On the Hot Seat: Commissioner Castro’s Ethics Case

Commissioner Melissa Castro’s Permit Expediting Business May Land Her in Hot Water

It appears that Coral Gables Commissioner Melissa Castro has finally reached the end of a year’s long journey through the county ethics code with increasingly worrying results.

Upon her election, the commissioner filed a request for an opinion from the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust (COE) as to whether she could serve both as a commissioner and as the owner and operator of her permit expediting firm, M.E.D. Expeditors. Therein followed a year’s worth of hemming and hawing without much opining, until a draft opinion was finally released a few months ago – which was then promptly discarded as too ambiguous. However, on June 12, the COE finally approved a version of that opinion with clearer language.

The opinion states that “an official and [their] private company employees may represent clients engaging with the official’s city,” but only if that contact is “limited to ministerial matters or simple informational requests.” Any type of advocacy that involves decision-making or discretionary action is strictly prohibited. 

In an effort to further clarify this, examples of prohibited actions were also given to the commissioner, including: seeking zoning modifications, variances, or modifications to plans or permits from municipal staff or boards; seeking to reinstate an expired permit or process number; seeking the assignment of a particular building official to a project; and representing code violators at appeal hearings or settlement negotiations before municipal staff or boards. 

Simply put, this vastly limits the powers of M.E.D. Expeditors, which has been doing most – if not all – of these things. That, indeed, is why clients seek its services. On its website under “Services,” the company lists things like “expired permits,” “permit revisions,” and “legalizations” for “work done without a permit and currently facing legal disputes,” all of which raise eyebrows in the wake of the COE’s opinion. 

Going forward, how M.E.D. and Commissioner Castro plan to handle clients who are in violation of the city’s code or who must modify permits when M.E.D. is specifically prohibited from representing or advocating for them is a puzzle only they can answer.

Meanwhile, emails obtained by Coral Gables Magazine between M.E.D. employees and city staff show that, at least historically, the company has been doing just those things. In a March 25 email to the city’s Deputy Building Official Manuel Lopez, one M.E.D. employee specifically requested “assistance in [regard to] an early start” for a permit as “it would be a great help to avoid any delays.”

Another email to Zoning Reviewer Elisa Darna states, “We wanted to reach out again on behalf of the owner to kindly request your assistance regarding the pending review,” going on to outline the owner’s “hardships due to the delay” of the permit’s approval. Still another email to city staff requests an urgent meeting to discuss a client’s “desperate situation.” 

All of this points to an expediting firm doing exactly what they’re supposed to be doing (namely, advocating for their clients) – but doing exactly the opposite of what a sitting commissioner and her company are supposed to be doing, according to the Ethics Commission.

Commissioner Castro, meanwhile, has alleged that her colleague Mayor Vince Lago is behind at least two complaints filed against her for unethical behavior related to her case. The COE does not release materials related to complaints as per state law and would not confirm or deny the existence of any. When contacted by Coral Gables Magazine, Lago denied filing these complaints. Asked to comment on the Ethics Commission’s opinion, Commissioner Castro called it “a resounding victory.” But for whom?

Read more about the history of Commissioner Castro’s ethics case.