As we celebrate this national Labor Day holiday, we’re reminded that “the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country,” as declared by the U.S. Department of Labor.
The hardworking residents of North Miami who pay their fair share of taxes to keep their local government in business deserve to be honored today … and they deserve to have a say about how their tax dollars are spent.
Unfortunately, they’re getting royally screwed by elected officials who believe they’re entitled to a disproportionate share of the government coffers.
Take the newly crowned Queen Councilwoman, Mary Estimé-Irvin, for example. Within five minutes of her inauguration induction, she started complaining that she couldn’t possibly live on her overly generous salary of $47,910 – for what is supposed to be a part-time job.
According to her 2019 campaign website, “Mary Estime-Irvin is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Estime & Irvin Associates. Under Mary’s leadership, Estime & Irvin Associates has become a leading recruitment and staffing agency in South Florida by offering superior services to help meet business personnel temporary or permanent needs.”
According to the Florida Division of Corporations, however, Estime & Irvin Associates, Inc. was formed on September 26, 2011, and administratively dissolved five years later on September 23, 2016 for failure to file the 2016 Annual Report.
A year later on June 27, 2017, Mary Estimé-Irvin formed Estime & Irvin Consulting, LLC, which has yet to file the 2019 Annual Report, and will also be administratively dissolved later this month if it isn’t filed immediately.
Nevertheless, Mary is so appreciative of city workers, whose salaries are paid by North Miami residents, she distributed the following message:
The workers of Estime & Irvin Associates, however, whose salaries come out of Mary’s pocket, aren’t so appreciated.
According to the job-seeking website indeed.com, one of her former, and very much unappreciated, employees gave this company only one out of five stars and wrote:
Imagine that.
And yet, Councilwoman Estimé-Irvin and her colleagues on the dais, Mayor Philippe Bien-Aime, Councilwoman Carol Keys, Councilman Scott Galvin and Councilman Alix Desulme, have no problem being generous with taxpayer money – especially when it comes to “donating” your hard-earned tax dollars to their own personal pet causes.
According to the Check Register on the North Miami Citizen Transparency Portal, so far during this fiscal year alone (through August 15, 2019) the Department of the Mayor and Council “donated” a grand total of $39,500.00 to religious institutions …
Plus an additional $75,034 to other non-profit organizations …
Isn’t that special?
There’s only one problem.
Actually, make that two problems.
For one thing, the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution specifically states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…” In a January 1, 1802 letter published in a Massachusetts newspaper, Thomas Jefferson expounded by adding, “thus building a wall of separation between Church & State.”
The Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment preventing government from prohibiting the free exercise of religion gives every citizen the right to support the religion of their choice, or no religion at all.
By doling out taxpayer money to specific religious organizations of their own choosing, the North Miami Mayor and Council are violating the rights of residents to tithe their income, or not, according to their personal beliefs.
Just as egregious, the “donation” of public money to any non-profit organization allows the Mayor and Council to take all the glory for their “generosity,” while the taxpayers of North Miami – the actual donors – are deprived of their right to claim charitable deductions on their tax returns.
As of today, the City of North Miami is operating under a deficit of more than a $7.20 million with only 28 days remaining in this fiscal year.
The Mayor and Council have no business making any “donations” whatsoever on the backs of the taxpayers who are footing the bill for their reckless spending.
Happy Labor Day to the hardworking residents and employees of North Miami, who deserve so much better!
Stephanie
North Miami government officials are constantly seeking out angles to enrich themselves at the expense of their hardworking taxpayer constituents. Thank you Steph for your constant support and effort to expose it.
It’s about time to seek questions and legal resolutions to this matter. What can we legally do about it?
North Miami voter turnout in this past election set a record low ….around 20%. So….stop complaining and vote…and vote for good guys like Scott Galvin.
Local elections not held during Miami-Dade County run state or national election months traditionally have low voter turnout. North Miami Beach amended its charter to hold their municipal elections in November instead of May, which actually turned out to be a mixed blessing. Voter turnout was much higher than when elections were held in May, but early voting outside city precincts was a complete nightmare for both candidates and residents.
For years I was a very vocal supporter of this charter amendment, but after seeing the unintended consequences last November, I’m now convinced it was a bad idea. In order to increase voter turnout (and reduce the chances of absentee ballot fraud) in North Miami residents need to talk to their friends and neighbors, tell them all the consequences of not electing quality candidates, and urge them to get out and vote!
I, for one, was a vocal supporter of the charter amendment moving our municipal election to November along with the other more popular election dates. It saved the city from extra costs associated with the election as well as provided a better turnout of the residents. Many of the former council (now called commissioners) told me it wasn’t good for the city because many uninformed voters would be voting and more non-qualified people would get elected. I saw this as a form of voter suppression or disenfranchising so that it was a form of government of the many by a few select people.
It turns out those who were telling me this were correct in a lot of ways as seen by the commissioners that were elected in the past election. They have fired people who were influential in turning the city’s progress into a positive one for the future and we seemed to have digressed. Also, many costly pet projects seem to be coming forth that are costing the city taxpayer’s money so that these commissioners would be popular with the lower income residents who do not put in the same percentage of taxes as the higher income residents as seen by the current millage rate proposals for FY 2020.
I see NMB becoming more and more like North Miami in that we will see many more wasted use of taxpayer money and a turn away from companies and people investing in bringing their businesses to our city. I am hoping in next year’s election that the seats that were elected in 2018 for the remainder of the terms, 1 (Mayor), 5 and 7, as well as Seat 3 (termed out) will bring forth candidates that will put the city first over wanting to further their own political careers.
A donation to the Anis Blemur Institute (ABI) seems a bit suspect considering Mr Blemur was sentenced to seven years in Federal prison for fraud……
http://bit.ly/2lWg0Yp
Maybe they didn’t even know he had been charged and was in trial at the time of the donation.
That $500 donation was made on March 5, 2019, even though had been arrested four months earlier in November of 2018 for wire fraud to the tune of $1.6 million. In addition, the Mayor and Council previously donated $500 on June 12, 2018 and $1,000 on September 11, 2018 to Blemur’s bogus “non-profit.” That’s a total of $2,000 that North Miami taxpayers flushed down the toilet to a now convicted criminal.