Lee County, FLA - A two month investigation found interior lights left on well past business hours at several government office building in Lee County.
Cape Coral City Hall was observed twice after 9 p.m. and once after 2 a.m. with just about every interior light left on in the building, while the parking lot and building itself appeared empty.
"There's more going on here at night than what's obvious," said Oliver Clarke, an engineer with the city's public works department.
Clarke said there are some people that are in the building late at night, and the way city hall's lighting system is set up makes it difficult to cut down on energy costs.
"Unfortunately, the way the building is set up if you turn on a light switch in a major light area it controls 30 or more light fixtures", said Clarke who said the lighting was a high priority as part of the city's new energy plan that was started in June.
The electric bill for Cape Coral city hall averaged more than $26-thousand last month.
Across the river at the D'allessandro office complex on Victoria Avenue in Fort Myers the electric bill costs about $36-thousand a month for August and September.
During an observation at 11 p.m. dozens of interior lights were left on, and a week later at 3:36 a.m. those lights were still on.
"We're aware and working on it, it's a difficult system with outdated parts that are difficult to come by," said Linda McDonald, from the Department of Management Services.
The D'Allessandro building is a state building overseen by management services in Tallahassee.
McDonald said they cannot just flip a switch to turn the lights off because it is an automated system, which is broken.
The city of Fort Myers said they have the same problem.
During our observations, lights were on at city hall after 10 p.m. and again after 3 a.m.
Saed Kazemi, Fort Myers Public Works Director, said he was glad we brought the problem to his attention.
"city hall is under a sensor, it doesn't have to be on when no one is around," said Kazemi, who believes those sensors are broken and has no way to turn lights off manually because they do not have light switches.
Kazemi said our investigation brought the problem to light and now engineers are now working to fix the problem, which will hopefully help lower Fort Myer's city hall's monthly $13-thousand electric bill.