Cape Informer

District: One
Name: Thomas W. Hair
Occupation: Mathematics Professor
Website: www.tomhair2007.com
Email: thair@capecoral.net
Phone: 292-9612

What is your vision for the City of Cape Coral? What will the city look like after your first full term in office?

The next five years will be a critical time for Cape Coral. We will pass 200,000 in population making us one of the 100 largest cities in the nation. The decisions we make now will have an effect on our quality of life for decades to come. Specifically, I think we will see several major projects emerge within the CRA that will bring about the creation of a real downtown, the filling in of the Pine Island Road corridor…possibly with a regional mall, and the completion of most of the utility expansion work. I would also like to see if we can lure FGCU to the Academic Village site. The combination of a young, fast growing city and a major branch of a young, fast growing university would be a unbeatable. The bottom line is that we have to set the stage now for what is to come. That is why it is so important to elect leaders with a long range vision for what the Cape can become.

What do you see as the largest challenges facing the city? What are your plans for addressing these challenges?

Growth and construction of the infrastructure needed to meet it. Meeting this challenge is our number one priority. We are the fourth fastest growing city in America, soon to break into the top 100 cities in the nation in population. So, how do we accomplish this?

First, we continue planning and implementing transportation upgrades to meet expected growth. The North Del Prado and Burnt Store initiatives come to mind. Look at what the Mid-Point Bridge did for us when it was completed 10 years ago. Remember the political struggle for that structure and realize that anything we attempt to do in the future to affect positive change for Cape Coral needs to be framed in the context of looking at the long view. Our build-out population is predicted to be approximately 450,000…a number like that demands that we think with our heads and not with our hearts.

Second, we continue without delay the construction of the central water and sewer system. It is environmentally unacceptable to have several hundred thousand people on septic systems on 10,000sqft lots…after 1972 the EPA made it illegal for any home site less than 22,000 sq ft to have a septic system.

We already have the largest residential re-use system in the country and also one of the largest desalination plants. When the north Cape reverse osmosis plant is complete we will have the largest such system in the world. We also need to transfer our fire hydrants to the potable system to give us better control over the use of irrigation water and work with the South Florida Water Management District to educate them on this issue and to allow us to set our own lawn watering times to increase system pressure.

What are your plans for controlling the costs of government services, assessments, taxes and fees to our citizens and businesses?

We need to get a handle on taxes and spending. The city’s general fund budget, where your property taxes go, has increased 60% over the past two years while the combined rate of inflation and population growth during that same period was only 20%. Unfortunately, the ad valorem millage rate did not decrease at a rate commensurate with the increase in property values. Instead we got token decreases in the millage rate that allowed our tax bills to rise three times faster than they otherwise would have.

Gov. Crist has mandated all state agencies cut 4% from their next budget and I propose we follow his lead. This past Thursday I, and the majority of my fellow councilmembers, nearly achieved that target in preliminary budgets negotiations. In the coming weeks I intend to make sure that these cuts become permanent by sponsoring the ordinance that enacts them.

In November, when a new council is seated, I plan to bring back two very important pieces of legislation that would have put spending limits on city government. One caps the rate of growth in the general fund, where your property taxes go, to be no more than the sum of the rate of inflation and population growth, while the other states that the city will not maintain a reserve fund that is greater than 10% of the current budget…meaning any surplus must be returned to the taxpayers. I supported both of these measures, but was unfortunately in the minority…hopefully a new council will change that.

What are your plans for improving the economic situation and general appeal of our city for current and future residents and businesses?

Raising the percentage of our property tax revenue generated by commercial property should be our number priority under the rubric of economic development. We need a road map to go from 8% commercial to the 15% necessary to alleviate the current residential tax burden.

This can be accomplished most effectively by rezoning land to commercial along major thoroughfares to create commercial activity centers like the very successful one at the corner of Veteran’s and Santa Barbara that contains the Publix, Target, and numerous other businesses. Beyond that, the proper use of the 2500 acre Zemel annexation abutting US41 in northeast Cape and the new mixed-use preserve land use designation associated with it should be leverage to the maximum extent possible to bring more needed business activity. Finally, the fast-tracking of major projects within the CRA such as the now-approved 12-story Cape Villagio should be a priority as well.

What are your plans for using new communication and business tools provided over the Internet for residents and businesses to contact you, or for you to share your ongoing work with residents?

The current city email system is the most effective way for a citizen to contact his or her council member. It provides an electronic record of the communication, hard copy for the council member to act upon (versus a phone call), and allows for it to be easily forwarded, if necessary, on to the appropriate person or department for action.

I would also like to see space made available on the city website for each council member to have a comprehensive web page where they can express their core beliefs and political philosophy, discuss issues of current concern, and reflect upon actions taken by council.

[Where: 33990]
This entry was posted on Saturday, September 8th, 2007 at 9:53 am and is filed under 33990, Elections. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.