North Miami Beach

In First Meeting After Months, North Miami Beach Fires Manager, Discuss Removal of Commissioner

Months after the November election, the new governing majority took power.

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After almost five months, the City of North Miami Beach held a commission meeting Tuesday night. This comes after an intense legal and political battle that led a Miami-Dade judge to order all commissioners to continue city business.

As of Wednesday morning, hard feelings continue to exist between the city leaders.

At around 11 p.m., Mayor Anthony DeFillipo moved to remove Commissioner Michael Joseph, claiming he’s missed 120 days of meetings in a row and violated the city charter. Joseph argues he has more time since his first missed meeting was in December. Commissioners did not vote on removing Joseph after guidance from the newly appointed city attorney that he needed more time to review the situation. A lawsuit hashing the allegation out is ongoing.

Earlier in the night, the new city commission elected the mayor's ally Jay Chernoff as Vice Mayor. Joseph was the previous vice mayor. In February Chernoff filed the lawsuit seeking to remove Joseph. Chernoff recently added another commissioner, McKenzie Fleurimond to the lawsuit.

After Chernoff was selected as vice mayor, the new commission fired City Manager Arthur Sorey without cause, meaning he’ll keep his severance pay. Chernoff was the deciding vote for Sorey to keep his pay package.

“You’re hereby dismissed, you’re fired. And we ask you to please leave the meeting,” Mayor DeFillipo said.

Sorey forcefully disagreed with the commissioner’s allegations of mismanaging funds and publicly thanked the community.

“I want to thank the citizens of North Miami Beach. It was a pleasure being a public servant here. I did enjoy my time here,” Sorey said.

The new commission replaced Sorey with Mark Antonio, the former city attorney in Hallandale Beach, as a temporary replacement. 

Last week, City Attorney Hans Ottinot resigned after a public legal battle against DeFillipo, questioning his power to preside over the meeting by not living in the city. That lawsuit as of Wednesday morning will continue going forward.

The new majority appointed John Herin from Fox Rothschild as the interim city attorney. Herin was recently the town attorney for Fort Meyers Beach and Tamarac.

Outside forces were watching what happened in the late-night meeting. The Miami-Dade State Attorney confirmed to NBC 6 earlier this month the office is reviewing the situation in North Miami Beach. The director of the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust was present at the meeting. A regional director from Gov. Ron DeSantis’s Office was also present.

Briefly Monday, commissioners in the city appeared to be getting along.

North Miami Beach held a show of unity one day before the high-stakes meeting: several political opponents gathered to celebrate a new statue of Martin Luther King Jr. Tensions boiled under the surface.

“Everyone is talking about it,” Commissioner Daniela Jean said.

Newly elected Chernoff sat just feet away from Joseph at the ceremony. Chernoff filed a lawsuit against Joseph, seeking to remove him from his seat over attendance to commission meetings. Commissioner McKenzie Fleurimond was added to the lawsuit earlier this month.

“In government sometimes there are little hiccups. Sometimes we agree to disagree,” Jean said.

A long saga

In November 2020, for the first time in its history, North Miami Beach elected a Haitian majority council, tipping the governing scale against incumbent DeFillipo. The new majority hired city staff and began implementing their policy goals.

The political power changed again. Chernoff won by 257 votes in an intense runoff election, which moved the governing majority back to the mayor and his allies.

The month after, a former campaign worker opposing the mayor filed an ethics complaint claiming the mayor lived in Davie with his family and not in North Miami Beach as required by the city charter. Tense months followed as both sides dug in, putting most of the city government on hold.

Ottinot advised Joseph and commissioners Jean and Fleurimond not to attend meetings, breaking quorum, arguing the mayor didn’t have the authority to preside over the meetings.

In January, the mayor’s attorney filed a lawsuit seeking to lower the number of commissioners needed to attend meetings. The city countersued over the mayor’s residency with an outside law firm.

The mayor of North Miami Beach asked a judge to toss out a case against him. NBC 6's Phil Prazan reports

Under oath, DeFillipo cited “marital issues” and concerns over crime for his family’s move. His wife and children live in a $1.2 million home in Davie. The mayor insisted he’s always lived in the city, first with his mother, then in his one-bedroom condo.

“We are married but we are working through some personal issues,” the mayor said in his deposition.

In February, Chernoff filed his suit against Joseph. That legal battle is ongoing.

The next week the stakes were raised when the Miami-Dade State Attorney confirmed to NBC 6 they were reviewing the situation in the city. Legal experts told NBC 6 the only state law possibly in question is how the mayor voted three times in 2022 from his old home he sold in 2021. The mayor in an exclusive interview told NBC 6 it was an honest mistake.

A big moment came in early March when Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Manno Schurr ordered all the commissioners to attend the March 21 meeting, giving the mayor and his allies the quorum needed to fire the city attorney and begin implementing their policies.

That court order led to last Friday when Ottinot resigned and the outside law firm withdrew from the mayor’s residency case, putting in their motion they feared the writing was on the wall and they’d soon be dropped by the new majority. 

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