MILT THOMAS

Is that how Mayor Craig Fletcher will be remembered in the future? He wouldn’t be the first politician to become permanently branded by a mistaken action or phrase to the detriment of all the good things he might have accomplished. Of course, Fletcher could also be branded by the sale of Vero Electric to FPL or disemboweling the city budget, but those are issues yet to happen, so we don’t know how history will view his role.

However, we will always know he wants nothing to do with any organization that doesn’t accept Jesus Christ as our savior. Brian Heady reminded us last week that when he (Heady) was on the Utility Commission, Fletcher threw him off for using an expletive at an earlier Utility Commission meeting. Heady even played the video from that meeting where Fletcher said, “I think we need to stand up and take action on this. This is totally inappropriate and I would make a motion to remove Mr. Heady from the committee. We cannot allow this sort of thing to happen…He’s crossed a very distinct line…”

Heady’s point in showing this video was why didn’t Fletcher take his own advice for saying something totally inappropriate and crossing the Constitutional line?

Then there was the City Council meeting on May 21 when Fletcher reported on a meeting he attended with the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council concerning the Seven50 Initiative. In reporting to the public, he described the guest speaker at that meeting as a “clown” and “an arrogant, pompous ***. Wasn’t that also inappropriate language on a par with Mr. Heady’s comments, especially since the speaker he referred to was Andreas Duany, world-renowned architect who designed Windsor here in Indian River County?

But this column is actually not about those slips of the mind. It is about other comments he made in that same “Clown” meeting. Now Fletcher, if nothing else, is a man who speaks his mind. Seven50 is a controversial subject to some in the community who feel it is somehow part of a U.N. plot to take over our country. I disagree only because I don’t think the U.N. is capable of taking over anything. In this case Seven50 is a legitimate subject of discussion and the public should know what is really going on with it.

I took the liberty of obtaining a video of Mr. Duany’s talk and compared it to Mayor Fletcher’s report of what Duany said. For instance, he reported:

“This group is a bunch of radicals.”

According to the Seven50 website, partnership members include city and county government agencies from the seven counties, including the cities of Sebastian and Fellsmere as well as social service agencies and private enterprises. The guest speaker, as mentioned before, was Andrea Duany, a world-renowned architect who designed Windsor right here in Indian River County and in 1988 created a long term downtown plan for Stuart, which has worked out well. Basically, Seven50 is the seven southeastern Florida counties and the municipalities and public entities from Indian River to Monroe. The purpose is to look at what life will be like here in 50 years with regard to population growth, urban sprawl, transportation systems, ecology, water supplies and our competitiveness in the national and world markets.

Duany is a leading proponent of New Urbanism, which calls for reining in urban sprawl, reducing traffic congestion, both by creating self-contained communities and expanding open space, encouraging historic preservation, safe streets, and safe development of brownfield land. Isn’t that what people in Vero Beach support?

Duany also mentioned the concept of subsidiarity. Yes, it is a $5 word, but simply refers to the organizing principle of decentralization, where matters should be handled at the smallest, lowest, or least centralized authority that can handle it. Isn’t that a basic tenet of conservatives calling for limited government?

So, calling these people “a bunch of radicals” seems a little misleading.

 “Cities and counties will become less important, only mega-regions will become important.”

Duany was speaking of how the economic landscape will look 50 years from now. He said, “This is not about today, or how we see ourselves now. We have levels of government to take care of all sorts of local concerns. This is for mega regions, which is the scale you will compete in the future.”

The seven county mega region would have much more clout with Washington or dealing with Caribbean and South American markets than any one individual city or county. In that respect, yes, cities and counties will become less important – when taken in context.

 “The entire seven counties would have someone to control them.”

The state has practiced comprehensive planning since 1985, but they do not “control” what we do. They provide guidelines. From what Duany said, Seven50 would be no different.

“Europeans are not going to put up with the American education system”

Duany was giving an example of Mobile Alabama, which has an airbus factory. All states have actively recruited European and Asian manufacturers. This is a success story. They welcomed the Germans and French owners of Airbus who felt that a long term workforce would be better prepared for these jobs if they had a German-type of education, where developing skills necessary for these jobs is a national priority. According to Duany, he did say “they don’t want an American education, they want a German education.” But he went on to say, “(The company) is willing to fly teachers over there to learn it.”

Locally, I would imagine if we could attract a German technology company with 100 high paying jobs, but required specific training for locals to become employable, Indian River State College would be delighted to provide that training as they are willing to do for any company relocating to our community already.

“Don’t be distracted by today’s problems”

Duany actually said, “You (in this room) know the inside and the local, that is not our job (meaning the Seven50 initiative). We look at the future of the region. Let us do it. If we can focus on the future and not be distracted by present concerns, we stand a fantastic chance to be a contender in the 21st century (economy).”

 “Fascism is the best form of government to implement these changes.”

Duany never used that term, but when talking about the need for individual groups to work together on a common problem, he added as an aside, unfortunately, totalitarian governments are more capable of making that happen. He wasn’t endorsing it, but would have been better left unsaid so he couldn’t be misquoted.

Duany presented other, more pertinent facts about Florida’s positioning in the economic alliances of the future. As a peninsula, we are more limited to developing Caribbean and South American trade, just as Texas is geared to Mexico, California to Asia. But our shape, with the ocean to our east and the Everglades to our west, is a distinct advantage in development and transportation.

He also commented on another hot button issue, climate change. “I want to de-emphasize climate change. About 2,000 organizations are working on it and there is little we (in this region) can do about it. In my lifetime we can handle it with goulashes.”

It would seem his views were more in tune with a conservative outlook than a radical agenda. But, Mayor Fletcher is entitled to his opinion, and his religion, and whether someone should be removed from a committee for using an expletive. However, he is also elected to represent all the citizens of Vero Beach and is expected to abide by the same rules as the rest of us.

If he makes one mistake, shame on him and let’s forget about it. But if he makes the same mistake numerous times, then shame on us for electing him.