DeSantis signs Lee County single-member district bill, mosquito control district merger referendum
Voters to decide in 2026 whether to change from at-large voting for Lee County commissioners
Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed two bills that will allow voters in Fort Myers Beach and throughout Lee County to decide in 2026 if they want to elect Lee County commissioners by districts and if they want to merge the Fort Myers Beach Mosquito Control District into the Lee County Mosquito Control District.
Both referendum bills were introduced by State Rep. Mike Giallombardo, R-Cape Coral.
Currently, Lee County commissioners are voted at-large by county voters. If voters approve, commissioners will be voted in only by voters registered in their district beginning in 2028. Voters would not be able to vote for commissioners outside their districts.
Currently, commissioners have to live within their district but represent all the voters in the county.
The single-member district bill has been opposed by Lee County District 2 Commissioner Cecil Pendergrass, who said the legislation would dissuade commissioners from needing to appeal to all county residents or responding to the concerns of residents outside their district.
The single-member district bill was also opposed by District 5 Commissioner Mike Greenwell at its initial introduction in 2023 at a state delegation hearing. A number of residents from Greenwell’s district have publicly supported the bill. An unsuccessful primary challenge to Greenwell from Amanda Cochran in 2024 would have led to his defeat if only the votes from District 5 had been counted.
Giallombardo has pushed the single-member district legislation as a way to make the county government more representative. Giallombardo did not respond to a message seeking comment.
County commissioners did not respond to requests for comment. DeSantis signed the bills without comment.
Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka, whose husband David Mulicka sits on the Lee County Board of County Commissioners, was the lone member of the Lee County state delegation in the state legislature to oppose the single-member district bill.
Mosquito control district merger
A bill to put up a referendum for voters in 2026 to merge the Fort Myers Beach Mosquito Control District with the Lee County Mosquito Control District was signed by DeSantis on Wednesday after passing both the House and Senate unaninmously.
The bill was introduced in the state legislature by Giallombardo after initially being proposed in 2023 by Rep. Adam Botana (R-Bonita Springs). The bill had been opposed by the Fort Myers Beach Mosquito Control District board and also initially by the Town of Fort Myers Beach Council in 2023 though the town council has been silent on the issue as of late.
The bill would double the millage rate for mosquito control in the Town of Fort Myers Beach. The town’s millage rate is currently half of the county’s mosquito control district.
The referendum would have to be approved by both a majority of Lee County voters and a majority of voters in the Fort Myers Beach Mosquito Control District.
The bill would not only merge the districts but also give the land where the Fort Myers Beach Mosquito Control District’s office sits to the county’s mosquito control district.
Fort Myers Beach Mosquito Control District Vice Chair Steve Johnson has been a vocal opponent of the bill, since it was first proposed by Botana in 2023.
“The Fort Myers Beach Mosquito Control District is solely focused on providing service to the needs of our taxpaying electorate as it has done for over 75 years,” Johnson said. “This same electorate will have the opportunity to chart their future in the form of a referendum.”
The Fort Myers Beach Mosquito Control District has no debt and its board has not requested the merger. Botana unilaterally proposed the merger in 2023 despite opposition from the Fort Myers Beach Mosquito Control District Board.
Johnson said it will now be up to voters in the district to decide whether they want to pay more for a local service to be outsourced.
“Do they want to move forward with the value proposition of their existing service provider and paying the lowest tax in the state, receiving concierge service and maintaining local control of operations or do they want the new value proposition offered which includes the most expensive operations in the state, requires competition with all the competing Lee County municipal jurisdictions for mosquito control services, and dilutes their control to 3% based on population?”
As a taxpayer, Johnson said “the ironclad value proposition offered by the Fort Myers Beach Mosquito Control District makes me scratch my head wondering what could be the reasons behind this offer to subsidize the County?”