BY MARK SCHUMANN

By reversing earlier positions they had taken in negotiations with the Verotown investor group, four members of the County Commission took an important step toward retaining an invaluable tenant at the Vero Beach Sports Village.

While Commissioner Bob Solari’s positions were at least consistent and consistently puzzling, the other members of the county commission are to be commended for their willingness to make a new decision based on new information. 

Since more or less torpedoing the county’s negotiations with Verotown a month ago, Commissioners Wesley Davis, Joe Flescher, Peter O’Bryan and Tim Zorc consulted individually with staff and with Vero Beach Sports Village Vice President Craig Callen to get a better understanding of each party’s positions and their underlying interests.  It was a textbook case in how to get from “No” to “Yes” by seeking first to understand before being understood.

The Vero Beach Sports Village has drawn literally hundreds of baseball, football, lacrosse, soccer and swimming teams from around the country to train and compete in tournaments at the Sports Village.  The center is also hosting corporate meetings, couples and church retreats.

According to estimates by the Treasure Coast Sports Commission, Vero Beach Sports Village has contributed more than $20 million in direct economic impact to the local economy since May 2009, benefiting hotels, restaurants, retailers and other businesses.

At issue had been three key provisions the Verotown group wanted in any new lease with the county.  The county’s current agreement with the investor group, which is headed by former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Peter O’Malley, is set to expire in May of next year.  Other investors in Verotown include O’Malley’s sister, Terry O’Malley Seidler, former Dodgers Hideo Nomo and Chan Ho Park, and Minor League Baseball.

According to Callen, without an agreement on revised lease provisions regarding liquidated damages, insurance and capital maintenance costs, the Verotown group had no plans of exercising an option to renew the existing lease.

Though the Commission had earlier agreed to a four-month notice requirement in lieu of a provision that would have assessed $300,000 in liquidated damages for early termination, two other key provisions sought by Verotown group had been rejected.

In earlier negotiations, Davis and Flescher were in favor of the county paying up to $250,000 a year for repairs and replacement of capital items, such as building and lighting systems, but Commissioners Peter O’Bryan, Bob Solari and Tim Zorc baulked at the proposal.

According to Callen, because Verotown is a tenant, and not an owner of the property, the group feels the county should contribute up to $250,000 a year for capital maintenance costs.  Callen pointed out that Verotown is already spending nearly $1 million a year on regular maintenance on buildings and grounds.

Though Solari voted against contributing to capital maintenance costs for the county-owned facility, O’Bryan and Zorc joined Davis and Flescher in agreeing that the county should share in this expense.

The final concession made by the Commission this week resolved the question of who will pay for property and casualty insurance.  Again, Callen said, because the county owns the property it would have the insurance expense even without a tenant.

On the issue of property insurance, Flescher and O’Bryan joined Davis and Zorc, who had earlier expressed a willingness to continue paying $80,000 a year to insure the county-owned property.  Solari objected, contending that for the county to pay the cost of insuring its own property amounts to subsidizing private enterprise.

Solari sees the county’s contribution to capital maintenance costs and paying for property insurance on a county-owned facility as a “non-essential” expense, and one that is fundamentally inconsistent with his commitment to pare government down to an irreducible minimum.

Solari’s case was, perhaps, one to be made years ago, when the county first decided to buy the former Dodgertown property.  Or maybe there is still a conversation to be had about whether or not the county should try to find a buyer to take the Vero Beach Sports Village off its hands.

In the mean time, though, the county is the proud owner of the property, and as such, should not be looking to its tenant to bear the cost of capital maintenance and property insurance.

More broadly, though, Solari is also arguing against helping to boost the local economy by promoting the kind of tourism the Vero Beach Sports Village is drawing to the area.  That, too, is a debate that can be had, but it one in which Solari and his fully employed or comfortably retired Tea Party/Libertarian supporters will likely finds themselves in the minority.

The real issue shouldn’t be about big government, or small government, but about insuring effective government.   Whether Libertarians accept it or not, the truth is there are some initiatives, such as tourism development, in which government must at least play a role.

If Solari’s objective is to have a pigmy-size county government with bragging rights to the lowest tax rate in the state, then achieving that goal becomes an end in itself.  Though wise stewardship of tax revenues and other public resources is a worthwhile goal, the higher mission and larger purpose of government is to ensure domestic tranquility and to provide for the public welfare. What we should all be working toward, then, is a better quality of life for all citizens, with the availability of better paying jobs and higher levels of employment and more opportunity to realize the American dream.

If Tea Party extremists are willing to accept higher levels of unemployment and rising poverty as a consequence of dogged adherence to their Libertarian vision of what constitutes “essential services,” then ours is destined to become the world’s largest underdeveloped country.

If the Commissions other four members had been persuaded to embrace Solari’s Libertarian point of view, they would have set back important and fruitful efforts to boost the local economy.

At least for now, we are fortunate the voices of extremism are in the minority, this time by a vote of 4 to 1.  Let’s celebrate the county commission’s decision to work with the Verotown group.  With Calen’s competent management, and O’Malley’s generous leadership and ambitious vision, the Vero Beach Sports Village can become a valuable public asset and a key contributor to the local economy.