Coral Gables voters made their way to the polls today to cast their votes in the municipal election and elected a new Mayor.
Vice Mayor Vince Lago has been elected mayor of the City Beautiful, defeating Commissioner Pat Keon and Jackson Rip Holmes.
| Votes | Percent | |
 | 3,887 | 37.54% |
 | 6,004 | 57.99% |
 | 463 | 4.47% |
Lago is only the second Hispanic elected mayor of Coral Gables. Retiring Mayor Raul Valdes-Fauli is the other.
COMMISSION GROUP II
In Group II, six candidates ran to fill the vacancy left by Lago.
No candidate reached the required 50% +1 to win the election. In the end, two candidates will advance to a runoff. Rhonda Anderson and Jose Valdes-Fauli will face off on April 27th.
| Votes | Perecent | |
 | 4,307 | 42.35% |
 | 1,410 | 13.86% |
 | 174 | 1.71% |
 | 755 | 7.42% |
 | 853 | 8.39% |
 | 2,671 | 26.26% |
COMMISSION GROUP III
In Group III, four candidates ran to fill the vacancy left by Keon.
No candidate reached the required 50% +1 to win the election in this race either. Javier Baños and Kirk Menendez advance to the April 27th runoff.
| Votes | Percent | |
 | 3,208 | 31.92% |
 | 2,414 | 24.02% |
 | 3,088 | 30.73% |
 | 1,340 | 13.33% |
THE RUNOFF
Vote by mail ballots will be mailed out on Thursday and early voting will take place on Saturday and Sunday, April 24th and 25th.
I am so relieved and ecstatic that we voted Lagos! I feel hopeful about the future of Coral Gables. I was, however, disappointed about the turnout rate.
Looking forward to finishing the job at the runoffs.
I do not think this kind of letter letter, with its tone, with its accusations against people, with recommendations on the runoff, should be posted on the Gables Insider.
Vince Lago worked for 2 1/2 years on the Zoning Code Rewrite WITHOUT INFORMING VOTERS.
When pressed for and in Public Workshops on
1. How much larger houses, apt buildings, and multi-family buildings the Code allows, and
2. How REMOTE PARKING
A. Allows developers NOT to provide 20% of the required parking EVER
B. How REMOTE PARKING will not seriously hurt income on Miracle Mile — WHO WANTS TO REMOTE PARK?!
Vince Lago REFUSED TO ANSWER, and said twice — in pushing for quick votes on the Zoning Code over Citizens protest that more time was needed to understand the Code Rewrite:
“We’ve debated this for 3 years. It’s time to vote and move forward.”
VINCE LAGO IS A TROJAN HORSE, GIVEN BY DEVELOPERS TO THE CITIZENS OF CORAL GABLES.
Sincerely,
Jackson Rip Holmes
Kirk Menendez grew up in Coral Gables, went to Gables High and coached at the Coral Gables Youth Center. He is home grown and will do what is best for Coral Gables rather than what is best for the developers.
Agreed.
Word for word.
We did it! One down, two to go! now we need to finish the job by keeping the developers off our Commission. The results should not have surprised anyone. All the dirty politics, the dark money, the lies and innuendos were not able to derail Vince Lago’s road to success. It didn’t work! It proved that our residents saw through the smoke and mirrors, that is, we are smarter than they thought.
As to the other two races, does anyone think it was a coincidence that one of the developers pulled his project “until after the elections”? Was it a matter of chance that two of the three candidates in Group three benefitted from developer hosted fundraisers? NOT Javier! Why did one of the candidates jump into this race while working to up zone the area where he owns property/ies? How much more are those properties worth today after the change to mixed use zoning? Is that what you call being UNSELFISH? This is the time for all of us who do not want our city to become a concrete jungle to join forces and not allow the developers’ choice to be elected.
I believe Javier Banos is our best choice and hope you do too.
Rhonda’s numbers were not a surprise either. She has an excellent plan to rein in the special bonuses given the developers. She is dedicated and above all she will listen and respect the wishes of the residents. She has been very involved in our City and understands what needs to be done to keep Coral Gables the way we want it to be. Rhonda Anderson is the best candidate in Group 2.