Homestead, Fla., Mayor Steven Bateman is under criminal investigation for allegations that he privately lobbied the city to sell land to a for-profit college executive who later donated thousands to his campaign.
The Miami Herald reports that Ernesto A. Perez, chief executive officer of Dade Medical College, also had questionable connections to Bateman’s wife, Donna.
Public records suggest Bateman badgered Homestead government staffers and manipulated the process in a bid to help Perez purchase the municipal properties in the historic-but-lifeless downtown area at a fraction of the appraised value — while steering Perez’s real estate transaction to his wife.
In the end, Perez, chief executive officer of Dade Medical College, won a bargain-basement option to buy 3.5 acres in the downtown area; Bateman’s wife got a lucrative business referral; and the mayor received at least 15 $500 contributions to his 2011 mayoral campaign from Perez and his associates. He won the election.
Bateman’s role on a city board that completed the sale to Perez and the college is receiving scrutiny.
Bateman served as chairman of the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency board in late 2011 when it approved an option agreement to sell the CRA’s property to Dade Medical for $328,000 — roughly one-third of its value as determined by an independent real estate appraisal. The board voted unanimously to finance 80 percent of the purchase price, at a 5 percent rate over 15 years, with a balloon payment after five years. Dade Medical had to put down 20 percent in cash and pay the commission to its real estate broker, who works with the mayor’s wife.
Bateman told the Herald he did nothing wrong and called the land sale a "fair deal."