WAYNE...YOU'RE NUTS! every city in the country..including naples...is downsizing, slashing budgets etc etc....we're forming assessment districts, adding staff, and looking to buy an electric company....and build a bridge...WHAT ARE YOU THINKING...we're still trying to absorb the STRP and get 'er done....still dealing with lower property values and you keep coming up with more "deals"....WHAT ARE YOU THINKING? GIVE IT A BREAK. GO ON VACATION...GO SNOOZE DO SOMETHING!
this is getting beyond ridiculous...HOWEVER....i do give you credit for communicating which is less than the rest of the city council does...they have their heads in the proverbial residents beach sand.

Wayne, you really do live in Wayne's world. You can't compare Naples with Marco Island. Have you ever even been to the City of Naples and it's environs? You really are limited in your analytical thinking aren't you? The City of Naples is a real City not a little village like Marco Island. It has real City responsiblities with a real Chamber of Commerce, not a small group of business men that can all gather around one confernence table. The City of Naples is the munincipality that hosts the Collier County Goverment complex, to include it's law enforcement, County Courts and everything else a County does. If you hadn't noticed before, it's all right on a major road that the City of Naples depends upon. It also has a real airport that real airplanes fly into, not a private one with toy airplanes. It has a City dock and many more recreational responsibilities then our little community has. It has 20 times the restaurants our little community has. It has a real hospital and several medical arts malls. You need to get out more, visit a real city and see what it is like. Making a small community like Marco Island a City does not necessarily make it a real City.

Beowulf: You are confused. I will not even deal with your concept, which is way off, but your statements are false. The CITY of Naples is 20 square miles. I'm not even certain that it includes the County Government buildings. I do not know the borders. They have their own Police Force that patrols only the City. Naples is not that different in make-up than Marco Island. That is a fact.
Ed Issler

Issler: Which statement in my above post is false? Your contention that the City of Naples is 20 square miles is not accurate, I never said how large it was. Nevertheless, it matters not that Naples occupies less land mass then Marco Island. Naples is Collier County's largest City. Naples is a vibrant city with personality and real cultural institutions. It has the feel of a a real city community. It has a zoo, airport, hospital, city dock, city pier, wonderful parks with old growth. Naples has abundent restaurants and shopping opportunities. Marco Island is a commercial beach front bedroom community with a bunch of T shirt shops and few restaurants. It is located at the end of a road or cul-de-sac. The most unique commercial institution on Marco Island is it's dine-in movie theater.

Do the residents of Marco Island want to hire an ADDITIONAL 300 EMPLOYEES TO CATCH UP WITH NAPLES? How can the officials and staff of Marco Island seriously compare Marco to Naples to justify the proposed Marco Budget? Naples is about totally developed with a major highway running right through it. Their police, Fire and First Aid totals about 170 employees due to this. Marco has about 70 employees for these services without a major highway. Naples has another 67 employees assigned to: SOLID WASTE, CITY DOCK FUND, VEHICLE MAINTENANCE, BEACH PATROL and REDEVELOPMENT. MARCO HAS NONE of THESE SERVICES. Since the Marco Staff Had this information as part of their 1989 Proposed Budget Materials, how do they dare to compare Marco to Naples? They owe all Marco Residents an apology for MISREPRESENTATION IN THEIR BUDGET PROCESS presentment to the public.

!989 above was meant to be 2009

good luck getting an apology...much less an explanation....the plan is simple...get out from under the CAP via special assessment districts....this is real simple....low property values = low tax $$$....raise the millage, form special assessment districts, tolls on the bridges...buy the electric company(raise rates)...
hire more people, form another assessment district....fix all the bridges at once....form another assessment district...bottom line from this council seems to be....TO HELL WITH THE CAP....and that includes all of you...keister, trotter, gibson. walduck, recker, popoff, and forcht.....do something for the people instead of your self interests. you were elected for a reason...and God only knows what that reason may have been.