Big Shifts in North Miami Beach

As the Nov. 3 municipal election bears down on North Miami Beach, the cheese is being moved.

Just after 3 a.m. Friday, Sept. 25, the city commission ended a nine-hour marathon meeting by voting 4-3 on first reading to open the way for Dezer Development’s $1.5 billion Intracoastal Mall project on 29 acres just north of the Oleta River State Park, at the entrance to the gated Eastern Shores neighborhood. If developed as proposed it will take a decade to complete and result in a planned 2,000 residences, four 40-story towers on the north side of 163rd St., a 250-room hotel, 375,000 square feet of retail and 200,000 square feet of office – with a canal dredged through the center.

Second reading is 6 p.m. Oct. 20.

The vast development is far from the only thing facing North Miami Beach, but it sets a tone for the new decade in making the Dezers and their proxies undisputed kingmakers for this and future elections.

The city faces other challenges: returning its recently privatized water utility, the county’s second largest, to public administration, with risks of unintended consequences; reviewing its garbage pickup contract with Waste Management; and tending to the complex needs of 13 self-contained neighborhoods, from Highland Village to Skylake to Uleta to Washington Park. Public safety is a big issue for nearly all candidates.

Of the four voting for the Dezer project, three are incumbents defending their seats: Group One Mayor Anthony F. DeFillipo, challenged by entrepreneur Bruce Kusens of Eastern Shores; Group Five Commissioner McKenzie Fleurimond, facing water plant quality control technician Liliya Spektor; and Group Seven Commissioner and attorney Michael Joseph, opposed by Antonio Ortega, a water utility employee. First-term Group Three Commissioner Paule Villard, who voted for the project, is not up for election this year.

The three who voted no, all residents east of Biscayne Boulevard, are not running: Group Three Commissioner Phyllis Smith is term-limited out this year and six hopefuls are vying for her spot; term-limited Group Six Commissioner and Vice Mayor Barbara Kramer; and Group Four Commissioner Fortuna Smukler, up for reelection in 2022.

The Dezers have big guns and big money: the Holland & Knight law firm, architect Bernard Zyscovich and Dezer lead lobbyist Ron Book, who is also lobbyist for the City of North Miami Beach. Israeli-born Michael Dezer and his son Gil Dezer, developer of the 60-story Porsche Design Tower, have built six Trump-branded towers in Sunny Isles Beach, where the Trump name still carries cachet with many Russians, Israelis and South Americans, who are also starting to buy homes in Eastern Shores.

The developers offer assurances of 4,100 permanent jobs and prosperity in this economically and ethnically diverse community of at least 46,000 people, a COVID-driven 13.4% unemployment rate, a median household income of $40,316 and mile-long lines at food distributions.

The development would expand the city’s tax base and thereby strengthen its power to provide services for underserved areas, but traffic congestion is a big worry.

“This development will benefit the whole city, and I intend to be mayor of all the city,” said DeFillipo, a commercial real estate broker. “North Miami Beach used to be a destination city. Why not again?”

Said challenger Kusens: “The developers signed on for multiple entrances five years ago and delivered an incredibly dangerous plan. I’m for the development as long as they abide with their commitments, which they absolutely haven’t.”

Kramer says the council was too quick to yield to Dezer, saying the current traffic plan does not sufficiently relieve congestion on 163rd St.

“They really wanted my vote,” she said. “The process was manipulative. There wasn’t enough discussion about the best way to serve the neighborhood, particularly the traffic, and Eastern Shores will suffer as a result.”

Water is another big issue. The city plant serves 170,000 customers across multiple cities and unincorporated areas, from Sunny Isles Beach through Aventura to Miami Gardens. On Aug. 4 the council killed its $190 million deal with Jacobs Engineering Group just three years into its 10-year contract, and now must hire and train more than 100 employees in six months, placing pressure on an already stretched management.

The city owes its healthy general fund reserves of $38 million largely to post-2015 development; the tax rate for 2020-21 is 6.2 mils, down from 6.3 this year. Many departments, such as the police, run smoothly and get exemplary ratings.

Yet the city’s recurrent council feuds, corruption and ethics issues are at best worthy of notice and at worst, criminal. Miami New Times ranked North Miami Beach as Miami-Dade’s second most corrupt city, behind Opa-locka and ahead of North Miami. Former Mayor Myron Rosner was arrested in 2017 for securities fraud charges. Former Mayor George Vallejo, an architect of the city’s recent development, resigned in 2018 and took a plea deal after admitting he used campaign funds for personal reasons and disclosed that his wife worked for the Dezers.

Early voting begins Oct. 19 and runs through Nov. 1, with the runoff Nov. 17.

Group One: Mayor As of Sept. 11, DeFillipo had amassed a campaign war chest of more than $75,000, much of it from developers and vendors. Kusens, who has little interest in actually becoming mayor, is using the candidacy as a forum to ensure honesty, fairness and abiding by ordinances.

Group Three The top two of six candidates will face a likely runoff. Four ran in 2018: Dianne Weiss Raulson, founder of Miami-Dade County Days, a member of the North Miami Beach Public Utilities Commission and a trustee of the Police and Fire Retirement Board; Ketley Joachim, retired Wells Fargo financial advisor, Uleta resident and member of the code enforcement board; Margie Love, a longtime teacher and supporter of education and sensible law enforcement who does not take outside contributions; and Henry Dube, a real estate agent and mortgage loan originator. Newcomers include Ruth Abeckjerr, an Eastern Shores resident in alliance with Kusens; and Daniela Jean, a risk management coordinator with the City of North Miami.

Group Five In two years, Fleurimond, a two-year commissioner, has built a reputation as thoughtful and diligent, and describes himself as “measured.” He often votes with Joseph. Spektor jumped in after the Jacobs cancellation to lend her expertise to help with an orderly transition back to public water plant management.

Group Seven Joseph, elected in 2018, has financial support from unions, fellow attorneys and professionals, and construction-related firms. He’s raised $60,735.50 as of Aug. 28. His sharp elbows have rankled some fellow council members, particularly DeFillipo and Stephanie Kienzle’s votersopinion.com blog. Ortega is running with DeFillipo’s enthusiastic blessing and has raised $27,946.

Neighborhood or Zoom candidate forums were not yet scheduled as of this writing.