After a little more than two years of litigation, a civil case involving three elected members of the North Miami City Council is scheduled to proceed to trial on August 24, 2026, before the Eleventh Judicial Circuit Court in Miami-Dade County at 10:00 a.m.
It will be heard at the Osvaldo N. Soto Miami-Dade Justice Center, 20 NW 1st Avenue, Miami, FL 33128, courtroom 24D.
The lawsuit was filed by Eileen Bicaba against three North Miami elected council members, Mary Estimé-Irvin, Kassandra Timothe and Pierre Charles. The suit alleges violations of the North Miami City Charter provision that restricts elected officials from interfering with the City Manager’s authority over city staff and administrative decisions.
According to the allegations filed with the court, the lawsuit claims that three council members violated the City Charter provision that prohibits elected officials from interfering with the City Manager’s direction and staff. The complaint alleges that the council members operated outside of the State of Florida sunshine laws when they sent third party individuals to improperly influence then City Manager Rasha Cameau to withhold discipline and/or termination of the public works director, Wisler Pierre-Louis, despite the manager’s documented problems with that employee.
Under the council-manager form of government used by many cities — including North Miami — elected officials are responsible for setting policy, representing residents and providing oversight whereas the City Manager is generally responsible for the day to day administration of city departments and management of municipal employees. The purpose of these structures is to help ensure that personnel decisions are handled professionally and without improper political pressure. North Miami’s charter strictly prohibits electeds from interfering with city staff, punishable by removal from office.
The trial will be held in person. Residents are encouraged to attend the trial.
VotersOpinion Editorial Board
There will actually be a trial of unethical politicians? I’m shocked and buying a large bag of popcorn.
Only because someone had the guts to take the sunshine law breakers to court and stick it out with tenacity! Unfortunately, that’s the only way to have these laws enforced.
Stephanie … The court room is 21D in the Soto Justice Center on Monday, August 24, 2026 at 10:00 AM
Thank you. I won’t be going down there to Miami but I’m sure I’ll find out the outcome right away. Hoping for justice to finally be served!
Stephanie .. You were right on the court room .. it was 24D .. crazy Metro Miami Dade court system .. they had the wrong number in their posting on the clerk’s page .. You will laugh when I got off the 21st floor of the Soto Center .. lets say .. it is functional and beautiful on the inside .. on the outside .. west of the beautiful and empty historic courthouse (built in 1900 by Henry M. Flagler’s funds and expanded in 1925 at the height of the great Florida’s land boom) .. it looks like a stack of gray catalog books with black trim .. The trial continues at 11:00 AM on Tuesday, August 25, 2026 in Courtroom 24D for the second day. We had a large group of spectators from North Miami. One tape did showed the wise comment by Kevin Burns who addressed why our City Council should not fired our city manager on May 7, 2024 special meeting called at 5:30 PM. Do you remember that 5 ring circus by the score of 37-5!
I was wondering what happened to the gorgeous architectural wonder of the Dade County Courthouse! In my career as a paralegal on Brickell, I used to walk to the courthouse at least once or twice a month just to walk through like it was a museum.
You’ll appreciate this article from 2009: https://www.floridabar.org/the-florida-bar-journal/preserving-our-states-legal-heritage-restoration-of-the-historic-miami-courtroom-6-1/ Judge Scott Silverman, who was in my class at Beach High, was also the head of the 11th Judicial Circuit Historical Society. I wonder what will happen to this historic building.
I remember that 5-ring circus like it was yesterday. I can’t believe it was two-plus years ago already. I pretty much stopped writing about North Miami around that same time out of sheer disgust.
NMB is not far behind.