As promised, here are my observations on the North Miami City Council candidates’ Campaign Treasurer’s Reports.

Waste Pro and its lobbyist are betting on councilman Michael Blynn to keep his seat and keep them happy.  He voted to privatize the city’s sanitation department and give Waste Pro the lucrative contract.  In turn, Blynn scooped up two thousand five hundred clams for his loyalty.*  As he and other principles of Waste Pro did for Andre Pierre and Marie Steril in their 2011 re-election bids, Russell Mackie, the regional vice president of Waste Pro of Florida, Inc., and his company Waste Pro, each gave Blynn $500.00 in October of last year.  In December, lobbyist/lawyer Ronald L. Book gave him $500.00 personally and $500.00 from his law firm, Ronald L. Book, P.A.  For good measure, Book’s wife Patricia, kicked in another $500.00 through her company, Confection Connection, Inc.  Nothing like keeping it all in the family.

*I was just advised that Blynn did not vote to privatize, but neither had Pierre or Steril before Waste Pro donated to their campaigns.  I guess they wanted to secure Blynn’s support for a future vote.  Just saying.

So what did Book, Mackie, and various other donors get for their total contributions of $4,325.00?  $741.00 worth of “professional design services campaign materials” and $300 worth of campaign ads from Placemats R Us.  At least Blynn’s not a big spender.  Not as of December 31, 2012 anyway.  When the most recent CTRs are published, we’ll see if that changes.

At year end, Joseph Haber collected $7,255.00 (including a $5.00 loan), and spent $7,165.65, leaving $89.35 left in his campaign coffer to start the New Year.  Almost all of his money has been spent getting his face out there and making sure his name is known.  His very first purchase was for $1,174.24 in T-shirts.  By year end, Haber also spent $571.32 in Facebook advertising, $450.00 to Placemats R Us (WTF?), and the rest of the money on printing, volunteers and, obviously, websites.  Just google “Joseph Haber North Miami” and you’ll see a sh*tload of websites dedicated to Joseph Haber’s campaign, including Facebook, his blog, twitter and, of course, the now infamous Joseph Haber Election Countdown.  The dude’s creative, I’ll give him that much.  He also has way too much time on his hands.

Philippe Ben-Aime loaned his campaign the entire $2,800.00 and proceeded to spend the bulk of his $2,119.83 expenditures on a turkey giveaway ($650.00), holiday cards and stamps ($256.77), radio advertising ($500.00), and a cell phone ($427.63).  He also filled up his tank ($70.01), bought more cards ($125.00), opened a bank account ($70.42), purchased a CD of the voter rolls from the County ($20.00), and he’s good to go.  Door to door giving out turkeys?  We got us a campaign, folks!

Hans Mardy loaned himself $5,000.00 and received a $500.00 “in kind” donation from a printer for “holiday cards.”  He spent $5,221.00.  Of that money, $2,000.00 went to Sinal Consulting Group, LLC.  The rest went for ads, printing and postage.  As an interesting side note, one of the principals of Sinal Consulting, Maxo Sinal, used to be in business with Manny Cherubin (of Petite Cayemite) in the now defunct corporations Taptap Transportation Group, Inc. and Digo Enterprises, Inc.  Also interesting is the fact that Michael A. Etienne’s law partner Phillip J. Brutus was the Registered Agent for both companies.  Maxo Sinal was also partners with Jean and Kettia Monestime in the defunct company RODEXP, Corp., and another dissolved company, MOVEMENT DES JEUNES DE MIAMI, INC., of which Jean Monestime was the Registered Agent.  We can see that Hans Mardy has “friends in high places.”

As I mentioned in yesterday’s column, It’s all about the money, candidate Katiusquie Pierre spent $115.00 on her hair and makeup to take $65.00 worth of campaign pictures.  She spent the rest of the money on web design, advertising, volunteers, voter list and $349.84 on “Gas, Campaign Refreshment, and Office Supplies.”  (Hat tip, Kat:  I’m pretty sure you need to break down that last expense separately.  Just saying.)  As of December 31, 2012 she took in $1,953.00 ($1,040.00 of which is in loans), and spent $2,033.00.  I’m pretty sure this is illegal since North Miami Beach EX-mayor Myron Rosner got arrested for, among other things, writing campaign checks against money he didn’t have.  However, unlike Myron, Ms. Pierre is a novice at this campaign thing and this $80.00 shortage could be a mere bookkeeping error or oversight by her Treasurer, Gabriel Demosthene.  Still, this needs to be corrected by an Amended Campaign Treasurer’s Report.  As I also mentioned yesterday, it’s against campaign finance laws to accept CASH donations in excess of $50.00.  Ms. Pierre should also figure out a way to fix that mess.  Oy vey!  As yet another aside, I wish to point out that running for office is complicated.  I suggest people read the rules book before they decide to run.