Hilda Hall Has Left the Carrie P. Meek Business Incubator Building

Yes it's true, keys were turned in and new locks have been installed, tenants have received their new keys and the era of the BTDC has come to an end. Good for Homestead, Dennis Moss does not look good on this one, he made a terrible decision to support this group under criminal investigation by the OIG.

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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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Classic Quote From Mayor Of Homestead When Asked Question

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A Quote That Won't Have Any Impact Whatsoever On The Current City Council

Mayor Warren said "the Power Plant is a major asset that belongs to the residents of the City of Homestead and before anything could be done with the plant, the voters would have to give that approval through a referendum."

 

March 11, 2002

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You Provide The Toy, Somebody Else Takes The Credit?

Is This Regifting? Who Gets The Tax Deduction? Who Wraps? Who Is Really Benefitting Here?

 

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Mayor Bateman Continues To Publicly Verbally Abuse The City Manager

Is it a case of Jekyll and Hyde?


From the recent Miami Herald Article, Exchange between Mayor and Manager

Mayor Bateman also had stern words for the city manager, accusing him of staying in his office and not realizing how overworked the mayor and council’s assistants are. City Manager George Gretsas had to ask the mayor multiple times for permission to speak, with the mayor at one point saying flat-out: “No; You’re not recognized.”

“You’ve never even taken one step into that office to see what’s going on,” Bateman told Gretsas, referring to the office of the mayor and council.

“That’s not true,” Gretsas replied.

“You do not get involved. And they all say the same thing.* You don’t come out of that room,” Bateman continued.

When he finally got a chance to pipe up, after Bateman systematically asked council members whether they were done speaking, Gretsas said the decision to hire more help is, “a policy decision, and it’s yours to make.”

“To look at me and be angry that somehow, this is my fault, I take issue with that,” Gretsas said.

The manager said he would implement whatever decision the council makes. The council decided 5-2 that they should hire more help.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/12/13/3141119/homestead-council-members-want.html#storylink=cpy

Then it has been noticed that five minutes later he'll smile and speak to City Manager George Gretsas respectfully and professionally.

*Example of Mayor Bateman's management style. The Mayor has forgotten Homestead has a Human Resources Department. He is also giving cause to the creation of a hostile work environment lawsuit in the public.

A hostile work environment exists when an employee experiences workplace harassment and fears going to work because of the offensive, intimidating, or oppressive atmosphere generated by the harasser.

Verbal abuse

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For other uses, see Verbal abuse (disambiguation).

Verbal abuse (also known as reviling) is described as a negative defining statement told to the person or about the person or by withholding any response thus defining the target as non-existent. If the abuser doesn't immediately apologize and indulge in a defining statement, the relationship may be a verbally abusive one.^[1]

In schools a young person may indulge in verbal abuse — bullying (which often has a physical component) to gain status as superior to the person targeted and to bond with others against the target. Generally the bully knows no other way to connect emotionally, i.e., be bonded with others.^[2]

In couple relationships the verbal abuser responds to the partner's "separateness," i.e., independent thoughts, views, desires, feelings, expressions (even of happiness) as an irritant or even an attack.^[3] While some people believe the abuser has low self-esteem and so attempts to place their victim in a similar position, i.e., to believe negative things about himself or herself this is not usually the case in couple relationships. A man may, for example, disparage a woman partner simply because she has qualities that were disparaged in him, i.e., emotional intelligence, warmth, receptivity and so forth.^{[citation needed]}

A person of any gender, race, culture, sexual orientation, age, or size may experience verbal abuse. Typically, in couple or family relationships verbal abuse increases in intensity and frequency over time.^[4] After exposure to verbal abuse, victims may fall into clinical depression and/or post-traumatic stress disorder. The person targeted by verbal abuse over time may succumb to any stress related illness. Verbal abuse creates emotional pain and mental anguish in its target.

Despite being the most common form of abuse, verbal abuse is generally not taken as seriously as other types, because there is no visible proof and the abuser may have a "perfect" persona around others. In reality, however, verbal abuse can be more detrimental to a person's health than physical abuse. If a person is verbally abused from childhood on, he or she may develop psychological disorders that plague them into and through adulthood.

Verbal abuse includes the following:^[5]

• countering
• withholding
• discounting
• abuse disguised as a joke
• blocking and diverting
• accusing and blaming
• judging and criticizing
• trivializing
• undermining
• threatening
• name calling
• chronic forgetting
• ordering
• denial of anger or abuse
• abusive anger

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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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