North Miami Beach Commissioner Michael Joseph has been reinstated into office after a judge on Tuesday afternoon reversed his removal by fellow commissioners last month.
Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Peter Lopez issued a written order that finds the commission failed to have the necessary five-member quorum when it voted 3-1 to remove Joseph, as Commissioner McKenzie Fleurimond and Vice Mayor Jay Chernoff recused themselves due to their involvement in the lawsuit.
Lopez also found that the commission does not have the authority to remove a commissioner from office and that Joseph had in any case not violated the 120-day rule for absentees in the city charter.
The move comes on the heels of former Mayor Anthony DeFillipo’s arrest and subsequent suspension from office June 5. He was charged with voter fraud after an investigation determined he was living in Broward County in Davie, despite listing a home in North Miami Beach on his voter registration as his residence.
Since DeFillipo’s removal, Joseph’s attorneys had been trying to expedite Lopez’s ruling, asserting that the former mayor’s residency issues justified Joseph’s reinstatement. Joseph was the first, followed by Fleurimond, to boycott meetings amid legal concerns over DeFillipo’s legitimacy as mayor.
For that reason, Lopez’s final justification regarding the charter’s 120-day rule was perhaps the most anticipated, as attorneys have long argued when to start counting Joseph’s absences as a “failure to attend meetings.” Chernoff’s attorney, Michael Pizzi, insisted that the clock began at the time of Joseph’s last attended meeting in October, despite his first absence occurring in December due to there being no meeting held in November.
Lopez’s order instead set the countdown as beginning in December, as “one cannot fail to attend a meeting that does not exist.” His decision also mirrored the method used in a 2018 precedent in which former Commissioner Frantz Pierre vacated his seat for violating the rule allowing only 120 days of absences.
The city is now enjoined from holding a special election to replace Joseph pending the disposition of the case, originally filed by Chernoff in February. Lopez’s order nevertheless claims that Joseph is likely to prevail once the time comes for the suit to finally be put to rest.
The next commission meeting is scheduled for June 20, which Chernoff is expected to chair as the city scrambles to hold an election to fill DeFillipo’s seat.