INDIAN RIVER SHORES — A divided Town Council voted 3-2 Thursday to keep the Town’s electric lawsuit against the City of Vero Beach in abeyance until May 1.
The extra two and one-half months is intended to give the Vero Beach City Council the opportunity to come back with specific, long-term rate-reductions effective on a date certain.
The extension would also give Vero the chance to reduce its 6 percent transfer into its general fund, as a reduction in the nearly $6 million annual transfer would be seen as a sign that Vero was acting in good faith.
Councilmen Dick Haverland and Michael Ochsner opposed delaying the court proceedings, which have already dragged on nine months since the Town agreed to file suit last summer.
Mayor Brian Barefoot handed the gavel over to Vice Mayor Jerry Weick so Barefoot could make the motion.
Barefoot said that if the Town declared an impasse and activated its lawsuit on March 2 as scheduled, Vero would no longer have the motivation to follow through with pending rate-reduction efforts. The Mayor reminded his colleagues that Vero and the Shores are neighbors, and that all of Vero’s nearly 34,000 ratepayers would benefit from rate reductions put in place due to pressure from the lawsuit.
Indian River County, as a party to the state-mandated conflict-resolution process but not to the lawsuit itself, would need to decide whether or not to participate in the protracted mediation proceedings, or to take some other action. The Board of County Commissioners is not scheduled to meet until March 3.