VERO BEACH — City Manager Jim Gabbard and Councilman Brian Heady on Tuesday will pick up where they left off after the Feb. 16 exchange at the Indian River Board of County Commissioners meeting, with Heady expected to ask for resignations and Gabbard claiming Heady violated the city charter.
The Vero Beach City Council has normal business on the agenda today — the second reading of an ordinance designed to codify council election requirements to prevent a repeat of what happened with former Councilman Charlie Wilson, a report about the electric system, changes to the fire department pension plan investment strategy — but the most contentious items will be at the end when Heady and Gabbard are expected to revisit a series of verbal and written jabs over mutual accusations of being less than honest.
For the past two months, Heady has addressed commissioners on the third Tuesday of the month at their morning meeting when Vero meets at night, updating the county on electric issues and fielding questions as a self-appointed liaison to the county board.
In January, Heady was scolded by Councilman Tom White for his appearance at the county and in February, both former Mayor Warren Winchester and Gabbard followed Heady at the podium, refuting the veracity of his statements.
Winchester had planned to speak, but Gabbard, having been pulled out of a meeting at City Hall to witness Heady’s comments, drove over to the County Administration building to add his input, saying he was “stunned” at Heady’s accusations and that he was confused by his “strange” behavior.
Heady did not request more time to rebut Gabbard’s statements during that meeting, but fired off a letter upon his return to City Hall, asking Gabbard to detail exactly which statements he made before the county were incorrect.
Gabbard, in a series of email responses, refused to do so, saying that Heady’s demand of him to explain his comments was an unauthorized order from an individual council member, which is not permitted under the Charter of the City of Vero Beach. Gabbard concluded by saying he would speak on the matter at the next meeting on March 2.
Prior to this exchange, Heady had stated publicly that he would investigate procedures for and seek the resignation of both Gabbard and City Attorney Charlie Vitunac, who to this point has stayed out of the public fray.
Councilman Tom White said he would not allow Heady to add the item to the Feb. 16 agenda and, since the addition of an item required the unanimous consent of council, the request for the resignations was postponed until today.
Heady had said he wanted to find out “what it would cost the city” if it terminated Gabbard and Vitunac. Since Heady questioned this, VeroNews.com has obtained paperwork, confirmed by City Clerk Tammy Vock, that neither Gabbard nor Vitunac have what is referred to as “property rights,” meaning a right to receive severance pay or benefits beyond their term of employment.
Though it’s common for top city officials to have agreements in place providing what some call a “golden parachute” in the event of their dismissal, no such documents exist for Gabbard and Vitunac. In the absence of an employment contract, Gabbard and Vitunac work at the pleasure of the city council.
“I probably wouldn’t be doing any of this if they had been 100 percent honest and forthcoming when I started asking questions,” Heady said. “The reason why I’m pushing to this extent is the continued obstruction of me getting to the facts.”
The feud started with Heady’s repeated demands to see the original Orlando Utilities Contract that was in the room with council members on April 7, 2008, which was council members’ only brief opportunity to review the contract prior to voting to approve it on April 15, 2008.
“At some point, depending on what is said, the City Manager or City Attorney might admit to something consisting of misfeasance, malfeasance or nonfesance and if there is a serious breach and they acknowledge a serious break, I’m not sure I would have any other choice than to ask for their resignations,” Heady said.
“It could amount to acts of commission that were illegal acts, acts of omission where they clearly should have done something and they didn’t or, what they did was certainly a legal thing but what they did was so badly performed that it was a harm to city residents.”
In regard to the accusation that he violated the city charter, Heady said he does not understand how asking the city manager to explain an accusation that he conveyed inaccurate information to the county an unfair or unauthorized demand.
Also on the agenda is a proposal by Councilman Ken Daige to eliminate the city’s current 10 percent utility tax and to replace it with a 6 percent franchise fee, as the county charges county customers. This would make city electric customers’ bills equal to county customers. Indian River Shores customers do not pay a franchise fee.
Consideration of an offer by former City Manager John Little and former Mayor David Gregg to donate their time to negotiate a deal to sell the Vero Beach power utility to Florida Power and Light is also under Councilman Heady’s matters.
At the last meeting, Little and Gregg asked for the courtesy of an “up or down vote” on their offer. Both trained engineers with corporate backgrounds who negotiated the original, failed sale of the utility in 1976 for $42.6 million, Little and Gregg said they are uniquely qualified to provide this free service to the city.
The future and status of red light cameras in the City of Vero Beach might also come up, as the legality of the use of the cameras has come into question by recent court decisions. County Commissioners Gary Wheeler and Joe Flescher have also openly opposed the use of the cameras and the placement of the cameras on the county’s traffic control system.
The Vero Beach City Council meets at 9:30 a.m. in council chambers at City Hall and the meeting is televised live on Channel 13.