COMMENTARY

MARK SCHUMANN

“We are not an impoverished community,” long-time resident Cornelia Perez reminded the City Council yesterday.

Listening to City Manager Jim O’Connor’s reasons for beginning work with a mowing contractor during the summer months, rather than in October as had been planned, one could get the sense he thinks the city is on the verge of bankruptcy.

Even the decision to risk outsourcing this work is an act of near desperation on the part of a city that has long prided itself on its well-maintained parks and roadways.

With the help of Council Troika Tracy Carroll, Craig Fletcher and Pilar Turner, the city may wind up in bankruptcy court soon enough, but as of now there is no justification for the kind of desperate moves O’Connor is making.

O’Connor seems to be trying to please Carroll, Fletcher and Turner.  Rather than counting to three, O’Connor needs to start focusing on what really counts, which is to leave this city in at least as good a condition as he found it when he was hired in 2011.

Carroll, Fletcher and Turner may think they engaged O’Connor to preside over the dismantling of the city, but if they believe the citizens of this community will stand by and let that happen, they are sorely mistaken.

In dismissing concerns about the wisdom of hiring a Winter Park mowing company for $49,000 a year to do work four other contractors said would cost from $60,000 to $100,000, Fletcher blamed the poor results on “a failure of contract management.”

The issue is not that the contractor’s work has been managed poorly.  By fostering an atmosphere of near desperation, Carroll, Fletcher and Turner created an environment in which city staff agreed to recommend a bid so low the contractor could not possibly afford to provide the same level of exceptional services to which the citizens of Vero Beach have become accustomed.

If the city has maintained the parks and right-of-ways in question for $123,000 a year, and if three of five bidders said they could not do the job for less than $100,000 a year, then who would seriously expect a Winter Park mowing company, with all the travel time and expense, do the job for $49,000?

Public Works Director Monte Falls has not failed to manage the contractor, for the contract was unmanageable from the beginning.   And no one is to blame for this but the three Council members who continue to create a sense of urgency for slashing city services.

It took Alma Lee Loy, the “First Lady of Vero Beach,” to talk some sense into at least Carroll, who along with Fletcher and Turner, has until now seemed hell-bent on turning the mainland of Vero Beach into a cow town.  Yesterday, Carroll stepped aside from Fletcher and Turner long enough to help bury the foolish idea of selling Crestlawn Cemetery. (Her bid for re-election might have had something to do with it.)

Fletcher may have lost his way and forgotten his roots.  For their part, Carroll and Turner, as relatively new Vero Beach residents seem to be unaware that many decades of sacrifice, dedication and wise stewardship have enabled Vero Beach to become the beautiful community to which they were drawn.

For absolutely no good business reason, Fletcher would sell the cemetery in which many of the city’s pioneers are buried.  For this, the Vero Beach native should be ashamed of himself, just as he should be ashamed for alleging mismanagement, and for insinuating incompetence on the part of Falls.  Falls has served the City well for several decades and deserves more respect from Fletcher.

It has been more than a little disheartening at times, watching Carroll, Fletcher and Turner make one move after another seemingly intended to divide the community.

Yesterday though, the tide began to turn.  When people like Alma Lee Loy and Cornelia Perez are willing to challenge Fletcher, Carroll and Turner, there is hope the troika will not be allowed to gut the city of its vital services, as well as the so-called value added services that have played no small part in making Vero Beach the gem of the Treasure Coast.

After watching yesterday’s City Council meeting, a friend wrote, “It seems City Manager Jim O’Connor is beginning to grasp and understand the intentions and desires of the City’s residents, which are in contrast to a few City Council members.”

Everyone now admits a swift sale of Vero Electric is an illusion.  The bizarre idea to sell our cemetery has been buried and Turner’s Libertarian Tea Party agenda to crater City services by cutting 10.9 percent from next year’s budget has been soundly rejected.

It is also now obvious to anyone who is paying even the slightest attention that the benchmarking statistics Turner is forever quoting are flawed, if not intentionally misleading.

As Alma Lee Loy instructed the Council, this community’s pioneers set out to create something special.  Their vision for Vero Beach was to establish a community different from Melbourne to the north and Ft. Pierce to the south.

Over many decades, city leaders have faithfully sought to build on the solid foundation bequeathed to them – at least, that is, until Fletcher, Turner and Carroll began trying to impose a  discount store mentality on a community that has always stood for quality and tradition.

It is not at all clear what Turner and Carroll have in mind for the barrier island.  But my sense is that if they have their way, the city will more and more resemble Fort Lauderdale, with high-rise developments on both sides of the Indian River Lagoon.

The Council troika has every right to attempt to implement their vision for a mini-Ft. Lauderdale, just as those who care about this community have every right to resist them.