The race is on for the four-year term of District 5 Cape Coral City Council member in Lee County.
To better inform voters, candidates responded to questions by The News-Press that covered a variety of topics including top priorities, water runoff, community planning, affordable housing and other issues.
- Name: Jason Conzelman
- Age: 44
- Previous Experience: Small business owner of Poormans collectibles. He says his family business, poor man’s auto repair, taught him how to help customers, and always run an honest business. Word-of-mouth, combined with 100% honesty in auto repair has kept our family business around for 40 years now.
- Campaign funds: Conzelman's campaign finance reports show only $519 of his own money, which was spent on candidate filing fees.
Here's what you should know about the District 5 race and a Q&A with Conzelman.
About the Cape Coral City Council District 5 position
- While Cape Coral is broken down into seven districts, council members are elected at large, so all city voters can cast ballots for non-partisan candidates, regardless of what district they reside.
- District 5 includes the west quadrant of mid-Cape Coral.
- 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.
Who is Conzelmanrunning against in the election 2024 primary?
Conzelman is running against Joseph Kilraine, Charlie Pease and Robert Welsh, the incumbent. The two with the highest totals on Aug. 20 advance to the Nov. 5 general election.
Here are Conzelman's answers to our questions:
What is your greatest accomplishment as a leader? What experience do you have in leadership that has prepared you for this role?
I was a manager for the Home Depot, with around 15 to 25 people under me on any given day, and I ran the office in my family business. I learned how to lead others from my mentor, Gary Demarinis, who helped me to understand what it takes to become a leader. I am definitely the only candidate who has the power to lead the new council for the next four years.
My greatest accomplishment as a leader was watching the first three people I trained all get promoted to full-time positions, and two were then promoted to supervisor positions.
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What do you see as are your district’s top priorities? What is the first issue you’d tackle?
Look into how the stipend bill was passed. Check to see if anything illegal was done. Then get rid of the stipend ASAP. Immediately get rid of the Jaycee Park plans and tear them up and start all over again.
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Why should people vote for you instead of your opponents?
I am reflection of the city based on the average age, and I can relate to just about anyone. I’ve learned how to lead by one of the best mentors you could ask for. I have the leadership to take the council and keep all the new members working together.
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Cape Coral has grown significantly, but some residents believe the city is getting too big. How would you proceed with regard to laws dealing with growth management, road construction and preservation?
Make plans to get ahead of the growth. Remove useless and time-wasting regulations to make construction go faster so we can build more houses and keep up with the growth.
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What’s your stance on the voting in of a stipend that significantly increased what members receive? How would you address council pay?
Pay should be based on the average city size. Then you can find the equivalent pay. Then the stipend needs to be removed.
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What specific efforts will you advocate for, as it relates to affordable and workplace housing?
Look for cheap property inland and take every opportunity to build when you have the chance to get property cheap and turn that into low-price housing.
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What will you do to protect water quality and reduce stormwater runoff? What policies will you push in taking action against polluters?
Invest in engineers and experts to make stormwater runoff in a specified location. In my opinion, water polluters have been overlooked and not properly punished or laws enforced properly. I would make it mandatory for polluters to be fined or sent to jail based on what and how much they dumped into the water or the land.
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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?
Require all employees to openly show what donations they received from certain companies to the public, openly and check other companies to see if they were hired by any of the board members. Observe the city manager and show him how to reach out to the citizens and allow them to look at anything involving money and make sure that everything is copacetic.
Based at the Naples Daily News,Columnist Phil Fernandez(pfernandez@gannett.com) grew up in Southwest Florida and has ledPulitzer Prize-winning efforts. He writes In the Know, one of USA TODAY Network's most read local news columns in the state. Support democracy.Subscribe to a newspaper.
