The Bill is In

CliftonLarsonAllen, LLP (CLA), the firm that handled the 2024 fiscal year audit for the City that found material weaknesses, sent its final bill - and it was $109,190 more than the original three-year contract. “Because we had some material weaknesses, there were some overages that were charged to the city, and those overages were mainly due to the corrective action plan,” explained Sharon Dangles, interim finance director. Any overage over 25% of the contract needs approval from Council. 

City Manager Mike McNees explained that lead auditor Chris Kessler indicated he had spoken with then-finance director Gil Polanco that the charges would be more than contracted. “I was very unhappy about this when I saw the bill for the first time,” said McNees. “I asked Mr. Kessler myself kind of midway through the process, once I became aware of how much back and forth there was (between Kessler and Polanco), which is what really drove the overage in hours.” McNees continued, “You know how extensive the questions and answers in the back and forth and the issue were with Mr. Polanco, and he told me yes, we will have an overage. I’ll work that out with Gil.” 

Councilor Stephen Gray, acting as Chair for Councilor Erik Brechnitz, who is recovering from surgery, said that had Council known, they could have approved an emergency increase to the purchase order. “What the chairman raises is a legitimate issue,” said McNees. “The purchase order should be increased before the bills are incurred, not after.” 

Councilor Rene Champagne pointed to a letter councilors received in July from Chair Brechnitz stating that the audit was going to cost the city more than originally proposed. “We knew it was going on,” Champagne said. “We could have asked the City Manager. We could have asked the Director of Finance before he resigned. We didn’t do it. So, we’re partially responsible.” Councilor Deb Henry and Tamara Goehler want to see a breakdown of the labor costs to identify where the charges increased.  

McNees points to “poor narratives, wrong information being provided, re-audit based on having to re-prepare schedules” as the reason for the overage. “I’m not making any excuse for him at all,” McNees said, “But I will tell you that as far in my observation, we were all focused primarily on one thing, which was getting the audit completed in time. Now, that doesn’t excuse, in my opinion, the contractor’s responsibility to secure a valid change order before it went that far.” McNees said that is even in the contractor's contract. 

Councilors were not questioning the work that went into the audit, citing the poor financial statements sent to CLA and the amount of work and editing needed to get the work done on time. Their issue was in the lack of a change order and council’s approval for the bill increase. 

In a 6-0 vote, Council has moved approval of the invoice to their October 20th meeting. They have tasked the City Manager to go back to CLA, get an itemized bill and see if there is leeway in the invoice. 

Council’s next discussion came from a local bill to the state legislature, sponsored by House Representative Yvette Benarroch, that would give the state a say in filling a vacant city council seat. Vice Chair Gray had read a letter from Benarroch that was intended to clear up any misinformation on the bill. “This is not Tallahassee or myself making changes to the Marco Island Charter,” the letter stated. “What I have filed is a local bill that simply places a question on the 26th general election ballot.”  

City Manager McNees received a copy of the bill when attending the legislative delegation meeting a few weeks ago and was able to hear the specifics of the bill. “I want to point out that what you just read says that the proposal is to put a question on for special election or special ballot question on whether or not the council or residents want to approve this amendment to the city charter. But that’s not what the bill says. The bill says that it amends the city charter directly.” McNees then asked Council what their position is regarding the proposed bill. 

Councilor Bonita Schwan attended the September 15 Collier County legislative delegation meeting and so was there when Benarroch brought the bill forward. “She did provide some inaccurate information,” Schwan said. “She stated before the full delegation that the appointment took seven months, and that is inaccurate. And I did make her aware of that because actually it was four months.” 

Councilors and citizen comments were unanimous in their disapproval of giving Tallahassee a say in the process of filling a councilor vacancy. “Maybe there is some room for the charter to be amended or fixed here, but that’s our decision,” said Joe Oliverio during citizen comment. “This is a city issue,” said Champagne. “I recommend that we send her a rather diplomatic but strong message that this council disagrees wholeheartedly with the approach of this bill.” 

Councilors as a whole agreed that the charter could use massaging to account for a vacancy, but what that would look like should come from city citizens and not Tallahassee. “I'm not ready to roll over on home rule. I'm not ready to roll over on a number of things,” said Gray. “We don't have to continue to pontificate on how much we want to keep Tallahassee in check or at bay.” 

Councilors will be reaching out individually to Benarroch to share their concerns. Vice Chair Gray will draft a letter to present at the next meeting that will formally present their views. 

“Email your state representative,” said Henry. “Let her know how you feel.” 

Fire/Rescue Chief Chris Byrne requested the Fire Fee Schedule includes plan review and inspection fees for emergency responder communications enhancement systems. This is in response to a statute adopted in 2023 establishing requirements to ensure adequate public safety and radio system coverage inside new and existing buildings. The tests done by a third-party vendor show whether the location is compliant, and if the building fails the signal strength test, a communications enhancement system is required. The installation of the enhancement system requires plan review, permitting and fire inspections, thus the need for the fees and plan review to be added. The request passed 6-0. 

Justin Martin, Public Works Director, asked for approval of the Sand Hill Street Shared Path Project go to the second lowest bidder, thereby rejecting the lowest bidder after some red flags in the vetting process surfaced. The motion passed 6-0 to award it to Infinite Construction. The Shared Path Project is on Sand Hill Street from Leeland Way to Winterberry Drive and will extend the existing shared path that connects the YMCA to Mackle Park and connect to the shared path on Calusa Park on Winterberry Drive.