Homestead bonds pass as voters forget Steven Bateman

Homestead bonds pass as voters forget Steven Bateman

Voters in Homestead passed two bond referendums that will raise $25 million to build a much needed police station — the bank the cops currently use is riddled with mold and radon — and finally renovate the Seminole Theater, which many city leaders hope can be a beacon to downtown revitalization. It wasn’t a great […]

Homestead’s Steve Shiver strikes out on bowling alley

Homestead’s Steve Shiver strikes out on bowling alley

Steve Shiver’s sweetheart deal to build a 32-lane bowling alley on city property in Homestead seemed like a sure thing. Homestead council members, sitting as a committee of the whole — which is just another name for the Homestead Council — had agreed last week to sell the bowling alley to a group of developers […]

ABs drop today in four cities and for countywide Jackson bond

ABs drop today in four cities and for countywide Jackson bond

More than 190,000 absentee ballots will be mailed today to voters in Miami-Dade County for the Nov. 5 question on the public financing of Jackson Health System’s modernization, which is being pushed by the same team of campaign consultants, more or less, who got Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez re-elected and got last year’s school bond […]

Homestead: Mark Bell PAC kills two birds with one mailer

Homestead: Mark Bell PAC kills two birds with one mailer

When we last reported the finances of the mayoral campaign in Homestead, we said that hotelier Mark Bell was winning slightly with a comfortable $3,500 lead over former Mayor Steve Bateman with Bell’s total reaching $18,500 in contributions in half the time. But Bell, husband to Miami-Dade Commissioner Lynda Bell, actually has more than three […]

Homestead manager to get pat on back (read: job security)

Homestead manager to get pat on back (read: job security)

Homestead City Manager George Gretsas will very likely get a two-year extension on his contract tonight, in part as a pat on the back for his role in the investigation that led to the arrest last month of former Mayor Steve Bateman on public corruption charges. Gretsas, hired last year, doesn’t get a raise in […]

Meet Frank May of Homestead: Steve Bateman’s brain

Meet Frank May of Homestead: Steve Bateman’s brain

In the wake of the arrest this week of the now-suspended Homestead Mayor Steve Bateman on public corruption charges, questions are starting to arise about how much his campaign manager and confidant, Frank May, had to do not only with his graft but with day-to-day city operations. Described to Ladra by several people as a shady […]

FBI informant, lobbyist Michael Kesti tied to Homestead case

FBI informant, lobbyist Michael Kesti tied to Homestead case

Interestingly enough, there is a common denominator in the two different arrests this month of three local mayors on corruption charges: South Dade lobbyist turned FBI informant Michael Kesti. Kesti, who served Sweetwater Mayor Manny “Maraña” Maroño and Miami Lakes Mayor Michael “Muscles” Pizzi up to federal authorities as a paid informant in a bribery […]

Another mayor goes down: Homestead’s Steve Bateman

Another mayor goes down: Homestead’s Steve Bateman

Another day, another local mayor arrested: Homestead Mayor Steve Bateman was taken into custody Wednesday on charges of taking unlawful compensation. That’s police code for bribes and kickbacks and, in this case, taking secret jobs to use your political influence on other government officials. The mayor has been under investigation for a multitude of things […]