Eager to hear all the juicy details of salacious texts between city officials, citizens gathered last night in Homestead at a hearing to discuss the texts, but left with no clarity and little discussion of the dirty phone dealings.
The meeting had been called by former city manager Mike Shehadeh after he was fired for exchanging romantic text messages with assistant Johanna Fadis on city time and on city Blackberrys.
Then more text messages between different city officials were leaked, heightening interest in the shenanigans taking place in the sleepy city on the taxpayer's dime.
Shehadeh withdrew his demand for the meeting after the texts were leaked, but the city went ahead with the meeting anyway, opening the floor to anyone who wanted to speak.
After just ten minutes and no speakers, the hearing was over, but not before city attorney Richard Weiss cautioned commissioners and citizens against unfounded comments.
"You might be held responsible for it, so you should be cautious in what you're saying," Weiss said.
That may have dampened things for folks who were anxious to hear more on the texts that the whole town is talking about.
Some, like this exchange between a department head and a female subordinate, are too salacious to print in full:
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"Stop by on ur way hm k" she asks.
The department head confirms: "K".
"A thought to get u thru ur meeting!" she writes back. "Getting u wk'd up by (expletives deleted) til cant take it any more then having sweaty sex w/ u! Ha ha".
And this exchange:
"Party every night this weekend" the department head writes.
"U must of felt like (expletive) the next days. So what kind of fun did i miss?" the female subordinate asks.
"Girl on girl crazy" the department head replies.
"Where @? Did they take care of u?" she asks.
"Rv parking lot and yes. Fri,sat and sun" he writes.
"Damn! U should b good 4 a while."
Mayor Steve Bateman thinks Homestead needs to move beyond the controversies, but as much as he'd like to move forward, there are still lawsuits being threatened.
And those private, very embarrassing text messages may, in fact, violate city policies. But the mayor would prefer to have those handled by the city manager instead of at a public hearing.
