Summer Reading & Travel

The Return to Civility at City Hall

Editor’s Note

Coral Gables Magazine is not a political magazine per se, not in the sense of a fixated political blog. We cover the issues under discussion at City Hall, to let our readers know what actions are being taken. But this is in the overall context of “life in the Gables,” that panoply of people, places, and events that make the city such a special place to reside. We try to reflect that spectrum of community and amenities each month, from reviews of dining options and new store openings to cultural opportunities and local personalities.

Over the course of the past year, however, we have increased our focus on two areas. One was the city’s history, this being the 100th anniversary of its founding. The other was politics, this being the second year of a dysfunctional City Hall brought on by the election of Ariel Fernandez and his acolyte Melissa Castro, who arrived with an agenda to dismantle the status quo. Had Commissioner Kirk Menendez remained a voice of reason, all would have been well – or at least balanced. Instead, Menendez joined the Fernandez-Castro clique in their virulent campaign to demonize Mayor Vince Lago and strip him of any authority.

The consequences of this were so detrimental to civil and orderly government in the city that the magazine had to become more political, if only to alert its readers to the dangers at hand.

With the loss of the Menendez seat to new City Commissioner Richard Lara, the dark antics of Gables government are over. On May 6, I attended the first City Commission meeting since the April election. The mayor ran the meeting in a calm, orderly fashion. The rules of civility were followed. No inappropriate behavior, no disruptions, no interruptions, no outbursts, no attacks. The political grandstanding was over – except one last drama engineered by Commissioner Castro, who scheduled elective surgery that day and requested the meeting be cancelled, setting the stage for Commissioner Fernandez to attack the mayor for holding a meeting while Commissioner Castro was “under the knife!”

In this issue we look closely at that first post-election City Commission meeting since it says so much about the new direction of the city. But then we will return to our previous way of covering City Hall, in a calm and orderly way. And we will instead focus on things like recommendations for summer reading or what you can do on a Friday night in downtown Coral Gables.