Mayor Vince Lago takes another loss at City Hall
The Coral Gables Commission on Tuesday ended the city’s annexation efforts for the Little Gables neighborhood, choosing to respect the wishes of the majority of voters who rejected the annexation in a non-binding straw ballot question last week.
Well, everyone but Mayor Vince Lago, who voted against the measure, sponsored by Commissioner Ariel Fernandez. As Ladra predicted, he said the turnout was too low to make a decision based on it. He said it was 19% but the city clerk corrected him. That was countywide. In the Gables, it was 27%.
To put it in even more context, 5,621 Gables voters chose not to annex Little Gables, out of 8,980 who voted. In his last real election, in 2021 against former Commissioner Pat Keon, Lago got 6,006 votes to become mayor.
The non-binding straw ballot question asked Gables votes if they would “support the City pursuing the annexation of Little Gables (the area generally bounded by SW 8th Street to the North, SW 16 Street to the South, Cortez Street to the West, and SW 40th Avenue to the East) into the City of Coral Gables via Miami-Dade County’s annexation process, and absorbing all associated annexation costs?”
Those last five words were the killer. Voters did not want to spend the $23 million in taxpayer funds that the city estimated it would cost to service Little Gables for the first five years.
“The will of the voters of Coral Gables, who would be footing the bill for the annexation of Little Gables, was pretty clear,” Fernandez said.
“When there’s a merger, the stakeholders on both sides have to vote. When there’s a wedding, both sides have to say ‘I do,’” Commissioner Kirk Menendez said. “Coral Gables residents said ‘Not yet.’”
Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson who was elected in 2021 by 5,251 voters — fewer than those who voted against annexation — concurred with Fernandez on the outcome. “The voters have spoken,” she said, voting against Lago for the second time (the first was earlier this month at the budget workshop).
“I disagree,” Lago said. “I think annexation is a great opportunity for the city. I think the key is who’s in the middle.”
In other words, if you don’t like the outcome of a vote, try again. Where have we seen that before?
Lago said there was no outreach on the part of the city to inform residents. But there were a ton of emails and text messages paid for by Friends of Little Gables. He posted messages on social media and put a sign in his yard urging a yes message. He wrote op-ed pieces in local publications.
“There was outreach. How many texts did we get? Even election day we were getting texts to vote yes,” said activist Maria “Mrs.” Cruz, who used to be Lago’s ally but is now his biggest critic (off the dais).
“This was David vs. Goliath. The people that wanted it, put out a big effort. There was big money being spent,” Cruz said “We need to learn to listen. Our residents said no. End of story. That’s it.”
The city did have a website page dedicated to the annexation history and process. And WHEN, the city took a survey of Little Gables property owners, getting 21% in favor, which is above the 20% threshold.
Lago tried hard Tuesday, doing a tap dance to scare the commissioners into wanting annexation because, if not, the big bad Live Local Act, which denies municipalities the right to control zoning if a project has 40% workforce housing (and that definition is a stretch). He said “squaring off our borders” just makes sense.
“Every investment takes time,” Lago said, ignoring the fact that this has been swirling around for decades. “I understand that some people disagree. I think it’s important.”
And he is L’Ego, after all. He will do whatever he wants, damn the voters.
Does his obsession, er, dedication to this annexation have anything to do with his brother being the lobbyist for the largest property owner there, which is the trailer park? Carlos Lago withdrew his lobbyist registration in March of last year, but that was after Lago dramatically signed an affidavit in a public meeting saying that none of his family members had any interests in Little Gables — forgetting to put “siblings, step siblings and half siblings” into the language he used, although it is in the county code.
Sneaky.
Fernandez said the commission would be “resident driven” from now on — not commission-driven.
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