Bike Committee Being Brought into “Sunshine”

Marco Island City Council requested a reorganization of their bike path advisory committee on Monday after a discussion cast a shadow of a doubt as to whether the committee has been operating under the Sunshine Laws. 

The Ad Hoc Bike Lanes and Shared Paths Advisory Committee has been in operation since at least 2006, said City Clerk Joan Taylor. She and City Councilwoman Bonita Schwan had suggested at a meeting in February that the committee become permanent. Ad hoc means temporary, and after operating for 18 years with several long-term projects, millions in funding, electric bikes, and other micro vehicles, the pathways committee will be needed for many more years to come, Schwan advised. 

When Council discussed the matter on Monday, incoming chairman of the bike path committee, Kevin Dohm, requested Council not make the committee permanent. 

If the bike path committee is bringing in millions of dollars, it’s not broke, so don’t fix it, Dohm pleaded to Council.

“If we have appointees each election cycle, we won’t get anything done,” Dohm said. “Keep us ad hoc,” he requested of Council. 

City Attorney Alan Gabriel advised that it is a long-term committee and needed to be regulated like all the other city committees advising the Council with announced meeting times, agendas, and minutes. 

Dohm said the committee members bicycle together several times each week and had breakfast together. 

The group gets together over breakfast, said Dohm. 

“We’re sorting out all the problems of the world, like all guys do over breakfast,” he said. 

City Councilwoman Deb Henry suggested the committee was operating like a club and thus could perhaps be organized differently than other committees.

The bike paths committee has long been led by outgoing Chairman Al Musico, who was acknowledged earlier in the Council meeting among several advisory committee volunteers who contributed greatly to the city over the years. 

Councilman Erik Brechnitz, acting as Council chair, lauded Musico for helping to secure more than $13 million in grants for constructing bike paths. 

“If I didn’t know better, I thought you were being paid, but I know you weren’t,” Brechnitz said of Musico's hard work. 

More than 40 miles of bike paths have been constructed on the island since the formation of the committee. 

“The State of Florida is connecting all bike lanes to ride from here to Tallahassee. It’s phenomenal,” said Dohm. 

But if the committee is formalized, all their success will be threatened, Dohm said. 

Councilman Darrin Palumbo said he didn’t expect the change to be a problem. 

“This was to honor the committee, not to hinder it,” Palumbo said. “This is one of the most successful committees in the history of Marco Island,” Palumbo added.

Musico had also long served as the Marco Island resident representative on the Collier County Metropolitan Planning Organization Citizens Advisory Committee. 

Monday, as part of the consent agenda, Council approved the nomination of Dohm to serve on the MPO going forward. 

Dohm is concerned that Marco’s bike committee may not be as successful securing grants from the Florida Department of Transportation or other sources if the committee’s membership has to change to Marco Island residents only as required by formal council advisory committees, he said. 

“Many of the members are not full-time. They bike ride all over the country,” Dohm said. 

“This is problematic. I can only say it that way without causing further trouble,” advised Gabriel. 

City Manager Mike McNees said he’s received two complaints that the meetings were not noticed and that people wanted to come. 

“All advisory committees would like to be free of that pesky Sunshine Law, but that is not an option for us,” said McNees. 

Among other things, the Sunshine Laws require people to be notified of meetings so they can attend. While many may think bike paths are not controversial, there have been controversial bike paths proposed locally on and off the island to varying degrees, such as one proposed across the Everglades, which in part due to Sunshine Laws, allowed concerned people to stop the construction that residents of the Everglades deemed destructive to nature. 

On Marco Island, concerns have arisen over the years, former bike path committee members have said. These concerns, among others, include constructing paths that are bumpy using older construction methods and the inability to attend or participate in meetings.

“The Sunshine Law has done more to inhibit our ability to function than anything else I can remember,” said Brechnitz. 

“Once again, you become the business interruption department,” Brechnitz said to Gabriel.

“If it isn’t broke, why fix it?” asked City Councilman Stephen Gray.

“All it takes is one lawsuit,” responded Gabriel. 

The Sunshine Laws are relatively minimal, McNees said. 

“It’s the law. Do we follow the rules all the time or when it’s convenient?” McNees asked Council. 

The bike path committee is making recommendations worth millions of dollars, and Council is approving them, McNees reminded meeting attendees. 

After much discussion, McNees and Taylor, with advice from Gabriel, are to devise a format for the bike path committee that will abide by the laws while allowing the flexibility Dohm requested to continue being successful in getting grants, they said. 

Palumbo motioned for staff to come back with a recommendation. Schwan seconded the motion and it passed 5-1, with Brechnitz opposing. 

In other matters, Council:

• Heard their first student led Pledge of Allegiance with Jillian Szczepanski of Marco Island Charter Middle School.
• * Approved on the consent agenda, without discussion, appointing Dohm as the resident representative on the MPO and Bryan Lynch to the Marco Island Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee, in a unanimous 6-0 vote.
• Presented employee service awards to Martha Montgomery, facilities supervisor, for 10 years of service; Marco Island Police Capt. John Wallace for five years of service; Assistant City Manager Casey Lucius for five years of service; and Thomas Bien for five years of service with the water-sewer department.
• Presented awards in recognition of several volunteer advisory committee members, including Nate O'Donnell of the Beach Advisory Committee; Shelli Connelly of the Beautification Advisory Committee; Musico of the Ad Hoc Bike Path Committee; Allyson Richards of the Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee and two people who could not be present, including Steven Sokol of the Waterways Advisory Committee and David Vergo of the Planning Board.                   
• Heard a presentation from Planning Board Chairman Jason Bailey, who said he enjoys reading the City Code and asked for Council’s direction on two matters, including calculating actual density to see if areas are in compliance and to propose a system for addressing when codes need to be updated to minimize variances and for other purposes. Council gave their consent to move forward on those and Brechnitz requested the Planning Board meet with MICA, the Marco Island Civic Association, to better understand which deed restrictions were of most importance to them. Council also requested the Planning Board consider how or if bathrooms at South Beach could be added on city property.
• Approved, in a unanimous 6-0 vote, ordinance 25-03 on first reading to amend benefit amounts and eligibility; a health insurance subsidy; and the deferred retirement option plan to be in accordance with the collective bargaining agreement between the city and the International Association of Fire Fighters Local No. 2887.
• Heard from three residents requesting support for smoke free beaches, including Wynn Watkins, who is president of Trinity Life Foundation of Naples, which supports at risk children, including through a program called SWAT, Students Working Against Tobacco. Youth SWAT participants from Manatee Middle School spoke on how important it was for their brains and health not to smoke and vape, urging Council to approve smoke free environments. And, heard from Joe Oliverio that plans to improve the ball field at Tommie Barfield Elementary School are continuing.
• Reconsidered the $75,000 contract with Kimley Horn for grant writing and fundraising services for water quality and land conservation purposes, as well as other fundraising requests, after Council had failed to approve the contract in a 3-3 vote at a previous meeting. Council then approved 5-1, Brechnitz opposing, to bring the matter up again from a February meeting to the March 3 meeting. Palumbo said he bought season tickets with one of three of the other applicants, Impact Philanthropy, who submitted a proposal, competing against Kimley Horn. Council approved the contract with Kimley Horn in a 5-1 vote Monday with Palumbo opposing it.
• Approved a purchase order in the amount of $66,838.85 with Ten-8 Fire and Safety LLC to repair Marco Island’s only fire ladder truck.
• Offered their communications with Gray suggesting people spray their vehicles to prevent rat damage and to use turn signals. He also recommended attendance at 5:00 PM Monday, March 10 at Mackle Park to discuss the Port Marco Variance PUD. Henry requested a future agenda to consider a round table to assist advisory committees that consider overlapping issues; Palumbo requested Comcast/ Xfinity offer a presentation on how to increase priority of internet service following a storm and to put on a future agenda a discussion on obtaining TDC grants for the construction of a bathroom at South Beach, which Lucius advised would require some city budgeting as well. Brechnitz wanted to know more about a $750,000 grant to beautify medians saying he thought they looked atrocious.
• Agreed to hold a special meeting at 1:00 PM March 17 to fill the seventh vacant Council seat.