RTZ overlay is for a student housing project: The Mark
The latest chapter in the Coral Gables zoning soap opera will play out in Miami-Dade Commission Chambers this week. It started last Tuesday when County Commissioner Raquel Regalado took her Rapid Transit Zoning show on the road — to City Hall.
Regalado showed up to the Aug. 26 Coral Gables Commission meeting to advocate for her pet project: expanding the county’s Rapid Transit Zone (RTZ) to create a new University Station Subzone around the UM Metrorail stop  That overlay would pave the way for The Mark, a hulking student housing project that has some neighbors concerned.
The Miami-Dade County Commission will vote Wednesday on the a proposed RTZ expansion and University Station subzone that extends to properties within a quarter mile of the University Metrorail Station. Translation: The county will have zoning jurisdiction, not the city. And that clears the path for high-density, mixed-use projects.
Read related: Critics say Miami’s new transit zoning ordinance = loophole for developers
Developers who purchased the University Shopping Center in 2023, where the Bagel Emporium and TGI Fridays is, want to build a $70-million, sprawling mixed-use apartment complex, called The Mark, which will have 146 one-bedroom units, 99 two-bedroom units, and 151 three-bedroom units in two eight-story towers, connected by a bridge on the fifth floor. The ground floor will have restaurant and retail spaces.
Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, for her part, is cheerleading the move. Her memo in support of the ordinance talks about “equitable development,” “shorter trips,” and “visual compatibility with Coral Gables” — complete with “generous height allowances” and “enhanced landscaping.” Translation: Taller buildings with more trees in front of them.
“The Subzone aims to promote high-density, mixed-use development within a quarter-mile radius of the University Station, while integrating land use and transportation planning. The ordinance addresses the CDMP’s objective of integrating land use with transportation to attract transit ridership, produce shorter trips, and minimize transfers,” Levine Cava wrote. “This code amendment will facilitate the development of additional residential density and commercial development adjacent to the mass transit system.”
La Alcaldesa also says that there will be a city representative on the Rapid Transit Developmental Impact Committee (RTDIC) and that the county will coordinate with the city “on a potential interlocal agreement to address future concerns and align regulatory processes.”
Good luck with that.
To the folks who actually live near University Station and the Bagel Emporium plaza that will be replaced with two residential towers, it sounds less like equitable development and more like a takeover. They say they’ve been blindsided by the scale of the proposal and worry that the neighborhood will be flooded with traffic and end up looking more like Brickell than the City Beautiful.
This is the same fight that’s already spilled over into Coral Gables’ Planning and Zoning Board, where longtime neighborhood activist and P&Z member Sue Kawalerski grilled Regalado so hard about the RTZ zoning superseding the city’s own code that the commissioner snapped back. Weeks after that public meeting, Kawalerski was unceremoniously bounced — another casualty of Mayor Vince Lago’s revenge tour. She has been blamed for forcing the developer to go to the county and apply RTZ criteria, which is more generous than the city’s code.
Read related: Coral Gables moves to ‘fire’ longtime activist from planning zoning board
Regalado, who doesn’t need anybody to defend her, has been one of the prime proponents of RTZ. And she says the Gables needs housing and the area around the university is perfect for it.
“I don’t agree with demonizing student housing,” she told the Gables commissioners last week, and cited the Vox 1, 2, 3 and 4 projects in South Miami as an example of a student housing project done right. It also resolved a problem with students “cutting up” rented housing, living 10 or more at a time.
“Students need a place to live,” Regalado said. “UM is a partner. They are doing their part on campus… [But] the transit corridor is the place to house students.” She noted that the location for The Mark is right where the university has their pedestrian bridge over U.S. 1.
“The concept that this is not a place for student housing, to me, is mind blowing,” she said. “I’m not saying it’s appropriate everywhere, but you might want to decide where it’s appropriate.”
Kawalerski has said it is not about student housing, per se, but the gradual changing of the neighborhood’s character.
Regalado told the Gables Commission that she would amend the item going before the county commission this week to include the lighting and open space requirements “to give everyone a little more comfort.” But both she and Lago waved the ugly specter of Live Local — the Florida law that allows even more density to promote affordable or workforce housing (which is really not that affordable for the workforce).
It’s convenient for Lago to throw the blame somewhere else for the runaway development he has ushered into the Gables.
“The city has no control,” he said, referring to RTZ and Live Local. “That train has left the station.”
But if you think that The Mark is the only stop on this route, think again. City Manager Peter Iglesias said this overlay is specific for that particular student housing project, it includes that property alone, but not another proposed development for the nearby Gables Waterway.
“We need to expand that overlay and work on something new,” Iglesias said.
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Melissa Castro suggests ballot language for referendum
The city of Miami’s court battle to move municipal elections from odd to even years — effectively cancelling this year’s mayoral and commission races and extending electeds’ terms by a year — may have reverberations in Coral Gables, where the commission voted to move the elections from April of odd years to November of even years.
Same sin. Different direction.
Miami-Dade Judge Valerie Manno Schurr — in a lawsuit brought by former Miami City Manager Emilio Gonzalez, who is running for Miami mayor — already ruled last week that the city violated its own charter and the county charter when commissioners approved an ordinance changing the election date. The city appealed, but the reaction to oral arguments heard Tuesday indicate that they are going to lose that, too.
Read related: Third DCA seems skeptical of Miami city election change, cancellation
Manno Schurr’s ruling hinged on one self-evident truth: You don’t mess with the lengths of electeds’ terms without going to the people who put them in office in the first place. Period. Whether you’re adding months or shaving them off, it’s not up to mayors and commissioners with itchy calendar fingers. It’s up to the voters.
Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago, Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson, and Commissioners Ariel Fernandez and Richard Lara voted in May to move the next municipal election from April 2027 to November 2026 — skipping a referendum entirely, just like Miami did. Except now Miami’s in legal hot water, maybe The City Beautiful should reconsider.
Nope, they doubled down, instead. Lago, Anderson and Lara, did anyway. While Fernandez was away for health reasons, the commission last month discussed joining with other cities to rebuff any legal challenges from the state.
City Attorney Cristina Suarez has issued a formal legal opinion stating that the change is “legally sufficient in accordance with applicable law.” But it is a non-binding and advisory opinion only. Is that her way of saying it won’t hold up in court?
Read related: Miami-Dade Judge: Miami Commission can’t cancel election without public vote
Gables Commissioner Melissa Castro, the lone holdout on the vote to change the election — the same one who got censured by her “colleagues” for having the independent gumption to ask the Florida Attorney General about it (how dare she!) — wants the commission to reconsider. She told Political Cortadito she was not going to back down.
“Elected officials just deciding on their own that they are going to serve a year more or a year less? What is that? That’s a very dangerous precedent, that’s what it is,” Castro said.
“People — not politicians — have the sole right to decide when elections are held,” she wrote in an Instagram post. “It was the voters who put officials in office, and it is the voters alone who must decide if and when election dates change. Bypassing the people and moving elections without their approval is not only unethical, it’s illegal and unconstitutional under the Miami-Dade County Charter and Florida Constitution.
“I will fight tirelessly to defend your right to vote and ensure your voice is never silenced by political maneuvering,” she said, referring to the censure, which is like a slap on the wrist from elected colleagues. Unenforceable, but meant to chill dissent.
“Democracy belongs to the people, and I will never back down from protecting it,” Castro said.
She asked the city attorney on Tuesday to a draft a resolution for the first August meeting directing that a ballot question be presented to the electorate, asking whether they prefer Coral Gables municipal elections to continue being held in April, as has been the tradition for nearly 100 years, or be moved to November.
“The question must be binding, and the result should determine the city’s future election schedule,” Castro wrote in an email. And in order to make it super easy and trnsparent, she wants the ballot language to be simple: Under the title “Selection of Municipal Election Date,” voters will be asked to check a box for when they want to have future municipal elections — in April “dedicated local election focused on city issues” or November “combined with national and state elections.”
Read related: Coral Gables commissioner Melissa Castro challenges election date change
And what if someone blocks her or censures her again? Well, she might just take it to Gov. DeSantis.
“I won’t hesitate to take it further,” Castro wrote in an email to Gables residents last week. “I will continue siding firmly on the side of the law, transparency and, most importantly, the people.”
But let’s be real: Coral Gables doesn’t need Tallahassee swooping in to clean up its mess. What it needs is a little bit of spine and a whole lot of common sense.
Because even if the reasons for the change — higher turnout, lower costs, civic alignment — are legit, process still matters. Democracy doesn’t get waived for convenience. And a 4-1 commission vote deciding for 46,000 Gables voters when their elections happen? That’s not leadership. That’s laziness.
Gables commissioners have a choice. They can dig in their heels and go into a losing legal battle. Or they can put their trust in the people who elected them and let the voters decide, in a way that they know their next elected is going to serve a shorter term.
Ladra knows which one smells more like sunshine and less like naranja agria. Does Mayor Lago?
Because if the commission doesn’t do it now, a judge might do it later — and by then, it could be messier. And costlier.
Just ask the folks at Miami City Hall. (Assuming they’re not too busy appealing everything.)
The post Judge calls Miami election change unconstitutional; is Coral Gables next? appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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In Coral Gables, it’s apparently looked down upon to ask questions.
The city commission last week censured Commissioner Melissa Castro for, get this, having the nerve to contact the Florida attorney general for an opinion on a controversial and politically-tainted decision in May to move the city elections from April of odd years to November of even years, to coincide with the midterm and general elections, without going to the public for a vote on the matter.
¡Que atrevida!
Castro asked Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier if moving the city’s general election from April to November, without a voter referendum, was, you know, legal. She believes it is a violation of the city charter and the county Home Rule, which states that these type of changes must be made by voter referendum. “Unethical and unconstitutional,” she said.
Uthmeier hasn’t written back. Probably too busy pushing that Alligator Alcatraz merch (more on that later). But he did provide an opinion to a Miami commissioner who asked practically the same question about that city’s move to change elections from odd years to even. He said they have to go to a public vote first.
Read related: Coral Gables commissioner Melissa Castro challenges election date change
The Gables commissioner believes that this opinion would also apply to the City Beautiful and presented an ordinance last week that would repeal the vote to change the election, effectively putting it back to April in odd years. The commission, with Commissioner Ariel Fernandez absent, did not second her motion and it died.
Then, they decided to censure her for asking.
Pero, por supuesto. Mayor Vince Lago and his new echo chamber Seguro Que Yes majority took advantage and took it a step further by voting to censure Castro for, well, asking a question. Nevermind that the AG is there precisely for that reason. Apparently, in Coral Gables, doing your homework without asking your classmates first is grounds for detention.
L’Ego — who was censured in 2023 by the old commissioners majority for disparaging and insulting the three members he opposed on radio and television appearances — called it “deeply troubling” that Castro didn’t first run her legal curiosity by him, Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson, or Commissioner Richard Lara. After all, nothing screams transparency like backroom consensus-building before seeking a legal opinion. Am I right?
Never one to skip the spin cycle, Lago read his prepared comments, which regurgitated all the axes he has to grind against Castro. He also cited some random (and questionable) polling that allegedly shows 75% support for the date change. But when his little grupito tried to gather actual signatures to change the election date via petition, they failed miserably. According to a status report from the Miami-Dade Elections Department, the Lago group submitted 4,983 petitions on changing the election from April to November. Of those, 1,461 were valid and 3,522 were not valid.
Is that sloppiness or fraud? We still don’t know.
Read related: Coral Gables changes city elections to November, cuts terms by 5 months
Always ready with a lectern-worthy lecture, the mayor also said that Castro’s letter sent a subliminal “horrific message” to Tallahassee that the commission was not united. First, it’s not. That’s not such a terrible thing to have checks and balances. She doesn’t represent Lago and the commission. She represents her constituents that voted for her.
Second, and more importantly, this shows that Lago’s real concern isn’t about violating Home Rule — it’s about hurting feelings in the capital. You see, according to the mayor, the state was already giving the Gables side-eye after past commission antics (like self-approved raises and the musical chairs of city managers). He says the past two years of infighting on the commission has cost the city millions in appropriations, which has not been independently verified.
Anderson, meanwhile, whipped out her go-to proverbial pearls and clutched them with theatrical flair to censure Castro. As always, she spent way too much time chastising Castro for offending her senses. Castro, she said, omitted critical facts in her letter and was “trying to sabotage” the commission by asking for the opinion from Uthmeier without checking in with them and without calling a special meeting to get their input.
“No member of this commission on the down side of a vote should reach out and try to overturn a decision of this commission without the advice and consent of this commission,” Anderson said, calling out Castro for a typo in her letter — she wrote “2027” instead of “2026” — and wielded that gaffe like a smoking gun. As if that indicated that Castro was trying to sneak in an extra year.
“Big typo,” Anderson snapped, trying to summon up all the gravitas of a courtroom drama.
But if typos are now grounds for political flogging, half of City Hall should be sentenced to a proofreading boot camp.
“In order to make it clear to you that this type of behavior is improper and should not be tolerated in the future, I move for your censure,” Anderson said.
Castro was unfazed.
“Though the mayor, and I want to make it extremely clear — I will not stand here while this commission tries to take away residents rights,” she said. “If I would have to reach out to the general attorney again, I would do it 1,000 times. I was trying to undo a wrong this commission made. If you want to go ahead and vote for the vice mayor to censure me for standing up for my people, for standing up for my residents, then go ahead.”
Read related: Coral Gables commissioner Melissa Castro challenges election date change
“I think there’s been, unfortunately,  so far too much attention put on you, Commissioner Castro,” Lara said, like a jealous mean girl friend.
Besides echoing Anderson and Lago, which is what Lara does best, the newly-elected commissioner — who keeps saying that this is what the voters elected him to do — also questioned Castro’s motives, suggesting that her request of a legal opinion was encouragement for the state to sue the city. Really? An attorney, Lara poo-poohed the legality of any legal opinion, hinting that it was merely a recommendation.
City Attorney Cristina Suarez had already written a “formal legal opinion” at Castro’s request, saying that the AG’s opinion was “non-binding and advisory only.”
Did Castro want to stop the election move? No. She simply wants to let voters decide. What a concept! And, at the same time, she said it would avoid a possible legal battle with the state, which has already stood on the side of voters.
“This is me throwing a lifeline to some of the commissioners here,” Castro said, after quoting Uthmeier’s letter to the city of Miami and reiterating that it would apply to any city in Miami-Dade County. She also cited a quote from former Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas about the city’s potential legal risk.
“It’s me trying to help you guys. I don’t want us to go against the state,” she said.
“Just put it on the ballot,” Castro added, who presented a cute little power point that showed how residents were left out of the decision-making. “Let’s make it fair and transparent. It’s not a big deal. If you are sure that people are going to vote for November, what is the issue with putting it on the ballot?”
Apparently a very big deal for Lago and company — big enough to not only shut Castro down, but also throw in an unnecessary public shaming for good measure.
Resident activist Maria Cruz, a former Lago ally who has smelled the coffee, said it was just like Lago to dismiss the public: “Daddy knows best,” she said. “We know what”s best We don’t care what the people want or do not want. We don’t even want to hear it.
Read related: Miami Commissioners pass election date change — and steal an extra year
On the other side, Claudia Miro, who lost her second election bid this past April, came in — as if on Lago’s cue these days — with her own reprimands, said she didn’t like to have Coral Gables compared to the city of Miami (where she used to work, btw) and said the City Beautiful’s election change was different because it would shorten terms, while Miami commissioners effectively extended their terms by a year. She said voters made it clear in April’s elections how they felt by supporting candidates who supported the move.

Miro also accused Castro of “the height of hypocrisy” because Castro didn’t call for voter input when she and Fernandez and former Commissioner Kirk Menendez increased their salaries in 2023. Which is a bit like arguing that someone who jaywalked once doesn’t have the moral ground to call the police when they see a hit and run.
The commission voted May 20 to move the elections from April in odd years to November in even years, which effectively shortens everyone’s terms by five months. The reasons are, on paper, to increase voter participation and save $200,000 a year in election costs. Opponents say it would give developers and special interests (read: big money) an advantage.
But it’s very interesting that the mayor and his majority don’t care about “voter participation” on this issue.
Castro also pointed out the city spent $244,000 defending its plastic ban and another $185,000 fighting residents over the plans for a Wawa across from an elementary school, which were eventually abandoned. And now, the city wants to risk another six-figure legal battle to save $200,000 by moving an election?
That’s not fiscal responsibility — that’s the civic version of clipping coupons while leasing, um, er, a Maserati.
In the end, Castro’s “lifeline” to her fellow commissioners was met with cement shoes. And the Commission keeps sailing full speed ahead into a potential legal storm, hoping the Tallahassee gods won’t strike the with a bolt of thunder.
So much for Home Rule. In Coral Gables, it’s “Lago’s rules.” And if you dare to question them, without permission, bring an umbrella, a flak jacket — and spellcheck.
The post Coral Gables Commissioner Melissa Castro censured — for asking a question appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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On the heels of an opinion from the Florida Attorney General about the change in election year approved by city of Miami commissioner, Coral Gables Commissioner Melissa Castro wants to reverse a decision by the City Beautiful to move their municipal elections from April of 2027 to November of 2026, effectively shortening everyone’s terms by five months.
Castro, who voted against the May 20 “unconstitutional” ordinance that changed the election date, will introduce legislation at Tuesday’s commission meeting that would repeal the ordinance and restore the April election date. She said the change should be taken to voters and is leaning on a letter sent to the city of Miami last week from Attorney General James Uthmeier that challenges that city’s authority to make the change without taking it to voters first.
She has also asked Uthmeier to weigh in on the Gables decision.
“Let me be clear: Residents — not politicians — should decide when elections are held and how long elected officials serve,” Castro wrote in an email sent Monday to Coral Gables residents. She had urged the city attorney to seek Uthmeier’s opinion on the matter in May. “When that didn’t happen, I submitted a formal request myself,” Castro wrote in her email.
Read related: Coral Gables changes city elections to November, cuts terms by 5 months
Her letter to Uthmeier is dated June 23. Two days later, last Wednesday, the AG issued “a clear and forceful legal opinion directed at the City of Miami,” Castro wrote in her email. “Changing the date of its municipal elections or the terms of office for elected officials without a vote of the electors violates the County Charter and provisions of the 1885 Constitution.
“He further warned that if municipalities continue down this path, his office will take all available legal actions to stop it.”
Castro also quoted former Miami-Dade County Mayor Alex Penelas, a political analyst for NBC6, who said that any official who votes in favor of moving the election could risk suspension from office.
We should be so lucky.
Of course, Penelas was talking about the Miami commissioners before their final decision last week. But Castro says it could also apply to the Gables.
“These warnings were and remain clear, yet some elected officials on the Coral Gables Commission are still doubling down. Just because something is legally possible doesn’t mean it’s ethically or democratically right. In this case, it’s also illegal,” she wrote.
Mayor Vince Lago, who has tried for years to move the election (a similar move in 2023 failed), sponsored the ordinance. Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson and Commissioner Richard Lara, who was elected in April, also voted for it. Castro would need one of them to switch their votes and is likely hoping that the message from Uthmeier to the city of Miami would cause them to be more cautious. Commissioner Ariel Fernandez, who said it should go to voters, already voted against it.
Castro’s email also touched on the referendum ballot question that the commission did put on the ballot. She said there was “a lot of misinformation” because residents believe it is about moving the elections to November of even years. It is not. That’s been done, without any voter input. The language in the ballot question would prohibit any future commission from changing it back.
The exact language: “Prohibit changing the City’s general election date away from November of even-numbered years through the adoption of an ordinance by the City Commission, in so far as that prohibition is not in conflict with state law.”
“This ballot question only restricts future Commissions from doing what the Mayor and Commissioners just did,” Castro wrote.
“In short, it’s political smoke and mirrors,” she wrote. “The majority of this Commission moved the election date without your vote then turned around and put a ballot question on the ballot pretending to protect your rights after the fact. It’s hypocrisy at its finest. Coral Gables is following the same deceptive playbook we’ve seen in Miami.
“It’s vintage Miami Politics 101 and it doesn’t belong in our city.”
Read related: Miami commissioners should shorten their terms for election year change
Why do residents believe that they will have a say in the change? Because the ordinance that commissioners approved in May actually says so. Despite the ballot language that has been officially written, the ordinance passed by the commission 4-1 specifically has a clause stating that there will be a future election to “affirm” this change.
“WHEREAS, should this Ordinance be adopted by the City Commission, the City also wishes to send a question to the electors of the City for affirmation of this change during a special election to be held at a later date as determined by the City Commission.”
That does not sound like it is about future changes. That sounds like it is an “affirmation of this change.” This change.
City Attorney Cristina Suarez and spokeswoman Martha Pantin have stonewalled Ladra’s repeated questions about that “whereas” language in the ordinance. Instead, they repeats the same line about the state law allowing them to make the election date change without voter approval.
“Whether or not the question passes, elections remain in November,” Pantin wrote in an email. “As I explained below, the question being put to voters is about future changes to elections.  They are not being asked about changing the election. Thery are being asked if in the future should a City Commission wants to move the election date, would they have to put the question to the voters. If they vote yes, future Commissions will need to send the question to the voters. If they vote no, future Commissions could change by ordinance, both scenarios provided they are not in conflict with state law.”
But that’s not what Ladra was asking. And that’s not what the ordinance says when the whereas states there will be a future vote of “affirmation of this change.”
Ladra asked outside attorneys what they thought about this discrepancies in the ballot language and the ordinance.
“I agree with you, they are asking for an affirmation of the current change to move elections to November and the ordinance is not written with wording for future changes requiring the vote of the residents. So you are correct,” said Ignacio Alvarez, who ran unsuccessfully for Miami-Dade Sheriff and has a practice in the Gables.
Calls and emails to Uthmeier’s office were not returned. Lago, Anderson and Lara also did not answer or return calls.
The city commission in Coral Gables starts at 9 a.m. Tuesday at City Hall, 405 Biltmore Way, and can also be viewed online on the city’s website or on the city’s YouTube channel.
The post Coral Gables commissioner Melissa Castro challenges election date change appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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As expected and predicted in this very space, Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago has brought back former City Manager Peter Iglesias — who was fired last year by the old commission majority — to the top administrative job in the City Beautiful.
Lago, who was re-elected last month, campaigned on bringing Iglesias back and presented a resolution to name Iglesias manager at Tuesday’s commission meeting. Everyone knew this was coming after his remarks about the longtime public servant and engineer at the swearing-in ceremony where it seemed he was going to cry when he told Iglesias to stand and be recognized.
It was also expected to be a 3-2 vote with the new majority, all of whom won the April elections, voting in favor at Tuesday’s long commission meeting. So far, newly-elected Commissioner Richard Lara — who made a big deal about being independent and not a handpicked Lago lackey pocket vote — has voted lockstep with the mayor and the vice mayor. It’s an echo chamber with the three repeating each other’s remarks in mutual admiration.
Iglesias, who wasn’t there at City Hall but was on Zoom during the meeting, will start Friday and make $295,000 a year. He will work for 20 months, which is right after the next election, which the commission also moved Tuesday to November 2026 (more on that later).
Read related: Coral Gables Vince Lago may move to bring back City Manager Peter Iglesias
Lago — who is having trouble turning the page, as he said he would when sworn in — showed how butt hurt he still is about the firing of Iglesias after he lost the majority and the hiring of former City Manager Amos Rojas on the spot at a commission meeting. Kinda like what happened Tuesday. “The manner in which this was done was shameful,” Lago said, adding that lifeguards get more vetting than the manager got and that the decision “deeply demoralized our staff.”

But he also revealed the real reason he didn’t like it. “As a mayor, I wasn’t even granted the courtesy of getting his resumé,” L’Ego said. So, again, it seems that it was because it wasn’t his idea. He even mocked Commissioner Melissa Castro‘s comments at the time about Rojas’ LinkedIn profile, which was all she had to go on. Like googling him was a bad idea.
“I am in complete disgust with the hypocrisy of this body right now,” Castro said, and one doesn’t know if she is referring to the promises to go to a national search or the complaints about appointing a city manager as a surprise at a live meeting. Or both.
Castro said Iglesias might be a good guy and have achieved some things in the city, but after the election in 2023 — which she and Commissioner Ariel Fernandez against Lago’s wishes and well-funded handpicked candidates — the manager kept her in the dark. “He was favoring certain individuals on this commission and one of them was not me,” Castro said. She also said Iglesias had once told her “employees are lazy and don’t want to work,” when she would suggest ideas to streamline services.
“Employees do not like Peter,” Castro said. “You know who likes Peter? Department directors.”
Read related: Coral Gables skips search, hires new city manager Amos Rojas on the spot
Fernandez was the one who last year spearheaded the firing of Iglesias, who he said did not respond to residents and was insubordinate to him for 10 months after the was elected. But he really started trying to fire him the month after he was elected. He said Iglesias “was actively keeping us in the dark. To what end? Nobody knows.”
Iglesias had his own agenda, Fernandez said. That included the mobility hub that Lago was pushing and developing a city parking lot. “Those were his priorities while City hall feel apart and the gondola building collapsed.” He also blamed him for the delays in reopening what used to be Burger Bob’s.

“We need to have someone who respects our staff, works with all the commissioners,” Fernandez added. “Peter Iglesias is not a unifying voice.”
Lago, Anderson and Lara — who have replaced Castro, Fernandez and former Commissioner Kirk Menendez as the majority — said that Iglesias would bring stability back to City Hall at a time when it would be crucial to have his experience and leadership skills at the helm. The budget process is about to begin and the renovations of City Hall are ongoing.
Read related: Vince Lago scores with Richard Lara’s Coral Gables commission runoff win
Lara further said that it was something he campaigned on, as well, although he advocated for a national search, and that he first decided to run for office after the “unceremonious firing.” He also lashed out at Castro and said Iglesias may have been fired because “one commissioner didn’t feel she was getting enough attention.” He called the firing “improper” and “illicit.
“Simply because something can be done, doesn’t mean it is the right thing to do,” Lara said.
But Anderson wasn’t listening. Later, when she voted for the mayor’s move to rescind a pilot permit expediting program that Castro had worked on for months to give residents and business owners the option to speed up their permitting process for a premium, she said basically the opposite. “The rules do allow the new board to undo an old board’s motion,” the vice mayor said.
To quote Lara: Simply because something can be done, doesn’t mean it is the right thing to do.
The post Mayor Vince Lago brings Peter Iglesias back as Coral Gables city manager appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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Mayor proposes paying commissioners $1 a year
If the voters in Coral Gables thought that the animosity on the commission and the toxic rhetoric from the mayor was going to end with last month’s election, they have another thing coming. Freshly re-elected with a solid 55% of the vote, Mayor Vince Lago, emboldened by his and his slate’s victories, is doubling down on the hate and disrespect, seemingly hellbent on revenge.
Such a sore winner.
It’s not just because he’s going to roll back the raises and car allowances that commissioners gave themselves in 2023. That was a campaign promise. If that’s what the voters want, and he’s following through.
But Lago wants to go further.
There are two items on the commission salary in Tuesday’s agenda. One of them will roll the salaries back to what it was  before the trio of Commissioners Melissa Castro, Ariel Fernandez and former Commissioner Kirk Menendez, approved the raises in the 2023 budget. But just so that readers know what this means financially: The mayor’s salary will go from $69,000 a year back to $47,400. The vice mayor’s will go from $67,000 back to $41,475 and the commissioners’ pay will go from getting $65,000 annually to $38,500. That’s a total savings of $75,625 a year,
And you get what you pay for.
Read related: Vince Lago, Rhonda Anderson handily coast to re-election in Coral Gables
But the other “proposed ordinance” would cut their salaries to $1 a year — starting with the very next paycheck.
That’s not political retaliation? Is that what voters want, too? This is more than just “elections have consequences.” It is why Lago doesn’t mention the $1 option in a self-aggrandizing piece he wrote for Community Newspapers.
And for whoever thinks that is not targeting Fernandez and Castro, a single mother that Lago has repeatedly disrespected in public, take a look at the second part of the ordinance: “Beginning October 1, 2026 the compensation would revert to the 2022-2023 fiscal year salary and expense allowances, including those increases tied to the annual increases in the CPI-W as provided in section 2-29 of the City Code.”
So, the mayor and the commissioners get their old salaries back with regular raises — 17 months from now — and for the six months or so that Castro and Fernandez will have left in office before their term is up. That sounds fair and non retaliatory at all.
Because it seems way too harsh, some have speculated that Lago is using that option as leverage to get the other items passed, which include the elimination of the car allowance, a requirement to get a four-fifths vote prior to spending any general reserve monies (unless there is a declared state of emergency), the addition of two new members to the charter review committee, to be appointed by the city manager and city attorney, and a rollback of commission expense accounts from $10,000 too $5,000 a year — for a whopping savings of $25,000.
But, wait. Lago goes further on this one, too.
The resolution also “amends the policy for allowable uses,” it says. Those uses include event tickets and donations to schools, which are understandable, but it also includes mass mailings and the printing of materials — like, say, the welcome packets that Castro gives to new homeowners with a lot of useful information.
Seems really petty. And certainly not in the best interest of the city. This is all revenge. The cost of opposing the great Lago.
There’s also an item to change the rules on public comments. That one may as well be called the Maria Cruz ordinance because it aims to limit public comments to only specific items on the agenda or the public comment period. Maria Cruz is a gadfly activist that speaks on many issues, sometimes too many issues. She used to be Lago’s buddy, but has become one of his most outspoken critics and led the failed recall against him last year. This is just a way to silence her. And others.
But remember, Lago is all about transparency.
Read related: Vince Lago scores with Richard Lara’s Coral Gables commission runoff win
As usual, Lago did not return calls and texts to his phone. But in that Community Newspaper piece, he writes his proposed changes will “bring clarity and decorum back to our public meetings.”
Lago also wants to put two questions on the ballot: One would ask citizens if they want to establish an Inspector General and the other would ask them if they want to convene a charter review committee every 10 years beginning in 2035 — which sounds like a way to get rid of the charter review committee for 10 years. Aren’t they supposed to convene after every U.S. Census?
But the mayor won’t risk the election date change on a referendum. He will try to do that by ordinance on Tuesday. Because he really doesn’t care whether the people of Coral Gables want it or not, and he’s not going to take the same chance as he did with the annexation of Little Gables, which voters overwhelmingly rejected. He’s not going to leave it up to them.
That item on the agenda Tuesday would change the date of the next general election from April 13, 2027 to November 03, 2026, and moving all subsequent elections to November. This would result in a four-month reduction for everyone. But for Castro and Fernandez, first. It would also expand the runoff period from two weeks to four and move the swearing-in date to five weeks after the election. Both the next election and the ballot questions would be on the Nov. 3, 2026 ballot.
So, basically, by the end of Tuesday, Coral Gables may change the way it’s elected its commission for 100 years. Happy centennial!
Unless, that is, either Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson and newly-elected Commissioner Richard Lara — who Lago thinks he has in his pocket — insist on this going to the voters. As said in Political Cortadito before, this will be Lara’s first test. Lago is not wasting any time testing his loyalty. Will herbier stamp everything? Or push back a little?
It’s possible that Lara is the only option. Anderson was heard telling someone who asked her to let bygones be bygones that “you reap what you sow.”
That means Richard Lara could very quickly become the most powerful person on the city commission as the swing vote. Both sides will rely on him for support.
There’s also a discussion item on the city manager, which was a central point of Lago’s re-election campaign — and his revenge tour.
Read related: Coral Gables Vince Lago may move to bring back City Manager Peter Iglesias
Several people have tried to convince Lago not to fire City Manager Alberto Parjus and hire former city manager Peter Iglesias back. “But he was my mentor,” Lago reportedly whined to the city clerk in the parking lot at the flag raising ceremony for the centennial, where a business leader took Lago aside for a word of advice: Stop it. Okay, two words.
Several city employees and supporters — including his campaign manager Jesse Manzano and former Miami-Dade Commissioner Kevin Cabrera, before he left for his post as U.S. Ambassador to Panama — reportedly asked him to keep his cool and, specifically, not to fire Parjus. They said he’s not feeling it and would rather “blow everything up.”
“He’s off the rails,” is what one Gables insider said.
In other words, he’s going nuclear. Scorched Earth mode.
L’Ego isn’t letting up on the public meltdowns and personal attacks on Commissioner Castro, either. The incident at El Carnaval de Barranquilla last weekend — where Lago called her names in front of her 8-year-old son and refused to stand on stage with her and the organizers — was not an isolated event. On Thursday, at the ribbon cutting for Plenitude Spa on Aragon Avenue, Lago made a repeat performance — refusing to stand with and walking away from a group photo with Castro — and even told someone, in captured cellphone video, that he was not going to stop behaving like a toddler and disrespecting her.
“This is the way it’s going to be from now on, until the next election,” he is heard saying to someone. Ladra thinks it is Belkys Perez, the city’s Economic Development Director. “This is the way it’s going to be.”
Somehow, Ladra doesn’t think this is what the voters wanted when they returned him to office.
The next election is in 2027 and the mayor just threatened to humiliate and embarrass an opposing commissioner for two years.
Oh, wait. Shave four months off that.
Earlier, when he was standing at one end of the group photo and Castro at the other, Lago broke out of the line, like a true diva. “I can’t. I can’t. I won’t,” he said, and you could almost see him bring the back of his hand to his forehead. Oh, the agony!
“Listen, Belkys, Belkys, I will not take any pictures unless they’re…” and the cellphone video sound trails off because Lago is not the focus of the event. Even though he thinks he ought to be. The mayor is heard again when he raises his voice to direct the show. “So, let’s take a picture the three of us and then take a picture with the commissioner after. Let’s respect that. Let’s do that.”
People look uncomfortable.
He also refused to cut the ribbon with Castro. “There has to be a standard here,” Lago is heard saying. “You can either have the actual mayor or you can have the commissioner.
But you’re not going to have both.”
¡Que pena! What a show!
Just outside the door, as Castro is taking her pictures, is when he is caught in the background, talking to Perez, probably. “Nope. You do enough damage to my family, to my wife and my kids, I gotta draw the line,” Lago said.
Read related: Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago lashes out at Commissioner Melissa Castro
Castro doesn’t know what he’s talking about. She has seen Mrs. Lago maybe twice ever — the woman is not as visible as Mrs. Francis Suarez — and never uttered a word to her or his daughters, she said.
“Mayor Lago has made it clear both through his actions and his words that he intends to wear me down,” Castro told Political Cortadito. “He even said he was going to have me at ‘pico y pala.’ That phrase is used to describe someone being broken down bit by bit. This is not just disrespected, it’s targeted, intentional and deeply inappropriate behavior from someone in pubic office.
“When the mayor says he’s going to have me ‘a pico y pala,’ he’s admitting what so many of us already see: This is about power, not service,” Castro said. “It’s about breaking a woman down, not building a city up. But I was elected by the people and I will not let anyone chip away at my voice.
“He intends to wear me down, humiliate me repeatedly or break my spirit little by little,” Castro said. “These public power plays only hurt the very people we’re here to support — our residents and local businesses.
“It’s upsetting to be treated this way in front of our community, especially as a woman, a mother and an elected official.”
Ironically, when Lago went to say a few words at last week’s ribbon cutting — he went on and on about how much he respects women. “I always like to see women entrepreneurs,” he said to the women who own and operate the spa. “And as the father of two young girls I’m pushing them to be exactly like you.
“We need strong women who do the right thing, take risks and start a business,” he said.
Ladra half expected him to be struck by lightning.
The post Post-election Vince Lago revenge tour in Coral Gables = political retaliation appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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