If there was any doubt North Miami Beach is under a new regime, two votes at the Feb. 15 meeting settled that question for good, amid much drama, hysteria and racial demagoguery.
Mayor Anthony DeFillipo, on the commission since 2013 and first elected to his current role in 2018, said his livelihood as a commercial real estate broker was being threatened by a 5-2 conflict-of-interest resolution sponsored by Commissioner Michael Joseph. (Since joining the commission, DeFillipo has built his practice as its only commercial real estate broker.)
North Miami Beach’s city attorney, Hans Ottinot, interpreted the resolution broadly as a “bright red line” restricting the activities of any councilmember from representation on any project with the potential to come before the commission. DeFillipo said he simply recuses himself on any matter in which he is involved.
For clarification on the issue he called in Jose Arrojo, executive director of the Miami-Dade Commission on Public Trust. He appeared to indicate there was little he could do to fight Ottinot’s interpretation.
The commission is scheduled to vote March 24 on a second reading.
Term-limited Commissioner Barbara Kramer, in office since 2009, was censured 4-3 for “unacceptable and inexcusable behavior exhibited toward her colleagues on the city commission which seeks to encourage division in the City of North Miami Beach.”
That resolution, sponsored by Commissioner Paule Villard, includes two references to “racially charged” comments Kramer is alleged to have made. Kramer has ridiculed Joseph and Villard on Facebook, calling Joseph an “idiot,” and has criticized Villard for using her name and face for promotions like $200,000 in Publix gift certificates as thinly veiled attempts at electioneering.
“I own who I am. I am a tough cookie but I am not a racist … This is slanderous, false and will subject my family to emotional duress and economic harm,” said Kramer, who owns a window treatment company.
(Ford Window Treatments)
Barbara Kramer, North Miami Beach Commissioner
The meeting, available on the city’s website on items 4.3 and 4.8, could stand as a marker for the November election, when three of the commission’s seven seats go up for grabs.
Yet amid all the cross-talk about conflicts and personality clashes, development is the one key thing to watch. Dezer Development now has a reliable supermajority in the $1.5 billion Intracoastal Mall development, thanks in part to the work of Ron Book, whose lobbying firm has represented both Dezer Development before the city and the city before Tallahassee.
That was underscored the day after the meeting, when events took on a new cast after Elon Musk’s Boring Co. unveiled a plan for a 6.2-mile underground transit system linking Sunny Isles Beach with North Miami, with potential extensions to the Hard Rock Stadium and the FIU North campus.
It was telling that Joseph – rather than DeFillipo – was quoted in the Business Insider story on that plan. Dezer Development built much of Sunny Isles Beach and is preparing the mall development between the drawbridge and in front of the affluent Eastern Shores neighborhood that was once the political power center of North Miami Beach. Musk’s tunnel, if it happens, could ultimately benefit that already-gridlocked area.
DeFillipo was reelected to a four-year term as mayor in November 2020 and Kramer will step down this year. Four years ago, they were both among the city’s most powerful commissioners, among a self-described “fabulous four” – all white, as it happened – who often voted as a bloc. DeFillipo had handily won his election, and Kramer was well known as a frank-talking bridge-builder and the creator of the city’s Multi-Cultural Committee.
But that power began to erode in November 2018 with the election of Joseph, Villard and McKenzie Fleurimond to the commission, and was all but destroyed with the Nov. 17, 2020, runoff victory of Daniela Jean.
The council has since been in control of a new, young “fabulous four,” who happen to be Haitian American and also often vote together. North Miami Beach is less than 20% Haitian but Haitian American groups have developed a disciplined turn-out-the vote strategy, comparable to that of Cuban Americans in Miami and Irish Americans in northern cities a century ago.
DeFillipo and Kramer have become outliers and are often at the losing end of votes. Last February, Kramer exploded and abandoned any pretense of civility when Fleurimond and Joseph both signaled at a commission meeting their intention to replace city manager Esmond Scott. Things have not been the same since.
Three seats are up Nov. 8: the open seat to be vacated by Kramer and the seats now occupied by Villard and Commissioner Fortuna Smukler of Eastern Shores. Smukler has already announced her reelection bid and Villard shows every sign of running again.
DeFillipo’s mayoral term will expire in November 2024.