Rockledge attorney Bryan Lober, the Republican nominee for the Brevard County Commission District 2 seat, says he has already lined up his prospective colleagues’ votes to add more tourist-development money to clean up the polluted Indian River Lagoon.
But at least two commissioners say they haven’t agreed to vote with Lober on anything, even though they did discuss general lagoon issues with him.
Lober, 34, is facing Democrat Victoria Mitchner, also 34, a Cocoa human-resources consultant, in the Nov. 6 election to succeed Merritt Island businessman Jim Barfield, who has chosen not to seek a second term.
In an Oct. 15 candidates’ forum before the county League of Women Voters in Viera, Lober said he has met with the current commissioners – Chairwoman Rita Pritchett of Titusville, Vice Chairwoman Kristine Isnardi of Palm Bay, John Tobia of Grant-Valkaria and even fellow candidate Curt Smith of Melbourne – and agreed on adding money to lagoon efforts.
“I have the votes now to work with (the others) and divert more money to the lagoon,” Lober said.
If Lober were already elected, such agreements would be illegal, said Barbara Petersen, president of the nonprofit First Amendment Foundation in Tallahassee.
Florida’s Government-in-the-Sunshine Law bars elected officials from meeting with their colleagues outside of an advertised public session and arranging votes on matters expected to come before them.
“If he’s running for office and not currently a sitting member of the commission, then the Sunshine Law (and Public Records Law) does not apply to him unless he wins and the election results are certified,” Petersen said.
Meanwhile, after the forum, Mitchner said she also has met with the other commissioners, including Barfield. But they didn’t agree on any action.
“There was no talk of votes,” she said.
The Tourist Development Council last fall agreed to allocate $1 million a year, from the county’s 5 percent tax on hotel, motel and other short-term rental stays, for projects aimed at restoring the lagoon habitats to help tourism.
That’s separate from the half-cent sales tax for removing nutrients from the lagoon. The tax has been estimated to have yielded $40 million, and the associated Save Our Indian River Lagoon contains $2 million to dredge 83,000 cubic yards of nutrient-bearing muck.
After the forum, Lober said the county has focused its lagoon money on removing its nitrogen and phosphorus – which nourish algae to bloom and block sunlight from seagrass and choke oxygen from marine creatures – but hasn’t fully addressed blocking new nutrients from flowing there.
He said the county needs to stop stormwater from running into the lagoon. And that should include getting help from the state Department of Transportation, which owns State Road 520 and other major roads where stormwater runs off.
Lober said the Space Coast Tourism Office’s budget for Facebook advertising, part of a $630,000 package for Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest, would be a good place to start seeking extra money. Based on his own experience advertising his business on Facebook, he said, that’s an excessive amount.
“He’s a political newbie,” Smith said. “The (Tourist Development Council) has to offer the money. A key point in the law is we can’t go taking their money.”
Smith, who is facing a District 4 challenge from Democrat Matthew Fleming of Satellite Beach, recalled having a social breakfast with Lober to get to know a fellow Republican.
“But we didn’t get specific,” Smith said. “Everyone knows I’m all for helping the lagoon. But I don’t know where we could find any more money.”
Pritchett couldn’t be reached to discuss any meeting with Lober.
Tobia said he and Lober discussed the lagoon. But he declined to say what they agreed on. He said he didn’t want to use Lober as a conduit of his vote to the other commissioners, an act which would break the Sunshine Law.
“He did speak to me, but I didn’t know he spoke to the others,” Tobia said. “And I don’t want to even get close to violating the Sunshine Law.”
Isnardi said she and Lober kept their lagoon conversation general. “We didn’t speak about any specific thing we would be voting on,” she said.
