Before Lee County voters decide whether to change how county commissioners are elected, they deserve something increasingly rare in modern politics: An explanation.
Not campaign slogans. Not competing accusations. Not political advertising.
Just a clear understanding of what the referendum would and would not do.
That responsibility belongs first to our local journalists.
In November, Lee County voters will decide whether county commissioners should continue to be elected countywide or, beginning in 2028, be elected only by the voters in the districts they represent.
Many residents may not realize how the current system operates.
Lee County is divided into five commission districts. Each commissioner must live in the district they represent. Yet every voter in Lee County helps elect every commissioner. A voter in Cape Coral helps choose the commissioner from Lehigh Acres. A voter in Bonita Springs helps select the commissioner representing North Fort Myers. It is even possible for a candidate to lose in their own district but still win office with votes from elsewhere in the county.
The proposed charter amendment would change only one thing: Who selects each commissioner. If approved, beginning in 2028, only the voters living within a district would elect the commissioner representing that district.
Whether that is a better system is for voters to decide.
Journalists have a different obligation.
They must help citizens understand why the question is being asked and continue examining how political influence operates, regardless of the election’s outcome.
That is why recent reporting by The News-Press’s Charlie Whitehead deserves attention.
The newspaper reported that four of Lee County’s five commissioners, Kevin Ruane, David Mulicka, Brian Hamman, and Trish Petrosky, share the same political consultant, Terry Miller. Commissioner Cecil Pendergrass does not. The report also notes that Miller represents private business interests whose matters may come before the County Commission.
None of those facts, standing alone, establish corruption, vote-buying, or a violation of Florida’s Sunshine Law.
Nor should anyone suggest they do.
Political consultants frequently represent multiple candidates. Lobbyists routinely advocate for private clients before local governments. Both activities are lawful.
But legality should be the beginning of the public conversation, not the end of it.
The value of The News-Press’s reporting is not that it answers every question. It is that it identifies questions worthy of continued reporting.
When a political consultant simultaneously advises multiple commissioners and represents private interests seeking county decisions, journalists should naturally ask:
How are those relationships managed?
What safeguards are in place to prevent one commissioner from indirectly communicating with another through a common consultant?
When a consultant meets privately with a commissioner, is the conversation political, governmental, or both?
When the consultant later appears on behalf of a business client, how are those roles distinguished?
Those are not accusations.
They are accountability questions.
Florida’s Sunshine Law generally requires commissioners to deliberate on public business in public meetings. The law exists because public confidence depends not only on honest government but also on government that can be seen operating honestly.
Journalists should continue asking how those safeguards are maintained, not because there is proof they have failed, but because transparency is strongest when questions are asked before problems arise rather than after.
The referendum itself also warrants careful reporting.
Supporters argue that commissioners should answer first to the people they directly represent. District-only elections could reduce campaign costs, encourage more local candidates to run, and strengthen accountability between neighborhoods and the officials elected to serve them.
Opponents raise legitimate concerns as well. Commissioners make decisions that affect the entire county, and countywide elections allow every voter to participate in selecting every member of the board. Critics worry that district-only elections could encourage commissioners to focus too narrowly on their own communities rather than on Lee County as a whole.
Both arguments deserve a fair explanation.
Neither deserves caricaturing.
The role of journalism is not to tell voters which side to back.
It is intended to help certain voters understand what they are being asked to decide.
Reporting should not end after Election Day.
Whether the referendum succeeds or fails, the same questions will persist.
Who finances county campaigns?
Who represents whom?
How do consultants, lobbyists, political committees, and large donors shape local government?
How transparent is that process?
These are enduring stories of accountability. They matter regardless of which electoral system Lee County adopts.
A free society depends on more than elections. It depends on informed elections.
That is what journalists owe Lee County voters, not a recommendation on how to vote, but the facts, context, and sustained scrutiny that enable citizens to make that decision themselves.
The public’s need for independent journalism will last much longer.
Before Lee County voters go to the polls, they deserve something increasingly rare in modern local politics: An explanation.
That responsibility first belongs to our local journalists.