Coral Gables Vice Mayor Mike Mena votes to sell city land to his bosses

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It may be two years away, but newly-minted Coral Gables Vice Mayor Mike Mena just lost any chance he had to be re-elected in 2023.

No, it’s not just because of the condescending matter in which he dismissed resident-driven ideas from newly-elected Commissioner Rhonda Anderson, who proposed amending the zoning code to require approval and notice for “as of right” commercial developments. The Gables Insider correctly called Mena’s arguments mansplaining. It was also pathetic.

But the reason he’s not fit for office is because of his shameful and unethical vote to sell city-owned land to his boss.

The commission voted unanimously Tuesday to sell a parking lot at 350 Greco Avenue for $3.5 million to JRFQ Holdings, a company registered in Delaware and owned by John Ruiz and former Commissioner Frank Quesada, who also own the company that employ Mena.

The vice mayor even admitted publicly at Tuesday’s meeting that the purchase was being made by the men who put food on his table. But, he said, he got an opinion from City Attorney Miriam Ramos that it would not be a conflict of interest and he did not need to recuse himself.

Read related: Rhonda Anderson proposes sweeping zoning reforms right off the bat

“I have no financial interest whatsoever in this,” Mena said from the dais. “It’s something they are doing in their individual capacities, but I wanted to mention that in the spirit of transparency and let everybody know that.”

He also said that it didn’t matter because his vote would not be the deciding vote. Like, what? Is that an actual policy? You don’t have to recuse yourself when there’s a conflict of interest if your vote makes no difference?

That just doesn’t smell right. Not only because Mena voted for something that would benefit his boss and, quite possibly, him indirectly — it’s gotta be worth a bigger bonus or, at the very least, job security — but also because he’s been the driving force, for at least two years now, behind selling the property for development rather than have it become a park.

Ruiz and Quesada own the two properties just to the south of the Greco Avenue parking lot through a company they own, 4601 Coral Gables Property LLC. They purchased the two lots from the same owner in November of 2019, paying $4.2 million. Like the Greco Avenue lot, they sit along LeJeune Road, across from the southern end of Coral Gables High and a stone’s throw from the Village of Merrick Park.

It’s kinda funny how that’s just when Quesada’s term ended. Not funny ha ha, funny weird. It’s also funny weird that the company buying the property is not 4601 Coral Gables Property but another company with the owners initials that is registered in Delaware instead of Florida.

Like someone is trying to hide something.

Ruiz and Quesada were also the ones who approached the city about buying the property, according to the administration’s memo, which also says that the sale was recommended by the property advisory board, the budget advisory board, the parking advisory board and the economic development advisory board. The city says it is getting very little revenue from the parking lot because it is barely used.

The owners have indicated that they will join the three properties for one project. The city says it must provide at least 34 public parking spaces.

Attorney David Winker, who represents a two groups fighting two separate and unrelated development projects in the Gables, filed an ethics complaint Tuesday evening with the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust and the Florida Division of Elections.

“If Commissioner Mena’s employers are in fact owners of the entity being sold property owned by the City, it would appear that Commissioner Mena speaking in support and voting in favor of such sale is not just an appearance of impropriety, but a situation expressly prohibited under  Florida law,” Winker wrote in his complaint sent to the city attorney also.

He cites Florida Statute 112.313, which states that “no public officer or employee of an agency shall have or hold any employment or contractual relationship with any business entity or any agency which is subject to the regulation of, or is doing business with, an agency of which he or she is an officer or employee.

Winker also cited Florida Statute 112.3143: “No county, municipal, or other local public officer shall vote in his official capacity upon any measure which inures to his special private gain or shall knowingly vote in his  official capacity upon any measure which inures to the special gain of any principal… by whom he is retained.”

In fact, he is supposed to publicly state the nature of his conflict of interest and, within 15 days of the vote, follow up with a memorandum explaining his interest and the memo becomes part of the official record. 

“The Florida Commission on Ethics, the state’s ethics watchdog agency, has repeatedly and  consistently interpreted the foregoing statute as barring another city commissioner from being involved in an entity that does business with the municipality he serves, including selling or purchasing property,” Winker wrote, attaching a decision where the state board said a city commissioner from Lake Wales had a prohibited conflict of interest if the city sold a public property to the charter school where that commissioner then worked as general counsel.

The approval of the sale still has to go through a second vote. Mena should recuse himself next time.

  Coral Gables development, Mike Mena, Rhonda Anderson