$100K bribe for vote? Prosecutors to look into former Gables commissioner’s claims
Did someone try to bribe a Coral Gables commissioner to move elections from April to November?
Mayor Vince Lago has asked the Miami-Dade County State Attorney’s Office and the Florida Commission on Ethics to look into the allegations recently made by former Gables Commissioner Kirk Menendez.
Menendez last week said during a City Commission meeting that, while he was serving as a city commissioner in 2023, he turned down a coffee invitation after he was told the person might offer him a bribe of $100,000 to buy his vote on changing election dates.
“A member of the community reached out to me, wanting to have coffee with me the next day,” Menendez said. “I said, ‘Sure, why not. ... About five minutes later, another community member, a resident” contacted him and warned him that “they’re going to offer you $100,000 to move your vote, move the election from April to November.”
Lago, immediately upon hearing Menendez’s account, directed City Attorney Cristina Suárez to refer the situation to authorities for an independent review and criticized Menendez for not reporting the situation at the time.
“The allegations raised are serious, and it was inappropriate that they were not reported through the proper channels when they arose,” Lago said in a statement to the Miami Herald.
When asked why he didn’t report it at the time, Menendez on Thursday told the Herald: “When I heard the rumor of what could transpire, I canceled any and all meetings with those individuals. So the meeting never happened.”
Menendez said he did “his best” to avoid any situations that could try to influence his vote and said he would cooperate with any agency that wanted to learn more about what occurred two years ago.
What happens now?
Emails obtained by the Herald show that Coral Gables Police Chief Edward Hudak, after getting the OK from City Manager Peter Iglesias, forwarded a transcript of the meeting to the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office “for their investigation and assessment.”
The State Attorney’s Office confirmed to the Herald on Tuesday that its public corruption unit was contacted by the city of Coral Gables.
Lago also asked for the city to notify the Florida Commission on Ethics, which looks into notarized complaints related to potential violations of state ethics laws by public officials. The commission does not disclose if it has received or is investigating any complaints until later on in the process.
The commission does not impose penalties, though it does make disciplinary recommendations “when appropriate for violations of ethics and disclosure laws, since it does not impose penalties,” according to guidelines posted online.
Background
Menendez served a four-year term as a city commissioner starting in 2021 until earlier this year, when he lost the mayoral race to Lago, the incumbent. Menendez said the incident happened in 2023 while discussions were underway about whether the city should move elections from April in odd years to November in even years to align with state and national races. Menendez at the time voted, alongside Commissioner Melissa Castro and Commissioner Ariel Fernandez, against moving elections to November.
Menendez brought up the coffee invitation last week ahead of a vote by sitting commissioners on whether to appoint him to the city’s Planning and Zoning Board, one of the Gables’ most important boards. The commission voted 3-2 against his appointment, with Lago, Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson and Commissioner Richard Lara citing various concerns, including the ongoing scrutiny of the Coral Gables War Memorial Youth Center Association, where Menendez is president.
Menendez did not name the individuals that invited him to coffee but said they were “friends” of Lago, a notion that the mayor described at the meeting as another attempt to hurt his reputation. Menendez declined to provide the names of the individuals to the Herald because “the meeting never happened.”
Castro, who nominated Menendez to fill the seat, told the Herald in a statement that Menendez “did the right thing. He walked away.”
Ed Griffith, a spokesperson for the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office, told the Herald that “all allegations of an attempt to bribe an elected official must be taken seriously” and that prosecutors would be interested in speaking with Menendez as they begin gathering information.
This story was originally published September 19, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
