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.
Curiously, an item on Tuesday’s commission meeting agenda replaces Miro with Withers, who, sources say, was the pro-development choice of Mayor Vince Lago at that July meeting.
Las malas lenguas say Lago and his developer friends want to control the planning and zoning board. It’s just easier to approve variances and density increases when the application comes with a recommendation from a citizen committee. When independent Commissioners Ariel Fernandez and Melissa Castro were elected in April, they appointed their own members to the P&Z board, and suddenly the votes were more divided. Lago wanted Withers to be his swing vote.
At the July 12 meeting, the board first voted to appoint Venny Torre, of Torre Construction and Development. That failed 3-3. Then they voted to appoint Withers. That also failed 3-3. Salman was then appointed with unanimous approval.
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So why is Lago so pissed off at Miro? Maybe he expected her to toe the line like Anderson does.
Anderson, who beat Miro at the polls in 2021, said she had not talked to Lago — of course, that would be a sunshine violation — and that the removal of Miro from the P&Z board was completely unrelated.
“Her attendance record has been dismal,” Anderson told Ladra. “This is a quasi judicial board. This is a critical board. You are representing the residents. If you can’t make it, you resign.
“There wasn’t a death in the family. She wasn’t in the hospital. She just missed the meetings. Actions speak louder than words,” Anderson said. “I had a talk with her. She expressed how she really wanted to serve, how she would improve her attendance, and she didn’t. She chose to still miss meetings. She didn’t clean up her act.”
But that’s not how Miro remembers it. While she wouldn’t return Ladra’s calls and texts — and trust me, I begged — Political Cortadito did get a hold of Miro’s letter of resignation and a series of texts to Anderson that indicate there is more afoot here than just an attendance thing.
“My resignation is tendered,” Miro wrote in an email Monday. “You can now appoint someone to the planning and zoning board who will be in lockstep with your pro-development stance. But let’s be clear. The facts are simple. Your action to have me removed at a public meeting came very quickly after my vote at a P&Z meeting to create a pro-resident majority on the board.
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“We both know my attendance record was within city standards,” Miro wrote, adding that all but one absence was excused. “If attendance was the issue, you could have sent me a letter to put me on notice. This would provide you with an out that you had acted on the matter.
“Instead, you blindsided me with your removal letter and created a public record by sending it to my business email. The email to my place of business can only be characterized as thinly veiled threat to my employer’s contract with the city.”
Miro is director of business development and government affairs at Freebee, which provides urban transit services to many municipalities, including Coral Gables. It certainly could be argued that Anderson wanted Miro’s employer to know about her termination and the why. Anderson said a staffer sent the letter to that email by mistake.
“There’s nothing retaliatory about it,” Anderson said.
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Late Monday, Commissioner Fernandez issued a statement.
“I am extremely disappointed in the process undertaken by Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson to remove the strongest voice for residents on the planning and zoning board over the last two yeas, in order to appoint the strongest voice for developers in her place.
“The removal of Claudia Miro, just one meeting after her re-appointment to the board, and the appointment of Wayne “Chip” Withers, who orchestrated Miro’s removal is exactly why residents mistrust government… The loss of Miro from the planing and zoning board will once again put residents at a disadvantage and is a win for those in favor of increased development.”
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