Swim center vote to cost Cape dearly
To the editor:
The cost of the Cape Coral City Council vote “Sinking the National Swim Center” on April 26:
The issue – would the city of Cape Coral and the National Swim Center Corporation sign a Memorandum of Understanding, that both sides would give their best efforts to have a signed formal agreement by May 31, 2010.
Bottom line was the Memorandum was not binding and did not cost the city of Cape Coral anything; except 34 days to put together an agreement that would have been feasible and acceptable to both parties and “no- harm – no foul” – if the parties could not come to an agreement.
The city council decided by a 5 to 3 vote that the city did not want to “waste” 34 days to explore and negotiate a contract.
The actual harm done is nearly incalculable:
Several years ago, the city of Cape Coral was investigating whether to form a “New County” because Lee County revenues or facilities weren’t coming back to the city. Now, Lee County was promising support, money, and sports contracting expertise to the city to put the National Swim Center in Cape Coral. But the council didn’t want to “waste” their time and said “No Thanks”!
Because Cape Coral is the “foreclosure capital several political efforts were taking place behind the scenes to find sources of funds to make the project possible. Council slammed the door on these efforts – saying “no thanks” – take your potential $30 million in state money and any other funds and go away, we don’t want to wait 34 days and see what is possible.
The Cape Coral City Council was very warm to the board of directors of the National Swim Center Corporation. You could see the “red” as the council demonized, belittled, and insulted these businessmen. Why would anyone wish to come here and be treated in this manner?
A citizen displayed an overhead characterizing USA-Swimming Membership and Coaching with pedophiles – with approval of the mayor and council – as all displays must be approved prior to the meeting. Oddly one businessman to appear before council was associated with USA-Swimming, a swim coach, and Olympian; wonder how welcome he felt?
The supposed deal breaker was the city’s investment in the project, The land, our pristine $7 million dollar swamp filled with exotic plants, trash and the occasional dead body.The city’s original position was they wanted their money back ($30 million) with a return on the investment. The National Swim Center agreed to this condition several times with the mechanism to be worked out in the contract but it fell on deaf ears.
But everything fell apart when several council members decided to negotiate the contract themselves and got hung-up over meaningless verbiage, since nothing was binding until all the terms and pre-conditions met and the contract prepared and examined by experts and finally signed by both parties May 31.
The city did not want to waste 34 days; even though, the city has invested hundreds of millions of dollars for the Del Prado Extension and Water Plant projects. Developing north Cape would have resolved these issues by growth along with the fixing the issues of poor roads and drainage.
The greatest loss for the city is the loss of trust in this council by the citizens, support for this project was estimated at 3 to 1 of registered Cape Coral voters. Civic duty, due diligence, and fiscal responsibility should have dictated this issue is fully vetted and explored rather than killing it outright before all information was available.
The costs of this special-interest victory are the alienation of the people, burnt bridges and loss of good will in both the public and private sector that probably can never be restored.
The low point of the evening was the victimization and violation of the civil rights of the children in attendance, along with the infringement of the parental rights of citizens with minor children. I realize the mayor can’t control what comes out of somebody’s mouth but the rules state Displays Have to be Preapproved and the speaker warned the mayor and council of what he was going to display.
Additional bizarre behaviors were exhibited throughout the evening by one councilman along with the pompous attitude of a councilman’s wife demanding a citizen to give up her seat with a “Don’t you know who I am?” comment.
If the council wants to be fiscally responsible membership at the Yacht Club should be brought in-line with YMCA rates ($350 single/$550 family) with daily rates of $10 along with lowering the pool temperature to 80 degrees. This had nothing to do with being responsible, the word is selfish.
The mayor and council’s comments “they saved the taxpayers money” should be clarified. The only money they saved was the 34 days needed to do their job of due diligence estimated at $25,000 in salaries that have to be paid anyway.
The immediate impact of this decision eliminated 50 Cape Coral teaching positions from the families moving to the Cape, delayed the development of north Cape by at least several years, and put the Cape Coral I-75 Interchange in jeopardy.
The lawyer on the council should have known what the council was debating, the legal definitions and the knowledge that in contract negotiations all items are negotiable. Where was this voice of knowledge and reason? Definitely “Missing in Action.”
The council can’t claim ignorance. They were supplied documents on Keys to Successful Public/Private partnerships, Managing Risks for the Public entity, and that in a PPP the business plan is the actual contract. Information on how to handle all the council’s concerns were addressed in these supplied documents.
And now you know the rest of the story – the city of Cape Coral voted to shirk their elected duty. We do not have to look back 10 years to find corruption and incompetence; the five members of council should resign and be aware the 3,500 signatures they ignored are more than enough to generate a recall election.
Gerald P. Finan
Cape Coral