COMMENTARY
MARK SCHUMANN
When City Councilwoman Pilar Turner recently claimed a health insurance benefit for Council members is protected by the City Charter she was wrong. (Only Turner and Mayor Craig Fletcher take advantage of the benefit, at a cost to the city of some $20,000 a year.)
Turner presented benchmarking statistics to justify her continuing to receive a generous employee benefit the city can no longer afford to give its part-time Council members. In presenting her case, Turner failed to mention that none of the cities benchmarked against Vero Beach are trying to cut their general fund budgets 10.9 percent. Further, not one of the cities Turner cited is going through the experience of figuring out how to deal with the loss of some $7 million in revenue as a result of the sale of an electric utility.
As further justification for keeping the $10,000-a-year perk, the Council’s lead budget cutter pointed out that the members of the Indian River County Commission and the Indian River County Board of Education are offered health insurance coverage. Turner was truly comparing apples to tangerines. There is simply no comparison between the scope and depth of the responsibilities of a member of the County Commission or of the School Board, and those of a council member serving a city with a population of just 15,000.
If Turner is putting in an average of 40 hours a week to dispense with her responsibilities, perhaps that is because the time it takes to do a job tends to expand to fill the time available. Turner is, after all, comfortably retired.
Someone, who will go unnamed, recently told me the opportunity to participate in the city’s health insurance plan was at least one of the motivations for his having run for a seat on the City Council. If that is true, I cannot think of a better reason for doing away with this generous perk.
Given that the City Charter provides for Council members to receive just $900 a month in compensation, it is hard to argue the Charter envisions these as full-time positions. In fact, it is entirely possible the low level of compensation offered Council members is at least partly indented to discourage them from working full time.
There was a day when the Florida Legislature convened just once every other year. Some are now proposing the Legislature meet year-round. Lord help us.
Indian River Guardian 
If Mrs. Turner is putting in 35 hrs per week X aver of 4 weeks per month, this would amount to 140 hrs per month divided by $900 = $6.25 per hr. So, anyone running for a position on the City Council has to be NUTS or have other sources of income to live, whether good retirement or working in the private sector. Somehow, having health insurance provided by the City, given the otherwise small compensation, raises questions of impropriety.
It is indeed a scary thought to consider the possibility of the Florida legislature meeting all year long. They do more than enough damage as part-time legislators.
She told a bald-faced lie at the budget hearings regarding this perk and they should immediately revisit that subject beginning with Mr. Wingers comments.Mr. Coment should have been able to corroborate the statement, or not. Thats a big savings. She has Medicare and can self-insure like Mr. Winger does for the rest. Please, some integrity here.