Vince Lago once wanted a search for Coral Gables manager; Now he’d skip it

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Oh, what a difference a couple of years — and a different commission majority — can make.

Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago, who once practically wrapped himself in the flag of process, transparency and a national search when his political enemies abruptly installed a city manager without one, now wants the commission to appoint his preferred candidate without a national search.

Funny how that works.

On Tuesday, Coral Gables commissioners will consider two competing resolutions that present a pretty simple choice about who will run the City Beautiful after Peter Iglesias finally — really, supposedly, eventually — leaves.

One, sponsored by Lago, would appoint Deputy City Manager Joe Gómez as the next permanent city manager, effective Jan. 8, 2027.

Done deal. No search necessary.

The other, sponsored by Commissioner Melissa Castro, would launch a national executive search, allowing Gómez to apply and compete against other candidates before commissioners make a permanent appointment.

And here’s where Ladra gets a wicked case of déjà vu. Because wasn’t it Lago who insisted the last time Coral Gables needed a city manager that the city simply had to conduct a national search?

Why, yes. Yes, it was.

Back in February 2024, after Castro, and Commissioners Ariel Fernandez and Kirk Menendez fired Iglesias in a bitter 3-2 vote, Lago sponsored a resolution directing city staff to engage an executive search firm to find the next manager.

Read related: Coral Gables skips search, hires new city manager Amos Rojas on the spot

Then Fernandez pulled a rabbit named Amos Rojas Jr. out of a hat. The former U.S. Marshal was already there to appeared before commissioners and be appointed manager that very day by the Castro-Fernandez-Menendez majority.

Lago was furious. “This is not the right way to do things,” he said at the time.

He complained that he had only met Rojas about an hour earlier. He wanted vetting. He wanted interviews. He wanted a process.

“If you’re serious about this job, my advice to you is to go through a process,” Lago told Rojas, according to the Miami Herald. “Not to just come up here and say, ‘I want the job, I have the votes, and I’m moving forward.'”

Put that quote in a little time capsule, please.

Because now Lago apparently has the candidate and, presumably, thinks he has the votes.

To be fair — and Ladra is always fair, even when it hurts — Joe Gómez is not Amos Rojas.

Gómez isn’t some guy whose name commissioners heard for the first time an hour before appointing him. He has worked for Coral Gables since 2024 and has served as deputy city manager since February 2025. He already helps run the city. Commissioners know him. Iglesias knows him.

In fact, Iglesias “strongly recommends” Gómez as his successor, according to Lago’s resolution.

That’s significant.

But it doesn’t answer the question Castro is asking: What’s the harm in looking?

Especially since, suddenly, there is plenty of time.

Remember when Iglesias announced in May that he was resigning effective Oct. 2? Well, apparently, not so fast. Under Lago’s resolution, Iglesias would remain city manager until Jan. 8, 2027, when Gómez would take over at 5 p.m.

So the urgency that might justify simply promoting the deputy manager seems to have disappeared. Instead, Coral Gables now has more than four months to conduct exactly the kind of search Lago once demanded.

Read related: Coral Gables Manager Peter Iglesias resigns abruptly, exits after Oct. 2

Castro’s resolution — which may never be considered because Lago’s comes first– directs staff to begin retaining a professional executive search firm and return to the commission Sept. 15 with proposed search parameters, a recruitment timeline, estimated costs and a public engagement process.

Then commissioners would decide the qualifications, candidate profile, interview process and ultimate selection procedure.

Gómez could apply. He could interview. He could win. He definitely has an edge by knowing the city.

“A national search is not a vote against Joe Gómez,” Castro told residents in her newsletter. “It is a vote for due diligence.”

And this isn’t some radical new standard Castro invented Monday morning to block Lago’s guy. It’s remarkably similar to the standard Lago himself demanded in 2024 when the other side had the votes.

That’s what makes Tuesday’s showdown so deliciously Coral Gables.

Because Lago didn’t merely disagree with the Rojas appointment. He made process the issue. And he has continued making it the issue.

As recently as this year, while revisiting the Iglesias firing, Lago reminded everyone that he had urged the commission to follow “a fair, thoughtful, and transparent process” in 2024.

“But that never happened,” he complained.

Well, it can happen now. Unless, apparently, the candidate is the candidate Lago wants.

Read related: Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago attacks colleagues, manager in citywide email

And Lago isn’t merely recommending Gómez. His resolution comes with the employment package already gift-wrapped.

Gómez would start at $305,324.86 a year, with annual increases. Instead of joining the city’s pension system, Coral Gables would contribute the equivalent of 25% of his base salary — subject to legal limits — into his 401(a) and/or 457 retirement plans.

There’s more: Twenty weeks severance if he’s terminated for reasons other than misconduct. A car allowance equal to the highest provided to a city appointed official or employee. City-paid health, dental and vision insurance for Gómez and his family. At least 120 hours of annual leave, with no cap, plus the ability to sell back up to 120 hours annually — or more if some other appointed official or employee gets a better deal.

His accumulated sick leave would be paid out in full when he eventually leaves.

There’s also city-paid life insurance worth two years of his base salary, disability coverage, professional memberships, professional development, an annual physical and an unrestricted city-paid communications device that he gets to keep when he leaves.

Not exactly a trial run. This is a permanent appointment with a compensation package negotiated in advance by who? Lago himself?

And there is another little curiosity buried in the resolution.

Section 13 says that, “as with other appointed officials, the City Attorney may have outside employment.”

The City Attorney? Unless Gómez has secretly passed the Bar while nobody was looking, Ladra suspects somebody was doing a little sloppy copy-and-paste from another appointed official’s contract.

Details, details.

The bigger picture is that Coral Gables has treated the city manager’s office like a revolving door for years.

Iglesias was manager. Then Iglesias was fired. Alberto Parjus became acting manager. Then Rojas became manager. Then Rojas was out. Parjus became manager again.

Read related: Mayor Vince Lago brings Peter Iglesias back as Coral Gables city manager

Then, because the 2025 election flipped the political majority again — mira tú — Iglesias came back. He was reinstated in May 2025 in what Lago himself described as an interim move intended to bring stability to a City Hall that had become anything but stable. Iglesias announced his resignation this May, originally effective Oct. 2.

Now he’s apparently staying until January so Gómez can slide directly into the chair.

The manager’s office needs a revolving door. There’s been  four different managers in 15 months.

And maybe that’s the strongest argument for finally slowing down.

Not because Gómez isn’t qualified. He may very well be the best person for the job.

But if he is, wouldn’t a national search prove it?

That’s Castro’s argument. Interview Gómez. Interview other qualified applicants. Let residents see the process. Compare experience. Ask questions. Then make the decision.

It is, strangely enough, almost exactly the argument Lago made when he didn’t control the outcome.

The political roles, of course, have reversed.

Read related: Coral Gables City Manager resigns before Mayor Vince Lago could fire him

In 2024, Castro was part of the majority that hired Rojas without the national search Lago wanted. Now Castro is demanding the search.

And Lago, who condemned that process, is proposing a direct appointment.

Tuesday’s vote, then, isn’t only about Joe Gómez.

It’s about whether “process” is a principle or merely something politicians demand when they don’t have the votes.

Because Coral Gables finally has something it didn’t have during some of those previous City Hall meltdowns: Time.

Iglesias isn’t leaving tomorrow. Gómez isn’t scheduled to become manager until January. Nobody has to pull a city manager out of a hat.

So conduct the search.

Or don’t.

But if commissioners decide they don’t need one, somebody should probably dig out the tape from February 2024.

Ladra hears there were some excellent speeches about transparency.

Tuesday’s city commission meeting begins at 9 a.m. at the police and fire headquarters building at 2151 Salzedo Street as City Hall undergoes renovations. You can watch it live on the city’s website here or on the city of Coral Gables’ YouTube channel.

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