LESLIE WILLIAMS / File photo

Preserve Our Paradise Chair Russ Colombo takes a question from an audience member at a City Council candidate debate sponsored by POP in November. The debate, which hosted a packed house at Mackle Park, was the first of the political campaign. Colombo said the political action committee was dissolved, in part, because of his belief that the current council will uphold the same policies as the last, in effect thwarting any effort undertaken by POP.

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Edward R. Murrow once said, “We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. When the loyal opposition dies, I think the soul of America dies with it.”

While no one is planning a funeral service just yet, two notable opposition groups on Marco Island have folded within just weeks of each other.

Citizens Advocating Responsible Environmental Solutions, known commonly as CARES, filed paperwork with the city recently to dissolve their group. The move came a couple of months after the political action committee abandoned efforts to appeal its last active case against the city, a suit for declaratory relief under a year-old city settlement for the clean-up of asbestos found on city park property.

It also came within days of an announcement by Preserve Our Paradise Chair Russ Colombo stating that his group would be dissolving.

“It was a decision made very reluctantly,” Colombo said. “Unless we sense that there’s a chance for public initiative to go forward, it just would have been an exercise in futility to continue.”

Colombo said that rather than abandoning efforts entirely, POP would enter a “dormancy stage.” He said he sees the newly elected City Council as one that will continue the policies of the last, which Colombo said was bent on frustrating the efforts of POP at every turn. POP’s key initiative during its three-year existence was to place a vote of confidence referendum before voters, allowing them to vote to keep or oust the city manager.

However, CARES Chair Doug Enman views the current political climate a little differently.

“The issues are pretty much gone,” Enman said. “They’re decided one way or another. But, the people who got elected are not bad people. Except for a couple of issues, I think we’re all on the same side.”

Both POP and CARES led the charge on a number of initiatives in the last two years, often in opposition to city goals. CARES filed numerous lawsuits against the city from 2006 through 2007, fighting the island-wide sewering program and pushing for the onus of the asbestos cleanup costs to fall on city-hired contractors. Both groups were often viewed as highly contentious, but they represented a group of disenfranchised, disenchanted voters, however small that group turned out to be in the election.

“I think these groups have tried to do what they thought was right and I don’t think they succeeded,” said former City Councilor John Arceri. “I think, personally, they were going along the routes of lawsuits and petitions which were not well thought out.”

Arceri said he believes the election, which was viewed by many as an affirmation of city projects and goals, including the Septic Tank Replacement Program, served a message to the groups that are now throwing in the towel.

“I think a major message was, ‘Enough negativism. Enough turmoil,’ ” Arceri said.

Recently elected City Councilor Wayne Waldack agreed. At times prior to his campaign at the end of 2007, he referred to members of POP and CARES with the acronym “CAVE: Citizens Against Virtually Everything.”

“Quite frankly, I think it is best for the island that they do dissolve,” Waldack said. “I hope they find something constructive to do.”

But others see a void where there was once a specific niche that both POP and CARES occupied.

“I think they’re both going to be missed,” Councilor Ted Forcht said. “I’ve been with them and I’ve been against them, and I think the opposition makes us better. There are people out there that don’t agree with the majority, and they need a voice.”

Forcht said some of his best-informed votes came from conversations with one or both of the groups’ supporters. It is part of the reason he said he will be disappointed to see the groups fold.

“CARES,” said former City Council candidate Joe Batte, “I feel brought to the forefront of our City Council problems they never would have known about. That was important.”

Batte said the two groups served as something of an “ombudsman” for those people who felt dissatisfied with the management of city programs and projects. He said he was “saddened” and “disappointed” to learn that both groups are dissolving.

On the other hand, both Colombo and Enman have promised to stay involved in the island’s politics, even if it is on an individual basis.

“In my case, I go right to City Council when I see an issue I want to comment on,” Enman said.

He predicted a more localized form of citizen involvement in the future, with residents of a single street or neighborhood stepping forward to speak about issues that singularly affect them. It comes with the “quieter climate” Enman said he sees on the horizon.

Arceri said he thinks individual action will be better for the political process on the island. The tactics taken by CARES and POP forced the city to go on the defensive too often, he said.

“If (people) want to be listened to, they’ve got to talk, and they’ve got to talk constructively,” Arceri said.

While Colombo also said he will stay engaged as an individual, he said POP stands at the ready to remobilize if the circumstances arise.

“It’s not like we’re gone, destroyed, never to be seen or heard from again,” Colombo said. “We’re going on stand-by. We will be ready to come back, to resurrect, to resurface.”

But Colombo, unlike Enman, is adamant that the political scene on the island is not looking up.

Still, he said the decision to dissolve had just as much to do with logistics as it did with the current council’s politics. He said that by entering a “dormancy stage,” POP can avoid the paperwork necessary for a registered political action committee.

“It’s not that we’re waving the white flag, it’s to avoid the red tape,” he said.

Though POP’s most notable and sought-after effort — a city manager referendum — failed, Colombo was quick to point to other goals held by POP.

They are goals he said he hopes will remain on the consciousness of Marco Island voters: reducing council terms to two years from four, instituting a monetary “threshold” for city expenses in need of voter approval, introducing a cap for the city manager’s salary and providing a strict definition of “emergency expenditure” to make the city’s spending cap more air-tight.

But even as the city’s political climate calms and many express hope in the openness of the new council, political players on the island say there will always be someone ready to speak out. Batte said he sees new organizations coming to the fore to lead the charge on the ever-evolving issues of importance in the city.

“You need to work with the people that are elected. We need to be supportive and do whatever we can,” Batte said.

But, he added, “They need to be kept on their toes, and I think community groups like this will do just that.”