Each week through the General Election, The Breeze will ask the candidates for Cape Coral City Council an issue-related question. In the interest of fairness, each candidate is limited to the same amount of words, about 100, for their response.

This week’s question:

With a number of expansive park plans in the queue, how should the city fund these projects

District 2 candidates’ answers:

Laurie Lehmann

The city is notorious for starting a new project/park prior to completing a project, thus creating a queue. Yacht Club has not been rebuilt, yet the city wants to start on Jaycee Park. Finish what you start before going on. Yacht Club plans are beyond what is needed. It should have just been renovated. Leaving Jaycee Park alone is a savings of $18 million. There is also a surplus of $17 million in the budget — giving the city a starting point of $35 million for the Yacht Club. Stopping the stipend would create $312,000/year of additional funding for park projects. If the city started and finished projects per the original budgets and contracts, there would not be the cost overruns or contingencies that we are now experiencing.

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Dan Sheppard (Incumbent)

The city should finance parks over the life of the park so future residents help pay, not just current residents. Municipal finances are different from personal finances. When we finance public parks, everyone who benefits shares the cost, making it cheaper for each person. Our city has a great credit score, so borrowing money is cheap. Plus, these parks can be built without raising taxes. Some residents confuse the negative aspects of personal loans with city loans, but for public projects like parks, financing is a smart choice because both current and future residents help cover the costs.

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District 3 candidates’ answers:

Derrick Donnell

DerrickDonnell.com

In November of 2018, the residents of Cape Coral voted to approve the $60 million General Obligation (GO) Bond for the purpose of improving and expanding our parks in accordance with the city’s parks master plan. Our first priority should be to carry out the will of the people by utilizing the funds residents already approved to improve the parks as presented in the GO Bond projects list. Secondly, we should not expand any parks over and above the funds that have already been voted on by the people. We must have a citizen’s park committee that works in tandem with the city staff and city council for the purpose of identifying any additional park expansion plans and how they would be funded.

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Deborah Lee McCormick

McCormickforCapeCouncil.com

The city’s main stream of revenue comes from ad valorem taxation, however, the city is able to take out bonds in order to pay for projects. If included in the general budget, I would prefer these plans to be paid for without taking a bond. Financial responsibility is important with expansion and renovation projects such as these. I would like to note, however, that I think an important part of the process is collecting citizen input prior to any vote on a park renovation, as we want to avoid any future turmoil with residents considering what was seen during the Jaycee Park renovation project. In doing so, we can utilize this input to make potential cuts in the amount of money that the city spends, promoting smart growth and financial responsibility with the use of citizen input.

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District 4 candidates’ answers:

Richard Carr (Incumbent)

VoteRichCarr.com

Parks and public green spaces are vital to our city’s future, offering residents places to relax and enjoy recreational activities. Most ongoing projects have secured funding, but diversifying funding sources for park projects should always be considered. Each project should be evaluated comprehensively to maximize benefits for city residents while minimizing the financial impact. Potential funding sources include impact fees, state and federal grants, and partnerships with public and private entities. The goal is to maximize the value and benefit to residents while keeping costs low.

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Jennifer Nelson

NelsonforDistrict4.com

The city should re-prioritize the parks that were in the initial Go Bond. The focus should be finishing the parks that were in the plan. The old golf course purchase was in the newly approved budget. The improvement plan for that should be created and funding sources identified after the park plan created by the Go Bond. Once those parks are re-prioritized and completed, then we can focus on new parks.

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District 5 candidates’ answers:

Joseph Kilraine

KilraineforCape.com

The GoBond is seriously overbudget (i.e. $40 million over after removal of the Yacht-Club & Tropicana). The Yacht-Club proposed scope alone will exceed $100 million. The mayor indicated $28 million of the GoBond overspending will be redirected from the general fund & arguably, other higher priority needs Obviously, grant opportunities are a first funding source. However, a “full-required-fund” forecast must be first completed with full transparency on scope. The citizens must be the decision makers on this “complete-funding-package.” Residents must decide how expansive the park plan should be & extent of incremental tax-burden they are willing to accept. Akin to the original GoBond referendum, new funding should follow a like path but with full transparency on each project’s projected scope/cost with options to fund the yacht club separately.

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Charlie Pease

VoteCharliePease.com

We have important expansive parks projects ahead, including redeveloping the old golf course into a 175-acre “central park” in SE Cape and rebuilding the Cape Coral Yacht Club. It’s vital to explore public-private partnerships that offer clear benefits and cost savings for taxpayers. Balancing general funds, debt service, and potential future bonds will be key for the public financing components. However, the planned overhaul of Jaycee Park is misaligned with our current needs, especially given the anticipated $16 to $18 million in debt service. While likely too late given the recent approval, those funds should be redirected toward projects that will provide broader benefits as community parks.

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District 7 candidates’ answers:

Michael David Harper

The city should first look to see if there are any available funds through the state. If that is not an option, then they should look at tax exempt bonds. The city can also look for ways to cut items in the budget that may not be a priority at this time and use that money to complete the projects. Once all the projects are completed, upkeep of the parks will need to be part of the yearly budget.

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Rachel Kaduk

RachelKaduk.com

Parks & Recreation funding is through the General Fund. We can look at exploring a plethora of income-generating sources. Items such as grants, private sponsored donations, bonds and levies, and fees and charges. We don’t want to be taxed to death. If there is a park offering a service that is special interest to you, and there is a small nominal fee for it, that’s another income-generating source rather than raising our taxes to fund these items. If our parks department intends to get it, they somehow can afford it. Jaycee Park is a great example.