Good morning, class. Let’s discuss a Very Important Item of the Day…strip clubs. Here we go again. This Tuesday, the North Miami Beach City Council is bringing back an Ordinance in order to repeal an heretofore little known law on the books, which prohibits “adult entertainment establishments” from serving alcohol when the “entertainment” is bare assed naked. It appears that the original City Code Section 12-2.12 was written in 1957, the year I was born. A portion of that Section was amended by Ordinance No. 89-5 in 1989, the year I moved to NMB. Apparently the booze/nudity clause was never enforced by the then sitting council headed up by former-former-former mayor Jeffrey Mishcon.
Had this Ordinance been taken seriously back in the day, we wouldn’t be having this problem. Of course, if Mishcon hadn’t occupied the mayoral seat for almost two decades while North Miami Beach rotted, we wouldn’t be having the plethora of problems our city is facing today. When the revenue was pouring in, Mishcon & Co. lived high on the taxpayer hog, throwing lavish “volunteer” appreciation dinners with free flowing booze, granting generous pensions to union members and secretly voting for their own taxpayer funded lifetime health insurance, never once thinking about spending wisely or saving for a rainy day. Now that the well has run dry, the current sitting council has to clean up the wreckage Mishcon, et al, left behind. And what wreckage indeed!
Three of the council members sitting on that dais contributed to the present disaster. Philippe DeRose happily went along with the program and managed to get himself re-elected in 2009 just in time to qualify for his “free” lifetime health insurance. Phyllis Smith and Frantz Pierre, both elected in 2007, never thought twice about continuing the drunken sailor spending, and both connived a way to grandfather themselves in to receive the “free” insurance before this illegal policy was brought to a screeching halt. Phyllis has publicly stated that she will take the insurance once she qualifies because, “she deserves it.” Frantzie swears up and down he won’t take it, but we all know he’s probably lying, since lying is his primary form of communication. BOTH will qualify for “free” taxpayer funded health insurance FOR LIFE if re-elected in 2015. BOTH need to go before then!
Speaking of L’il Frantzie P, he just loves to spend other people’s money. As I reported back in February of 2011, “in October of 2009 alone, Councilman Frantz Pierre ran up $3,386.84 of our tax dollars to attend two “conferences.” The first was the National League of Cities in Boston, Massachusetts, to the tune of $2,084.07, and the second for the National Haitian American Elected Officials Network at a cost of $1,302.77.” If that weren’t shocking enough, he also spent $1,676.80 in 2011 to attend the National Soccer Coaches Association Convention in Baltimore, Maryland. Because every elected official needs to brush up on their soccer coaching skills, right? I wonder which “Mrs. Pierre” he brought on that taxpayer funded vacation. I’m just saying.
As for Phyllis, she had no problem taking the sum of $13,907.95 in out of pocket medical reimbursements for the fiscal year October 1, 2009 through September 30, 2010. I don’t even know what she received from May, 2007, when she first took office, through the fiscal year end September 30, 2009. If I was inclined, I’d look it up, but I’m not. Suffice it to say, she probably had her hand in the till back then, too.
So, no, the city council members on that dais who were in office prior to May, 2009, had no interest in fiscal responsibility OR enforcing the city’s code. Unfortunately, those who were elected after that are left with shoveling the manure.
Not only do they have to deal with legislating the new austerity – cutting costs, halting the hemorrhaging of taxpayer money – policies, they also now have to fix the mess created during the Mishcon Administration about the titty bars.
The council is truly caught between that rock and hard place thing. If they vote to repeal the previous Ordinance, they’ll be called naughty names by a few residents and accused of spreading AIDS. (I kid you not. One resident actually made this insanely ridiculous accusation.) If they vote down the current Ordinance, and prohibit nudity where alcohol is served, the council will distinguish themselves as probably the first local government outside the Bible Belt to legislate morality. Not to mention invite a slew of lawsuits from establishments that have been breaking this law all along with the blessing of the government in the form of a Business Tax Receipt stating their business is “nude dancing.” Since we already know they have liquor licenses, why did the city allow them to have nude dancers if it violated its own code? I’m not quite sure what the answer is, but I do know that if the city starts enforcing the old ordinance, the owners of the strip clubs aren’t going to back down without a court battle. The mere coincidence that this topic has surfaced when Swinging Richards, the city’s first gay strip club, opened, has already led to accusations that the city is homophobic. I don’t believe this to be true, but the timing was rotten, to say the least. Discrimination lawsuits aren’t pretty.
Personally, I have no pony in this race. I have nothing against strip clubs per se, and I certainly don’t care if men or women, straight or gay, want to take their clothes off and dance for money. I do think that the presence of strip clubs in prominent areas of cities doesn’t promote the appearance of a family oriented community. I would love for all the strip clubs in NMB to be located west of the interstate, far away from the main drag. But I’m also an ardent supporter of the law, and if a business has been operating for all these years, a precedent has been set. I just don’t see how the city can get rid of them at this late date without a fight. Maybe this issue just may have to go before a judge to be settled. Who knows?
In any event, this Ordinance is coming up for a vote this Tuesday. I’ll be watching with amusement because it should be yet another good show at City Hall, while the council continues its attempt to clean up the mess it inherited.
Stephanie Kienzle
“Spreading the Wealth”
The resident who is accusing certain council members of spreading AIDS is probably the same person who “found” the law against naked drinking only when SR’s came to town. I had been wondering how this law had been suddenly rediscovered after 55 years (you don’t look 55), and now the ignorant connection is clear. What is next? Sharia Law?
Radical Islamists are definitely trying to bring the Sharia law to America. Unfortunately, far too many people either aren’t paying attention or they think it’s an exaggeration. It is not an exaggeration whatsoever. Gay Muslims in Islamic countries where the Sharia has been implemented are now living in fear for their lives with good reason. Just google “Muslims kill homosexuals” and you’ll find a ton of articles and videos on this subject. Just watch this chilling video to see a small example of what one American Muslim thinks about homosexuals. This is no joke. http://www.therightscoop.com/american-muslim-on-shariah-homosexuals-must-be-killed/
Women don’t fair much better under these nuts.
What I don’t understand from the last Council meeting two weeks ago is how the Council agreed to take $1,000 for Pierre’s “back to school backpack giveaway” in order to complete and meet the required funds for the even. The $1,000 was donated from one of the attorneys representing the Marina project. I don’t fully understand how Darcee allowed this to happen. Is it my imagination, or isn’t there a conflict??
I was out of down during that meeting and don’t know what’s going on with that. I’ll try to find out and get back to you.
I’m getting a kick out of all you idiots out there clicking thumbs down, as if that means anything. What’s really cool, though, is that the more hits my website gets, the higher rating I have on the Google search engine. What this means is that you’re making my website even more popular. So keep clicking the thumbs – up or down – and keep coming back. Thanks!
VotersOpinion.com is already in the number one position out of 152 million results on Google using the search terms “voter opinion” or “voters opinion”. Yep, keep on clicking that dislike button all you lemmings out there, and thank you for your support! 😆
Even idiots are useful. 🙂
“There have been many wise warnings that freedom is seldom lost all at once. It is usually eroded away, bit by bit, until it is all gone. You may not notice a gradual erosion while it is going on, but you may eventually be shocked to discover one day that it is all gone, that we have been reduced from citizens to subjects, and the Constitution has become just a meaningless bunch of paper.”
-Thomas Sowell
How come certain residents get to accuse our elected officials of dishonesty and corruptness, but fail to practice what they preach. This sanctimonious clown who stands before council and berates them on a regular basis and then (tries to) terrorize them by broadcasting his nasty emails all round town, is himself involved in some sort of scam of his own. Rumor has it, he has married another so-called local activist, but from what I can tell, this marriage is a total fake. If you ask me, this is what you would call a “beard,” but I think it is probably a bit more nefarious than that. Im going to guess it’s either some sort of health insurance scam or worse yet, some scam on the government he so claims to be corrupt. With your resources, you should be able to figure out what these two “pillars of society” are up to. To quote you: “I’m just saying…”
Nah. Why bother? My main concern is going after corrupt elected officials. Village idiots and town drunks are a dime a dozen and not worth my time. The really funny thing is that this person told a friend of mine that he had a secret about me and she wanted to know what it could be. I told her, “Gee, I don’t know. But you could log onto https://www.votersopinion.com and find out all my secrets!”
Without using names, since I’m not sure of it anyway. Is this the tall bald man that speaks with a heavy accent? He talks at every council meeting and he’s kind of twisted? Who is the person he is married to? Does this person speak at council meetings? You use the phrase “beard”. By looking that up, I can’t imagine that is his issue, if it is, he’s a really good actor. He seems so angry. If you find out what the scam is please let Stephanie know. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. I hate mean people especially him, he’s scary and doesn’t speak nicely to the council members.
I think the current council has a pretty good handle on the situation in our city. I voted for the majority of them. Meeting some of them last year for the first time, gave me a renewed sense of faith in NMB. They are young forward thinkers, not like the council’s from the past. They have been dealt with pretty crummy circumstances that other officials have not had to deal with. I spoke to the Mayor about our ever changing city when I met him last year. He seems very smart and conscientious and down to earth. I hope NMB has good times ahead I love living here.
This is my first time posting on a blog so Voters Opinion must be doing something right. I’m glad a friend of mine told me about it several months ago. You are a very interesting writer, Stephanie. Thank you for keeping the community of NMB abreast of all of the activity and concerns here.