Audit Fees Negotiated

In another marathon meeting, formally extended three times, Council tackled a variety of items.

City Manager Mike McNees introduced the new Finance Director, Carol McDermott, commenting that she will bring a new level of professionalism and expertise that will “cause all of us to rise our game up a couple notches.”

The council unanimously approved an amendment to the Vietnam Memorial site plan, allowing removal of a Bismarck Palm and the construction of a new memorial base to hold the installation.

Engineer Brad Underwood was recognized at the Collier County Day of Service event with an Outstanding Achievement Award for his actions, and those of his crew, saving two individuals and a dog offshore from a sinking sailboat in 40-degree weather with 15-20 mph gusts.

Council approved a request by Fire Chief Chris Byrne to ratify a three-year collective bargaining contract representing an increase of 17.8% (an $833,000 total cost over three years). During the discussion, Chief Byrne noted a study found the department is 12% behind five other comparable communities. Key provisions of the contract included the former 10% fringe benefit allowance, which was rolled into base salary. A 4% annual wage increase each year, on a step plan which ranges increases between 1% and 4% annually. Assistant City Manager Casey Lucius said there are no changes to pensions, nor the addition of long-term healthcare or holiday pay. She noted the high level of specialized training and physical fitness measures department personnel must meet. Chairman Brechnitz commented he felt the City was being “overly generous.” He was the lone dissent in the vote of 6-1 to approve the new contract. When asked why we need two fire stations, Chief Byrne said, “It’s all about response time….the station on Elkcam Circle is surrounded by restaurants. Imagine you're at a restaurant and you choke on your food. Hold your breath right now, and you're at one of the restaurants in that vicinity. How long can you go without oxygen if we're coming from further than we are today from that station? It's heart muscle. It's brain muscle. Whatever the hazardous condition is, it’s going to continue to grow as we're further away. It’s all about getting to the patient, getting to the fire incident, and intervening immediately. And on the medical side, we do that with advanced life support measures.”

The Council meeting proceeded when the Controller, Sharon Dangles, reintroduced Chris Kessler from the audit company, CLA, to discuss the overages charged. Kessler stated the audit company had a total of 2,185 hours of overages (excluding hours the auditor dropped). Councilors questioned the lack of communication while the overages accumulated. Kessler noted the Finance Director and City Manager were informed ‘there were overages’, but not to the extent. Chair Brechnitz asked in July, again, the amount of the overages was not mentioned, just that they existed. Members on Council noted CLA must have had some sort of idea when employees billed for their hours, how high the hours were getting. Kessler felt he was being interrogated publicly and when asked if there was room for negotiation, he replied yes. After much discussion, it was agreed in a 7-0 vote to pay CLA a total of $69,190. This represents a reduction of $40,000.

Vice Chair Gray asked City Manager McNees to comment on a letter drafted to our local state house representative, Yvette Benarroch. McNees said there is a misunderstanding many of them had when this was discussed at the last meeting.

“In the title, it calls for a special election to be held in the case of a vacancy, and we took that to mean it was being ordered by act of the legislature if this passed. But if you go to section two, you can see that it calls for a referendum of the voters of Marco Island to enact its provisions, that which wouldn't be something that would be enacted by the legislature. It would be something that would have to be approved by referendum of our voters. Now, whether you, even based on that, still want to make comments about what it proposes. And your issues about home rule are certainly valid still. But that was an important clarification that the representative wanted to be sure was clear. This doesn't do anything except require a referendum of the voters to enact it.”

Councilor Champagne said he didn’t see a necessity for Benarroch’s proposal. “I think it should rest with us. We’re more than capable of handling it.” Councilor Palumbo said when he asked Benarroch what she thought of this, she said many people from the community came to her and she is trying to ‘solve a problem.’ Champagne said, “I just see this as being unnecessary.” The vice chair tried to formulate a course of action, suggesting a letter, “We respectfully and unanimously urge you to withdraw, rescind this bill, and allow Marco Island the opportunity to address this matter through our charter and our democratic local process.” Councilor Schwan noted this should go to the whole Collier County delegation.

McNee’s wanted to bring to council’s attention lines 33 and 34 of Benarroch’s proposal, which states that council shall appoint someone within 60 days. It goes further to say that if you don't, the governor can appoint.

After public comment, council concurred in sending a letter to Collier County delegates 6-0.