Voters decide: Will Cape Coral City Council members stay or go?

Stipends, Jaycee Park and new developments have been topics of concern in the City of Cape Coral for months now.

Some have strong opinions on controversial matters and how they will play into their decision-making while voting for City Council.

Some voters tell WINK News they don’t know much about City Council and didn’t vote on that section of the ballot, others say they want all the incumbents gone with a laundry list of complaints.

“I voted out every active member. They didn’t listen to the people. They listened to themselves,” one Cape Coral neighbor said.

The main two reasons people told WINK News they are upset with council members are the Jaycee Park project and the stipend controversy.

“I am not happy with them,” said Madeline Reyes who lives in Cape Coral and loves Jaycee Park. “It was the last place we could go to take a walk after dinner. We had our 50th wedding renewal there, and had a little bit of sentimental value to us,” Reyes said.

With Jaycee Park, some voters feel the council didn’t listen to them. The council approved a major redevelopment for the park after public opposition in council meetings.

Then, there’s the stipends. The council voted to give themselves a raise. Many made a fuss and said council members don’t deserve more taxpayer money.

“I think is BS. I think the people ought to be the ones voting to see if they deserve a raise. I mean, if you worked in any other company, you have to go through channels to get your raise. So I don’t, I don’t agree with that,” Scott New, who lives in Cape Coral said.

District seats 2 and 4 have incumbents running, councilmembers Richard Carr and Dan Sheppard, who both took second in the primaries.

Districts 3, 5, and 7 have completely new candidates.

Cape Coral City Council could look totally different come Election Day. After the primaries, we found out Cape Council will already look different, with incumbent Robert Welsh getting beat out.