Council discusses law enforcement issues, town election schedule
The Fort Myers Beach Town Council received updates on a pair of key topics Monday: Law enforcement and city elections.
Capt. Matthew Herterick of the Lee County Sheriff’s Office and Lee County Supervisor of Elections Tommy Doyle each gave presentations at the start of the regular council meeting.
Town Council members presented Herterick with issues that they have been receiving from residents. Herterick said the office has been addressing many of them.
Issues ranged from people using the bus shelters as a place to drink when it’s raining to a big one – a perceived the disconnect between the town and the LCSO.
Herterick there doesn’t seem to be a hierarchy regarding what the town considers important in regards to law enforcement and that deputies are confused by town ordinances and how they need to be enforced.
Mayor Anita Cereceda asked Herterick if both sides could get together to review the ordinances and prioritize actions. Having a council liaison to the LCSO was also suggested.
Among the other issues discussed was the problem of people using motorized bikes on the sidewalk, which are going faster than pedestrian speed, and golf carts, which tend to be used by kids, who race them.
Doyle spoke with town council about a new election schedule, which remains undetermined.
Doyle said the Beach’s March elections got about a 36 percent participation rate, which is pretty high when you consider Cape Coral’s municipal turnout was almost half that.
He also presented other stats that showed, in general, that Fort Myers Beach participates in elections at a higher rate than most municipalities in the area.
In the 2016 presidential election, 74 percent of the voters on Fort Myers Beach voted, as opposed to 67 percent countywide. Doyle anticipated as much as 90 percent in Fort Myers Beach for the 2020 elections, 80 percent for the county.
Of those who voted in the 2018 midterms, more than half either mailed in ballots or voted early.
Locally, Doyle said moving the elections to November would make fiscal sense and would not require the town to put it to referendum. The change could be made by ordinance, since it would only be extending current council member terms by a few months.
Another plan that would call for four-year terms as opposed to the three-year terms (which result in elections in even-odd years) would require a referendum.
Councilmember Joanne Shamp suggested they move the election as soon as possible, which would extend the time of council’s term, but would only require an ordinance.
The move to November would save the town about $17,000 in two of the three years the town holds elections.