The race is on for the next District 4 city council representative in Cape Coral, and a longtime military veteran has decided to join in.
Robert Sutter, alongside three other candidates for District 4, responded to a blanket set of questions by The News-Press / Naples Daily News that covered everything from their top priorities, should they be elected, to their stances on water runoff, city planning, and affordable housing.
District 4 is bordered on the south by Cape Coral Parkway, extends just a few blocks north of 26 E Terrace, extends one block east of Country Club Boulevard, and two blocks west of Skyline Boulevard.
The position is elected at-large. Terms are usually four years long, and members are limited to two consecutive terms. However, the winner of this race will serve a two-year term because Cummings was removed before her term expired.
The two candidates who receive the most votes in the Aug. 20 primary will move on to the general election in November.
Council members are paid a base annual salary of $37,368.96. Last year, the council approved monthly stipends worth another $39,996 a year.
Sutter is running against candidates Richard Carr, William Matthews and Jennifer Nelson for the District 4 seat.
The candidate
- Name: Robert Sutter
- Age: 62
- Previous Experience: Contracts for a defense company on IT matters. His campaign bio says he held leadership positions and earned a number of medals over the course of a 20-year military career serving in the Cold War, Desert Storm/Desert Shield, Bosnia/Kosovo, and Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation Enduring Freedom.
- War Chest: Sutter has raised $12,790 and spent $11,444.13 on his campaign since April 1, the vast majority of which he loaned himself. In April and June, Sutter loaned himself $7,000 and $5,000, respectively.
What do you see as your district’s top priorities? If elected, what is the very first issue you’d tackle?
Once elected, I will focus my immediate attention on rescinding the stipend, stopping the work on Jaycee Park, requesting a forensic audit of our city accounting system, changing the way our city council meetings are conducted as well as understanding the management contract for the Kennedy Center pickleball facility. I will also focus on making all parks and recreation facilities be free for all Cape Coral residents. As far as my district is concerned, I will emphasize the importance of public safety and work to increase the number of sidewalks and streetlights.
What experience do you have in leadership that has prepared you for this role? What is your greatest accomplishment as a leader?
I am a 20-year veteran in the Army. I have held numerous leadership positions over my career and participated in several conflicts.
I know how to build teams as well as understand large budgets. After the military, I went to work for Northrop Grumman on one of the Army’s largest IT programs, valued at $4.7 billion. While working for Northrop Grumman I held a variety of leadership roles, and became the program’s operations manager, where I was personally held responsible for an annual budget of $120 million. I worked across the entire program as well as had five finance resources that reported directly to me.
As a leader, your responsibility is to enhance your subordinate’s career. My greatest and proudest accomplishment is helping my subordinates succeed.
Why should people vote for you instead of your opponents?
I believe, like a business would, we need to carefully manage our budget, hold people accountable, and make smart business decisions to guide the community into the future. I possess considerably more leadership experience and education than any of my opponents. My decision-making capabilities are honed and have been proven in a multitude of environments, both military and civilian. I am formally trained in SIX SIGMA, which is used to determine root cause analysis. I am earned value management certified, as well, which teaches you how to measure period of performance, scope of work, and budget. I am also FEMA certified at the federal level, affording me a better understanding of how large disaster recovery activities are executed.
Cape Coral has been growing significantly, but some residents believe the city is getting too big. If elected, how would you proceed with regard to laws dealing with growth management, road construction, and preservation?
In my opinion, we need to slow down large projects until the community has healed from Hurricane Ian. Many homeowners have not financially recovered. During this slow-down, I believe the city needs to focus its efforts on maintaining and sustaining its current infrastructure: street repairs, street signs, sidewalks, streetlights, etc.
I believe we should only do minor enhancements and upkeep to our parks and recreation areas during this time. Eventually, I would like to see the city and county work together to set aside additional “green lands:” old-fashioned parks that families can enjoy, not parks that facilitate food trucks, bands and bars.
The city council recently voted in a stipend that increased council pay by between $3,333 and $5,000 monthly – roughly doubling what council members were making before. What’s your stance on the stipend? How would you address council pay?
The city council stipend should be rescinded, and a forensic audit be performed. We should do the following:
1. Link the city council pay to the median salary of all Cape Coral city employees (which is currently $60,080). I would use this as a baseline and then create a mathematical formula for annual increase or cost of living adjustment (COLA) (baseline minus 20% = city council pay) = $60,080 – $12,016 = $48,064. This forces the city council to increase the bottom one-third of city employees’ pay if they wish to receive a pay increase themselves; thereby affording our citizens the opportunity to live in the city that they work in.
2. Citizens need to vote on any pay raises as well as when the city council moves from part-time to full-time employment.
What specific efforts will you advocate for, as it relates to affordable and workplace housing?
I am not in favor of affordable housing because there are too many strings attached to federal government funding. In my opinion, low-income housing projects start off with great intentions and then at about the 5-year mark, they become slums, attracting gangs, drugs, and crime. Since Cape Coral has already entered into the affordable housing market, we will need to examine how we increase the number of our first responders to support these areas.
What will you do to protect water quality and reduce stormwater runoff? What policies will you push in taking action against polluters?
First, I will request an information briefing to better understand the current status of our water quality as well as what the plan is for the future. As far as polluters, I would fight to severely increase the fines and penalties as well as publish all violators on social media, newspapers, etc. We need to make the public aware that the citizens of Cape Coral will not tolerate anyone or any company that pollutes our environment.
What needs to be done on transparency and accountability in local government, and how will you instruct the city manager on best practices in providing public information and accessibility?
Leveraging decades of management experience and my education, I would work with the city manager and his team(s) to do the following:
Accountability: I would meet with the city manager to understand the status of all the city’s large projects. I would leverage several of the “best in breed” business practices that I have used in the past to help the city manage its programs and projects. I would request quarterly updates of all projects over $10 million be given by each project manager to the city council. Lastly, I want to see the contract vehicle and “critical paths” of all work projects.
Transparency: I will use my years of communication experience and education to work with the city’s communications team to develop a long-term communication strategy. We need to leverage our city organized events as well as innovative social media channels.
