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A Marco Island group long critical of city actions may be fading from the fore now that it has dropped attempts to file an amended motion in its latest suit against the city.

Doug Enman, chair of Citizens Advocating Responsible Environmental Solutions, said his group is done fighting the city on controversial actions like the implementation of the island-wide sewering program and the contested cleanup of an asbestos-contaminated city park.

CARES filed a suit against the city in April alleging that it was denied rights under an agreement between the city and contractor Quality Enterprises that made them equal partners in the financial burden of cleaning up the asbestos-laden pipe found on the city’s Veterans’ Park property. The improperly removed pipe was believed by many to be the bi-product of Collier Boulevard reconstruction, though the Marco Island Police Department never identified the source of the crushed pipe despite a months-long investigation.

CARES’ most recent case followed on the heels of settlement on another suit in the fall of 2006 where the city agreed to seek compensation from the contractor for the cleanup costs from the asbestos contamination.

Enman and CARES argued that the city violated that settlement by entering the new agreement with the contractor, but a Collier judge said that CARES did not have any rights under declaratory relief laws because the group was never a party to the new agreement.

After that November hearing, Enman told the Eagle that he would file an amended complaint and continue fighting the city’s agreement to share costs with Quality Enterprises. The reason for the fight, he has said, is because his group believed the citizens were shouldering an unfair burden in the cleanup costs.

But sometime in January, before the City Council elections, he made the decision not to take his case any further.

“The judge gave us 30 days to modify our filing and we just chose not to do it,” Enman said, adding that another group could pick up that cross, if it chose to. But, he said, CARES would not be the group to do it.

“CARES would not do so in the future, ever,” he said. “We’ve lost the battle.”

He cited a political climate in Marco that he said is clearly not in favor of his group’s stance, as evidenced by January’s elections, which swept a slate of four candidates into office who all support the completion of the Septic Tank Replacement Program. Some of CARES’ most notable actions have included an attempt to halt the program by carrying a bond validation case to the Florida Supreme Court.

That case — which questioned whether the city’s sewer assessments were equitable for homeowners — was eventually decided in the city’s favor.

“The notion that this was environmentally unsound was rejected,” he said of the sewer program.

Though the courts are supposed to be above local politics, Enman said his group would not continue to pursue the city through court actions because he believes CARES has lost the support of a once loyal base.

“If there’s no support, I don’t see any value in making waves just to prove a point,” he said. “CARES really doesn’t have the support of the community anymore to raise funds. I think we’ve been made to look like the bad guys by filing these lawsuits and losing. It’s our right, but it still got people upset.”

The latest financial statements filed with the city by CARES showed a small deficit, following the last $500 check cut to attorney Sam Gold in November. The only contributions logged by CARES between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31 were $185 from Enman’s wife, Fran, and a small sum of bank interest.

City Council at one point sought remuneration of legal fees from CARES that were lost in battling the group through four separate suits, but those efforts may have fallen by the wayside since the CARES coffers have run dry.

CARES has raised $53,417 since its formation in 2005, according to the last quarterly filing, and spent nearly $100 over the top of that.

Attorney David Jackson, of the Bradenton-based firm Lewis Longman & Walker, said he is not aware of any efforts by the city to recoup those costs. Jackson’s firm represented the city in several of the CARES-filed suits.

Council declined to go after the group for fees in March, but renewed efforts after the group filed its most recent suit in April. It appears now that the effort has been dropped.

City Clerk Laura Litzan further indicated that the city might be undertaking an exercise in futility by going after the group when it has little to no money in the bank.