Ahead of the November election, Marco Island City Council voted Councilman Darrin Palumbo to the Collier County Tourist Development Council at their meeting on Wednesday, October 16. That meeting had been rescheduled due to Hurricane Milton.
Palumbo is to take the TDC seat currently filled by Council Chairman Jared Grifoni following the Nov. 5 election.
Vice Chairman Erik Brechnitz had wanted to serve on the TDC as a natural continuity to his service on the Coastal Advisory Committee, he said.
However, Councilman Greg Folley suggested Brechnitz serve on the Metropolitan Planning Organization again instead.
Folley’s seat on the MPO is to become vacant following the election because Folley had resigned from Council when he intended to be elected to Florida House of Representatives District 81. However, Folley lost the Republican primary to Yvette Benarroch. Folley did not yet respond to a request from this reporter to whether he may withdraw that resignation to City Council
Brechnitz said he did not want to serve on the MPO again, saying that although he gave it his best in the past, he found it tedious and not in his wheelhouse.
Brechnitz is to continue to serve on the Coastal Advisory Commission, which gets its funding from TDC and has overlapping concerns, he said.
The Collier County Commission will approve Marco Island’s nominees to the TDC and other boards, on their consent agenda.
Collier County Commissioner Rick LoCastro of Marco Island serves on the TDC until January 1.
Councilman Joe Rola questioned whether the need to appoint a second Marco Island representative to TDC was necessary prior to the election when there would be additional new council members to consider for such roles following the election.
“If we wait 31 days, we’ll be on November 18. We’ll have four elected councilors available plus one appointed councilor for a full house,” Rola said. “I think that’s a better deal for the citizens,” he said.
Council will be appointing someone to fill Folley’s seat due to his resignation. It’s not yet clear if Folley could be reconsidered if he has an interest to stay on the Council since losing the District 81 primary race.
Grifoni insisted that due to the hurricanes, the TDC may have additional meetings and that the new appointee taking his seat should get started right away.
“You have the potential for a 3-3 council and then you don’t have any representation on that board at all,” Grifoni said.
City Council’s first meeting after the election is Nov. 18 and TDC meets November 19.
The Board of County Commissioners meets November 12, so if there weren’t a new Marco Island appointee prior to the election, there would be one less Marco representative on the TDC for November and December due to the next round of meeting schedules.
For December, Marco Island City Council meets again on December 9 and the County Commission meets December 10 with the TDC meeting December 17. It could be challenging to get an evening appointee from Marco on November 9 to the County Commission agenda the following day.
Despite Brechnitz’s interest in the position to serve on the TDC, Grifoni chose Palumbo and Council agreed in a 5-2 vote with Rola and Brechnitz voting no.
Once the County Commission approves Palumbo on their consent agenda, he and LoCastro will both serve TDC from Marco Island until LoCastro’s TDC term ends in January.
Since Marco had at least one representative already on TDC through the end of the year, Rola said it would be better to wait until after the election to have more time, discussion and candidates for the seat.
Folley’s seat on the MPO is to be filled following the elections of November 5, at the November 18 City Council meeting with the newly elected council.
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