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But while Bateman will pass the anniversary of his arrest in the resulting trial, the voters of his city seem to
have gotten over him. And it looks like they are still able to trust in their public officials and city government. Or maybe that they can trust in their electeds and government again. Even the funding for the Seminole Theater, which las malas lenguas say has mismanaged millions of public dollars for renovations efforts in the last decade, passed with a comfy 64%.
“It made me feel like the mayor and commissioners have reinstated that sense of leadership and know that the community can trust us,” said Mayor Jeff Porter.
The new mayor says that people supported both the theater referendum because they knew that the current board overseeing the Seminole would disband and that the renovations would revert to the city’s direct hands.
“It almost didn’t answer to anyone,” Porter said about the former board. “Now, we all have to answer for it. It’s a city project, with the same oversight that any other major public project has.”
And that, he added, is where it belongs.
“There’s a much larger picture here. It’s about the downtown,” Porter told Ladra. “We’re investing monies to attract other monies, other investors. We need to start the ball rolling.”
Of course, there was almost no opposition to the bonds. Just like with the school bond in 2012 and the Jackson bond last year, there was only a pro side working. This time, it was a concentrated effort by the police unions to get the new headquarters bond passed.
But the end result is the same. And that is that it seems like whether or not Bateman is headed to jail — and we’re up one, down one with Sweetwater Mayor Manny “Maraña” Maroño in the pen and former Hialeah Mayor Julio Robaina out and reportedly thinking about another run (more on that later) — the people of Homestead have moved on.
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