John H. Ruiz Tells City To Govern Themselves Accordingly, Wow

In a letter sent to City Manager George Gretsas and Finance Director Carlos Perez La LEY's John Ruiz says the City of Homestead should be mindful it is being sued for at least $5,000,000.00 and they had better not shut off the power to the La LEY Sports Complex.

Bring back any memories?

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La LEY Sports Owner Gets Much Love from Bateman and Maldonado, Gets Public Reprimand from Florida Bar

John Hasan Ruiz, 5040 N.W. 7 ^th St., Ph. 1, Miami, publicly reprimanded following a Nov. 18, 2011, court order. (Admitted to practice: 1992) 

A tenant fell and was injured at an apartment complex owned by Ruiz. When she asked for insurance information, Ruiz told her that the co-owner had allowed the insurance policy on the property to lapse, and therefore, that the apartment was uninsured. Ruiz subsequently sold the apartment for more than $2 million and received $375,000 of income from the closing. When the tenant's case went to trial, Ruiz failed to disclose that he was a director and 50 percent shareholder of the owner corporation, and that the corporation had sold its only asset, the apartment complex. 

The court subsequently ruled in the injured party’s favor, and Ruiz paid her judgement and attorneys fees in excess of $200,000 from his personal funds. (Case No. SC11-1011)

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La LEY Owes Homestead Big Bucks.............Again

The Two Council YES! Votes Appear With Ruiz In The Photo Along With La LEY Staff, They Wanted La LEY To Continue Getting Free Benefit Of City Paid Insurance, Anyone Know Why?

The last time the council took the issue up in May, only Mayor Steve Bateman and Councilman Elvis Maldonado voted for it. Councilman Jimmie Williams III was absent.

By Christina Veiga

cveiga@MiamiHerald.com

The operator of Homestead’s baseball stadium is once again behind on more than $162,000 of utility and insurance bills.

The city is locked in a legal battle with the operator, in part, over the bills. The operator, La Ley Sports, filed a class action lawsuit against the city in May, claiming that Homestead overbills its utility customers.

A Miami-Dade Circuit Court judge dismissed the case in October and gave La Ley a chance to re-file its complaint because of issues with the way it was originally filed, Homestead’s attorneys said. La Ley has filed an amended complaint which Homestead’s attorneys have again asked a judge to dismiss, in part because the lawyers still believe there are problems with the way the case has been filed.

Meanwhile, La Ley’s bills have stacked up.

The sports organization, owned by Miami Spanish-language TV lawyer John H. Ruiz, owes about $118,000 in utility bills as of Nov. 26, according to city documents. His group owes about $45,000 in insurance bills, according to the city.

Ruiz’s company has been behind on its utility bills essentially since it first took over the stadium in July 2011.
But Ruiz has argued that he was never past-due because he never owed the money in the first place, because Homestead overbilled him.

The city in April admitted that it did, in fact, accidently overbill La Ley by $22,000 for a dumpster that wasn’t even on the property. But taking into account the overbilling, Ruiz’s company still owed $3,000 in past-due utility bills at the time.

Karen Barnet-Backer, who is representing La Ley in the case, did not return an email for comment and did not immediately return a phone call for comment.

In a separate lawsuit, La Ley has sued the city for fraud and breach of contract because of disagreements between the two sides over their rental agreement. The relationship between the company and the city soured quickly after La Ley tried to get out of paying insurance premiums for the stadium. The city refused to waive the $10,000-a-month bill.

“The city’s position is that he now owes upwards of $100,000,” said Michael Popok, one of the attorneys representing Homestead in both cases.

The lawsuit stemming from the lease disagreements is still pending.

The suits have been “relatively dormant,” Popok said.
 
Follow @Cveiga on Twitter.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/12/13/3141055/homestead-says-ballpark-tenant.html#storylink=cpy

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New City Hall Meeting Wednesday 10/3/2012, Possibly Featuring Wayne Rosen

Why would we feature Wayne Rosen's picture on a blog about Homestead's New City Hall? 

Think strip mall where Homestead's Current City Hall sits.

City Council Special Call Meeting

Date: October 3

Time: 6:00 PM - 8:30 PM

Address: City Hall Council Chambers
790 N. Homestead Blvd.
Homestead, FL 33030

Contact: 305-224-4442

Email: Elizabeth Sewell, City Clerk

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Panera Bread Grand Opening: City Of Homestead News Or Campaign Ad?

PANERA BREAD OPENS NEW BAKERY-CAFE IN HOMESTEAD
Panera Bread opened a new Bakery-Cafe in Homestead with an inaugural ceremony on September 25th.

ONLY Mayor Steven C. Bateman and Councilman Elvis Maldonado attended the ceremony on behalf of the City of Homestead.  

The store is located at 2493 NE 9th Court.

Instead of the typical ribbon used at opening ceremonies, Mayor Bateman cut a large loaf of bread to open the new bakery-cafe.

Panera Bread is headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri and operates 1,591 company-owned and franchise-operated bakery-cafes in 41 states and in Ontario, Canada as of June 26, 2012. 

The company’s mission is “A loaf of bread in every arm®.”

Panera presents a Bakery Menu with freshly baked breads, bagels, baked egg soufflés and pastries and sweets and a Cafe Menu with sandwiches, soups, hand-tossed salads, beverages and a Panera Kids™ menu.

Panera Bread is the 502nd business established since Mayor Bateman took office in 2009. Bateman’s business-friendly policies have resulted in a commercial resurgence in the City of Homestead.

“The City of Homestead welcomes Panera Bread and wishes them a prosperous future,” said Mayor Bateman.

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Al Lorenzo and Quantum Results Paid More Than $63,000 by Two Frank May PACs, Mayor Bateman and Councilman Jimmie Williams III

 Photo of Frank May courtesy of eyeonmiami blog.

 http://eyeonmiami.blogspot.com/2010/09/new-pac-i-do-not-like-by.html

Two PACs run by Frank May, one with Jeff Porter and one with Tom David paid a combined $61,171 in 2009 and 2010 to Al Lorenzo and his firm now embroiled in controversy surrounding current elections. Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez and State Attorney Katherine Fernandez-Rundle have had to disassociate with the firm and recuse herself from the investigation into absentee ballot fraud respectively.
http://www.voterfocus.com/ws/mdccand/pdf_miamidade/rpt_743_251.pdf
 
300 Aragon Avenue, Coral Gables is the address of Quantum Results.

http://www.campaignmoney.com/political/527/citizens-united-for-protecting-our-community.asp

http://www.campaignmoney.com/political/527/citizens-for-reform-for-miami-dade-county.asp

Mayor Bateman and Councilman Williams paid Al Lorenzo $400 and $1,514 respectively in 2009. The Wayne Rosen, Redland Company, Homestead Concrete and Rene Taylor funded PAC that supported five current council members on the original filing documents paid $19,150 to Lorenzo. 

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Faddis v. Homestead Moves Forward

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the top, Johanna Faddis, Joseph Serota and Kelsay Patterson

 

 

A lawsuit involving Homestead’s former Deputy City Manager Johanna Faddis will move forward.

d more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/07/27/2922976/homestead-ex-employees-lawsuit.html#storylink=cpy

 By Christina Veiga

cveiga@MiamiHerald.com

A judge on Wednesday denied an attempt by Homestead’s lawyers to throw out a lawsuit brought by former Deputy City Manager Johanna Faddis.

A day after mediation failed to bring consensus, Judge Lester Langer of Miami-Dade Circuit Court said the case should move forward, in part to give lawyers more time to gather evidence for a possible trial.

Faddis sued Homestead in September 2011, claiming that city officials acted negligently, invaded her privacy, intentionally inflicted emotional distress and defamed her by releasing romantic text messages sent to her by her then-boss, City Manager Mike Shehadeh, on city-issued cellphones.

Faddis and Shehadeh have both denied ever being in a romantic relationship.

Since the suit was filed, Faddis’ attorneys have also argued that she was a victim of sexual harassment by Shehadeh, and that therefore the texts were not public record. Attorney Kelsay Patterson points to an exemption in Florida’s public-records law stating that when an alleged victim “chooses not to file a complaint and requests that records of the complaint remain confidential, all records relating to an allegation of employment discrimination are confidential and exempt.”

Patterson claims that his client told the city she would not file a sexual-harassment complaint and keep it a secret in exchange for a severance agreement when she was fired from Homestead in December 2009.

The city asked for the case to be dismissed, arguing that the text messages were public record because they had to do with city business.

The text messages were released after an investigator, hired by the city to look into suspected wrongdoing by Shehadeh, dug up them up as part of his work for the city.

“The disclosure of the investigation and the report were matters of public concern,” attorney Joseph Serota told the judge.

Serota pointed to messages that were both romantic but also dealt with city business, including one in which Shehadeh tells Faddis to take the rest of the day off because he can sense that she is in a “pissy” mood.

“This is not completely personal,” Serota said.

Referring to Shehadeh’s role as Faddis’ superior, Serota later added: “He supervises her. He gives her raises. He evaluates her. How could this kind of relationship not be public business?”

Serota also argued that the case shouldn’t move forward because Faddis has changed her testimony regarding whether she was a victim of sexual harassment. Serota argued that her conflicting testimony should be stricken.

The conflicting statements stem from testimony Faddis gave in a lawsuit that Shehadeh brought against the city for wrongful termination after he was fired. In that case, Faddis said she “didn’t take any offense” to Shehadeh’s texts, according to a transcript Serota read aloud during Wednesday’s hearing.

“There has never been a time when he has harassed me, sexually harassed me,” Faddis said, according to the testimony read by Serota.

But when Faddis gave testimony for her own case, she said she was indeed a victim of sexual harassment.

“I provided a watered-down version of the truth,” she said, according to the transcript read by Serota.
Faddis’ attorney said that she “refused to be used as a pawn” in Shehadeh’s lawsuit because the city had burned her by releasing the damaging text messages, and also that she didn’t want to be used to help the city in their defense against Shehadeh’s case.
 
Follow @Cveiga on Twitter.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/07/27/2922976/homestead-ex-employees-lawsuit.html#storylink=cpy

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Watchcat Report: Scandalous Mid-Year Update

The New Top Ten List

The Homestead Watchcat is reporting that the following has occurred, is likely to be occuring or will potentially occur in the near future.

1. City Attorney changed positions on what is and what isn't a public record several times. There is written proof.


2. City Attorney ordered by council to research the Homestead Is Home blog domain. All part of the Centennial Committee records.


3. "New City Hall" money to be used to pay for turnpike ramps on Lucy Street. Mayor presented a Power Point at Southland Mall to anyone interested. Bateman quote; "jobs will follow."


4. Mayor Bateman asks Gov. Rick Scott to save Dade Medical College students from getting run over by trucks on Krome Avenue. This after the fact plea may prevent the building of a Pre-K on the Homestead-Miami Speedway track, duh!


5. Hackers tried to bring down the Homestead Is Home Blog.  Big mistake.


6. Several new investigations have been launched into the validity and veracity of City of Homestead  projects. Various, details in the future. These are in addition to investigations already under way.


7. More than one council member and some staff are under investigation for their roles in some political activities. All kinds of issues, campaigning mostly.


8. Mass shredding of documents allegedly took place in the City of Homestead in 2010, employees ready to give sworn statements. Never wise to shred public records. Maybe some things were saved from the shredder.


9. Cryptic and Ambiguous: Doors once closed are once again open. No details can be released.

10. Several 2013 City Council candidates stand ready to challenge incumbents. Meetings with donors and those who really manage the council have been happening. 

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