Lee County commissioners oppose changes to local government

Reporter: Claire Galt
Published: Updated:
Lee County Commission Chairman Cecil Pendergrass. (Credit: WINK News)

By a 3-2 vote, Lee County Commissioner Cecil Pendergrass won his fight to send Lee County’s legislative delegation a letter opposing state lawmakers’ idea of having voters elect a strong mayor or county executive and doing away with a hired county manager.

“These letters are just political theater. They’re meaningless, anyways. The delegation is going to do what it makes its mind up to do,” said Commissioner Brian Hamman.

“The delegation needs to hear from us, and that’s the purpose of the resolutions because we stand strong. We do not agree with this,” said Pendergrass.

The delegation will meet Thursday morning to discuss the idea of doing away with five at large commissioners and switching to single-member districts.

“I think, if the voters had a chance to vote for these two items, the mayor and the single-member districts, they would pass them,” said Hamman.

“It’d be like a dictatorship. You would have the elected county mayor/manager, they’d be out campaigning every day, not running the day-to-day operations or raising money from people with special interest groups,” said Pendergrass.

Fort Myers City Councilman Johnny Streets sent a letter to state lawmakers announcing his support for a change in the Lee County Government. He called the current Lee County charter “outdated” and said the changes would make county government stronger and more efficient.

WINK News will report more details from their Thursday meeting.

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