Back on September 24th we reported on the frustrations the Fort Myers Beach Public Safety Committee members expressed when they put forth recommendations to the Council that are consistently ignored. Committee Chair John Goggin requested a joint meeting for November to discuss their working relationship.
Goggin told the council that the committee is frustrated and disappointed. He said he puts forth regular reports, there is seldom any feedback and poor two-way communication. He would like to see the council rotate members as the liaison to the public safety committee rather than assign one council member.
At the last public safety committee meeting, member Dawn Thomas asked ‘Why are we even here?’ she stated that she was frustrated and dumbfounded by the way the town council negated them and threw the committee to the side. The public Safety committee plays an advisory role to the town council.
The tipping point that put the committee over the edge was the council voting down hiring two community police officers from the Lee County Sheriff’s Office. The public safety committee voted 6-0 to hire the officers. The council was 3-2 against the hiring and refused to allocate money in the budget for the officers.
Goggin said there are lot of open items to go over in a joint meeting. He wants to know what the priorities of the council are so the committee is not wasting their time.
Goggin has one year left on his term on the committee and plans to step down as the chairman at the next meeting when new committee members are appointed. Tom Gressman, who’s term expired, told the committee he was stepping down as of the last meeting. Jim Knickle and Mike Childs were both re-appointed to the committe