Let's give the City back to Collier County, it has been 11 years now and being a City does not seem to be working.

Wow! Our City and Our Council Out of Control!
We are being pick pocketed out of all our money to live.Look for more foreclosures on Marco and more middle class leaving, along with many more business closings from being drained dry from our "For Profit City". Who Can Afford This? Record tax increase in a down economy- is laughable and I have never heard of any respectable community giving a 20% "record High" in a record Low Economy!Now City is justifying the increase saying this is for the needed three bridge repairs- this is an old EXCUSE the bridges will need much more money to fix and THIS MONEY WILL GO TO ANOTHER CITY SPEND PROGRAM!! The city spent our Electrical Franchise Fee for street lights NOT THE UNDERGROUND WIRING. Do we need underground Wiring? if there is flooding, we will be without electric longer, for the athestics of our island- we will be in the dark longer. Compare.The agenda also has more SPEND SPEND items to address at this council. (at the end of this article) also.. We are also getting a 15% increase in restricted water and 3% increase residential island wide. I can not afford the extra $20 extra month,let alone pay the additional 20% increase on property that has falling tremendously and can't be sold. EVERYONE THAT LIVES ON MARCO ISLAND SHOULD ATTEND THIS MONDAY COUNCIL MEETING, AND STRONGLY ASK OUR COUNCIL TO RECONSIDER WHAT HARDSHIPS THEY ARE PUTTING ON THE RESIDENTS HERE. If our current council does not care about the local community, then the local community needs to remember these hardships and put some local council into office that helps our community. City Hall can be changed and the profit agenda with a spend spend "gotta have more" "we are always short money and never have enough" is not what is needed in City. We need a City that listens to its residents and cares. We need a democracy not a dictatorship of leaders. These multiple increases are not acceptable and our council should be ashamed to even consider approval of such in this horrible economy!

YES CITY- PLEASE GIVE OUR CITY BACK TO COLLIER COUNTY! Collier County would be happy to take it back and run it correct.

hey steve...you're full of BS...how dare you say that....do what we're paying you to do...manage the city and keep your big mouth shut! your opinion does not count....you are a servant of the people and the council....period.

Don't you see they are trying to eliminate the average people & families from living here. What they forget is that someone has to service the wealthy folks when they want to eat out and shop. Who will be here for them? City Councel? Yea right! They are not here for us now when we need them.The worst thing that ever happened to Marco was it became a city. Now we have all these jokers from somewhere else calling the shots. Wait until they put a toll on the bridge, who will come here then?

GO LELY!

hey wayne...care to comment? you and the rest are bozos.

Beware of Professional Politicans.

There interest (staying in power) is more important than your personal interest. This occurs when the following quote applies to your situation.

"If you put the Marco Island (SIC federal) government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in five years there'd be a shortage of sand."

We believe that our water bills are out of hand already without future increases. When the water plant was purchased the promise was reduced bills. Checked our old bills before Marco and they were almost half of today's bills. What is wrong with the council? After the fiasco with the water utility we need to buy LCEC so that we can double electric bills too?
Then lets increase the Taxes, Marco Island residents have it. WRONG!
Even the residents which have it did not earn the money for taxes, they earned it to be enjoyed by themselves and their families. There are many residents which don't have enough money to keep paying more taxes year after year. That is why we see all those for sale signs all over the island. Those people did not stop loving Marco, they simply cannot afford it any longer or are disillusioned with our City government.
Let's put on your thinking caps and reduce taxes , vote against the new mill rate and start reducing the budget. Every family has to do it, every taxing district has to do it, so what makes Marco Island so different.
Since council members have to pay the additional taxes also we hope that reason will prevail and that the budget will get reduced for today's economic conditions.
This is PARADISE gone wrong! We do not want to go the route of Deltona, which without their fault had to declare bankruptcy. Or may be Marco Island wants to join WCI, one of Floridas most successful companies gone into Chapter 11, is this the Route we want Marco to go?

What happens with all the foreclosures and short sales on the Island where people just stop paying taxes and with your tax increases more people will see this as a way out of their financial situation, the rest of the taxpayers will have to pick up those fees. So there will be another tax increase on the horizon.
If Marco Island keeps spending as was done in the good old days with property values doubling and gigantic tax increases, you will see more and more residents going to the Carolinas and other areas with low taxes. There should have been plenty of reserves in Marco Island's budget. Is it purchases like the $ 10 Mill (none) park, which is being used for everything except a park.
Go back to the budget of 2004, that should be possible and we believe the city would have a good reserve in the near future. 2004 was not so different from 2008. Stop wasting money on surveys about bridge tolls, LCEC and whatever will be coming up in the future. You saw the answer to those questions by the MICA survey. What more do you need? MICA did this survey without any charge to the residents of Marco or additional funds to be paid by the council. May be asked them to find out what the Island thinks and you will get the answer without paying $100,000+.
MORE IMPORTANTLY LISTEN TO THE VOICES OF THAT SURVEY.
Please vote responsible, those were the promises made to the residents of this Island. Especially the new councilors which promised change, so far I have not seen any change in your votes, think about your promises made to the taxpayers of the community, those are the people which elected you and believed you. Please don't proof them wrong!

The following above quote strikes a nerve
"One of City Manager Steve Thompson’s jokes is to begin addressing such issues with the line “that was B.S., before Steve.”

Promises to the city citizens about the budget and conservative spending should be followed unless there is a unexpected emergency. But there has been NO such emergency.

Let's hope our new city manager learns to improve his joking attitude or the people will need to speak out against his "professional politician" arrogance.

well its a day after the meeting and i havent seen any reporting. does anyone know what happened at the meeting? thank you.

Council lowered the millage rate, that's what happened. All this screaming from the professional complainers and cave dwellers and the council voted to reduce the budget by $1 miilion dollars.

I applaud Rob Popoff for speaking up about our tough economic times in the face of stiff resistance from another council member. Rob's comments represent the voice of the larger community.

Now let's apply economic concerns to the electric takeover. Recently, on August 1, page 8 the Marco Eagle reported that Marco pays almost double what the second highest rated community in this area pays for water. Now our city seems likely to be implementing an increase in our rates. If this is what the electric committee expects to do for us with a Marco takeover of the electric services - forget it. How can Marco possibly expect to competitively bid for electric services based on a smaller number of users than LCEC now bids for on our behalf with a much larger number of users?

Way to go Bill McMullan for being willing to speak up and stand by your PRINCIPLES!