The first Coral Gables commission meeting Tuesday after the required recall petitions for Mayor Vince Lago were submitted last week was long and a bit awkward for everybody. Ladra cringed a few times.

Lago said the Florida Department of Law Enforcement was investigating the recall effort and accused the new three amigos — Commissioners Melissa Castro, Ariel Fernandez and Kirk Menendez — of plotting against him to help the recall, which is being led by his old friend and the trio’s ally, activist Maria Cruz. He crowed about the internal purchace-card audit that, he said, showed no real inappropriate purchases, as Fernandez had asserted. And he said he wanted a forensic audit to finally lay rest to the claims of widespread corruption.

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And Vince Lago hasn’t raised any PAC money in a year

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Ed Hudak says city can be a ‘transfer portal’ for cops

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Mayor uses city email to campaign in his defense

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In a rare joint statement, the leadership of both the Coral Gables Fraternal Order of Police and the city’s firefighters’ union called Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago a liar and raised concerns about his side gigs and ties to developer Rishi Kapoor, who is under investigation for bribing the mayor of Miami.

The labor groups were responding to a letter Lago sent City Beautiful residents — or, more likely, just the voters — in which he claims to be a friend of first responders.

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Vince Lago PAC has much more interest money

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