Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago was invited to serve as a Senior Leadership Fellow and teach a noncredit course at his alma mater, Florida International University, as part of the Senior Leadership Fellows program at the Adam Smith Center this fall.
The program brings students together with experienced leaders for small-group discussions on leadership, economic development, global affairs and the realities of making decisions under pressure. According to an FIU announcement, the fall 2026 cohort includes five fellows, among them a former British prime minister and Lago, who is sharing lessons from his experience leading Coral Gables.
“I am honored to join Florida International University’s Adam Smith Center as a Senior Leadership Fellow and share the practical lessons that come with leading a city,” Lago said in the announcement. He said he hoped to help students approach public service with sound principles and an understanding of its real-world challenges.
Students show up to see Lago in action
At the Oct. 13 City Commission meeting, two students surprised Lago by showing up to observe him at work. One was an economics student taking his class, while the other was his cousin who attends the University of Miami.
Lago said he had invited his entire class to attend a commission meeting but was surprised that the two followed through. They arrived dressed in suits, following his instruction that students wear a suit and tie to class because “first impressions are most important.”
Lago said the roughly 30 students in his class were examining city finances, pensions, negotiations, bond ratings and corruption. Each session includes a case study connecting classroom discussions to current issues in Coral Gables.
When his student asked how corruption in government is identified and what evidence is needed to establish it, Lago pointed to the proposed inspector general’s office as a tool for examining potential wrongdoing, saying issues could be raised by residents, businesses or commissioners and referred for investigation.
The exchange echoed tensions earlier in the meeting, when Commissioner Melissa Castro raised the ongoing investigation into alleged false statements about residency connected to the recently approved Crystal Residences project.
Castro presented an anonymous letter urging a review of people accused of making false residency statements against a list of visitors to the mayor’s office over the previous 90 days, prompting the police chief to caution that it could become evidence in the active investigation. Lago questioned why Castro sought to publicize the letter rather than turn it over to investigators, calling it a potential “political stunt” and later referring to the commission’s ongoing disputes as “ridiculousness.”
Lago used the classroom discussion to revisit the commission’s earlier decision to raise its salaries by 101%, arguing that he viewed commissioners who supported the increases while opposing an inspector general as acting corruptly.
“I view salary increases of 101% as blatant corruption,” Lago said, adding that raises were eventually overturned.
He described the students’ visit as an opportunity to witness government firsthand. “You’re witnessing the way that the sausage is made,” he said. “Sometimes it’s pretty, sometimes it’s not.”
Not the first time the mayor had an audience at FIU
Although Lago emphasized that this was his first time teaching a university class, it was not his first appearance before FIU students.
Less than a year ago, he spoke to members of the FIU College Republicans, an appearance that later drew renewed attention because of a controversy involving a group WhatsApp chat containing racist, antisemitic and misogynistic comments.
One participant of the FIU group, Dariel Gonzalez, had been extensively involved in Coral Gables civic and political circles – including being photographed repeatedly with Lago, Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson and Commissioner Richard Lara – and volunteered at the city-operated Merrick House.
Lago’s Instagram account still features a photograph from the event showing him standing next to Gonzalez. The mayor’s visit preceded the emergence of the chat controversy, which eventually resulted in Gonzalez being removed from his position in the city.
Author: Coral Gables Gazette News Staff
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