Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
By Doug Enman
Back in the spring of 2005 when the STRP had just entered public debate, 10 people from the Tigertail District got together at my house to oppose the STRP. I called the meeting in response to the treatment I received from the Marco Island City Council when I dared to oppose the STRP. During the weeks that followed, we asked so many questions of council that they could not answer; they appointed Mr. Arceri as point man on all questions regarding the STRP. This showed me that the other councilors really d idn’t understand the project at all. At one council meeting Mr. Moss told the councilors that Mr. Enman asks more questions than anyone else.
We were not technical people so our questions revolved around fairness and equity in the allocation of costs. Technical questions and suitability issues came later. Our questions all stemmed from the “findings” in the assessment resolutions themselves. For the record, I have a copy of the Tigertail resolution and its “findings” include language about septic systems polluting the environment and several councilors now disavow those “findings”, including Mr. Arceri, Mr. Tucker and Mr. Minozzi.
From 2005 until now this story has taken on a life of its own. Today, we have literally thousands of people talking about the STRP and many other worthy topics that our current and former councilors have brought upon us, without full disclosure and our full knowledge. I think the current ‘state of the city’ is why Mr. Moss resigned. My guess is that he no longer could keep up with the problems he helped create. However, I think the current ‘state of the city’ has woken people up and they will take control from the special interests controlling our council. To name a few of them, we have the Chamber of Commerce, Board of Realtors, newspaper c olumnists, hotel managers and some condo managers. Why else would Collier Boulevard have pavers for so many crosswalks with flashing lights? Who paid for, most if not, all of that extra stuff? There certainly was no special assessment on any special interest group that I am aware of!
For the city’s first ten years, the majority of councilors seem to have been controlled by special interests. This turned out to be an incestuous relationship between council and special interests. This unhealthy relationship must end; councilors and candidates who are supported by these special interests must go. The reason is that many of the special interests controlling our destiny do not even live here and/or do not vote here. For the next ten years I’m looking for the best ‘WE THE PEOPLE’ can get. The best we can get, in the near future, will be four new councilors that will work for the taxpayers and have no ties to special interests , social organizations with a political agenda and the good old boy network.
I along with many others have been criticized, in print, on many occasions for our opposition to these special interest groups. All of this criticism is unfounded and is never backed up with any facts. I normally do not publicly criticize anyone while some make a living at it. However, I do have some comments about 4 of the 8 candidates running for city council
Dr. William Trotter:
· He didn’t say much for his first THREE YEARS in office.
· He came out of his shell last year and presented his findings on the density issue, which was so convoluted everyone in the room was confused.
· He has not fulfilled most of his prior campaign promises.
· He is part of the problem not the solution.
· This man has not earned the right to be returned to office.
Dr. Frank Recker:
· He is a dentist and a defense attorney.
· He is no different from the attorney we have now.
· He is associated with far too many Marco Island special interest groups.
· He has given money to other candidates he favors.
· He has not attended many Marco Island council meetings.
Mr. Jerry Gibson:
· I don’t think he has ever had a long-term job in his life.
· He says he took 12 years off to play golf.
· He has not attended many council meetings.
· He took a campaign contribution from the Board of Realtors making him beholding to special interests.
· He does not have the education, experience, common sense or temperament for this job.
· MITA quoted him as saying “I never vote for anything or anyone if I can’t make a decision but, if elected I would just vote”
· We have too much at stake to put a man like this into office.
Mr. Wayne Waldack:
* He has been bankrupt.
* He claims to have an aeronautical engineering background but never worked in that field.
* He has not attended many council meetings.
* He does not have the education or experience to qualify him for city council.
* When I spoke to him at the MITA round table; he had little grasp of the issues facing our island.
* We should not put this man in a position of handling millions of our tax dollars.
As you can see, I do not want any of the above candidates elected to city council. We need public servants who have demonstrated vision, leadership, knowledge, experience and success in the private economy. They must also have no ties to special interests.
We need:
* Francis (Butch) Neylon
* Joe Batte
* Roger Hall
* Andrew Guidry
Back in the spring of 2005 when the STRP had just entered public debate, 10 people from the Tigertail District got together at my house to oppose the STRP. I called the meeting in response to the treatment I received from the Marco Island City Council when I dared to oppose the STRP. During the weeks that followed, we asked so many questions of council that they could not answer; they appointed Mr. Arceri as point man on all questions regarding the STRP. This showed me that the other councilors really d idn’t understand the project at all. At one council meeting Mr. Moss told the councilors that Mr. Enman asks more questions than anyone else.
We were not technical people so our questions revolved around fairness and equity in the allocation of costs. Technical questions and suitability issues came later. Our questions all stemmed from the “findings” in the assessment resolutions themselves. For the record, I have a copy of the Tigertail resolution and its “findings” include language about septic systems polluting the environment and several councilors now disavow those “findings”, including Mr. Arceri, Mr. Tucker and Mr. Minozzi.
From 2005 until now this story has taken on a life of its own. Today, we have literally thousands of people talking about the STRP and many other worthy topics that our current and former councilors have brought upon us, without full disclosure and our full knowledge. I think the current ‘state of the city’ is why Mr. Moss resigned. My guess is that he no longer could keep up with the problems he helped create. However, I think the current ‘state of the city’ has woken people up and they will take control from the special interests controlling our council. To name a few of them, we have the Chamber of Commerce, Board of Realtors, newspaper c olumnists, hotel managers and some condo managers. Why else would Collier Boulevard have pavers for so many crosswalks with flashing lights? Who paid for, most if not, all of that extra stuff? There certainly was no special assessment on any special interest group that I am aware of!
For the city’s first ten years, the majority of councilors seem to have been controlled by special interests. This turned out to be an incestuous relationship between council and special interests. This unhealthy relationship must end; councilors and candidates who are supported by these special interests must go. The reason is that many of the special interests controlling our destiny do not even live here and/or do not vote here. For the next ten years I’m looking for the best ‘WE THE PEOPLE’ can get. The best we can get, in the near future, will be four new councilors that will work for the taxpayers and have no ties to special interests , social organizations with a political agenda and the good old boy network.
I along with many others have been criticized, in print, on many occasions for our opposition to these special interest groups. All of this criticism is unfounded and is never backed up with any facts. I normally do not publicly criticize anyone while some make a living at it. However, I do have some comments about 4 of the 8 candidates running for city council
Dr. William Trotter:
· He didn’t say much for his first THREE YEARS in office.
· He came out of his shell last year and presented his findings on the density issue, which was so convoluted everyone in the room was confused.
· He has not fulfilled most of his prior campaign promises.
· He is part of the problem not the solution.
· This man has not earned the right to be returned to office.
Dr. Frank Recker:
· He is a dentist and a defense attorney.
· He is no different from the attorney we have now.
· He is associated with far too many Marco Island special interest groups.
· He has given money to other candidates he favors.
· He has not attended many Marco Island council meetings.
Mr. Jerry Gibson:
· I don’t think he has ever had a long-term job in his life.
· He says he took 12 years off to play golf.
· He has not attended many council meetings.
· He took a campaign contribution from the Board of Realtors making him beholding to special interests.
· He does not have the education, experience, common sense or temperament for this job.
· MITA quoted him as saying “I never vote for anything or anyone if I can’t make a decision but, if elected I would just vote”
· We have too much at stake to put a man like this into office.
Mr. Wayne Waldack:
* He has been bankrupt.
* He claims to have an aeronautical engineering background but never worked in that field.
* He has not attended many council meetings.
* He does not have the education or experience to qualify him for city council.
* When I spoke to him at the MITA round table; he had little grasp of the issues facing our island.
* We should not put this man in a position of handling millions of our tax dollars.
As you can see, I do not want any of the above candidates elected to city council. We need public servants who have demonstrated vision, leadership, knowledge, experience and success in the private economy. They must also have no ties to special interests.
We need:
* Francis (Butch) Neylon
* Joe Batte
* Roger Hall
* Andrew Guidry
posted by Mario R. Sanchez, Ph.D. at
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