It's Taylor, Price and Willkomm

Naples City Council members Gary Price and Penny Taylor celebrated predicted election victories Tuesday night after city voters handed the incumbents four more years in office.

And council candidate William Willkomm III answered the mystery question of the day as to who would take the third seat in the six-way citywide race for three seats.

“I look forward to working with you,” said Willkomm to Taylor as the results were handed out at City Hall.

The trio took the city by a landslide, winning in all 12 precincts and the absentee ballots.

Taylor came in second with 3,310 votes or 25.6 percent to Price’s 3,801 or 29.4 percent

Willkomm landed 2,989 votes or 23.13 percent compared to fourth highest vote-getter Michael Volpe’s 1,012 or 7.83 percent. Taylor said the vote for the trio was about annexation.

“Answer the questions,” she said, referring to questions the winning candidates said hadn’t been answered about the proposed annexation of Pelican Bay.

Price said he didn’t think the vote was about annexation.

“I hope it was about trust and supporting people who do the right thing,” he said.

Willkomm said he wasn’t surprised he won because so many voters told him that he was their choice.

“But I am thrilled, pleased and relieved,” he said.

Voters turned out in what could be record low of 28 percent. The last city election saw a 50 percent turnout.

Voters also gave the city’s mayor the option to run twice, with 3,192 or 70 percent of ballots marked “yes” and 1,341 or 29.58 percent marked “no.”

With all 12 precincts counted including the absentee ballots, Willkomm was nearly 2,000 votes ahead of Volpe. Willkomm came in fourth in 2004, losing to Councilman Bill McIlvaine by 21 votes.

Newcomer Pamela Stewart came in fifth with 986 votes or 7.63 percent followed by Jenah Victor who came in last with 823 or 6.37 percent of the vote.

The majority of the city voters in the Moorings Park precinct 416, which was recently annexed into the city, cast ballots for Price, Taylor and Willkomm. There were 465 voters eligible to cast ballots but only 255 did, with a turnout of 54 percent. Taylor got 186 or 26 percent, Price took 221 or 30.6 percent and Willkomm got 143 or 19.8 percent of the Moorings Park vote.

While 4,579 ballots were cast citywide, only 4,533 voted for the mayor’s referendum.

Poll workers said that voters trickled in all day to the 12 polling places across the city.

Some 212 voters cast absentee ballots. Price, Taylor and Willkomm took those votes too, with Price taking 163, Taylor getting 154 and Willkomm landing 130.

“I think the low turnout opened it up to more uncertainty,” Willkomm said Tuesday afternoon, before the ballots were counted.

Tom and Doreen Barry, both 76, who live in Old Naples, said that when they were voting at the Norris Center for Taylor, Price and Willkomm, poll workers told them that voting was slow.

Doreen Barry said she picked the trio because she wants to “keep our city small.”

There was much speculation prior to the vote that some of the candidates were stealth supporters of the annexation of Pelican Bay.

On Dec. 7, Price and Taylor joined council members Tamela Wiseman and John Nocera in defeating a proposal to let voters decide whether Pelican Bay should join the city.

Price, Taylor and Wiseman’s terms were up. However, Wiseman did not run, leaving her seat wide open.

With three sitting council members supporting the Pelican Bay question, McIlvaine, Mayor Bill Barnett and Councilman John Sorey, it would take one more council member who supports the measure to get it on the November ballot, should Pelican Bay pursue annexation again.

However, during the campaigning, all six candidates backed away from the question, with only Victor and Stewart saying they would support sending the question to the voters.

Councilman Nocera who was at the Collier County Supervisor of Election’s Office on Tuesday night said: “Based on what (the elected candidates) said in their campaign promises, we should not see any major changes in the council decisions — which is good.”

Taylor, 56, who has served on the council for six years, has made her reputation as a no-growth council member who does not want Pelican Bay to be annexed.

Price said the issue needs more information before sending it to voters.

Taylor completed a term vacated in 2000 by now-Collier County Commissioner Fred Coyle. She then ran for office in 2002, winning that election by a landslide. She took nearly every precinct in the city except those in the northern part of the city, where some residents say she is out of touch with issues in those communities.

That pattern was not repeated on Tuesday as Taylor, Price and Willkomm took Seagate precinct 460, the northern most precinct. They also took precinct 462, and 464 the other two most northern precincts.

Taylor said the vote means the residents in the north do not want Pelican Bay to become part of the city.

“They were wrong,” she said of the annexation proponents.

Trish Williams, a Park Shore resident who lives on Venetian Bay, said she voted for Volpe. “He’s the most qualified on the ballot,” said Williams. “He’s very bright and has lots of experience. He represents interests other than Old Naples.”

Volpe, who stayed at home on Ixora Drive with his wife Mary Jo on Tuesday, said he wanted to congratulate the victors and thank those who supported him. But he expressed disappointment in the results.

Still, he would run again. “I’m very inclined to do that,” he said.

Stewart said she might run again.

“It was a wonderful experience and I’m very happy to have done it,” Stewart said by phone from Club Bice in Bice Ristorante on Fifth Avenue, where she was surrounded by about 30 people. “If the spirit moves me,” she said.

Victor could not be reached.

Kristi Kennedy, Price’s campaign manager, only voted for Price, a theory known as bullet voting.

“I wanted to make sure he gets in there,” she said, adding that she also voted for extending mayoral terms.

Price, 40, a financial services business owner who was on the Planning Advisory Board, was appointed in September to fill a vacancy. He had the largest campaign coffers, topping $56,000.

Willkomm, 55, is a real estate salesman who has lived in the city since 1992. He spends all his free time involved in children’s activities.

Stewart, 49, a real estate lawyer who owns the Stewart Law Firm, is new to Naples and Naples politics. She was a successful advertising executive active in the Fort Pierce community in the 1980s, before she opted to pursue a career in law.

Victor, 32, a former teacher who is now director of her father’s marketing and distribution firm, RJVI, is a lifelong Collier County resident.

Volpe, 62, a managing partner of Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi, served on the Collier County Board of Commissioners for six years until 1994. He is also a former Golden Gate fire commissioner.

The candidates, who will serve four-year terms at an annual salary of $16,500, will be sworn into office at noon today during a ceremony at City Hall.

Voting results are not official until 5:05 p.m. Friday - when provisional ballots will be tallied. Provisional ballots are ballots that are cast even though the voter failed to bring proof of residency and signed photo identification. Those voters have until 5 p.m. Friday to provide the proper identification. Their votes are not included in the election night tally. Those ballots will be counted today.

At Precinct 462, St. John’s Episcopal Church on Park Shore Drive, signs for Price, Victor, Willkomm and Taylor dotted the side of the road, where Nancy Steffens, a friend of Price who contributed $500 to his campaign, stood holding his campaign sign.

She was later joined by Willkomm’s son, Conrad, who also put up a sign atop his car in the church parking lot. Both said they’d gotten honks, cheers and thumbs up, although it was quiet shortly before 5 p.m.

Maggie Phillips, a Park Shore resident, said she voted for the two incumbents and Willkomm.

“I had eliminated the other three and that’s who rose to the top,” she said of Willkomm.