Dissolving board unrelated to veterans parade

BY LYNDA BELL

Rosemary Fuller, the chairwoman of the former Human Relations Board, then wrote a letter to The Herald, saying the Confederate group’s marching was a ”serious and embarrassing error.” She also said it was ”conduct unbecoming to a municipality.” She was particularly disturbed by the fact that the mayor and council were lined up behind the Confederate descendants.

But here are the facts:

The parade is not sponsored by the city of Homestead. The sponsor is the Homestead/Florida City Chamber of Commerce.

As elected Homestead officials, we participate in all parades as a measure of support for our community. We are told exactly where our cars are to line up. In fact, we were lined up by the chair-elect of the chamber’s Military Affairs Committee, Jeff Porter.

We do not sponsor, pay for, direct or coordinate the parades.

This is not a city issue as it is not a city parade; it is simply within the city!

Fast forward to one month ago: The City Council unanimously voted to sunset five city boards, including the Human Relations Board.

Then the NAACP became involved over the Human Relation Boards being dissolved. A meeting was held in Florida City. Without talking to the city, the NAACP planned a protest.

If the issue was really about the flag, why then the outrage seven months later, only after the board was dissolved?

Some facts about the former board: The former chair lives in the county, not Homestead. The vice chair lives in Kendall.

While the board was a Homestead/Florida City shared board, Homestead paid for everything. We paid staff to take the minutes; we provided the attorneys, housed the meetings and paid thousands of dollars each year for the Martin Luther King breakfast.

We have wanted to restructure several boards, including this one, for a year.

The terms of seven board members had expired. If I had reappointed the seven it would have been for another two years, so this was the perfect time to restructure the board.

Homestead now has 60,000 residents and needs a board of its own.

I will not be bullied by anyone into doing what they want me to do. Let the NAACP protest, let the group march, the truth will remain the same.

Unfortunately, the NAACP never bothered to talk to me to find out the truth: There is no racial divide.

Homestead is the most diverse city around. We have an African-American chief of police, a Haitian-American city clerk, a Palestinian city manager, a Mexican-American assistant city manager and the first two Hispanic females on council.

I am the first woman mayor in the city’s 96-year history.

I choose to make a difference — not a statement.

Lynda Bell is the Homestead mayor.