Remarks by Melissa Castro
70 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 2 of 3
- Play at 8:16:37
“I appreciate your help. But let me give you a little bit of advice.”
City Commission · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 8:21:02
“I can finish my argument now. argument i don't know what you're arguing about you're not arguing with me number one let this be the last time you interrupt me the floor was mine number two i didn't ask for your recommendation i'm not your daughter and i'm not your employee stay there in your lane and number three my duty here is to represent the the residents of coral gables and when they reach out to me with certain concerns it is my full responsibility to go ahead and voice them so you could keep your recommendations to yourself. I was gonna vote yes on this item, but I need to make sure…”
City Commission · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 8:29:54
“Can we go ahead and answer Maria Cruz's question, please?”
City Commission · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 8:53:30
“Yeah. So, I mean, one quick question here. How come you wouldn't call this item before you called the other one?”
City Commission · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 8:53:58
“But you knew very well that if you called your item first, mine would be invalid. And you're running the meeting, right? Wouldn't you want to call this item? Would it not be in the best interest of Coral Gables to call that item first before making mine basically extinct?”
City Commission · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 8:54:21
“I don't think there's anything else more to talk about. I wrote everything in a memo. I find that to be very disrespectful.”
City Commission · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 9:15:06
“Through the mayor? Still on the prior item.”
City Commission · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 9:15:16
“Thank you. I want some transparency on this last item of the presentation. There's a reverted clause on the youth center. And have we looked into the actual legality of actually having them think that they have an opportunity to do a dog park there?”
City Commission · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 9:26:40
“I find that to be a beautiful gesture from the mayor to you. However, my vote's going to be no. I believe that most of these parks are named after people who have been deceased. And you have a long way to go still. But I'm sorry, no.”
City Commission · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 9:29:31
“I don't have any events to really put out there, but I just want to go ahead and address this to the mayor. I'm going to ask you respectfully, please don't tell me I come unprepared to this meeting. I prioritize this city above a lot of the things that I do, the items and the agenda, and I spend countless hours representing and serving this city. I also run a business. And I'm raising two children. And for some reason, I still prioritize sometimes above my business and my children, this city. So please reserve your comments when you tell me I don't come prepared. I barely sleep. That is it.”
City Commission · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 40:48
“Okay. So what I'm seeing here, difference from 2023 to 2024 is 22 employees. And from 2024 to 2025 is 46 employees. Can we shine a little more light on that?”
City Commission · Jul 8, 2026
- Play at 41:18
“Okay, because that's a significant difference. Even if you tell me we hired 20 more employees, In the development services department, 20 employees, no matter what department it is or if it's restricted funds, it's 20 employees. So going back to what the mayor is saying, we're going to have to buckle our belts. But some of these decisions we made were not who you're blaming. I think it was partly you.”
City Commission · Jul 8, 2026
- Play at 44:10
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
City Commission · Jul 8, 2026
- Play at 48:44
“Through the mayor. Paula, I want to go ahead and put this very clear, OK? 2024, it says 22. But let's go ahead and remove the five firefighters and the five police officers. And let's go ahead and remove the five firefighters for the following year and the firefighters. So let's subtract both of them by 10, because they seem to be the same, because that's what we're increasing, correct? If we remove 10 from 22, that's 12 employees, correct? Correct me if I'm wrong. I'm sorry, I'm not following your you're looking at 2022 2024 2024. I'm sorry, 2023 to 2024. From 2023 to 2024. You can simply…”
City Commission · Jul 8, 2026
- Play at 50:41
“I think we understand that that means both years, we have to subtract 10 from each year. Correct. Okay, so if it's 22 employees, in reality, it's 12, subtracting police and fire. And then in 2025, subtracting 10 is 16 employees, if you're subtracting the 20 you contracted for development services, am I correct?”
City Commission · Jul 8, 2026
- Play at 51:09
“Okay, so that would equal 16. Is my math wrong Paula?”
City Commission · Jul 8, 2026
- Play at 1:41:49
“It was the 0.25 for consecutive years. I'm not going to be proposing that this year, but I am going to be proposing at least some reduction. Something that's not going to affect the budget much, but showing a point that, hey, we care, okay? This homestead exemption, it's not going to take effect right now. It's going to take time. And I think right now, We can share or show the people that we actually care now. We increased by 46 employees compared to last year. And the numbers don't lie. They're here. My question is, who pays the pension fund for the building employees?”
City Commission · Jul 8, 2026
- Play at 1:42:50
“OK. And then the other thing that I also want to mention, the mayor keeps on talking about this COLA and keeps on pointing fingers. But from what I can remember, to accept this COLA, we needed four votes, didn't we? We did, right? Correct? Yes. OK. And who are the four people that voted for this COLA?”
City Commission · Jul 8, 2026
- Play at 1:43:17
“So you're trying to tell me the Vice Mayor Anderson voted for this COLA? I voted for this COLA. I voted for this COLA. Commissioner Menendez voted for this COLA. And Commissioner Ariel Fernandez voted for this COLA.”
City Commission · Jul 8, 2026
- Play at 1:43:33
“You're also talking about the vice mayor and it's not to say anything negative because I stand by our decision. Some people here don't run businesses, even though they say they run businesses or they say they are, and they actually get fired embarrassing. Okay. But for a person that does run a business, retention is very important. especially for public safety. So when you raise a COLA, it was a very smart decision at that point when we had more than 30 vacancies in public safety. That's taking care of the safety of this community. So when you keep on bringing COLA and COLA and trying to…”
City Commission · Jul 8, 2026
- Play at 1:51:10
“Well, since we are talking about running for reelection, yes, I am running for reelection, but that's not something we should be talking about. But let's go ahead and talk about it just a tad bit. Are you not running for reelection? You don't have to answer. Of course he is. So let's be a little transparent here. Yesterday, we were voting on a development. We'll be voting on a UN. Let me just tell you, UN, gave the mayor's PAC $25,000. That crystal development project, which is the crystal developer, gave the mayor $10,000 the day after qualification. Let's go a little further. There's a…”
City Commission · Jul 8, 2026
- Play at 1:55:35
“For the mayor, yes, commissioner ladder. If there was any bias here, it would be through the mayor that's getting funded by developers, not by the person that is reading something that is a public record. It's information that everybody has access to. So if there's a bias here, number one, you get to decide for yourself if it's a bias. But if there was a bias, I would say it would be the mayor's bias. He would be biased.”
City Commission · Jul 8, 2026
- Play at 2:00:03
“I'll be voting yes, but I'm also putting on the record my plan is to make this a little lower.”
City Commission · Jul 8, 2026
- Play at 55:22
“To the mayor? Yes. Officer Challenger, thank you so much for your service. I don't think it's a surprise to anyone that the police holds a very special part in my heart. But you in specific have sacrificed and served this community with all your strength, and I want to thank you for that. I've saved these Centennial coins for very special moments and for very special people. And I have one for you today, not only a Centennial coin, but I'm also giving you the 250 coin. So if you would, I have a little note in here for you. Congratulations for being named Officer of the Month. Thank you for…”
City Commission · Jul 7, 2026
- Play at 56:15
“I'll give it to you when we're taking a picture.”
City Commission · Jul 7, 2026