Mar 9, 2011 4 min read

Bob Raymond and Jo List showed council experience matters and Joe Kosinski, who received the most votes, proved adding town experience was vital to the voters of Fort Myers Beach. The three Beach council candidates collected the most votes among the four hopefuls on the ballot Tuesday to knock out candidate Carl Conley and become the newly elected town officials in the unofficial municipal election race.

The plurality election featured the top three vote getters being elected without the need of a runoff. The certified results will not be available for a few days to allow federal personnel and overseas servicemen and servicewomen a grace period to vote. At the three precincts, a total of 1,299 of 4,970 registered voters cast ballots for a 26.14 percent turnout.

Kosinski (a member of the Town Local Planning Agency) was the top vote getter with 1,142 votes or 31.77 percent of the vote, while Raymond (the Beach council’s vice mayor) collected 1,111 votes or 30.90 percent of the tallies, and List (councilwoman for the past three years) received 1,087 votes or 30.24 percent of the vote. Conley, who was heavily involved in the community but had no prior experience working for the town, received 255 votes and only 7.09 percent of the vote.

At 7 p.m., the first set of results showed 252 votes casted from 94 absentee ballots. List was in the lead with 32.14 percent of the votes, while Raymond was second with 30.95 percent, Kosinski with 30.56 percent and Conley with 6.35 percent.

In the victory, Raymond and List gained re-election while Kosinski’s path through the LPA (like Mayor Larry Kiker, Councilman Tom Babcock and Raymond) seemed fruitful.

Kosinski, who has 30 years experience as an engineer and has offered his skills pro bono to the Town of Fort Myers Beach on the Mound House project, was in a festive mood after discovering the voting results.

“I feel absolutely great, and I’m overwhelmed right now,” he said. I love the present council, and I think they are heading in the right direction. I’m there to continue that. I think I can give good direction to the community, and I want to make paradise a better place.”

Raymond, who is involved off island as the Lee County Metropolitan Planning Organization chairman as well as being a member of the Transportation and Growth Committee for the Florida League of Cities (one of only 40 members in the state), the LeeTran Oversight Committee and the Lee County Human Services Council, celebrated with the other two winners at an after-election party at Junkanoo on the Beach.

“I feel wonderful, and I think we probably have the best group we’ve ever had” he said. “I think we are going to work as a team and work well with the county. We will be starting on the water utility, since the validation should be through in about a month. We’ll also be pushing the downtown redevelopment even harder now. There’s a quite a bit that should happen.”

List, who was instrumental in beginning the junior council at Beach Elementary and helping in the Bay Oaks Recreational Campus transition from Lee County owned to Town operated as the council liaison and is set to begin her second term in office, rejoiced with her constituents Tuesday evening.

“I feel absolutely fantastic, and I’m very happy for Joe and Bob’s win,” said List. “We have to get to work on the water utility and Estero Boulevard and get the parcels in Times Square straightened out. I really foresee this council working their butts off.”

The newly elected officials will be sworn in for their three-year terms at the next regular town council meeting on Monday, March 21, at 6:30 p.m.