Coral Gables Commissioner Melissa Castro is urging her colleagues to reverse a controversial decision to move city elections without voter approval, following a court ruling that deemed the same tactic unconstitutional in neighboring Miami.
She says the proper course of action is clear, and voters should decide at the polls whether they want to approve a change to election scheduling that would cut some City Hall officials’ terms — including hers — short by five months.
Mayor Vince Lago says voters indicated their wishes in April, when they picked him and two other Commission members who support the change, and noted Miami is still fighting the court ruling.
On Thursday, the 3rd District Court of Appeal ruled Miami acted unlawfully when it rescheduled its 2025 municipal elections without a voter referendum. The court found the change violated Miami-Dade County’s Home Rule Charter to which the Florida Constitution in part defers, because it represented an alteration of the city charter, which can only be amended with voter approval.
Coral Gables Commissioners voted 3-2 in May for a substantively identical change, an ordinance Lago sponsored, shifting its elections from April in odd-numbered years to November in even-numbered years.
Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson and newly elected Commissioner Richard Lara voted with Lago for the change, which most agreed would boost voter turnout and save money by aligning local elections with federal races.
Castro and Commissioner Ariel Fernandez, both consistent foes of Lago and Anderson on the dais, opposed the move.
Following Thursday’s court verdict, Castro sent a memo to City Clerk Billy Urquia formally requesting a special Commission meeting to address the legal implications. The request was swiftly denied.
Section 2-30 of the Coral Gables Code of Ordinances provides that special meetings can be called by the Clerk upon written request of the Mayor, City manager or three members of the Commission.
Urquia told Florida Politics on Friday he contacted Lago, Anderson, Fernandez and Lara and that “a majority expressed their preferences not to proceed with scheduling a Special City Commission meeting at this time.”
The matter will instead be taken up at the Commission’s next regular meeting on Aug. 26, for which Castro has filed items to repeal Lago’s ordinance, place a referendum on the next Coral Gables ballot enabling voters to decide future election timing and rescind the Commission’s support for Miami’s legal action challenging a lower court’s ruling that the election change was unconstitutional.
Castro has also retained the services of elections attorney J.C. Planas, a former state lawmaker who last year ran unsuccessfully for Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections. In a Friday legal opinion produced at Castro’s request, Planas wrote that the Coral Gables City Charter is “subservient” to Miami-Dade’s Charter and, as such, changing election dates without a referendum is explicitly forbidden.
“As the City of Coral Gables is now in blatant violation of the Miami-Dade Charter and the Florida Constitution, it MUST immediately repeal (the ordinance),” Planas wrote. “Should the City refuse to do so, it can be subject to costly litigation by its residents who were denied the ability to vote on such a change.”
The ordinance the City Commission narrowly OK’d in May moved Coral Gables’ next election up from April 2027 to November 2026, shortening the terms of Lago, Castro and Fernandez. Castro said that’s “the least” of her concerns.
“The important thing here is that if my constituents want me to be five months less in office, I’m OK with that. But let them decide,” she said by phone Friday. “It’s self-serving and self-entitled for the City Commission to decide, ‘Hey, I want one more year,’ or, ‘Hey, I’m going to serve five months or a year less.’ That’s unheard of and unconstitutional. Imagine that now Commissioners get to decide how long they serve. It’s crazy.”
In a Friday text, Lago defended the Commission’s May decision, noting he and others who supported it were elected on platforms that included changing the election date. He said it would be “premature” to reverse course while the Miami case still pends final resolution.
“Once that process is complete,” he said, “the City Commission will reconvene to evaluate next steps.”
Lago, Anderson and Lara previously rejected a measure Castro proffered July 2 to repeal the election date change. They went on to censure her for contacting Attorney General James Uthmeier without first conferring with her City Hall colleagues.
Anderson, who initiated the censure motion, accused Castro of “trying to sabotage” the City Commission by trying to get the state involved, while Lago and Lara said her actions damaged the city’s credibility with state officials and potentially jeopardized future funding.
Uthmeier, with support from Gov. Ron DeSantis, warned Miami against rescheduling its election before mayoral candidate Emilio González sued the city.
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