COMMENTARY

“A more rational approach, which Wilson did not propose, would be to create district representation on the City Council. Based on population distribution, there would probably be two districts on the barrier island and three on the mainland.”

MARK SCHUMANN

It wouldn’t be a meeting of the Vero Beach City Council without an appearance by Charlie Wilson. Today, Wilson served up the ironic quote of the week. Given the source, what he had to say may prove to be the most incongruous statements of the year. “I don’t know when telling the truth became something bad, and deceiving the public became something good,” Wilson said.

Wilson also offered four reasons why voter turnout continues to decline. None of Wilson’s “insights” included consideration of the possibility the public is turned off by political operatives like himself, who specialize in attack campaigns.

The head of the new Vero Beach Chamber went on to defend the last-minute attack mailers sent out by a Tampa-based political action committee that appears to have received indirect contribution from Florida Power & Light.

Wilson also offered a novel idea for re-structuring Vero Beach’s municipal election. Every fall, either two or three City Council seats are up for election. Wilson would limit voters to just one vote in each election cycle.  For example, next fall three seats are to be filled.  Under the City’s current election rules, voters will be free next November to vote for at least three candidates, given there are three seats to be filled. Wilson’s approach would limit each voter to one selection, not three.

A more rational approach, which Wilson did not propose, would be to create district representation on the City Council.  Based on population distribution, there would probably be two districts on the barrier island and three on the mainland.

Voters within each district would elect their representative on the City Council. Currently, just one member of the City Council, Harry Howle, is a mainlander.  On the previous Council, Amelia Graves was the only member who lived on the mainland.

Another approach to creating wider representation would be a system similar to the one used to elect County Commissioners and members of the School Board. Within the county, there are five districts. In order to run to represent a district, a candidate must, supposedly, live there. All candidates, however, are selected on a countywide vote. In next fall’s election, for example, south county voters will be free to weigh in on which one of two candidates (Susan Adams or Jim Hill) will represent the north county.

Under a system such as this, just imagine the challenge of trying to figure out where Wilson might be living at any given time.