Single-member districts for Cape Council?

Oct 6, 2025 By MEGHAN BRADBURY 11 min read

With the Cape Coral Charter Review Commission set to prioritize its recommended changes to the city’s governing document next week, city voters may have a chance to decide if they would prefer single-member council districts and whether they would like to pay city council members more.

The operative phrase is “may have.”

Several potential charter amendments are being considered with the commission now looking to decide at its Oct. 9 meeting which to bring to the next step — consideration by Cape Coral City Council for the 2026 ballot.

“Everything looks good,” Chairman Richard Leon said in an interview this week. “We had a great commission. We were able to debate the issues and talk it all out. We had consensus on all the items.”

The upcoming meeting will prioritize the proposed amendments from more important to least important.

Once this is done the recommendations will go to the Cape Coral City Council for its review, which Leon said was originally planned for the first couple of weeks in December.

“Because we finished early, if council has room in their schedule to see it earlier, it is up to them,” Leon said. “We will standby for what they want us to do next, if anything.”

Council appointed seven members and two alternates to the commission in April. In addition to Leon, those members are Edwin Estes, Vincent Cautero, Andrew Sund, Rendolyn Amaker, Donald Apking and Kevin McGrail and alternates Liza King and Dewayne Moore.

Leon praised the members efforts.

“The ability to work with each of these individuals that are on the commission — I cannot thank the commission enough for what they have done. How they have stepped up, the debates and working together to work on the language,” Leon said, adding that they have made it palpable for the electors who will hopefully approve the majority of the amendments. “Every single commissioner should be applauded. We had our part and did our thing and it was phenomenal.”

The city’s charter may only be amended via referendum.

The Charter Review Commission is a charter-designated board, appointed by council, at minimum, every six years.

The commission can only bring suggested amendments to Council. Council decides whether those proposed amendments should be placed on the ballot. Council can also modify the recommended amendments or bring forward proposed amendments of their own.

Cape Coral Charter Review Commission amendments for consideration include:

n 4.01 – mayor and city council; Would provide that there would be one Council member elected from each district instead of at large; the mayor would continue to be elected at-large, or by all the voters

Leon said its inclusion among the recommendations is not one in support of single-member districts but is intended as an option for council discussion.

“If council wants to discuss it,” he said. “There hasn’t been a lot of push for it in the community but we wanted to leave it open for council. We felt is was an important issue for council to discuss.”

Draft amendments at a glance

• 4.02 – eligibility — A candidate for Council member shall have been a continuous full-time resident of the District in which they are seeking office for the entire calendar year immediately preceding their qualification for office. “Residency” shall be defined as the candidate’s place of domicile, or permanent legal address.

• 4.05 – candidate qualifications and election- Increases the paperwork to establish qualifications, most focused on proving residency

• 4.06 – mayor, mayor pro tem; Mostly housekeeping, defining when a mayor pro tem shall be “elected” by council vote

• 4.08 – council and mayor, compensation, expenses; Addresses how council may increase its compensation

The mayor and council members shall not increase the salary, any retirement benefit, any stipend, or any other type of compensation paid to its members, unless such increase is approved by Ordinance, subject to public hearing and public comment, after a super-majority of at least six (6) affirmative votes, and such increase shall not be effective until after the first City General Election following the passage of the Ordinance providing for the increase in compensation.

This may be split into two separate amendments, Leon said.

• 4.11 – vacancies, forfeiture of office, filling of vacancies – Redefines how vacancies on the elected board shall be filled

• 4.12 – judge of qualifications. – Gives Cape Coral City Council the ability to remove a member if charged with conduct constituting grounds for forfeiture of office is found by a supermajority of six (6) affirmative votes of the Council to have committed conduct constituting grounds for the forfeiture of their office, said member so charged shall be removed from office

Charter Review Commission discussion

Compensation for the mayor and council, as well as expenses, which is outlined in 4.08 of the charter, was reviewed by the Charter Review Commission because of the stipend — which resulted in great public controversy, Leon said.

“This is the big one that everyone is going to be focused on. We are asking for two amendments,” Leon said.

As proposed,the Charter Review Commission recommendation would be to raise the compensation at the rate to $70,000 per year for city council, and to raise compensation for the mayor to $80,000 a year.

The last voter-approved compensation amendment, in 2015, had set compensation bases at $32,600 for council members and $36,600 for the mayor with any increases limited to the amount of the Social Security COLA. Salaries were $40,620 for council members and $46,604 for the mayor when the stipends were passed.

The compensation proposed would also be adjusted annually “by the amount of the social security cost of living adjustment.”

“We want to keep it easy. We didn’t want to cause any grief or issues,” Leon said. “We kept the same policy except the rate of pay. Just the dollar amount changes.”

The increase in pay was based on budgets pulled from many different cities and different compensation rates, he said, as they tried to compare population and what they thought was a fair price range.

“We decided on moving that forward to the people,” Leon said.

The new language “the mayor and council members shall not increase the salary, any retirement benefit, any stipend, or any other type of compensation paid to its members, unless such increase is approved by ordinance, subject to public hearing and public comment, after a sugar majority of at least six affirmative votes, and such increase shall not be effective until the first city General Election following the passage of the ordinance providing for the increase in compensation.”

He said they also added the third section which addresses if the amendment fails and does not move forward, or in the future addressing salary ranges and compensation.

“We are asking the voters to approve an amendment to allow council with a super majority, six votes, to be able to increase their compensation through ordinance. Instead of the stipend on the consent agenda, it has to be publicly heard twice and publicly noticed. The kicker is if the ordinance passes, it would not take effect until after the next election.”

Leon said they want to give it a fair process and give the public an opportunity to make comments on it.

“That one took a couple of meetings,” he said about the compensation discussion. “As a board we got together and hammered out the details. I think it went really well. I think the people of Cape Coral would be better for it.”

The qualifications and election for candidates, 4.05, was also discussed further. The recommendation now includes two types of proof of residency — “a sworn affidavit at the time of qualifying that provides their place of domicile or permanent legal address” and at least two of the following list “voter’s registration, driver’s license of Florida, identification card issued by the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, property tax receipt, homestead exemption, utility bill, or lease agreement.”

These documents must establish their legal residency within the city, and district, they are seeking office.

Leon said this was brought forward because of the hiccups in the charter from the former council member Patty Cummings’ situation. He said it is important to clean up the charter language and make sure candidates file proof that they live in the district and have a sworn affidavit that they have to live in that district.

While Cape Council candidates are currently voted into office citywide, they must live in the district they seek to represent.

Cummings was arrested and later sentenced, in a plea deal, to 24 months of probation after pleading guilty to three felony charges related to lying in her election paperwork about where she lived while running for the District 4 Council seat in 2022.

In addition, 4.02 – eligibility – language includes “a candidate for council member shall have been continuous full-time resident of the district in which they are seeking office for the entire calendar year immediately preceding their qualification for office. Residency shall be defined as the candidate’s place of domicile, or permanent legal address.”

“It used to be you have to live within the City of Cape Coral for a year,” Leon said, adding that now the council members have to live in their district for a year.

The section 4.11 – vacancies, forfeiture of office, filling of vacancies also includes recommendation. The section that the commissioners addressed were forfeiture of office if a council member fails to attend “three consecutive noticed City Council meetings without being excused by the council.”

The added language addresses how that seat, which becomes vacant, shall be filled. The seat shall be filled at the next scheduled city general election, as well as the council appointing, by majority vote, a person eligible to hold office to fill the vacancy until the elected person takes office.

If Council fails to appoint an eligible person within 30 days of the vacancy. A special election shall be called to fill the remaining term if any not sooner than 90 days and no later than 180 days unless three or more candidates qualify for the vacancy. If a primary election is required, it shall be held no sooner than 90 days and no later than 120 days following the vacancy, and the special general election shall be held within 45 days following the certification of the special primary election results.

In addition, this section also touches upon forfeiture of office if a council member fails to attend three consecutive “noticed City Council meeting without being excused by the Council.”

Leon said the current language states if the council missed any “regular Council meeting can be suspended and removed from office.” He said with all the different meetings the Council can call, they wanted it to include any meeting called by the council.

Another recommendation is 4.12 – judge of qualifications. The added language includes “If a member charged with conduct constituting grounds for forfeiture of office is found by a supermajority of six affirmative votes of the council to have committed conduct constituting grounds for the forfeiture of their office, said member so charged shall be removed from office. A vacancy resulting from this process shall be filled pursuant to 4.07 and 4.11 of this charter.”

Leon said the council has the discretion to be able to remove a council member or mayor if they broke the law and could be removed from office.

The mayor and mayor pro tem section of the charter, 4.06, was also addressed.

The added language includes that the election for the council member who shall be elected as the mayor pro tem shall be held at the first “regular” council meeting following the city’s General Election, except that in the years in which there is no City General Election.”

Leon said they talked about the mayor pro tem because it was a hiccup last year among the council.

“They ended up having a meeting before the new council took office,” he said. “We cleaned up that language to have the first regular council meeting after the General Election with the new council to pick the mayor pro tem.”

Meeting time and place

The meeting is scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 9, at 5 p.m. in Conference Room 220A at City Hall, 1015 Cultural Park Blvd. The meeting is open to the public.  

To reach MEGHAN BRADBURY, please email news@breezenewspapers.com