News Analysis
Desperate to shine-up the City of Vero Beach’s public image, and perhaps boost his own re-election bid in the process, Mayor John Cotugno wants city taxpayers to spend up to a quarter million dollars on public relations and paid advertising painting the city government in a sunnier light – as stupid and wasteful an idea now as it was when tried nearly two decades ago.
In the mid-2000s, the city found itself fraught with mismanagement and dogged by bad press, and hapless Vero leaders – with city coffers flush with the cash then being siphoned from the electric utility – hired a good news spokeswoman to beat back the city’s ever-present crises and scandals.
Bad ideas like this typically emanate from people who haven’t been around Vero long enough to remember previous mistakes. This time is no exception.
Public records show Cotugno purchased his Central Beach home in August 2017, his property deed address being San Jose, Calif. He registered as a no-party-affiliation vote here in 2018, got his Homestead Exemption in time for his 2019 tax bill, and decided to run that year for City Council.
A few days after losing in the 2019 election, he changed his party affiliation to Republican. Nevertheless, he lost again in 2020, but he tried a third time and was elected in 2021.
So having been here just a relatively few years, the self-described “sales and marketing guy” presumably did not know of the Vero’s short-lived mid-2000s experiment with an official city spokesman – a big waste of taxpayer money.
City Manager Monte Falls of course knew, as he’s coming up on 35 years on the city payroll. But Falls seems just as anxious and frustrated as Cotugno right now having city missteps scrutinized by the media.
Cotugno thinks a full-time Communications Coordinator should earn between $65,000 and $70,000 per year, but with the city’s generous benefits and pension plan, plus payroll takes, realistically the cost would be nearly double the salary. Even if the city had the extra six figures to squander right now, the job is mostly already covered.
Cotugno thinks the current program “limps along, taking slivers of peoples’ time.” But that’s hardly a fair description of how most of the Vero government communicates at present.
The Vero Beach Police Department has a full-time public information officer and Chief David Currey and his officers do a great job letting residents know about public safety concerns, big events like parades and road races that might snag traffic, and even crime and scams to watch out for on the department’s Facebook page, which has more than 27,000 followers.
Currey answers his cellphone and any of the top-ranking supervisors communicate with the media and public when things happen outside normal business hours.
The Vero Beach Regional Airport not only promotes the airport, but also highlights the many local businesses which lease space at the airport complex. The marina already has an advertising budget and marketing plan.
Unless instructed not to field questions from the media because the city is in “circle the wagons” crisis mode, all the city department heads are typically accessible, especially Water-Sewer Director Rob Bolton and Planning Director Jason Jeffries. Both are responsive to questions and can speak intelligently on city projects.
Bolton responds to emails even at night and on the weekends and quickly tracks down needed information. City Clerk Sherri Philo and her deputy and records specialist Heather McCarty do their very best to retrieve public records requests swiftly.
The Recreation Department and the City Clerk’s staff pool their resources to organize Vero’s big annual community events and holiday celebrations, and they do a great job.
Councilman John Carroll said the city does not have an effective communications strategy, but said the ideas and goals have been way too scattered. He said the city needs to prioritize and keep the costs way down, perhaps focusing on social media.
But the City of Vero Beach is not rapidly growing, needing to introduce itself to hordes of newcomers. In fact, its 11 square miles are virtually built out. According to the city’s own published Vision Plan, the U.S. Census population in 1980 was 16,179 people, and over 20 years’ time, fewer than 1,600 people total moved into the city.
Then in the next 24 years the city population actually declined, going from 17,705 people in 2000 to 17,556, according to the U.S. Census published estimate as of July 1, 2024. Some unofficial published projections suggest the city might add a few hundred people this year to end 2025 with around 17,900 residents.
Maybe the city should fill some potholes or pave some roads with that quarter million dollars. Or fund rising payroll costs due to botched contract negotiations with its police and Teamster unions.
Or maybe could decide not to increase property taxes this year. That would boost the city’s image a whole lot more than a PR flack could.
But by the end of Cotugno’s presentation, his pitch had progressed from the city simply needing one person to serve as a Communications Consultant to talk of an entire Communications Department.
“Bringing on a Communications Coordinator is great, but that’s not the total cost of your Communications Department,” Cotugno said.
That would be another department for Falls to oversee, when he already complains of being overtasked supervising the Finance Department and eight other departments.
Thankfully, the City Council did not jump at Cotugno’s proposal. They took it under advisement.
Multiple reliable sources in the city and close to the mayor told Vero Beach 32963 that Cotugno already has a prime candidate picked out for the job – a local political strategist and social media guru who runs his own marketing firm, and over the years has managed campaigns for Democrats and left-leaning Republican-in-name-only candidates.
Cotugno might want to take a breather on that bright idea – wherever it came from.
The taxpaying public needs to keep a very close eye on the mayor’s latest big-spending proposal.
