Vero Beach City Council Special Call Meeting
Tuesday December 10, 2024
We are trying to determine if this is a joke. If anyone knows the answer, can you please let us know. A special call meeting was recently posted by the City of Vero Beach, FL.
The agenda appears to be legitimate, but the slides appear to be made by a child:
The agenda as proposed by the Mayor…..
1 3 Corners-
2 Water Reclamation Plant
3 Succession-
4 Marina
5 Downtown MP
6 Septic-to-Sewer
7 Airport
8 Stormwater
9 Infrastructure
10 Resiliency
11 Systems
Is Thomas the Tank Engine really the mascot for the City of Vero Beach? The Mayor’s name is on the slide show, but it is incomprehensible that he would refer to our City as “Vero Beach, the little city that could”????
We suggest adding the following agenda items:
12) How does Chief Currey strand hundreds of City residents on top of the Barber bridge during the Christmas Parade? How many people at the City approved this horrible decision to close the bridge for over an hour while residents were stranded in their cars? What would have happened in the event of a medical emergency? If the Chief of Police cannot even handle traffic during a parade, why would anyone trust him to fight crime?
13). Tornado Response- Although the City Manager and the Mayor praised the City’s response to the tornado, the truth is that their response was abysmal. The Chief refused to put his department on high alert (alpha/bravo) because he didn’t want to pay for overtime. The result was that there was ZERO City Police response to the catastrophe. COVB officers were left on the street uniformed and without leadership in the middle of the tornado. Meanwhile, the Sheriff’s office responded in force to go house to house the night of the tornado checking on residents while the City had no response and in fact no way to help City residents in need. Then to add insult to injury (even though he didn’t want to pay overtime) Chief Currey rewarded himself with extra pay on top of his salary for the extra hours he worked during the tornado. He is a salaried employee but he paid himself overtime?????? In what world does this happen. Lastly, he forced non-sworn employees to work after the tornado was over during a declared emergency and did not pay them overtime as required. The rules for thee….not for me… Evidently the rules do not apply to Chief Currey only to his subordinates.
Violation of Sunshine Law- The City was sued by a resident for violation of the Sunshine law for not turning over records requested under the sunshine law. The City claimed that it would cost up to 500k to defend this suit. They immediately settled the suit and agreed to turn over all records that they had illegally witheld. If they were so innocent as proclaimed, then why did they immediately settle the suit and agree to turn over everything. Once again, the City Manage and Police Chief think they are above the law. Also, in violation of the Sunshine Law, Chief Currey had an extremely negative survey of himself and his department deleted from existence. Deletion of a public record under the Sunshine Law is a crime.
Whistleblower Lawsuit by Current VBPD officer- Why has there been no mention of the current lawsuit pending against the City of Vero by a current officer at the Vero Beach Police Department for violation of the Whistleblower law? Many employees of the Vero Beach Police Department have alleged hostile work environment and targeting of employees by Cheif Currey and Deputy Chief Monaco. Some allegations were not even investigated, while some allegedly were covered up with subpar investigations. The depositions of many officers and other City employees during this suit will certainly shed light on the truth. Stand by….this one will expose serious corruption when sworn testimonies are taken from employees.
Chief of Police misleads the council and the public on the record at code enforcement hearing. This one will be a story that will be remembered as the Chief of Police is questioned by two City Council members at a recorded Council meeting. We will bring you more on this one…..
Why are none of these things on the Mayor’s list of agenda items????? Maybe because the Mayor thinks the citizens are not deserving to know of his multiple failures as a leader. He has been responsible for absolutely zero positive change since he was elected Mayor. Hopefully, during his second term he will concentrate on positive initiatives for the citizens and less time trying to cover up his failures.
