Thousands of dollars proposed for Cape Coral City Council as stipend

Cape Coral City Council might approve a stipend that would grant everyone on the council extra thousands of dollars each month.

Cape Coral Mayor Gunter will receive $5,000 more a month. City council members will be granted $3,333 more each month.

“Lee County and Cape Coral are very disappointing places to live,” said Barbara, a Cape Coral resident. “There’s too many people out here that need the money. We have roads that need to be taken care of we have we still have hurricane issues in the city.”

The stipend would help cover costs for extra duties council members have as part of taking over the community redevelopment agency. The Council voted to dissolve the appointed board of CRA commissioners in a 5 to 3 vote in November.

Council Member Tom Hayden supported the stipend. He told WINK News he had to get a second job, as the roughly $40,000 a year council members make wasn’t enough to support his family.

“Now we have to deal with the business of the CRA expenses that we may incur down there going to various events, meetings,” said Hayden. “Financially, we just couldn’t make it meet. Now, that might have taken away a little bit of the time that I was spending on the job. The stipend allows me now to dedicate more hours every day to the business of the city.”

The stipend is not a salary, according to city council, because anything to do with compensation would have to go before voters. The council will vote on the decision at Wednesday’s meeting.