Charter amendment concerning City Council salary removed
With more than an hour of discussion, by both the City Council and the public, the Sanibel City Council voted against submitting an ordinance that would have been added to the March ballot providing the community with the opportunity to vote on a monthly salary for the mayor and city council.
The ordinance was an amendment to the Sanibel Charter to provide a salary of $1,500 per month for council members and $2,000 per month for the mayor. The charter currently reads as “council members shall serve without compensation, but shall be entitled to receive their actual and necessary expenses incurred in the performance of their official duties.”
“It’s amazing how I thought something so not earth shattering has turned into an earth shattering issue,” Councilmember Marty Harrity said. “I brought this up some time ago. I think this whole issue started over expenses. I think this has to be a unanimous decision by this council to put it on the ballot. I think that is something that is mandatory.”
He said since it was an open dialog, he figured they would put it on the ballot and let the citizens decide.
“Now it’s become political,” Harrity said.
He said there is a lot to be said for how a team works.
“This is the greatest team, in my opinion, that has ever sat up here,” Harrity said. “We have been led by Mick and Kevin for a lot of years. We developed a team of people behind us that are second to none. Whether it’s our police force, our city manager, or our city attorney, this is a magnificent team.”
Councilmem-ber Chauncey Goss said he believes they are a really good team with an extraordinary quarterback with what Mayor Kevin Ruane has done for the city of Sanibel. He said if anyone thinks they are not getting their money’s worth out of this council is speaking from ignorance.
“The reason I have been opposed to this is because I think it is a real good solution in search of a problem. I don’t think any of us are serving here because we need the money. I don’t think a small stipend would help, or make us serve any better, or any worse,” he said. “I don’t think it will soften the blow.”
Goss said he has looked at their founding fathers’ charter.
“The didn’t do it for the compensation. They did it for the love of their community,” he said. “I think that’s the reason we are all here, for the love of our community.”
Ruane said he has been sitting on the City Council for 10 years and has been reimbursed for things he remembers to record. The salary, he said, would probably defer any indirect expenses that anyone occurs.
“I got appointed at 20 after seven on a Tuesday night. We didn’t go over the bridge. We didn’t go to TDC (Tourist Development Council). We didn’t go to MPO (Metropolitan Planning Organization). We didn’t do anything,” he said. “Our reimbursement from TDC if you go back and look 10 years ago it was $500,000. It’s over $2 million today. Sitting on that board is really important to articulate what you do.”
Ruane said he currently sits on 15 boards, which all benefit Sanibel. With the number of boards, emails, and phone calls his average week is more than 40 hours.
“The citizens on Sanibel have the expectation that maybe we allowed them to have, or maybe they just want. But they call on Saturday. They call on Sunday. They call on Friday night. They call me at anytime. I have been approached at church and asked if I can walk outside,” he said. “The intensity and passion that we have is remarkable.”
Ruane said he tries to respond to emails and phone calls as quickly as he can.
“To the point, honestly this comes first and unfortunately my family comes second,” he said. “That’s the job.”
One of the biggest tackles Ruane has taken on is the water quality issue. He works with 163 cities on the resolution of water, which took a lot of work and relationship building.
“On top of the meetings, you meet with various city mayors, council members to try to build the support,” he said. “Honestly we are about 4,000 votes on any election. If the citizens are very happy with the things that were done 10 years ago, I would suspect they wouldn’t call me on a Saturday night, or Sunday. I suspect that if we had dirty water they wouldn’t say fix it.”
It all comes down to “people don’t want excuses, they want solutions,” Ruane said.
Karen Story, a Sanibel resident who spoke during public comment, said Sanibel has had an ongoing water issue for a number of years that has taken up a huge amount of council and staff time, which she believed was one of the reasons a change in the charter should take place.
“We have Kevin and Mick and I’m sure the other members of the council is helping out with this also,” she said. “Going all over the state on this water issue and even up to Washington, D.C. It’s ridiculous to say that the normal duties of a council are the beginning and end of what they have been doing. The water issue has literally taken us over and if we don’t do anything the water issue takes us over.”
Story went on to say that they need to address the issue because she is afraid they will not be able to attract people to City Council particularly for the mayor and vice mayor slot if they do not do something to recognize the number of hours the issue has taken up.
“I think we have to except this and put it up to the public and hope the public looks at the full issue,” she said.
Vice Mayor Mick Denham said he does not think people understand legislation, which requires a lot of research and studying. He said the water issues in particular takes a lot of personal time to fully understand.
“I will admit a councilman makes a decision of how much time he wants to put into a particular assignment,” Denham said. “Quite frankly that has nothing to do with the time of meetings you attend. It’s the amount of time you personally put into understanding these complex issues that we have to address.”
Councilmember Jim Jennings said they are not whining, or complaining.
“The choice is yours. If you don’t like it vote no, if you like the idea vote yes,” he said.
Ruane initially made a motion to put the resolution on the ballot, and Harrity seconded it for discussion purposes only. After hearing his fellow council members speak, Harrity pulled his second, as well as his motion to put it on the ballot.
“What I thought was something really black and white has turned into a volleyball game back and forth,” he said.
Ruane then pulled his motion.
Peter Pappas said he was there when the charter was established. He said the change the council was bringing forth is one that has reached maturity.
“All you are voting for is to ask the people of Sanibel to make the decision. They are the ones that are supposed to make it. Don’t deny them,” he said. “The people of Sanibel are entitled to this after 40 years. They are entitled to make that choice.”