Tuesday night’s North Miami Beach City Council meeting was once again a spectacle to behold. And I don’t mean that in a good way. This time, the star of the show was none other than Councilcritter Frantz Pierre.
As a prelude to the main event, Leisure Services Director Paulette Murphy was presented with Director of the Year Award. After the presentation, at minute 1:04:24, L’il Frantzie P piped in to heap praises by thanking “Paulette and her crew, Parks and Rec people for everything they do for the City. Let me tell you, I love all the employees, but I have special ties with Parks and Rec. To tell you how much I love them, as I’m talking to you right now, somebody from Parks and Rec, or Leisure Services, is making sure my son [unintelligible] is playing basketball right now. I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart. Some people they do what they love, and some people love what they do, but these people, they do what they love and they do it with passion.”
It was a regular love fest.
In typical Franzie “Drama Queen” Pierre fashion, it was one of his top ten Performances in Hypocrisy.
You will remember that in an Internal Affairs Investigation Report dated September 28, 2011, Sgt. Richard Silberman wrote that Pierre “felt that Paulette Murphy was “in ‘cahoots’ with [city employee Jean] Pompee” to fire [Frantzie’s friend] Souffrance and get rid of Pierre from the Council.”
Sorry, Frantzie. Not feelin’ the love.
At minute 1:06:11, a very contentious Resolution R2014-6 came up for discussion and vote. This Resolution entails a request for a variance by a developer building a two-story house in Eastern Shores, who is asking permission “FOR A FLAT ROOF TO BE UTILIZED AS AN OUTDOOR ELEVATED OPEN AIR LIVING SPACE” and “TO WAIVE THE MAXIMUM BUILDING HEIGHT OF THIRTY (30′) FEET TO PERMIT THE INSTALLATION OF AN ELEVATOR STRUCTURE…” (See Agenda March 4, 2013 for details.)
It should be noted that this Resolution was tabled from the previous meeting on February 18, 2014, where it was mentioned that, once constructed, this house would sell for approximately $4 million and change.
Right out of the box at minute 1:06:41, The P Man interrupted with, “Mr. Mayor. Move [unintelligible] for the record, I would like to recuse myself from this item. [Unintelligible] I am a potential buyer of this residence, and therefore, I ask Madam Clerk to provide the proper form to disclose and I will be leaving the dais.”
After dropping that bombshell, L’il Frantzie P gathered up his papers, whispered something in Phyllis’ ear and apparently left the room.
So let’s get this straight.
According to his Statement of Financial Interests filed with the State of Florida on July 1, 2013, Frantzie’s primary sources of income are Miami-Dade County Public Schools and the City of North Miami Beach.
Frantz Pierre, a 49 year old teacher for all of about 19 years (he graduated college in 1995) with a Master’s Degree in Education, earns a base salary of $56,100.00 per year, according to the Dadeschools.net 2013-2014 Teacher Salary Schedule.
As a Councilcritter, Pee-Aire earns $23,999.00 per year.
On what planet is someone who makes approximately $80,000.00 a year able to buy a house for OVER FOUR MILLION DOLLARS?
I’m sorry, but outside of Planet Frantzie, there is no way in hell he could afford that!
Let’s calculate what it would cost for him to buy that house. Assuming that he could come up with a 20% down payment of $800,000.00, he’d have to take out a 30 year mortgage for the balance of $3,200,000.00. Principal and interest on that loan at a rate of 5% comes out to $17,178.29 per month. That’s not even including taxes and insurance, which I wouldn’t even know where to begin to estimate.
Even at his gross salary of $6,666.67 per month, he’d be short by $10,511.62 each month. And I am grossly underestimating that figure since his net income would be much less after taxes, and I have no idea what his living expenses are with five young children to support.
There is no bank on Planet Earth that would lend a pissant like Frantzie even one tenth that amount. And, that’s even assuming that L’il Frantzie P had pristine credit.
Unfortunately for him, his credit is less than stellar. On March 3, 2009, a Notice of Lis Pendens was filed against Frantzie by Citimortgage, Inc. for the purpose of instituting foreclosure proceedings on a mortgage in the original principal amount of $195,000.00. Although this lawsuit was dismissed on December 22, 2009, it’s quite obvious that The P Man had to scramble together enough scratch to get him out of the hole.
If he isn’t responsible or financially equipped enough to make the payments on a $195,000.00 mortgage, there is no way in freaking hell that little weasel could possibly afford a $3,200,000.00 mortgage.
GIMME A FREAKING BREAK!
Ever since last night’s meeting, Frantzie’s little act of buffoonery is the giggle-smirk of North Miami Beach. Everyone is talking about The Frantzie Show. He has outdone even his own drama queen self with his ridiculous announcement that he’s a “potential buyer” of a house worth over FOUR MILLION BUCKS.
It’s also the commonly held belief that this was nothing more than a political stunt – one of many that Frantzie pulls in the year leading up to an election. Councilcritter Frantz Pierre is up for re-election in May of 2015, and even he knows he needs the Eastern Shores vote to pull off a win. From what I hear, the folks in Eastern Shores will not be happy if this Resolution passes. The main concern from those residents is that the flat roofed “open air living space” will encourage loud, noisy parties, which would interrupt the quiet enjoyment of neighboring homes.
If Frantzie votes for it, he risks losing that coveted voting bloc. If he votes against it, he risks the wrath of the builder and anyone in North Miami Beach who is desperate for new development. Which is pretty much everyone else except those residents who live near the proposed “party” house.
Seems to me that Frantzie is caught between that proverbial rock and hard place, eh?
So, what does he do? He dramatically claims that he’s a serious “potential buyer” of the home and must recuse himself from voting on the Resolution.
Oh, my aching sides from ROFLMAO!
Stephanie Kienzle
“Spreading the Wealth”
Spiegel even questioned this as the house is not even on the market, so how can he be a potential buyer of a house that hasn’t even been built. She even asked the developer if it has been on the market or if Pierre has talked to them about it. The answer of the gentleman was that he didn’t even know who his partners had spoken to about the property.
I found this to be very intriguing because if a third person had recused themselves from this there would have been no quorum to vote on it. what I don’t understand is why the developer needed to put the elevator to the 3rd floor. You can easily place a chair lift on the spiral staircase for anyone who needed to use something like that.
The one part of the meeting that I liked was Kramer’s request that the Charter Review Committee be reinstituted and a path to do so should be initiated by the next meeting. I hope fat people that get involved in this will look at Reed doing the Charter to allow districting voting as well as representation.
I’m guessing that the developer wanted to “put the elevator to the 3rd floor” to raise the “coolness factor” of the house. I mean, seriously, how cool would that be?
Hypothetically speaking, of course. Unlike Frantzie, I have no grand delusions that I could buy it.
Please correct the word “fat” to the word “that.” I hate the auto correction on my cell phone.
I’m so glad you cleared that up. I spent the last couple hours trying hard to remember if I know any fat people named Reed.
Nope. Can’t say that I do.
I love how L’il Frantzie P managed to click “thumbs down” on my comments. More giggle-smirk from the SporkWeasel of NMB.
Hilarious post. Loved it.
Don’t forget Phylis Smith. She made up some excuse not to vote. The Herald nailed her good in their story about her getting caught in her little fibs.
I will agree hers was not nearly as funny as Frantzie. It was still pathetic.
Embarrassing for everyone involved.
Our reporter, Patricia Sagastume, did a great job with this story. You can read it here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/03/06/3978273/developer-can-go-ahead-with-scaled.html#
Thanks for the kind words, Stephanie. You do a great job yourself!
Now I’m feelin’ the love! :-*
Him whispering to phyllis during a meeting seems like a clear violation of the sunshine laws. What could he be talking to her bout other than city business.?