Sexual Remark Costs NoMi Personnel Board Chair His Post

B. Douglas Hindmarsh was removed last month as North Miami personnel board chair for an inappropriate, sexual remark in reference to a senior city attorney.

His expulsion after 20 years of service was swift, unanimous and complete. The city council voted to bar Hindmarsh from the personnel board and from service on any city board or committee.

Hindmarsh’s most ear-pricking offense was an aside at a Jan. 24, 2022, personnel board hearing. He had just had a sharp series of exchanges over communications with city personnel staff and Jennifer Warren, North Miami’s deputy city attorney who has served the city for 24 years and represents the personnel board, board of adjustment and the city’s planning and zoning commission.

“Now, I trust Jennifer,” said Hindmarsh. “I like her. If she weren’t married 50 years ago, I would have taken her out. The upshot is, she was married.”

Not even Hindmarsh, who admits to a rambling and often salty way of speaking, is defending those words, which can be found on page 29 of the meeting’s 228-page transcript supplement, and 40 minutes into its recording, but he did call them a curious way of affirming trust, as if to say he would trust her with the keys to his house or car.

Hindmarsh apologized to the council and the city and called it “supremely unwise” and “inappropriate at best.” He said he intended to reaffirm Warren’s integrity after a series of sharp email and verbal exchanges in which he accused her and the city boards of not responding to his emails, and of instituting rules that work against the employees Hindmarsh was elected to represent, as reported in the February edition of the Biscayne Times.

“As professionals and people of different generations and circumstance, Ms. Warren and I are responsible adults who would, I am sure, consider any sexual imputation laughable … I won’t kid you. This experience has been professionally and personally searing,” said Hindmarsh, 71.

Jeff Cazeau, North Miami’s city attorney, stayed firm, saying that such a remark put the city in a position of liability, telling the council it was “ironic” that Warren reviewed cases of sexual harassment and discrimination as part of her job. Cazeau told the Biscayne Times on Jan. 28: “I’ve seen people fired for less.”

This is not the first time accusations such as these or far worse have surfaced in North Miami. Chairing the February meeting where Hindmarsh received his punishment was Mayor Philippe Bien-Aime, who is also running for County Commission District 2. Bien-Aime and the city were the targets of two lawsuits by former city employee Janice Antoine for sexual assault, battery, false imprisonment, emotional distress and a recurring pattern of sexual harassment from 2016-2018.

North Miami settled both cases out of court. Antoine remained with the city for a time but has since left. Bien-Aime maintained his innocence of all accusations throughout and was comfortably elected mayor in 2019 and reelected in 2021.

From the dais, Bien-Aime restricted Hindmarsh to the two-minute public comment limits and left it to Cazeau to give Hindmarsh the 10 minutes he requested to make his case. Bien-Aime refused to accept Hindmarsh’s statement to the council. Aside from the apology, Hindmarsh asked the city to explore an independent attorney for the personnel board or additional review to better ensure the board’s integrity.

Councilmember Kassandra Timothe led the charge against Hindmarsh, saying to Cazeau: “I read it. I read your report, and I was disgusted. I was appalled. The same way we are held to a higher regard is the same way anyone on a board should be held to the same regard … Jennifer Warren, I apologize that you had to endure such appalling comments and if we allow this disrespect today, we send a message that harassment is OK, and it is not OK.”

Councilmember Alix Desulme concurred, also calling Hindmarsh’s comment “disgusting” while at the same time calling him “a brilliant, brilliant person … who has made a lot of sacrifices for our city for many, many years.”

No other councilmembers spoke, but all strongly voted “aye.”

Three prominent Hindmarsh neighbors spoke in his favor, including former Mayor Frank Wolland. Gail Corenblum, who worked alongside Hindmarsh in the community, praised him as “meticulous, brilliant and most certainly, honorable,” and said “banning him from any future committees or boards is unnecessary and demeaning, and perhaps even illegal.”

Hindmarsh, a Keystone resident, has been a member in good standing of the Florida Bar since 1975 and is a six-year Marine Corps combat veteran with service-related disabilities and history of community activism for nearly a generation.

Cazeau told the Biscayne Times that he recommends staying all personnel board proceedings until after Hindmarsh’s replacement is selected. That means the March 28 personnel board hearing where former Assistant Police Chief Neal Cuevas, 68, was scheduled to make his case against North Miami PD will probably be rescheduled. He has a pending federal whistleblowing suit and a state age discrimination suit against the city.