NEWS ANALYSIS
MARK SCHUMANN
During budget workshops this week, Mayor Craig Fletcher, Vice Mayor Tracy Carroll and Councilwoman Pilar Turner opposed Councilman Richard Winger’s proposal to eliminate health insurance benefits for members of the City Council. In turning back Winger’s proposed budget cut, Fletcher and Turner erroneously claimed a health insurance benefit for Council members is provided for in the City Charter.
“Just a point of order. As far as the Council members’ compensation, that is determined by a Charter review committee. They determine the benefits and the compensation for the Council,” Turner said.
“It is an issue for Charter review,” Fletcher added.
Fletcher and Turner appear to be have been in error in claiming the Charter protects their health insurance benefit. In fact, the section of the Charter that addresses compensation for the Council, Section 2.03, simply states: “The mayor shall receive a salary of $1,125.00 per month and the other members of the city council shall each receive a salary of $900.00 per month.”
Regarding any additional compensation or benefits for Council members, the Charter is silent. More likely, it appears, Fletcher and Turner are receiving a health insurance benefit as an exception the to City’s policy of not providing health insurance coverage for part time employees.
Fletcher and Turner are the only two Council members enrolled in the city’s health insurance plan. Both participate in the most expensive of three options, and at a cost of $18,344 a year to the city. Though Fletcher and Turner are advocating double-digit cuts in the rest of the general fund budget for the coming year, they joined Councilwoman Tracy Carroll in approving an additional $2,107 for their health insurance coverage for the 2013/2014 fiscal year.
“We are part time employees at best.” Winger said, noting that not a single part time city employee, with the exception of Fletcher and Turner, is eligible for health insurance.
After dispensing with Winger’s effort to trim the budget for the Council, Turner spent much of the rest of the week arguing for staffing cuts in virtually every other department of the city. She based her argument for deep cuts on benchmark comparisons which she insists prove that Vero Beach city government is “inefficient.”
One relevant benchmark Turner failed to mention is the cost of Sebastian’s city council compared to Vero Beach’s. To lead a city with a population of 15,000, Turner and her colleagues spend $89,700 a year, including $20,000 for health insurance benefits for Turner and Fletcher. In comparison, Sebastian’s city council spends just $51,700 a year to lead a city of 22,000 residents.
During this week’s budget workshops, Fletcher said he did not want Vero Beach to be like Sebastian. It was widely presumed the mayor was speaking of the comparative aesthetics of the two communities, but he might have been referring to ascetics. Certainly when it comes to refraining from spending on themselves, the members of the Sebastian city council walk the talk that, for Fletcher and Turner, is little more than lip service.
Indian River Guardian 
There should not be any policy to provide health insurance to wealthy retirees who chose to run for elective office. If the budget cutters want to look for cost savings, health insurance for part-time employees is the ideal place to start. Even the Federal government does not provide health insurance for its part-time employees.
The health insurance discussion was dropped as soon as Mrs. Turner said it would take a change in the charter to remove it. If that was a lie
they should make it the first order of buisness at the next meeting to get an opinion from Mr. Coment as to whether it is in the charter and if not, reopen the discussion. For potential candidates,the decision to run or not run for city council will be affected by this. Mrs. Turner should be admonished for misspeaking on this issue, if in fact she
knowingly misled the council. IS IT IN THE CHARTER OR NOT?
I was chairman of the Charter Review Committee. The charter DOES not provide for health care.
The current charter does not permit what Fletcher and Turner are doing and they should have to reimburse the city for any health care costs they have used
Not only that, but the history of this sad little dishonest behavior should be deeply investigated. Both the city Attorney and Manager were present when this money shift was made, and they both sat silently.
Fletcher, likely knowing they were in deep kimshi, moved off the issue quickly, The end is yet to come!
Heady may not know it, but his book “LIARS, CHEATS and THIEVES now has evidence which verifies the title.
WW
Mrs.Turner said, as a point of order it was in the charter and would require a charter change to take it away. Mr. Fletcher reitterated that it was in the charter. Did they know it was not and just lied or what? Was it left in the budget that easily. thats a lot of money, enough for 2 years of fireworks, at least. This smells funny.