Dysfunction at Sebastian and Stuart city halls during 2020 and 2025 grabbed big headlines.
But there’s a new political soap opera playing in the halls of a Treasure Coast local government.
Unfortunately, you can’t watch replays of Indian River Mosquito Control District meetings. Despite a budget of almost $12 million, this entity hasn’t, like most governments, found a way to get video onto its website.
Some of its issues:
Some options on how to fix the elected body
These are all exhibits in what should be an emergency action Sen. Erin Grall and Rep. Robbie Brackett take to get the Legislature to do one of two things to amend an act that 100 years ago created the proud Indian River Mosquito Control District:
It was bad enough itching through last summer’s buggy season. But researching and sitting through a 2.5-hour-long special board meeting Feb. 6 wasn’t pleasant, either.
Executive kept district humming along
I started four months ago, about the time I learned commissioners Janice Broda and Anna Kirkland hastily planned an Oct. 10 special meeting to discuss not renewing the five-year contract of Sherry Burroughs, the district’s executive director.
It was somewhat surprising given the district seemed to operate well under Burroughs. So well, I wrote in October, that in 2023, a Legislature-directed review approved of how the district worked, recommending only it add additional “performance measures and standards” to track progress.
So well that in 2024 our editorial board recommended for re-election incumbents Matt Erpenbeck — then chairman (he resigned Feb. 6) — and Broda, on the board since 1992.
But Broda hasn’t been a fan of Burroughs since at least 2020. That’s when former commissioners Tom Lowther and Buck Vocelle — bucking Broda — voted to give Burroughs the district’s first employee contract, a five-year pact I thought was overly cushy and unwarrated.
Burroughs was hired in 2016 as assistant director and prepped for the post by Doug Carlson, who’d been with the agency 42 years. He retired in 2020 after 17 years as executive director.
Burroughs couldn’t please Broda, who, among other things, was concerned about turnover and sought more information. The addition of Kirkland to the board in 2022 often gave Broda an ally.
Board inaction, delays lead to crises
In August, Broda could not persuade Kirkland to start a national search for a new director, given Burroughs’ contract would expire Jan. 6, 2026. Then, Erpenbeck’s motion to extend Burroughs’ contract failed.
With no board action at its regular September meeting, it appeared Burroughs would get an additional year under her contract because she was not given 90-day notice of nonrenewal.
But on Sept. 29, Broda emailed Burroughs, asking her to poll other commissioners to see if they could have a special meeting to discuss the contract on or before Oct. 10 — the only date available because of district public meeting notice requirements and marking the 90-day notice deadline.
Broda and Kirkland decided to meet even if Erpenbeck, the chair, couldn’t because he would be at his college son’s freshman parents’ weekend in a different time zone.
At the special meeting, the commissioners gave Burroughs’ 90-day notice. Eventually, as they talked about a new contract, the sides agreed to extend the old one to Feb. 8.
Broda’s unusual meeting call and the vote that ensued sparked Erpenbeck to file a state ethics complaint against her, according to draft district meeting minutes.
Then, according to Dec. 11 meeting minutes, Kirkland questioned whether Erpenbeck had to disclose a conflict of interest in discussing Burroughs’ contract.
Erpenbeck ends up resigning
Why? Burroughs is a board member of the Florida Mosquito Control Association, a nonprofit whose website says it promotes “the control of mosquitoes” and other arthropods. And, it turns out, the association board tapped Erpenbeck as its executive director in August.
So he was one of her bosses and she was one of his: a clear conflict to me. When he cited the potential conflict as a reason to no longer engage in discussions about Burroughs’ contract, it appeared he’d made a decision over the summer: Erpenbeck picked a $65,000 job with the association over the county voters he lobbied in 2024 to re-elect him.
Erpenbeck told me Feb. 12 he didn’t see it that way, saying Burroughs was not on the board when he got the statewide job and she agreed not to assess his performance.
“It was not an easy decision,” Erpenbeck said of his local board resignation, noting he thinks the board is going in the “wrong direction” and it was “time to step down.”
Without him there Feb. 6, any disagreements between Broda and Kirkland on Burroughs’ contract would fail in a 1-1 vote. As much as two lawyers there tried to get Burroughs, Kirkland and Broda on the same page, it was impossible for the district to professionally conduct business without at least one other board member.
Sebastian and Stuart comparisions
The Feb. 6 meeting was a disgrace and pointed to the importance of having five members, like many boards do.
Last year, I watched members of the Stuart City Commission act like amateurs, calling for City Manager Mike Mortell’s resignation out of the blue without offering reasons.
In 2020, three Sebastian City Council members opened City Hall, started a meeting and began replacing in absentia — at what was later determined to be an illegal proceeding — their city manager, attorney and clerk. That led to voters recalling and replacing the trio, who faced criminal charges of violating open-meetings laws.
The mosquito board’s Feb. 6 special meeting to review a draft contract offered Burroughs was civil, but she was treated poorly. There were a few ridiculous elements in the revised contract proposed to her.
One of the kickers:
She’d be on probation for 90 days, and if she didn’t make it through, there’d be no severance pay.
“I don’t agree to that,” Burroughs said, noting she had already been on the job for five years with a contract.
Broda stuck to her guns:
“Striking that is a deal breaker for me,” said Broda, one of six contract items she initially declined to cede to Burroughs, whose objections seemed reasonable.
About 2.5 hours after the meeting began, no agreement was reached and Burroughs said her goodbyes.
It did not appear to me Kirkland and Broda attempted to negotiate with Burroughs in good faith. They should have begun the non-renewal process a year or so ahead of time, as is done in some other public settings such as school districts. That provides time to find quality replacements.
While Broda cited her advocacy for taxpayers during the negotiations, it’s troubling the district had to add a special labor attorney to handle them. Among his fees: Attending eight meetings over the past several months for a total of $6,000 — in addition to $4,800 for the board’s regular attorney to be there.
What shows the need for a larger board is that at its regular meeting Feb. 10, only Broda was there. She said Kirkland was ill. Thus, no action was taken on how to proceed without Burroughs, or Erpenbeck. The meeting was rescheduled for 1:30 p.m. Feb. 19.
Carlson told me he was confident things would work out. Maybe he’s right.
The district continues to handle mosquitoes despite a dysfunctional board. But could it operate more effectively?
I think so — with five unpaid board members or under the auspices of county commissioners in some fashion.
This soap opera has to end.
This column reflects the opinion of Laurence Reisman. Contact him via email at larry.reisman@tcpalm.com, phone at 772-978-2223, Facebook.com/larryreisman or Twitter @LaurenceReisman.
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This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Faulty Treasure Coast elected board itching in embarrassment | Opinion
Reporting by Laurence Reisman, Treasure Coast Newspapers / Treasure Coast Newspapers
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