Coral Gables City Manager Peter Iglesias can count. Only because he knows he has three votes, can the manager lash out at Commissioner Ariel Fernandez like he did at Tuesday’s city commission meeting.
Se puso feo.
Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago had another bad day at City Hall Tuesday.
Not only did he lack the votes to reject the proposed salary increase for himself and vice mayor — a grandstanding move that would have locked in future mayors and vice mayors — and is apparently losing the effort to annex High Pines/Ponce Davis (more on that later), but he was also censured by a majority of the commission for the false and disparaging remarks he has made about them and other critics on a two-week media tour.
The sunshine meeting Tuesday evening in Coral Gables was supposed to be a workshop for the city’s budget. Everyone expected to hear Mayor Vince Lago‘s ideas to bring the “millage” or tax rate down.
That didn’t happen.
Coral Gables Commissioner Rhonda Anderson has booted Claudia Miro, a onetime commission candidate, from the planning and zoning board, saying her attendance, or lack thereof, is the reason.
But the timing and circumstances point to another motive: Miro, who was recently reappointed by Anderson, voted last month against naming former Commissioner Wayne “Chip” Withers the board-as-a-whole’s appointment. She voted for Javier Salman instead.
Change could give Mayor Vince Lago an additional 20 months in office
Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago is not as popular as he thinks he is. There’s no doubt that these recent commission races were a referendum on his leadership.
Even though he won re-election with no opposition, Lago worked hard to get his cronies elected. He called people and asked them to put signs in their yard. He texted people to remind them to vote for his candidates. Friends say he was obsessed with the commission races.
