The city is firing back at the organization that represents its primary economic driver.<\/p>\n
An internal audit was performed to address the Cape Coral Construction Industry Association\u2019s letter concerning the city\u2019s building department financial practices and a detailed response will be released Friday, Cape Coral City Manager Michael Ilczyszyn said, calling the CCCIA\u2019s complaint into city practices \u201cdeeply disappointing\u201d and without merit.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the past several weeks we have been working on an exhaustive internal review because of the letters sent from an association in our community representing contractors, which contained a series of allegations regarding operations, finances, and regulatory practices in our building division and building fund,\u201d Ilczyszyn said. \u201cAs of this evening, city staff has concluded a thorough review of every claim in that letter. The documentation that we have compiled demonstrates the assertions made are either baseless or unsupportive and often times a fundamental misunderstanding of our internal processes, state law or standard municipal accounting practices.\u201d<\/p>\n
The CCCIA sent a letter to State Rep. Mike Giallombardo and Sen. Jonathan Martin on Sept. 25 with the subject line \u201cRe: Urgent request for joint legislative auditing committee investigation of Cape Coral Building Department Fund Mismanagement.\u201d<\/p>\n
The letter addressed what it said were critical areas of concern \u2013 apparent violations of Florida Statute 553.80, questionable interdepartmental transfers, systemic operational issues affecting industry and consumers, and impact on Cape Coral community.<\/p>\n
The letter requested an investigation focusing on a forensic accounting audit of the Building Department Fund from 2014 to present, a review of all interdepartmental transfers and service fees charged to the building fund, examination of compliance with the statute and assessment of operational practices for consistency and statutory compliance.<\/p>\n
At Wednesday\u2019s Cape Coral City Council meeting, Ilczyszyn displayed a stack of papers, stating that the document was a result of several weeks of work by city finance staff, development service staff, city auditor and legal \u2013 a response to every assertion made.<\/p>\n
Ilczyszyn said it is deeply disappointing that an organization representing licensed professionals in the community would issue a letter of this magnitude without \u201cfirst verifying the facts \u2013 seeking clarification or engaging even in the most basic due diligence.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cInstead, what has been issued is an assortment of uninformed interpretations, misapplied statutory citations, and inaccurate assumptions supported by backup material that frankly is embarrassing and its incompleteness or lack of connections to the assertions targeted at this organization,\u201d he said. \u201cThese documents came directly from the organization that wrote the letter. This is an AI summary that they submitted.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ilczyszyn said there were 258 pages in total.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf those 258 pages there were 176 individual emails and four emails specifically addressing permitting and inspection issues,\u201d he said of the package that was sent to state representatives as grounds for an audit.<\/p>\n
Ilczyszyn spent time going through the four emails, which ranged from a September 2025 PDF of the Cape Coral Sun, an email about top talent ready to drive projects forward of two highly skilled construction professionals whose expertise aligns with the city\u2019s operational needs and project goals, a business tax receipt sent from the city, an email asking for an additional check for a trade show booth, an introductory credit card with zero percent interest and a permitting issue with an HVAC permit that failed final survey review.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are the complaints. These are the backup documents supplied to our state representative. I would be embarrassed if my staff transmitted something to me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Ilczyszyn said if concerns are raised in good faith, the city addresses them in good faith.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they undermine resident confidence, disrupt development activity and unfairly impugn the integrity of my employees, it is important that we respond swiftly with the facts,\u201d he said. \u201cThis Friday I will be providing a detailed written response. It will demonstrate the commitment to compliance and address each point raised in the letter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ilczyszyn also showed Council a binder that he said has the letter with 26 allegations, which are identified by number and accompanied by the statement from the letter and which department is responsible.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor each one of these there is a cover page that has their assertion, our detailed response and list of all the attachments governing that response. This is what a professional organization looks like,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The city has a Building Industry Oversight Committee and Ilczyszyn said a lot of the misunderstanding came from information they were going over every other month with city staff.<\/p>\n
\u201cI directed my staff to make changes of how it operates,\u201d he said. \u201cI am sending a recording secretary in those meetings.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are no more than five individuals allowed in attendance at the meeting.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo more opportunity for misunderstanding or misclassification,\u201d Ilczyszyn said. <\/p>\n
CCCIA officials could not immediately be reached for comment. This story will be updated when a response is received.<\/p>\n
The city uploaded the CCCIA letter of complaint and related documents to its website in November. The documents may be found at \u00a0capecoral.gov.<\/a>.<\/p>\n