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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Homestead's Headache Stadium, Historical Perspective

 

 

Once a symbol of hope, Homestead’s baseball stadium has been a headache for city leaders ever since Hurricane Andrew struck, 20 years ago, on Aug. 24, 1992

 http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/08/23/v-fullstory/2965486/after-hurricane-andrew-homesteads.html#storylink=cpy

 

By Christina Veiga

cveiga@MiamiHerald.com

Homestead’s baseball stadium sports a fresh red-and-white paint job. Palm trees surround the small ball park, and a nearby lake glints in the Florida sun. Inside, the crack of a bat rings out as cheers erupt.

But the applause is far from a roar. The parking lot isn’t close to full and neither are the stands — about 200 of the stadium’s 6,500 seats are filled. The new paint covers crumbling and rusted posts and columns. The toilets don’t flush in the bathroom.

This stadium was supposed to be Homestead’s salvation. But that was 21 years ago, just before Hurricane Andrew made straight for the small town south of Miami, and nearly leveled the ball park. These days, the stadium that was supposed to be the city’s ticket out of the backwaters has come to stand for something else entirely: how Homestead has never fully recovered from Hurricane Andrew.

Andrew sent major league baseball packing. Though the city promptly rebuilt the stadium, attempts to sell or rent it always seemed to fall through. At one point, the city considered imploding the multi-story structure until that proved too expensive. Last summer, when the city finally thought it had found a stable tenant — a budding sports media company — the relationship soured, spawning two lawsuits.

In the two decades since Mother Nature stole its momentum, Homestead’s stadium has stood largely unused, a symbol of what could have been. Over the years, the city has paid about $6 million to keep it ready, on an increasingly slim hope: If you rebuild it, they will come.


TODAY

For years, Homestead’s pink elephant received only the most critical maintenance.

“We would just put rouge and lipstick on her every year, and fix her up the best we could so that we could continue to rent it out,” said Waldman, the current city council member, who has taken to calling the structure “my girl.”

But in 2011, the city thought salvation had come in the form of Miami lawyer John H. Ruiz and La Ley Sports. Ruiz had built a name for himself as a Spanish-language TV foreclosure lawyer. He was looking for a home for his latest business venture: a sports broadcasting and stats-gathering company. He bid on the stadium, offering to lease it at first and buy it in a matter of years, while promising at least $2 million in repairs in exchange for two years of free rent.

“The Homestead complex would kind of be like an ESPN Wide World of Sports,” Ruiz told the Herald at the time.

Waldman and the rest of the council were impressed, voting to hand the stadium over to Ruiz in July 2011.
Warned Waldman at the time: “She’s expensive.”

“I’m used to that,” Ruiz responded.

Progress came quickly — most notably when La Ley painted over the once-derided pink exterior with red-and-white. The field was restored, 169 frogs were removed from four feet of standing water in the dugouts and dead pigeons were scooped out of the long-dormant speakers, Ruiz said.

“The electric systems were not working properly. The plumbing was a disaster. The sprinkler systems in the field were not functioning. The grass was knee high. The suites were destroyed. The drop ceiling was falling all over the place,” Ruiz said. “So we had to redo the entire, entire, entire, entire thing.”

But Waldman’s earlier warning would soon ring true.

Ruiz’s company at first failed to carry property insurance — which had been so crucial after Hurricane Andrew — and then asked the city to drop his requirement in his lease to do so. The city refused, though Ruiz asked three times.

La Ley fell behind on its utility bills, and according to the city, still owes tens of thousands of dollars — even after it was found that the city had overbilled. Then the city found out Ruiz had sublet the stadium to a company that had underage ball players living in the locker rooms. The city, citing the sublease and a host of other issues, declared La Ley in default on its lease.

Ruiz filed two lawsuits against Homestead, leaving him in something of a standoff with city officials.

The stadium, meanwhile, seems stuck in limbo again. Though Ruiz has sunk millions of dollars into repairs, the white columns that mark the entrance are crumbling at the bottom, and a wall of translucent glass blocks is shattered. The ticket counters are shuttered for use as a broom closet. A media room with marble floors and granite countertops has a leaky roof and sagging, moldy ceiling tiles.

Ruiz is undeterred. He points to the summer tournament that draws a small, but steady crowd. He has plans for the land around the stadium — a hotel, football fields — and says he plans to broadcast sporting events to a world-wide audience from small city of Homestead.

He will not be one more person to walk away from Homestead’s stadium, he says.

“I’m a visionary, and I don’t give up,” Ruiz said. “Every day it gets better.”

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/08/23/v-fullstory/2965486/after-hurricane-andrew-homesteads.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/08/23/v-fullstory/2965486/after-hurricane-andrew-homesteads.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/08/23/v-fullstory/2965486/after-hurricane-andrew-homesteads.html#storylink=cpy

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THUD! Ethics Commission's Thirteen Month Investigation Into Councilman Williams and Developer Wayne Rosen Ends

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