Butthurt Coral Gables Mayor Butthurtedly Denies Being Butthurt

Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago wanted to make it very clear that an article written about him would not bother him, following the publication of a recent New Times story.

So, to drive home that he is unfazed by the local news media, Lago took part in a 30-minute serious discussion about New Times, falsely claiming the paper is “pay-to-play” and trying to intimidate him. He even had a whole presentation prepared to show that the New Times‘ newspaper stands are not well-maintained, with a recent issue of New Times as a prop.

Before we dive into Tuesday’s shenanigans, let’s catch those who may not be familiar up to speed. On Monday, New Times published a story titled, “Coral Gables Mayor’s Outbursts Edited out of Commission Meeting Video.” The story discusses how the January 13 commission meeting uploaded to YouTube was seemingly edited, removing two instances of the mayor storming out of the meeting. A city spokesperson told New Times that the video was edited only to remove extended breaks, not its content. But two Coral Gables commissioners, Melissa Castro and Ariel Fernandez, did not buy it and wanted to know who ordered the edits. Unfortunately, the mayor did not respond to New Times‘ emailed requests for comment.

That brings us to the public comment portion of Tuesday’s commission meeting, when two Coral Gables residents brought up the story and their concerns regarding transparency. A screenshot of New Times‘ recent article appeared on the screen.

“Last commission meeting was the perfect example of what we do to cover what we don’t want the people to know,” Maria Cruz said. “At first, I didn’t believe it, but then I sat down and watched the video since I had been here and had taken notes. I realized that the way we’re going to cover this one was by editing the video, and of course, I’m sure that we are going to say that it was done because it didn’t look good for the city, but my question is, was it not good for the city, or was it not good for the mayor?”

Before Lago made his comments, he asked city clerk Billy Urquia to explain that it is standard for him to edit out the extended recesses from the commission meeting video.

“What was different about the commission meeting was that I requested cable TV to remove the live link from YouTube, not coralgables.com. Every single video on coralgables.com has been edited by me since 2011,” the city clerk said. “The YouTube link was replaced because the microphones remained active while the commission was on recess. That’s the only reason why the YouTube video and only the YouTube video was changed.”

It was now Lago’s time to shine. He shared what was missing from the recorded video: he walked out of the January 13 meeting and asked the city clerk, city attorney, and city manager to join him in his office. He said that he called the recess to restore order in the chambers.

“We will have respect,” he said. “You are not going to talk over the mayor. You are going to talk through the mayor, and we’re going to have order. Simple.”

Then, Lago arrived at what he truly wanted to discuss: New Times.

“Here we go,” he said as he readjusted his chair. “You know why the New Times published that article? Because it was fed to them by a member of this commission. I didn’t feed it to them.”

Vice Mayor Rhonda Aderson added, “No, I didn’t feed it to them.”

Lago asked, “Richard Lara, did you feed it to them?” To which Lara responded, “No.”

The mayor continued, “OK, so it was fed to them, and how do I know that? Because I know somebody who told me that is involved in the New Times, and let’s talk about that.”

Lago ranted that New Times is a pay-for-play paper. “They will smear anybody,” he claimed. “It doesn’t matter.”

Next was Lago’s theory as to why New Times “has a bone to pick” with him.

“Mr. clerk, will you run it, please?” Lago asked.

The clerk shared a slideshow of New Times‘ newspaper stands in the city to show they are poorly maintained and not ADA-compliant. He claimed the paper is trying to intimidate him because the company is upset with him for trying to hold it accountable. He asked the city attorney to share how this has been a priority of his.

“This is years of holding them accountable for standing up to the standards here in the city,” the mayor added.

Now, it was time for show and tell. Enter the piggy.

“This is the New Times that you have here. It is ten pages.” Lago said as he displayed the latest issue of New Times, featuring a cover story about a gubernatorial candidate’s proposed tax on OnlyFans models. The cover on the issue (which actually contains 20 pages and thank you for reading, Mayor Lago) featured a voluptuous piggy bank in a bra and underwear with a belly-button ring.

Then a quick pivot. Lago wanted to present some more photos that he had taken of the lowly news boxes.

“Look, this is some more, some more that I took personally, took photos of that I sent, and it takes months if not years to correct this,” he said. “If you want our city to look like this, then it’s okay, and we’ll leave it the way it is. But I am not going to be intimidated by the New Times or by an article saying that I stood up from the dais and left because one of my commissioners was talking about my family. I’m going to call a recess.”

He continued with the usual talking points: “This is the typical intimidation by a liberal blog, liberal media who is trying to destroy everything that has to do with who I am, my family, my business.”

Then it was back to Ms. Piggy. He picked up the paper, which he argued that no one reads. He made the point that he doesn’t read the articles either.

“Nobody cares,” Lago added. “So I will not stop making sure that they are in compliance with the city, that they are following the rules, and that we’re doing things the right way because we have standards here in the city of Coral Gables.”

The city apparently enforces standards for sparkly-clean publisher boxes in “The City Beautiful,” but not for pesky government transparency.

Ultimately, the city wants New Times to fix its boxes in the city, Lago said, and he would not bend or be intimidated.

“At the end of the day, they don’t care about our standards,” he said. “They just care about selling ads, and as you can tell by the thickness of this paper. I mean, pretty sure you wouldn’t be able to use it for the canaries at the end of the day because it’s so thin. There’s nothing in here. Literally, it’s ads, notice of actions, and some classifieds in the back.

“There isn’t anything of real substance here to really read unless you pay for a hit piece to be written against an elected official, and then they publish it. So at the end of the day, I am not afraid. I’m not. Trust me. I’ve dealt with it all. I’ve dealt with everybody, and I will keep pushing forward to put this city first, and I know that I am going to get more New Times articles published against me, but it’s okay. It’s fine.”

Lago’s office had not returned New Times‘ requests for comment via phone or email by the time of this reporting.