I hope you’re comfortable and have plenty of time to sit for a while because this blog is a long one.  I apologize in advance, but last night’s North Miami Beach City Council meeting was wild and crazy.  You couldn’t begin to fully appreciate it in its entirety unless you hear the whole story about the Black Diamonds request for extended business hours to 6:00 am.

Luckily (and I have to give a GREAT BIG SHOUT OUT TO PATRICK ROSIAK, OUR I.T. DUDE for already uploading the video of the meeting), you can watch the nearly hour and a half long segment beginning at hour 1:33:37 until its very satisfying conclusion at hour 2:52:33.

If you don’t want to watch it for yourself, here is as brief a synopsis as possible (with commentary, of course) of the proceedings dealing with item 13.1 on the Agenda entitled, Business Tax Receipt for SMG Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a Black Diamonds.

Since I have already written eight, COUNT ‘EM, EIGHT, columns about this issue, if you read this blog you should already know the history, so I won’t repeat myself.  (If not, just search “Black Diamonds” in that little search box over to the right.)  Needless to say, I have been firmly against the granting of this extension as were the majority of residents who have contacted me.  Luckily, most of the Council was paying attention.  As a result, Black Diamonds’ request failed 5-2.

But the craziest thing of all is that the lobbyist-slash-consultant for Black Diamonds, Ringo Cayard, started off the discussion with a bang by PLAYING THE FREAKING RACE CARD!

If you’re thinking, “OMG!  HE DIDN’T!” you’d be wrong.

OH, YES, HE DID!

My jaw dropped as Mr. Cayard approached the podium and told the Council that his clients are “just law abiding Haitians providing jobs” to other Haitians.  He also was adamant that Black Diamonds was merely trying to “provide entertainment for the Haitian community” and that if the Council doesn’t grant the extension, he implied that it was due to racism.  Ringo also insinuated that anyone opposed to his client’s request (i.e., the taxpaying residents) only want to “shut them down because they’re Haitian.”

OMG, WTF???

This was only the first of many lines of bullshit Ringo tried to feed the Council.  It gets better.

The lobbyist for Black Diamonds insisted that his client be treated “on the same level” as the other two strip clubs in our city, and that it is a good business neighbor because “they gave out turkeys.”  In fact, Black Diamonds wants to be a co-sponsor of city events in the future!  That should make us all proud, right?

As an aside, I am reminded of a true story that happened when my now 21-year old daughter was a sophomore at North Miami Beach Senior High.  Like most teenagers of a certain age, she was embarrassed to be driven to school by her mother, especially one whose car was plastered with Indianapolis Colts bumper stickers, magnets and flags (yeah, I was a huge Indy fan back then).  Whenever I drove her to school, she’d make me park a block away so she wouldn’t be seen in public with me.  Or my car.  One day when we pulled up to the curb, a van advertising the strip club “Dean’s Gold” stopped right in front of us.  If you’ve ever seen one of its vans, you know there’s picture of a dancer in full color on the side.  When a kid got out of the van and walked toward the school, I turned to my daughter and asked, “If you’re embarrassed by me, how would you like to be driven to school in THAT?”  She never complained again.  Which might also explain the Peyton Manning jersey I got for Christmas that year.

I bring that up only because I’m not sure I’d want to see a Black Diamonds logo printed on any material for events the City of North Miami Beach may hold in the future.  But, maybe it’s just me.

Back to the meeting.

When questioned about Black Diamonds’ continued advertising on its website and on Facebook that the business hours are until 6:00 am, Ringo Cayard had the freaking chutzpah to tell our North Miami Beach City Council and all the residents in attendance that anyone can post pictures to the Black Diamonds Facebook page.  In other words, “it wasn’t them.”

OH, REALLY, RINGO?

For starters, as you can see by this screenshot,

… those Facebook pics could ONLY have been commissioned by Black Diamonds.  DUH!

Just remember one thing, Ringo.  Screen shots are forEVer!

In this day and age where even grannies tweet, Ringo has a lot of nerve expecting he could bullshit any of us like that.  How insulting!

It gets better.

When the Council questioned him about the police reports of incidents at Black Diamonds, Ringo tried claiming that the complaints were trumped up and that there was just one “isolated incident.”

Um, no.  There wasn’t just one “isolated incident.”  As I already reported in Rant of the Day, there were three incidents for which the police were called after 4:00 am.  The first one was on November 20, 2013 at 5:17 am, the second on November 30, 2013 at 4:44 am, and the third one on December 1, 2013 at 4:24 am.

In addition to those three, and as I reported yesterday, “an Inter-Office Memorandum dated November 13, 2013 from then interim Police Chief Kathy Katerman to Public Services Director Shari Kamali reflects that from August 22, 2013 through November 13, 2013 “there were two (2) calls for service” to Black Diamonds.  One was for a “Sick or Injured Person” at 3:41 am, and the other was for the purpose of a “Domestic Disturbance” at 5:00 am.”

That’s four incidents, NOT ONE “ISOLATED INCIDENT” for which the police had to be called to Black Diamonds after its closing time of 4:00 am.

That was just another one of the many lies the lobbyist tried to tell the Council.

It was also quite apparent that NMB Councilcritter Frantzie Pierre was recruited by Black Diamonds to sell its crap to his colleagues in the hopes of garnering votes.  Jumping on the Racism Bandwagon, L’il Frantzie P reiterated (over and over and over) that Black Diamonds will provide jobs for his fellow Haitians.  Jobs for people like his old buddy Marc Lavasseur, who spoke at public comment on behalf of the strip club, and who was apparently newly hired by Black Diamonds.

You might remember good old Marc, who was Frantzie’s partner in crime during the 2011 election when they cooked up a scheme to publish fake HAPAC (Haitian American Political Action Committee) fliers for the purpose of tricking Haitian voters into thinking their “slate of candidates” was endorsed by the real HAPAC.

But the best part of Frantzie’s pitch last night was his request that anyone speaking before the Council should speak directly into the microphone because….

THE PROCEEDINGS WERE BEING BROADCAST LIVE ON HAITIAN RADIO!

WTF?

Why was Haitian radio so freaking interested in a measly request for a Business Tax Receipt?

DUH!  Because Frantz and Ringo made this a Haitian issue, which is really THE problem in a nutshell.  By telling the Council and the residents that this business is a Haitian business, owned by Haitians and for the benefit of Haitians, they freaking buried themselves.  North Miami Beach is a multi-cultural community, not a HAITIAN community.  They obviously misjudged their audience big time.

Ringo is a relative newby on the scene here in NMB.  He apparently has no knowledge of the last time the Race Card was unsuccessfully played here in August of 2010 when former-former-former-FIRED City Manager Kelvin Baker accused a previous administration of wanting to fire him because he was black.  Never mind that the very same Council (made up of three blacks and four whites) that hired him, and subsequently fired his ass, Baker refused to believe that he was incompetent.  It just had to be racism!  Council and residents ran Baker (and the NAACP) right out of town for that stupid move.

Ringo thought the same ploy will fly.  As he learned last night, it did not.

Here’s the thing.  North Miami Beach has always celebrated cultural diversity.  During his term as Mayor of North Miami, Ringo’s good friend, Andre Pierre created the sharpest racial divide in any city in South Florida.  In addition, Ringo has already made a point of involving Andre in NMB political affairs, including a fundraiser which Andre co-hosted with Mayor George Vallejo for Tomas Regolado’s campaign.  We certainly do not need Andre Pierre’s special brand of identity politics brought into our city.  And yet, Ringo is trying to do just that, aided and abetted by Frantz Pierre, who has his own racist agenda.

Aside from a tiny handful of disgruntled you-can’t-fire-me-I’m-black former employees, North Miami Beach has never had any issues regarding race.  Despite his many failed attempts at a “Haitian takeover,” Frantzie should know better.  After all, he’s the one who led the charge to fire Baker in the first place, risking the criticism of his fellow blacks for doing so.  At the time, I actually hailed Frantzie has a hero for doing the right thing.  That lasted for about five minutes when I found out that the only reason he fired him was because Baker refused to hire any of Frantzie’s Haitian buddies.  Pierre’s motive wasn’t race, but ethnicity.  He has consistently proven since then that all he cares about is his “Haitian community.”  Frantz and his little gang of maybe six or ten are the only ones leading the charge in NMB to have 22% of the city’s population become a “majority.”  The last election results should have been a clue, but Frantzie’s obviously not too bright.

In any event, Frantzie’s efforts were shot down.  But not without a fight by Mayor George Vallejo, who appeared intent to get this thing passed despite the fact that the votes were obviously never there in the first place.  When the Mayor called Police Chief J. Scott Dennis to the podium to discuss the police service calls to Black Diamonds, George seemed to downplay the incidents, even to the point of specifically asking the Chief whether statements on the detailed police report were made by a witness/caller or an officer.  By telling him that the statements were made by the officer who responded to the call, Chief Dennis pretty much bitch slapped the Mayor.  Sorry, George.  It wasn’t pretty.

Then it was time for each of the Council members to weigh in.  Anthony DeFillipo, who has been adamantly against granting the extended hours to Black Diamonds, repeated his list of why-nots.  You go, Tony!

Councilwoman Marlen Martell gave a long and winding speech about what a hard decision they had to make and how they were torn between the best interests of the residents and the best interests of the businesses.  I’m not sure what the dilemma was because it’s the residents who cast votes at the ballot box.  Just saying.  In her commentary, she didn’t give a hint at how she intended to vote.

Councilwoman Beth Spiegel, on the other hand, came right out of the box with a clear message that she has a problem with any business “saying that our cops and City Manager are wrong.”  Beth also slapped Black Diamonds about its false advertising and smacked them again for lying about it.  But the biggest insult to her considerable intelligence was that by continuing to violate our city’s Ordinances, Black Diamonds is stating that “our laws don’t apply to them.”  Needless to say we had no doubt how Beth was going to vote.

SLAM!

Councilwoman Phyllis Smith, who these days only talks about 20% longer than she should (as opposed to the 1000% she used to speak), told the world for the hundredth time that places selling alcohol in North Miami Beach have no business staying open until 6:00 am.  Under no circumstances.  Not now.  Not EVER!  Got that?  GO, PHYLLIS!

SLAM!

Councilwoman Barbara Kramer, who must have been reading my mind, slammed Ringo Cayard for playing the Race Card.  She made absolutely no bones about the fact that she was totally disgusted with Ringo’s antics, that North Miami Beach is a multi-cultural community, and that she never again wants to hear that something is a “Haitian establishment.”  Barbara flat out told him that ours was a diverse community and “DO NOT BRING RACE INTO THIS!”

SLAM FREAKING DUNK!

Someone also brought up the fact that Black Diamonds, through its former attorney, Norman Powell (who has since been replaced by Benedict P. Kuehne) attempted to renew SMG Entertainment’s Business Tax Receipt in August of 2013 while the business was still being run by Swinging Richards.  Mr. Powell was apparently trying to sneak this license application in under the radar, knowing full well that Swinging Richards was already intending to move.  He also attempted to pay the additional fee for extended hours, which he very well knew could not be done in advance without Council approval, and not before the end of September when the licenses expire.  How sneaky!

Nearing the end of the request process, City Attorney Darcee Siegel reminded the Council that if a Business Tax Receipt request is denied, the business had to wait a full twelve months to re-apply, at which point Frantzie nearly had a meltdown.  Seeing his dreams of a “Haitian establishment” about to go up in smoke, he made a vain attempt to get Black Diamonds to rescind its request and try again, only to have Darcee tell him he was too late.  The Mayor had already asked for a vote.

And vote they did.

Mayor George Vallejo and Councilcritter Frantz Pierre voted in the affirmative.

Anthony DeFillipo, Phyllis Smith, Beth Spiegel, Barbara Kramer and Marlen Martell said:

And that, my friends, is how you say “NO!”

Buh bye, Ringo.  Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on your way out.

North Miami Beach, give it up for Tony and the girls!

WOO HOO!

Stephanie Kienzle
“Spreading the Wealth”