NEWS ANALYSIS
ED TAYLOR
When outlining his goals for the year, Mayor Richard Winger stated that he hoped that the council would be able to receive public input during meetings in a manner that was fair to the public yet in a fashion that would not disrupt the council from their primary function as a governing body. He asked that the presentations be brief, related to a topic that the council was addressing and that the remarks be addressed to the council as a whole rather than to a specific council member. The mayor chose to address the issue at a recent council meeting where two speakers, local gadfly and former councilmember Brian Heady and former council candidate Joseph Guffanti, used 28 minutes of meeting time to address issues not on the agenda thereby depriving the council of meeting time needed to address scheduled business.
Heady, during his prolonged tirade, chose to tell Councilmember Amelia Graves an extended story about his beard, spent close to ten minutes addressing Councilmember Pilar Turner on the budgetary issues regarding All Aboard Florida railroad and attempted to educate the council on a Florida Public Service Commission issue regarding the proposed sale of the Vero Electric System to Florida Power and Light; none of which was on the agenda. He also took an extra few minutes to chastise Mayor Winger over any policy regulating to public comment stating that the mayor “has major problems with public comment because he doesn’t want to hear what the public has to say” and then ordered the mayor to “stop doing what people don’t want you to do”.
During a recent meeting, the mayor did silence Heady’s microphone for a brief period since he had violated all of the ground rules established for public input.
After Heady used up approximately 18 minutes of meeting time, that was unrelated to any item on the agenda, Guffanti used 10 minutes to express his concern over the safety of trespassers who are killed or injured on railroad tracks throughout the State of Florida between the years 2006 and 2012; an item also not on the agenda for the city council meeting.
Heady has a long history of using the public input portion of local governmental meetings to criticize and personally attack members of the elected bodies and consistently violate any established rules involving time limitations for citizen input. In 2001, Heady was convicted of Disrupting a School Board Function, a second degree misdemeanor, in Indian River County when he refused to relinquish the microphone during the public input portion of a school board meeting causing a forced adjournment and a subsequent arrest so that the board could commence with items placed on the agenda.
Although, he was placed on probation after being convicted by a jury, Heady did not comply and was subsequently jailed for 30 days by County Judge Joe Wild for violation of probation.
His 18 minutes of “input” at the most recent meeting of the city council violated all three of the regulations suggested by Mayor Winger in that he aimed his statements at specific members of the council, he spoke at length regarding matters not before the council and exceeded the recommended time limitation by 13 minutes.
“We have wasted 28 minutes on two speakers, neither speaking of topics related to items on the current council agenda,” Mayor Winger said. “We have to decide whether we are going to run by the rules or not by the rules.” The rules specify that a speaker can address the council at will for up to three minutes. If the speaker wishes to be placed on the agenda for public input, a form needs to be filled out specifying the amount of time needed along with the proposed topic. “We need to be able to allow public input but at the same time use the meeting time we have allocated to address items properly placed on the agenda,” Winger said. The mayor said that although the rules have consistently allowed up to 3 minutes of individual public input, he thought up to 5 minutes would be more appropriate.
Councilmember Amelia Graves agreed stating that those who wished to provide public input should prepare the proper form so that the meetings could be planned accordingly. “Perhaps we should publish guidelines,” she said. “There appears to be a very few speakers that tend to dominate the conversation causing others to be too intimidated to speak.”
Councilmember Pilar Turner also said that there are some people that tend to abuse the time limitations and stated that she felt the speakers had the obligation as citizens to address the council in a responsible manner.
Vice-Mayor Jay Kramer added that the council should be addressed as a whole during the public input portion of the meeting rather than what has become a tendency for individual members to be named. Kramer stated that since the mayor is the person who presides over the meeting, he is the person who should make such decisions.
Mayor Winger then stated that the time period for individual public input will be 5 minutes unless additional time is requested in the printed form that will be placed on the agenda. He also stated that he would ask each individual speaker, who has not expressed a time amount in the form, to estimate the length of their presentation prior to addressing the council.
Although public input has long been a part of municipal meetings, that portion has seemed to increase in time once the city began televising the meetings. There is no legal requirement for the city council to provide a portion of the meeting for general public input that is not related to an item on the agenda that requires a public hearing. If the city does choose to allow public input, they are permitted to place reasonable restrictions on such a forum.
Indian River Guardian 
Mr. Heady and Mr. Guffanti have a right to speak to the Council as a whole, but they have NO right to abuse the freedom to stand there and waste precious time. This is not a game of who can get away with abusing the rules of decorum the best and the most. Enough, guys! If you have something to say, say it and sit down like the rest of us choose to do. If you don’t feel you’ve been able to explain your issue, write the Council an email; prepare a letter to the editor of whichever or all local newspapers–print or online. But please stop trivializing the importance of conducting City meetings for the good of all of us. Trust me, no one who speaks to Council is more important than anyone else who makes the effort to attend and make their voice heard.
Please bring back the 3 minute rule. These same gadflies have been doing this for many years. And you are correct other speakers do not come to the podium because they don’t want to identify with them.
It is a city council meeting, and I want to hear city business. People are free to speak to the council on matters that concern the city and that the city can act on.
Enough………………..
I would like to make a recommendation regarding the problem with public comment at government meetings. I am speaking about the same sad people that feel it is their right to use this public comment portion of our government meetings to force their worldview on elected officials and the public.
A solution is for the government to limit the public comment to citizens that are not continuing running for public office. Lobbyist and or employees for a for profit corporations that are not voters in Vero Beach should not be allowed to speak or debate with the elected official at the public portion of our city council. They get the chance to say their pitch all the rest of the time. It seems to me that anyone who does not live in Vero Beach should not be allowed to speak in the open public comment section of these council meetings. The public comment portion of Vero Beach City Council meetings should be for citizens that actually live and have their primary domicile in Vero Beach, not a free forum for spam.