Marco officials, past and present, respond to allegations of fraud

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Monte Lazarus, city Planning Board member, Councilor Jerry Gibson and Public Works Director Rony Joel have just a few words to say before an otherwise silent meeting continues among Electric Municipalization Committee members as they choose the consultant for the study of whether City Council should look into take over of electric service provided to the island by Lee County Electric Cooperative. The study is among the alternative revenue sources the city has looked into facing revenue shortfalls with property value declines and state mandated tax reform.

MARCO ISLAND — While there was no talking allowed at the city’s electric takeover committee meeting Wednesday, there was plenty of talk outside the meeting.

He’s done it again, several community members said regarding Bill McMullan’s public allegations of wrongdoing among city officials. Some seemed to thank him; others were less than grateful to say the least.

McMullan withdrew from the Electric Municipalization Committee at Monday’s City Council meeting citing "impropriety" among e-mails sent between city staff, city councilors and former councilor, John Arceri.

McMullan dispersed five pages of correspondence at the council meeting including a sampling of the e-mails he said indicated a perpetration of "fraud" on the committee and community.

Perhaps caught a bit off-guard, council did not immediately request for specifics from McMullan about what he was talking about.

Chairman Bill Trotter said he regretfully did not take the opportunity to clarify at Monday’s City Council meeting, but will address the issue head-on at the next council meeting, Oct. 6. He added that it was equally important for the press to get the full story out to the community so that an accusation does not have the result of people assuming it is correct.

There does not appear to be anything among the hundreds of e-mails on the topics of Lee County Electric Cooperative’s rates, costs for putting electrical lines underground or municipalizaiton that would immediately indicate any of the correspondents, including Arceri, Public Works Director Rony Joel, Chairman Bill Trotter and others, have done anything other than discuss strategies that they believed might save Islanders money.

While he questions the morals in some of the e-mails, McMullan also said he plans to file suspected Sunshine Law with the State Attorney’s office.

"I can’t get much more specific than that right now," McMullan said, but did add it regarded someone acting as a "conduit" for city councilors to discuss hot topics outside of a public meeting.

City attorney Alan Gabriel has since reviewed the e-mails and concluded that there have been no violations of law.

Any citizen has the right to offer their insight to the city and this is no different, Gabriel said.

City Manager Steve Thompson said McMullan has "not provided any specifics that support the claims."

Thompson and Trotter said they don’t believe that allegations mean changes are necessary in city policy and the city’s use of volunteer expert consultants among residents remains a useful tool.

"My concern is this type of attack on volunteer citizens has the potential of discouraging people from volunteering for the city," Trotter said.

Arceri said he would not stop offering his consulting services as a volunteer and as a concerned resident, at least not if it was requested as was the case with electric issues. He wondered aloud if others would feel the same.

Arceri has 44 years in electric utilities and said he usually charges $350 per hour for consulting.

He added that he found the recent allegation was similar to McMullan publicly accusing him of violating campaign laws earlier this year, which ended up being unfounded.

"(McMullan) is what I call a conspiracy theorist ... I’m not leading anything. I don’t want anything. He can’t believe that," Arceri said, adding that he has nothing more to gain or lose from the city’s investigation or negotiations regarding electric service than any other citizen.

Councilor Jerry Gibson, non-voting chair of the electric municipalization committee, said he believes in seeking input from residents who have greater knowledge on particular topics.

Gibson offered the example of Ken Honecker, a member of the Marco Island Taxpayers Association, who has at times been critical of some city operations.

"Ken seems to have a very good grasp on water rates. I would really like to talk to him more about that," Gibson explained of how he sees council’s seeking of volunteer consulting as being an open and transparent forum.

Arceri recommended people look at the e-mails, which will prove nothing illegal or inappropriate was done.

LCEC officials, although admittedly not legal experts or lawyers, said they did not find anything in the e-mails to indicate a fraud or impropriety either.

LCEC Account Executive Tricia Dorn said she attended several of the meetings with Trotter, Arceri and Joel and also read all the e-mails.

"It pretty much echoed what was said and heard in those meetings," she said adding "A lot of effort went into (obtaining and posting the e-mails on line). There is no doubt this community has a lot of passion." Hundreds of e-mails between Arceri and city officials, all public records, were posted to marcoislandblog.blogspot.com in August.

On the Web site, Arceri’s cell phone number, obtained by the e-mails, was also posted and people were encouraged to call and ask him questions. Arceri said he was never asked by the Web master if he approved such an advertisement.

Arceri said "this attempt to harass" did not lead to one phone call, yet Arceri said he doesn’t plan to take many more public accusations before he will file a defamation lawsuit.

Arceri was once signed up for the committee studying electric takeover but withdrew several weeks ago saying that since numerous residents signed up for the committee with business or utility experience, he didn’t think his expertise was needed anymore.

Monte Lazarus spoke up at Wednesday’s committee meeting, despite urging by Gibson to keep politics and opinions outside the room.

"I resent the implications directly or indirectly that there is any fraud in this committee. It is simply a fact-finding committee," Lazarus said.

Members of the committee were instructed not to discuss the two consultants’ proposals as they ranked the two based on criteria outlined in the request for qualifications.

Eight consultants inquired about the project, but only two consultants, R.W. Beck, a Seattle-based firm with 22 offices in the U.S. including Tampa and Orlando, and Virchow, Krause & Co., a Milwaukee-based firm with eight offices in the upper Midwest, stayed in the running due to conflicts of interest with LCEC, Joel said.

The proposals were not open to the public so the LCEC representative and other members of the public decided to leave the committee meeting while members silently reviewed the materials for nearly two hours.

Committee member Linda McCune was among the last to leave and said the experience was like taking a test.

"Everyone handed in their exams without saying a word," she said.

Dorn said she wished she knew what committee members were thinking, but would have to wait at least until the conclusion of the next meeting, which will be 2:30 p.m. ,Oct. 1, in the community room next door to the police station, 51 Bald Eagle Drive. The next meeting will include interviews of the two firms and a second ranking by the committee.

The committee’s ranking based on the proposals and the ranking of their interviews will be averaged and the leading-scorer recommended to City Council, who will make the final decision.