NMB Ended 2022 With a Bang

North Miami Beach’s first meeting of the new commission dissolved into chaos Dec. 20 when one commissioner left ill, another walked out and a third didn’t show up, depriving the commission of a quorum of five and all but guaranteeing strife in the months ahead.

Four of the seven commissioners asked for city attorney Hans Ottinot’s resignation, with city manager Arthur H. Sorey III rumored to be next, but calls for Ottinot’s exit came up during the mayor’s comments more than two hours into the meeting instead of in an agenda item.

Commissioner McKenzie Fleurimond walked out of the meeting twice, finally destroying the quorum and forcing an extensive agenda to be pushed to later meetings. He departed the first time after requesting a legal opinion in response to an outside query regarding a suspicion that Mayor Anthony DeFillipo had recently relocated to Davie.

DeFillipo, a real estate agent, later described the home as an investment property. The mayor recently moved to the eastern shores neighborhood of North Miami Beach and had disclosed that move to the city clerk and to Jose Arrojo, executive director of the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust.

Fleurimond later made a surprise return to vote on a consent agenda, but that appearance also did not last. After a brief recess, during which Commissioner Daniela Jean left sick, Fleurimond staged a final walkout with a speech after four councilmembers said it was time for Ottinot to resign. Commissioner Michael Joseph was absent. Ottinot, having read the tea leaves after the November election, accepted a position as city attorney in Tamarac effective Dec. 15. The four calling for an end to his contract via resignation were incumbents DeFillipo and Fortuna Smukler, and newly returned Commissioners Jay Chernoff and Phyllis Smith.

With Fleurimond’s departure from the dais, three quasi-judicial items went unaddressed, and lawyers, developers and representatives unheard. As the meeting ended, residents talked loudly among themselves about organizing a recall to force Fleurimond to resign or be ousted. A recall vote would require certified signatures of at least 10% of the city’s 23,271 voters and a costly special election.

In other news, Miami-Dade County has notified the city that its Community Redevelopment Agency will undergo an audit of the last four years. The CRA is scheduled to sunset in 2028, and commissioners feared such an audit could imperil the CRA’s existence and likely thwart any plan to extend its mandate until 2044. Since 2005, CRAs in Florida have been designed as partnerships between cities and counties to dedicate additional tax revenue toward economic development in chronically underserved neighborhoods.

Separately, four of the city’s seven commissioners are determined to conduct a comprehensive forensic audit of the city’s overall operations, particularly over the last two years.