2018 big year for the Cape
It was a very busy year for the Cape Coral City Council in 2018. A myriad of issues was tackled, with much having been accomplished, city officials say.
The city was able to finally get a franchise agreement with LCEC, saw the Southeast 47th Terrace streetscape project started and likely to be completed by the end of the year and voters approved a $60 million general obligation bond so the city can construct new parks and renovate existing ones in the city, among other things.
There was also progress made regarding Bimini Basin, Seven Islands, the D&D boat ramp in Matlacha, and the planned purchase of the old golf course, with much more to be done with those in the coming year, officials said.
More was accomplished this year than in any year since Marni Sawicki’s first year as mayor in 2014, when the city started to play catchup with capital improvements following the recession.
And this new City Council kept things civil, without the drama that seemed to engulf councils of the past.
“We were civil, especially on the dais and especially compared to when John Sullivan was mayor. Most of the drama the previous two years was created externally,” said Councilmember Rick Williams. “There’s a lot going on in the city and the bulk of that is coming from the staff and city manager’s office.”
For Councilmember Jennifer Nelson, one of the newcomers on the elected board, it was a great first year, with nine of the issues previous Councils have had.
“We have a solid team. I love that we have such a diverse council. John Gunter is a builder, David Stokes is a fireman, Rick Williams is a veteran of the Navy,” Nelson said. “For me, it made my job easier because we could rely on each other’s expertise.”
New mayor Joe Coviello got much of the credit.
“The current mayor has the qualities of a good leader. He works with great conviction. He knows what he wants and he has a good handle of where the money for the city is coming and going,” veteran Councilmember John Carioscia said.
Coviello showed leadership when he was able to forge a franchise agreement with the city’s electric services provider, LCEC, in September, which for years had gone nowhere and cost ratepayers and taxpayers (the same people) more than $1 million in legal fees for both sides.
“For me, personally, I think it was our biggest accomplishment, but there were others, not only for myself, but for Council and staff,” Coviello said.
“Selecting him to be the point man in the LCEC issue was the smartest thing we did as a group,” Nelson said. “With his background in negotiations, I think that worked to our benefit.”
“He put that to bed and knocked it out of the park. It’s over and we don’t have this poking us in the eye every week. That was huge,” Carioscia said.
Something the City Council had no control over was water quality. Blue-green algae came from Lake Okeechobee to the Caloosahatchee, to the city’s canal system over the summer, making for ugly, smelly conditions for many who live on the water.
Coviello joined the mayors of Sanibel and Fort Myers in the fight to reduce the discharges from the lake in the summer while keeping them up in the dry season to keep the estuaries properly brackish, but had little success convincing the South Florida Water Management District.
The city tried to have the algae sucked from the canals and are working on ecological tests and a “bubble curtain” to contain the problem should it return.
“We hope the new governor makes some changes to the board because it seemed their best interests were with agriculture and not the coastal cities,” Coviello said.
City Council also had to deal with an unfunded mandate by the state to put school resource officers in all the city schools.
The city had to quickly come up with the funds for the required police presence at the schools.
Parks were also a big issue in 2018. The city not only instructed City Manager John Szerlag to enter into negotiations to purchase the old golf course acreage and made plans to create a sports park near the Oasis Charter Schools campus, but voters passed a referendum for the issuance of $60 million in general obligation bonds so the city can update its parks system.
That measure passed voter muster in November.
“That will allow us to build out our parks program. It was an effort by everyone to push that through. That will give us the dollars for community and neighborhood parks, the Yacht Club and other entities,” Coviello said.
The city saw more than 1,200 multi-family units and more than 2,300 single-family building permits.
The city also approved an interlocal agreement with Fort Myers for the disposal and purchase of reclaimed water.
The City Council did deal with areas of resident debate.
The return of extended bar hours in the South Cape, the possible removal of the Chiquita Boat Lock, as well as the problems – and perhaps future -of the charter schools will continue to linger into the next year.
Nelson, the council liaison to the city’s charter school system, said the governing board is performing well and hopes to keep the system alive as is, without making any major structural changes or double-taxing city residents for the charter and county schools.
“Our board and council realized in order to change the culture, we had to change leadership. I have told the superintendent to come up with a Plan B should the city decide it’s not cost effective to assist in business operations at the school,” Nelson said.