Candidates for Council in District 5 | Question of the Week Four | July 26 | News, Sports, Jobs

Each week during the primary election, The Breeze will ask Cape Coral City Council candidates a question related to the issue. In the interest of fairness, each candidate is limited to the same number of words, approximately 100, for their answer.

This week’s question:

How would you define your position on public-private partnerships?

District 5 Candidate Responses:

Jason Conzelman

YouTube.com/@Conzelman4Councilman

Public-private partnerships (PPPs) are ideal for large-scale government projects, such as roads, bridges and hospitals.

When you have PPPs, you gain efficiency and share risks between the public and private sectors. This is only beneficial for the city when you have full transparency and full accountability. Otherwise, you could have big problems. With full transparency and accountability in the contract, you protect the interests of the public.

In my opinion, PPPs can be great for large infrastructure and other city services if they have the right management and full transparency. Without transparency, the project is open to abuse and/or theft.

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Joseph Kilraine

KilraineforCape.com

Public-private partnerships (P3) are designed to enable a government-provided component to engage a private entity to better or absolutely accomplish the intended mission. The first policy test of a P3… It must be in the public interest. The Cape City Council sets the policy and must confirm the public interest before any expenditure can be authorized. Granted, P3s can add efficiency, greater access to capital, specialized skills, etc. beyond the city’s resources. In practice, P3s often add other costs related to the private partner’s profit and/or cost structure, which must be offset by the incremental improvement delivered. Each P3 must be independently evaluated and justified.

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Charlie Pease

VoteCharliePease.com

Public-private partnerships can certainly benefit both parties and result in cost savings for taxpayers and in faster and more efficient completion of projects (e.g. public utilities or infrastructure projects such as transport and water). However, PPPs must be used wisely with much thought and *public discussion* focused on:

(1) Clear benefit to taxpayers

(2) Transparency

(3) Accountability

This is particularly important for unsolicited PPP proposals, such as the one now on the table for Jaycee Park, which could have been rejected in the first instance if the council had deemed it was not in the public interest.

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Robert Welsh (sitting member)

StemWelsh.com

Public-private partnerships are generally beneficial to Cape Coral residents. I have supported P3 efforts where it protects taxpayers from having to fund certain projects. Each P3 is unique and should provide a service to the community. What I look for in a good P3 is that there is no additional cost to the taxpayers, except for the person using the P3. This also reduces the need for additional city staff and resources that would otherwise be funded through our taxes.