Reshape the Cape in upcoming city election

If you read Nextdoor, Facebook, the Breeze, attend a raucous, dysfunctional City Council meeting, or deal with an unresponsive city bureaucracy, you are familiar with the myriad of complaints about the decisions, behavior and apparent distain for the citizens of Cape Coral embedded in the current City government composition.

I won’t detail those issues, but I will say that I will not be voting for any incumbent currently in Cape Coral city government.

Due to emerging conditions in the Cape, many residents seem to be faced with a similar dilemma – “Reshape the Cape” or “Escape the Cape.” Stay or move.

I choose to reshape the Cape and I am hoping to see a focused slate of Council candidates, all uniformly committed to change the current status quo and to return a government by, for and of the people, back to the people of Cape Coral.

I am proposing a “Reshape the Cape” platform for this opposition slate as follows:

In conjunction with a citizen consulting committee, identify, eliminate and establish quantitative and measurable safeguards (internal controls) to preclude cronyism, nepotism and conflicts of interest in executing government operations and expenditures. High risk areas for fraud, waste and abuse are primary targets.

Eliminate the Council stipend and reconstitute the volunteer citizen advisory committees, tapping into specific expertise in functional areas. Citizen advisory committees should be asking the questions: “What are the benefits (quantitative and qualitative)?” “What are the downsides of a project (quantitative and qualitative)?” “What are the life cycle costs (initial and maintenance)?”“Who benefits” and “who pays?” If the connected few benefit and the taxpayers pay the freight via taxes, the rationale needs to be presented.

In conjunction with a citizen committee, identify existing, or develop new a government code of ethics comporting with elimination of cronyism, nepotism and conflicts of interest. This should include Council members recusing themselves from voting on any expenditure or project which impacts their personal businesses or affiliated industry partners. Look closely at builders, developers and real estate brokers voting on projects/policies that enrich themselves at the expense of citizens' taxes and/or quality of life. City candidates must commit to a “sunshine policy” including Florida financial disclosure form 6 to “follow the money.”

Develop an independent inspector general position to oversee/investigate complaints, high risk areas of government operations and expenditures and instances of fraud, waste and abuse in government operations and decisionmaking. Contract bidding and award process is a high-risk activity.

Independent assessment of the city contracting bid/award/administration process in accordance with government integrity standards such as the National Contract Management Association or the Federal Acquisition Regulations manual. Identify processes that do not comport with free and open competition and acquiring “best value” products and services for the city in an unbiased and open manner. Implement remedial action.

“Rightsize” city government structure and organization relative to organizational missions and functions (what they do), workload (how much of it do they do), position descriptions defining scope and complexity of duties and responsibilities, staffing levels needed to establish outcome based mission metrics, pay and benefits relative to performance, performance metrics for annual evaluations and key personnel qualifications and performance standards (pay for performance). City manager, code enforcement and land use approval of variances require specific skill sets and experience.

“Rightsize” city development and growth. Articulate a “model city” approach to growth, development and infrastructure sustainability for public comment. This should include the mix of single residential, multifamily and commercial properties within a council district. Isolating one region for an excess of “affordable housing” development, such as an excess number of rental side-by-side duplexes in single-family home neighborhoods, should include neighborhood involvement and influence.

Promulgate city building codes and enforce uniformly. The debacle with the FEMA flood insurance discount is illustrative of not enforcing contractor certification and insurance requirements, appropriate permitting and subsequent confirmation to code of work performed. Specifically, the proliferation of rental side-by-side duplexes with multifamily residents where parking on lawns and city 15-foot easements impacts traffic flow seems to be growing.

Develop a “City Council Report Card” in conjunction with citizen committees that identify “what is success” in city government that distinguishes “activity” from “action.” From a citizen perspective, what are the measurable parameters of defining success of government. Activity metrics are non-outcome-based actions like attending meetings, number of transactions processed etc. Action based parameters are quantifiable outcomes of projects approved and completed detailing the cost/benefit analysis and impact on city residents and for what and to whom are our tax dollars being spent by the city.

These are a broad outline of some of the initiatives I feel are requisite to reshape the Cape and improve our quality of life and fiscal responsibility.

While some may think this list of policy platform ideas is a bridge too far, unless you are a direct beneficiary of the current city practices, you must see the need for transparency and holding elected officials and unelected bureaucrats who spend our taxes and develop law and regulations that influence our daily lives and finances, to account.

I urge all candidates who support the above platform to form a “Reshape the Cape” coalition and run on a consistent platform and be willing to hold yourselves accountable to measurable improvements in government operations and commitment to citizen involvement in decision-making through advisory/oversight committees.

Status quo to me is not an option and I hope the Cape residents feel similarly and get out and vote. If you don’t vote, you can’t complain.

Dr. Tony Cosenza worked 42 years for the Department of Defense as both an employee and consultant. His last position was director of Operations for the $17 billion Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support and after retirement was consultant for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program for three years. Concurrently, he was an adjunct professor at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia for 11 years and online for Strayer University. He has earned a BA in Political Science, a master's degree in Business Administration (MBA), a master's degree in National Security Strategy from the military National War College and a PhD in Public Policy and Administration. He currently resides in Cape Coral and submits the guest opinion as a concerned citizen.