NBC 6- Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has suspended North Miami Beach Mayor Anthony DeFillipo less than a week after DeFillipo’s arrest on illegal voting charges.
DeSantis on Monday signed an executive order immediately suspending DeFillipo, who was arrested Wednesday in Miami-Dade on three counts of an unqualified elector willfully voting, a third-degree felony.
“It is in the best interests of the residents of the City of North Miami Beach, and the citizens of the State of Florida, that Anthony F. DeFillipo II be immediately suspended from the public office which he now holds,” DeSantis wrote in the executive order.
Under the Florida constitution, the governor has the authority to suspend local elected officials from office for malfeasance, neglect of duty, drunkenness, incompetence, inability to perform official duties, or commission of a felony. The Florida Senate will later judge whether DeFillipo will be reinstated or removed from office.
“The Mayor expects to be fully exonerated from these politically motivated false charges and is anxious to get his day in court. The Mayor has always fought corruption in his City and has never been charged with abusing his office. The sole allegation that he voted in the wrong district is misguided and it is shameful that the State attorney is using her office to intercede in politics,” the Mayor’s attorney Mike Pizzi wrote NBC 6.
In the meantime, DeFillipo is banned from performing any official act, duty, or function of public office, or getting paid from the city.
A complaint filed six months ago with the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics & Public Trust accused DeFillipo of living in Davie. The North Miami Beach city charter requires elected officials to reside in the city.
Prosecutors in Miami-Dade County began to investigate. DeFillipo admitted during a March deposition to purchasing a home in Davie, but he said it was for his family to live in while dealing with marital issues.
Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said during a news conference Wednesday afternoon that DeFillipo was living primarily at his Davie home when he voted in August, October and November 2022 for a district he was no longer legally qualified to vote in.
Location data tracking DeFillipo’s cell phone showed that he was spending most of his nighttime hours in Davie during the months of the three elections, prosecutors said.
The mayor, in an exclusive interview with NBC6 earlier this year, admitted to using an old address within city limits to vote, calling it an honest mistake.
This is the latest act in a intense and long political battle over the small city of North Miami Beach. After the November 2022 election, a campaign worker filed an ethics complaint with the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust, accusing the Mayor of no longer living in the city as required by the charter.
Over the residency accusation, the former city attorney advised three city commissioners to boycott commission meetings over the issue, arguing the mayor did not have the authority to preside over the city. Commissioner Daniela Jean, Commissioner McKenzie Fleurimond, and Vice Mayor Michael Joseph boycotted meetings until a Miami-Dade judge ordered all commissioners to attend.
After the court order, the new governing majority voted to fire the city manager. The former city attorney resigned a few days earlier. The commission then voted to remove Commissioner Joseph, accusing him of violating the city charter as well by missing 120-days of commission meetings. Joseph and his attorneys argued in court he still had time left. A lawsuit over Joseph’s attendance is still pending.
DeFillipo, 51, was first elected mayor in 2018. Before that, he served as a city commissioner since 2013.
If convicted on all three charges, he faces up to 15 years in prison.
