SOS: Save Our Slips

10/08/2022

Can anyone take over out SOS save our slips page. I really don't know how to administer it.

09/24/2022

https://abc-7.com/news/environment/2022/09/21/fecal-bacteria-returns-to-lee-county-waters/amp/
Suntex will make the problem worse

F***l bacteria is back in Lee County waters, and it's worse than you think.

09/24/2022

Luminary Hotel downtown Ft Myers for the Hurricane.
Erika and I just booked a room at the Luminary for Tues night to ride out the storm. Luminary jacked the rate up to $499/NIGHT HURRICANE RATES
Just another fine community partner that our taxes subsidies. Class act

09/21/2022

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o718p2yn1ec

Dark money PAC Money has been donated to several of the Fort Myers City Council members. Does not matter if you are a republican or a democrat you need to take your blood pressure medicine and watch this 5 min video.
This is real folks.

September 21 | Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) delivers remarks on his DISCLOSE Act ahead of a Senate vote on the bill. The DISCLOSE Act would combat the f...

09/20/2022

Fiscal Responsibility
Last night the City council adopted a mission statement highlighting Fiscal Responsibility which means:For government institutions fiscal responsibility describes the ability to balance between government spending and tax.
Voting for Suntex without a apprasel,risk assessment, or economical analysis justifying divesting the Yacht Basin is not Fiscal responsibility

09/16/2022

About 20 people showed up for street protest in Front of Tax Office

09/15/2022

STOP the City from Selling the Historic Fort Myers Yacht Basin
• Some City officials want to sell the Fort Myers Yacht Basin (FMYB) to SUNTEX of Dallas Texas. This company plans to demolish parts of the facility, which could cause an environmental nightmare by releasing lead and other toxins drifting down the Caloosahatchee River towards Sanibel. Complete control of the downtown riverfront would be given to Suntex.

• The alternative community approach is to place the FMYB into a self-funding not-for-profit entity similar to the Edison Ford Estate. Repair the docks as is. Manage the facility properly, including providing good paying jobs, avoiding environmental risk, and massive overbuilding. Keeping the riverfront and the FMYB control and profits in the community.

• There are several problems with how the decision was made to divest the FMYB. Normal procedures for a City justifying the divesture of such an asset which is worth a minimum of $60 million, have not been followed and include:
Neither the City Council members nor the public has ever received:
• A 3rd party appraisal documenting the value of this historical Fort Myers asset.
• A detailed report by a licensed Civil Engineer documenting that the FMYB is not in economically repairable condition.
• An economic evaluation by the Economic Development Board or another objective 3d party justifying the City divesting the FMYB.
• A risk assessment stating that if there are environmental damages from Suntex's demolition approach and the City is found liable, how would this affect property taxes, budget reductions, and bond ratings?
• An explanation of why the City has not hired a permanent FMYB manager, cut maintenance and upgrade expenses, not enforced dock rules allowing unsafe sunken boats in the facility, and why slip rental rates were not increased to keep up with expenses. Was this done by design to further sell the idea of divesting the FMYB to companies like SUNTEX?
In addition:
On April 15th, City Councilmembers voted to narrow the selection down to Suntex and Safe Harbor Development and for the city staff to evaluate both before Council members made a final decision.
The financial records that are obtainable by the public show that the FMYB revenues are more than $3 million annually before paying operating expenses of just over $2 million. No details have been available on how these operating costs are being spent. The City is not spending monies on the maintenance and repair of the FMYB. Where is the money going?
As per the City of Ft. Myers website, the City has more than $400 million in debt obligations. Much of this City's Government debt is caused by developers who support political campaign contributions in order to seek favor. “This is an election year”
Please contact your City Council members and encourage them to vote no to Suntex. Evaluate all the options.

09/15/2022

STOP the City from Selling the Historic Fort Myers Yacht Basin

• Some City officials want to sell the Fort Myers Yacht Basin (FMYB) to SUNTEX of Dallas Texas. This company plans to demolish parts of the facility, which could cause an environmental nightmare by releasing lead and other toxins drifting down the Caloosahatchee River towards Sanibel. Complete control of the downtown riverfront would be given to Suntex.

• The alternative community approach is to place the FMYB into a self-funding not-for-profit entity similar to the Edison Ford Estate. Repair the docks as is. Manage the facility properly, including providing good paying jobs, avoiding environmental risk, and massive overbuilding. Keeping the riverfront and the FMYB control and profits in the community.

• There are several problems with how the decision was made to divest the FMYB. Normal procedures for a City justifying the divesture of such an asset which is worth a minimum of $60 million, have not been followed and include:

Neither the City Council members nor the public has ever received:
• A 3rd party appraisal documenting the value of this historical Fort Myers asset.
• A detailed report by a licensed Civil Engineer documenting that the FMYB is not in economically repairable condition.
• An economic evaluation by the Economic Development Board or another objective 3d party justifying the City divesting the FMYB.
• A risk assessment stating that if there are environmental damages from Suntex's demolition approach and the City is found liable, how would this affect property taxes, budget reductions, and bond ratings?
• An explanation of why the City has not hired a permanent FMYB manager, cut maintenance and upgrade expenses, not enforced dock rules allowing unsafe sunken boats in the facility, and why slip rental rates were not increased to keep up with expenses. Was this done by design to further sell the idea of divesting the FMYB to companies like SUNTEX?
In addition:
On April 15th, City Councilmembers voted to narrow the selection down to Suntex and Safe Harbor Development and for the city staff to evaluate both before Council members made a final decision.

The financial records that are obtainable by the public show that the FMYB revenues are more than $3 million annually before paying operating expenses of just over $2 million. No details have been available on how these operating costs are being spent. The City is not spending monies on the maintenance and repair of the FMYB. Where is the money going?

As per the City of Ft. Myers website, the City has more than $400 million in debt obligations. Much of this City's Government debt is caused by developers who support political campaign contributions in order to seek favor. “This is an election year”
Please contact your City Council members and encourage them to vote no to Suntex. Evaluate all the options.

09/14/2022

Street Protest Stop Suntex
Don’t forget this is working: We need you just for one hour, if you don’t have a Stop Suntex T-shirt just wear a red shirt. This Friday 8 am. See below

Many of us have received positive feedback on our streetside protest. Therefore, we have planned to protest next Friday again, September 16th at 8:00 am for one hour. Let's meet at the Lee County Tax office at 2480 Thompson St, Fort Myers, FL 33901. Let’s get our red Stop Suntex shirts on and bring a friend.

09/09/2022

Councilmember Teresa Watkins Brown is most likely going to be the swing vote on whether or not the City enters into a contract with Suntex to wreck the FMYB. She is an educated and kind lady and is very suspicious of the politics and political contributions concerning the City divesting the FMYB.
Suntex is very anti-union. Recently, Suntex posted a help wanted ad for their Fort Myers Beach marina trying to hire people for $10/hr, no benefits ect ect. This gives me a preview of how Suntex treats its employees and the quality of service we can expect if Suntex takes over our FMYB.
The local Union has heavily supported councilmember Teresa Watkins Brown’s election. If anyone knows Richy Jones the union rep, remind him to speak to councilmember Brown about we have too many large companies in the area paying below living wages and that taxpayers are subsidizing food and housing cost for these people. This Suntex crap has to stop

09/08/2022

Hey Everybody

We had an excellent discussion at our Friends of Fort Myers Yacht Basin meeting tonight. From what we know, the City is still in negotiations with Suntex and has not yet presented a draft contract to the City Council.

Bob Gates will speak for our group at the next City Council member meeting on September 19th of this month. Bob is a retired engineer, and I'm sure he will have some interesting points to bring up to the Mayor and City Council.

Many of us have received positive feedback on our streetside protest. Therefore, we have planned to protest next Friday again, September 16th at 8:00 am for one hour. Let's meet at the Lee County Tax office at 2480 Thompson St, Fort Myers, FL 33901. Let’s get our red Stop Suntex shirts on and bring a friend.

I will contact the press.

09/06/2022

Dear Friends of the Fort Myers Yacht Basin (FMYB)

Last night we had a very productive meeting addressing our mission to improve the FMYB. Councilmember Lin Bochette attended the meeting and made some excellent suggestions and comments.

The City continues to let the FMYB deteriorate on purpose in hopes that this will convince several council members to vote for Suntex to take over the riverfront. It's to the point that almost no monies are spent on maintenance and the City won't hire a full-time dock manager. FMYB-generated funds are being spent elsewhere on other city departments. The further the City lets the FMYB deteriorate, the easier it might be to convince city council members to vote for Suntex. Those of us who have been around marines for years realize the sunken boat left in the marina for over a month by the City is disgusting and sadly preventable. This is a dangerous and reckless approach by the City that could cause injuries to visitors to the FMYB.

We need to continue to network around the City to tell our story about what is happening to the historic Fort Myers Yacht Basin and how Suntex and other special interests are manipulating decisions concerning the FMYB future.

Here is where we are:
• Mayor Anderson and some city council members want to divest the FMYB to SUNTEX with very few restrictions regarding boat slip rental rates, operating quality, or environmental risks associated with demolishing and rebuilding the facility with new aluminum docks. In return, Suntex is supposed to pay off the FMYB $2.3 debt, a percentage of revenues that could earn the City as much as $700,000 annually and, most importantly, remove the City from the burden of managing the FMYB.

• The Friends of the Fort Myers Yacht Basin community approach is to place the FMYB into a self-funding not-for-profit entity similar to the Edison Ford Estate. Repair the docks as is. In addition, manage the facility properly, including providing good paying jobs, avoiding environmental risk, price gouging by Suntex, and massive overbuilding. This approach could self-fund the FMYB with rental rate increases "only if justified" and available grants to pay off the facility's debt and the City's annual lease payments. Keep the FMYB as a community-owned and operated asset.

• Or

• The Friends of the Fort Myers Yacht Basin encourage the City to vote no on SUNTEX and start negotiations with Safe Harbor Development and compare the two. Safe Harbor Development’s project approach is not to demolish the FMYB, remodel the facility to avoid environmental risk, and facilitate the creation of an FMYB advisory board and listen to them. Also, giving some slip rental fees increase relief to the long-term residents of the FMYB.
However, first, the Mayor and the majority of the City Councilmembers must vote no to Suntex. We need to remind the City Council members, the press, and other citizen groups that there are several serious problems with how the decision was made to divest the FMYB in the first place. Normal procedures for justifying the divesture of such an asset which is worth a minimum of $60 million, have not been followed and include:

Neither the council members nor the public has ever received:
A. A detailed report by a licensed Civil Engineer PE documenting that the FMYB is not in economically repairable condition.
B. An economic evaluation by any independent Economic Development Board or any objective 3d party justifying the City divesting the FMYB.
C. A risk assessment stating that if there are environmental damages from Suntex's demolition approach and the City is found liable, how would this affect property taxes, budget reductions, and bond ratings? It is important to note that outsourcing to Suntex does NOT relieve the City of liability for environmental damages. That responsibility is PERMANENT and exposes the City to lawsuits under the EPA's "joint and several liabilities" policy and history of litigation. The City cannot simply shove the legal liability off on to Suntex by signing a contract.
D. An explanation of why the City has not hired a permanent FMYB manager cut maintenance and upgrade expenses, not enforced dock rules allowing unsafe boats in the facility, and why slip rental rates were not increased " only if justified" to keep up with expenses. Was this done by design to further sell the idea of divesting the FMYB to companies like SUNTEX?
In addition:
• On April 15th, 2022, Councilmembers Lin Bouchette and Darla Bonk voted to narrow the selection down to Suntex and Safe Harbor Development and for the city staff to evaluate both before councilmembers made a final decision. Unfortunately, the City staff declared Suntex the winner without following these instructions.
• The public's financial records state that the FMYB revenues are more than $3 million annually before paying operating expenses of just over $2 million. No details have been available on how these operating costs are being spent. The City is not spending monies on the maintenance and repair of the FMYB. Where is the money going?

• The City has over $ 400 million in debt as of 2019. Much of this City's debt has been caused by developers with political campaign contributions in return for votes on projects. Mayor Anderson and several council members do not fully understand the cost and risk involved.

• Why is the City unwilling to treat the historic FMYB similar to the Edison Ford Estate and separate the facility into a not-for-profit self-funding entity and keep the operations within the community?

• It is the job of the Economic Development Board to conduct an objective analysis of the FMYB operations. Any voting or decision before the completion of an independent financial analysis would be reckless and irresponsible.

Action Plan includes:
Send out letters to the editors with local news
Continue to contact city council members , mostly threw networking
Consider more streetside demonstrations
Continue to work with other citizens groups for awareness of what’s happing


Good luck,
Let’s get to work
Bill Westberry


Listed below is Mayor Anderson's and the council members' contact information.

Mr. Kevin B. Anderson "Will most likely vote for Suntex"
Mayor City of Fort Myers
2200 Second St,
Fort Myers, FL 33901
Phone: 239-321-7020
[email protected]

Mr. Marty Lawing "Does not have a vote"
City Manager of Fort Myers
2200 Second St.
Fort Myers FL, 33901
239-321-7024
[email protected]

Ms. Teresa Watkins Brown
Ward 1 – Councilmember
City of Ft. Myers
2200 Second St,
Fort Myers, FL 33901
Phone: 239-321-7001
[email protected]

Mr. Johnny W. Streets, Jr.
Ward 2 – Councilmember
City of Ft. Myers
2200 Second St,
Fort Myers, FL 33901
239-321-7002
[email protected]

Ms. Terolyn Watson
Ward 3 – Councilmember
City of Ft. Myers
200 Second St.
Fort Myers, Fl 33901
239-321-7003
[email protected]

Mr. Liston "Lin" Bochette
Ward 4 – Councilmember
City of Fort Myers
This is the yacht basins district
City of Ft. Myers
2200 Second St.
Fort Myers, Fl 33901
239-321-7004
[email protected]

Mr. Fred Burson
Ward 5 – Councilmember
City of Ft. Myers
2200 Second St.
Fort Myers, Fl 33901
239-321-7005
[email protected]

Ms. Darla Bonk
Ward 6 – Councilmember
City of Ft. Myers
2200 Second St.
Fort Myers, Fl 33901
239-321-7006
[email protected]