Homestead bonds pass as voters forget Steven Bateman

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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 turnout, but typical for a special election. A total of 1,780 people decided that all the property owners should pay about an average of $120 more a year to get these things done.

That’s striking in and of itself — particularly because these folks are already paying an additional bond (read: temporary tax) for Miami-Dade Public Schools, passed in 2012, and another one for Jackson Health System, passed last November.

But even more striking is that Homestead voters don’t seem too shell-shocked from the arrest last August of their former mayor, Steven Bateman, on public corruption charges. Investigators say that Bateman obtained unlawful compensation by using his office and his influence as mayor to benefit Community Health of South Florida, which was seeking to fast track permits and approvals in both the city and at the county level to expand its chain of healthcare clinics.

Those are two felonies. He is also charged with county violations — lobbying without registering and exploiting his office for financial benefit — and seven misdemeanor counts of campaign finance violations.

Read related: Another mayor goes down: Homestead’s Steven Bateman

Among the people he spoke to were Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez, who told reporters at the time of Bateman’s arrest, that he had come to City Hall to talk about the county approvals and possibly facilitating the construction of a clinic, , but that he thought it was as mayor of Homestead looking out for his constituency, not as a lobbyist for the institution looking out for his wallet. Bateman must have spoken to his staff too, since Deputy Mayors Alina Hudak and Jack Osterholt were also deposed for the trial, which was set last week for August (more on that later).

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  Homestead politics, public corruption, Steve Bateman