It’s so painfully obvious she gets under their skin
For almost 12 hours Tuesday, Coral Gables Commissioner Melissa Castro took the hits from her colleagues on the dais like a professional boxer who is used to being in the ring for extra rounds with opponents who don’t fight fair.
And even though she was not able to move a single one of her 10 agenda items forward at the very long commission meeting, Castro said she felt victorious because the board voted to put the election year change on the ballot, rather than making the change by ordinance all by themselves. That is something she has been fighting for since May.
“What I most wanted, I got,” Castro told Political Cortadito Wednesday. “And that is that the people will get to vote on when they have their elections.”
Read related: Coral Gables commissioner Melissa Castro challenges election date change
She didn’t get the date she wanted. Castro — who was censured by her colleagues last month for trying to get an opinion on the election change from the Florida attorney general — would have put the question on the next regularly-scheduled election ballot in April of 2027, when her first term expires. Mayor Vince Lago wants the election to be in April of next year (more on that later), and that’s what he got, of course. He is confident that voters will approve the change and wants the next municipal elections in November of 2026, cutting Castro’s term by five months.
Because he’s really out to get Castro and Commissioner Ariel Fernandez — two underdogs who beat his handpicked candidates in 2023 — gone as quickly as possible. In fact, at one point Tuesday, Lago blurted out that he had polled Castro five times. “You’re below 15%. You’re upside down, two to one.”
Five times! That sounds like an obsession. Unless, you know, he’s just lying. It wouldn’t be the first time.
But “upside down, two to one” suggests that Lago polled Castro against someone in particular. Could it be Ivette Arango O’Doski, the Lago candidate she beat by 18 points two years ago? Rumors have circulated that someone is recruiting Cecilia Slesnick, the daughter-in-law of former Mayor Don Slesnick and the late Commissioner Jeannett Slesnick, to run against Castro (more on that later).
But the commissioner just smiled Tuesday and told Lago to chill out. “Don’t be so worried. Don’t be so preoccupied. I would never go into something I can’t win,” she said, practically winking at him.
It’s also not the first time that Lago behaves obnoxiously and acts aggressively toward Castro. But it’s gone from ignoring or sidelining her at public events and refusing to take photos with her after she won — other electeds apologized for him at an Underline event — to badmouthing and embarrassing Castro at the Carnaval de Barranquilla event in downtown Coral Gables in April, just one day after Lago was sworn in post reelection, calling her a “venomous snake” and “bad news” in front of dignitaries and city staffers. And in front of Castrro’s son.
Read related: Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago lashes out at Commissioner Melissa Castro
And while the commissioner is a fully grown woman who has a master’s degree in industrial-organizational psychology — maybe that’s how she does it — Lago talks down to Castro as if she was a little girl. He openly laughs at her legitimate concerns is if she wasn’t elected by a wider margin than he was last April. It’s a disrespect to the voters, the constituents, the residents.
“Let me provide you with a little clarity,” he tells her, just a variation of the same tone he treats her with in every single commission meeting.
But it wasn’t only L’Ego who took every opportunity Tuesday to bully and harangue Castro, who can’t possibly have a good idea as far as the mayor and his minions are concerned. The expedited permitting for residents who wanted to pay more for the service — which would also have been a new revenue stream — was shot down before they could even start a trial period. On Tuesday, the commission completely shot down her motion to expand the noise ordinance to ban construction in the residential zones before 7:30 a.m., instead of 8 a.m. which is the rule now.
Let that sink in: Castro wanted to give residents one more hour of peace in the mornings. Particularly one elderly handicapped woman who keeps getting woken up by the construction of The Village, a luxury townhome development on Malaga Avenue. And the LALalalala group thought this was a bad idea? Ladra is surprised Commissioner Richard Lara didn’t say that the people elected them to keep the early construction noise going.
That’s their excuse for everything: “The people elected us, so this is what they want.”
“It’s obvious that if I say I have some free bread for the city, they will say no,” Castro said. And it’s become pretty obvious to everyone else that she is right. In fact, Ladra expects them to say the bread would be tainted.
Read related: Coral Gables: Developers, lobbyists lead, giving $753K to elect Richard Lara
Lara sounds like he is chastising her constantly and Lago is dripping with disdain when he addresses Castro. It is so nauseating that at least two residents mentioned it during public comments.
“Please Mayor Lago, I’m disappointed in your frequent condescending of her ideas and comments,” said Lisa Detournay, a resident of the Riviera neighborhood who also added that Castro had asked good questions and that she was unaware of some of the things the commissioner had brought up about the mobility hub (more on that later).
“You guys speak so poorly to Ms. Castro,” said another lady on Zoom. “You may not be raising your voice, but what you say is so embarrassing.”
Castro, who is very much underestimated and smarter than they think — or maybe they know just how smart she is and can’t stand it — just sits there and takes it all in stride. She got very upset and cried publicly after the Carnaval event because she was embarrassed in front of Colombian leaders and her son. Ladra spoke to people there who said the mayor was out of line.
On Tuesday, Castro seemed to just ride it out in stride. She knows she was right about letting the voters decide on the election date. So, she might turn out to be right about some other stuff, too. She can play the long game and watch as Lago and the others — particularly Lago — self destruct.
But the bullies she has to sit with in the meantime are not amusing. They are abusive. Ladra would venture to suggest they are creating a hostile work environment for her.
“I can handle it,” Castro told Ladra. “They’re the ones who are looking terrible.”
The one who looks the worst is Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson. Instead of defending the only other woman from Lago’s and Lara’s intentionally demeaning comments and constant mansplaining — or at least deflecting for her — Anderson joins the bully bandwagon. instead. It sometime looks like Anderson is jealous of Castro. It’s hard to watch.
She should have been Castro’s mentor. Not her nightmare to the right.
Anderson did not return a call from Ladra. She never does. Lago, who doesn’t return calls or texts either, would probably punish her harshly.
But after the long meeting Tuesday, a meeting where Lago took every opportunity he could to disparage Castro, the mayor sent a congratulatory message to his daughter, Catalina, who turns 11 this week. Perhaps he should think of his daughter more when he viciously and needlessly attacks the woman sitting next to him at the commission meetings.
The post Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago, allies bully and browbeat Melissa Castro appeared first on Political Cortadito.
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