Guest Commentary | The city’s campaign against ‘one’ youth sports program continues
There’s a famous quote that says, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” The Cape Coral Rowing Club is watching this adage play out in real time. While the futures of our young people and our nonprofit organization’s very existence hang in the balance, our city government continues to gaslight.
On May 6, Councilmember Laurie Lehmann requested a meeting with me to discuss her “proposal” that she and “her team” (two NWNA guys and a guy from HONC) had been working on. This was the ‘free solution’ that she had referred to on multiple occasions in prior public forums. Since this proposal did not include me or any other qualified subject matter experts, I was not surprised to learn that it was completely non-viable. I sat in her office (with another club member witnessing) and pointed out the most glaring issues that made it immediately non-functional. She made a few notes and indicated that she would have to ‘return to the drawing board’ but was committed to finding the rowing club a home.
I reminded her that the rowing club had already been given a home by a prior legislative decision and that all this council needed to do was agree to license terms. A few hours later, in the regular council meeting, Lehmann publicly indicated that we had spoken about her plan and that she would need to reevaluate it based on our conversation. She even put forth a motion to discuss it in a future Committee of the Whole meeting. Her motion was ignored and the meeting moved on.
Oddly, after her public admission that the plan required reevaluation, she pitched it as though it were viable later in the meeting.
During subsequent discussions regarding moving the club to another location, Councilmember Keith Long indicated that he was not willing to approve spending more money at some other park. Lehmann assured him that she had a solution that would not cost the city any money — the same plan that she had just been told was unworkable.
So, with full knowledge that her solution was not viable, she weaponized it to try and manipulate Long to keep him from changing his vote and allowing the club to finally reside at Tropicana Park. Her lie achieved what she intended.
At the end of the May 6 meeting, council voted 5-3 to have city staff find a “Plan B” solution for the club. The rowing club assumed this meant that we would finally stop hearing about Lehmann’s off-book, back-room proposal drawn up by her unqualified NWNA pals and enter the land of realistic, viable, engineered solutions.
I think this is what most people, including other council members, expected upon leaving that meeting. The critical thinkers among us already know that any properly engineered project in the Flagstone Canal west of Crystal Lake Park will involve excavation and grading to soften the shoreline to provide a safe landing spot for a dock ramp. This site prep work will require regulatory permits to mitigate shoreline mangroves and remove erosion-controlling riprap.
It will take some time and cost some money.
We also have a good idea of what a properly engineered dock system costs because the city already paid for one at Tropicana Park. The intelligent expectation should be that a legitimate project will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and take several years to implement. Why would a location with a severe, 2:1 shoreline slope cost LESS to prepare than the property developed as Tropicana Park?
This brings us to the present day. According to the backup material attached to this week’s council meeting agenda, critical thinking has left the building. Rather than presenting a legitimate, properly engineered proposal, we will be fed the same unworkable plan that Lehmann has already been told is nonviable.
Nothing could more accurately reflect my opening quote. Lehmann has had no follow-up conversations with me and made zero efforts to rectify the glaring failures in her inept plan. She’s just recycling the exact same thing. This display of cognitive dissonance is both disrespectful and, frankly, concerning.
The behavior shown by elected officials against our youth nonprofit organization is simply unconscionable. It is unethical and irresponsible, at a minimum. Taxpayers have already paid for a perfectly engineered and safe solution for the rowing club at Tropicana Park. This council’s insistence on denying these youth their long-term home to appease a few people from a small lobbying group is criminal.
All this nonsense only underscores the critical importance of our engagement in local elections. We must come together and make our voices heard at the ballot box. Our own quality of life and that of future generations depends on our active engagement. Please vote wisely in this primary election and all subsequent elections.
Saundra Weston is president of the Cape Coral Rowing Club as well as a USRowing Level 2 certified coach and director of the club’s youth rowing program.