Rolle Vs. Monestime, Round 3 CHALLENGERS INCUMBENTS South Florida Election Slate Starting to Come Into Focus
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Volume 95 Number 38 | MAY 9-15, 2018 | MiamiTimesOnline.com | Ninety-Three Cents LOCAL POLITICS Rolle vs. Monestime, Round 3 CHALLENGERS INCUMBENTS South Florida election slate starting to come into focus ANDREA ROBINSON [email protected] At his Brownsville church on Sunday, Dorrin Rolle stood before the congrega- tion and proclaimed he has unfinished business at County Hall. Dorrin Rolle Jean Monestime “There’s something in the air that says . we have to make sure we have someone down there to fight,” Rolle said at Peaceful Zion Missionary Baptist Church as he announced his candidacy for the District 2 commission seat. Rolle, a former District 2 county com- missioner, will once again try to unseat Jean Monestime, the incumbent who Campaign twice-defeated Rolle, starting eight years ago. The race may be the marquis matchup in Brandon Sean Alfred Dorothy Bendross Miami-Dade this 2018 election cycle. Black Miami-Dade residents have several races to watch this election cycle leading up to the Aug. 28 primary and Nov. 6 general election. 2018 Rolle fell out of favor with residents over an ethics controversy at JESCA, a social service agency where he was the longtime chief administrator. He resigned his position in 2008, and the agency went out of business in 2009. In 2010, Rolle faced Monestime and four other primary challengers. Monestime won the general SEE SLATE 4A Jason Pizzo Daphne Campbell Overtown’s Culmer area PUSHING PAST PAIN Sirena Harrell and reporter to swell by Nyamekye Daniel share triumph after tragedy 800 homes NYAMEKYE DANIEL [email protected] County to raze public When Sirena Harrell held her baby boy for the first time, she felt what she called, “genuine” housing for new complex love. As a mother at 17, Harrell said she found the ANDREA ROBINSON purpose for her life at that moment. [email protected] “I felt like I grew up with him. I saw myself evolve from a teenaged mother to womanhood,” Talk about a soccer stadium has subsided, she said. “He was my best friend, my very first but now residents of two Overtown public best friend.” housing developments are processing the Fifteen years later, Harrell’s best friend, news that Miami-Dade County will raze and Isaiah “Zay” Solomon was gone, ripped rebuild their homes similar to the rebuilding from her world, killed by the bullets of a plan underway at Liberty Square. faceless gunman. Miami-Dade County housing officials Mentally, she felt immobilized by recently revealed to residents of Culmer pain and shock. Yet, Harrell found the Place and Culmer courage to return to school, only a Gardens that they week after her son was killed. Har- will replace all rell graduated from Miami Dade 226 units and add College on Saturday with honors. as many as near- Before the graduation cere- ly 800 additional mony, Harrell described her Do not allow homes as part of accomplishment as being anyone to come a mixed-income “surreal.” She hadn’t quite ac- into your neigh- planned communi- cepted the moment in her life borhood and make ty in the southern as reality. decisions for you” part of Overtown. “Because of everything that “ has transpired, this is a blur,” she The city of Mi- ami also reported- said. ly will play a role I remembered seeing Harrell on Audrey Edmonson the news after her son Zay was killed Sirena Harrell’s son Vice Chairwoman in the new devel- opment. County while attending his cousin’s wake near was killed while at- officials want to do West Little River. I was reminded it was tending his cousin’s a land swap to acquire Reeves Park, which August 2016 when she and I spoke. wake August 2016. In is adjacent to Culmer Place but owned by I could not look into Harrell’s eyes be- this photo, she holds cause I knew her pain too well. I envisioned the city. Talks are underway for the city to a graduation cap with turn over Reeves Park to the county; in re- her broken spirit as it crawled through the her son’s picture and turn, the city would get the land where Cul- weight of the boulders on her heart, as she mer Gardens now sits. The new community stood up for the son on TV, begging for the words, “Even in would be built on roughly 17 acres at Culmer his killer to come forward. grief…I came, I saw, I Place and Reeves Park. Ten years earlier, my first son, Dakari conquered.” The plan is in the very early stages. Offi- was also killed. Seeing Harrell’s eyes cials don’t even have an estimate of the costs meant I would have to connect to the for the new Culmer Place and Gardens de- SEE PAIN 6A Photos courtesy of Sirena Harrell velopment. The county hopes to leverage promised federal and state funds, as well SEE HOMES 6A Happy Mother’s Day See Messages 2C-6C BUSINESS ................................................. 7B YOU & YOURS ............................................ 9D Today 84° CLASSIFIED ............................................. 11B FAITH CALENDAR ................................... 10D IN GOOD TASTE ......................................... 1C HEALTH & WELLNESS ............................. 13D INSIDE LIFESTYLE HAPPENINGS ....................... 8C OBITUARIES ............................................. 16D 8 90158 00100 0 Editorials Cartoons Opinions Letters VIEWPOINT BLACKS MUST CONTROL THEIR OWN DESTINY | MAY 9-15, 2018 | MiamiTimesOnline.com Credo Of The Black Press MEMBER: National Newspaper Periodicals Postage EDITORIAL The Black Press believes that America Publisher Association paid at Miami, Florida (ISSN 0739-0319) can best lead the world from racial and MEMBER: The Newspaper POSTMASTER: Published Weekly at 900 NW 54th Street, Association of America Send address changes to national antagonism when it accords Miami, Florida 33127-1818 Subscription Rates: One Year THE MIAMI TIMES, to every person, regardless of race, Post Office Box 270200 $52.99 – Two Year $99.99 P.O. Box 270200 Miami Police, get it creed or color, his or her human and Buena Vista Station, Miami, Florida 33127 Foreign $75.00 Buena Vista Station, Miami, FL Phone 305-694-6210 legal rights. Hating no person, fearing 7 percent sales tax for Florida residents 33127-0200 • 305-694-6210 no person, the Black Press strives to right; save the apologies H.E. SIGISMUND REEVES, Founder, 1923-1968 help every person in the firm belief that GARTH C. REEVES, JR., Editor, 1972-1982 all persons are hurt as long as anyone As soon as Miami Police arrested two young men and issued GARTH C. REEVES, SR., Publisher Emeritus is held back. RACHEL J. REEVES, Publisher and Chairman an arrest warrant for another in the shooting deaths of Rickey Dixon and Kimson Lee Green, a few things went into motion. First, the families of 18-year-old Dixon and 17-year-old Kimson believed they were on the road to justice for the teenagers, whose Grouped amendments help Floridians lives were snuffed out on April 8. Second, the residents of the Liberty Square housing project, BRECHT HEUCHAN, The Florida Chairman of the Constitution Revision Commission Style & Drafting Committee who have been terrorized by gun violence as recently as the The 2018 Constitution Unfortunately, instead of precedent we have. Both pre- est with their arguments. week before, heaved a collective sigh, that the perpetrators who Revision Commission, also debating merits of the policy, vious Constitution Revision Here is the truth: the CRC shot the teens on a Sunday afternoon were off the street. The known simply as the CRC, some editorial boards have Commissions, in 1978 and sent to voters a package of residents may have wondered if the heavy police presence in the recently completed the once offered sarcasm and ignored in 1998, grouped ideas and transformational ideas in neighborhood would need to continue. in every 20-year task of re- facts. They have indicted did so with more regularity the form of eight proposed Third, the arrest and charging of Anthony Clinch and Yaairnes viewing our state consti- the practice of grouping re- than we did. Indeed, in 1968 amendments to our consti- Rashad Bryant and issuing of the warrant for Deondre McDuffy tution. The purpose of the lated proposals into single the voters of Florida ratified tution, some grouped, some on May 5 came two days after Miami Police were left smarting review is to ensure that our amendments for the ballot, an entirely new constitution not. These ideas cover a lot because of the release of a video, which depicts excessive force governing document reflects yet omitted the reality that which was “bundled”, aka of ground and include wild- by an officer, while others were complicit. The video, taken May the values of our modern so- grouping some ideas which grouped into three, yes only ly popular proposals like 3, shows Miami Police Officer Mario Figueroa kicking a Black ciety and meets the needs of share common elements is three, ballot amendments. sweeping ethics reforms, suspect in Overtown, while the suspect was handcuffed and lay- our growing state. for the benefit of the voter. Grouping is not new and not term limits for school board ing on the ground. The CRC finalizedAccording to election of- controversial. members, rights for crime By late afternoon last Thursday, the Miami-Dade State Attor- eight proposed amend- ficials, long ballots create a Bold ideas are often met victims, a ban on off-shore ney Office announced it was going to investigate the contents of ments, some of which are disincentive to voting in the with criticism and I support oil drilling, banning the use the video. By the evening, the police department had apologized “grouped,” meaning multi- first place. Grouping some the ability of the media and of e-cigarettes in enclosed to the family and relieved Officer Figueroa of duty.