Cape Informer

A group of veterans, citizens and city officials gathered today to honor veterans with the lighting of the new John C. Hinks Memorial Sign. This Dedication ceremony included a presentation of colors by Veterans of Foreign Wars Post #8463 and speeches from Mayor Feichthaler and outgoing Council person Alex LePera. Other speakers included Master of Ceremonies Steve Pohlman the director of Parks and Recreation for the City, and Barbara Dugan of PFC Paul E. Ison Marine Corp League Auxiliary.

Here are some photos from the very touching event:

Mayor Feichthaler was instrumental in the final discussions that allowed this sign to move forward after nearly two years of delays. The sign itself prominently displays each branch of service on both the screen and the badges just below the screen. It reads “Field of Honor” at the top and “Welcome Home” surrounded by the iconic yellow ribbon symbols at the bottom.

There are plans for an additional facility here, a 40 foot by 60 foot pavillion, near where the visitors were sitting today. This new pavillion will allow for instruction and memorial gatherings at this important memorial.

Fred Thompson’s scheduled visit to Cape Coral today brought well over 500 visitors to Jaycee’s park. Two large touring buses pulled up to a cheering and sign waving crowd. Mayor Eric Feichthaler introduced Fred by speaking of his strong stance on reducing taxes and controlling illegal immigration.

Fred addressed the crowd, stating “Americans are ready for a serious conversation, about serious issues.” He expressed concern for his own young children, 4 years old and 10 months old. He asked “What kind of world will his kids grow up in?”

Fred’s message was positive and upbeat. He spoke of protecting the 2nd amendment. He spoke of less regulation and a respect for property rights. He said that “Americans are capable of doing miraculous things, when given the opportunity.”

As he moved on to the issues of the War on Terror, he does not want America to be seen as weak and divisive to our enemies. “20 year olds serving in Iraq know more about National Security than 20 year representatives in Congress” he quipped.

Then he reminded the crowd that “America has shed more blood for the liberty of other nations than any other nation on earth.” This was met with chanting of his name from the crowd. He answered “I hear you.”

On healthcare, he promised to “blow the whistle on irresponsibility” and keep healthcare decisions with individuals. “We can’t afford to add entitlements on top of a broken entitlement system” he said.

On the fair tax, he stated that he would give it “serious consideration” and he stated that he is evaluating a number of different tax distributions to find the best options. He stated that our current tax system is completely broken.

On illegal immigration he stated that there is a “total disconnect between the American people and Congress.” He stated that there was no need to talk about anything else in immigration until we have secured our borders against illegal immigration.

CapeInformer provided two questions to the campaign, both courtesy of the LeeCountyChat forum. When we receive answers, we will post them here. It was a long, hot afternoon, but we received a lot of good information on this candidate and his stances on important issues. If you would like more information on the campaign, you can visit the official website.

Today is your chance to select the candidates who will run in the general election in November. Please go out and vote today. If you are still undecided on your choices, 12 of the candidates have responded here with information about their vision and goals for Cape Coral. Do your research and decide which candidate is best for you, but do it today!

Come out today to support a great cause.

“Juniper Village at Cape Coral at 4920 Viceroy Court will be the site of a yard sale from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday. All proceeds will benefit Chansen Savanakus, a first-grader at Oasis Elementary School. Chansen is battling leukemia and his family can use assistance with his medical bills. Clear Water Treatment Inc. will be on hand with information and for refreshing water to drink. There will also be a bake sale and lemonade stand. For information, call 542-3121 and ask for the Community Relations Department.” (as posted at Cape Coral Daily Breeze)

The much touted Internet Survey, part 1, is out and available now. Please participate, so we can get our money’s worth this time around.

Take The Survey Here.

My general impression of the 11 item survey is that it is designed very simply. I am concerned that the information which it will gather will be overly simplified, and not especially useful to perspective employers. It may be able to give some real basic insight for a perspective employer coming to the area. However, I would believe that the new employer would likely do their own fact checking prior to coming here.

Update: After taking the survey myself, I was presented with a screen that looks like an overview/total of the responses. If it is an overview, I was the first respondent to the survey. See my capture of it here: Print Capture

Update 2: You can take the survey multiple times and it keeps the answers. Proof

Update 3: You can view the results by just hitting submit. This means that people can review what other people submitted before they choose to answer the survey. This will skew the results also.

I watched tonight as our Economics Development Office provided a litany of excuses for a poorly executed survey. Mike Jackson, the Economic Development Director spoke tonight about the decision that was made to outsource a survey to India. He felt that a language barrier kept results at bay. He talked about the fact that they spoke too fast, or with a dialect that people would be uncomfortable with.

CM Bertolini asked if they were capable of providing this survey in house. He answered her question affirmatively. He stated that he felt that an in house City representative would not be able to illicit answers as well as a third party. I disagree completely with this conclusion. People are disinterested in phone surveys as a rule. They will be more likely to disregard a survey coming from a source that they cannot fully and easily understand.

My verdict? A prime example of a waste of taxpayer dollars from a redundant department. Lets mark the Economic Development Office for a healthy budget trimming.

According to City Staff and news sources, the boil water order has been lifted.

All customers on City water are under a boil water notice after a contractor hit a main distribution line near the RO Plant. Department of Environmental Protection has been notified.

Just a quick FYI for everyone. I did receive this via the Code Red Warning system. If you haven’t signed up, it’s available from the City Website.

Gary Aubuchon and Burt Saunders both attended the council meeting this evening. Mr. Aubuchon spoke before Council first, stating that he is “Working hard for Cape Coral.” He alluded to next week’s property tax special session, stating that it would be responsible, responsive legislation.

Mr. Saunders quipped that he hoped anyone with comments would contact Mr. Aubuchon, which elicited a rueful laugh. He also said that it was “quite fun” to read about Cape Coral. He did express disappointment over the veto on State Road 78. He said he would work to bring that back into the budget in the future.

South West Florida Expressway Authority (http://swfea.net) provided a presentation for a toll based expansion of I-75. They state that we will spend nearly two decades with “F” grade traffic in Lee and Collier Counties, if we rely on the current FDOT expansion plans. They did state that they have a poll on their site and recommend all residents take the poll and review the information available.

The Mayor pulled two items for Discussion from the consent agenda, 3B and 3D, stating that both parcels were higher priced than they should be. He made a motion to deny both. Motion carried 7 to 1, with CM LePera voting against.

The Mayor’s suggested spending limits came up for vote in ordinance 75-07.  The ordinance would limit the general fund budget based on the combined rate of inflation and population growth. The ordinance was denied 5-3, Tom Hair, Chris Berardi and Mayor F voted yes.

Tonight I am questioning the new rule of questions. A few weeks ago council made a great move forward by requiring the publication of questions and their answers from Citizen’s Input time. That is a great idea and a laudable intention.

Having 13 years of experience in the IT field and specifically with the Internet, I made several suggestions and a full proposal to the PIO about how to proceed with that. They chose a different path, one which I felt wasn’t ideal, but at least it was still a step in the right direction. Several residents stood up at input time, asked their questions and then sat down. It seems like the Residents really embraced the new tool and wanted to use it fully.

Unfortunately, Council has now voted to create a limit of three questions. That limit is also unclear. Did you mean to limit citizens to three questions per person at input time? Did you mean that Council members only had to answer three questions? Did you mean Staff only had to answer three questions per week on the website? I’ve already reached three questions, so I suppose I’ll leave it there for your clarification.

Instead of continuing to question I would like to propose a solution to this dilemma. Install a real Question Management application, much like the one I suggested. Go out to bid on the project and have a real application installed with a service to manage the questions and their answering. Don’t limit the input and don’t limit the output.

I can provide studies that will show very clearly a cost savings trend by using these tools. Fortune 500 companies embrace these technologies to reduce personnel time in dealing with customer related issues. By moving to this sort of managed system you will save taxpayer money and improve communications at the same time.

At first you will see a high volume of questions as people seek answers. Once the questions are answered and available on line you will see a reduction in the frequency of questions. This will occur because Residents will help themselves to the information that they need. Lets make a wise investment choice here. Do not throw away the opportunity before us. Embrace it and move in the direction that will best benefit the residents of the City. Thank you.