Cape Coral City Council chaos continues

Reporter: Justin Kase
Published: Updated:
Cape Coral City Council meeting.
Cape Coral City Council meeting. CREDIT: WINK News

Another night of chaos in Cape Coral. One by one, people took a stand in front of city council, expressing just how unhappy they were with the decisions they’re making.

Everyone at the meeting was fired up, predominantly about the stipends city council approved for themselves at last month’s meeting without any discussion on the topic.

People told WINK they feel robbed of their voice, saying the thousands of extra dollars now going into the council’s pockets should have been voted on by the community.

And Wednesday night, hundreds of people packing council chambers called on council to rescind the stipend.

“These meetings feel like Jerry Springer never died, and we have this here in Cape Coral, so, for free tickets, go to capetv.com,” said Julia Bartlett, Cape Coral resident.

At Wednesday’s Cape Coral City Council meeting, we saw more people show up than we’ve seen before. We saw more cops in attendance than we’ve seen before.

WINK met many people showing up here who had never been to a meeting before.

“What they voted themselves is coming out of my wallet,” said Tony Cosenza, Cape Coral resident.

Others urged council to strike down the stipend, saying council members knew what the salary was when they took the job.

Once public input ended, only council members Sheppard and Bill Steinke addressed what the crowd had to say.

Sheppard said the topic of stipends wasn’t discussed before being voted on at the last meeting because of how chaotic the crowd was.

WINK tried running up to the council once the meeting adjourned; however, council members quickly walked toward their private exit.

Only councilmember Steinke stuck around and told WINK that this is not something that goes to a vote and that other municipalities have done the same thing.

He shared a longer statement with us. Read below:

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