The charges against Kiester, which came from e-mail messages, are not a criminal charge and carry a potential file of up to $500, according to the Samantha Syoen, a spokeswoman for the State Attorney's Office in Fort Myers.

"I regret that any of this came up," Kiester said. "We have enough controversies going on here (on Marco). This is adding fuel to the fire and putting Marco Island in less than rosy light."

Assistant State Attorney Dean Plattner filed the charges against Kiester in late 2007. The specific charge is a public records violation.

Kiester said the people behind filing the complaint have a reason for their actions.

"The folks who are involved in filing the complaint are clearly doing it to get even," Kiester said. "It seems (resident) Sal (Sciarrino) was their front man," he said. "They put them up to it.

"It's a shame that it comes down to this low level of politics, but that's just part of being an elected city councilor."

Kiester is scheduled to appear in the 20th Judicial Circuit at the Collier County government complex in Naples Thursday, Feb. 7.

Resident Joseph Perino announced Jan. 16 that he planned to establish a fund to assist Kiester with legal costs involved in the case.

"I am doing this, in part, because some people have recently approached Chuck or his lovely wife, Jane, with financial offers of assistance which they cannot accept without the establishment of a fund controlled by someone else," Perino said in an e-mail. "The other part is that Chuck is truly innocent of the charges, and that even the one who filed the charges against him initially has admitted to the fact that it was for political payback, and that he is sorry it went this far."

Stephen Ostrow, a lawyer that resides in Marco who has worked as the Kiesters' family attorney, is handling the case for the councilman and has advised Kiester to not speak publicly about the incident.

A phone message to Ostrow was not returned.