Wayne Rosen and Homestead City Councilman Jimmie Williams ... by gimleteye

Wayne Rosen

The investigation by the Miami-Dade Ethics and Public Trust Commission took an entire year: to decide whether Homestead City Commissioner Jimmie Williams was unduly influenced and "engaged in conflicted or exploitative behavior relating to his business partnership with Wayne Rosen, a real estate developer with extensive land holdings and other economic interests in the Homestead area."

The conclusion (K# 11-090) was, no.

Rosen has a long history of business before the local city government in Homestead and also Miami-Dade County. With various partners, including major developers, he is/was a large land owner of property outside the Urban Development Boundary, including wetlands.

It is curious that Rosen tried to set up Williams in a fast food franchise far from Homestead.

The ethics commission does not explore the notion that a wealthy, savvy business investor like Wayne Rosen would need to diversify his real estate empire by investing in a low-end restaurant serving urban tastes.

Nor did the commission inquire how a sophisticated investor would be "misled" by a third partner, the so-called operator with experience. Rosen, in his deposition to the ethics commission, offered his recollection that the third partner said he owned 17 restaurants but the chain's website only claims to operate 10 restaurants. So this sophisticated investor, Wayne Rosen, was a victim of fraud or simply failed to due diligence? If you believe that, I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.

The ethics commission was not inquiring after Rosen's business practices. It is well known that land speculators in the suburbs are "on the same team". It is all part and parcel of what EOM calls the Growth Machine. After all the mortgage fraud and foreclosures ripping through Homestead -- turning the area into the poster child for ghost suburbs -- one would think that political practices and skating in the gray areas of the law would have taken a breather.

There is a broader context to this disturbing report that exonerates Wiliams. Florida Hometown Democracy -- the state-wide referendum effort by citizens to take land use decisions away from local corruption -- was slapped down by Florida land speculators. As the Miami-Dade ethics investigation shows, any assumption that cooler heads would prevail in its aftermath, and the aftermath of the destruction of the Florida Department of Community Affairs, the state's growth management authority killed off by Gov. Rick Scott in early 2012, would be wrong, wrong, wrong.

It is always about testing the edges, by the Growth Machine, and the edges always can change depending on the political weather. It was a big change in weather when the Growth Machine destroyed the chance of accountability with Florida Hometown Democracy. It was an even bigger change of weather when Florida DCA went the way of the dodo bird, leaving the Growth Machine to have direct access to major changes through local elected officials to land use at the municipal and county level. Wayne Rosen was testing the edges. That's all.