In Miami-Dade District 2 election, candidates running on prosperity and public safety

The election to replace Jean Monestime as Miami-Dade County’s District 2 commissioner centers around narrowing the prosperity gap in an area on the northern end of Miami with some of the lowest incomes in the county.

Six candidates are running to succeed Monestime in the Aug. 23 election as term limits force his exit from office in November:

• Wallace Aristide, 65, high school principal

• Monique Barley-Mayo, 39, business consultant

• Marleine Bastien, 63, nonprofit organization executive

• Philippe Bien-Aime, 57, mayor of North Miami

• Joe Celestin, 65, former mayor of North Miami

• William Clark, 65, retired paramedic

Bien-Aime leads in fundraising, with nearly $700,000 for his campaign and allied political committee, Progressive Advocates for Change. Aristide is second with $370,000 raised, followed by Bastien with $225,000, Clark with $62,000, Celestin with $33,000 and Barley-Mayo, who has raised no money, according to the latest county reports.

District 2 includes northern portions of Miami and the municipalities and neighborhoods in that area, stretching from the Miami River to North Miami Beach. South Florida’s I-95 runs through the middle of the district, which includes portions of Hialeah and Opa-locka.

About 200,000 people live in District 2, roughly half of them Black non-Hispanic residents, according to county statistics.

Monestime was the first Haitian American elected to the 13-member commission when the former North Miami council member won his seat in 2014. The race to succeed him on the commission includes four Haitian Americans: Aristide, Bastien, Bien-Aime and Celestin. Clark and Barley-Mayo were both born in Miami.

Since all the candidates are Black, the winner would continue a three-decade tradition of a Black commissioner representing District 2. The county commission currently has five Black members, a record.

In the southeast corner of District 2 on a recent afternoon, longtime resident Jennifer Jones was working her second job at her family’s barbecue stand near Northwest 79th Street and 21st Avenue in the Liberty City neighborhood. She said she’s caught in the same kind of rent crunch that’s been sending housing prices soaring across Miami-Dade.

Her family’s rent went up $200 several months ago, to $1,800. She’s working eight-hour shifts stocking shelves at a department store, then working afternoons at a roadside barbecue stop.

“We need affordable housing,” she said. “Everything is going up.”

The candidates are mainly campaigning on priorities of higher wages, expanded affordable housing, more effective public transportation and safer streets.

“There are too many nights living in North Miami that I fall asleep with a helicopter hovering over our community,” said Clark. “All other matters are secondary to safety.”

District 2 leads the county in gun homicides handled by the Miami-Dade Police Department, according to a 2021 report, with an average of about three killings a month and another 28 non-fatal shootings per month.

Bien-Aime: Sitting mayor tries for county seat

As the only officeholder in the race, Bien-Aime brings with him a base of support that won him two elections for North Miami mayor in 2019 and 2021.

His tenure also brought allegations of sexual harassment from a city employee. In late 2016, Janice Antoine was working as an aide to Bien-Aime, then a council member. She said Bien-Aime asked her to ride with him on an errand, and pulled over on an isolated road and suggested they have sex.

She said she refused and they returned to the office, according to court filings in a 2018 federal suit by Antoine against Bien-Aime and North Miami.

The case settled for an undisclosed amount in 2019. Bien-Aime denied the allegations of sexual harassment, and said he didn’t seek a settlement of the case. “I was going to move forward,” he said.

Court records also show he faced foreclosure on his North Miami home between 2019 and 2021 before reaching a settlement with the lender on a $222,000 mortgage. The litigation cited taxes were owed as well.

In five of the six past years, the Bien-Aime entity that owns his residence, Bien-Aimes Family LLC, failed to pay county property taxes on time, according to Miami-Dade records.

The Bien-Aime entity eventually paid overdue taxes to avoid a county sale of the property. It’s now facing penalties for not paying $6,331 in 2021 taxes as well, with the county in June selling the obligation to an investment firm that could buy the property in two years if the taxes remain unpaid.

Bien-Aime said he’s current on the $220,000 in debts cited in the foreclosure suit. “I pay my taxes,” said Bien-Aime, a married father of three children in college. “Maybe I didn’t pay them on time before November. But I pay my taxes.”

Infrastructure remains a challenge in District 2, which has about 25,000 homes and businesses still using septic tanks, the most of any district, according to a 2021 report. Bien-Aime said he wants to focus on infrastructure as a way to make the district more attractive to businesses.

“I’m tired of having to call District 2 the poorest district in the county,” he said. “My priority would be infrastructure improvements and economic opportunity.”

Aristide: ‘cautious’ on rent control

One housing controversy the next District 2 commissioner may face is whether to ask voters to trigger a provision in state law that would impose a year-long freeze on some rents charged by Miami-Dade landlords. Legislation to trigger a required study on rent control is making its way through the commission pipeline now, with a potential board vote coming later in the year or in 2023.

In a meeting with the Miami Herald Editorial Board, District 2 candidates split on the rent-control issue. Bastien, Clark and Mayo said they support it, while Bien-Aime and Celestin said they opposed it. Aristide said he’d rather Miami-Dade find a way to lower housing costs without government mandates.

“We have to be cautious about that,” Aristide said of rent control, pointing out that sometimes landlords must raise rents to cover their debt costs, taxes and other expenses. “I think we need to incentivize people to give lower rents.”

This is Aristide’s first run for office. For about 10 years, he served as principal of Miami Northwestern Senior High. Now he’s principal of downtown’s iTech magnet high school.

A former football coach, Aristide said his career in education prepared him to help Miami-Dade tackle the problems of youth crime and safety.

“I’ve been working with young people. I have no problem when they’re in school. But when they leave school, you lose them,” said the married father of two sons, ages 15 and 31. “The most dangerous time for young people is between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m.”

Bastien: nonprofit leader running for office

District 2 lags on prosperity indicators. A 2018 study found 27% of the district’s residents with incomes below the poverty level, which is defined as below $26,000 a year for a family of four. That was the second highest poverty rate in the county, behind the 34% in neighboring District 3.

“Most people can’t afford to live where they are working,” said Bastien, founder and director of the Family Action Network Movement social services center. It launched in 1991 as Haitian Women of Miami. Now with a budget of more than $2 million, the Miami charity provides adult literacy programs, immigration help, parenting classes and after-school care.

“I’ve actually been on the ground the last 40 years,” said Bastien, a divorced mother of three adult children. “I’d like to use my expertise and skills to help more families.”

Clark: wants to ‘engage people where they are’

Clark, a retired Miami-Dade paramedic, is a married father of three who once owned a Black-oriented bookstore and wrote a book about Black Miami. He sees the 2022 election as a way for two large communities in District 2 — Black residents and Haitian Americans — to unite behind a shared agenda

“Many of my Haitian opponents don’t travel west of I-95,” he said, referring to the concentration of Black communities west of the highway and Haitian American areas to the east. “You need a commissioner who is going to go on both sides of the fence and engage the people where they are.”

Celestin: a former mayor tries for a county seat

Monestime said he won’t make an endorsement unless the race heads into a runoff in the fall. A candidate can win the election in August with more than 50% of the vote, or the two top finishers will face each other on Election Day in November.

The incumbent commissioner gets praise from Celestin, who was North Miami mayor between 2001 and 2005 before losing to Monestime in the 2014 District 2 election. “Monestime is a great guy,” he said. “He’s done a wonderful job as a commissioner.”

Celestin owns an engineering and building firm, with contracts to build large churches in the Miami area. He filed for personal bankruptcy protection in 2021 over unpaid court judgments from the 1990s totaling more than $500,000.

”It was a personal bankruptcy to wipe out corporate debts” related to a uniform factory he owned that went out of business, Celestin said. County records also show the Celestin entity that owns the candidate’s home, Jad 11 Holdings LLC, was behind on Miami-Dade taxes since 2019.

Celestin said Tuesday he wasn’t aware of the tax issue at the house where his sister handles the bills and where he only started living at the end of 2021. Hours later, he sent an image of a check for $25,254 he said was being delivered to Miami-Dade County to cover the back taxes. The Tax Collector’s office confirmed Wednesday the back taxes for the property had been paid.

Celestin, a married father of five adult children, is pitching his candidacy as a way to turn around the economy

in District 2 by targeting job training in neighborhoods. “District 2 needs a strong person to revitalize the district,” he said. “I think we need to create training schools to educate people, to foster job creation.”

Barley-Mayo: More action needed in District 2

For Barley-Mayo, Monestime leaves behind too many unresolved district needs. “What I want to do should already have been done,” said Barley-Mayo, a business consultant who finished fifth when she ran for her first office in the 2020 mayoral race. “We have a lot of illegal dumping happening in District 2. And nothing is happening.”

If she should win the District 2 seat, that would put two members of the Hardemon family on a 13-seat board that alternates election every two years between even-numbered districts and odd-numbered districts. Commissioner Keon Hardemon, a cousin, represents District 3.

A married mother of six, Barley-Mayo is also a running as a resident of county-run public housing, living in District 2’s Little River Terrace Apartments with her mother and children.

As commissioner, Barley-Mayo said she wants to boost charities and community groups to help fill the gaps left by county government. “These up-and-coming nonprofit organizations doing a wonderful job — I want to give them an opportunity,” she said.

Monestime said he hopes the winner will continue pursuing economic opportunities for District 2. “This is happening slowly,” he said. “A lot of middle-class people are moving into the district because this is where they can afford to live.”

Monika Leal, director of Information Services for the Miami Herald, contributed to this report.