3rd Fla. mayor arrested within the past month

[thelakelander]

Not a good time to be a mayor of a South Florida city.

MIAMI (AP) — The mayor of Homestead was hauled away from his home Wednesday in handcuffs on corruption charges, including accepting illegal compensation, becoming the third mayor of a Miami-Dade County city to be arrested in the past month.

Steve Bateman, 58, was secretly being paid $125 an hour as a consultant by a health care company seeking city and county approval for a sewer connection so it could build a clinic in Homestead, said Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle.

Bateman lobbied his own city officials and County Mayor Carlos Gimenez without disclosing his financial arrangement with Community Health Care of South Florida Inc., a non-profit firm known as CHI, said Fernandez Rundle.

full article: http://hosted2.ap.org/FLJAJ/d6fa762983c344c38a1e9b5fe6e142e3/Article_2013-08-28-US-Homestead-Mayor-Arrest/id-1ca250bae7594a1d9a94d88099bfac52

[JayBird]

Not a good time to be a mayor of a South Florida city.

MIAMI (AP) — The mayor of Homestead was hauled away from his home Wednesday in handcuffs on corruption charges, including accepting illegal compensation, becoming the third mayor of a Miami-Dade County city to be arrested in the past month.

Steve Bateman, 58, was secretly being paid $125 an hour as a consultant by a health care company seeking city and county approval for a sewer connection so it could build a clinic in Homestead, said Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle.

Bateman lobbied his own city officials and County Mayor Carlos Gimenez without disclosing his financial arrangement with Community Health Care of South Florida Inc., a non-profit firm known as CHI, said Fernandez Rundle.

full article: http://hosted2.ap.org/FLJAJ/d6fa762983c344c38a1e9b5fe6e142e3/Article_2013-08-28-US-Homestead-Mayor-Arrest/id-1ca250bae7594a1d9a94d88099bfac52

Shame. With all the Sunshine laws and everyone practically expecting corruption among elected officials, I wonder why they continue to attempt it. Can they really believe in this day and age that they'll get away with it?!!  Well, I guess this story proves they must.