The fact that you’re reading this column right now is a proof positive that neither MIRAMAR RESIDENT Yvenoline “Yve” Dargenson nor Hillel Hellinger care about the City of North Miami Beach.  Let me explain.

Ever since last Tuesday’s city council election, which resulted in a runoff for two of the seats that were up for grabs, we’ve all been waiting to see the outcome of the lawsuit filed by Beth Spiegel against Dargenson, et al.  Assuming she won enough votes to compete in a runoff, the judge in this case ordered Dargenson to finally sit down for the deposition that she avoided before the election.  In that event, the lawsuit would continue as scheduled.

In Group 2, the runoff will be between Anthony “Tony” DeFillipo and Hillel Hellinger, and the candidates vying for Group 6 are incumbent Beth E. Spiegel and MIRAMAR RESIDENT Yvenoline “Yve” Dargenson.  Both Tony and Beth are the frontrunners in their respective races and should win handily come next Tuesday.

As I wrote about in NMB Election Results and the Gadfly’s Commentary, the only reason we even have to have a runoff election is because the winning candidate must win by a margin of 50% plus 1.  With five candidates running in one race and four in the other, the votes were spread out enough so that no one candidate received enough of a majority.  Beth missed her chance to win outright by 81 votes, and Tony by a mere 28.

Beth Spiegel received 931 votes, or 46.02%, out of the 2,023 cast in her race.  With 558 votes, Dargenson received the next highest amount, or 27.58% of the total votes.  The other two candidates, Muriel Kemp with 367 votes and Rene Alfonso with 167, received 18.14% and 8.26% of the total votes, respectively.

In this race, the jury (or actually, the judge) is still out on whether Dargenson was even qualified to be a contender at all.  If the judge makes what I believe is the correct decision, and removes her from the race, then the 558 votes cast for her will be tossed into the garbage for all they’re worth.  Thanks to Frantz Pierre, who put her up to this mess, 558 voters might have wasted their time because their ballots will be nullified.  Way to go, Frantzie!

Rene Alfonso was destined to lose from the start since he’s only lived in our city for a little over two years and has shown absolutely no interest in our community whatsoever until the day he was pushed into the race.  Even though he scared up paltry few votes, they were still enough to avert a runoff if they had been in either Beth’s or Muriel’s favor.

Muriel Kemp was the only viable candidate to challenge the incumbent, even though I still believe she should have chosen a seat she could actually have won.  In 2011 she also lost against Beth and perennial candidate Hans Mardy, when she might have had better luck unseating either Frantz Pierre or Phyllis Smith, and possibly even Philippe Derose.  I feel she should have not challenged Beth again.  However, if this 2013 race had been contained to only Beth and Muriel, a clear cut winner would have emerged.  Most likely, it would have been Beth.  Instead, we get a runoff.  Unless, of course, the judge decides favorably for the city.

In Group 2, Tony DeFillipo was even a bigger winner at 990 of 2,035 votes, or 48.65%.  With a revised count of 310 votes (after a mandatory recount), Hellinger made the runoff with only 15.23% of the total vote count.  Heretofore unknowns, Jean D. Berrouet and Jaime Miller, scored 304 (14.94%) and 230 (11.30%) votes, respectively.  Trailing at the back of the race, Margie Love scared up a paltry 201 votes, or 9.88%.  With such a tremendous lead, Tony should have won this race hands down even if any one of the other candidates hadn’t run.  As it stands, however, because the remaining 52.35% of the votes were split four ways, we get a runoff.

Early voting costs the taxpayers of North Miami Beach a grand total of FIFTY NINE THOUSAND DOLLARS!  (The NMB general election already cost us $58,000.00, but a runoff costs even more because it’s “crunch time,” as it was explained to me by the Clerk.)

If any of the candidates who had no chance of winning really cared about the future of our city, they would have thought twice before causing a runoff.  As it stands now, if Dargenson and Hellinger gave a damn about costing the taxpayers FIFTY NINE THOUSAND DOLLARS, they would concede to their opponents right now.  In the final analysis, Dargenson’s chance of getting more than 50% of the vote is quite slim, and Hillenger’s chance is even slimmer.  Even if Dargenson is able to bring up her support and vote count at all, she still has to face a court decision, which may disqualify her from the race altogether.

In that respect, and not surprisingly, she’s showing little desire to cooperate with the law.  As we speak, Yvenoline “Yve” Dargenson is most likely in contempt of court and if the judge rules against her, Yve’s candidacy might be moot anyway.  Several days ago I heard she was considering dropping out of the race, although I figured it was just a rumor.  I made a gentleman’s bet with myself that I’d run with this story if she stayed in the race, so here it is.

Yve was served on April 30, 2013 with a “Subpoena Deuces Tecum for Deposition.”  What this means is that she was ordered to be deposed and to bring certain documentation as listed on the subpoena.  According to an Emergency Motion for Contempt Re: Defendant Dargenson’s Response (or Lack Thereof) to Subpoena Deuces Tecum, and Motion to Compel filed yesterday with the Circuit Court, Dargenson avoided sitting for the original deposition by claiming that “she should not have to stop her campaigning during early voting” by wasting time sitting for a deposition.  Even though she barely showed her face at early voting, the judge granted her leeway and issued an Order of Protection so that she wouldn’t have to be deposed until after the election.

On Wednesday, May 8, 2013, the day after the election, the judge said the deposition was back on, and that Yve was to produce the documents requested in the subpoena.  When she showed up to the deposition on May 10, 2013, Beth’s attorney was dismayed to see that she had not produced a single new document than the ones she had already brought to the first hearing on May 3, 2013, none of which were sufficient to satisfy the requirements of the subpoena.

The Motion for Contempt and Motion to Compel listed a bunch of things she refused to present, such as:

1.  Tax returns for the years 2010, 2011 and 2012;
2.  Titles and registrations for vehicles she owned from March 31, 2010 through March 30, 2013;
3.  Car insurance polices;
4.  Mortgage refinance documents on her MIRAMAR home;
5.  Homeowners insurance policies;
6.  Health and life insurance polices;
7.  The names and addresses of the owners of any of the above insurance policies;
8.  Her passport;
9.  Utility bills for her MIRAMAR home;
10.  Checking account statements;
11.  Credit card statements; and
12.  Safe deposit box records.

The items requested, with sensitive personal information redacted of course, are needed in order to determine residency.  This is pretty much a standard list of items people have easy access to and there’s no reason she shouldn’t be able to produce them, UNLESS SHE HAS SOMETHING TO HIDE.

As Joseph S. Geller, Esq. stated in his Motion for Contempt, Yvenoline had ten whole days to gather these documents and present them in accordance with the Subpoena Deuces Tecum, and that “Apparently, she is trying to ‘run out the clock’ by avoiding discovery.”

Not surprising, since she tried to avoid being served with the lawsuit in the first place for an entire week!

If Yvenoline “Yve” Dargenson really does live in North Miami Beach and she has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO HIDE, why won’t she comply with the legal request for her documents?

Only someone with secrets would deliberately disobey a court order.

Even if Yvenoline “Yve” Dargenson is allowed to stay in the race (and shame on the judge if he doesn’t see through her), do we really need another scofflaw on our council?

The unvarnished truth here, folks, is that she is one of Frantz Pierre’s cronies.  L’il Frantzie P is nothing if not conniving and manipulative, so it stands to reason there was a method to his madness by convincing her to run for city council.  His ONLY agenda is to increase the “Haitian” vote and thereby increase his own power base.  Frantz Pee-Aire has absolutely no concern with the best interests of the city, and especially the 88% of residents who aren’t Haitian.  He is the master at playing identity politics.

By avoiding answering questions openly and honestly, and avoiding compliance with a judge’s order, Yvenoline “Yve” Dargenson has proven that she is just as unscrupulous as her “mentor,” The P Man.  We can’t trust Frantzie, and therefore by extension, we certainly can’t trust Yvie!

I received a copy of the Plaintiff’s Motion last night, but I was hoping against hope that both Dargenson and Hellinger would come to their senses and bow out gracefully by today.  I can see that I was wasting my time expecting either of them to do the right thing.  All bets are off.  They are now fodder for the Gadfly.

At this point, if both Yve and Hillel insist on staying in this race, and UNNECESSARILY COSTING THE TAXPAYERS ANOTHER $59,000.00 only to inevitably lose, I will make sure every North Miami Beach voter knows the price tag.  I’ll also do everything in my power to make sure they’ll never eat lunch in this town again!

If they thought I was hard on them before, especially Yvie, they ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

Stephanie Kienzle
“Spreading the Wealth