Cape Informer

I’ve been known to state things contrary to the News-Press a number of times during this UEP investigation and discussion. I personally feel that it is important to tell the entire story, even if the answer isn’t something that we want to hear.

I reviewed the Cape Life section of the paper this morning, along with an introductory article on the front page of the paper. Several things immediately jumped out at me.

First, the price for services to the residents changed three times from the front page of the paper, to the front of Cape Life, to the second page of Cape Life. 28k on the Front page, by Jeff Cull, 25k on the Intro area on the front of Cape Life, and 24k in Tom Hayden’s introduction on the second page.

Next, going through the ‘Key Players’ they left out at least one very important key player on staff, Mr. Chuck Pavlos. Mr. Pavlos is not only heavily involved, he is ultimately responsible with maintaining the system as it comes online. His modifications to processes, and his guiding hand are responsible for many of the tweeks, and savings they have been able to put in place for us.

Lastly, they chose a forum thread to cover as a news story. They listed a handful of posts from a thread related to flooding in a neighborhood. This thread had nothing to do with the Utility Expansion at all. It was instead a story about a new school being built, and the flooding caused during an extremely heavy downpour. They left out any posts other than the most inflammatory, and decided not to post anything about the outcome.

For your edification, the entirety of the original post is here: I want the NP to look into a construction site! After the situation was resolved, a new thread was created, and the outcome of the complaint was listed here: Have to give credit where credit is due!

News-Press, I’m disappointed. You want to investigate, and place yourself in a position of trust, for the people. You want us to believe in your investigative power as journalists. You want us to purchase your paper, because you are ‘watchdogs’ of the City’s interest. If you wish to be in this position, you need to display the entire story, not just the part that supports your current position.

In addition to facing the potential start of a City Council investigation on Wednesday, Mr. Rosado may also be facing a State investigation. The Westphal contract appears to show Mr. Rosado attempting to sell stock. The investigation is centered around whether or not Mr. Rosado would be licensed to sell stock.

You can read the full article on the News-Press Website.

After hearing of the special meeting on Wednesday, I wanted to get information about the procedures that would take place. Mayor F was kind enough to call me for a few minutes. Here’s the general idea on how Wednesday will work:

He expects that they will discuss three separate items. The Zemel Property, the Westphal property, and the charter violations. There will be no ordinances discussed. There will not be a consent agenda. He does expect to allow public input time.

He explained that they will only be able to commit to one action, that of launching an investigation. If they feel there is enough information, and enough residents feel that we should move forward, a motion could be brought forward to investigate Mr. Rosado’s dealings.

The Council has power of subpoena, so they will most likely have access to Mr. Rosado’s financial records, and access to any paperwork they may deem necessary. The extent of their subpoena power will be discussed by the City attorney, at the meeting on Wednesday.

I urge everyone to attend this meeting. It is vital that they understand your opinion about whether or not to pursue this investigation. All of the council members have committed to join this meeting on Wednesday, with the exception of Mr. Rosado. I certainly hope that he chooses to accept responsibility, and is there to present his side of these very troubling accusations.

I will certainly be there, and I plan to speak, in favor of moving forward with the investigation. Every home owner, land owner, business owner and resident is owed an explanation of the events that have occurred.

I have been reading on the NP forums today about the speculations of how Terry Stewart is involved with the ongoing Rosado debacle. Some residents seem to be concluding that Mr. Stewart is somehow engineering this information release.

Not being one to let things fall where they may, I set up a brief phone interview with Mr. Stewart today. First, I wanted to nail down the time frames on a few critical pieces of data. According to his recollection, it had been at least 9 months since he last had a meeting with Mr. Rosado.

During that time, every week, Mr. Stewart asked for an appointment with Mr. Rosado. Mr. Rosado REFUSED the meeting. This jives very closely with the ‘approximately 1 year’ that Mr. Boyd referenced during Monday’s council meeting. We’ll stick with Mr. Stewart’s more conservative figure.

Next, I asked Mr. Stewart to relate the rough time frame around when Mr. Rosado approached him about slowing the Zemel annexation. He shared that the conversation had taken place prior to the loss of communication. He shared that he “didn’t have a log with exact dates and times”. Instead, Mr. Stewart was offering advice to the council member, explaining to him that this would have been unethical, and dropped the subject.

Lastly, the cellular card issue only came to Mr. Stewart’s attention at the end of last week. Well after Mr. Rosado returned from Puerto Rico.

This is not a “Stewart vs. Rosado” event. Our City Manager warned Mr. Rosado that it would have been unethical to slow down the Zemel annex, and dropped it at that point. Mr. Rosado was a political neophite, and Mr. Stewart was simply explaining to him that it was innapropriate. The direct question was posed by the News-Press, and Mr. Stewart answered it truthfully. It took place prior to Mr. Rosado’s self imposed isolation.

In addition, Mr. Stewart’s recollection of the timeline on the wireless card shows a clear intent on Mr. Rosado’s part to violate the charter. He intentionally circumvented the City Manager in order to requisition equipment, for his personal use.

A special meeting is called for Wednesday, October 4th. Apparently, the normal monday meeting had been cancelled for this coming week, and the mayor, having received a large number of letters and phone calls from residents, chose to call a special meeting.

The level of disgust that I can express has now reached a new height. From several sources today, I received ‘rumors’ that a big problem was coming down for Mr. Rosado.

Apparently, the cat has been let out of the bag. The NBC2 News updates have just released the information that Mr. Rosado stood to profit on a deal which would have sold the Zemel properties to a private investor. NBC will display a document proving this.

The letter writing campaign is officially over. Mr. Rosado needs to immediately resign his position. His behavior is completely unacceptable. He intended to profit at the expense of taxpayers that he was elected to represent.

Mr. Rosado, if your seat is not vacated before the coming council meeting, I assure you, I will be there, demanding you tender your resignation. As I posted earlier today, his charter violation is already ‘enough’ to force the forfeiture of his seat. Adding this insult, on top of that injury, demands immediate action.

Update: The document presented tonight was related to the “Westphal Property” a previous dealing. The information regarding the Zemel property was provided in an interview with the City Manager by NBC-2. Two different occassions of foul dealings by Mr. Rosado. The pile continues to grow.

Mr. Rosado appears to be in violation of 4.10 (c) “Prohibitions” of the
City Charter.

(c) Interference with administration. Except for the purpose of
inquiries and investigations, the Council or its members shall deal with
City officers and employees who are subject to the direction and
supervision of the city manager. solely through the city manager, and
neither the Council nor its members shall give orders to any such
officer or employee, either publicly or privately.

His admission of this violation is a matter of public record, as per
Monday’s council meeting, during his own report. Mr. Rosado admitted to
the council that he was in possession of city owned equipment, which he
directly requisitioned through the ITS Director, and without the
direction, or even knowledge of the City Manager.

According to the Charter 4.11. (b) (2) “Vacancies; forfeiture of office;
filling of vacancies”;

(b) Forfeiture of office. The Mayor, or a Council member shall forfeit
his or her office if
he or she:
(1) Lacks at any time during the term of office any qualification for
the office prescribed
by this Charter or by applicable law;
(2) Violates any express prohibition of this Charter;
(3) Is convicted of a felony; or
(4) Fails to attend three (3) consecutive regular meetings of the
Council without being excused by the Council.

Digging yet deeper into the two pages of furiously hand written notes that I captured during Mr. Rosado’s tirade at Monday’s council meeting unveiled one final gem.

It seems Mr. Rosado has only received positive feedback for his many deeds “representing” the city of Cape Coral. I urge each of you to send a short email to mrosado@capecoral.net, and let him know how you feel about his representation.

If you are less inclined to write something of your own, I humbly submit the following short, but accurate letter, ready for cutting and pasting to your favorite email application:

Dear Mr. Rosado,

I am a resident and/or property owner within the city of Cape Coral. I feel that your unnecessary trips to represent the citizens of Cape Coral is a misguided approach to leadership. I would prefer that you instead focus on the responsibilities of your position, and meet those minimum expectations first.

It would be appropriate for you to attend meetings regarding our budget. It would also be appropriate for you to attend meetings where you are interviewing applicants for the replacement of another representative. It would also be appropriate that you occassionally meet with the City Manager, and discuss the issues which you must vote upon.

Meeting these minimum requirements would alleviate the need to call for your resignation. Continuing to present yourself as a representative of the city, while partaking in activities outside of approved city business, is unacceptable.

Thank you for your kind consideration,

Resident

Nearly 24 hours after Mr. Rosado went on an incredibly long tirade, I still find myself somewhat shocked at the events that occurred. For those of you fortunate enough to miss the reports portion of the Council Meeting, I can provide a summary. I assure you, my summary will take less time to read, than the approximately 1 hour that Mr. Rosado’s temper tantrum lasted.

First, Mr. Rosado started out innocently enough. He latched on to yet another tid bit from yet another commission that he had attended. He wanted to have more residents of Cape Coral receiving services from Cape Coral Government, and not ‘crossing the river’ to receive services. He apparently fails to realize that a great number of the Cape’s residents are normally ‘crossing the river’ to go to work every day, so they would be hard pressed to drive back to Cape Coral to take care of an issue that they could more easily handle in Ft. Myers.

Next, Mr Rosado began explaining his take on attending budget meetings. He felt that the meeting which the rest of the council approved a 1 billion dollar budget was “parlaimentary” and it wasn’t necessary for him to attend. He stated, “Im elected, I’m an official, and I’ll be wherever I want to be.”

He then began congratulating himself about his “extremely successful” trip to Puerto Rico, where he “represented” Cape Coral. He discussed the spanish documentation from the trip, which he “translated, pro bono”. Of course, noone asked him to represent Cape Coral at this conference. The council never voted to approve his representation of us. More importantly, his “representation” actually forced him to miss that “parlaimentary” budget meeting. The date that he himself motioned to approve as the final budget meeting date.

It only goes down hill from here, unfortunately. Mr. Rosado even went so far as to suggest that “maybe you have to be bilingual to go to heaven”

He began to describe phone calls to the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. He called them “Harrassment”. Mrs. Bertolini was following up on the date that Mr. Rosado was engaged to speak at this conference in Puerto Rico. She learned that it was set for Friday, the 22nd. So Mr. Rosado had the opportunity to attend the budget meeting. He instead chose to handle personal business, in Puerto Rico.

He also took equipment which belongs to the city. He appropriated a city owned cellular wireless card with unrestricted minutes. He did so in violation of the charter, because he did not clear it with the city manager prior to requesting the equipment from the Director of ITS.

The Mayor asked Rosado to name one benefit the City of Cape Coral received from his trip. Instead of answering the question, Rosado directed everyone to contact the builder sponsor of the Puerto Rico convention, asking them if they felt that Rosado had helped the community. He also offered to bring the builder in, to make a presentation to council. This would of course, have lead to a landslide of time wasting presentations from other builders, wanting their fair share of time.

Mr. Boyd also questioned Mr. Rosado. He pointed out the fact that Rosado was late to the interview process, missing the first three or four entirely, and choosing to watch the remainder of the interviews, on television, rather than in the council chambers.

A handful of people were aware of the fact that I was searching for documentation of the number of missed meetings between Mr. Rosado and our City Manager. I was expecting to hear a figure of about three to four months. Instead, to my intense surprise, Mr. Boyd pointed out the fact that it had been over 1 year since Mr. Rosado had held a meeting with Mr. Stewart. Rosado openly admitted it, saying he was ‘dissappointed’ with the City Manager, but he wanted to ’start fresh.’

Mr. Rosado, there are no do-overs in real life. Last time I checked, this is the real thing, and you sir, do not have a reset button. You do, however, have the ability to pen a resignation letter. Perhaps that would be the wiser choice.

Jim Jeffers was an incredible individual. Someone whom I never had the privilege and pleasure to spend any meaningful time with. I make my observations of him as an outsider. Someone not privy to his inner self. I can only judge him based upon his actions at council.

Those actions were impeccable. Jim always examined the issue he voted on. He was always respectful, and often humorous. If he spoke, I listened. It was the only sign of respect available, and the only one necessary. His words spoke to the issue at hand, and made sense.

It was the council’s job to replace him today. Illness, and an unfair world took a brilliant human being away from us. We can only hope that the council made a wise choice.

Each member spoke about the interview process. I took notes for each council member, as they spoke.

Mr. Boyd spoke about “Who I’m voting for, not who I’m voting against.” He was looking for someone to parallel Jim. He was impressed with all applicants, but Mr. Greer stood out in his mind as the best choice.

Mrs. Bertolini said that she looked for someone who could have a difference of opinion with her, but have the courage to state as much. She said that while speaking to Mr. Greer they did have a difference of opinion, but he was respectful, in his disagreement. She also gave the nod to Mr. Greer.

Mrs. LePera stated firmly that she would stick with her philosophy of fairness, and nominate Ms. Bush to the position. Later, she also stated that she scored Mr. Lincoln very high, and he should also be nominated.

Mr. Day, impressed with the military background, the PHD, and credentials of Mr. Hair, gave him the nod, and a nomination.

Mr. Stevens seconded Mr. Hair with no other comment.

The Mayor stated the three qualities that he used in his selection process. Commitment to community, knowledge of the issues, and a willingness to work through them, and education and experience.

Mr. Rosado said “We make the position, the position does not make us.” Unfortunately, Mr. Rosado did not attend the interviews. He watched ‘all but the first three or four’ on television in his office. This would foreshadow some of the conversations held later. He lastly stated that he wouldn’t nominate Mr. Boller, but that “We need an engineer.”

During the initial Vote, Rosado, Stevens, and Day voted for Hair. Bertolini, Boyd, and Feicthaler voted for Greer, and LePera voted for Bush. During the second vote, Mrs. Lepera voted for Mr. Hair, with all others holding identical votes from before. Mr. Hair was appointed the new district 1 representative.

He was sworn in, by the mayor, while Mr. Day held the bible for him. Stumbling slightly over the words, Mr. Hair’s genuine pronouncement of the oath was comforting. He took the oath very seriously, and that was apparent by the feeling behind the words he spoke.

I wish Mr. Hair the best of luck. It is a difficult time for our council. Many decisions will need to be made that will effect our city for many years after this council is but a memory. I can only hope that he will have the wisdom to make the correct decisions for our city.