The Vision for Coral Gables' Future with Its Mayor | Vince Lago

He adds some culture to us.

I love my Jay. I love my Jay, you know. I mean, Jay Jay's Jay's already going up in the steps with me. So,

I like it, bro. That's why I brought him in. I brought I don't want people to go down the steps, you know.

I felt it immediately when I got to know.

I need you to help me go up the steps.

Welcome to our other podcast. Another podcast. And today's podcast is special because today is a state of

the city.

This is the state of

your favorite city.

Their favorite. Our favorite city. Our favorite city. Our backyard. Our home. And with us we have our mayor of Coral Gables, Mayor Vince Schlag. And I have to say, not to sound biased, but it's my favorite mayor, too, man. Out of all the mayors that I know, he's the most personable. I saw him picking up trash the other day on the streets and throwing it away. I haven't seen anybody else do that.

Well, I mean, apart from that, he's really I think he's the mayor that a mayor for the people. Yeah. Because he's always I mean, just with the fact of his uh open Fridays, I don't know how anybody could be on a Friday at that time. just every Friday listening to people. So really my hats off to you. So mayor,

you haven't been here for a while.

It's been a while. I think it's been over a year. I think a year. A lot has happened.

A lot.

A lot has happened. So I think that you know, let's start with a recap

of of that whole year because I know it was a

You won the election. Yes.

We had a runoff.

So we won the election before before the election. We won a recall. There you go. I wanted to talk about that. They had a they had a recall against me that was put together by it was funded. Uh recently we have gotten a bunch of information which you've been provided a lot of that the documentation and today I sent an important letter to the attorney general asking for them to investigate the funding of that recall. The funding of the recall was provided by and this is cooperated already. I sat down with the individuals that actually ran the recall and told me who paid for the recall.

Oh wow.

Yes. And it was paid for by Billy Mallister and the Miami Day County Fire Union in an effort to remove me. um very clearly uh we're we're analyzing with our attorneys and we're also asking for the attorney general uh of the state of Florida to get involved. We send it to the ethics at the county and also at the state uh to address this issue. We're looking for accountability and transparency. Can a union use dues or funds to pay uh for a recall or for anything that does not have to do with something that is in within their purview? That's number one. Number two, how were these funds moved from their accounts through packs? The Miami Herald asked that question. The Miami Herald could not find out.

Oh wow.

And also, what were the funds that were used?

Again, the people want accountability. They want transparency. So, who are these agencies that are using shadow packs? We found out it was a Miami Day County Fire Union under the opice and leadership of Billy Mallister.

And I'm asking the mayor, the mayor of Miami Day County, uh, Cava to address this issue. Those are her employees. She needs to make a decision and and and come front and center on this and address it. Mayor told you

um I haven't had a I haven't had a real conversation over this. I've sent her letters and I provided her with the evidence and now you know we have another choice but we're going to have to go legal on this matter.

So before we go there the last question is why were they wanting to rep that was

well I mean again again I don't have I don't have an a formal answer from them. Uh but it probably has to do with annexation. Uh, but I did have a conversation with Billy McAllister when we were in the in the annexation process and he told me very clearly and I said this I've said this in the public record. This is not the first time. Uh he told me, "Look, Vince, if you'd like for me to approve and get out of the way in regards to your efforts to annex two very small areas that were being under consideration, which was High Pines and Pon Davis and an area of Little Gables, um I'll step out of the way, but I'm requesting that you allow me to absorb your your entire fire fire department, all the assets, all the employees." And I said, "Listen, under under no circumstances would I do that. Uh we've spent over $150 million in renovating our fire stations. We're in the process of finalizing a fourth fire station that we just recently bought a piece of land on Sunset and they're going to be delivering a world-class fire station. We have a new public safety building which is $60 million. And again, we have spent, you know, over $150 million in regards to infrastructure, you know, and really having the best tools and so that so that our firefighters are protected number one and number two can provide excellent service to the res.

Not to interrupt you, but let let me get this straight. So then basically

these these way, thank you for the

You're very welcome. You're welcome.

Thank you to Steve Gable's Cafe. Gable's Cafe. Always always coming through. The best of the best.

Thank you, Steve. Steve's always telling me when am I going to get double S? I'm I'm going to go and do some food tasting over there. Listen,

let me get this straight. So then basically th this this union was opposed with what was being proposed.

Yes. But they were also but by the way I mean they were brought in also by David Paris who's a union the union boss here in the city of Coral Gables and he wanted and he wanted

there's there's a lot of names floating around here. So you have the two the two main culprits here. The two main culprits are, you know, David Paris who's a union boss member here in the city of Coral Gables, Billy Mallister from the fire union, Miami County. You have Maria Cruz who ran who ran the recall. And then you have another group of individuals called Venamos Nadier who is my understanding is he's going to prison on an unrelated matter of fraud. Uh who basically ran ran the efforts on the ground. Uh so the issue is here this imploded. They never received, you know, the the the necessary the necessary signatures. But the effort in itself was for control. What do they want? They want to they want to receive insane amounts of pension benefits, which I voted against

and they want to stop annexation.

But the culprit here and the individual who gave the money was a Miami date county fire union, Billy McAllister. And we want to understand, do his members know that he used this money uh on on a race to recall an elected official outside of Miami Day County that's not Miami date county. It's a city within Miami.

That's money that they raised within their union.

Union. I mean, do they know that? H what how did they how did they funnel that money to be able to keep it secret? I saw that video that went viral, too, of the guy door knocking. Yeah.

Right. And the guy the the the resident from Coral Gables saw him and

grilled him.

Yeah. Just went berserk on him because they were saying insane things. They said that I had stolen money, $60 million. They were saying all kinds of crazy things in an effort to get people to sign. They were confusing people. And the worst part about it was that these individuals were confusing elderly people.

Imagine you get a door a door someone knock on your door, hey listen, sign here. And they were they would say whatever whatever it took to get a signature.

So to make a long story short, they didn't receive the necessary signatures. Now, just like I did with Actually Radio, which I can't speak about my settlement. Yeah. But I was

handsomely paid uh for for for the two-year battle that I had with with uh the radio station where they said that I was under investigation by the Commissioner of Ethics, which I was not. A director came out very clearly and said in a Miami Herald article, Vince Lago has never been under investigation. I told them all I wanted was a simple apology letter. Not only did they give me the apology letter, they paid me and Roto Terra's show was cancelled.

Wow. So my point is this that took two years and I spent a lot of my own personal money in lawyers to get to the bottom of it. But this is a concerted effort uh by incredibly liberal organizations that want to take me down. They've and again I'm not going to sit here and pay blogs, pay an extortion tax or keep my mouth shut because my job is very simple. My job is to protect the residents of the city of Corables and do the best job that I can on behalf of this city. So you know we have a duty. I'm honored uh to serve as the mayor of the city of Corgus. I'm honored to live in the greatest country in the world and I will never stop fighting for what I believe.

Do you think there's like uh why is that liberal push coming to the city? I mean, not that there's nothing wrong with with liberals, but you know,

at Listen, a lot of people

we're going far left.

Listen, a lot of a lot of people I don't think so. I think we're in I think we're listen

people attack me sometimes because I'm conservative. People attack me sometimes because I'm liberal.

Uh I think God, you should see what they tag us here. my house, they they attack and it's always and it's always a lot of them are pay proxies.

That's what it is.

They're pay proxies.

And I've had blogs call me and tell me, "Listen, Vince, if you pay me x amount of money,

you know, I'll speak good about you, but I'm not going to, you know, and I and I'm going to keep hitting you and make up stories. Look, they said that I attacked

the then manager, Amos Rojos. FDLE came out, they reviewed, they they basically uh deposed the five people that were in the room. They came back later and said Vince Lago did not attack the manager. You see, it's it's an effort. They the the stories come out. Yeah.

And a lot of these stories and a lot of these stories again are pushed are pushed by Ariel Fernandez, who we see them every day, who's a commissioner, Melissa Castro. They push the stories. They push the stories. They slander you. A bunch of mud is thrown. Then the record is corrected at the back of the Miami Herald or at the back of of the media cycle.

So, talking about that, you're always somebody who fights back and and

I fight what's right. I fight where it's right. I don't want to fight. I don't I'm I'm I don't want to fight, but I'm going

when your name when your name is being dragged through the mud. I I agree 100%. You have to You just can't stay quiet.

Oh, I agree, too. I agree, too. So, recently I saw a a thing between you and the Miami Times.

Yeah.

Can you give people a clear picture of what happened?

Very simple. It's not that confusing. Okay. And I and I gave and I gave a very simple example. You can go on social media and you can go on my Instagram and you can see it. And I hope that you include the clips of it.

Yeah. Because this is something that sent from a while back.

For years, for years, we were sending the Miami New Times notifications. They have about 12 stands throughout the city. Those little aluminum metal stands. They're incredibly old. They're decades old. They're rusted. They're full of stickers, graffiti, the glass or or or plastic in the front is broken. And a lot of them are empty. They were never filled. And a lot of them have become ADA hazards. You see a lot of people struggling as you put a, you know, you put a garbage can, you have the new stand, you have, you have the the the connection box for the lights on all four corners. You have four or five things on the sidewalk that are blocking the use of sidewalk the new people asked for people asked for for seating for the trolley. We added that onto So you would look at a corner, you would have six things on a corner,

okay, that were blocking pedestrian accessibility and also people who again are disabled. But let's back to the point. So for years we asked them very simply and very respectfully. Can you do me a favor and just clean them up? Provide some maintenance. I've had people call me and tell me, "Listen, I got cut on one of the edges there. You know, it's rusted." So we told them very nicely. We wrote them letters. We contact them with code enforcement. We didn't even find them. So then we went through the process of basically saying, I said, "Look, let's take another let's take it another step. We were nice enough after years of trying. We started finding them. And then all of a sudden I basically went public in the commission meeting and called for for action from on behalf of the city. Let's start removing them if they're not addressing this issue. I don't have a problem with the Miami Times, but everybody here has to be accountable. Again, if they're not accountable, then the restaurant next door tells me, "Hey, listen. The Miami Times is not upkeeping their new standard. Why do I have to keep, you know, my my facade of my why do I have to let me let me do whatever I want? I don't want to paint my facade. I don't want to do this. I don't want to upkeep my roof." So that's why we're the city beautiful. They got upset and in the typical form, you know, the typical form, they attacked me. And this is simple. We hold you to the same standard that we hold everyone else.

But what did they say? What did they attack you on? What what was the attack on?

No, I think I think I think they said that that that I was being a crybaby or that I was upset that I was that I was upset. I said, I'm not upset about anything. I just want you to be held to the same.

So this was never prior to anything that they wrote or anything to regards. This is just the sentence because

listen, I've said it before. When was the last time that you read the New Times? When

I get it. Bottom line is this. They're welcome here in the city of Coral Gables, but let's be thoughtful and careful about the way that you're conducting yourself. And by the way, why would you want to have something that says the new times on it that looks horrible? That's not putting your best foot forward. That's the reason why people come to the city beautiful. They want to enjoy the clean atmosphere, the beautiful landscaping, the sidewalks, the restaurants, you know, you can go have a drink at a nice bar. This is a beautiful place.

So, why would you want to have a, you know, a New Time stand that's all rusted that's full of graffiti and they got upset because I called them out and I

can't just put them like in different and I held and I held their feet and I held their feet to the fire.

What's the point? Are they going to fix them or

Yeah. You know what happened the next day when I did that? Immediately they're out there fixing it. But they just wanted to take a few swipes at me. This is it's so easy. You know, again, they want to take a few swipes at you. They want to hit you. They they coordinate with Billy Corbin. Billy uh Billy Corbin or Billy Cohen. He gets mad when I call him by his real god-given name. Um and then at the end of the day, they coordinating and they want to they want to hit you. They want to they want to give you a few body blows, you know, a few punches to the face. Again, it's simple. Let's collaborate. Let's work together and let's continue to elevate the quality of life here in the city. When I'm getting calls from residents that are telling me, Vince, why isn't the New Times being held to the same standard that I'm being held to? Look, you have to clean your sidewalks every six months in the downtown. It's required by code. It's required by code. You got to clean your facade. If not, you you get a warning and you get a fine. Why is that? Why do we have beautifification standards? For example, when you design a building, it has to go before a board, a Mediterranean review, a design review, called the architectural review. five, six, seven architects review it and says, "Look, I don't like that. I would change this. Move this over." You may have to go back three, four, five times. So, if we're holding, if we're holding, excuse me, businesses and residents to that standard, why would we not hold a vendor to that standard? That doesn't make any sense. Look how much money we spend on beautifification, on maintenance.

No, no, they don't pay for it. They don't.

So, can we have a day in Miami stand?

Day in Miami?

That's all we need. That's all we need. No, not digital stand. That's all we need. So again, they feel they feel that they push they push back for information.

They feel that rolling the podcast episodes off.

They feel they feel that if they push back and they, you know, hit me a few times that, you know, I won't I'll I'll I'll stay quiet because again, you know, I'm I'm nervous that it's going to have some sort of effect on my popularity.

I made a statement. It's on Instagram and I asked your team if you're going to include it to please include and please include the statement. You can see where I show the before and the after. They literally ran the next round.

So we're going to give we're going to give them the benefit of the doubt that they're going to fix them. Well, they are fixing them. Perfect. Yeah, but it just took a little bit of urging. Got it. Got it. Got it. I mean, I don't even know to tell you the truth. I don't even know those things existed. I mean, the last one I ever saw was like

way back when I used to people would go and put the quarters like that. That's exactly that's exactly what I said.

I mean,

the only people who get that are probably tourists, you know, just pick it up to see what they do and stuff.

But maybe maybe it makes sense. I mean,

when I used to read the New Times, it was this thick. Now it's down to like 10 pages.

And they got mad that I they got mad that I said that. They got mad that I said that. But at the end of the day,

it's not only them. It's a lot of them. It's all paper. It's all print. It's all print and it's expensive to print.

Unfortunately, I don't even know how some magazines are still surviving out there to

We were talking about that earlier. Yeah,

we were talking about that earlier today when we saw that. So, with with all these things going on, Mayor, tell us a little bit of the future. What is going to be happening? Is there anything coming up in the ballot? Is there anything coming up now?

So, so let me tell you what we did. We we just celebrated our centennial and I'm just trying to get this up here because I wanted to make sure I don't miss it.

Uh we've done some amazing things over the last year.

We flipped the commission so we're back to normaly. Immediately on the first day I removed the 101% increase of my salary that was done by Ariel Fernandez and Melissa Castro who by the way are also up for election in November with myself.

When you remove that they don't have to retroactively give any money back.

No no from that moment forward.

Yeah but that's it. We stopped that.

So, but wait, for those people that don't remember what happened, what happened there was, let's explain it, that um uh the commission voted on increasing their salaries.

No.

No.

What ended up happening there was that Ariel Fernandez Yeah.

Melissa Castro and Kirk F Kirk Menendez, who's no longer commissioner,

required from the manager, remember the manager has to do a three out of five commission. You want to build consensus and have five. But if three tell you to do something, you got to do it within reason. majority

majority and they requested that they they put a 101% salary increase within the budget hidden in the budget. We didn't know about this. The vice mayor and myself found out about it and we were forced in the commission to vote against the budget.

Wow.

They didn't want to change it. We pleaded with them, put it as a freestanding item and vote on that issue. No, we're not. You're voting on the budget as is because they don't want to vote on that freestanding. Obviously, it's embarrassing,

right?

They also got almost $1,000 car allowance and $1,000 expense account a month. It's 101% increase in your salary without any voter input, without even any, you know, outreach, taxpayer money.

Yeah. Like for example, next week I'm having next week I'm having on March 9th, I'm having a a town hall meeting where you can come in and speak about it. I've been doing it for 13 years, 14 years almost. Guess what? They could have done the same thing. Do you believe that the elected officials should have their salaries increased? They didn't do that. They hid it in the budget. So when when we turned the commission, we immediately on the first meeting, we got rid of the salary increases. We got rid of the car allowances. We got rid of the expense accounts. We moved quickly to do that. Um we also brought we also brought um back the original city manager, Peter Glacius.

Yep.

Uh who's a competent individual who lives in the city. He's an engineer, well respected, and we're doing great things. Look, in one year, in one year, we took advantage and we moved forward

with putting out RFPs to redesign and completely rebuild city hall. It's a $30 million project. We've been talking about it for decades. We're getting it done to the extent that next week I move out of, excuse me, tomorrow I move out of city hall.

How long you think it's going to take?

It's going to take they say two years. I think it's going to be three. So, I may never come back to city hall. So my point is that that's done. Do

you have renderings?

Yeah, they're amazing renderings. I'll get you some. You can include them here on the podcast.

Um then that's that's number one. We've been talking about it for years. It's finally getting done.

Number two, the mobility hub on Andalusia

right behind the Cheesecake Factory, our parking garage.

For years, we've been talking about taking that outdated parking garage, which is 50 years old and has spalling issues.

Yeah. and basically bringing something that's world class where people feel comfortable, where people want to park in that parking garage. You want to take people off the street where they're doing circles and loops looking for parking and say, "Listen, I want to go park in that parking garage because it's comfortable. It's safe."

And that was really tight in tight 50 years ago before before bigger before bigger cars and issues of 88.

Would it be bigger too big?

I was told someone was trying to do like pickle ball courts on the roof type of

we're talking about them. So,

not a bad idea.

So, I'm going to get you some renings of the mobility hub. The mobility hub is already approved. The architect was chosen and we also are now chose also the contractor. So that's moving forward. We're ready to go.

Good. You have renderings of that too or no?

Yeah, we have rendings that so we be providing that. Those are two major projects that are transformational projects for our downtown

and the publiclix. No.

And the public is forthcoming that's been approved and I also negotiated with them to give me a 20,000 square foot park on Andalusia that was deed to the city. That's big time.

So when I got elected, we have one park in the downtown. I've gotten six parks, six parks in the downtown free at no cost to the residents or the taxpayer. What we've done there is we've done negotiations with the developers and I've asked them to buy me pieces of property in the downtown or shrink their building footplate and maybe go up one additional floor opening up a pretty significant space. Listen, the public's one is going to be 20,000 ft.

Yeah.

The one in the corner here of your of this building here is going to be 15,000 ft apart. P the Publix one when are they starting is that 100% sure

that's starting in the next year.

No. So they're going to close it down and then redo.

Yeah, they're going to redo it. They're going to do they're going to do a beautiful Publix there.

They work very fast by the way. Yeah. And it's going to be and it's going to be something really nice there on the corner luna and delusion. It's really needed.

That Publix is needed for another

and we have a lot of things. Look, for example, we just opened up an incredible dog park that I've been working on for the last 10 years for the underline. The underline is under construction. We'll be finished with that in about 3 months in the city of Coral Gable side. I worked on that. And I that was my legislation took me 10 years to bring to fruition. And also right now we have in the last two years we've been working on which now we're really seeing headway is we're undergrounding all the power lines throughout the city of Coral Gables. We're the first city in Miami County. I worked on that legislation with that P&L for eight years

and it's going to be a 10-year project. We're two years into that right now. And look, it's all about resiliency. It's all about beautifification. You don't you won't see the wires anymore. They'll be underground.

That should be everywhere by the way.

But again, FPNL is working on that. But but we had to negotiate that. Yeah, we had to negotiate and those are things that I'm really really proud of that I've been working on,

you know, and things that again that I think make sense and really continue to elevate the quality of life here in the city.

Can you give us an update? I know everybody's always asking me about this at least. Pawns Park, man, it's been months and months or years and years.

Parking Pawns Park, we're finalizing the budget right now. We're about to select a contractor

and we're expecting Pawns Park to start within the next three months.

Okay. And what's finally going to be there?

So, we're we're right now it's going to be obviously a beautiful park. We're going to have a sculpture garden. Uh we're talking about potentially having a theater there. Like an amphitheater. An amphitheater because if you remember um I requested from the commission, they approved it that we we put together something in Pon Circle Park for the national championship game.

Yeah, I remember

between M and Indiana.

Yeah. Yeah, I remember.

And let me tell you, the plaza, our friends at Agave, they came in with flying colors like they always do. They sponsored the event. We were able to get a beautiful digital screen and we had hundreds of residents come out in amazing weather

to enjoy the national championship game. That was a taste and I mentioned in yesterday's commission meeting that was a taste of what's possible moon event. Yeah, we know we've had a lot of we've had a lot of great we've had amazing events here, but what people need what we need to work on, which is the ex the reason the main reason in my opinion besides beautifification of why we're doing this project is because people are nervous about traversing to get to Pon Circle Park because it's in the middle of ponds.

I think that we're going to make it so simple and so easy for people that it's going to be a hub of activity, especially with the plaza in front of it and all the things that you're seeing happen around Pon Circle Park. And you have this the new the new building that's coming up right next

building that's coming up which is which is the Alan Morris project which is which has been wellreceived by all the residents and then you have the other project that's coming here across the street.

Is there any way of putting just like on the left side of C park just walkway and like a like a oneway one way on the on the

we've talked about that we're analyzing those things uh those opportunities but you know right now it's a pretty significant budget and this is again like city hall like the mobility hub like Palm Circle Park. These are things that were talked about for decades but were never done. And I want to be very clear. I will not I will not do any projects and take out bond debt for beautifification. The only way that I will take out bond debt is if there's a revenue stream attached to that. And that revenue stream has to be parking. For example, the mobility hub or the only other thing I will take out bond debt without a revenue stream for will be for public safety. But for example, when we're building when we rebuild um our our fire stations, we budgeted for that for three or four years to make sure we had the money because we don't want to put any debt on the city.

We're in a very good position financially right now and we want to continue to be in a good position financially.

That's still a triple bond.

We're one of three cities in the state of Florida that have a triple triple bond rating.

Are we still there?

Yes, we are. And we have a and we have 25% of our budget, $60 million in reserves. When I started, we have 15. So again, a lot of that belt tightening and that we'll talk about in in uh if you're going to talk about the the eight referendums that are forthcoming, that's the address today.

Okay. So here here

what are we thinking about? There's a lot of people have, you know, commented and commented to me.

A lot of people are moving away from let's say the Bickle area. Yep.

And coming down to Coral Gables, but then a lot of people are saying, I don't want to become another Bickl area. Yep. in Coral Gables. When when is that time that we are gonna say we're we're not going to become like another brick wall area?

Well, listen, again, everybody wants everybody wants to live in the Gables. Let's be honest. I I hear, for example, like I told you, Apple,

uh you know, you had FIFA that came here. You have a ton of multinational corporations that are looking to come here, but the problem is that we don't have the space. We don't have the buildings. And um you know, uh we always knew what we had in Coral Gables, but now we've got we've garnered attention from the entire world. We are an enclave of 51,000 residents. Uh we don't have a wall around our city and uh we have 198 entrances in the city of Coral Gables and 700,000 cars drive through our city every single day.

That's crazy how he remembers all those numbers, man.

But but but my point is this. My point is this. That's why you see the massive increase in prices because there's a limited supply.

Yeah.

There's a limited supply

or traffic. What I would love to see in our downtown, which is we're starting to see now with the projects that are coming here now, is more residential in our downtown. That's going to really push the opportunities here in our downtown for businesses to really grow. Um 27% of our tax base comes from the business community. And when you throw in the apartments is 40%.

When you look at how much our property values have gone up, we still have the second lowest military rate for a full service city in Miami Day County. So at the end of the day, what helps us have lower taxes is the fact that we have a robust downtown that is growing that is growing. I cannot stop the growth. What we have is a zoning code and people have property rights,

right?

So what we try to do is adhere to the zoning code and the only time you ever see me deviate from the zoning code is very simply is for example, if a building can be, you know, seven stories and they come to me and they say, "Look, Vince, we're going to buy the following piece of land and make it a park. We're going to offer all these amenities for the community, you know, traffic calming, sidewalks, new lighting, a park, you know, real public benefits. We will negotiate with staff and I'll give them an additional floor. We've done it before. That's how I was able to get six parks. When you look at worldass cities and you and you travel the world and you see worldclass cities, they all have plazas. They have green spaces in their downtown. And in Coral Gables, all we had was Pon Circle Park. And now you're going to be able to walk in the next two or three years. Walk around and every two or three blocks you'll see a beautiful park where you can come out from your building whether you're taking a break for lunch or you've had a long day and you want to have a coffee and then you end up putting yourself in a position where you can sit down and relax at a park

and you can make downtown home again.

Yeah.

Downtown shouldn't just be for commercial and for businesses. It should be for everyone. That's what I want to see our downtown become. And also to that point, uh I think what Core Gables was missing, at least from where are we?

What was missing?

Uh entertainment, you know, like a nice entertainment place to like take the kids and stuff, right? So Five Golf is now going to open at the plaza, two floors with bowling alleys, with pool tables, with simulator simulating golf. That's going to the amount of people are going to come and want to hang out there now. It's going to be a game. It's going to be a Sunday place. It's going to be the Sunday. Look at the amount of restaurants that are opening the gates.

Yeah. No, that's crazy.

I mean, I can go down the list here from Miga to Daniels to Bukan, which is forthcoming. And then you have the staples here that have been here for years. You know, the Abraachis, the Porto Soles, the the Hillstones, and I can keep going on and on. Senora Martinez. Uh, you know, you have this new sushi restaurant that just opened up here. What's it called? Multi I mean Frankie and Frankie Frankie and Wall-E just opened up here. I

haven't been there yet, by the way.

I helped them with their permitting. Amazing people. Young couple.

They did a good job.

Doing a good job. They bought the building. They renovated it. You know, they're really doing good things. and the sandwiches are amazing. So, we can go down this list. Christiey's down the block, new ownership a few years ago, doing great things there. Um, so in in in food, we're we're really I think we're really leading. We're we're really uh you know, um

you have the top restaurants.

Yeah, we have some of the top restaurants here. And then when you talk about entertainment, multiple golf simulators like the one you just mentioned have opened up here in the city of Co Gables. You know, you have opportunities for everyone to come here and enjoy. That's why I think that when you add

nice jazz bars,

nice jazz bars.

You can have a We want to keep it classy and sophisticated.

Nothing against other cities. You know, we know what our demographic is. It's families. It's professionals. It's people who want to come here and have a good time. Enjoy the atmosphere. You know, it's safe. By the way, you know what our crime is? Our crime is down 14% from last year. It's the lowest crime rate in the last 25 years. You know who gets the credit for that? Our police.

Our police are doing an amazing job. Our manager.

No, that's for sure. And we talked about this

coral police is is is

a year ago a year ago a year ago a year ago you know we want to talk a little bit about unions because we you know we hit the we hit the fire union but let me tell you a little bit about I'm not anti-UN.

Okay. What I'm what I want to make sure people understand is that I'm fair. I'm fair and my job is to represent the residents of this city and I'm not going to sell the city out and raise taxes just to give the unions an insane pension benefit. That's not what I'm going to do. The last police the last police union contract was the richest in its history. I voted in favor of it. We were down 30 plus uh police officers. Right now we're down maybe two or three and we have over a handful in the in the um in the school forthcoming. Okay. So I'm telling you probably in about three or four months we'll be overs subscribed in police officers. I wrote the legislation that added more positions for police officers in the city and now along with firefighters. those are solely dedicated to the downtown. We no longer have issues where if there's an issue, for example, in the downtown where you have to call police from the neighborhoods and leave those neighborhoods in a vulnerable position. Now, we have our own police and our own fire. We're adding a fourth fire station on Sunset to address traffic and congestion issues

uh for that area. Now, what we're what you're telling me is we we we approved this union contract measure which is the richest in it history and we're really pushing to make sure that our fire our police officers are as happy as possible because they do an amazing amazing job. So, when you put everything everything together,

you're seeing that everything is moving in the right direction and people want to be here.

That's amazing. I mean, listen, at the end of the day, when you live here, you work here, you just want to, you know, what do you want? Nobody leaves. So then I always say I mean that's that's one of the parts when I said I asked you know with the traffic and everything it's because at the end of the day everybody that's moving over here they just want to say okay I work here I live here I go out you have breakfast you have lunch you have dinner you have so many places in Coral Gables that you could go to every day for I think the whole year

of course

you know what I'm saying I mean you will not be you know you you won't get bored of it so apart oh and by the way I forgot to tell you we just we just renovated the Venetian pool we spent millions now And is it open already?

It it opened. It opened. It opened last month.

Big even field trip place for a lot of that haven't been back.

Yeah. So we we've we've spent a lot of money for a while. There's a lot of things to do in our community. By the way, this weekend this weekend there's the Moda there's a Moda event at the Builmore. Uh one of the largest car auctions in the country is here. I brought that car auction to the Builmore. Uh and you know it's again our

Is it the one they do in Palm Beach?

It's the one they do in Palm Beach. Yeah. The bill I I heard some rumors that the bill did the renovation of the first floor that they had in the lobby.

Yeah, they did some work on it. Yeah,

they did some work on it and then the people the city or the commissioner wasn't happy about the the style of it.

Well, listen, they didn't they didn't pull a permit.

Uh but again, at the end of the day, we're in the process of working that out uh with the Billmore and they've been great partners. Uh again, you know, sometimes we own the bill more, the city owns a bill that the city owns a bill and they have a lease, you know, they have a lease uh in the bill more and they've been great partners. There's always hiccups in relationships, but at the end of the day, we value the Billmore and we're working through that hiccup and, you know, we look forward to continuing continuing to make sure that that

historic gem is protected.

For me, the Billmore is up there like with, you know, the Freedom Tower House steps. Yeah. I mean, and it really has no 13th floor either.

That's the craziest part about it.

Well, are you are you really going to attest to those stories of ghost?

They have ghost tours. They have ghost tours in here. I've seen in the gables, which is awesome.

They have tours.

They have ghost tours here. Yeah. Yeah. I've seen ghost tours online.

They do. They do. They do,

which is pretty cool. But um yeah, I saw one of them. I didn't It didn't feel like it matched with like the city was all white and stuff, but whatever. You They do have a really nice speak easy now. They opened up.

They do. It's very nice.

Supposedly, you need like a coin. I haven't got my coin. Haven't been in there. But

listen, we'll take We'll take We'll take a

I was invited twice. I haven't been there.

Give me the coin, sir. We're invited over there. You know,

you know, I mean, but what coin? How

There's a lot of There's a lot of cool things happening in the game.

But but but explain that. But we're not get a coin. You get it's like you get invited to the room, you know, it's one of those.

Yeah. And you gota and you got to go through a door and there's there's a there's a security there and then if you don't have the coin or the password, they won't let you in.

It's there's going to be a lot of piss off.

There's a lot of there's a lot of very interesting cool things happening in the city.

But one thing we're not doing is we're not forgetting our identity and who we are and what we stand for, which is important. Being someone and I don't I just I'm just curious about being someone who had a recall attempted on you. What do you feel about what the recall is happening now with the county mayor? You say they're gonna lead anywhere or

Listen, I haven't been I haven't been keeping tabs on it and I'm not involved with the recall, but I think that everybody everybody, you know, has to be held accountable at the end of the day. Uh there's accountability. Uh I don't know if the recall has any legs and we'll see. But when the people it's happened in the past uh with the previous mayor, Miami date county say we've had recalls before.

It happened. It happened. The last one was Ricardo Alvare and um

overwhelmingly

and the people spoke. Yeah,

the people spoke and there was serious financial backing uh to that recall. Correct.

And at the end of the day, you know, there's a window where they have to garner the signatures and we'll see what happens at that moment.

No, it's a process. You got to guard a very significant process.

Significant process, but at the end of the day, that's why we live in this beautiful country. As I say, democracy, you can attempt it. They attempted it to him. It failed and and move on. But

a lot of a lot of these recalls are politically driven

by special interest groups. In my case, it was the fire union under David Paris here in the city of Coral Gables and it was also the fire union in Miami Day County under Billy Mallister. And then there's other special interest groups that tag on developers that are upset for example that I won't upzone Miracle Mile. Uh the owner of Terteranova, he gets upset so he spends

they want you to

they want me to upzone Miracle Mile. I won't do

right. Not not to keep the same.

He wanted me to he wanted me to he wanted me to allow 10 stories on Miracle M. I wouldn't allow it. I think it should I think it should be

kept

it should be maintained in its historic nature there you can build in other areas you can build in other areas to a taller height 16 15 stories let's protect Miracle M let's protect Halda

and let's make sure that that that that gem that gem receives the necessary attention so it can continue to thrive it's it's a staple here in the city so you guys special interest groups so I just wanted to finish what you said so there's so special special interest groups that you know hide behind packs that hide behind and organizations to attack people because again when elected official will not vote their way on a matter

people get upset.

People get upset.

Yeah. And then they want to take retaliation and they take retaliation. What do they use? They use blogs.

Correct.

They use blogs. They And then they if you don't pay those blogs off with the extortion tax, I've said it before on the commission floor. I've said it by name. When you don't pay these people off with the extortion tax, at the end of the day, they're going to hit you and they're going to make things up. And that's where we we we basically had to go to war uh with Actual Radio in regards to they were saying that I was under a commission on ethics Miami Day County uh you know investigation. We fought the issue and we won and we were exonerated by the courts and we received a settlement. So I think I'm one of the first one of the first to to to really chase down and hold someone accountable.

Is is Antonio still alive? Like are they still up here? I have no idea. I have no idea. I I I can't say yes or no because I don't at the end of day at the end of the day it is what it is.

Listen, one of the most iconic radio stations in this in this whole which was Mambi is no longer

is no longer I mean that and that was you know who did

Hispanic people here did not remember what Mambi is. I mean that was iconic. I remember

people have to be held accountable.

People have to be held accountable

when these type of shady activities occur. And at the end of the day, the elected officials in this community need to band together and not and not be intimidated by extortionists like blogs. Why? Why is it? So that that's that's what you know one of the things and and everybody know I I come from a political background and I worked for a political for me legend

people why do you run and then all of a sudden people change?

Yeah. You know, I mean, it's like if you run in this in all this platform and you say you're gonna do this and this and all of a sudden people get into power.

But I'm gonna tell you I'm gonna tell you examples like let me let me let me let me answer your question. Yeah. Let me answer your question with a question.

So you ask me why do people change? Why do people get elected like Ariel Fernandez and Melissa Castro and then knowing what the salary is to be in that elected position which is a privilege and an honor to garner the support of the residents in this community and then you step into that position and immediately say I can't do the job for this amount of money. I need to raise my salaries and you hide it in the budget. You know why would you do that? How could you support someone that does that and disrespects the residents to that level? And then what do you do? Those two individuals go and they weaponize the blogs. They weaponize the Herald and they feed them information that's wrong. And these people, some of them fall for it and they publish it because it's all about clickbait. Now,

nobody has the guts to go toe-to-toe and say something to your face. Everybody right now says it behind your back.

They pay one of these blogs that

have live a miserable existence. a few dollars.

Yeah.

And they'll publish anything. They'll say anything,

right? They'll just put it out there. Go prove it.

What does it matter? And by the way, and they and they and they always stand by the standard of you're an elected official. You're held to a higher standard. We can say whatever we want about you.

Correct?

There's no slander. There's no slander until until you say what they said about me in the radio and I hire lawyers and I go two years and I fight the issue and I win.

But does that but wait, you have to they have to respect you. And like I say, either like him or dislike him. And and I always say that on this program, you know, either like him or dislike him. But that's what Trump did. Trump said, "Wait a second. What did he do?" He had to lower up everything else that he had.

So So let me So let me ask you, I'll ask you once they recall me and I find out that it was Billy Mallister and the fire unit from Miami County and David Paris. You saw what I sent you this morning.

Yeah. I sent a letter today to the attorney general, to all the mayors of the state of Florida, to the governor, to the ethics commission, both at the state of the county, to my colleagues at the Senate at the Senate and the state house and all my county commissioners asking for them to pass legislation to not allow fire unions or any union to use shady tactics to attack people in this community. If you're going to make a political message against somebody or an entity, do it with transparency and accountability. And if you don't use transparency and accountability, for example, everything that I do says my name on it and says my pack. What's my pack? Coral Gables first. It says I did this. I did that. Everything has my name. They don't do that. They use shady packs. They and they hit people and they destroy livelihoods. They destroy families. And that's what they do. And that's what they do. And at the end of the day, in an effort to intimidate you, by the way. And that all that all was national politics standard. And now it's all leaked down to the local level. And that's why And that's why I'm going to end with this on this point. I don't I think we we've hit this. We crushed this already. No,

we've had it.

Why? Why? I'm going to ask you. Why don't you run for public office? Why don't you run for public office? Why don't you run for public office? Why? Because they see what's happening. They see they see the smear tactics. They see the things that are, you know, that that that people say about about each other. And then guess what? It doesn't matter if it's truth.

It's out there.

It's out there. It's done. I attacked the manager. Yeah,

I punched the manager. Then later when there's depositions and of the five people in the room, they said FDLE said in a in a closer,

you know, but to that point and and to your I agree with you

that came from national because right now that's what that's what's happening right now.

So, you know, if you look at Trump's speech last night, all the people talking about, oh, the snow, the snow plowers, they can't pay them because everything right now has been shut down. The government shut down because everything's in that packet. So it's not you, you know, to the mayor's point, okay, let's just take that out. What do you want to address? You want to address the ICE situation? Let's address it. Nope. You know, so they put everything in the 200,000, you know, pages. It's in there. So everything is

And by the way, everybody's to blame. Everybody

So then you're now you're everybody, both Republicans and Democrats are to blame because when the Republicans are in power, the Democrats do it to Republicans. And when the Democrats are in power, the Republicans do it. instead of working together. If you would have looked if you would have looked and I enjoy this sometimes seeing uh like confirmation hearings in the past. Yeah.

I would see like I would read about it online and you know different different times under different uh when a Democrat was in power, a president or Republican was in power, they would bring they would nominate their their individuals for certain bureaus and committees and to run certain areas of the city, certain areas of the country, excuse me. You would see that Democrats and Republicans would vote lock step for people that were qualified. Well, they did. Now, now you But yeah, that's a good example. That was the first time I' ever seen that in my that I've been watching.

But on many occasions, on many occasions, on both sides of the aisle, you see people just voting no. Zero.

Last night, the president said something. Whether you agree with the president or not, he's still the president of United States. He made a very simple comment. Do you stand with Americans or you stand with illegal immigrants? As an elected official, my first responsibility is to the residents of this community, public safety. I have to make sure that I deliver on behalf of the residents of our community. Not Miami Day County, not my friends in South Miami, not my friends in West Miami. We can collaborate on issues and I like that. I love to collaborate. Super competent mayors there, guys that are doing a great job. You know, my friends in Pinerest, Cutler Bay, Pomemetto Bay, it doesn't matter if you're a Democrat or Republican. Kiscane City Miami.

It shouldn't be that.

It shouldn't be about that. It's about collaboration. But right now, it's not about that. right now it's about fighting and it's a problem you know and that biggest part that you just said right now when you said look at with Marco Rubio I laughed because in that sense was when Trump said listen he got 99 he got like 99% of everybody he goes now they're all upset that they don't want him there and you know which you know shout out to Mar and Margos is one of us

yes

a homegrown talent from West Miami say what you want to say I mean he's doing an amazing job on so many different fronts

and by the way you say that here on the podcast and guess what I'm going to get people who now dislike the fact that I said that. But

you're not always going to agree with somebody 100%.

That's the beauty of life.

So just because you just because we have difference of opinions doesn't mean doesn't mean that we should go at each other.

In my case, I don't care. I mean, I just say that I'm proud that I have somebody like Marco Rubio that is from Miami that was, you know, here from city of West Miami where he how what who look at look at his how he got to where he got. And the fact is that he's doing a phenomenal job because if we're some other people that say, "Okay, he's a Miami guy. He's doing more than a job." Guy's doing a phenomenal phenomenal job being recognized by everybody. The whole world is praising on on Marco. And the sense is I always remember that that statement that he said to that senator when that senator told him, "I regret

I remember that

of of me voting for you. I'm doing my job." And then he goes, "Well, Senator, I I'm I'm upset that I'm not upset that you're doing it because that means that I'm doing I'm doing a great job than if you regret it." You know what I'm saying? That was great. Which, by the way, by the way, by and by the way, his plate is full. His

plate is full. He's always getting everything. His plate is full.

Listen, um I know this is maybe I know this is not in your area. I mean, it's not that far from you, but um

can we get across?

You are a a person who pushes things through. You know, I've noticed you you always want to fix things. You're solution based. I want I'm curious to get your thoughts knowing how government works and everything on the airport.

Listen, I I I have to be honest with you. I I travel a lot for work. I was just there um probably at the airport four or five times uh in the last two weeks. I was traveling to Tallahassee uh to advocate on behalf of the city. I was traveling for work in and out of the country. Uh the airport as a as a my background is in engineering and construction. So, I know what it is to work in the public realm. I've worked a lot for the school board, Miami Day County Public Schools, Miami Day College, FIU. I've done a lot of work for the post office over the last 20 years through contracts, through RFPs, CM at Risk, Jock contracts, job order contracts. Listen, it's not easy. It's not easy. The airport is a behemoth. It's a monster. Um, there's hundreds of thousands of people coming in and out of the airport constantly, but it needs work. My my issue is very simple is that when you talk about putting your your best foot forward, remember I talked to you about keeping the city clean, safe, and letting the business community take care of the business community. When people walk into the airport after coming from Japan, Mexico, Venezuela, Cuba, Canada, wherever they're coming from, Europe, you want it to be your best foot forward. Think about when you go to the airports in Madrid. Think about when you go to the airport in Japan. the airports you can literally eat off the ground. I went to Pittsburgh airport and it was be beautiful. It's perfection. It's perfection. Uh to me, I think we're falling way short. Um and I don't think there's you can blame one person or one organization, but we need to look at things in a really holistic way and make a decision on how we're going to address this. Are we going to completely revamp the airport or are we going to just, you know, put another coat of paint on it and fix some cocking in the bathroom and change the toilets?

This is not a million dollar issue. This is a multi- multi multibillion dollar issue.

There's nine billion.

They have 9 billion for that by the majority of the money that they spent was on import export uh upgrades because that's what brings in the money to the airport.

And I understand that's fine. You know, when you look at it, for example, I'm I'm investing a lot of money in our downtown. Why? Because I need to make sure that our downtown is stable because it provides almost 40% of our tax base. Got

so if your downtown is dilapidated,

your property values go down. So, I understand that and I respect that. Okay? I don't have the numbers on that, so I can't freely talk about that, but I respect investing in the back of house and infrastructure and that kind of stuff.

But a lot of people from us complain about

and I get it and I get it. But now it's time to really address what's front and center. And I think that what what I would do if I was in charge of of the airport is first and foremost I would bring in I know that people don't like the word consultants but I would bring in a consultant give a six-month time frame just like I did in the permitting department. We brought in George Duos to review our entire pering department and two weeks ago he gave us the results. This is what you need to do. This is how many people you need to hire and this is what I would recommend that you do to make sure that your permitting is world class. We already started taking one measure. We had the Miami Day County at the last commission meeting. I sponsored legislation that now brings Miami date county and the city of Coral Gables together through a portal system to address Durham Wasa and RERing. But let me give you an example. That's just an example.

That was an example of the consultant

of the consultant. We have to bring consultants in 6 months, 6 months, get a consultant. What would you recommend?

And then you put it to the voters.

But let me ask you, do you want to do you want to do a bond? Do you want to save over three, four years? Can we raise the revenue without having to bring in debt, which is something that I would prefer? And then you have to you have to revamp revamp and restore the entire airport. But again, you're going to do it in tanches because you can't shut the airport down and you can't build it somewhere else.

Correct. And we've talked about that because other places just shut down and open up a new

one of the things that I thought about one of the things that I thought about when you look at Colorado

somewhere where I go is, you know, you have that subterranean area here in in MIA. In my opinion, I mean, that is the worst the worst thing that anybody could have.

No. Uh, you know, imagine you're coming out, you get your bags and the first thing you see in Miami is

Yeah.

You know, the ceilings are seven feet tall. You know, all the cars all dark about that, but you're right. All the honking.

What I would What I would love to see is, you know, maybe use that for back of house, the first floor

and then have the drop offs in the in in the second floor.

Yeah.

And then build up build vertical. build vertical so that you can have that's where maybe people can wait for uh wait for their their uh their next flight. I think whoever

but it's it's it's a it's a logistics nightmare and it's going to take a lot of work and it's something that I think

but to your point but to your point is like you know who who's that who's that person going to be you know because we've been with the airport already for how many mayors have passed by how many consultants how many directors you know have we had other consultants um you know which one's going to be the one that one says okay these are the consultants that we have to hire these are this is the group we have to hire because to your point you know when we're talking about fixing the back end and everything, but there has to be multiple units. There has to be other people fixing those little things that everybody complains. All of our viewership here when they put there, oh, uh, we had the mayor here and and they said this, she said that about the airport. Oh, that's that's BS. Those escalators are still broken. That is still broken. So they have to have like not just one of those lightning crews, but I think they have to have various

I was told that in the I mean the comments I mean you know you can just they're tell that that people were putting hey I work at the airport lightning crew does nothing all day. That's what I was told.

The amount the amount of everybody but the amount the amount of escalators the amount of escalators, elevators that are broken that are broken, you know, the issues where they have leaks. I mean, you go there, you see the leaks and you see the the stained the stained walls, you see a lot of issues like that. And again, I'm in construction. Those are things that we can easily fix.

And it's a massive endeavor. So, I have a lot of respect for for the individual. I have it's a massive endeavor and I have a lot of respect. But, but let me tell you, but let me tell you, it's it's something that we got to tackle. Why not, you know, get a consultant that'll give you a robust plan and then maybe pick two or three architecture firms, pay them a fee, each one of them, and say, "Conceptually, conceptual plans. Tell me what you would do if you had $10 billion, $5 billion, do different budget strategies and say to revamp this airport and make it a world-class airport because this community, this community is a gateway to the Americas."

No, 100%.

The gateway to the Americas. We're only continuing to grow. We have 23 million people in the state of Florida.

Okay. and the amount of people that are moving here. So, why not make that investment? Make that investment now and I'm sure that it'll pay huge dividends.

Look, he when we when we spoke to Director Koutier, um he said, "Listen, by 2030, 2031, you should see that thing already like new wings, new everything." So, that was my timeline. My timeline is 2030. If I see 2030, that's not done. That's an issue. You know, maybe I'm too generous there, but that's like the timeline that he gave us. He had like several projects. Now, I think you know what my solution would be? Whoever hire whoever built Freedom Park because brother that thing was done in like six months.

It's moving.

That is the most insane thing I've ever seen in my life, man. Whoever did that MC did that.

Hey, great great great operation.

That's called the private sector.

Yes. That Yes.

Great operation, man. And everyone notices it. Built it faster than the 836. The signature bridge. There's cracks on the signature bridge.

You know what? We got we got we got to bring in we got to bring in we got to bring in Jose Mas so he can go ahead and give us he can give us a strategy brother and how you build so fast I heard that they had like permit uh providers on site 24/7.

You're talking about one of the largest infrastructure companies in the world. Mastec

it's a private sector.

So

Coral Gables. Yeah, they're in Coral Gable.

Coral Gables company.

Coral Gables company. Coral Gables company. Yeah. Coral Gables company.

Coral Gables company. Coral Gables family.

Coral Gables family. Yes. Um I mean I have plenty more if you want to jump in.

No, no. I I wanted to I wanted to ask I mean if you let me. Um I wanted to ask in November what else? We have elections up in November. What's apart from elections? Is there anything that the residents of Coral Gable need to be you know intuitive and attentive?

So this is important. If I may I want to this may take a little bit of time to explain. That's that's what we that's what we like here. This April, it's already been approved. This April, residents will receive a ballot at home and it's going to include eight referendum.

Wait, we got to put that there. So, this April,

this April,

okay,

you will receive and you'll have three weeks to fill out your ballot and submit it. So, there's no reason why you shouldn't be able to vote. And it's very simple. And this is what I have requested and I put forth before the voters. Number one, we want to move elections from April to November. Okay.

So, 28 out of 34 municipalities in Miami date county have their elections in November. It's a no-brainer. It saves the city,

please.

It saves the city money and you get more people to vote.

City do that, too. They should do it, too.

No, no, but they're already in November, but they're trying to they're just trying to put align it. So, my point is that

we're going to move elections, God willing, of the residents approve it. You save money and you get more voter turnout. You should never be afraid to go before voter turnout.

A lot of people aren't here in April anyway.

Two individuals in our commission. Two individuals in our commission, Melissa Castro and Erica Fernandez, were in opposition of that. They said, "Listen, we want quality versus quantity." No, no, no. Every vote is quality, and we want everyone to vote. We we would have five times more turnout in a November election than we do in April.

So, that's number one. Number two is we're going to add a provision that would require that if you want to raise your salary, if you want to raise your salary and you're an elected official, you have to put it before the voters. Again, I sponsor this. Nobody should be allowed to raise their salary unilaterally by hiding in the budget. Oh, I agree.

That is not transparent and that is not accountable.

That is what Melissa Castro and Ariel Fernandez did. I voted against that. And I'm asking the voters to put it into their hands. So if we want to raise our salaries that you're the ones that decide.

So then that'll be from here forever.

So on that and that April, one of them will be saying if we want to raise our salaries, we have to come back to you and you have to make that vote.

Yes.

That's a good idea.

Right.

Yes.

Um what else?

Another another thing that I think is important is

you know when be before we were able to flip the commission,

they talked about the issues that there's corruption. There's corruption in the city. Mhm.

You heard that every corruption.

No, no. How was that? That's one of my questions.

Corruption. Corruption. Corruption. Corruption. So, what I said during that time, I said, "If there's corruption, let us call an inspector general or let's get an inspector general. We'll start with my office and find this corruption." By the way, I don't have a city credit card. I don't have city expense account. I don't have a driver. I don't have bodyguards.

You drive a nice a nice electric BMW. That's all.

Mercedes.

Mercedes? Oh, sorry. Sorry.

I had a BMW electric BMW. The little one.

Yeah, little one. So, my point is easy to park.

Yeah. I don't have any I any of that stuff and I reduced my salary once they raised it. So So there's there's

You have no sergeant- of- arms with you?

No. You have no and no driver. Never. Zero. So So I said, "So there's corruption.

No siren. You can't."

That's why I'm always late. Was late today.

The the mayor's the mayor lives and I got to go to work and I got to work. So then listen. So then um so what I said was very simple. I said if you are going to like I said raise your salary, that's fine. No problem. If you're gonna if you want to do this and you wanna I lost my train of thought. Okay. Inspector General. The inspector general.

The inspector general was the issue of there's corruption. Perfect. Let's start with my office.

I want to be they said no. They voted against bringing inspector general. No. Ariel Fernandez and Melissa said, "We don't want an inspector general. It costs too much." And I said, "So you can raise your salary by 101% but you don't think that we should stamp out corruption? It doesn't make sense."

Yeah.

Again, that's just pure politics. That's corruption. So now the residents will have the ability

to vote on that

to vote on having an inspector general. And what we've done is the inspector general will be outside counsel. So it's not somebody we're paying and wasting money when there's no issues at hand. When there's an issue at hand where myself or whoever's elected at that point says, "Hey, I have an issue and I want to address it with inspector general." You activate the inspector general. But the residents are going to have that decision and I hope the residents vote in favor of that because it just makes complete sense. There should be no cost associated. Zero. I'll pay whatever it takes to stamp out corruption. I think that is something that is critical and something that again makes a lot of sense here in the city. There's a total of eight referendums. I think the most critical ones are obviously moving elections. The other ones are controlling uh controlling the salaries, uh the inspector general, and there's another five more that I'm not going to bore you with them, but they're important. You should vote yes on all of them. Yes on all of them.

And this and this is coming out in April. This is April. So, if we win, and by the way, another point, if we win those referendums, for example, the election one, I'm not extending my term.

Got it.

So, my my next election would be my next and final election will be in April of 2027. I'm rolling back my term.

So, my election will be in November 26. So, I'm actually losing six months.

And you also have term limits, too.

I do have term limits.

So, this will be your last chance.

This would be in no if if in this November, if I'm elected, I would have two years left.

Two years left.

So, my point is that we're not extending terms. We're not asking for more terms. I'm actually asking to trim.

It's very important for everybody to know that. It's not like, oh, you're doing this to extend your your your I'm glad that you eliminated the one from city of Miami. Correct. St. wanted to extend.

But this is nothing compared to the one of the city of Miami.

No, not at all. But but but will be used. You'll see it. They'll use it to fight it. The unions will fight it because they're going to be fighting on behalf of Melissa Castro and Eric Fernandez who don't want this.

They'll they'll they'll make ambiguous statements.

But are they going to run or

I don't know. I don't But when you say fight this, what are they going to do? Take it to

They'll send out they'll do media. They'll do blogs. They'll get the blogs to say, you know, uh Vince Lago is doing this so he can so he can amass more power and and stay here longer. I'm removing six months from my team, right? You know, I'm asking for you to be the one that decides whether I get a salary raise an increase. And I'm asking if you if there's if there is corruption, I'm asking for their filing to be an inspector general where one of my colleagues on the commission could say, "Hey, I want to investigate this uh claim of corruption or I want to personally speak with the inspector general and get some guidance on on an issue." So, there's eight eight items. I given you three because I don't want to take take all the whole time, but they're all important and you're going to be start getting a lot of information over the next few weeks at home.

Sure.

You got more or no?

No. No. Go.

Oh, I have like six. Okay.

That's fine. No, that's fine. As long as they never turn off. Okay. Um,

very expensive homes in Corable. Everybody knows.

Yes.

What are your thoughts on elimination of property taxes?

Listen,

it just got voted at the house.

Well, it's I know in the process it's not done yet.

You as a mayor, what do you think about it? Because I've seen obviously the residents are happy about that, but then I see everybody complaining about public services, too. Yes. So, how serious is it or how not? So I I I think what you have here right now is in concept a beautiful idea which would bring a massive relief to individuals for example who are who are um retired who have owned their properties for 30 40 50 60 years and are living in these homes and maybe they paid them off 20 years ago and they continue to pay property taxes and and I agree with the governor. uh there has to be some relief for those individuals. But I think we also need to be very careful be very very careful because like for example the city of Coral Gables and I and when I was up u in Tallahassee advocating on behalf of the city I spoke to uh to our speaker Danny Paris uh I spoke to our senators. I spoke to the attorney general and I kind of gave him a little bit of of an example of the city court gave us does it right. We save money. We have $60 million in reserves 25% of our budget. I wrote that long. We have been paying out our pension debts. When I got elected 13 years ago, our pensions, which I don't, this is another example. I don't know why the unions hate me so much. Uh when I got elected, our pension system was funded to the tune of 51%. The second worst in the state of Florida. Now, because of belt tightening and pouring a lot of money into into the pensions, I pay last year $9.5 million additional that I have to 13 check to shore up the pensions.

Right now we're at right now right now we're at 80% and that's money that I could have spent on beautifification on infrastructure but I pay it to shore up the employees pensions. It wasn't my fault. When I walked in it was 51% funded. Now we're at 80% funded. So to me, it just doesn't really really make sense. But the reason why I made that up is because the reason why I bring that up, excuse me, is because if you do cut property taxes across the board for everyone who's homesteaded, you're going to hurt services. How am I going to make money?

100%. 100%. It could it could affect the city to the tune of $150 million a year.

People are saying, "Hey, it's homestead exemption."

Yeah. But no, no. For example, for us, it could be $150 million.

So the one we're going to it's going to be an issue for services.

What's going to be for the county? It's going to be an issue for services. It's going to be an issue number two that I'm not going to be able to give that additional $9.5 million in pension contributions to pay down our unfunded liabilities. But that's not even it. What about police and fire? You know, they consume most of my budget and rightfully so, public safety.

Yeah.

I mean, that's what sets our city apart from everybody else. When you look at per capita, we have more police officers per capita than any other city in Miami Day County. We've increased that under my watch as mayor. We've spent over $150 million in renovating our three fire stations and building another fire station now and building a $60 million public safety building. So my point is that if you're going to cut across the board, which I don't think they are going to, what I think is going to end up happening is they're going to define a group a group of individuals, whether it be retirees,

yeah,

uh over a certain age, who have owned their homes free and clear, who maybe have owned their homes or lived in their homes for 30 years. I'm not sure exactly what, you know, the recipe is going to be, but I think they're going to really drill it down and remove individuals, you know, young professionals and individuals like ourselves who can't afford to pay taxes, even though it's painful. It's very painful.

Uh, trust me, uh, very incredibly painful, but they're going to really leave it up to just a real small fraction of individuals in our community who I think deserve it immensely. Uh but I just I just don't see how we would be able to cut to meet the requirement if it's across the board. If it's across the board, we don't have it. We don't have the we don't have the funds. We don't have the services. We don't have the money to be able to do that.

Well, because you're saying that is going to come out of what? The tourism board or

I don't know yet. We don't know yet. So again, those are issues that haven't been defined. They haven't been defined and haven't been shared. But I'm willing to tell you my conversations with for example with Danny Perez, with Representative Rodondo, uh with Ilana Garcia, Dami Busara Cabrera, uh you know, our leaders, u you know, our AG, our governor, they have been very very clear. They're not going to hurt this community. They don't want to hurt cities. You know, they want to find relief for those in our community that deserve it the most. For example, when you talk about people who are disabled, you talk about war veterans,

when you talk about who serve this country, of course they deserve it. you know, police officers, firefighters, you know, people who were in the military, they got there's going to be a subset of individuals that are going to rel that are going to receive this benefit.

Retirees,

and I'm 100% I'm 100% in favor of that.

I'm just waiting to see what the calculation is. And I think and I know I know because I trust that it's not going to be one of these drastic cuts across the board.

Well, I mean, I think that's that's that's up again when now. They just um

they're working on it. They're working on it right now. I think they're even extending session, right, to to That's a rumor. That's a rumor. Yeah, but I but they still are

discussing

working out the numbers. I know that I know I know I spoke to Senator Abila and he's working on that also. So,

correct.

Okay. Um thoughts

on Cuba, everything that's going on in Cuba? Just curious to know your thoughts. I mean, you're in the mix. Me and Manny talk about it a lot. I think a lot of us are very happy about it. I know you're you're you're Cuban. You have descendants from Cuba.

Um just wanted to get your general thoughts on that.

Listen, I'm ecstatic about it. Um I'm excited about it because I think about my grandparents. Uh my grandfather was a political prisoner in Cuba. He was a doctor. He was a congressman in Cuba. Uh my father came to this great country, Peter Pan, Pedro Pang.

Uh imagine imagine uh sending your kids off to a country that you don't know if you'll see them in a week, a month, or a year or 10 years. Who knows? Uh it was a long time before my father saw his parents. My grandfather came back to this came here to the United States. He had been here on vacation but came to the United States after after being led out in Cuba and um he became a physician here. He moved to Coral Gables. We have a lot to be grateful for. This country has done so much for us and as a first generation American, I can never repay that debt. Never never repay that debt. And I was talking about that yesterday in a podcast uh with a good friend of ours and we're bringing up La Liga and we're talking about Pedro Pang and we're talking about a line of issues that you know it's hard to really put into words what you see happening after 67 years of of of dictatorship and of the regime. Uh two days ago I went with my dad to FIU uh to honor through with a candle vigil uh the four pilots from Mar. I was there with my dad with my dad when we went in that march in a street uh to honor and to protest the the murder by Raul Castro of those four pilots of Emano Rec. I remember going with my dad when Gloria when uh when Selia Cruz passed away. I remember going to the funeral of Jorge Canosa with my dad. My dad has been involved in Cuban politics since he was young. One of the founding members of Abdala, currently a member of Eltorio and Kuid, which I'm involved with also. Uh Cuban politics runs in our blood. Uh we've been big supporters of Dr. Bet in Cuba, who's a a physician, a freedom fighter who served over a decade in prison uh for wanting a free Cuba, a democratic Cuba. So this is a moment not only for us but a moment for my grandparents, you know, that I think about every day, you know, people who did so much for this community, you know, and I get emotional thinking about it because I I miss them dearly,

you know, and for them not to see this, you kind of kind of

Yeah.

You know, it's it's it's a shame

trying to get to the finish line.

Trying to get to the finish line. So trying to get a finish line,

you know, and I and I think about like Marco Rubio and like But there you go.

And the work that he's doing, the work that he's doing. people who deserve to see this moment are the people who are no longer here.

Yeah,

it's true.

And it's amazing to think about that how what those people did for me. So like look at I mean you know you know my grandfather I mean you know he was a doctor in La Liga and that man raised all my friends at his house on Morca. He would pick us up at Yolanda Garner School and take us there when then Francis Suarez Dr. Jose Ferrer, which is now my dad's partner at Gastro Health, Alex De Armandandy, Rob Bonafonte, a bunch of you. We all grew up in that house to see what he's done, what he did for us, and then his inability to see a free Cuba. By the way, we never went back to Cuba. We've never had dialogue with Cuba. We never visited Cuba. We were staunch staunch advocates of a free and democratic Cuba. And and my grandfather taught us from a very young age, never bend, never bend on that. Never bend on your principles. Always stay strong. Even in the face of tyranny, even in the face of stronger voices than yours, always stick to your principles. And we do not believe, we do not agree with what's happening in that island. And we're not willing to compromise. We're not going to have dialogue with Cuba. We're not going to do business with Cuba. We're going to be firm advocates of people who were in prison in Cuba. Lama Blanco activists, Dr. said Ferrer, you know, a lot of people,

a lot of people, you know, that now that I think about. So, to me, uh, it's an emotional moment as a as a Cuban American born in the greatest country in the world

that has done so much for me.

Um, but it's an exciting time.

It's an exciting time because you look at Venezuela. I talked to I talked to the Venezuelans after 20 years in this community. I know so many Venezuelans, they call me, they're like,

it's a moment where they're excited. Why? Because for once for once that for the first time that I can remember we have a president whether you like him or not and I'm not talking about policy that is putting America first and is attacking issues in our hemisphere. What are those issues?

Our backyard.

Our backyard. Democracy. Democracy and China.

Look what they did in Panama. Look what's happening in in South and Central America right now with thousands and thousands of of Chinese boats that are literally ripping out of the ocean all the fish. Yep.

And you can see it online. It's all over. Thousands thousands of trwers destroying reefs,

gathering all the fish and taking it back to China.

We finally have a president and a secretary of state, Marco Rubio from our backyard who's putting us first and is pushing democracy. Who can be against democracy? Who can say that they don't want Chile, Venezuela, Argentina, Nicarawa, Kua, Venezuela, you know, those countries to be free, prosperous,

prosperous. El Salvador, look what's going on in El Look what's happening in El Salvador. We've talked about I mean, the crime is is at historic. THERE'S NO CRIME.

There's no crime. There's no crime.

There's no crime there.

There's no crime. But look what look how they're DOING FINANCIALLY.

Look at look at the rent. Look, I've been reading a lot about about what he's doing. Look what he's doing in regards to infrastructure. He gave a bunch of school boxes to kids for the first time ever, you know. So there there's there's there's a lot of great things happening. So I think some

we're working on podcast with him, by the way.

That would be amazing. We're trying to work there's a lot of things that are happening right now that, you know, we want to concentrate on the negative and we want to concentrate on the politics. But for the first time in a long time that I can remember, when you talk about geopolitics and you talk about our hemisphere, you know, we're putting this country first. And let me tell you, that's not a bad thing. I love that

because our ideals, our ideals, we're the beacon of hope in this hemisphere

100%. And and being Democrat or Republican, it's putting your country.

So when you talk about Cuba, when you talk about Cuba, you know, 67 years of going to rallies, 67 years of supporting, you know, activists in Cuba, you know, people who are in prison, you know, think about the idea of a free Cuba. Think about how beautiful that would be. Uh what a historic moment. Look what's happening in Venezuela. The sad part about it is that Cuba doesn't have what Venezuela has, which is which is liquid gold.

Uh Cuba has a rich a rich culture, a beautiful history, beautiful beaches, tobacco.

Yeah. But but I mean it's it's not it's not it's not a significant it's not a significant

moneyaker moneyaker tourism. But I will tell you this, you don't have other you know what they do have found out.

You know what they do have?

Yep.

They are the number one destabilizing force in this hemisphere. when when Maluda was uh picked up by the United States government, I think it was 21 or 23 of the individuals that were shot and killed uh by US special forces were Cuban agents. Yep.

So Cuba, one of their big exports besides being doctors that they is human capital, like you said, is doctors

and is intelligence

in an effort to continue to strangle foreign countries and governments by exporting communism. So this is a big blow. This is a big blow. uh to regimes, dictatorships, communism, and in my opinion, we want to see a proliferation of democracy across the board.

We want to do a day in Havana.

That'd be amazing.

We want to do a podcast right there in front of it. Malayong.

That'd be amazing. That'd be amazing.

Remembering everyone who can't be there.

We got the World Cup coming now in the summer. Yep. Okay. You have FIFA headquarters here in Coral Gables, right? Is there anything happening in Coral Gables for World Cup? Well, listen, I remember two years ago, two years ago, uh when when I received a phone call that FIFA wanted to interview me uh in regards to potentially moving their headquarters here and it was like hush hush. Nobody could talk about it. You know, they were trying to figure out what their next move was in preparation obviously for the World Cup in 2026.

So, I sat down with them and they told me, listen, it's between City of Miami and City of Coral Gables. Tell us why we should be in the city coral gables. And I pitched Coral Gables and it was an easy pitch. Apologize to the city of Miami, but at the end of the day,

pulled that one from from from your boy.

No, listen. My boy my boy is the man. My boy is the man and I'm proud. I'm proud to walk

to walk in his footsteps. Okay.

I explained to them what are the benefits of the city corables and every time that I talk to the guys from FIFA, they tell me this. We're super happy here.

You know, we're happy to be in the plaza. We're happy to be at 396 Alhhamra. you know, they've made a huge presence here. So, what you're going to see now in the next few months with the help of Manny, a day in Miami, the Plaza, FIFA, is we're going to be rolling out a lot of events to really celebrate the 2026 World Cup. A lot of things are hush hush,

hush hush. We can't talk about it, but this is going to be the epicenter to come out and have a good time. Alina Hudac is doing an amazing job, you know, really pushing pushing the FIFA agenda.

Yep. the the you know the the world's the world's game which is obviously soccer football

and I'm looking forward to the next few months and I'm excited because you're you're gonna have a lot of people here coming to the city I've never been here before

and they're going to get to experience Coral Gables they're going to get to experience what makes our city

the city not only in South Florida secret's going to be out

the lows well they told us there's like 250 rooms reserved for people just

it's non-stop and and all the hotels

from all around the world

everybody wants to be here so it's going to be a beautiful thing and it's all going to be about families. It's going to be about the beauty of the city and the beauty of the game.

Nothing.

Unless you want to go with your What else you want to go with?

I was just going to say future of Coral Gables, but you know.

Well,

I'm kind of I mean, honestly, I I I know you're probably not going to answer this, but

hit me.

You give me vibes like you're going to go up to another level. You know, you're going to leave the mayor the city of

Coral Gables. No, but don't say we're going to leave. I mean, this is being recorded. No, it's okay. I'll say

no. No. Are there any talk about anything?

Are there any future aspirations like that?

No, but you could just you could you can you can just ask once you're once you're finished already in in in the city, is it is it is politics over or do we continue seeing, you know, is there any way to keep you? Can we get another two more years? Two more years. With all the accomplishments you've done during your tenure as mayor, okay, you are going to be potentially voted in again for another two years. Um, who do you see maybe being the next mayor of Coral Gables? I don't know if that's too far. And it feels like you have some additional political aspirations. Are you are you

or qual or or not even but qualified people that we know that there are qualified people out there.

Are you going to hit the next level?

Well, I want to I want to touch I'll touch on a few points. Okay.

Outside of being a father, the greatest honor in my life uh has been to serve this community.

And I say that with the utmost respect. When I got elected, I came out with a crazy idea. And I've said this before. I said, I'm going to do office hours every week on Friday starting at 2:00. We've done it for 13 plus years.

Yeah.

And it's been pure insanity. Uh from, you know, sometimes we get five people that come and we're out by 5:00, sometimes we get 50 people and we're out by 8:00 at night. But it has been what has truly galvanized my relationship with the residents. the blogs, the special interest groups, the fire union, they've thrown the kitchen sink at me. Everything. They've said everything about me and everything has been debunked. At the end of the day, at the end of the day, my relationship with the residents when you come in and see me on a Friday, which no one has ever done, and I address your permit issue or I address your pothole issue or I address your FPNL issue or we coordinate a meeting on site or I address whatever is whatever that may be. builds a relationship with a resident that is unbreakable because they're able to taste and build a relationship with me. Everyone in this community has my personal cell phone. I answer emails seven days a week. I answer phone calls seven days a week and I don't go to bed until I make sure that every single individual in our community has been answered and their concerns have been addressed in one form or another. So to me, I love my job. I love serving this community and I work hard every single day. Obviously, there's there's uh

downside.

There's no there's time limits. There's time limits. Uh we have, you know, and that's a good thing. That's a good thing in regards to being in public office,

you know. I served for eight years as a commissioner. God willing, I'll serve for eight years as mayor and then I'll walk away.

I'll walk away and and I'll hopefully leave the city in a better place financially, you know, historically, you know, open spaces. I'm about to right now.

I don't want to I don't want to mention this too. I I want to mention just as a teaser, I'm about to bring in I've been working on something for eight years. I'm about to bring in the largest piece of property in the city's history that's still in private hands, over six acres, and it's not going to cost the city a dollar. And that's going to be another trophy for our city. And it's going to protect another piece of beautiful green space.

That'll be an amenity for the res.

Little teaser. Little teaser. So, teaser.

So, we put a a mayor statue there.

No. Okay.

We put a I'll start the petition, bro.

They already They already say there is.

No more petitions. They already they already say I'm enough of an egoomaniac. So my point is that my point is that you know there's going to be a next person. You know we have an amazing vice mayor Rhonda Anderson. She served as my sustainability advisory

my sustainability advisory appointment. Then I moved her with her obviously I asked her and she said yes. She consented

to the planning and zoning board. She's an amazing attorney.

She has an amazing head on her shoulders. You know she'd be a great mayor. Or a person like Commissioner Lada who just joined us last year. He's done an amazing job. He's an amazing lawyer, also a family man, a person who has fought hard. He's been involved in a litany of different philanthropies, a lit of different philanthropies, and he'd be great.

And then we have a new crop of people coming in this year, which is hopefully, you know, we'll get the good people elected. But my goal is this. My goal is to

is to continue working on behalf of the community, continue serving, and I would like to continue hopefully serving in in another in another capacity. Um, but again, it all depends on my family. Yeah. And whether and whether and whether I'm allowed to. Um, I have a I have multiple different businesses that I run.

Um, you know, and I also have a lot of responsibilities. I have two young girls that are 14 and 11

and I don't get to spend that much time with them, you know, and that to me is important. I miss a lot of soccer games. Um, sometimes I'm not able to make it to certain things even though I try my hardest, but um, but I want to spend time with them and I want to enjoy them because, you know, I don't have

But you'd be surprised sometimes. You'll be surprised sometimes that some of these kids

um they're proud

and they and they enjoy the fact that they can say that's my dad. So at the end of the day, all I can say is once you know you've been bitten by the bug of politics, it's very very very hard. Trust me, 30 some years when you get bitten by that bug, it's very hard to I'm totally out. I'm totally out. But I'll tell you, if I may, I'll tell you, you know, I I understand that and I agree that you know there

you got to know when it's your time. Yeah, I agree.

And let me tell you, um,

well, you're the only one that can make that decision.

I'm I'm a little bit different than most elected officials. And I I I say this with all respect. Um, I'm really in the private sector. You know, I'm really involved in multiple different businesses that I work that I run. Um, and it takes a lot of time. It takes a lot of time. And if you're going to be an elected official and you're not going to show up to work, then you shouldn't be in public office.

You shouldn't be in public office. This is about service. This is about leaving a legacy.

And I'll give you an example. I'm so confident in what I've done here in the city. So confident that I built a website so that I can tell you about my legacy. And it's very simple. I spent a lot of money on it. And to me, I think it's important to put everything that you've done. It has all my legislation. It has my major accomplishments, you know, both legislatively, both infrastructure, you know, parks, art, you know, decisions that we've made. For example, the underlying FPNL that for years are going to transform these communities. You can look at it at votevinclago.com. And by the way, it also has a section that debunks false statements and addresses statements that people have made that again are lies or are used to tear me down. So, I look forward to it. I I would love one day maybe to serve at a higher level uh maybe at the county or maybe at the federal level.

I think you'd be great.

So, what what what about and you just said that and that reminds me back in

But there are limitations by the way. There are limitations. If you if you serve at the county, you can't have outside employment as the mayor. And then if you serve at the federal level, for example, you can't have outside employment. So you can't run companies, you can't be engaged in certain things. So it it it limits it limits. But that's what I was going to say because

people would that make sense then for people to say when we're talking about salaries, would it make sense of saying, you know what,

come up with the fact of everybody having a salary and this is your full-time job. Yeah. and then saying, you know, you have to work in the city, you have to work in the county because I know that for example in the county, I mean, our commissioners have jobs as well.

They have to you know the salaries. That's what I'm saying. So then now there's not even a salary.

But now in the city I don't even know if benefits when I was there I think it was like I mean I'm talking about years ago when Maurice was there I think it was like $18,000 $19,000 a year and it was just really just insurance that they would you know give you insurance. So, and then sometimes people will call and go, "Oh, but where's my commissioner?" I was, "Ma'am, I'm sorry, but the commissioner is working. He has his job." So, then a lot of people would say, "Well, but I I need to talk to him." So, then there's a, you know, there's a point there of saying, "Should we maybe then just say, "Hey, you should get a salary full-time job in the county, in the cities." I mean, believe it or not, I mean, like like you know, you're like Congress and Senates. I mean, you can't have other job. That's that's that's your job. A congressman, a senator. You have to put your interest in a trust and somebody else has to manage it for you.

What Trump did.

Yeah. Well, a lot of senators in Congress do that. Like for example, but state our state reps, our state senators, I mean that's that's their job.

But they make 30,000. No, they can have outside employment.

They can have they make their their salaries are around $30,000

which is really you take taxes away from that.

Yeah. It's horrible.

And you look at what you're doing. You cannot live off that. But but the problem is that for example, you've seen a lot of these individuals that have run for public office and then you know when they've put when they've put on a referendum ballot for residents of Miami Day County to consider raising the salary, let's say it's a 10% a 15%. They've said no.

It fails.

They said no.

Y

and I think that that also is not right.

Yeah. You know, you shouldn't be an elected official like what Melissa Castro and Ariel Fernandez and Kirk Menendez did and raise your salary by 101%. That's disgusting. That's gross. And that's corruption. Okay, they want now they obviously they want to get as far away from that as possible.

You know, just like Melissa Castro trying to push live local here in the city four to one. Even Ariel Fernandez had to vote against her on that issue because

I don't want to sound stupid, but what is Live Local, bro? I hear Live Loco comes from the state of Florida. It's a it's a zoning it's a zoning designation which again increases it sounds nice

it increases it increases the height the density the intensity of buildings and we want to be in control here in the city of Coral Gables we don't want to have live local designations here in the city and Melissa Castro was trying to push that

so that would take power away from you

yeah that would take power away from us 110%

and the resable so my point is my point is going back to the issue is that is that you know there has to be we have to find we have to find common ground on this issue of compensation and for example me personally I would run for for district 7, which is the seat the seat that uh that I'm honored to to vote in um or the county mayor, and I do it for a dollar. I don't have an issue at the end of the day because I enjoy the idea of service. I enjoy the idea of meeting with the residents and doing office hours and profering legislation. If you go to my website, which has been open for I think three or four years now, vote Vince Lago, I'm constantly updating it with my memos, with all my legislation, with new accomplishments, you know, and I and I talk a little bit about with new articles that are written that talk about accomplishments, our office accomplishments and things that we're doing here in the city. That's a sense of pride for me. Yeah.

That going to that's going to be there after I'm gone being an elected official. And it even has the things I've been criticized about, which is okay. and I give an explanation, a very clear and distinctive thing. I'm not afraid of dealing with things head-on. What I don't like is when you're when people hide behind blogs or they hide behind entities that you don't know what they are and they don't want to put their name on and they want to hit you because you're not going to vote in favor of what they want.

So, the only thing I think if uh you run and you win or you happen to be county mayor, I don't think you'll be able to do the open door Fridays anymore.

I'm sorry, Mr. Mayor. You're going to have a line out there a couple blocks. You know, you're

listen, I'm not saying I'm running for county mayor. I'm not saying I'm running for district 7.

No, but it would be nice giving you an explan.

I would love for you to become You know what? You know what I would love what I would love? What I would love to see is more people run

Yeah.

more competent,

qualified

qualified private sector individuals. People who have have had significant accomplishments in the private sector who understand how to run a budget, who understand how to run a who understand how to read a P&L, who understand how to read a P&L, and don't don't allow for the status quo to continue. Yeah.

When you see things when you see things in front of you, when you see things in front of, they're meant to be addressed.

Yeah.

In a pragmatic way that brings relief to the community. You cannot tax your way out of a problem. You have to grow your way out of a problem. It's very simple.

Look what's happening in New York, man.

Look what's happening in New York. Look what's happening in LA. Look what's happening in these in these cities where again, why are we seeing so much growth here in the state?

New York. We have lower taxes. New York, all all the new ideas, they're going down.

So, last question. Go for it.

You go for it.

But I've asked a lot of questions already.

But that's your question. I've asked a lot of questions.

All right. Go.

I I you know, there's not a competition who say question.

No, no, no. I just I just, you know, for distribution purposes, you know, distribution purposes. Okay. I have questions with him Monday through Friday. No, no, it's fine. And Okay, Mr. Mayor, you got to give us Here we go. Here we go. Your top three restaurants. Okay. I know if some you can say the ones that you're going to right now or recently. Um, so what? Starting from number three.

So the last time I was here, I remember I said sukre.

Yep.

Yep. Great.

Bashure. The best some of the best breakfast in town. Like I said before, I also said old faithful.

Yep.

And I think I mentioned Fiola, right?

You did mention Fiola, which is no longer there.

That's how long last you were here.

Starting with number three. Starting with number three. I had breakfast here this morning. One of the great places here. Healthy breakfast. Delicious. Always a good opportunity to meet with uh clients and friends. Americana Kitchen.

Amazing.

At the low.

At the low.

The place is delicious. And by the way, at night the bar you can stop by there for a coffee.

Never been there.

But after dinner drink, it's amazing. I see you there. I see you there. I see you there too much.

We have some open tabs over there.

Too much. See you there too much.

Shout out to Nadine over there.

She's the man and Antonio.

Always always. Number two.

Number two. I'm going to have to go with Daniels.

Oo. Okay.

Well, I'm surprised that you're number one now then, cuz

the new the new iteration the new iteration of Fiola is hitting it out of the charts, out of the park. Uh the food is amazing. You know, it's a it's a everybody's there. The bar scene is great.

I gave him a double S.

The steaks are delicious

and the service is the best service in South Florida. Listen, I was there on Monday, which I actually happened to see some I saw two tables, two tables down with clients and it was we saw the weekend there.

Yeah,

I saw the weekend coming

packed.

Professional professional athletes,

you know, stars uh packed on a Monday.

Packed on a Monday.

They did over 300 covers.

No, no seats, man. No every table. That was crazy.

No seats. No seats.

And I'm surprised with this one. Number one,

number one, I got to go back to the plaza. Ma, the food is delicious. It's got a great vibe. Uh the food is healthy, also good quality and the ambiance. And the ambiance is amazing. So, let me tell you, the plaza has hit it out of the park with a level of quality and the expectations have been met. I'm telling you that. So, we have a lot of we have a lot of great restaurants that are coming here in the Gables. Just so you get an idea, uh Buchanan is forthcoming. It'll be opening in the next few months coming from Palm Beach.

So, there's some serious heavy hitters that are in the plans right And by the way, the service also ama I got to say all those phenomena amazing amazing love is the best.

One of the things the drinks are I'll tell you this when you when you talk about the restaurant quality here it really brings me a lot of satisfaction to see how things have elevated here in the city of Coral Gables because we always had a lot of we had 150 multinational corporations. We're doing great things on multiple different fronts, culture, history,

but we were, you know, we had good restaurants, but now we're having international restaurants.

You know, we have serious chefs, internationally acclaimed,

Michelin star chefs. We have our first Michelin star here in the city of Coral Gables and I'm telling you, I think we're going to get even another one.

So, uh, we're taking it to the next level and with this success, it's elevating all aspects of the city. Beautiful. I was told, maybe you have more information on this, that the George Merrick house, little thing in the center of the plaza, was also potentially going to be a restaurant. Is that true?

Yeah. I mean, that's a beautiful historic building.

I think they're still working on this.

It's a beautiful historic. They're working on it. And I think it they're going to they're going to curate something that's uh pretty spectacular. And if you notice now, all of the plaza is basically full. Y

uh the final you have a few buildouts that are forthcoming that are almost done probably in the next month. Motai is amazing. You also have the Italian.

Still haven't gone there to do a video. I'm going to go pass by doing

the Italian the Italians that are coming

from Zuka. You got you got Sukali which is from Suka Leong

that's going to be open

and I don't know what the hell Apple's doing but they have this little thing there that they call it a

incubator. Yes,

but I don't know what's going to be in there. They've been building fast.

That's just that's private or

Yeah. So that's that when we when we when I presented in front of Apple uh to see if we could encourage them to come here, same as we did with FIFA,

uh that was a negotiation where that would remain top secret.

Uh we wanted them to be here in the city,

but they wanted to bring some of their newest technology and make sure they could protect their technology. So that's an incubator where here in the city, beautiful. You got one of the top technology firms in the world,

uh working on something that you may see five or 10 years in the future. So that's something that I'm very proud of proud of proud of that's happening in our backyard. How you brought that up? I didn't even notice it.

Listen, of course I noticed that because everyone was asking me, "Is that an Apple store?"

And I'm like, "No, not at an Apple store.

It's not an Apple store. It's an incubator. Doing I thought it was like for local talent, you know, hence the name incubator." But that's amazing that it can't talk about anymore because now you're going to have to

You're going to be incub You're going to be incubated for real.

That's it. We got in trouble this podcast. A little bit more.

You're going to be incubator for a year. Mayor, thank you so much, brother. Thank you so much for passing by and giving us an update again on a day in Miami.

Thank you. God bless.