COMMENTARY

“Solari has fancied himself as the south barrier island’s Moses, leading “his people” from subjection to the promised land of Tea-Party-style limited government as practiced by a county commission increasingly known for its limited ability to work with others.”

MARK SCHUMANN

What transpired at yesterday’s Vero Beach City Council meeting was largely expected, with one exception – a call for annexation of the south barrier island.

Predictably, the Council rejected a proposal by a small group of merchants to charge for parking at Sexton Plaza.

In other expected action, the Council approved a new lease with the U.S. Postal Service that will keep the post office operating downtown. The new agreement is far more favorable to the city, and includes a provision that has the Postal Service accepting responsibility for major maintenance on the building.

The Council’s approval yesterday of increased fines for code violations of the city’s ban on short-term rentals also came as little surprise.

Though it did not immediately take action on his request, the Council positively received Sebastian Mayor Richard Gilmore’s call for Vero Beach to join Indian River Shores, Fellsmere and Sebastian in forming a coalition to represent the interests of Indian River County in the new regional Lagoon Council.

Citing concerns that the new group is not a model form of “representative government,” County Commission Bob Solari last month persuaded his fellow commissioners to refuse to join with Volusia, Brevard, St. Lucie, and Martin Counties in the new Indian River Lagoon Council.

Vero Beach seems set to join its sister cities in leading where the County Commission will not.

It also came as little surprise that the Council showed no interest in following utility activist Glen Heran down yet another rabbit hole. Obsessed with resurrecting the derailed sale of Vero Electric to Florida Power & Light, Heran wants the State Auditor General to again dig into the FMPA’s books. With the exception of Pilar Turner, no one on the Council showed any interest in continuing to fight with the FMPA.

Councilman Randy Old, who represents Vero Beach on the FMPA board of directors, is pushing the agency to hire one of the nation’s leading consulting firms to review its management practices and structure of governance. While the Council majority expressed support for Old’s efforts to persuade the FMPA to rethink its governance and management structure, no one on the Council, with the exception of Turner, seems inclined to drag the FMPA through another politically motivated audit.

What perhaps no one could have expected, though, was the call yesterday by one south beach resident for annexation of the unincorporated area of the south barrier island into the City of Vero Beach.

Home to Glen Heran’s fellow utility activist, Dr. Steven Faherty, the south barrier island has been ground zero for what amounts to an uprising against the City of Vero Beach. With help from County Commission Bob Solari, Heran and Faherty have worked to persuade south beach residents that, as utility customers of Vero Beach, they are disenfranchised subjects who have been treated unfairly for decades.

Solari has fancied himself as the south barrier island’s Moses, leading “his people” from subjection to the promised land of Tea-Party-style limited government as practiced by a county commission increasingly known for its limited ability to work with others.

The second term county commissioner and former Vero Beach city councilman pushed to force Vero Beach to abandon its south barrier island water and sewer customers to the County. Failing that, he successfully fought for the City to charge its south barrier island customers county rates. Now, collectively, those customers are paying more for water and sewer service, all thanks to Solari.

Solari and his fellow limited government extremists on the county commission recently cut garbage collection from two days a week to one. In the interest of taking a stand for “representative government,” the County Commission refused to join in a regional effort to save the Lagoon.

At least for south barrier island residents, perhaps the last straw and the final blow is the county’s abnegation of its right and responsibility to regulate short-term rentals. In the name of “private property rights,” Solari and his fellow commission in 2012 caved to special interests by paving the way for virtually unregulated vacation rentals throughout the unincorporated areas of Indian River County.

Expressing concern over recent crimes attributed to short-term rental, South Beach Property Owners Association president George Lamborn recently wrote a letter to Indian River County Sheriff Dery Loar asking for more patrols in the area. Lamborn wrote, “It is regrettable the State of Florida and the Indian River Board of County Commissioners zoning changes have increased the burden of preserving law, order and quiet enjoyment upon you and your officers in these ever increasing safety compromised residential neighborhoods, many of which are in our South Beach realm.”

With the county no longer able to regulate short-term rentals, south barrier island residents may have no recourse but to become a part of the City of Vero Beach.