To the editor:

Vote Joe Kilraine for District 5 Cape Coral City Council–a man dedicated to improving the functioning of Cape Coral FULL TIME.

His opponent, Charlie Pease, already has a full-time job as the Director of Cape Coral Technical College and is fully embedded in the political scene in Cape Coral and Lee County. IMHO Mr. Pease will merely be a rubber stamp on the Gunter agenda that is systematically destroying the history of this city and ignoring the wishes of our citizens with overdevelopment without any concerns for the adequacy of our infrastructure.

This is where Joe Kilraine will shine. He has lived in the Cape for 20 years and watched the non-representative council for 15 years before deciding to run for office. He is no novice to the city and policies

Joe Kilraine has decades of real-time experience tackling the engineering difficulties that Cape Coral Water Quality, reverse osmosis and geo-structure expertise directly applicable to Cape’s water challenges. He knows city operations, budget and has done projects exceeding anything the city has on the horizon and managed budgets over $20 billion and oversaw 10,000 employees who relied on his leadership in sustaining a profitable operation.

The decades of leadership and vision articulation are key attributes that are of more consequential importance to long-term lasting effects within the city as Council has the potential to project influence upon city policy and its future, well beyond the defined role contained in the city charter.

With Joe Kilraine’s background and real time management expertise in engineering and managing/troubleshooting issues like water quality would be HIGHLY beneficial to the city. Fluid dynamics is his area of expertise, he has essentially done it his entire career.

Mr. Pease has alluded that Joe Kilraine is old and irrelevant. That Joe Kilraine’s background as an oil guy whose skills are not applicable or transferrable to city governance.

SERIOUSLY? Last December, the Cape Coral Council essentially voted themselves a 100% stipend rationalizing it because the council members were putting in too many hours performing the duties of the council requires.

One must ask how Mr. Pease intends to fulfil his duties as Director of Cape Coral Technical College and be able to attend all the meetings with staff, other council members, attending Committee of the Whole meetings (which are held in the mornings) and regular council meetings in the late afternoons. Then add in special events council members are required to attend and, IMHO, there simply are not enough hours in the day for Mr. Pease to adequately perform the duties of his director’s job and do the research, perform the duties of council members and attend council meetings to benefit the citizens of the Cape.

You tell me how a man with the following educational background does not have skills that transfer to city governance. Just look at the educational “qualifications” of the current council. No one comes close to the expertise Joe Kilraine has:

Education/degrees: BS Chemical Engineering Bucknell University 1972, Master Business Administration (MBA) University of Scranton 1974, MS Polymer, metallurgical, ceramics Engineering /MS Chemical Engineering Lehigh University 1977, Doctorate Business Administration (Contracts) California Western University 1992 and Executive Leadership Training Programs spanning several years with Peter Drucker, arguably the guru of effective executive leadership.

Now look at Mr. Pease’s real time experience in matters such as water control or any of the issues Cape Coral is inundated with. I see none.

Marie Kavanaugh

Cape Coral