BREAKING: VB Mayor Calls Special Meeting to Disqualify SuDa's Three Corners Proposal

Outside pressure mounts. Does revisiting question previously considered by City Council violate government procedure and the final authority of May 28th vote?

Vero Beach Mayor, John Cotugno scheduled a Special Call Meeting for June 7th at 9:30 AM to “give SuDa the opportunity to show cause why its proposal should not be disqualified.”

Member, Taylor Dingle, was very relieved after the most important vote of his short time serving on the Vero Beach City Council. The Three Corners plan he felt best for the community and the proposal that city residents had shown the most favor for in emails and public comments had won. “I received nothing but thanks and praise from residents in our city,” said Mr. Dingle.

So, it was much to his surprise when he received a scathing email from the recently resigned former school board member, Brian Barefoot, exclaiming his decision was, “So sad!!”

Not immune to meddling on behalf of his small contingent of John’s Island cohorts, Mr. Barefoot began his email to Mr. Dingle saying, “I cannot begin to tell you how disappointed I am with your vote last evening. That sentiment is shared by the JI members who had committed to providing financial support to Clearpath. For a young man you lacked vision and the ability to see ‘what could be.’” 

Is it possible the outside pressure is also being put on the Mayor, John Cotugno? The Mayor preferred Clearpath’s proposal as recommended by the steering committee over the others. Being that Mr. Barefoot’s email would have been delivered to all city council members, it is not out of the question. On June 4th, former campaign manager of Mr. Barefoot and confidant, Jeffrey Andros, sent 58 public records requests to the city that included asking for all emails since January 2023 of city manager, Monte Falls, and the city attorney, John Turner. As a county resident, Mr. Andros also requested for the city to “provide all expense reports, receipts and reimbursements for travel” of the two officials for the last 4 years.  

On the same day of the flurry of Mr. Andros’ requests, Mayor Cotugno scheduled a Special Call Meeting for Friday June 7th at 9:30 AM at City Hall. In the agenda, the mayor expressed an interest to revisit a question he raised prior to the selection of the SuDa proposal regarding email communications made by Gaurav Butani of the SuDa / CREC Madison Team. The agenda leaves time for the SuDa representatives to defend themselves.

VB City Council with the head of the Three Corners committee, John O’Brien, seated at the table on the left end in discussion before the vote on May 28th.

Before the initial vote at the May 28th meeting, the Mayor brought up the emails after council member, John Carroll, challenged the legitimacy of SuDa’s proposal in a written statement. Mr. Carroll shared that it was not the plan that was originally submitted on deadline. When SuDa orally presented on May 17, “the RFP (Request For Proposal) process was surprisingly altered by a team that made an oral presentation to the selection committee that differed from their RFP response,” read Mr. Carroll from his statement. He then explained the many differences in plans, adding,  “The oral presentation and the new site plan was not anticipated by the city or its consultants … and adequate time was not scheduled to review and vet the new concept plan.”

Mr. Carroll did not want to disqualify SuDa from the process but he did want the council members to stick to the original proposals. Reached for comment, council woman, Tracey Zudans, who voted for SuDa, did just that. She had already ranked SuDa number one on her list. “I chose SuDa based on the original RFP because it aligned with the master plan and matched the charm of our community. Also, it was a lower financial risk to taxpayers,” said Mrs. Zudans.

Mayor Cotugno spoke next concerning the emails asking for the attorney’s thoughts. The attorney read from the RFP sharing the sole discretion that the city council had in awarding the development contract. He then read the clause in the RFP prohibiting communications with City council, staff or employees except the steering committee chair, John O’Brien.  The RFP states, “Any such solicitation or communication shall result in disqualification of the Proposer.”

Mr. Butani wrote 2 emails. One was on the day of the vote sharing a video of the NJ Governor honoring SuDa for their work in the revitalization project of the historically iconic Asbury Park, the beachside town Bruce Springsteen made famous on his debut album, Greetings from Asbury Park, New Jersey. The other email came the day before, and its main subject matter was concerning the consideration of a skate park. Many community members expressed an interest in this feature derived from another proposal. Still, the language in Article 1-15 of the RFP regarding prohibited communications is plain.

However, on the night of the vote, the council discussed this matter as well with Mr. Carroll’s assertions. In their deliberation, Vice Mayor Linda Moore brought up the issue of disqualifying SuDa based on their changing of the plan and the email. Mr. Carroll did not want to go that far and Mayor Cotugno remained silent. Mr. Dingle’s only comment was to move forward. He said, “The proposals are ever changing. If we are not going to move to remove or disqualify anybody, I am ready to go to item 6B-2.”

Item 6B-2 on the agenda was the vote. “I don’t think we are in the process of disqualifying anyone,” said Mayor Cotugno. Reasoning from the RFP directives, he added, “We have the discretion to change that. But if you don’t have the motivation to do it, it’s not going to be changed.”

With practically the whole SuDa / CREC Madison Team in attendance, the City Council voted to award the contract to their company. Now, less than a week later, the winner is scheduled tomorrow morning “to show cause why its proposal should not be disqualified.”

To revisit it again after a consensus vote was made not to disqualify SuDa is against the rules outlined in basic government process. The RFP also states that “the City’s decisions will be final” once the vote is determined. Under Robert’s Rules which govern publicly noticed meetings in Florida, a “reconsideration” cannot happen when “an affirmative vote in the nature of a contract, when the party to the contract has been notified of the out come.”

Yet, the Special Call Meeting on June 7th will violate that precept if allowed to proceed to full reconsideration. It poses a lot of questions as to why the meeting is being called at all. Reached for comment, Vice Mayor Moore said, “I think all of these questions will be answered during the special meeting.”