With a month to go before the November election, three in four likely Vero Beach voters have yet to choose a City Council candidate, according to a new poll from The Floridian. But the same survey points to an issue that could shape the race: broad agreement, across party lines, that City Manager Monte Falls should have resigned or been fired over the city's financial management failures.
No candidate has broken through. With eight candidates competing for three council seats, 76% of voters are undecided on their first choice. Tracey Lockwood Zudans leads at 6%, followed by Linda Moore at 5% and Aaron Vos at 3%. Davis Benedict, Brian Heady, Jay Kramer, Rob MacCallum and John O'Connor each draw 2%. On second choice, 79% are undecided.
Where voters do agree is on city management. The poll, conducted September 27 to 29, found that 83% of likely voters agree the city manager should have resigned or been fired after the city failed to complete its annual audit on time, forfeiting roughly $133,000 in state sales-tax revenue, putting more than $30 million in state infrastructure grants at risk, and then missing the deadline again the next year. Only 4% disagreed.
A second question, on the city's failure to deposit more than $2 million into the Vero Beach Police Pension Fund over two years, produced a similar result: 72% said the city manager should have resigned or been fired, while 6% disagreed.
The agreement holds across every group in the survey. On the audit question, 86% of Republicans, 82% of Democrats and 79% of non-partisan voters said the manager should have gone. Self-described very conservative voters (80%), somewhat conservative voters (84%), moderates (86%) and progressives (82%) landed in the same place. In a memo accompanying the results, the pollster called management and accountability "the strongest consensus" in the survey.
Voters also want the city's top appointed officials closer to home. Seventy-two percent agree the city manager and city attorney should live within city limits to better represent the city, while 16% disagree. That view also crosses party lines, with 70% of Republicans, 76% of Democrats and 73% of non-partisan voters in agreement.
A latent issue
The numbers also suggest many voters have not yet connected these failures to the office responsible. Asked for a general opinion of the City Manager's office, 55% of voters had none, while 31% viewed it unfavorably and 14% favorably. Once the specific failures were described, the share wanting accountability jumped to more than eight in ten. That gap is what makes the issue potent: the case against city management is one voters overwhelmingly accept once they hear it, and most have not heard it yet.
Two years of financial missteps
The city's troubles became public in early 2025, when it emerged that Vero Beach had missed the state deadline to file its audited financial statements for fiscal year 2022-23. Florida's Joint Legislative Auditing Committee had warned the city in October that the filing was due by January 15. Falls said he learned of the failure in late February. "Everything falls on my shoulders, and I accept that responsibility," Falls told Vero News at the time. "I own this."
Weeks later, the city disclosed it had not made its employer contributions to the police pension fund for two straight years: $805,000 due in October 2023 and $1,105,289 due in October 2024. With 7.25% interest, the city owed about $2.05 million, including roughly $140,000 in interest, Vero News reported. Police officers' own contributions had been made.
At a town hall where residents pressed city leaders on financial transparency, Falls struck a different note on the audit delays. "It's my responsibility, but it's not my fault," he said, according to WPTV, pointing to the February resignation of former Finance Director Steve Dionne. The audit delays held up bond financing for city projects, including relocation of the wastewater treatment plant.
The problems carried into the next audit cycle. The 2022-23 audit was filed nearly a year late and the 2023-24 audit more than three months late. In June 2026, weeks before the 2024-25 audit was due, Falls fired the city's comptroller, a 13-year employee, while the finance department had two open positions and the city was paying an outside firm $192,000 for accounting support. Council member Aaron Vos, who is on the November ballot, told Vero News, "I did not hear anything about anyone being fired."
With most voters uncommitted and city management drawing near-unanimous criticism once explained, the candidates who make accountability at City Hall the center of their campaigns may find the largest open lane in the race.
About the poll
The Floridian poll surveyed 464 likely 2026 general election voters in Vero Beach from September 27 to 29, 2026. Results were weighted to match expected turnout. The margin of error is plus or minus 4.6 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. The sample was 56% Republican, 22% Democrat and 22% non-partisan.
