INDIAN RIVER SHORES — With about 20 percent of the Town’s 3,600 registered voters casting ballots, incumbent councilmen Richard Haverland and Michael Ochsner have fended off a challenge by Linda Bolton.
Haverland, a John’s Island resident and retired CEO, was the top vote getter with 664 votes for 56 percent. Haverland has taken very tough positions on the Vero electric issue and has kept the pressure on Town staff to cut expenses and reform employee pensions and benefits.
“I was pleased to get reelected — especially, as I figure, being included on 83% of all ballots,” Haverland said on Wednesday.
Ochsner, a former councilman who was chosen by his peers to replace retiring former mayor Tom Cadden, came in second with 314 votes for 26 percent. Ochsner, a retired CFO of an international surf and sportswear company, has long been the Town’s budget expert and has served on the Finance Committee since being defeated in the March 2013 council election.
“I’m grateful to Tom Cadden for asking me to fill the balance of his term and I’m grateful for the citizens of the Town who put their confidence in me,” Ochsner said. “Because there is so much going on, having as much information and background as possible is valuable because there is no time required to get up to speed.”
Bolton, a newcomer to Shores politics, was involved with the incorporation of the Village of Wellington and served on the newly founded municipality’s Village Council. A certified mediator and business consultant, Bolton rounded out the trio of candidates with a respectable showing of 213 votes for 18 percent.
While standing in front of the Indian River Shores Community Center polling place greeting voters for nearly nine hours, Bolton observed that the Shores is not only a beautiful place to live, but a very civic-minded town as well.
“People have been so gracious,” Bolton said. “They’re knowledgeable, they read all about the issues and they know the players. The two big issues people talked about were the utilities number one, and the Spectrum building.”
Bolton said she didn’t really expect to win, but that she tried her best and followed through with her promise to mount a challenge.
As a member of the Planning Zoning and Variance Board, Bolton took issue with how the five men on the Town Council handled the plans and votes on the office building to be built on what’s known as the Spectrum site across A1A from Town Hall. She said she was against having retail establishments as a permitted use, and she gained supporters amongst those also opposed in some way to the project.
After being sworn in at 8:30 a.m. March 26, Haverland and Ochsner will begin their second full terms on the council. Shores council members are elected to four-year terms, with seats up for election in a staggered manner every two years. Members are limited to two consecutive terms, but then after two years out of office, they may run again.
Absentee votes:
Richard Haverland 130 46%
Michael Ochsner 95 33%
Linda Bolton 59 21%
Total votes:
Richard Haverland 664 56%
Michael Ochsner 314 26%
Linda Bolton 213 18%
