North Miami Beach officials voted to up their compensation. Not everyone is on board
Just months after contentiously voting to give themselves city-funded health insurance, North Miami Beach commissioners are again feuding over a decision to increase their own compensation, this time by setting aside money in expense accounts that can be spent as elected officials see fit.
Late last month, commissioners voted 4-3 to allow $6,500 from an “executive expense allowance” to be spent without restrictions, meaning the money could be used for personal expenses if commissioner so choose.
The vote happened after midnight, after City Manager Arthur Sorey expressed confusion around how the money — made available when commissioners voted 4-3 while setting their 2022 budget to increase expense accounts to $13,000 — could be spent.
“Everybody was on a different page,” Sorey told the Miami Herald.
Now, North Miami Beach Mayor Anthony DeFillipo is threatening an ethics complaint and a call to law enforcement over the decision, as he has done after previous controversial decisions. He is alleging the November vote goes against part of the city charter that requires increased compensation be approved with the affirmative vote of five members of the commission.
“There is a cesspool of corruption in this city,” he said in an interview. “I have already consulted with the Ethics Commission, and I will be going to the State Attorney’s Office and [Florida Department of Law Enforcement].”
In addition to DeFillipo, Commissioners Barbara Kramer and Fortuna Smukler were also against the measure, which passed with support from commissioners McKenzie Fleurimond, Daniela Jean, Michael Joseph and Paule Villard.
“My God, is anything ever enough?” Kramer said during the meeting. “It’s ridiculous already, and then you vote on it with nobody here to even public comment ... You need real jobs. This is not your job, God almighty.”
Sorey declined to comment on the mayor’s allegations of ethical issues with the vote.
The four commissioners who voted to create the expense accounts and make half the amount discretionary either did not respond to requests for comment or declined to be interviewed by a Miami Herald reporter.
The increase in the commissioners’ compensation follows a pattern of votes in recent years. It’s also the latest 4-3 split decision on a city commission rife with political friction.
In September 2019, the city’s elected officials gave themselves a raise of more than $17,000 apiece for the purpose of paying for rising health insurance costs. While the 2019 vote gave them the option to use the pay toward healthcare, they could use it however they saw fit.
Then in June 2021, despite the 2019 raise, the commission voted 4-3 to give themselves city-funded health benefits. The city manager cited an increase in insurance premiums for bringing the item, which was opposed by the same three commissioners who voted against the items last month.
A 2019 memo put the commission’s direct compensation at around $53,000 per year for the mayor and about $48,000 each for six city commissioners, all of which are part-time positions. The city did not respond to multiple requests for updated figures detailing commissioners’ total compensation following last month’s vote.
Herald staff writer Aaron Leibowitz contributed to this report.