Town of Fort Myers Beach Council candidates hold court at library forum

The four candidates for three open seats on the Town of Fort Myers Beach Council made their cases on Tuesday at a forum in front of a full room on the third floor of the Fort Myers Beach Library. The differences between some of the candidates were stark at times.

The forum ranged from a call for “reconciliation” in the community from former Mayor Anita Cereceda to remarks from Local Planning Agency member Ed Schoonover that the town should pursue more public-private partnerships to support the town’s recreational campus, mooring field and Mound House.

In addition to Cereceda and Schoonover, the candidates include incumbent Councilmember Rebecca Link, who won her seat last year when winning a recall election and taking the seat of former Councilmember Karen Woodson.

Also running in the non-partisan race is Protect FMB President Tom Brady, who captured the second-most votes in last year’s recall election, is also running. Brady helped lead a legal challenge against the Seagate Development Group condo tower that the Town of Fort Myers Beach Council controversially approved in 2024, though the action failed. Brady earned more votes than Councilmember John King (who voted to approve the Seagate project) in last year’s recall election though a county judge invalidated the recall petitions, thus blocking Brady from taking office. Both King and Councilmember John McLean have elected to not defend their seats this November.

Cereceda made a statement early in the forum, saying she believed now was the time for the community to “reconcile” its differences and made a subtle reference to her experience helping to lead the town as its first mayor after incorporation in the 1990’s. “I am a firm believer in you can’t get to where you are going if you don’t know where you came from,” Cereceda said.

Cereceda said she hears on a daily basis that the community is divided.

“We can’t get where we are going if we continue to fight with one another. We can’t get where we are going if we aren’t all on the same page and pulling from the same string,” Cereceda said. “I don’t pay a lot of attention to the noise, and by the noise I mean people telling me who they like and who they don’t like. I may not like somebody or I may like somebody, I tend to think about what they are talking about and how they feel about an idea, how put forth their perspective on the council or their LPA.”

Cereceda made reference to the devastating effects on the town from Hurricane Ian four years ago, which she said “changed all of our lives.”

The candidates were asked six questions by moderator Lizbeth Mullanex, operations manager for the Fort Myers Beach Library. After those questions, the candidates were asked three questions submitted by those in attendance.

Schoonover staked out his own political territory at the forum by calling for “more public-private partnerships” for the town to supports its amenities at Bay Oaks Recreational Campus, the mooring field, and the Mound House. Schoonover said the town needed to operate those community assets “more efficiently” to free up more funds to invest in the island’s infrastructure. Schoonover said that in some neighborhoods, the roads were bumpy and the drainage was “pretty shady.”

Brady made it clear his intention was to control zoning.

“You don’t want 17-story buildings popping up in your backyards and that’s what happened to us,” Brady said. “That doesn’t belong in the eclectic community.”

Brady, who moved to Fort Myers Beach in 2018, spoke about how he had been investing in doing work on his home in 2022 before Hurricane Ian. “We lost our house and all our belongings,” Brady said. He had to build a new home and start all over again.

Brady said his public service is “a calling into how I can give back to the community.” He offered to set up an office in the town hall to meet with constituents if there was room.

Brady supports CRA zone for new taxing district, to take taxes in downtown district to reinvest in downtown district.

Link, who moved to Fort Myers Beach in 2012, said she supports the vision of the town laid out in the Comprehensive Plan to preserve the “small-town character” of the island. “I didn’t make it up, you made it up,” she said to the residents.

Link, who runs a consultant business that seeks out grants for clients, spoke enthusiastically about a group of developers she recently spoke to about a project. Link said she wants to “tell our story to developers like the ones we spoke to. Come, we are welcoming, we want you her.”

Cereceda, whose monetary donation to Protect FMB while she was still chairing the LPA while the group was fighting the town council’s approval of the Seagate project became a political issue, said she believed the town needed to send a welcoming message to developers. “We should let people know we are open for business,” Cereceda said.

Schoonover, who was in the minority of the Local Planning Agency members who voted in favor of the London Bay Development Group hotel and condo project, referred to that vote during the forum and the maneuver by the developer to attempt to build workforce housing in its place. “I would like to see the town being a little bit more aggressive with developers and making sure we protect our own things because when we don’t we have got the Live Local (Act) sitting right over us right now and we are about to experience that in a big way,”

Schoonover complained about not having enough restaurants on the south end of Fort Myers Beach, and said that when considering the public benefits of a project in exchange for granting deviations for developments, he would consider a restaurant a public benefit. “The comprehensive plan is written very broadly,” he said.

One of the questions from Mullanex to the candidates was on how they would protect the town’s natural resources and environment.

Schoonover said that keeping the back bay clean, and focusing on drainage issues were important. He said the mooring field protected the seagrass in the back bay. Cereceda said without clean water and a clean back bay, the town’s tourism would suffer, referencing the red tide disaster that was destructive to the town’s tourism in 2019. Cereceda said she went to Tallahassee to lobby the state for more control over Lake Okeechobee releases to protect Fort Myers Beach from red tide outbreaks. Link said that supporting the town’s operation of the mooring field was important in keeping the back bay clean, as well as protecting threatened sea turtles, dolphins and manatees. Brady said “we have to make sure our beaches are clean and safe, and safe for the wildlife.” Brady said more needed to be done to enforce the town’s codes, such as its turtle lighting code.

The candidates were asked whether they supported the proposed merger of the Fort Myers Beach Fire Control District with the Iona Fire District, and the merger of the Fort Myers Beach Mosquito Control District with the Lee County Mosquito Control District. All of the candidates opposed the mergers except for Schoonover, who said he opposed the merger of the fire control district but supported the merger of the mosquito control district. The Lee County Mosquito Control District has millage rate that is twice as high as that of the Fort Myers Beach Mosquito Control District. Schoonover said he was bit by mosquitoes this year. “I realize it might cost us a little bit more for Lee County to take over the mosquito control district but I would probably be in favor of that.”

Cereceda said the Fort Myers Beach Fire Control District was the envy of the county. “You call somebody and they come,” she said. “I would not vote to merge the mosquito control district. Local control is better control. I am a home rule kind of gal,” Cereceda said.

Brady said he is against the mergers “all together. They didn’t prove any financial benefits and why else would you do it?”