Council moves with transition plan to fill city attorney post
The Cape Coral City Council moved forward with its succession plan of choice Wednesday, voting unanimously to give soon-to-be retiring City Attorney Dolores Menendez a notice of non-renewal of her contract.
This was not any notice of termination and does not rule out the possibility of giving her a new contract if the need arises during the search for her replacement.
Mayor John Gunter wanted there to be a transition from one city attorney to another to give the incoming person a chance to pick the brain of Menendez who has 30 years of local eager knowledge.
“We could do this with the knowledge we can give her another contract from October of this year to September the following year,” Gunter said, adding that he spoke with Menendez to discuss his idea of transition. “In a perfect world, there would be a period of time where they would work together. That’s where a second contract can be negotiated.”
Councilmember Bill Steinke said he approved of a letter of non-renewal, but not to disengage with the city attorney.
“It gives us flexibility of what a contract would look like with the transition plan we would need to put in place,” Steinke said. “Not knowing what kind of candidates we would get through the search.”
Menendez has announced her intention to retire in October 2024. Several on council restated that they are not trying to remove her, as some on council said their constituents were wondering.
On what was a relatively light agenda, Council also got an update on the EnerGov system, in particular on roofing permits and inspections, which have gone through the roof in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian.
Matt Grambow, special projects coordinator with the city manager’s office, said the city has issued more than 21,000 roofing permits since Ian, going up from 162 per week before to 1,062 per week after.
The city added a sixth private provider last week, which has helped reduce wait times for roofing inspections since Feb. 14, from six weeks to four.
The city has also increased its average weekly inspection numbers by 239 percent, from 1,934 per week to 4,641 weekly. Last week the city did 959 inspections per business day.
The city is considering a final roofing inspection affidavit, which would include a sheet explaining the process. The contractor and property owner would have to sign the affidavit and have it notarized. The contractor would then submit the completed form to the city through EnerGov. City staff would process the forms and submit the results.
This would result in a reduction in final roofing inspection demand and shorter wait times at minimal cost, though it would also result in increased workload and some administrative delay in processing other documents.
Steinke was concerned that having both parties sign off on the affidavits was like having the fox guard the henhouse. Granbow understood the concern and added the city is trying to come up with ways to decrease wait times. He said that the city of Jupiter is doing something similar.
Councilmember Keith Long praised the outside-the-box thinking, but was concerned about contractors complaints that they were waiting four weeks for “dry-in” inspections, and they couldn’t get the final inspection without that being done first.
“That becomes an issue when we get to rainy season and you have to have that up there for four weeks and the rain would cause water damage,” Long said. “I can support this.”
To reach CHUCK BALLARO, please email news@breezenewspapers.com