Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago does not like to be challenged or criticized. He has recently taken to calling his critics — which include award-winning documentary filmmaker Billy Corben, award-winning journalist Roberto Rodriguez Tejera and yours truly — mercenaries paid to smear him.

That’s old news. He’s again copying his idol, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who says the same thing.

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Everybody is waiting for the other shoe to drop.

By other shoe, Ladra means the tired, old, stinky loafer that is Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago, who would follow his BFF, mentor and role model, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, anywhere.

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Happy New Year, voter! Are you ready for 2024?

If anybody thought elections in 2023 were interesting — what with corrupt Miami Mayor Francis Suarez being a pretend presidential contender for all of five minutes and incumbent losses in Coral Gables and the city of Miami — next year will likely be as good or better.

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He was absent from the redistricting process when the Miami City Commission disenfranchised black and Coconut Grove voters by dividing their districts and diluting their votes. He let Commissioner Joe Carollo carve up the Grove so he could put his own house into District 3 and he let Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla take his only real challenger out of District 1. Mayor Francis Suarez didn’t say ni pio.

But now he wants to be involved? Now he wants to work?

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There’s a growing list of people who think Miami Mayor Francis Suarez ought to resign his position in light of the exposé published this week by The Miami Herald, with details about just how much he blurs the lines between his private, for-profit life and his, ahem, “public service.”

Former Miami Police chiefs Jorge Colina and Art Acevedo — who wrote a scathing memo about corruption that is supposedly being investigated by the Broward State Attorney’s office — have joined the chorus. But the first one to publicly call for his resignation was newly-elected Commissioner Damian Pardo, who ran on a platform of rooting out corruption.

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The first meeting of the newly-elected Miami commissioners showed the change in the dynamic that voters seem to want in their city government when Miguel Gabela and Damian Pardo refused to rubber stamp the old budget and fought to make changes that resulted in a $25 million shave on operational expenses and a tiny tax cut.

But it’s the thought that counts.

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