Library ground breaking doesn’t slow issue
The Fort Myers Beach Library celebrated with a groundbreaking ceremony for its future building addition on Tuesday. A day before the event, many Beach residents in opposition and defense of the special district’s $9 million expansion efforts listened to a discussion about the issue at a FMB Town Council work session.
After an hour on the topic, council members consented to allow their attorney to accumulate materials to send to county officials for the “oversight review process.” In the meantime, they also agreed to open a better line of communication with library officials by meeting with them to discuss a process that everyone can follow toward the expansion and the necessary and correct filing of legal paperwork.
“There is a requirement to do our job,” said Kiker. “I think it’s up to us in this room to figure out how to communicate better.”
Council members will now document everything regarding the Beach Library and correspondence between the districts. Kiker believes it is time for Town Manager Terry Stewart, himself, Beach Library chairperson Katie Corning and Director Leroy Hommerding to get together and hash things out.
“It’s time to sit down in a room and discuss a process,” he said, “so that we can bring the information forward in a productive manner and get everybody to shake hands and filter out the information to the public.”
There has been public outcry that library officials are skirting around the issue by not answering direct questions about the expansion. The Beach mayor likened the issue as a snowball gaining size downhill with a destructive path. He said the issue has grown ugly without communication between the two districts.
“The communication has got to loosen up a little bit,” Kiker said. “There are some questions I have heard asked that I think are decent, qualified, educated questions. They (taxpayers) have not received the response they deserve. It’s upsetting people.”
Before the shovel hit the ground, Town Attorney Jim Humphrey recommended the council take the next step towards helping the Beach Library come in compliance of Chapter 189 requirements. He stated Attorney General opinions of “the importance of an independent special district to work and coordinate with the local general purpose council as well as Lee County.”
“One of the issues was the fact that when an independent special district is looking at a major expenditure, then Chapter 189 requires that they provide each local government entity with a facility’s report, and the statue even identifies what the report should contain,” said Humphrey. “While we have received a report, in my opinion, it does not meet the prerequisite of a facility’s report. The next step is to notify the county of the fact that the district itself has not provided what Chapter 189 requires. In addition, you are to notify the Department of Community Affairs.”
Besides the facility’s report, there have been concerns from Beach taxpayers that library officials have over-budgeted through the expansion proposal process to generate income for the addition.
“They generated a significant amount, I understand $9 million, by overstating their expenses and understating their revenue,” said Humphrey. “A special district must tax in accordance of its budget.”
Humphrey referenced the Florida Constitution when explaining the dealings of a special district.
“When you are planning a major capital improvement of where you need to borrow the money by which it will be paid for by citizen’s taxes, then you have to go to the citizens and get their approval by referendum, before you can encumber the bonds and debt,” he said.
Town officials have said they have not tried to stop or slow down the expansion process and defend the accusation that they are trying to “grab money” from the library.
“The council’s participation has been limited to our administerial abilities with regard to the site plan, etc., and the building permit,” said Stewart. “The town has done nothing to hold up any of those processes. You were just dealing with the fact that it met the comprehensive plan. You were not opining on the appropriateness of the expenditures and did nothing to stall or delay anything in regards to this project.”
Kiker says the council will send library officials a formal written request to use town hall for their meetings to help in the process of a better, informed public. The library board members have voted against using town hall in the past.
The Beach Library, whose expansion is expected to more than double the existing layout, has received the building permit and construction orders to begin the project. According to Hommerding in his weekly library column, the permit and impact fees accompanying this authorization totaled $55,873.77.
“The entire review process was a long one, but hopefully one that has made the project even more effective, safe, and forward-looking,” he wrote in that column.