRY BILL’S LAWN MAINTENANCE, INC.!

Who didn’t see that coming?

Well, we did.

In Déjà vu: Duke Sorey’s Red Garden Sinkhole, NMB Style!, we casually mentioned Country Bill’s Lawn Maintenance, Inc., promising to explain in a future blog.  Since Coco Tree ended up filing a lawsuit against North Miami Beach for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief due to Duke’s illegal manipulation of the bidding process, we decided to hold off at the time.

Because Duke is now suing Tony and falsely accusing him of  being “affiliated with” Coco in an attempt “reopen a closed bid,” which is a blatant LIE, it’s time to tell the whole story.

We have confirmed with former Chief Procurement Officer Donna Rockfeld that Tony DeFillipo had absolutely nothing to do with the bidding process whatsoever.

Unlike McKenzie Fleurmond, who apparently had been in close contact with the owner of Country Bill’s, thereby violating the Cone of Silence.  This became evident when McKenzie made certain comments on the dais that were made in a confidential letter to the bidding panel from Country Bill’s that had not been made public at the time.

Then again, this should surprise no one.  Duke and McKenzie were always thick as thieves.

Literally and figuratively.

During the meeting, Duke needed to make up excuse after excuse why he was selecting his Friends & Family vendor over the one that legitimately was awarded the bid.

He complained that Coco Tree’s pesticide subcontractor did not have a “valid local business tax receipt,” which wasn’t even a requirement of the bid.

He he also stated that Coco Tree’s arborist was a subcontractor, not an employee.

Chief Procurement Officer Donna Rockfeld was called up to the podium to respond to the Mayor’s questions.

She stated for the record, as reiterated in Coco Tree’s lawsuit, that “there was absolutely no requirement concerning the corporate status of a sub-contractor to perform pesticide services and there was also nothing in the [bid], City Procurement Code or any other law, rule or regulation that imposed such requirements. Further, there was nothing in the [bid] concerning whether a pesticide company was an employee or contractor, as long as [Coco Tree] had someone to do the pesticide work.”

Ms. Rockfeld also confirmed that Coco Tree’s arborist is a licensed, ISA Certified Arborist, and that he met all qualifications required in the bid.

Duke, of course, conveniently forgot that inconvenient fact when he decided to drag Ms. Rockfeld into his drama.

As soon as Donna Rockfeld wrapped up her report to the Mayor and Commissioners, I  received a text from a source inside the City stating, “She will be fired tomorrow for telling the truth.”

And sure enough, it came to pass.

The very next day, Duke told Ms. Rockfeld she could either resign or be fired.

In his Amended Complaint, Duke falsely accused Commissioner Fortuna Smukler of “allowing her husband, a non-City personnel, to review bids for public works projects in violation of the City Code.”  He also accused her husband of sending “harassing communications to some of the vendors who bid on the City’s projects.”

Both of these accusations are flat out lies.

Here’s the truth.

A bid was issued for a security camera system for the Eastern Shores guardhouse, which is under the purview of the Eastern Shores Security Guard Special Taxing District Board.  Commissioner Smukler is not the liaison to this Board and the City has no authority over the decisions made by its Board members.

The Chair of the Board asked Mr. Smukler, who is actually a security expert, if he would volunteer to review the specs of the project and report his findings.

Before he accepted the assigned, Commissioner Smukler asked Executive Director Jose Arrojo of the Miami-Dade County Commission on Ethics & Public Trust for an opinion as to whether or not it was appropriate for her husband to volunteer his services as requested.  Mr. Arrojo advised that since her husband is a North Miami Beach resident, he was not bidding for the contract or being paid for his services, and that his input was beneficial to the community, there was unequivocally no conflict of interest.

As for Duke’s false accusation that Saul sent “harassing communications,” Mr. Smukler merely sent an email to the vendor explaining that there was a technical problem with the system, which needed to be fixed.

And that’s the real story!

In fact, Donna Rockfeld also advised us that Mr. Smukler was helpful and a perfect gentleman throughout the entire process.

The only harassment that took place regarding this incident is that Duke Sorey verbally assaulted Donna and brought her to tears over Saul’s involvement.

We can also tell you that Donna is positively livid about the flat out lies Duke is alleging, and she’s chomping at the bit to be deposed and testify in Court about what really went on behind the scenes during his horrific tenure as City Manager.

We can hardly wait!

Hilariously, Duke claimed in his Amended Complaint that after he complained about Fortuna’s “wrongdoing,” she, Tony, “and the other City Commissioners began retaliating against Sorey.”

We told you he was delusional.

Duke Sorey is also a pathological liar, as evidenced by his claim that the Mayor and Commissioners wanted to fire the incompetent, corrupt ex-City “Attorney” Hans Ottinot for “investigating DeFillipo for alleged wrongdoing.”

Except he got it backwards.

The truth is that then-Commission candidates Fortuna Smukler, Phyllis Smith, and Jay Chernoff all campaigned on cleaning up the City government by getting rid of Duke and Hans.  On November 8, 2022, all three won their respective seats and their first order of business was to take out the trash.

The now-ex Criminal Commissioner Paule Villard gloriously lost, and her former co-conspirators on the dais, Michael Joseph, McKenzie Fleurimond, and Daniela Jean, were furious.  So furious, in fact, that they conspired with Hans Ottinot to “investigate” the Mayor and hold the City hostage for five months by refusing to attend meetings.  Hans knew his days were numbered, and the longer he could prevent a Commission meeting from happening, the longer he could continue to receive his undeserved Sixty Thousand Dollars a month!

The three Criminal Commissioners were finally forced by Court Order to attend the March 21, 2023 Commission meeting.  Seeing the writing on the wall, Hans resigned days before in an attempt to save face.

Unfortunately for the #StripMallLawyer, he had already been publicly humiliated by the media when he literally ran from a reporter trying to ask him questions.

WATCH!

Duke Sorey’s Amended Complaint still includes the lie that he only received a “fraction of the Severance Benefits” that he thinks he’s entitled to.  He’s also claiming that the $51,859.44 check he did receive was “only a partial payment,” and that he only received it after his lawyers forced the City to pay him.

The truth is that the City withheld his final check for unused annual and sick leave hours until an audit was conducted on the number of hours he was actually entitled to.

In Start popping! Duke sued North Miami Beach, and it promises to be a blockbuster!, we reported that he falsified his paychecks and didn’t deduct hours of leave time that he actually took.  We wrote:

Duke really amps up the drama — and the lies — in paragraph 56, when he claims he “had accumulated 389 hours of annual leave, 270 hours of sick leave, 16 hours of floater benefits, and 8 hours of birthday leave, in addition to the Severance Pay and other Severance Benefits to which Sorey is legally and contractually entitled.”

This is one of the biggest whoppers Duke ever told!

We reviewed each and every single one of Duke’s paychecks and carefully examined the number of hours (earned and used) of annual and sick leave, as well as his floater and birthday leave hours.  We even prepared a handy dandy spreadsheet so we could view it at a glance.

According to his final paycheck for the week ending March 22, 2023, he left his employment with 365.480 hours of annual leave (not 389 as he stated in his lawsuit), 270.667 hours of sick leave, 15.000 hours of floater, and 8.000 hours of birthday leave, for a total of 659.47 hours.

Had those accumulated hours been correct, at his hourly rate of $118.846, he would have been entitled to a final compensation check of $78,375.37.

However, we also prepared a handy dandy spreadsheet of Duke’s absences from work based on emails and memos he disseminated, and we discovered 168 hours of used annual and sick leave time, worth $19,966.13, that were not listed on any of his paychecks!

Deducting these stolen unreported hours from the actual hours listed on his final paycheck would leave Duke a total of 491.47 unused hours, and a check in the amount of $58,411.21.

However, we’ve listed only the absences that we have been able to document.  There were many more days that Duke took off without deducting hours from his accrued leave and sick time, as evidenced in part by former Chief Finance Officer Marcia Fennell’s statement documented in Mr. Pizzi’s Investigative report [more on that in a moment], i.e.:

Marcia Fennell also advised Arthur Sorey that department heads and their staff were “stealing city time” by taking time off and not submitting leave slips. For example, Sorey’s Executive Assistant, Ashley Francois, went on vacation and never submitted any leave slip.

Arthur Sorey took a lot of time off and never submitted leave slips. He told Marcia Fennell not to track his time. Even when he was clearly not in the office, he never submitted a slip.

This was not Duke’s first rodeo “stealing city time.”

We have heard from multiple sources in North Miami that he rarely submitted leave slips even when he didn’t show up to work.  He merely continued his usual and customary thievery when he went to North Miami Beach.  Duke actually believes he’s entitled to your money!

When Duke was fired at the March 21, 2023 meeting, the City Commission voted to “hold off payment of accrued leave (vacation and sick) time until a reconciliation is done,” according to the Minutes of that meeting.

Paragraph 53 of Duke’s lawsuit states that he received a “Partial Payment” $51,849.44, so apparently that reconciliation was done and the auditor discovered an additional 55.20 stolen unreported hours that even we didn’t have a record of!

Duke’s final compensation check was for 436.27 unused hours, and not the 659.47 hours he claimed he was owed.

And that’s just one of the many, many, many reasons Duke Sorey was fired for cause.

In his Amended Complaint, Duke also brought up an Investigative Report prepared by Michael A. Pizzi, Esq., regarding “Former Administrative Expenditure of Taxpayer Funds.”

Paragraph 68 states, “The Pizzi Report purports to investigate Sorey, at the behest of the City Commission, and concludes (incorrectly) that there was “massive misspending of taxpayer funds and improper use of taxpayer funded government resources for personal and political benefit under the prior administration” when Sorey was the City Manager.”

Unfortunately for Duke, he’s lying through his teeth.

And we have ALL the receipts!

In fact, the only thing “wrong” with the Pizzi Investigative Report was that the P Card database the City provided to Mr. Pizzi was deliberately incomplete!

As we reported, “Michael Pizzi’s Investigative Report only scratched the surface because the database of P Card expenditures he was provided by the City was incomplete — it contained only approximately 37% of the actual purchases made on the 114 credit cards issued between April 2, 2020 and April 3, 2023.”

We also gave a brief summary of our extensive research and analysis of the P Card usage when Duke was running the show.

When we added up the number of purchases made by Duke Sorey we discovered that the City’s database listed only 73 transactions.  However, the spreadsheets we had in our possession — provided by Duke himself in a Memo to the Commission on March 13, 2023, reflected that he used his P Card a total of 218 times!

The next thing we did was compare several other employees’ transactions listed in the City’s database to the spreadsheets from the Memo, and we found even more discrepancies, as follows:

• Athalie Edwards: Castillo database – 83 purchases; Sorey spreadsheet – 119 purchases
• Francisco Medranda: Castillo database – 119 purchases; Sorey spreadsheet – 160 purchases
• Kemarr Brown: Castillo database – 17 purchases; Sorey spreadsheet – 33 purchases
• Gedel Merzius: Castillo database – 45 purchases; Sorey spreadsheet – 65 purchases
• Willis Howard: Castillo database – 91 purchases; Sorey spreadsheet – 109 purchases
• Paule Villard: Castillo database – 29 purchases; Sorey spreadsheet – 97 purchases
• Michael Joseph: Castillo database – 73 purchases; Sorey spreadsheet – 108 purchases
• McKenzie Fleurimond: Castillo database – 111 purchases; Sorey spreadsheet – 171 purchases
• Daniela Jean: Castillo database – 68 purchases; Sorey spreadsheet – 124 purchases
• Fortuna Smukler: Castillo database – 36 purchases; Sorey spreadsheet – 55 purchases
• Anthony DeFillipo: Castillo database – 16 purchases; Sorey spreadsheet – 37 purchases

The above sampling alone reflects that only 37% of the actual number of P Card purchases were provided to Mr. Pizzi!

Even with only a fraction of fraudulent P Card transactions listed in the Pizzi Investigative Report, the results still show the massive amount of corruption that permeated through North Miami Beach City government for the two very long years that Arthur “Duke” Sorey was at the helm.

By far, the most absurd claims that Duke is now alleging in his frivolous Amended Complaint are even more hilarious!

Stay tuned for Part 2, and we’ll tell you all the side-splitting details.

Stephanie