After falling short of candidates, the Coconut Grove Village Council won’t hold an election this November, but after years in the wilderness its comeback effort is pressing ahead.
A long-planned reboot of the Coconut Grove Village Council has suffered a setback after existing members failed to attract enough candidates to fill its vacancies.
With only seven people declaring their candidacy for the council’s nine seats by the Sept. 12 deadline, the November election has been canceled, an official from the City of Miami Clerk’s Office has confirmed.
The seven candidates will automatically take seats, three of which are returning members, with two additional members to be appointed by the council.
Names and other information of the seven have been passed on to present Village Council Vice Chairman Chris Baraloto, the city official said, and are not otherwise publicly available.
The Coconut Grove Village Council is not an official City of Miami advisory board and is therefore not bound by public records and open-government laws.
When the council was created in 1991, city officials placed its elections on the same ballot as local, state and federal races and allowed it to meet in City Hall commission chambers — giving it a measure of legitimacy and visibility despite its lack of policymaking authority.
Despite its limitations, the council has long served as an important sounding board for community issues and as an advocacy organization with close ties to elected officials.
Over time, the council shifted its attention to more mundane neighborhood concerns: potholes, speed bumps, zoning appeals, and opposing tree removal permits.
But in recent years the council has struggled to find its footing after a string of setbacks including allegations of mismanagement, racism and sexual harassment. Three years ago, at the height of the upheaval, seven of its nine members resigned, including Chairman Marcelo Fernandes, who had run the council for five years.
“It’s been rough the past couple years in all honesty,” Baraloto told the Spotlight. “It’s tough, there’s no power, there’s no resources. But there are resources out there, and we just need to find the means to harness that power.”
Under its bylaws, elected members, who must be Grove residents or business owners, serve four-year terms. Their last election in 2021 featured 14 candidates. The council’s website shows it last met on May 30, 2024.
Reached by text, current council member and filmmaker Davey Frankel declined to speak with a Spotlight reporter but said existing Village Council members are eager for a fresh start. “[We’re] getting things organized and together with a new team and will have some announcements in the near future,” he wrote.
Baraloto, the council’s de facto leader and a professor of environmental sciences at Florida International University, explained the key is figuring out how the Village Council plays into a new Grove political scene. With groups like One Grove Alliance, Grove Watch Group, and active homeowners associations, many of the resources offered by the Village Council can be sourced elsewhere.
Baraloto expects a new council to convene before the end of the month, with each member representing a different geographic location or thematic group within the Grove.
“We’re trying to create a new iteration that is both more in lines with the original lines of the council but also modernized to represent current needs,” Baraloto said. “The role of the council now needs to be a convening and advocacy presence, a hub for where people can come together to learn and share concerns.”
When it comes to pushing the Grove’s agenda to the City Commission, Baraloto said the first step is regaining the credibility of the council to deserve that voice.
Another current member, Anthony Witherspoon, a Coconut Grove native and founder and CEO of the Leadership Prep Foundation Inc., remains upbeat about the council’s future.
“I look forward to its resurgence and getting back to where it once was,” Witherspoon said. “They’re going to start anew. I think it will be good.”
That future, however, will be without Witherspoon: he’s giving up his seat.
