Coral Gables voters to get sweeping charter changes ballot only by mail

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Critics say election question is too biased, persuasive

If you live in Coral Gables, mark your calendar for April 21. Actually — don’t bother. You won’t be going anywhere.

The city commission has decided that seven changes to the city charter — everything from when elections are held to how reserves are spent to how much commissioners can pay themselves — will be decided in a special mail-only election. No polling places. No in-person voting. Just a stack of ballot questions arriving in your mailbox like a municipal pop quiz.

Commissioners had decided last year to make the election year change a vote-by-mail only referendum. They approved the language for that question and six others late Tuesday night, at the end of a meeting so long, so chaotic, and so personally combustible that by the time the final vote was taken, even Robert’s Rules of Order were begging for hazard pay.

Read related: Coral Gables puts election year change on the ballot — a mail-in only ballot

By a series of 3–2 and 5–0 votes, the commission moved seven charter amendments — which could have been on the November 2026 general election — onto an April 21 mail ballot instead. There goes all the talk about turnout.

The questions cover:

• Moving city elections from April of odd years to November of even years
• Preventing future election-date changes by ordinance
• Allowing removal of appointed board members mid-term
• Mandating charter reviews every ten years
• Locking reserve fund policies into the charter
• Authorizing an inspector general
• Requiring voter approval for commissioner pay raises

That’s a lot of structural change for a ballot you’ll fill out at your kitchen table between junk mail and Amazon boxes.

The one requiring charter reviews is almost laughable, considering that the commission totally disregarded the charter review committee’s recommendation on language for the questions.

Not all ballot questions are created equal. And not all ballot language is neutral. In the question about moving the election, several people have concerns about the way the referendum is to be worded, with references to increasing turnout and lowering cost. Those are phrases critics say belong in campaign literature, not on an official ballot.

Former Mayor Don Slesnick — who chaired the Charter Review Committee — said the committee had decided not to take a position on the election change and that the proposed wording should be changed. “We would, if it was up to us, strike the phrase ‘with the intention of increasing voter turnout and decreasing election cost’ as somewhat of a prompt to citizens to vote a certain way,” Slesnick said.

Ya think?

In other words: the ballot language didn’t come from the citizens’ review process. It came from the dais. And it reads a little like persuasion, not description.

Commissioner Melissa Castro tried to substitute the committee’s recommended language, passed unanimously, warning that the adopted wording “is kind of biased,” and could invite legal challenge.

Mayor Vince Lago cut it short. “The answer is no.”

Read related: Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago caves on election change; wants public vote

And just like that, the version going to voters was locked in. The majority bloc wasn’t interested in rewriting. They were interested in moving forward. Quickly.

The other dispute wasn’t about what was on the ballot. It was about how people will vote.

Several commissioners and residents warned that a mail-only election risks disenfranchising voters who prefer or rely on in-person voting — particularly seniors and lower-income residents. Commissioner Ariel Fernandez raised the concern repeatedly, adding that there have already been problems with the U.S. mail in the City Beautiful.

“Instead of doing a real election, we’re just mailing out ballots and hope that people get them and are able to return them in time, so that their votes count,” Fernandez said. “I think we’re doing a disservice to our residents. “

It was like talking to a wall.

The April election will be by mail. Period.

Which means turnout will likely be lower. Campaigning will be quieter. And the electorate will skew toward those who reliably open government envelopes.

Convenient? Or strategic? Depends who you ask.

Read related: Coral Gables: Melissa Castro shut down again on election change challenge

On nearly every contested question, the same 3–2 majority prevailed: Mayor Lago, Vice Mayor Anderson, and Commissioner Richard Lara in favor; Commissioners Castro and Fernandez opposed. In a few cases, they wanted to follow the recommendation of the charter review committee, which has a number of engaged people who spent hours meeting to make their proposals — which were then summarily ignored.

It was less a deliberative process than a roll call of an established governing bloc — the same bloc that, just hours earlier, couldn’t get through an agenda without hour-long recesses and near-censures. Yet when it came time to put long-term structural changes on the ballot, they moved with remarkable discipline.

Funny how that works.

In April, Coral Gables voters will decide whether to reshape how their city governs itself — in an election conducted quietly, by mail, with no polling place drama and no election-day lines.

Just seven questions. One envelope. And a city commission hoping you’re too tired to read all the fine print.

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