Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago: All the wrong people in all the wrong places

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Dime con quien andas y te dire quien eres.

There’s not a Cuban American growing up in Greater Miami that didn’t hear those words from their parents or grandparents when these didn’t approve of your friends. Or their friends. Or your friends’ parents. It translates to, “tell me who you associate with and I will tell you who you are.”

But apparently Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago did not heed his elders. Because Lago, who keeps surrounding himself with shady characters, is moving next week to appoint another one of his iffy friends to the code enforcement board.

Lago wants to put none other than Benjamin “Ben” Alvarez — who is known as “the Tony Soprano of lawyers” by his own colleagues — on the board to replace someone who apparently hasn’t lived in the city for some time now and was removed.

This is the same Benjamin Alvarez who has been disciplined at least three times by the Florida Bar, including and admonishment in 2017 for threatening his wife — who he was in the middle of a divorce with — and grabbing her phone in a physical altercation. There is a police report that indicates that Alvarez’s gun was taken after his wife expressed fear.

Additionally, a Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust investigation found a serious appearance of impropriety after his firm received city work from his then girlfriend, Veronica Diaz, who was an assistant city attorney in Miami. And, in 2012, a judge ruled against his firm in a fraud case involving forged documents requiring more than $82,000 in restitution.

Read related: More on Ultra bad judicial candidate Veronica Diaz

Alvarez was also suspended for 30 days after he disparaged opposing counsel and publicly reprimanded for misrepresenting, under oath, obstruction of evidence, and for financial mismanagement of a matter involving a client, who just happens to be Manny Chamizo, another shady Lago pal who was charged with criminal stalking and who the mayor appointed to a board.

Doesn’t Lago know any decent people? Among his friends and allies, L’Ego counts former Miami Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla, who was arrested on public corruption charges in 2023 that were dropped last year, and lobbyist Bill Riley, who was arrested alongside ADLP and was in on the real estate deal Lago got in the $640,000 commission from the sale of a Ponce de Leon Boulevard building to Location Ventures, the development firm owned by Rishi Kapoor that was investigated for its $10,000 monthly payments to Miami Mayor Francis Suarez for “consulting. Oh, and he also rented a retail space to Kapoor.

This Ben Alvarez track record has already raised eyebrows in the community and Commissioner Melissa Castro has officially asked the mayor to reconsider and appoint somebody else. This may be unprecedented in Gables commission history.

“As public servants, we have the responsibility to make decisions that protect the integrity of our city and uphold the trust placed in us by our residents,” Castro wrote in a memo to her colleagues.

“This is not a position I take lightly, nor is it one I raise with any sense of personal malintent toward Mr. Alvarez. I have no relationship with him and, to my knowledge, have never met or spoken with him,” Castro wrote. “My sole responsibility is to advocate for the well-being of our residents and ensure that those serving in positions of public trust meet the highest ethical and professional standards.

“The Code Enforcement Board plays a critical role in upholding our city’s quality of life. Its members must be fair, impartial, and above all, committed to enforcing our city’s laws with integrity and transparency. Given the significance of this responsibility, we must ensure that appointees to this board not only meet the technical qualifications but also embody the values and ethical standards that Coral Gables represents.”

Castro sent the memo because she did not want to discuss this publicly at a meeting.

“I take no pleasure in bringing forward information that could cause embarrassment to Mr. Alvarez. He is a resident of Coral Gables, and like all members of our community, he deserves to be treated with respect,” she wrote. “That is why I am addressing this privately among my colleagues first, rather than allowing it to become a public matter unnecessarily.”

Oops. Too late.

“However, I cannot, in good conscience, remain silent when I believe an appointment poses a risk to the integrity of our governance,” Castro said in her memo. “I believe in due process and fairness, and I strongly believe that every individual is innocent until proven guilty.

“Unfortunately, in Mr. Alvarez’s case, the legal system has already determined guilt on multiple occasions.”

Read related: Hypocrite Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago votes against appointment

Ladra doesn’t think Lago cares about the Alvarez baggage and history. It is not his first controversial appointment. In 2023, the mayor appointed his buddy Manny Chamizo, who is facing felony stalking charges, to the water advisory board. Chamizo’s criminal trial is scheduled for March 24.

Lago uses board appointments to try to get his agenda through. He appointed Nicolas “Nick” Cabrera, the self-appointed Prince of Coral Gables and son of former Commissioner Ralph Cabrera, to the city’s board of adjustments so he could get a setback variance for a gazebo at his house approved. It didn’t work. Lago was denied his pretty little barbecue gazebo.

Last year, he had Planning and Zoning Board member Claudia Miro removed from her position by Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson after Miro failed to vote to put former Commissioner Wayne “Chip” Withers on the board, as Lago obviously wanted. He sent her a series of butt hurt text messages after her vote.

Miro is now running for commissioner in the open seat vacated by Kirk Menendez in his run for mayor against Lago.

Menendez, meanwhile, has not appointed any would-be criminals to city boards.

Police Report Ben Alvarez by Political Cortadito on Scribd

  Coral Gables politics, Melissa Castro, Vince Lago