VERO BEACH — Former Mayor Warren Winchester is the latest candidate to qualify to run for Vero Beach City Council.
Winchester, a Vero Isles resident who is retired from the United States Navy, filed paperwork and took the candidates’ oath on Thursday afternoon.
The emergence of Winchester as the sixth candidate running for two seats in November came as quite a surprise as just days ago the 81-year-old had disclosed to members of the media that he had decided not to run, to “throw in the towel,” he said, due to ongoing treatment for cancer.
If elected, this would be Winchester’s third stint on the city council. He served for two years in the 1980s and for two years in the 1990s. Up until recently, Winchester held a seat on the city’s Finance Commission.
Winchester has been a stalwart opponent of the sale of the Vero Beach electric utility to Florida Power and Light, saying that it’s a bad deal for city residents. He has chastised the current council for their handling of the deal.
Vice Mayor Tracy Carroll also qualified to run last Friday. Carroll was first elected in 2010 to fill a one-year vacancy created after the ouster of Charlie Wilson. She was part of a slate of four candidates ushered in as “Operation Clean Sweep,” a grassroots campaign designed to unseat the recalcitrant council members who were blocking efforts to sell the electric utility.
Carroll was the top vote-getter in 2010 and also in 2011 when she ran for a two-year term. She has remained focused on completing the sale to FPL and also to making Vero more friendly to businesses.
In the past six months, however, Carroll’s time in office has been plagued with controversy.
She was at the center of a flap over the treatment of a Humanist group seeking a proclamation from the city. Then she became the target of a failed recall effort, while simultaneously being at odds with city staffers over the issue of short-term rentals, specifically her own Central Beach home being rented out to vacationers on a weekly basis.
Carroll and her husband, John, prevailed in their case, but the city still struggles with whether or not it can restrict such rentals – a matter which will now be taken up in circuit court.
Carroll and Councilman Dick Winger are both asking to be returned to their seats for another two years.
Challenging the incumbents are former Councilman Brian Heady, Winchester and newcomers to the political scene, Joseph Guffanti and Amelia Graves.
Qualifying closes at 5 p.m. Friday for the Nov. 5 election.
