Editor’s Note: InsideVero editor Mark Schumann met with Vero Beach Mayor Richard Winger recently for a lengthy interview covering a wide range of subjects, including the stalled power sale, the formation of a utility authority, the City’s efforts to address the lagoon crisis, intergovernmental relations, funding and preserving city services and the coming election.

The following is an excerpt of that interview, which can be viewed in its entirety at InsideVero.com on the “Newsmaker Interviews” page.

 Q. You have said the Lagoon is the most important issue facing the city.

Somebody came to me the other day and said, “The City of Vero Beach can’t fix the lagoon by itself.”

I was with Senator Nelson recently, and he is helping us, and certainly our state senators have helped us. It takes all levels of government, but somebody has to be willing to be the leader, and people have to be willing to go ahead.

I will tell you the sea grass of this house right here is alive, and I think it’s alive in large part do to the commitment of a place called Vero Beach.   You get to the area between Sebastian and off Indian River Shores and the Lagoon is in much worse shape there than it is here.

We can’t fix the entire Lagoon, and, indeed, there are three problems in the Lagoon. What’s wrong in Mosquito (in Brevard County) is very different than what’s wrong here. What’s wrong here is very different from the outflow down in Stuart.

We can do what we can do, and we can show leadership. I think we’ve been willing to do that, and we will continue to be willing to do that.   We can’t fix it by ourselves, but it can’t be fixed without us.

 Q. In the context of the budgeting process, which is just concluding, you’ve said you didn’t win on every point. What would you revisit next year?

Well, there was one we did revisit, and that was resuming normal lifeguard service at Humiston Park, which is in the top ten family beaches in the United States in one publication at least. There were three of us that voted for that, two that voted against. It made no sense to me to start lifeguards and hour later where the children are and cut it off two hours earlier just because that was something we did in the height of the economic panic. So, we did fix that.

 Q. In addition to possibly forming a utility authority, and a storm water authority, what else do you see the Council addressing in the coming year?

I’ve addressed the baffle boxes. I think you have to accomplish them. The other one is the streets. This year we are only putting $200,000 into streets. We know it takes $600,000 a year to keep the streets up, so this year we are living on borrowed time.

I think you have to be concerned with capital improvements into the future, namely the streets. A lot of our buildings are fundamentally very old. As an example, Riverhouse, but the one that worries me the most is Leisure Square, which is important. It is important to provide that kind of service to the people that use it, that need it, form whom it’s economically viable for. So, I think the city has capital improvement needs.

Another one that we would like to address is the sale of the old Dodgertown golf course. First of all, we owe money on it and it’s eating up $600,000 of cash every year in the form of having to make a debt payment on something we can’t possibly use. We need to get out from underneath that. We’ve asked the county to help us. In fact, we’ve asked the county to help us on a number of items. They have indicated that they might, but they want this and they want that, which is kind of the story.

We’ve asked them for help on the Lagoon. We want to use their code enforcement officer, who is a specialist in fertilizer and runoff. Even though we are already paying for it, because we’re county taxpayers, it’s been many months and we can’t get a response. We’ve even offered to pay additional money.

Q. To have that person work within the city?

Yes, to have that person work within the city.   What’s the good of having regulations you can’t enforce.

Q. So, the county’s code enforcement officer working on the fertilizer ordinance does not work within the city?

Yes. It’s like the beach sand. The county takes the money from the tourist tax, which 57 percent comes from the city, and all the sand goes north of the city at this point in time and has for several years. So there are issues there, and we are county taxpayers and we should get the same treatment.

When they initially thought about that job, the job was going to be for Sebastian, Fellsmere, Vero Beach and the unincorporated county. But then they changed it so that it’s only unincorporated county. One wonders how that works, because our taxes are paying for it, but there you go.

Q. You mentioned wanting the county’s help getting out from underneath the Dodgertown property.   Do you mean financial help?

All we need is for them to remove some deed restrictions so we can do what we need to do.

Q. And they haven’t yet agreed?

It becomes a little bit like what going on in the Ukraine. It’s a case where the other side keeps throwing up flack and wanting this and wanting that, which they’re not entitled to, in my opinion. I don’t think there entitled.

Q. It seems to me there is this uncooperativeness between the city and the county. Never mind the Public Service Commission complaint that the county filed. These other issues where there is a lack of cooperation, what is that about?

It comes down to money. Vero Beach is the center of this place. It makes Indian River County what it is. There are three wonderful things here – The Atlantic Ocean, the Indian River Lagoon and the City of Vero Beach. And I’m not minimizing Sebastian or Fellsmere, who I think are both doing a wonderful job.

But it comes down to money. This is a very wealthy community. This is a very informed community. We have a $120 million net value invested in our electric utility, which is worth $200 million. We have a very advanced water and sewer department. We have an airport. We have a marina.

It’s the push me, pull you. You see that in Washington and you see it in Tallahassee. That’s the fundamental problem. I would like to see a lot of that go away, because we are county taxpayers, and the county seat is in Vero Beach. That’s one of the reasons I would like to see an electric utility authority. It gets rid of a point of contention. We don’t need points of contention.

People have said to me, “Look, your services are used 60 percent to 80 percent by county people, you know, our parks, Humiston Park, Jaycee Park, Riverside Park, Conn Beach, you name it, are used a majority by county people. And I say, great, have them come. Our stores, our fine restaurants, our hotels, all the things we have are used by county people. And I say, great. We’re glad to have their business. We’re open for business here.

We changed our drinking hours. We’re allowing drinks to be served in front of the good hotels on the beach. It’s good for business.

And the reality is Vero Beach couldn’t afford to be the wonderful place it is without this money coming in. Look at it this way. Could we really afford the Museum without our neighbors to the north in Indian River Shores, and the answer is “no” we couldn’t.

Q. Or the Theatre?

Right. I think we all need to grow up and understand our place in the world. And this is a tight knit community that has people from the mainland and the beach who feel exactly the same, and we want our town and we want it to be special, and we want the best in police protection and by golly we’re going to have them.