Coral Gables commissioners face one of their busiest days of the year Tuesday, with two meetings and decisions spanning development, taxes and some of the city’s largest capital projects.
At the 9 a.m. regular meeting on Sept. 29, commissioners are scheduled to take final action on the University of Miami’s 30-year campus package, consider a request for an independent ethics review of Mayor Vince Lago’s participation in the UM matter, weigh a nearly $40 million construction contract for the restoration of City Hall and discuss an initial funding commitment for The Underline. At 5:01 p.m., they return for the second and final hearing on the city’s $323.3 million budget and property-tax rate, two days before the new fiscal year begins Oct. 1.
The University of Miami agreement returns for final approval
Six related items make up the University of Miami package, set for an 11 a.m. hearing. Together, they would replace the campus’s existing development cap with a floor-area ratio of 1.0, allow hospital use and additional retail in the campus Multi-Use Area, and expand that area to include the Central Energy Plant and extend southwest to Red Road and northeast to the Mahoney-Pearson parking garage. Three university-owned properties at 1530 Levante Ave. and 5827 and 5855 Ponce de Leon Blvd. also would be shifted from commercial to university land-use and zoning designations.
The package would amend and restate the development agreement the city and university first adopted in 2010 and approve revisions to UM’s Campus Master Plan. It would replace the current 6.8 million-square-foot development ceiling with FAR 1.0, which city staff has estimated could allow roughly 10.5 million square feet over the life of the agreement. It also would allow a hospital of up to 100 beds within the Multi-Use Area without a separate conditional-use review for the hospital use.
Among the benefits cited by the city is the proposed transfer of 5.52 acres known as the Lee Lincoln property for Centennial Park. The transfer is tied to approval of the broader agreement and related items rather than being an unconditional conveyance. The agreement also calls for an annual payment to the city beginning at $1.025 million and increasing 4 percent a year over 30 years.
Commissioners approved the five ordinances 4-0 on first reading Aug. 25, with Commissioner Ariel Fernandez absent. The sixth item, conditional approval of the revised Campus Master Plan, was held for the return hearing. The Planning and Zoning Board previously recommended the six-item package 6-1.
Castro seeks ethics review of Lago’s UM ties
Commissioner Melissa Castro has placed on Tuesday’s agenda a resolution directing the city attorney to seek an independent ethics review of whether Lago’s professional relationship with Hammer Commercial Construction and any current or recent Hammer relationship with UM create disclosure, participation, recusal or voting requirements for the mayor.
The proposed review would examine Lago’s participation in negotiations, communications, deliberations, direction to staff and votes involving the UM agreement. Castro’s resolution identifies the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust and, where legally appropriate, the Florida Commission on Ethics or another independent governmental authority as possible reviewing bodies.
The resolution says Hammer publicly identifies professional work involving UM and describes itself as an approved university contractor. It also cites a 2018 city attorney opinion that, according to the resolution, considered Lago’s previous employment with BDI Construction, which performed UM work, and advised recusal or non-participation under certain circumstances. Castro is asking whether that analysis applies to Lago’s current position with Hammer.
The resolution expressly states that a professional or business relationship by itself does not establish an ethics violation and that the measure makes no finding that Lago or anyone else violated the law.
At a Sept. 16 candidates forum, Castro asked Lago whether he was compensated directly or indirectly in connection with UM. Lago said he had worked on university projects for about 22 years and defended his construction career.
In a statement to the Gazette, Castro said: “You cannot wear two hats when negotiating a 30-year agreement on behalf of the public without answering who is paying you privately.”
She emphasized that she is asking for an outside determination rather than asking commissioners to decide whether Lago violated ethics rules.
“I am not asking my colleagues to find him guilty of anything,” Castro said. “I am asking the appropriate independent ethics authority to determine the facts,” including whether disclosure, recusal, abstention or non-participation is required.
Lago did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
As the agenda is currently ordered, the six UM items would be heard before Castro’s ethics-resolution item. In her Sept. 24 request to the city attorney, however, Castro specifically asked for guidance on the appropriate procedure before further consideration of the UM matters.
The request arrives five weeks before the Nov. 3 election. Castro is seeking reelection against Nestor Menendez, whom Lago publicly backed from the dais Sept. 15. Castro also faces a separate pending state ethics case in which the Florida Commission on Ethics found probable cause in January to believe her permit-expediting business created a prohibited conflicting contractual relationship after her election. The commission has emphasized that probable cause is not a finding that a violation occurred, and no final determination has been made.
The final budget and tax rate
At 5:01 p.m., commissioners will hold the second and final public hearing on the fiscal 2027 budget, with separate votes on the property-tax levy, the $323.3 million spending plan and the five-year Capital Improvement Program for fiscal years 2027 through 2031.
The proposed rate of 5.559 mills would remain unchanged for a 12th consecutive year. Because taxable property values have risen, however, the rate is 6.94 percent above the state-defined rolled-back rate of 5.1982 mills, the rate that would generate approximately the same property-tax revenue as last year excluding new construction.
The budget and tax rate both advanced 4-1 at the Sept. 15 first hearing, with Castro casting the lone dissent.
Before that vote, Castro proposed lowering the rate to 5.390 mills and offsetting the lost revenue by cutting roughly in half the city’s planned $8.65 million voluntary supplemental pension payment. Her proposal failed for lack of a second.
Tuesday’s hearing is the final scheduled opportunity to change the tax rate or budget before the new fiscal year begins Oct. 1.
A nearly $40 million City Hall contract, with some costs outside it
City staff is asking commissioners to authorize a construction-management-at-risk agreement with Thornton Construction Co., which has performed preconstruction work since January, for the restoration and renovation of historic City Hall.
Thornton’s Sept. 21 guaranteed-maximum-price proposal totals $39,977,989 and calls for a 24-month construction schedule covering the 23,008-square-foot City Hall and 1,006-square-foot annex. The agenda resolution uses the same amount as the not-to-exceed figure, although the draft construction agreement still contains placeholder language where the final Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMP) would be inserted.
The construction documents make clear the project is a restoration of the existing building. Bond documents approved earlier this month had referred to “replacing” City Hall, language the city has not explained. City Hall has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1974.
The largest individual construction line is approximately $6.19 million for historic masonry, stucco, coral rock and cast-stone repairs. The proposal also includes about $2.66 million in owner contingency, $2.55 million in contractor contingency and roughly $2.08 million in contractor overhead and profit.
But the $39.98 million does not cover every potential project cost.
Thornton lists approximately $3.02 million in exterior window and door material costs outside the GMP. The exterior openings are being handled through an owner-contracted vendor; Thornton’s proposal says the overall window and door scope remains “in flux” and that the final cost has not yet been determined. The GMP also excludes material escalation, certain testing and inspection services and other specified work.
One potentially significant add-on is exterior plaster. Thornton says that if a new three-coat plaster system on metal lath is required for the exterior walls, it would add approximately $1.04 million plus markups.
The project was estimated at about $31 million during the city’s June capital workshop, when City Manager Peter Iglesias said the city was still waiting for a guaranteed maximum price. Thornton’s itemized proposal puts the base construction cost, before general conditions, insurance, bonds and fees, at about $31.8 million; it is not clear whether the June estimate included those costs. Commissioners earlier this month authorized up to $40 million in bonds for City Hall.
Underline funding and other follow-ups
Commissioners also will discuss an initial funding commitment for operations and maintenance of The Underline’s Coral Gables section and give staff direction on a possible agreement with The Underline Conservancy.
The agenda does not state a proposed contribution. The Conservancy has been seeking approximately $4.49 million over five years, a request city officials have been negotiating while seeking financial information and safeguards over how Coral Gables’ contribution would be used.
Castro also has requested an update on the investigation into alleged false testimony during the Aug. 25 Crystal Residences hearing, when opponents presented videos and witness statements alleging that several project supporters had used false addresses while testifying under oath. The commission referred the allegations for investigation.
Staff is recommending that the city’s external-auditing contract go to CBIZ CPAs, the highest-ranked responsive and responsible proposer. At the Sept. 15 meeting, Lago questioned whether the city should also negotiate with the second-ranked firm, whose proposal was about $238,000 higher.
Also on the agenda
The consent agenda includes emergency procurements of $53,500 and $92,027 to install public sculptures at 427 Biltmore Way and Garage 6 at 60 Merrick Way, including Julio Larraz’s Mars, along with a $90,000 transfer from art-in-public-places funds previously assigned to the Miracle Mile streetscape project.
Commissioners also will consider on second reading an ordinance allowing restaurants with at least 120 seats to serve alcoholic beverages from bars and will hold a hearing on the Police Department’s annual red-light-camera report.
Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson has placed items on ground-floor businesses and the ramp at the Mobility Hub and on access to overflow parking at 430, 440 and 450 University Drive. Castro has an item on extended working hours at the Aurelian, while Lago is sponsoring a presentation on a lunar and space-based data-backup service.
The commission also is scheduled to adopt the formal resolutions calling the Nov. 3 election for mayor, two commission seats and four charter questions and authorizing coordination with Miami-Dade County Elections.
Both meetings will be held in the Community Meeting Room at Police and Fire Headquarters and broadcast on the city’s website and Comcast Channel 77. Residents also can participate by Zoom.
