Fort Myers Beach voters reject fire, mosquito control district mergers
Voters in the Fort Myers Beach Fire and Control District defeated an attempt by Rep. Adam Botana (R-Bonita Springs) to force a merger of their fire department into the Iona-McGregor fire district, while voters in the Fort Myers Beach Mosquito Control District narrowly rejected a proposed merger originally introduced by Bonana to merger the district into the Lee County Mosquito Control District.
Voters in Lee County overwhelmingly voted in favor of the merger, while voters in the Fort Myers Beach Mosquito Control District defeated the measure. With tallies from three of four voting precincts, early voting and vote-by-mail ballots in as of press time, Fort Myers Beach Mosquito Control District voters had rejected the measure by a vote of 53% to 47%. The effect of the merger would in effect have dissolved local control over Fort Myers Beach mosquito control and nearly doubled the millage rate for Fort Myers Beach Mosquito Control District taxpayers.
Likewise, with the Fort Myers Beach Fire Control District, voters in Iona favored the merger while Fort Myers Beach residents rejected it. About 75% of voters, including two of three precincts on election day, as well as early voting and vote-by-mail ballots from Fort Myers Beach Fire Control District voters rejected the merger into the Iona-McGregor Fire Protection and Rescue Services District, while 57% of voters in the Iona-McGregor district voted in support of the measure.
The measure to merge the Fort Myers Beach Mosquito Control District into the Lee County Mosquito Control District was originally introduced by Botana over the objections of the Town of Fort Myers Beach Council, Fort Myers Beach Mosquito Control District commissioners and failed to pass committee. The measure was then reintroduced by State Rep. Mike Giallombardo (R-Cape Coral) last year and passed the state legislature. The bill required a majority of voters in both the Fort Myers Beach Mosquito Control District and a majority of voters in Lee County to approve the measure.
A study on the merger of the Fort Myers Beach Fire Control District and Iona Fire District found no significant cost savings or service improvements, and would have likely had the effect of putting several parcels owned by the Fort Myers Beach Fire Control District up for sale. Fort Myers Beach Fire Chief Scott Wirth had warned of a negative impact to the fire district particularly in the area of its emergency response services. The fire district could have potentially lost its fire ambulances if the merger had been approved. Fort Myers Beach taxpayers could have also faced a higher millage rate.
“I am very thankful that the Fort Myers Beach community educated themselves and chose to keep the Fort Myers Beach Fire Control District intact. We are proud of the service we provide and just fortunate to be part of the community that appreciates us as well,”
Wirth said on Tuesday after the vote.
Botana backed his push for the mergers through a political action committee he formed and chaired called FreeLee. He used another Conservatives for Clean Water, another political action committee he controls, to send $150,000 to FreeLee to help support the merger proposals. Giallombardo’s political action committee Friends of Mike Giallombardo, sent $100,000 to FreeLee, and State Rep. Tiffany Esposito (R-Fort Myers) used her political action committee Friends of Tiffany to send another $100,000 to FreeLee for its campaign to support mailers sent out for the merger bills and other referendums championed by the Lee County state delegation and state legislature. Friends of Jonathan Martin contributed another $20,000 to FreeLee. FreeLee also funded mailers that successfully supported single-member county commissioner districts which the Lee County state legislative delegation had supported. The new single-member districts will now limit voters to electing county commissioners in their districts, rather than being able to vote for all five county commissioners.
The FreeLee political action committee financed thousands of mailers sent to voters on Fort Myers Beach and throughout Lee County in support of the mergers and referendums. More than $230,000 of the funds raised for FreeLee went to TM Strategic Consulting, a political consulting firm run by Terry Miller.