To the editor:

At the Aug. 8, City Council meeting, a man spoke during Citizen’s Input saying, “I think we have to wake up our staff, our people, to the aspect that we are living in a new world just went through a recession and depression, there are people who don’t have homes, who don’t have houses, who don’t have jobs, who took pay cuts, and when union employees say they don’t want to take a 3 percent pay cut, I just lost all support for them; to me they are not willing to help and work with the community “.

I find false statements such as these, whether said at the podium, in letters to the editor, or in public banter, extremely upsetting and disheartening. People repeat what they hear over the backyard fence or drinks with friends without knowing the facts. For instance, our police officers were “woken up” in 2007 and over the last three years have given this city more than $2.7 million in contractual pay and benefit concessions. (Divide that by 208 officers) Employees do not get free health insurance; it costs them a small fortune. Employees pay 9 percent of their base salaries into mandatory pension contributions. At this time, many firefighters will be taking a $20,000 cut in pay and benefits. Shouldn’t this be common knowledge? Why are so many citizens of Cape Coral ignorant of these facts, so uninformed regarding their own employees? Why are our citizens so hateful toward our workers?

It occurred to me that one glaring reason for the public’s lack of understanding and illogical attitude might be that these erroneous facts are made but city leaders do nothing to correct them, leading voters to assume the facts are correct. As Deile just wrote, “There is an apothegm in Civil Law that states that what is not denied is deemed admitted.” I believe that the truth would be vitally important and necessary in order to not only keep citizens informed but to reduce animosity and resentment toward our workers. This has been an egregious problem in Cape Coral, yet the mayor, council and city manager, after demanding silence from employees, have made no effort to curtail these misconceptions and untruths. Ask yourself, why is no effort made to correct misinformation regarding employees? Further, one incumbent recently said that police officers had had a 36 percent pay increase (patently untrue); the mayor recently expounded on the city manager’s performance and ended with, “What have the Unions saved?” The answer to your outrageous question, Mr. Sullivan, is: “LIVES!”

Nancy Patti

Cape Coral