At least one commissioner on the East County Water Control District is complaining that Commissioner Mike Welch may be skirting the Sunshine laws of Florida because of an exchange of emails that Welch initiated with David Lindsay, the ECWCD’s manager over a parking issue at the District’s new offices at 615 Williams Ave. in Lehigh Acres.

Florida Sunshine laws dictate that commissioners cannot discuss business of the District with one another, in person or in emails, but Welch became upset in late November and sent an email to Lindsay and copied it to the other commissioners’ email accounts.

However at the

bottom of the first email over what he considered are parking issues, Welch ended his email by asking board members “to not respond, that the email was for their information.”

Welch wrote in his first email to Lindsay that he had driven to the I&E building on Williams Ave. and said he was alarmed that most of the District’s fleet of trucks and cars were in an open and unsecured parking lot.

“Given that the I&E property is remote in that there is no one on the immediate premises, I don’t think it is prudent and wise to have our cars/trucks there. It is not off a main road/highway and it lacks protection. It is an open invitation for theft and vandalism that in the end will cost the District money despite whatever insurance we have at this time,” Welch wrote.

He suggested that employees who use those vehicles simply pick up their District assigned vehicles at the main yard and leave their personal vehicles there.

“The main yard at 601 East County Lane is at least fenced off with some protection. This matter including others is an example of the complications of having the management office away from the main property,” Welch said. He asked for a response but gave Lindsay the option of putting it on the agenda at the next commissioners meeting on Dec. 20.

Lindsay responded with an emailed memo to all the commissioners about the parking issues.

He said that the staff has “thought long and hard about how to handle the logistics at the new building.”

“We are making every attempt to be effective and efficient based on the locations of our facilities,” he said.

Then he listed seven points explaining the reasons for keeping equipment at the new office site, which is located in front of the Town Lakes residential development. He said the District only keeps pickup trucks at the new Williams building and that vehicles with external equipment are left at the maintenance building at the old site where office trailers were located next to the maintenance building.

Lindsay told commissioners that if the employees had to go to the maintenance building in the morning to pick up their work truck, a department head would have to meet them there to let them in the locked gate.

And he said they would have to retrieve the work vehicle keys from inside the maintenance building and then they would arrive at 615 Williams Ave. at approximately five minutes after 7 a.m. and would have to punch in their clocks at around 7:07 or 7:08 a.m. Starting time is 7 a.m.

Lindsay said that after receiving their assignments, about a third of the employees then would have to return to the maintenance building to begin work.

“The majority of the employees will leave directly from and return directly to the Williams building during a day of work,” Lindsay said.

“If their vehicles are at the maintenance shop, he said the administration would have to allow them to leave the Williams building early to be able to leave the District premises at 5:30 p.m.

Lindsay reminded commissioners that the site contractor is working at the maintenance building site and employees’ vehicles would either be in the way of construction and would be always in harm’s way from flying debris, etc.

Lindsay concluded his memo by saying that management has decided that the construction period would be a trial period for the long-term.

“We are installing a camera system at 615 Williams Ave. We will make a determination on whether to move the employees back to the maintenance facility after construction, unless the Board feels differently,” Lindsay said.

According to the memo, Lindsay said the staff had met on the issue of District vehicle parking and all agreed that it would be detrimental to leave the employee vehicles at the maintenance building during the construction period of a new building.

“This fact necessitates that we leave the pickup trucks at the Williams Avenue building to save time every work day,” he said.

However, he also said that the staff agreed that employees will meet and park at the maintenance building as soon as construction ends at the building site which could be in about in six months and at that time, Lindsay said vehicles would be parked at the maintenance building. He added that management will always keep two office staff cars wherever the administrative staff is located.

But the matter didn’t end there.

Welch fired back another email telling Lindsay that he was “frankly astonished” by Lindsay’s stance on the matter and “am frankly alarmed.”

He said there were more than pickup trucks parked at the Williams Avenue new office site over the Thanksgiving weekend. Welch said the SUV Hybrid was there as well as the white Ford passenger car.

“I have been to the main property and frankly do not see a problem with keeping our vehicles on the property as the rest of our vehicles are there and employees park their vehicles there also.

“What does a camera do for security,” Welch asked. He continued that “any hooded or masked figure could still roam freely in that parking lot and still smash and grab or steal the vehicle with impunity. What will stop vandalism and gasoline theft, he asked.

Welch said that most entities that he knew of such as Lee County Government, the Lee School District and the local CenturyLink firm keep their fleet of vehicles in gated areas for protection and also for liability reasons involving insurance and other matters.

Welch wanted to know about when the staff met and asked about the logistics such as who attended and if there were meeting notes taken.

“Your memo appears to defend convenience over protection of our equipment as well as a refusal to make common sense arrangements to protect our property with making necessary alterations. An example, why can’t you and your mangers give the day’s job instruction out the night before?. This is very disappointing and will need to be addressed.”

The whole issue where to park vehicles will likely bring about a heated discussion at the next meeting, just five days before Christmas Day. It will be the second time that the new board has met.

Commissioner Desmond Barrett said that while he agrees that parking is a serious issue and it should be addressed, he wanted to caution his fellow commissioner (Welch) to either address this issue privately with the manager or with the whole board in the Sunshine at a regular meeting of the board.

“Under the Florida Sunshine law, members of the board cannot respond to other board members’ comments to District staff that are sent through email which could be voted on,” Barrett said.

“That is why I sent an email to the whole board, staff, and staff attorney, to please stop skirting the sunshine law and address the issue in another forum, which would be at a future board meeting to allow all commissioners to comment.

“As a commissioner, I take suggestions from my fellow commissioners seriously and look forward to listening and discussing this issue further if it comes before the board,” Barrett said.

So two issues may come up at the board meeting – the issue of where vehicles should be parked and whether it is proper for a commissioner such as Welch to discuss issues like this through emails by sending them to each member of the board.

The ECWCD moved into half of the I&E Building at 615 Williams Ave. a few weeks ago and the administrative staff occupies one half of the second floor while maintenance offices occupy one side of the first floor.

The previous board of commissioners under the chairmanship of Neal Horrom, were negotiating the sale of the whole building with the Pfuner family. Horrom lost his bid to be reelected and two new members were voted in by the public. They were David Deetscreek and Mike Bonacolta.

The ECWCD will hold its regularly monthly meeting at a building near the I&E building on the property that is owned by the miniature golf entertainment firm at the Williams Avenue site. The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. and the room is big enough for a larger crowd than has been the case in the office trailers on East County Lane, which have been moved. The District has been renting them for several years.