COMMENTARY

MARK SCHUMANN

The Press Journal recently reported, or misreported, that the sale of Vero Electric remains the top issue in the minds of voters as they prepare to cast ballots in the Nov. 5 municipal election.  “Vero Beach electric sale still top issue in city election,” the Stuart-based newspaper’s headline read.

Reporter Ed Bierschenk’s “analysis” may play well at Scripps headquarters, where the publisher is the husband of a key FPL executive.  The Press Journal’s spin on the election must also be going over well at FPL’s corporate office in Juno Beach, but it is not reflective of reality in Vero Beach.

In fact, no more than one-third of likely voters believe a change in the City Council could threaten the sale of Vero Electric.  With all the hoopla over the contract signing last March, some voters actually think FPL already owns the city’s electric system.  Essentially, in the minds of many voters, the sale of Vero Electric is a done-deal.

Oblivious to waning voter interest in the electric issue, Press Journal columnist Russ Lemmon wrote yesterday, “Carroll, despite her share of missteps while in office, ‘owns’ the issue (electric rates) that resonates with voters not only on the mainland but also on the barrier island.”

While claiming Carroll “owns” the issue, the Press Journal’s most prolific pundit might also have addressed the issue of who owns Tracy Carroll.  Fully 99 percent of the funding for a electioneering communications organization supporting Carroll is coming from FPL.  Recently, Carroll was the only one of five candidates to sign a pledge to serve the interests of FPL over and above those of the residents of Vero Beach.  Carroll would not, however, put her name on a proclamation in recognition of National Code Enforcement Month. Again, Lemmon might have spent at least a sentence or two exploring the question of who owns Tracy Carroll.

Lemmon went on to question the wisdom of candidate Amelia Graves’s use of signs reading “Stop Short-Term Rentals.”  The Press-Journal’s most read columnist seems to think allowing daily and weekly rentals is an issue of little importance to mainland voters.  He must not realize only 20 percent of Vero Beach residents believe the City should drop its long-standing ban on transient rentals in areas zoned residential.

Lemmon also ignored the question of how barrier island residents feel about the prospect of unlimited daily and weekly rentals in their neighborhoods, a change Carroll supports so strongly she is willing to go to court over it.  Perhaps Lemmon is not aware that in a typical off-year municipal election a disproportionate share of the votes cast will come from the barrier island precinct.

Despite Press Journal’s effort to turn the Nov. 5 City Council election into yet another referendum on the sale of Vero Electric, the majority of voters have moved on to something else – the future.  The vast majority disagree with recently proposed cuts in City services, proposals which initially had Carroll’s support. Further, the nearly unanimous desire for civility surely does not bode well for the FPL-sponsored candidate, Tracy Carroll.

While Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers and FPL may want to make this election about the electric sale, voters do not seem to be buying the spin.  What the public really cares about are quality of life issues and the health of the Lagoon.  And while Scripps claims “Shaping-Our-Future” stories to be one of its latest fixations, the reality seems to be that the Stuart-based publishing company is equally, if not more interested in helping to shape FPL’s future.