Dear Friends and Neighbors:
Welcome back to my Naples City Council Newsletter, the first edition since I was reelected to City Council on February 2. As before, I plan to use this newsletter to keep our residents informed about the important issues that City Council is addressing. We live in a time when local news coverage – print, television, or digital – is limited at best. I hope this newsletter can continue to be one additional way to share information about what is occurring in the City of Naples.
There is one important change I have made to this publication. Beginning with this edition, I have created a website, where readers can access my newsletters and related items of information on a continuing basis. By going to RAY CHRISTMAN BLOG at any time, you will be able to read my current and past postings.
In this current newsletter, I want to talk about two major actions recently taken by City Council: one relating to the Naples Beach Hotel conservation easement and the other dealing with the new contract for our police force.
1. Preserving Open Space in the Heart of Naples: The Naples Beach Hotel Conservation Easement
On May 2, City Council approved by a 5-2 vote (Blankenship, Christman, Hutchison, McCabe and Perry voting “yes” and Heitmann and Petrunoff voting “no”) creation of a conservation easement for the former Naples Beach Hotel (NBH) property.
This easement will preserve in perpetuity 104 acres for recreation and open space. Importantly, the easement further specifies 70 of these acres as fixed, contiguous and defined exclusively for open space.
This is a remarkable achievement, whose importance is difficult to over-state. Without this easement, over 100 acres of land in the heart of Naples was at risk of development. While the property will remain in private hands, it will forever remain open and passive recreational space, with all the aesthetic, stormwater management, and other environmental benefits that accompany that use.
To fully appreciate the significance of this action, we need to revisit some recent history.
2. Supporting Public Safety in Naples — New Police Contract Approved
On May 4, City Council unanimously approved a new three-year contract with our two Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) unions, one representing our police officers and one representing our police supervisors (sergeants). These contract negotiations had been underway for over a year.
The contract provides for significant compensation increases. For our police officers, the wage and incentive package will be 26.72% over three years. For our police supervisors, it will be 29.67%. (A similar three-year package was approved by Council the City Firefighter and Emergency Rescue bargaining unit about a month ago.)
These increases may seem high to someone reading about this for the first time, but they were long overdue. Since 2008, our public safety personnel had received wage increases averaging less than 2% per year. And about ten years ago, the City instituted pension reform measures that materially reduced pension benefits for our First Responders.
As time has gone by, Naples has found it increasingly difficult to recruit and retain police officers, primarily because of compensation disparities with other nearby localities Our wage and benefits package was simply not competitive with competing localities – Cape Coral, Marco Island, the Collier County Sheriffs Office, and other jurisdictions.
Thank you for your interest and engagement in our great community. In upcoming newsletters, I look forward to sharing information on the many other important issues and projects facing our town. These include the Gulf Shore Boulevard Beach Outfalls project, the new Master Plan for the Naples Design District, efforts to create new affordable work force housing, and the proposed creation of a new Heart Institute at Naples Community Hospital.
I also want to take this opportunity to recognize and welcome our new City Manager, Jay Boodheshwar. Jay began work here on May 2. I am confident that he will be a great leader for our city employees and a good partner for our residents.
And as always, please contact me with questions or comments on any matter at my City Council email, rchristman@naplesgov.com.
Thanks and stay safe!
Ray Christman
Naples City Council
735 8th Street North
Naples, Florida 34102
239-213-1035
rchristman@naplesgov.com