I watched portions of the June 12th Cape Coral City Council meeting and was dismayed, to say the least, by some of the suggestions made by certain Council members during the discussion about water and sewer assessments for the new expansion area. The reason I did not watch the entire meeting was because college baseball was on ESPN2. I love college baseball, almost as much as I love college football. Ah, but I digress.
For those of you who did not tune in, the City of Cape Coral is once again expanding water and sewer lines to those areas currently without service. Those affected homeowners will have to fork over approximately $22,000 for a regular sized lot and $33,000 for an oversized lot, excluding impact fees and hookup charges.
The Council chambers were packed with those who will have to pay the fees, and many spoke against the assessments. But it was the comments of Council member Day that really ticked me off. Just who does he think he is anyway?
Right off the bat, at the beginning of the meeting, he made a motion to remove the assessment items from the agenda, and reschedule them after the audit results for previous water and sewer expansion projects were presented, which will be sometime in July. Why in the world would he want to wait for audit results is beyond my comprehension.
Granted, the FBI and Justice Department are investigating the actions of the contractors. And granted, as a result, criminal charges may be filed against some or all of them. And granted, another company involved, KBR, has been fined millions of dollars for overcharging the federal government on previous contracts. And granted, the construction manager, MWH asked for more money from the City before it would provide documents the auditing firm, Kessler International, requested in order to complete the audit. And granted, the audit results could result in suggestions that could save millions of dollars on the overall project, savings that could then be passed along to the homeowners. But what’s the big deal? Is that any reason to stall a project that may cause some people to lose their homes? Get real.
Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed. Both Eric Feichthaler and Dolores Bertolini, two elected officials who are obviously concerned about the welfare of their constituents, made the people who can’t afford to pay their assessments feel much better when they pointed out that they also had to pay their sewer and water assessments. In other words, we paid ours, so stop complaining and pay yours. So, cough up the dough. Geez. How simple can it get?
I sure wish someone would put Day in his place and tell him to stop using logic and his obvious concern for the welfare of the citizenry to make Cape Coral a better place in which to live. I think both he and Rosado, who voted with Day against the assessments, should just follow the majority on the City Council and let the citizens know that they, the elected City Council members, know what is best for them. And if the City Council members believe high assessments are the best things for the citizens, so be it.
PAGE TWO
Speaking of illogical elected officials, along comes School Board member Bob Chilmonik, who proposed a sequence of audits and overhauls to School Board policy because of what he perceives is a lack of spending control throughout the school district. Who cares that School Super Jim Browder plays fast and loose with the spending limit in order to avoid seeking School Board approval. Golly gee, it’s not as if he’s trying to hide anything.
If the citizens didn’t want overpaid bureaucrats to spend their money with carefree abandon, they would elect conscientious politicians (an obvious oxymoron) to look out for their welfare. Now, every once in a while, some diligent individuals manage to get themselves elected. That’s a fluke, and the other type of elected official, the true politician, eventually runs them off, as it should be. We do not need people who truly look out for the public’s welfare. If we had that kind of public servant, what would we have to complain about? I, myself, would face a dearth of things to write about if all the elected officials acted like Tim Day and Bob Chilmonik. DON’T DO THAT TO ME PEOPLE. Please continue to elect the other kind.
Board Chairman Steve Teuber’s response was appropriate, to say the least. He said Chilmonik’s report was “much ado about nothing”. “I was hoping for a multitude of spending errors. There wasn’t even one”, said Teuber. Come on now. I don’t think Teuber was really looking for a multitude of spending errors. I think he was being sarcastic, something to which I truly cannot relate.
Nevertheless, Chilmonik presses on, hoping beyond hope that the public will elect responsible individuals to fill the other two School Board seats up for grabs this year, those presently held by Teuber and Scricca. Don’t hold your breath Bob. It just ain’t gonna happen.
To further slap Chilmonik around and show him “who’s boss”, the School Board discussed a formal board member code of conduct that would require School Board members to “work together in a spirit of harmony, respect and cooperation”. Chilmonik reportedly was not present when that item was discussed.
Translated, that means that there should be no contentious discussions taking place at the School Board meetings. They should all just get along and not make waves by asking questions that may be in the best interests of the public. I wholeheartedly agree. Elected officials should not waste their time looking out for the taxpayers. That takes too much time away from looking out for themselves. That’s a big no-no.
And now, emails from readers.
Dear Paco,
Do you agree with Bob Chilmonik that the School Board members should know the details about how the School District is spending tax dollars?
BC
Dear BC,
Why?
Dear Paco,
Do you think the contractors involved in Cape Coral’s water and sewer expansion should worry about the FBI investigation into their activities?
MWH/KBR
Dear MWH/KBR,
Why should anybody worry about an investigation by the Feds?
Whether you’re being investigated or not, you heard it through the Capevine.
For those of you who did not tune in, the City of Cape Coral is once again expanding water and sewer lines to those areas currently without service. Those affected homeowners will have to fork over approximately $22,000 for a regular sized lot and $33,000 for an oversized lot, excluding impact fees and hookup charges.
The Council chambers were packed with those who will have to pay the fees, and many spoke against the assessments. But it was the comments of Council member Day that really ticked me off. Just who does he think he is anyway?
Right off the bat, at the beginning of the meeting, he made a motion to remove the assessment items from the agenda, and reschedule them after the audit results for previous water and sewer expansion projects were presented, which will be sometime in July. Why in the world would he want to wait for audit results is beyond my comprehension.
Granted, the FBI and Justice Department are investigating the actions of the contractors. And granted, as a result, criminal charges may be filed against some or all of them. And granted, another company involved, KBR, has been fined millions of dollars for overcharging the federal government on previous contracts. And granted, the construction manager, MWH asked for more money from the City before it would provide documents the auditing firm, Kessler International, requested in order to complete the audit. And granted, the audit results could result in suggestions that could save millions of dollars on the overall project, savings that could then be passed along to the homeowners. But what’s the big deal? Is that any reason to stall a project that may cause some people to lose their homes? Get real.
Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed. Both Eric Feichthaler and Dolores Bertolini, two elected officials who are obviously concerned about the welfare of their constituents, made the people who can’t afford to pay their assessments feel much better when they pointed out that they also had to pay their sewer and water assessments. In other words, we paid ours, so stop complaining and pay yours. So, cough up the dough. Geez. How simple can it get?
I sure wish someone would put Day in his place and tell him to stop using logic and his obvious concern for the welfare of the citizenry to make Cape Coral a better place in which to live. I think both he and Rosado, who voted with Day against the assessments, should just follow the majority on the City Council and let the citizens know that they, the elected City Council members, know what is best for them. And if the City Council members believe high assessments are the best things for the citizens, so be it.
PAGE TWO
Speaking of illogical elected officials, along comes School Board member Bob Chilmonik, who proposed a sequence of audits and overhauls to School Board policy because of what he perceives is a lack of spending control throughout the school district. Who cares that School Super Jim Browder plays fast and loose with the spending limit in order to avoid seeking School Board approval. Golly gee, it’s not as if he’s trying to hide anything.
If the citizens didn’t want overpaid bureaucrats to spend their money with carefree abandon, they would elect conscientious politicians (an obvious oxymoron) to look out for their welfare. Now, every once in a while, some diligent individuals manage to get themselves elected. That’s a fluke, and the other type of elected official, the true politician, eventually runs them off, as it should be. We do not need people who truly look out for the public’s welfare. If we had that kind of public servant, what would we have to complain about? I, myself, would face a dearth of things to write about if all the elected officials acted like Tim Day and Bob Chilmonik. DON’T DO THAT TO ME PEOPLE. Please continue to elect the other kind.
Board Chairman Steve Teuber’s response was appropriate, to say the least. He said Chilmonik’s report was “much ado about nothing”. “I was hoping for a multitude of spending errors. There wasn’t even one”, said Teuber. Come on now. I don’t think Teuber was really looking for a multitude of spending errors. I think he was being sarcastic, something to which I truly cannot relate.
Nevertheless, Chilmonik presses on, hoping beyond hope that the public will elect responsible individuals to fill the other two School Board seats up for grabs this year, those presently held by Teuber and Scricca. Don’t hold your breath Bob. It just ain’t gonna happen.
To further slap Chilmonik around and show him “who’s boss”, the School Board discussed a formal board member code of conduct that would require School Board members to “work together in a spirit of harmony, respect and cooperation”. Chilmonik reportedly was not present when that item was discussed.
Translated, that means that there should be no contentious discussions taking place at the School Board meetings. They should all just get along and not make waves by asking questions that may be in the best interests of the public. I wholeheartedly agree. Elected officials should not waste their time looking out for the taxpayers. That takes too much time away from looking out for themselves. That’s a big no-no.
And now, emails from readers.
Dear Paco,
Do you agree with Bob Chilmonik that the School Board members should know the details about how the School District is spending tax dollars?
BC
Dear BC,
Why?
Dear Paco,
Do you think the contractors involved in Cape Coral’s water and sewer expansion should worry about the FBI investigation into their activities?
MWH/KBR
Dear MWH/KBR,
Why should anybody worry about an investigation by the Feds?
Whether you’re being investigated or not, you heard it through the Capevine.
