Vote for Burch
To the editor:
I was a member of the Utilities Expansion Committee established by City Council in March of 2008. Our charge was to evaluate various aspects of the program and recommend any changes that we felt were warranted. Significant areas of consideration included Contract Methodology, Sewage Collection Method and other aspects such as identifying areas of improvement and analyzing possible changes in the order in which areas would be served, specifically should we proceed with SW 6&7 and Water First in North 1-8.
The committee had eight members. Five were technically trained, with backgrounds in engineering, con-struction and manufacturing. One was a retired college professor, another was an attorney and former mayor, and the other a retired broker, currently running for mayor. We met many times over the year, both in full committee and subcommittees, and spent endless hours in independent re-search. We took field trips to other municipalities to educate ourselves and investigate alternate collection methods. We also had presentations concerning these issues from staff, MWH and other firms. I think it if fair to say that our investigation was exhaustive.
With such detailed study, you might expect many of the committee’s votes to be unanimous. Here are five votes that were taken on the most significant findings:
Research reaffirmed that there was no significant advantage to collection systems other then gravity, when all costs and equipment are factored. The vote to stay with gravity, which is in 98 percent of US systems, was 7 yeas, 1 nay.
The committee voted to proceed with SW 6&7 as prices had come down from previous areas, and the costs would likely be higher in the future. The vote was 7 yeas, 1 nay.
The committee voted to support charging capital expansion fees on all properties in an assessment area since all lots benefited from the project, and by their very existence, caused the system to be designed and installed for build-out. The vote was 7 yeas, 1 nay.
Installing water first in North 1-8 would have brought on 16,000 additional rate payers, which would have significantly reduced the rate increase that was recently required to support the utility bonds. It would also have helped with the problems of wells going dry, high salinity and overall poor water quality from individual wells. The vote was 7 yeas, I nay.
Finally, after exhaustive research into the problems caused in the ’90s, when the city was sued by several contractors over extra charges caused by design conflicts and lack of oversight, and individual investigations and presentations concerning available contracting options by the city attorney’s office, the committee voted to continue with the current Manager at Risk contracting method. The voter was 6 yeas, 1 abstention and 1 nay.
All of the nays were from John Sullivan. If this is an example of his ability to work with others, and offer persuasive arguments to win support for his ideas, then I believe we should all take a lesson from the examples above. Simply being negative about everything is not leadership, and is certainly not what we need more of on City Council.
I urge all voters to support Jim Burch for Mayor of Cape Coral.
Robert E. Dudley
Cape Coral