City council members talk about decision to repeal stipend ordinance

Reporter: Claire Galt Writer: Elyssa Morataya
Published: Updated:

A vote of 5 to 3 ends the saga over the Cape Coral City Council stipend and new members of the city council are sending a message they’re doing things differently.

Cape Coral Councilwoman Jennifer Nelson hopes she never has to speak again about the pay boosts the former council gave themselves last year.

“We’re done with that. That’s over now,” said Nelson.

Their seats were not even warm during the Wednesday night swearing-in ceremony when the 5 new members of the council repealed the extra $3,300 members were getting a month. The mayor got $5,000.

Councilwoman Laurie Lehmann told WINK News it was a no-brainer.

“All five of us campaigned on the fact that we wanted the stipend stopped. The new council, oh, we’re listening, we’re definitely listening,” said Lehmann.

Gayle Sisler is excited to see what the new crew does next.

“The council members that I voted for held true to their word So, in my mind, we voted for the right people,” said Sisler.

Her first thought was Jaycee Park.

If people weren’t yelling about the stipends, they were blowing meetings up over the council’s plans to renovate the park.

“Which should have been an indication to them that people just weren’t happy,” said Sisler.

Lehmann told WINK it’s not too late:

“Till the bulldozers get here, it isn’t a done deal, guys,” said Lehmann.

But Nelson fears that backtracking when it comes to the park may do more harm than good.

“We’ve already signed an $18 million contract with the developer, and if we were to cancel that, my concern is we would be wasting more taxpayer dollars in addition to the already spent 18 million on lawsuits,” said Nelson.

The councilwoman is already brainstorming new ways to bring change to the Cape.

“Improving our charter schools again, infrastructure was huge. We have such an opportunity with our traffic to make some changes, like easy changes, maybe timing of the lights, or not allowing turns off of Cape Coral Parkway,” said Nelson.

The three not up for re-election this year, Mayor John Gunter and council members Keith Long and Bill Steinke, voted to keep the stipends.

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