Vero Beach elects Joe Graves, Rey Neville; Sebastian tosses incumbents

Treasure Coast voters on Tuesday night elected municipal leaders in three cities— Vero Beach, Sebastian and Ocean Breeze.

Vero Beach

Eight candidates appeared on the ballot in Vero Beach on Tuesday, but only Joe Graves and Rey Neville will sit on the City Council.

With incumbent Commissioners Harry Howle and Val Zudans passing on re-election this year, the race means the election of two new officials in the city.

Candidates included: Graves, Neville, John Cotugno, Brian Heady, Jeff Nall, Bob McCabe, Estelle Panagakos and Nick Thomas.

Graves, a local attorney, took more than a quarter of all early votes cast. The candidate has become active since the death of his son in a boating accident.

Neville is an Air Force veteran who retired a colonel who later taught college level graphic design.

“After a serious accident (from which I am now completely healed) I taught college level graphic design and implementation,” he writes on his Facebook page. “My wife and I moved back full time to Vero in 2014. Most recently I was commodore of the Vero Beach Yacht Club.”

The next closest vote-getter was McCabe, a former executive with General Motors, who said his business experience would help lead the city. He has previously served as the volunteer chair and CEO of the Vero Beach Chamber of Commerce and other groups.

Graves won 1,144 votes (26%) while Neville won 823 (18.7%). McCabe won 755 votes (17.16%). Cotugno won 641 (14.57%), Nall 445 (10.11%), Heady 245 (5.57%), Panagakos 203 (4.61%) and Thomas 144 (3.27%).

Sebastian

Voters picked three new commissioners — Charles Mauti, Pamela Rapp Parris and Damien Gilliams — and tossed three incumbents in a Tuesday night election.

The three candidates were running against three sitting members of the Sebastian City Council: Albert Iovino, Linda Kinchen and Bob McPartlan.

All six candidates in the contest ran in an at-large election with the top three vote-getters winning seats.

Mauti won 1,866 votes (19.27%), Parris 1,747 (18.04%), Gilliams 1,622 (16.75%), McPartlan 1,539 (15.89%), Iovino 1,460 votes (15.08%) and Kinchen 1,450 (14.97%).

Ocean Breeze

Ocean Breeze votes tossed City Council Vice President Ann Kagdis in favor of newcomer William Arnold.

In this Martin County municipality, three incumbents and one challenger fought for three spits on the Town Council. Council President Ken De Angeles, and Councilman Kevin Docherty retained their spots on the board.