Melissa Castro gets last laugh, appoints Kirk Menendez
Sue Kawalerski became the latest casualty of the Vince Lago Revenge Tour last week, when the Coral Gables Commission did something longtime City Hall watchers couldn’t remember ever happening before: They voted to boot a sitting member of the Planning & Zoning Board against the will of the commissioner who appointed her.
But later, right before the meeting ended, Commissioner Melissa Castro pulled a surprise replacement rabbit out of her hat, and dramatically announced that she would then appoint former Commissioner Kirk Menendez — who ran Mayor Lago this year after calling him corrupt — because she is someone she can trust who knows the city.
You could hear a pin drop in commission chambers. People thought Lago was going to spontaneously combust.
With a 3–1 vote, the commission had already yanked Kawalerski, a thorn in developers’ sides and a vocal critic of overbuilding, right out of her seat.
Read related: Coral Gables moves to ‘fire’ longtime activist from planning zoning board
The official excuse? A slick, 18-minute hit reel put together by Coral Gables TV and presented by City Manager Peter Iglesias, showing Sue arguing with staff, sparring with board members, and pressing Miami-Dade Commissioner Raquel Regalado about rapid-transit zoning at a July meeting. She was “publicly berated,” Iglesias said. But that was only the proverbial last straw.
“This is not about silencing a voice or punishing a vote. This is about upholding the standards of integrity of the planning and zoning board,” Iglesias said, adding that because it is a quasi judicial body, it has to fair, impartial and defendable in court.
“Board members are expected to ask difficult questions and represent residents, but they must also conduct themselves with professionalism and respect. When the conduct falls short of these standards it jeopardizes the city’s credibility, undermines the residents ability to challenge incompatible projects and ultimately harms the community we serve.”
He read from talking points. City spokeswoman Martha Pantin would not tell Ladra who wrote the talking points for him.
“This resolution has nothing to do with how Ms. Kawalerski voted on any issue. Board members are free to interpret facts and cast their votes according to their judgement,” Iglesias read, hardly looking up from his notes. “The concern here is her conduct and comments at recent meetings, which are prejudicial, disrespectful and derogatory.”
Lago and his loyal bobblehead soldiers, Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson and Commissioner Richard Lara nodded gravely, and claimed it was all about “standards.”
Standards? ¡Por favor! If Iglesias, Anderson or Lara really cared about standards, they should focus on Lago, who is constantly demeaning and insulting labor leaders, colleagues and residents from the dais. This wasn’t about Kawalerski’s “outburst” with Regalado. This was about control. About tightening the grip on the P&Z board so it won’t push back against big projects.
Lago even dragged out old grievances, accusing Kawalerski of tossing papers at him once — how dare she! — and they rehashed unfortunate comments she made years ago about Asian UM students and that may have been taken out of context. Ironically, Iglesias didn’t know if they were Japanese or Chinese students. Maybe he thinks they are the same.
The mayor presenting Sue as a racist is rich. Remember when Lago signed a letter in 2020 with other parents and alumni at the Carollton School of the Sacred Heart, where his daughters attend, against teaching any critical race theory? Los pajaros tirandole a la escopeta.
But, hey, Lago wanted Kawalerski out and he would use anything he could throw at her to paint Kawalerski as the problem — which she is, but for developers.
“It’s a pattern of behavior,” Lago told his colleagues last week, adding hat Kawalerski is “ill-prepared and an activist,” as if the latter is a bad thing. She was also the only member of the P&Z board that is not tied in one way or another to the development industry. “What we’re looking at is a lack of professionalism,” Lago said.
Exactly the point. Sue Kawalerski is not a professional on that board. Her role is of that of concerned resident — and she played it to perfection.
Iglesias and Lago and his echo chamber wanted to put the blame on Kawalerski for The Mark development, a pair of student housing towers that are slated to go up where the University Shopping Center on U.S. 1 is across from the University Metrorail station.
“Because of her actions, a developer determined they could not receive a fair hearing before the city’s planning and zoning board. As a result, the project was shifted to the Miami-Dade rapid transit zone process, bypassing the city’s review,” Iglesias said. “This decision has serious consequences. The project can become larger and more massive in scale under the RTZ process. The city lost the ability to manage the permitting process or have meaningful input. The city can no longer impose usage or signage limitations. The outcome is detrimental to the city of Coral Gables and its residents.”
Read related: Miami-Dade Commission takes over Coral Gables zoning near UM Metrorail
Iglesias said he met with her personally to tell her he was going to remove her. “I did not want to blindside her.”
How nice of him.
“This decision is not about one individual. It is about the responsibility we all share to preserve the integrity of the city’s processes and protect the interests of the coral gables residents,” he said. “Removal is a difficult but necessary step to restore credibility, fairness and the effectiveness of the board.”
It looks like Peter rehearsed.
But Ladra is pretty sure the developer would have gone to the county anyway if the city had not approved all its asks.
Commissioner Melissa Castro, who appointed Kawalerski in 2023 and reappointed her this year, was the lone “no” to remove her. She read a prepared statement from Sue, who couldn’t attend because she was at work (the commission didn’t start talking about her until 8:30 p.m., by the way). In it, Kawalerski called the move exactly what it is: a smear campaign to stifle critics of runaway development.
“During my term, many development projects have come before the board and I have always evaluated them based on two criteria: Do they comply with our zoning code and comprehensive plan? And, have the residents directly affected by the projects been effectively informed, consulted, and satisfied with the project,” Kawalerski said in her statement.
“I have voted FOR the majority of the projects that came before me based on those criteria. I voted against the projects which did not satisfy the criteria. Most if not all of those were not compatible with the neighborhood and received very negative responses from the residents” she added. “Only projects that require approval for bonuses, like the Mediterranean bonus which adds more height, or other additional requests not covered in the code, come before the board. In other words, developers come to Planning & Zoning to ask that they be allowed to build something they normally do not have a right to build.
“Far too often, I have witnessed board members showing unrestricted enthusiasm over projects, not asking critical and necessary questions, or staying silent, and then voting ‘Yes.’ I was not one of them. Neither was fellow board member Felix Pardo,” Kawalerski said, referring to the longtime architect and activist who ran against Anderson in April and lost.
Read related: Felix Pardo nabs anti-development base from Rhonda Anderson in Coral Gables
Pardo might be axed next.
In fact, in an email response to residents who protested Kawalerski’s removal — and Castro said there were at least 70 — Lago claimed the whole thing was ”an example of the constant misinformation campaign by Castro and Fernandez.” He also wrote back that “the Bagel Emporium site is NOW NO longer under our control due to the behavior of Sue K., and Felix Pardo.”
Said Kawalersk: “First, the mayor doesn’t even have the respect to call me by my full name. He is laying blame on the two of us, who are fighting for residents. Why isn’t he?”
A few residents agreed. “Sue Kawalerski has been fighting with us on this since before she was on the planning and zoning board,” said a woman who called on Zoom, adding that the residents had simply asked for one less floor and the developer didn’t want to give. “It had nothing to do with Sue. She did nothing wrong.
“You guys never got involved in this. I’ve never seen you at one meeting,” the woman said.
“We are sick and tired of these internal wars,” said Maria Magdalena Estupiñan. “Sue is not the problem. What you’re doing right now is making Sue as an excuse. It’s not Sue’s fault that we’re looking more and more like Brickell. Sue is not the problem.”
Lisa De Tourney, a member of the city’s Parking Advisory Board, echoed that sentiment and said she’s “seen far worse behavior, even up there on the dais.”
Amen, sister.
But Kawalerski isn’t going anywhere. She’s still president of the Coral Gables Neighbors Association and promised this is “just the beginning.” In fact, Ladra bets she’ll make more noise out here than she ever could on the board.
“She may continue to do so as loudly and as often as she wants, but not as a member of the planning and zoning board. That voice is not being silenced,” Lara said with a straight face. He shrugged — he shrugs a lot — and said Sue serves “at the pleasure of the majority” — as if that makes it any less of a power grab.
“There can be no reasonable person that can say there wasn’t berating of officials. To take a different position would be saying this is acceptable behavior — and it’s not.”
Read related: Coral Gables commission launches legal fight with Youth Center group
In the end, the commission should have been careful what they wished for. Because they got rid of Kawalerski, but now they’ll have Menendez in her spot. Whoa, whoa, whoa, Lago said after he regained his composure. He asked the city attorney, practically begging for a yes, if it had to come back to the commission, but Castro had already directed her to bring it back at the next meeting.
Technically, Lago and his lackeys could block the Menendez appointment, which has to be approved by a majority vote. Ladra doesn’t know if there’s a precedent for not accepting someone.
Would that mean that any three votes could block any board appointment? And wouldn’t that just make Lago’s personal political vendetta more obvious?
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