Homestead’s dubious downtown deal is dead, now what?

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You can expect the Homestead City Council today to kill the plan to revitalize the downtown vis-a-vis Ernesto Perez, founder and former CEO of Dade Medical College and serial campaign contributor, who has an agreement to buy 19 city properties under extremely favorable terms and wants an extension on his plans to develop the area into a bustling, trendy commercial zone.

Ladra counts at least four “no” votes:

• Newly elected Mayor Jeff Porter nearly campaigned just months ago on being the antithesis of former Mayor Steve Bateman, who was arrested for working as an unregistered lobbyist for another company doing business with the city but who was intimately involved in the proposal and whose wife was involved in the Perez land deal. Porter can’t possibly vote for an extension.
• Councilman Jon Burgess, who I am told never really liked the plan.
• Councilwoman Judy Waldman, who said in a great Miami Herald story by Michael Vasquez that while she was in favor of the Perez plan originally, the time has come to pull the plug. My words. Not hers.
• Councilwoman Patricia Fairclough-McCormick who sorta intimated the same thing.

“I’m not amenable to it at this point, in light of everything that has unfolded in the media,” Fairclough-McCormick told Ladra Tuesday morning. “I know Ernesto Perez had a very ambitious plan and we were all excited about it. But its a house of cards falling now. We need to move in a different direction.”

That’s a majority and leaves just three others.

But Ladra happens to think that Councilman Jimmie “The Rev” Williams III will vote against the extension in the end, even though he said he originally supported giving Perez the same extension the city has granted others. Why? Because he was embarrassed by the Herald story when he didn’t know that Lucky’s Pub & Grub, the restaurant Perez opened in the area, had closed after eight months.

So that would actually be five “no” votes by my book.

I have no idea where Vice Mayor Steve Shelley and Councilman Elvis Maldonado stand. Neither could be reached for comment. Ladra left messages for both. And I will add their comments when/if I speak to them before the meeting that starts at 5:30 p.m. But both of them seem to have political aspirations beyond their current seats and each would  do well to distance himself from this mess.

But it could end up being unanimous.

Because the council is really up against a wall, here.

While efforts to revitalize the downtown area have been stalled for years, and the dream of trendy shops and bars and nightlife surrounding the college campus and creating a student community was really nice, Homestead residents are sorta sick and tired of questionable dealings like this one already and it may be better to just start fresh. I like how Vasquez put it in the Herald. “For Homestead, the choice is this: Start the redevelopment process once again from scratch, or trust the future of its downtown to Perez, a convicted sex offender who is once again in trouble with the law.”

They sorta have to pass on the plan because of the partner, who has been mired in controversy surrounding not only his dealings with Bateman, who is still facing the unrelated corruption charges, but also regarding a 1990 arrest for a sexual crime conviction involving a minor that has left everyone with a desire to wash their hands of him. And most of them don’t even know the details of the charges: That Perez was performing with his band in Wisconsin, that the girl was 15 and that she was repeatedly sexually assaulted in a hotel room by the now Homestead partner and two of his band mates.

Then there’s the 2002 arrest for a bar fight. Then there’s the criminal investigation into use of college funds, including federally protected student loan monies. Then there’s the deal to provide the sister of State Rep. Carlos Trujillo with free tuition while the legislator was voting on issues that would benefit the college.

Then there’s the fact that the prior mayor, whose wife had sold the college and Perez’s companies other nearby properties, had driven the deal which sells the land for less than half its value.

An uptick in the real estate market indicates the council can do better with a new deal. And maybe they didn’t see any doubts before, but they can’t see the forest for the red flags now.

But it is not enough to pull the plug on this pathetic deal (read: scam). The council should start the practice of performing criminal background checks on anyone that wants to do business with the city. Doesn’t mean they can’t still go ahead and do business if they want to. Just that the council members won’t be taken by surprise and cannot claim any kind of ignorance.

They should also reinstate background checks that were done away with for board and committee members under Bateman’s rule in 2010. According to one of Ladra’s sources, one of the members of a city board is wanted by Miami Dade Police for traffic offenses. She is he one who introduced Bateman to Community Health of South Florida, the firm that Bateman got that secret lobbying gig with.

And while Ladra fully expects the Perez deal to go down in flames tonight, that won’t save the ArtSouth Center from closing down because it is on private property that Perez bought in September — and then quickly raised their rent in what I think was a cynical move to get them out.

The commission needs to do something to save ArtSouth, a non-profit arts center and school that serves needy kids in the area and had quietly gotten quite a reputation. Even actor Gene Hackman, a sometimes Keys resident, took courses there, according to the Herald article.

That is the kind of thing that can really revitalize your downtown.

Thank your rodeo stars that Councilwoman Fairclough-McCormick believes that, too.

She is going to bring up a new idea tonight: ArtSouth as the center of a vibrant downtown focused on art and culture.

“If we are committed to ArtSouth and what they offer, and I am, we need to find somewhere where we would like them to be relocated or a city property they can use,” Fairclough-McCormick told Ladra.

Hey, there are at least 19 downtown properties that are suddenly going to be available.

  Downtown Homestead, Ernesto Perez, Patricia Fairclough-McCormick, Steve Bateman