As we told you in Part 1, ex-North Miami Beach City Manager Arthur “Duke” Sorey has filed an Amended Complaint in his lawsuit against the City for “wrongful termination.”

What we haven’t told you yet is that Duke now envisions himself as a …

GET READY FOR IT …

A WHISTLEBLOWER!

No, seriously!

By far, the most hilarious addition to the original Complaint is his newfound claim that the City of North Miami Beach is in “violation of Florida’s Whistleblower Act, Fla. Stat. § 112.3187.”

We warned you that you’d hurt yourself laughing!

Count IV of his Amended Complaint is just a rehash of the previous four Counts, but now he’s claiming that “throughout his tenure as City Manager, [he] refused to engage in unauthorized and inappropriate conduct.”

We certainly hope you weren’t having your morning coffee when you just read this.

Once again, he’s lying.

And once again, we have the receipts.

So let’s talk about how Duke Sorey actually did engage in unauthorized and inappropriate conduct.

We’ll start with all the millions of your tax dollars he wasted buying up nonessential properties during his two-year tenure, all of which are still sitting vacant and unused.

Keep in mind, this is money that should have been used on necessary critical projects, such as repairing and upgrading the water department’s neglected and aging infrastructure.  Because Duke Sorey completely ignored the City’s real problems, residents keep having to constantly deal with bursting pipes that are even more costly to repair.

At the November 16, 2021 Commission meeting, Duke included in the Agenda two highly questionable real estate deals that he knew would be approved by his four-Criminal Commissioner votes.

The first was for a parcel located at 16501 NE 15 Avenue, known as the “Singer Building” and the other was for three empty lots in Washington Park, both of which we reported on in Duke Sorey’s shady Red Garden-style of “management,” Part 1.

Resolution 2021-118 authorized Duke to spend $2,250,000 to purchase the Singer Building “to construct a senior center,” which Paule Villard would basically call her own.  In fact, she even had Duke hire North Miami Friends & Family member Daniel Calixte, who also worked on Paule’s Campaign, as the Program Coordinator for the newly created Senior Services for a total salary and benefits package of $83,430.

Seems legit.

According to the Closing Statement, the City gave an initial deposit of $125,000.00, and paid $1,983,223.61 at closing, for a grand total of $2,108,223.61.

The October 14, 2022 “Groundbreaking” of the senior center was held just a few weeks before the November 9, 2022 election, and was basically Paule Villard’s campaign rally.

Duke even installed her campaign signs on top of the City’s garbage cans.

Which was ironically fitting.

For the campaign rally groundbreaking, Duke had the building and pavement pressure cleaned for $2,950.00 and painted in pretty colors, but nothing else was done to refurbish the building.

To this day, the building has not been used for anything in the two years since its purchase.

In fact, all the windows are still boarded up.

We’re also told there’s an asbestos problem that needs to be eliminated before it can even be occupied, the removal of which is an extremely costly endeavor.

Even though taxpayers threw $2.1 million toward her re-election campaign on what she hoped would be a monument to her “legacy,” Paule still lost her seat after one scandal-plagued term in office.

Remember, Paule had every intention of winning the November 2022 election and having the “senior center” named for her.  So in the end, North Miami Beach residents dodged not just a bullet, but an atom bomb.

On that same Agenda, Duke proposed the purchase of three lots located in Washington Park.   These parcels, owned by Avery’s Landing, Inc., had a combined market value of $297,516, as assessed by the Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser.

According to Duke Sorey’s Notice of Intent to Purchase Real Property, he put in an offer of $800,000, or 65% over its market value.  The property also had unpaid code violation liens to the City of North Miami Beach totaling $1,812,450, which were apparently waived according to the Closing Statement executed on March 24, 2022.

The City spent a total of $808,348.25, including closing costs, on this purchase.  Add that to the $1,812,450.00 in waived code violation liens, taxpayers shelled out $2,619,469.24 for these three lots, not including the cost of demolishing the then-existing building, or any other costs to maintain the lots.

Meanwhile, it’s been more than two years since the City purchased the lots and nothing has been done with them.  The three lots are still unfinished, and unsightly — just like Duke himself!

If that weren’t folly enough, on August 4, 2022 Duke secretly sent a Letter of Intent (LOI) to his old boss, former North Miami Councilwoman Carol Keys, to purchase her property located at 1911 NE 172 Street, for the “reduced” amount of $1,670,000.  According to Resolution No. R2022-123, which was presented to the Mayor and Commission at the August 16, 2022 meeting as a “Discussion Item” eleven days after he had already had the property appraised and made a formal offer to the seller, the original asking price was $1,800,000.

According to the Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser, however, the 2022 Market Value/Assessed Value was $425,834.

In his proposed Resolution, Duke Sorey insisted he needed this building because:

WHEREAS, the Covid-19 pandemic has forced a number of employers to search for additional office space to reposition employees’ workspace to reduce the risk of exposure to the coronavirus; and

WHEREAS, the Building Department, the Code Enforcement Department, Zoning and Planning Department, Public Works Department, and other departments are forced to work in a cramp office space due to the lack of office space for employees; and

WHEREAS, City of North Miami Beach has an opportunity to create suitable workspace for several departments by purchasing the property located at 1911 N.E. 172nd Avenue, North Miami Beach, Florida, which is located less than 100 feet from City Hall; and

WHEREAS, the Property is an ideal property for to relocate several departments to provide employees with more working space to minimize the risk of exposure to the coronavirus…

This was complete baloney, of course.

Since the hour was extremely late, the Mayor and Commission never heard this and five other Agenda items during the August 16, 2022 meeting, so they were carried over to the following Commission meeting scheduled for September 21, 2022.

This time, however, Duke sneakily buried the purchase of the Keys Building into the Consent Agenda so that no discussion or public comment would be allowed.  He already knew he had the votes of the four-Criminal Commissioner majority consisting of Michael Joseph, McKenzie Fleurimond, Paule Villard, and Daniela Jean — the same corrupt elected officials who hired him in the first place.

Mayor Tony DeFillipo and Commissioners Barbara Kramer and Fortuna Smukler rightfully protested that items of this magnitude do not belong on the Consent Agenda, to no avail.  As predicted, the corrupt then-City “Attorney,” Hans Ottinot, ignorantly deemed that the Mayor and Commission need to vote on whether or not to pull the item and move it to Legislation.

Except the incompetent #StripMallLawyer was wrong.

As usual.

As we’ve explained numerous times, Chapter II, Article 1, Section 2-1.5 of the City’s Code of Ordinances expressly states:

2-1.5   Parliamentary Rules Established for Meetings of Committee-of-the-Whole.

Whenever the City Commission sits as a committee-of-the-whole or sits in conference, the Mayor of the City Commission shall automatically be deemed to be the presiding officer over the committee-of-the-whole or conference; and that in his/her absence those members present shall elect from among themselves a member to so preside; and, further, that in all such instances Robert’s Rules of Order shall prevail in like manner as if Commission were in session; or unless waived by a two-thirds (⅔) vote of members then present.

And according to Robert’s Rules, “If any member requests that an item be removed from the consent agenda, it must be removed.  Members may request that an item be removed for any reason.  They may wish, for example, to discuss the item, to query the item, or to register a vote against the item.”

A source told us that when Duke was asked why he included the purchase of the Keys Building in the Consent Agenda instead of Legislation, he admitted he was up against the clock, and that if the purchase wasn’t approved at the September 21, 2022 Commission meeting, the deal would be off.

According to the August 4, 2022 Letter of Intent that Duke signed without the Commission’s approval, he had seven (7) days, or until August 11, 2022, to deliver a Purchase Agreement to the Seller for her review, and then another forty (45) days, or September 25, 2022, to close.

Keep in mind that Duke had already signed and delivered the Purchase Agreement to the Seller five days before the August 16, 2022 Commission meeting — without prior knowledge, consent, or approval of the Mayor and Commission as a whole.  (We have no doubt that his four Criminal Commissioner bosses were in on it from the beginning.)

Duke was sweating it because if his Resolution didn’t pass at the September 21, 2022 Commission meeting, and the City failed to close, he would be responsible for forfeiting the the $50,000 earnest money deposit he gave to Carol Keys along with the Letter of Intent.

Our source also told us that if the item remained near the bottom of the Agenda under Legislation, he was terrified that Tony, Barbara, and Fortuna would walk out of the meeting before it came up for a vote.

Instead, he conspired with the four Criminal Commissioners and the corrupt City “Attorney” to make sure it would be moved to the Consent Agenda and pass without a hitch.

But even that’s not the worst of it.

Resolution No. R-2022-123, which wasn’t passed until September 21, 2022, states, “WHEREAS, the Mayor and City Commission believe it is in the best interest of the City to purchase the Property and wish to provide the City Manager with the authority to execute a Purchase Agreement to purchase the Property provided such agreement is reviewed by the City Attorney for form and legal sufficiency.”

Because Duke had already delivered a Purchase Agreement to the Seller on August 11, 2022, or forty one (41) days before he even had the authority to do so, he should have been fired on the spot.

For cause.

Furthermore, Duke Sorey should never have involved himself in negotiating this real estate transaction in the first place.  He has a long history with Carol Keys, who was not only his boss in North Miami but also a good friend.  In order to avoid even the mere appearance of impropriety, he should have “recused” himself and let another City official oversee this matter.

Then again, there were no honest or ethical City officials in Duke’s administration, so there’s that.

Of course, Duke Sorey was protected by the four Criminal Commissioners who hired him and were perfectly fine with having the most corrupt City Manager in the entire State of Florida, possibly the entire country.

Meanwhile, the City took title via Warranty Deed on November 3, 2022, and by the time Duke was terminated a year and a half later, not a single employee in the City had been relocated to the building.

In fact, absolutely no work has been done to the property since the day it was purchased.

Not even a paint job.

The previous owner’s sign is even still on the building.

As we have proven over and over, and over again, Duke Sorey’s corruption was legendary!

For the record, in Part 3 we’ll review the long list of Duke’s acts of malfeasance, misfeasance, corruption, and criminality, all of which unequivocally prove his termination for cause was absolutely justified!

Stay tuned.

Stephanie