VERO BEACH — As Tuesday morning’s special call meeting proceeds in giving the public a re-do of two closed-door meetings about potential utility sales, Vero Beach City Councilman Brian Heady left the dais in protest.
After a complaint by former Mayor Warren Winchester to State Attorney Bruce Colton’s office because more than one member of the Vero Beach City Council attended a meeting that was not open to the public, Acting City Attorney Wayne Coment advised the council have a “cure” meeting in the Sunshine to avoid any potential allegations that Mayor Jay Kramer, Vice Mayor Pilar Turner and Councilwoman Tracy Carroll violated Florida’s Government in the Sunshine Act.
Heady wanted the meeting characterized as simply a special call and the word “cure” be removed. Coment was reluctantly amenable to that, but a motion made by Heady failed. Carroll was adamant that the “cure” part of the meeting be on the record.
A meeting between Vero Beach Airport staff, Gerry Hartman of GAI Consultants and Ryan Fair of Florida Power and Light’s power origination division reviewed the subject matter of two meetings held on June 14. One meeting discussed Vero Beach Electric equipment and leaseholds at the airport and the other discussed Vero Beach water and sewer equipment, wells and facilities at the airport.
When contacted, Heady said he was watching the meeting from Mayor Jay Kramer’s office on the television, but that he “would not participate in a cure meeting” because he didn’t feel that the council members had done anything wrong.
Coment had told the council members prior to the meetings that it would not be a problem for more than one of them to attend as observers. But there had been a similar case in another municipality where it was ruled that the type of situation Vero Beach was facing should have been in the public.
“I told the State Attorney’s Office that if you want to blame somebody, blame me,” Coment said. “I was not up to date on that most recent case law and if there was a violation, it was not intentional.”
Several members of the public spoke at the meeting, including former Vero Beach Councilman Ken Daige and his wife, Deborah, about the importance of transparency in government.
Vero Beach Finance Commission member Peter Gorry, who said he has a background in corporate mergers and acquisitions, urged the council to utilize the staff and consultants to have such meetings and to maintain their role as policymakers, but not to get into the nitty-gritty of every step of the negotiations.
Deborah Daige also encouraged the council to stay out of future meetings such as happened on June 14, but for a different reason. Daige said that council members’ presence might make staff less objective because the council members have declared strong support for a sale of the electric utility and for consolidation of the water-sewer utilities.
“The council is on the defensive,” she said. “And the staff is under pressure to prove that this is a good deal for us.”
What the staff and consultants’ job should be, according to Daige, is finding out whether or not both sales are a good deal for Vero Beach taxpayers.
County resident Bea Gardner criticized Heady for walking out of the meeting and not participating. She said he and all the members of the council have a responsibility to do “the city’s business.”
Heady re-entered the meeting more than two hours into the meeting, after the “cure” meeting portion was concluded. The meeting continues with a discussion of the Sunshine Act and potential restrictions on council members from meeting individually with representatives from FPL or Indian River County.