Fort Myers Beach council directs staff to update donation and naming-rights policies

Fort Myers Beach councilors reviewed the town's handling of donations on Feb. 5 and gave staff direction to revise the existing policy and draft a separate naming-rights framework.

Nancy (town attorney) told the council staff located a 2011 donation policy in the packet and highlighted examples showing how past gifts were handled, including a $2,000,000 naming donation in Naples used as a model, a roughly $120,000 donation for a K-9 unit and a $52,000 restricted cash gift for license-plate readers. She said the 2011 Fort Myers Beach policy allows the town manager to accept gifts valued at $10,000 or less without council approval, and that larger gifts require council acceptance and a paper trail via resolution.

Council members questioned whether the town should keep the $10,000 threshold, how the town would prevent an in-kind gift from imposing long-term maintenance or insurance costs, and whether donors could remain anonymous. Councilwoman Link (who had previously made a $1,000 donation) and other members said they did not want the town to inherit unexpected operating costs tied to gifts; staff replied that the policy already allows the manager to direct gifts to an appropriate department or to refer unusable items to another agency, and that anonymous gifts may still be discoverable through public records.

Members also pushed staff to broaden conflict-of-interest language beyond narrowly defined categories such as "contractor" so the policy would capture any donation that might create a perceived influence on town decisions. On the naming issue, councilors said any request that conditions a donation on naming town property should come before the full council; Nancy recommended using Naples' naming policy as a starting point but leaving the final naming decision to council discretion, with an ability to waive criteria in unusual cases.

Staff were given direction to draft an amendment and restatement of the donation policy and to prepare a separate naming-rights policy and accompanying resolutions for future council consideration. The council discussed periodic reporting or a brief monthly notice to inform the public of donations accepted under the manager's authority.