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Gables: Take Action After April Election!
The City of Coral Gables will have an election on April 8, that could quell some of the controversy circling the City Beautiful in recent years. That is, if the City Commission waits until after all the votes are counted to choose a new manager.
From Coral Gables comes news that City Manager Amos Rojas is stepping down as of Feb. 28, 2025 to continue his retirement and spend more time with his family. So, now what? Well, since you asked, the City should conduct a national search and find the best person for the job, but only after we know who is going to be sitting on the commission. That’s because there is one open commission seat and both the Mayor and Vice Mayor have challengers.
Rojas, a retired US Marshal, was brought on without a national search, a protocol that is typical of hiring for a professional, high profile public job. He was hired on a 3-2 vote, with the opposition coming from Mayor Vince Lago and Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson because the other commissioners bypassed the national search.
Although Rojas supporters said he was hired to root out corruption in the City, it didn’t materialize. There was lots of innuendo, but no payola at the end of the day.
Not only that, but Rojas claimed Mayor Lago assaulted him in a disagreement that got ugly. But a Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation concluded that the Mayor did not assault the manager. Did not think I would ever have those two thoughts in the same sentence in one of my columns, but here we are in the City Beautiful.
Whatever happens next Tuesday, the Commission should NOT appoint another manager other than an interim one. Any decision for a new hire needs to be made by the new commission that will take over in April. A national search needs to be announced and public participation should be a requirement when it comes to the hiring of the next city manager.
Now I’ve had some disagreements with Mayor Lago, which I’ve written about here. But he and I see eye-to-eye on a lot of things. This is one issue he was 100 percent right about from the start – conducting a national search for a new City Manager is key to Coral Gables’ future. Without it, expect more controversy and more chaos from City Hall.
Doesn’t happen often, but this is one of those times when great leadership is about not taking action.
