Laura Moss-Candidate for Indian River County Commission, District 5

Incumbent Moss faces one challenger in the Republican primary and there is a write-in candidate as well. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, Joel Malcolm for vera patriot, and we are covering
the Indian River County Commission races here and there are
three commission races. Now, two of them are universal primaries
because it's all Republican candidates, so that means anybody who
is a registered voter in Indian River County can vote

(00:21):
for these. But this one is a different story. There
is a write in candidate that comes to play in November. Therefore,
this race cannot be officially complete until November, and it
is only for the Republican candidates for the primary and
incumbent Commissioner Laura Moss is on. Was I correct on
all ground?

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Yes? And it's complicated to thought. I'm not Laura Moss
Indian River County Commissioner, District five. You know our county
is small, though, I mean actually all of us represent
the entire county, and as you were saying, the entire
county really vote in all the races, with the exception

(01:03):
of mine. Many people are confused by this, so if
you don't mind, I'll take a moment to explain it.
I myself, although I've run for office many times, and
I'll say a little bit about my background I serve
two terms on Vera Beach City Council and I'm the
first woman in the history are the only woman in

(01:24):
the history of the City of Vero Beach to begin
my city council tenure as mayor, So I was mayor
from day one. That was two terms to two year terms,
that's four years.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
And then is that a strong I don't mean to interruptive.
Is that what they call a strong man? I hate
that term? But is that what they call a strong mayor.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
In Vero Well, technically no, but actually I was a
strong mayor because I brought in actions when seeking in
actions now not by definition a lot in actions, as
I was able to bring to fruition the sale of
v VA Electric to FBL and that had gone on

(02:05):
literally for more than a decade. And that's on my website.
That story it was reported by Standard Import Global Market
Intelligence and the article is on my website Vote Laura
Moss dot com. So that's a pretty interesting story. But
any rate, in twenty twenty, I was elected to candid

(02:28):
Commission and began my first term, which I am currently
ending my first term and looking forward to reelection next Tuesday,
that's August twentieth, but my race got very complicated. There's
a situation with the write in candidates, and many people

(02:48):
just don't understand. And I don't blame them, because I
didn't know much about it myself. In terms of a
writing candidate, or if that is a write in candidate,
This came about in the late nineteen nineties, and actually
in nineteen ninety eight, there was a referendum to the
state constitution which was overwhelmingly approved, and that was to

(03:12):
allow for open primaries. By that, I mean that if
all the candidates candidates now remember that are the same party,
be it Republican or Democrats, then voters of any party
could vote for them. So if all the candidates to
one party, everybody votes, and that was an amendment to

(03:37):
the state constitutions the past overwhelmingly in the late nineteen nineties.
This idea of the writing candidate was actually my understanding.
This is what I read was a judicial interpretation by
Judge Harris, and I guess that occurred around the same time.
I don't have the exact date on that, and that

(03:57):
is her judicial decision. Our interpretation, I guess we could
call it too, was that if there was a write
in candidate, then the race is closed. And that's why
in this county, Independence and Democrats are not included in
this race. A write in candidate, by the way, let

(04:21):
me define that for the audience, if you will, A
writing candidate basically has melt skin in the game. And
by that, I mean what we have to do to
qualify to have our name on the ballot is to
collect almost twelve hundred petitions from voters registered voters, or

(04:42):
pay I think it was four thousand, four hundred dollars
and I didn't pay it. I quested the petitions myself.
So the writing candidate does not have to do any
of this. The writing candidate simply well submits his name
and that's it. There are no requirements at all, and

(05:03):
in fact, ours is of this particular situation. It's very
unusual in that the writing candidate was interviewed by threeteen
nine point three there are news Ray McNulty, and he
actually said, I'm not really running. I'm not really running
for election. I have no intention, no intention of campaigning.

(05:25):
I'm not doing anything. I just wanted to close the
race because what he was saying was it's a Republican
primary only Republicans should vote. But I think he's see
a very young man and perhaps didn't bother or doesn't
and doesn't know the history, which is in the nineteen nineties.
As I just explained, the overwhelming majority of the people

(05:49):
of the state voted that there should be open primaries
in a situation like this, as both myself and my
opponent are Republicans and there is Democrats in this race,
so it will go to November either one or the
two of us. Excuse me, one of the two of

(06:10):
us will be on the ballot and then there'll be
a blank space or you shouldn't write in anything. So
the whole thing is a bit bizarre and frankly. To
add to that, I was reading a TC palm today.
This is in today's paper, and that's Wednesday, August fourteenth,

(06:34):
would have been my father's birthday US And this is
an article by Larry Reasman and the title of it
is Outsiders Mailer's Muddy I R C. Sheriff's Race. Now
you might be asking yourself, why would I be talking
about the shriff's race. Well, guess what my opponent is
involved in it? And I'll read just senses on this

(06:57):
article which appears in today's paper. This is and they
are friends of Milo Thornton was registered in April twenty
twenty three five Value Dance, an outspoken Republican and controversial
former Vera Beach mayor, who remains the registered agent the friends.

(07:21):
First donor, at twenty five dollars, was as the player's
the Flip Sanger, du Dan's wife, Tracy, my opponent, a
first term city council member running for county commission. So
there's this gobal, if you will, that's looking to control

(07:44):
not only the county commission race, but also the Sheriff's race.
And anyone can read that in the paper.

Speaker 1 (07:51):
Well, we have and we have reached out to your opponent,
Tracy's Dance, and have not yet heard back, but we will.
We do obviously ask about this and get some comment.

Speaker 2 (08:08):
And there actually have been a number of articles written
about this. But since this slon is especially timely, since
we're talking Elliot hour after I read the paper, of
which I'm glad I did, it's you know, I just
I hate to see this and I'll tell you why.
And I'm talking about not only does cabal that's trying

(08:29):
to control the sheriff's raise and Kenny mission. But just
in terms of that the writing candidate, and I think
the other thing that this young man doesn't realize is
we don't want that kind of divisiveness in this county.
And we all know that it exists in the higher echelons. Washington,

(08:50):
d c. Has become usually divisive, uh tallahassee. Some would
say it is somewhat similar, But we don't want to
bring that to our camp. I mean we do. You know,
we have such a wonderful sense of community here and
I would hate to see that compromise in any way.
And I think this is one that you're closing out

(09:10):
almost fifty thousand people from voting. And let's think about
the history of voting for a minute. When in this
country first started, it was only white men voting, and
by eighteen seventy blacks were included, and a little over
one hundred years ago with them were included. So it

(09:31):
took us, if we think about it, it took us
a couple, you know, a couple hundred years to get
to this point where everyone can vote. That's on the
one hand, and then on the other hand, you have
this cockamaming system where one person can silence the voices
of fifty thousand people. One person on the could be

(09:53):
on a large even I don't know. According to that
interview and all the direct people to that interview that
was by Ray McNulty for two nine sixty three VARA News,
and that's it's it's terrible. I mean, it's it's very
devices and and you never you never want to silence voices.

(10:15):
I mean, isn't that what that's this country is all about?
And it's certainly what this county should be about. And
I just I just really hate to see it. I
always think of sense of community is one of the
most important things to me. And we can tie this
through concerns bet over development and other topics, but to me,
sense of community is the foundation upon which all these

(10:37):
other issues rest. And if you think about it, and
this is how I think about it, sense of community
is intangible infrastructure. That's the why I say everything rests
on it gives me you lose sense of community. I mean,
it's not it's not like it's not like a tangible infrastructure.

(10:58):
And to say tangible infrastru ructually be a road bridge,
that kind of thing. That's that's a lot easier to fix.
And and you know, when we look around the country today,
we see these larger cities and perhaps even in some
smaller places where that's lost. And when you lose that,
it's almost impossible to get that back. So I just

(11:21):
that's that is really my number one concign the sense
of community and BIS scoot ball And there's a writing
candidate threatener.

Speaker 1 (11:31):
All right, Well, you mentioned overdevelopment.

Speaker 2 (11:32):
I can tell you that that is.

Speaker 1 (11:35):
Brought up as an issue for you know, some of
the challengers running against the incumbents for the different you know,
county commissioned seats in Indian River. I know I heard
it from the folks in Martin County, perhaps to an
even bigger extent uh down there. But you know, so
I'll just ask you, you know, bottom line, is there

(11:56):
too much development uh in Indian River County? And and
and if so, is you know is there a way
to curb it? And do you think it should be curved?

Speaker 2 (12:05):
Yes to most of those questions. I think what happened
was and we saw this anyone who lives here and
perhaps you sold from Martin County that following COVID, quite
a large number of people moved to this county to
the extent that we probably don't even have enough room
for everybody. You know, we still fall within the confines

(12:29):
of defined as a small county. You know, we're under
two hundred thousand or about long seventy now, and you know,
fluctually it's a little bit, but we're basically one hundred
and seventy thousand people, which is still a relatively small county.
And I think there are a lot of people who
actual people who live here. Now I'm talking about not

(12:50):
you know, not not developers. But well, i'll give you
an example, and this is actually kind of funny. Nine
year of this whole situation. Now, on fourth of July,
I was in the parade in the Reverview Park in Sebastian,
and after the parade, I had a booth, so I
was there all day and it was funny. Almost every
single person who came up to me had just moved

(13:12):
here within a year, say a year to three years.
Because I would ask each person, do you live here
or are you a visitor? Because we get a lot
of chorists as well, so the answer for most was
that yes, I'm a resident. I just moved here. And
my concern is, you know, we don't want to get
Alfred developed. They're too crowded. And then they would and

(13:36):
they knew what they were saying, because of course they
just moved here themselves. So they give me this, they
would chuckle and give me the sheepish grin, you know.
But the point is even people who just moved here
are aware of it, even if you've lived here only
a year, like, well, we want to protect it because
we love it just the way it is. And I

(13:58):
am a complete agreement with that on myself, and I
can't speak for my colleagues, but I would even support
taking a hiatus for a period of time. And we are,
by the way, engaging in the strategic Plan and many
other plans. We have a new county administrator and we're

(14:20):
in the process. I need to I need an army
ranger so all these plans and studies will actually be implemented.
God's blossom, that's the mister John Jacanas. So we're in
the process now of re evaluating so many different access
you know, within count within the count of document, including
just reorganizing the organizational chart. Everything basically is it's anything

(14:43):
you don't like, I'll say to this for the residents
of that your accunt it is anything you don't like,
don't worry. It's probably changing. So just if not, please
just send an email, you know, and it'll be done
elms at Indian River dot gov if there's anything, if
we want to check on anything, and the county website

(15:06):
is Indian River dot gov.

Speaker 1 (15:09):
So you build. It's really important to the residents that
you have that transparency.

Speaker 2 (15:16):
I absolutely and I've I have always felt that way,
and I don't you know, I'm not even I'm not
particularly fond of that word transparency. It always reminds me
of glad wrappers, it ran wrap or something. I prefer
the word upload just you know, upload it, upload it
to the website, upload it to the internet, make it
accessible to all. That's real transparency. And that's that's what

(15:39):
That's what I did all through my city council career
and uh and I continue to do that Africandi Commission,
you know, I just upload one of the actually one
of the documents and this relates to what we're discussing.
It was uploaded. It was over one hundred pages and
it was the hydrologic study for sub the county. And

(16:03):
this was done by USGS, which is the United States
Geological Survey, which is actually a several agency, and they
did a report. But yes, what was the last year
that was done in nineteen eighty eight. So we were invited,

(16:23):
now no expert on water, but we were invited as
a body by we, I mean County Commission. We were
invited to a meeting of the Indian River Soil and
Water Conservation District, another elected body by members, no salary,
no budget. And what they were the ones who pointed
this out to us, that's this new tube to be

(16:46):
updated because it's very comprehensive, very thorough, and also because
it's specific to our county. I mean, there are there
are other agencies, for example, the Saint John's River Water
Management District that provide its model every you know, five
years or so, and according to them, which is the

(17:08):
again Soon and Water Conservation District, that is not as helpful.
That's that's not that's not that's not their partments. I mean,
these are the people who are the experts in this area.
So I am still still pursuing that and I think
that's something that we need to do, just update that

(17:28):
study because it's not you know, we usually focus on
quality or to quality as we should usually focus on it.
And of course, you know, covering the feet and this
is the entire Treasure Coast. The big concern is with
the littlegoon. But you know, frankly, we're not drinking the
little doon. You know, we need to worry about the
aquifers and not just the quality of the water, but

(17:51):
the quantity, and that relates to this development. You know,
if you allow too much development without ascertaining in a
very thorough way xactly how much water you have, that
could be a huge problem. And we've seen that in
other places in the country struggling with water shortages. So far,

(18:13):
we don't have one, but we need to, we need
we need to be very careful about that.

Speaker 1 (18:20):
All right, Well, I'm going to wrap up the interview
with the final question. And you've likely covered some of
this throughout our conversation, but I always had my election
interviews with this question is essentially three candidates maybe in
this race, why ultimately, in a nutshell, should folks vote

(18:41):
to give Laura Moss another term.

Speaker 2 (18:45):
My pleasure leadership? And I told, as I said earlier,
I was the first woman and the only woman to
be to start my city council career as mayor as
compared to my opponent who I was at this meeting.
I was sitting there who nominated herself for mayor and

(19:07):
her motion died for lack of a second. Also, I
served two terms on varible city council, as I said earlier,
prior to serving this term on County Commission. My opponent
made her declaration to run for County Commission when she

(19:27):
had been on city council actually for less than a year,
and I was astounded at that. I mean, honestly, I
think city council is a great preparation well for anything,
you know, and the maybe the Senate, like Joe Erman said,
but it's you know, you really stand on solid ground.

(19:47):
So my commitment to the community is very clear. Leadership
and commitment to the community. The other thing I would
say is, and I mentioned it earlier, and people, well,
go to my website vote law Moss dot com to
see a copy of it. And that has to do
with the electric sale. So I started as mayor in

(20:08):
November of twenty sixteen, and I signed the contract in
October of twenty seventeen to the sale. And as they stated,
earlier had been problematic for more than a decades, as
opposed to my opponent who the biggest project currently while
she while she sits on City Council Urban City Council

(20:29):
is the three Corners project is, as you may know,
and that got entirely thrown out. I mean, they were
at the point and I attended these meetings where they
were voting on which developer would be. They voted, they
had chosen as developer, and then the whole thing got
thrown out and now they're starting all over again. So

(20:50):
that's I mean, it's such a it's such a huge
waste of you know, not only time, but taxpayer dollars,
and it just were they're there would have been it
should have been a better way to do that to
bring into conclusions. People have been waiting a long time
for that to u to happen. And that's uh that

(21:10):
you know, she had said that that was her her
main goal was to make that happen. And if so,
if that's the case, what can I say she failed?
That's objective?

Speaker 1 (21:23):
All right, Well, I appreciate you taking the time to
speak with the Republican voters in Eurea Beach area.

Speaker 2 (21:30):
Anybody if any Democrats or Independents are listening, I'm sorry,
I have to turn off your radio.

Speaker 1 (21:35):
Yeah, I mean, I've got to be specifics so folks know,
you know. Unfortunately, you know, for the Democrats the n
p as, they can't you know, vote in this, and
they'll be able to weigh in in November, of course,
or uh maybe late October whenever early voting starts for that.

Speaker 2 (21:51):
But I say more, I say one more thing. I
will be happy to represent all the voters, all voters
in the County of Indian River. My opponent, I guess,
is half a county comisioner since since this, uh it
came from her camp to the you know, the writing.

(22:14):
I'm not saying anything about her personally, I wouldn't know,
but I am filing an ethics complaint and also a
complaint with the Division of Elections, so I helped that.
Eventually this will be now unpublicly, but not in time
for next Tuesday, which is the election primary day, which

(22:35):
will determine outcome of this specific place.

Speaker 1 (22:39):
All right, well, we appreciate it again, and thanks for
taking some time to.

Speaker 2 (22:47):
Enjoy I enjoyed it, and uh, you know, thank you,
thank you for taking the time to, uh, you know,
to bring this all to to the public's attention, knowledge,
and power.

Speaker 1 (22:58):
Yes, incumbent County Commissioner District five, Laura Moss running for
re election here on VERA Patriot