Near the end of the August 25 City Commission meeting, Mayor Vince Lago proposed naming a future public park after outgoing City Manager Peter Iglesias — and won approval minutes later.
The park does not yet exist. The proposal was not on the published agenda. Lago introduced it from the dais as a “pocket item.”
The commission approved the naming 3-1, with Commissioner Melissa Castro dissenting and Commissioner Ariel Fernandez absent. Earlier in the same meeting, commissioners had voted by the same margin to appoint Deputy City Manager Joe Gómez as Iglesias’ successor.
Lago introduces the proposal as a “pocket item” at end of meeting
Lago brought up the park roughly nine and a half hours after the meeting convened at 9 a.m., following several breaks during the day.
“I have another item that I want to talk about, another pocket item that I didn’t want to bring up when we talked about the manager or the DCM,” Lago said, referring to the earlier discussion of Gómez’s appointment.
The mayor proposed naming the public park planned as part of the redevelopment of the Publix supermarket at 2551 Le Jeune Road for Iglesias. Under conditions attached to the project’s 2024 site-plan approval, Publix is required to deed roughly 20,000 square feet of the property to the city for a park. Construction on the redevelopment has not begun.
Lago told Iglesias that his years of service warranted the honor.
“I think it’s appropriate and much well-deserved if this commission would honor you by naming a park after your service here in the city of Coral Gables,” Lago said.
He then alluded to the sometimes contentious history between the two men.
“Remember, I’m the one that pushed you out, but I’m naming a park after you because I want to make sure that every time I drive by, I see your name,” Lago said.
Iglesias thanked Lago and the commission.
“It’s been a privilege working with you,” he said. “It’s really not necessary, but — at the end of the day — more than well deserved.”
He ended his remarks with another comment to those in the room: “Don’t believe what you read on the blogs.”
Iglesias’ tenure has spanned one of the most turbulent periods in recent City Hall history. First appointed city manager in 2018 after joining Coral Gables as assistant city manager two years earlier, he was fired by a previous commission majority in February 2024 and reinstated in May 2025. The city went through two other managers between his dismissal and return.
Castro objects to the process
Castro told Iglesias she viewed Lago’s proposal as “a beautiful gesture from the mayor to you,” but voted against it because of the process and timing.
“I believe that most of these parks are named after people who have been deceased, and you have a long way to go still,” she said.
The city’s park-naming policy generally provides for honorees who have been deceased for at least 18 months or, if living, are at least 70 years old. Iglesias is 71.
The policy also ordinarily sends proposed names through the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board before they reach the commission. The board did not review the Iglesias proposal before Tuesday’s vote, and the proposal did not appear on the published agenda.
The commission, however, may waive those procedures and has done so before.
In 2021, commissioners approved a resolution waiving the naming policy for James H. Smith Park in the Kings Bay neighborhood. Other recent park namings followed the usual advisory-board process. In 2024, proposals honoring former Mayor Dorothy Thomson and the family of Dr. James and Sallye Jude went before the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board, which unanimously recommended both before the commission acted.
Supporters point to earlier park namings
Commissioner Richard Lara supported the Iglesias naming and pointed to other living honorees.
“We have voted to name parks in the city after those still with us — David Lawrence, Dorothy Thompson, Bill Kerdyk,” Lara said. “It’s not without precedent.”
Lago added the Kakouris family as another example.
Lawrence, a longtime Miami Herald publisher and children’s advocate, and Thomson, a former Coral Gables mayor, are living. The Kerdyk and Kakouris families have longstanding civic ties to Coral Gables. None of those examples involves a former city manager being honored while still serving in office.
Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson joined Lago and Lara in voting for the proposal.
The city has not finalized the park’s design or set an opening date. The property remains part of a larger Publix redevelopment that has yet to begin construction.
Tuesday’s vote came just months before Iglesias is scheduled to leave the manager’s office. Gómez, whose appointment commissioners approved earlier in the day, is scheduled to become city manager Jan. 8.
For Iglesias, the vote added another turn to a tenure that has included appointment, dismissal, reinstatement and now the prospect of his name on a city park — approved while he is still city manager and before the park itself has been built.
