Tag Archives: whistleblowers

North Miami Beach Investigation: Whistleblowers Allege Tamarac City Attorney Aided Former NMB City Manager In Scheme To Delay Public Records Requests; Millions In Taxpayer Dollars Spent Without Proper Oversight

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These Commissioners rehired Hans Ottinot too.

Multiple whistleblowers allege Tamarac city attorney Hans Ottinot aided former North Miami Beach city manager Arthur “Duke” Sorey in a scheme to delay the release of public records while spending millions of taxpayer dollars without proper oversight, an investigation shows. Last week, an investigation into improper activities by North Miami Beach city leaders and officials was released by special counsel Michael Pizzi. His report “cited massive misspending of funds, some as high as personal spending on Amazon to the tune of almost $300,000, and even a child support payment for $300.”

Even though Ottinot worked for North Miami Beach, Tamarac Commissioners Marlon Bolton, Kicia Daniel and Morey Wright made Hans Ottinot the city attorney in December 2002.

THE WHISTLEBLOWERS

Former North Miami Beach Chief Financial Officer Marica Fennel told Michael Pizzi she had been “bullied and pushed aside in order to prevent proper oversight and accounting practices in the area of expenditure of tax payer funds.” Fennell said Ottinot repeatedly exceeded his city attorney’s office budget and submitted bills to the city. In cases with invoices, Fennell and her staff were supposed to review them before issuing any payments.

Instead, “Sorey’s operatives in Finance [department] would override the budget and approve all invoices,“ Fennell said. “Sorey did not adhere to any proscribed process or timeline for payment of city attorney invoices. He demanded that checks be paid immediately.” She said Sorey wanted Ottinot’s bills paid on the same day “without proper review.”

Fennel told investigators Sorey was upset that her office fulfilled public records requests in a timely manner (as governed by State law). Sorey ordered Fennell to forward all future public records requests to his office as well as city attorney Hans Ottinot.

Former North Miami Beach Chief Procurement Officer Donna Rockfeld told investigators she rejected Commissioner Michael Joseph’s attempt to have residents pay for his $1,000 membership in the Haitian Lawyers Association. Rockfeld believed the membership was “not proper.” Hans Ottinot is a past president of the Haitian Lawyers Association.

Rockfeld said she was ordered to pay city attorney invoices without review. “Sorey would make her pay it,” she said.

During a November 16, 2021 commission meeting, Rockfeld told commissioners she disagreed with Sorey on a financial matter. The next day, Sorey pulled her out of her office. Rockfeld stood face to face with Sorey and Ottinot. Sorey said she “could not be trusted.”

Sorey gave Rockfeld two choices: get fired immediately or accept a severance package. Ottinot presented prepared documents for Rockfeld to sign.

Ottinot resigned as North Miami Beach city attorney in March 2023, one week before Duke Sorey was fired by the North Miami Beach Commission.

In May 2023, several North Miami Beach employees were arrested for activities covered in the Pizzi report.

According to The Miami Herald, police arrested a former city public affairs assistant Jennifer Hillmon for stealing Publix gift cards intended for residents during a 2022 giveaway.

“Hillmon was seen on surveillance video using the gift cards between March 23 and May 2 at different Publix and Publix Liquor Stores, according to the police report. Hillmon was fired from her city job and transported to the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center for booking, according to a North Miami Beach police news release. The police report says Hillmon lives in Tamarac, not North Miami Beach, and does not detail how she obtained the cards.”

Less than a week later, North Miami Beach human resources director Andrew Bejel was arrested for misusing Publix gift cards.

“Police said an investigation determined that Bejel used two stolen gift cards, totaling $287.89, at the Publix on 601 S. Andrews Ave. in Fort Lauderdale. According to his arrest report, he lives in that city’s Las Olas neighborhood.”

Pizzi urged North Miami Beach Commissioners to forward his findings to the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Offices, the Ethics Commission and the Miami-Dade Inspector General.

TAMARAC REDUX

Before the Tamarac City Commission fired Hans Ottinot in May 2021, faced similar accusations about public records.

When REDBROWARD and Stephanie Kienzle of VotersOpinion.com made simple public records requests, Ottinot tacked on a $300 hourly legal fee for documents. State officials and legal watchdogs told REDBROWARD this was an improper tactic that violated the spirit if not the letter of Florida’s public records law.

After Ottinot was fired, the fees were removed and the public records requests were fulfilled.

Now, Ottinot is back as Tamarac City Attorney.

Residents are outraged over a deal he negotiated to spend nearly $2 million taxpayer dollars to buy the Shaker Village clubhouse.

Last Thursday, the Broward Inspector General demanded documents related to Ottinot and Marlon Bolton’s role in the deal.

Will the City of Tamarac comply with the OIG demands in a timely manner?

The Pizzi Report
Hans Ottinot, left, with Marlon Bolton

Plantation Councilman Nick Sortal Calls Black Female City Employee A Liar After Inappropriate Sexual And Racial Remarks Go Public

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Plantation Councilman Nick Sortal used to love “snitches” and whistleblowers. In a 2019 Sun-Sentinel article, Sortal asked a fellow journalist, “Why is it that a city employee who calls out a fellow employee for, say, cheating on a timecard, called a ‘whistleblower,’ while a person who provides information on a much larger offense, even murder, is labeled a “snitch?” The journalist responded, “whistleblowers are victims who speak up against an injustice at work.” On Thursday, Sortal told the Sun-Sentinel that a black female whistleblower was lying about sexual and racial remarks he made to her at City Hall last month.

On Monday, REDBROWARD reported on a Human Resources complaint filed a City of Plantation employee against Nick Sortal. According to the employee, in mid-May, Sortal and his wife Robyn Sortal came into the City Clerk’s office to obtain paperwork for his mayoral campaign against popular incumbent Mayor Lynn Stoner. Sortal told the employee about a “scuffle” between his wife and Stoner. Sortal told the female employee that “My dick is hard for this.” The embarrassed employee covered her face with her hands.

Sortal then asked the employee if anyone else picked up paperwork for mayoral race. When told yes, Sortal asked if the person was black. When employee told him no, Sortal said, “Oh good, Plantation will never have a black mayor.”

Within days, the employee, a deputy city clerk, filed a complaint with the City of Plantation Human Resources department.

REDBROWARD obtained a three-page memorandum that is part of the complaint. The memorandum is signed by City of Plantation Human Resources Director Denese Edsall. The memorandum documents the steps city leaders took to investigate the matter.

The memorandum includes the comments made by Sortal, an admission by Sortal to Plantation Chief Administrative Officer Jason Nunemaker and a discussion with labor attorney Denise Heekin.

Heekin told City leaders they were powerless to act against Sortal. She advised the City officials to create the memorandum to accompany the complaint.

BLAME THE VICTIM 101

Nick Sortal began his Clintonian attack on the black female whistleblower on Tuesday in a statement to an obscure student newspaper in Miami. Sortal “declined to comment, but deemed the memorandum ‘inaccurate.’” Fun fact for student reporters: Using the word “inaccurate” in in fact a comment. The rest of the laughable article reads as a Sortal campaign president release. He attacks Stoner while lamenting how dirty politics “muddied” waters. He attempts to spin the story as a partisan attack by labeling REDBROWARD as a “conservative website.” Sortal and Stoner are both Democrats.

Sortal continued his Clintonian game plan in comments to the Sun-Sentinel on Thursday. “I feel it’s all about politics,” Sortal said. “I want to keep my focus. I’m not getting down in the mud. That’s not who I am.”

Sortal claims he made the “My dick is hard over this” remark to his wife not the deputy clerk. He says he wanted to show his wife how proud he was over his defense of him.

But Nick Sortal says the black female deputy clerk’s complaint regarding his racial comment is “a lie.”

Sortal said the allegation that he also made a racial comment to [the deputy clerk] is “a lie. That never, ever happened. I’m not that kind of person.”

“I feel it’s all about politics,” Sortal said. “I want to keep my focus. I’m not getting down in the mud. That’s not who I am.”

A LIE?

In the memorandum obtained by REDBROWARD, Nick Sortal admitted to making the comments to CAO Jason Nunemaker. Sortal told Nunemaker, “he did not realize they were taken as inappropriate as he has been speaking to [the city employee] for four years and felt comfortable.”

Nick Sortal felt “comfortable” with the woman for four years but suddenly she is a liar when his political aspirations are threatened?

According to the memorandum, Sortal was so comfortable with the employee that he revealed why she was not promoted. The employee said Sortal told her, “That the Mayor did not like her and that is why she didn’t get the job.”

Now, Sortal wants voters to believe the employee is a pawn of Stoner in a “dirty politics” plot to keep him out of the Mayor’s office?

Sortal doesn’t apologize. He claims his “My dick is hard” was a pat on his wife’s head for defending him. Really? He makes a remark about his penis while his wife is talking with a female employee about grandchildren?

The female whistleblower, his friend for four years, is a liar?

Lynn Stoner is orchestrating a dirty politics campaign with the aid of high-level City employees and officials?

Nick Sortal wants to be the Mayor. Yet he calls his employees liars?

This sounds so misogynistic. So unprofessional. So unbelievable.

Should Nick Sortal be put in charge of the City of Plantation?

Time for someone to ask Plantation Council Members Jennifer Andreu, Eric Anderson, Tim Fadgen and Denise Horland what they think of Sortal’s behavior.