Raise taxes on Vero Beach residents to lower dues at John’s Island Club? Really?
COMMENTARY
“Stump and Stradley should be ashamed for collaborating with the Shores Vice Mayor and other Shores residents in attempting to dupe the people of Vero Beach into spending millions more on lawyers when lowering electric rates should be the priority. And the people of Vero Beach should wonder about Howle, Turner and Wilson. Whose best interests will the serve, the Town of Indian River Shores or the City of Vero Beach?
“Let’s be clear about what the Committee to Change Vero Electric is not. It is not a group concerned about preserving the quality of life in Vero Beach or about addressing the Lagoon crisis. The PAC’s sole objective is to promote the election of three persons to the Vero Beach City Council who will continue to push, despite all odds, for the sale of Vero Electric to FPL. The Committee to Change Vero Electric has no concern for the havoc a Howle-Turner-Wilson troika might wreak on the City of Vero Beach.
“For her part, Turner has said that if Vero Beach cannot offer competitive rates, presumably rates competitive with FPL, she is prepared to raise taxes on Vero Beach residents to lower electric rates. If Turner has her way, Vero Beach property owners will have to pay higher taxes to lower dues for the members of the John’s Island Club.”
MARK SCHUMANN
Indian River Shores Vice Mayor Gerry Weick and another Shores resident, James King, gave the initial money to fund a political action committee that is seeking to influence the outcome of Vero Beach’s municipal election.
The PAC, the Committee to Change Vero Electric, is chaired by Dan Stump, a member of Vero Beach’s Finance Commission. Scott Stradley, Utilities Commission Chairman serves as treasurer of the Shores-funded PAC.
Though Stump, Stradley, King and Weick are all registered Republication, and though all but King are members of the Republican Executive Committee, the group mailed a post card to Democrats urging them not to support Kramer because of his Republican loyalties.
Another post card from the PAC attacking Kramer, Jack Shupe and Randy Old, and endorsing Harry Howle, III, Pilar Turner and Charlie Wilson went out this week out The PAC’s latest message closely echoes misleading remarks Wilson delivered at the Taxpayers Association forum last week. Wilson claims Kramer, Shupe and Old will “kill” the sale of Vero Electric to Florida Power & Light.
The reality is you cannot kill something that is already dead. And the deal is dead because no utility is willing to assume Vero Beach’s place in three Florida Municipal Power Agency power projects.
The people of Vero Beach should sit up and take notice: Weick represents, not Vero Beach, but Indian River Shores, a municipality that is suing Vero Beach and is trying to force the City to abandon its electric customers and utility infrastructure within the Town. That Weick is contributing to a PAC supporting and opposing candidates in Vero Beach’s municipal election is still further evidence of the extent to which outside money may determine the future of Vero Beach.
In another of its exaggerations of the truth, the island weekly reported on Aug. 28 a 30 percent rate disparity between Vero Electric and FPL. According to the bill comparisons available at the time, the rate differential was 20 percent, not 30 percent. Vero Beach’s special counsel, Schef Wright, who is negotiating with the Orlando Utilities Commission and working with City staff to lower rates, has said he believes the Vero Electric can get its rates down to within 10 percent of FPL. In fact, Wright has made significant progress in his talks with OUC officials.
In her Aug. 28 report, island weekly reporter, Lisa Zahner, wrote, “The Town has budgeted $250,000 this year and $250,000 next year to fund its legal team. That might sound like a lot of money for a small municipality, but to put it into perspective, that quarter of a million dollars represents the gap between Vero and FPL rates on just the John’s Island Club electric bill.”
Zahner arrived at her calculation based on a statement made by John’s Island Club general manager, Brian Kroh. Kroh said the Club spends $700,000 a year with Vero Electric. Even if the rate differential were 30 percent, that comes to $210,000, not $250,000. In truth, though, the current rate differential is 20 percent, or $140,000 for the John’s Island Club. Assuming Vero Beach can work with the OUC to lower rates, the differential could come down to $70,000.
Stump and Stradley should be ashamed for collaborating with the Shores Vice Mayor and other Shores residents in attempting to dupe the people of Vero Beach into spending millions more on lawyers when lowering electric rates should be the priority. And the people of Vero Beach should wonder about Howle, Turner and Wilson. Whose best interests will the serve, the Town of Indian River Shores or the City of Vero Beach?
Let’s be clear about what the Committee to Change Vero Electric is not. It is not a group concerned about preserving the quality of life in Vero Beach or about addressing the Lagoon crisis. The PAC’s sole objective is to promote the election of three persons to the Vero Beach City Council who will continue to push, despite all odds, for the sale of Vero Electric to FPL. The Committee to Change Vero Electric has no concern for the havoc a Howle-Turner-Wilson troika might wreak on the City of Vero Beach.
For her part, Turner has said that if Vero Beach cannot offer competitive rates, presumably rates competitive with FPL, she is prepared to raise taxes on Vero Beach residents to lower electric rates. If Turner has her way, Vero Beach property owners will have to pay higher taxes to lower dues for the members of the John’s Island Club.
See also: One cannot serve two masters
Indian River Guardian 
God willing, we won’t be seeing much of Stradley, Stump, Howle, Turner and Wilson after election day. I trust the Shores will deal with their own villians.
There appear to be tyrants closer to home than we’d like to think. No need to cross oceans to find them. For all who wish for a boost in the morality of our nation, how about starting locally and letting it trickle UP? Dirty tricks apparently did not go away when this country banished a president. Dirty tricks of any kind do not speak well for Land of the Free–Home of the Brave.
Just think, we are in a “Civil War”! North against South over Dollars spent on the consumption of Watts! Is it 30%, 15% difference? anyway no one will get killed or maimed; hopefully not even a shot will be fired! The winners will be the attorneys defending and suing both sides! At a time when the deal is not even on the table, people running for office are so oblivious, not realizing any solution at this time is bleak and is as impossible as stopping the future train to Orlando! Jay does make sense and has from the first day he was elected; I trust Heady more than anyone else and hope he gets in as well.I know he has baggage, but also a good heart and scruples! I can’t vote in the City election, but I can in the Shores election, I do support Jerry Weick and can say that I am as frustrated as he is. So friends in the South of IRS, this will all be over soon just be patient.
I am afraid Mr Weick has started a fight that has caused many wounds that will not go away anytime soon. His collusion with Stump and Stradley in the the “doctored” picture fiasco shows him to be nothing more than a person without class. He is nothing more than a backroom politician who tried to hide in the shadows ,but was exposed . He has hurt the Republican Party, but he has also hurt the governor along the way. Most of all he has damaged his image which will have even a longer effect. Things can never be the same between Indian River Shores and Vero.