By now it’s clear that North Miami Beach City “Attorney” Joe Geller can’t do pretty much anything right.
In fact, the only thing he seems to excel at is hoodwinking the City Commission into believing that he knows what he’s doing.
Nothing could be further from the truth, as we’ve already proven.
Chapter II, Article VII, Sec. 2-44 of the City Charter established a Charter Review Committee which “shall be appointed no less than once every ten (10) years.” Each member of the seven members of the City Commission appoint an individual to the Committee, and the final appointments are then voted on by the Mayor and Commissioners.
The Charter Review Committee then makes recommendations for changes (Amendments) to the Charter and presents them to the City Commission, who then approves the final language to be voted on by the city’s citizens in a Referendum.
The last time the North Miami Beach Charter was amended was on November 8, 2016. The City Clerk’s website posted an informational page explaining in great detail all the proposed Amendments to be voted on in the Special Election. Voters were informed months in advance about this Referendum and all of its implications.
Then-City Attorney Jose Smith, Esq. and outside counsel Jean Olin, Esq. were thoroughly immersed in the entire process from day one, including the preparation of Resolution No. R-2015-51 (passed on July 21, 2015) creating a new Charter Review Committee, attending each and every Committee Meeting, ensuring that the Minutes of each meeting were accurate and posted on a timely basis, submitting to the Commission (then-Council) the City Attorney’s Proposed Ballot Measures, and finalizing the election results through and including the passage of Resolution No. 2016-96.
It’s also important to note that, due to the strategic planning by Jose Smith and his team, the process for the last Charter Amendment Referendum began more than a year before the November 8, 2016 Special Election.
It’s even more important to note that when it comes to all the municipal attorneys in the recent history of North Miami Beach, Joe Geller is not even in Jose Smith’s league.
In reviewing all of these documents from the 2016 Special Election, one cannot help but notice how well organized and professional the entire process was managed by Jose Smith.
In comparing the last Charter Review process to the current one, one cannot help but notice how disorganized and unprofessional this one was mismanaged by Joe Geller.
Since it has now been ten years since the last Charter review, at the February 17, 2026 Commission Meeting, due to Joe Geller’s haphazard and disorganized method of “lawyering,” a new board was formed only nine months in advance of this year’s November 3, 2026 election.
Although Joe tried to blame the City Commission for the delay at the July 21, 2026 Commission Meeting when he said at hour 3:25:17 of the meeting video, “you also could have appointed the Charter Review Committee a little sooner so it wouldn’t have been so last minute. That was not my office that made that choice.”
Au contrere!
When North Miami Beach had a real City Attorney, Jose Smith knew he needed at least a year or more to prepare for the 2016 Referendum, and he got the job done with no excuses.
Then Joe tried to blame the City Clerk for his own neglect by literally telling the world personal details about why she was unavailable for a few days, which did not need to be publicly said.
After throwing her under the bus, he tried to make up for it by announcing, “I want to acknowledge her because when she got back Monday having been gone, she and I worked on the phone trying to bring this to conclusion. She was on past 11 pm last night with me.”
We’d love to know if the City Clerk was paid extra for being on the phone with Joe “past 11 pm,” but since she’s not paid by the hour, we seriously doubt it.
Unlike Joe, who bills $275.00 an hour for lawyering “outside his scope of work.”
We know this because a few minutes earlier, Commissioner Phyllis Smith flat out asked Joe how much his firm was billing for his attendance at the Charter Review Committee meetings.
When he said, “Uh, we haven’t prepared a bill. It’s just however many hours the committee met at the … $275.oo an hour rate,” Phyllis told him that during two previous Charter Review Processes, the City Attorneys did not charge extra for attending those meetings.
At that point, Joe got defensive and replied, “I don’t think so, but we can look. But this was something I had arranged back with a prior Manager.”
When Phyllis asked which Manager, he replied, “Mr. Diaz.”
Oh, really?
Mario Diaz was the City Manager of North Miami Beach for two years from June of 2023 through June of 2025. If Joe had arranged with Mario Diaz to pay him extra to attend Charter Review Committee meetings, then he was well aware at least more than a year ago that a Committee needed to be appointed long before the February 17, 2026 Commission meeting!
Why didn’t City “Attorney” Joe Geller advise the Commission in late 2024 or early 2025 to plan for the appointment of a Charter Review Committee?
Is there anyone at City Hall that Joe Geller won’t try to blame for his own negligence?
Although the Committee held nine meetings from March 17, 2026 through May 20, 2026, the Commission didn’t vote on the Committee’s recommendations until a Special Meeting held on July 14, 2026.
Even worse, the only thing Joe attached to the Agenda for that meeting was a copy of a “Redline Charter,” with absolutely no explanation of the proposed recommendations whatsoever.
If it weren’t for David Templer, a Charter Review Committee member and attorney, standing at the podium during the entire meeting explaining everything, the Commission would never have made heads or tails of it.
This was literally the best Joe was capable of doing, even after allegedly attending all nine of those meetings.
We can only imagine how many he slept through.
What is absolutely appalling, however, is that there was ABSOLUTELY NO ATTACHMENT to the Agenda for the July 21, 2026 Commission Meeting for either the Mayor and Commission or the public to review in advance of the Commission vote!
According to Chapter II, Article I, Sec. 2-1.2(a) of the City Charter, “The business to be transacted coming before the City Commissioners shall be governed and regulated by an agenda prepared by the City Clerk and concluded five (5) business days preceding the City Commission meeting and posted and delivered by 5:00 p.m.”
Apparently, Joe never got the memo.
Believe it or not, it gets worse.
At 4:02 pm on July 21, 2026, two hours before the Commission meeting, Joe Geller sent an email to the City Clerk asking her to distribute to the City Commission a draft of “a proposed ballot question that complies with legal requirements.”
Get ready for the the most disgusting part of all.
After meeting for almost weekly for two months, and diligently reviewing the entire City Charter to recommend possible changes to the City Commission, and eventually settling on no less than eight (8) recommendations, this is the “ballot question” that Joe Geller came up with for the Commission to vote to approve:
“OFFICIAL BALLOT”
Revising North Miami Beach City Charter including changing election date, meeting protocols and Commission compensation.
Shall the City Charter be amended to change the City’s election date from November of even-numbered years to May of odd-numbered years, with conforming amendments; to require a second Commission meeting within 15 days when the entire agenda is not completed; to require six votes to raise commission compensation; to clarify attendance requirements, and the Manager’s duties, and Candidate qualifications; per conforming and clarifying amendments on file in the Clerk’s office.
Yes _________
No __________
That’s it.
Three items shoved into ONE BALLOT QUESTION!
And for this meager work product, Joe Geller will bill North Miami Beach taxpayers for time he allegedly spent in nine Charter Review Committee meetings, each lasting approximately three hours, for a total of 27 hours, at his hourly rate of $275.00, or an approximate grand total of $7,425.00!
We’ll let you recover from your shock and anger for a bit, but prepare yourselves.
In Part 2, we’ll tell you how Joe tried to fix the mess he created, and how it failed epically.
Stephanie
