Council votes to leave Cereceda off charter review commission
In a vote that highlighted the deep divide currently at play in the Town of Fort Myers Beach, the town’s Local Planning Agency Chair and first Mayor Anita Cereceda, was excluded from the town’s charter review commission during a 3-2 vote by the town council on Monday.
During a second vote, Cereceda was named as an alternate to the commission after winning a 3-2 vote over Michele Cherney. Cereceda served multiple terms on the town council as a councilmember and Mayor and helped lead the town following a vote by residents to incorporate in 1995. Cereceda most recently served as mayor in 2020 before being term-limited and was the last Fort Myers Beach Observer Humanitarian of the Year as voted by readers in 2022.
There were 11 applications for the five seats on the charter review commission. The commission is an advisory committee tasked with reviewing the town’s charter and making recommendations for updating the charter. The charter spells out the powers of town officers and councilmembers, and is essentially the town’s constitution defining how ordinances are approved and how the duties of each office are delegated. The last review was a decade ago. The reviews of the charter are required every 10 years by Florida statute.
Mayor Dan Allers and Vice Mayor Jim Atterholt backed Cereceda on the first vote. Councilmember Scott Safford, who didn’t include Cereceda on his initial vote for the commission, voted for Cereceda as an alternate. Councilmembers John King and Karen Woodson both voted against the appointment of Cereceda to the commission, and backed Cherney over Cereceda as an alternate. Cherney, who sits on the town’s Bay Oaks Recreational Campus Advisory Board, was named as a second alternate.
Cuncilmembers voted to appoint Jim Dunlap, Beverley Milligan, Edward Schoonover, Bryan G. Thomas and Henry Zuba as the five members on the charter review commission.
Four other applicants to the commission did not receive any votes from councilmembers. Greg Scasny, who ran for the town council last year and lost a close race with Scott Safford, was among those who applied and who did not receive any votes. Other applicants not receiving a vote were Rebecca Link, Anne Neaf and Dr. Tyler Spradling.
Scasny has been involved in forming Protect FMB, a group currently in litigation with the town council over its approval of the Seagate Development Group’s condo project.
Cereceda came under fire from Safford and Woodson in April for her support of Protect FMB, which included a donation to the organization. Cereceda, whose position on the Local Planning Agency is up for reappointment in October, declined to comment.
Dunlap, required a waiver from the town’s rules since he already sits on the Local Planning Agency (LPA). Dunlap, who owns residents in Estero and Fort Myers Beach, was voted onto the LPA last year.
In his letter seeking appointment to the charter review commission, Dunlap called for “challenging” the current charter and said it was “an opportunity to consider potential alternative solutions for the next 10 years.”
Milligan, a Fort Myers Beach resident and developer behind the Myerside Resort approved by the town council last year to be built across from the Fort Myers Beach Elementary School, is also a Canadian citizen who is not a registered voter in the town.
Schoonover, a town resident, needed a waiver from the town’s rules for the charter review commission since he sits on two town advisory committees – the town’s Anchorage Advisory Committee and the Bay Oaks Recreational Campus Advisory Board. Thomas, a town resident, sits on the town’s Audit Committee, and was also granted a waiver.
Zuba is a former chair of the Fort Myers Beach Local Planning Agency.
Schoonover and Thomas were unanimous choices for the commission by the council. Dunlap and Zuba received votes from all councilmembers except Woodson. Milligan received votes from King, Safford and Woodson.
The town’s charter promotes the general welfare and common good of the community by providing the framework for a municipal corporation to exercise municipal home rule powers under the Constitution and laws of the State of Florida.
The charter defines how the town council and manager exercise power, how they can be removed, how ordinances can be approved, the boundaries of the town, rules for special elections, the definitions for resolutions and ordinances, and the filling of vacancies.
To reach Nathan Mayberg, please email nmayberg@breezenewspapers.com