Money on Council’s Mind

In their second meeting of a busy day, Council authorized the City Manager to approve payment to Titan Concrete and Utilities for an emergency sewer repair completed on North Collier for $80,824. Jeff Poteet, General Manager of the Sewer and Water Department, also received approval for a change order in the amount of $53,012 for a reconfiguration project on the second floor of the City Hall Annex building.   

Vice Chair Stephen Gray noted a new HR Director was starting with the City of Marco Island on October 6th.  He suggested doing an anonymous employee survey beforehand so the new director would get a great sense of perspective of all our employees. Assistant City Manager, Casey Lucius, pointed out that such a survey would be beneficial to senior managers as well, but had not been budgeted for in FY 2026. The last survey was done at an approximate $30,000 expense.   

A variance petition was discussed for United Church of Marco Island, as their Bargain Basket parking lot project had requested a variance in the width of buffering landscaping along 750 Bald Eagle. Without it, they’d lose up to ten parking spaces. A 20-foot buffer was reduced to 10 feet; the petition was approved. 

The 3% LCEC franchise fee was up for a second reading. Lucius said, “We're recommending re-establishing the LCEC franchise fee. It had been in place from 2004 to 2009. The ordinance can be amended or terminated at any time through 2034 and done by resolution of the city council. The new fee would generate $1.5 million in new revenue for FY26, and we're proposing that it all be dedicated to fund our capital replacement plan. She noted,“to balance the budget at rollback, $1.5 million was added to our CIP from the one-cent sales tax, the county sales tax. Since that funding source is no longer available, this fee would take the place of that $1.5 million to fund our CIP.” Councilor Deb Henry said, “I move to approve, and I'm going to say this specifically, in light of today, I don't want us to reject this today and then realize after Monday, we need this.” Motion was seconded by Councilor Bonita Schwan.  

Resident and past council member Ken Honecker commented that until Council had a clear understanding of what the spending cap would allow them to spend, “no sense in collecting money that you can't spend. Simple as that. You have a spending cap.” 

After two additional speakers and a brief council discussion, the roll was taken and the motion failed 4-3.      

Dan Smith, Director of Community Affairs, presented an amendment (Ordinance 25-08). Smith said informing residents of neighborhood Information meetings via the required certified mail postal service costs about $8,000 based on the last notice sent. It was agreed to send notices by First Class mail versus certified.    

Sharon Dangles, Interim Finance Director, presented a resolution implementing a convenience fee and brought up new software that can handle a pass-through convenience fee on debit, credit card, and electronic payment transactions. Council approved a fee back in 2020, but the Finance Department didn’t implement it. The City didn’t have the software to accommodate it. She pointed out that the City pays over $100,000 in fees, about half of that for the building permit department and the other half utility bills.  “If they don't want to pay the convenience fee, we do have other options. We have cash, check, (and) utility customers can sign up for auto draft, where it's automatically taken out of their checking account every month. So, if we do implement this convenience fee, it would be 3.5% for a credit card or a debit card.” 

Motion was made by Darrin Palumbo, seconded by Gray, and passed 7-0.   

The largest discussion happened when Poteet came before Council to discuss the $193,421 change order required to meet Florida Building Code requirements discovered during the permitting process. The work included architectural improvements, additional fire-rated walls to enclose the elevator from the second floor, and upgrades to the HVAC system to prevent smoke mitigation from the first floor if there was a fire on the first floor. 

Poteet was told he didn’t need to take the matter to Council - that was not true - although modifications up to 25% of the total contract threshold were met. According to McNees, it was a purchasing policy issue. He thought Council had approved the expense but when he checked, neither he nor Council Chair Erik Brechnitz could find Council approval, so it was put on the agenda. “The rules apply to us.” After discussion, Chris Byrne, Marco Island Fire Chief, clarified the building permit was denied under the last Fire Marshal as well as under the current Fire Marshal, both rejected it. McNees again said, “It was my mistake. I signed off outside of my authority.” Motion to approve the expenditure was voted 4-3.   

Next, Lucius discussed Legislative Initiatives for state funding will be presented to Collier County Legislative Delegation on September 15th. The City staff discussed what to propose, but decided instead of asking for the usual funding of three or four projects, they’d only ask to fund one initiative. They chose tidal flushing. They’ve received one grant for the approximate $5,000,000 project, which left a gap of $3.8 million. If they request the City of Marco Island’s lobbyist, Ron Book, to present this project to the state for approval, the amount requested would be $1.9 million, leaving only $1.9 million to be funded by the City. “It will be our only request this year,” said Lucius. Motion was approved 7-0. 

There was discussion on reactivating the Parks and Rec Foundation. They will meet on Thursday and report to Council in September.   

Finally, Councilor Tamara Goehler wanted to bring up a white paper on charging a toll on the bridges as a source of income. Residents and workers would be free. Goehler said she received much feedback on the idea. She asked the City attorney for an opinion, and he noted they couldn’t make residents and workers exempt, as it would be discriminatory. The item was dropped. 

Next, there was discussion as to whether or not to bring the State DOGE in to review all operations. McNees pointed out they’ve already sent them a large data download. They can come in at any time and the City would have to comply. It was mentioned DOGE was specifically looking for green projects, property management, DEI, homeless services, etc. which the City doesn’t have. Brechnitz said it is a free service and would be a ‘fresh set of eyes.’ There was not much concern if DOGE reviewed operations; however, with so much experience on the audit committee, it was suggested by Councilor Rene Champagne they wait until four positions were filled: Finance Director, Risk Management, HR Director, and Purchasing Director. “It would be a better, deeper dive by the Audit Committee.”