Preschool director tops pastor for Homestead council seat

Jenifer Bailey, director of Smart Start of Homestead, a church-based preschool, has defeated incumbent Jimmie Williams, a pastor who was first elected in 2009, in Tuesday’s elections in Homestead.

Bailey won nearly 60 percent of the vote.

During the campaign for the council’s Seat 4, Bailey, 38, stressed the need to tackle traffic and bring in more entertainment.

Williams, 38, senior pastor at the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Miami Gardens, was behind the city’s successful request for state money to establish a sickle-cell disease clinic in Homestead. He has the disease. But he faced several conflict of interest claims, including getting a loan from a developer to open a fish restaurant that failed and getting special consideration from a car dealer who did business with the city. The county ethics commission cleared him.

Council member Elvis Maldonado, 44, won back his Seat 5 with 60 percent of the vote. Maldonado, who owns a computer technology company, also faced ethics complaints stemming from using a city-issued vehicle for personal use. The Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics could not prove whether he violated any city ethics codes. He defeated Maycol Enriquez, 44, an administrator for Miami-Dade Public Schools.

Seat No. 1 Councilman Stephen Shelley, who was reelected when no one ran against him, will be Homestead’s new vice mayor, as he won the most council member votes.

This story was originally published November 7, 2017 at 10:25 PM with the headline "Preschool director tops pastor for Homestead council seat."