Marie “Antoinette” Steril did it again. The North Miami councilwoman had a temper tantrum at the last council meeting on October 23, 2012 when she was denied another chance to grab some coin for “her constituents on the west side of the city.” The mayor, Andre Pierre, in his most studly Knight-in-Shining-Armor role, tried to come to the rescue of the Damsel in Distress, but to no avail. The remaining three council members, Jean Marcellus, Scott Galvin and Michael Blynn, drowned the drama king and queen out and restored some semblance of normalcy to the usual circus at City Hall.
(Note to Pierre: After years of bullying the council, the residents and employees of North Miami, how does it feel to finally get shot down? I don’t know about you, but it made me LMAO!)
As reported by the Miami Herald in North Miami: Bulk of Biscayne Landing millions go to reserves, when Jean Marcellus moved to set the money aside, his motion was promptly seconded and passed by a three vote majority before Poor “Let Them Eat Cake” Marie had a chance to speak. La Princessa was none too happy about that. Oh, well. Deal with it, honey!
Steril was quoted as saying, “Not allowing me to represent the people who elected me, I have a problem with that.”
Maybe now she’ll get a taste of what her colleague Scott Galvin deals with 99% of the time when he’s continuously outvoted by a majority of 3-2, and even 4-1 at times. This time Jean Marcellus miraculously voted against Pierre and Steril in what I can only guess is a way to distance himself from the cloud of corruption hanging over the Royal Couple. If Mr. Marcellus has any desire to win his bid for mayor of North Miami next May, I’d say this was a good call. Andre and Marie are up to their respective necks in ethics and legal problems, and rumor has it that one of these days trouble’s gonna catch up to them. It won’t be a moment too soon. Mr. Marcellus would do well to try to restore some much needed trust in his ability to lead.
Of course, Jean Marcellus has had his share of woe. As I first reported in The Chicago of the South, Marcellus had become embroiled in a scandal involving Andre Pierre’s nephew, The Jailbird of North Miami Ricardo Brutus, who was investigated for and eventually charged with five felonies, “including impersonating a lawyer, grand theft and organized fraud.” It seems that Marcellus accepted a free airplane ticket to Haiti from Brutus “as a gift.” If Marcellus has mayoral aspirations, he’d better hope that it wasn’t the gift that keeps on giving. I’m just saying.
Marie Steril would also do well by staying out of the spotlight. It’s not as if she hasn’t brought enough trouble on herself already. The extensive list of scandals involving her include (a) allegedly rigging a $5 million city bid for a friend, (b) accepting $2,000.00 in donations from Waste Pro before voting to accept its bid for a sanitation contract, (c) being investigated and warned by the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust not to vote on a bid from a developer because she had previously accepted a $6,000.00 donation from the bidder for one of her “non-profit” organizations (and then voting on it anyway), and most recently (d) yet another scandal involving the city’s housing program whereby she got free rent for a friend and special financing for her mother without disclosing their relationship. This latest screw up ended up costing the City of North Miami, i.e., the taxpayers, the sum of $154,000.00 because federal rules were violated. I previously opined that Marie herself should foot that bill, but the council thought otherwise.
Oh, well, just chalk that chunk of change up to Ms. Steril’s ability “to represent the people who elected” her. I’d say she’s grabbed more than her share of the spoils so far. Add to that bill her rumored snatching of donated toys for “her people” from the North Miami Police Athletic League’s toy drive last Christmas. So, yeah, I’d say that Ms. Steril has more than compensated “the needs expressed by her constituents.”
Marie “Drama Mama” Steril then had the sheer cojones to tell Jean Marcellus that he was being “emotional” by refusing to be bullied by Pierre. That took a lot of chutzpah!
But the best part of the outcome of this vote wasn’t even the fact that the City of North Miami will now have tons of money in reserve for the future.
The best part was watching Andre Pierre and Marie Steril get a much needed smack down off their high horses.
Hopefully, it will be the first of many!
Stephanie Kienzle
“Spreading the Wealth”
