Coral Gables resident calls Vince Lago ‘Mayor Suarez’ of Miami at meeting
It finally happened: Someone confused Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago with Miami Mayor Francis Suarez. Is it the eyebrows?
It must have made L’Ego’s day. He wants to be just like Baby X.
Gables resident Lucia Moran went to the commission meeting on Tuesday to urge the commission to leave the mayor’s advisory council in place. Commissioner Melissa Castro wants to sunset and dissolve the council. She says it’s because the Gables does not have a strong mayor form of government and the commission should act on citywide goals as a whole, which makes sense. But it’s also because Lago tried to sneak his election-in-November date change into a strategic plan that he wanted “ratified” by the commission without their knowledge (more on that later).
Anyway, Moran said she had never been to a commission meeting before and was “driven to do so” because of the mayor’s advisory council item. She likes him that much.
Except she called him Mayor Suarez.
Read related: Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago is another Francis Suarez in the making
“On a personal note, any time I ask Mayor Suarez for anything, regardless of what it was, he responds immediately,” Moran said, and nobody corrected her. “I think Johnny On The Spot would be a good nickname for him. As a senior in Coral Gables, he’s very supportive of our adult activities center and has been there on various occasions and for other things as well.”
Surely, she means Lago. But it was painfully obvious that she didn’t know the City Beautiful’s mayor from Fulanito de Tal. Las malas lenguas say the retired teacher was actually prodded to go to City Hall to speak during the commission meeting’s public comments by Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson, which is believable because, well, because Moran doesn’t really know Lago.
And Anderson will apparently go to great lengths to defend him.
But the confusion was bound to happen eventually. The two mayors are best pals and Lago is definitely trying to copy the smooth Suarez model. They have many of the same donors. Both share the same fundraiser. And the same, ahem, benefactors.
Even the side gigs that are a conflict of interest to his public service job — which have led to a public corruption investigation on Suarez — are ties that bind. Suarez is being investigated for his monthly $10K consulting payments from developer Rishi Kapoor, who also bought a building on Ponce de Leon using Lago, the real estate agent, and paid a $640,000 commission to his group. Vinnie and other business partners — including Francis’ cousin Esteban Suarez, ’cause it’s a family affair — also got $12,400 in monthly rent for Kapoor for a vacant retail space for about a year. A retail property on Ponce de Leon across from the Kapoor site that Lago and partners had purchased only weeks earlier.
So, it was a $148,800 gift? Oh, wait. Lago only gets 40% of that.
Nobody can tell Ladra that the two mayors didn’t talk about Kapoor. Maybe Lago was even at that “twilight meeting” with Suarez and Kapoor at the Cocoplum Yacht Club that the Miami mayor testified about in his sworn statement under subpoena by the SEC, as detailed in a Miami Herald story this week. City Hall insiders say that Lago has been jittery since the story was published.
Read related: What corruption probe? Mayor Francis Suarez enjoys Egypt wedding, Miami F1
The way-too-cozy relationship with Kapoor and his “rental payments” — which seem like a reward or kickback of sorts — is the reason why Lago’s former ally, activist Maria Cruz, began a recall petition earlier this year. It failed after several signatures were thrown out as invalid. Recall organizers have called foul, saying that Lago had his lackeys stuff the petition box with bogus autographs. But, really, they should have had a larger buffer than 70 petitions. Just sayin’.
Lago claimed victory over the recall last week, but he is thisclose to losing the mayor’s advisory council. Though the item was deferred Tuesday, a discussion at April 16 meeting when it was first brought up indicates that even Anderson and Commissioner Kirk Menendez are open to, at least, redefining the mayor’s little grupito so it’s more inclusive (more on that later).
Meanwhile, a little help for Lucia Moran: Suarez is the one wearing the too-tight shirts.
He also has the better eyebrows.