Cape Elects New Mayor, Council Members

In elections Tuesday, Cape Coral residents went to the polls to vote in the general election. With so much recent dissension among residents concerning issues from utilities expansion to property taxes, a stronger turnout than the estimated 18-20% of local residents who voted had been expected.




In what could only be described as a strongly combative campaign, several new council members emerged yesterday as well as a new mayor for Cape Coral.

For the District 1 council seat, Kenneth "Marty" McClain beat out Jim Martin by a narrow margin for the seat which had been held by local resident and former mayoral candidate, Ms. Gloria Tate, who had been appointed previously to fulfill the term of Jim Burch.

In District 4, Incumbent Dolores Bertolini was upset by Mr Chris Chulakes-Leetz, who will begin his local political career on the dais. Mr Leetz is a real estate agent here.

Kevin McGrail defeated retired police detective John Cataldi Jr. to capture the District 6 Cape Coral City Council seat, previously held by Mr. Tim Day, who had served his term limit.

Pledging to work toward common goals, two of the newly elected members of council having signed the Contract with Cape Coral, which was the manifesto of John Sullivan's successful bid for the job of Cape Coral mayor. Sullivan handily defeated incumbent Jim Burch, who fulfilled the term of former mayor, Eric Feichthaler.

Residents will look forward to having Mr. Sullivan keeping his promise to work with the council to reduce the size and spending habits of Cape Coral government, as well as introduce 'resolutions which will bring trust back into our city government and return vibrancy to the economy.'