Court rules Miami was wrong to change election date. What about Coral Gables?
Could a court ruling on the city of Miami’s upcoming election affect Coral Gables?
That’s what Coral Gables Commissioner Melissa Castro wants to know.
The commissioner on Thursday sent a memo to the city clerk, the city manager and other commissioners, requesting to hold a special commission meeting to discuss the city’s recent election-date changes. The Coral Gables City Commission recently voted 3-2 to hold elections in even years and move up the next election from April 2027 to November 2026, which will shorten terms of existing members by over four months.
Mayor Vince Lago, Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson and Commissioner Richard Lara voted for the change. Castro and Commissioner Ariel Fernandez voted against it.
In her memo, Castro raised concerns over whether the city could face legal trouble if it doesn’t roll back its election-date change or ask voters to weigh in following recent court rulings that declared the city of Miami’s decision to change election dates without voter approval as unconstitutional. Miami’s election postponement would give current city commissioners and the mayor — who is termed out at the end of the year — an extra year in office.
But about an hour after sending the email, Castro said she was notified that her request to hold a special meeting — a request needing majority approval from the City Commission — was denied “by the majority.”
“Their refusal to call a meeting is not just a dereliction of duty, it’s an assault on the rule of law,” Castro said in a statement to the Miami Herald. “They are gambling with our democracy to protect their own political maneuvering.”
City Clerk Billy Urquia on Friday told the Miami Herald in an email that commissioners indicated they were declining Castro’s request for a special meeting because a similar discussion was already set to take place in the Aug. 26 City Commission meeting.
Urquia said Mayor Lago on July 21 asked for a “resolution calling for a Special Election to be placed on the agenda” of the Aug. 26 meeting.
Commissioners “indicated that, since a similar item was already scheduled for August 26, they preferred to wait until that meeting rather than convene a Special Meeting,” Urquia wrote in the email.
Castro, who has staunchly opposed moving Coral Gables elections from April to November without voter input, said she has retained election lawyer and former state Rep. Juan-Carlos “J.C.” Planas. He represented a group of North Miami voters in a lawsuit that challenged the city of North Miami’s 2023 election change. A Miami-Dade Circuit Court judge sided with the North Miami City Council members, saying their vote on moving the election date was allowed under Florida law.
Castro said she has also drafted legislation to move Coral Gables elections back to their original April schedule; a ballot question to ask voters when city elections should be held; and a resolution to rescind the commission’s “prior decision to support or join lawsuits against the State of Florida on this issue.” Castro said she plans to introduce the measures at the Aug. 26 meeting.
“This is about the law. This is about democracy. And I will keep fighting for compliance, for accountability, and for the people of Coral Gables,” Castro said.
The escalation comes after Castro asked Coral Gables City Attorney Cristina Suárez for a formal legal opinion. Suárez, in a June opinion, reiterated that the City Commission’s decision to change the election date is “legally sufficient in accordance with applicable law.”
Castro also asked Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, who disagreed with the city of Miami’s method of election-date change, for a formal legal opinion. She was later “censured,” or publicly reprimanded, in a city meeting by Mayor Lago, Vice Mayor Anderson and Commissioner Lara, who said they were blindsided by her decision to contact Uthmeier without discussing it with other commissioners. Commissioner Fernandez was absent from the censure vote.
The city is currently set to ask voters in the next election — which is currently scheduled for Nov. 3, 2026 — to decide whether the City Commission should be prohibited from moving future election dates without voter approval.
This story was originally published July 31, 2025 at 8:30 PM.
