As expected, Miami Lakes Mayor Michael Pizzi qualified at the last minute, just before noon Wednesday to run for re-election, making this race a heated four-man contest.

Wait a minute, make that a three-way: Councilman Ceasar Mestre has withdrawn his candidacy. In a long Facebook post over the weekend, Mestre told his supporters that he had missed too much time with his loved ones, “missed family trips, birthday parties, school activities, movies” because of the campaign.

“I have always said my most important title is ‘dad’, yet it was becoming less important. When you are competitive, it’s easy to get caught up in the campaign and lose perspective,” Mestre wrote in the heartfelt post. “I kept saying only until November, but should I win, and become Mayor , it would only be worse.”

Read related story: Miami Lakes voters say ‘yes’ 10 times, and cut mayor’s powers

He said that the mayor’s post in Miami Lakes has “turned into more than a fulltime position as future political ambitions dictate the rhythm. To some, this may be o.k. To me it’s not. I have been blessed with a good career and a great family. The price to pay for this endeavor is something I am unwilling to give. I have observed what this can do to families and most times , it’s not a good result… So I have decided not to continue with this campaign.”

And as if to drive the point home, he posted the news with pictures while on a family vacation in Canada.

So that leaves Pizzi to fight off Councilman Manny Cid and founding mayor Wayne Slaton.

In a statement, Pizzi said he only decided to file for his third term after “hundreds of town residents flooded his law office this past week asking him to continue as mayor and help improve the town.” We doubt this. We predicted he would want to keep his job and also he would file last minute.

Pizzi also said, in the same statement, that he was “looking at an intense campaign ahead,” but that he was ready.

Read related story: Young GOP VIPs back Manny Cid for Miami Lakes mayor

“I love being mayor more than anything else because of the many great things I can get done for our Miami Lakes residents,” he said in his classic way of saying nothing. “It has been a great honor to serve as Miami Lake mayor these past eight years that’s why I have filed for re-election.”

Cid is considered the front runner, and more so now that Mestre dropped out (curiously it was after that big GOP VIP event for his colleague). But Manny better have his game on. Because, despite his caricature-like personality and seeming legal and ethical foibles, Pizzi has a solid group of people who blindly follow and adore him. Yes, it is kind of like a cult.

Pizzi may have really heavy baggage — a bribery arrest, suspension from office, a pricey legal battle to get back in office after acquittal and that hit and run with a tree in the middle of the night (read: dodged DUI). And all this is fresh baggage because he had old baggage ($200K stolen from his office, saying he wanted to plant drugs on a council member’s car) dogging him for years. But his supporters only see what they want to see.

Read related story: Michael Pizzi sues Miami Lakes for $3.2 million in legal fees

And Ladra would not be surprised if members of that cult were among the other eight candidates for the three council seats that are also on the ballot.

Councilman Tony Lama is challenged by attorney Elizabeth Delgado Mizrahi and Councilman Nelson Rodriguez has two opponents, attorney Alex Dehghani and Xiomara Pazos, who ran against Mestre in 2014 (64 to 36%).

There are three candidates vying for the seat vacated by Cid. They are Luis Collazo, Esther Colon and Nayib Hassan.

And we will learn more about all these people — and the cults they belong to — in weeks to come. Stay tuned.

Miami Lakes voters were in a giving mood this week, saying yes to and overwhelmingly passing every single one of the 10 charter amendments proposed to them — most of which take powers away from the mayor, making it a mostly ceremonial position.

They also made Mayor Michael Pizzi‘s re-election pretty much a pipe dream.

The most important of the amendments forces a runoff for the mayor’s or any council seat should nobody get 50 percent plus one vote in the first round. Pizzi faces at least three serious challengers in November. Two of them are Council Members Manny Cid and Ceasar Mestre and the other is founding Mayor Wayne Slaton, who Pizzi handily beat mano-a-mano in 2012. It is unlikely that the embattled incumbent, who was arrested on bribery charges since his last time on the ballot, would get 50% in that field.

Read related story: Miami Lakes: Manny Cid becomes #3 to file for mayor

He’d be forced into a runoff, most likely against Mestre or Cid, which means he could easily lose his seat. Ladra says there’s a good chance he doesn’t even run.

Pizzi did not return a call or email seeking his comment. But the other amendments that passed — with between 59 and 76 percent of the vote — are also aimed at his unique powers or duties.

That was the intent of the charter amendment committee. Chairman David “Doc” Bennett, the mayor’s longtime nemesis who has to be proud of himself, said it was bringing the town back in line with its original incorporation mission. The mayor is just one more vote in the Lakes, like each of the council members, Bennett said. There is no strong mayor form of government.

“It’s mostly a ceremonial position,” he told Ladra. The amendments were meant to clarify some areas where the ceremony apparently became too official.

Read related story: Miami Lakes charter changes aim at mayoral power

One amendment takes the appointment of the town manager and town attorney from the mayor’s purview and puts it in the council’s. Another gives the council the right to name the town lobbyist (used to be the mayor’s job). Any council member who can get three to agree can now call a special meeting, which was something only the mayor could do before. One amendment actually states that the town has a council-manager form of government.

They are so over the mayor in Miami Lakes that they had to put it in writing.

It might have something to do with the series of events set off after the August 2013 arrest of Pizzi on federal bribery charges. He was snared in the same sting that nabbed Sweetwater Mayor Manny Maroño for expediting what they knew were bogus grants in return for thousands in kickbacks. Maroño was sentenced to three years in prison. But Pizzi — or, rather, his quite expensive legal dream team of 17 attorneys — won an acquittal. This despite the testimony that he took a $3,000 bribe from a lobbyist inside an office closet.

After the trial, Pizzi had to sue to get back in office. The city fought his return, but eventually gave up after losing several legal fronts. Then he sued to recoup the legal costs of his criminal case and his civil lawsuit against the town. The whole affair is said to have cost the town about $1 million in legal fees. And Ladra doesn’t know if that includes his attorneys’ costs or not.

Read related story: Michael Pizzi wins Round 1 vs Miami Lakes for legal costs

But Pizzi’s winning streak ended Tuesday when voters rejected his call to vote no to all the amendments.

Pizzi did not return a call for comment. But Bennett said he was “weakened.”

“His base didn’t come out to vote for him. Or he couldn’t convince them,” he said.

True dat. Pizzi, or at least a PAC that we all suspect is Pizzi, had sent out a mailer urging voters to reject all the charter amendments.

But he was outdone by none other than former Florida Gov. and U.S. Senator Bob Graham, whose family helped found Miami Lakes. Yes, freaking Bob Graham weighed in on the tiny town’s amendments by sending his own mailer urging his neighbors to vote yes to all the amendments.

And he honed in on the runoff question.

“The majority vote amendment is by far the most important one to vote YES on because it stands for making sure that your vote COUNTS,” the Senator wrote on the mailer. The door hanger had a photo of him older than this one here. “Our mayor and town council should be comprised of individuals that the majority (over 50 percent) of the voters have chosen to represent our beautiful town of Miami Lakes.”

And that’s how freaking Bob Graham took out Muscles Pizzi.

Close to 19,000 voters in Miami Lakes will get a ballot in the mail in the next couple of days that could change the way the city governs for years to come.

Ten charter amendments — not one, not two, but 10 — are on the ballot that are due back by May 17.

It almost went to 12, but two other proposed amendments — one to go back to district seats rather than at large and a controversial measure to rotate the position of mayor among council members — were voted down by the town’s charter committee, realizing, we assume, that the people of the town should be the ones to elect the mayor.

Still, a good number of the amendments on the ballot — mailed out Wednesday by the Miami-Dade Elections Department — seemingly aim to diminish the mayor’s power.

One would put the appointment of the town manager and town attorney in the council’s lap, rather than the mayor’s. Right now, the council simply accepts or rejects the recommendation from the mayor, but cannot put forth a name of their own. Another takes away the mayor’s right to name the town lobbyist with all matters before the county. It would be up to the town manager or council to do so. Still another would give the power to call a special meeting to any four council members. Currently, the mayor alone can call a special meeting. And boy has he.

Do these measures stem from anti-Pizzi sentiment? Sure seems that way, right?

Some think the questions are the result of an embarrassing few years, starting with the August 2013 arrest of Pizzi on federal bribery charges. He was snared in the same sting that nabbed Sweetwater Mayor Manny Maroño for expediting what they knew were bogus grants in return for thousands in kickbacks. Maroño was sentenced to three years in prison. But Pizzi got acquitted, despite the testimony that he took a $3,000 bribe from a lobbyist inside an office closet.

After the trial, Pizzi had to sue to get back in office. The city fought his return, arguing that former Mayor Wayne Slaton had been legitimately elected by the voters after the arrest. But Ladra guesses that this held little water since Pizzi beat Slaton in 2014 with a whopping 68 percent of the vote. The whole affair may end up costing the city hundreds of thousands in legal fees.

Read related story: Wayne Slaton gives up; Michael Pizzi is Miami Lakes mayor

Oh, did Ladra mention that one charter change on the ballot would make the vice mayor the mayor in the event of the mayor leaving his seat and call for a special election if the vice mayor’s term is longer than that of the departing mayor?

Veteran town activist and former candidate David “Doc” Bennett, a longtime Pizzi critic, said the changes were in line with the founding vision for Miami Lakes.

“He’s one vote. He’s just another council member. He’s not a strong mayor,” Bennett said, adding that the mayor’s title was more of a ceremonial one. “He has tried desperately to turn it into a strong mayor form of government, but you still need four votes. Without four votes, nothing happens.

“All we’re doing is expanding the role of the council, not limiting the role or the power of the mayor,” he said. “Aside from ceremonial duties, he has no more power than the council members.”

Although there is actually a question on the ballot changing the form of government from mayor-council-manager to council-manager.

One question on the ballot that is not about the mayor’s power would change the way council members and the mayor are elected by requiring runoffs when the winner has less than 50 percent of the vote. Well, that one’s sort of a no-brainer.

“Someone could have a paper candidate and it could give the win to whoever gets 30-something percent,” Bennett said. “Now you neutralize that tactic.”

That hasn’t really been a problem in the Lakes. The last few election cycles have seen all head-to-head contests, with winners getting more than 50% of the vote anyway. In the last 10 years, only Councilman Ceasar Mestre won with less than 40%. That was in a four-way race in 2008.

But it certainly could affect the election this year, where there is a plethora of candidates running for both the mayor’s seat and the council seats.

The mayoral contest has at least three and presumably four (if Pizzi throws his hat in as expected).  Already, Councilmen Mestre and Manny Cid have filed paperwork to run, as has former Mayor Wayne Slaton.

Read related story: Miami Lakes: Manny Cid becomes No. 3 to run for mayor

But two of the council seats are bursting at the seams with three challengers to Councilman Tony Lama (Robin Brown-Beaman, Jose Nodal Jr., and Xiomara Pazos) and no fewer than six so far running for the open seat vacated by Cid (Cynthia Beyer, Esther Colon, Nayib Hassan, Wendy Milanes, Rosalina Nunez and Alejandro Sanchez).

Interesting that nobody has yet to file in the first seat, where incumbent Councilman Nelson Rodriguez is enjoying a free ride so far. Might that change before qualifying this summer?

Councilman Cid said he has long been in favor of runoff elections and he predicted a good turnout — or return on the mail-in ballots. But he wasn’t sure many of the other amendments would make it.

“Historically, Miami Lakers are very intelligent voters who look at each question. Last time, a large number of charter amendment items were voted down.”

Of course, he is running for that targeted mayor’s seat.

Ballots must be returned to the Miami-Dade Elections Department by May 17 and the town has provided an online guide to the ballot questions.