International Affairs Coordinating Council - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to the International Affairs Coordinating Council meeting on September 28, 2026. Thank you for everyone who's joined us and those especially prepared with our technical difficulties. We have our agenda in hand. I believe that Our chair is online. Yes. Formally. However, we will be then hosting as a result, a informational meeting. You got it. But we will still want to cover the substantive areas of our agenda for purposes and ensuring that we continue to run effective committee. So we will call this meeting to order and the roll call. I think we can think as

yeah alright so let's just. wait until the next meeting to approve the nice so that we can get the formal skip that on the agenda. Next agenda item is the personal appearance brief overview of sister cities history and past international delegation was pencil to dance Lesnick former mayor of Sydney will not be here to attend or make his personal appearance.

So let's wait, obviously, for him to do this presentation when we have actual forum. But I think it's not a bad idea to have an open discussion around that idea or concept. Something that I'm thinking about is, wouldn't it be helpful or valuable to maybe have either certain members of the commission or the mayor or pop into some of our meetings on occasion. I'm sure it was easier when we were at the city hall, but I know a lot of them are very interested in this anyway. So maybe this can be something we can do, you know, whatever, six meetings. So we just pick six people and we try and put the

Yeah, it was their agenda. It was their priority.

Yeah, it would just be like we meet every other month six times a year. Can we find schedules?

Lesnick said that he was going to come, but canceled. We canceled him.

And we have a quorum presentation. Yes. I agree with that. I'm sorry, go ahead.

No, I think it's a great idea, but they were really, really, really active. Yes.

Yeah, I'm thinking we start in January, right?

Yeah, so that will be the last meeting. Exactly. That will be the kickoff, our idea for then January, March, blah, blah, blah.

All right. So can we add that? And then staff, can you guys see if you can reach out to the respective staff members to see what their schedules would look like?

Lupita D Montoya, What was that all the time before 27 we need to figure out what the dates are the meetings that we're going to be having.

Yeah, let's do that then. It doesn't matter. We have a lot of time between November.

Okay, so by next meeting, you guys will come up with a calendar for all of 27. And then at that meeting, Celestine will present. We will do a motion to ask that to go and coordinate with each other. And then we'll hopefully put in a motion starting 27. Yes. All right. I think that also includes the mayor too. So maybe at large could be, what does the mayor have a designate on this one?

Okay, so we have a, so maybe we should start in terms of, you know, priority or, you know, hierarchy with the mayor after Slesnick, but then also ensure the schedules are as effective as possible. So, you know, if Lago's not available in January, we'll go to the next one. Of course.

You know what would, I mean, do you have a good relationship? With Anderson, why don't you become, is that something that we can do? That way the at-large is open as opposed to... I don't know if that can be done. It needs to get a replacement. So my thought would be, because it's, you know, sometimes it gets challenging, the political date based on the appointee of the specific commissioner, whereas an at-large could be us. So if you can move into, you know, the vice mayor's role appointee, then we have an at large that then we can all decide a new person.

I mean, it's your call, but you know what I'm saying?

Yeah, exactly. No push. I mean, yeah, just recommend it because otherwise...

So just let it go, right? i don't know that i'd be the best one to roll the race on with that that's right that's true with the city okay well we'll just see what she comes up with nevermind um but she's already looking at applications and she's looking to put someone in there so hopefully we'll get an active person that can All right, so I think that covers a lot of ground on that, you know, personal appearance slash commissioner-mayor rotation idea for 2027.

Then... We've got to wait for the elections a little bit, you know.

Elisa's running against the world. And what is it? Ariel is no longer there. But there would be somebody else. It's retiring. Down to really three. Lara, Ronda, and if Lago gets elected, which I think he will.

I forgot his name. He's running against two.

That makes a lot. I mean, that's why it's 20, you know, waiting till next meeting. Will we know the election results by our next meeting or no?

I think to be on the safe side is Celestin. All the other guys are going to get re-elected, whatever, whatever. Put in the calendar.

Yeah, he's not running. That lady looks really good. She looks really good.

And then Melissa's running against Nesto Menegdes.

His father and mother were introduced in my house in Cuba. Cora, the mother of this nectod, was my best friend of my sister that passed away.

I think it's November 3rd that they vote, no?

County. It does? Oh, my God, this is an election name. For a gate? November 3rd. OK. Next. County reports. Any other questions or comments on personal appearance, ethnic and rotation?

The next one is update from Vice Chair Montehoga on Council General Marcelo Giraldi from Argentina. So I had a meeting with Council General Giraldi in his office. I mean, at this point, it's been over a month. They were very receptive to not only the sister cities, but also doing some form of event here at the actual Fink because he was incredibly impressed with the art event that was done. And he wants to do something just like that. He wants to bring some of the Argentinian restaurants and all of that. I did send staff an email, I think a couple of emails, to try and schedule a meeting becau

It would be nice if I invited you. But yeah, so I think, let's see, I sent an email on... I can help you with that. Don't worry. August 28th. September 11th. Right, which was the meeting that you were originally going to attend with me, but you weren't feeling well, so you couldn't make it.

So, anyway, you know, that was two months ago, no, I guess last month. So, can we set up a meeting in October? Yeah.

So let's see when he's available. The Consul General wants to meet here with us, with his staff, to get that organized for 27. Of course.

I mean, if it relates to the country, doesn't it make more sense to just talk about it now?

I think so. But let me just wrap up on another point, or at least tie that together. So Calidona. His thought was to make sure that we can San Isidro size it, you know, because there's a sister cities is really tied to San Isidro, not just Argentina as a whole. So we want to introduce San Isidro type elements. Now, what I did was send emails and I have been sending emails. I'm getting no responses. Feels like Ecuador 2024 all over again. Quito. And I think actually now when I looked at it the other day, I think it was a mistake because there's two Gonzalo's. So I'm like, Gonzalo, Gonzalo. And

So when I saw the one from. from here in Miami at the meeting he was like hey I'm sorry I haven't responded I go I didn't know I wrote to you apparently I did because he's a Gonzalo as well That doesn't get, you know, it doesn't ultimately respond to why the guy in San Isidro has not responded, but he's like, I'm going to be on top of it. I need to figure out this. All we were asking for, and as you saw in the email outlining, is like, let's do an IT exchange, smart city exchange with their smart city people and our, you know, and just have a Zoom and coordinate that to at least have an initia

Everything on our side has happened as far as like, getting them to identify the sister city related topics that we wanted to execute on. We have not received a response from them. Hence, we scheduled this meeting with the consul general to give us the support we needed to figure out if these people were actually going to respond. When I got to the meeting and met with them, they were like, yeah, yeah, yeah, we'll do the San Isidro thing, this Gonzalo, the other one, we'll help you, no se cosa, but let's talk and shift through this other thing I guess we're going to talk about now. Okay. But I

Excuse my ignorance, but I never heard of San Isidro in my life. It's an important city.

It's like a Coral Gables of... It's like if you ask somebody from Buenos Aires, they've never heard of Coral Gables.

It's where they play polo. I don't know.

They have a lot of rugby, actually, is the sport that they do.

I remember I went to a place that was beautiful. The outskirts of Buenos Aires, it's gorgeous.

It was established over 300 years ago, middle high class and support city has about 300,000 residents in countries. A lot bigger than this.

By the way, how big it's core gave us, I forgot. 51,000. 50,000. 51.

It's because we have... It comes in for the businesses and for the attractions for restaurants. Exactly.

Okay, so that's my country report. I think, although we have it later on in the agenda about this, Tina, I think maybe it makes sense for you to chime in on the specifics Project and program that you were updating to a committee.

And so before we get into events, I noticed or I saw Andorra emails coming and emails going that they are interested. And I mean, they're really active in telling us that they want to be a part of us. Have you heard of that?

We answer a letter. I saw it written. I mean, it was something.

That's why I wanted to make sure that, you know, I don't know who the guy is, but he was really... We don't know either who he is, but he's a Quark Gables resident. Okay. You know, as long as we write him to one of the four, tell him why he's not So it doesn't come back, oh, we gave you this information, and you guys don't want to say. We just stand on it, yeah. We don't want to say somewhere. OK.

The two events that I went, one was the Colombian was like spectacular. People were flowing all over. I mean, it was spectacular. I don't know if it was... And the one for Antigua Guatemala was perfect. So, I mean, Sevilla would be great.

There's 10,000 wine companies from Spain that want to donate their wine. Yes. If you tell them, listen, you know, we're promoting Spain, what's in it for us? You know, I don't know.

That's what Consul General mentioned also.

I think it's a great idea. I will look at the calendar. What is important festival for Spain? Whatever. That weekend, go to the people from Spain and say, listen, this is what we want.

And I think both. I don't know about Argentina. Spain, they're very easy to work with, I think. Guatemala, they love us. I mean, easy to work with. Argentina, I don't know. I don't know how they are.

We have a very active and interested local consul general and staff. We're not getting the reception we would want from the foreign, you know. Yeah, and there's a lot of definitely as it relates to doing something like that here. I mean, I think we could do it next month, but you know what I'm saying? I think we can prioritize it in terms of like the list of specific countries.

Colombia, they're party animals. I mean, that place is unbelievable. Party animals. That'd be great. I mean, the whole place was overflowing.

Member Soody Tronson, Right for the next was allowed for a written consent by resolution. Member Soody Tronson, Maybe we can circulate a resolution that indicates our support as a committee, even though we're not present in our absence to take action. Member Soody Tronson, Do we have a charter that. Member Soody Tronson, We can I don't think that we can do it.

to see if that I mean because otherwise like every time we don't have enough quorum we can't take any action that's true that is the way you know the only alternative would be like okay then we gotta meet next month because exactly we were doing this every other month to give each other a break but if now all of a sudden we're not all coming together to do quorum then but if we now only have

For example, Pilsa, I haven't seen her only once.

Let's kick him out. Raul, let's kick him out of there. Vicky haven't seen Vicky in ages.

The lady that was here last week or last meeting, there was a lady that was interesting. They were sitting right there. There was a lady that came in that was interested.

No, I don't think so. All you guys are attorneys. Attorneys from all over the world.

Done. Check. She interested? She's very interested.

There's got to be I mean, that that doesn't even seem like I would move to amend the bylaws if it prohibits us from taking action because of the fact that there are absences in those seats because yeah otherwise we can't take any action it's true like think about us like we can't follow uh ad hoc space i i just i just think we just need to fill in the empty seats because to have only three people and declare that quorum once too and declare that quorum i don't think that's appropriate Oh, I think that's a great goal. But I also think that in the interim, we need to be making decisions, you kno

Until December. He was going to resign. But is this meeting taped? Do we have a tape of the meeting and you keep them here? The lady was there. I mean, she wanted to be next to you. I thought it was your friend.

I thought she was your friend that you brought on. She was super interested. She would be perfect. I mean, if there's an interest and she makes an effort to come here, perfect.

I mean, let's also think about people in businesses here. We have FIFA.

If I say Raul, we have Raul. Are you interested? No, I'm not interested.

I don't know if you're talking about Amanda, which is my, Amanda Marina Ramirez, but she's more of an intern, like a volunteer extension of, she's Argentinian, so I asked her to help me with our sister city programs.

I did. We had like a list going of all the people that we had. They don't come to us. I get it, Leticia, but I thought like we as a group had put together a list of candidates that we were considering putting together. I don't know if it was Citi. I don't know if it was Citi. I know this isn't the first time this has come up. We've talked about the fact that we need more people.

I think she was at the beginning of the meeting. So if you look at the last, to the tape, you can see her name. We'll try to look at it later.

I don't know if it was her. I don't know if it was Amanda or not.

So, yeah, I mean, between both of us and obviously everybody on the board, we know a ton of people. I also sort of look at it from what other commitments do they have, you know, and. How many things are they going to be doing? And also, are they Coral Gables resident or? Yes. That's another filter. Now you're talking about two things. There's about 50 people on that chamber international committee. Are all those people available to us and also do this? Are all of those people also business owner or resident? Probably not. No, I know. I'm thinking of one, Daniela Betancourt. She's the senior banker at Seacoast. I think Seacoast. Yeah. I mean, I thought that was one.

The commission has to accept. Accept it. Approve it. That's it.

So therefore, if I find three of my friends that want to belong, okay, they have to go through the commission.

We have 16 more cities to go. Well, we just covered X, right? Except there's a special program that they're asking about schools. Do you want to cover that? Skip that. What are you guys going to do?

Let's defer that to the next meeting since we really have no representative from the next. The next thing is Cartagena.

Cartagena's Independence Day is November 11th. Colombia's is July 21st. Interesting.

Okay, so that takes care of Cartagena. Next one was Antigua Guatemala. Update on that from Mayor Juan Manuel Asturias.

They canceled the last meeting. They were coming and meeting. Is that going to be rescheduled?

Oh, but I didn't know about that. We should know about that.

All right. One thing I wanted to bring up on the county report. Anybody else have anything else on county reports?

Do we have any mayors coming from any of the other sister cities that we should be aware of?

I don't think there's anything from our team.

Well, you're going to be there. No, I'm going to be there. You're going to be there. Update us at the next meeting. Yes.

Can you email us the committee a link with the registration?

I don't know if we'll be able to make it. The other thing is, Cartagena is going to be in that mayor's meeting? I don't know. That's the... If you see him telling them to have a party here.

All right. I wanted to just bring one other thing that we've been talking about Mexico also for a while. We don't have a sister city with Mexico. Am I correct? Correct. The consul general here is super active and they're in our own city. They're doing left and right events. I was at the America's Food and Beverage. They invited me to come in. They hosted Yucatan and they are very interested in doing this. And I'm willing to step in to help there because since I'm getting a lot of silence and not a lot of activity, I mean, even if I support Argentina in general from a scientific perspective, Bu

And I don't know if Olga's still on because she has a lot of perspective on this, but we would love to have her input and intake on that as well. But the Council of Generals, you know, like I said, very active. The Secretary of State of Yucatan was here. They had a roundtable discussion myself and a few other, you know, interested international professionals were at the meeting. And they're really interested in obviously. They said that, you know, it's on a pork. It's very, you know, there's a lot of business activity. They're trying to expand.

A wealthy city as well. I mean, look, all I really know about Mexico is, you know, Mexico City and Cabo and, you know, Cancun. So anyway. When it goes beyond that, I have to defer to people that are much more familiar.

I love to deal with, we need to work with this, you know?

I think that would be the next step. I have the cards and the confirmations from the council general. I have it from the secretary of state and the secretary of finance. But I haven't, you know, the mayor was not here and I haven't spoken to the mayor of Merida. But before I do that, I also want to make sure it satisfies and maybe, you know, I can look at the guidelines and see. If you think that it's something that we can recommend at our next meeting, and we can maybe consider moving that forward. And again, I'd be willing to take that on just because of the relationship I built with them an

Olga, do you have any experience with Mérida? Yes, I have. It's a great city. I definitely think there would be a great partner. I mean, San Miguel de Allende I would have loved, but if we have more contacts in Mérida than in San Miguel, I think we should go for it, obviously. And it's a great city. It's similar to COVID. Yeah, it's very easy to get to. They have flights. A lot of people with money, as Larry said.

Okay, so. All right. So I think we're in good shape there. It's

Yeah. Okay, so we'll explore that some more way to hear back from staff on the compatibility and maybe you can put it on the agenda. Well, we also have to reach out to the mayor to make sure we get buy-in from the mayor, which what I could do is work through the consul general and the secretary of state of the state. And then from there, drill down into the mayor. Unless you guys have other suggestions too, after you look at that and think about what the best approach may be. It's a heavy lift, you know, unfortunately, you know, we have plenty of stuff to do, but we have, but if it's not reall

Okay. So... have a resource where we can always go all the things that we've ever done, you know, to be able to promote other cities and get them encouraged and, you know, showcase the stuff that we've accomplished. And I mean, we're part of international. I think it helps. It goes a long way.

Yeah. Move to adjourn. No more discussion. Meeting adjourned.

I think both work well. I think Saturday is more like a festival daytime type of event. Friday could be a very like the artwork type of like Uruguay. I don't remember what the day was. I think it was a Thursday. You have to ask the consulates. If you see all the consulates, all the events from the consulates are Saturday or Sunday's. I think a Thursday night is better than Friday a lot of people on Fridays want to we often don't want to conflict with like art walk that they do the first Friday or whatever their Friday is art walk is better on Saturday you know person but

I mean, if I had my way, it would be like if we did one every quarter and that quarter, each quarter was a series. But in like the last one would be all of them. and then you have the password again this is like thinking way ahead but i think we start with just the series and focus on one thing and then we can expand to a broader bigger type of international event you know as opposed to a specific you know country I think that, you know, I think that, sorry to interrupt, but I think that also the broader one will attract more people because now you're saying Colombia is going to go because it's going to be a little piece of Colombia, a little piece of Spain.

There were two events that we went. There were. The Mexican and Giralda.

Actually, the Mexican one is coming up right now. Eliel just emailed me the concert.

Giralda Street with a... I mean, the restaurants were packed.

Are we talking September 31st? No, October 31st. Dia de los Muertos.

The Colombian people came over. It was over time. So they probably stopped around.

I got to go. All right. Thank you, guys. Great idea, that event. Great idea.

Wanted. I'll tell her again. Wanted. Attraction on the 31st is day of the day, but I wanted to mention 1 other thing. I know it's off record here and off thing, but it's the American Bar Association. International law sections, so a couple of 1000 members of the bar from all over the US, but also outside of the country. They're having their 2027 meeting in Maine, in Miami. But one of the things that they've asked me to help coordinate is a consul general international type reception so that the consul generals are there, lawyers from all over the world are there. And I was thinking we could do

I didn't have to leave town. All the lawyers. I got it.

And is it a reception? Kind of same way.

But I haven't been to the one for... It's a reception. It's a reception, like a cocktail. That's what they want to do. Yeah. So it's just a matter of... And what do they usually do?

But that's amazing. Well, I mean, maybe we can combine it with that. So it could be like City of Coral Gables, Chamber, the American Bar Association, the Consulate Court.

like the alumni building like the new alumni center or something where's that that one nice like it's like you know i'm talking about that there's that it's on san amado it's not a bad idea i'm just trying to i mean we can also just host it like at my east right i mean on the top i don't know how many people hosted hosted on

You know, I was thinking to do something a little more lively. You know, people are coming from all over the country. Exactly.

What's her name? Nguyen. Nguyen. Nguyen was... The new chair? Nguyen was at this meeting, the Consul General meeting that I was at in Mexico.