Naples POTPOURRI By Bill Barnett

This is the first time in many years that I find myself heading into the hottest summer months and I’m still in Naples. Usually, Chris and I are heading towards the cool climes of Angola, NY (outskirts of Buffalo) for my favorite fresh local grown corn, cooling off in Lake Erie and of course hanging out with our many family members and friends that live there all year. I’ll share a story with you that goes back many years and is relevant to what I wrote above but I’m sure that there aren’t many of you that live in Naples today that have any idea what I’m going to tell you.

I was fortunate back in 1975 in Naples to acquire the Toyota Dealership which had gone on the market. Hard to imagine, nobody knew what a Toyota was back then, they were selling five new and five used cars a month, and my background before we moved to Naples in 1973 was automotive and I would have never dreamed that I would be fortunate enough to own a new car dealership.

I had the vision that Naples would be a great place for selling used cars and had no idea that two huge gas crises were about to make Toyota a household name.

One was in 1974 and for those of you that remember there were long lines around the block, odd even rationing by license plates, no gas signs, and even a national speed limit of 55-mph speed limit to save fuel. The second was in 1979 that went into 1980. They were both grouped together and known as “the 1970s energy crisis.” The point I want to make is that those were good years for me, and I sold out to Germain Motor Company in 1983 and was elected to Naples City Council in 1984 and was a pure rookie with no political knowledge but I did know almost everyone who lived in Naples then because of my Toyota days. (Yes, today I’m driving a 2025 Toyota Camry and I love it.) At the beginning of my political career which lasted from 1984 through 2020 both as a Council Member and as Mayor with time off from being termed out and coming back and getting re-elected again I spent an actual 28 years as an elected official in Naples.

People assume that elected officials in general do quite well when it comes to salaries and benefits especially pensions, and here’s the crux of my story. From my start in 1984, salary for the Mayor and City Council members was a laughable matter. Every time someone brought up the words “salary raise” the mayor and those who were on City Council and had finished their actual careers just smiled and answered we do this job because we love it, not for the money, and therefore no raises or if there had to be a raise by ordinance it would be the bare minimum. In the mid 1980’s a Council member was making about $6,000 a year which was basically a part-time stipend, not a living wage.

I’ll move this story to today the year being 2026 and although the salaries of the Mayor and Council are more in range of where they should be, there is still no pension or retirement benefits for Council Members or the Mayor and most likely there never will be.

Now that I have been retired for six years and I can look back on my 28 years serving The City of Naples, I can certainly relate to the old adage of doing the job as Mayor was a lot more than just loving it! I lived it!!

Have a safe, happy and healthy summer and fall. 

All the Best,

Bill Barnett, Former Mayor
239-777-7952
I do respond to e-mails at: mayornaples@gmail.com