A Who's Who of Vero City Council members who took health insurance?
STORY
While Vero Beach Mayor Craig Fletcher and council member Pilar Turner have come under fire for accepting city-paid health insurance, a number of their frequent critics – including Ken Daige, Brian Heady, Lynne Larkin, Bill Fish, Sandra Bowden and Warren Winchester – cheerfully accepted city health insurance during their terms on the Council, according to City Clerk Tammy Vock.
In fact, all told 15 Vero residents who served on the City Council in the past decade took advantage of health insurance paid-for by the taxpayers, a practice that began in the 1960s, Vock’s records show. These included: John R. Capra, Arthur R. Neuberger, Michael Wangen, Mary Beth McDonald, Bob Solari, Debra Fromang, Thomas White and Charlie Wilson.
Heady, one of the few former Council members willing to talk to Vero Beach 32963 about having received health insurance, seems to have a nuanced position, objecting not to Fletcher and Turner getting paid benefits but to the fact that Turner accepts insurance while attempting to trim municipal staff to cut the general fund budget.
“We should as a community be proud to provide our elected officials who work hard for very little money with health insurance,” said Heady. “And those that people who attack them should be ashamed of themselves.”
At the same time, he said, Turner “doesn’t mind that she is getting insurance but she wants to stiff the city workers.”
Vero City Council members who have taken taxpayer paid health insurance:
2000: None
2001: John R. Capra
2002: Arthur R. Neuberger
2003: Michael Wangen
2004: Lynne Larkin, Sandra Bowden
2005: Mary Beth McDonald
2006: Bob Solari, Debra Fromang
2007: Ken Daige
2008: Bill Fish
2009: Thomas White, Charlie Wilson
2010: Brian Heady
2011: Pilar Turner
2012 Craig Fletcher, Pilar Turner
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