Another one bites the dust!

In case you haven’t heard, the latest sitting mayor in Miami-Dade County to be arrested is Steve Bateman from Homestead. According to David Ovalle’s article in the Miami Herald, Homestead Mayor Bateman arrested over consulting job, he was on the payroll as a consultant for a non-profit organization that’s constructing a children’s clinic in his city. The article states, “Bateman also never informed the county of his employment with the nonprofit, even when he met with Mayor Carlos Gimenez and his top aides to personally plead for Miami-Dade to fast-track a multimillion-dollar Homestead sewer system expansion that would facilitate construction of a proposed CHI children’s clinic in downtown Homestead.”

Before you wonder how it’s possible that anyone could be so stupid, or devious, or both, let me remind you that he was one of the endorsers pictured on Lucie Tondreau’s palm card when she was running for mayor of North Miami.

As I mentioned in The Daily Douce: Coco Endorsed by the Circle of Corruption, Bateman was also pictured smiling and standing next to State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle in a column by Eye On Miami, Me and Some Other Bloggers Have Little Hope for Miami Dade County. I wrote, “I’m guessing that mayor Bateman is a good candidate for Circle of Corruption membership.”

The irony is that the very same State Attorney pictured in the Eye’s column is now promising that justice will be served. She was quoted in the Herald as saying, “We believe that enriching one’s self by using the power and prestige of an elected public office not only enrages the community, but most importantly, it violates the law.”

Oh, really, Kathy?

Too bad you didn’t concern yourself with alleged violations of the law when former North Miami mayor Andre Pierre was in office.

And you simply yawned it was brought to your attention that North Miami Beach Counsel Weasel Frantz No-Relation-to-Andre Pierre committed perjury. Among other things. Allegedly, of course.

With the recent arrests of the Sweetwater and Miami Lakes mayors, people might start believing that our State Attorney actually cared about public corruption. Those of us in North Miami and North Miami Beach, who have been not so patiently waiting for justice to be served, know better.

Why Rundle’s sudden interest in prosecuting elected officials? Could it have something to do with the governor’s declaration, “Elected officials that break the law must be prosecuted to its fullest extent. All elected officials must be held to the highest ethical standard.” After all, she’s an elected official, too. Everyone knows that the best defense is a quick and strong offense. By the same token, the best way to get out of the hot seat is to deflect any attention coming your way. KFR might not want the governor peering too closely into her own campaigns. Just saying.

Then again, it’s quite possible that it’s politically expedient for KFR to go after these three mayors in particular. She has been known to “prosecute the enemies of her friends,” after all. You never know what a little digging just might turn up, eh?

However, that dirt digger will not be me, despite the fact that one of my “fans” keeps not so gently pressuring me to write a story on the first two mayoral arrests. As I already told him, I prefer to stick to my own “territory” of northeast Miami-Dade County. I also told him that other local bloggers, such as Random Pixels, Eye on Miami and Political Cortadito. have already covered this story extensively since the arrests on August 6, 2013. I didn’t need to add my two cents to the mix.

But this third arrest of the Homestead mayor got my attention because of his ties to our very own Circle of Corruption. It also made me wonder what might have inspired Katherine Fernandez-Rundle’s sudden spark of prosecutorial prowess. We can only hope she’ll eventually direct her attention to our little corner of the county. Maybe KFR will finally get serious about the trials of Myron Rosner and Ricardo Brutus. And, possibly, the arrest of one or both Pierres.