Board of County Commissioners — Indian River County, Florida

The Board of County Commissioners is the five-member elected board that sets Indian River County law, taxes and services, working from the county administration complex at 1801 27th Street in Vero Beach.

The legal reach of the board comes from Florida Statutes 125.01. That section lets a county board set the time and place of its own meetings, provide fire protection, provide parks, preserves, playgrounds, libraries and museums, prepare and enforce comprehensive plans, establish zoning, and provide and regulate waste and sewage collection and disposal along with water supplies. It also allows the board to levy taxes, borrow and issue bonds, adopt ordinances with fines, and employ an independent certified public accounting firm to audit county funds. On the county commission page, those powers show up as county services, including Utilities, the GoLine bus system, Fire Rescue and Emergency Management, Libraries, and Parks, Recreation and Conservation with Aquatics, the Fairgrounds and Expo Center and the Sandridge Golf Club; the site also lists the North County Aquatic Center among community facilities.

Some county powers stop at city limits. Section 125.01 allows municipal service taxing units only for any part or all of the unincorporated area of the county, so a unit of that kind covers places such as Vero Lake Estates rather than a parcel inside Sebastian, Vero Beach or Fellsmere. The board keeps a Vero Lake Estates Municipal Service Taxing Unit Advisory Committee on its list of boards for exactly that purpose.

The commission also sits apart from the county constitutional officers. The county site lists the Clerk of Court, Property Appraiser, Sheriff, Supervisor of Elections and Tax Collector under their own heading, and Florida Statutes 100.041 has the clerk of the circuit court, sheriff, property appraiser and tax collector chosen by voters in years divisible by four. The Supervisor of Elections lists Sheriff Eric Flowers at 4055 41st Avenue and Property Appraiser Wesley Davis and Tax Collector Carole Jean Jordan in Building B at 1800 27th Street.

As of October 12, 2026, the Board of County Commissioners seats Susan Adams, Joseph Flescher, Joe Earman, Chairman Deryl Loar and Vice-Chairman Laura Moss, one for each of Districts 1 to 5.

Names, roles and phone numbers in the table come from the Board of County Commissioners page, which also offers an email link for each commissioner and a general Commission Office address. The Supervisor of Elections places all five offices in Building A at 1801 27th Street, Vero Beach. The ballot column follows the state election calendar explained in the next section.

The district lines behind the table are published as a county GIS layer. The County Commissioner Districts layer lists D1 through D5 with the same five commissioners and records that the districts were created by IRCGIS in 2021, based on 2020 Census Geography (Census Blocks). It notes one later adjustment: the southern County boundary change occurring in 2020 forced a modification to D5. For a single address in Sebastian, Wabasso, Gifford or Vero Beach, the county offers an online district finder alongside its district map.

Each Indian River County commissioner must live in a numbered district but is elected by voters across the whole county, from Fellsmere and Sebastian to Vero Beach, for a four-year term.

Florida Statutes 124.01 fixes five districts, numbered one to five and kept as close to equal in population as possible, each with one commissioner chosen by the qualified electors of the whole county. The Board of County Commissioners redraws the lines itself, but no boundary change may be made in the 270 days before a regular general election, and since a 2023 amendment districts may not be drawn to favor or disfavor a candidate based on a residential address. Article VIII of the Florida Constitution adds the residency rule and the staggered four-year terms, and requires the county to be divided into districts again after each decennial census, which is why the Indian River County map dates from 2021.

Florida Statutes 100.041 sets the stagger for the Board of County Commissioners. Commissioners from odd-numbered districts are elected in years divisible by four, and those from even-numbered districts in even years that are not. Applied to Indian River County, Districts 2 and 4 are on the November 3, 2026 general election ballot, and Districts 1, 3 and 5 next appear in 2028. A new term starts on the second Tuesday following the election: counting from Tuesday, November 3, 2026, the first Tuesday after is November 10 and the second is November 17, 2026, which is also a scheduled board meeting date.

Because every seat is elected countywide, voters in Sebastian help choose both the District 2 and the District 4 commissioner in 2026. For the general election the Supervisor of Elections lists early voting from October 19th to 31st at Sebastian City Hall, the elections office at 4375 43rd Avenue, the Main Library Vero Beach at 1600 21st Street and the Intergenerational Recreation Center at 1590 9th Street SW, with Election Day on November 3rd from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm.

The Indian River County Board of County Commissioners holds its 2026 meetings at 9:00 a.m. on 22 approved dates, in the first-floor County Commission Chambers of Building A at 1801 27th Street, Vero Beach.

The 2026 BCC Meeting Schedule sets two dates a month in every month except July, so 11 months at two meetings each gives the 22 dates. After October 12, 2026, five remain: October 20, November 3, November 17, December 1 and December 15. The room is named in county legal notices: a February 2026 public hearing notice set a 9:05 a.m. hearing, or as soon thereafter as the matter may be heard, in that first-floor chamber of the County Administrative Complex.

Viewers in Sebastian, Fellsmere and on the barrier island can watch IRCTV, the Indian River County Government Channel, which streams on the free Cablecast app for iOS, Google Play, Roku, Fire TV and Apple TV and in a web browser at irctv.cablecast.tv. The commission page links agendas, minutes and video, along with an archive search.

Speaking rules are short. The Board of County Commissioners opens time near the start of the agenda for comment on agenda items that are not public hearings, invites comment within each public hearing once it opens, and keeps time at the end for other topics. A speaker gives a name and address when recognized and is held to three minutes unless the Chair allows more.

Board decisions are carried out by the County Administrator, whom Indian River County charges with supervising and administering all departments from the County Administration Office at 1801 27th Street.

The Administration page lays out the chain. A Deputy County Administrator, an Assistant County Administrator, an Executive Assistant, a Legislative Affairs and Communications Manager and four department directors report to the County Administrator; two more directors report to the Deputy and the remaining five to the Assistant, which adds up to 11 department directors (4 + 2 + 5). The County Administration Office lists (772) 226-1408, and the county site gives 772 567 8000 as its main contact number with general office hours of 8:30 am to 5:00 pm Monday through Friday.

The board has been moving more of that work to the administrator. The February 2026 notice described an ordinance amending Indian River County Code Chapter 103, Commissions and Boards, to remove administrative responsibility for boards and committees from commissioner assistants and assign it to the County Administrator, and to clarify that advisory commissions and boards may be created by resolution.

Those advisory boards are where residents of Sebastian, Vero Beach and the unincorporated county serve directly. The commission page lists more than 30, among them the Planning and Zoning Commission, the Code Enforcement Board, the Tourist Development Council, the Metropolitan Planning Organization, the Value Adjustment Board, the Emergency Services District and the Solid Waste Disposal District, and it links a Committee Application, the current vacancies and a Proclamation request form.

Last verified: October 12, 2026, on the Indian River County website.