Coral Gables Vice Mayor Mike Mena is under fire for his vote last week to sell a city-owned parcel used as a surface parking lot near the Village of Merrick Park to his bosses in a no-bid secret deal that nobody knew was coming.
Some residents are asking for his resignation.
“Mena knew he was doing something wrong and tried to cover his tracks,” Coral Gables resident and former U.S. District Attorney Leon Kellner wrote in an op-ed piece published in Community Newspapers and Gables Insider.
“At the commission meeting he blurted out that his vote would not make a difference because he said he knew there were four ‘yes’ votes from the mayor and three other commissioners. That’s uncanny,” Kellner wrote, “given Florida’s strict Sunshine Laws which prohibit commissioners from speaking to each other in private about city business.
“So, how did he know the other commissioners would vote in favor of the sale?”
Eso es lo de menos. The writing was probably on the wall. These politicos count votes at the meeting. It’s bad enough that he voted to sell the public land to an entity owned by his bosses, former Commissioner Frank Quesada and John Ruiz.
And it begs for more questions.
How involved was Mena behind the scenes? This is something that was started by Quesada as soon as he left office. And, then, he hired Mena in 2019. Has Mena been pushing for this?
Read related: Coral Gables Vice Mayor Mike Mena votes to sell city land to his bosses
And how much will he benefit? Besides a fatter bonus this year, does Mena directly benefit from any ownership of the land? Mena, who did not return calls and texts to his phone, says he is just an employee of MSP Recovery Law (. But records show he applied for and got a federal PPP loan given to business owners (more on that later).
So if he’s really just an employee, he fraudulently obtained the loan. If he didn’t commit fraud, he’s partners with Quesada and Ruiz and could be benefitting even more directly from this deal.
City Attorney Miriam Ramos is also under fire for providing the legal opinion that gave Mena the green light to vote for his business partners.
“The saga of 350 Greco Avenue is an embarrassment to our City Government and demonstrates that Commissioner Mena and his enabler, City Attorney Miriam Ramos, have overstayed their welcome and it is time for them to resign,” Kellner wrote in his op-ed piece.
He’s not the only one who is asking for accountability.
“Many neighbors feel the same way when they find out what happened. Irate, as a matter of fact,” said Sue Kawalerski, president of the Coral Gables Neighbors Association, who said she has gotten a slew of emails.
“I am for finding the truth and pushing for necessary action if the facts show there was impropriety,” Kawalerski told Ladra. “However, the behavior we are witnessing from Mena and Ramos are very troubling.
“We deserve to know how these shenanigans get past so many people in City Hall and demand accountability.”
Read related: Unregistered lobbying leads to removal of old oaks for Coral Gables Wawa
Residents are also asking Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago to take the second vote on the property sale off the May 25 commission meeting agenda and, instead, put out a request for proposals on the parcel..
Lago says he is open to requesting an RFP. But he also seems to be sympathetic to the sale to his vice mayor’s bosses. He told Ladra that he needed whoever developed the land to keep the 34 parking spaces used now by the businesses in the area, especially the commercial strip across the street. He’s also demanded charging stations for electric vehicles, real lighting and signage.
“I’m not willing to do an outside sale. The perfect partner in my opinion is the neighboring property owner,” Lago said, knowing full well that Quesada and Ruiz own the adjacent lot.
Because both lots are too small to build anything and keep the 34 parking spaces, Lago said it makes sense for the properties to be unified and developed as one. Sounding very much like their lobbyist, Lago also says the 34 parking spaces will be “upgraded and in covered buildings.”
Or you can leave the lot alone and not sell it, allowing it to produce around $70,000 a year in parking revenue, instead of becoming another mammoth building with maximum density and basically across the street from single family homes.
Ladra wouldn’t bet on the city commission giving $3.5 million they can use for infrastructure (read: studies) or more metal flowers to put in the street.
After all, as Mena has correctly established, they only need four votes.
Mike Mena’s Coral Gables land deal looks shady; residents ask for his head added by Ladra on
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Happy that I don’t live in the Gables. It is no longer desirable – no longer city beautiful. The charm has been hit by a wrecking ball.
We need to check some Pampers, it occurs to us It’s arrogant , to up and sell something one has not bought ! .
I agree that the sao should investigate—however that would not be initiated by Kathy rundle. Rather, it would be in their public corruption unit, which is shielded from kfr and the rest of the office. The public corruption unit may very well already be looking at the gables…,the worst part of this is Mena knowing the vote count prior to the meeting. That is flies in the face of sunshine laws.
Are these thin-beards going to put the City to sack? .
” This feels more like a Martinez-Hialeah deal than a Coral Gables vote. This arrangement is rotten to the core.”
Someone a few years back told me ” There is a thin line between Hialeah and rest of Miami and the line looks to be thinner and thinner every year ”.
The Director ,
I made a mistake , error in judgement is the standard white collar criminal defense .
Miami-dade is the land of criminal Cosa Nostra . Mistakes are not made , they know damn well what they are doing and it is all about lining their pockets at the expense of the ” little people ”.
Please tell us about the Mena PPP loan.
Michael Mena went to Columbia Law School, one of the best in the country, so he knows better!
It’s all about the money as usual!
City Attorney Miriam Ramos was at MiamiDade County before she came to City, so her reference points may be flawed!!
There is too much “ mi socio” culture going on in Coral Gables.? Now it’s become “ Acere que bola “ with a tinge of abuse of power from the politicos who say they represent us. Well, “ la meme merde.” The stench, the flies tell it all.
There are an awful lot of accusations and a lot of bomb throwing going on here with not one scintilla of evidence proving wrongdoing. There is no question a ton of bad judgement took place from a lot of quarters but take it easy on the guilty until proven innocent angle. The Commission as a whole, The City Manager and his inept staff, the various Boards, andThe City attorney are all guilty of having questionable judgement.
What can you expect from the Belen Bro Tag Team (Mena-Quesada)?
The scariest part of the article is the quote from our newly minted Mayor Lago, “I’m not willing to do an outside sale. The perfect partner in my opinion is the neighboring property owner.” I guess that transparency pledge went out the window. Lest we forget, the adjacent property owner is his friend, former colleague, heavy donor and supporter.
The whole matter should be rescinded at the next meeting and the land should go out to an rfp, asking for what the city wants. That’s transparency.
The Gables commission is fast becoming the Belen Bros fraternity of insider deals and favors. At least if you are going to be corrupt be better at hiding it.
It’s up to The State Attorney (SAO) to Finally Open this Can of Worms in Our Cities and County ? PAY TO PLAY does NOT Mean Anything any MORE ? FOLLOW THE MONEY !!!!!!
In the end, Lago may be right that the current owners of the adjacent lots are the best buyers because they can put it to best use. But the city still sold the lot for $25,000 under appraised value without a public bid to the vice mayor’s bosses. Obviously this deal stinks and the commission would be wise to stop it.
We should be so incredibly disappointed with Anderson and Lago. I guess they’re not as clean as promised during the recent election. It’s no surprise Menendez went along with this. He got his earlier this year, so he’s paying back a debt (not that I begrudge him advocating for his personal interests as a private citizen). I’m not sure why Fors went along with this, but we can ask him when he gets opposition in two years.
The deal stinks and Gables voters should remember it when Mena’s up in two years. Maybe he should be recalled now? Strike while the iron is hot.
Ramos is either a bad or dishonest lawyer. Either way she should be fired. To not give her opinion in writing is bad enough, but to be so incredibly wrong on something with such bad optics raises real questions about her competence. No competent attorney gives only an oral opinion supporting a deal so fraught with such political and legal pitfalls. It puts the city, her client, in terrible jeopardy. She should be referred to the Florida Bar for an investigation (along with all of the other licensed attorneys benefitting from this shonda).
“Coral Gables City Attorney Miriam Ramos gave Mike Mena the green light to vote on selling city-owned property to his bosses.”
Shame on Miriam Ramos. If it looks rotten, smells rotten, it is rotten. This is really rotten.
This feels more like a Martinez-Hialeah deal than a Coral Gables vote. This arrangement is rotten to the core.
Commissioner Mena is no longer the darling of our political scenario in Coral Gables. Even if all yes votes were predicted, his conviction should have been a no vote. Sorry to see his integrity go the way of an indirect profit.
Disapointing to say the least. We”ll see if investigation even occurs. Are the Venitian pool, and Biltmore Hotel for sale?
Mena’s mother in law came to my home soliciting my vote on his last election and said she would ensure he stayed in line and pull his ears if he got out of line. Seems the mother in law needs to pull some ears!
There are to many interested parties in Gables politics, many of them giving election endorsements, obviously with personal gain in mind. We get what we vote for, we just elected someone who did not even debate, how does that happen?
This deal smells. Mike Mena looks like a crook. City Attorney Miriam Ramos looks like she enabled a crime. This crap looks like what happens in the City of Miami with disgraced ex-Mayor Manny Diaz, disgraced ex-commish Marc Sarnoff and current pols Joe Carollo and Alex DLP and Ken Russell. Smells…
Proving that you don’t have to travel abroad to find egregious examples of corruption. But, remember, Coral Gables residents actually voted for him. This is what you get when you don’t think about what you’re doing and go with the “conservative” “business-as-usual” candidates.
In Liberty City people go to jail for selling a joint at a street corner or stealing a can of soup from a grocery store. Those are petty crimes.
In Coral Gables, these dapper momma’s boys, just fresh from their UF or FSU excursions, steal, rob and rape our coffers for millions of dollars from our tax coffers with no repercussions. And yet, our State Attorney continues to be re-elected to office with no change in sight.
Get used to these finely suited chamacos equivocados, they will continue to steal as long as those in charge continue to give them a license.