North Miami Beach Mayor Anthony DeFillipo is now at risk of having to vacate office after the city attorney ruled that the mayor no longer lives in the city.
A 42-page memorandum to city attorney Hans Ottinot outlined the details of the investigation. According to the city charter, the mayor must live in the city and must immediately vacate his seat if it is ever found that he does not.
Earlier this month, an investigation by CBS4 found that the mayor had used an old address to vote three times in 2022, despite having sold that North Miami Beach property in December 2021.
One can only vote where they reside, the fact of which poses a potential criminal offense by the mayor. However, lawyer David Weinstein told CBS4 that the matter only raises an issue if DeFillipo acted with intent to vote unlawfully.
The news station also found that DeFillipo updated the address under his voter registration to a new North Miami Beach location in the Eastern Shores neighborhood last month, one that falls within a different precinct.
That Eastern Shores location is, according to DeFillipo, his new home. He publicly disclosed the matter at a Dec. 20 meeting, just days after a complaint was filed with the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust over the matter on Dec. 17.
The property in question, however, is a one-bedroom, 830-square-foot condo, seemingly unfit for a married man with a family of four.
The Biscayne Times reached out to the ethics commission, which said it is unable to confirm nor deny whether there is an ongoing investigation.
According to Florida statute 112.324, which the Miami-Dade ethics commission follows, “if, upon completion of the preliminary investigation, the commission finds no probable cause… the commission shall dismiss the complaint or referral with the issuance of a public report to the complainant and the alleged violator.”
“Once a hearing to address the complaint is held and probable cause is determined then the matter becomes public,” said Leonardo Mendoza, a public information officer for the commission.
In any case, growing suspicions have led other entities to spark their own investigations. CBS4 explored photos on realtor.com of a home in Davie formerly owned and sold by DeFillipo in June 2022. The images showed “closets full of clothes, what appeared to be his wedding photo, and what seemed to be him without a shirt in a reflection of a picture in front of a microwave,” wrote the station.
Online property records additionally show that the family purchased a 1.2 million-dollar home also in Davie, the callbox of which CBS4 found was linked to DeFillipo’s name.
Additionally, non-profit organization North Dade Neighbors Alliance hired Countywide Investigations to conduct its own weeks-long investigation in December.
The lead investigator, Kennedy Rosario, told CBS4 that a stationary video camera outside the gated community in Davie from Dec. 6-22 tracked what they believed was the mayor’s vehicle entering the neighborhood and staying the night numerous times.
After similar surveillance efforts at Eastern Shores, however, the same vehicle has not been spotted.
The mayor's lawyer, Michael Pizzo, has maintained that DeFillipo does indeed live in the city and will not be vacating his seat.
The Biscayne Times plans to expand coverage on this story in its February issue.