Week after week after week we never run out of political baloney.

 – Charlie Wilson

COMMENTARY

MARK SCHUMANN

In a letter to the editor published Sunday on TCPalm.com, civic activist Charlie Wilson wrote, “The pro-sale utilities authority was abolished.”  For starters, the City of Vero Beach does not have utility authority, per say, but a Utility Commission.  Wilson should know this and he should understand the difference between a commission and an authority.

Further, the City of Vero Beach’s Utility Commission has not been abolished, as Wilson claimed.  At the Dec. 3 City Council meeting, Vice Mayor Jay Kramer proposed that appointments to the Commission be made in the same way the Finance Commission is named, with each Council member having one appointment.  Current Utility Commission Chairman Scott Stradley, a strong proponent of the sale of the electric system, spoke in favor of Kramer’s proposal.  Stradley’s support for a change in the way Utility Commission is appointed is a fact Wilson conveniently ignored when he wrote, “…losers (referring to the recent election) were dealt with in a series of 3-2 votes along “electric lines.”

Wilson continues to describe Mayor Richard Winger and Councilwoman Amelia Graves as opposed to the sale of the electric system, despite their many statements to the contrary.  Essentially, Wilson is either suggesting Winger and Graves do not know what they believe, or that they are being dishonest.  Many would argue that if Wilson expects his word to be taken over that of Winger and Graves, he is asking the impossible.

In making his proposal, Kramer was, in fact, critical of the way Turner, Fletcher and former Councilwoman Tracy Carroll, in January of 2012, summarily removed from the Utility Commission members who were not seen as fully supportive of the sale of Vero Electric.  Because he was on the Council for just one month, Wilson may not realize the city has other utilities besides the electric system with which to be concerned.  And he clearly doesn’t seem to value dissenting voices, other than, perhaps, his own.

Changing the way Utility Commission members are appointed will require an amendment to the City Code.  City Attorney Wayne Coment was asked to draft a Code amendment to be considered in January. Certainly it is not true, as Wilson wrote, that the “utilities authority was abolished.”

Wilson’s letter also asserted that “valuable land was offered to special interests.”  By “special interests,” Wilson must be referring to the public, for, in truth, the Council tentatively agreed to give the public a voice in deciding whether to protect more of the city’s park lands from sale or lease without voter approval. (See related story)

After hearing from citizens concerned about protecting the off-leash dog exercise area near Bob Summers Field from sale or lease, the Council approved as an interim measure changing the zoning of the land from Marina to Park.

Former Councilman Ken Daige asked the Council to go several steps further and consider drafting a Charter amendment that would give voters a say in including Crestlawn Cemetery, Jacoby Park, Piece of Pie Park and nearly a dozen additional parks as public lands to be protected from sale or lease by a simple majority of the City Council.

At the request of the Council, Daige is to work with Graves to develop a list of proposed parks to be included in a Charter amendment the Council hopes to consider in January.  If approved by the Council, a Charter revision setting aside additional parks will go before voters next November.

Wilson’s assertion that this transparent, deliberative process amounts to handing over public land to “special interests” is just more “political baloney,” of which the “Professor of Political Baloney” seems to have an inexhaustible supply. Occasionally, Wilson serves up his “baloney,” or “propaganda,” or “misinformation” in a letter to the editor, as he did this week. For those who crave misinformation more regularly, local radio personality Bob Soos offers a 12-minute serving of baloney each Tuesday morning on WTTB.

Though Soos seems to be attempting to offer a serious, responsible, credible “news magazine,” when he stirs Wilson’s misinformation, propaganda and perpetual discontent into the mix the whole thing comes off sounding like the radio equivalent of a cartoon.

Again this week, at Soos’ invitation, Wilson will doubtless be serving up political baloney upon which WTTB’s listeners can feast.  As is his custom, Wilson will likely then scurry off  to perform before the cameras at the regular Tuesday government meetings, where local leaders will be waiting eagerly for the “Professor of Political Baloney’s” invaluable advice.