Ralphie “The Rant” LePera and his wife, “Lippy”, went from “the thrill of victory to the agony of defeat” in the 24 hours following the fiasco that was the Cape Coral Charter School Board meeting last Wednesday. At that meeting, the Board was ambushed by Terry “Tight Lips” Stewart and his staff when they suggested that the new elementary school not be opened. They suggested instead that the new middle school be converted to K-8 because of a budget shortfall caused by low enrollment and the failure to secure the start up grant of $1 million plus from the State.

The other option was to ask the City Council to bail out the School System so that all schools could open as scheduled, something Stewart adamantly opposed. Can’t imagine why. Wait a minute! Hold the phone!!! I’ve just had an epiphany! Could Tight Lips opposition have anything to do with the fact that it was his pledge not to use City funds that convinced the then City Council to move forward with the project? Could Stewart have been afeared (as my cousin Cleetus would say) for his job if the City Council was forced to go back on its pledge not to use City tax dollars to support Charter Schools?

Anyway, The Rant and Lippy were licking their chops over the possibility that they could declare victory if the Charter School Board actually had to ask the City Council to use City tax dollars to bail out the Charter School System. That possibility, of course, is something they and other members of the Uncivilized Association have been railing against since time began.

I feel really bad that the LePeras’ near orgasmic experience was stifled so abruptly when Charter School administrators, who were conveniently left out of budget recommendations, came up with enough savings to put them in the black. Not to worry Ralphie. There’s still hope. With the lack of leadership exhibited by the Charter School Board, Terry Stewart and some members of the City Council, you still have hope.

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Ralphie has been declaring forever that his bride has consistently voted against the Charter School System. I certainly had no reason to doubt Ralphie. Surely he would not provide half truths, or God forbid, totally misrepresent the truth. Furthermore, my recollection was that she did indeed vote no every time a Charter School issue came forward.

Much to my surprise, one of the people who writes on the Snooze Press Idiot’s Forum (SPIF) provided a record of a vote taken in 2004 wherein Lippy did indeed vote aye on a Charter School Board issue. I decided to verify his/her account and checked out the City Council meeting minutes on the City website. Sure enough, the vote was 8 to 0 in favor of building the school. Even His Grumpiness, former Mayor Kempe, voted for it.

Now this was not an ordinary issue mind you, e.g., to ask the Lee County School Board to approve a charter, etc. It was the Big One, the Mother of all Charter School Board votes. It was a vote to actually spend the money to build Oasis Elementary School. Holy cash outlay Batman!!! What must she have been thinking? An even better question is what kind of grief did she catch from Ralphie boy when she arrived home that night?

Ralphie’s response was: “I also liked Lamont Cranston’s input (I’m thinking Ralphie must know who this guy is even though he didn’t sign his name), where he used the Council Agenda from Oct. 25, 2004 and cites a particular vote on the Charter Schools. Hey Lamont, try backing up in time and see how many votes were registered in opposition to City run Charter Schools. Unfortunately, the majority of council wasn’t listening. At some point you try and make the best out of a poor decision in hopes of success.”

A poor decision in your mind, Ralphie boy, would have been to spend the money. Once the money is spent, that’s when you try to “make the best out of poor decision in hopes of success”. Claiming that his bride was trying to make the best out of a poor decision would be like the Captain of the Titanic deciding that the trip across the Atlantic was a bad idea, after the ship struck the iceberg.

I’m thinking that Ralphie must have just had a memory lapse. Surely he wouldn’t intentionally mislead his loyal readers, would he?

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I will say that Lippy has been consistent in voting for some things however. For example, she has consistently voted in favor of increasing impact fees. Those impact fees will soon cost a new homebuilder in Cape Coral approximately $13,000.

And speaking of consistent votes, Lippy has consistently voted in favor of Montgomery Watson as the manager of the sewer and water construction project in Cape Coral. People are now being forced to sell their homes because they can’t afford the $22,000-$33,000 assessment, not to mention the impact fees and cost of hooking up to the new system.

Yes, Lippy has been consistent. Consistent in her votes to make the little people pay, and pay and pay. Maybe I should change her nickname to Alex “Let them eat cake” LePera. Send me an email and let me know what you think.

With regard to this sewer and water fiasco, perhaps we should do some research and find out which City Council members, if any, accepted campaign contributions from Montgomery Watson, Brown and Root and/or their employees. Now wouldn’t that be interesting. Perhaps we could get Sam Dupont to look into that. He seems to be able to dig up all kinds of good stuff. Oh wait a minute. Tim Trimble is the one who likes to dig things up…like his neighbor’s fence.

The question is though, would Sam reveal whether his good friend Lippy received a contribution, or does he just bring up negative stuff about the anti-Uncivilized Association group on Council?

And now, emails from readers.


Dear Paco,

Should any Council members who received campaign contributions from Montgomery Watson or Brown and Root be worried if they voted in favor of the contractors?

FBI

Dear FBI,

You tell me.


Dear Paco,

Should anybody be worried that the News Press is looking into the sewer and water expansion project?

T.H.

Dear T.H.,

One should always worry about getting on the wrong side of people who buy ink by the boxcar.

No matter how you buy ink, you heard it through the Capevine.