Letters to the Editor, April 30
Reconsideration
On Monday, April 15, the City Council approve by simple-majority vote of four to three, ordinance no. 19-10 for capital expenditures not to exceed 10 percent of the average of last fiscal years’ general fund revenue. This was a fiscally conservative maneuver.
The ordinance also required amending or repealing the ordinance, it would require a super-majority vote, five to two to do so.
This establishes a very serious precedent prohibiting future councilors to be able to amend or repeal ordinance. In most instances you would never have five councilors to agree on most ordinances.
The founders of the city in establishing the city charter required that it takes five votes to hire a city manager, but only four votes to fire a city manager. They had the foresight to recognize that they would almost never get votes to fire.
If this ordinance is that important, a super-majority vote should have been required to passing this ordinance as well a super-majority vote to amend or repeal this ordinance.
I recommend that a councilor who voted in the positive (for the original ordinance) request a reconsideration of this ordinance and propose that a simple majority vote be required to amend or repeal this ordinance or that this ordinance be approved, amended or repealed by a super-majority vote!
Step to the plate and do the right thing!
Amadeo Petricca, Marco Island
Enforce rental ban
It seems like only yesterday when we visited Naples for the first time. It did not take long to decide; if we were to retire to Florida; it would be here. We purchased a single-family home in a gated community within Lely Resort. For 15 years we had the comfort of knowing our neighbors, assurance that they were looking out for us as we were for them, commitment to maintaining and improving their homes, landscaping and peace. There were always some homes with repeat long-term renters; they blended into the community and were accepted as neighbors.
Unfortunately, in recent years there has been increasing sales of homes purchased for the sole purpose of generating income from short term rentals. Some landlords own multiple homes in the neighborhood. They list these single-family homes as sleeping up to eight. Renters may be multiple generations in the same family, multiple couples/friends sharing the rent, golfers down for a few rounds or any combination of adults and children on vacation. Vacation is fun! This is evident by the conversation, laughter, occasional profanity, endless chanting of "Marco Polo," screaming and crying going on next door.
It is disappointing to read that the Collier County commissioners are wavering on their decision "to enforce the existing rules that ban owners from renting their homes for less than six months." There are far more voters who do not rent their homes or rent on a long-term basis than there are landlords with short-term rentals. What constituency do they represent?
James Fluet, Naples
Electoral College
Let us suppose there is a national referendum on the use of leaches vs. some well-known analgesic to treat a headache. Let us also suppose that the decision to use one approach over the other is decided by our electoral college which represents 3,141 counties. After voters had made their decision, it was determined that 300 of the 538 electors that make up the college and that represent 7.5 million people from 2,654 counties nation-wide preferred leaches while 138 electors constituting 487 counties representing almost 9 million people wanted the well-known analgesic. (The numbers presented here are taken from the result of the 2016 presidential election). As a consequence, we as a country step back into the middle ages to treat our headaches. I don’t think the majority of us would prefer this but that is what we did when we used the electoral college to elect Trump.
Michael Troop, Naples
Science matters
The universe is 13 billion-years-old and Earth four billion years. 2.5 million years ago Florida was a tiny island when the oceans began to recede. Homo Sapiens is 200,000 years-old. This puts in perspective that only 22,000 years ago our sea level was 450 feet lower than it is today. A gradual rise began for the next 7,000 years averaging 0.086 inches per year. Then a sudden rise averaging 0.5 inch per year. That was 10,000 years ago. The Gulf was 164 feet below its present level and you traveled 80 miles west to reach the beach. The rise continued for the next 2,000 years at 0.68 inch per year then began to taper the next 2,000 years averaging 0.3 inch per year to our present level. For the past 6,000 years it has remained relatively stable except for the rise of 0.236 inches from 1993 to 2014. NOAA has demonstrated that the ocean continues to rise 0.125 inch per year. If we lived to be 1,000 years old like Noah, we would experience the rise of sea level of half inch per year and might be driven to build an ark It is the past 50 years that science has brought this to our attention. How much of this is man-made, what to do about it and how much is a continuation of the cycle? Science must answer these questions, but it must be based on the science of Richard Feynman, the Nobel Laureate who demanded that for science to be factual, it must report both negative and positive findings. Reporting results that only support your position is not science.
Ted Raia, Naples