COMMENTARY
MARK SCHUMANN
The island weekly published a story reporting on the “perks” that come with public service, including health insurance benefits for county commissioners, members of the school board and the Vero Beach City Council.
Sebastian city council members, who govern a city larger than Vero Beach, are paid a salary less than half their Vero Beach counterparts, yet they have not awarded themselves health insurance.
By listing the many former Vero Beach City Council members who have taken advantage of the city’s generous health insurance benefit, the reporter did a credible job of establishing that Mayor Craig Fletcher and Councilwoman Pilar Turner are not the first to let the city taxpayers cover much of the cost of their health insurance, even though theirs are arguably part time jobs.
No other part time employees of the city are offered health insurance coverage.
It is also relevant to note that Fletcher and Turner, along with Councilwoman Tracy Carroll, are the first City Council members to sign a contract to sell the city’s electric system. They are also the first to trade the city’s Macy’s heritage for a Walmart future by pushing for sharp cuts in city services that will lower the quality of life in our community.
If Fletcher and Turner would forgo an employee benefit the city can no longer afford, the $20,000 saved would cover half the salary for a full-time animal control officer. The question is what does the city need most, for two Council members, who are both comfortably retired, to have taxpayers pick up the tab for their health insurance, or would the city be a better place to live if it continued to benefit from the services of an animal control officer?
If the city can afford to maintain services while also paying for Turner’s and Fletcher’s health insurance, fine. But if something has to give, if cuts in services do have to be made, as Fletcher and Turner claim, then it is time for these two Council members to let the budget cuts they are making affect them as well as everyone else.
Call this reasoning “nuanced,” if you will, but the fact remains that Turner insists the city has in the past agreed to generous employee benefits it can no longer afford. Yet, she can, with a straight face, justify telling the city’s employees they must go yet another year without a raise, while at the same time letting the city contribute $10,000 a year to the cost of her health insurance coverage.
The question isn’t so much about “nuance” as it is about hypocrisy. For Turner and Fletcher to vote to cut services such as animal control, while continuing to spend $20,000 of the city’s limited resources for their health insurance coverage is unconscionable.
Indian River Guardian 
We used to have the Dodgers in Spring Training here, too….but that’s a thing of the past. Mayor Fletcher and Mrs. Turner could do what I did when I didn’t have health insurance or only supplemental insurance that I paid out of pocket – go to the Health Department….or buy your own. Having to pay for ones own health insurance can be hard on the budget but you do what you have to do. Prioritize expenses. Do without. Shop at thrift stores. How dare those two take the insurance but the city continues to refuse it for other part-time employees.
Both Pilar Turner and Craig Fletcher earned high salaries in the private sector prior to their retirement. Therefore, they should be eligible to be a part of their former employers group health insurance plans.
The services that need to be cut are whatever it is that Pilar Turner and Craig Fletcher do to earn their pay. Real leaders should step up to the plate and serve as good examples.
Craig Fletcher and Pilar Turner should do the right thing and renounce their taxpayer supported health plans. To set an example they should introduce the change at the next council meeting.
The taxpayers association should be concerned with this issue, but they will not because of family considerations.
This council is benefitting from a more than doubling of their basic pay since about 2008. In prior years they were not trying to cut the guts out of the entire city, either, and the costs of health care have gone up tremendously in the past 10 years. Compare apples to apples, they are different situations and the zip code paper is just [as always] trying to protect it’s favorite troika rather than report responsibly.
During my lifetime in Vero Beach, I have to say that this is the first council that I can recall (and I do admit not paying close attention during the first few years) that gives the appearance of putting their personal needs and wants ahead what might benefit the city. This is just an obvious example of what is merely greed combined with the sham of an appearance of public service.
@Ed Taylor: You are correct. It is outrageous that PART-TIME councilmembers can opt for city-paid health insurance, and the part-time workers cannot. It is outrageous that Tracy Carroll breaks the law for personal profit — raking in mega-dollars every week. It is outrageous that Craig Fletcher and Tracy Carroll can’t remember the oath they took when sworn in — to protect, support and abide by the U.S. and Florida Constitutions. And the list goes on…