“Complaining for Dummies”

Even though the 2013 North Miami Beach City Council election is so last year, we’re still feeling the effects of the fallout from Councilcritter Frantz Pierre’s interference.

Despite his protestations to the contrary, we all know that L’il Frantzie P recruited a carpetbagger from Miramar to run against his own colleague, Beth Spiegel, in her bid for re-election. Fortunately, his fraudulent candidate Yvenoline Dargenson lost, relieving Judge Darrin Gayles of the need to overturn the election, as he had warned he would, if necessary. On May 22, 2013, he ordered that the election be certified.

Still, there were a few loose ends that needed to be dealt with long after the election was over.

In one of my columns posted during the election, I wrote, “There are other discrepancies in Yvenoline “Yve” Dargenson’s Campaign Treasurer’s Reports, which have already been submitted to the Florida Elections Commission in a formal Complaint. I’ll keep you posted on the outcome of that issue.”

Well that day of reckoning has arrived.

In the Complaint that I filed, I contended that Dargenson failed to report the payments for the filing fee and sign bond on her Campaign Treasurer’s Reports. On May 6th and 7th, the Florida Elections Commission held their regular meeting and voted unanimously to approve a Consent Final Order dated March 18, 2014, in which the Commission found that the “Respondent certified the report was true, correct, and complete when it was not.” Dargenson agreed that she screwed up and had to pay a “civil penalty” of $600.00.

Granted, six hundred bucks is a drop in the bucket compared to the financial (and emotional) cost to the City of North Miami Beach, and Beth Spiegel personally, for our having to deal with a carpetbagger. But, hopefully, this small victory for voters will help serve as a deterrent to other non-residents who are stupid enough to try running in NMB next year.

They have already been warned.

Speaking of stupid…

If you’re gonna file a Complaint with the Florida Elections Commission, you should at least be smarter than a fifth grader.

In a separate Complaint filed with the FEC on April 1, 2013, I alleged that Dargenson’s husband, Frannix Jean-Mary had fraudulently voted in Miami-Dade County in every election since 2000, when he, in fact, lived in Miramar, Broward County, Florida since that year. As exhibits to my Complaint, I attached copies of his warranty deed, marriage license, real estate brokerage license, and property tax record, all reflecting that he lived in Broward County. I also included a printout from the Florida Secretary of State (sunbiz.org) of a limited liability company of which Frannix was the registered agent and manager, also reflecting his address in Broward County. In addition to all the very public records that I provided proving that Frannix Jean-Mary was a resident of Miramar, I also attached as an exhibit the Miami-Dade County Voting Record of Frannix Jean-Mary.

It was quite obvious to me (and I believed I proved it) that Mr. Jean-Mary committed voter FRAUD.

In what was obviously a retaliatory move, Frannix Jean-Mary filed a (Counter?) Complaint against me, alleging that my Complaint against him was “false and it included a fabricated document mean [sic] the complainant violated the law and committed a fraud on the FEC and made a false claim against me.”

His “proof” that I “included a fabricated document” and “violated the law and committed a fraud on the FEC?”

Frannix Jean-Mary attached “a copy of the sunbiz.org record to show where my wife Yvenoline Dargenson name [sic] shows the above North Miami Beach address. The complainant violated the law and committed FRAUD.”

Let’s see if we can get this straight.

I filed a complaint against Frannix Jean-Mary for living in Broward County and voting in Miami-Dade County.

My complaint didn’t even mention his wife, who claimed she didn’t live with him and her minor children when she ran for office in North Miami Beach in the 2013 election. The sunbiz.org printout that I attached was an exhibit to my Complaint against Frannix Jean-Mary, not his wife, Yvenoline Dargenson.

As I explained in a response to the Florida Elections Commission, “This “document” was printed directly from the sunbiz.org website. The absence of his wife’s name was due to the format in which it was printed and merely a scrivenor’s error. It was not altered or edited by me in any manner.”

But, even more importantly, as I also told the FEC, “The Complaint that I originally filed (FEC Case #13-130) was against Frannix Jean-Mary with respect to the fact that he is allegedly fraudulently registered to vote in Miami-Dade County, Florida, yet he lives in a property he owns and for which he receives a homestead exception that is located in Broward County, Florida. My complaint had absolutely nothing to do with his wife, Yvenoline Dargenson, and the fact that her name was inadvertently missing from the sunbiz.org printout has absolutely nothing to do with said complaint. The complaint filed against me by Mr. Jean-Mary was completely without merit or substance.”

As the Respondent against whom Frannix Jean-Mary’s Complaint was filed, I also waived my right to confidentiality, which is why I’m perfectly free to blog it.

I’m also perfectly free to point out that while living in Miami-Dade County is a prerequisite for being able to vote in Miami-Dade county, passing a literacy test is not a requirement.

Just saying.

In any event, we all now anxiously await the Florida Elections Commission’s decision as to whether or not there is probable cause that I “violated the law and committed FRAUD.”

As you can see…