Cape Council looks at boards, stakeholder groups
After a lengthy discussion, Cape Coral City Council took a consensus on citizen advisory panels at Wednesday’s workshop meeting.
Stakeholder groups — citizen panels that largely work with city staff on issues — got the most support with some agreeing that the city should add a utility stakeholders group to its list.
Those who were in favor of a utility stakeholder’s group were council members Rachel Kaduk, Joe Kilraine, Dr. Derrick Donnell and Jennifer Nelson-Lastra.
Councilmember Laurie Lehmann was not present.
Others, including those who previously voted to disband the more formal council-appointed advisory committees, were not supportive.
“I don’t have an interest of doing any of it, frankly,” Councilmember Keith Long said.
Donnell said he was not aware that the old boards were retitled into stakeholder groups until the council’s orientation.
“The only word I heard was ‘eliminated.’ I did not know they were still meeting. They still existed in another form,” he said.
The conversation about boards and committees was brought forth by Kaduk, as she said boards and committees are a good way to repair the city’s relationship with the public.
She said residents do not know how to join a stakeholders group, nor what stakeholder groups exist.
“The public is listening. They care. They want to be involved. There is no way to know what to be involved in — it is a problem,” Kaduk said.
A utility advisory board, or stakeholder group, was one that she felt should be included.
Kaduk said the public should be involved in a project that large, referring to the utilities expansion project. She said the group should monitor rates, help and identify grant funding, find ways to accelerate the project and look into LCEC rates.
City Manager Mike Ilczyszyn said the city has a wastewater plant and a water plant. He said as they reach capacity and add people to it, rates should be set so they are covering the incremental cost to treat the water.
When new miles are added to that plant, such things as more production wells and an irrigation pump station have to be added. That takes on more debt, Ilczyszyn said and now the rates need to cover the services.
To bend that curve down, grants have to be found.
Kaduk said really smart people that live in the city and to rely on the city’s subject matter experts all the time is ridiculous.
She brought up the Waterway Advisory Board, as she believes it should be reinstated as Cape Coral is Florida’s Venice with waterways and bridges.
Ilczyszyn said 10 stakeholders were invited to the last Waterway stakeholders group meeting and only three attended in October.
With the redirection of the boards to stakeholder groups, Ilczyszyn said they were able to redirect staff assigned to fill in the work they were requesting to be done by others. He said they eliminated the need for two full-time equivalent staff positions and were able to transfer business tax receipts from the code department to the City Clerk’s Office.
The noncompliant business tax receipts in the city went from 700 to less than 100.
There was discussion regarding the groups not being the think tanks breeding new ideas that staff are already working on, as well as not being able to fill vacant seats.
“With a stakeholder’s group, it is not a publicized situation. Advisory boards were. Citizens could attend if they want,” Councilmember Laurie Lehmann said, adding that she has an interest in full transparency. “The citizens need to know what is going on -go back to calling them the advisory boards, so they can be publicized.”
Council members was asked if they wanted to reinstate the Waterway Advisory Board, which did not receive support.
“The more community engagement for me, that is better,” Gunter said. “I like the stakeholder’s idea of how we are doing it. It doesn’t mean you have to meet on a monthly basis.”