Steve Bateman bud Frank May quits Seminole Theater

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More fallout from the this week’s arrest of former Homestead Mayor Steve Bateman: His campaign manager, Frank May, has resigned from the board of directors of the long-beleaguered Seminole Theater.

“It is with deep regret that I resign from the Board of Directors of the Seminole Theatre effective immediately,” May started in his email, sent at 6:20 p.m. Friday, and he blamed the public lynching of Bateman at the official press conference at City Hall Wednesday — just hours after the mayor was arrested on charges of public corruption for using his position to land a secret gig where he could use his position to benefit his client.

But that didn’t disgust Bateman’s BFF May as much as the extreme spanking from other city leaders hours after the arrest.

“The public behavior of Councilwoman Judy Waldman, Vice Mayor Jon Burgess, and City Manager George Gretsas during Wednesday’s press conference was so appalling and contemptible that I can longer in good conscience be associated with any City of Homestead project,” May wrote.

Note that he mentioned Waldman first, despite the fact that Burgess is the vice mayor and spoke first and that May ran Waldman’s campaign at one time. That may be because she was the harshest of the speakers at the podium, calling it a “good day” and painting Bateman as a bully. She also said that she and other leaders knew of the investigation for years, and called the CHI graft “the tip of the iceberg.” She ain’t kidding. Though I doubt this is what she meanth, Ladra has heard from several sources that the inquiries into Homestead’s electeds don’t end at Bateman. Wonder if Waldman knows about those, too.

Note, also, that May continues to be the campaign consultant for Bateman, who continues to fantasize that he can even come in a forced runoff. While he may have enough delusional supporters to come in third — which would say more about the Rev. Joseph Sewell than about him, maybe — Ladra finds it very hard to believe that anybody with so much baggage, some of which is richly detailed in an arrest warrant, will be elected by an increasingly wary public when there are other choices.

Even in Homestead.

But the point is, even May is admitting this in his resignation, isn’t he? Otherwise, why wouldn’t he stay on until Bateman got his job back? You know? So he can keep cashing in on it.

According to the Homestead is Home blog, May billed a lot of theater-related work when he was the city’s “ghost writer” and publicist from January, 2010, to March, 2012. There was a total of $2,900 paid from February to April of 2010, including $2,000 for a response to a special project CRA audit that reportedly found the board squandered millions of dollars.

Can’t wait to read that. And, man, Ladra is in the wrong business.

Another $525 was to respond to an article by one Annika Nord (yeah, right) in the Homestead is Home blog that blasted the bad spending that siphoned the city’s resources and questioned whether the mayor was making quid pro quo for the campaign work. Ooooooh. How dare she?

And wouldn’t that fall under his job description at the theater? Why do taxpayers have to foot that?

Maybe May should have resigned earlier. Maybe it’s a good thing he is gone now. Maybe, as a longtime Bateman critic told me, the Seminole Theater will finally be built.

  Frank May, Homestead elections, Seminole Theater, Steve Bateman