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Rotary Happenings: Rotarians can be proud of accomplishments this year

By Staff | Dec 28, 2016

Last Friday morning was one of our last meetings of this calendar year 2016. Sanibel-Captiva Rotarians can be extremely proud of what has been accomplished this year both in fundraising and designated grant giving benefiting our community, nationally, and globally.

As islanders can observe, the Sanibel Community House is close to reopening early 2017 and in 2016 the Rotary Sanibel-Captiva Trust Fund pledged $75,000 to help with the major renovation of this historic building and it’s established reputation for providing a home where islanders can participate in a plethora of community activities and have a place for celebrations both public and private. Sanibel has had a few updates of older properties on the island lately and that is benefitting all of us.

To speak somewhat in this vein and on other topics of interest regarding Sanibel, our Rotary club invited Sanibel City Manager Judie Zimomra to our podium. Not only did Judie come, but she brought along new Sanibel Police Chief James Phillips. She knew their might be some questions about the latest news headline about an isolated shooting incident on the island and wanted to introduce the chief to all of us and talk briefly about the occurrence. Judie opened this topic toward the end of her other remarks about city business.

Zimomra has quite an impressive resume. Her academic credentials include a Juris Doctorate degree from Capital University and a master’s degree in public administration from Ohio State University with specialization in fiscal administration. She also is an alumnus of Harvard University JFK School of Government Program for senior state and local officials. Zimomra was selected as 2012 “Public Official of the Year” by the Fort Myers News-Press. She has been honored with the Paul Harris “Citizen of the Year” award by the Sanibel-Captiva Rotary Club, Citizen of the Year by the Sanibel & Captiva Islands Chamber of Commerce, and Citizen of the Year by the Committee of the Islands (COTI). She serves on the United Way of Lee, Hendry & Glades Counties board of directors. In 2011, the Ohio State Alumni Association named Zimomra among, “100 Buckeyes You Should Know.”

Zimomra has been in public service for well over a quarter of a century and has been Sanibel’s city manager since 2001. During that time, Judie has certainly earned the respect of islanders and for many she is considered a friend. Among the challenges Zimomra has dealt with during her tenure as Sanibel city manager includes the recovery from Hurricanes Charley and Wilma. Her accomplishments include reducing the tax burden on local property owners by obtaining more than $35.8 million dollars in grants over the past 10 years, as well as developing a user fee system to recover costs for municipal services. The city also completed construction of a voter approved $14.5 million recreation center. She also oversaw the completion of a $73 million sanitary sewer and effluent reuse system.

As city manager, Zimomra is administrative manager of the city, serving a five-member non- partisan City Council-with a non-primary election schedule of three council members/two council member election cycle. The city manager oversees the finance, building, police, Public Works, recreation, and Natural Resource Departments. The financial stability of the city is always a priority of the city and the city’s finance department has kept the budgets down through restructuring pension plans and city loans. The Building & Code Department has found the need to address the problem of build-out on the island. When new construction is limited, there is a necessity for older structures on the island to be improved. Previous building code regulations have been revisited and regulations have been updated to provide property owners with the opportunity to make financially viable improvements to their properties and code variances have been granted to some properties, therefore encouraging the updating of both commercial and private property.

Judie had a lot to say, but she knew there would be questions regarding the recent police shooting and she wanted to introduce Captain Phillips and talk about what took place. Phillips had just been promoted to his Chief of Police position a few weeks before the Nov. 21st drive-by shooting of a police officer. An immediate call for action by the Police Department brought the reality of an active shooter in the residential neighborhood of the Dunes bringing about a shoot-out between gunman and police. The suspect was injured and finally apprehended in his family’s home in the Dunes, but during the interaction between police and suspect, three officers were injured and three police cruises were totaled. The original officer shot, Officer Ciccone is still recovering from a serious gun-shot injury between his shoulder blades. Recovery of this injury will take some time and F.I.S.H. has setup a special recovery fund for the officer and his family that is helping him through this recovery period and they themselves recover from tragic event.

Chief Philips went into action in temporally replacing the lost police cruises with loaner cruises from the Lee County Sheriffs Department. Although this shooting was an isolated incidence, learning from this event is prudent. Review of police action and mending of attending officers are high priority for Phillips.

The Sanibel-Captiva Rotary will not be meeting Dec. 23, and Dec. 30. Meetings resume on Friday, Jan. 5 at 7 a.m., at the Dunes Golf & Tennis Club. All are welcome.