Mayor Vince Lago and City Manager Peter Iglesias defended the city’s handling of Somerset Gables Academy’s proposed use of the War Memorial Youth Center during the Sept. 29 City Commission meeting, emphasizing that no final agreement was reached and the school never used the property.
But one answer from Iglesias conflicts with language in a 2023 email previously reported by the Gazette.
When Lago asked Tuesday whether Somerset had ever received approval to use the Youth Center, Iglesias answered: “No, they did not, mayor.”
In July 2023, however, Community Recreation Director Fred Couceyro wrote to Iglesias and other city officials: “We gave them approval to use the field for PE class. However, they wanted much more use than that. They wanted after school for sports teams, etc.” Pasted text
The available correspondence does not establish what Couceyro meant by “approval,” whether any formal authorization had been issued or whether Somerset ever acted on it. The city has maintained that no contract, lease or operational agreement was executed, that Somerset was never granted access to the property and that the school never used the field. Pasted text
Resident Tom Wells raised the issue during public comment, telling commissioners that emails showed city officials had worked with Somerset on a possible arrangement despite restrictions governing the Youth Center property.
Lago argued that the emails showed discussions, not an approved agreement.
He said Coral Gables operates under a strong-manager form of government and that when residents contact him about something requiring city action, he forwards the matter to the city manager for consideration.
Iglesias confirmed that residents connected to Somerset had approached the city.
“Mayor, they reached out to us,” Iglesias said. “There were residents that had students there and they reached out to us.”
Emails show talks moved beyond an initial request
The Gazette reported last week that the 2023 correspondence went considerably beyond an initial inquiry.
Following a July meeting between Lago and a Somerset parent, the parent thanked the mayor for his “support and assistance” with the school’s request. Lago then contacted Iglesias about arranging an August meeting.
The emails show officials discussing physical-education use, after-school sports, a possible memorandum of understanding, rental rates and a facility permit. By Aug. 17, Couceyro told a Somerset parent that, after discussions with city officials, “a standard Facility Rental permit will work and going to Commission is not needed.” Pasted text
During this week’s meeting, Lago emphasized that the proposal “never even made it to commission discussion.”
That is consistent with the administrative path described in the emails, but the correspondence shows that avoiding a Commission vote was itself discussed. When Couceyro asked in August whether staff could proceed with a rental application permit, Deputy City Attorney Stephanie Throckmorton replied that they could move forward with the city manager’s approval. Pasted text
The Youth Center differs from an ordinary city facility because the property is subject to a reverter clause and other restrictions governing its use.
Lago pointed during the meeting to schools using other city parks, including Phillips Park and Kerdyk Park. Iglesias said such arrangements had been occurring “for decades.”
“It is not the first time,” Lago said. “It’s been happening for decades.”
But Somerset Gables Academy is also subject to restrictions arising from its own 2012 expansion. A recorded declaration says the school “shall not file any request” to use the War Memorial Youth Center for physical education or scholastic activities and prohibits organized charter-school activities in the Youth Center’s parking lots and open areas. The city’s 2007 Youth Center resolution separately lists the athletic field as unavailable for rent, while also giving city officials some discretion over nonprofit use and usage policies. Pasted text
Lago and Iglesias did not address those distinctions when comparing Somerset’s request with school use of other city parks.
Public-records lawsuit goes unmentioned
Neither Lago nor Iglesias addressed a separate development tied directly to the emails: a public-records lawsuit filed by the Coral Gables War Memorial Youth Center Association against the city.
The Association made three public-records requests in January seeking records concerning its relationship with the city, Somerset and the Youth Center. The Somerset-specific request, filed Jan. 26, sought records concerning any effort by Somerset or Academica to use, share, lease or otherwise access the property, along with communications involving the deed, reverter clause and restrictions that might affect the school’s plans. Pasted text
The Association alleges that the city failed to produce responsive records and that deficiencies in its search process prevented the Association from obtaining records it sought. It says it independently obtained emails that should have been responsive to its requests.
Those allegations have not been adjudicated.
The lawsuit was filed Sept. 18. Documents show the city was served Sept. 29, the same day Lago and Iglesias discussed the Somerset emails during the Commission meeting.
Neither mentioned the pending litigation or the Association’s allegations concerning the city’s handling of the records requests.
The city’s position remains that Somerset never received final authorization to use the Youth Center and never used the property. The emails establish, however, that officials discussed how such an arrangement could work, considered rental terms and a permit and, in Couceyro’s words, at one point had given approval for PE use.
What happened between those discussions in August 2023 and the city’s ultimate decision not to proceed remains unclear from the available correspondence.
Author: Coral Gables Gazette News Staff
Originally established in 1996 and relaunched as a digital publication in February 2025, the Coral Gables Gazette is an independent local news organization dedicated to factual, objective and accountable community journalism. Our newsroom reports on the people, policies, institutions and events shaping Coral Gables, Florida, providing residents with timely, informative coverage of the issues affecting their community. Our reporting includes City Hall, local government, municipal elections, public spending, real estate development, business, education, arts and culture, and neighborhood affairs throughout the City Beautiful. We follow City Commission decisions, examine public records and report on the businesses, organizations and individuals contributing to Coral Gables. We believe informed residents are essential to a healthy, engaged community. Stories published under the Coral Gables Gazette News Staff byline are prepared or compiled by the publication's editorial team. We strive for accuracy, fairness, transparency and clear distinctions between news reporting, opinion and advertising. Readers are encouraged to submit news tips, corrections, editorial inquiries and story suggestions through our Contact page and learn more about our standards through our Editorial Policy.
The emails in Exhibit J of the War Memorial Youth Center Association’s complaint were produced from discovery in a separate 2024 lawsuit by Biltmore Neighborhood Association against Somerset Academy. The appendix (DIN 41) to Biltmore’s Summary Judgment Motion shows Somerset requested usage of the Youth Center significantly more than middle school PE classes (Appendix pp 73-74). The Association’s lawsuit is about the City’s failure to comply with the Sunshine Law and not produce communications that clearly exist – they are part of Biltmore’s lawsuit. With the City trying to cover up its past bad acts that violate the Youth Center’s reverter clause based on a 1968 case, it is violating the Sunshine Law. If Mayor Lago wants to claim that we have a strong-city manager (and that Lago is not calling the shots), then City Manager Iglesias is behind this cover-up and should be held accountable. This is Coral Gables under Lago’s rule that breaks laws and the Florida Constitution, retaliates against residents exercising their right to free speech with lies to distract from his own improper conduct, gives special benefits to developers and a convicted money launderer while receiving payments to his political machine (and directly to Lago’s companies from Rishi Kapoor) and makes campaign promises to get elected which are broken once elected (civility, transparency, lower property taxes and independent search committee to select and negotiate the compensation package for a city manager). We have a motive of why Lago, Anderson and Lara are seeking to eliminate the Youth Center reverter clause – they are allowing the City to violate the reverter clause and potentially cause Coral Gables residents to lose the Youth Center. These are reasons to VOTE AGAINST Lago and anybody he supports who could become more of his pocket votes and VOTE AGAINST the referendum to give the mayor a 4-year reign which means that we can only change the Commission majority every 4 years (and not every 2 years like we can now).
I totally agree with everything Tom Wells has stated.
There is something afoot with the Youth Center, regardless of how much the mayor and city manager deny it. Reverter clauses are protective, and the insistence of Lago, Anderson and Lara with their fictitious need to remove it, speaks volumes.
They already removed the reverter clause on the property they are targeting for their intended dog park at 520 University, and now they are targeting the Youth Center.
Instead of protecting our city, they are ruining it.
Plenty of information here: https://biltmoreneighborhoodassociation.com/