Questioning candidates’ statements
To the editor:
Several of the candidates for Cape Coral City Council are on record with statements concerning financial matters that boggle the mind, but have apparently gone unchallenged. With tight budgetary times for all of us, I believe these comments deserve our scrutiny.
Chris Leetz, candidate for District 4, said that if 30 years ago the developers had charged each of the 230,000 lots $2, that we would have “billions of dollars for the UEP by the compounding of principal and interest.” This statement should alarm voters for several reasons.
First, the principal is never compounded; it remains a fixed amount. Second, the interest rate that would have to be used for $460,000 to reach $2 billion (remember, he said billions) would be over 30 percent! At a more realistic rate of 5 percent annual interest, the amount we would have today would be about $2 million. If this statement represents Mr. Leetz’ understanding of a pretty simple financial concept, then he has no business near our city budget.
The second comment made recently was by District 1 candidate Jim Martin. He has stated at most of the forums that if we went to a design-bid-build contract methodology for the UEP, “we could save 25 percent to 30 percent at a minimum.” This is an outrageous statement, and ignores the fact that in SW 6&7, the cost for MWH’s design and management functions was just 12 percent of the total project cost. Councilmember Brandt’s continued assertion that is was in the high 30s, is probably where Jim got his number, perhaps at a Road Ahead meeting.
Mr. Martin chooses to ignore the fact that the city suffered through this type of contract early on in the UEP, and wound up settling $14 million in litigation. Design-bid-build is by far the most risky contract type allows by state statute. Done properly, it would require a large city staff, perhaps 15 to 20 individuals, for oversight something I am sure council would be reluctant to approve.
If these types of statements are indicative of these two candidates’ grasp of the most basic areas of city government, then I urge voters to reject them.
I recommend voting for Dolores Bertolini for District 4 and Marty McClain for District 1. I further support Mayor Burch and Kevin McGrail in their races as well.
Chris Keegan
Cape Coral