Campaign finance reports filed last week by the candidates for Coral Gables mayor and commissioner show that nobody did very well in the final quarter of 2024. Donations slowed down big time. Mayor Vince Lago actually gave money back instead of raising any. His campaign report shows zero contributions, but that he returned two $1,000 […]
There are two new candidates for commission in the Coral Gables election this April. It didn’t take long for someone to file to run in Group 3 after Kirk Menendez decided last week to run for mayor instead for someone to take his place. Attorney Tom Wells, who is Menendez’s appointment to the city’s charter review […]
Now it’s getting interesting. Coral Gables Commissioner Kirk Menendez filed paperwork Wednesday to run for mayor against incumbent Vince Lago, the egomaniac that he’s been battling for the last 20 months on the dais, setting the City Beautiful voters up for a gut-wrenching, nasty election. Menendez knows that Lago, who has raised and spent at […]
It’s not often we see residents beg their elected leaders not to cut taxes. But in Coral Gables this year, it’s a resounding cry. Nobody wants the city to increase taxes, but one after the other, residents who spoke at a town hall on Tuesday said they would rather keep the taxes the same than […]
The city of Coral Gables commission is playing chicken with the budget. At stake: Millions of taxpayer dollars. A standoff became clear during the second budget workshop Wednesday and it doesn’t look like it’s going to end well — with a potential $10 million cut in services (and taxes) if commissioners can’t make up their […]
It should have been a no-brainer. Coral Gables Commissioners on Tuesday approved giving $42,000 to the Actor’s Playhouse, which leases the historic Miracle Theater from the city, for a new wheelchair ramp that will accommodate newer, bigger wheelchairs for patrons who need to get to the second floor. It was a divided 3-2 vote — […]
Attorney Richard Lara, who announced his candidacy for Coral Gables commissioner in February during public comments at a commission meeting, used another commission meeting Tuesday to attack Commissioner Kirk Menendez, who he is presumably challenging next year at the behest of the mayor’s cadre of establishment supporters. Is this going to be a habit? This […]
And Vince Lago hasn’t raised any PAC money in a year The establishment candidate propped up against Coral Gables Commissioner Kirk Menendez by the mayor and his cronies has not raised an extraordinary amount of money. Not even close to what was expected. At least that we know of. According to his campaign finance report, […]
Sources say the mayor’s allies recruited the candidate Richard Lara, executive vice president and general counsel at Spanish Broadcasting Systems, chose the Coral Gables Commission’s public comments section Tuesday to announce that he was going to run against Commissioner Kirk Menendez in 2025. But first, he gave a traditional 305 stump speech introduction about his […]
The possibility that Miami-Dade Aviation Director Ralph Cutié would become the next city manager in Coral Gables was very short-lived. On Tuesday, Cutié — who oversees operations at the beleaguered Miami International Airport — was named as a potential (preferred?) replacement for City Manager Peter Iglesias, whose third vote for termination from Commissioner Kirk Menendez […]