Will Coral Gables sue the group tied to its youth center? There’s a change of plans
After months of threatening legal action, Coral Gables commissioners this week decided to pause plans to take their ongoing Youth Center-related dispute to the courtroom. At least for now.
The 4-1 decision is like a bucket of cold water for the escalating tensions between commissioners and members of the Coral Gables War Memorial Youth Center Association, a civic organization that calls itself a watchdog for the city-funded youth center.
Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson returned to the dais with a different idea: Instead of taking the association to court, Coral Gables should halt any of the city’s pricey future renovation plans for the center, which could potentially require it to temporarily shutter, until the property’s deed is stripped of its reverter clause. In a deal made decades ago, the association had gifted the property to the city, and the clause allows for the return of the property to the association if the city is found to break its end of the deal.
Anderson said her proposal would not affect the maintenance required for the center’s normal operations.
Jane Muir, the lawyer representing the association, and the group’s secretary, told the Miami Herald in a text message Thursday that “the Association welcomes the Commission’s decision to pause considering litigation against our organization.” But she also said “the reverter clause is not up for debate.”
“The City has never explained why a clause that is broad, flexible, and entirely consistent with any legitimate youth-serving use of this property needs to be removed,” she wrote.
Anderson’s item found support in Commissioner Richard Lara, who had come ready to ask commissioners to pause the lawsuit plans for further negotiation, and Commissioner Melissa Castro, who was always against suing the association.
Mayor Vince Lago voted in favor of Anderson’s item too, though he reiterated his frustration with the association and indicated that he did not believe giving the group another extension would lead to significant change. Anderson, upon Lago’s request, put a new deadline of Dec. 1 for the group to figure out a plan with the city.
Commissioner Ariel Fernandez was the sole no vote, comparing Anderson’s plan to “extortion.”
“This conversation continues to happen as if the city of Coral Gables had oversight over this association, but it’s actually the other way around. ... We’re trying to use muscle power to try and get something that we don’t even have a right to request,” Fernandez said.
How we got here
The bad blood between city leaders and the group began last year and has to do with both the association’s operations and the clause in the decades-old deed that gave the property to the city. The reverter clause requires the city to never change the name of the War Memorial Youth Center and to continue using the property for youth recreational activities for children in Coral Gables. If it does not, ownership of the property will go back to the civic organization.
Lago has also raised concerns that the city is unable to access all of the organization’s financial filings, even though the Youth Center is on city-owned land and is funded by the city. The private not-for-profit says it has turned over what it is legally required to.
The organization has suggested that the scrutiny is politically motivated, a notion the mayor has denied. Former Gables commissioner Kirk Menendez, who lost to Lago in the 2025 mayoral election, used to be the group’s longtime president. He stepped down earlier this year.
Last month, it looked like the dispute hit a breaking point when Lago, Anderson and Lara once again expressed frustrations over the group’s continual delay to appear before the commission for questioning and indicated they were finally ready to make good on their months-old lawsuit threat if the group did not appear at the May 19 meeting.
The three gave City Attorney Cristina Suarez the green light to sue the group, if needed, months ago. Instead, the city has remained in ongoing talks with the 80-year-old association through mediation.
As for the association, it’s been a no-show at commission meetings because members were no longer willing to speak due to a previous meeting’s “tone” in which “Association board members were publicly compared to Bernie Madoff and Elizabeth Holmes,” Muir told the city in a May 18 letter. The letter also indicated it was ready to fight what it sees as a baseless witch hunt fueled by political motivations and a desire to develop the property, something the mayor and other commissioners have denied.
Gables to stall potential Youth Center suit
Lago, Anderson and Lara have previously described the reverter clause as an unnecessary “cloud on the title” that could cause problems for the city in the future. The association disagrees and argues that the clause protects the Youth Center. Lago has repeatedly said at meetings that the city does not want to get rid of the Youth Center.
“If the City’s plans for this property are consistent with the donors’ intent, the reverter poses no problem,” Muir wrote in her text to the Herald. “If they are not, then the reverter is working exactly as intended.”
The legal tussle, at least for now, is on hold.
“It’s an evolving situation,” Lara said. “We are exploring ways to get to the common goal.”
