INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — Six candidates vying for two seats on the Board of County Commissioners spent their lunch hour Wednesday in front of the Taxpayers Association of Indian River County to discuss their platforms and debate tax-related issues.
Among those issues debated were the candidates’ support of selling off Vero Beach’s electric utility to Florida Power and Light and pumping sand onto beaches.
The two seats up for grabs on the County Commission are District 3, currently held by out-going Commissioner Gary Wheeler, and District 5, held by Commissioner Bob Solari.
Three candidates are running for Wheeler’s open seat, two Republicans and a No Party Affiliation candidate. The winning Republican will be selected from Bea Gardner and Tim Zorc, who will then face off against Tony Donadio in November.
Two challengers are squaring off against incumbent Solari in the August Primary, including former Vero Beach City Councilman Brian Heady and Nick Thomas.
Commission candidates agreed that they would do all they could to fight for the 20,000 or so Vero Beach electric customers who live outside the city in the event that the Florida Municipal Power Agency were to block the city’s sale to Florida Power and Light.
Solari pointed to his record being on the commission as already being engaged in the fight and added that the county will be conducting a survey of out-of-city ratepayers after the first of the year.
Solari also said he would continue to work to get the customers “out of the yoke of the city’s slavery” and that he would not rest until the county has done its best for them.
Heady reminded the Taxpayers Association that he was on the Vero Beach City Council when he and another councilman got the ball rolling on bringing FPL to the table. He said he has been working with other cities that are members of the FMPA to get them to extricate themselves from the organization, hoping to put pressure on the agency to let Vero out of its contracts.
“I’ll try my best,” was Thomas’s response to what he called a complicated question. He said he hoped that the issue would not serve as a catalyst for in-fighting.
Zorc plans to meet with Gov. Rick Scott to discuss the dissolution of the FMPA because the agency does not serve its customers in a “fair and equitable” way.
He noted that the Vero Beach electric utility has become a deterrent to bringing businesses into the county’s Enterprise Zone. The zone is an area that offers incentives to incoming and expanding businesses.
Donadio said he would support fighting the FMPA because the cost savings of selling the electric utility would help both Piper and the Hospital District, of which Donadio was a member until he announced his candidacy.
Gardner said that the county is in a position to eliminate its 6 percent franchise fee charge assessed to out-of-city customers, which would save taxpayers $3 million. She said the County Commission should explore all its options, including a partial sale of the utility.
As for beach restoration, the candidates’ answers were a bit more diverse.
“It’s not working kids,” Heady said of pumping and dredging sand to place on the beaches. He pointed to the success the City of Vero Beach has had with its PEP reef off Humiston as a potential alternative to pumping and dredging.
Thomas said he would need more information and study of the beach erosion problem and added that alternatives to what the county’s currently been doing should be explored. One such alternative would be to use nature’s own waves to help deposit sand, he said.
Solari told the Taxpayers Association that it is his belief that if the county had done nothing to replace lost sand on the county’s beaches, there quite possibly would be no beaches left.
“I’m in favor of protecting beaches,” he said, adding that at the conclusion of this latest restoration project, the county would be investigating alternative solutions for the future.
Gardner agreed with Solari, noting that the county needs to do all it can to protect what she calls the county’s “biggest asset.”
“We would be lost without our beaches,” she said.
Donadio agreed with Heady that pumping sand onto the beach is a waste of time and money. Instead, he suggested the county find ways to control erosion.
And Zorc, whose uncle, Frank Zorc, worked to pass a referendum in the City of Vero Beach that no tax dollars would be used for beach replenishment, said the county needs to find a way to maintain “friendly” beaches as they attract tourist dollars to the county. He said the county should work with the Sebastian Inlet District to get a big picture view of the beach erosion and craft a plan to mitigate.
Candidates also fielded questions about collective bargaining for public employees, how they would cut taxes, and their opinions on impact fees and potentially expanding the county’s urban service area.
To see how the candidates answered those and other questions during the Taxpayers Association of Indian River County’s forum, watch the related video to the left of this article.
