Bankruptcy filings and political ties: Range of candidates run for Miami’s District 5

The race to fill the District 5 seat on the Miami City Commission has attracted seven candidates, including an appointed incumbent with past financial problems, a well-funded challenger with political connections and a few newcomers.

Candidates running in the Nov. 2 election are vying to represent a district that is majority-Black and includes Overtown, Little Haiti, Liberty City, Wynwood, the Design District and the Upper Eastside. The district embodies Miami’s significant wealth gap, with some residents living in the city’s most impoverished areas and others living in some of the most valuable, fast-gentrifying swaths of the city.

The impacts of real estate redevelopment, threat of climate change, lack of affordable housing and condition of older buildings are all issues candidates have discussed on the campaign trail.

There are about 46,700 registered voters in District 5, according to the Miami-Dade Elections Department. The last time there was an election for the seat in 2013, about 16% of voters turned out — fewer than 10,000 votes.

Mail ballots have been sent out and early voting has begun. Election Day is Nov. 2. If no candidate wins more than 50% of the vote, there will be a runoff election on Nov. 16 between the top two vote-getters

The candidates

▪ Jeffrey Watson, 64, has served as District 5 commissioner since being appointed to the role in November. After pledging to sit out this year’s election, he officially entered the race in mid-September. He said community members have urged him to run during his one year in office.

Watson grew up between Overtown and Liberty City, which he says ignited a passion for economic development. That affinity led him to serve as chief of staff to former Miami Mayor Xavier Suarez and later as an aide to then-President Bill Clinton.

In a short amount of time, Watson has raised about $168,000. More than half of his donors come from the real estate industry, including a $25,000 check from developer Michael Swerdlow, who recently began construction of a multi-million dollar mixed-used project in Overtown. Auto magnate Norman Braman, a resident of Indian Creek, has contributed $20,000 through various affiliated companies.

Watson has struggled financially in the past. He has twice unsuccessfully filed for bankruptcy protection in the last 15 years, and he fell behind on paying his home mortgage and taxes. Details of Watson’s past financial woes were first reported by nonprofit news outlet Florida Bulldog. The commissioner told the outlet that he, like many, suffered large financial losses in the Great Recession, and he has since paid his debts after selling his Washington, D.C. home in 2018.

On Tuesday, Watson told the Miami Herald that voters will look at his record as a commissioner more than his financial past. He said he was simply following a process that is available to those who need it, and that the bankruptcy filings shouldn’t hurt his campaign, noting that former President Donald Trump’s six business bankruptcies didn’t stop him from getting elected.

“Last time I checked, we elected a president that had more bankruptcies that I did,” he said.

The commissioner has said his priorities include pushing for code enforcement to keep neighborhoods clean, encouraging economic development to create jobs and keeping people from leaving Miami to look for jobs.

▪ Christine King, 55, is an attorney and has served as president and CEO of the nonprofit Martin Luther King Jr. Economic Development Corporation for more than a decade. The organization has run an array of social programs ranging from delivering food to seniors to funding home improvements. Born in Guyana and raised in Liberty City, she formerly worked in constituent services for the Miami-Dade County Commission and has said in interviews that much of her legal work has focused on representing tenants in disputes with landlords.

King has been accumulating campaign donations since April 2019 and has the largest war chest, with about $500,000 raised in direct campaign contributions and donations to a political committee supporting her. Miami-Dade County Commission Keon Hardemon, who held the city’s District 5 seat before Watson’s appointment in November, has supported King’s candidacy from the beginning.

Hardemon’s uncle and longtime political operative, Billy Hardemon, is the volunteer chairman of the Martin Luther King Jr. EDC’s board. According to the nonprofit’s tax filings, board members are not compensated. When he was a city commissioner, before he was elected to the county commission, Keon Hardemon steered hundreds of thousands of Miami’s anti-poverty dollars to the organization.

King recently told the Miami Herald Editorial Board that her relationship with the county commissioner is “a plus for the community because it will be the first time in years that the city and county commissioners will have a good relationship.”

“Having a relationship with our county commission is a positive,” King said. “In terms of my loyalty, it will always be the to the community.”

King has been endorsed by city labor unions, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, the AFL-CIO and UNITE HERE Local 355, a union representing hospitality workers.

Her priorities include increasing affordable and workforce housing, reducing gun violence, mitigating gentrification and boosting services for children and the elderly.

▪ Michael Hepburn, 38, leads the nonprofit Reimagine Miami Foundation as its executive director. A 2001 recipient of a Miami Herald Silver Knight Award, he grew up in Little Haiti and holds a master’s in higher education administration from Florida International University. Hepburn has picked up endorsements from several national committees, including Future Generations PAC, which supports candidates committed to progressive ideals like racial justice, economic inequality and climate change, and The Collective PAC, which encourages civic engagement within the Black community.

Hepburn has raised $40,475.14 in his campaign account, most of which he has given himself. He’s put about $35,000 of his own money into his campaign. About $5,000 came from mostly small donations of less than $1,000, the maximum an individual can contribute to a single campaign.

Hepburn told the Herald Editorial Board his top priorities include rehabilitating existing affordable housing and encouraging development of new units, combating illegal dumping and pushing for new businesses, like recently arrived tech firms, to train and develop a workforce of Miamians.

He said he would want to set aside a portion of the city anti-poverty funds allocated to District 5 for a higher education and vocational training scholarship fund for students.

“My concept is to help our residents retool and utilize their skills to get better, but then also pour life into the dreams and the goals of our young people,” Hepburn told the Herald Editorial Board.

▪ Stephanie Thomas, 55, worked as the deputy city clerk in North Miami for nearly two decades. The daughter of Haitian immigrants, Thomas grew up in Miami-Dade. She currently holds a master’s degree in health informatics from Florida International University, another master’s in public administration from University of Miami and a Ph.D. in Health Sciences from the Eastern Virginia Medical School.

One of Thomas’ top priorities is improving public safety. She says she would create a blue-ribbon committee to develop policies for deterring crime in District 5’s neighborhoods and support victims’ rights.

Health is a recurrent them in Thomas’ campaign. She seeks to push for more healthcare services to move into the area to bring care closer to residents, and she wants to create healthier eating options and make them more widely available.

“Healthy options are very important to our district,” she said, adding that many new restaurants that arrive in the district are cheap but not healthy.

▪ Francois Alexandre, 35, is a first-time candidate who runs a social services organization called Konscious Kontractors, which formed after Hurricane Irma in 2017 to help beautify neighborhoods. Alexandre, born in Haiti and a Miami resident since 2004, became a leader among local social justice activists after he sued controversial Miami cop Javier Ortiz, saying Ortiz and other officers beat him in downtown Miami during the Heat’s second championship celebration.

Alexandre received his bachelor’s degree in international relations from Florida International University.

Alexandre told the Herald he sees a lack of affordable housing and economic development as top issues facing the district. He worries about gentrification being exacerbated by climate change, making Miami’s traditionally poorer neighborhoods more valuable because of their higher elevation. Alexandre says he plans to push for more job training in District 5 so that residents can keep their homes in the face of gentrification.

“If you look at the city of Miami as far as affordable housing and workforce housing, we’re behind in terms of meeting the gap and meeting the demands of the population,” he said in a recent interview.

Other priorities include ending community violence through youth programs and partnerships with community groups such as the Circle of Brotherhood.

▪ Zico Fremont, 34, is the CEO of RA Automotive and a graduate of Florida International University. A first-generation American of Haitian descent, he has previously worked as director of government relations for the Manifezt Foundation, a group focused on making science, technology, engineering and math education more accessible to underprivileged youth.

He told the Herald Editorial Board his top priorities are public safety and affordable housing. He said the city needs to improve its stormwater drainage systems and push for more state and federal funding to help.

▪ Revran Shoshana Lincoln, 84, has not reported any campaign contributions. She has not mounted a visible campaign, and has not attended candidate forums.