Fate awaits North Miami Beach commissioners

As the dust settles on North Miami Beach, two of its Black commissioners are still not in the clear after being repeatedly absent from city meetings over the past several months.

The city commission voted last week to allow Commissioner Michael Joseph to testify regarding his absences during a hearing at the May meeting. Joseph has been in the middle of a legal battle against Vice Mayor Jay Chernoff, who sought a court’s injunction to remove Joseph for being absent too many times.

Joseph, along with Commissioners McKenzie Fleurimond and Daniela Jean, had absented themselves from past meetings in protest against Mayor Anthony DeFillipo’s questionable residency status. The boycott ended when Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Valerie Manno Schurr ordered all commissioners to begin attending meetings again in March.

According to the city charter, a commissioner’s seat becomes automatically vacant if they fail to attend meetings for a period of 120 days. Joseph’s first absence was Dec. 20, 2022.

Fleurimond, who was later added as a defendant to Chernoff’s lawsuit, has until April 27 to respond to the complaint seeking his removal.

In the meantime, former City Manager Arthur “Duke” Sorey III is losing his 20 weeks’ severance pay after the commission voted 4-2 to rescind its prior vote to fire Sorey without cause and instead fire him with cause. Chernoff cited “massive misspending” for the decision, which later led the commission to hire DeFillipo’s and Chernoff’s attorney, Michael Pizzi, to further investigate the matter.

The commission also voted to hire Mario Diaz, Biscayne Park village manager, as its new city manager, replacing Interim City Manager Mark Antonio. Diaz also is the former chief of staff for North Bay Village.

Unsurprisingly, off the hook is DeFillipo, who had been the target of a lawsuit accusing him of living outside the city. The commission also voted last week to drop that lawsuit.

The outcome was all but expected after Schurr’s order restored the quorum needed to conduct business after months of inaction. DeFillipo and the commissioners who have stuck by his side – which include Chernoff, Phyllis Smith and Fortuna Smukler – comprise the commission’s majority and hold all the power.

  (City of North Miami Beach)▲

North Miami Beach’s former city attorney, Hans Ottinot, had initially brought forth the city’s lawsuit against the mayor, but he resigned before the March meeting in anticipation of his public firing, which was long sought by DeFillipo. The commission in turn voted to enlist John Herin Jr. as interim city attorney, setting the stage for the lawsuit’s dismissal.

A pending four-hour evidentiary hearing was scheduled when the lawsuit was dropped.

Now that the case is off the books, there’s no telling whether DeFillipo is in the clear of violating residency requirements outlined in the city charter. The Miami-Dade County Commission on Ethics and Public Trust told The Miami Times as of last Thursday that it cannot confirm nor deny whether it is conducting an investigation into his living situation.

The State Attorney’s Office, however, did launch a review of DeFillipo’s voting record in February after it was revealed that the mayor had used an old address to vote in three.