COMMENTARY

MILT THOMAS

The Roman Emperor Nero would have fit right in today as a member of the County Commission, which seems to enjoy fiddling around with political issues rather than addressing the issues of importance to Indian River County citizens.

For instance, Charlie Wilson played his usual walk-on screen role – let’s see, yesterday morning he performed his impact fee lines on Channel 27 after his early morning comedy schtick on WTTB and last night he performed his FPL lines on Channel 13. Ah, Tuesdays, his favorite day of the week…..

Of course, his longtime campaign against impact fees happens to coincide with his longtime desire to make money from them. The issue is certainly one of local importance where it pertains to the school board, but for Charlie, it seems there’s always a pot of gold at the end of his issues.

Then there is the much-maligned Seven50 issue, which some would have you believe is tantamount to a Russian invasion of Ukraine. The primary difference, of course, is that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is real. For those who might not know, or care, Seven50 is an effort to plan for what could happen over the next fifty years to southeast Florida with regard to water availability, roads and transportation, pollution, population, etc.  In some minds, it is a federal takeover of local home rule to install a United Nations super-government telling us how to live our lives. To others, it is a logical way to plan for the future.

At issue is an effort by Commissioner Solari to force the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council into changing the name from “Seven50” to “Four50,” in recognition of the three Treasure Coast counties pulling out of this planning effort. But wait a minute, just because the elected county officials want this (not all of them actually), doesn’t mean the voters they represent also want it.

At yesterday’s meeting, Sebastian City Councilman, Richard Gilmour, representing his community, the largest city in Indian River County by the way, said their voters favor remaining in Seven50 because they see the value of participating in regional planning to protect their own interests. He reiterated a point made frequently at City Council meetings, that Sebastian was under no obligation to adopt any decisions made by the Seven50 planning group. The anti-Seven50 protesters who have attended those meetings insisted that by participating at all, they were under contractual obligation to adopt and execute the feared HUD invasion of their city.

The City Council called that nonsense, so the anti-Seven50 crusaders, also known as the American Citizens for Property Rights, made a public records request of all correspondence and agreements between Sebastian and the Seven50 organizers. To the AC4PR’s credit, they admitted in this County Commission meeting that they could find nothing in the records to substantiate their dire warnings. Thank you, Councilman Gilmour, the diminutive David in this scenario.

Then the subject of AllAboard Florida came up. It is clear that the public is fairly united in its opposition to the plan allowing scores of mostly empty high speed trains flying through Indian River County to Miami so the riders can be mugged on arrival.

The problem is that the County Commission previously approved by a 5-0 vote, sending a letter of approval of its unanimous support for the project. Faced with almost total opposition, the Commission now had to backtrack. Okay, the reason for both actions was articulated by Commissioner Joe Flescher, saying this wasn’t a change of opinion on the part of Commissioners, but a change in information. That means based on the information originally presented about AllAboard Florida, they approved it. But now since much of that was mis-information, they are withdrawing their approval.

They should be commended for taking that position. My only question is, why wouldn’t that position also apply to the FPL deal to purchase Vero Electric? Obviously, the original deal approved by voter referendum, is dead, yet supporters of the deal fail to acknowledge the death and pretend everything is full speed ahead, except for the evil FMPA.

Even an objective third party source, the distinguished Moody’s Investor Service, points out the main problem is Vero Beach’s contingent obligation to bondholders (While maintaining an A2 rating on the FMPA’s bonds, Moody’s April 11 report underscored the rating agency’s assumption that any sale of Vero Electric “would include full enforcement of the existing contracts that govern the project, including full protection for the St. Lucie Project bondholder rights.)

InsideVero has reported this all along, yet those in favor of a sale at any cost ignore the facts and instead blame the FMPA for living up its obligations (and Vero’s) as described by Moody’s. This is not about pro-sale or anti-sale factions, it is about legal, contractual obligations. InsideVero even published the Moody’s opinion on our website early yesterday morning before the County Commission meeting. Readers commented on that even as the meeting was in progress, yet no mention of it was made at the meeting.

In fact, Commissioner Zorc suggested putting together a group of maybe 100 protesters to attend the May FMPA board meeting to show our unhappiness with them. Yessir, that’ll show them – it will show them our ignorance of the facts of this deal.

Not only that, even if we were to come up with a magic bullet to solve all these attendant issues, the other 19 municipal members of the FMPA still have to approve our exit. Isn’t it enough that our primary anti-FMPA voice, Councilwoman Pilar Turner, happens to represent us at the very same FMPA? By adding a hundred or so protesters to her leadership will do nothing to endear us to the 19 other FMPA members who must approve our exit.

As a suggestion to help motivate the Vero protesters, should they actually go to the FMPA meeting, why not have live music to get them all worked up? I hear Nero and his fiddle are getting bored at our County Commission meetings so he might be available.