Though Councilman Richard Winger submitted 13 agenda items for tomorrow’s special call meeting of the Council,  only the first six of his requested points for consideration appeared on the city website at of 7 p.m. Monday.  The meeting is being held to consider the proposed asset purchase and sale agreement between the city and Florida Power & Light.

If all of the items Winger proposed for review are covered at tomorrow’s 9:30 a.m. workshop, the Council will consider the nature of the city’s obligation to secure FMPA approval of the deal, FPL’s level of commitment to Vero Electric employees, the status of the plan to give FPL the former postal annex site, lease arrangements that may enable FPL to avoid local taxes, concerns over pension obligations to union-represented employees, the question of the potential cost to the city if the closing is delayed beyond January 2014 by as much as three years, and more.

Winger wants to know why FPL is proposing to leave the concrete slab on which the power plant sits. Some long-time residents recall that when the plant was expanded in the early 1970s, asbestos and construction debris were buried in vaults under the north end of the building.  Depending on what may be in those vaults, if in fact they exit, the costs could be far more than the $500,000 FPL has offered to pay for environmental remediation.

As partial compensation for reducing the proposed purchase price by $3.5 million, FPL offered to increase by $500,000 a year its rent payments on the power plant for the proposed term of three years. However, the latest version of the sales agreement no longer includes a $500,000-a-year payment FPL had earlier offered to make in lieu of taxes.

According to Winger’s agenda item number four, the sales agreement apparently allows FPL to exercise long term leases on city assets, rather than purchasing them.  The latest version of the agreement appears to allow the company can later choose to buy the assets for $1 (one) dollar. By leasing city property rather rather than owning it, FPL could avoid local property taxes.

If the Council moves to approve the agreement, either tomorrow or at a regularly scheduled meeting on Feb. 19, the deal will go to voters on March 12 in binding referendum.  Absentee ballots for the referendum were mailed out last Friday.