COMMENTARY

“As the saying goes, everyone has a right to their own opinion, but not to their own set of facts. It is time for the Indian River Shores Town Council, south barrier island utility activists and their favorite “newspaper” to ground their arguments in reality.”

MARK SCHUMANN

In a Nov. 13 “News Analysis” story drenched in her signature sarcasm, Vero Beach 32963 reporter Lisa Zahner advised the island weekly’s readers Jay Kramer was the “odds-on favorite” to become the next mayor of Vero Beach.

At its organizational meeting yesterday, the 2014-15 Vero Beach City Council re-elected Richard Winger to serve as mayor and Kramer as vice mayor. Both men allowed for the possibility that the Council might hold a reorganization meeting midyear.

What is predictable is that Kramer, and Winger, along with Amelia Graves and newly elected councilman, Randy Old, will work well together moving the City forward on a number of priorities, including addressing the Lagoon crisis, reforming City pensions, shoring up the City’s finances, planning for much-needed infrastructure improvements and lowering electric rates. Pilar Turner’s choice will be whether to join her follow council members in a collaborative effort.

Zahner’s wrong prediction, splashed across the top of 32963’s “Insight Editorial” page, is reminiscent of the classic 1948 blunder by the Chicago Tribune. The newspaper’s editors, who endorsed President Harry Truman’s opponent, Thomas Dewey, let wishful thinking get the best of them when they went to press with a front page headline announcing Truman’s defeat. Late election results proved them wrong.

Yesterday’s Council’s deliberations lacked the divisiveness, snide remarks and harsh side comments so common in the days when Vero Beach’s governing body was controlled by candidates endorsed by the island weekly.  If yesterday’s meeting portends a return to civility, then covering Vero Beach City Hall may become a lot less interesting for Zahner and her editors.

Zahner continues to struggle to get herself on the right side of the facts when it comes to Vero Beach City government. She and her newspaper, which distributes some two-thirds of its barrier island circulation outside the city limits of Vero Beach, have done a masterful job of convincing Indian River Shores and south barrier island residents they are the victims of “oppression” at the hands of the City.

The facts, though, just do not substantiate this slanted version of true truth. For example, convinced they could get a better deal on water rates from Indian River County, the Shores and south barrier island residents insisted that if they were to remain customers of Vero Beach’s water and sewer utility, they wanted to be charged County rates.  Vero Beach leaders consented, and now the City is bringing in $200,000 more a year from its out-of-city water and sewer customers. Why the windfall? Because the fact is County rates are higher than City rates.

Indian River Shores Mayor Brian Barefoot last week publicly claimed Vero Beach’s electric rates are “oppressive.”  In a column that read as if it had been crafted by a public relations specialist, Barefoot did not bother to explain that Vero Beach’s rates are well within the statewide average.

As the saying goes, everyone has a right to their own opinion, but not to their own set of facts.  It is time for the Indian River Shores Town Council, south barrier island utility activists and their favorite “newspaper” to ground their arguments in reality.