Cape Coral frustrated with LCEC

CAPE CORAL, Fla. – In a memo to the City Council Thursday, Cape Coral city spokesperson Connie Barron wrote, “LCEC does not appear to be willing to work with the City of Cape Coral in a collaborative spirit.”

The memo came after an LCEC board meeting in which the company approved a roughly three-year $11.8 million project to repair aging transmission lines that run from southwest Cape Coral to Pine Island, Sanibel and Captiva.

“We have a city staff that’s going out looking for information, and we’re not getting that information,” City Council member Richard Leon told WINK News Friday.

Leon says the city wanted to know how the repairs would be done and how it might affect Cape homeowners who live nearby.

The city also wanted to know if there were more cost-effective alternatives.

The assistant city manager emailed LCEC in June and again in July asking for more details on the project. After getting a “no”, he wrote a letter to the president Thursday stating LCEC is “deliberately limiting communication between us.”

“We have provided them with stacks and stacks of information. There is some information that is proprietary, or concerns customer privacy and we would not be able to release that type of information,” LCEC spokesperson Karen Ryan told WINK News.

“The tone of the letter and the memo is unfortunate. We still believe there is an opportunity to work and negotiate towards a franchise agreement.”

At the end of Barron’s memo to the council, she wrote, “How (LCEC’s) attitude impacts our franchise negotiations remains to be seen.”

Barron says communication problems with LCEC have been an ongoing issue for several months.

The city’s franchise agreement with LCEC expires in October 2016. The city is currently exploring the feasibility of ditching LCEC and running its own utilities.