![\"Residents](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/MIA_206EarlyVoting15NEWPPP.JPG\" "\\"For")
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
For the first time, Coral Gables residents will weigh in on city races in November.<\/p>\n
Pedro Portal<\/p>\n
pportal@miamiherald.com<\/p>\n
Coral Gables voters, for the first time ever, will cast their ballots in November for city races.<\/p>\n
The change comes after Gables voters earlier this year approved moving city elections from April in odd-numbered years to November of even years to coincide with state and federal races.<\/p>\n
Gables voters this year will weigh in on whether to reelect Mayor Vince Lago and Commissioner Melissa Castro. Lago is running for his fourth and final term as mayor. Castro is running for her second term as commissioner for the Group IV seat. Two candidates are competing for the seat of outgoing Commissioner Ariel Fernandez, and there are a variety of city-specific referendums on the ballot, too.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a look at the referendums:<\/p>\n
Coral Gables November election: What referendums are on the ballot?<\/p>\n
Voters will weigh in on four city-specific referendums.<\/p>\n
Referendum 1: \u201cShall Section 24 of the City Charter be amended to increase the threshold for public work projects requiring formal solicitation from $25,000 to $300,000, with that amount adjusted as specified in Section 255.20, Florida Statutes?\u201d<\/p>\n
Impact: Currently, the city charter requires contracts for public works projects or improvements valued over $25,000 to be awarded \u201cto the lowest and most responsive bidder,\u201d pending approval from the City Commission. A vote yes indicates support to increase that threshold to $300,000.<\/p>\n
These are typically infrastructure-related projects, such as sidewalk improvement and traffic-calming measures. A document from the city\u2019s Charter Review Committee notes that \u201cfew public works projects are estimated to cost under $25,000 in today\u2019s economic climate.\u201d<\/p>\n
A vote no means you do not support increasing the threshold and want to keep it at $25,000.<\/p>\n
Referendum 2: \u201cShall Section 3 of the City Charter be amended to require continuous residency in the City of Coral Gables for a minimum of one year immediately preceding the end of the qualifying period for candidates running for City Commissioner or City Mayor?\u201d<\/p>\n
Impact: This referendum, if approved, is expected to clarify the city\u2019s existing one-year residency requirement. If approved, candidates would need to live in the Gables for one year prior to the end of the qualifying period.<\/p>\n
Currently, a candidate must \u201chave resided in the City of Coral Gables for at least one year prior to the election for which he or she seeks office,\u201d according to the city\u2019s charter.<\/p>\n
The initial idea for the referendum came from the City Attorney\u2019s Office, which suggested amending the city charter to \u201creflect the City\u2019s longstanding interpretation of the residency requirement,\u201d due to recent legal disputes in neighboring municipalities related to interpretations of residency requirements, according to a document by the city\u2019s Charter Review Committee.<\/p>\n
Referendum 3: \u201cThe City Charter currently provides for a two-year term for the City\u2019s Mayor. Shall the City Charter be amended to increase the term of office for the Mayor to four years, consistent with the term of office for City Commissioners, beginning with the 2028 Coral Gables General Election with no change to the associated term limit?\u201d<\/p>\n
Impact: A vote yes supports extending the term of Gables mayor from two years to four years. The vice mayor and commissioners already serve four-year terms, though their terms are staggered.<\/p>\n
If approved, mayoral races would be held every four years, alongside the Group II and Group III commission seats, according to the city. The referendum would not extend the current term of Mayor Lago. It will also not extend the term of whoever is elected mayor in November. That\u2019s because the change, if approved by voters, would not take effect until the November 2028 election.<\/p>\n
A vote no supports maintaining the current mayoral election timeline. Currently, mayoral races are held every two years. That means the mayor is always up for reelection, along with two commissioners, every two years. This gives voters the ability to reelect or change the majority of the City Commission every two years.<\/p>\n
Lago, who asked for the referendum to be on the ballot, said he believes a four-year term would let the mayor focus more on \u201cserving the community\u201d instead of on reelection campaigns. Lago, if reelected in November, will be term-limited and unable to run again for mayor in 2028, when the potential term change could happen.<\/p>\n
Many cities in South Florida have four-year mayoral terms, including Miami, Doral, Hialeah and South Miami. Some, like the Gables, have two-year mayoral terms including Miami Beach, Wilton Manors and Miami Springs.<\/p>\n
This is not the first time Gables voters have weighed in on mayoral terms. Voters in 2005 gave the green light for four-year mayoral terms beginning in 2007 but then voted in 2009 to go back to two-year mayoral terms, according to the charter review committee.<\/p>\n
Keep in mind the Gables does not operate under a \u201cstrong mayor\u201d type of government like Miami-Dade County. Instead, the Gables mayor has the same voting powers as the rest of the commission, which acts like a board of directors for the city and directs the city manager, who is like the city\u2019s CEO, to take certain actions through majority votes. In the Gables, the city manager is the one in charge of day-to-day operations.<\/p>\n
Referendum 4: \u201cShall the City Charter be amended to require that the sale, exchange, conveyance, or lease of ten (10) years or longer of any city-owned property used as a park, recreational facility, golf course, or open park space as of November 3, 2026, or later acquired for such use, be approved by sixty percent (60%) of the city\u2019s voters in a citywide special election?\u201d<\/p>\n
Impact: A vote yes supports requiring city leaders to seek at least 60% voter approval in an election before the city can sell, exchange, convey or lease city-owned parks, recreational facilities, golf courses or \u201copen park space.\u201d<\/p>\n
A vote no supports the current status quo. Currently, the City Commission can sell, lease, exchange or convey any city-owned property, including parks, through a majority vote.<\/p>\n
Lago, who asked to place the referendum on the ballot, describes it as a measure that would provide additional protection for places such as the Granada Golf Course, Salvador Park, Centennial Park and the Coral Gables War Memorial Youth Center, which is in the middle of a legal dispute<\/a> between the city and a private association.<\/p>\n How can you vote?<\/p>\n Early voting starts Monday, Oct. 19. If you want to vote on Election Day, which is Tuesday, Nov. 3, polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 7 p.m. For people who like to vote-by-mail, that\u2019s also the deadline to return your ballot. Remember, the Elections Department must receive your vote-by-mail ballot by 7 p.m. on Election Day in order for it to count.<\/p>\n For a list of early voting sites<\/a>, visit the Miami-Dade County Supervisor of Elections website. To find your voting location for Election Day, review your voter registration card or your voter information online<\/a> on the Elections website.<\/p>\n Michelle Marchante<\/a><\/p>\n Miami Herald<\/p>\n Michelle Marchante covers the pulse of healthcare in South Florida and also the City of Coral Gables. Before that, she covered the COVID-19 pandemic, hurricanes, crime, education, entertainment and other topics in South Florida for the Herald as a breaking news reporter. She recently won first place in the health reporting category in the 2025 Sunshine State Awards for her coverage of Steward Health\u2019s bankruptcy. An investigative series about the abrupt closure of a Miami heart transplant program led Michelle and her colleagues to be recognized as finalists in two 2024 Florida Sunshine State Award categories. She also won second place in the 73rd annual Green Eyeshade Awards for her consumer-focused healthcare stories and was part of the team of reporters who won a 2022 Pulitzer Prize for the Miami Herald\u2019s breaking news coverage of the Surfside building collapse. Michelle graduated with honors from Florida International University and was a 2025 National Press Foundation Covering Workplace Mental Health fellow and a 2020-2021 Poynter-Koch Media & Journalism fellow.\u00a0
\n
\n <\/a><\/p>\n
\n Support my work with a digital subscription<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the first time, Coral Gables residents will weigh in on city races in November. Pedro Portal pportal@miamiherald.com…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":431238,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[225,227,226],"class_list":["post-431237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hialeah","tag-hialeah","tag-hialeah-headlines","tag-hialeah-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=431237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/431238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}