Cape Coral City Council will not undo stipend despite 7,000-signature petition

Angry Cape Coral residents continue campaigning against stipends for the city council, with some calling for its end and others calling for mass resignations over the issue.

The majority of the Cape Coral Council fell silent on the issue as organizers presented more than 7,000 signatures asking them to rescind it Wednesday.

"They need to resign in mass, they really do," said Cape Coral resident Marie Kavanaugh of the council members.

More than 200 residents crowded the council chambers at the first meeting of the new year, yelling, clapping, and booing throughout the public comment part of the meeting.

This latest effort is part of a series of actions by residents who feel the council unjustifiably gave themselves a raise through a stipend, which doubled the council's compensation.

Richard Leon, a former council member, started the petition asking the council to rescind its stipend in late December as he was upset about how the council passed the stipend without any public discussion.

The Change.Org petition started on Dec. 21.

Two members of the eight-member council defended the stipend. Mayor John Gunter was not available for comment after the meeting.

Background on a Cape Coral stipend that doubled pay

The city council approved monthly stipends for each member on Dec. 14.

The original voting item was listed on the consent agenda and was approved without discussion in a 5-1 vote, with Councilmember Robert Welsh voting no.

Part of the justification for the stipends was the added responsibilities the members took on after dissolving the Community Redevelopment Agency and assuming the duties. Councilmember Tom Hayden justified the motion due to growing expenses.

The stipends amounted to $3,333 per month for council members and $5,000 for the mayor. The previous CRA commissioners received no salary or other compensation for their services.

Council members are paid a base yearly salary of $37,368.96, and a year of stipends amounts to $39,996 for each council member and $60,000 for the mayor.

The total annual cost would be $339,972.

Residents ask for the stipends to be rescinded

As the meeting started, a long line of residents slowly made their ways inside the council chambers as Cape Coral Council's meeting rules were displayed on the monitors.

Most were there to criticize the council for how it passed the stipend.

"You are going to lose it, I will not let you guys hold onto that," Cape Coral Dave Kalish said. "You don't deserve to be in your seats. We need a whole new council and definitely a new mayor."

Marie Kavanaugh called the council "the most hated people in the city of Cape Coral," and balked at the idea that the council needed additional money for expenses as the charter already provides for that.

She also criticized the city's explanation for the stipend when the council took additional responsibilities after dissolving the Community Redevelopment Agency, an all-volunteer board.

"Responsibilities you all assumed on your own," Kavanaugh said. "We didn't tell you to do them, and now you want us to compensate you for it."

Leon presented his petition, read it aloud to the city council and appealed to members' sense of community.

"Today you have the opportunity to fix this injustice," Leon said.

Lisa Cohen, who called the stipends "shady dealings," said the council should focus on getting raises for city employees. She also criticized the removal of many of the volunteer boards last year.

"Opposing the salary increase is a call for fair compensation and a demand for transparency, accountability, and real citizens involvement," Cohen said. "The council's actions along with this messed up pay for city employees, their slow response to issues, their questionable decision-making, scream for a total reevaluation."

After 24 minutes of public comment, the council took a 15-minute break as residents did not contain their claps and cheering for individual speakers.

Cape Coral Police Chief Anthony Sizemore spoke to the crowd before the proceeding returned and said he recommended another 15-minute break and then a suspension of citizens' input if the crowd could not maintain decorum.

"I don't want to do that; you don't want to do that," Sizemore said.

The rest of the hour-long citizen's input continued unimpeded.

Where does the new council member stand?

Newly appointed Cape Coral Councilmember Richard Carr said he will not accept the stipend.

"I have opted to forgo the city council stipend," said Carr in an email statement. "I have communicated with the city manager to exclude the recently approved stipend from my paychecks."

Carr was appointed the District 4 councilmember on Dec. 14, after the previous seat holder, Patty Cummings was suspended.

As he was unable to participate in the decision on the stipend, Carr said he could not field questions related to it and opted to forgo the payments after speaking with the city attorney.

What did the council say?

Two members chose to address the numerous comments made by residents.

Councilmember Dan Sheppard started the discussion and explained his vote to eliminate the CRA.

“The board, you could not vote out, and if you did not like their decisions as citizens, you were stuck with them," Sheppard said.

He said the council became the board, so residents could replace them if needed.

He said the CRA was created out of the blight in the south/downtown Cape Coral area and felt that the board got away from its mission but he didn't want to insult anyone on that board.

He maintains that the council is listening regarding issues such as Jaycee Park as the city needs more waterfront activity locations and said his job is to vet these decisions and move forward even if some residents are upset about it.

“If you think coming here and threatening and chewing us out does anything, it doesn’t,” Sheppard said.

Sheppard said the last meeting was out of control, and explained he missed the vote on the consent agenda that included stipend because he needed to use the restroom.

"If I glanced at my phone or computer screen, people were chewing us out saying you are not paying attention, you are not listening," Sheppard said. "I waited till the last speaker was finishing, raced to the bathroom, and raced back."

Sheppard said he did not respond to questions from the media about the stipend last month as any response he gives is "twisted, bended, and comes out different."

He said he plans to donate his stipend toward the beautification of the city.

Councilmember Bill Steinke also spoke and addressed comments regarding employee pay.

“There are discussions going on right now as it relates to making sure that both bargaining and non-bargaining are within the top 75th percentile, so we can attract the best people and maintain the best people, “ Steinke said.

He also addressed the removal of the budget review committee and said it was removed to get greater resident involvement.

The city is planning a budget meeting next Thursday and Friday at the Mercola Market, 125 SW 3rd Place.

On the stipend, he said it is not a raise and that other cities utilize them.

He mentions the city of Fort Myers passing a $14,000 stipend for its members last year.

"They have less than half of our population and less than half of our geographic size," Steinke said.

Steinke said in addition to the regular meeting, he attended 51 events and 234 other meetings in 2023 in response to resident's questioning how much work is put into this role.

“There’s a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes because of the magnitude and scope of the work that is involved in running a city of our size,“ Steinke said.

Steinke also provided the following press release:

After the meeting, Steinke said stipends are approved ahead of time, and the way the city did it was done in a matter similar to Fort Myers.

"Sometimes you can't help the optics," Steinke said.

Though he wishes the passage of the stipend could have been done differently, Steinke maintains there was a consensus for them by a majority of the council.

"I'm sure the consensus was that it was appropriate," Steinke said. "While there will be contention around that, it was a vote that we had to make.

Council members received one paycheck already for the stipends, retroactively from October, November, and December, totaling $9,999 per council member and $15,000 for the mayor.

Luis Zambrano is a Watchdog/Cape Coral reporter for The News-Press and the Naples Daily News. You can reach Luis at Lzambrano@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @Lz2official.

Previous Coverage 'It just really upset me': Ex-Cape council member starts petition to rescind stipends

Related Coverage Lee County GOP will vote to condemn Cape Coral City Council's controversial stipends

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Angry Cape Coral residents demand city council stipend rescinded