Two petitions found their way into Marco Island City Hall last week, filed by two groups that have added themselves to the alphabet soup that makes up Marco politics.

First, there was Preserve our Paradise (POP), a political action committee led by longtime islander Russ Colombo, which is restarting its yearlong attempt to change the city's form of government.

Then, there was Friends of Marco, a group made up of early island activists and one former resident whose attempt to subject the city's $100-plus million septic tank replacement program to a voter referendum might be over before it ever got started.

Wednesday, City Attorney Greg Urbancic completed a legal review of the petition and found it "technically insufficient" because it does not comply with city charter restrictions against petitioning on capital programs.

Bedford Biles, a Friends of Marco member, criticized the decision saying it was based on a "loophole" that circumvented the charter's intent. He added that his group would reintroduce the issue at Monday's Marco Island City Council meeting.

Friends of Marco appointed Nick Carsillo, a former islander who was on the city's initial search committee for a city manager but now lives in Fiddler's Creek in East Naples, as a spokesman. In an interview Monday, Carsillo said his group can't understand why the seven-year project, which will begin its second phase Monday, never was put before voters. He added that he didn't think the project received adequate public input prior to being put into effect.

"That's what curls everyone's hair," Carsillo said.

When asked about potential problems between the petition and the city's charter, Carsillo said that was beside the point.

"Let's not get into the laundry of this and that," he said. "I say it was not the intent of the charter to prohibit something like this because it's not an 'initiative' or a 'referendum' or blah, blah, blah. I say just let the people say, 'yes' or 'no'. I think they're afraid of what would happen if they did let people vote."

The Friends of Marco petition wasn't the first attempt to place the entire septic tank replacement program on a voter referendum.

In January 2006, City Council voted 3-2 against having a referendum, with council members in the majority, led by Glenn Tucker, concerned about the council abrogating its responsibility to decide on public health and welfare issues. Councilmen Ted Forcht and Chuck Kiester, sewer opponents who were elected in March 2006, said they could support a referendum on the remainder of the program. The remaining council members, including Terri DiSciullo who voted in favor of a referendum last January, said they wouldn't.

"We were in the minority," DiSciullo said of her previous vote. "From that point forward, I concentrated on the financing. We've already constructed two districts and there's really five districts about to start. I don't think it's logical to stop now."

Fay Biles, the president of the Marco Island Taxpayers Association (MITA), disagreed. Biles, who is married to Bedford Biles of Friends of Marco, spoke out against a referendum last January. Now, although stating that MITA isn't affiliated with Friends of Marco, she supported the group's plan.

She said recent changes in the program's financing, which puts some of the cost on existing sewer users, makes a referendum more relevant now than before.

"How would (the existing users) vote because they had a free ride?" she asked. "Now, a referendum would be more meaningful."

Meantime, Colombo and his supporters have quietly begun gathering signatures on POP's petition for a referendum that if passed would subject Marco's city manager to a vote of confidence every four years. If the idea goes through, Marco would be the only city in the state with such an arrangement, according to Lynn Tipton, executive director of the Florida City and County Management Association.

Last August, council dismissed Colombo's petition, which had been signed by more than the required 10 percent of the Marco electorate, because it deemed the petitioner's committee faulty. Colombo corrected the problem and is starting again.

That decision elicited groans from council members this week. All seven polled were not in favor of the plan.

Critics have argued that POP's petition is targeting current City Manager Bill Moss. Moss said what POP is proposing conflicts with city manager's ethical code because it makes the position political.

"Of the people who have supported us, there are any number among them that don't like the way Bill Moss is running things," Colombo said. "This would be an opportunity to subject Bill Moss to a vote, but that's not the point."

The point, Colombo said, is greater accountability between the manager and the public.

Currently, the power to hire and fire the city manager rests with the City Council, which can fire the manager via simple majority.

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