In Part 2 of this series, we told you about three separate political committees that, for various self-serving reasons, are involved in taking over the geopolitical landscape of North Miami Beach.
To no one’s surprise, the ultimate goal of the donors to these committees is to get really, really rich, while the luckless residents of the city lose control of their own government.
We closed our last blog with a brief mention of the $85,992 contract “to provide lobbying services for Annexation Applications in Miami-Dade County,” which the City of North Miami Beach entered into with the law firm of Becker & Poliakoff, which was negotiated by its lobbyist José Keichi Fuentes. This contract was approved when the Mayor and Commission passed a Resolution at the June 16, 2026 Commission Meeting.
In case you were unaware, the annexation issue is not a novel or original idea.
For over a decade, North Miami Beach City officials have been attempting to annex the large, white, irregular cutout parcel of land located on the northwest quadrant of the City of North Miami Beach, which you can clearly see on its Official Zoning Map, is what is referred to as the “donut-hole.”
In There is No Public Trust, we reported:
“Most of the residents living in this “donut-hole” are members of the Orthodox Jewish community.
In Fiscal Year 2015-16, the City of North Miami Beach had begun “working on annexation of the unincorporated “hole-in-the-donut” Winward enclave. Annexation of the subject area will have positive economic and fiscal benefit, by rationalizing city boundaries and increasing the City’s population and tax base.”
For Fiscal Year 2018-19, one of the Manager’s Key Initiatives was the “top priority of annexation of major holes, residential areas and/or square boundaries to create a more connected community and eliminate fragmented areas of unincorporated Miami-Dade County and/or other municipalities from the City’s zoning vicinities.”
In Fiscal year 2019-20, the General Fund included “an increase of $295,364 because of increases to expenditures toward Census Initiatives; Annexation; Special Programs; and Security Services for City Hall.”
And most recently, in Fiscal Year 2020-21, one of the Manager’s Key Accomplishments cited, “We have re-launched our annexation effort; implemented a Census 2020 community awareness program designed to achieve maximum count of all residents.”
In other words, the proposed annexation, that has been in the works for over six years, is a TOP PRIORITY FOR THE BENEFIT OF ALL RESIDENTS OF THE CITY OF NORTH MIAMI BEACH.”
We were recently told that before the pandemic started in March of 2020, José Keichi Fuentes had been originally hired by the City to help with this annexation. But, as we all know, everything shut down for months, possibly even a year or more, and there was no activity on the annexation effort until very recently.
In a separate but related incident, we also wrote about that time then-commissioner Michael Joseph got a free pass from the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics & Public Trust for his attempt to extort two lawyers from the firm of Weiss Serota Helfman Cole & Bierman PL. The short version of a very long story, is that Michael offered to vote to hire the firm as the City Attorney on the condition that they would reverse a legal opinion issued by the then-current attorney. Needless to say, the attorneys were shocked at what appeared to be Michael’s attempt to strong arm them. This blogger filed a complaint with the Ethics Commission, which investigated the matter. Both attorneys, as well as several other witnesses including then-current City Manager Esmond Scott, were interviewed. Despite the overwhelming evidence, including documents, minutes, and videos of the Commission meetings, the Ethics Commission decided that there was “no probable cause.”
The reason we are bringing this up, however, is that in Esmond Scott’s testimony to the Ethics Commission on November 2, 2020, he specifically stated that Michael Joseph called him “personally and saying that he’s begging me not to proceed with annexation. And it was a point where it would dilute the Haitian vote.”
It was no secret whatsoever that Michael Joseph was vehemently opposed to annexing a predominately white, mostly Orthodox Jewish neighborhood, and allowing those residents to vote in municipal elections.
He realized at the time, and most likely he still does, that without the 20% vote of North Miami Beach Haitians to tilt the scales in his favor, he would never have gotten re-elected in 2024, much less as the mayor. The fact that the vast majority of North Miami Beach residents have finally realized just how corrupt he is means absolutely nothing to him because as long as he can keep his core voter base intact, he knows that they don’t give a crap that he’s a criminal.
Welcome to identity politics!
But, as usual, we digress.
In our previous installment, we touched on the paradox of lobbyists who are paid by a city to lobby on its behalf before the State Legislature, only to turn around and represent clients whose interests literally work against the taxpaying residents who are paying for that lobbyist’s contract.
Which brings us to none other than the untouchable Ronald L. Book, who has turned dirty lobbying into an art form.
For example, Ron Book currently represents the City of North Miami to the tune of $80,040 a year, according to his most recent Public Services Agreement dated February 3, 2026. This is a gig he’s had since 1990, “one of the longest-running municipal lobbying relationships in the state of Florida,” according to the Sun Sentinel.
In 2023, while he was also representing North Miami as its lobbyist per Resolution No. 2023-R-169, he was also registered to lobby the City Council on behalf of developer Delmas Homes LLC, a company that has been embroiled in a lawsuit for its role in the life-threatening flooding of homes in the neighborhood along NE 3rd Court.
As we already mentioned, Ron Book is also invested in the Stronger NMB petition on behalf of his client, Super Developer Dezer Intracoastal Mall, LLC, which he lobbied heavily for in 2020, while at the same time being paid big bucks by the City of North Miami Beach to lobby state legislators on its behalf, as evidenced by his name listed as the official lobbyist on a Local Funding Initiative Request for FY 2025-2026 presented to the Florida Senate.
Conflicts of interest be damned.
As for the petition drive to extend Michael Joseph’s term on the dais, a move that would directly benefit the Dezer project, Ron Book donated what he would consider pocket change in the amount of $5,000.00 to Communities First Project PC on April 9, 2026, which then issued a $5,000.00 check to Stronger NMB on the very same day.
Even more telling, however, is the fact that on March 9, 2026, one day before Stronger NMB was filed, Dezer Family Holdings, Inc. donated $10,000.00 to Communities First Project PC. The very next day on March 10, 2026, this PAC issued a $2,500.00 check to Reaganista, LLC as a “reimbursement for legal services payment,” a Limited Liability Company belonging to Christian R. Cámara, who is also the Registered Agent for both Communities First Project PC and Stronger NMB.
Interestingly, on March 19, 2026, Communities First Project PC received a $5,000.00 contribution from South Florida Vision, a Miami-Dade County political committee run by Becker & Poliakoff lobbyist José Keichi Fuentes.
After all these contributions were received by Communities First Project PC, on April 9, 2026 Stronger NMB reported a contribution from that PAC in the amount of $11,500.00.
Keep in mind, as we previously explained, Communities First Project PC has so far funneled a grand total of $44,810.00 to Stronger NMB.
As we mentioned in Part 2, Mr. Fuentes has been the registered lobbyist in North Miami Beach for ProTransporation, Inc., d/b/a ProKel Mobility, since July 3, 2023 for the purpose of lobbying NMB elected officials to continuously renew ProKel’s contract with the city.
And as we mentioned above, this lobbyist is also representing the City of North Miami Beach to allegedly “provide lobbying services for Annexation Applications in Miami-Dade County.”
On April 23, 2026, José Keichi Fuentes’ PAC, South Florida Vision, donated another $2,500.00 to Communities First Project PC on April 23, 2026, for a total of $7,500.00 alone since Stronger NMB was formed on March 10, 2026.
Now let’s take a closer look at the recent Campaign Reports filed by South Florida Vision.
On it’s 26Q1 Report for the period 1/1/26 through 3/31/26, South Florida Vision received a contribution of $5,000.00 from North Miami Beach vendor, ProTransportation, Inc., which also happens to be a client of José Keichi Fuentes. On that same filing, South Florida Vision reported an expenditure of $5,000.00 to Communities First Project PC.
On its 26Q2 Report for the period 4/1/26 through 5/31/26, South Florida Vision reported two contributions from ProTransportation’s d/b/a ProKel Mobile [sic], totaling $3,500.00. It also reported a distribution of $1,000.00 to Jay Chernoff Campaign (North Miami Beach Commissioner running for re-election), and another $2,500.00 to Communities First Project PC.
On this report, South Florida Vision also reported an expenditure of $1,500.00 to GEMRT CPA & Advisors, the accounting firm where one of the political committee’s treasurer, Carlos M. Trueba, is a named partner.
All of this moving of money back and forth between political committees, which is nearly impossible to trace unless you have all the time in the world (like yours truly), should be illegal. But since politicians in Tallahassee use PACs to get elected and re-elected, don’t expect any legislation to outlaw them coming down the pike any time in the near future.
But, we digress.
But the biggest scandal by far, and we hope you are sitting down, is how three partners from a Coral Gables company, Coral Rock Development, suddenly developed an interest in the City of North Miami Beach.
In Part 1 we told you that Coral Gables Developer Michael D. Wohl contributed $9,000.00 directly to Stronger NMB. We also told you that two of his partners, David R. Brown and Stephen Rosenthal donated $3,100.00 and $6,250.00, respectively, to Communities First Project, PC, for a grand total of $18,350.00.
What we found is nothing less than SHOCKING!
The principals of a now-defunct corporation by the name of BMS Management Company, Inc. were Victor Brown and David Brown, currently partners in Coral Rock Development, as well as Steven Brown. We presume all three are related. That company, formed in 1995, dissolved in 2007, but not before doing business in Miami-Dade County.
According to Miami-Dade County’s List of Lobbying Activity by Lobbyist, from 1999 through 2001, the lobbyist for BMS Management Company, Inc. was none other than …
NORTH MIAMI BEACH CITY ATTORNEY JOSEPH S. GELLER!
The sole Managing Member of Dulce Vida Holdings, LLC, a Florida Limited Liability Company, is Coral Rock Development.
According to the City of Miami’s Lobbyist List of Active Registrations, for the years 2021 and 2022, the registered lobbyist for Dulce Vida Holdings, LLC was none other than …
NORTH MIAMI BEACH CITY ATTORNEY JOSEPH S. GELLER!
On the one hand, Joe Geller is being overpaid big bucks to allegedly protect and defend the best interests of the City of North Miami Beach.
On the other hand, Joe Geller is working secretly behind the scenes with Michael Joseph & Co. to literally do his bidding.
Which totally explains all the dangerous “legal” advice he has dispensed since he darkened the doors of City Hall.
This betrayal of the public trust makes almost all others pale in comparison.
We will end this particular 3-part series with one final thought.
JOE GELLER MUST BE FIRED AND DISBARRED!
Just saying.
Stephanie
Joe Geller indeed has dirty hands. He bills the City of NMB almost $50k monthly for legal services. Included in his contract is that the City Attorney’s office in NMB City Hall will be staffed by an attorney a minimum of 4 days per week, That doesn’t happen. Joe pockets the money by not having an attorney there everyday and legislation is always delayed due to him not providing a timely legal review. We are getting ripped-off by him due to his outside NMB work for other cities and the school board. Time to go Joe.
SHAME ON OUR REPRESENTATIVES THAT GAVE HIM HIS JOB HERE. SHAME ON THEM FOR THE FACT THAT THEY DO NOTHING WHILE HE NEGLECTS HIS DUTIES IN NMB, DOESN’T ADHERE TO THE REQUIRED HOURS HE SHOULD BE WORKING, IS WORKING AGAINST OUR CITY’S BEST INTEREST, IS HIMSELF A POLITICIAN.
IT SHOULDN’T TAKE THIS EXPOSÉ TO OPEN THEIR EYES. BAY HARBOR FIRED HIM FOR THE SAME REASONS NMB ELECTED OFFICIALS NEED TO FIRE HIM. NOW THERE’S THIS TOO!
LIKE SOMEONE SAID, JOE’S GOT TO GO!
This is nuts!! Joe must go!
It appears that he deliberately suppressed a vote by the commission to approve the petition for submission to the Superintendent of Elections. He obviously is working against the city’s best interests by doing everything in his power to get this monstrosity of a petition on the ballot. He did the same thing with the recommendations of the Charter Review Committee by delaying the special meeting for the commission to review it, not providing the materials to the commission in time, then striking every recommendation that he knows Michael doesn’t want. WHOSE SIDE IS HE ON?
We have more dirt on Joe and we are putting it together for publication. He is corrupt and incompetent, and we’ve been exposing him for years!
We told you so!
Anyone familiar with the internal workings of North Miami Beach City Hall knows he’s rarely there. Commissioner Su raised this issue quite some time ago. Her colleagues either stayed silent or tried to explain away the evidence from his key card records, which showed very little use for entering the building. One defense was that he was simply entering with other people who swiped their cards.
Come on. City Hall isn’t a busy downtown office tower where people are constantly entering together, sharing elevators, and heading to the same offices. That explanation simply doesn’t hold up.
While city employees are expected to be at work for their required hours, City Attorney Joe Geller appears to operate with complete autonomy and little accountability.
The special meeting just last week revealed quite a bit. Ms. Kienzle, you are correct regarding the Charter Review Committee, or more accurately, the lack of respect for its work. If you listened to the discussions, Mr. Geller repeatedly advised the Mayor and Commission that many proposed charter changes weren’t necessary and that an ordinance would be sufficient.
But ordinances can be amended or repealed at virtually any meeting. A charter amendment is fundamentally different because it requires voter approval. Time and again, he opposed recommendations made by residents who were appointed by the very officials he advises.
To make matters worse, it appears the Charter Review Committee’s recommendations weren’t even presented to the Mayor and Commission until the day before the special meeting, giving them less than 24 hours to review them. Adding to the concern, the charter amendments must be submitted to the Miami-Dade County Supervisor of Elections this week in order to make the ballot. Given that deadline, the timing of all of this is especially troubling and raises legitimate questions about whether the Mayor and Commission were given a meaningful opportunity to review and deliberate on these important proposals.
How any of this is considered acceptable is beyond comprehension.
Thank you, Voters Opinion, for bringing these issues to the public’s attention. Whether the relationships between the petition initiative’s donors are significant or not, this reporting has prompted a broader discussion and brought other documented concerns into the light.
Even if Geller’s deliberate delay of the Commission’s review of the proposed Charter Amendments cause none of those proposals to be placed on the ballot in time for November, the Commission can always bring it back and demand a special election for a referendum. If it costs the City extra money for a special election, oh well! The residents can always file a lawsuit against Joe Geller to force him to pay for it.
I notice he had no problem trying to rush the dangerous petition to the SOE in an attempt to get it on the November ballot, while he deliberately slow walked the Charter Review Committee’s proposals.
A Bar complaint needs to be filed against him IMMEDIATELY. The Commission needs to fire him at the very next meeting!
I swear, the fact that these names keep coming up warrants a investigation and prison time for those involved. It’s insanity.
It’s hard to believe there have been no perp walks by now.