The Ghetto Governor

At a June 22, 2004 county commission meeting, Rolle prevented LIFFT members from commenting about a county report showing a disproportionate number of vacancies in the county-owned housing project. "We've asked Rolle to meet with us many times, and he has never responded," says LIFFT member Jearline Borders.

To date, only four new single-family houses have been built on the former public housing site. Those were developed by Habitat for Humanity, which has a contract with the county to build another 52 homes. Construction won't commence on the remaining 354 townhouses, single-family residences, and public housing apartments until at least 2008, according to a recent housing agency report.

Of the 800 families, only 56 have qualified to purchase a home in the new development.

On the other hand, Balsera notes that Scott-Carver was a blight on the community. "It was not a situation that offered hope or optimism to anyone who lived there or in the surrounding community," Balsera opines. "He made the tough decision to displace all these families in exchange for building a much better community. That shows he is willing to make political sacrifices for long-term gain."

But for inner-city residents like Dennis, Scott-Carver's demolition is demonstrative of Rolle's inability to lead. Rolle promised jobs to people in the community but has not delivered, Dennis seethes. While contractors and builders who contribute to Rolle's campaigns win the rights to redevelop the community, black-owned firms are not getting any of the work, Dennis adds. "Where is the economic development?" he questions. "I have young brothers coming up to me every day asking me about jobs. No one wants to be selling drugs on a street corner."

Dennis should know. He has publicly admitted to selling drugs in the past. In 1991 he was convicted of felony possession of marijuana, and in 1994 he was twice convicted of felony aggravated battery.

Rolle is worse than the young black men killing each other over turf and dope-game supremacy, Dennis says. "Rolle is like a tribal chief in Africa who will kill his entire tribe and put them in mass graves," he sneers. "He is killing us all at once by doing nothing."

Unless there is a dead body and television cameras, the hood doesn't see Rolle, Dennis complains. Indeed there was Rolle, along with County Commissioner Audrey Edmonson, holding a rally in late May to exhort witnesses to help police solve the murders of three black Carol City teenagers killed in a seven-month span. Just recently Rolle was among local black politicians who attended a prayer vigil for nine-year-old Sherdavia Jenkins, who died from a gunshot wound to the neck while playing with a doll on her front stoop.

Dennis extends a hand and points to the empty tract that was once Scott-Carver. "Whenever the powers-that-be want something done, they get a puppet," Dennis rhapsodizes. "Rolle is not the king of the chessboard. He doesn't have any rooks or bishops. He is just one of the pawns."

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In 1972 Rolle took a job as a social worker for JESCA, an organization that dates back to 1925, when ex-U.S. Army Capt. James E. Scott founded the Colored Association for Family Welfare, a community center and day nursery. The nonprofit later changed its name in honor of its founder.

Today JESCA is the largest social service agency in the southeastern United States. According to JESCA's 2005 financial statement, the agency generated $8.4 million in revenue — most of it from local, state, and federal grants.

For instance, JESCA receives roughly three million dollars annually from the federal government's Head Start/Early Childhood Development program to provide subsidized preschool and daycare, as well early-childhood education, to low- and moderate-income families.

The Florida Department of Juvenile Justice pays JESCA $827,820 a year to run Floyd House, a juvenile probation and rehabilitation program with two sites in Miami-Dade. Since 2004, the City of Miami has awarded JESCA $390,000 in public service grants. Last year Miami-Dade County gave $1.8 million to the organization.

Through government funds administered by the United Way of Miami-Dade, JESCA receives an estimated $300,000 a year. Between 2003 and 2005, Miami-Dade Public Schools kicked in $1.8 million to pay for JESCA's Roving Leaders program, developed by Rolle to help potential dropouts graduate from high school and receive job training.

Rolle's first assignment was working with juveniles on the streets of Liberty City. In the late Seventies and through the Eighties, Rolle ran the agency's ex-offender program, which assists people released from jail with obtaining schooling, jobs, and counseling.

In 1991 JESCA's longtime chief Archie Hardwick and fiscal director George Thoroman were accused of swindling the social service agency out of public funds meant to help the needy. Hardwick was forced to step down. On April 6, 1992, the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office charged Hardwick and Thoroman with grand theft. Prosecutors alleged Hardwick spent $800,000 of the organization's money on luxury cars, women, jewelry, and a nose job. Three years later, Hardwick was sentenced to 60 years in state lockup. He died in a prison hospital in 1997. Thoroman pleaded guilty in 1997 and was sentenced to four and a half years in jail.