North Miami Beach commissioner ousted after missing meetings for 120 days

North Miami Beach commissioners voted to remove their colleague Michael Joseph from his seat after he failed to attend commission meetings for more than 120 days in violation of the city charter.

“It’s not a great day, it’s nothing nice to do. It’s very unfortunate,” Mayor Anthony DeFillipo said during the Tuesday hearing that lasted more than four hours.

The commission voted 3-1 to oust Joseph, with Commissioner Daniela Jean as the sole no vote. Joseph did not attend the meeting because of illness.

Commissioners Jay Chernoff and McKenzie Fleurimond recused themselves from the vote as they are parties to litigation. Chernoff, who filed a lawsuit against Joseph claiming he did not attend any City Commission meetings for 120 days, had also named Fleurimond in the lawsuit. He will now drop the legal action against Fleurimond, his attorney Michael Pizzi said.

Max Eichenblatt, an attorney with the Brodsky Fotiu-Wojtowicz law firm, represented Joseph during the hearing. Eichenblatt argued the vacancy rule, based on past city precedent, applied to the first meeting Joseph missed in December, not the the last meeting he attended which was in October. By Eichenblatt’s calculation, Joseph missed 91 days between the missed December commission meeting and the March meeting that he attended.

“The Commission disregarded and contradicted the advice of three prior city attorneys and outside counsel in pursuit of a purely political vendetta against Commissioner Joseph, and effectively disenfranchised all the city electors who voted for him,” Eichenblatt said in a statement to the Miami Herald. “Commissioner Joseph will be vindicated and reinstated in pending proceedings in the court.”

The city must hold a special election to fill the Joseph vacancy. A date for the election has not been set.

Joseph’s dismissal comes months after he refused to attend commission meetings in protest of allegations surrounding DeFillipo’s residency. Questions had been raised about whether DeFillipo lived in the town of Davie, instead of North Miami Beach as required by the city’s charter. DeFillipo has repeatedly denied that allegation.

Several residents at the hearing voiced their frustration with Joseph, Fleurimond and Jean, who missed the January and February meetings. A Miami-Dade Circuit Court judge ordered the three of them to attend the March meeting. All commissioners are under a court order to attend the meetings for the remainder of the year.

Not the first voted off

Joseph is not the first commissioner to be voted off the commission for missing meetings for more than 120 days. In 2018, the commission voted to remove Frantz Pierre, who only attended one meeting over a nine-month period while he was in office due to a medical condition. An outside law firm determined he was required by the city charter to attend at least one meeting every four months.

Pierre sued to keep his position, and at one point was temporarily reinstated — only to be arrested for soliciting a bribe from a strip club operator, among other charges. He was suspended by then-Gov. Rick Scott. Pierre pleaded guilty to 11 felony charges in 2020.

Fleurimond said that the process and vote to remove Joseph was flawed, as the vote was taken by less than a majority of the commission, which he said didn’t have jurisdiction to decide.

“In addition to that, I believe there are undertones of retaliation for a peaceful protest that three Black commissioners made,” he told the Herald. “Most said that they wanted to come back and get the city business moving. We’ve started meeting since March, and since that time, it’s been retaliatory efforts towards those three Black commissioners.”

The vote was divided along racial lines, with three white commissioners — DeFillipo, Phyllis Smith and Fortuna Smukler — voting to remove Joseph. Jean, a Black commissioner, voted no.

Some residents said they support Joseph because of what he’s done for the city. But others, who voted for Joseph, insisted the commission’s vote has nothing to do with race and voiced frustration with his absences. Smukler told the Herald, “This isn’t a racial thing, it’s about a commissioner who missed 120 days.”

Haitian politicians from the neighboring city of North Miami showed up at the hearing in support of Joseph, who is of Haitian heritage. North Miami Vice Mayor and councilwoman Mary Estime-Irvin, joined by North Miami Mayor Alix Desulme and Councilman Pierre Frantz Charles, read a statement asking for the North Miami Beach commissioners to reconsider removing Joseph and “focus on working together versus trying to hurt each other.” Florida state Rep. Dotie Joseph (D-108) said the matter should be decided in court.

Chernoff told the Herald he’s glad the vote finally happened, but criticized those who spoke in support of Joseph. “Where were they when their friend wasn’t showing up and caused us not to have meetings?” he asked.