COMMENTARY

MARK SCHUMANN

By ordinance, persons appearing before the Vero Beach City Council during general public comment time are to limit their remarks to three minutes. Though the specific, detailed guidelines for general public comment time are published with every Council agenda, gadflies like Brian Heady and Joseph Guffanti are continually allowed to stand before the Council to rant absurdly for as long as they please.

Yesterday, while members of the public and their attorneys who had business before the Council waited patiently and at some expense, Heady and Guffanti between them took nearly 30 minutes to air grievances, level personal attacks and postulate conspiracy theories. One has to wonder what makes these men so special that they are regularly allowed to march before the Council and the cameras to turn the Vero Beach City Council meetings into a clown act.

Perhaps it is worth noting that three of the four persons who took up the most time during public comment this week, Brian Heady, Joseph Guffanti and Laura Moss, have all failed in numerous attempt to be elected to the City Council. It is as if they insist on interjecting themselves into the center of the City’s decision making process, though voters reject their offers of leadership year after year after year.

Finally, Kramer yesterday proposed the Council follow the lead of other local governments, including the Town of Indian River Shores, the City of Sebastian, the City of Fellsmere and the Indian River County Commission, all of which receive general public comment after the business portion of the agendas.  Certainly, if Kramer and his fellow council members are unwilling or unable to enforce the time limits for public comment provided for in the City’s ordinances, the least they can do is to schedule the “entertainment” until after the public’s business has been addressed.