Theresa Frosoni

Thirteen residents of District 4 have put their names in an applicant pool to be considered for the Cape Coral City Council seat left vacant after Patty Cummings was suspended by Gov. Ron DeSantis in the wake of felony charges related to whether she met residency requirements when she ran for office.

Cummings has been charged with fraudulent application for driver license and two counts of false swearing in connection with or arising out of voting or elections, allegations she has steadfastly denied.

Richard Carr, Theresa Frosoni, Eduardo Jimenez, Robert Luby, William Matthews, Jennifer Nelson, Robert “Bob” O’Connor, David Orlowski, Anthony Rainone, Jesus Rodriguez, Karen Solgard, Robert Sutter and Blair Veloz each have submitted an application to be considered for the seat.

Janine Mohl withdrew her name from the applicant pool.

The deadline to apply closed Friday at 5 p.m.

Jennifer Nelson

Council, which will fill the seat by appointment, will interview those seeking to serve this week with additional questions to be asked during the elected board’s Dec. 13 meeting.

Applicants will enter council chambers one at a time where they will be allotted 3 minutes to address Council and then will answer a question of council’s choosing. To best assure fairness, applicant cell phones will be collected prior to the public meeting as the same question will be presented to each.

Because there are three years remaining in Cummings’ term, the appointment of an interim District 4 rep will be effective until Cummings is reinstated by the governor or through the General Election in November 2024.

The candidate pool includes the incumbent who narrowly lost to Cummings in a runoff in 2022.

Nelson provided the following statement related to her application:

Bob O'Connor

“I love this city. A city that has been good to me and my family. After much thought and consideration, I submitted my application. The amount of residents, groups, and colleagues who reached out asking me to submit was touching. I was the only lawful candidate in my race and election integrity is a very important issue facing our city. Many residents have lost trust in our city elections and leaders. My hope would be to help restore their faith. I will be able to jump in and be up to speed quickly should council decide that is important to them. If council decides to go in a different direction, that’s ok too. I’m still going to live my best life in our beautiful city.”

Cummings received 50.89 percent of the vote to Nelson’s 49.11 percent, 28,380 votes to 27,382.

Jesus Rodriguez

Anthony Rainone

Councilmember Richard Carr , District 4 Cape Coral City Council seat.

Robert Sutter

Karen Solgard