The Coral Gables City Commission could ask their county and city of Miami counterparts on Tuesday to ban hourly rates at motels and hotels, like the Miami Executive Hotel in Little Gables, on the City Beautiful’s border.
“It is well established that hotels/motels that allow for the hourly rental of rooms, are frequented by individuals engaged in prostitution and/or human sex trafficking, as well as other illegal activity,” reads the memo on the agenda item, adding that Florida ranks third nationwide in human trafficking cases.
But a last minute cease and desist letter from a lawyer representing the Miami Executive Hotel and three other such establishments along Calle Ocho may mean the item gets pulled from Tuesday’s agenda.
The letter from attorney Robert Fernandez is addressed to Vice Mayor 
Vince Lago, who sponsored a resolution (along with Commissioner Pat Keon) and it asks city officials to stop calling the hotel a “prostitution place,” insisting that there is no proof that the hotel is a hub of prostitution and threatening legal action if the hotel is continued to be defamed.
“This Resolution and previous public comments attempt to simply equate pervasive prostitution and human sex trafficking with any hotel/motel that offers short term rentals and those are just false and prejudicial blanket statements,” Fernandez wrote in the letter dated Monday.
“There is no factual evidence and/or criminal statistic data included in the 
Resolution to claim that prostitution and human sex trafficking are an ongoing and much more serious problem at hotels/motels that offer short term rentals versus hotels/motels that do not in the City of Miami and Miami-Dade County,” Fernandez said.
“MEH objects to the negative broad brush assertions made against hotels/motels that offer short term rentals and this is especially true when MEH is singled out for ridicule. Therefore, let’s clarify the record herein because the continuous disparagement of MEH’s business and professional reputation without any supporting facts has not been helpful and frankly disappointing.”
Miami Executive Hotel and its short term clientele have been in the Gables 
political sphere for several months, at least since the commission campaign earlier this year that ushered in Commissioner Jorge Fors, who campaigned against annexation. Many believe the five mystery attack mailers sent on his behalf were financed by the hotel’s owners, who are also against annexation.
The city passed an ordinance in 2016 that prohibits hourly rates at hotels, probably in foresight of the anticipated annexation, which was thwarted by a Miami-Dade commission committee last month Fernandez, on behalf of the owners, also spoke against the annexation before the committee.
Read related: Little Gables annexations dreams dashed by staged ‘grassroots’ effort
In his letter to the city, Fernandez says that during a Sunshine meeting after that decision, Police Chief Ed Hudak said there were seven incidents at the hotel, 4350 SW 8th St. — but none were prostitution or human trafficking related
“MEH is respectfully requesting that the city of Coral Gables public officials immediately cease and desist from referring to MEH as a ‘prostitution place’ because it is absolutely false and defamatory.
“It is not the intent or desire of MEH to initiate defamation litigation against the City of Coral Gables or its elected officials but MEH cannot continue to allow others to disparage its business and professional reputation for self serving political reasons,” Fernandez threatened.
He also said that Miami Executive Hotel was supportive of an interlocal agreement and “joint enforcement zone” between Miami and Coral Gables specifically to crack down on prostitution and street crime.
“Because it is an important public safety issue and these criminal activities are bad for legitimate businesses that operate on S.W. 8th Street,” Fernandez wrote in the letter.
In fact, Fernandez said, the hotel owner, Julio del Rey and family, have been cooperative allies with the Miami and county police since 1983, attaching documents that show their hotels have been used sites for prostitution stings.
But that seems like it could be the very proof the lawyer says doesn’t exist that these hourly hotels are more convenient for prostitution. Why would police 
stage a sting at these hotels if they are not conducive to that kind of, er, business? Why not do it at The Biltmore? Or the Hyatt?
Maybe because they don’t have rooms with stripper poles, mirrored ceilings and a “patented love chair”?
The hotel boasts being one of the “hottest hotels four couples” and says that “passion requires no reservations” on its website, where it shows themed rooms like “the cave” and the “jungle suite.”
To be honest, the hourly rates must make it an attractive place for people who also charge by the hour. But Ladra is certain that the fantasy-themed rooms are also good for teenage trysts, date night and extramarital affairs.
Because it is unlikely the cave room is being used by a family with a layover on their way to Disney.
Hourly hotel attorney to Coral Gables: Stop defaming us or else added by Ladra on
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[…] Read related: Hourly hotel attorney to Coral Gables: Stop defaming us or else […]
[…] Los mayores donantes de su comité político, con $20,000 cada uno, son Edgewater Management Services LLC y Julio Del Rey, de la familia Del Rey, propietario del “Miami Executive Hotel”, conocido ampliamente como un motel por horas lleno de prostitución. (Un abogado de Miami Executive Hotels envió una carta de cese y desistimiento a la Ciudad de Coral G…) […]
[…] The largest donors to his political committee, at $20k each, are Edgewater Management Services LLC and Julio Del Rey, from the Del Rey family, owner of “Miami Executive Hotel”, known widely as an hourly-rate motel rife with prostitution. (An attorney for Miami Executive Hotels wrote a cease-and-desist letter to the City of Coral Gables,… […]
Adulescents. Handicapped and senescent may not have sex appeal, but in our culture pairing up isn’t easy, with the song we say, hoard. Some behaviors are unseemly, and therefore, culturally sanctioned. When in Rome, do as the Romans do!
Ladra it is disappointing that you would attack a legitimate and legal business for working WITH law enforcement! Do you mean to say they should NOT work with law enforcement? By your logic, every single business should not cooperate with law enforcement because that would prove they are guilty or illegal in some way! That is not how the American law system works! I am sure law enforcement agencies are not happy about you telling business to not cooperate, lest they look guilty!
The City Beautiful prides itself on being anal retentive and so it attracts the same. To imply they are going to enjoy a sudden epiphany and embrace the unwashed masses is almost as ludicrous as the suit that hookers’ hotels aren’t. Better for the city stand up to Bob Fernando’s bluff, he may find his clients out of the pan and into a fire
Ladra, you can’t be too soft on the Gables government. The #1 reason why annexation was blocked by County government (particularly the reason by County commissioner Rebeca Sosa) is that Gables government heartlessly planned on evicting low income residents living in a trailer park without a relocation plan required by law.
The hourly rate hotels are a smoke screen. The Gables government has demonstrated their depravity by treating the Poor this way.
Only one commissioner elected against the “same names” stands up to them.
This is what the fight over affordable housing looks like across the county, It’s not just Coral Gables, it’s also El Portal, Liberty City, Overtown, Goulds, and around the country.
My Tryst.
the red light district in holland is safe and legal and legit for decades and serves those who want sex and want to be safe and not hampered by cops and alleged government types who make it a campaign issue to enforce meaningless laws when there is no problem and that is the very reason men and women can do what they desire when they desire–nobody gets hurt; even the disabled find it a safe place to go and enjoy an hour or two—no victims here.
same is true here in CG..you have hotels that serve a purpose and if you want to go you go, if not ignore it it does not bother the non users and the non frequenters….and it is consenting adults so leave well enough alone…if I were the hotel counsel I would have already slapped a summons on the city and each counsel member for vicious libel, slander, defamation and privacy invasion—–each and every one of them….they should spend their citizens’ dollars making better and more wise decisions for the former City Beautiful rather than approving ill advised development like the monstrousity hovering dixie highway for a good mile along the train route—sure to be an eyesore in antiquity—— and they are still at it to make GD certain they transform the City Beautiful into the next concrete jungle…trust me when their palms are greased with dollars on dollars they each are the first to properly and professionally look the OTHER WAY. bet on the above!!!!!!!!!
Simon, if you don’t like the laws in this state that criminalize prostitution, sex trafficking, and human trafficking, then get off your rear end and persuade the Florida legislature and Governor to repeal them. Or secure the petition signatures to put repeal on the statewide ballot.
Until then, we are not Amsterdam, thank God, which allows legal prostitution, although I would note that the newly elected mayor in Amsterdam that the degradation of women there has gone too far.
So, if you don’t like the status of the law, change it. Until then, you and everybody else is bound by it. What a concept: obeying the law.