After securing commitments from Vero Beach City Council Candidates Amelia Graves, Warren Winchester and Richard Winger, Inside Vero announced plans to host a candidates roundtable discussion Thursday, Oct. 3 from 6:00 to 8:00 at the Heritage Center.
The announcement was made Thursday morning. That same morning, voice messages and emails were sent to Brian Heady, who had early expressed a willingness to work with a schedule that had been in flux for several days, and to Tracy Carroll. Joseph Guffanti said he already had plans to be out of town that week.
Late Friday afternoon, Lisa Zahner, a reporter with VeroNews.com and Vero Beach 32963 placed calls to the candidates inviting them to attend a forum to be held on the barrier island the same evening as the candidates’ roundtable already announced and scheduled by Inside Vero.
At 11:48 Friday night, Zahner followed up her phone calls with a written invitation sent by email in which she wrote, “I have already confirmed a few of you and am eager to hear back from the balance of the field.”
Zahner’s statement that she already had a “few” commitments seems curious, since three candidates had previously agreed to participate in a roundtable discussion at the Heritage Center, Guffanti had already said he plans to be out of town, and Heady had yet to make a commitment. Zahner may have had a commitment from Carroll, but one doesn’t equal a few.
Interestingly, though Inside Vero emailed an invitation to Carroll Thursday morning, she did not reply until Saturday afternoon at 3:00, indicating that she had already committed to participate in the VeroNews.com event.
Carroll wrote, “I have already committed to be at the Veronews event – why are you having yours at the same time this seems silly to me…”
Inside Vero publisher, Mark Schumann, replied, “If you were contacted before late Thursday morning by VeroNews.com/Vero Beach 32963, that is interesting, because the other candidates with whom I have spoken were not contacted by them until late Friday afternoon.”
Schumann added, “The real question, I believe, is why Vero Beach 32963 decided to schedule their event after we had already announced ours.”
Though Carroll is committed to another event, hopefully Brian Heady will be able to join Amelia Graves, Warren Winchester and Richard Winger for a thoughtful, 90-minute discussion about the future of Vero Beach.
The Heritage Center is located at 2140 14th Avenue.
Indian River Guardian 
Wow I can’t believe Carroll talks citizens like that. She truly thinks she is better than every one else. I hope she gets voted out.
Is the Indian River Lagoon now designated as our DMZ? Is it now East Vero and West Vero? It’s WAR, I tell you – the island has declared WAR on the rest of us. Sorry, I’m laughing so hard – made me silly. That is so ridiculously unbelievable that they would play such childish games.
It gets worse, or shall I say, less civil. Carroll claims she her first knowledge of the island weekly monkey-see-monkey-do forum was via a phone call she received Friday diving back to town. Well, the previous day at 10:47 she was sent an email to her personal email address to the candidate’s roundtable to be held at the Heritage Center. Carl also was left voice messages at City Hall
This afternoon Carroll wrote:
From: Tracy
Date: Saturday, September 21, 2013 4:35 PM
To: Mark Schumann
Subject: Re: Candidate Roundtable
Mark I asserted nothing. I was out of town wed to fri at my first lead, fla meeting and received a telephone call fri as I drove home. I have no idea why or who , nor do i care, who planned theirs first and to be frank your email to me is petty and childish. Grow up.
Tracy Carroll
Sent from my mobile
To which I replied:
From: Mark Schumann
Date: Saturday, September 21, 2013 5:16 PM
To: Tracy
Cc: , “Vock, Tammy” , , Amelia Graves , brian heady , Warren Winchster
Subject: Re: Candidate Roundtable
Tracy,
You did asset that the scheduling conflict is our responsibility. “Why are you having yours at the same time this seems silly to me,” you wrote.
Further, you may choose to settle for only a surface-level grasp of the facts, and you may not to care that you received an email from me Thursday morning, well in advance of a call from VB 32963. That is your business. We are going to host a candidates roundtable discussion as planned on Thursday, Oct. 3 from 6:00 t- 7:30 at the Heritage Center.
Mark Schumann, Editor
InsideVero
772.696.5233
m_schumann@bellsouth.net
http://www.insidevero.com
Mark,
I’m guessing by her response your not on her Christmas list? HAHAHAHA.
She needs to learn not to stick her nose up at people. Why can’t she just move back to south florida.
It is now more obvious to anyone with a brain that VeroNews is in league with Tracy Carroll. Their timing is suspect and you can be sure Lisa will be” throwing” softball questions at Tracy Carroll who will probably be given the questions in advance. One more thing , Carroll’s arrogance alone should be enough to have her thrown out of office
She’ll be replaced on November 5th, so we only have to worry about her for 6 more weeks. Find out more about her replacement at http://www.voteameliagraves.com
Pathetic move by 32963, but not surprising. It should not be confused with a newspaper, and should not be held to the same journalistic standards. Good thing. But hey – first amendment, free speech and all that – fine – its just not a newspaper.
Now as for the pj I’ll be less charitable. Where has the coverage been on the electric sale? It is appalling the paper is being muzzled by the publisher’s conflict of interest with his FPL employed wife. He has chosen peace in the bedroom over professional integrity. Pro or con, the pj can state its case on the opinion page. But where is the reporting on the substantive issues related to the sale? Like what is the likelihood 14 municipalities are going to let Vero off the hook? How easily is regulatory approval obtained? Are our attorneys doing a good job? How much money is Vero actually going to realize from a sale? Is this thing actually going to close?
I don’t know the answers. I would expect my local paper to be on this story big time. But no. Just endless stories on the river…oh alright, the lagoon. Very disappointing.
Keep up the good work Mark.