City Council Addresses Complex Agenda Items

At the October 7 Marco Island City Council meeting, the agenda included the debated subject of sidewalks, and who should be responsible for them. The issue had been somewhat exacerbated by some residents, who, after being cited over the last two years took it upon themselves to review sidewalks throughout the island to see if they were being singled out for “selective enforcement.”

The results would bring forth hundreds of similar incidents and a debate as to who should be responsible. The argument being made by many focused on the fact that the sidewalks had been turned over to the city, after a property owner had it constructed as part of their responsibility when their residence was built.

City Manager Mike McNees was tasked to return to council with possible solutions. McNees brought back a cafeteria list of options for council’s consideration, including:

• Maintain the status-quo.
• Have the city pre-qualify vendors for property owners with agreed upon costs per linear foot.
• City do improvements and then have costs assessed to the owner over a 3-5-year period of time.
• City take over sidewalks completely.

The manager’s report on the financial impact to the city was strongly questioned, specifically his use of the figure of $500,000 to $600,000 annually. Councilor Larry Honig estimated the possible exposure at approximately $200,000 at the outside. Others agreed with Honig, questioning the staff’s estimates, utilizing the average cost of $750,000 per year to repave streets over the last several years as the basis for their calculation.

Councilor Jared Grifoni suggested that if the city was to take over, it should be a referendum issue to have obtain approval of the city’s property owners.

Councilor Honig drew the comparison of paving roads in front of a home to the maintenance of the sidewalks. “We should budget for this,” said Honig. He again suggested reducing Code Enforcement back to the 2016 budget levels to cover the expenses of dealing with this issue.

Councilor Charlette Roman believed that more discussion and planning was needed before the city could take over the maintenance of sidewalks. She preferred looking at options two or three prior to the city moving into assuming full responsibility for the maintenance.

Needing more information, the council would again task the city manager to come back with additional data to allow them to finalize a decision.

Fish Kill

A short discussion was held about a recent fish kill observed in some of the Marco waterways, which centered on who is responsible for the removal of the dead fish from that isolated incident.

Although councilors discussed red tide, as of yet, no specifics have been released from authorities which have jurisdiction.

City Manager McNees reported that he was not aware of any organizations which would be responsible for the clean-up in this type of incident. In the past, proactive volunteers have removed dead fish from the beaches when they were found.

Last year, a large fish kill was observed within Moorings Bay in Naples. That incident required the services of a specialty contractor to remove the fish and have them properly disposed of, in order to prevent any health hazards.

The manager will report back to council as information becomes available.

Up in Smoke

An attempt by Council Chair Erik Brechnitz to defuse a potentially contentious issue, regarding the possible legalization of recreational marijuana and the location of distribution outlets on the island, went up in smoke when he could only find the support of two other councilors. Councilors Howard Reed and Charlette Roman supported continuing the dialogue on the subject.

Brechnitz wanted the city to develop an ordinance to ban the sale of recreational marijuana within the city boundaries. A separate committee has been established to allow a referendum vote on an ordinance to do just that. Brechnitz’s effort would have accomplished that and would not have subjected residents to a year of divisive debate regarding the issue. His desire would have had nothing to do with the consumption or use of a product if it was made legal but would have protected Marco Island from being the sole source of it within Collier County.

Earlier this year council voted to approve the sale of medical marijuana after a long and heated debate on the subject. Only Councilors Brechnitz and Howard Reed voted against the measure, citing the fact that Marco Island would be the only outlet within Collier County to allow the sale of those products. Collier County and the City of Naples have resisted a similar effort and to this day dispensaries are not allowed in either jurisdiction.

During that debate over medical marijuana, Brechnitz pointed out that in other areas of the country where medical cannabis was allowed it became only a matter of time that recreational marijuana was legalized. An effort is now underway to legalize recreational marijuana within Florida and may appear on the 2020 or 2022 ballots.

Councilors Grifoni, Honig, Victor Rios and Sam Young opposed the efforts of Brechnitz and he failed to gain consensus to move forward.

Creating a Stormwater Utility

Councilor Honig waded into the issue of how to deal with stormwater management. This is a continuation of council’s discussion regarding how to protect the waters within and that abut Marco Island.

The last several years have seen considerable focus on the issue, mostly centered around the discharges from Lake Okeechobee and the effects on the estuaries downstream, and the associated red tide issues that have grown within the Gulf of Mexico. Impassable roadways due to flooding are another issue which Honig spoke about during his presentation.

Although his presentation showed that 40% of municipalities have formed stormwater utilities, his numbers did not take into consideration the unique geographic nature of the challenges facing an island community and the extent those issues might impact the costs of dealing with stormwater.

Councilor Honig attempted to draw some similarities with how Naples has structured their management of stormwater. However, a portion of the City of Naples Stormwater Management has relied upon 12 large pipes collecting stormwater from the west of U.S. 41 and running west where it is discharged directly into the Gulf. For over a decade, they have been reviewing options.

Naples is now in the process of undertaking a large project which will eliminate those outfalls which have been shown to be polluting the Gulf. They are prepared to enter a 10-year master plan to deal with their stormwater issues. They have also entered into a program which will see the elimination of the final areas relying on septic systems.

Council agreed that they should move forward and have the staff assemble more data and information regarding how to develop a more comprehensive plan to deal with stormwater and the effects it may have on water quality in and around Marco Island.