VERO BEACH — The will-he-stay-or-will-he-go saga of ousted Vero Beach City Council member Charlie Wilson has taken yet another twist.
Wilson announced Monday he will not appeal the ruling of Circuit Court Judge Paul Kanarek that removed him from office for failing to meet residency requirements and will instead seek the District 2 Indian River County Commission seat held by Joe Flescher.
“At some point you have to realize where you can be the most useful,” Wilson said on Rhett Palmer’s radio show Monday morning – and that place is not Vero Beach. The ousted councilman said that he does not believe any significant change will happen at the city council for the next 10 months, when the voters have the chance to remove incumbents Vice Mayor Sabe Abell and Councilman Tom White.
Wilson also alluded to a political movement within the city that would start after the first of the year dubbed “Operation Clean Sweep” – an effort to bring new blood to the dais.
“People have cried out for change,” Wilson told Palmer on air.
Palmer said that if justice were to prevail, the current council should appoint Ken Daige to Wilson’s empty seat because Daige was the third place finisher in the November election.
Wilson said that the city’s “powers-that-be don’t care a whit” about the will of the people, though he added, “I don’t think they’re evil people.”
He went on to say that Mayor Kevin Sawnick is doing the best he can in a “hostile universe.”
Wilson based much of his decision not to appeal on a letter sent Friday by Vero Beach City Manager Jim Gabbard to Florida Power and Light that the city wanted to open discussions about the possibility of selling all or part of the utility.
In that same letter, Gabbard made clear Vero Beach intended to honor its commitment to the Orlando Utilities Commission, which is set to become the city’s power provider on Jan. 1.
Wilson, in a prepared statement, called the letter “a solid victory for those of us who worked and fought and voted for change.”
However, he was critical of the Gabbard letter on Friday, saying it did not represent the will of the City Council, but the intentions of City staff.
“This letter is not an offer, it’s designed to once again dissuade anyone who might be interested in selling the electric utility,” Wilson said last week.
Another reason Wilson decided against following through with the appeal was due to the cost, he told Palmer.
It is “financially not worth it,” the former councilman said.
Wilson, who won his city council seat based on a platform of getting Vero Beach out of the electric business, said he had accomplished much of what he could do during his one month in office.
“A study offered by FP&L will likely take months to complete,” Wilson said in his announcement sent out late Sunday night. “Any option to sell will therefore be presented to a newly elected council in Nov. 2010 – an elected council with up to four new members who can better represent the ‘will of the people.'”
As for the future, Wilson joins fellow Republicans Dale Simchick and Carolyn Corum, both of Sebastian, and Democrat David Thomas Snell, of Vero Beach.
The seat is currently held by Flescher, a retired police officer. He has yet to declare whether he will seek reelection.
Simchick is a former member of the Sebastian City Council, an employee of the Indian River Sheriff’s Office and is known to be the favorite candidate of the Indian River Neighborhood Association.
Corum is a former Mayor of Sebastian who once ran for School Board. She is an avid environmentalist and currently works as a Realtor for Thorpe-Sotheby’s International Real Estate.
Snell is a longtime member of law enforcement and ran for Indian River County Sheriff in 2004.
District 2 encompasses parts of northern Indian River County including some of Sebastian and the northern barrier island, up to and including the Town of Indian River Shores. It also spans parts of Gifford and the Grand Harbor area along Indian River Boulevard just north of Vero Beach.
Debbie Carson contributed to this report.