CAPE CORAL, Fla. \u2014 A Southwest Florida lawmaker says the state-approved audit into the City of Cape Coral is moving forward.<\/p>\n
Rep. Mike Giallombardo (R\u2013Cape Coral) spoke exclusively with WINK News Anchor Claire Galt on Thursday.<\/p>\n
He said he received an update from the state auditor and the audit process will begin soon.<\/p>\n
This comes after the Joint Legislative Auditing Committee unanimously voted to approve\u00a0a l last month, after state lawmakers presented findings, they say, prove the city’s building department is misusing funds and violating state law.<\/p>\n
Cape Coral City Manager Michael Ilczyszyn has<\/p>\n
“I welcome this audit,” he said.<\/p>\n
In another \u00a0with WINK News last month, Ilczyszyn said the expenses flagged by lawmakers and the CCCIA are related to the building fund \u2014 and do not violate state law.<\/p>\n
\u00a0requires building fees stay within the building department and be used only for building code enforcement.<\/p>\n
Giallombardo claims the records he reviewed show money being diverted to unauthorized expenses, including:<\/p>\n
Fire department costsPayroll for scanning clerksHurricane overtime<\/p>\n
Giallombardo says he was made aware of the concerns by the Cape Coral Construction Industry Association (CCCIA), which provided state lawmakers with hundreds of pages of documents.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“The longer it takes for us to get projects approved and certified, sometimes a certificate of occupancy for a new building, for instance, might be delayed,” CCCIA President Keith Quackenbush . “That impacts people’s ability to move into the new home.”<\/p>\n
Ilcyszyn said payroll expenses for scanning clerks were legitimate because the clerks were working specifically on documents tied to the building department.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do have clerks that scan documents that are related to the building fund,\u201d Ilczyszyn said. \u201cAt some point, we are the record-keeper for all properties in the Cape.\u201d<\/p>\n
Giallombardo said he\u2019s concerned because, in his view, \u201cthe building fund is depleted,\u201d and he believes that\u2019s contributing to long wait times for permits.<\/p>\n
He said contractors in his district have shared examples of lengthy delays with him.<\/p>\n
“I have constituents that have come to me, especially in the commercial space, they take two years, right?” Giallombardo said. “You know, think about a 10-unit, 1000 square foot, mini strip mall taking two years to get the permitting. That’s kind of ridiculous.”<\/p>\n
He said a third of the complaints he’s received point back to Cape Coral’s building department and how it’s managed.<\/p>\n
WINK Investigates requested updated records from the city to assess current permit wait times. Those records have not yet been provided.<\/p>\n
Ilczyszyn\u00a0said the city is fully cooperating with the audit.<\/p>\n
WINK News is committed to following this story and will update you as we learn more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CAPE CORAL, Fla. \u2014 A Southwest Florida lawmaker says the state-approved audit into the City of Cape Coral…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71757,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210,325,115],"class_list":["post-71756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-lee","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71756\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}