Faced with three well-qualified candidates, the Indian River Shores Town Council awarded the open council seat vacated due to Judge William Dane’s death to Sea Forest resident Peter Tedesko for the next 10 months. The 2-1 vote appeared to reward committee service to the town.
Tedesko, a full-time town resident for 14 years and Florida resident since 2005, has served on the town’s finance commission for nearly seven budget seasons. He moved to town after a 40-year career in management and strategic planning with Westinghouse Corp. and Eaton Corp.
“Peter Tedesko has a lot of business experience, but more importantly for me is that he’s been on the finance committee since May of 2019, and in checking with the town clerk, he’s attended practically every meeting,” Vice Mayor Bob Auwerter said, nominating Tedesko.
“Before I came on council, I started out on the finance committee, I was the chairman, and it gave me what I thought was a leg up when I joined the council the first time around, in 2016. You understand what’s going on in the financial area, see how the different departments interact with each other, and I think you gather institutional knowledge,” Auwerter added.
The town’s business is not incredibly complicated, but the toughest task for new council members often is adapting from a career in the private sector to the way government works in Florida, from government accounting practices to the Sunshine laws intended to ensure open records and open meetings.
Serving on a town committee, and specifically on the Finance Committee, has long been seen as a logical first step before serving on the council. Finance Committee members are subject to the Sunshine laws and each year they dig into the town budget and departmental budget requests in detail before the proposed budget comes before the full council.
Mayor Brian Foley seconded the nomination, agreeing with Auwaerter. “The tiebreaker for me was the fact that we’re already mid-season, and we need someone who can hit the ground running,” he said.
Tedesko was sworn in on Jan. 21 and served as a council member at last Thursday’s regular meeting.
The vote was a bit of an awkward moment in Shores politics, as Councilman Sam Carroll forcefully argued on behalf of his friend and former Morgan Stanley colleague Rob Stevenson.
Beyond citing Stevenson’s legacy as a third-generation John’s Island resident and the skills he developed during his long career in wealth management as wonderful qualifications for office, Carroll made it personal, framing the vote as a referendum on his own council service.
“As a member of council, Rob will call on and utilize all those core qualities to represent a new set of clients, the citizens of Indian River Shores,” Carroll said. “I know something about this, because I spent 41 years in private wealth management, including the last 35 at Morgan Stanley.
“I have attempted to apply the same set of core qualities to my position on council over the past seven-plus years,” Carroll continued.
“To the extent my fellow council members believe I have represented the town and its citizens well, worked steadfastly and collegiately with you as well as the town’s employees, I urge you to think of Rob as a younger me, with the same passion I had when I sought a council seat in the 2018 general election.”
Carroll criticized the other applicants for lacking commitment because they would not pledge to run for office in November to serve out the balance of Dane’s four-year term, which ends in November 2028, while Stevenson filed pre-qualification paperwork to run three months ago, before Judge Dane passed away from cancer.
“Rob’s commitment signals to me that he wants the seat more than Mr. Tedesko or Ms. Salerno,” Carroll said.
Foley did not agree that Tedesko and Park Shores resident Roseann Salerno were disqualified because they had not announced plans to run in November.
“With due respect to Councilman Carroll … the timing of the expression of interest [in running for council] is a factor, but it’s not a determining factor for me,” Foley said.
Three seats will be up for election in November, with Carroll and Foley both in their final year of service due to term limits.
Council members recognized Judge Dane for his service and expressed their grief, and sympathy to Dane’s family. A celebration of life is scheduled for 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 31 at Quail Valley Yacht Club Boathouse.
