VERO BEACH — Incumbent Tracy Carroll has been returned to office with 29 percent of the vote and challenger Dick Winger has been elevated to the Vero Beach City Council, to take office Monday with nearly 27 percent of the vote.
Councilman Brian Heady came in a close third with nearly 25 percent of the vote, but not enough to retain his seat on the council. Ken Daige placed last with nearly 19 percent of the vote.
Turnout was high in the Vero Beach race, with 3,149 ballots being cast, compared to 2,275 in a similar municipal election in 2009. That’s a nearly 40 percent increase in voter participation, but still only about 30 percent of the registered voters went to the polls.
Carroll, after attending her daughter’s concert at St. Edward’s Upper School, celebrated with some of her volunteers and with the small team of people who worked through Citizens for a Brighter Future to push for a “yes” vote on the referendum.
She said she was very happy to be the top vote getter two years in a row, that voters had the confidence to return her to office.
The group met at a local watering hole at Royal Palm Pointe to toast their victory but one person was missing. Heady was in Haiti on election night, supervising a humanitarian project as part of his job with the Making Goodness Foundation.
Winger hosted a small, private party at home. Quite confident going into the election, Winger said he felt he built a rapport with voters all over the city by going door to door and listening to their concerns.
Though he built from his base of support in the Castaway Cove area where he lives, Winger said his message of getting a “fair price” for the electric utility really resonated with the mainland residents and downtown business owners and merchants.
Daige, after facing his third loss in as many years, could not be reached for comment Tuesday evening.
The referendum granting the Vero Beach City Council the permission to lease the land under the power plant passed by an overwhelming majority of nearly 66 percent of the vote.
At a recent town hall meeting, Florida Power and Light officials said the lease would be for roughly five years and that FPL would pay the City of Vero Beach $1 million per year to lease the land until the power plant and substation could be moved, hopefully by 2017.
