The Homestead city commission did what local commissions do during their meeting last night: talked about new projects, met with local kids and beauty queens, standard stuff.
One thing they did not discuss is what lots of others in Homestead are talking about: the text messages.
It all started with the release of romantic text messages from fired city manager Mike Shehadeh to his assistant, Johanna Fadis.
"I have a problem!! I can not entertain another woman in my mind beside you. I'm deeply in love with you girl. I'm getting deeper and deeper into it!" Shehadeh texted Fadis last September.
Both were fired, but Shehadeh is still in a fight with the city over his severance package.
The controversy has the sleepy South Florida town all abuzz.
"The buzz is, it's going crazy right now, there's no other way you can say it," said Mike Dill, editor of local newspaper the S. Dade News Leader. "It's going crazy, cell phones ringing, everywhere you go, you'll hear something about the text messages."
And it's not just Shehadeh's texts that the town is talking about. The released public records have other city officials' sizzling texts sent on government time and on government Blackberrys.
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"Tks for all your hard work. I owe u." one department head texted his subordinate.
"U r welcome. I'll get with u later on pay back." she responded.
"OK sounds good." he responded, adding, "What are u wearing today"?
"Nothing sexy."
"OK just checking."
Texts like these have Homestead citizens somewhat cynical about their elected officials.
"I think people are so sick of bad politics, bad politicians and government that's not serving the people," said Al Minchener. "People should get what they deserve, they do something bad, then they deserve to be fired."
