Dear Friends and Neighbors:

I trust this letter finds you and your family well.

Before anything else, I want to thank you for everything you do to make The City Beautiful the greatest place in America to live, work, and thrive.

As your Mayor, I have fought tirelessly against large-scale development that threatens the character of our community, voted to ensure record funding for our first responders to keep our families safe, and have consistently voted to lower the millage rate.

Despite our progress, there is a faction on the City Commission relentlessly engaging in self-serving petty political games that threaten our way of life and the essence of what makes our community so unique.

Commissioners Melissa Castro, Ariel Fernandez, and Kirk Menendez:

• Voted to increase their annual compensations by nearly 101%, doubling their annual salaries.
• Voted to double their annual expense allowances to nearly $10,000, including a car allowance of $8,000 per year.
• Opposed my efforts to lower the millage rate during the past budget season to provide much needed tax relief to all our residents.
• Opposed my efforts to move our municipal elections to November, which would significantly increase voter turnout and citizen participation in our elections while saving the taxpayers over $200,000 per election.
• Fired City Manager Peter Iglesias without cause.
• Opposed a transparent process to select the next City Manager that would have include a national search, community input and transparency in the hiring process.

Four years ago, and with your support, I led the charge to stop the massive upzoning of Miracle Mile demanded by out-of-town developers with commercial interests in our downtown. We won that battle at the commission and the ballot box. Now, those same out of town developers are back, trying to upzone Miracle Mile again. The only members of the city commission standing in their way are Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson and me. This is why they are, once again, attacking me.

Coral Gables’ future is in your hands, and I hope we can continue working together to protect the integrity and heritage of our city beautiful.

Thank you once again for your continued support and dedication.
‍

Sincerely,
Vince Lago
Mayor
City of Coral Gables