To the editor:

Has anyone else noticed the cover-up going on in Cape Coral concerning the previous administration’s mismanagement of city fuel? I have heard more excuses reported through the media about how nothing is wrong here – even though an investigation showed there were significant internal control issues that included gaps in the system and now a device is found that was tampered with to allow it to fuel up any vehicle without being detected.

This investigation has been attacked and ridiculed in numerous reports involving certain councilmen and a candidate for council who recently quit. Why would a select group of people be so intent on getting us to believe that nothing happened here?

The real question here is why did Terry Stewart’s administration fail or refuse to put adequate controls in place to manage the city fuel that our tax money paid for? Maybe it was too expensive? Well, recently we found out that the complete system, hardware and software, would cost only $45,000. The first request in 2006 to install a new system was approved by City Council. But the previous administration never had it installed. The second request in 2009 was stopped before it made it to City Council.

Whoever was in charge here was either incompetent or corrupt.

Terry Stewart’s administration thought it was OK to spend $139 million on an unneeded water plant but not OK to spend $45,000 on a system that would keep track of millions of dollars worth of city fuel. The new majority city council and new city manager are trying to uncover this to find out what happened to our tax money. I want to thank Councilman Deile, Councilman Brandt, Councilman Chulakes Leetz, Councilman Kuehn, Mayor Sullivan and new City Manager Gary King for pursuing the truth and bringing this issue to our attention. From their efforts on this issue the Financial Services director stated we will save $2 million per year! Thank you

Tony Elia

Cape Coral