There’s a pilot program ready to go in Coral Gables that would significantly shorten the time that both homeowners and business owners take pulling a permit from the city to do any interior renovations, no matter how small. It would mean the city partners with a contractor to review these plans, at no cost to the city.
Actually, it would bring in revenue because property owners would have to opt into this process and pay a %15 percent additional cost if they want to speed things up. The city staff loves the idea that would not only bring in non tax funding but also help them focus on other permits that are also slowed down by the sheer workload.
But Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago wants to stop the program before it starts — just because it wasn’t his idea.
Or maybe because it was Commissioner Melissa Castro‘s.
This is a fact. He said as much to Carlos Penin, the highly respected engineer and president of C.A.P. Government, who has been working with the city since to get this program off the ground. They work with about 80 cities and school board across the state doing pretty much the same thing, he said — reviewing plans to make determinations about what can and cannot be done.
Penin was at City Hall when Castro brought this program to the city commission in February, and it passed 3-2. Lago and Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson voted against it. They vote against all of Castro’s ideas, even reduced parking fees for residents.
The mayor approached Penin outside the commission chambers and told him that he was going to kill the program after the April election, confident that he would win back the majority (which he did). Why? Because Penin should have gone to him. Not Castro.
“This is not skipping any steps,” Penin said, explaining that his employees would do the same review and make determinations using the Gables code, “because this is what we do.
“But because it’s someone else’s idea, it’s scrapped? Coral Gables needs to, hopefully, with this administration, get out of this pettiness” Penin told Political Cortadito, adding that the pilot program could be expanded if it works well, and cancelled if it doesn’t.
“I think the mayor should give this a try. If it wasn’t his idea, too bad,” Penin said. “I’d be happy to help him with another idea.”
Good luck with that, Mr. Penin.
Lago is on a revenge tour since winning the election April 8 and getting his slate in with Anderson and Commissioner Richard Lara. He has a slew of items on the commission agenda to undo things the former commission majority had passed — like their salary increases — consolidate his power, and move his own issues, like the election date change to November, forward. The mayor didn’t return calls and texts from Ladra, as usual.
But Castro is, naturally, disconcerted.
“This is only for interior remodeling,” she said, sounding exasperated. “Your permit will be approved in a smaller amount f time, a five day turnaround. These are smaller jobs that don’t go to the board of architects. After I prove it works, we can move on to pools and windows.”
Most of the plans that would be reviewed by C.A.P. Government would be bathroom and kitchen remodels.
“They’re not that hard,” said Castro, who is in the permit expediting business herself (so this goes against her own interests). “And they’re taking the city forever. The building department needs the help. It’s notorious for being one of the worst departments. A contractor finds out the work is in Coral Gables and they will quote you three times more because they know that Coral Gables is a pain in the neck.”
Penin lives in Coral Gables and has an office in the City Beautiful. So he wants to help.
“But if the mayor doesn’t want it, yo voy a comer mañana, anyway,” Penin said.
Sure, he’ll make money. So will the city. Residents who want to opt in will pay a 15% higher fee and residents who don’t want to pay more will still have their permits reviewed quicker because of the reduced pressure on the pipeline. It’s a win, win, win.
“If we take just 10% of the load off the building department, everything will go faster,” Penin said. “How can you not be in favor of that? It would be a shame if they didn’t give it a chance. They’re killing it on the vine.”
Because L’Ego can’t brag about it being his idea and, as he has said, he wants to hurt any chance that Castro has of being re-elected in 2027. He can’t let her have this feather in her cap.
The post Vince Lago’s ego gets in the way of serving Coral Gables residents — again appeared first on Political Cortadito.
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