Town Council needs to look ahead
The time has come for the Town Council (and the Town) to start looking ahead. By that, I mean farther than just a couple of months.
True, there is a lot going on the transition to ownership of Bay Oaks, the Newton Property, the Beach Re-nourishment quagmire, dealing with the County about renovating Estero Boulevard, the crumbling water system and a bunch of other smaller projects. It’s very easy for the Council to get bogged down in all this.
In case anybody forgot, there is an election coming up in March and two council seats are up Herb Acken’s and Larry Kiker’s. Whether either or both will run for re-election hasn’t been announced.
Now is the time, before anybody officially enters the race, for an amendment to the rules of running for Council. All candidates should be subjected to a drug test and a criminal background check, and if they have been arrested or convicted of anything bigger than a traffic ticket, it should be made public. If that rule had been in place several years ago, the outcome of the election might have been different. It’s better for the public to know things like that about their candidates before the election than to have them come out later. If that rule makes somebody think twice about running good.
This is not an unreasonable idea. We won’t hire somebody for the town maintenance staff without running these checks. They are also a part of the search procedure for the Town Manager job. We should expect nothing less of a standard for someone wanting to be on the Council.
The other big project that needs to be started now – is a complete review of the Comprehensive Plan, the Town Charter and the Land Development Code. Times are very different from when these documents were first drafted. I’m not suggesting that they be totally scrapped and completely re-done, but a thorough self-study to find out what’s working and what isn’t and what’s relevant and what isn’t can only be good for the town. We have come to worship these documents as if they were handed down “from the Mount,” and in some instances they have gotten in the way of genuine progress. If the Town is going to progress and thrive, they must be alive and constantly evolving. If they remain stagnant, so will the Town.
Such a project would likely take a couple of years to complete. What better time to get it going than before anyone starts campaigning with a personal agenda?
For example: we have a “Local Planning Agency,” a relatively powerful advisory committee, even though everything they do still has to be approved by the Council. They spend a much greater percentage of their time acting as a zoning board than they do in “planning.” They should be named what they actually do. They should also be elected and they should be autonomous.
It is worth noting that there was a charter review study undertaken three or four councils ago and some of the best minds in town came up with a list that included some excellent ideas, yet this substantial report was blown off by the Council in place at the time without an ounce of serious consideration.
The longer we wait to act, the deeper we’ll sink into the mud. There will never be a better time to do it than right now. I call on the Town Council to pick up on these proposals and run with them.
Jay Light
Fort Myers Beach