During the 2019 campaign season when then-Councilman Philippe Bien-Aime was running for Mayor of North Miami, a grand total of $33,500 was “donated” to various religious institutions by the Mayor and Council Office.

This is not surprising.

It’s commonly known that many clergy members use their pulpits to encourage their congregants to exercise their right to vote … especially for local politicians who make generous donations to their houses of worship.

This year, two North Miami politicians are running for re-election … and they’ve kicked “discretionary” spending up a notch.

In the current Fiscal Year beginning October 1, 2020, Mayor Philippe Bien-Aime has spent $13,833.39 of your tax dollars through February 10, 2021.

 

On your behalf, Philippe gave a generation “donation” of $4,500 to the Notre Dame D’Haiti Catholic Church.

The rest of his “discretionary funds” were spent on school supplies and food giveaways so he can take credit for “helping” North Miami residents without actually having to dip into his own pocket.

We’re especially curious about the $4,500 of NoMi residents’ tax dollars that he spent on “Meals for Families in Little Haiti,” which, last time we checked, was not located in the City of North Miami.

On top of all this “discretionary” spending, Philippe Bien-Aime is also ripping off taxpayers to the tune of more than $400 a month by demanding the use of a City vehicle.

As part of his compensation package, the Mayor is entitled to a car allowance of $750.00 a month, which is supposed to supplement the expense of his personal car, including insurance and gasoline.

Instead of taking that allowance, on February 10, 2020 he was given a brand new City-leased 2020 GMC Yukon SLE, at a taxpayer cost of $917.95 per month.

While the vehicle is covered under the City’s insurance policy, if Philippe had to pay for his own coverage it would cost him approximately $120.00 per month.

And, while North Miami taxpayers have to pump and pay for their own gasoline, which is currently averaging about $2.94 per gallon, His Royal Highness the Mayor orders his subjects, the City staffers, to pick up his vehicle and have it gassed up at the City’s pumps.

Yes, you read that correctly.

According to the fuel logs obtained by a public records request, between February 25, 2020 and February 12, 2021 North Miami taxpayers shelled out $1,410.56, or an average of $118 per month, to allow King Philippe to be transported in the comfort and style that most residents could only dream of being able to afford.

Bottom line, instead of receiving the monthly $750.00 car allowance permitted for North Miami elected officials, for the past 15 months Philippe’s vehicle has been costing taxpayers $1,155.95 a month, or an additional $405.95 a month, for a grand total of $6,089.25 – so far – that he is not entitled to receive.

Raise your hand if you want him to pay you back!

Then again, he needs to scam as much money as possible from North Miami taxpayers since he’s about to lose his home in foreclosure for failure to make the $2,408.55 monthly mortgage payments since he entered into a Settlement Agreement on March 25, 2020.

Philippe has also refused to pay his real estate taxes for the years 2019 and 2020, for a total indebtedness of $10,430.94.

Philippe’s fellow grifter on the dais is just as irresponsible with not only her own money, but with your hard-earned tax dollars as he is.

So far this fiscal year, Councilwoman Mary Estimé-Irvin wasted even more of your tax dollars on a “discretionary” spending spree of $18,565.

While she doled out most of it on food for her “altruistic” giveaways, taking credit for your generosity, Mary also spent $1,040 on “Holiday Cards” and … $5,510 on a video so all you peasants can enjoy a virtual bowl of soup.

For the second year in a row, North Miami Councilwoman Mary Estimé-Irvin celebrated Haitian Independence Day with Soup Joumou, which symbolizes Haitian Freedom.

Last year on January 1, 2020, Mary hosted the three hour event at Griffing Park advertising that “Complimentary bowls of Soup Joumou will be served.”  The entire Soup Joumou cost North Miami taxpayers a reasonable $476.38, which included $197.00 for the soup, and $279.38 for the paper goods and beverages.

This year, she spent an outrageous $5,510.00 of North Miami’s taxpayer dollars, for an event that residents couldn’t even attend in person.

Buy, hey…

Folks, we couldn’t make this up if we tried.

For good measure, Mary also gave away $2,000 to the non-profit Scholars Today, Leaders of Tomorrow, and another $1,000 of your tax dollars to “Pearls of Wisdom,” an alleged “global women’s network” run by Mary’s bestie, Naomi Blemur and her husband Anis Blemur, who is currently serving seven years in federal prison for a real estate fraud scheme.  It should be noted that the “Pearls of Wisdom” organization is nowhere to be found in either the Florida Division of Corporations database or the Internal Revenue Service Tax Exempt Organization database.

And you don’t even get a tax write-off for your generous donations.

Even more egregious, Mary used $2,500.00 of her discretionary funds to buy campaign ads disguised as “Valentine’s Day Senior Gifts” at $25 apiece – including a card with her picture and the city logo imprinted – and gave them away to 100 of her personal “super voters.”

And, in case she didn’t spend enough money on a Hallmark card holiday celebration usually reserved for couples, Mary spent another $5,999.74 on a “Valentine Rendezvous Drive-in Movie” for a special screening of Disney’s Aladdin.

Because nothing says romance like the story of “a poor street urchin who spends his time stealing food from the marketplace in the city of Agrabah.”

We’re told that about 15 cars showed up for her drive-in movie, which ended up costing North Miami taxpayers about $400 per family.

But, wait.  There’s more!

Mary’s latest campaign scheme was the March 25, 2021 Women’s Empowerment Network Virtual Luncheon, which cost North Miami taxpayers a grand total of $6,851.60, including a “free” lunch for her top 100 voters.

Although only 53 of her future voters took Mary up on the offer, North Miami taxpayers still ended up paying for $1,043.60 for their dining pleasure, $1,145.00 for advertising, $500.00 for crystal awards to give to the speakers, which included her ever-present BFF Naomi Blemur, and a whopping $4,164 to “produce” her self-promoting video designed to enlighten women on “10 Top Business Rebranding Ideas.”

Just imagine this “brilliant” idea, coming from a woman who boasts a string of failed businesses, including Lynclalee Entertainment, Inc., Irvin Staffing, Inc., Estime & Irvin Associates, Inc., and Estime & Irvin Consulting, Inc. to her credit.

Not to mention the more than $1.5 MILLION she owes to creditors, including the Internal Revenue Service for tax liens, the Florida Elections Commission for violation fines, Miami-Dade County for medical bills, the City of North Miami for Code violations, not to mention back rent on the house she lives in but will soon be evicted from.

But, hey.  She’s the expert on “rebranding.”

Or something.

And then, like Philippe Bien-Aime, in lieu of her $750.00 car allowance, which Mary stopped receiving in June of 2020 when she was given a City-owned 2018 Ford Explorer, which originally cost $31,276.

If Mary had purchased that vehicle in June, 2020 with her own money, she would have paid approximately $28,000-$30,000 for it.  Assuming she would have even been able to get a three year loan at all with her horrendous credit rating, she’d be paying approximately $1,000 a month, plus another $100 for insurance

Then there’s the gasoline she would have to pay for out of her own pocket.

Instead, like Philippe, Mary Estimé-Irvin believes she’s entitled to taxpayer funded fuel at the City’s pumps.

According to the fuel logs obtained by a public records request, from June 10, 2020 through February 2, 2021, you paid a total of $434.75 , or approximately $62.00 per month to keep Mary rolling along.

And, like Philippe, instead of the $750.00 car allowance permitted for North Miami elected officials, Mary has been receiving a monthly benefit worth approximately $1,162, or an additional $412 a month for the past seven months.  So far that adds up to a grand total of $2,884 that she’s not entitled to receive.

Raise your hand if you want Mary to pay you back.

Worse, according to the City of North Miami’s Administrative Regulation 1-56 regarding the use of take home vehicles, Philippe and Mary are in violation of:

• Section 6, which states that “No private or personal business shall be conducted in take home vehicles,” with the exception of sworn police officers who live within the City of North Miami.
• Section 9, which states that “The employee utilizing a take home vehicle shall not transport any person not employed by the City of North Miami.”
• Probably all of the Prohibited Activities listed in Section 10, especially the part about not using the vehicle within 12 hours of drinking an alcoholic beverage, driving to establishments serving alcoholic beverages, and transporting alcoholic beverages.

While Administrative Regulation 1-56 does not specifically prohibit City employees from using their take home vehicles to campaign for re-election, we’re pretty sure they should be reporting these expenses as in-kind donations on their Campaign Treasurer’s Reports according to Florida Statute 106, Campaign Financing.

Not that Mary would pay that fine anyway if someone were to file an official complaint.

Just saying.

Philippe Bien-Aime and Mary Estimé-Irvin are nothing but grifters and con artists, not to mention a drain on the City’s taxpaying residents.

They need to be booted out of office on May 11, 2021.

Luckily, there are two excellent, honest, and ethical candidates who have stepped up to make sure this happens.

Stay tuned…

North Miami residents deserve better.

Stephanie