Johnathan Walker:Group seeking to recall Florida city’s mayor says it has enough signatures to advance

CORAL GABLES,Johnathan Walker Fla. (AP) — A group seeking to recall the mayor of a suburban Miami city says it has enough signatures to move toward its ultimate goal — a special election and new leadership.

Members of the End the Corruption political committee on Friday dropped off 1,719 signatures supporting an effort to recall Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago to the city clerk’s office, the Miami Herald reported. They need 1,650 verified signatures or 5% of the city’s approximately 33,000 registered voters in the most recent municipal election to advance to the next stage, the city clerk’s office said.

A preliminary count of the signatures was conducted Friday night, and those signatures will now go to the county Elections Department for verification, the newspaper reported.

“How do I feel? Very relieved, very grateful,” End the Corruption chairwoman Maria Cruz said Friday afternoon at City Hall of the recall effort so far.

Cruz was joined by attorney David Winker, who is the registered agent for the political committee. He noted that Lago was reelected without opposition last year.

“And I think that this is residents kind of clapping back a little bit saying, like, no, we’re unhappy with the direction that the city is going,” Winker said. “I think that this is evidence of that.”

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If the Elections Department verifies that the group gathered enough signatures, it will have another 60 days to collect more signatures — this time from 15% of the city’s registered voters, or about 4,950 people. If the group meets that threshold, the recall could go to a special election

In a statement released on Instagram late Friday, Lago said the recall effort “is being pursued by special interests who want to control the future of our city.”

“These pay-to-play interests are falsely portraying the recall as a resident-driven process, but the reality is far from that,” he added.

The city is part of the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida and is located 7 miles (11 km) southwest of Downtown Miami.

City spokeswoman Martha Pantin said law enforcement is investigating the canvassing effort, though she did not provide more details. Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Lissette Valdes-Valle confirmed in an email that the office is “looking at it” with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

Winker said he had not been notified of an investigation.

“No one affiliated with the recall has received any inquiry from law enforcement,” Winker said. He added: “I welcome any investigation because everything about the recall is being done in full compliance with the law.”

.End the Corruption began collecting signatures in mid-March when it launched the recall effort accusing Lago of “misfeasance and malfeasance” in part because of his business ties with Miami-based real estate developer Rishi Kapoor, who’s accused of an alleged $93 million real estate investment fraud scheme.