November elections produced a volcanic eruption in North Miami Beach, where voters rejected the current commission by turning a 4-3 majority on its head amid criticism of corruption, waste and lack of transparency. The result makes a shift in governance and management all but inevitable.
Voters defeated incumbent commissioner Paule Villard and challengers Mark St. Vil and Hans Mardy in favor of returning veterans Jay Chernoff and Phyllis Smith, along with incumbent Fortuna Smukler.
(Mark Sell for Biscayne Times)
A rotating campaign truck sign for incumbent Paule Villard, who was defeated by Jay Chernoff in a runoff.
All three NMB victors ran with a platform promoting a transparent administration and less divisiveness on the commission. All three attacked runaway spending and self-promotional special events, opaque governance and cushy trips on the taxpayers’ dime.
Chernoff, who previously served from 1989-2007, sacked incumbent Villard 53% to 47% in the Nov. 22 runoff, with the support of Mayor Anthony DeFillipo, thereby placing commissioners Daniela Jean, McKenzie Fleurimond and Michael Joseph in the minority. In 2018, Villard beat Chernoff 63% to 37%.
By nearly any standards, the North Miami Beach election was among the ugliest in the city’s 96-year history, reflecting the bitterness on the commission dais. The stage was set Nov. 8, when 13-year former Commissioner Smith returned after a two-year absence and with a 51% majority, and incumbent Smukler beat challenger Mardy 53% to 47%.
Over the last two years, Villard advocated for seniors and made herself available to constituents but was criticized for booking Las Vegas hotels and extra nights in Denver with city money, holding photo-ops to distribute taxpayer-paid Publix gift cards to constituents and posting slow-motion videos of her getting driven by a police escort. She fumbled through an Oct. 13 candidates’ forum in Washington Park and was absent altogether from the Oct. 20 forum at North Miami City Hall, with a WPLG news crew hot on her tail over her use of those $225,000 in Publix gift cards to promote her candidacy.
This latest result threatens the lucrative contracts of City Attorney Hans Ottinot (earning $720,000 a year, with $1.4 million in projected legal expenses in 2022), City Manager Arthur H. Sorey III (earning more than $247,000, not counting perks) and much of the city’s management force. Ottinot and Sorey did little to conceal their preference for Villard.
The first commission meeting including its newly sworn-in members is Dec. 20 at 6 p.m.
Expect a big push from the new majority for transparency and accountability, an independent forensic audit; more shakeups at City Hall; more ethical safeguards and specific codes of conduct for commissioners; and a curbing of the city’s travel budget, gift card expenditures and city-issued credit cards. Litigation and referrals to the State Attorney’s office are also possible. Deeper scrutiny from the county is anticipated, particularly of the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency.
Two other priorities are likely to come up: putting the city back in charge of its privatized garbage collection – a challenge for any city manager – and removing city management interference of the police department under Chief Harvette Smith.
Analysis shows that voter turnout made the difference. The city did little to promote the runoff, but door-knocking on both sides yielded a turnout of 19.25%, almost double the 11.45% seen two years earlier.
Former Mayor Jeffrey Mishcon, 81, homebound and recovering from a stroke, actively phone banked. Former candidates Hubert Dubé and Ketley Joachim went door-to-door for Chernoff, as did lobbyist Ringo Cayard.
“I think I was good for 500 votes,” Mishcon said. “I was elated at how it came out.”
The public information and attack campaigns were relentless. IT specialist and local native Keith Myers, an administrator of the North Miami Beach Nextdoor website, has archived public meetings and public information requests on NMBTransparency.com, and advocated for Chernoff and against Villard at WakeUpNMB.com and Paule.Exposed.com.
Myers called out Joseph for allegedly concealing his role in the anti- Chernoff NMBTruth.com and for falsely identifying Democrat Chernoff as a "racist" and "MAGA Republican" in anonymous texts to voters.
"Never underestimate a computer nerd," Myers told the Biscayne Times at the Uleta neighborhood voting site on runoff day.
Incumbents Fleurimond and Jean had already congratulated Smith, Chernoff and Smukler, all of whom said at this newspaper's press deadline that they had not heard from Joseph.
After this story was circulating in print, Biscayne Times received an angry email from Joseph's attorney, Zack Eisner, who wrote that all of Myers' allegation are "utterly false," and "malicious" and accused this publication of having a "reckless disregard for the truth," for publishing Myers' accusations, which Eisner dismissed as unproven and further described as "hearsay," while threatening legal action.
Numerous attempts by this reporter to reach Commissioner Michael Joseph before press were unanswered.
North Miami Post-Election Angling
(City of North Miami)
In North Miami, Mayor Philippe Bien-Aime sponsored an 18-month term extension to make municipal elections correspond with the federal cycle. The idea was billed as a money saver for the cash-strapped city. Stand-alone elections cost about $250,000, and folded-in elections run about $30,000.
City Attorney Jeff Cazeau assured the perplexed Nov. 7 audience that this was legal and proper. Cazeau also said under questioning that Bien-Aime could run again as mayor in a special election if he wished to fill his vacancy. The council has twice voted to continue the item, now scheduled to resurface Dec. 13.
Most residents who spoke at a second Nov. 18 meeting on the extension advocated keeping the election as scheduled on May 9, and then placing elections on the federal cycle starting in November 2024.
While a few other Florida cities have extended terms to correspond with that cycle, none have done so to stretch incumbencies by 18 months.
This story was updated on Dec. 2 to reflect reaction from Commissioner Michael Joseph as communicated through his attorney.